Regents approve $2.6M settlement in U of A gender pay case

The settlement agreed to by the university and the plaintiffs totals $2.6 million, decided after a mediation meeting between the two sides on March 23 this year, the Arizona Board of Regents was told.

Besides UAGC’s two payments — $500,000 from insurance and $1.05 million in cash — the rest will be paid by the state’s risk management department through the state’s self-insurance program “and UAGC insurance proceeds,” according to ABOR documents.

The regents, who oversee the state’s three public universities including UA, authorized the settlement payment at their meeting Thursday.

The lawsuit, "Anderson et al v. Arizona Board of Regents and The University of Arizona Global Campus," was filed on May 8, 2025, by plaintiffs as federal claims in the Southern District of California under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII.

“U of A disagrees with the allegations in the Lawsuit and has denied them,” the university said in board documents. “However, it believes that settlement of the Lawsuit ... is in ABOR’s best interests.”

The UA declined to respond to the Star’s questions on why the university denied the allegations and its evidence to support its position; if the $1.05 million will be distributed among the 185 individuals equally; and if the plaintiffs are former or current UAGC and/or UA employees. 

UAGC, formerly the for-profit, private Ashford University, an online school that was based in California, was acquired by UA in 2020 from its former parent company Zovio Inc.

UA officials have contended the UA is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for actions by Ashford and Zovio that occurred before the acquisition. 

A California court found in 2022 that Ashford, before UA’s acquisition, frequently lied to students to get them to enroll and that its recruiters misled students about the college’s accreditation, costs and amount of time it would take to graduate.