A lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says San Francisco State University violated federal age-discrimination laws when it hired a young, lesser-qualified applicant for a professorship over a longtime lecturer with a doctoral degree and 30 years of teaching experience.

The EEOC, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, alleges that 64-year-old Lawford Goddard didn’t get a job as an assistant professor in the institution’s black-studies department in 2004 because of his age. The university hired instead Antwi Akom, a 31-year-old at the time who had yet to receive his Ph.D.

The suit on behalf of Mr. Goddard, who taught as a lecturer at San Francisco State for more than 15 years, seeks back pay for Mr. Goddard, his hiring, and training in antidiscrimination law for university officials, the newspaper reported. Mr. Goddard is now director of education and training at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture Inc., in Oakland, Calif.

A San Francisco State spokeswoman told the paper that the institution was “surprised” by the lawsuit but had done an internal review of the suit’s claims and had “found no basis for allegations of discrimination.” —Audrey Williams June