The University of Oregon is being sued by a longtime psychology professor who alleges the UO pays her substantially less than several less-experienced male colleagues, in violation of the federal Equal Pay Act.

Jennifer Freyd�s suit, filed Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court in Eugene, also includes claims alleging disparate treatment and impact, sex-based discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause, and Title IX violations. Title IX bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive federal money.

�For years, I have tried to work within my department and the college to help the UO live up to its own policies of non-discrimination,� Freyd said in a statement issued by her attorneys. �Women all over the country and in all kinds of jobs earn less than their male counterparts. It�s past time for the UO to recognize and address this problem in its own salary practices.�

The suit asserts that professor salaries in the psychology department are supposed to be determined by seniority and merit, and alleges that UO officials are aware of pay differences between their male and female psychology professors.

University spokesman Tobin Klinger said UO officials know of Freyd�s allegations and plan to �look closely at the case in the coming days.�

�Although professor Freyd�s pay places her in the top 13 percent of all tenure track faculty at the UO, we are committed to paying our faculty commensurate with their achievements,� Klinger said.

Freyd�s current salary is $155,237 and her benefits package, which includes health insurance and a retirement plan, totals another $70,545, bringing her total compensation to $225,782, according to data provided by Klinger.

Freyd is the psychology department�s most senior faculty member. But, according to the suit, she is paid less than three of her male colleagues �who are junior to her and similarly or less accomplished� and receives roughly the same salary as a fourth male professor who is �substantially junior.� The lawsuit did not name the colleagues or list their pay.

Freyd has been a full professor in the university�s psychology department since 1992. She is a nationally known expert in sexual assault trauma, and in 2014 filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging the university had violated a federal campus security law when it did not notify the campus community or include in a police log a sexual assault allegation against three UO basketball players. The university later expelled the players.

Freyd is seeking unspecified monetary damages; a declaration that the UO has engaged in unlawful sex discrimination against her; a order that boosts her salary and benefits �to the levels they would be in the absence of discrimination� and also prohibits the UO from retaliating against her; back pay to compensate her for differences in her salary and benefits for the past six years; and an additional three years� back pay.

�The psychology department recognizes and acknowledges this gender-based disparity in her salary as well as the salaries of other female professors in the department,� the suit alleges. �Despite forceful advocacy on her behalf by the head of her department and others, the University of Oregon has not rectified its sex discrimination.�

The lawsuit asserts Freyd�s salary has been �infected by sex discrimination� since early in her career at the UO.

In May 2014 � the same month in which she filed the complaint over the UO�s handling of the basketball players� case � Freyd provided psychology department heads with an analysis showing that female professors were being paid significantly less than their male counterparts, according to the suit.

Freyd and two colleagues provided a second, similar pay analysis in April 2015. That same year, Freyd was awarded an 8-percent merit raise that still left her salary at $18,000 less than that of her closest male peer, who had seven years� less experience than she did at the time, the lawsuit says.

Meanwhile, the psychology department completed its own study during the spring of 2016 that addressed a range of topics and found male professors are paid an average of about $25,000 more per year than their female counterparts, according to the suit. That study was provided to deans in the UO�s College of Arts & Sciences.

The UO then appointed a committee to evaluate the psychology department. A report from the group noted gender pay disparities and recommended the department should continue �pressing for gender equity in terms of pay at the senior levels of the faculty,� the lawsuit says.

Ulrich Mayr, the psychology department�s head, emailed the College of Arts & Sciences� deans in December requesting they address Freyd�s salary, which he characterized as �our most glaring inequity case,� according to the suit. Mayr asserted Freyd�s pay is as much as $50,000 below where it should be, the lawsuit says.

The College of Arts & Sciences announced raises in January. Freyd earned standard pay increases but no additional raise based on requests that she and Mayr had made, according to the suit. The lawsuit did not list the increases, but it appears that her pay was boosted approximately 3 percent. A campuswide salary report issued Nov. 1 by the UO�s Office of Institutional Research lists Freyd�s annual salary as being $150,862.

Andrew Marcus, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and Hal Sadofsky, the associate dean, met with Freyd on Jan. 18. They told her that they would not address sex discrimination in her pay, and �belittled her comments� by saying that only three men in her department earned more than her, the lawsuit says.

The suit calls Freyd a pioneer in the field of the psychology of trauma, and says the UO has lauded her with its Research Innovation Award in 2009, its Excellence Award for Outstanding Mentorship in Graduate Studies in 2012, and its Faculty Research Award in 2014.

Scholarly journals focus on her research, which has twice led her to be invited to the White House, according to the lawsuit.

Freyd is represented by Eugene law firm Johnson Johnson Lucas and Middleton.

Follow Jack on Twitter @JackMoranRG . Email jack.moran@registerguard.com .