photo by: Nick Krug/Journal-World File Photo

A bus whirs by as University of Kansas students wait along Jayhawk Boulevard on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016.

The University of Kansas has settled an age discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of a former employee who said he was ousted in retaliation for raising the alarm that his department was told to fill job openings with mainly millennials and other young people.

Under a consent decree agreed to last week with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of former school employee Jeffrey Thomas, the university pledged to not discriminate against job applicants or employees based on age and to give Thomas $144,000 in back pay and damages, KCUR-FM reported.

Thomas worked for the school from July 2004 until December 2014. As part of the consent decree, the university was required to mail a letter of reference on behalf of Thomas noting that he was promoted and received an award for his performance as a supervisor.

“The university takes seriously its responsibility to prevent and eliminate discrimination as well as its commitment to protect against retaliation for those who voice a complaint,” a university spokesperson, Kay Hawes, said in an email to KCUR-FM.

According to the lawsuit, Thomas’ position as assistant associate director of the university medical center’s information resources department was cut when the department was reorganized after he told human resources that a top medical center official said to hire mainly young people.