What's new this semester? A Starbucks truck, for starters

Students and faculty arriving on ASU campuses this week will find a few changes, including a new coffee shop – on wheels.

The Starbucks mobile truck, a pilot service being tested this fall at Arizona State University and two other college campuses, offers nearly a full menu of drinks and food, and is able to move to various locations around campus during the day.

The truck was a pleasant surprise to those looking for a quick pick-me-up on their first day of classes.

“People are surprised to see it, and then they’re excited,” said Ike Van Skike, district manager for Starbucks licensed stores. “ASU faculty and staff tell me this is great for them because it’s an area of the campus that doesn’t have a lot of food service.”

The mobile truck, a licensed store operated through Aramark, reportedly sold out within hours of their first day in service.

Starbucks says the trucks will adjust their daily hours on each campus according to the needs of their customers – all 82,000 of them.

The move to all-digital

In the merciless shift to digital, the university’s student-run newspaper is no exception. After more than 120 years of printing, the State Press moved to a new all-digital format Aug. 1.

Jason Manning, director of ASU Student Media, says the State Press it the first major university student newspaper to go exclusively digital.

“We continue to innovate in order to serve our readers and our student journalists,” Manning said in a press release issued July 16. “Arizona State University, our primary audience, are voracious consumers of digital content, and our student journalists are talented producers of that content.”

Read the full press release.

The State Press got its start in 1890 as a one-page supplement on the back page of the East Valley Tribune. Called the Normal Echo, the paper became a stand-alone weekly tabloid in 1906 and changed its name to the Tempe Normal Student.

As the years progressed, Tempe Normal School’s name continued to change, and so did the paper. By the 1940s, the publication was known as the Arizona State Press. With a growing distribution, the State Press began publishing four issues a week in 1964, and then added a Monday edition in 1984.

Last year, the State Press moved to a weekly publication, increasing its emphasis on multimedia content and long-form storytelling; Manning says this emphasis will remain, but in a more thorough, timely and visual way than before.

My ASU

Over the summer, Arizona State University updated the My ASU service support tools to better serve and connect with students, faculty and staff.

Among the updates, ASU released an online service center to all students to better integrate, personalize and streamline service for students, and also made access to IT and HR help for the entire community of users much easier than before.

Now, with the new and improved service tools, ASU students, faculty and staff can get questions answered 24/7 through live chat, get immediate IT help and submit and track their requests for assistance, among other things.

Read more about the My ASU enhancements for students, and also for faculty/staff.

Programs and degrees

At a large public research university, such as ASU, each semester ushers in new degrees and areas of study. This fall is no different.

Included in the new offerings this semester are a bachelor's degree and certificate in actuarial science, a graduate certificate in literary translation, a master's degree in applied behavioral analysis, a graduate certificate in non-fiction writing and publishing, and 11 new undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered through ASU Online.

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication has also launched a new sports journalism program, as well as a Super Bowl reporting class.