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The Stanford Daily

CARDINAL TODAY

An Independent Publication
THURSDAY www.stanforddaily.com Volume 239
May 12, 2011 Issue 61

SPEAKERS & EVENTS Great minds convene at BiblioTech

Wilentz talks
partisanship
in America
Scholar initiates lecture series with
thoughts on politics, past and present
By BILLY GALLAGHER
DESK EDITOR

Sean Wilentz, a professor at Princeton Univer-

sity, spoke yesterday to an audience of mostly
professors and members of the Stanford commu-
nity.
The talk was the first of Wilentz’s two events in
the 2011 Wesson Lecture Series, entitled “The
Long and Tragical History of Post-Partisanship.”
It was endowed by Robert G. Wesson and spon-
sored by the Center for Ethics and Society.
Wilentz explained that the pair of lectures is
related to contemporary politics, “but is actually
rooted in historical concerns.” He noted that he
planned to focus on the first 100 years of Ameri-
can history before “speeding” to the present.
“The lectures are much more like road maps
than they are like pieces of evaluation,” Wilentz
said.
Wilentz discussed a divide between President
Barack Obama’s post-partisanship rhetoric dur- JIN ZHU/The Stanford Daily
ing his campaign and later Gallup polls showing
Obama as the most divisive president in his first Entrepreneurial leaders in Silicon Valley and Stanford humanities scholars convened at the BiblioTech conference yesterday. June Cohen
two years of office. He predicted that post-parti- ‘92, executive procuder of TED Media, spoke about the desire to learn and described human storytelling as “the oldest form of media.”
sanship rhetoric would reappear in the 2012 pres-

City officials detail budget proposal

idential elections and might be used against
Obama.
He then proceeded to examine the develop-
ment of early political parties in America.Wilentz
focused on George Washington’s 1796 farewell
address, which he said provided the locus of anti-
party thought.Wilentz believed the speech, which
has been “commonly viewed as an Olympian
statement,” was in fact “deeply political” in re-
gards to the Adams-Jefferson race for President.
Wilentz emphasized that the ideas on parti-
sanship throughout American history are not all
the same, though there are “communal threads”
running through them. Most notable among
these threads is a “desire to see political conflict
replaced by high-minded collaboration.”
Wilentz is a contributing editor to The New
Republic and Newsweek and has written approx-
imately 300 articles, reviews and op-ed pieces for
publications such as The New York Times, The
Los Angeles Times and The New York Review of
Books. His major work to date, 2005’s “The Rise
of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln,”
received the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for
the Pulitzer Prize.
Please see WILENTZ, page 2
Tentative plans call for concessions from local labor groups
By MARIANNE LEVINE
STAFF WRITER
Palo Alto is in the midst of finalizing its
operating budget for fiscal year 2012. A se-
ries of budget hearings by the Palo Alto
City Council and Finance Committee will
take place this month, including a special
meeting today at the council chambers.
The city plans to modify the existing
budget in several ways, with a primary focus
on concessions for safety labor groups. The
proposed budget would also adjust spend-
ing to confront the effects of the recent eco-
nomic recession.
In the FY 2012 operating budget pro-
posal, City Manager James Keene reveals
that the combination of lower sales tax rev-
enues and increasing costs for employee
benefits has forced the city council to re-
evaluate the budget. The proposed general
fund budget is $146 million, which repre-
sents a 2.7 percent increase from the FY
2011 budget. According to the document,
the total city budget will be $463 million, a
3.2 percent increase from last year.
In an email to The Daily, Director of Ad-
ministrative Services Lalo Perez explained
that the budget changes are a response to
the costs of healthcare and pension plans,
which are increasing much faster than city
revenues.
“We need to make changes to our safety
pension plans, similar to those that the non-
safety staff changes already made,” Perez
said. “We have a two-tier pension system
that reduces the benefits for non-safety
staff and, therefore, the cost to the city. In
addition, we seek employee contributions
to healthcare premiums.”
According to Pamela Antil, assistant city
manager, a primary change is an increase in
concessions from labor groups in both the
police and fire departments.
“The largest portion of our general fund
dollars goes to pay the salaries and benefits
of our employees . . . A critical component
of the city’s ability to maintain quality serv-
ices for the community, in the face of declin-
ing revenues and growing personnel costs,
has been working with labor groups over
the last several years to achieve wage and
Please see BUDGET, page 2

UNIVERSITY

Protest in White
Plaza supports
campus janitors
Rally aims to pressure University, UGL
services to save the jobs of 29 janitors
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

More than 20 protestors converged in White Plaza

Wednesday afternoon to rally on behalf of 29 janitors
who are set to lose their jobs this June. The Stanford
Labor Action Coalition organized the rally in protest
of UGL (UNICCO) Services, a services subcontrac-
tor that jointly employs the janitors with Stanford
University.
Last December, the University’s contract with UGL
Services, which replaced a preceding contract with
ABM, initiated a complex rehiring process. UGL Ser-
vices was contractually obligated to offer all ABM
workers the opportunity to keep their jobs. However,
several of the workers did not meet background check
and identity verification criteria that were stipulated by
federal law, University officials said in January.
The issue has not yet been completely resolved.
Wednesday’s rally aimed to save the janitors’ jobs by
JIN ZHU/The Stanford Daily pressuring UGL Services and the University adminis-
The Stanford Labor Action Coalition led a rally in White Plaza yesterday. The protestors hoped to convince Stanford and its subcon-
tractor, UGL Services, to perserve the jobs of 29 janitors who would otherwise be unemployed in June due to contractual changes. Please see PROTEST, page 2

Index Opinions/4 • Sports/6 • Classifieds/7 Recycle Me

2 ! Thursday, May 12, 2011
NEWS BRIEFS
School board alters
calendar
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
Early yesterday, the Palo Alto
Unified School District (PAUSD)
Board of Education voted 3-2 in
favor of changing the current district
calendar. The change will be imple-
mented next year, with classes slated
to start Aug. 16 and end May 30.The
change will also remain in effect for
the 2013-14 academic year.
The decision to alter the academ-
ic calendar so that school begins ear-
lier in August materialized after a
charged five-hour discussion. While
some attendees said the change
would disrupt family traditions, oth-
ers favored the change because it
would allow students to wrap up
their first academic semester before
winter break.
The latter group cited stress-re-
lief as one reason for supporting the
change. At Stanford, School of Edu-
cation senior lecturer Denise Clark
Pope was one advocate of the new
academic calendar.
— An Le Nguyen
Report urges
rethinking of high-
speed-rail plan
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
The proposed high-speed-rail
system faces weak oversight and will
cost much more than initially antici-
pated, according to a report released
by the state Legislative Analyst’s Of-
fice. The controversial project was
approved by voters in November
2008 but has since faced mounting
criticism and great financial uncer-
tainty, especially in light of the ongo-
ing state budget crisis.
Although the project was pro-
jected to cost $43 billion, new esti-
mates put the price tag at $63 billion,
with the segment between San Fran-
cisco and Los Angeles slated to cost
much more than the initial proposal
had anticipated.
The report called for either shift-
ing the project to the California De-
partment of Transportation (Cal-
trans), which has more expertise in
this field, or to a newly created state
department dedicated to the project.
Under the current system, the proj-
ect is headed by the California High-
Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), a
group of nine appointed board
members, several paid staffers and
hundreds of consultants. This
arrangement, the report argued,
gives CHSRA too much autonomy
and not enough accountability to the
state government.
CHSRA was also sharply criti-
cized for its “flawed business plan,”
and the report predicted that most of
the revenue that the agency hopes to
reap would fail to materialize. A
cited example was the agency’s gam-
ble that it would receive $17 billion
to $19 billion in federal funds — so
far, only $3.6 billion has been grant-
ed and the majority in the House of
WILENTZ
Continued from front page
“It was an interesting talk on
areas of American history I knew
little about,” said Kieran Ober-
man, a postdoctoral scholar in po-
PROTEST
Continued from front page
tration to take action.
According to Eric Griffis ‘12, a
member of the Stanford Labor Ac-
tion Coalition, most of the janitors
have worked at Stanford University
for many years — some for decades.
“Stanford continues to shirk re-
sponsibility for this issue by claim-
ing that only UGL determines hir-
ing and firing even though UGL
would clearly respond to the needs
of its client, Stanford,” Griffis wrote
in an email to The Daily.
In addition to yesterday’s rally —
one of several this year — the Stan-
ford Labor Action Coalition has dis-
tributed flyers, enlisted the help of
other student activist groups and or-
ganized worker-student council
meetings on the issue. Griffis said
the coalition also emailed workers in
other unions at Stanford and initiat-
ed a petition on behalf of the jani-
tors.
The petition alleges, “UNICCO
and Stanford are blatantly violating
the Northern California Maintenance
Contractors Agreement with Service
Employees International Union,
Local 1877, the union that represents
the workers.” Thus far, it has accrued
more than 2,000 signatures.
— An Le Nguyen
The Stanford Daily
BUDGET
Alto plans to use a $1 million place- munity. Furthermore, the proposal
holder to create an Office of Emer- outlines the city’s intentions to con-
gency Services. Perez said staff tinuously upgrade its infrastructure
Representatives has opposed any
further funding. Continued from front page members are “working on the
specifics” of the new office. The
by proactively repairing and replac-
ing utilities.
The report also recommended
that the state legislature reject the benefit concessions,” the budget
funds for this development “will in-
clude staff and non-salary items as-
According to the tentative budg-
et, the city intends to support Cal-
rail authority’s 2011-12 budget re- proposal reads. sociated with community emer- train’s efforts to develop a long-
quest for $185 million to fund project “The proposed budget projects gency preparedness, which is a term financial plan.Another priori-
development and instead allocate that the city will receive about $4.3 council priority,” he said. ty is the promotion of programs fo-
only $7 million to the agency. That million in concessions from the Perez emphasized that the im- cusing on youth well being.
amount would be used to identify labor groups in police and fire,” pact of the proposed FY 2012 budg- Antil expressed optimism about
the best two options to begin con- Antil wrote in an email to The et is contingent on whether or not the budget proposal.
struction. Unless federal deadlines Daily. “If those concessions are not the labor groups agree to provide “The main goal of the budget
are renegotiated and the project’s achieved, the budget staff will have the concessions. If the labor groups continues to be to provide the
governance structure is revamped, to come back to the city council for do not act accordingly, cutting the highest level of desired and en-
the report argued that the project consideration of other operating safety programs would be one of hanced services to the community
should be halted altogether. and service cuts.” few ways to balance the city’s budg- within our means, while still being
Antil said she was confident that et. The city may also need to make mindful of changes that are immi-
— Ivy Nguyen these concessions would be met. budget reductions during the fiscal nent in the future with regard to
According to Perez, if labor groups midyear timeframe. sustainability, infrastructure needs
are unable to meet these condi- In addition to these points, the and changes in technology and its
Humanities,tech tions, Palo Alto will be forced to im- proposed budget incorporates application to the services we pro-
plement reductions in its safety pro- plans to continue to improve Palo vide,” Antil said.
meet at BiblioTech grams first.
Apart from the concession
Alto’s infrastructure by renovating
libraries as well as increasing sus- Contact Marianne LeVine at
conference changes, Perez indicated that Palo tainable practices within the com- mlevine2@stanford.edu.
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
Silicon Valley business leaders
and Stanford humanities scholars
convened on Wednesday for Bib-
lioTech, a conference looking to
strengthen ties between the two
groups as the nationwide discussion
about the relevance of the humani-
ties — and the value of a humanities
Ph.D. — continues.
Speakers from Google, TED
Media,Sequoia Capital and other firms
came to campus to discuss how doctor-
al students in humanities can con-
tribute to the tech industry and how Sil-
icon Valley can reap Stanford talent.
The conference came in “an era
where we can no longer make dis-
tinctions between the humanities,
the sciences and the social sciences,”
said co-organizer Anais Saint-Jude,a
doctoral student studying 17th cen-
tury French theater.
One keynote speaker, Marissa
Mayer ‘97 M.S. ‘99, discussed entry
points for humanities doctoral stu-
dents in the Valley, including “social
media,marketing,product design and
more.”Mayer is the vice president for
consumer products at Google.
Stanford President John Hen-
nessy, himself a former technology
entrepreneur who retains invest-
ments in Silicon Valley and serves on
the boards of Cisco and Google, de-
livered opening remarks on Wednes-
day morning. In a statement, Hen-
nessy called the conference
“groundbreaking.”
Other speakers included Patrick
Byrne of Overstock.com, June
Cohen of TED Media, John Hagel
III of Deloitte Center for Edge,
Damon Horowitz of Google,
Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital
and Vivek Ranadive of TIBCO.
Horowitz and Byrne hold doctorates
from Stanford.
The conference was sponsored by
a litany of groups within Stanford,
ranging from Hennessy’s office to
the English department to the Ca-
reer Development Center.
“The days when you can expect
to get a teaching position with a
Ph.D. are gone,” said co-organizer
David Palumbo-Liu, a professor of
comparative literature. “Things are
far less certain than they used to be.”
— Elizabeth Titus
litical science, who completed his
Ph.D. at Oxford University.
The second lecture in the series
is tonight from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in
Building 360, room 105. A discus-
sion seminar is set to take place on
Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Contact Billy Gallagher at wmg2014
@stanford.edu.
The Stanford Daily
CAMPUS LIFE
On the burner:
Bacon’s Six Degrees
Actor promotes social
media as a force for
social change
By SUZANNE STATHATOS
It was just late last month that
producers released the new X-Men:
First Class international trailer. But
yesterday, Paul Brest Hall was filled
with students and faculty eagerly
awaiting the appearance of the up-
coming film’s “Sebastian Shaw.”
Fulfilling expectations, Footloose,
Apollo 13 and Animal House star
Kevin Bacon took his place in the
cluster of burgundy leather chairs
on stage.
Ideas of social media and social
change came together on May 11 as
Jennifer Aaker, Stanford GSB pro-
fessor and author of The Dragonfly
Effect, Bill Strathmann, CEO of
Network for Good, and Bacon
spoke about the evolving, interac-
tive form of social good — social
networking.
The Haas Center for Public Ser-
vice helped sponsor this event be-
cause of the One Degree service
challenge associated with the talk, a
contest SixDegrees created for
Stanford students to propose chari-
table ideas involving social media.
“The challenge that preceded it
gets students thinking differently
about public service and about how
social networking can be used for
the common good,” said Thomas J.
Schnaubelt, assistant vice provost
and executive director of Haas.
Aaker admitted her initial skep-
ticism of social media. In 2008, she
attributed social media to three
things — narcissism, stalking and
lack of concentration.
But everything changed over a
summer at UC-Berkeley. Some of
her students showed her a Power-
Point on the impact of social media
and its effect on two men’s lives.The
men, Sameer Bhatia and Vinay
Chakravarthy, harnessed social
media to register over 20,000 South
Asian bone marrow donors for
cures over the course of only a few
weeks.
Bhatia and Chakravarthy had a
four-point mantra — “focus on a
single goal, grab attention, tell a
story and enable others to act.”
“After listening to this, all I could
think about was, ‘What could I do
now?’” Aaker recalled.
Aaker now works closely with
Stanford students on social media
and the 100K Cheeks Campaign.
“The goal of the organization is
to utilize some principles of The
Dragonfly Effect and to create tools
to allow other people to take ac-
Thursday, May 12, 2011 ! 3
tion,” said Vineet Singal ‘12, a mem-
ber of 100K Cheeks.
The focus then moved to Bacon
as he described what motivated him
to start SixDegrees.
“I was at a point in my life where
I was feeling as though I was doing
little things here and there, and I
could keep doing little things,”
Bacon said.“But I felt like I wanted
to make a difference.”
Bacon expected “Six Degrees,” a
trivia game based on his celebrity
social web, to eventually fade out.
“I thought it was going to go
away; I thought it was a joke at my
expense,” he said. “It didn’t go
away.”
So, Bacon embraced his brand,
but he wanted to take himself out of
the equation. He asked celebrities to
choose charities to write about on his
website. However, he realized that
celebrity faces alone aren’t enough
to convince people to donate.
“Most people get connected to
causes through the people they real-
ly have a connection with,” he said.
Schnaubelt recognized the po-
tential of social media, but pointed
out some of its imperfections.
“We need to recognize that this
tool also has limitations,” he said.
“Social media relationships aren’t a
replacement for real relationships.
People didn’t go to Tahrir Square
just because somebody tweeted
them. They likely went because
someone they really knew tweeted
them.”
“The same thing will likely be
true of using social media with any
form of public service,” Schnaubelt
added.
When asked if social media
might have a negative impact on so-
cial activism, Bacon replied, “It’s
here. It’s not going away. So why not
see if it’s a tool for good?”
Aaker echoed Bacon, describing
any dichotomy between social and KYLE ANDERSON/The Stanford Daily
“traditional media” as a thing of the
past. On Wed, May 11, at Paul Best Hall, Kevin Bacon talked to students about the social good of social media.
“Anyone who’s doing any mar- GSB professor Jennifer Aaker and Network for Good CEO Bill Strathmann joined Bacon for the discussion and
keting, any branding, any social ac- the announcement of the One Degree challenge winner.
tivism, they’re thinking how they’re
here right now and how social tions on their ideas.
media complements groundbreak- “I think all three ideas are ab-
ing acts,” she said. solutely remarkable,” Bacon said,
Strathmann recognized that so- announcing Billionaire Effect as
cial media groups for social change the final winner. “There are aspects
do have the potential to fail, which of all of them that could be used.”
he said can occur when groups don’t The talk closed fittingly with
provide “a very clear and simple ac- Aaker describing how to realize
tion” or when “actions are too com- change.
plicated.” “Most revolutions are sparked
After fielding questions from the by the actions of a few ordinary
audience, the panel introduced the people, and your biggest mind is a
three finalists of Bacon’s One De- clear mind and a very large idea,”
gree challenge. she said.
The three finalists — NetEffect,
Billionaire Effect and Dispatch and Contact Suzanne Stathatos at sstat
Response — each gave presenta- @stanford.edu.
4 ! Thursday, May 12, 2011 The Stanford Daily

OPINIONS
S EEING G REEN The Stanford Daily
Going Topless
Established 1892 AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER Incorporated 1973
Board of Directors Managing Editors Tonight’s Desk Editors

Zach Zimmerman Kate Abbott Kristian Bailey An Le Nguyen

I
don’t care how long (or short) of a
time you’ve spent lounging in the
Stanford bubble. If you haven’t
popped out yet to see a sea otter, I
have an assignment for you: Drop
everything and get to the coast.
Charismatic fur balls await.
Today, sea otters are the poster
children of cuddle appeal, but their
endearing behaviors were lost on the
fur hunters of the 1800s. Otter fur
lined jackets (and the fur trade lined
pockets), but soon otters no longer
lined the Pacific Coast.
The sea otter, however, is a “key-
stone species” — its impact on our
coastal ecosystems is disproportion-
ately large compared to its natural
abundance in the marine community
— so its removal had profound effects
that we only noticed recently, as the
otter staged a dramatic return over
the last 70 years.
Otters like shellfish. So much so
that where otters live,abalone and sea
urchins are rare. Urchins eat kelp, so
once otters devour the urchins, kelp
grows in abundance.That’s good news
from a restoration perspective:the re-
turn of the otter has also meant the re-
turn of kelp forests, historically “more
natural” than rocky urchin barrens.
And it makes the seaweed industry
happy (kelp products turn up in ice
cream and toothpaste, among other
things). But plenty of fishermen find
the change less palatable:the (now de-
funct) abalone industry, for example,
arose largely because the loss of otters
led to a population explosion in the
snails. In the sea otter’s absence, we
humans partially assumed the role of
top predator, a role we’re hesitant to
relinquish.
Although the otter drama has died
down, other predator comebacks re-
main controversial. Wolves, which ex-
erted top-down controls on herbivore
populations all across the northern
portion of our continent, are slowly
(under the stewardship of biologists
and conservationists) regaining their
ecological foothold in places like Yel-
lowstone National Park. Where once
an ecosystem was falling apart at the
seams (overgrazing by elk decimated
forests, leading to a lack of proper
dam-building materials and many un-
happy beavers; shifting vegetation
changed the face of the park and its
complement of animal species),
wolves have almost magically stabi-
lized it. For biologists observing the
system, the reintroduction of wolves
must have been like finding the miss-
ing key and unlocking a treasure trove.
Of course, most of the nearby
ranchers would rather the key had
been permanently lost. Their treas-
ures are their herds, and wolves are
often blamed for any loss of stock. I,
for one,am glad the wolves are back to
playing their native role — and hop-
ing they extend their range East, to
control a deer population explosion
that’s decimating my childhood
forests. Hiking past the leafless stalks
of what should be the next generation
of trees, I’m frequently willing to
shoot Bambi myself.
The dramatic and complex effects
stemming from the loss of top preda-
tors (and the reversals associated with
their return) is not unique to these sys-
tems. Such “trophic cascades”
(“trophic” for food chain, “cascade”
for the direct and indirect ripples
spreading downward through the sys-
tem) have been found around the
world.As we continue to monitor the
accidental experiments created by
human impacts, we’ll doubtless find
many more examples.
Will this knowledge help us predict
the effects of future species losses?
Probably not. Ecology is a com-
plex science,and its overriding conclu-
sion is that, well,“it’s complicated.” In
Holly
Moeller
some cases, apex predators and their
top-down cascading effects rule the
system.In other situations,though,the
controls are bottom-up, and the com-
munity is limited by nutrients,the rate
of plant growth or some other funda-
mental factor. And, because we’re
seeing all these systems as snapshots
(often heavily impacted by human ac-
tivity),it’s hard to guess where the real
balance between these two regimes
lies.
One thing is clear, though. We are
an inextricable part of the system. Of
course, we always have been. But be-
fore we learned to use oil for cheap
energy, before we domesticated crops
and settled onto farms, before we or-
ganized ourselves into hunter-gather-
er clans, our own cascades were much
smaller.
Today,though,we are the keystone
species.Our top-down effects cascade
through the system when we fish out
top predators like sharks or when we
shoot the one mountain lion found
roaming in Redwood City. Our bot-
tom-up effects transform ecosystem
processes when we add fertilizers or
pollute landscapes.
Our ability to modify the world has
evolved faster than the world’s ability
to deal with our modifications. Of
course, there’s a growing feeling that
we should try to limit these modifica-
tions — not least because they’re put-
ting our future existence on this plan-
et in serious jeopardy.
In a few pet systems, especially
here in America,we entertain dreams
of systems “restored” to the way they
“must have looked”before us.But un-
less our population shrinks dramati-
cally, it will be very hard to avoid
pressing all of our accessible land area
— and most of our coastal waters —
into direct human service.
So perhaps the real moral from the
story of the otter, or of the wolf, is to
impose our will with impunity, under-
standing that ecosystem cascades,like
true waterfalls, are incredibly power-
ful,sometimes beautiful and often im-
possible to control.
Holly welcomes fully-clothed reader
comments and suggestions via email at
hollyvm@stanford.edu.
President and Editor in Chief Deputy Editor Columns Editor News Editor
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T HIS C OLUMN I S I RONIC
Apparently, Oxford Is a Good School
E
verybody lied to me, guys. For international relations differs from
years, I had heard about how constructivism. Some of my friends
going abroad was supposed to are actually taking more units than I
be an easy GPA boost, no work and am and going out six nights a week!
partying every night. Problem is, I’m So all of you who are in Madrid or Shane
here in Oxford and I’ve probably Paris or Berlin, live it up while you Savitsky
done more work in four weeks than a can.
usual quarter back on the Farm. A I’m writing 3,000 words a week.
wise, wise man once wrote,“Nobody I’m being run academically ragged.
said it was easy, no one ever said it My average bedtime has probably
would be this hard.” I think that cer-
tainly holds true in this case.
shifted toward 4 a.m., and I pull an
average of one all-nighter a week.
Somehow writing a
Between all of my commitments, But here’s the weird thing: I love it. I
I’m supposed to write 3,000 words
every week. If you think that 3,000
don’t think I’ve ever felt more aca-
demically stimulated in my life. I’m
story in Spanish is
words doesn’t sound too bad, try to obviously partial to the American
fill up 15 pages in Microsoft Word way of teaching, but the tutorial sys- equal to my 12 pages
every week while reading two or tem is an absolutely brilliant inven-
three books and trying to travel a lit- tion.There have of course been times
tle bit on the weekends. It’s kind of back at Stanford where I would blow on why the English
nuts. I almost forgot that I had to off my reading and have to bullshit
write a column this week because of
my pressing academic work — but
my way through section, but there’s
no possible way of doing that in a tu- school of international
don’t fear: I’m still here. I think the torial here. (Note to self: ask Oxford
biggest slap in the face is that I’m only
getting 13 units from this quarter. Se-
students if bullshitting a tutorial
paper is actually possible.) You’re ac-
relations differs from
riously? Somehow, Stanford deems a tually forced to sit down, read a few
tutorial that requires you to write
2,500 words a week as only worthy of
books, formulate a worthwhile argu-
ment and then defend it in a one-on-
constructivism.
six units. Honestly, the writing I’ll do one setting. Furthermore, I’m study-
for my tutorial alone probably equals ing the exact topic I wanted to focus
being constantly due. When every-
the amount of writing I’d do in a full on: post-Cold War international rela-
one around you is in the same boat of
quarter at Stanford. tions.My tutorial is nothing more and
being absolutely overwhelmed with
Oh, and then, the worst is that I nothing less. It’s unlike anything I’ve
work, you learn to develop sympathy
have to hear about all of my friends in ever done before and it’s incredibly
for others and make friends pretty
other Bing programs who are doing refreshing.
quickly.
almost zero work. Somehow writing There’s also a certain amount of
Honestly, I think certain classes
a story in Spanish is equal to my 12 camaraderie here in the Oxford pro-
back at Stanford could benefit a lot
pages on why the English school of gram inherent with so much work
from a system like this. I feel like I’ve
learned more about international re-
lations in two weeks than I did in an
entire quarter of Political Science 1.
For the record, that’s not a condem-
nation or disparagement of our
teaching resources or classes back at
Stanford. Rather, it’s simply a prod-
uct of a completely new learning ex-
perience in an almost surreal envi-
ronment. The academic component
here has just been fantastic.
So again, all of you previously
mentioned Bing folks spread around
Europe, enjoy your wild nights while
they last.I’m sure papers are going to
terrify you when you finally get back
to campus in the fall.While you have
a questionably-fueled night at a rave
in the Marais, I’m forced to deal with
a Red Bull-fueled night in Magdalen
College Library to write about dem-
ocratic peace theory. (And here’s the
best part: I still get to party, too!)
Honestly,I wouldn’t have it any other
way.
You can email Shane at savitsky@stan-
ford.edu, but any response would in-
crease his weekly word count. Do you
really want to do that to him?

O P-E D

T
he class of ‘78 wore white armbands
against their black graduation robes to
protest apartheid in South Africa.
Tuesday, the Students Confronting
Apartheid by Israel (SCAI) implored Stan-
ford to divest from companies profiting from
Israeli military occupation of Palestinian
land. I didn’t see any armbands, and it wasn’t
the SCAI’s fault. It’s that when you walk up
to most Stanford students and try to interest
them in divestment, more often than not they
could care less.
Stanford University: a school dedicated to
the blowing winds of freedom, strewn with
anguished Rodin sculptures and smiling
tourists;my question:when did the tourists re-
place the hippies? You can do anything here,
create the next six-figure iPhone app, make a
start-up your sophomore year, everything ex-
cept go to class, toss a ball and linger at dinner
with your classmates. Forget the Farm, this
place is the Lab. Students are fed opportunity
with 10 silver spoons, and the options over-
My Father’s Stanford
whelm them. Instead of sitting with the feel-
ing of not knowing what it is they want to do
with their lives, students take off in all 10 di-
rections at once. Some don’t have time for
class. Most don’t have time to run around and
toss a ball, and none have time to stay at din-
ner any longer than it takes them to shovel
down their food.
My father’s Stanford was about sitting on
the grass and shooting the breeze. Playing Ul-
timate barefoot on Roble Field. My Stanford
shoots emails, texts, anything to increase effi-
ciency and decrease face-time. My Stanford
needs Frisbee cleats. Where are the artists?
The hippies? The movers and shakers?
The irony is, my father’s movers and shak-
ers were the same privileged kids as the stu-
dents I’m charging with complacency. And
maybe they weren’t all that different from the
assholes down the hall in my freshman dorm.
Maybe my dad was the asshole down the hall.
But for all their privilege and cluelessness and
self-interest, they didn’t have the option to in-
dulge short attention spans with Facebook
profiles or iPhone screens. They too were fed
by silver spoons, just not as many. If there is
any instance where less is more, I argue it is
the number of silver spoons jabbing at a stu-
dent’s mouth to grab her attention.
I know — my diamond shoes are too
tight; I have access to all those spoons, and in-
stead of taking advantage of Stanford, I com-
plain,“No one here wants to sit in the sun and
pretend to know about politics with me!” I
assure you I would not write this if I didn’t
believe something vital to the health of my
student body were at stake. When students
are spread so thin between being Olympians
and entrepreneurs, many miss the whole
point of attending college. They get jaded, or
close-minded or lonely. I miss the point a
good deal of the time; I’m too busy to care
about divestment, or the Dalai Lama’s visit
to campus or the girl upstairs who needs
someone to talk to.
It feels like a terrible waste of privilege to
be at Stanford and feel jaded. I want to care
passionately about divestment, and I don’t
think that joining one more politically correct
club is the solution. Call me a romantic, but I
have a hunch the solution starts with sitting
on the grass and shooting the breeze. After
all, how am I going to care passionately about
people harmed by Israeli settlements if I’m
too busy to care about the people around me?
This is an invitation to my generation to take
the time with me to learn how to care about
people again. Take a break from your honors
theses, your coding, your weightlifting, and
look me in the eye and talk to me. Let’s strum
the same three chords on guitar for an hour
and sing our hearts out. Let’s get sidetracked
together, and let the long-term goals go for a
moment. We’re still young—let’s act like it.
We can’t go back to 1978, but maybe we can
slow down 2011 until we get our priorities
straight.
RENEE DONOVAN,‘14
The Stanford Daily Thursday, May 12, 2011 ! 5

Photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey, U.S. Air Force - Tall Afar, June 6, 2006
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The “It’s Only Another Beer”

Black and Tan

8 oz. pilsner lager

8 oz. stout lager
1 frosty mug
1 icy road
1 pick-up truck
1 10-hour day
1 tired worker
A few rounds with the guys

Mix ingredients.
Add 1 totalled vehicle.

Never underestimate ‘just a few.’

Buzzed driving is drunk driving.
6 ! Thursday, May 12, 2011 The Stanford Daily

SPORTS
Jacob
Jaffe
Fields of Failure

Teams
need a
nuisance
T
hat guy is so annoying.
It’s not something you
want to hear about your-
self at a frat party, but it
might be the ultimate
sports compliment from an oppo-
nent.
While watching the Mavericks-
Lakers series, my friend uttered that
phrase in regard to J.J. Barea. And
while my friend is no more a Lakers
fan than Paul Pierce, his conclusion
was fairly obvious to anyone watch-
ing that series.
Barea — all 75 pounds of him (if
he’s actually six feet tall, I’m Yao
IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily Ming) — got under the skin of every
Sophomore Jillian Garton (above) and the Stanford water polo team travel to Michigan this weekend for the NCAA championships. The player on the Lakers. His nagging de-
Cardinal is one of four Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams to make it to Michigan. Stanford starts against Iona College on Friday. fense, exaggerated flops and surpris-
ing offensive bursts were big reasons

WEST COAST FEEL

why the Lakers went from two-time
champions to embarrassing under-
achievers in the span of one round.
The 11.5 points and 5.5 assists he av-
eraged over the course of the four
games certainly played a big role, but
the little things — the annoyances, if
you will — may have done even more

Cardinal and three MPSF foes dive into NCAAs

By KEVIN ZHANG
DAILY SPORTS INTERN
The top-ranked Stanford
women’s water polo team travels to
the National Collegiate Champi-
onship in Ann Arbor this weekend
with a couple of lofty goals:a success-
ful tournament would give the Cardi-
nal its first national championship
since 2002 and earn a 101st team title
for Stanford athletics as a whole.
After Stanford earned a third-
place finish with a 2-1 record in the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
(MPSF) tournament, the Cardinal
(25-1) heads into the NCAA Tourna-
ment via an at-large bid. Even after
the third-place finish, the squad will
have the number-one seed in the
eight-team tournament.
Three of Stanford’s MPSF rivals
will be traveling to the NCAA Tour-
nament as well:Cal,USC and UCLA
all got the call to Ann Arbor. The
other four teams are automatic qual-
ifiers that won their respective con-
ferences: UC-Irvine from the Big
West Conference, Indiana from the
Collegiate Water Polo Association,
UC-San Diego from the Western
Water Polo Association and Iona
College from the Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference.
Other than the one blemish at the
MPSF Tournament, Stanford has
demonstrated its prowess in tourna-
ments,with undefeated records at the
Michigan Kickoff, Stanford Invita-
tional and UC-Irvine Invitational.
“We’ve been a good tournament
team because we play a lot of people
and keep attacking teams,”said Stan-
ford head coach John Tanner. “This
weekend we will continue to use our
bench and push for goals in all phas-
es of offense.”
The one tournament blemish
came in a game against UCLA that
Stanford lost 9-8, ending the Cardi-
nal’s 24-game winning streak.
“We had several lapses against
UCLA, particularly in the middle of
the game, where we went significant
periods without generating big stops
or finishing quality chances,”Tanner
said.
Stanford will continue to lean on
Please see WPOLO, page 8
to derail the Lakers’ quest for anoth-
er three-peat.
Take Ron Artest in Game 2.While
Artest might have the shortest fuse in
the league, Barea did just enough to
light it, causing Artest to commit one
of the silliest flagrant fouls you will
ever see (it was halfway between
clotheslining the Rock and ripping
the mask off a Scooby Doo villain).
That got Artest banned for a game,
which might have been the difference
between Dallas going for the sweep
in Game 4 and the Lakers attempting
to tie the series.
Just two games later, after Barea’s
best game as a pro helped the Maver-
Please see JAFFE, page 8

CARDINAL CHATTER DEAN MCARDLE SOPHOMORE PITCHER

YOU NEED A NICKNAME, KID

In baseball, perhaps more so than any other sport,
there’s a lot of down time. With a 35-man roster and
ample time to think, nicknames are inevitable.
With the chattering in the dugout during games, the
nicknames become ingrained in the team and are a
vital part of keeping life in the dugout interesting.
They don’t have to be funny, meaningful, or cre-
ative, but most of them mix a little of each. Here’s a lit-
tle sample of some of the nicknames on our team:
• Sophomore first baseman Justin Ringo: Cave
Man
• Sophomore center fielder: Jake Stewart: Scoob-a-
doob-doob, Stewie, Stewman.
• Freshman right fielder Austin Wilson: Big Willy,
Black Stealth.
• Senior outfielder Dave Giuliani: Italian Stallion,
Meatball.
• Senior catcher Zach Jones: McDopeboy.
• Freshman second baseman Lonnie Kauppila:
Kappi, Ron.
• Junior pitcher Allan Talt: Tall-T, TreeBeard.
• Junior outfielder Jack Mosbacher: Simple Jack, 16
to 24.
• Sophomore center fielder Tyler Gaffney: Dance
Nation, T Gaff.
• Sophomore shortstop Kenny Diekroeger: Cup-
cake.
• Senior pitcher Danny Sandbrink: Grandpa,
Renegade of Funk, Pup.
• Sophomore third baseman Stephen Piscotty: Es-
calito.

Football game at Duke to be
carried on ESPNU
After the Pac-12 announced its
preliminary TV schedule for the
2011 football season yesterday,
one more game was added to the
Cardinal’s broadcasting list this af-
ternoon. Stanford’s first away
game — a Sept. 10 contest at Duke
— will be broadcast live on
ESPNU beginning at 12:30 p.m.,
making it the fifth Cardinal game
SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily
confirmed to be televised nation-
Senior Karen Nesbitt (above) and the Stanford lacrosse team head to ally by the ABC and ESPN family
Gainesville this weekend to open up the 2011 NCAA tournament. This is of networks.
the second consecutive year that the Card has qualified for the postseason. As a conference, the Pac-12 now
has 21 national telecasts set for its
SPORTS BRIEFS
night, and the Cardinal will need a
better offensive performance than
last weekend if it wants to overtake
the Devils this weekend.
Stanford scored just eight runs
all weekend and dropped two of
three to the Ducks, despite another
ridiculous weekend at the plate
from junior Ashley Hansen, who
went 9-for-15 with two doubles and
four RBI.
The Cardinal’s only win of the
weekend was a 4-1 victory on Fri-
day night behind a three-hit, one-
run, 14-strikeout pitching per-
formance from sophomore Tea-
gan Gerhart, who extended her
record to 21-8 on the season with
the win.
KZSU to retain all broadcast rights
following KNBR deal
In a move that reaffirmed the
long-standing agreement between
Stanford Athletics and KZSU 90.1
FM, the student-run radio station
confirmed that it would retain its
coverage of Stanford men’s bas-
ketball and football games next
year. The station’s broadcast rights
were unaffected by Monday’s an-
nouncement that Bay Area radio
station KNBR 1050 AM had ac-
quired the broadcast rights to both
Cardinal football and men’s bas-
ketball.
KZSU Sports Director JD Had-

GATOR HUNTING IN
inaugural season. Additional The Sun Devils come in to the don confirmed earlier reports
broadcasts for Stanford and other weekend scorching hot, having Wednesday that KZSU would con-
Pac-12 schools may be announced won their last 11 games, all against tinue to broadcast both football

THE SWAMP
By REBECCA HANLEY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Two weeks after taking the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
title, Stanford lacrosse will travel to
Gainesville, Fla., to take on the
Florida Gators in the first round of
the NCAA Tournament. The trip to
Gainesville will mark Cardinal’s
second consecutive year in the
NCAA Tournament and just its
third appearance in history.
The two will match up for the
first time ever, with the Gators
starting a lacrosse program just one
year ago. The Cardinal and Gators
have five opponents in common this
season, including Denver, North-
western, Ohio State, Syracuse and
Vanderbilt. The Cardinal (16-2, 6-0
MPSF) compiled a 3-2 record
against those opponents, falling to
Vanderbilt and losing a one-goal
Please see LACROSSE, page 7
as the season progresses.
—Nate Adams
Softball closes Pac-10 schedule
against Arizona State
After struggling against the
Oregon Ducks last weekend, the
Stanford softball team faces a tall
task as it heads to the desert to
take on the Arizona State Sun
Devils in the last Pac-10 series of
the year.
No. 11 Stanford (37-13, 9-9 Pac-
10) squares off against the No. 1
Sun Devils (48-5, 15-3 Pac-10) in a
three game series starting Friday
Pac-10 opponents. The Devils are
led offensively by Katelyn Boyd
and Lacy Goodman, who both
have batting averages over .400.
As a team, Arizona State has
clobbered 67 home runs — an av-
erage of 1.26 long balls per game.
In contrast, the Cardinal has hit
just 41 home runs all season and no
Stanford player has double-digit
home runs so far this year.Arizona
State has three players with 10 or
more bombs.
Stanford and Arizona State
start a three-game series Friday
night in Tempe at 7 p.m.
— Jack Blanchat
and men’s basketball, in addition
to its exclusive broadcasts of
women’s basketball and baseball
games.
“The verdict is that literally
nothing changes for KZSU,” Had-
don said. “It’s the same contract,
just with a different provider.”
He added that the switch from
XTRA Sports 860 to KNBR, which
also holds the rights to San Francis-
co Giants, Golden State Warriors
and San Francisco 49ers games,
would only be a positive thing for
Stanford sports coverage.
Please see BRIEFS, page 7
The Stanford Daily
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LACROSSE
Continued from page 6
game to Northwestern.
Florida (15-3, 5-1 American
Lacrosse Conference), which
played several of those common
opponents multiple times, grabbed
a 6-1 record against those teams,
losing only to Northwestern in the
ALC Championship game.
Although Stanford has won
seven consecutive MPSF titles, the
Thursday, May 12, 2011 ! 7
Cardinal is 0-2 in the NCAA Tour-
nament. Stanford lost to North-
western in the 2006 tournament,
and it fell to James Madison in 2010.
Last year was the first time that the
MPSF champion had a play-in
game to the tournament, and Stan-
ford matched up against Massachu-
setts to get a bid into NCAAs.
There’s a lot of pressure on the
team this year going into the tour-
nament — besides having the title
up for grabs, the Cardinal’s success
could help to prove that West Coast
lacrosse is a force to be reckoned
with.
Level: 1 2 3 4
SOLUTION
© 2011 The Mepham Group. Distributed by
Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.
“Florida is definitely going to be
a challenging team, but we are more
experienced and we are ready to
make our mark in the NCAA Tour-
nament and show that the West
Coast knows how to play lacrosse,”
said sophomore defender Eliza-
beth Adam.
Stanford’s first-round matchup
is set for Saturday, May 14 in
Gainesville. The winner will then
face either Pennsylvania or Duke
on May 21 or May 22.
Contact Rebecca Hanley at rhan-
ley1@stanford.edu.
BRIEFS
Continued from page 6
“The real winners here are Stan-
ford sports fans,” Haddon said.
“Another station will be covering
the games, but we’re not at all com-
peting with [KNBR], and we’re just
happy nothing changes in our cov-
erage.”
KNBR’s coverage will begin in
August with the start of the football
season, which officially begins on
Sept. 3 at Stanford Stadium.
— Miles Bennett-Smith
E/12/11
Complete the grid
so each row,
column and
3-by-3 box
(in bold borders)
contains every
digit, 1 to 9.
For strategies on
how to solve Su-
doku, visit www.su-
doku.org.uk
8 ! Thursday, May 12, 2011
HAMMERIN’ HANSEN
Junior shortstop Ashley Hansen (above) was named among the ten
finalists for USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year award.
WPOLO
Continued from page 6
its depth and offensive talent in the
NCAA Tournament — the Cardinal
has played at least thirteen players in
each game this season and boasts five
players that have tallied over 30 goals
this season.
Two-meter players sophomore
Annika Dries and junior Melissa Sei-
demann have led the Cardinal offen-
sively. Dries, who was named MPSF
Player of the Year,leads the team with
58 goals and Seidemann is second
with 44.On the perimeter,junior driv-
er Alyssa Lo is third on the team with
38 goals.
In the cage,Stanford has benefited
from the combined play of senior
goalie Amber Oland and sophomore
goalie Kate Baldoni. As a team, the
Cardinal is first in the MPSF, letting
up just 4.73 goals per game.
That goals-against average is par-
ticularly impressive as the tourna-
ment looms, especially considering
that the tournament’s top four seeds
are all familiar foes from Stanford’s
Download the
Stanford Daily iPhone
App Today
The Stanford Daily
BRYAN LIN/The Stanford Daily
conference.
Tanner said that,for the most part,
the squad will know exactly what to
expect,as it has faced each team in the
NCAA Tournament besides UC-San
Diego and Iona.
“At this point in the season there
aren’t any significant secrets in terms
of players or teams among the four
MPSF schools,” Tanner said. “We
don’t know much about Iona, but
they will have their hands full with
us.”
Stanford will face Iona College at 3:00
p.m. in Ann Arbor on Friday, May 13.
They will face either USC or UC-
Irvine on Saturday, May 14.
Contact Kevin Zhang at kev-
inzhangle@gmail.com.
JAFFE
Continued from page 6
icks build an insurmountable lead
(he had never dropped 22 and eight
in the regular season, let alone the
playoffs), the frustration escalated
for the Lakers. Lamar Odom got
ejected for trying to turn Dirk Now-
itzki into Sean Cattouse (he wasn’t as
successful though — yet another
professional player that needs train-
ing from Andrew Luck). Only a few
minutes later, Andrew Bynum took
things to another level, decking
Barea with the cheapest of cheap
shots, a blatant elbow to the midsec-
tion while Barea was off the ground
and defenseless.
By that point,the game and series
were in the books,so the only casual-
ties for the Lakers were Bynum’s
first five games of next season and
the league-wide respect for the Lak-
ers franchise. The actions, though,
speak to the serious frustration the
Lakers felt, and that was in no small
part due to Barea.
So what can you make of a guy
who pisses off his opponents to no
end? Personally,I love it.Sports are all
about finding that edge, the one thing
that’s going to put you or your team
over the top.And while the answer for
Marshawn Lynch is beast mode,
many players take it upon themselves
to make their opponents lose their
focus or confidence, and that is often
even better than just being good.
Staying in the NBA, let me just
throw out some names. Zaza Pachu-
lia.Anderson Varejao. Joakim Noah.
If you’re an NBA fan at all,you prob-
ably groaned at least once while
reading those names.Why? Because,
despite being fairly unskilled in most
normal aspects of the game (like
shooting the ball), all three manage
to maintain successful NBA careers
by annoying the hell out of their op-
ponents. No one enjoys playing
against these guys.Whether it’s goad-
ing your players into getting ejected,
flopping or just being plain ugly in all
aspects of the game, these guys bring
out the worst in their opponents.
Do I like any of these guys? Of
course not. I don’t think you could
root for any of these players unless
you’re a fan of their team. But as irri-
tating as they are to play against, you
have to appreciate what they bring to
a team.
A guy like Barea is never going to
carry a team to a championship, and
he certainly shouldn’t be calling out
his next opponent. But if you want
someone to give you that little boost,
that one spark to lead your team to a
title, just think of your least favorite
players to play against.
Jacob Jaffe does like J.J.Redick,Bruce
Bowen and Paul Pierce’s wheelchair,
though.Tell him your favorite players
at jwjaffe@stanford.edu.