Brennan Resigns

[DougSutton]

What the **** does that have to do with this? Just stop. You clearly have zero clue and refuse to listen when multiple people tell you it’s bigger than one thing.

I was answering a question. I'm genuinely curious who you are and what your agenda is however. I'm clearly not hiding anything about who I am but I can say my inbox has been active on this site. I will repeat, my only issue was the lack of context, credibility and validity of the article. Nothing more. If there are other things, that is completely independent from the article that I cannot comment on. I'm not interested in gossip, especially from anonymous people on a message board or burner account and as I've shared, I would come to your or anyone else's defense based on the article alone. I have no agenda to defend Brennan.

 

[Buffett1]

Facts. Everything is open to negotiation, and I doubt he will pay anything. But, a key to any negotiation is who has the leverage, and Kyle has none. I assume his positive contributions will be recognized by the university waiving the provisions.

Still in his contract Fact

 

[CaliRdBrd]

They had some time to sober up before submitting expenses for reimbursement. With a clear head, why not just eat the cost of this one rather than face the potential scrutiny of expecting taxpayer funds to cover your ride home from a strip club.

But as many have stated, none of this comes to light if your donor prospect doesn’t get indicted in spectacular fashion a few weeks later.

May depend on what method of payment was used. The company I work for uses Concur for expense reporting. If I use my corporate credit card, it’s directly linked to the Concur reporting system.

 

[Reggie1857]

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

I would hope this whole thing is not based on whether or not anyone attended a legal entertainment establishment.

 

[ILSTUGRAD11]

Been awhile since I have posted in here but this story has some intrigue to it. My two cents from reading the article and reading some of the comments including the anonymous former colleagues is that KB was likely a bit of snake oil salesman himself which is probably what drew him to Rossi so much. I am also sure with the “commitments” there was some stretching of the truth or straight up lies on his account that allowed him to move the project forward before receiving a dime from the donors. Given the fallout of the donations, I’m sure the fund or the university is looking in hindsight as to where things went wrong and how they could have been prevented which put the spotlight on KB and possibly what he did and didn’t know about Rossi before the indictment. The strip club Lyft ride is a nice headline but as many have pointed out, if the $3M donation had materialized, we wouldn’t know about it and therefore, I doubt that is why he is resigning. In the meantime, the athletics department is going to be in a pretty bad spot trying to make up for the fake donations.

 

[Reggie Redbird]

Been awhile since I have posted in here but this story has some intrigue to it. My two cents from reading the article and reading some of the comments including the anonymous former colleagues is that KB was likely a bit of snake oil salesman himself which is probably what drew him to Rossi so much. I am also sure with the “commitments” there was some stretching of the truth or straight up lies on his account that allowed him to move the project forward before receiving a dime from the donors. Given the fallout of the donations, I’m sure the fund or the university is looking in hindsight as to where things went wrong and how they could have been prevented which put the spotlight on KB and possibly what he did and didn’t know about Rossi before the indictment. The strip club Lyft ride is a nice headline but as many have pointed out, if the $3M donation had materialized, we wouldn’t know about it and therefore, I doubt that is why he is resigning. In the meantime, the athletics department is going to be in a pretty bad spot trying to make up for the fake donations.

A fact: following issues with the pledges, ISU sells RBA naming rights deal for $3 million.

“Brennan specified the money ISU receives each year from the deal will go toward student-athlete needs, including nutritional programming, training, equipment, mental health resources and academic support.”

A question: will any of those needs listed actually get funds if the $3 million has to be reallocated to cover $3-6 million not coming in?

It would be really interesting to see the pledges and what % has been received. Generally at ISU, they have to be paid over 3 or 5 years. If no money has come in so far from Miller, that is very concerning. We know the status of Rossi’s donation, and it doesn’t appear he can legally make good on the pledge right now with his receivership status.

 

[Bdub777]

Still in his contract Fact

A fact: following issues with the pledges, ISU sells RBA naming rights deal for $3 million.

“Brennan specified the money ISU receives each year from the deal will go toward student-athlete needs, including nutritional programming, training, equipment, mental health resources and academic support.”

A question: will any of those needs listed actually get funds if the $3 million has to be reallocated to cover $3-6 million not coming in?

It would be really interesting to see the pledges and what % has been received. Generally at ISU, they have to be paid over 3 or 5 years. If no money has come in so far from Miller, that is very concerning. We know the status of Rossi’s donation, and it doesn’t appear he can legally make good on the pledge right now with his receivership status.

There’s another GLT article about the Student Government Association President now opposing an increase in the student fee fund. Currently athletics gets over $10.8 million annually from that. The proposed increase is $4 per credit hour, which would be a $60 per semester increase for the average full time student, and nearly half of the increase would go to athletics. The opposition is stated as due to the “waste, fraud and abuse” revealed by the circumstances of Brennan’s resignation.

ISU student government will consider calling for suspension of student fee increases for Athletics

The donor flight to Indianapolis involving ISU athletics staff and boosters — and a subsequent trip to a strip club — has prompted the university's Student Government Association to consider a response.

www.wglt.org

 

[isuquinndog]

Saying Ryan Denham wrote a "hit piece" is reckless and ignorant. He is one of the most respected journalists in BloNo and has won awards for his journalism in the past. He doesn't write for The Sun or Page Six. He's a reporter and leads the website for the local NPR radio station.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

There’s another GLT article about the Student Government Association President now opposing an increase in the student fee fund. Currently athletics gets over $10.8 million annually from that. The proposed increase is $4 per credit hour, which would be a $60 per semester increase for the average full time student, and nearly half of the increase would go to athletics. The opposition is stated as due to the “waste, fraud and abuse” revealed by the circumstances of Brennan’s resignation.

ISU student government will consider calling for suspension of student fee increases for Athletics

The donor flight to Indianapolis involving ISU athletics staff and boosters — and a subsequent trip to a strip club — has prompted the university's Student Government Association to consider a response.

www.wglt.org

Talk about a knee jerk response.

 

[DougSutton]

Saying Ryan Denham wrote a "hit piece" is reckless and ignorant. He is one of the most respected journalists in BloNo and has won awards for his journalism in the past. He doesn't write for The Sun or Page Six. He's a reporter and leads the website for the local NPR radio station.

I appreciate you sharing this comment and want to publicly apologize if anyone including Ryan interpreted anything that I shared as implying he had any conscious intention to write a hit piece. I've never met Ryan but have heard positive things from people both in what I have read in this forum and elsewhere.

I trust his intention was to shine light and share insight into what has clearly been a dark chapter within the university. When I made the comment about it feeling like a hit piece, I trust Ryan would never make up stores but I do feel that the people that may have fed Ryan the information he received did so through the lens of their own bias (all of us including myself live and operate with bias) and that some important contextual pieces were left out.

There are really only two parts of this article that I have a challenge with. The first of course is that a Lyft receipt with a GEO IP is not in any way proof of a stop to a strip club as I have shared screen shots of my own personal experiences with Lyft to validate along with Google Map of all of the bars within a very short radius of the pickup spot (and proximity to Lucas Oil Stadium). If this is the only evidence that he has, I believe it was a mistake to make this claim and I believe if an article was written about any member on here making this claim based only on this, they would be understandably upset.

The second is that the article does not reference whether the trip was approved by The ISU Foundation in advance and if it was, the insinuation of unjustified and "lavish" or "extravagant" spending, even for donor events is worded in a way that implies blame solely on Brennan. If however the foundation was notified in advance and approved, the "blame" lies higher up than Brennan and he could have simply been following what he felt was a perceived precedent. As others have stated, these types of expenses are considered small and common practice for bigger universities and even in the non profit world to court donors.

Again, I apologize if anyone interpreted what I shared as Ryan having negative conscious intent. I do believe mistakes were made and all of us make mistakes. My intention from this point forward is to not comment on this story any more on this board but if anyone has any feedback or perspective they want to share privately, you're more than welcome to send me a private message or call.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Some of the best analysis I’ve seen on this situation. Not all money is good money

 

[TBS_20]

I dont care if the money comes from mercilessly clubbing baby seals on cnn if it get them to the final 4

 

[Reggie Redbird]

Saying Ryan Denham wrote a "hit piece" is reckless and ignorant. He is one of the most respected journalists in BloNo and has won awards for his journalism in the past. He doesn't write for The Sun or Page Six. He's a reporter and leads the website for the local NPR radio station.

He was also chosen by the County courts to be their media person. Like work on press access, etc. I don’t think they would choose someone without some vetting. That doesn’t mean he can’t be wrong, but they aren’t going to choose someone known for slinging inaccurate stories.

As FAs as the SGA proposal, there are a lot of areas on campus that need to be addressed for spending that some could consider wasteful. I have seen nothing yet to show “fraud,” so a student leader may want to be careful to paint with that broad brush.

 

[Redbirdfan76]

After reading everyone’s comments, I tend to believe those who indicate there is more to this situation than the one donor trip are correct. The Indy donor trip in a bubble by itself would not , in my opinion, be enough to warrant a resignation. Certainly a strong reprimand, documentation in his personnel file and a stronger oversight would be in order, but a resignation?
There has to be more to this resignation than a single incident.

 

[leeno33]

I'm predicting another NDA just like with the Kinzy situation so we'll probably never find out much more than has already been said. Not a fan of those when it comes to publicly funded institutions.

Also, I do hear Denham is prepared to report on more big ISU news. Don't know if it's just athletics related or broader, but he seems excited (for lack of a better word).

 

[CaliRdBrd]

Saying Ryan Denham wrote a "hit piece" is reckless and ignorant. He is one of the most respected journalists in BloNo and has won awards for his journalism in the past. He doesn't write for The Sun or Page Six. He's a reporter and leads the website for the local NPR radio station.

And Walter Duranty won a NY Times Pulitzer for his pro-Stalin propaganda. What’s your point?

 

[dpdoughbird06]

I'm predicting another NDA just like with the Kinzy situation so we'll probably never find out much more than has already been said. Not a fan of those when it comes to publicly funded institutions.

Also, I do hear Denham is prepared to report on more big ISU news. Don't know if it's just athletics related or broader, but he seems excited (for lack of a better word).

Our brewery finally got its rear signage; I’d say maybe Ryan was excited by this, but he has yet to reach out to me for comment.

 

[gobirds85]

Just did a quick run through here so if I missed it, I apologize. Please, please, please do not even think of bringing back LL. The university has had its share of bone headed issues of late, but let's not add to the misery by dusting off one of our biggest mistakes and hiring him back. A pig with lipstick is still a pig.

 

[Bdub777]

Just did a quick run through here so if I missed it, I apologize. Please, please, please do not even think of bringing back LL. The university has had its share of bone headed issues of late, but let's not add to the misery by dusting off one of our biggest mistakes and hiring him back. A pig with lipstick is still a pig.

An interim has been named and not a soul has suggested LL be brought out of retirement for that or any other purpose. I hope you can rest easy!

 

[Birdland]

How many of you have used Lyft? I have multiple times and have multiple saved receipts in my phone that have inaccurate pick up addresses. I shared a screen shot of just one of my recent trips that showed my "pick up address" more than 1 block away from my home where I was actually picked up.

Click this image I shared of Google Maps with directions from Lucas Oil Stadium to 437 S. Illinois St (the address of the strip club). Just look at this screen shot and notice all of the bars in the same block from the zoomed out view, and there are more when you zoom in (and my one Lyft receipt showed my actual pickup location more than one block away)!

The bars in this area close at 3am. It's safe to assume they were at a bar until 2:21am but a Lyft receipt is not evidence that they were inside of the address on the receipt. Thus, as I shared before, it is irresponsible to make such a claim and publish it as news without any further evidence than a Lyft receipt, they could have been at any of multiple locations within a 1 (or more) block radius.

The burden of proof must be on the accuser.

Imagine if this happened to you (regardless of the time, my bedtime is usually before 10pm) Just supposed you were at the Omni (next door) and worked in a public position and then took a Lyft somewhere and later turned in your receipt for reimbursement. Then imagine a reporter running a story accusing that you were at a strip club that your wife, children, friends and community members saw while simultaneously knowing that there are forces within your organization that are against you and you're being forced to resign.

I can promise if I was aware of this, I would be coming to your defense in the exact same way. I have no skin in the game, I have no vendetta against Brennan or reason to defend him but what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong and it's absolutely wrong to base a story off of a Lyft receipt with no other proof and I would hope any person would agree with this, especially if it was you being targeted.

The burden of proof is on the accuser. The Lyft receipt is pretty strong evidence unless there is a denial that they were at a strip club. I haven’t publicly seen anything to refute that receipt.