Penn State President Rodney Erickson gives opening remarks Wednesday during a town hall forum organized by students at the main campus.

STATE COLLEGE — Hours after a man contended in a lawsuit that Jerry Sandusky sexually abused him more than 100 times, Penn State leaders pledged to raise ethics “to a new level” on a campus coming to grips with the shocking criminal allegations against the school's once-revered assistant football coach.

President Rodney Erickson and other administrators faced pointed questions at a student-organized town hall forum Wednesday night, part of what Erickson promised would be a new emphasis on transparency.

Authorities have charged Sandusky with sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year span, and the state police commissioner has criticized school leaders for failing to do more to alert authorities to the allegations.

Ethics would be raised “to a new level so that everyone at the university understands not just the legal thing to do, but the moral thing to do, so that we learn to do the right thing the first time, every time,” Erickson told about 450 attendees at a crowded auditorium at the student union building.

Students appeared grateful to get answers more than three weeks after Sandusky was charged Nov. 5, hopeful it would aid in the arduous healing process.

“I think this is a good start for a lot of good things that can happen at the university,” said student Andrew Comes, 21, following the two-hour forum. “It's a singularly bad event, but there can still be positive repercussions and good things happening from it.”

Earlier Wednesday, a new accuser who is not part of the criminal case said in a lawsuit that Sandusky threatened to harm his family to keep him quiet.

The 29-year-old, identified only as John Doe, had never told anyone about the abuse he claims he suffered until Sandusky was charged last month with abusing other boys. His lawyer said he filed a complaint with law enforcement on Tuesday. He became the first plaintiff to file suit in the Penn State child sex abuse scandal a day later.

Sandusky has acknowledged that he showered with boys but denied molesting them. His lawyer did not immediately return a message about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims Sandusky abused the boy from 1992, when the boy was 10, until 1996 in encounters at the coach's State College home, in a Penn State locker room and on trips, including to a bowl game. The account echoes a grand jury's description of trips, gifts and attention lavished on other boys.

The lawsuit seeks tens of thousands of dollars and names Sandusky, the university and Sandusky's The Second Mile charity as defendants. The man says he knew the coach through the charity, which Sandusky founded in 1977, ostensibly to help disadvantaged children in central Pennsylvania. The man was not referenced in the grand jury report.

His lawyer, Jeff Anderson, said he believes Sandusky was a predator who could not control his sexual impulses toward children.