USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 26
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LICK OBSERVATORY, FROM EAST PEAK
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
Freëminent among institutions of learning in California, and occupying a dignified place among the great universities of the United States, is the University of California, the principal buildings and headquarters of which are at Berkeley, in Alameda county, though the Lick Observatory, the Hast- ings Law College and other branches of the great work are not carried on at Berkeley.
Geographically and climatically the location of the state's highest place of learning is superb, for Berkeley escapes the fogs and stiff sea breezes of the immediate coast and particularly of the peninsula which comprises the city and county of San Francisco. It is also far removed from the extremes of summer that make the San Joaquin and the Sacramento valleys too hot for comfortable studying.
The town of Berkeley now exceeds twenty-five thousand inhabitants, the community being one of the most orderly and free from crime of any city in the west. The site of the university comprises about two hundred and seventy acres, rising at first in a gentle, then in a bolder slope from a height of two hundred feet above sea level to one not far from a thousand. Back of it a chain of hills continues to climb a thousand feet higher, affording an inspiring outlook over the bay and city of San Francisco, over the neigh- boring plains and mountains, the ocean, and the Golden Gate. As before said, the climate is exceptionally good for uninterrupted work throughout the year.
The following is a brief summary of the history of the great institution of learning, given as a prelude to more specific data :
"In 1869 the College of California, which had been incorporated in 1855 and which had carried on collegiate instruction since 1860, closed its work of instruction and transferred its property, on terms which were mu- tually agreed upon, to the University of California.
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"The university was instituted by a law which received the approval of the governor March 23, 1868. Instruction was begun in Oakland in the autumn of 1869. The commencement exercises of 1873 were held at Berke- ley, July 16, when the university was formally transferred to its permanent home. Instruction began at Berkeley in the autumn of 1873. The consti- tution of 1879 made the existing organization of the university perpetual.
"The University of California is an integral part of the public educa- tional system of the state. As such it completes the work begun in the public schools. Through aid from the state and the United States, and by private gifts, it furnishes facilities for instruction in literature and in science, and in the professions of law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and art. At Berkeley are its Colleges of Letters, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Commerce, Agriculture, Mechanics, Mining, Civil Engineering and Chemistry; at Mount Hamilton is its graduate Astronomical Department, founded by James Lick; in San Francisco are its Colleges of Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Art. The university's endowment is capitalized at about eleven mil- lion dollars; its yearly income is about seven hundred thousand dollars; it has received private benefactions to the amount of nearly eight million dol- lars. The fourteen buildings in which the colleges at Berkeley are at present housed have been outgrown. The university is indebted to Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst for permanent building plans upon a comprehensive scale. In pur- suance of these plans, three buildings are now approaching completion; the president's house; the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, given by Mrs. Hearst for the College of Mining of the university and as a memorial to the late Senator George Hearst; and California Hall, for which an appropria- tion of $250,000 has been made by the state legislature. A fourth building has been completed-the beautiful Greek theater, an open-air auditorium, patterned after the classic structure at Epidaurus, and given to the university by William Randolph Hearst. The fifth of the new buildings will be the library, for which generous provision was made by the late Charles F. Doe, of San Francisco. At Berkeley there are one hundred and seventy-five offi- cers of instruction distributed among thirty-six departments; twenty-seven hundred students ; a library of one hundred and thirteen thousand volumes; an art gallery : museums and laboratories ; also the agricultural experiment . grounds and stations, which are invaluable adjuncts of the farming, orchard
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and vineyard interests of the state. In San Francisco there are one hun- dred and fifty officers of instruction, besides demonstrators and other assis- tants, and six hundred students. Tuition in the colleges at Berkeley, during regular sessions, is free to residents of California ; non-residents pay a fee of $10 each half-year. In the professional colleges, in San Francisco, except that of law, tuition fees are charged. The instruction in all the colleges is open to all qualified persons, without distinction of sex. The constitution of the state provides for the perpetuation of the university, with all its depart- ments."
Going back for a moment to beginnings, we find the idea of a State University a fixed part of the plans of the builders of the state, for as early as 1849 brave and far-seeing men of brains were making plans for the higher education of young men and women yet unborn, laying deep the founda- tions of the present vast and growing institution.
From 1849 to 1869 the discussion of ways and means in the develop- ment of the great educational idea was a part of the mental activity of the times, the ambition to achieve something of permanent value being ever foremost in the minds of the rugged pioneers.
To Thomas H. Greer, state senator from Sacramento, belongs much of the honor of the initiative in the matter of building of the university. At the very first session of the legislature he gave notice that he would intro- duce a bill to establish and endow a state university. During the interim between the first and second sessions of the legislature the senator's mind was full of the projects of starting a university. In New York, where he was visiting in November. 1850, he planned the outlines of his scheme for the state's chief educational institution. In January, 1851, he submitted to the legislature much of his data and correspondence on the subject. This awoke general interest and enthusiasm and won to the support of his ambi- tion many able and influential men.
For many years able leaders like Sherman Daw, an influential man of the times, labored for the founding of a university on broad and permanent lines ; and in March, 1868, under the leadership of the Reverend Samuel B. Bell, representing Alameda and Santa Clara counties in the senate, a law was passed establishing the university.
This bill was but the culmination in legal enactment of plans previously
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urged with force and eloquence by many men of the type of Robert C. Rodg- ers, of San Francisco, and Charles E. Mount, of Calaveras-all pioneered, however, as before said, by Senator Greer.
Former President Kellogg, of the university, aptly said that the insti- tution was not the offspring of any one mind, however, nor the result of any single legislative step. It was a product due to a combination of forces, setting steadily from the first toward the one great issue.
The College School at Oakland, established in 1860, with the Reverend Isaac Brayton in charge and the late Frederick M. Campbell as vice-principal, teacher of literature, etc., was the nucleus to which was built the university itself. When the College at Oakland was fully ready to burst from its chrys- alis into the State University, John W. Dwinelle, one of the master spirits of the time, and a lawyer of note, was chosen to prepare the charter, and the organic law governing the institution was drawn by him.
The inception of the work of building the university fell to Governor Haight, who was ex-officio president of the Board of Regents. Governor Haight appointed regents without delay. He and they met and organized on June 9, 1868. On June 25th of the same year we find Regents Doyle, Dwin- elle, Stebbins, Moss and Felton digesting plans for the organizing of col- leges, and it has always been held by friends of the institution, as well as by educators who have investigated the question, that they drew their plans well and laid deep the foundations of the University of California.
On December 1, 1868, a number of professors were elected, among them the illustrious John Le Conte. The others were Professors Kellogg, Fisher, Joseph Le Conte-afterward world-famous-and others. Professor John Le Conte arrived in California in March, 1869, and soon thereafter he arranged the courses of instruction, set the requirements for admission, and issued a prospectus for the coming year. On June 14, 1869, in the absence of the president, Professor John Le Conte was appointed to dis- charge the duties of the office of president. Later his brother, Joseph Le Conte, became one of the strongest and most beloved professors of the university, to which he was devoted unto the day of his death. Much of the fame of the university is due to his illustrious career.
During the early years of the institution its curriculum was necessarily meager, but instruction was thorough so far as it went. Each year of the
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growth of the university the work has been broadened and made more com- plete. Under President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, its present able executive, no one can predict the limit of its growth and influence.
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CHAPTER XIX.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY.
By George A. Clark.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE GREAT INSTITUTION OF LEARNING FOUND- ED BY THE LATE UNITED STATES SENATOR LELAND STANFORD-FACTS ABOUT THE GROUNDS, THE CURRICULUM, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS FULFILLING ITS MISSION.
Leland Stanford Junior University is located at Palo Alto, California, about thirty-five miles southeast of San Francisco and eighteen miles north- east of San Jose in the Santa Clara valley. The university campus com- prises 9,000 acres of land, partly in the level of the valley and partly rising into the foothills of the Santa Moreno mountains which separate it from the Pacific ocean, thirty-three miles distant. The Bay of San Francisco lies in front at a distance of three miles, and beyond it are the mountains of the Diablo range. In addition to the Palo Alto ranch on which the univer- sity is situated, its landed endowment comprises the Vina ranch of 59,000 acres in Tehama county and the Gridly ranch of 22,000 acres in Butte county.
The university was founded by Senator Leland Stanford, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, as a memorial to their only son who died in Italy in his sixteenth year. The founders desired that the university should give a training primarily fitted to the needs of young men. Both sexes are admitted to equal advantages in the institution, but the number of young women who attend at any given time has since 1899 been limited to 500. This number has not yet been reached, but when it is the limitation will be made to apply first to special and irregular students, and afterward as need arises to the freshmen and sophomore classes. It will therefore be many years before any young woman need be actually excluded from at least two years of uni- versity work at Stanford.
The object of the university as stated by its founders is "to qualify
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MAIN ENTRANCE, NORTH SIDE, LELAND STANFORD, JR. UNIVERSITY
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students for personal success and direct usefulness in life," and to "promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization, teaching the blessings of liberty regulated by law, and inculcat- ing love and reverence for the great principles of government as derived from the inalienable rights of man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness." The university is pledged to nonpartisanship in politics and non- sectarianism in religion. In the words of the founder, it "must forever be maintained upon a strictly nonpartisan and nonsectarian basis. It must nev- er become an instrument in the hands of any political party or any religious sect."
The endowment grant establishing the university was made in Novem- ber, 1885, under an act of the legislature of California passed for this pur- pose. The cornerstone of the institution was laid in May, 1887; and the university was formally opened to students on October 1, 1891. The atten- dance for the first year numbered 559, and included all college classes, with a number of graduate students. The university graduated its first class of thirty-eight in May, 1892. The original faculty numbered thirty-five pro- fessors, instructors and lecturers. David Starr Jordan, a graduate of Cor- nell University, was selected president of the new university and still re- mains at its head.
The architecture of the university buildings is patterned after the old Spanish missions of California and Mexico. The buildings are of buff sand- stone with red tile roofs. They form two quadrangles, one within another, with detached buildings grouped about them. The inner quadrangle con- sists of twelve one-story buildings, connected by a continuous open arcade, facing a paved court three and one-quarter acres in extent, diversified with beds of semi-tropical plants. Connected with this quadrangle at various points by corridors, and completely surrounding it, is the outer quadrangle of twelve buildings, for the most part two stories in height above the base- ment. This outer quadrangle is again surrounded by a continuous open arcade. The interspaces between the two quadrangles are to be beautified by lawns and shrubbery.
In the inner quadrangle are the departments of law, of the different languages, and mathematics, and the administrative offices. In the outer quadrangle are the scientific, engineering and geological departments; those
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of history, economics and English; the library and assembly hall, the latter seating 1,700 people. In the rear of the quadrangles are the central lighting, heating and power plant and the laboratories and shops of the engineering departments. The dormitories, one for young men and another for young women, with their gymnasia and athletic grounds adjacent, are located at some distance to the east and west. In front, two on either side of the main driveway, are detached buildings for the department of chemistry, the art museum, the new gymnasium and library, the two latter in course of erection. The museum is a memorial to the son and is the outgrowth of his own idea, one of its most interesting rooms being an exact duplicate of a museum room arranged in the Stanford home by him and containing the collections made in his early travels. The museum contains besides an exten- sive collection of pictures, the Di Cesnola collection of Greek and Roman antiquities from Cyprus. The library building will contain shelves for 1,000,000 volumes and ample seminary, lecture and reading rooms. The gym- nasium, a stone building to cost about $500,000, will be one of the most complete of its kind in the country.
Most striking among the architectural features of the university build- ings are the Memorial Arch and the Memorial Church. The former is 100 feet in height, ninety feet in width and thirty-four feet deep, with an arch- way of forty-four feet spanning the main entrance. A sculptured frieze twelve feet in height, designed by St. Gaudens, and representing the prog- ress of civilization, surrounds the arch. The Memorial Church opens from the inner court and is opposite the main entrance. It is of Moorish-Roman- esque architecture, its spire rising to a height of 188 feet.
The church, erected by Mrs. Stanford in memory of her husband, is adorned within and without with costly mosaics, representing, as do the beautiful stained glass windows, biblical scenes and characters. It has a splendid organ of forty-six stops and 3,000 pipes and a peel of sweet toned bells, which ring the quarter hours. The church is nonsectarian in char- acter and method. Religious services are held each Sunday morning and afternoon. A permanent chaplin has charge of the congregational work. and outside clergymen of the various denominations are invited from time to time to occupy the pulpit. There is a week-day vesper service and a daily concert on the organ at the close of recitations.
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The students live in dormitories and club houses on the grounds, or in private boarding houses in the town. The city of Palo Alto is situated a mile distant from the university buildings, and has been built up by a com- munity interested in educational matters since the opening of the university. The professors live in houses provided on the grounds or in their own homes in Palo Alto. The town has an excellent sewer system and owns its own water works and lighting plant. Twelve Greek letter societies for young men and five for young women occupy chapter homes on the campus.
In the government of the students "the largest liberty consistent with good work and good order is allowed. They are expected to show both within and without the university such respect for order, morality, personal honor and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens. Students failing in these respects, or unable or unwilling to do serious work toward some definite aim, are not welcomed and are quickly dismissed."
The University Council consists of the president, professors and asso- ciate professors of the university faculty. To it is entrusted the determina- tion of requirements for admission, graduation and other matters relating to the educational policies of the institution. It acts as an advisory body on questions submitted to it by the president or trustees. The routine work of the faculty is divided among various standing committees with power to act, and responsible primarily to the president. Departmental affairs are in the hands of subordinate councils consisting of the instructing body in each department, a member of which is designated by the president as presiding officer.
The general control of the university's affairs was by special provision in its charter reserved to the founders or either of them during their life- time. A board of trustees was chosen by the founders, their duties at first being nominal. This provision remained in force until July, 1903, when under a special act of legislature passed for the purpose, Mrs. Stanford, the surviving founder, finally turned over to the board of trustees the full au- thority and control over the university. The original board of trustees, chos- en for life, numbered twenty-four, a number decided to be too large and since reduced to fifteen by leaving vacancies unfilled. In the future, mem- bers are to be elected for a term of ten years. In educational matters the presi- dent of the university has the initiative, his acts being subject to the con-
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firmation of the trustees. The board through a treasurer and business man- ager, one of their own number, administers directly the financial affairs of the institution.
The endowment of the university comprises, besides the landed estates already mentioned, the Stanford home in the city of San Francisco, together with other real estate in various parts of California, and interest-bearing securities, the whole amounting to about $30,000,000, about two-thirds of which is at present productive of income. For the present, this income is devoted largely to the completion of its buildings.
In its requirements for admission the university recognizes twenty-nine entrance subjects, comprising those commonly included in the secondary school curriculum. These subjects have different values according to the time de- voted to them in the preparatory schools. The unit of value is a full year of high school work in any given subject, and any fifteen units, with certain limitations, chosen from accepted list constitutes preparation for full entrance standing. The university has no list of accredited schools, but considers on its merits the work of any reputable school. The student chooses a major subject, the professor in charge of which becomes his adviser. To this sub- ject he is required to devote one-fourth of his time, his remaining time being occupied by courses chosen under the advice and direction of the major pro- fessor. Fifteen hours of recitations per week throughout four years consti- tutes the regular course leading to the A. B. degree. Students are gradu- ated when they have completed 120 hours of university work and have ful- filled the requirements of their major subject. Degrees are conferred in May, September and January of each year.
The university grants the undergraduate degree of A. B. in all courses. The degree of A. M. and Ph. D. are given for one and three years' work respectively beyond the undergraduate requirements. The LL. B. degree in law and that of engineer in the engineering departments are granted for graduate work. The university grants no honorary degrees.
The work of the university is grouped under the following departmental heads: Greek, Latin, Germanic Languages, Romanic Languages, English Literature, English Philology, Philosophy, Psychology, Education, History. Economics, Law, Drawing. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, General Bot-
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any, Systematic Botany, Physiology, Hygiene, Zoology, Entomology, Geo- logy and Mining, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering.
The university library contains 75,000 volumes. The attendance for the year 1902-03 was 1,483, of which 998 were men, 485 women. The fac- ulty numbers 130 teachers. Tuition is free to California students. Those from other states pay a registration fee of $10 per semester. Of the 1,483 students in 1902-03, 1,17I were from California, representing forty-four counties, 505 being from Santa Clara county. The 312 students from out- side of California represented thirty-eight states and territories of the Union and Japan, Canada, England, Mexico, India and Sweden.
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CHAPTER XX.
SANTA CLARA COLLEGE.
By Dennis J. Kavenaugh, S. J.
INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING THE EARLY MISSIONARY EDUCATORS AND THE GREAT COLLEGE OF SANTA CLARA-THE EARLY MEXICAN POLICY -ROMANCE OF THE OLD DAYS-SOME ILLUSTRIOUS GRADUATES OF THE OLD SCHOOL-HEROIC AMBITION OF THE FOUNDERS-HOW SKILLFUL TEACHERS DIRECT THEIR CHARGES IN A PICTURESQUE LO- CATION-FACTS ABOUT THE PASSION PLAY AS PRODUCED BY STUDENTS -THE SURROUNDINGS A PALM GARDEN AND OLIVE TREES-FACTS ABOUT THE BUILDINGS.
From the day when, for purposes best known to itself, the Mexican government secularized the Franciscan missions of California, the historian must trace the gradual decay and final collapse of some of those glorious monuments, the primitive adobe buildings, which marked the path of Chris- tian conquest and dawn of civilization in the rugged wilds of the west. With the secularization came greed, in many cases cruel greed, and the work of the Padres came to a dead halt. Their buildings scattered through Ser- raland began to crumble in the dust and had not the more tolerant spirit of Americanism been wafted to these shores in the early fifties, there would be nothing now, but heaps of adobe mingling with fragments of red tile, to tell the story of self-sacrifice and devotion to noble enterprises with which California was subdued. Had the work of secularization been unimpeded, the future of all the missions would have been the same; razed to the ground, they would have presented but a chaotic heap of debris, or if an occasional arch stood out from the ruins, it might have served for an artist's sketch, but beyond that it would have been lost to historic research.
But American tolerance made it possible to preserve some of those prim- itive structures, and zeal, similar to that of the early Franciscans, preserved them. Such at least was the case with Mission Santa Clara, founded in 1777 by Fathers Junipero Serra, Murguia and de la Pena, and taken in
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charge by the Jesuit priest, John Nobili, in March, 1851, as the first Ameri- can college of the west. By diligent repairing the mission building was pre- served and stands today, in great part, as it stood well-nigh one hundred years ago, as a trophy snatched from the devastating influence of irreligion and neglect. Well-nigh one hundred years ago, we say, because the present building was not begun until 1818, after a severe earthquake had weakened the former church and cloister, built in 1781, and had made further use somewhat hazardous.
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