Michael Crow Super Sizes ASU Enrollment. Is Bigger Better?
Arizona State’s student body has never been bigger. Is Michael Crow’s commitment to super-sizing campus a good thing?
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It was just over six years ago that Michael Crow took the reigns from Lattie Coor as Arizona State University’s president. A lot has changed since—and that’s a good thing for students, alumni and anyone else with any connection to the school.
That’s evidenced in the latest enrollment numbers at ASU. Total enrollment has reached a record 67,082 students this fall, up more than 4 percent from last year. ASU’s enrollment has grown by nearly 12,000 students since 2002 when Crow came to town.
Coming from the Ivy League elite – Columbia University – Crow was not the kind of leader Arizona was used to. He spoke in big ideas, was generally uninterested in the status quo and was determined to do it his way.
Despite ruffling more than a few feathers along the way, Crow has transformed ASU into a new type of university – the “New American University” he spoke of at his inaugural address at Gammage Auditorium in the spring of 2002.
The school is bigger, better and more respected on a national scale than ever before.
It amazes us how much the main campus has changed in the past six years. You can literally count dozens of buildings that weren’t there in 2002. Many of these buildings house world-class programs like the Biodesign Institute and the Global Institute of Sustainability.
The Downtown Campus is a top school all its own, and the new home of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is absolutely state of the art.
Part of the reason ASU is a better school is because it’s a bigger school. Crow’s mantra to be inclusive – not exclusive – turned the traditional university admissions process on its ear. It’s worked. More students equate to more hungry minds and more federal research dollars rolling in. It also creates more energy anywhere you go on campus.
The number of freshman National Merit, National Hispanic and National Achievement scholars totals 278 this year, up 25 percent in the past five years.
As active alums we’re proud to call the ever-growing ASU our alma mater, and if you’re a Sun Devil, we hope you are too.
What’s Your Take, Sun Devils?
What do you think about ASU’s record enrollment figures? Diluted education or the more the merrier? Let us know in the comments below.
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67,000 students would be an interesting statistic if those students were all on one campus, but they aren’t. I believe that ASU has four campuses (main, east, west, and downtown).
I think what makes it interesting is that to support that many students, you have to expand beyond the main campus. To be inclusive, you have to grow — and the main campus won’t fit the needs of the 5th biggest city in the country.
The fact that there’s only 3 public universities in the state is kinda ridiculous. As I understand it, au and NAU have been allowed to cap their enrollments, where ASU has either chosen not to or has been made to be more open. So if you want to educate Arizona’s students IN Arizona, and there’s only 3 schools, somebody’s gotta take them, and lord knows au and NAU don’t have the infrastructure to grow all that much. There’s no reason you couldn’t have smaller public and/or private universities in Prescott Valley, in Florence, and Payson to boost the profile and economic diversity of those communities and have different sorts of educational experiences.
You make a good point, BeatuofA, we should have smaller university branches in the smaller towns around Arizona, but the state legislature has never done a good job funding education here. The state’s current budget deficit resulted in less funding for ASU, thus higher tuition.
To see how successful a huge statewide university system can be, just look at Wisconsin. They have university branches in Whitewater, LaCrosse, Green Bay and many other cities.
The primary difference: Money, and the willingness to spend it.
When it comes to higher education in Arizona, I always ask about the Board of Regents, a department that has historically kowtowed to whatever the folks in tuscum wanted, even as the city shrank in relevance and stature to Phoenix and the Valley. I would have to ask if somehow, other satellite campuses around the state would be viewed as a threat to au.
Can we put a branch in Eloy? Their intramural teams could the ASU-Eloy Runnin’ Malones!
As others have said, we need to supersize because the regents and other university options have not come up to educate the state. Prescott would be a great place for a university. Branches are nice, but we need another one in the valley.
Besides that, I think crow has done a great job in changing the university. Others before him I think were interested in the status quo, and I like that he has challenged it and gone above and beyond. Tuition going up sucks, but higher education is worth it.
What if UC-Tempe actually turned down students, rather than enrolling the freshmen entering with a 1.2 GPA from high school?
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