The University of Arizona’s retention of Lisa Rulney, formerly University of Arizona vice president of business affairs and chief financial officer, with a new title and all of her previous half-million-dollar salary, is an apt metaphor for the university’s handling of its so-called $240 million cash-flow “miscalculation.”
It’s a fiscal hall of mirrors, with no real savings achieved despite the optics of removing her from her CFO role.
The explanation offered — that her help for erstwhile ABOR Executive Director John Arnold is needed as he steps into her old role monitoring the day-to-day finances of the university — is barely credible on its face. What isn’t so credible is that university president Robert C. Robbins made a point of announcing her resignation to ABOR as he outlined his plan to get around the fiscal disarray.
He said he had accepted Rulney’s resignation, not reassigned her to another role at the same salary. It left the impression of decisive, if belated action. It took the reporting of the ӰAV’s Ellie Wolfe and the Tucson Agenda to reveal the true situation, which reeks of deception.
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In fact, Robbins’ credibility is lower than the freezing temperatures Tucson has experienced over the past week.
Since he revealed the existence and extent of the university’s financial dysfunction in early November with a dire warning to faculty that “draconian” cuts could be expected, Robbins has seemed to play to whatever audience he has been speaking to, for example alternatively announcing that the university was “firing people” in the athletic department but later acknowledging that major cuts are not planned in athletics.
He was praised by Regents in mid-December when he presented his turnaround plan and mentioned Rulney’s departure. The Regents then announced that they had tasked Arnold with taking hands-on control of the school’s finances and praised Robbins for his efforts. No mention was made of keeping Rulney on in an alternate role, temporarily or permanently.
The whole thing had the slick feeling of a made-for-TV performance piece, dripping with synthetic gravitas. Now, the reality is gradually being revealed.
Clearly, Robbins has lost whatever credibility he once had with faculty, staff and most importantly the public. Which leads us to wonder if the Regents are attacking this problem with anywhere near the sense of purpose they exuded at the December meeting, or if they are simply spackling over the rough patches until eyes are diverted elsewhere.
While it’s evident that faculty and department heads feel betrayed and disregarded, it is the other stakeholders that concern us the most — Arizona’s taxpayers and the university’s nontenured staff, students and their families.
How many unprotected staffers will be sacrificed on the pyre of this financial mess? How much more will students have to pay? And how will the quality of the education and university experience they are paying for be compromised?
We believe Gov. Hobbs and the Regents must meet this situation head-on. First, it must be decided whether the university can move forward with Robbins at the helm. At the very least, to stress that the desire for reform is real, his dismissal is a step that the Regents must seriously consider — something they have not shown any willingness to do.
Defensiveness, cosmetics and an old-boys-club approach won’t get this fixed.
