ASU recognized for promoting and celebrating diversity

Arizona State University has been awarded the Greater Phoenix Urban League’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Corporate Award, which recognizes organizations that exhibit genuine concern for the community in promoting and celebrating diversity, racial harmony, and social and economic equality.

“ASU is proud to be recognized by the Greater Phoenix Urban League with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Corporate Award,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “We’re committed to the success of all students and employees at the university through an environment that fosters inclusion and empowerment. Our use-inspired research benefits the community, and we work to bring about real and lasting change for the public good.”

The design of the New American University at ASU includes the commitment to measure success not by who we exclude, but by who we include and how they succeed.

The university has grown considerably since 2002 by:

• dramatically increasing the number of minority students it graduates. For bachelor’s degrees, the university saw an increase of 1,641 to 3,720 graduates in the past decade, a 127-percent increase. For graduate degrees, the increase was from 400 to 1,025 graduates, a 156-percent increase. Additionally, ASU was named by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education to its list of “Top 100 Producers of Minority Degrees 2012."

• increasing the total number of minority faculty members by 63.3 percent, from 436 to 712. The overall number of minority employees has grown by 25 percent from 2,781 to 3,476.

• increasing faculty numbers among individual minorities: 82.9 percent for Asians; 41.7 percent for Hispanics/Latinos; 33.3 percent for American Indians/Alaska Natives; and 22 percent for African-Americans/Blacks.

• launching the President Barack Obama Scholars Program to expand university access to match Arizona’s diversification and growth.