Nov 3, 2015 2 min read

A former assistant women’s basketball coach sued California University of Pennsylvania in federal court over her 2013 firing, claiming it involved race, age and sex discrimination.

Anne Malkowiak also claims retaliation was the motive behind her dismissal in a 14-count lawsuit that lists California University Interim President Geraldine Jones as a defendant.

Malkowiak, who is white, claims Jones fired her after giving a “special audience” to three black athletes who had made “certain grievances against” her, the court record states.

The meeting with Jones, she claims, bypassed the normal procedures to channel such complaints through the head coach, athletic director and then the vice president of student affairs. She further states she was never told of the “substance of the complaints” or allowed to respond to them, the record alleges.

Malkowiak also stated in the lawsuit that she was replaced by a younger person and continued to work at Cal U. as manager of athletic relations until she was fired from that job in September 2014. She claims Jones deemed that job a nonessential position at a time when Cal U. was making budget cuts.

The university does not comment on ongoing lawsuits, Cal U. spokeswoman Christine Kindl said Tuesday.