University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella makes the Wildcat sign alongside his wife Lakshmi Garimella during his first on-campus workday in Tucson, Ariz. on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024.
The newest President of the University of Arizona Suresh Garimella spent his first full day on the Tucson campus on Wednesday, Oct. 2.
In a speech to faculty and students at Old Main Wednesday morning, complete with marching band performances and mascots Wilbur and Wilma, the 23rd president said his priorities are student success, university research, and continuing the land-grant mission.
“It's very simple,” he said. “We're here because we care about the success of our students and the experience of our students, right? That is our North Star.”
Interim Provost Ronald Marx introduced Garimella and his wife, Lakshmi Garimella, and said he is “right for the times.”
“I looked up his citation counts before he was appointed, and they're high,” Marx said.
Garimella is a mechanical engineer, and was the President of the University of Vermont since 2019 before accepting the presidency at the UofA.
Interim Provost Ronald Marx introduces new University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella and his wife Lakshmi Garimella on campus in Tucson, Ariz., on Wednesday Oct. 2, 2024.
The University of Vermont is also a land-grant university, and Garimella said he “truly believes” in the mission.
“To me, what that means is that we're here to serve our students, a diverse, broad population of students, and to serve our state,” he said.
Garimella arrives on a campus with renewed questions of student safety. On Sept. 22, Pima Community College student Minhaj Jamshidi was shot and killed on campus outside the Arizona-Sonora dormitory.
Garimella said safety is part of student success, and he was already attending meetings on the topic.
“It means providing the best education we can for them, the opportunities for studying abroad, or internships, keeping them safe, their mental health, all of that,” he said.
Garimella’s succession as president follows several months of senior leadership shakeups at the UofA.
In April, now-former President Robert Robbins announced he would step down once the Arizona Board of Regents found a replacement or his contract expired.
Garimella was named the only candidate being considered by the Arizona Board of Regents to replace him in August.
Later that month, now-former Provost Joe Glover resigned after just a month on the job. Two other Vice President positions including the President’s Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation are currently vacant, which Garimella is expected to fill.
Robbins was recently appointed to a tenured faculty position in the College of Medicine.
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