CFO resigns, other reforms announced as University of Arizona tackles financial woes

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The University of Arizona has unveiled an extensive financial recovery plan to address its $240 million budget shortfall.

In a virtual meeting Wednesday night with the Arizona Board of Regents, university President Robert Robbins announced the resignation of the school’s chief financial officer and other steps to address cash flow issues.

"We will implement an immediate hiring freeze," Robbins said. "We will freeze international travel. We will place restrictions on purchasing. We will defer nonessential capital projects and we will pause strategic investments."

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESIDENT FACES BACKLASH OVER $240 MILLION BUDGET SHORTFALL

Lisa Rulney, the UofA’s chief financial officer since April 2019, resigned Wednesday from the job that paid her nearly $500,000 annually.

Rulney and Robbins told the regents last month that the university had just 97 days worth of cash on hand and not the 156 they previously predicted. The school’s senior administrators blamed a failure of their prediction model that caused the multimillion-dollar miscalculation.

Robbins said a "decentralized budgeting allocation process and administrative structure" led to "poor budget controls and ineffective administrative structure and overspending in some of our budget units."

He said the hiring and compensation freeze will save the university $16 million, the immediate purchasing restrictions will save $5 million and deferring nonessential capital projects should save $9 million.

A sign in front of some cacti marks one of the entrances to the University of Arizona, in Tucson, Arizona. The University was founded in 1885 and was the first university in the Arizona