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Recycle Me

 An Independent Publication

 www.stanforddaily.com

 The Stanford Daily T

FRIDAY Volume 241

May 18, 2012Issue 63

UNIVERSITY

FacSen debates number of reqs

By JOSEE SMITH

STAFF WRITER

The Faculty Senate increasedthe proposed number of breadthrequirements for undergradu-ates at its Thursday meeting, re-verting back to a recommenda-tion made by the Study of Un-dergraduate Education at Stan-ford (SUES) report in January.Faculty representatives alsorejected an amendment thatwould redefine the scope of theBreadth Requirements Gover-nance Board, the body in chargeof determining whether or not acourse meets a specified breadthrequirement.“This experience has mademe so proud of this institution,”said Acting President andProvost John Etchemendy Ph.D.’82. “A heated disagreement isgood because it shows that wecare that much about undergrad-uate education.”Etchemendy opened themeeting by announcing a com-mittee to search for a new athlet-ic director, prompted by currentAthletic Director Bob Bowls-by’s planned departure at theend of the academic year.“We hope to have an athleticdirector in place by September,”Etchemendy said. “PatrickDunkley will be the acting ath-letic director beginning June 16after Bob steps down.”The meeting then moved onto a continued discussion of Uni-versity undergraduate breadthrequirements. Following thepublication of the SUES report,the Faculty Senate received rec-ommendations from the Com-mittee on Undergraduate Stan-

Former British Prime Minister addresses African development

By AARON SEKHRI

STAFF WRITER

“Africa, for me, is an endless source of fascina-tion, inspiration and challenge,” former BritishPrime Minister Tony Blair told a packed audienceThursday in Cemex Auditorium. “I am fascinated byits possibilities, inspired by its spirit and challengedby the immensity of its problems, which ache for so-lutions.”Blair’s talk, titled “A New Approach To A NewAfrica,” focused on using “effective governance” asa tool to develop partnerships between African andWestern countries. The Center for Democracy, De-velopment, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and theFreeman Spogli Institute (FSI) co-sponsored theevent.Blair spoke in detail about the challenges he seesin Africa’s future, his opinions on how to addressthem and the work of his own initiative, the TonyBlair Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), whichworks with several African nations to address devel-opment problems from the executive branch down-ward.Blair began his talk by expressing optimism forAfrica’s future, but also cited numerous hindrancesto the continent’s development, such as inadequatefood supplies, energy concerns, disease and poor ornon-existent infrastructure.“Today my focus is not [on] what we can give, buthow we can partner,” he said.Blair emphasized the advisory role his organiza-tion pursues, as opposed to “a dependency betweendeveloping and developed nations.”Citing governance as “the distinguishing featureof successful emerging nations,” Blair said thismeans more than “simply honest government,” butan “effective government.”He proceeded to give five “illustrations” of his as-

By ELLORA ISRANI

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A group of around 20 students protested formerBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visit to StanfordThursday evening. Holding signs that read “The an-swer to colonialism is not imperialism” and“Africa’s resources are for Africa’s people,” pro-testers gathered outside of Cemex Auditorium,where Blair gave a public talk.Students protested in conjunction with the“Tony 2012” movement — which, according to itsFacebook page, seeks to “bring the warmonger[Blair] to justice.”Blair was at Stanford to deliver a speech titled,“A New Approach for a New Africa.” He spoke toa packed audience about international aid, eco-nomic development and governmental process indeveloping African nations.“Tony Blair has been found guilty of war crimesunder international law by more than one tribu-nal,” wrote Zoe Lidstrom ’12 in an email to TheDaily. “There are any number of other war crimi-nals that Stanford would never bring to campus be-cause of the atrocities they committed, and yet ithas brought Tony Blair. We are challenging the ideathat we should excuse Blair’s actions.”According to Lidstrom, the protests had no offi-cial student group affiliation, but many of its partic-ipants are also involved with Occupy Stanford orStanford Says No To War.“[We] who want to challenge this University tosee its role in a larger global context and to under-stand why providing a place for Tony Blair to speakimplicates us in perpetuating neo-colonial policies,”wrote Anna McConnell ’14 in an email to TheDaily.Students mentioned Blair’s involvement in theIraq War during his time as prime minister as a cor-

Student demonstrators protestBlair’s alleged war crimes

Tony Blair visits Farm, sparking controversy 

Please see

FACSEN

, page 2

 

 ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily

Students protested the visit of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair outside Cemex Auditorium yesterday afternoon, in advance of Blair’s Thursday talk on African development.Campus emails advertising the demonstration likened Blair to Darth Vader due to his involvement in the Iraq War and ‘neocolonial’ business interests in Africa.

 ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily

Former British PM Tony Blair spoke about a need to form partnershipsbetween Africa and the West, expressing optimism for the continent’sfuture at his Thursday talk, ‘A New Approach to a New Africa.’

Please see

PROTEST

, page 3Please see

BLAIR

, page 3

LINDA A. CICERO/Stanford News Service

History Professor Carolyn Lougee Chappell spoke about an amendment torestore the number of proposed breadth requirements suggested by theStudy of Undergraduate Education at Stanford (SUES) report.

 

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Friday, May 18, 2012

 The Stanford Daily

POLICE BLOTTER

By ALICE PHILLIPS

DESK EDITOR

This report covers a selectionof incidents from May 11 throughMay 15 as recorded in the Stan-ford Department of Public Safetybulletin.

FRIDAY, MAY 11

I

A bike was stolen from outsidethe Thornton Center in the Ter-man Annex between 11 a.m.and 11:50 a.m.

I

A male was cited and releasedfor driving on a suspended li-cense near the intersection of Lomita Mall and Santa TeresaStreet at 7:40 p.m.

I

Two males were cited and re-leased for being minors in pos-session of alcohol and for pro-viding false identification topeace officers on Lane W at11:35 p.m.

SATURDAY, MAY 12

I

A female was transported tothe San Jose Main Jail andbooked for driving under theinfluence near the intersectionof Mayfield Avenue and SantaYnez Street at 12:09 a.m.

I

A male was transported to theSan Jose Main Jail and bookedfor being publicly intoxicatednear the intersection of Cam-pus Drive and Costanza Streetat 1:10 a.m.

I

A male was cited and releasedfor driving on a suspended li-cense near the intersection of Campus Drive and CowellLane at 1:40 a.m.

I

A GPS device and CDs werestolen from a vehicle parkednear 114 Jenkins Ct. between1:30 a.m. on May 11 and 9:40a.m. on May 12.

I

A GPS device was stolen from avehicle parked near the Escon-dido IV high rise between 10:30p.m. the previous night and11:30 a.m.

I

A golf cart was stolen from out-side of Kimball Hall between11:50 p.m. the previous nightand 11:30 a.m.

SUNDAY, MAY 13

I

A male was cited and releasedfor being a minor in possessionof alcohol near 675 Lomita Dr.at 12:01 a.m.

I

A male was cited and releasedfor urinating in public and cre-ating a public nuisance near 675Lomita Dr. at 12:55 a.m.

I

Two males were cited and re-leased for creating a public nui-sance near the intersection of Lomita Drive and Lane W at 1a.m.

I

A male was cited and releasedfor providing false informationto a peace officer in the RobleHall parking lot at 1:25 a.m.

I

A female was transported tothe San Jose Main Jail andbooked for being publicly in-toxicated at the Arboretum be-tween 1:30 a.m. and 1:50 a.m.

I

A cable and a headset werestolen from a vehicle parkednear 112 Jenkins Ct. between 9a.m. on May 11 and 7:40 p.m. onMay 13.

MONDAY, MAY 14

I

A bike was stolen from outsideof Polya Hall between 10 a.m.on May 10 and 9 a.m. on May14.

I

A bike was stolen from outsidethe Mitchell Earth SciencesBuilding between 4:45 p.m. and6 p.m.

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dards and Policies (C-USP) in re-sponse to the document. C-USPhas recommended that under-graduates take eight breadth re-quirement courses, despite thefact that that the SUES reportsuggested students take 11.The Senate discussed anamendment, which would returnto the original SUES recommen-dation for 11 breadth courses. Theamendment would require stu-dents to take courses that fit intothe seven “Ways of Thinking,Ways of Doing” categories firstcreated by the SUES report. Stu-dents would be required to taketwo courses in “Aesthetic and In-terpretive Inquiry,” two in “SocialInquiry,” two in “Scientific Analy-sis,” two in “Formal and Quantita-tive Reasoning” (with one in eachbranch), one course in “EngagingDifference,” one in “Moral andEthical Reasoning” and one in“Creative Expression.”C-USP, however, has recom-mended double course require-ments in only one of those cate-gories.“Requiring one course in eachcategory would be an invitation tosuperficiality,” said Susan Mc-Connell, SUES co-chair, as to whyher committee originally suggest-ed requiring two courses in somecategories, but not all. “For in-stance, it can be difficult for stu-dents to engage with science in just one course because there’s alanguage barrier. By requiringtwo courses, we create opportuni-ties for students to gain familiari-ty with the subject and then get indepth.”“The proposal does not in-crease the general educationblueprint or narrow the space forexploration,” McConnell added.Debra Satz, senior associatedean for the Humanities and Arts,expressed approval toward theamendment, but said she feels thatstudents should have more flexi-bility to take different courses.“I support a bigger footstepbecause I believe that studentsshould have a wider breadth,” shesaid.Satz added a friendly amend-ment to the proposal to split the“Formal and Quantitative Rea-soning” requirement into two dif-ferent categories, stating that thisdivision would add transparency.Faculty senators who spokeappeared split on which proposalto move forward. Many cited theneed for students to have aca-demic freedom as a reason tokeep C-USP’s recommendationof fewer requirements. Otherssupported the amendment be-cause it would result in increasedexposure to breadth and depart-ment, which Biology ProfessorPatricia Jones said is similar to therequirements at Stanford’s peerinstitutions.The Senate ended up voting infavor of the amendment, and thehigher number of breadth re-quirements.The senators then moved on toa discussion of the “governance”section of the amendment. Somefaculty members said they feltthat the Governing Board wasbeing given less freedom — andmore constraints — in an amend-ment.Most of the senators were infavor of the current wording inthe C-USP proposal, which theysaid would allow for more flexi-bility and freedom for the boardin making decisions.Senior Associate Vice Provostof Undergraduate Education andBiology Professor Martha Cyertdrew the Senate’s attention to asection of the amendment, whichshe said tasked the board with the job of figuring out how to deter-mine whether the courses it hasdesignated as satisfying a catego-ry “are in fact attaining the major-ity of the learning goals associat-ed with that category.”“Those assessment processesare a really, really important, hugetask,” Cyert said. “Assigning thatto the board is not realistic. Noneof us would agree to being on theboard. It is not practical to givethe board that task as well.”In response, Economics Pro-fessor Caroline Hoxby said shedid not think the task would betoo difficult for the board.“If it walks like a duck andtalks like a duck, it’s a duck,”Hoxby said. “We wouldn’t have tostudy every chemistry class be-fore deciding which requirementit fulfills. The board would focuson a small set of courses that weremuch less clear [about theirbreadth distribution].”The Senate voted to opposethe amendment to Board Gover-nance, preferring the original C-USP wording.The Senate will discuss recom-mendations about the Program inWriting and Rhetoric (PWR) andthe annual budget report at itsnext meeting on May 31.

Contact Josee Smith at jsmith11@stanford.edu.

FACSEN

Continued from front page

Students for life

 ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily

Rhodes Scholar and Ph.D. candidate Sherif Girgis, co-author of “Whatis Marriage?”, addressed students at the First Annual Pro-Life and Pro-Family Reception Thursday evening.

 

 The Stanford Daily

Friday, May 18, 2012

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3

Continued from front page

PROTEST

|

Mixed greeting for Blair

nerstone to their opposition.“I wanted to organize a protestagainst Tony Blair because he liedto the international community,along with [former U.S. President]Bush, that Saddam Hussein hadWMDs and that if we didn’t re-move him from power then hewould destroy the free world withthose weapons, which is proven tobe not only false, but lies,” saidJosh Schott ’14. “He is a war crim-inal, and it is disgusting that thisUniversity is welcoming him. Heshould be in prison.”Students expressed frustrationwith Blair’s decisions as a politicalleader, as well as Stanford’s im-plicit “endorsement” of Blair’spolicies through hosting his talk.“It frustrates me how Stanfordstudents are often seduced bycelebrity status and fail to actuallyhold (Western) leaders account-able for their violence and perpet-uation of injustice,” wrote AlokVaid-Menon ’13 in an email to TheDaily. “Our silence is a tacit en-dorsement of Blair’s violent andcriminal activities.”Protesters were angered byBlair’s actions as a prime ministeras well as his current projects thatfocus on providing aid to six sub-Saharan African nations.Vaid-Menon called the specificsubject matter “offensive.”“‘A New Approach for a NewAfrica,’ are you

kidding me 

?”Vaid-Menon wrote. “The BritishEmpire was one of the most dom-inating and violent empires and isdirectly implicated in the under-development of Africa. HavingBlair speak about ‘Africa’ (as if there were solutions that appliedto

all 

of Africa, a continent com-posed of many different nationsand countries) constitutes, in myeyes, a pernicious form of 

neo 

colo-nialism.”Blair expressed a need for west-ern involvement in African devel-opment during his talk.“When countries have emergedfrom prolonged periods of insecu-rity and conflict, the basic appara-tus of government can be missing,”he said. “We have the means tohelp supply it.”However, Blair also mentionedthird parties — among them “newdonors” in China, India and Brazil— as necessary contributors to thedevelopment of sub-SaharanAfrica.“You start at your most popularand least capable and you end atyour least popular and most capa-ble,” he said.Blair directly addressed theprotests when speaking with TheDaily after his talk.“It’s great that we live in a vi-brant democracy, but sometimeswhat people protest about,” Blairsaid. “If you’re in Africa and you’redesperate to get a decent standardof life, some change of prosperityand proper education and health-care, you actually need the outsideworld to be your partner in this. Wedon’t go into any of these countriesunless people want us.”Blair did not address his time asprime minister with regard to hisinvolvement in the Iraq war.Though Tony 2012 is an interna-tional movement — it had approx-imately 8,250 likes on its Facebookpage as of publication — Stanfordstudents were not involved untilBlair’s visit to campus, according toVaid-Menon.According to Schott, theprotests were a singular effortagainst Thursday’s event and willnot persist.Vaid-Menon said he waspleased with the turnout and pas-sion of the demonstrators, butcommented that he was disap-pointed in the way the Universitytreated the protest.“They also prohibited us fromusing our megaphone, citing uni-versity policy, and had police watchour every move,” Vaid-Menonwrote, noting some irony in the sit-uation.“We found it ironic that theUniversity feels the need to takesuch safety precautions for peace-ful demonstrators and yet allows adocumented war criminal to freelyspeak.”

Contact Ellora Israni at ellora@ stanford.edu.

sertion, outlining the role of the ex-ecutive branch, infrastructure, for-eign investment, education andhealthcare, and social capital.Characterizing his organization as“differing from traditional consult-ants,” Blair argued that AGI “didnot simply fly in and fly out, butworks hard on transferring skills.”He outlined the key principles of AGI, which he said are working di-rectly with the “key decision-maker” and focusing on “prioritiza-tion.”“Show me a leader with 100 pri-orities, and I will show you some-one who will achieve nothing,”Blair said.He then discussed the progressAGI has made in countries such asSierra Leone and Liberia by coor-dinating on investments in the en-ergy sector. According to Blair, put-ting resources into these types of ef-forts was more fruitful than small-scale projects.“[Small-scale projects] may bevery worthy in themselves, butdon’t get a nation on its feet,” hesaid.Echoing his belief in part-nership, and drawing lessonsfrom a variety of sources, Blairsaid that emerging nationsshould, in the spheres of educa-tion and healthcare, “leapfrogmany of the constraints and lim-itations which the legacy of oursystems have created.”He also discussed the role of technology, which he said can be“something that generates extraor-dinary waves of emotion, feelingand impact.” Noting Stanford’s in-extricable link to Silicon Valley,Blair challenged the audience to in-novate and design new technolo-gies to be leveraged for politicalgood.Blair followed his formal addresswith a conversation with GraduateSchool of Business (GSB) DeanGarth Saloner, during which he re-marked on the difficulties of manag-ing political realities with the publicexpectations.“In my profession, you start asthe most popular and least capable,and you leave the least popular butmost capable,” Blair said.He then praised the leadershipphilosophy of Lee Kuan Yew, stat-ing that “the best leaders do notcare who brings the expertise, but just is concerned with getting the job done.”Blair noted that the world is ex-periencing “a paradigm change,where footloose capital comingfrom China, India and other coun-tries means investors are lookingfor new opportunities.” Accordingto Blair, African nations could ben-efit from this shift if they are able to“get their private sector frameworkright.”Student sentiments towardBlair’s visit varied, with roughly 20students protesting Blair’s allegedwar crimes in the Iraq War, and thefact that the University allowedhim to speak on campus.Nicholas Moores ’15, who at-tended the event, said he thought itwas well-received.“I thought that he presented aclear, progressive, perhaps simplis-tic at times, but overall, open-mind-ed agenda to allow Africa to set thegovernment framework it needsto, and ultimately take the matterof development into its ownhands,” Moores said.

Contact Aaron Sekhri at asekhri@stanford.edu.

BLAIR

Continued from front page

Designing with health in mind

 ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily

Speakers from IDEO, the d.school and the Stanford School of Medicine discussed how to design for prevention at the Public Health ExtravaganzaThursday evening. The Stanford Journal of Public Health sponsored the event.