After 14 years of providing outstanding opportunities to engage with some of Arizona State University’s top faculty and students, we are pleased to announce an exciting new development for our program. President’s Community Enrichment Programs is now Presidential Engagement Programs (PEP) — an evolution that combines a renewed focus on informing the community about ASU’s mission and vision with efforts to connect the community and the university on every level.
Our new name better captures the breadth and impact of our programs. Outreach events offered throughout Arizona as well as in major cities around the country allow you to connect with ASU no matter where you are — whether you’re in our immediate “community” or not.
The new name also signifies a call to action for all those who attend PEP events. As a Presidential Engagement Programs participant, we want you to engage with us, becoming part of a constantly growing family that advocates for and supports ASU. It is our hope that your participation in PEP will deepen your understanding of the world and of ASU’s commitment to making change for the better, and will inspire you to further enrich your own life and our future by joining ASU in its mission to discover solutions that will change the world.
Though our name has changed, our mission has not. PEP events will continue to engage the public in current issues, highlighting ASU’s engagement with and progress toward solving the challenges of the 21st century. We are still offering new, exciting programs that connect our participants with the intellectual power of a New American University. I invite you to be a part of it, and I look forward to seeing you during the 2012–13 season.
ASU transforming higher educationArizona State University is the largest public university in the U.S., and Dr. Michael Crow has been its president for the last decade. He talks to Charlie Rose about his work and the role education can and should continue to play in our lives.
College Degrees, Designed by the NumbersWith 72,000 students, ASU is both the country's largest public university and a hotbed of data-driven experiments. One core effort, eAdvisor, is a degree-monitoring system that keeps tabs on how students are doing in their majors. ASU's retention rate rose to 84 percent from 77 percent in recent years, a change that university Provost Betty Capaldi credits largely to eAdvisor.