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Sexual abuse allegations, criminal charges and a fired professor point national spotlight at Linfield University

Multiple students and faculty came forward alleging misconduct at the McMinnville school.

Maggie Vespa

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Published: 7:54 PM PDT May 11, 2021
Updated: 8:29 AM PDT May 12, 2021

This November, a now-former trustee at Linfield University will go on trial for eight counts of sexual abuse. The accusations against him, brought by four different women, date back to 2017. Since that time, a series of Linfield students and faculty have brought more accusations of harassment and inappropriate touching against multiple other trustees and one high-ranking administrator at the small, private university in McMinnville.

The story has largely been bubbling under the surface, drawing continuing local coverage, namely from the Oregonian/OregonLive. Recently, Linfield's troubles went national, when the New York Times reported the school had fired a tenured professor who tweeted he'd been trying to shed light on the issue.

In the midst of all of that, allegations of racism have flown back and forth.

A spokesman for Linfield declined KGW's request for an interview but answered questions via email and provided an online fact sheet with the school's perspective on most of the recent allegations.

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