Women working in enrollment services at the University of Arizona's online campus were paid thousands of dollars less than men doing the same job, according to a lawsuit that just ended in a $2.6 million settlement covering up to 185 people. The Arizona Board of Regents unanimously approved the deal on October 1, closing out a dispute that stretched from 2022 through 2026.
How the Settlement Money Breaks Down
Per reporting from the Sacramento Bee, the lawsuit centered on the University of Arizona Global Campus, or UAGC, an online university operated separately from University of Arizona Online. Plaintiffs argued that women in enrollment services roles were systematically paid less than their male counterparts for substantially equal work, and that the university failed to correct the gap even after it became known. University officials have denied the gender-pay accusations but said the settlement was in the school's best interests, according to the same report.
The $2.6 million total is being split three ways, according to the Arizona Daily Star: UAGC will pay $500,000, the University of Arizona will contribute $1.05 million, and the Arizona Department of Risk Management will cover the remaining balance through its self-insurance program. Regents must sign off on any settlement topping $250,000 at Arizona's major public universities, which is why the deal went before the full board rather than being handled administratively.
What Court Documents Allege About the Pay Gap
According to court documents cited by the Sacramento Bee, senior female enrollment services providers were paid an average of $14,425 less per year than male counterparts in the same positions, while other senior female providers said they earned $4,745 less than men doing comparable work. One female plaintiff earned roughly $81,000 annually, while some male employees in similar roles were paid more than $50,000 above her salary, the outlet reported. Some of the women involved reportedly went three years without receiving a raise.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that UAGC's practice of setting starting salaries based on employees' prior pay may have helped entrench the disparity. That argument lines up with a binding legal precedent in the jurisdiction where the case was filed: in the 2020 en banc ruling in Rizo v. Yovino, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that employers cannot rely on prior salary history to justify pay gaps under the federal Equal Pay Act, a law that has banned sex-based wage discrimination since 1963, according to Littler Mendelson P.C.
The lawsuit was filed in May 2025 in the Southern District of California, which includes San Diego, where most of the affected employees lived, per the Sacramento Bee. The parties attempted mediation in March 2026, but it failed to resolve the dispute, pushing the case toward the settlement regents ultimately approved.
A University With a History of Pay Equity Disputes
This is not the University of Arizona's first gender pay fight. In July 2019, the university settled a $2 million gender discrimination lawsuit brought by three former female college deans for $190,000 plus litigation costs, after the administrators alleged they were underpaid by up to $80,000 per year compared to male peers, according to KTAR News. Months later, in December 2019, the Arizona Board of Regents approved a $100,000 settlement to resolve a $20 million class-action suit brought by chemistry professor Dr. Katrina Miranda on behalf of female science faculty alleging systemic pay disparities, as reported by the Arizona Daily Star.
UAGC's Troubled Past as Ashford University
UAGC carries a complicated institutional history. The University of Arizona fully acquired the online school from Zovio in 2022, paying just $1 for the company's technology, management assets, and a leased office in Chandler, according to the Sacramento Bee. UAGC was formerly known as Ashford University, a for-profit school that enrolled 27,000 students in 2022 before its numbers fell to roughly 18,600, amid allegations it misled students about degree value and post-graduation job prospects, leaving many saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans they could not repay.
That legacy brought serious consequences before the UA acquisition. In March 2022, a California Superior Court judge ordered Ashford University and Zovio to pay $22.4 million in penalties for making false and misleading statements to prospective students, according to KTAR News. The fallout continued at the federal level: in August 2023, the U.S. Department of Education approved $72 million in loan discharges for more than 2,300 former Ashford students subjected to deceptive recruiting practices between 2009 and 2020, per KPBS. That was followed in January 2025 by a far larger federal action, when the department announced $4.5 billion in automatic discharges covering roughly 261,000 former Ashford borrowers from the same period, as reported by the Times of San Diego.
The university did catch a break on that front this year. In April 2026, the Department of Education officially told the University of Arizona it would not seek to recoup the $72 million in discharged Ashford loans from UA or UAGC, according to Higher Ed Dive. Even so, the State's 2024 Single Audit Report includes audit results related to university federal assistance.
Regents Cleared Multiple Settlements the Same Day
The gender pay settlement wasn't the only financial matter regents resolved at their October 1 meeting. The board also approved a separate $2.4 million settlement ending a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against UA by sports marketing firm Leona Marketing over a Nike endorsement deal, according to the Cardis Law Group. Taken together, the day's actions show a board actively working through a backlog of litigation exposure even as questions about pay equity and UAGC's institutional legacy continue to shadow the university.
