Quote:
Originally Posted by phxSUNSfan
ASU West should spin off as Phoenix State University  , and Phoenix College should become a highly selective 4-year liberal arts college; it has that nice historic campus atmosphere. |
Couldn't agree more or ASU West could be called "Central AZ U", they could have the students vote on a name. It should be primarily a teaching school focusing primarily on undergraduates at a reasonable cost, akin to the Cal State schools.
"Graduating" PC into a small liberal arts college just makes too much sense for it not to happen eventually. Boise St and Utah Valley both were once JC's, so it can be done.
Graduating PC would of course create a deficit in the Community College sector, but PC Downtown could fairly easily be expanded into "Downtown Community College." The City already owns a fair amount of land West of Central, South of Roosevelt (the Papas School, et al) where the campus could be built out in an urban style.
I'd like ASU Poly to become Arizona Polytechnic and be a highly selective research intensive school. Obviously it would take it decades and dollars to grow it into something like MIT or Cal Tech (and it likely never would) but it could be at least as good as schools like Missouri University of Science & Tech and the like.
Eventually a supply of well educated college graduates being pumped out of the Valley will create a demand. Companies don't locate re-locate here in part due to poor education. Additionally the more highly educate people a metro produces the higher chance you're at for locally grown start up companies that make it big.