The Days of a Man 



1892 



Limitation 



oj numbers f or( J. 



of both 



women 

 and men 



for medical students, Johns Hopkins, and for those 

 in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Cornell. 

 Meanwhile the subjects generally chosen by women 

 (involving far less outlay in equipment) were well 

 handled, and it looked as if the men might be out- 

 numbered. 



Such a contingency naturally alarmed Mrs. Stan- 

 as she said, the institution was above all a 

 memorial to a boy, and neither she nor her husband 

 would have wished it to appear as largely a school 

 for girls. Accordingly, on May 31, 1899, in a formal 

 address to the prospective board, she stipulated 

 that "the number of women attending the University 

 as students shall at no time exceed five hundred." 

 In this matter I was not consulted because, so she 

 naively explained to the press, I "would probably 

 be opposed," and she did "not wish to be argued 

 out of it." 



Many years later (1916) it was decided by my 

 successor, President Branner, and the board of 

 trustees that the best interests of Stanford would be 

 served by limiting also the number of young men 

 in the two lower classes. For the authorities were 

 determined not to let increasing attendance inter- 

 fere with good work, as it certainly would without 

 a corresponding increase in income, nowhere to be 

 expected. More students would of necessity require 

 more teachers, and tuition remaining virtually free, 

 individual salaries would then have to be lowered. 

 The only alternative, a high tuition fee, was some- 

 thing to be avoided, as it is, in fact, a tax on edu- 

 cation which tends to discourage self-supporting 

 students, many of whom are among the very best. 

 It would likewise reduce the number from a distance, 



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