On a beautiful Cctober day a little more than four years ago, I sat on a stage at Frost Amphitheater with Richard Lyman, Donald Kennedy and Gerhard Casper as the responsibilities of Stanford’s presidency were officially passed on to me. I felt intense pride and humility as my three predecessors welcomed me to the fold. I also felt very nervous. In addition to the vast array of responsibilities of the presidency, I had decided to announce The Campaign for Undergraduate Education (CUE), an ambitious drive to raise $1 billion in five years, as part of the inauguration.
We were setting our sights quite high. To our knowledge, no other university had attempted to raise $1 billion exclusively for undergraduate education. But we knew that we had to try to reach this audacious goal to offer future generations of undergraduates the best education we could envision.
Over the past four years, as I have traveled throughout the world and met thousands of alumni, parents and friends, I have been overwhelmed by your enthusiastic support for this endeavor. So it gives me great pleasure to report that, with the support of Gerhard Casper, the campaign co-chairs and countless volunteers, we have reached the $1 billion mark for CUE. This is a remarkable accomplishment in such a short—and sometimes uncertain—period, and I thank you. The generosity of Stanford’s friends has helped guarantee that future generations of students will receive the unparalleled education envisioned by the University’s founders.
We have much to celebrate—and we still have important work ahead of us. Although we have reached the $1 billion mark, there are several categories in which we have yet to reach our targets. For example, The Stanford Fund is a vital part of the campaign, but we have not yet achieved our goal of raising $100 million for the fund during CUE.
Why is The Stanford Fund so important? At Stanford, we take pride in maintaining a need-blind admission policy, and The Stanford Fund provides much-needed support for scholarships. Last year, it helped 1,000 extraordinary students to attend the University.
The Stanford Fund also allows us to introduce academic innovations before permanent funding is sought. One of Stanford’s strengths is the creativity of its students, and we work very hard to encourage that creativity by providing opportunities that are not available to students at most other universities. Through these programs, students have been able to work with some of our most distinguished faculty and to conduct cutting-edge research from their first days on campus.
CUE provides vital support to programs such as overseas studies. Generations of alumni who participated in overseas studies often recall these experiences as among the most important of their time at Stanford. As Amos Nur, the T. Robert and Katherine States Burke Director of Overseas Studies and the Wayne Loel Professor of Earth Sciences, said: “The rest of the world is most of the world.” We believe overseas study has never been more important. In recent years we have strengthened and expanded our overseas studies offerings in response to changing times—just last year we opened a new program in Beijing. Our challenge will be to further prepare our students to make significant contributions of intellectual capital in an increasingly international marketplace.
An excellent undergraduate education begins with an excellent faculty, and when we launched CUE, we looked for a way to honor faculty who have made extraordinary contributions to the undergraduate experience. The Bass University Fellows in Undergraduate Education Program was established for that purpose, and so far, we have named 32 University Fellows.
Among them is Harry Elam, professor of drama and director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts. Last year, when Professor Elam was presented with the Lyman Award for outstanding volunteer service to the Alumni Association and the University, he talked about what it meant to teach at Stanford:
“Stanford is a place of seemingly unlimited possibility for students and faculty alike. There is an infectious spirit here. . . . a communal determination to do one’s best and to be the best within an environment that is . . . at once intellectually challenging and nurturing and supportive . . . ”
We are fortunate to have faculty such as Harry Elam and friends like Robert and Ruth Halperin, who endowed his University Fellowship.
As I sat on that stage more than four years ago, the challenges of a major campaign loomed large, but I felt a tremendous sense of duty and optimism. This is the Stanford way. Those of us on the faculty are committed to providing our incredible undergraduates with the best education possible. Our alumni have shown their dedication and thankfulness by helping us ensure that we will be able to offer a Stanford education to the best and brightest of the next generation. With your continued help, I am confident that we will reach a successful conclusion for CUE in the coming year.
