Scandalous Decoys

Campus Report ^ | April 22, 2008 | Malcolm Kline

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Scandalous Decoys

by: Malcolm A. Kline, April 22, 2008

When legendary director Alfred Hitchcock wanted to build suspense and throw off moviegoers he would distract them with what he called a MacGuffin, which Webster’s defines as “an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.”

Arguably, some of the wayward college presidents fired by boards of directors in recent years fit this description. For example, the former president of American University, Benjamin Ladner, racked up about half a million dollars a year in expenses that included a personal chef and training trips to London, Paris and Rome, Paul Fain of the Chronicle of Higher Education recently reminded an audience at the American Enterprise Institute.

Yet the board at AU moved with dispatch to rid the university of Ladner. Meanwhile, as we have reported, AU has played host to annual conferences showcasing eco-terrorist techniques whether Ladner was there or not.

“What is driving these stories is tuition hikes and parent/student reaction to them,” Fain says of the “CEOs behaving badly” tales and the media play that they get. “Also, universities are cash strapped and whistleblowers blow the whistle on these presidents.”

(It should be noted that Fain cultivates inside sources who, as recipients and appendages, have a different view of the billions taxpayers and their elected representatives send to their institutions than that of those paying the freight.)

But who blows the whistle on faculty behaving badly other than groups such as ours? Boards of Trustees are not likely to, especially if faculty members are sitting on them.

The Board at Dartmouth, for example, consists of eight appointed members and eight elected trustees. Their deliberations are recorded but sealed for half a century...