When Substance Abuse Hits the C-Suite

The sordid tale of a former University of Southern California medical-school dean, who in his private life appears to have used illicit drugs and consorted with a prostitute, draws its dramatic power from age-old themes: an accomplished leader with impeccable credentials undone by human frailty.

Higher education has seen this movie before, but seldom in such graphic depiction. A Los Angeles Times investigation of Carmen A. Puliafito, former dean of the Keck School of Medicine, describes a double life that began to unravel last year, when the police were called to a hotel room in Pasadena, Calif., to treat a 21-year-old woman who had overdosed in his company. Dr. Puliafito, a 66-year-old ophthalmologist, resigned from his administrative position three weeks after the incident, in the middle of the spring term, the Times reported.

The newspaper’s investigation, published on Monday, shines a light on seldom-discussed problems of alcohol and substance abuse in higher-education administration. It is a taboo topic that, if mentioned at all, confines itself to mostly private conversations among academic leaders and trustees. Every so often, however, these cases spill out into public view, bringing with them individual and institutional embarrassment, and raising tough questions about how to balance compassion and accountability for the people involved.

At Eastern Michigan University in 2012 the board’s leadership approached Susan W. Martin, who was then president, about her behavior while under the influence of alcohol. Roy E. Wilbanks, who was then chairman of the Board of Regents, recalls the conversation as awkward and intense, but necessary. The meeting followed a public incident in Washington, D.C., where the president, who had been drinking, had a loud, profanity-laced argument with an alumnus, Mr. Wilbanks said.

“It was very difficult for her,” said Mr. Wilbanks, recalling the meeting, held in the university’s conference center with the president and two other board members. “It was very difficult for the university, and it was very difficult for the board. It’s not something anybody wants to handle.”

The board put a letter in Ms. Martin’s personnel file that called her behavior “simply unacceptable.” Following the advice of outside legal counsel, the regents stressed that she should not drive a university-supplied vehicle if she had been drinking. (Ms. Martin had previously disclosed to the board that in 2005 she had pleaded guilty to driving while impaired.)

Ms. Martin declined an interview request for this article. At the time, she apologized for the incident and pushed back against any suggestion that she had a problem with alcohol, citing as evidence the 24/7 demands of her job.

“I could not perform these duties and handle the rigors of this position if I had a serious health issue,” she wrote in a letter to the regents.

The board encouraged Ms. Martin to seek treatment, Mr. Wilbanks said. It is unclear if she did so, but there were no other incidents. “She continued to work hard and do her job,” he said.

The board later extended Ms. Martin’s contract, and she went on to serve as interim president of San Jose State University. She is now back at Eastern Michigan as a professor of accounting and finance.

Public Shame

Public problems with alcohol can derail administrative careers, as happened with William J. Frawley, a former president of the University of Mary Washington, in Virginia. Mr. Frawley was forced to resign, in 2007, after he was arrested twice for drunken driving in two days.

Mr. Frawley, who could not be reached for comment for this article, went on to write an opinion piece for The Washington Post detailing a tragic descent into alcohol and depression that led to his ouster. He described living through a painful media firestorm not unlike the one that Dr. Puliafito, the former Southern California dean, has endured this week.

“My story was splashed across the local and national papers and (endlessly, it seemed) on television and the radio,” Mr. Frawley wrote. “I felt relentless shame.”

Mr. Frawley’s column, titled “I Needed Help, Not Ostracism,” made a rare public case for boards to show greater compassion for college administrators with addictions. He had pleaded, he said, for a medical leave or to be able to retain his status as a tenured professor. The board, however, insisted he sever all ties with the university.

Mary Washington’s board did not wait for Mr. Frawley’s case to wind its way through the legal system before forcing him out. But the trustees at Hillsborough Community College are taking a different tack with Kenneth H. Atwater, the Florida college’s president, who was arrested in January for driving under the influence.

Mr. Atwater, who did not respond to an interview request, refused to take a breath-analysis test when he was pulled over and he has not acknowledged guilt.

The board has said that Mr. Atwater is entitled to due process before any action can be taken regarding his employment.

“We absolutely expect more scrutiny of conduct going forward, more scrutiny of what he’s doing,” said Dipa S. Shah, chairwoman of the board. “We are all hands on deck. But in terms of that one incident, that has to be handled in the courts. That is our position.”

At the same time, the board wants to send a zero-tolerance message about impaired driving, said Ms. Shah, who is a lawyer.

“The DUI is something I take very, very seriously, not only as a board member but as an individual who drives on the road,” she said. “My kids drive on these roads. Students at the college drive on these roads.”

A Brilliant Career, Down the Drain

At Southern California, administrators have struggled to publicly condemn the behavior described in the Los Angeles Times article, while declining to acknowledge the merits of the allegations or to offer many specifics about how much high-level officials knew about Dr. Puliafito’s private life. Michael W. Quick, the provost, told faculty members in a memo on Wednesday that he understood how unsatisfying the university’s position might be to some professors.

“I know it can be frustrating,” he wrote, “especially given the extent of the allegations in the present case, to not be given all the information you may want to have in order to know that the university is living up to its core values. But I think you also realize that we are prohibited from giving out confidential personnel information, which under more normal circumstances is something all of us should appreciate.

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“Regardless, I want to reassure you that all along we have taken this matter very seriously, that we made what we felt were the best decisions we could make, as swiftly as could be done in a prudent and thoughtful manner, and given the information that we had at any given time.”

The university did not make Mr. Quick or C.L. Max Nikias, the president, available for interviews on Thursday. Rohit Varma, the medical school’s current dean, also declined an interview.

In a meeting with faculty members on Wednesday, Dr. Varma condemned his predecessor’s alleged behavior and said he had been told nothing of it when Dr. Puliafito resigned.

“These allegations, if they are true, they are horrible and despicable,” Dr. Varma, an ophthalmologist, told the group, according to the Times, which obtained a recording of the meeting. “He’s a man who had a brilliant career, all gone down the drain. I’m standing in this place where my predecessor now has this taint. … It is sad.”

Drinking on the Job

Scandals of this sort invariably provoke questions about whether red flags, which might have prompted earlier intervention, had been missed or ignored. Medical students at Southern California, for example, have suggested that administrators did not respond to reports that Dr. Puliafito appeared impaired at campus events.

It is common in higher education for administrators, who are expected to raise money and attend evening events, to work in situations where alcohol is flowing. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George Washington University, says he had to learn early in his career to moderate his drinking in professional situations when others imbibed more heavily.

“You do drink,” he said. “But I turn out to be a really rotten drinker; it makes me sleepy. So I limit myself to one drink. At the University of Hartford,” where Mr. Trachtenberg also was president, “a lot of my stakeholders drank martinis at lunch. And I discovered if I drank more than one martini I’d have to go back and put my head on my desk and sleep.”

Universities are filled with smart, accomplished people, Mr. Trachtenberg continued, and their accomplishments may mask a private struggle. Dr. Puliafito, now best known for his life’s darkest public chapter, had built a solid reputation before his downfall, brandishing degrees from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

“I’m sure there are faculty who use drugs, and maybe vice presidents and deans,” Mr. Trachtenberg said. “If they can show up at the office and do their jobs, how would you know? We’re not running a totalitarian state.”

Colleges and universities put plenty of focus on alcohol and drug prevention for students, but such programming is seldom aimed at administrators or professors. Employees are informed of available treatment services, but it often ends there.

“It’s rare to see substantial efforts toward faculty and staff,” said James E. Lange, incoming executive director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery at Ohio State University. “That’s partly because it’s the responsibility of the campus to be there for students, and they are a high-risk group.”

Some scientists theorize that the same qualities that help people reach the height of their professions, as Dr. Puliafito did, are linked to a propensity for addiction. David J. Linden, a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University, says people with a low-functioning dopamine system may overindulge because they feel pleasure less strongly. Those with that genetic variation, he says, are more likely to be risk-taking, novelty-seeking, and compulsive.

“You’ve just described Steve Jobs,” said Mr. Linden, author of The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good (Penguin, 2011). “It’s very likely if you look not just at university presidents, but people who rise to the top of any one of a number of different professions, you find a disproportionate number of people who carry these dopamine-blunting variants, and as a result they are at a higher risk of developing addiction.”

Tracy R. Zemansky, a clinical psychologist who specializes in addiction, says people in the medical professions may be particularly skilled at compartmentalizing their work and their substance-abuse problems. As a result, it may be even more challenging for them to come to terms with their disease, she says.

“When you have someone very highly educated and used to being able to figure things out, it can be more difficult to say: This is a problem, I need help,” said Ms. Zemansky, who is president of the Southern California branch of the Pacific Assistance Group, which treats physicians with addiction problems. “It can be even harder, and it’s always really difficult.”

For high-profile people like university administrators, a private struggle can be compounded by public shame. But that narrative can change. “Look at Betty Ford,” Ms. Zemansky said. “How much more public can you be than the wife of the president? How much good has her recovery done for hundreds of thousands of people? That element of shame and secrecy does not have to be the end of the story. It can be the beginning of a whole new story.”

Jack Stripling covers college leadership, particularly presidents and governing boards. Follow him on Twitter @jackstripling, or email him at jack.stripling@chronicle.com.