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ASU president appointed to committee on digital design


ASU President Michael M. Crow
March 10, 2015

As digital technology increasingly touches nearly every aspect of human life, a national committee of academic leaders is working to enhance the emerging digital environment wherein scholarly research, teaching and learning can thrive.

With a goal to transform higher education, the Committee on Coherence at Scale has appointed Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow to help lead the development and management of this emerging digital ecosystem.

Crow, who is one of three new committee members, was selected for his innovation, strategic vision and leadership in higher education, according to a statement made by Chuck Henry, president of the Council on Library and Information Resources.

“I look forward to many productive years ahead guided by their experience and vision,” Henry said.

As both higher education and digital technology continue to evolve and inform one another, opportunities and pressures to improve coordination of and access to scholarly resources grow more acute.

Together with Vanderbilt University, the Council on Library and Information Resources created the Committee on Coherence at Scale in 2012 to examine emerging national-scale digital projects and their ability to help higher education institutions be more efficient, productive, cooperative and sustainable.

Comprised of leaders in higher education, the committee aims to encourage academic leaders to see their institutions as part of a larger digital ecology, and to connect and coordinate existing large-scale projects so they can integrate all facets of the knowledge cycle.

Crow will be part of the committee’s initial development of a series of business models for operating analog repositories more coherently and efficiently at scale. The results will be made public late this summer.

As Arizona State University’s 16th president, Crow has established more than 12 new transdisciplinary schools and large-scale research initiatives, including the Biodesign Institute, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and other significant initiatives in the humanities and social sciences.