When the doors of Friends University opened September 21, 1898, only the north wing of the building containing 21 rooms was ready for use. In spite of a bare campus with only a few cottonwood trees, piles of rubbish scattered about, and a board walk leading to the north door, President Stanley said at the opening meeting that he saw a great future for the school.

“The purpose of this school shall be to give to the world and to give our country a class of citizens that will be in every sense loyal citizens. Loyalty has in it more than we often think . . . Loyalty means that mental training and discipline which makes the child think, the development which makes him strong in mind and body, strong in his moral nature, a full man in that intelligence which should direct the efforts of all men for conscientious, honorable and successful private life and citizenship.”

(pg. 78 TG)