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CARDINAL TODAY

A n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o nwww.stanforddaily.comThe Stanford DailyTHURSDAY Volume 239May 12, 2011 Issue 61

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

More than 20 protestors converged in White PlazaWednesday afternoon to rally on behalf of 29 janitorswho are set to lose their jobs this June. The StanfordLabor Action Coalition organized the rally in protestof UGL (UNICCO) Services, a services subcontrac-tor that jointly employs the janitors with StanfordUniversity.

Last December,the Universitys contract with UGLServices, which replaced a preceding contract withABM, initiated a complex rehiring process. UGL Ser-vices was contractually obligated to offer all ABMworkers the opportunity to keep their jobs. However,several of the workers did not meet background checkand identity verification criteria that were stipulated byfederal law,University officials said in January.

The issue has not yet been completely resolved.Wednesdays rally aimed to save the janitors jobs bypressuring UGL Services and the University adminis-

Scholar initiates lecture series withthoughts on politics, past and present

Rally aims to pressure University, UGLservices to save the jobs of 29 janitors

City officials detail budget proposalTentative plans call for concessions from local labor groups

By MARIANNE LEVINESTAFF WRITER

Palo Alto is in the midst of finalizing itsoperating budget for fiscal year 2012.A se-ries of budget hearings by the Palo AltoCity Council and Finance Committee willtake place this month, including a specialmeeting today at the council chambers.

The city plans to modify the existingbudget in several ways,with a primary focuson concessions for safety labor groups.Theproposed budget would also adjust spend-ing to confront the effects of the recent eco-nomic recession.

In the FY 2012 operating budget pro-posal, City Manager James Keene revealsthat the combination of lower sales tax rev-

enues and increasing costs for employeebenefits has forced the city council to re-evaluate the budget. The proposed generalfund budget is $146 million, which repre-sents a 2.7 percent increase from the FY2011 budget. According to the document,the total city budget will be $463 million, a3.2 percent increase from last year.

In an email to The Daily,Director of Ad-ministrative Services Lalo Perez explainedthat the budget changes are a response tothe costs of healthcare and pension plans,which are increasing much faster than cityrevenues.

We need to make changes to our safetypension plans, similar to those that the non-safety staff changes already made, Perezsaid. We have a two-tier pension system

that reduces the benefits for non-safetystaff and, therefore, the cost to the city. Inaddition, we seek employee contributionsto healthcare premiums.

According to Pamela Antil,assistant citymanager,a primary change is an increase inconcessions from labor groups in both thepolice and fire departments.

The largest portion of our general funddollars goes to pay the salaries and benefitsof our employees . . . A critical componentof the citys ability to maintain quality serv-ices for the community, in the face of declin-ing revenues and growing personnel costs,has been working with labor groups overthe last several years to achieve wage and

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Wilentz talks

partisanshipin America

By BILLY GALLAGHERDESK EDITOR

Sean Wilentz,a professor at Princeton Univer-sity, spoke yesterday to an audience of mostlyprofessors and members of the Stanford commu-nity.

The talk was the first of Wilentzs two events inthe 2011 Wesson Lecture Series, entitled TheLong and Tragical History of Post-Partisanship.It was endowed by Robert G. Wesson and spon-sored by the Center for Ethics and Society.

Wilentz explained that the pair of lectures isrelated to contemporary politics, but is actuallyrooted in historical concerns. He noted that heplanned to focus on the first 100 years of Ameri-can history before speeding to the present.

The lectures are much more like road mapsthan they are like pieces of evaluation, Wilentzsaid.

Wilentz discussed a divide between PresidentBarack Obamas post-partisanship rhetoric dur-ing his campaign and later Gallup polls showingObama as the most divisive president in his firsttwo years of office.He predicted that post-parti-sanship rhetoric would reappear in the 2012 pres-idential elections and might be used againstObama.

He then proceeded to examine the develop-ment of early political parties in America.Wilentz

focused on George Washingtons 1796 farewelladdress,which he said provided the locus of anti-party thought.Wilentz believed the speech,whichhas been commonly viewed as an Olympianstatement, was in fact deeply political in re-gards to the Adams-Jefferson race for President.

Wilentz emphasized that the ideas on parti-sanship throughout American history are not allthe same, though there are communal threadsrunning through them. Most notable amongthese threads is a desire to see political conflictreplaced by high-minded collaboration.

Wilentz is a contributing editor to The NewRepublic and Newsweek and has written approx-imately 300 articles,reviews and op-ed pieces forpublications such as The New York Times, TheLos Angeles Times and The New York Review ofBooks. His major work to date, 2005s The Riseof American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln,received the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist forthe Pulitzer Prize.

UNIVERSITY

Protest in WhitePlaza supportscampus janitors

Great minds convene at BiblioTech

JIN ZHU/The Stanford Daily

Entrepreneurial leaders in Silicon Valley and Stanford humanities scholars convened at the BiblioTech conference yesterday. June Cohen92, executive procuder of TED Media, spoke about the desire to learn and described human storytelling as the oldest form of media.

JIN ZHU/The Stanford Daily

The Stanford Labor Action Coalition led a rally in White Plaza yesterday. The protestors hoped to convince Stanford and its subcon-tractor, UGL Services, to perserve the jobs of 29 janitors who would otherwise be unemployed in June due to contractual changes.

Please see BUDGET,page 2Please seeWILENTZ,page 2

Please see PROTEST,page 2

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NEWS BRIEFS

2NThursday, May 12, 2011 The Stanford Daily

School board alters

calendar

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

Early yesterday, the Palo AltoUnified School District (PAUSD)

Board of Education voted 3-2 infavor of changing the current districtcalendar. The change will be imple-mented next year,with classes slatedto start Aug.16 and end May 30.Thechange will also remain in effect forthe 2013-14 academic year.

The decision to alter the academ-ic calendar so that school begins ear-lier in August materialized after acharged five-hour discussion. Whilesome attendees said the changewould disrupt family traditions,oth-ers favored the change because itwould allow students to wrap uptheir first academic semester beforewinter break.

The latter group cited stress-re-lief as one reason for supporting thechange.At Stanford, School of Edu-cation senior lecturer Denise ClarkPope was one advocate of the newacademic calendar.

An Le Nguyen

Report urges

rethinking of high-

speed-rail plan

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

The proposed high-speed-railsystem faces weak oversight and willcost much more than initially antici-pated,according to a report releasedby the state Legislative Analysts Of-fice. The controversial project wasapproved by voters in November2008 but has since faced mountingcriticism and great financial uncer-tainty,especially in light of the ongo-ing state budget crisis.

Although the project was pro-jected to cost $43 billion, new esti-mates put the price tag at $63 billion,with the segment between San Fran-cisco and Los Angeles slated to costmuch more than the initial proposalhad anticipated.

The report called for either shift-ing the project to the California De-partment of Transportation (Cal-trans), which has more expertise inthis field, or to a newly created statedepartment dedicated to the project.Under the current system, the proj-ect is headed by the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), a

group of nine appointed boardmembers, several paid staffers andhundreds of consultants. Thisarrangement, the report argued,gives CHSRA too much autonomyand not enough accountability to thestate government.

CHSRA was also sharply criti-cized for its flawed business plan,and the report predicted that most ofthe revenue that the agency hopes toreap would fail to materialize. Acited example was the agencys gam-ble that it would receive $17 billionto $19 billion in federal funds sofar, only $3.6 billion has been grant-ed and the majority in the House of

Representatives has opposed anyfurther funding.

The report also recommendedthat the state legislature reject therail authoritys 2011-12 budget re-quest for $185 million to fund projectdevelopment and instead allocateonly $7 million to the agency. Thatamount would be used to identify

the best two options to begin con-struction. Unless federal deadlinesare renegotiated and the projectsgovernance structure is revamped,the report argued that the projectshould be halted altogether.

Ivy Nguyen

Humanities,tech

meet at BiblioTech

conference

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

Silicon Valley business leadersand Stanford humanities scholars

convened on Wednesday for Bib-lioTech, a conference looking tostrengthen ties between the twogroups as the nationwide discussionabout the relevance of the humani-ties and the value of a humanitiesPh.D. continues.

Speakers from Google, TEDMedia,Sequoia Capital and other firmscame to campus to discuss how doctor-al students in humanities can con-tribute to the tech industry and how Sil-icon Valley can reap Stanford talent.

The conference came in an erawhere we can no longer make dis-tinctions between the humanities,the sciences and the social sciences,said co-organizer Anais Saint-Jude,adoctoral student studying 17th cen-tury French theater.

One keynote speaker, MarissaMayer 97 M.S. 99, discussed entrypoints for humanities doctoral stu-dents in the Valley, including socialmedia,marketing,product design andmore.Mayer is the vice president forconsumer products at Google.

Stanford President John Hen-nessy, himself a former technologyentrepreneur who retains invest-ments in Silicon Valley and serves onthe boards of Cisco and Google, de-livered opening remarks on Wednes-day morning. In a statement, Hen-nessy called the conferencegroundbreaking.

Other speakers included PatrickByrne of Overstock.com, JuneCohen of TED Media, John HagelIII of Deloitte Center for Edge,Damon Horowitz of Google,

Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capitaland Vivek Ranadive of TIBCO.Horowitz and Byrne hold doctoratesfrom Stanford.

The conference was sponsored bya litany of groups within Stanford,ranging from Hennessys office tothe English department to the Ca-reer Development Center.

The days when you can expectto get a teaching position with aPh.D. are gone, said co-organizerDavid Palumbo-Liu, a professor ofcomparative literature. Things arefar less certain than they used to be.

Elizabeth Titus

It was an interesting talk onareas of American history I knewlittle about, said Kieran Ober-man, a postdoctoral scholar in po-

litical science, who completed his

Ph.D.at Oxford University.The second lecture in the seriesis tonight from 5:30 to 7 p.m. inBuilding 360, room 105. A discus-sion seminar is set to take place onFriday from 10 a.m.to 12 p.m.

Contact Billy Gallagher at wmg2014@stanford.edu.

WILENTZContinued from front page

benefit concessions, the budgetproposal reads.

The proposed budget projectsthat the city will receive about $4.3million in concessions from thelabor groups in police and fire,Antil wrote in an email to TheDaily.If those concessions are notachieved,the budget staff will haveto come back to the city council forconsideration of other operatingand service cuts.

Antil said she was confident thatthese concessions would be met.According to Perez,if labor groupsare unable to meet these condi-tions,Palo Alto will be forced to im-plement reductions in its safety pro-grams first.

Apart from the concessionchanges, Perez indicated that Palo

Alto plans to use a $1 million place-holder to create an Office of Emer-gency Services. Perez said staffmembers are working on thespecifics of the new office. Thefunds for this development will in-clude staff and non-salary items as-sociated with community emer-gency preparedness, which is acouncil priority,he said.

Perez emphasized that the im-pact of the proposed FY 2012 budg-et is contingent on whether or notthe labor groups agree to providethe concessions. If the labor groupsdo not act accordingly, cutting thesafety programs would be one offew ways to balance the citys budg-et. The city may also need to makebudget reductions during the fiscalmidyear timeframe.

In addition to these points, theproposed budget incorporatesplans to continue to improve PaloAltos infrastructure by renovatinglibraries as well as increasing sus-tainable practices within the com-

munity. Furthermore, the proposaloutlines the citys intentions to con-tinuously upgrade its infrastructureby proactively repairing and replac-ing utilities.

According to the tentative budg-et, the city intends to support Cal-trains efforts to develop a long-term financial plan.Another priori-ty is the promotion of programs fo-cusing on youth well being.

Antil expressed optimism aboutthe budget proposal.

The main goal of the budgetcontinues to be to provide thehighest level of desired and en-hanced services to the communitywithin our means, while still beingmindful of changes that are immi-nent in the future with regard tosustainability,infrastructure needsand changes in technology and itsapplication to the services we pro-vide,Antil said.

Contact Marianne LeVine atmlevine2@stanford.edu.

BUDGETContinued from front page

tration to take action.According to Eric Griffis 12, a

member of the Stanford Labor Ac-tion Coalition, most of the janitorshave worked at Stanford Universityfor many years some for decades.

Stanford continues to shirk re-sponsibility for this issue by claim-ing that only UGL determines hir-ing and firing even though UGLwould clearly respond to the needsof its client, Stanford,Griffis wrotein an email to The Daily.

In addition to yesterdays rally one of several this year the Stan-ford Labor Action Coalition has dis-tributed flyers, enlisted the help ofother student activist groups and or-ganized worker-student councilmeetings on the issue. Griffis saidthe coalition also emailed workers inother unions at Stanford and initiat-ed a petition on behalf of the jani-

tors.The petition alleges, UNICCOand Stanford are blatantly violatingthe Northern California MaintenanceContractors Agreement with ServiceEmployees International Union,Local 1877,the union that representsthe workers.Thus far,it has accruedmore than 2,000 signatures.

An Le Nguyen

PROTESTContinued from front page

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The Stanford Daily Thursday, May 12, 2011N 3

By SUZANNE STATHATOS

It was just late last month thatproducers released the new X-Men:First Class international trailer.Butyesterday,Paul Brest Hall was filledwith students and faculty eagerlyawaiting the appearance of the up-coming films Sebastian Shaw.Fulfilling expectations, Footloose,Apollo 13 and Animal House starKevin Bacon took his place in thecluster of burgundy leather chairson stage.

Ideas of social media and socialchange came together on May 11 asJennifer Aaker, Stanford GSB pro-fessor and author of The DragonflyEffect, Bill Strathmann, CEO ofNetwork for Good, and Baconspoke about the evolving, interac-tive form of social good socialnetworking.

The Haas Center for Public Ser-vice helped sponsor this event be-cause of the One Degree servicechallenge associated with the talk, acontest SixDegrees created forStanford students to propose chari-table ideas involving social media.

The challenge that preceded itgets students thinking differentlyabout public service and about howsocial networking can be used forthe common good, said Thomas J.Schnaubelt, assistant vice provostand executive director of Haas.

Aaker admitted her initial skep-ticism of social media. In 2008, sheattributed social media to threethings narcissism, stalking andlack of concentration.

But everything changed over asummer at UC-Berkeley. Some ofher students showed her a Power-Point on the impact of social mediaand its effect on two mens lives.Themen, Sameer Bhatia and VinayChakravarthy, harnessed socialmedia to register over 20,000 SouthAsian bone marrow donors forcures over the course of only a fewweeks.

Bhatia and Chakravarthy had afour-point mantra focus on a

single goal, grab attention, tell astory and enable others to act.After listening to this,all I could

think about was, What could I donow?Aaker recalled.

Aaker now works closely withStanford students on social mediaand the 100K Cheeks Campaign.

The goal of the organization isto utilize some principles of TheDragonfly Effect and to create toolsto allow other people to take ac-

tion,said Vineet Singal 12, a mem-ber of 100K Cheeks.

The focus then moved to Baconas he described what motivated himto start SixDegrees.

I was at a point in my life whereI was feeling as though I was doinglittle things here and there, and Icould keep doing little things,Bacon said.But I felt like I wantedto make a difference.

Bacon expected Six Degrees, atrivia game based on his celebritysocial web,to eventually fade out.

I thought it was going to goaway; I thought it was a joke at myexpense, he said. It didnt goaway.

So, Bacon embraced his brand,but he wanted to take himself out of

the equation.He asked celebrities tochoose charities to write about on hiswebsite. However, he realized thatcelebrity faces alone arent enoughto convince people to donate.

Most people get connected tocauses through the people they real-ly have a connection with, he said.

Schnaubelt recognized the po-tential of social media, but pointedout some of its imperfections.

We need to recognize that thistool also has limitations, he said.Social media relationships arent areplacement for real relationships.People didnt go to Tahrir Square

just because somebody tweetedthem. They likely went becausesomeone they really knew tweetedthem.

The same thing will likely be

true of using social media with anyform of public service,Schnaubeltadded.

When asked if social mediamight have a negative impact on so-cial activism, Bacon replied, Itshere.Its not going away.So why notsee if its a tool for good?

Aaker echoed Bacon,describingany dichotomy between social andtraditional media as a thing of thepast.

Anyone whos doing any mar-keting, any branding, any social ac-tivism, theyre thinking how theyrehere right now and how socialmedia complements groundbreak-ing acts, she said.

Strathmann recognized that so-cial media groups for social change

do have the potential to fail, whichhe said can occur when groups dontprovide a very clear and simple ac-tionor when actions are too com-plicated.

After fielding questions from theaudience, the panel introduced thethree finalists of Bacons One De-gree challenge.

The three finalists NetEffect,Billionaire Effect and Dispatch andResponse each gave presenta-

tions on their ideas.I think all three ideas are ab-

solutely remarkable, Bacon said,announcing Billionaire Effect asthe final winner.There are aspects

of all of them that could be used.The talk closed fittingly withAaker describing how to realizechange.

Most revolutions are sparkedby the actions of a few ordinarypeople, and your biggest mind is aclear mind and a very large idea,she said.

Contact Suzanne Stathatos at sstat@stanford.edu.

KYLE ANDERSON/The Stanford Daily

On Wed, May 11, at Paul Best Hall, Kevin Bacon talked to students about the social good of social media.GSB professor Jennifer Aaker and Network for Good CEO Bill Strathmann joined Bacon for the discussion andthe announcement of the One Degree challenge winner.

CAMPUS LIFE

On the burner:Bacons Six DegreesActor promotes socialmedia as a force forsocial change

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Everybody lied to me,guys.Foryears, I had heard about howgoing abroad was supposed to

be an easy GPA boost, no work andpartying every night.Problem is, Imhere in Oxford and Ive probablydone more work in four weeks than ausual quarter back on the Farm. Awise,wise man once wrote,Nobody

said it was easy, no one ever said itwould be this hard. I think that cer-tainly holds true in this case.

Between all of my commitments,Im supposed to write 3,000 wordsevery week. If you think that 3,000words doesnt sound too bad, try tofill up 15 pages in Microsoft Wordevery week while reading two orthree books and trying to travel a lit-tle bit on the weekends. Its kind ofnuts. I almost forgot that I had towrite a column this week because ofmy pressing academic work butdont fear: Im still here. I think thebiggest slap in the face is that Im onlygetting 13 units from this quarter.Se-riously? Somehow,Stanford deems atutorial that requires you to write2,500 words a week as only worthy ofsix units.Honestly, the writing Ill do

for my tutorial alone probably equalsthe amount of writing Id do in a fullquarter at Stanford.

Oh, and then, the worst is that Ihave to hear about all of my friends inother Bing programs who are doingalmost zero work. Somehow writinga story in Spanish is equal to my 12pages on why the English school of

international relations differs fromconstructivism. Some of my friendsare actually taking more units than Iam and going out six nights a week!So all of you who are in Madrid orParis or Berlin, live it up while youcan.

Im writing 3,000 words a week.Im being run academically ragged.

My average bedtime has probablyshifted toward 4 a.m., and I pull anaverage of one all-nighter a week.But heres the weird thing:I love it. Idont think Ive ever felt more aca-demically stimulated in my life. Imobviously partial to the Americanway of teaching,but the tutorial sys-tem is an absolutely brilliant inven-tion.There have of course been timesback at Stanford where I would blowoff my reading and have to bullshitmy way through section, but theresno possible way of doing that in a tu-torial here. (Note to self: ask Oxfordstudents if bullshitting a tutorialpaper is actually possible.) Youre ac-tually forced to sit down, read a fewbooks,formulate a worthwhile argu-ment and then defend it in a one-on-one setting. Furthermore, Im study-

ing the exact topic I wanted to focuson:post-Cold War international rela-tions.My tutorial is nothing more andnothing less.Its unlike anything Iveever done before and its incrediblyrefreshing.

Theres also a certain amount ofcamaraderie here in the Oxford pro-gram inherent with so much work

being constantly due. When every-one around you is in the same boat ofbeing absolutely overwhelmed withwork,you learn to develop sympathyfor others and make friends prettyquickly.

Honestly, I think certain classesback at Stanford could benefit a lotfrom a system like this.I feel like Ivelearned more about international re-lations in two weeks than I did in anentire quarter of Political Science 1.For the record,thats not a condem-nation or disparagement of ourteaching resources or classes back atStanford. Rather, its simply a prod-uct of a completely new learning ex-perience in an almost surreal envi-ronment. The academic componenthere has just been fantastic.

So again, all of you previouslymentioned Bing folks spread aroundEurope,enjoy your wild nights whilethey last.Im sure papers are going toterrify you when you finally get backto campus in the fall.While you havea questionably-fueled night at a ravein the Marais,Im forced to deal witha Red Bull-fueled night in MagdalenCollege Library to write about dem-ocratic peace theory. (And heres thebest part: I still get to party, too!)Honestly,I wouldnt have it any otherway.

You can email Shane at savitsky@stan-ford.edu, but any response would in-crease his weekly word count. Do youreally want to do that to him?

Idont care how long (or short) of atime youve spent lounging in theStanford bubble. If you havent

popped out yet to see a sea otter, Ihave an assignment for you: Dropeverything and get to the coast.Charismatic fur balls await.

Today, sea otters are the posterchildren of cuddle appeal, but theirendearing behaviors were lost on thefur hunters of the 1800s. Otter furlined jackets (and the fur trade linedpockets), but soon otters no longerlined the Pacific Coast.

The sea otter, however, is a key-stone species its impact on ourcoastal ecosystems is disproportion-

ately large compared to its naturalabundance in the marine community so its removal had profound effectsthat we only noticed recently, as theotter staged a dramatic return overthe last 70 years.

Otters like shellfish. So much sothat where otters live,abalone and seaurchins are rare.Urchins eat kelp, soonce otters devour the urchins, kelpgrows in abundance.Thats good newsfrom a restoration perspective:the re-turn of the otter has also meant the re-turn of kelp forests,historically morenatural than rocky urchin barrens.And it makes the seaweed industryhappy (kelp products turn up in icecream and toothpaste, among otherthings).But plenty of fishermen findthe change less palatable:the (now de-funct) abalone industry, for example,arose largely because the loss of ottersled to a population explosion in thesnails. In the sea otters absence, wehumans partially assumed the role oftop predator, a role were hesitant torelinquish.

Although the otter drama has dieddown, other predator comebacks re-main controversial.Wolves, which ex-erted top-down controls on herbivorepopulations all across the northernportion of our continent, are slowly(under the stewardship of biologistsand conservationists) regaining theirecological foothold in places like Yel-lowstone National Park.Where oncean ecosystem was falling apart at theseams (overgrazing by elk decimatedforests, leading to a lack of properdam-building materials and many un-

happy beavers; shifting vegetationchanged the face of the park and itscomplement of animal species),wolves have almost magically stabi-lized it. For biologists observing thesystem, the reintroduction of wolvesmust have been like finding the miss-ing key and unlocking a treasure trove.

Of course, most of the nearbyranchers would rather the key hadbeen permanently lost. Their treas-ures are their herds, and wolves areoften blamed for any loss of stock. I,for one,am glad the wolves are back toplaying their native role and hop-ing they extend their range East, tocontrol a deer population explosionthats decimating my childhoodforests. Hiking past the leafless stalksof what should be the next generationof trees, Im frequently willing to

shoot Bambi myself.The dramatic and complex effects

stemming from the loss of top preda-tors (and the reversals associated withtheir return) is not unique to these sys-tems. Such trophic cascades(trophic for food chain, cascadefor the direct and indirect ripplesspreading downward through the sys-tem) have been found around theworld.As we continue to monitor theaccidental experiments created byhuman impacts, well doubtless findmany more examples.

Will this knowledge help us predictthe effects of future species losses?

Probably not. Ecology is a com-plex science,and its overriding conclu-sion is that,well,its complicated.In

some cases,apex predators and theirtop-down cascading effects rule thesystem.In other situations,though,thecontrols are bottom-up,and the com-munity is limited by nutrients,the rateof plant growth or some other funda-mental factor. And, because wereseeing all these systems as snapshots

(often heavily impacted by human ac-tivity),its hard to guess where the realbalance between these two regimeslies.

One thing is clear,though.We arean inextricable part of the system. Ofcourse, we always have been. But be-fore we learned to use oil for cheapenergy,before we domesticated cropsand settled onto farms,before we or-ganized ourselves into hunter-gather-er clans,our own cascades were muchsmaller.

Today,though,we are thekeystonespecies.Our top-down effects cascadethrough the system when we fish outtop predators like sharks or when weshoot the one mountain lion foundroaming in Redwood City. Our bot-tom-up effects transform ecosystemprocesses when we add fertilizers orpollute landscapes.

Our ability to modify the world hasevolved faster than the worlds abilityto deal with our modifications. Ofcourse, theres a growing feeling thatwe should try to limit these modifica-tions not least because theyre put-ting our future existence on this plan-et in serious jeopardy.

In a few pet systems, especiallyhere in America,we entertain dreamsof systems restoredto the way theymust have lookedbefore us.But un-less our population shrinks dramati-cally, it will be very hard to avoidpressing all of our accessible land area and most of our coastal waters into direct human service.

So perhaps the real moral from thestory of the otter,or of the wolf, is to

impose our will with impunity,under-standing that ecosystem cascades,liketrue waterfalls, are incredibly power-ful,sometimes beautiful and often im-possible to control.

Holly welcomes fully-clothed readercomments and suggestions via email athollyvm@stanford.edu.

4NThursday, May 12, 2011 The Stanford Daily

OPINIONSManaging Editors

The Stanford DailyE s t a b l i s h e d 1 8 9 2 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S P A P E R I n c o r p o r a t e d 1 9 7 3

Kate AbbottDeputy Editor

An Le NguyenManaging Editor of News

Nate AdamsManaging Editor of Sports

Kathleen ChaykowskiManaging Editor of Features

Lauren WilsonManaging Editor of Intermission

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Kristian BaileyColumns Editor

Stephanie WeberHead Copy Editor

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Business Staff

Begm ErdoganSales Manager

Board of Directors

Zach ZimmermanPresident and Editor in Chief

Mary Liz McCurdyChief Operating Officer

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Michael Londgren

Robert Michitarian

Jane LePham

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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 bereached 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@stanforddaily.com.Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

Tonights Desk Editors

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Jack Blanchat

Sports Editor

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Features Editor

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Photo Editor

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Copy Editor

SEEING GREEN

Going Topless

Apparently, Oxford Is a Good School

THIS COLUMN IS IRONIC

The class of 78 wore white armbandsagainst their black graduation robes toprotest apartheid in South Africa.

Tuesday, the Students ConfrontingApartheid by Israel (SCAI) implored Stan-ford to divest from companies profiting fromIsraeli military occupation of Palestinianland. I didnt see any armbands,and it wasntthe SCAIs fault. Its that when you walk upto most Stanford students and try to interestthem in divestment,more often than not theycould care less.

Stanford University: a school dedicated tothe blowing winds of freedom, strewn withanguished Rodin sculptures and smilingtourists;my question:when did the tourists re-place the hippies? You can do anything here,create the next six-figure iPhone app,make astart-up your sophomore year,everything ex-cept go to class,toss a ball and linger at dinnerwith your classmates. Forget the Farm, thisplace is the Lab. Students are fed opportunitywith 10 silver spoons, and the options over-

whelm them. Instead of sitting with the feel-ing of not knowing what it is they want to dowith their lives, students take off in all 10 di-rections at once. Some dont have time forclass.Most dont have time to run around andtoss a ball, and none have time to stay at din-ner any longer than it takes them to shoveldown their food.

My fathers Stanford was about sitting onthe grass and shooting the breeze.Playing Ul-timate barefoot on Roble Field. My Stanfordshoots emails, texts,anything to increase effi-ciency and decrease face-time. My Stanfordneeds Frisbee cleats. Where are the artists?The hippies? The movers and shakers?

The irony is,my fathers movers and shak-ers were the same privileged kids as the stu-dents Im charging with complacency. Andmaybe they werent all that different from theassholes down the hall in my freshman dorm.Maybe my dad was the asshole down the hall.But for all their privilege and cluelessness andself-interest,they didnt have the option to in-

dulge short attention spans with Facebookprofiles or iPhone screens.They too were fedby silver spoons, just not as many. If there isany instance where less is more, I argue it isthe number of silver spoons jabbing at a stu-dents mouth to grab her attention.

I know my diamond shoes are tootight; I have access to all those spoons,and in-stead of taking advantage of Stanford,I com-plain,No one here wants to sit in the sun andpretend to know about politics with me! Iassure you I would not write this if I didntbelieve something vital to the health of mystudent body were at stake. When studentsare spread so thin between being Olympiansand entrepreneurs, many miss the wholepoint of attending college.They get jaded, orclose-minded or lonely. I miss the point agood deal of the time; Im too busy to careabout divestment, or the Dalai Lamas visitto campus or the girl upstairs who needssomeone to talk to.

It feels like a terrible waste of privilege to

be at Stanford and feel jaded. I want to carepassionately about divestment, and I dontthink that joining one more politically correctclub is the solution. Call me a romantic, but Ihave a hunch the solution starts with sittingon the grass and shooting the breeze. Afterall,how am I going to care passionately aboutpeople harmed by Israeli settlements if Imtoo busy to care about the people around me?This is an invitation to my generation to takethe time with me to learn how to care aboutpeople again. Take a break from your honorstheses, your coding, your weightlifting, andlook me in the eye and talk to me. Lets strumthe same three chords on guitar for an hourand sing our hearts out. Lets get sidetrackedtogether,and let the long-term goals go for amoment. Were still younglets act like it.We cant go back to 1978, but maybe we canslow down 2011 until we get our prioritiesstraight.

RENEE DONOVAN,14

OP-ED

Somehow writing a

story in Spanish is

equal to my 12 pages

on why the English

school of international

relations differs from

constructivism.

HollyMoeller

ShaneSavitsky

My Fathers Stanford

8/6/2019 DAILY 05.12.11

5/8

The Stanford Daily Thursday, May 12, 2011N 5

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By KEVIN ZHANGDAILY SPORTS INTERN

The top-ranked Stanfordwomens water polo team travels tothe National Collegiate Champi-onship in Ann Arbor this weekendwith a couple of lofty goals:a success-ful tournament would give the Cardi-nal its first national championshipsince 2002 and earn a 101st team title

for Stanford athletics as a whole.After Stanford earned a third-place finish with a 2-1 record in theMountain Pacific Sports Federation

(MPSF) tournament, the Cardinal(25-1) heads into the NCAA Tourna-ment via an at-large bid. Even afterthe third-place finish, the squad willhave the number-one seed in theeight-team tournament.

Three of Stanfords MPSF rivalswill be traveling to the NCAA Tour-nament as well:Cal,USC and UCLAall got the call to Ann Arbor. Theother four teams are automatic qual-

ifiers that won their respective con-ferences: UC-Irvine from the BigWest Conference, Indiana from theCollegiate Water Polo Association,

UC-San Diego from the WesternWater Polo Association and IonaCollege from the Metro AtlanticAthletic Conference.

Other than the one blemish at theMPSF Tournament, Stanford hasdemonstrated its prowess in tourna-ments,with undefeated records at theMichigan Kickoff, Stanford Invita-tional and UC-Irvine Invitational.

Weve been a good tournament

team because we play a lot of peopleand keep attacking teams,said Stan-ford head coach John Tanner. Thisweekend we will continue to use our

bench and push for goals in all phas-es of offense.

The one tournament blemishcame in a game against UCLA thatStanford lost 9-8, ending the Cardi-nals 24-game winning streak.

We had several lapses againstUCLA,particularly in the middle ofthe game,where we went significantperiods without generating big stopsor finishing quality chances,Tanner

said.Stanford will continue to lean on

In baseball,perhaps more so than any other sport,theres a lot of down time. With a 35-man roster andample time to think, nicknames are inevitable.

With the chattering in the dugout during games,thenicknames become ingrained in the team and are avital part of keeping life in the dugout interesting.

They dont have to be funny, meaningful, or cre-ative,but most of them mix a little of each. Heres a lit-

tle sample of some of the nicknames on our team:

Sophomore first baseman Justin Ringo: CaveMan

Sophomore center fielder:Jake Stewart:Scoob-a-doob-doob,Stewie,Stewman.

Freshman right fielder Austin Wilson: Big Willy,Black Stealth.

Senior outfielder Dave Giuliani: Italian Stallion,Meatball.

Senior catcher Zach Jones:McDopeboy. Freshman second baseman Lonnie Kauppila:

Kappi,Ron. Junior pitcher Allan Talt: Tall-T,TreeBeard. Junior outfielder Jack Mosbacher:Simple Jack,16

to 24.

Sophomore center fielder Tyler Gaffney: DanceNation,T Gaff.

Sophomore shortstop Kenny Diekroeger: Cup-cake.

Senior pitcher Danny Sandbrink: Grandpa,Renegade of Funk,Pup.

Sophomore third baseman Stephen Piscotty: Es-calito.

6NThursday, May 12, 2011 The Stanford Daily

SPORTS BRIEFS

SPORTS

Teams

need a

nuisance

That guy is so annoying.Its not something you

want to hear about your-self at a frat party, but itmight be the ultimate

sports compliment from an oppo-nent.

While watching the Mavericks-Lakers series, my friend uttered thatphrase in regard to J.J. Barea. Andwhile my friend is no more a Lakersfan than Paul Pierce, his conclusionwas fairly obvious to anyone watch-ing that series.

Barea all 75 pounds of him (ifhes actually six feet tall, Im YaoMing) got under the skin of everyplayer on the Lakers.His nagging de-fense,exaggerated flops and surpris-ing offensive bursts were big reasonswhy the Lakers went from two-timechampions to embarrassing under-

achievers in the span of one round.The 11.5 points and 5.5 assists he av-eraged over the course of the fourgames certainly played a big role,butthe little things the annoyances, ifyou will may have done even moreto derail the Lakers quest for anoth-er three-peat.

Take Ron Artest in Game 2.WhileArtest might have the shortest fuse inthe league,Barea did just enough tolight it, causing Artest to commit oneof the silliest flagrant fouls you willever see (it was halfway betweenclotheslining the Rock and rippingthe mask off a Scooby Doo villain).That got Artest banned for a game,which might have been the differencebetween Dallas going for the sweepin Game 4 and the Lakers attemptingto tie the series.

Just two games later,after Bareasbest game as a pro helped the Maver-

By REBECCA HANLEYCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Two weeks after taking theMountain Pacific Sports Federationtitle,Stanford lacrosse will travel toGainesville, Fla., to take on theFlorida Gators in the first round ofthe NCAA Tournament.The trip toGainesville will mark Cardinalssecond consecutive year in theNCAA Tournament and just itsthird appearance in history.

The two will match up for thefirst time ever, with the Gatorsstarting a lacrosse program just oneyear ago.The Cardinal and Gatorshave five opponents in common thisseason, including Denver, North-western, Ohio State, Syracuse andVanderbilt.The Cardinal (16-2, 6-0MPSF) compiled a 3-2 recordagainst those opponents, falling toVanderbilt and losing a one-goal

Football game at Duke to becarried on ESPNU

After the Pac-12 announced itspreliminary TV schedule for the2011 football season yesterday,one more game was added to the

Cardinals broadcasting list this af-ternoon. Stanfords first awaygame a Sept.10 contest at Duke will be broadcast live onESPNU beginning at 12:30 p.m.,making it the fifth Cardinal gameconfirmed to be televised nation-ally by the ABC and ESPN familyof networks.

As a conference,the Pac-12 nowhas 21 national telecasts set for itsinaugural season. Additionalbroadcasts for Stanford and otherPac-12 schools may be announcedas the season progresses.

Nate Adams

Softball closes Pac-10 scheduleagainst Arizona State

After struggling against theOregon Ducks last weekend, theStanford softball team faces a talltask as it heads to the desert totake on the Arizona State SunDevils in the last Pac-10 series ofthe year.

No.11 Stanford (37-13,9-9 Pac-10) squares off against the No. 1Sun Devils (48-5,15-3 Pac-10) in athree game series starting Friday

night, and the Cardinal will need abetter offensive performance thanlast weekend if it wants to overtakethe Devils this weekend.

Stanford scored just eight runsall weekend and dropped two ofthree to the Ducks,despite anotherridiculous weekend at the plate

from junior Ashley Hansen, whowent 9-for-15 with two doubles andfour RBI.

The Cardinals only win of theweekend was a 4-1 victory on Fri-day night behind a three-hit, one-run, 14-strikeout pitching per-formance from sophomore Tea-gan Gerhart, who extended herrecord to 21-8 on the season withthe win.

The Sun Devils come in to theweekend scorching hot, havingwon their last 11 games,all againstPac-10 opponents. The Devils areled offensively by Katelyn Boydand Lacy Goodman, who bothhave batting averages over .400.

As a team, Arizona State hasclobbered 67 home runs an av-

erage of 1.26 long balls per game.In contrast, the Cardinal has hitjust 41 home runs all season and noStanford player has double-digithome runs so far this year.ArizonaState has three players with 10 ormore bombs.

Stanford and Arizona Statestart a three-game series Fridaynight in Tempe at 7 p.m.

Jack Blanchat

KZSU to retain all broadcast rightsfollowing KNBR deal

In a move that reaffirmed thelong-standing agreement betweenStanford Athletics and KZSU 90.1FM, the student-run radio station

confirmed that it would retain itscoverage of Stanford mens bas-ketball and football games nextyear.The stations broadcast rightswere unaffected by Mondays an-nouncement that Bay Area radiostation KNBR 1050 AM had ac-quired the broadcast rights to bothCardinal football and mens bas-ketball.

KZSU Sports Director JD Had-don confirmed earlier reportsWednesday that KZSU would con-tinue to broadcast both footballand mens basketball, in additionto its exclusive broadcasts ofwomens basketball and baseballgames.

The verdict is that literallynothing changes for KZSU, Had-don said. Its the same contract,

just with a different provider.He added that the switch from

XTRA Sports 860 to KNBR,whichalso holds the rights to San Francis-co Giants, Golden State Warriorsand San Francisco 49ers games,would only be a positive thing forStanford sports coverage.

Cardinal and three MPSF foes dive into NCAAs

GATOR HUNTING IN

THE SWAMP

WEST COAST FEEL

Jacob

Jaffe

Fields of Failure

CARDINAL CHATTER DEAN MCARDLE SOPHOMORE PITCHER

YOUNEEDANICKNAME,KID

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Sophomore Jillian Garton (above) and the Stanford water polo team travel to Michigan this weekend for the NCAA championships. TheCardinal is one of four Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams to make it to Michigan. Stanford starts against Iona College on Friday.

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

Senior Karen Nesbitt (above) and the Stanford lacrosse team head toGainesville this weekend to open up the 2011 NCAA tournament. This isthe second consecutive year that the Card has qualified for the postseason.

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game to Northwestern.Florida (15-3, 5-1 American

Lacrosse Conference), whichplayed several of those commonopponents multiple times, grabbeda 6-1 record against those teams,

losing only to Northwestern in theALC Championship game.Although Stanford has won

seven consecutive MPSF titles, the

Cardinal is 0-2 in the NCAA Tour-nament. Stanford lost to North-western in the 2006 tournament,and it fell to James Madison in 2010.Last year was the first time that theMPSF champion had a play-ingame to the tournament, and Stan-ford matched up against Massachu-setts to get a bid into NCAAs.

Theres a lot of pressure on theteam this year going into the tour-nament besides having the title

up for grabs, the Cardinals successcould help to prove that West Coastlacrosse is a force to be reckonedwith.

Florida is definitely going to bea challenging team,but we are moreexperienced and we are ready tomake our mark in the NCAA Tour-nament and show that the WestCoast knows how to play lacrosse,said sophomore defender Eliza-beth Adam.

Stanfords first-round matchupis set for Saturday, May 14 inGainesville. The winner will thenface either Pennsylvania or Duke

on May 21 or May 22.

Contact Rebecca Hanley at rhan-ley1@stanford.edu.

LACROSSEContinued from page 6

The real winners here are Stan-ford sports fans, Haddon said.Another station will be coveringthe games, but were not at all com-peting with [KNBR],and were justhappy nothing changes in our cov-erage.

KNBRs coverage will begin inAugust with the start of the footballseason, which officially begins onSept.3 at Stanford Stadium.

Miles Bennett-Smith

BRIEFSContinued from page 6

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(in bold borders)

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2011 The Mepham Group.Distributed byTribune Media Services.All rights reserved.

E/12/11

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8/6/2019 DAILY 05.12.11

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8NThursday, May 12, 2011 The Stanford Daily

Download theStanford Daily iPhone

App Today

HAMMERIN HANSEN

BRYAN LIN/The Stanford Daily

Junior shortstop Ashley Hansen (above) was named among the tenfinalists for USA Softballs Collegiate Player of the Year award.

its depth and offensive talent in theNCAA Tournament the Cardinal

has played at least thirteen players ineach game this season and boasts fiveplayers that have tallied over 30 goalsthis season.

Two-meter players sophomoreAnnika Dries and junior Melissa Sei-demann have led the Cardinal offen-sively. Dries, who was named MPSFPlayer of the Year,leads the team with58 goals and Seidemann is secondwith 44.On the perimeter,junior driv-er Alyssa Lo is third on the team with38 goals.

In the cage,Stanford has benefitedfrom the combined play of seniorgoalie Amber Oland and sophomoregoalie Kate Baldoni. As a team, theCardinal is first in the MPSF, lettingup just 4.73 goals per game.

That goals-against average is par-ticularly impressive as the tourna-

ment looms, especially consideringthat the tournaments top four seedsare all familiar foes from Stanfords

conference.Tanner said that, for the most part,

the squad will know exactly what toexpect,as it has faced each team in theNCAA Tournament besides UC-SanDiego and Iona.At this point in the season therearent any significant secrets in terms

of players or teams among the fourMPSF schools, Tanner said. Wedont know much about Iona, butthey will have their hands full withus.Stanford will face Iona College at 3:00p.m.in Ann Arbor on Friday,May 13.They will face either USC or UC-Irvine on Saturday,May 14.

Contact Kevin Zhang at kev-inzhangle@gmail.com.

WPOLOContinued from page 6

icks build an insurmountable lead(he had never dropped 22 and eightin the regular season, let alone theplayoffs), the frustration escalatedfor the Lakers. Lamar Odom gotejected for trying to turn Dirk Now-itzki into Sean Cattouse (he wasnt assuccessful though yet anotherprofessional player that needs train-ing from Andrew Luck). Only a fewminutes later,Andrew Bynum tookthings to another level, deckingBarea with the cheapest of cheapshots, a blatant elbow to the midsec-tion while Barea was off the groundand defenseless.

By that point,the game and serieswere in the books,so the only casual-ties for the Lakers were Bynumsfirst five games of next season andthe league-wide respect for the Lak-

ers franchise. The actions, though,speak to the serious frustration theLakers felt,and that was in no smallpart due to Barea.

So what can you make of a guywho pisses off his opponents to noend? Personally,I love it. Sports are allabout finding that edge,the one thingthats going to put you or your teamover the top.And while the answer forMarshawn Lynch is beast mode,many players take it upon themselvesto make their opponents lose theirfocus or confidence, and that is ofteneven better than just being good.

Staying in the NBA, let me justthrow out some names.Zaza Pachu-lia.Anderson Varejao.Joakim Noah.If youre an NBA fan at all,you prob-ably groaned at least once whilereading those names.Why? Because,despite being fairly unskilled in mostnormal aspects of the game (likeshooting the ball),all three manageto maintain successful NBA careersby annoying the hell out of their op-ponents. No one enjoys playingagainst these guys.Whether its goad-ing your players into getting ejected,flopping or just being plain ugly in allaspects of the game,these guys bringout the worst in their opponents.

Do I like any of these guys? Ofcourse not. I dont think you couldroot for any of these players unlessyoure a fan of their team.But as irri-tating as they are to play against,youhave to appreciate what they bring toa team.

A guy like Barea is never going tocarry a team to a championship, and

he certainly shouldnt be calling outhis next opponent. But if you wantsomeone to give you that little boost,that one spark to lead your team to atitle, just think of your least favoriteplayers to play against.

Jacob Jaffe does like J.J.Redick,BruceBowen and Paul Pierces wheelchair,though.Tell him your favorite playersat jwjaffe@stanford.edu.

JAFFEContinued from page 6