Regents approve new U of A president's salary, contract

Suresh Garimella has formally been appointed to serve as the 23rd president of the University of Arizona, with an annual base salary of $810,000.

He will begin his tenure on Oct. 1. The Arizona Board of Regents voted unanimously on his contract Thursday after unanimously nominating him earlier this month.

Garimella’s contract is to run from the first of October through Sept. 30, 2027.

In addition to his annual base salary, Garimella is provided with presidential housing, an annual car allowance of $10,000 and a cash balance pension plan at 18% of his base/annual salary, or $145,800.

While serving as president of the University of Vermont, Garimella made a base salary of $630,000 a year.

Current UA President Robert C. Robbins has a base salary of $816,08, but with his added benefits and bonuses he made about $1 million per year.

Garimella, the current president at the University of Vermont, will also be reimbursed for his moving expenses and his previous trips to Tucson taken during the interviewing process.

He will also serve as a tenured faculty member in the UA’s College of Engineering.

Garimella was the only finalist publicly presented by the board. Just one day after his candidacy was announced, ABOR voted to nominate him as the university’s president designate.

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All 18 members of the search committee were unanimous in their recommendation to the board to pick Garimella.

Robbins announced his impending resignation at the start of April, saying that he would stay on until his successor was named, or until June 2026 when his contract formally ends. His announcement came after many faculty, staff, students and community members blamed him for the university’s financial crisis.

Earlier this year, the UA announced it was facing a $177 million deficit. The UA is predicting that by the end of next year, it will be reduced to $53 million.

Born in India, to parents who did not attend college, Garimella earned his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology before receiving a master’s from Ohio State University and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

Garimella was named a Jefferson Science Fellow by the United States Department of State in 2010 during the Obama administration and in 2018 was appointed as a member of the National Science Board by the Trump administration.

While at the University of Vermont, Garimella faced criticism over instituting cuts and terminations of select humanities programs, according to an article written in the university’s student newspaper in 2021.

And, according to the VTDigger, Garimella’s administration faced pushback for its response to a Department of Education investigation into antisemitism on campus and over the cancellation of a planned guest lecture by Palestinian author Mohammed El-Kurd.