Liam Kinney – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Tue, 15 Jul 2014 00:34:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Liam Kinney – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 What’s up with ISIS https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/14/whats-up-with-isis/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/14/whats-up-with-isis/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2014 00:34:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1086814 If you’ve been watching the news lately — or, for college students, if you’ve been watching Jon Stewart or the Colbert Report — you’ve heard of the militant Jihadist organization operating in Iraq and Syria known as ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). If you’re like the average Stanford student, you have a […]

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If you’ve been watching the news lately — or, for college students, if you’ve been watching Jon Stewart or the Colbert Report — you’ve heard of the militant Jihadist organization operating in Iraq and Syria known as ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). If you’re like the average Stanford student, you have a pretty vague idea of what the organization is: a militant Middle Eastern group with a pseudo-religious leader and scary imperialist goals.

“Sounds like Al-Qaeda, and we dealt with them pretty handily, right?”

Al-Qaeda swore off its allegiance with ISIS because the latter was too extreme. In other words, it’s a group about which you should have more than a cursory knowledge.

ISIS has a short but terrifyingly rapid history. The organization drew its members from a number of Iraqi insurgent groups, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), that profess Sunni Islam. The supreme leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, led its forces last year during the Syrian Civil War, during which ISIS saw significant growth in its numbers and influence.

Its strength in the war, coupled with its existing representation in a number of Iraqi provinces, has led to its control over about a third of Iraq and Syria. The organization declared its independence in January of this year and took Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, as its capital on June 10.

Now, ISIS is feared in both America and the Middle East — for good reason. Its original goal was to declare a caliphate in the Sunni regions of Iraq and Syria — the same goal once possessed by Osama bin Laden — and it did so last week. An ISIS spokesman said that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi would be thenceforth known as “Al-Khalifah Ibrahim,” or “the Caliph Abraham.”

The group now officially calls itself “The Islamic State,” with the motto “Remaining and Expanding.” It sees itself as the one true Islamic state and has goals for expanding its caliphate through whatever means possible.

So far, those means have been bloody. ISIS is famous, even among Sunni insurgent groups, for having one of the most brutal interpretations of Islam. Al-Qaeda cut ties with it back in February, saying that it was an unyielding and wantonly violent gang. Its 4,000 fighters have directed attacks upon religious enemies like Shia Muslims and Christians, fought military and government forces that oppose them and claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.

What does this mean for the governments opposing them, including those of the United States and Iraq?

It seems like their first step, apart from suppressing attacks across Iraq and Syria, is to identify Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. There have been a few possible photos and appearances, but nothing substantial so far. The biggest step towards finding out what the ISIS leader looks like was made this past Sunday, when a video of a man giving a sermon at the biggest mosque in Mosul surfaced in Iraqi social media sites.

The video depicts a man, who is called “Al-Baghdadi,” surrounded by gunmen, giving a sermon. According to a translation posted by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terror organizations, the man urges his followers to wage jihad during Ramadan — the month of fasting which began at the end of June.

“It is a month from Allah when we are protected from hell, and this is every night — nights during which the marketplace of jihad is open,” the man said.

The Iraqi government is cross-referencing the video with other sources to find out whether this man is the leader we are looking for. The United States does not have such sources and is awaiting intelligence from Iraq. However, two things are sure: First, even if this is not the ISIS leader, the video is an indication of the group’s growing influence; and second, the year-long search to view Al-Baghdadi’s face does not bode well for our inevitable search for the man himself. And while governments are scanning videos, ISIS-controlled Iraqi provinces are being uprooted.

Many of the citizens of Mosul and the other ISIS-controlled cities have fled to Shi’ite-majority Baghdad, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki claims that Iraq’s defeats to the organization so far are not enough to stop him from fighting back.

“I have vowed to God that I will continue to fight by the side of our armed forces and volunteers until we defeat the enemies of Iraq and its people,” Maliki said.

With the United States hesitant to send help after the Iraq War and increasingly extreme threats coming from ISIS (like a recent video in which fighters announced in Spanish that they will “take back Spain,” the land of their forefathers), we can only hope that the prime minister’s vigor matches the country’s strength.

So why should we care?

Well, ISIS is quickly earning national infamy. The Washington Post released an article yesterday about how all of the other groups in the world named “ISIS” are changing their name out of international recognition of the terrorist group.

It will very quickly become a question whether U.S. involvement is viable, necessary or (as many will probably argue) a repeat of last time. The group could also become a very real spiritual threat. Implicit in its plan to eradicate all enemies of Islam is the notion that all Muslims who are compromising with the West must be dealt with. It has already made threats against the holy city of Mecca.

The threat of ISIS is on the rise, and we shouldn’t be in the dark at its peak.

 

Contact Liam Kinney at liamk@stanford.edu.

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CS + X-traordinary https://stanforddaily.com/2014/05/15/cs-x-traordinary/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/05/15/cs-x-traordinary/#comments Thu, 15 May 2014 07:23:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1085612 Even though this influential vote for a CS-humanities combo major has already been cast, I learned from Ceserani that the Faculty Senate was most tentative about admitting classics into the CS + X program. After all, how could a department that deals in literature written almost exclusively before the Common Era connect to a department that didn’t exist until the twentieth century? Any student of classics should be able to answer this question immediately.

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Hello potential employer, my name is Liam Kinney and I am a Classics/Symbolic Systems double major at Stanford University” is how I’ve started about 30 emails to various tech companies in Silicon Valley over the past four months. The few who respond often inquire about Symbolic Systems—a mix of CS, philosophy, linguistics and psychology—and how tech-heavy it actually is. I’m cornered into giving this feeble excuse about how the Computer Science major is too many units to double with, and how I would never dream of leaving the classics major, and how Symbolic Systems is the next best thing to Computer Science. I haven’t yet landed a job with this system, but my system is about to change.

Starting in the fall, the University is offering brand new “CS + X” majors, a new initiative headed by English professor Nick Jenkins. In this new and exciting program, you can double major in CS and a concentration in the humanities for a reduced number of units. I learned about it today while talking to classics undergraduate major advisor Giovanna Ceserani about how to balance my already overwhelming double major. A recent article in the Daily (linked above) claims that the program will allow a double major in CS and either Music or English, but Ceserani showed me a recent release by the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education that has announced the joint majors passed by the faculty senate: Classics, English, French, German, History, Italian, Linguistics, Music, Philosophy and Slavic.

These programs are legitimate academic pursuits. Along with reducing the number of electives required in either major, the departments require a capstone project which demonstrates a synthesis of CS and the humanities. Quoting from the Daily article linked above, “CS is becoming an integral part of many humanities majors, and the humanities are becoming important in CS.”

In a surprise twist, this effort arose partly in response to requests from “the Valley.” These days, employers in the South Bay are looking for more than experience with silicon alone. Perhaps you’ve heard about New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman and his two-part article “How to Get a Job at Google.” My parents certainly have…In the article, Friedman interviews Laszlo Bock, who is in charge of hiring at Google and who oversees about 100 new hires a day. In part two of the article, published just last month, Friedman asked Bock “Are the liberal arts still important?”

Not surprisingly, he responded that “they are ‘phenomenally important’…especially when you combine them with other disciplines.” Bock went on to claim that in his view, the most interesting things he sees happening today are at the intersection of two fields. This is what I’ve been trying to convince my parents for years; not only do the liberal arts set you apart from your religiously tech-y peer, but they also give you the necessary context to which you can apply your tech-y powers.

Even though this influential vote for a CS-humanities combo major has already been cast, I learned from Ceserani that the Faculty Senate was most tentative about admitting classics into the CS + X program. After all, how could a department that deals in literature written almost exclusively before the Common Era connect to a department that didn’t exist until the twentieth century?

Any student of classics should be able to answer this question immediately. Latin and Greek are incredibly esoteric languages, in which words come in all shapes and sizes and have pages of definitions. And even after you’ve memorized your first year Latin textbook (yeah right), authors tend to introduce words of their own. Fun fact: The poet Catullus is the only Latin author ever to use the word Mnemosynus, meaning “keepsake”. To stay sane, and to avoid memorizing textbooks, Classics students use services like Tufts University’s Perseus Digital Library and University of Notre Dame’s “William Whitaker’s Words.” Free services like these compile gargantuan amounts of data from scads of texts and provide the most likely definitions of words and all the forms they can possibly be. Crucial Internet-driven services like these helped me learn and love the classics, and they will be at the heart of classics research for years to come. Do you think their inventors had expertise in just one field?

If CS has practical applications in ancient Greek, imagine the stake it could have in some of the other humanities majors. Like the classics, most of the humanities disciplines are data-driven sciences. What if people could learn to speak modern languages not by finding someone else who speaks the language, but by having a conversation with a computer? What if there was a way to mine Plato’s Republic for philosophical tropes, and to locate reoccurrences of those tropes in contemporary literature? The applications are obvious in fields like music and art; what’s exciting is finding the ways that computer science can enhance the humanities, and vice versa. CS + X is challenging students to do just that, and we know all what happens when Stanford students face a challenge.

Liam Kinney is writing a novel about how the Iliad would never have happened if Paris had signed up with eHarmony. Contact him at liamk@stanford.edu.

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Synergy FAQ: The meanest concerns about the nicest house https://stanforddaily.com/2014/04/30/synergy-faq-the-meanest-concerns-about-the-nicest-house/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/04/30/synergy-faq-the-meanest-concerns-about-the-nicest-house/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2014 07:03:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1085072 Let me assure you that I was no born Synergen. I have become an advocate by choice. I had never even been to Synergy when I got the news that I was going to live here, but it has been one of the greatest adventures of my life.

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The other day I was at a small get-together in a friend’s apartment, catching up with friends in my major over EANABs and Easter chocolates. At some point, someone asked, “How was your weekend?” and I commented how much fun the Synergy beach trip had been last weekend. The person I was talking with scoffed and laughed. Before I knew it, the room morphed into a kind of reverse intervention: as people in turn stated their reasons for fearing association with Synergy, I sought to explain how they were misguided or overly dismissive. This instance was not the first time I’d heard these complaints, and it won’t be the last. Hopefully, in honor of the draw season, I can nip some such misconceptions in the bud with my next two articles:

 

“Ughh, that hill”

Synergy is exactly 53 feet above Campus Drive. If you’ve ever climbed to the garden-roof of Herrin Hall, it’s easier than that. The isolation, by the way, is what makes it such a nice and quiet living space.

 

“Synergy is crazy”

Unless you have friends in Synergy, the only reason you would ever make that Everestian trek is for the infamous Halloween party. On that night, whatever may happen, the opinion (lore? rumor?) of Synergy is shaped in the minds of the freshmen (who become the sophomores, and the seniors, etc.). Synergy is that nocturnal Addams Family mansion on the hill, rapt in perpetual bass, where someone saw someone forcing a mixed drink on a supine freshman like Harry on Dumbledore in the beginning of the Half Blood Prince. Yeah…no.

Synergy is one of the most serene houses on campus. It is the only “Row” house completely surrounded by trees — to the point that we can’t hear the cars on Campus Drive or Mayfield Row. The house’s strict quiet hours (11-9 on weeknights, 1-11 on weekends, enforced every night but Halloween) quash any attempts at fratting. As I write this article, I am sitting on one of our three sunny porches, listening to the birds as my roommate plays one-on-one soccer on our lawn.

In fact, many Synergy residents dislike our Halloween party. On that night, there are people running up and down the halls, destroying the bathrooms and floors (which the residents clean, not ResEd, remember?), and the residents have no control over when they can go to sleep. It’s downright exhausting.

 

“Aren’t there animals there?”

Not, like, jaguars and tarantulas. Synergy has six friendly chickens. A couple of our house jobs (some of the most desirable ones, in fact) are dedicated to taking care of the chickens and it’s actually pretty relaxing to grab some feed and go talk with them for a bit. Our animals are the reason people visit, not the reason they stay away.

 

“Aren’t there, like, seven people to a room?”

People find this notion terrifying, but a lot of people, including me, love it. The communes, as they’re called, are the pride of both Synergy and Columbae.

Part of the intentional and consensual community is feeling comfortable about where you live. So, every quarter we have “rooming meeting,” during which people can rethink (or not rethink; two guys have lived in the same double all three quarters) their living situation. One of the options for living is a commune, in which a five-plus group of people can elect to have two rooms, one of which is used for sleeping and the other for socializing/studying.

Although some people find this system scary, it’s actually quite flexible and convenient. Because of the social room, you never have to work quietly in deference to your roommates. In addition, having a space that’s dedicated entirely to socializing (i.e. no bulky beds lying around) allows for more creativity with the setup: Every quarter, I’ve had a projector and two couches in my room. Because of the fluid roommate situation, residents end up meeting and bonding with more people in the house, which makes for a much more cohesive community. I myself have roomed with nine separate people during my time here, quite happily.

 

“Why would I cook and clean for myself?”

Well, you’re going to be doing exactly that after you graduate, so why not start learning now? I have learned a number of healthy, easy recipes at Synergy that I know will save me from going out for food later in life. And because everyone is cooking for themselves here, the food is usually really good.

Why would you clean for yourself? Try not to roll your eyes when I say that cleaning jobs have been some of the most fun times I’ve had here. You and three friends put on loud music and enjoy a relaxed and social study-break. When do you get something like that in Crothers?

 

“The one time I’ve been to Synergy, I saw my freshman RA’s d*ck.”

Nudity seems to be the most misunderstood and widely feared aspect about the house (it’s probably universally misunderstood too, but I’ll save that can of worms for a later article). First of all, about 90 percent of the house is just as nude as you and I are right now (i.e. completely clothed), except perhaps during the few co-op events that specifically encourage nudity like the quarterly “body painting” event at Columbae or Synergy’s Beltane festival in the spring. In other words, the chances of visiting the house and coming across a naked person are very low.

People seem to believe that the remaining 10 percent of residents are constantly nude when they’re at the house. This is also not true. The more-inclined-to-nudity folks of Synergy are just as hairless as anyone else, and thus they get cold when the temperature drops. They do, in fact, own clothes, which they put on when they feel cold. The only time nudity happens on any sort of observable scale is when it’s so hot that the rest of the campus is in bathing suits anyway.

Now, let’s say the planets align and you see a naked person at Synergy. Can we all just be adults for a second? It’s not that big a deal; it’s not even a “way of life”; it’s just a convenience thing; that person is probably just going to grab their laundry, and wanted to wash the clothes they had on as well (I’ve certainly done that). You know that part of Bruno Mars’ “The Lazy Song” where he says “I’ll just strut in my birthday suit and let everything hang loose, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”? Synergy nudity is just as low-key.

 

***

In conclusion, let me assure you that I was no born Synergen. I have become an advocate by choice. A year ago during draw season, I was not so different from you. My roommate and I were drawing in tier 2 and had Branner and Toyon at the top of our list. A couple nights before the housing deadline, I had a talk with my PHE that convinced me to rank some tier 1 coops at the top of our list (I didn’t tell my roommate I’d changed our order because what were the chances we’d get a tier 1 house with tier 2?). I had never even been to Synergy when I got the news that I was going to live here, but it has been one of the greatest adventures of my life. Even my roommate, who was initially sullen because our low draw number would have gotten us a two-room double in Branner, claims that this was one of the best “decisions” of his Stanford career so far, and plans to live here again with his tier 1 draw.

I hope this article illuminates some of the sweetest secrets about the Stanford co-op community (because, honestly, there are a few residents who would prefer that the secret not get out). And if you don’t believe me, consider this article a ticket to come eat dinner at the house — just email me.

 

Indeed, if you don’t believe Liam Kinney when he waxes poetic on Synergy, he’s happy to continue with you. Drop him a line at liamk “at” stanford.edu.

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Gentrification and your dream home https://stanforddaily.com/2014/04/17/gentrification-and-your-dream-home/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/04/17/gentrification-and-your-dream-home/#comments Thu, 17 Apr 2014 08:13:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1084534 This past week, I read a very long article about gentrification in San Francisco. I always thought gentrification was one of those distant phenomena that happened in the abstract and didn’t merit a practical response, but the article cut through that assumption right in the title: “How burrowing owls lead to vomiting anarchists (or SF’s […]

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This past week, I read a very long article about gentrification in San Francisco. I always thought gentrification was one of those distant phenomena that happened in the abstract and didn’t merit a practical response, but the article cut through that assumption right in the title: “How burrowing owls lead to vomiting anarchists (or SF’s housing crisis explained).”

People are literally vomiting (on the Yahoo! employee bus, to be specific) in protest of how packed San Francisco is becoming, and of the kind of people it is becoming packed with. People think of gentrification as some old lady getting evicted by some young money douchebag who wants a bigger back yard, but in fact it should be on the mind of everyone trying to live in the Bay Area from now until Google goes bankrupt.

Apparently, supply (from supply and demand) in the housing market of San Francisco is a thing of the past—specifically, thirty years ago. In the ’70s and ’80s, the city was abustle with the clangor of industry and the working class, so the mobile elite took off to the suburbs and to other cities. The lowered rents that the demand vacuum caused sucked up hippies and immigrants, picketing it into the weird, beautifully cultural speak-your-mind place we know it to be today.

Unfortunately, these people did their jobs too well. Since 1980, the city’s population has grown from 700,000 to 800,000. This number is not about to stop growing, but the denizens of The City are in denial.

The Bay is chock full of preservationists, and everyone has their own reasons for preventing infill. You might be wondering what burrowing owls have to do with vomiting hobos. You also might be wondering, “Hey, why don’t they just build living places on these enormous tech campuses so there aren’t any buses to vomit on.” The answer to both comes courtesy of environmentalists on Mountain View’s city council. They have expressly forbidden housing developments on or around Google’s campus in order to preserve the city’s burrowing owl population. Yet, Mountain View is discussing new office developments that would bring a little under 50,000 new residents to the city, and even more to the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, SF, which became the way it is because of protests and community resistance, has people protesting every single change to anything at all, especially housing. As the article points out: “Gentrification raises the gap between market-rate rents and rent-controlled rents, strengthening the financial incentive for landlords to evict longtime tenants.” It cites a group of Mission-based non-profits and activists who recently protested the construction of a 351-unit apartment complex, which would only have displaced a Burger King and a Walgreens. Every new housing development, even affordable ones, must be circumvented or beaten down by a hefty number of neighborhood organizations struggling to pay their already high rents.

The yuppies are suffering all right—even the ones who want to help the housing crisis. A recent article in San Francisco magazine outlined the hoops that a single developer, Dean Givas, had to jump through to build condos in the Mission. His plan was to put up 14 luxury-housing units on a plot near Shotwell Street. Community groups made him change the plan to 40 affordable units. He was already prepared to pay upwards of $1.4 million in city-mandated impact fees, but the community made him pay more. On top of that, he donated $800,000 to local community groups (which itself drew claims that the groups were selling out), contributed $1 million to refurbish a closed-down movie theater nearby and made the new owners of that theatre agree to both hire most of its staff from the neighborhood and let the community groups hold meetings there. Producing housing in SF has become a slow, expensive, political and very unattractive prospect for developers.

So what’s worked so far? Basically, things only go smoothly when both parties get their way, like (sorta) the example above. This does not happen very often when the parties involved are angry San Franciscans and greedy real estate moguls.

Angelo Sangiacomo is one of these moguls who made it work. He recently bought and renovated a 360-unit complex, agreeing to control rents in his building. Former residents of the complex got their homes refurbished without a change in the rent whatsoever. According to SF Gate, Sangiacomo isn’t your stereotypical real estate mogul, though. He smiles a lot, attends church and swims laps in his pool every day despite being 87. When money isn’t an issue, things get a lot easier. Go figure.

So before you pop your Stanford bubble and enter the war, you will be forced to choose a side: Will you be a hippie, or a yuppie? Will you be vomiting or washing vomit off a car? If you’re a techie, will you be a Trump or a Sangiacomo about it? Check yourself before you add one to SF’s 800,000, and be wary, lest your dream home be twice as expensive tomorrow as it was today. As Jack London said about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, “San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories.”

Liam Kinney wants to demolish Meyer Library and build some luxury condos. Contribute to his effort at liamk@stanford.edu.

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The Testosteroom Welcomes One https://stanforddaily.com/2014/03/31/the-testosteroom-welcomes-one/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/03/31/the-testosteroom-welcomes-one/#respond Mon, 31 Mar 2014 08:44:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1083876 I live in Synergy. I have 5 roommates. We live between 2 rooms on separate floors, and hold tenuous reign over a tiny third, which we use as a projector room (only holds a couch and a coffee table). All five of my roommates lack the stomachs for a vegetarian house and their insides complain loudly and regularly. This is a story of clandestine aggression, brotherhood and guilt. This is also an apology.

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I live in Synergy. I have 5 roommates. We live between 2 rooms on separate floors, and hold tenuous reign over a tiny third, which we use as a projector room (only holds a couch and a coffee table). We sleep in the double-sized room and live in the triple. Two of my roommates snore loudly. One of these boys’ closets is directly next to my desk, and wet neoprene is no friend of mine. All five of my roommates lack the stomachs for a vegetarian house and their insides complain loudly and regularly. This is a story of clandestine aggression, brotherhood and guilt. This is also an apology.

The way the room setup is established at Synergy – and reestablished every quarter – is by a loud, mimosa-fueled, uneasily polite meeting at 9:00 sharp the Sunday morning before classes. It was the beginning of Winter Quarter, and in order to lock down our double-triple setup for the second quarter in a row, we needed to take on a fifth. Attempts to finagle some of the notorious chill bros out of their comfy doubles fell flat:

“Um, yeah, I’ll get back to you.”

“Oh hey, that sounds cool! I just wanted to check with Andrew and see if he had a roommate yet.”

“I haven’t seen Kevin, but I’m pretty sure he wants to live with Jon.”

Or, of course, the ever-dreaded “Thanks but I’m good.”

Our seemingly permanent quad was just about out of hope when a too-excited dormmate popped out of nowhere. “Hey guys! I heard you’re looking for a sixth. Mark doesn’t get here until Tuesday but I’m his proxy and he said he’d be down for anything. What do you guys think?”

Before I could voice my suspicion at (1) an emotion experienced at a rooming meeting that was anything other than thinly veiled panic and (2) the fact that a boy with bags under his eyes was trying to pawn off the kid on his bottom bunk, my roommate jumped in, “Yeah, we’d love to have him!”

We went about the following cheery move-in days in delusion until Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Then, well…I’ll just describe it for you.

1:37 A.M. I wake up from dying in a deafening plane crash. A jet engine’s got nothing on apnea.

1:59 A.M. I fashion makeshift earmuffs out of my two pillows. I think as loudly as I can.

2:40 A.M. A lawn mower runs over a cheese grater, or something like that.

4:02 A.M. I start writing these times down so I can angrily show him his problem in the morning.

7:30 A.M. I wake up hours before my alarm (but hours after I could hit snooze in the daylight) to a tractor going through the wall.

It wasn’t long before my roommates did what we could in response to this nasal nightmare – make fun of him. Don’t get me wrong: We made it clear from the get-go that he could shatter a wine glass at close range with his REM. But none of us had the decency or communication skills to tell him that it was giving us all red alerts. Before one fateful night shortly before Spring Break, we were one quip shy of a burn book.

While procrastinating yesterday afternoon, I struck up a conversation with Mark’s girlfriend’s roommate. It was garden variety banter and schadenfreude until she brought up how she had kicked Mark to the curb a week previous for, yes, snoring. That intel really ground my gears: We weren’t telling him how loud he was, but here was solid evidence that he knew and simply didn’t care. The fact that he still slept with us was just gross negligence.

I spoke to him later with blazing conviction: “Mark! – uh, hey, how’s your day?” Trying to disguise the intervention as dinner conversation, I continued, “I just wanted to let you know that there have been some anonymous complaints about your snoring. I think you might just have to move out. Didn’t you say you used to sleep in your van?”

I felt like the supervisor from Office Space. I didn’t even know if he could hear me straight through all that passive aggression.

“Oh, well that’s fine. My girlfriend doesn’t really like it out there, but I guess I can. I wish you had told me sooner. I feel bad.”

“Damn,” I thought, “I wish I had told him sooner.” After six weeks of high-school-girl-style hating between the other roommates, this guy was the nicest kid in our room. Now, just because I couldn’t communicate, my roommates and I bear the guilt and the remorse of having lost a genuine friend.

Let this be a lesson to all barely tolerant roommates. The “college roommate” has the potential to be a staple relationship in life, for what person in your life ever comes closer to the role of sibling? Unspoken conflict is a golden apple of discord. Be open with your roommates and you could soon be the next Moskovitz, or Brin or Wilson (because Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson were roommates; duh). I couldn’t take my own advice, and now here I am, sitting sleepless and cold on the porch, looking at the van where I should be. I’m sorry, Mark, and I hope your future roommates are more upfront with you.

My opinion is this: A lot of us come into college thinking that we’re going to be good friends with whichever roommates we’re stuck with, and a lot of us aren’t, and that’s usually a mistake. We shut the door on that opportunity too soon. We stigmatize the roommate as the one who sexiles, or the one who runs his coffee maker too loud, or the one who won’t clean up his side of the room (I even have to empty the trash can on his side). This leads to a distance between roommates, and it’s a shame. We are paying a fortune every few months to hear the perspectives of smart people. So if you have roommate problems, why won’t you listen to the one right next to you?

Contact Liam Kinney at liamk@stanford.edu.

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Study on Rails: My Issue with Office Hours https://stanforddaily.com/2014/02/03/study-on-rails-my-issue-with-office-hours/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/02/03/study-on-rails-my-issue-with-office-hours/#respond Mon, 03 Feb 2014 08:07:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1081985 Office hours are a fine environment in which to learn, but one has to make sure that he or she does learn.

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The question read:

“Calculate a numerical value for the angular velocity of the right-handed orthogonal unitary basis A in the reference frame N for the situation of a particle traveling in circular motion at 12 meters per second.”

I recognized a few words in the statement from the E15 lectures and readings, but there was a synaptic canyon in my head between the raw information I had and the answer to this question. I had read the chapters and attended the lectures with wide eyes and a busy pencil, but a master of rapid recall does not an engineer make. As usual it was my inability to apply the knowledge I had, rather than a shortage of it, that brought me to office hours.

Late into the night, each fending off dinner-hunger with snacks, 50 people crammed into 40 chairs and paid homage to the two answer keys in the room and their five cautious mediators, the TAs. I sat down and put each problem through the usual three-step process:

1. Work through the problem by myself until I get to that impossible part g, which involves some idea that the teacher hasn’t covered yet or perhaps a mastery of some hieroglyphic programming language like MATLAB or MotionGenesis.

2. Ask the people immediately around me to see if the problem has already been addressed en masse.

3. Enter into the five-to-fifteen minute line for TA help. Usually, before I get to the front of the line, one of the TAs notices a trend, stands up and announces “We’re gonna go over part g on this board over here!” This arrests the attention of every student in the room, since there have been rumors about part g floating around and this is the one chance you’ll get — unless you want to be phoning around for a walkthrough from a classmate in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

The result of the three-step process mentioned above, which I think everyone follows consciously or unconsciously, is a universal plateau of progress. The students who are on question 8 get roped into advising those on question 3, which retards the progress of the advanced students and accelerates the progress of the sluggish ones. Despite any amount of effort, the entire class inevitably breaks against a dam problem like part g until the TAs open the floodgates. With the strong students helping the weak and the TAs waiting for maximum question capacity to release the answers, room-wide progress eventually levels off.

At this point, the place sheds its former designation as office hours and becomes an elementary school classroom. The TAs tiptoe through each problem, averse to providing any original information of their own, but loose-lipped once someone shouts anything that sounds remotely similar to a step in the solution — vectors!” “factor!” “bubtract!” The students’ homework becomes a part of the 3-hour assembly line that is Engineering Department office hours.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like too bad a deal, but look at who’s actually doing the work. Sure, it’s just three hours on a Monday night for a juicy perfect score in a pesky fundamentals class, but the only thing you get out of it is the grade.

I’ve watched a freshman in CME 100 hand her laptop to frustrated TAs who write her code for her, while she learns none of the MATLAB she needs for her major. I’ve seen students of Math 51 verge on plagiarism by copying the answers off the one kid in their dorm who did the best, covering their tracks by altering their explanations harmlessly here and there. I’ve listened to the crickets chirp in response to a Bio core TA asking, “So does everyone get how I did that?”

Office hours are a crutch on which too many lean, and which the more advanced classes will knock away. Their intent is to create an accessible learning environment, but their effect is a desperate copying environment.

Yet this is not always the case; office hours in the humanities often manifest themselves as rapt conversations between a leader in the field and a handful of zealous pupils. The endemic is mostly sequestered to the STEM office hours, where exhausted TAs are reduced to handing out explanations instead of patiently drawing them out of their students.

The worst part is that, in these high-stress, time-sensitive environments where the “why” takes a backseat, it is the TAs who freely hand out answers who earn the positive reputations. This counterproductive behavior is being rewarded in all the wrong ways. The more students who flock to these ‘good’ TAs, the more who will be eventually dependent on them, office-hour-symbiotic in aeternum.

Perhaps this is not a problem that can be solved structurally, but the addiction can certainly be evaded individually. Office hours are a fine environment in which to learn, but one has to make sure that he or she does learn. Though deadlines may approach and your priorities might begin to ache, hold the value of knowledge above that of the grade, and be careful that the work you do in office hours is indeed yours.

 

Contact Liam Kinney at liamk@stanford.edu

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Technical difficulties delay AlertSU test https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/11/technical-difficulties-delay-alertsu-test/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/11/technical-difficulties-delay-alertsu-test/#respond Fri, 11 Oct 2013 08:32:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1079330 On July 18, there was an armed robbery near Palm Drive and Palo Road. On September 10, a sexual batter was reported on Lake Lagunita path. And early on the morning of Sept. 28, a student named Joseph went missing in some “tan bark” near Bowdoin Street and Campus Drive, but was found safely 30 […]

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On July 18, there was an armed robbery near Palm Drive and Palo Road. On September 10, a sexual batter was reported on Lake Lagunita path. And early on the morning of Sept. 28, a student named Joseph went missing in some “tan bark” near Bowdoin Street and Campus Drive, but was found safely 30 minutes later.

The Stanford community was alerted to these incidents through text messages from the AlertSU emergency notification system, one of the ways the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) helps keep students informed about crime and potential threats on campus.

According to Stanford police spokesperson Bill Larson, the system is also part of Stanford’s compliance with the Clery Act, a federal law that requires universities to disclose information about crime on campus.

The AlertSU technology transmits a message to the entire student body through a text message, email and phone calls. There are only 10 people—including the university president, the director of the Stanford News Service and the executive director of IT services—who are qualified to send messages, but approximately 40,000 people receive them.

“We don’t really believe that we are going to have 40,000 people simultaneously become aware of something,” said Kathy Harris, emergency manager and community outreach coordinator for SUDPS. “The rule of thumb in emergency notification is the rule of 60 percent.”

The idea of emergency management is that if you can reach 60 percent [of the community], they’re going to tell a colleague,” Harris continued. “That’s a pretty reasonable level of awareness to expect from that kind of system.”

Harris said that text messages can be the most unpredictable form of notification in the AlertSU arsenal.

“Students may receive them at different times or not at all,” Harris said. “The system sends them out immediately, but we have no control over how the cell phone vendors batch them. We have weekly meetings with our vendors to make sure they’re doing everything to expedite that.”

The AlertSU system can also be used to make sure people are safe in case of emergency. According to an email sent to the student body, the Stanford Office of Emergency Management is scheduled to conduct a test of the system on Oct. 11. Recipients will be asked to respond to specific questions to assess the system’s effectiveness in accounting for people during an actual emergency.

The test was originally scheduled for Oct 10., but according to an email sent to the student body that afternoon by Emergency Manager Keith Perry, it was postponed because of technical difficulties related to the third-party vendor that Stanford contracts to send the messages.

According to Perry, accounting for everybody on campus would be one of the biggest challenges during an emergency like an earthquake. Perry said that the electronic system would work in conjunction with physical check-ins at emergency assembly points.

“If we don’t have a response from someone electronically,” Perry said, “we can try to track them down and get information about them from other channels.”

While Larson and Harris will continue their efforts to streamline the system, they insist that the most valuable resource for them is student cooperation. They encourage students interested in emergency notification and general campus safety to check out the 2013 Safety, Security and Fire Report available at police.stanford.edu.

 Jana Persky contributed to this report.

Contact Liam Kinney at liamk ‘at’ stanford.edu.

A previous version of this article said that the AlertSU technology transmits a message through KZSU student radio station, when in fact, that method is a separate part of the emergency notification system. The article left out that AlertSU also transmits messages through phone calls. The article also implied that different notifications go out through different methods, when in fact, all alerts are sent through all mediums. The Daily regrets these errors.

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Mental health related 911 calls, bicycle safety concerns increase https://stanforddaily.com/2013/09/24/mental-health-related-911-calls-bicycle-safety-concerns-increase/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/09/24/mental-health-related-911-calls-bicycle-safety-concerns-increase/#respond Tue, 24 Sep 2013 08:25:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1078754 Campus crime figures from the past three academic years before show rising trends in mental health cases and bicycle safety concerns as well as a decrease in alcohol-related crimes due to greater attention from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS).

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Campus crime figures from the past three academic years before show rising trends in mental health cases and bicycle safety concerns as well as a decrease in alcohol-related crimes due to greater attention from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS).

Mental health concerns

Calls to 911 concerning mental health issues rose over time. Such cases are scenarios in which people are committed to a hospital because it is believed that they have become a danger to themselves or to others.

In the 2010-11 school year 27 such calls were made to report mental health issues. The number increased to 37 cases in 2011-12 and rose to 62 in 2012-13.

According to Wilson, this rise in mental health-related calls does not necessarily correspond to a growing number of students dealing with mental health issues.

“It could be a reflection that more people are willing to call about someone for whom they should have called four years ago,” she said.

PrintGreater alcohol enforcement

Regarding alcohol concerns, there was a 25 percent drop in alcohol-related medical transportations from the 2011-12 academic year to the following one.

There were two instances during 2012-13 in which 911 was called for alcohol-related medical reasons, but Palo Alto paramedic crews determined that the cases did not require transport. These types of incidents occurred nine times in 2011-12 and not at all the year before.

Further alcohol reports showed that DUIs dropped from 16 to 7 during the period between September 2012 and April 2013. Drunk in public cases followed a similar downward trend in the same time span, declining from 48 to 31.

Cases of minor in possession (MIP) of alcohol showed a steep upward trend. Compared to 23 cases in 2010-11 and to 24 in 2011-12, there were 45 cases in 2012-13.

SUDPS Chief of Police Laura Wilson ’91 attributed these alcohol trends to an increase in the SUDPS staff as well as a rise in the number of officers at parties to prevent burglaries by students in dorms to which they do not normally have access.

Despite enforcement efforts, total burglaries increased from 52 during 2011-12 to 80 in 2012-13 school, with an increase from 15 to 26 dorm burglaries and 14 to 25 vehicle burglaries. 

Bike safety issues increase

Bike theft has hovered around the same number over the last three years, with 65 cases in 2010-11, 63 in 2011-12 and 67 in 2012-13. However, the issue of bike safety has become a greater concern. Last September, the SUDPS issued 103 citations, whereas September 2011 saw only 52 bicycle citations.

“We’ve been doing a lot more enforcement, like our bicycle diversion class,” said Wilson. “Eighty percent of people who receive a citation attend the bicycle diversion class, so there’s no monetary penalty for anyone in the community who’s received a citation for that first violation.”

Safety education efforts

As far as programs that the SUDPS is currently implementing to reduce crime in general, Wilson states that it will be continuing its “dorm liaison program,” which involves assigning an officer to each house and dorm on campus. These officers are encouraged, at the beginning of the year, to contact the residential assistants and participate in a house meeting as part of the department’s grassroots, face-to-face safety education efforts, according to Wilson.

“[We’re] trying to put a face on the Stanford Police Department so that the first contact [with the department] isn’t because you’re getting a bike cite or an MIP,” she added. “We’re doing a real push to meet student out in the field.”

Wilson hopes that as a result of these efforts, the SUDPS will become more familiar to the community, and can work with alongside it to promote health and safety at Stanford.

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Stanford partners with museum to host medieval manuscripts online https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/30/stanford-partners-with-museum-to-host-medieval-manuscripts/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/30/stanford-partners-with-museum-to-host-medieval-manuscripts/#respond Fri, 31 May 2013 06:55:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077587 Stanford University Libraries has partnered with the Walters Art Museum, a public museum in Baltimore, Md., to offer more than 100,000 high-resolution images of medieval manuscripts stored at the museum online.

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Stanford University Libraries has partnered with the Walters Art Museum, a public museum in Baltimore, Md., to offer more than 100,000 high-resolution images of medieval manuscripts stored at the museum online.

The Walters holds one of the largest medieval collections in North America, with 150 single leaves and 850 illuminated manuscripts produced between the ninth and 19th centuries.

While approximately two-thirds of the manuscript images are already available online through the Walters’ digital collection, uploading them to the Stanford Digital Repository will provide a backup in case of file corruption and give scholars new tools to analyze the manuscripts and compare them with other works.

The partnership between the University and the museum began after Robert Sanderson, an information scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory with an interest in digital humanities, noticed the deficiencies of the Walters’ online storage system and began initial conversations with both parties about a possible collaboration.

Plans for storage of the images in Stanford’s repository were finalized at a meeting between Stanford’s Digital Medieval Projects (DMP) Director John Haeger, DMP Manager Benjamin Albritton and William Noel, a former curator for manuscripts at the Walters.

“The greatest dangers that special collections face are not that they are overused but that they will become irrelevant, and digitization is the best advertisement that special collections can have,” Noel said. “The conservation of data in a technological environment is something we don’t excel at, like most libraries, but Stanford had a fantastic digital infrastructure.”

Albritton said that uploading the Walters’ manuscripts to Stanford’s digital repository is part of a wider series of projects in medieval content preservation and inter-institutional collaboration, noting that the long-term preservation and access provided by the digital repository will give the Walters manuscripts “a great deal of exposure across the scholarly community and beyond.”

“The Walters collection of nearly one thousand manuscripts is one of the most important collections of historically unique documents in North America,” Albritton said. “This trove of content is now available to Stanford scholars from many disciplines and will drive research in a number of areas.”

The 20 faculty and staff in Stanford’s medieval studies program look forward to using the manuscripts in their research, according to Professor of English Elaine Treharne.

According to Treharne, the “lively and stimulating” group of medievalists at Stanford organize and participate in seminars, workshops and colloquia on topics ranging from 11th-century literacies in Chinese, Arabic and the Western cultures to ecclesiastical acoustics, sound and singing from the eighth through the 15th centuries.

“Stanford already has a world-class digital repository and some excellent and beautiful original materials in the special collections at Green Library, but the Walters art collection has a unique and exceptional range of manuscripts from all over the medieval world, including outstanding Byzantine and East Asian materials that can now be minutely scrutinized by scholars,” Treharne said.

According to Treharne, the digitization of these manuscripts will allow scholars at Stanford “to begin to understand the importance of books and documents to cultures that precede ours,” and will also give them the opportunity to analyze how the history of books has been shaped by society.

Allowing Stanford access to their medieval archives also provides several major benefits for the Walters, as Stanford Libraries’ active digital medieval program ensures widespread academic use of the images, while Stanford’s repository guarantees preservation.

Noel said that he is confident that the manuscripts will prompt new interests at Stanford, and he noted that the transfer of the digital images to the Stanford repository mitigated his fears that the manuscripts would eventually be forgotten.

“They’re pinnacles of human cultural achievement,” Noel said. “They are the marks of life well spent. They are the responsibility of a civilized society to care for, and they make life worth living.”

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Police Blotter: May 22-27 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/30/police-blotter-may-22-27/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/30/police-blotter-may-22-27/#respond Fri, 31 May 2013 03:00:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077592 This report covers a selection of incidents from May 22 through May 27 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from May 22 through May 27 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Wednesday, May 22

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked on two outstanding warrants out of San Francisco at Sigma Nu at 11:10 a.m.

An unknown suspect was served a Stanford University Stay Away letter at the North County Jail at 2 p.m.

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack near the Beckman Center between 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

A lost juvenile was found walking in the area of Portola Valley Road and La Honda Road at 7:30 p.m. The juvenile ran away from his older brother who was trying to discipline him.

Thursday, May 23

The victim left her iPhone 4 in the first floor common area of Tresidder. When she returned for it, it had been stolen sometime between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Friday, May 24

A U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack at 300 Pasteur Drive between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.

An unknown suspect stole the victim’s laptop from an open party at the Theta Delta Chi house between 4:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. The laptop was stolen from a desk.

A female was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication near the intersection of Mayfield Avenue and Lomita Drive between 11:40 and 11:45 p.m.

Saturday, May 25

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Lomita Drive and Lane W at 12:05 a.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication near the intersection of Lane W and Mayfield Avenue at 12:30 a.m.

An unknown suspect stole the victim’s mini backpack containing her iPhone 5 from a chair located in the living room of Columbae between 12:35 a.m. and 12:45 a.m.

A male was cited and released on a warrant out of Santa Clara County, and for driving unlicensed near the intersection of El Camino Real and Encina Drive at 2:50 a.m.

An unknown suspect entered an unlocked room on the first floor of the Columbae and stole the victim’s jewelry sometime between 9:45 p.m. on May 24 and 10:30 a.m. on May 25.

Sunday, May 26

A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public at Theta Delta Chi at 1:45 a.m.

Monday, May 27

An unknown suspect stole the victim’s U-locked bike from the bicycle parking area at Maples between 11:59 p.m. on May 21 and 3 p.m. on May 27.

A male was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Pine Hill Court and Rosse Lane at 3:20 p.m.

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Police Blotter May 14-21 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/23/police-blotter-may-14-21/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/23/police-blotter-may-14-21/#respond Fri, 24 May 2013 06:11:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077396 This report covers a selection of incidents from May 14 through May 21 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from May 14 through May 21 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Tuesday, May 14

A U-locked bike was stolen from the rack in front of Wilbur Dining Hall between 9 p.m. on May 13 and 9 a.m. on May 14.

Wednesday, May 15

A known suspect who had visited the victim’s office several times in the past week left a non-threatening message in his cubicle that read “lay off assholes” at the end at the Arrillaga Alumni Center between 12 p.m. on May 8 and 5:30 p.m. on May 15.

Thursday, May 16

No reported incidents.

Friday, May 17

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol on Mayfield Avenue at 12:05 a.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol, and another male minor was cited and released for providing a false ID to a peace officer on Lomita Drive at 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 18

An unknown suspect stole a victim’s locked bike from the bike rack in front of Schiff House between 6 p.m. on May 14 and 12 p.m. on May 18.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication and for providing false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Campus Drive East at 12 a.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at 12:35 a.m.

A female was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for driving under the influence near the intersection of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Campus Drive West between 1:20 a.m. and 1:25 a.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for petty theft with priors and on a warrant out of San Mateo Police Department near Mudd Chemistry at 2 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol on Mayfield Avenue at 11:45 p.m.

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol on the Lomita Loop at 11:45 p.m.

Sunday, May 19

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the Peter Coutts Circle at 12:47 a.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Peter Coutts Circle and Raimundo Way at 1:05 a.m.

A female was cited and released for providing a false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Campus Drive at 2 a.m.

A male was cited and released for urinating in public and providing a false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Lagunita Court and Mayfield Avenue at 12:30 p.m.

An unknown suspect attempted to make entry into a computer stock room on the second floor of the bookstore between 5:20 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. Keys were the only items taken.

Monday, May 20

An unknown suspect entered the victim’s vehicle by shattering the left front window using an unknown tool and stole the rear-view mirror assembly between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

A known suspect was served a Stanford University stay away letter which bans him from the entire campus at Palo Alto Court at 1:40 p.m. He signed the letter and said he understood he was not allowed on campus.

An unknown suspect broke the rear passenger side window of the victim’s vehicle and stole a wallet and digital camera on Memorial Way between 7:20 p.m. and 8:40 p.m.

Tuesday, May 21

A male was cited and released for being a driver in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana between 10:45 a.m. and 11 a.m.

An unknown suspect was seen in the front courtyard of the victim’s townhouse on Olmstead Road at 5 p.m. When the victim saw the suspect through the window, he walked away from the scene.

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Police Blotter: May 9-13 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/16/police-blotter-may-9-13/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/16/police-blotter-may-9-13/#respond Fri, 17 May 2013 05:30:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077237 This report covers a selection of incidents from May 9 through May 13 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from May 9 through May 13 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Thursday, May 9

An unknown suspect pried open the rear passenger window, shattering it, and stole a purse and a towel from a vehicle near the intersection of Stanford Avenue and Ryan Court between 3:15 and 4:35 p.m.

An unknown suspect smashed the front passenger side window and stole a personal leather laptop case from the passenger floorboard of a car near the intersection of Roth Way and Palm Drive between 7:10 and 9:10 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol on Mayfield Avenue at 11:05 p.m.

Friday, May 10

A u-locked bike was stolen from the bike racks at Branner Hall between 10 p.m. on May 9 and 9 a.m. on May 10.

An unknown suspect pulled open the ground floor window, entered and stole a laptop from the victim’s desk in Alondra between 6:15 and 6:32 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at Tresidder Union at 11:40 p.m.

 

Saturday, May 11

A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public at 680 Lomita at 12:15 a.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Campus Drive East and Alvarado Row at 1 a.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near Florence Moore Hall at 1 a.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication on Galvez Street between 2:10 a.m. and 2:15 a.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at 10:45 p.m. near the intersection of Campus Drive and Mayfield Avenue.

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near Theta Delta Chi at 11:15 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near Columbae at 11:50 p.m.

Sunday, May 12

An unknown suspect stole the victim’s unattended backpack from a common area of Slavianskii Dom between 9 p.m. on May 11 and 10 a.m. on May 12. The backpack contained an iPad and laptop.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near Xanadu at 12:10 a.m.

A male was cited and release for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the Row and Cluster Faculty Offices at 12:15 a.m.

A juvenile was cited and released for public intoxication at Sigma Nu at 1:10 a.m. The juvenile was released to the custody of her parent.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for driving under the influence near the intersection of Galvez Street and Nelson Street between 3:55 and 3:57 a.m.

A female was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for violation of a restraining order, trespassing and a court ordered violation at Memorial Hall and Auditorium at 2:40 p.m.

Monday, May 13

An unknown suspect called and left a threatening message on the victim’s voicemail near Herbert Hoover Memorial Building between 11 a.m. on May 12 and 8 a.m. on May 13. The victim was fearful for his safety.

An unknown suspect stole the victim’s canvas bag containing passports, cash and credit cards that he had accidentally left on a bench in the middle of Palm Oval between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

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UAR holds freshman focus groups to improve advising programs https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/14/uar-holds-freshman-focus-groups-to-improve-advising-programs/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/14/uar-holds-freshman-focus-groups-to-improve-advising-programs/#respond Wed, 15 May 2013 06:58:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077194 The 43 students participating in UAR's freshman focus groups eviewed the utility of the Approaching Stanford handbook, New Student Orientation (NSO) and the pre-major advisor (PMA) and academic director (AD) programs.

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UAR held freshman focus groups to evaluate programs such as Approaching Stanford and New Student Orientation
UAR held freshman focus groups to evaluate programs such as Approaching Stanford and New Student Orientation

The Office of Undergraduate Advising and Research (UAR) recently held freshman focus groups to discuss improvements to introductory advising programs for the Class of 2017.

The 43 participating students reviewed the utility of the Approaching Stanford handbook, New Student Orientation (NSO) and the pre-major advisor (PMA) and academic director (AD) programs. Information from the focus groups will be studied in conjunction with responses gathered from a revised annual freshman advising survey, which was sent out last week rather than over the summer as had been done previously.

Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising Rob Urstein, who framed improvements in freshman programs as a principal goal, said that the survey’s revision and earlier distribution was undertaken to address a historical lack of responses.

Some of the group’s major discussions dealt with questions such as whether the Approaching Stanford handbook should be online for easy access and how to solidify the separate roles of PMAs and ADs, which participants struggled to distinguish from each other.

Another discussion revolved around whether NSO programming properly addresses freshman year decisions. While UAR sent out a survey at the conclusion of this year’s NSO, Urstein described the responses obtained as insufficiently conclusive.

“What we’re not able to assess is ‘were the things you learned during that week things that helped you navigate your freshman year,’” Urstein said.

Participants generally described NSO as overwhelming, with events catering to every possible student interest packed into four days.

Christie Brydon ’13, who was a Freshman Transition Coordinator for the Class of 2015, noted that it may be impossible to learn everything from a week of orientation.

“I don’t think the purpose of NSO is to ensure that all students show up to the first day of class being experts on Stanford,” Brydon said. “It’s up to students to take advantage of opportunities throughout the school year to learn about Stanford.”

Currently, UAR only has rough data lifted from focus group transcripts. Daisy Grewal, an assessment and program evaluation analyst, noted a few months would be needed to extrapolate full findings.

“The information is taken very seriously by program directors and others who are in charge of making key decisions,” Grewal said. “I hope that knowing this will help persuade more students to participate in the future.”

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Police Blotter: May 2-8 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/09/police-blotter-may-2-8/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/09/police-blotter-may-2-8/#respond Fri, 10 May 2013 06:00:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077071 This report covers a selection of incidents from May 2 through May 8 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from May 2 through May 8 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Thursday, May 2

An unknown suspect stole a printer from a cart in the basement of the Knight Management Center between 4 p.m. on April 25 and 1 p.m. on May 2.

A victim at 997 Cottrell Way sent cash to an address in Canada after receiving a phone call from the suspect who pretended to be her grandson at between 1 p.m. on May 1 and 3 p.m. on May 2.

A warrant was served to a male while he was in custody in the San Jose Main Jail at 12:15 a.m.

An unknown suspect stole a victim’s phone from her bag while she was using the restroom in the MBA Class of 1968 Building in the Knight Management Center at 10 a.m.

A female was cited and released for providing a false ID and a false driver’s license to a peace officer near the intersection of Santa Teresa and Lomita at 11:40 a.m.

Friday, May 3

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol and providing false ID to a peace officer at Knoll Garage at 12:55 a.m.

A male was cited and released for providing false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Lomita Court and Stanford Avenue at 1:55 a.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for burglary as well as booked a warrant out of San Francisco at the Stanford Bookstore between 2:30 p.m. and 3:19 p.m.

A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public and for providing a false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Santa Ynez Street and Costanzo Way at 9:50 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at Roble Hall at 10:20 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Santa Ynez Street and Costanzo way at 10:40 p.m.

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at 552 Lausen Mall at 11:35 p.m.
A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of O’Connor Lane and Nathan Abbott Way at 11:40 p.m.

Saturday, May 4

An unknown suspect broke the rear passenger side window of a victim’s vehicle and stole a backpack containing a laptop, passport and other miscellaneous items near the intersection of Roth Way and Palm Drive between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Sunday, May 5

An unlocked bike was stolen from the south side of Escondido Elementary School between 4 p.m. on April 20 and 10 a.m. on May 5.

A U-locked bike was stolen from the south side of Mirrielees between 4:30 p.m. on April 24 and 7 p.m. on May 5.

A An unlocked bike was stolen from the bike rack at Rains Building 15 between 4 p.m. on May 3 and 10:30 a.m. on May 5.

An unknown suspect tagged the word “tank” on the rear bumper of a victim’s vehicle in green marker in the Gould Parking Lot between 11:30 a.m. on May 4 and 8:15 a.m. on May 5.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for driving under the influence near the intersection of Campus Drive and Knight Way at 2:18 a.m.

A female was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for theft of services and for an outstanding warrant at Tresidder Union at 5:50 p.m.

Monday, May 6

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from where it was parked near Munger Building 2 between 10 p.m. on May 3 and 2:30 p.m. on May 6.

An unknown suspect stole a debit card, which was later used in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood City, from Slav between 9:15 a.m. and 9:25 a.m.

A suspect smashed the window of a victim’s vehicle and stole two laptops, a wallet and an iPhone at 1711 Stanford Avenue between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

A suspect entered Chi Theta Chi through an unlocked door at 8:30 p.m. When confronted, the suspect fled on foot then by vehicle. No missing items were reported.

Tuesday, May 7

A cable-locked bike was stolen from Peterson Laboratory between 9:30 a.m. and 11:20 a.m.

Wednesday, May 8

An unknown suspect was attempting to cut the lock on the victim’s bike at the Lokey Stem Cell Research Building at 12 p.m. When confronted, the suspect fled. Bolt cutters and a cell phone were left behind.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication at 10:30 p.m.

The post Police Blotter: May 2-8 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police Blotter: April 27-April 30 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/02/police-blotter-april-27-april-30/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/02/police-blotter-april-27-april-30/#respond Fri, 03 May 2013 04:56:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076926 This report covers a selection of incidents from April 27 through April 30 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from April 27 through April 30 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Friday, April 27

A locked bike was stolen from the bike racks on the south side of Escondido Village Studio 3 between 5 p.m. on April 26 and 10 a.m. on April 27.

Two males were cited and released for being minors in possession of alcohol at Marx House at 11:25 p.m.

Saturday, April 28

A male was transported to San Jose Main Jail and booked for trespassing and driving under the influence at the Avery Aquatic Center at 1:35 a.m.

A male and three females were cited and released for trespassing at the Avery Aquatic Center at 1:50 a.m.

A female was cited and released under the zero tolerance statue near the intersection of Campus Drive East and Serra Street at 3:50 a.m.

An unknown suspect used chocolate whipped cream to vandalize the roadway on the fourth floor of Parking Structure 5 by drawing penises and swastikas on the ground between 9 p.m. on April 26 and 9 a.m. on April 28.

An unknown suspect entered Medical Module C through a door with a malfunctioning latch and stole three laptop computers between 7 p.m. on April 26 and 3:30 p.m. on April 28.

An arrestee was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Campus Drive East and Serra Street at 10 p.m.

Sunday, April 29

An unknown suspect vandalized the driver’s side front tire of a car near the intersection of Lomita Street and Roth Way at 6:50 p.m., causing the tire to go flat.

Monday, April 30

A U-locked bike was stolen from the east side of the Packard Electrical Engineering Building between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m.

A fire was apparently started by an unauthorized bonfire. The residents of Rains Complex’s Building 15 extinguished it at 11:30 p.m. The Palo Alto Police Department made sure the fire was extinguished. There was no damage to property.

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Police Blotter: April 17-25 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/25/police-blotter-april-17-25/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/25/police-blotter-april-17-25/#respond Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:18:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076738 This report covers a selection of incidents from April 17 through April 25 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from April 17 through April 25 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Wednesday, April 17

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Campus Drive and Mayfield Avenue at 10 p.m.

A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public at Sigma Nu at 10:39 p.m.

Thursday, April 18

An arrestee was cited and released for being in possession of marijuana in a vehicle near the intersection of Electioneer Road and Campus Drive at 11:55 a.m. The arrestee was also cited out on a warrant out of Santa Cruz.

An unlocked bike was stolen from the Galvez side of Serra between 12:50 and 1 p.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for vandalism near the intersection of Links Road and Alta Road between 3:45 and 3:55 p.m.

An unknown male suspect entered multiple victims’ unlocked, occupied dormitory room in Jenkins House between 5:04 and 5:10 p.m. In one case, the suspect awoke the sleeping victim when he shook her leg to wake her.

A U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack located at Rinconada between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

 Friday, April 19

Two males were cited and released for being minors in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Lomita Drive and Lane Way at 11:45 a.m.

An unknown suspect stole a victim’s unattended messenger bag containing his laptop from the east side of Tresidder between 12 and 1 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol on Mayfield Avenue at 10:15 p.m.

 Saturday, April 20

A male was cited and released for providing false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Campus Drive and O’Connor Lane at 12:20 a.m.

An arrestee was cited and released for driving on a suspended license near the corner of Stanford Avenue and Bowdoin Lane at 7:43 p.m.

Sunday, April 21

A male juvenile and a male arrestee were both cited and released for being minors in possession of alcohol near the corner of Lomita Drive and Mayfield Avenue at 12:10 a.m.

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at an undisclosed location at 2:10 a.m.

A U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack outside the Gilbert Biological Science Building between 12 and 4 p.m.

Monday, April 22

A male was cited and released for misuse of a disabled placard in Parking Structure 1 at 9:25 a.m.

An unknown suspect used a black pen to write graffiti on the walls of the first floor restroom of the Haas Center between 6 p.m. on April 19 and 2 p.m. on April 22. The suspect wrote “rage” (eight times) and “bomb.”

A male suspect has approached at least five women, inquiring about their sex lives, then asking them for sex at various locations across campus between 5 p.m. on April 18 and 5:30 p.m. on April 22. One woman was admonished to leave the university.

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack at Cedro between 5 p.m. on April 19 and 6:30 p.m. on April 22.

A chain-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack in from of the Stauffer 3 Building between 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

An arrestee was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for stalking and trespassing at 659 Salvatierra St. at 8:15 p.m.

Tuesday, April 23

An unlocked bike was stolen from the bike rack in front of Building 420 between 12:50 p.m. and 2:05 p.m.

A U-locked bike was stolen from outside of Wilbur Hall between 6:35 and 7:45 p.m.

Wednesday, April 24

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack outside the victim’s residence at 614 Campus Dr.

An unlocked bike was stolen from the bike rack at Roble Hall between 2 and 2:04 p.m.

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol outside the Elliott Program Center at 10 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Campus Drive and Mayfield Avenue at 10:45 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the intersection of Nathan Abbott Way and Lane A at 11:55 p.m.

Thursday, April 25

A male was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Arboretum Road and Quarry Road at 12:10 a.m.

The post Police Blotter: April 17-25 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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EANAB bars to operate on Row https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/18/eanab-bars-coming-to-the-row/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/18/eanab-bars-coming-to-the-row/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:57:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076583 Cardinal Nights—the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE)’s alcohol-free entertainment initiative—will operate equally attractive non-alcoholic beverages (EANAB) bars on the Row on weekend nights starting at Admit Weekend’s Black Recruitment & Orientation Committee (BROC) party.

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Cardinal Nights—the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE)’s alcohol-free entertainment initiative—will operate equally attractive non-alcoholic beverages (EANAB) bars on the Row on weekend nights starting at Admit Weekend’s Black Recruitment & Orientation Committee (BROC) party.

According to Matthew Billman ’15, one of the students leading the project, the bars will offer an alternative for students choosing not to drink.

“I call them nucleation sites for people who choose not to drink [and] have the Row experience without the alcohol pressure,” Billman said. “They’ll serve almost as social networking opportunities for substance-free people.”

The bars will be transferred between party locations using a golf cart and will feature virgin cocktails inspired by those served at last year’s Lagunita Dining Hall Mocktail Thursday nights.

“We’ll be mixing drinks and then maybe having information sheets saying ‘this is what we’re doing; this is why we’re here, etc.,’” Billman said. “It will [have] all the furnishings of a normal bar without the alcohol.”

The bar will also provide students who choose to drink with a chance to sober up with some EANABs that are more elaborate than the average mixer, according to Billman.

“We really hope that this project will lower transports and encourage healthier drinking habits such as keeping yourself hydrated if you do choose to drink,” said Elizabeth Patiño ’14, who has collaborated with Billman on the project.

The EANABs bars idea came out of a brainstorming meeting hosted by OAPE last fall, reflecting input from OAPE, the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Inter-Sorority Councils, a group of Stanford parents and Billman and Patiño, who are residents in Mirrielees’ substance-free housing program. The committee will meet again in coming years to discuss progress on the initiative.

Angelina Cardona ’11, OAPE assistant director and community engagement coordinator, highlighted the project’s student leadership.

“[Billman and Patiño] came to me for advise on how to move their concept forward,” Cardona said. “We will work with [them] to evaluate the effectiveness of the EANAB bar and strategize next steps.”

Billman and Patiño will submit the project budget next week as they prepare for the bar’s trial run during Admit Weekend.

“It makes me incredibly proud as a member of our community to know that students are not only thinking of ways to better the health and wellness of peers and promote inclusion, but that they are also willing to put the time and energy into making it a reality,” Cardona said.

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Police Blotter: April 10-16 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/18/police-blotter-april-10-16/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/18/police-blotter-april-10-16/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:22:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076569 This report covers a selection of incidents from April 10 through April 16 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from April 10 through April 16 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Wednesday, April 10

An unknown suspect used the reporting party’s resume as his own to obtain employment on Facebook between 9:50 a.m. on March 25 and 5:30 a.m. on April 10.

A suspect who has an active stay away letter from Stanford University left a handwritten note in the reporting party’s office at the Gates Building between 7 p.m. on April 9 and 8 a.m. on April 10

An unknown suspect stole a bike from the Campus bike shop where the bike was in for repair between 3 and 3:30 p.m.

An unknown suspect entered Columbae and, when confronted, stole a bottle of wine but then returned it to the storage area between 5:27 and 5:30 p.m.

A male was cited and released on a warrant out of the Berkeley Police Department near the intersection of Campus Drive East and Cowell Lane at 11:20 p.m.

Thursday, April 11

A male was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Campus Drive and Cowell Lane at 12:20 a.m.

A male was transported to the Main Jail and booked for possession of a controlled substance, possession of stolen property and petty theft with priors near the intersection of Lasuen Groves and Palm Drive at 5:15 p.m.

Friday, April 12

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for driving under the influence near the corner of Quillen Court and Campus Drive at 7:45 a.m.

A U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack in front of Building 570 between 8:10 a.m. and 8:15 a.m.

An unknown suspect used a blunt object, similar to a bat, and vandalized two vehicles’ taillights associated with the Stanford Housing Office at the Row and Cluster Office between 6 p.m. on April 11 and 9 a.m. on April 12.

An unknown suspect entered the victim’s unlocked office at the Psychiatry Academic and Clinic Building, opened a desk drawer and stole a wallet from her purse sometime between 12 p.m. on March 21 and 7 p.m. on April 12. The victim’s credit cards were used the next day.

An unknown suspect stole a victim’s unattended purse from the Oak Lounge between 6:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.

A victim’s purse was stolen from outside of the women’s restroom on the second floor of Tresidder Union between 8:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

An unknown suspect removed hallway smoke detectors to avoid a false alarm while using a fog machine. The reporting party responded for the trouble alarm that was signaled in Twain North between 8:05 p.m. and 10:20 p.m.

Saturday, April 13

A male was cited and released for being in possession of a controlled substance in a vehicle.

An unknown suspect bumped into a victim and stole his wallet out of his pocket at an event at the Taube Tennis Center at 2 p.m.

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol and for providing false information to a peace officer in Cardenal at 2:45 p.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication near the intersection of Campus Drive and Alvarado Row at 3:15 p.m.

An unknown juvenile accidentally walked into a window next to an entry door at 4 p.m. in Building 380. The length of the window was broken but the juvenile was uninjured.

A U-locked bike was stolen from in front of Cardenal between 6 p.m. on April 12 and 5 p.m. on April 13.

A male was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Newell Lane and Embarcadero Drive at 8:10 p.m.

Sunday, April 14

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication in White Plaza between 1:48 p.m. and 1:57 p.m.

>An unknown suspect broke the passenger-side window of the victim’s vehicle and stole two backpacks between 2:30 and 4:40 p.m. near the intersection of Campus Drive East and Lausen Street. A laptop and miscellaneous clothing items were stolen.

An unlocked bike was stolen from the bike rack outside Pigott Hall between 4 and 4:45 p.m.

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack outside the main quad near Serra Mall between 7:30 a.m. on April 13 and 6:55 p.m. on April 14.

Monday, April 15

No incidents were reported on this day.

Tuesday, April 16

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the Rains Complex between 9 p.m. on April 15 and 9 a.m. on April 16.

The post Police Blotter: April 10-16 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police blotter, April 3-April 9 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/11/police-blotter-april-3-april-9/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/11/police-blotter-april-3-april-9/#respond Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:31:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076388 This report covers a selection of incidents from April 3 through April 9 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from April 3 through April 9 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Wednesday, April 3

A victim’s backpack was stolen while he was running in the football fields between 12:45 a.m. and 1 a.m. The backpack contained the victim’s wallet (with currency) and other miscellaneous items.

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack at the Law School between 6 p.m. on April 2 and 7:45 a.m. on April 3.

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack in the courtyard of Lantana between 4 p.m. on April 2 and 9 a.m. on April 3.

An unknown suspect bent a U-lock in an apparent attempt to steal the victim’s bike outside Studio 2 on Escondido Road between 9 p.m. on April 2 and 10 a.m. on April 3.

An unknown suspect made a forced entry into a bedroom window at 902 Wing Place between 9:15 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. A laptop and backpack were stolen.

A victim’s cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack between LKSC and Fairchild between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

A female was cited and released for being in possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) at 7:35 p.m.

A juvenile and a parent involved in a collision near the intersection of 588 Lomita Drive and Lagunita Court were found with marijuana between 10:20 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Four juveniles were cited and released for either being in possession of a controlled substance (marijuana), alcohol or tobacco products at 558 Lomita Drive at 11 p.m.

 

Thursday, April 4

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for vandalism near the intersection of Lomita Drive and Lomita Court at 8 a.m.

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack located at Lyman Graduate Housing between 4 p.m. on April 2 and 8 a.m. on April 4.

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack at the Rains Building between 4 p.m. on April 3 and 9:52 a.m. on April 4.

A victim’s U-locked or cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike racks at the Sterling Quad Schiff building between 5 p.m. on April 3 and 10 a.m. on April 4.

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the Lucas Center between 9 a.m. and 5:15 p.m.

A victim’s unattended and unlocked bike was stolen from the stairs near Junipero and Okada between 6:30 p.m. and 6:40 p.m.

An unknown suspect stole the victim’s unattended phone and currency while he was running on the Angell Field Track between 9 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public and for providing false ID to a peace officer near the intersection of Arguello Way and Bowdoin Lane at 11:55 p.m.

 

Friday, April 5

An unknown suspect entered the Packard Building, broke the toiletry dispensary in the female bathroom in all four public bathrooms, and stole the coins from the collection tray between 2 p.m. on April 4 and 6:15 a.m. on April 5.

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the bike rack of Anderson House between 10:30 p.m. on April 4 and 10 a.m. on April 5

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from the Thornton Center between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

A victim’s U-locked bike was stolen from in front of Wallenberg Hall between 9:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.

An unlocked bike was stolen from outside of the Hewlett Building between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

A cable-locked bike was stolen from the north side of Building 520 between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

 

Saturday, April 6

A male was cited and released for trespassing and interfering in a business at 11:45 p.m.

 

Sunday, April 7

An unknown suspect stole a victim’s jacket and iPhone from a common area in French House between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.

A U-locked bike was stolen from the front of Mirlo between 12:15 p.m. on April 6 and 11:30 a.m. on April 7.

A male was cited and released for being in possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) on Old Page Mill Road in Los Altos Hills at 1:45 p.m.

A passing motorist reported a suspicious vehicle near an active construction site near the intersection of Santa Teresa Street and Los Arboles Avenue at 10:05 p.m. The reporting victim believed that the suspects had been loading tools into a vehicle.

 

Monday, April 8

An unknown suspect vandalized a light pole outside the Marx House in GovCo at 1 a.m. The approximate cost to repair is between $700-$800.

A U-locked bike was stolen from in front of EV Studio 5 between 6:30 p.m. on April 5 and 9:20 a.m. on April 8.

A fallen tree limb damaged a victim’s car between 7 p.m. on April 7 and 10:15 a.m. on April 8.

An unknown suspect stole an outdoor umbrella from the patio dining area at the Knight Center between 5 p.m. on April 5 and 12 p.m. on April 8.

An unknown suspect wrote on the bathroom stalls at Building 571 at 3 p.m.

 

Tuesday, April 9

A U-locked bike was stolen from the Courtyard outside of Rains Complex, Building 26 between 6:30 p.m. on April 8 and 8 a.m. on April 9.

A victim left his backpack on the Margeurite Bus at the Escondido turnaround between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. When he went to retrieve it, it was no longer there.

The post Police blotter, April 3-April 9 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police blotter, March 20-April 2 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/04/police-blotter-march-20-april-2/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/04/police-blotter-march-20-april-2/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:20:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076171 This report covers a selection of incidents from March 20 through April 2 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from March 20 through April 2 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Wednesday, March 20

A camera was stolen near the intersection of 600 Block Road and Escondido Road between 11 and 11:20 a.m.

A plaque was stolen from the Sunken Baseball Diamond between 12 a.m. on March 14 and 4 p.m. on March 20.

A bike was stolen from Keck Science Building between 2:30 and 4 p.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for being in possession of a knife on a college campus in the Bing Wing between 8:45 and 9:19 p.m.

 

Thursday, March 21

Wheels were stolen off a bike at Hoskins between 6 p.m. on March 19 and 7 a.m. on March 21

A female was cited and released for failure to obey a lawful order by a peace officer at an undisclosed location between 12:15 and 12:17 p.m.

A wallet was lost at Mitchell Earth Sciences between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

 

Friday, March 22

A go-pass was stolen from the Arrillaga Family Sports Center between 9:30 p.m. on March 21 and 10 a.m. on March 22.

A male was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the corner of Mayfield Avenue and Lathrop Drive at 11:35 a.m.

A laptop and iPhone were stolen from the Leo Weinstein Field House between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.

A bike was stolen from the Mudd Chemistry Building between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

 

Saturday, March 23

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at Stern Hall at 12:05 a.m.

 

Sunday, March 24

A bike was stolen from Mirrielees between 5 p.m. on March 23 and 3 p.m. on March 24.

 

Monday, March 25

A man was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Lasuen Street and Arboretum Road at 9:30 a.m.

A male was cited and released on a warrant out of Santa Cruz County near the corner of El Camino Real and Page Mill Road at 12:35 p.m.

 

Tuesday, March 26

A male was cited and released on a warrant out of Alameda County near the corner of El Camino Real and Stanford Avenue at 2:20 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Meyer library between 8:30 p.m. on March 20 and 6 p.m. on March 26.

 

Wednesday, March 27

A female was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Campus Drive East and Bowdoin Lane at 9:40 a.m.

 

Thursday, March 28

A bike was stolen from Rains Complex, Building 27, between 8 p.m. on March 27 and 9:30 a.m. on March 28.

An iPad was stolen from 903 Cottrell Way at 9:35 a.m.

A male was cited and released for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Palm Drive and Arboretum Road at 2:38 p.m. His vehicle was towed.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication between 2:50 p.m. and 2:57 p.m. near the corner of Serra Street and El Camino Real.

A male was cited and released for trespassing at the Organic Chemistry Building and charged with a stay-away letter between 1:10 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.

There was a domestic dispute at Escondido Village 1, Building 12, between 8 and 8:15 p.m.

 

Friday, March 29

No crimes were reported on this day.

 

Saturday, March 30

No crimes were reported on this day.

 

Sunday, March 31

A female was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol and for providing false ID to a police officer near the corner of 800 Block Road and Mayfield Avenue at 1:10 a.m.

A female was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked on a warrant out of San Mateo County and cited for driving unlicensed near the intersection of Campus Drive and Junipero Serra Boulevard at 11:05 a.m.

A computer screen and jewelry were stolen from near the intersection of 12 Comstock Circle and Escondido Road between 12 p.m. on March 30 and 12 p.m. on March 31.

A male was cited and released on a warrant out of the Stanford University Department of Public Safety at the Stanford University Department of Public Safety between 4:22 and 4:35 p.m.

 

Monday, April 1

A bike was stolen from Munger Building 4 between 10 p.m. on March 29 and 10 a.m. on April 1.

Wheels were stolen off a bike parked at Cardenal between 4 p.m. on March 29 and 10 a.m. on April 1

Bike parts were stolen from the Ford Center between 7:30 and 9 p.m.

 

Tuesday, April 2

Keys and a tablet were stolen from Abrams at 4 a.m.

The post Police blotter, March 20-April 2 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police Blotter Feb. 25-March 5 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/07/police-blotter-feb-25-march-5/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/07/police-blotter-feb-25-march-5/#respond Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:10:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075685 This report covers a selection of incidents from Feb. 25 through March 5 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Feb. 25 through March 5 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Monday, Feb. 25

A bike was stolen from Mirrielees sometime between 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 and 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 25.

Two males were cited and released for being in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana at the intersection of Arguello Field and Bowdoin Lane at 4:25 p.m.

Six people were reported to be involved in a civil dispute in Gavilan between 12:01 and 1:30 a.m.

A backpack with a phone and other miscellaneous items was stolen from Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation sometime between 5 and 6 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 26

A bike was stolen from 836 Mayfield Ave. sometime between 4 p.m. on Feb. 19 and 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 26.

Gift cards were stolen from the Bookstore sometime between 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 22 and 7:10 p.m. on Feb. 26.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication at Arrillaga Family Sports Center at 5:14 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation sometime between 5 p.m. on Feb. 25 and 1:55 p.m. on Feb. 26.

A bike was stolen from Serra sometime between 3:45 and 5:45 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 27

A bike was stolen from Lane Hall (Building 200) between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 28

A female was cited and released for driving without a license near the intersection of Campus Drive and Sam McDonald Road at 2:41 a.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for being in possession of a stolen bike at the Clark Center at 4:30 p.m.

Keys were stolen from the Gates Computer Science Building between 1:40 and 10 p.m.

Friday, March 1

An Xbox Kinect was stolen from Y2E2 between 9 p.m. on Feb. 28 and 1 a.m. on March 1.

A female was cited and released on a warrant out of Mountain View at 6:15 p.m.

A female was cited and released for driving on a suspended license near the intersection of Campus Drive and O’Connor Lane. Her car was towed.

A bike was stolen from Avery Aquatic Center between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Saturday, March 2

A male was cited and released on a warrant out of Santa Clara County near the intersection of El Camino Real Rd. at 2:20 a.m.

A bike was stolen from Florence Moore Hall sometime between 6 p.m. on March 1 and 2:45 p.m. on March 3.

A bike was stolen from Ujamaa between 10 p.m. on March 1 and 12:30 p.m. on March 2.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at the intersection of Nathan Abbott Way and O’Connor Lane at 11:25 p.m.

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of less than one ounce of marijuana near the intersection of Nathan Abbott Way and O’Connor Lane at 11:25 p.m.

An iPhone was stolen from near the corner of Arguello Mall and Escondido Road sometime between 8:30 and 9 p.m.

Sunday, March 3

A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public at Sigma Chi at 12 a.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication at Tresidder Memorial Union at 2 a.m.

A male was cited and released for providing false information to a peace officer sometime between 12:15 and 12:55 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Crothers sometime between 5 p.m. on March 2 and 8:30 p.m. on March 3.

An iPhone was stolen from the Angell Field South Bleachers between 12:45 and 12:55 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Avery Aquaatic Center sometime between 11 and 11:15 a.m.

Monday, March 4

No crimes were reported on this day.

Tuesday, March 5

A stolen bike was found at Lane Hall at 12:05 p.m.

The post Police Blotter Feb. 25-March 5 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police blotter, Feb. 13-Feb. 24 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/28/police-blotter-feb-13-feb-24/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/28/police-blotter-feb-13-feb-24/#respond Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:25:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075441 This report covers a selection of incidents from Feb.13 through Feb. 24 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.   Wednesday, Feb. 13 A bike was stolen from Durand between 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 and 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 13.   Thursday, Feb. 14 A woman was cited and released […]

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Feb.13 through Feb. 24 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 13

  • A bike was stolen from Durand between 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 and 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 13.

 

Thursday, Feb. 14

  • A woman was cited and released for driving without a license near the intersection of Serra Street and Pampas Lane at 7:25 a.m.
  • A male was cited and released for providing a false identification to a police officer near Campus Drive West at 12:35 a.m.
  • A bike was stolen from the Law School between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

 

Friday, Feb. 15

  • A bike was stolen from Wilbur Dining Hall between 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
  • A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication near Sigma Chi at 12:30 a.m.
  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol in Tresidder Memorial Union at 10:50 p.m.
  • A male was cited and released for driving with a suspended license near the corner of Santa Teresa Street at 10:40 p.m.

 

Saturday, Feb. 16

  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol at Theta Delta Chi at 12:33 a.m.
  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the corner of Nathan Abbott Way and Lane A at 11:30 p.m.
  • A bike was stolen from Rinconada sometime between 7 p.m. on Feb. 15 and 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 16.
  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the corner of Nathan Abbott Way and Lane A between 11:36 p.m. and 11:40 p.m.
  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the corner of Nathan Abbott Way and Lane A at 11:59 p.m.

 

Sunday, Feb. 17

  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol near the corner of Nathan Abbott Way and Lane A at 12 a.m.
  • A bike was stolen from Florence Moore Hall sometime between 6 p.m. on Feb. 16 and 1:50 a.m. on Feb. 17.
  • A male was cited and released for creating a public nuisance by urinating in public near the corner of Nathan Abbott Way and Salvatierra Street at 2:30 a.m.
  • A silver Marin Larkspur bike was stolen from Soto between 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 and 12 p.m. on Feb. 17.

 

Monday, Feb. 18

  • A camera, iPhone and iPad were stolen from Paloma Hall sometime between 12 p.m. on Feb. 16 and 1 p.m. on Feb. 18.
  • Two males were cited and released for being in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana near the intersection of Escondido Rd. and Arguello Way at 1:10 p.m.
  • A laptop was stolen from Chi Theta Chi between 10:45 p.m. on Feb. 17 and 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 18.

 

Tuesday, Feb. 19

  • A golf cart was stolen from Roble Field sometime between 12 p.m. on Feb. 11 and 7:05 a.m. on Feb. 19.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 20

  • An identification card was stolen from the Arrillaga Family Sports Center between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

 

Thursday, Feb. 21

  • A bike was stolen from the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons between 10 p.m. on Feb. 20 and 12 p.m. on Feb. 21

 

Friday, Feb. 22

  • A female was cited and released on a warrant out of Santa Clara County at the Department of Public Safety at 10:30 a.m.
  • A bike was stolen from Braun Music Center between 9 a.m. and 12:40 p.m.

 

Saturday, Feb. 23

  • A bike was stolen from Soto between 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 and 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 23
  • Currency was stolen from Alondra between 5:35 and 5:45 p.m. while the victim was in the shower.

 

Sunday, Feb. 24

  • A laptop was stolen from 600 Lomita Drive betweem 12:01 and 1:45 a.m.
  • Currency was stolen from Mirlo between 4:30 and 5 p.m.
  • An iPhone was stolen from the Tennis Courts between 5:45 and 6:45 p.m.
  • A perpetrator was arrested and transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for false imprisonment and domestic battery from Munger Building 1 at 8:24 p.m.

The post Police blotter, Feb. 13-Feb. 24 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police blotter, Feb. 8-Feb. 11 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/15/police-blotter-feb-8-feb-11/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/15/police-blotter-feb-8-feb-11/#respond Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:05:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074972 This report covers a selection of incidents from Feb. 8 through Feb. 11 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Feb. 8 through Feb. 11 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

 

Friday, Feb. 8

A female was cited and released for providing false ID to a peace officer at Tresidder Memorial Union at 3:20 p.m.

A parking permit was stolen from Parking Structure 1 between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for domestic violence at Kappa Alpha Theta between 1:50 and 1:53 a.m.

A wallet with currency was stolen from Meyer Library between 11:36 a.m. on Feb. 7 and 1:40 p.m. on Feb. 8.

 

Saturday, Feb. 9

No crimes were reported on this day.

 

Sunday, Feb. 10

A laptop was stolen from the Graduate School of Education between 3 p.m. and 4:34 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Adams House between 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 and 12 p.m. on Feb. 10.

A bike was stolen from Twain North between 1 and 5 p.m.

A laptop was stolen from the Graduate School of Education between 9 and 10 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Rinconada between 5 p.m. on Feb. 8 and 4 p.m. on Feb. 10.

 

Monday, Feb. 11

Currency and candy was stolen from the Packard Electrical Engineering Building between 6 p.m. on Feb. 8 and 8 a.m. on Feb. 11.

The post Police blotter, Feb. 8-Feb. 11 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Stanford freshman to release documentary on dealing with family history of Huntington’s https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/13/stanford-freshman-to-release-documentary-on-dealing-with-family-history-of-huntingtons/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/13/stanford-freshman-to-release-documentary-on-dealing-with-family-history-of-huntingtons/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:18:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074925 Kristen Powers ’16 was just three years old when her mother began showing signs of Huntington’s disease. At such an early age, Powers watched her young, lively mother slowly lose her abilities to walk, talk and even reason. At age 11, Powers learned that she had a 50 percent chance of inheriting the genetic disease. […]

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Kristen Powers '16, is in the process of finishing a documentary on her decision to find out if she tested positive for Huntington's disease, the condition which took her mother's life. Here, Powers awaits her test results in her doctor's office. (Courtesy of Kristen Powers)
Kristen Powers ’16, is in the process of finishing a documentary on her decision to find out if she tested positive for Huntington’s disease, the condition which took her mother’s life. Here, Powers awaits her test results in her doctor’s office. (Courtesy of Kristen Powers)

Kristen Powers ’16 was just three years old when her mother began showing signs of Huntington’s disease. At such an early age, Powers watched her young, lively mother slowly lose her abilities to walk, talk and even reason.

At age 11, Powers learned that she had a 50 percent chance of inheriting the genetic disease. Although she wanted to get tested sooner, Powers was forced to wait until she turned 18 and was legally able to make that decision.

Despite the high likelihood of inheriting the debilitating condition, Powers said that she never doubted her choice to get tested.

“I wanted to be able to have more power behind my life decisions,” Powers explained.

At age 13, Powers began to film a documentary chronicling her time dealing with her mother’s illness and the possibility of inheriting it herself. The film, titled “Twitch,” is still in production, but has already gained critical attention.

The film even deals with her mother’s death in 2011, at age 45. Powers had not yet been tested.

When not working on “Twitch” as a high school student in Chapel Hill, N.C., Powers channeled her energies towards starting a sustainable farming campaign that gained national recognition. After being accepted to Stanford for the Class of 2016, her farm project secured her a spot as one of three freshmen in Stanford’s entering class selected for a Compass Fellowship, a program sponsored by the Hass Center for Public Service that fosters the growth of student entrepreneurship.

At the end of her senior year of high school, Powers’ documentary landed her a TEDXTeen Talk. Jess Teutonic, the curator of TEDxTeen, worked closely with Powers in the weeks preceding her talk, which was filmed before she received her test results.

“I don’t think I have ever met a more poised, graceful, courageous, brave young woman in my life,” Teutonic said. “It was in the most challenging moment in her life, and she shined.”

After hearing about her Stanford acceptance, receiving her Compass fellowship and giving her TEDxTeen talk, Powers was tested on May 18, 2012. Her results came back negative less than two weeks later.

According to Powers, the documentary focuses on the decision-making behind genetic testing and the how the disease itself is “often stigmatized.”

Powers said that while her mother was in the throes of the disease, she was often treated as though incapable of taking care of herself and became the subject of complaints by neighbors for supposedly “being drunk all the time.” The discrimination even extends to Kristen and her brother, who also tested negative, since — as potential carriers of the disease — they are not eligible for life insurance at any time in their lives.

Powers said that she hopes the film will raise awareness of Huntington’s disease and start a more serious national conversation about the stigma and potential cure. She added that she hopes the documentary helps “HD families come out of the closet” and join the movement.

Although her film isn’t even finished yet, Powers was recently featured on a CBS Sunday Morning segment on genetic disease testing, where she talked about her project.

Powers has continued to raise funds for her documentary, which she views as a source of support for other individuals going through the same process with genetic testing for Huntington’s or other diseases.

“It fit perfectly with my passion of using film as a tool for education and my knowledge and experience with this specific topic,” Powers said. “I didn’t know anyone else covering the youth perspective of genetic testing. Most of the documentaries and stories coming out related to Huntington’s Disease completely glazed over those who had just arrived at [the] testing age of 18 years.”

However, Powers identified the biggest hurdle she hopes to jump with her film as boosting awareness about the disease, and how it affects not just victims but entire families.

“The biggest problem, I think, with Huntington’s disease is the fact that it’s very hidden and no one wants to talk about it,” Powers said. “I’m really hoping Twitch will get people to work together towards this common goal of curing Huntington’s disease and make it easier for people affected by it to live with it and make it so that less people feel alone, like I did.”

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Police Blotter Jan. 30-Feb.4 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/07/police-blotter-jan-30-feb-4/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/07/police-blotter-jan-30-feb-4/#respond Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:33:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074729 This report covers a selection of incidents from Jan. 30 through Feb. 4 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Jan. 30 through Feb. 4 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Wednesday, Jan. 30

A laptop was stolen from Arrillaga Family Sports Center between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Wilbur Hall between 5 p.m. on Jan. 26 and 11:15 p.m. on Jan. 28.

A bike was stolen from outside the Stanford Bookstore between 10:50 a.m. and 11 a.m.

A laptop was stolen from the Avery Aquatic Center between 7:25 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 31

A female was cited and released for providing false ID to a police officer at 12:20 p.m. near the corner of  Bowdoin Street and Arguello Way.

A male was cited and released for driving without a license at 8:45 a.m. near the corner of Campus Drive and Lausen Mall.

Friday, Feb. 1

An iPhone was stolen from the Gunn Building between 1 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.

A male was cited and released for driving with a suspended license at 9:35 a.m. near the corner of Mayfield Avenue and Santa Ynez Street.

Saturday, Feb. 2

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication at 2:15 a.m. near the corner of Palm Drive and Arboretum Grove.

A male was cited and released for being in possession of a controlled substance at 9:42 p.m. in the Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

A male was cited and released for driving without a license at 3:35 p.m. near the corner of Campus Drive and Cowell Lane.

A female was cited and released for misuse of a disabled placard at 1:25 a.m. near the corner of Lane West and Stanford Avenue.

Sunday, Feb. 3

A bike was stolen from outside Florence Moore Hall between 5 p.m. on Feb. 2 and 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 3.

A bike was stolen from outside Roble Hall between 8 p.m. on Feb. 1 and 11 a.m. on Feb 3.

Monday, Feb. 4

A trailer was stolen from near the corner of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Stanford Avenue between 5 p.m. on Feb. 2 and 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 4.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for possessing a weapon (knife) on a private university campus and for being in the United States unlawfully in Meyer Library at 11:20 a.m.

The post Police Blotter Jan. 30-Feb.4 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

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Police Blotter, Jan. 24 to Jan. 28 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/01/police-blotter-jan-24-to-jan-28/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/01/police-blotter-jan-24-to-jan-28/#respond Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:36:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074549 Police Blotter, from Jan. 24 to Jan. 28

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Jan. 24 through Jan. 28 as recorded in the Stanford Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Thursday, Jan. 24

A bike was stolen from Twain North between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

A bike was stolen from Twain North between 11 p.m. on Jan. 23 and 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 24.

A computer was stolen from the Landau Economics Building between 8 a.m. on Jan. 7 and 10 a.m. on Jan. 24.

A bike was stolen from the Rains Complex between 10 p.m. on Jan. 23 and 10 a.m. on Jan. 24.

An iPhone was stolen from the Doyle Clubhouse between 4 p.m. on Jan. 21 and 6:45 a.m. on Jan. 24.

 

Friday, Jan. 25

A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol on Serra Mall at 11:50 p.m.

 

Saturday, Jan. 26

A Macbook was stolen from a room in Granada between 5 p.m. on Jan. 25 and 5 p.m. on Jan. 26.

An intoxicated subject was transported to Stanford Hospital from 200 University Avenue at 12:35 p.m.

 

Sunday, Jan. 27

A male was reported by an anonymous party, booked on a warrant outside of Santa Clara County and transported to San Jose Main Jail at 8:10 a.m.

A license plate was stolen from outside Storey House between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

An unknown suspect created an internet social networking account in the name of the victim between 3:45 a.m. on Jan. 26 and 10 p.m. on Jan. 27. Friends of the victim were contacted concerning private matters.

 

Monday, Jan. 28

A GPS device was stolen from Parking Structure 1 between 3:25 a.m. and 3:35 a.m.

A male was cited and released for misuse of a handicap placard at the corner of 700 Block Street and Quarry Road.

 

A U-locked bike was stolen from outside the Munger Graduate Apartments at 10 p.m. on Jan. 25.

An attempted burglary of a vehicle in Parking Structure 1 occurred between 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 27 and 8 a.m. on Jan. 28.

 

– Contact Liam Kinney at liamk@stanford.edu or on Twitter at @Stanford_Crimes.

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Police Blotter, Jan. 16 – Jan. 22 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/24/police-blotter-25/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/24/police-blotter-25/#respond Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:55:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074330 Wednesday, Jan. 16 A male was cited and released for driving without a license at 8:05 a.m. A bike was stolen from Adams House between 6 p.m. on Jan. 15 and noon on Jan. 16. A printer was stolen from Old Union between 5 p.m. on Dec. 14 and 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 16. A […]

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Wednesday, Jan. 16

  • A male was cited and released for driving without a license at 8:05 a.m.
  • A bike was stolen from Adams House between 6 p.m. on Jan. 15 and noon on Jan. 16.
  • A printer was stolen from Old Union between 5 p.m. on Dec. 14 and 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 16.
  • A male was cited and released for driving with a disabled license plate that was altered to look like it was valid at 7:30 a.m.
  • A bike was stolen from the Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2) between 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
  • A bike was stolen from Munger Building 1 between noon on Jan. 6 and 7 a.m. on Jan. 16.

 

Thursday, Jan. 17

  • A bike was stolen from Encina Hall between 8:45 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.

 

Friday, Jan. 18

  • A male was cited and released for being a minor in possession of alcohol in Theta Delta Chi at 11:25 p.m.

 

Saturday, Jan. 19

  • No incidents were reported on this day.

 

Sunday, Jan. 20

  • A bike was stolen from Arroyo in Wilbur Hall between 4 and 11:30 a.m.

 

Monday, Jan. 21

  • A person was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication in the Mechanical Engineering Lab at 5:50 a.m.

 

Tuesday, Jan 22

  • A purse was stolen near the intersection of Serra Mall and Via Ortega between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
  • A bike was stolen from Peterson Laboratory between 2 p.m. on Jan. 17 and 8 p.m. on Jan. 22.

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Police blotter, Jan. 7 to Jan. 15 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/17/police-blotter-jan-7-to-jan-15/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/17/police-blotter-jan-7-to-jan-15/#respond Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:53:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074181 This report covers a selection of incidents from Jan. 7 to Jan. 15, as recorded in the Stanford Department of Public Safety bulletin.

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Jan. 7 to Jan. 15, as recorded in the Stanford Department of Public Safety bulletin.

 Wednesday, Jan. 7

A bike was stolen from Tresidder Union between 11:30 and 11:50 a.m.

A bike was stolen from the Environmental Safety Facility between Nov. 1, 2012 and 8 a.m. on Jan. 7.

A bike was stolen from Lane Hall between 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 8

A wallet was stolen from the Packard Electrical Engineering Building between 10:30 and 10:40 a.m.

A bike was stolen from Florence Moore Hall between Dec. 17 and 5 a.m. on Jan. 8.

A bike was stolen from the Old Chemistry Building between 1 a.m. and 1:10 a.m.

Thursday, Jan. 9

A purse was stolen from a car near at the intersection of Mears Court and Stanford Avenue between 2:20 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 10

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail for public intoxication between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 11

Currency was stolen from Munger Building 1 between 8:59 and 9:01 a.m.

A male was detained for hitting an emergency blue tower button and walking away. The suspect was cited and released for being in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana between 11:54 and 11:55 p.m.

A bike was stolen from the Gates Computer Science Building between 11:50 a.m. and 12:08 p.m.

An iPad was stolen from the Huang Engineering Center between 4 and 5 a.m.

A trespasser was admonished at the Bookstore between 3:30 and 3:45 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 12

No incidents were reported.

Monday, Jan. 13

A bike was stolen from Kimball Hall between 2:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 14

A bike was stolen from Building 310 between 10 and 11 a.m.

An iPhone was stolen from the Angell Field South Bleachers between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m.

A bike was stolen from Building 36 in Escondido Village between 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 12 and 10:00 a.m. on Jan. 14.

Wednesday, Jan. 15

A leaf blower was stolen from Tresidder Union between 11 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.

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Police blotter, Dec. 15 – Jan. 7 https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/10/police-blotter-dec-15-jan-7/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/10/police-blotter-dec-15-jan-7/#respond Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:43:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1073990 This report covers a selection of incidents from Dec. 15 through Jan. 7 as recorded in the Stanford Department of Public Safety bulletin. Saturday, Dec. 15 A phone was stolen from Tresidder Union between 7 p.m. and 7:10 p.m. A wallet and currency were stolen from Bob between 4:15 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. […]

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This report covers a selection of incidents from Dec. 15 through Jan. 7 as recorded in the Stanford Department of Public Safety bulletin.

Saturday, Dec. 15

A phone was stolen from Tresidder Union between 7 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.

A wallet and currency were stolen from Bob between 4:15 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.

Sunday, Dec. 16

No incidents were reported.

 Monday, Dec. 17

No incidents were reported.

 Tuesday, Dec. 18

A female was cited and released for driving without a license near the corner of Galvez Street and Campus Drive at 10:35 a.m.

A female was cited and released for driving without a license near the corner of Palm Drive and Arboretum Road at 7:21 a.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 19

A parking permit was stolen near the corner of Campus Drive and Bonair Siding between 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

 Thursday, Dec. 20

A male was cited and released for driving on a suspended license at 7:55 a.m. near the intersection of Campus Drive and Bowdoin Lane.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for indecent exposure near the intersection of Serra Street and El Camino Real at 3 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 21

No incidents were reported.

Saturday, Dec. 22

No incidents were reported.

Sunday, Dec. 23

No incidents were reported.

Monday, Dec. 24

A bike was stolen from Jing Lyman Commons between 5 p.m. on Dec. 22 and 3 p.m. on Dec. 24.

 Tuesday, Dec. 25

No incidents were reported.

Wednesday, Dec. 26

A bike was stolen from Murray between 5 p.m. on Dec. 16 and 9 a.m. on Dec. 26.

Thursday, Dec. 27

No incidents were reported.

Friday, Dec. 28

No incidents were reported.

Saturday, Dec. 29

No incidents were reported.

 Sunday, Dec. 30

No incidents were reported.

Monday, Dec. 31

A male was cited and released for driving on a suspended license near the intersection of Campus Drive and Arguello Way at 11:25 a.m.

A male was cited and released on a parole violation at 12:30 a.m. near the intersection of Old Page Mill Road and Page Mill Road.

 Tuesday, Jan. 1

There was a domestic dispute at Escondido Village Studio 5 between 3:20 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 2

A bike was stolen from Escondido Village 3 Building 101 between 11 a.m. on Dec. 29 and 1 a.m. on Jan. 2.

A male was cited and released for driving without a license near the corner of Palm Road and Palm Drive.

Thursday, Jan. 3

No incidents were reported.

Friday, Jan. 4

A purse was stolen from a car outside the Nixon School between 1 p.m. and 1:40 p.m.

 Saturday, Jan. 5

No incidents were reported.

Sunday, Jan. 6

A bike was stolen from Tresidder Union between 11:30 a.m. and 11:50 a.m.

Contact Liam Kinney at liamk@stanford.edu.

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Family life on a college campus https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/12/family-life-on-a-college-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/12/family-life-on-a-college-campus/#respond Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:29:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1073002 Escondido Village is home to Stanford's 255 graduate student families.

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LaToya Baldwin Clarke’s alarm goes off at 6:45 a.m. She barely has time to wish her husband a good day before he is out the door and off to work. By 7:45 a.m. she yells, “Let’s go!” to her two oldest children, Ahmir and Amina, and soon all three mount their scooters to head over to Escondido Elementary School. After kisses goodbye, Baldwin Clarke goes back home to greet the babysitter for her six-month-old son, Ahman. By 9 a.m. she is in a classroom at the Stanford Law School, looking forward to family dinner later in the night

Baldwin Clarke is a sixth-year graduate student and J.D./Ph.D. candidate in sociology and law. Her family lives in a relatively large house in Escondido Village (EV), surrounded by 254 other graduate student families. EV is the only on-campus housing for graduate students with families.

While their home is on the larger side, since her family falls into the 13 percent of EV families with three or more children, the Clarkes’ backyard is the same as everyone else’s: a grassy park with a playground in the middle, complete with a jungle gym, swings and a sandbox. There are nine of these courtyards that interconnect the EV houses.

“I haven’t seen anything in the surrounding areas that is comparable in price or a better place to raise a child,” said Diego Roman, a fifth-year graduate student in the School of Education.

“In my courtyard, kids range from zero to three, so they all play with each other and it makes for a fantastic place to have friends…and to talk about your kids,” Roman said. “You’re all having the same experience.”

Roman’s son, Andres, is two and a half, and knows how to show it on his fingers. The Roman family’s one-child house in Escondido Village has a play table decked out with a Thomas the Tank Engine play set in their living room.

“I want to show you something!” shouts Andres, mimicking his “Papi,” who is providing a tour of the house. Roman responds to his child in Spanish and Andres’ mother repeats to him in English, “Do you want to show him Thomas?”

Roman explains that a multilingual household is not uncommon in EV; the couple next door is from Israel, and they speak to their child in Hebrew. International students constitute one-third of graduate student families at Stanford.

This diversity is an integral part of the courtyard atmosphere. Andres, for example, knows all of the neighboring children. The Roman family regularly attends barbeques with their neighbors.

*

Guinevere Allen, a second-year Ph.D. student in the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages and single mother, came to Stanford from her graduate program at UC-Berkeley. She does not regret her move to Stanford because of the unparalleled community in EV, but she has noticed a decline in financial support.

“At UC-Berkeley, because it’s a large public school, they have more democratic funds available,” Allen said.

Allen used to receive a grant worth $8,000 each year and a full-funding state subsidy for her son to attend a private preschool.

“Those types of programs that I feel are more geared towards minority situations do not yet exist at Stanford,” Allen said.

Roman also acknowledged the financial issue. He claimed that having a spouse who works is a huge advantage in terms of receiving health care benefits and another source of income. Roman said that a graduate student stipend is not enough to raise a family, especially since rent at Escondido Village is paid yearly, with no monthly payment plan.

“Grad students aren’t used to paying so much up front,” he said. “Then, if there’s an emergency, what do we have?”

*

Despite occasional flare-ups between EV residents and the University, such as an incident a few years ago when EV was renovated and parents rallied together to voice their disapproval for cutting down trees in the parks and another in August regarding herbicide spray, graduate student families report high levels of satisfaction with their housing.

Eighty-two percent of Baldwin Clarke’s neighbors agree that they “feel people in this community care about each other” according to the 2010-11 survey of graduate student families living in EV by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education. One hundred sixty-two survey responses noted a positive response of community organization in EV with 74 percent reporting they feel connected to others in the EV community.

The University employs nine graduate students, called courtyard assistants (CAs), to overlook the upkeep of the parks and to organize monthly and holiday events within their respective courtyards.

“The courtyard assistants have their own fund, and about once a month we have a courtyard party,” Allen said. “They hired a bluegrass music artist last month and next month they’re doing holiday photography for our neighborhood.”

The CAs also respond to requests and complaints from within courtyards. Roman claims that when his washing machine broke, the CA called in a mechanic and the school paid for it. Eighty-seven percent of respondents to the 2010-11 survey reported that CA communication is effective.

*

While EV housing provides certain conveniences, for some families it doesn’t provide the necessary permanence of a family home.

Anna Baumgarten and her husband Magnus Johansson, a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Medicine, chose apartments off campus when they moved here from Sweden with their three children this past summer. They prefer to live in a place they could call home even after Johansson finishes his post-doctoral work in structural biology.

“We’re only here for my husbands post-doc, but we’ll wait and see then,” Bamgarten said. “Our plan for now is to move back but you never know what will happen in the long run.”

The search for schools, however, was not a problem for the Johansson-Baumgartens. Part of the appeal of choosing an apartment off campus was that they could pick how close to their children’s school they would be.

“Standing on our balcony in our apartment complex, we look down on the preschool,” Baumgarten said. “And the kindergarten is a really good school. [Palo Alto] seems like a really good schooling area.”

Baumgarten is right. Not only can Stanford claim good quality of their early education facilities, but also quantity and proximity.

“There are many day care centers on campus, so for one thing, child care is very accessible.” Baldwin Clarke said. “There is a range of options pricewise, but they all require different things.”

“People come all the way from San Francisco to put their children in the Bing Preschool,” Roman said. The Roman family put their name on the waiting list at the Bing Nursery and Preschool before Andres was born, but he was not cleared by the time Mrs. Roman was scheduled to return to work.

Beyond the aggressive pre-school process, Stanford has some other issues to address before it can call its graduate family life ideal. Like the Baldwin Clarke and Roman families, most need to hire a babysitter or nanny. Stanford offers no program for finding nannies and the market is aggressive in Palo Alto.

“The nannies have to park on El Camino, too,” Roman said, pointing out that EV planning does not account for the amount of extra help required.

However, students have seen some responsiveness to their demands in the past few years.

As of this past year, graduates students can add their children as dependants on their health insurance, according to the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education. The CCSC also offers a pay option that allows parents to trade some of their time for a subsidized rate.

Despite problems securing babysitters and slots in prestigious daycares, residents of EV agree that Stanford is responsive to the needs of the graduate families.

“I’ve been to Yale, I’ve been to the University of Chicago, I’ve been to UC-Berkeley and I’ve never seen a campus that is more geared toward family life,” Allen said. “No question.”

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New SLAC building to replace trailer park https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/17/new-slac-building-to-replace-trailer-park/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/17/new-slac-building-to-replace-trailer-park/#comments Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:57:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071974 The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is working on a new home for the team that manages the research center’s world-famous 2-mile linear accelerator.

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The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is working on a new home for the team that manages the research center’s world-famous 2-mile linear accelerator. Construction is more than halfway complete on a new research support building (RSB), to be finished in April 2013, which will create space for collaboration between scientists, engineers and support staff.

The project is being funded under a 10-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program that aims to improve the nation’s laboratory infrastructure. With the $97.4 million DOE gave the research center in 2009, SLAC has started its own modernization project, which currently includes the demolition of a trailer park and a complete renovation of administrative and warehouse buildings.

Just over a year ago, 13 portable classrooms and office buildings sat at the current site of the RSB. Established as a temporary installment in the 1960s, “PEP City” was an outdated, small and disconnected system that SLAC administrators say they are happy to see gone.

“It was a very old, aging facility,” said Karen Chan-Hui, electrical engineer and project manager at SLAC. “We had a need to replace the deficiencies with a new, safe and collaborative environment for the scientists as well as the support staff to work together.”

Chan-Hui said the idea behind the building fits in with SLAC’s “one lab” approach, which involves consolidating facilities in order to conduct research efficiently.

“The mission of the project was to co-locate the accelerator scientists and engineers… to combine and bring everybody together so you didn’t have people working together on a daily basis who were located in five different buildings,” said Steve Jack, SLAC’s construction manager.

Along with the DOE funding came the requirement that all new buildings be built with a 30-percent energy savings from the previous building standard.

“For a building the same size as one built in 2007, this building has to be built to have less energy use by 30 percent,” Jack said. “And this particular building has actually achieved 40 percent savings.”

Along with cutting down on pollution, construction for the RSB has been mindful of sound pollution and other construction inconveniences, Jack said. The SLAC team has scheduled construction for the weekends, and has made sure not to keep necessary utilities available.

“There’s been typical construction impact,” Jack said. “The traffic around the site, at times, has been impacted due to deliveries of material and utility connections under the road. We haven’t had any big problems with the tenants around the building and have definitely not impacted the science or the labs.”

SLAC holds a monthly informational event called “coffee crunch” to inform the community about current events going in the research center.

“We work with the communications department to make announcements ahead of time,” Chan-Hui said. “One of the reasons the community has not had a big complaint about it is because we informed the community since before the construction started.”

SLAC celebrated its 50th reunion this year, and looks forward to finding more ways to make the lab more organized and efficient. The center’s eventual dream for the RSB is to move the control room for the linear accelerator into the building to further consolidate the lab, according to Jack. The construction team will either use funds left from this project or reach out to various programs within the DOE.

“It wasn’t a part of the original scope,” Jack said. “We’ve made provisions for a new main control center to be built in there once additional funding becomes available.”

Along with the modernization project, the construction team at SLAC has just started two other building projects. They have recently laid down plans for a Science and User Support Building, intended to house and centralize the conferences and collaborations of SLAC scientists.

This new facility will be joined by the new Linac Coherent Light Source Building, which will also be dedicated toward SLAC’s latest project: using ultrafast X-ray pulses to take unprecedented stop-motion photographs of atoms and molecules in motion.

“SLAC has a lot more than just the RSB going on,” Chan-Hui said.

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GPS pioneer pledges $28 million https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/16/gps-pioneer-pledges-28-million/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/16/gps-pioneer-pledges-28-million/#respond Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:48:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071931 James J. Spilker Jr. ’55 M.S. ’56 Ph.D. ’58, a School of Engineering consulting professor and central figure in the development of GPS, and his wife Anna Marie Spilker, a real estate broker and investor, have pledged $28 million to Stanford University.

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James J. Spilker Jr. ’55 M.S. ’56 Ph.D. ’58, a School of Engineering consulting professor and central figure in the development of GPS, and his wife Anna Marie Spilker, a real estate broker and investor, have pledged $28 million to Stanford University.

The couple’s donation will name The James and Anna Marie Spilker Engineering and Applied Sciences Building in the Science and Engineering Quad – providing researchers with the facilities for atomic-scale research – and endow a professorship in the School of Engineering.

“Anna Marie and I believe strongly that America’s ability to compete in the 21st century – even more so than the 20th – will depend critically on our ability to innovate and excel in science and engineering,” Spilker told the Stanford Report. “Many jobs of the past century are gone. This gift is an effort to ensure that one of America’s great research institutions retains the leadership it has enjoyed for decades.”

Before joining the Stanford faculty in 2001 as a consulting professor of electrical engineering and aeronautical/astronautical engineering, Spilker played a critical role in developing the Global Positioning System (GPS), authoring and co-authoring several papers in the 1960s on the signal timing technology that enables the precision tracking of GPS satellites. Spilker later worked on the GPS system’s architecture and signal structure, continuing that work up to 2005 when he co-founded the Stanford University Center for Position, Navigation and Time.

Spilker has also enjoyed a distinguished business career, including stints with AOSense and Stanford Telecommunications, in which – as co-founder, CEO and chairman – he built from three employees to more than 1,300 without resorting to venture capital funding. He described the gift as a complement and expansion of the numerous opportunities already available to current Stanford students.

“They have within their grasp the ability to create technologies that can change the world or to found new companies that can employ thousands,” Spilker told the Stanford Report. “Most important, if they truly love what they do, they have the key catalyst for success.”

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