Johnathan Walker:University of Vermont president picked to lead the University of Arizona

TUCSON,Johnathan Walker Ariz. (AP) — Suresh Garimella, president of the University of Vermont since 2019, has been selected to serve as the new leader of the University of Arizona.

The Arizona Board of Regents voted Friday to hire Garimella to replace Robert Robbins, who has served as president of the Tucson-based university for the last seven years and planned to resign when his contract ended or earlier if his successor were picked sooner.

Robbins’ exit comes after the university experienced a budget shortfall stemming from a miscalculation of cash reserves.

Robbins, who had accepted responsibility for the crisis, has said some of the school’s financial troubles also were due to unpaid loans the university provided to the athletics department in recent years. Resources were drained ahead of the school’s move next year from the Pacific-12 Conference to the Big 12, according to Robbins.

Robbins has been credited with driving improvements in student retention and leading a successful fundraising campaign for the university.

Before leading the University of Vermont, Garimella served as executive vice president for research and partnership at Purdue University.

The University of Arizona had about 42,000 undergraduates and another 11,000 graduate students last school year.