In celebration of their generosity, ASU is pursuing a comprehensive, campus-wide resource-raising effort for the first time during the tenure of President Michael M. Crow.
Below, we invite you to learn about and engage with university programs related to topics explored in performances of Hamilton: An American Musical—and supported by donations large and small. These examples represent a few of the 5,000 designated areas that benefit from philanthropic contributions to Campaign ASU 2020.
Race and Democracy: Your Gift Builds Understanding
“Race” and “democracy” are two words that have been used to describe Hamilton – and they are also the focus of ASU’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD).
“How does a … orphan … impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” the play asks.
Similarly, ASU’s mission of accessibility invites all qualified students to earn a college degree, regardless of background. The CSRD embodies that mission through programs that build understanding of participatory democracy. Your gift to the CSRD will support a film and arts series, workshops for the community, a mobile writing program, and an annual distinguished lecture that builds understanding of not only participatory democracy, but also freedom, equality, egalitarianism, and inclusion.
Support Free Speech, Access to Information
In 1804, Alexander Hamilton said Americans must have “the liberty of publishing truth, with good motives and for justifiable ends.”
More than 200 years later, another prominent lawyer, ASU Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Professor James Weinstein, continues to defend those values.
Weinstein, a faculty fellow at the college’s Center for Law, Science and Innovation, has written extensively on the First Amendment and free speech in a democratic society. He has frequently been involved in cases defending free speech rights.
Through Campaign ASU, you can support the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s Center for Law, Science and Innovation and its efforts to uphold a free press and public access to information.
Your Gift Helps Others Learn Our Founding Principles
In 1787, Alexander Hamilton asked James Madison and John Jay to join him in authoring essays under the name “Publius” to support ratification of the US Constitution. The arguments initially ran in newspapers and were published in book form in 1788.
The first edition of “The Federalist Papers,” or “The Federalist,” was limited to 500 copies, one of which was acquired in 2017 by ASU’s privately supported new School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. It is housed in the special collections of the ASU Library.
This special copy is being used to educate and inspire both the university community and the broader community.
“The Federalist’s” permanent home is ASU Library – an emerging showplace for the university – currently undergoing a major reinvention, most visibly in the remodeling of Hayden Library, ASU’s largest, most-visited library. The redesign of Hayden Library is informed by University Librarian Jim O’Donnell’s vision of what a library in the 21st century should be: a place that is accessible, welcoming and inspiring.
When you support ASU Hayden Library, you ensure that everyone has access to learning about the fundamental principles and ideas that led to the formation of our country.