The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) last week presented an update on the University of Arizona’s financial situation, saying its cash-on-hand shortfall late last year was around $140 million, rather than the initially-reported $240 million.
Today, UA President Robert Robbins and ABOR Chair Fred DuVal plan to give a presentation updating the community on the university’s Financial Action Plan around 1 p.m.
TUNE IN TONIGHT: KGUN 9’s Craig Smith will provide a full report in our evening newscasts
According to a presentation delivered to ABOR by its interim chief financial officer John Arnold, no dollars were unaccounted for during the cash-on-hand shortfall; rather, he presented that the university had ‘overspent’ on certain strategic investments. He also pinpointed the lack of the centralized budgeting process as another contributing factor to the 2023 overspend.
Following the Board of Regents meeting, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs called university leadership into questionspecifically over the purchase of Ashford University, now branded as University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC). In a letter released to the public via social media, Hobbs said the UAGC acquisition “demonstrated a secretive process which downplayed, and some might even say attempted to hide altogether, the incredibly risky nature of the purchase to the University of Arizona’s finances and reputation.”
ABOR said during last week’s meeting that moving forward they would develop a comprehensive strategy for handling and managing money. In her letter, Gov. Hobbs outlined a series of requests:
A detailed plan presented to the governor by Friday, Feb. 9 that includes the major strategies for resolving the school’s financial issues A reduction in overlap between the university’s governance and ABOR’s Clearer messaging to the public that emphasizes transparency and and accuracy A report detailing the “rationale and process that were used to assess the purchase of Ashford University” by Tuesday, Feb. 20