Brennan Resigns

[Seven]

Interim named:

Dr. Jeri Beggs Named ISU Interim Athletics Director - Illinois State University Athletics

Illinois State University Interim President Aondover Tarhule has named Dr. Jeri Beggs to serve as interim athletics director, effective May 1.

goredbirds.com

OMG I loved Jeri as a teacher at ISU. Never in a million years would I have thought she'd be AD.

Anyone else remember her?!

 

[DougSutton]

I have reason to believe Ryan Denham has absolutely no proof that this group ever stepped foot into the strip club and am calling this B.S. unless or until he can provide proof beyond a Lyft receipt. I've attached a screenshot from my phone for a Lyft ride that I went on from my home. Lyft uses GEO IP and is not consistently accurate with the location. My address was 324 Paseo Pacifica yet this Lyft receipt shows 406 Paseo Pacifica. I have multiple Lyft receipts that are not accurate on the pickup location. The drop off is what you feed the app so that should always be accurate.

It is reckless and irresponsible "journalism" for him to make such a claim, unless of course he has proof beyond this. I understand these types of stories are run in tabloid publications like the National Enquirer and would expect that WGLT has professional standards and ethics that are above this. Sharing a story like this to cause a national embarrassment without proof beyond a Lyft receipt is reckless and could be considered slanderous.

I trust Ryan (and/or friends of his) reads this board and I have an offer to make him. If he provides proof that they were in the strip club, I will donate $1,000 to the Milt Weisbecker Scholarship Fund in his name, post the receipt here for everyone to see and also apologize for calling it B.S. If he can't provide any more proof than an unreliable Lyft receipt he should go on record and retract this assertion.

After further reflection, I'm curious about a few other things...

My sense is that any expense for a trip like this must have been approved in advance by the foundation and there was notice given. I've been a part of many similar expenses having been in leadership roles within different organizations and consultant.

Many foundations openly approve of expenses for trips like this to court potential donors and $23,000 is a small expense in the big picture. I've plenty of expenses for more than this for one evening. If this was approved in advanced, disclosed and/or reimbursed then Brennan did nothing wrong at all and it is the Foundation or whoever approved and enabled this that should be held accountable.

If the statement from the university that it: “appears to be inconsistent with the University’s mission and values” is related to the strip club and there is no proof beyond this Lyft receipt, then whoever at the university made this statement did so without properly vetting this out. If it was because of the use of funds was for a trip to watch a high profile sporting event and that didn't meet the "mission and values", I am curious to know where these guidelines published and if Brennan (and all other staff) has been notified of this in writing and understood this.

This by itself feels like a complete non-story to me and makes me wonder who influenced Ryan Denham to write this story, dig up dirt and target Brennan, and what their agenda was.

As for Rossi, at the time, he was high profile and engaged with many other institutions outside of Illinois State and I'm sure the Foundation did whatever vetting process is required to approve him. Because of this, the responsibility would not be on Brennan for what happened to him. I wouldn't be surprised if it was either the Foundation or others within the university that asked Brennan to reach out to Rossi (and many others) to begin with.

I agree with many others that during Brennan's time here, he accomplished a lot of amazing things including bringing in donors and making some great hires. I have a sense he's being made the fall guy and thrown under the bus, based on solely what has been shared thus far.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

For ****s sake Doug there is more to the story. Brennan quit. This was the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Seven]

I have reason to believe Ryan Denham has absolutely no proof that this group ever stepped foot into the strip club and am calling this B.S. unless or until he can provide proof beyond a Lyft receipt. I've attached a screenshot from my phone for a Lyft ride that I went on from my home. Lyft uses GEO IP and is not consistently accurate with the location. My address was 324 Paseo Pacifica yet this Lyft receipt shows 406 Paseo Pacifica. I have multiple Lyft receipts that are not accurate on the pickup location. The drop off is what you feed the app so that should always be accurate.

It is reckless and irresponsible "journalism" for him to make such a claim, unless of course he has proof beyond this. I understand these types of stories are run in tabloid publications like the National Enquirer and would expect that WGLT has professional standards and ethics that are above this. Sharing a story like this to cause a national embarrassment without proof beyond a Lyft receipt is reckless and could be considered slanderous.

I'd be curious to hear @She_Also_Said 's thoughts in that event.

 

[She_Also_Said]

I'd be curious to hear @She_Also_Said 's thoughts in that event.

I would say there is no receipt from a strip club and this allegation was based on a Lyft receipt.

 

[Manchester Matt]

Get the check

I have reason to believe Ryan Denham has absolutely no proof that this group ever stepped foot into the strip club and am calling this B.S. unless or until he can provide proof beyond a Lyft receipt. I've attached a screenshot from my phone for a Lyft ride that I went on from my home. Lyft uses GEO IP and is not consistently accurate with the location. My address was 324 Paseo Pacifica yet this Lyft receipt shows 406 Paseo Pacifica. I have multiple Lyft receipts that are not accurate on the pickup location. The drop off is what you feed the app so that should always be accurate.

It is reckless and irresponsible "journalism" for him to make such a claim, unless of course he has proof beyond this. I understand these types of stories are run in tabloid publications like the National Enquirer and would expect that WGLT has professional standards and ethics that are above this. Sharing a story like this to cause a national embarrassment without proof beyond a Lyft receipt is reckless and could be considered slanderous.

I trust Ryan (and/or friends of his) reads this board and I have an offer to make him. If he provides proof that they were in the strip club, I will donate $1,000 to the Milt Weisbecker Scholarship Fund in his name, post the receipt here for everyone to see and also apologize for calling it B.S. If he can't provide any more proof than an unreliable Lyft receipt he should go on record and retract this assertion.

After further reflection, I'm curious about a few other things...

My sense is that any expense for a trip like this must have been approved in advance by the foundation and there was notice given. I've been a part of many similar expenses having been in leadership roles within different organizations and consultant.

Many foundations openly approve of expenses for trips like this to court potential donors and $23,000 is a small expense in the big picture. I've plenty of expenses for more than this for one evening. If this was approved in advanced, disclosed and/or reimbursed then Brennan did nothing wrong at all and it is the Foundation or whoever approved and enabled this that should be held accountable.

If the statement from the university that it: “appears to be inconsistent with the University’s mission and values” is related to the strip club and there is no proof beyond this Lyft receipt, then whoever at the university made this statement did so without properly vetting this out. If it was because of the use of funds was for a trip to watch a high profile sporting event and that didn't meet the "mission and values", I am curious to know where these guidelines published and if Brennan (and all other staff) has been notified of this in writing and understood this.

This by itself feels like a complete non-story to me and makes me wonder who influenced Ryan Denham to write this story, dig up dirt and target Brennan, and what their agenda was.

As for Rossi, at the time, he was high profile and engaged with many other institutions outside of Illinois State and I'm sure the Foundation did whatever vetting process is required to approve him. Because of this, the responsibility would not be on Brennan for what happened to him. I wouldn't be surprised if it was either the Foundation or others within the university that asked Brennan to reach out to Rossi (and many others) to begin with.

I agree with many others that during Brennan's time here, he accomplished a lot of amazing things including bringing in donors and making some great hires. I have a sense he's being made the fall guy and thrown under the bus, based on solely what has been shared thus far.

Oh yay! It’s another blame the media person. Give me a ****ing break. If you can’t figure out there’s obviously more to the story that KB wants to avoid people knowing, then you’re pretty freaking clueless.

We need some good recruiting news soon.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

I would say there is no receipt from a strip club and this allegation was based on a Lyft receipt.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

The Lyft ride was at 2:30am. I would think that they would have receipts from where they were at when the Lyft driver picked them up. Would be easy to prove it was not a strip joint.

 

[DougSutton]

The Lyft ride was at 2:30am. I would think that they would have receipts from were they were at when the Lyft driver picked them up. Would be easy to prove it was not a strip joint.

Agree, that could be the case, unless they were paying cash or on someone else's tab. I do believe the burden of proof in this (and all) case should be on the accuser, not the accused.

 

[She_Also_Said]

The Lyft ride was at 2:30am. I would think that they would have receipts from were they were at when the Lyft driver picked them up. Would be easy to prove it was not a strip joint.

Why would they need to prove anything when there was not any receipts for a strip club to begin with. These receipts were turned in for reimbursement so let’s be realistic if they felt they needed to hide something why the heck would a receipt be turned in for someone to get reimbursed if they were trying to hide it. Lyft addresses for pickup are not accurate point blank try it for yourself.

 

[Bird Friend]

Sometimes it's middle age men going thru a mid life crisis.

Or old men being old men.

 

[DougSutton]

For ****s sake Doug there is more to the story. Brennan quit. This was the tip of the iceberg.

I'm ONLY referring to the claim about the strip club and the other claims made in the article. I don't base my beliefs on hearsay, innuendo or gossip, especially from anonymous sources. I do my best to make statements based on known facts and if I'm ever wrong or make assumptions that are not fair, I am wiling to apologize and acknowledge my error.

The claim in the headline has caused and embarrassment to the university that I love and may have led to forcing someone to resign from their job and impact their career. If you were in a public leadership position and had an identical claim made about you that was not true, that caused embarrassment to your employer and family and it wasn't true, I'm sure you would be upset about it too and if I was aware of this situation, I would stand up in your defense in the exact same way.

 

[Bird Friend]

Agree, that could be the case, unless they were paying cash or on someone else's tab. I do believe the burden of proof in this (and all) case should be on the accuser, not the accused.

I mean . . . Kyle did resign. Why would he do that if there wasn't something there?

Also, my first contact (current university staff member) wasn't surprised at all that Kyle resigned and said this is just the tip of the iceberg. My second contact, a former athletic department member who left during COVID, said he wasn't surprised either based on what he had been hearing. Neither one offered any more detail though.

 

[DougSutton]

I mean . . . Kyle did resign. Why would he do that if there wasn't something there?

Also, my first contact (current university staff member) wasn't surprised at all that Kyle resigned and said this is just the tip of the iceberg. My second contact, a former athletic department member who left during COVID, said he wasn't surprised either based on what he had been hearing. Neither one offered any more detail though.

The truth is, I don't know why anyone make the choices they do but I can imagine that if anyone felt like they were in a situation where people were against them and they were swimming against the current with many forces at play, anyone else might have made that same choice.

Sometimes it's not worth getting into a fight. I have no idea what the truth is about any of this but I do feel it is important to only base beliefs on facts and that any claim made in the public eye should have a standard of proof before being made. When referring about tips of iceberg, I don't know the truth about this situation but I have seen many other experiences in my life where rumors spread that were believed to be true that caused a lot of harm and often times these were started by people with their own hidden agenda. This happens a lot.

I believe it's fair to expect a burden of proof with any claim and will be the first to apologize if I was wrong.

 

[ISUBird]

I mean . . . Kyle did resign. Why would he do that if there wasn't something there?

Also, my first contact (current university staff member) wasn't surprised at all that Kyle resigned and said this is just the tip of the iceberg. My second contact, a former athletic department member who left during COVID, said he wasn't surprised either based on what he had been hearing. Neither one offered any more detail though.

My guess would be because of optics for saving his career. He spent a lot of money with a man just arrested for fraud. This doesn't even need to take into consideration the possibility of a strip club or other problems there may have been during his tenure.

 

[dabirds0987]

If your choice is resign or be fired, what would you choose?

 

[Sladerunningbear]

I have reason to believe Ryan Denham has absolutely no proof that this group ever stepped foot into the strip club and am calling this B.S. unless or until he can provide proof beyond a Lyft receipt. I've attached a screenshot from my phone for a Lyft ride that I went on from my home. Lyft uses GEO IP and is not consistently accurate with the location. My address was 324 Paseo Pacifica yet this Lyft receipt shows 406 Paseo Pacifica. I have multiple Lyft receipts that are not accurate on the pickup location. The drop off is what you feed the app so that should always be accurate.

It is reckless and irresponsible "journalism" for him to make such a claim, unless of course he has proof beyond this. I understand these types of stories are run in tabloid publications like the National Enquirer and would expect that WGLT has professional standards and ethics that are above this. Sharing a story like this to cause a national embarrassment without proof beyond a Lyft receipt is reckless and could be considered slanderous.

I trust Ryan (and/or friends of his) reads this board and I have an offer to make him. If he provides proof that they were in the strip club, I will donate $1,000 to the Milt Weisbecker Scholarship Fund in his name, post the receipt here for everyone to see and also apologize for calling it B.S. If he can't provide any more proof than an unreliable Lyft receipt he should go on record and retract this assertion.

After further reflection, I'm curious about a few other things...

My sense is that any expense for a trip like this must have been approved in advance by the foundation and there was notice given. I've been a part of many similar expenses having been in leadership roles within different organizations and consultant.

Many foundations openly approve of expenses for trips like this to court potential donors and $23,000 is a small expense in the big picture. I've plenty of expenses for more than this for one evening. If this was approved in advanced, disclosed and/or reimbursed then Brennan did nothing wrong at all and it is the Foundation or whoever approved and enabled this that should be held accountable.

If the statement from the university that it: “appears to be inconsistent with the University’s mission and values” is related to the strip club and there is no proof beyond this Lyft receipt, then whoever at the university made this statement did so without properly vetting this out. If it was because of the use of funds was for a trip to watch a high profile sporting event and that didn't meet the "mission and values", I am curious to know where these guidelines published and if Brennan (and all other staff) has been notified of this in writing and understood this.

This by itself feels like a complete non-story to me and makes me wonder who influenced Ryan Denham to write this story, dig up dirt and target Brennan, and what their agenda was.

As for Rossi, at the time, he was high profile and engaged with many other institutions outside of Illinois State and I'm sure the Foundation did whatever vetting process is required to approve him. Because of this, the responsibility would not be on Brennan for what happened to him. I wouldn't be surprised if it was either the Foundation or others within the university that asked Brennan to reach out to Rossi (and many others) to begin with.

I agree with many others that during Brennan's time here, he accomplished a lot of amazing things including bringing in donors and making some great hires. I have a sense he's being made the fall guy and thrown under the bus, based on solely what has been shared thus far.

Doug, we only see a receipt that you were dropped off at Guantanamo Bay, but we don’t see a receipt that you ever left. How long are you in for and can we send you a file in a DP Drop Zone?

 

[Buffett1]

I would say there is no receipt from a strip club and this allegation was based on a Lyft receipt.

the strip club lyft had to be the dumb drunk moment of the night.

 

[REALBird]

I would say there is no receipt from a strip club and this allegation was based on a Lyft receipt.

Strippers don’t usually take plastic, they’re full of it YES. But their line of work is mostly cash and carry. Plus I’m not paying a card fee because Cinnamon doesn’t take Discover.

 

[She_Also_Said]

Doug, we only see a receipt that you were dropped off at Guantanamo Bay, but we don’t see a receipt that you ever left. How long are you in for and can we send you a file in a DP Drop Zone?

The address was a pick up location not a drop off. When using Lyft your location is approximate and you only enter where you want them to drop you off. This address is right by the stadium and tons of other restaurants and bars. If they got dropped off there then yes different story but they didn’t.