DePaulia
The
2017 Pacemaker Award Winner/Best Weekly College Newspaper-SPJ
Volume #102 | Issue #19 | March. 12, 2018 | depauliaonline.com
THE LENTI
CONNECTION It’s time to address the issues with the Athletic Director.
Athletic Director’s relative played key role in Wintrust agreements
By Jonathan Ballew & Shane René Asst. News Editor & Sports Editor
The Chief Marketing Officer from Wintrust Bank has confirmed that Wintrust Executive Vice President and sister-in-law of DePaul Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto, Kandace Lenti, was involved in the multi-million dollar Wintrust Arena naming rights agreement. DePaul officials have also confirmed that Jean Lenti Ponsetto never officially disclosed a conflict of interest form before engaging in the deal. The 2017 Wintrust Arena agreement was touted by DePaul as a huge win for the university and Athletic Director Lenti Ponsetto. But there seems to be some family ties concerning Wintrust and Lenti Ponsetto that raise questions of nepotism and a potential conflict of interest. Kandace Lenti is the Executive Vice President at Wintrust Bank. She was named by Crain’s as one of the 30 most influential women in Chicago banking and is credited on Crain’s website for helping to secure DePaul as a client. Lenti is married to DePaul’s head softball coach, Eugene Lenti — also the brother of Lenti Ponsetto. Although the details of the Wintrust agreement are confidential, it is estimated by Legends Sales and Marketing, a New York-based sponsorship consulting firm, that the naming rights deal could have been worth at least $22 million for DePaul. At around the same time, DePaul added Wintrust Bank as its exclusive oncampus banking institution to replace PNC Bank. Both the naming rights and banking agreement are potentially worth millions for both parties.
Overhaul years overdue in Athletic Department
Under the agreement, Wintrust COMMENTARY Bank is able to distribute and market to all of DePaul’s students, faculty, staff and By DePaulia Editorial alumni. Wintrust also received exclusive Board banking and ATM privileges on campus. With a total enrollment of over 22,000 students and a sizable alumni and faculty When the Blue Demons lost network, Wintrust gained access to a Wednesday’s game against Marquette considerable number of potential new in the opening round of the Big East clients. Tournament at Madison Square DePaul has a conflict of interest policy Garden, they capped off what should clearly outlined have been a season in its code of to remember. But conduct that states, a failed first year at “DePaul requires all the Wintrust Arena employees whose might just be the independence of final straw in over judgement may a decade of DePaul be impaired by a being among the potential conflict most laughable, of interest to either embarrassing refrain from the and mismanaged conflict or disclose programs in the the conflict to a history of Division 1 supervisor.” NCAA basketball. The conduct A sweeping policy goes on to overhaul of DePaul’s say, “In these and athletic department other situations, has been warranted, Jean Lenti Ponsetto a completed if not necessary, Athletic Director Certificate of for years. After Compliance with Athletic Director Conflict of Interest Policy form (...) is to Jean Lenti Ponsetto paid big bucks be completed and approved by the direct for questionable coaches, questions supervisor of the employee.” about leadership arose — but But Lenti Ponsetto never disclosed a former president Rev. Dennis conflict of interest form, according to the H. Holtschneider continued to university. stand confidently behind his When The DePaulia began embattled athletic director. investigating the connection between When questioned about the Lenti Ponsetto and Lenti, things got even men’s basketball team’s track record murkier. under her tenure, the response from the Sullivan Athletic Center See WINTRUST, page 5 and the university tends to be just
I’m excited (for) what I hear from our longtime, loyal season ticket holders (...) they’re not coming to games expecting it to be the junior NBA.
as empty as the skulls running the department. Pointing to the successes of non-revenue generating sports like softball, women’s basketball, track and field and the academic prowess of their student athletes, the athletic department routinely misses the point of why they exist: to be a billboard of success for the university. Today, amid growing public outcry, a third swing and miss on a washed-up Dave Leitao, $82.5 million spent on an near-empty arena and a new president ready to make his own mark on the university, the circumstances are ripe for real change. Now that Wintrust Arena’s first official season is all wrapped up, falling comically short of each and every expectation laid out by DePaul’s athletic department, The DePaulia is making a formal call for change: It is the opinion of this newspaper — and a growing contingent of students and alumni — that the general welfare of DePaul Athletics and the university at large is best served by the termination or resignation of Lenti Ponsetto and her most recent failed hire.
Three strikes and you’re out Lenti Ponsetto took the reins of the DePaul athletic department shortly after the 2001-02 season came to a close, just as five-year head coach Pat Kennedy ended his run with the program. In Kennedy’s place, exiting athletic director Bill Bradshaw picked former University of Connecticut coach and rising star Dave Leitao to take the helm of the
See OVERHAUL, page 26