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-By JOSHUA FALK David Kennedy ‘63,professor emeritus of his- tory, was elected co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board last week. Kennedy, along with Amanda Bennett, an ex- ecutive editor for Bloomberg News, will serve a one-year term,succeeding Anders Gyllenhaal,ex- ecutive editor of The Miami Herald. “Not unlike a great university like Stanford, the Pulitzer Board considers itself to be the guardian and steward of excellence,” Kennedy said.The Pulitzer Prize is awarded annually for ex- cellence in journalism,letters,drama and music. “I’ve watched other people chair the board over the years,” said Kennedy, who has been a board member since 2002.“I’ve got some wonder- ful models to follow.” Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2000 for his book “Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War.” Of the 21 prizes the board grants,all but seven are for journalism. The board consists mostly of journalists, in- cluding New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman and Associated Press executive editor and senior vice president Kathleen Carroll, among others. “One of the things I hope to accomplish as chair is to rebalance membership so it better mir- rors the distribution of the prizes,”Kennedy said. He emphasized that the journalists and aca- demics on the board often face challenges in judging categories with which they are less famil- iar. “The categories that the board always strug- gles with are music and poetry,”he said.“We have less confidence, to be frank with you, in our ex- pertise in those areas.” “For me it’s been an education to be on the board,” Kennedy added. “I’ve learned a lot — I mean a lot — about the world of journalism.” President John Hennessy praised Kennedy’s election. “Professor Kennedy is both a distinguished historian and a celebrated author. I think he will be an excellent co-chair for the Pulitzer Prize Board,”Hennessy wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. Kennedy joined the University faculty in 1967 and currently serves as the co-director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. His scholarship is no- table for interweaving economic and cultural analysis with political and social history. His other publications include “Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger,” “Over Here:The First World War and American Society” and “The American Pageant:A History of the Republic,” an American history textbook now in its 14th edition. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on 20th century American history. Kennedy received the Dean’s Award for Out- standing Teaching in 1988 and the Hoagland Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2005. Contact Joshua Falk at jsfalk@stanford.edu. Index Features/2 • Opinions/4 • Sports/5 • Classifieds/6 Recycle Me ASSU Senate to vote on transition today Reps set to discuss swearing-in of senator-elects By ELLEN HUET DESK EDITOR The ASSU Undergraduate Senate is set to vote today on whether or not to dissolve the current Senate on May 11 and swear in the senators-elect,a move that usually happens in the fifth week of the quarter.The de- cision could be postponed another week in today’s meeting. According to Senate Parliamentarian Alex Katz ‘12, the current Senate has delayed dissolving because of a need to focus on budget discussions and Senate bylaws, which haven’t been updated in four years.Katz also said the Appropriations Committee, of which he is a mem- ber, had concerns about needing more time to handle the transition to next year’s influential committee. “We have business that still needs work, including continuity in Appropriations and sustainability initia- tives,”said Senate Chair Varun Sivaram ‘11.“But a late transition will really set back the incoming Senate — they’ll be really pressed for time.” A Senate committee was also talking as recently as last week about ethics reforms,spearheaded largely by Senator Shelley Gao ‘11 (who is also a Daily colum- nist); a green events checklist is also still in committee talks. Current Senator Mohammad Ali ‘10 said he be- lieves the Senate is postponing dissolving to avoid dis- cussion of a potential divestment bill.Ali co-wrote the bill to dissolve May 11. “Senators are saying that the new Senate’s not ready,” Ali said. “But from what I know, the Senate’s only postponing because they want to push a vote about this issue [divestment] until next year.” Ali is also an organizer for Campaign Restore Hope (CRH),a coalition of students whose mission is to raise awareness about perceived human rights violations in Israel and encourage divestment from some compa- nies. On Sunday, a hard-copy petition was distributed under the doors of some residences on campus from CRH,asking students to write a sentence of support for the initiative and to deliver the petition to their “dorm representative or RA.” The petition’s goals include passing “an ASSU bill urging our University to disinvest from these compa- nies”that violate human rights. No such bill has been introduced in the Senate. CRH organizer Fadi Quran ‘10 said the campaign in- tends to introduce a bill to the incoming Senate. A group of students tied to the Stanford Israel Al- liance denounced the emergence of CRH’s petition on Monday. Senate bylaws dictate that once a bill is introduced, the Senate must wait at least one week before voting on it.Since the Senate is not required to meet during dead week or finals week,if the Senate postpones dissolution until the eighth week, the incoming Senate would not be able to pass any bills unless it chose to meet after the ninth week. Stanford is currently in the sixth week of spring quarter. Contact Ellen Huet at ehuet@stanford.edu. By ASHLEY MENZIES O n Tuesday and Thurs- day mornings, Ash- ley Chinn ‘11,a mem- ber of the softball team, sets her alarm for 6:50 a.m., then hits the snooze button two or three times before rising out of bed, rushing to get ready and make it on time to weights at 7:30 at the Arrillaga Family Center. “It’s definitely hard to get out of bed in the morning, especially when it’s still dark outside,”Chinn said. At 8:45,after an intense session of bench press and squats, legs heavy and arms weak, she shifts to a lower bike gear and heads to the nearest dining hall to grab a quick breakfast.Then she is off to Com- munications 1B: Culture, Media, and Society, which begins at 9:30, but she has a difficult time concen- trating on the lecture. “It’s very hard to stay awake,” Chinn said. She is then immediately off to Chinese, followed by a quick lunch.At 1 p.m., she hurries to the locker room to suit up and darts onto the field for bullpen practice where she works on pitching tech- nique for a little over an hour. She then starts regular team practice, which runs from 2:45 to 5:30. “It is definitely tiring having a ‘job’ that requires so much physi- cal and mental energy, but I think most athletes are used to it, or get used to it really quickly,” Chinn said. She is finally able to head back to Stern to eat dinner, shower and start her homework for the evening around 7 p.m. “One of the hardest things is definitely trying to motivate your- self to do work after a long day of practice, conditioning, and/or weights,” she added, running through her daily schedule. “Be- cause I’m often so physically drained,I just want to sit down and relax or go to sleep early,but that’s not really an option when we still have to keep up with other stu- dents.” Chinn is just one of the 200 to 225 Stanford student-athletes that are admitted to Stanford each year, according to Shawn Abbott, director of undergradu- ate admission.While their intense coursework is quite similar to that of prestigious schools such as Harvard or Princeton, Stanford athletes must perform at the level of their competitors at athletic powerhouses like USC and the NEWS BRIEFS UNIVERSITY Hospitals, nurses still at impasse RESEARCH Cancer treatment approved BY JULIA BROWNELL SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Food and Drug Administra- tion (FDA) on Thursday approved Provenge, a new treatment for prostate cancer that was originally de- veloped by Stanford researchers in the 1990s. “This is extraordinarily impor- tant,” said Edgar Engleman, who first devised the immune cell therapy. “This is the first time that an im- munotherapeutic approach has been [moved forward].”Engleman is a pro- fessor of pathology and medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine. The FDA denied approval for the approach in 2007 and requested more data from Dendreon, the biotechnol- ogy company that produces Provenge. After a third clinical trial, the FDA finally gave Provenge the go-ahead. “The firm then filed an amend- ment to its [application] to include the new data and the FDA has now com- pleted review of that submission,” said the FDA’s Jill Burkoff, “and based on FDA’s review, we’ve deter- mined that the product is safe and ef- fective.” Burkoff is a consumer safety officer at the FDA’s Center for Bio- logics. Provenge uses the body’s immune cells to recognize and fight cancer, which cells usually do not recognize as a foreign threat. The therapy is not preventative like traditional measles or tetanus vaccines; rather, it targets existing advanced-stage cancers. The therapy involves isolating the dendritic cells, a type of immune cell, from each individual cancer patient and bringing them to a lab. In the lab, the cells are introduced to cancer components and manipulated to rec- ognize them as non-self. When rein- troduced to the patient, they then tar- get and fight the cancer. “In a sense we are kind of fooling the dendritic cells into thinking the cancer is foreign,” Engleman said. Because the immune cell therapy is genetically the same as the patient’s own cells, they are nontoxic and have few side effects. Chemotherapy and other cancer treatments are extreme- ly toxic and end up killing other cells in the patient, often causing debilitat- ing side effects. According to Engleman,“the den- dritic cells” approach to cancer thera- py is appealing because it “appears to be very, very safe.” Now, after years of waiting, Den- dreon is ready to turn the drug into a clinical reality. Please see CANCER,page 3 By CAROLINE CHEN STAFF WRITER Stanford nurses have submitted a coun- terproposal to Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital as negotiations for a new contract remain deadlocked. The two parties’ old contract expired in March after months of negotiations failed to satisfy the demands of the hospitals and nurses. Two weeks ago, 2,302 out of 2,700 nurses represented by the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) rejected the hospitals’ “last, best and final offer.” Though CRONA accepted the wage pro- posals from the hospitals’ last offer, it finds contention with other points; in particular, the union’s counterproposal centers on a new professional development program and paid time off. Negotiations between the union and the hospitals have soured in recent weeks, with CRONA representatives accusing the hos- pitals of rejecting multiple requests to meet and discuss the situation. “It was obvious from the beginning that the hospital had no interest in talking to us,” said CRONA lead attorney Peter Nuss- baum. Lucile Packard spokesperson Sarah Sta- ley stated that the hospitals are not interest- ed in further bargaining. “The bargaining process was done in March,” Staley said. “I think it’s fair to say that what we’ve proposed is competitive, generous and fair. If what the nurses pro- pose is within the parameters of our last, best and final offer, we would certainly be up to hearing those.” CRONA is awaiting the hospitals’ re- sponse to its counterproposal, which is ex- pected this week. According to law, both parties must con- tinue to follow their old contract until a new contract is in place. However, negotiations remain stalled, and the hospitals could at- tempt to declare an impasse, which would effectively institute the hospital’s latest pro- posal. Nussbaum said if the hospitals did so, the Man struck by Caltrain in fifth death this year By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF A southbound Caltrain struck and killed a man on the south platform of the San Antonio station in Mountain View at 5:08 p.m. on Monday, a rail spokesperson said. Passengers on the train,No.264,were transported to an- other train shortly after the collision. Caltrain service was delayed for up to an hour afterward,according to Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn.SamTrans,VTA and BART ac- cepted passengers with Caltrain tick- ets on Monday evening. Monday’s fatality is the fifth death on the Caltrain right-of-way this year. — An Le Nguyen UNIVERSITY Kennedy appointed Pulitzer co-chair Today Sunny 74 60 The Stanford Daily A n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o n SPORTS/5 TOURNEY TROUBLES Women’s water polo loses to UCLA, finishing third at MPSF tournament www.stanforddaily.com TUESDAY Volume 237 May 4, 2010 Issue 52 FEATURES/2 THE PROFESSOR Herzog explores relationship between religion and politics Tomorrow Sunny 74 60 MICHAEL HOGUE/The Dallas Morning News/MCT The Art of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance JUSTIN LAM/The Stanford Daily Students Confronting the Persecution of Fallun Gong and ASSU sponsored an art exhibit at the Clubhouse Ballroom. The exhibit featured the work of 12 artists who depict the experiences and visions of Fallun Dafa practitioners. FEATURES PRESENTS Courtesy of Stanford News Service Please see NURSES,page 3 BALANCING COMPETING PASSIONS Please see ATHLETES,page 2 Inside the lives of scholar athletes 2 ! Tuesday, May 4, 2010 The Stanford Daily FEATURES May 4 By ERIC MESSINGER SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR S tanford has its fair share of people who go by “Professor,”but for Jonathan Her- zog, it’s more than just a title. “My nickname growing up was ‘The Profes- sor,’”said Herzog Ph.D.‘08.“My classmates in el- ementary school called me that. It’s sort of an in- sult, but I took it to be a compliment.” Herzog, a visiting assistant professor of histo- ry and a national fellow at the Hoover Institu- tion,has never strayed from his nickname.Schol- arship for Herzog has always meant teaching. “I didn’t know what it entailed to be a profes- sor,”he said.“I assumed you basically just taught. I didn’t know about this giant research compo- nent — a research component that at Stanford is the name of the game.” A native of Omaha, Neb., Herzog’s sense of purpose and focus on teaching did not prove an obstacle in adjusting to the demands of research — in fact, they’ve already set him off the beaten path for studying American history. Early in his doctoral study,Herzog led a sem- inar on sources and methods for history under- graduates, designed to give students practice in making sense of primary documents.Addressing his students about conservatism in California,he presented them a pamphlet from the 1960s called “Why a Christian can’t be a communist.” Finding that his class “couldn’t wrap their head around” the underlying conceptions of the pamphlet — and their explicitly religious char- acterization of communism — provided the first clue to a change in American self-conceptions that had been buried under decades of political change. “The top 100 responses to the question,‘what is the opposite of communism?’ you’re going to get things like capitalism, and freedom, and democracy and stuff like this,”Herzog said.“The idea you would get religion today — religion is not going to be a top choice.You’re going to get one of those buzzing Xs if you answer that on Family Feud.And students treated it this way.” Anxious to learn more about a religious un- derstanding of communism that appeared to have been downplayed over time, Herzog un- covered more and more evidence that to write about the Cold War without religion was to miss the whole story. “What I learned is that this was relatively un- explored,”Herzog said.“That we all had this idea that there were atheistic communists out there and that we needed to do something about them, but that nobody had really brought these pieces together into a narrative of the early Cold War,a narrative of the importance of religion to early Cold War America.” That classroom discovery led him to hit the archives, from which he emerged with a strong argument that American leaders and politicians reached much of their understanding of the Cold War through a religious lens and felt a corre- sponding need to forcefully assert a religious American identity.The end result is “The Ham- mer and the Cross,” set for publication later this fall by Oxford University Press. Emeritus history Prof. David Kennedy ‘63, Herzog’s adviser when he was a graduate stu- dent at Stanford,said one crucial contribution of Herzog’s research has been to help tie together religion,politics and foreign policy into a unified analysis. “Those subjects don’t usually get called into the same conversation together,” Kennedy said. “So it’s the first mark of his creativity and origi- nality that he was even capable of concocting a dissertation at that particular site.” Perhaps of equal value, however, is the way that Herzog’s contribution to rethinking Ameri- can history in the middle of the twentieth centu- ry has implications for the start of the twenty first. Central to his analysis is the political mo- mentum produced by the reassertion of religion for modern social conservatism and the debate it propelled about American identity. “It’s really in the 1950s, it’s right after World War II, that these two movements, one political, one religious,get a footing within American soci- ety.And I don’t think it’s an accident that they get this crucial foothold at this exact time when Americans are occupied with, first of all, the per- ils of communism, but more specifically occu- pied with the importance of embedding religious conceptions into our notions of what it is — what it means — to be an American.” Herzog’s successful research into the shaping of American identity,however,has not led him to forget his own sense of himself as a teacher.After completing his doctorate in 2008,he continued to teach undergraduates in history while he served for two years as fellow at the Hoover Institution, which he said he was “lucky” to be able to do. “I love to teach,”Herzog said.“And,that’s the reason I got into this years ago.And it’s the rea- son that basically still keeps me going. I love re- search, but I really, really love students.And I’ve kept relationships with so many students over the years that I still talk to.” Herzog has since brought to the classroom the maturity of an accomplished scholar and the enthusiasm and humility of someone only short years removed from being a student. “What was sort of amazing to me is, he was just a couple of years older than me, but he seemed a very strong presence,” said Andrew Robichaud, a doctoral student in history and a teaching assistant for one of Herzog’s courses. “He had a natural ability to feel comfortable in the classroom and make you feel comfortable in the classroom,” Robichaud added. James Hohmann ‘09,a former student of Her- zog’s and a former Daily editor, also noted the young professor’s attention to the members of his classes. “His reaction to your reaction paper would be longer than your reaction,”he said.“He’s one of those guys who wants everyone in that class- room to grow and learn.” And Herzog includes himself in that. He has not wavered from the belief that finding the an- swers about identity, and what you can con- tribute, starts with questions — and that those are best found in the conversation of the class- room. “Teaching students is probably the best way to find out A,what interests people,and B,to find out where the information isn’t, because that’s really the name of research,” he said. Two years after earning his doctorate,Herzog has made a name for himself on the campus as a kind and empathetic teacher. After seven years in total on the Farm,he will now take his sense of scholarship rooted in teaching north to the Uni- versity of Oregon, where he will take up a posi- tion this summer in its history department. After his two “lucky” years teaching, Herzog understands that it’s time to move on from the Farm. “Many of the friends that I have made here over time have sort of scattered to the four winds and moved all over the academic world,”he said. “It’s going to be sad to leave,” he added. Contact Eric Messinger at messinger@ stanford.edu. The Relay Courtesy of Masaru Oka Dan Lopez ‘10 tags James Xie ‘10 of the Stanford Running Club in The Relay, a 200-mile relay that happened last weekend. They finished in 7th with a time of 24:30:28, beating the Facebook team after being taunt- ed overnight. After three legs totaling around 18 miles, runners were ex- hausted but rewarded with scenes ranging from Napa vineyards to red- wood forests to the Pacific Ocean. “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, and the most exhilarating,” said Devin Lee ‘10, another team member. University of Oregon. Student athletes sometimes have difficulty balancing their competing passions. “It’s hard when you’re tired all of the time to begin with,and if you have a paper due in a few days but you also have games all weekend, more often than not the paper or assignment is the thing that gets put off in favor of sleeping to prepare for competition,” said Shannon Koplitz ‘10, another member of the softball team. “Five hours a day minimum devoted to your sport can be hard to juggle with the amount of time necessary to also compete in the classroom.” “[Student athletes] select Stanford because of the merger of world class academics and world class athletics,” said director of athletics Bob Bowlsby. “We expect our student athletes to excel in both areas.” The athletes do their best to live up to these expectations and sometimes to exceed them. “As a student-athlete, I can be an active member of the Stanford com- munity both on and off the field,” said Greg Hirshman ‘11, a member of the men’s tennis team. Hirshman,an economics and math- ematics major,has a list of activities that he balances with his academics and ath- letics.He is an officer for the newly cre- ated Stanford Tea Party group,founder and editor of The Cardinal Principle,an official quarterly editorial newspaper with conservative leanings, and mem- ber of the Stanford Conservative Soci- ety.He volunteers to help disabled ten- nis players improve their skills, has a 4.002 GPA and still manages to get eight hours and 45 minutes of sleep each night. “Sometimes it is difficult to balance everything that I do,but strategic plan- ning, time management and getting enough sleep really helps me be suc- cessful in my pursuits,”Hirshman said. Most of the athletes agreed that al- though they experience a significant amount of pressure, they feel quite privileged to be in their positions. They believe the rewards are greater than the sacrifices they make as stu- dent athletes. “Think about how many people would die to be in our place,”Hirshman said.“Being a part of the Stanford ten- nis team is a dream come true.” “It’s the only time in my life I get such an amazing opportunity like this,” added softball player Alissa Haber ‘10. For Hirshman, academics are a top priority. “The reward is so great to be able to succeed in the classroom,”he said. Tyrone Mcgraw ‘10,a member of the track and field team and school record holder in the 60 meter dash,agreed. “During season, academics are still first, but track and field is a very close second,”he said. Cecelia Haig ‘11 plays squash, a sport known for boasting one of the highest team GPAs. She said that school is more important, but she still loves her sport. “School is priority,but if I have a se- rious assignment due and squash prac- tice will hurt my performance on it, I’ll miss practice,”she said. But for other athletes, academics don’t necessarily make it to the top shelf. Chike Amajoyi ‘11, a linebacker on the football team,said that like many of his teammates,he has professional aspi- rations to go to the NFL, so academics are a secondary concern. “If I want to pursue my professional career, football is my number-one pri- ority,”he said.“At this point I feel that I have put in far too much work to let an opportunity to play professionally slip by. Academics is important and that’s why I came to Stanford,but I’ve always seen it as a backup plan.” Haber said she sets her athletics and academics on an equal footing, but she believes one may have a more lasting impact. “Twenty years from now, I’m not going to care what I got in [my chem class],” she said. “I’m going to remem- ber what kind of season I had.” But while many athletes said that they put academics and athletics on equal par, they joked that some stu- dent-athletes must prioritize their sport because it’s the only reason they are at Stanford. Max Bergen ‘11, who plays for the football team,definitely feels the heat to perform well on the field be- cause he feels that his “scholarship is on the line.” Officially, every Stanford student is here at least in part because of academ- ics. “The academic record is still the pri- mary focus of our evaluation for any candidate who applies for admission,” Abbott said.“Any student who applies for admission must demonstrate that they are first academically prepared and competitive as a scholar-athlete.” The students believe it is their athlet- ic talent on top of their intense academ- ic performance that makes them unique. “I feel like, as an individual, I pro- vide another element to the diversity that Stanford University was founded on and prides itself in today,” Haber said. Contact Ashley Menzies at amenzies@ stanford.edu. ATHLETES Continued from front page Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Kick-off Celebration & Lunch 12 PM — Tresidder Oak Lounge Expanding Limits:Giving New freedoms to Ado- lescents 12 PM — Bambi Modular, Rm 6 - 320 Panama Street Colombia at the Crossroads:A New Beginning after Decades of Conflict? 12:15 PM — Bolivar House, 582 Alvarado Row The Pasternak Family:Surviving the Storms 12:30 PM— Stauffer Auditorium, Herbert Hoover Memorial Building 2010 Sustainable Abundance Mini Conference:Reconciling Business Growth and Sustainability 3:15 PM — The d.school, Building 550 Harry Camp Memorial Seminar by Tzvetan Todorov 4 PM — Stanford Humanities Center Colloidal Self-Assembly and Replication 4:15 PM — Hewlett Teaching Center, Rm. 201 Technology Transfer and Start-Up Company Cre- ation at Asian Universities 4:15 PM — Skilling Auditorium Mexican Film Series:Pueblerina / Paloma 4:30 PM — Bolivar House, 582 Alvarado Row Baseball vs. San Jose State 5:30 PM — Stanford, CA Softball vs. Santa Clara 6 PM — Stanford, CA Art + Invention Speaker Series:Laurie Anderson 7:30 PM — Pigott Theater, Memorial Hall Aurora Forum at Stanford University 7:30 PM — Pigott Theater in Memorial Auditorium For a posting of your organization’s event, contact Andrew Martin at advertising@stan- forddaily.com. For other events, please visit https://newas- su.stanford.edu/studentevents/index.shtml HELENA VILLALOBOS/Staff Photographer XIN SHAN/The Stanford Daily eligious Studies History prof. combines love of teaching with research on faith in America The Stanford Daily Tuesday, May 4, 2010 ! 3 STUDENT LIFE Schools endorse energy ! By AN LE NGUYEN DESK EDITOR U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D- N.D.) and Representative Pete Vis- closky (D-Ind.) last week received a call to action on energy issues from 107 student body presidents of American colleges and universities. The presidents, in a move spear- headed by former ASSU President David Gobaud, a coterminal student in computer science, signed a letter endorsing the Department of Ener- gy’s “REgaining our ENERGY Sci- ence and Engineering Edge” (RE- ENERGYSE) proposal. The letter urged Congress to sup- port the “proposal and fully meet the FY2011 budget request for $55 mil- lion.” Junior Teryn Norris, director of Americans for Energy Leadership, has long been involved with the mo- bilization effort behind the proposal. He collaborated with Gobaud on the cross-campus letter and is taking the quarter off to lead advocacy efforts in Washington D.C. Norris is a former Daily colum- nist. “RE-ENERGYSE would be the first federal program to focus specif- ically on developing clean energy sci- ence and engineering programs in a comprehensive manner at the Uni- versity level, community and techni- cal college level, as well as K through 12 schools,” Norris said. Over the years,a number of feder- al programs have striven to develop the so-called “green collar” work- force, focusing on the retrofitting of buildings and the installation of solar panels. “But there hasn’t been a federal program that is really focused on the more advanced, high-tech science and energy jobs that will lead the in- novation front in clean energy,” Nor- ris said. Proponents of the proposal argue that the United States is at a critical stage of energy innovation. They claim that clean energy competitive- ness has parallels with the space race that ensued after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. “Right now,the United States is in a global race to develop competitive clean industries,”Norris said.“Coun- tries like China are investing massive amounts to develop [and] dominate the clean energy industry and grow their market share.” “It’s critical for the United States to make sure that we’re at the lead- ing front of this industry and that in- cludes a serious federal investment and advanced energy workforce de- velopment,” he added. Gobaud similarly wanted “to see America become the leader in clean energy technology” and reduce its dependence on nonrenewable ener- gy sources. “This is something that students across the country,as has been shown by this letter, support and this is something that we hope Congress will pass this time in the budget,” Gobaud said. Theo Gibbs ‘11, co-president of Students for a Sustainable Stanford, added to the chorus of support for RE-ENERGYSE. “I think it is an important and ex- citing initiative that links students to policy,” Gibbs said. The proposal is a “national pro- gram with a lot of momentum” to change the way people think about “where climate change is going to move,” she added. Gibbs said the proposal comes at a crucial junction for California’s en- ergy policy, amid calls for the repeal of climate law A.B. 32. She said the proposal has the potential to stimu- late both economic growth and sus- tainable energy development. RE-ENERGYSE was included in Obama administration’s budget re- quest for FY2010, but was rejected by Congress during the mark-up process. It was reintroduced in the FY2011 budget and is set to go under review by the Appropriations Sub- committees on Energy and Water Development in the House and Sen- ate, chaired by Visclosky and Dor- gan, respectively. Contact An Le Nguyen at lenguyen@ stanford.edu. “The approval of Provenge is a significant step towards realizing our mission of transforming the lives of patients with cancer, and it also marks Dendreon’s transformation into a commercial enterprise, ready to support the successful launch of the first personalized treatment for cancer,” said Mitchell H. Gold, the CEO of Dendreon,in a press release. Engleman and his colleague Samuel Strober, professor of medi- cine, formed Dendreon in 1992 to bring their cell therapy through the clinical trials process and market it for therapeutic purposes. The firm began clinical trials in 1998. When Dendreon applied to the FDA for approval in 2007, the expert advisory panel recommended that the FDA approve it.The FDA, how- ever, wanted to pursue further re- search. “The agency determined that there were deficiencies in the appli- cation that precluded approval,” Burkoff said. Dendreon said it will offer 2,000 patients a supply of the therapy for 2010-2011. Provenge will be provid- ed through 50 centers that originally participated in the clinical trials. Dendreon is estimated to have spent approximately $1 billion developing the drug. The therapy will cost ap- proximately $93,000. “It is, by definition, a very expen- sive process,”Engleman said.“In this case, you basically have to manufac- ture your treatment for each patient every time. I think this will be a fac- tor that limits accessibility.” Dendreon and many other compa- nies are currently employing the tech- nique to treat other types of cancer. Contact Julia Brownell at juliabr@stan- ford.edu. CANCER Continued from front page nurses would not rule out the option of going on strike. Professional Nurse Development Program Central to the current dispute is the hospital’s proposed Professional Nurse Development Program. Within the hospitals, nurses are ranked according to a four-step hier- archy, in which employees at nurse- four status are the highest ranked. The hospital’s new development program rewrites the requirements that nurses must fulfill in order to move up the ladder or retain their current status. CRONA representatives claim the new point system sets unattain- able standards for nurses and down- grades years of experience in favor of article-writing and symposium at- tendance. Under the hospital’s last proposal, nurses would not only have to satisfy the point require- ments, but be evaluated by a panel in order to receive promotions. Nuss- baum called the interview process “totally subjective.” “Experience is more important than diplomas,” said CRONA presi- dent Lorie Johnson, who is also a nurse in Stanford Hospital’s Cardio- thoracic Intensive Care Unit. “A nurse who is not able to publish and cannot present himself or herself flawlessly in front of a panel will not get promoted.” CRONA’s counterproposal re- quests that the hospital institute an appeal process for nurses who fail the interview. Nussbaum believes that the pro- gram is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” designed to demote a large number of level three and four nurses. He claimed that under the new pro- gram, with fewer nurses able to at- tain senior status, the hospitals will save $15 to $20 million annually. Responding to the claim, Staley said accusations of financial motiva- tion are a “complete misrepresenta- tion” of the hospitals’ intention. “We feel strongly about [the pro- gram] because it advances nursing practice,” she said,“and we hold our- selves to a high level of perform- ance.” The hospitals would not say how many nurses’ statuses would be af- fected or whether the program would have any significant financial effects. Paid Time Off The other key issue concerns paid time off. The hospitals stress that al- though they would not offer employ- ees separate accounts of guaranteed sick leave, vacations and holidays, nurses would be able to save and carry up to 520 hours of paid time off. CRONA’s counterproposal sug- gestions mainly deal with the way in which paid time off is accrued and compensated. For instance, the union suggested that a staff nurse who has a balance of 480 hours of paid time off ought to have the op- tion of using the time within 90 days or be paid for up to 80 hours. The Stanford Packard Facts web- site lists accrual hours compared to a number of hospitals, including the Daughters of Charity hospitals, the John Muir Health System and the Sutter hospitals.The Stanford hospi- tals claim their maximum accrual amount is the highest. Contact Caroline Chen at cchen501 @stanford.edu. NURSES Continued from front page FREE¬AND¬OPEN¬TO¬THE¬PUBLIC¬ STANFORD¬UNIVERSITY¬DEPARTMENT¬OF¬ART¬¬ART¬HISTORY MADE¬POSSIBLE¬BY¬A¬GENEROUS¬GRANT¬FROM¬CARMEN¬M¬CHRISTENSEN )TALIAN¬#INEMA¬ &ANTASIES¬OF¬0ASTORAL¬%DUCATION P¬ADAMS¬SITNEY ¬MAY¬ ¬PM ANNENBERG¬AUDITORIUM CHRISTENSEN¬DISTINGUISHED¬LECTURE ARTSTANFORDEDU PRINCETON¬UNIVERSITY ARNAV MOUDGIL/Staff Photographer Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospitals remain at odds with their nurses. Acting on behalf of the nurses, CRONA recently presented a counterproposal to the hospitals’ “last, best and final offer.” HARRISON TRUONG/The Stanford Daily If you pay attention to the thrilling world of on-campus controversies, chances are you have heard of the homophobic frater- nity e-mail scandal that has caught the atten- tion of so many different groups recently. If you are a devoted Just a Thought groupie, you may remember that I briefly touched on it in my column a couple weeks ago. In light of the continuing coverage and disputes re- volving around this incident, another point needs to be made. Political correctness is a campaign, not a crusade. Many people don’t seem to realize that. For those ignorant of how this flash-in- the-pan controversy arose, I’ll give quick background: a fraternity member e-mailed his house list asking people to stop using ho- mophobic slurs.Another member responded implying that the request was a joke. There was no violent hate crime, there was no tar- geting, there was no consensus of bigotry. The miniscule nature of the initial offense does not excuse it or make it more palatable. After all, it represents the tip of an iceberg of homophobia and politically incorrect lan- guage that pervades social life on and off campus. But the innocuousness of the initial e-mail does put the response into perspective. Let’s outline a few of the facts here: the student who sent the offending e-mail is not the face of homophobia in the Stanford com- munity, even though groups have been trying to paint him as such. His e-mail is not the paragon of intolerance. The Stanford com- munity at large and fraternities specifically do not harbor and encourage bigots, racists, hatemongers, politically backwards cavemen or homophobes.Yet the outrage would make a bystander believe otherwise. On the Diaspora e-mail list, a member as- serted that this e-mail was “proof that hate crimes still happen on this campus.” It is true — acts of intolerance do happen even at Stanford, the politically progressive arche- type of all universities anywhere (ever). It is still sensationalist to use this e-mail as a testi- mony to the pervasiveness of ‘hate crimes’ on campus.Such language conjures up images of rowdy meatheads taking baseball bats to the unfortunate homosexual holding hands with his or her life partner. It’s not inaccurate to call this incident a hate crime, but let’s be honest with ourselves: this is not a Matthew Shepard situation. Again, let me state that the scope of this event does not excuse it. Homophobia is un- acceptable in whatever form it takes.Howev- er, the sentiments of the people who re- sponded, though well founded, were misdi- rected. A member of the QNet mailing list noted that such backlash is a good way to achieve progress on the issue, concluding that “frats will respond to embarrassment.” An article on the matter in the Stanford Re- view cited the fraternity, its president and the offending member by name.The author then proceeded to include photos of both the frat and the e-mail criminal.The article then went on to discuss the political ambitions of the e- mailer’s parents, citing them and their cam- paigns by name and asserting that this e-mail could create negative backlash in Florida elections. To reiterate: the motive of the response is justified. The content of the response is not. Why stop at photos of the offender and the names of his parents? Why not flood his inbox with angry e-mails? Where are the can- dlelight vigils and the prayer circles express- ing a communal wish that he and all those like him at Stanford be publicly expelled? The truth is that this incident is neither the first nor the last of its kind at Stanford.There will always be people who make offensive or potentially offensive comments, whether in jest or in seriousness, whether innocuous or malicious.The appropriate response is not to over-sensationalize the event and publicize the person(s) responsible. This is about the offense, not the offender.And moreover, this is about the mindset and undercurrent that the offense represents — it is not an isolated act of intolerance floating in a vacuum of cor- rectness and acceptance.This e-mail is a tem- porary touchstone that represents a much more serious underlying presence of homo- phobia on campus. The reason this point has not been made publicly is because nobody wants to look like they are admonishing the people combating intolerance. In saying this, it’s likely that peo- ple will conclude (publicly or privately) that I too am an intolerant bigot, the same way that anybody can be smeared by a label if they criticize the crusade of political correctness. Witch hunts will not achieve progress. They will not create lasting social change or draw meaningful discussion to an issue that needs it. All that sensationalism achieves is polarization and groupthink backlash. No- tice how there are no names in this column. Let’s move past the targeting and blame to a progressive discussion of how to address the issue.Thank you. Next week’s column: East coast vs.West coast. Got some insight? Send it to me and I may use it and pretend it’s mine. nikm@stanford.edu. “Ifelt like you were my breath of fresh air.” That’s not a compliment you get everyday. I sat on my bed, tears streaming down my face, staring at the friend who has not only played a huge role in helping me to define who I am, but what I believe. Funny thing is, we only met seven months ago. When I met her I didn’t need her and she didn’t need me — we both already had our (according to Cosmo) “perfect number”of 5-8 best friends. When we met, we were both content in our own comfortable yet separate social circles. Funnier thing is, seven months later I don’t know how I ever lived without her. A few weeks ago,the incoming Class Pres- idents had a meeting with Leslie Winick, the Director of Alumni & Student Class Out- reach at the Alumni Association. As Leslie described some of her past experience sur- veying alums, one point she made really struck a chord:“No matter how old they are, whether they were in the Class of 1955 or the Class of ‘93, the number one regret alumni have about their time at Stanford is that they wished they had known more people outside of their social circle.” At the beginning, our class and our social circle were almost synonymous. Our class community was solidified at NSO the first second Dean Julie yelled “OH’LEVEN!” and every single member of the Class of 2011 responded. It was a call to action, our verbal affirmation that cemented our membership into the Class of 2011 for the rest of our lives, starting at that moment and continuing past our 65-year reunion. But almost the nano-second after we signed that verbal affirmation with Dean Julie, the Darwinian ladder-climbers in all of us were struggling to define ourselves within a smaller subset of our class of superstars. Our second community was as fundamental- ly basic as our geographical location: Fresh- man Dorms.The second we finished scream- ing “OH-LEVEN” our vocal chords were al- ready contracting for the next phase, scream- ing “J-RO!”even louder.The freshman dorm was the first opportunity we had to define ourselves within a smaller community, thus making ourselves more distinctive in an audi- torium full of valedictorians. But then NSO ended (thank God), real life started, and before you knew it you were no longer living in your freshman dorm.You then began to define yourself by more specif- ic and thus more descriptive variables — this could have been a major, favorite branch of the ASSU or sorority stereotype. At first glance, membership in a community that more accurately expresses your individual interests is one of the greatest ways to ex- press your individuality. But almost counter- intuitively, the second you started to identify yourself within this smaller community based on variables more specific than geo- graphical location or class year alone, a part of your individual identity was lost to the larger group identity. As each year pro- gressed, these more specific communities and social groups became more and more so- lidified, making it harder and harder for new people to break in. But these solidified communities also make it even harder to break out. Perhaps the funniest thing about my new- found friendship seven months ago is that neither of us knew we wanted to break out until Stanford forced our communities to- gether (the luck of the Draw placed us in the same homestay in Spain). It’s funny how those things happen. Just like the freshman dorm, it was once again a determinate of our geographical location that forced us to break out of our solidified communities and into someone else’s heart. Your class is your very first community, as well as your very last.As much as class unity steadily decreases year after year, class unity arguably increases in importance year after year. When you sit through graduation, how many faces are you going to actually know? How many faces do you want to know? That’s a question only you can answer.But as much as you think you may have already found the best friends and the best communi- ty in the world, it is never too late to find that new individual who actually makes you a bet- ter person. In my case seven months ago, my breath of fresh air was Stephanie Caro. Molly is an incoming Senior Class President and therefore forced by the larger ASSU com- munity to write this column. JOKE! Or is it? Find out at mspaeth@stanford.edu. 4 ! Tuesday, May 4, 2010 The Stanford Daily OPINIONS Managing Editors The Stanford Daily E s t a b l i s h e d 1 8 9 2 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S PA P E R I n c o r p o r a t e d 1 9 7 3 Tonight’s Desk Editors An Le Nguyen News Editor Chris Juhnke Sports Editor Emma Trotter Features Editor Ivy Nguyen Copy Editor Harrison Truong Graphics Editor Eric Messinger Senior Managing Editor Elizabeth Titus Managing Editor of News Jacob Jaffe Managing Editor of Sports Amy Harris Managing Editor of Features Annika Heinle Managing Editor of Intermission Masaru Oka Managing Editor of Photography Andrew Valencia Editorial Board Chair Emily Hulme Columns Editor Jane LePham Head Copy Editor Becca del Monte Head Graphics Editor Nikhil Joshi Strategy Director Wyndam Makowsky Multimedia Editor Kamil Dada Web Developer Board of Directors Kamil Dada President and Editor in Chief Jason Shen Chief Operating Officer Mary Liz McCurdy Vice President of Advertising Glenn Frankel Theodore L. Glasser Michael Londgren Bob Michitarian Jane LePham Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 723-2555 from 3 to 10 p.m. The Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours. Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanforddaily.com. Op-eds are capped at 650 words and letters are capped at 200 words. OP-ED We Choose to Invest When I was a freshman at Stanford in 2006-2007, divestment launched on campus in relation to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.At the time, it was sudden, it was divisive, and it was damaging. Although the bill was defeated in the ASSU Senate, the ramifications continued for years, dominating much of my Stanford experience. Tensions were high on campus as many peo- ple felt alienated and disillusioned by the process. Interfaith dialogue was deeply shak- en as religious communities found them- selves on opposite sides of a destructive de- bate. Recently, a similar bill was proposed in the UC Berkeley Student Senate. Following that, one was also submitted to the UC San Diego Student Senate. From accounts that I have heard from friends at Berkeley, the ex- perience was equally traumatic. Although the bill at Berkeley was also defeated,the rip- ples it has caused for their community will be long lasting. To my dismay, there once again seems to be the beginnings of an Israeli/Palestinian divestment campaign here at Stanford. One powerful line from the hours-long debate at Berkeley came from the Cal Chabad Rabbi. He made the point that you cannot fight darkness with darkness; you must fight darkness with light. A negative campaign against alleged abuses will only bring more negativity and damage. And, it will not address the issues or solve the prob- lems — it will only cause further polarization and make peace even more elusive. In my ex- perience with divestment when applied to this conflict, damage is wrought, but nothing positive comes of it. In the past, divestment campaigns helped combat apartheid in South Africa and genocide in Darfur. However, the divestment campaign against Israel is a crass bludgeon, which reduces an incredibly com- plex situation to euphemisms and demoniza- tions. Therefore, the Stanford Israel Alliance chooses to invest, and we hope you will join us.We agree that the Israeli-Palestinian con- flict is deep, complex, and painful. We sup- port the Palestinian people in their desire for an independent state alongside the State of Israel.To that end, we wish to help the Pales- tinian people build up their infrastructure and economy, which will be the basis for a fu- ture state. In the coming weeks, Stanford Israel Al- liance will be raising awareness and support for two NGOs that are working to improve Palestinian and Israeli society. Lendfor- peace.org is a microfinance organization based in the Palestinian Territories, inspiring entrepreneurship among Palestinians. The Peres Institute for Peace is an Israeli organi- zation that builds connections between Is- raeli and Palestinian businessmen, environ- mentalists, and civil leaders to forge common frameworks between the two peoples. Our goal is to move past the venomous rhetoric that divestment inspires and attempt to tackle the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from a positive perspective. It is our responsibility as Stanford students to help foster a more nu- anced understanding of the issues, and to deal with the legitimate grievances that exist. Stanford is a place of innovation and change. Perhaps this is one area where we can live up to our reputation. YISHAI KABAKER ‘10 Stanford Israel Alliance BROADLY SPEAKING Molly Spaeth Witch hunts will not achieve progress. They will not create meaningful discussion to an issue that needs it. All sensationalism achieves is polarizaion and groupthink backlash. Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of The Stanford Daily's editorial board and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff.The editorial board is comprised of six Stanford students, led by a chair.To contact the editorial board for an issue to be considered, or to submit an op-ed, please e-mail editorial@stanforddaily.com. Write to us. Submit photos or videos. SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO EIC@STANFORDDAILY.COM AND SEND OP-EDS TO EDITORIAL@STANFORDDAILY.COM, SEND PHOTOS/VIDEOS TO MULTIMEDIA@STANFORDDAILY.COM JUST A THOUGHT Nikola Milanovic Correctness can be incorrect A Breath of Fresh Air The Stanford Daily Tuesday, May 4, 2010 ! 5 People often tell me I’m too negative and that all I do is complain. So just for you, I’m writing a happy col- umn, and it’s not just be- cause I’m such a warm, cheerful, posi- tive, optimistic person that would never complain about anything. I’m happy because I go to the best school for a sports lover,and this week- end was just the latest example that il- lustrated that point to its fullest. Many columns, including one or two by yours truly,can spout the joys of Stanford’s success at winning Direc- tors’ Cups,but that’s a story for anoth- er day. Instead, I’m just happy to go to a school with so many opportunities to watch world-class athletes of all kinds. This Saturday, I got to watch a few races at the Payton Jordan Invitation- al, which is a pretty awesome track meet for those of you who haven’t worn your Cardinal red since football season. Of course, I’m very spoiled to be friends with some great runners, so I had extra incentive to go,but the meet provided a lot more than just a chance to see my friends run. See,what many of us probably take for granted is just how many major events we can see right here on cam- pus.People talk all day long about Bill Gates or Afroman coming to Stan- ford, but there are some amazing sporting events and athletes on our campus at least as often. Take this track meet, for instance. After watching my friend Dylan Ferris fly past his competitors to take the 1500 meters and taking a short break for volleyball (which I’ll get to later), I came back to watch people I’d never seen before that don’t even go to Stan- ford. Why? Because they’re some of the best athletes in the world,and they chose to come here. And I was rewarded in a big way. The big event of the day was the men’s 10,000 meters, which included a stacked field filled with professionals. The headliner was Galen Rupp, who had dominated college track as a stu- dent at Oregon before graduating to professional running. Rupp was at- tempting to break the American record in the 10k, and the whole audi- ence knew it. Posters of Rupp were passed around the stands and the cheers were overwhelmingly in his favor,even before the race started. Being somewhat of a track novice (or n00b for those of you reading the online version), my only real knowl- edge of the field came from my runner friends:Dylan,Chris Derrick and Ben- jamin Johnson. I remembered Rupp from his college days,but being a Stan- ford student, I’d always rooted against him, so it was hard to imagine rooting for him,even though everyone loves to see records broken.A few other com- petitors were somewhat familiar, but everyone’s attention was squarely on Rupp from the start. Apart from the pace-setters, Rupp led for just about the entire race. For over 9,000 meters, he looked to be in perfect position to break the record, leading from the get-go and staying under American-record pace (about 27:13).It was somewhat intriguing that he did not have much separation, though, as three other runners, includ- ing collegian Samuel Chelanga of Lib- erty, stayed within striking distance. I knew about Chelanga because he still competes (and does quite well) against Stanford runners and is somehow still in college.Chelanga was attempting to break his own collegiate record in the event as well,so all eyes were on Rupp first and him second. Then, with just over two laps to go, the runner in fourth, Chris Solinsky, started to make a move into second.A more experienced spectator probably would have sensed something, but I just thought he was aiming for second, plus I honestly knew nothing about Solinsky other than what the announc- er was saying.All of a sudden, though, the crowd could not ignore Solinsky,as he not only passed Rupp, but left him in the dust. Again, I’m no track expert, but watching Solinsky run a 1:56 over the final 800 meters actually gave me goosebumps.And for the 99.9 percent of you who didn’t say “woah,1:56!”let me put that in perspective. Solinsky had just run over 5.7 miles at an under- 4:30 mile pace. He then ran the final half-mile at about a 3:53 mile pace. It was absolutely insane to see someone (who I found out later had never com- peted in the 10k before) fly past some of the fastest runners in the world. Not surprisingly, Solinsky set the American record.What was surprising was that he broke it by 14 seconds. He ran the fastest time ever for a non- African,and it was right here on Stan- ford campus. Oh, and the record he broke? Also set at this same meet,nine years ago.Meanwhile,Chelanga broke his own collegiate record by about 20 seconds, and Rupp finished a measly fourth. And still beat the previous American record. Needless to say,watching someone obliterate an American record was a unique opportunity, and that’s just the kind of thing we get to see as Stanford students. That same night,I had the pleasure of watching Stanford men’s volleyball win the MPSF Tournament and secure the No. 1 seed for this weekend’s NCAA Tournament. Last week, I de- scribed how fun volleyball matches are, so I will spare you all another in depth play-by-play of Saturday’s vol- leyball match. Instead, I’d just like to point out again how lucky we are to have these viewing opportunities.As the top seed in the MPSF, Stanford got to host the MPSF Tournament, and, this year, Maples Pavilion has the privilege of hosting the four-team NCAA Tourna- ment. I say all this primarily because I enjoy sports, but I also want to get the attention of all sports fans in the area. Stanford boasts an enormous number of premier sporting events, and it New NCAA proposal is worrisome Stanford is a sports lover’s dream L ast week, the NCAA Board of Directors announced that the NCAA Men’s Bas- ketball Tournament field would expand to 68 teams from the current 65 for next March’s tournament, pending the approval of the body’s men’s basketball commit- tee. While the airwaves and Internet sports blogs were abuzz with talk of the expansion and its repercussions, an- other announcement from the Board was buried in the media whirlwind — a recommendation to require football players to complete nine units during the fall semester (i.e. during the sea- son) in order to remain eligible for the next season. At first glance, this may seem like a sensible proposal. As the NCAA and its two big sports, football and men’s basketball, have become more and more like big-money enterprises, the idea of the “student-athlete”has fallen by the wayside to a significant degree. Requiring a certain amount of course- work from players can only be a good thing, right? That’s actually wrong, as it turns out. No matter which way you look at it,a nine-unit requirement simply can’t say anything good about the NCAA. Let’s start with the fact that most colleges have minimum per-semester (or per-quarter) unit requirements that are already higher than the pro- posed NCAA floor. As some of you may know, Stanford students must take at least 12 units per quarter to re- main enrolled full-time — varsity ath- letic teams, including the football team during fall quarter, are not exempt from this requirement. Other schools maintain similar minimum per-semester credit require- ments. Cal requires 12 or 13 units per quarter based on major and Notre Dame requires 12 per semester. Even Nebraska requires 12 units — most colleges have a floor of around 12 units in place. This fact makes the NCAA recom- mendation for nine credits extremely puzzling, and all possible explanations look pretty bad (at least in my opinion) for the organization. The first potential rationale is fairly straightforward: with its academic credibility in tatters, the NCAA needs some way to make it seem like it still cares about whether or not its athletes actually learn anything while in col- lege. A requirement that does exactly nothing to change the status quo ac- complishes this purpose quite well. When confronted with allegations that it doesn’t care about academics for football players, the organization can point to this requirement as evidence that it is trying to promote learning as much as possible. However, when the proposal doesn’t actually do anything, it turns into a pure public relations stunt that can enhance the NCAA’s reputation without meeting any resist- ance from its member schools. While this motivation is pretty bad, the other two explanations I can think of are even more sinister. The NCAA could be instituting this requirement as a way to impose out- side controls on powerful athletic de- partments that have found ways to cir- cumvent the minimum-unit require- ments of their respective universities. At some schools, the athletic depart- ment is often one of the more influen- tial players in determining policy,and it can use this clout to ensure that foot- ball players and other varsity athletes are exempt from requirements to take a certain number of units. It is easy to see why such a policy would be in the interest of football programs.Their players are usually on scholarship, which means that taking one class in a semester doesn’t result in wasted tuition money for the player; less time taking classes means more time to focus on football and ensures a better chance of success in those class- es; and programs are not required to graduate their athletes, so taking fewer units isn’t a problem since play- ers don’t plan to graduate in four years anyway. To its credit, such a situation would lend merit to the NCAA’s implemen- tation of a nine-unit minimum. How- ever, the existence of a systemic cir- cumvention of minimum academic re- quirements at a number of institutions SPORTS L.A. LETDOWN By CLAUDIA LOPEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Cardinal women’s water polo team had a busy weekend in Los Angeles, resulting in a disappointing third-place finish for Stanford. “We were excited to play in UCLA’s new pool for our MPSF Tournament this year,” said senior driver Kelly Eaton. “We had played UCLA just a couple weeks prior in that pool and beat them handily, so I would say we weren’t nervous to play them again.” “Having all of the teams together for the first time since the Irvine Tournament early in our season was different to say the least,” said senior driver Kelsey Holshouser. “Going in to the tournament everyone knows that only four teams from our conference have a chance of making it in to the NCAA Tournament, so it is really ‘do or die’ for everyone when we get to this point in the season.I think having everyone there was exciting. “It was good practice for the NCAA Tour- nament. In both tournaments, we have one game a day.You have to win each game in order to advance and there are a ton of distractions,” Holshouser continued.“This weekend was also the first time we haven’t played at home in a while, so we got to practice being in a new envi- ronment.” Stanford began the weekend with a match against No. 8 Arizona State. The first period ended with a tie at 2-2, but during the second period the Cardinal took charge, scoring three points while holding ASU scoreless. The match ended with a 10-5 Cardinal victo- ry. Freshman two-meter Annika Dries and sophomore two-meter Melissa Seidemann each scored two points during the game. Fresh- man driver Vee Dunlevie, Eaton, freshman driver Jillian Garton, sophomore driver Alyssa Lo, sophomore driver Pallavi Menon and sen- ior two-meter Jessica Steffens each skipped in a single goal as well. Freshman goalkeeper Kate Baldoni saved a total of nine shots. The team played strongly as a whole to ad- vance to the next day of the tournament. On Saturday, the Cardinal faced off against No. 5 UCLA. Stanford had a strong start, as it lead 3-2 by the end of the first period. Each team scored a single point during the second period, yet during the third period the Bruins outscored the Cardinal 3-1. The last period only saw a single point scored by each team,leaving UCLA with a nar- row 7-6 victory. “In our game versus UCLA, we could have done many things better, including scoring more of our six-on-five-person advantage situ- ations,”Eaton said.“We had a lot of opportuni- ties to score, but the ball just couldn’t find the back of the net, and we missed all our chances to resume the lead again, which was crucial.We allowed UCLA to beat us even though we have beaten them every other time we played them this year. I’m sure we won’t let that happen again now that we have such a bitter taste in our mouth after that embarrassing loss this week- end.” Seidemann had two goals. Holshouser, sen- ior two-meter Alex Koran,Menon and Steffens each smashed in a single goal. Junior goalkeep- er Amber Oland saved a total of nine shots. “I think all of the credit has to go to UCLA for that game and the great weekend that they had,” Holshouser said. “We didn’t come out ready to attack and we paid for that. We were outplayed in the first two games of the tourna- ment. It wasn’t that we didn’t have chances to put the pressure on them and extend the lead we had in the third quarter. We even had chances in the final quarter to tie the game, but we just couldn’t convert.” The upset resulted in the Cardinal playing on Sunday against California in a fight for third place. The Cardinal came out stronger than ever as it demolished the Golden Bears — Cal was not able to score a single point during the first quar- ter while Stanford scored three.During the next three periods, Cal only managed a single point during each quarter while the Cardinal racked up an impressive total of seven points overall. Stanford was victorious with a score of 10-3. “On Sunday we played our rivals, Cal, for the bronze, and we beat them handily, proving that we were a much better team than a third- place game,” Eaton said. Eaton and Seidemann each scored three goals. Dries smashed in two goals. Sophomore driver Cassie Churnside and junior driver Kim Krueger each skipped in a single goal. Oland saved a total of three shots while Baldoni saved two of her own. The Cardinal finished third in the MPSF Tournament. “I think [the weekend overall] was a little disappointing,” Holshouser said.“We certainly were not expecting to be in the third place game, but that is the position we put ourselves in and I think we came out and played a solid game. It wasn’t a great game, but it got the job done and it looked a lot better than our per- formance on Saturday. “This weekend was great for us in terms of learning how to play on the road again. When we play at home we have a lot of support for other students, friends, family and the commu- WOMEN’S WATER POLO 5/2 vs. California W 10-3 UP NEXT POMONA-PITZER (18-14) 5/14 San Diego, Calif. 4 P.M. GAME NOTES: The No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo team finished its MPSF season by beating Cal in the third place game of the conference tournament. A day after being upset by UCLA, the Cardinal came out strong against the Golden Bears and never let up, winning by a final score of 10-3. Next, No. 1 seeded Stanford will look to advance closer to its second NCAA title when it begins NCAA tour- nament play against No. 8 seed Pomona-Pitzer. Kabir Sawhney MASARU OKA/Staff Photographer Senior two-meter Jessica Stefens looks to pass to her teammates. After losing to UCLA on Saturday in the MPSF tournament semifinals, the Card rebounded to crush Cal, 10-3, and take third place. Please see SAWHNEY,page 6 Jacob Jaffe Fields of Failure Please see WATER POLO,page 6 Please see JAFFE,page 6 6 ! Tuesday, May 4, 2010 The Stanford Daily AUTO For Sale: Toyota RAV4, 2000, Color: Dark Green. Good Condition – Contact koali@Stan- ford.edu Special Auto Insurance Programs for College Students - Call Toll free 1-877- 451-4943 or instant online quotes at http://www.autoagency.com/students Ken Donaldson Insurance Agency CA License 0E05617 Special Auto Insurance Discount Pro- gram for Educators and Professors, current or retired. 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(650) 721-5803. www.stanforddaily.com/classifieds Women’s rugby falls in national championship to Penn State The Stanford women’s rugby club team finished its season Saturday night with a loss to Penn State, who earned its second consecutive title. After beating Brown 43-32 on Friday in the semifinal match at Stanford’s Steuber Rugby Stadium, the team faced the Lady Ruggers for the cham- pionship. It was the sixth consecutive time these two teams have faced each other in the national championship and, with its win, Penn State evened the series at three titles apiece. Against Brown, the Cardinal trailed 27-24 but was able to pull out the win by converting on late tries. Stanford got two tries each from sen- ior wing Jess Watkins and sopho- more center Melanie Nacouzi, who scored late in the game to pad Stan- ford’s lead. In the championship game, the Penn State defense shut down the Cardinal offense, which was score- less until sophomore flanker Frances Wehrwein scored late in the game off a breakaway run by Watkins. Junior wing Deven Owsiany was the star for Penn State, scoring two tries in the 24-7 win and earning Player of the Match honors. —Chris Juhnke SPORTS BRIEFS ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily Senior winger Jessica Watkins tries to break past a Penn State defender in the national title game at Steuber Stadium. The Cardinal faced Penn State in the na- tional final for the sixth straight season, but couldn’t earn its fourth title, struggling against the intense defense of Penn State and falling by a final score of 24-7. nity in general. We had crowds of 1,000 and 1,500 for the Cal and USC game, respectively, that really got us excited for those games. From now on, we are going to have to find that spark of energy within ourselves and get ourselves ready to play.” “We have nine practices until the NCAA Tournament begins and we need to get better each day,” Hol- shouser observed. “We need to work on all phases of our game and clean up the problems that we saw this weekend. Even in our last game against Cal we can find a number of different things we can do better.” In about two weeks, the Cardinal will be heading back to Southern Cal- ifornia as it goes to San Diego to com- pete in the National Collegiate Championship. “After this wake-up call, there is no way we are going to be complacent in the NCAA Championships,” Eaton said. “We are sick of UCLA winning and we are going to take them off their NCAA pedestal. USC, UCLA, Cal — we are not going to show any mercy to those teams in the NCAA Championship tournament. We are there to win three games whether or not they’re pretty.” “I think as we move forward it is going to be about taking one step at a time,” Holshouser said. “Focus on what we can fix over the next couple of weeks, then concentrate on out first opponent of the tournament and move on from there. We need to fin- ish each game before we start think- ing about the next one. I really think that any of the top four teams in the tournament have a good chance at winning the title.We are going to have to prepare and focus for each of them as we plan for the tournament.” Yesterday, the bracket was an- nounced and Stanford, despite its semifinal loss to UCLA,was given the No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tourna- ment.The Cardinal’s first opponent in the eight-team tournament will be No.8 seed Pomona-Pitzer at 4 p.m.on May 14. Contact Claudia Lopez at cllopez@ stanford.edu. WATER POLO Continued from page 5 is very worrying (though, thankfully, Stanford’s programs don’t engage in any such chicanery). The last possible explanation is, to me,by far the worst one:the NCAA is subtly signaling to schools that its ex- pectations for football players now stand at very low levels. If the NCAA only asks for nine units, athletic departments could use that as a weapon to get reduced units for their players.As said already, hav- ing athletes go to class less benefits the program in a myriad of ways with- out really hurting it at all. In this sce- nario, both schools and the NCAA are colluding to reduce academic par- ticipation. While I’ll admit that this scenario is unlikely at best, it must be considered given the lack of trans- parency with which the NCAA’s Board of Directors has made this rec- ommendation. Though I’m sure some people will disagree with me,my main contention with this recommendation is that I see no way in which it is academically beneficial. Putting a minimum under already existing ones is at best a com- pletely useless provision; at worst, it can undercut the very system it seems designed to enhance. Kabir Sawhney is taking nine units this quarter. Ask him what it’s like at ksawhney@stanford.edu. SAWHNEY Continued from page 5 would be a shame if they went unno- ticed. Hopefully the Cardinal being two wins away from a national champi- onship is enough reason to head out to Maples this weekend, but if you need more reasons, I’d be all too happy to help out. Jacob Jaffe has 101 reasons why you should love Stanford sports. To get a full list, e-mail him at jwjaffe@stan- ford.edu. JAFFE Continued from page 5
