A former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dean filed a federal discrimination lawsuit last month against the Board of Regents and several university employees, stating the university fired him because of his race.

Lee Jones, the former UW-Whitewater dean of graduate studies and continuing education, who is black, says in court documents obtained by The Badger Herald he was fired “on the basis of race and color” and for “complaining about such discrimination.”
Sara Kuhl, spokesperson for UW-Whitewater, as well as UW-Whitewater Chancellor Martha Saunders, refused to comment on the lawsuit.

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who is representing the Board of Regents and UW-Whitewater, was also unavailable for comment.

However, according to court documents, UW-Whitewater fired Jones after personnel discovered he mismanaged university funds.
As dean, Jones was given a credit card by the university to use for small business-related charges.

The university said in court documents that Jones used the card frivolously, at times charged too much or did not provide receipts to prove the charges were business-related.
“Purchasing card charges on Dean Jones’ two accounts totaled $70,438 from September 21, 2004 through July 15, 2005,” the court documents read. “At the end of the review, receipts could not be located for charges totaling $3,285.”

Ron Yates, director of the Office of Operations Review and Audit, and Christine Clements, Dean of the College of Business and Economics, investigated the complaints made by the university, and court documents show both officials found Jones to have broken university purchase card rules concerning purchasing records, travel expenditures and activity expenses.

Yates and Clements also found him to have misused his school-provided cell phone.

According to court documents, this information contributed to Jones’s firing, even though both Yates and Clements recommended that Jones should be made aware of the UW fiscal rulings and be forced to pay back some of the expenditures.

As of press time, Jones’ lawyer, Robert Kasieta, was also unavailable for comment.
However, court documents cite multiple cases where Jones was compliant with university requests and provided receipts and documents directly related to his financial dealings.

Another former UW-Whitewater dean has also made discriminatory allegations against the university, according to court documents.

Howard Ross, a former UW-Whitewater dean of liberal arts, said the university demoted him because of his race. The university attributed the demotion to fiscal mismanagement.