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The president of the University of Southern California, C. L. Max Nikias, agreed to step down Friday in the wake of a scandal over a gynecologist accused of abusing students at the campus health center. Rick J. Caruso, a member of the university board of trustees, said in a statement that the board had “agreed to begin an orderly transition and commence the process of selecting a new president.” (Medina, 5/25)

"President Nikias and the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees have agreed to begin an orderly transition and commence the process of selecting a new president," committee chairman Rick Caruso said. Nikias could not be reached immediately for comment. His resignation comes three days after 200 faculty members demanded in an open letter he quit as USC faces a rising tide of litigation accusing Dr. George Tyndall of misconduct and the university of complicity and negligence. (5/26)

Two hundred faculty members, as well as many alums and current students, called in recent days for Dr. Nikias to resign, following a report in the Los Angeles Times about the allegations. That article included claims that for decades, the gynecologist, George Tyndall, conducted improper pelvic exams on female students and made sexually and racially inappropriate comments. (Korn, 5/25)

A prolific fundraiser during his eight years as president, Nikias pushed USC to imagine itself as an elite global research university and to dramatically expand and renovate its South Los Angeles campus. He oversaw a major construction boom that transformed parts of the campus community and extended USC's ties to China and the Pacific Rim. The departure of Nikias, an engineering professor whose ambition took him from a childhood in a Cypriot village to a post leading one of the nation's top private universities, was once considered unthinkable, and signifies the end of an era at USC. The cornerstone of Nikias' legacy is a $6-billion campaign launched in 2011, then described as the largest such drive in academic history. (Hamilton, Pringle, Ryan and Lopez, 5/25)

Tyndall routinely made crude comments, took inappropriate photographs and forced plaintiffs to strip naked and groped them under the guise of medical treatment for his “sexual gratification,” according to civil lawsuits filed this week. At least a dozen lawsuits have been filed so far and police are interviewing alleged victims to see if any crime was committed. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that complaints about Tyndall weren’t properly address by USC for years and university officials never reported him to the medical board, even after he was quietly forced into retirement. (Balsamo, 5/26)