The nation’s largest university is balking its years-long trend of growth and expansion with the closure of one of its campuses.
Arizona State University (ASU) announced earlier this week that it will close its Lake Havasu campus in the summer 2025, affecting over 200 students and 20 faculty members. The Lake Havasu campus opened just over a decade ago in 2012.
The university will also be increasing tuition for those on campus: full-time students will pay another $350, with part-time students to pay a lower, “proportional” amount.
ASU blamed state budget cuts for the campus closure in its Monday announcement, citing an $11 million reduction in funding. ASU President Michael Crow said this latest reduction was part of a longtime refusal by the state legislature and governor to fund higher education adequately.
“These necessary actions reflect the continuing lack of public investment from state government for higher education in Arizona,’’ said Crow. “ASU simply cannot be asked to fund the expansion of higher education across the state without state investment as a part of the financial structure to do so. These budget cuts put the state of Arizona even further behind in ensuring that Arizona has the talent and workforce necessary to advance its economy.”
Governor Katie Hobbs — often at odds with the slim Republican majority of the state legislature — was supportive of this most recent budget, including the cuts to higher education and nearly all other agencies.
“[T]his bipartisan, balanced budget puts our state on solid financial ground,” said Hobbs at the time.
A spokesperson for Hobbs told outlets that the governor remains supportive of the budget, but didn’t elaborate whether the governor was supportive of ASU’s decision.
However, lawmakers have refuted this claim. House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci, who resides in Lake Havasu City, issued a joint statement with Republican State Rep. John Gillette expressing disappointment with ASU’s decision and concern for the lack of public discussion or stakeholder involvement.
“ASU’s strong financial health simply does not justify its action. The State Legislature has made significant investments in ASU over the past few years,” said the lawmakers. “ASU’s budget has increased by 22 percent since FY20, and by 40 percent since 2015, with $408 million allocated to the university this year, reflecting our commitment to higher education, even while difficult decisions were made to balance the budget.”
Gillette also added the speculation in a separate post of his own that ASU’s decision was politically motivated.
“When times are good, it will receive new funds; when times are tough, it should tighten its belt — just like every other agency that serves the public,” said Gillette. “We call on ASU to immediately reconsider this closure and urge the Arizona Board of Regents to take a much closer look at this decision as it looks very politically motivated this close to the election.”
We are deeply troubled by ASU’s surprise decision to close the Lake Havasu campus,even more frustrating is that ASU’s financial standing clearly doesn’t justify such drastic action. The legislature prioritized higher education with significant investments in ASU over the past…
According to Lake Havasu City leadership, ASU kept the city out of their decision to close the campus. It was members of the community and city leadership that served on the committee that brought ASU to the city over a decade ago.
Mayor Cal Sheehy toldHavasu News the city wasn’t given the opportunity to seek an alternative to closing the campus.
“It’s really sad that ASU has made the decision to close the college at Lake Havasu City, but the real challenge is that we haven’t had a chance to discuss any alternatives,” said Sheehy. “They believe the legislature put them here, but Lake Havasu has shown we are innovative, starting with the $2 million it took to get it here in the first place, and a conversation about what solutions could be there and what the opportunities are.”
One of the committee members, business owner Steve Greeley, also didn’t buy ASU’s claim that financial woes had forced their hand.
“I saw the quote by President Crow in regards to the Legislature cutting back on funding. I understand that, but you would think they would have a workaround before making a decision so burdensome,” said Greeley. “It was a huge effort by the community all those years ago, that took a lot of time, resources and money. I’m hoping something can be resolved.”
Havasu News editorial staff reported that their community raised $2 million in an effort to assist ASU in coming to their city.
“Our community deserved a seat at the table,” said the outlet. “We should be angry about this. The closure will affect students, families, and local jobs. And ASU’s promise to relocate students doesn’t make up for the loss of a school that became a part of our town. ASU has broken its promise to Lake Havasu City, and they owe us more than a simple goodbye.”
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Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne issued a press release Thursday alerting parents of the Osborn School District that callers to the Arizona Department of Education’s (ADE) Empower Hotline have reported the central Phoenix district is allowing race and gender politics into the classroom, supporting Black Lives Matters and other political signage. Horne condemned the decision stating that the district is allowing race and gender politics to distract from academics. However, he noted that Arizona is a local-control state, so he is unable to intervene, and Osborn District parents must act.
In a statement, Horne said, “As Superintendent of Public Instruction my primary focus is helping schools increase academic outcomes, and the Osborn school district is not doing well academically, in part because of needless and provocative distractions.”
“We received a notification on the department’s Empower Hotline from a member of the Osborn community, who is offended by what is going on at that school district. This person sent pictures of a classroom wall that instead of posting academic materials had a big Black Lives Matter poster. They also sent a picture of stickers given to the students with the Osborn logo, surrounded by the colors associated with gender politics. The district provides magnets to attach this to cars, and stickers to students and staff, according to the notification we received on the hotline. There are no posters of brown lives matter, blue lives matter. Where does one stop when one goes down this path?”
Citing test scores holding up Phoenix’s Osborn District alongside the demographically similar Avondale Elementary District, which has an even higher poverty rate according to the free and reduced lunch enrollment, the release from the ADE noted that Avondale scores “significantly higher in academics.”
“81 percent of Osborn students are not proficient in math, compared to 67 percent in Avondale. In reading, 76 percent of Osborn students are not proficient, while that figure for Avondale is 63 percent.”
Horne offered some advice to school districts.
“If districts eliminate the time spent on race and gender politics they will have more time for academics. This will produce higher test scores. I spoke to the Osborne superintendent about this. He said what I was complaining about was designed to make all students feel welcome. The way to do that properly is to teach students to treat each other as individuals without regard to race, sexual orientation, sexual identity, or any such characteristic. It is not to promote identity politics in our public schools. He responded that we would have to agree to disagree.”
The State Superintendent added, “Arizona is a local control state. I do not have authority to order this to stop. We must rely on the parents and taxpayers in the Osborn school district to bring proper values and focus on academics to that school district. I urge them to do this as I do parents throughout Arizona who may observe this kind of needless distraction being promoted by schools.”
Pre-empting criticism for his opposition to the racial politics at play, Horne recalled his history of support for civil rights saying, “I have been a passionate supporter of civil rights since childhood. I attended the march on Washington in 1963 in which Martin Luther King gave his famous speech arguing that we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. That has been my philosophy my whole life.”
However, he made his recommendation clear: “Race and gender politics in schools are contrary to this philosophy which should be taught to all students.”
A former middle school teacher out of Tucson will lose his Arizona teaching certificate several years after threatening to shoot a Trump merchandise store and kill a lawmaker.
As the Arizona Daily Independentreported, Donald Glenn Brown sent an email under the alias “Jessica James” to The Trumped Store in Show Low, Arizona on July 4, 2022 threatening to shoot up the store as well as murder State Senator Wendy Rogers. Brown was arrested in September of that year on the charge of attempting to commit terrorism, a class four felony.
Brown’s graphic email is replicated below from the Arizona State Board of Education (ASBE) meeting content regarding his case:
“Hello you Mother-F**king Disgusting Piece of Shit….this is Jim & Jessica James, we are friends of Ron Watkins, We are parked today July 4 at the Sonic Restaurant (Show Low), with a pair of AR-15s, We are going to walk in your f**king joke of a store, and start shooting, and put the barrell [sic] of a gun to Wendy Rogers face and pull the trigger and bow her f**king head off…and enjoy watching that f**king traitor grifting disgusting lying sick Bi*ch Wh*re C*nt Die, and her brains, head, blood sprayed all over your f**king store…and then we’re going to start shooting your f**king shit-hole up with a few AR15 rounds-some real patriots are going to Hit Back and F**king C*nt Rogers is going to die…..F**k You Traitor…..tRump Ass-licking C**k Sucker.”
Not until he pled guilty earlier this year in April did Brown resign from the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The Navajo County Superior Court sentenced Brown to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Brown’s hearing before ASBE is scheduled for next Monday, where it is anticipated he will lose his teaching certification. Brown didn’t appear before the Professional Practices Advisory Committee (PPAC) for his July hearing, due to his imprisonment; PPAC voted unanimously to recommend revocation of Brown’s teaching certification.
Brown maintains a preK-12 music education certificate set to expire next September. Brown taught at the Pistor Middle School within TUSD.
In addition to engaging in violent political threats, Brown appeared to be addicted to pornography.
According to his ASBE case information, Brown had his teaching credentials suspended in another state, New Mexico, based on a 2016 complaint by a female teacher that she had seen a picture of a naked woman bent over on Brown’s school computer screen. Brown later admitted to viewing pornography during school hours on a classroom computer when no students were present.
Brown applied for a substitute certificate with the state of Arizona during his suspension for the pornography viewing, which was part of a settlement agreement with the New Mexico Public Education Department.
In addition to his “Jessica James” alias, ASBE reported that Brown created a separate alias email “Marina Aleximov” to serve as “an outlet for political rage and tool for sexual gratification.” Under this alias, Brown pretended to be a young, ex-Mormon woman from Russia attacking Republicans online, including Rogers, and curating content from male porn stars, fintess models, and celebrities.
“[Y]ou need to move to Mar-a-Lago so you can be one of ex-King tRump’s wh*res,” wrote Brown. “You want to f**k Donald J Trump sooo bad, right? You worship and adore him, you even pray to him, go to Florida and suck his little orange c*ck and f**k him.”
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Warning: this article contains spoilers from the newly released film, “Am I Racist?”
The Arizona State University (ASU) graduate who gained notoriety for her viral confrontation of two white students, Sarra Tekola, was featured in the latest mockumentary film from Daily Wire, “Am I Racist?”
Tekola accosted two white male students in September 2021 for studying in a room established around that time as a multicultural center under a campaign she helped to lead. At the time of the incident, per our past reporting, the room had not yet been established officially as a multicultural center and no signage existed to designate the room as such.
Though the Arizona Board of Regents determined that Tekola’s actions violated the Code of Conduct — only finding guilt of interfering with university activities, but not harassment — ASU awarded her a doctorate in sustainability eight months later in May of 2022. Tekola runs her own consulting firm presently, and now goes by “they/he” pronouns as “Yeshaq Sarra Tekola.”
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh provided commentary of Tekola’s actions at the time and subsequently provided coverage on developments following the incident.
Now, nearly three years to the day of that viral incident, Walsh premiered a mockumentary, “Am I Racist?” in which he interviews Tekola.
However, Walsh didn’t present himself to Tekola under his true identity. Walsh also didn’t interview Tekola about the 2021 incident. Rather, Walsh presented himself as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate and interviewed Tekola about her beliefs on racism.
At no point in the portions of the interview included in the movie did Tekola discern Walsh’s true identity.
During her interview, Tekola told Walsh that she believed that all white people were racist.
Tekola also said she subscribed to a theory that white individuals don’t recognize their racism because they divide themselves into two selves: a subconscious self which is guilty of being racist, and the conscious self which believes it isn’t racist. Tekola told Walsh that it’s the responsibility of white individuals to reconcile the two selves to become aware of their racism.
Tekola also advocated for an end to whiteness altogether.
It is unclear when Walsh filmed this interview with Tekola, though it appears she maintains similar or the same beliefs at present. In an X post earlier this year, Tekola implied that those opposed to illegal immigration based on the surge in violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants were racist.
“Who belongs here [in America]? It’s giving whites only,” wrote Tekola.
Tekola is also the co-founder, co-director, and policy strategist for the Phoenix Metro area’s Black Lives Matter chapter. Tekola also co-founded and co-leads the Phoenix Environmental Justice Coalition. In recent years, Tekola joined the activist organizations Working Families Party Arizona, Chisholm Legacy Project, and Hive Fund.
Prior to enrolling at ASU, Tekola made headlines for her activism: from blocking the construction of a police station in Seattle, Washington to organizing a BLM protest-turned-riot in 2020 that ended with her arrest (for which she raised over $6,000). Tekola was also a Ford Foundation Fellow from 2018 to 2021.
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Arizona’s Republican school’s chief is taking additional action to raise awareness for Holocaust education.
Earlier this week, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne presented the Arizona Jewish Historical Society with a seven-million-dollar check for the purpose of creating the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center.
The mission of the center, per its website, is that it will be “dedicated to exploring the lessons of the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity. The Center educates and inspires visitors of diverse backgrounds through survivor stories, artifacts, immersive media experiences, community outreach, and public programs.” Its vision is to “inspire visitors to learn from the Holocaust, to become upstanders, and to work toward a world without hatred and bigotry.”
Horne stated, “In the past year, we have seen the unbelievable and tragic targeting of the Jewish community with the horrific acts committed on innocent men, women and children by Hamas in Israel, the ignorant and misguided protests against Jews on college campuses and the endorsement of antisemitic literature in some Arizona classrooms. This cannot go unchallenged, and educating people is one of the most powerful tools to face this scourge. Developing the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center is a needed step toward bridging understanding between people of all ethnicities and belief systems and I am grateful to be a part of this important cause.”
Joining Horne at the presentation were State Representatives Alma Hernandez and David Marshall. Arizona business leader Steve Hilton also appeared alongside the state officials.
It was bipartisan legislation spearheaded by Hernandez and Marshall that made the check presentation from the Arizona Department of Education possible for the benefit of the Center.
According to the Center’s website, the explanation for why it is being created at this time is because “Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States, yet it is the largest U.S. city that does not have a Holocaust museum or education center. With anti-Semitic and hate crimes on the rise over the last five years in Arizona and the United States, now is the time to build a new center to raise awareness and educate the community so that we can help to address these critical issues that affect all groups of people that may be marginalized and made vulnerable to discrimination. When one group’s freedom is curtailed, all people are susceptible to prejudice and injustice.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona State University (ASU) hosted a forum Sunday alongside left-wing groups to mobilize young voters in both high school and college for the upcoming presidential election.
ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication held the “New Generation Voter Forum,” specifically targeting Gen Z and Millennial voters (those born between 1997 and 2012, and between 1981 and 1996). Organizers billed the forum as a nonpartisan event offered to represent the facts and prepare new young voters for November.
Key organizers of the event were the Tempe Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority alongside the historically black sorority’s ASU chapter, Iota Kappa.
Group participants within the forum included the Greater Phoenix Urban League of Young Professionals, League of Women Voters of Arizona, Black Student Union (BSU) DPC, and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) at ASU.
These groups have long been advocates for left-wing causes and movements, namely Black Lives Matter.
At one table to register the young voters in attendance, a woman representing the League of Women Voters of Arizona wore a “Vote” shirt depicting the black fist to represent BLM, a uterus to represent abortion rights, and the pride flag to represent gender and gay ideologies. On the table were pamphlets on different ballot issues, including Ranked-Choice Voting.
Kara Pelletier, at-large board member for League of Women Voters of Arizona and president-elect of the Metro Phoenix Board, toldCronkite News it was “critical” to get more of the youth registered to vote. Pelletier was formerly the Arizona chapter leader for the prominent national gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“It’s critical that our youth get engaged and remain engaged. They’re actually a larger voting bloc than the next-largest voting bloc, which is boomers,” said Kara Pelletier of the League of Women Voters of Arizona. “That particular age group, 18 to 29, really is a huge section of the electorate, and they could really have a lot of influence and say in what goes on in our country, our politicians, what our budgets are focused on, who’s elected.”
Others also offered voter registration to the young participants: ASU through TurboVote, and Vote Everywhere. Both TurboVote and Vote Everywhere are programs of left-leaning organizations: Democracy Works and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, respectively.
The panel discussion centered around misinformation and disinformation in the media, such as deepfakes produced by artificial intelligence.
Featured panelists discussing media literacy and democracy included ASU professors Retha Hill and Pauline Arrillaga. Both professors have been vocal in their support of left-wing causes and Democrats, and critical of right-wing causes and Republicans including former President Donald Trump.
New ASU Art Museum exhibit shows protest art left where police killed George Floyd https://t.co/zyzUXNWJIV
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The forum also included roundtable discussions on the importance of voting, handling double residencies when voting, getting involved in elections as international or out-of-state students, understanding nonpartisan races, running for office, and understanding the issues on the ballot.
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