President Bobby Robbins

[Alieberman]

She was reassigned.

Still making 500 Large.

Must be nice to suck at your job and still get paid a 500k salary just to hang around.

Or she was paid to not spill the tea….

[Lute4God]

Robbin's "mansplaining" decried in Today's Star"

"UA faculty leader calls Robbins 'tone deaf'

ELLIE WOLFE

Arizona Daily Star

After saying she hoped to work with University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins and interim CFO John Arnold, Faculty Senate Chair Leila Hudson has changed her tune, accusing Robbins on Monday of 'tone deaf mansplaining ' in his shared governance meetings.

UA leadership sees 'shared governance as an irritation or something that needs to be paid lip service,' she said.

Hudson's remarks at Monday's UA Faculty Senate meeting were in response to Arnold's financial action plan to deal with a $177 million budget deficit, unveiled last week. The plan asks all university budget units to prepare plans for possible 5%, 10% and 15% cuts. Additionally, outside consultants, paid for by the Arizona Board of Regents, will be hired to deal with administration 'bloat,' athletics and integration of the online UA Global Campus.

'That plan is not the right one,' Hudson said in Monday's meeting, adding that she 'begged' Robbins and Arnold not to 'abuse' the academic units and is disappointed by their response.

Hudson said rather than preparing for possible cuts between 5% and 15%, the academic units should receive budget increases of those same amounts, as programs produce revenue through tuition dollars.

'We have dozens of vice presidents with (high) salaries who don't produce any revenue at all,' she said.

Arnold previously told the Arizona Daily Star that Robbins asked him to 'attack' the financial crisis 'through the lens of administration first.'

'We're going to reduce administration by restructuring and then outright reducing,' Arnold said last week. 'The guiding principle behind all of this will be cost savings, less bureaucracy and improved outcomes.'

Samantha Harris, a biomedical engineering professor and faculty senator, echoed Hudson's points in her own statement at Monday's meeting.

'The problem is what (Robbins and Arnold) say demonstrates the degree of tone deafness and misdirection that leads me and others with little or no confidence in the truthfulness of their words,' she said.

Robbins was present to hear the criticisms at the Faculty Senate meeting and did not respond.

Impact on Tucson economy

In an interview Tuesday with the Arizona Daily Star, Hudson expressed concern UA layoffs will harm Tucson's larger economy.

'Our working people and staff really make this university go, as well as the city of Tucson and the whole economy of Southern Arizona,' she said. 'Because we are the largest employer, if you start laying off people who make under $100,000 or probably $70,000, those are the people who spend their money locally and who form our community.'

Hudson added that she was 'suspicious' that some of the university's business is being purposefully and 'politically' redirected towards the Phoenix market through the college of medicine and other ventures.

Huron Consulting

In his financial plan, Arnold stated that Huron Consulting will be hired by the Arizona Board of Regents to assist with some of UA's restructuring.

Hudson said in Monday's meeting that she 'received a flood of communications from faculty' who were 'alarmed' by the decision.

Huron Consulting has built a reputation of slashing budgets and instituting layoffs at universities. In 2020, after being hired by the New School in New York City, the consulting firm implemented layoffs of 122 employees, or 20% of the university's staff, according to an article in The Nation.

More than a third of those laidoff employees were union members. In its marketing materials, Huron has advocated that universities institute staff and faculty layoffs, program closures, salary reductions and hiring freezes. The UA has already begun some of these steps, instituting a hiring freeze in December.

Additionally, in 2017, Huron Consulting was hired by Wisconsin's then-Gov. Scott Walker and

recommended layoffs of a hundred employees and reduced employment for non-tenure-track staff at the University of Wisconsin. According to The Nation, the firm also forcibly reassigned tenured faculty, shuttering programs in the humanities and social sciences. Employees at the University of New Hampshire saw a similar fate in 2019 after senior administrators hired Huron to deal with financial issues.

Hudson said the consulting firm was 'Orwellian' and 'partisan,' with ties to Republicans including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Vice President Mike Pence.

She claimed to have requested 'multiple times' in 'multiple venues' to see the names, terms and charges of the contracts, including one already signed with Huron, but has not received the documents.

'This is not shared governance,' Hudson said.

In a previous interview with the Star, Arnold said Huron will help the UA better centralize its accounting structure but will not participate in program and academic reviews.

UAGC

For months, faculty leaders have made their distaste of and distrust in the online

UA Global Campus project well known.

Hudson told the Faculty Senate that the 'worst part' of her week was 'getting access' to the new leadership of UAGC.

'I discovered, to my alarm, that our hands are bound by unworkable constraints which have finally been unearthed which will increase the already challenging workload for faculty and staff immeasurably,' she said. 'UAGC is going to require a lot of work.'

Lucy Ziuyrs, a particularly outspoken faculty senator and a regents professor of astronomy, suggested cutting UAGC altogether in her brief remarks.

'In the spirit of consolidation, it might be very useful to look into the phasing out of UAGC, as this would save us roughly $90 million in cash reserves alone that could be invested elsewhere,' she claimed. 'Many faculty have already developed online courses in many fields. Why do we need the duplication?'

In his presentation last week, Arnold said that the UAGC project actually netted the university $47 million last year, and that UA is only projecting a $2 million loss for it this year.

'There's a lot of overlap between what the standalone university provides and what UAGC provides,' Arnold said. 'So we need to bring those together and create those efficiencies as quickly as we can.'

A vote of no confidence?

In the Jan. 29 Faculty Senate meeting, Hudson said the 'vote of no confidence meter' for Robbins was 'off the charts,' but said she was still against calling one. Instead, she sent a formal request for a symbolic vote against ABOR to the UA's Committee of Eleven.

'I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't pursue every opportunity for productive, good faith collaboration,' Hudson told the Star Tuesday.

But now, she said, sighing, 'Obviously, everything is on the table at this point.'

Reporter Ellie Wolfe covers higher education for the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson.com. Contact: ewolfe@tucson.com.

[Postmaster]

I think Robbins should go, but if the faculty doesn’t like the way things are going maybe they could propose something other than raises for teachers.
Also, it would be nice to know what the economics really are of GC.

[dovecanyoncat]

Well what could possible be the spread between what faculty senate wants and what a hatchet wielder cozy with Walker, Cruz, and Pence will propose? If this results in anything resembling what happened at University of Montana in the late 80s there will be an exodus of quality academics. Schools within the University will be merged and many professors will seek other places to teach. The Woke! corners of liberal arts will likely be targeted by the likes of Huron Consulting, I'd lay money on it. It sure would be nice to hear from Longhorned before the shit hits the fan.

[Merkin]

Wow, Huron Consulting is even worse than I imagined. Reads more like what DeSantis wants to do with Florida universities.


https://www.thenation.com/article/socie ... ool-huron/

[GlobalCat]

I heard from a colleague that the Arizona Global University transaction was masked behind the Arizona Foundation (and not the university itself), thus hiding the transaction details from potential Freedom of Information Act requests.

[CalStateTempe]

Fuuuuck

[UAEebs86]

[Merkin]

One thing I learned working for a state school, administrators main job is to look out for their fellow administrators.

If he was a football coach he would have been fired for cause.

[gouacats]

If he was a football coach he would have been fired for cause.

My observation is that football coaches are never fired for cause. They always get the buyout...