A group of around 20 students protested former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Stanford Thursday evening. Holding signs that read "The answer to colonialism is not imperialism" and "Africa's resources are for Africa's people," protesters gathered outside of Cemex Auditorium, where Blair gave a public talk.

•

About 6.6 percent of applicants were admitted to Stanford Friday when the Office of Undergraduate Admissions released notification letters via email. The number is the lowest in University history, down from last year's 7.1 percent admit rate.

•

A Santa Clara County law mandating health standards for children's meals accompanied by free toys has had limited effects, according to a recent study by the School of Medicine.

•

Data collected by the Career Development Center (CDC) showed that students earning bachelor’s degrees in 2011 from the School of Humanities and Sciences received an average starting salary of $54,951, while School of Engineering graduates received $72,148 on average.

•

The Stanford Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) hosted its weekly Tech Talk last Friday night in the Gates Computer Science Building, featuring Shane Moriah ’09, a Hulu software developer who gave a talk titled, “I Know What You Watched Last Summer: An Overview of Hadoop, Big Data and Metrics at Hulu.” ACM’s weekly Tech Talks…

•

The Alta Gracia clothing brand, a “living-wage” line launched at the Stanford Bookstore last September, has performed “as expected,” according to bookstore director Janet Gawley. Alta Gracia is a subdivision of the Knights Apparel, Inc., which sources its clothing from the “La Altagracia” province of the Dominican Republic. The brand pays all of its workers…

•

Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman announced in a Sept. 8 email the formation of an Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE), to be headed by former Vaden Health Center Associate Director Ralph Castro.

•

President Obama recently nominated Michael McFaul B.A., M.A. ’86, political science professor and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) to the United States ambassadorship to Russia. McFaul, who has served as special assistant to the president on national security affairs, director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule…

•

Stanford's 1,709 freshmen and approximately four dozen transfer students move in today, marking the commencement of New Student Orientation (NSO) 2011 and the University's 121st Opening Convocation Ceremony, which will occur today at 4 p.m. on the Main Quad.

•

The University projects it will collect $296.5 million in undergraduate student fees for the 2011-12 academic year, reflecting a 3.8 percent increase over last year, and will award $148.9 million in undergraduate financial aid, a 1.5 percent increase over 2010-11.

•

In a departure from the traditional admissions process for medical schools in the United States, the Stanford School of Medicine has just completed its first year using the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) process--a method that splits the traditional hour-long interview into several smaller ones--to assess its candidates.

•

This report covers a selection of incidents from June 30 to July 7 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.

•

In an effort to complement and centralize campaigns against relationship abuse and sexual assault on campus, the University recently hired its first assistant dean for sexual assault and relationship abuse, Angela Exson.

•

This report covers a selection of incidents from May 27 to June 29 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin. During this period, several laptops and a large number of bicycles were stolen on campus. Friday, May 27 At 11:25 p.m., a man was cited and released at the corner of…

•

The alumni interview program is transitioning from its pilot stage to become a permanent Stanford fixture, a change that administrators and alumni say will yield “great ambassadors” for the University.

•

The Stanford 2020 “Visions of Tomorrow” Symposium brought seven professors to Dinkelspiel Auditorium yesterday to speak about the significance and future of their respective research.

•

University officials have confirmed that all electronic information transmitted on the Stanford network is accessible to privacy officers and other administrators.

•

Rizwan Manji, star of NBC's hit television series “Outsourced,” spoke last night at the Crothers Memorial Lounge about “life, acting and what it is like to be a South Asian Muslim in Hollywood.”

•

Students traveling home via San Francisco International and Mineta San Jose International airports for summer vacation will have an additional option for transportation to the airport, as the ASSU is set to expand its shuttle service to include spring quarter.

•

Nearly two months after the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident, scholars came together Monday night for the first event in a two-part series about the disaster.

•

Last Saturday, Stanford students elected Michael Cruz '12 and Stewart Macgregor-Dennis '13 as the 2011-12 ASSU Executive. The Daily sat down with Cruz and Macgregor-Dennis to discuss their administration’s plans and interests.

•

Students stressed by the $50,000 plus required to attend Stanford may be surprised to learn that President John Hennessy makes over 14 times that amount each year in base salary alone.

•

However, only a minority of the student population knows the ins and outs of the special fees system. The process began during winter quarter, when each Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) submitted an application to the ASSU with its proposed budget and request for special fees.

•

Stanford students tired of the lecture-section-paper-problem set routine now have several options for reprieve, including classes using interactive online lectures, avatars and new approaches to problem-solving. These experiments in instruction come as the University reexamines its approach to undergraduate education.

•