Suresh Garimella, President, University of Arizona


I can picture Frank Gulley on horseback, making his way across the Arizona Territory in the early 1890s.

Before there was a state or even a proper campus, Gulley – the University of Arizona’s very first employee and director of our Agricultural Experiment Station – set out to understand the people this institution was meant to serve. He spent months visiting farms and ranches, meeting people and families across remote areas of the territory. His job wasn’t to tell Arizonans what the university would do. It was to ask how it could help.

That legacy of listening and learning has always resonated with me. I’ve spent most of my career at land-grant institutions—first at Purdue, then at the University of Vermont, in the home state of Justin Morrill, author of the land-grant act. I’ve seen how powerful this mission can be when it’s rooted in genuine partnership.

That’s the approach we’ve taken as we chart the future of the University of Arizona. Just as Gulley did, we’ve listened intentionally to voices across our state. The result is Delivering on Our Promise, a clear articulation of our goals, grounded in our land-grant mission and focused on three key priorities: Student Success, Research, and Engagement—each essential to Arizona’s future and rooted in collaboration with the communities we serve.

It’s this commitment to working together that has made the University of Arizona a keystone institution. We’ve grown alongside Arizona by returning to that same simple question: How can we help?

Since arriving in Arizona, I’ve asked that question again and again, learning so much about what makes this state special. I’ve sat down with growers in Yuma, taken an aerial tour of the Salt River Project, met with tribal leaders and educators, joined in fellowship with our fans and alumni, and connected with faculty and staff working shoulder-to-shoulder with their communities.

Every one of those conversations has reinforced what I already believed: the power of a land-grant university doesn’t reside on a campus. It lives in relationships. That’s why our presence in all 15 counties and service to 22 federally recognized tribes matters. But presence alone isn’t enough. It’s what we do together that counts.

Across Arizona, I’ve seen how our partnerships are helping farmers grow more food with less water, putting precision irrigation research into practice in ways that now conserve billions of gallons each year. We’re supporting families’ well-being with straightforward but powerful tools: culturally responsive nutrition education, accessible diabetes prevention programs, family resource centers, and community-based support. These aren’t one-size-fits-all programs. They are the result of deep, ongoing engagement exemplified by our Cooperative Extension, which combines research with listening and science with lived experience.

We’re not just meeting today’s needs but helping Arizona prepare for what’s next. In Yuma County, through the Arizona Experiment Station and the Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, we’re building a hub for AgTech innovation—connecting fields and communities with high-speed broadband and advancing next-generation farming. And through the Virtual Fence Project, we’re partnering with ranchers to test emerging technologies that boost productivity while stewarding the land, collecting over 16 million data points a year to guide sustainable rangeland management.

All of this is part of a broader research enterprise that now exceeds $1 billion a year, but the numbers matter less than the purpose behind them. This isn’t research for prestige. It’s research for impact.

From healthcare and education to workforce development and civic participation, we’re here to help Arizona thrive. Our land-grant mission demands that we meet people where they are—geographically, culturally, and economically. It asks us to be in relationship, not just in service. That means showing up. It means building trust. And it means recognizing that the future of this university is inseparable from the future of Arizona itself.

We’re here for the long haul, just as we have been since a man on horseback first asked what kind of university Arizona needed. We’re still asking. We’re still listening. And we’re committed as ever to delivering on our promise.

Editor's Note: Guest column from the University of Arizona's President, Suresh Garimella.