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.