On Dec. 5, The Northerner received a tip that two graduate students, Jason Cisper and Braden Bishop, had taken an estimated “couple hundred dollars” worth of meal vouchers for Jimmy Johns from the Athletic Department at Northern Kentucky University.

The Northerner contacted Chris Hafling, the associate athletic director for Internal Operations. Hafling said he had no knowledge of the incident, but directed The Northerner to Scott Eaton, athletics director.

Initially, Eaton said he also had no knowledge of the incident, but would call back after obtaining further information.

The next day, Eaton contacted The Northerner and said, “In regards to the two individuals that you shared yesterday, I can confirm that there was an incident that was reported to us.”

According to Eaton, the situation had been handled, but further information could not be released, as it was a “personnel issue,” with both students serving as graduate assistants in the program and currently graduate students.

Jason Willis, NKU police chief, said there was not an exact dollar amount attached to the stolen vouchers.

“It came down to more of an ethical issue than a financial issue,” Willis said.

According to both Willis and Eaton, the incident happened and was reported about a month ago.

Willis also said that Eaton and the department had the option to make a formal report or handle it internally – they chose to handle the matter internally.

Both Eaton and Willis would not say what actions had been taken against the students since it is viewed as a personnel issue rather than theft with no official police report created.

“The action that we took was quick and equal to what was reported to us,” Eaton said.