President Benjamin Ladner's personal chef was laid off in the past few days and his social secretary was moved to work with Chief of Staff David Taylor about two weeks ago, Taylor said.
Ladner has held no university functions at his official Glenbrook Rd. home since he was suspended Aug. 24 amid the board of trustees' investigation into allegations he spent university money on the French chef and other personal expenses, according to Taylor.
Chef Rodney Scruggs' position "was eliminated as a matter of reorganization," Taylor said.
"It seemed like it was a logical shift" to move social secretary Sally Ekfelt to work with Taylor after another of his assistants, Special Projects Coordinator Lorenly Baez, moved to the Office of Campus Life at the beginning of the summer.
The investigation will conclude in the coming weeks, according to a statement from Board Chair Leslie Bains released Aug. 31.
Some students who've been to parties at Ladner's university-owned house said they liked the cooking.
"It was tasty," said Gregg Roman, a former member Student Government's legislative branch, the General Assembly, who attended five parties there for student leaders. "But maybe [letting Scruggs go] will lower my tuition by like .001 percent."
Taylor said the move to eliminate Scruggs' position wasn't a reflection of his work performance.
"He is a well-known, high quality chef and he has a very good reputation, no doubt about that," Taylor said.
Scruggs had been employed by the university since 1996, the Washington Post reported.
Kelly Patten, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she didn't know about the staff transitions.
"I don't think students really care if Ben Ladner has a chef or not," she said. "There's bigger things going on in the world."
The following is the complete text of one of the anonymous letters received by members of the Board of Trustees, Student Government and the Washington Post. An AU source, who chose not to be identified due to the source's proximity to the investigation, confirmed the letter. Original capitalization and punctuation have been preserved.
Dear Sir,
Dr. Ben Ladner, President of American University, is under investigation by the Board of Trustees of the University for SEVERE expense account violations. The expenses Dr. and Mrs. Ladner have charged to the University over the past five years include their son's engagement party, lavish presents for their children, a personal French chef, Rodney Scruggs, the use of his family and his wife who is a pastry chef at a prestigious restaurant in Washington, long weekends in Europe for pleasure, maintenance of their personal residence in Maryland including garbage bads, daily wine for lunch and dinner at $50 to $100 per bottle, etc. The list goes on and on.
This expense account makes the former President of United Way look innocent. This needs to be made public because he may get away with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from American University. The IRS should be informed. The Board of Trustees should file CRIMINAL charges against him.
Please investigate. Thank you. An employee
