Newsletter
September 1, 2025
Why We Care
Editor’s note: As readers may notice, this week’s Newsletter is being distributed slightly earlier than usual and with different content than usual. With the three-day weekend and the end of summer, we felt everyone could use a brief respite from the issues of the day, and we also felt it would be useful to feature some of the fundamentals on which Stanford has been built. We very much appreciate your interest and continued readership of our Newsletters and website and, as always, welcome your comments and suggestions. We will resume our regular format next week, and in the meantime, wish you a pleasant and peaceful Labor Day weekend.
"Let us not be afraid to outgrow old thoughts and ways, and dare to think on new lines.” – Jane Stanford
“You students are the most important factor in this University. It is for your benefit that it has been established. We hope and believe that you will fully realize and live up to this fact.... We want you all to be not only a credit to the University but also a credit to yourselves.” – Leland Stanford
“Stanford is the university of the American frontier. Like the frontier, it is infused with a sense of openness, possibility, and hope that are fundamental to who we are. Those characteristics are an essential part of what makes this place so distinctive, and will help us define our future.” – Stanford President Jon Levin
“The combination of intelligent, creative people and contentious issues can also be a volatile mix in any community, and perhaps especially so in a tightly knit intellectual community. It is very much in keeping with Jane and Leland Stanford’s original vision of the University that such issues would be part of the academic conversation.” – former Stanford President John Hennessy
"The university has values that it prizes above all others: freedom (not just academic freedom), nondiscrimination (you will be heard, among other things, regardless of your sex, race, ethnicity, religion), and equality of opportunity. Whatever we choose to study, the way in which the study is undertaken describes a culture we share as members of the university. That culture rests on such values as respect for rational inquiry, evidence, and argumentation; respect for the autonomy, integrity, and contributions of the individual; freedom of thought and expression; respect for rules for action that encompass both rights and obligations." – former Stanford President Gerhard Casper
“The greatest threat to the university comes not from without, but from within -- when we allow ideological conformity or political aims to obscure our commitment to truth and learning.” – former Stanford Provost John Etchemendy
Stanford in the Early Years
We also bring to your attention two websites with photos and text from Stanford in the first 15 years:
Stanford University History (40 photos and text, although some of the text may be incorrect) at Click Americana.
A Visit to Stanford University (1905) by Mary Stewart Quelle at Library of Congress. This digitized copy of the book is 96 pages with text (shorter with photos only), can be read online and can also be downloaded in PDF format. If you scroll down at the Library of Congress website, you will also see digitized copies of several other items of possible interest.