AD resigns at Illinois St.

[SalukiBand]

This sounds like it could get kinda ugly.

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-04 ... ssis-plane

[MissouriValleyUnite]

That was a really thorough article. Good journalism and detailed accounts. Basically a donor/wine-and-cheese trip on the ISU Foundation's dime.

Cliff notes:
- Unplanned trip to Indy on 12/4/21 for B1G CCG
- 9 100-level club seats bought on StubHub totaling $18,754
- Flew from Bloomington to Indy on a Falcon 900 jet
- Uber/Lyft rides with one being $144
- Strip club after game
- 8 hotel rooms at Hampton Inn for >$4500
- Flew back next morning

[TylerDurden]

Investing roughly $24K to secure a pledge of $3 million seems like good business to me.

Why are they clutching pearls about this?

Are they taking the position that this looks like the AD and staff are not being good stewards of donor money?

Is ISU saying that they want your donation, but they aren't planning to entertain you to get it?

Or is it because the prospective donor has some tax issues that showed up after the trip?

Edit - after looking up Rossi (the donor) I'm sure this is about the association with him and his legal entanglements. He's accused of tax evasion and, in a separate civil suit, stealing money from his partners to the tune of $100m. His company is one that handled COVID testing in Illinois.


I'm still not sure how this is what gets the AD to resign. He was hired, at least in part, because of his ability to fundraise. He entertained, got a huge pledge and the guy turns out to be a complete tool bag. I'm not familiar enough with fundraising to know how much vetting goes into a potential donor...but I'm guessing if you can secure a $3m pledge, you do whatever it takes to get it.

Does that damage his reputation to the point where he can no longer be an effective leader and fundraiser?

[Mikovio]

Investing roughly $24K to secure a pledge of $3 million seems like good business to me.

Why are they clutching pearls about this?

Are they taking the position that this looks like the AD and staff are not being good stewards of donor money?

Is ISU saying that they want your donation, but they aren't planning to entertain you to get it?

Or is it because the prospective donor has some tax issues that showed up after the trip?

Edit - after looking up Rossi (the donor) I'm sure this is about the association with him and his legal entanglements. He's accused of tax evasion and, in a separate civil suit, stealing money from his partners to the tune of $100m. His company is one that handled COVID testing in Illinois.


I'm still not sure how this is what gets the AD to resign. He was hired, at least in part, because of his ability to fundraise. He entertained, got a huge pledge and the guy turns out to be a complete tool bag. I'm not familiar enough with fundraising to know how much vetting goes into a potential donor...but I'm guessing if you can secure a $3m pledge, you do whatever it takes to get it.

Does that damage his reputation to the point where he can no longer be an effective leader and fundraiser?

It sounds like you just scratched the surface of the Rossi saga. It's a wild story involving endangered albino turtles, jets, dozens of sports cars and methamphetamine that tie into federal criminal charges and a massive civil suit in state court.

The fact that the ISU AD didn't just attend a game with Rossi but hit strip clubs with him afterward raises eyebrows but I think what did him in is simply the fact that he paid for the thousands of dollars worth of tickets and hotel rooms with ISU Foundation dollars.

[Adunk33]

23k to secure a 3 mil donation is the cost of doing business, right? After all, it was needed to complete the indoor practice facility that is currently being built. However, ISU will not confirm or deny if the money ever came through, which suggests to me, it didn't. Or if it did, there would be some level of obligation to report it to the fed-which would be a public record that we haven't seen.

For years, Redbird fans (myself included) felt the university needed someone new, with fresh ideas in leadership positions. Too long had they just promoted from within leading to years of treading water and no moving forward. Now, with the most recent external hires being the AD and President of the University being MASSIVE swings and misses, hopefully a familiar face is brought in to right the ship. It's going to be an interesting few months. The current president of the university as an interim tag. No interim AD has been named at this time and people in the dept are reporting directly to the interim president for the time being.

Brennan has almost completely cleared house of the "old guard" and brought in a lot of "his people." Rumors from those in the "old guard" who survived the transition to Brennan is that he didn't foster the best workplace environment and chased off several.

There are additional rumors about Brennan that I won't get into but it doesn't appear the spending of 23k was an isolated incident but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. There are a couple more dominos that will likely fall.

[Birdfan2018]

That was a really thorough article. Good journalism and detailed accounts. Basically a donor/wine-and-cheese trip on the ISU Foundation's dime.

Cliff notes:
- Unplanned trip to Indy on 12/4/21 for B1G CCG
- 9 100-level club seats bought on StubHub totaling $18,754
- Flew from Bloomington to Indy on a Falcon 900 jet
- Uber/Lyft rides with one being $144
- Strip club after game
- 8 hotel rooms at Hampton Inn for >$4500
- Flew back next morning

Who were the other 6 ($2,000 each) Club Seats for?
Who were the other 6 Hotel Rooms for?

Were any of the tickets/rooms for former Illinois State University President Terri Goss Kinzy? Was this the reason she abruptly resigned two months ago?

[TylerDurden]

23k to secure a 3 mil donation is the cost of doing business, right? After all, it was needed to complete the indoor practice facility that is currently being built. However, ISU will not confirm or deny if the money ever came through, which suggests to me, it didn't. Or if it did, there would be some level of obligation to report it to the fed-which would be a public record that we haven't seen.

For years, Redbird fans (myself included) felt the university needed someone new, with fresh ideas in leadership positions. Too long had they just promoted from within leading to years of treading water and no moving forward. Now, with the most recent external hires being the AD and President of the University being MASSIVE swings and misses, hopefully a familiar face is brought in to right the ship. It's going to be an interesting few months. The current president of the university as an interim tag. No interim AD has been named at this time and people in the dept are reporting directly to the interim president for the time being.

Brennan has almost completely cleared house of the "old guard" and brought in a lot of "his people." Rumors from those in the "old guard" who survived the transition to Brennan is that he didn't foster the best workplace environment and chased off several.

There are additional rumors about Brennan that I won't get into but it doesn't appear the spending of 23k was an isolated incident but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. There are a couple more dominos that will likely fall.

I can believe this.

When a new AD comes in, they're going to want their own people. There are different approaches to making that happen - some fire existing staff and some create a situation where people leave on their own.

If the rumors you're mentioning are true, it sounds like Brennan's approach to fundraising wasn't quite what ISU expected and they felt they had leverage to get rid of him.

I was about to ask if Sheahon Zenger was available to come back, but then a quick search showed he's currently the interim president at the University of New Haven as well as the AD there. It's a DII school. Not sure how that relationship was when he left, but I recall ISU having some success when he was there.

Hopefully they land a good replacement.

[Adunk33]

I can believe this.

When a new AD comes in, they're going to want their own people. There are different approaches to making that happen - some fire existing staff and some create a situation where people leave on their own.

If the rumors you're mentioning are true, it sounds like Brennan's approach to fundraising wasn't quite what ISU expected and they felt they had leverage to get rid of him.

I was about to ask if Sheahon Zenger was available to come back, but then a quick search showed he's currently the interim president at the University of New Haven as well as the AD there. It's a DII school. Not sure how that relationship was when he left, but I recall ISU having some success when he was there.

Hopefully they land a good replacement.

By all accounts, relationships were good and ISU understood that he couldn't possible pass up the Kansas job. I mean, who would? Biggest down fall is whoever sits in that seat at KU automatically gets blamed for the reason the football team sucks. I'd welcome him back.

The unrealistic name that I would be ecstatic about is former ISU President, Al Bowman. He was chair of the MVC President’s group and would energize a fan base. He retired back in 2013 but was the Executive Director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education until 2018. It would be tough to pull him out of retirement but he has an affinity for ISU. I'd say throw all the money you can at him for like a 2 or 3 year deal, have him right the ship and hand select/train his predecessor. That would put the University in a really, really good place. Again, unlikely but I'd be thrilled. I had the honor on a couple of occasions to watch some Redbird hoops with him and man, he was as passionate as a game that a president could be while remaining professional.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

So ISU named Jeri Beggs the interim. I just caught up on Arch Madness DVRs recently and remember her being interviewed between one of the games. The MVC had just hired her for her expertise about NCAA legal matters.
https://goredbirds.com/news/2023/4/14/g ... ector.aspx

[Salukimadness86]

Have also heard that Rossi had connections to Bradley athletics as well. Pledged a large amount of $$$ to them that in the end he did not have. Federal tax evasion charge? This thing could get extremely messy for numerous people involved. Not good.