Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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This search is an aspect of the student character that the colleges and universities have failed adequately to take into consideration when setting goals and planning programs and structures, and this failure has caused the bulk of the student unrest of the past few years. The impersonality of structures and institutions, the failure to take legitimate student complaints seriously merely because some such complaints have been misguided or irresponsible —these are manifestations of the lack of understanding of student concerns and characteristics by those who control the university. The result of such misunderstanding was shown at Berkeley in 1965. It is thus imperative first that the university know the character of its students, and from this what they want from their education, and second, that it be willing to do its utmost to aid them in the achievement of this education. Because of its conservative nature, the university is often slow to meet changes in the needs of its students. The many factors which influence change in a university —size, bureaucracy, multiplicity of viewpoints, and the availability of money —tend to make change a very deliberate and slow-working thing. For this reason, especially in a time so aptly described by change and its manifestations, the university is quite often in need of reform or redirection to bring its goals and objectives in line with those of its students. 19

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But how is this reform and redirection to be achieved? It is first of all necessary that there be certain attitudes and convictions prevalent within the controlling body of the university. Primary among these is a concept of the university’s function in society. President Sterling has said that a university’s “proper business’’ is the service of mankind. But how best can this be done? The answer must be first through the best possible education for its students, and second through the more direct services, such as research or community leadership. It is the university's proper business to serve its students, to enable them, through education, to develop themselves as fully as possible. And it is only through this attitude that the university will be able to keep pace with the changes in its students, for it is only through this attitude that the needs and goals of the students will be the university’s primary concerns. In Stanford's case, especially during 20