Sarah Moore – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 12 Mar 2015 10:10:47 +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 Sarah Moore – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Joseph Paul Lomio, Law Library director, dies at 64 https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/12/joseph-paul-lomio-law-library-director-dies-at-64/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/12/joseph-paul-lomio-law-library-director-dies-at-64/#comments Thu, 12 Mar 2015 10:10:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1097590 After a brief illness, Joseph Paul Lomio, director of Stanford’s Robert Crown Law Library since 2005, passed away at his home in Palo Alto on March 6.

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After a brief illness, Joseph Paul Lomio, director of Stanford’s Robert Crown Law Library since 2005, passed away at his home in Palo Alto on March 6.

Lomio played key roles in launching the Law Library’s digital reserves and its earliest online initiative, the Women’s Legal History Biography Project. He also was a prominent member of the team that developed the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, a resource recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a “visionary use of information technology in the field of education and academia.”

In 1994, Lomio won the Marshall D. O’Neil Award for outstanding contributions to the University’s research mission. He also chaired the Stanford University Public Services Coordinating Council in 1989, seven years after initially joining the Law Library staff as a reference librarian in 1982.

Lomio earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Bonaventure University in 1972, a law degree from Gonzaga University in 1978, a master’s degree in law from the University of Washington in 1979 and a master’s in library science from the Catholic University of America in 1982. Between earning these degrees he served as a platoon leader with the U.S. army from 1972 to 1975 and worked as a guardian-ad-litem and clerk in King County, Washington, after being admitted to the Washington State Bar Association in 1978.

In addition to his career at the Law Library, Lomio enjoyed physical activities, such as working out at gyms on Stanford campus and hiking in the Foothills. He was a dedicated enthusiast of Stanford sports, holding women’s basketball season tickets for 28 years.

Lomio is survived by his wife Sharon Inouye and daughter Rita Lomio ’04 M.A. ’12. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to an animal welfare society of the well-wisher’s choosing, as a tribute to Lomio’s love for all living creatures.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Forbes Family Café quietly opens at start of winter quarter https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/03/forbes-family-cafe-quietly-opens-at-start-of-winter-quarter/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/03/forbes-family-cafe-quietly-opens-at-start-of-winter-quarter/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2015 05:56:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094877 Since opening on Jan. 5, R&DE’s Forbes Family Café in the Huang Engineering Center has met a generally positive yet mild reception from the Stanford community. The eatery is located in the space previously occupied by the popular Ike’s Place whose contract expired at the end of last year, prompting student protest to the loss of the outside vendor.

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(MELISSA WEYANT/The Stanford Daily)
Forbes Family Café, which occupies the space where Ike’s Place used to be, identifies as flexitarian and hopes to appeal to vegan and vegetarian customers. (MELISSA WEYANT/The Stanford Daily)

Since opening on Jan. 5, Forbes Family Café, an establishment under Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) in the Huang Engineering Center, has met a generally positive yet mild reception from the Stanford community. The eatery is located in the space previously occupied by the popular Ike’s Place, whose contract expired at the end of last year, prompting student protest against the loss of the outside vendor.

According to Michael Gratz, executive director of R&DE Stanford Hospitality & Auxiliaries, a targeted advertising campaign for the café will begin mid-February alongside continued menu refinements, equipment testing and staff training.

The café self-identifies as flexitarian, intending to appeal to customers who are vegan, vegetarian or simply reducing their meat consumption. The menu features a salad bar and hot buffet and allows customers to design their meals based on their dietary preferences.

“All of our menus are based on vegetables, fruits and grains, sustainable seafood and responsibly-raised meat,” said Gratz in an email to The Daily.

Alexis Garduno ’15 said the café’s location, long hours and the fact that it accepts meal plan dollars were what initially attracted her to try the vendor. Now she frequents the café about every other day.

“The food is pretty flavorful, and I feel full,” Garduno said. “I was happy to see they have tempeh at this meal. I’m a vegetarian, so I have my dietary restrictions, which can make it hard to eat at other places sometimes.”

A recommendation she has would be clearer labeling, as it is sometimes difficult for her to determine whether a dish is vegetarian or not.

Garduno compared the entrée prices to those at Olive’s, another R&DE vendor.

Garduno brought her friend Andrew Rodriguez ’15, who is not a vegetarian and not on a meal plan, to the café for the first time.

“I don’t think I would come here for lunch every day but every now and then when it’s convenient. There isn’t a line, and it’s a little cheaper, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Ike’s,” Rodriguez said.

“I like how you can make your own salad,” said Sarah Techavarutama ’16, who has eaten at the café twice.  “It’s pretty cheap, and it’s closer for me than other options.”

Daniel Jih M.S. ’15 agreed that convenience was a big part of why he decided to try the café.

“It’s really convenient because I spend a lot of time in Huang doing work,” Jih said. “I got tired of all the places nearby. It’s cheaper than the food truck options, and it’s really fast. I just go and scoop what I want and pay, which is nice for my sporadic schedule.”

In addition to the self-serve salad and entrée options, Forbes Family Café has grab-and-go sandwiches, sushi, beverages, desserts and snacks like protein bars.

“We continue to look for opportunities to expand our services, such as increasing the breakfast and dinner frequency, and provide students with quality- and high-value-driven meal options as we continue to build on the first two weeks of operations with exceeded sales forecast,” Gratz said.

Forbes Family Café’s hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cardinal Dollars are accepted all day and meal plan dining dollars are accepted after 1 p.m.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donates $50 million to Stanford vaccine research group https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/01/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-donates-50-million-to-stanford-vaccine-research-group/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/01/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-donates-50-million-to-stanford-vaccine-research-group/#respond Mon, 02 Feb 2015 06:52:13 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094714 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has promised to donate $50 million dollars to advance vaccine research at Stanford. The grant will be distributed over 10 years and will establish the Human Systems Immunology Center, building on existing technology at the University’s Human Immune Monitoring Core.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has promised to donate $50 million to advance vaccine research at Stanford. The grant will be distributed over 10 years and will establish the Human Systems Immunology Center, building on existing technology at the University’s Human Immune Monitoring Core.

The announcement on Jan. 29 named Mark Davis of the School of Medicine as the head of the new center. Davis is the Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor of Immunology and director of the Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection.

The work led by Davis will aim to better understand how the human immune system operates in order to accelerate the development of vaccines for the most deadly infectious diseases.

A statement by the University cited large monetary costs as a major reason for the slow development thus far of vaccines against diseases like HIV and malaria. More research on how the immune system responds to vaccines is intended to prioritize the most promising ones for clinical trials.

In the same statement, president John Hennessy said, “This grant will allow Stanford to leverage advances in technology and accelerate progress in this important area.”

Researchers from Stanford and other institutions will be able to apply for seed grants for their work in immunology and vaccines, and the research coming out of the center will support work being done in various fields and institutions around the globe.

Stanford faculty collaborating with Davis on the new center’s research include Holden Maecker, associate professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center, as well as professors in fields such as genetics, pediatrics and health policy.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Class Day lecture cancelled for Class of 2015 commencement https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/22/class-day-lecture-cancelled-for-class-of-2015-commencement/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/22/class-day-lecture-cancelled-for-class-of-2015-commencement/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2015 05:19:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094247 The Stanford Alumni Association (SAA) has cancelled the Class Day lecture component of graduation weekend for the Class of 2015 commencement, according to Leslie Winick, SAA Director of Alumni and Student Class Outreach.

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The Stanford Alumni Association (SAA) has cancelled the Class Day lecture component of graduation weekend for the Class of 2015 commencement, according to Leslie Winick, SAA Director of Alumni and Student Class Outreach.

Data collected by surveying members of the classes of 2010 through 2014 showed that graduating seniors did not feel well served by this event, leading to SAA’s decision to to drop it from this year’s commencement schedule in hopes of better serving students with alternate activities.

Class Day is an event that originated in the mid-1970s, and the lecture component has featured world-class Stanford faculty as speakers.

The surveys asked students to rate the general importance and their personal satisfaction with graduation programming. Graduating seniors consistently did not feel well served by the Class Day lecture event, noting that they felt there were too many speeches or talks over the course of the weekend.

“The input from the recent grads makes clear that Commencement weekend is extraordinarily busy and even hectic for students; what they really wanted was more unscheduled time to be with friends and family,” Winick wrote in an email to The Daily.

In contrast, other commencement weekend events proved popular in the surveys collected. For example, Senior Dinner on the Quad consistently has a participation rate of up to 98 percent of the graduating class, and the surveyed recent graduates regularly ranked this event as their favorite one of the weekend.

According to Winick, the Class of 2015 can still expect three other commencement programs from SAA: a Senior Series of Life Skills Workshops, Senior Dinner on the Quad and the Senior Toast.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Combined science library to open in fall 2016 https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/13/combined-science-library-to-open-in-fall-2016/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/13/combined-science-library-to-open-in-fall-2016/#respond Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:16:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1093709 In fall 2016, a combined science library will open in the Old Chemistry building. The library will compile the resources of the Mathematics and Statistics, Biology and Chemistry libraries into one facility.

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In fall 2016, a combined science library will open in the Old Chemistry building. The library will compile the resources of the Mathematics and Statistics, Biology and Chemistry Libraries into one facility.

A combined science library will open in the Old Chemistry Building in 2016. (Stanford Daily File Photo)
A combined science library will open in the Old Chemistry Building in 2016. (Stanford Daily File Photo)

According to Robert Schwarzwalder, associate university librarian for the Science and Engineering Libraries, the project is designed to downsize physical collections and focus on study spaces and other in-person services.

The greater portion of science library budgets is dedicated to journals and journal subscriptions, which the Stanford community accesses primarily online. For example, 95 percent of the physics materials budget is spent on journals.

More than 90 percent of journal use takes place electronically. Schwarzwalder explained that, as a result, most of the physical resources in the Old Chem library will be books.

Currently, the Math-Stat Library is co-located with the Biology Library in Herrin Hall. During the 2013-14 winter break, materials were moved from the library’s previous location in Building 380, or the Math Corner.

This move freed up space for professor and graduate student offices and began the process of moving some physical resources to storage in Stanford Auxiliary Library 3 (SAL3), a facility located in Livermore, Ca. Resources at SAL3 may be paged for delivery to campus, and most are available online in digital form.

Stanford Libraries are currently in the process of continuing to downsize the physical collections of the science libraries. Schwarzwalder noted that this practice looks different for each department because advancements occur along distinct timelines.

“For instance, molecular biology is a fast-moving area, the breakthroughs are fairly rapid, and literature that is five years old is pretty old. But in certain areas of mathematics, something done a hundred years ago is still as relevant today,” Schwarzwalder said. “So the material ages at different rates so you can cut materials from year more in one discipline, and we take a very nuanced approach to that.”

Simultaneous to the downsizing of physical materials, excavation and construction are taking place for the lower level of the Old Chemistry building, which will contain two large auditoria and classroom spaces.

The project’s motivation is serving the needs of library users, and Schwarzwalder believes that the combined space, rather than a number of smaller libraries, will achieve this.

“The difficulty is that when you’re so thinly staffed, mostly all you can do is keep the doors open and the books on the shelves,” Schwarzwalder said. “What we found is a demand for other services — advanced reference services, workshops integrated with classroom instruction. When we combine libraries and staff, we put a greater emphasis on service and keep doors open longer.”

Schwarzwalder hopes that the reopened Old Chemistry building, including the new library, will be a hub for students of all disciplines, and the library will be a study space that is able to offer improved services and workshops through combined resources and staff.

He explained that both undergraduate and graduate students use books more than faculty do, as faculty tend to use library resources more for electronic collections. His vision is that the design of the Old Chemistry library will focus on better serving these customized needs.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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New Vaden service offers testing for drugs given without consent https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/12/new-vaden-service-offers-testing-for-drugs-given-without-consent/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/12/new-vaden-service-offers-testing-for-drugs-given-without-consent/#respond Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:39:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1091889 Vaden now offers free testing for students who think they may have ingested drugs without their knowledge or consent. This service comes in light of several sexual assault incidents and conversations on campus that are linked to drug consumption.

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Vaden now offers free testing for students who think they may have ingested drugs without their knowledge or consent. This service comes in light of several sexual assault incidents and conversations on campus that are linked to drug consumption.

Vaden director Ira Friedman referenced the issue of sexual assault on campus as the impetus for providing this service.

“We’ve heard questions from students more recently, within the last year, as to whether they’ve been given a substance that they didn’t intend to ingest,” Friedman said. “Students have asked us and we’re now thinking that it’s good to put it out there that we’re able to answer the question, at least to some more scientific degree than in the past.”

The service was piloted in the spring but it is officially being offered for the first time this quarter. According to Friedman, although Vaden is not currently reporting exactly how many tests have been administered to date, he did state that “very few” have been ordered.

A student’s clinician must refer him or her for the urine test, and results will be available within three weeks. The samples are sent to a clinical laboratory outside California to be tested.

Depending on how soon the sample is collected after consumption, a variety of drugs or substances, such as alcohol, medications or recreational drugs, may appear in the test results.

If certain drugs are found in the results or if there is suspicion that a student is the victim of a crime, the clinician must submit a report to law enforcement.

Friedman also encourages students to file a report with the University if it is confirmed that they were given a drug without their consent. He cited students’ well-being as a priority for Vaden.

“We’re providing this service because we want students to have the information, to answer their questions and to give them piece of mind,” he said.

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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New director of P&TS, Brian Shaw, outlines goals https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/17/qa-new-director-of-pts-outlines-goals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/17/qa-new-director-of-pts-outlines-goals/#comments Fri, 17 Oct 2014 19:53:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1089921 Brian D. Shaw comes to Stanford as the new director of Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) after running parking and transportation programs at Emory, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania for a combined 13 years.

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LINDA CICERO/STANFORD NEWS SERVICE
Brian D. Shaw comes to Stanford as the new director of Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS), experienced with 13 years in running parking and transportation programs in multiple universities before coming here. (Courtesy of Linda A. Cicero)

Brian D. Shaw comes to Stanford as the new director of Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) after running parking and transportation programs at Emory, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania for a combined 13 years.

The Daily spoke with Shaw about his vision for P&TS under his leadership.

 

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Why did you decide to move to Stanford for your career?

Brian Shaw (BDS): Stanford is arguably the gold standard and the best program of its kind in the country, so the opportunity to come here and be in charge of that was very attractive.

TSD: What are your top priorities during your first year here at Stanford?

BDS: We’re recognized as the leader in parking and transportation management. We want to keep our position as a prominent program in the field and continue to find ways to be innovative.

We always are focused on reducing on our peak-hour trips to and from campus, so we’re looking to continue to find ways to encourage commuters to use different alternatives to driving alone. We want to find out what is really behind the reasons people choose the modes that they do and particularly why they choose to drive alone. And we are working to encourage those who do have to drive to do so outside the peak-hour time frames of 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

We’re increasingly dealing with parking demands. We’re constantly expanding and renovating buildings and growing, but usually that comes at the expense of parking. A lot of the new construction projects are built on parking lots or they inevitably eliminate parking along campus streets, so we have to try to find ways to mitigate those impacts and manage the increased demand for parking access on campus.

We are looking to leverage technology. There are ways to improve efficiencies, operate more sustainably and introduce new or expanded programs through technology. We’re investing in electric buses, and we’re looking to expand the electric vehicle charging stations on campus. We’re pursuing digital processing, such as online bike registration and carpool processing, and transitioning the VTA Eco pass to the Clipper card. We’re looking to be more innovative with technology.

We’re always focused on bikes – to enhance the bike infrastructure and to have people bike safely on campus. We are always considering new ways to encourage people who bike to wear a helmet every time they ride, even for their short trips, and to follow all the rules of the road that vehicles have to follow. The safer we can make our campus community who ride their bikes, the better it is for everybody, not just those who are biking.

TSD: What are some specific ways you plan on encouraging these bike safety measures, especially for students?

BDS: It’s about personal safety, and one thing we’re going to try to do is provide positive reinforcement when we see students using their helmets or stopping at stop signs. We’re going to be issuing gift cards for, say, campus cafes and on-campus stores or services. We’re trying to get people to do the right thing by recognizing them when they do it. It’s not illegal to not wear a helmet for those 18 and older, but it’s not very smart, so we want people to recognize this and provide positive reinforcement. That’s something we’re going to be rolling out over the next six months.

TSD: What are you most looking forward about to about this position?

BDS: I’m a problem solver. That’s what I’ve always done at the other schools. I’ve been able to make things more efficient and more customer-service friendly.

But at Stanford we do a lot of good things already, so there aren’t a lot of problems that I’m looking to solve.  The challenge here is: how do we do what we do, which is already being done at a fairly high level, and make it even better and position it for the future? How do we get Stanford from the gold standard to being the platinum standard? How do we get there using technology and innovative thinking? That’s what I’m looking forward to – not just keeping Stanford at a high level, but moving it to another high level of achievement that frankly no one else has been able to get to.

 

This transcription has been condensed and edited.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford Flu Crew and Vaden to provide more flu shots Oct. 16, Oct. 21 https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/13/stanford-flu-crew-and-vaden-to-provide-flu-shots-oct-16-oct-21/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/13/stanford-flu-crew-and-vaden-to-provide-flu-shots-oct-16-oct-21/#respond Tue, 14 Oct 2014 01:23:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1089664 Stanford Flu Crew and the Vaden Health Center will provide more free flu vaccines on Thursday, Oct. 16, in Stern Dining and on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Wilbur Dining. Shots will be available from 5 to 7 p.m.

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Stanford Flu Crew and the Vaden Health Center will provide more free flu vaccines on Thursday, Oct. 16, in Stern Dining and on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Wilbur Dining. Shots will be available from 5 to 7 p.m.

Vaden is also hosting drop-in flu clinics on weekday afternoons through Dec. 1.

This weekend, more than 300 free flu vaccines were delivered on campus by Stanford Flu Crew, an organization of physician-faculty, medical students and undergraduates. Nearly 200 vaccines were delivered at Florence Moore Dining on Oct. 12, and 160 were delivered at Lagunita Dining on Oct. 11, according to Flu Crew Undergraduate Coordinator Carolina Downie ’16.

Last week, 257 vaccines were delivered at Arrillaga Family Dining Commons Wednesday and 160 vaccines were delivered at Ricker Dining on Thursday.

Those eligible for free vaccinations include registered students and their spouses, University faculty and staff, retirees and postdoctoral scholars. Spouses of faculty and staff, retirees and postdoctoral scholars can receive vaccines for a $26 fee through the Flu Crew and a $32 fee through Vaden.

The Flu Crew will host off-campus vaccination events at local community organizations and churches through November.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford installs first traffic circle on Campus Drive https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/13/roundabouts-aim-to-increase-safety-on-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/13/roundabouts-aim-to-increase-safety-on-campus/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:12:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1089571 After three years studying Campus Drive’s traffic patterns, the University installed the first vehicle roundabout on Stanford’s campus at the intersection of Escondido Road and Campus Drive.

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Over the summer, the University installed the first campus traffic circle at the intersection of Campus Drive and Escondido Road, cited one of the busiest intersections at Stanford. (MELISSA WEYANT/The Stanford Daily)
Over the summer, the University installed the first campus traffic circle at the intersection of Campus Drive and Escondido Road, cited one of the busiest intersections at Stanford.
(MELISSA WEYANT/The Stanford Daily)

After three years studying Campus Drive’s traffic patterns, the University installed the first vehicle roundabout on Stanford’s campus at the intersection of Escondido Road and Campus Drive.

Land, Building & Real Estate (LBRE) campus planners cited statistically proven safety and traffic benefits as the reason for installing the roundabout, according to Cathy Blake, associate director of Campus Planning and Design. They consulted Michael Wallwork, a leading expert in roundabout design, to work with Stanford traffic engineers to study the Escondido Road/Campus Drive intersection. University representatives also visited other cities and campuses with roundabouts to learn about their functionality.

The particular intersection was chosen since it is one of the busiest on campus.

Thus far, reception of the roundabout has been mixed, but LBRE expected that people would need time to become comfortable with the feature. Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) has a webpage dedicated to answering questions about how to use the roundabout.

The biggest change for bikers is that they are supposed to share the single lane of the roundabout with vehicles. The intersection’s speed limit is intended to slow down to “bike speed,” which is meant to make the roundabout safer than a traditional intersection.

A bike circle was also installed this summer at the intersection of Lasuen Mall and Serra Mall in anticipation of increased traffic with the opening of Lathrop Library and new classrooms in the Lathrop building. According to Blake, the circle serves as a temporary experiment, and LBRE intends to gather input from cyclists about how helpful the roundabout is in guiding the flow of traffic before deciding to install a permanent one.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Bob Fitch photography exhibit to hold opening event Sept. 30 https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/29/fitch-photography-exhibit-to-hold-opening-event-on-sept-30/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/29/fitch-photography-exhibit-to-hold-opening-event-on-sept-30/#respond Mon, 29 Sep 2014 08:32:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1088487 The new exhibit of documentary photographs taken by activist photographer Bob Fitch will have its opening reception on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Entitled “Movements for Change,” the exhibit is located in Green Library’s Bing Wing rotunda.

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(MELISSA WEYANT/The Stanford Daily)
(MELISSA WEYANT/The Stanford Daily)

The new exhibit of documentary photographs taken by activist photographer Bob Fitch will have its opening reception on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Entitled “Movements for Change,” the exhibit is located in Green Library’s Bing Wing rotunda.

The opening event will feature a conversation among Fitch and veteran activists of the 1960s and 1970s. Stanford history professor James Campbell ’83 Ph.D. ’89 will moderate the discussion.

Bob Fitch, who now lives in Watsonville, California, began working as an activist photographer in the mid-1960s and has since documented key moments and individuals involved in civil rights activism, farm worker organizations and peace movements. His work has featured major figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez and Dorothy Day.

Seventy black and white images are displayed in the exhibit, which was prepared by curators Benjamin Stone, Green Library’s subject specialist for American and British history, and Robert Trujillo, department head of Special Collections & University Archives.

Stanford University Libraries (SUL) has also acquired more than 200,000 of Fitch’s images – in film and digital form – that were taken between 1965 and the present. The pictures will comprise a photography archive that will accompany the exhibit.

In addition, SUL plans to digitally process approximately 10,000 images from the collection to make them available on SUL’s online catalog SearchWorks, where individuals and non-profit groups will be able to view and download the images free of cost.

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Stanford student awarded Marconi Society’s 2014 Paul Baran Young Scholar Award https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/23/stanford-student-awarded-marconi-societys-2014-paul-baran-young-scholar-award/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/23/stanford-student-awarded-marconi-societys-2014-paul-baran-young-scholar-award/#respond Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:26:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1088167 Stanford electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate Himanshi Asnani M.S. ’11 will be awarded the Marconi Society’s 2014 Paul Baran Young Scholar Award in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2. The award commends young individuals’ outstanding academic work and leadership in the fields of communications and information science.

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Stanford electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate Himanshu Asnani M.S. ’11 will be awarded the Marconi Society’s 2014 Paul Baran Young Scholar Award in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2. The award commends young individuals’ outstanding academic work and leadership in the fields of communications and information science.

The Marconi Society chooses winners from nominations by faculty, department chairs or managers. Young Scholar Award winners receive a financial stipend and travel funds to attend the annual Marconi Award Dinners. Kiseok Song, a Ph.D. candidate at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), has also been selected for the award this year.

Originally from Kota, India, Asnani received a Bachelor of Technology from the Electrical Engineering School at IIT Bombay in 2009. In addition to being a Ph.D. student, he currently works at Ericsson Silicon Valley’s R&D Department as a System Engineer.

Asnani’s graduate studies have centered on information theory, including research in the areas of human genome compression and cooperation in communication.

“Himanshu has made profound contributions to our understanding of the fundamental limits in new communication and data compression scenarios (both point-to-point and multi-terminal), the structure of the schemes that achieve these limits, their implementation and their performance in practice,” said professor of electrical engineering and Asnani’s advisor Tsachy Weissman in a statement to the Marconi Society.

Asnani’s research has allowed him to combine his vast interests in medicine, technology and communication to address timely real-world problems. According to Weissman, some companies that manage large amounts of sequenced genomic data are even considering implementing Asnani’s schemes for meta-genomic data compression.

Contact Sarah Moore at smore6 “at” stanford.edu.

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Career resources for humanities majors expanded https://stanforddaily.com/2013/12/04/career-resources-for-humanities-majors-expanded/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/12/04/career-resources-for-humanities-majors-expanded/#comments Wed, 04 Dec 2013 10:01:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1080933 Despite concerns about the popularity of the humanities at Stanford, University administrators say they are not worried about enrollment in the humanities or the post-graduation career opportunities for students in these departments.

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Despite concerns about the popularity of the humanities at Stanford, University administrators say they are not worried about enrollment in the humanities or the post-graduation career opportunities for students in these departments, in part because of the introduction of more resources.

According to Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Harry Elam, the number of undergraduates majoring in the humanities over the past 10 years has remained relatively stable.

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NATALIE CHENG/The Stanford Daily

Data from the Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies within the School of Humanities and Sciences shows that last academic year, the University had 253 bachelor’s conferrals for humanities and arts majors. There were 265 for the 2011-12 academic year, 254 for 2010-11 and 262 for 2009-10.

Elam stated that two priorities the University must consider when promoting the humanities at Stanford are publicizing the top-level quality of the humanities departments on campus and dealing with student and parent concerns about the economic stability of a humanities degree.

“I’ve seen history majors who have gone to work for Google because Google wants people who can synthesize information,” Elam said. “Parents should understand that their child is not going to suffer [with a humanities degree] and will probably be better off doing something they really want to do rather than a means to an end.”

 

Existing career resources for humanities students

In alignment with the priorities that Elam outlined, the University provides support for humanities students within the departments as well as at the administrative level.

Katie McDonough, humanities and arts initiatives coordinator for the School of Humanities and Sciences, said that her position was created to help increase the visibility and accessibility of courses, faculty research and programs within the humanities.

McDonough stated that elite universities around the country, including Stanford, are seeking to collect more data about what alumni who graduated with degrees in the humanities have done after graduation in order to educate humanities students about employment possibilities.

Richard Saller, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, has expressed the same confidence about the futures of humanities majors.

“The truth is that we don’t have very detailed data on the careers of our humanities graduates, but we do know that they have done very well, and we are gathering systematic data about their careers and admittance to professional school,” Saller said.

Individual humanities departments provide job-oriented resources for their students, McDonough said. She added that departments help connect students with internships for career experience and even offer funding for unpaid internships.

Katie Dooling, undergraduate student services coordinator for the English Department, said that in the past three years the department has provided grants to students for summer internships, including the Kaplan Endowment which awards grants of $1,000 to help subsidize all or part of an internship at an organization that allows students to use their academic experience as English majors at work.

“We don’t want students to feel like they can’t participate in internships that are unpaid because they have to make money during the summer,” Dooling said. “Then later it’s great to hear back from them about what they found interesting and how they applied their English knowledge in this field.”

The department also puts on two panels with alumni who speak about their careers, whether as writers or in other fields, such as business.

“For English students, it’s not a limitation on what you can do, but you have so many options that you need to figure out what you want to do,” Dooling said.

 

Increasing career opportunities for humanities majors

Departments and organizations across campus are developing new programs and resources in order to help introduce those in the humanities to opportunities beyond Stanford and inspire confidence in their choice of major.

One new course, Music 6P: Art Is My Occupation: Professional Development for Creatives, offered through the Arts Institute will launch in winter quarter, featuring guest speakers with careers in arts administration and practicing art.

Paula Salazar ’13, arts in student life coordinator for the Arts Institute, believes that the arts are thriving at Stanford and that the best way for students to orient themselves toward a career is to first discover their passions.

Salazar talked about her own personal experience as an art history major, stating that being part of the founding team of The Stanford Arts Review–a publication featuring original work and commentary–expanded her thinking about her major in a way that helped her reach out to a larger community.

“Stanford humanities majors have the opportunity to develop a skill set beyond knowledge that may fade away over time,” Salazar said. “Being able to write a really good essay translates into being able to write a really great report for your supervisors.” “It’s important especially for humanities majors to think about their skill set in this way, and a lot of different fields and jobs will suddenly seem open,” she added.

The Career Development Center (CDC) is also working to help students in the humanities and arts by offering more career counseling, according to Margot Gilliland, CDC assistant director for students in the humanities and sciences.

The CDC is making efforts to work closely with individual departments, and Gilliland herself also holds office hours in the English and history departments. Additionally, the CDC is offering Career Meetups this year as a casual way for students to talk about job search strategies.

Humanities majors often have strong communication and analytical skills as well as a developed ability to work on teams, according to Gilliland, and the CDC’s new efforts aim to teach students how to market those strengths.

Gilliland also noted that in February there will be a humanities and sciences career fair featuring employers specifically looking for the skills that come with these types of majors.

Another new resource for humanities majors is the opportunity to participate in the Summer Institute for General Management (SIGM) at the Graduate School of Business. SIGM is a four-week full-time summer program aimed at providing business knowledge and improving career-oriented skills for non-business majors.

Stanford humanities and arts majors accepted to SIGM are eligible for funding offered by the Office of the President. This funding—up to SIGM’s full tuition cost of $10,750—will be distributed by the School of Humanities and Sciences based on students’ financial aid profiles.

“We hope that a funded opportunity like this will be an encouragement to students who feel like otherwise they might need to major in something that does have more of a business focus,” McDonough said.

Despite existing and future resources available to undergraduate majors in the humanities and arts, McDonough expressed concern that many of these opportunities are not well known around campus.

“[These opportunities] are things that potentially could attract students to the humanities and the arts if they knew they existed before they declare,” McDonough said.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu.

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Number of undeclared juniors decreases over years https://stanforddaily.com/2013/11/21/number-of-undeclared-juniors-decreases-over-years/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/11/21/number-of-undeclared-juniors-decreases-over-years/#respond Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:45:56 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1080703 The number of undeclared juniors at the start of the academic school year has steadily decreased over the last five years.

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VICTOR XU/The Stanford Daily
VICTOR XU/The Stanford Daily

The number of undeclared juniors at the start of the academic school year has steadily decreased over the last five years.

In September 2009, 545 juniors remained undeclared. In 2010, this number decreased to 471, and in 2011, 2012 and 2013, there were 474, 390 and 368 undeclared juniors, respectively.

Kirsti Copeland, associate dean of residentially based advising and pre-major advising, said the decline was due in part to the Undergraduate Advising and Research (UAR) advisor hold (ADV20) that prevents freshmen and sophomores from signing up for their next quarter classes before meeting with their pre-major advisors.

In an email to The Daily, Copeland stated that the advisor hold was established with the intention of driving down the number of undeclared students. The hold led to decreasing numbers because students would see their pre-major advisors and have a designated time in which to think through their academic decisions such as a declaring.

According to UAR Academic Director Dayo Mitchell, some students enter junior year undeclared though they know what they want to study; yet, they are unsure how to navigate the declaring process, have not yet fulfilled the course prerequisites for their major or have not found their major advisor.

Dina Hassan ’15 declared in history two weeks ago after her own struggle to declare.

“It was really hard for me to decide because I really wanted to explore,” Hassan said. “When it came to spring sophomore year, I met with my academic director. I knew I wanted to declare history, but I didn’t know who to pick for my advisor.”

Hassan said that another quarter helped her get to know faculty in the department better and be confident in her choice. Hassan added that her declaring was later than some of her peers because she had been strongly considering both history and computer science before making a final decision.

“It takes a while to know what CS actually is, so I took those classes to find out if it was for me or not,” Hassan said. “I wanted to be really sure I picked the best fit for me, and I am.”

Aside from ADV20, the UAR also places a hold on student records and the ability to enroll in classes for juniors that are still undeclared.

UAR Associate Dean Randall Williams stressed that this relatively new policy—instated five years ago—is not intended to force students into declaring if they really are unsure about what they want to study. Instead, the policy aims to prompt those who have decided on their majors but have not gone through the formal declaring process yet and to help those who are still uncertain about their majors.

“All we want is contact from the [undecided] student to give us an update on where they are in their process. All we want to know is that they’re thinking about it and working on it,” Williams said. “And we’re happy to move a hold to give them the time to engage with the department and figure things out.”

Some undeclared students, however, harbor frustration towards this hold policy.

Breanna Hampton ’15 decided in spring quarter that she would declare in psychology, but has been having trouble finding an advisor and therefore has not been able to declare.

“It’s making me really stressed out because I have to get classes for next quarter,” Hampton said. “It’s not cutthroat to take classes like in other schools but at the same time it’s a hassle to email teachers to ask them to put you on their waiting list, especially when it’s so late in the game.”

Hampton cited that the academic directors she talked to were helpful to some extent, sitting down with her to discuss a plan that would allow her to graduate on time, but she is worried about not being able to take the classes she needs because of the hold.

“I understand [the policy], I really do, but it’s really frustrating,” Hampton said. “It’s aggravating. I don’t care if you hold my grades. I don’t care if you hold anything else. I need to get classes. I understand they want to get you to declare; I’ll do all the talking and paperwork, but I just really want to make sure I’m in the class I want to be in.”

Williams stressed that choosing a major is typically an extended process that begins with one’s interests coming into Stanford and matching each freshman with a pre-major advisor. Sophomore year is an appropriate time for Majors Night, an annual event designed to help students explore over 45 departments.

“It’s really about information gathering, referrals, experiences and taking courses,” Williams said. “You can figure it out by talking with peers and talking with departments to help you narrow it down.”

For those students still deciding between multiple majors, Mitchell recommends talking to faculty and peer advisors, researching what majors are wanted by careers of interest and outlining potential four-year plans, all to get a better sense of what completing a major would look like.

“One of the things I encourage is to not wait for a light bulb but to go out and gather information about the major,” Mitchell said. “If you get all this information and it doesn’t put you off then I think you can safely decide you’re ready, as opposed to just expecting

As of Monday earlier this week, 178 juniors remain undeclared.

Ileana Najarro and Catherine Zaw contributed to this report.

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Hennessy, experts discussed education at SPREES panel https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/30/sprees-held-debut-event-talking-education/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/30/sprees-held-debut-event-talking-education/#respond Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:20:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1079949 On Tuesday evening, the Stanford Pre-Education Society (SPREES) held its debut event, a panel discussion featuring President John Hennessy and prominent education experts. They focused on available careers in education and attracting Stanford students toward a career in education.

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ROGER CHEN/ The Stanford Daily
ROGER CHEN/ The Stanford Daily. President John Hennessy.

On Tuesday evening, the Stanford Pre-Education Society (SPREES) held its debut event, a panel discussion featuring President John Hennessy and prominent education experts. They focused on available careers in education and attracting Stanford students toward a career in education.

The event was co-sponsored by The Graduate School of Education (GSE) and the Education and Society Theme (EAST) House.

SPREES founder and president Julia Quintero ’15 anticipated the event would generate a new discussion surrounding education reform.

“I want this event to create [a] really important conversation that is not being had about education reform,” Quintero said.

On the topic of reform, Hennessy spoke about the politics surrounding education in the U.S. and the need to better fund schools.

“We’ve got to spend more money on young people in this country and move from spending disproportionate amounts of money on people over 65 to those under 15,” he said.

In addition to President Hennessy, Claude Steele, dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE), Michael Kirst, president of the California State Board of Education and Rachel Lotan M.A ’81 M.A. ’83 Ph.D. ’85, director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program, spoke at the event. Quintero said the selection of speakers was important for facilitating a serious conversation.

ROGER CHEN/The Stanford Daily.  Michael Kirst, president of the California State Board of Education and Rachel Lotan M.A ’81 M.A. ’83 Ph.D. ’85, director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program.
ROGER CHEN/The Stanford Daily. Michael Kirst, president of the California State Board of Education and Rachel Lotan M.A ’81 M.A. ’83 Ph.D. ’85, director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program.

“I also wanted to invite speakers who have the gravitas to grant legitimacy to the idea that Stanford students can and should become teachers or go into education in general,” Quintero said.

During the event, the four panelists addressed the question of career pathways for education as a field. Steele said that like other professions, education should be rooted in research.

Kirst emphasized that a career in education qualifies students for professions that go beyond teaching. Last year, he said, GSE graduates went on to work for companies that included Apple, UNESCO and the New York City Department of Education.

Lotan shared similar ideas.

“Teaching is the profession that makes all professions possible,” she said.

She also added that teaching as a career deserves more status and monetary compensation than it currently does in American society.

“Teaching is a political and a moral act,” Lotan said. “When we decide why we teach, we are making a political decision. We are expressing our vision and our goal for the future of society.”

Although the conversation focused on attracting students to careers in education, some students are already passionate about a future in teaching.

ROGER CHEN/ The Stanford Daily. Claude Steele, dean of the Graduate School of Education.
ROGER CHEN/ The Stanford Daily. Claude Steele, dean of the Graduate School of Education.

Nicole Kofman ’15, who attended the event, said she has wanted to be a teacher since the fourth grade, and although she does not plan on entering the field immediately after graduation, she would like to be a K-12 teacher at some point in her life.

Kofman said her favorite elementary and high school teachers inspired her, and she wishes more people would have respect for the teaching profession.

” One thing in particular that struck me was hearing Lotan talk about the passion that guides some into teaching,”Kofman said. “A lot of these people are the ones who end up being the best teachers.”

Although not personally interested in pursuing a career in education, senior Aaron Nagao B.S. ’14 M.S. ’15 said he valued the panel discussion and supports the expansion of programs like the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which allows graduate education students who are interested in teaching to gain both academic and practical experience in a classroom setting.

“I’m glad the panel was able to cover a variety of topics, especially the politics aspect of education in California and the current news from the State Board,” Nagao said. “For an undergraduate group to put [the event] on, it was impressive.”

According to Quintero, SPREES is currently planning a number of other events and programs for undergraduates interested in a career in education, including an internship program for shadowing teachers in the area, mentorship programing between undergraduates and graduate students in education and weekly lunches for discussion on issues in education.

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Immigration reform not just Latino issue, experts say https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/17/immigration-reform-not-just-latino-issue-experts-say/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/17/immigration-reform-not-just-latino-issue-experts-say/#comments Thu, 17 Oct 2013 09:33:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1079493 Stanford experts affirm that, despite its portrayal in the U.S. media as a Latino—or even Mexican—issue, undocumented immigration in the U.S. affects a diverse set of nationalities and that in fact, Mexican migration to the States is on the decline.

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Stanford experts affirm that, despite its portrayal in the U.S. media as a Latino—or even Mexican—issue, undocumented immigration in the U.S. affects a diverse set of nationalities and that in fact, Mexican migration to the States is on the decline.

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SAM GIRVIN/ The Stanford Daily

According to Leo Chavez A.M.’76 Ph.D. ‘82, who is currently a professor of Anthropology at UC-Irvine, there are 1.2 million Asian and 300,000 Eastern European unauthorized immigrants living in the United States.

He added that although 40 percent of undocumented immigration comes from elsewhere, extensive media focus on detentions and the arrest of unauthorized Mexican immigrants by border patrol have transformed Mexico into the iconic nationality for all types of unauthorized migration to the United States.

“Obviously these detention rates are skewed because they target the Mexican flow across the border,” Chavez said. “Other groups might be able to get in more easily because they aren’t so visibly recognized or seen as undocumented.”

Stanford Assistant Professor of Sociology Tomas Jimenez, whose research has focused on immigration, social mobility and assimilation, noted the stigma that even Latino families who have been legally situated in the United States for generations must face due to this widespread perception.

Chavez calls this dominating association of illegal immigration a “historically constructed set of ideas” influenced by the Immigration Act of 1924.

To further demonstrate a broader ethnic voice, current demands for immigration reform come from a variety of nationalities, including both Latino and Asian populations.

Katherine Nasol ‘15, member of the Pilipino American Student Union (PASU) on campus and an attendee at the 4th International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees in New York City, personally advocates for this reform.

Despite the stigma surrounding legal status among the Filipino-American population, she stressed Stanford’s collective responsibility to reach out to these individuals.

“Our campus needs to move forward, listen to the stories of those affected and connect how the status of these students are affected by larger systemic problems such as forced migration and racial discrimination in our current legal system,” Nasol said. “Media and social attention is just one of the many tools we can use to shed light on these unheard stories.”

While movements like those of the DREAMers and Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories (RAISE) work toward immigration reform, both Jimenez and Chavez said Mexican immigration to the United States is declining in general.

A variety of factors, including American hostilities toward unauthorized immigrants and an improving Mexican economy, have reduced the flow of Mexicans to the United States and increased the number of those who are moving back to Mexico.

“Given the historical immigration from Mexico and our still large dependence on Mexican labor and that from other Latin American countries, I imagine that these countries will remain dominant in proportion to the overall unauthorized immigrant population, but I can definitely see it decline in that dominance,” Jimenez said.

 

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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DLCL now offering a minor in translation studies https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/10/dlcl-now-offering-a-minor-in-translation-studies/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/10/dlcl-now-offering-a-minor-in-translation-studies/#respond Thu, 10 Oct 2013 08:16:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1079263 of Literatures, Cultures and Languages (DLCL) is offering a new minor program in translation studies this year.

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The Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages (DLCL) is offering a new minor program in translation studies this year.

The minor consists of 26 units in core, language, literature and elective courses and a final translation project conducted under the supervision of an instructor.The new program is aimed at students who want to explore what it means to adapt literary works to a different language and is available to students who have no experience in their chosen foreign languages of study as well as students who are native speakers in the language or languages they want to use in their final projects.

SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily
SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily

“All the courses and different components—the language study, the literature study, the electives—are meant to give the students a greater context in which to be more skilled,” said Cintia Santana, advisor for the minor program. “All of it is to make students better readers, which makes [them] a better translator.”

Gabriella Safran, chair of the DLCL, worked with Santana and Indra Levy, an associate professor in East Asian Languages and Cultures, to design the minor and its course list for the past two years.

“It’s a good moment for this type of program,” Safran said. “Living here and having this base of students with such diverse languages and living in such a connected world makes us aware of the degree to which our lives depend on translation.”

Santana said there was a relatively high number of students interested in the minor at Majors Night on Oct. 1. Safran said she anticipates that about five to 10 students will participate in the program this year—a range that fits the program well because, according to her, the minor is very advising intensive.

“Maybe we’ll get a huge crowd of students pouring in and we’ll have to think about a new structure to meet all of their needs,” Safran said. “You have to be open-minded as you institute a new program.”

One of two core classes for the minor, DLCL 293: Literary Translation taught by Santana, has been offered in the department before. Santana said that enrollment in this class—offered again this year during winter quarter—will give the DLCL a better sense of how many students are interested in the program.

Trent Walker ’10 took Santana’s class as an undergraduate and said he appreciated the chance to explore the critical theory concerning translation and work closely with his own writing in a safe space to exchange ideas.

“Something I would have really appreciated about a translation minor is being able to connect with other students who are doing that minor and to be able to learn from what they are struggling with or working with,” Walker said.

Aliya Deri ’13, who also took the Literary Translation course, said that even as a computer science major, translation was a valuable skill to learn.

“A course like this helps those in engineering—especially those in computer science—situate themselves and their work in the history of translation, which is something I had never done before,” Deri said.

Indeed, Safran said the minor program is for students of all areas of study.

“One reason why it’s exciting to be involved in languages and literatures is because we have students with such diverse languages and interests,” Safran said. “This minor is a way to give students a context, a structure, in which they can take their knowledge of language further, explore foreign cultures and then do something with it.”

Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford neurologist featured in local Emmy-nominated documentary https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/29/medicine-prof-featured-in-local-emmy-nominated-documentary/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/29/medicine-prof-featured-in-local-emmy-nominated-documentary/#respond Thu, 30 May 2013 06:55:31 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077493 A documentary featuring the work of Assistant Professor of Neurology Michelle Monje M.D. '04 Ph.D. '04 has been nominated for a San Francisco/Northern California Emmy Award.

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A documentary featuring the work of Assistant Professor of Neurology Michelle Monje M.D. ’04 Ph.D. ’04 has been nominated for a San Francisco/Northern California Emmy Award.

The film, titled Dylan’s Gift, tells the story of Dylan Jewett, a five-year-old patient of Monje’s. In January 2009, Dylan died from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), an incurable tumor that afflicts between 150 and 200 children per year.

The documentary also follows the groundbreaking development of the first mouse-model of DIPG, which Monje and her team were able to create using cells from Dylan’s autopsied tumor.

Dylan’s Gift is the ninth episode of Bench to Bedside, a television series produced by Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) Media that focuses on people and animals who have diseases with no known cure.

The goal [of the documentary] was to raise awareness of a horrible disease that is killing children,” said Liz Hodge, the series’ executive director. “People don’t know about brain cancer in general, let alone one [variant] as rare as DIPG. It’s always important to spread awareness of diseases that are rare.”

Although the film has only aired in California so far, Hodge expects that it will be shown worldwide by 2014. The San Francisco/Northern California Emmy awards, in which Dylan’s Gift is competing against two other entries in the informational/instructional-program/special category, will be announced on June 15.

Dylan’s donation

Monje became involved in the documentary after treating Dylan during her neuro-oncology fellowship in 2008. She had studied DIPG in a lab for five years before deciding to focus on the disease and attempt to develop experimental models that could be used to study it

“Anytime I can raise awareness about DIPG, that’s an important thing to do for the patients,” Monje said. “What I really like about this documentary is that it is focused on honoring Dylan and his family and recognizing the contribution that they made, so I was very happy to contribute in any way I could.”

DIPG typically appears in children around age six, with initial symptoms including crooked eyes, having difficulty moving muscles of the mouth and face or general incoordination and clumsiness.

The tumor is diagnosed by brain stem neuroimaging, and the median life expectancy following diagnosis is around nine months. Almost all patients die within two years.

After realizing the dire reality of Dylan’s cancer, his mother asked Monje if there was any way to help other children with the disease and subsequently decided to donate his tumor to research.

According to Monje, doctors do not normally biopsy DIPG because the tumor cells are entwined with the normal tissue of the brain stem. However, with Dylan’s donation, the researchers could conduct a postmortem harvesting of the tumor within 18 hours, and were then able to establish the first cell culture of DIPG in the world.

The doctors then injected the cells in the brain stems of mice, creating a disease that looks almost identical to human DIPG. This development enabled researchers to study the cancer more closely and investigate the effects of different treatment options.

According to Monje, Dylan’s cells have been distributed to over 35 scientists around the world, from Europe to Australia, allowing more scientists to contribute to research on the cancer.

“We share our cell lines with any researcher who is interested in studying DIPG,” Monje said. “That’s really been helpful in energizing the research on DIPG. There are a lot of people now working on it because they have the tools with which to study the disease.”

Since Monje’s initial work with Dylan’s tumor, other families have donated DIPG tumors for research, allowing six different cell lines of the disease to be established.

“Having these different cell lines is important because not every tumor is the same, and it’s important to study a group of them in order to make conclusions that are applicable to the most patients,” Monje said.

Paul Fisher ’84, head of the School of Medicine’s Division of Child Neurology, supervised Monje’s research on DIPG.

Fisher, who has diagnosed more than 100 patients with DIPG, framed Dylan’s story as particularly compelling on two levels, through both the generosity of a family who wanted to contribute to research to help save the lives of other children and Monje’s investment of her time and energy to develop the model of the tumor.

“Michelle and the family have been very generous in sharing the cells with other labs,” Fisher said. “There’s a lot of active testing right now with different drug compounds, and in the future they will be testing other types of therapy, and having this model system in place will be key to try to overcome such a horrible track record in this disease.”

Hodge also emphasized the generosity of the Jewett family, noting that the Emmy nomination is a tribute to their efforts and sacrifices.

“It speaks to their generous hearts, and the generous way that they turned a tragedy into something positive,” Hodge said.

 

 

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ASSU weighs funding Legal Counseling Office https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/28/spurned-on-special-fees-legal-counseling-office-looks-for-alternate-funding-sources/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/28/spurned-on-special-fees-legal-counseling-office-looks-for-alternate-funding-sources/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:55:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076798 After becoming the only special fees group to be denied their funding request in this year’s ASSU elections, the Legal Counseling Office (LCO) -- a service offered by the ASSU to both undergraduate and graduate students -- faces uncertainty about its future.

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After becoming the only special fees group to be denied their funding request in this year’s ASSU elections, the Legal Counseling Office (LCO) — a service offered by the ASSU to both undergraduate and graduate students — faces uncertainty about its future.

Over 50 percent of the students who voted on the LCO’s petition approved the funding request. However, the total number of students voting to approve the request did not meet the minimum threshold of 15 percent of the aggregate student body.

According to LCO Office Manager Heather Kirton, the Office offers free legal advice to students. It is open for four hours twice a week, providing advice to an average of five-and-a-half students per day. On average, 126 students use the service each quarter, seeking advice on a wide range of issues from possession of alcohol by a minor to landlord disputes.

The LCO requested $133,715 in special fees during this year’s ASSU elections, a sum that would have covered the entirety of Office’s operation, including the rental of office space, payment for consulting attorneys and marketing. The last category includes advertisements in the Stanford Unofficial Guide, dorm flyering, an ASSU website page and a Facebook page.

“We probably should have made a better effort [to campaign for special fees], but when you’re approved more than 20 years in a row and you get people that come in and thank you for the help and appreciate the service, you just assume that at least enough people will vote,” Kirton said.

According to Senator Viraj Bindra ‘15, there are no current plans to find alternate sources of funding for the LCO through the ASSU Undergraduate Senate.

“I definitely see [the LCO] as an incredibly valuable resource, and I think we should find some way to keep it or the ASSU should provide it with funding,” Bindra said. “That being said, I also do believe in the integrity of the process. If students decide that they don’t necessarily want to fund it because they don’t see value in it, we don’t have a right to circumvent that process. I’m really torn on the issue.”

Outgoing ASSU President Robbie Zimbroff ‘12 M.A.’13 said that he wants to collaborate with the Senate on other possible ways of funding the LCO, including reserve fees or buffer funds. Reserve fees are general unspent ASSU funds, and buffer funds comprise what remains of a 10 percent and an eight percent surcharge levied on undergraduates’ and graduates’ special fees, respectively.

“This is a great case study to think about what the buffer fund and reserve fees are for,” Zimbroff emphasized, citing last year’s controversy surrounding the use of buffer fund monies to support Frost Revival and Blackfest without any clear or uniform rules to govern that spending.

In an email sent to the Graduate Student Council on Sunday, Zimbroff outlined the current funding status of the LCO. Zimbroff wrote that he and ASSU Vice President William Wagstaff ‘12 M.A.’13 will allocate the ASSU Executive’s remaining discretionary funds to the LCO’s budget. Even after that funding injection and the LCO’s reserves, a $90,000 shortfall exists from the Office’s special fees request.

Zimbroff argued that because the LCO’s history of successful special fees requests has resulted in the gradual accrual of surcharges to the buffer fund, the use of some of that funding to sustain the LCO in the year to come would be justified. He emphasized, however, the importance of considering ways to reduce the LCO’s expenses if other funding doesn’t materialize.

“My general thought is that the LCO is an important enough service to the student body that we should really strongly consider helping it out, but the question is how,” Zimbroff said. “However, what kind of precedent does it set if you bail out this group and not some group in the future that might not get joint special fees?”

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d.school class to be featured in PBS documentary https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/17/d-school-class-to-be-featured-in-pbs-documentary/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/17/d-school-class-to-be-featured-in-pbs-documentary/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:30:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076528 The class, which is in its 10th year, has allowed 325 students to work with global partners in 14 countries to create products that improve the lives of impoverished people. This year, the 40 graduate students in the course are collaborating with five global partners to manage the design of 10 new products.

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ME 206A&B: Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability– a two-quarter course offered by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) through the Graduate School of Business (GSB) and the department of mechanical engineering– will be featured in an hour-long documentary on PBS this fall.

The class, which is in its 10th year, has allowed 325 students to work with global partners in 14 countries to create products that improve the lives of impoverished people. This year, the 40 graduate students in the course are collaborating with five global partners to manage the design of 10 new products.

James Patell, a GSB professor and a member of the teaching team, said that the course aims to teach students valuable lessons that can be difficult to impart in a traditional classroom setting.

“We want students to have the experience of having taken a difficult project from beginning to end, to have worked on a real-world project for real people and to have developed the creative confidence that would enable them to be dropped down into any difficult, messy situation, to land on their feet and to make real progress quickly,” Patell said.

The class is open to students of all departments, and students from almost 30 programs have participated. More than 130 students applied for 40 spots in the course this year. Patell said that when reviewing applications, he and the teaching team focus more on a student’s enthusiasm than his or her major or program.

“First of all, we’re looking for people’s passion [and] if they’re really committed to this,” Patell said. “It’s a big undertaking, and we’re looking for people who really want to make it happen.”

Additionally, the teaching team looks for students with the right combination of specific skills needed by the courses’ global partners. For example, in a year with predominantly medical partners, the teaching team will pick more students with medical backgrounds.

According to Patell, several products created during the course have become extremely successful. D.light, a solar-rechargeable LED light developed by students in 2006 for use in Myanmar, has sold almost three million products in 40 countries.

Patell also referenced Embrace, a low-cost infant warmer originally designed by students in 2007, as another notable product developed during the course. Hospitals and orphanages around the world now use Embrace, which students created in partnership with Medicine Mondiale.

Seth Norman MBA ’12, who took the class in 2010, worked with hospitals in Bangladesh to create an infusion pump that functions with any type of IV bag or tubing. Such a pump reduces costs for hospitals by eliminating the need to buy more expensive bags and tubes from American or British companies.

Norman cited the ability to meet and work with students from other programs as one of the class’ distinguishing appeals.

“The biggest things that I learned dealt with having different types of people on the same team, people who work differently and have different backgrounds,” Norman said. “At the same time, the biggest challenges were sorting out the process of working as a team.”

While Norman called the class a “life-changing experience,” he acknowledged that the course also offers a heavy workload and experiences potentially beyond some students’ comfort zones.

Ralph King ’78, who produced and co-directed the documentary, originally learned about the course as a staff member at the GSB. He audited the class in 2010, traveling to Myanmar with a project group, and was inspired to create the film.

“I was just filled with what I’ll call ecstasy because for the first time in 25 years [as a journalist], I understood the difference between gathering facts and observing with an open heart,” King said. “Not only did I have an insight for the team that helped in the design of the product, but I had a sense of a new capacity within myself to take in information that wasn’t strictly factual but on an emotional level.”

King raised $650,000 for the documentary and filmed from January to June 2011. His crew did pre-interviews with all 40 students in the course, eventually choosing to focus on three who were articulate, emotionally honest and interesting to a general audience, according to King.

The editing process took approximately a year, and the documentary premiered to a Stanford audience at a packed CEMEX Auditorium on April 9.

Patell said that he was satisfied with how the film depicted the course and the way in which King told the story of three specific students’ experiences.

“I think overall, Ralph did a good job of acknowledging the flow of what goes on, but the story is about the students,” Patell said. “He picked three students on whom he focused, and it’s much more the story of their three personal experiences, what they did, what they felt, how they changed.”

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PoliSci 236 gives students real-life experience in philanthropy https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/11/polisci-236-gives-students-real-life-experience-in-philanthropy/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/11/polisci-236-gives-students-real-life-experience-in-philanthropy/#respond Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:34:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076387 PoliSci 236: Theories of Civil Society, Philanthropy, and the Nonprofit Sector has always taught its students about the nature and challenges of donating money. Only recently, however, have these students been able to learn through real philanthropic experience.

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PoliSci 236: Theories of Civil Society, Philanthropy, and the Nonprofit Sector has always taught its students about the nature and challenges of donating money. Only recently, however, have these students been able to learn through real philanthropic experience.

For the second year in a row, the class will give away $100,000 by the end of the quarter. The Once Upon a Time Foundation in Fort Worth, Texas, provided funds—to this class and to similar ones at other universities such as Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania—to enable undergraduate and graduate students to gain firsthand insight into the progress of giving money.

Visiting Scholar and Lecturer Bruce Sievers has taught the course for 10 years, instructing students on the history, nature and challenges of the nonprofit sector and philanthropy. Sievers said that the donation process is far more difficult than students initially imagine.

“What many people find is that it’s more of a challenge to give money away than you might anticipate because resources in almost all the fields that nonprofits work in are very scarce,” Sievers said. “Students quickly realize what a delicate responsibility it is to be charged with that decision-making but to be working in areas that they may be less knowledgeable in than the people receiving the money.”

The Once Upon a Time Foundation’s grant comes to Stanford through the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), with the course instructor deciding how he or she will incorporate the funds into the curriculum.

Last year, Sievers divided students into four teams with different philanthropic focuses. The teams sent out a Request for Proposal to nonprofits that align with their group’s interests, interviewed responding nonprofits and donated money to between up to three organizations.

Throughout the quarter, students apply some of the broader knowledge gained in class about philanthropy and civil society in weekly sections, where they do most of the work determining which organizations they will choose for their donations. This year’s team topics are education, environment, international development and policy advocacy.

Sara Conklin, who took PoliSci 236 last year as a graduate student, credited the class and the skills she learned with helping her to obtain her current job at the Human Rights Council in Washington, D.C. She specifically cited the experience she gained working with a board of directors, grant-making and fundraising.

“The grant-making process is so time-consuming, but it was set up really perfectly for spring quarter for us to be able to have a really nice progression and enabled us to feel really confident when we were allocating our funds that we had taken all the necessary measures to make these grants to organizations which we were proud of and to which we were committed,” Conklin said.

Conklin said she was surprised by how intimately and independently students were allowed to work with the organizations.

“Being entrusted with that amount of money was huge and it was a crazy power dynamic,” she said, “because all of a sudden you are being entrusted with all the small details that make up a nonprofit organization and you’re on the other side when usually students are the ones volunteering.”

Sievers said that this experiential approach to learning about philanthropy stresses not just the impact but also the strategy of giving.

“Also, there are these larger questions of strategy,” Sievers said. “What are you trying to accomplish with this money? Are you trying to allocate it to something you think is important? Are you looking strategically, asking where you can get the most bang for your buck?”

According to Kim Meredith, executive director of PACS, classes like PoliSci 236 are particularly important in the current economic climate.

“The value of individual philanthropy becomes even more valuable because there are less dollars of government and people are more mindful and the strategic value is really critical,” Meredith said. “Teaching good philanthropy and grant-making can have a broader effect than simple charity-giving because it influences systemic change.”

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Stanford Law School opens Religious Liberty Clinic https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/24/stanford-law-school-opens-religious-liberty-clinic/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/24/stanford-law-school-opens-religious-liberty-clinic/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:41:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074288 Only a week after the Stanford Law School launched the nation’s first Religious Liberty Clinic, students are already engaged in six legal battles offering real world practice on the subject of religious freedom.

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Stanford Law School/IAN GARCIA DOTY

 

Only a week after the Stanford Law School launched the nation’s first Religious Liberty Clinic, students are already engaged in six legal battles offering real world practice on the subject of religious freedom.

Clinic Director James Sonne said that Stanford has historically been on the cutting edge of providing practical clinical education. The new clinic, which is housed in the Mills Legal Clinic, goes beyond what the Law School regularly offers.

“We think the religious liberty aspect gives a very unique and interesting prism through which to do clinical training,” Sonne said.

Sonne sought to differentiate his clinic from similar offerings at faith-based schools, which largely take clients with shared religious affiliations. By contrast, the Stanford clinic has clients with a wide span of beliefs, including Muslim, Seventh Day Adventist, Jewish and Native American practices.

“There’s a wide variety because part of what we want to show – not only to our students but also to the wider community – is the universal nature of religious liberty,” Sonne said. “For the most part it doesn’t really matter what the religious practice is that’s involved, but what matters is the freedom to practice, not only to believe but [to] manifest that belief.”

Judith Romero, Law School spokesperson, emphasized the professional benefits of the clinic’s diverse range of clients.

“The history of religious liberty in this country offers a rich canvas upon which our students can learn how to be first-rate professionals in service to those in need, particularly the misrepresented or underrepresented,” Romero said in a statement to The Daily.

In addition to a variety of faiths, the clinic’s focus on religious liberty also focuses the historical significance within the American legal system of that constitutional freedom.

The cases the clinic is currently working on include a Native American prohibited from ceremonial pipe smoking and a group of Seventh Day Adventist employees who do not want to work on their Sabbath.

The clinic’s student involvement has been relatively small, with four students admitted winter quarter and six admitted for spring quarter.

“They had no idea other than just the name and a two-paragraph summary about what it was going to be, so that they signed up a year in advance pays a special tribute to the interest among our students in this type of clinic,” Sonne said. “I think it’s fair to say that they’re thrilled with it so far.”

The clinic is also unique in that it is one of the few “full time” programs in the country – meaning enrolled students take no other classes during the quarter – in an effort to replicate the professional practice of law.

Michael McConnell, director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, said preliminary planning for this new type of clinic had been in the works for years, as a way to expand the school’s clinical offerings but also to explore the subject matter more practically.

“It’s an idea that I’ve been kicking around with the former dean and the head of the clinical program for several years,” McConnell said. “This is an area of academic and scholarly interest to me, and it seemed to me to be a great idea for this to be an area where students can get some practical experience.”

Like the ten other specialized programs of the Mills Legal Clinic – a Stanford Law School in-house group that operates as a single law firm – the Religious Liberty Clinic provides law students the opportunity to gain firsthand experience in the field by working alongside faculty on cases, which Sonne cited as uniquely valuable for students seeking practical experience.

“[Considering] the modern economy and the modern market for legal services, it’s all the more important for our students to have not just book knowledge but to have…street knowledge – what it is not just to think like a lawyer but to be a lawyer,” Sonne said.

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Palo Alto enters 25-year solar energy contract https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/15/palo-alto-enters-25-year-solar-energy-contract/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/15/palo-alto-enters-25-year-solar-energy-contract/#respond Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:51:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1073099 Palo Alto’s Utilities Advisory Commission and Finance Committee announced their unanimous approval of a 25-year contract with Brannon Solar LLC on Nov. 5.

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Palo Alto’s Utilities Advisory Commission and Finance Committee announced their unanimous approval of a 25-year contract with Brannon Solar LLC on Nov. 5. This is the city’s first solar energy contract, and the company will provide up to 52,000-megawatt-hours, 5% of the city’s electricity needs, per year for no more than $91 million for the duration of the contract.

“Solar prices were about two times as much a couple years ago but there has been an overall downward trend in California,” said James Cook, chair of the Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission. “This contract could be the first of more solar projects for Palo Alto energy sources.”

The company’s Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) was approved at the city council meeting as part of the city’s Renewable Portfolio Standard goal of getting at least 33 percent of Palo Alto’s energy from renewable sources by 2015. Cook estimates that approximately 20 percent of the Palo Alto’s energy came from renewable sources prior to this contract. The remainder of the energy is “brown,” he said, or non-renewable.

Since 2004, Palo Alto has signed 10 contracts for renewable energy, including wind, landfill gas and geothermal projects based in northern and central California.

“Palo Alto is moving to a carbon-free energy growth plan, which would be completely carbon neutral [by 2015],” Palo Alto Vice Mayor Greg Scharff said.

The efforts to provide 33 percent of Palo Alto’s energy from renewable sources by 2015 are part of a larger effort to make Palo Alto a greener city.

“We’re in the process of another RFP [Request for Proposals] for renewable energy contracts,” Cook said. “We also have ongoing energy efficiency projects, so we don’t need as much energy in the first place.”

In the fall of 2011, Palo Alto issued a request for PPA. Scharff explained that price and the availability of resources are major considerations when examining PPAs.

“Geothermal, for instance, provides power all the time,” Scharff said. “Wind power provides power when the wind blows. Solar provides when the sun shines. You take that into account, but you also try to go with the lowest cost.”

Brannon Solar’s agreement was deemed the best overall, in addition to offering the lowest price of $77 per megawatt-hour. The original price was $72 per megawatt hour, but after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese solar cells, Brannon Solar said the original price would be impossible. Negotiations with the City led to the final rate of $77.

“We were very, very excited to get the renewable energy for a very reasonable rate, much more reasonable than what we had projected,” Finance Committee member Nancy Shepherd said.

Shepherd also explained that these contracts are investments because the city not only receives revenue and energy from companies like Brannon Solar, but it also provides the companies capital to build the renewable technology.

“We have to invest as the fields go into place,” Shepherd said. “As the Utilities Commission makes these relationships, these companies…would rather work with the city of Palo Alto than places like [Pacific Gas and Electric]. They offer it to us because they know that we build up a reserve in order to go in and make these types of investments to secure our renewable energy supply, to maintain our portfolio.”

The contract allows the city to opt for a five-year extension, to be determined at the end of the contract’s 24th year.

The Brannon Solar project that will provide Palo Alto’s energy is based in Fresno County. In addition to building facilities in Palo Alto, Brannon Solar’s parent company, Trina Solar, is building a total of four other solar projects in Fresno County and Sacramento County.

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ThanksGiving Back draws 94 applicants in first year https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/09/thanksgiving-back-draws-94-applicants-in-first-year/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/09/thanksgiving-back-draws-94-applicants-in-first-year/#respond Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:16:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071607 The idea of service-learning trips during Stanford’s weeklong Thanksgiving break was originally proposed a couple years ago

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This Thanksgiving break, Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is sponsoring four new service-learning trips through the pilot launch of ThanksGiving Back (TGB). Programs on Alzheimer’s disease, hepatitis B, environmental justice and the intersection of art and social change drew a total of 94 applications, including about 40 incomplete applications, in TGB’s inaugural year.

According to TGB director Rachel Kelley ’12, the idea of service-learning trips during Stanford’s weeklong Thanksgiving break was originally proposed a couple years ago, largely driven by huge demand for service-based learning.

“In the past several years we have increased the number of ASB trips, launched the Impact Abroad program and last year decided to pilot a program during the Thanksgiving week break,” said Associate Director for Public Service Education Jon McConnell. “Additionally, each year we see students asking about service-related activities that they can be involved in during the Thanksgiving break since they are not planning to travel home during the week.”

The TGB program is similar to the popular ASB courses. Its goal is to expose students to social issues and motivate them to transform communities. The logistics of the program, however, run quite differently.

There are about a dozen fewer TGB trips offered, all located in the Bay Area rather than across the country like ASB trips. TGB students must only attend three mandatory two-hour pre-trip workshops rather than enroll in a quarter-long course to prepare. TGB trip sizes are limited to 10 students rather than ASB’s 12, and the trips themselves are a couple of days shorter.

According to Kelley, the program has been trying to heavily advertise in order to measure student interest.

“Maybe some people are going to say that they need that time for their families or to study because it is right before finals,” Kelley said. “We weren’t exactly sure what our demand would be like.”

“We’ve been encouraging people in our program to really forward the flyers around to make sure that people know about it, so if we don’t get high numbers we know that people don’t want a TGB program rather than they just didn’t know about it,” he said.

Christina Wang ’15, a team leader for the hepatitis B TGB trip, said her team advertised through flyers and emails.

“Having a trip right before Thanksgiving is really tough because a lot of things are closed,” Wang said. “That’s one of the advantages that ASB planners will have over TGB planners but I think that TGB will definitely grow in trip quantity and options. There’s a lot to explore around us!”

Wang said that she is excited for TGB because it will give her the opportunity to meet new people and learn more about her trip topic.

“A lot of the people I’m setting up tours and shadowing opportunities with are totally people that I admire but haven’t talked to yet, like Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, who is a leader in hepatitis B advocacy and a hep B patient herself,” she said.

Applications closed last Friday, Oct. 5. Despite the fact that more than a third of applications were incomplete, Kelley was satisfied with the number of students who expressed their interest.

“Considering that this is the first year of the program and that it doesn’t have quite the name recognition as ASB, we’re really pleased with the app turnout,” Kelley said.

As far as TGB’s future is concerned, McConnell says ASB will evaluate the pilot year of the program and proceed accordingly.

“Based on the initial enthusiasm of our trip leaders and applicants, I would imagine that we will definitely want to continue and hopefully even grow the program in future years,” McConnell said. “As always, it will depend on student interest and on what our budget will allow.”

Students who applied will be notified of their status by next week.

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Bing Concert Hall nears completion https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/07/bing-concert-hall/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/07/bing-concert-hall/#respond Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:02:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068081 Stanford hopes to use next year’s opening of the Bing Concert Hall as an opportunity to better integrate the arts into campus life and to engage with local communities, the University announced Monday at an event that also included the introduction of Stanford’s rebranding of its four-decade-old performing arts program.

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Stanford hopes to use next year’s opening of the Bing Concert Hall as an opportunity to better integrate the arts into campus life and to engage with local communities, the University announced Monday at an event that also included the introduction of Stanford’s rebranding of its four-decade-old performing arts program.

Stanford Live will replace Stanford Lively Arts, the previous organization tasked with helping to cultivate the performing arts on campus. Its inaugural season will begin January 2013 when the Bing Concert Hall holds its first performance.

“Engaging with surrounding communities is going to be a priority for us,” said Bing Concert Hall Managing Director Wiley Hausam. “A second priority is to build new audiences.”

The $111.9 million concert hall — named after the financial supporters of the project, Helen and Peter Bing ’55 — is expected to open on schedule and on budget, the University announced. The theme of the opening weekend’s performances is a celebration of the Bay Area.

“Bing Concert Hall is a shared facility,” said Stephen Hinton, faculty director of the Arts Initiative and the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts. “It doesn’t belong exclusively to any groups on campus, but it’s also for local artists.”

Hinton said that Stanford Live and the new concert hall will help students complete the recently revised breadth requirements that include courses in aesthetic and interpretive inquiry and creative expression.

“The University is committed to integrating the arts in its curriculum as an extension of the classroom,” Hinton said. “We will link the [concert hall] schedule to other events on campus. For example, I will be teaching a freshman seminar next year, and we will use the schedule as a cycle for our class.”

Another plan for integrating the arts with the rest of campus is the Beethoven Project. Various groups’ performances of all of Beethoven’s symphonies and piano concertos in the 2013 season will coincide with a symposium of international scholars called “Heroism in the Age of Beethoven.”

Hausam added that this academic intertwining is aimed to attract students who probably would not otherwise be inclined to attend a Beethoven concert.

“There is a sense of social exchange and dynamic energy within the hall,” said Jenny Bilfield, the artistic and executive director of Stanford Lively Arts. “The University campus is the performing arts center of the 21st century with its integrated and interdisciplinary approach.”

Bilfield also stressed the intimacy of the venue, with its 844-person seating capacity and unique “vineyard” shape designed by acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, who was also in charge of the acoustics at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the New World Symphony in Miami. Bilfield noted that not just the stage itself — which is sunken in the center of the hall — but also practice rooms, a recording studio and an underground rehearsal hall were designed with minimal right angles for the ideal acoustic experience.

Ennead Architects, which was contracted for the 1999 expansion of the Cantor Arts Center, led the overall design of the concert hall.

Though the concert hall is set to be completed before the end of the calendar year, this deadline does not mean that development of the venue will cease. Bilfield said that performers will experiment with different forms of presentation on the hall’s unique stage, which is surrounded by audience seating on all sides, presenting a significant difference from the traditional “box stage.”

“As we begin to work with this space, we can develop its uses,” Bilfield said. “It’s up to the imagination of the visitors and the performers.”

The schedule for the concert hall’s first season — which will extend from Jan. 11, 2013, to June 1, 2013 — includes more than 40 performances. The pre-season events, Harmony for Humanity on Oct. 3 and Grammy Award winning Chanticleer on Dec. 11, will be held in Memorial Church this fall.

Featured performances in 2013 will include cellist Yo-Yo Ma with pianist Kathryn Stott, violinist Midori with pianist Ozgur Aydin, pianist Emanuel Ax and vocal groups Cappella Romana and the New York Polyphony.

Stanford student groups will also appear at the venue throughout the season. In addition to independent student performances, artists such as singer Vusi Mahlasela, who has a history of working with the a capella group Stanford Talisman, will involve students with their appearances at the concert hall.

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CDC predicts increased employment https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/01/cdc-predicts-increased-employment/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/01/cdc-predicts-increased-employment/#respond Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:05:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1067922 Forty percent of Stanford students obtain their post-graduation jobs through friends, alumni, faculty and family, according to Career Development Center (CDC) Director Lance Choy, which he said demonstrates the prevalence of traditional networking strategies in the job search.

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Forty percent of Stanford students obtain their post-graduation jobs through friends, alumni, faculty and family, according to Career Development Center (CDC) Director Lance Choy, which he said demonstrates the prevalence of traditional networking strategies in the job search.

The CDC plans to survey seniors during dead week to determine how many have secured jobs and how many are still searching for positions. Choy, however, predicted that while some members of the senior class have jobs lined up, more members of the senior class will find jobs in the months after leaving Stanford. Expressing optimism about an improved employment market, he cited in particular the increased number of job listings on the CDC site over the past two years.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers’ recent Student Survey reinforces Choy’s assessment. According to the association’s research, about 26 percent of 2012 college graduates have a job lined up, compared to 24 percent last year.

“Seniors can use CDC services up to 12 months after graduation,” Choy wrote in an email to The Daily. “They can make appointments with career counselors to review resumes, practice interviewing skills and learn various tips and strategies on how to find jobs. New alumni can use CDC job postings and attend career fairs. They are no longer eligible for Cardinal Recruiting (on-campus recruiting) once they graduate.”

Choy explained that the job-search field is currently changing due to the increased use of social networking websites.

“More and more employers are using LinkedIn, a social networking tool, to find candidates,” Choy wrote. “There are a number of efforts to use Facebook to find jobs, but that seems to be an on-going developmental effort.”

However, traditional networking can still be critical for those seeking employment, Choy added.

Andy Nguyen ’12 will be working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Gene Regulation and Development Section of The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) after graduation. He took a more service-oriented approach to his job search.

“I got some e-mails from the CDC that were helpful, but my interests are in public service, so I received more assistance from the Haas Center,” Nguyen said. “I chose the NIH because the position is very learning- and training-oriented.”

Mia Shaw ’12 had a similar experience regarding her search for job opportunities post-graduation, and even though she did not find her position directly through the CDC, she still made use of some of the center’s services. Shaw is a human biology major with a focus in adolescent health and development. Next year, she will teach middle school science in the Las Vegas Valley with Teach for America.

“I think the CDC is a valuable resource, one that I did not utilize enough during my time here at Stanford,” Shaw said. “They have helped me with reconstructing my resume, and I have enjoyed attending some of the panels and presentations they have held. Honestly, I probably would have used them more if I did not physically have to walk to the CDC building as often or if they had more job opportunities in the humanities.”

The Stanford Alumni Association’s Alumni Career Services program also offers resources to recent graduates.

“The CDC provides free counseling to students and alums one year out,” said Manager of Alumni Services Fedra Pouideh. “We then provide a list of career coaches available across the nation for those interested in additional services. Members of the Stanford Alumni Association receive a free coaching session.”

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Transfer class cut by nearly half to compensate for high yield rate https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/16/1066478/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/16/1066478/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 10:04:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1066478 Thirty-three transfer students received offers of admission this year out of a pool of more than 1,500 applicants, according to Assistant Director of Admission Kate Shreve. This year’s 2.2 percent acceptance rate is nearly half of last year’s 4.1 percent rate, when 58 of about 1,400 applicants were admitted.

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Thirty-three transfer students received offers of admission this year out of a pool of more than 1,500 applicants, according to Assistant Director of Admission Kate Shreve. This year’s 2.2 percent acceptance rate is nearly half of last year’s 4.1 percent rate, when 58 of about 1,400 applicants were admitted.

“We reduced the transfer admit target by 20 given the higher than expected freshman matric[ulation] rate,” wrote Richard Shaw, dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid, in an email to The Daily.

According to Shaw, 17 of the transfer students are from community colleges, while 11 are from four-year universities and five are international.

“We did see an increase in the number of applications for transfer admission this year,” Shreve said. “However, due to the diverse nature of the transfer applicant pool and its relatively small size, it is difficult to characterize the pool as a whole and to describe how it differs from year to year.”

Nonetheless, Shreve said she thinks transfer students differ from students admitted during regular admissions in some ways.

“While we do seek many of the same qualities in transfer students as in freshmen, [such as] a strong academic record and intellectual vitality, there are also some differences,” Shreve said. “With transfers, we look for students who are academically mature and prepared to jump into Stanford’s rigorous curriculum mid-stream. We also have a strong commitment to our U.S. Armed Services Veterans and to students with non-traditional educational backgrounds.”

Shaw added that the transfers are “a different population with different kinds of experiences and perspectives. We believe the transfer perspective does add to the ambiance of the campus and in the classroom.”

Transfers bring various unique backgrounds that diverge from those of the typical Stanford student who comes to campus directly after high school. For example, Emma Wood ’14 transferred last year from Williams College after also spending a year in Italy and Argentina.

This time was not only productive for academic growth, she said, but was also a way to develop her passion for food, wine and tango dancing.

Even though not all transfer students belong to the same graduating class, they still form their own sense of community, Wood said.

Transfers participate in their own version of New Student Orientation, and this year, most transfer students live in Kimball Hall or Paloma in Florence Moore Hall, making it easier for transfers to bond in the dorms.

“There is definitely a transfer community, and it’s really well mixed,” Wood said. “I think there can be this fear that transfers will group off according to where they came from, but there’s no segregation along those lines.”

Wood said she doesn’t feel as much of a connection with the Class of 2014 even though she is technically a sophomore, feeling closer to those in her academic classes.

“I feel like we’re in this interesting place where we’re between being a freshman in some senses, and being practically graduated in others,” said Jesse Clayburgh ’13, who transferred from a community college in San Francisco.

Aside from this sense of separation from one’s graduating class, the transfer experience has its own challenges. Ronaldo Esparza ’13 transferred after two years at a community college in Miami.

“You’re not sure what year you’re in,” Esparza said. “For example, I was in community college for two years, but that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily a junior.”

“It all depends on what classes they accept,” he added. “That way, it’s good to have people from different grades that you can identify with.”

Stanford’s learning environment was also distinct from what Esparza was accustomed to at his former school.

“At community college and other colleges, you have to work by yourself and ace a test,” Esparza said. “Here, you have to work together to be successful. The challenging part is that it is not only way more difficult [academically] than my previous college, but you also have to live and develop your social skills.”

Wood also said that she had to adjust to Stanford’s active social scene after coming from an institution where academics seemed to be the school’s only focus.

The Office of Undergraduate Admission hopes to continue to make these transitions manageable for incoming transfers through pre-established programs like New Student Orientation.

“We remain deeply committed to transfer students and look forward to welcoming a vibrant and diverse transfer class to the Farm in the fall,” Shreve said.

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Alumni interview program offers perspective to applicants https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/11/alumni-interview-program-offers-perspective-to-applicants/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/11/alumni-interview-program-offers-perspective-to-applicants/#respond Fri, 11 May 2012 09:06:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1066148 he Class of 2016 admission cycle, the first after the Office of Undergraduate Admission announced the permanent installation of alumni interviews, saw similar success for the program. A three-year interview pilot program proved popular among both applicants and interviewers, and the University endorsed its full implementation in the next “five years or so,” according to the Admission Office.

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The Class of 2016 admission cycle, the first after the Office of Undergraduate Admission announced the permanent installation of alumni interviews, saw similar success for the program. A three-year interview pilot program proved popular among both applicants and interviewers, and the University endorsed its full implementation in the next “five years or so,” according to the Admission Office.

When the current program reaches its full capacity, the Office of Undergraduate Admission expects to work with around 10,000 to 12,000 alumni to interview around 30,000 to 40,000 applicants. During the most recent application cycle, about 10 percent of applicants were granted the interview option. According to Assistant Dean of Admission Debra von Bargen, the vast majority took advantage of the opportunity.

These students had high school zip codes in the Atlanta, Denver, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and Washington, D.C., areas; attended school in the states of Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Virginia; or studied internationally in Ireland and the United Kingdom. As the program expands to more areas, the Office of Undergraduate Admission is also seeking to develop options for students in areas such as China and India that have growing applicant pools.

To determine the value of the program, the Office of Undergraduate Admission evaluated alumni response and the overall impact of interviews on decisions made by the admission committee.

According to von Bargen, benefits included allowing the applicant to expand on his or her ideas and interests, gain a personal connection to Stanford and present him or herself to the admission office in a more informal light.

“We hope to get a sense from the conversation between the interviewer and the applicant what it might be like to have this particular individual join the Stanford community,” von Bargen said in an email to The Daily. “Our interviewer training stresses this last point, that the interview is designed as a conversation, not a quiz, and sets the Stanford program apart from many others.”

The training that alumni undergo includes a series of sessions with admissions officers and alumni chairs and a new online presentation, in order to expose interviewers to sample questions and conversations.

“I prefer the word conversation because I believe that’s how interviews should be conducted and not a Q&A session,” said alumni interviewer Taara Hassan ‘03 in an email to The Daily. “Fortunately, all of the applicants I interviewed were so ‘rich’ in their lives and at such a young age that it was very easy to be naturally interested in what they had to say and share without forcing anything.”

Alumni interviewer Steven Jewell ‘74 expanded on the insight gained by these conversations.

“It helps flesh out a person beyond what can be seen in the written word and on a computer screen,” Jewell said. “It provides additional insight into the person’s motivation and what excites them intellectually. In worst cases, it corroborates the written record, but on occasion it actually provides something quite unexpected and very helpful for assessing the candidate.”

Nicole Himmel ‘15 participated in an alumni interview as part of her application and described the experience as casual and helpful.

“We met up at a little café, and he asked me about myself, what characteristics I thought I was the best at, what my friends thought about me, fun questions,” Himmel said.

In addition to providing prospective students a forum to elaborate on information already presented in their applications, the interviews are also a way for applicants to talk about other circumstances that affected their academic or extracurricular life in high school.

The interviews are not required, even when available to students, but are merely an option for applicants who wish to participate, in areas where an alumni interviewer is available.

“I would definitely recommend it [doing an interview] to anyone who’s applying to Stanford,” Himmel said. “It can only help you. I asked him about a lot of the interdisciplinary stuff and he had majored in his own interdisciplinary major, so that was cool getting that information from him.”

The interview process also provides alumni the opportunity to re-engage with their alma mater and gain insight into Stanford’s future.

“The optional interview process…exposes prospective students to Stanford’s ‘living history’ by interacting with [alumni] and allows for asking questions from those who had the amazing opportunity to experience the Farm,” Hassan wrote. “But it also allows [alumni] to remain connected and see firsthand the amazing individuals that may become part of and contribute to Stanford’s unparalleled learning environment.”

Moving forward, the Office of Undergraduate Admission has not set a specific timeline on the complete integration of the alumni interview option for all candidates but is planning gradual expansion of the program in the coming years.

“Our big challenge at the moment is creating a robust, user-friendly technology system to help us manage the expansion,” von Bargen said. “We are moving ahead, but with great care that we do it right from the outset. Because ours is a young program, relative to our peer institutions, we know we have many opportunities to improve and refine the program as we grow, and our alumni seldom hesitate to offer suggestions.”

 

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Former Peruvian President links ethnicity to poverty https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/09/1065850/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/09/1065850/#respond Wed, 09 May 2012 09:15:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1065850 “There is a high correlation between poverty and ethnicity,” said Alejandro Toledo, former president of Peru, at an all-day conference Tuesday in Encina Hall. “It’s not a coincidence that the poorest people in Latin America are indigenous or Afro descendants. That is why I think the initiative of this conference has an enormous application. It is not just an academic exercise -- it’s very concrete.”

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“There is a high correlation between poverty and ethnicity,” said Alejandro Toledo, former president of Peru, at an all-day conference Tuesday in Encina Hall. “It’s not a coincidence that the poorest people in Latin America are indigenous or Afro descendants. That is why I think the initiative of this conference has an enormous application. It is not just an academic exercise — it’s very concrete.”

Toledo, who served as Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006, gave the opening address at a conference titled “Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America,” which sought to explore how the conditions of indigenous people in the region can be improved.

Toledo began by examining the economic situation of Latin America and discussing how despite overall economic growth, the poverty gap between the indigenous and the wealthy continues to swell.

Former Peruvian President links ethnicity to poverty
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and economist Eliane Karp-Toledo addressed the audience at an all-day conference on Latin American indigenous population integration and human rights on Tuesday. They emphasized the link between poverty and human rights. (MEHMET INONU/The Stanford Daily)

“One of the greatest advantages that I think Latin America has is our cultural diversity,” he said. “That cultural diversity is not our weakness. It’s our strength.

“If we are able to build on that, then we can create a cohesive society, reduce social conflict and provide sustainability for economic growth,” Toledo continued. “And the income we derive from that growth, we can invest it in the minds of our people.”

His wife, Elaine Karp-Toledo, an anthropologist and economist, expanded on the indigenous culture and way of life in an afternoon presentation. She discussed why and how indigenous people should be involved with their local and national governments.

“We propose that social inclusion and equal citizenship are key factors for good governance,” Karp-Toledo said. “The indigenous worldview has to be respected and integrated in public policies.”

According to Karp-Toledo, the modern press and media unfortunately continue to produce negative images of the indigenous, portraying them as less-civilized people who cannot recognize improvements or what is best for them. She said this makes it more difficult for them to be taken seriously by their governments.

Audience member Diana Martin, a Palo Alto resident, said she was intrigued by the concept of involving the indigenous in modern education and markets.

“There’s a feeling of bringing the indigenous into the corporate culture if you educate them,” Martin said. “But if you’re teaching them to use computers and cell phones, it’s a dilemma because you could destroy their traditional culture.”

Nadejda Marques, manager of the Program on Human Rights, initially proposed the idea of the conference. Marques said she feels that the issues surrounding the indigenous population in Latin America are applicable around the world, including in the United States, where Native Americans have to fight for sovereignty.

“Providing information and creating awareness is definitely one of the conference’s goals, but we also wanted to create momentum for researchers on indigenous rights and that’s not necessarily specific to Latin America” Marques said. “It’s both multi-disciplinary and transnational.”

Throughout the day, there were five panel sessions of two to four speakers who each published papers on the conference theme. The panels presented various aspects of the issue such as indigenous child health, property rights and the indigenous relationship with climate change.

The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law partnered with the Program on Human Rights and the Center for Latin American Studies and Students for a Sustainable Stanford to organize the event. The Program on Human Rights plans to post the academic papers of the event speakers on its website.

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Trustees pass funding for new center https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/23/trustees-pass-funding-for-new-center/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/23/trustees-pass-funding-for-new-center/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:04:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1064330 The Stanford Board of Trustees approved $4.2 million for a new contemplation center at its recent spring meeting. The annual gathering was held in Monterey from April 15 to 17 to discuss two main topics: undergraduate education and the Stanford Challenge.

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The Stanford Board of Trustees approved $4.2 million for a new contemplation center at its recent spring meeting. The annual gathering was held in Monterey from April 15 to 17 to discuss two main topics: undergraduate education and the Stanford Challenge.

The Land and Buildings Committee met before the retreat, resulting in two action items then raised at the trustees meeting.

According to Board of Trustees Chair Leslie Hume ’71 Ph.D ’79, the first action item was concept and site approval of the proposed 4,000 square-foot Windhover Contemplation Center at the intersection of Lomita and Santa Teresa. The center will feature paintings by the late Nathan Oliveira, former professor of art at Stanford.

“It will be a place where people can sit and contemplate and look at these beautiful, enormous paintings by Oliveira,” Hume said. “From the slides we saw at this presentation of his paintings, and from reading about the origins of these paintings, it’s going to be a wonderful thing to have.”

The board will consider design approval of the contemplation center in October, and construction approval is scheduled for June 2013.

The second action item concerned piping and building conversions to accommodate changes from steam to hot water for Stanford’s Central Energy Facility.

The board was prompted to discuss undergraduate education after the release of the SUES report earlier this year. Before this meeting, Vice Provost Harry Elam had not had the opportunity to speak about his plans for changes in undergraduate education in front of the entire board. Elam, along with Senior Associate Vice Provost Martha Cyert and a panel of three faculty members, spoke to the board about the vision of undergraduate education moving forward, specifically the introduction of Thinking Matters courses and a potential Introductory Seminar requirement.

“Harry walked us through, in some depth, all the different aspects of the SUES report and the programs and initiatives he has introduced,” Hume said. “The board was particularly excited by the effort to integrate all aspects of students’ learning, inside and outside the classroom – the effort to really focus on engaging students earlier on in their time at Stanford.”

Elam and Cyert discussed the opportunity to use residences as a way to broaden students’ learning experiences by having more faculty interaction in the residences or having rooms in dorms specifically for art projects and music.

“For the next few years, there are going to be a lot of experiments, and one of the key things is to address early on how you’re going to assess these initiatives and decide what you really want to continue,” Hume said. “So I think it’s going to be a really interesting time in undergraduate education.”

The board also discussed The Stanford Challenge, which raised $6.2 billion for the University and which Hume called “the most successful comprehensive campaign in Stanford’s history.”

Vice President for Development Martin Shell led the board in examining the quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the fundraising campaign that concluded at the close of 2011. Associate Vice President for Strategic Planning Roberta Katz and Dean of the School of Earth Sciences Pam Matson discussed initiatives and challenges in moving forward.

The board also toured the Hopkins Marine Station for the first time as part of their retreat and listened to Hopkins Executive Director Steve Polumbi and three graduate students, who shared their research. Hume called the station “a gem” for both undergraduate and graduate research.


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Freshmen drawn to Arrillaga https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/20/freshmen-drawn-to-arrillaga/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/20/freshmen-drawn-to-arrillaga/#respond Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:07:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1064174 Students and residential staff report that Arrillaga Dining has changed the dynamic of freshman community bonding since it opened fall quarter.

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Students and residential staff report that Arrillaga Dining has changed the dynamic of freshman community bonding since it opened fall quarter.

While initially advertised as an alternative dining destination for upperclassmen living in Crothers and Toyon Halls, the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons has attracted freshmen from Wilbur and Stern dorms, which already have their own dining halls traditionally providing space for freshmen to eat together.

“There’s fewer people eating as a dorm in Wilbur,” said Krystal Le ‘14, who resides in Cedro this year and lived in Okada last year. “Last year, every dorm would have their own table or area and everyone would eat there, but now you only see half the table or just a couple students.”

Le added, however, that the effect has not been dramatic. She stated that Arrillaga has simply become another option to consider, similar to the eateries at Tresidder Memorial Union, when she chooses to eat elsewhere.

“I feel like there’s still a lot of people who eat in Wilbur overall,” Le said. “But rather than have every single meal in Wilbur, people sometimes go to Arrillaga. At the beginning [when Arrillaga opened], most people from Okada went there, but now it’s stabilized.”

As a Burbank resident fellow (RF) for five years, Stephanie Eberle said she has observed the effects of the opening of Arrillaga on Stern freshmen.

“I think students dine in Stern less often than they did before because there have been a couple of times when our Burbank dining area in Stern has been completely empty,” Eberle said in an email to The Daily. “But I do still see my students dining together in groups whether in Stern or Arrillaga.”

Eating in communities helps freshmen build a sense of community, according to Eberle, whether it is in their residence complex’s dining hall or elsewhere on campus.

“For a while my students were going in groups together to explore dining options across campus, so community can be achieved without a ‘home base’ dining area–as long as there is a strong residential community overall,” Eberle said.

Nonetheless, Eberle added that she feels it is easier to build this sense of belonging in a freshman dining community like Stern, especially at the beginning of the academic year when some students are nervous or apprehensive about where they will be welcomed.

Le said a potential upside to Arrillaga’s opening is that the quality and variety of the food at East Campus freshman dining halls has increased since last year, perhaps in order to keep students in their residence communities for meals.

Wilbur resident Casey Robbins ‘15 of Junipero said she finds it nice that traffic has decreased in the Wilbur dining area because there are shorter lines.

“At the same time, it can be very depressing if you go in at the very beginning or the very end of the meal and no one is there because they’re all eating at Arrillaga,” Robbins said.

Robbins said she only eats at Arrillaga about every other week because Wilbur is conveniently located and she does not notice enough of a difference in the quality of food to dine farther away. She added that she thinks that the effects of Arrillaga were much greater in Stern because it is more closely located to the new dining commons.

The opening of Arrillaga may have changed the ways freshmen build communities in their dining halls, but that does not mean that they have stopped creating friendships over meals completely, according to Eberle.

“Given the structure of Arrillaga, you really have no choice but to sit with others and it gives a chance to meet people from the greater Stanford community as well,” Eberle said. “My view is that students need to learn how to take that frosh community to the Stanford community as a whole–to explore the world together. Therefore, I like that they have options.”

Stanford Dining Administrative Program Manager Cynthia Liu declined to comment for this article.

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Exec candidates face off https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/10/assu-exec/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/10/assu-exec/#respond Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:04:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1062846 This year’s ASSU Executive candidates sparred Monday night during a debate at the CoHo co-sponsored by The Daily and The Stanford Review. Slates Zimbroff-Wagstaff, Open Source Candidates and Macgregor-Dennis & Druthi participated, while a fourth and fifth slate, Family Matters and Mwaura-Mbatia, dropped out of the presidential race fewer than 24 hours before the event.

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This year’s ASSU Executive candidates sparred Monday night during a debate at the CoHo co-sponsored by The Daily and The Stanford Review. Slates Zimbroff-Wagstaff, Open Source Candidates and Macgregor-Dennis & Druthi participated, while a fourth and fifth slate, Family Matters and Mwaura-Mbatia, dropped out of the presidential race fewer than 24 hours before the event.

 

Slates had one minute to respond to each of 12 questions.

 

Robbie Zimbroff ‘12 and William Wagstaff ‘12 emphasized that they did not wish to “reinvent the wheel” of the ASSU if elected. The Open Source Candidates slate, Daniel Koning ‘14 and Kian Ameli ‘13, representing the Chaparral, stressed their accessibility through their campaign wiki site, while Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ‘13, current ASSU vice president, and his running mate Druthi Ghanta ‘14 highlighted that they offer a slate with an ASSU insider and outsider.

 

Macgregor-Dennis’s work as ASSU vice president and his nearly $10,000 salary were the topic of much debate, but none of the slates said they would take a wage-cut or refuse payment altogether if elected.

 

“It’s not right to view the presidency as a leadership position in a student group, Macgregor-Dennis said. “It’s more like a job that should be compensated that way.”

 

Macgregor-Dennis added that he reduced his course load in order to be able to commit more time to ASSU work this year.

 

Wagstaff commented that as a first-generation student who would not be able to continue his work as a resident assistant (RA) or maintain another job if elected, he would not refuse monetary compensation from the ASSU.

 

Koning said he would not turn away the money either.

 

“We think there’s nothing wrong with taking the money and running,” Koning said. “It’s actually part of our agenda.”

 

Another recurring issue at the debate was a textbook exchange program advocated by Zimbroff and Wagstaff.

 

“The textbook exchange could go a long way, and the ASSU could be a conduit for that,” Zimbroff said. “It’s an example of what we would use money on, and we feel that would be an effective use of funds.”

 

Macgregor-Dennis countered by saying there is no need for the exchange, pointing to Book Bazaar, a student-initiated website that organizes student textbook trades without cost to the ASSU. Macgregor-Dennis noted that the program was started without any ASSU funding.

 

Book Bazaar is currently not being maintained, but the program’s website says it will return in winter 2012.

 

Macgregor-Dennis and Ghanta emphasized the value of their slate’s combined experience, both from within and outside of student government.

 

“I’ve been a critic of the ASSU and the ASSU not being connected with the student body, which I think will give us an advantage next year because I’ll have that perspective,” Ghanta said. She also commented that Macgregor-Dennis’s extensive past work with the ASSU would allow the pair to start work with different groups from day one instead of having to learn the inner-workings of student government.

 

Zimbroff and Wagstaff stressed their other student group involvement, including their work as RAs, in club sports and in various other student organizations.

 

“ASSU experience doesn’t prepare you better to be ASSU president,” Zimbroff said. “We know students’ day-to-day lives, so our experiences prepare us better.”

 

The Open Source Candidates also did not feel that their lack of experience in student government hurts their qualifications.

 

“I don’t have a whole lot of experience, but I know what I’m doing,” Ameli said. To which Koning added, “We may not be smart, but we’re both street smart.”

 

All slates were asked to describe one action item from their platform.

 

Macgregor-Dennis & Druthi spoke about creating an ASSU Civic Action Unit, which Ghanta described as “the leveraging platform for students to pursue nonprofit experiences next year.”

 

Wagstaff and Zimbroff commented on campus tutoring programs.

 

“There are 47 different groups that go to tutor in [East Palo Alto] EPA, and we think that’s a great thing, but we want to consolidate,” Wagstaff said. “We want to condense our service efforts and also monitor the great work there.”

 

During a question-and-answer session with the audience, the slates were asked how they would discern which comments and concerns from students merit serious attention and which are submitted as jokes.

 

“If I caught my son smoking a cigarette, I would make him smoke the whole pack,” Koning said. “If I caught my son smoking a joint, I would make him smoke an ounce blunt. If someone posted a joke to our wiki, you better believe, boy howdy, that we would implement it.”

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Class president slates cite unity as goal https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/10/class-pres/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/10/class-pres/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:47:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1062874 Next year’s senior and sophomore classes each have two slates running for class president, while one slate runs uncontested for the juniors.

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Next year’s senior and sophomore classes each have two slates running for class president, while one slate runs uncontested for the juniors.

This turnout is a significant decrease for the sophomore class, as the past two elections each had four slates campaigning for sophomore class president. For at least the past seven years, there have been no fewer than three sophomore slates.

The number of slates for junior class president is down to one, a more common occurrence for junior elections.

The drop in sophomore slates does not necessarily indicate that the class of 2015 is less engaged than freshman classes of the past, wrote Alicia Hamar ‘15 of the slate Sophomores: Order of the Cardinal in an email to The Daily.

“Although there are less slates running this year, it just may mean that freshmen are as involved in other pursuits,” Hamar said. “Although there are only two slates running, we are confident that both slates are committed and interested in serving the class. Class presidency isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.”

The other sophomore slate is The Incredibles, who agreed that their class is very involved and accomplished on campus.

We know that students in our class are extremely accomplished, but we don’t always hear about it,” said Costner McKenzie ‘15 of The Incredibles. The group said that, if elected, it hopes to create a sophomore tracker that would inform students of their class’s achievements.

Both slates for sophomore class president recognize that the transition out of the freshmen experience can make students more independent and even less in-tune with the rest of their class.

“Many times, moving out of a freshman dorm often destroys class spirit and unity as classmates are more scattered across campus,” Hamar said. “As freshmen, we are privileged to have such amazing class activities and events that help us bond. However, many of those events disappear as the years go by. We want to keep our class united through different events that allow sophomores to meet other sophomores.” 

Unlike the freshmen running for class presidency for the first time, this year’s upperclassmen presidential elections feature seasoned members of student government. Foster the Juniors, the lone junior class slate, has two current class presidents on its slate, and The Senior Experience includes one current and one former class president.

“I’ve had an incredible experience as a junior class president and think that being elected as senior class president would yield even more opportunities,” said Christine Kim ‘13 of The Senior Experience. “I love being part of a group that gets to work with various Stanford departments and the administration, in addition to planning a wide range of events. Senior year is the last hoorah, and I want to do everything I can to make sure it’s the best possible experience for 2013.”

Class presidents work as a liaison between students, administration and alumni to plan campus-wide events and address student needs.

“I think the greatest accomplishment that a class president can achieve is when you successfully bring your class together,” Kim said. “One way of enriching the Stanford experience for our entire class is planning academic and social events.”

Daniel Hosltein ‘13 of the slate Senior Moments agreed that the primary role of the class president is social.

“We’re not going to aggrandize senior class president into some lofty, university policy-making position,” Holstein wrote in an email to The Daily

“We want to foster moments you remember as some of the best in your life,” he added. “For most of us, this is the last year of our college careers, and if it’s anything like high school, a lot of these memory-ingrained moments will be during this year. “

Each slate has specific goals to address the concerns and desires of its class. In order to make these plans a reality, candidates must first garner the support of their peers. The slates’ methods for attracting students to their campaigns are varied.

The Best Party slate running for senior class president was inspired by a documentary of Jon Gnarr, the mayor of the capital of Iceland.

“The world has always been run by the wealthy, educated people, but they really don’t know what the people want,” said George Malkin ‘13. “[His campaign] started as a joke, but he actually ended up winning the whole thing.”

Some of The Best Party’s goals include “not treating sober people like second-class citizens” and Pub Nights to which students can invite professors as a way to bridge the student-faculty divide.

“We want to have fun, but we are serious about being class presidents,” said Savannah Gonzales  ‘13.

The Incredibles were in White Plaza on Friday, April 6 talking to students about their campaign goals and listening to feedback.

“We feel as if White Plaza is a central point on campus, and it’s important for us to be visible to the entire student body,” McKenzie said.

Other class president slates will be tabling on April 11. Order of the Cardinal has a different approach to reaching its peers.

“While we do appreciate people going around and actively speaking to students as a form of campaigning, the reality is that we get most of our information from … the Internet, so our campaign is focused on grabbing people’s attention online,” Hamar said. “In a generation and era where communication happens quickest through the Internet, we are showcasing our ability to use our resources to get the word out.”

Voting for class presidents, ASSU offices and specials fees begins Thursday, April 12.

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AxeComm requests special fees increase https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/14/axecomm-requests-special-fees-increase/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/14/axecomm-requests-special-fees-increase/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:47:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1061326 Two student groups, the Stanford Axe Committee and the Viennese Ball Committee, have requested significantly different amounts in special fees this year compared to their past budgets. The Axe Committee’s (AxeComm) request increased by 319 percent from $9,161.19 to $38,400, and the Viennese Ball Committee’s request decreased 60 percent from $25,000 to $10,000.

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Two student groups, the Stanford Axe Committee and the Viennese Ball Committee, have requested significantly different amounts in special fees this year compared to their past budgets. The Axe Committee’s (AxeComm) request increased by 319 percent from $9,161.19 to $38,400, and the Viennese Ball Committee’s request decreased 60 percent from $25,000 to $10,000.

 

Petitions were due Friday, March 9 at 5 p.m. The ASSU Elections Commission will validate the petition signatures by Sunday, March 15.

 

AxeComm

According to AxeComm Chairman Brad Moylan ’13, the student group is requesting more funding than it received for the 2011-12 school year because it plans on adding to its programming and has lost substantial funding from other sources.

 

“We are completely revamping Big Game Rally and adding a lot of components to it, which unfortunately costs more money,” Moylan said. “We’re adding a big pyrotechnic element in tribute to the Big Game bonfires of the past.”

 

The Big Game bonfire tradition at Lake Lagunita dates back to 1898. The University ended the tradition in 1994 to protect the habitat of the California tiger salamander. Next year, AxeComm hopes to revive bonfire memories through a fireworks spectacular costing $12,000, according to the group’s requested budget.

 

Moylan said that additional increased expenses for next year include more spirit programming and viewing parties for every road football game.

 

This past year, AxeComm lost the considerable financial support of two alumni, one who moved out of the area and one who passed away.

 

“AxeComm is on a big upswing in the last couple years as far as how active we’ve been on campus and expanding our role, so that’s why we’re needing an increase in resources,” Moylan said. “As far as recent memory is concerned, the request is a high.”

 

Concerning spending adjustments for next year, Moylan said that AxeComm has reduced its budget for some operational aspects of Big Game Week but is mainly focused on expanding its impact on campus. The spending increases therefore greatly outweigh any cutbacks, he said. If the student body does not approve AxeComm’s request on the spring ballot, the group will struggle to support the level of programming it has had in the past, and most new plans will not be fulfilled, he added.

 

Viennese Ball

The Viennese Ball Committee reduced its 2012 fees request by $15,000 because last year’s request was not approved.

 

“We’re not in a dire position,” said Viennese Ball Committee Treasury Chair JJ Liu ’14. “We’re still able to get revenue from the ticket sales and different merchandise, but we hope to reduce prices if our petition is approved. That will be up to next year’s committee.”

 

Annually, the largest part of the Viennese Ball Committee’s budget is dedicated to renting facilities and equipment and hiring live bands. Next year’s budget will include additional expenses for new elements being added to the ball.

 

“We’re trying to make the ball better for everyone. We created a new ‘History of the Ball’ exhibit and hired a photographer,” Liu said. “We hope to be able to continue those for future balls.”

 

The Committee currently receives financial support from general ASSU funds and The Stanford Fund (TSF). The group annually partners with SwingKids to fund the swing room at the ball.

 

Other groups

Other student groups, including Stanford Dil Se, a Bollywood dance group, and Sixth Man Club, are requesting fees, though they did not do so last year.

 

“Last year we didn’t apply for special fees because we didn’t get into any competitions, but this year we got into some of the best competitions, so we want to continue that competitive nature of Dil Se,” said Stanford Dil Se Financial Officer Kathy Zabrocka ’13. “Part of [the cost] is travel, but we also have to pay for putting on the production with the costumes, set – the whole Bollywood production. In order to be competitive with other college teams, we have to be as professional as they are.”

 

Dil Se, which receives funding from TSF, is requesting $29,550. The group was granted around $9,000 in Special Fees in 2010 and paid for its expenses this year through TSF and group reserves.

 

“If we don’t get special fees, it will put a big strain on the budget,” Zbrocka said. “We might be able to go to one local competition unless there are some team members who want to contribute a lot of money to the team, which is what happens at a lot of other colleges, but we don’t want to kick people out because they can’t contribute a certain amount.”

 

If Dil Se receives special fees, the group plans to participate in four competitions, the same amount as this year. The group has budgeted to spend $14,000 on travel fares, $5,000 on accommodations and $2,000 each on honoraria fees and equipment rentals.

 

Similarly, Sixth Man Club, the men’s basketball fan club, is petitioning for $27,355 in special fees. According to Sixth Man CFO Max Wernecke ’13, this is the first time the group has requested special fees. He said that Sixth Man is doing so because student section admission was lowered to no cost for students beginning with the 2010-11 season. Johnny Dawkins, head coach of men’s basketball, made this decision with the goal of increasing attendance at games.

 

For the 2009-10 season, students were charged $65 to be part of Sixth Man, which included season access to home games. The Stanford Athletic Department’s marketing budget sustained the group’s operating costs last year and this year since the special fees deadline had already passed when the group stopped charging students. However, promotions and food giveaways at games decreased as a consequence.

 

“We’re trying to bring it back to how it once was,” Wernecke said. “The marketing budget is very tight, so we need to look at other sources of funding.”

 

If the group does not receive special fees, giveaways will likely decrease even more, but the section will remain free to students.

 

“We want to keep the student section strong with a lot of people attending,” Wernecke said. “We want to keep the enthusiasm there, and we’re trying to get a bit of funding so we can keep all our traditions intact.”

 

In order to receive special fees funding, student groups must receive at least 50 percent of all votes cast, with at least 15 percent of the relevant student body voting. Students will vote on special fee requests, along with other election items, on April 13 and 14.

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New eDorm to launch on West Campus https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/09/new-edorm-to-launch-on-west-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/09/new-edorm-to-launch-on-west-campus/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:08:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1061059 Marx House in Suites will become the new entrepreneurship-themed “eDorm” starting in the 2012-13 academic year, as a result of collaboration between E2.0--a student group focused on providing help and services for entrepreneurial students--and Residential Education (ResEd), along with other administrators.

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Marx House in Suites will become the new entrepreneurship-themed “eDorm” starting in the 2012-13 academic year, as a result of collaboration between E2.0–a student group focused on providing help and services for entrepreneurial students–and Residential Education (ResEd), along with other administrators.

 

According to ResEd’s website, students living in the eDorm will form start-up teams, as well as attend seminars, guest lectures and dinners with mentors.

 

New eDorm to launch on West Campus
(SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily)

According to Dean of Residential Education Deborah Golder, ResEd typically receives proposals for multiple prospective dorm themes each year, but decided to pursue the eDorm because of its potential to reach all types of students.

 

“From any academic discipline, a student could say they have an idea, and they want to explore it in the context of eDorm,” Golder said. “You don’t have to identify with a certain group. Literally any upperclass student could express interest in this community of thinking and learning together. The notion of entrepreneurialism is truly universal in the Stanford context.”

 

 

Logistics

Half of the 40 students in eDorm next year will pre-assign into the house through ResEd, and half will draw into Marx individually or with a group.

 

“The pre-assigned students will be selected based on their entrepreneurial nature, their love for innovating and their diverse skill sets and backgrounds that they can bring to the community,” said Viraj Bindra ‘15, director of marketing for E2.0. “Peter Thiel B.A. ‘89, J.D. ‘92 will be the faculty sponsor, and he’ll oversee selection.”

 

According to Golder, Suites was chosen for the location of the new dorm theme because students manage those spaces, and the new themed dorm has a goal of emphasizing student-initiated action.

 

“E2.0 is an organization on campus with some incredible resources, and we were trying to find one of the best ways to channel these resources to create maximum output at Stanford,” Bindra said. “What we identified as a chief mode for us to give those resources to students at Stanford was through a collaborative effort like eDorm.”

 

E2.0 and the eDorm

E2.0 was a branch of ASSU until it separated in October, and had been working on establishing an entrepreneurship dorm prior to the split.

 

ResEd and E2.0 held meetings with staff and University administrators, including heads of Student Housing and President John Hennessy, to shape and approve the project.

 

In the past few months, E2.0 executive members Chase Harmon ‘13, Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ‘13 and Dan Thompson ‘13 met with advisers to revise plans.

 

eDorm is one of a number of projects that E2.0 is currently working on. Other undertakings include an eResource Map to direct students to entrepreneurial resources on- and off-campus and Startup Bus, an effort to connect with entrepreneurial students across the nation.

 

The organization has received some criticism about the level of success and effectiveness that the new themed dorm will have.

 

“This is a prototype of the concept of E2.0, and we’re trying to see how well it will work,” Bindra said. “We have eTracking in place, which is our initiative to monitor the success of all our initiatives, including eDorm. We’ll be tracking it throughout the year and making sure that it’s successful and we’re getting the maximum amount of utility out of our resources.”

 

ResEd agreed with this experimentation-based philosophy.

 

“If we find out that this works, we could create a model where we start piloting different programs, seeing if there’s enough student interest and creating a process that allows some houses to evolve,” Golder said. “We want to get some data and make decisions based on that.”

 

 

Response from Suites

 

Current Marx residents were not notified of the change apart from an update on the ResEd website.

 

“The entrepreneurship theme seems stimulating for people that choose to follow that life path,” said Michael Zoldos ‘12, club manager of Beefeater’s Eating Club, where all Marx residents eat. “Overall, I think it will be something that positively benefits those individuals that live there and participate in the dorm activities.”

 

Morgan Priestley ‘12, CFO of GovCo Dining, which manages the four eating clubs in Suites, does not expect any major changes to eating club operations but is

slightly concerned about the clash of cultures that eDorm might have with the rest of Suites.

 

“As long as the program stays within its bounds and doesn’t completely change the Suites environment, doesn’t completely take things over, then I think it’s going to be great,” Priestley said. “We’re a little apprehensive of having them be at Suites mostly because the culture doesn’t seem to fit, but I don’t think it will be a big issue. Suites is a very independent place as it is.”

 

Not the first “eHouse”

 

eDorm will not be the first housing option in Stanford’s history to have an entrepreneurship focus. Naranja dorm in Lagunita had a social-entrepreneurship theme when it was a four-class dorm, starting in the 2001-02 academic year. Social entrepreneurship is a type of entrepreneurship based on starting a business or organization for the benefit of others.

 

Andrew Deagon ‘09 was the theme focus assistant during Naranja’s last year with the social entrepreneurship theme, in charge of organizing guest speakers and informing students about entrepreneurial events on campus. Deagon described the theme’s success as “difficult” because few students knew the dorm was themed until they lived there and only a handful of students were really dedicated to the theme.

 

Resident Fellow Thomas Massey was the driving force behind the dorm’s entrepreneurial focus, and after his passing in Jan. 2009, no one else took on his role.

 

Regarding eDorm, Deagon said, “I think it has the potential to be extremely successful if it’s marketed to the right students because there are a lot of great minds that could gravitate toward that, but I think that if the people that end up in Marx are there by accident, then it will be difficult to maintain.”

 

Looking forward

E2.0 is currently working on a marketing campaign to inform students about the new housing option.

 

“We are hoping by encouraging this collaborative, creative atmosphere, we will give a lot of people the opportunity to create great ideas and help others with theirs in order to start something really remarkable,” Bindra said.

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PA, Stanford merge dispatches https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/02/pa-stanford-merge-dispatches/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/02/pa-stanford-merge-dispatches/#respond Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:09:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1060238 Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View and Stanford will spend $2.7 million within the next year to consolidate their police dispatch services, according to Palo Alto Police Department Technical Services Director Charles Cullen. Palo Alto City Council estimates Stanford will contribute roughly $224,000 to the project.

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Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View and Stanford will spend $2.7 million within the next year to consolidate their police dispatch services, according to Palo Alto Police Department Technical Services Director Charles Cullen. Palo Alto City Council estimates Stanford will contribute roughly $224,000 to the project.

 

“We’re doing a virtual consolidation, which is a little different from a brick-and-mortar consolidation, for both economic and operational reasons,” said Mountain View Police Chief Scott Vermeer. “From an economic standpoint, we’re able to buy one system instead of having the three cities buy multiple systems. Operationally, it allows us all to be working on the same system, which provides opportunities for much smoother assistance of each other in sharing information.”

 

Los Altos Police Department Services Manager Elizabeth Vargas specified that the unification will allow each city access to higher-quality technology.

 

“The three agencies together can purchase a much higher level system than they could purchase on their own,” Vargas said. “We can purchase a more robust system when we combine.”

 

Vargas wrote in a separate email to The Daily that there have been instances where coordinated dispatch would have been helpful in the past.

 

“Typically when a crime occurs on a border of any of the three cities, the city handling the situation needs to either make a phone call or send a Teletype to that neighboring jurisdiction to inform them of the activity,” Vargas said.  “With the new system, cities will be able to monitor this activity in real time.”

 

The city of Palo Alto approved a plan for the dispatch unification at a city council meeting on Feb. 21. Palo Alto was the last of the three cities to authorize the purchase.

 

According to Cullen, Santa Clara County decided how much each city will be expected to contribute to the unification plan by following a method the city has used for past county projects. Half of the cost will be split equally between the three cities, and the other half will be based on population. In both cases, Stanford is included in the Palo Alto portion.

 

Stanford currently accounts for approximately 25 percent of Palo Alto’s use of dispatch services, and the University pays for approximately 16 percent of the personnel and 25 percent of the capital costs, Cullen said.

 

According to Cullen, the consolidation has three levels or steps: computerized dispatch, pubic safety application and combining the three 911 systems. The central piece of the unification is the computerized dispatch system.

 

The purchase agreement for the unification is currently being finalized, Vermeer said.

 

“We are then going to get in the process of more of a planning, training and implementation stage,” Vermeer said. “The general thought is that we plan to go live in fall 2012.”

 

The implementation process may take up to a year before the new system goes live, according to Vargas.

 

Administrative work, software installation and training will take up the bulk of this time period as dispatchers and police and fire officers in the field will have to learn the new system, according to Vermeer.

 

“There will be work involved in changing the process of how we do things now and adjusting because of the sharing of the system,” Vermeer said.

 

This last step will include establishing a radio frequency allowing officers from all three cities and the Stanford campus to talk to one other. The departments have already received grant funding for this radio frequency and are currently working on its development. The state will fund work on the 911 system later this year.

 

The consolidation is expected to be particularly helpful with fire department services and automatic-vehicle-location (AVL) capabilities.

 

Each department will be able to see the location of all police and fire vehicles in the three cities and on the Stanford campus. This improvement will allow one city’s department, for example, Palo Alto’s, to request assistance from either the Los Altos or Mountain View department if their officers are closer to the scene of an emergency.

 

“If we need a specialized type of unit, say a canine or a Spanish-speaking officer, we would be able to identify that quickly and send it to the area,” Cullen said. “For fire, it’s going to give us the opportunity to do more boundary drop and auto aid so we are not duplicating resources.”

 

Cullen also said that the unification is expected to cut costs for the three cities in the long run, and if there were an emergency that made one of the centers uninhabitable, those dispatchers would be able to go to one of the other two centers and take 911 calls for their city.

 

“It’s going to be a much better system for all the participating agencies and Stanford,” Cullen said. “Stanford is an equal partner. They have our mobile application in their vehicles, and they will have enhanced capabilities once the new systems are in place.”

 

Currently, the Stanford University Department of Public Safety has a separate records management system from the Palo Alto Police Department, and this may be a possible area of future unification if the University is so inclined, Cullen said.

 

“The unification is a regional effort, and it’s fairly unique,” Cullen said. “We’re using technology to work together and realize a lot of the efficiencies of consolidation without the upfront costs of a physical consolidation.”

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Financial aid, tuition set to rise https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/24/financial-aid-tuition-set-to-rise/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/24/financial-aid-tuition-set-to-rise/#respond Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:04:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1059294 Financial aid packages are expected to rise in response to the Board of Trustee’s decision earlier this month to approve a 3-percent tuition increase for the 2012-13 academic year, according to Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper.

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Financial aid packages are expected to rise in response to the Board of Trustee’s decision earlier this month to approve a 3-percent tuition increase for the 2012-13 academic year, according to Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper.

 

The tuition increase for undergraduates is the lowest rise in 40 years, according to Assistant Vice President for University Communications Lisa Lapin. The Board of Trustees raised tuition by 3.5 percent during each of the past four years, by 5.17 percent for the 2007-08 academic year and by 5.4 percent for the 2006-07 academic year.

 

“Our commitment to meet full need for continuing students has not changed,” Cooper said in an email to The Daily. “As costs go up, if a student’s need increases, their financial aid eligibility will also increase.”

 

Financial aid, tuition set to rise
(SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily)

The Board of Trustees announced the increase in tuition fees Feb. 6, after evaluating rising costs the University incurs. Undergraduate and general graduate tuition will both rise from $40,500 to $41,250 next year. Graduate engineering tuition will climb from $42,660 to 43,950 and law school tuition will increase from $47,460 to $48,870.

 

Including a 3.5-percent increase for room and board, the annual cost of an undergraduate Stanford education will now be $54,506 instead of $52,341.

 

“Tuition recommendations are made to the Board of Trustees after a financial analysis of the University’s estimated income from all sources–not only tuition, but endowment revenue and research revenue–and estimated expenses, including anticipated financial aid rewards,” Lapin said.

 

The Financial Aid Office hopes that news of a price increase will not deter prospective applicants who feel they may not be able to afford a Stanford education. Students from lower-income backgrounds and abroad are of special concern, according to Cooper.

 

She said that that the Financial Aid Office does not plan to deviate from the commitment it made four years ago to allow students from families with a total annual income of less than $60,000 to attend Stanford without paying at all.

 

Similarly, students from families with a total annual income less than $100,000 will receive at least enough scholarship funds to cover tuition.

 

International students often do not receive need-blind admission, but are still assisted by the Financial Aid Office, Cooper added.

 

“For admitted international students who indicate they will need assistance during the admission process, we have the same commitment to meet full need,” Cooper said. “While the same income figures may not apply for those living in other countries, the spirit still applies.”

 

According to Lapin, 49 percent of Stanford students receive need-based aid, while 79 percent receive some form of financial assistance. Financial aid to undergraduates has doubled since 2008, Lapin said.

 

Cooper said that the University Budget Committee is currently considering whether to increase the portion students are expected to contribute to their University bills through an academic year job or federal work study. Students are currently expected to pay up to $5,000, compared to $4,500 prior to the 2008-09 academic year.

 

Work study is a component of the University bill that the Financial Aid Office feels students can earn through a combination of summer and academic earnings in order avoid student loans, Cooper said. According to Cooper, the Committee should have a decision within a few weeks about whether to increase work study again.

 

Stanford’s fee hike corresponds with similar increases at peer institutions.

 

For the 2012-13 academic year, Princeton University increased its tuition by 4.5 percent, which the university said would be offset by expanding its financial aid budget by 5.5 percent.

 

“Our financial aid recipients are more or less protected from tuition increases because as tuition goes up, aid also goes up,” said Princeton Financial Aid Director Robin Moscato. “Aid generally goes up more than the increase in our costs. We keep our net price down by providing increased aid every year.”

 

Harvard and Yale raised their tuition by 3.8 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, last year. At time of publication, these two universities had not made any official announcements regarding tuition increases for the upcoming academic year.

 

Lapin noted that percentage increases among universities will vary accordingly, since private universities determine tuition independently, based on different considerations and cost models.

 

“When average cost of attendance is calculated, which includes what students actually pay on average after financial aid, Stanford is usually relatively low among private universities,” Lapin said.

 

According to Lapin, Stanford’s tuition is below the median for its peer group, which she said is comprised of 15 private universities.

 

Despite consistent tuition increases of at least three percent in the past four academic years, Stanford undergraduate and graduate students and their families have not been asked to take on a significantly larger financial burden, Cooper said.

 

The University of California Board of Regents increased tuition at state universities by 18 percent during the current academic year.

 

Affordable higher education has been a central concern for student Occupy movements. Student participants in the Occupy Stanford movement will join students and activists from around the state in Berkeley next Thursday to engage in a rally supporting public education.

 

One of the demands of Occupy Education California, the group organizing the protest and a weeklong series of events, is “universal and free public education,” according to the group’s site.

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EPA not yet ready to ‘unfriend’ Facebook https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/17/epa-not-yet-ready-to-%e2%80%98unfriend%e2%80%99-facebook/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/17/epa-not-yet-ready-to-%e2%80%98unfriend%e2%80%99-facebook/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:04:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1058754 In December, Facebook relocated its headquarters from Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto to the former headquarters of Sun Microsystems at 1601 Willow Road in Menlo Park. In the coming year, the social networking company plans to expand its campus and seeks to amend the existing conditional development permit in Menlo Park by increasing the existing employee cap to roughly 6,600 employees, concerning neighbor East Palo Alto. This article presents East Palo Alto's concerns, a separate article in today's issue deals with Menlo Park's responses to the proposed expansion.

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In December, Facebook relocated its headquarters from Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto to the former headquarters of Sun Microsystems at 1601 Willow Road in Menlo Park. In the coming year, the social networking company plans to expand its campus and seeks to amend the existing conditional development permit in Menlo Park by increasing the existing employee cap to roughly 6,600 employees, concerning neighbor East Palo Alto. This article presents East Palo Alto’s concerns. Please see our separate article in today’s issue that deals with Menlo Park’s responses to the proposed expansion here.

 

Though the city of East Palo Alto has expressed concerns about Facebook’s proposed expansion in neighboring Menlo Park, city officials and some residents said they believe the social networking company’s growth will positively affect the area. Other officials and members of the public, however, continue to express sentiments that the city of Menlo Park has not adequately heard or addressed their worries.

 

Menlo Park has drafted an environmental impact report for the expansion, but East Palo Alto representatives said they feel the effects on their community have not been adequately addressed.

 

“The draft did not include some mitigation measures that could help,” said East Palo Alto Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica. “Maybe the city cannot solve the entire problem, but there are some areas [in which] it can definitely improve the situation.”

 

The East Palo Alto City Council discussed issues with the expansion and brainstormed possible solutions with members of the public at a regular council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

 

Concerns in EPA

Because the commute route of many of the more than 7,000 new Facebook employees would run through East Palo Alto, most of city’s concerns regard transportation–including automobile, bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Health issues due to toxic emissions are also under consideration.

 

According to Abrica, traffic along University Avenue, the main thoroughfare for approaching the Facebook headquarters from the south, will be one of the most impacted areas.

 

Menlo Park’s impact report places more emphasis on Willow Road, which runs parallel to University Avenue along the border between East Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

 

“Our concern is that the side streets around University in our neighborhoods are going to be impacted,” Abrica said. “It’s going to make them more unsafe, there’s going to be more congestion and overall it’s going to impact the health and safety of our local residents.”

 

Improvements for bicycle transportation were also not addressed to the extent the East Palo Alto community would have liked, Abrica added. Since Facebook is urging its employees to commute by bike, Abrica said he feels that this type of transportation needs to be made safer and smoother.

 

In favor of collaboration

In January, East Palo Alto considered suing Facebook over the expansion, but the city has decided not to take this approach.

 

Abrica said that a lawsuit would only be an option if Menlo Park did not address the issues submitted by East Palo Alto.

 

“Our concerns are not against Facebook,” Abrica said. “Facebook being there is actually going to have a large positive impact.”

 

The city submitted its concerns to Menlo Park in writing. Over the next couple of months, Menlo Park will consider the issues before publishing a final impact report and deciding to what extent Facebook should be held financially responsible for countering negative effects of its expansion.

 

Facebook officials said the company is looking forward to building a good rapport with East Palo Alto.

 

“We are going to favor a collaborative approach,” said a Facebook spokesperson to The Daily.  “Ultimately, we would like East Palo Alto to see the enormous benefits to having a good, responsible neighbor like Facebook. We are in close communication with officials in East Palo Alto, and as a result, we believe we’re in the process of building strong and lasting relationships there.”

 

City council brainstorms

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, some members of the public spoke on behalf of Facebook while others expressed concerns about the expansion. Potential traffic solutions discussed include the use of shuttles by local residents.

 

Housing prices in East Palo Alto could also be affected by the expansion, Abrica said. More Facebook employees, who typically have a higher income level than the average East Palo Alto resident, would move into the area, driving up housing prices, especially for the renting population.

 

East Palo Alto has appointed a city council subcommittee to meet with a Menlo Park group by next week in order to negotiate and discuss East Palo Alto’s needs.

 

Councilmembers Carlos Romero and David Woods both serve on the subcommittee.

 

California law

State law requires that during the environmental review process, the city issuing the report must release a draft–as Menlo Park did in the middle of December. Members of the public were free to submit written concerns until Jan. 30. After that point, the state mandates that staff from Menlo Park must respond to all the presented concerns in writing.

 

Menlo Park does not have to agree with East Palo Alto or admit to any other faults in their report, but the city is required to address the issues that have arisen.

 

East Palo Alto officials hope that when these concerns are analyzed, Menlo Park representatives will note areas where they feel Facebook should be held financially responsible for projects–such as the widening of bike lanes–that have been proposed to counter the effects of the company’s expansion.

 

Other project ideas include a pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 that would be a safer commute option compared to dealing with increased traffic on University Avenue.

 

Stanford and Facebook

Considering Stanford’s proximity to both East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, questions remain about what effect the expansion may have on the University. With the expansion, Facebook has moved out of its location at the Stanford Research Park. Further repercussions for the campus are unlikely.

 

“There is no impact to Stanford except for the loss of an exciting and growing company and employer, but that impact has already taken place, and we are busy working to lease out their former space,” said Stanford Research Park’s Director of Asset Management Tiffany Griego.

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Innovation centers seek to address high textbook prices https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/10/innovation-centers-seek-to-address-high-textbook-costs/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/10/innovation-centers-seek-to-address-high-textbook-costs/#respond Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:06:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1057829 While spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks and course readers written by the professors teaching the related courses is a common experience for Stanford students, Stanford research and innovation labs are working on projects to reduce course material costs by addressing copyright licensing.

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While spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks and course readers written by the professors teaching the related courses is a common experience for Stanford students, Stanford research and innovation labs are working on projects to reduce course material costs by addressing copyright licensing.

 

Stanford’s CodeX, also known as the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and MediaX have been working on a “Print on Demand” system — a new way to lower prices for course materials.

 

“Our University pays several million dollars to get access for our students to certain materials, and frequently when professors did course readers, they didn’t check what the University had rights to,” said Roland Vogl, project director of Stanford Intellectual Property Exchange (SIPX). “We built a system that automates many of those processes and also takes into account the rights the student already has under the library’s permission.”

 

During the 2011 spring quarter, Print on Demand was used to print course readers for three Stanford classes. Students paid up to 78 percent less for the course readers produced by this new system.

 

SIPX is currently developing a “Publish on Demand” system, in which it “will integrate with the intranet learning management system used at Stanford to distribute electronic course materials, as well as explore mobile distribution opportunities,” according to its website.

 

Overall, the Stanford community is clearly looking for cheaper ways for professors to compile and develop course materials through projects such as SIPX and digital coursereaders.

 

Professors do not usually have any say in the prices of the books they write, even if the materials are published by Stanford University Press, economics professor John Taylor said in an email to The Daily.

“As with any book, textbook prices are determined by cost of physical production, payments to editors, writers, marketing and sales representatives, bookstore (or online) margins and publisher profits,” Taylor wrote. “In addition many textbooks are accompanied by supplements: test-banks, instructors’ manuals, course management services, web pages, slides, etc., which add to the cost.”

 

Taylor authored the current textbook used to instruct Economics 1A. The textbook  costs $270 at the Stanford Bookstore.

 

According to computer science professor Eric Roberts — author of Stanford’s CS 106A: Programming Methodology textbook, which the Stanford Bookstore sells for $127 new and $92.50 used — there are three main sources of cost for course readers: production, permissions and bookstore revenue. Roberts will teach CS 106A this spring.

 

“For most courses, the largest share is permissions,” Roberts said. “We have to pay copyright laws. To put together a reader, you have to get permission to use any of the materials you have in the reader. Those permission costs vary. We’re very fortunate here. The bookstore does the research for us and actually has standing agreements with a number of the major publishers.”

 

Particular publishers have standard page costs that make permission costs easy to compute, but copyright fees are not constant for all materials.

 

For instance, Roberts said he taught a poetry class last year with significantly fewer pages than the typical course reader, but a notably greater price.

 

Production costs include whatever the bookstore and subcontractors need in order to photocopy the material. Bookstore revenue is the percentage of sales that the private company on campus is compensated.

 

Roberts is currently working to publish the CS 106B course reader online. The material is also available for sale in the bookstore, where it costs $64.25, and Roberts encourages students to buy it.

 

“Print copies are still enormously helpful,” he said. “People will come to office hours with the reader all marked up with lots of highlighter and little arrows and post-its because it helps them.”

 

Additionally, a print copy of the CS 106B course reader is also advantageous because it is permitted during tests, while online sources are not, Roberts said.

 

When asked why he has elected to offer the reader online, Roberts responded that some people simply like having a digital copy. However, some students would also choose digital copies if costs were significantly lower or nonexistent, Roberts said.

 

Roberts acknowledges it is a lot more common than 25 years ago to put course materials online simply because technology has advanced. Nonetheless, with this progress, there have been issues with faculty posting copyrighted materials on the Internet.

 

“It helps prices a little, but it’s not the right thing to circumvent those rights,” Roberts said. “There’s a big push in the Internet age for free material, but I’ve written some books, and they take an enormous amount of time. I’ve put three years of work into this current one, and the publishers put time into this project too. If you expect all that to happen for free, the quality will go down.”

 

Regardless, students still look for ways to decrease the prices they pay for course materials.

 

The seventh edition of Taylor’s Principles of Economics, co-written with Akila Weerapana of Wellesley College, was released for purchase in time for the start of the 2012 winter quarter.

 

“Most new modern introductory textbooks in economics, whether used at Stanford and other universities, are comparable in price,” Taylor said, concerning the price of his textbook. “Savings are available from using used books or older editions. Online purchases can also have a lower price.”

 

“Prices have risen substantially in the past twenty years,” Taylor said. “I think that competition from online alternatives to physical texts are going to drive down the price of texts in the future. I hope so.”

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Debate continues for PAUSD https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/01/pausd-board-pa-residents-continue-%e2%80%98achievement-gap%e2%80%99-debate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/01/pausd-board-pa-residents-continue-%e2%80%98achievement-gap%e2%80%99-debate/#respond Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:05:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1056417 At Tuesday night’s Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) meeting, the district board continued its discussion of an achievement gap at the district’s two high schools, comparing minority student performance with that of white and Asian American students.

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Debate continues for PAUSD
The Palo Alto Unified School District board discussed the achievement gap between minority students and their white and Asian American counterparts at a Tuesday meeting. (ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily)

At Tuesday night’s Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) meeting, the district board continued its discussion of an achievement gap at the district’s two high schools, comparing minority student performance with that of white and Asian American students.

 

The board also hosted the high schools’ principals Tuesday morning to hear their “High School Single Plans for Student Achievement.” Themes addressed at the meeting included social health and academic intervention.

 

“We have a challenge when it comes to achievement of kids with different racial and ethnic backgrounds,” PAUSD Superintendent Kevin Skelly said. “We’ve discussed the issue many, many times, so this meeting provides one other way to look at it.”

 

As a whole, African American and Hispanic PAUSD high school students are currently scoring worse and meeting fewer graduation requirements than their white and Asian American peers.

 

Skelly refuted the idea that the system has become bifurcated, noting that both students of color and non-minority students have access to the same unique advantages in their school district.

 

The district’s graduating class of 2011 self-identified as 57 percent white, 29 percent Asian American, eight percent Hispanic, two percent African American and four percent students of a separate racial category.

 

The students who did not meet the A-G Requirements necessary to be eligible for admission to a University of California  (UC) were 51 percent white, 12 percent Asian American, 23 percent Hispanic and 10 percent African American. Students of a separate racial category formed the only group that held a constant rate at four percent.

 

A-G requirements include two years of history or social science, four years of English, three years of mathematics, two years of laboratory science, two years of a language other than English, one year of visual and performing arts and one year of an elective. All classes must be at the college preparatory level to fulfill requirements.

 

Last spring, Skelly proposed modifying some of the district’s graduation requirements to align with standards for UCs and California State Universities. The current PAUSD graduation requirements that would be affected are those for two years of mathematics, two years of science (not necessarily laboratory science) and one year of either foreign language or visual or performing arts.

 

At last night’s meeting, Skelly presented a PowerPoint entitled “Graduation Requirements: Preliminary Thinking on a New Approach,” outlining his proposal and the rationale behind it. He also presented “Algebra II Performance and Learning,” which showed lower results for African American and Hispanic students in California Standards Tests (CST) scores than their white and Asian American peers.

 

Board members and speakers from the community emphasized that high school success is also a reflection of elementary and middle school learning.

 

“The effects of stereotypes can be so costly,” PAUSD Vice President Dana Tom said. “I wish this were a simple issue to address. It requires vigilance, attention and a multi-pronged approach. This is a pre-K to 12 issue, not just a high school issue. The gap exists in elementary school as well.”

 

Although a specific plan has not been implemented at this point, the PAUSD community expressed a clear desire to address this disparity problem. The board said it has taken full note of the concerns of residents of Palo Alto.

 

“There are two gaps here,” said Ken Dauber of We Can Do Better Palo Alto when time was allotted for comments from the public. “We are ranked quite low for African American and Hispanic students while we are ranked quite high for white and Asian students. The hidden achievement gap is the one between Palo Alto District and other high achieving schools.”

 

According to PAUSD President Camille Townsend, Gunn High School principal Katya Villalobos spoke at the morning meeting about additional counselors and ways of intervening when students are not performing well academically. Townsend said she feels that further measures are also necessary for significant improvements to be made.

 

“I think we’re going to have a much better success rate if we start at the elementary school level,” PAUSD Board Member Melissa Baten Caswell said. “We can’t just attack it at the high school level.”

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PA City Council debates AT&T antennas https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/24/pa-city-council-debates-att-antennas/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/24/pa-city-council-debates-att-antennas/#respond Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:55:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1055243 At last night’s Palo Alto City Council meeting, council members held a public hearing to decide whether to approve or reject AT&T’s plans to install 20 new antennas on city utility poles after four residents had filed appeals against the plans.

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PA City Council debates AT&T antennas
Members of the Palo Alto City Council -- including Gregory Scharff, Greg Schmid and Gail A Price -- held a public hearing Monday night to discuss whether or not the city should approve AT&T's plan to install 20 new antennas. (SARAH MOORE/The Stanford Daily)

At last night’s Palo Alto City Council meeting, council members held a public hearing to decide whether to approve or reject AT&T’s plans to install 20 new antennas on city utility poles after four residents had filed appeals against the plans.

 

Curtis Williams, the city’s director of planning, had previously approved AT&T’s proposal during the summer of 2011, but backlash from residents inhibited plans from continuing until the hearing.

 

The hearing featured inquiries from council members — as well as statements from Palo Alto’s director of planning, the four appellants, the general public, representatives of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and AT&T.

 

“We all want better coverage, but I filed my appeal because I thought our city had some right to self-determination and the right to consider alternate technologies,” said appellant Paula Rantz. “Our power to determine the character of our community has been taken away by state and federal limitations.”

 

The ARB worked with city and AT&T to ensure the antennas and related equipment were aesthetically acceptable.

 

“We wish the [wireless] service to be allowed to come to the community,” said ARB representative Heather Young. “Service, especially in times of emergency, is a very important issue and our hope was to make recommendations that would allow the equipment to have as little intrusion on the environment as possible.”

 

Thirty letters and emails sent to the city, either in favor or opposition to AT&T’s plans, were presented for the public to read at the hearing. Twenty-four of the documents supported the plans while six objected to them. All letters and emails had been sent within the past week.

 

A noise report by Hammett & Edison, Inc., consulting engineers, was also available for review. Palo Alto limits “increases in noise levels originating from property” in residential zones to six dBA.

 

Most emails in support of the new antennas cited the need for improved wireless service and coverage, calling it embarrassing that they have so many dropped calls in this hub of the Silicon Valley. Those opposing the antennas referenced inappropriate placement, noise pollution, radiation, costs and the preference for a citywide comprehensive voice, video and data plan instead of segmented expansion like the AT&T strategy.

 

Councilmember Sid Espinosa brought up the possibility of this comprehensive plan. In reality, the addition of these 20 antennas is part of an expansion plan by AT&T that has the goal of eventually adding 80 antennas total in Palo Alto.

 

“It seems we’re talking about 20 antennas, but actually we’re setting a precedent for 80 [antennas], and this is without having that strategic discussion,” said council member Greg Schmid.

 

Council member Karen Holman focused her concerns on the aesthetic effects of antenna installation, asking the ARB why a truly artistic design is not being considered. Aesthetic concerns were one of the main issues raised by appellants and other residents opposed to AT&T’s plan.

 

“The reason I decided to appeal was because I was frustrated with the conclusion that the battery back up was a good idea. I think it’s the bigger intrusion aesthetically,” said appellant Tench Coxe. “The other reason I wanted to appeal was because I’ve been really frustrated the process, especially the way in which AT&T has pitted the city against each other over the issue of cell coverage [when] we are all in agreement that we need better coverage.”

 

The possibility of using tree canopy to help conceal equipment and the antennas on the utility poles was discussed. Williams confirmed that AT&T would have to pay for any trees planted. However, more mature trees that block antennas can inhibit signals that are emitted.

 

A similar hearing was held April 4, 2011 concerning the addition of two Wi-Fi antennas to the front façade of the Hotel President at 488 University Avenue.

 

In this case, councilmembers voted 8-1 to uphold the director of planning’s decision and approve a permit for the antennas’ installation. Stipulations included that the residents be notified at least three days in advance of the installation and that the applicant receive written permission from residents to install and maintain the antennas.

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