ASU President Michael Crow supported an expanded Greek Life community at a reception Wednesday, hoping to convince more students to live on campus, which studies show would raise graduation rates.
The Threshold Project, a concept proposed by current and former Greeks, would provide the University with a new Greek housing community that would consume most of the north side of campus. The community would include all Greek houses, a student recreation center, retail space, University offices, a hotel and parking.
Crow announced his support for the plan at a catered reception for more than 250 people, most of whom were active or alumni Greek community members.
This marks the first time Crow has publicly come out in support of the Greek community at ASU. During his administration, numerous fraternities have been kicked off campus or forced to move into Adelphi Commons II, a residence hall on the south side of campus.
Bob Hobbs, an ASU Sigma Chi alumnus who hosted Wednesday's event, said he was pleased the president was vocal in his support of the project.
"With Dr. Crow, you are never sure what he is going to do," said Hobbs, who was on the committee that selected Crow as ASU's president.
Crow said students who live in residence halls are 15 percent more likely to graduate from ASU, and Greeks are even more likely to graduate, statistics from other universities around the country show.
"It is absolutely critical to the future of the University's academic success that we build living and learning environments of a variety of types, including a very large-scale Greek system," Crow said.
The current Greek community at ASU is small in proportion to the size of the University, Crow said. There are 3,000 fraternity and sorority members at ASU out of 61,500 total students, making Greeks 5 percent of the student population.
Although Crow supported the idea of the Threshold project, he did not offer any University funds.
"We need a group of people committed to making it happen," Crow said. "Projects like this will require significant investments by private donors. There is no other way to do this."
Most Greek communities evolve over 80 to 90 years, but ASU needs to evolve in the next few years to make up for lost ground, Crow said.
"We need action, we need to move forward and complete the plan," he added. "All of the Greek organizations need to find a way to come together."
Undergraduate Student Government President Yaser Alamoodi agreed with Crow on the role of the Greek community.
Alamoodi said he knew about the proposal, but not Crow's stance.
"I believe the Greek community is one of the most vital in terms of the contribution they offer to ASU," Alamoodi said. "It was exciting to see Dr. Crow speak so fondly of the Greek community."
Hobbs said he regrets the negative reputation Greek life has because of the impact his fraternity had on him.
"I think fraternities and sororities do way more good than they are given credit for," he added.
Crow expects the inclusion of an expanded Greek community to increase student success and graduation rates.
"This is all about student success, this is all about building ASU into one of the great universities in the United States," Crow said. "I believe that the Greek system and what we are talking about with this project can do that."
Reach the reporter at ashley.mcnamee@asu.edu.
