AU to Offer As Much as $4 Million To Ladner

In a split vote Thursday, the board concluded that an agreement that Ladner had signed in 1997 was not a valid contract, the sources said. That agreement has been a key element of Ladner's legal defense of his spending and could ensure him a generous severance package.

In 1997, Ladner signed a deal with then-Chairman William I. Jacobs that raised Ladner's salary, guaranteed to reimburse him for "entertainment and first-class travel expenses" reasonably incurred on the job and added benefits for his wife. If dismissed without cause, he could get a year's worth of salary and benefits plus another year's worth of base salary, $50,000 for relocation and the right to continue living in the university-owned house next to campus for three months after his termination. And the 1997 contract includes "the continuation of his tenured faculty appointment at the university at the rank of full professor, with faculty benefits and a salary that is always 20 percent above the highest AU faculty salary."

Some trustees and lawyers have said the 1997 contract was never approved by the board and it probably would not hold up in court; others, including Jacobs, have said that he discussed the components of the contract with the board and that Ladner had been operating under the contract for years.

The package does not include an offer of a faculty position, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential.

Thomas A. Gottschalk, who has been serving as acting head of the trustees since the chairwoman, Leslie E. Bains, resigned early this month, said he and other trustees could not speak about the Ladner negotiations because they are confidential.

Although some on campus say they are ready to move on, others have been insisting that Ladner not be given a large severance package and are trying to find ways to increase oversight at the school. As trustees met Thursday, a small group of students rallied on the main quad. They read out the names and booed a group they called the Gang of 13 -- trustees who aligned in opposition to the board leaders who pushed for the audit. They gathered hundreds of signatures on petitions asking the board "to terminate Benjamin Ladner for cause -- that is, without a 'golden parachute' severance package that allows Dr. Ladner to derive further personal economic gains from his misdeeds."

This week, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved a statement of confidence in the acting president, Cornelius Kerwin, and the acting provost, Ivy Broder. Professor Wendell Cochran told the group he wanted to send a message that the board need not rush to find a new president, and another professor there agreed that it might be best to delay a search until questions about the board are resolved.

The board is expected to talk about its structure and effectiveness when it meets next month with a new chairman, longtime trustee and AU alumnus Gary M. Abramson.

In his resignation letter, Jaskol said the 13 members of the self-named Ad Hoc Committee, "have lost sight of the board's mission to serve American University. Their agenda appears to be the support and defense of Dr. Ladner."

There are just 20 board members to vote on critical issues ahead, down from 25. Kerwin will not vote on issues about Ladner or board governance, he said, in order to avoid a possible conflict of interest and to let the panel discuss whether the president should remain a member of the board, as Ladner had been.