Lamer than Berendzen

From The Chronicle of Higher Education

Thursday, August 4, 2005

http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/08/2005080401n.htm

American U. Investigates Improper Spending, Possibly by Its President

By PAUL FAIN


Washington

American University's governing board has begun an audit of possible improper expenses charged by an unspecified university department, according to a written statement issued by university officials. The inquiry allegedly focuses on American's president, Benjamin Ladner, according to a report published on Wednesday in The Washington Post.

The Post's article, citing an anonymous letter to the newspaper and an anonymous source with "firsthand knowledge" of the investigation, said Mr. Ladner had charged the university over the past five years for various personal expenses, including vacations and gifts for family members.

Several members of the university's governing board also received copies of an anonymous letter that questioned "certain expenses in one department of the university," a university spokesman said in a written statement, which was distributed on Monday in a campus newsletter. After receiving the letter, the board hired a law firm and external auditors to review the department's "personal and travel expenses."

However, the spokesman, David E. Taylor, did not specify which department was being investigated. It was unclear if the anonymous letters to the board and to the newspaper had come from the same source, or if the anonymous source interviewed by the newspaper might have written the letters.

"The review and any wrongdoing discovered will not affect the university's strong financial position," the university spokesman wrote. University officials were not available for further comment.

Mr. Ladner was hired as American's president in 1994. His arrival followed a turbulent period for the university's chief executives, most notably with the 1990 resignation of Richard Berendzen, who stepped down in the wake of news reports that obscene telephone calls had been traced to him (The Chronicle, May 16, 1990).



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