TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — University of Arizona Chief Financial Officer Lisa Rulney resigned after its financial troubles came to light. Now, it turns out she's still working for the University and pulling down a half million dollar salary.
University President Doctor Robert Robbins told the Board of Regents Lisa Rulney resigned as Chief Financial Officer—but Doctor Robbins did not say Rulney is still with the University as senior advisor for business operations—- or that she’s making the same five hundred thousand dollars she made before she resigned as CFO.
University Professor Ted Downing is on the Faculty Senate. He’s a former Arizona state Senator too. He says he’s getting loads of angry calls from the university community and from taxpayers in general.
“People thought they knew the truth. What happened? And it turned out it wasn't quite what we thought and that erodes the credibility of the university. But the underlying question is a question about bloat. The financial issue was supposed to be resolved by reducing the administrative bloat and we’ve seen how it increased compared to the number of tenured faculty and teachers.”
To straighten out UA’s finances, the Regents’ chief of staff is acting as the University’s Chief Financial Officer. UA says Rulney is slated to stay on until June 30th to help with the transition. UA says she will report to the acting CFO, and will provide critical support to the University in what UArizona calls a temporary role.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
