James Harris III, who greatly improved the University of San Diego’s standing in science, engineering and business while increasing enrollment and reinforcing the school’s ties to the Catholic church, has decided to retire.
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Harris, who was also widely praised by faculty and the community for the compassionate way he guided the campus through the COVID-19 pandemic, says he will step down in the next year after the university completes its search for his successor.
“Serving as a university president comes with the responsibility to faithfully advance the university’s mission,” Harris said in a recent statement.
“Thankfully, due to the hard work of many people who have been good stewards of our resources, and by leaning into our values as a contemporary Catholic institution, we have been able to elevate USD’s reputation as one of the top universities in the nation.”
He will take a sabbatical after he formally steps down and will serve as a faculty member upon his return to the Linda Vista area, where USD is located.
Harris became USD’s fourth president in 2015, after serving in the same role at Widener University, a private school near Philadelphia.
At the time, USD was a laid-back campus with lots of commuters who yearned for deeper ties to the community and greater visibility academically. There was also a desire to raise enrollment, which then stood at 8,251.
Harris, an easy-going Midwesterner, quickly made it known that he was accessible. He invited students to join him on his frequent walks on the trails in Tecolote Canyon. And he gave them his email address in case they needed to get in touch.
He courted alumni and the business community in much the same way, and it got results. In 2021, Harris convinced philanthropist Don Knauss to donate $50 million to help build a badly needed center for business education and to provide endowment money to support its mission.
“This is our investment in educating ethical and compassionate business leaders — leaders who enable a free enterprise system that creates wealth on a fair and equitable playing field,” Knauss said at the time.
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Harris struck a similar relationship with philanthropist Darlene Marcos Shiley, the widow of Donald P. Shiley, the co-inventor of the Björk-Shiley prosthetic heart valve. In 2024, she announced that she would give $75 million to USD, the largest gift in school history.
The gift is meant to expand USD’s offerings in science, technology, engineering and math education. It will pay for a three-story facility that will include specialized labs in biomedical engineering, human cognition and robotics, making USD part of San Diego County’s enormous STEM industry.
“I was drawn to USD because of its emphasis on a values-based education,” Shiley said at the time, in a nod to Harris. “This gift fulfills my husband’s and my goals and makes me feel like I’ve made an impact.”
USD began constructing the building earlier this year. It also started building the Presidio Terrace Apartments, a $230 million village that will provide 700 beds for the school’s rising enrollment. USD now has 10,023 students.
The construction boom has obscured an important moment in USD’s recent past — the 2020 COVID pandemic.
Harris was omnipresent, doing everything from safely getting students to move out of dorms to talking to their parents and ensuring students would be able to study online until the pandemic faded away. He taught some of those classes.
At one point, Harris also considered going on the road to deliver graduation diplomas in six or seven cities that were home to many of his students, an idea that didn’t come to pass due to the possibility of travel restrictions.
He had to keep a stiff upper lip to project a positive tone. But it was hard, especially in the early days when the bluff-top campus was most empty.
“This is a really hard moment,” he told the Union-Tribune. “I really miss the students.”
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