What Would Jane Do? A White Paper on the Way Forward.

The Founding Grant, the document that captures Jane Stanford vision of the values and purpose of Stanford University, says:

“And its (Stanford) purposes, to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization, teaching the blessings of liberty regulated by law, and inculcating love and reverence for the great principles of government as derived from the inalienable rights of man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.[1]”

In these deeply uncertain and traumatic times, we submit that the phrase, “…to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization” is the key to the way forward for our community, our Stanford Family.

It is time to ask ourselves, “What would Jane do?”

We believe that she would encourage the use of our accumulated wealth and leadership role to sustain our entire community through this current crisis and support our colleagues and neighbors across the field of higher education.

We hear the phrase, the “Stanford Family”, a great deal; particularly in letters from our University asking for money. I graduated from Stanford (class of ’79 and ’82) forty years ago and I am proud to be part of this family. But belonging to a family comes with certain obligations. Families pull together when things get tough, and treat each other with respect and love, always. Families are part of healthy, thriving neighborhoods, and they look out of their neighbor’s welfare, especially in times of need.

This is that time – a time when the global need has never been bigger.

It is clear that the global pandemic will touch everyone across higher education. The experts estimate that colleges and universities will lose billions of dollars, with small liberal arts colleges failing in every part of the country. The future of the nation’s ecosystem of higher education is at risk, and at times like these, we are called to a higher purpose. Luckily, Stanford has the means to answer the call.

We, therefore, submit that it is time for bold and innovative leadership in response to our collective, uncertain future. It is time to fulfill our founder’s obligation to be a positive influence on civilization at large and to spend our considerable moral and financial resources on finding not only our way forward but to help others in our community who are less fortunate. To do so, we put forth the following three-step plan:

1) Accept that in times of extraordinary crisis, extraordinary actions are required to meet Jane Stanford’s mission for the University.

Stanford’s primary focus should be education and research, NOT the accumulation of wealth. The endowment – currently in excess of $20 billion – is meant to support the University’s mission and at this time, the University is not served by accumulating more, nor hoarding what has already accumulated. Our endowment creates the possibility of answering a greater calling, and in this time of a global pandemic, Stanford is uniquely positioned to be an extraordinary institution. Jane and Leland Stanford gave freely of their wealth when it was time to build this great University. We believe that they would expect us invest a portion of our current wealth to sustain and support ourselves and our neighbors.

2) Resolve that in this time of global pandemics, when ordinary institutions will be lucky to survive, Stanford will not just barely survive - but will thrive by taking the following actions.

We will…

Fund the University at the level required for our normal, vigorous operations in teaching and research.

Rehire all laid-off employees, including those service workers who are hired on contract, in all seven schools and associated Centers, Institutes, and Labs.

Guarantee all Stanford direct and indirect staff, faculty, and students jobs that are secure for the foreseeable future.

Provide all Stanford students who need financial aid based on their family’s current financial situation a streamlined process for awards that acknowledges that time is of the essence for these families.

3) Demonstrate our obligation to care for our “neighborhood” of more fragile colleges and universities, and by extension higher education, with the following actions.

We will…

Reach out to small liberal arts colleges located in the Bay area with an offer of financial support to assure that they survive the coronavirus pandemic and associated great recession that will follow.

Invite our peers - Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT - who with Stanford represent a combined endowment of $134 billion, to join us in extending similar financial protection and support to the small liberal arts colleges and universities in their regions.

We recognize that this plan will be extraordinarily expensive. But these are extraordinary times.

Maintaining and growing the endowment is, of course, in service of Stanford’s long-term mission and goals, and in more normal times such a plan to leverage the endowment this way would be viewed as irresponsible. A strong endowment helps us recruit the best professors and staff to the University, provides stability when there are hiccups in our funding, and assures that Jane Stanford’s vision for our University will go in into perpetuity.

But this is no hiccup.

What would Jane do – in the face of an unprecedented worldwide crisis for colleges and universities all over the nation?

We believe that Jane Stanford would conclude that isolating ourselves and our billions of dollars of endowment in the face of such an existential crisis would be viewed as hoarding in a time of great need. It is the institutional equivalent of buying up all the toilet paper at Costco – it is not a moral position, nor the way great institutions like Stanford rise to the challenge of leadership in a crisis. What would Jane want? She would want us to be at our best, to think big, and to act with compassion.

It is important to remember that Stanford is not a business, it is not run for profit by the rules of capitalism, and we have the freedom to think and act with the public good in mind. We worry that should the University continue to act like a “business” and to “downsize” in response to this crisis, our community will be traumatized in ways that may never heal. Efforts to portray Stanford as needy or unable to meet its obligations to the Stanford community are likely to erode the trust of the faculty, alumni, and the public in the judgment of the administration and Board of Trustees.

The three steps outlined in this call to action, however, would position Stanford as a forward-thinking leader, focused on healing all of higher education from this pandemic trauma. The result would be a renewed and energized faculty, student and alumni population, more deeply engaged with a University that they can be proud of.

The choice is clear, and we implore the current Administration and the Board of Trustees to act with compassion and leadership and enact these resolutions.

[1] The Founding Grant with Amendments, Legislation, and Court Decries; originally published in November 11th, 1885