Partnership with Phoenix earns ASU Kellogg award

The vision for a new ASU campus in the heart of downtown Phoenix initially was conceived on a napkin at a breakfast meeting between ASU President Michael Crow and Phoenix’s mayor, Phil Gordon, five years ago.

ASU’s new Downtown Phoenix campus became a reality after that fortuitous meeting, when Phoenix voters overwhelmingly approved a $223 million bond for construction of the campus in 2006. The campus has evolved into a crucial element in the revitalization of the downtown area – and an entity that embodies social responsibility, access and excellence in education.

In recognition of the extraordinary partnership between the university and the city, ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus has won a 2008 Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award in the Western Division. Scholarship winners are awarded $6,000 and move on to compete for the 2008 C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award, which is presented annually by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, A Public University Association.

The Outreach Scholarship and Magrath Awards recognize four-year public universities that have redesigned their learning, discovery and engagement functions to become sympathetically and productively involved with their communities. The winner of the Magrath award will be announced during the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges annual meeting from Nov. 9-11 in Chicago.

ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus is one of five educational institutions throughout the United States to be granted outreach scholarships.

Other winners are Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Tennessee State University and the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry.

“This honor clearly demonstrates the interconnected relationship between Phoenix and the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus,” Crow says. “This partnership has brought together two dynamic partners working for the betterment of the city and the welfare of its citizens.”
Gordon concurs.

“I am so proud of our innovative partnership with ASU,” he says. “Our downtown campus has brought new vitality to the entire city, and provides new access to higher education for those who live and work downtown – and, in fact, to all our residents. Together, we are creating innovative programs that are already influencing our entire community and beyond. Not too bad for a campus that, just five years ago, was nothing more than a sketch on a paper napkin.”

A few examples of the many outreach and engagement efforts emanating from ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus include:

• College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation students tending to basic health care needs of the homeless at Central Arizona Shelter Services.

• Working to break the cycle in partnership with Grace Lutheran Church by providing health care and family planning services to low-income patients in downtown Phoenix who frequently lack health insurance.

• Bringing science and math resources to the Phoenix Union High School District in collaboration with ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences downtown.

• Attracting the Alliance for Innovation to the campus through efforts by the School of Public Affairs. The alliance is an organization of more than 400 U.S. cities working to bring innovative practices to local governments.