The recipients of the letter are, I assume, in the audience today. The letter is extraordinary and I shall show restraint by quoting only one paragraph from it. Probably one of the things that attracted you to Stanford was its reputation as a university ranked at the very top of those in our nation, if not in the world. As one who has basked in this prestige and used it shamelessly, I am pleased to say that the reputation is correct. But it is only the glinting surface water on a very deep lake.
Surfaces can change quickly when the wind shifts, the rain starts or the season turns cold.
If four years from now you can make independent judgments on the matters that affect your life, and do so in a way that includes doubt as part of the process, the university will have served you well. If you can carry forward the ability to learn and to think critically as you progress beyond Stanford, you will have served it and your education well. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. Well-meaning teachers, counselors, and friends advised me to go elsewhere, because my personal set of values will most likely not be the intellectual fashion of the day at Stanford. I did listen to their advice, but then decided that if I follow a certain set of values merely because I am ignorant of other ways of thinking, then my foundation was shaky, and my ideas and opinions worthless.