President Michael Crow's update on the progress made by the Changing Futures campaign Wednesday night detailed how ASU works and operates in and as a democracy.
The event, called Changing Futures: Impact and Outlook, was held at ASU Gammage, with a crowd of nearly 1,300 attendees. The Changing Futures campaign aims to better the future of the world through ASU.
The campaign, managed by the ASU Foundation for a New American University, was established to "attract philanthropy and new partnerships to fuel ASU's commitment to prepare future leaders to solve the complex challenges facing society every day," according to an ASU News article announcing the launch in April.
Opening remarks were made by ASU women's basketball head coach Molly Miller.
"I'm excited to be here with the Sun Devil community," Miller said. "A community that I've learned, in a short period of time, believes in people, believes in the process (and) believes in changing lives."
READ MORE: A complete guide to Molly Miller's opening season in Tempe
After Miller finished speaking, Crow took the stage to talk about ASU's democracy. He drew comparisons between the University's charter and the Declaration of Independence.
Crow singled out the portion in the Declaration of Independence that refers to all people, not just some — much like the ASU Charter.
"Everything that we're able to achieve, everything that we're able to work toward, is derivative of that," Crow said.
He said he proposed ASU's charter 23 years ago, which was merely a vision at the time, to answer the question: What would the American universities in a full-fledged evolving democracy look like?
If the University cannot help democracy be successful economically, then it's not creating something of public value, Crow said.
"The University should be responsive to the democracy," Crow said. "So we built up a whole set of design aspirations, different things that we thought that we needed to do to change the game up, to make the thing different."
These six aspirations are the foundation of the campaign: to transform global education, advance technology for good, empower community resilience, build the future of health, inspire tomorrow's game changers and reshape our relationship with the planet.
"These are not catch phrases," Crow said. "These are not words. These are things that we now know how to do."
Crow has prided himself and the University on the portion of the charter that says, "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes," because it removes the need to meet DEI or affirmative action goals.
"We made these changes by making the University accessible to the people of the democracy," Crow said. "If you're qualified, you're in."
READ MORE: The DEI debate: Campus inclusion or a step too far?
One way ASU differs from other universities in its current development is how Crow runs the University, with the charter linked to the heart of democracy. To Crow, ASU is not an institution that excludes people to gain status through its exclusion.
Gretchen Buhlig, CEO of the ASU Foundation for a New American University, made the closing remarks.
"We can't do this alone," she said. "We need our alums. We need our donors. We need the business sector. We need our government leaders. We need local partners to be able to change futures."
Crow said they have changed the model of the University to a teaching, learning, discovery and problem-solving institution.
"One thing I want you to know here is that our design at ASU, our changing directions, our changing futures, is not what people are complaining about; it's what more people should be doing," Crow said.
Edited by Senna James, Jack McCarthy and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at elbradfo@asu.edu and follow @emmalbradford__ on X.
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Emma Bradford is a junior studying journalism and mass communication and political science with a minor in business. She has previously worked at the Cronkite News Washington, D.C. bureau as a Politics and Money Reporter. Bradford is in her fourth semester with The State Press and on the politics desk.
