Second U of A senior cabinet member announces departure

Jon Dudas, the senior vice president, senior associate to the president and chief of staff of the University of Arizona, is the latest member of the senior staff to leave as the university prepares to welcome a new president.

He served as the primary liaison with the Arizona Board of Regents, Arizona’s other public universities, and shared governance groups at the UA. He also oversaw information technology, university planning and the Office of Institutional Equity.

“I leave with deep gratitude to President (Robert C.) Robbins for his visionary leadership, which has raised the University of Arizona to new heights — including record quality of students, record diversity of students, record research levels and record fundraising,” Dudas said in an email Friday to his staff. “Working with him and all of you to support this great land-grant institution has been a tremendous honor.”

Dudas is not the first member of Robbins’ cabinet to depart since a new UA president was named Aug. 9.

On Aug. 13, Provost Joseph Glover, who had been in the position for just over a month, announced he is returning to the University of Florida.

Both shifts come soon after ABOR announced the appointment of University of Vermont President Suresh Garimella to serve as the UA’s 23rd presidency, after Robbins announced in April that he would step down after a replacement is in place. Garimella is expected to start in the position this fall.

Dudas wrote that his decision to leave had nothing to do with the appointment of Garimella.

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“I step away from this role with complete confidence in the future of the University of Arizona under his leadership,” he wrote. “President Garimella’s distinguished record as an educator, researcher, and administrator speaks volumes about his ability to lead us.”

Similarly, Glover wrote in his announcement: “I regret that I will not get to work alongside President Garimella and see his vision for the U of A unfold.”

Garimella is expected to oversee a nationwide search for the university’s next provost. He is also now expected to search for Dudas’ replacement, as well as for a senior vice president of research and innovation (Elliott Cheu currently serves in that role at the UA, but in an interim capacity).

In his email, Dudas wrote that “it is the right time for me to leave,” as his youngest child recently graduated from college.

Dudas has been at the UA since 2014, and according to public records, his salary last year was $472,570. He is 56.

Before that, he served as undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office under former President George W. Bush. There, Dudas oversaw 9,000 employees and a nearly $2 billion annual budget.