Lucy Marsh, a current law professor at DU, filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC) in 2013 when she found out she was being paid thousands of dollars less than her male colleagues. Rocky Mountain PBS aired a documentary on her case on May 19.

The commission found in favor of Marsh stating that in October 2013 the average salary for female full-time law professors at DU was $139,940, while men earned an average $159,721. They found this difference of almost $20,000 a “statistically  significant amount.”

The commission also found that no female law professors earned salaries that were greater than the average among men. Now, there are seven other cited instances of female law professors of being in violation of The Equal Pay Act.

When DU administration was confronted with the suit, a DU news release told the public that Marsh was being paid less because of “her sub-standard performance in scholarship, teaching and service.” Chancellor Rebecca Chopp supported this report in saying, “We stand by our historical system of evaluation and merit pay.”

Even so, the argument didn’t stand. Rocky Mountain PBS held an investigation that found the administration had honored her in 2010 with an “Excellence in Teaching” award. The professor is one of five female professors, of the eight named in the federal suit, who has been honored with this prestigious award. As well as this award, she has also been honored by the Colorado Women’s Bar Association.

The suit is moving forward to Federal District Court.