New details announced on U of A hiring and pay freezes

The University of Arizona’s hiring and compensation freezes will last through June, employees learned in an email sent Wednesday by Interim Chief Financial Officer John Arnold.

The email also detailed that each UA dean, vice president or senior vice president “may replace 25% of salary and Employee Related Expense from attrition” during the hiring freeze.

Additionally, the hiring of an administrator must be approved by UA President Robert C. Robbins, while any hire of a tenured or tenure-eligible position must be approved by Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Ronald W. Marx.

Graduate assistants and associates, as well as undergraduate student worker hires, are excluded from the freeze, and positions that are 50% or more funded from sponsored projects or restricted funding are also exempt.

Addressed to “university leaders and supervisors,” the email was signed by Marx and Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Helena Rodrigues as well as by Arnold, who is also UA’s interim senior vice president for business affairs.

The administrators wrote that “the university is taking immediate actions to reduce spending in the second half of fiscal year 2024 and ensure the strong financial health of the institution.”

Associate Professor Leila Hudson, chair of the Faculty Senate, told the Arizona Daily Star that “starting out the new year with new sensible protocols” is “not necessarily a bad idea,” though she is concerned the attrition policy is “a real danger.”

“It’s not going to provide restitution or correction for the major hemorrhage of funds due to strategic initiatives and athletics,” she said. “A university like ours should not be shrinking, especially since our revenue and productivity are growing.”

Hudson added that the attrition policy “runs the real risk of hurting our core mission of research and teaching.”

The policy is “vague and unclear,” said Maria Sohn Hasman, a staff member at the Arizona Institute for Resilience and a member of the United Campus Workers of Arizona union.

“The attrition policy, even if only for six months, will directly impact all current employees,” she said. “As folks leave, they will only be able to replace one out of every four workers, and we will continue to be overworked.”

No salary increases, Hasman said, is “effectively a pay cut for students, staff and faculty.”

During the compensation freeze, no salary adjustments can be made except for a retention package approved by a senior vice president, promotion and tenure increases associated with promotion of faculty, and additional salary associated with a change in duties, the administrators’ email said Wednesday.

In most cases, these exceptions must be approved by multiple senior vice presidents.

Though she applauded the additional oversight, Hudson said she worries about creating more administrative bloat.

“The danger here is that the creation of monthly reporting on various kinds of procurements may create an overload of administrative bloating,” she said.

In November, Robbins and then-Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Lisa Rulney told the Arizona Board of Regents that due to a $240 million miscalculation of cash on hand, the university was in a “financial crisis.”

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Just over a month later, Robbins gave his financial plan to the regents and announced that Rulney had resigned. ABOR Executive Director Arnold had taken over her UA role in an interim manner, Robbins said.

The university’s plan included a hiring and compensation freeze, a freeze on procurement, international travel restrictions for senior administrators, the deferment of nonessential capital projects, and the elimination of the tuition guarantee for all new students starting in fall 2025.

Robbins also said then that the university has “an ongoing budget deficit, meaning we are spending more than we are making,” but added that “we do not know the full scope of this issue yet.”

According to Wednesday’s message, all units are now required to submit a “monthly report to the Division of Human Resources and their senior vice president that details separations and new hires.”

Robbins may grant a waiver to replace a senior vice president position and to address any health, safety or legal risks, it says.

The UA will restrict purchasing through a procurement freeze for all university units through June, as well.

According to the message, any purchase over $50,000 must be approved by the senior vice president of the unit, though items purchased with sponsored projects or restricted funding are exempt.

The purchasing officer must additionally provide a semi-monthly report on purchasing by budget unit and additional restrictions “may be put into place based on procurement activity levels.”

International travel for senior administrators is on a similar freeze through June, though Robbins “may grant exceptions for critical university needs.”

Katie Zeiders, a professor in the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences and a member of the United Campus Workers of Arizona union, said the plan continues to “show a clear failure of accountability.”

“The people who were responsible for creating the financial mismanagement crisis are the ones now imposing layers of approval for campus units to continue functioning and to continue carrying out the university’s core mission,” she said. “The actions continue to punish faculty, staff and students for a problem they had no hand in creating.”

Both Zeiders and Hasman said the union has not been consulted enough about these changes.

“Since the financial action plan was announced on Dec. 13, there has been limited guidance and communication, and faculty, staff and students are scrambling to know what’s ahead for them as we start the upcoming spring semester,” Hasman said. “There are widespread concerns about precarity, job insecurity, potential loss of benefits and qualified tuition reduction.”

Hudson, the Faculty Senate chair, was disappointed that spending in athletics was not mentioned in the administrators’ email, though she was glad that Marx and Rodrigues had signed off on the update.

“I’m glad to say, based on the signatures on the letter, that our new financial overseer is working closely with two of our best senior administrators who the faculty have great confidence (in),” she said.