Carol Anne Spreen, an associate professor of international education at Steinhardt, said that the university’s response should not just depend on what may have happened on its campus.

“I know students are really upset,” Ms. Spreen said. “It’s about how the university gets represented out in the public. It’s not just about their experiences with him.”

In the article, six women said in interviews, and one said in a lawsuit, that Mr. Steinhardt asked them to have sex with him, or made sexual requests of them, while they were relying on or seeking his support. He also regularly made comments to women about their bodies and their fertility, according to the seven women and 16 other people who said they were present when Mr. Steinhardt made such comments. None of the incidents described by the women were alleged to have occurred at N.Y.U.

“As I have said before, I deeply regret cavalierly making comments in professional settings that were boorish, disrespectful and just plain dumb,” Mr. Steinhardt said in a statement in response to the article.

Ms. McPhee, formerly a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and now a partner at Ropes & Gray, did not respond to a request for comment. She was one of two lawyers commissioned by the United States Olympic Committee who led a 10-month investigation into Dr. Nassar.

Several students at N.Y.U. Steinhardt said in interviews on Monday that many of their peers were appalled after hearing allegations against the school’s namesake. But efforts to hold protests or write petitions failed to gain traction, the college newspaper, the Washington Square News, reported in early April.

After the couple’s initial donation in 2001, Mr. Steinhardt and his wife gave $20 million to N.Y.U. between 2006 and 2014 to support programs and fund scholarships. Ms. Steinhardt is among the university’s 61 voting board of trustee members.