Supporting the Community

The Stanford Teacher Education Program at the Graduate School of Education works with local school districts to place teachers in Bay Area schools – most of them in public schools and more than half in schools with large concentrations of low-income students.

Stanford Graduate School of Education supports teachers, students, policymakers, and other professionals through professional learning, workshops, and a broad range of community projects in local schools.

Stanford’s comprehensive set of transportation demand management programs provide sustainable commute options for the university community while reducing local traffic congestion. In 2021, 61 percent of campus commuters did not drive alone on a regular basis. Stanford’s free Marguerite shuttle service provided 2.74 million rides to university affiliates and community members in 2019 and is on track to provide 1.3 million rides in 2022 as ridership rebounds from COVID-19 pandemic disruptions.

Stanford has a variety of programs and incentives that connect campus residents with sustainable transportation options. The free Marguerite shuttle provides rides across campus and to downtown Palo Alto. Biking is strongly encouraged and supported by 19,000 bike parking spaces. And Stanford has the largest campus car sharing fleet in the country.

Stanford has been committed to housing since its founding. In recognition of the wide regional impact of the housing crisis, Stanford joins community leadership in efforts to create or preserve housing for the broader community. See fact sheets and more  

In fall 2022, Stanford launched the new Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to advance knowledge critical to sustaining life on Earth, prepare students as future sustainability leaders, and engage with partners to co-create and scale local, national, and global solutions.

Stanford’s commitment to sustainability extends from its academic work to campus operations. The university is a living laboratory for making sustainability innovation real and is on track to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity and an 80 percent reduction in scopes 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 2025, as well as going zero waste by 2030.

Stanford welcomed a combined 275,000 visitors to its four free campus art galleries and museums in 2019, and an additional 115,000 people attended performances presented by Stanford Live and the Department of Music.

Stanford Live offers discounted student matinee programs suitable for all grades and provides a variety of arts-related professional development opportunities for local teachers.

Stanford has over 135 community engagement hubs across the university that connect faculty and students with communities at the local, regional, national and international levels. These hubs work in direct partnership with communities to jointly address shared challenges.

Faculty-led projects focus on accelerating solutions to equity, education, health and sustainability challenges in our region. Multi-year partnerships include the Stanford Redwood City Sequoia School Mental Health Collaborative.

The Stanford Research Park, a portion of Stanford’s campus dedicated to supporting pioneering companies in their R&D pursuits, generated $100 million in state and local taxes in 2020.

Businesses located in Stanford Shopping Center and Stanford Research Park generated 45 percent of Palo Alto’s sales tax revenue — $13.1 million — in Fiscal Year 2018-19.