As ASU celebrated its 50th anniversary of gaining university status, Barrett, the Honors College, held a ceremony Friday to commemorate its 20 years as a college at the University.
About 30 current and former students, staff and faculty gathered in the Center Complex courtyard on the Tempe campus Friday night to hear from key players in the college’s history.
Former ASU President Lattie Coor, who presided over the majority of Barrett’s existence, spoke of how the college continues to succeed.
“To me it represents such a powerful statement of how a public university should serve,” Coor said.
He said the college provides a small, competitive environment that complements the University’s commitment to research.
Coor, who was a university president in Vermont for 13 years before coming to ASU, said he found the honors college concept compelling because of the success of many small liberal arts colleges in New England.
“I had seen the power of those rich intellectual environments on the students,” he said. “[ASU] was the perfect place to do it.”
But creating the college, a task headed by founding Dean Ted Humphrey, was a difficult task.
Humphrey said he negotiated with deans of other ASU colleges for a year and a half to pull separate honors programs together into one college.
“I was trying to convince them that we would be well served if we could get that done,” he said.
Even after getting their approval, Humphrey had to take the proposal to the Arizona Board of Regents and, once approved, recruit faculty and students to the new college.
After ABOR authorized the creation of the new college in 1988, Humphrey said he spent 10 years traveling around Arizona to encourage students to join.
Humphrey also presided over the $10 million gift to the honors college from Craig and Barbara Barrett in 2000.
Former president Coor said Craig Barrett, chairman of the board and former CEO of Intel Corp., and his wife Barbara Barrett, an ASU alumna and current U.S. ambassador to Finland, were somewhat resistant to accept the naming of the college in honor of their gift.
Coor said they were chosen because they represent the successful, hardworking and determined nature of honors students.
Barbara Barrett, speaking from Finland in a video shown at the ceremony, said the honors college is “a place of great opportunity” for ASU students.
Mark Jacobs, current dean of the honors college, thanked President Michael Crow for his support in expanding the honors college to its new complex, scheduled to open in fall 2009.
“He has allowed us to design and build from the ground up,” Jacobs said. “We are very proud and grateful for that support from our current president.”
Psychology senior Serena Goldstein said the ceremony made her see how much the college meant to her and to those who have graduated in the past.
“It almost instilled a new sense of pride,” she said. “These are really distinguished people taking pride in something I didn’t at first.”
Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu.
