ASU Fact Sheet

Students:  

• Twelve ASU students have been named among the top 20 undergraduates in the nation to the USA Today All-USA Academic First Team since the competition began 17 years ago. Only Harvard and Duke have had more students win the honor.
• ASU is fourth in the nation for public universities winning Fulbright grants to study overseas. Seventeen ASU students have been awarded Fulbrights for next year, a record for the university.
• The number of National Merit Scholars at ASU has increased substantially since 2002. There are more than 600 National Merit Scholars enrolled at ASU and more than 300 National Hispanic Scholars.

• ASU awarded more than $100 million in scholarships and grants in the 2008-09 academic year, a substantial commitment to helping students succeed.
• ASU students have more than 250 majors and more than 12,000 classes from which to choose.
• Enrollment for the fall 2008 semester was 67,082 with 52,734 students at the Tempe campus; 9,572 at the West campus; 9,614 at the Polytechnic campus; and 8,431 at the Downtown Phoenix campus.
• Of the 67,082 students, 53,298 were undergraduates and 13,784 were graduate students.

 Sustainability:  

• ASU is home to the nation’s first School of Sustainability, established in 2007. The school addresses critical challenges facing the world by bringing together disciplines and leaders to create and share knowledge, train scholars and practitioners, and develop practical solutions to pressing environmental, economic, and social challenges of sustainability.
• Princeton Review named ASU as one of the nation’s greenest universities and Kaplan College guide cited ASU as one of the nation’s top 25 environmentally responsible universities. Sierra Magazine has named ASU as one of the “coolest” schools.
• By the end of 2009, ASU will have one of the largest solar energy installations (with more than 10 megawatts of power) of any U.S. university.
• Arizona State University scientists are developing cyanobacteria and algae as sources of environmentally friendly fuel that are efficiently produced by solar energy conversion. Unlike other biofuels, ASU’s production processes can be carried out in closed systems on barren lands, saving farmland for food production, avoiding increases in food prices and saving water resources.
• The Decision Center for a Desert City is a National Science Foundation sponsored center that focuses on water management decisions in central Arizona in light of its rapid population growth and urbanization, political and economic systems, desert climate and global climate change.
• ASU as an institution is dedicated to sustainability through wide-ranging initiatives such as a university recycling program.

  Research:

• ASU is a research institution that fosters an environment of discovery, attracting scientists from throughout the world. For example, the recent Origins symposium at ASU featured more than 70 of the world’s leading scientists, including eight Nobel laureates, who explored questions about the origin of the universe, life, consciousness and culture.
• Key research projects underway at ASU include: working toward a vaccine to fight breast cancer; developing a system to clean chemicals from drinking water; and transforming the United States’ centralized power grid into a “smart grid,” that can store and distribute green energy. 
• ASU is home to the Institute of Human Origins (IHO) and its founding director, Donald Johanson, who discovered Lucy, the iconic 3.2 million-year-old fossilized skeleton. Through research, education and research sponsorship, IHO advances scientific understanding of human evolution and its contemporary relevance.
• ASU computer scientists worked with a forensic anthropologist to create a forensic reconstruction of the young George Washington. While Washington graces the front of dollar bills, there are no photographs or accurate depictions of early periods of the life of our founding father. Computer imaging, written records and other data were used for the reconstruction.
• ASU partners with businesses that seek cutting-edge knowledge. Recent examples are investments by U.S.-based Solterra Renewable Technologies Inc. and Nitto Denko Technical-NDT of Japan. These companies help fund research in nanomaterials and quantum dots in solar cells and solid state lighting.

  Diversity: ·        ASU’s newly named President Barack Obama Scholars program offers thousands of students an opportunity to go to college. In its first year of the newly-named program, more than 1,600 incoming students will receive financial aid in fall 2009. 

• ASU welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 nations across the globe. ASU has a diversity plan called, “Building blocks for success through people, programming and policies.” The plan outlines ASU’s commitment to diversity and contains several initiatives.
• ASU has some of the highest numbers of National Hispanic Scholars in the country. In 2008, there were 324 National Hispanic Scholars enrolled at ASU, up from 75 in 2002.
• ASU has formed strategic partnerships with countries such as China where the university is securing an enduring niche in higher education, research and policy. ASU has also formed strategic partnerships with: Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico; Sichuan University in China; Dublin City University in Ireland; Monash University in Australia; and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

·        In addition to its strategic partnerships, ASU has formed relationships with nearly 200 institutions worldwide.

  ASU highlights:

·        Arizona State University was created by a vote of the people of Arizona in 1958, transforming Arizona State College into an institution that could meet the needs of the growing community. In 2006, citizens again cast their votes in favor of higher education, by approving a $223-million City of Phoenix bond issue to create the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.

• ASU has four campuses throughout the metropolitan Phoenix area: Tempe campus; Downtown Phoenix campus; West campus in west Phoenix; and the Polytechnic campus in east Mesa. 
• ASU contributes $3.2 billion dollars into the state’s economy each year and creates tens of thousands of jobs.
• U.S. News & World Report named ASU as one of the best “Up-and-Coming Schools” in the 2009 edition of “America’s Best Colleges.”  This new ranking highlights colleges and universities that have recently made the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity and facilities.

• More than 40 new centers and institutes have been launched since 2002 when Michael Crow became president of the university, including the American Indian Policy and Leadership Development Center, Center for Metabolic Biology, ASU Biodesign Institute and the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship.
• ASU has launched 16 new schools since 2002, most of which are in nontraditional areas. Examples include the School of Earth and Space Exploration; School of Criminology and Criminal Justice; and the School of Computing and Informatics.