October | 2010 | The Dish

Archive for October, 2010

Palo Alto applauds emergency planners’ efforts

October 29th, 2010

Last week, the City of Palo Alto and the Palo Alto/Stanford Citizen Corps Council honored 12 individuals for their work in emergency planning.

Three of the honorees have Stanford affiliations. BERNADETTE BURNES-LINE, administrative director for emergency management at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, and TOM PRUSSING, facility manager in IT Services for the university, were among the seven who received Achievement Awards. LISA PELLETIER, health and safety specialist in the School of Medicine, was among five who received Awards of Merit.

“The evening’s honorees are people who have given their time and energy, offered their skills and capabilities, been leaders in providing education and training, or responded to crises and disasters. As a result, they have positively impacted their communities,” the City of Palo Alto press release said.

Stanford earns high marks on the sustainability report card

October 28th, 2010

The Sustainable Endowment Institute released its 2011 Green Report Card this week. Stanford maintains an A- and the “overall college sustainability leader” designation for the fourth time in the past five years. The university earned A’s in all areas but one – endowment transparency, for which it earned a C. Three schools got straight A’s this time, including Brown. In an email Wednesday, FAHMIDA I. AHMED, associate director in the Office of Sustainability, thanked GEORGE SANDOVAL, director of zone management; MATT ROTH in Stanford Dining; JULIE MUIR of Peninsula Sanitary Service; LINDA KIMBALL, manager of investment responsibility for Stanford Management Company; TOM FENNER, deputy general counsel; and JIFFY VERMYLEN, sustainability coordinator in the Office of Sustainability, for their work on this year’s submission.

Haas Center, Bookstore hold book drive

October 27th, 2010

The Haas Center for Public Service and the Stanford Bookstore are hosting a book drive to foster a love of reading in young people. Now through Nov. 18, you can contribute to the cause by purchasing one of the books on the center’s lists of recommended books. Look for the book drive display in the front of the Bookstore, complete with a tree festooned with book titles and price tags. You can take a tag or a book to the cashier and pay. All books will be donated to Haas Center school programs that connect Stanford undergraduates with youth in the Ravenswood City School District.

For more information on the Haas Center’s book campaign, visit its Bring A Book website.

Hoover launches a new blog

October 26th, 2010

The Hoover Institution launched a new blog/aggregating website this week. Titled Advancing a Free Society, it features material on current policy matters by Hoover Institution fellows and affiliates. The site, which promises to address the policy issues of the day through op-eds, blog posts and online audio and video, is headed by Keith Hennessey, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, who also teaches at the Graduate School of Business and the Law School. Hennessey is a former senior White House economic adviser to President George W. Bush.

Four inducted into Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame

October 25th, 2010

Roger Clay

“Based on the values that are important to me, Stanford is the best university in the world,” said ROGER CLAY, ’66, a former Stanford trustee, who was one of four alumni inducted into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame during Reunion Homecoming Weekend. Clay, president of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development in Oakland, is the 2003 recipient of the Gold Spike, awarded for his volunteer leadership in development at Stanford.

William Thorne

Utah Appeals Court Justice WILLIAM THORNE Jr., another 2010 inductee, recalled his sense of isolation as a Native American law student in the mid-seventies. But he found solace in the Native American Cultural Center and in the Law School dean’s office. Federal Judge THELTON HENDERSON was an assistant dean at the time. “In the madness that was law school, that was my solace,” Thorne said of the center. “Thelton Henderson and the Native American Center were the reasons I got through law school. I thank Stanford for giving me a chance when I didn’t think I could make a difference.”

Thorne indeed has made a difference. In addition to serving on Utah’s Court of Appeals, its Third Circuit Court and its Third District Court, Thorne has served as a tribal court judge in Utah, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska and Michigan. He is the former president of the National Indian Justice Center, a nonprofit organization that trains tribal court personnel around the country, and a member of the board of directors for Court Appointed Special Advocates, a national nonprofit group that provides volunteer representation for abused and neglected children in court.

Kathy Lim Ko

KATHY LIM KO, ’80, president and chief executive officer of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, also was honored. She began her volunteer work as a Stanford undergraduate, commuting to San Francisco’s Chinatown every Saturday. In her professional and volunteer activities, Ko continues to develop, strengthen and restore facilities for a number of community organizations, including the Asian Health Services headquarters and the Lao Iu Mien Cultural Center, both based in Oakland, and the historic preservation of Angel Island Immigration Station.

Ricardo Muñoz

RICARDO F. MUÑOZ, ’72, a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California-San Francisco, also was inducted. At UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital, he directs the Clinical Psychology Training Program, the Latino Mental Health Research Program and the Internet World Health Research Center.

The host of the event was JAMES MONTOYA, BA ’75, MA ’78, a former dean of admission and financial aid and vice provost for student affairs at Stanford.

Video of the ceremony will be available on Stanford on iTunes next month.

‘Why do we age?’

October 22nd, 2010

If you submitted questions to LAURA CARSTENSEN on Facebook Open Office Hours, you might find her answers on the new video posted on the Stanford Facebook page.

“Collectively, a group of you really posed the questions that most scientists and most policy makers are asking now,” Carstensen, director of the Center on Longevity, says on the video.

To one of the questions, “Why do we age?” Carstensen says: “The answer is we don’t know.” Some species don’t age, she says. But all humans do. The longest lived person ever? A French woman who died at 122.

If you’d like to hear more on the topic of aging and longevity, come to the Stanford Roundtable, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 23, at 9:30 a.m. at Maples Pavilion. The title of the event is “Generation Ageless: Longevity and the Boomers.”

Ticket information is available on the Roundtable website. You also can tune in to the event, which will be moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, via live webcast.

President Hennessy to receive award from Global Semiconductor Alliance

October 21st, 2010

HENNESSY The Global Semiconductor Alliance Tuesday named PRESIDENT JOHN HENNESSY the winner of the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award. Hennessy will receive this lifetime achievement award during the GSA’s awards celebration Dec. 9 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Hennessy is the first university president to receive this award.

Established in 1999, the first GSA Exemplary Leadership Award was given to Dr. Morris Chang, chairman and chief executive officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. Today, the award recognizes individuals for their exceptional contributions to the semiconductor industry.

“Our board of directors has selected Dr. Hennessy as the 2010 recipient of the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award for his extraordinary vision and contribution to the semiconductor industry. Dr. Hennessy has been a visionary in the area of computer architecture and RISC-based CPU cores,” said Jodi Shelton, president of GSA.

“I am honored to be recognized for my life’s work and long-time passion,” said Hennessy. “It has been the opportunity of a lifetime to get to do what I love each and every day, especially at an institution as progressive and innovative as Stanford University. My team and I have worked tirelessly to make a difference within the semiconductor industry. And I am humbled to be recognized by such an accomplished group.”

The full announcement is available on the GSA website.

Crawfish, yoga, boating popular at Stanford Sierra Camp Faculty-Staff Weekend

October 20th, 2010

Teri Hankes, program support coordinator for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, brought her mom, Betsy, to Faculty-Staff Weekend at Stanford Sierra Camp.

It was Faculty-Staff Weekend recently at the beautiful and remote Stanford Sierra Camp at Fallen Leaf Lake in South Lake Tahoe.

Some 30 faculty and staff members, accompanied by about 70 family members, bunked down in the 12-room Main Lodge or 52 guest cabins and enjoyed activities ranging from hiking and boating to disco bingo. Special activities were offered for child campers, who ranged in age from 1 to 15.

Particularly popular this year among faculty and staff kids was the abundant crawfish hunting off the Main Lodge dock. Hordes of kids came to the water’s edge each morning, brandishing sticks with pieces of hot dogs tied to strings, eager to catch and release unsuspecting crawfish. Moms and dads kept watchful eyes from the yoga classes overlooking the lake.

This year’s participants represented a wide range of administrative and academic departments, from University Communications and Postdoctoral Affairs to Mechanical Engineering and Comparative Medicine.

Twice a year – in fall and spring – the Stanford Sierra Conference Center, located at an elevation of 6,300 feet, opens its doors for a weekend of fun to faculty and staff. During the summer, the center serves some 3,000 alumni at the Stanford Sierra Camp. Much of the rest of the year, the center attracts corporations and organizations eager to meet and draw inspiration from the remarkably peaceful location.

The history of Stanford Sierra Camp dates back to 1896, when Stanford graduate and engineering Professor William Wrightman Price created a boys’ camp in nearby Glen Alpine Springs. Eventually, he moved the camp to Fallen Leaf Lake, where it became a popular resort among his friends – many of them Stanford faculty.

Beginning in 1953, the then-proprietors of the lodge set aside time for a Stanford alumni camp. It quickly became a popular gathering point for Stanford alumni and their families. In 1966, the Stanford Alumni Association acquired the camp.

Stanford Sierra Camp isn’t the university’s only vacation spot. Faculty, staff and alumni also can take advantage of Stanford Alpine Chalet in Alpine Meadows. The chalet has its origins among physics professors who built a communal ski lodge for their families in 1963. The group donated it to the university and, in 1986, the Stanford Alumni Association purchased it.

—Kate Chesley

Condoleezza Rice signs her memoir at Stanford Bookstore

October 19th, 2010

CONDOLEEZZA RICE didn’t talk about the controversial Bush years, during which she served as national security adviser and secretary of state. Everyone expects the obligatory policy memoir with names and insider’s details, she said during a book signing at the Stanford Bookstore Monday. “Indeed, I have started and will finish that book.”

Instead, the professor of political science and political economy at Stanford and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution wanted to talk about John and Angelena Rice, the parents who figure prominently in her new memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People.

Rice’s mother taught English and was one of Willy Mays’ early teachers. Her father was a Presbyterian minister.

Part of what makes extraordinary people, Rice said, is “extraordinary times.” Birmingham, Alabama, was “themost segregated city in America,” she said, a place where “racism was quite hard-edged.” For the Stanford students who formed most of the crowd, it was a description of the lost and unimaginable reality.

Rice recalled the “horrors of Birmingham,” where she lost a childhood friend in the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young girls in 1963, during the time the city was called “Bombingham.” Nevertheless, in the close-knit neighborhood where she grew up, the children were taught “we could not have a hamburger at Woolworth’s, but you could become president of the United States.”

In addition to the secretary of state, the community produced the president of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, two Pulitzer Prize winners and a host of other luminaries.

Rice said she was taught: “There are no victims. You cannot control your circumstances, but you can control your response to circumstances.” She recalled her parents telling her, “‘You will have to be twice as good.’ That was the mantra.” Education was the path out.

—Cynthia Haven

Read more about Rice’s Bookstore engagement on The Book Haven.

The Chilean mining story has a Stanford connection

October 18th, 2010

Photo: Hugo Infante/Government of Chile

While 33 Chilean miners were trapped underground for 69 days, LAURENCE GOLBORNE, Stanford Executive Program ’96, was busy overseeing the rescue operation, fielding questions from journalists from around the globe and comforting the family members of the men nearly a half mile beneath the activity on the surface. His work – and his Tweets – have attracted more than 67,000 followers on Twitter.

Read the full story on the Graduate School of Business website.