Tristan Vanech – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Mon, 18 Jun 2018 18:47:12 +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 Tristan Vanech – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Vanech: Mending reader distrust of The Daily — a two-way street https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/18/vanech-mending-reader-distrust-of-the-daily-a-two-way-street/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/18/vanech-mending-reader-distrust-of-the-daily-a-two-way-street/#respond Mon, 18 Jun 2018 17:44:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1142182 For those who have shut out The Daily after feeling alienated by mistreatment of you or someone you know, I encourage you to consider dialogue rather than hostile distrust.

The post Vanech: Mending reader distrust of The Daily — a two-way street appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
When I was a senior in high school I was as excited about The Daily as I was about Stanford itself. I wrote about it in my roommate essay, made gushing comments on stanforddaily.com that became the butt of many a joke of my co-editors a couple years later, boasted in my Twitter bio that I would one day be the editor-in-chief (I ran and lost) and even referred to the publication as “the paper of my dreams” in my Daily application.

Some of my most defining and memorable Stanford moments have been at that building behind TAP which Stanford students pass by all the time but seldom know exists. Like other long-time staffers, I divvy up phases of my time here by volume number. A significant portion of people I care about most have worked for The Daily. Though it brought me a great deal of stress, The Daily was also a lot of fun. I not only learned how to write news better, but also refined my editorial and managerial skills. Targeted recruitment of Daily editors led to the full-time job I am about to start.

I have also been disappointed by The Daily on several occasions and have heard countless complaints about the paper from my peers.

Criticisms can range from The Daily’s financial nebulousness to its lack of investigative journalism to the frequency of its printing. Because these have already been scrutinized (and rebutted) quite well, I will focus on the fragile relationship between The Daily and its sources.

In a community as small as Stanford, an unfavorable portrayal in the school paper can make one feel as if their reputation has been tarnished. This fact has two consequences: sources who are subjects of such articles or who feel they have been mistreated as a source immediately distrust The Daily, and writers have to tread carefully if they are to ever build up that trust again.

I have seen several instances of Daily writers handling sources poorly throughout my four years at the paper. Whether it’s misquoting, being unprofessional in approach or not making it clear to the source that they are on the record, The Daily has had an unfortunate history of ending relations with sources before they begin. This is not to say mistreating sources is the norm; indeed, it is the exception. However, when the exception occurs as often as it seems to at The Daily, it is troublesome both to the news outlet and to their source.

When sources do get frustrated with the way something was covered, they generally do a good job of responding through a letter to the editor or an op-ed in another publication. However, for those who have shut out The Daily after feeling alienated by mistreatment of you or someone you know, I encourage you to consider dialogue rather than hostile distrust.

A letter to the editor isn’t the only way to voice concern, either – you can email a writer you have qualms with or meet them in person for an off-the-record conversation (every article has contact information at the bottom so readers can easily respond to stories). If only those who cast aspersions at The Daily as if it were some nefarious, monolithic organization were to meet the people who have written articles that rubbed them the wrong way, they would realize that it is actually filled with some of the nicest, most considerate folks around and that it is anything but monolithic – the staff come from a diverse array of backgrounds with a panoply of talents, temperaments and convictions.

The onus is on both parties to communicate more, though. The Daily has begun some laudable efforts in bridging this gap to readership in its new emphasis on recruiting and liaising from diverse corners of campus and in editor-in-chief office hours open to the Stanford community at large starting this fall. It has also improved writer and desk editor training on interviewing so that fewer mishaps happen.

In spite of these initiatives, The Daily also has room for growth in how it handles sources. Writers could make a more diligent effort to explain the difference between on the record, off the record and on background at the outset of all sensitive interviews. They could also build a working relationship with sources through informal, off-the-record meetings instead of only reaching out when news breaks (to be fair, the editorial board does sit down with the University president on a regular basis).

Another way The Daily could mend relations with sources is through staff editorials. Often I have heard subjects of stories refer to articles about themselves as “biased” when really their concern is that The Daily didn’t provide some sort of editorial commentary (bias) on the matter. They will grow angry that their story was told from an objective standpoint when clearly they were the side to be favored. Accordingly, The Daily’s editorial board should weigh in more frequently on the most controversial news articles of the week. In this way, story subjects who feel that an objective, balanced narrative does a disservice to the situation could receive more explanation on why a story was covered in a certain way, and even might find that The Daily, while obligated to report the news objectively, could come down with an editorial validating their perspective.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to choose how to react to any news story. You can be up in arms or you can reach out to those responsible for the news. The Daily office is always open for anyone to come in and meet the faces behind the names.

Dialogue might be difficult, but at the end of the day an awkward, heated or unfruitful discussion is way better than none at all.

As the next generation of Daily writers who may or may not be joining the paper of their dreams comes in, I hope they make it as easy as possible for readers to open a channel of communication with them. But more importantly, I urge you, the potentially distrustful party, to be receptive to these opportunities for discussion when you are on the verge of blacklisting The Daily.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Vanech: Mending reader distrust of The Daily — a two-way street appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/18/vanech-mending-reader-distrust-of-the-daily-a-two-way-street/feed/ 0 1142182
Men’s basketball tames Cougars behind Pickens, Okpala for third-straight Pac-12 win https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/11/mens-basketball-tames-cougars-behind-pickens-okpala-for-third-straight-pac-12-win/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/11/mens-basketball-tames-cougars-behind-pickens-okpala-for-third-straight-pac-12-win/#respond Fri, 12 Jan 2018 07:10:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1135005 Coming off two thrilling conference victories, Stanford basketball started off cold in snowy Pullman as two players — senior guard Dorian Pickens and freshman forward Kezie Okpala — owned 32 of the Cardinal's 38 first-half points.

The post Men’s basketball tames Cougars behind Pickens, Okpala for third-straight Pac-12 win appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Coming off two thrilling conference victories, Stanford basketball started off cold in snowy Pullman as two players, senior guard Dorian Pickens and freshman forward Kezie Okpala, owned 32 of the Cardinal’s 38 first-half points.

A 14-0 run early in the second half propelled the Cardinal (9-8, 3-1 Pac-12) to a 79-70 victory over Washington State (8-8, 0-4) on Thursday night.

As star senior forward Reid Travis struggled, Pickens picked up the slack with 22 points in the first half, including a crucial three to put Stanford ahead for its first lead of the game at 38-36. The Cougars would go on to make a 9-0 run behind sharp shooting by guard Malachi Flynn, ultimately leading to a halftime score of 45-38.

With senior forward Michael Humphrey in limited minutes due to foul trouble and Pickens suffering foot cramps early in the second period, Okpala rose to the occasion at key moments to record a career-high 21 points. The five-star recruit was benched for the first 12 games due to academic ineligibility resulting from getting a C letter grade in one of six AP classes after getting into Stanford.

Freshman Daejon Davis, who hit a remarkable half-court buzzer beat against USC last game, continued his solid play with 15 points on six-of-seven shooting, four assists and zero turnovers.

Stanford, notorious for its weak defense behind the arc, held the nation’s third-best perimeter shooting team by three-point field goals per game to 34 percent. The Cardinal, by contrast, were 11-of-25 from deep, including an outstanding 10-of-14 from Pickens.

The team will look to extend its streak as it travels to Seattle on Saturday for a bout with Washington (13-4, 3-1). The game will be broadcast starting at 5 p.m. on Pac-12 Networks.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Men’s basketball tames Cougars behind Pickens, Okpala for third-straight Pac-12 win appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/11/mens-basketball-tames-cougars-behind-pickens-okpala-for-third-straight-pac-12-win/feed/ 0 1135005
Football preview: Secondary https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/25/football-preview-secondary-2017/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/25/football-preview-secondary-2017/#respond Sat, 26 Aug 2017 00:36:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129891 Stanford football's defensive unit has been known, at least in the past decade, for its gritty front seven that boasts "intellectual brutality." This year the strongest component of the defense might be the secondary, as defensive backs coach Duane Akina has put together a group so deep you can hardly see the bottom.

The post Football preview: Secondary appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
In a nutshell

Stanford football’s defensive unit has been known, at least in the past decade, for its gritty front seven that boasts “intellectual brutality.” This year the strongest component of the defense might be the secondary, as defensive backs coach Duane Akina has put together a group so deep you can hardly see the bottom.

In a pass-happy Pac-12, being able to cycle in fresh legs could be a key to success this season. Headlining the talented secondary are junior Quenton Meeks and senior Alijah Holder, both of whom were unable to reach their full potential last season because of injuries but are being touted as one of the best pairs of cornerbacks in the nation.

“This is the smartest defense we’ve had since I’ve been here,” senior safety Justin Reid said to ESPN’s David Lombardi. “Our mental capabilities have never been where they are now. It’s exciting to see.”

Vital to the development of the secondary has been Akina’s tenure on the coaching staff. Now in his fourth year in the position, Akina has recruited well and instilled his strategic game plan into every member of the squad.

“He’s outstanding and phenomenal,” head coach David Shaw said. “He’s attracted a lot of the guys that have come because of his ability to get the most out of the guys that he’s coached.”

Although last year’s secondary also ran deep, three starters’ injuries forced the Cardinal to ask much more of players at unexpected times, rather than methodically adding them into the mix to the defense’s advantage. If Stanford can avoid such bad fortune this time around, the nine defensive backs listed in the depth chart — and others on the brink — will have a healthy competition for playing time.

“We can take it game by game, who starts at safety, who starts at nickel,” Shaw said to SF Gate. “It’s a great competition there.”

Who’s returning?

Quenton Meeks (CB) — Meeks has built his career on making big plays at crucial moments in games. As a true freshman starter in 2015-2016, he led the team with three interceptions, including a late-game save against Washington State that set up a game-winning field goal and a 66-yard pick-six in the Rose Bowl. Last season, after getting pummeled by both Washington schools the two weeks prior, Stanford seemed to be spiraling into mediocrity. Meeks, who had been out both games with an injury, had different plans as he returned a DeShone Kizer pass 50 yards for a touchdown at Notre Dame, giving just the spark the lifeless Cardinal needed to come back and win. If the junior can stay healthy in 2017, he could be even more dangerous with another year of experience under his belt.

Alijah Holder (CB) — An injury-ridden season held back Holder last year, who missed nine games with multiple injuries. The junior is healthy this time around and makes up the second piece of what is being billed as a nation-leading cornerback duo. He could be the answer against speedy wide receivers in the conference that broke holes in the Cardinal defense in 2016.

Justin Reid (S) — Tackling, reading defenses, timing pass breakups and picks — Reid can do it all. In a wild ending to the UCLA game last year, Reid’s defense on a long Josh Rosen pass prevented a Bruin victory. The rock-solid strong safety looks to continue to be a huge play-stopper in his junior year. Beyond his individual contributions, he is poised to be a vocal leader “I feel I’m mentally stronger understanding the positions around me,” Reid said. “Cornerback, nickel back, dime, X, outside linebacker — even defensive line, I’m understanding their stunts, the run scheme and how their gaps are supposed to fit out.”

Brandon Simmons (S) —Akina seems to value experience in his defensive back unit, giving the senior the start over junior Frank Buncom. Playing in all but one game the past two seasons, Simmons notched 12 solo tackles last year and was given an All-Pac-12 honorable mention for his role on special teams.

Alameen Murphy (CB) — Murphy has been instrumental in rotating in at cornerback and shaking up an offense’s rhythm the past two years. Last year, he broke up seven passes and contributed 36 tackles. A team captain, the senior brings loads of experience to the field and would be a starter at most other schools.

Terrence Alexander (CB) — Another veteran that can be put in as relief for the starters, Alexander has played in every game the past three seasons. Although physically not as long as the rest of the secondary, the senior is quick — he even filled in for an injured McCaffrey on kick returns — and knows the Cardinal defense better than any.

Frank Buncom (S) — Though a good amount of the stadium had cleared by then, when the secondary was most beat up last year, Buncom came in to contribute a 26-yard pick-six against Washington State that put the game within striking distance. If he is mixed into the rotation, the free safety will certainly capitalize on the opportunity to deliver more reinvigorating plays.

Ben Edwards (S) — Yet another defensive back with two seasons of experience to build on, the junior has been a consistent threat against any team’s passing game. Edwards recorded 18 solo tackles, three pass breakups and his first career interception in 2016. Even an equal stat line would make a sizable impact this year given all the talent at safety.

Newcomers to watch for

Malik Antoine (CB) — After redshirting his freshman year and working hard in the offseason, Antoine will be the youngster amid this veteran squad. Defensive coordinator Lance Anderson has said he expects him to get snaps at nickel. Beating out Obi Eboh who received praise at training camp, the cornerback will look to make a mark whenever he sees the field.

Key departures

Dallas Lloyd (S) — Replacing the two-time starting safety will not be easy. Lloyd’s 61 tackles last year were second only to Solomon Thomas’ 62, as the 25-year-old provided a physical and mental example to the younger contingent of the secondary. Leading the team in interceptions with five, Lloyd capped off his Cardinal career with two picks in the Sun Bowl, the latter of which he returned for a touchdown to put Stanford ahead in the fourth quarter.

Zach Hoffpauir (S) — After returning from a stint in minor league baseball, Hoffpauir recorded 26 solo tackles in 10 games last season. It remains to be seen whether Antoine can fill the same physical role Hoffpauir played at nickel. The flex safety will definitely be missed.

 

Depth Chart for opener against Rice

Cornerback

Alijah Holder

Terrence Alexander

-or- Malik Antoine

Safety

Justin Reid

Ben Edwards

Safety

Brandon Simmons

Frank Buncom

Cornerback

Quenton Meeks

Alameen Murphy

Others: Obi Eboh, J.J. Parson, Paulson Adebo, Noah Williams, Denzel Franklin, Andrew Pryts, Stuart Head, Treyjohn Butler, Joe McGrath

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Football preview: Secondary appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/25/football-preview-secondary-2017/feed/ 0 1129891
Stanford’s 113th title, by the numbers https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/16/stanfords-113th-title-by-the-numbers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/16/stanfords-113th-title-by-the-numbers/#respond Tue, 16 May 2017 08:25:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127569 No. 2 women’s water polo not only won its sixth NCAA title — and fifth in the last seven years — on Sunday, but it also made history for Stanford by claiming its 113th NCAA team championship, a feat that only UCLA has also accomplished. The following is a breakdown of Cardinal’s key athletic accomplishments and […]

The post Stanford’s 113th title, by the numbers appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
No. 2 women’s water polo not only won its sixth NCAA title — and fifth in the last seven years — on Sunday, but it also made history for Stanford by claiming its 113th NCAA team championship, a feat that only UCLA has also accomplished. The following is a breakdown of Cardinal’s key athletic accomplishments and records.

113: NCAA team championships

Stanford is now tied with UCLA in all-time national titles, despite having less than one-fourth of the undergraduate enrollment and not having won its first title until 1925.

41: Consecutive years with at least one national championship

For the last four decades, the Cardinal have won one or more team titles each year, an NCAA record. The next-longest streak is 19 years.

4: NCAA titles this academic year

The women’s water polo team joined men’s soccer, women’s volleyball and women’s swimming and diving as national titleholders, bringing home the most hardware in a single season since 2001-02.

50: NCAA women’s team championships

Though USC and UCLA have more men’s titles, Stanford tops the country in women’s team titles.

22: Consecutive NACDA Directors’ Cups

This prestigious award is bestowed annually on the most successful overall college sports program in the nation.

The post Stanford’s 113th title, by the numbers appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/16/stanfords-113th-title-by-the-numbers/feed/ 0 1127569
Men’s volleyball bested by BYU in MPSF quarterfinals https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/16/mens-volleyball-bested-by-byu-in-mpsf-quarterfinals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/16/mens-volleyball-bested-by-byu-in-mpsf-quarterfinals/#respond Mon, 17 Apr 2017 06:07:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125974 Service and attacking errors hindered the ability of No. 9 Stanford men’s volleyball (13-13, 8-10 MPSF) to even nip at the heels of No. 3 BYU (24-3, 16-2) in the MPSF quarterfinals on Saturday in Provo, Utah, where the Cougars swept the match 25-19, 25-21, 25-18.

The post Men’s volleyball bested by BYU in MPSF quarterfinals appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Service and attacking errors hindered the ability of No. 9 Stanford men’s volleyball (13-13, 8-10 MPSF) to even nip at the heels of No. 3 BYU (24-3, 16-2) in the MPSF quarterfinals on Saturday in Provo, Utah. Ultimately, the Cougars swept the match 25-19, 25-21, 25-18.

Playing in his final match for the Cardinal, fifth-year senior outside hitter Gabriel Vega earned his first double-double of the season with a team-high 12 kills and a season-best 11 digs.

The first two sets gave Stanford an edge in hitting percentage, topping BYU .222 to .200, but the Cougars led the entire final set with stellar hitting that put them at .315 overall to the Cardinal’s .182. BYU had six more aces, four fewer service errors and eight less attacking errors in front of an indomitable home crowd.

Despite the intimidating BYU fan base, the bench provided both energy — or “bennergy,” as was coined in a five-set comeback win against the Cougars early last season — and some positive contributions on the court. Junior libero Kyle Dagostino came off the bench for three digs and the Cardinal’s sole ace. Sophomore outside hitter Jordan Ewert, though usually a starter, entered the match for the final two sets after missing the team’s last 10 matches with an ankle injury.

In their last game wearing cardinal and white, senior Colin McCall added seven kills and five digs, and senior Clay Jones notched four kills and a pair of digs. The team as a whole tallied 27 digs to the Cougars’ 24.

Following a 6-2 start to the year, Stanford struggled a bit toward the end of the season, falling in four straight matches to close out March. Though dominating UC San Diego in the final match of regular season play, the Cardinal’s postseason was short-lived with Saturday’s loss to the Cougars.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Men’s volleyball bested by BYU in MPSF quarterfinals appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/16/mens-volleyball-bested-by-byu-in-mpsf-quarterfinals/feed/ 0 1125974
True Grit: Jerod Haase makes “tough” the basketball team’s prime virtue https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/07/true-grit-jerod-haase-makes-tough-the-basketball-teams-prime-virtue/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/07/true-grit-jerod-haase-makes-tough-the-basketball-teams-prime-virtue/#respond Wed, 08 Mar 2017 02:29:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123209 It’s Wednesday of Dead Week, and though there’s a two-week break in the schedule for final exams, the men’s basketball team is warming up for practice like any other day. “Today, the first thing we’re going to do at practice is show a clip yesterday of three guys diving on the floor,” booms a mellifluous, […]

The post True Grit: Jerod Haase makes “tough” the basketball team’s prime virtue appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
It’s Wednesday of Dead Week, and though there’s a two-week break in the schedule for final exams, the men’s basketball team is warming up for practice like any other day.

“Today, the first thing we’re going to do at practice is show a clip yesterday of three guys diving on the floor,” booms a mellifluous, slightly twangy voice in Maples Pavilion. The selection of film is more than appropriate for anyone who knows the reputation of Jerod Albert Haase, Stanford’s new head coach.

Playing guard at the University of Kansas two decades ago, Haase dove for so many loose balls that Jayhawks statisticians began recording “floor burns” as an official metric in games.

On his first day on the job, Haase announced three pillars that the team was to follow: invested, tough and selfless. Floor burns epitomize every aspect of the these three pillars. Invested, because a player must risk embarrassment or injury in order to make a play that will benefit him in the long run. Tough, because he sacrifices his body, going against the human instinct to avoid painful collisions like hitting the ground. And selfless, because he takes one for the team.

“Any championship-level team has that level of investment where people are willing to give up their bodies and give up themselves for other people,” Haase says.

Haase’s past has not gone unnoticed by the team, at least according to fifth-year senior Grant Verhoeven.

“It sets the tone for how we need to play, him being a really gritty guy the way he played,” remarks the big man. “He was diving after loose balls, taking charges, so that’s something that I’ve really taken to heart since he got here.”

Junior forward Dorian Pickens says Haase tries to make this floor burn mindset part of the culture.

“He definitely tries to carry his characteristics that he had onto us,” Pickens claims. “Being a tough guy, [a] hard-working guy, a guy who’s going to grind every possession, a guy who’s going to really just compete at the highest level and do whatever it takes for his team to win. And those are all traits that he tries to instill into us and habits that he tries to build with us every day.”

“Too slow to play”

Born on April Fool’s Day, Haase was destined to have thick skin. Fortunately for him, he has only been pranked a handful of times on his birthday.

“Not very much,” he says. “I’ve been lucky so far. I guess there will probably be a big one at some point.”

He certainly seemed a likely target of gags, what with him being the youngest of five siblings, all of whom played intercollegiate sports. Mara, Karin and David, the three oldest Haase children, attended college on scholarship for cross-country skiing. Haase would often tag along to his older brother Steven’s basketball practices in grade school, leading him to fall in love with the game.

“My parents were active and love athletics. It wasn’t ever an issue of what we were doing, as long as we were out of the house and being active and playing sports,” he explains. “I was the beneficiary of seeing my brothers and sisters compete at such a high level. I got used to seeing what it took and the dedication and was able to apply some of those lessons.”

Standing in the shadows of his siblings made the young Haase all the more gritty and tireless a competitor.

“I remember Jerod, he was pretty young, he went to camp and they were asked to do tricks with the basketball,” Haase’s mother Carol told The Birmingham News. “He wanted to do better than his brother. He asked for a unicycle so he could dribble the basketball while riding. He was probably in third grade, and he was riding this unicycle and bouncing two basketballs.”

He sat on the bench his freshman year of high school at South Lake Tahoe as Steven, a senior and the star of the varsity team, hit a buzzer-beater to win a zone championship game that would go down in their school’s history as one of the greats.

Following in his brother’s footsteps seemed unlikely at first for the 5-foot-6, 140-pound guard. Even as he grew both physically and skill-wise, he flew relatively under the radar his first two years of high school. Though he began notching more playing time and shooting more consistently, Haase was not yet getting recognition from college coaches.

“I remember in his junior year, I had a Division I coach tell me that he was too slow to play Division I basketball,” recalls Tom Orlich, Haase’s head coach at South Lake Tahoe and now Stanford basketball’s director of operations and assistant athletic director.

Orlich says he spent a good deal of time with Haase during the summers working on his speed and fundamentals. What he lacked in celerity, he made up in floor burns. Where his elbow shot faltered, the elbow grease he put into the game stayed steady.

“He’s a type of ragtag player where he didn’t play pretty at times, he would dive across the floor, he would play with a tremendous amount of emotion, he would take pride in taking charges, he would take pride in getting an assist,” mused Orlich. “And yet by the same token, he could get a big shot for you from the three or a pull-up, and he would also hit the defensive boards, so he did a little bit of everything and he really embraced the intangibles in the game.”

In the summer before his senior year, Haase attended the Stanford High Potential Camp, a popular destination for Division I coaches, especially those in the Bay Area. He was named the camp’s most valuable player, a signal that a transformation had taken place. It became clear that Haase could in fact play at the next level.

“That coach ate his words,” Orlich gibes at Haase’s doubter.

If his standout play didn’t catch the eye of Stanford’s then-head coach Mike Montgomery, it certainly did soon after at South Lake Tahoe’s own high-profile tournament later that summer.

While Montgomery watched from one sideline, Cal’s head coach Lou Campanelli scouted Haase from the other.

“Coach Campanelli just loved every facet of Jared and appreciated him,” Orlich says. “As much as [Campelli’s recruiting him] occurred, he really wanted to go to Stanford.”

Haase remembers, “I really thought Stanford was — I would label it — a dream school for me.”

Being a member of the Cardinal was not in the cards for Haase, as he was ultimately never offered a scholarship. Although his admiration for Stanford would impact his decision to accept a head coaching offer 24 years later, Haase says he would not have taken the job if he didn’t believe the program was championship caliber.

In the winter of 1992, Haase started playing for the Golden Bears alongside former NBA star and current Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd.

New team, new dreams

During his freshman year of college, Haase hit some tumultuous times.

While Haase recovered from a loss at USC, his father Gary passed away at age 55 from a foot infection that spread throughout his body. Haase completed the Southern California trip by scoring 16 points for Cal — Gary Haase’s alma mater — in an upset victory against UCLA which he dedicated to his father.

Only weeks later, another shakeup occurred as Campanelli was fired. The Bears finished the season by being knocked out of the NCAA tournament by Kansas. Haase no longer found Cal to be the right fit and so leapt at the opportunity to transfer to Kansas and play for Roy Williams.

“It was an opportunity to live the dream of playing at the highest level with a group that had a lot of similar core values, and I played for a coach, in Coach Williams, that believes in a lot of the same things I do,” Haase says. “And then academically, I was able to realize my dreams there as well.”

As a sophomore, Haase was named Big Eight Newcomer of the Year and led the Jayhawks in scoring with 15 points per game.

In 1996-97, he started with four future NBA players in Paul Pierce, Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz and Scot Pollard.

“I tried to learn a lot from him,” Haase says of Pierce. “Even in college, it was easy to tell how talented he was.”

The true test of grit for Haase came in that final season, when he played several games with a broken wrist. Despite the injury, which would require surgery after the season, the resilient co-captain helped his team achieve a 34-2 record and was named a finalist for the Wooden and Naismith Awards.

Haase wasn’t just recognized for his basketball skills. His academic prowess earned him the title of Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1997 at Kansas. He was an Academic All-American his senior year. And a few years after graduating and writing a book, titled “Floor Burns,” about that senior season, he went back to earn his MBA from Kansas in 2000.

And for as much as the Haases were athletes, they were also academics. Haase’s mother and sister were both teachers, and doing well in school was a priority growing up.

So when the position at Nerd Nation opened up, after having coached at his alma mater and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, coming here was a no-brainer.

Haase told the San Francisco Chronicle that when former head coach Johnny Dawkins was fired in March, Haase said to his wife, “Stanford opened. That’s the one I’d really love.”

Ensuring his players are hitting the books as hard as they’re hitting the boards doesn’t require too much effort.

“At Stanford, it’s not something that you even have to talk about every day, because the guys that come here already value it,” explains Haase. “We certainly make sure they have a balance where they can put the time and resources and energy into the academic side of things, but that’s one of the joys of Stanford is we’re not trying to twist their arms, because they value the education from the beginning.”

Stanford’s appeal wasn’t only academic, though; Haase and his staff think they will have substantial success on the court, too.

“This is a perfect fit for him,” says Orlich. “This is his dream job, and he truly believes that we can win a national championship here.”

“Most-loved coach in the building”

On Dec. 3, Haase had a homecoming of sorts when Stanford traveled to Lawrence, Kansas, to face off against his alma mater, then the No. 4 team in the country.

A beloved former Jayhawks assistant coach, Haase was worshiped even more as a player in Allen Fieldhouse, where he went a perfect 42-0. He was bound to be well received.

“He’ll be the most-loved coach in the building,” Kansas head coach Bill Self joked to The Kansas City Star before the game.

Perhaps an exaggeration, Self’s words definitely carried a significant amount of truth as Haase entered Jayhawks territory.

“Right off the plane, people were running to shake his hand,” says junior Reid Travis. “Like somebody was telling me he’s a legend.”

Haase currently sits at No. 32 on Kansas’ all-time scoring list, No. 18 in career assists and No. 11 in steals and threes made. During his time assisting Roy Williams, Kansas led the nation in assists, lowest opponent field goal percentage and win percentage in 2001, became the only team go undefeated in Big 12 play while ranking first in field goal percentage and scoring in 2002, and ranked No. 1 in scoring margin in 2003. Lifelong Jayhawks fans no doubt remember the Roy Williams era, including Haase’s years both playing and coaching, as a golden age in Kansas history.

“People came up to him saying, ‘It’s really awesome to have you back here,’” Verhoeven recounts. “When we got back to the hotel, they had a little message on the board saying, ‘Welcome home, Coach.’”

When Haase’s name was announced before the game, a sold-out crowd rose to its feet to pay respects to the phenom.

Despite the team being uplifted by the reception of its coach and despite a career day for Travis, the Cardinal ultimately dropped the game to the Jayhawks.

“It’s really a good feeling to have people say nice things and recognize that I was there,” says Haase, pausing. “But at the end of the day, it would’ve been nice to have played just a little bit better as well.”

Stanford: A national powerhouse?

Throughout his basketball career, Haase’s teams boasted an undeniable home court advantage. Going undefeated at home in all three seasons as a Jayhawk and in his final season of head coaching the UAB Blazers, Haase knows the effect a familiar court and boisterous crowd can have.

“There’s no question that one thing that makes college basketball great is the home crowds and the atmosphere, and I think that we have work to do here,” says Haase. “The best way for us to build the fanbase and build the enthusiasm is to have success on the court and win a bunch of games.”

Haase describes a marketing plan targeted specifically at students that he hopes will ameliorate the meager turnout in what should be the loudest section in Maples. Actively engaging fans at student events around campus, passing out “6th Man” T-shirts to dorms and holding their own events are just some of the ways Haase and his staff are approaching this effort.

Getting students out to games is only half the battle, though.

“The thing that’ll help the most is if they come out and see our guys play as hard as they can and see our guys fully invested in what we’re doing,” says Haase.

Pickens lauds his coach’s attempt to revitalize the Stanford fan community, particularly among students.

“He’s done a great job. He’s doing the best job I’ve seen any coaching staff member do since I’ve been here my three years,” says Pickens.

If Haase were to give one message to students, it would be to mirror their enthusiasm for other activities on campus in which they might be more involved when supporting the basketball team.

“Stanford is a place where there’s a great deal of passion in so many different ways,” marvels Haase. “Hopefully the basketball program will embody that. For us to be successful, we need a great crowd.”

Haase hopes to create a winning culture at Stanford, but doing so will take a long-term vision for the program.

“I’m a big program guy. Yes it’s about winning games, but you win games by having a quality program,” he says. “This year, we want to be playing our best in February and March, and I think we’ve laid a good foundation in a lot of different ways with the program. The guys are competing. We’re playing hard. We understand the goals that we have offensively and defensively, and now it’s time to improve. We need to improve faster than other teams improve.”

Ultimately, Haase says he wants people to see his competitive, tough-minded side as only one part of a multifaceted coach and coaching style. He hopes to be remembered as much, if not more, for his resilience in the face of adversity, his knack for galvanizing a home crowd and his ability to develop well-rounded men who are true student-athletes.

But “tough” nevertheless remains a key that the team will live by.

“At the very first day of official practice, he conveyed that message that this was going to be our identity,” says Orlich, referring to the three core values of invested, tough and selfless. “When somebody walked into the gym, they were going to know the Stanford brand of basketball.”

Once that brand is established, Orlich believes the Cardinal can rise to prominence, possibly even becoming a NCAA powerhouse.

“Stanford’s going to be one of the national powers in the few years to come,” insists Orlich.”It’s going to take a year or two to fill out some of the needs of the team, but without doubt, Stanford’s going to rise to new heights. I have no doubt about it.”

Whether that dream can be realized by the Cardinal in the near future remains to be seen. But with a man at the helm who recorded over 160 floor burns in his junior year of college and played his entire senior season with a fractured scaphoid bone in his shooting arm, Stanford basketball is certain to follow that second and central pillar: tough.

The post True Grit: Jerod Haase makes “tough” the basketball team’s prime virtue appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/07/true-grit-jerod-haase-makes-tough-the-basketball-teams-prime-virtue/feed/ 0 1123209
Baker takes 800-meter, qualifies for NCAAs at MPSF Championships https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/28/baker-takes-800-meter-qualifies-for-ncaas-at-mpsf-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/28/baker-takes-800-meter-qualifies-for-ncaas-at-mpsf-championships/#respond Tue, 28 Feb 2017 08:49:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123927 After winning the women's 800-meter at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field Championships last year, junior Olivia Baker repeated her feat on Saturday in Seattle to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

The post Baker takes 800-meter, qualifies for NCAAs at MPSF Championships appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
After winning the women’s 800-meter at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field Championships last year, junior Olivia Baker repeated her feat on Saturday in Seattle to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Baker’s standout performance was accompanied by senior Valarie Allman, who shattered her own Stanford record in the 20-pound weight throw on Friday to place third at 68-5 3/4 (20.87 meters) and narrowly missed the mark for NCAA Championships qualification; the men’s 4×400 relay squad, which set a school record of 3:09.80 to net second place; and junior Tristen Newman, who threw the longest shot put toss by a Stanford thrower in 22 years at 60-7 1/4 (18.47 meters) to tie the school’s No. 3 all-time throw.

While Baker’s win was Stanford’s only first-place finish, the women’s team scored 57 points to notch third place overall while the Cardinal men recorded 27.5 points to earn 12th.

Friday’s events were highlighted by the women’s distance medley relay team of senior Vanessa Fraser, junior Gaby Gayles, senior Malika Waschmann and junior Elise Cranny, who ran a season-best 10:59.82, good enough for second.

Complementing the men’s 4×400 team of junior Frank Kurtz, junior Harrison Williams, junior Isaiah Brandt-Sims and fifth-year senior Jackson Shumway on Saturday was the women’s 4×400 second-place result. Sophomore Missy Mongiovi, Gayles and junior Michaela Crunkleton Wilson were anchored by Baker with a 52.7 split for a season-best 3:36.26.

“I couldn’t be prouder of both relay efforts,” sprinters and hurdlers coach Gabe Sanders said. “We put together one of the best combined relay performances in program history.”

First-year throws coach Zeb Sion was also happy with his players’ performances, commending Newman in particular for his hard work in practice.

“He’s built off the progress of the last few years and created a really positive environment,” Sion said.

In addition to his spectacular shot put showing on Saturday, Newman placed fifth in the men’s 35-pound weight throw at 62-6 1/2 (19.06 meters) the previous day.

Junior Lena Giger put herself in position for a shot at the last spot in NCAA qualifying with a personal-best 54-8 3/4 (16.68 meters) in the shot put at the Seattle Pacific Last Chance Meet. The toss advanced her to No. 4 on the Stanford indoor list and No. 5 on the school absolute list.

Giger would join the Cardinal’s other apparent qualifiers in the men’s and women’s distance medley relay teams, Fraser and Cranny in the women’s 3,000, senior Jack Keelan in the men’s 3,000 and Williams in the men’s heptathlon.

Stanford next travels to across the Bay for the Cal Opener on Saturday before making its way to College Station, Texas, for the NCAA Championships on March 10-11.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Baker takes 800-meter, qualifies for NCAAs at MPSF Championships appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/28/baker-takes-800-meter-qualifies-for-ncaas-at-mpsf-championships/feed/ 0 1123927
Missing Travis, men’s basketball falls to Troy https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/05/missing-travis-mens-basketball-falls-to-troy/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/05/missing-travis-mens-basketball-falls-to-troy/#respond Fri, 06 Jan 2017 06:45:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121141 Stanford men's basketball (8-7, 0-3 Pac-12) turned the ball over 21 times to the Trojans (15-1, 2-1) in a 72-56 loss on Thursday night at USC.

The post Missing Travis, men’s basketball falls to Troy appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Stanford men’s basketball (8-7, 0-3 Pac-12) turned the ball over 21 times to the Trojans (15-1, 2-1) in a 72-56 loss on Thursday night at USC.

With bang-up big man Reid Travis out with an injured right shoulder, the Cardinal trailed the entire night, the closest they got to a break being a 13-4 run to bring them within two points after 16 minutes of play. Senior Marcus Allen’s season-high and team-leading 13 points made little progress toward slowing the uptempo Trojans, who, though also giving up a large number of turnovers (18), scored 27 points off turnovers to Stanford’s nine.

After struggling from the field in the first half, junior Dorian Pickens tied the team-high 13 point-mark, an effort that included a late three to give the Cardinal whatever was left of a hope. Sophomore Josh Sharma added eight points off the bench including a three-pointer as well as recorded a career-high seven rebounds.

USC’s Jordan McLaughlin led the Trojans with 15, while Chimezie Metu tacked on a double double (14 points, 10 rebounds) and showed off some highlight-reel blocks.

Stanford went 4-15 from behind the arc to USC’s 8-25, with several Cardinal threes chucked up as the shot clock was expiring.

The Cardinal will finish their four-game gauntlet against ranked teams on Sunday when they meet No. 4 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1 starting at 5 p.m.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Missing Travis, men’s basketball falls to Troy appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/05/missing-travis-mens-basketball-falls-to-troy/feed/ 0 1121141
Solomon Thomas to declare for 2017 NFL Draft https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/04/solomon-thomas-to-declare-for-2017-nfl-draft/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/04/solomon-thomas-to-declare-for-2017-nfl-draft/#respond Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:31:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121054 Defensive end Solomon Thomas will declare early for the NFL Draft, he announced Wednesday morning.

The post Solomon Thomas to declare for 2017 NFL Draft appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Defensive end Solomon Thomas will declare early for the NFL Draft, he announced Wednesday morning.

After two seasons of action with the Cardinal, he joins fellow junior Christian McCaffrey in forgoing his final years of eligibility.

Thomas expressed gratitude to his teammates and coaches in a letter to his “Stanford family” immediately after the announcement.

“The lessons I have learned at Stanford have more than prepared me for this next step,” he said. “I am so blessed by all of the people who have touched my life here. These qualities will stay with me my entire life.”

Thomas made 101 tackles in 27 games, including 25.5 tackles for a loss. He had nine solo sacks and assisted on five others.

He recovered four fumbles, two of which he returned for touchdowns — against USC in the 2015 Pac-12 Championship Game and at UCLA last September, then sealing a miraculous comeback win for Stanford. His near-sack of Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer provided the final stop in a defense-dominated victory over the Fighting Irish last October.

In his letter, Thomas recalled the unconventional way he committed to play for Stanford in his senior year of high school.

“Since pulling out a symbolic Stanford tree and donning nerd glasses on National Signing Day in 2014, I have had the most amazing time of my life,” he said. “I have grown and matured more than I ever could have imagined.”

In last Friday’s Sun Bowl, Thomas notched an impressive seven total tackles, including a sack on the last play of the game — a UNC two-point conversion attempt that would have sent the game into overtime — capping a stellar day, a breakout year and ultimately a distinguished career with the Cardinal.

“Solomon is explosive, strong, athletic, relentless,” said head coach David Shaw about the decision. “He’s ready for the next challenge. I’m looking forward to hearing his name called early in the 2017 Draft.”

The NFL Draft commences April 27 in Philadelphia.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Solomon Thomas to declare for 2017 NFL Draft appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/04/solomon-thomas-to-declare-for-2017-nfl-draft/feed/ 0 1121054
Women’s volleyball captures seventh national championship with win over Texas https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/17/womens-volleyball-captures-seventh-national-championship-with-win-over-texas/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/17/womens-volleyball-captures-seventh-national-championship-with-win-over-texas/#respond Sun, 18 Dec 2016 04:59:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121028 No. 6 seed Stanford women's volleyball made short work of the Longhorns Saturday night as it bested fourth-seeded Texas in four sets to reign victorious in the NCAA Championship.

The post Women’s volleyball captures seventh national championship with win over Texas appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
No. 6 seed Stanford women’s volleyball made short work of the Longhorns Saturday night as it bested fourth-seeded Texas 3-1 to reign victorious in the NCAA Championship.

In a streaky match, the Cardinal (27-7, 15-5 Pac-12) crawled out of an early deficit to win the first set, took the second set after a late unanswered stretch, lost the third following a lengthy Texas run and played off a strong start in the fourth to finish off the Longhorns (27-5) in front of a full crowd in Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio to give a final score line of 25-21, 25-19, 18-25, 25-21.

The best blocking team in the country stuffed the Longhorns 12 times on its way to Stanford’s seventh national championship. Penn State is the only other school with as many national titles in the 36 years of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship.

Stepping up from a subpar .188 hit percentage in Thursday’s Final Four match, the Cardinal hit .277 on the match while allowing only a .217 hit percentage from Texas.

American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Freshman of the Year Kathryn Plummer recorded 18 kills to lead the Cardinal, complemented by 16 kills from middle blocker Inky Ajanaku, who notched a team-high eight blocks. The win capped a championship run that saw the fifth-year senior directing a freshman-heavy team, one that becomes the youngest ever to be named national champions.

“They [the freshmen] taught me so much,” Ajanaku said in a postgame interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “And just to be able to get this win, I knew we could do it. Just from the beginning of the season and now that everyone believes in themselves, it’s something remarkable.”

Texas broke out to an early lead in the first set, but despite trailing 18-15, Stanford went on a 10-3 run to clinch the set 25-21.

The second set also began with a Longhorn advantage before Stanford went on a 4-1 run to take the lead. Texas followed up with a 7-1 streak of its own to take a 15-14 edge. After two points were changed by the referees and head coach John Dunning lost a challenge for a net touch, the Longhorns stood on top, 17-15. A crucial block from freshman middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris shifted the momentum to the Cardinal, though, igniting the first of seven unanswered points culminating in an impressive dig by freshman libero Morgan Hentz that saved the point for Stanford, which did not look back, winning the set 25-19.

Freshman outside hitter Kathryn Plummer made her presence felt Saturday night as she led the Cardinal in kills, her last of which the championship point. (COLE GRANDEL/The Stanford Daily)
Freshman outside hitter Kathryn Plummer made her presence felt Saturday night as she led the Cardinal in kills, her last of which was the championship point. (COLE GRANDEL/The Stanford Daily)

The teams tied nine times in the first 18 points of the third before an 8-1 Texas run made the score 16-10. Two straight blocks by Plummer and Ajanaku put Stanford within five, but the Longhorns capitalized on a flustered Cardinal squad to clock in the last three points and secure the set 25-18.

The Cardinal jumped out to a 6-0 start in the fourth, and an Ajanaku kill later extended their lead to 12-4. Fitzmorris quelled an attempted comeback with a strong hit after a long rally in the middle of the set. Although Texas pulled within three, making it 24-21, Plummer earned her 18th and final kill of the night as she put one away off the edge of the block and sent her teammates into winter break with a national title.

It was the first for the program since 2004 and the fifth for AVCA National Coach of the Year John Dunning. The win marks his 888th career victory.

The Cardinal finished the season on a 10-match winning streak that included seven sweeps and impressive wins over No. 3-seeded Wisconsin and Minnesota, which was seeded second in the tournament but ranked No. 1 overall in the country.

Stanford has now brought home two NCAA titles in one week, as men’s soccer won the national championship on Sunday.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Women’s volleyball captures seventh national championship with win over Texas appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/17/womens-volleyball-captures-seventh-national-championship-with-win-over-texas/feed/ 0 1121028
Women’s volleyball guts Golden Gophers, sets sights on championship https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/15/womens-volleyball-guts-golden-gophers-sets-sights-on-championship/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/15/womens-volleyball-guts-golden-gophers-sets-sights-on-championship/#respond Fri, 16 Dec 2016 05:47:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121010 The Cardinal women's volleyball team will become the youngest ever to play for the national title after handling No. 2-seeded Minnesota 26-24, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 in the NCAA semifinals on Thursday.

The post Women’s volleyball guts Golden Gophers, sets sights on championship appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The Cardinal women’s volleyball team will become the youngest ever to play for the national title after handling second-seeded Minnesota 26-24, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 in the NCAA semifinals on Thursday.

For No. 6-seeded Stanford (26-7, 15-5 Pac-12), its youth serves as a key to victory, with freshman outside hitter Kathryn Plummer ending the night with a team-high 15 kills and freshman middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris adding 10 kills and eight blocks. But when the heat was on and the Golden Gophers (29-5) climbed back to a 21-21 tie in the fourth set, it was veteran middle blocker Inky Ajanaku who came up with clutch hits to send the Cardinal to their 15th national championship appearance. The fifth-year senior recorded 15 kills on 30 hits to tie Plummer.

Hosted in Columbus, Ohio, the Final Four matchup featured three returning teams. The exception: Stanford. The waters were far from untested for the program, however, as the Cardinal had made it as far in 2014 and 18 other times before that. On Saturday, Stanford will take on Texas (27-4), which wiped out Nebraska (31-3) in the second semifinal of the night to punch its ticket to the Longhorns’ second straight title game.

In a defense-oriented match, both teams returned poor hitting percentages, with Stanford registering .188 to Minnesota’s .149. Ajanaku’s nine blocks moved her up to third place in program history with 619 across four seasons with the Cardinal.

The teams started off neck-and-neck, alternating seven consecutive points before Stanford took the first set in extra points.

The Cardinal dominated the second set and the beginning of the third, appearing well on their way to the final. The Golden Gophers clawed back, though, and captured a 25-22 victory to put Stanford, who had erased a 2-0 deficit against Wisconsin in the regional final on Saturday, on edge.

Minnesota ultimately could not complete the comeback in the fourth and final set after the Cardinal, giving up the first point of the set, did not fall behind for the remainder of the game.

A win on Saturday would give the team its seventh national title, a feat achieved by only one other team — Penn State — since the NCAA Championship started in 1981.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Women’s volleyball guts Golden Gophers, sets sights on championship appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/15/womens-volleyball-guts-golden-gophers-sets-sights-on-championship/feed/ 0 1121010
McCaffrey to forgo senior season, declare for NFL Draft https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/06/mccaffrey-reportedly-to-forgo-senior-season-declare-for-nfl-draft/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/06/mccaffrey-reportedly-to-forgo-senior-season-declare-for-nfl-draft/#respond Tue, 06 Dec 2016 21:34:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120873 Star running back Christian McCaffrey will enter the 2017 NFL Draft, Bleacher Report said Tuesday.

The post McCaffrey to forgo senior season, declare for NFL Draft appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Star running back Christian McCaffrey has decided to enter the 2017 NFL Draft, forgoing his senior season of eligibility.

The junior led the FBS with 211.6 all-purpose yards per game this year despite injury and overall offensive struggles in some early-season contests. A 2015 Heisman Trophy runner-up, he is likely to be picked in the first round.

McCaffrey announced his decision via Twitter on Wednesday morning, and the announcement was followed by an official statement from the junior that was released by the athletics department later that day.

McCaffrey has totaled 3,922 rushing yards, 1,206 receiving yards and 1,859 return yards during his career with the Cardinal, breaking Barry Sanders’ 1988 all-purpose yards record last season in six fewer plays. His final performance in cardinal and white will be on Dec. 30 as Stanford faces off with the UNC Tarheels in the Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post McCaffrey to forgo senior season, declare for NFL Draft appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/06/mccaffrey-reportedly-to-forgo-senior-season-declare-for-nfl-draft/feed/ 0 1120873
Second-half slump hands men’s basketball loss to No. 12 Saint Mary’s https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/01/second-half-slump-hands-mens-basketball-loss-to-no-12-saint-marys/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/01/second-half-slump-hands-mens-basketball-loss-to-no-12-saint-marys/#respond Thu, 01 Dec 2016 10:58:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120595 With just over seven minutes left, junior point guard Robert Cartwright stole the ball, drove down the court and found center Grant Verhoeven for an easy layup to pull the Cardinal within five points. But the senior’s team-high 12 points and electric second-half play could not rally the team back as Stanford men’s basketball (6-2) came up short at home against No. 12 Saint Mary’s (6-0) 66-51.

The post Second-half slump hands men’s basketball loss to No. 12 Saint Mary’s appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
With just over seven minutes left, junior point guard Robert Cartwright stole the ball, drove down the court and found center Grant Verhoeven for an easy layup to pull the Cardinal within five points. But the senior’s team-high 12 points and electric second-half play could not rally the team back as Stanford men’s basketball (6-2) came up short at home against No. 12 Saint Mary’s (6-0) 66-51.

The Wednesday night matchup pitted the Gaels’ Calvin Hermanson against junior guard Dorian Pickens, who earned All-Tournament honors at last week’s Advocare Invitational, in which Pickens averaged 18.3 points per game. Pickens was quiet on the night, finishing 0-of-4 from the field with just two points in 30 minutes. By contrast, Hermanson shot 9-of-11, including 7-of-9 from beyond the arc, where he drilled five three-pointers in the second half.

While the Cardinal displayed a balanced attack and solid defense, particularly inside, early on to give them a 30-26 lead at halftime, Saint Mary’s adjusted by pushing the ball to the perimeter and started the second half on a 12-0 run.

“We do try to play inside-out,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said. “Obviously, it didn’t work effectively enough.”

The Gaels shot 40.7 percent from three-point land, where the Cardinal connected for only three out of 12 attempts.

The Stanford offense continued converting on the low post, however, to give Verhoeven and junior forward Reid Travis a combined 9-of-17 total compared to just 31.6 percent from the rest of the team. Junior forward Michael Humphrey made a mere two buckets on nine tries, including a chucked-up three-pointer that hit the bottom of the backboard as the Stanford shot clock wound down.

“We need multiple guys on the offensive end to be efficient,” Haase said. “We’re not at that point yet.”

Though Hermanson’s career-high 25 points and three-point splashes proved lethal for Stanford, Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said he thought his forward’s defensive effort outshone all else.

“I don’t think Dorian got a good shot off all night,” Bennett said. “To hold a guy like that, who’s probably an All-Pac-12 guy, to two points, he did a good job.”

Hermanson said he was more proud of his defensive performance as well.

“I like defense more. There’s nothing more satisfying than getting a tough assignment and locking a guy down,” he said.

The student section at Maples was more full than usual to watch the Cardinal take on their first ranked opponent. Despite the packed section, the smaller Saint Mary’s traveling crowd made its presence heard.

“When there’s a ‘Go Stanford’ chant going on, and then after, when they say ‘Stanford,’ you hear our fans say ‘Gaels,’ it’s pretty cool to have that support of your student body behind you,” said Gaels guard Joe Rahon, who posted 10 points on the night. “Even though you’re on the road, we’re going on a run and you could hear cheering, which I think is very rare for a road game. So that helped us keep the ball rolling in the second half.”

For Verhoeven, who was the Cardinal’s only consistent offensive threat in the second half, an upset would have meant a great deal to the team, which started 6-1 for the first time in five seasons under first-year coach Haase.

“It’s a missed opportunity, but we have another one coming right up on Saturday,” Verhoeven said.

Stanford travels to Kansas on Saturday to take on the No. 4 Jayhawks.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Second-half slump hands men’s basketball loss to No. 12 Saint Mary’s appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/01/second-half-slump-hands-mens-basketball-loss-to-no-12-saint-marys/feed/ 0 1120595
Women’s basketball bullies Matadors in team win https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/21/womens-basketball-bullies-matadors-in-team-win/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/21/womens-basketball-bullies-matadors-in-team-win/#respond Tue, 22 Nov 2016 06:50:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120288 After getting upset by Gonzaga at home just two days prior, No. 11 Stanford women’s basketball (3-1) rebounded by trouncing the CSUN Matadors (2-2) 88-54 on Sunday.

The post Women’s basketball bullies Matadors in team win appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
After getting upset by Gonzaga at home just two days prior, No. 11 Stanford women’s basketball (3-1) rebounded by trouncing the CSUN Matadors (2-2) 88-54 on Sunday.

The home victory featured strong team play, as half of the Cardinal’s points came off the bench and three players finished in double digits. Senior captain Erica McCall led both teams in scoring with a final tally of 17 points on a game that featured 33-of-69 team shooting from Stanford, which improved from registering only a 37.9 percent mark in its loss to the Zags.

“This is the kind of game we needed, a bounce-back from the other night,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “Great team win. No one had to play too much … If we can play what I call tag-team, we’re getting a lot more off the bench from our post play.”

McCall was followed by 14-point efforts from junior guard Brittany McPhee and freshman forward Nadia Fingall, who went an impressive 7-of-8 from the field.

“She’s come along real well,” VanDerveer said of Fingall. “She listens, she works really hard at practice. She has a big, strong body … The biggest thing is, just the pace is faster than what high school is, so she’s adjusting to the pace.”

Recording her highest point and rebound totals in her first four games at the collegiate level, Fingall said that VanDerveer has encouraged her in practice to run the floor harder and that she puts in the time to catch up to college-caliber speed.

“You really don’t know what you’re getting into until you get [to college],” Fingall said. “So definitely just getting in, getting extra work with my coaches, asking questions and stuff has really helped getting the game to slow down.”

Defensively, Stanford effectively muted the CSUN three-point game, holding the Matadors to just three hits on 19 attempts. While the Cardinal allowed Gonzaga 61.5 percent efficiency from behind the arc last game, Stanford stymied the Matadors from that range in a 15.8-percent showing. The team also outrebounded them 52-29, with Fingall, sophomore forward Alanna Smith and junior forward Kaylee Johnson each notching seven boards.

The matchup was largely won by aggressive post play, with Stanford scoring 52 of 88 points in the paint.

“We’re excited about our post play,” VanDerveer said.

The team travels south to play in the Cancun Challenge against Northeastern, Wichita State and Purdue on three consecutive days starting on Thanksgiving morning.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Women’s basketball bullies Matadors in team win appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/21/womens-basketball-bullies-matadors-in-team-win/feed/ 0 1120288
Instant recap: Football unable to execute on both sides of ball as Huskies trounce Cardinal https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/30/instant-recap-football-unable-to-execute-on-both-sides-of-the-ball-as-huskies-trounce-cardinal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/30/instant-recap-football-unable-to-execute-on-both-sides-of-the-ball-as-huskies-trounce-cardinal/#respond Sat, 01 Oct 2016 04:45:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117465 Stanford football has seen its share of blowouts in the past year. This time around, however, the Cardinal were on the wrong side of the rout as No. 10 Washington (5-0, 2-0 Pac-12) man-handled Stanford (3-1, 2-1 Pac-12) 44-6 during a statement game for the Huskies in front of a sellout crowd in Seattle.

The post Instant recap: Football unable to execute on both sides of ball as Huskies trounce Cardinal appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Stanford football has seen its share of blowouts in the past year. This time around, however, the Cardinal were on the wrong side of the rout as No. 10 Washington (5-0, 2-0 Pac-12) man-handled Stanford (3-1, 2-1 Pac-12) 44-6 during a statement game for the Huskies in front of a sellout crowd in Seattle.

Both the offensive and defensive lines failed to execute as the team gave up 8 sacks for the first time since 2006, before the Jim Harbaugh-David Shaw era even began. The injury-ridden Cardinal substituted multiple O- and D-line backups to fill in for injured players such as defensive lineman Solomon Thomas and offensive tackle Casey Tucker.

Stanford seemed uncharacteristically lacking discipline as it was flagged 11 times for 100 yards. Crowd noise contributed to miscommunication, fumbles and two delay-of-game penalties.

From the outset the Huskies were in control, scoring at will starting with their first drive of the game when quarterback Jake Browning launched a 35-yard pass to receiver Dante Pettis to set up a Pettis touchdown a few plays later.

The Dawgs would go on to score a rushing and another passing touchdown and a field goal to give them a commanding 23-0 lead at the half from which they never looked back. Stanford’s 30-0 deficit in the 3rd quarter was the largest under Shaw and the largest since the 2008 Big Game.

Junior running back Christian McCaffrey silently picked up 223 all-purpose yards including 144 yards in kickoff returns but was stifled on the run against a smothering Husky front seven. Senior quarterback Ryan Burns gained 151 yards on 15-for-22 passing including a touchdown toss to sophomore receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside in the Cardinal’s only score of the night.

Washington displayed a balanced attack as receiver John Ross tallied 128 all-purpose yards, running back Myles Gaskin netted 100 yards rushing and Browning threw 15-for-21 for 210 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.

At multiple points during the game, Shaw tried to settle down his offense by calling timeouts but the decisions came to no avail as one led to a snap that Burns wasn’t prepared for on 4th down and another was followed by a fumble.

The Cardinal hope to rebound next week as they host Washington State on Saturday, Oct. 8.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Instant recap: Football unable to execute on both sides of ball as Huskies trounce Cardinal appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/30/instant-recap-football-unable-to-execute-on-both-sides-of-the-ball-as-huskies-trounce-cardinal/feed/ 0 1117465
Men’s soccer falters against San Francisco https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/27/mens-soccer-falters-against-san-francisco/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/27/mens-soccer-falters-against-san-francisco/#respond Tue, 27 Sep 2016 07:57:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117285 Men’s soccer struggled to find the net on Friday as the No. 23 Cardinal (3-2-3) was bested by San Francisco, 2-1, ending their eight-game undefeated streak against the Dons in Stanford’s final non-conference match.

The post Men’s soccer falters against San Francisco appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Men’s soccer struggled to find the net on Friday as the No. 23 Cardinal (3-2-3) were bested by San Francisco 2-1, ending their eight-game undefeated streak against the Dons in Stanford’s final non-conference match.

“They were playing like it was a cup final and we were playing like it was a Sunday afternoon stroll,” head coach Jeremy Gunn said. “All credit to the way they played, but we have to look ourselves in the mirror and see about our attitude.”

Junior Foster Langsdorf's 86th-minute shot ricocheted off of several defenders, resulting in a San Francisco own goal. That would be Stanford's only score in its 2-1 loss to the Dons. (ANDREW VILLA/The Stanford Daily)
Junior Foster Langsdorf’s 86th-minute shot ricocheted off of several defenders, resulting in a San Francisco own goal. That would be Stanford’s only score in its 2-1 loss to the Dons. (ANDREW VILLA/The Stanford Daily)

Coming off blowout victories the weekend before, Stanford couldn’t find a rhythm at Negoesco Stadium as it was outshot 11-2 in the first half and gave up goals to USF’s Jorge Ruiz in the 37th minute and David Garrett in the 56th. Despite a diving save by senior goalkeeper Andrew Epstein just before Ruiz’s goal, the freshman was able to rebound the shot to net his first career score. Garrett found the back of the goal after a pass from USF junior Aaron Lombardi on the left edge of the 6-yard box put the senior forward in position facing the middle of the net.

In the 86th minute, the Cardinal finally scored on a shot from junior forward Foster Langsdorf that ricocheted off multiple Don defenders before bouncing off Lombardi and past USF sophomore goalkeeper Andre Glasnovic for an own goal. Langsdorf had four of the last seven goals for the Cardinal.

Junior left winger Bryce Marion suffered near misses to the far post in the 29th and 50th minutes. The team also had two second-half headers that went high over the goal.

Facing a possible fifth-straight loss this season, USF displayed a thrilling performance at home in front of a sellout crowd, the first at the Hilltop since 2011.

“San Francisco was fired up, had a tremendous crowd and great excitement,” Gunn said of the 1,900-spectator match. “They managed to put away their chances just a little bit better than we did.”

The defending national champions face California at Cagan Stadium this Sunday at 5 p.m.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Men’s soccer falters against San Francisco appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/27/mens-soccer-falters-against-san-francisco/feed/ 0 1117285
Men’s water polo places fifth in MPSF Invitational https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/26/mens-water-polo-places-fifth-in-mpsf-invitational/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/26/mens-water-polo-places-fifth-in-mpsf-invitational/#respond Mon, 26 Sep 2016 08:08:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117242 The No. 5 Stanford water polo team (8-2), finished fifth in the MPSF Invitational on Sunday following three wins against ranked teams and a loss to No. 4 Pacific in the weekend tournament.

The post Men’s water polo places fifth in MPSF Invitational appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The No. 5 Stanford water polo team (8-2) finished fifth in the MPSF Invitational on Sunday following three wins against ranked teams and a loss to No. 4 Pacific in the weekend tournament.

The fifth-seeded Cardinal tallied a season-high 20 goals in their first game of the three-day contest with a 20-6 decision over No. 18 San Jose State at Northgate High School on Friday. Senior driver Sam Pfeil led the team with 5 goals, three of which came in the third quarter.

On Saturday, junior Mitchell Mendoza hit two goals late in the second quarter to tie Pacific, 4-4, at halftime. The Tigers burst into the second half with three straight goals in the first two minutes to start pulling away from the Cardinal. A fourth-quarter goal by sophomore driver Blake Parrish to put Stanford within one point of Pacific proved to be too little, too late as the Cardinal fell to the Tigers, 9-8.

Later that afternoon, the team rebounded to beat No. 10 Pepperdine, 11-9. The Cardinal fought off an early four-score deficit with solid team play and late-game goals by junior Cody Smith and senior Justin Roberto to earn the squad a spot in the fifth-place match.

Junior Harrison Enright led Stanford with 3 goals in its final match of the weekend against No. 7 Long Beach State. The 8-6 win at Spieker Aquatics Complex at Berkeley capped the tournament for the Cardinal.

The team gets a week’s rest after a busy weekend with its next game at Santa Clara on Oct. 5.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Men’s water polo places fifth in MPSF Invitational appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/26/mens-water-polo-places-fifth-in-mpsf-invitational/feed/ 0 1117242
Kailee Johnson to forego senior season with women’s basketball team https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/01/kailee-johnson-to-forego-senior-season-with-womens-basketball-team/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/01/kailee-johnson-to-forego-senior-season-with-womens-basketball-team/#respond Fri, 02 Sep 2016 04:43:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1116905 Senior forward Kailee Johnson will not return to play for the Stanford women's basketball team in her final season of eligibility.

The post Kailee Johnson to forego senior season with women’s basketball team appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Senior forward Kailee Johnson will not return to play for the Stanford women’s basketball team in her final season of eligibility.

Johnson, who started in 12 times in 30 games played last season, has decided to graduate two quarters early and pursue a career in real estate investment.

“I’ve learned so much and grown a great deal as a person the past three years and I’ll always cherish my time as a member of the women’s basketball program,” Johnson said in a statement. “I want to thank [head coach] Tara [VanDerveer] for giving me the opportunity to be where I am today along with my coaches and teammates for their support and friendship.”

The decision comes after news that fellow senior and three-year starting guard Lili Thompson would not be returning to the program for the 2016-17 season. The veterans were expected to be significant contributors in an experienced team that made it to the Elite Eight last year.

“Stanford is such a unique place and I’m happy that KJ has taken full advantage of all that this university has to offer,” VanDerveer said. “She was a great teammate and we’ll miss her, but are anxious to see all that she will accomplish in the future.”

A Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention selection, Johnson averaged 2.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 18.2 minutes her junior year, as compared to only 7.6 minutes the previous year in her second season.

Johnson said she is excited to begin her professional life.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, but I’m eager to start my career,” Johnson said. “I am the biggest fan of Stanford women’s basketball and look forward to cheering on my team this season and beyond.”

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Kailee Johnson to forego senior season with women’s basketball team appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/01/kailee-johnson-to-forego-senior-season-with-womens-basketball-team/feed/ 0 1116905
Electrical short the latest in new Humanities House woes https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/24/electrical-short-the-latest-in-new-humanities-house-woes/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/24/electrical-short-the-latest-in-new-humanities-house-woes/#respond Thu, 25 Feb 2016 06:52:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111487 An electrical failure at Humanities House activated a fire alarm, forced a temporary student evacuation and elicited a response from the Palo Alto Fire Department on Feb. 16. Although no property was damaged, it was the latest in a series of problems in the new building that have frustrated and, on occasion, displaced residents.

The post Electrical short the latest in new Humanities House woes appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
An electrical failure at Humanities House activated a fire alarm, forced a temporary student evacuation and elicited a response from the Palo Alto Fire Department on Feb. 16. Although no property was damaged, it was the latest in a series of problems in the new building that have frustrated and, on occasion, displaced residents.

“The cause of the alarm was identified as work being done on an electrical panel that caused a short and some smoke but no fire,” said Rodger Whitney, executive director of R&DE Student Housing and Community Housing, in an email to The Daily.

After the alarm sounded at 9:20 a.m., the fire department arrived in less than three minutes, Whitney said.

“We stopped hearing the alarm after about 40 minutes, but we didn’t get back into the dorm until at least 20 minutes afterward,” said Justin Hsuan ’18, a Humanities House resident.

Hsuan said that the incident may have inconvenienced some residents who had morning classes if they had backpacks or other class materials inside during the fire department’s investigation. Personally, he said, the time outside interrupted his sleep schedule.

“I was sleeping and then it woke me up,” he said. “As soon as we got back in the dorm, I went right back to sleep … I didn’t wake up until, like, 1:30 p.m. that day.”

Truman Chen ’17, a residential assistant (RA) at Humanities House, found a silver lining to the situation.

“Not sure there was much of an impact other than inconvenience in the early morning,” Chen said. “Plus side: Residents gathered outside and bonded in their collective suffering!”

Chen also said that the short led to a power outage for about an hour and a half after residents were allowed back inside the building.

While the mishap was handled smoothly, Chen said that he and the other RAs were not completely certain of the process for dealing with fire alarms. For example, they did a roll call but realized afterwards that that was not necessary.

“It would have been nice to have had a drill beforehand,” he said. On the other hand, Chen added that they now feel more prepared for emergencies in the future.

Whitney confirmed that there are no outstanding functional issues with the Humanities House residence and that no property was damaged in the incident. However, two noise-related issues arose this year, one of which will lead to the reassignment of residents in spring quarter.

“With any new building, issues may arise after residents have moved in, especially when systems are used for the first time,” Whitney said.

One of the noise complaints came from the hydronic heating system, which circulates hot water through convectors mounted in each room.

“Some people experienced a chattering or knocking noise,” he said. “The heating valves have been adjusted to prevent this noise from reoccurring.”

The other noise issue stemmed from a problem with the amount of noise transfer through the wood frame construction of the house, particularly in rooms on the third floor above the resident fellow’s (RF) apartment. Residential Education (ResEd) worked with students to implement several attempted fixes throughout fall and winter quarter, according to Harry Elliott ’18, a resident living on the third floor of Humanities House.

“We have had to go through multiple rounds of fixes, from fancy bath mats to a renovation that required us to move all our stuff out to a plea to walk around quietly,” he said.

Elliott and at least four other students were informed by ResEd on Monday that they would be forced to change rooms because of the noise issue. Elliott said he was appalled at the way ResEd and R&DE Student Housing were handling the situation.

“I really do hope the noise on the second floor is absolutely intolerable to tolerate this level of displacement,” he said.

Elliott also expressed concern that affected residents were given only one day to respond to ResEd with their housing preferences related to the move.

ResEd has offered students movers to help them make the transition, according to an email from Koren Bakkegard, associate dean of ResEd.

“We deeply regret the necessity of an additional disruption to your housing assignment this year,” Bakkegard wrote in the email. “We know this has not been an easy process for you, and were it not for the significant impact on the health and wellbeing of the RF family, we would not need to take these rooms offline for occupancy.”

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Electrical short the latest in new Humanities House woes appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/24/electrical-short-the-latest-in-new-humanities-house-woes/feed/ 0 1111487
‘True Gentleman’ speaker series spurs discussion of masculinity https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/07/true-gentleman-speaker-series-spurs-discussion-of-masculinity/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/07/true-gentleman-speaker-series-spurs-discussion-of-masculinity/#respond Mon, 08 Feb 2016 07:36:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1110404 Dozens of students gathered in the Women’s Community Center (WCC) on Thursday afternoon to hear from Professor Robert Jensen of the University of Texas at Austin, the first talk of four in the True Gentleman Speaker Series.

The post ‘True Gentleman’ speaker series spurs discussion of masculinity appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Dozens of students gathered in the Women’s Community Center (WCC) on Thursday afternoon to hear from journalism professor Robert Jensen of the University of Texas at Austin, the first talk of four in the “True Gentleman” speaker series.

The series, presented by Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) in collaboration with the WCC, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research and the Stanford Anscombe Society, was initiated to complement the fraternity’s educational programs among the brothers themselves.

“We wanted to open up the dialogue to a wider audience,” said Nick Burakoff ’17, one of SAE’s membership development chairs who spearheaded the series. “We really want to emphasize that it’s open to everyone and want some dialogue to be among [many] student groups, not just Greek.”

The broad issues covered by the speakers included masculinity, sexism and anti-violence. Jensen, who teaches media law, ethics and politics, started his talk by asking the audience to air “toxic conceptions of masculinity.” After hearing these negative notions of masculinity, he again asked those present to come up with a list of traits that embody the ideal of masculinity that all men should strive for. Honor, integrity, humility, vulnerability and protecting others were among the characteristics mentioned.

“These traits have nothing to do with being male,” Jensen said during the discussion. “They have to do with being human.”

Jensen concluded the event by encouraging students to discard masculinity altogether.

“Do we want to reform masculinity, or do we want to work toward abolishing the concept?” he asked.

Although the talk ended with this more radical proposal, the majority of the discussion focused on defining masculinity, which made some students wish it was more thorough and complex.

“It was a good thought to end on, but I didn’t think he needed to wait until the last moment to bring it up,” Shelby Marcus ’18 said. “He almost infantilized Stanford students by walking us through so much about gender and masculinity, and I think we could have started off with that thought and said, ‘What do we think about masculinity, and do we want to keep it and change it, or do we want to abolish the whole idea of putting a personality onto genitals?’”

Others, however, found the discussion provocative and helpful.

“I appreciated Professor Jensen’s argument that toxic masculinity is much easier to define than ‘proper’ masculinity,” Antonio Aguilar ’18 said. “Even though I would still stand by a positive conception of masculinity, it was humbling to be reminded that my concepts weren’t as clear as I thought they were.”

SAE hopes to make the speaker series an annual event, though future years’ might center around other topics, according to Burakoff. Burakoff, who is president of the Stanford Concert Network, said that the fraternity also plans to hold a benefit concert in the spring.

In the opinion of Chase Brandon ’17, another SAE membership development chair, these events are beneficial for the campus as a whole.

“Personally, it’s reputation,” Brandon said. “We got thrown into this reputation of being bad guys for stuff that we didn’t do. We have a chance to redefine our chapter and I think this is a great way to do it.”

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘True Gentleman’ speaker series spurs discussion of masculinity appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/07/true-gentleman-speaker-series-spurs-discussion-of-masculinity/feed/ 0 1110404
OpenXChange Listening Dinner gives students voice https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/28/openxchange-listening-dinner-gives-students-voice/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/28/openxchange-listening-dinner-gives-students-voice/#respond Wed, 28 Oct 2015 07:42:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1105852 Around 200 students attended the OpenXChange Listening Dinner to express concerns about Stanford to 33 University administrators, professors and trustees in McCaw Hall on Monday.

The post OpenXChange Listening Dinner gives students voice appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Around 200 students attended the OpenXChange Listening Dinner to express their concerns regarding Stanford to 33 university administrators, professors and trustees in McCaw Hall on Monday.

“The real point of this is to listen to what your thoughts are,” Provost John Etchemendy Ph.D. ’82 said to the eight students at his table before opening remarks by Vice Provost Harry Elam. “I’d be happy to answer questions, but unless you want me to, I’ll just listen.”

Etchemendy’s words echoed the sentiment of the event, as conversations were noticeably cordial. Administrators at the dinner, including President John Hennessy, had all agreed to simply sit and listen. One student at each table took notes to be compiled and discussed at the next OpenXChange committee meeting, in which a plan of action will be made.

Elam began the night by explaining the impetus for the dinner, stating that Dean for Religious Life Jane Shaw came up with the idea so that students across campus could “communicate and commune together in different and productive ways.”

“This idea speaks directly to the goals of OpenXChange, which are to cultivate and support a space for informed and open discussion across campus and across diverse social issues,” Elam said.

Addressing concerns which had been raised by critics of the OpenXChange program regarding its alleged power imbalance, Elam said that this dinner gave administrators the opportunity to engage with students without the veil of authority typically present when the two groups interact.

In addition to discussing the major campus climate issues from last year — Black Lives Matter, divestment from companies in Israel, mental health and sexual assault — students brought up issues ranging from graduate student housing to supporting low-income students.

“Students are getting more sensitive to other people’s feelings in realizing that people come from different backgrounds,” Hennessy said.

Although over 1,000 students entered the ticket lottery and 300 received tickets, only about 200 attended. Etchemendy said the organizers could have made it clearer that there was a waiting list. However, he was pleased with the level of intellectual and polite discussion from those who did attend as it seemed like they were able to park any preconceived notions at the door and come in with an open mind.

“It was a good start at community dialogue, and I hope there can be actionable results,” Charles Lu ’18 said.

Going forward, the OpenXChange initiative will put on six “Open Office Hours” sessions in which a panel will provide more information on a pressing campus or world issue and invite students to express their positions on the issue. Dean of the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Pamela Matson will lead the first discussion, focused on climate change. Upcoming Open Office Hours will feature human rights, immigration, Black Lives Matter and mental health concerns, according to Elam.

The vice provost emphasized that this dinner would not be the last and that he hopes the conversation will continue.

“Tonight is a beginning and not an end in itself,” Elam said.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post OpenXChange Listening Dinner gives students voice appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/28/openxchange-listening-dinner-gives-students-voice/feed/ 0 1105852
Q&A with Christopher Ré, MacArthur ‘Genius’ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/02/qa-with-christopher-re-macarthur-genius/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/02/qa-with-christopher-re-macarthur-genius/#respond Fri, 02 Oct 2015 10:58:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1104200 Assistant professor of computer science Christopher Ré received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Monday. One of 24 fellowship prizes, the $625,000 grant will fund his work in a breadth of computer science areas.

The post Q&A with Christopher Ré, MacArthur ‘Genius’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Christopher Ré
Assistant professor of computer science Christopher Ré was named one of 24 MacArthur “geniuses” on Monday for his work on developing a system to convert unstructured data into structured databases, among other things. (Courtesy of Don Feria)

Assistant professor of computer science Christopher Ré received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Monday. One of 24 fellowship prizes, the $625,000 grant will fund his work in a breadth of computer science areas.

Recognized for his contributions to making big data analysis more accessible, Ré developed an inference engine called DeepDive, which has been used for medical and anti-human trafficking efforts. The Daily spoke with him about his plans for further application.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Much of your work recently has been focused on big data, a field that has been a buzzword recently in computer science. When did you first become interested in big data and its application to solving real-world problems?

Christopher Ré (CR): When I was an undergrad, I first had a database class that I was taking. A guy named Jim Gray came by and spoke. Jim was a Turing award winner. He worked on this project called The Worldwide Telescope, which now I think is called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

One of the things that happened during that class is I saw this guy — I was kind of a math student at the time — I saw this guy who was working on these really applied problems for physicists and astrophysicists. He had this beautiful abstraction that he was providing to them, and he had a very simple observation, which was all the telescopes in the world eventually dump their data onto hard disks, and if you just took all those hard disks and strapped them all together, you could have a much bigger telescope. And it was like one of those “aha” moments when you realize this is a key place where you can have a huge amount of impact.

I started thinking about a career in data management more seriously as a result of that, and then over the last 10 or 15 years have been thinking about different ways that I could apply that. So now we’re not doing as much with physics stuff, but I’m really interested in continuing this observation that all the world’s scientific knowledge hits publications — that’s where it is, that’s where it lives — and it’s somehow inaccessible even though it’s right out there to have, yet they can’t make use of it. So that got me really excited and that’s why I started working on the DeepDive project.

TSD: Can you tell me a little about the DeepDive project and how you’re trying to revolutionize databases and their capabilities?

CR: So one of the big problems is in a traditional database, you have to have very clean, precise information. Databases were really made for financial transactions. Every record that’s inside that database is perfectly correct, and so a lot of the technology that goes into that is about dealing with these perfectly correct, clean databases.

Now, if you want to go out into the literature, these are documents that are written by people, so they’re necessarily vague and ambiguous. They have a lot of imprecision in them. And so trying to map that text and those emails and those webpages that contain all that valuable information into that precisely structured form is a real challenge, and so people have been working on that in natural language processing, have been working on it in databases, they’ve been working on it in a bunch of different areas.

With DeepDive, what we’re really excited about is that we’ve been able to take advantage of the fact that the last 10 or 15 years, some great work has gone on here at Stanford like Chris Manning’s Stanford NLP [Natural Language Processing] group, who have been able to build all these tools that have allowed us to actually build these end-to-end systems, all the way from the text to the structured data, with really high quality. And that is based on not just the work in our group, that is a huge number of people who have contributed to that, Chris being among them.

What we’ve been focused on is now that we’ve started to build these systems, can we build them dramatically faster, dramatically more easily, with higher quality? DeepDive is really pushing in that direction, pushing for more information, higher resolution and easier to use we hope. We’re not very close yet but we’re moving in that direction.

TSD: You mentioned making it more accessible and easier to use. What further applications do you see DeepDive being used for?

CR: Even just today, we’ve been talking to people who have a whole bunch of image data, so we have some students who have these projects where they’re looking at things like lung cancer. So they have medical images that are actually looking at the cells of different tissue, and they have reports that are written by pathologists, and the pathologist has a really hard challenge. They have to look through these massive images and try to identify how severe is a cancer, what kind of cancer is it, is it even cancer to begin with?

Machines don’t get tired — they can look at all this information — and what we’re looking for in DeepDive is that they can expand the types of information, the types of data that are involved, and that will allow us to have applications in medical schools and various branches of science.

We’ve been active in anti-human trafficking. The possibilities are really staggering for us right now. We’re getting a lot of emails, as one might imagine, about different places to apply it. So we’re really excited to try to find out which key new features are going to enable new applications. But the easy one is medical imaging.

TSD: The MacArthur Foundation commits itself to supporting people who are committed to building a “more just, verdant and peaceful world.” Why do you believe that you were selected to uphold this mission and how do you think you can serve that cause?

CR: It’s a great charter. I’m not sure that we deserve that mantle, but we’re really excited by it. I think one of the things that the MacArthur Foundation was interested in, or at least they told us they were interested in, was the fact that we were taking some of this technology and applying it in new places for society, like the anti-human trafficking work that we’ve been doing with DARPA and a bunch of other teams.

This is a problem — anti-human trafficking — that has gone on for a long period of time, but it hasn’t really received a lot of attention because it’s very difficult to get ahold of. But this is the kind of data that we can unearth now, and then go back and have a societal impact. And I’m hopeful that with this award and with some of the attention for this kind of work that more people will engage with it. And at Stanford we already have a tradition of it. My colleague Jure Leskovec ran something on data mining for societal good this past year.

So at Stanford we’re sort of leading the way of trying to say, “Hey, all this great technology not only can make better services for people, better consumer applications, but can fundamentally change society.” So this is really the exciting place to be to do that work, and I think in part the MacArthur was not just recognizing our individual work but was recognizing all the great people who have gone on here, and I got lucky — I got picked out of the hat, so that was pretty exciting.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Q&A with Christopher Ré, MacArthur ‘Genius’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/02/qa-with-christopher-re-macarthur-genius/feed/ 0 1104200
Q&A with Mark Duggan, new director of SIEPR https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/24/qa-with-mark-duggan-new-director-of-siepr/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/24/qa-with-mark-duggan-new-director-of-siepr/#respond Thu, 24 Sep 2015 07:30:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1103782 Three weeks ago, professor of economics Mark Duggan assumed the directorship of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). The Daily sat down with him to hear about his plans for expanding undergraduate research in economic policy and better communicating research to policymakers.

The post Q&A with Mark Duggan, new director of SIEPR appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Economist Mark Duggan assumed the role of director at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research earlier this month.
Economist Mark Duggan assumed the role of director at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research earlier this month. (TRISTAN VANECH/The Stanford Daily)

Three weeks ago, professor of economics Mark Duggan assumed the directorship of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). The Daily sat down with him to hear about his plans for expanding undergraduate research in economic policy and better communicating research to policymakers.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Could you give us a little bit of background on SIEPR’s role at Stanford from your point of view?

Mark Duggan (MD): SIEPR does a number of things. One of the things that we try hard to do is to support research on economic policy here at Stanford. That research is performed by faculty — some are in the econonmics department, some are in the business school, some are in other places around campus — and we try to support that research on really policy-relevant topics.

There are a lot of things that the government does, and economists will often help to try to understand the tradeoffs of those policies. Take something like the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare — it’s a complicated piece of legislation. It’s expanding health insurance coverage; maybe it’s affecting health care costs, and economists want to try to telescope in to understand what is happening as a result of these big changes in economic policy so that maybe policymakers down the road will be better equipped to make better decisions.

I think a big part of what we do is trying to support economic policy research, and that can consist of trying to provide resources to faculty for hiring research assistants. We also support economic research by students here, especially by graduate students. I’m only three weeks into the job, but I’m really eager to expand on creating opportunities for undergrads to do economic research, too – on things that interest them.

We have a lot of events, too. Next week we’re going to have former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors come to speak on Tuesday. In November, we will have the former head of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget.

It’s a big job to basically assume the directorship after John Shoven because he’s been the director for 16 years. He’s done an amazing job so it’s a little bit of a daunting challenge, but at the same time he’s created great momentum.

We’ve just recruited another strong set of people, and I think [we’re] trying even harder to take that research from the ivory tower and get it out there in such a way that the general public, the media and even policymakers or people in business can benefit from – because a lot of the research that we’re doing is highly policy relevant.

I worked in the Obama administration on Obamacare and other things, and I’ve testified before Congress. I certainly don’t know everything, but I know a bit about how D.C. works. I think that oftentimes it is helpful if you can distill what might be really complicated research into something that those on the front lines can digest. It can potentially have an impact. I think there are a lot of things that SIEPR does do and can do even better.

TSD: You mentioned your research on the effects of the Affordable Care Act, and I know you worked on that project over the summer. What other projects have you been working on since you came to Stanford last year?

MD: With the Affordable Care Act – just to give you a sense – it is now the case in California that one out of every three California residents are on the Medicaid program. That’s a huge increase over just the last two years, and it’s driven largely by Obamacare. In one set of projects, I’m trying to understand what effect that kind of expansion has had on what sort of healthcare people get, where they get treated – does it affect their health; does it affect health costs?

I’m also doing a set of projects on other large scale government programs. In one set of projects I have an undergraduate and a graduate student here assisting me along with a coauthor from Wellesley College. We’re trying to assess what’s been driving that increase in disability enrollment among veterans and what effect it’s having on them.

I also have this arsenal of research that I’ve done that, depending on what’s happening in the real world, may suddenly become pretty relevant. Right now a big issue in the healthcare sector is whether the federal government is going to allow two big mergers in the health insurance industry. On the one hand, if the government lets the mergers go forward, maybe that will lead to efficiencies, and maybe that will give the insurers more bargaining power so that they can hold down healthcare costs from hospitals and physicians. But on the other hand, maybe it will give the insurers more marketing power and cause them to raise prices and innovate less than they otherwise would. And just this week that research was cited in testimony before the U.S. Senate, and I think a large number of senators heard of this research. It is an example of exactly the kind of thing that we’re trying to do at SIEPR – so that whenever policy makers get around to considering a change that they have the best possible evidence to draw from.

TSD: For students who are interested in getting involved, what steps specifically would you advise them to take?

MD: They can just email me.

I’ve been reaching out proactively to people in programs like Stanford in Washington, Stanford in Government, people over at the Haas Center for public Service, people here in the public policy program at Stanford. I’m trying to connect with people all over campus because I think there are a lot of people doing great stuff at Stanford that touches on economic policy. I’m eager to collaborate with people all over the place.

I’m going to try to have these events where I hear from students about [what they’re interested in]. I did this thing at Wharton. It’s similar to SIEPR but on a much smaller scale, and there we had this student association where, at any point in time, we had 15 or more students who were involved with what we were doing and were ambassadors for us in the student body.

TSD: Do you see yourself creating a student association here similar to the one that you had at Wharton?

MD: Possibly – if I think there’s an appetite for it, then absolutely. I want to get undergrads more involved. I’m eager to hear from people about how best to do it.

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit, but I don’t have a Facebook page or Twitter account, but we’re trying here at SIEPR to develop a bit of a social media presence. I think students can be unbelievably helpful to us on that.

I would like us to do more to inform people about the landscape of issues that are out there so that they can figure out what is the issue here that they identify most with.

I think [at Stanford] there’s a lot of interest in coming up with innovative ways to tackle things in a data-driven way, and I think that there’s just a huge arsenal of people here who, if they decided to shine the light on some of the issues that I’ve talked about, it could be very rewarding.

 

 

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Q&A with Mark Duggan, new director of SIEPR appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/24/qa-with-mark-duggan-new-director-of-siepr/feed/ 0 1103782
An Inconvenient Truth: Campus Climate warms up https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/27/final_avan-inconvenient-truth-campus-climate-warms-up/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/27/final_avan-inconvenient-truth-campus-climate-warms-up/#comments Thu, 28 May 2015 06:00:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1101735 Just over a year ago, the University announced the closing of popular sandwich eatery Ike’s Place, much to the chagrin of students who had enjoyed its being a delicious alternative to dining halls and other food outlets operated by Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE). A small group of students organized a protest in White Plaza, but the effort seemed light and expressive rather than one that actually expected to save Ike’s.

The post An Inconvenient Truth: Campus Climate warms up appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Just over a year ago, the University announced the closing of popular sandwich eatery Ike’s Place, much to the chagrin of students who had enjoyed its being a delicious alternative to dining halls and other food outlets operated by Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE). A small group of students organized a protest in White Plaza, but the effort seemed light and expressive rather than one that actually expected to save Ike’s.

If this year’s activism had been twice as intense as the Ike’s protest, the campus climate would still have been considered tame. “I absolutely feel that the campus climate is different, when last year, with the exclusion of [the Stand with Leah movement] at the very end of the year, the most activism we saw was about Ike’s,” said Deborah Golder, Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs.

After a historic meeting of the 16th Undergraduate Senate on Feb. 17, though, tension that had been mounting throughout the year finally reached a tipping point. On a campus known more for its startups than its activism, and on a campus known for its “bubble” that insulates students from the world at large, the campus climate was arguably more tumultuous than it had been at any point in recent history. Had the Stanford bubble finally burst?

 

Four movements converge

The Fossil Free movement achieved some level of success as the University promised to divest from coal. The Fossil Free movement was one of the first movements spurring activism on campus. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)
The Fossil Free movement achieved some level of success as the University promised to divest from coal. The Fossil Free movement was one of the first movements spurring activism on campus. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)

Though movements such as Fossil Free Stanford’s “Divest the Rest” campaign have seen significant rallies, petitions and marches, the most charged student activism on campus has centered around four main areas: Black Lives Matter, divestment, mental health and sexual assault.

After the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner over the summer and the subsequent no-indictment decisions for the police officers involved, coalitions on campus started to form to discuss and protest the decisions and make students aware of the national issue. Most notable of the coalitions was the Palo Alto State of Emergency group comprising members from various social justice groups in the Stanford community. With the Silicon Shutdown demonstration, the #HandsUpWalkOut event and the obstruction of Highway 101 all occurring during “Dead Week” of fall quarter, campus activism had reached a turning point.

Another coalition simultaneously sprung up around an international human rights cause, that of the Israel-Palestine conflict. In October, Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) called for divestment “from companies that enable and benefit from collective punishment, mass incarceration and the militarization of the police in Palestine and elsewhere.” SOOP’s petition for a resolution garnered over 1,700 signatures.

Siddharth Patel, a graduate student and co-president of Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), noted that the student activism fell in line with recent international attention and drive on the issue.

“Several divestment resolutions passed on campuses throughout the country,” Patel said. “The needle has shifted in terms of international sympathy with [Palestine] and recognition that something fundamentally unjust is happening with Palestinians.”

The two movements — Black Lives Matter and divestment — merged during the San Mateo-Hayward bridge protest, during which a Palestinian flag was displayed alongside signs supporting the Ferguson Action national demands.

According to some leaders of the Students of Color Coalition (SOCC), the specific state-sanctioned violence that both the divestment and Black Lives Matter campaigns claim to target has been an ongoing concern of students since well before this year.

“The tension has always been present because the issues students have always been pushing for have been consistently not met, throughout our time at Stanford and before,” said Tianay Pulphus ‘15, president of Stanford’s NAACP chapter. “I think what you’re seeing this year is students being vocal about the fact that they’re frustrated about these decisions that the University has made or not made.”

Mental health also proved to be a contentious issue going into the spring ASSU elections, as Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) was called out for its lack of resources. Last year’s Stand with Leah movement brought attention to the prevention of and education on sexual assault, a concern on college campuses nationwide. Discussion on the topic continued this year with the new Title IX office’s sexual assault and harassment investigations into Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE), the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) and others.

One of the four issues — Black Lives Matter, divestment, mental health and sexual assault — was brought into the University’s spotlight when the ASSU Undergraduate Senate heard hundreds of students express their opinions on divestment. After the resolution fell short of the required vote count in Senate but then was reversed a week later, claims that campus climate had taken a turn toward the divisive began.

 

The bubble bursts

Immediately following the passage of the resolution, which some members of the campus community felt was slipped under the table, social media, especially anonymous outlets like YikYak, exploded in a frenzy of name-calling, personal attacks and unrelenting outrage. The vote made international news, and some students believed the Senate had inappropriately made a bold political statement, outside the scope of its jurisdiction, that would only reflect negatively on the Stanford name.

Campus responded to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner with protests, joining the national Black Lives Matter movement. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)
Campus responded to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner with protests, joining the national Black Lives Matter movement. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)

Ramah Awad ‘17, co-president of SJP, thought of the vote not only as a victory for those who wished to send a message to the University but also as creating a space for discussion around an important global issue.

“During the campaign, divestment brought a lot of people to the table, and although we don’t always agree on end goals [and] we don’t always agree on strategy … the campaign really created a space for people to come and engage,” Awad said.

President Hennessy seemed to think that the engagement went too far, though. At the next Faculty Senate meeting, he read a statement noting “[an] atmosphere of intimidation or vitriol” at Stanford and encouraging “civil and rational discussion.”

Furthermore, the most recent Stanford Magazine cover story claimed that the administration is “worried that the divestment movement could endanger the university’s reputation, especially with Jewish families.” Alumni have been concerned with how the resolution has reflected on Stanford’s image, according to Howard Wolf, vice president for alumni affairs.

“Essentially all alumni from whom I have heard on this topic strongly disagree with the divestment from Israel agenda and were highly disappointed that the ASSU Senate voted in favor of such a proposal,” Wolf said. “Alumni are engaged with both students and the administration about the issues. The reason for this engagement is that they care deeply about Stanford and its future.”

As the campus saw dialogue became even more acrimonious, Provost John Etchemendy took his turn to make a statement at the April Faculty Senate meeting: “We seem to have lost the ability to engage in true dialogue. Dialogue is not monologue times two. The essential feature of dialogue is not speaking but listening: listening with respect and then expressing, in turn, one’s own view with clarity, rather than volume.”

The Provost’s statement also claimed that organizations endorsing candidates for the upcoming ASSU elections may have been preventing open-mindedness and true dialogue. Despite emphasizing that he was “not singling out any one group,” many perceived a connection to the allegations against SOCC that interviewers inappropriately asked then-candidate Molly Horwitz ’16 about her Jewish identity in an endorsement interview and made candidates sign “loyalty oaths.”

Students responded to the statement on the Diaspora email listserv, most notably Manny Thompson ’14 and Senator Malcolm Lizzappi ’17. Thompson, one of the leaders of the activist community, attacked the Provost for what he perceived were empty promises of dialogue and change.

“Sexual assault, police brutality against black and brown bodies, Israeli apartheid and unfounded attacks against SOCC perpetrated by [The Stanford] Review have been going on for years, and Etchemendy and the university have remained silent,” he wrote in the email. “The administration didn’t create space for dialogue on their own because they’ve never really been interested in dialogue. They’re interested in Stanford’s brand, because that’s what fills their pockets. They’re interested in perpetuating the status quo.”

Invoking the Black Power movement in his closing, Thompson wrote that he would prefer violent resistance to dialogue, which may have driven the Provost to personally respond, asking to meet to discuss these issues. Thompson declined the Provost’s invitation, writing that “dialogue for the sake of dialogue isn’t some magic remedy.” He instead listed demands for change that included divestment as well as action to “hire Black CAPS counselors, increase faculty diversity and stop giving rapists degrees.”

“Talking to one another is the only way I know to clarify misunderstandings and make forward progress,” Etchemendy replied.

Many were put off by these interactions between student activists and the Provost, even to the point of creating a website and petition to recall Lizzappi because of his “objectionable” comments in the email thread.

Former Senate candidate Brooks Hamby ‘18 was surprised that students could be so opposed to dialogue.

“Provost Etchemendy issued a simple call for calm,” Hamby said. “It’s perplexing that there are a few students who are fundamentally opposed to the idea of having discussion and sharing ideas with people that they disagree with. College is supposed to be about a free exchange of ideas, ultimately letting students decide their own views based on as many facts and opinions as possible — not less. More views, more perspectives and greater student debate and engagement will bring us to a better place, not a worse one.”

 

Anonymous aggression

With the whirlwind of what some termed “divisiveness” on campus, anonymous forums again became the method of choice for students to express their thoughts, feelings and concerns on the campus climate. Posts contemplating suicide, attacking individuals and making light of oppression pervaded Yik Yak and Whatsgoodly, leading to op-eds condemning the use of anonymous platforms for bullying purposes.

Immediately following the announcement of the Title IX investigation of LSJUMB, students claiming to be seniors posted disheartening thoughts about the campus climate this year, saying “Stanford isn’t an enjoyable place anymore” and “Sooooo glad I actually got to experience a fun, carefree and crazy Stanford.”

 

Where do we go from here?

The campus climate has changed — but does that mean any divisiveness has changed campus for the worse?

Dereca Blackmon ’91, director of Diversity and First-Gen Education and Training, said there is reason to have hope.

“There has been an ebb and flow,” Blackmon said. “I think it’s helpful for students … to not feel like, we’re never going to get through this, this is impossible and it’s destroying the fabric of Stanford. That’s not really the case. The truth is that the University has grown tremendously through these kinds of changes in the past.”

Although Ike’s most likely will not be returning to campus, the University is working on developing a plan of action over the summer to address the concerns raised on the four major issues, according to Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Harry Elam.

“What we’re preparing for in the fall is something that is still unclear, but a way of really finding space to have, campus-wide, a greater side of listening and hearing and conversation about issues,” Elam said. “How we do that? We haven’t really mapped it out yet — don’t have a plan for it. But the determination is there on the part of the administration that [we] feel it’s important that we help in the situation in any way we can.”

While none of the issues have been solved, most would agree that progress has been and will continue to be made, whether that comes in the form of institutional change or the vital role that awareness has played this year.

Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman said that for all the engagement that the school has witnessed this year, there is a silent majority that the administration would still like to hear from.
“There are a lot of students who aren’t engaged in the dialogue, and either run away from it, dismiss it, don’t engage, and there are some who don’t really want to learn about the issues either,” Boardman said. “So I see the University’s role also as trying to find venues to engage students more broadly, too, because there are a lot of students who haven’t participated in these conversations.”

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu

The post An Inconvenient Truth: Campus Climate warms up appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/27/final_avan-inconvenient-truth-campus-climate-warms-up/feed/ 3 1101735
Spring Faire moved indoors https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/17/spring-faire-moved-indoors/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/17/spring-faire-moved-indoors/#respond Mon, 18 May 2015 06:21:59 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1101089 The annual Spring Faire, which usually features several cultural food stations in White Plaza, took place in the dining halls this year as a result of rain on Thursday.

The post Spring Faire moved indoors appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The annual Spring Faire, which usually features several cultural food stations in White Plaza, took place in the dining halls this year as a result of rain on Thursday.

According to Residential & Dining Enterprises Communications Director Jocelyn Breeland, the Faire was dispersed across the dining halls because of the cold and wet weather.

“We want to do what will be most comfortable for students,” Breeland said in an email to The Daily.

The dining halls were originally scheduled to be closed for dinner, but because of the change in venue, each dining hall featured an expanded menu featuring a particular cultural theme. Themes ranged from “Streets of Mumbai” in FloMo to “Murica” at Lakeside. Students could use a meal plan swipe at any dining hall as usual, and previously purchased tickets could be turned in to the cashier at any dining hall for entry.

Charles Lu ’18 had purchased a ticket for the Faire and said while he would have liked to have eaten different types of food, he enjoyed the Thai concept food at Wilbur.

“It was pretty tasty. It was pretty convenient, right next to my dorm,” he said, adding that he would like to see R&DE host more events like the Spring Faire year round.

Robert Poole ’15 said that in past years, he enjoyed being able to share a meal with students he usually does not have the chance to eat with.

“Spring Faire was a really huge spectacle in past years, because they take over all of White Plaza, and they have all the dining staffs from all the dining halls out there, and you see all these people from across campus,” Poole said. “It was a break from the usual, so that was fun, but it didn’t have this huge bonding thing of being outside. But what can you do with rain?”

Two dining halls still featured entertainment. At Lakeside, Kathleen Howell ’18 performed with the Stanford Jump Rope Troupe.

“It’s fun for the team, and it’s good exposure getting different audiences, so that’s always nice,” Howell said. “The jump rope team ate there afterwards. Some of our students are grad students or non-meal plans, and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so good. I want to be on the dining plan.’”

R&DE Stanford Dining Chef David Iott also led a class in making Jamie Oliver’s “Squash It Sandwich” at each dining hall to celebrate Food Revolution Day.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu

The post Spring Faire moved indoors appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/17/spring-faire-moved-indoors/feed/ 0 1101089
Fix-it request system crashes Monday https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/13/fixit-request-system-crashes-is-now-fixed/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/13/fixit-request-system-crashes-is-now-fixed/#respond Thu, 14 May 2015 03:02:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1100899 The student fix-it request system underwent “ongoing problems” with its web application at fixit.stanford.edu early this week, the Housing Front Desk said in an email on Monday.

The post Fix-it request system crashes Monday appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The student fix-it request system underwent “ongoing problems” with its web application at fixit.stanford.edu early this week, the Housing Front Desk said in an email on Monday.

According to Residential & Dining Enterprises Communications Director Jocelyn Breeland, the 29-hour outage was resolved as swiftly as possible.

“The fix-it web application is hosted by a third-party vendor, not Stanford,” Breeland said in an email to The Daily. “That vendor implemented a network architecture change, not realizing that doing so would affect our operations.”

Students were encouraged to direct any fix-it-related issues to the Housing Front Desk while the information technology staff at R&DE worked with the vendor to resolve the website problems.

R&DE has begun a project to move the facilities management solution from the vendor-hosted solution to a Stanford-hosted solution by late fall. Breeland said the system should be better equipped going forward.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu

The post Fix-it request system crashes Monday appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/13/fixit-request-system-crashes-is-now-fixed/feed/ 0 1100899
New antibody injection may eradicate cancer https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/10/new-antibody-injection-may-eradicate-cancer/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/10/new-antibody-injection-may-eradicate-cancer/#respond Sun, 10 May 2015 23:16:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1100673 A research team at the the School of Medicine has published a study of a new antibody injection that could eradicate advanced cancer.

The post New antibody injection may eradicate cancer appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
A research team at the School of Medicine has published a study of a new antibody injection that could eradicate advanced cancer.

Edgar Engleman, senior author of the study and professor of pathology and medicine, has said the team observed tumor eradication, an indication that the body’s immune system might be able to be trained to attack melanoma, pancreatic, breast and lung cancers. The fact that this method targets a range of cancers and tumor types makes it unique.

The researchers’ approach draws from the process by which animals’ bodies reject organ transplants. First, the antibodies bind to foreign tissue such as a tumor. Then, dendritic cells ingest the tumor and alert T-cells. Finally, T-cells multiply and obliterate all cancerous tissue—both tumors and any distant metastases.

This process worked on cancerous mice, allowing them to live cancer-free for more than a year. The same chemicals given to the mice have already been used in clinical trials for cancer patients.

The study has been called a “tour de force” by medical oncologist assistant professor Holbrook Kohrt and will likely influence a therapeutic drug to be used in the clinic.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post New antibody injection may eradicate cancer appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/10/new-antibody-injection-may-eradicate-cancer/feed/ 0 1100673
Students ‘Take Back the Night’ on Monday https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/30/students-take-back-the-night-on-monday/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/30/students-take-back-the-night-on-monday/#respond Fri, 01 May 2015 00:04:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1100186 Started in the 1970’s, Take Back the Night is a non-profit which promotes its eponymous yearly event including a rally, a march and a speak out against sexual violence. An estimated 500 students, faculty and staff attended this year’s event at Stanford, which was co-sponsored by over 50 student organizations, academic departments and offices.

The post Students ‘Take Back the Night’ on Monday appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The Office of Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse Education and Response (SARA) sponsored Stanford’s annual Take Back the Night event on Monday.

Started in the 1970’s, Take Back the Night is a non-profit which promotes its eponymous yearly event including a rally, a march and a speak out against sexual violence. An estimated 500 students, faculty and staff attended this year’s event at Stanford, which was co-sponsored by over 50 student organizations, academic departments and offices.

Jessica Hernandez ‘16, a student staff member for SARA and a Peer Health Educator (PHE), helped contact student groups for co-sponsorship. To be a co-sponsor, Greek letter organizations needed at least 10 percent of their membership to attend the event, and at least five students were required to attend for any non-Greek student group.

“The interesting thing about the new campus climate is that a lot of people, especially now, want to be involved, so getting people to co-sponsor was not hard,” Hernandez said.

After several speakers and performances in White Plaza, the protesters marched silently around the Main Quad and gathered at Hillel for a speak out.

According to Angela Exson, assistant dean and director of SARA, the issue of sexual violence is vital to the campus community because it affects people of every gender, color and sexual orientation.

“We try to incorporate some performing artists; we try to incorporate a variety of different types of speakers, students and folks from across the campus to really show how broad and wide-ranging these issues are, and to really show why everyone should care,” Exson said.

Hernandez said that as a PHE, she hopes to make her freshmen residents aware of the prevalence of sexual violence not just across the country, but right here on campus.

“The national statistics are the same as the ones here at Stanford: one in four women will be assaulted in college, at this university specifically,” she said, adding, “For the most part, freshmen have never had the opportunity to have these conversations before.”

Jarreau Bowen ‘07, M.A. ‘08, associate director of the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education, spoke during the rally about how much more awareness there needs to be.

“With [over] 350 people in this audience, there are still almost 14,000 students who aren’t here. The reality is that this entire campus should be filled tonight,” Bowen said. “I cannot tell you how much it warms my heart to be able to see a crowd this large. At the same time I can’t tell you how sad I am because…we still are in the place where we were when I grew up…where people are still suffering in silence.”

SARA Assistant Director Carley Flanery agreed that everyone on campus should be made aware of sexual violence but noted the record high numbers at this year’s event. She also pointed out that perhaps not everyone is comfortable attending Take Back the Night but can help the cause by promoting healthy relationship skills in their own lives.

“My vision would be that everyone would be communicating with their partners, would start doing that if they’re not doing that already, and they would be asking for consent and they would be making that a part of their everyday life,” Flanery said. “These healthy relationship skills are not limited to interactions that folks have prior to and during sexual activity. They’re life skills, and so providing opportunities for that and for folks to integrate that into their daily life I think is a goal for this campus community.”

Exson encourages students to get involved by participating in events and coming to talks during Sexual Assault Awareness Month as well as continuing the ongoing activism around campus.

“The more we raise awareness, and the more events like this are happening, it gives voice to those who may not feel like they have a voice and who may not feel like their needs and issues are really being heard,” she said. “Those are the origins of Take Back the Night: breaking the silence and the shame and the guilt and the isolation that a lot of people feel being survivors or being impacted by these issues. “

The post Students ‘Take Back the Night’ on Monday appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/30/students-take-back-the-night-on-monday/feed/ 0 1100186
Men’s tennis falls short in Big Match https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/19/mens-tennis-falls-short-in-big-match/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/19/mens-tennis-falls-short-in-big-match/#respond Mon, 20 Apr 2015 06:30:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1099381 The Stanford men’s tennis team fell short in the Big Match on Saturday as Cal snapped Stanford’s 10-game win streak on Senior Day at Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal, who could have clinched the Pac-12 title outright with a win, now settle for a share of the title with USC. After winning the doubles […]

The post Men’s tennis falls short in Big Match appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The Stanford men’s tennis team fell short in the Big Match on Saturday as Cal snapped Stanford’s 10-game win streak on Senior Day at Taube Family Tennis Stadium. The Cardinal, who could have clinched the Pac-12 title outright with a win, now settle for a share of the title with USC.

After winning the doubles point, the Cardinal lost three of five singles points, making the score 3-3. Stanford’s last shot at victory came down to junior Nolan Paige on Court 5, who, after splitting the first two sets against Cal’s Billy Griffith, lost a tightly contested third set to give Cal the 4-3 win. The final set had the fans on pins and needles, as each of the last three games went to deciding points at deuce.

(NORBERT VON DER GROEBEN/stanfordphoto.com)
Junior Nolan Paige lost the closely-contested deciding match in three sets to Cal’s Billy Griffith. (NORBERT VON DER GROEBEN/stanfordphoto.com)

“We put a lot of emphasis on doubles coming in because we had lost a doubles point to these guys about two months ago, and maybe we didn’t do quite a good enough job of regrouping from a solid doubles point and playing the singles,” said head coach Paul Goldstein. “But, like I said, this thing came down to a point here, a point there.”

Several of the team’s recent wins, including those in upsets against USC and UCLA last weekend, were decided by the last singles match.

“We’ve played several really close matches this year, matches that came down to exactly the type of situation that we’ve had today and frankly, we’ve won four of them, and that’s uncommon,” Goldstein said. “I feel for Nolan, that we couldn’t do more to support him to get him a win. I feel for Robert Stineman, playing his last home match, that I couldn’t do more to help him get through.”

Seniors Stineman and John Morrissey, honored with a sign attached to a piece of net as part of a new Senior Day tradition, crushed their doubles opponents 6-2. Every volley Morrissey played was greeted with rapturous support from the crowd, the loudest of which were a few dozen of his fraternity brothers from Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

“They’re so loyal,” Morrissey said. “They come to almost every match, and they really give me that extra boost and that motivation to keep pushing. It’s phenomenal to have them out here.”

At the end of the day, the Cardinal finished the season better than expected and have a chance at redemption against Cal should the Bears win their first game in the Pac-12 tournament. Goldstein, in his first year as head coach at Stanford, said he shared the bittersweet feeling of his players.

“As a competitor, I’m disappointed,” he said. “If you take a step back and look at the season, I’m pleased.”

Looking forward to the Pac-12 tournament this weekend, Morrissey said the team simply has to refocus on the frame of mind they have had all season long.

“It’s what we’ve been emphasizing all year: process over outcome. We’ve improved a lot, and we want to go back to the basics; we’re not going to let this loss affect us too much,” he said. “We’re going to potentially see them in less than a week, so we’re going to look at what we could’ve done better today and show a stronger face next week.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Men’s tennis falls short in Big Match appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/19/mens-tennis-falls-short-in-big-match/feed/ 0 1099381
Stanford Energy Systems Innovations project started https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/19/stanford-energy-systems-innovations-project-started/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/19/stanford-energy-systems-innovations-project-started/#respond Mon, 20 Apr 2015 03:21:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1099347 The Stanford Energy Systems Innovations (SESI) project kicked off the opening of its Central Energy Facility, located near the golf course, with a private tour and reception on Thursday, featuring University President John Hennessy, SunPower President and CEO Tom Werner, and other executives and University officials.

The post Stanford Energy Systems Innovations project started appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
NEW.042015.sesi
Stanford’s new Central Energy Facility opened on Thursday with a private tour and reception. (Courtesy of Stanford News)

The Stanford Energy Systems Innovations (SESI) project kicked off the opening of its Central Energy Facility, located near the golf course, with a private tour and reception on Thursday, featuring University President John Hennessy, SunPower President and CEO Tom Werner and other executives and University officials.

According to Joseph Stagner, executive director of the sustainability and energy management department and one of the event’s speakers, the University began developing a plan in 2008 for a more efficient and sustainable energy system to replace the now 28-year-old cogeneration plant, whose contract expired at the end of last month. The plan eventually honed in on two new energy production methods: heat recovery and solar power.

“After analyzing the energy patterns of the campus, we devised this scheme which would allow us to collect all the waste heat and use it to heat the campus, and that turned out to be a lot more efficient, a lot more economical and it reduced greenhouse gases and water use, and so that’s why the campus selected this option,” said Stagner.

Replacing the old steam heating system, three new water-to-water heat pumps capture heat waste which is then returned to buildings to fulfill the campus’ heating needs. Hennessy said that the thermodynamic ingenuity of the “novel heat transfer mechanism” is a huge improvement from the cogeneration plant, though it too was cutting edge in its time.

“Being more efficient, being better consumers, but also being leaders in sustainability was critical for us,” Hennessy said of the project’s vision.

Indeed, the University hopes its energy system will serve as a model “for large organizations, utilities and governments,” it announced in a press release Thursday.

Thursday also saw the announcement of a new agreement to supply 65 percent of all campus electricity with renewable energy within California, aided by a Stanford Solar Generating Station, to be designed and built by SunPower. The 68-megawatt peak solar farm will be comprised of more than 150,000 high efficiency SunPower solar panels and is expected to come on line in late 2016.

“What’s nice about that is that our big electricity use is during the day, and that’s when the photovoltaic array will be supplying most of our power,” Hennessy said.

In his speech, Werner emphasized the University’s pioneering sustainability efforts in partnering with SunPower, which was founded by a Stanford professor and alumnus.

“Stanford’s bold initiative to integrate cost-effective, sustainable energy solutions to power its operations is unparalleled, and we applaud the university’s commitment,” Werner said in the press release.

Though the project has high hopes, it requires fine-tuning and careful experimentation to ensure best practices. Hennessy said that there is always more work to be done.

“We continue to think long-term about what changes might be next,” he said. “Some will be evolutionary and downstream I suspect; some will be revolutionary.”

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford Energy Systems Innovations project started appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/19/stanford-energy-systems-innovations-project-started/feed/ 0 1099347
Bike safety and the ‘Anchovy Effect’ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/29/bike-safety-and-the-anchovy-effect/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/29/bike-safety-and-the-anchovy-effect/#respond Sun, 29 Mar 2015 15:48:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1097816 The Stanford Department of Public Safety does not catch everyone who breaks traffic laws on bicycles. There is, however, a method to how they enforce the law to keep Stanford students safe.

The post Bike safety and the ‘Anchovy Effect’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Bike tickets are the bane of many students' existence but police officers say the enforcement if to increase bike safety (Stanford Daily file photo).
Bike tickets are the bane of many students’ existence but police officers say the enforcement if to increase bike safety (Stanford Daily file photo).

“Everyone else was running the stop signs! Why did you pick on me?”

This is a question commonly asked by students right before getting ticketed for biking through a stop sign on campus, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputy Allen James. The answer: the Anchovy Effect.

The Anchovy Effect, a term coined by James himself, means that, just like anchovies, bicyclists often travel in packs, which prevents police from stopping everyone who violates a traffic law.

“Anchovies survive because there are so many of them, and the predator can only catch a few,” James said. “But the message gets out to the other people too, because the people who don’t get caught see you sitting out there, getting a ticket, and that is a form of education in and of itself.”

Still, in the past year, 1,311 citations have been given on campus for failure to stop at a stop sign, according to law enforcement records technician Lydia Morgan-Herman of the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS).

Spreading the word through education

James said that because the police would much rather educate students on bike safety laws than force them to pay fines, he started a bicycling equivalent of traffic school seven years ago along with Ariadne Scott, the Parking and Transportation Services biking coordinator. The Bike Diversion Program holds one-hour classes three to four times a month to promote bike safety and provide an economical alternative to paying a hefty fine.

Public Information Officer Bill Larson, who is in charge of crime prevention and community safety, said that the classes help students understand the reasoning behind traffic laws.

“Education does include enforcement,” Larson said. “But it also includes an opportunity for us to talk to a student or anybody who we stop for a bike violation about why they’re getting this bike citation.”

Katie Dudley ’18 was ticketed for running a stop sign recently and originally thought she would have to pay the $200 fine.

“There was only one class offered within the 30 days that I had to do it, and I couldn’t miss practice for it,” she said.  “So I emailed them, and they said the best they could do is just give me a chance to do it in the next class.”

Noting that the 4 p.m. class time makes it difficult for athletes to attend, she said she was lucky that she had practice off the day of the next class. Dudley encouraged her friends to avoid the hassle of dealing with the ticket by following the traffic laws.

“Them knowing how much of a struggle I’ve had to go through dealing with it makes them be safer and not want to get a ticket,” she said. “But rarely any bikes actually stop, so I’ll be stopping while all my friends are just like, ‘Why are you stopping?’ and I’m just like, ‘I can’t get another ticket.’”

Spreading the word about bike safety is one of the main goals of the class, according to James.

“We hope that you will be a steward for good behavior and to go out and help your friends be safer and better citizens of the community,” he said.

Emphasis on helmet wearing

Since 2008, over 6,000 people have participated in the Bike Diversion Program, James said. As enforcement efforts have stepped up, class sizes have risen from 10 to 20 people per class to around 50, according to James. Though the class is typically comprised of students who have received tickets, anyone can come to learn more about bike safety and laws.

“I would recommend that any student that wants to be a safer bicyclist and protect his or her investment that they have made in their education [come],” James said. “Because if you think of your cell phone, would you carry your iPhone around without that protective covering?”

James said that one of the most impactful parts of the program focused on wearing helmets. The class has received funding for free helmets, and by the end of each session, James tries to get a few people to pledge to wear helmets when bicycling.

“Yeah, it makes me look a little dorky, it’s hard to carry, and it’s a pain,” he said. “But the benefit is, if somebody hits me and I can’t do anything about it, it may just very well save my Stanford education.”

Larson said that the class does more than just talk about hypotheticals — James and Scott have brought in trauma surgeons to share their real-world stories.

“They come in and talk about people they’ve operated on [that] ended up with traumatic brain injuries,” Larson said.

Goals for the program

James said he would like to see more students have easy access to the course material, which is why he hopes for it to some day become a mandatory pre-orientation class to accompany the alcohol and sexual assault education courses or even a mandatory part of New Student Orientation.

“Since we haven’t been able to be officially added to NSO, we’re going to try to get something online within the next year or so,” James said.

Expanding the reach of the Bike Diversion Program is important, James said, because a little education can go a long way in making sure bicyclists follow traffic laws and ride safely.

“We can’t catch them all,” James said. “There’s only a few of us and a few hundred bicyclists out there. So just hope you’re not the caught anchovy.”

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Bike safety and the ‘Anchovy Effect’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/29/bike-safety-and-the-anchovy-effect/feed/ 0 1097816
Revisiting Stanford’s history of Greek housing suspensions and appeals https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/03/revisiting-stanfords-history-of-greek-housing-suspensions-and-appeals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/03/revisiting-stanfords-history-of-greek-housing-suspensions-and-appeals/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2015 06:16:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1096962 In the wake of Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s losing an appeal of the University’s decision to revoke its housing, The Daily took a look at the recent history of fraternity evictions.

The post Revisiting Stanford’s history of Greek housing suspensions and appeals appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
In the wake of Sigma Alpha Epsilon losing an appeal of the University’s decision to revoke its housing, The Daily took a look at the recent history of fraternity evictions.

 

Delta Tau Delta

In 1995, fraternity Delta Tau Delta lost its housing. Dean of Students Marc Lee Wais cited three reasons for the decision: Delta Tau Delta’s significant debts to the University, behavioral problems and management issues.

“The circumstances dictated this decision,” Wais said. “Over the years, they have been notified formally in writing to remedy the problems. They simply haven’t been able to do that.”

Only weeks after this was announced, it was declared that Delta Tau Delta would be given a second chance, and the University re-examined its decision to strip the fraternity of its housing. Fraternity members also submitted a 10-page document that responded to the debt issues and outlined a management plan that would “ensure sound, effective management of the house.” Wais met with fraternity members and allowed them to respond to the allegations against them.

“By the time the meeting concluded there was some debate as to the facts that we made our decision on,” Wais said. “I thought it was fair to the fraternity… that they should be given the opportunity to provide the complete and accurate information.”

A week later, Wais did ultimately decide to evict Delta Tau Delta from its housing. Allowing the fraternity to appeal made this an unusual case at the time, as other fraternities were not allowed appeals.

 

Theta Xi

Theta Xi lost its housing in spring of 1998 for not being able to meet the “100-percent rule.” A new rule put in place just that year, this stipulation required any housed chapter to have a large enough membership to completely fill its house. Theta Xi was not able to do so and was evicted from its housing.

“It is my belief that we have done everything possible to have Taxi [Theta Xi] successfully meet the minimum residency requirement,” Wais said.

Fraternity members did not agree and protested this decision.

“We didn’t feel we had any options, but several [fraternity] meetings later, we came to the group consensus that we were being screwed, and we deserved another chance,” explained fraternity president Jeff McCarty ’98.

The fraternity was four members short of meeting the 29-member housing requirement, and it claimed it deserved a short extension to meet the requirement.

“We feel if we had some more time, we could line up four or five more people to live in the house next year,” McCarty said.

Fraternity members asked Wais for 48 hours to get new pledges. After meeting with fraternity members and the Office of Student Activities, Residential Education and Housing Assignment Services, Wais decided not to grant the fraternity an extension, claiming that the fraternity had not been able to meet the requirement for three years.

“We’ve been really accommodating for three years running,” Wais explained. “I can’t assume responsibility for their inability to generate and maintain membership.”

Theta Xi was the longest-running housed fraternity on Stanford, living in the same house since 1914. 717 Dolores, the former fraternity housing, is now a self-op.

 

Phi Delta Theta

In fall of 1998, Phi Delta Theta was evicted shortly after an intoxicated member of the fraternity was injured after falling from a balcony to the concrete below. The fraternity had already been on a one-year probation from alcohol-related functions at the house after a Phi Delt pledge was seriously injured in an alcohol-related incident on a weekend retreat.

“The event brought to light the fact that the Phi Delts did not follow the stipulations that had been laid out for them,” said then-co-chair of the Greek Judicial Board Brian Pilko ’99.

The stipulations of the probation stated that the fraternity was on its last strike in terms of breaking the terms of the probation.

Former University President Gerhard Casper approved of the decision, noting the sadness of the incident at a Faculty Senate meeting.

“The University will not tolerate such disregard when lives are at stake,” he said, adding, “This is not a fraternity issue only.”

The house reopened a year later as 680 Lomita, a self-op.

 

Delta Kappa Epsilon

In 1999, Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) lost their housing for failing to meet a number of requirements. They could not fulfil the membership requirements, did not meet the June deadline for paying financial obligations and failed to submit financial reports.

“DKE was given an extension of the deadline to submit their final roster after Rush… no other chapter was given such an extension,” said Wais. “They understood what was expected, and we are enforcing those guidelines. I’m disappointed with this outcome.”

Dean of Students Morris Graves stressed that guaranteed housing is a “privilege, not a right” and that Greek organizations “must comply by certain guidelines” to retain that privilege.

The former DKE house, at 592 Mayfield, is now housed by Phi Kappa Psi.

 

Kappa Sigma

Kappa Sigma was stripped of its housing in 2011 following two violations of its probation.

“The house has had patterns of behavior that go beyond what I would call shenanigans… to a level that was dangerous,” said Deborah Golder, dean of Residential Education (ResEd).

The University refrained from instituting the standard four-year suspension and instead offered a one-year hiatus as an indication that Golder believed Kappa Sigma had potential. The fraternity lost an appeal of the decision.

The residence was converted into a traditional Row house for the following year before Kappa Sigma regained housing privileges in fall of 2012.

The fraternity had divided itself into 11 groups focusing on improving a different facet of fraternal life. With this “divide and conquer” approach by Kappa Sigma, Golder saw true progress.

“We were very impressed with the amount of work they’ve done and want to show good faith in their projected trajectory,” Golder said. “We were really looking for a profound shift in attitude and culture.”

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ’at’ stanford.edu and Jeremy Quach at jquach ’at’ stanford.edu.

The post Revisiting Stanford’s history of Greek housing suspensions and appeals appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/03/revisiting-stanfords-history-of-greek-housing-suspensions-and-appeals/feed/ 5 1096962
Casa Zapata play programming changes after 25+ years https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/24/casa-zapata-play-programming-changes-after-25-years/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/24/casa-zapata-play-programming-changes-after-25-years/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2015 05:15:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1096462 After 27 years of showing “Zoot Suit,” Casa Zapata has changed its annual play programming this year to “Watsonville: Some Place Not Here” by Stanford artist-in-residence Cherríe Moraga.

The post Casa Zapata play programming changes after 25+ years appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
(CATALINA RAMIREZ-SAENZ/The Stanford Daily)
(CATALINA RAMIREZ-SAENZ/The Stanford Daily)

After 27 years of showing “Zoot Suit,” Casa Zapata has changed its annual play programming this year to “Watsonville: Some Place Not Here” by Stanford artist-in-residence Cherríe Moraga.

The play, opening this Friday, showcases the lives of Latina cannery workers experiencing substandard living conditions and also explores the themes of lesbianism, cultural identity and immigration. The break from tradition came after a series of town hall meetings, according to Casa Zapata’s ethnic theme associates (ETAs).

“Last year’s ETAs held a town hall to talk about the future of theater here,” said ETA Erica McDowell ’16. “It was mostly people who had been in ‘Zoot Suit’ or had lived in Casa Zapata who came to that. And we talked about what it would look like to do ‘Zoot Suit’ again versus exploring something else.”

Despite varying opinions among town hall attendees, the ETAs decided to produce “Watsonville.” ETA Peter Madsen ’16 said they aimed to open up their horizons to new themes and groups.

“We just wanted to have the opportunity to explore different Latino perspectives,” Madsen said. “This play focuses much more heavily on women than ‘Zoot Suit’ did.”

Madsen said that to the best of his knowledge, Zapata’s annual play is the only consistent Latino theater on campus. Another thing that sets this annual tradition apart is that it is almost fully produced and performed by students. This year, professional actress and director Wilma Bonet, the director of the production, is the only person outside the Stanford community called in to help.

Bonet said she is able to work around students’ busy schedules but still push them as actors to produce the best final result.

“I understand their limitations… and one of their biggest limitations is midterms and schoolwork,” she said. “I think that I’ve been putting up with it pretty well, so I think that’s why they keep calling me back.”

Bonet urges students to watch the play “to see a slice of history that exists and is fading quickly.”

“Because of these [cannery] strikes, our food is being moved around to cheaper areas like Mexico and Central America, and that means that our food is going to come back altered in some form,” she added.

The show is open to the public and will be performed at 8 p.m. on the Zapata side of Stern Dining on Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Casa Zapata play programming changes after 25+ years appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/24/casa-zapata-play-programming-changes-after-25-years/feed/ 0 1096462
Stanford Student Store ‘demands divestment’ from the Bookstore https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/22/stanford-student-store-demands-divestment-from-the-bookstore/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/22/stanford-student-store-demands-divestment-from-the-bookstore/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2015 04:32:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1096254 The Stanford Student Store set up shop on Friday facing the Stanford Bookstore with cardboard signs jokingly calling for “divestment” from the Bookstore.

The post Stanford Student Store ‘demands divestment’ from the Bookstore appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The Stanford Student Store set up shop on Friday facing the Stanford Bookstore with cardboard signs jokingly calling for “divestment” from the Bookstore.

Poking fun at the fact that divestment has become a conversation piece around campus, the promotion was advertised on a Facebook event page as a “protest” aiming to “fight corporate exploitation” and was accompanied by a video.

“Stanford, it’s time to take a stand and take meaningful action against these horrible corporations, who are ruining our beautiful campus,” said the tree-hugging character played by Jeremy Gilfor ’15 in the video. “Why not look to a beacon of hope in these trying times?… Don’t let the fat cats get fatter.”

Andrew Gronda ’15, the Student Store’s general manager, explained that the event’s purpose was twofold.

“The whole divest thing that we’re doing now is basically just latching on to the common discourse that’s going on around school to try to push one of the selling points that we’ve always had, which is the difference in the revenue streams of the Student Store and the Bookstore,” Gronda said. “We tried to do it in a way that’s not pushing any buttons, and that gained a little bit of attention.”

The Student Store’s profits are directly reinvested into student life via the Stanford Student Enterprises, while the Bookstore’s revenues are sent to Follett Corporation, a Chicago-based company that provides a variety of educational products to schools. Only a small portion of the Bookstore’s profits go back to the University itself, a fact that the Student Store highlights as a selling point.

According to Thomas Blackwood ’17, the Student Store’s mobile division manager, the promotion’s mention of the Bookstore also serves to separate the two frequently juxtaposed stores and make the Student Store a more well-known outlet.

“We just like to really separate ourselves and create ourselves as a very cool, for-the-students, by-the-students kind of organization,” he said. “Anything we think students will dig, we’ll make.”

Blackwood said the “protest” was not a call to action for the University or the Bookstore.

“We don’t think the Bookstore should get shut down, we just think that students should know where their money is going,” he said. “If they shop at the Student Store it goes to them; if they shop at the Bookstore, it doesn’t.”

Although the promotion occurred a few days after the ASSU Senate’s reconsideration of a bill recommending divestment from companies involved in Israel, Blackwood said the timing was only coincidental. The store had been planning the promotion since Fossil Free Stanford’s divestment protests a few weeks ago and meant to play off of those themes. After considering the sensitivity of the divestment issue, Blackwood said the Student Store decided to not specifically reference divestment in its signage.

“We opted against doing that in light of the events of this week, especially on Tuesday night,” he said.

The one exception, he added, was a sign with a rebus puzzle showing pictures of a die, a vest and a mint. Going forward, Blackwood said he hopes to sell merchandise in White Plaza and other mobile areas more regularly.

“Keep an eye out for us every Friday,” he said.


Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford Student Store ‘demands divestment’ from the Bookstore appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/22/stanford-student-store-demands-divestment-from-the-bookstore/feed/ 5 1096254
Game of clues comes to campus to resolve Jane Stanford’s murder https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/16/game-of-clues-comes-to-campus-to-resolve-jane-stanfords-murder/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/16/game-of-clues-comes-to-campus-to-resolve-jane-stanfords-murder/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2015 06:37:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1095806 One hundred ten years ago this month, Jane Lathrop Stanford died of strychnine poisoning. Since then, the circumstances of her apparent murder have not been fully fleshed out — until now. Or so claims an anonymous clue-giving texter behind what could be the largest sleuthing game in campus history.

The post Game of clues comes to campus to resolve Jane Stanford’s murder appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
(SOM-MAI NGUYEN / The Stanford Daily)
The Stanford Mystery Society has captured the attention of  budding sleuths on campus (SOM-MAI NGUYEN / The Stanford Daily).

One hundred ten years ago this month, Jane Lathrop Stanford died of strychnine poisoning. Since then, the circumstances of her apparent murder have not been fully fleshed out — until now. Or so claims an anonymous clue-giving texter behind what could be the largest sleuthing game in campus history.

The texting entity calling itself the Stanford Mystery Society (SMS) has been around for at least a year, sending out clues in the form of brain teasers and riddles that seemingly lead to solving a mystery. Whatever the end result might be, various clues have indicated that the SMS aims to reveal information about Stanford’s history, including that of Jane Stanford’s death, to those “agents” who are most persistent in the game by scouting out and decoding the clues. According to the website of ReDesigning Theater, which is part of Stanford’s design program, that worked with the SMS on one of its projects, the organization was founded, in 1974, long before the rise of the cell phone, “following mysterious circumstances on campus.”

To join the society, one must be nominated or contact the SMS via its website. After filling out an interest survey, potential detectives receive their first clue, telling them where to find a “key” that will indicate their new code name.

A freshman who requested only to be identified as Agent Packardson went with some friends to locate the box of keys in early January.

“We went there at like 12 at night so it was kind of spooky,” he said.

One of Packardson’s friends, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, immediately responded to the nomination text message and signed up.

“It was a little bit sketchy at first,” the friend said, referring to the initial messages. “I was just like, somebody’s pranking me, but it’s not a bad prank honestly. I like it. I was into that.”

Even after following a few clues, however, she still has her doubts. She said she thinks the whole thing could be a psychological experiment.

“I just think this is really nice,” she said. “I don’t expect to go into here solving a murder. It’s just for fun and I think they’re doing a good job of it. It’s very intriguing.”

The first enigma she had to solve was from the program of Jane Lathrop Stanford’s funeral.

“A few letters were circled, and it was sort of odd,” she said. “And there was some lines for you to fill in. And from there, we were supposed to decode what those letters meant.”

After a bit of help from her fellow sleuths, she found a lead.

“Turns out these were all elements in the periodic table,” she said. “When you find out that it’s an element, you can go from there and find the atomic numbers of all those, and those atomic numbers make coordinate[s] which personally I thought was really cool.”

The coordinates led the team to an old building where they found their next clue. Clue after clue, these mystery men and women search. But what of it?

“In the end of it I feel like it’s supposed to be one grand meeting,” she said. “I feel like at the end they’re going to put everyone who has been able to get up to a certain point together, and I bet they’d make you meet each other. I don’t know if I will get that far, but I have a feeling that people will.”

An in-person meeting for SMS members would not be unprecedented, as ReDesigning Theater’s 2013 project analyzing a “multi-level audience” brought dozens of agents together for an interactive performance.

The SMS seems to have strong ties to ReDesigning Theater. The project website mentions in its “next steps” section that the SMS is funded by a ReDesigning Theater Seed Grant.

“It is kind of fun; it is a mystery,” Packardson said. “You don’t know who’s putting this on, you don’t know how long it will go. And it’s not like creepy or anything in the sense that like none of us feel like we’re going to be in any danger going there, we’re all going with friends. So it’s just a fun diversion from the normal Stanford grind.”

Details of clue whereabouts and some solutions have been intentionally withheld from this report by request of the agent behind the text messaging system, whose identity will, for now, remain a mystery.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Stanford died one hundred years ago this month. She actually died in 1905 rather than 1915. We apologize for this error.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Game of clues comes to campus to resolve Jane Stanford’s murder appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/16/game-of-clues-comes-to-campus-to-resolve-jane-stanfords-murder/feed/ 0 1095806
Fossil Free Stanford protest prompts professor’s resignation from APIRL https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/04/fossil-free-stanford-protest-prompts-professors-resignation-from-apirl/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/04/fossil-free-stanford-protest-prompts-professors-resignation-from-apirl/#comments Thu, 05 Feb 2015 06:51:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1095010 The Band rally commemorating Meyer Library wasn’t the only rally making noise Wednesday afternoon, as Fossil Free Stanford (FFS) led a group of an estimated 75 students on an on-campus march in their continued push for University divestment from oil and gas companies.

The post Fossil Free Stanford protest prompts professor’s resignation from APIRL appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The Band rally commemorating Meyer Library wasn’t the only rally making noise Wednesday afternoon, as Fossil Free Stanford (FFS) led a group of an estimated 75 students on an on-campus march in their continued push for University divestment from oil and gas companies.

The rally protested the alleged obstruction of Stanford’s investment review process by University officials and the Stanford Management Company (SMC), the University division in charge of investing and managing its endowment and other financial assets. The march began in the Main Quad outside the President’s office.

The protest was originally sparked by the placement of earth sciences professor Mark Zoback on the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing (APIRL). APIRL is a group comprised of students, faculty, staff and alumni tasked with reviewing business policies and practices of the University that might cause “substantial social injury,” according to the APIRL website.

FFS believed Zoback, who would have served on the Environmental Sustainability subcommittee of the APIRL, had a conflict of interest. He currently serves as the director of the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative and as a senior advisor for Baker Hughes, Inc., one of the largest oilfield service companies. Zoback declined to comment on his resignation.

Following the announcement of the rally, Zoback stepped down from the panel on Tuesday afternoon. His resignation, publicized in an email statement from APIRL chair Susan Weinstein, came despite his and the University’s disagreement with the conflict-of-interest claims.

“Neither Mark nor the University agrees with this assessment; however, in the interest of not distracting campus discussion from the core issue, Mark has voluntarily stepped aside,” Weinstein wrote. “You should know that the University did not encourage or request that he resign.”

FFS proceeded with the rally, claiming its overall concerns with the University and with the SMC were still valid. Rally organizer Courtney Pal ’18 acknowledged Zoback’s expertise in environmental issues but said she believes that his “financial stake in the proliferation of fossil fuels” was a clear conflict of interest and that approving him as a panel member is indicative of the general and intentional mismanagement of the APIRL.

“We think that [his selection] is a demonstration of things that are wrong with the larger process,” Pal said.

Those larger issues stem back to last year, Pal said. According to her, FFS met with APIRL last year on a regular basis, typically once a week. In this academic year, FFS has only been able to meet with the Environmental Sustainability Subcommittee once.

“We had a lot of momentum going into that November meeting and believed that we had a great dialogue with them in that meeting,” Pal said. “We’re completely back at square one. I don’t think that’s a responsible process that they’ve developed.”

After the march concluded at the Graduate School of Business, FFS members Yari Greaney ’15 and Arjun Krishnaswami ’16 read aloud an open letter to the SMC. Krishnaswami said it has been “nearly impossible” to work with the APIRL this year, especially because of the apparent double standard with the selection process.

“One example of this is that the faculty member who studies the economic effects of climate change for a living was unable to serve on this panel because the meetings were scheduled during her class time,” Krishnaswami said.

Greaney tied their discontent back to the larger issue of divestment.

“Stanford Management Company, every day that you remain invested in fossil fuels, every day that we are stalled due to poor management of the advisory panel — that is another day that you bow down to the fossil fuel industry, letting it wreak havoc to our campaign,” she said. “But we will not bow down to that future.”

Krishnaswami said he believes the most egregious conflict of interest has yet to be resolved.

“You can’t pretend to have an interest in the futures of your students while also maintaining a vested interest in the profitability of fossil fuel companies,” he said. “It is a clear conflict of interest.”

While a replacement for Zoback has not yet been named, Weinstein’s letter stated that his resignation could delay progress with FFS.

“I am sure the Environmental Subcommittee will do its best to move forward with reduced membership; however, I am anticipating a delay in completing APIRL’s consideration of Fossil Free Stanford’s Request for Review as we look for new members,” she wrote.

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Fossil Free Stanford protest prompts professor’s resignation from APIRL appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/04/fossil-free-stanford-protest-prompts-professors-resignation-from-apirl/feed/ 5 1095010
Transfer Patrick Phelps benefits from past military experience https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/01/transfer-patrick-phelps-benefits-from-past-military-experience/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/01/transfer-patrick-phelps-benefits-from-past-military-experience/#respond Mon, 02 Feb 2015 07:49:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094726 As part of an ongoing series, the Stanford Daily is profiling some of the students who transferred to Stanford. This profile is of Patrick Phelps.

The post Transfer Patrick Phelps benefits from past military experience appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
SLIDER.020215.transfer
Transfer student Patrick Phelps finds that his past military experience has given him the work ethic to succeed during his time at Stanford. (TRISTAN VANECH/The Stanford Daily)

Stanford’s admission rate for transfer students is even lower than it is for the regular class, coming in at just two percent. Only 33 transfer students were admitted for the fall of 2014.

As part of our “Transfer Profile” series, The Daily interviewed Patrick Phelps, who transferred from the Peralta Community College District.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Where did you begin college and from where did you transfer?

Patrick Phelps (PP): I went to a community college in the East Bay, Peralta Community College District. I transferred last year, started in the fall. Stanford was the only place I applied, and I got in.

TSD: The transfer pool is extremely selective, more so than freshman admissions. What was the application process like, and what do you think set you apart?

PP: What I think set me apart is probably my military experience, my military service. To be honest, I thought my chances were slim so I wasn’t super positive about it. That being said, obviously I went the extra mile to give the best product. I was personally shocked when I got in. So that was the admissions experience for me.

TSD: Tell me a little about your military experience.

PP: I was in the army for five years, stationed in Fort Benn[ing] in Georgia. I was an army ranger, and I deployed to Afghanistan five times.

TSD: How do you think that has affected your experience here at Stanford? What have you brought from that experience to Stanford?

PP: Definitely the work ethic I think to succeed at a school like this. I definitely brought that with me, something I did not have when I was 18. That’s probably the primary thing, just staying focused. I’m studying mechanical engineering, so that’s a lot of work. But it’s not really a problem balancing that, and I know those are skills I didn’t really have before the military.

TSD: How has Stanford surprised you?

PP: It’s actually been incredibly welcoming to transfers and veterans. At New Student Orientation, I thought they really went out of their way to [welcome us]. It wasn’t just about the freshmen, it was about the transfers, even though there were only 30 of us. That meant a lot to me. Also they just established the Office for Military-Affiliated Communities just this year. So that kind of stuff is cool, and that stuff kind of surprised me because I didn’t know how Stanford stood on relationships with the veteran community.

TSD: Can you describe what it’s like to be a Stanford student? Have you found the Stanford community as a whole to be welcoming?

PP: I have a little different experience from [most] people in that I commute to school. I found it to be very welcoming, and it seems that every week there’s some new experience or new discussion or speaker or some event. It seems like every week there’s a new event to go to and get involved with — so it really is every weekend meeting new, interesting people. In that regard and just the wealth of opportunities, it’s felt very welcoming here.

TSD: What advice would you give to future transfer students?

PP: Don’t be intimidated. There’s a reason you got in. You could definitely do it.

TSD: What makes your Stanford experience unique as a transfer? Did you come in with experiences most people don’t have?

PP: Definitely. I’m 25. I’m older. I was obviously in the military, which is an experience most people in the undergraduate body don’t have. That definitely sets me aside. It’s a very different experience going to college in your mid-twenties and commuting than it is coming in as an 18-year-old kid or something like that. Very different.

TSD: What are your goals for the remainder of your time here at Stanford?

PP: I want to study mechanical engineering, and I’d like to co-term, perhaps in aero/astro engineering. I just really want to maximize what I get out of this time as far as not just class time but also getting involved in research projects and getting my feet wet in these areas that I’ve never had opportunities in before.

 

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Transfer Patrick Phelps benefits from past military experience appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/01/transfer-patrick-phelps-benefits-from-past-military-experience/feed/ 0 1094726
Students to take design thinking on the road to empower girls https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/21/students-to-take-design-thinking-on-the-road-to-empower-girls/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/21/students-to-take-design-thinking-on-the-road-to-empower-girls/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:32:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094104 A team of four students called Girls Driving for a Difference will embark on a cross-country roadtrip this summer, aiming to stop at 50 summer camps to empower 10,000 middle school girls using design thinking.

The post Students to take design thinking on the road to empower girls appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
A team of four students called Girls Driving for a Difference will embark on a cross-country roadtrip this summer, aiming to stop at 50 summer camps to empower 10,000 middle school girls using design thinking.

Katie Kirsch ’16 and Jenna Leonardo ’15 came up with the idea for this 10-week immersion on the ride home from teaching a workshop to elementary school students as part of the SparkTruck project. The two had met through Stanford’s Design for America chapter, which Kirsch founded as a freshman.

“We found that there’s so little opportunity [at Stanford] to sit down and have a conversation about things that you’re really interested in and want to accomplish later in life and what dreams or goals you have for a very larger picture, and that was a conversation Jenn and I finally had after two years of working together in DFA that sparked this entire thing,” Kirsch said. “It started off as a joke, like ‘What would we do if we weren’t afraid to do anything?’”

Although the entire route isn’t yet finalized, the team, which also includes Natalya Thakur ’15 and Rachel Chung ’15, will begin prototyping in the Bay Area this month.

“What we’ve learned from groups that have done this sort of project in the past, is that people start coming to you,” Leonardo said. “As soon as we start Kickstarter, I think there will be organizations all over the country that come to us and really want us to go visit them.”

The group aims to raise $25,000 via crowdfunding, but, Kirsch said, that number is a baseline and will cover less than half of total expenses. The team aims to receive additional funding from companies and organizations.

Girls Driving for a Difference has already reached out to a few organizations for support and is applying for a grant. When it comes to approaching organizations, Thakur said that being able to pitch deliverables helps. These include pre- and post-workshop surveys, number of followers on a vlog and post-workshop initiatives.

“The idea is that the deliverable is something that is sustainable beyond the workshop that we do with them,” Thakur said.

Part of this sustainability is what Thakur calls the ripple effect. She hopes that the girls they teach will be able to spread the word themselves in their local communities. The key to making the workshops repeatable, she said, is the design thinking process.

Design thinking consists of five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. It works best when iterated upon, which is why the team has been repeating the process themselves in preparation for the trip.

Tania Anaissie ’14, course production lead at the d.school, has helped Girls Driving for a Difference brainstorm and flesh out ideas. According to her, design thinking is a practical tool that the middle school girls will be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

“I have this tool that can, with the right resources, help me solve anything,” she said, referring to design thinking. “So the reason why it’s valuable for people to learn that and why we teach it here is you’re empowering someone to face any type of problem.”

While driving around the country teaching others, the four designers hope to gain valuable experience.

“The first workshop will be very different from week 10, just because not only will the middle school girls learn different ways to think about the world and leadership, but we’ll hopefully grow and learn a lot in the 10 weeks that we’re there as well,” Chung said.

They are currently looking for a filmmaker to accompany them on the road.

“We’ll also be making a documentary at the end of the summer as another way to share our message, to be able to reach the girls that we were not necessarily able to personally interact with,” Leonardo said.

Despite any roadblocks that may appear along the way, the team is up for the challenge.

“We’re totally determined to make this happen even if we’re like selling cookies on the side of the street for like a month straight,” Kirsch said.

Leonardo agreed, recalling a moment last quarter that epitomized their dedication when she and Kirsch spent the better part of a Saturday night at the d.school planning this project.

“It’s what we love; it’s what energizes us,” Leonardo said. “We want to be able to share that same energy, that same feeling with girls across the country too.”

 

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

This post has been updated. A previous version stated that the workshop in the second paragraph was related to Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). SparkTruck is not connected to STVP. The Daily regrets this error.

The post Students to take design thinking on the road to empower girls appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/21/students-to-take-design-thinking-on-the-road-to-empower-girls/feed/ 1 1094104
Stanford #HandsUpWalkOut strikes campus https://stanforddaily.com/2014/12/02/stanford-handsupwalkout-strikes-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/12/02/stanford-handsupwalkout-strikes-campus/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:00:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1092890 Hundreds of students and other members of the community walked out of classes or other commitments on Monday to join a national protest of the no-indictment decision of the police officer that shot and killed Michael Brown.

The post Stanford #HandsUpWalkOut strikes campus appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
DSC04250
On Monday at 10:01 a.m., hundreds of Stanford students and community members joined a national demonstration of the no-indictment decision of the police officer that shot and killed Michael Brown. (NICK SALAZAR/The Stanford Daily)

Hundreds of students and other members of the community walked out of classes or other commitments on Monday at 10:01 a.m. to join a national protest of the no-indictment decision of the police officer that shot and killed Michael Brown. Brown was shot at 12:01 p.m. Central time on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri.

The demonstration was facilitated by the Palo Alto State of Emergency group, a coalition of individual members from various social justice groups in the Stanford community.

“We’re here during Dead Week because we want people to understand that this movement is more than a chemistry final or more than a test or something that’s due during Dead Week,” said Shelby Sinclair ’14, an organizer for the event, dubbed #HandsUpWalkOut. She estimated that between 500 and 600 people attended the walkout, about double the number that participated in Tuesday’s Silicon Shut Down demonstration.

A few of the event’s organizers shared personal vignettes before Measha Ferguson-Smith ’17 pumped up the crowd gathered in the Main Quad by practicing chants such as “Out of the dorms, into the streets!” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!”

“We’re here for all the people whose lives have been stolen, who have been taken by the systems of oppression, and we are taking a stand,” Ferguson-Smith said to the group before marching off campus. “We’re refusing to be complacent anymore.”

After leaving campus, the crowd broke off into two groups, one stationed at El Camino and Galvez, the other at Page Mill and El Camino. Lining up across all four crosswalks, the protesters blocked traffic.

Kinsey Morrison ’18 missed two classes because she could not merely stand by and watch, she said.

“The color of my skin is not my choice, but the sound of my silence would be,” Morrison said.

For Paul Watkins ’17, another of the walkout’s student leader, the shooting hits home. In his speech he described his personal experience with the Brown case over the summer and during Thanksgiving break in Ferguson, his hometown.

“There were policemen in riot gear all decked out, throwing tear gas canisters, which is stuff you hear about on the news, but it’s different to see it and then come back to Stanford, where everything’s just fine,” Watkins said after the protest. “It’s weird, but knowing that there are people who are trying to maintain that solidarity and maintain a continuous action plan is a good feeling.”

Watkins emphasized that though the news often dramatizes the violence of rioters, it is important to consider the actions of nonviolent protesters as well.

“Yes, there were break-ins into shops,” Watkins said, “but I also saw people just standing and singing songs and marching and doing everything very peacefully. I guess it’s mentioned on the news but it’s not the primary focus, and I feel like it should be.”

Cole Manley ’14, president of Students for Alternatives to Militarism, encouraged members of his club to take part in the demonstration and joined his entire introductory improvisation class in walking out to participate in this movement, one he believes is central to the anti-militarism effort.

“It’s very important for activist groups to be allies to this movement in Ferguson, to recognize the intersectionality of this movement, [to recognize] that police brutality, militarism, militarization of the police — these issues are all connected to the broader issues that our communities face,” Manley said.

Manley stated that persistent protesting is necessary to fight for this cause. According to him, interrupting one’s everyday business seems like a minor inconvenience when compared to the major brutalities regularly faced by minorities.

“There is going to be sustained action on the part of Stanford activists and Stanford community members and Stanford students, because this movement isn’t stopping,” he said. “It’s not stopping at El Camino, it’s not stopping in Ferguson, it’s nationwide.”

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford #HandsUpWalkOut strikes campus appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2014/12/02/stanford-handsupwalkout-strikes-campus/feed/ 5 1092890
Kappa Sigma showcases new zero-waste project https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/19/kappa-sigma-showcases-new-zero-waste-project/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/19/kappa-sigma-showcases-new-zero-waste-project/#respond Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:06:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1092471 R&DE hopes to eradicate red Solo cups from 10 other row houses this year.

The post Kappa Sigma showcases new zero-waste project appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Kappa Sigma unveiled its newly-outfitted zero-waste house in a rollout event and tour on Wednesday.

Representatives from R&DE Sustainable Living, PSSI/Stanford Recycling, the Green Living Council and the Stanford Green Store, the groups involved in the effort, attended to see changes — including three-stream recycling bins inside residents’ rooms, new exterior recycling bins and different signage — firsthand. Among the most notable of the guests was Shirley Everett, senior associate vice provost of Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), and Rodger Whitney, executive director of R&DE student housing.

David Wintermeyer ’17, the community service chair at Kappa Sigma, said that R&DE plans to expand the waste-free program to 20 row houses by the end of the school year.

Wintermeyer said a campus-wide educational outreach effort about the problem of red Solo cups is in the works. These cups cannot be be recycled by the company to which Stanford currently sells its recyclables because they are made with a form of Styrofoam.

R&DE hopes to eradicate red Solo cups from 10 other row houses this year, Wintermeyer said. However, in order to do so, these houses would have to deal with the additional cost of recyclable cups as a replacement.

“Twenty houses adopting the zero-waste program is in R&DE’s action plan for this year,” Wintermeyer said. “The only thing stopping the cups is we’ve applied to three different grants and we need one of them to [fund] it.”

According to Victoria Mao ’17, an operations management officer at the Stanford Green Store, the Stanford Green Store might be the supplier for these cups, as it has been in contact with the fraternity.

“It is a large house, so their need for sustainable products is a lot greater than individual student groups,” Mao said. “So we’re really hoping that by marketing first to Kappa Sigma, we’ll be able to effect greater change within the other row houses as well.”

Although Mao sees the program’s potential, she expressed some doubt about its immediate results.

“I was very aware of how big this project was, but I wasn’t sure to what extent they were going to be incorporating the zero-waste management program into the rooms,” Mao said. “To be honest, I’m not sure how it might work out having these three-tier bins within the rooms, but I’m really excited to see how it might change behavior just by having those materials in there.”

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu

The post Kappa Sigma showcases new zero-waste project appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/19/kappa-sigma-showcases-new-zero-waste-project/feed/ 0 1092471