| rubio, I think you mean gilded. As in gold. Cornelius Vanderbilt probably was poorly educated, as he was entirely what is now called "a self-made man"; he started a ferry business as a teenager and went from there to make a fortune in both the shipping industry and in railroads. At some point not long after the Civil War, he was visited by a man who wanted to start a church-based college in Nashville. As the story goes, Vanderbilt had been looking for an opportunity to use a college to bridge the North-South divide, so he made an initial donation to get the college started, then followed up with another once he was convinced it was a serious effort. After the second donation, the college founders changed the name to Vanderbilt. A couple of decades later (maybe more) the religious affiliation was dropped. Vanderbilt never saw the place.
Do you think his idea of bridging the North/South divide with a university was successful? I'm afraid he might think not, if he witnessed the regular anti-Vanderbilt chatter on cc, which seems to be based largely on its geographic location.
I remember the stories about Vanderbilt's effort to diversify its campus, including getting Jewish students to consider the school. I don't remember any of the stories being negative. Most people thought it was a good idea to become more heterogeneous.
As for robber barons and crooked politicos who got major universities named after themselves, check out Leland Stanford's bio. |