Dear Editor,
This article is not about the ethics of the ex-president of American University but it is rather about the ethical dimensions revolving around what one might call "Ladner-gate." Pens whose ink was paid by Ladner were competing to tear him apart once he became officially the scapegoat of a political affair that will always remain behind closed boards. I do not know Ladner and I met him only once after a grievance I had with an-anti Semitic professor at AU. Ladner solved my problem with a touch of a diplomat.
The university gave me tuition remission for a class I had to take and banned the professor from teaching that class until his age matures enough so as to encompass diversity, while in the same time granting that professor tenure. I remember clearly the voice of Ladner's wife telling me when she knew I was Moroccan that she had had an exquisite dinner the day before at the Moroccan ambassadorial mansion. I encourage commissions of investigation regarding embezzlement and I welcome them, but what bothers me in the heat of this controversy is that Ladner (and not those professors who were orbiting in his mansions quenching their thirst with the same Champagne that got involved in the collection of embezzled items) is the only culprit. If the trustees report to congress, professors only report to their own judgments. In order for democracy to supercede, we are told that we should trust them because they know. ÿ
I have a philosophy in life: no matter how dirty our politicians and bureaucrats are, they will never equal the filth of those species wearing the masks of Santa Theresa and delivering sermons about postmodern morality while their ego (which rhymes with libido) whips them with a stubborn fervor. Those species have a name. They call them professors. If the whole campus knows about the investigation of Ladner, why shouldn't people know about some married professors who invite some of their unmarried students to private dinners and shower them with gifts in a "summer abroad" with AU's budget? At times, the administration does not investigate the "gift" of the professor but goes on to award him with a symbolic gift:
Distinction. Some articles asked for more power of students in the board. I am a realist and I say: give the world a break! Students do not have a word in their classes and the curriculum they pay for, and we want them to have a say in the board. AU-unlike Georgetown- is a university where grading is the absolute uncontested domain of a professor. Grading is to professors what funding is to presidents. Altering the ecosystem of one without intervening to balance the other is a mere sign of sterile sensationalism. As students, we are here to pay, play and pray, and occasionally if we are lucky we can have a say on the pizza budget of the association of left handed students who wear lenses. The fittest survives, thus spoke Darwin! ÿ
Abdelilah Bouasria PhD. candidate, SPA
