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This picture
provided by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater shows Howard
Ross. Ross, the school's former dean of letters and sciences, is
suing several university officials for racial discrimination and
retaliation. His case is expected to go to trial Monday, Feb. 8,
2010.
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MADISON — A trial expected to begin
Monday will recall an ugly chapter at University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater, when two black administrators were each demoted
within months for misusing university credit cards.
The university removed its graduate
studies dean, Lee Jones, after an investigation in 2005 found he
repeatedly broke rules on travel and credit card spending. Months later,
the university demoted Howard Ross from his 13-year position as dean of
letters and sciences when an audit suggested he couldn't account for
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Both cases stung, coming as lawmakers
were scrutinizing wasteful spending in the UW System and the
southeastern Wisconsin school of 10,000 students was trying to improve
diversity.
Ross has claimed he was the victim of a
witch hunt and guilty at most of shoddy record keeping that is routine
on campus. He claims he was treated unfairly by an auditor who once said
she wished black people were honest like Michael Jordan and by
administrators angry that he questioned his treatment publicly.
His civil lawsuit alleging discrimination
and retaliation by several university officials will be heard this week
in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.
Ross has continued to work as a professor
of philosophy and religious studies at UW-Whitewater even as his lawyers
have tried to expose the audit as flawed and prove white administrators
with similar problems were excused and promoted.
"What we'll be talking with the jury
about is the inequitable treatment of people, and the unfairness of the
way they were administering the university," said Ross' attorney,
Robert Kasieta. "Speaking as a taxpayer, I'm offended by what I saw
happening at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater."
He said he has not decided how much money
to ask jurors to award if Ross wins, but it should be enough to
compensate for a damaged reputation that has cost Ross good jobs at
other schools. He added that his legal fees are staggering after years
of litigation.
Department of Justice lawyers
representing the university are expected to argue the demotion was
appropriate given Ross' history of failing to comply with credit card
policies.
"We are fully prepared to defend the
UW and its actions with regard to Ross," assistant attorney general
Corey Finkelmeyer said.
Top university officials are expected to
face uncomfortable questions on the witness stand.
Chancellor Richard Telfer, who was Ross'
and Jones' boss as provost and was promoted to the top job in 2008, is
expected to testify. So is Martha Saunders, the chancellor at the time
of the investigations who left to become president at the University of
Southern Mississippi in 2007.
Telfer and Saunders are not accused of
overt racism, but Ross claims they treated white administrators more
favorably than him and Jones and did nothing when he complained about
the auditor.
Telfer also might have to answer for why
he didn't take disciplinary action earlier against Ross despite being
aware of his credit card problems. And Saunders may face questions over
her own credit card spending, including hundreds of dollars she once
charged for a spa treatment.
At its core, the trial will be about
whether the investigation into how Ross used his university credit card
was fair or motivated by race and retaliation.
The university released an audit report
in 2006 that suggested Ross had either misspent or failed to account for
$310,000 in spending dating back to 2000. The report cited inappropriate
spending on Yahoo personal ads, language classes, gifts and other items.
The same day, Saunders removed Ross as dean, saying she had lost
confidence in him.
University officials later reduced the
amount of questionable spending to $117,000 after Ross provided more
information. They acknowledged they believed the spending was largely
for appropriate expenses but he lacked receipts and documentation.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller
last year threw out the state's counterclaim against Ross that sought to
recover the money, citing a lack of evidence of misspending.
A key figure at trial will be the former
campus auditor, Indra Mohabir, who is accused of making the comment
about Michael Jordan while looking at a poster of the athlete in Jones'
office. She has acknowledged praising Jordan's honesty, but denied it
was racist.
Ross claims Mohabir harassed him during
the audit, once barging into his office and rummaging through his bags
and personal belongings.
An expert hired by Ross to review the
audit is expected to testify that it departed significantly from
university rules and professional standards governing higher education
auditing. Kasieta said the shortcomings compromised the audit's
independence, which may have allowed racial bias to creep in. Mohabir
has denied that.
Ross claims the audit was originally only
meant to review six months of his spending, but its scope was expanded
after he questioned Mohabir's tactics and why the only two black deans
on campus were being audited during a 2005 interview with The Associated
Press.
He will argue he delegated management of
his credit card purchasing to associate dean Mary Pinkerton and she was
responsible for the problems. His lawyers have noted that Pinkerton, who
is white, was never disciplined and was promoted to dean after Ross was
removed. She declined to comment.
Jones also filed a lawsuit claiming
racial discrimination and later reached a non-monetary settlement.
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