How a Huge University Promotes Its Small-College Appeal
Prospective students and their families pack the auditorium of Arizona State University’s Future Sun Devil Welcome Center. Soon they’ll break into groups for an hourlong campus tour. But first Cassandra Snarr gives them a quick overview. Dozens of admissions staff members like Ms. Snarr take turns making this presentation, and during the busy spring campus-visit season it is given three times a day. On this Tuesday in March, Ms. Snarr, a recent graduate who is coordinator of scholar recruitment, opens by describing the university’s mission and the vision of its innovation-loving president, Michael M. Crow. Then she turns to the university’s most obvious feature: its size. Enrollment has climbed to more than 71,000 undergraduate and graduate students across its physical campuses as part of Mr. Crow’s effort to create a "New American University" whose strength lies in access rather than selectivity.