LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY (STAN FORD UNIVERSITY), near Palo Alto (Calif.), U.S.A., in the beautiful Santa Clara valley, was founded in 1885 by Leland Stan ford and by his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford (1825— 1905), as a memorial to their only child, Leland Stanford jr., who died in 1884 in his 17th year. The founder was governor of Cali fornia in 1862-63 and United States senator from 1885 till his death. The doors were opened in 1891 to 559 students. The univer sity campus consists of Stanford's former Palo Alto farm, corn prising about 9,000ac. From it there are views of San Francisco bay, of the Coast Range, particularly of Mt. Hamilton some 3om. E., with the Lick observatory on its summit, of mountain foothills and of the redwood forests towards Santa Cruz.
The buildings, designed originally by H. H. Richardson and completed by his successors, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, are of soft buff sandstone in a style adapted from the old California mission (Moorish-Romanesque) architecture, being long and low with wide colonnades, open arches and red-tiled roofs.
The building plans of the university contemplate the addition of a quadrangle on either side of the original group. The Thomas Welton Stanford art gallery, the university library and the Cub berley School of Education building have already been constructed in the East quadrangle, in which the Hoover war library, the law library and the departments of journalism and education are to be placed. Outside the quadrangles are other buildings, a museum of art and archaeology, based on collections made by Leland Stanford, Jr., chemical and engineering laboratories, a memorial hall, service buildings, gymnasia and the H. J. Ryan high voltage laboratory. Some fifteen hundred students are housed in university dormitories. There is an arboretum of some 3ooac. This arboretum is to be made the centre of a plant research sta tion. The Hopkins marine station, which is maintained at Pacific Grove on the Bay of Monterey, has two good buildings, one of them, the Jacques Loeb laboratory, a gift of the Rockefeller Foundation. The university maintains the Stanford medical school, the Lane and Stanford hospitals, the Stanford school for nursing and the Lane medical library in San Francisco.
The founders wished the university "to qualify students for personal success and direct usefulness in life; to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization, teaching the blessings of liberty regulated by law, and inculcating love and reverence for the great principles of government as derived from the inalienable rights of man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The entrance require ments of the university are flexible, no subject except English composition being required. The minimum preparation is that of the ordinary four-year high school course which must be com pleted with recommended units in 15 subjects. An aptitude test is also required. Recently the work of the university has been so reorganized that the first two years constitute a so-called lower division with certain specified subject requirements, including bi ology, a course in the history of Western Civilization, etc. The number of men students received in this lower division is at present 450 each October. Degrees are granted upon the recommendation of the departments and schools of the university. It is anticipated that with the development of the junior college the main emphasis of the work of the university will be upon the advanced and grad uate years. The departments of the university are organized into
schools. At present schools of law, medicine, education, biology, social science, engineering, business, letters, and physical science are in existence and the work of students seeking advanced degrees is in charge of a graduate school which embraces representatives of all parts of the university. The influence of sectarianism and politics is barred from the university by its charter, and by its private origin and private support. Nevertheless its policy is that of State service of the most liberal type. The president of the university has the initiative in all appointments and in all matters of general policy. Within the university the faculty power lies in an academic council. An advisory board of seven professors, elected by the academic council without nomination, accords its approval or disapproval to all appointments and all major policies before they are presented to the board of trustees by the president. In 1921 the Food Research Institute of Stanford university was organized, with the help of the Carnegie Corpora tion. In 1926 the Harris J. Ryan high voltage laboratory was established. It contains a generating set for experimental purposes capable of discharging over 2,000,000 volts. Through the generosity of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, Inc., an experimental laboratory in aeronautics, known as the Daniel Guggenheim Aeronautic Laboratory was established in 1926. The university received from its founders securities and land worth about $30,000,000. Most of the large ranch holdings of the university were sold in 191g. In 1936 the university had of productive funds. The value of lands, buildings, and equipment is $14,041,206.42. In 1936 the volumes in the university libraries numbered 659,659, of which 84,225 were in the Lane medical library, 44,364 in the law library and 84,219 in the Hoover war library which comprises materials covering the history of the World War and subsequent international relations. In the autumn quarter of 1936 the students numbered 4,050, of whom 1,184 were women and 963 were graduates. Limitation in funds and equipment are responsible for restrictions in the student body to something around 4,000. Although originally instruction was practically free, there is now a tuition fee of $115 a quarter. A tuition note system enables needy students to postpone payment till three or more years after graduation. Military training is not required, but there is a field artillery unit and an ordnance unit of the reserve officers training corps. During the World War, Stanford was represented by 3,000 of its members, gradu ates, and undergraduates. The university campus has been zoned and space reserved for an extension of the residence hall system for men and for women, together with their athletic fields. The large extent of the campus has made it possible to develop athletic fields of large size and of considerable diversity, to gether with open-air swimming pools and other facilities possible because of the mild climate. Dr. David Starr Jordan was the first president of the university. He was succeeded in 1913 by Dr. John Casper Branner, upon whose retirement, January I, 1916, Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur became president.
(R. L. W.)