By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Daily Sun
Greg Patterson at his 2012 Senate confirmation hearing for the Board of Regents.
Saying his spat with a lawmaker has become a “distraction,” Greg Patterson is stepping down as chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents and quitting the panel outright.
In a letter to fellow board members released Monday, Patterson said he was “overzealous in my defense of the universities.” Patterson was reacting to a proposal by Republican Reps. Mark Finchem of Oro Valley and Jill Norgaard of Phoenix to trim the role of the board and instead give each of the state’s three universities its own oversight agency.
But the meeting with the two in February turned ugly with Patterson calling the press release about the plan “unprofessional,” particularly among fellow Republicans. It then turned personal.
Update: Karrin Taylor Robson, who heads real estate development company Arizona Strategies, was appointed today by Ducey to an 8-year term on the board that oversees the state’s public universities.
