In an attempt to promote a feeling of openness and transparency, members of AU's board of trustees met with students and faculty members Thursday night to discuss former President Ben Ladner's severance package, improved board governance and the need for communication between board members and the rest of the university community.
SG President Kyle Taylor said he hoped that this would be the first of a series of town hall meetings "not just in the weeks to come, but in the years to come." Taylor moderated the forum with board member Matthew Pittinsky, who encouraged an atmosphere of civility between the audience and the board members.
"Our goal is to have a conversation and part of that conversation is to listen. ... We want to take questions, fill in the blanks and engage in discussion," Pittinsky said. "We've taken seriously campus feedback. I don't consider this a public relations move. I consider this a discussion."
Monica Price, a graduate student in the School of International Service and a member of the activist group Students for a New AU, read a statement in which she blasted the board.
"It is your actions and inactions that have brought us here," she said. "You were in the driver's seat, not us."
Trustee Pamela Deese said she wanted students to understand that the trustees were not just "paving over" what happened. Deese said the board was looking at issues of governance and had set forth a timeline for dealing with those issues. Deese said she hoped that the board's work would be finished by May 2006.
Deese said the board's decisions have always been made "with the best interests of the university at heart." She added that the board would listen to experts in the field of governance and trusteeship to determine what the best practices for running a university would be. Once these are determined, the board will adopt such practices, she said.
However, Deese said that this does not mean that AU will simply adopt these practices. Rather, the board will seek input from campus groups and make the practices adaptable to AU.
When asked about a possible student seat on the board, none of the trustees committed themselves to that promise. Deese said that if the "best practices" standards called for student involvement on the board, the university would allow it; if "best practices" did not recommend student involvement, there would not be a student seat on the board.
"Everyone involved in this process has suffered a lot of pain, no more than one group," said trustee David Carmen. "For a good four months, we've been locked into the toughest stuff we've ever faced."
"The whole community has not had the opportunity to examine everything we have," Carmen said. He said there was a complication because there were two written-out pension plans that were binding.
He said there was ambiguity about who knew what about Ladner's salary and financial situation. He said that although he knew how much Ladner was being paid, he did not know there was a question over Ladner's contract because the compensation committee never reported that to board members.
Carmen also said the chairman of the compensation committee quit, claiming to be unaware of the problem. Carmen rejected that claim, saying there was no way the chair could not have known.
"We had a wrong impression," he said. "We should have done more. We're going to do more." But he reminded the audience that the trustees present at the town hall meeting were the ones who brought the changes to the university and have its best interests in mind.
On the issue of Ladner's severance package, Pittinsky said the board made a decision about severance in order to move forward as an institution and end the situation. When audience members questioned this move, Pittinsky defended the decision.
"These have been difficult months," he said. "The board took a lot of time balancing two important values, due process and swift and fair justice."
Shane Meyer, a member of the class of 2005, said the website Benladner.com had reported on Ladner's salary and personal expenses five years ago. Meyer read a statement where he attacked the board for giving Ladner a severance package of "$950,000 in cold cash, plus benefits."
"I will not rest until legal action is taken," Meyer said. "Rescind the package."
A group of teachers in the front two rows nodded in agreement. One teacher called out, "If you think it's such a good idea, I think the trustees should dig deep into their pockets and do it themselves."
One student asked how the board could give almost $4 million to Ladner but could not find $120,000 to help save the tennis team, which was cut last year along with the school's golf program. Though none of the trustees made a commitment to the tennis team, Deese said a dialogue between the board and the members of the team is needed.
Many students attacked the trustees for not being visible on campus. Deese and Carmen responded that they are often on campus and regularly interact with student leaders, but most students might perceive them as being invisible because people don't know who they are.
Deese said that, sadly, when things are going well for the university, it is difficult to get people to come to campus or attend events. Since there is no press release with the photos of all the board members, students generally don't know and don't care who the trustees are until things are going badly.
Vanessa Palma, a graduate student in the School of Public Affairs, said she agreed with Deese.
"In my opinion, she's absolutely right," said Palma. She said that most people only care about the board members because there is a problem, and, if there were not one, would not pay attention to who the board members were.
"Students at this school like to point fingers and protest, because we're in a political environment," Palma said. "[But] there's only so much finger-pointing you can do until you fix the problem."
As for the Senate Finance Committee's investigation, Palma said, "If the United States Senate doesn't have anything better to do than investigate a university president, I'm a little worried."
Pittinsky stressed the need for continued dialogue between board members and the university community. He said the trustees are well intentioned and despite occasional disagreements among board members, the board has always voted in the best interests of the university.
The meeting ended with one student asking the board to rescind their decision and reconsider Ladner's severance package, saying it is a matter of principle.
"What is right, not what is easy, needs to win through," he said.
