HE DIGS IT
Cronkite visits downtown Phoenix campus for groundbreaking

Sporting a shiny new hard hat and clutching a large shovel, legendary newsman Walter Cronkite dug into the dirt at the Feb. 21 groundbreaking for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Arizona PBS affiliate Eight/KAET-TV at ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus.

The six-story, 223,000-square-foot complex will be located on the northern end of the campus. The journalism school's portion of the new building will be five times the size of its current home at the Tempe campus, and come fully equipped with cutting-edge amenities for the building's newsrooms, computer labs, TV studios, classrooms, offices and auditorium. Eight, Arizona's PBS affiliate, also will occupy the new building. Funding for the $71 million project stems from a $223 million bond passed by Phoenix voters in March 2006 to develop an ASU campus in Phoenix.