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Michael M. Crow became the 16th president of Arizona State University in July 2002, with the goal of transforming ASU into what he calls a "New American University"--an institution combining the highest levels of academic excellence, inclusiveness to a broad demographic, and maximum societal impact. His view included increasing graduate numbers, graduation rates, and freshman-retention rates while also expanding ethnic and economic diversity. Today, ASU has established more than a dozen new transdisciplinary schools and large-scale research initiatives and has nearly tripled research expenditures. President Crow attributes much of this success to the use of analytics. This article presents an interview with president Crow. In the interview, ASU President Crow talks about why the university moved toward using analytics, how ASU has implemented analytics, where there could be problems, and what he sees ahead. President Crow discusses how his institution is using analytics to increase graduate numbers, graduation rates, and freshman-retention rates while also expanding ethnic and economic diversity. (Contains 1 note.)

Colleges and universities negotiating their recovery from the most severe recession in nearly a century are currently implementing a welter of hastily devised measures aimed at reducing operating costs, becoming more efficient, and restoring a prior equilibrium. Administrators reacting to the downturn should not restrict their focus to the short term, fixating exclusively on cost cutting or reshuffling longstanding priorities. They should instead engage in comprehensive long-range planning that uncovers and fixes "design flaws" and advances new and differentiated models for the nation's colleges and universities. The reconceptualization of Arizona State University (ASU) is considered in this article as a case study of how one university has accomplished such a redesign. As president of ASU, the author has led an effort to reinvent the youngest major public research institution in the United States through a comprehensive "design process" that has included both an exhaustive reevaluation of their academic organization and operations and an effort to pioneer what they term the "New American University"--an egalitarian institution committed to academic excellence, access, and maximum societal impact.

In his career as a faculty member and academic administrator, the author has always focused on understanding, designing, and building knowledge organizations. He has been driven by a desire to understand the fundamental organizational forces--economic, political, and societal--within which academic institutions operate. His approach has been to act very much like an architect and, in many ways, a general contractor for new intellectual enterprises. He deliberately speaks of academic institutions in terms of "enterprise" because, since becoming the president of Arizona State University (ASU) in July 2002, he has been leading an effort to reconceptualize a large public university as an enterprise--agile, competitive, adaptable, and responsive to the changing needs of both the constituencies and global society alike. Instilling the spirit of enterprise into the institutional culture of a public university is only one of his objectives as the president of an emerging research institution. Predicated on excellence, access, and impact, the paradigm is conceptually framed as the "New American University" and he believes that it has relevance for public and private colleges and universities nationwide. Furthermore, he states that not every university is going to make it over the next hundred years. Those that do make it will be the ones that attack and defeat the virus of the agency by reconceptualizing themselves as enterprises: taking control of their identities; focusing on innovation, adaptation, and differentiation; assuming responsibility for their destinies; operating at an accelerated pace; and shifting to an investment model. (Contains 1 note.)

American universities confront unique challenges as they move into the twenty-first century. These include rapid population growth, demographic and economic changes on both global and regional levels, and the numerous local challenges that face today's communities. Modern universities must engage, and in turn be engaged by, their communities in order to improve civic life and the opportunities available to both individuals and institutions. Arizona State University has tried to develop a model of a New American University in response to today's expanding challenges and opportunities.