A nine-hour meeting of the AU Board of Trustees Monday night resulted in the firing of AU President Benjamin Ladner, the continuation of Dr. Neil Kerwin's service as acting president and the resignation of two university trustees - Paul Martin Wolff and board Chair Leslie E. Bains.
The board did not reach the issue of Ladner's severance package, acting Chair Thomas A. Gottschalk said at a news conference Monday following the meeting. Gottschalk's announcement came after Bains' resignation Sunday night, as well as a months-long investigation that polarized deans, faculty and students on the issues of Ladner's spending and the board's operations. Wolff resigned Tuesday.
The board further agreed to adopt the findings of its Audit Committee, authorizing the university to report additional taxable income in the amount of $398,000 and to seek reimbursement from Ladner for certain personal expenses totaling $125,000. Gottschalk said the board planned to pass its findings on to the IRS and Justice Department, who have been conducting independent investigations.
Ladner, who had been on administrative leave since the board's six-person executive committee received an anonymous letter in late August alleging he spent university money on European vacations, presents for his children, a personal French chef and other expenses, was unavailable for comment after the announcement and did not return phone calls yesterday.
Three board members were appointed at the meeting to negotiate a severance package that Ladner would be willing to accept but that would not be seen as a "golden parachute" - what many AU faculty, students and administrators have decried as an excessive parting gift, The Washington Post reported yesterday.
Confidential sources also told the Post there were no dissensions during the vote to fire Ladner, although there were abstentions, as well as disclosing a fear among trustees that Ladner may sue the board and naming trustee Gary M. Abramson as a likely candidate to replace Bains as board chair.
Gottschalk said the board appointed three committees, two to find replacements for Bains and Ladner and another to review and overhaul board governance procedures.
University officials said the board will meet Oct. 20 to discuss severance pay and other unanswered questions, including whether or not Ladner will remain a tenured professor at AU and when he will vacate the AU president's residence. In a statement released Monday night Kerwin said he would "provide additional details as they become available."
Gottschalk gave no timeframe for naming a replacement president or board chair. Bains resigned amid what she called attempts by "a very small, yet mean-spirited, group of Trustees" to derail scrutiny of Ladner, according to a letter her attorney forwarded to two student leaders. She could not be reached for comment.
Wolff declined to comment. His letter of resignation blasted pro-Ladner board members for attacking attorneys hired by the Audit Committee and called the boardroom atmosphere "polluted with mean spiritedness," underscoring the tense nature of deliberations.
"I can not and will not continue to serve on a Board that counts among its members individuals who show so little regard for the most basic canons of board governance," Wolff's letter said. Vehemently opposing severance negotiations, Wolff stated his conscience forbids him "being a party to any agreement with Ben Ladner that either allows him to be affiliated with AU or to receive severance other than that irrefutably mandated by law."
On Sunday night Bains called Megan Linehan, an organizer of September's anti-Ladner protest and a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, to personally announce her resignation, followed by a phone call to Student Government President Kyle Taylor. Both students received copies of Bains' letter of resignation.
"A certain contingent of the board was going to highjack [the meeting] and make it about her, so she wanted to preempt that and completely take it off the table," Linehan said. "She really wanted to emphasize to me, as a student, that she wasn't abandoning us; that it was a last ditch stand to make the meeting about what it was supposed to be about."
Bains was not present at Monday's board meeting. Although her letter indicated a majority of the Board would likely vote to remove Ladner, it said she hoped the Board "will stand firm and reject any attempt to make an unnecessary and unjustified severance payment."
Several reporters and roughly 30 students and faculty members waited out the lengthy meeting Monday, including two graduate students with an "I [heart] Ladner" sign. Deans, professors and student leaders were invited to reiterate statements of no confidence to the trustees inside Butler Board Room.
"We told them everything we've heard from you, specifically that President Ladner should go without a severance package, the Board should be restructured and AU is still a strong university," Taylor said to those gathered as he left the meeting. He said the Board seemed focused on Ladner, not Bains' resignation.
Longtime School of International Service professor and Center for Global Peace director Abdul Aziz Said told student protestors the board knew their stance. "I will do everything I can to support the resolution of this crisis," Said said.
Bains, an AU graduate, told Linehan she was upset about no longer being able to reside over the board. "She was pretty upset but she was also confident that the students wouldn't let her down," Linehan said. "I promised her that we'd be out here today, and we are."
Bains' letter called for pro-Ladner board members to resign and reiterated hopes the board will consider her recently issued 14-point board improvement plan, calling for greater communication, more transparency and student and faculty representation on the Board. Wolff's letter indicated the board's self-appointed Ad Hoc Committee, which has continually opposed Ladner's ouster, "showed no interest" in Bains' 14 points.
