US university president quits over abuse scandal

The president of a top California university has resigned after a scandal over a former campus gynaecologist accused of sexually abusing thousands of students over decades.

Max Nikias’s departure was announced by the board of trustees as the University of Southern California faced new lawsuits on Friday over its claimed failure to act against the doctor despite repeated complaints.

The women claim that George Tyndall, who left the university last year, used his position to abuse them repeatedly and conduct improper examinations.

Rick Caruso, the board’s chairman, wrote that it had “agreed to begin an orderly transition and commence the process of selecting a new president”. He said: “We have heard the message that something is broken and that urgent and profound actions are needed.

“We will rebuild our culture to reflect an environment in which safety and transparency are of paramount importance, and to institute systemic change that will prevent this from occurring in the future.”

The decision followed a demand by 200 professors that Mr Nikias resign.

Two class actions were submitted at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday “on behalf of thousands of female students” who attended the university in Los Angeles and claimed they were sexually abused and illicitly photographed by Mr Tyndall.

The complaints were filed by a team including Howard Janet, the lawyer who led a US$190 million (Dh697.8m) suit in 2014 against Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital and its physician, Nikita Levy.

That settlement was reached on behalf of 8,500 women. Mr Levy, who later committed suicide, recorded the women using a camera hidden in a pen.

The case emerged last week after the Los Angeles Times published accounts from current and former employees about Mr Tyndall’s behaviour towards his mostly adolescent patients.

The lawsuits claim that the university received repeated complaints from students and co-workers but failed to take appropriate action.

Meanwhile, six former students were added to an existing lawsuit alleging that the university received complaints in the early 1990s but deliberately concealed Mr Tyndall’s abuse.

The group, described as “Jane Does 5-10”, accuses the university of paying the doctor a substantial financial settlement to quit in an attempted cover-up after an investigation in 2016. He eventually left last year. Since last week, more than 300 students have contacted a university hotline set up to receive complaints and information about Mr Tyndall.