The Arizona Board of Regents has voted to settle claims by the Arizona Students Association that it illegally retaliated against the organization.
Without admitting any wrongdoing, board members agreed to give the association $250,000. That's an estimate of the amount the group contends was illegally withheld.
In exchange, the association will not pursue other funds it claims it may be owed.
Attorney Stephen Montoya said his client will not challenge a separate 2013 state law, which permanently changed how the association is funded and undermined its major source of cash.
"I think the regents realized they needed to work with and preserve ASA," Montoya said. "And ASA realized that it needed to work with the Board of Regents. So both sides agreed to disagree and compromise so they could productively move on.''
In a prepared statement, the board said it was pleased to resolve the differences and hope the two groups can again work together for common goals as they have done for decades.
The deal ends more than three years of litigation stemming back to a fight over fee collections the regents suspended from the association after its support of a failed penny sales tax for education.