Hi everyone!
Welcome to ASU's beautiful West campus.
My name is Alexis.
I'm a senior here at ASU studying forensic psychology, as well as criminology and criminal justice.
I'm standing right here in front of ASU's charter monument, which was adopted in 2014,
and basically states that ASU prides itself on whom it includes, not who it excludes.
With that being said, we'll head out on the tour.
So now I'm standing in front of the iconic West campus Paley Gates.
This is part of the golden tradition that states every first-year freshman that starts
here at the West campus will walk through the gates, touch them, connect with them and
say hello to the university that they plan on spending their next four years at.
And then the campus lore is that you're not supposed to touch them, walk through them
or get anywhere near them again until once you've graduated, you'll walk back through
the gates, saying goodbye to the university.
Which is exactly why I'm getting nowhere near them because I am too close to the end to risk it now!
So just behind me is beautiful Fletcher Lawn, where you'll always find students hanging
out with friends or taking a break to study.
It's also the site for our annual West Fest, which is our club fair here at the West campus,
and gives students an opportunity to see every opportunity they have for student engagement
here at ASU's West campus.
So just behind me is our beautiful Fletcher Library.
This was actually one of the first buildings built on the West campus when it was established
in 1984.
In this library, you're going to find over 250,000 different resources that you have
access to and a ton of study space, so you'll learn very quickly that this is going to be
your second home here in college.
Fletcher Library is also home to a few of our most important resources, including our tutoring
center, our writing center, our graduate writing center and arguably most importantly,
our Starbucks.
So now I'm standing in front of the Faculty and Administration Building.
Here we call it F-A-B or FAB for short.
In here, you can find things like academic advising or your professors' offices to visit
them during those office hours — which I promise you are going to be essential in college.
Also in here, you can find things like different college lounges, which are going to give you
an opportunity to hang out with your peers, collaborate on ideas and also just take a
quick study break.
You can also come to F-A-B for academic advising.
Your academic advisors are the people who are going to help you throughout your degree
program, figure out what classes you need to take and make sure you are staying on track
for graduation.
Now follow me to the next stop on our tour.
So just behind me is our Classroom Lab Computer Classroom Building, but that is a mouthful
so we call it CLCC.
In here are a lot of our larger lecture-style classrooms that you'll take a lot of your
general studies courses in.
And in the lower level of this building, you'll find a lot of our West campus research labs.
So ASU is #1 in innovation — which, if you're not a student yet, you'll come to learn very
quickly — and that's because our faculty and even our students are constantly participating
in innovative research that goes on right here on our ASU campuses.
So just behind me is our Sands Building, one of our two primary classroom buildings on
the West campus.
In here you'll find a lot of our smaller classroom sizes, computer labs and a beautiful courtyard
that you'll always see students hanging out, or just taking a quick study break in.
Also in this building we have our communications lab which we call CommLabASU.
It's basically a tutoring center for public speaking, which I promise you will use during
your time here at ASU.
So right now I'm standing in front of the ASU West campus shuttle stop.
Our ASU intercampus shuttles are a free resource for students to get in between all four campuses
of ASU to take classes or to attend events.
They have free Wi-Fi on board and they’re super comfy, so we highly encourage you to utilize
these during your time here at ASU.
So right now I'm standing in the middle of our University Center Building.
Here at West, we call it UCB.
And in here you're going to find most of your centralized student services.
So things like financial aid, enrollment services and Pat Tillman Veterans Center, for all
of our veteran-affiliated students.
Also in this building we have our undergraduate student government, which we call USG, and
our programming and activities board, which we call PAB, which are two huge student-led
organizations responsible for a lot of the fun, club-based activities that happen on campus.
Also in this building we have Café West, which is one of our alternative dining options
on campus.
It's home to our Chick-Fil-A, salad bar, sushi, and other grab-and-go snacks and drinks.
So this big beautiful building behind me, this is our Sun Devil Fitness Complex, better
known as the SDFC, or more simply, the gym.
In here you can find everything from free weights to weight machines to an indoor, air-conditioned
running track and our glass-walled wall ball and racquetball rooms.
We also have a temperature-controlled pool out back, and this is also home to all of our
intramural sports, which take place on the big beautiful SDFC lawn just in front of the building.
So that was the SDFC, now on to the next spot.
Just behind me is Changemaker Central.
Changemakers is an organization across all of our ASU campuses dedicated to community
service and civic engagement — so if you're looking to get involved in the community,
Changemakers is a great place to start here at ASU.
So this building behind me, this is Casa De Oro, which is your first-year residence hall
here on the West campus.
So this is where you're going to be living when you live on campus your first year here
at ASU.
All the rooms in this building are four-person suite style, which means there's two people
on one side who share a jack-and-jill style bathroom with two people on the other side.
Also throughout the building you're going to find your laundry services, your community
kitchen and a ton of study rooms for you to just get out of your room and hang out with
your peers.
So now I'm in Verde Dining Pavilion, or we call it VDP, and this is the buffet-style dining
hall that you'll find here on the West campus.
In here, you'll find dietary options ranging everything from gluten-free and vegan to your
traditional homestyle meal.
So when you start here as a first-year student, you're going to want to choose a meal plan
and there is a bunch to choose from, so you just want to find the one that best fits you.
So on the West campus we also have the POD Market which is a great one-stop shop for
everything from snacks and drinks to laundry detergent and toothpaste.
Also in here we have our Jamba Juice as well as our Papa John's corner.
As you walk around campus, you can see these emergency poles, which are a part of our blue
light system that we have across all of our ASU campuses to keep our students safe.
All of the poles have these red emergency help buttons on them that you press that and
the ASU police will come and help you if you're ever feeling distressed or just in need of
a little help.
These poles are approximately 500 feet apart all over campus, so from every one you're standing
at you can see at least one other nearby.
That was a little bit about safety on campus, now on to the next spot.
So now I'm standing in front of the Bool Bell, which is an iconic part of the West campus.
Students have adopted this as a tradition that after your very last final on your very last
day of senior year you ring the bell, so every student still on campus cramming for exams
and finals can hear a graduate who just got their wings.
And then about three feet south of the bell, actually buried in the ground right here,
is a time capsule that was interred in 1994, on the 10th anniversary of the foundation
of the West campus and it's not set to be brought up until 2034, which is the 50th anniversary
of the West campus.
I probably won't be here for that, but I highly recommend you check it out when the time comes.
Thank you for joining me today on a tour of ASU's beautiful West campus.
I hope you learned a thing or two, and we hope to see you back here at ASU soon.