U of L Foundation chair speaks out on Ramsey

The chairman of the University of Louisville Foundation took issue Friday with the chairman of the Board of Trustees’ suggestion that James Ramsey should resign as foundation president to clear the way for recruiting a new university president.

Larry Benz, the trustees’ chair, told reporters Thursday that the university would not be “attractive” to potential recruits for the presidency if “his predecessor was working in the position of foundation president.”

But in an email Friday morning, Dr. Bob Hughes, the foundation’s chairman, said that promoting “harmony” will “give us the best chance at recruiting an excellent new president for the University of Louisville.”

“Chairman Benz needs to keep his comments on the high road and work with all of the UL staff, its affiliated boards and their leadership, and the media to promote harmony,” said Hughes, who also serves on the Board of Trustees.

Hughes praised Thursday's meeting of the old Board of Trustees, which unanimously approved a budget averting tuition increases next year. He said he was pleased that "a lot of the dysfunctional behavior that has plagued the board over the past year did not rear its ugliness.”

But he said: “This was one meeting. The BOT has a lot to prove that it can have sustained professional behavior.”

After the meeting, responding to reporters, Benz raised questions about a $38 million loan from the university to a unit of the foundation that neither the university’s Board of Trustees nor the foundation’s Board of Directors were asked to approve. He also questioned salary supplements that the foundation’s University Holdings Inc. has paid to employees in the university president’s office.

Hughes said in his email that Benz and others have been told “several times about how the interagency transfer of $38 million dollars was a money management strategy” that allowed the university to earn more interest than had the money remained in the bank. Hughes said the “the use of employees from the university side on the foundation side and vice versa is another strategy to lower the overall overhead of the Foundation.” He said the payments “were used to lower the overhead of the Foundation which again is wise management.”

Acting university President Neville Pinto said Thursday he didn't know anything about the payments and planned to  investigate.

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The foundation is scheduled to meet on an unspecified date next month, in part to decide whether to retain Ramsey as its president. He resigned as university president in July.

Ramsey’s lawyer, Steve Pence, said this week it is a mistake to assume Ramsey wants to stay on at the foundation, but Pence declined to elaborate.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com