The group may have been small, but the students who gathered on an otherwise empty quad at American University this morning were resolute in their demands — embattled president Benjamin Ladner had to go.

While the university’s Board of Trustees met to consider Ladner’s fate — word has it that he will most likely be fired, though the question of his severance is up in the air — students and faculty representing various departments and schools spoke out against what they termed an “imperial presidency.” Holding signs bearing messages such as “No golden parachute for Ladner,” “Not my president,” and “What ever happened to ethical leadership?”, many students spoke cynically of the financial hardship they endured to pay for their education at a university whose president is being investigated for almost $500,000 in questionable spending.

Organizers read from an open letter they were planning on presenting to the board today, in which they demanded that Ladner be fired, that he not receive any severance pay (which, according to the terms of a controversial 1997 contract, include double his current salary for one year, $50,000 in relocation costs, and a tenured professorship with a salary 20 percent higher than that of the university’s highest paid professor), and that the Board of Trustees allow students and faculty to participate in meetings as voting members. Other reforms to the Board of Trustees were also listed.

After a brief rally on the quad, the students marched to the building where the board was to meet, eventually settling on a cramped landing outside the boardroom. Student leaders were allowed to enter to present their case to trustees, while others anxiously remained outside and joked about any number of Ladner’s alleged excesses — his use of university security guards to fetch his morning newspapers, his use of a university car to drive from his neighboring house to campus, his creation of an executive empire through the appointment of numerous new vice-presidents. At one point two students bearing signs of support for Ladner appeared (“I Heart Ladner” and “Ladner Made This School”), though were quickly overwhelmed by the larger anti-Ladner crowd.

At the time of this writing, the Board of Trustees is still meeting, and no information has been made available concerning when they will issue a final decision on Ladner’s fate.