The Eagle: What is your most vivid memory of the Ladner scandal?
Gary Abramson: We had an interesting town hall meeting that first time, in which we did get a lot of students and faculty who were vociferous and letting off some steam, although I think it was a good airing of people's concerns. I think that given everything that went on, it was kind of gutsy of the trustees to stand there, but they answered questions as honestly as they could.
David Taylor: To my knowledge, that may have been unprecedented. I don't recall in my 14 years that the board had ever done anything like that. And they did that in the midst of a very heated time. So, it was a gutsy thing to do.
The Eagle: What do you think was the most positive outcome of the Ladner scandal?
G.A.: Well, I think that we are now a much better board. We've gone through an extensive governance review, and we've made changes to things that weren't even a problem. We did such a comprehensive review that we have adopted new bylaws, new policies and have had a thorough review by a couple of experts in the field. In addition, we've taken on some very new and prominent trustees, especially in the academic world. We did not have that much representation on that side in the past. So I think we're building a much better, stronger, more positive board.
The Eagle: Do you think there were any negative impacts on AU as a result of the Ladner scandal?
G.A.: Besides the obvious negative publicity, which nobody was too crazy about, AU actually had one of the best years in its history. We received the largest endowment we've ever had; it was our best year for fund-raising and cash collection; the most awards - Fulbright scholars and all kinds of honorariums, the highest GPA and SAT scores of any freshman class. I'm glad I don't have to apply again. Ironically, other than the adverse publicity surrounding Ladner, it was a great year for AU.
The Eagle: Do you think anything could have been handled differently? If so, what?
G.A.: Don't forget, there were different people involved at different times - different chairs, different people, some people aren't on that committee anymore. It's difficult to go back and say who did what wrong.
D.T.: Given that it all played out over a long period of time, one of the things that made it challenging was that there was so much to cover. It started with the immediate issues surrounding the president and whether the sitting president should remain or leave. Then it went into the governance reform that consumed so much of the board's time over those months, and then you went into the external scrutiny of the Senate Finance Committee. In the background, we all knew we had the presidential search. It was almost inevitable that it would take a long time, and it had to take study. To the board's credit, they did what they needed to do, which was to take a look at what they had been doing and, in some cases, what they had not been doing. Doing that in the fishbowl of publicity, it just had to take a long period of time in a very public self-examination. Those things are not easy to do. Given the multiplicity of issues, you had to take them one at a time.
The Eagle: Do you think the Ladner scandal is still a major issue on campus? Why?
G.A.: I haven't gotten the impression that it's still a big issue on campus. There might be some people that still talk about it. But I think in general, we've moved on. We have a much better and closer relationship with the faculty, with the students, with all of the campus constituents. We've brought on, for the first time in AU's history, faculty to the board. We're bringing a student representative on as a board member, and we're going to be looking for a recent graduate who's going to be a board member. So I think the relationship with the constituents is much different than it was years ago. It's a much more open and transparent kind of relationship. I think that people are focusing on the future, looking forward to the presidential search.
The Eagle: In 10 years, what do you think people will remember about this crisis?
G.A.: I think that what they will remember is that in an embarrassing and highly publicized situation, American University weathered the storm. They did a great job righting the ship, and it will be a stronger and better university than ever in 10 years. I think more good will be remembered in 10 years than bad.
D.T.: I think that history will show that it was a very significant transformation of the university's governance in a relatively short period of time. Look at the nature of the board of trustees. People know who they are now. All you have to do is go to the AU Web site and look them up. Everything is so much more open now than it was. A year or two ago, if you asked people who the board members are, what are the bylaws, nobody would know - nobody would've known where to look that information up. That is a significant transformation for any board to make in such a short period of time.
