(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are published for discussion purposes only.)
Opinion: The Omni Hotel deal is not the right case to challenge how entrepreneurial Arizona universities can be to raise revenue.
By Michael Crow, opinion contributor | Arizona Republic
Policymakers have asked Arizona State University to be more entrepreneurial and not rely solely upon state revenue for financial health. We’ve done precisely that, successfully, if perhaps not the way Laurie Roberts and the state attorney general expected.
One example is by putting our land and real estate assets to work. We have converted land holdings and philanthropic donations into economic workhorses – not one-time sales of land, but long-term investments that will create far more revenue for the university over time. We renovated a football stadium at a cost of nearly $400 million and we did it without state dollars or a tax increase.
When is it reasonable to step in and say, “that’s not what we meant by being entrepreneurial”?
