A third former University of Arizona dean has joined the list of plaintiffs in the $2-million class-action federal lawsuit alleging gender-based pay inequality at the school.
Joan Shaver joined the lawsuit Aug. 17. Earlier this month, Shaver stepped down after nine years as dean of the College of Nursing. She is now a nursing professor in the college.
The lawsuit was filed against the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the university, in January by ex-Honors College Dean Patricia MacCorquodale. In March, Janice Cervelli, former dean at the UA College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, joined the lawsuit.
Cervelli is now president of St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and MacCorquodale remains at the UA as a tenured professor.
“During my employment, I believe ABOR paid me less than men who performed similar work,” Shaver said in her consent to join the lawsuit.
The school paid Shaver $300,000 a year from 2016 through 2018.
From 2013 through 2015 she was compensated $292,980 a year. During the 2013 academic year, she received $292,980. Starting in 2010, one year after becoming dean, and through at least 2012, Shaver collected $285,000 a year. No data was available for the 2009-2010 nor 2011-2012 school years.
The average salary for a UA dean in 2016 was $320,000, according to the March amendment to the class-action suit.
Before coming to the UA, Shaver was professor and dean at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1996 to 2009 and served as president of the American Academy of Nursing from 2003 to 2005.
