ASU administrators and Tempe City Council and staff discussed financial and tactical issues regarding development in a special joint meeting Monday.
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman said the city has addressed issues concerning ASU through its council committees. Hallman said an issue of particular importance to Tempe residents was dealing with rental housing.
"Some folks have misconstrued the issue as one that students are bad and that we don't want them living in the community at all," he said. "That's not the case."
Hallman said the city hopes to work with the University to improve the ASU experience for students through on-campus housing.
Crow said increasing the number of students living on campus would benefit the city.
"If we move 5,000 students out of apartments, that will free up all that land for new development," he said.
Crow added that the probability of graduating increases by 15 percent if a student lives in a residence hall.
Hallman also said Tempe should receive state assistance for services provided to ASU.
Tempe along with Tucson and Flagstaff bear the financial burden of providing emergency and other services for state university campuses, Hallman said. He added that Tempe and ASU should work together to obtain support for government services from the state government.
"We are always bogged down in trying to get [legislators] to pay for the students," Crow said.
"The state has placed these three universities in these three towns," Crow added. "The state should be helping in some way."
Councilman Ben Arredondo said he wanted to see Crow take a greater role in keeping the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe by contacting Fiesta Bowl officials.
"We have the mayor on our side, but having the president of the University on our side would only help," Arredondo said.
"It's an important thing especially because we are going to be losing the Fiesta Bowl and the dollars that are going to be spent," Arredondo added. "That kind of thing is a swing of 2 or 3 million dollars during that period of time."
Reach the reporter at emilia.arnold@asu.edu.
