There's a new joke being passed around the halls of American University these days. It goes something like this. How do you know when your University's Board of Trustees have been corrupted? When you wake up in the morning and Ben Ladner's there to pee in your corn flakes because he stole your milk money. According to The Washington Post, the board has made Mr. Ladner a very, very, very generous offer to leave Spring Valley. How much was it? Well it's more than the kick in the ass I would've paid him to leave. Try $4 million instead. How could this board be any more short sighted? I mean despite overwhelmingly popular opinion on campus against the issuance of any Golden Parachute this board finds it necessary to not only reward improper financial conduct, but to offer a package so obscene that the board has become complicit in the financial malfeasance of Mr. Ladner. The board's actions are so far fetched they would've had to been invented in Hollywood. I could sell this show to Hollywood. I'd call it "Ben's Cronies" and it would be a reality show starring the AU board of trustees. They'd live in the president's house at AU (Ben's house on Glenbrook off-campus, no reason to hang out with the commoner's who will pay for this on campus. This is TV after all! Plus we could feature the house on Cribs) and we'd see what happens when trustees stop being polite and start getting real. We'd make Donald Trump look like a chump and we'd kill in the ratings. But the sad thing is that this really is reality. This travesty is really happening in the halls of this University. We know Ben never lived in reality and but it seems all the realists on the board are quitting rather than fighting the good fight. This issue is more than dollars and cents. If it was merely about money we could tape the board meetings air them in Primetime and earn back the money in advertising dollars. This is about what is right, what is fair and what is just.
