Arizona State University

Arizona State University was established as the Territorial Normal School at Tempe on March 12, 1885, when the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature passed an act to create a normal school to train teachers for the Arizona Territory . The campus consisted of a single, four-room schoolhouse on a 20-acre plot donated by Tempe residents George and Martha Wilson, with classes beginning with 33 students on February 8, 1886 . The institution underwent several name changes over the years: Tempe Normal School of Arizona (1889–1903), Tempe Normal School (1903–1925), Tempe State Teachers College (1925–1929), Arizona State Teachers College (1929–1945), and Arizona State College (1945–1958) .

Under the 30-year tenure of president Arthur John Matthews (1900–1930), the first dormitories built in the state were constructed and Matthews implemented the planting of Palm Walk, now a century-old landmark of the Tempe campus . In 1923, the school stopped offering high school courses and added a high school diploma to admissions requirements, and in 1925 began offering four-year Bachelor of Education degrees . Grady Gammage, who became president in 1933 and served for nearly 28 years, oversaw the development of graduate programs, with the first Master of Arts in Education awarded in 1938 and the first Doctor of Education degree in 1954 .

On November 4, 1958, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200 by a 2-to-1 margin, officially changing the name to Arizona State University . Among Gammage's greatest achievements was the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed construction of Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium (ASU Gammage), completed in 1964 . By the 1960s under president G. Homer Durham, ASU began expanding its curriculum by establishing several new colleges and, in 1961, the Arizona Board of Regents authorized doctoral degree programs in six fields .

The ASU West campus was established by the Arizona Legislature in 1984 as the university's second campus, located on the western edge of Phoenix . The ASU Polytechnic campus (originally ASU East) was founded in 1996 in Mesa . In 1988, the university established Barrett, The Honors College, America's first residential honors college, which The New York Times later recognized as "the gold standard" among the country's honors programs . In 1994, the Carnegie Foundation classified ASU as a Research I institution .

In 2002, Michael M. Crow became the university's 16th president and unveiled his vision for transforming ASU into a "New American University"—one that would be open and inclusive, measuring itself "not by who we exclude but who we include and how they succeed" . During Crow's tenure, ASU has nearly quadrupled research expenditures, completed an unprecedented infrastructure expansion, and established more than a dozen new transdisciplinary schools . The ASU Downtown Phoenix campus was developed through a transformative partnership with the City of Phoenix approved by voters in 2004, opening for classes in 2006 . The Biodesign Institute launched as the country's first interdisciplinary research institute entirely devoted to bio-inspired innovation . In 2014, ASU acquired and integrated the internationally recognized Thunderbird School of Global Management . ASU achieved membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU) in 2023, recognizing its status among the leading research universities in North America .