The Arizona Board of Regents has formally approved the transition contract for outgoing University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins, which includes paying him his current salary through June 2026.
Robbins, whose final day as president is Sept. 30, will continue to be paid his base annual salary of $734,407 through the end of his presidential contract, as previously reported by the Arizona Daily Star. Additionally, he will receive $154,225 annually in his retirement plan and a yearly automobile allowance of $10,000.
The regents voted unanimously Thursday in favor of the contract. Robbins was not present at the meeting, which took place in Flagstaff at Northern Arizona University.
The outgoing president, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is expected to work as a tenured faculty member at the university’s Tucson College of Medicine. According to the transition agreement, he may still receive presidential-level bonuses after departing the presidency.
He is eligible to receive bonuses as part of the Enterprise Executive Committee, which includes the ABOR executive director and the presidents of the state’s three public universities. Bonuses from 2023-24 will be determined later this year.
Asked about Robbins’ transition contract, Gov. Katie Hobbs told Capitol Media Services on Thursday: “He has a contract. And they’re honoring the contract obligation. And I think that was always something that was in the mix when we were looking at hiring a new president. ... I can’t speak to the details of the contract. I haven’t seen it. But they’re avoiding costly litigation by doing this.”
UA President Robert C. Robbins
Robbins announced in April that he would leave the presidency when his contract ends or sooner if the regents found his replacement. His decision to step down came amid the university’s financial crisis. The deficit, which began at $177 million, has now been reduced to $63 million.
The contract decision also comes after the three state universities, and ABOR, faced a $96.9 million reduction in state appropriations in this year’s state budget. That includes cuts of $23.2 million to general appropriations; just under $8 million cut for the UA’s main campus and health sciences center; nearly $11 million cut from Arizona State University and $4 million from Northern Arizona University.
Suresh Garimella, formerly president of the University of Vermont, begins his tenure as UA president on Oct. 1. Garimella will be paid a yearly base salary of $810,000.
Hobbs said she has met Garimella and “I’m excited for his leadership. I think he’ll bring the right perspective and the right transparency and oversight we need at U of A to restore the public’s confidence.”
In a news release Thursday, University Communications said that under Robbins the university “had record enrollment, saw fundraising success and became a Hispanic-Serving Institution.”
“Since assuming office in 2017, President Robert C. Robbins led the U of A through years of growth, innovation and unprecedented challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said.
It listed among Robbins’ achievements: Spearheading a new strategic plan and launching the public phase of of the Fuel Wonder fundraising campaign, which has raised more than $2.3 billion of its $3 billion goal; UA maintaining “its No. 1 National Science Foundation ranking in astronomy and astrophysics research expenditures and its top-five U.S. News & World Report ranking in management information systems”; UA’s leadership of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission “that delivered to Earth the largest asteroid sample ever collected”; and the opening of the Student Success District, the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center, the Honors Village, the Health Sciences Innovation Building and the Applied Research Building.
For many on campus, however, what Robbins has described as a UA “financial crisis” revealed last November looms large.
In a statement to the Arizona Daily Star about Robbins’ transition contract, the chair of the UA Faculty Senate, Leila Hudson, said she hoped “the turnover on the board of regents will hasten the realization that desperately (or defiantly) throwing precious resources at failing and failed administrators is not the way forward for our great university.”
She added that the university needs “every penny for our students’ education, research support and market appropriate compensation for the professionals who keep the university running.”
