The South Dakota Board of Regents is asking a judge to dismiss a former South Dakota State University professor’s federal Equal Pay Act lawsuit.

Fedora Sutton said she was paid less than other faculty members who were hired during her tenure. The board admitted to pay differences for some instructors but denied the disparity had anything to do with race or gender, according to court documents filed in the case.

“(The) defendant affirmatively alleges that any disparity between (Sutton’s) compensation and other professors in her department during her tenure at SDSU was based on her job performance, and thus was the product of a merit system, production system or a differential based on any factor other than sex or race,” lawyers for the Board of Regents wrote in their response.

Sutton filed the lawsuit Jan. 28 alleging that the university hired other professors who were not black or female and paid them a much higher wage.

Sutton began working at SDSU in 1990. She was promoted to assistant professor in the biology department in 1991 and became a full professor in 2001.

She resigned in 2014.

The lawsuit claims that SDSU has repeatedly and willfully violated the Equal Pay Act since 1991 by discriminating against employees based on sex and gender.

Sutton seeks an award equal to the difference between the wages paid to her and those of male employees for equal work. She’s also seeking reimbursement of legal costs.

Sutton’s lawyer, Lisa Hansen Marso, said the lawsuit was triggered because Sutton felt her “pay was not set in accordance with the gender and race protections afforded under the law.”

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