Updates from the President

This week I was excited to announce ASU's new collaboration withadidas on the Global Sport Alliance, a comprehensive partnership focused on education, research and innovation aimed at advancing the future of sport and its positive societal impact. By harnessing our respective strengths to examine issues like diversity, race and human potential through the lens of athletics, we hope to unlock creative ideas and approaches that promote empowerment, generate good outcomes related to health and well-being, and inspire action through teaching, learning and community engagement.

As Mark King, president of adidas Group, North America, learned more about ASU in advance of his participation in last January's launch of Campaign ASU 2020, it became clear that our organizations have shared beliefs in the power of athletic competition and its ability to yield meaningful quality of life outcomes beyond our traditional perceptions of fitness and entertainment. ASU is excited be a part of this groundbreaking alliance, and I invite you to visit adidas.asu.edu to learn more.

Every summer, I lead an intensive retreat with the ASU leadership team designed to exchange information, spark new ideas and inform our strategic planning process for the year ahead. This year, I wanted to change things up by exposing our leaders to new environments and challenging them with new approaches. To do that, we embarked on a two-day road trip to Southern California that included stops at UC Riverside, Pomona College, Cal Poly Pomona, Santa Monica College and USC, as well as the ASU California Center and the RAND Corporation.

We explored new approaches, posed questions to other leadership teams, and brainstormed opportunities to collaborate. I also took some time to join Goldie Blumenstyk of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jaime Casap of Google, and other education leaders at Zocalo Public Square to discuss the role of digital learning and technology in making quality higher education more accessible and effective.

To see more of our California road trip visit #ASUinSoCal on Twitter or my Facebook and Instagram accounts. Watch our panel talk below.

Whether they are interstate or international in nature, I cannot say strongly enough how critical our diverse collaborations are to the health and vibrancy of our university. Another recent example is our announcement of the SETI Alliance, an agreement that expands our existing portfolio of US government-sponsored initiatives between ASU and the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), which includes the Higher Engineering Education Alliance Program (HEEAP) mentioned here previously. This new partnership connects ASU, MOST, and Vietnam's technical education and research programs, and the private sector to establish a groundbreaking paradigm for international STEM education.

With the help of ASU's digital immersion learning platforms and technologies, thousands of learners across Vietnam will have access to leading-edge STEM programs, and students from both countries will have unique, quality opportunities to study and participate in internships abroad. By working together, we will contribute to the production of talented and highly-skilled 21st century workforce. I look forward to sharing more updates on this and other international cooperative relationships in the months ahead.

May was a busy month at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center.

Web.com, a leading provider of internet services and online marketing solutions for small businesses, is relocating and becoming the anchor tenant at the new SkySong 4 building. With Web.com's presence, SkySong 4 is now 72 percent leased. 

SkySong 4 also received Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in May. In 2009, SkySong received accolades for the first three completed buildings on the site, joining only a handful of other Valley projects to have achieved Silver Certification or higher, and one of the few non-governmental projects to achieve such status.

Additionally, one of North America's fastest-growing cyber security firms, Datashield, is expanding its security operations and moving its headquarter functions to SkySong 1. This expansion will mean more than 50 new jobs in Scottsdale.

As SkySong approaches its 10th anniversary in 2018, it is exciting to witness its continued growth and adaptability, and to consider what the future may bring.