The number of former patients suing USC for allegedly failing to protect them from sexual abuse at a campus health clinic increased to more than 300 this week amid a new push by university faculty to speed the departure of the outgoing president, C.L. Max Nikias.
The university’s trustees announced in May that Nikias had “agreed to begin an orderly transition” to a new president. At the time, the move appeared to be an attempt to quell outrage by professors and students over the handling of Dr. George Tyndall, the longtime campus gynecologist who was the subject of repeated complaints during his three decades at the student health center.
But in the two months since, many faculty members have become concerned that Nikias might not actually be leaving. A petition addressed to the trustees and signed by more than 670 faculty members charged that there had been “no follow-up” in terms of naming an interim president or launching a search for a permanent replacement.
“We find ourselves in a state of turmoil and uncertainty,” the petition said, noting that students return to campus in less than three weeks. “President Nikias cannot be the one who stands up to greet new students at the Convocation.”
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