A grateful president and provost thank Stanford faculty and staff for all they do

Board of Trustees Chair, Leslie Hume, extends her thanks to the Stanford community at the close of the Leading Matters program. (Photos by L.A. Cicero)

Leading Matters on Campus, an hour-long celebration that included speeches and videos, and ended with complimentary box lunches for everyone in the audience, attracted nearly 3,500 faculty and staff to Maples Pavilion.

Standing on a stage with a replica of a Stanford sandstone arch behind him, Provost John Etchemendy told nearly 3,500 faculty and staff in Maples Pavilion on Thursday that "everyone is so busy making this university even better that we rarely stop to appreciate how remarkable it already is."

"I think I know why," Etchemendy said, speaking at Leading Matters on Campus , an hour-long celebration that included What Really Matters to Me, a stirring 15-minute video of Stanford students talking about their research, accomplishments and goals.

"There are emails piling up, students waiting to be taught, patients who need to be seen, athletes who need to be trained, purchase orders that need to be processed, classrooms that need to be cleaned, lawns that need to be mowed. It’s hard to press ’pause’ on an operation like ours."

Etchemendy told the audience, which was seated on white folding chairs on the basketball court and in red seats in the bleachers, that Stanford is a culture "uncomfortable with self-reflection, lest it be seen as self-congratulatory."

"Nevertheless, this afternoon I am going to unabashedly praise and thank all of you as members of the Stanford community," he said. "You are extraordinary. Without you, the success of the past five years – every accomplishment the president outlined – would not have happened."

The president, of course, was President John Hennessy, who had preceded the provost on stage and had described the success of Leading Matters , a three-year series of inspirational Stanford events, and the success of The Stanford Challenge , a five-year fundraising campaign that ends Dec. 31.

Hennessy said his travels to 19 cities around the world for Leading Matters showed that the Stanford community is incredibly strong and vibrant.

"And we owe much of that strength and vibrancy to you – the campus community," he said. "Our faculty could not excel in their research and teaching without your support, and our students could not benefit from the incredible opportunities available here without the efforts of so many members of our community."

He also singled out alumna Linda Meier, who led Leading Matters, for recognition and praise, describing her as "our number one volunteer, that Uncommon Woman," referring to her Degree of Uncommon Woman Award from Stanford in 2000.

Hennessy said the Leading Matters events inspired alumni and friends to become more directly engaged in the university’s future.

The Leading Matters series began in Seattle in 2008 and ended in Portland, Ore., in 2011. Each event featured talks by President Hennessy and other university leaders, presentations by faculty members and students, and state-of-the-art media productions. Stanford Report attended the Leading Matters event in San Diego.

"As we traveled to 19 cities, from Seattle to New York, Singapore to London and all the points in between, we found alumni and friends eager to learn more about the ways Stanford is addressing the challenges of the 21st century," Hennessy said, adding that every event broke the alumni attendance record for that city.

"Simultaneously, the enormous success of The Stanford Challenge – our campaign launched to support our vision of Stanford in the 21st century – clearly has drawn energy and inspiration from the success of Leading Matters," he said.

Hennessy said that with the launch of The Stanford Challenge, Stanford was seizing the opportunity to assume a larger role in the world and to transform the way Stanford teaches and conducts research.

He said more than 161,000 alumni, parents and friends have contributed to the campaign.

"We anticipate that the final total will be more than a billion dollars past our original $4.3 billion goal," Hennessy said.

"That is simply extraordinary – and clear indication that our alumni and friends share our belief that the innovative, multidisciplinary work being done by our faculty and students can make a real difference and – as the Stanfords envisioned – benefit humanity."

Hennessy said Leading Matters allowed the university to engage alumni in "a conversation about big ideas," and The Stanford Challenge helped turn those big ideas into reality by endowing faculty and graduate fellowships; raising money for undergraduate financial aid; and building 26 new facilities to support and advance groundbreaking research.

"But our efforts – and the support of our alumni and friends – were not about how many new buildings we could construct," he said. "It was about providing our extraordinary faculty and students with the resources needed to do 21st-century research and teaching. And we have seen some extraordinary successes."

Hennessy concluded his speech by citing several examples; among them:

• Stanford’s faculty are exploring ways to control the switching of neurons in the brain using light. Such a technology might some day be the basis for new treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to acute depression.

Through the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy , Stanford is working to make a more sustainable future for our descendants and ourselves.


• Stanford is investigating innovative new battery technologies that have the potential for factors of 5 to 10 in energy density and could make electric vehicles dramatically cheaper and more efficient and reduce our dependence on imported oil.


The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law is exploring how developing countries can achieve economic prosperity that benefits all their people.

Leslie Hume, chair of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, also extended her thanks to the Stanford community.

She said the university had hoped everyone could enjoy their complimentary box lunch at tables outside Maples Pavilion, but inclement weather had dashed those plans. Still, many members of the audience found enough sunshine outside the pavilion to enjoy a picnic lunch.

While yesterday’s Leading Matters on Campus did not include presentations by individual professors, a wide array of fascinating talks from past Leading Matters events is available for download through Stanford on iTunes.