Stanford University

Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University
Motto	Die Luft der Freiheit weht (German)
Motto in English	The wind of freedom blows
Type	Private
Established	1891 (1891)
Endowment	$22.2 billion (2015)
President	Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Provost	John Etchemendy
Academic staff	2,118
Administrative staff	11,128 excluding SHC
Students	15,877
Undergraduates	6,980
Postgraduates	8,897
Location	Stanford, California, U.S.
Campus	Suburban, 8,180 acres (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km2)
Newspaper	The Stanford Daily
Colors	Cardinal and white
Athletics	NCAA Division I (FBS) Pac-12
Nickname	Cardinal
Mascot	Cardinal (official), Stanford Tree (unofficial, mascot of LSJUMB)
Website	www.stanford.edu

Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Its 8,180-acre (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km²) campus is one of the largest in the United States. Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere.

The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford was a former Governor of California and U.S. Senator; he made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students 125 years ago on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution.

Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanford's death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The rise of Silicon Valley helped Stanford become one of the world's most prestigious universities. The university is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.