[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      CELEBRATING ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY WEST'S 10th ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. DeCONCINI. Mr. President, today marks the 10th anniversary of 
Arizona State University West, an institution brought to life by an 
extraordinary group of Arizonans determined to bring higher education 
to their community. Although their story has been well chronicled by 
others, I think it's appropriate to repeat it here today. It is an 
important example of what a group of individuals can accomplish on 
behalf of an entire community if they focus their talent and 
determination on a vision for the future.
  Over 20 ago Barbara Ridge, a young mother of four, was attending 
classes at Glendale Community College, Arizona and nearing the end of 
her educational options. Having completed nearly every lower-division 
course required on route to a bachelor's degree, she had collided with 
several almost insurmountable obstacles: a long commute from Glendale 
to Arizona State University in Tempe where she would have to complete 
her studies; and a shortage of night courses at the Tempe campus. But 
instead of simply accepting the fact that upper-division and graduate 
level courses were practically inaccessible to many nontraditional 
students like herself on the Westside of Maricopa County, Barbara 
decided to do something about it.
  Together with her husband Sterling and former Arizona State Senator 
Anne Lindeman, she formed the Westside Citizens Committee for Higher 
Education. Comprised of local political and business leaders, community 
activists, educators, and others committed to the effort, members of 
the committee embarked on a crusade to create an upper-division campus 
on the Westside.
  Census figures available at the time showed the campus was 
desperately needed. In 1972, the year the committee was formed, 
approximately 700,000 citizens were living in northern and western 
metropolitian Maricopa County, making it the most populous region in 
the United States not served by an upper-division university campus. 
Along with the significant geographic barriers they faced, many of the 
potential students in the region held full-time jobs and were raising 
young families.
  Despite the clear need for a Westside campus, the committee's 
earliest efforts fell on deaf ears at the Arizona Legislature. Yet the 
group was not deterred. Over the next decade Ridge and other members of 
the committee organized petition drives, letter writing campaigns and 
met frequently with officials in the State government and university 
system. Sterling Ridge, who had previously served as a city councilman 
and mayor of Glendale, even won a seat in the Arizona House of 
Representatives to give the idea an extra push.
  Finally in 1984, after 12 years of intense lobbying and arm-twisting, 
the committee prevailed. On April 18, 1984, former Arizona Governor 
Bruce Babbitt signed into law a bill authored by then-Representative 
Ridge which directed the Arizona board of regents to ``maintain an 
Arizona State University Campus in western Maricopa County designated 
as Arizona State University West.''
  Today, 22 years after the grassroots movement for a Westside campus 
began, ASU West is providing junior, senior, and graduate level classes 
in 30 degree programs to nearly 5,000 individuals in western Maricopa 
County seeking career advancement, career transition, or personal and 
professional growth. Graduates from ASU West have ranged in age from 
the traditional community college transfers in their early 20's to 78-
year-old Sun City resident Patrick Morrison, who graduated in May 1993 
with an accounting degree.
  And important, along with its outstanding academic programs and 
faculty, ASU West offers the surrounding community an abundance of 
cultural opportunities, assistance in economic development, and social 
enrichment.
  Reflecting on the long and difficult struggle to bring the campus to 
fruition, Barbara Ridge recently summed up ASU West's important role in 
the surrounding community. ``ASU West, because of its grassroots 
origin, its location, and the times in which we live, is as much of the 
community as it is for the community.''
  Mr. President, I believe the 10th anniversary of this remarkable 
institution should be utilized both to celebrate its tremendously 
positive impact on the Westside, and the vision of those individuals 
who made certain through hard work and determination that their dream 
would become a reality.

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