U.S.C. Admits Fault in Response to Complaints Against Gynecologist

LOS ANGELES — For decades, medical staff at the University of Southern California complained about inappropriate touching of students during pelvic exams by a gynecologist at the campus health center. On Tuesday, the university admitted it failed to respond to the accusations strongly or quickly enough.

The scandal comes at a difficult time for the university, which was rocked last year by reports that the former dean of the medical school had spent months partying with criminals and using drugs on campus, and was forced to resign.

In 2016, the university conducted an internal investigation, which concluded that the doctor’s pelvic exams may have been inappropriate and that he had repeatedly made racially and sexually offensive remarks to patients. The doctor, George Tyndall, agreed to retire under a separation agreement last summer, a year after he was suspended, U.S.C. officials said Tuesday.

But university officials did not make a report about Dr. Tyndall to the California Medical Board until earlier this year, after he wrote a letter asking the university for reinstatement. Officials now say that was a mistake. The university made the investigation public after it was contacted by The Los Angeles Times, which first reported the complaints about Dr. Tyndall on Tuesday.

“In hindsight, we should have made this report eight months earlier when he separated from the university,” C. L. Max Nikias, the president of U.S.C., wrote in a letter sent to all students and staff earlier Tuesday.

Mr. Nikias said that there had been repeated complaints about Dr. Tyndall dating back to 2000, which “were concerning enough that it is not clear today why the former health center director permitted Tyndall to remain in his position.”

In its report, The Los Angeles Times found that Dr. Tyndall was not suspended until a frustrated nurse turned to the rape crisis center on campus in 2016.

In its statement, the university did not directly address the most serious allegations of misconduct unearthed by The Los Angeles Times, which were based on extensive interviews with students and university employees as well as documents. The newspaper reported that Dr. Tyndall often photographed women’s genitals, moved his fingers in and out during pelvic exams, and in one case asked a woman if he could keep the IUD he had just removed from her. In recent years, Dr. Tyndall appeared to be targeting students from China.

Dr. Tyndall denied any wrongdoing to The Los Angeles Times and did not return phone calls on Tuesday.

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