When historians look back on the history of businesses and other institutions, they often identify turning points or crossroads—moments when an organization made critical decisions and took, or failed to take, actions that had a monumental impact on their future.
There are textbook examples of this phenomenon in our recent history: the apathy initially shown by American automobile companies as Japanese manufacturers improved quality and enhanced gas mileage, or the lack of response by computer companies selling “big iron” as the microprocessor and personal computer gained prominence.
These critical transitions can also have positive outcomes. We have seen several in Stanford’s own history—perhaps most notably when Provost Frederick Terman and President Wallace Sterling assessed the landscape of American education and the emerging importance of science and technology following World War II. Terman and Sterling laid the groundwork that allowed Stanford to become a world-class university as well as a birthplace of Silicon Valley.
I believe the first decade of this century will be looked upon as one of these turning points for American universities. We are now at a crossroads of truly historic scale. Human society faces an array of challenges of enormous complexity and of global proportions. The question is what role higher education will take in overcoming these challenges and in educating the leaders for this more demanding world.
Universities are well situated to address these complexities, but it is not a given that they will rise to that challenge. Doing so requires that we change how we operate—not by eliminating departments and disciplines but by breaking down the barriers that separate them and inhibit collaboration in both research and teaching. Stanford is uniquely prepared among universities—by its breadth, history and pioneering faculty—to move in this direction, but it will require bold action supported by significant new resources.
To that end, in October we announced The Stanford Challenge, an ambitious new vision and campaign that will marshal University resources to address some of the century’s great challenges in human health, international peace and security, and the environment. We seek to combat chronic disease by gaining a better understanding of fundamental genetic mechanisms and developing new therapies. We seek sustainable solutions to meeting the needs for energy and water of a growing and more demanding human population. And we seek to understand the subtle interactions between human development, the pursuit of peace and good governance to improve the lives of people around the world.
A second and equally important component of the campaign will focus on educating and preparing students to become the next generation of leaders in a world that has been transformed by globalization. This effort includes both ongoing improvements in undergraduate education and a major initiative to enhance graduate education both within and across the schools. We also will increase our commitment to k-12 education, a critical challenge for our country, both through a new charter school in East Palo Alto and an expanded teacher education program that is being offered as a coterminal degree for Stanford undergraduates.
We also seek to enhance the role of the arts in the lives and education of our students. The arts can help enhance creativity and innovative thinking skills. Through new performance venues, expanded studio and performance courses, and more opportunities to experience great artists and their art, we seek to fulfill Leland Stanford’s directive to produce “cultured and useful citizens.”
Of course our new programs can succeed only if the structure on which they build is firm. Thus, we seek to continue funding faculty development and research, as well as supporting students by ensuring our commitment to need-blind admissions.
Multidisciplinary research and teaching are at the heart of this campaign. We must use this opportunity to cross boundaries and join the best scholars available to find solutions and pilot new educational approaches. The Stanford Challenge seeks to build the resources and create the conditions in which such opportunities abound.
Our five-year campaign will seek to raise $4.3 billion to support these activities. Because of the scope and scale of this endeavor, we have spent many days over the past 24 months in discussion with our trustees and with a variety of supporters about this vision and their willingness to support it. Fortunately, they have responded generously and we already have received commitment for more than $2 billion of our goal.
I am deeply optimistic that when we look back decades from now, we will see that Stanford accepted the challenge, took the right path at the crossroads, and became an even better university. And I think that—in Jane Stanford’s words—“our children’s children’s children” will thank us for the courage of that vision.
