Student Affairs opens Office of Alcohol Policy and

Education
NEWS BRIEFS
Tomorrow
Sunny
79 59
Today
Sunny
80 58
FEATURES/3
BIOLOGYS GOT GAME
Biotic Pac-Man and others
bring new twist to old idea
SPORTS/5
RIGHTING THE SHIP
After rough start to season,
mens soccer wins two
TUESDAY Volume 240
September 27, 2011 Issue 3
A n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o n
www.stanforddaily.com
The Stanford Daily
JOIN THE DAILY: DAILY 101X, OCT. 3, 7 P.M., LOKEY BUILDING
Alcohol education
initiative debuts
By ELLORA ISRANI
DESK EDITOR
Vice Provost for Student Affairs
Greg Boardman announced in a Sept. 8
email the formation of an Office of Al-
cohol Policy and Education (OAPE), to
be headed by former Vaden Health
Center Associate Director Ralph Cas-
tro.
For his first year in the position, Cas-
tro who is now associate dean of Stu-
dent Affairs and director of OAPE
will report directly to Boardman. He is
joined by former ASSU President An-
gelina Cardona 11, who will focus on
developing alcohol-free events on cam-
pus, and Jarreau Bowen 07, former
Peer Health Educators coordinator,
who will fill Castros former responsi-
bility of alcohol outreach education.
Castro and Bowen have one-year and
one-quarter terms, respectively.
The offices first major development
has been the establishment of a central-
ized alcohol policy on its website.
The policy was dispersed under a
number of different offices, and what
we did over the summer is we brought it
all together under one document to
make it more student-friendly and un-
derstood, Boardman said. I think its
going to go a long way in helping clarify
confusion and such around the policy in
the past. Were going to want to improve
clarity, consistency, accountability.
We are asking all students to be re-
sponsible, both personally and collec-
tively, Castro wrote in an email to The
Daily. We introduced a model to stu-
dent staff to encourage them to set con-
structive norms at the outset and active-
ly engage residents in ongoing conver-
sations about alcohol.
The office is funded by a special
grant from the Provost. According to
Boardman, it will work with several de-
partments across Student Affairs and
campus in general among them
Vaden, Student Activities and Leader-
ship, the Graduate Life Office, ASSU,
campus police and Residential Educa-
tion.
Given that their statistics show that a
significant amount of drinking occurs in
residence halls, both Boardman and
Castro expressed the urgency of proper
training for residence staff.
We believe that by actively setting
positive norms and engaging with resi-
dents throughout the year on the front
end, that student staff will be able to
prevent negative consequences and
limit the amount of time they spend re-
sponding to dangerous behaviors on the
back end, Castro said.
Cardona will be implementing spe-
cial initiatives based on a concern that,
according to Boardman, several resi-
dential assistants have expressed: a
lack of alternative kinds of programs
to alcohol-centered events.
[Last] weekend wasnt directly
planned by our office, but its kind of
connected in the sense of theres no
football game on Saturday, but the array
of activities that are planned for the
weekend in lieu of a football game, so
those are the kinds of things that this of-
fice will be working on, Boardman
said.
Meanwhile, Bowen will be focused
on alcohol outreach education through-
Stanford community reflects on
dangers and benefits of outdoor
education.
By MARGARET RAWSON
DESK EDITOR
Yosemite National Park has seen an in-
crease in visitor deaths this year,
prompting rangers and park visi-
tors to reconsider the risks and
safety precautions inherent
in a park visit. As of late
September, the annual
count stood at 18 deaths
inside park grounds.
Welcoming four million visitors last
year, Yosemite is a popular draw for Stan-
ford students, whether on dorm camping
trips or hikes led by the Stanford Redwood
Club.
Many deaths in national parks occur
due to common causes, such as heart attack,
though several this year in Yosemite have
been accidental; two falls occurred on Half
Dome, and three people were swept over a
Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/5 Classifieds/7
Recycle Me
LUIS AGUILAR/The Stanford Daily
Students waited in line at the campus post office. While this location is safe from closure, several
local post offices are being considered for closure due to United States Postal Service budget deficits.
Embrace,Stanford
enterprise,wins
Index Award
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
The Embrace Infant Warmer, de-
veloped by Stanford students, won
the 2011 Peoples Choice Award in
the Body Category, INDEX Award
announced at the awards ceremony
in Copenhagen. Index Award is the
worlds biggest monetary prize for
design, and gave the Stanford-grown
start-up a prize of 100,000. Em-
brace was founded by Jane Chen
MBA 08, computer science graduate
Linus Liang M.S. 09, MS&E gradu-
ate Naganand Murty M.S. 08 and
Rahul Panicker Ph.D. 08.
The design for the project
emerged from the Graduate School
of Business (GSB) course Entre-
preneurial Design for Extreme Af-
fordability,taught by professors Jim
Patell and David Beach in conjunc-
tion with the Stanford Institute of
Design, also known as the d.school.
The Embrace Infant Warmer uses
wax in a small sleeping-bag-like de-
vice to provide thermal support for
preterm newborns suffering from hy-
pothermia offering a nonelectri-
cal alternative to the traditional, ex-
pensive incubator.
Time Magazine recognized Em-
brace in 2009 on its list of Responsi-
bility Pioneers. The company pre-
dicts that by 2013, by providing af-
fordable and accessible solutions to
prevent hypothermia, Embrace will
save the lives of roughly 100,000 ba-
bies, and prevent lifelong illness in
800,000 babies who would otherwise
have grown up sickly.
LOCAL
Postal Service may close
several regional locations
By BILLY GALLAGHER
DESK EDITOR
With an expected budget deficit of $9.2 bil-
lion for the fiscal year, the United States Postal
Service (USPS) is considering closing a number
of offices, including 114 in California, several of
which are close to campus.
Affected post offices near Stanford include
Colonnade near San Jose, in addition to Loma
Mar, San Gregorio, two offices near Oakland
and five offices in or near San Francisco.
A list of 3,653 offices marked for potential
closures was announced on July 26. The Postal
Service said it would save $200 million annual-
ly by closing these 3,653 offices. However, this
does not mean that all offices on the list will
close.
The Colonnade post office is still in the
study stage, so its fate has not yet been decided.
There will be a public meeting about the post
office on Tuesday, Oct. 4 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30
p.m. at the First Immanuel Lutheran Church in
San Jose.
Yosemite deaths point to natures risks
Please see YOSEMITE, page 2
Please see ALCOHOL, page 2
Please see USPS, page 2
Please see BRIEFS, page 2
SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily
2 NTuesday, September 27, 2011 The Stanford Daily
Other Index Award winners from
around the world included a project
to provide free eyeglasses to Mexi-
can children, a re-imagination of
urban, social housing and a bike hel-
met consisting of an inflatable,
airbag-like collar.
Margaret Rawson
Republican Young
Gunsand Obama visit
Silicon Valley
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
The three Young Guns of
House Republican leadership head-
ed to Facebook headquarters in Palo
Alto on Monday for a Facebook
Live conversation. Facebook Chief
Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg
held an online discussion with House
Majority Eric Cantor (R-Va.),
House Majority Whip Kevin Mc-
Carthy (R-Calif.) and House Budget
Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
The panel was held in a similar
format to President Barack Obamas
Facebook visit last April. Cantor,
McCarthy and Ryan answered ques-
tions from around 100 Facebook em-
ployees and guests. The event was
also broadcast live.
Cantor, McCarthy and Ryan co-
authored their book, Young Guns:
A New Generation of Conservative
Leaders,in August 2010.
The Republican leaders were not
the only visitors from Washington in
Silicon Valley this weekend, nor the
only to meet with the Facebook
COO. Sandberg hosted the Presi-
dent at her home in Atherton, Calif.
for a Sunday night fundraiser. Mon-
day morning, the President held a
town hall in Mountain View, Calif. at
the Computer History Museum.The
event was cosponsored by another
social media force, LinkedIn, and
was titled Putting America Back to
Work: LinkedIn Presents a Town
Hall with President Obama. The
President continued his West Coast
trip to Los Angeles.
Facebook is also shifting its focus
to putting America back to work.
The company announced its new
small-business education program
Monday, which will partner with the
National Federation of Independent
Business and the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce to support small business
owners through case studies and we-
binars.
Cantor said from the Speakers
Balcony of the U.S. Capitol, preview-
ing the Facebook event, that he ini-
tially began using Facebook to track
his daughters use of the site, but
hopes to use it as a political tool to
begin a process of speaking and lis-
tening.
Margaret Rawson
Alumna federal judge
dies at 70
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
Judge Pamela Rymer J.D. 64 of
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
peals died Sept. 21 at the age of 70
after a two-year battle with cancer,
according to a federal court an-
nouncement.
Rymer was raised in the Bay
Area and attended Stanford Law
School. After her graduation, she
worked for Barry Goldwaters cam-
paign and went on to a private prac-
tice in antitrust law until her appoint-
ment to the bench. President Ronald
Reagan appointed Rymer to the U.S.
District Court in Los Angeles in
1983. President George H. W. Bush
elevated her to the appeals court in
1989.
Rymer had strong ties to the Re-
publican party and was one of Rea-
gans possible U.S. Supreme Court
nominees before Reagan chose Jus-
tice Anthony Kennedy in 1987. She
was also considered for the Califor-
nia Supreme Court before she with-
drew herself from consideration,
stating that she enjoyed her tenure as
a federal judge.
Rymer was an active presence in
the Stanford community, serving as a
booster of Stanford sports. She was
also a member of the Board of
Trustees between 1991 and 2001.
Two University scholarship funds
have been established in her name.
Ellora Israni
BRIEFS
Continued from front page
out campus.
I will primarily oversee all out-
reach and educational initiatives
for our office including, but not
limited to, dorm talks, seminars, ac-
ademic courses and research proj-
ects, he wrote in an email to The
Daily. Our University and our
student body is dynamic and our
office hopes to grow and change
just as our students do. We are al-
ways looking for new ideas and dif-
ferent ways to work with students,
staff and faculty to continue and
enhance our efforts.
He also stressed the importance
of community engagement in the
success of alcohol education.
Weve engaged with parents
during NSO and were working
closely with faculty and [resident
fellows], he said. We are also
developing research projects to
examine trends on our campus.
You will also start to see many al-
cohol-free alternative events on
Thursday, Friday and Saturday
nights. Weve got much more to
come but love to hear from stu-
dents about what theyd like to
see as well.
Contact Ellora Israni at ellora@stan-
ford.edu.
ALCOHOL
Continued from front page
Proposals to close the San Gre-
gorio and Loma Mar post offices
were posted in the respective lob-
bies on Sept. 17, 2011, and will re-
main posted for 60 days.
These offices are being studied
for possible closure because of a
declining office workload and
steadily declining revenue over the
past several years, wrote James T.
Wigdel, U.S. Postal Service
spokesperson for the San Francisco
area, in an email to The Daily.
After the posting period, a deci-
sion will be made as to whether or
not the Post Offices will be closed.
If the decision is to close, that no-
tice will be posted for 30 days and
the community will have an oppor-
tunity to appeal that decision.
The Postal Service is struggling
with high labor costs and decreased
mail volume, which results in low
revenue. Stanford Institute for
Economic Policy Research
(SIEPR) research scholar Greg
Rosston suggested that the Postal
Service should cut down more
drastically on its variable costs.
This cut is trying to reduce the
fixed costs, Rosston wrote in an
email to The Daily. However, I
suspect that a large part of the cost
of running the operation that has
not been adjusting with declining
volume is service-related costs. It
takes the carrier approximately as
much time to do a route with five
pieces of mail as it does with 10
pieces of mail.
The Postal Service has already
announced the end of Saturday de-
livery, which would lower variable
costs, along with its plans to close
post offices, whose costs are fixed
costs, as well as lay off workers.
Rosston suggested that the Postal
Service should go further and cut
delivery service down to three days
a week, allowing people to pay a
small amount for five or six-day de-
livery.
Many of the offices on the list
are in rural areas and have low traf-
fic. The Postal Service has said it
would not leave rural areas entire-
ly. The solution may be a partner-
ship with local businesses, such as
grocery stores and gas stations, to
provide basic, popular services,
such as flat-rate shipping, even
after local post offices close. Sales
from stamps at grocery stores,
pharmacies and other businesses
already account for 35 percent of
the Postal Services retail revenues.
Contact Billy Gallagher at wmg2014
@stanford.edu.
USPS
Continued from front page
waterfall. Despite the increase of
deaths in Yosemite, national park
deaths have not increased overall
this year. As of Sept. 5, 113 deaths
had occurred in national parks this
year, fewer than at that point last
year, according to Park Service
spokesman Jeffrey Olson in an in-
terview with The New York Times.
The Stanford community knows
what it is like to experience loss due
to the dangers of Yosemite.
In July 2010, Christina Chris
Chan M.S. 08, a former doctoral
student in political science at Stan-
ford, died in a climbing accident at
Yosemite at the age of 31. In March
1997, Henry Tien, a 21-year-old sen-
ior majoring in biological sciences,
died from head injuries sustained
when he fell while hiking in the
park.
Its unfortunate when acci-
dents happen, but if theres one
thing we can predict, its that they
will happen, said Andy Fields, di-
rector of Stanford Outdoor Educa-
tion. Fields noted that Yosemite has
high levels of usage and many
members of the public are unaware
of the risks involved in a visit to the
awe-inspiring site.
Its almost an amusement park
kind of feel, but its still a very dan-
gerous place beautiful, too, and
thats what makes it the wilder-
ness, he said.
Fields highlighted how Stanford
uses decision-making, as opposed
to a protocol-based system, to train
student outdoor leaders.
We like to empower the stu-
dents, our leaders, as much as possi-
ble because conditions always
change in the backcountry,he said.
Our main approach in outdoor
education is to give adequate train-
ing, thats been our primary philos-
ophy, Fields said. The wilderness
is a place to be enjoyed and respect-
ed constantly no matter what
skill level.
Rebecca Castro 12, an environ-
mental anthropology major who
grew up in and nearby Yosemite,
said she sees many accidents as evi-
dence of a lack of respect for the
powers of nature and the warning
signs nature provides.
Castro spent the past summer in
the park as a cultural anthropolo-
gist and American Indian liaison in-
tern. This fall, she led a Stanford
Pre-Orientation Trip to North Lake
Tahoe and emphasized that com-
munication, respect and responsi-
bility were key to the safety of the
trip.
There are still risks you can
take and you have to know your
limits, said Jeremy Caves, a gradu-
ate student in environmental earth
system science. Caves was a teach-
ing assistant for the recent Sopho-
more College course Environ-
mental and Geological Field Stud-
ies in the Rocky Mountains,taught
by geological and environmental
sciences professor Page Chamber-
lain. The course took students on a
trip to both Yellowstone and Teton
National Parks, where they saw
firsthand the spectacular beauty
and dangers associated with geo-
logical field research.
Cave described safety steps the
students learned, such as carrying
and knowing how to use bear spray
and hiking in at least pairs, but ide-
ally groups of four or more.
Thats the important part,
training people, Caves said.
If we provide people with the
right tools they can have great ex-
periences, Fields said, discussing
how calculated risks make the sub-
stantial benefits of outdoor educa-
tion possible.
I want to encourage people to
go into the wilderness, but I want
them to go in adequately aware and
prepared.
Contact Margaret Rawson at
marawson@stanford.edu.
YOSEMITE
Continued from front page
For more information please
call 1-800-AHA-USA-1 or visit us
online at americanheart.org
Celebrate
Life
American Heart Association Tributes
Mark special events in
the life of a friend, relative or
colleagueand continue
the ght against heart
diseasewith an American
Heart Association Tribute.
2008, American Heart Association. 1/08CB0243
The Stanford Daily Tuesday, September 27, 2011 N3
FEATURES
Welcome to Stanford University.
What Will You Be Doing
Next Summer?
During Stanford Summer Quarter, you can:
Take this summer to continue to grow, transform,
and discover who you want to be.
Register via Axess starting Sunday, April 15, 2012
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THEBIOCHEMICAL PAC-MAN
THEBIOCHEMICAL PAC-MAN
By PIETER ILIASSOV
F
rom Frogger to Fifa, video games have come a
long way. They began as a new means to sim-
ple entertainment. Now, with more advanced
graphics and complex systems, video
games in Silicon Valley are educa-
tional.
Assistant bioengineering professor In-
gmar Riedel-Kruse, assistant biochem-
istry professor Rhiju Das Ph.D.05 and
education professor Daniel Schwartz
co-founded the Bio-X Game Cen-
ter to further education and re-
search through biotic games. Bi-
otic games are games that re-
quire a biological process to
run, and players interact and
play directly with microor-
ganisms.
Riedel-Kruses biotic
games are based on
biotechnological princi-
ples on multiple scales.
His group came up with
eight games classified
into three broad cate-
gories: interactions
with molecules, single
cells or colonies of uni-
cellular organisms.
The molecular biotic
game, called Polymer-
Race, involves a lab
technique called poly-
merase chain reactions
(PCR), which generate mil-
lions of copies of a particular DNA
sequence. The game mirrors a horse race: the player
bets on which reactions will finish fastest as the player
is linked to a PCR machine that runs multiple reactions
simultaneously. Like with real horse races, inside infor-
mation, like bio-molecular intuition, may aid the play-
er.
In the games involving paramecia, unicellular or-
ganisms swim in a fluid chamber. The player controls
the polarity or chemical composition of the fluid cham-
ber to manipulate where the paramecia swim. In turn,
a camera sends live images to a video screen, with a
game board interface superimposed on the image of
the paramecia. A microprocessor tracks the move-
ments of the paramecia and keeps score.
These games have
been developed to give the player a fun and interactive
way to delve into the intricacies of biological processes
without committing to a formal lab experiment.
Riendel-Kruse and his team began with simple
games because they wanted to see if they could design
such biotic games in the first place.
We tried to mimic some classic video game, he
said.
They created the game PAC-meciumto em-
ulate PacMan. In the game, players guide para-
mecia to eat dots.
Other biotic games include Biotic
Pinball, POND PONG and Cilia-
ball,in which paramecia use their cilia,
or micro-hairs, to swim and play a
game similar to soccer.
We hope that by playing games in-
volving biology of a scale too small
to see with the naked eye, people
will realize how amazing these
processes are and theyll get curi-
ous and want to know more, he
said. But we are also thinking
perhaps we could have people
running real experiments as they
play these games.
Through these games,
Riendel-Kruse created an envi-
ronment in which normal people
can contribute to solving research
problems.
The idea is that while we
as humans play the game, we interact
with real biological processes or mate-
rial, he said.
The games are instrumental to his
ambition to educate and motivate people to
learn more about biotechnology.
We would argue that modern biotechnology will
influence our life at an accelerating pace, most promi-
nently in the personal biomedical choices that we will
be faced with more and more often, Riedel-Kruse
said. Everyone should have sufficient knowledge
about the basics of biomedicine and biotechnology. Bi-
otic games could promote that.
Contact Pieter Iliassov at iliassov@stanford.edu.
Everyone should have
sufficient knowledge
about the basics...
biotic games could
promote that.
PROF. INGMAR RIEDEL-KRUSE
AUBRIE LEE/
The Stanford Daily
4 NTuesday, September 27, 2011 The Stanford Daily
OPINIONS
W
hether youre a freshman
still getting lost around
campus (admit it, you
know you are) or an upperclassman
who has been around for a minute, I
know by now youre sick of hearing
it: Welcome to Stanford! Hope-
fully Ill be the last person wholl say
that to you, but you and I both know
thats not true. But admit it, youre
as happy to be on campus as Stan-
ford is to see you return.And take it
from someone who spent her entire
summer working on campus; things
just arent the same without you
guys (insert sad face).
Anyone at Stanford between
commencement and convocation
can testify to the fact that campus
was far from deserted. No matter
where I turned, I saw people. For
months, the campus was teeming
with socially inept kids, smug teens
and over-aged adults reliving their
youth. And these intruders were
everywhere Wilbur, Stern, the
CoHo, Jamba Juice; a few of them
even found their way to Olives. Ac-
tually, for most of June, July and
early August, Stanford was bom-
barded with visitors. Did you know
that about 20,000 people come
through Stanford during the sum-
mer? Of course that isnt all at once,
but thats still a staggering number
considering our undergraduate
population hovers around 6,000.
After finishing an academic year
that didnt want to end (thanks,
sophomore slump), I couldnt un-
derstand why people were so happy
to be at Stanford. I was just here to
work, as my only alternative was
spending another summer in Indi-
ana watching The Price is Right
with my grandma and being used
for free babysitting. Instead, I spent
hours each week passing out room
keys and fobs (dont ask). I saw par-
ents who drove their children from
Florida to California for an (over-
priced) week-long program about
the joys of reading. Some musicians
traveled from London to attend a
10-day jazz class.And Asian tourists
took my picture at least once per
day. Upon arriving at Stanford, peo-
ple of all ages ran around like they
were at Magic Mountain wrapped
up in Disneyland. Trust me, you
dont know what excitement is until
youve watched a pack of 10-year-
old boys walk into a dining hall.
I know Stanford looks great on
paper. Im not going to bother list-
ing a bunch of statistics about why
were amazing (you know, the usual
stuff about having the No. 2 law
school in the country, a ridiculously
competitive admit rate of 7.1 per-
cent and an Orange Bowl-winning
football team) its all Google-
able. Thats not the point; rather, its
the sad realization that somewhere
between chanting your little heart
out at NSO and becoming a dread-
ed upperclassman, you get jaded.
Seeing all of these non-Stanford
peoples enthusiasm about every-
thing, I took off my cardinal-col-
ored glasses and looked at the Farm
as if I had never seen it before. And
thats when it hit me: Stanford is a
great tourist destination. And I
mean that in the most sincere, best
way possible. Think about it:
tourists tend to go places that are in-
teresting, fun, educational, beauti-
ful, renowned, historical or unique.
That basically sums us up, aside
from a few adjectives.We live where
others want to be. And why do they
want to be here? Because of us, of
course. Okay, that does sound a lit-
tle egotistical and there are a lot of
other reasons to want to come to
Stanford, but we are still a big draw.
Stanford attracts a unique blend of
individuals who are driven, but also
laid back. Talented yet unpreten-
tious our uniqueness is what
gives Stanford its liveliness. Thats
what makes it so special, and thats
why people are so happy to be here.
Over time, its easy to forget all the
positives and just see the problems.
But with a little distance or over-
exposure, in my case you can see
all the reasons why you fell in love
in the first place.
So for the last time (I lied, I cant
resist): Welcome to Stanford! We
missed you (insert happy face).
Want Camira to give you a tour?
Sorry, shes away, but you can still
send her your thoughts at camirap@
stanford.edu.
IM DONE WITH MY LIFE
Welcome to Stanford!
Camira
Powell
W
hen we were little, every-
thing was up in the air. We
were taking dance, tennis,
swimming, piano, soccer and skat-
ing lessons because the odds were
good that wed excel in at least one
of them. Our potential was endless.
Our best qualities were groomed,
our worst ones subject to interven-
tion, and only few taken for grant-
ed. Mostly, our nebulous futures
were targets for grown-up criti-
cism, even if we didnt get it, or
maybe because we didnt get it.
Honey, dont dress like that,
some relative might have said.
Huh? What? What?? we
might have questioned.
Like a hippie/bum/snob,
would suffice; and we absorbed it.
Later, as young teens, the advice
grew more concrete: Youre defi-
nitely a this kind of person, so go for
that. And whether we accepted or
rebelled, we heard it.
However casual they seemed,
comments like these were powerful
catalysts for lifelong opinions. A
simple remark could ricochet for
years before becoming an assump-
tion about our world at large. We
just never knew which ones would.
Childhood was like a constant audi-
tion; we were choosing the person
we wanted to be.
Now, in our late teens and early
20s, were not the societal empty
canvases we once were. After two
decades worth of feedback, grade-
school labels and looks on other
peoples faces, we can describe our-
selves by ourselves, thank you very
much. Maturity, after all, is the sta-
bilization of role-playing.
Or so I thought, before my
role-playing recently started
looking less stable. I got to won-
dering: if the tryouts have really
ended, have we learned to typecast
ourselves for life?
The question plagued me this
summer, as I found myself acting
with a very new cast of characters. I
was working with co-worker in-
terns who shared my ethnic back-
ground, which was a first. In fact,
sharing that much space with peo-
ple whose heritage was similar to
mine was a first. Nevertheless, I en-
tered the scene self-assured and
armed with the things I knew would
distinguish me. I was confident. I
was cocky. Whatever I was, I was
ready to present Nina Chung. I
knew this girl, and I knew how to
play this game.
Yet as the weeks went by, it be-
came clear that my new friends per-
ceived me a bit differently than I
was used to.Their picture of me fea-
tured adjectives I was unaccus-
tomed to, not necessarily bad or
good, but sometimes downright un-
expected. Several times, I came
home thinking, Well, they dont
actually know me.It was clear they
didnt see the Nina I was . . . or was
that someone I had purposefully
prepared for the situation? Sure
enough, denial eventually popped
into awareness the way it usually
does, and my thought became,
Wow, they really know that part of
me. And I had wasted precious
time trying to convince everyone I
was another particular person I
thought was still me.
Perhaps we do this more than
we think. We promote our identi-
ties like products, and post-
epiphany, I became conscious of
others also blaring personal in-
fomercials as well. Its not always
intentional, of course. But its in-
evitable even when we introduce
ourselves to new people. By now,
weve made some conclusion about
who and what we are that guides
our style, our type or what we
want to be associated with or
known for. It feels so permanent
and thus secure. But belying that is
the risk that were wrong or that
we never let ourselves be wrong.
Back in the day, we effortlessly
doubted the roles we played in our
families, relationships, parties and
group projects. Can we still? Is it
too dangerous now? Indeed, it
might be more dangerous not to. I
know for sure that our skepticism
lives, even if we forget to apply it to
ourselves. So we should keep
checking to see if, in reality, were
following a new script, lest we trap
ourselves in a costume that no
longer fits.A very famous man once
said, All the worlds a stage, and all
the men and women merely play-
ers.
And when the time comes, we
should let ourselves play different-
ly, too.
Care to critique or send a review?
Nina wants to hear it all, and all it
takes is an email to ninamc@stan-
ford.edu. Good luck on your first
week of classes!
THE YOUNG ADULT SECTION
Managing Editors
The Stanford Daily
Es t abl i s he d 1892 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S P A P E R I nc or por at e d 1973
Nate Adams
Deputy Editor
Ivy Nguyen
Managing Editor of News
Miles Bennett-Smith
Managing Editor of Sports
Tyler Brown
Managing Editor of Features
Lauren Wilson
Managing Editor of Intermission
Mehmet Inonu
Managing Editor of Photography
Shane Savitsky
Columns Editor
Stephanie Weber
Head Copy Editor
Serenity Nguyen
Head Graphics Editor
Alex Alifimoff
Web and Multimedia Editor
Zach Zimmerman, Vivian Wong
Billy Gallagher, Kate Abbott,
Caroline Caselli,
Staff Development
Board of Directors
Kathleen Chaykowski
President and Editor in Chief
Anna Schuessler
Chief Operating Officer
Sam Svoboda
Vice President of Advertising
Theodore L. Glasser
Michael Londgren
Robert Michitarian
Nate Adams
Tenzin Seldon
Rich Jaroslovsky
Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can be
reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours.
Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanford
daily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.
Typecast
Nina
Chung
I took off my
cardinal-colored
glasses and
looked at the
Farm as I had
never seen it
before .
I got to
wondering:
if the tryouts have
really ended,have
we learned to
typecast ourselves
for life?
Tonights Desk Editors
Margaret Rawson
News Editor
Jacob Jaffe
Sports Editor
Suzanne Stathatos
Features Editor
Luis Aguilar
Photo Editor
Amanda Ach
Copy Editor
The Stanford Daily Tuesday, September 27, 2011 N5
By MILES BENNETT-SMITH
MANAGING EDITOR
After dropping four of the sea-
sons first six games, the Stanford
mens soccer team had its back
against the wall this weekend at the
Stanford Nike Classic, as it tried to
avoid digging itself into a hole too
big to recover from on the road to
the NCAA tournament. Two wins
over Harvard and Vermont put the
Cardinal (3-4-1) right back in the
thick of things heading into Pac-12
play next weekend.
Sundays 2-1 victory over Ver-
mont was especially gratifying for
Stanford, which has had a difficult
time holding leads this season. The
trend continued as the Cardinal
blew an early 1-0 advantage when
Yannick Lewis found the back of
the net on a corner kick for his
fourth goal of the season midway
through the first half.
MENS SOCCER
VERMONT 1
STANFORD 2
09/25, Laird Q. Cagan Stadium
But head coach Bret Simons
team remained composed, possess-
ing the ball for long stretches of
time despite being outshot by the
Catamounts 13-6 in the half.
After the break, the Cards dom-
inant play was rewarded, as redshirt
senior midfielder Garrett Gunther
wove through the defense and
threaded a beautiful through-ball
to forward Dersu Abolfathi. The
junior reached the ball just ahead of
Vermonts diving keeper and deftly
chipped it over the line before
being taken out on the play.
Stanford pressed its advantage,
earning four corner kicks in the pe-
riod and several dangerous free
kicks as Vermont appeared to tire.
But the Cardinal could not capital-
ize before the final whistle, settling
for a much-needed 2-1 win to cap a
five-game homestand.
Junior captain Hunter Gorskie,
a defender who scored his first col-
legiate goal and gave Stanford the
early lead on Sunday, was pleased
with how the team responded after
several tough losses to begin the
season.
Going into the weekend, we
knew that we had to come out with
a couple of good results, Gorskie
said.We actually felt that as a team
we were playing well this season,
outpossessing teams, getting plenty
of chances. The difference was we
got a little grittier, kind of had more
of a fighting mentality.
That mentality was on display
early in Friday nights game, which
saw a collision of academic titans as
Stanford played host to Harvard.
SPORTS
If leagues
continued
to grow...
T
hough the Pac-12 has dis-
missed the possibility of
further expansion in the
wake of recent realign-
ment among college foot-
ball conferences the most con-
fusing consequence of which must
be that the Big 12 now has just nine
members while the Big Ten has 12
even the fact that this was dis-
cussed raises an interesting ques-
tion: Is there a limit to conference
size?
Having just two more members
caused the Pac-12 to be divided up
into two sub-conferences, so what
would happen if a 16-team super-
conference materialized? And what
would we call that conference? Four
of the current teams come from
states that dont own real estate on
the Pacific; add in a couple of teams
from Texas and Oklahoma and the
current name loses all sense of real-
ity.At least the teams in the soon-to-
be 14-team ACC are close to the sea.
But if a conference can have 16
schools and two or more sub-confer-
ences, why cant it have 32? Or 64? If
it makes real sense to be in a larger
conference, then schools will be in-
creasingly under pressure to join up,
and conference sizes will swell.There
are currently 120 NCAA Division I
Football Bowl Subdivision teams di-
vided among 12 conferences. Setting
aside the four schools that are inde-
pendent, that makes an average of al-
most 10 teams in each. Increase the
average by just six and four whole
conferences will disappear.
The main reason given in decid-
ing not to expand the Pac-12 further
was, ominously, money. If the biggest
obstacle is financial it implies that if
or when the money is right there
wont be much in the way of the con-
ference expanding further. As a for-
eigner Ive always felt uncomfort-
able with this side of American
sports that teams will quite hap-
pily go where the money is, or at
least where they think it is. The for-
merly Oakland, formerly LA, Oak-
land Raiders saga seemed particu-
larly incomprehensible to me
how could a team desert its home
and fans in the first place, and then
expect to be welcomed back? but
it is not particularly unique. There is
a fair share of U.S. professional
teams that have had a few different
makeovers.
College sports, though, seem
more grounded in the real world.
You cant just move a university
from one side of the country to an-
other even if Stanford does have
designs for New York City so in-
stead we are left with the lesser evil
of conference realignment. We still
seem to be losing something,
though. Although it would be un-
thinkable not to play Cal each year,
Stanfords history against USC and
UCLA is surely almost as impor-
tant. They have been in the same
conference for over half a century. If
the boot was on the other foot and
the Big 12 was courting us, would we
jump?
And what now happens to the
much-maligned BCS ranking sys-
tem? The Pac-12 now has a title
game. But what if it (or one of the
other conferences) decides to ex-
pand further? If a conference of 12
teams needs a title game, perhaps a
conference of 24 would need a play-
off system.
Every year fans feel mistreated
at the end of the regular season
when their school is overlooked for
one of the BCS games, and there
have been many unbeaten teams
who never got the chance at a BCS
National Championship Game. But
the complexities of the BCS system
are really a reflection of the nature
of college football. Some teams are
in conferences, some arent; some
play more games, some play less.
Judging who deserves a shot at the
title when the statistics arent sam-
pled evenly isnt easy.
Perhaps realignment, though, is
the answer. Should we get to eight
super-conferences with their own
title games, it would start to look
very much like the foundations for a
playoff system; just call these games
the BCS Sweet 16 and the rest
should fall into place nicely.
However, college football is not
usually a fan of such an ordered sys-
tem. The conferences would have to
agree to split up the schools equally
Stanford bounces back from 2-4 start with a pair of wins
REBOUNDING
MICHAEL KHEIR/The Stanford Daily
Freshman midfielder Grant Grafentin (center) battles for the ball between two defenders in Stanfords 2-1 victory over Vermont. The Cardinal had to
battle after the Catamounts equalized in the first half. Stanford dominated the second half, though, as junior forward Dersu Abolfathi netted the winner.
Tom Taylor
SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily
Junior defender Becky Dru did it all for the No. 8 Stanford field hockey team. The reigning NorPac
Defensive Player of the Year was an offensive force, scoring three goals in wins vs. Cal and UC-Davis.
DRU DRIVES
CARDINAL
VICTORIES
By MILES BENNETT-SMITH
MANAGING EDITOR
Two weeks ago, the Stanford field hockey
team climbed into the top 10 of the Kookabur-
ra/NFHCA National Coaches Poll for the first
time in 24 years, occupying the No. 9 slot thanks
to home wins over Indiana and Northeastern.
Friday night, in front of what several players
said was one of the rowdiest field hockey
crowds they could remember, the now-No. 8
Cardinal (7-1, 2-0 NorPac) charged past rival
California in the second half for a thrilling 3-2
NorPac victory.
FIELD HOCKEY
CALIFORNIA 2
STANFORD 3
09/23, Varsity Turf
It was the first time Stanford and Cal had
played as ranked teams since November 2001,
and the 633 fans, plus perhaps a hundred more
who lined the fences at the Varsity Turf, were
treated to an exciting game with plenty of scor-
ing chances.
The Card struck first, just minutes into the
game, as junior defender Kelsey Lloyd scored
her first goal of the year on a quick strike to the
top corner.
But the Golden Bears came right back, qui-
eting the crowd with an equalizer from Rachelle
Comeau. From there, the game settled down a
bit, with both sides trading scoring opportuni-
ties but neither team breaking through before
halftime.
After the break, however, Stanford capital-
ized on two goals from junior defender Becky
Please see FHOCKEY, page 6 Please see TAYLOR, page 6
Please see MSOCCER, page 6
6 NTuesday, September 27, 2011 The Stanford Daily
670FBTS11
stanfordbookstore.com
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Stanford Bookstore
519 Lasuen Mall
/StanfordBookstore
Newly renovated Cagan Stadium
was rocking and over 1,750 fans
packed the stands, one of the biggest
crowds to watch the mens team in
recent years.
Simons team responded by
pressing the issue from the start. Ju-
nior Adam Jahn had a pair of early
shots, and Stanford threatened on
four corner kicks in the first half.
But it was a free kick that put the
Cardinal on the board in the 42nd
minute, with a long cross from mid-
fielder Eric Anderson finding
Jahns head in the box for the for-
wards second goal of the year.
Anderson has emerged as very
real threat on set pieces the
speedy junior has three assists, all
on dead balls, and nearly scored on
another free kick Friday.
Harvard came out fired up in
the second half, picking up its at-
tack and winning the ball in dan-
gerous places. But Stanfords back
four stood up to the test, shutting
down the Crimson attack and pick-
ing up the first shutout of the sea-
son in front of redshirt sophomore
goalie Jason Dodson.
It was a very good defensive ef-
fort, Simon said. The back four
were fantastic really warriors
all weekend against some great
athletes, some very tall players.
They were not easy matchups, and I
was really pleased with the de-
fense, especially since [senior cen-
terback] Tommy Ryan was the only
one who started last year. To see
them start to gel and work together
playing a lot of minutes, I think its
a good omen, he said.
With the offense finally start-
ing to click Stanford had as
many shots this weekend as it had
in the first four games of the sea-
son and the defense settling
into a groove, the Cardinal will
have a chance to prove it belongs
in the discussion with No.18
UCLA and defending champion
Cal for the Pac-12 title and a trip
back to the postseason after miss-
ing out on the NCAA tournament
last season.
Stanford opens conference play
on the road at San Diego State on
Friday night, with a trip to face the
Bruins looming on Sunday.
Contact Miles Bennett-Smith at
milesbs@stanford.edu.
MSOCCER
Continued from page 5
without trying to simply grab the
most lucrative deals. The schools
themselves would also have to work
together without one going out on a
limb to sign its own lucrative TV
deal yes,Texas, Im talking to you.
And someone would have to con-
vince Notre Dame that, as Walter
Payton once said, We are stronger
together than we are alone.
Tom Taylor is trying to act like an
American to avoid being deported
back to the U.K. Find out if he even
knows what position Walter Payton
played at tom.taylor@stanford.edu.
TAYLOR
Continued from page 5
Dru, who continued her recent
scoring spree.The 2010 NorPac De-
fensive Player of the Year leads the
team with 10 goals in nine games,
and found the net twice in two min-
utes against Cal.
Both goals came off penalty cor-
ners for the Cardinal, with junior
attacker Hope Burke feeding sen-
ior attacker Stephanie Byrne, who
found Dru for the score.
The Bears put on a spirited rally,
as Comeau knocked in her second
goal of the night with less than two
minutes remaining. She took a pass
from Andrea Earle for a break-
away after Stanfords goalie, red-
shirt senior Ale Moss, charged out
but could not stop the play.
The key was our ability to exe-
cute, Burke said. We spend a lot
of time practicing our corner plays
and our diligence paid off Friday
with two goals coming from cor-
ners. Once we scored those goals I
feel like we were more confident in
all aspects of our game; our passing,
pressing, attack and defense all
came together and that is what
made the difference for us in the
second half.
The defense was particularly ef-
ficient, and Moss finished with five
saves, three of which were huge
point-blank stops of Golden Bear
chances.
On Sunday, Moss came up even
bigger as Stanford hit the road to
take on UC-Davis (2-6, 1-1). A bal-
anced offensive attack led to three
goals from three different players,
including another from NorPac Of-
fensive Player of the Week Dru, but
it was Moss who kept the Cardinal
undefeated in conference play with
seven saves.
Once again, it was Stanford who
broke through early, scoring two
goals in the first 10 minutes, includ-
ing yet another goal off a penalty
corner. But the Aggies refused to
give in, scoring a goal with just two
seconds left before halftime.
Katie Mitchell chipped in an in-
surance goal in the 60th minute off
a rebound, making the score 3-1
and giving the Card some breathing
room. The final 10 minutes were
relatively uneventful, and despite
only outshooting Davis by four,
Stanford held on to complete the
first half of the NorPac schedule
undefeated.
I feel like we are definitely on
the right track to becoming a top-
notch field hockey program,
Burke said. We train from August
through October to get ready for
November and our goal is to put
ourselves in the best position possi-
ble to be successful in the NCAA
Tournament.
The team is relatively young
six freshmen have started most of
the teams games and freshman
attacker Alex McCawley (this
weeks NorPac Rookie of the Week)
is second on the team behind Dru
with four goals. Still, the team has
played well under pressure and won
some critical road games, leading to
the teams current No. 8 ranking.
Burke attributes much of the
success to the teams emphasis on
spreading opposing teams out with
a very balanced attack and good
depth.
Our game plan is that everyone
touches the ball, whether youre a
freshman or a senior, defender or
attack, Burke said. Some teams
only have one or two go-to players,
but we want to be so versatile that
we can give anyone on our team the
ball and create something positive
out of it.
Stanford will take the field Fri-
day night to host Robert Morris in
the first of three non-league
matchups before returning to Nor-
Pac play on Oct. 14 against Pacific.
Contact Miles Bennett-Smith at
milesbs@stanford.edu.
FHOCKEY
Continued from page 5
The Stanford Daily Tuesday, September 27, 2011 N7
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Seeking 18-30 year olds!
The Stanford-LPCH Vaccine Program is
seeking adults for a seasonal flu vaccine
research study. Licensed, FDA ap-
proved flu vaccines given. You must be
18-30 yrs old, in good health and did not
get a flu vaccination last year. Partici-
pants will be compensated.
Call Stanford-LPCH Vaccine Program,
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SOLUTION
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
Sudoku, visit
www.sudoku.org.uk
2011 The Mepham Group. Distributed by
Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.
9/27/11
Level: 1 2 3 4
8 NTuesday, September 27, 2011 The Stanford Daily