Crow addresses change for higher education

ASU President Michael Crow took his talk of change for higher education to Washington, D.C., April 3-4 to deliver the eighth annual Sackler Lecture, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences Sackler Colloquium.

Crow spoke about the inherent role of universities and their need for change at this time during the colloquia on “Linking Knowledge with Acton for Sustainable Development.”

If ever there was a time to change the way we operate, now is that time as we tackle the enormous issue of sustainability on our planet, he said.

“We have intellectually come full circle to what our pre-organized science and pre-university ancestors knew all along – that our collective relationship with our natural environment requires that we think at scale and across time,” Crow said. “Universities, because of their ability to create new knowledge across numerous dimensions and their role in creating the general state of knowledge that serves as the basis for most major decisions regarding our scientific and technological understanding of nature, possess a unique responsibility to advance their design in as creative, innovative and thoughtful a way possible.”

Crow was invited to give the Sackler Lecture, which is featured at the end of the first day of the colloquium. The Sackler Colloquium addresses an advanced scientific topic of broad interest, usually cutting across two more traditional disciplines. It provides a novel opportunity for up to 250 leading researchers in a rapidly developing field to meet and interact.