GOING DOWNTOWN
Urban Phoenix campus opens its doors

Maroon and gold are the two newest and brightest colors seen in Phoenix, as ASU has opened the doors to its Downtown Phoenix campus. City leaders and university officials celebrated the opening of the new campus Aug. 15 in the University Center lobby with employees, friends, businesses and the public. The crowd listened to remarks by Gov. Janet Napolitano, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and ASU President Michael Crow before taking a tour of the various
campus facilities.

Nearly 6,200 students were registered to take at least one course at the downtown campus this semester, and 600 staff and faculty relocated downtown to their new offices and classrooms throughout the summer.

The Downtown Phoenix campus is geared toward city-minded students attracted to service- oriented careers. It offers degree programs that focus on serving the city, whether it is improving its citizens’ health, addressing the community’s social and economic needs, teaching the youth or informing residents on key issues.

To open the first phase, ASU relocated several colleges downtown, including: the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation; the College of Public Programs (comprising the schools of Public Affairs, Social Work and Community Resources and Development); and University College, which serves the university’s exploratory majors and working adults. The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Eight/KAET-TV, Phoenix’s PBS affiliate, will move downtown in 2008.

By 2020, the campus will have 15,000 students across 20 acres. Many of the parking lots and one-story buildings that exist today around the campus will be replaced with more vertical buildings and community areas, indicated Mernoy Harrison, vice president and provost of the Downtown Phoenix campus.

“One of the hallmarks of an urban campus is that the campus itself is more vertical in nature, rather than horizontal,” he said.

For more about the downtown Phoenix campus, visit http://www.asu.edu/downtownphoenix/.

Polytechnic campus adds air traffic degree

The Arizona Board of Regents gave approval at its June Meeting for ASU to develop a bachelor’s degree in Air Traffic Management at ASU’s Polytechnic Campus.

The Polytechnic campus has offered classes in the profession for a number of years, but not a full-fledged degree, said William McCurry, chair of the Department of Aeronautical Management Technology. He indicated that the campus would be working closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the degree program receives certification from the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative. Students graduating from programs with that designation are given preferred status by potential employers.

The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that in the next 10 years, more than 12,500 air traffic controllers will be needed to replace those leaving the profession. Retirement is mandatory for controllers, and many of the those hired by the FAA in the early 1980s are approaching retirement. Because of the high-stress environment in the profession, it’s conceivable that 24,000 individuals will be needed to start programs across the country soon, in order to be available when demand is at its highest.

Courses for the air traffic management degree are being offered this fall; for information, call (480) 727-1381 or visit the program’s Web site at www.eastair.poly.asu.edu.

MYSTERY MOVIE
Archivists unveil footage of WWII relocation center

Linda Whitaker, an archivist at the Arizona Historical Foundation, came across a large brown film canister last fall as she was preparing an exhibition on World War II Japanese internment camps, bearing the cryptic words “Poston Color Dupe.”

Not knowing what to do with the film she called Brian Davis, an academic associate for media development at ASU’s Hayden Library. The 16mm film was a 25-minute, silent color film about Poston, one of the two Japanese internment camps set up in Arizona during World War II. The camp was located in La Paz County, 12 miles south of the town of Parker.

The film was in fragile shape after more than 60 years, Davis noted, but he was able to inspect it visually. After replacing most of the original splicing on the film, Davis used the Department of Archives and Special Collections’ film-to-video converter to make a VHS copy of the film. He then connected
the film converter to a digital video bridge, captured it on his computer, and finally produced DVDs for public viewing. He believes that there was, at one time, a narration.

The first half of the film is devoted to scenes of almost frantic construction, as contractor Del Webb’s 5,000-member construction crew sawed wood, poured foundations, nailed boards and installed utilities. The film continues with scenes of Japanese-Americans arriving at Poston, many wearing what appears to be their Sunday best, and features shots of life in the hot, dusty desert camp.

No information has surfaced so far regarding who made the film or why it was made. The donor of the film, W. Wade Head, director of the Poston camp from 1942 to 1944, is deceased. None of Whitaker’s inquiries into the film’s production have yielded answers.

“I thought it had been made by the federal government, due to the levels of access that those making the film had. This was a highly secured site, and I can’t imagine anyone but the government being allowed to film there,” said Davis.

“What makes the film powerful is the editing that follows the construction scenes,” Davis says. “The camera pans, block after block, across the newly constructed camp and then fades into another panning shot.

“This time, it’s block after block of abandoned Japanese-American-owned restaurants and shops.”

No matter if or when answers to the questions about the film’s origins are ever answered, Whitaker said, “’Poston Dupe’ is a powerful reminder, lest we forget.”

CRONKITE SCHOOL TO HOST NATIONAL BUSINESS JOURNALISM CENTER (back to top)

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication has teamed up with the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to operate the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. The endeavor is a three-year, $3.5 million-dollar grant funded project.

The center, created three years ago, is a national program devoted to improving the quality of business journalism. Initial funding went to the American Press Institute in Reston, Va., in 2003 to create the
center after conducting national research that showed a strong need for improvement in U.S. business journalism.

Nearly 4,000 journalists from 1,200 newsrooms nationwide have participated in the center’s free daylong business journalism workshops, specialized journalism workshops and business journalism online seminars and tutorials. The programs are open to business editors and reporters and other
journalists seeking to improve their business and financial news coverage. The center also operates BusinessJournalism.org, a comprehensive Web site designed specifically for journalists interested in business coverage.

In its new headquarters at ASU, the center will continue to offer the free one-day workshops, but also expand its programs to include free weeklong online seminars and shorter self-directed tutorials on topics specifically requested by business journalists, and will develop an internship program to place business journalism students from across the country at publications each summer.

UNIVERSITY CREATES SCHOOL OF MATERIALS
(back to top)

ASU’s drive to accelerate its advance to the forefront of technology innovation is taking a major stride with the creation of the School of Materials.

It’s in the materials science and engineering labs where the building blocks of the future are being developed, says Subhash Mahajan, founding director of the school, which began offering classes this fall.

Studies in the science and engineering of metals, ceramics, polymers, composites and functional materials will provide students the knowledge required for a broad array of pursuits in the field. They will be trained in the materials aspects of microelectronics, nanotechnology and other technologies critical to biomedical, communications and energy industries.

“Throughout history, human progress has been tied to the advances in materials,” Mahajan says. “Every age of civilization, like the Bronze Age or the Iron Age, is associated with a material. Today we are in the Materials Age.”

The School of Materials is designed as a transdisciplinary unit, combining faculty, resources and the oversight of the deans from ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

The school will be among the larger materials science and engineering programs in the United States, with 70 undergraduate and 130 graduate students, and initially about 20 faculty members and 35 faculty affiliates.
The school is expected to grow to 100 undergraduate and 150 graduate students in the next three years.

PUBLIC ALLIES ARIZONA TO AID NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS (back to top)

ASU’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management will launch Public Allies Arizona in the Phoenix community this fall. The three-year, renewable grant, from the Corporation for National Service and in partnership with the Public Allies national office, will place 25 dedicated, service-minded young people in 10-month apprenticeships in nonprofit partner organizations.

The value of the grant over the funding period is estimated at $900,000. Timed to coincide with the opening of ASU’s new Downtown Phoenix campus, the program is focusing on Phoenix area nonprofits during its first year, with a special emphasis also placed on strengthening communities of color.

The young adults aged 18-30 selected for the program will receive training in professional and leadership skills. Once matched with a nonprofit organization, they will be responsible for projects designed to influence the community.

“All allies are involved in projects where they work directly with those in need,” says Paul Schmidt, chief executive officer of Public Allies.

Allies have served more than 300,000 people nationwide and recruited more than 30,000 volunteers to help them influence the lives of children, families and communities through projects in youth development, public health, and community development.

Public Allies was founded in 1992. It has expanded to 14 communities, including the new Phoenix site. More information can be found by visiting the Web site (http://publicallies.asu.edu) or by calling (602) 496-0500.

HAVING A BALL
Golf-management students use outreach to spread love of game

Students in the Professional Golf Management Club at ASU’s Polytechnic campus are taking the game of golf to the streets, engaging would-be duffers of all ages in the game through several outreach activities in the East Valley.

The club has been offering community outreach programs since the spring semester of 2005, when it was awarded a community action grant from Associated Students of ASU to establish youth golf clinics for the East Valley Boys & Girls Club Williams Campus branch.

Students work with the Boys & Girls Club members, who are between the ages of 6 and 14, during weekly 75-minute sessions, as part of the TARGET program. Students learn six core lessons that are representative of the word TARGET – “Take aim,” “Anyone can play,” “Respect,” and so on.

In addition to the Boys & Girls Club members, the golf management club also works with adolescents enrolled in Project Challenge, a military-based educational program for high school dropouts run by the Arizona National Guard. The youngsters attend clinics to learn about golf and the skills
needed to play, and how those skills can transfer to everyday life situations.

In addition to the programs for young people, which are held on the Golf Driving Range at the Polytechnic campus, PGM Club members have also been holding on-site clinics at Leisure World, an active adult community in Mesa. The clinics run four to five weeks, which include several weeks of instruction and an on-course scramble. The clinics are held at the Leisure World community’s golf course.

Curt Hudek, director of the Professional Golf Management program at Polytechnic, calls the outreach activities a “great learning tool” for his students.

“The teachers, basically ASU students, are working with audiences that range in age from 6 years old to senior citizens,” Hudek says.

Hudek adds that the outreach activities fit in well with the testing requirements for the PGA, which represents golf pros teaching at courses around the country.

“The teaching aspect allows ASU students to meet their golf clinic requirements without having to leave the campus or travel very far,” Hudek says.

The club is interested in expanding its outreach to Valley schools dedicated to serving homeless children, according to Peter McSparran, PGM student and outreach director. For information on the outreach programs, contact the PGM office at (480) 727-1180.

HE GETS AN "A"

Long-time ASU supporter John Bebbling ‘71 B.S. (above) participates in the annual whitewashing of the “A” on A Mountain on Aug. 18.

Bebbling, who provides the paint for year-round maintenance of the “A,” was joined by scores of ASU freshmen and returning students. The event capped a week’s worth of welcoming events as students returned to the Tempe campus and geared up for the 2006-07 school year.

SPACE TO GROW
ASU announces new School of Earth and Space Exploration

Great discoveries are made by those who ask fundamental questions and those who are capable of building the apparatus to answer them. The next
generation of explorers—those who will probe Earth’s interior, examine the oceans’ depths and travel to Mars and beyond—will need to be part scientist and part engineer. That cross-training, starting at the undergraduate level, is the premise behind Arizona State University’s new School of Earth and Space Exploration.

Housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Earth and Space Exploration, which officially became a school on July 1, will form strong linkages with ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.

Science and engineering depend upon each other, yet, in the world of traditional higher education, the two disciplines are inexplicably separated. Most science majors graduate with only a rudimentary understanding of engineering practices, and many of the best engineering schools require only a few subjects in the fundamental sciences.

Essentially, the new school will create a higher education experience in which both the scientists who ask the questions and the engineers who create the capability to answer them are integral parts of the same exploration team. The school is designed to integrate curriculum and study across earth sciences, planetary science, astrophysics and engineering.

As part of this initiative, the department of geological sciences will move as a whole into the new school, as will the Center for Meteorite Studies. The astronomy faculty also will move into the new school and the department of physics and astronomy will be renamed the department of physics. New faculty will be hired in astrophysics, systems engineering, geological sciences and related fields.

The school will headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of geology Kip Hodges coming on board as its founding director. Hodges was co-director of MIT’s Earth System Initiative, which was formed in 2002 to encourage and coordinate multidisciplinary research and education efforts in Earth sciences and engineering. He was also was a co-director of the institute’s Terrascope Program, a learning community for first-year MIT students.

Additional information about the school is available online at www.sese.asu.edu.

ON A ROLL
Enrollment expansion continues

Enrollment at ASU this fall has reached a record 63,278 students, almost 4 percent higher than last year’s 61,033.

ASU’s enrollment has grown by nearly 8,000 students since 2002, when its mission emerged to become a high-quality, high-access model of President Michael Crow’s vision of the New American University.

“ASU is a university on the rise in the second-fastest-growing state in the nation,” says Jim Rund, vice president for university student initiatives. “Our goal is to serve the people of Arizona – to build high-quality programs and expand our capacity to meet the growing demand for a university education.”

At the new Downtown Phoenix campus, ASU enrolled 6,229 students, with the colleges of public programs, nursing and health care innovation and the University College having relocated downtown from the Tempe campus this fall.

At the Tempe campus, 51,234 students are enrolled, comparing closely with last year’s 51,612, even with the shift of three colleges downtown.

Enrollment at the Polytechnic campus in Mesa grew to 6,545 from 4,865 last year. Enrollment at the West campus grew 6 percent to 8,211 from 7,734 last year.

Campus enrollment figures total more than the overall unduplicated count of 63,278, as ASU students take advantage of the courses that are offered by departments throughout the university, not just at the campus that is the student’s academic home, says Lou Ann Denny, associate vice president and university registrar.

Projections for the incoming freshman class profile continue to indicate that ASU will have the largest freshman class of any public university in the nation this fall. ASU also is projected to have the most national scholars and the most diverse class in the university’s history.