Professor files discrimination lawsuit against CU Boulder

A University of Colorado Boulder professor filed a lawsuit Friday against the university and a dean of the law school for discrimination and retaliation.

CU Boulder law professor Paul Campos alleges he was discriminated against with unequal pay because of his Latino ethnicity and punished for taking paternity leave as evidenced by a low annual review score. When Campos reported the discrimination to the university, he alleges he faced retaliation from the dean of the law school and the university.

“The University of Colorado Boulder recently became aware of the lawsuit Mr. Campos has filed against the university,” a CU Boulder spokesperson said. “As this lawsuit has just been served, the campus must review it and determine the appropriate course of action. As such, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

Campos said he and his attorney, Dan Williams, explored every possible solution to avoid a lawsuit but that the university refused to negotiate.

“It’s a very unpleasant thing to sue your employer, especially when you’ve worked for them for 32 years,” Campos said. “I’m very, very deeply connected to this institution in all sorts of ways and to many of the people who have worked here over the years. And so it’s very sobering to have to take this step, it’s a step I really would have preferred not to take. But in the end, I feel as if we were really left with no choice.”

The lawsuit references a salary study done by CU Boulder in response to a 2021 salary audit that found CU Boulder faculty salaries to be inequitable. The university adjusted salaries by an average of $6,593 to comply with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. According to the lawsuit, the university’s data analysis showed Campos was underpaid by $13,756 annually.

While salaries were adjusted Jan 1, 2022, the lawsuit said the university did not address back pay for the previous years of inequitable pay. The study also did not include endowed professorships, which offer additional pay compensation. The lawsuit said Campos is the only senior, tenured faculty member in the law school without an endowed professorship and alleges this is because of racial discrimination.

Campos also received a three out of five annual performance rating in 2022, which the lawsuit said is “an extremely low score,” and a low score compared to his previous score ratings. Campos alleges the score is in retaliation for him taking parental leave because his research and service are of high caliber. Campos filed an open records request, according to the lawsuit, in which he found only 2.3% of faculty between 2017 to 2021 received a three or lower, and there were no ratings below a three.