ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

Honorary degrees are academic awards given by universities to recognize individuals’ significant contributions to a field or to society.

Previously, UA's process of awarding these degrees included a confidential review of the nominated candidates by the Faculty Senate, including votes in closed sessions. After Garimella’s office announced in a Nov. 17 memo that he is changing the policy, only individual faculty members will continue to participate, and Faculty Senate will be cut out of its shared governance role.

“I have let President Garimella know that I will not be participating in commencement and convocation this year, and I’ve suggested that I will discourage any faculty members from carrying the symbolic mace,� Hudson told Faculty Senate on Monday.

“Symbolism is important. I’ve suggested that he carry the mace himself, or have one of his appointed colleagues from one of his previous institutions, or perhaps his financial or political advisors carry the mace in our stead,� Hudson said.

In a letter she sent to Garimella Monday, Hudson said that once the honorary degree recipients of this year are made public, she will “notify them formally of (Garimella’s) breach of protocol and law,� which she said some people speculate “may have been engineered to secure for him an ‘at-risk’ salary increment from the Arizona Board of Regents.�

The regents, the governing body that oversees Arizona’s three public universities, sets “at-risk compensation goals� for university presidents and executive leaders to receive annual bonuses.

Hudson’s letter to Garimella said he is violating Arizona statute ARS 15-1601b by “attempting to bypass the confidential review and formal approval of candidates for honorary doctorates by the elected members of the Faculty Senate.�

The statute says faculty members at the universities, through their elected faculty representatives, shall share responsibility for “academic and educational activities and matters related to faculty personnel.� “The faculty members of each University, through their elected faculty representatives, shall participate in the governance of their respective Universities and shall actively participate in the development of University policy,� it says.

Hudson’s letter was also sent to other faculty members and administrators, including Secretary of the Faculty Katie Zeiders, Vice Chair of the Faculty Mona Hymel, Provost Patricia Prelock, Garimella’s Chief of Staff Rachel Reinhardt, ABOR Chair Doug Goodyear and ABOR Executive Director Chad Sampson.

Hudson said Reinhardt had sent her an email inviting her to commencement and asking her to carry the mace and the letter and announcement were her response.

“There’s one thing that I traditionally do in this ceremony — and I love doing it, by the way; it’s one of the things that I really like about this job. It’s carrying this symbolic mace,â€� Hudson told the ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV after Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting. The ceremonial mace is a symbol of academic authority and tradition.

“It’s a nice celebratory thing, you know, it’s a great event. We celebrate our students, our honorees, and our whole kind of academic tradition. We all dress up and we walk in, there’s fireworks and all these things,� she said.

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak didn’t respond to the Star’s questions late Monday about Garimella’s response to Hudson’s decision.

Previously, Zak had said in a January written statement, “The University of Arizona’s updated honorary degree protocol is consistent with its peer institutions. Faculty are formally included in the process, nominee vetting is strengthened through a structured review, and final responsibility rests with the president.�

Previously, candidates for honorary degrees were nominated by college deans and vetted by a committee chaired by the secretary of the faculty, who has also been removed from that role now, Hudson said. Then, the nominations would be discussed by the Senate, which includes faculty members from all colleges.

Everyone in the room would be “sworn to silence� and this “confidentiality has never been breached,� Hudson said. She said the collective expertise of having faculty from different colleges helped them make informed decisions, since she wouldn’t know if someone in the agriculture field is appropriate for an honorary degree, but her colleagues from the agriculture college would.

When the policy change was being processed, Hudson said Garimella asked her to submit a list of Regents professors, the highest-ranked faculty members at Arizona’s public universities, for him to choose from to create a panel to decide honorary degrees, which she refused to do. The idea is to have elected faculty representatives and not faculty members appointed by the administration, she said.