when you first came the issue versus coming back now, What changes, what
monumental changes do you see? Oh gosh, there's so much, but I do keep in
touch. I mean, I do really keep up with the university because I'll, you
know, I'll always be a sun devil. Um, but I'm incredibly impressed with,
with, I think how the national reputation has really improved. I think
that really Michael Crow's tenure has really, he's a,
you know, he's a risk taker and he's a visionary and it's paying off, you
know, I think I probably more aware of that because I, I don't live here
anymore. And so I do hear about Arizona state, but I'm always thrilled
when I tell people I'm an alumna and um, whatever that so many people in
academia no issue. And they know the term the new american university and
they, you know, know the academic quality and so, uh, that it was not that
way. When I left here. You know, we were watching tv sunday and one of the
national analysts was talking about President Crow's new book. And, and
this is a really esteemed analyst. And he was talking about, you know, how
Michael Crowe has made higher education more affordable. And
you've probably noticed big changes in terms of the amount of funds that
we bring in from grants and of course it's a real goal of the university,
it has to be. I mean, it really does have to be in, you know, we, we
talked about this all the time that we talk, we really aren't state
institutions anymore anymore. Um, we're state assisted at best and maybe
state affiliated at worst. Uh, so it's really put a lot of pressure, I
think on higher ed in general. And I think issues done a, you know, really
remarkable job of looking for additional funding sources in order to keep
education more affordable. It's frustrating when our state constitution
says that, you know, that that really higher, it should be as close to
zero as possible for our students and to to see that it just continues to
to be eroded again, a major erosion this year. So, um, you know, that's
concerning. But again, that's a national issue of, I was just meeting with
a a female faculty member at Rutgers yesterday who is in a leadership
program. And we were talking specifically about this, what's what will
hire it looked like in, you know, in 10 years. And it's gonna be
interesting to see if there's, you know, if if a state institution out
gets 15% of their funding from the state, that's pretty hi. And so there
are a number that are 10 or less. And so if what's going to happen if we
lose all that, it's a scary time. And, but I will say that I feel as
though uh issues position itself very well to be able to weather that. Um
, I don't think, I don't think all higher institutions will surviveit