just so you know..

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Got this story. Hope it can be entertaning!</p>

<p>A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president of Harvard's outer office.</p>

<p>The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge.</p>

<p>She frowned. "We want to see the president", the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied.</p>

<p>For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted to do. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. And he signed in exasperation and nodded.</p>

<p>Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.</p>

<p>The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus".</p>

<p>The president wasn't touched he was shocked. "Madam," he said gruffy, "We can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery".</p>

<p>"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard. The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard".</p>

<p>For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. And the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded.</p>

<p>The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.</p>

2

<p>Cute story, but Leland Stanford, Jr. didn’t attend Harvard. He died at 15.</p>

3

<p>While it’s a fun story (which is likely the reason MonochromeAddict posts it!), almost none of it is true:</p>

<p>[snopes.com:</a> Founding of Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/glurge/stanford.asp]snopes.com:”>The Founding of Stanford University | Snopes.com)</p>

4

<p>It’s hard to fathom now, but substantially all of American higher education as we know it was created in the 50 years between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of WWI. New universities were being created practically every year, between the public land grant colleges and the fashion Ezra Cornell started for reforming the system by building a new institution. It wasn’t just Stanford that followed, it was MIT, Vanderbilt, USC, Chicago, Carnegie-Mellon, Rice, and others – most of the great non-Ivy private universities. And nearly moribund pre-existing colleges expanded and attracted significant endowments, and often changed location and mission – Duke, Emory, Tufts, Georgetown, BC. Relatively stable places like Harvard, Yale, Penn, Columbia completely remade themselves along the new model (which was largely taken from the great German universities of the day). Among other innovations, many of the new or reformed institutions started accepting women as students, and all of the Seven Sisters women’s colleges were also founded then. Racial equality and no religious control were also brand new, innovative ideas. The current model of academic law and medical schools was developed, and graduate education in general became a significant focus.</p>

<p>It wasn’t so extraordinary that Leland Stanford started a brand-new university to memorialize his son. Everyone was doing it.</p>

5

<p>Yes, I posted the story merely for a good laugh. :D</p>