A female UC Santa Barbara professor was allegedly shortchanged by nearly $3 million while a less-experienced white male colleague received substantially higher pay, according to a lawsuit filed against the university.
Edwina Barvosa, a Harvard-educated scholar of applied social and political theory who has taught at UCSB since 1998, says she was paid far less than a male professor hired eight years after her for the same position. The allegations were made in a complaint filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in June.
The lawsuit refers to the colleague only as “Professor Y.” The student newspaper The Daily Nexus was first to report the case.
In 2023, Professor Y received $232,050 in total compensation, compared with Barvosa’s $150,317. The gap widened the following year, when he earned $251,700 and she received $157,000—a difference of $94,700.
Barvosa contends that she was denied at least $991,478 in base pay, a figure that rises to roughly $2.96 million with interest. Her attorneys argue that lost pension benefits could push the long-term cost beyond $30 million over the next 39 years.
The complaint says the professors share similar backgrounds: Both were raised in working-class families and identify as Mexican American. Barvosa also alleges that she has approximately 10 more years of experience.
“Dr. Barvosa has suffered and continues to suffer extensive harm as a result of defendants’ unlawful employment practices, including, but not limited to, extensive professional, financial, and non-economic damages, as well as physical injuries that have now led to life-threatening illnesses and related emotional harm,” the lawsuit states.
Named defendants include the UC Regents, UC President James Milliken, UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis, Executive Dean Pierre Wiltzius and Social Sciences Dean Charles Hale.
The complaint accuses the defendants of violating California’s Equal Pay Act, along with discrimination, harassment, retaliation against a whistleblower and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Barvosa is seeking lost wages, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a court order preventing the university from asserting ownership over her academic work.
UC Santa Barbara declined to comment. The UC Regents did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
According to the filing, Barvosa raised concerns about a “gender pay gap” with the executive dean of the College of Letters and Science. The dean allegedly acknowledged that she was underpaid but said he could not do anything to correct the disparity.
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The dean later rejected Barvosa’s request for a $200 raise and declined to promote her to full professor, the lawsuit alleges.
He reportedly cited the fact that her book had not yet been fully accepted by Cambridge University Press and that she had not spent four years at her current academic step.
Yet six to 12 months earlier, the same dean had approved Professor Y’s promotion even though his book also remained unfinished, according to the complaint.
The filing describes the contrasting decisions as “nothing more than… gender discrimination.” Barvosa formally complained about the alleged pay disparity in December 2020, the suit says.
On June 14, 2021, Barvosa says she received a baseless reprimand. That same day, she was passed over for a prestigious endowed chair, which was awarded to Professor Y.
The lawsuit also portrays Barvosa’s workplace as hostile:
The complaint also said her department was known for tension between white and minority faculty. It describes a professor who “insisted on the right to routinely use the ‘n-word’ slur, despite graduate student complaints.”
This year, her own department voted 9-0 to advance her, according to the suit. The school’s top personnel committee recommended no raise at all.
Barvosa claimed she lost part of a finger and suffered a permanent knee injury. She says years of workplace stress triggered a heart attack on Dec. 9, 2024, despite her having no other risk factors.
The suit comes as UCSB faces backlash over another discrimination controversy, this time involving its Alpha Phi chapter, whose members accused a volunteer recruitment adviser from the sorority’s national organization of sidelining women of color during fall recruitment.
Members alleged noticeably diverse group of prospective recruits disappeared from the candidate pool, while current sisters of color were left off recruitment schedules.
The adviser was removed, and the university said discrimination reports are reviewed by its Office of Discrimination and Harassment Prevention, but did not confirm whether it is investigating.
