AU Trustees Chairwoman Quits And Rebukes Ladner Before Vote

"In addition," she said, "a vocal minority of my colleagues on the Board have consistently parroted the Ladner line, and introduced irrelevant issues aimed at distracting a majority of the Board from what I and many others believe are serious failings by Dr. Ladner: an indefensible diversion of funds from the main mission of our University -- educating the students -- and into an imperial lifestyle to which he had become accustomed."

She did not name the colleagues, but sources familiar with her thinking said she was referring, in part, to David M. Carmen and Pamela M. Deese, who have been vocal in group meetings in criticizing Bains. Carmen and Deese said they could not comment yesterday on the statement because they had not seen it.

John R. Petty, a member of the self-named Ad Hoc Committee of 13, which united and hired an attorney last week, said he was taken aback by Bains's resignation. But, he said, she had been a divisive element and lacked support of a clear majority of the board, not a small clique.

Trustees heard about Ladner's suspension an hour or two before the public did, he said, and the documents behind the decision didn't come until quite a bit later. "That's what gave rise to people asking, 'What is this? Is this an imperial chairmanship?' " he said. "A board is a group that talks among itself. . . . We were disappointed that she wasn't fostering that."

Some students said they were unhappy about the move.

"That's deeply unsettling, especially with what's going on tomorrow," senior Megan Linehan said yesterday. She helped organize a student protest of Ladner that ended with students demanding to talk with trustees in the board room.

"She was the one who gave the okay for us to come in -- I think a couple [trustees] were reluctant, the others ambivalent." But Bains welcomed them in, answered their questions directly and made sure others answered them as well, Linehan said.

Bains recently proposed a plan that included annual audits of senior officers, student and faculty representatives on the board, more oversight and zero tolerance for financial and ethical lapses.