Arizona's universities are governed by a Board of Regents appointed by the governor, not elected by voters. We read the audits, board packets and public records, and publish only what the documents show.
Every claim on this site carries one of three labels and links to its source. We name documents, not motives. We do not use the word "stolen" unless a court has said so.
Stated in an official record: an audit, board packet, contract, budget or court filing. Linked.
Published by credible news outlets. Cited, and upgraded to Documented when we obtain the record.
Something the record doesn't yet answer. We say what we've requested and when.
UA management told state auditors it never removed a former employee from payroll after the employee resigned, and kept paying them for nearly two years. Potential net loss: $78,114. Auditors told UA to keep trying to recover the money and to explore legal action.
Source: Arizona Auditor General, FY2025 highlightsFor four straight years, state auditors have flagged UA purchasing-card spending on entertainment, food and drinks that broke the university's own rules, calling it a possible violation of the Arizona Constitution. FY2024: $45,859. FY2025: $8,295. The dollars are small. The pattern is the story.
Source: Arizona Auditor General, FY2024 and FY2025 reportsUA asked the regents to approve buying a six-bedroom house on E. Drachman St. for $625,000. Its appraised value was $550,000. The stated justification: the home sits inside UA's campus planning boundary. We are requesting the board packet to upgrade this to Documented.
Source: Arizona Daily Star, citing ABOR documentsThe 2.49-acre site passed from Mortenson Development to the nonprofit Collegiate Housing Foundation, which hands it to UA. CHF finances the dorm with tax-exempt bonds repaid by residence-hall fees, under a 50-year ground lease. The regents discussed the plan in private executive session.
Open questions: Who sold the parcel to Mortenson, and for how much? What did each step of the land transfer cost? What do students pay over 40 years? Records requested: [DATE].
Source: Arizona Daily Star; Connect CREA Helen Street property in Tucson appears on a late-2023 Regents committee agenda. We have requested the full board packet: price, appraisal, seller and justification. [STATUS]
Public records request filed: [DATE]When the cash crisis hit, UA had 109 vice-president titles, counting assistant, associate and senior VPs. It cut 13. UA's own CFO later said the university then hired other positions that replaced many of them, and administrative payroll rose $1.5 million to $22.1 million. A faculty committee found VP positions had grown 119%.
Source: Arizona Daily Star; UA General Faculty Financial Recalibration CommitteeIn November 2023, UA told the regents its cash had fallen $240 million below the board's own reserve standard: 97 days of cash on hand against a required 156. Spending had gone up while reserves were drawn down. Once commitments were counted, it became a $177 million budget deficit. Nobody on the board caught it until it was announced.
Our math, shown. Sources: Bond Buyer; State Press; Daily Wildcat; Arizona Daily Star; College Data (tuition).
Both universities took over a struggling school. ASU took a respected graduate school and rebuilt it under its own name. UA took a for-profit online college already fighting a state fraud lawsuit. The regents approved both.
Fair to say: These aren't the same size. Thunderbird was a small graduate school; Ashford was a 50,000-student online college whose enrollment was falling before UA took it. UA's interim CFO told the regents the Global Campus did not cause the 2023 cash crisis.
Open question: What has Global Campus cost Arizona since 2020, including marketing? We've requested its audited financial statements. [DATE]
Sources: Zovio SEC filings; EY assessment via New America; Poets & Quants; ASU News; Arizona Daily Star.
Every state agency has a sunset date, and ABOR's arrives July 1, 2027, unless the Legislature renews it. Lawmakers decide what kind of board rises the next morning. The Constitution says regents are appointed "in the manner prescribed by law." Lawmakers can set that manner without asking voters to amend the Constitution.
Guarantee regents from Northern, Southern and Central Arizona, so Tucson and Flagstaff aren't governed from one boardroom.
Every purchase, appraisal, seller and procurement exception posted online, searchable, before the vote.
A plain-English summary and recorded vote for every deal discussed in executive session, once it closes.
Electing regents outright would require a constitutional amendment. We're starting with what the 2027 Legislature can do on its own.
UA has had as many as 109 vice presidents. There's always room for one more. Pick up to three traits and find out which vice presidency you were born for.
Satire. Every title here is invented. The count is real: 109 VP titles before 13 were cut, then backfilled (Arizona Daily Star, 2024).
Get each new finding when it's released. Your zip code tells us which region you're in, so we can show you what your legislators can do.
Board packets, contracts, appraisals, emails obtained through public records. Send them to [TIP EMAIL].
We correct publicly and date every correction. [CORRECTIONS EMAIL]
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