Stanford Past and Present

The Founding of the University

Stanford University is a living memorial to Leland Stanford, Jr., the son of Senator Leland and Jane Stanford, who died in 1884 of typhoid fever at just 15 years of age. Overcome by their grief and desiring to create a fitting tribute to their only child, Leland and Jane soon decided that the most appropriate way to honor him was to do something for “other people’s children.” After consulting with leaders of the greatest universities of their day, Leland and Jane began to craft their vision for the university community that would bear their beloved son’s name.

The Educational Mission of the University

Leland Stanford Junior University opened its doors in October 1891 to a set of freshmen and the transfer students who would be among the first graduates, the Class of 1892. These first students attended a university that was non-traditional in several dimensions: coeducational in a time when most private universities were all-male; non-sectarian when most were associated with a religious organization; flexible in its program of study when most insisted on a rigid curriculum; and boldly practical, seeking to “qualify students for personal success and direct usefulness in life” when most universities were concerned only with the former.

As the University’s first president, David Starr Jordan attended to students’ personal development and the practical value they would bring to the world through their training, just as the Stanfords envisioned. But he also connected the mandate of useful training to the more traditional idea of liberal learning. Jordan embedded this idea into the University’s motto, “Die Luft der Freiheit weht” (“the wind of freedom blows”), quoted from the 16th century humanist Ulrich von Hutten. Guided by this motto, Stanford aims to make its students “useful for life” precisely by promoting a wide-ranging freedom of mind through direct involvement in the pure search for knowledge, regardless of its particular practical applications. This ideal places Stanford’s teaching mission squarely in the long tradition of liberal education, which holds that such study promotes a person’s “freedom for expansion and self-development.” Free study is also an education for freedom, and Stanford’s emphasis on liberal education reflects the institution’s founding commitment to the development of our students. The University’s distinctive, collaborative integration of the resources from all its various schools into the mission of educating undergraduates arises from a sustained effort to blend these two ideals—usefulness in life and freedom of mind—into a seamless whole.

Three broad educational aims structure Stanford’s pursuit of this mission. First, Stanford aims for students to acquire important bodies of knowledge and participate in knowledge creation across a wide range of domains, including arts, engineering, the interpretive, analytical and historical humanities, languages, natural sciences, the social sciences, and quantitative and statistical studies. Second, Stanford aims for students to build foundational intellectual and practical capacities such as critical thinking; aesthetic and interpretive judgment; formal and quantitative reasoning skills; an ability to think historically; facility in both scientific and social scientific analysis, including the abilities to formulate and test hypotheses, assess data, and weigh competing theories; a rich capacity for creative expression; and the ability to communicate effectively in a wide array of circumstances and media. Finally, Stanford aims for students to develop personal and social responsibility; ethical and moral reasoning skills; an appreciation of cultural difference, as well as of human commonality; the ability to work collaboratively in diverse teams; tolerance, generosity, and a broad capacity for empathy.

These three broad aims are encompassed by a fourth educational idea: throughout their studies at every level, students should synthesize and integrate the skills and knowledge they acquire and learn to apply them in new contexts. Each of these four broad areas is initially developed in a student’s general education studies and deepened in a student’s more advanced studies, including the major.

Core Values of the University Community

President Jordan’s belief in the values of freedom of mind and study extended to his confidence in students’ capacity for honor, ethical behavior, and self-regulation. In 1896, Jordan set forth the Fundamental Standard, which remains the guiding principle of student conduct today. It states:

Students at Stanford are expected to show both within and without the University such respect for order, morality, personal honor, and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens. Failure to do this will be sufficient cause for removal from the University.

Over the years, the Fundamental Standard has been applied to a great variety of situations, but the expectation remains that students will appropriately enjoy the freedom granted to them by the University by giving conscious thought to the impact of their behavior on others in the community. Although infractions may result in penalties ranging from a formal warning to expulsion, depending on the severity and context of the violation, all violations are taken very seriously.

In May 1921, a few decades after the articulation of the Fundamental Standard, students lobbied the Academic Council to adopt the Honor Code as the application of the Fundamental Standard to academic matters. The signatures of 1,750 students (more than 70% of the student body at that time) affirmed the petition that sought to invest primary responsibility for academic integrity with students. The Honor Code remains in effect today as a collaborative effort between faculty and students to create an academic environment based on trust.

The Honor Code states, in part:

1. that [students] will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or receive unpermitted aid in class work, in the preparation of reports, or in any other work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;

2. that they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the Honor Code.

At Stanford, faculty and teaching assistants do not proctor exams or take any action that would result in a breach of that trust (such as searching a student for notes before the student enters a test room). This means students assume full responsibility for their conduct and are held accountable for the same. With roots deep in Stanford’s history, the Fundamental Standard and Honor Code remain core values of the community because they express the spirit of Stanford’s commitment to citizenship, freedom, and personal and social responsibility.