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The University of Phoenix has agreed to pay a $1.9 million fine and stop what the federal government says is long-standing discrimination against non-Mormon employees in its student recruitment operation.

The consent decree between the University of Phoenix and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission awards $1,875,000 for discrimination against 52 UP recruitment workers and stems from a suit entered in Federal District Court by UP recruiting staffer Robert Lein. According to the EEOC press release announcing the settlement, UP has more than 2,000 employees working in online student enrollment.

The suit alleged university managers provided Mormon employees with better leads on potential students, promoted unqualified or less-qualified Mormon employees over non-Mormon workers, denied tuition waivers to non-Mormon employees for missing recruitment goals while granting waivers to Mormon workers, and disciplined non-Mormon employees for conduct Mormon employees were not disciplined.

Included in the agreement is a stipulation that university put in place a zero-tolerance policy toward religious discrimination requiring firing for any infraction, religious discrimination training for mangers and non-management workers, creation of a system that will include EEOC compliance in managers' performance evaluations and hiring of a diversity officer and whatever staff would be necessary to comply with the consent decree.

"It is the EEOC's belief that, for many years, the University of Phoenix condoned an environment in which Mormon managers felt free to engage in favoritism toward their Mormon employees and did so by providing the Mormon employees things such as strong leads on potential students," said Mary Jo O'Neill, the EEOC's Phoenix regional attorney in a press release announcing the settlement.