Student Government President Kyle Taylor is encouraging students to send letters to their Congressmen and women to protest former President Benjamin Ladner's settlement package.
Taylor sent out a letter urging Congress to take action to appropriately deal with issues concerning Ladner.
"The Board of Trustees have undermined the best interest of our university and put their personal agenda first," Taylor said. "Please do not let American University set a precedent for Enron-style corporate crime within higher education."
"We want the Board to be restructured," Taylor said. "We want an independent committee that can restructure, reorganize and remember the board to make sure they will adequately represent the university. We want a board that will defend our values and ethics in court and fire him with cause."
A meeting was held Monday afternoon, shortly after former President Ladner accepted a severance package totaling $3.75 million. Tom Gottschalk to release the Board's final decision on Ladner's settlement package. Tom Gottschalk, acting chair of the board of trustees explained the terms of the settlement to student leaders, faculty and deans
Meg Linehan and Monica Price, of the activist group Students for a New AU, attended the meeting.
"When [Gottschalk] started telling the numbers I was thinking, 'Okay, it's not as bad as it could be,'" Linehan said. "It's not great. There are still a lot of problems to work out but maybe we could move on."
Almost immediately after the meeting students said they began to question the decision, causing Linehan to rethink the settlement.
"Most of us went into the meeting wanting to be reassured but when we came out that hadn't happened," Linehan said. "They tried to tie it [the settlement] up in a neat little bow for us and we started to pull it apart."
Price said she saw the settlement package as rewarding Ladner for something he did wrong. The board rationalized its decision because of the many good things Lander has done for the university, Price said.
"I think we need to strike a balance between wanting this issue to be quickly resolved and doing the right thing," Price said. "The right thing to do in this issue is living up to our standards of public interest and service and ethics."
Through an online petition, students can send letters to Congress on the issue, and also encourages them as a group to take action on an important issue.
"We hope that [students] realize this is something they can do and it is something that can empower the students," said Taylor. "This is our university and we should do whatever it takes to make sure the leadership represents who we are."
Taylor has chosen to work with the organization democracyinaction.org. The letter is available on the organization's website through www.demaction.org.
