THE NEW GOLD STANDARD: DESIGN IMPERATIVES OF A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

DESIGN IMPERATIVE 8: GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

A moment ago I said that research and scholarship know no disciplinary boundaries. Nor does research and scholarship stop at border crossings. Global engagement is critical to the advancement of Arizona State University as well as metropolitan Phoenix and the rest of the state. Just as our cultures and societies are increasingly intertwined, so too are the economies of the world. In order to enhance global engagement, we must seek to understand it, and become increasingly aware of issues and developments around the world. We must develop tools to facilitate learning, and engage in dialogue to discern the myriad complexities of global engagement.

Universities have historically played a significant role in these matters, performing critical convening, training, and analysis functions. At present, Arizona State University is woefully underpowered in its resources related to global engagement. We must devote careful consideration both to the expansion of the global emphasis of many of our programs, as well as the expansion of the overall global engagement dialogue.

It is difficult to imagine metropolitan Phoenix growing to a city the size of London, as some predict, without substantially expanding its overall capacity to be linked globally. The mechanisms that are available to facilitate global engagement are numerous, but will take time to design and deploy. During the interim we will focus on building linkages with our international neighbors, as well as expanding the capacity of some of our existing programs to act on a global basis.