TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Thursday the Arizona Board of Regents confirmed a major pay cut the University of Arizona’s President requested for himself.
KGUN9 has been reporting for months on how the University of Arizona is in a deep financial jam. Now University President Doctor Robert Robbins is officially making a pretty big sacrifice—about an $81,000 dollar cut in pay and a loss of about a quarter million dollars in potential incentives.
By some accounts UA is about $177 Million in the hole.
President Robert Robbins says he suggested the pay cut which will still leave his base pay at about $734,000 a year. Now the Board of Regents has made the cut official.
College students often say they’re just scraping by. So what does that kind of money look like to them?
UA Freshman Sentia Nisimwe says, “I think it's great he’s giving up that kind of money and I think he could give up more. As someone who's a part of the music department who gets undercut greatly, it's just good to see that at least there's some change being made but no one in that position should be making that much money.”
UA Junior Daniel Raine says Robbins reducing his salary is setting an example by making cuts at the top. He thinks the University could save more by cutting courses that don’t truly build the prestige of the University.
“For example, I took a class. It was a seven week course online where we listened to music, wrote a response on the music, and then the final was to make a 20 song playlist with an explanation of why this is on your playlist. It didn't offer much of anything.”
Some layoffs and leaving vacancies open are just part of the plans to get UA finances back on track.
Speaking in Tucson on Wednesday, Governor Katie Hobbs said UA is moving in a positive direction but she wants to reduce the impact on staff, especially workers on the low end of the pay scale.
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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.
