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Sunday, September 25, 2005

LADNER, ACT II
Strategy Groups


A schism among American University trustees is widening over the future of suspended President Benjamin Ladner, with some beginning private negotiations with his attorneys for a new contract and others pressing for his ouster. … Complicating an already tangled process, Ladner supporters on the board have divided themselves into three strategy groups, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations. One group reviewed some of the more than $500,000 of the president's spending questioned in an independent report and determined that he should reimburse the university roughly $21,000. Another group is bringing in a tax expert for advice. And a third is putting together terms of a new contract for Ladner that would reduce his compensation while adding controls over his spending and other activities, the sources said.

Washington Post, Sunday, September 25, 2005.





Hey, hey, Group Three!

Here’s how I see us, Group Three, in relation to the other trustee strategy groups (Groups One through Two).




Bottom line: We get our recs out pronto. They mainly involve Total Defense Initiative, in which we totally get behind Ben now that he’s reimbursed the twenty thousand.


First point: Consistency, duration, don’t rock the boat (litigation, he’s been president for a long time, we don’t want another search, the next one’ll be even worse, etc.), they all fly first-class and have chauffeurs (check details on other local university heads), hasn’t he already suffered enough derision in the press (photo of wife crying), look at all the great stuff he’s done for the school.


Second point: We propose the following new contract:

Keeping in mind this whole thing got kicked off because Ben asked for a couple million more recently, we’ll propose that we start with that as the latest compensation figure. So - he already earned about $800,000. Let’s jiggle the numbers a bit and say he only asked for a million more. So that’s $1,800,000 as our baseline figure.

So we go to town! So we take away the whole million!

That leaves $800,000. At this point Ben’s within his rights to ask for pain and suffering or he won’t come back. Something like this could happen again. We need to incentivize to some extent. We propose a $500,000 bonus.



Third point: Spending controls.

Here’s what we’re up against, in today’s Post:

Some trustees said it doesn't matter what Ladner was allowed to do -- that as president of a school without a large endowment, reliant mostly on students for its operating expenses, he should have the judgment and restraint to avoid excesses.

This looks like a toughie, but we propose the following. The Aspen Institute offers a new six-month executive seminar, Chief Operating Officers and the Classical Virtues. It’s totally about judgment and restraint. We propose a sabbatical for Ben, to take place at the time of his reinstatement, for the purpose of attending the Aspen seminar.
Posted at: 9/25/2005 06:42:00 AM