University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella has named a committee to search for a senior vice president for academic affairs/provost, with a goal of naming one within this academic year.
The position is of key importance to the university because itโs the senior academic officer who oversees the faculty and the academic mission. But it has been in flux since the end of the 2023 school year, when Liesl Folks stepped down.
After a nationwide search, Joseph Glover then held the post โ briefly. Just one month after starting at the UA in July 2024 with a salary of $550,000, Glover announced he was leaving to become interim provost at the University of Florida.
Glover, who was picked by then-lameduck UA President Robert C. Robbins, announced his departure less than a week after the Arizona Board of Regents chose Garimella to succeed Robbins.
Ron Marx, a faculty member in the UA College of Education, served in the interim role after Folksโ tenure and is doing so again after Gloverโs departure.
Garimella has asked Dean David Hahn of the College of Engineering and Lucinda Rankin of the College of Medicine โ Tucson to serve as co-chairs of a search advisory committee, he wrote this week in an email to the UA community.
The 14-member committee will begin work immediately with consultant SP&A Executive Search to advertise a position description in early January and then to identify candidates and finalists, Garimella said.
โThere will be avenues for input and counsel from members of our university community. We will also plan campus visits by finalists, to include meetings with campus leaders and our shared governance partners, as well as public forums. I anticipate these finalists to be identified and the campus visits to take place during the spring semester,โ he wrote.
UA Faculty Senate Chair Leila Hudson had pushed in August for the UA to choose an internal candidate for the permanent provostship.
