ONCE AGAIN, PEOPLE IN CHARGE ARE MORONS

This isn't related to basketball, but it's worth blogging about anyway. Ben Ladner, AU's President, ought to be fired. There's no misunderstandings, white lies, or honest mistakes here. Ladner snuck through half a million dollars of charges to the university for such neccessities as:

- An engagement party for his kid
- $40k worth of booze
- a $22,000 ticket to Nigeria
- a waterfall for his backyard
- birthday dinners including "pan-seared foie gras, BeauSoleil oyster, sabayon and caviar, and white truffle risotto"

Does this remind you of anyone?

In the meantime, tuition at the school has gone up around 6% a year for as long as I can remember. It's true, Ben Ladner had the balls to charge students more to attend AU so that he could have a waterfall in his backyard and caviar for his birthday party. This is after the school bought the guy a million dollar house off campus because he didn't want to live in the President's House already on campus.

I don't know about you, but in my experiences, you can't get away with that in the real world. I can't buy file folders without approval of at least two people in my company, much less foie gras, whatever that is (I go by the rule that if it sounds foriegn, it's probably expensive).

Ladner did a lot of good things for the school, but you just can't overlook this. The Board of Trustees needs to fire him, and quick. There are plenty of other qualified people who would be tempted by a $600,000 salary.

Ladner's lack of humility and good judgement alone require a change.  @ 8:58 AM