UA's hunt for a new president should start (gulp) at ASU

It’s now been three months since the public got a gander at the University of Arizona’s full-on header into a financial and reputational black hole — a swan dive that followed a shrewd decision to secretly acquire a for-profit online college best known for scamming students into borrowing money, thinking they were getting an education.

It’s now been a month since UA President Robert Robbins magnanimously announced he would step down in 2026 when his contract ends, or sooner if a replacement is named.

Since then, the Arizona Board of Regents — its members having awakened from their long nap as the UA took its tumble — has appointed a cast of thousands to assist in selecting the university’s next president.

Since then, the 18-member UArizona Presidential Search Advisory Committee has announced an upcoming listening tour to try to figure out what sort of leader UA needs.

An 18-member committee? That won't help UA

The Regents also hired headhunters to help with the nationwide search.

“As the board embarks on selecting the next president of the University of Arizona, we will do so thoughtfully and with community input to ensure we find a visionary leader who can make a lasting impact on this top-tier research university,” Regents Chairwoman Cecilia Mata said.

OK, so does anybody think this process will actually result in a “visionary leader who can making a lasting impact on this top-tier research university”?

Do visionary leaders who can rescue tumbling universities register with search firms, looking to move up the academic food chain? Do they submit their resumes in the hope of scoring an interview?

I’m guessing … not.  And I’m not alone.

“It’s going to take one or two of the Regents to realize the system they’ve got in place is not going to give them the leader they want,” said one person, who is deeply involved in the state’s corporate, philanthropic and educational endeavors. “It’s going to give them the leader they’ve had.”

Consider Arizona State University.

ASU tried a different approach with Crow

In 2001, ASU, too, was undergoing a search for a new leader with the usual cast of thousands/search firm approach.

Regent Don Ulrich, who chaired the search committee, had already interviewed five sitting university presidents and three provosts and wasn’t happy with the headhunters’ results, which he characterized as “same sold, same old.”

“They were maintenance people,” Ulrich would later say. “They weren’t going to change anything. That was not what this place needed.”

Then-ASU President Lattie Coor told Ulrich he knew of a guy at Columbia University, one who was not a university president or a provost.

Ulrich flew to New York where the pair met over breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton near Central Park.

“I sat down and we just started talking,” said Ulrich, who died in 2020. “I thought, ‘This guy sounds different.’ …  He has ideas. He has a track record that’s pretty damn different. His delivery was unbelievable. I couldn’t ask him a question that he didn’t have an answer to.”

That breakfast with Michael Crow would last three and a half hours and ultimately have an impact on Arizona that is now into its third decade.

Want someone with vision? Then ask visionaries

In the time that Crow has been at ASU, transforming it from party school to global brand, UA has cycled through five university presidents — all chosen with the requisite help of the usual cast of thousands.

Count John Schaefer among the skeptics who don’t think the Regents’ approach is a smart way to find a new UA president … especially a visionary one.

“You need go out and look for them,” he told me. “Search firms that you hire and pay ridiculous amounts of money to have a whole list of people who claim that they’d like to be a dean or a president or what have you and tap into that link. I think that’s the wrong way to go about this kind of program.”

Editorial: UA must cut ties with President Robbins now

Schaefer became UA’s 15th president in 1971 and over 11 years would set the university on a path to becoming a research university.

“First, you’ve got to decide what university you want to be like, then go find people who are part of that university and bring them in to the University of Arizona,” he said.

Go to Tempe and ask Michael Crow for help

Seems to me, the first stop in any search should be in Tempe.

Cue UA fans the world over, dropping in a dead faint.

But deep in their broken hearts in light of the current debacle in Tucson — which is not to be confused with UA’s previous debacles — they know it’s true.

Crow knows who the other academic visionaries are at the nation’s universities — or he knows someone who knows — and I’m guessing not a one of them is listed with a headhunter or has submitted an application to UA.

“An 18-person committee,” one person said, shaking his head. “There is just no way they’re going to find the right leader.”

Crow could help. The Regents should let him.

And you, UA fans, should stop that retching.

If Wilma and Wilber really want to find the right candidate, Sparky could help.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at @laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: University of Arizona should start its president search at ASU