California State University at Fresno announced on Thursday that it would pay Diane Milutinovich $3.5-million to settle a sex-discrimination lawsuit that the former athletics official filed against the university in 2004, The Fresno Bee reported.

The case is one of two high-profile gender-discrimination claims against Fresno State scheduled to go to trial this fall. The other involves a former women’s basketball coach who sued for sexual harassment in 2005.

n July a jury ordered Fresno State to pay $5.85-million to a former women’s volleyball coach who had sued the university for sex discrimination and retaliation. The university is appealing that verdict.

Ms. Milutinovich, a former associate athletics director at Fresno State, sued the university for discrimination and retaliation. She was forced out of the department, she says, because she is a woman who argued for more opportunities for female athletes. Stacy Johnson-Klein, a former women’s basketball coach at Fresno, sued for sexual harassment in 2005 after she was fired in the middle of her team’s season. Jury selection in her case began this week.

In announcing the settlement with Ms. Milutinovich, the university admitted no wrongdoing. —Brad Wolverton