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Posted Aug 19, 2007, 2:42 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 209
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Quote:
Downtown ASU a work in progress
Jahna Berry
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 19, 2007 12:00 AM
It's a tough juggling act for a 1-year-old.
When students return this week, Arizona State University's downtown campus will have a lot of balls in the air: construction, teaching, and pleasing taxpayers who invested millions, including $220 million from a 2006 bond, to pump life into the heart of Phoenix.
Tuesday will mark the first anniversary of the campus designed to create a vibrant university community that would inject jobs, foot traffic and electricity into Phoenix's core.
For ASU, the strategy is part of a broader plan to grow the university and create a campus focused on public service and policy. University and Phoenix leaders give themselves high marks, saying the first year was a success even though the campus is far from complete.
More than 3,000 students attended downtown classes last year, but official numbers for this year won't be ready until September. By 2015, up to 15,000 students - nearly the current size of Northern Arizona University - will take classes taught by downtown faculty.
"We are adding an entire educational sector to downtown Phoenix," said ASU President Michael Crow, who called the campus "one of the largest developments in the history of downtown."
This year, people will see more construction, more students and a stronger effort to improve students' experience. Some rough spots may fade with time. Others, such as the demand for more cheap parking, aren't going away.
Students say they love the professors, small downtown classes and cutting-edge classrooms, but they are giving the fledgling campus a different grade: Incomplete.
"They could have made it more livable," said David Bacerra, a social-work graduate student.
Work in progress
Last year, ASU launched a high-profile campus in the heart of Phoenix. It moved three colleges downtown, converted the Ramada Inn Downtown into a dorm and took over several downtown buildings. A shuttle service ferried students between the downtown campus and the Tempe campus.
Most of the ASU buildings lie between First Avenue and Third Street, Van Buren and Fillmore streets. ASU's Mercado complex is near Fifth Street and Van Buren.
Key parts of the campus haven't been built yet or are under construction:
• The first 13-story tower of a $150 million student housing complex, called Taylor Place, won't be ready until 2008. After a second tower is complete in 2009, the complex will house 1,300 students.
• The $71 million journalism school is to open in 2008 and is expected to bring more than 1,000 undergraduate students downtown.
• A $15 million expansion for the nursing school that will provide 50,000 square feet for classrooms and offices on the southeast corner of Second Street and Fillmore probably won't break ground until 2008.
• A student union, planned for the bottom floor of the post office at 522 N. Central Ave., is not expected to open until 2010 or later. The project, which includes relocating the post office's distribution center to another site, could cost $4 million.
• The campus quad, a $30 million 2.7-acre park called the Downtown Civic Space. The first phase is scheduled to be done by 2008, but it won't be complete until 2009.
Craving a college vibe
Until those projects are done and more shops and restaurants stay open late, the campus will be a turnoff to many students, some say.
"If you were looking for a real college atmosphere, it wasn't there," said Kaylin Hasselquist, 19, who lived in a dorm downtown last year. She plans to live in Tempe this year.
Since she had to take several classes in Tempe, Hasselquist says she spent a lot of time commuting back and forth from Phoenix shuttling between the campuses. At night, there was little for students under 21 to do, she said.
With the nursing school based downtown, Hasselquist is considering leaving ASU to go to nursing school back home in Minnesota after this year. The lack of downtown amenities will be a "deciding factor" if she goes home, she said.
Other students raved about the high-tech feel of the new campus: There's wireless Internet access, sleek computers, new study areas and tricked-out classrooms that make PowerPoint presentations easy.
"The classrooms last year were wonderful," said Lynn Maupin, a graduate student in the school of nursing.
Most students interviewed, however, said ASU needs more affordable parking.
Throughout ASU, student parking permits rose again last year. Students shell out $180 to $670 annually for a permit. Many students say they parked in cheaper, public lots, but those spaces often filled up during the day. Another rate hike is planned next year.
There are no plans to provide cheaper parking, the school says. The price hikes are part of a three-year increase that began in 2006. ASU's transit program needs the additional money to keep providing campus shuttles, free bus passes for students and other services, the school says.
More activities
Crow says the University has tried to respond to some specific student concerns by getting input from downtown students, investing in safety measures and creating a student center at the Arizona Center.
"In general, what we are hearing is that students are quite happy," he said. "They don't like the hassle of the construction, but that's seen as an aggravation by everybody."
Another university official stressed that the downtown campus isn't designed to have the traditional feel that students would get 10 miles away in Tempe.
"We knew that we would be a different experience," said Mary Kay Harton, assistant director of student engagement. "If they want Mill Avenue, the large numbers (of students), we can't provide that for them."
Of the 167 students who lived last year in the renovated Ramada, now called Residential Commons, 40 will return. Residential Commons is the only ASU dorm that allows students to return after their freshman year is over.
But school officials also plan to strengthen student activities, which they say is a key to retention and student success.
They have started an online calendar to spread word about events, looking for ways to involve graduate students and partnering with more local businesses. This year, orange-clad ambassadors from Copper Square will show students around downtown during the first week of school. Many students didn't know what restaurants and shops were available, Harton said.
The temporary student union also will try to enhance activities, offering events on most Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, she said. Last year, few students used the temporary union, at the Arizona Center nearby, because it didn't open until the spring semester.
The ASU Wells Fargo Student Center has the hang-out essentials: plasma TVs, games and meeting space. But it pales when compared with what ASU has planned for the future: Downtown students lounging on the bottom floor of the post office after a multimillion-dollar face lift.
The space will spill onto the planned $30 million park.
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This is the first time I have heard the name “Taylor Place” for the dorms; not bad in my opinion. It's also nice to hear they have plans for that empty lot on the south side of Fillmore between 2nd and 3rd Streets, although 50,000 square feet doesn’t seem like much.
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I lived in chicago when millenium park was being built, and many, many people were not happy about it. I mean, I couldn't wait for it but there were many people really pissed off for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which was talk of a "bean" sculpture. You're right about it being a tourist draw now but, trust me, Chicagoans were not happy about it until months after it was finished when tourists starting showing up.
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