Excellence in graduate education clearly emanates from the university's core disciplines. Intellectually robust and educationally effective academic departments enable deep scholarly investigation and provide a springboard for creativity, risk taking, and cross-disciplinary exploration.

Strong departments are principally built around a high-caliber faculty and outstanding students. To strengthen this foundation, we must continue to attract, retain, and cultivate the best of both.

Accordingly, the deans in each of Stanford's seven graduate schools seek to increase endowment support for professorships and graduate fellowships—the key to attracting and supporting the best and the brightest on which Stanford's excellence depends.