USC is incompetently managed to say the least. No one in charge seems to know what is going on. Alternately, USC bosses know what’s going on and choose to ignore it or cover it up.

A case in point: USC is paying out $215 million in a settlement to the victims of its former gynecologist and sexual predator Dr. Tyndall. From the Los Angeles Times story of February 19, 2019:

The settlement has come in for criticism from lawyers for more than 500 women suing the university in state court. They have said the deal is premature and paltry, and allows USC to avoid embarrassing public disclosures about administrators’ bungling of decades of misconduct complaints against Tyndall…

What USC administrators knew about the physician and when they knew it is the subject of an investigation by the federal Department of Education. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has also convened a criminal grand jury to hear evidence about Tyndall. In addition, the state court lawyers are demanding the gynecologist’s personnel file and other records as they gather evidence for their lawsuits….

USC’s Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray: Scientology Scam

In another incompetently handled matter, USC’s Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray engaged in a scam with the Church of Scientology. A long time ally of the Church of Scientology, Murray wrote two scathing letters calling for the cancellation of Leah Remini’s Emmy-winning show Scientology and the Aftermath. These letters were sent on USC letterhead to Disney CEO Bob Iger and published on a Scientology website.

Why would a USC academic call for censorship rather than public debate we asked USC’s Public Relations department in a phone call. No answer ever came.

Without one scintilla of evidence, Dr. Murray then outrageously and irresponsibly accused Remini’s show of being responsible for the murder of a Scientology Sea Org member in Australia. Australian journalist Bryan Seymour put the lie to Murray’s baseless charge:

When the story of Dr. Murray’s letters were exposed on this website and others, USC and Murray denied that he authored the letters. However, the Church of Scientology pushed back hard and insisted that USC and Murray were lying and that Murray authored the two letters.

USC hushed the matter up. As it presently stands, USC and Dr. Murray have been publicly called out as liars by Scientology. It really doesn’t get worse than to be called a liar by the Church of Scientology, an organization notorious for its decades of pathological lying about virtually all matters of substance.

Neither USC nor Murray denied Scientology’s charges that both were lying. This suggests that Murray wrote the letters and then he and USC conspired to lie about it when it became a news story. The entire matter reeks of fraud and cover up.

USC found itself mired in fraud again today when it was caught up in the far-reaching bribes-for-admissions scandal. The OCR headlined the story with unsparing precision:

Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times has been brilliantly covering this on Twitter. USC’s associate associate athletic director Donna Heinel was arrested and charged with racketeering.

Per USC’s standard policy, it issued a press release excusing itself of any wrongdoing and promising to cooperate:

USC interim president Wanda M. Austin issued a statement on the indictment Tuesday afternoon.

“We are aware of the ongoing wide-ranking criminal investigation involving universities nationwide, including USC,” the statement read. “USC has not been accused of any wrong doing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation. We understand that the government believes that illegal activity was carried out by individuals who went to great lengths to conceal their actions from the university. USC is conducting an internal investigation and will take employment actions as appropriate. USC is in the process of identifying any funds received by the university in connection with this alleged scheme. Additionally, the university is reviewing its admissions process broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward.”