The California State University System has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle an age discrimination suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

This settlement resolved the EEOC’s lawsuit charging that the state’s largest university system discriminated against a lecturer because of his age. The lecturer was age 61 in the spring of 2004 when he applied for an assistant professor position in the Black Studies Department of the College of Ethnic Studies at SFSU.

He had taught there as a lecturer for more than 15 years. The EEOC’s investigation showed that despite over 30 years of teaching experience at various Bay Area colleges and universities and a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1976, the man was passed over for a much younger candidate who had not yet received his Ph.D., a requirement for the position.

Under the settlement, the California State University System will pay the man $50,000 and grant him “emeritus status,” which gives him the benefits and amenities enjoyed by retired tenured faculty at San Francisco State University. The university system will also conduct trainings on age discrimination in hiring.

In settling the suit, the university admitted no wrongdoing.