We have reinvented American higher education at Arizona State University. We saw a need and an opportunity for change. We knew we could combine excellence in higher education with access for many more students. We recognized that ASU, a New American University, must shoulder its share of responsibility for the economic, social and cultural well-being of the community.

We lowered barriers between traditional disciplines, knowing that this would lead to local solutions with broader impact. We seek creative and scientific discovery, explore foundational questions, welcome risk and innovation. We give our students the understanding, reasoning power, creativity and perspective to envision and lead change in the 21st century.

ASU is addressing the greatest challenges of our time, complex questions that concern us all. They are local challenges — and they are global. They involve our health, economic opportunity, the environment, social justice. They are pressing issues of education; of individual privacy and tradition; of what is best for society and our shared future as a community, a nation, a world.