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USC Admits Receiving Complaints, Disciplining Former Medical School Dean Linked to Drug Use

Then-USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito arrives at the Second-Annual Rebels With A Cause Gala at Paramount Studios on March 20, 2014, in Hollywood. (Credit: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images)

Then-USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito arrives at the Second-Annual Rebels With A Cause Gala at Paramount Studios on March 20, 2014, in Hollywood. (Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)

USC President C.L. Max Nikias revealed late Friday that the university had received complaints and imposed disciplinary measures against the then-dean of its medical school, who a Los Angeles Times investigation found took drugs and associated with criminals and drug abusers.

In a letter to the campus community, Nikias wrote that Dr. Carmen Puliafito had been the subject of “various complaints” during nearly a decade as the dean of the Keck School of Medicine. Nikias said Puliafito received “disciplinary action and professional development coaching.”

Nikias also provided new details about Puliafito’s final months in the job before he resigned in the middle of the Spring 2016 term.

In 2015, USC Provost Michael Quick put Puliafito “on notice for being disengaged from his leadership duties,” the president said.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.

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