More than 150 professors, staff members and students gathered last week in the Bechtel Conference Center at Encina Hall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Stanford's Center for Teaching and Learning.
Teaching is at the heart of the university.
It was an afternoon full of high praise for the center and its director, Michele Marincovich. The Center for Teaching and Learning was established on campus in 1975 through a grant from the Danforth Foundation. Its mission then was to improve college and university teaching in the Bay Area. But the foundation, which financed Stanford's center and four others nationwide, stopped funding them in 1978. Stanford chose to continue operating the center with other funds, but focused on helping its teaching assistants become better instructors.