Today's Washington Post updates the story at American University, and includes quotes from trustee David Carmen, who comments on my original post below. I'm in agreement with him that AU could emerge from this as a national model for good governance; I know from personal experience that governance issues occupy a great deal of a Board's time.
Goddard College went through a turbulent patch or two, too, and like the Trustees of AU, the Goddard Board had one of their meetings interrupted by angry students. But as H.L. Mencken said, "The cure of the evils of democracy is more democracy." Goddard's Board re-emphasized it's commitment to transparency and inclusiveness, and it sounds like the AU Board is doing likewise.
What's truly shocking about the fracas at AU is how it split the Board into factions, and how a rump group of trustees formed an ad hoc committee behind the rest of the Board's back. As the Post reported earlier:
Opposition to the executive committee, led by then-board Chairman Leslie E. Bains, grew to the point that 13 trustees banded together, calling themselves the ad hoc committee, and hired an attorney.
Hey, I'm on my Board's Executive Committee and no one is meeting beind my back...at least I don't think they are...
Actually the elephant in the room is called Sarbanes-Oxley --seems like some AU trustees were worried they'd be held personally liable for the Ladner spending spree...
(Originally posted October 9) "There's a lot of politics in politics," my girlfriend said when I was fired from a presidential campaign. She could just have easily been speaking of campus politics.
The scandals surrounding Ben Ladner and his performance as American University's president are different than the scandals surrounding Ladner's predecessor but similar enough to other hubris-fueled spending sprees/power grabs.
If you read between the lines of the reporting on this story, you can perceive a Board of Trustees riven by factionalism, secret deals and mistrust. Power corrupts, even in ivory towers. Too bad.
I'm on the Board of Trustees of Goddard College, a school known more for Phish than phoul (though there's plenty of good vegetarian food in the area). Once or twice, our Board has made news, but mainly we concern ourselves with oversight, serious leadership issues, and how to get better food at Board meetings.
American University is in for some tough times. Ladner will go, the accusations will linger, the school will be damaged. Message to AU's Board: Take immediate steps to reassure the faculty and students, apologize and make necessary changes. Ben Ladner's the bad guy now --if you're not careful, you're next.
Weekend Update--This dispatch from the Day After --following the fall of Ladner, the purging of the Board, why it's all, as one expert quoted here says, "very unusual" for Boards to take potshots at each other. Note the heroic efforts being made by a reader of this very post. And if any readers are themselves members of a Board of Trustees, circulate this story to your colleagues and count your blessings...
William
Well Said! I actually believe you've out done any other reporting on the subject so far. Amazingly prescient considering I was just told that the Chair resigned and delivered a statement to the Washington Post but forgot to tell the Board! Who says non-profit, pro bono work isn't rewarding....ps my sister graduated from Goddard in the early 70s when it was still cool - HAH!
David
Posted by: David Carmen, Trustee, American University | Sunday, 09 October 2005 at 05:44 PM