-By JOSHUA FALK
David Kennedy ‘63,professor emeritus of his-
tory, was elected co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize
Board last week.
Kennedy, along with Amanda Bennett, an ex-
ecutive editor for Bloomberg News, will serve a
one-year term,succeeding Anders Gyllenhaal,ex-
ecutive editor of The Miami Herald.
“Not unlike a great university like Stanford,
the Pulitzer Board considers itself to be the
guardian and steward of excellence,” Kennedy
said.The Pulitzer Prize is awarded annually for ex-
cellence in journalism,letters,drama and music.
“I’ve watched other people chair the board
over the years,” said Kennedy, who has been a
board member since 2002.“I’ve got some wonder-
ful models to follow.”
Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for history in
2000 for his book “Freedom From Fear: The
American People in Depression and War.”
Of the 21 prizes the board grants,all but seven
are for journalism.
The board consists mostly of journalists, in-
cluding New York Times columnist Thomas L.
Friedman and Associated Press executive editor
and senior vice president Kathleen Carroll,
among others.
“One of the things I hope to accomplish as
chair is to rebalance membership so it better mir-
rors the distribution of the prizes,”Kennedy said.
He emphasized that the journalists and aca-
demics on the board often face challenges in
judging categories with which they are less famil-
iar.
“The categories that the board always strug-
gles with are music and poetry,”he said.“We have
less confidence, to be frank with you, in our ex-
pertise in those areas.”
“For me it’s been an education to be on the
board,” Kennedy added. “I’ve learned a lot — I
mean a lot — about the world of journalism.”
President John Hennessy praised Kennedy’s
election.
“Professor Kennedy is both a distinguished
historian and a celebrated author. I think he will
be an excellent co-chair for the Pulitzer Prize
Board,”Hennessy wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
Kennedy joined the
University faculty in
1967 and currently
serves as the co-director
of the Bill Lane Center
for the American West.
His scholarship is no-
table for interweaving
economic and cultural
analysis with political and social history.
His other publications include “Birth Control
in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger,”
“Over Here:The First World War and American
Society” and “The American Pageant:A History
of the Republic,” an American history textbook
now in its 14th edition.
He teaches both undergraduate and graduate
courses on 20th century American history.
Kennedy received the Dean’s Award for Out-
standing Teaching in 1988 and the Hoagland Prize
for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in
2005.
Contact Joshua Falk at jsfalk@stanford.edu.
Index
Features/2 • Opinions/4 • Sports/5 • Classifieds/6
Recycle Me
ASSU Senate to vote on
transition today
Reps set to discuss swearing-in of senator-elects
By ELLEN HUET
DESK EDITOR
The ASSU Undergraduate Senate is set to vote
today on whether or not to dissolve the current Senate
on May 11 and swear in the senators-elect,a move that
usually happens in the fifth week of the quarter.The de-
cision could be postponed another week in today’s
meeting.
According to Senate Parliamentarian Alex Katz ‘12,
the current Senate has delayed dissolving because of a
need to focus on budget discussions and Senate bylaws,
which haven’t been updated in four years.Katz also said
the Appropriations Committee, of which he is a mem-
ber, had concerns about needing more time to handle
the transition to next year’s influential committee.
“We have business that still needs work, including
continuity in Appropriations and sustainability initia-
tives,”said Senate Chair Varun Sivaram ‘11.“But a late
transition will really set back the incoming Senate —
they’ll be really pressed for time.”
A Senate committee was also talking as recently as
last week about ethics reforms,spearheaded largely by
Senator Shelley Gao ‘11 (who is also a Daily colum-
nist); a green events checklist is also still in committee
talks.
Current Senator Mohammad Ali ‘10 said he be-
lieves the Senate is postponing dissolving to avoid dis-
cussion of a potential divestment bill.Ali co-wrote the
bill to dissolve May 11.
“Senators are saying that the new Senate’s not
ready,” Ali said. “But from what I know, the Senate’s
only postponing because they want to push a vote
about this issue [divestment] until next year.”
Ali is also an organizer for Campaign Restore Hope
(CRH),a coalition of students whose mission is to raise
awareness about perceived human rights violations in
Israel and encourage divestment from some compa-
nies.
On Sunday, a hard-copy petition was distributed
under the doors of some residences on campus from
CRH,asking students to write a sentence of support for
the initiative and to deliver the petition to their “dorm
representative or RA.”
The petition’s goals include passing “an ASSU bill
urging our University to disinvest from these compa-
nies”that violate human rights.
No such bill has been introduced in the Senate.
CRH organizer Fadi Quran ‘10 said the campaign in-
tends to introduce a bill to the incoming Senate.
A group of students tied to the Stanford Israel Al-
liance denounced the emergence of CRH’s petition on
Monday.
Senate bylaws dictate that once a bill is introduced,
the Senate must wait at least one week before voting on
it.Since the Senate is not required to meet during dead
week or finals week,if the Senate postpones dissolution
until the eighth week, the incoming Senate would not
be able to pass any bills unless it chose to meet after the
ninth week.
Stanford is currently in the sixth week of spring
quarter.
Contact Ellen Huet at ehuet@stanford.edu.
By ASHLEY MENZIES
O
n Tuesday and Thurs-
day mornings, Ash-
ley Chinn ‘11,a mem-
ber of the softball
team, sets her alarm
for 6:50 a.m., then hits the snooze
button two or three times before
rising out of bed, rushing to get
ready and make it on time to
weights at 7:30 at the Arrillaga
Family Center.
“It’s definitely hard to get out
of bed in the morning, especially
when it’s still dark outside,”Chinn
said.
At 8:45,after an intense session
of bench press and squats, legs
heavy and arms weak, she shifts to
a lower bike gear and heads to the
nearest dining hall to grab a quick
breakfast.Then she is off to Com-
munications 1B: Culture, Media,
and Society, which begins at 9:30,
but she has a difficult time concen-
trating on the lecture.
“It’s very hard to stay awake,”
Chinn said.
She is then immediately off to
Chinese, followed by a quick
lunch.At 1 p.m., she hurries to the
locker room to suit up and darts
onto the field for bullpen practice
where she works on pitching tech-
nique for a little over an hour. She
then starts regular team practice,
which runs from 2:45 to 5:30.
“It is definitely tiring having a
‘job’ that requires so much physi-
cal and mental energy, but I think
most athletes are used to it, or get
used to it really quickly,” Chinn
said.
She is finally able to head back
to Stern to eat dinner, shower and
start her homework for the
evening around 7 p.m.
“One of the hardest things is
definitely trying to motivate your-
self to do work after a long day of
practice, conditioning, and/or
weights,” she added, running
through her daily schedule. “Be-
cause I’m often so physically
drained,I just want to sit down and
relax or go to sleep early,but that’s
not really an option when we still
have to keep up with other stu-
dents.”
Chinn is just one of the 200 to
225 Stanford student-athletes
that are admitted to Stanford
each year, according to Shawn
Abbott, director of undergradu-
ate admission.While their intense
coursework is quite similar to
that of prestigious schools such as
Harvard or Princeton, Stanford
athletes must perform at the level
of their competitors at athletic
powerhouses like USC and the
NEWS BRIEFS
UNIVERSITY
Hospitals,
nurses still
at impasse
RESEARCH
Cancer
treatment
approved
BY JULIA BROWNELL
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Food and Drug Administra-
tion (FDA) on Thursday approved
Provenge, a new treatment for
prostate cancer that was originally de-
veloped by Stanford researchers in
the 1990s.
“This is extraordinarily impor-
tant,” said Edgar Engleman, who first
devised the immune cell therapy.
“This is the first time that an im-
munotherapeutic approach has been
[moved forward].”Engleman is a pro-
fessor of pathology and medicine at
the Stanford School of Medicine.
The FDA denied approval for the
approach in 2007 and requested more
data from Dendreon, the biotechnol-
ogy company that produces
Provenge. After a third clinical trial,
the FDA finally gave Provenge the
go-ahead.
“The firm then filed an amend-
ment to its [application] to include the
new data and the FDA has now com-
pleted review of that submission,”
said the FDA’s Jill Burkoff, “and
based on FDA’s review, we’ve deter-
mined that the product is safe and ef-
fective.” Burkoff is a consumer safety
officer at the FDA’s Center for Bio-
logics.
Provenge uses the body’s immune
cells to recognize and fight cancer,
which cells usually do not recognize as
a foreign threat. The therapy is not
preventative like traditional measles
or tetanus vaccines; rather, it targets
existing advanced-stage cancers.
The therapy involves isolating the
dendritic cells, a type of immune cell,
from each individual cancer patient
and bringing them to a lab. In the lab,
the cells are introduced to cancer
components and manipulated to rec-
ognize them as non-self. When rein-
troduced to the patient, they then tar-
get and fight the cancer.
“In a sense we are kind of fooling
the dendritic cells into thinking the
cancer is foreign,” Engleman said.
Because the immune cell therapy
is genetically the same as the patient’s
own cells, they are nontoxic and have
few side effects. Chemotherapy and
other cancer treatments are extreme-
ly toxic and end up killing other cells
in the patient, often causing debilitat-
ing side effects.
According to Engleman,“the den-
dritic cells” approach to cancer thera-
py is appealing because it “appears to
be very, very safe.”
Now, after years of waiting, Den-
dreon is ready to turn the drug into a
clinical reality.
Please see CANCER,page 3
By CAROLINE CHEN
STAFF WRITER
Stanford nurses have submitted a coun-
terproposal to Stanford Hospital & Clinics
and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital as
negotiations for a new contract remain
deadlocked.
The two parties’ old contract expired in
March after months of negotiations failed to
satisfy the demands of the hospitals and
nurses. Two weeks ago, 2,302 out of 2,700
nurses represented by the Committee for
Recognition of Nursing Achievement
(CRONA) rejected the hospitals’ “last, best
and final offer.”
Though CRONA accepted the wage pro-
posals from the hospitals’ last offer, it finds
contention with other points; in particular,
the union’s counterproposal centers on a
new professional development program
and paid time off.
Negotiations between the union and the
hospitals have soured in recent weeks, with
CRONA representatives accusing the hos-
pitals of rejecting multiple requests to meet
and discuss the situation.
“It was obvious from the beginning that
the hospital had no interest in talking to us,”
said CRONA lead attorney Peter Nuss-
baum.
Lucile Packard spokesperson Sarah Sta-
ley stated that the hospitals are not interest-
ed in further bargaining.
“The bargaining process was done in
March,” Staley said. “I think it’s fair to say
that what we’ve proposed is competitive,
generous and fair. If what the nurses pro-
pose is within the parameters of our last,
best and final offer, we would certainly be
up to hearing those.”
CRONA is awaiting the hospitals’ re-
sponse to its counterproposal, which is ex-
pected this week.
According to law, both parties must con-
tinue to follow their old contract until a new
contract is in place. However, negotiations
remain stalled, and the hospitals could at-
tempt to declare an impasse, which would
effectively institute the hospital’s latest pro-
posal.
Nussbaum said if the hospitals did so, the
Man struck by
Caltrain in fifth death
this year
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
A southbound Caltrain struck and
killed a man on the south platform of
the San Antonio station in Mountain
View at 5:08 p.m. on Monday, a rail
spokesperson said. Passengers on the
train,No.264,were transported to an-
other train shortly after the collision.
Caltrain service was delayed for
up to an hour afterward,according to
Caltrain spokeswoman Christine
Dunn.SamTrans,VTA and BART ac-
cepted passengers with Caltrain tick-
ets on Monday evening.
Monday’s fatality is the fifth death
on the Caltrain right-of-way this year.
— An Le Nguyen
UNIVERSITY
Kennedy appointed Pulitzer co-chair
Today
Sunny
74
60
The Stanford Daily
A n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o n
SPORTS/5
TOURNEY TROUBLES
Women’s water polo loses to UCLA,
finishing third at MPSF tournament
www.stanforddaily.com
TUESDAY
Volume 237
May 4, 2010
Issue 52
FEATURES/2
THE PROFESSOR
Herzog explores relationship between
religion and politics
Tomorrow
Sunny
74
60
MICHAEL HOGUE/The Dallas Morning News/MCT
The Art of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance
JUSTIN LAM/The Stanford Daily
Students Confronting the Persecution of Fallun Gong and ASSU sponsored an art
exhibit at the Clubhouse Ballroom. The exhibit featured the work of 12 artists who
depict the experiences and visions of Fallun Dafa practitioners.
FEATURES PRESENTS
Courtesy of Stanford
News Service
Please see NURSES,page 3
BALANCING COMPETING PASSIONS
Please see ATHLETES,page 2
Inside the lives of scholar athletes
2 ! Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Stanford Daily
FEATURES
May 4
By ERIC MESSINGER
SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR
S
tanford has its fair share of people who
go by “Professor,”but for Jonathan Her-
zog, it’s more than just a title.
“My nickname growing up was ‘The Profes-
sor,’”said Herzog Ph.D.‘08.“My classmates in el-
ementary school called me that. It’s sort of an in-
sult, but I took it to be a compliment.”
Herzog, a visiting assistant professor of histo-
ry and a national fellow at the Hoover Institu-
tion,has never strayed from his nickname.Schol-
arship for Herzog has always meant teaching.
“I didn’t know what it entailed to be a profes-
sor,”he said.“I assumed you basically just taught.
I didn’t know about this giant research compo-
nent — a research component that at Stanford is
the name of the game.”
A native of Omaha, Neb., Herzog’s sense of
purpose and focus on teaching did not prove an
obstacle in adjusting to the demands of research
— in fact, they’ve already set him off the beaten
path for studying American history.
Early in his doctoral study,Herzog led a sem-
inar on sources and methods for history under-
graduates, designed to give students practice in
making sense of primary documents.Addressing
his students about conservatism in California,he
presented them a pamphlet from the 1960s
called “Why a Christian can’t be a communist.”
Finding that his class “couldn’t wrap their
head around” the underlying conceptions of the
pamphlet — and their explicitly religious char-
acterization of communism — provided the first
clue to a change in American self-conceptions
that had been buried under decades of political
change.
“The top 100 responses to the question,‘what
is the opposite of communism?’ you’re going to
get things like capitalism, and freedom, and
democracy and stuff like this,”Herzog said.“The
idea you would get religion today — religion is
not going to be a top choice.You’re going to get
one of those buzzing Xs if you answer that on
Family Feud.And students treated it this way.”
Anxious to learn more about a religious un-
derstanding of communism that appeared to
have been downplayed over time, Herzog un-
covered more and more evidence that to write
about the Cold War without religion was to miss
the whole story.
“What I learned is that this was relatively un-
explored,”Herzog said.“That we all had this idea
that there were atheistic communists out there
and that we needed to do something about them,
but that nobody had really brought these pieces
together into a narrative of the early Cold War,a
narrative of the importance of religion to early
Cold War America.”
That classroom discovery led him to hit the
archives, from which he emerged with a strong
argument that American leaders and politicians
reached much of their understanding of the Cold
War through a religious lens and felt a corre-
sponding need to forcefully assert a religious
American identity.The end result is “The Ham-
mer and the Cross,” set for publication later this
fall by Oxford University Press.
Emeritus history Prof. David Kennedy ‘63,
Herzog’s adviser when he was a graduate stu-
dent at Stanford,said one crucial contribution of
Herzog’s research has been to help tie together
religion,politics and foreign policy into a unified
analysis.
“Those subjects don’t usually get called into
the same conversation together,” Kennedy said.
“So it’s the first mark of his creativity and origi-
nality that he was even capable of concocting a
dissertation at that particular site.”
Perhaps of equal value, however, is the way
that Herzog’s contribution to rethinking Ameri-
can history in the middle of the twentieth centu-
ry has implications for the start of the twenty
first. Central to his analysis is the political mo-
mentum produced by the reassertion of religion
for modern social conservatism and the debate it
propelled about American identity.
“It’s really in the 1950s, it’s right after World
War II, that these two movements, one political,
one religious,get a footing within American soci-
ety.And I don’t think it’s an accident that they get
this crucial foothold at this exact time when
Americans are occupied with, first of all, the per-
ils of communism, but more specifically occu-
pied with the importance of embedding religious
conceptions into our notions of what it is — what
it means — to be an American.”
Herzog’s successful research into the shaping
of American identity,however,has not led him to
forget his own sense of himself as a teacher.After
completing his doctorate in 2008,he continued to
teach undergraduates in history while he served
for two years as fellow at the Hoover Institution,
which he said he was “lucky” to be able to do.
“I love to teach,”Herzog said.“And,that’s the
reason I got into this years ago.And it’s the rea-
son that basically still keeps me going. I love re-
search, but I really, really love students.And I’ve
kept relationships with so many students over
the years that I still talk to.”
Herzog has since brought to the classroom
the maturity of an accomplished scholar and the
enthusiasm and humility of someone only short
years removed from being a student.
“What was sort of amazing to me is, he was
just a couple of years older than me, but he
seemed a very strong presence,” said Andrew
Robichaud, a doctoral student in history and a
teaching assistant for one of Herzog’s courses.
“He had a natural ability to feel comfortable
in the classroom and make you feel comfortable
in the classroom,” Robichaud added.
James Hohmann ‘09,a former student of Her-
zog’s and a former Daily editor, also noted the
young professor’s attention to the members of
his classes.
“His reaction to your reaction paper would
be longer than your reaction,”he said.“He’s one
of those guys who wants everyone in that class-
room to grow and learn.”
And Herzog includes himself in that. He has
not wavered from the belief that finding the an-
swers about identity, and what you can con-
tribute, starts with questions — and that those
are best found in the conversation of the class-
room.
“Teaching students is probably the best way
to find out A,what interests people,and B,to find
out where the information isn’t, because that’s
really the name of research,” he said.
Two years after earning his doctorate,Herzog
has made a name for himself on the campus as a
kind and empathetic teacher. After seven years
in total on the Farm,he will now take his sense of
scholarship rooted in teaching north to the Uni-
versity of Oregon, where he will take up a posi-
tion this summer in its history department.
After his two “lucky” years teaching, Herzog
understands that it’s time to move on from the
Farm.
“Many of the friends that I have made here
over time have sort of scattered to the four winds
and moved all over the academic world,”he said.
“It’s going to be sad to leave,” he added.
Contact Eric Messinger at messinger@
stanford.edu.
The Relay
Courtesy of Masaru Oka
Dan Lopez ‘10 tags James Xie ‘10 of the Stanford Running Club in The
Relay, a 200-mile relay that happened last weekend. They finished in 7th
with a time of 24:30:28, beating the Facebook team after being taunt-
ed overnight. After three legs totaling around 18 miles, runners were ex-
hausted but rewarded with scenes ranging from Napa vineyards to red-
wood forests to the Pacific Ocean. “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,
and the most exhilarating,” said Devin Lee ‘10, another team member.
University of Oregon.
Student athletes sometimes have
difficulty balancing their competing
passions.
“It’s hard when you’re tired all of
the time to begin with,and if you have
a paper due in a few days but you also
have games all weekend, more often
than not the paper or assignment is
the thing that gets put off in favor of
sleeping to prepare for competition,”
said Shannon Koplitz ‘10, another
member of the softball team. “Five
hours a day minimum devoted to
your sport can be hard to juggle with
the amount of time necessary to also
compete in the classroom.”
“[Student athletes] select Stanford
because of the merger of world class
academics and world class athletics,”
said director of athletics Bob Bowlsby.
“We expect our student athletes to
excel in both areas.”
The athletes do their best to live up
to these expectations and sometimes
to exceed them.
“As a student-athlete, I can be an
active member of the Stanford com-
munity both on and off the field,” said
Greg Hirshman ‘11, a member of the
men’s tennis team.
Hirshman,an economics and math-
ematics major,has a list of activities that
he balances with his academics and ath-
letics.He is an officer for the newly cre-
ated Stanford Tea Party group,founder
and editor of The Cardinal Principle,an
official quarterly editorial newspaper
with conservative leanings, and mem-
ber of the Stanford Conservative Soci-
ety.He volunteers to help disabled ten-
nis players improve their skills, has a
4.002 GPA and still manages to get
eight hours and 45 minutes of sleep
each night.
“Sometimes it is difficult to balance
everything that I do,but strategic plan-
ning, time management and getting
enough sleep really helps me be suc-
cessful in my pursuits,”Hirshman said.
Most of the athletes agreed that al-
though they experience a significant
amount of pressure, they feel quite
privileged to be in their positions.
They believe the rewards are greater
than the sacrifices they make as stu-
dent athletes.
“Think about how many people
would die to be in our place,”Hirshman
said.“Being a part of the Stanford ten-
nis team is a dream come true.”
“It’s the only time in my life I get
such an amazing opportunity like this,”
added softball player Alissa Haber ‘10.
For Hirshman, academics are a top
priority.
“The reward is so great to be able to
succeed in the classroom,”he said.
Tyrone Mcgraw ‘10,a member of the
track and field team and school record
holder in the 60 meter dash,agreed.
“During season, academics are still
first, but track and field is a very close
second,”he said.
Cecelia Haig ‘11 plays squash, a
sport known for boasting one of the
highest team GPAs. She said that
school is more important, but she still
loves her sport.
“School is priority,but if I have a se-
rious assignment due and squash prac-
tice will hurt my performance on it, I’ll
miss practice,”she said.
But for other athletes, academics
don’t necessarily make it to the top
shelf.
Chike Amajoyi ‘11, a linebacker on
the football team,said that like many of
his teammates,he has professional aspi-
rations to go to the NFL, so academics
are a secondary concern.
“If I want to pursue my professional
career, football is my number-one pri-
ority,”he said.“At this point I feel that I
have put in far too much work to let an
opportunity to play professionally slip
by. Academics is important and that’s
why I came to Stanford,but I’ve always
seen it as a backup plan.”
Haber said she sets her athletics and
academics on an equal footing, but she
believes one may have a more lasting
impact.
“Twenty years from now, I’m not
going to care what I got in [my chem
class],” she said. “I’m going to remem-
ber what kind of season I had.”
But while many athletes said that
they put academics and athletics on
equal par, they joked that some stu-
dent-athletes must prioritize their sport
because it’s the only reason they are at
Stanford. Max Bergen ‘11, who plays
for the football team,definitely feels the
heat to perform well on the field be-
cause he feels that his “scholarship is on
the line.”
Officially, every Stanford student is
here at least in part because of academ-
ics.
“The academic record is still the pri-
mary focus of our evaluation for any
candidate who applies for admission,”
Abbott said.“Any student who applies
for admission must demonstrate that
they are first academically prepared
and competitive as a scholar-athlete.”
The students believe it is their athlet-
ic talent on top of their intense academ-
ic performance that makes them
unique.
“I feel like, as an individual, I pro-
vide another element to the diversity
that Stanford University was founded
on and prides itself in today,” Haber
said.
Contact Ashley Menzies at amenzies@
stanford.edu.
ATHLETES
Continued from front page
Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Kick-off
Celebration & Lunch
12 PM — Tresidder Oak Lounge
Expanding Limits:Giving New freedoms to Ado-
lescents
12 PM — Bambi Modular, Rm 6 - 320 Panama
Street
Colombia at the Crossroads:A New Beginning
after Decades of Conflict?
12:15 PM — Bolivar House, 582 Alvarado Row
The Pasternak Family:Surviving the Storms
12:30 PM— Stauffer Auditorium, Herbert Hoover
Memorial Building
2010 Sustainable Abundance Mini
Conference:Reconciling Business Growth and
Sustainability
3:15 PM — The d.school, Building 550
Harry Camp Memorial Seminar by Tzvetan
Todorov
4 PM — Stanford Humanities Center
Colloidal Self-Assembly and Replication
4:15 PM — Hewlett Teaching Center, Rm. 201
Technology Transfer and Start-Up Company Cre-
ation at Asian Universities
4:15 PM — Skilling Auditorium
Mexican Film Series:Pueblerina / Paloma
4:30 PM — Bolivar House, 582 Alvarado Row
Baseball vs. San Jose State
5:30 PM — Stanford, CA
Softball vs. Santa Clara
6 PM — Stanford, CA
Art + Invention Speaker Series:Laurie Anderson
7:30 PM — Pigott Theater, Memorial Hall
Aurora Forum at Stanford University
7:30 PM — Pigott Theater in Memorial Auditorium
For a posting of your organization’s event,
contact Andrew Martin at advertising@stan-
forddaily.com.
For other events, please visit https://newas-
su.stanford.edu/studentevents/index.shtml
HELENA VILLALOBOS/Staff Photographer
XIN SHAN/The Stanford Daily
eligious Studies
History prof. combines love of teaching with research on faith in America
The Stanford Daily
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 ! 3
STUDENT LIFE
Schools endorse energy
! By AN LE NGUYEN
DESK EDITOR
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-
N.D.) and Representative Pete Vis-
closky (D-Ind.) last week received a
call to action on energy issues from
107 student body presidents of
American colleges and universities.
The presidents, in a move spear-
headed by former ASSU President
David Gobaud, a coterminal student
in computer science, signed a letter
endorsing the Department of Ener-
gy’s “REgaining our ENERGY Sci-
ence and Engineering Edge” (RE-
ENERGYSE) proposal.
The letter urged Congress to sup-
port the “proposal and fully meet the
FY2011 budget request for $55 mil-
lion.”
Junior Teryn Norris, director of
Americans for Energy Leadership,
has long been involved with the mo-
bilization effort behind the proposal.
He collaborated with Gobaud on the
cross-campus letter and is taking the
quarter off to lead advocacy efforts
in Washington D.C.
Norris is a former Daily colum-
nist.
“RE-ENERGYSE would be the
first federal program to focus specif-
ically on developing clean energy sci-
ence and engineering programs in a
comprehensive manner at the Uni-
versity level, community and techni-
cal college level, as well as K through
12 schools,” Norris said.
Over the years,a number of feder-
al programs have striven to develop
the so-called “green collar” work-
force, focusing on the retrofitting of
buildings and the installation of solar
panels.
“But there hasn’t been a federal
program that is really focused on the
more advanced, high-tech science
and energy jobs that will lead the in-
novation front in clean energy,” Nor-
ris said.
Proponents of the proposal argue
that the United States is at a critical
stage of energy innovation. They
claim that clean energy competitive-
ness has parallels with the space race
that ensued after the Soviet Union
launched Sputnik in 1957.
“Right now,the United States is in
a global race to develop competitive
clean industries,”Norris said.“Coun-
tries like China are investing massive
amounts to develop [and] dominate
the clean energy industry and grow
their market share.”
“It’s critical for the United States
to make sure that we’re at the lead-
ing front of this industry and that in-
cludes a serious federal investment
and advanced energy workforce de-
velopment,” he added.
Gobaud similarly wanted “to see
America become the leader in clean
energy technology” and reduce its
dependence on nonrenewable ener-
gy sources.
“This is something that students
across the country,as has been shown
by this letter, support and this is
something that we hope Congress
will pass this time in the budget,”
Gobaud said.
Theo Gibbs ‘11, co-president of
Students for a Sustainable Stanford,
added to the chorus of support for
RE-ENERGYSE.
“I think it is an important and ex-
citing initiative that links students to
policy,” Gibbs said.
The proposal is a “national pro-
gram with a lot of momentum” to
change the way people think about
“where climate change is going to
move,” she added.
Gibbs said the proposal comes at
a crucial junction for California’s en-
ergy policy, amid calls for the repeal
of climate law A.B. 32. She said the
proposal has the potential to stimu-
late both economic growth and sus-
tainable energy development.
RE-ENERGYSE was included in
Obama administration’s budget re-
quest for FY2010, but was rejected
by Congress during the mark-up
process. It was reintroduced in the
FY2011 budget and is set to go under
review by the Appropriations Sub-
committees on Energy and Water
Development in the House and Sen-
ate, chaired by Visclosky and Dor-
gan, respectively.
Contact An Le Nguyen at lenguyen@
stanford.edu.
“The approval of Provenge is a
significant step towards realizing our
mission of transforming the lives of
patients with cancer, and it also
marks Dendreon’s transformation
into a commercial enterprise, ready
to support the successful launch of
the first personalized treatment for
cancer,” said Mitchell H. Gold, the
CEO of Dendreon,in a press release.
Engleman and his colleague
Samuel Strober, professor of medi-
cine, formed Dendreon in 1992 to
bring their cell therapy through the
clinical trials process and market it
for therapeutic purposes. The firm
began clinical trials in 1998.
When Dendreon applied to the
FDA for approval in 2007, the expert
advisory panel recommended that
the FDA approve it.The FDA, how-
ever, wanted to pursue further re-
search.
“The agency determined that
there were deficiencies in the appli-
cation that precluded approval,”
Burkoff said.
Dendreon said it will offer 2,000
patients a supply of the therapy for
2010-2011. Provenge will be provid-
ed through 50 centers that originally
participated in the clinical trials.
Dendreon is estimated to have spent
approximately $1 billion developing
the drug. The therapy will cost ap-
proximately $93,000.
“It is, by definition, a very expen-
sive process,”Engleman said.“In this
case, you basically have to manufac-
ture your treatment for each patient
every time. I think this will be a fac-
tor that limits accessibility.”
Dendreon and many other compa-
nies are currently employing the tech-
nique to treat other types of cancer.
Contact Julia Brownell at juliabr@stan-
ford.edu.
CANCER
Continued from front page
nurses would not rule out the option
of going on strike.
Professional Nurse Development
Program
Central to the current dispute is
the hospital’s proposed Professional
Nurse Development Program.
Within the hospitals, nurses are
ranked according to a four-step hier-
archy, in which employees at nurse-
four status are the highest ranked.
The hospital’s new development
program rewrites the requirements
that nurses must fulfill in order to
move up the ladder or retain their
current status.
CRONA representatives claim
the new point system sets unattain-
able standards for nurses and down-
grades years of experience in favor
of article-writing and symposium at-
tendance. Under the hospital’s last
proposal, nurses would not only
have to satisfy the point require-
ments, but be evaluated by a panel in
order to receive promotions. Nuss-
baum called the interview process
“totally subjective.”
“Experience is more important
than diplomas,” said CRONA presi-
dent Lorie Johnson, who is also a
nurse in Stanford Hospital’s Cardio-
thoracic Intensive Care Unit. “A
nurse who is not able to publish and
cannot present himself or herself
flawlessly in front of a panel will not
get promoted.”
CRONA’s counterproposal re-
quests that the hospital institute an
appeal process for nurses who fail
the interview.
Nussbaum believes that the pro-
gram is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,”
designed to demote a large number
of level three and four nurses. He
claimed that under the new pro-
gram, with fewer nurses able to at-
tain senior status, the hospitals will
save $15 to $20 million annually.
Responding to the claim, Staley
said accusations of financial motiva-
tion are a “complete misrepresenta-
tion” of the hospitals’ intention.
“We feel strongly about [the pro-
gram] because it advances nursing
practice,” she said,“and we hold our-
selves to a high level of perform-
ance.”
The hospitals would not say how
many nurses’ statuses would be af-
fected or whether the program would
have any significant financial effects.
Paid Time Off
The other key issue concerns paid
time off. The hospitals stress that al-
though they would not offer employ-
ees separate accounts of guaranteed
sick leave, vacations and holidays,
nurses would be able to save and
carry up to 520 hours of paid time off.
CRONA’s counterproposal sug-
gestions mainly deal with the way in
which paid time off is accrued and
compensated. For instance, the
union suggested that a staff nurse
who has a balance of 480 hours of
paid time off ought to have the op-
tion of using the time within 90 days
or be paid for up to 80 hours.
The Stanford Packard Facts web-
site lists accrual hours compared to a
number of hospitals, including the
Daughters of Charity hospitals, the
John Muir Health System and the
Sutter hospitals.The Stanford hospi-
tals claim their maximum accrual
amount is the highest.
Contact Caroline Chen at cchen501
@stanford.edu.
NURSES
Continued from front page
FREE¬AND¬OPEN¬TO¬THE¬PUBLIC¬
STANFORD¬UNIVERSITY¬DEPARTMENT¬OF¬ART¬¬ART¬HISTORY
MADE¬POSSIBLE¬BY¬A¬GENEROUS¬GRANT¬FROM¬CARMEN¬M¬CHRISTENSEN
)TALIAN¬#INEMA¬  
&ANTASIES¬OF¬0ASTORAL¬%DUCATION
P¬ADAMS¬SITNEY
¬MAY¬
¬PM
ANNENBERG¬AUDITORIUM
CHRISTENSEN¬DISTINGUISHED¬LECTURE
ARTSTANFORDEDU
PRINCETON¬UNIVERSITY
ARNAV MOUDGIL/Staff Photographer
Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospitals remain at
odds with their nurses. Acting on behalf of the nurses, CRONA recently
presented a counterproposal to the hospitals’ “last, best and final offer.”
HARRISON TRUONG/The Stanford Daily
If you pay attention to the thrilling world
of on-campus controversies, chances are
you have heard of the homophobic frater-
nity e-mail scandal that has caught the atten-
tion of so many different groups recently. If
you are a devoted Just a Thought groupie,
you may remember that I briefly touched on
it in my column a couple weeks ago. In light
of the continuing coverage and disputes re-
volving around this incident, another point
needs to be made.
Political correctness is a campaign, not a
crusade. Many people don’t seem to realize
that. For those ignorant of how this flash-in-
the-pan controversy arose, I’ll give quick
background: a fraternity member e-mailed
his house list asking people to stop using ho-
mophobic slurs.Another member responded
implying that the request was a joke. There
was no violent hate crime, there was no tar-
geting, there was no consensus of bigotry.
The miniscule nature of the initial offense
does not excuse it or make it more palatable.
After all, it represents the tip of an iceberg of
homophobia and politically incorrect lan-
guage that pervades social life on and off
campus. But the innocuousness of the initial
e-mail does put the response into perspective.
Let’s outline a few of the facts here: the
student who sent the offending e-mail is not
the face of homophobia in the Stanford com-
munity, even though groups have been trying
to paint him as such. His e-mail is not the
paragon of intolerance. The Stanford com-
munity at large and fraternities specifically
do not harbor and encourage bigots, racists,
hatemongers, politically backwards cavemen
or homophobes.Yet the outrage would make
a bystander believe otherwise.
On the Diaspora e-mail list, a member as-
serted that this e-mail was “proof that hate
crimes still happen on this campus.” It is true
— acts of intolerance do happen even at
Stanford, the politically progressive arche-
type of all universities anywhere (ever). It is
still sensationalist to use this e-mail as a testi-
mony to the pervasiveness of ‘hate crimes’ on
campus.Such language conjures up images of
rowdy meatheads taking baseball bats to the
unfortunate homosexual holding hands with
his or her life partner. It’s not inaccurate to
call this incident a hate crime, but let’s be
honest with ourselves: this is not a Matthew
Shepard situation.
Again, let me state that the scope of this
event does not excuse it. Homophobia is un-
acceptable in whatever form it takes.Howev-
er, the sentiments of the people who re-
sponded, though well founded, were misdi-
rected. A member of the QNet mailing list
noted that such backlash is a good way to
achieve progress on the issue, concluding
that “frats will respond to embarrassment.”
An article on the matter in the Stanford Re-
view cited the fraternity, its president and the
offending member by name.The author then
proceeded to include photos of both the frat
and the e-mail criminal.The article then went
on to discuss the political ambitions of the e-
mailer’s parents, citing them and their cam-
paigns by name and asserting that this e-mail
could create negative backlash in Florida
elections.
To reiterate: the motive of the response is
justified. The content of the response is not.
Why stop at photos of the offender and the
names of his parents? Why not flood his
inbox with angry e-mails? Where are the can-
dlelight vigils and the prayer circles express-
ing a communal wish that he and all those
like him at Stanford be publicly expelled?
The truth is that this incident is neither the
first nor the last of its kind at Stanford.There
will always be people who make offensive or
potentially offensive comments, whether in
jest or in seriousness, whether innocuous or
malicious.The appropriate response is not to
over-sensationalize the event and publicize
the person(s) responsible. This is about the
offense, not the offender.And moreover, this
is about the mindset and undercurrent that
the offense represents — it is not an isolated
act of intolerance floating in a vacuum of cor-
rectness and acceptance.This e-mail is a tem-
porary touchstone that represents a much
more serious underlying presence of homo-
phobia on campus.
The reason this point has not been made
publicly is because nobody wants to look like
they are admonishing the people combating
intolerance. In saying this, it’s likely that peo-
ple will conclude (publicly or privately) that I
too am an intolerant bigot, the same way that
anybody can be smeared by a label if they
criticize the crusade of political correctness.
Witch hunts will not achieve progress.
They will not create lasting social change or
draw meaningful discussion to an issue that
needs it. All that sensationalism achieves is
polarization and groupthink backlash. No-
tice how there are no names in this column.
Let’s move past the targeting and blame to a
progressive discussion of how to address the
issue.Thank you.
Next week’s column: East coast vs.West coast.
Got some insight? Send it to me and I may use
it and pretend it’s mine. nikm@stanford.edu.
“Ifelt like you were my breath of fresh
air.”
That’s not a compliment you get everyday.
I sat on my bed, tears streaming down my
face, staring at the friend who has not only
played a huge role in helping me to define
who I am, but what I believe. Funny thing is,
we only met seven months ago. When I met
her I didn’t need her and she didn’t need me
— we both already had our (according to
Cosmo) “perfect number”of 5-8 best friends.
When we met, we were both content in our
own comfortable yet separate social circles.
Funnier thing is, seven months later I
don’t know how I ever lived without her.
A few weeks ago,the incoming Class Pres-
idents had a meeting with Leslie Winick, the
Director of Alumni & Student Class Out-
reach at the Alumni Association. As Leslie
described some of her past experience sur-
veying alums, one point she made really
struck a chord:“No matter how old they are,
whether they were in the Class of 1955 or the
Class of ‘93, the number one regret alumni
have about their time at Stanford is that they
wished they had known more people outside
of their social circle.”
At the beginning, our class and our social
circle were almost synonymous. Our class
community was solidified at NSO the first
second Dean Julie yelled “OH’LEVEN!”
and every single member of the Class of 2011
responded. It was a call to action, our verbal
affirmation that cemented our membership
into the Class of 2011 for the rest of our lives,
starting at that moment and continuing past
our 65-year reunion.
But almost the nano-second after we
signed that verbal affirmation with Dean
Julie, the Darwinian ladder-climbers in all of
us were struggling to define ourselves within
a smaller subset of our class of superstars.
Our second community was as fundamental-
ly basic as our geographical location: Fresh-
man Dorms.The second we finished scream-
ing “OH-LEVEN” our vocal chords were al-
ready contracting for the next phase, scream-
ing “J-RO!”even louder.The freshman dorm
was the first opportunity we had to define
ourselves within a smaller community, thus
making ourselves more distinctive in an audi-
torium full of valedictorians.
But then NSO ended (thank God), real
life started, and before you knew it you were
no longer living in your freshman dorm.You
then began to define yourself by more specif-
ic and thus more descriptive variables — this
could have been a major, favorite branch of
the ASSU or sorority stereotype. At first
glance, membership in a community that
more accurately expresses your individual
interests is one of the greatest ways to ex-
press your individuality. But almost counter-
intuitively, the second you started to identify
yourself within this smaller community
based on variables more specific than geo-
graphical location or class year alone, a part
of your individual identity was lost to the
larger group identity. As each year pro-
gressed, these more specific communities
and social groups became more and more so-
lidified, making it harder and harder for new
people to break in.
But these solidified communities also
make it even harder to break out.
Perhaps the funniest thing about my new-
found friendship seven months ago is that
neither of us knew we wanted to break out
until Stanford forced our communities to-
gether (the luck of the Draw placed us in the
same homestay in Spain). It’s funny how
those things happen. Just like the freshman
dorm, it was once again a determinate of our
geographical location that forced us to break
out of our solidified communities and into
someone else’s heart.
Your class is your very first community, as
well as your very last.As much as class unity
steadily decreases year after year, class unity
arguably increases in importance year after
year. When you sit through graduation, how
many faces are you going to actually know?
How many faces do you want to know?
That’s a question only you can answer.But as
much as you think you may have already
found the best friends and the best communi-
ty in the world, it is never too late to find that
new individual who actually makes you a bet-
ter person.
In my case seven months ago, my breath
of fresh air was Stephanie Caro.
Molly is an incoming Senior Class President
and therefore forced by the larger ASSU com-
munity to write this column. JOKE! Or is it?
Find out at mspaeth@stanford.edu.
4 ! Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Stanford Daily
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OP-ED
We Choose to Invest
When I was a freshman at Stanford in
2006-2007, divestment launched on
campus in relation to the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict.At the time, it was
sudden, it was divisive, and it was damaging.
Although the bill was defeated in the ASSU
Senate, the ramifications continued for years,
dominating much of my Stanford experience.
Tensions were high on campus as many peo-
ple felt alienated and disillusioned by the
process. Interfaith dialogue was deeply shak-
en as religious communities found them-
selves on opposite sides of a destructive de-
bate.
Recently, a similar bill was proposed in
the UC Berkeley Student Senate. Following
that, one was also submitted to the UC San
Diego Student Senate. From accounts that I
have heard from friends at Berkeley, the ex-
perience was equally traumatic. Although
the bill at Berkeley was also defeated,the rip-
ples it has caused for their community will be
long lasting. To my dismay, there once again
seems to be the beginnings of an
Israeli/Palestinian divestment campaign
here at Stanford.
One powerful line from the hours-long
debate at Berkeley came from the Cal
Chabad Rabbi. He made the point that you
cannot fight darkness with darkness; you
must fight darkness with light. A negative
campaign against alleged abuses will only
bring more negativity and damage. And, it
will not address the issues or solve the prob-
lems — it will only cause further polarization
and make peace even more elusive. In my ex-
perience with divestment when applied to
this conflict, damage is wrought, but nothing
positive comes of it. In the past, divestment
campaigns helped combat apartheid in South
Africa and genocide in Darfur. However, the
divestment campaign against Israel is a crass
bludgeon, which reduces an incredibly com-
plex situation to euphemisms and demoniza-
tions.
Therefore, the Stanford Israel Alliance
chooses to invest, and we hope you will join
us.We agree that the Israeli-Palestinian con-
flict is deep, complex, and painful. We sup-
port the Palestinian people in their desire for
an independent state alongside the State of
Israel.To that end, we wish to help the Pales-
tinian people build up their infrastructure
and economy, which will be the basis for a fu-
ture state.
In the coming weeks, Stanford Israel Al-
liance will be raising awareness and support
for two NGOs that are working to improve
Palestinian and Israeli society. Lendfor-
peace.org is a microfinance organization
based in the Palestinian Territories, inspiring
entrepreneurship among Palestinians. The
Peres Institute for Peace is an Israeli organi-
zation that builds connections between Is-
raeli and Palestinian businessmen, environ-
mentalists, and civil leaders to forge common
frameworks between the two peoples.
Our goal is to move past the venomous
rhetoric that divestment inspires and attempt
to tackle the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from
a positive perspective. It is our responsibility
as Stanford students to help foster a more nu-
anced understanding of the issues, and to
deal with the legitimate grievances that exist.
Stanford is a place of innovation and
change. Perhaps this is one area where we
can live up to our reputation.
YISHAI KABAKER ‘10
Stanford Israel Alliance
BROADLY SPEAKING
Molly
Spaeth
Witch hunts will not
achieve progress. They
will not create
meaningful discussion
to an issue that needs it.
All sensationalism
achieves is polarizaion
and groupthink
backlash.
Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of The Stanford Daily's editorial board and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff.The editorial board is comprised of six Stanford students, led
by a chair.To contact the editorial board for an issue to be considered, or to submit an op-ed, please e-mail
editorial@stanforddaily.com.
Write to us.
Submit photos or videos.
SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO
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SEND PHOTOS/VIDEOS TO MULTIMEDIA@STANFORDDAILY.COM
JUST A THOUGHT
Nikola
Milanovic
Correctness can be incorrect
A Breath of Fresh Air
The Stanford Daily
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 ! 5
People often tell me I’m too
negative and that all I do is
complain. So just for you,
I’m writing a happy col-
umn, and it’s not just be-
cause I’m such a warm, cheerful, posi-
tive, optimistic person that would
never complain about anything.
I’m happy because I go to the best
school for a sports lover,and this week-
end was just the latest example that il-
lustrated that point to its fullest.
Many columns, including one or
two by yours truly,can spout the joys of
Stanford’s success at winning Direc-
tors’ Cups,but that’s a story for anoth-
er day. Instead, I’m just happy to go to
a school with so many opportunities to
watch world-class athletes of all kinds.
This Saturday, I got to watch a few
races at the Payton Jordan Invitation-
al, which is a pretty awesome track
meet for those of you who haven’t
worn your Cardinal red since football
season.
Of course, I’m very spoiled to be
friends with some great runners, so I
had extra incentive to go,but the meet
provided a lot more than just a chance
to see my friends run.
See,what many of us probably take
for granted is just how many major
events we can see right here on cam-
pus.People talk all day long about Bill
Gates or Afroman coming to Stan-
ford, but there are some amazing
sporting events and athletes on our
campus at least as often.
Take this track meet, for instance.
After watching my friend Dylan Ferris
fly past his competitors to take the
1500 meters and taking a short break
for volleyball (which I’ll get to later), I
came back to watch people I’d never
seen before that don’t even go to Stan-
ford. Why? Because they’re some of
the best athletes in the world,and they
chose to come here.
And I was rewarded in a big way.
The big event of the day was the men’s
10,000 meters, which included a
stacked field filled with professionals.
The headliner was Galen Rupp, who
had dominated college track as a stu-
dent at Oregon before graduating to
professional running. Rupp was at-
tempting to break the American
record in the 10k, and the whole audi-
ence knew it. Posters of Rupp were
passed around the stands and the
cheers were overwhelmingly in his
favor,even before the race started.
Being somewhat of a track novice
(or n00b for those of you reading the
online version), my only real knowl-
edge of the field came from my runner
friends:Dylan,Chris Derrick and Ben-
jamin Johnson. I remembered Rupp
from his college days,but being a Stan-
ford student, I’d always rooted against
him, so it was hard to imagine rooting
for him,even though everyone loves to
see records broken.A few other com-
petitors were somewhat familiar, but
everyone’s attention was squarely on
Rupp from the start.
Apart from the pace-setters, Rupp
led for just about the entire race. For
over 9,000 meters, he looked to be in
perfect position to break the record,
leading from the get-go and staying
under American-record pace (about
27:13).It was somewhat intriguing that
he did not have much separation,
though, as three other runners, includ-
ing collegian Samuel Chelanga of Lib-
erty, stayed within striking distance. I
knew about Chelanga because he still
competes (and does quite well) against
Stanford runners and is somehow still
in college.Chelanga was attempting to
break his own collegiate record in the
event as well,so all eyes were on Rupp
first and him second.
Then, with just over two laps to go,
the runner in fourth, Chris Solinsky,
started to make a move into second.A
more experienced spectator probably
would have sensed something, but I
just thought he was aiming for second,
plus I honestly knew nothing about
Solinsky other than what the announc-
er was saying.All of a sudden, though,
the crowd could not ignore Solinsky,as
he not only passed Rupp, but left him
in the dust.
Again, I’m no track expert, but
watching Solinsky run a 1:56 over the
final 800 meters actually gave me
goosebumps.And for the 99.9 percent
of you who didn’t say “woah,1:56!”let
me put that in perspective. Solinsky
had just run over 5.7 miles at an under-
4:30 mile pace. He then ran the final
half-mile at about a 3:53 mile pace. It
was absolutely insane to see someone
(who I found out later had never com-
peted in the 10k before) fly past some
of the fastest runners in the world.
Not surprisingly, Solinsky set the
American record.What was surprising
was that he broke it by 14 seconds. He
ran the fastest time ever for a non-
African,and it was right here on Stan-
ford campus. Oh, and the record he
broke? Also set at this same meet,nine
years ago.Meanwhile,Chelanga broke
his own collegiate record by about 20
seconds, and Rupp finished a measly
fourth. And still beat the previous
American record.
Needless to say,watching someone
obliterate an American record was a
unique opportunity, and that’s just the
kind of thing we get to see as Stanford
students.
That same night,I had the pleasure
of watching Stanford men’s volleyball
win the MPSF Tournament and secure
the No. 1 seed for this weekend’s
NCAA Tournament. Last week, I de-
scribed how fun volleyball matches
are, so I will spare you all another in
depth play-by-play of Saturday’s vol-
leyball match.
Instead, I’d just like to point out
again how lucky we are to have these
viewing opportunities.As the top seed
in the MPSF, Stanford got to host the
MPSF Tournament, and, this year,
Maples Pavilion has the privilege of
hosting the four-team NCAA Tourna-
ment.
I say all this primarily because I
enjoy sports, but I also want to get the
attention of all sports fans in the area.
Stanford boasts an enormous number
of premier sporting events, and it
New NCAA
proposal is
worrisome
Stanford is a sports lover’s dream
L ast week, the NCAA Board
of Directors announced
that the NCAA Men’s Bas-
ketball Tournament field
would expand to 68 teams
from the current 65 for next March’s
tournament, pending the approval of
the body’s men’s basketball commit-
tee.
While the airwaves and Internet
sports blogs were abuzz with talk of the
expansion and its repercussions, an-
other announcement from the Board
was buried in the media whirlwind —
a recommendation to require football
players to complete nine units during
the fall semester (i.e. during the sea-
son) in order to remain eligible for the
next season.
At first glance, this may seem like a
sensible proposal. As the NCAA and
its two big sports, football and men’s
basketball, have become more and
more like big-money enterprises, the
idea of the “student-athlete”has fallen
by the wayside to a significant degree.
Requiring a certain amount of course-
work from players can only be a good
thing, right?
That’s actually wrong, as it turns
out. No matter which way you look at
it,a nine-unit requirement simply can’t
say anything good about the NCAA.
Let’s start with the fact that most
colleges have minimum per-semester
(or per-quarter) unit requirements
that are already higher than the pro-
posed NCAA floor. As some of you
may know, Stanford students must
take at least 12 units per quarter to re-
main enrolled full-time — varsity ath-
letic teams, including the football team
during fall quarter, are not exempt
from this requirement.
Other schools maintain similar
minimum per-semester credit require-
ments. Cal requires 12 or 13 units per
quarter based on major and Notre
Dame requires 12 per semester. Even
Nebraska requires 12 units — most
colleges have a floor of around 12 units
in place.
This fact makes the NCAA recom-
mendation for nine credits extremely
puzzling, and all possible explanations
look pretty bad (at least in my opinion)
for the organization.
The first potential rationale is fairly
straightforward: with its academic
credibility in tatters, the NCAA needs
some way to make it seem like it still
cares about whether or not its athletes
actually learn anything while in col-
lege.
A requirement that does exactly
nothing to change the status quo ac-
complishes this purpose quite well.
When confronted with allegations that
it doesn’t care about academics for
football players, the organization can
point to this requirement as evidence
that it is trying to promote learning as
much as possible. However, when the
proposal doesn’t actually do anything,
it turns into a pure public relations
stunt that can enhance the NCAA’s
reputation without meeting any resist-
ance from its member schools.
While this motivation is pretty bad,
the other two explanations I can think
of are even more sinister.
The NCAA could be instituting this
requirement as a way to impose out-
side controls on powerful athletic de-
partments that have found ways to cir-
cumvent the minimum-unit require-
ments of their respective universities.
At some schools, the athletic depart-
ment is often one of the more influen-
tial players in determining policy,and it
can use this clout to ensure that foot-
ball players and other varsity athletes
are exempt from requirements to take
a certain number of units.
It is easy to see why such a policy
would be in the interest of football
programs.Their players are usually on
scholarship, which means that taking
one class in a semester doesn’t result
in wasted tuition money for the player;
less time taking classes means more
time to focus on football and ensures a
better chance of success in those class-
es; and programs are not required to
graduate their athletes, so taking
fewer units isn’t a problem since play-
ers don’t plan to graduate in four years
anyway.
To its credit, such a situation would
lend merit to the NCAA’s implemen-
tation of a nine-unit minimum. How-
ever, the existence of a systemic cir-
cumvention of minimum academic re-
quirements at a number of institutions
SPORTS
L.A. LETDOWN
By CLAUDIA LOPEZ
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Cardinal women’s water polo team had
a busy weekend in Los Angeles, resulting in a
disappointing third-place finish for Stanford.
“We were excited to play in UCLA’s new
pool for our MPSF Tournament this year,” said
senior driver Kelly Eaton. “We had played
UCLA just a couple weeks prior in that pool
and beat them handily, so I would say we
weren’t nervous to play them again.”
“Having all of the teams together for the
first time since the Irvine Tournament early in
our season was different to say the least,” said
senior driver Kelsey Holshouser. “Going in to
the tournament everyone knows that only four
teams from our conference have a chance of
making it in to the NCAA Tournament, so it is
really ‘do or die’ for everyone when we get to
this point in the season.I think having everyone
there was exciting.
“It was good practice for the NCAA Tour-
nament. In both tournaments, we have one
game a day.You have to win each game in order
to advance and there are a ton of distractions,”
Holshouser continued.“This weekend was also
the first time we haven’t played at home in a
while, so we got to practice being in a new envi-
ronment.”
Stanford began the weekend with a match
against No. 8 Arizona State. The first period
ended with a tie at 2-2, but during the second
period the Cardinal took charge, scoring three
points while holding ASU scoreless.
The match ended with a 10-5 Cardinal victo-
ry.
Freshman two-meter Annika Dries and
sophomore two-meter Melissa Seidemann
each scored two points during the game. Fresh-
man driver Vee Dunlevie, Eaton, freshman
driver Jillian Garton, sophomore driver Alyssa
Lo, sophomore driver Pallavi Menon and sen-
ior two-meter Jessica Steffens each skipped in a
single goal as well. Freshman goalkeeper Kate
Baldoni saved a total of nine shots.
The team played strongly as a whole to ad-
vance to the next day of the tournament.
On Saturday, the Cardinal faced off against
No. 5 UCLA. Stanford had a strong start, as it
lead 3-2 by the end of the first period. Each
team scored a single point during the second
period, yet during the third period the Bruins
outscored the Cardinal 3-1.
The last period only saw a single point
scored by each team,leaving UCLA with a nar-
row 7-6 victory.
“In our game versus UCLA, we could have
done many things better, including scoring
more of our six-on-five-person advantage situ-
ations,”Eaton said.“We had a lot of opportuni-
ties to score, but the ball just couldn’t find the
back of the net, and we missed all our chances
to resume the lead again, which was crucial.We
allowed UCLA to beat us even though we have
beaten them every other time we played them
this year. I’m sure we won’t let that happen
again now that we have such a bitter taste in our
mouth after that embarrassing loss this week-
end.”
Seidemann had two goals. Holshouser, sen-
ior two-meter Alex Koran,Menon and Steffens
each smashed in a single goal. Junior goalkeep-
er Amber Oland saved a total of nine shots.
“I think all of the credit has to go to UCLA
for that game and the great weekend that they
had,” Holshouser said. “We didn’t come out
ready to attack and we paid for that. We were
outplayed in the first two games of the tourna-
ment. It wasn’t that we didn’t have chances to
put the pressure on them and extend the lead
we had in the third quarter. We even had
chances in the final quarter to tie the game, but
we just couldn’t convert.”
The upset resulted in the Cardinal playing
on Sunday against California in a fight for third
place.
The Cardinal came out stronger than ever as
it demolished the Golden Bears — Cal was not
able to score a single point during the first quar-
ter while Stanford scored three.During the next
three periods, Cal only managed a single point
during each quarter while the Cardinal racked
up an impressive total of seven points overall.
Stanford was victorious with a score of 10-3.
“On Sunday we played our rivals, Cal, for
the bronze, and we beat them handily, proving
that we were a much better team than a third-
place game,” Eaton said.
Eaton and Seidemann each scored three
goals. Dries smashed in two goals. Sophomore
driver Cassie Churnside and junior driver Kim
Krueger each skipped in a single goal. Oland
saved a total of three shots while Baldoni saved
two of her own.
The Cardinal finished third in the MPSF
Tournament.
“I think [the weekend overall] was a little
disappointing,” Holshouser said.“We certainly
were not expecting to be in the third place
game, but that is the position we put ourselves
in and I think we came out and played a solid
game. It wasn’t a great game, but it got the job
done and it looked a lot better than our per-
formance on Saturday.
“This weekend was great for us in terms of
learning how to play on the road again. When
we play at home we have a lot of support for
other students, friends, family and the commu-
WOMEN’S WATER POLO
5/2 vs. California W 10-3
UP NEXT
POMONA-PITZER
(18-14)
5/14
San Diego, Calif.
4 P.M.
GAME NOTES: The No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo team
finished its MPSF season by beating Cal in the third place
game of the conference tournament. A day after being
upset by UCLA, the Cardinal came out strong against the
Golden Bears and never let up, winning by a final score of
10-3. Next, No. 1 seeded Stanford will look to advance
closer to its second NCAA title when it begins NCAA tour-
nament play against No. 8 seed Pomona-Pitzer.
Kabir
Sawhney
MASARU OKA/Staff Photographer
Senior two-meter Jessica Stefens looks to pass to her teammates. After losing to UCLA on Saturday in the MPSF tournament semifinals, the Card rebounded to crush Cal, 10-3, and take third place.
Please see SAWHNEY,page 6
Jacob
Jaffe
Fields of Failure
Please see WATER POLO,page 6
Please see JAFFE,page 6
6 ! Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Stanford Daily
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Women’s rugby falls in
national championship
to Penn State
The Stanford women’s rugby club
team finished its season Saturday
night with a loss to Penn State, who
earned its second consecutive title.
After beating Brown 43-32 on Friday
in the semifinal match at Stanford’s
Steuber Rugby Stadium, the team
faced the Lady Ruggers for the cham-
pionship. It was the sixth consecutive
time these two teams have faced each
other in the national championship
and, with its win, Penn State evened
the series at three titles apiece.
Against Brown, the Cardinal
trailed 27-24 but was able to pull out
the win by converting on late tries.
Stanford got two tries each from sen-
ior wing Jess Watkins and sopho-
more center Melanie Nacouzi, who
scored late in the game to pad Stan-
ford’s lead.
In the championship game, the
Penn State defense shut down the
Cardinal offense, which was score-
less until sophomore flanker Frances
Wehrwein scored late in the game off
a breakaway run by Watkins. Junior
wing Deven Owsiany was the star for
Penn State, scoring two tries in the
24-7 win and earning Player of the
Match honors.
—Chris Juhnke
SPORTS BRIEFS
ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily
Senior winger Jessica Watkins tries to break past a Penn State defender in the national title game at Steuber Stadium. The Cardinal faced Penn State in the na-
tional final for the sixth straight season, but couldn’t earn its fourth title, struggling against the intense defense of Penn State and falling by a final score of 24-7.
nity in general. We had crowds of
1,000 and 1,500 for the Cal and USC
game, respectively, that really got us
excited for those games. From now
on, we are going to have to find that
spark of energy within ourselves and
get ourselves ready to play.”
“We have nine practices until the
NCAA Tournament begins and we
need to get better each day,” Hol-
shouser observed. “We need to work
on all phases of our game and clean
up the problems that we saw this
weekend. Even in our last game
against Cal we can find a number of
different things we can do better.”
In about two weeks, the Cardinal
will be heading back to Southern Cal-
ifornia as it goes to San Diego to com-
pete in the National Collegiate
Championship.
“After this wake-up call, there is
no way we are going to be complacent
in the NCAA Championships,”
Eaton said. “We are sick of UCLA
winning and we are going to take
them off their NCAA pedestal. USC,
UCLA, Cal — we are not going to
show any mercy to those teams in the
NCAA Championship tournament.
We are there to win three games
whether or not they’re pretty.”
“I think as we move forward it is
going to be about taking one step at a
time,” Holshouser said. “Focus on
what we can fix over the next couple
of weeks, then concentrate on out
first opponent of the tournament and
move on from there. We need to fin-
ish each game before we start think-
ing about the next one. I really think
that any of the top four teams in the
tournament have a good chance at
winning the title.We are going to have
to prepare and focus for each of them
as we plan for the tournament.”
Yesterday, the bracket was an-
nounced and Stanford, despite its
semifinal loss to UCLA,was given the
No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tourna-
ment.The Cardinal’s first opponent in
the eight-team tournament will be
No.8 seed Pomona-Pitzer at 4 p.m.on
May 14.
Contact Claudia Lopez at cllopez@
stanford.edu.
WATER POLO
Continued from page 5
is very worrying (though, thankfully,
Stanford’s programs don’t engage in
any such chicanery).
The last possible explanation is, to
me,by far the worst one:the NCAA is
subtly signaling to schools that its ex-
pectations for football players now
stand at very low levels.
If the NCAA only asks for nine
units, athletic departments could use
that as a weapon to get reduced units
for their players.As said already, hav-
ing athletes go to class less benefits
the program in a myriad of ways with-
out really hurting it at all. In this sce-
nario, both schools and the NCAA
are colluding to reduce academic par-
ticipation. While I’ll admit that this
scenario is unlikely at best, it must be
considered given the lack of trans-
parency with which the NCAA’s
Board of Directors has made this rec-
ommendation.
Though I’m sure some people will
disagree with me,my main contention
with this recommendation is that I see
no way in which it is academically
beneficial. Putting a minimum under
already existing ones is at best a com-
pletely useless provision; at worst, it
can undercut the very system it seems
designed to enhance.
Kabir Sawhney is taking nine units
this quarter. Ask him what it’s like at
ksawhney@stanford.edu.
SAWHNEY
Continued from page 5
would be a shame if they went unno-
ticed.
Hopefully the Cardinal being two
wins away from a national champi-
onship is enough reason to head out to
Maples this weekend, but if you need
more reasons, I’d be all too happy to
help out.
Jacob Jaffe has 101 reasons why you
should love Stanford sports. To get a
full list, e-mail him at jwjaffe@stan-
ford.edu.
JAFFE
Continued from page 5