Once seen as a leader who could bring diversity to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, a former dean fired for financial mismanagement has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit claiming he was ousted because he’s Black.
Lee Jones argues in the lawsuit in U.S. District Court that top university officials singled him out for an audit that unfairly criticized him and cost him a career in higher education. He says he’s suffered a loss of income, humiliation and emotional distress as a result.
University officials have denied his allegations of racism and say Jones’ own actions are to blame for his downward spiral from a young Black scholar nationally known for motivational speaking to a disgraced ex-dean.
The lawsuit filed last month names the UW System Board of Regents, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Martha Saunders, provost Richard Telfer and former university officials Jim Freer and Indra Mohabir-Engstrand as defendants. Jones first threatened to sue after the audit’s release in December 2005.
The audit said Jones, who had been at Whitewater for one year, did not comply with university rules in the use of two campus credit cards or frequently traveling out-of-state. It questioned Jones’ use of university money to support a scholarly group he founded and rebuked the university, saying it had not exercised adequate oversight.
A separate audit alleged Jones used a university cell phone for personal calls.
Saunders removed Jones from his position as dean of the school of graduate studies and continuing education and demoted him to a professor’s job guaranteed in his contract. He resigned from that job last year while the university was moving to fire him for misconduct.
