Like a tower of enlightenment the campanile of the University of
California, in Berkeley, is seen by visitors to San Francisco whether
they come through the Golden Gate from Asia or approach the city by
ferry from the terminals of the transcontinental railroads on the East
Bay shore. It is likewise visible from the hills of San Francisco.
This white shaft is symbolic of the opportunity offered to the world to
educate its youth in San Francisco. Within short motor rides from the
city are three big universities. In addition to the University of
California at Berkeley, which has one of the largest enrollments of any
institution of its kind in the United States, there is Stanford
University at Palo Alto, a privately endowed seat of learning with
notably high standards of scholarship and a rigid limit on the number of
its students, and the University of Santa Clara, which has trained many
of California's public men and members of the bench and bar. California
and Stanford are co-educational.
The University of California maintains in San Francisco the Hastings
College of Law, the Medical School, the California School of Fine Arts,
the George William Hooper Foundation for Medical Research, the
California College of Pharmacy and the Museum of Anthropology, the
latter being one of the buildings of the Affiliated Colleges,
overlooking Golden Gate Park. The Hearst Greek Theatre at Berkeley has
done much to make the name of the University familiar abroad. Sarah
Bernhardt, Maude Adams, Ben Greet and Margaret Anglin have been among
the notables to appear on its open air stage.
Stanford University, which numbers Herbert Hoover and many other famous
men among its alumni, maintains in San Francisco the Medical School and
Stanford and Lane hospitals. The campus in the Santa Clara Valley is
well worth seeing. The sandstone quadrangles, arcades and red tile
roofs, which reproduce the feeling of the early Mission buildings, are
finely achieved examples of period motifs applied to collegiate
architecture. The Stanford Memorial Church is especially interesting for
its richly carved stone and colored Italian mosaics, on the exterior as
well as within.
The University of Santa Clara, conducted by the Jesuits, is located on
the site of one of the Missions established by the Franciscans under
Junipero Serra, and its modern buildings incorporate the ancient
structure.
In addition to these universities is Mills College in Oakland, an
institution for women of the type of Wellesley, Vassar and Bryn Mawr.
The list of private schools and academies offering specialized
instruction is a long one.
Building bridges of understanding across the seas, students attending
the universities and other institutions in the San Francisco Bay region
are playing roles in international relations that are just beginning to
be realized. H. G. Wells should study them in drafting his outlines for
world amity.