University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella announced the departure of UA’s senior vice president for health sciences — a nearly $1 million-a-year post that will be eliminated — and said the health sciences colleges will now be under the provost’s office.
“With Dr. (Michael) Dake leaving his leadership role, and as part of our strategic work to strengthen our academic organization and better integrate efforts across all U of A colleges, our health sciences colleges will now report to the Provost,” wrote Garimella in a notice Wednesday. “All current academic programs, course offerings, faculty shared governance, and promotion and tenure criteria will remain unchanged in these colleges.”
Dake
“Moving forward, the Senior Vice President position will not be filled,” said Garimella.
However, UA is creating a new position of vice provost for health programs.
Dake was paid $997,319 a year as senior vice president, more than Garimella's $810,000 base pay. UA did not immediately answer the Star’s question of how much the vice provost will make.
Barton
Incoming provost Patricia Prelock, meanwhile, former interim president of the University of Vermont and Garimella’s former colleague there, will be paid $550,000, UA previously announced.
Garimella said Jennifer Barton, director of the UA’s BIO5 Institute, where she is paid $322,443, will serve as the new interim vice provost for health programs and report to the provost. UA spokesperson Mitch Zak said Barton will be paid $352,443 as interim vice provost and that the permanent salary for the position will be determined when a permanent appointment is made. An interim leader for BIO5 Institute will also be named soon.
Zak did not respond to Star questions about the details of Dake’s departure, and if the new structure of colleges is being created to reduce spending.
Prelock
Zak said the UA’s health sciences colleges were the only academic units that did not previously report to the provost’s office, so this move brings all of UA’s academic units under the provost.
The health sciences colleges transitioning to report to the provost are: UA’s Phoenix and Tucson Colleges of Medicine; the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy; the College of Nursing; and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.
The College of Health Sciences is becoming the School of Health Professions and Global Medicine, which will be integrated into the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health on July 1.
“As we prepare to welcome our incoming provost, Patricia Prelock, her experience as a clinician and health college leader will enable alignment throughout the university’s academic enterprise,” Garimella said in a news release.
Dake made medical history with the world’s first implantation of a thoracic stent-graft and he helped integrate education, research and clinical care across the UA’s health sciences colleges while expanding its partnership with Banner Health, UA said in its announcement Wednesday. His innovations in vascular imaging and interventional therapy shaped the standard of care for aortic aneurysms and related conditions, the release said.
“I am deeply proud of what we have accomplished as a community,” Dake wrote in a message to his health sciences colleagues. “Together, we have strengthened the integration of education, research, clinical care and service across our colleges. We have worked collaboratively to expand our impact, improve lives in Arizona and beyond, and solidify the university’s position as a leader in health innovation and biomedical research.”
Dake’s hiring seven years ago, at an $875,000 salary by then-UA President Robert C. Robbins, was controversial because Dake was Robbins’ longtime friend and was hired despite misgivings of some members of the UA search committee.
Dake also made headlines when the Arizona Daily Star reported in 2020 that he held multiple corporate consulting jobs in addition to his UA role, making $100,000 that way in his first six months on the job, and that he violated policy by not disclosing his outside income for his first year at UA.
