Christina Pan – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Wed, 17 Apr 2019 08:07:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Christina Pan – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Conference focuses on responsible use of artificial intelligence, private sector practices https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/17/conference-focuses-on-responsible-use-of-artificial-intelligence-private-sector-practices/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/17/conference-focuses-on-responsible-use-of-artificial-intelligence-private-sector-practices/#respond Wed, 17 Apr 2019 08:07:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1152895 The Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPi), housed within Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), hosted its second annual Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) conference on Tuesday.

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The Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPi), housed within Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), hosted its second annual Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) conference on Tuesday. The day-long event, which is not affiliated with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), spanned issues ranging from tackling the ways in which technology can be used to advance global good to addressing the harmful uses of artificial intelligence (AI).

Human rights, AI and the private sector

To address the responsible uses of AI in the advancement of global good, companies including Salesforce, Microsoft, Google and Facebook presented the work they have done to protect human rights in AI use in one of the events, titled, “Human Rights by Design: Private Sector Responsibilities.”

Specifically, Kathy Baxter, an architect of ethical AI at Salesforce, talked about an industry-wide survey she administered on whether companies created AI that respects human rights. On average, 90 percent of people surveyed created ethical tools, but only 57 percent actually used them.

Baxter sought to highlight a correlation between measuring impact and seeing actual change with respect to human rights and vice versa. To create the most progress, she specifically recommended that ethicists in technology companies define metrics of success for human rights and also leverage existing solutions, which include, for example, introducing human rights issues in a Salesforce class about machine learning.

She added that “activating” supporters and sponsors throughout the organization was important, referring to the process of making sure that an organization ensured that people of different ranks, including high-ranking executives, are supporting and speaking out for incorporating human rights with due diligence.

Assessing impacts

Steven Crown, who serves as vice president and deputy general counsel for Human Rights at Microsoft, and Chloe Poynton, a founder of Article One Advisors, gave a presentation about Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIA), which are used by technology creators to judge how well their AI applications respect humans rights.

Crown stated that HRIA was part of human rights due diligence at technology companies and argued that this work was not only a one-time event, but an iterative process. He called for this work to be a “living document” that companies continually iterate upon. An impact assessment was produced in a collaboration between their organizations to encompass a wide variety of situations. One method they used is known as saliency mapping — an auditing technique to see which inputs were most important to the technological system when determining an outcome.

With this work, Crown and Poynton noted that many questions remained. One of the main ones centered on how one could determine the role an organization played in causing harm. Organizations’ roles can vary from directly causing harm to contributing to harm to being linked with harm. Crown argued that differentiating these causal relationships are critical because each category requires different kinds of remediative action.

In addition, Poynton highlighted the question of how to address harm companies may cause. Harm is caused by denial of opportunities — such as missing a job posting — so individuals may not always even immediately know that they were harmed. Finally, Poynton also acknowledged that HRIAs would not protect technologies from cumulative effects that could disrupt societies negatively, like job loss from high amounts of automation.

One aspect Poynton highlighted in addition to HRIA was that responsible use of AI requires embracing human rights norms. Even technology created to respect human rights can be used in unpredictable ways to cause harm, she said.

“If the world doesn’t care [about respecting human rights], then [effectively upholding human rights is] an uphill battle,” Poynton said.

She spoke of aviation as an example. During peacetime, she said, aviation was used to connect the world and enable travel; in wars, to drop the atomic bomb.

The conference also saw a presentation by Facebook’s director of public policy for Africa, Ebele Okobi, who discussed the company’s approach to protecting human rights. Since Okobi serves as director of public policy for Africa, she focused on talking about her experiences doing so in Africa for Facebook.

Human rights in practice

Jamila Smith-Loud, a user researcher in Google’s Trust and Safety Team, described Google’s efforts to prioritize human rights by integrating social and technical work. In June 2018, Google published its AI principles, delineating seven high-level objectives, and drawing four red lines — one of which included a promise not to use AI in technologies “whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”

Smith-Loud stated that putting these principles “into practice was the hardest question.” She spoke of the difficulty of trying to manage the complex set of issues surrounding securing human rights. For Smith-Loud’s team, anti-discrimination was a major area of focus, which involved the cooperation of both social scientists and the ones with technical know-how.

Smith-Loud highlighted the role of testing and validation technologies in ensuring their compatibility with human rights. In addition, Smith-Loud emphasized determining failure modes and performing risk assessments on products.

She questioned perceived “tensions” in human rights due diligence. If a technology harms some people, then it does not have a net benefit, she said. Diversity of input through not user testing but also in the decision-making process helps prevent human rights issues, she added.

When concluding, Smith-Loud pushed for a “process-oriented” approach to human rights.

“Human rights due diligence is not a check-box exercise,” she said.

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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New wing of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital augments clinical scanning https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/13/new-wing-of-lucile-packard-childrens-hospital-augments-clinical-scanning/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/13/new-wing-of-lucile-packard-childrens-hospital-augments-clinical-scanning/#respond Thu, 14 Jun 2018 06:55:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1142133 The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s new Main building— equipped with a range of new tools, including a cutting-edge clinical scanner— has brought about significant improvements to the hospital experience for patients, their families and staff, since its Dec. 9 opening, doctors report.

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The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s new Main building— equipped with a range of new tools, including a cutting-edge clinical scanner— has brought about significant improvements to the hospital experience for patients, their families and staff, since its Dec. 9 opening, doctors report.  

Housed in the building’s new imaging center, the new scanner simultaneously conducts Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests.

Formerly, patients relied on separate systems for MRI and Computed Tomography (CT) scans and used separate systems housed in the hospital’s West building. PET scans also were unavailable in the West building because of space restrictions.

The imaging center’s PET-MRI scanner has improved both the patient scanning experience and interpretable results, according to Dr. Shreyas Vasanawala M.D./Ph.D. ’01, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s MRI Director and a professor of radiology at the medical school.

Dr. Vasanawala said that the new PET-MRI scanner performs both types of scans simultaneously, allowing doctors to better understand the tissue scanned.

“With the MRI and PET images together, we can then actually interpret [the images] together,” he said.

The new system also brings increased patient comfort and shortened hospital stays. Previously, if a patient needed both types of scans, doctors would have to put them under a different anesthesia each time. These tests would also occur on separate days.

“But now, you can put them under anesthesia once,” he said.

Further, the majority of patients treated are children, who, according to Vasanawala, have a hard time staying still long enough for clear scans.

In addition, the center has new interior decorations that serve as distractions for child patients. The decorations help to calm the children undergoing imaging procedures who would otherwise tend to move around and influence scan accuracy.

It’s common practice to give child patients anesthesia to prevent undue movements.

“What we are hearing from our care teams is that thanks to the distraction techniques… more [child] patients are able to go [under the scans] without anesthesia,” said Samantha Beal, the hospital’s director of media and public relations.

According to Jill Sullivan, vice president of hospital transformation, these changes have improved the patient experience.

”There has been a lot of positive feedback [on the new imaging center],” she said.

Further, the addition of 149 new hospital beds have transformed patient and family experience in the hospital. According to Sullivan, each patient is offered a private room complete with a private bathroom and a place for up to two family members to sleep.

“This [ability to sleep with their children] was something [the parents] had asked us for,” said Sullivan.

In addition, the new rooms have larger TVs, a gaming system and lighting control board to keep child patients entertained during their stay. Since patients sometimes do not leave their rooms during their stay, each room features an outdoor flower box to provide fresh reminders of nature.

The new building also contains an additional cafe and gardens that both the patients’ families and staff enjoy.

While the new building has been open for six months already, not all of its units are in operation. Dr. Vasanawala said that the hospital is still preparing to unveil its new surgical unit, the Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Surgery and Intervention Center, on Jun. 30. Within this unit, there will be a MRI scanner for use during surgical operations that employs more powerful magnetic field gradients to increase scanning speed.

In the coming months, the facility’s Imaging Center will also get a magnetic resonance (MR) guided Focused Ultrasound, which conducts non-invasive surgery by concentrating soundwaves to a millimeter point. The new MRI scanner is used to guide and control the treatment. Just like with the PET-MRI, Dr. Vasanawala expects this new equipment to provide improved treatment experiences at the hospital.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Vasavawala is the MRI Director for Stanford Hospital rather that the Children’s Hospital. This post has also been updated to clarify several points: the effects of the new PET-MRI scanner, the role of anesthesia for child patients, rooms’ accommodations for family members and details of the new MRI scanner and MR-guided Focused Ultrasound.

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Faculty Senate talks student-athlete life, emergency preparedness https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/25/faculty-senate-talks-student-athlete-life-emergency-preparedness/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/25/faculty-senate-talks-student-athlete-life-emergency-preparedness/#respond Fri, 26 Jan 2018 07:37:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1135657 In its first meeting of the new year, Faculty Senate heard reports about student athletes and emergency preparedness.

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In its first meeting of the new year, Faculty Senate heard reports about student athletes and emergency preparedness.

Faculty Senate talks student-athlete life, emergency preparedness
The Faculty Senate in session (Courtesy of Linda A. Cicero/Stanford News).

Director of Athletics Bernard Muir led a panel representing Stanford’s Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation (DAPER) about tackling challenges faced by student athletes. According to the panel, Stanford’s athlete population has a 94 percent graduation rate compared to the 65 percent overall for Division I schools, and 492 student athletes received some amount of athletic scholarship for a total of $23 million in aid.

In terms of majors, the most common student athlete majors are science, technology and society (STS), human biology, management science and engineering (MS&E), computer science and political science, in that order. The list of majors overlaps with the University’s most popular majors as a whole: computer science, human biology, electrical engineering, symbolic systems and mechanical engineering. The panel acknowledged that engineering majors are harder to achieve as a student athlete. However, student representative Kevin Paloma ’17 from the football team said, “I would say [majoring in engineering as a student athlete] is doable.”

Muir also highlighted DAPER’s Cardinal Strong program, which emphasizes the entire student athlete experience and helped create the “High Performance and Education” dinner program open to all students after regular dining hours.

In addition, DAPER created the Student-Athlete Civic Engagement program (ACE) to help with the difficulties student athletes face going abroad. Students in the program go abroad during the summer to four countries for three weeks each; the ACE program specifically chooses locations with gyms to minimize the impact on the athletes’ training schedules. According to Muir, the feedback from the ACE’s two cohorts has been positive.

After the report from DAPER, University emergency manager Keith Perry and Director of Research Safety Russell Furr presented on Stanford’s emergency preparedness, which is coordinated by Environmental Health and Safety.

“We [the professionals at Environmental Health and Safety] use an all-hazards approach,” Perry said, adding that Environmental Health and Safety develops strategies and protocols that form a toolbox allowing responders to be flexible.

Perry said that there are three different emergency levels. Level one, the least severe level, includes local emergencies like heart attacks or water pipe breaks. Incidents causing minor to moderate campus impact, which include power outages, gas pipe breaks or infectious disease outbreaks, form level two. Finally, the most severe issues like earthquakes and active shooters are in level three and demand the attention of all of the University’s emergency response resources.

Given that incidents in level one and two are more common, Perry said,  these situations help Environmental Health and Safety improve their strategies for level three situations.

Provost Persis Drell also announced that the Allan V. Cox Medal for Faculty Excellence Fostering Undergraduate Research has been suspended due to the revelations regarding Cox’s sexual misconduct. Drell said that the decision regarding the future of a prize recognizing faculty work in fostering undergraduate research is still under discussion and could possibly include a renaming of the medal.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Q&A: Gapyearly co-founder Sasha Landauer ’20 on making the most of a gap year https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/24/qa-gap-guides-founder-sasha-landauer-20-on-making-the-most-of-a-gap-year/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/24/qa-gap-guides-founder-sasha-landauer-20-on-making-the-most-of-a-gap-year/#respond Thu, 25 Jan 2018 07:29:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1135558 Sasha Landauer ’20, founder of Gap Guides and co-founder of No Crap Gap Guides, took a gap year in the 2015-16 academic year to explore different cultures before attending Stanford.

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Sasha Landauer ’20, co-founder of gapyearly, took a gap year in the 2015-16 academic year to explore different cultures before attending Stanford. Over the course of 12 months, Landauer traveled to six continents and 10 countries. The Daily sat down with Landauer to learn about her adventures and advice on taking a gap year.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Could you describe what you did during your gap year?

Sasha Landauer (SL): I took my gap year before starting Stanford, after graduating high school. I spent most of the year abroad, but I wanted to do different work-stay arrangements and live with the locals as much as possible. I found this website called HelpX where you could work in exchange for room and board.

Using that, I first went to Europe with my best friend, who also took a gap year. We worked as maintenance in hotels in Venice and Paris and also on a farm in Italy. [These work-stay programs] also made it a lot cheaper, and we got to meet great families that way. I stayed there for a few months.

Then, I ended up going to New Zealand for two months. I stayed with a friend of mine there, kind of hanging out. He lived there, so it was free.

[After that] I went to Nepal on my own. I taught English in a monastery in the Himalayas and trekked there for a while near Everest.

[From] there I went down to Antarctica. I was part of this conservation and leadership exhibition with a group called 2041. In this group, you are supposed to fundraise before you go and when you fundraise, you raise awareness that the treaty that protects Antarctica expires in 2041. There was a very international group of people on the boat. They were from 35 countries and everyone was very dedicated towards the environment.

When I got back to Argentina [from Antarctica], I stayed in Argentina for a few months with a friend. I backpacked and traveled around.

I also worked in the summer on a farm in California [before leaving to Europe]. I got to save some money this way.

 

TSD: What was your most memorable experience during your gap year?

SL: Three weeks in, I was pretty sick in Europe. My friend and I were on this island and I had tons of lice. I was pretty miserable, kind of sitting there alone; I couldn’t really work since I was contagious. I remember having this moment [thinking] that nobody knows what I was doing there, and there was this overwhelming feeling that I was responsible for my own development. No one was going to tell me be a smarter, more ethical person. That was entirely up to me to create some sort of meaningful development. That [experience] was really cool. It was kind of freaky.

 

TSD: Why did you decide to take a gap year?

SL: I decided an hour before the deadline, before I had to commit. I felt like my path was a ladder. Stanford was the next obvious step and there would be a next obvious step professionally after that. I wanted to interrupt that sense of continuity and get some time to explore on my own and figure out what I’d like to do when nobody’s watching. You know, in high school, everything ends up on a college application. I really liked what I did, but I had a lot of uncertainty over my motivation. I wanted to explore and there were a lot of places I wanted to explore. I realized that the gap year would be the freest period before college, before I had obligations everywhere else.

 

TSD: What did you learn during this gap year?

SL: I learned to be alone, which is something I never really had to do in high school. The few months I had in Nepal were really important. I [now] feel comfortable with myself and just know that I don’t need to be around a lot of other people to be okay.

I also learned how fortunate I am to have the sort of relationships that were so supportive. My parents and my best friend were able to keep in touch even though I wasn’t able to see them for a year. And I think that was great to establish before college, where there [can be] a lot of anxiety over being away from home … I was pretty set and comfortable with that by the time I got here.

 

TSD: How has your gap year informed your experience at Stanford?

SL: It was a really good thing to have done before coming here. I came to Stanford much more comfortable with myself. I didn’t have [as much] anxiety over social interactions as much as I would have in high school. It also raised the stakes a lot for making sure I’m doing things that bring me to joy here.

I think I’m also motivated to engage with my professors and kind of make the academic side a fulfilling personal experience because I really like having face to face interaction and conversation with people.

 

TSD: What advice would you give to people thinking about taking a gap year?

SL: Definitely go for it. I don’t think anyone taking a gap year regrets it. I think it’s sort of a unique thing that’s open during this time of life.

Also, definitely reach out to people. I built my website to help people find information about gap years and how to make [the gap year] more successful.

At the end of the day, if it feels right, no matter the worries are, things are going work out.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

Editor’s Note: The Q&A has been updated to reflect the re-branding of Gap Guides as gapyearly.

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Faculty Senate discusses long-range planning, postdoc struggles https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/01/faculty-senate-discusses-long-range-planning-postdoc-struggles/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/01/faculty-senate-discusses-long-range-planning-postdoc-struggles/#respond Fri, 01 Dec 2017 09:23:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1134278 In its last meeting of the quarter, the Faculty Senate received reports on postdoctoral affairs, discussed Stanford’s response to the proposed tax reform and the long-range planning process as well as also passed a resolution acknowledging the Muwekma Ohlone tribe’s support to Stanford University.

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In its last meeting of the quarter, the Faculty Senate received reports on postdoctoral affairs, discussed Stanford’s response to the proposed tax reform and the long-range planning process and passed a resolution acknowledging the Muwekma Ohlone tribe’s support for Stanford.

Faculty Senate discusses long-range planning, postdoc struggles
Provost Persis Drell responded to a question about freedom of speech on campus (Courtesy of Linda A. Cicero).

Long-range planning

With the analysis of the proposals from members of the Stanford community complete, the steering groups have cleared the second of three stages in Stanford’s long-range planning process. Some 2,802 proposals were delegated to four separate steering groups named Research, Education, Our Community and Engagement Beyond Our University. The chair of each steering group briefly updated the Faculty Senate on its process and high-level findings on the community proposals gathered in the first phase.

Steering groups either categorized proposals in different areas with hashtags, analyzed common motifs that formed the basis of the group’s white papers or both. The groups were careful not to “pick winners and losers,” and the 37 white papers will be available to the public on Feb. 1.

According to Juliet Brodie, co-chair of the Engagement Beyond Our University group and Associate Dean for Clinical Education at Stanford Law School, many proposals said that Stanford needs to serve as an example for the rest of the world given its reputation as a global leader in research and education. Sustainability was also a prevalent theme in proposals across the four major categories, leading the steering groups to collaborate on a single white paper about the issue.

Once the white papers have been released and the Executive Cabinet forms a cohesive vision and action plan, stakeholders will vet and finalize the plans in the spring, marking the end of the formal long-range planning process.

“I want to emphasize that this [formal long-range planning process] is the start, not the end of long-range planning [at Stanford],” said co-chair Susan McConnell.

Postdocs

The Faculty Senate also received a report on postdoctoral affairs at Stanford, which emphasized the critical role postdocs play at Stanford and highlighted several urgent issues that they face.

According to University postdoctoral data, Stanford has seen a disproportionately rapid growth in the postdoc population in the last 15 years, rising by 73 percent compared to a 27 percent growth in faculty. A 2016 survey found that 70 percent of postdocs mentored students, five percent filed patents, 17 percent taught, and 66 percent performed administrative duties for research groups.

Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Affairs Sophie Kelppner said that Stanford leads the nation in postdoctoral training and that “all postdocs are treated equitably.”

However, postdocs face significant challenges, especially regarding affordability. According to Anand Rao, a postdoc in Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine who serves as chair of the Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (SURPAS), postdocs have had two-hour commutes and often barely make ends meet with the high cost of living in the Bay Area. In addition, a 2016 survey of postdocs revealed that 15 percent were dissatisfied with research mentorship from professors, and one in four were dissatisfied in career mentoring.

Diversity among postdocs is also low, with only four percent coming from under-represented ethnic minorities.

Proposed solutions to these issues include increasing the minimum salary for postdocs, subsidizing housing and child care, fundraising for postdocs and implementing a cohort model of recruiting and training postdocs. However, some members of the Faculty Senate questioned the idea of a cohort as expectations and responsibilities vary across fields.

Tax bill

University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne also updated the Faculty Senate on Stanford’s response to the U.S. Congress’s tax reform. The proposed bill in the House would repeal student loan interest deduction, tax employee benefits, university endowments and tuition credits.

“We [at Stanford] firmly believe that [tax policies beneficial to education] should not be undercut,” Tessier Lavigne said, adding that the changes were proposed simply to offset tax revenue lost from other tax cuts rather than realize a sound policy.

According to Tessier-Lavigne, Stanford’s leadership has engaged with “leadership on both sides of the aisle” in Congress and the Executive Branch to emphasize the negative repercussions of the proposed cuts.

As the meeting drew to a close, Provost Persis Drell announced that the search committee for the new Vice Provost of Research has been assembled and will convene shortly.

In light of November being National American Heritage month, the Faculty Senate also unanimously passed a resolution acknowledging the Muwekma Ohlone tribe’s support and affirming the importance of the the Stanford-Muwekma Ohlone tribe partnership.

”The Faculty Senate wishes to recognize the Muwekma Ohlone tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area upon whose traditional territory the University resides,” the resolution read. “The Senate offers sincere thanks to the Muwekma Ohlone tribe for over a century of support of the University’s mission and land stewardship activities. We affirm the importance of this enduring partnership.”

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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PE 112 hones students’ scuba skills in Monterey Bay https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/pe-112-hones-students-scuba-skills-in-monterey-bay/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/pe-112-hones-students-scuba-skills-in-monterey-bay/#respond Fri, 02 Jun 2017 02:47:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128815 In PE 112: “SCUBA Diving Open Water - Advanced,” students who already have an open water certification improve their scuba diving, spending a weekend in Monterey.

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PE 112 hones students' scuba skills in Monterey Bay
PE 112 brings its students to Monterey Bay to scuba (Courtesy of Andrew Todhunter).

In PE 112: “SCUBA Diving Open Water – Advanced,” students with open water diving experience improve their scuba diving skills in Monterey Bay. PE 112 is the second course in Stanford’s scuba diving series.

The class only accepts 10 students, a small portion of the 48 students who wanted to take the course this spring.

According to lecturer and course instructor Andrew Todhunter, students in PE 112 will complete five “Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Adventure Dives” from the book “PADI Adventures in Diving.” Once students have completed PE 112, they will be certified by PADI for advanced open water diving.

The course occurs over two weekends. During the first weekend, students work with instructors to certify their diving knowledge from textbooks, review their equipment and practice their skills in a pool. During the entirety of the second weekend, students conduct five dives in Monterey.  

Students must have an open water certification by any recognized scuba certification agency in order to take the class. Those interested in picking up scuba diving can take the first class in Stanford’s scuba series: PE 111.

Todhunter said that because the course only lasts two weekends and the class size is so small, students’ commitment level greatly impacts the course outcome.

“[Students] must commit to and attend all meetings and training sessions to pass the class … [and] will not be permitted to drop the class after Week 2,” Todhunter said.

Alumni of PE 112 spoke highly of the class. All of them, along with Todhunter, expressed appreciation for the fact that Stanford heavily subsidizes the experience, making it more affordable, at $120, than would otherwise be possible.

Former class member Matthew Titchenal M.S. ’14, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, noted that the scuba skills he learned in PE 112 would be applicable throughout life. He said he enjoyed his experience exploring the open water.

“I did a deep dive, which is diving past 60 feet, and [a] search and recovery [dive] – doing a search pattern and finding something in the water,” Titchenal said.

Former PE 112 student Shirbi Ish-Shalom ’16 M.S. ’16 from the School of Medicine recommends the course to divers and non-divers alike.

“[PE 112] is a definite must,” Ish-Shalom said. “Monterey – where you dive – is such a cool area. There is all this wildlife that you see from a new perspective … Seals were circling us and playing with us.”

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate talks U.S. universities, arts at Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/26/faculty-senate-talks-u-s-universities-arts-at-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/26/faculty-senate-talks-u-s-universities-arts-at-stanford/#respond Fri, 26 May 2017 08:57:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128111 Columbia University professor Jonathan Cole discussed governance in U.S. universities; Harry Elam and others presented on the Stanford Arts Initiative, highlighting the University’s push to increase the arts’ presence on campus.

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At Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Columbia University professor and provost emeritus Jonathan Cole discussed governance in U.S. universities. Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Harry Elam and others presented on the Stanford Arts Initiative, emphasizing the University’s push to increase the arts’ presence on campus in the future.

Cole’s address focused on celebrating American research universities as well as discussing issues with their institutional framework. For instance, Cole argued that American research universities are great not necessarily because of undergraduate education but rather because of how they generate new knowledge. Discussing the race for new discoveries, he said that U.S. universities seek to balance humility with being at the forefront of promising research.

He also suggested that faculty should become more involved in the undergraduate admissions process, because they frequently can better identify the students who will contribute to the University. Creating a culture of prestige and honor around the selection committees would entice more professors to be involved in the selection process, according to Cole.

In addition, Cole argued that diversity is paramount for schools and that the university experience “should be unsettling” in exposing students to new ideas. To achieve this, Cole emphasized there should be no curbs on free thought.

Following Cole’s address, Elam briefly reported on the accomplishments of Stanford Arts Initiative, launched in 2006, and gave a small glimpse into the program’s future endeavors. According to Elam, who serves as Stanford’s vice president for the arts, the most prominent accomplishments of the Arts Initiative have been the construction of three new arts buildings: Bing Concert Hall, Roble Arts Gym and the McMurtry Building.

Faculty Senate talks U.S. universities, arts at Stanford
At Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Harry Elam presented on the Stanford Arts Initiative (Courtesy of Linda A. Cicero).

Elam also noted that more people have been visiting the Cantor Arts Center along with the Anderson Collection: Over 160,000 people have visited the Anderson Collection alone. The Arts Initiative has also created new opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and research, facilitated through new faculty positions, fellowships and undergraduate programs, he said. In addition, Elam considered the Creative Expression (CE) WAYS requirement a success in introducing students to creative ways of thinking.

Regarding the future, Elam has ambitious goals.

“We [of the Stanford Arts Initiative] are looking to make Stanford an internationally renowned destination for the arts,” Elam said.

Stephen Sano, the Professor Harold C. Schmidt Director in Choral Studies and professor of music, gave a brief report on the music department in the context of the Stanford Arts Initiative. The music department comprises about 50 undergraduates and 50 graduate students, he said, but over 1,000 students are taking courses within the department.

Sano announced that the music department has also begun to recruit student musicians in a process similar to athletic recruitment. Few peer institutions have similar programs, he said.

Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor of Arts and Humanities Alexander Nemerov shared his experience as a professor of the humanities. After coming to Stanford in the fall of 2012 from Yale University, where he taught courses with high student enrollment, Nemerov started teaching art history classes such as ARTHIST 1B with only 60 to 75 students. Now, the class has about 200 students.

Nemerov is proud of this growth but hopes to see even more interest in the humanities at Stanford.

“My hope is that … Stanford will become a place where an art history class has the highest enrollment,” Nemerov said.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan “at” stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate talks research funding, future of education https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/28/faculty-senate-talks-research-funding-future-of-education/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/28/faculty-senate-talks-research-funding-future-of-education/#respond Fri, 28 Apr 2017 09:47:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126703 At Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne reiterated the University’s continual support of federal funding for research. The meeting also took a look at the future of undergraduate and graduate education.

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At Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne reiterated the University’s continual support of federal funding for research. The Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE) and the Vice Provost of Graduate Education (VPGE) also took a look at the future of undergraduate and graduate education.

Tessier-Lavigne debriefed the Faculty Senate on his recent visit to Washington, D.C. with other presidents of the Association of American Universities’ (AAU). Stanford is one of 62 university members. During this trip, Tessier-Lavigne met with senators on both sides of the political spectrum to discuss research funding.

“Federal support of research is a bipartisan issue,” Tessier-Lavigne said.

Faculty Senate talks research funding, future of education
At its Thursday meeting,
the Faculty Senate heard President Marc Tessier-Lavigne speak on federal funding for research (Courtesy of Joyce N. Boghosian)

He also joined other leaders of AAU institutions in a statement calling for Americans to urge greater federal collaboration with universities.

“We call on every American who cares about the welfare, security and prosperity of our nation to join us in urging our nation’s leaders to renew and strengthen this partnership,” the statement reads. “Our economy depends on our ability to create the technologies, cures and jobs of the future.”

Provost Persis Drell followed with comments about recent concerns regarding academic freedom at Stanford. Drell said that Stanford cherishes academic freedom and works hard to protect it; however, to preserve Stanford as a place to encourage diversity in thought, Stanford members are not allowed to act on behalf of the University or utilize University resources to support particular political candidates.

Examples of this include holding rallies to defeat or support a particular candidate, fundraising for a candidate and sending out mail urging voters to vote for a specific candidate through Stanford mailing lists.

The Faculty Senate also heard from Vice Provost of Graduate Education Patricia Gumport, who provided updates on the state of graduate education and priorities for the future. One point of concern, she said, is the large increase in graduate enrollment in recent years; between 2002 and 2016, the the graduate population grew by 22 percent, while the undergraduate population increased by only 4 percent.

“What we have here is a path of unplanned growth,” Gumport said.

Other issues include funding, adequate advising and strengthening diversity and inclusion, as well as collecting more data to understand the complexity of graduate student life.

Gumport particularly emphasized the need for data, noting that there is little University-wide data on critical aspects of the graduate population, in part due to the decentralized nature of the community. Faculty Senate Chair and Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society Debra Satz urged extra support in obtaining data.

Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Harry Elam also presented a “forward-thinking” look at undergraduate education and called for faculty to submit proposals to Stanford’s long-range planning initiative, dubbed “The Purposeful University,”  to reform the freshman year experience, major paths and other academic issues. Elam particularly noted the importance of the student perspective in the long-range planning process.

Other areas that need particular attention, he said, include rethinking liberal education and condensing requirements and unit counts for certain majors to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Trump’s Presidential Budget Request worries Faculty Senate https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/14/trumps-presidential-budget-request-worries-faculty-senate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/14/trumps-presidential-budget-request-worries-faculty-senate/#respond Fri, 14 Apr 2017 07:17:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125928 Faculty Senate convened for the first time this quarter to discuss Tessier-Lavigne’s response to President Trump’s Presidential Budget Request (PBR), which may reduce University research funding. The Senate also heard a report from Bridging Education, Ambition and Meaningful Work (BEAM) on recent initiatives to redefine the ways that undergraduates consider their career paths.

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On Thursday, April 13, the Faculty Senate convened for the first time this quarter to discuss Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s response to President Trump’s Presidential Budget Request (PBR), which may reduce University research funding. The Senate also heard a report from Bridging Education, Ambition and Meaningful Work (BEAM) on recent initiatives to redefine the ways that undergraduates consider their career paths.

President Trump’s proposed PBR would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump is the first president to cut government funding for arts, humanities and public media agencies to this severity.

According to Tessier-Lavigne, even if the PBR does not manifest itself within the final budget passed by Congress, federal agencies are nonetheless forced to plan for cuts suggested in the PBR.

The president noted that he will be convening with the Association of American Universities (AAU) presidents this month and that protecting university research is “at the top of our agenda.”

The conversation then moved to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) temporary suspension of the accelerated H-1B visa program and how it may affect the Stanford community. H-1B visas provide temporary employee status for faculty and students working in specialty occupations with prevailing or actual wages. “Prevailing” refers to wages determined by factors such as position title and geographic location.

Currently, only Bechtel International Center can submit H-1Bs for faculty and students looking for work at Stanford.

Vice President of Public Affairs David Demarest, the in-house expert on the topic, said that the expedited process has been suspended. According to the USCIS website, the suspension applies to all H-1B petitions filed on and after April 3, 2017.

“We are looking at what exposure we have with H-1B visas,” Demarest said.

Faculty senators also heard from BEAM’s Associate Vice Provost and Dean of Career Education Farouk Dey about BEAM’s recent achievements and future direction. As Stanford’s career center, BEAM’s career education model revolves around helping students discover meaningful work. It also provides students with in-person career guidance and professional advice.

Dey argued that BEAM has “reimagined the conversation” regarding careers for students. Instead of making five-year or 10-year plans, students are encouraged to take advantage of all the happenstance within their lives. Dey emphasized that, for students, “uncertainty is okay” and added that he himself has no idea what he may do in the next year, let alone five.

On top of this shift in attitude, Dey said that BEAM has specifically reached out to freshmen and sophomores so that they will be better prepared academically as they become upperclassmen. He pointed to specific initiatives, including the ME104B: “Designing Your Life” and ME104S: “Designing Your Stanford” classes as examples of this new direction. Dey added that BEAM also emphasizes support for underrepresented minorities through programs like the Stanford Alumni Mentoring (SAM) program.

Finally, Dey highlighted BEAM’s success in diversifying career and employment options represented on campus beyond engineering and consulting. Only 10 percent of the class of 2016 graduates went into engineering-specific careers and 22 percent went into business, he said. Certain positions, however, may fall in multiple categories when accounted for as career paths.

Post-graduation, Dey said that these educational resources from BEAM are available to alumni “for life for free.”

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu

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Faculty Senate hears updates on Title IX process https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/24/faculty-senate-hears-updates-on-title-ix-process/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/24/faculty-senate-hears-updates-on-title-ix-process/#respond Fri, 24 Feb 2017 10:20:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123753 In its Thursday meeting, the Faculty Senate discussed updates to Stanford’s Title IX process as well as necessary improvements to the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

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In its Thursday meeting, the Faculty Senate discussed updates to Stanford’s Title IX process as well as necessary improvements to the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

Title IX updates

Faculty Senate hears updates on Title IX process
The Faculty Senate met to discuss Stanford’s  Title IX process and the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences (Courtesy of Linda Cicero).

Title IX Coordinator Cathy Glaze ’80 J.D. ’85 described a process implemented over the last year for resolving campus sexual assault cases. According to Glaze, the pilot program is Stanford’s third Title IX system since 2000.

Glaze said the new process differs from previous ones in that it consolidates all necessary actions for a case in one process. In addition, the system allows students to go through a non-hearing process upon recommendation of a Title IX coordinator where both the plaintiff and accused agree on charges as well as punishment. Glaze said the non-hearing option is used when evidence is clear and when parties can come to an agreement on the verdict.

When cases proceed to a hearing, both the plaintiff and the accused represent themselves and a three-judge panel determines responsibility and, if applicable, punishment. Findings of responsibility as well as a vote for expulsion must be unanimous. Less severe punishments only require a simple majority.

Pamela Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Law and chair of Stanford’s Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault Policies and Practices, mentioned controversy over the unanimity requirement and fear over what may happen if jurists do not agree.

Glaze also noted that the new process introduced new features to help involved students, such as the Confidential Support Team, which allows students to obtain help without having to report to the Title IX office. Students can also speak to an external evidentiary specialist, a non-Stanford affiliated attorney who can provide an independent assessment of the evidence in a case. Additionally, students can seek counseling from attorney advisors whom Stanford pays for up to nine hours per student. Attorney advisors do not represent students during hearings.

Karlan also discussed the controversial case of recently dismissed Title IX attorney Crystal Riggins. Riggins, formerly one of six lawyers on retainer as student advisors, was dropped following critical comments she made to The New York Times about Stanford’s Title IX process — comments University administration said warranted termination for expressing a “lack of faith” in Stanford’s system.

Karlan said that Provost Persis Drell found no sign of retaliation in the decision to drop Riggins after personally looking at the associated files. However, Drell asked the Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault Policies and Practices to examine the overall attorney process — specifically, whether Stanford should provide students with attorneys and how to consolidate feedback on attorneys. Other members of the Faculty Senate agreed with the need to clear up guidelines for retaining attorneys to prevent potential misunderstandings.

Additionally, Karlan noted that the advisory committee will consider broadening Stanford’s definition of sexual assault, adding that expanded definitions would require further evaluations of the default punishment, expulsion.

“As you expand the definition of the most serious charge in your repertoire of sanctions, the question of how the sanctions should follow the charge becomes a little bit trickier,” Karlan said.

Glaze said there is no “gold standard” for the Title IX process across schools, but that there are definite areas for improvement, such as the timeliness of hearings.

School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Science concerns

Pamela Matson, dean of the School of Earth Sciences, gave a brief presentation about the importance of the issues studied by the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.  Matson said the school has expanded studies from subsurface systems such as in geology to include surface and socioeconomic systems. The dean also discussed  demographics of students.

“We’ve diversified in terms of gender … [but] we need to continue to work on [getting under-represented minorities],” Matson said.

Matson explained that the school faces challenges with growing class size; the Mitchell Building is particularly antiquated in research tools and teaching space, she said. At the same time, Matson expressed concern with the school’s small number of majors, citing a total of 130 students.

Matson said research funding has been flat and the current presidential administration’s attitude toward earth sciences is also concerning. As an example, Matson cited a recent memo she received stating that the federal government may move to close the geosciences part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Finally, the Faculty Senate approved the Residential Programs Faculty Board, a permanent committee to oversee residential programs at Stanford. Although the group is currently aimed at undergraduates, there are plans to include graduate residential issues in the future.

 

Contact Christina Pan at ‘capan’ at stanford.edu

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Classy Classes: MUSIC 133 introduces the food, music and history of medieval feasts https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/16/classy-classes-music-133-introduces-the-food-music-and-history-of-medieval-feasts/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/16/classy-classes-music-133-introduces-the-food-music-and-history-of-medieval-feasts/#respond Fri, 17 Feb 2017 05:43:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123232 MUSIC 133: “Food, Text, Music: A Multidisciplinary Lab on the Art of Feasting,” gives students the opportunity to cook medieval food and learn about its presentation and accompanying music.

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Have you ever watched HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones,” seen the lavish feasts and wondered what it would be like have one?

At Stanford, you can satisfy your appetite with MUSIC 133: “Food, Text, Music: A Multidisciplinary Lab on the Art of Feasting.” Marisa Galvez, associate professor of French and Italian, and Jesse Rodin, associate professor of music, teach students about medieval food – from its presentation to its utensils to its accompanying music. The class covers how these feasts relate to contemporary issues such as sustainability and elitism.

MUSIC 133 convenes from 4 to 7 p.m. on Fridays at the Arrillaga Teaching Kitchen. Students discuss assigned readings before spending at least an hour cooking a recipe from a medieval cookbook. Recipes range from saffron soups to rose pudding. After cooking, the students eat their creations and discuss the week’s thematic focus; in a music-focused class, for example, students sang while eating their meal.

In addition to hands-on aspects, each class features guest lecturers from Stanford or from relevant fields. One class included singers from a medieval ensemble.

Course member Emma Grover ’20 strongly recommended the class to students from any discipline. The current class contains not only humanities and social science majors but also engineering students.

Grover said it is interesting to see familiar ingredients appear in different combinations that lead to unexpected results. Most medieval foods contained combinations of sweet and savory that are unlike the stereotypically bland or over-spiced versions of recipes today.

“[We cooked] this pie that had spinach, ricotta cheese, salt, pepper and lots of sugar,” Grover said. “It was completely bizarre.”

Grover, who has background in medieval history, also said that the class clarifies misconceptions about medieval traditions. For example, cutlery and utensils were not available during medieval times, so pasta was eaten with one’s hands.

“[The real nature of medieval feasts] turns out to be so different from the literary depiction,” Grover said.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu

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Faculty Senate unanimously denounces Trump’s travel ban https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/10/faculty-senate-unanimously-denounces-trumps-travel-ban-order/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/10/faculty-senate-unanimously-denounces-trumps-travel-ban-order/#respond Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:33:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122791 On Thursday night, the Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution questioning President Trump’s executive order and received various reports.

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On Thursday night, the Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution questioning President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries.

The Senate also received a law school report, opened up discussions about how to best improve the situation of non-tenure track educators and listened to President Marc Tessier-Lavigne present his plan for the University’s long term vision.

Resolution against Trump’s order

The resolution against Trump’s travel ban states the Faculty Senate’s concern that the executive order “threatens [Stanford’s] educational mission as well as a free and open society.”

Faculty Senate unanimously denounces Trump's travel ban
(Courtesy of Linda Cicero)

“The senate will do anything in its power to protect all its members of our community who are vulnerable to these measures and will remain vigilant on future actions that threaten our mission and core values,” the resolution reads.

Tessier-Lavigne announced that he, along with 47 other university presidents, condemned the order.

“[We] urge you to rectify or rescind the recent executive order,” the letter Tessier-Lavigne signed states. “If left in place, the order threatens both American higher education and the defining principles of our country.”

A representative of the Emeriti Council echoed the sentiment, saying, “We find ourselves [on] the cusp of an Orwellian nightmare.”

Planning for Stanford’s future

Tessier-Lavigne, along with Provost Persis Drell, laid out a plan to collect data that would help form Stanford’s vision for the next decade.

The three-part process includes collection of proposals, analysis of the collected information by a steering group and presentation of findings to a newly formed Executive Cabinet (EC) to create a unified vision.

Tessier-Lavigne and Drell will focus on four main areas: education, research, community and engagement beyond the University. A steering committee will be created for each topic, and committee members will be chosen by the EC. Members will consist of representatives from the faculty, student body and academic staff.

Several Faculty Senate representatives expressed reservations over the EC’s power to select members. MS&E Professor Ross Schachter suggested that the Committee on Committees should recommend members. Drell was open to recommendations from faculty and groups such as the Faculty Senate but gave the final vote to the EC.

Tessier-Lavigne stated that all members of the Stanford community can submit proposals, which are due June 1. More information can be found online at planning.stanford.edu.

Non-tenure professors

Elizabeth Bernhardt-Kamil, professor of German studies, Mehran Sahami ’92 M.S. ’93 Ph.D. ’99, professor of computer science, and Christine Alfano Ph.D. ’95, associate director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR), presented on issues that non-tenure track instructors face. The three faculty represented three large cohorts of non-tenure track instructors: the Language Center, the School of Engineering and PWR.

Alfano brought up cost-of-living, an acute issue for non-tenure track instructors due to their lower salary.

All three noted that contracts lasting one, three or even five years generate significant stress. In addition, the non-tenure track instructors expressed interest in other teaching opportunities such as leading introductory seminars.

Sahami criticized Stanford for its treatment of non-tenure track instructors, pointing to the University of California system and the University of Toronto as examples of schools instituting ways for non-tenure track instructors to advance and even gain professorships in teaching.

Law School report

Richard E. Lang Law Professor Elizabeth Magill briefly presented about the state of the Stanford Law School, which she is the dean of.

The Law School consists of only 65 faculty. However, Magill called it a “big tent” that boasts diversity among its peer law institutions, with 16 percent faculty of color and 35 percent of students belonging to underrepresented minority groups.

Magill also expressed interest in combining technology and law to provide better access to legal services.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Etchemendy delivers final report to Faculty Senate https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/27/etchemendy-delivers-final-report-to-faculty-senate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/27/etchemendy-delivers-final-report-to-faculty-senate/#respond Fri, 27 Jan 2017 08:20:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122034 This Thursday, the Faculty Senate convened for the first time this quarter to discuss reports about undergraduate education and IT policy while bidding adieu to departing Provost John Etchemendy.

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This Thursday, the Faculty Senate convened for the first time this quarter to discuss reports about undergraduate education and IT policy while bidding adieu to departing Provost John Etchemendy.

Etchemendy’s final report to the Faculty Senate described his thought process behind accepting the Stanford Band’s appeal to be put on probation instead of sustaining the initial suspension for two quarters. He articulated that the Band had eloquently argued that a suspension would not address the Band’s problems, and the Band had proposed an alternative approach to make the cultural and organizational changes necessary. Etchemendy received a standing ovation for his work as Provost.

Etchemendy also ended his remarks with advice for interacting with the new leadership.

“There’s been a remarkable decline in trust for any kind of leadership,” Etchemendy said. “The only thing I want to say is that the first time [incoming Provost Persis Drell] or [President Marc Tessier-Lavigne] makes a decision that you think is just stupid … step back and pause for a moment, and think that before you attribute ill will, remember that they are trying to do their best.”

Tessier-Lavigne also briefly commented about the recent acts of intolerance performed on campus. He affirmed Stanford’s support of its community members, stating that, “All members of our community belong here at Stanford.” Tessier-Lavigne later specified that this statement included undocumented immigrants. In addition, due to a leaked possible executive order restricting immigration to the country, Tessier-Lavigne also stated that the administration is reaching out to members of the Stanford community who would be affected by this possible order, although he also argued that the situation was very much in flux.

On top of these executive reports, professor of pathology and genetics Andy Fire briefly summarized the Task Force on IT Privacy and Security. Fire mentioned that the task force has created a generalized policy for dealing with requests for University information from both inside and outside of Stanford, such as a request from the U.S. Senate to obtain information on students from Middle Eastern countries after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In addition, Fire articulated that although work has been done to improve security, nobody should assume that someone cannot read their emails.

On top of this IT report, professor Russell Berman, the Chair of the Planning and Policy Board (PPB), briefly described the situation regarding students’ curricular choices and gave recommendations from the PPB on these issues. Ultimately, Berman articulated that the drift toward STEM in and of itself was not an issue; rather, marginalizing non-STEM students was the true issue. Consequently, he recommended that the University come up with a comprehensive communication strategy about the work of a liberal arts education, strengthening advising and promoting better breadth in admissions. He also argued that redesigning the curriculum of non-STEM fields, providing opportunities to explore different fields beyond the major and improving pedagogy could help address this imbalance.  

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford alumnus Adam Klein named ‘Sole Survivor’ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/20/stanford-alumnus-adam-klein-named-sole-survivor/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/20/stanford-alumnus-adam-klein-named-sole-survivor/#respond Fri, 20 Jan 2017 08:34:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121673 Adam Klein ’13 appeared on and won CBS’s 33rd season of “Survivor.” The Daily sat down with Klein to discuss the path to becoming the “Sole Survivor” and his recent work raising funds for lung cancer research.

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Adam Klein ’13 appeared on and won CBS’s 33rd season of “Survivor.” This article is a follow up of an earlier Q&A with Klein from September 2016 before his unanimous win was announced. The Daily sat down with Klein to discuss the path to becoming the “Sole Survivor” and his recent work raising funds for lung cancer research.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What was your favorite part about participating in Survivor?

Adam Klein (AK): Besides winning?

 

TSD: Aside from winning.

AK: Just being a part of the show that I’ve loved for so many years and getting to live it every day. While it’s a game, it’s also real life. And you’re out there 24/7 and you have to survive in the elements, and you’re making friends. You have to make friends to do well in the game. It’s a total competitive challenge. It’s mental, it’s physical, it’s strategic, and it’s emotionally taxing. I loved every minute of it.

 

TSD: If there is anything you could redo, what would it be?

AK: I have no regrets about the way that I played the game. I would be hesitant to change anything. It worked out pretty well for me. There were definitely mistakes I made along the way. What defined my game was that I built strong relationships.

 

TSF: What would be your ideal season theme if you could be on another season?

AK: It’s possible to have a game of just winners in the future. Even just the thought of playing a season against other winners of the game, [such as] Yul Kwon, who also went to Stanford, or Richard Hatch, the original winner, or Sandra Diaz-Twine, who has won twice, or Boston Rob, who has played four times – just the thought of that is pretty crazy for me, that I could one day play with all of my “Survivor” heroes.

 

TSD: Can you elaborate on your work raising funds for lung cancer research?

AK: My mom was extraordinarily healthy. She never smoked, worked out every day and ate really well. Somehow she got lung cancer, and I think lung cancer is a terribly underfunded disease. I think part of why it’s underfunded is the stigma behind it, that somehow you did something along the way – smoking or otherwise – to get lung cancer. The truth is that anyone can get lung cancer. My mom is the perfect example of that.

I don’t think there are there enough champions out there raising awareness of this disease and raising money for the research of it. I saw an opportunity here. I knew that we would be telling the story in front of millions of people and making my mom’s life and her disease more meaningful by helping out some other families and hopefully moving the needle forward on curing this disease.

I started raising money on YouCaring very shortly after my mom passed away. We raised over $50,000 through that campaign. During the reunion finale, we made the pitch to get viewers involved and donate as well. The viewing public donated over $160,000. In addition, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation matched $100,000 of that, bringing it up to $260,000. I also donated $100,000 of my winnings from the show, raising it to over $360,000. [In total], we raised over $400,000 for lung cancer research.

 

TSD: How are you continuing your work today?

AK: My YouCaring campaign is still live. That money is going to the Stand Up 2 Cancer and the Bonnie J. Addario Foundation. I’m also raising money directly for Stand Up 2 Cancer and am meeting up with Lung Cancer Dream Team. I’m trying to use as much of this fleeting visibility from Survivor and dedicate it towards fighting this disease. The Stand Up 2 Cancer and American Cancer Society Lung Cancer Dream Team has some of the best lung cancer researchers working on one team. They are focusing on the mutation called KRAS positive mutation that is notoriously difficult to treat. It has very few options available in non-small cell lung cancer. It’s the exact kind of lung cancer my mom had. It’s very personal and very important that they find some answers for KRAS positive patients because there are so many of them and they deserve better options for treatment.

 

TSD: What advice would you give to future “Survivor” contestants?

AK: My advice would be to make friends. Make real relationships. And remember that while you’re playing a game, you’re playing with real people and real human emotions. If you can’t connect with people, and they don’t want you to succeed and don’t trust you as a human being, you’re going to have a hard time getting to the end. Even if you do get to the end, they won’t want to reward you with a million dollars and title of “Sole Survivor.”

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Tessier-Lavigne reaffirms support for undocumented at Faculty Senate https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/01/tessier-lavigne-reaffirms-support-for-undocumented-at-faculty-senate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/01/tessier-lavigne-reaffirms-support-for-undocumented-at-faculty-senate/#respond Fri, 02 Dec 2016 07:54:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120649 At the Faculty Senate meeting last night, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne expressed support for undocumented students. The Senate also received reports on new learning spaces and mental health.

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At the Faculty Senate meeting last night, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne expressed support for undocumented students. The Senate also received reports on new learning spaces from the Office of the Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning (VPTL) and on mental health from the ASSU executive team.

(Courtesy of Aaron Keyhoe)
(Courtesy of Aaron Kehoe)

The Faculty Senate revisited the campus reaction to the election results with Tessier-Lavigne highlighting two emails he wrote to the Stanford community and the open letter he and over 400 other university presidents signed regarding their respective universities’ support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

“The University supports the ability of undocumented students to continue their studies and earn their degree here,” Tessier-Lavigne said.

Provost John Etchemendy also explained Stanford’s new application for the General Use Permit (GUP) to add more campus buildings and housing. The GUP allows Stanford to build new buildings and facilities without having to apply to Santa Clara County each time it wants to create a new facility. Etchemendy hopes that the new GUP will last for the next 20 years or so.

Richard Holeton, VPTL senior director of learning environments and Tom Black, the registrar, gave a short presentation about novel forms of instruction spaces and recommended moving away from traditional lecture-style seating.

Holeton and Black argued that much of Stanford’s learning spaces have not changed to reflect advances in pedagogy and that the VPTL is working to change this situation. They pointed to improved performance in classrooms, like those in Wallenberg Hall and Lathrop Library, that utilize movable chairs and tables. However, there are significant challenges in making these changes campus-wide.

The two main challenges include lack of funding and lack of space. Holeton and Black argue that novel classrooms require more space per student, which limits classroom capacity. In addition, the VPTL is only granted enough money for renovations. Most classroom modifications are currently only applied to non-departmental learning areas such as Wallenberg Hall since reconstruction projects for departmental buildings are more concerned with maintaining their respective facilities.

After this presentation, ASSU president Jackson Beard and ASSU vice president Amanda Edelman presented their work on various issues, ranging from mental health to sustainability at Stanford to sexual assault and Title IX.

Edelman argued that many of the mental health resources, such as Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), have negative reputations. For instance, Edelman cited that many students mistakenly believe it would take several weeks to obtain a CAPS appointment. In reality, it takes seven days.

To combat this, Edelman and Beard encouraged faculty to help clear up this misinformation and further improve mental health resources on campus. They also articulated that professors should be understanding of students and reach out if something seems off.

“Faculty can play a role as well in supporting students in Stanford,” Beard said.

 

Contact Christina Ashley Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford to build nation’s first hadron therapy center https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/13/stanford-to-build-nations-first-hadron-therapy-center/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/13/stanford-to-build-nations-first-hadron-therapy-center/#respond Mon, 14 Nov 2016 06:27:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119746 Stanford Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) announced that they are collaborating to create the first hadron therapy center in the United States.

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On Oct. 17, Stanford Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) announced that they are collaborating to create the first hadron therapy center in the United States. Hadron therapy uses heavy particles, such as carbon, instead of photons to treat cancer.

According to the Chair of the Stanford Radiation Oncology Department, Quynh-Thu Le, hadron therapy can provide more effective cancer treatment.

“[This is because] with charged particle beams, one can concentrate the high radiation dose to the area of the tumor with very little collateral dose to the adjacent normal tissues,” wrote Le.

Although this center will be the first hadron therapy center in the United States, there are 11 existing centers worldwide, mostly concentrated in Europe and Asia.

Sridhar Seshadri, Stanford Medicine’s Vice President of Cancer Services, stated that Stanford Medicine first started considering opening a hadron therapy center in fall of 2008, as new hadron technology was starting to come onto the market. In 2009, Stanford Medicine formed an advisory board to understand the market potential for hadron to treat cancer, which yielded positive results.

Starting in 2011, Stanford representatives started visiting proton centers around the U.S. Through these visits, Stanford Medicine decided that it wanted to go beyond protons and focus on carbon therapy. To gain a deeper understanding of hadron therapy, representatives from the Stanford Hospital, the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the School of Medicine visited a hadron therapy center in Japan. They also started ongoing discussions with companies that could create the hadron therapy machines.

In 2016, the VAPAHCS approached Stanford Medicine about partnering to create a hadron therapy center. Discussion are still in progress, but the center is planned to be housed on the VAPAHCS campus.

In addition, the nationwide Cancer Moonshot initiative chaired by Vice President Joe Biden invited the new hadron therapy center to be included as one of the its potential projects to be launched as a part of that initiative.

Although the exact specifications of the center are still under discussion, Seshadri articulated that the center will treat both veterans and non-veterans. The center will likely be 60 to 70 thousand square feet in size and contain three treatment rooms. One will most likely be a proton room to treat children, as the current hadron methods are considered too hazardous to children. Another room is guaranteed to house a hadron therapy machine, and the last one is still up for discussion. At full capacity, the center will house 75 to 80 collaborators.

In addition, the center will start out with a clinical focus with specific research on carbon beams.

From the initial three years of research, Stanford Medicine hopes to gain FDA approval for hadron therapy. With this, the center will focus on making the therapy more accessible to the general public. In fact, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory plans to act as a Research and Development (R&D) arm within the center to help make hadron therapy machinery more accessible, according to SLAC senior staff Aaron Tremaine.

“Stanford worked with Varian Associates to develop the first linear accelerator for medical use in 1968,” Seshadri wrote. “Today, Varian Medical Systems has installed several thousand linear accelerators in the U.S. and worldwide to treat cancer patients. It took a bet like this, almost 50 years ago, for radiation therapy linear accelerators to be brought to the our country and … the world.”

Contact Christina Ashley Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate drafts resolution in wake of election results https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/11/faculty-senate-drafts-resolution-in-wake-of-election-results/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/11/faculty-senate-drafts-resolution-in-wake-of-election-results/#respond Fri, 11 Nov 2016 08:31:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119743 The Faculty Senate welcomed incoming provost Persis Drell this week and discussed the University’s response to the presidential election.

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The Faculty Senate welcomed incoming provost Persis Drell this week and discussed the University’s response to the presidential election.

Drell articulated her commitment to ensuring Stanford’s continued excellence across many fields. She also expressed excitement in starting to make an impact as Provost.

Sean Bogle, right, Associate Director, Office of Community Standards and Celeste Davila, Office Manager, deliver a request for more faculty to volunteer to serve on judicial panels. (Courtesy of Linda Cicero/Stanford News)
Sean Bogle, right, Associate Director, Office of Community Standards and Celeste Davila,
Office Manager, deliver a request for more faculty to volunteer to serve on judicial panels.
(Courtesy of Linda Cicero/Stanford News)

After Drell’s introduction, Provost John Etchemendy shared his thoughts on the stunning presidential election results. This discussion led the Faculty Senate to release a resolution affirming the Senate’s commitment to Stanford’s inclusive community and its focus on education, especially in light of the election.

“Be it resolved that, in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, the Senate of the Academic Council of Stanford University reaffirms its commitment to an open and inclusive community that embraces all members, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, race, political diversity, sexual orientation, citizenship, ability and that celebrates and learns from diversity,” the final resolution states. “Our nation and the world face extraordinary challenges. We should all be engaged in understanding and addressing these challenges and making a difference in meeting them. As faculty, our most important responsibility is to provide a broad and purposeful education that serves this end.”

Etchemendy also showed optimism about the situation, citing his own experience transitioning to his position as Provost. He mentioned that he had no prior experience regarding budgeting, a key role within the position, when he first became Provost.

According to Etchemendy, the bureaucracy prevented him from potentially ruining the University. He argued that the Federal government has faced similar situations beforehand and that the bureaucracy performs the same way in the Federal government.

“It is not supportive to our students to act like or say that the world is coming to an end,” Etchemendy said.

Instead, he argued that the faculty should focus on supporting students during this time.

Throughout its session, the Faculty Senate mulled over the wording and content of the resolution.

“Our nation and the world face extraordinary challenges,” an initial draft read. “Rather than being fearful, we should all be engaged in understanding and addressing these challenges and making a difference in meeting them.”

This part of the draft concerned some professors who wanted to remove the line about not being fearful, believing it was somewhat condescending and that people have the right to be fearful.

In addition to these concerns, Etchemendy and others felt that the resolution should include all types of diversity, noting political ideology as one such type.

Both suggestions were incorporated into the final resolution, which passed almost unanimously with only one abstention.

 

Contact Christina Ashley Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate hosts new president, discusses trends in undergrad majors https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/14/faculty-senate-hosts-new-president-discusses-trends-in-undergrad-majors/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/14/faculty-senate-hosts-new-president-discusses-trends-in-undergrad-majors/#respond Fri, 14 Oct 2016 07:07:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118012 President Marc Tessier-Lavigne spoke to the 49th Faculty Senate in its first meeting of the year yesterday.

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President Marc Tessier-Lavigne spoke to the 49th Faculty Senate in its first meeting of the year yesterday. The Faculty Senate also received and discussed reports from the Policy and Planning Board (PPB) regarding trends in undergraduates’ choice of majors and the Task Force on Women Leadership about changing climate surrounding campus leadership.

President’s speech

President Marc Tessier-Lavigne responds to a warm welcome from the Faculty Senate on the occassion of their first meeting of the academic year.
(Courtesy of Linda Cicero) President Marc Tessier-Lavigne responds to a warm welcome from the Faculty Senate on the occassion of their first meeting of the academic year.

Tessier-Lavigne gave a brief preview of his upcoming inaugural speech and updated the Faculty Senate on his activities since his first day in September. He expressed that he has focused on four priorities outside of the day-to-day operations of the university: Reaching out, introducing himself to the Stanford community, appointing the new provost and beginning to plan for the next five to 10 years of his time at Stanford.

According to his speech, Tessier-Lavigne has already been in contact with many staff and faculty and is starting to reach out to the student population. He has also introduced himself to the local community, including meeting with the mayor of Palo Alto.

Throughout these introductions, Tessier-Lavigne said he has been asking community members the questions, “How can we make Stanford better and what advice do you have for me as I start [my term]?”

Tessier-Lavigne hopes to announce the new provost in November.

Trends in undergrad majors

Russell Berman, chair of the PPB, and Brian Cook, assessment and program evaluation analyst, presented data regarding trends in undergraduates’ choice in majors.

Since 2010, the number of engineering majors has shot up to 37 percent of the student population. In this same time, the percentage of students studying social science has significantly decreased.

There remains a large gender gap in engineering, with 48 percent of men majoring in engineering and only 25 percent of women doing the same. However, ethnicity seems to have no significant impact on declaring an engineering degree; 37 percent of underrepresented minorities (URM) and 37 percent of those without URM status study engineering.

According to the report, the increased numbers in engineering come primarily from the upshot of people declaring computer science. The decrease in social sciences, meanwhile, is mostly attributable to a drop in the number of economics majors, according to Cook.

Berman suggested that the drift into engineering majors could be partly attributed to students choosing majors for vocational reasons. He stated that economics used to be the major to choose for finance jobs on Wall Street, but recently, computer science has become an attractive alternative.

While Berman questioned whether the increasing shift towards engineering is an issue in the first place, Richard Saller, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, was concerned that the skew towards engineering is changing the undergraduate experience.

“I’ve repeatedly heard talk among students that there’s a sense that the humanists are doing an easier, second-class education,” Saller said.

Other professors were more interested in course enrollment, which some saw as a better indicator of breadth in education. Data on this, however, is currently unavailable.

Women leadership

Margot Gerritsen, senior associate dean for educational initiatives, gave a brief overview of the climate surrounding faculty leadership. The task force addressed several reasons that may be stopping faculty from obtaining leadership roles, including the high opportunity costs and the loss of prestige for leadership roles.

Gerritsen also described a few tools that could be used to lessen these obstacles, such as nurturing individuals for leadership. However, many professors expressed skepticism about the ease of changing campus culture.

For instance, political science professor Judy Goldstein argued that the deep focus on research creates a feeling that leadership roles for faculty are less valuable.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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School of Medicine introduces master’s program in physician assistant studies https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/06/school-of-medicine-introduces-masters-program-in-physician-assistant-studies/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/06/school-of-medicine-introduces-masters-program-in-physician-assistant-studies/#respond Fri, 07 Oct 2016 06:58:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117701 Stanford’s School of Medicine has launched a new master’s program in physician assistant (PA) studies that will train clinicians beginning fall of 2017.

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Stanford’s School of Medicine has launched a new master’s program in physician assistant (PA) studies that will train clinicians beginning fall 2017.

This new program will replace the current PA associate’s degree, which is a collaboration between Stanford and Foothill College, a local two-year community college. Applications to the master’s program, which will award Master of Science degrees, are due Nov. 1.

“The mission of this [new] program is … to train PAs to go out and do great medicine … [and] to become the next generation of leaders,” said Andrew Nevins, the program’s medical director and clinical associate professor in infectious diseases.

A PA is a medical personnel who can independently administer medical procedures, such as prescribing pills or performing surgery. However, the procedures allowed to be performed are determined in writing between the doctor and PA, and a PA cannot practice without a supervising physician.

According to Nevins, the PA is trained under the medical school model, which differs from the education given to nurses.

“Our [PA] program is going to be 30 months long, essentially three years [of training],” Nevins said. “Most of the first two years is going to be [relatively similar to] the M.D. curriculum. After those first two years, the PA students will have clinical rotations for a year.”

In addition, students will be asked to focus on a scholarly concentration, with options consisting of community health, health services and policy research, clinical research and medical education. Students will finish the program with a capstone project.

In order to be eligible for the program, potential students must have received a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university. They should have also completed required science courses and obtained 500 hours of clinical experience. The 500 hours is a decrease from Stanford’s prior program requirement of 3,000 hours.

The new program was conceived after the national accreditation program for PAs mandated that all PA degrees must either become master’s programs by 2020 or be removed, according to clinical professor Sue Fernandes.

In reaction to this mandate, the Stanford School of Medicine commissioned Fernandes and clinical assistant professor Rhonda Larsen to determine the future of Stanford’s PA education. Fernandes and Larsen decided that Stanford ought to continue teaching PAs and determined that offering a Master of Science degree would be the best way to go, according to Fernandes.

“[The new PA program] gives Stanford a real opportunity to make a mark in this rapidly growing field,” Nevins said. “[A PA is] one of the leading positions in terms of job growth that is out there. We really need healthcare providers, but many people are choosing not to do healthcare because [training] is very long, very expensive.”

According to Stanford Premedical Association officer Kali Cornn ’18, students will now have a new option to consider when deciding a career in medicine.

“We really try to encourage students to explore alternative pathways to medical school,” Cornn said. “I think this new program will give students another opportunity to know [another way] to engage in medicine.”

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Q&A with Adam Klein ’13, contestant on ‘Survivor’ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/29/qa-with-adam-klein-13-contestant-on-survivor/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/29/qa-with-adam-klein-13-contestant-on-survivor/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2016 07:27:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117349 Stanford alumnus Adam Klein ’13 is a contestant on the newest season of the CBS reality show “Survivor.” The show maroons a group of contestants in the wilderness, where they have to survive and compete in challenges for rewards. Contestants are voted off until a sole survivor wins the season. The newest season, Season 33, focuses on the clash of the generations: Generation X and the Millennials.

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Stanford alumnus Adam Klein ’13 is a contestant on the newest season of the CBS reality show “Survivor.” The show maroons a group of contestants in the wilderness, where they have to survive and compete in challenges for rewards. Contestants are voted off until a sole survivor wins the season. The newest season, Season 33, focuses on the clash of the generations: Generation X and the Millennials.

In conjunction with joining “Survivor,” Klein has launched a campaign to raise funds for lung cancer research and has worked at LifeMoves, a nonprofit organization that provides shelters to the homeless in the Bay Area. The Daily sat down with Klein to discuss “Survivor” and his work outside the show.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): How did you first learn about “Survivor?”

Adam Klein (AK): The first episode I ever watched was the finale of Season 1. At the time, I thought, “Who would ever do this? This is crazy!”

Klein enlisted the help of former President John Hennessy in his campaign to join the cast of "Survivor." (Courtesy of Adam Klein)
Klein enlisted the help of former President John Hennessy in his campaign to join the cast of “Survivor.” (Courtesy of Adam Klein)

And then, week by week, year by year, I would watch it every single week with my family. It would be one of those things we would watch as a family. The more I watched, the more I felt — based on strategy and the way the people interacted with each other socially — that “Survivor” was the most interesting social experiment on television. There’s no greater challenge, physically and mentally, than the game of “Survivor.”

I’m the type of person, when I set a goal, I’m going to go 100 percent until I accomplish that goal. My goal became to get on “Survivor.” I did everything I could possibly do. I asked [former] President Hennessy to endorse me in my audition video. I also made a Facebook group, in which a lot of Stanford students joined. And it worked out.

TSD: What is your favorite part of “Survivor?”

AK: My favorite thing about “Survivor” is that it’s an incredible story. I think it’s the classiest reality TV show out there. It takes real people and shows their real stories. There’s no manufactured drama because the format creates conflict. The idea that you have to vote someone out at the end of each episode makes it that, while everyone in your tribe is working together and making friends… they’re also your enemies in the game… To me that has been fascinating and it has been even more so when you get out there on “Survivor.”

TSD: What sets you apart from the rest of the contestants?

AK: I may have been chosen for the case because I represent a different kind of Millennial. I’m focused on the nonprofit world. I’ve always tried to use whatever talents or energy I have to try to make some kind of impact in my community and in the world.

I work for LifeMoves, a homeless shelter non-profit. We serve over 1,000 people a night in over seven different facilities and 17 different shelters. I’ve been involved in a number of different causes. Now, with my fleeting amount of time on “Survivor,” I would like to raise as much money as possible for lung cancer.

My mom had stage IV lung cancer and recently passed away. I know that I can only imagine that my story in many ways will be her story, and I just hope that the country will fall in love with her. [I also want the country to] see that even healthy non-smoking women like my mom can get lung cancer and we need to do better in finding a cure. I’m launching a campaign to raise money for lung cancer research.

TSD: Can you talk more about this campaign to raise money for cancer research?

AK: When my mom passed away, I knew I was going to be on “Survivor” in the fall. I can only hope her story will really resonate with people… Every single day my mom was alive, she lived life to the fullest. And I know she would want me to do the same. I want to use “Survivor” as an opportunity to bring some meaning to my mom’s life and death and ultimately help other families not have to experience the type of pain my family has experienced.

It’s not very often that you get to be on national television, in front of 11 million people all around the world, and I don’t want to let that go to waste. I’d like to raise some money for lung cancer research, fight this disease, bring some attention to lung cancer and remind people that lung cancer victims don’t deserve their disease. I think there’s an implicit bias that if you got lung cancer, you did something along the way to get it. As a result, lung cancer research gets a fraction of funding that other issues get. I want to use “Survivor” as an opportunity to shine a light of this.

I’d also like to say thank you to the Stanford community for supporting my dream and for helping to make it a reality.

 

Due to CBS’s confidentiality policy, The Daily was unable to ask questions directly related to events on “Survivor” and Klein’s experience on the island where the show is being filmed.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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The Cantor teams up with augmented reality for Art++ exhibit https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/16/cantor-teams-up-with-alternative-reality-for-art-exhibit/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/16/cantor-teams-up-with-alternative-reality-for-art-exhibit/#respond Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:30:31 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117053 Augmented Reality (AR) makes another appearance as Stanford students have created a mobile AR app for the Art++ Technology and Art Lab on exhibit at Cantor Arts Center from July 13 to Sept. 26. The Art++ exhibit is an experiment investigating the potential of AR within the museum context.

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Augmented Reality (AR) makes another appearance as Stanford students have created a mobile AR app for the Art++ Technology and Art Lab on exhibit at Cantor Arts Center from July 13 to Sept. 26.

The Art++ exhibit is an experiment investigating the potential of AR within the museum context. The app itself identifies artwork using a camera and provides extra visual information about the identified piece. Although the exhibit is not the first to adopt a museum-oriented AR app, it will help determine the future of AR within the museum going world, according to Art++ curatorial assistant Maria del Carmen Barrios-Giordano ’13.

“Augmented reality is likely going to be a technology with widespread uses,” said Bernd Girod, professor of electrical engineering and founding director of the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. “It’s a part of the future museum experience [too].”

When visitors enter the 11’ by 18’ gallery, they receive a tablet with the Art++ app. On the walls of this small gallery are a diverse set of artworks, ranging from a historic painting of the Alhambra to an Andy Warhol print of Mao Zedong. When visitors scan a piece with the tablet’s camera, they will be given extra information through pictures and slideshows. AR technology superimposes the visual information onto the artwork itself, allowing for more direct comparisons. For instance, when an artwork depicting a room with many antiques is scanned, the app superimposes a picture of the actual antique on top of its appearance within the painting.

“[The exhibit] tells interesting stories about the artwork that would ordinarily not be told in a regular museum setting,” Barrios-Giordano said.

Instead of providing just textual information about a scanned artwork, the app uses technology to enhance the visual experience, according to Barrios-Giordano. Another piece depicts a gallery full of artwork, including a small rendition of the famous painting Venus of Urbino. When the app identifies the painting of the gallery, the app shows a picture of the actual Venus of Urbino.

Conception of the Art++ app came about in a conversation between Girod and Connie Wolf, the former director of the Cantor. According to Girod, the initiative gained the Cantor’s support, as “[Wolf] was very interested in exploring [AR] given that the Cantor… can serve as a lab for new museum experiences.”

The idea was then picked up by a team of Stanford students in 2014. They were led by Barrios-Giordano and electrical engineering Ph.D. student Jean-Baptiste Boin.

Boin, who was in charge of the technical aspects regarding the app, noted that much of the technical work was focused on making the AR technology fast and efficient so that it could be run on a mobile phone. The app’s initial prototype, which the team demonstrated to obtain funding from the Brown Institute, showed textual information regarding the artworks.

However, during the demo, the group “realized that the stories [the app] had were not that compelling,” Boin said.

The team then completely overhauled the app’s content. For the next iteration, the app would focus on utilizing AR’s unique visual characteristics. For instance, for one featured artwork that recently underwent conservation efforts, the AR app was able to run a slideshow of pictures of the painting as it underwent the entire process.

After the success of the new version, Barrios-Giordano decided that opening an exhibition would be the best way to launch the app, as the launch would be within a controlled environment.

According to Barrios-Giordano, reception has been strong overall. During the exhibition’s first two weeks, about 3,100 visitors have arrived in the Cantor. During that same time, there have been about 1,000 app uses.

“If we assume that each use [of the app] means one distinct user, we could say that roughly a third of visitors have used our [Art++] app,” Barrios-Giordano said.

Cantor has plans to perform an internal evaluation of the exhibition once the Art++ exhibition closes. While Barrios-Giordano hopes to use similar technology in other campus exhibit spaces, she said that Wolf’s sudden resignation from her position as director of Cantor may put a hold on future AR experimentations at Stanford.

 

Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly used the term “alternative reality” instead of “augmented reality.” The Daily regrets this error.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Brock Turner released from jail, begins parole https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/02/brock-turner-released-from-jail-begins-parole/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/02/brock-turner-released-from-jail-begins-parole/#respond Fri, 02 Sep 2016 21:33:41 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1116921 Brock Turner, a former Stanford athlete convicted of sexual assault, was released from jail on Sept. 2, after staying behind bars for only three months. Turner only served half of his original six month sentence due to good behavior, and began serving his three years of parole on Friday.

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Brock Turner, a former Stanford athlete convicted of sexual assault, was released from jail Friday after staying behind bars for three months. Turner served half of his original six-month sentence due to good behavior and began serving his three years of parole on Friday.

Turner’s sentence, widely considered as too lenient, has sparked outrage across the country. It has inspired popular recall campaigns to remove the judge in charge of this case, Aaron Persky. According to the San Jose Mercury News, these campaigns have become so popular that Persky, who has also voluntarily removed himself from hearing criminal cases, has launched an anti-recall campaign in order to retain his position as judge.

Stanford law professor Michele Dauber led a rally at the Hall of Justice in San Jose coinciding with the date of Turner’s release, joining the mayor of Palo Alto and other local politicians in calling for Judge Persky’s removal.

Also in response to Turner’s case, the California legislature recently passed a bill that would, according to the Los Angeles Times, require minimum prison sentences for sexual assault cases like Brock Turner’s. The bill is awaiting California Governor Jerry Brown’s approval and signature.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Marc Tessier-Lavigne reaches out to students on first day https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/02/marc-tessier-lavignes-reaches-out-to-students-on-first-day/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/02/marc-tessier-lavignes-reaches-out-to-students-on-first-day/#respond Fri, 02 Sep 2016 08:00:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1116912 University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne started his tenure as Stanford’s 11th president on Thurs., Sept. 1,taking over for former university president John Hennessy.

Tessier-Lavigne, a former faculty member, is a leading neuroscientist who focused on research neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease. His ground-breaking research has earned him many prestigious honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences and a fellowship in the UK’s Royal Society.

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University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne started his tenure as Stanford’s 11th president on Thursday, Sept. 1, taking over for former university president John Hennessy.

Tessier-Lavigne, a former faculty member, is a leading neuroscientist who focused on research of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease. His ground-breaking research has earned him many prestigious honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences and a fellowship in the UK’s Royal Society.

Outside of academia, Tessier-Lavigne worked at Genentech as its Executive Vice President for Research in 2003. Following this, Tessier-Lavigne served as the President of Rockefeller University, an institute famous for its research within the fundamental sciences and biomedicine. Tessier-Lavigne has also served in various other capacities, such as on the Board of Directors of Agios Pharmas, an American company developing anti-cancer therapies. He recently resigned from that position to focus on his presidency at Stanford, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

During his first day in office, Tessier-Lavigne sent a brief message to the Stanford community. The new president described how impressed he was by the Stanford community and affirmed that his role as president would be to help the Stanford community “advance justice, peace and understanding around the world and on our campus.” Furthermore, Tessier-Lavigne shared his main orders of business: appointing a new provost and soliciting ideas from the Stanford community. Provost John Etchemendy will stay on through the fall until a new provost takes over in January.

Tessier-Lavigne also announced that his inaugural address will be conducted on Oct. 21, the weekend of homecoming.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Q&A: Jean Case, philanthropist and advisor to Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society https://stanforddaily.com/2016/07/03/qa-jean-case-philanthropist-and-stanford-center-on-philanthropy-and-civil-society/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/07/03/qa-jean-case-philanthropist-and-stanford-center-on-philanthropy-and-civil-society/#respond Sun, 03 Jul 2016 21:53:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1116267 Jean Case is a philanthropist who is the CEO of the Case Foundation and chairman of the National Geographic Society. Prior to her work in the non-profit sector, Case worked in the technology, focusing specifically on the Internet in companies such as AOL. Case also serves on several boards focusing on social impact, such as the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS).

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Jean Case is a philanthropist and investor who is also the CEO of the Case Foundation and chairman of the National Geographic Society. Prior to her work in the non-profit sector, Case worked in technology, focusing specifically on the internet at companies such as AOL. Case also serves on several boards focusing on social impact, such as the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS).

Courtesy of Jean Case
(Courtesy of Jean Case)

The Stanford Daily (TSD): How has your experience in philanthropy translated over to being on the board of PACS?

Jean Case (JC): There are so many points of intersection; let me just highlight a few. I think the role of that effort at Stanford is to bring excellence to philanthropy — to look at new tools and see what is working. And, equally as importantly, what hasn’t worked. [Another is] to engage in dialogues and to bring forward civil society… and civic engagement. That is what the Case Foundation has been about since its founding. We’ll be 20 years old next year, and we’ve been deeply engaged in civic engagement, specifically. At the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), I have talked about impact investing, and that is another area of focus for PACS. And particularly because the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) is under PACS, it’s a subject that they have brought a lot of light to as well. And it’s a new movement.

TSD: Can you explain more about impact investing?

JC: When we’re talking about impact investing, we are looking for not just a financial return, but also a social return. [Impact investing] can really run a spectrum from concessionary returns, where maybe it’s not going to be market rate, to market rate and beyond. It is really a full spectrum of categories of investments. What really differentiates it is that, at the same time, it has to have intention, transparency and measurement around the impact the company or fund is trying to have.

TSD: Do you consider impact investing regarding non-profits as well, or just for-profit companies?

JC: Well, some people extend the definition of impact investing to beyond that. I think that we are following the closest thing to an industry association, the Global Impact Investing Network, more commonly called GIIN. We go by their definition, and that is the kind of area focus we bring into it, which is specifically focused on the for-profit sector.

TSD: What changes have you seen in the past 20 years regarding the field of philanthropy?

JC: I would talk about changes more broadly. I have talked about how the Case Foundation has been really passionate about civic engagement. I would probably broaden that to say empowering people and bringing people to action. So as a result, our focus area is really on movements. One of the coolest things that has happened, at least since I left the technology sector and came to the foundation world, is this new generation of Millennials.

They are a young generation that is idealistic, like all of the generations through time, but the difference is many of them are taking their idealism and are turning [it] into action. And so, we’ve been super jazzed to see the rapid acceleration and movements in causes we are passionate about, largely due to the passion of young people.

TSD: How has the proliferation of technology, like social media, impacted this?

JC: It has been a huge deal, but we are only at the tip of the iceberg. I’ll give you an example. I [started] my own career in, what was then called online services — today we would call it the internet. I was in a couple of startups and ended up at AOL and spent about a decade there. Looking back on that work, we were a missions-oriented organization. Yes, it was a for-profit organization and ultimately became a hot and successful company, but if you’d walk the halls, you would have seen people passionately focused on the mission. And the mission was to democratize access, information and communication.

As social media came along, we were really excited to see what things we could test out to help the work. And we got deeply engaged in crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. We invested in three different crowdfunding platforms that to date have raised over $3 billion in micro-donations.

That seems impressive, but that is the big tip of the iceberg. As we keep on going forward, we will see the ability for people to get more deeply engaged in the causes they care about. Take action, donate, volunteer — and I see a lot of that is happening today, but I think we’re just beginning.

TSD: Aside from what you’ve already mentioned, how has your background in technology impacted your work in the non-profit sector?

JC: What really drew me to technology was empowerment — leveling the playing field and making everyone’s voice count. And that is the same ethos we have brought into the Case Foundation through everything we have done.

In the Case Foundation, there are pillar areas [we focus on]. We are [not only] talking about impact investing, but also inclusive entrepreneurship.

We’re here in the heart of Silicon Valley, and the whole world is in awe of what we have done as a nation, but the fact in the matter is that we have done it with one arm behind our back. Only about 50 percent of the population has had access in any way to the American dream of “I’ll start a company; I’ll start a business.” Women and people of color have been left on the sidelines. We think that this inclusive entrepreneurship is really important, but we also think that it’s just awesome. If we could do this much already with only 50 percent of the people on the field, imagine what we might achieve if everybody gets an equal shot.

TSD: How has the Case Foundation helped bring about more inclusivity?

JC: We’ve done a couple of things. We’ve watched very carefully, visited and funded quite a few incubators that are promoting women and people of color. We have tried to make more obvious some of the onramps of funding and mentorship. The state of Ohio, for instance, just made a new fund called JumpStart that is specifically intended to draw capital to inclusive entrepreneurs. And what we are seeing there is a new flood of capital going to that space.

The numbers [on inclusivity] are a little all over the map, but they don’t vary much. Even the most optimistic numbers are depressing. When it comes to women, VC has only provided [about] 3-10 percent of capital to women. Whether it’s 3, 5, 7, 12 percent, it’s nowhere near where it’s supposed to be. And if you’re a person of color, particularly a women of color, we are in the fraction of a percent. There is a huge opportunity there. Our focus here has been to shine a light on this issue.

TSD: What other barriers do you see for women and people of color?

JC: Unintentional bias. And I really want to put the emphasis on unintentional. I think we’re all guilty of it. It’s not just strictly a male thing. What I’m talking about here is the natural human tendency to go to our comfort zone and go to our own networks of who we know. Typically, our own comfort zone is the path we have been on. If you’re an elite, if you’re a male, in either New York or Silicon Valley, that’s probably where most of your network is. As a result, that’s probably where you know most of what’s happening. If your network doesn’t reach out to different geographic locations and different populations to different economic sectors, you’re probably not going to hear about them. If they don’t know about you and you don’t know about them, they probably aren’t going to reach out to you.

I think what we have to put onto the table is, for us to change, we have to be very intentional. One of the great announcements coming out of the GES is that tech companies are going to be recruiting more females. The only way we are going to change is that people need to be aware — that it’s not that people are bad guys; they haven’t done anything wrong — let’s be super intentional and have some goals about who we are going to bring into the tent that have been [historically] left outside of it. And by the way, is it a fairness issue? It truly is. But it is truly an awesome opportunity for us to see innovation from places we’ve never seen it before, and who knows where it might take us?

I love Silicon Valley and tech as much as anyone, but much of the [technology] that comes out are making things more convenient for people that already have a lot of conveniences. And I think one of the things we’re excited by with people from other communities coming in is that the innovation has really been addressed at a segment of the population that has been left behind. It’s a super cool and exciting time. It has the potential to change the world in ways we haven’t seen before.

TSD: If you’re to give advice to a woman or person of color who is trying to be an entrepreneur, what would that be?

JC: Be fearless.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate passes housing resolution, says goodbyes https://stanforddaily.com/2016/06/10/faculty-senate-passes-housing-resolution-says-goodbyes/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/06/10/faculty-senate-passes-housing-resolution-says-goodbyes/#respond Fri, 10 Jun 2016 20:03:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1116152 On June 9, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution to push the University to expand affordable housing for the Stanford community. The Senate also ended the year by thanking departing figures and introducing the incoming ones.

The resolution pushed the University to expand on-campus housing and provide transportation options to help all Stanford staff reasonably commute to campus. In particular, the resolution called for Stanford to provide all graduate students with housing, whether on-campus or subsidized off-campus housing.The resolution was proposed by Russell Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities and chair of the Policy and Planning Board (PPB).

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On June 9, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution to push the University to expand affordable housing for the Stanford community. The Senate also ended the year by thanking departing figures and introducing the incoming ones.

The resolution pushed the University to expand on-campus housing and provide transportation options to help all Stanford staff reasonably commute to campus. In particular, the resolution called for Stanford to provide all graduate students with housing, whether on-campus or subsidized off-campus housing. The resolution was proposed by Russell Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities and chair of the Policy and Planning Board (PPB).

ASSU president Jackson Beard ’17 speaks at the final Faculty Senate meeting of the year. (Linda Cicero / University Communications)
ASSU president Jackson Beard ’17 speaks at the final Faculty Senate meeting of the year. (LINDA CICERO / University Communications)

According to Berman, Stanford has and will continue to have a housing crisis due to the overall conditions of the Bay Area housing market.  This housing crisis affects everyone in the Stanford community, including the faculty, students and staff.

In the report, Berman stated that there are a significant number of graduate students who live in either on-campus or University-subsidized, off-campus housing. Right now, due to the Escondido Housing projects, it seems that there will be more on-campus housing for graduate students, but there are a projected 2500 students who will not get any housing assistance of any kind, as the University expects to phase out any subsidized off-campus housing guarantees with on-campus housing.

“I want us to house our graduate students, or at least those who want to be housed on campus, in an affordable way,” Berman said.

In addition to the student housing problem, Berman emphasized that a good housing package is key to competitive faculty recruitment. This opinion was strongly echoed throughout the Senate, as many members recollected that prospective faculty rejected joining Stanford due to housing issues. For instance, computer science professor Jennifer Widom stated that two professors from the School of Engineering have resigned this year from their positions at Stanford when offered positions and better housing packages from other universities.

Berman also mentioned housing difficulties for postdoctoral students and Stanford staff. Although postdocs are critical to Stanford’s function as a research enterprise, none of the postdocs have any subsidies or assistance from Stanford regarding housing. Since these postdocs are often starting families, Berman mentioned that the PPB recommends that Stanford should open itself to discussion regarding the postdoc housing issue.

According to Berman, Stanford has already done a lot to ameliorate its housing crisis and emphasized that the PPB’s recommendations were aspirational given the prohibitively high costs of housing.

The PPB also recommended that the University look into expanding transportation services to help staff have more reasonable commute times. Currently, many staff make commutes over two hours long each way.

Introductions and Farewells

Towards the end of the meeting, James Campbell, history professor and vice chair of the Faculty Senate, sent the Faculty Senate chair Kathryn Moler off by singing “I’ve Grown Accustomed to This Place,” a spin-off of My Fair Lady’s “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

In the song, Campbell reflected on the work the Faculty Senate did over the past year, focusing particularly on Moler. He also thanked President John Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy.

“A fond adieu to John Hennessy/On your achievements I’ll agree/And Provost Etchemendy/There’s one thing you should know/Your budget powerpoints are dazzling/Do one more before you go,” Campbell sang.

Along with the farewells, ASSU President Jackson Beard ’17 introduced herself and her chief of staff, Rachel Samuels ’17, to the Faculty Senate. Beard also outlined the ASSU executive body’s plans for the year.

“We have a lot of big plans for the coming year,” Beard said. “We are going to talk about a lot of issues… mental health and wellness, issues of sexual assault and relationship violence on campus….environmental justice and community building, social safety and things like that.”

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Etchemendy discusses budgetary woes at faculty senate https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/27/etchemendy-discusses-budgetary-woes-at-faculty-senate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/27/etchemendy-discusses-budgetary-woes-at-faculty-senate/#comments Fri, 27 May 2016 09:11:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115808 The Faculty Senate had its penultimate meeting on Thursday, wrapping up issues from the year and began to look forward to next year with a report on the budget from Provost John Etchemendy, a summary of faculty changes and a preview of future committee reports. The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Executives also attended and thanked the Faculty Senate for their work.

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The 48th Faculty Senate had its penultimate meeting on Thursday, wrapping up issues from the year and beginning to look forward to next year with a report on the budget from Provost John Etchemendy Ph.D. ’82, a summary of faculty changes and a preview of future committee reports. The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Executives also attended and thanked the Faculty Senate for their work.

Provost’s budget report

Since this report would most likely be Etchemendy’s last budget report as Provost, Etchemendy decided to split the focus twofold: the 2016-2017 budget and retrospective trends of the budget during his term as Provost. Unfortunately, the 2016-2017 budget showed concerning signs for the future.

“This is the most sobering budget report since ’09,” Etchemendy said.

In every budget report, there are three budgets allocated: consolidated budget, general funds and capital plans budget. The consolidated budget is for the entire University, with the exception of the hospitals. The Medical Center is considered an independent non-profit owned by Stanford, but not a part of the University itself. The general funds budget is a fourth of the consolidated budget and “greases the wheels” of the University, according to Etchemendy. Finally, the capital plans budget shows a forward-looking, three-year window on projects, and demonstrates what the University expects to pay for those projects next year.

On average, the budget grew 4.5 percent after inflation every year during Etchemendy’s term. The University’s budget grew from $2.2 billion in 2001-2002 to $5.9 billion in the 2016-2017 budget.

One major change in the budget has been a shift in the main forms of revenue. According to Etchemendy, Stanford has been funded primarily by research funds since the postwar era with investments and student income (tuition, room and board, dining) paying for the bulk of the remaining expenses.

However, in the 2016-2017 budget, the contributions of these main groups has changed drastically. Research is the fourth largest provider of funds for the University, and its funding per researcher has fallen. Etchemendy emphasized that the drop in funding for research is not due to a drop in the amount of research done, but rather a shift towards University subsidies.

The growth, meanwhile, has been from investments and healthcare. Healthcare revenue grew from $196 million to $1.2 billion during Etchemendy’s tenure. The Provost attributed this to Stanford Hospital being forced to expand and improve to compete with local hospitals.

“[Stanford’s healthcare revenue growth] is faster than China’s,” Etchemendy said.

Other shifts have been more troubling. For example, the proportion of research funded by the government has fallen from 84 percent in 2001 to 72 percent today. In particular, research funds for non-medical research has fallen from 47 percent to 35 percent. The University therefore has had to subsidize its own research by paying $25-35 million from its general funds, which are the most scarce.

There has also been a decrease in government funding for graduate students. Thus, while the University has increased its funding for graduate students, the percentage of revenue gained from student payments has stayed the same. According to Etchemendy, this means that the University has simply covered for the drop in government funds.

The Provost was additionally concerned that the 6.9 percent raise in expenses has far outpaced the 2.6 percent revenue growth. The budget still managed a $121 million surplus, but is more meager than prior years. Consequently, Etchemendy argues that this pace of growth is unsustainable. Excluding the hospitals and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), which grew by 10.5 percent and 18.9 percent respectively, revenue sources dropped 1.4 percent overall. Etchemendy attributed this to a 9.5 percent drop in investment values.

Although Etchemendy acknowledged that many large donations have recently been given to the University, he also said that the budget does not directly incorporate these donations because most are given to the endowment. Only between four to six percent of the endowment can be allocated to the budget.

However, Etchemendy said he does expect revenue growth in student income due to the construction of residences and dorms, which will allow more students to live on campus and thus raise revenue.

Faculty statistics report

After this report, Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Karen Cook and sociology professor Matthew Snipp gave a brief report on the gains and losses in Stanford faculty this year, putting particular emphasis on diversity within staff. Overall, Stanford has about 2,150 faculty, with about 70 percent of them on a tenure track. 72 percent of the faculty were male.

Cook and Snipp commented that there are more women within the humanities and social sciences department and fewer in the STEM departments. However, no grouping had over 37 percent women on faculty. In the past year, 36 percent of new hires were women.

Regarding racial and ethnic diversity, Cook and Snipp commented that seven percent of faculty were from underrepresented minorities (URMs), and that 17 percent of faculty were Asian. They also noticed that the School of Education was representing URMs particularly well, with 20 percent and 11 percent of new hires being URMs.

Cook and Snipp also detailed two initiatives aimed at improving faculty diversity, the Faculty Incentive Fund (FIF) and the Faculty Diversity Initiative (FDI). The FIF has pushed for more diversity in hiring through providing the funding for professors. Since its inception, it has provided funds for many new faculty, 80 percent of which are women. FDI hired 15 minority faculty.

Ultimately, Cook and Snipp concluded that this year has been a good year for faculty diversity recruitment. However, political science professor Judy Goldstein argued that Stanford should do more, including encouraging earlier retirement of older professors to accelerate the demographic change of the faculty.

Goldstein also argued that FIF is not inclusive enough, as her department is ineligible to receive funding from FIF because her department has what was deemed as “enough women,” or the University average of 28 percent women faculty.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” Goldstein said.

Previews of what’s to come

The Committee on Committees gave snapshots of their efforts that will be elaborated in future Faculty Senate meetings, segueing into brief reports by the Planning and Policy Board (PPB), the Task Force for Women Leadership and the Provost Search Committee.

Richard Saller, Dean of the School of the Humanities and Sciences and head of the Provost Search Committee, outlined the details of the search process.

“We [the Provost Search Committee] are not … picking a new provost,” Saller said.

Instead, the Provost Search Committee will simply provide incoming President Marc Tessier-Lavigne five candidates that Tessier-Lavigne himself will interview and finally choose one as Provost. Saller also added that the closing date for nominations are May 30, and that everyone is invited to make nominations.

Following the reports, outgoing ASSU Vice President Brandon Hill gave a short statement thanking the Faculty Senate for its hard work and actions during the past year and expressed hope for additional positive action in the future. Hill specifically cited the struggles with sexual assault and climate change.

 

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

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Class polls students on climate change https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/class-polls-students-on-climate-change/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/class-polls-students-on-climate-change/#comments Thu, 19 May 2016 07:23:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115364 On May 28, the students from COMM 138: “Deliberative Democracy Practicum: Applying Deliberative Polling” will host an event called “What's Next Stanford? A Forum on Climate Policy” to discover what Stanford students would believe about climate change and sustainability under “ideal” circumstances. The results will be reported to the Stanford community in hopes of improving sustainability policies.

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On May 28, the students from COMM 138: “Deliberative Democracy Practicum: Applying Deliberative Polling” will host an event called “What’s Next Stanford? A Forum on Climate Policy” to discover what Stanford students would believe about climate change and sustainability under “ideal” circumstances. The results will be reported to the Stanford community in hopes of improving sustainability policies.

Ideal circumstances in deliberative polling consist of being properly informed and having adequate time to consider one’s position on an issue. This event – to be held in FroSoCo – will conduct a deliberative poll exploring the community’s views on climate change and practices to promote sustainability at Stanford.

The organizers hope to disseminate the poll’s results to guide university policy around sustainability, which could include items ranging from investments to energy conservation practices.

“At a minimum, there will be a report coming out of [the event],” said Alice Siu, the deputy director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy and the professor of the class. “It will be distributed widely. It will be shared with the community. It will be shared [with] the Trustees.”

The uses of deliberative polling

According to communications professor James Fishkin, the inventor of deliberative polling, deliberative polling answers the key question, “what would a population really think about an issue if they discussed it under ideal conditions?”

To simulate such conditions, the poll will obtain a random sample from the population and inform participants about all sides of a given issue. Participants will discuss the issue in groups and ask experts questions, eventually filling out a questionnaire regarding their stance on the issue.

Throughout the event, the pollsters will listen in on the conversations to obtain key information for policy-making beyond the participants’ stances on the issue. This could include factors of decision-making and why people come to the stances they do, which is useful in considering policy implementation.

Since its conception in 1988, deliberative polling projects have occurred at least 70 times in about 40 countries, such as Uganda, Brazil, Mongolia and South Korea with impactful results.

For instance, Fishkin recalled that in Texas, a major power company partnered with Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy to perform a deliberative poll on Texans’ views on wind power. With the information from that poll, the power company made a large investment in wind power, and Texas went from the last state in wind power generation to the first.

Details behind the event

The organizers of the event decided to conduct a deliberative poll on climate change and Stanford’s sustainability policies because of the pressing nature of these issues. Paloma Hernandez ’18, an organizer, noted that sustainability has received attention recently with the opening of the new energy plant on campus and Stanford’s recent decision not to divest from fossil fuels. The poll aims to address these issues.

“This is about [finding] trade-offs and investments,” Fishkin said.

In addition to focusing on climate change, the organizers decided to conduct the poll on a random sample of freshmen and sophomores. According to Siu, the organizers wanted to give underclassmen an opportunity to help shape Stanford’s policy and understand climate policy in California. The organizers hope to conduct a follow-up study to see how views have morphed over time.

However, obtaining such a random sample of students has been difficult. According to Hernandez, recruiting students is the hardest part of planning the event: In order to get a representative sample, the poll must have at least 100 students participating. The team created incentives for students to come, such as $100 reward and Ike’s sandwiches. But the team also hopes that experience will be worthwhile in itself.

“I can guarantee that they will really enjoy it,” Fishkin said.

Special effort was spent to ensure that the materials were unbiased. Informative materials were shared with various professors across departments. According to Hernandez, wording of surveys ensured that questions would not lead to a particular answer.

According to Hernandez, creating the materials for the polls, such as the briefing materials and surveys, has required arduous work – but it has been rewarding. She hopes that the students participating in the event will learn more about how to deal with issues regarding sustainability.

“If the opportunity presents itself, we hope to have a more structured presentation of … results, and be able to present these results to student body and faculty,” Siu said.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

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Hennessy gives farewell to Academic Council https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/13/hennessy-gives-farewell-to-academic-council/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/13/hennessy-gives-farewell-to-academic-council/#respond Fri, 13 May 2016 08:33:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115061 University President John Hennessy gave his farewell address to Academic Council on Thursday afternoon, describing what Stanford has accomplished during the past 16 years under his tenure as president. More specifically, Hennessy focused on Stanford’s expansion of financial aid, transformation of on-campus facilities, and future initiatives to which he looking forward.

Although Academic Council meetings usually focus on what the University and Faculty Senate have accomplished during the past year, Thursday’s meeting mainly focused upon Hennessy’s upcoming departure from presidency at the end of this academic year.

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President John Hennessy gave his last address to the Faculty Senate on Thursday (TIFFANY ONG/The Stanford Daily).
President John Hennessy gave his last address to the Faculty Senate on Thursday (TIFFANY ONG/The Stanford Daily).

Stanford President John Hennessy gave his farewell address to Academic Council on Thursday afternoon, describing what the University has accomplished during the past 16 years under his tenure. More specifically, Hennessy focused on Stanford’s expansion of financial aid, transformation of on-campus facilities and future initiatives to which he is looking forward.

Although Academic Council meetings usually focus on what the University and Faculty Senate have accomplished during the past year, Thursday’s meeting mainly focused upon Hennessy’s upcoming departure from presidency at the end of this academic year.

Expanding Financial Aid

Hennessy started his presentation by touting Stanford’s success in expanding its financial aid program. He argued that providing monetary aid so that the best students could come to Stanford, regardless of their background, was something that Jane Stanford particularly pushed, citing Stanford’s original tuition of zero dollars.

According to Hennessy, rising tuition was making Stanford prohibitively expensive for many students. Middle-class families were having a harder time paying, while some families would not even consider coming due to the prohibitively high tuition. Hennessy also described “a growing crisis over student debt.”

Stanford expanded its financial aid policy during 2008, right before the Great Recession. This expansion was mostly for undergraduate students, and raised the average financial aid package from $25,000 to $45,000 per year.  During the Great Recession, the number of students on financial aid and the size of packages significantly increased, putting a large burden on the University’s strained resources. However, Hennessy was proud to say that this era did not see cuts in financial aid.

Hennessy argued that this expansion has had tangible results. For instance, the number of first-generation college students has increased significantly, and the average amount of student debt has decreased.

However, Hennessy still acknowledged that financial aid has room for improvement. He specifically cited that federal funds for graduate students have been decreasing and argued that the University needs to step in.

Transforming the Campus

Hennessy also discussed the significant physical transformation of campus during his tenure, from creating multidisciplinary spaces to expanding student housing. The President argued that this would have lasting ramifications for student programs and culture.

The first such multidisciplinary space was the Clark Center, which houses faculty from 12 different departments.

“We didn’t know how [the experiment with the Clark Center] would work,” Hennessy said. However, the center has generally been well-received.

According to Hennessy, the building of new University learning complexes, like the Knight Management Center for the Graduate School of Business and the Neukom Building for the Law School, has transformed teaching. For instance, the large number of smaller classrooms in the Knight Management Center has allowed for the newer, more personal teaching style with more collaboration among students and faculty.

Hennessy also argued that the physical transformation of the arts centers have invigorated Stanford’s art program. Hennessy specifically cited the Bing Concert Hall and the McMurtry Building for the department of art and art history.

Along with these transformations, Hennessy also mentioned that he pushed for the plan of Frederick Olmstead, Stanford’s original planner, to be reimplemented. The plan featured four quads, reaching out from the Main Quad. When buildings were replaced, Hennessy pushed for the new buildings to be built in manners that conformed to Olmstead’s idea of the four quads with architectural unity. According to Hennessy, the engineering quad beautifully fulfills Olmstead’s plan, and buildings currently under construction will conform to this ideal as well.

There has also been a more recent focus on student housing. This includes the construction of residences in Manzanita Park and Lagunita Court for undergraduates and Munger Graduate Residence. Hennessy argued that these accommodations are crucial, especially due to the rising cost of living.

Hennessy also stated that although the Windhover Contemplative Center is not a residence, it has become a crucial space in which students can de-stress.

Hennessy additionally commented that new athletic spaces can be credited with increased fitness on campus. These facilities include the new football stadium as well as the building of the Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center (AOERC).

According to Hennessy, Stanford has also become more sustainable. During Hennessy’s tenure, the Stanford Energy System and Innovations (SESI) center was implemented, which lowered the amount of water used and has Stanford meeting California’s 2030 plan.

Looking Ahead

Wrapping up, Hennessy articulated what he was looking forward to working on after finishing his tenure as President.

He first addressed the future potential for student community service through the Haas Center. Specifically, Hennessy mentioned the new Cardinal Service program, which features programs such as Cardinal Quarter during which students spend an entire quarter working on community-based projects.

“[Cardinal Service] takes community service to the next level,” Hennessy said.

Hennessy also discussed the plans for future additions to campus. These include expansions in the medical school and hospital complexes, as well as new graduate student residences in Escondido Village and the new campus for staff members in Redwood City.

Hennessy then came full circle, ending with a discussion of his hopes for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, which he will direct, to help promising graduate students from around the world learn at Stanford.  

Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate passes sexual assault resolution https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/28/faculty-senate-passes-sexual-assault-resolution/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/28/faculty-senate-passes-sexual-assault-resolution/#respond Fri, 29 Apr 2016 06:53:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114395 On Thursday afternoon, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved a six-part resolution in response to the Associated Students of Stanford University’s (ASSU’s) resolutions regarding the Campus Climate Survey and sexual violence policies.

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On Thursday afternoon, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved a six-part resolution in response to the Associated Students of Stanford University’s (ASSU’s) resolutions regarding the Campus Climate Survey and sexual violence policies.

The resolution pushed for a detailed analysis of the 2015 Campus Climate Survey, revisions regarding the survey’s term definitions and expansion of sexual violence programs to include not only graduate students but also postdoctoral students and staff members. It also asked for follow-up surveys to identify program efficacy and long-term trends.

According to the resolution, the Campus Climate Survey has revealed “a deeply disturbing occurrence of prohibited sexual conduct” at Stanford.

The resolution itself did not specify what survey would be administered every three years, but the Faculty Senate reached a consensus that the survey would be a modified version of the 2015 Stanford Campus Climate Survey, not the Association of American Universities (AAU) survey used by Stanford’s peer institutions.

According to President John Hennessy, the current Campus Climate Survey shows “striking and troubling” results that require “support, education and adjudication.”

The Senate debated the value of using the different surveys but expressed a need to move beyond the information-gathering stage and to address the issue of sexual violence with more urgency.

Professor of medicine Andrew Hoffman proposed using the AAU survey in the future in accordance with the ASSU’s resolution and student referendum. This proposed amendment did not pass due to a lack of support.

Statistics professor Susan Holmes argued against implementing the AAU survey, claiming that Stanford should prioritize studying how sexual violence has changed over time, not how the University compares to its peer institutions. According to Hoffman, Stanford would lose the benefit of the first wave of data gathered from the 2015 climate survey if the AAU survey were to be implemented instead.

Biology professor Susan McConnell, who identified herself as a victim of relationship violence, agreed with avoiding the AAU survey for different reasons. She had taken both surveys and claimed that the AAU survey was inferior to Stanford’s. McConnell described the AAU survey as “a mess,” and said that other peer institutions “regret using that survey.” Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences Richard Saller agreed, stating that the Stanford survey was “the gold standard of surveys.”

The Senate also discussed reconsidering Stanford’s definition of sexual assault, which McConnell asserted is very narrow. Computer science professor Jennifer Widom supported this move but also noted that Stanford’s current definitions follow California’s current legal definition of sexual assault.

The resolution’s provision regarding the expansion of support, education, prevention and adjudication programs to graduate students, post-doctorates and staff went uncontested.

Ultimately, the resolution passed unanimously without revision. However, Kathryn Moler, associate professor of physics and chair of the Academic Council, acknowledged that not everything the ASSU and student body wanted was included in the resolution.

Former ASSU President John-Lancaster Finley ’16 and former Vice President Brandon Hill ’16 thanked the Faculty Senate for their consideration and expressed gratitude that the resolution passed.

The Senate also heard reports from the Emeriti Council. During the past year, the Council featured a series of autobiographical speakers discussing themes of cross-disciplinary work, academia’s relation to the outside world and ethical dimensions tied to professors’ work. In addition, many professors emeriti wanted to become affiliated with certain residential dorms to connect with undergraduates. Once becoming affiliated, the professors could act as mentors and advisors to undergraduate students.

Chair of the Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policies (C-USP) physics professor Sarah Church reported the responsibilities of C-USP and recent committee discussions. The C-USP reviews and evaluates undergraduate education policy and achievement. Although the committee did not propose any resolutions this year, they have recently looked into the trend of students taking incompletes in classes, revising the issuance of certificates and guidelines of course codes.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

Faculty senate resolution by The Stanford Daily

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Q&A with fifth-year Ph.D. in quantitative marketing Anna Tuchman https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/20/qa-with-fifth-year-ph-d-in-quantitative-marketing-anna-tuchman/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/20/qa-with-fifth-year-ph-d-in-quantitative-marketing-anna-tuchman/#respond Thu, 21 Apr 2016 06:08:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113958 In this edition of Glam Grads, The Daily talked with Ph.D. candidate Anna Tuchman about her dissertation research on e-cigarette advertising and her life beyond Stanford.

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Anna Tuchman is a fifth-year Ph.D. student focusing on quantitative marketing within the Marketing Department at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In this edition of Glam Grads, The Daily talked with Tuchman about her dissertation research on e-cigarette advertising  and her life beyond Stanford.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What do you do in your research regarding quantitative marketing?

Anna Tuchman (AT): Quantitative marketing as a field is basically studying how firms and consumers interact. We use a lot of tools based on economic theory and analysis to analyze large data sets to analyze firm and consumer behavior.

TSD: Do you focus more on big data or on the psychological side?

AT: Within marketing, there are two different sub-fields. One is more on the psychology side. I’m more on the quantitative side, which is more looking at large data sets and doing statistical analyses on the data.

TSD: What are you specifically researching for your dissertation?

(FIONA KELLIHER/The Stanford Daily).
Anna Tuchman is a fifth-year Ph.D. studying quantitative marketing at the Graduate School of Business (Courtesy of Anna Tuchman and Natalie White).

AT: For my dissertation, I’m looking at this policy question of what role e-cigarette advertising [plays] in the e-cigarette market and its impact on demand for traditional cigarettes. Tobacco cigarette advertising has been banned on TV and radio since 1971, but there is currently no regulation on e-cigarette advertising.

What is interesting is that in the past few years, the big tobacco companies have entered the e-cigarette market. So, this means that Philip Morris, Altria, the producers of Marlboro cigarettes, can’t advertise Marlboros on TV, but they can market their e-cigarette brand, Mark-Tech. So, it’s this sort of difference in the regulatory environment that prompted this research question of what are the incentives of these firms to advertise, and what are the roles this advertisement is playing in the market and what are the policy implications here. Do we see evidence this advertising is increasing demand for tobacco cigarettes, in which case the policy makers might impose a similar ban – banning e-cigarette advertising – or do we see e-cigarettes as a substitute in which people are switching away from tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes? [If so] this can be more of a good thing.

TSD: Have you been looking at other countries for your research?

AT: For this specific analysis, I am using only data from the U.S. I am focusing on the U.S. market, but I know that there are a lot of differences across countries taking different stances against e-cigarettes. Some countries have banned e-cigarette products in general. For instance, in Singapore, you cannot buy e-cigarettes at all. Other countries have chosen to allow e-cigarettes as a product but ban e-cigarette advertising. The British Health Organization had just finished a study they conducted, and they concluded that e-cigarettes are a healthier alternative to cigarettes. Their proposal to the British government is that doctors should prescribe e-cigarettes to smokers to help them quit smoking. Specifically, the data I’m looking at is within the U.S., but it is interesting to keep eye an out for the global perspective and see how other countries are thinking about this question.

TSD: Is there a lot of contact between other groups studying cigarettes?

AT: Researchers in other countries are studying e-cigarettes, but they are studying other areas, such as clinical research, such as what are the health effects of e-cigarettes, how they compare to tobacco cigarettes as well as the regulatory effects. The way the field interacts is through publishing papers and reading those papers, but I don’t know if there are specific cross-country collaborations going on.

TSD: How did you first hear about Stanford, and why did you decide to come here?

AT: I did my undergrad in the University of Pennsylvania in math and economics. I was thinking about applying to Ph.D. programs, but I objectively wanted to get some work experience before doing that. Therefore, I moved out to San Francisco and worked at an econ consulting firm for two years. This was a really good work experience because I was getting a real, industry-type job, but, at the same time, was interacting with people who had completed masters’ and Ph.D.’s in econ and related fields. I was able to learn from them their experiences, and that confirmed my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in marketing.

Simply, why Stanford? Stanford, in my opinion, has the best quantitative marketing department in the country, so it was naturally a great fit. I also love living in the Bay Area and loved being able to stay around.

TSD: Aside from research, what other activities do you do at Stanford?

AT: I’m not really active in student clubs, but after I completed my initial coursework for the Ph.D. – my husband is from Greece and in order to be able to better communicate with his family – I started taking Greek lessons in the special languages department here. This has been really fun for me, and a great way to break out of the business school bubble a bit. I have met other Ph.D. students from other disciplines, as well as other undergrads in disciplines I would have otherwise never have encountered.

TSD: What are your future plans after getting your Ph.D.?

AT: I will be graduating in June, and after graduating, I’ll be joining Kellogg School of Management as a professor this summer.

This interview has been lightly condensed and edited.
Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate talks admissions committee, process https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/15/faculty-senate-talks-admissions-committee-process/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/15/faculty-senate-talks-admissions-committee-process/#respond Fri, 15 Apr 2016 08:27:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113656 The Faculty Senate convened for the first time Spring quarter on Thursday, with Nick Bloom, preview chair of Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid (C-UAFA), giving a report on C-UAFA’s activities and provided recommendations for improving the undergraduate admission process.

Bloom opened by describing the guiding principles behind undergraduate admissions and topics covered during this past year. Bloom then described his recommendations on how to improve the undergraduate admission process. According to Bloom, both C-UAFA and the actual process could benefit from changes.

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The Faculty Senate convened for the first time spring quarter on Thursday, with Nick Bloom, preview chair of Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid (C-UAFA), giving a report on C-UAFA’s activities and provided recommendations for improving the undergraduate admission process.

In its latest meeting, the Faculty Senate discussed financial aid and the undergraduate admissions process (Linda Cicero/STANFORD NEWS SERVICE).
In its latest meeting, the Faculty Senate discussed financial aid and the undergraduate admissions process (Linda Cicero/STANFORD NEWS SERVICE).

Bloom opened by describing the guiding principles behind undergraduate admissions and topics covered during this past year. Bloom then described his recommendations on how to improve the undergraduate admission process. According to Bloom, both C-UAFA and the actual process could benefit from changes.

Reflection on C-UAFA

Overall, Bloom noted that C-UAFA seemed to be short on time. During the past year, C-UAFA met eight times – more than the average of six – yet the committee always seemed to want for more time. According to Bloom, the committee dealt with an unusually high number of pressing topics over the past year, such as the redesign of the SAT and the push for more humanities representation at Stanford. Additionally, committee members would often miss meetings due to other commitments. These absences forced the committee to spend time getting everyone up to speed, again slowing down the process.

With the remaining time, the committee only had time to focus on admissions, foregoing discussion about financial aid. Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw commented that this move was not too concerning because the committee’s job regarding financial aid was to provide recommendations to the administration. Similarly, Provost John Etchemendy argued that Stanford already has an extremely good financial aid program and that most people are happy with the current processes.

After this discussion, Bloom moved on to describing the priorities of Stanford’s undergraduate admissions office. These priorities included students’ academics, such as SAT scores and GPA, as well as other factors, such as extracurricular activities. Other drivers included diversity and collegiate athletics.

Regarding execution of these priorities, Bloom described it as “fantastic,” but there were areas of improvement. For instance, there has been a treasure trove of data regarding initial applicants, but more data could be gleaned from students after acceptance.

Recommendations for the Admission Process

Bloom’s main focus for improving the process was on providing recommendations on how to help C-UAFA improve its governance.

Bloom first suggested to ameliorate C-UAFA’s time shortages by increasing the number of meetings per year from six to eight. He also argued that the committee should release the dates of all that year’s meetings at the beginning of the term to prevent scheduling issues and missed meetings.

Regarding the time duration of committee positions, Bloom argued that C-UAFA’s expertise could be improved by lengthening tenure times on the committee from three years to five years for regular members, and one year to two years for the chair. This way, there would be less turnover, causing less time spent on getting everyone up to speed understanding the admissions process.

Other former members of C-UAFA agreed to the proposal for longer tenure times, citing the committee’s special structure and many duties. Graduate School of Education professor Shelley Goldman, a former member of C-UAFA, mentioned that C-UAFA is closer to a board of directors in setup, which makes constant turnover less appealing. Similarly, Goldman implied that longer tenure times would dissuade people from joining the committee for purely personal interest.

Ultimately, as Bloom articulated, the undergraduate admissions process is very strong, but more could be done to make the governance of that process stronger.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

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Glam Grads Q&A: Rhia Catapano https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/11/glam-grads-qa-rhia-catapano/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/11/glam-grads-qa-rhia-catapano/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2016 08:57:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113337 Rhia Catapano is a first year Ph.D. student in the marketing department at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. For this edition of the Glam Grads series, The Daily spoke with Catapano about her marketing research and the transition to Stanford life.

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Rhia Catapano is a first year Ph.D. student in the marketing department at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. For this edition of the Glam Grads series, The Daily spoke with Catapano about her marketing research and the transition to Stanford life.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Can you tell me a little about your Ph.D. experience?

Rhia Catapano (RC): [I’m involved with] behavioral marketing, [which] basically is a type of research about consumers and the decisions they make and why they make those decisions. In a lot of ways, it is really similar to psychology related to choice. So, the research I have done recently, a lot of it relates to happiness of choice. For example, we have one project where we are looking at how to make happiness longer after an experience.

TSD: Does this research deal a lot with big data analytics and behavioral economics or more with the psychological aspects?

RC: My department in particular is more psychology based, and less big data, and we do a lot of experimental manipulation in order to isolate certain variables, rather than using big data, where it is a little more correlational and it is hard to isolate what exactly is happening.

TSD: Is there anything that has particularly surprised you in your research?

RC: I think that the findings of the research have surprised me less than how difficult it is sometimes to conduct the research. Because a lot of the things we are working with, small manipulations, cause sometimes big changes. It is sometimes very challenging finding ways to manipulate very minor aspects of the situation and see how it can entirely change the way people react in that situation. In terms of findings, a lot of it comes from my own intuitions on what might be true about the world, and I haven’t found anything really surprising in that regard yet.

TSD: How did your time in Korea and New York impact your decision to focus on marketing?

RC: After college, I wanted to travel and take a little bit of time to figure what I wanted in my career. So I decided to move to South Korea to teach English, largely because it would give me an opportunity to travel and think about what I really wanted without being in a really high pressure situation and committing to anything for too long. And I found that, while I was teaching, that I enjoyed it overall, [but] it wasn’t as intellectually stimulating as much as I wanted. And I was surprised at the extent in which I miss being in an academic environment and being with people who had interesting people in the word. So while I was in Korea, I decided to start volunteering in a psychology lab in Korea. I really enjoyed it and had done research during my undergrad, which led me to apply to Ph.D. programs in both psychology and marketing. I ended up deciding that Stanford had the best researchers for me to work with and came here.

TSD: Has Stanford surprised you in many ways?

RC: So something I have been really happy about here is how I think, in a lot of places for graduate school, people spend a lot of time with only people in their own department, who have very similar interests and are working with very similar research topics. But something I am seeing at the business school at Stanford is that we have a bunch of different departments under the umbrella of the business school that do totally different and unrelated research. But, because we are under the umbrella of the business school, we spend a lot of time together. So a lot of my best friends are from different departments and are using different methodologies and answer different questions from mine. I had the opportunity to make friend with these people thanks to the GSB.

TSD: Is there a lot of interaction with the other schools, like the School of Engineering?

RC: There’s not a lot of interaction necessarily with the other graduate students, except for in the psychology department. Because my research is so similar to social psych. research, we take a lot of classes in the social psychology department. I know a handful of students in psych. But overall, the business school doesn’t interact that much with other graduate schools.

TSD: A more fun question: Where do you like to hang out around Stanford?

RC: Usually graduate students hang out in apartments … That’s so lame, hanging out at Kennedy. Yeah, my favorite place to hang out is the common room in the graduate dorm, because that is a nice place to organize things with groups of friends you know and have a low key situation to have dinner and hang out with people.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan@stanford.edu.

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Stanford Medicine appoints new chair of pathology https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/28/stanford-medicine-appoints-new-chair-of-pathology/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/28/stanford-medicine-appoints-new-chair-of-pathology/#comments Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:58:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111720 Thomas Montine, current chair of pathology at the University of Washington, was recently appointed as the new chair of the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology. According to Stanford Medicine’s News Center, Montine’s term starts on May 1.

According to Paul Khavar, Chair of Dermatology and a co-leader of the search committee for the new chair of pathology, Montine’s leadership within the realm of neuropathology, especially in genomics, complements Stanford Medicine’s goal of providing better patient care.

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Thomas Montine, current chair of pathology at the University of Washington, was recently appointed as the new chair of the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology. According to Stanford Medicine’s News Center, Montine’s term starts on May 1.

According to Paul Khavar, Chair of Dermatology and co-leader of the search committee for the new chair of pathology, Montine’s leadership within the realm of neuropathology, especially in genomics, complements Stanford Medicine’s goal of providing better patient care.

Montine’s own research in neuropathology examines the link between cognitive impairment and structural and molecular abnormalities, as well as how these abnormalities in turn can cause Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Montine has also put particular emphasis on precision health, including genomics, early detection and personalized therapies. He directs the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Pacific Northwest Udall Center, which are national research centers on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.  

Many within Stanford’s medical realm are enthusiastic about Montine’s appointment and future contributions.

“Many individuals at Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford working to advance clinical genomics are very excited about Dr. Montine’s interest and contributions in this area [of genomics],” said Professor of Pediatrics Louanne Hudgins, co-leader of the search committee for a pathology chair.

Khavar echoed this sentiment, adding that Montine’s “scientific strengths, program leadership and clinical expertise” will help lead Stanford’s pathology department to a brighter future.

 

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate discusses renaming buildings, diversity, digital security https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/18/faculty-senate-discusses-renaming-buildings-diversity-digital-security/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/18/faculty-senate-discusses-renaming-buildings-diversity-digital-security/#respond Fri, 19 Feb 2016 07:55:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111150 At yesterday’s Faculty Senate meeting, ASSU President John-Lancaster Finley ’16 and ASSU Vice President Brandon Hill ’16 presented three proposals intended to help Stanford better fulfill its commitment to diversity. Additionally, Vijay Pande, former chair of the Committee on Academic Computing and Information Systems (C-ACIS), reported on the C-ACIS’s work.

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At yesterday’s Faculty Senate meeting, ASSU President John-Lancaster Finley ’16 and ASSU Vice President Brandon Hill ’16 presented three proposals intended to help Stanford better fulfill its commitment to diversity. Additionally, Vijay Pande, former chair of the Committee on Academic Computing and Information Systems (C-ACIS), reported on the C-ACIS’s work.

Finley and Hill proposed amendments to the Engaging Diversity (ED) Ways of Thinking/Ways of Doing (WAYs) requirement, creating a sexual assault and gender identity curriculum and better honoring Native American history by changing Stanford locations that are named after the founder of the California Mission System, Father Junipero Serra.

Pande focused on four main challenges on which the committee has focused. These challenges involve the University’s security, computing power designated for research, digital infrastructure and learning management systems.

In both addresses, the proposed changes aim to fulfill the original values of the University by providing better environments and resources as well as by cultivating future leaders.

“We, with updated information, can figure out ways to uphold this [founding mission of Stanford University] better,” Finley said.

ASSU’s presentation on better embodying diversity

The ASSU Executives first proposed to amend the ED WAYs, as prior data has suggested that students often lag in this requirement. According to Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Harry Elam, at most 50 percent of students have fulfilled their ED requirement — a far lower percentage than other WAYs requirements.

Finley and Hill said they wanted to strengthen this requirement by including the topic of diversity as part of major requirements. They envisioned that recently-declared students would take this class soon after declaring and hoped that the class style would be similar to that of introductory seminars. Some examples of topics included “Women in Technology” and “Global Thinking in Management.” Finley and Hill believed that the course could go beyond the classroom and incorporate elements from Cardinal Service and the residential experience into its learning.

The executives also argued that gender identity should be integrated more into Stanford’s curriculum. They saw this as necessary to end sexual assault and violence on campus.

Specifically, the ASSU executives proposed a 1- to 2-unit requirement for freshmen on gender identity during fall quarter. They argued in favor of an extended New Student Orientation program geared to gender identity and involving a residential aspect. Finley also mentioned that the classes could build on existing services, such as the Stanford Peer Education Program, where “peers can educate each other.”

Finally, Finley and Hill proposed the removal of Father Junipero Serra’s name off of locations at Stanford to help better honor Native American history on campus. This resolution was passed by both the Undergraduate Senate and the Graduate Console. They said that although Father Junipero Serra founded the California Mission system, he also contributed to the decimation of the Native American population in California.

“There is no valuable relationship [between Serra and Stanford University],” Finley said.

The Executives proposed switching the name of Serra with the name of a Native American alumnus who has contributed to Stanford, such as John Milton Oskison, Stanford’s first Native American student who graduated in 1898. They also suggested renaming places using words central to the Stanford identity, like “freedom,” in Native American languages.

Faculty expressed excitement about the education opportunities within all three proposals. One professor plans to teach a course on Junipero Serra to open discussion about his legacy on campus. Some professors highlighted that others honored on campus have mixed legacies as well and that this deserves consideration.

Since the resolution to remove Serra’s name has been passed by both the Undergraduate Senate and the Graduate Console, the Faculty Senate will vote on the resolution during its next meeting to help determine how to best fulfill Stanford’s founding mission.

C-ACIS report on four major computing challenges

Former C-ACIS chair Pande articulated Stanford’s challenge to ensure digital security.

“Most significant institutions are under constant attack,” Pande said. “[Security] is becoming [a] very significant issue.”

Pande emphasized that data compromises do not only come from stealing data, but also deleting or adding. President John Hennessy added that blackmail is another effective form of compromising data, citing that hackers had shut down the Stanford Hospital briefly through this tactic.

Pande added that although ensuring that security is paramount, tension exists between security and academic freedom, such as the ability for a professor to tweak data collection systems to obtain better results. He ceded that the committees have been mindful of this tension but warned that issues with the implementation of policy may create unintended consequences.

According to Pande, computing for research is rapidly transforming from a computational scientist’s realm to a method used in practically every field. The main question is whether or not the University or individual research groups should fund this equipment.

Pande reported that the C-ACIS also grapples with issues of digital infrastructure, particularly in deciding whether these structures should be managed internally or not.

Finally, Pande talked about the challenge of learning management systems, which include massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other software focused on helping students learn. Pande argued that learning management systems are analogous to books, and therefore the question is how to improve software to help students learn optimally.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Tessier-Lavigne addresses Faculty Senate https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/05/tessier-lavigne-addresses-faculty-senate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/05/tessier-lavigne-addresses-faculty-senate/#respond Fri, 05 Feb 2016 09:14:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1110336 The Faculty Senate came together for the second time this year on Feb.. 4, during which future president Marc Tessier-Lavigne gave a brief address and Vice Provost of Teaching & Learning (VPTL) John Mitchell gave a report on VPTL services and current actions.

Tessier-Lavigne, who will assume the presidency on Sept. 1, told the Faculty Senate that he aims to keep true to Stanford's founding principles but also lead the University to even grander heights. More specifically, he stressed that he wants to meet with the entire Stanford community to hear their opinions and formulate Stanford’s new direction.

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The Faculty Senate came together for the second time this year on Feb. 4, during which future president Marc Tessier-Lavigne gave a brief address and Vice Provost of Teaching & Learning (VPTL) John Mitchell gave a report on VPTL services and current actions.

Tessier-Lavigne, who will assume the presidency on Sept. 1, told the Faculty Senate that he aims to keep true to Stanford’s founding principles but also lead the University to even grander heights. More specifically, he stressed that he wants to meet with the entire Stanford community to hear everybody’s opinions as he formulates Stanford’s new direction.

During the second half of the Faculty Senate meeting, Mitchell gave a report focusing on what the VPTL can provide and has accomplished since its creation in January 2014. The VPTL’s main achievements have been threefold: instituting a new course evaluation system, creating the Year of Learning and shifting class websites from the Coursework learning management system to the new Canvas system. He also described what resources the VPTL offers for both students and faculty, which include the Course Design Institute, Teaching Commons website and Stanford Online.

In their respective addresses, both Tessier-Lavigne and Mitchell emphasized that the University’s responsibility as a leading higher-learning institution is to “promote the public welfare.” They highlighted how new initiative and movements are all for creating better fulfillment of that original mission.

Tessier-Lavigne and Mitchell included cultivating students as future leaders in the world as a facet of promoting the public welfare through their repetition of the need for Stanford to “prepare students for a lifetime of learning.”

 

The next president’s address

Tessier-Lavigne articulated that he plans to meet the entirety of the Stanford community: faculty, staff members and students. According to Tessier-Lavigne, he will only formulate his complete vision on what needs to change at the University after listening to the entire community’s aspirations and goals.

The next president also articulated that his core beliefs about higher education are providing a liberal arts education, focusing on research and providing an inclusive campus community.

After moving around in Europe as a child of a Canadian Army family, Tessier-Lavigne attained a liberal arts education at Oxford University studying philosophy and physiology as a Rhodes Scholar. According to Tessier-Lavigne, fundamental critical thinking skills have had a large impact on his life, demonstrating the power of a liberal arts education. Consequently, he aims for Stanford to preserve its liberal education amidst a general movement in higher education toward a focus on more technical skills.

Tessier-Lavigne also discussed his own research in the biological sciences at Genentech. The future University president said he hopes for more support for fundamental research, especially from the government. In response to a question from the audience, Tessier-Lavigne voiced support for funding for all disciplines, not just the sciences.

Addressing campus climate issues, Tessier-Lavigne affirmed his belief in the importance of an inclusive campus community that supports diversity and the health of the environment. The next president also stressed the need to deal with sexual misconduct and assault.

 

The Vice Provost of Teaching & Learning’s report

Mitchell began by recapping the main portfolio of services provided to both faculty and students: physical learning spaces, student support, instructor services and teaching innovations. According to Mitchell, the overarching goal of these services is to boost Stanford’s mission to promote welfare in the world.

Since its inception, VPTL’s main actions have been creating the Year of Learning and the new system of course evaluations as well as transitioning to the new learning management system, Canvas.

In the Year of Learning, fall quarter was dedicated to celebrating teaching in general, winter quarter to exploring existing methods in teaching and spring quarter to brainstorming new ideas within teaching.

Mitchell also described the new course evaluations system, which features customized information for each course. The VPTL was satisfied with the increase in student response rate, up from an average of 55 percent over the past few years to 66 percent with the new system.

According to Mitchell, the transition to Canvas has also gone reasonably well, and the VPTL plans to shut down the old Coursework system soon. The VPTL defended the necessity of the switch, stating that it is no longer worth it for Stanford to spend the effort developing learning management technology on its own.

After describing the three main initiatives, Mitchell also described how there has been a good amount of exploration with digital course projects such as massive online open courses (MOOCs) and the video streaming of lecture classes. In the past four years, 700 digital course projects have been initiated by Stanford faculty.

Mitchell articulated that there has been growth in technology helping classes that are not traditionally as technology-dependent. For example, some classes have begun to use a program that checks student annotations on reading material in order to assess student preparation.

 

Contact Christina Pan at capan ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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