Zoe Sayler – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Mon, 11 Mar 2019 04:25:57 +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 Zoe Sayler – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Stanford students support East Palo Alto homeless amid city crackdown https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/17/stanford-students-support-east-palo-alto-homeless-amid-city-crackdown/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/17/stanford-students-support-east-palo-alto-homeless-amid-city-crackdown/#respond Fri, 17 Nov 2017 09:07:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1133721 Dozens of Stanford students spoke out in support of residents living in RVs in East Palo Alto at a meeting of the East Palo Alto Public Works and Transportation Commission Wednesday night, where the commission discussed a possible parking ordinance that would prohibit overnight parking of oversize vehicles in the city.

The post Stanford students support East Palo Alto homeless amid city crackdown appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Dozens of Stanford students spoke out in support of residents living in RVs in East Palo Alto at a meeting of the East Palo Alto Public Works and Transportation Commission Wednesday night, where the commission discussed a possible parking ordinance that would prohibit overnight parking of oversize vehicles in the city.

Protesters and some residents who spoke at the meeting said the proposed ordinance is an affront to working class residents, including families and people of color, who are being pushed out of traditional housing by rising Bay Area housing prices. According to the San Jose Mercury News, homelessness in East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District has more than doubled from 25 percent at the start of last school year to 58 percent.

“I have a hard enough time making ends meet on a graduate stipend,” said Vivian Yan, a graduate student who attended but did not speak at the meeting. “As a Stanford student, the least that I can do is try to support folks that don’t have the subsidized housing that Stanford tries to provide.”

The meeting came after city officials told Weeks St. RV residents Tuesday afternoon that they had to move their vehicles by 8 a.m. Wednesday or else risk being towed. Officials cited the public safety hazards created by RV residents dumping chemical toilets into storm drains on the flood-prone street as the reason for removal.

RV residents at the meeting said that they currently dump their chemical toilets in Redwood City for a fee of $25. Some suggested that the city provide free waste management or portable toilets to address the problem.

Stanford students who spoke at the meeting expressed solidarity with those living in RVs, condemned the proposed ordinance and publicly endorsed activists’ efforts moving forward.

Doris Rodriguez ’20 related the current situation in East Palo Alto to her childhood experience of living in an RV in Miami, noting the difficult choice her father had to make between feeding his daughter and paying a fee to dump their RV’s chemical toilet.

“I’m at Stanford because of people who had compassion,” Rodriguez said. “You’re blaming the wrong people.”

Chris Phan ’19, who is leading an Alternative Spring Break on housing inequality in the Bay Area this year, said that attending the protest gave her an opportunity to “do more than just teaching and talking about [housing rights].”

But not everyone in attendance agreed with the Stanford protesters.

Some East Palo Alto residents supported the ordinance, saying that allowing RV parking makes the streets unclean, unsafe and unwelcoming. Many suggested that the city create or support alternative options, such as designating certain city-owned lots for RV parking or working with local nonprofits and faith-based groups to determine a solution.

Some residents also expressed frustration that comments from Stanford students took up a significant portion of the public meeting and wondered aloud when the next EPA resident would be called to speak.

Others said the students in attendance should focus their attention toward securing resources from Stanford to help struggling neighboring areas like East Palo Alto.

“Get Stanford to allocate land for the people who have been working for them for centuries,” said Meda Okelo M.A. ’84, an East Palo Alto resident.

After hearing public comment, the commission recommended that the City Council immediately pursue possible connections with nonprofits and faith-based community groups that have offered to provide permanent or temporary places for RV residents to park.

The commission plans to further discuss the proposed ordinance at two separate special meetings, one addressing RV parking and another addressing commercial vehicle parking. Their recommendations will be brought to the City Council before the end of the 60-day parking prohibition on Weeks St.

This post has been updated. A previous version misspelled Vivian Yan’s name as Vivian Yang. The Daily regrets this error.

 

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford students support East Palo Alto homeless amid city crackdown appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/17/stanford-students-support-east-palo-alto-homeless-amid-city-crackdown/feed/ 0 1133721
Buena Vista Mobile Home Park preserved in victory for affordable housing https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/22/buena-vista-mobile-home-park-preserved-in-victory-for-affordable-housing/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/22/buena-vista-mobile-home-park-preserved-in-victory-for-affordable-housing/#respond Mon, 22 May 2017 07:45:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127862 The Santa Clara Housing Authority announced last week that it would acquire Buena Vista for $40.4 million. The park is one of few opportunities for cheap housing in Palo Alto, the fifth most expensive ZIP code in the U.S. as of 2016.

The post Buena Vista Mobile Home Park preserved in victory for affordable housing appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Buena Vista Mobile Home Park preserved in victory for affordable housing
Buena Vista Mobile Home is one of few opportunities for affordable housing in Palo Alto (VIJEET CHAUGULE/The Stanford Daily).

Palo Alto’s Buena Vista Mobile Home Park will be sold to the Santa Clara Housing Authority for $40.4 million, preserving 117 units of affordable housing in Palo Alto, according to announcements last Thursday by the park’s owners and the Housing Authority.

Buena Vista is one of few opportunities for cheap housing in Palo Alto, the fifth-most expensive ZIP code in the U.S. as of 2016.

“At one level this was a test — a test of whether or not our region remains a place of inclusivity and opportunity,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian ’00 said in a statement. “In this instance, at least, I’m gratified to say we passed the test.”

The announcement to purchase and renovate the mobile home park comes after a four-and-a-half-year battle between the Jisser family, which currently owns the park and announced plans to close it in the fall of 2012; the residents of the park, primarily working-class Hispanic families who would likely have to leave the city if the park closed; and the City of Palo Alto, which hoped to maintain the affordable housing available at Buena Vista.

Contention over the future of Buena Vista began with disagreements over appropriate financial reimbursement for the would-be displaced residents of Buena Vista. The Jissers planned to pay residents the assessed value of their mobile homes, moving costs and start-up costs for new housing and rent subsidies, but advocates for Buena Vista residents claimed it was not enough.

The Jisser family argued that the City’s requirements regarding relocation assistance were applied unfairly, calling the ordinance requiring the relocation assistance “oppressive,” “unreasonable” and “unconstitutional” in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court.

“Making the Jissers preserve a mobile home park — by taking private land to turn over for the benefit of a particular group from an individual’s private property — is not the kind of public service that traditionally comes to mind,” said Attorney Larry Salzman, who represents the Jissers, when their lawsuit against Palo Alto was dismissed in June 2016.

However, the Jissers were ultimately satisfied with their agreement with Santa Clara County Housing Authority.

“I am pleased we reached this settlement that will enable the families to stay here and also allow the Housing Authority to pursue the park’s renovation and upgrade,” said Joe Jisser in a statement.

According to Professor of Education Amado Padilla, who has authored reports on youth and teens living in the park, relocation packages like the one initially offered by the Jissers should not only reflect basic property value and relocation costs but should also consider the value of park residents’ education. Padilla said that many Buena Vista residents were reluctant to leave their homes in part because of the quality of education Palo Alto residence affords their children.

“They could have quietly left and moved elsewhere, but fighting to keep their homes shows they care about quality of life and education for their children, which are the same values that bring so many of the rest of us to Palo Alto,” Padilla told the Graduate School of Education’s news center in April 2016. “These families are no different, and a mere relocation package that does not include some regard for the intangible value of living in Palo Alto would be grossly unjust.”

Padilla’s work with youth at Buena Vista convinced him of the benefits living in Palo Alto has for the park’s residents. According to his report, co-authored with graduate student Juan Arias, dropout rates among students living at the park are much lower than those among Hispanic students in Silicon Valley as a whole, due in part to the quality of Palo Alto schools.

“We have college graduates living in Buena Vista, we have a Stanford student who grew up in the park, we have children with special needs who are attending schools here and receiving services they might not have gotten at less resourced schools,” Padilla said. “Our research is showing that children coming from low-income households, where many of the parents are immigrants, is not an impediment to completing a K-12 education in Palo Alto.”

The county’s acquisition of Buena Vista will be officially approved by the Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners on May 23.

“For the first time, the residents of Buena Vista can exhale and be secure and feel safe,” Winter Dellenbach, Barron Park resident and leader of the Friends of Buena Vista group, told the Palo Alto Weekly. “This puts all of the unpredictability and insecurity to rest. It took a whole lot of resources, so much intelligence and a whole lot of faith and trust, and it all came together.”

 

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Buena Vista Mobile Home Park preserved in victory for affordable housing appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/22/buena-vista-mobile-home-park-preserved-in-victory-for-affordable-housing/feed/ 0 1127862
Stanford engineers develop device to personalize doses of lifesaving drugs https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/11/stanford-engineers-develop-device-to-personalize-doses-of-lifesaving-drugs/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/11/stanford-engineers-develop-device-to-personalize-doses-of-lifesaving-drugs/#respond Thu, 11 May 2017 07:20:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127346 The device, which monitors levels of a drug in the bloodstream to calculate and administer a personalized dose, was successful in tests of rabbits and rats.

The post Stanford engineers develop device to personalize doses of lifesaving drugs appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Stanford engineers develop device to personalize doses of lifesaving drugs
A new tool could help deliver lifesaving drugs in the right doses (Courtesy of Stanford News).

Engineers at Stanford have developed a device that could help control drug levels in the body, preventing the sometimes fatal risks associated with incorrect doses of lifesaving drugs.

The device, which monitors levels of a drug in the bloodstream to calculate and administer a personalized dose, was successful in tests of rabbits and rats at maintaining constant levels of the drug doxorubicin — a common chemotherapy drug — among individual animals with genetic and physiological differences.

If the drug is as successful in humans, it could overcome factors that lead to dosages that are ineffectively low or harmfully high, such as age, genetic makeup and unintentional drug interactions, thus administering the perfect dose of drugs for individual patients with diseases from diabetes to cancer.

The tool is created by a team led by Stanford professor of radiology and of electrical engineering H. Tom Soh and postdoctoral fellow Peter Mage. It uses an electric sensor to measure changes in aptamers, molecules designed to change shape when they bind to a specific drug. The more aptamers change shape, the higher the level of the drug is in the bloodstream. Software then determines the proper dosage, administered by a pump.

“Monitoring and controlling the actual dosage a patient is receiving is a practical way to take individual factors into account,” Soh told Stanford News.

The team of engineers has plans to optimize the device before use by human patients, including by making it small and implantable or wearable — and therefore more practical for continued use than its current larger, external form. The team also plans to develop the device’s ability to measure and regulate a wider range of biomolecules.

The device will face years of rigorous testing before it is determined to be safe for use by humans, but the technology it utilizes is a step toward improving the administration of medicine.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to continuously control the drug levels in the body in real time,” Soh said. “This is a novel concept with big implications.”

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford engineers develop device to personalize doses of lifesaving drugs appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/11/stanford-engineers-develop-device-to-personalize-doses-of-lifesaving-drugs/feed/ 0 1127346
Stanford accounts hit by widespread phishing scam https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-accounts-compromised-by-widespread-phishing-scam/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-accounts-compromised-by-widespread-phishing-scam/#respond Thu, 04 May 2017 09:02:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127022 Stanford University IT (UIT) responded promptly to reports of spam and Google largely resolved the issue within an hour of the attack by shutting down unauthorized access to the accounts, according to Michael Duff, assistant vice president and chief information security officer at Stanford.

The post Stanford accounts hit by widespread phishing scam appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Stanford accounts hit by widespread phishing scam
Stanford accounts were among those affected by a nationwide Gmail scam (RYAN COHEN/The Stanford Daily).

Stanford inboxes were inundated with malicious Google Doc invitations Wednesday in a widespread phishing scam that tricked Gmail users into granting third-party access to their Google accounts, including email and contacts.

The 479 Stanford-affiliated accounts identified as compromised by the scam were only vulnerable for a short period of time, as Stanford University IT (UIT) responded promptly to reports of spam and Google largely resolved the issue within an hour of the attack by shutting down unauthorized access to the accounts, according to Michael Duff, assistant vice president and chief information security officer at Stanford.

“We have to credit Google with a remarkably fast response, and likewise, the University IT team was on top of it from the moment we received the first report,” Duff said. “A tremendous amount of activity occurred within that first hour.”

UIT first received reports of the emails at around 11:50 a.m. Wednesday morning, about 20 minutes after the first phishing emails arrived in Stanford’s system. An alert was subsequently posted on the UIT website within 20 minutes of the first reports.

Additionally, Stanford blocked certain domains involved in the scam – a step called “blackholing” commonly used to combat phishing – and began blocking incoming messages associated with the phishing scam sometime between noon and 1 p.m., according to Duff.

Dorm, department and community email lists were immediately active with students and professors blasting out warnings of the attack and reminding one another of the dangers of opening unknown messages.

“Of course that’s not the only type of phishing messages being sent out, so you need to always be on guard when an email asks you to click on a link in the message,” wrote Martin Frost, systems manager of computer science, in an email chain provided to The Daily.

But this scam is unique, according to Duff. Known as both a phishing scam and “worm,” the scam tricks users into divulging their contact information through mimicking the well-known interface of Google Docs. Users must log in and validate access to their account for the scam to work, bypassing even the added security of Stanford’s two-step authentication.

Once the scam has received the user’s account information via a PHP script, it uses their contact list to send more spam links, allowing it to spread rapidly, which ultimately contributed to its quick shutdown.

“The attack was not stealthy, so the adversaries must have known that it would be detected and shut down quickly,” Duff said.

Duff added that while most phishing scams are financially motivated, the reason behind this attack is not yet clear.

Some students were not immediately duped by the link, noting that closer examination of the interface revealed clues as to its malicious intent.

“I received several and I didn’t click them, mostly because there were so many of the same thing and also because hhhhhhhhhhhh@mailinator.com seemed pretty sketchy,” wrote Cody Stocker ’17 in an email to The Daily, referring to the temporary email address listed as one of the recipients in the scam.

Despite the quick response, several students expressed confusion that information about the attack came primarily through informal channels rather than direct communication from University officials to the student body.

“Aren’t we supposed to have like fuckin’ state-of-the-art computer science nerds fuckin’ everywhere?” said Allegra McComb ’17. “And no one can write an email, you know, to be like, ‘Don’t do this.’ We’re so focused on cybersecurity and have to two-step authenticate to look at our homework but when there’s a literal cyber attack on university email nobody says anything.”

Stanford encourages community members to forward suspected spam and phishing messages to spam ‘at’ stanford.edu. Duff said in a Thursday morning email to various security-related campus lists that the University will contact those with affected accounts individually and work with the Law School to protect its Google domain, which is separate from the main University’s.  

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

This post has been updated with additional information about the number of accounts affected and actions the University will take in response to the scam, as reported in Duff’s Thursday morning email.

The post Stanford accounts hit by widespread phishing scam appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-accounts-compromised-by-widespread-phishing-scam/feed/ 0 1127022
At long-range planning town hall, social justice takes center stage https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/at-long-range-planning-town-hall-social-justice-takes-center-stage/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/at-long-range-planning-town-hall-social-justice-takes-center-stage/#respond Tue, 25 Apr 2017 07:02:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126443 At a town hall with President Marc Tesser-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell last Friday, questions from undergraduate and graduate students in particular centered around the University’s role in social justice initiatives, both on campus and as a force in the community.

The post At long-range planning town hall, social justice takes center stage appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
At long-range planning town hall, social justice takes center stage
President Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Drell discussed long-range planning and social justice Friday (Courtesy of Stanford News).

At a town hall last Friday focused on seeking suggestions for the University’s long-range planning process, students questioned Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell about the University’s support of social justice initiatives.

The president and provost opened the floor for questions from the community after outlining the long-range planning process, which began in an official capacity with a call for ideas and proposals from individuals and groups across the University earlier this month. The long-range planning process will attempt to shape Stanford’s priorities in the next ten to 15 years and beyond.

At the meeting, questions from undergraduate and graduate students in particular centered around the University’s role in social justice initiatives, both on campus and as a force in the community.

Emma Hartung ’17 of Stanford Sanctuary Now – a group demanding University commitment to welcoming, protecting and supporting undocumented students and campus staff – asked whether the University was financially committed to supporting immigrant workers on campus through the expansion of educational opportunities for workers and legal defense against deportation.

“We are committed to the community we have, both our students and workers,” Drell responded.

In a statement to The Daily after the town hall, Hartung wrote that Drell’s response seemed lacking.

“Stanford Sanctuary Now was not satisfied with the President and Provost’s responses, or with our previous meetings with the University, because we’re still waiting for Stanford to go beyond private support and commit to the urgent and proactive actions that undocumented and immigrant communities on and off campus need,” she wrote. “The town hall was one of many signs that we need to come together as a community if we want this university to do better.”

Other concerns raised by students included University divestment from private prisons and detention centers, sexual assault on campus, affordable housing for graduate students and resources for prospective students from marginalized communities.

According to Susan B. Ford Professor of Biology Susan McConnell, who is also co-chair of the steering group that will oversee community-related proposals, one of the top priorities within the planning process is listening to concerns from students, staff and faculty.

“Right now my priority is outreach and listening – trying to understand what issues people really want to deal with, and what opportunities people would like to project into the long-range planning process,” McConnell said.

McConnell encouraged students to raise their concerns by submitting an idea or proposal through the long-range planning website between now and June, a call that Tessier-Lavigne echoed.

“It’s sufficient if you want to identify an issue, a problem, an opportunity – it’s even better and more helpful if you go on [to the long-range planning website] and give your thoughts on how we can tackle that,” Tessier-Lavigne said.

Tessier-Lavigne added that the website has received about 50 proposals since the beginning of the long-range planning process, of which only 15 percent were from students. The planning process welcomes ideas and proposals from faculty, staff, students and academic staff at all stages of development covering all aspects of the University, including those covered by the four steering groups: Education, Research, Our Community and Engagement Beyond our University.

“The important thing is to stimulate the community to think about the issues,” Tessier-Lavigne said. “We don’t want people to feel constrained by having to have a polished, finished product.”

When the first phase of proposal collection is completed in June, the steering groups will analyze the proposals, followed by a synthesis of ideas by the president, provost and executive cabinet.

The entire long-range planning process is expected to be completed by February 2018.

This article has been updated with commentary from McConnell.

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile@stanford.edu.

The post At long-range planning town hall, social justice takes center stage appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/at-long-range-planning-town-hall-social-justice-takes-center-stage/feed/ 0 1126443
PHEs receive pay raise for 2017-2018 school year https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/08/phes-receive-pay-raise-for-2017-2018-school-year/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/08/phes-receive-pay-raise-for-2017-2018-school-year/#respond Thu, 09 Feb 2017 07:51:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122687 After concerns about unfair pay for Peer Health Educators (PHE) led some Resident Fellows (RFs) to refuse to hire PHEs last spring, funds have been secured to increase PHE pay for the 2017-2018 school year.

The post PHEs receive pay raise for 2017-2018 school year appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
After concerns about unfair pay for Peer Health Educators (PHE) led some Resident Fellows (RFs) to refuse to hire PHEs last spring, funds have been secured to increase PHE pay for the 2017-2018 school year.

PHEs, who were previously given a stipend of $1,000 per year from Vaden, will receive a stipend of $3,075 from Vaden in the next school year, helping to bridge the gap between the compensation given to them and to fellow student staff. Resident Assistants (RAs) receive $10,000 from ResEd, while Resident Computer Consultants (RCCs) receive $7,000 from the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning.

PHEs receive pay raise for 2017-2018 school year
PHEs promote consent in a campuswide campaign  (MICHAEL SPENCER/The Stanford Daily)

The push for “PHEquality” initially gained steam last year when a Change.org petition calling for equal pay for PHEs received over 1,700 signatures, citing low pay as a “financial barrier to diverse, qualified students” who might otherwise have taken interest in the position. Trancos Hall RFs had already refused to hire PHEs for the 2015-2016 school year and RFs of other freshman dorms followed suit this year, choosing instead to hire an additional RA to combat what many saw as unfair pay.

“The residents generally don’t distinguish between PHEs and RAs or RCCs when they are looking for someone to talk to, and we felt that the pay disparity did not reflect the work of PHEs with respect to either quantity or quality,” said Junipero RF Ari Kelman. “So, we thought this was the best way to register our displeasure.”

Former West Lagunita PHE Lacey Wickersham ’17 agreed that the pay disparity does not reflect the range of duties that PHEs perform.

“It is impossible to count the hours for anyone, because how do you quantify the extra time spent bonding over dinner, or the time you have your door open, or the inevitable nights you are woken up by someone who just needs to talk?” Wickersham commented. “My point is everyone does a lot, and we just know that PHEs are worth more than they were given credit for.”

PHEs also receive extensive specialized training through a required four-unit, letter-graded class in the spring before staffing that hones in on issues ranging from mental health to campus drug culture to first aid. In comparison, RAs take a required two-unit credit/no-credit class with more of a leadership focus, while RCCs can take or waive a two-unit credit/no-credit course specific to computer consulting.

Next year’s stipend is an important step toward securing fair pay for PHEs, but the ultimate goal is a permanent increase, according to Wickersham.

“The pay raise that PHEs have received for next year is a small victory,” Wickersham said. “We are thankful to those [administrators] who made it go through, but it is only the first step.”

Hannah Levy ’18, the PHE in Toyon Hall’s, hopes that securing equal pay will ensure that the PHE position is seen as equal to other student staff positions in the future.

“It’s never been about the pay. It’s about the passion and recognition that this is important,” Levy said. “I have never been bitter about the pay, but [I am] hopeful and longing that this program will be recognized as worthy.”
Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post PHEs receive pay raise for 2017-2018 school year appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/08/phes-receive-pay-raise-for-2017-2018-school-year/feed/ 0 1122687
Here comes the sun: Successes and drawbacks of Stanford’s solar farm and the displacement strategy https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/19/here-comes-the-sun-successes-and-drawbacks-of-our-solar-farm-and-stanfords-displacement-strategy/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/19/here-comes-the-sun-successes-and-drawbacks-of-our-solar-farm-and-stanfords-displacement-strategy/#respond Fri, 20 Jan 2017 01:04:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120846 Stanford opened a solar farm in the Mojave, but not all environmentalists are smiling about it.

The post Here comes the sun: Successes and drawbacks of Stanford’s solar farm and the displacement strategy appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Three hundred miles southeast of Stanford in Rosamond, California, rows of solar panels stretch across the Mojave Desert. Wind turbines scatter the slopes at the base of the mountains. Between Joshua trees and desert scrub, oil pumps dip in and out of the sand. Rosamond is a landscape of contrast: a seemingly barren desert wasteland rich in power.

Stanford is now one of many tapping into this wealth. The Stanford Solar Generating Plant, which opened Friday in Rosamond with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, will use more than 150,000 solar panels to generate 67 megawatts of power.

[justified_image_grid ids=”1121654, 1121653, 1121651, 1121650, 1121649, 1121648″ row_height=150]

The 242-acre solar plant is part of the Stanford Energy Systems Innovations (SESI), the University’s energy and climate action plan to reduce carbon emissions by 68 percent by moving from fossil fuels to grid-based renewable electricity sources and implementing a revolutionary heat-recovery system. Other initiatives include the addition of solar panels and efficiency improvements to existing buildings on campus as well as high-efficiency standards for new buildings.

Stanford is not alone in its use of California’s rich solar resources: According to a study by Stanford and the Carnegie Institution for Science, there are 161 planned or operating utility-scale solar power plants in California. More than half of these power plants have been or are being built on previously undeveloped land, totaling about 145 square miles.

The magnitude of these converted lands necessitates the consideration of environmental effects, according to Garry George, renewable energy director at Audubon California.

“[Solar] is a good thing to get really excited about,” George said. “But there’s another thought right after that — what’s the impact?”

Perhaps counterintuitively, the environmental impact can be substantial. Solar projects cover miles of desert landscape in black glass panels, eliminating vegetation and displacing wildlife. According to George, these consequences may be hard to see. “I think most people consider the desert to be barren wasteland,” he said. “But it’s actually one of the most thriving ecologies and [the] most climate-resilient [ecologies] and full of really unusual and unique species.”

In fact, Rosamond is in the heart of a designated globally important bird area because of the variety and concentration of species in that area. The broader Mojave desert ecosystem also hosts a number of rare plants, lizards, desert tortoises and ground squirrels.

Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate the impacts of solar projects on desert ecosystems. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires lead agencies to analyze and disclose the environmental impacts that a proposed project will have and implement all feasible measures to alleviate those effects.

For many utility-scale solar projects, most impacts can be mitigated by thorough site analysis. Ideal sites have been previously developed and are not significant conservation or agricultural areas. They are close to existing transmission lines and avoid “wildlife corridors” or important migration routes. If a site is within 5 miles of the foraging habitat for an important or endangered species, the agency must create and preserve new foraging grounds elsewhere. Site selection “should be a very thoughtful planning process,” said George. “Not just any megawatt is great.”

SunPower, the company that Stanford chose to design and build the solar plant, says it has taken steps to ensure that its pursuit of solar energy does not outshine its dedication to addressing potential environmental consequences.

The company uses an approach called “Light on Land,” selecting previously disturbed sites — like the site of the Stanford Solar Generating Plant — when possible. The approach also emphasizes the importance of restoring the land to its original state or better upon conclusion of the project, often by reintroducing native vegetation, which absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and helps retain groundwater.

“There were zero concerns or protests from the environmental community in California about the project,” said Bill Kelly ’85, vice president of SunPower. “We had no pushback from the environmental community in building on this site.”

The unique efficiency of SunPower’s solar panels, a central component of Stanford’s decision to accept the company’s bid, is vital in minimizing the company’s environmental impact. Because its solar panels generate 34 percent more megawatt-hours per acre over their lifespan than its competitors’, SunPower is able to produce an impressive amount of solar power with less acreage, naturally allowing for easier preservation of environmentally sensitive sites.

That’s thanks in part to Stanford ingenuity: SunPower was founded in 1991 by Richard “Dick” Swanson electrical engineering Ph.D. ’74. Later, as a professor at the University, he was paramount in developing the point-contact solar cell. In traditional startup fashion, Swanson eventually resigned from his professorship to start the company.

“Dr. Swanson is a rockstar in the solar community,” said Ingrid Ekstrom, marketing and communications director at SunPower. “He’s known around the world for his advancements in solar technology, which include technologies SunPower installs today.”

Swanson’s advancements and others made by SunPower allow the company’s solar panels to operate efficiently and sustainably. They work better than competitors’ panels in high temperatures, an important innovation in Rosamond, where daily highs average above 92 degrees in the summer. SunPower also uses robots to rid the panels of debris, increasing their efficiency by 15 percent and using 75 percent less water than conventional cleaning methods.

While Stanford’s solar project mitigated many environmental concerns, not everyone agrees that the university’s decision to build a utility-scale solar plant is the best choice economically. Among these critics is Frank Wolak, economics professor and director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, who called Stanford’s choice “utterly uncreative.”

Understanding Wolak’s argument requires some background in energy economics and policy in the American west. Legally, the California Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires a certain percentage of electricity retail sales to come from renewable energy. California’s RPS, which will require 50 percent of energy to be renewable by 2030, is one of the most ambitious in the nation. However, California is a part of a western energy grid that spans from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico and over to parts of Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico.

Because the direction and flow of electrons can’t be controlled, electricity on this western grid can’t be tracked from source to destination. For example, Stanford is not actually receiving the energy generated by its solar panel project directly but rather putting the energy out on the grid, to be used to meet general demand near the solar farm.

This is why the U.S. uses Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to track and incentivize renewable energy generation. One REC represents one megawatt-hour of renewable energy produced, roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity used by 330 homes for one hour. RECs can be bought and sold by producers and consumers separate from the actual power, providing a mechanism for electric utility companies to meet renewable portfolio standards and for individuals and businesses to lessen their environmental impact.

So in Stanford’s pursuit to lessen its environmental impact, the school isn’t actually receiving the renewable energy generated by its solar plant but rather the renewable energy certificates; this is how the school has met its 68 percent-renewables goal.

Wolak argues that instead of buying and developing a specific project and technology to earn RECs, Stanford should have simply bought more RECs from the wider western energy market. In doing so, Stanford would jumpstart the development of a west-wide REC market as well as allow “the developers and market to figure out the cheapest way to get the renewables.” Then, Wolak says, the University could have increased its renewables even more and at a cheaper price tag.

“Stanford could have gone 100 percent green,” Wolak explained. “But they wanted to do what everyone else does … This could be Stanford leading the way, but instead [they’re] following.”

There isn’t quite consensus among Stanford faculty, however. While Wolak’s alternative solution makes sense according to Dian Grueneich B.S. ’74, senior research scholar at the Precourt Institute for Energy, it does not prioritize increasing the supply of renewables.

“Stanford’s goal is [not just securing] the cheapest renewable power, but [also] being a part of a larger effort to expand how much renewable power there is,” Grueneich explained. “In California, we want to encourage additional renewable projects; we are not just interested solely in the purchase of RECs.”

RECs purchased on the market are also subject to price fluctuations. By owning the solar plant and the power it provides, Stanford pays a fixed rate for RECs for 25 years, so it may be a safer bet economically, according to Joseph Stagner, executive director of Stanford’s Department of Sustainability and Energy Management (SEM).

“Stanford decided to invest in long-term value and reliability, not play the market,” Stagner said.

Adding another factor into the picture, student group Fossil Free Stanford says that investing in long-term renewable energy solutions still does not go far enough in combating climate change.

“We’ve always supported and encouraged University efforts to make campus less carbon-intensive, but we also maintain that technological progress is not enough to ensure a livable climate in the face of the fossil fuel industry’s power,” wrote Fossil Free Stanford. “We have consistently argued that divestment is compatible with — and maximizes the broader impact of — such projects.”

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Dec. 2, Vice Provost John Etchemendy acknowledged that there had been many critiques of the project throughout the process.

However, the University ultimately found support from most environmental groups, including Audubon California. According to George, there’s no one perfect solution in the clean power movement. “We need anything [that] transforms the way we get energy.”

What’s important and exciting is that Stanford is taking concrete action, according to Vice President of the Stanford Energy Club Arnav Mariwala ’17, who is also a Daily staffer. “Stanford [shows] a lot of leadership when it comes to actually implementing renewable solutions and moving towards a cleaner energy future.”

Stanford will continue to move forward, according to Etchemendy. The Stanford Solar Generating Plant is significant, but not “the last piece of the puzzle,” he said. “We have other plans in store for further ways of improving the entire system and making it more sustainable.”

In his closing remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Stagner reminisced on the energy he felt as a child growing up in the Space Age — when rock songs honored satellites, The Jetsons ruled the airwaves and the impossible felt within grasp.

“The feeling I’m getting is the feeling I had as a young kid … I was really intrigued way back then about what the future could hold and what technology might bring,” Stagner said. “And so that’s the feeling I get here today when I think that Stanford University, our little city, is running off the sun.”

 

Contact Tia Schwab at kbschwab ‘at’ stanford.edu and Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Here comes the sun: Successes and drawbacks of Stanford’s solar farm and the displacement strategy appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/19/here-comes-the-sun-successes-and-drawbacks-of-our-solar-farm-and-stanfords-displacement-strategy/feed/ 0 1120846
Accommodating University preferences, new Full Moon on the Quad to deemphasize sexual nature https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/11/accommodating-university-preferences-new-full-moon-on-the-quad-to-deemphasize-sexual-nature/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/11/accommodating-university-preferences-new-full-moon-on-the-quad-to-deemphasize-sexual-nature/#respond Wed, 11 Jan 2017 19:41:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121304 After pressures from the University threatened to debilitate or even end Full Moon on the Quad (FMOTQ), the event is back and revamped. This Thursday, expect FMOTQ to bring fewer kisses and more roses, according to the junior class presidents, who plan the event each year.

The post Accommodating University preferences, new Full Moon on the Quad to deemphasize sexual nature appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
After pressures from the University threatened to debilitate or even end Full Moon on the Quad (FMOTQ), the event is back and revamped. This Thursday, expect FMOTQ to bring fewer kisses and more roses, according to the junior class presidents, who plan the event each year.

FMOTQ, a Stanford tradition supposedly dating back to the late 19th century, which has in recent memory involved throngs of students kissing on the quad, faced the possibility of funding cuts from the University last spring due to criticism that the event does not align with the university’s views regarding sexual consent and drinking culture.

Accommodating University preferences, new Full Moon on the Quad to deemphasize sexual nature
FMOTQ will accommodate University preferences that deemphasize the sexual nature of the event (KRISTEN STIPANOV/The Stanford Daily).

A working group of students and faculty, including the junior class presidents, began meeting last spring to plan changes to FMOTQ that would alleviate concerns and ensure continued support by the University while maintaining the spirit of FMOTQ.

“It’s been made super clear to us that changes needed to happen or this tradition was going to go away,” said junior class president Catherine Goetze ’18. “We want to preserve all of the elements of this tradition that students hold so dear, and work with the administration…to find a way that can benefit all parties.”

FMOTQ, which is usually held on the night of the first full moon of October, was postponed until winter quarter to accommodate the working group’s need for student input and to ensure that students – particularly freshmen – are comfortable at Stanford and familiar with a culture of consent before attending the event, according to a release made by the working group at the end of September.

Changes to the event focus on alleviating what Vice Provost of Student Affairs Greg Boardman described in a Spring 2016 email to ASSU executives as “a highly sexualized experience that has alienated as much as it has welcomed,” where “students feel pressured into certain kinds of behavior and to overcome anxiety, drink to excess.”

Kissing will still be present at the event; however, it will not be the event’s focus.

“There was this idea that you run on the quad, there are these pounding lights and music and there are just tables and tables of mouthwash… Basically, ‘prepare yourself for this kissing fest,’ which is definitely how some people will participate on Thursday,” said junior class president Peter Litzow ’18. “But the whole goal of changing this culture was to make sure that everyone had an opportunity to participate.”

This year, students who attend the event will give each other white roses and handwritten cards to express gratitude. According to the junior class presidents, this provides an alternative focus for the event free of the social pressures of mass kissing. The roses, which will circulate among students throughout the night, are an inclusive reimagination of the event’s origins, when a traditional red rose was gifted along with a kiss from a senior man to a freshman woman.

In order to deemphasize the sexual nature of the event’s recent past, Peer Health Educator (PHE) tables will no longer be providing mouthwash, used previously as an alternative to brushing teeth in an attempt to mitigate the spread of germs. Condoms provided by the Sexual Health Peer Resource Center (SHPRC) will be available, but will no longer be the first thing students see upon entering the event.

The LED wall and DJs of years past will be replaced by student bands, including Real People Music, in an attempt to better represent student culture. The Stanford Band was originally scheduled to play at the event but is unable to perform due to its suspension in December.

These changes will help the event move away from the club atmosphere of recent years toward a more traditionally-Stanford vibe, according to the junior class presidents. The slogan of the event? “Keep Stanford Weird.”

“Every step along the way, we have always asked ourselves: is this an event we’d want to attend?” Litzow said. “And throughout, it has been.”

Despite the working group’s focus on maintaining the spirit of the tradition, some are concerned that the changes reflected pressures from the University more than any other considerations.

“For me, it was kind of obvious how much the junior class presidents were being forced into a position to make a lot of changes to the event,” said Austin Flick ’18, who represented Stanford’s co-op community in an advisory committee that consulted with the working group this fall. “The main focus by the time I got there was mostly, how can they keep the event happening this year, and how can they make sure that it won’t be canceled for next year’s junior class presidents?”

The junior class presidents say they pushed back against changes that didn’t match their vision for FMOTQ, and that the event is the result of a collaboration between students and administration.

But after other University interventions into student life, including instating a new alcohol policy and suspending the band, some feel there is a strong possibility of FMOTQ eventually being canceled, too.

“Given the current state of the relationship between the administration and the students, I would be under the impression that we’re moving toward not having University-sponsored Full Moon,” Flick said.

If the efforts to change the event aren’t enough, the University may strip funding in the future. But this isn’t the first time FMOTQ has faced University intervention. The event was discontinued in 1961 due to pranks by a group of students and did not reappear until 1976. Last year’s junior class presidents faced pressures to make changes to the event as well, according to junior class president Ibrahim Bharmal ’18.

The outcome of this year’s FMOTQ is crucial in determining whether the University will allow the event to continue, according to a list of guidelines and frequently asked questions sent to Resident Assistants (RAs) of freshman dorms the week of the event. In the guidelines, freshmen are urged to “keep this in mind when preparing and attending the event.”

The junior class presidents hope that students embrace the newest iteration of FMOTQ as another natural progression in the evolution of the beloved tradition.

“Full Moon changes every single year,” said junior class president Gabriela Nagle Alverio ‘18. “[As for] the fear that it won’t be what we’ve had in the past – yeah, it won’t… It might even be better.”

FMOTQ will take place at the Main Quad on Thursday, beginning at 11:30 p.m.

 

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Accommodating University preferences, new Full Moon on the Quad to deemphasize sexual nature appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/11/accommodating-university-preferences-new-full-moon-on-the-quad-to-deemphasize-sexual-nature/feed/ 0 1121304
Stanford-launched nonprofit she++ opens London chapter https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/13/stanford-launched-nonprofit-she-opens-london-chapter/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/13/stanford-launched-nonprofit-she-opens-london-chapter/#respond Mon, 14 Nov 2016 06:27:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119779 She++, a Stanford-launched nonprofit organization that works to increase diversity in the technology industry, opened its first international chapter in London this fall.

The post Stanford-launched nonprofit she++ opens London chapter appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
she++, a Stanford-launched nonprofit organization that works to increase diversity in the technology industry, opened its first international chapter in London this fall.

The chapter, she++ London, officially launched at University College London in October with plans to work alongside its Stanford counterpart to empower women and minorities in the field of technology. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, women make up about a quarter of the tech industry’s workforce.

“It’s terrifying that a woman couldn’t pursue something she’s interested in because of the culture of the industry,” said Katherine Ann Van Kirk ’19, co-director of she++.

she++, founded at Stanford in 2012 and run entirely by Stanford students, already had international reach before opening up the London chapter. The organization’s Ambassadors Program provides resources and mentorship for college students interested in fostering accessibility in tech spaces worldwide. Ambassadors typically work for a single academic year; this is the first time the group has expanded to include a permanent chapter outside of Stanford.

“The idea is that the London chapter will be self-sustaining,” Van Kirk said. “We at Stanford will provide guidance to the London chapter, but ultimately we want them to be their own operating entity.”

she++ decided to launch the new chapter after noticing the success of events hosted by an ambassador at University College London. Encouraged by the events’ high attendance and strong branding, the organization made the move to a permanent chapter in London. Van Kirk emphasized the success of the she++ brand as a top priority.

“We want to make sure that our brand is consistently well-represented,” Van Kirk said. “We think it makes more sense to work with people that we already have relationships with that we trust to disperse our name.”

According to Van Kirk, she++ hopes to continue expanding in the future, potentially by launching chapters with its other successful ambassadors around the world. The group currently has ambassadors in Ireland, South Africa, Australia and India, as well as universities around the United States.

“We want to establish chapters in places where we have strong ambassadors with a great vision for she++,” Van Kirk said.

she++ London has big plans moving forward. The chapter plans to host a hack day called she++ Codes London at the end of November, where it will welcome college students from groups underrepresented in the field of technology from around the United Kingdom for a day of programming projects and workshops. The event will expand on an event hosted by a London ambassador last year.

Leaders of the London chapter will also join she++ in Silicon Valley this spring for a three-day summit, where they’ll participate in workshops and meet leaders in the tech industry.

While the new chapter pursues its own successes, she++ continues to grow here at Stanford. This year, its high school program has over 500 participants, as many as the number of participants from the previous three years combined.

“We’re really expanding,” Van Kirk said. “We want to have an even bigger presence and make a bigger impact.”

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford-launched nonprofit she++ opens London chapter appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/13/stanford-launched-nonprofit-she-opens-london-chapter/feed/ 0 1119779
Cap and Gown opens membership to underclassmen https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/24/cap-and-gown-opens-membership-to-underclassmen/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/24/cap-and-gown-opens-membership-to-underclassmen/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2016 08:00:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118432 Cap and Gown, Stanford’s women’s leadership organization, will open membership to underclassmen for the first time in the group’s 112-year history this fall.

The post Cap and Gown opens membership to underclassmen appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
(AMELIA LELAND/The Stanford Daily)
(AMELIA LELAND/The Stanford Daily)

Cap and Gown, Stanford’s women’s leadership organization, will open membership to underclassmen for the first time in the group’s 112-year history this fall. The group announced its new membership policy Thursday at its first event of the year, which highlighted student leaders and welcomed prospective members.

By extending membership to all interested undergraduates and removing its selective application process, Cap and Gown hopes to transition from a pre-professional network to a strong community of mentors and friends.

Lauren Newby ’16, a member of Cap and Gown who helped found Students Supporting Body Positivity (SSPB), looks forward to opening the doors to the learning opportunities that the group offers.

“Cap and Gown is as much about growing leadership and learning from other leaders as it is about being a leader yourself,” Newby said. “You don’t need to have any specific qualifications to want to learn from others.”

Cap and Gown connects student leaders with a vast network of over 2,000 alumni, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor ’50, in order to foster and celebrate women’s leadership in the community. The group holds quarterly alumni events like Winter Welcome, which featured Condoleezza Rice as a speaker in 2013.

Members say that the group provides a valuable space for women to share their unique experiences and challenges.

“It’s important to have a community of role models, supporters, advocates and sounding boards,” said Maya Israni ’16, a member of Cap and Gown and the director of sponsorship for She++, a group that aims to empower women and minorities in tech. “I think that we need to be each other’s strongest supporters.”

According to Israni, support from other women is especially valuable in the tech industry. Although computer science is the most popular major among women at Stanford as of 2015, only 30 percent of those majoring in computer science are women. The numbers for professional leadership roles are starker: Just nine percent of executive officers in Silicon Valley are women, according to a report by law firm Fenwick & West.

“There are microaggressions that happen every day, even on Stanford’s campus,” Israni said. “And to me it’s been very powerful to have a community with which to share that.”

Shelby Mynhier ’16, a Cap and Gown member and the director of Jam Pac’d, an all women’s hip-hop dance group, emphasized the importance of noticing and responding to gender-based discrimination.

“I think we should all change unhealthy environments, and I think that starts with resilience and hard work,” Mynhier said. “It’s about stepping up and being a leader, regardless of what other people say you can or should do.”

Ariel Leong ’20, a prospective member of Cap and Gown, said the women who spoke at the group’s inaugural event inspired her to face her own challenges by demonstrating that a leader does not have to fit a specific mold.

“I didn’t think I could be a leader because I consider myself kind of a shy person,” said Leong, “but what they said made me think maybe I could.”

 

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Cap and Gown opens membership to underclassmen appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/24/cap-and-gown-opens-membership-to-underclassmen/feed/ 0 1118432
Economist Karen Dynan discusses decrease in U.S. economic growth https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/21/economist-karen-dynan-discusses-decrease-in-u-s-economic-growth/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/21/economist-karen-dynan-discusses-decrease-in-u-s-economic-growth/#respond Fri, 21 Oct 2016 08:00:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118329 The number of Americans participating in the workforce is falling, according to a speech at Stanford by economist Karen Dynan.

The post Economist Karen Dynan discusses decrease in U.S. economic growth appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
(ANDREW MACIAS/The Stanford Daily)
(ANDREW SOLANO/The Stanford Daily)

The number of Americans in the workforce is falling, according to a speech at Stanford by Karen Dynan, chief economist and assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Dynan spoke about key challenges for long-term economic growth to a full room of students, professors and businesspeople at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) on Tuesday, emphasizing the challenges associated with the fall in labor force participation.

The percentage of the population that is either working or actively seeking work is currently on a downtrend for both men and women.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, labor force participation for all men aged 16 and older has fallen from 75.1 percent in 1994 to 69.2 percent in 2014. A similar trend with women has started to appear more recently, with labor force participation falling from 59.2 percent in 2004 to 57.0 percent in 2014.

“There was a big run up in labor force participation in the latter part of the last century, and that was largely because women were flooding into the workforce,” Dynan said. “The rate of decline accelerated around the start of the recession.”

Labor force participation among women continues to grow in most countries economically comparable to the U.S., which according to Dynan may be due to our less family-friendly labor market. Mark Duggan, the Trione Director of SIEPR who facilitated Tuesday’s event, highlighted the fall in labor force participation among women as especially startling.

“The figures that you put up kind of horrified me,” Duggan said.

Dynan, however, sees the disparity among countries as a “glass half-full” situation because it indicates that our own trend could be reversed.

Dynan also discussed possible solutions to the challenges of household economic growth, recommending options that she says “increase overall growth without the age-old trade-off between equity and efficiency.” Those solutions include encouraging labor force participation by expanding earned income tax credits, increasing opportunities to borrow and save by making saving easier and more automatic and increasing worker skills by making higher education more accessible.

Dynan commended SIEPR for its work, reminding the audience that it is the economic policy research like the work done at SIEPR that allows economists the opportunity to always be “in the room where it happens.”

 

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Economist Karen Dynan discusses decrease in U.S. economic growth appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/21/economist-karen-dynan-discusses-decrease-in-u-s-economic-growth/feed/ 0 1118329
Stanford makes progress on solar expansion https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/20/stanford-makes-progress-on-solar-expansion/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/20/stanford-makes-progress-on-solar-expansion/#respond Thu, 20 Oct 2016 07:21:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118265 Stanford hopes to set the bar for sustainability with the completion of its new solar expansion project in November, the latest milestone in the University’s push toward more renewable energy.

The post Stanford makes progress on solar expansion appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Stanford's Central Energy Facility. (ZOE SAYLER/The Stanford Daily)
Stanford’s Central Energy Facility. (ZOE SAYLER/The Stanford Daily)

Stanford hopes to set the bar for sustainability with the completion of its new solar expansion project in November, the latest milestone in the University’s push toward more renewable energy.

The expansion, which includes a solar plant in Southern California as well as 16 new rooftop solar panels on buildings throughout campus, will join existing rooftop panels to produce 53 percent of the University’s energy by the end of 2016. After these additions, 65 percent of the University’s energy will provided by renewables, more than double the current percentage.

Joseph Stagner, Executive Director of Sustainability and Energy Management at Stanford, hopes this project will help increase sustainability education on campus.

“We want to reach out, excite and educate as many students that pass through Stanford as possible,” Stagner said. “That’s where the power lies: in the knowledge, education and commitment of those who leave Stanford.”

The solar expansion project joins other sustainability efforts by the University, such as the expansion of the number of electric vehicles in the Marguerite bus fleet, in order to increase the visibility of renewable energy at Stanford.

“It gives us a segue to talk to students about the value proposition of solar power and renewable energy,” Stagner said of the presence of solar energy on campus.

This year, Stanford was ranked fifth on Sierra Magazine’s list of Cool Schools, which seeks to compare different colleges’ commitments to environmentalism. The ranking system is based on school administration’s responses to a survey that includes questions about campus energy use, sustainability education and transportation.

Stagner hopes that the solar expansion project will cement Stanford’s role as a paragon of renewable energy by setting an example for universities across the country.

“Imagine the influence we could have on others if we could get 100 universities to do the same thing,” Stagner said.

However, some are concerned that the solar expansion project does not make enough progress in moving the University toward a more sustainable future.

Among those concerned is Fossil Free Stanford. Fossil Free urges the University to add full divestment from fossil fuel companies to its sustainability efforts.

Hanna Payne ’19, who leads media for Fossil Free, explained the desire for a more exhaustive sustainability solution.

“Stanford can make a political statement and have a huge influence on other universities and institutions by divesting,” she said. “While we commend the University for its initiatives regarding renewable energy both on campus and in the greater network of sustainability, we would also like to emphasize that movement towards renewable energy is not enough by itself. We hope that Stanford will not use its successes in renewable energy as an excuse for further inaction on climate justice and fossil fuel divestment.”

2016 marks the first year that Sierra Magazine considered whether schools had committed to divestment from fossil fuel companies in their Cool School rankings. Stanford earned 50 out of 95 possible points in the investments category of the ranking system, ranking eighth among all participating schools.

According to a statement on Stanford and climate change by the Board of Trustees, the University only considers divestment when the “demonstrated social injury by a company substantially outweighs any social benefits it provides.” This criteria led to the decision by the Board of Trustees not to divest from fossil fuel companies.

“We believe the long-term solution is for all of us to reduce our consumption of fossil fuel resources and develop effective alternatives,” the Board of Trustees said in the statement. “Stanford will remain a leader in developing such alternatives.”

 

Contact Zoe Sayler at zoeneile ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanford makes progress on solar expansion appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/20/stanford-makes-progress-on-solar-expansion/feed/ 0 1118265