Arizona State University is a national space-grant institution and public metropolitan research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the U.S. state of Arizona. ASU is the largest public university in the United States by enrollment. Founded in 1885 as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory, the school came under control of the Arizona Board of Regents in 1945 and was renamed Arizona State College. A 1958 statewide ballot measure gave the university its present name; thus, making Arizona State one of the nation's newest public research universities. A goal of the university is to meet Association of American Universities (AAU) criteria and to become a member. The mission of the university is to create a model of the “New American University” that recognizes “inclusion, rather than exclusion” as a measure of success.
