Stanford University: Where Academia and Business Merge

In the 1960's, as Berkeley was acquiring a name for activism and academics, Stanford, only an hour away by car, remained undiscovered.

Today Stanford is known as "the Harvard of the West Coast." It is near the top of university rankings in teaching, scholarly research, and facilities. Last year its schools of physical science, engineering, business, and education ranked number one. Recent U.S. statistics show that the average income of just-graduated students from Stanford is the highest among U.S. universities.

Some compare the pace of Stanford's less than 20-year rise with the meteoric rise of the information industry. It's an appropriate metaphor, because much of Stanford's progress has been in tandem with the information industry.

In 1885, California rail baron and once state governor Leland Stanford established the university in memory of his son, who died before reaching college age. In 1916, a committee of 125 professors divided Stanford into 26 separate departments. Thirty years later it was again reorganized into Schools of Earth Sciences, Education, Engineering, Humanities and Sciences, Law, Business, and Medicine, with 70 departments.

The real turning point only came in 1959, with an idea of the dean of the School of Engineering, Frederick E. Terman.

As the university uses only a limited part of Stanford's large campus, he suggested that the school rent land at nominal cost to businesses or alumni to establish companies to cooperate with the university to provide research and practical experience for students. This made Stanford the first university to have an "industrial zone" and yielded unexpected benefits.

At the time the information industry was just taking off. The climate and geography of California appealed to many investors, and companies set themselves up one after another. Before long they outgrew the campus, expanding to neighboring cities. Soon, they had become the world famous "Silicon Valley."

Stanford arranged for the school to be able to accept contracted research, and there were major reforms in policy. In recruiting professors, the school "offered the best possible conditions to attract a few top people," says Chang Fu-kuo, assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics. Even if the first choice couldn't accept a chair, it didn't mean the second choice would get it.

The higher Stanford's academic status and the stronger its research abilities, the more projects were entrusted to it. Resource development centers from across the United States and national defense institutions also flocked in. "For a professor in the physical sciences to have seven or eight major research projects on hand is common," says Chang Fu-kuo, who has seven projects at present.

Chang says that professors at Stanford need three kinds of ability: "to teach well, to be good researchers, and to really bring in the business." As a private university, Stanford's teachers must seek research programs outside; otherwise there would be no funds for research or grad students.

However, enterprises do not provide programs for basic research or research which takes a long time to show results. Because of this, Stanford's physical science departments focus on the most practical topics, taking the path with the best future. Professors don't have time to follow up trails that seem cold. But sometimes these produce the most outstanding breakthroughs, says Chang. "This is a major problem."

"This is by no means a bad thing," argues Chang Nan-hsiung, a grad student in information sciences. Professors are able to stay in touch with the most advanced technological developments. "What students do is also what's hot, or what will become the most fought over items three or five years down the road," says Chen Chou-chen, a grad student in material sciences and currently a researcher at the Xerox Corporation. In this way, students aren't cut off from the outside world and can jump into the thick of commercial battles upon graduation. This makes Stanford grads much sought after, or gives them the basis to strike out on their own, as with the well-known Sun Mirco company.

Though Stanford doesn't receive state subsidies, large funding from outside contracting has given the school a healthy income. Many major corporations, including those in Silicon Valley, are not lacking in Stanford grads. This has made Stanford the leading recipient in graduate and business donations every year.

Not only is funding no worry, "Stanford's computers are even more inexhaustible," says Chang Nan-hsiung. New products from Silicon Valley are sent to the campus for a trial run. Often new equipment comes even before the old computers have reached obsolescence. Chang, who got his M.S. at financially less well off Berkeley, jokes that this makes students at the latter grind their teeth.

Ten years ago, several companies from Silicon Valley funded an integrated circuit center and concentrated their newest research there. Students can produce entire machines on their own there and have the latest facilities for their research.

On the stable basis of funding provided by the physical sciences, the humanities have also brightened up. Chu Chung-hwa, a Ph.D. candidate in the Drama Department, indicates that, though the humanities departments cannot have research incomes similar to those of the sciences, the school treats them handsomely. Chu receives a scholar-ship with an income equivalent to US$20,000 a year. Chu, who has studied at two other American universities, says that few schools give so generously to the humanities. Some of the science students laughingly refer to the "soft sciences" as the "'parasites' of the university."

Although the school gives good treatment to students, they put a lot of demands on them as well. The school has a policy of "quality over quantity." There are only two other students who entered the program with Miss Chu; it's almost one-on-one with the professors, and it's impossible to slack off.

Especially in the hard sciences, it is necessary to have capable assistants for teaching and research. To maintain student quality, numbers are strictly controlled. The school has maintained a population of about 10,000 for several years. Only top high school students get into the under-graduate departments, and, "if university students are graded on a 4.0 scale, then those who can get into grad school at Stanford are all 3.9," says Chang Fu-kuo. Students long used to being number one are in for a shock--because "everybody here is number one."

Stanford is already an academic Mecca, cultivating the leaders of tomorrow's society.

[Picture Caption]

The red brick and yellow walled rural look reflects a typical style of Stanford architecture.

Chang Nan-hsiung, a student in the Department of Information Sciences, is very satisfied that Stanford offers its students top computer facilities for research.

Every graduating class leaves behind a brass plate in Arabic numerals to represent the graduation year.

The sculpture museum, which specializes in collecting the works of Rodin, and the sculpture garden indicate that affluent Stanford is not lacking a spirit for the humanities.

The open-air plaza outside the church is one place you can find somewhat more students.

With a large campus and relatively few students, even when school's in session it's like vacation time. The picture is of a church dating to the school's early period.

Chang Fu-kuo believes that teachers at Stanford need not only teaching and research ability, but also need to be able to "bring in the business."

"Silicon Valley" provides Stanford with a large number of research projects.

Stanford's campus is vast, first or second largest in the nation. The photo shows picturesque scenery overlooking the campus.

Chang Nan-hsiung, a student in the Department of Information Sciences, is very satisfied that Stanford offers its students top computer facilities for research.

Every graduating class leaves behind a brass plate in Arabic numerals to represent the graduation year.

The sculpture museum, which specializes in collecting the works of Rodin, and the sculpture garden indicate that affluent Stanford is not lacking a spirit for the humanities.

The open-air plaza outside the church is one place you can find somewhat more students.

Chang Fu-kuo believes that teachers at Stanford need not only teaching and research ability, but also need to be able to "bring in the business.".

"Silicon Valley" provides Stanford with a large number of research projects.Chang Fu-kuo believes that teachers at Stanford need not only teaching and research ability, but also need to be able to "bring in the business.".

Stanford's campus is vast, first or second largest in the nation. The photo shows picturesque scenery overlooking the campus.