Stanford Facts 2008
The Stanford Challenge
President John Hennessy announced a university-wide program in October 2006 to seek solutions to the century’s most pressing global challenges, enhance the education of future leaders and strengthen Stanford’s academic excellence. To enable that effort, the university launched “The Stanford Challenge,” a five-year, $4.3 billion fundraising campaign.
“The scope and complexity of social and scientific challenges has grown immensely in recent decades,” Hennessy said. “Universities are uniquely positioned to address these complexities. And I believe Stanford is uniquely prepared among universities—by its breadth of scholarship, entrepreneurial heritage and pioneering faculty—to provide research and real-world approaches to address many of these issues. This campaign will not only provide the resources to do so, I believe it will galvanize the Stanford community to meet the commitment made by Jane and Leland Stanford ‘to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization.’ ”
The Stanford Challenge has three components:
- It seeks $1.4 billion for multidisciplinary initiatives. Among them are three transformative initiatives designed to make groundbreaking advances in human health, environmental sustainability and international peace and security.
- It seeks $1.175 billion for initiatives to improve K-12 education, strengthen Stanford’s undergraduate programs, reinvent and enhance graduate programs and engage all students in the arts and the creative process through exhibitions, performances and research.
- It seeks $1.725 billion in core support and annual giving to sustain Stanford’s breadth of excellence in teaching and research.
Key to these research and teaching initiatives is a multidisciplinary approach that draws on excellence across all seven of Stanford’s schools and throughout its many centers and institutes. The campaign enables Stanford to increase its research collaborations and to extend them throughout campus, bringing together experts from across the university to focus on specific problems. Visit http://thestanfordchallenge.stanford.edu.