September 18, 2018

Leland Scholars Program: preparing for success

One of my favorite tasks during the summer is meeting the 60 students enrolled in the Leland Scholars Program (LSP). Started in 2011, LSP is a four-week residential transition program for incoming first-year undergraduates who are the first in their families to attend college or who come from under-resourced schools.

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August 7, 2018

A Title IX case in the news

I’ve spoken and written many times about our continuing efforts at Stanford to strengthen our work in preventing and responding to sexual assault, along with our efforts to share much more information about the cases heard in our adjudication process and their outcomes. Some of these issues also were addressed in a story in the San Francisco Chronicle last weekend. The story looked at a particular case that was heard in our Title IX process two years ago.

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June 11, 2018

Initiatives for graduate student families at Stanford and next steps

I am delighted to announce significant initiatives that Stanford is undertaking to support graduate students who are parents, in order to alleviate stress and to enhance community-building.

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May 24, 2018

Discussing mental health

I am writing to share with you the process by which we care for students who experience mental health issues. A recent lawsuit by several Stanford students has focused attention on how we address student mental health issues, and policies regarding leaves of absence and housing for students who are facing serious mental health issues.

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May 17, 2018

Envisioning Stanford’s future

This afternoon at the annual meeting of the Academic Council, we presented a high-level vision for Stanford’s future, building on the input of many hundreds of people from across the university community over the last year. We’re excited to share this vision with our community. We believe it reflects the optimistic, pioneering, energetic spirit of a community eager to strengthen Stanford’s foundations and to expand its contributions.

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May 15, 2018

The beginning of Ramadan

This quarter, for the first time in more than ten years, the Muslim festivals of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr will fall entirely within the academic calendar. Ramadan begins this evening, Tuesday, May 15, and will conclude on Thursday, June 14, followed by Eid al-Fitr on Friday, June 15. The Stanford community is invited to participate in a series of special events on campus.

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May 8, 2018

Postdocs and affordability

Throughout the long-range planning process, we have been reminded of the great value that our postdoctoral scholars bring to faculty and to the university. Numerous submissions and white papers also highlighted the fact that postdocs face significant affordability challenges. Marc Tessier-Lavigne and I will be sharing next steps on the long-range vision for Stanford later this month, addressing a wide range of issues across the university. Today, however, I'm writing about one specific action we are taking to help our postdoctoral scholars.

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April 25, 2018

Our next campus climate survey

Earlier this academic year, I asked an advisory committee of students, faculty and staff to give me advice on how Stanford should approach its next campus climate survey. I'm writing now to share the news that, informed by the committee's very helpful input, we are planning to join the Association of American Universities (AAU) survey that will be conducted in spring 2019.

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April 12, 2018

Thoughts on gun violence

One of the things I reflected about over spring break was how inspired I have been by the participation of high school students across the country and the world who have raised their voices about the all-too-frequent tragedies of gun violence.

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April 10, 2018

Stanford's resolution agreement with OCR

I am writing to share the news that Stanford has completed a resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education. This concludes an investigation that OCR has been conducting for the last three years regarding our response to sexual violence at Stanford and our compliance with Title IX.

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