Second U of A provost candidate speaks to fixing deficit, budget models

Despite the news that University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins will step down by the end of his term in 2026, a provost candidate’s pre-scheduled visit to campus soldiered on.

Marie Hardin, dean of the College of Communication at Pennsylvania State University, pitched her candidacy to be UA’s top academic officer at a meeting attended by about 100 and watched by almost 400 via Zoom.

“We need to be relentless in seeking mutual shared understanding of our goals and our problems,” Hardin told the UA crowd on Tuesday afternoon, after Robbins made his announcement that morning. The Arizona Board of Regents immediately said it will launch a national search for Robbins’ successor as UA president.

Penn State, Hardin’s current employer, announced it was facing a $140 million deficit in 2023. Amid the deficit, Hardin was one of two deans asked to help redesign Penn State’s budget allocation model for all academic units, set to be implemented this year.

“This period that (you’re) going through is not going to last forever,” she told the audience, referring to the UA’s $177 million deficit. “Communication about what’s happening centrally, out to the units and out to faculty and staff, I think is really, really important.”

The UA is set to redesign its budget model over the next 12-24 months.

“Oftentimes we launch the budget model and then we don’t revisit it and rest it or regulate it,” she said. “Budget models need to be monitored and regulated.”

No budget model is perfect, she said, and so leadership must be “vigilant” in monitoring it.

Hardin spoke about the importance of shared governance; while at Penn State she established both a student advisory council and a staff advisory council.

“Communication, at the end of the day, is the most important activity at the institution, and it must be the highest priority for a provost,” she said. “Even if we disagree on solutions, we must have collective clarity on our promise, on our problems and on our challenges.”

Hardin said she cares deeply about that communication because “everybody has a role” in the success of the university.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“I believe that people pay pretty close attention to what deans and provosts and other academic leaders talk about,” she said.

She added that wants to focus on “not only are we recruiting faculty here that bring diversity to this community, (but) how we also retain them and build a community here that values diversity.”

When asked about online learning and the UA Global Campus, Hardin spoke about how she taught her first online class in 1999.

“With some hard work, (UAGC) can ultimately be a positive for the university,” she said. “Ultimately, we’ve got to make this work. We can’t undo it, so let’s figure out a way to move this forward.”

Hardin has brought in money for Penn State’s own online program. According to the university, since she became dean, the college’s revenues generated through online degree programs have more than tripled, and its annual research expenditures have increased more than four-fold.

Another candidate for UA provost, Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, dean of the School of Education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill since 2016, was here last week for his final interview.

After Hardin, the third candidate for provost will visit campus next week. A UA spokeswoman would not release the third candidate’s name.

Robbins announced in May 2023 that Liesl Folks would step down as provost, a post that paid her $497,490 a year. There has been a nationwide search over the last year.