The sun., 1895-05-16
The Leland Stanford, Jr.. University.

We have before us the Register for 1894
95 of the Leland Stanford, Jr., Univer-
sity, which was formally opened to students
on Oct. l., 1891. This institution, which
was founded in 1855 for the coGdu-
cation of students of both sexes by
the late Senator STANFORD and his
wife, JANE LATHROP STANFORD, is mu-
nificently endowed with three estates
comprising nearly one hundred thousand
acres of productive land in California.
Moreover, by the will of Mr.. STANFORD it
received two and half million dollars, but
this bequest is not as yet available. The
university is sumptuously installed on the
Palo Alto estate in the beautiful, Santa
Clara Valley, some thirty-three miles south
east of San Francisco. Besides two large
outlying dormitories, ma jestic museum,
and separate gymnasiums for male and fe-
male students, the buildings thus far COM
pleted include striking central group
built of buff sandstone, facing a paved
court which is $50 feet long by 246 feet
wide, and comprises three and quarter
acres The staff of instructors and other
officers already numbers more than 100,
and there are now S15 undergraduates, be-
Tuition in all the departments of the univer-
sty is free, but in the year 1S05-96 regis
tration fees will be charged of $40 per
semester for graduate and undergraduate
students, and of 81 5 per semester for special
students, in addition to which those taking
laboratory courses will pay for the materials
used. We are told that the entire expenses
of the student, exclusive of clothing and
railway fares, need not exceed S225 to 5000
a year.
1t Is when we examine tho conditions for
admission, the courses of undergraduate
study. and the degrees conferred, that we
discern room for an improvement, which,
while fulfilling equally we'll the broad pur-
pose of the founders, would reflect more
distinction on the splendidly endowed insti-
tuition. At present its administrators seem
to overlook the fact that the credit accruing
from degree conferred by a given uni
versity is never greater than that attaching
to the narrowest and easiest course of study
that leads up to it. This is the reason that
the A. b. degree bestowed by Harvard has
lost caste, since it has been possible to gain
it without any knowledge of the Greek Ian
guage and literature There is but one first
degree conferred by the Leland Stanford,
Jr., University, that, namely, of bachelor
of arts; but this is given indiscriminately
to those who have mastered what Is tradi-
tionally known as a university course, and
to those who have received merely a
high school education. An inspection of the
requirements for admission to this institu-
ton, and Of the subsequent curricula, will
show that it is possible to enter and to pro-
ceed to an A. B. degree without any knowl-
edge OF Greek of Latin. or OF mathematics.
AS might have been expected the possibility
of securing an A. b. degree without display
ing an acquaintance with any one of the three
difficult subjects which are made indispen-
sable prerequisites of such diploma at al.
most all the high-class seats of learning in the
Eastern States, has caused the great major
ity OF the students at Leland Stanford,
Jr., to avoid those important constituents
of liberal education. On page l6l of the