Suresh Garimella, the newly named University of Arizona president, will arrive in the fall with phenomenal accomplishments and great acclaim:
- A scholar and researcher in mechanical engineering.
- A board member of the National Science Foundation.
- Executive experience at a Tier 1 research university (Purdue).
- President at the University of Vermont, which like UA is a land-grant university established to reach a broader population.
- A record of growing enrollment and capping tuition .
Faculty, Regents and others on the UA presidential search committee universally lauded him and unanimously recommended him out of nearly a dozen interviewed candidates.
Fixing UAGC won’t be that easy for Garimella
Garimella’s success in the new job will depend in large part how well he tackles the challenges set in motion by the man he replaces — notably, evolving the troubled for-profit online school that the University of Arizona acquired starting in 2020.
There are high expectations for Garimella, given that he helped oversee the early phase of Purdue University’s own acquisition of a for-profit online school.