Updates from the President

If you have visited ASU, attended a university event or engaged with us otherwise, chances are you have seen our New American University brochure, a brief outline of our official university charter, our mission areas and the specific related goals we aim to achieve. As ASU advances its work, measures its progress, and fulfills its metrics, it is necessary to revisit our institutional priorities, re-examine the needs of our community, and update our targets.

Our team just completed this process, and while our four mission objectives are unchanged (1) demonstrate leadership in academic excellence and access; 2) establish national standing in academic quality and impact of colleges and schools in every field; 3) establish ASU as a leading global center for interdisciplinary research, discovery and development by 2025; and 4) enhance our local impact and social embeddedness, several key goals have been expanded. Among them, we aim to improve our freshmen persistence rate to more than 90%; our graduation rate to more than 80%; and our annual research expenditures to $815 million. 

These principles and metrics represent the foundation and motivation for everything we do at ASU and in the days ahead, you will see our updated ASU charter and goals shared widely, and I ask that you take a few minutes to read it, send feedback, and let me know how this information can aid your efforts to move Arizona forward.

Once a year, I present ASU's Strategic Enterprise Plan to the Arizona Board of Regents to demonstrate our comprehensive progress toward our goals, and how we intend to tackle our revised targets, including new opportunities and challenges. This is a substantial undertaking given ASU's scope and complexity, but one that is critical in working collaboratively with the Regents to meet the needs of Arizona's learners. This year's update took place on February 3, and provided the Regents and public livestream viewers alike with insightful details about how far ASU has come and where it is headed next.

In addition to reaffirming ASU's charter and responsibility to the people of Arizona, I discussed ASU's evolution in terms of enrollment, degree production (including high demand majors), and research expenditures (which have doubled every 6-8 years). Examples of our institutional excellence and broad access continue to flourish, while simultaneously, our resource expenditures per degree remain one of the lowest among our national peers. If we are successful in the pursuit of our institutional goals, some vital outcomes of significant impact to Arizona include:

• Producing more than 32,000 quality graduates annually;
• Lowering the cost of a degree;
• Being as efficient and diverse as possible; and
• Growing our research productivity to be equivalent to that of MIT

As a 21st century knowledge enterprise, ASU is prepared to pursue a variety of approaches to complete these tasks. You can watch my full presentation below.

I also recently spent time speaking to members of the Arizona House and Senate Appropriations Committees about the real world value of a college degree and the contributions higher education makes to our graduates, our state and our society. We maintain that access to quality education and increased degree completion are integral to Arizona's future success and the state is an important partner in our efforts.

Governor Doug Ducey's leadership in helping to advance a college attainment goal for Arizona and a plan to improve teacher production and retention is encouraging, but we need more decision-makers to step up and invest in our state's most valuable asset—our people.

With forward-thinking support for endeavors like Research Infrastructure II, which will help to position Arizona as a world-class leader in education and research, there is no limit to what our state can achieve.

These challenges are complex, but averting our eyes means jeopardizing our collective progress and defaulting on our charge to serve the students and communities who depend on us. Arizona's future is at stake, so we must succeed.

More than 30 years ago, a group of dedicated community stakeholders with varied professional backgrounds came together to help champion the importance of education and its role in the future success of our communities. Known as the ASU President's Club, this dynamic collection of individuals and corporate partners is committed to ASU's success and the fulfillment of its charter. They make available targeted financial and intellectual resources that enable ASU's leadership team to react quickly to new, vital opportunities of benefit for our students and our state.

One recent example is last December's Herberger Institute series of presentations at Design Miami, an international conference for designers, architects and developers. Herberger students and Dean Steven Tepper discussed the impact of design in reaching the United Nations goals for sustainability and prosperity. Without the support of the President's Club, Herberger's participation and student engagement with the UN, CNN and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation would not have been possible.

President's Club members can point to exemplars of their support on every ASU campus and far beyond. Our current members have changed many lives through their engagement, and every project I lead, including those you read about in my newsletters, has been advanced in some form by President's Club support.

If you or someone you know shares this passion for education and ASU, I invite you to learn more about the special role the President's Club plays at ASU, and the kinds of tangible outcomes they generate. By joining, you will help guide the success of Campaign ASU 2020and be among the first to hear from me about pivotal university news and strategic decisions, and unique learning and advocacy opportunities.