When Dr. Modesto "Mitch" Maidique was tapped to be president of Florida International University (FIU) in 1986, the public commuter school in Miami-Dade County wasn't much of a head-turner. It had 15,000 students and offered eight doctoral degree programs. The young university, which opened its doors in 1972, had a $3 million endowment by 1986 and was spending just $6 million a year on research. But the ever-ambitious Maidique had plans to remake the university. Big plans. Today, as the Cuban-born president prepares to step down after a 22-year tenure, he presides over an institution that now offers 30 doctoral degrees; more master's degree programs (89) than undergraduate programs; and a law school that he lobbied for throughout much of his presidency. Furthermore, this fall, 40 students--from more than 3,000 applicants--will become FIU's first class at its new medical school. Maidique points to three milestones reached at FIU in 2008: (1) The graduation of 100 doctoral students; (2) more than $100 million in sponsored research in a single year; and (3) FIU's endowment surpassed $100 million. But success always comes with some setbacks. A low point for the university was a federal challenge regarding research grants at FIU's most profitable research hub, its Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology (HCET). In 2005, FIU agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle what the federal government said were improper costs and overbilling for grants at the center between 1995 and 2003. And in 2008, which Maidique calls FIU's "pinnacle" year, he also faced controversy. In July, a Miami-Dade jury decided that race played "a substantial or motivating factor" in FIU's decision to fire African-American employee Sean St. Louis, a former FIU associate controller of contracts. The jury awarded St. Louis $2.5 million.