ASU President Michael Crow officially announced that Phase Two of the Downtown campus expansion is in effect at an open forum on Wednesday.
This expansion will include new student-recreation centers, more classrooms and an increase in student housing and available apartments.
Phase Two also includes plans for an Arizona Center for Law and Society that will consist of a law library, moving ASU’s law school to downtown Phoenix, nonprofit legal groups and more undergraduate and graduate degree programs in legal studies.
Crow said downtown Phoenix is the perfect location for the size of the project and it will be in effect “as fast as we can plan.”
Beth Wischnia, public relations and political science junior, said she could not agree more with Crow. Wischnia said the expansion will be good for the Downtown campus and said this location “makes sense” for the expansion.
“I thought all the talk about the Downtown campus was really interesting, especially the part he mentioned about the construction of a Downtown Phoenix campus law library that will be open to the public,” Wischnia said.
Crow spoke at the Downtown campus’ University Center to about 30 students and faculty members while communicating with the other campuses via video chat.
Students at all four ASU campuses were given the opportunity to present questions to Crow regarding current issues the university is facing.
More than one question arose about the passing of Proposition 107 on Tuesday that extinguishes Affirmative Action programs.
Crow assured students that Proposition 107 has never held a large hold at ASU and not much will change with the passing of the proposition.
“We run ASU on a merit basis and if you met our admission standards, you are admitted, period,” Crow said. “We have groups that focus on a minority group but those aren’t programs that base on admissions. There is really no impact of Proposition 107 at ASU.”
ASASUD Freshman Senator Vivian Padilla, a journalism student, said this an important matter to get cleared up.
“I think that it was a great question to ask because ASU is very diverse, and if it is something that is going to affect the students, they should know,” Padilla said. “It is important for future students to know when applying. But if Dr. Crow said it I take his word for it that it won’t effect ASU.”
Another question regarded how ASU is handling budget cuts and financial aid.
Crow said that it was to be made clear that ASU will not be changing a lot of programs and not getting entirely rid of any, even in the heat of the state’s financial problems.
“We’ve not been cutting any academic programs even though we have been cutting our budget … we aren’t planning on cutting any programs,” Crow said.
Contact the reporter at lindsey.herriges@asu.edu
