UH residential life director Antonio Pee was fired from a similar post at Michigan State University in February 2017 after making inappropriate and sexual contact with MSU student residents, according to disciplinary records recently obtained by The Cougar.
Pee, who worked at the University of Cincinnati for two years after his firing from MSU before ultimately landing at UH in December 2019, was first disciplined in April 2016 after making “contact of a personal nature, including sexual discussion … and contact” with a student on a dating application, the documents show.
Then an assistant director for residence education, Pee was put through several prohibited harassment, sexual misconduct and relationship violence training programs by Michigan State after the initial incident.
Pee remained employed for months afterward before harsher discipline fell on him in early 2017. In the early morning hours of Jan. 20 of that year, Pee again made “contact of a personal nature” with a student resident through a dating application.
Michigan State suspended Pee without pay a week later as it investigated the incident. A month later, on Feb. 27, 2017, Pee was fired from MSU for “sexual misconduct, failure to maintain reasonable standards of professionalism and off-duty misconduct.”
“The University just learned of the situation today and we are still reviewing the matter,” said UH spokesperson Chris Stipes.
Pee, 36, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
UH “will not tolerate any form of sexual harassment,” per the school’s staff policy, adding that it “can damage the educational atmosphere for the entire University community.”
As one of Student Housing and Residential Life‘s highest-ranking officials, Pee oversees “the daily operations of Residential Life in support of the educational goals and objectives of the University of Houston,” said a news release announcing his December 2019 hiring.
He has worked in housing and residential life for nearly 14 years at schools like Texas Christian University, Texas A&M University and Coastal Carolina University.
