Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-23
THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY.
Further Details of the Plans for the Great
Institution.

AM .
Further Details of the Plans for the Great
Institution.
by telegraph
: WASHINGTON, December 21st. -Francis A.
Walker has submitted to Senator Stanford
his suggestions in regard to the first steps
to be taken in building the Stanford Uni
versity. He says that the initial plan
should contemplate the erection of twelve
buildings devoted to instruction and re-
search and one to administration, making
thirteen in all. These buildings do not in
clude those intended for the residences of
pupils and teachers, and they are also in
addition to those that it may be decided to
erect in the future for chapel, museum
of natural history, a library, museum of
fine arts, and gymnasium. In regard to
the thirteen buildings that Mr. Walker sug-
gests should be erected at once, he strongly
recommends that they be in a high degree
uniform in structure He recommends
that they be one story in hight and they
be built of stone.
More light is required than can be
obtained from windows set into the
walls of the building, and additional light
can easily be obtained through glass tiles
or glass windows in the roof. He recon-
mends that the thirteen buildings be of
three standard lengths, namely, ITO feet
80 feet and 20 feet. The depth of the
building should be fifty feet clear between
the outer walls, and the hight such as to
give fifteen or sixteen clear feet. Where
greater hight is required for the purpose of
lecture-rooms, in physics or chemistry for
example, it could be obtained by breaking
and raising the roof over such lecture
rooms.
The thirteen buildings are to be devoted
to the following uses Chemistry, mechan-
ical engineering. mechanical arts, civil en-
gineering and drawing, physics and cleo
trical engineering, language and literature,
geology and mineralogy, history and
political science, administration, biology,
including botany and physiology, indus
trial design, architecture, general reading
room. This system would give about 55,-
600 square feet of floor surface net devoted
to laboratories and recitation, lecture and
dining-rooms, libraries, etc. By adding
Il" to the rear of the buildings addi-
tional room amounting to 10000 square
feet could be acquired, thus providing for
the accommodation of 600 students. Mr..
Walker recommends that six of these
buildings be erected Immediately and the
others can then follow in two, three or five
years. as the needs of the university may
demand.
The manner in which these buildings
should be located has been thoroughly dis
cussed by Senator Stanford, Mr. Walker
and Mr.. Olmstead. Two plans were sug-
gested That they be arranged in the form
of a crescent, and that they be arranged in
the form of a quadrangle. Senator Stan
ford decided to accept the latter form, and
Mr.Walker recommends that the six build
ings be placed on one of the long sides of
the quadrangle, and that the remaining
seven be placed on the opposite side, and
that the two shorter sides of the quadrangle
be reserved for the general library, the mu-
scum of natural history, the museum of
fine arts, etc. Mr.. Olmstead's plan also
provides for second quadrangle, around
which another series of buildings could be
erected in case the demands of the Uriver-
sity require them. Mr. Walker heartily
recommends one-story buildings. Both he
ard Mr.. 0lmstead agree that buildings of
this character, made of massive rough
stone and connected by an arcade, may be
made singularly effective and picturesque.
In regard to the housing of students, Mr.
Walker recommends the introduction OF
the cottage system for all the girls or young
women who have to attend away from their
homes and outside of families, and even
for young men he thinks the cottage sys-
tenn the most advantageous. If it be OBJ
jected that the board would cost more, he
would recommend that the cottages be
erected around a small park, with CON-
mon kitchen and dining room.
The most important part of Profess r
Walkers suggestions relates TO the order
in which the several parts of the university
shall be brought into existence and opera
ton. 1t is Senator Stanford idea to have
preparatory school, a college, and then
the university for original research. In
addition to this, he proposed to have pri-
mary schools for the use of young children
in the families that may come to the uni
versity to educate their older children.
Professor Walker recommends that only
the college (so-called) be now undertaken,
and that this be only open in the first in
stance to young men. Starting with the
college for young men, Professor Walker
recommends that there be no formal in
auguration of proper university work, as
understood at Cambridge, but that the de-
velopment of such work be left to follow
gradually and insensibly. To this end he
urges that the teaching staff of the college
should be constituted on the most liberal
scheme-far in excess of the needs of I'M
der-graduate instruction. If the chairs of
instruction in the college are filled by
earnest, ambitious and progressive young
men who have a laboratory at their COM
mand, and are not weighed down and over
burdened by the necessities of undergrad
uate teaching, the university work will
begin of itself.
As regards the introduction of young
women to the college, Professor Walker
recommends that it take place as soon as
the main difficulties of founding the insti-
tuition for young men have been satisfacto-
rily overcome. He also recommends the
common use, indiscriminately by the two
sexes, of all laboratories and libraries.