ALEX YU/The Stanford Daily

Students hold a candlelight vigil in White Plaza after a day of demonstrations against the California SupremeCourt’s decision to uphold Prop. 8, which passed in the November 2008 election, banning same-sex marriage.

BUSINESS SCHOOL

GSB appointsnew dean

By JOANNA XUMANAGING EDITOR

Economist Garth Saloner Ph.D. ‘82 was named the ninthdean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) yes-terday. Saloner, who is currently a professor of ElectronicCommerce, Strategic Management and Economics at theGSB, and a director of the University’s Center forEntrepreneurial Studies, will begin his term on Sept. 1.

Current GSB Dean Robert Joss announced inSeptember of last year that he would be stepping down after10 years at his post.A search committee was then formed toconsider candidates that could replace Joss.

Search committee co-chair and GSB Prof. John Robertssaid that Saloner was chosen in part due to his understand-ing of the GSB, leadership in reviewing and overhauling theMBA curriculum and strong business community ties, par-ticularly with the entrepreneurial community in SiliconValley.

“In the last couple of years, we’ve made a lot of bigchanges, re-vamped our curriculum, making it distinct fromanyone else’s, creating a new campus, and we’re sort ofhalfway through a lot of things, many of which Prof. Salonerhas been integral in,” Roberts told The Daily. “We felt theneed not for external connections as much as for someonewho understood the school and what was happening.”

Saloner earned a Ph.D. in Economics, Business andPublic Relations from Stanford in 1982, then went ontobecome a tenured professor at MIT at both the SloanSchool of Management and the economics department. Hehas been teaching at Stanford since 1990.

Despite his academic background, Saloner said his pro-gression towards managerial positions has been steady.

“I’ve taken a variety of administrative challenges atStanford, as associate dean and leader of the curriculum taskforce,” he said. “This feels like a natural progression in mycareer.”

The selection process for a new dean occurred mostlyover the course of December to March.

“We spent a long time talking to various constituentsfrom the school, alumni, staff, students, to get their input onhow they thought the school was doing,” Roberts said. “Wesought nominations. At one point, we had around 100 nom-inations.”

However, the search committee did not make the finalselection. After deliberation, the committee submitted a listof candidates to President Hennessy and Provost JohnEtchemendy, who made the final decision.

“Many of the nominees were business leaders, not aca-demics,” Roberts said. “Other schools usually only considerfaculty as candidates for deans. But it’s been a long traditionin business schools to select business leaders as deans.”

This was true of Joss, who was a global banker prior tobecoming dean of the GSB.

One of the largest challenges that Saloner will face uponbecoming dean, himself, is the budget.The GSB endowmenthas shrunk roughly 30 percent in the past year, and annualgiving from alumni is also decreasing.

“Dean Joss jumped on the problem very quickly, andwe’ve already taken significant reductions in our budget thatinvolved staff reductions,” Saloner said.“Those will carry oninto next year. We have already brought our budget in linewith what we expect our funds to be, even taking intoaccount the endowment drop.”

Saloner also hopes to advance research and curriculumchanges at the GSB.

“A big challenge for business schools right now is, how dowe create the kind of frameworks that are necessary for

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Kal Penn talks Hollywood stereotypesBy ELLEN HUET

STAFF WRITER

He’s been to White Castle. He’s made it toGuantanamo and back. But yesterday, he cameto Kresge Auditorium on a more academic mis-sion. Actor Kalpen Suresh Modi, commonlyknown as Kal Penn, spoke on campus yesterdayabout his experiences as an Asian-Americanactor in the film industry, focusing on a sociologyperspective interspersed with humorous remi-nisces.

One of the best-known Indian-Americanactors today, Penn is also an adjunct lecturer atthe University of Pennsylvania, where he teachesmedia studies, and the incoming associate direc-tor of the White House Office of Public

Engagement (OPE) for the Obama administra-tion.

Penn opened up his lecture with an analyticallook at the way ethnicity shaped his time inHollywood. A few minutes into the talk, herecalled once being referred to as “Kal Penn, theIndian-American actor.”

“I’m the Indian-American actor?” he askedwith a laugh. “Why do we feel the need to signifythat?”

As one of the few Indian-American actors tobreak into Hollywood, Penn offered a uniqueperspective on the way media can both reinforceand break stereotypes. He used his backgroundin sociology, the subject he majored in at UCLA,to explain the social forces at work behindminority roles in Hollywood.

“People talk about race, ethnicity and genderbecause the media focuses on it,” he explained.“The media play a role in socializing us into ourown culture.”

Since the media so rarely portrays minoritiesin leading roles, Penn pointed out that any mediaportrayal of a minority is often seen as a repre-sentation of that ethnic group instead of purelyentertainment. That is, while most audiences willview a white character as simply a character in afilm, audiences often see minority characters asrepresentative of their entire ethnic group.

This has led to some amusing exchangesbetween Penn and community groups.

After the release of “Harold and Kumar Go

By MARISA LANDICHOSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Waving rainbow flags and “No on Prop. 8” signs,over 100 students blocked the intersection of CampusDrive and Palm Drive for roughly 20 minutes duringlunchtime yesterday. Rally-goers, some donning wed-ding veils, denounced the 6-1 verdict released by theCalifornia Supreme Court this morning, which upheldthe ban on same-sex marriage as ratified in theNovember elections.

Aided by a blow horn and shouting,“Out of the lec-tures, into the streets,” protestors marched up LasuenMall, past the Oval, to the intersection. Following thebrief sit-in, the group trekked back to White Plazathrough the Main Quad, finally ending more than anhour later at the Claw.

The atmosphere was filled with both disappoint-ment and determination, as attendees expressed dis-pleasure with the ruling, but pledged to overcome thesetback.

Although many were personally outraged at thedecision, the rally and sit-in progressed peacefully.Stanford police followed the protesters throughouttheir march and made no attempts to break up thedemonstration.

Event organizers, however, viewed the rally as acommitment to future action, rather than a one-timeevent. Various LGBT groups will be hosting relatedevents in the coming days to plan the next steps of thecampaign.

The RulingTuesday’s decision, written by California Supreme

Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George, defended thewill of the electorate.

Last November, in one of the most expensive cam-

paigns and closely contested battles of the election, 52percent of voters approved Proposition 8, restrictingthe definition of marriage to heterosexual couples.

Immediately afterwards, opponents challenged themeasure on the grounds that it was an illegal revisionto the California Constitution, rather than an amend-ment. Measures that are considered revisions — orones that change fundamental rights — require a moretedious approval process involving the state legislature.

But the Court disagreed.“Contrary to petitioners’ assertion, Proposition 8

does not entirely repeal or abrogate the aspect of asame-sex couple’s state constitutional right of privacyand due process,” George wrote in the court’s opinion.Therefore, the Court concluded that the measure wasan amendment, only requiring the majority vote of theelectorate.

Law Prof. Jane Schacter told The Daily she was notsurprised at the Court’s ruling.

“[The judges] telegraphed their intentions veryclearly at the oral argument in March,” she said. “Ithink the decision was largely expected.”

Campus minister Geoff Browning, with the UnitedCampus Christian Ministry, thought the Court could dolittle to change the ruling at this juncture.

“I think [the Court] backed themselves into a cor-ner because they refused to hear this argument initial-ly, before the November vote,” Browning said.

Supporters of same-sex marriage, though, counted asmall victory from the second half of the decision. TheCourt ruled to uphold the 18,000 same-sex marriagesbetween June and November, during the brief windowwhen gay marriage was recognized in California.

“I think it’s going to create a very odd situation

PROP. 8 UPHELD BYSUPREME COURT

STUDENT GOV’T

Senate confirms newExec.cabinet

By ELIZABETH TITUSCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Vice Provost for Student Affairs GregBoardman, Vice Provost for UndergraduateEducation John Bravman and Vice Provost forBudget and Auxiliaries Management Tim Warnerwill be on hand tonight to answer students’ budg-ets questions at the ASSU Executives’ town hall, 5p.m. in Old Union Room 200.

Vice President Jay de la Torre ‘10 said at lastnight’s Undergraduate Senate meeting thatadministrators are set to address budget issueswith students, following on recent controversialcuts.

“It’d be really great if we get a good turnout,”de la Torre said. “After all three have made pre-sentations, we’ll open the floor for questions.”

Following the meeting, a student forum will golive on the ASSU Web site, de la Torre added.

The Senate also unanimously confirmed anexpanded, 20-member Executive cabinet, anincrease from the 15-member cabinet of a yearago.

Senators questioned de la Torre on the rea-soning behind an expanded cabinet, to whichPresident David Gobaud ‘08 M.S. ‘10 said hewould transfer $2,000 of his salary at last week’smeeting.

“You guys have assembled a really exceptionalteam, but it’s going to be a big, big brood,” saidSenator Zach Warma ‘11.“There have been timesI’ve heard from past administrations, even withmoderate-sized cabinets, things get lost.”

“We felt [for] issues that required a little bitmore work, we felt the need for there to be co-chairs,” de la Torre said.

The Executives have added two cabinet posi-tions to address disabilities and accessible educa-tion, while Andy Parker ‘11 and Bennett Hauser‘10 will serve as co-chiefs of staff.

Senators also asked how the Executives wouldkeep their salaried cabinet members on task.

“Just thinking how much money is being givento cabinet members, how are you going to holdthem accountable?” asked Senator BrianWanyoike ‘12.

“We do attempt to keep them accountableusing our platform as a means of saying,‘These arethe things we want to accomplish,’” de la Torresaid.

Senator Adam Creasman ‘11 reported on ameeting he attended with representatives fromthe Native American Cultural Center and theOSA.

“They brought up some concerns I wasn’t real-ly aware of concerning party themes, particularlyfraternities, regarding cultural identity,” Creasmansaid.

“I responded to their concerns from the pointof view of social chairman,” he continued. “I saidit’s kind of a matter of freedom of speech. Onething I said is there might be some senators inter-ested in working on some sort of cultural sensitiv-ity aspect of the AlcoholEdu program.”

Senator Zachary Johnson ‘10 agreed therewas an issue, but questioned the AlcoholEduconnection.

“There are some things that are clearly messedup,” he said. But addressing the issue throughAlcoholEdu seemed “kind of random,” he added.

In other business, outgoing Senator Luukas

Garth Soloner Ph.D. ‘82 replaces Dean

Robert Joss, begins term Sept. 1

Students disappointed; rally blocks intersection

Index Opinions/3 • Sports/4 • Classifieds/6 Recycle Me

The Stanford DailyA n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o n

www.stanforddaily.comWEDNESDAY Volume 235May 27, 2009 Issue 66

ONLINE @WWW.STANFORDDAILY.COMTWITTER: STANFORD_DAILY

Today Mostly Sunny79 55

TomorrowMostly Sunny79 54

SPORTS/4

THEY’RE ON A BOATStanford sailing team gaining respect at the

national level

SPORTS/4

CATCH-22Men’s golf tied for 22nd after first day of

NCAA Championships

ALEX YU/The Stanford Daily

Kal Penn, perhaps best known for his role as Kumar in “Harold and KumarGo to White Castle,” speaks about the growing problem of Asian-Americanstereotypes in the media and film industry yesterday afternoon.

Please see PROP 8, page 2

Please see DEAN, page 2Please see ASSU, page 6

Please see PENN, page 2

2 � Wednesday, May 27, 2009 The Stanford Daily

to White Castle,” Penn received anopen letter by an Asian-Americangroup who was offended by thefilm’s portrayal of the two maincharacters, Harold and Kumar, whoare Asian-American and Indian-American, respectively.

The group complained thatHarold’s and Kumar’s characterswere misogynistic and negativeportrayals of Asian-Americans. KalPenn read aloud the letter at thelecture, and then read his responseto it, which emphasized that minor-ity characters shouldn’t be definedby their ethnicity.

“[Kumar] smokes ganja becausehe likes it, not because he’s Indian,”he quipped.

Although Penn was ultimatelyoptimistic about the growing pres-ence of minorities in the media, henoted that there were still stereo-types to overcome regarding ethnicdiversity and equality.

“The fact that we still add modi-fiers to the word ‘American’ tomake ‘Asian-American’ and‘Indian-American’ means thatwe’re still defined ethnically andnot nationally,” he said.

During the following question-and-answer session, Pennaddressed more casual questionsabout his film work and his upcom-ing job with the Obama administra-tion.

When Penn was accepted for theposition within the White HouseOPE, his character LawrenceKutner had to be written out of theshow “House.” When asked if hehad a say in how his character died,Penn explained with a laugh that hehad no input, and that the charac-ter’s death was unfortunately per-manent.

“It’s not like on ‘Lost’ where youcan still come back to the show,” hejoked. “I can’t say, ‘Hey! Write meback in as a ghost!’”

In regards to his upcoming jobwith the Obama administration,Penn was very careful to avoidspeaking as a representative for thePresident or his administration, butexplained that he was inspired byObama’s campaign and, after work-ing on the campaign for two years,applied for the position within the

OPE.He’ll be starting work later this

year.“[OPE] is the proverbial ‘front

door’ to the White House, designedto assure that every American has aseat at the table, and the opportuni-ty to have her or his voice heard,”Penn wrote in a later email to TheDaily. “I’m going to be the pointperson for the Arts Community andAsian Pacific Islander Americans.”

Penn assured the audience thathe wasn’t interested in running foroffice and didn’t have any higherpolitical aspirations, and evenexpressed an interest in teachingagain in the future — though hedoesn’t have any concrete plansyet, something many undergradu-ates can appreciate.

“I really don’t have a master plan— I don’t know if I’ll be returning[to acting] in one, two, five years,”Penn said with a laugh. “It’s reallyill-thought-out, and my parents justhate that.”

Contact Ellen Huet at ethuet@stan-ford.edu.

PENNContinued from front page

where you have 18,000 gay couples,where they are married, and othersare domestic couples,” Schacter said.“I think what it ultimately is going todo is help smooth the way to changethis outcome over the next coupleyears.”

She predicted that Prop. 8 wouldbe undone at the ballot box withinthe next six years, saying it was “onlya matter of time.”

ReactionsSame-sex marriage supporters

met the decision with varying levelsof shock. Some, like sociology co-term Aubrey Munoz ‘08 and NinaCalantone ‘12 expected the Court’sruling.

“Part of me was expecting somuch more, but given the battlebefore Prop. 8 was passed, I guessthat the ruling is not that surprising,”Munoz said. “I had really hoped itwould be overturned.”

Calantone had hoped the Courtwould “go the other way,” but recog-nized that it was an uphill battle.

Others hoped the Court wouldmake their decision based on person-al ethics. Retired History Prof. JoelRoberts, who founded the StanfordGay People’s Union and taught gayhistory, said he believed the Courtwould overturn Prop. 8.

“I know the corporate media kept

saying it would end this way, yet Ididn’t think they would go with thiscrazy ruling,” he said. “I’m shocked.”

Fourth-year chemistry graduatestudent Eric Hall, though, was lessupset with the judge’s ruling.

“I personally disagree with Prop.8, but I respect the rule of law andthe jackass initiative process,” hesaid. “Judges can only do so much.”

The RallyBefore the decision had been

released, the Emma GoldmanSociety for Queer Liberation and theNational Marriage Boycott hadplanned to have a rally at noon yes-terday, regardless of the ruling.Depending on the Court’s verdict,the rally would have either been acelebration or a nonviolent protest.

By 11 a.m., organizers knew itwould have to be the latter, planningtheir route around the Quad accord-ingly, along with a sit-in to block traf-fic at the intersection of Campus andPalm Drive.

Amanda Gelender ‘10, one of theplanners of the event, said they were“anticipating not to win” and pointedto the challenges of mobilizing peo-ple a second time around.

Students wearing purple anti-Prop. 8 shirts began to congregate inWhite Plaza at noon. At 12:30 p.m.,the group set off towards the Oval,followed by campus police. Somespectators clapped as the grouppassed, while a few students walkedout of class to join the rally.

When protesters blocked off theintersection, the police made no

move to remove the students, thoughone policeman, armed with a cam-corder, filmed the sit-in and subse-quent march back to the Quad. Thepolice stationed themselves up PalmDrive to redirect traffic away fromthe intersection.

In contrast, San Francisco policearrested around 175 protesters whoblocked off the major intersection ofGrove Street and Van Ness Avenueyesterday morning.

For 20 minutes, the group refusedto let cars pass in either direction,prompting one driver to yell, “Go toHell,” as he made a U-turn. A fewother cars honked in support.

What’s NextWhile they differed in their reac-

tions to the Prop. 8 decision, mostattendees promised to see the fightout until the end.

“I’m pretty sure the next step is toget another ballot measure,” saidJordan Price, a second-yearimmunology graduate student. “Theissue is whether or not it will be 2010or 2012. I think there is greatmomentum right now.”

Roberts said the struggle needed“to move forward and not go backinto the past.”

Next time around, though, he saidthere needed to be more educationand attempts to raise awareness.

Browning agreed with that strate-gy, saying that friendships with gaypeople would make it easier for thepopulation to see that everyonedeserved the same rights. Browning,as a minister, also combats the

stereotype that all religions are hos-tile to same-sex marriage.

To his opponents, he said, “I sayit’s not about sex, it’s about love.”

Organizers themselves aren’t surewhat the next step is, though theypromoted the National MarriageBoycott during the rally. Alreadyhaving spread to seven other cam-puses, the boycott is supposed to beadopted in solidarity with same-sexcouples denied the right to marry.

Other events planned included anight candlelit vigil in White Plazalast night and an open forum in theWomen’s Community Center at 9p.m. tonight.

ASSU Executives David Gobaud‘08 M.S. ‘10 and Jay de la Torre ‘10also attended the rally and pledgedtheir support of future initiatives. Dela Torre said he would work with leg-islative bodies and VSOs to find thebest course of action.

“Prop. 8 is an issue that specifical-ly affects the rights of Stanford stu-dents on campus,” de la Torre said.“Our responsibility is to protectthose rights as elected officials.”

De la Torre, who has an uncle thatmarried during the interim periodwhen same-sex marriages were legal,said that advocacy and awarenesswere necessary for Prop. 8 to beoverturned.

“I feel that when people find out,when they know someone that’saffected by this, it’s something that’svery powerful,” he said.

Contact Marisa Landicho at landi-cho@stanford.edu.

PROP 8Continued from front page

leaders of managed organizations tobetter perform their functions?That’s the research challenge,”Saloner said. “On the teaching side,the last few years have shown us thatfuture leaders will have to be reallyprincipled, analytical thinkers on topof being masters of disciplinary andfunctional areas. That’s what we’retrying to achieve in the new GSBcurriculum.”

Saloner is also confident in asmooth transition, as he considershis family — which includes adaughter in the Class of 2013 andanother daughter who is a currentGSB student — and himself to befully nested at Stanford already.

“The advantage of being some-body who’s taking this job from theinside is that I’m already here andI’ll be here through the summer,when I’ll have time to think aboutwhat I want to accomplish in the firstfew months,” Saloner said.

Contact Joanna Xu at joannaxu@stanford.edu.

DEANContinued from front page

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Lofgren promotes immigration reformBy ELLEN DANFORD

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren ‘70of the 16th District of California paidher alma mater a visit yesterday tospeak to the Stanford ImmigrantRights Project (SIRP), a newlyformed student group which focuseson raising awareness on immigrant-related issues.

Lofgren addressed her work asthe chair of the ImmigrationSubcommittee in the House ofRepresentatives, as well as her hopesfor future immigration law reform.

“We did some things in the ‘96 actthat were truly dysfunctional,”Lofgren said, citing the IllegalImmigration Reform and ImmigrantResponsibility Act of 1996.

According to Lofgren, the act,which precluded immigrants fromobtaining a visa for three years ifthey had been in the country illegal-ly for six months, or for 10 years ifthey had been in the country for 10years, encouraged law-breaking andthe separation of families.

“President Bush lacked the polit-ical skills to do anything about it,”

she said.Lofgren, who said her grandfa-

ther immigrated to the U.S. with only$20, firmly believes that immigrantsplayed a key role in shaping thenation.

“One of the things that occurredto me as I grew up was how muchimmigrants have really made thiscountry,” Lofgren said. “The thingsthat people think are the best thingsabout America — hard work, deter-mination — came from immigrants.”

Yet despite the immigrant foun-dation, Lofgren believed that about

30 percent of the population is waryof immigration. She attributed thisconcern to the belief that immigrantstake away jobs in the already shrink-ing job market.

Lofgren has dedicated her time tochanging these impressions, which,according to her, were fostered by anadministration that failed to act.

“We started to see a situationwhere the Democrats made furtherconcessions to the Republicans,”Lofgren said of the Bush administra-

Please see LOFGREN, page 6

Over the last 15 weeks or so, I’ve tried topass on some of the knowledge I’vegained working in the “real world” for

10 years before returning to grad school. I’llrepeat what I said in my very first column,which is that I don’t pretend to know every-thing, or even a lot.

But I do know a few things.And I do knowwhat it’s like to leave college. So I wanted toshare a few last tidbits of wisdom with all thegraduating seniors, as well as with manygraduate students who perhaps haven’t spentthat much time outside academia.

Plus, it’s unlikely I’ll ever be importantenough to be asked to give a commencementaddress, so this is my moment.

First, in terms of career, there are threetypes of graduating college seniors: Thosewho know exactly what they want and aregoing to do after college, those who aren’tsure but have picked something and thosewho are completely clueless and afraid theywill end up living in their parents’ basementat age 30, surrounded by pizza boxes and oldcopies of “People” magazine.

To those of you who know exactly whatyou want, congratulations. It’s a gift to havethat certainty and to be passionate aboutbeing a doctor, teacher, investment banker orwhatever you’ve chosen. My main piece ofadvice is just to have a constant awarenessthat you’ve chosen your path for the rightreason, and not because of the money, oryour parents’ expectations, etc. If that littlevoice starts to nag you, listen to it. It might bepainful to change directions, but it’s a lot bet-ter than spending the next 35 years workingas an actuary when your heart is in interpre-tive dance.

To those of you who aren’t certain buthave chosen a contingent path, good for you.You’re certainly not married to what youchoose, and people change careers manytimes these days. There are some employerswho will look down on a resume with a lot ofshort jobs on it, but others will recognize it asa sign of someone who has a lot of interests

and is exploring their options. I think as longas you’re always honestly moving towardsome goal, it’s OK to change direction oncethe reasons for doing so become clear.

Finally, to those who have no clue, mysympathies. It’s difficult to find a path ifthere’s no clear favorite in your head.But thegood news is it’s possible to pick a job or ca-reer and still get meaning out of it, even if it’snot your life’s passion.And remember, everysingle job or career is going to have somelousy, tedious aspects to it, so don’t confusedisliking part of your job with hating the jobitself. So pick something, do it and make thebest of it. It’s easier said than done, and Idon’t mean to be glib, but there’s really noother way.

Moving on from careers, the other thingthat can get difficult out of college is your so-cial life.The painful truth is it will never be aseasy to make friends as it is in college. Onceyou get out of school, people tend to developtheir own lives and patterns.

Your early twenties is still a pretty socialtime, but once you start getting into the mid-late twenties, people have spouses, demand-ing jobs and maybe even kids. I have four col-lege suitemates all living in New York Citywho literally almost never see each other.

So my advice is to make the effort to meetnew people when you get out of school, anddon’t just rely on seeing your college friends,even if you’re lucky enough to be in the samelocation. You’ll be amazed at how quicklyyou’ll wake up and discover your six bestfriends have left the Bay Area and are nowrespectively located in New York, London,Hong Kong, the Peace Corps, the Himalayasand somewhere in L.A. wearing a really loudshirt and trying desperately to get into theViper Room.

Finally, remember that things rarely turnout the way you plan them. This is a particu-larly difficult lesson for high academicachievers who have always been able to suc-ceed by planning and managing their timeand efforts. But the world is not a big univer-

sity, for better or worse.You’re not given any guidelines.You have

to make up the problem sets and solve themyourself. And sometimes the results don’tturn out as you had expected.

So I think the one single best piece of ad-vice I can give is to do your best, and let go ofthe results. They’re often beyond your con-trol, anyway. Again, this is easier said thandone, but keep it in mind and I think it willhelp you. Do your best, give yourself creditfor your efforts, allow yourself to feel happywhen things turn out your way, and whenthey don’t, accept responsibility and learnfrom the experience, but don’t punish your-self or wallow in regret.

Good luck to everyone; I sincerely wishyou the best.Thanks for reading!

David Goldbrenner can be reached at gold-bren@stanford.edu.

The Stanford Daily Wednesday, May 27, 2009 � 3

OPINIONS

Arizona State University’s recent deci-sion to deny President BarackObama an honorary degree for

speaking at commencement on the groundsthat “his body of work is yet to come” waswidely ridiculed. “The Daily Show” took tothe hallowed halls of ASU, where severalinept students offered their opinion thatwhile President Obama was undeserving,“Presidents Benjamin Franklin and Alexan-der Hamilton” most certainly were. Lost inthe uproar was an important question —what purpose does an honorary degreeserve?

The practice of awarding degrees honoriscausa dates back to medieval times. In 1470,Lionel Woodville — subsequently the Bish-op of Salisbury — was supposedly the first toreceive such a degree when he received onefrom Oxford. In modern times, honorary de-grees are typically awarded to visiting digni-taries on occasions such as the one PresidentObama was invited to speak at, namely com-mencement exercises. Unless a degree isawarded to a particularly controversial fig-ure — as was the case in 2008 when Washing-ton University in St. Louis bestowed oneupon conservative activist and Equal RightsAmendment opponent Phyllis Schlafly —they typically cause hardly a ripple.

But David Starr Jordan, Stanford’s firstpresident, offered another perspective. Jor-dan wrote in his memoirs,“I still believe thatevery academic degree should representwork actually done in or under the directionof the institution governing it . . . It seems tome to give the university a certain dignity asexisting for purposes of instruction, not forconferring honors on outside persons.” Fromthe perspective of the editorial board,Jordanis exactly right.

We at Stanford — as well as students atcountless other institutions — spend a greatdeal of time and effort immersed in our aca-demic studies.When we graduate,our degreesare a testament to caffeine-fueled, late-nightpapers,complex problem sets and group proj-ects, in addition to juggling extracurricularand social commitments. To hand a piece ofpaper to a visiting speaker, however impres-sive, diminishes the significance of a Stanforddegree. It is not a matter of elitism, but one ofemphasizing the hard work and dedicationthat a degree symbolizes.

Jordan’s decision to adopt “the Cornellrule that no honorary degree or degrees forstudies carried on in absentia should be

awarded” understands that universities areplaces for learning, not degree factories. Es-tablished at Stanford’s founding, this rulecontinues to uphold the importance of an ac-tual university degree.

Moreover, Jordan, who noted that “thisregulation has saved us much pressure fromvarious quarters,”would no doubt appreciatebeing spared the public relations nightmareASU has had to face. Many irate ASU alum-ni are currently withholding donations andmailing their own degrees to PresidentObama; one alumnus is even writing ASUout of her will. Likewise, Notre Dame’s deci-sion to bestow an honorary degree onObama — whose pro-choice stance is anath-ema to many of the nation’s Catholics — in-furiated many of their alumni as well. Thepolitics that accompany such degrees aresimply that — politics. The editorial boardbelieves that an academic degree should beuntainted by political considerations.

Stanford has developed another methodof honoring those “who have renderedunique and outstanding service to the Uni-versity.” The Degree of UncommonMan/Woman, created in 1953, has been spo-radically bestowed on such Stanford pillarsas Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel, Herbert Hoover,Frederick E. Terman, William R. Hewlett,David Packard, Peter S. Bing and, most re-cently, John Arrillaga.

By creating an alternative means of recog-nizing Stanford luminaries, Stanford is ableto simultaneously honor achievement andservice to the University, without devaluingan academic degree. Moreover, the Uncom-mon Man/Woman degree is given to alumni,who naturally possess their own Stanford de-grees.

The University should be honored for re-specting the “dignity” of a Stanford degreeand eschewing the pettiness of honorary de-grees.When Supreme Court Justice AnthonyKennedy ‘58 addresses our graduating sen-iors in a few weeks and leaves degree-less, letus remember what President Obama toldASU, “that despite having achieved a re-markable milestone, one that you and yourfamilies are rightfully proud of, you too can-not rest on your laurels.Your body of work isyet to come.”

Let the Class of 2009 depart Stanford,hard-earned diplomas in hand, and do them-selves, their families and the Universityproud.It is what we do with ourselves,not thehonors we rack up, that matters.

Honorary degrees devaluethe work of real graduates

EDITORIAL

Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of The Stanford Daily's editorial board and do notnecessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff.The editorial board is comprised of two former Daily staffers,three at-large student members and the two editorial board co-chairs.Any signed columns and contributions

are the views of their respective writers and do not necessarily represent the views of the entire editorial board.To contact the editorial board for an issue to be considered, or to submit an op-ed, please email

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THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

Consistent with my recent trend towardsbodily imperilment for the sake of“journalism,” I decided to spend a day

enrolled in Camp Stanford and see what hap-pened.

If you’re unfamiliar with Camp Stanford,it refers to the lifestyle of those lucky bastardsamong us who have finished all, or most, oftheir required classes a quarter prior to grad-uating.

In many ways, Camp Stanford is exactlywhat you’d think — naps, beer and mayhem.However, when high-achieving people com-mit wholeheartedly to doing nothing, itmakes for a strange situation. Mere hoursafter confirming the date of my planned in-vestigation, I received an email from theCamp Stanford listserv announcing my itiner-ary for the day, which ran from noon to mid-night.

I was excited, but somewhat incredulous:Were even Campers too wound up fromyears of jam-packed schedules to know howto actually relax? Also,was this really a viableway to spend an entire quarter at one of thebest universities in the world?

The next day, I arrived at Tresidder forlunch at exactly 11:59 a.m.,out of breath froman inspired sprint down the Row. James Bar-ton ‘09 (as is everyone quoted in this column),one of Camp Stanford’s three self-appointed“Head Counselors”and my guide for the day,sauntered in at 12:09.

Clearly,“itinerary” was a much more rela-tive term than I’d thought.

Like many “full-time campers,” those 148seniors who are enrolled in no academicclasses this quarter, James chose to do CampStanford because his job, with Teach forAmerica, begins almost immediately follow-ing graduation. For him, Camp Stanford washis equivalent of a summer vacation.

“Day campers,” those students who are

taking a reduced course load (read: a finalPoliSci class and fencing), do so for a varietyof reasons. Some are finishing honors theses,some are already working and some are justplain burned-out.

In any event, Camp Stanfordians arerarely completely inert; the main differencebetween them and the rest of us,James noted,is frame of mind.Like us, they still have thingsto do; unlike us, they refuse to get frazzled.

After lunch, we played racquetball, whichJames described as the perfect Camp Stan-ford activity because it requires just enougheffort to leave you with a sense of accomplish-ment, but not so much that you feel drained.“It’s not too run-y,”he said,wrinkling his nosein distaste.

James won all three of our games handily.Jack Cackler, who was also present, held hisown despite being forced (by me) to play withhis off-hand. I talked a lot of trash and scoreda total of two points.

Were I a camper, maybe I would have lessrage and more hand-eye coordination.

After racquetball, we continued onto theClaw, where we were met by a group ofcampers bearing inflatable rafts,speakers andbeer.There’s nothing quite so Camp Stanfordas drinking in a fountain while your friendsscurry between classes.

A successful Claw experience requires si-multaneously drinking and floating betweenpithy conversations, while looking complete-ly nonchalant.

I, however, kept spilling my beer (cardinalsin), then collided with the Claw itself in at-tempts to recover it (ouch).

Only after I resigned myself to clutchingthe edge of the fountain was I able to actuallysocialize with the other campers in atten-dance. For a while, we talked about CampStanford: the perils of the 3 a.m. to noon sleepschedule and the spring-quarter hookup fren-

zy — were you aware?Somehow, our conversation shifted to the

topic of community centers and diversity.“You see,” James proclaimed sagely, crackingopen another beer as he glided by,“When youhave down time, you can actually have inter-esting conversations. When you’re workingtoo hard, you just complain about work.”Point taken.

After a much-needed nap break, we re-convened at Rose & Crown Trivia Night,where my confusing Dispatch for Phish de-nied my team a free round of beer. ThenJames invited me to a party, but it was all Icould do to drag myself home.

It’s easy to dismiss Camp Stanford as awaste of time.There are so many great classesto be had here, and let’s be honest, you can bedrunk anywhere.

Still, I value Stanford just as much for mypeers as for the formal education I’ve re-ceived. As graduation approaches, I’m in-creasingly aware that I will never be in suchuniformly brilliant and entertaining companyever again.

I’m not up to round-the-clock socializing,but I enjoyed my Camp Stanford daynonetheless. Even more importantly, howev-er, I realized that the Camp Stanford mental-ity of cheerful capriciousness isn’t limited tocampers alone.

I may be enrolled in 21 units, but there’snothing wrong with a little carpe diem nowand then.

Jenna would like to thank James and the rest ofthe Camp Stanford community for a lovely day.She apologizes for almost killing James multipletimes during racquetball. You can email her atjreback@stanford.edu.

DavidGoldbrenner

Happy campersTOO BIG TO FAIL

JennaReback

You soon will be, too

Write to us.We want to hear from you.

SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO EIC@DAILY.STANFORD.EDU AND SEND OP-EDSTO EDITORIAL@DAILY.STANFORD.EDU

You’re not given any

guidelines.You have

to make up the

problem sets and

solve them yourself.

4 � Wednesday, May 27, 2009 The Stanford Daily

SPORTSROUGH START

By ROXIE DICKINSONSTAFF WRITER

In their fourth appearance at theNCAA Championships in the past fiveyears, the No.5 Stanford men’s golf team isin a tie for 22nd place with No. 2 SouthernCalifornia with a 21-over 305 on the day.Only the top eight teams to emerge fromthe regular medal play rounds will advanceto the match-play quarter and semi-finalsportion of the tournament.Yesterday’s per-formance put Stanford in serious jeopardyof not making the top-eight cut.

“That’s the way golf goes,” said coachConrad Ray. “The guys were pretty disap-pointed. We played well in our first nineholes, but then we got to the back nine andlet a few balls go which cost us.We definite-ly will be working hard in the next few daysto make the cut number.”

After 18 holes of play, the top of theranks include: No. 4 Oklahoma State andNo. 1 Georgia in a tie for first with a fourover par 288; No. 28 Chattanooga in thirdwith an eight over 292; and No. 6 Washing-ton and unranked San Diego in a tie forfourth with a nine-over 293.

No. 11 sophomore Steve Ziegler cameout on top today for the Cardinal,posting atwo-over 73 for the first round. Zieglerstruggled a little on the front nine, butgrabbed three birdies in the back nine toput him in a tie for 29th.

Three strokes behind Ziegler is seniorcaptain Dodge Kemmer. Kemmer is cur-

rently in a tie for 75th with a five-over 76 onthe day. Lately, Kemmer has been heatingup,coming in a tie for fourth in the NCAASouthwest Regional. Since this is his thirdand last NCAA Championship,he will relyon experience in the next few days to bringup both his individual and team score.

Next in line in the Cardinal five is soph-omore Sihwan Kim.Kim is in a tie for 93rdwith a six over 77.Kim did well most of theday, and was on par for most holes. Unfor-tunately, double bogeys on both the thirdand six holes cost him a higher individualfinish.

Senior Daniel Lim and freshman DavidChung were plagued with double bogeyswith Lim finishing with an eight-over 79and Chung with a 10-over finished his firstday on the links with an eight-over 79. Limgot two and Chung got three double bo-geys,all in their final nine holes.

Overall,Stanford struggled on their lastnine holes of the day, which has set themback quite a bit. The team started off wellwith an overall three-over par team scoreafter the first nine holes, but they couldn’tquite keep the momentum going.

“More than anything, the guys are real-ly just trying to play the golf course,” Raysaid. “This course demands mental tough-ness and high quality shots which we justcouldn’t hit today. On top of that, we arefacing typical Midwestern weather withwindy conditions and storms blowingthrough.”

“We need to play great [today],” Ray

continued.“Luckily for us, there is still a lotof golf left.The course definitely is not play-ing easy, but I can tell you that [today] isgoing to be a better day.“Our main goal isto play our best and see where we stack up.”

For the first time since 1965, the NCAAChampionships will not be decided by low-est number of strokes, but rather, in head-to-head match play style. With two morerounds of regular medal play to go,the Car-dinal will strive to get into the best teamrank it can in order to secure a spot in thematch-play portion of the tournament.Thequarter and semi-finals are scheduled forFriday,May 29,and the final NCAA Cham-pionship round will be held on Saturday,May 30.

Contact Roxie Dickinson at roxie221@stan-ford.edu.

By ZACH ZIMMERMANDESK EDITOR

Stanford athletics are loaded withthe most talented student-athletes inthe country. The Cardinal’s often-mentioned streak of Director’s Cupsindicates the school’s prominence inthe collegiate sports community. Dueto the wide-ranging success, however,certain teams are overshadowed bythe larger, more popular spectatorsports.

One of these squads has been fly-ing — or sailing — under the radarfor years,but has achieved much of thesame success as Stanford’s other ath-letic teams.

Cardinal sailing has dominated theWest Coast. Often considered a sportreserved only for students in the East,Stanford is making a tremendous pushto change the public perspective.

There are two different categoriesof collegiate sailing. Fleet racing is theeasier form of competition in theory.Boats follow a marked course to thefinish. The first across the finish linewins the race. Fleet regattas — theterm used for a sailing competition —usually last for two days, with the tro-phy going to the team with lowestcombined score.

Team racing appears similar, butrequires equally as much strategy.Theregatta consists of three boats againstthree boats, and the lowest total scorefor each team wins. Thus, boats finishin first through sixth place and the var-

ious finishing combinations allow forteams to sail away victorious withoutputting the first boat across the finishline.

“Team racing is really different be-cause you’re not just sailing the coursefast, you’re also covering other boatsand covering the course,” said fresh-man Ariane Fisher.

Sailing is often undervalued for itsdifficulty. Athletes must not only beable to execute complicated maneu-vers — YouTube a video of “tacking”for proof — they must also have anacute knowledge of atmospheric con-ditions,as a sudden change in wind cancompletely alter race dynamics.

“Sailing is a great sport because ittruly combines mental and physicalskills,” Fisher said.

Stanford has been dominant thisyear as it continues to make its runinto the collegiate sailing postseason.

“Our team is performing well,”said senior captain Kelly McKenna.“We were one of only eight teams inthe country to qualify for all three na-tional championships [which beganTuesday in San Francisco].”

“We won our conference champi-onships both in the fall and in the spring, and have been the top-rankedteam on the West Coast all year,” sheadded.

Like all Stanford athletes, mem-bers of the Sailing team commit end-less hours to the sport. Practices runfor three hours at a time, five after-noons a week. In addition, the team

has morning practice at least onceeach week.The dedication in the formof nearly 20 hours of practice per weektranslates into success on the water forthe Cardinal.

However, these triumphs have notcome without other obstacles. Stan-ford sailing is extremely young thisyear — the team only has three sen-iors and two juniors. Inexperiencewould haunt most teams, but the vet-eran leadership demonstrated by thefew older members of the Cardinalhas the team poised for success.

“I think the team is doing very wellthis year, considering how young theteam is with mainly freshmen and

sophomores,” said senior captain Tay-lor Grimes.

Grimes, McKenna and the otherleaders are helping to prepare ayouthful bunch for the future. Fornow, the Stanford sailing team willlook to advance at nationals,which theteam is hosting this year in San Fran-cisco.The young sailors will attempt togain valuable postseason experience,while the Cardinal vets look to endtheir careers on a positive note.

“Right now I just want to enjoy mylast bit of college sailing,” McKennasaid. “I have already accomplished alot,and have worked very hard the lastfour years, so for nationals this year I

just want to have fun, sail my best andnot put any pressure on myself, be-cause that’s when I sail best.”

Sailing provides more drama thanmeets the eye. With capsizing boats,ever-changing conditions and narrowfinishes, regattas can instantly swayopinion from that of a country-clubprivilege to an aquatic warzone. Stan-ford sailing continues to progressthrough the deep waters of collegiateathletics, making a claim that it, too,belongs in the category of the Cardi-nal elite.

Contact Zach Zimmerman at zachz@stanford.edu.

MEN’S GOLF5/26 NCAA Championships

T-22nd after Day One

UP NEXTNCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS5/26-30 Toledo, Ohio

GAME NOTES: After the first day of competition yes-terday, the Stanford men’s golf team finds itselftied for 22nd in the regular medal rounds of theNCAA Championships. Sophomore No. 15Steve Ziegler led the way for the Card, posting atwo-over 73 to tie for 29th. However, with onlythe top-eight teams from the medal rounds ad-vancing to the match-play quarterfinals, the Car-dinal will need a very strong finish to advance.

DanielBohmOn My Mind

Sailing has windat its back

Why try tohide biases in

sports?

My Memorial Day Weekendbegan with a moral dilem-ma and ended with sad-ness. I wrote last week

about how critical this past weekendwas to the Stanford sports season, andunfortunately the weekend didn’t goso well.

I don’t want to write a columnabout the Stanford losses this pastweekend — and that is part of mymoral dilemma.

When I took a Sports Journalismclass freshman year (Comm 177S withGary Pomerantz — great class, I high-ly recommend it), the first reading wehad for the course was titled There’sNo Cheering in the Press Box.

It is a pretty easy concept to grasp;sports writers should not have a root-ing interest in the games that they arecovering because if they do it will influ-ence their coverage.

This is where I hit a snag this week-end, however. As a student — and asports writer — at a small school, per-sonal relationships often supersedeobjective journalism.

Many of the athletes on the field arefriends and dorm-mates. In my owncase, I live with a lot of Stanford ath-letes and truly want to see the best forthem.

I have covered the Stanford softballteam for two seasons and fosteredfriendships — both from being awriter and from outside interaction —with many of the women on the team.Yet when I went to cover the team’sSuper Regional game against Arizonaon Thursday,I made sure to wear a yel-low shirt, as yellow is not a color ofStanford or Arizona.

But to say I wasn’t rooting for Stan-ford is ludicrous.Yes, I refrained fromclapping when Missy Penna struck outa batter or when Maddy Coon hit ahomerun,but in my heart, I was happythat all of that happened.

Although this idea of an inherentbias is amplified at the collegiate level,who’s to say it does not exist through-out all sports coverage? I’ll bet if youspoke candidly — and off the record— with the Giants beat writer for theSan Francisco Chronicle,he would saythat he wants the Giants to win everygame.

It is only logical. It is easier to inter-view coaches and players after wins.Furthermore, readers want to readhappy stories,not stories about losses.

So why not acknowledge the root-ing interest instead of trying to foolreaders into believing that the writerdoes not care what happens?

The more I think about it, the moreI believe that as an honest writer I needto acknowledge that. Sure, I am root-ing for a good story more than I amrooting for a certain team, but basichuman nature causes people to picksides.

I understand this is a slippery slope.I am by no means advocating all sportsjournalists to turn into Hawk Harrel-son, the Chicago White Sox play-by-play announcer that may as well be adiehard drunk Sox fan sitting in thebleachers by the way he calls thegame.

That is bad journalism. But isn’t italso bad journalism to mask inherentbiases? Any person who can say theyhave no opinion whatsoever on mat-ters in which they are commissioned towrite on has to be lying.

This is an ethical issue that extendsbeyond sports journalism.Writers whocover important political decisionsthat could impact thousands of votershave their own political leanings —shouldn’t readers be entitled to knowwhat those leanings are? Doesn’t thatsimply further inform readers?

My point is one that likely willnever be put into practice, but will al-ways be an undercurrent.

I was sad when the Stanford soft-ball team did not advance to theWomen’s College World Series. I wasalso sad when the Stanford baseballteam lost two out of three to OregonState this weekend. I was sad whenAlex Clayton lost in the quarterfinalsof Men’s Tennis Championships andwhen Hilary Barte and Lindsay Bur-dette lost in the Women’s Doubles Na-tional Championship.

I want to see them all succeed, andsomething tells me I’m not the onlysports writer that feels that way.

Dan Bohm is a fan and not ashamed toadmit it. Let him know if that’s cool (ornot) at bohmd@stanford.edu.

MATT JONES/The Stanford Daily

The Stanford sailing team competes in the St. Francis Invitational in a home meet in April. The team is relatively young,but has been dominant on the West Coast this year, winning the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference title.

AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily

Sophomore Steve Ziegler posted Stanford’s best score for the firstday, shooting a two-over 73, which put him in a tie for 29th. Stanford, however, still needs a big improvement to advance.

The Stanford Daily Wednesday, May 27, 2009 � 5

6 � Wednesday, May 27, 2009 The Stanford Daily

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Jessie Liu (Human Biology)Maternal Beliefs and Behaviors in the Prevention of Childhood Diarrhea

in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Haas Center, Donald Kennedy Room

Anjali Dixit (Biological Sciences)Living a Contradiction: Power Inequities and Health Attitude-BehaviorDiscrepancies in the Bay Area Indian Immigrant Women’s Community11:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Career Development Center, first floor conference room

Stany Leblanc (Urban Studies) Partnership for Success: The Effects of Parents and Parental Initiative Programs on Student Educational Aspirations and Achievement12:00 to 1:00 PM at the Haas Center, Donald Kennedy Room

Scott Keyes (Political Science) Why Do States Adopt Election Day Voter Registration?12:00 to 1:00 PM at the Career Development Center, first floor conference room

Theresa Zhen (Economics/Sociology) Language, Social Capital and Information Channels for Chinese

Immigrant Families in Chinatown, San Francisco1:00 to 2:00 PM at the Haas Center, Donald Kennedy Room

Meredith Bell (Peace and Conflict Studies) “De Lawd” and the Locals: Structure, Leadership and Two Organizations’ Efforts to Develop a Grassroots Movement for Civil Rights and Equality

in the Jim Crow South 1:00 to 2:00 PM at the Career Development Center, first floor conference room

Andrea Romero (Political Science) Cultivating Success Through Community-Based Health Initiatives in

Developing Countries: A Lesson from Mozambique2:00 to 3:00 PM at the Career Development Center, first floor conference room

Kelley Fong (American Studies/History) “I Do What I Can”: How Homeless Parents Interpret and Support Their

Children’s Education2:00 to 3:00 PM at the Haas Center, Donald Kennedy Room

Oluwatomi Onatunde (Biomedical Engineering)Preventing Brain Drain: Understanding the Key Factors That Affect a Medical Doctor’s Decision to Practice in a Specific Community3:00 to 4:00 PM at the Haas Center, Donald Kennedy Room

please join us

Friday, May 29, 2009 from 11: 00 AM to 4:00 PM

Research with a Public Purpose:Thesis Presentations by Stanford’s Public Service Scholars

an opportunity to hear the Public Service Scholars speak about their integration of scholarship and service

Were you happy with your housing assignment?

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Today’s Question:Do you think the California Supreme Court ruling on Prop 8 was justified?

a) Yes, the courts can’t overrule the voters.b) No, Prop 8 is unconstitutional.c) I understand the reasoning, but am very opposed.d) I don’t care.

vote today at stanforddaily.com!

A) Yeah, I’m living exactly where I wanted!B) I did not enter the DrawC) I wasn’t even assigned!D) Not at all, I got a terrible location.

DAILY POLL

Ilves ‘09 announced that Tim Ford‘10 and Devin Banerjee ‘11 would benominated as co-directors of thePublications Board next week;Banerjee currently serves as DeputyEditor for The Daily.

Senator Michael Cruz ‘12announced that STAMP won theASSU’s Volunteer StudentOrganization (VSO) of the Yearaward and that Professor Dan Kleinof the Drama Department won theASSU Teacher of the Year award.

Next up for the ASSU is Sunday’spolicy summit, where Senator AlexKatz ‘12 said 100 students andadministrators are expected to gath-er to set an agenda on broad topics,ranging from sustainability to mentalhealth. The summit will begin at 11a.m. in the Nitery at Old Union.

Contact Elizabeth Titus at etitus@stan-ford.edu.

ASSUContinued from front page

STUDENT GROUPS

Students call for end to imageBy AN LE NGUYEN

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Yesterday at noon, students gath-ered in White Plaza to express theirgrowing concern over the culturalinsensitivity toward Stanford’s Nativecommunity. Standing in silent protest,the 20 or so demonstrators carriedsigns reading, “I am not your partycostume” and “I am not your mas-cot.”

Their aim was to bring attention tothe concern caused by recent partythemes, special dinners and costumesthat have inaccurately representedNative cultures. The demonstrationwas also held as an act of solidaritywith the American Indian MovementWest (AIM West), which began athree-day protest against mascots andracism in sports on Monday. AIMWest organized a rally and boycott atthe San Francisco Giants vs. AtlantaBraves game, criticizing the latterteam’s use of an Indian caricature asits mascot.

“It’s been an ongoing issue here at

Stanford and around the country,”said Leon Peralto ‘10, co-chair of Huio Hawai’i.

A junior majoring in anthropologyand Native American studies, Peraltonoted that students unwittinglyencourage stereotypes of native peo-ples when they don Pocahontas orLilo and Stitch costumes, and whenthey attend parties that erroneouslydepict indigenous cultures.

“Native peoples and other kindsof marginalized peoples have beenrepresented in very inaccurate andvery disrespectful ways in the media,in literature,” Peralto said. “Thesestereotypes that are created in themedia are reinforced and perpetuatedby a lot of things that people do intheir everyday life.”

Fellow demonstrator and StanfordAmerican Indian Organization(SAIO) co-Chair Erika Chase ‘10echoed these sentiments.

“I think that the underlying[effects] of those things aren’t reallyknown,” said Chase, who is majoringin Comparative Studies of Race and

Ethnicity.“[Students don’t know] howbothersome it actually is to attend aparty and then see someone dressedup in a way that is supposed to mockwho you are.”

But the demonstration also high-lighted the remedies that can happenin the future.

“We’re hoping for a multi-levelresponse,” said Hui o Hawai’i co-chairMililani Trask-Batti ‘10. “First andforemost, we want the students tounderstand what we’re doing. We’renot just a radical group of people whothink [that] no one can have fun at aparty.”

Trask-Batti hopes that yesterday’sdemonstration is the first step towardsan official University policy that pro-motes cultural sensitivity when dormsand other organizations throw partiesand special events.Speaking on behalfof her peers, Trask-Batti stated that itwould be a reassurance to have thispolicy “officially written down as partof some kind of document or guide-line to follow.”

Trask-Batti also cited the impor-

tance of collaborating with the Officeof Student Affairs (OSA) and theASSU’s diversity outreach branch.

For the native community, lapses incultural sensitivity have been a long-standing problem.

“It’s just a really frustrating thingto see how these cycles are continu-ing,” Chase commented, alluding toStanford’s old mascot, PrinceLightfoot. For Chase, yesterday’sdemonstration brought to mind herown mother’s protest against Indiancollege mascots in the ‘70s.

“She was part of the protests to getthat out of the system,” Chase said ofher mother. “[Today] I’m still doingthings like that and having to makethe same argument to the same like-minded people.”

“These things shape the mindset ofour future leaders here at Stanford,”Trask-Batti agreed. “We’re not justcaricatures.We are a real people, witha real culture.”

Contact An Le Nguyen at lenguyen@stanford.edu.

ALEX YU/The Stanford Daily

Students gather in White Plaza to demonstrate against the misrepresentationof Native Americans. Hoping to raise awareness on these false stereotypes,students cited problems with party themes and current sports mascots.

tion, adding that as the reason forwhy no significant immigrationreforms were passed during the110th Congress.

“It is a big enough issue that youneed to have bipartisan support,”she continued. “But now, we alsohave a new President who says hewants to have immigration reform.”

SIRP is currently promoting suchchange. For example, the groupformed an Alternative Spring Break(ASB) group that traveled toArizona to study immigration poli-cy.

“The first step is gathering mindsaround the issue,” said AndyCantero ‘12. “We created a group tobring people together to learn aboutit.”

With an eye to the future,Lofgren is angling for the passage ofthe Development, Relief andEducation for Alien Minors

(DREAM) Act. This legislationfocuses on helping the children ofimmigrants become citizens if theyenroll in two years of higher educa-tion or military service. She believesthat education is key in allowingimmigrants to add to the Americanworkforce and boost the currenteconomy.

“We will have a meeting on June8 at the White House to see if wecan make progress and get the com-prehensive reform bill done,”Lofgren added.

The Congresswoman also plansto tell President Obama that hisplans for universal healthcare willnot work unless the 12 million ille-gal immigrants are allowed to workto get their green cards and gethealthcare as well. Otherwise, thehealth care would not be universal.

Lofgren was hopeful, then, thatimmigration reform would passsooner rather than later.

“Is this the year to get it done?”she asked. “I definitely hope so!”

Contact Ellen Danford at edanford@stanford.edu.

LOFGRENContinued from page 2