An Alumna Wrote a Petition About Her University. Now, She’s Worried About Getting Sued.

When Rini Sampath read about another scandal at the University of Southern California, where she used to be student-body president, she decided she had to speak up. She created an online petition calling on the university’s president to resign following allegations about three former USC doctors.  Sampath, a 2016 graduate of USC, wrote that the university’s president, C.L. Max Nikias, had either promoted two of the doctors “despite knowing their histories of abuse and mistreatment,” or had failed to properly vet people for powerful positions.  Earlier this month, an attorney for Puliafito sent Sampath a letter demanding she remove all reference to the former dean in the petition and accusing her of making blatantly false and defamatory statements.