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WEDNESDAY April 4, 2012

An Independent Publication
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Volume 241 Issue 31

ResEd debuts substance-free

Wing on first floor of Mirrielees to host pilot program
By KURT CHIRBAS
MANAGING EDITOR

SERENITY NGUYEN/ The Stanford Daily

Mirrielees will serve as the test site for a new substance-free undergraduate housing option this upcoming fall, according to Deborah Golder, dean of Residential Education (ResEd). Twenty-four upperclassmen will participate in the pilot program, which will be held in a first-floor wing of the apartment residence. These students, to be selected through a pre-assignment process, will make a commitment that they and their guests will not be in possession of, use or be under the influence of identified substances while in the residence, according to ResEds website. The barred substances include alcohol, illicit drugs and cigarettes, while the misuse of prescription or over-thecounter medication will also be prohibited. The initiative, which Golder referred to as a big experiment, fol-

lows a recommendation from a University alcohol policy study group committee last spring. ResEd made the final decision to launch the program for the 2012-13 academic year just within the last few weeks, pushing the project forward to meet this Fridays student deadline for pre-assigning. We were going to spend a little bit more time in the planning stages, Golder said. But I think folks felt, Hey, lets go for it. We dont need to take over a whole house. Lets just try it. Lets just see. The program utilizes the pre-assignment process to ensure students commit upfront to making the community substance-free, Golder said. She added that the residence would differ from other themed-housing options in that it would have minimal special programming. Its not intended to be this overly prescribed educational experience, Golder said. It really is live your life,

do what you do, but you are committing that alcohol will not be part of the living environment. We dont imagine the program to have lots of presentations on alcohol, she cited as an example. Why would you say that to people who have chosen not to have that as part of their living environment? According to Golder, this approach is intended as an acknowledgement that students may choose to pre-assign in this residence for a variety of reasons. She said that students might elect to live in substance-free housing for reasons ranging from health, to religion, to personal choice. With the pre-assignment deadline looming, and because of the relatively short amount of time the housing application has been available, Golder said that ResEd has decided to market the residence based on personal connections. ResEd has reached out to offi-

Please see RESED, page 8

NEWS BRIEFS

UNIVERSITY

Stanford aims to reduce traffic congestion

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Congestion and Parking Relief Incentives (Capri), a new Stanford research program, enables 12,000 Stanford and other local drivers to earn cash prizes online by avoiding driving during high-traffic hours. Balaji Prabhakar, director of the project and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said in the Stanford Report that the projects goal is to effectively and efficiently motivate people to reduce rush-hour traffic, a growing concern in Santa Clara County, by awarding monetary prizes. Those eligible to enroll in the study insert a unique identification tag to the inside of their windshield detectable to scanners at 10 main campus entry points. Those that avoid the weekday 8 to 9 a.m. rush hour and 5 to 6 p.m. are automatically rewarded credits for the projects online game that pays users random cash prizes of $2 to $50. We couldnt think about doing this kind of thing in the 20th century, Prabhakar told the Stanford Report. With todays technology, its feasible to install low-cost sensors on a wireless network and make use of new Internet technology. If Capri reaches its goal of reducing traffic by at least a few hundred cars, it may qualify for University funding once its current federal funding runs out. Students living on campus are ineligible. The results of the project will be presented and discussed at the Precourt Institute for Energys weekly energy seminar on May 14.
Ileana Najarro

CISAC receives $2.45 million research grant

By ILEANA NAJARRO
STAFF WRITER

Stanfords Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) received a $2.45 million grant for a span of four years from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to train future specialists in nuclear security and support ongoing projects, including scientific cooperation with China. Mariano-Florentino Cullar, law professor and CISAC co-director, said that the institute is lucky to have continued support from the MacArthur Foundation, and that such support is a testament to the institutes significant and unique contributions. Historically, the MacArthur foundation has recognized CISAC as one of the most unique places in the country, bringing together scientists and social scientists and different pol-

icy professionals to work on national security problems, Cullar said. The funds will support three to four new MacArthur graduate and post-doctoral student fellowships, in addition to policy seminars for all 15 to 20 fellows in the program. Lynn Eden, CISAC associate director for research and senior research scholar, said these policy seminars focus on how to present more effectively and how to think about how the scholarship that youre doing can be relevant to debates that are going on in Washington, or the U.N., or other countries. The seminars, Cullar said, are an effective training method that goes beyond scholarship. They are training to have one foot in the academic world, with the very best possible research, but another foot in the policy world so they can actually make an impact, Cullar said. According to Eden, activities within the

Study shows butterfly population at risk

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Stanford researchers have recently shown that early snowmelts for two consecutive years may significantly affect variations in butterfly population growth rates, demonstrating a link between cli-

seminar include a staged briefing, with Former Secretary of Defense William Perry serving as a mock secretary of energy to critique students performances and methods of questioning. Toshihiro Higuchi, a second year post-doctoral fellow at CISAC, wrote in an email to The Daily that being a MacArthur fellow at CISAC has been a unique experience, and that he is grateful for the training he has received. The MacArthur Foundations emphasis on training is an exceptionally far-sighted and wise investment at the time when we tend to measure progress only by reports and symposiums attended by well-established scholars and practitioners, Higuchi wrote. CISAC, I believe, uniquely qualifies as a long-term partner for the MacArthur Foundation because of its strong commitment to education, which sets us apart from most other research institutes in the field, he continued. According to Cullar, the continued partnership with the MacArthur Foundation enables CISAC to vigorously pursue its mission to help Stanford researchers working on issues of security and international cooperation, drawing in scholars from different disciplines into one unique setting. Its a common meeting ground for people from dramatically different disciplines who share the common interest of making the world safer, Cullar said. Higuchi, for instance, takes a historical approach to his fellowship project on nuclear security and risk, looking at the problem of radioactive contamination a method he said is often overlooked at other institutions. We tend to approach the subject as if scientific methods alone can establish the danger of radioactive fallout as serious or negligible, Higuchi wrote. Higuchis research critically examines the actual process in which scientific experts from different epistemic and political communities during the Cold War era negotiated among themselves how to define the danger of globally dispersed radioactive fallout generated by atmospheric nuclear tests, he said. The historical analysis of changes in our understanding of global fallout through the social institution of expertise sheds light upon how the Cold War changed its course away from a nuclear Armageddon, Higuchi added. It also offers rare insights into the dynamic of global environmental politics in general, which is a vital component of international security in our world.

Please see BRIEFS, page 2

SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily

Please see CISAC page 2

STUDENT GOVERNMENT
By JULIA ENTHOVEN
STAFF WRITER

ASSU senators consider departing early from student government

time to prepare them for Senate, she added. Campaigning takes two weeks. Why should the transition take longer? Also, there is more time to train, said Appropriations Chair Brianna Pang 13 in support of Alqataris suggestion. While everyone is still on campus in spring quarter, they can get a head start on their Senate term. Last year was very rushed in our transition; starting the transition earlier might be beneficial. Senator Ben Laufer 12 suggested using the remainder of the bodys term to initiate a referendum to amend the Rights of the Accused section in the current ASSU Constitution. As noted by ASSU President Michael Cruz 12, the clause violates the Dear Colleague Letter of the Office for Civil Rights by requiring a higher standard of proof in sexual assault cases than is mandated by Title IX. However, in a straw poll vote to gauge interest in pursuing the initiative, only two senators indicated that they would be willing to pursue a referendum in the following weeks. Several said that they voted negatively because of concern that a referendum would not be approved in the Senate because of under-voting. Senate Chair Rafa Vazquez 12 then suggested that the Senate require that the new senators, who will be elected at the end of week two, attend the last couple of weekly Senate meetings as a transition, and that the current Senate return to the question of abbreviating its term next week. Criticism of the Elections Commission Although Elections Commissioner Adam Adler 12 was not present at the meeting, Senator Alon Elhanan 14 voiced criticism of the Elections Commission, claiming that it has disseminated inaccurate informa-

At its Tuesday night meeting, the 13th Undergraduate Senate discussed how to allocate its efforts in the remaining weeks of the senators terms, with senators debating the possibility of transitioning to the new Senate earlier, in week three or four of spring quarter rather than week five as has traditionally occurred. When asked her motivation for proposing a shortened term, Senator Samar Alqatari 14 said, because I want to. I think two weeks should be enough

Please see ASSU, page 2

Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/6 Classifieds/7

Recycle Me

2 N Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Stanford Daily

tion . . . Stanford students are negatively affected as a result of the SSEs financial manager failing to do the job that theyve been charged to do. The senators decided to postpone the bill until next weeks meeting, with Mahmoud in attenterflies that live for one year only. The National Science Foundation and Stanfords Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education funded the study. The results were published in March 2012 by Ecology Letters, which is a joint U.S.French publication, with support by Frances major scientific research center, Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Mary Ann Toman-Miller

ASSU

Continued from front page

tion regarding the existence of a cap on campaign spending. Ive been disappointed with the Elections Commission in general with a lot of things in this cycle, Elhanan said. At this point, from the emails that have been disseminated to [the GSC and Senate candidates], there is still a cap. Which there isnt. There have been emails . . . toward the Elections Commissioner telling him that that is false, and he has not sent out an email [to the candidates], he added. When asked for comment on Elhanans comments, Adler said that he notified the candidates of the campaign cap after Parliamentarian Alex Kindel 14 forwarded him a bill which he interpreted as requiring such regulation. When Elhanan told him that the Senate had interpreted it otherwise, Adler replied by informing Elhanan that he would defer to the judgment of Kindel, as ASSU parliamentarian. They are completely unprofessional, Adler said of the Senate. They dont have any sense of what has or hasnt happened in the past. I just think there needs to be greater accountability of the Elections Commission, Elhanan said, although he acknowledged that Kindel may have been partly to blame for not clearly passing along the bill and its interpretation. Elhanan proposed having an assistant elections commissioner solely responsible for campaign financing in the future. The senators also granted campaign funding to seven Senate candidates who had been refused by the Elections Commission because they missed the deadline for application.

Reconsidering SSE leadership After passing a bill urging the University to support the Axe Committees efforts to reestablish broadcast lights on Hoover Tower for special events, the Senators debated an executive bill to renew the employment of ASSU Financial Manager and Student Service Enterprises (SSE) CEO Naveen Mahmoud 11. Having been initially appointed for a one-year-term, Mahmouds contract must be reapproved by the Senate for a second term. The Board of SSE, including Cruz, Vazquez and others, considered and approved Mahmouds continued employment after a thorough investigation, but without considering other candidates. Cruz highlighted some of the impressive financial advances made by Mahmoud this year, including the successful initiation of the campus mobile store and the Ground Up cafe. I agree that Naveen has done a good job with several of her initiatives, Laufer said,but I think that, going forward, communication should be better. Laufer specifically referred to Mahmouds advice to the Senate about the use of the ASSU buffer fund, which he claimed was misleading. A couple senators also expressed concern about problems in SSE that may have been related to Mahmouds leadership. After hearing Cruzs overwhelmingly positive reflection centered on success, Elhanan asked, Was there any discussion of the time it takes to get receipts and the problems within SSE? . . . Were there discussions of the hurdles as well? Shes doing great work on initiatives that are outside of her core responsibilities, said Senator Dan DeLong 13. [But] one priority that we may want to really urge the new financial manager to prioritize is the nuts and bolts of their posican do, Cullar said. Higuchi said that he would recommend students apply for a fellowship at CISAC because of its commitment to its goals. The MacArthur Foundations generous grant will surely strengthen this aspect, and any student interested in international security and cooperation will benefit much from this organic triangle of training, academic excellence and policy research, which, combined together, will help you launch a career as a cutting-edge expert in the field, Higuchi wrote. Contact Ileana Najarro at inajarro @stanford.edu.

dance. Contact Julia Enthoven jjejje@stanford.edu. at

BRIEFS

Continued from front page

mate change and insect population. The research, performed in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, analyzed long-term data on the common Mormon fritillary butterfly, and predicts that this summer will be difficult for butterflies due to a low snowpack. Early snowmelts caused flowers to bud too soon and subsequently be destroyed by early-season frosts, which result in a loss of the butterflys preferred nectar flower. This reduced nectar availability leads to a decline in the number of eggs laid by females for the next years caterpillar population. Carol Boggs, Bing director of the Program in Human Biology at Stanford and the studys lead author, noted that previous studies have shown a single climatic variable, such as an early snowmelt, can have multiple effects on an organisms population growth. However, this link had not been demonstrated for species like but-

Stanford engineers publish wind energy study

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Stanford engineers recently published a study in Geophysical Research Letters highlighting their efforts using a weather model to suggest the best placement of four interconnected wind farms off the eastern coast of the United States. The four potential locations recommended in the study came from a selection of 12 and were chosen based on their access to

consistent sea breezes. The final grid has a total potential maximum capacity of 2,000 megawatts. Each of the potential farms would have about 100 turbines providing about 500 megawatts each. Mark Z. Jacobson, senior author of the study and professor of civil and environmental engineering, said in an article in the Stanford Report that these figures are still theoretical due to unpredicted conditions that may arise. Two thousand megawatts and four farms are somewhat arbitrary figures, Jacobson said. The sizes and locations could be adjusted for economic, environmental and policy considerations. Jacobson said that he hopes the study will serve a greater purpose in policymaking for energy demands on a national level. This paper should be seen as a tool for energy planners to better inform their renewable energy decisions across a densely populated area, he said. It is an opportunity to collaborate on a shared system that reduces costs while benefiting a large and important center of electrical demand in the U.S.
Ileana Najarro

CISAC

Continued from front page

While nuclear security is not the only subject that CISAC covers, Cullar said that due to the geostrategic importance of surging developments in countries such as Iran and Pakistan, implications such as the energy future of the world and terrorism make it a major concern. All these issues the MacArthur Foundation believes are important enough that even if they fall off the front pages, they require the kind of work that an institution like CISAC

The Stanford Daily

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 N 3

FEATURES
Caffeine rush
AUBRIE LEE/The Stanford Daily

e didnt care that despite the vast amount of evidence he compiled, people could not let go of their fixed world view. He kept going. He was, in a word, resilient. A calm, cool voice floats over the air, ne might expect Green Library to be the most popular place on campus during finals week, but during the last week of winter quarter it seemed harder to find a seat in the CoHo than in the Bender Room. This may not be entirely due to the CoHos serve-yourself coffee dispensers and busy baristas. It could very well be the coffee culture itself that continues to draw students back. Coffee shops get me in the right state of mind to do work, said coffee enthusiast Nick White 14. Coffee is finding an ever-firmer foothold at Stanford. In the last few years, coffee shops have sprouted up in every corner of campus. Coupa Cafe now offers coffee from three different locations: Two are located in University buildings in the Science & Engineering Quad while another serves coffee between Green and Meyer libraries, not to mention the automated machine that serves students 24/7 on the first floor of Meyer Library. With the opening of Fraiche at Tresidder Memorial Union in 2009, Stanford now offers third-tier coffee fresh from Blue Bottle Coffee of San Francisco, providing competition to Fraiches neighbor, Peets Coffee. Additionally, Philz Coffees new location just off El Camino Real is bustling on an average afternoon, allowing students to escape the Stanford bubble in search of their midday caffeine rush. Why so much java? I just dont see why not, White said. Its like a slap in the face to get my work done, except in a good way. And it literally spikes my IQ.

Stanfords stories H
By ERIKA ALVERO KOSKI
DESK EDITOR

highly reminiscent of one car drivers might tune in to while trapped in an early morning traffic jam. In this case it is the voice of Jonah Willihnganz, director of the Stanford Storytelling Project, as he opens the projects latest episode on Stanfords radio station, KZSU. He uses the example of geologist Alfred Wegner, who doggedly defended the concept of continental drift to a skeptical audience in the early 1900s, to introduce the weeks topic: resilience.

Five different stories, written and read by Stanford students and affiliates, all dealing with the topic of resilience, follow this introduction. The stories are dramatically varied, accounts ranging from the resilience required to work for the Stanford Calling Center to the resilience one individual called upon while attending Burning Man, an arts event in the Nevada desert.

Please see STORY, page 5

Courtesy of Alex Scully

Please see COFFEE, page 5

The winners of the Stanford Storytelling Projects 2011 Fall Contest, Jacob Kovacs-Goodman, Jennifer Schaeffer and Molly Kieran, receive their awards for outstanding creative writing. The theme for this contest was What I Should Have Said.

Courtesy of Geoff Browning

he lobby of the museum of the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador, did not look very different from any historical site I had visited through my years of class field trips and family outings. My group, which consisted of students in the religious studies class Issues in Liberation Theology and members of the Stanford Catholic Community, was clustered together in a large, cheerful room with an arched ceiling and palm trees peeking through open windows. Introductory screens were arranged artistically in the center of the lobby so as to create a sort of labyrinth, forcing visitors to educate themselves before they can reach the gift shop in the corner selling stickers, pens and rosaries. Beyond the gift shop, however, was an ugly history that quietly reverberated in the walls of the building. The introductory screens themselves were pasted with sheets of paper commemorating Salvadorans who were killed in the conflict between government and guerilla forces that ravaged the country in the 80s. The true gravity of the situation revealed itself more fully in the next room. A central glass case displayed the

ERIKA ALVERO KOSKI/The Stanford Daily

The artwork in the UCA chapel combines typical Catholic Church embellishments with the reality of the Salvadoran peoples situation. The stations of the cross (above) is a prominent component of many Catholic churches and church services, depicting the various trials of Jesus. The UCA chapel adapted its version of the stations of the cross in order to portray the suffering during the civil war of the 1980s.

clothes that had covered the six Jesuit priests who were killed at the UCA in 1989. Proponents of the philosophy of liberation theology, a new arm of the Jesuit church that sought to liberate the impoverished and minority indigenous peoples from the repression of the government and the violence of its military death squads, these six priests were seen as a threat to the government and were eliminated on the morning of Nov. 16, 1989. The blue polo of Ignacio Bar was ripped with bullet holes, as was the brown, tattered robe of Ignacio Ellacura. In a separate case, a dictionary was splayed open to the f-section, severed cleanly by a line of machine gun fire. The glass frame of a painting of Oscar Romero, another Jesuit priest who was assassinated nine years earlier, had been shattered by a flamethrower, but the painting itself remained intact, a fact considered a miracle by some. Leaving the museum, we lingered in the UCA chapel for talks by our leaders. The tenet of liberation theology advocating for social justice through religion was apparent in the chapel itself. The stations of the cross, a prominent part of Catholic churches, graced the back wall. Each station depicted a brutality suffered by Salvadoran civilians at the hands of the government a reflection of the Salvadoran reality that continues to affect the country to this day.
Erika Alvero Koski

4 N Wednesday, April 4, 2012

OPINIONS
E DITORIAL

The Stanford Daily

The perils of happiness at Stanford

Established 1892 Board of Directors Margaret Rawson President and Editor in Chief Anna Schuessler Chief Operating Officer Sam Svoboda Vice President of Advertising Theodore L. Glasser Michael Londgren Robert Michitarian Nate Adams Tenzin Seldon Rich Jaroslovsky

AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Managing Editors Brendan OByrne Deputy Editor Kurt Chirbas & Billy Gallagher Managing Editors of News Jack Blanchat Managing Editor of Sports Marwa Farag Managing Editor of Features Sasha Arijanto Managing Editor of Intermission Mehmet Inonu Managing Editor of Photography Amanda Ach Columns Editor Willa Brock Head Copy Editor Serenity Nguyen Head Graphics Editor Alex Alifimoff Web and Multimedia Editor Nate Adams Multimedia Director MollyVorwerck & Zach Zimmerman Staff Development

The Stanford Daily

Incorporated 1973 Tonights Desk Editors Mary Ann TomanMiller News Editor Erika Koski Features Editor Caroline Caselli Sports Editor Nick Salazar Photo Editor Charlotte Wayne Copy Editor

pring quarter heralds the beginning of sunny weather, blue skies and warm days spent outside. It should be a lovely time, a welcome liberation from the stormy weather and generally heavier workloads of winter quarter. However, the first few weeks of spring quarter also contain some of the most socially stressful times that many Stanford undergraduates especially freshmen will face: fraternity and sorority rush and the annual housing Draw. Neither event is inherently stressful. Greek rush events should be enjoyable events during the less-busy first few weeks of the quarter: A bid offer or lack thereof hardly qualifies as a determination of a students character. And the housing Draw ought to be merely a luck-based system for allocating housing space in an egalitarian manner: Plenty of students will inevitably receive lessthan-desirable housing, but a students domicile and Draw group are far from the ultimate factor for the students social life for the coming year. Yet rush and the Draw can cause a great deal of emotional stress. Students who do not receive bids from their desired fraternity or sorority may feel personally spurned and socially cast aside, left to fend for themselves without an organized social group. Partitioning diverse and amorphous friend networks into eight-member-maximum groups is incredibly challenging. It is impossible to satisfy everyone in the creation of Draw groups, and the common practice of group Drawing ostensibly populates upperclass residences with pre-formed friend groups, a fact which understandably causes anxiety for solo Drawers. So why do Stanford students experience so much stress over these two processes? This stress is a manifestation of the dreaded duck syndrome, the feeling of struggling alone in a university full of apparently happy and relaxed students, all of whom are struggling themselves. The phrase duck syndrome is likely familiar to most Stanford undergraduates. Efforts are made to introduce the concept to freshmen at New Student Orientation (NSO), and every so often the duck syndrome inevitably appears on bathroom flyers. However, the Editorial Board believes

the duck syndrome is a very important student mental health issue, and we wish to confront the issue head-on. To illustrate the duck syndrome, we publish the following excerpt from an email written by an anonymous Stanford student to Angelina Cardona 11, during her time as 2010-11 ASSU President: I think I can be fun sometimes, and I sure know a lot of people, but I dont have any real friends . . . I want someone to feel comfortable enough around me, or to think that Im fun enough, that they dont feel weird about randomly getting in touch . . . I feel socially awkward and out-ofplace and community-less. The sentiments in this email resonate strongly. Looking around, most everyone looks incredibly productive, seems surrounded by friends, and ultimately appears to be fundamentally happy. This aura of good cheer is contagious. Many of us catch it in the camp-like atmosphere of admit weekend or NSO, and we retain it because everybody else seems so happy. Yet this contagious happiness has its dark side: Feeling dejected or unhappy in a place like Stanford causes one to feel abnormal and out-of-place, so we may tend to internalize and brood over this lack of happiness instead of productively addressing the situation. To minimize this effect, the Editorial Board encourages the administration to more thoroughly address the fact that upbeat events during admit weekend and NSO can eventually lead to some students feeling even more isolated than normal. In addition, we beseech students to take care of themselves emotionally. It is normal indeed, healthy to be sad, angry, frustrated, or confused. Rather than futilely suppressing these natural feelings to maintain the facade of happiness, express these emotions. Find a friend (this friend doesnt necessarily need to be a close one a housemate, dorm neighbor or staff member who listens will do) and share your experiences. Have a good cry. Maybe call up a parental figure or the Bridge to have a good rant. Do not, however, resent these natural emotions and attempt to bury them with fake happiness. Doing so is isolating and leads only to further stress. Take care of yourself!

Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours. Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanforddaily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

HALF-INVENTED

The great divorce

life at Stanford. I cant get ahead. I cant get behind. All I can do is wait. This spring break, I finally got around to reading The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. The story describes a man that takes a bus ride from Hell to Heaven, but in this story Heaven is an extremely vivid and dense reality where the man appears only as a shadowy phantom, and Hell is a sad, mundane neighborhood known as The Grey Town. I pictured it as Boston, probably because baseball season is less than a week away and I despise the Red Sox. Its a novel that I highly recommend. And while it is in no way a central theme, it speaks to the lifeis-a-waiting-room feeling where actions appear to have little effect on real life. I often lull myself into the notion that my actions primarily affect others. If I give money to a homeless man, he gets to eat. If I dont let that lady in the Prius merge in front of me on the freeway, she gets angry. But Lewis suggests the opposite: that we are the primary beneficiary and victims of our own choices. Sure, when I give a homeless man money, he gets food, but more importantly, I become a person who values the needs of others ahead of myself. And when I dont let that Prius in ahead of me on the 101, I become a person who values my time over others. In every action and decision, no matter how inconsequential, we are constantly choosing who we are becoming. Ive heard it said that, Your future is an amplification of your present, and our present is right now. There are people with dreams of helping the poor who are waiting until theyve made their personal fortune so they can give out of excess. But in constantly choosing wealth over charity, one may slowly, and almost unnoticeably, become a person who values his or her comfort over the needs of others to such an extent that he or she no longer considers the poor when they have wealth. Others are working themselves to death so they can one day finally relax and be satisfied. But in continuously choosing work and stress over joy and rest, it is very possible they may slowly become a person who is no longer able to be content and satisfied. As Lewis puts it, First they will not, in

Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of the editorial board of The Stanford Daily and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff. The editorial board consists of five Stanford students led by a chairman and uninvolved in other sections of the paper. Any signed columns in the editorial space represent the views of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the entire editorial board. To contact the editorial board chair, e-mail editorial@stanforddaily.com. To submit an oped, limited to 700 words, e-mail opinions@stanforddaily.com. To submit a letter to the editor, limited to 500 words, e-mail eic@stanforddaily.com. All are published at the discretion of the editor.

love breaks from school, dont get me wrong. I love the beach, spending time with family and friends and getting to peacefully sleep late without the guilt of having missed morning classes . . . or afternoon classes. But after a couple of days, theres something about being away from school that makes me go stir-crazy. Now before Stanford copypastes that statement and slaps it onto the cover of some recruiting pamphlet, I should clarify: There is something about being home for a week or two that doesnt feel like real life. It makes me restless. It feels like a waiting room. Sure, its a really fun waiting room filled with people I love, the television isnt permanently stuck on the local news and it doesnt smell like old people, but its a waiting room nonetheless. Its as if none of my actions have real consequences. The way I spend my day, whether positive or negative, has no lasting impact upon my normal college

Chase Ishii

In every action and decision,we are constantly choosing who we are becoming.
the end they cannot. Every moment is eternally significant. I have a friend from high school who was a very close friend for a good year or so. Then for some valid reasons and some stupid reasons for which we were both responsible, we stopped being close friends. And as of now, weve basically stopped talking altogether. Enough time has passed that it doesnt bother me like it used to, but I know I need to apologize and ask for forgiveness. This choice in no way affects my future. Its not motivated by blame or guilt or a search for closure; Im pretty content with where Im at right now. Its not to make things right for the sake of a future friendship; without effort and intention, I could easily never see this person again, thats just the way life is. But by letting things go to avoid uncomfortable confrontation, I am choosing to become a person who values pride and stubbornness over forgiveness and reconciliation. And that is a step down a road I do not want to take. Who we are in the future is constantly decided by the choices we make right now. For some absurd reason, Chase is an Angels fan. Help him get over his horrible taste in baseball teams at ninjaish@stanford.edu.

BURSTING THE BUBBLE

Slowing down to talk to each other

e know Stanford students are busy. We hear it all the time. Its this campuss number one excuse. Hell, we live it every day. Only a few things can stop this campus in its tracks, stopping each and every one of us, busy and stressed in our own unique way, if for only a few moments. One of these things is the sudden loss of a loved one. In this respect, the Stanford community is still trying to get its legs back underneath it; trying to reanimate after a shocking, if brief paralysis. Stanford, as a whole, will surely move on, though some will mourn longer and take more time to adjust to life without one of our own. But few of us will look in the mirror and ask ourselves how this could happen on our watch. Stanford students are busy. Thats why were one of the best and most desirable schools in the world. Its also why we have our own sociological condition

Edward Ngai
named after us. Were all ducks on this farm, paddling furiously for dear life. If only I could count the number of times I hear the exchange, Whats up? Not too much, in my freshman dorm. Im guilty of it too. I ask too many people how they are without caring for their answer. Sometimes visibly disturbed or stressed people tell me they dont have much going on. I dont believe them. But whether you do or not, I know Ive got lots happening, and I dont have time to sit down with you and talk through your issues. Theyre probably too complicated. Too personal. Youll think Im nosy. So I say, Cool, see you

around. And as quickly as we stumbled upon each other, we paddle away. What a shame it is that this exchange happens every day in a freshman dorm that prides itself on its community based on genuine love for each other. At a Crossing the Line event some months ago, our dorm community made a commitment to replace these stairwell chitchats with honest sit-downs to earnestly try to get to know one another and to create an environment where no one is afraid to talk about their hopes and fears. But then Stanford took over, and its breakneck pace, driven students and addiction to excellence consumed most of us. Its what makes us the best in the world. But it also lends itself to our being too busy to get to know those who dont happen to be in our classes or in our crisscrossing circles of friends.

Please see NGAI, page 5

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012 N 5

know when one is on the brink, and we never know whether the tiny reassurances we give them are enough to make a difference. A good conversation makes us feel cared about and loved. It tells us that were not alone in our struggles. It can nourish the soul in ways success and constant achievement cannot. So perhaps it is incumbent on all of us to take more time to sit back and feed the ducks in soul if not in body. As blithe as we look on the surface, one can never know how desperately we are paddling underneath. Do you think all Stanford students have a close community to support them? Email Ed at edngai@stanford.edu.

NGAI

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It strikes me how I know nothing about many of my friends at Stanford. I complain about early mornings with them, laugh at lunch with them and stay up late working on problem sets with them. But I dont know what they love, who they strive to be or what they are most challenged by. I certainly do not know the challenges they may face every day. Some will undoubtedly shy away from outreach. Some just arent in the mood to talk about it, or arent in the mood to talk about it with you. But we never

STORY

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[A theme] can mean anything, said Dana Kletter, Stegner fellow and fiction editor of the Storytelling Project. People start making these associations. . . . Have they heard a story that might fit into this category, or might fit in with this theme? The radio component of the project experiments with the ability of a dismembered voice to convey a story, and according to Willihnganz, parallels the alienated nature of the modern state of life. In the early 20th century the voices were able to become completely disconnected, Willihnganz said. You could hear somebodys consciousness, richly, without their being present . . . The physical reality could become divorced from an essence. Aside from these existentially challenging traits, the medium of radio also provides listeners with an auditory experience that is less detached than writing and less passive than television. I really like audio because I feel like it impacts us more emotionally than writing would, because its auditory and we respond to the sound of other humans speaking, but it still leaves room for the imagination, said Hannah Kopp-Yates 12, a contributor to the Storytelling Project. Though the KZSU show is perhaps the most well-known component of the Stanford Storytelling Project, it is only one segment. Founded in 2007, the Stanford Storytelling Project was created by Willinhganz, who was a fellow with the Stanford Humanities Fund at the time. Realizing the public impact of programs such as NPRs This American Life, Willihnganz received funding through the Hume Writing Center and the Continuing Studies Program and began to teach classes. In these classes, students focused on writing their own memoirs and on collecting stories from around campus. Soon however, the story collecting expanded beyond the courses. In essence, the Storytelling Project strives to teach people to be effective storytellers while simultaneously capturing the

many stories present in the Stanford community. Its really a lot like ethnography, which Im really interested in, and what were all really interested in, Kletter said. Thats how we investigate other cultures, using these kind of ethnographic methods and field notes, so why not examine ourselves that way? Much of the Storytelling Project involves collaboration with other University programs. On Friday afternoons, members of the Storytelling Project join with oral communication tutors from the Oral Communication Center for a storytelling workshop. The members serve as mentors to students who have a story to tell, helping them with performance and rhetorical techniques. [The Storytelling Projects] purpose was not only to allow students to create these things, to help push them through the process, but to also bring the campus more storytelling, Willihnganz said. Additionally, the Storytelling Project has been working on implementing a program called Big Shorts at the CoHo, which brings in famous storytellers of all kinds on Tuesday nights, from radio show hosts to poets. There has also been a recent upsurge in collaboration with the Stanford Medical School, particularly because of the on-campus presence of writer-doctor Abraham Verghese. Verghese came to Stanford as a tenured professor in 2007 and currently holds the position of Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford Universtiy School of Medicine and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. Theres actually a lot of writers who were doctors, Kletter said. Maybe its the fact that they interact with patients, maybe because you take a patients history, and theres a binarrative there. Behind the numbers there is always a human story. Students can get involved with the Storytelling Project as staff members or as collaborators, a position that pays $100 for each story contributed. KoppYates first became involved with the Storytelling Project while studying abroad in Paris. Responding affirmatively to an email asking students to record their adventures abroad, she re-

ceived a microphone in the mail and was charged with the task of finding interesting personal narratives in the City of Lights. Stories she found included that of two Stanford girls wooed by three French men at the Eiffel Tower on New Years Eve and that of a non-French-speaker traveling to southern France to learn a traditional French game. As a human biology major focusing on human-environmental interactions, Kopp-Yates said she believes narratives have great potential to enact social change. I think that narrative is really important in creating global transformation, Kopp-Yates said. One of the reasons that theres so much alienation and disenfranchisement and disconnection from the natural world is because at least in America we dont really know how to place ourselves in it anymore. Contact Erika Alvero Koski at erikaa1@stanford.edu.

COFFEE

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Sitting across from him over a table of schoolwork in Philz Coffee, Reed Jobs 14 sips his steaming Code 33. Everyone likes to talk about the health risks of coffee, but what about all the health benefits? Jobs said. It is true that coffee is often purported as a health risk, even by Jamie Zeitzer, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, whose recent study found that coffee has the potential to disrupt sleep. Coffee, however, does have a good side. Studies have shown that drinkers score higher on IQ tests after drinking coffee and the beverage has even been shown to reduce the development of Alzheimers disease and Type 2 diabetes. Coffee seems to be getting more popular among the Stanford community, but the debate surrounding its effects continues. Nevertheless, with more and more coffee options sprouting up around campus, its getting harder and harder to say no to grabbing a hot cup of Joe between classes.
Lucas Oswald

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Following the Western Collegiate at Pasatiempo, the team will journey to Corvallis, Ore., at the end of April for the Pac-12 Championships. The Cardinal has not won the highly competitive conference since 1994. As of April 1, the Pac-12 boasted six of the top-10 teams in the nation, including No. 4 UCLA. No members of the Stanford team have played the course in Corvallis, but Bowen and Yun arent too concerned about the teams lack of experience there. NCAA regional playoffs, held at the Stanford course, start on May 17, and Bowen felt this weeks experience of playing the Stanford course in tournament conditions would be helpful for the Cardinal. The course plays a lot differently in competition than it does [normally] because the rough is a lot longer and the greens are really fast, so theres some different strategy that comes into play, Bowen said. Any time you get to play at a tournament on a course where youll play a tournament again later, youre always going to learn how the course plays differently, how to best approach it and what holds up under pressure, which is very important, especially coming down the stretch at regionals. Yun said the team is building momentum, citing the teams third place finish this weekend and its fifth place finish at the highly competitive Southern Highlands Masters in March, where the Cardinal beat out topranked Texas. I think were peaking at the right time. A lot of the guys had really good finishes this week, Yun said. I think its just a matter of time before were all playing well at the same time. . . . Right now, we have like two or three guys playing really well, but its just a matter of time before we have all five guys clicking. Contact Austin Block at aeblock@ stanford.edu.

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home, the Stanford B team impressed, finishing in a tie for sixth out of 17 total teams and tying the A team in the first round with a team score of +4. The B team was led by freshmen Patrick Grimes and Marcel Puyat, who finished the tournament at +5 and +6, respectively. Coming back from injury, Bowen was the teams third lowest scorer, shooting an even par 70 on the final day and finishing at seven over. Our B team this week showed how good they can be, especially with the first round that they posted, Yun said. They finished sixth with that good of a field, so it just speaks to our depth [as a team]. The U.S. Intercollegiate was the Cardinals second-to-last tournament before the Pac-12 Championships. In two weeks, the team travels to the famous, and difficult, Pasatiempo course in Santa Cruz, designed by Augusta National Golf Club designer Alister Mackenzie, for its final tournament of the season. Its a course which has very undulating greens, and theyre going to be very fast, so theres going to be an emphasis on lag putting and short game, Bowen said. Its also going to be windy so youre going to need to be able to hit the ball low and control your golf ball off the tee and into the greens. We played [Pasatiempo] last year and we finished 11th so it was a bit disappointing. But we obviously have the experience, which is a good thing, and so I think a lot of the guys are preparing for the greens, Yun added. I think we have one of the best short games in the country, so if we just get that clicking then I think were going to have a really good tournament.

NO. 5 CARD SWEEPS PACIFIC AT HOME

By JACK BLANCHAT
MANAGING EDITOR

TIGERS TAMED
three sets. The No. 5 Cardinal (16-6, 13-5 MPSF) rode an 11-kill performance from senior Brad Lawson to blow past the No. 13 Tigers, 25-15, 25-19, 25-18, and pick up a big win in conference play. The game was a critical matchup for both teams, as the Cardinal is among five teams that are vying for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, while the Tigers (7-17, 4-14)

As the Stanford mens volleyball team heads into the home stretch of the season, with only five games remaining, the Cardinal picked up a vital win at home on Tuesday night, sweeping through conference foe Pacific in

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The No. 5 Stanford men's volleyball team swept No. 13 Pacific at home on Tuesday night, keeping its hopes for both the regular season MPSF title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament alive.

were just one loss short of the eighth and final spot for the playoffs before Tuesdays loss. After a Lawson kill made the score 7-7 in the first set, the Cardinal then caught fire, going on an 18-8 run to close out the first set and secure a 1-0 match lead. The second set was more hotly contested, with the teams trading points for the entirety of the game to eventually tie the score at 19. But when the set got tight, Stanford responded by pounding out six consecutive points, including a service ace from Lawson, to capture the win. The second set loss appeared to deflate the Tigers hopes in the third, as the Cardinal took an early lead and held it the entire way, never letting Pacific get a lead and comfortably closing out the match. In addition to Lawsons solid game, sophomore Brian Cook also contributed 10 kills, and fellow sophomore Eric Mochalski continued his hot play of late by adding seven kills on just nine attempts to end up with an impressive .667 hitting percentage. With the essential victory on Tuesday, the Cardinal now turns its eyes ahead to the last four games of the season, which are all home contests against MPSF foes. Over the next two weeks, No. 5 Stanford will take on No. 8 Long Beach State, No. 12 Cal State-Northridge, UC-Santa Barbara and conference leader No. 3 UCLA. Every matchup will directly affect which team is seeded come conference tournament time. The win over Pacific on Tuesday was also Cardinal head coach John Kostys 100th career victory, making him one of three Stanford mens volleyball coaches to join the century club, along with Ruben Nieves and former U.S. National Team coach Fred Sturm. Stanford returns to the court this Friday against Long Beach State. The Cardinal and the 49ers match up at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m.

Contact Jack Blanchat at blanchat @stanford.edu.

CROSSWORD

ZIMMERMAN
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Its a more-than-welcome position for fans more accustomed to months of uncertainty and disappointment. Im not one to blindly donate my optimism. The NIT was an impressive stretch for a group of young up-and-comers, but the result still has to be taken with a grain of salt. After all, this same Stanford team was torched by the outside shooting of the Illinois State Redbirds. But for a team that has been making a series of baby steps, this was the first leap in quite some time. With significant positive momentum, Stanford can finally turn the proverbial corner. The NIT isnt the Big Dance. But its not the size of the trophy that matters; its how you use it. Zach Zimmerman is happy about the NIT win, but not as happy as Johnny Dawkins is in the first few seconds of the Ray Lewis video. Watch closely, then drop Zach a line at zachz@stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter @Zach_Zimmerman.

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RESED| 24 students to be selected through pre-assignment

cials from different departments on campus including Stanford Athletics, the Office for Religious Life, Student Affairs and individual Residential Fellows (RFs) to ask if they know any students who might be interested living in a substance-free community. We might have moderate or mild student interest, or we might have abundant student interest, Golder said. We dont need thousands of people to sign up. We just need to know if there are students who want this option to exist. The Stanford Daily Editorial Board, a body of students independent of the Daily staff, wrote in February in support of a pilot substance-free residence restricted to upperclassmen (Time to establish substance-free housing, Feb. 27). Relating to University efforts The recommendation to establish a substance-free residence on campus came from an alcohol policy committee made up of students, faculty and staff members convened last year. This committee served as a precursor to the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE), which was established in September and is headed up by Ralph Castro, former associate director of the Vaden Health Center. Castro wrote in an email to The Daily that he supports the concept of substance-free housing because it fits into OAPEs goal of increasing support for non-drinkers and light drinkers. OAPE is focused on decreasing harm associated with alcohol misuse and high-risk drinking, he said. Substance-free housing is one tool that can aid in furthering this vision in my opinion. Similar in aim to OAPEs Cardinal Nights, ResEd plans to delegate extra money to the residents of the substance-free community so they can throw events that will offer non-alcoholic alternatives to the typical on-campus social scene, specifically during weekends and before athletic games. Golder assured, however, that this residence would not get a disproportionate funding when compared with other themed programs on campus. Students will often say that it feels like the only thing to do socially is to go to a party where theres alcohol, she added. We dont want the burden to be on students [to finance non-alcoholic events]. We want to give them the resources, so they can do what they want to do. She said the community might use this money to finance trips to go bowling or to the movies, or to have a video game marathon or a cooking night. According to Golder, the mission of substance-free housing expands beyond the Universitys recent efforts to campaign against alcohol abuse. I think [the residence] helps to support the notion of responsible and healthy use of alcohol as an example by saying, Im choosing not to have substance in my home, Golder said. So it supports that. But in some sense, she added. I think of it as discreet. I think of it as having a full-range of options of student living environments, and this should be one of the options that we offer. Choosing the location ResEd chose Mirrielees, an apartment residence that was formerly a part of the Escondido Village graduate community, as the site of the pilot program because of its history of being upperclassmen-run and more student-owned, according to Golder. Instead of a typical RF, Mirrielees has a ResEd staff member, Tiffany Taylor, who serves as an area coordinator. We want students to have ownership of this experience, and [for it not to] be because of some parental notion, Golder said. Not that RFs only exist in this way, but we want students to be the drivers of their experience instead of a program, or an RF, or ResEd. For instance, Golder said that the community will choose for itself at the beginning of the year how it wants to handle situations when a resident breaches his or her substance-free commitment, instead of having reprimands issued by ResEd. Golder said ResEd wants to avoid the residence becoming a police state. What Im not interested in is ResEd said you cant do this. So what? she added. What matters much more is if you and I lived next door to each other, that I care about you and respect you enough to not do something that would upset you or hurt you. She also said that Mirrielees tends to be an attractive place for students to live. In the 2009 Draw, Mirrielees was filled with residents who had Tier 1 or low Tier 2 draw numbers. We wanted to have a residence that is somewhat popular for upperclass students, Golder said. Wanting geography to be a reward, not a punishment. Based on the results of the pilot program, ResEd will reconsider where the substance-free residence should be established in the long term. Evaluating success While the Draw takes place each year in the spring, a decision must be made by the beginning of winter quarter next year about what direction to take substance-free housing in next, Golder said. ResEd will seek feedback now through the end of fall quarter. Our first indicator will likely be based on the number of students who apply for pre-assignment, wrote ResEd Assistant Dean Zac Sargeant in an email to The Daily. We will continue to gauge student interest, so we can respond accordingly. Sargeant said ResEd will also look at pre-assignment applications, Draw data and community assessments to determine the next step. Golder said she could imagine substance-free housing eventually becoming similar to genderneutral housing, offered at multiple residences on campus, or it could expand into an entire building if there is enough interest. This year will give us some data instead of some hypotheticals, Golder said. Then we can make some good decisions based on student interest and student need. We are about choice in our residential system, she added. We have 78 houses with all different varieties of options available to students . . . We wanted this to be one option. Contact Kurt Chirbas at kchirbas@stanford.edu.