Michael M. Crow sees Arizona State as the model of a public research university that measures itself by inclusivity, not exclusivity. In his 13 years as its president, he has profoundly reshaped the institution — hiring faculty stars from across the country, starting a bevy of interdisciplinary programs, growing the student body to some 83,000 and using technology to bring his ideas to scale, whether with web-based introductory math classes or eAdvisor, which monitors students’ progress toward their major. Last year, Dr. Crow made headlines when the university partnered with Starbucks to offer students the chance to complete their degree online for free. His new book, written with the historian William B. Dabars, is called, appropriately, “Designing the New American University.”

Q. What’s the most important thing for public research universities to be doing right now?

They should be expanding the number of people who graduate, people from the lower half of the family income distribution. That’s what we’ve made huge progress on, more than I’ve even thought possible [the four-year rate is at 49 percent, up from 33 percent pre-eAdvisor].

We’re in a University Innovation Alliance with 10 behemoth schools, including Michigan State, Ohio State and the University of Texas, Austin, to do four things: greatly expand the number of graduates, and of lower-income graduates even more, share every innovation tool any of us has developed and lower the cost of producing a graduate. We’ve got that cost down to about $56,000, from $68,000 in 2008. The state’s investment, which used to be $35,000 a graduate, is now $16,000.

Q. Since 2008, state funding to higher education in Arizona has been cut 48 percent, with another 14 percent decrease in the new budget. What’s the impact?