The Polytechnic campus of ASU, the previous home of the College of Technology and Innovation, serves over 9,500 students and is the most uniquely innovative campus at ASU. Small class sizes and access to high-tech facilities, laboratories and design studios are all offerings of the Polytechnic campus that are not available at Tempe, Downtown or West campuses. However, these facilities are not all that provide a special experience at Poly; the culture of innovation is an integral part of the campus spirit as well.
Aside from the facilities any student can access, the fact that engineering students at Poly learn through an applied, hands-on and project-based method is coveted across the nation. Even STEM students in Tempe, who learn the theory, not the practice, don’t have the same advantages CTI students had.
However, this March, the Arizona Board of Regents moved to approve the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering’s acquisition of the CTI. Now called the Polytechnic School, the formerly autonomous program centralized in East Mesa, is the sixth school housed within the Fulton Schools of Engineering — a nationally ranked engineering program centralized in Tempe.
ASU is doing a very good job of keeping this takeover relatively quiet; with only a few articles regarding the implications available, many students and professors alike assume that Provost Robert Page was correct when he said, “The merger of CTI and the Fulton Schools represents a logical fusion of two very successful programs; it will provide our students with a better-defined set of program options and allow new synergistic connections among our faculty.” However, students directly impacted by this seemingly logical merger may have major concerns regarding the integrity of their East Mesa campus and the possibility of losing the innovative spirit that makes the Polytechnic campus of ASU so unique.
Essentially, the campus’s atmosphere and culture will be sacrificed in the name of efficiency. One of the most important features of the Polytechnic campus, the Startup Labs, for instance, may be at stake. This facility provides 3-D printers, laser cutters, a ShopBot and other wood and metal working tools to every engineering student. It has provided resources to students academically, but has also allowed several entrepreneurial endeavors to come to fruition; however, with limited transparency, Fulton might repurpose these labs, ridding Poly of one of its important and exclusive offerings. Ultimately, this could restrict access to the Startup Labs to upperclass and graduate students or change its functionality altogether, thereby removing one of the most unique and important features of the campus and CTI’s former programs.
To be frank, it seems as though the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering are interested in exploiting the Polytechnic Campus for its distinct resources without any regard for the culture and spirit that have been present there for the past 10 years. Ultimately, Fulton needs to put some serious thought and effort into maintaining the innovative atmosphere, or it risks losing students to transfers and dropouts, despite the claim that the merge will provide new resources for student-body growth and research opportunities. If the goal remains to have 15,000 to 20,000 students at Poly, Fulton should never lose sight of the former CTI students who have made the spirit of their school so unique.
Reach the columnist at kpolickk@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @kaelynpk
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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