The Arizona Board of Regents will hold a meeting tomorrow to approve University of Arizona President Robert Robbins’ request for a 10% cut to his base pay and elimination of his 2023-2024 bonuses totalling $270,000.
The board will also move to approve the board’s new chair, Cecilia Mata, and John Arnold’s new role at the University of Arizona. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, March 14, and a publicly-accessible live stream will air here. Some parts of the meeting will be held behind closed doors and off video in executive session.
The board of regents announced they would act on Robbins’ request for a pay reduction in a March 4 statement. The 10% cut to his base pay would lower it from $816,008 to $734,407. Additionally, if approved, Robbins will forgo bonuses tied to annual and multi-year goals, like “enhancing the student experience and outcomes of the University of Arizona Global Campus.”
This year, Robbins was set to receive $150,000 individual at-risk compensation and $120,000 in 2021-2024 multiple year performance compensation. In 2023 Robbins received $132,500 in annual at-risk compensation.
The board of regents will vote to elect Mata as the board’s new chair after Fred Duval stepped down on Feb. 29.
The regents are also tasked with approving John Arnold’s new position as the University of Arizona’s interim chief financial officer and senior vice president of business affairs, a role he has held since former CFO Lisa Rulney resigned on Dec. 13. Chad Sampson is set to replace Arnold as the board’s new interim executive director.
Arnold took a leave of absence from being executive director of the board of regents in late February to focus on his work dealing with the financial crisis at the UA. This was more than a month after Gov. Katie Hobbs asked Arnold to “transition out” of his role as interim UA CFO, citing his position with the board of regents while working at the UA as a conflict of interest, in a scathing Jan. 25 letter.
Some faculty, staff and students have repeatedly asked Robbins to resign since the crisis went public in November. The university doesn’t have a permanent No. 2 position right now after Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Liesl Folks left in May 2023. Ronald Marx is serving as interim provost while the university runs a search to hire a replacement. Finalists are scheduled to visit campus in April.
Read more about recent UA financial crisis developments here.
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