How Suresh Garimella, U of A's new president, can make $285K in bonuses

University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella is eligible to receive up to $285,000 in bonuses on top of his $810,000 base salary, the Arizona Board of Regents decided.

That would bring his first-year compensation to more than $1 million, not including other benefits.

The unanimous board set six performance goals for Garimella at a special meeting Wednesday. These bonuses of up to $225,000 will be awarded if he meets the goals by July 1.

Among the goals, Garimella will receive $40,000 if he brings the UA’s budget challenges under control — the university has a $63 million deficit — and $45,000 if he “establishes U of A as a dominant force in revenue-generating sports and within the Big 12.”

In addition to the six goals, Garimella, who joined the UA Oct. 1 on a three-year contract, was already eligible for up to $60,000 in bonuses for his work on the Enterprise Executive Committee, comprised of the presidents of the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University and the regents’ executive director. ABOR, which oversees the state’s three public universities, set that committee’s goals and potential bonuses on Nov. 7.

“The president is focused on academic, research and engagement success at the U of A, and is pleased that the board agrees and is aligned with these important goals,” UA spokesperson Mitch Zak said Thursday. “Improving the budget process and maintaining financial stability is another important goal, and the president has announced his intention to provide pay increases for employees and eliminate the budget deficit by fiscal year 2026.”

ABOR Chair Cecelia Mata wrote in a statement, “We are asking this President to significantly grow sponsored research and private philanthropy, return athletics to profitability, and develop a long-term vision that’s focused on student success. Today (Thursday) he announced that there won’t be any tuition increases for in-state undergraduate students. He’s committed to eliminating the budget deficit and has said he will provide raises for employees.” Mata said that’s a “huge return on investment.”

But a faculty senator blasted the potential bonuses.

“President Garimella is being awarded bonuses for doing the basics of his job, just like former President (Robert C.) Robbins was. We were under the impression that Dr. Garimella’s visionary leadership and budget expertise were some of the precise reasons why he was hired and given $810k in annual salary to begin with,” said Anna Cooper, an associate professor in the School of Theatre, Film and Television.

“Learning that he will get up to a 27% bonus in a single year just for doing the things in his job description is upsetting — especially given that this is the same year when faculty and staff have been denied basic cost-of-living increases (and) have effectively taken a pay cut,” Cooper said. The UA set temporary hiring and compensation freezes after revealing its financial “crisis” about a year ago; the freezes ended at the end of June 2024.

Garimella’s six performance goals and potential bonuses for each are:

1. Set a strategic vision, $50,000. The goal mentions student success and experience, strategic research growth, community engagement, and communications and marketing efforts.

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2. Build a “high-quality, collaborative, mission-driven and effective leadership team,” $30,000.

3. Work with ASU President Michael Crow to find areas in which to collaborate on research, $20,000.

4. Meet athletics benchmarks, $45,000, including setting “an ambitious five-year strategy” to build fan and alumni engagement, develop relationships with donors, achieve student-athlete academic and athletic excellence, and lead within the Big 12 conference.

5. Create a comprehensive list of new revenue streams for the UA, $40,000.

6. Achieve budgeting goals, $40,000, including controlling budget challenges, setting up transparent budgeting processes, continually addressing days’ worth of cash on hand, overseeing reduction of the deficit and financial administration of athletics. The UA’s projected days’ worth of cash on hand is 76 days, below the minimum requirement of 143-239 days set by ABOR. UA officials plan to reduce UA’s $63 million budget deficit to zero by July 1.

The UA’s Faculty Senate chair, Leila Hudson, also criticized the performance goal salary adjustment, calling it “a blunt instrument for micromanagement of the public universities by the Board of Regents, which does not appear to have learned much from its gross failures of oversight in the recent past.”

“Rather than counting on very-well-compensated presidents to do the work they were hired to do, i.e. to grow and use our resources wisely and to incentivize and reward research, teaching, student success, and community service with fair salaries for faculty and staff, the Board dangles carrots related to athletics, branding, ‘vision’ and ‘collaboration’ (without precise, transparent, verifiable definitions, metrics, or conditions) in front of presidents,” Hudson wrote to the Arizona Daily Star.

The three goals for the presidents and the regents’ director as part of EEC, set last month by ABOR, are: Maximizing federal support for higher education in Arizona; focusing on collegiate athletics; and developing a plan for the three universities to collaborate and streamline tri-university offerings in Yuma.

Each is worth $20,000 to Garimella.

In November, Robbins and former ABOR Executive Director John Arnold, now the UA’s chief operating and financial officer, were awarded $40,000 each in bonuses as former members of EEC for completing two out three goals in the last year.

Robbins, who is currently on sabbatical and at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution as a visiting fellow, stepped down from his presidential post on Sept. 30 last year amid what he called UA’s financial crisis. In addition to receiving presidential-level bonuses while on sabbatical, he also continues to be paid his $734,407 presidential salary until his contract ends in June 2026. Robbins’ base pay is 10% less than he made before the UA’s financial crisis, as he took a voluntary pay cut in March.

Garimella, like Robbins before him, also receives presidential housing, a car allowance and a pension plan.