Dominica Wambold – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 24 Jul 2014 08:36:29 +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 Dominica Wambold – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Three Stanford graduates named national finalists at the 41st Student Academy Awards https://stanforddaily.com/2014/05/20/three-stanford-graduates-named-national-finalists-at-the-41st-student-academy-awards/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/05/20/three-stanford-graduates-named-national-finalists-at-the-41st-student-academy-awards/#respond Tue, 20 May 2014 08:07:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1085758 Last Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the 41st Student Academy Awards. Among the 15 winners were two recent Stanford M.F.A. graduates who have continued the Stanford film program’s tradition of excellence in this prestigious competition after a two-year lull.

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Last Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the 41st Student Academy Awards. Among the 15 winners were two recent Stanford M.F.A. graduates who have continued the Stanford film program’s tradition of excellence in this prestigious competition after a two-year lull.

J. Christian Jensen ’13 and Helen Hood Scheer ’13 claimed two of the three top spots in the documentary category, while Leslie Tai ’13 was one of eight finalists in the alternative category. All three were honored to be national finalists.

“It was an exciting moment, and it was made even greater when I saw listed with me these really close friends of mine,” Jensen said. “To see my friends also being recognized for amazing and entirely different works from my own was the cherry on top.”

 

J. Christian Jensen (above) won a Student Academy Award for his film  “White Earth,” which tells the story of the North Dakota oil boom through the eyes of three children and their immigrant mother. (Courtesy of J. Christian Jensen)
J. Christian Jensen (above) won a Student Academy Award for his film “White Earth,” which tells the story of the North Dakota oil boom through the eyes of three children and their immigrant mother. (Courtesy of J. Christian Jensen)

The competition

Held by the same Academy that runs the Oscars, the Student Academy Awards is a national student film competition that presents gold, silver and bronze awards to the top submissions in four categories: alternative, documentary, narrative and animation. The winners are selected from the nominations of over 500 college and university film students across the United States.

Among the past Student Academy Award winners are prominent figures like Spike Lee and John Lasseter. Award-winning films are included in festival showings and benefit from increased prominence — critical publicity in the challenging world of filmmaking.

Clips from Jensen’s film, “White Earth” and Scheer’s, “The Apothecary,” will be screened at the awards ceremony on June 7 in Hollywood’s Directors Guild of America Theater, along with the third winning documentary, produced by Zijan Mu of New York University. The final medal placements for each category will be announced at the ceremony.

 

Their films

Jensen’s “White Earth” tells the story of the North Dakota oil boom through the eyes of three children and their immigrant mother. His film’s story was one of many that gained his attention as he began his work towards his M.F.A., but when he traveled to North Dakota, he knew he had found the quality of visual material he wanted.

“Once it gets dark, you see these flames coming out of the ground and these bright towers in the distance shining into the sky,” Jensen explained. “I was just really struck by the visual other-worldliness of that area. I knew that visually there was enough to keep me interested, and I was confident that I’d find the story to back that up.”

In “The Apothecary,” Scheer creates an intimate portrait of the sole pharmacist in a 4,000-square-mile region in the American Southwest. Scheer traveled to the town of Nucla, Colorado, expecting to cover the story of the pharmacy’s closure, but when the proprietor made a last-minute decision to keep the community landmark open, Scheer used her extensive preparation to pivot her focus.

“I think that the work I did developing the concept and the underlying themes that I wanted to focus on…and the rapport I had built with the character permitted me to adapt when I needed to,” Scheer said.

Tai’s experimental documentary in the alternative category, “The Private Life of Fenfen,” features a young Chinese migrant worker whose tragic love story is broadcast to other migrant workers in China.

According to Tai, Stanford’s program helped her to confront the negotiation of “the fine line between fiction and documentary” and provided the space to discuss the tensions faced by modern documentary filmmakers.

Leslie Tai ’13 was one of eight finalists in the alternative category for her experimental documentary “The Private Life of Fenfen,” which details the tragic love story of a young Chinese migrant worker. (Courtesy of Leslie Tai)
Leslie Tai ’13 was one of eight finalists in the alternative category for her experimental documentary “The Private Life of Fenfen,” which details the tragic love story of a young Chinese migrant worker. (Courtesy of Leslie Tai)

“I am completely [uninterested] in the façade that documentary is 100 percent real; I see that much of the work that is coming out these days is blurring the lines into a documentary-fiction hybrid,” Tai said. “I think directly addressing the subjectivity and perception of reality as being just that is the most appropriate way to deal with documentary.”

 

A history of achievement at Stanford

For decades, the Student Academy Awards have recognized exceptional work carried out by Stanford students. Stanford students have taken home more Oscars than their closest academic competitors (the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University) combined over the last 14 years.

Jensen explained that the University’s M.F.A. program was one of the first to focus exclusively on documentary films.

“Stanford has a really long track record of excellence,” Jensen said. “Over time, it has developed a reputation, and it has become a place where really serious documentary film makers flock to, so that certainly helps with the quality of work that comes out of the program.”

Stanford’s program is also unusual for its two-year curriculum, in contrast to the three- to five-year programs offered by other renowned institutions. Jensen explained that the shorter timespan also helped him alleviate the cost of graduate school.

“Two of the reasons why I am such a champion of the program and why it worked so well for me were: first, that it’s a two-year program,” Jensen said. “Second, that it’s highly structured, which I think is important for me in that you enter the program having in mind a specific set of films that you’re going to be making.”

Tai emphasized the value of the Stanford M.F.A. program’s affiliation with the broader University.

“Stanford is amazing because out of all the [graduate documentary film programs], it is the only one that is attached to a world-class university,” she said. “I think there’s a lot in the curriculum that reflects that.”

The Student Academy Awards is just one of many prestigious award and festival processes in which Stanford has gained recognition over the years. Over the past several months, Tai, Jensen, Scheer and their peers have seen their films played in international festivals including France’s Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels, Toronto’s Hot Docs, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam Paradocs and the Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight.

 

Helen Hood Scheer's ’13 "The Apothecary" placed in the top three for best documentary. “The Apothecary,” which will be screened at the awards ceremony on June 7 in Hollywood’s Directors Guild of America Theater, details the life of a sole pharmacist in a 4,000-square-mile region in the American Southwest. (Courtesy of Helen Hood Scheer)
Helen Hood Scheer’s ’13 “The Apothecary” placed in the top three for best documentary. “The Apothecary,” which will be screened at the awards ceremony on June 7 in Hollywood’s Directors Guild of America Theater, details the life of a sole pharmacist in a 4,000-square-mile region in the American Southwest. (Courtesy of Helen Hood Scheer)

Looking to the future

For Scheer, the award represented a nationally respected accreditation that would help her to achieve her future goals in filmmaking and academia. She had her eye on the award prior to coming to Stanford and was thrilled that her M.F.A. work has brought her the recognition.

“Several years ago I was talking with a professor at a university in southern California, and I told him that my goal was to teach at his university or at another good school in the area,” Scheer said. “He turned his nose up at me and said the only way I could hope of getting a job at his institution was if I won a Student Academy Award or something like it.”

“Part of what I went to Stanford for was to increase my ability to handle complex material as a non-fiction storyteller,” Scheer added. “I also wanted to segue into teaching, and I knew what this award meant.”

All three finalists shared hopes to teach film and work with the next generation of documentary filmmakers.

“I’m really interested in pushing forward in exploring this authorial voice that I think I found at Stanford,” Jensen said. “I want to continue to do independent work, and eventually I would really like to teach. I really enjoy mentoring and working with other filmmakers who are passionate about what they do.”

 

Contact Dominica Wambold at dwambold ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu.

 

Leslie Tai’s quote on the Stanford M.F.A. program has been edited to clarify that Tai was speaking on documentary film programs as opposed to film schools in general. 

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University submits proposal for Stanford in NYC program https://stanforddaily.com/2014/02/24/university-submits-proposal-for-stanford-in-nyc-program/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/02/24/university-submits-proposal-for-stanford-in-nyc-program/#respond Mon, 24 Feb 2014 08:58:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1082598 Plans for a Stanford program in New York City have continued to take shape in recent weeks, punctuated by the University’s submission of a 115-page proposal to the New York State Board of Education.

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NATALIE CHENG/The Stanford Daily
NATALIE CHENG/The Stanford Daily

Plans for a Stanford program in New York City have continued to take shape in recent weeks, punctuated by the University’s submission of a 115-page proposal to the New York State Board of Education.

According to Sharon Palmer ’90, associate vice provost of undergraduate education, the quarter-long Stanford in New York City program will be modeled after the popular Bing Stanford in Washington program. Rather than focusing on politics and policy, however, the New York City program will emphasize the arts, architecture, design and urban studies.

“It will involve students in full-time internships, and they’ll also be taking classes in those fields, so they’ll have that same kind of experiential model as Stanford in Washington,” Palmer said.

John Barton, director of the University’s architecture program and a member of the proposal’s faculty advisory committee, framed access to New York City’s unique environment as well worth the administrative effort of establishing such a program.

“The opportunity to go to New York and work in city planning as an architecture major, or in a gallery as a painter, or in a theater as a theater major, and then have the coursework as well, would be a really powerful experience for students,” Barton said.

Palmer echoed Barton’s sentiments, adding that being in New York City would allow Stanford students to take advantage of experiences that aren’t offered on campus.

“New York provides unparalleled cultural and art resources and opportunities for internships and activities in these fields that really aren’t available the same way on the Stanford campus,” she said.

Challenges moving forward

However, the proposal continues to face concerns about its viability and potential impact. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supervised the competition for an applied sciences and engineering campus in New York City for which Stanford initially bid before withdrawing, questioned the value of the proposed program to the broader city.

“You’ve got to understand how big the arts are in New York,” Bloomberg said. “It’s hard to argue that another school that wanted to have students visit museums and take a course here and there would have any measurable impact on New York. I think the only question you could have is whether it would be good for Stanford students.”

Meanwhile, Barton acknowledged the challenges presented by finding students fulfilling internships in the New York art scene.

“Typically, these positions don’t pay, but students also don’t get credit for them,” Barton said, noting that such arrangements may breach codes of ethics in fields like architecture. “So we’re trying to find a way to get students either pay or credit.”

Bloomberg argued that locating the program in New York City might actually pose disadvantages for students due to the city’s popularity.

“I do think that you might be able to do the same thing elsewhere, and you might make the case that [students] might be better off in small towns, or even small cities with small arts resources, just because they’d be more important and more valuable there,” Bloomberg said. “In New York, they may well get lost among all the kids who want to work in this city.”

Barton expressed confidence, however, that Stanford would be able to identify internships of the quality expected by students.

“I think it’s going to take a little bit of time, and it’s going to take some development of assets,” Barton said. “We’re going to find people who are interested and then really become partners over time, whether they be galleries or theater programs or museums.”

Barton cited other challenges — including integrating disciplinary diversity into the students’ experience in New York, identifying housing for students and dealing with New York state laws that regulate school openings within the state — as being more pertinent.

“We’re still struggling with the balance between the coursework time, the internship time, and the time [students] are spending mostly with people of similar disciplines and how much time they have to spend together across disciplines,” Barton explained.

Barton framed the challenge of ensuring disciplinary diversity as more accentuated than at Stanford in Washington, which he described as offering more naturally cross-disciplinary internships and coursework.

While administrators emphasized the value of the proposed program in terms of expanding the opportunities available to students, Bloomberg described the benefits of the initiative as much more limited than those that would have been offered by the comprehensive campus Stanford had previously sought.

“I thought Stanford made a mistake in the engineering situation because it could have been a branch for Stanford that would be substantive and would give their faculty in [Silicon Valley] a chance to go back and forth,” Bloomberg said. “The engineering school was sending students here for three years. It brought a lot of great faculty, it was great for New York City, and I think it would have been great for Stanford.”

Contact Dominica Wambold at dwambold ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu.

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MGMT headlines Frost to mixed reviews https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/19/mgmt-headlines-frost-to-mixed-reviews/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/19/mgmt-headlines-frost-to-mixed-reviews/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 05:48:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077277 Headliners MGMT filled Laurence Frost Amphitheatre on Saturday afternoon with more than 5,000 students and guests, but never performed high school hit “Kids,” their most famous song.

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MGMT headlines Frost to mixed reviews
AVI BAGLA/ The Stanford Daily

Headliners MGMT filled Laurence Frost Amphitheatre on Saturday afternoon with more than 5,000 students and guests, but never performed high school hit “Kids,” their most famous song.

“It was such a good crowd, and the arts [exhibits] were super cool,” said concertgoer Uché Uba ’15. “The actual performance was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t like the MGMT songs that we listen to and enjoy. It was slightly annoying that we paid $19 to not have ‘Kids’ performed.”

Stanford Concert Network (SCN) revived the Frost Music and Arts Festival last year after a hiatus lasting almost three decades. The venue had previously hosted artists like Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana and the San Francisco Symphony throughout the ’70s and ’80s, a legacy that served to inspire the amphitheatre’s return.

“We were trying to revive it to its glory days, when Stanford encouraged a lot more freedom of expression and music on campus,” said Alberto Aroeste ’13, SCN’s creative director. “It took selling out the capacity of Frost—around 5,000 [people]—to get the event to happen”

The festival returned around $90,000 in profit this year, which was driven by revenues from 5,000 advance ticket sales and another 100 sold on the day of the show. General admission tickets sold for $40 and student tickets were subsidized to $20.

“We didn’t sell out last year [for Modest Mouse,] but we sold out about a week early this year,” Aroeste said. “That really shows that there’s a growing demand for stuff like this at Stanford.”

According to Haley Sayres ’14, co-director of Frost Revival, the vast majority of costs came from putting on an event of that scale.

“Booking MGMT was about $100,000,” she said. “Security, production and the cost of the infrastructure for Frost Amphitheatre cost us maybe another $100,000.”

Food trucks and merchandise were available outside the venue, but an organizational hitch stopped the sale of Frost-specific merchandise.

“The food trucks come in for free and keep the money they make,” Sayres said. “MGMT had their own merchandise that they were selling, but we were unable to sell Frost shirts with our design this year because we didn’t get it approved in time.”

Sayres said that she hopes to use the profit from this year’s event towards putting on a future event that mimics the atmosphere of music festivals.

“We’ll have more money for next year, so we’re hoping to book a more popular band for the opening band to make the line-up more even so it’s more of a festival feel,” she said. “We’re also going to expand the art, and hopefully have more pieces.”

Event security was fairly tight, with Stanford University Department of Public Safety officers checking bags and refusing to admit any opened drinks. Security refused to return bottles and canteens to guests after the event.

“I thought it was a bit ridiculous that you couldn’t bring any drinks in at all,” said Ross Thorburn ’15. “I had just bought mine at the vendors—they could have smell tested it or something instead of flat out refusing to let it in.”

Art was a major feature of this year’s efforts to increase the event’s festival atmosphere. There were 17 installations in total, including two by professional artist Michael Christian, whose work has been featured at acclaimed festivals like the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival.

“Christian does Burning Man, Coachella [and] he’s working on a project for [electronic music festival] EDC right now,” Aroeste said. “It’s taken us all quarter to build [the art for Frost.]”

Aroeste emphasized the commitment to integrating the art into the Frost experience.

“Last year we kind of kickstarted the art movement—we had very little money and only five projects,” he explained. “This year, we wanted to create a movement where we were highlighting art on campus—student art—so doing that at Frost became a priority for every group we talked to.”

The added emphasis on arts was well received.

“A lot of people did seem to really enjoy it,” Thorburn said, describing the art exhibitions as well integrated and popular. “The face painting and sculptures were a very good addition.”

Aroeste expressed optimism about Frost’s ability to enjoy continued growth in the future.

“Now that I’m a senior, I’m thinking ahead,” he said. “When we’re all alumni, I definitely want to have events to come back to that will get everyone back together.”

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Student scripts way out of special fees requests https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/11/programmer-helps-students-vote-down-special-fees-requests/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/11/programmer-helps-students-vote-down-special-fees-requests/#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:33:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076394 With the buzz on campus about the amount of money that voluntary student organizations (VSOs) receive from students through the special fees process, Paul Benigeri '15 has a simple solution—a computer script allowing students to opt out of the special fees process.

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With the buzz on campus about the amount of money that voluntary student organizations (VSOs) receive from students through the special fees process, Paul Benigeri ’15 has a simple solution—a computer script allowing students to opt out of the special fees process.

Benigeri, a computer programmer who has worked on projects like the music site Dancing Astronaut, published his script after finding out “by default [students] are billed almost $150 every quarter to fund student groups.” Through a simple copy-paste mechanism, students could waive every request by default.

According to Benigeri, the script has had some impact.

“Over 2,000 people viewed the site and over 400 people were on it for an extended period of time, so that suggests that they probably used the script,” he said. “Unless they were just reading the three paragraphs I wrote for over two minutes.”

If 400 undergraduates actually ran Benigeri’s script and waived every single special fees request, they would shave over $110,000 from the special fees budget.

“I think most people don’t really know about what is happening with money they are contributing to the budget,” Benigeri said. “I think that this should be either an opt-in policy or the process should be made much more public.”

Nanci Howe, Associate Dean and Director of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL), argued against the use of the script, noting that special fees decisions aren’t made under the table but rather are determined directly by students every election.

“The special fee is the opportunity for any student group to apply directly to apply for money in the election and to have students directly vote,” Howe explained.  “If a student does not agree with that group, I hope that they vote in the election and vote that fee down in the election.”

Benigeri’s link gained traction on social media, but it prompted some criticism.

Daniel Smith ’12 M.S. ’13 posted about the script on github—the same code-sharing site it was originally posted on—requesting its removal or amendment.

“The way it is currently, where you have to individually uncheck these boxes, you have an awareness of the impact you’re going to have to every single dance group, every single cultural club, every single play you’re removing funding from,” he wrote.

ASSU Elections Commissioner Brianna Pang ’13 pointed out the serious implications of waiving special fees.

“There are a lot of implications that people don’t think of. All of the groups are able to get a list of all of the people who have defunded from the group,” she said. “Let’s say that you defund legal counselling, and let’s say that in May you get into trouble with alcohol or something and you need some kind of legal representation…You wouldn’t be able to use that resource at all.”

She emphasized, however, that students struggle to understand the ASSU and its special fees process.

“Students are currently voting up a group during spring elections, and then coming back in the fall, realizing that those groups are going to be asking for money, and then requesting waivers,” she said.

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Designathon seeks to increase engagement in public service https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/03/designathon-seeks-to-increase-engagement-in-public-service/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/03/designathon-seeks-to-increase-engagement-in-public-service/#respond Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:00:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075498 Student teams presented proposals to the Haas Center for Public Service’s Executive Director Thomas Schnaubelt and Director of Executive Partnerships Kelly Beck, who served as judges.

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Design for America (DFA)’s first annual Designathon at Stanford brought together more than 20 students this weekend to brainstorm ways of addressing low engagement in public service on campus.

At the event, which was held on March 2 at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school), student teams presented proposals to the Haas Center for Public Service’s Executive Director Thomas Schnaubelt and Director of Executive Partnerships Kelly Beck, who served as judges.

Groups were tasked with devising a variety of solutions to the issue of low student engagement in public service, with a focus on bringing public service to the forefront of the Stanford student experience.

According to Viraj Bindra ’15, Director of Communication for DFA’s Stanford chapter, one of the primary goals of the event was getting students interested in the design process.

“[The event] was much more for engagement, just to get people thinking about this if they have zero experience or even if they have a lot,” he said. “One of the things we do at DFA is focus on social problems and tailor our design thinking towards those, so this is an excellent example that is specific to Stanford of what we do on a broader scale nationwide.”

The event attracted a diverse audience, from DFA project leaders to students with no prior design experience. David Herman ’16, a project leader, helped guide newcomers through the design process’ various steps, including conducting research, framing a question and creating a prototype.

“It’s an iterative process, but in the end you end up with a pretty good framing and understanding of the problem, and you have a pretty good understanding of how a solution could help address the problem,” Herman said.

Bindra’s group proposed an app with a calendar of public service events that would allow students to “check in” at events and earn points based on the number of events they attended. Students would then be able to redeem those points for perks like skipping the line at Ike’s.

However, the judges expressed concern that the app would struggle to gain traction among students and instead chose a group composed of non-DFA members as the winner. The winning group’s proposal focused on improving outreach to incoming freshmen by establishing service hubs in freshmen dorms and sending out materials showcasing Stanford’s community service opportunities.

“We loved the focus on freshman,” Schnaubelt said. “This is a terrible analogy, but it’s like with smoking campaigns. Who do you target? The kids. We like the actual connection to the freshman dorms.”

According to Schnaubelt, the Haas Center’s collaboration with Design for America has just begun.

“Design for America is going to be working on a part of our redesign that involves how Stanford students get involved in those mentoring and tutoring programs,” Schnaubelt said. “I’m particularly interested in how we create a program that will allow Stanford students to participate, particularly around [the limited] time that is available.”

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Oliver Stone discusses Hiroshima, Cold War https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/24/oliver-stone-discusses-hiroshima-cold-war/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/24/oliver-stone-discusses-hiroshima-cold-war/#respond Mon, 25 Feb 2013 06:48:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075286 Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone brought his new documentary “The Bomb” to Stanford for a two-hour screening and panel discussion in the Lane History Corner last week. The panel included Daniel Ellsberg and historian Peter Kuznick.

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“Rethink your history, America, because you’re not the benevolent indispensable nation that we pretend to be,” said award-wining filmmaker Oliver Stone last Friday night. “We need an alternate history and more compassion for other histories, other points of view.”

Stone brought his new documentary “The Bomb” to Stanford for a two-hour screening and panel discussion in the Lane History Corner last week. The documentary, which focuses on the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is the third of twelve one-hour episodes in the Showtime series “The Untold History of the United States,” based on a 750-page book by Stone and historian Peter J. Kuznick with the same title.

Stone is known for directing controversial political films including “JFK” (1991), “Nixon” (1995) and “W” (2008), and has produced several feature-length documentaries. According to Stone, this five-year project was by far his largest.

“It’s certainly the most ambitious thing I’ve ever attempted as a filmmaker,” Stone said. “To bring into the scope of one film…essentially the American experience since last century into this one, and why we became an empire, the rise, and I think the fall — I think we’re seeing the fall but may not know it.”

In both the film and book, Kuznick and Stone argue that dropping the atomic bomb did nothing to end World War II, and that the Cold War could have been avoided if Truman had decided not to take such extreme measures.

“What we argue is that what ended the war was not the atomic bombing — it was the Soviet invasion,” Kuznick said. “The atomic bombings were not only unnecessary and morally reprehensible, but they really fueled the Cold War.”

The hour-long film consists entirely of Stone’s narration, and relies heavily on archived footage and imagery, as well as animation and some news footage from more recent events.

“This is an unconventional documentary,” Stone said. “No talking heads, all narrative and archive footage with movie clips cut in. It’s a nice form of its own…I wanted to make it poetic, there’s a heavy concentration on flow.”

With the book and the documentary series, Stone and Kuznick aimed to have what Kuznick called a “one-two punch.”

“The book gives a lot of the evidence that we couldn’t put into the documentary, the book develops the ideas we put into the documentary much more fully,” Kuznick said. “Documentaries bring it to life, they’re moving, they’re compelling, they can reach a bigger audience.”

Stone said he hopes the film will initiate a new dialogue on American history among audiences, and estimated that over a million people have watched each installment so far on Showtime.

Following the screening of the film, Stone, Kuznick and Daniel Ellsberg, who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, participated in a discussion panel moderated by Barton Bernstein, professor emeritus of history.

Although Bernstein agreed with the film politically, he said he disagreed on a number of points as a historian, but declined to address those areas of dissent at the time. However, Bernstein praised the filmmakers’ effort to get people thinking and talking about such subjects.

“I think it’s a very effective work of drama by a very skilled filmmaker raising appropriate questions about history,” Bernstein said, adding that the film is “broadening the dialogue in a way that will encourage other people to talk about some of these matters in a way that they might not.”

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Female ROTC cadets look forward to combat eligibility https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/11/rotc-female-cadets-look-forward-to-combat-eligibility/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/11/rotc-female-cadets-look-forward-to-combat-eligibility/#respond Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:22:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074797 While the Pentagon’s decision last month to lift its ban on women serving in combat has garnered national attention, the announcement will also directly affect the female cadets of Stanford’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).

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Correction: In a previous version of this article, The Daily stated that Haney Hong ’03 had retired from the U.S. Navy. In fact, Hong remains a officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. The Daily regrets this error.

While the Pentagon’s decision last month to lift its ban on women serving in combat has garnered national attention, the announcement will also directly affect the female cadets of Stanford’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).

Female ROTC cadets look forward to combat eligibility
Courtesy of Lauren Hamilton

“[In] years past…the closest that any female officer could potentially be to combat [was as a] military police officer,” said Dustin Whidden, ROTC enrollment officer for Stanford and Santa Clara University. “Now this has opened the door for field artillery, armor, infantry — you know, the typical positions that were only allowed for male military officers to be in leadership in.”

Women have been serving unofficially in combat roles throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but their work often went without the credit and career advantages that official recognition would have permitted. According to The New York Times, the Pentagon reported that “hundreds of thousands of women have deployed in those conflicts,” with over 800 wounded and 130 killed.

Lauren McCune ’15, an ROTC cadet, expressed excitement about the possibility of serving with an infantry platoon–something that would not have been possible just a month ago.

“The one thing that makes a big difference to me is that I’ll actually be able to be the S2, the strategy [and] risk-assessment officer attached to each platoon, and now I could get to be with an infantry platoon,” McCune said.

When she graduates from Stanford and becomes an active officer in the military, McCune will assume the role of Second Lieutenant, the lowest officer rank, with the ability to seek a position in any branch she chooses.

“If you’re a second lieutenant you’re automatically put in charge of a platoon, so the first day on the job you’re in charge of these 50 people,” said Haney D. Hong ’03, president of the Stanford Military Service Network and an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. “The opportunities that have been opened to women are essentially that they can be platoon leaders, at least from the officer’s perspective, of combat arms platoons. From the enlisted woman’s perspective, you can actually be a part of these platoons.”

Hong, who served in the Navy during the integration of women into submarine service, spoke from personal experience about the difference that the ban’s lifting will make.

“This is a great thing,” Hong said. “Number one: by being more inclusive, we’re getting more perspectives on how to tackle a problem, which makes the organization function better, and, speaking in military terms, makes the organization fight better.”

The decision to welcome women into combat roles has its opponents, McCune acknowledged.

“There’s a lot of people who argue — and they make a lot of legitimate points and I agree with them — that you can’t lower the physical standards,” she said. “But as long as they keep those standards the same, I feel like most of those logical arguments about it fall apart. But I do expect there to be a bit more resistance — you’ll just have to have a thick skin.”

Each branch of the military is responsible for putting together its own plan for the policy’s revision, with requirements and exceptions stipulated for each position. On the whole, however, Whidden said that he doesn’t expect the transition to be too contentious.

“Following the elimination of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell [policy], it wasn’t really too much of a big deal for people in the military,” he said. “It was just the next step.”

If the transition does go smoothly, McCune and her fellow female ROTC cadets can look forward to seeking combat roles when they graduate from Stanford.

“This lifting the ban on women serving in combat makes it so much more clear to me that this is what I’m supposed to be doing right now, that I’m supposed to be out there helping serve my country and give back what I’ve been given, so I’m really excited about it,” McCune said.

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Student athlete majors mirror general student body choices https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/01/student-athlete-majors-mirror-general-student-body-choices/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/01/student-athlete-majors-mirror-general-student-body-choices/#respond Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:40:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074557 Stanford student-athletes tend to favour the same majors as the general student body, according to data from the Office of the University Registrar. The most popular major among student-athletes was HumBio, with 69 declared student-athletes, the same major that was most popular among the graduating class of 2012.

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Stanford student-athletes tend to favour the same majors as the general student body, according to data from the Office of the University Registrar. The most popular major among student-athletes was HumBio, with 69 declared student-athletes, the same major that was most popular among the graduating class of 2012.

Human biology (HumBio), science, technology and society (STS), engineering, management science and engineering (MS&E) and psychology stand as the five most popular majors among student-athletes. The top five majors among all undergraduates are computer science, HumBio, engineering, biology and STS.

This data comes from the 372 student-athletes who declared their major by the end of fall quarter. There were 869 active student-athletes in the fall of 2012.

 

The Top Five

Lia Cacciari, student services officer for the HumBio program, said that part of its appeal for student-athletes is the ability to pursue a course of study other than the core classes, allowing them to construct a flexible schedule. Cacciari also said that HumBio faculty are aware of the need to accommodate athletes.

STS is the second most popular major among the athletes, with 64 declared student-athletes

Josh Mauro ’13, a member of the football team who is pursuing a major in STS, attributed the program’s flexibility and interdisciplinary nature as the main benefits.

“I’ve been able to take some sociology, some communications, some management science and engineering, as well as just some of the [general education requirements] classes, so I’ve been able to take a broad selection of classes that are interesting and open my mind up to different realms of Stanford,” Mauro said.

Engineering is the next most popular major, with just under 11 percent of student-athletes pursuing it, followed by MS&E with just under 9 percent. Psychology is the fifth most popular major among all student-athletes, with 7 percent of declared student-athletes pursuing a psychology degree.

“MS&E and STS give you a really good degree coming out of Stanford to go into a lot of different fields, it’s a pretty well rounded degree in my opinion,” said Ronnie Harris ’15, a member of the football team who is planning on majoring in psychology with a pre-med focus.

 

Support System

Ben Gardner ’13, an STS major and football player, noted the value of the Athletic Academic Resource Center (AARC) to student-athletes as they balance their sport with their academics.

“The AARC is one of the first places we go if we have questions about our direction in the classroom, where we want to go with our academic career or if we have issues, if we have a problem with a class,” Gardner said.

Mauro said student athletes also have athletic academic advisors and player development coaches at their disposal.

“We do have an academic advisor who’s helpful,” said KC Moss ’15, a member of the women’s swimming team. “From my limited experience, I get the sense she’s really good with freshmen and helping us select our classes our first quarter, and generally after that, kids figure it out on their own.”

Moss, who is considering majoring in economics or political science, credited the advice of her fellow athletes as being the most critical when it comes to academic choices.

“I’d say some of the best advice I’ve gotten for selecting courses and considering my course of study has been from upperclassmen – athletes who’ve been through it,” Moss said.

Gardner said that he has seen a similar trend on the football team.

“I think that on our team STS has become more popular over the years,” he said. “MS&E has also – I think that’s a reflection of the influence of the older guys on our team.”

Gardner added that support from departments is important to student-athletes’ success, and that faculty are generally aware of constraints that arise from athletic commitments and are willing to make accommodations.

“The professors and [teaching assistants] do a great job if you have a scheduling conflict or any other problem,” Gardner said. “They’re usually pretty understanding, given how much time and effort we put into our sports as well as our classes.”

However, he said that the accommodations made for student-athletes do not give them an advantage over other students during their time at Stanford.

“I know it’s a lot different here than it is in a lot of schools, just in the fact that athletes aren’t given any sort of special treatment,” Gardner said. “We’re expected to do all the same things in the classroom that the regular students are and we’re expected to put in 20 or more hours a week into our sports.”

Despite the difficulties of balancing academics and athletics, both Gardner and Mauro look forward to being well prepared for the difficulties of managing their careers once they leave athletics.

“With the added stress and pressures of playing a sport as well as keeping up with classes, I think people in the real world see that and they understand the effort and time it takes to achieve in both of those at the same time,” Mauro said. “I feel more confident or just as confident as the normal student coming out of Stanford working in the real world.”

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Bowen pressures top universities to fix increasing education costs https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/12/bowen-pressures-top-universities-to-fix-increasing-education-costs/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/12/bowen-pressures-top-universities-to-fix-increasing-education-costs/#respond Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:01:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071736 William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University, drew attention to the crippling debt burden placed on students by universities in his two-part talk on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Emphasizing the power of institutions like Stanford and Princeton, he argued that a cooperative and immediate effort by elite universities could pull America’s national higher education system back from the brink of disaster.

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Bowen pressures top universities to fix increasing education costs
William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University, discussed how online education could help fix crippling student debt in a two-part lecture held on Wednesday and Thursday. (MEHMET INONU/The Stanford Daily)

William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University, drew attention to the crippling debt burden placed on students by universities in his two-part talk on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Emphasizing the power of institutions like Stanford and Princeton, he argued that a cooperative and immediate effort by elite universities could pull America’s national higher education system back from the brink of disaster.

His presentation, part of the annual Tanner Lectures on Human Values hosted at nine universities across the world, set out to explain causes and present solutions for what he considers the dire economic threats stemming from the increasing costs of higher education.

“Context matters,” he said to begin Wednesday night’s lecture, titled “The Productivity Problem in Higher Education.” He then summarized the aspects of higher education economics that he believes are most damaging, drawing attention to the challenging long-term upward trend of educational costs.

“I documented the seemingly inexorable tendency for institutional cost per student to rise faster than [inflation] over the long term … an underlying pattern which has been found to hold for public as well as private universities and colleges,” he said.

Rising costs at the richest top-tier universities put unsustainable pressure on the entire system of higher education, but, according to Bowen, these universities also have the power to reverse that trend.

“Institutions have an understandable interest in always improving themselves, even if the immediate interest in self-improvement cuts across general societal self-interest,” he said. “Still, the most privileged places should think hard about the ramifications of their [increasing costs].”

He called for universities to take initiatives against their institutional instinct and short-term individual interests in favor of social good.

In Thursday’s lecture, he turned to solutions to cost problems in a lecture titled “The Prospects for an Online Learning Fix.”

“Is online learning a fix for the cost disease?” he asked. “My answer: not by itself. But it can be part of the answer. It is certainly no panacea for this country’s deep-seated educational problems.”

He made it clear that he did not envision a major shift from the traditional college setting to an online system, but hoped for a mix of both.

“My plea is for the adoption of a portfolio approach to curricular development that provides a carefully calibrated mix of learning styles,” he said. “[That means] some online learning, much person-to-person interaction, directed study and all the rest.”

Still, he maintains that online learning must have a role in all colleges and universities, public and private alike. Indeed, over the course of his two lectures, Bowen emphasized the necessity of top universities adapting to new models of education.

“As the technologies grow increasingly sophisticated and we learn more about how students learn and what pedagogical methods are better in different fields, even top-tier institutions will stand to gain with the use of such technologies to improve student learning,” he said.

His closing reflections emphasized the need for patience in finding a solution. Bowen argued that, when faced with problems we cannot answer, we must buy time to let ourselves adapt and find a solution.

“[That] is the job of the Stanfords of the world,” he said.

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