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Volume 41, Issue 13
April 20, 2004
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April 20, 2004
Legend's View:
New ASU plan may kill current ‘campus life’
Arizona State University President Michael Crow recently unveiled plans
to move several programs and thousands of students from Tempe to other
campuses. It may positively affect the school’s reputation, but
one crucial factor of college – the campus life – may suffer.
The plans to move programs to ASU’s east campus (to be renamed Polytechnic
Campus), downtown campus (to be renamed Capital Center) and ASU West will
allow the university to host more students and allow for enhanced graduate-study
programs. However, students may find it harder to be involved in campus
life as a result.
A portion of the MCC student body already understands this effect. Red
Mountain students have said they often feel they are not “part”
of the MCC campus, as evidenced by lower student activity on the campus.
Location – and separation – matters, especially to undergraduates
hoping to live the college life as they start their studies. When the
community is difficult to define, participation in the community declines.
With programs and students being split over several campuses, survival
of some clubs on all campuses seems tenuous at best. The result at ASU
may be four campuses which are one university in name only.
The new ASU plan includes eventually moving six programs, including the
school’s journalism program and media outlets, from the Tempe campus
to the downtown Phoenix campus.
To take the place of these programs, ASU plans to add research programs
and scientists – no doubt a boon to ASU academically, but hardly
the stuff of student life.
To those who would contend student activities and a community feeling
are unimportant beyond rallies and keg parties, consider:
· Political, scientific, social and cultural inquiry and activism
often start as the result of undergraduates and are fostered in a community
that encourages such extracurricular pursuits.
· Involvement in clubs and college activities has been shown time
and again to increase students’ chances for success, both academically
and socially.
· Most colleges and universities hold as part of their mission
to prepare students for the “real world,” in which a community
sense and responsibility are essential.
College clubs and the college community are much more than fliers, free
pizza and decorated booths along the lawn.
Crow told employees and students April 8 that although it would be a “tough
process,” the plan would ensure that by 2012 ASU “would be
on the path to becoming the next great university of America shaped by
its era, its place and its environment.”
Diversification may prove to be the best path, but the architects of this
“university of America” should make sure that it is also shaped
by the needs of its students.
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