Life as Edward Jensen

A feature that we hope to make regular to this blog is a podcast. We’d like to turn to you – our readers – and see who you’d like us to interview for our podcasts. So leave us a comment and tell us who you think would make a good podcast interview.

Thanks!

Edward Jensen

Recently, I featured an NBC Nightly News special on the ASU School of Sustainability. In my excitement, I forgot to tie in how it applies to my major.

Urban + Metropolitan Studies is the foundation for all things that relate to the quality of life in the dense urban areas as well as entire regions. Sustainability is the new paradigm in quality of life for everyone on this planet – from the urban centers of the world’s most dense cities to the Amazon rainforest in South America or the ice caps at the north and south poles.

It is my career goal to get an MPA (Master’s in Public Administration). Armed with knowledge of urban quality-of-life as well as planetary quality-of-life, making this world a better place is the core of who I will become.

Now, all I have to do is decide if I want to minor in sustainability or add it as a second major…

Bonus – ASU President Dr. Michael Crow talking about Sustainability

-Edward Jensen

Right now, I’m watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament – specifically the game between Xavier and West Virginia – at US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix. And while I know it’s a shame that both the men’s and ladies’ Sun Devils basketball teams have been eliminated, we should look ahead to next season.

The Sun Devils play at the Wells Fargo Arena on the campus of Arizona State University. The facility opened in 1974 (as the ASU Activity Center) and seats 14,198. In addition to basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and wrestling, Wells Fargo Arena hosts ASU’s convocation (graduation) ceremonies as well as lectures and other events.

Having been to a few games and events at Wells Fargo Arena, the facility is a top-class college facility. Recent investments in the 34-year-old facility have made it even better – like the center-hung scoreboard and information boards at the east and west ends of the arena.

With ASU’s push to be “one university in many places” and with ASU’s objective to make the Downtown Phoenix Campus the second-largest campus at ASU, perhaps ASU should consider playing one or two home games of each basketball season – men’s and ladies’ – at US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix. The obvious reason is capacity: US Airways Center holds 4,224 more people than Wells Fargo Arena.

The point at which I’m driving is that it would give ASU athletics a broader reach in the Phoenix metropolitan area than just being isolated to the ASU Tempe campus. ASU is the university (geographically) for the Phoenix metropolitan area. But we should recognize and realize that Phoenix is the home for alumni of many colleges and universities in the state/nation/world. Maybe US Airways Center should host the ASU vs. University of Arizona basketball game when it’s Tempe’s turn to host the match (both men’s and ladies’). Now, the NCAA might have some rule of playing regular-season games at professional sports venues. But if the NCAA choose to play some of its big matches at professional sports stadia, then maybe there isn’t a problem.

Also, ASU Tempe and US Airways Center are on the light rail line, so getting from Tempe to downtown Phoenix would be easy. ASU fans could tailgate (do you do this for a basketball game?) in Lot 59 (northeast corner of the Tempe campus) and, in 23 minutes, be at US Airways Center for the game.

One of ASU’s objectives is to be embedded into the community. It is more than just its research and how ASU gives back to the community. It is about being in the community, and that includes its athletics.

It’s just food for thought.

-Edward Jensen

ASU’s School of Sustainability is continuing to garner national attention, this time featured on NBC Nightly News.

Anne Thompson, NBC’s Chief Environmental Affairs correspondent, highlighted how the nation’s first-of-its-kind school is providing a highly unique approach to education, the challenges for this generation of students, and the opportunities that await graduates in the green economy.

NBC spent two days at ASU in February. The comprehensive visit gave them an in-depth look at key facets of ASU’s sustainability portfolio including:

• Student activism (ASU’s Student Sustainability Coalition)
• Entrepreneurship and jobs in the green economy
• Tipping points in population behaviors (water consumption and urban growth)
• Urban heat island research
• Campus sustainability; reducing ASU’s carbon footprint

The producers interviewed undergraduate students, School of Sustainability students, professors, administrators, and ASU President Dr. Michael Crow.

Watch video from NBC Nightly News

On Tuesday, Presidential hopeful and US Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) delivered a speech on race in America. On 7 April 2008, at 7:00pm at ASU’s Gammage Auditorium, Pulitizer-winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. will deliver the annual College of Liberal Arts and Science’s A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations. Entitled “Race, Politics, and the Drama of Obama”, Mr. Pitts will discuss Tuesday’s Obama speech and race issues in America.

The full press release from ASU is at http://asunews.asu.edu/20080318_awadesmith.

The lecture is free and open to the public, though tickets are required and available online at clas.asu.edu/smithlecture or at ASU Bookstores. Additional information is available at ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, (480) 965-1441.

-Edward Jensen

Hello everyone!

My fellow Student Ambassadors and I are preparing a comprehensive guide on finalizing your acceptance to Arizona State University and its College of Public Programs and becoming a student for the Fall 2008 semester. Our guide is availble on our website, http://copperstar.asu.edu/.

Check it out: http://copperstar.asu.edu/portal/fa08admits

Edward Jensen

The School of Public Affairs was featured in ASU Insight, ASU’s newspaper of record.

Urban planners draw upon School of Public Affairs
expertise
It may not seem like the Valley has much in common with cities in the Middle East or Australia. But large urban areas springing up in desert locales share many common issues – water supply, pollution problems and affordable housing – among them.

That’s where the School of Public Affairs in the College of Public Programs can make a difference, through partnerships and by recognizing those who serve the public good. The school was instrumental in recently nominating David Smith, Maricopa County manager, for a National Public Service award that he ultimately won. Smith spearheaded a major turnaround in Maricopa County from a place that was described as a “poster child for bad government” in Governing Magazine about 10 years ago into a county described by the same magazine as one of the two best-run county governments in the United States.

“The award is a premier award for a public service practitioner,” says Robert Denhardt, director of the School of Public Affairs. “It’s considered a lifetime achievement award. It really is wonderful recognition.”

Read more at ASU Insight!

I found this in Thursday’s (being 28 February 2008) The New York Times: Hands Up. I’ve Got a Spork!

-Edward Jensen