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It was a naming ceremony.

About 450 people gathered in the lobby outside Cubberley Hall  on Jan. 22 to celebrate a change in name for the education school. It’s now the Stanford Graduate School of Education, instead of Stanford University School of Education.

The announcement of the change was officially made Jan. 14, but the school wanted an opportunity to come together to mark the occasion. Faculty, staff and students posed for an all-school photograph on the steps of Cubberley Hall to commemorate the moment.

Before the photo, attendees received fleece vests, embroidered with the new name, and noshed on wraps and finger foods.

Dean Claude Steele gave the opening address. “The hope is that this modest change will help us emphasize a truly important part of our identity — the particular kind of contribution that graduate level researchers, scholars and professionals make to that huge enterprise known as education,” he said. A copy of Steele's speech has been posted on a page on the school's website.  

Steele was followed with a talk by David Labaree, professor of education and the nation’s foremost expert on the history of education schools, who explained how the name change fits with the evolution of education schools in recent decades. A transcript of his remarks is also available on a new page on the GSE website.

The remarks ended with people raising their glasses of champagne. “A toast to the Stanford Graduate School of Education,” Steele said.