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AU Beyond Ladner
Who values what? On Oct. 10, American University law students held a sign criticizing the school's president for lavish spending. But the author says the problem is bigger than the former president's expense account.
(By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)
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And he demanded answers to the same questions we have all been asking. How much money did Ladner actually take from our university and what are the tax implications? What are the plans to audit the first eight years of the Ladner presidency? What are the board's plans to guarantee accountability and transparency in the future?
The same liberal academics who ordinarily would resist federal meddling in university affairs are welcoming Grassley's questions. If Congress, which first chartered our university back in 1893, could help us do one thing now, it would be to close the incredible gulf between the board of trustees and the rest of the university. A little representative democracy would force upon us a kind of thoughtfulness and deliberation that has been missing.
The revolt against the Ladner presidency has irrevocably changed the way business will be done on our campus. A campuswide civil society has come alive. While the trustees were polarized and paralyzed, the deans and faculties of the five colleges banded together to condemn Ladner's extravagance. Across campus, we voted "no confidence" in his leadership. The Faculty Senate acted with vigor, as did alumni.
With wit and energy, the student body petitioned, protested and demanded not only Ladner's departure but institutional accountability and democracy on the board. My three favorite signs on the quad were: "White Truffle & Porcini Egg Custard & American Sturgeon Caviar for You/Ramen Noodles for Me," "Ladner stole my bike" (a loan-strapped student explained that he couldn't afford to buy one) and the lovely "French Chef, Non/French Revolution, Oui."
We are not out of the woods yet. Four trustees who criticized the "pro-Ladner" faction for the $3.8 million parachute tossed to the disgraced president on his way out have resigned. These dissident trustees pointed out that this send-off could have paid the annual salaries of three dozen faculty members, 200 full tuition scholarships or 10 full scholarships in perpetuity.
When I told Maria, the woman who cleans my office (and helps me with my Spanish), about Ladner's farewell jackpot, she just laughed. She has worked for one of AU's cleaning contractors for 14 years. She started earning $5.50 an hour in 1991 and today earns about $11 an hour. I estimate that she makes just under $23,000 a year, or what our former president once spent on a first-class airplane ticket. For her to earn what Ladner just picked up, she would have to continue as a janitor here for the next 165 years. On campus, too, as Voltaire put it, "the comfort of the rich depends on abundant supply of the poor." Could we hope to find a college president who wants to challenge the startling inequalities of American life rather than take advantage of them?
The message of Ladner's presidency was "L'Universit, c'est moi." The point of the opposition has been, "L'Universit, c'est nous." In this sense, the campus rebellion provoked by the Ladners' decadence has been cathartic and promising. We have learned the price of passivity.
As Ben Franklin used to say: "If you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you." The people who love American University as a community of learning and social engagement have risen up against our culture of closed governance. There is no going back now.
Author's e-mail:
Jamin Raskin is a professor of constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law and director of its Program on Law and Government. He is former chairman of Maryland's Higher Education Labor Relations Board.
