Lee Jones, the former dean of graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater “improperly used” over $50,000 on a group he founded called Brothers of the Academy. The spending was discovered during an audit. The audit report says that Mr. Jones broke university policies on credit card expenditures, but that the spending wasn’t found sooner because the university failed to follow oversight procedures.

Most of the $50,000 was spent on travel expenses to bring 30 participants to the national conference of Brothers of the Academy in May. School officials say that Mr. Jones was authorized to spend $4,000 of school funds for the event, but the audit shows that he spent $54,000 in tuition and student fees.

His attorney, David Lasker says that the errors were minor and mostly the fault of the university for not properly training Mr. Jones and for being racist.

Mr. Jones filed suit in November to prevent the release of the audit report, because it would harm the public’s interest in diversity.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Jones was accused of similar misappropriations of funds while he was the associate dean at Florida State University in 2003.

Full story from the Journal Sentinel here.