SOCIAL MEDIA NOT SO NEW

FEATURES/3

Card piles up two more victories on the mat

WRESTLING

SPORTS/6

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The Stanford Daily

TUESDAY January 24, 2012

An Independent Publication
www.stanforddaily.com

Volume 240 Issue 57

SIEPR talks conflict of interest policy

Critics of a recent study question SIEPRs corporate sponsorship
economic research organization of being partial to corporate sponsors. In a joint email to The Daily, SIEPR Director John Shoven and Deputy Director Greg Rosston reaffirmed that SIEPRs research is not influenced by its corporate support, which made up approximately 8 percent of the organizations income during the 2009-10 academic year. When we talk with donors, we emphasize faculty independence we always tell donors that we not only cant tell faculty what conclusions to come to, we cant even tell faculty what projects to work on, Shoven and Rosston wrote. We care very much about academic independence. Debate over public pensions research A Dec. 13 SIEPR report, authored by public policy professor Joe Nation and titled Pension Math: How Californias Retirement Spending is Squeezing the State Budget, examined the state of three of Californias public employee pension systems: the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP). The study concluded that debt By JAMIE KIM Critics of a study published last December by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) which concluded that the state of California has underfunded pensions for government employees anywhere between $142.6 billion and $498 billion have recently questioned the academic integrity of SIEPR, accusing the nonpartisan on public pensions was larger than the state is currently reporting, underfunded by anywhere from $498 billion, using a 4.5 percent risk free rate, to $142.6 billion, using a 7.5 to 7.75 percent rate. California Treasurer Bill Lockyer had previously agreed to serve on a SIEPR pension advisory panel, but resigned from his position on the panel in protest of last

Please see SIEPR, page 5

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Artist presents interpretive Quran project

Traditional Quran illustrated with images from modern American life
By MARWA FARAG
DESK EDITOR

Second annual iDeclare Week kicks off

Artist Sandow Birk presented his American Quran project as part of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies event series We the People: Islam and U.S. Politics. The project is Birks attempt to hand-transcribe the entire Quran, illuminating the text with scenes from contemporary American life. The event consisted of a presentation by Birk on his influences, a discussion with Qamar Adamjee, who is the associate curator of South Asian Art at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and a Q&A session. Throughout the event, Birk projected pages of his work overhead. Each page features chapters or parts of chapters of the Quran, in its 1861 J. M. Rodwell translation, set against scenes of contemporary American life. The scenes included museum visitors at a dinosaur exhibit, customers at a grocery store checkout line and diners in a Chinese restaurant as well as war images featuring American soldiers. The pages are in the standard size of ancient Quran manuscripts. Birk said he also used the border motifs and system of verse numbering present in traditional Qurans. Vincent Barletta, interim director of the Abbasi Program, listed Burks illustrious credentials, which include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, a Fulbright Fellowship in 1997 and posts as artist in residence at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and at the Cit Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2008. Burk, however, introduced himself as a mere painter.

LUIS AGUILAR/The Stanford Daily

Stanford sophomores were able to dine with some of the most prominent faculty Monday night at the iDeclare Week Faculty Dinner, which was held in Paul Brest Hall. Sophomore class presidents and Undergraduate Advising and Research organized the event.

STUDENT LIFE

PA City Council debates AT&T antennas

By SARAH MOORE
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Please see QURAN, page 2

NEWS BRIEFS

Professor in mechanical engineering, fellowship founder dies at age 89

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Elliot Levinthal, a Stanford professor of mechanical engineering and founder of the Levinthal Fellows program in creative writing, died on Jan. 14 in Palo Alto, at the age of 89. Levinthal was born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. After earning a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1949, he went on to write a dissertation on the magnetic resonance of hydrogen atoms, which helped colleague Felix Bloch win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952. Levinthal moved on to become a founding employee at Varian Associates, and would eventually become the director of the company. Under his guidance, Variance helped commercialize nuclear resonance, allowing it to be used as a tool in chemistry and biochemistry. In 1953 Levinthal founded Levinthal Electronics Products, which went on to produce some of the earliest pacemakers and cardiac monitors.

Please see BRIEFS, page 2

At last nights Palo Alto City Council meeting, council members held a public hearing to decide whether to approve or reject AT&Ts plans to install 20 new antennas on city utility poles after four residents had filed appeals against the plans. Curtis Williams, the citys director of planning, had previously approved AT&Ts proposal during the summer of 2011, but backlash from residents inhibited plans from continuing until the hearing. The hearing featured inquiries from council members as well as statements from Palo Altos director of planning, the four appellants, the general public, representatives of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and AT&T. We all want better coverage, but I filed my appeal because I thought our city had some right to self-determination and the right to consider alternate technologies, said appellant Paula Rantz. Our power to determine the character of our community has been taken away by state and federal limitations. The ARB worked with city and AT&T to ensure the antennas and related equipment were aesthetically acceptable. We wish the [wireless] service to be allowed to come to the community, said ARB representative Heather Young. Service, especially in times of emergency, is a very important issue and our hope was to make recommendations that would allow the equipment to have as little intrusion on the environment as possible. Thirty letters and emails sent to the city, either in favor or opposition to AT&Ts plans, were presented for the public to read at the hearing. Twenty-four of the documents supported the plans while six objected to them. All letters and emails had been sent within the past week. A noise report by Hammett & Edison,

Inc., consulting engineers, was also available for review. Palo Alto limits increases in noise levels originating from property in residential zones to six dBA, and the study found than noise increases from AT&Ts distributed antenna system nodes by 3.3 dBA. Most emails in support of the new antennas cited the need for improved wireless service and coverage, calling it embarrassing that they have so many dropped calls in this hub of the Silicon Valley. Those opposing the antennas referenced inappropriate placement, noise pollution, radiation, costs and the preference for a citywide comprehensive voice, video and data plan instead of segmented expansion like the AT&T strategy. Councilmember Sid Espinosa brought

up the possibility of this comprehensive plan. In reality, the addition of these 20 antennas is part of an expansion plan by AT&T that has the goal of eventually adding 80 antennas total in Palo Alto. It seems were talking about 20 antennas, but actually were setting a precedent for 80 [antennas], and this is without having that strategic discussion, said council member Greg Schmid. Council member Karen Holman focused her concerns on the aesthetic effects of antenna installation, asking the ARB why a truly artistic design is not being considered. Aesthetic concerns were one of the main issues raised by appellants and other residents opposed to AT&Ts plan.

Please see AT&T, page 2

SARAH MOORE/The Stanford Daily

Members of the Palo Alto City Council held a public hearing Monday night to discuss whether or not the city should approve AT&Ts plan to install 20 new antennas.

Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/6 Classifieds/7

Recycle Me

2 N Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Stanford Daily

So often your brain is thinking about these enormous beyond worldly things, he said. Youre thinking about life, youre thinking about life after life; but as your brain is thinking these things youre standing in line at the ATM machine. Birk plans to complete all 220 pages and compile them in a book, as well as hold exhibitions of all the works in the next 18 months. The artwork prompted mixed responses from the audience, with some members taking offense of the perceived insensitivity towards the sacred text. Audience members also questioned the association of violence with the Quran in a response to the war images accompanying some of the text. Several audience members said they were disturbed by the pieces. Others, however, insisted that the project brought the Quran to Americans in an accessible manner. Birk repeatedly emphasized his role as an artist and not a religious scholar. The images arent meant to be didactic, he said. Theyre not meant to tell you anything. Theyre meant to be my own ponderings. The images arent illustrations of the text theyre not pictures of what the text says. Theyre metaphors for what could possibly be suggested by the text, he continued. He also touched on the potential cross-cultural understanding his project could spark. My happiness and wonder at the Quran since Ive started reading it is its just so familiar, Birk said. Coming from a Western Christian culture, its the same stopitted the city against each other over the issue of cell coverage [when] we are all in agreement that we need better coverage. The possibility of using tree canopy to help conceal equipment and the antennas on the utility poles was discussed. Williams confirmed that AT&T would have to pay for any trees planted. However, more mature trees that block antennas can inhibit signals that are emitted. A similar hearing was held April 4, 2011 concerning the addition of two Wi-Fi antennas to the ries...Its Adam and Eve, its Noahs Ark . . . Its such a familiar message. Its so astonishing to me the clash between the two cultures. A member of the audience Qamar Adamjee closed the talk commenting on the role of art. One of the things that artworks do is create questions, force us to look along at things that are taken for granted that are often taken over by a mainstream dialogue, Adamjee said. Thats what keeps us active and keeps us engaged . . . We need this type of artwork to generate conversation to generate dialogue; we need these types of jolts to our system every so often. The event was co-sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center and the Cantor Arts Center. Contact Marwa Farag at mfarag@ stanford.edu. front faade of the Hotel President at 488 University Avenue. In this case, councilmembers voted 8-1 to uphold the director of plannings decision and approve a permit for the antennas installation. Stipulations included that the residents be notified at least three days in advance of the installation and that the applicant receive written permission from residents to install and maintain the antennas. Contact Sarah Moore at smoore6@ stanford.edu.

QURAN

Continued from front page

He continued to describe his upbringing, education and dedication to surfing, mentioning his early work depicting the 1992 Los Angeles riots and a fictional war between San Francisco and Los Angeles. His first step toward the American Quran project came when he stumbled upon a used copy of Dantes Divine Comedy in a bookstore, and embarked on fiveyear project to illustrate and rewrite the entire work into contemporary American slang. I became interested in the idea of text and imagery, and that the pictures werent really illustration, but sort of commentary on a text the opposite of what illustrations are, Birk said. After creating a series of etchings on the Iraq war, Birk became aware that the image of Islam in America differed from what he had experienced on his surfing travels to Islamic regions of the world. He picked up a paperback copy of the Quran and began entertaining the idea of creating an illuminated manuscript version of the ancient Islamic text. I . . . intentionally went about this project with a false naivet , he said. I said to myself, Lets just

forget everything I know or have been told about the Quran and take it at face value. I read the verses and I think, What is there in my life as an American, as a Californian, that is metaphorical to this or that is connected to it somehow? he said. I start by transcribing the words and building the framework, and over the course of a number of days pondering the words of the chapter Ive read. He presented a few of his pages, commenting on the connections he made between text and image. To accompany a passage about the Prophet Mohammeds role as a messenger to the world, Birk chose to depict a printing press showing modern day communication. To accompany a passage mentioning the Virgin Mary, Birk drew a corner store from his Hispanic Los Angeles neighborhood where the Virgin Mary is painted on the side of the store. Passages on the flood of Noah were accompanied by images of Hurricane Katrina. Its hard to comprehend destruction of that scale, Birk said of the catastrophes in both the Quran and the Bible. But then you think I do remember what its like when a whole city is wiped out by flood. He explained his approach of juxtaposing the sacred text against scenes of daily life, describing his intended audience as average Americans who might not necessarily know anything about the Quran.

AT&T

Continued from front page

The reason I decided to appeal was because I was frustrated with the conclusion that the battery back up was a good idea. I think its the bigger intrusion aesthetically, said appellant Tench Coxe. The other reason I wanted to appeal was because Ive been really frustrated the process, especially the way in which AT&T has

BRIEFS

Brendan OByrne

Continued from front page

Early in 1960 Levinthal joined Stanford Medical School and became involved in the search for extraterrestrial life, joined several NASA committees and helped interpret photos from the Mariner 9 Mars Orbiter mission. Levinthal also served as the director for the Defense Sciences Office for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). After returning to Stanford from DARPA, Levinthal went on to become the director of the Stanford Institute for Manufacturing and Automation (SIMA), and later the associate dean of research at the School of Engineering. In addition to his involvement at Stanford, Levinthal helped start the first venture capital fund in Silicon Valley. He was an avid traveller, reaching all seven continents in his lifetime; he also initiated projects to help low-income students reach their goal of attending Stanford. In addition to a dedicated to science, Levinthal was known to have a soft spot in his heart for the humanities. Levinthal founded the Levinthal Fellows program in creative writing at Stanford to provide students a unique experience within the creative writing department. Levinthal is survived by his wife Rhoda, four children and seven grandchildren.

Study shows women report feeling more intense pain than men
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Using a vast database of electronic medical records, researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine were able to show to a high level of statistical significance that women report feeling pain more intensely than men regardless of the source of such pain, according to a medical school press release. The study, which was published on Jan. 23 in the Journal of Pain, took advantage of the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (STRIDE) a warehouse of electronic patient records aggregated from both the Lucile Packards Children Hospital and Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Researchers were able to search through this data to find more than 160,000 instances in which a pain score was recorded, coming from around 72,000 adult patients. A pain score ranges from zero to 10, a number that represents how patients respond when asked to rank the intensity of their pain. Zero indicates if one reports no pain, while 10 indicates worse than imaginable pain. The data was then whittled

down to a sample of more than 11,000 individual adult patients. This sample consisted of 47 separate diagnostic categories in which there were more than 40 pain reports for each gender. Researchers then compressed the 47 diagnostic categories into 16 different disease clusters. The average pain scores in each of these disease clusters was higher for women than for men, with the most profound difference in pain recorded coming from the category of musculoskeletal- and connective tissue- related pain. We saw higher pain scores for female patients practically across the board, said Atul Butte, associate professor pediatrics and the studys lead author, in the press release. He added that these differences were clinically significant. In many cases, the reported difference approached a full point on the 1-to-10 scale, Butte said. How big is that? A pain-score improvement of one point is what clinical researchers view as indicating that a pain medication is working. The researchers also said that there were several assumptions to the study that should be explored: could the patients pain already have been treated before he or she arrived in the hospital? Could patients respond differently about their pain depending on who is in the room? And do women actually feel more pain or simply report feeling more pain? In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Jeffrey Mogil, a pain expert at McGill University in Montreal, who was not involved

in the study, talked about the significance of the report. What this paper does above and beyond what came before is a matter of sheer size, Mogil said. In my mind, it puts the story to bed forever. The studys first authors were graduate student in the School of Medicine Linda Liu and pediatrics postdoctoral scholar David Ruau. Professors of anesthesia Martin Angst and David Clark were coauthors.
Kurt Chirbas

SAL transfers data to new student group management system

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Late Sunday night, Student Activities and Leadership (SAL) transferred data over from an old student group registration system to a new one, momentarily causing some student officials to be locked out of their privileges on the site. Monday morning, several student group leaders reported experiencing problems accessing MyGroups2 a student group management tool that assists with banking, funding and event planning. According to SAL Dean Nanci Howe, this was a logistical issue, caused by the transfer of information to a new system. SAL launched a new system for managing student groups last November called OrgSync. The

old application, called MyGroups, had its functions divided into two parts: MyGroups1 handled student group registration while MyGroups2 dealt with event planning and banking. Last night, OrgSync took over the functions of MyGroups1. This transfer of information, however, caused a temporary hiccup for certain group leaders. According to SAL peer adviser Brad Moylan 13, MyGroups1 allowed student organizations to name as many officers as they wished and designate them certain privileges. The only officers whose information was transferred over to OrgSync though were those in the positions of president, vice president or financial manager. The normal officers have been transferred from the old system to OrgSync, Howe said. But there are other students that had been given special access like party planners that have not. Howe said she noticed the problem soon after midnight in the early hours of Monday. Since OrgSync was now linked to MyGroups2, the officers who were not transferred over to the new OrgSync system had lost their privileges in MyGroups2. Monday evening, several student group leaders reported that their access to MyGroups2 had been restored. Howe wrote in a follow-up email to The Daily that the problem had indeed been resolved. There still may be a few glitches, but the main problem has been

Please see BRIEFS, page 7

The Stanford Daily

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 N 3

FEATURES
RON SPOGLI:

Stanford to San Marino

S
By NATASHA WEASER
tanding at six feet, four inches tall and dressed in a sharp black suit, Ronald Spogli 70, former U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, appeared a firm, powerful character. But his warmth emerged as he fondly recalled his time on the Farm and its profound impact on his life. Spogli was a first-generation college student and is a third-generation Italian-American. He was raised in an English-speaking household in Los Angeles and knew no Italian before arriving at the Farm. We had a lot of Italian customs, but the language was not something I knew, he said. At Stanford, Spogli learned Italian and studied in Florence as a junior. There, he said, he understood the value of learning about other cultures. It was a true adventure, Spogli said. I learned how to live in another culture, to meet its challenges and to thrive in those challenging circumstances. I got out of my comfort zone, and it was a great personal growth opportunity. At Stanford, Spogli majored in history, but he was also interested in both Italian Renaissance studies and East Asian studies. After graduating, he spent a year in the East Asian studies graduate program, worked as an assistant for the Florence program and went to Milan to research the social impact of labor migration in Italy. After years of academia, though, Spogli said he felt ready to enter the corporate world, so he went to study at Harvard Business School. After graduating in 1975, Spogli worked in investment banking for Dean Witter Reynolds before co-founding Freeman Spogli & Co., a private equity firm, in 1983. Forty years after his graduation, Spoglis ties to Stanford remain strong. He participates in various Stanford awareness and fundraising campaigns, currently serves on

Being a diplomat is one of the most wonderful experiences Ive had...I would do it again a thousand times over.
RONALD SPOGLI
the Board of Trustees and is a member of the eponymous Freeman Spogli Institutes advisory board. From 2000 to 2004 he was involved in the Campaign for Undergraduate Education, and from 2002 to 2005, he also served on the Bing Overseas Studies Program Council. Norman Naimark, who served as the director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) at a time when Spogli was not on the Council, remarked on Spoglis lasting impact on the Program. Spogli advised her on how to deal with a Council of donors and friends of BOSP that focused on the importance of sharing the inputs of decision-making with the Council and using their collective wisdom to help me resolve BOSP issues, Naimark wrote in an email to The Daily. In addition, Spogli continued to support BOSP while he was U.S. Ambassador to Italy. He often invited the Florence students to visit the embassy and even his residence in Rome, Naimark said. He helped us think through the issues surrounding the move of
Courtesy of Ronald Spogli

Please see SPOGLI, page 5

NOT SO NEW

SOCIAL MEDIA

SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily

By AMRITA RAO

lthough some may call social media unique to the 21st century, two researchers at Stanford say this predicament reveals nothing fundamentally new. In 17th and 18th century France, social media stirred up society and played as much of a role in individual lives as it does today. Social networks have been around as long as we have, said Anas Saint-Jude, M.A. 03, Ph.D. 11, one of the researchers. A network need not be virtual, or even based on a means of communication, to bring together people who might not have otherwise known each other. Physical spaces like Masonic lodges, courts or theaters created social networks of their own. Seventeenth-century Paris marked the beginning of modernday media in many ways. According to Saint-Jude, the birth of journalism, literary critique and even the concepts behind blogs and tweets can be traced back to that age. Social elites hired individuals

Social networks have been around as long as we have.

ANAIS SAINT-JUDE
to follow and report on events. Billets, leaflets of paper cast anonymously into the street, inhabited the niche now filled by Twitter. Seventeenth-century students also felt the weight of social media. Early modern universities revolved around tight-knit networks of student societies and served as hubs of publication. You could still get in trouble

Please see MEDIA, page 5

4 N Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Stanford Daily

OPINIONS
THE YOUNG ADULT SECTION

Zero and one

Established 1892 Board of Directors Kathleen Chaykowski President and Editor in Chief Anna Schuessler Chief Operating Officer

AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Managing Editors Nate Adams Deputy Editor Billy Gallagher & Margaret Rawson Managing Editors of News Miles Bennett-Smith Managing Editor of Sports Tyler Brown Managing Editor of Features Lauren Wilson Managing Editor of Intermission Mehmet Inonu Managing Editor of Photography Shane Savitsky Columns Editor Stephanie Weber Head Copy Editor Serenity Nguyen Head Graphics Editor Alex Alifimoff Web and Multimedia Editor Zach Zimmerman,Vivian Wong, Billy Gallagher, Kate Abbott & Caroline Caselli Staff Development

The Stanford Daily

Incorporated 1973 Tonights Desk Editors Kurt Chirbas News Editor Jacob Jaffe Sports Editor Suzanne Stathatos Features Editor Alisa Royer Photo Editor Willa Brock Copy Editor

ast Wednesday, I attended the first weeks meeting of my history class discussion section. We started our 50 minutes with an innocent icebreaker, in which every student went up to the chalkboard, said their name and then wrote it down where their birthplace might be if the board were actually a map, albeit blank and borderless. We were supposed to reference where the students before us had placed their names and estimate where our own belonged. The point is, I was born in Maryland. And I didnt know where that would be relative to Connecticut. Yeah. Well, now I know. But also, 15 other students I dont know now know that I didnt know. Of course, now you, the one reading this column, know as well. Alright . . . were all on the same page. Im sure that most everyone found it pretty shameful. (Though a laugh may have gurgled its way out of me, to a quiet classroom and a TA murmuring southwest.) As I sat down, I knew immediately that this five-second event had the potential to put me in conversational history, particularly under that ever-entertaining subject entitled, The stupidest thing Ive ever heard. We all love that one. I used to tell a story about a boy in high school who tried confirming that London was in Paris. (Notice purposeful past tense, please!) My cheap reward was an astonished, briefly captivated audience and someone elses followup story about yet another astonishingly dim person. Its crazy! These people do exist! Ive said hundreds of times. Me, on the other hand I could argue the definition of race versus ethnicity, knew what social justice actually means and had experienced intellectual highs after twohour class discussions. And the thing is, Im sure you have, too. If you are a student here, Im almost positive I could have had this conversation with you, too. Jokes about others stupidity seemed sufficiently distant in the academic context of this campus . . . though now its almost mortifying for me to say so. Contrast last week to the first long break I returned back home from college, when I met some friends with whom I spent a lot of time in high school. There, unexpectedly, it was the intellectual label that seemed too closely plastered to everything I said. I felt a

Nina Chung
deep, distracting pressure to restrain myself from debate, analysis, complications, bigger questions words that suddenly carried less positive connotations in casual conversations. I didnt want to hail so obviously from a school that, from home, seemed lofty and pretentious. Is that what I was then? In both cases, a spotlight threw a harsh light in my direction, pointing out a spectrum of qualities I hadnt noticed in myself before. Less culturally aware? More snooty? Less smart? More insecure? All of them, simultaneously? I realized that these words have values that are contingent on context, and our context changes constantly. We dont live in novels alongside character foils that expose what we are and are not. And were no longer children learning adjectives by their opposites. After all, being a fish out of water depends on the water; feeling out of place depends on the place. Its complex. We are all every mar and mistake, to varying degrees, at different times, in different places. Theres no point in summarizing the flaws of others when the next right setting will probably reveal it in ourselves. (See: paragraph two.) I guess Im growing more and more suspect of my own binary statements. Im not sure if any self-description of choice is a trustworthy anchor at all. Theyre all constructions of human people, and human beings dont ever make things that last forever. Perhaps we are victims of our own attempts to self-determine, often at the expense of others who we imply are totally opposite. But it doesnt matter an ounce: sooner or later, we all find ourselves falling off our pedestals to the same humble grounds, anyway. The tricky part then just seems to be staying there. Or, at least for me it is. The bottom line is, Nina still has extreme U.S. geography issues. Maybe you want to help her. Better yet, make her day and respond to this column. Until then, shell be waiting at ninamc@stanford.edu.

Sam Svoboda Vice President of Advertising Theodore L. Glasser Michael Londgren Robert Michitarian Nate Adams Tenzin Seldon Rich Jaroslovsky

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.

IM DONE WITH MY LIFE

What if?
started when I promised a friend that wed have a sleepover like the good ol days of sophomore year. However, my plans got sidetracked a little when we ended up visiting another friend a homie since Admit Weekend who happens to live in the same dorm.Although we had intended to only stop by and catch up for a few minutes, we spent the rest of the night recapping our lives. At times, I had wondered if our friendship with each other was just a result of the fact that we had lived in closed proximity during the very formative freshman year. One thing that you notice when you return to somewhere you have left is what or who you care about. Everything is put into perspective. I find myself making more of an effort to see certain people or do certain things. Yet other things, like going to Green, dont seem worth the effort. Its hard to admit that there are people that you dont care if you see because it makes you sound kind of mean, but its just being honest. You start to think how many connections are arbitrary versus the ones that are fated to happen. Maybe it was the free-flowing juice or the all-you-can-eat fruit snacks, but at some point during the conversation, it hit me. I really like these people. As our talk continued, it felt like it was old times again. The ease and familiarity I have with these people cant be faked. Even though I dont see them all the time, and I sometimes wonder if any of it mattered or

ince coming back to campus, adjusting to the Stanford lifestyle hasnt been always been easy. I thought it would like learning how to ride a bike again, you know, it comes right back to you just like that. However, what I failed to remember is how difficult it is for me especially to ride a bike, and that it takes a little trial and error before you get going again. And of course, looking around at everyone whizzing past me and doing loops around the Circle of Death, I had to believe it was just me who was struggling to just stay on a bike. So I found myself beginning to do something I hate something I absolutely detest. I began wondering, What if? And Im not talking about that super theoretical, fantastical kind of what if? (like, What if I met Drake? Would there be a song called Houstalantacali?). No. This kind of wondering what if? has more to to do with things not accomplished than things wished for; it has to do with regrets. For me, it started off with: What if I had never left? What if I had stayed in the fall? How would things been different? Would I be more actively involved in certain organizations? Where would I live on campus? Would I feel more or less feel obligated to see certain people? And from there it snowballed having me question my entire Stanford career. While I was having this kind of existential crisis, I found myself going on a trip down memory lane. It

Camira Powell

What if I had stayed in the fall?

made some kind of difference, when Im surrounded by them, I cant help but think that I was placed there for a reason. There are people ready, willing and waiting to reach out to me, and all I have to do is reach out to them in return. And thats a wonderful thing to know, because its easy to forget that and get jaded. The connections that I make now are worth the effort of cultivating because they are not ones that I want to ever see disappear. Though I have to be willing to keep working at it if I want to keep what I have. The fact that I can look back upon so many experiences with a smile on my face shows that Ive made some pretty good decisions. I know I that Ill never stop wondering what if? a girls gotta keep dreaming that shell get a hit song made about her but I realize that there are some things that I wont ever wonder about. Camira is wondering if youll email her, so drop her a line at camirap@ stanford.edu.

The Stanford Daily

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 N 5

cultural link between the two countries. This proved a challenge: in 42 months, he saw three different parliaments and two different presidents. In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Spogli the first U.S Ambassador to San Marino, a small enclave located within Italian borders. Its citizens speak Italian and also use the Euro as currency, but maintain political independence from Italy. San Marino is a fascinating country because it claims to be the oldest democratic republic in the world, he said. He left the post in 2009. Spogli credited Stanford with helping him find his passion in diplomacy. Being a diplomat is one of the most wonderful experiences Ive had in a life where Ive been blessed with incredible things, he said. I would do it again a thousand times over. Contact Natasha Weaser at nweaser@stanford.edu.

SPOGLI

Continued from page 3

the Florence program to a more attractive location. Although he is proud of his many accomplishments, Spogli said that the highlight of his career was his role as U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino. The wonderful thing about being an ambassador to a country like Italy is that you are limited only by your energy, enthusiasm and creativity, he said. One of his major tasks as ambassador was to battle chronic low economic growth in Italy. According to Spogli, for Italy to attract investment and grow, the government needs to make fundamental reforms to the labor market, educational system and legal system. Spogli also had to strengthen political ties between the United States and Italy and reinforce the

MEDIA

Continued from page 3

for posting something, said associate professor of French and Italian Dan Edelstein, the other main researcher. For example, a student might be expelled for association with an atheistic publication. Comparative literature professor Hans Gumbrecht, SaintJudes Ph.D. advisor, highlighted a particular way in which social media has evolved. While I agree with the basic take that the subjective feeling of informational overload was not so different, whats more interesting is the feeling of acceleration today, he said. An email today might receive a response in minutes whereas a letter would certainly require days. With electronic media, you get the most current developments in-

stantaneously, which affects how you go about your day, said Cody Behan 15, a student in the class Media, Culture and Society. Publications and pamphlets could have the same effect over time, but would have to be passed from person to person, while media today enjoy simultaneous viewership on a one-to-many scale. Both Edelstein and SaintJude recognize that innovation creates new phenomena and that the social media of today have unique features that create particular challenges that would not have existed in the early modern period. Certainly the scale has changed . . . the volume has changed, Saint-Jude said. She thought of these changes as an effect of the shift from physical to virtual spaces, which increase scale and speed and allow people to explore their identities in new ways. While these advances make transmission easier and more efficient, she said, they

also create problems of their own. Edelstein agreed. Back then, you wouldnt get the accidental posts where you forget youre friends with your boss, he said. The deliberateness of physical forms of media made people more thoughtful about what they chose to say in published form. Saint-Jude argued the media might have also differed due to differing societal focuses: in the 17th century, people knew they were being watched, and therefore lived up to societal ideals when using social media. SaintJude advised social media users today to think back to those of the 17th century and understand the roles they play in the public sphere. Think about your persona, Saint-Jude said. No ones checking, but consequences still exist in terms of peoples perception of you. Contact Amrita Rao at arao15@ stanford.edu.

SIEPR

Continued from front page

months report, which called for reducing the benefits of current state workers and reforming the public pension system in California. While attempting to discredit the study in an op-ed than ran in the Sacramento Bee on Dec. 25, Lockyer called SIEPR a Wall Street-supported think tank. In particular, Lockyer wrote that he believed the study may have been influenced by corporate sponsors who make a lot of money when workers invest in 401(k)s. Nation, the studys author, addressed Lockyers original complaints against the research and decision to resign in a Dec. 16 oped in the Sacramento Bee. The advisory panel members who resigned seem fixated on just one issue, insisting that we present the numbers assuming only a long-term investment return of 7.75 percent, Nation wrote. Notably, even at that rate, all three pension systems remain substantially underfunded. David Crane, a Stanford public policy lecturer, would later come

to the studys defense. In a Jan. 8 op-ed in the Bee, Crane wrote that the California financial officials opposed to the report were making ad hominem responses. According to Shoven and Rosston, Nations report is a perfect example of research not influenced by corporate sponsors. The report expresses his research and opinions, not SIEPRs, Shoven and Rosston wrote. And it was funded directly as a research project through SIEPR by the James Irvine Foundation and California Forward. Dean of Research Ann Arvin and Stanfords Sponsored Projects Office also approved the sponsored project, Shoven and Rosston added. They noted that all faculty must abide by both codes of conduct written by the University and the dean and research. How SIEPR is funded According to its 2009-10 annual report, corporate support accounted for 8.6 percent of SIEPRs approximately $13.5 million in income that academic year. Of the money raised from corporate sponsorship that year, $806,954 was dedicated to project support while $356,000 went

toward general support. Corporations that donated $20,000 or more included Exxon Mobil, Cisco Systems and Charles R. Schwab. Bank of the West, Goldman Sachs, Google, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo each contributed between $10,000 and $20,000. The rest of SIEPRs income comes from (in decreasing order) foundations, the U.S. government, endowment, individual donors and University support. Foundations such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Koret Foundation make up around 25 percent of SIEPRs income. Grants from government agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health are the second-largest component, making up 18 percent of SIEPRs income. 17 percent then comes from endowment, 13 percent from individual donors and 13 from the University. According to Shoven and Rosston, no corporate support paid for our new building, referring to the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Building, which was dedicated in March of 2010. A majority of SIEPRs 2009-

2010 expenditures was devoted to research, supporting faculty and graduate students and funding conferences. Ten-percent of the budget over $1 million was committed to running Stanfords public policy program, and the rest was expended on development, communications and administration The SIEPR advisory board SIEPRs advisory board defined on its website as a board of directors for the Institute that helps to guide and support SIEPR includes 49 members, some with links to business world, such as Eff Martin, advisory director of Goldman Sachs; Susan Bostrom, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Cisco Systems; and John Gunn, who chairs the advisory board and is chairman at Dodge & Cox. Members of the advisory board make both an intellectual and financial commitment and are active in helping to facilitate and disseminate research, according to SIEPRs website. SIEPRs Advisory Board is just that an advisory board, Shoven and Rosston wrote. It is not a governing board. It does have very impressive members successful business people, aca-

demics and policymakers who provide guidance and fundraising assistance By bringing together academics, policymakers and business people, they added, SIEPR can have a positive influence on the policy process. The mixture of academics, policymakers and business people, they said, creates a positive influence on the policy process. The University stance In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Lisa Lapin wrote that corporate contributions, which are received by entities throughout the University, represent a very small percentage of overall giving to Stanford (less than 10 percent). She added that Stanford has strong policies that serve to prevent instances of conflict of interest across all fields of the University, not just SIEPR. Stanford has some of the most thorough and complete conflict of interest policies and practices among U.S. universities, Lapin wrote. She said these thoroughly address inferences about corporate giving [being questions]. Contact Jamie Kim at jbkim1@ stanford.edu.

The 2011/2012 Tanner Lectures

Ancient Philosophies as Ways of Life

John Cooper
Princeton

WED. JAN. 25

Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life: Socrates

5:30 - 7 p.m. Levinthal Hall Stanford Humani es Center

THURS. JAN. 26

Discussion: Alan Code / Stanford Sarah Broadie / St. Andrews

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Room 134 A SIEPR-Landau Economics Bldg.

Platonist Philosophy as a Way of Life: Plotinus

5:30 - 7 p.m. Levinthal Hall Stanford Humani es Center

FRI. JAN. 27

Discussion: Jaclyn Maxwell / Ohio Anthony Long / UC Berkeley

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Room 134 A SIEPR-Landau Economics Bldg.

This event is free and open to the public. For more informa on about the series and 2012 events, visit ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu

Sponsored by the Office of the President and the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society Stanford University

SPORTS

6 N Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Stanford Daily

Tom Taylor

Billionaire owners come with a price

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

The Stanford wrestling team won two matches in impressive fashion over the weekend. The Cardinal lost just three individual matches all weekend, beating San Francisco State 25-12 and blowing out Southern Utah 25-3. Stanford has now won three straight and four of its last five.

DOMINANT WEEKEND
CARDINAL ROUTS TWO OPPONENTS TO CONTINUE WINNING WAYS
By PALANI ESWARAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This weekend the Stanford wrestling team recorded two impressive wins, defeating San Francisco State (3-5) by a score of 25-12 and Southern Oregon (6-3) by a score of 25-3. The Cardinal (8-5) is on a three-match winning streak.

WRESTLING SOUTHERN OREGON 3 STANFORD 25 1/21, San Diego Sports Hall

Stanford lost just two matches to San Francisco State. The winning wrestlers were No. 8 junior Ryan Mango at 133 pounds, freshman Alex Manley at 141 pounds, sophomore Garrett Schaner by pin at 157 pounds, redshirt sophomore Bret Baum-

bach at 164 pounds, redshirt junior Spence Patrick by major decision at 184 pounds, sophomore Alan Yen at 197 pounds and sophomore Dan Scherer at heavyweight. Against the Southern Oregon Raiders, the Card was even more dominant, losing just one match a 5-3 overtime decision for Southern Oregons Kyle Wirkuty over Manley. Mango, redshirt junior Timmy Boone, Schaner, Baumbach, No. 1 Nick Amuchastegui, Patrick, Yen and Scherer all contributed to Stanfords rout. Although the score is completely lopsided, most of the matches against the Raiders were extremely close. All matches but one Amuchasteguis 14-0 dismantling of Brock Gutches were minor decisions. Patricks match was particularly exciting. He faced an early 2-1 deficit but was able to fight back and take a 4-2 lead going into the

third period. Although he did give up an escape in the third, his neutral defense was excellent, and he secured a 4-3 decision. Patrick has now won five straight matches, a season high, and is 14-9 overall (10-3 in duals). He has been wrestling extremely well lately from all positions top, bottom and neutral. Stanfords two ranked wrestlers Amuchastegui and Mango continued their successful seasons with great weekends. Amuchastegui did not wrestle against San Francisco State, but he wrestled a flawless match against Southern Oregon. The redshirt senior recorded three takedowns, six near fall points, an escape and a point for riding time. There were no points in the match in which he wasnt dominating. Amuchastegui is now 15-0 overall and 12-0 in duals. For his career, he

Please see WRESTLING, page 7

GYMNASTS WIN IN STYLE

By CONNOR SCHERER Coming off a victory in the NorCal Quad Meet, the Stanford womens gymnastics team continued its success by beating the Washington Huskies in its second meet of the season. However, unlike last week, this victory was not so comfortable. While the Cardinal never trailed in last weeks meet and had a relatively easy time putting away its three opponents, Sundays meet was a nail-biter to the very end, which makes it all the more gratifying. The Cardinal, despite trailing early in the meet, ultimately pulled out a 195.925195.725 victory over its in-conference opponents to keep its perfect record intact. Starting on the vault, the Cardinal was led by junior Ashley Morgans 9.850 score and freshman Ivana Hongs 9.800. Hong, coming off an ankle injury that kept her from competing in last weeks match, was making her collegiate debut on Sunday, but is certainly no stranger to pressure. A member of the 2009 U.S. team that won a gold medal at the World Championships, Hong earned a bronze medal on the beam in the event. Though she competed in just the vault on Sunday, she is expected to participate in more events as the season continues and her ankle improves. Through the first event, the Cardinal trailed by 0.300 points, as the Huskies put up a very strong performance on the bars with a 49.050 team score. Competing on the bars, Stanford looked to narrow the deficit as the Huskies took to the vault. Stanford posted its best score on the bars, thanks to freshmen Rebecca Wing (9.900) and Sam Shapiro (9.850), as well as senior Nicole Pechanec (9.850). Wing, who made her collegiate debut last week, has also had her fair share of pressure situations, as she competed for Great Britain in the 2008 Olympics. She was the teams first competitor in the bars, as well as on the beam and floor in the later rounds, a responsibility designated generally for the more consistent performers, but one that does not faze her. Its definitely an honor to have the leadoff position, especially as a freshman, Wing said. Its always been my favorite position though, and its where I feel most comfortable. Her 9.900 score was tied for the teamhigh on the afternoon and helped cut Washingtons lead to just 0.175 as the third round began. Wing also excelled on the beam, earning a 9.875 to improve her score by 0.300 from last week. Morgans 9.900 led the team in the event, as they put together a team score of 49.100 and took a 147.000-146.975 lead going into the fourth event. Morgan and Pechanec helped the Cardinal seal its victory in its final event as the team scored a combined 48.925. Morgans 9.900 (her second 9.900 on the floor in as many weeks) gave her a score of 9.850 or above in three of the four events she competed

NICK SALAZAR/The Stanford Daily

Senior Alyssa Brown anchored the Stanford womens gymnastics team on the beam and scored a crucial 9.700 to help the Cardinal come back from an early deficit to defeat Washington by 0.2 to remain perfect.

very soccer fan dreams of the day his or her club gets taken over by a billionaire; that instant transformation from financial also-ran to filthily rich global force. The very best players in the world demand salaries that are far out of the reach of all but a tiny handful of soccer teams, or even of sensibly wealthy owners, so the only way to compete for their signatures is to have more money than sense a lot more. Take, for example, Manchester City. A club that barely a few years ago was no more than an average Premier League team, and 12 years back wasnt even in the top flight of English soccer. Four years ago, though, it was bought by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, and since then he has lavished hundreds of millions of dollars on player transfers. He has even bought players when there is no space for them in the squad, simply because he can. The Man City experiment seems to be bearing some fruit the team currently sits on top of the Premier League but life is rarely that perfect, and if there is one thing soccer fans fear more than anything else, ironically, it is probably their club getting taken over by a billionaire. Even if they grew up in the real world, most of the incredibly rich arent used to not having things their own way, or to admitting failure. The soccer world, though, is a tougher place to be, and it often doesnt play by the usual rules of business. The best-laid plans easily go awry, the best team doesnt always win and money doesnt guarantee success. But more than all that, they arent playing with mere toy companies here, but with the lives and loves of thousands maybe millions of fans. Far too often, these tycoons get it wrong, very wrong sacking experienced staff, renaming iconic stadiums and buying a host of prima donna players and a few years into their ownership, when they are still hemorrhaging money into a struggling team, their patience quickly runs dry. Some take disastrous personal responsibility, sacking more people and making further ill-advised player transfers, some make the cold, hard business decision to drop the club like a brick. Either way, recent English soccer history is littered with the carcasses of failed or failing teams. The Asia Football Investments consortium bought Leicester City two years ago, renamed the home ground the King Power Stadium and brought in ex-England manager Sven-Gran Eriksson. The team was a preseason favorite for promotion, but since then Eriksson has left, and it lies in 15th place in the second tier of English football. Another example is Liverpool: in the 2006-07 season, American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks bought the club, and, after their disastrous leadership took it to the brink of bankruptcy, its creditors forced a sale in 2010. Some of the fear comes down to the nationality of these billionaire playboys. Partly this may be a xenophobic view of the increasing amount of foreign ownership in English football, but there are definitely different categories of foreignness. The most sought-after are probably Arab sheikhs, with their seemingly bottomless pots of money, and next to those maybe Russian oil tycoons, since they have almost as deep pockets, but cant seem to shake the image of corruption and criminality. And the least desirable, I have to admit, are often Americans. Old stereotypes die hard, and we struggle to really believe you understand or care enough about soccer to be trusted. And finally it seems this dream/nightmare scenario has come to my club, Reading FC. Last week a mysterious group called Thames Sport Investment surfaced with plans of investing. Worryingly, this organization seems to fail the basic modern test of legitimacy: having a website, or at least a few informative hits on Google. It seems, though, that a 29-year-old Russian tycoon, Anton Zingarevich, is behind this deal. On the upside, he apparently has links to the area as he went to school near Reading, and the current owner, John Madejski, is

Please see GYMNASTS, page 8

Please see TAYLOR, page 7

The Stanford Daily

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 N 7

could be seen in front of Meyer Library. The Thinker was first conceived as a figure at the top of a larger work called The Gates of Hell, which was sculpted by Rodin around 1880 and depicts a scene from Dantes The Inferno. This figure, alternately called The Poet or The PoetThinker, was originally intended to represent Dante himself. Today, however, The Thinker has become an iconic representation of intellect, philosophy and mediation. A cast of The Gates of Hell can also been seen at the Cantor Arts Center, along with a collection of around 200 other Rodin sculptures. This is not the first time that The Thinker has left the Farm. The sculpture also returned to the campus in 2002 after a yearlong tour of Australia and Singapore. The Cantor Arts Center is open to visitors 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Wednesday to Friday and until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is free.
Kurt Chirbas

BRIEFS

Continued from page 2

fixed, Howe said. According to Moylan, the information in MyGroups2 will eventually be migrated over to OrgSync as well, consolidating all of the functions for student management into one system.
Kurt Chirbas

WRESTLING
Continued from page 6
has 109 wins, the fifth-most in program history. Mango won two close matches and showed his opponents how scary he is on his feet. In his match against Julian Perez of San Francisco State, Mango secured a takedown in the final period to break a scoreless tie, and he went on to win 3-0. Against Southern Oregon he took down his oppo-

Rodins sculpture, The Thinker, returns to Stanford

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF After spending two years on loan at the North Carolina Museum of Art, a cast of Auguste Rodins The Thinker is back at Stanford, according to a Cantor Arts Center press release. The one-ton, 79-inch tall sculpture will be made available for public viewing at the museum starting this Wednesday. Art collector B. Gerald Cantor gave Stanford the sculpture back in 1988 as a promised gift, which means it is still technically owned by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, but is promised to become the property of the University in the future. The sculpture, one of 12 casts authorized by the Muse Rodin in Paris, will return to the Cantor Arts Centers Susan and John Diekman Gallery its home since 2006. Previously, the cast

nent, Mitchell Lofstedt, four times and won 13-6. Mango has a team-high 22 wins and is an undefeated 13-0 in duals. All weekend long, Stanford was able to get takedowns from neutral in key situations, ride tough on top and put together multiple moves from bottom. The team has improved greatly in its ability to put together a complete match, wrestling well from start to finish in all facets. The Cardinal has momentum on its side, as the team has won three straight and four out of five. Its only loss in that span was

a one-point heartbreaker to top25 American. But Stanford has to make sure not to get complacent. There are four duals and a tournament left before the Pac-12 Championships in late February. The team needs to wrestle well in the two remaining Pac-12 duals to ensure good seeding in that tournament. This Sunday, Stanford hits the mat for a huge Pac-12 match against Oregon State at 2 p.m. in Maples Pavilion. Contact Palani Eswaran at palani14@stanford.edu. ment for 21 years, this is a leap into the unknown. Big decisions are being made that will determine the future of my club, and unfortunately I dont have the sufficient billions to get a place at the table. Tom Taylor has one teeny, tiny request for all you loyal readers. All he wants are a few billion dollars to buy his favorite team. Show your support with a little dough at tom.taylor@stanford.edu.

TAYLOR

Continued from page 6

reportedly going to retain a significant share and influence at the club. Plus, money will also offer the chance to strengthen the team and push for promotion. On the downside, though, having been under the same manage-

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8 N Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Stanford Daily

WOMENS GOLF

Cardinal hopes improvements are enough in rugged Pac-12

By AUSTIN BLOCK It didnt take long for freshman golfer Mariko Tumangan to make her presence felt on the Stanford womens golf team. On Oct. 28, barely a month into her college career, she shot a womens course record 63 on the Stanford course. It was two shots better than the previous record, which had been set six years earlier by Duke golfer Liz Janangelo now a professional on the LPGA Futures Tour. Led by Tumangan, the lone freshman, and junior captains Sally Watson and Kristina Wong, the team should be stronger than it was last year. In the fall, the Cardinal took third in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational and finished second in the Cougar Cup. Watson won the individual title at the Cougar Cup, sinking a 40-foot putt on the last hole to clinch first place. However, the team did not perform well in its other two fall tournaments. But although the team seems to have improved, the Cardinals results in major tournaments may not fully reflect that improvement. The Pac-12 Conference is perhaps the most competitive in the country, with three teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation and eight in the top 20 Stanford is currently No. 42. Among those top teams are No. 4 USC and top-ranked, defending national champion UCLA, which won the Rainbow Wahine Invitational by 20 shots and is led by two of the top six players in the nation. Were in a conference that I would say is absolutely the strongest in the country. The SEC is sometimes there to rival us, but [the Pac-12 is] a tough conference, said head coach Caroline OConnor. We have to be on our games every single day, every single event when we get out there . . . We havent been to an event yet where we havent seen a bunch of top-10 programs. Last season, the Cardinal tied for fifth in the Pac-10 Championships and finished seventh in the NCAA Regional Tournament before stumbling in the national tournament. There were flashes of brilliance we were tied for the lead after one round of the Pac-10 Championship, and I think at the time there were six teams ranked in the top 10, not including Stanford, OConnor said. We went in, and we shot six under in the first round, and we were leading, and we were I think two or three strokes back going into the final round and didnt play great in the final round of the conference championship. [We] sort of played OK to get out of regionals, finishing seventh . . . and then just didnt play great at nationals. I think that we learned a lot, she continued. Now well have more experience well know what it feels like again to be there, and I think that those lessons will serve us well come this spring. Last year marked the Cardinals second straight trip to nationals after a two-year hiatus. Prior to that period, the team had made the national championship for 12 straight years. In preparation for their first tournament, the Arizona Wildcat Challenge in early February, team members have been playing qualifying rounds to simulate the pressure of competitive golf and to determine the order in which members of the team will be seeded. Five players will represent Stanford in the tournament, and a sixth player will play individually. Sophomore Marissa Mar, Watson and OConnor agreed that this type of competitive practice is important, especially since the team has not played in a tournament since early November. I think qualifying definitely brings a sense that every shot counts, every mental process counts toward your shot as well. Making the most of each shot is a main goal for preparing ourselves mentally for the tournament, Mar said. Following the Wildcat Challenge, the Cardinal will play at home in the Peg Barnard Invitational before heading to Los Angeles to play in the Bruin Wave Invitational on March 5 and 6. The Pac-12 Championship begins on April 27, and NCAA regional play begins on May 10. If the Cardinal finishes in the top 8 in the 24-team regional tournament, it will advance to the 24team national tournament in Tennessee in late May. Watson said that the team has difficulty under pressure. To remedy this weakness, players work with a golf psychologist and with the coaches and imitate pressurized situations in practice. I think everyone has the skill and the ability to compete with the best in the country, its just a matter of building up our confidence as a team, building up our confidence as individuals and going to tournaments with the right attitude to allow ourselves to perform, she said. OConnor was optimistic that the team could capitalize this year on what she believes characterized as an ample helping of potential. Weve got some really, really talented players, she said. [Sally Watson has] had a win this year. Kristina [Wong] finished off the fall with, I think, a fourth-place finish down in Hawaii. Kristina had a run last year where, for six months, she didnt finish out of the top seven, so if we can get those two playing to where we know they can play and where they have played in addition to [getting] Mariko Tumangan, our freshman, playing where we know she should be playing then I think that were competing with all of those schools. Theres not a doubt in my mind. Contact Austin Block at aeblock@stanford .edu.

GYMNASTS
Continued from page 6
in, while Pechanecs 9.875 meant she was the all-around winner for the afternoon, the first all-around victory of her collegiate career. The Cardinals victory improved its undefeated streak to 32 matches against conference opponents inside Burnham Pavilion.And it was a good day for the team to do so, as a group of former Stanford gymnasts was in attendance after being honored before the event. The Cardinal goes on the road for its next meet, as it competes against Oregon State on Friday. After losing to rival California in its opening meet just last week, the No. 8 Stanford mens gymnastics team looked to avenge the earlier defeat as it hosted the Bears on Saturday. The No. 4 team in the country going into its opening meet against Cal, the Cardinal lost 340.900334.800 to Cal and, as expected, saw a subsequent drop in the national rankings. Stanford was able

to avenge its loss, earning a 345.200-340.450 victory and evening the season series with their rivals. As was the case in the teams previous meeting, it was a close score in the first couple of rounds until one team pulled away. This time, however, it was the Cardinals turn to come out with the victory. Starting on the floor, Stanford got off to a 58.350-57.250 lead against the Bears, in large part due to junior Eddie Penevs 16.000, which tied his career-high score in the event and was the high score for the team on the day. Cal fought back to take a 115.600-113.800 lead after the pommel horse. Junior Gabe Alvarado led the team in the pommel horse with his 14.750 score, followed by Penev (14.100) and junior John Martin (13.450). Stanford would then take control of the lead after the rings, a lead it held onto for the rest of the meet. Junior James Frosco, a rings specialist, led the team in the event, posting a 15.450 to help the Cardinal score a 58.350 as a team. From there, it was just a matter of the Cardinal maintaining its

lead to finish out the meet. Its performance on the vault helped it do just that, as all four Stanford competitors posted qualifying scores. The team was led by 15.300 scores from freshman Sean Senters his second straight career-high score (topping his 15.200 from the previous meet) and Penev to earn a 59.450 team score and extend its lead to 231.600-228.250. The Cardinal went on to extend its lead to 3.600 points after the parallel bars and ultimately won by a margin of 4.850 points, a huge change from the 6.100-point loss the team suffered to start the season. Penev scored an overall 88.550 to win the all-around competition for the second meet in a row (improving his score from 84.200), while freshman Brian Knott finished in third overall again, improving his score from 80.400 to 84.000. Like the womens team, the men will be back in action this weekend as they host the Stanford Open on Saturday night from the Farm. Contact Connor Scherer at cscherer@stanford.edu.

NADIA MUFTI/The Stanford Daily

The Stanford mens gymnastics team avenged its season-opening loss to rival Cal with a dominant victory over the Golden Bears on Saturday, leading for almost the entire meet and finishing with a 4.8-point win.

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