For his first few years, University of Arizona president Robert C. Robbins looked like he might be The One.
Striding around campus, he showed the potential to be the U of A’s long-sought equivalent to Michael Crow, the president who has led Arizona State University since 2002.
Robbins had charisma, developed a grand vision centered on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and pursued it enthusiastically.
A little too enthusiastically, it turns out.
On Nov. 2, he gave the explanation for the resulting financial shortfall that could serve as the epitaph to his UA career.
“We made a bet on spending money,” he said. “We just overshot.”
Indeed they did. And now the university is working to whittle down a deficit that interim chief financial officer John Arnold reported on Thursday as $162 million, down from $177 million. Layoffs are already occurring. Faculty hiring processes have been paused or canceled. The reputational damage is ongoing.
Last week, Robbins said he is leaving — at least he will in 2026 when his contract ends. It was an exit that became inevitable as the serious effects of the financial crisis became clear, but that Robbins tried to avoid for months. It should happen as soon as possible — this year, not in 2025 or 2026.
Robbins said he took responsibility, and that he wanted to fix the problems he created. But that should be left to his successors, be they interim leaders or a permanent replacement. How they fix the UA’s financial problem will have a big impact on the future of the university he’ll no longer be part of.
Previous questionable decisions
The financial crisis might not have forced Robbins out if it didn’t come on top of previous questionable decisions and bring with it a new level of scrutiny that undermined his position. That’s what really showed he’s not The One.
The list is familiar now, including lowlights such as:
Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller
— The decision to hire his friend as vice president in charge of health sciences, despite a warning from the hiring committee not to
— Moving ahead with the purchase of Ashford University despite strenuous recommendations from internal experts against it
— Lending the athletics department about $87 million without an apparent plan to get the money back
— Overseeing those who ignored the warning signs of danger leading to the 2022 killing of hydrology professor Thomas Meixner.
After all that had happened and the financial problems came to light, I was struck by an explanation Robbins gave when I asked him about his comment that “we bet on spending money.”
He said he was specifically referring to the increased offers of financial aid for high-performing out-of-state students that were one of his administration’s strategic initiatives.
“I thought there would be bands, that for each grade point average we would have a limit, first-come, first-served (for students) that accept it, limiting it to maybe 500 students.”
In other words, he thought the program would be more limited. What struck me in his answer was that Robbins, as president with authority over such things, didn’t make the program work the way he expected.
Without the necessary limits, the UA overspent on merit-based financial aid for out-of-state students, one of the key areas of excess spending.
Noting this Thursday, Arnold told the regents, “We’re going to have to establish a new financial aid model.”
Arnold also said personnel costs make up 70% of the university’s spending, and that spending will have to come down. Cuts have already come from the vice president level down to the custodial staff, he said.
“Dozens of separations have already occurred across campus, and they’ll continue to occur,” Arnold said. “I don’t anticipate a single day where we announce hundreds of layoffs. This will take time and be more piecemeal.”
My colleague Ellie Wolfe filed a public records request for the jobs cut and the units affected March 12, but it has gone unfulfilled so far.
Media scrutiny made difference
The scrutiny that Wolfe and Arizona Republic reporters have given the UA and Robbins’ performance is at least partially responsible for his departure.
In particular, Gov. Katie Hobbs seemed to learn of the questions surrounding the Ashford University purchase, questions that have been discussed openly since 2020, from the Republic’s January reporting. That apparently turned her opinion on Robbins and the Board of Regents.
Board Chair Fred DuVal, one of Robbins’ biggest fan, was forced to step down as chair, meaning Robbins lost key protection.
The Republic’s most recent report broke new ground by revealing that the UA had hired a lobbyist to get the California attorney general to reduce fines against Ashford, under the cover story that he was working to increase ties with Morocco.
More importantly, the Republic reported that Robbins lied to them by at first denying that reducing fines was a reason for hiring the lobbyist. The Republic had emails that proved otherwise. And Hobbs lost patience. Asked whether she would like Robbins to be fired, she said she was “looking at all options.”
He had no protection left.
Ironically, though, Arnold reported Thursday that UAGC, the inheritor of Ashford, is poised to break even or make a small profit.
A cycle of departures
While Robbins has said he is willing to serve as president through the end of his contract, that looks like financial positioning to me. With his willingness to stay on plainly stated, if the UA wants to get rid of him sooner and avoid paying out his contract, they’ll have to fire him “for cause” and risk a lawsuit.
History says that’s not going to happen. When Robbins entered in 2017, we were paying off his predecessor Ann Weaver Hart, who moved to a faculty role but never taught a class.
A series of other coaches and officials have been pushed out during Robbins’ tenure, only to have the remainders of their generous contracts paid out.
Among them were football coach Rich Rodriguez in 2018, his replacement Kevin Sumlin in 2020, men’s basketball coach Sean Miller in 2021, chief financial officer Lisa Rulney in December 2023 and athletic director Dave Heeke this year.
Now it looks as if contractual payouts will bookend Robbins’ era — first to Hart and now to him.
If it feels like we’ve been in a regular cycle of replacing University of Arizona presidents, well, we have. Over the last 20 years, Peter Likins retired in 2006, Robert Shelton exited in 2011, Eugene Sander left his temporary appointment in 2012, and Ann Weaver Hart departed in 2017.
That’s why we’ve been looking for The One. Sadly, though what we need to go searching again — and soon.
Maybe it’s time for a humble and competent technocrat. Certainly we know the type that we don’t want.
No charismatic leaders with grandiose plans and loose wallets.
