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Stanford University

 

Stanford University is a private university in Stanford, California and one of the world's leading institutions of higher education and research. It is located approximately 35 miles southeast of San Francisco, in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County adjacent to the city of Palo Alto.

Table of contents
1 History and Culture
2 Academics
3 University Leadership

3.1 University Presidents
3.2 University Provosts

4 Notable Stanford Alumni
5 Notable Stanford Faculty and Affiliates
6 Stanford Athletics

6.1 Notable Stanford Athletes

7 External links

History and Culture

Stanford was founded by railroad magnate and California Governor Leland Stanford along with his wife, Jane Stanford, who created the University, and named it, in honor of their deceased teenage son, Leland Stanford, Jr. Thus, the school's official name is Leland Stanford Junior University, but is rarely referred to by its full title. The University's founding grant was written on November 11, 1885 and accepted by the first Board of Trustees on November 14. The cornerstone was laid on May 14, 1887, and the University officially opened on October 1, 1891 to 559 students, with free tuition. The school was established as a coeducational institution, although it maintained a cap on female enrollment for many years.

Stanford University owns 8,180 acres (32 km2), making it the second largest university complex in the world. The main campus is bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard and Sand Hill Road, in the heart of the Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula. Besides the university, the Stanford trustees oversee Stanford Research Park, the Stanford Shopping Center, the Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford University Medical Center and many associated medical facilities (including the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital), as well as many acres of undeveloped foothills. Locals and university affiliates often refer to the school as The Farm, a nod to the institution's origins as a horse farm.

 

Other prominent Stanford-affiliated institutions include the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the Stanford Research Institute, a now-independent institution which originated at the University. The Stanford University Libraries hold a collection of more than eight million volumes. The main library in the SU library system is the Green Library. Stanford also houses the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, a renowned public policy research center which attracts visiting scholars from around the world.

Stanford built its international reputation as a pioneering Silicon Valley institution through top programs in engineering and the sciences. Stanford has played an important role in the development of Silicon Valley, and birthed companies such Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Yahoo!, Google and Sun Microsystems—indeed, "Sun" originally stood for "Stanford University Network." The university also offers world-class programs in the humanities, particularly creative writing, history, government, economics and psychology.

Campus landmarks include Memorial Church, the art museum and art gallery, Hoover Tower, the Rodin sculpture garden, the Papua New Guinea sculpture garden, Green Library, Frank Lloyd Wright's Beehive House and the Dish, not to mention to the Stanford Quad.

The Stanford Quad and its original Moorish-Romanesque architecture are part of the campus plan contributed by H. H. Richardson, his successors, Shepley, Rutan and Charles Allerton Coolidge, and legendary architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Much of the first construction was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake but the University retains the Quad, the old Chemistry Building and Encina Hall (reportedly the residence of John Steinbeck during his time at Stanford). After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake inflicted further damage the University implemented a billion-dollar capital improvement plan to retrofit and renovate older buildings for new, up-to-date uses. Many of the modern buildings were designed in the Spanish-colonial style common to California, with red tile roofs and white stucco exteriors, which gives the campus a uniform yet distinctly Californian look that many find aesthetically pleasing—the red tile roofs and bright blue skies common to the region are a famously complementary combination. The University has its own golf course and a seasonal lake (Lagunita), both home to the endangered tiger salamander.

Stanford University traditions include Full Moon on the Quad, the Halloween party at the Stanford family mausoleum, Flicks, steam-tunnelling, Primal Scream and Viennese Ball.

The official motto of Stanford University is "Die Luft der Freiheit weht." When loosely translated from the Latin, by way of German, the quote from Ulrich von Hutten means "Let the winds of freedom blow."

Academics

The University enrolls approximately 6,500 undergraduates and 7,300 grad students. Stanford has a reputation among students as being a relaxed, fun-loving, warm-weather alternative to the Ivy League. The schools of the University include the School of Humanities and Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Earth Sciences, School of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Law School and the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Stanford awards the following degrees: B.A., B.S., B.A.S., M.A., M.S., Ph.D., D.M.A., Ed.D., Ed.S., M.D., M.B.A., J.D., J.S.D., J.S.M., LL.M., M.A.T., M.F.A., M.L.S., M.L.A. and ENG.

The University has approximately 1,700 faculty members, including 17 Nobel laureates and 23 MacArthur fellows. The largest part of the faculty are affiliated with the medical school (40 percent), while a third serve in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

University Leadership

Stanford University is governed by a board of trustees, in conjuction with the university president and provosts and the deans of the various schools.

University Presidents

  1. David Starr Jordan (1891-1913)
  2. John Casper Branner (1913-1915)
  3. Ray Lyman Wilbur (1915-1943)
  4. Donald Bertrand Tresidder (1943-1949)
  5. J. E. Wallace Sterling (1949-1968)
  6. Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer (1968-1970)
  7. Richard Wall Lyman (1970-1980)
  8. Donald Kennedy (1980-1992)
  9. Gerhard Casper (1992-2000)
  10. John L. Hennessy (2000-present)

University Provosts

The position of Provost was created in 1952 during the Presidency of J. E. Wallace Sterling. Many people consider the Stanford Provost to be the "heir apparent" to the President because of the five men who succeeded Sterling as President, three were Provost of Stanford (Lyman, Kennedy, and Hennessy), one was Provost of the University of Chicago (Casper), while the other was President of Rice University (Pitzer). The Provost is the University's chief academic and budget officer. The Provost and the President together conduct Stanford's relationships with the neighboring community and other schools and organizations.

  1. Douglas M. Whitaker (1952-1955)
  2. Frederick E. Terman (1955-1965)
  3. Richard Wall Lyman (1967-1970)
  4. William F. Miller (1971-1978)
  5. Gerald J. Lieberman (1979-1979)
  6. Donald Kennedy (1979-1980)
  7. Albert M. Hastorf (1980-1984)
  8. James N. Rosse (1984-1992)
  9. Gerald J. Lieberman (1992-1993)
  10. Condoleezza Rice (1993-1999)
  11. John L. Hennessy (1999-2000)
  12. John W. Etchemendy (2000-present)

Notable Stanford Alumni

 

Political Leaders

Supreme Court Justices

Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders

Scientists

Academic Leaders

  • Derek Bok '51, President Emeritus Harvard University
  • Victor Davis Hanson (PhD) '80, Classicist, historian, National Review contributor
  • Richard Levin '68, President Yale University
  • Peter Salovey, Dean Yale College
  • Vartan Gregorian '58, President Emeritus Brown University; President Carnegie Corporation
  • Clark Kerr (MA), President Emeritus University of California
  • Ronald Rivest (PhD), cryptographer
  • Vinton Cerf, internet pioneer

Literature and Arts

  • John Steinbeck (dropped out), author
  • Scott Turow (MA), author
  • Ken Kesey (MA), author
  • Harriet Doerr, author
  • Robert Hass (MA, PhD), U.S. Poet Laureate
  • Robert Pinsky (PhD), U.S. Poet Laureate
  • Robert Motherwell, painter
  • Robbie Conal, artist

Actors, Film and Media

 

Astronauts

Miscellaneous

Notable Stanford Faculty and Affiliates

Stanford Athletics

 

Stanford participates in the NCAA's Division I-A and forms part of the Pac-10 athletic conference. It also has membership in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for indoor track (men and women), water polo (men and women), women's gymnastics, women's lacrosse, men's gymnastics, and men's volleyball. Stanford's traditional sports rival is Cal. Stanford has won the NACDA Director's Cup (formerly known as the Sears Cup) every year for the past nine years (the award has been offered the past ten years), honoring the first-ranked collegiate athletic program in the United States.

Stanford offers 34 varsity sports (18 female, 15 male, one coed), 19 club sports and 37 intramural sports -- about 800 students participate in intercollegiate sports. The University offers about 300 athletic scholarships.

The winner of the annual "Big Game" between the Cal and Stanford football teams gains custody of the Axe. Stanford's football team played in the first Rose Bowl in 1902, losing 49-0 to the University of Michigan. Stanford has played in 12 Rose Bowls, most recently in 2000.

Formerly the Stanford Indians (from 1930 to 1972), that mascot was changed in the 1970s because it was politically incorrect. The Stanford sports teams are now officially referred to as the Stanford Cardinal (the color, not the bird), but the band's mascot, The Tree, is often mistaken as the school's mascot. Part of Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB), the tree symbol derives from the El Palo Alto redwood tree on the Stanford and City of Palo Alto seals.

Notable Stanford Athletes

Notah Begay, golf; Amy Chow, gymnastics; Jarron Collins, basketball; John Elway, American football; Janet Evans, swimming; Eric Heiden, speed skating, cycling; Arthur Lee, basketball; Mark Madsen, basketball; Casey Martin, golf; John McEnroe (dropped out), tennis; Pablo Morales, swimming; Mike Mussina, baseball; Summer Sanders, swimming; Kerri Strug, gymnastics; Debi Thomas, figure skating; Jenny Thompson, swimming; Tom Watson, golf; Tiger Woods (dropped out), golf

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