Second Trustee Critical of Ladner Departs American University Board

Carmen, who said he could speak publicly only on issues that did not involve confidential board proceedings, said he has no idea who is running the board at the moment.

Carmen and Abramson are members of a group of 13 trustees who joined together in recent weeks, calling themselves the Ad Hoc Committee, hiring their own attorney and criticizing Bains and the other board leaders who voted to suspend Ladner in August.

Neither Bains nor Abramson returned phone calls.

Student leaders said they were worried about the resignations.

"I think the students have lost a very powerful advocate," said Peter Brusoe of the Graduate Leadership Council, who hopes to add student and faculty representatives to the board. "There was this chance all of a sudden to change the political culture of American University. I think that window still exists -- the problem is we're losing time to get those things taken care of and losing a lot of pro-reform allies." He said he trusted that Wolff was making the right decision and thought his departure might make the board coalesce.

Trustee George J. Collins said, "The university could use him going forward, in particular right now on the negotiations for Dr. Ladner's departure."

Carmen said that Wolff's departure was unfortunate but that his resignation letter had misstatements and would not help the university to heal.

Carmen did not say what the misstatements were.

Steinbach said it would be difficult to find a candidate to replace Ladner with the board in such disarray.

"This is like two warring spouses playing out on the front page of the paper with high-priced hired guns, rather than seeking an amicable resolution to their differences."