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June 14, 2002/Tamuz 4 5762, Vol. 54, No. 39
Leading the way for growthASU West provost guides campus expansion
BETH OLSON
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 ASU West's CEO and Provost Elaine Maimon recently received the YWCA's Tribute to Women 2002 award. Photo courtesy of ASU West |
Of course, growth takes leadership, and ASU West's leadership comes in the form of CEO and Provost Elaine Maimon.
Maimon has served as CEO of ASU West, located in the Northwest Valley, since 1996. Those years have seen the campus grow not only in the size of the student population, but also in the quality and quantity of services offered to the student body.
Maimon has led the campus through expansion from an upper division and graduate college to a four-year university. ASU West just completed its first year with a freshman class. While last year's freshman class numbered just over 250 students, next year's class is expected to increase to 350-400 students.
"We've studied the current group of freshmen more than any group deserves to be studied, but we want to understand them," she explains. "We did a student satisfaction survey and I've never see numbers like this - 98 percent of the students said that they thought ASU West was a good place to study (and) 95 percent said that they would make it a point to talk about ASU West to a friend."
She believes that the freshman class was so satisfied with their ASU West experience in part because of the school's Learning Communities program. A learning community is made up of 20-40 freshmen students who are given at least two classes in common, as well as being assigned a librarian, a technology expert, an academic advisor and a student mentor. The learning communities also take part in various other activities, such as projects and field trips. Maimon says the goal was to give the students "a sense of belonging and affiliation." There were six learning communities in 2001, and 10 are planned for the fall of 2002.
"So much research in higher education shows that the major factor in retaining students in higher education is ... a student has to believe that at least one person would miss him or her if he or she did not show up," she says. "That's what we're trying to provide - that sense of connection with people."
While Maimon says the community atmosphere of the campus is what makes it so appealing to many students, she also acknowledges that because the campus is a commuter campus - there is no on-campus housing and inexpensive nearby housing is limited - it can be a struggle to get students involved at the school.
"We're doing everything we can to keep students here and participate in the full life of a university campus," she says.
Plans are in the works to construct on-campus housing. Currently the school is seeking proposals for the building of a 300-bed residence facility to open in the fall of 2003.
Maimon says the students at ASU West get the benefits of a small campus (there were about 6,000 students this past year), while reaping the rewards of being part of the 50,000-student ASU. To help students feel they are a part of ASU, the campus runs busses to Tempe for every home football game.
"We are all Sun Devils," she explains.
Part of Maimon's post is to serve as a vice-president of multi-campus ASU, which includes ASU West, the main campus in Tempe, ASU East at the Williams Campus in the far East Valley and the downtown Extended Campus.
"I'm a very committed university citizen," she says. "What I see is a true collaboration among the three campuses. ... We're providing options for students," she says.
The campuses share resources, including the services of Rabbi Barton Lee of Hillel. Lee has organized various events and celebrations over the years, including an annual Purim party to which the entire community is invited.
"We see ourselves as a very diverse, multicultural campus and that includes Jewish life and celebration," says Maimon.
Maimon also points out that while all three campuses have faculty with equal qualifications, ASU West's students actually benefit from the lack of doctoral programs at the school.
"Because we do not have Ph.D. students here, we're more like the very high quality undergraduate colleges, where faculty are in research partnerships with undergraduates," she explains. "Our faculty come here knowing their focus will be undergraduate students and master's students and that adds a different flavor to our campus."
Maimon's work at ASU West has not gone unnoticed. This past spring she was awarded the YWCA's Tribute to Women 2002 Award in the "Educator" category. Recently, she was named to the Association of American Colleges and Universities board of directors. The organization emphasizes the importance of a liberal arts education for all higher education students.
"I'm delighted to be a part of it," she said. "It also helps give visibility to our multi-campus Arizona State University at the national level, so that people can understand the innovative things that we are doing here."
Maimon received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She went on to positions at Haverford and Beaver colleges in Pennsylvania, Brown University in Rhode Island and Queens College in New York. She moved to Arizona in 1996 to accept her current position at ASU West.
Maimon and her husband, Mort, a writer, have two adult children - Jillian, a teacher in Philadelphia, and Alan, a journalist in Kentucky. The couple resides in Glendale.
While Maimon is looking forward to the continued growth of ASU West - projections are for a student population of 15,000 by 2015 - she is also committed to maintaining her vision for the campus.
"As we grow, we are determined to keep that sense of community. It's one of the things that defines our campus."
Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.