Nearly 1,000 University of Arizona faculty voted by a landslide margin to urge UA President Suresh Garimella to defend the university’s bedrock principles from “ideological and governmental attacks on universities and higher education.”
Out of a total of 977 votes cast by faculty members on the referendum, 886 votes were in favor of approving it. UA has more than 5,000 faculty members including those who are adjunct or emeritus.
“The (UA Faculty) Senate does not need to vote because the direct faculty referendum speaks for itself,” said UA Chair of the Faculty Leila Hudson while announcing the results at a Monday meeting, almost a week after Faculty Senate leaders sent the referendum to all UA faculty members for a vote.
The votes were recorded anonymously in an online voting system from Tuesday through Friday last week.
UA spokesperson Mitch Zak shared a statement Monday on behalf of the UA, saying: “We value engagement of University of Arizona faculty, staff, students and community members as we chart a path forward.”
“U of A leaders are directly engaged with our federal congressional delegation, state legislators and agency officials, and we have been actively collaborating with the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and our peer institutions. We will continue to focus on student success, research excellence, and meaningful engagement with our state.”
The referendum urged Garimella and the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s three public universities, to:
- Legally contest and refuse compliance with “unlawful” demands by the federal administration it said threaten academic freedom, university governance and the constitutional rights and safety of students, faculty and staff;
- Sign the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ “Call for Constructive Engagement,” a statement signed by 612 university presidents across the U.S. as a united front against the Trump administration’s executive orders on higher education and universities;
- Participate in the establishment of a “mutual academic defense compact” among public land grant universities.
None of Arizona’s public university presidents — Garimella, Arizona State University President Michael Crow and Northern Arizona University President José Luis Cruz Rivera — have signed the AAC&U statement. Zak has not responded to questions about whether Garimella intends to sign the AAC&U statement.
However, incoming UA Provost Patricia Prelock, the current interim president of the University of Vermont, has signed it.
“I’ll share a foreshadowing of hope” that Prelock’s signing of the statement is “a very good sign,” Hudson said at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting. “I am optimistic that she will work with us on a new set of agreements and principles for faculty governance and shared governance.”
The referendum was sent to UA faculty by Hudson, Secretary of the Faculty Katie Zeiders and Faculty Senate Chair Mona Hymel. Hudson has said the Faculty Senate leaders were motivated by “internal pressure” as many of their colleagues reached out to them from all different disciplines, ranks and statuses about the current political climate on university campuses.
That came after more than more than 60 Regents and Distinguished professors at the UA wrote to Garimella asking him to fight what they called unlawful conditions being placed on federal funding, and other federal actions.
Garimella, in a letter back to those top professors, emphasized the importance of federal and state funding. “We also have a responsibility to comply with the laws and guidelines that apply to our public university,” he wrote.
Garimella’s statement then about funding was similar to Zak’s on Monday. UA’s commitment “includes promoting an environment where all members of our community find belonging and purpose. With more than $470 million in federal research grants, $380 million in state funding, and over $70 million in federal Pell Grants supporting 22 percent of our student body, we are committed to sustaining the work and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff while preserving the long-term stability of the university,” Zak said.
Since the Jan. 20 inauguration, the Trump administration has delayed, frozen or cut various forms of federal research funding to universities; demanded the end of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) activities under threat of losing federal funding; revoked numerous student visas; and made specific ideological and administrative demands of universities including Harvard and Columbia, among other actions targeting higher education.
Also, the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature threatened the state’s universities with loss of state funding if they don’t honor U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to dismantle DEIA programs. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill Friday to require universities to end DEI courses, but not before Garimella sent a letter to the Republican state Senate president listing steps he’s taking to eliminate DEIA at the UA.
After the referendum was sent, Gary Rhoades, a UA professor of higher education, sent an email to UA administrators including Garimella and Prelock, urging them to “constructively engage” with the Faculty Senate and the state and federal governments on the referendum’s recommendations.
Rhoades advised against “self-destructive detachment from them and complicity with state/federal government threats, which are not laws, that sacrifice who we are and what we do as a diverse, broadly accessible university.”
He also suggested a specific suggestion to establish a “Supporting Bedrock Principles Task Force“ of administrators and faculty, and representatives of staff and students, like the “Budget Task Force.“ He suggested such a task force specifically develop policies and protocols of support for those impacted by the federal government’s actions.
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