ASU President Michael Crow held a conference Friday to address the future of the university, discussing topics such as sexual assault, tuition and his vision for ASU.
The conference took place on the Downtown Phoenix campus and was live-streamed on the Tempe, Polytechnic and West campuses.
The main topic surrounding the conference was safety in terms of sexual assault. Crow addressed the rumors regarding the federal sex-assault investigation, saying that ASU isn’t under investigation, but rather undergoing a policy and procedure review.
“Mostly what we need is education,” Crow said.
Health science senior Sally Lopez agreed with Crow.
“I think students really need to get informed (about) where their outlets are so they can really get help,“ Lopez said.
Crow also said sexual assault is now a crime and that a student cannot give consent if he or she is intoxicated.
“Alcohol is often used as an excuse,” he said. “Hopefully the law will catch up to where we are as a university.”
Some students brought up safety concerns that they had and said they felt people weren’t reacting. Crow said that if the students told faculty about their concerns, he would make sure people take action.
Frank Smith, president of Undergraduate Student Government Downtown, said that it’s important to be “an advocate, as well as an effective bystander.”
“If you see something, speak up,” Smith said.
Crow also said that there will be no tuition increases over 3 percent this year, and hopefully no tuition increases for even longer.
The logic behind tuition costs is a weighted figure based on “how much (ASU) will get from the state, how much we will be able to fundraise, how many students we have, the cost of services and salary adjustments we would like to make to faculty members,” Crow said.
ASU balances that figure out to determine the cost of tuition. Crow also said that the debt of ASU students is below the national average, and 50 percent of its students graduate with no debt at all.
He said the debt crisis was fueled by for-profit universities that give out degrees with no real value in the job market. Crow encouraged listeners to think of an ASU degree as an investment and said “the financial return is over $10,000 a year.”
Public service and public policy sophomore Ryan Boyd said he appreciated that Crow also addressed his personal question of in-state versus out-of-state tuition.
“(The issue of in-state and out-of-state tuition) is one of the things we were most opposed on last year,” Crow said. “When we see tuition increases it won’t be ‘out of state you get a 3 percent increase and everybody else nothing.’”
Crow said his vision for the university in 10 years is expansion. He also said that ASU has experienced record enrollment, diversity and international-student enrollment this past year.
These might become an even greater reality with the addition of the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Crow said if this school is added, it would allow ASU to have a more global presence, as well as the addition of several new graduate programs.
Crow also said ASU will remain committed to admitting all deserving students capable of completing college-level work.
“Students are admitted based on our perception of their ability to do university-level work. We set a bar, and everyone above that bar is accepted,” he said.
Contact the reporter at Jillian.Carapella@asu.edu.
