Suresh Garimella named University of Arizona president (2024)

Suresh Garimella is set to become the 23rd president of the University of Arizona.

The Arizona Board of Regents voted unanimously on Friday morning, after a private interview with Garimella, to offer him the presidency. They will now move forward with contract negotiations.

Garimella currently serves as the president of the University of Vermont. He was the only finalist to be interviewed, ABOR announced on Thursday morning.

“I am very proud to call Dr. Suresh Garimella the University of Arizona’s 23rd president,” said ABOR Chair Cecilia Mata on Friday morning, before the board formally voted. “He is someone with remarkable scholarship, leadership and vision (that) embodies the excellence this outstanding university demands.”

It is unclear when Garimella will begin his tenure in Tucson, as he still needs to negotiate an exit package with the University of Vermont. It is expected that he will start sometime this fall.

Garimella will be only the second person of color to lead the UA. Manual Pacheco was the first.

UA President Robert C. Robbins announced his impending resignation at the start of April, saying that he would stay on until his successor was named, or until June 2026 when his contract formally ends. His resignation announcement came after many faculty, staff, students and community members blamed him for the university’s financial crisis. Earlier this year, the UA announced it was facing a $177 million deficit. The UA is predicting that by the end of next year, it will be reduced to $53 million.

Garimella arrived on campus this week and has been meeting with various constituencies, including the UA’s group of regents professors.

“Dr. Garimella, I very much appreciate your willingness to be a candidate,” said Regent Larry Edward Penley before the vote. “You’ve shown that you’ve spent a lot of time preparing yourself and understanding the nature of this great historic research university in the state of Arizona.”

Regent Jessica Pacheco echoed Penley’s points.

“He is engaging, he’s a great listener, he’s a collaborative conversationalist and leader,” she said. “I think that he is the right person at the right time, and I’m really excited to see all of the incredible things that will happen here with his leadership.”

The president-elect is a mechanical engineer. He assumed the presidency at the University of Vermont in 2019 after serving as executive vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue University.

Born in India, with parents that did not attend college, Garimella earned his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology before receiving a master’s from Ohio State University and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

Garimella was named a Jefferson Science Fellow by the United State Department of State in 2010 during the Obama administration and in 2018 was appointed as a member of the National Science Board by the Trump administration.

“How can you beat a sitting president at another land grant university who is also in the National Academy,” said Joellen Russell, a distinguished professor in the geosciences and a member of the search committee. “I am thrilled that the board listened to our recommendations and did such a great job of landing a fantastic (finalist) for president.”

Garimella, Russell said, fulfills “all” of the qualities that they were looking for.

“He’s really dedicated to students and student learning,” Russell noted. “I find it hard enough to get to my classes and I’m just a department head, let alone being president of the whole university where (you) really are supposed to sacrifice research to support us. But he didn’t sacrifice his contact with students, and that was just for us, so important.”

While at the University of Vermont, Garimella did face criticism over instituting cuts and terminations of select humanities programs, according to an article written in the university’s student newspaper in 2021.

And, according to the VTDigger, Garimella’s administration faced pushback for its response to a Department of Education investigation into antisemitism on campus and over the cancellation of a planned guest lecture by Palestinian author Mohammed El-Kurd.