Oct 15 2009
American Campus Communities Inc. (NYSE:ACC), one of the largest owners, managers and developers of high-quality student housing properties in the U.S., announced today that the grand opening ceremony for Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, is to be held 9:30 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 15.
“Barrett Honors College represents a substantial milestone in a successful long-term partnership between American Campus and ASU,” said Bill Bayless, American Campus CEO. “The ability of ASU to provide a living learning environment of this caliber to its students is a testament to the vision and resourcefulness of ASU President Michael Crow and we are honored to support his mission.”
Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University student housing
Speakers include ASU President Michael Crow, Dean Mark Jacobs, Craig and Barbara Barrett, Bayless, and ASU honors students. Tours of the campus begin at 10:15 a.m.
The new Barrett Honors College is funded with the company's equity through the American Campus Equity (ACE)™ program, which enables colleges and universities to preserve credit capacity to fund core academic infrastructure.
The Barrett community offers housing to 1,721 students and features a dining center, classrooms, cafe, faculty and administrative offices and activity space. Amenities include a fitness center, computer lounge and lab, amphitheater, classrooms, outside activity courts and dining hall with covered terrace, garden and special dining rooms for events.
The honors college is designed to meet Silver Certification standards on the LEED® Green Building Rating System and features a sustainable living community, with low-consumption plumbing fixtures, enhanced energy monitoring, a green roof and organic garden offering students the opportunity to study and experience sustainable living.
“Barrett combines the caring and advocacy of a small, residential four-year college with the vast resources of a large PAC-10 research university,” says Mark Jacobs, Barrett dean. “This new campus will stand alone among honors colleges around the country for the size of the campus and the comprehensiveness of services arranged in one place for honors students.”
The Honors College at ASU was created in 1988 by an act of the Arizona Board of Regents to provide exceptional educational opportunities for outstanding students. As one of the first honors colleges in the country, it quickly rose to prominence, cited by Money magazine as one of the top eight honors programs in the United States six years later.
In the past 20 years several other honors colleges and programs have been created around the country, but no other public university has its own free-standing honors college campus with classrooms, dining, faculty and advisers on-site. Reader's Digest named Barrett to its “Best in America” list in 2005, as one of three honors colleges that offer “an Ivy League-style education minus the sticker shock.”
Source: http://www.studenthousing.com/