Ray Lyman Wilbur, Former Cabinet Member Explains Aims of Stanford

The following articles was written especially for the Crimson by Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford University and former Secretary of the interior in President Hoover's cabinet.

Stanford University is comparatively young and is located in an actively growing center of the Pacific Slope. It is in close physical relationship with the University of California, one of the largest and most significant of the state universities.

The problems of Stanford are those of other privately endowed universities. Its ability to go ahead depends upon its ability to take initiative. We think of Stanford as a testing and germinating center for a new thought and new facts and as an instrument for carrying over from one generation to the next some of the accumulated information that is in the world's possession. The Stanford trust permits unusual freedom. The aim of the Founders was to develop a " University of high degree."

Stanford started out from the first on a broad university program. Many of the features of the ordinary American college of the residential type have been a part of its history. At the present time it grants about the same number of advanced and professional degrees as it does the Bachelor of Arts degree in any given year.

The Very rapid development of the junior college as part of the public educational system in the West has been a significant part of the movement to separate the more elementary college education from that which can be called advanced. In order to make accommodations to this conception of education the "lower division" under general University supervision has been organized at Stanford, covering the first two years of college work. After that period a broad basis for the granting of the A.B. degree has been obtained through the organization of the whole University in to the following schools--Biological Sciences, Engineering, Hygiene and Physical Education, Law, Letters, Medicine, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. The faculties of these schools recommend for the various degrees.

Work Limited

Stanford University has limited the number of students received into the Lower Division and the number accepted for some of the Schools. We have always limited our work to certain chosen fields of education and have endeavored not to take on responsibilities which two could not meet from a financial standpoint. After the first year we dropped our work in agriculture, since that was to be developed at the University of California.

Our aim has been to do well the work upon which we entered and to set a high standard for student entrance and of student achievement. We have been liberal in our entrance requirements insofar as the subjects for admission were concerned, but have required good records in the subjects taken. The number of subjects required, either for admission or in the University, has been kept down to reasonable levels. In the lower division we anticipate that every student will show a satisfactory knowledge of English composition, will have acquaintance with one foreign languages, will learn laboratory technique through a laboratory course, will learn the use of the library through history and similar courses, and will take a required course in Citizenship and in English Composition. In the upper division we think that the grouping of the departments into schools has coordinated and broadened the work of the University and has made a better basis for the graduate professional schools.

Large Endowment

While Stanford started out with a very large endowment for that early period, the growth of other endowments, such as that of Harvard, has been much more rapid in recent years. The tuition fees paid at Stanford provide only 35 per cent of the expenses. We assume that our University, must grow steadily. That growth will depend upon the confidence which the public has in the work that we do.

We consider one of our most important functions is that of supporting adequate scholarly work in research. We endeavor to bring this about by over staffing the University, so that our faculty may have sufficient time to devote to scholarly pursuits. We endeavor to discover men of the highest intellectual qualities. We endeavor, too, to attract students of enterprise and capacity, who want to advance themselves in intellectual pursuits. We have endeavored to give wide freedom to the members of our faculty, especially in the fields in which they are experts. We have endeavored to avoid programs and the acceptance of gifts contingent upon the maintenance of rigid lines of thought in social, political or religious questions. We at Stanford consider that the power to grow and change with each generation is the hope of the University