History of Stanford University

Frederick Terman, dean of engineering and later the provost, is often called the "Father of Silicon Valley," who helped several early technology companies in the area develop.

"[1] However, much preceded the opening and continued for several years until the death of the last founder, Jane Stanford, in 1905 and the destruction by the 1906 earthquake.

"[2] The Stanfords visited Harvard's president, Charles Eliot, and asked whether they should establish a university, technical school or museum.

Despite the duty to have a co-educational institution, in 1899, Jane Stanford, the remaining Founder, added to the Founding Grant the legal requirement that "the number of women attending the University as students shall at no time ever exceed five hundred".

She feared the large numbers of women entering would lead the school to become "the Vassar of the West" and felt that would not be an appropriate memorial for her son.

[2][18][19] In the summer of 1886, when the campus was first being planned, Stanford brought the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Francis Amasa Walker, and the Boston landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted westward for consultations.

[18] Olmsted worked out the general concept for the campus and its buildings, rejecting a hillside site in favor of the more practical flatlands.

Jordan's educational philosophy was a good fit with the Stanfords' vision of a non-sectarian, co-educational school with a liberal arts curriculum, and he accepted the offer.

With such a short time frame he drew heavily on his own acquaintance in academia; of the fifteen original professors, most came either from Indiana University or his alma mater Cornell.

The 1891 founding professors included Robert Allardice in mathematics, Douglas Houghton Campbell in botany, Charles Henry Gilbert in zoology, George Elliott Howard in history, Oliver Peebles Jenkins in physiology and histology, Charles David Marx in civil engineering, Fernando Sanford in physics, and John Maxson Stillman in chemistry.

[21] For the second (1892–93) school year, Jordan added 29 additional professors including Frank Angell (psychology), Leander M. Hoskins (mechanical engineering), William Henry Hudson (English), Walter Miller (classics), George C. Price (zoology), and Arly B.

[23] Edward Alsworth Ross gained fame as a founding father of American sociology; in 1900 Jane Stanford fired him for radicalism and racism, unleashing a major academic freedom case.

A $15 million government lawsuit against Stanford's estate, combined with the Panic of 1893, made it extremely difficult to meet expenses.

[29] She forbade students from sketching nude models in life-drawing class, banned automobiles from campus, and did not allow a hospital to be constructed so that people would not form an impression that Stanford was unhealthy.

Between 1899 and 1905, she spent $3 million on a grand construction scheme building lavish memorials to the Stanford family, while university faculty and self-supporting students were living in poverty.

The university retains the Quad, part of the Museum, the old Chemistry Building (now, after extensive remodeling, the Sapp Center for Science Teaching and Learning),[34][35][36] and Encina Hall (then the men's undergraduate dormitory).

In fact, Stanford did not emerge as a prestigious academic institution until the 1960s, when it appeared on lists of the "top ten" universities in America ...

[44] The biological sciences department evolved rapidly from 1946 to 1972 as its research focus changed, due to the Cold War and other historically significant conditions external to academia.

In the early 1950s the department remained fixed in the classical independent and self-directed research mode, shunning interdisciplinary collaboration and excessive government funding.

Each phase was preempted by larger social issues, such as the escalation of the Cold War, the launch of Sputnik, and public concern over medical abuses.

[48] The experiment, which was funded by the Office of Naval Research, surprised the professor by the authoritarian and brutal reaction of the "guards" and the passive acceptance of abuse by the "prisoners".

[50] Though Stanford has never officially prohibited the admission of Black students, people of Asian descent, or Native Americans, it did not treat them equally with those considered as White.

In 1960, the Alpha Tau Omega chapter had its national charter revoked after refusing to retract the pledging of four Jewish students.

[52][53][note 2] As of late 1962 only the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity still officially discriminated due to the national organization's rules.

[52] However, in April 1965 the local Sigma Chi chapter pledged Kenneth M. Washington and was suspended allegedly for violating rules on rituals.

[80] In fall 2015, Poets & Quants, a blog that covers MBA programs around the world, made public a wrongful termination suit filed by James A. Phills against Stanford; Phills alleged his firing was driven by the affair that his estranged wife, Deborah H. Gruenfeld, was having with Garth Saloner, the dean of the business school, apparently with the knowledge of Stanford's provost, John Etchemendy.

[90] In October 2023, Stanford University reached a $1.9 million settlement with the US federal government for violations under the False Claims Act in which 11 researchers "knowingly failed" to disclose foreign funding.

The committee urged the university to reframe its diversity, equity and inclusion program to become more pluralistic and tolerant of Jewish identity.

[92] Larry Diamond, a Jewish member of faculty said the university had failed to teach critical thinking and tolerance of others' opinions.

[93] Jews were called "Zios" in social media by students, a term developed by KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke.