ASU embraces inclusiveness, pursues transformation

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education highlights ASU's transformation over the past decade into the nation’s largest public university and the role ASU President Michael Crow has played in that transformation.

"What's uncontestable is that few if any modern-day university presidents play as strong a role in academic matters as [Crow] has in reshaping ASU's,” writes Goldie Blumenstyk of the Chronicle.

The article looks at a number of areas where ASU has proven its excellence, including its "9-percentage-point increase in freshman-to-sophomore retention rates, its 48-percent increase in bachelor's graduates in STEM fields, its tripling of spending on research, its top-5 rank as a producer of Fulbright students, its above-average increase in the proportion of Pell Grant recipients enrolled, and even its increasing efficiency in spending per degree awarded.”

Blumenstyk quotes Crow as he explains, “ASU's real societal contribution is organizing itself so that all qualified students can attend. As the nation grows more diverse, ‘I find it unlikely that we will need fewer people educated in the environment represented by research universities.’”

"The big publics have got to innovate and step up," said Crow in the article. Blumenstyk writes that “not every research university needs to rethink itself,” but, as Crow said, "it's imperative that some do."