Letter to the Editor: Another student’s look at StanfordNYC

Dear Editor,

I for one have been rooting for Stanford from the onset in its proposal to build a campus in New York City as I think it presents a tremendous opportunity (“A student’s look at StanfordNYC,” Oct. 27). Why go to New York City when things seem just fine here in sunny Palo Alto? This country needs another center for innovation and that is what Stanford does better than any university in the world. It would provide Stanford with new research alignments in industries that don’t exist in the Bay Area and would give students from the home campus access to a whole network of East Coast contacts and new alumni. Maybe we can even start chipping away at that East Coast bias that never seems to allow Stanford to climb above Harvard or Yale in national rankings.

One of the primary concerns about the proposed New York City campus is the hefty price tag: $2.5 billion. However, the Stanford proposal only commits $200 million initially to get the University started on solid financial footing and will pay for the rest through a new fundraising initiative. None of Stanford’s home campus proposals or generous financial aid are put in jeopardy though this investment. Why not spend more on improving financial aid for undergraduates? If you want to improve access to a Stanford education for more of the world’s best and brightest, what better way than to provide more spots for graduate students? StanfordNYC will likely pay for itself many times over through an influx of new donors, industry collaborations and federal research grants that will come from building a world class research university in New York City.

Some fear that allowing StanfordNYC to operate as its own degree-granting institution would lead to a devaluation of the Stanford degree. President Hennessy has made it expressly clear that he expects the new campus to have the same high standards when it comes to admitting students as well as hiring faculty. We should not worry about a brain drain on the home campus. There is a certain group of faculty, including some of the brightest minds in the world, which we can now recruit because living on the East Coast or in a big city is so important to them. And if we can get the best students in the world to come to Palo Alto (not exactly the world’s cultural hotbed), I’m pretty sure we can convince them to come to New York. Everyone already has a unique Stanford experience, but what the degree represents is a certain standard of academic excellence. If they are taking the same classes and tests as us, why can’t we be okay with just accepting that their Stanford experience will be different as well?

Should the student body or alumni network have been included more in the decision making process? Probably. But that doesn’t mean the idea is wrong. Stanford has always been about taking risks and changing the world. StanfordNYC is an opportunity to do just that, which may not come again, and we should not let it pass us by.

Scott Himmelberger ’15
Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering

againstNYC

ONLY 200 million? That’s still a lot of money. One also wonders if donations will be diverted from the PA campus to the NYC campus. Quick note, I’m already annoyed having to refer to here as the PA Campus. Soon we’ll be SUPA, and the guys in New York will by SUNYC. I don’t want to be a part of that future.

Also re student/alumni involvement, I liken your argument to this analogy: “Should the guilty serial killer have gotten a trial before being executed? Probably. But that doesn’t mean wanting to execute him was wrong.” Though true, the third sentence is irrelevant. The criticism is not about the final outcome, rather the process. Just as the criticism you referred to was not about the final decision, rather how it came to be.
Bob

Scary to think that this bid has been sanctioned when 2/3 of the student body and faculty are opposed.
Ghz

Contrary to those who worry about a brain drain, Stanford NYC will have the opposite effect. It will attract dozens of superstar faculty members, and hundreds of top-notch students to Stanford, who would otherwise turn Stanford down because they prefer to live on the East Coast, in a major world-renown city. Also, because Stanford NYC will be integrated with the Palo Alto campus, via high-tech teleconferencing, etc., students in Palo Alto will have effectively the same access to any faculty that might move to New York.

As for the cost, more than half of it will come not only from New York city’s grant of free land worth hundreds of millions, and $100 million in outright cash, but also from a multi-billion dollar fundraising campaign in New York, where donors who would otherwise never give a penny to Stanford, would give millions because their city would be benefitting. Thus, the view that the money would be better spent on cutting tuition is misleading. New York city donors with no previous ties to Stanford are simply not going to donate millions for that purpose.

And, contrary to the fear that a Stanford degree would lose value, quite the opposite is likely. Stanford, despite being one of the best universities in the entire world (if not THE best!), is often neglected on the East Coast, simply because it has no presence there, and is thus routinely ignored. Stanford NYC will thus increase Stanford’s reputation nationwide, and worldwide as well. Stanford NYC is truly a win win for Stanford, for its current students, and for its proud (but NOT arrogant) alumni!
Med School Biosciences Grad

So Stanford is going to increase its reputation on the Nationwide by having a presence to compete with the Ivies and MIT on the East Coast (which are mostly known for being Ivies and for bioscience research, MIT being the exception in that engineering is a significant part) by building an engineering and entrepreneurship-based campus?
That’ll show them!