University of Vermont president Suresh Garimella is the only candidate being considered for the presidency of the University of Arizona, its board of regents announced Thursday.
Garimella, who has led the University of Vermont since 2019, is expected to be interviewed by the board on Friday, according to a press release issued by the University of Arizona.
“The board and search committee were impressed by the exceptional caliber of prospects aspiring to lead the University of Arizona into a new era of excellence,” Arizona Board of Regents chair Cecilia Mata said in the release. “After a thorough search process, Dr. Garimella displays the visionary leadership qualities and a record of distinguished scholarship necessary to lead the U of A into its next chapter.”
A University of Arizona committee met multiple times over five months and conducted dozens of meetings in its search for the next president, the university’s board said. It cited Garimella’s research achievements and academic record, as well as the fact that he worked closely with Ph.D. students and continued to teach an undergraduate seminar in civil discourse in recommending him.
“We ended with a deep pool of amazing prospects, and I’m so pleased Dr. Garimella has accepted an interview with ABOR,” Joellen Russell, a University of Arizona professor and member of the search committee, said in the press release. “As a sitting president of a fellow land-grant university and eminent scholar, his interest in this job means that he sees the potential and strength of this multicultural powerhouse in the desert that is the University of Arizona.”
If he is offered and accepts the job, Garimella would replace outgoing president Robert Robbins, who announced in April that he would step down by June 2026, or earlier if a successor was prepared to take over.
It’s not clear when Garimella could leave UVM and start at the University of Arizona if he were offered and accepted the job.
As of March, Robbins’ base salary at the University of Arizona was $734,407, which does not include hundreds of thousands of dollars in conditional compensation, according to the university.
Garimella’s base salary at UVM was $509,331, as of November, according to university documents.
“The University of Vermont is aware that President Garimella is a finalist for the presidency at the University of Arizona, a prominent public land-grant university,” Adam White, a spokesperson for the University of Vermont, said in an emailed statement.
Garimella was selected to become UVM’s 27th president in 2019, at which time he succeeded Tom Sullivan. Prior to that, Garimella was executive vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue University.
In 2019, he was, also, the only finalist for UVM’s presidency.
During Garimella’s tenure, the University of Vermont has grown its enrollment of both graduate and undergraduate students.
According to a profile in Vermont Business Week, Garimella oversaw the doubling of the university’s endowment, rapid growth in the number of applications to the school and a dramatic increase in research funding at the university.
Such funding at UVM totaled $263 million in 2023, a record high. A year earlier, the university was listed for the first time among the top 100 research universities in the nation by the National Science Foundation. Garimella is also a member of the National Science Board, which oversees the Foundation.
“This is the promise of UVM’s research success — innovative, sustainable, impactful solutions for a better Vermont and a better world,” Garimella says in a 2023 video highlighting UVM’s research.
During his tenure, the president has also faced periodic anger from faculty, staff and students. UVM has seen protests over cuts to humanities programs, the university’s handling of sexual assault allegations, and its response to a federal investigation into antisemitism.
This spring, amid a wave of campus protest over violence in Gaza, UVM students criticized the decision to cancel an in-person lecture by a Palestinian poet and journalist, as well as what they saw as insufficient protections for Palestinian students.
