Meyers’ resignation in February 2008 shocked the campus community. She had been president of Webster for 14 years. Her immediate disappearance from campus fueled questions about the circumstances around her departure. But she later told the [St. Louis] Post-Dispatch that she was just so emotional about retiring from being a university president, a position she held for so long.

Women! Just can’t handle it, I guess. Good thing there aren’t too many of them in executive positions.

Here’s the background on Meyers:

Richard Meyers, the former president of Webster University, didn’t leave empty handed after unexpectedly resigning in February 2008. Along with one year’s pay of almost $700,000, he is also receiving more than $700,000 in deferred compensation, according to the latest 990 tax document.

Meyers was the highest paid university executive in the St. Louis area. His salary for 2008 was $696,713, a large increase from his 2007 salary of $572,875. In comparison, the provost of St. Louis University had a salary of $246,000 in 2008 and the chancellor of Washington University made $539,250 in the same year.

The Journal was unable to reach the Board of Trustees for a comment about Meyers’ compensation before going to print.

“When one compares other places, his salary was outrageous,” said Donna Campbell, professor in the department of multidisciplinary studies and onetime member of the salary and fringe benefits committee. “It is unfortunate that the Board of Trustees approved such a large increase.”

… Along with Meyers’ salary and deferred compensation, there are still unanswered questions about his expenses. According to a Journal review of the last nine years of tax documents, Meyers claimed more expenses than most St. Louis-area university leaders combined.

The Board of Trustees Audit Committee and an independent accounting firm, BKD LLP, audited Meyers’ expense claims in 2005. Both found he had claimed some personal expenses as business expenses during 2004 and 2005, according to WU’s 990 tax filing for 2005.

WU officials and the chair of the audit committee, Michael DeHaven, would not disclose how much money was declared personal expenses by the independent audit or whether it has been repaid. In an April interview with The Journal, DeHaven said anything that had to do with expenses and compensation was a “personnel-related matter” and could not be discussed.

Between the fiscal years of 2000 and 2008, Meyers claimed a total of $675,611 in expenses, according to WU’s tax documents. That is an average of more than $75,000 per year. At least a small portion of these expenses, however, were personal expenses that Meyers should not have claimed, according to an audit report listed in WU’s 2005 990 filing.

Meyers, contacted in April 2009 when The Journal began working on this story, would not comment on the money in question, saying it is a matter for the Board of Trustees.

… In October 2005, WU’s Audit Committee authorized an independent tax review of the expenses in question. The accounting firm that conducted the review, BKD, had been used by WU in the past for yearly audits and financial advice, DeHaven said.

After this review, the Board of Trustees required Meyers to repay, with interest, all of the expenses determined to have been personal. As of April 14, 2006, Meyers had still not repaid any of the money, according a report included in WU’s 2005 990 tax filing.

It is unknown if the money has been repaid because Meyers, DeHaven and Chancellor Neil George would not comment.

You just know that girl hasn’t repaid it. She’s too emotional to repay it.

Anyway. She’s gone to a far, far better place.

She is now the president of Fielding Graduate University, an online-based distance learning university based in Santa Barbara, Calif.