Louisville University President James Ramsey, who was the highest-paid public university president last year with a salary of $4.3 million, is facing fraud charges, among others. We hope he managed to save at least some of it as he was forced to quit his job in July 2016. Ramsey faces a lawsuit charging him with fraudulent appropriations, breach of fiduciary duty, and improper diversion of funds for personal gain.
Ramsey’s attorney finds the suit to be unfounded. The former president, who has a doctor’s degree in economics and took the position back in 2002, doubled federal research funding and transformed the University of Louisville from a commuter school into a residential campus.
Unfortunately, his career has been marred by scandal over the last several years. Between 2010 and 2014, a university staff member paid strippers to perform for and have sex with the university’s men’s basketball team. The team had won the championship the previous year, but the NCAA ended up revoking their title after catching wind of the affair.
This was not the end of the controversy. At a Halloween party in 2015, Ramsey and his wife turned heads, dressed up as Mexicans wearing fake mustaches and sombreros. The president apologized later, but the damage had been done. In yet another scandal, university staff members under him were convicted on embezzlement charges.
Ramsey was earning $3.7 million more than the compensation of 250 presidents in a survey, which was $560,000 on average.