The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
In 2017, Dr. Robert Robbins was introduced as the new president of the University of Arizona. But it was odd. Normally there would be a meet-and-greet with university president finalists, which I had attended in 1997. But the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) introduced Dr. Robbins as the only finalist for the University of Arizona presidency.
As Arizona Republic columnist Linda Valdez noted in her March 13, 2017, opinion, the Arizona Supreme Court wrote in 1991 that the ABOR had to publicly announce the finalists for a university president’s position. By saying that Robbins was the only “finalist” of the many who applied, to me it stunk of the “backroom” politics that Arizona is so well known for.
Dr. Robbins’ term didn’t start well. Per the NCAA enforcement staff report, later in September 2017, after Emanuel “Book” Richardson, an Arizona basketball assistant, was arrested at his home, “the institution’s outside counsel and head of compliance, at the direction of the president, conducted an unrecorded interview with Richardson….” Richardson admitted his guilt and served criminal time, but Robbins, who ordered the interview which caused one of five Level 1 violations, was not punished.
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In 2018, despite being warned that Dr. Michael Dake wasn’t the best candidate, Robbins hired Dr. Dake to run the university’s medical schools. Dake, who was a friend of Robbins when both were at Stanford, then fired Anthony DeFrancesco, who had been in a relationship with the co-chair of the search committee and the same co-chair who had warned Dr. Robbins against hiring Dr. Dake. DeFrancesco sued. On Jan. 19, 2023, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that DeFrancesco could argue that his First Amendment rights were violated by this firing.
In addition, there are the obvious miscues. It doesn’t help, for example, that in October 2019, Dr. Robbins, in front of some Native American students, said he would need to redo his DNA testing because he thought his “very high cheekbones” showed he was Cherokee and the DNA testing showed he had no Cherokee ancestry. Robbins later did apologize for this statement.
And there still is the questionable decision to buy Zovio Corporation’s Ashford University’s online school. In an August 12, 2020, letter from U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Sherrod Brown, Dr. Robbins was warned that “Arizona taxpayers risk becoming owners of a predatory for-profit college cloaked in the aura of your prestigious university.” The senator’s letter had pointed out that in 2014 Ashford paid $7.25 million to the state of Iowa for consumer fraud. This did not stop Dr. Robbins from forcing through the purchase of Ashford online school in December 2020 and renaming it the University of Arizona Global Campus. In addition, just last year, Zovio, Ashford’s owner, filed suit against the state of California for a $22.37 million fine and a ruling that Zovio and Ashford had defrauded students. Zovio is supposed to continue working with the UA until 2036. When Zovio filed the suit last year its stock was $.80 a share. It is now about $.0031 per share with a market capitalization of less than $60,000.
The latest failure by Dr. Robbins was the lack of oversight of the threats to Dr. Thomas Meixner, which led to Meixner’s murder. The response by the Arizona Board of Regents was their support for Robbins. A $9 million claim has been filed against the ABOR due to Robbins and his leadership team’s failure to protect Dr. Meixner and others.
Dr. Robbins was quoted to say to the Regents and the public on April 17, 2017, that “one of the things I have been proud of in my career has been my ability to collaborate with others.” He hasn’t fulfilled this ability. I beg the ABOR to please end the presidency of Dr. Robert Robbins by having him retire.
Matt Somers is a 1983 graduate of the University of Arizona and community activist who has lived in Tucson over 60 years.