Message from President Michael Crow

As we advance the ASU charter -— the driving force behind all we do — I experience a "Sun Devil state of mind," where innovation meets ingenuity sparked by our students' enthusiasm and empowered by our outstanding faculty and devoted staff. Our partners and donors share the Sun Devil mindset and embrace our vision of improved, determined communities well-prepared for the challenges and successes ahead.

Over the past year, ASU established a new organizational design to better serve the ASU Charter. The ASU Public Enterprise is led by our five Executive Vice Presidents: Nancy Gonzales, ASU’s University Provost and leader of the ASU Academic Enterprise; Sally Morton, leader of the ASU Knowledge Enterprise; Maria Anguiano, inaugural leader of the ASU Learning Enterprise; Morgan Olsen, ASU’s Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Howard, whom ASU was pleased to welcome earlier this year as our newest Executive Vice President and first-ever Chief Operating Officer of the ASU Enterprise. This is a team of very talented individuals who are focused on advancing the vision and goals of the ASU Charter and our mission of teaching, learning and discovery.

For instance, in fall 2021, the ASU team helped manage another consecutive year of enrollment growth: • Total enrollment swelled to 135,729 • Roughly 57,000 students were taking ASU Online classes, a rise of more than 8 percent over fall 2020 • First-year student enrollment was 14,250, an 12 percent increase over fall 2020; 46 percent were from minority backgrounds — our most diverse class ever • First-year student retention rate was 86 percent, making us No. 1 among Arizona's public universities • Approximately 10,800 international students from 152 countries joined on-campus and online degree programs, about a 25 percent surge over fall 2020.

Our expanding enrollment provides us more opportunities to be sustainable and innovative. According to U.S. News & World Report, ASU has remained the No. 1 most innovative university for eight consecutive years, while the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings place ASU second in the world for sustainability efforts and first in the U.S. The Times ratings address 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by 193 United Nations member states in 2015. Additionally, Sierra Magazine named ASU the No. 1 "coolest school" in its 15th annual sustainability rankings of 328 North American colleges and universities.

For those who are committed to creating a sustainable environment, the new Rob and Melani Walton Center for Planetary Health opened this past year allowing students, faculty and staff to focus on interdisciplinary collaboration through teaching, learning and discovery. The 281,000 gross-square-foot building was named in honor of the Walton family's loyalty to ASU for nearly 20 years. The Tempe campus facility features glass fiber-reinforced concrete exterior panels based on biomimicry of a saguaro's orientation to the sun that absorbs and stores less heat. A "mechanical tree" captures carbon emissions, and a large atrium biome purifies waste air and recycles water using natural, bio-based methods.

Students studying global environmental and climate science can benefit from a new university partner, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) on St. George's Island, Bermuda. The non-profit BIOS studies ocean processes in the Western Hemisphere. For example, students can train and research the complex problems of our planet's rising carbon dioxide levels.

Sun Devils with entertainment aspirations now have several new program options, either here in Arizona in the newly launched ASU Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center at Mesa City Center Complex or on the West Coast at our ASU California Center in Los Angeles in the newly opened Herald Examiner Building. Students enrolled in ASU's Sidney Poitier New American Film School are poised for real-world opportunities in Mesa, Los Angeles or both.

ASU also launched the new global headquarters of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in a new 111,000-square-foot downtown Phoenix campus building, which opened this past year. Thunderbird also received a historic gift — $25 million — earmarked to educate 100 million people worldwide by 2030. As part of the Francis and Dionne Najafi 100 Million Learners Global Initiative, the accredited certificate consists of five courses in 40 languages. Students will have lifelong learning options through Thunderbird and ASU or can transfer the credits to other universities worldwide. The giving spirit of all our donors furthers our global impact. The ASU endowment topped $1.25 billion at the close of the fiscal year 2021, with more than 100 new endowed funds.

As you embed yourself in one of ASU’s campuses or locations throughout the U.S., you can see that the ASU Charter is rooted in all we do. We begin 2023 with terrific opportunities, and through the support of our university partners, we offer even more chances for Sun Devils to learn and succeed, from Bermuda to the City of Angels and beyond. I am pleased to say that ASU’s sustained growth shows no signs of slowing and extends our Sun Devil state of mind to educate, innovate, inspire and create.