WASHINGTON
American University trustees announced that Dr. Benjamin Ladner will not return as president after a months-long investigation into his spending.
The university’s board of trustees made the decision earlier this week after a closed-door meeting that lasted more than eight hours.
The university will continue to seek $125,000 in reimbursement from Ladner for questionable expenses and report to the IRS $398,000 in taxable income on top of Ladner’s $633,000 annual salary, said the board’s acting chairman, Thomas A. Gottschalk. The board did not address a severance package.
Ladner’s attorneys say the spending was appropriate under his contract and the conclusions of the auditors are distorted and unfair.
Auditors had questioned spending by Ladner that included French wine, expensive restaurants both here and abroad and chauffeurs who ran personal errands.
Earlier, students and faculty members at the 11,000-student private school in Northwest Washington rallied on the main quad and outside the boardroom.
