Statement from ASU President Michael M. Crow on Passage of FY18 State Budget
May 05, 2017
Today marks a significant day for the state of Arizona. With passage of the fiscal year 2018 budget, Gov. Doug Ducey is ushering in a new wave of support for higher education, the students we serve and the emergence of our state's new knowledge-driven economy.
Unequivocally, the success of our state is dependent on providing greater access to higher education and equipping students with the knowledge and ability to be adaptive learners, capable of tackling the world’s most complex challenges. The dollars allotted for the universities in the FY18 budget will assist in giving more students the opportunity to receive a high-quality education and positively contribute to Arizona’s future.
Investing in research infrastructure at ASU has proved to pay substantial dividends in the past. For ASU, the research infrastructure support included in the FY18 budget will lead to the construction of multiple buildings that will serve as major hubs for research, innovation and technology transfer. These buildings will attract elite researchers dealing with some of the most pressing issues facing society today, including national defense, advanced manufacturing, neurodegenerative diseases, biomedicine and sustainability. This investment will contribute to the advancement of ASU to world-class status as a research university, joining a premier category of research universities without a medical school such as MIT and Georgia Tech. It is also expected to generate more than $800 million in annual research, help launch more than 200 startups in the next several years and attract more than $1 billion in venture funding by 2025.
Finally, the successful launch of our School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership will be further buoyed by the dollars allotted in this budget. This school is designed to be a national hub of scholarship and public engagement regarding leadership and statesmanship, civic and constitutional thought and political economy. It is the first school in the nation with such a broad spectrum of components focused on these issues that will include a certificate program and undergraduate and — eventually — graduate degrees, house top-notch faculty and visiting fellows, conduct research, produce scholarly writing, and provide community outreach through lectures, forums and other events related to public-policy issues.
We are honored to have the privilege to advance ASU as the most innovative school in the United States and recognize the leadership of Gov. Ducey and the state Legislature in these efforts.