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Posted Aug 17, 2008, 4:30 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2004
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http://www.azcentral.com/community/p...17asu0817.html
At last, ASU Downtown takes shape - Expanded Phoenix campus welcomes 1,500 new students
by Jahna Berry - Aug. 17, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
For two years, Phoenix has had a taste of downtown college life. This year, Arizona State University officials say, the city will see the main course. A new journalism-school building and a 13-story dorm will open their doors for the first time this semester, but the big boost will come from the students themselves. Unlike many of the campus' current students who are commuters, graduate students and the like, the new students - as many as 1,500 - are more likely to be underclassmen. In addition to those who will live on campus, many more will hang out downtown.
Business owners have wondered if the taxpayer-funded ASU satellite campus will deliver on its promises to bring foot traffic and a college vibe downtown. Although the ASU campus has helped the city court prospective downtown developers, few nearby shops have seen throngs of student customers, merchants say. This year will help change that, said Christopher Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The bulk of the new faces will be enrolled at his school, which moved from Tempe into a new six-story, $71 million building on Central Avenue this summer.
Until this year, the student population had risen gradually downtown as ASU colleges there increased enrollment. When the first ASU schools opened downtown in 2006, enrollment was 2,766. Last year, enrollment reached 3,377.
Dorms downtown - Students have started moving into a 576-bed tower called Taylor Place. The second tower of the $150 million dorm complex at 120 E. Taylor St. will have 550 beds and will open in 2009. At last count, about 400 students had signed room leases.
"I am excited about being downtown," said Shannon Green, a 21-year-old journalism major who will work in Taylor Place as a community assistant, a job once known as a resident adviser. Green has an internship at Channel 3 (KTVK-TV). "I can bike to that location," she said.
The university is prodding students to live downtown and is taking steps to make living there more appealing. In the past, many students complained that downtown Phoenix lacked the traditional campus feel of Tempe.
Under a new university-housing policy, freshmen who plan to live in ASU dorms must live in those that are on the same campus where their majors are based. This year, that policy includes nursing, social-work and journalism students, whose classes will be held downtown.
The effort will boost the number of students who live on campus and lower the number who drop out, university officials say.
"We know that students are more capable if they are embedded in their academic program and they are engaged in the campus," said Debra Friedman, vice president of the downtown Phoenix campus. Research shows that dorm life can help retain students during that crucial freshman year, when many leave, she said.
Hoping for business - A few blocks away from campus, Cibo owner Mike Krassner says he is upbeat about the campus rising downtown. Business at his restaurant picks up each year, but he is unsure if it's because of the university. Krassner said he has seen some ASU faculty members, but few students, eating at Cibo's tables.
"It's amazing how fast that downtown campus went up," he said. "In general, you do see more people out and about. Before, people would go right to a game. Now, they make a night of it."
Many shops are particularly hungry for student foot traffic. Many have been battered by the sagging economy and disrupted by light-rail construction and are hoping new customers will ease that pain. Many shop owners and arts groups are frustrated that downtown students don't know what the area has to offer, said small-business advocate Kimber Lanning.
"I was talking to students who live near Van Buren, and they didn't know what First Friday is," said Lanning, referring to the monthly art-gallery walk that draws thousands of people downtown.
Friedman, the ASU official, has heard that grumbling. There is an ever-growing list of ties between the university and city arts groups, such as the Phoenix Symphony. But businesses may find that the 1,000 faculty and staff members downtown have a bigger impact on their bottom lines than students, she said.
"It will take time for the university to find more ways to connect," Friedman said. And "there are a lot of businesses that don't have late or weekend hours," when students shop. "It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing."
Extending a welcome - The city and businesses are taking matters into their own hands to lure students off campus. Earlier this month, the mayor's staff took the Taylor Place dorm staff on a tour of nearby restaurants.
At each stop, special guests, including Mayor Phil Gordon and Councilman Michael Johnson, talked up downtown. Restaurant owners ducked out of the kitchens with platters of samples and warm words for the ASU students, who will probably advise other dorm residents about where to eat. The tour was a big help, said Kayla Wilcox, a 20-year-old junior who was on the staff this spring at ASU's temporary downtown dorm, a former Ramada Inn.
"I had heard of these places (to eat), but I didn't know where they were," Wilcox said.
Volunteers recently stuffed 1,800 "Welcome Wagon" bags with fliers, coupons and promotions for shops, arts groups, restaurants and other organizations, said Steve Weiss, steering-committee chairman for the Downtown Voices Coalition. The bags will go to students, faculty and staff, he said.
The university is working on a discount program with local businesses. Students and staff who show their ID cards in select shops will get dis- counts. After students return from winter break, the campus will receive another crucial boost. ASU officials expect that the campus will rely heavily on light rail, which launches Dec. 27, to shuttle students and employees to and from the main campus in Tempe.
And more enhancements are on the way. A $30 million addition to the nursing school and a $30 million city park are expected to open next year. Other university divisions are considering moving downtown, Friedman said, adding that final decisions haven't been made. By 2020, the university envisions that 15,000 students will be attending classes downtown, she said.
"This place is like a magnet," she said.
--don
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