Former Arizona State University Police Chief John Pickens has been in his new job as director of University Security Initiatives for more than a year now, but it’s unclear what he and the mysterious department he heads have accomplished. In a time of extreme budget cuts among Arizona universities, ASU…
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has decided not to investigate a complaint it received from the group trying to recall state Superintendent of Education Diane Douglas. Leaders of the Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas filed their complaint on September 8 after learning about an e-mail Douglas’ chief of staff, Michael Bradley,…
Necessity really is, as Plato said, the mother of invention. Arizona State University managed to earn the title “most innovative school” from the prestigious college rankers at U.S. News & World Report this year — despite the fact that Arizona leads the nation in higher education budget cuts. Number 2…
The group trying to recall Arizona Superintendent of Education Diane Douglas filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office this week after an educational nonprofit passed on an e-mail it received from Douglas’ chief of staff, Michael Bradley. Members of the Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas contend that Bradley’s…
The city of Phoenix sent an official demand to a disgraced Arizona State University professor today for the money it paid for police-training material the city alleges actually was an “egregious” copying job. Phoenix’s move is yet another blow to the now-stained reputation of Matthew Whitaker, a history professor and…
Rather than tearing an offensive page out of an honors biology textbook as previously considered, Gilbert Public Schools this month chose to put pro-abstinence, anti-abortion stickers in the book. Laura Conaway, writing for CNN’s Rachel Maddow Show, broke the story last Friday after a viewer tipped her off, and an…
In the neighborhoods surrounding Arizona State University, the first three weekends of school mean big parties, loud music, and streets full of drunk co-eds celebrating new-found freedom from parental control. For the last two years, those weekends have also meant an influx of police force — not just from the…
Seventy-two percent of Arizona fourth-graders can’t read proficiently, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, nearly 10 percent less than the national average. Mastering reading by fourth grade is critical because at that age children begin reading to learn other subjects, such as social studies, science,…
Ersula Ore, the Arizona State University assistant professor whose controversial, videotaped arrest last year was perceived widely as possible police brutality, has missed her deadline to sue the university. Ore submitted a $2 million notice of claim to her employer back in January that accused officials — including Stewart Ferrin,…
Maddy’s psychiatric care provider at Arizona State University had just increased the dosage of the anti-depressant she was taking and it wasn’t going well. She felt like a “zombie,” she said, and was struggling to keep pace with her busy schedule taking 16 credits and working two jobs. “I really…
Arizona State University Professor Matthew Whitaker has withdrawn his company’s six-digit, diversity-training contract from the Phoenix Police Department following his demotion for plagiarism. The Phoenix City Council approved the $268,000 contract with Whitaker’s company, Whitaker Group, LLC, in a 4-0 vote on May 13. Officials said at the time that…
Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio wants a diversity-training program for police canceled following news that the professor in charge of the program, Matthew Whitaker, has been demoted for plagiarism. As New Times reported on Friday, Arizona State University officials demoted Whitaker to associate professor and made him co-director of the…
Popular Arizona State University professor Matthew Whitaker has been demoted in the aftermath of his second plagiarism scandal, just weeks after he won a $268,000 no-bid contract to teach Phoenix police about “cultural consciousness.” In a recent email to ASU faculty, Interim University Provost Mark Searle states that “significant issues”…
Following months of protest from teachers, Arizona State University officials Thursday abandoned their plan to increase the number of classes writing instructors are required to take on each semester. Instead, the teachers will be able to choose whether to teach five classes or four, as they were required to do…
More than half of Arizona State University’s writing instruction staff signed a letter this week pledging to fight the school over what they say are unfair employment contracts. The teachers have been testy since December, when university officials announced writing instructors would be required to teach five classes each semester…
Faced with an urgent need to reform Arizona’s withering public schools, Governor Doug Ducey proposes giving them $1.8 billion in the next five years from the state land trust fund. Ducey’s office calls the proposal a “win-win,” since it involves raising no new taxes and the money is destined for…
A band of concerned community members marching under the moniker “Save Our Students” has filed a ballot measure to cap in-state tuition rates at Arizona universities. The initiative, which the group hopes to put up for vote in 2016, seeks to block the Arizona Board of Regents from increasing tuition…
A proposed tuition rate for undocumented immigrants that the Arizona Board of Regents will vote on next week was created by guesswork, New Times has learned. At a public meeting last month, the board proposed the new tuition rate of 150 percent of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants who qualify…
A Tempe man received an urgent text message from his roommate on Thursday: Your girlfriend broke into the house, and she’s upset. Not exactly the sort of news anyone wants to hear. Claudia Rose Drinnan, an Arizona State University student and sorority sister, was ticked over something — it’s not clear…
New resident undergraduate students at Arizona universities will pay about 3 to 4 percent more in tuition and fees this fall, the State Board of Regents decided Monday…
As thousands protested racially motivated police brutality in Baltimore this week, about 420 people gathered at Arizona State University to talk about the hyper-surveillance of black males. “We have to talk about things that make us uncomfortable in order to grow and change,” said Walter R. Allen, a professor of…
A small group of undocumented immigrants who hope to attend Arizona State University and their allies canvassed the school’s Tempe campus Tuesday passing out fliers and drumming up public support for allowing students who came to the United States as children to pay resident tuition rates. “We’re here to fight…
