Under the cornice, decorating the east and west exteriors, are twelve terra cotta depictions of the coat of arms of significant historic institutions of higher education. Under the windows the names of fourteen honored writers and scholars are carved into the stone.

  University of Bologna
  (the oldest university in Europe,
  founded in the eleventh century)

1265-1321 AD
most honored of Italian poets

  University of Paris
  (early thirteenth century)

70-19 BC
noblest of Roman poets

  University of Oxford
  (early thirteenth century)

106-43 BC
orator, statesman, and philosopher

  University of Salmanca
  (1230)

384-332 BC
philosopher and scientist

  University of Cambridge
  (1281)

5th Century BC
the earliest great writer
of prose in Europe

  University of Heidelberg
  (1385)

9th Century BC
the first of the great
poets of Europe

The East side has the coat of arms for the University of Mexico (1553, the oldest university in North America), the University of Edinburgh (1583), Harvard University (1636), the University of Virginia (1825), the University of Michigan (1841), and Vassar College (1861).

The East side writers and scholars are: Shakespeare (1546-1616, greatest of playwrights), Milton (1608-1674, master of English poetry and prose), Moliere (1622-1673, peerless French dramatist), Goethe (1749-1832, the German Titan), Scott (1771-1832, poet and novelist, the Wizard of the North), Mark Twain (1835-1910, humorist, chronicler of American life).