A jury has found in favor of a professor who sued the University of Texas-Pan American for gender discrimination after she was demoted as dean of its College of Education, according to The Monitor, a newspaper in Edinburg, Tex., where Pan American is located.

The former dean, Hilda Medrano, could receive $230,000 in back pay and damages under the verdict, which found that the university had willfully violated the federal Equal Pay Act by paying her less than male deans and by failing to pay her for unused vacation time when she was demoted. A judge must approve the damages for the jury’s verdict to take effect.

The Texas attorney general’s office, which represented the university, has not decided whether to appeal. The university denied Ms. Medrano’s discrimination claim, saying her demotion in 2005 was part of a goal set by Pan American’s president at the time, Blandina Cárdenas, to make the university a more research-intensive institution. Ms. Cárdenas, who was the subject of anonymous plagiarism allegations last year, retired last month. —Charles Huckabee