MILWAUKEE (WRN) - A federal judge has delayed a trial in the case of former UW-Whitewater dean Howard Ross, who said he was audited and demoted because he’s black. The trial was scheduled for next month. But it’s been moved up to February 8th after the university asked for more time – and Milwaukee Federal Judge J.P. Stadtmueller has told both sides to try and reach an out of court settlement. Ross was let go as the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences in 2006, after an audit questioned $310,000 on his university credit card bills since 2000. He was demoted to a professor’s post. The auditors said the expenses did not have a proper documentation. And a year later, Whitewater said Ross had still not paid back $117,000. In September, the judge said the school could not collect damages – because the UW did not prove that Ross took anything for his personal benefit.
