University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella promised to “tighten the belt” on the administrative side a lot more before affecting the academic side.
The president was responding to a question at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting from senator Lucy Ziurys about whether the UA intends to cut more of the nearly 100 vice presidents it has after eliminating 13 v.p. positions last fiscal year, which it did while reducing its deficit from $177 million to $63 million.
“In general, as a faculty member, I’ll say that universities have too many vice presidents,” said Garimella. “It’s not about numbers, it’s really about functions, right?”
Garimella, who became UA president on Oct. 1 after coming from the University Vermont, didn’t offer a specific answer when asked by senator Johann Rafelski if the university needs a certain number of vice presidents to run the institution.
“Are we offering the most safe environment to our students?” Garimella responded. “Are we ensuring student success? Are we ensuring that the research function is well carried out? Are the critical functions being responsibly addressed and are we as efficient as possible? I’ll tell you that I will always focus on the efficiency of the administrative side.
“Give me a little time, you’ll see,” said Garimella, holding his hand up to Rafelski.
UA Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer John Arnold reported that the 109 vice presidencies were reduced by 13 in fiscal year 2024, which ended July 1.
Arnold, asked by the Arizona Daily Star in an interview Friday whether he considers that number to be right-sized now, said “it’s a good start” and will continue to be evaluated.
At the University of Vermont, Garimella said, there were 11 people in senior leadership when he came in as president, which decreased to eight in his tenure. The University of Vermont has about 14,000 students while UA has more than 53,000.
Garimella, who was listed to appear for 10 minutes according to the senate meeting agenda, took the stage at 3:05 p.m. Monday and left at 3:15 after answering three questions.
Faculty Senate Chair Leila Hudson said he will be joining Faculty Senate meetings “at least once a semester.”
In his address prior to the questions, Garimella recounted his first month at the university, his desire to work collectively and inclusively and the importance of communication, and reiterated priorities of student success and supporting the UA’s status as a research powerhouse and a public land grant flagship university.
Interim Provost Ron Marx spoke at the meeting about the first-quarter budget review of expenditures by each college, which he and Arnold conducted through meetings with the deans. Marx said all the colleges will be “well within their budgets for the year,” and that the university faces “one more year of belt tightening this year.”
When asked if UA colleges should expect more cuts, and by what percentages, Marx said the university came into this fiscal year with a $67 million deficit, which is now down to “about $50 million.” In meetings with the deans about budget planning and expenditures, Marx said they asked the deans for ideas to enact an additional cut of “as much as 3%.”
Marx also spoke about the provost search, saying Garimella will begin the search to appoint a new provost “shortly,” announcing it possibly in the next month or so.
More faculty multi-year contracts advocated
Faculty Secretary Katie Zeiders and Kristin Little, co-chair of a committee on career-track faculty needs, presented data on multi-year appointments provided by Marx and Chief Data Officer Ravneet Chadha.
Of the total 1,192 contingent faculty members, 187 are on multi-year contracts while the rest are on year-to-year contracts.
However, according to Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) policy, the UA is allowed to have 30% of the “head count of tenure-track eligible faculty” on multi-year contracts, said Zeiders.
“We have 1,575 tenure-track faculty and 30% of that number is 472. So, we could be issuing 472 multi-year appointments and still be within ABOR policy,” said Zeiders. “But our number is at 187 currently, so we have a lot of opportunity here to increase job security for our colleagues.”
The percentage of contingent or career-track faculty who are on multi-year appointments has fluctuated. The data for 2018 and 2019 showed 13%, which decreased to 11% and 10% in 2020 and 2021 before increasing to 14% and 15% in 2022 and 2023 respectively. In 2024, 16% of contingent faculty were on multi-year appointments.
Across the colleges, the W.A. Franke Honors College had the highest percentage of contingent faculty on multi-year contracts at 81% in 2024, while the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture came in second highest at 64%.
The colleges with the lowest percentages included the College of Nursing at 4%, the College of Engineering at 2% and College of Medicine – Tucson at 1%. The Colleges of Humanities, Information Science, Medicine – Phoenix, Wyant College of Optical Sciences and R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy showed 0%.
“One way of improving our workplace environment here at the UA is to have continuity in our faculty, so they feel their time is well spent when they serve on committees, take part in professional development opportunities and participate in shared governance,” said Little.
“Most importantly, it’s how stability in one’s job can benefit our students,” Little continued. “If instructors have a multi-year appointment at the U of A, they can focus more on the classes they teach here — which can be investing time to reflect on and to revise their courses as needed, which ultimately provides a better learning experience for our students. Supporting students, particularly historically underserved student populations, relies heavily on building relationships.”
UA spokesperson Mitch Zak told the Star, “We understand and appreciate the importance of providing stability and career growth within our faculty community. Decisions about multi-year appointments for career-track faculty are made at the college level in consultation with the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office is looking into the process for review of multi-year contracts so that it is as streamlined as possible.”
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