University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart’s bosses are coming to Tucson this week but they won’t be tackling an issue that has sparked scores of complaints against her.
The Arizona Board of Regents, in its first regular meeting since Hart took a board position with a troubled for-profit college firm, is not scheduled to reconsider the policy that allowed her to do so, a Regents spokeswoman said.
Any changes to rules on outside employment of state university presidents would have to be initiated by a board committee and so far that hasn’t happened, Regents spokeswoman Sarah Harper said.
Meanwhile, opposition continues to mount against Hart’s recent decision to join the board of DeVry Education Group. The parent firm of DeVry University is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly deceiving students about their career prospects, claims the company denies.
The school also is under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after the federal agency received nearly 150 complaints from military veterans about DeVry.
Hart’s DeVry seat comes with a paycheck that includes $70,000 a year plus $100,000 in stock. Her UA compensation package is worth $665,500 this year.
Hart has said she vetted DeVry thoroughly and believes the firm is on solid ground despite the federal allegations.
She said she joined the board on her own time to “be a voice for quality and for positive student outcomes and to work toward assuring that higher education is available” to those without access to schools like the UA.
But many UA supporters aren’t mollified by her explanations.
The list of those opposed to her DeVry post now includes taxpayers, students, faculty members, donors, two state legislators, a sitting Regent and 100 people who signed a change.org petition recently launched by a UA professor.
Most are calling for Hart to quit the DeVry board.
“DeVry is paying President Hart purely for her UA affiliation, to provide credibility to their questionable organization,” David Cuillier, head of the school’s journalism program, wrote in the comments section of the online petition.
“This cheapens the UA name, hurts the UA. President Hart is personally profiting by hurting her employer,” Cuillier wrote.
William Hanekamp, who describes himself as a longtime UA donor and supporter, called Hart’s decision “a disgrace.
“You have taken our trademark and sold it for a few extra dollars,” he wrote in a letter to Hart.
Two state lawmakers, Rep. Macario Saldate and Rep. Bruce Wheeler, both Tucson Democrats, also have expressed opposition to Hart’s side job.
Some say Hart should step down as UA president.
“We urge you to ask President Hart to resign from her post at the University of Arizona,” a group of 13 UA supporters wrote to Rick Myers, Tucson’s representative on the board of regents.
Myers, who pushed for the regents to hire Hart in 2012, wrote back that he also is uneasy about her DeVry post.
“I don’t personally support Dr. Hart’s decision to join that particular board,” he wrote, but added that Hart’s contract requires her to make the UA her main focus.
“I will hold her to that,” Myers wrote.
Myers’ email also said he has asked fellow Regents to re-examine the board policy on outside employment for university presidents to see if it’s in line with best practices in higher education.
Hart, reached for comment last week through DeVry headquarters, provided a one-paragraph statement reiterating her reasons for joining the board and stressing that the DeVry job is being done on her own time.
In lengthy emails to some of her detractors, Hart criticized the Arizona Daily Star for what she regards as shoddy reporting.
“The controversy over DeVry Education Group Board service only became ugly because the newspaper has misrepresented both DeVry institution’s track record and accomplishments and the nature of my service,” Hart wrote.
She claimed, for example, that the Star “made no mention” of a list of talking points she recently provided, when in fact, much of the material was included in the newspaper’s coverage.
A handful of people have written to Hart to express their support.
“You may be getting the brunt of some hurt egos, who have a difficult time believing that we can all be benefited by the existence of a well-run, private for-profit school that caters to the non-elite,” wrote Suzanne Cummins, a senior lecturer at UA’s Eller College of Management.
Hart is one of two university president who joined the DeVry board in February.
The other one, Linda Katehi, chancellor of the University of California-Davis, quit the board within days in response to a public outcry in her community.
