In an age where everything is on the Internet, privacy is not a word one hears regularly. Yet, in the real world, where people live, breath, go to class and can’t be terminated by deleting a line of html coding — privacy is still valued. Even, at a public university.
A new University policy limits the access of the public to Downtown campus buildings. This includes the Nursing and Health Innovation buildings, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building and the University Center. This list will also include a student recreation complex in 2013.
Walking around the Downtown campus, you may run into a sign that reads: “The ASU Downtown Phoenix campus buildings and facilities including common areas are for the use of ASU students, faculty, and staff, individuals or groups associated or affiliated with or invited by the University and building tenants and their invitees. Any other use without the permission of ASU is prohibited as is loitering and solicitation. Individuals violating ASU policies will be asked to depart the premises and may face other sanctions.”
This is certainly a departure from “no shirt, no shoes, no service.”
So herein lies the predicament. The Downtown campus has played an integral role in the revitalization of the downtown Phoenix area. As more students come pouring in, local business picks up and the students get a chance to experience the character and culture unique to downtown. Similarly, the downtown Phoenix community embraced the new campus. They even put up with all of the construction that had to occur in order for the campus to exist.
The University community and the pre-existing downtown community are mixing, mingling, engaging in commerce, sitting next to each other at the coffee shop or passing each other on the street.
So then, why shut out the community that welcomed the Downtown campus with open arms, and essentially paid for the buildings? Well, it is more complex than that.
The Memorial Union on the Tempe campus changed its lower-level policy in June to exclude all non-students. The number of non-students using a lounge area began to make some students feel unsafe, which is one of the reasons for making certain buildings ASU-exclusive.
Downtown Phoenix has a constant homeless presence, and students and faculty have expressed their concerns. Administration is simply addressing those concerns. It’s a logical step to protect and support the ASU community, but the downtown environment opens up a new level of debate.
Downtown Phoenix and ASU are intertwined in many ways. The student presence has drastically changed the Phoenix landscape near campus, but is ASU Downtown still its own entity or have the two become inseparable? How do we begin to differentiate community color from distractions?
From students’ perspectives, the less distractions, the better.
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