[oqeygallery id=73 width=675 height=380]
Photos by Evie Carpenter
Recognizing both triumphs and mistakes, speakers at the semester’s first Downtown Devil Discussion were frank in their evaluation of the academic and cultural progress made by the ASU Downtown campus.
The past, present and future role of the Downtown campus, now entering its sixth year, in the Phoenix community was the subject of discussion.
The panel consisted of former Vice President and Executive Vice Provost of the Downtown campus Mernoy Harrison, Downtown campus President Joseph Grossman and ASU Downtown Alive! President Vaughn Hillyard.
Harrison said that a significant challenge in the college’s planning phase was fitting the college environment into a city designed for “working adults.”
“This was one of our big concerns: What could we do to make the Downtown campus atmosphere … attractive to college students,” Harrison said. “It’s improved greatly, believe me, since August of 2006. I think I’ve been most pleased with the development of the academic program and the academic infrastructure. It’s been far beyond anything I would have imagined at this stage.”
Hillyard stressed the importance of increasing student “foot traffic” through downtown businesses. According to Hillyard, one way to promote this traffic is to increase the number of prerequisite classes at the Mercado complex, encouraging students to pass through the Arizona Center.
“We’ve sort of left (the Mercado) by the wayside. And we don’t really make use of that,” he said.
When the topic of housing on the growing campus arose, the discussion turned to the demolished Ramada hotel. After ASU acquired the property, the hotel was considered for student housing or academics before finally being demolished and turned into a parking lot.
“I think it was the perfect example of a mistake that was made that we need to look to in the future,” Hillyard said. “We can’t bring the Ramada back, we can’t take away the green parking lot. It’s something we have to learn from. Next time, I think we need to be a little more receptive to what the community says.”
Grossman presented a slide show on the projected expansion of the Downtown campus. Plans include the construction of an Arizona Center for Law and Society, a 24-story building for student housing and an ASU student recreation center by the YMCA.
Other upcoming downtown ASU projects Grossman mentioned include renovating the parking garage at the University Center and converting the Post Office into a student center.
ASU is aiming to accommodate at least 25,000 students at the Downtown campus by 2020. Grossman said ASU President Michael Crow has been observing the campuses of New York University as a model for university expansion in a downtown environment.
“You also have to realize NYU took hundreds of years to get to where it’s at right now,” Grossman said. “(ASU) is one of the quickest universities that have ever popped up in a downtown area across the country.”
Jim McPherson, a member of Downtown Voices Coalition and former member of the Phoenix Historic Preservation Bond committee, attended the discussion. He echoed Hillyard’s complaint about the demolished Ramada hotel.
“That was a shame. That was a rash decision,” McPherson said. “It had strong bones, it had history, and when we’re talking about sustainability, the greenest building is the one that already exists. To tear it down and crumble it up flies in the face of true sustainability.”
On the other hand, McPherson was optimistic about the proposed student center, especially the decision to renovate the post office for such a purpose.
“It’s a great old building,” he said. “It’s good to have interaction between students and community in civic life because we learn from each other. It’s important to have that as a community resource as well as a university resource.”
Contact the reporter at bkutzler@asu.edu
