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Utah technical colleges lied to Legislature for funding, former employee says

A former professor Dixie Technical College professor is suing the school, saying it fired him because he shared concerns about the college and wouldn’t lie about program growth in a government funding document.

Milan Tripp, who was hired to teach in the college’s Diesel Technology Program in 2014, said college officials began to treat him differently in April 2017, after he refused to falsify a funding request form from the Utah legislature to say his program had grown, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court, says Tripp’s employment was terminated in June because he refused to lie for the school and spoke out against the school’s use of funds to an official with the Utah System of Technical Colleges, which oversees technical colleges across the state.