As part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Southern California says it will overhaul its Title IX reporting procedures, following the federal government’s investigation into how the institution handled sexual-abuse allegations against a former gynecologist.
The department found that the university had, since at least 2000, “systemically failed” in its response to sexual-harassment complaints against George Tyndall, a former gynecologist at USC’s student-health center, according to a February 27 letter from the department’s Office for Civil Rights to the university.
“This case has risen to the level of the most shocking cases that we have seen,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, during a call with reporters on Thursday.
Department officials described their investigation into the university as among the most extensive in the agency’s history. The department entered into a resolution agreement with USC that forces it to take a number of steps, including systematic changes in its Title IX procedures — providing additional training, tracking and monitoring complaints, and granting independent authority to the university’s Title IX office.
The agreement also requires USC to review whether current and former employees took appropriate action after learning about the sexual-misconduct complaints against Tyndall, and to offer remedies to Tyndall’s victims, such as academic accommodations and counseling. Marcus said the university should consider taking action against several university supervisors, including possible suspension or termination.
USC is trying “to reinforce a culture of care, responsibility, and accountability across all university programs and activities.”
“We want to make sure not only that Dr. Tyndall is addressed appropriately, but also all of the other individuals who failed to act, and that the university is taking steps to make sure that no other student will have to suffer in the way that these victims suffered,” Marcus added.
The civil-rights office, known as OCR, noted that during its inquiry the university’s personnel records were kept in several different places and not centralized, which impeded its ability to recognize patterns of misconduct.
Marcus added that USC officials had withheld documents from investigators during a previous Title IX investigation of the university, although it is not clear whether that was intentional. The assistant secretary added that he was “disappointed” by the level of cooperation that the department had received.
The department began its investigation following a 2018 Los Angeles Times report about the gynecologist, who was accused of sexually abusing hundreds of students before he resigned, in 2016. Fallout from the scandal prompted USC’s then president, C.L. Max Nikias, to step down.
In October a judge signed off on a $215-million settlement between the university and former patients of Tyndall, who has pleaded not guilty to committing more than two dozen felonies related to sexual abuse at the campus clinic, according to the Times.
In a written statement, President Carol L. Folt of USC agreed with OCR’s findings and said that the university is taking steps to carry out changes. She added that the university is trying “to reinforce a culture of care, responsibility, and accountability across all university programs and activities.”
The university also acknowledged that it needed to improve internal communication, enhance record-keeping to better track complaints, and “deepen the collaboration” between its health care system and its Title IX program.
