Arizona State University

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Arizona State University
Image:Seal asu.gif
Established 1885
Type Public
Endowment US$277.3 million (2005 report)
President Michael Crow
Staff 2,406
Undergraduates 48,955
Postgraduates 12,078
Location Tempe, Arizona, USA
Campus Urban, 580 acres (2.3 km²)
Athletics 18 varsity teams
Mascot Sparky Image:Arizona-state-sund.gif
Website www.asu.edu

Arizona State University (ASU) is a public institution of higher education and research with several campuses located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. The main campus, located in Tempe, is as of 2006 the second-largest university campus in terms of student enrollment in the United States, with a student body of 51,234.

In addition to the Tempe, Arizona campus, ASU has three other campuses: its West campus was created in 1984 in Phoenix; its Polytechnic campus which opened in 1996 in Mesa; and its newest campus in Downtown Phoenix, which opened in August 2006. Combined, the West campus, Downtown campus, and Polytechnic campus enroll approximately 12,500 students.

Each year, nearly 10,000 students graduate from the university's four campuses. In 2005, 155 National Merit Scholars chose to attend ASU. Many are part of the Barrett Honors College, which has produced 54 Fulbright scholars, 28 Goldwater scholars, 13 Truman scholars, and 1 Gilman scholar. Under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education ASU is classified as a Doctoral/Research University–Extensive.

Contents

[edit] History

Image:Asuoldstudents.jpg
ASU students in front of Main Hall - 1908.
On February 26, 1885, House Bill 164, “An Act to Establish a Normal School in the Territory of Arizona,” was introduced in the 13th Legislative Assembly of Arizona Territory by John Samuel Armstrong. The bill, strongly supported by Charles Trumbull Hayden of Tempe, passed the House on March 6 and the Council on March 11 and was signed by Governor F.A. Tritle on March 12, 1885, thereby founding the institution known today as Arizona State University. Under the supervision of Principal Hiram Bradford Farmer, instruction was instituted on February 8, 1886, when 33 students met in a single room on land donated by George and Martha Wilson of Tempe.

The institution began with the broad obligation to provide “instruction of persons…in the art of teaching and in all the various branches that pertain to good common school education; also, to give instruction in the mechanical arts and in husbandry and agricultural chemistry, the fundamental law of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens.”

[edit] Early years

For the first 14 years, the school was governed by six principals. At the turn of the century and with another new name, Normal School of Arizona, President Arthur John Matthews brought a 30-year tenure of progress to the school.

He assisted in changing the school to an all-college student status; the Normal School had enlisted high school students who had no other secondary educational facilities in Arizona. He embarked on a building schedule that included the state’s first dormitories. Of the 18 buildings constructed while Matthews was president, six are still in use. His legacy of an “evergreen campus,” with the import of many shrubs and trees and the planting of Palm Walk, continues to this day: the main campus is a nationally recognized arboretum.

Matthews also saw to it that the Normal School was accredited outside the state. His service on national education organization boards was conducive to this recognition. The school remained a teacher’s college in fact and theory during Matthews’ tenure, although the struggle to attain status as a university was ongoing.

An extraordinary event occurred March 20, 1911, when former President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Tempe school and spoke from the steps of Old Main. He had dedicated the Roosevelt Dam the day before and was impressed with Arizona. He noted that construction of the dam would benefit central Arizona’s growth and that of the Normal School. It would be another year before the territory became a state.

During the Great Depression, Ralph W. Swetman was hired as president for a three-year term. This was a time of uncertainty for educational institutions. Although enrollment increased due to the depression, many faculty were terminated and faculty salaries were cut. The North Central Association became the accrediting agency for Arizona State Teachers College.

[edit] Gammage years

In 1933, Grady Gammage, then president of Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff, became president of Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe, a tenure that would last for nearly 28 years.

The Graduate Division was created in 1937, and the first master’s program was established the same year.

On March 8, 1945, the three state institutions of higher learning came under the authority of one Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees ASU today.

The phenomenal growth of the college began after the end of World War II. Dr. Gammage had foreseen that the G.I. Bill of Rights would flood campuses everywhere with returning veterans. Many of the veterans who had received military training in Arizona had fallen in love with the state and vowed to return after the war. The numbers within one year were staggering: in the fall semester of 1945, 553 students were enrolled; over the weekend semester break in January 1946, enrollment increased 110 percent to 1,163 students. Successive semesters saw continuing increased enrollment.

Like his predecessor, Dr. Gammage oversaw the construction of a number of buildings. His greatest dream, that of a great auditorium, came to fruition after his death. He laid the groundwork for it with Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed what is now the university’s hallmark building, Gammage Auditorium, built in 1964.

[edit] Years of growth and stature

During the 1960s, with the presidency of Dr. G. Homer Durham, Arizona State University began its academic rise with the establishment of several new colleges (the College of Fine Arts, the College of Law, the College of Nursing, and the School of Social Work) and the reorganization of what became the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Perhaps most important, the university gained the authority to award the Doctor of Philosophy and other doctoral degrees.

The next three presidents—Harry K. Newburn, 1969–71, John W. Schwada, 1971–81, and J. Russell Nelson, 1981–89—and Interim President Richard Peck, 1989, led the university to increased academic stature, expansion of the campuses, and rising enrollment. But this time period also emerged a political nightmare when Morris Starsky - a tentured philosophy professor - was fired for his participation in the anti-war and civil rights movement.

Under the leadership of Dr. Lattie F. Coor, from 1990 to June 2002, ASU grew to serve the Valley of the Sun through multiple campuses and extended education sites. His commitment to diversity, quality in undergraduate education, research, and economic development underscored the university’s significant gains in each of these areas over his 12-year tenure. Part of Dr. Coor’s legacy to the university was a successful fund-raising campaign. Through private donations, primarily from the local community, more than $500 million was invested in targeted areas that significantly impact the future of ASU. Among the campaign’s achievements were the naming and endowing of the Barrett Honors College, the Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts, and the Morrison School of Agribusiness and Resource Management at ASU East; the creation of many new endowed faculty positions; and hundreds of new scholarships and fellowships.

[edit] Crow era

Image:ASULOGO.gif
Arizona State University logo

ASU entered a new era on July 1, 2002, when Michael Crow joined the university as its 16th president. At his inauguration, President Crow outlined his vision for transforming ASU into a New American University—one that is open and inclusive; that embraces its cultural, socioeconomic, and physical setting; and that promotes use-inspired research. As the only research university serving the entire metropolitan Phoenix area, Crow claims that ASU should be in a unique position to evolve together with the city into one of the great intellectual institutions in the world. Crow created a lot of controversy, gaining many supporters and critics among the faculty. In an early meeting with community members, representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints asked if the new administration wanted the on-campus private church moved as past presidents had (presumably) tried to negotiate. President Crow replied no, that actually he would prefer to see all the on-campus churches further entrench their properties and activities with the campus. In early 2006, the church acted on this advice by tearing down the church institute building to replace it with a much larger complex including its own parking garage. Following the stated mission of the New University, posted on the main ASU website, another recent change has been a plan to include Spanish-speaking Arizona residents in bachelor's and post-graduate programs taught in Spanish (to be implemented over many years), reasoning that the mission of the university is to teach residents of Arizona, and to the extent that they only teach ¾ of the population, the mission is being failed. Those are just two examples of the new value of inclusion, among many other listed new values and examples of change.

ASU has developed nationally recognized programs in a number of fields, including accounting, astrobiology, design science, creative writing, music, ecology and evolutionary biology, electron microscopy, information systems, nanotechnology, psychology, solid-state science, and supply chain management.

ASU has embarked on its most aggressive capital building effort in more than a decade. The university is adding one million square feet of world-class, grade A research infrastructure. ASU will take a leading role in biomedicine and biotechnology, designing new therapies, new vaccines, new diagnostic devices, and better delivery methods.

With the growth of the state, especially the surrounding Phoenix metropolitan area, the school has carried forward this charter, accompanied by successive changes in scope, name, and governance.

ASU is currently aspiring to climb from its current third tier status in the rankings published by U.S. News and World Report. Under the leadership of Crow several initiatives are being pursued toward this end, the most notable of which is the Arizona Biodesign Institute. Additionally, a gift of $100 million was given to the College of Engineering, now the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, and a $50 million dollar gift to the College of Business, now the W.P. Carey School of Business. Furthermore, Crow is noted for raising tuition on an annual basis. In 2002, ASU was at about the 20th percentile in US universities in terms of tuition prices. However, with each annual increase, tuition rates rose dramatically in accordance with the stated goal of raising ASU to the average (50th) percentile of tuition rates among US universities, to go along with rising standards of education; this was met with a wave of student criticism as many students had not planned for such rapid increases.

The university was selected to host the third United States Presidential debate on October 13, 2004 at Gammage Auditorium. Edward Prescott of the W.P. Carey School of Business was awarded the 2004 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (also known as The Nobel Prize in Economics), a first for an ASU faculty member, although at least one former ASU faculty member has gone on to earn a Nobel Prize after leaving ASU; and at least one Nobel laureate has since come to work for ASU. At the end of the 2004, George Poste, director of the Arizona Biodesign Institute, was named Scientist of the Year by R&D Magazine.

[edit] Academics

[edit] Reputation and ranking

Many of ASU's departments were ranked in the top 50 by US News and World Report in 2005.

The College of Education [1] was ranked 35th in the nation in 2005. Its program in counseling was ranked 12th in the nation, and its Education Policy Studies [2] doctoral program was ranked 15th. Six out of nine of the College's specialty programs were ranked in the top 20.

The following graduate departments in engineering were listed with their respective rankings (out of 300+ institutions):

The W.P. Carey School of Business MBA program was ranked 31st and the undergraduate business program ranked 25th. Graduate business programs listed are as follows (out of 300+ institutions):

The ASU School of Public Affairs [3] Master of Public Administration program was ranked 26th overall in the nation (out of 250+ schools). In addition, the MPA program was ranked:

  • 16th in Public Management
  • 25th in Public Policy Analysis
  • 26th in City Management and Urban Policy
  • 31st in Public Finance and Budgeting

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design is reputedly rigorous and highly ranked. An annual event for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism is a visit from Walter Cronkite himself to award the distinguished Cronkite Award.

The Hugh Downs School of Communication is nationally ranked for undergraduate and doctoral programs in the study of intercultural and organizational communication by the National Communication Association. Hugh Downs visits the school often and plays an integral part in the school’s success.

[edit] International Programs

ASU is currently collaborating with several world class institutions in several countries as China and Mexico. In Mexico, ASU collaborates with Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in the ITAM/W.P. Carey School of Business Executive MBA Program.

[edit] Student activities

[edit] Athletics

Main article: Arizona State University Athletics

Arizona State University's NCAA Division I Sun Devils compete in Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Swimming/Diving, Tennis, Track, and Wrestling, while the women participate in Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Softball, Swimming/Diving, Tennis, Track, Volleyball, and Water Polo. ASU won national championships in men's archery 15 times, women's archery 21 times, mixed archery 20 times, men's badminton 13 times, women's badminton 17 times, mixed badminton 10 times, baseball 5 times, women's tennis 3 times, men's gymnastics once, men's track and field once, wrestling once, men's golf twice, women's golf 13 times, women's softball twice, and women's swimming and diving 7 times, for a total of 129 national championships. Additionally, the men's basketball team has participated in 12 NCAA tournaments and the football team won the Rose Bowl in 1986 as well as the Fiesta Bowl in 1982, 1975, 1973, 1972, and 1971.

Notable athletic alumni include baseball players Sal Bando, Floyd Bannister, Hubie Brooks, Alvin Davis, Bob Horner, Oddibe McDowell, Barry Bonds, Paul Lo Duca, Fernando Viña and Reggie Jackson, football players Wilford "Whizzer" White, Jake Plummer, Todd Heap, Danny White, Woody Green, Derrick Rodgers, Ben Malone, Paul Justin, Jim Jeffcoat, John Jefferson, Eric Allen, Adam Archuleta, Mike Haynes, John Henry Johnson, Curley Culp, Danny Villa, J.D. Hill, Charley Taylor, Keith Poole, Terrell Suggs, Vernon Maxwell, David Fulcher, Gerald Riggs, Bob Breunig, Larry Gordon, Al Harris, Randall McDaniel, Bruce Hardy, Darren Woodson, Mark Malone, David Fulcher, Junior Ah You, Luis Zendejas, Pat Tillman, and Norris Stevenson, Shaun McDonald, Andrew Walter basketball players Joe Caldwell, Fat Lever, Byron Scott, Ike Diogu, Eddie House, Mario Bennett, Lionel Hollins, Alton Lister, Awvee Storey, and Ryneldi Becenti, golfers Phil Mickelson and Grace Park, and announcer Al Michaels.

[edit] Extracurriculars

Image:198557795wVVdGH ph.jpg
Arizona State University is adorned with towering Mexican Fan Palms along its main walkway, Palm Walk. (Photo taken from the Bateman Physical Sciences Center, looking toward the Student Health Center)
Arizona State University has an active extracurricular involvement program (Sun Devil Involvement Center) with over 450 registered clubs and organizations on campus. Located on the 3rd floor of the Memorial Union, the Sun Devil Involvement Center (SDIC) provides opportunities for student involvement through clubs, sororities, fraternities, community service, leadership, student government, and co-curricular programming.

ASU Cares is the largest community service project sponsored by the university. It is an annual event that allows students to give back some time by helping residents and communities clean up, rebuild, and/or serve each other. Faculty, staff, alumni, members of the community and their families and guests are also invited to be part of this large ASU effort to help residents of the various communities surrounding the metropolitan area.

The Freshman Year Experience (FYE) and the Greek community (Greek Life) at Arizona State University have been important in binding students to the university, and providing social outlets. The Freshman Year Experience at Arizona State University was developed to improve the freshman experience at Arizona State University and increase student retention figures. FYE provides advising, computer labs, free walk-in tutoring, workshops, and classes for students. In 2003, U.S. News and World Report ranked FYE as the 23rd best first year program in the nation. It has also been recognized as one of the best in both public and private universities by the Chronicle of Higher Education.


[edit] Notable alumni and former students

see also Category:Arizona State University alumni

[edit] Notable faculty and staff

[edit] Points of interest

[edit] External links

Pacific Ten Conference
   Arizona • Arizona State • Cal • Oregon • Oregon State • Stanford • UCLA • USC • Washington • Washington State   
Public Universities in Arizona
Arizona State University • Northern Arizona University • University of Arizona
de:Arizona State University

es:Universidad del Estado de Arizona ja:アリゾナ州立大学 sv:Arizona State University th:มหาวิทยาลัยแอริโซนาสเตต zh:亞利桑拿州立大學

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