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T Stanford Daily The

THURSDAY May 10, 2012

An Independent Publication
www.stanforddaily.com

Volume 241 Issue 57

SUES proposes helix courses

Faculty College works to develop new interdisciplinary course groupings
By AARON SEKHRI
STAFF WRITER

STUDENT GOVT

GSC defers ARP vote, discussion

Reps cite lack of awareness among grad community as cause for delay
By MARSHALL WATKINS
DESK EDITOR

Stanfords traditional system of self-contained courses could soon be upended by recommendations by the Study of Undergraduate Education at Stanford (SUES), which advocates the introduction of helix courses to address curricular incoherence in undergraduate coursework. The SUES report describes the proposed helix system as conceptually intertwined groupings of three or more courses, with a common focus on questions and concerns that influence and are influenced by multiple disciplines. Students would take as many of the courses as they desire, and would be able to do so in no predetermined order. One of the things that struck us in the course of our investigation was how segmented [and] how silo-ized students lives were, said James Campbell, history professor and co-

chair of the SUES committee. They had majors, General Education Requirements [and] they were doing some service work perhaps, but rarely were those experiences coming together in some creative or synthetic way. According to Campbell, the report emphasizes adaptive learning and fostering connections because rapid global changes mean students will likely confront challenges that cannot currently be foreseen. Those students who will flourish will be those who are not simply guarded from professional obsolescence by their study, but those who have the capacity to continue to learn and connect the things they know, Campbell said. The SUES report noted a positive response to the helix concept from faculty members, adding that the program should pose fewer problems in implementation than other recommendations advanced by the SUES committee.

M.J MA/The Stanford Daily

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Harry Elam, however, wrote in an email to The Daily that there currently exist a few guiding principles, but not a lot of detail. According to Elam, Faculty College a program started this year to establish cross-disciplinary teaching endeavors

will play a role in developing these helix courses. He also highlighted the efforts of his office to help coordinate the programs agenda. We expect to have a section of Explore Courses as well as space on our new and improved Undergraduate Aca-

The Graduate Student Council (GSC) returned to the subject of the Alternative Review Process (ARP) in its final meeting Wednesday evening, ultimately echoing the 13th Undergraduate Senates decision to defer further discussion and voting on the issue until new representatives take office next week. We dont think that we should be voting on how the ARP should be written [yet], said Justin Brown, current GSC secretary and last years GSC co-chair. We should be voting on how we need to talk about this more. The ARP is a new judicial procedure for cases involving sexual assault, sexual harassment or relationship violence. Certain provisions of the procedure such as a lower standard of proof, a simple majority requirement for convictions and a diminished ability to cross-examine witnesses have come under criticism during recent GSC and Senate meetings.

Please see HELIX, page 3

Please see GSC, page 2

NEWS BRIEFS

International health aid not misused, study says

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF A recent study by Stanford researchers could reopen the debate on whether or not international assistance for health programs should be given to government agencies. In a report published Tuesday in Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine, affiliates at Stanfords Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) for International Studies Rajaie Batniji and Eran Bendavid attempt to refute an earlier study which concluded that funds given to national governments for the purpose of health programs are often wasted or misused. Researchers at the University of Washington conducted the first study in 2010, which was then published in the medical journal Lancet. Batniji, a resident physician at the Stanford Medical Center, told the Stanford Report that the Lancet article is cited to this day as a reason against giving international health aid to foreign governments. Data for the 2010 study came from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The new study, however, found that when outlying data such as discrepancies between the WHO and IMF estimates were excluded from the analysis, there was not significant support that governments misdirect foreign aid. The United States is currently scheduled to reduce its budget for international health aid next year by $10 billion, or 4 percent. FSIs Global Underdevelopment Action Fund provided financial support for the study.
Kurt Chirbas

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winng author (right), was joined by CISAC co-founder Sidney Drell (left) and Charles Ferguson, president of the Federation of American Scientists, for a discussion of the 1986 Reykjavik summit and the role of nuclear weapons in modern geopolitics.

Experts address Cold War,modern nuclear policy

By NATASHA WEASER
DESK EDITOR

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

PAUSD Board supports revised grad requirements

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) board members discussed a proposal to align dis-

Please see BRIEFS, page 2

Politics is much harder than physics we cannot force or coerce the laws of nature to change, said Sidney Drell, cofounder of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Wednesday evening during a discussion about the politics of nuclear weapons. Drell was one of three panelists at the event, titled The Reykjavik Forum: History and a New Vision for Our Worlds Future. The event was part of a twoday series, which featured short videos on the history and challenges surrounding nuclear weapons, a performance of the play Reykjavik by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes and a concluding panel discussion. Rhodes and Charles Ferguson, president of the Federation of American Scientists, joined

Drell on the panel. Ferguson also moderated the discussion. Rhodes play Reykjavik recounts using actual transcripts the historic 1986 summit meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. While the summit, which sought to address issues around nuclear weapons and human rights, attained no lasting resolution, both sides hailed it as inducing a breakthrough in relations. After the 45-minute play, Ferguson began the discussion by highlighting the larger purpose of the event. We want to create some videos that go viral like the Kony one, Ferguson said. [In this way] we can try to put pressure on political leaders so they feel a greater urgency to act to prevent nuclear terrorism and to take further steps to reduce arms in a responsible way. Ferguson offered an optimistic outlook, adding, Hopefully one day we can reach a nuclear-

free world. Drell expanded on Fergusons points by providing the perspective of a scientist, with extensive involvement in advising and policymaking. Drell previously served as deputy director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The obligation of the scientific community is to see that the role of technology is used for the benefit of mankind, Drell said. We work to guide government leaders. Everything has got to be based upon scientific facts. Rhodes provided a more historical view of nuclear politics, tracing the history of nuclear developments and relations. He argued that the idea of common security that nations should strive for the safety of all other countries is key. According to Rhodes, Reagan had told his advisers prior to the Republican National Convention in 1980 that one of the main reasons he wanted to be elected

president was to abolish nuclear weapons. But that was where the missing piece of the puzzle came in, Rhodes said in explaining Reagans eventual advocacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative, which would have established an American space-based missile shield to prevent against nuclear attack. How do you prevent the other side from cheating? Drell drew on the plays atmosphere of mutual suspicion in advocating the idea of trust, but verify. Reagan was very right in insisting about trust but verify, Drell said. The Russians were cheating during this period [of negotiations] and thats a fact. Drell continued by emphasizing that todays nuclear threats are different than those faced by superpowers during the Cold War. Twenty years later, the question of how do you get rid of nu-

Please see NUCLEAR, page 4

Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/5 Classifieds/6

Recycle Me

2 N Thursday, May 10, 2012 LOCAL

The Stanford Daily

Report on state education shows little progress

By MARSHALL WATKINS
DESK EDITOR

BRIEFS

Continued from front page

trict graduation requirement with state college entry requirements at its Tuesday night meeting. The Board expressed universal support for the plan, on which it will vote in two weeks. Under the current proposal, which was first brought before the Board nearly a year ago in May 2011, members of the high school class of 2016 will have to meet revised graduation requirements, such as taking 20 units of a world language, an additional 10 units of math and 20 units of lab science instead of general science. According to Board minutes, the original goals of this plan were to have at least 85 percent of PAUSD high school graduates complete an A-G curriculum the entry requirements for the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems and to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who meet these requirements by 50 percent or more. In January 2012, PAUSD Superintendent Kevin Skelly suggested a change to the proposal, which would give students the choice to create alternative graduation requirements with the help of parents and school officials. This option, intended for students who cannot or prefer not to meet the A-G requirements, is included in the current plan. At Tuesdays meeting, Skelly read a letter of support for the proposal from a former student, according to a Palo Alto Online article. I did not choose wisely as my parents were not involved back then, the letter read. If I had been forced to fulfill the language requirements back then it would have helped me in college and in life. In an interview with The Daily in January, Skelly argued that many students in high school do not realize this and often take the path of least resistance if not pushed by the District. All five board members publicly supported the proposal at the meeting. The final vote will take place on May 22.
Kurt Chirbas

Five years after a study by Stanford researchers called for reform and increased investment in Californias public education system, progress has been at best underwhelming and inconsistent, according to a new report from the independent Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) research center. Our initial optimism was clearly unwarranted, wrote Susanna Loeb, professor of education and director of PACE, in the new reports introduction. Loeb added that the past five years have seen only small improvements on the problems identified in the original report. The initial study, titled Getting Down to Facts, sought to promote policies encouraging better governance and administration within the educational sector, as well as the simplification of education finance and development of a comprehensive state data system. The study was met with approval by state legislative leaders and then

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proclaimed 2008 to be the Year of Education in California. In 2007, it appeared the timeframe for comprehensive and structural reform was relatively short, said David Plank, professor of education and PACE executive director.The idea was that this was something that could be done on a relatively short timeline. According to Plank, the onset of economic recession and Schwarzeneggers subsequent pivot to address Californias deteriorating finances contributed to the failure of state legislators to follow through on the studys recommendations. The PACE report noted that state general funding was 15 percent lower by the end of 2009 than at its peak in 2007-2008. A lot of needed policy reforms were put on hold because of the budget crisis, Plank said. Once the governor backed away from his own committee [on education reform], the timeline was extended quite a long way. This lack of funding could be further exacerbated this November, as Californians vote on a budgsion of what ARP should be, Brown said. He added that GSC representatives remain concerned that the BJA, along with the GSC and the Undergraduate Senate, has yet to fully address all potential cases in which the ARP might be applied. Agreeing with the ARP as is basically states it is perfect, de Ridder wrote in an email to the GSC list in late April. Amending it, on the fly, when approving it, is non-constructive, because many bodies need to agree on the ARP. Providing a set of opinions is the responsible thing to do, as it would give the BJA resources and incentives to carefully review the document. In discussing the GSCs approach to the issue, de Ridder expressed concern over a lack of awareness of the ARPs provisions, a sentiment shared for the most part by Brown. Getting graduate students feedback on this is like pulling teeth, Brown said. The vast majority of graduate students dont even know that this is up for de-

et proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown that would either raise income and sales taxes or cut a further $5.3 billion from state welfare and public school spending. Plank commented in a Jan. 18 Daily article that the prospect of such cuts would only contribute to an already awful situation in state public schools. The PACE report identified areas in which the Getting Down to Facts recommendations have either been implemented or are currently under discussion, such as data-driven analyses of student performance and greater devolution of resources and accountability to local levels. Plank singled out the development of a comprehensive student data system as an area of considerable progress. He added, though, that this may be compromised by a veto from Brown on funding for a similar effort to collate teacher information. California has very high expectations for what we expect schools, students [and] teachers to do, and we hold them accountable for that performance, Plank said. The only way that we can do that fairly bate. This is not something that is on their radar . . . [and] it really should be. Brown argued that a lack of communication between graduate students and University administrators along with a perception among graduate students that it is unlikely they will be exposed to University disciplinary proceedings has led to an alarming gap in awareness. Thats really on the administration to make sure that they can in an effective way get that information out to the students, Brown said.There appears to be a disconnect between students and the administration about what the ARP means, and what the consequences are. De Ridder also expressed concern over a lack of awareness of the issues nuances even among GSC representatives, a notion that Brown disputed. De Ridder said this would make a vote on the ARP in the upcoming weeks premature. I have my own opinions, and Im happy to share them, but Im

and accurately is if we have comprehensive data. While acknowledging that the political and economic atmosphere has changed significantly since 2007, Plank argued that the majority of PACEs recommendations are still relevant and necessary. The general argument of Getting Down to Facts that California needs to spend more money to ensure that all children can reach the standards the state has set, but that spending money in the way we spend it now will not be sufficient is still exactly true, Plank asserted. PACE researchers expressed cautious optimism, however, that the economic recovery and recent efforts by Brown to address education finance may signal a belated return to the Getting Down to Facts proposals. There has been progress, Plank said. There are many reasons in 2012 to be optimistic that the moment for significant reform may be coming back. Contact Marshall Watkins at mtwatkins@stanford.edu. concerned that trying to convince them [other GSC members] of my standpoint may not be appropriate, de Ridder said. As new GSC representatives assume office next week, both de Ridder and Brown said they do not think there should be any kind of approaching deadline for approving the ARP, arguing that new representatives should have the opportunity to educate themselves on the issues before voting. De Ridder asserted that it would not be excessive to delay voting on the ARP until next fall, given the subsequent need for University ratification. I will encourage the Board of Judicial Affairs and the ASSU Executive to come up with a new time frame [for the discussion of the ARP], de Ridder said. I hope that they take their time to additionally review the document to ensure that there is no delay when the Faculty Senate takes this up in the fall. Contact Marshall Watkins at mtwatkins@stanford.edu.

GSC

Continued from front page

One area of concern, the removal of a clause assuming a defendants innocence, has since been restored to its original wording. The GSC approved by a rollcall vote a motion by Sjoerd de Ridder, a GSC at-large representative, to table the ARP bill and call for additional review by the Board of Judicial Affairs (BJA) of the issues within the debate. Six GSC representatives voted in favor of the motion, while one voted against and one abstained. While the ARP has been under discussion in the GSC since an April 18 meeting, Brown and de Ridder denied any substantive internal disagreement on the ARPs provisions within the GSC, and attributed the prolonged deliberation instead to the importance of the subject under discussion. Tonight wasnt really a discus-

The Stanford Daily

Thursday, May 10, 2012 N 3

FEATURES
Renaissance chemist
Nayoung Woo 12 uses film to document Asian LGBTQ community
By ETHAN KESSINGER
n America, I wont be doing this in my head, Ill be doing it on a calculator. Since you are not providing me with a calculator, I will skip this question. This tongue-in-cheek remark was Nayoung Woos recollection of her response to a question on polynomial calculus during an interview. The interview was for a scholarship from her government in South Korea to study science at Stanford, which fewer than 10 students that year including Woo received. The competition was made more difficult by the fact that Woo was on a literature, not science, track in high school. Although Nayoung Woo 12 will be graduating this spring with a bachelors degree in chemistry, her involvement in many activities at Stanford reflects the diversity of her academic interests. She was a student representative on the Study of Undergraduate Education at Stanford (SUES) committee, which included two student representatives and a dozen professors. The SUES committee released a report in January that examined and gave recommendations about many aspects of undergraduate life, from general education requirements (GERs) to overseas studies.This report led to several changes, including the replacement of the Introduction to the Humanities (IHUM) program. Woo, who served as a student ambassador during the review process, helped the committee ensure the recommendations would not negatively impact students and hold meetings to report directly to students.

Once we got our gears rolling [we] met with students every week, Woo said. We mostly stormed dining halls but also met with point groups to talk to everyone. While Woo values academics, her strongest passions lie in her work with the Asian LGBTQ community. This passion started before she came to Stanford, when she did research on HIV/AIDS in South Korea, focusing on two of the most at-risk communities sex workers and homosexuals. Woo wanted to continue her work when she came to Stanford and became actively involved in the Asian LGBTQ community, eventually identifying problems in the community she believed many were ignoring. Woo struggled to decide how to start the conversations. I didnt want to just write about it, Woo said. I didnt think that any demographic study or any fictional writing that I could have done would have given justice to that community, so I learned filmmaking. Armed with the medium of film, Woo made Should Be, Could Be, But Is, a documentary following a gay Korean student and his experiences upon his arrival at Stanford. According to Woo, her documentary evokes a strong reaction in the audience due the raw footage and emotional testimonials. For an average straight person I think that they will feel shock, Woo said. They think that there is only one queer community, one way to be gay. This message that being gay does not mean one thing

has resonated with the broader LGBTQ community at Stanford. Since Woo made the documentary, Intersections a weeklong event focused on the intersections of race and sexuality has taken place annually on campus. Woo agreed with her documentary subjects to restrict the films availability because of the sensitivity of LGTBQ issues in their communities and in South Korea. Despite strict privacy agreements that only allow the documentary to be shown when Woo is present, Should Be, Could Be, But Is has already been screened for many campus groups. This summer, Woo will present her documentary at the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Association conference in Washington, D.C. Woo fulfilled the class requirements for the Ethics in Society honors program, but decided to spend her last few months at Stanford working on another documentary on the Asian Queer community instead of completing a thesis. When she graduates this spring, she will be a Fellow of the Coro Program in Public Affairs a full-time, nine-month, graduate-level training program in New York City which prepares fellows aspiring to work in public affairs. The road to Woos accomplishments was opened with that fateful scholarship interview. While Woos spunky response must have resonated well with the interviewers after all, she did receive the scholarship Woo was not so sure at the time. It is probably the worst interview that Ive ever had, she said. Contact Ethan Kessinger at ekessing@stanford.edu.

SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily

POST-IT
SECRETS
n the first floor of Arrillaga Dining Commons is a large TV monitor mounted on the wall adjacent to a large window overlooking the kitchen. The monitor displays an image of a large corkboard with colorful post-it notes. Each note contains a short message, revealing a secret sent anonymously by text message. The messages vary wildly in tone from Im overworked to I wish I had used a condom to Im so happy for my beautiful friends!!!!!! to Sometimes its hard to pretend that Im happy all the time. The live post-it board screen in Arrillaga is the site of PostStanford, a project launched last Thursday by the ASSU Health and Wellness Executive Team with the aim of improving communication between students on campus. Spearheaded by former ASSU Chair of Health and Wellness Stephanie Liou 13, PostStanford was inspired by PostSecret, a website to which users can anonymously mail in their secrets on homemade postcards. PostStanford operates on a similar principle by creating an open but safe space where students can free themselves from the emotional burden of their secrets. Its really mentally healthy for people to express a secret, said ASSU Chair of Health and Wellness Taylor Winfield 13. Carrying baggage inside really just weighs you down and a lot of times, people have something that theyre afraid of what people will think if they find out theyre afraid of being embarrassed. ASSU Chief Technology Officer Michael Fischer, a doctoral student in computer science, set up a program through which students can interact with the live

screen by texting messages to 41411. Once the messages pass through a spam filter, they appear as a note on the screen for all to see. The secrets displayed are diverse both in topic and degree of positivity. Secrets have been posted on relationships, stress, classes and sexuality. While the degree of pessimism that colors some of the notes may startle some students, the creators said they believe student mental health is a conversation that must be brought to the forefront. People are always talking about Stanford Duck Syndrome, Winfield said. Weve been talking about it for so long . . . humans have a negativity bias where they always notice whats bad. Winfield emphasized that PostStanford promotes open sharing of emotions. If something great happens to you, share it, Winfield said. If youre having a rough day, share it. If something funny happens, share it. Share your feelings, whether [theyre] good or bad. We dont want this to be a pity board, she added. We hope that this program will help people who have secrets realize that they can share them in a safe environment, and then if they do need it, they can get more help. According to Winfield, the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive. On the day of its launch, the board received around 50 text messages. Talks of expanding the board to other dining halls, however, will be dependent on continuing level of student interest. Post a secret post something, say something, Winfield said. Someone else can read it and know that theyre not alone in the struggle. Jenny Thai

HELIX

Continued from front page

demic Life website devoted to helix offerings, Elam said. Christopher Gardner, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, will join the Faculty College for the 2012-13 academic year. He described the project as establishing a deliverable design that creates a class or set of classes. Repeating Campbells sentiment that solving challenges in the future will involve rigorous and multidisciplinary thinking skills, Gardner said, Stanford in particular is best placed to approach this kind of learning because it has seven incredible schools in such close proximity. Based on his specialty of nutrition science, Gardner expressed support for a food-oriented helix, or potentially a food systems minor. He argued that a uniting theme such as food security would make for more compelling and better helix courses. Other faculty expressed more cautious sentiments. Computer science professor Terry Winograd stressed his support for multidisciplinary programs, but questioned the viability of the helix program, asking whether or not faculty would shift their courses to make them accessible to non-majors, which is a big thing to ask of faculty.

Stanford...is best placed to approach this kind of learning

medical professor
Gardner, however, remained optimistic about the future of the helix proposal, highlighting the benefits of exposing individuals to new material and indeed new ways of thinking. Discussing a food summit at which speakers were asked to give a hypothesis on an issue, Gardner said he noted different procedural methods across departments. I remember Debra Dunn, whos at the d.school, coming to me and saying, Look, we dont have hypotheses in the d.school. We run an iterative design process and look into peoples motivations, Gardner said. And it was stunning to me to think, Ah, theres a totally different way of thinking no wonder I may be stunted in my own productivity because I dont expose myself to these cultures. Contact Aaron Sekhri at asekhri@ stanford.edu.

CHRISTOPHER GARDNER,

4 N Thursday, May 10, 2012

OPINIONS
SEEING GREEN

The Stanford Daily

Blowing hot air

Holly Moeller
sequester during methane hydrate extraction will quickly be replaced through burning of the extracted methane. And the carbon dioxide trap is only temporary: warmer polar temperatures will free it as surely as the presently trapped methane scientists are so concerned about. Add to this the issue of scale. Given that commercialization of methane hydrate extraction is still a political pipe dream, were unlikely to process any significant portion of the 320 quadrillion cubic feet of methane scattered in hydrates around the country. Now to don our economic hats. Increased supply and decreased costs only drive up demand. Say we can, as the DOE promises, double our natural gas supply and effect dramatic price cuts by using only 1 percent of domestically available methane hydrates. This quick fix of another carbon-based fuel will only delay our ultimate sustainability reckoning. Methane hydrates, no matter how vast their supply seems, are just another nonrenewable resource. A boom in gas production will add years maybe decades to the difficult but necessary transition to renewable energy sources. And in the meantime, well be doing plenty of damage to our environment both globally through additional greenhouse gas emissions and locally, by drilling in sensitive ecosystems. In the last decade, weve fought plenty of environmental battles over how and where to drill for oil. Weve seen the consequences Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf of Mexico 2010 spill, for example of pushing our technological limits towards harder and harder to reach deposits. And now we want to grasp at something even more risky, at mineral formations that, when destabilized, cause explosions and landslides. Im afraid that the laws of economics especially in a country that will invest $6.5 million this year alone (plus an additional $5 million, pending congressional approval) on methane hydrate recover research will once again favor Sarah Palins mantra, Drill, baby, drill. As surely as methane is trapped within its lattice of ice, we are trapped in a spiders web of fossil fuel dependency. Unlike methane, however, it seems even climate change cant force us out. Send questions, comments or just blow your own hot air to Holly at hollyvm@stanford.edu.

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ast week, word came from Prudhoe Bay that sent chills through me as surely as if Id been standing in the Alaskan North Slope drilling outpost myself.The United States Department of Energy in collaboration with energy giant ConocoPhillips and the Japanese nationalized minerals corporation reported success from a month-long test extraction of methane gas tucked into an icy lattice below the permafrost. These methane hydrates are found in cold regions (like the Arctic, where low temperatures keep the permafrost soil layer frozen year-round) and off continental shelves (where pressure from a thick blanket of water stabilizes the compressed gas). Though testing to reveal the full extent and nature of these gas deposits has only just begun, methane hydrates are already making headlines as the next big energy source. The US Geological Survey estimates that theres twice as much burnable carbon hiding in hydrates as in all other known fossil fuel deposits worldwide. And since methane gas burns hot and clean giving off 33 percent more energy per carbon dioxide molecule emitted as petroleum, without the nasty nitrogen and sulfur oxides that come from coal ears around the world have perked up. In 2006, China pledged $100 million to hydrate exploration. In 2008, Japan and Canada completed a six-day test drill in the Mackenzie Basin. And now that this years test results are looking good, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says that domestic gas prices could drop 30 percent by 2025. As an added bonus, methane extraction traps carbon dioxide. The latest technology pumps the most notorious greenhouse gas into the ground, where it replaces methane in the ice matrix. The displaced methane is then pumped to the surface and in the DOEs (and, undoubtedly, ConocoPhillips) vision down pipelines to heat homes in the Lower 48. Plus, argue supporters, climate change projections indicate that rising temperatures may release much of that methane anyway. If the permafrost thaws or the ocean warms, vast tracts of icy clathrates could melt, outgassing methane which has 20 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further accelerating climate change. This is one of the most feared positive feedback loops known to climate scientists. So wouldnt it be nice if we could turn some of that methane into carbon dioxide ahead of time? I dont think so. Burning fossil fuels oil, coal and natural gas put us into our tenuous climatic position in the first place. Any carbon dioxide we

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

MODERN MANNERS

The perils of answering multiple choice questions

This issue came up in a recent New York Times article on standardized testing in middle school, which described how a reading comprehension passage sparked controversy among students and parents for being too far-out. The passage in question involved a race between a pineapple and hare. Some of the other animals picked the pineapple to win, thinking that it must have a trick up its sleeve if it was daring to challenge the hare. But the pineapple lost because, pineapples dont have sleeves. The surreal passage was accompanied by questions that were impossible to answer definitively, one of them being, roughly, if the animals ate the pineapple at the end because they were hungry or because they were angry with it for losing. My first thought was Who knows? The whole story is ridiculous. But the smart kids interviewed in the article were able to correctly agree on the answers the test writers were looking for. In test-taking, there is a difference between an answer being right and an answer being true, and I think this idea is important for the real-world analogues to multiple-choice tests: the dozens of surveys Stanford inundates us with. The groups that send out these surveys are trying to improve Stanford life with the data that they collect, but what if the survey takers do not interpret the questions the way the survey writers intend them to? Unlike our teachers, survey writers do not have the luxury of dictating which interpretations are correct they must simply take the data as it One of the most fundamental changes we have been moving towards is to think of [the issue of] nuclear weapons not as good guys versus bad guys, but that the weapons themselves are ultimately the danger, Rhodes said in reply to a question on Irans nuclear weapons policy. The last thing anyone wants is a war with Iran, or a war between Israel and Iran, and I dont think Iran wants that either. Other questions concerned issues from the disposal of nuclear waste to the handling of nuclear weapons in states that broke away from the USSR in 1991. It is fantastic living so close to Stanford where there are so many

Jeff Mandell
comes, and try to draw the best conclusions they can. A survey taken by the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education, recently published in the Daily, comes to mind. At Stanford, 73.6 percent of respondents said that our social atmosphere promotes alcohol use, while only 47.7 percent of respondents to a national survey made that claim. Does this mean Stanford has more of a drinking culture than other schools? Just like for the pineapple questions, I think the answer is, Who knows? Stanford students might simply be more perceptive than average college students, which would make them better able to see the role of the social scene in promoting alcohol. The percentage difference in responses could be due to any combination of differences in perceptivity, real differences in alcohol use, and still other factors. The same problem applies to another question on how central students think drinking is to Greek life. This is not to say the survey wasnt useful; indeed, it revealed troubling trends about binge drinking and the number of students who may be drinking to excess simply because they cant think of anything else to do with their weekends. Survey writers get a lot of respect from me for the uphill battles theyre fighting. But as readers, its our job to be smart test takers and thoroughly examine the answers. Questions, comments, suggestions, anonymous tip-offs? Contact Jeff at jeff2013@stanford.edu. people contributing to advances in peace and technology, said audience member Mark Weiss, a community member. People like Dr. Drell are legends in their fields and are such a great resource. The Federation of American Scientists, the National Center for New Plays, the Fund for Peace Initiatives, CISAC, the Center for Ethics in Society and Stanford Continuing Studies co-sponsored the event. The Ethics and War series will conclude next Wednesday with a discussion of ethical challenges yet to come. Contact Natasha Weaser at nweaser@stanford.edu.

f youre a Stanford student, youve taken an awful lot of tests in your life, which means there have probably been times when you couldnt help wondering if you were smarter than the test or at least, more intellectually vigorous than the TAs were feeling when they wrote the multiple choice section at 2 a.m. Maybe you are steadily filling in the bubbles until you come to number 14, where you suddenly realize that there are two right answers. One of them is obvious, and one of them is subtle, arguable even, but you remember coming across a technicality while studying that lends it some potential validity. You pick the obvious choice, of course. But what if its one of those devilish check-all-that-apply situations? You have a problem on your hands because now the test isnt just on what you know, but on what you think the answer key knows. Do you fill in the extra answer, prepared to go in and defend yourself if you get dinged, or do you play conservatively, risking the loss of a point if the test writers are thinking a little deeper than you think they are? If you think on a deep enough level, there are a lot of multiplechoice questions out there that have more than one answer. There might be an obvious way to read a question, and an obvious answer that goes with it, and there might be a less conventional way to read a question, with another answer choice that fits with it. One of the keys of test-taking is to know how youre supposed to read the question.

NUCLEAR

Continued from front page

clear weapons is now focused on how some evil and rogue people can get their hands on weapons to go on a suicide mission, he said. With regards to Obamas current policy on nuclear weapons, Drell described it as a frustratingly slow march toward a less nuclear world. A lively question and answer session followed the discussion, with audience questioning initially focusing on contemporary geopolitics.

The Stanford Daily

SPORTS
Jack Blanchat

Thursday, May 10, 2012 N 5

AD job too vital to rush

Tournament time
WOMENS TENNIS KICKS OFF NCAAs
By CHRISSY JONES
STAFF WRITER

obody ever says, Go east, young man. Everybody knows that you have to go west to make a name for yourself. But (now former) Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby, didnt get the message when he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime last weekend, and will leave the Farm to take over the Big 12 in June. Now that the dust has settled over Bowlsbys departure, everybody has started to throw out their ideas of who should succeed the man I like to call the Bowldozer. But when you think about those names out there, its important for the Stanford fans and administration to ask themselves: Just how important is it to hire a good athletic director? The athletic director position is not one to be taken lightly. After the President of the University, I think its pretty safe to say that the secondmost important person on campus is the athletic director. Whether or not thats the right thing is another issue, but the fact remains that a good athletic department can benefit a school in innumerable ways. First of all, the athletic director is someone who is responsible for the success or failure of every single sports team to some degree. The AD directly hires new coaches and is critically important in fundraising for new facilities, mostly by courting big boosters to give their hard-earned money to the school. If an AD does these things well, it benefits the student population and the reputation of the school by bringing more attention and money to the campus. For example, how many of the schoolrecord 36,744 high school seniors that applied to Stanford this year were attracted by the successful football team? (Another great example is how applications to Butler University went up by 41 percent after the basketball Bulldogs nearly knocked off Duke to win an NCAA title two years ago.) That butterfly effect of one good hire shows just how important it is to pick a person who knows what he or she is doing and has a clear vision for the future that will keep an athletic departments teams from stagnating or getting worse. On a tangential, yet related note, thats why it worries me when people bandy about the idea of having Condoleezza Rice as the next athletic director here at Stanford. While she might be one of the worlds most knowledgeable people about American foreign policy, shes wholly unqualified to lead an athletic department. Getting your face on TV at every womens basketball game doesnt mean you are the right person

Its finally May Madness in the world of college tennis, and the Stanford womens team is looking to avenge its heartbreaking loss in last years NCAA championship match with a victory this year. The players have asserted time and time again that hoisting the trophy is their main goal, and this weekend they begin their quest for the title. The ultimate goal is definitely to win NCAAs, said junior Mallory Burdette. Our first stepping stone this year was the rematch against Florida in February, and once we overcame that hurdle, we focused on winning the Pac-12 title. Now that we are Pac-12 cochampions, all of our focus has shifted to the

NCAA tournament. Its been a successful year for No. 5 Stanford (18-1, 9-1 Pac-12), which is seeded No. 4 in the 64-team tournament. The first and second rounds are held this weekend at 16 different campus sites, one of those being the Farm. The last four rounds, including the championship, will be played May 17-28 at the Dan Magill Tennis Center in Athens, Ga. Stanford has had a short break since its appearance in Ojai, in which the Cardinal swept Washington State 7-0 in the final regular season match and followed that with strong individual showings at the Pac-12 tournament. Stanford sophomore Nicole Gibbs, who has manned court one for the Cardinal all season, took the Pac-12 singles championship, and Gibbs, along with Burdette, made it all the

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

way to the doubles final before falling to USCs pairing of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 6-4, 6-4. [Nicole] and I had several confidencebuilding matches throughout the tournament, Burdette said. Even though we didnt pull through in the finals, we learned a lot about USCs No. 1 team, and I think we will know exactly what to expect from them next time. The Pac-12 tournament is also really tough in that we play up to three matches in one day, but its great preparation for NCAAs where we will also be playing a lot of tennis over a two-week period. Although the anticipation is intensifying, the time off between Pac-12s and NCAAs has actually benefitted Stanfords small, eightperson squad. We knew that we were going to have a smaller team this year, Burdette said. And it definitely has put more pressure on each of us to remain healthy and to stay on top of our game. Its that time of the season where parts of my body are breaking down, and it was really important that I took a few days off after playing so many matches in a short period of time. The few days allowed the Cardinal to renew and refocus before the Big Dance, as Burdette put it. I personally needed to recharge, finetune my game and mentally prepare for the NCAAs, said freshman Ellen Tsay. And, of course, to build up for the excitement and suspense of the biggest event of the year. We have been pushing really hard for shorter periods of time, Burdette added. I think weve had our best practices of the year in the past week or so. The bottom line is that we really need contributions from every person in order to reach our goal of bringing home another title. The Cardinal faces Stony Brook (14-7) on Friday in the first round. Led by junior Nini Lagvilava and freshman Polina Movchan, Stony Brook won its first American East tournament title over Maryland-Baltimore County 4-2, ensuring its bid to NCAAs. This Friday will be the first time the two teams meet. If Stanford were to defeat Stony Brook, it would face the winner of No. 41 St. Marys and No. 28 Yale in the second round on Saturday. If Stanford can get past these two matches, it will travel to Athens, where it could face its first seeded opponent of the tournament, No. 13 Northwestern, in the third round. If seeds hold, Stanford would square off with its Pac-12 co-champion, fifth-seeded USC. Both Friday and Saturday are expected to be extremely warm days, but the Stanford players said the weather should help them prepare for the next few rounds. I am actually really happy that it is going to be really hot this weekend because it will be great preparation for the Southern heat that we will surely deal with in Athens if we make it, Burdette said. I have done a few sessions of Bikram yoga in order to prepare for the heat. The action begins when Yale and Saint Marys face off at 11 a.m. at Taube Family Tennis Center on Friday, followed by the Stanford-Stony Brook match at 2 p.m. The winners of these two matches will face off at 3 p.m on Saturday. Contact Chrissy Jones at chrissyj@stanford. edu.

Please see BLANCHAT, page 6

Sophomore Nicole Gibbs (above) will look to build off her Pac-12 singles crown with an NCAA team title as the Stanford womens tennis team starts the NCAA tournament at home on Friday.

SPRING KICK

SPORTS BRIEF

Womens water polo begins National Collegiate Championship

The No. 2 Stanford womens water polo team will look to repeat as national champions when it travels to San Diego this weekend for the National Collegiate Championship. The Cardinal (23-2) is the top seed in the eightteam field despite losing in the title game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) tournament, 8-7 to UCLA. The Bruins (21-3) are the No. 2 seed this weekend, meaning the top two teams in the country could meet in Sundays championship

game. Stanford and UCLA have split their four meetings this year, while the pair has gone a combined 40-1 against everyone else. First up for Stanford in the quarterfinals is No. 8seed Pomona-Pitzer. The Sagehens qualified for the National Collegiate Championship by winning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) tournament with a triple-overtime win in the championship game over Redlands. Pomona-Pitzer has gone 21-16, but that includes a 15-0 record against Division-III teams. The defending champion Cardinal should provide a bigger challenge. In the two teams only ever meeting, the 2010

Please see WPOLO, page 6

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

The Stanford mens soccer team will continue its spring season Friday vs. UC-Davis before hosting English club Sunderland next week.

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

The No. 2 Stanford womens water polo team will try to bounce back from only its second loss of the year when it begins the National Collegiate Championship on Friday. The Cardinal will face eighth-seeded Pomona-Pitzer.

6 N Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Stanford Daily

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BLANCHAT
Continued from page 5
to control one of the most successful athletic departments in the country. Returning to the point at hand, though, the responsibilities of an athletic director dont just end with hiring coaches and raising funds. There are times when an athletic director sometimes may also have to exercise their power and make ugly or unpopular decisions in order to best benefit the school. In 2009, Florida State athletic director Randy Spetman had to force out legendary Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden, who had been with the school for 33 years and collected two national titles and 12 ACC titles on his way to totaling the secondmost wins in college football history. Bowdens tenure had turned south in the late 2000s, with the program going from a perennial national title contender to a rather mediocre squad, and Spetman eventually had to find a way to jumpstart the program. That meant he and university president T.K. Wetherell had to do the most unpopular thing possible and fire Bobby Bowden a complicated and controversial move that left Spetman and Wetherell under fire from all sides. Now, the

Seminoles are on the right track once again, bringing in good recruiting classes and preseason rankings (yes, I know that they did collapse to No. 23 after this years preseason No. 5 ranking), and a lot of that is due to Spetmans unpopular decision. Whomever Stanford decides to hire, its also essential to remember that an athletic directors impact isnt often felt until a few years down the road in their tenure. For example, in Bowlsbys first year on the Farm, he hired Jim Harbaugh from Division IAA San Diego to lead the Cardinal football program. While Harbaugh had led the Toreros to back-to-back I-AA National Championships before coming to Stanford, nobody could have guessed at the time that Bowlsbys hire would turn the football team into a national championship contender. Altogether, its important to scrutinize the candidates in line to take over on the Farm because one of these people could be making a difference for the Cardinal for decades to come.And thats not something to take lightly. Jack Blanchat isnt going to throw his name into the mix for AD, but he wouldnt really mind if you did. Give him interview tips at blanchat@stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter @jmblanchat.

WPOLO

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national quarterfinal, Stanford pounded the Sagehens 23-3. If the Cardinal can repeat that feat in Fridays quarterfinal, it will take on the winner of Loyola Marymount and UC-Irvine. Stanford has faced each team once in 2012, winning 17-2 and 17-5, respectively. On the other half of the bracket, UCLA could meet No. 3-seed USC in a rivalry semifinal. The Bruins have beaten their cross-town foes in all three meetings this year, but each game has been decided by only one goal. Stanford won the national title last year, its second in 10 years, by knocking off archrival Cal in the final. The Golden Bears did not qualify for the tour-

nament this year after falling to USC in the third-place game at the MPSF tournament. Despite being the top seed once again, this years Cardinal team is significantly different from last years squad. The 2011 team had four players named to the All-Tournament Team, and none of the four is playing on this years team. Instead, Stanford has relied on MPSF newcomer of the year Kiley Neushul, who leads the team with 55 goals, freshman Ashley Grossman and returners Kaley Dodson and Alyssa Lo. Overall, Stanford leads the MPSF in both goals per game and goals allowed per game. The Cardinals title defense starts Friday night at 6:30 p.m. on the campus of San Diego State. The championship match will be Sunday night at 8:15 p.m.
Jacob Jaffe