Compared to other universities, ASU is worth the price, according to a new book written by a New York Times journalist.
Writer Claudia Dreifus gave a lecture about her latest book, “Higher Education?” on Tuesday afternoon on the Tempe campus.
The book criticizes how both private and public institutes throughout the nation are not worth the money students invest. However, toward the end of the book Dreifus and co-author Andrew Hacker list the top 10 schools they liked; one of which is ASU.
“What I like about ASU is that they’re very experimental in many ways,” Dreifus said. “They try things here. Everything’s up for grabs. There’s just a feeling here that something is happening.”
The engineering school on the Polytechnic campus was one of the main reasons Dreifus and Hacker chose ASU as one of their favorites.
“I love the idea of an engineering school for tinkers,” she said. “People were so creative. They were so excited.”
Students at the school were trying to burn bacterial slime into automotive fuel the day Dreifus and Hacker visited the school, they wrote in the book.
Dreifus said she was so impressed there was an engineering school in the nation that went beyond the classroom work and studying mathematics.
ASU President Michael Crow, who Dreifus attributed ASU’s success to, introduced the author to the audience.
ASU’s success would not have been possible without Crow’s leadership, she said.
“Michael Crow, I think, had an idea and the political skills to do it,” Dreifus said.
During her lecture, Dreifus described higher education as being about prestige to many students’ parents. She gave an example of a 22-year-old woman with a $70,000 debt. She attributed this problem to higher education as a whole, saying many institutes have lost touch with the real world.
“Claudia [Dreifus] is making good points that the system as a whole needs to change,” Crow said. “All large systems need to look at themselves within and rethink what they do.”
Dreifus said she was honored to put ASU as one of her and Hacker’s list of schools they liked.
Crow said he thinks ASU is different than the rest of the system, and that is why the University was chosen for the list.
In addition to the excellence of the engineering school, Dreifus and Hacker also acknowledged Barrett, the Honors College in the book.
The authors compare the college to Ivy League schools. Agribusiness junior Adriana Delgado attended the lecture and is in the program.
“ASU is at the forefront of education,” Delgado said. “I feel that our professors are here for students and they show it.”
Reach the reporter at cottens@asu.edu
