Universities across the country are dealing with changes coming from the federal government. Concerns in the academic world are not limited to the Ivy League.
In addition to these newer issues, the University of Arizona is still recovering from last year’s financial crisis. The school has a new president and other new members of the administration. And my next guest says despite the challenges, the mood at the university among faculty is resilient.
Leila Hudson, a professor of Global Studies at the University of Arizona and chair of the Faculty, says the faculty is just getting to know President Garimella and his team, but that they continue to be optimistic. Hudson says Garimella has been good about reforming the ranks of upper management, but that she thinks there’s still too big of a divide between management and faculty.
We also reached out to UofA President Suresh Garimella’s office for comment on this. University spokesperson Mitch Zak said, "As the state’s flagship land grant institution, the University of Arizona is committed to student success, world-class research, and meaningful engagement with our communities. These are not aspirations; they are the core of our strategic imperatives.
Since his arrival last October, President Garimella has consistently engaged with faculty, students, staff, and shared governance leaders to build meaningful relationships that support our mission.
Under his leadership, the university is on track to eliminate a $177 million deficit by July 1 and provide raises to faculty and staff, doing both while not raising in-state undergraduate tuition.
The president and university leadership are actively involved in higher education advocacy, including publishing op-eds on the value of research, maintaining regular contact with Arizona’s state and federal delegation, and engaging key stakeholders to protect the university’s interests and uphold its mission. With over $470 million in federal research grants, $380 million in state support, and more than $70 million in Pell Grants supporting nearly one in four of our students, it is critical to strategically navigate the shifting higher education landscape."
Hudson joined The Show to discuss how much she attributes issues between the faculty and administration to factors that are maybe unique to the UA, and how much she attributes to the administration’s response to external factors, like directives coming from D.C.
Full conversation
LEILA HUDSON: We're in the same boat as just about every other university or college in the country in terms of the national landscape. We come into this moment, however, with some unique background. An administration under the Robbins administration that left us with a $250 million financial crisis was certainly not the way that one would want to go into what we now see as the federal funding crisis and the extension of what many people think are unlawful encroachments on constitutional rights, academic freedom and institutional integrity.
So we come into this national challenging moment with a previous crisis that we're still trying to rectify. The bright side of that, however, is that we are more resilient, more experienced, more knowledgeable about institutional mechanics than other universities that might not have had the same catastrophic maladministration in previous years.
MARK BRODIE: Let me ask you about a referendum that the faculty recently voted on asking the president and asking the Board of Regents for a few things including not to comply with what are deemed unlawful demands from the Trump administration sign a call for constructive engagement. It's a statement signed by a number of other university presidents, in response to executive orders, a mutual academic defense compact with other public land grant universities. Have you gotten any kind of response to any of those? Do you have any indication whether or not President Garimella is inclined to do any of these things?
HUDSON: Well, our most encouraging response is that our new provost, Patricia Prelock, was serving as the interim president of the University of Vermont and had signed the letter that we asked our current president to sign in her capacity as the interim president of the University of Vermont. So we know that the values that we are defending and pushing our administration to articulate here in the state of Arizona are ones that we have good reason to think that they share with the faculty and staff of the University of Arizona.
So while we continue to wait for the kind of action that the faculty over the faculty who voted overwhelmingly called for, we haven't been idle. We ourselves have met together with the faculty, governance, leadership of other public land grant universities to try and do the legwork, to do the background work that will make us part of a resilient network of institutions. They can band together.
BRODIE: It kind of sounds like you're trying to create almost like a NATO for universities where like an attack on one is an attack on all.
HUDSON: Exactly, yes, and it was a very creative idea. I hope we won't have to test it, but yes, that is the idea that an attack on one is an attack on all.
BRODIE: So you mentioned that, you know, you have the sense and the feeling that, you know, the administration, the leadership of the university is, you know, sort of on the same page with, with what you would like to see happen.
I'm curious though, from your perspective, like what is the role of a university president? Maybe what specifically is the role of the University of Arizona president in terms of trying to stick up for the university and push back on administration orders and and rules that it deems not OK.
HUDSON: Yeah, well, I think many university presidents see their role, ironically, as a non-academic role. They see themselves as diplomats, if you will, handling external relations with the outside world, with donors, with sports conferences and fans, and importantly with local structures of government.
That is why the job of the provost, and I mentioned our new provost, Patricia Prelock, for whom I have great, you know, great expectations. The president, sorry, the provost is the chief academic officer, if you will, who oversees what at the University of Arizona or any other world class institution is a sprawling, decentralized multibillion-dollar enterprise. So, those two roles together should provide us with the leadership and the guidance that we need.
BRODIE: Is there any concern on your part or maybe any of your colleagues part of getting, for lack of a better word, getting the Harvard treatment, like if you push back too much, that, you know, the U of A becomes sort of the next university to have all sorts of things happen to it from the the Trump administration?
HUDSON: Well, I think, I think in fact that is a real concern, not so much from Washington, but from, from the state Legislature in Phoenix. There's been a very explicit dialogue going back and forth between legislative leaders and the presidents of our three public universities making very explicit demands.
So I think those who are most directly charged with stewarding the universities are worried about crossing those who hold for the moment, the purse strings. Those of us who are less motivated by that kind of immediate political conjuncture are more concerned about the long term risks of buckling under to governmental interference and governmental pressure. After all, that flies in the face of the freedoms, not only that we hold dear, but which are absolutely central to performing our mission.
BRODIE: At the end of the day, would you say that you have confidence in the leadership at the University of Arizona to address the kinds of issues that universities across the country and in Tucson are dealing with right now?
HUDSON: I have confidence that the people of the University of Arizona will make our voices heard. And that our leadership as it gains confidence will reflect those very foundational shared values. I'm not sure I would say I yet have confidence in our leadership, but I do have confidence in my colleagues, our students, and our community.
