Arizona State University President Michael Crow spoke to the National Governors Association on Sunday in Washington, D.C.
He discussed innovating higher education and affordable-tuition options for students.
"If we can’t get 60 percent to some kind of post-secondary certificate, we’re not going to have a workforce capable of being able to adjust quickly enough to the thing that’s changing everything, which is ubiquitous, high-speed, technological advance," Crow said.
Crow spoke about the importance of admitting students from all socioeconomic backgrounds and reminded the audience that not all of the country’s “smartest” students are enrolled at Ivy League schools.
“A lot of my colleagues at Columbia and other places, they think somehow that every smart kid in the country is at Columbia or Stanford or Harvard or Princeton," Crow said. "No. Most of the kids there are really smart, if not gifted. But, millions of people out there that are just as capable aren’t at those schools.”
ASU was named the nation’s most innovative university for the third year running by U.S. News and World Report, ahead of Stanford and MIT. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey introduced Crow to the crowd, calling ASU's Barrett, The Honors College an "Ivy League education at an incredible value to our Arizona students."
Crow emphasized the importance of making higher education accessible and affordable to everyone. Former ASU student Susana Mojica also spoke at the event in D.C. She’s a first-generation graduate from ASU who went back to school through the Starbucks College Achievement Program.
“It was Starbucks and Arizona State that gave me this lucky break, that created this opportunity for me to thrive, that believed in me and looked at it as a social project and not an investment. Through this, I have gained so much confidence.”
Mojica’s parents came to the U.S. from Mexico and she was born in California. She said it was never a question of if she would go to college, but when it came time, there was no money for it.
