The ASU Alumni Association will honor pioneering faculty members and alumni at is annual Founders' Day Awards Dinner, including three-time alumnus Jeanne Herberger and her husband Gary, who individually and together have contributed nearly $28 million to the development of ASU over the past 30 years.
Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust recently announced investments totaling more than $13 million to improve health care, expand key healthcare and public policy initiatives as well as address Arizona quality of life issues.
Gretchen E. Buhlig, associate vice president of institutional advancement at A.T. Still University and Joshua M. Friedman, senior director of individual giving for National Public Radio, have been appointed to key vice president positions at the ASU Foundation for A New American University.
R. F. "Rick" Shangraw, Jr., senior vice president for Knowledge Enterprise Development at Arizona State University, has been named chief executive officer of the ASU Foundation for a New American University, announced Bill Post, foundation board chairman, and ASU President Michael M. Crow. The appointment takes effect Nov. 1.
ASU President Michael Crow answers the questions:
American universities think they're doing well. As evidence, they point to selective admissions and arcane scholarship. Michael Crow thinks they're grading themselves too easily. He worries about broader indicators of society's health: declining educational attainment, shrinking wages, environmental degradation. These are the standards by which universities should be judged. They need to worry less about who gets in and more about what comes out.
ASU Foundation for A New American University’s Women & Philanthropy group awarded a $100,000 grant to the University Bridge program at Arizona State University. For more than 10 years, University Bridge has assisted first-time freshmen in making a successful transition from high school to ASU. The retention rate for students who participate in University Bridge has consistently exceeded that of their peers in the same entering cohort, and the grant from Women & Philanthropy will support the increasing costs associated with expanding the program from 450 students to 1,000.
University Bridge is one of six ASU programs awarded grants this year by Women & Philanthropy totaling $254,230. The grants, awarded at their 2011 Celebration Event, all support ASU programs designed to help the university address today’s most pressing challenges.
Generosity doesn’t have an age requirement. Nor does a gift have to be a certain size, as long as it’s given in the right spirit, Meghan Cox believes.
Cox, a 2007 ASU graduate, has made her second donation to Barrett, the ASU Honors College, this time a $25,000 pledge over five years to the dean’s fund. Two years ago she made a $5,000 gift establishing five scholarships to help offset the cost for Barrett students of studying overseas.
The Arizona State University Foundation now sails under a new flag: the ASU Foundation for A New American University. This is more than merely a name and logo change — it indicates a profound transformation in the way we work together to advance the university. An essential part of our new business model rests upon our engagement with you, ASU’s strong cadre of supporters and advocates.
Arizona State University has taken more than its fair share of funding cuts to help the state meet its budget deficit. The total cut to ASU so far has been $110 million or 25% of our state appropriation. We have been preparing to take an additional $70 million cut since the governor announced her budget some time ago. Now the Senate has passed a cut of $106.7 million to ASU, which would result in the loss of another 25% of our state funding and set us back to the per-student funding rate of the 1960s (as shown in this graph).
During the last decade, few universities in the country have made the progress ASU has made in academic programs and research and even fewer have been as dedicated to their public service mission as we have been. The Senate's proposed budget cuts will not only set ASU back decades in terms of per-student state funding, but they will also set Arizona's economic recovery back years because ASU is one of the state's most important economic drivers.
If you are concerned about the serious, negative impact of these dramatic budget reductions, I urge you to contact the Arizona State Legislature.
Michael M. Crow President Arizona State University http://president.asu.edu http://twitter.com/asupresoffice