NEWS/2 FEATURES/5

Today Tomorrow
ELECTION DAY
Slates vie for student body support in heated
THE FARM-ER
Sarah Wiederkehr strives to educate students
race for ASSU elections on agricultural sustainability
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CARDINALTODAY
CARDINAL TODAY

THURSDAY
The Stanford Daily An Independent Publication
www.stanforddaily.com Volume 235
April 9, 2009 Issue 33

DRAW
SYSTEM
CHANGES
Students can now draw
in four different tiers
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

Stanford Student Housing released details yesterday of

the new Draw system being implemented starting this year.
In the new system,the Draw will be divided into four dif-
ferent tiers. The first tier ranges between one to 1,000, the
second tier 1,001 to 2,000, the third tier 2,001 to 3,000 and
the fourth tier 3,301 to 3,500.
The rules regarding each different tier are: (1) The first
tier can only be used once; (2) the third tier must be used at
least once; (3) students drawing for their sophomore year
can only use the second or third tier; (4) students who
pledge a housed fraternity or sorority forfeit the first and
second tier; (5) students who are pre-assigned use the sec- AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
ond or third tier depending upon the location of their as-
signment; (6) the fourth tier provides for unguaranteed
housing.
In addition to these rules, a set of rules was released to
transition students (current sophomores and juniors,in par-
ticular) who have participated in the Draw before Spring
2009. The rules are: (1) An un-preferred year usage trans-
Card looks to continue turnaround against UCLA
lates to a third-tier draw; (2) the first preferred year usage
translates to a second-tier draw; (3) the second preferred By DENIS GRIFFIN more second baseman Colin Walsh. “As thing that we’re focusing on more.We al- UCLA
year usage translates to a first-tier draw; (4) current stu- SENIOR STAFF WRITER [Coach Mark Marquess] told us, we’re ways were a good team talent-wise; we (12-17, 5-4 Pac-10)
dents will use their remaining tiers after the translations in still a week away from getting halfway just didn’t play up to our talent in the first Sunken Diamond 5:30 P.M.
(1) through (3); and (5) current members of the Greek sys- The good news for Stanford baseball through our season, and baseball’s a long couple of weeks of the season. So now I
tem will have their first- and second-tier draws removed is that the team finally looks like it’s season, so a lot can happen.A lot of good think we’re coming together and just COVERAGE:
and will use the third-tier draw. ready to prove itself once again as one of things can happen, a lot of bad things can playing better overall.”
happen, so we’ve just got to stay focused The Bruins (12-17, 5-4) certainly hope
RADIO:
Greeks who are part of next year’s senior class may still the nation’s most elite programs. And
have preferred years at their disposal, if they lived in the this comes not a moment too soon. on what’s coming up, get a couple of wins that they are in the midst of a similar KZSU 90.1 FM, (kzsu.stanford.edu)
house during sophomore year and drew un-preferred jun- Beginning this afternoon at 5:30 p.m., this weekend.” turnaround. From Feb. 22 through March
Adding to the Cardinal’s optimism, 8, UCLA lost 10 straight games, before
ior year.
The Daily will have further coverage on the changes to
the Cardinal (11-12, 5-4 Pac-10 Confer-
ence) will resume its run through the though, is the fact that the team is coming righting the ship just in time for the start UP NEXT UCLA
the Draw in the coming days. heart of its schedule. Since returning to off a tremendous run to right itself mid- of conference play. Still, the Bruins are 4/10 Sunken Diamond
action after a break for exams on March way through its season.After going 3-9 to just 2-3 thus far in April.
21, Stanford has played 12 games in 18 start the year, Marquess’ squad has gone The Bruins will look to come after the NOTES: Stanford has won eight of its last 11
OFF-CAMPUS days, and was scheduled to play its 13th 8-3 since, with an average run differential Cardinal with a talented rotation, led by games after starting the season 3-9. Winning
tonight’s game would bring the Cardinal’s win-
on Tuesday, which was cancelled due to of plus-29 over that 11-game span. right-handed Gerrit Cole. The hard-
ning percentage up to .500 for the first time

Study shows
rain. Before the end of its regular season
on May 24, the Cardinal will play 31
more, including 20 against Pac-10 Con-
ference opponents, starting tonight in the
first of a three-game series against
Walsh found it hard to qualify exactly
what had changed, saying that now the
team was playing as well as he thought it
could all along.
“We’ve just been playing better over-
throwing freshman made headlines be-
fore his collegiate career even began,
when he decided to play at UCLA de-
spite being drafted by the New York Yan-
kees in last June’s MLB Draft. The 28th
since February. The Cardinal enters the series
tied with UCLA for fourth in the Pac-10.
COVERAGE:

expansion OK
RADIO KZSU 90.1 FM
UCLA. all,” he said. “I don’t know that I can
“We’re excited for sure,” said sopho- point to a specific point in time or some- Please see BASEBALL, page 8 (kzsu.stanford.edu)

University growth in next 25 SOFTBALL

years won’t affect foothills
By ELIZABETH TITUS

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors ap-

proved the Stanford Sustainable Development Study, a
plan that outlines how the University will accommodate
growth until 2035, at its Tuesday meeting.
The 3-2 vote included a finding by the board: that even
at an “aggressive” growth rate, in which the University
adds five million square feet of academic and housing fa-
cilities by 2035, development would not need to extend to
the foothills, which are some 2,000 acres of land between
Alpine Road and Junipero Serra Boulevard owned by
Stanford.
“We are pleased with the outcome,” Provost John
Etchemendy wrote in an email to The Daily. He added that
the University has no plans to develop the foothills.
“But all University lands are important University as-
sets,” he continued. “Twenty-five years before the radio
telescope was built, the University could not have fore-
seen the need for this instrument, and 25 years before the
linear accelerator was built, the University could not have
foreseen its importance, either.”
Yesterday’s vote clears the way for further develop-
ment. The approval comes as Stanford approaches the
halfway mark in development authorized by the county in
its 2000 General Use Permit. The permit stipulated that
before Stanford could apply for the second half of devel-
opment — two million square feet of academic space and
3,000 housing units, in total — a sustainability study had to
be completed.
Please see FOOTHILLS, page 3
CAL
SLOWING THE BEARS
(26-11, 3-3 Pac-10)
Smith Family Stadium 7 P.M. Stanford looks to keep speedy rival Cal off base
COVERAGE:
TV: By CHRIS FITZGERALD
CBS College Sports DAILY SPORTS INTERN
RADIO: Beginning today, No. 2 Stanford soft-
KZSU 90.1 FM, (kzsu.stanford.edu) ball will take on No. 16/17 Cal at Smith
Family Stadium in Palo Alto. After one
game at Stanford, the teams will then trav-
UP NEXT CAL el north to conclude their three-game se-
4/10 Berkeley ries at Berkeley on Friday and Saturday.
The Cardinal (34-2, 5-1 Pacific-10 Con-
NOTES: No. 2 Stanford hopes to improve ference) boasts a five-game win streak
on its nation-leading 34-2 record when it after upending the Oregon schools in
faces No. 16/17 Cal tonight. The Cardi- three games this past weekend. Stanford’s
nal brings a five-game win streak into the .944 winning percentage is among the best
game with Cal. Stanford will have to slow in the country, trailing only Florida (39-3)
down Cal’s baserunning, which has given in the national rankings.
the Golden Bears 110 steals in 122 at- The Bears (26-11, 3-3), meanwhile, are
tempts. led by twin sisters Jamia and Elia Reid.The
COVERAGE: freshmen are Nos. 1 and 2 in batting aver-
RADIO KZSU 90.1 FM age on the team, and have combined for 54
stolen bases on the year. Help comes from
(kzsu.stanford.edu) sophomore Sanoe Ketakuna, who has
eight home runs with 26 runs batted in this
season.
Among the biggest threats the Cardinal
will face is Cal’s speed — the Bears are
110-122 in stealing this year.
Stanford head coach John Rittman ac-
knowledged Cal’s aggressive nature on the
base paths.
“We know they have outstanding
speed,” Rittman noted. “The biggest thing
we can do to prevent that is to keep them
off the bases.”
To do so, Stanford will look to its circle,
where senior ace Missy Penna (24-2) flirt-
ed with perfection on Saturday. She gave
up just one hit, blanking the Ducks to pick
up her 23rd victory of the season.With the
decision, Penna moved into the top-30 on
the nation’s all-time wins list. The ace
threw a complete weekend, surrendering
just two earned runs in Oregon, lowering
her ERA to 0.74 on the year.
The tandem of Penna and sophomore
hurler Ashley Chinn holds a combined
ERA of 0.91. One of only four sub-one
staff ERAs in the nation, the mark also
sets Stanford on pace to best the previous
team record of 1.20 set in 2001.
The Bears have two options to counter
Penna and Chinn’s expertise. An All-Pac-
10 Second Team selection as a freshman,
sophomore Valerie Arioto has picked up
where she left off last season.The Pleasan-
ton, Calif.-native is 10-3 on the season,
holding a 1.49 ERA. On the other hand,
junior Marissa Drewrey boasts a record of
16-8, with 171 strikeouts in 151 innings
pitched. Drewrey also shut down the Car-
dinal on April 20 last year, fanning 10 to
help her team pull off the 1-0 win.
Cal finds support for its talent in head
coach Diane Ninemire, who provides
Please see SOFTBALL, page 6

Index News/2 • Opinions/4 • Features/5 • Sports/6 • Classifieds/7 Recycle Me

2 N Thursday, April 9, 2009 The Stanford Daily

NEWS
STUDENT GOV’T

A LOOK AT THE ASSU EXECUTIVE PLATFORMS

By MARISA LANDICHO and
ZOE RICHARDS
Sustainability, public service,
diversity and wellness — the buzz-
words of the previous ASSU admin-
istration — have dominated the race
for 2009 Executive. The two slates
embrace many of the same key
goals, though the ease at which to
achieve these ends varies.
The two slates’ platforms differ in
detail and methods of goal imple-
mentation. But with comparable
platform headings, overlaps
between the David Gobaud ‘08 M.S.
‘10 and Jay de la Torre ‘10 slate and
the slate of Bennett Hauser ‘10 and
Matt Sprague ‘10 are nearly
unavoidable.
The greatest point of agreement
lies in the area of outreach to gradu-
ate students — a population that has
expressed feelings of marginaliza-
tion and disconnection from main-
stream ASSU politics in recent
years. More than 8,000 of the
University’s 15,000 students are
graduate students, though voter
turnout has been historically lower
for grads than undergrads.
Support for faculty and graduate
diversity has also been written into
both platforms, along with advocacy
pledges for low-cost graduate hous-
ing and affordable healthcare for
grads.
Referencing one of the primary
concerns of undergraduate student
life, the two slates remain commit-
ted to party regulation reform and
the negotiation of the “2.5 Level”
party — an intermediate level
between an invite-only and a cam-
pus-wide party.
“This is an idea that has been in
formulation in our office for quite
awhile under the guidance of Snehal
Naik (associate director) and
Robert Watkins (one of the office’s
student peer advisors) working in
conjunction with Jake Fuentes, for-
mer president of Sigma Nu,” wrote
Director of the Office of Student
Activities Nanci Howe. “Yes, some
type of new party level is possible
and probably desirable, but we
would need to see more specifics of
their proposal.”
Presidential hopefuls Gobaud
and Hauser also share key experi-
ence — both served in the previous
Executive cabinet of Jonny Dorsey
‘09 and Fagan Harris ‘09. In the past
year, Gobaud worked as ASSU
Executive Operations Manager,
while Hauser held the title of ASSU
Executive Cabinet Cost of Living
co-Chair.
Several pet projects of the
Dorsey-Harris administration will
be continued regardless of which
slate gains office.
Their best tools for increasing
student involvement, both slates
have explained, are the town halls
meetings. Although the slates plan
to diversify the geographic locations
of the town halls, only the
Gobaud/de la Torre slate proposed
posting videos of the town halls on
YouTube.
Both slates admire the Bystander
campaign, wanting to see it integrat-
ed into New Student Orientation
(NSO) programming. They have
both stated wishes to expand the
Green store to sell more than just
biodegradable cups.
Director of Unions Jeanette
Smith-Laws confirmed that the
University is already making strides
in sustainability mentioned in the
Gobaud/de la Torre platform.
Smith-Laws noted that the move-
ment towards zero percent waste
Tresidder and Old Union has been
underway since the beginning of this
academic year.
“But I don’t know if that’s
obtainable within the year,” she said
in regards to the timeline.
More innocuous goals round out
the resemblance between platforms,
including the expansion of the
ASSU table-loaning program and
an increase in Wi-Fi access.
The extensiveness of each plat-
form, however, begs the question of
how everything will actually be
accomplished post-elections season.
Addressing diversity, the Hauser-
Sprague slate supports the expan-
sion of financial aid at a time when
the University is barely holding on
to its existing program. The pair sup-
ports aid to undocumented students
and international need-blind admis-
sions.
For similar budgetary reasons,
the Hauser-Sprague platform goal
to raise Peer Health Educator
(PHE) pay faces unfortunate timing.
Still, Director of Wellness and
Health Promotion Services Carole
Pertofsky appreciated the idea of a
pay raise and remains hopeful for
the future.
“I’m an optimist,” she wrote in an
email to The Daily. “Once the econ-
omy recovers, I think this well-
earned promise for the PHEs will be
quite workable.”
Budget problems may also limit
Gobaud’s vision of dependent
healthcare for grad students.
Gobaud described the complexity of
healthcare, especially for interna-
tional students who, even if married,
cannot get their children or spouse
covered by the same healthcare
plan.
“Because of the budget cuts —
it’s a very complicated issue, it’s
expensive and needs to be worked
on at the Executive level and not
just the GSC [Graduate Student
Council],” he explained.
In an email to The Daily, GSC co-
Chair Polina Segalova said, “The
GSC has worked with both Housing
and Health Services in previous
years, with one outcome being the
formation of the Dependent Health
Insurance Task Force.”
The task force would be charged
with finding solutions for the prob-
lem, she said. The formation of this
Task Force is an initiative that
Gobaud intends to harness as he
tackles these federal level problems.
Some goals, however, face obsta-
cles other than money.
To continue Dorsey and Harris’
public service crusade, Hauser and
Sprague propose incorporating
service projects within the freshman
dorm experience.
But freshman dorms, packed with
“heavy programming,” may have
too many bases to cover already,
wrote Branner Resident Fellow
Nancy Buffington in an email to The
Daily.
“Students and staff are already
pretty busy,” she said. “But a fresh-
man dorm with a supportive dorm
staff and RFs could definitely exper-
iment to see what they might accom-
plish.”
Gobaud and de la Torre have also
vowed to lobby for immigration
reform at the federal level, working
alongside the Bechtel International
Center, the GSC and the National
Association of Graduate
Professional Students (NAGPS) to
make visas more accessible and
make international travel an easier
process for students. Gobaud is
adamant about sending students as
far as Washington, D.C. to advocate
for extending healthcare programs
to international students.
“We recognize this is not a trivial
problem or something that can be
fixed overnight,” Gobaud said. “But
it is something that we will work
towards with multiple organiza-
tions.”
Contact Marisa Landicho and Zoe
Richards at landicho@stanford.edu
and iamzoe@stanford.edu.

STUDENT GOV’T
ASSU Executive Campaign Spending
Late endorsements Hauser/Sprague Gobaud/de la Torre

create online stir T-shirts/banners

flyers
690.86
210.00
1112.39
368.72
a whole lot of water.”
Emails sent just hours In their email, Hauser and
Sprague expressed disappointment Web site/logo design 125.00 15.38
before voting began that Dorsey and Harris were the

By NIKHIL JOSHI
first sitting Executives “in any mem-
ory” to endorse one of their poten- YouTube video 200.00
MANAGING EDITOR tial successors.

In the hours before voting began

at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, a flurry of
endorsements by key outgoing
ASSU officeholders and student
groups hit students around campus,
and could shake up the Executive
and Undergraduate Senate races.
Current Executives Jonny
Dorsey ‘09 and Fagan Harris ‘09
publicly endorsed David Gobaud
‘08 M.S. ‘10 and Jay de la Torre ‘10.
Dorsey and Harris said they
spent considerable time deliberat-
ing before endorsing Gobaud/de la
Torre, and even took the time to
personally meet with Bennett
Hauser ‘10 and Matt Sprague ‘10
earlier in the day yesterday to let
them know about the endorsement.
But Hauser and Sprague went on
to circulate an email across campus,
making it clear that they were dis-
appointed with Dorsey and Harris’
actions.
“For the past few weeks, it’s been
clear that Jonny Dorsey and Fagan
Harris, the current Executives, have
been pushing behind the scenes for
Gobaud/de la Torre,” Hauser and
Sprague wrote. “Jonny and de la
Torre are in Sigma Nu together, and
Gobaud has been an ardent sup-
porter of all Dorsey/Harris initia-
tives this entire year.”
Harris told The Daily that he
does not agree with Hauser and
Sprague’s characterization of his
endorsement.
“Bennett is our cost of living
chair, Matt is director of Capital
Group,” Harris said. “They are all
employees of us. I don’t think an
argument ground in nepotism holds
But Dorsey told The Daily that
he doubted that history, and in any ping pong balls/stickers 414.95
case was not going to be guided by
past precedent.
“Like a lot of like other aspects food/gas/misc. 200.00
of ASSU, I would not look to recent
history as to how to do our jobs,” he
said. TOTAL $1840.81 $1496.49
In another controversial move,
Stanford Democrats President
Ashwin Mudalair ‘09 and Stanford Provided by the ASSU Election Commission based on slate financial disclosure forms
Conservative Society President
Grant Starrett ‘09 issued a widely
circulated joint endorsement of
Hauser and Sprague. After several weeks of debate over public financing in the ASSU, the Gobaud/de la Torre Executive slate spent $1,496.49, just a few dollars shy of the $1500 total it was
Mudalair, the Stanford allotted after accepting ASSU funding. The Hauser/Sprague Executive slate, which did not choose to accept public financing, spent $1,840.81. Spending in the Executive
Democrats president, came under race fell dramatically from last year, when the winning Dorsey/Harris slate spent $3,597.31 and the second-place Gobaud/Goldgof slate spent $3,768.55.
fire for his endorsement of
Hauser/Sprague, because the
Stanford Democrats had already
issued a public endorsement of
Gobaud/de la Torre.
“I personally support Matt and
Bennett, and I wanted to get that STUDENT GOV’T
out to their supporters,” Mudalair Daily Poll Question
from 04/08/09 issue
told The Daily. “It was supposed to
go to the private email list. There
was a miscommunication.”
In a statement, five members of
the Stanford Democrats Board —
GSC hosts ASSU Exec slates Do you think it is okay for ASSU Senators to
spend a quarter away from campus during
their term?
a) Yes, it does not present a problem.
Patrick Cordova ‘09, Sarahi
Constantine ‘11, Andy Parker ‘11,
Graduate students seek greater tion that has long been run primarily by the
undergraduate population.
b) No, you can’t be an effective senator
without being on campus.
Caitlin Smith ‘09, Sam Kaspick ‘10
— made it clear that Mudalair’s presence within ASSU David Gobaud’08 M.S. ‘10 and Jay de la Torre
‘10 both plan on tackling a number of graduate
c) Maybe, it depends on the senator.
d) I don’t care. The Senate does nothing
endorsement does not reflect the student issues that include rising costs for gradu- anyways.
views of their organization. By DANIEL BUI ate housing, affordable healthcare, resources for vote today at stanforddaily.com!
“Ashwin Mudaliar, the current STAFF WRITER student mental health and creating more social
president of the Stanford events for graduate students.
Democrats, has separately decided Last night, the Graduate Student Council
to endorse the Hauser/Sprague (GSC) reviewed the recent changes to costs in student population in general.”
slate,” the group wrote. “Ashwin’s student healthcare announced by the University. Matthew Sprague ‘10 admitted that he, as an
endorsement is an individual deci- Council members also met with the undergraduate, could not personally represent
Please see ENDORSE, page 3
Hauser/Sprague and Gobaud/de la Torre execu-
tive slates to discuss their campaigns and policies
with regards to the graduate student population.
“[We] want to the needs of the graduate student population, but
also emphasized the importance of equal repre-
sentation. In order to achieve this balance,
Delegates first discussed the Campus Health Hauser/Sprague will nominate graduate students

ENDORSEMENTS FOR ASSU

Service Fee announced by the University. As
reported in Wednesday’s Daily, the fee would
require all students enrolled on the main campus
work with the into appropriate ASSU positions that best serve
the graduate community.
“Bennett [Hauser ‘10] and I intend on having
EXECUTIVE SLATE to pay $167 each quarter for services at Vaden multiple members of our cabinet to be graduate

Hauser/Sprague Gobaud/de la Torre

Students for a Sustainable
Stanford
Stanford Conservatives
The Stanford Review
Health Center, regardless of their health insur-
ance.
While the council remained aware of the eco-
Current ASSU Executives nomic downturn that has affected a number of
Dorsey/Harris
The Stanford Daily
student resources across the University, many
members were incensed at the notion of pushing
off costs of health services onto the students.
Stanford Democrats “Every time they offer us new health services,
Queer Coalition they just charge us more for it,” objected Ryan
Peacock, a third-year graduate student in chemi-
GradQ cal engineering. “That’s not really a way for the
Women’s Coalition University to help us out.”
In a unique year, with the potential for gradu-
Students for a Sustainable
ate student representation in the ASSU
Stanford Executive, the GSC also invited the
Students Promoting Ethnic Hauser/Sprague and Gobaud/de la Torre slates to
speak about their policies and platforms in rela-
and Cultural Kinship
tion to the graduate student population.
Pilipino American Student Both campaigns placed a strong emphasis on
Union equalizing representation between graduates and
undergraduates in the ASSU, a student organiza-
graduate student
population...”
— DAVID GOBAUD,
ASSU Exec candidate
“The ASSU Executive has money and access
to top administration, and we need equal repre-
sentation among both graduate and undergradu-
ate students,” Gobaud said. “These are issues that
require more unique programs and integration
than what is currently offered for undergraduates.
We’re definitely going to work closely with the
GSC, and we also want to work with the graduate
students for both equal representation and for
their experience,” Sprague said.
Both campaigns agreed that their slates would
place a priority on improving the coordination
between the ASSU Senate, the ASSU Executive
and the GSC in order to minimize the conflicts
between each of these bodies seen in previous
years.
The GSC challenged both campaigns with a
question regarding the Campus Health Service
Fee. In his response, Sprague emphasized the
importance of speaking with the administration
to determine the reason for the new costs before
taking action.
On this point, Gobaud agreed, and added his
disgust over the University’s actions without ask-
ing for student input. He also noted the lack of
financial aid for graduate students, who generally
receive much more aid than undergraduates.
Contact Daniel Bui at dlbui@stanford.edu.
The Stanford Daily Thursday, April 9, 2009 N 3

High flyers

ALEX YU/The Stanford Daily

Campaign flyers blanket the campus during election week, as ASSU slates vie for student body support. Students can vote for candidates today and tomorrow online at ballot.stanford.edu.

FOOTHILLS ENDORSE
might be accommodated, grow more Environmental Planning. The frog is ings.”

Continued from front page

speculative over time,” the study
notes.
Supervisor Don Gage voted not
“ We are listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act, as is the
salamander. Continued from page 2
Ilves told The Daily that he did
not consider his emails slander, and
said he had a legal and moral right

The purpose of the study was to

examine future urban growth, pro-
tect natural resources and evaluate
potential foothills development, said
the county.
Board of Supervisors President
Liz Kniss made the motion to
approve the study, saying she added
the foothills findings so that future
boards would see it on record.
“The maximum buildout could be
accomplished on the core campus,
which is what I was looking for, and
they acknowledged that that could
be done,” Kniss told The Daily.
“The reason for me is that if you
can keep everything within the core
campus, it really does lessen the car-
bon footprint,” she added. “It makes
everything easier, transportation eas-
ier. The Marguerite, by car — every-
thing is going to be shorter.”
Kniss said that the University is
not bound to adhere to the growth
scenarios in the study, explaining
how “it doesn’t mean they’re
obliged.”
The county’s Department of
Planning and Development noted in
a memo that the board’s approval of
to approve the study, citing what he
called “11th-hour” findings and rec-
ommendations by Supervisor Kniss.
“You don’t have an opportunity
to analyze the impacts,” he said. “To
not understand what to do when you
vote is not something I’m willing to
do.”
Stanford Director of Community
Relations Jean McCown explained
the limitations that any foothills
development would face.
“The Academic Growth
Boundary in the GUP protects the
foothills until at least 2025,” she
wrote in an email to The Daily.“Also,
the zoning designation for the
foothills allows only extremely limit-
ed buildings — no more than 15,000
square feet in almost 1,800 acres.”
Supervisor Dave Cortese, who
voted to approve the study, said the
foothills’ value is difficult to quantify
and that he would not support any
development plans there.
The foothills have “the highest
value when it comes to quality of life
for the citizens of the county, and I
think that’s the overriding rationale
pleased
with the
outcome.”
— JOHN ETCHEMENDY
for conversation,” he said.
“There’s a commitment right now,
and I think it will continue among
elected officials, to make sure that
growth doesn’t continue unchecked
in a horizontal fashion,” he said.
Schmidt said the foothills are also
“several thousand acres of important
space” for sensitive species.
The California red-legged frog,
the California tiger salamander, the
western pond turtle and steelhead
trout are found in the foothills,
according to Charles Carter,
Stanford’s director of Land Use and
Students for a Sustainable
Stanford co-President John Mulrow
‘09 said the group did not take action
on the study, though it was asked
about it.
“We were contacted
Committee for Green Foothills —
by
they are resisting approval,” Mulrow
wrote in an email to The Daily.
“However, our advice from both
Fahmida Ahmed (sustainable pro-
grams coordinator) and Pam Matson
(dean of the School of Earth
Sciences) has been in strong support
of the study.”
Mulrow cited “lack of expertise
on the study, as well as our massive
plans around Earth Day [Apr. 22]” as
reasons why SSS did not get
involved.
The Stanford Sustainable
Development Study can be found on
the Santa Clara County Planning and
Development Office’s Web site,
http://www.sccplanning.org/portal/sit
e/planning.
Contact Elizabeth Titus at etitus@stan-
ford.edu.
sion that does not reflect the opin-
ion of the Stanford Democrats.”
Second-term Senator Luukas
Ilves also endorsed
Hasuer/Sprague in an email circu-
lated to 300 voters, but soon
received the attention of Elections
Commissioner Briana Tatum ‘11 for
his negative comments about
Gobaud/de la Torre.
“David has gotten support from
many student groups and leaders
because he has been campaigning
for this office since the day he lost
last April,” Ilves wrote in his
endorsement email. “He started
running ideas past me for his sec-
ond campaign starting in MAY of
last year!! He spent six months
looking for a running mate, and
only found one a few days before
the filing deadline.”
Tatum addressed this by saying
that the message could “be easily
construed as slander, which is why
we don’t want to even mention the
other slate to avoid misunderstand-
to share his opinions with his
friends. The senator maintained
that he knew virtually all of the 300
people he emailed on a first-name
basis.
“I didn’t really go negative,”
Ilves said. “I voiced my opinion of
who I saw was more dedicated.”
Hauser and Sprague told The
Daily that Ilves’ endorsement was
not solicited, and that they do not
approve of his negativity.
“We do not condone these com-
ments, and did not seek this
endorsement in any way,” they
wrote. “We have been in close com-
munication with Gobaud/de la
Torre throughout this process in an
effort to reduce negative campaign-
ing. While we appreciate the sup-
port of ASSU elected officials, we
wish that Luukas had not issued
these unnecessary allegations.”
Christine McFadden contributed to
this report.
Contact Nikhil Joshi at nrjoshi@stan-
ford.edu.

Performing for a cause

the study does not imply approval of
the amount or location of growth
described in the study.
The study faced criticism by sev-
eral groups, however, prior to yester-
day’s vote.
Brian Schmidt JD ‘99, a legislative
advocate for the Committee for
Green Foothills, said that he would
have liked Stanford to make a “per-
manent or 99-year commitment” to
not develop the foothills. He said the
study lacked coherence.
“Right now, it’s an incoherent
jumble of various, very good things,
but it’s not in and of itself a coherent
analysis of whether Stanford is sus-
tainable,” he said. “There are no con-
clusions. I think it’s intellectually not
very rigorous.”
The City of Palo Alto told the
board in February that the study
should extend to 2050 and that a def-
inition of sustainability should be
included.
The County of San Mateo also
told the board a longer time horizon
should have been used and that they
would be curious to know whether
University expansion might reach
beyond the Academic Growth
Boundary, which surrounds central
campus from Junipero Serra
Boulevard northeast to El Camino
Real, separating it from the foothills.
“The [San Mateo County] Board
is also curious to know whether this
longer planning timeframe would
reveal the potential for growth
beyond the Academic Growth
Boundary,” wrote the Santa Clara
County Board of Supervisors in a
Feb. 12 letter.
The study said that beyond 2035,
analysis becomes less meaningful.
“While it might be possible to
project growth rates over 50 years,
100 years or longer, the assumptions JIN ZHU/The Stanford Daily
about the likelihood of a particular Performers put on a show at the CoHo in a charity concert held for oprhans and vulnerable children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
growth rate and how that growth
4 N Thursday, April 9, 2009
OPINIONS
EDITORIAL
Service Summit an
inspiring success
f you ask anyone who worked on last
I
weekend’s Stanford’s Service Summit,
they will tell you that that the path to the
summit was hard, but the view from the top
was breathtaking.
Thursday’s “Vision 2020” session and the
weekend summit itself were outstanding re-
minders of what we, as a campus community,
can achieve in terms of setting the agenda
and tone for this university. While this sum-
mit is only the beginning of what we hope
will be a major push for an expanded campus
role in public service, it was a truly impres-
sive beginning.
The summit’s nine focus area forum ses-
sions covered topics ranging from more tra-
ditional service areas such as health, poverty
and education to public interest law, techno-
logical solutions for social challenges and so-
cial entrepreneurship. Each was filled with
highly accomplished and inspirational pan-
elists — everyone from a former president
of Stanford, to tenured professors, to law and
education school students, to the current
ASSU Vice President, to representatives of
local nonprofits and social entrepreneurs —
and a diverse and engaged group of students,
and even community members determined
to reshape Stanford’s role in public service.
Brainstorming within the sessions led to a
number of creative suggestions and insights
that the ASSU’s dutiful note-takers record-
ed. Many of these suggestions, such as creat-
ing a highly publicized database for service
opportunities, establishing a public service
GER and integrating service into the class-
room — especially in departments outside
the humanities and social sciences — are
tangible proposals that can, and hopefully
will be, implemented.
After the focus sessions, former Califor-
nia State Comptroller and ASSU President
Steve Westly ‘78 MBA ‘83 spoke of the im-
portance of and need for students to become
involved in public service. He was followed
by a fireside chat with Dr. Larry Brilliant, ex-
ecutive director of Google’s philanthropic
division and a participant in the World
Health Organization’s successful effort to
eradicate smallpox from the world. Both
men were passionate, inspirational, enter-
taining and earnest about the increasing
need for students such as ourselves to go into
public service and the keynote capped an
enormously successful weekend.
The extremely well-run summit facilitat-
ed the ideas and excitement. At check-in at-
tendees were handed nametags and infor-
mation sheets directing them to their pre-
registered sessions. Multiple ASSU note-
takers were on hand to for each session. The
spacious and airy Yang and Yamazaki Envi-
ronment and Engineering (Y2E2) building
proved an ideal space for the summit. Even
the summit’s Web site was crisp and well-or-
ganized, with events and speakers listed, off-
campus directions provided and the sum-
Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of The Stanford Daily's editorial board and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff. The editorial board is comprised of 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
editorial@daily.stanford.edu.
L ETTER TO THE
My name is Anton Zietsman, and I am
currently running for Undergraduate Sen-
ate. I am the only SOCC-endorsed candi-
date to be a part of Students for a Better
Stanford. Given my unique position, I be-
lieve that my perspective on the Senate race
and how it has developed over the past few
days would be a valuable supplement to the
growing debate on candidate slates and
coalitions.
As the idea of Students for a Better Stan-
ford gradually took form, I applied for the
SOCC endorsement. I did so because I be-
lieve strongly in the value of our community
centers, because I will not allow acts of intol-
erance, and because graduate student and
faculty diversity is paramount for the educa-
tion of our students.These were my beliefs at
the time; I stand by them today, and will con-
tinue to so in the future.
Along with myself, six out of the 12 cur-
rent members of Students for a Better Stan-
ford applied for a SOCC endorsement for
the same reasons I did. One can only specu-
late as to why they ultimately did not get the
endorsement, but the fact remains that I was
the only one left on both sides.
As campaign week drew closer, I grew
concerned that the student body would per-
ceive the two groups as running in opposi-
tion to one another. This conception trou-
bled me because nothing could be father
from the truth. I made a point of telling my
colleagues on SBS that we would have to
work hard to represent ourselves in such a
way as to avoid the negative effects of biased
and uneducated judgments. Unfortunately,
The Daily never gave us a chance, and the
very situation I dreaded being placed in
mit’s partners and sponsors catalogued.
Summit co-organizers Anuraag Chiguru-
pati ‘09 and Karen Warner ‘10 in particular
deserve special recognition for the tremen-
dous job they did, as do numerous other stu-
dents who brought the summit to fruition.
The dedication of so many campus
groups, students, faculty and staff involved in
making the summit a success illustrates how
significant an issue public service at Stanford
is and should continue to be.
Even in a time
of budget cuts and
economic anxieties,
public service at
Stanford must be
a priority...
One of the most notable changes in this
year’s ASSU elections versus last year’s is
the degree to which candidates have made
public service expansion a greater part of
their platforms.The Lyman/Werner ticket, in
fact, features “Just A Couple of Affable Pub-
lic Service-Oriented Guys” and both Gob-
aud/de la Torre and Hauser/Sprague have in-
dicated their desire to build on the public
service momentum initiated largely by our
current ASSU Executives Jonny Dorsey ‘09
and Fagan Harris ‘09.
De la Torre’s emphasis on his public serv-
ice background — he was Pre-Summit
Events Coordinator — was one of the crite-
ria that led to The Daily’s endorsement of
the Gobaud/de la Torre ticket.
We hope this push for public service con-
tinues. Even in a time of budget cuts and eco-
nomic anxieties, public service at Stanford
must be a priority. After all, in the midst of a
global economic crisis, the United States
Senate recently managed to overwhelming-
ly pass the Edward M. Kennedy Serve
America Act to expand public service op-
portunities.
Stanford’s Service Summit was a re-
sounding success, but we must work hard to
ensure that the ideas and excitement of the
past weekend are harnessed going forward.
The summit offered Stanford a glimpse of
what we’re capable of in transforming public
service. Let’s not lose sight of that goal.
E DITOR
seems to have occurred.
While the primary concern for every can-
didate is to get elected, the fashion in which
the campaigns are conducted will inexorably
have repercussions on the development of
interpersonal relationships on the Senate. It
was my hope that we could wade through
this election cycle without abasing ourselves
to smear-campaign tactics.
The inaccurate depiction that The Daily
gave of SBS in Monday’s article (“Coalition
sets sights on Senate”) served as a catalyst to
precipitate the Senate race into an exacer-
bating spiral.The article portrayed SBS as an
insubstantial, elitist and power-hungry
clique, thereby providing others with the
stick with which to beat us.Though we strove
during the interview to avoid precisely this
conception, I was disappointed to find that
the article still managed to cast a negative
shadow on the electoral landscape.
What I want, beyond all other things, is
for the next Senate to be collaborative, com-
petent and effective.
I now know every candidate on both
coalitions and consider many of them to be
my friends. If I do happen to get elected, I
look forward to working with all of them be-
cause I know that we share the same passion
and zeal when it comes to the betterment of
our community. But most importantly, I can
now say with the full measure of my confi-
dence that, on an individual level, each and
every one of the candidates both on SOCC
and SBS can work with one another towards
a goal that is common to us all: a better Stan-
ford.
ANTON ZIETSMAN ‘12
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A house divided
n May 9, 1754, perhaps the most fa-
O mous political cartoon in the history of
the United States was published. De-
picted was a serpent, cut into eight separate
pieces meant to represent the British colonies
of America. Underneath the snake read the
words “Join, or die.” The cartoon accompa-
nied author Ben Franklin’s editorial on the
need for unity among the colonies in the face
of the French and Indian War, and later the
American Revolution.
The meaning behind the cartoon has not
lost importance in the 250 years since its cre-
ation. Today, more than ever, we the people
need to unite as one or else risk having our
rights and liberties picked apart by the very
government once envisioned to protect them.
Across the country today, we see hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of individual special-
interest battles being waged. Gay marriage,
sin taxes, drug prohibition, gun control — all
are smaller issues of the larger whole, the con-
tinued fight for personal liberty.
Just this week, a new federal tax on tobac-
co was instituted,which raised taxes on every-
thing smoking related, including a 1,250 per-
cent increase on the price per pound of un-
packed (loose) tobacco.
Upon hearing this, most would probably
react with apathy; some may even be in sup-
port of the measures — if smoking is bad for
you, why not punish those who do it?
I myself disapprove greatly of smoking,
but that’s not the point.
The point is that as soon as we stand by
while our fellow citizens are stripped of the
most basic of liberties, to do as you wish to
your own body, whether through prohibition
or de facto prohibition via exorbitant taxa-
tion (the practice of which helped spawn the
Revolution in the first place), then we implic-
itly surrender every other right in its own due
time.
The same legal reasoning used to strip
smokers of their right to do as they wish can,
in turn, be used for other unnecessary vices or
D EMBY D OWNER
Nicole Demby
CS co-terms
gone wild
received an email at the end of last quar-
I ter informing me that my department, In-
terdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, is
ceasing to exist at the end of next year be-
cause the University is cutting its funding.
Despite this rude insertion of the global eco-
nomic crisis into my life, the situation still
feels abstract, like a vague specter haunting
my life from a distance.
Part of the reason the crisis seems less
concrete to me than perhaps it does to others
is because I have long since resigned myself
to a life of dubious monetary stability. Con-
centrating in Visual Arts and Philosophy, I
can’t say I ever really had pretensions of hav-
ing a six-figure job right out of college. So
while the terrible job market certainly does-
n’t help, it doesn’t really drastically change
any of the prospects I have long held for my-
self.
Talking to qualified seniors whose recent
experiences searching for jobs makes them
vouch that the situation is actually as bad as
everyone says it is, I try to empathize, but can
only muster sympathy. I know on an intellec-
tual level that there are probably hundreds of
ways in which the state of the global econo-
my is making my current and future life more
difficult, yet I can’t help but feel viscerally
that not that much has changed for me.
While I don’t wish to insinuate that all hu-
manities students have resigned themselves
to a life of artistic starvation, there is a gal-
lows humor now detectable among upper-
classmen from all disciplines that has been
something humanities majors have engaged
in since the dawn of time. This humor might
entail jokes about making post-college plans
that postpone real life (graduate school, hu-
manitarian adventures, etc.), or making
The Stanford Daily
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Stuart Baimel
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M ARK M Y W ORDS
luxuries. New York State wants to tax unsatu-
rated fats to make up for its budget deficit and
“encourage health.” Oregon is trying to raise
its tax on beer by nearly 2,000 percent for the
same reason.Are we starting to see a trend?
And yet, we are too busy fighting each
other over differences of moral opinion, so
much so that we divide ourselves in the over-
all fight against the government to protect
our liberty.
While religious fundamentalists battle the
leftist homo agenda, the liberal democrats
rally to take the guns and ammo out of the
hands of right-wing NRA whackos. And all
the while, as we are busy yelling ourselves
hoarse at one another, the government quiet-
ly moves in and takes all of our rights from un-
derneath us.
Divide and conquer has been used as a
military and geopolitical strategy for cen-
turies.Why? Because it works. It plays on the
dependable tragedy of the common action
problem; group A won’t help group B be-
cause B’s cause is not important to group A,
and vice versa.
The big hand of government, however,
sees no distinction between the groups;it only
sees the power it aims to acquire and the pop-
ulation it seeks to regulate.
The government is not on our side,as many
activist groups might like to think. Through
the years of court cases and legal evolution,
the government has conveniently declared
some rights “fundamental” and others not.
Without getting into too much legal mumbo-
jumbo, this just means that judges pay more
attention to some rights than others.
The primary difference? The overwhelm-
ing majority of laws that abridge fundamental
rights get thrown out upon judicial review
and the overwhelming majority of laws af-
fecting “other” rights are left as is, free to
trample on our liberties.
What are the fundamental rights? The
“civics class rights”: speech, religion, discrim-
ination, voting, etc.
cracks about throwing away X thousands of
dollars on a university education, only to be
totally unemployable upon graduation.
These jokes have always been made with a
wry smile and a slight sigh.We knew what we
were getting ourselves into when we decided
to study comparative literature instead of
management science and engineering, so the
least you can do is let us be appropriately bit-
ter about it.
Yet as the economic crisis renders the
playing field of (un)employability equal for
both techies and fuzzies, the former group
may be beginning to understand a wisdom
the latter group has long possessed — the
understanding that rushing into “real” life
right out of college isn’t always the best thing.
I was recently talking to a CS co-term
friend of mine (yes, I have CS co-term
friends) who told me that on a whim he al-
most forwent his long-time dream of working
in Silicon Valley to go teach programming to
children in Africa. A hidden boon of the cri-
sis may be that, suddenly, life choices that
The Stanford Daily
Incorporated 1973
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Mike Ding
News Editor
Haley Murphy
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Michael Liu
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Mark
Kogan
The not-so-fundamental rights? The right
to your property, for one, and the right to pur-
sue your own devices as long as they do not
harm anyone else, for another.
Are these issues as black and white as I
make them out to be? Of course not.
Smoking has externalities such as second-
hand smoke, saturated fats really aren’t good
for you and some cases of eminent domain
may truly be justifiable.
I understand that. Moral beliefs are beliefs
(usually) for good reason, issues of health and
safety have a plethora of perspectives and
empirical research to back them, and the gov-
ernment isn’t always enacting a malevolent
plan to enslave humanity.
What I am asking is not that everyone
dump their own individual opinions immedi-
ately and join together in one big happy com-
mune. I only ask that instead of sitting idly by,
or worse, fighting against someone trying to
protect their individual liberty, you instead
join them in their fight for their rights, be-
cause their fight is your fight too.
The fight for liberty affects us all as Amer-
icans. Our government was structured to rely
on the people to protect themselves from the
government by way of the Constitution. If
the people do not defend themselves, the
government has no incentive to respect their
boundaries.
By turning on our neighbors, we undercut
our own freedom and help those who would
intrude on our liberty place the noose around
our own necks, for as Ben Franklin also once
famously said,“We must all hang together, or
assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
When they came for the smokers, I remained
silent;I was not a smoker.When they came for the
drinkers, I remained silent; I was not a drinker.
When they came for the gun owners, I remained
silent,for I was not a gun owner.When they came
for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
Email Mark at mkogan@stanford.edu.
once seemed daring, or perhaps even self-de-
structive to those on a teleological trajectory
to riches, now seem like wise choices.A year-
long soul-searching trip to India after gradu-
ation? It’s not like you have anything better
to do. Opting to work on a creative project
that may or may not pay off in the end? What
have you got to lose?
While we all will undoubtedly suffer, and
probably in some quite painful ways, at the
hands of the worst economic downturn since
the Great Depression, perhaps we are all
freer now to evaluate what’s meaningful, in-
dependent of money. While the crisis will
devastate those who decided before that
money was of utmost importance to them,
the rest of us can embrace this silver lining.
The aforementioned gallows humor is in-
dicative of taking life a little less seriously in
a way that enables us to experiment through
our life choices, perhaps ending up in inter-
esting places we never envisioned.
Email Nicole at demb33@stanford.edu.
The Stanford Daily
FEATURES
Tending
the Stanford garden
By ELIZABETH TITUS
S
arah Wiederkehr stared hard at
a stand of fruitless trees on the
Stanford Community Farm.
“These ones need some atten-
tion,” she explained to her students
one recent afternoon. “They haven’t
been pruned in quite a while.”
Wiederkehr concentrated on the
orchard a moment longer, then
turned back to the dozen students in
her Sustainable Agriculture Issues
class. They stared back.
“Anyway,” she said, breaking into
smile, “shall we take a little tour?”
Wiederkehr understands the diffi-
culty of growing things, and she is on
campus as Stanford’s first-ever “farm
educator” to help students under-
stand, too. Hired last fall to teach
classes, maintain part of the farm, put
its produce in dining halls and run
outreach projects, the 32-year-old
represents the latest in Stanford’s
efforts to address the main agricul-
tural sustainability question.
“One of the huge challenges is
how to grow enough food to feed the
population, but at the same time,
doing it in a way that reduces the
negative environmental impacts and
the social impacts,” explained Pamela
Matson, dean of the School of Earth
Sciences.
The question is a salient one for
Wiederkehr’s new students. They
have read Michael Pollan’s “The
Omnivore’s Dilemma,” seen a new
farm bill passed, and know that one
billion people go hungry for lack of
economic — not just physical —
access to food. The students are
keenly interested, but few have had
hands-on experience in agriculture.
That is partly why she brought her
class to see the dormant orchard on
that unseasonably warm day. Perhaps
if she can teach them to nurture trees,
she can bring an agricultural educa-
tion program to life.
Wiederkehr wasn’t always a
farmer.The daughter of a safety engi-
neer and an Episcopal Church work-
er, she grew up around New
England, went to the University of
New Hampshire on work-study and
found herself on the student farm the
summer after her freshman year. She
loved the work, the plants and the
people.
“It just kind of changed the course
of my life,” she said. She graduated
with a degree in horticulture and
agronomy, then went west to see
large-scale agriculture for herself.
Wiederkehr arrived in northern
California and began working agri-
cultural research jobs at UC-Davis
and the United States Department of
Agriculture before putting down
roots in two masters’ programs at
Davis. One program, Integrated Pest
Management, allowed her to travel
around the state.
“Lettuce in the Salinas Valley
[was] awing to me,” Wiederkehr said.
The other program, International
Agricultural Development, gave her
a community made up largely of
Peace Corps alumni and her first
taste of “real social science” — eco-
nomics and theory, she said — that
was a needed complement to her sci-
ence coursework.
But in the middle of writing her
second thesis, a friend offered
Wiederkehr land outside Davis to
start a farm. And Wiederkehr knew
where she wanted to be.
“I pretty quickly realized that I
couldn’t do it all,” she said.“I quit my
thesis.” Wiederkehr named the place
Full Circle Farm and ran it for the
next three-and-a-half years.
She loved the work — being her
own boss, managing five acres of
organic produce and raising animals.
In fact, a man named Burger sold her
a dairy goat, Josefina; Weiderkehr
married Burger and brought Josefina
back with her.
But her farm was less sustainable
economically.
“I think two years ago, my grand
income was $8,500,” Wiederkehr
said. “So I was struggling.”
Her quick laugh belies how much
she seems to miss Full Circle when
she talks about it.
“I really enjoyed being in my dirty
clothes and dirty hands, and not feel-
ing like anyone was going to care,”
she said.
So she got a job managing a farm
in Sunnyvale. It was closer to Burger,
the animal husbandry manager at a
farm called Hidden Villa in Los Altos
Hills. One day, Burger got an email
that Stanford was looking for a “farm
educator” — someone, the job
description said, who could “support
the academic mission of Stanford
University by educating students and
the Stanford community about sus-
tainable food and agriculture sys-
tems.”
Wiederkehr applied, and her
experience as a researcher and farm
operator stood out.
“She brings something very spe-
cial to Stanford,” Matson said.
Wiederkehr got the job. It was fall
Sarah Wiederkehr maintains part of the farm as Stanford’s first “farm educator.” She teaches classes in sustain-
able agriculture in the arth systems department.
Sarah Wiederkehr thrives in role as Stanford’s first
“farm educator”
2008, and she began to take stock of
this new Farm.
On Feb. 19, Joel Salatin — the
self-described “beyond organic”
farmer turned motivational speaker
featured in “The Omnivore’s
Dilemma” — came to campus.
Wiederkehr was his guide for the
day.
Salatin’s visit marks the latest of
the half-dozen projects in which
Wiederkehr has become involved
during her short tenure. There are
two classes this quarter: Earth
Systems 180B: Local Sustainable
Agriculture, and Earth Systems 183:
Agriculture in Film. There is also
management of the teaching section
of the community farm, a pilot gar-
den program at Row houses and a
proposal for a new, 10-acre teaching
farm — something that, if successful,
would be an unprecedented step in
agricultural education for Stanford.
Administrators explained that it is
all driven by student demand.
“Our classes have had population
explosion,” said Deana Fabbro-
Johnston, associate director of the
Earth Systems program.
With no unified academic pro-
gram for agriculture to speak of, stu-
dents interested in food and farms
often choose Earth Systems. This
year, there are 130 students majoring
in the program.
“It’s a record high,” Fabbro-
Johnston said. “Once students found
out we had a farm educator on board
who knew what she was talking
about, the flood of emails just started
coming.”
Erin Gaines ‘07, the sustainable
foods coordinator for Stanford
Thursday, April 9, 2009 N 5
Dining and an Earth Systems alum-
nus herself, concurred.
“We’re getting a record number
of people contacting me or
[Wiederkehr] about gardening,” she
said. “The great thing is all the differ-
ent disciplines; everyone’s connected
to eating.”
The interest is evident by the stu-
dents who flocked to Salatin’s events.
He spoke to Wiederkehr’s and oth-
ers’ classes, toured the farm, ate din-
ner at Ricker Dining and lectured in
Annenberg Auditorium that evening.
Wiederkehr was not fazed by
Salatin, whom she calls a “celebrity
farmer.” In the hallway after class,
they chatted with Gaines about
lunch.
“That could be the centerpiece of
a meal,” Salatin raved about
Wiederkehr’s soup. “What was the
spice?”
“Some rosemary and black pep-
per,” she said.
Wiederkehr told them about
cooking for her own wedding, and
then said it was about time to get
moving. Celebrity farmer or not, she
had work to do.
Wiederkehr is not immune to
doubts about her job. She questions
the feasibility of one person educat-
ing an entire campus about the
20,000 meals people eat each day
here, where those meals came from
and what it will take to keep produc-
ing them.
“I wish there were two or three
more of Erin and me,” she said. One
day in her office in the Yang and
Yamazaki Environment and Energy
Building,Wiederkehr buried her face
in her hands while talking about her
AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
classes.
“I’ve never read the farm bill,” she
said. “Maybe I structured the class
wrong, starting with stuff I didn’t
know about. Ah! I’m stressed about
next quarter’s class.”
Charles Parker, an agricultural
education expert, agreed that
Wiederkehr’s order is a tall one.
“How does one person get to
14,000 students?” he asked. “It has to
be a consolidated effort.”
Parker consulted in the California
Department of Education’s agricul-
tural education unit for 13 years. He
discussed techniques he found suc-
cessful when he was a high school
agriculture teacher.
“The freshmen, they taught the
class,” he said of one assignment.
“They developed a 50-minute lesson.
Talking about apples in California,
maybe they’re going to make apple
pie. They’re teaching their fellow
classmates. It’s not me lecturing. It’s a
group of people.”
Despite her doubts, Wiederkehr
has created a protocol in the
Sustainable Agriculture Issues class
that mirrors Parker’s carefully honed
method, right down to the minutes in
the class. Each meeting, two students
are assigned to lead the discussion;
Wiederkehr jumps in only when nec-
essary.
On a Tuesday in the second-floor
classroom in the Geology Corner, it
seemed to be engaging students.
“Alright, you guys had all that
reading to do, all that inspiring read-
ing,” a discussion leader starts. “Who
did all 81 pages?”
“It was only 42 after the photos,”
Wiederkehr shot back with a smile.
“Okay, so let’s talk about confined
animal feeding operations,” the stu-
dent said. Fifty minutes later, time
was up, but the class was still talking.
Despite her doubts, then,
Wiederkehr is making progress on
the mission for which she was hired.
She spoke of one student who told
her that he was paying closer atten-
tion to his meat consumption since
taking the class.
“I was just excited to hear that
from talking in our class, he’s started
making conscientious decisions
about choosing food,” she said. She
collects these small interactions with
students, her measure of success for
now.
She looked out her office window
and talked about the plans she is
making for a new orchard. Apricot,
plum and fig trees, she hopes. They
are a “representation of what you
have on a small local farm,” she said.
Wiederkeher’s mind is on seeing this
crop through.
Contact Elizabeth Titus at etitus@stan-
ford.edu.
6 N Thursday, April 9, 2009 Cardinal Today The Stanford Daily

SPORTS
HOME-ING IN Erik
Adams
The Inside Pitch

By JACOB JAFFE
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Card finds
DESK EDITOR

Entering the final two weekends of the reg- 4/4 vs. Cal State-Long Beach W 3-1
ular season, the Stanford men’s volleyball
team is looking forward to continuing its re-
UP NEXT
cent surge of momentum.
“This is the part of the season we’ve been
looking forward to,” said junior opposite Evan
Romero.
BYU
(15-10, 11-7 MPSF)
a second
After playing 14 of its first 18 matches away
from the Farm, the No. 5 Cardinal (19-8, 12-6
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has final-
ly reaped the benefits of its schedule, playing
4/10
COVERAGE:
Maples Pavilion 7 P.M.

RADIO KZSU 90.1 FM

life
11 of its last 13 matches at home, including the

B
(kzsu.stanford.edu) aseball is finally here! Stan-
four remaining matches.
ford baseball, that is. Sure
“During this home stretch, we’ve been able
they started their season way
to feed off the energy from our fans,” said
“They are a really good blocking team,” back in February, and it is al-
freshman middle blocker Gus Ellis. “It spilled
said head coach John Kosty. “They’ve been ready getting close to the halfway
over into our last road trip, and it’s given us a
putting up really good numbers. Historically, point, but the team that was widely
lot more confidence.”
they’ve always had great blocking and de- expected to make another postseason
This last road trip included wins over two
fense, and this team is no different. It should run didn’t show up until recently.
top-10 teams, No. 8 Cal State-Long Beach in a
be interesting because both [Stanford and The Cardinal won just four of its
five-set comeback thriller, and No. 10 UC-San
BYU] have been playing really well in the sec- first 14 games and lost six straight at
Diego in four sets. Romero led the way for the
ond half of the season, so we know we’re in for one point. Many people, including
Cardinal in both matches with a combined 41
a tough test.” myself, were beginning to believe that
kills over the weekend, including several cru-
“It will be one of the toughest matchups we just too much talent had been lost
cial kills in the fifth set against Long Beach.
have all season,” Ellis said. “Both teams are from last year’s College World Series
These two wins extended the Cardinal’s
fighting for position in the MPSF playoffs, and team to have any chance at a repeat
conference winning streak to eight matches
BYU has extra incentive because they’re host- run to Omaha.But then they woke up.
and its overall run to 11 wins in its last 12
ing the NCAA championships this year.” The Card, which hosts UCLA at
matches.
The position in the MPSF is crucial for both 5:30 this afternoon, has won seven of
“The key is our consistency all around,”
Stanford and BYU. Currently, Stanford is tied its last nine and has nearly reached
said Romero, who leads Stanford with 415
for fourth with USC,and BYU is one game be- the .500 mark for the first time since
kills this season. “We’re not trying to do too
hind them both in the standings. The top eight Feb. 27. Another solid series with the
much.”
teams make the MPSF playoffs, with the top Bruins this weekend, and they could
Stanford’s consistency will be tested this
four teams hosting the first-round matches. even climb as high as third in the con-
weekend when it faces No. 6 BYU twice in a
Although both teams have clinched spots in ference.
row. The two teams have not met since both
the MPSF playoffs, this upcoming two-match GIULIO GRATTA/The Stanford Daily
It isn’t possible to pinpoint one
teams’ opening match of the season on Jan. 9,
thing that sparked the turnaround.
when Stanford won 3-0; yet the Cardinal is Freshman middle blocker Gus Ellis and the rest of the Cardinal look to extend their five-game This team has simply played better in
very familiar with BYU’s strengths. Please see VOLLEYBALL, page 8 winning streak in back-to-back matches with No. 6 BYU this weekend. every facet of the game over the last
two weeks. The pitching has been
much more consistent than it was in
TRACK & FIELD
Card sprinters find
TRACK & FIELD
4/4 Texas Relays
UP NEXT
FRESHMAN the opening month, and the offense is
finally producing runs with reliability.
Consider this: in the 11 games
played before the break for winter
quarter finals, Stanford managed

PHENOM
double-digit hits just twice. In the 12

success in Austin RAFER JOHNSON/

By ANARGHYA VARDHANA
STAFF WRITER
The Stanford track and field team
spent the past weekend at the Texas
Relays in Austin mainly competing in
sprints and hurdles, with a few athletes
against a stacked field. His time of
13.55 would have destroyed his own
school record, 13.78 seconds, and been
a regional standard, but the wind was
over the allowable amount.Despite his
impressive time, Bradley still looked to
improve.
JJK INVITATIONAL
games since, they have done it six
times.The power has improved great-
ly as well — seven home runs in 11
games before the break, 16 in 12
4/9 Westwood, Calif. All Day games after. The result was an in-
crease from just under 4.1 runs per
GAME NOTES: Stanford track and field focused game before the break to 6.5 since.
on sprints and hurdles at the Texas Relays in BY JACOB JAFFE Combine that jump in scoring with
Austin, Texas over the weekend. The Card will
DESK EDITOR the pitching staff’s ability to cut its
be a little closer to home this weekend, when it runs allowed per game from 5.9 to just
competes in the Rafer Johnson/JJK Invitational
under 4.2 over the same period, and it
at UCLA. Stanford looks to continue to improve is pretty easy to understand why Stan-

in other events.
“The Texas Relays is always a very
lively meet attracting thousands of ath-
letes and even more spectators from all
around the country,” wrote senior
team captain Myles Bradley in an
email to The Daily.
The Stanford athletes had the op-
portunity to test their speed at a new
venue, and achieve more regional-
qualifying marks.
One of the top male performers of
the meet was Bradley in the 110-meter
hurdles. The school record-holder in
the event, Bradley placed second
AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
“My race had many aspects that before its next home dual meet against Cal on
were technically poor, so I have confi-
April 18.
dence that once I fix the problems, I
will be able to run these times and
faster later in the season,” Bradley fined as a style of running that appears
wrote. as though one is jogging, although one
Also with a strong finish in a hur- is actually moving very swiftly.
dling event was freshman Amaechi Morton also competed in two re-
Morton in the 400-meter hurdles. Fin- lays, including the sprint medley, in
ishing third with a regional-qualifying which the Stanford team of junior
time of 51.03 seconds, Morton record- Zach Chandy, Morton, sophomore
ed the third-fastest freshman time in Andrew Dargie and senior Jacob
Stanford history. Morton, a superstar Evans finished ninth with a time of
on the team,has acquired his own verb,
“to Amaechi,” which the team has de- Please see TRACK, page 8
Continued from front page
longevity at the helm of the program. In
her 22nd season with the Bears, Nine-
mire was inducted into the NFCA Hall of
Fame earlier this year. She presided over
the team from 1999-2005, when Cal reg-
istered seven consecutive Women’s Col-
lege World Cup appearances.
However, Stanford is far from intimi-
dated by the arrival of the Bears, and the
team looks to pick up where it left off last
weekend. In a clean sweep of the Oregon
schools, the Cardinal received produc-
tion throughout the lineup. Stanford bats
produced 28 hits over the three-game
weekend series. Junior catcher Rosey
Neill belted home runs Nos. 7 and 8 on
the year, while senior Maddy Coon
added five hits over the weekend to help
out her team.
Stanford’s 34-2 record makes the
Card well-poised to improve upon its 20-
29 lifetime record against the Bears, but
the team does anything but take the ri-
valry lightly.
“In this conference, teams are bring-
ing their A-game every day,” Rittman
said.
The action begins at Stanford on
Thursday, with the first pitch scheduled
for 7 p.m. The series moves to Berkeley
on Friday and Saturday, with start times
of 4 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. CBS
College Sports will have television cov-
erage of Thursday’s game, with audio
streaming live on the Internet at
KZSU-2.
Contact Chris Fitzgerald at chrishfitz@
gmail.com.
I
t only takes a simple YouTube search to see the amazing talent of
Erik Shoji. Or you could just turn on SportsCenter, which ranked ford is suddenly winning consistently.
And just at the right time, too.The
his absurd kick assist as the second-best performance of the day
on its Top-10 Plays segment earlier this week. If you want to see next two series are hugely important
his true abilities, though, the only place to be is courtside at a Stanford for this team and could determine
men’s volleyball match. how the final weeks of the season will
Standing at a mere six feet, with a soft voice and a friendly grin, go.
freshman libero Shoji does not look like an imposing force or a future Since the break, Stanford hasn’t
All-American. That is, until he steps onto a volleyball court. really played much of anybody —
Shoji grew up in Hawaii and was raised in an athletic family.His sis- Cal, Washington and Oregon are all
ter Cobey works for the Stanford women’s volleyball team and his among the bottom four of the Pac-10
brother Kawika is an All-American setter as a junior for the Cardinal. so far, and only Cal is currently above
His mother, Mary Shoji, played basketball in high school and current- .500, and just by one game. But
ly coaches high school volleyball, while his father, Dave Shoji, has UCLA is tied with Stanford for fourth
coached the University of Hawaii’s women’s volleyball team for over in the conference and next week’s op-
30 years. This background helped Erik become interested in volley- ponent, Arizona State, is 23-6 and
ball. ranked in the top-five in two of the
“Because my dad is a coach, I was exposed to volleyball since the three major polls.
day I was born,” Shoji said. “Ever since I can remember, I was always If the Card can take four or five of
going to practices and games, and because of this I fell in love with the the six contests against those two
game.” teams — which will be very difficult,
In high school, Shoji led his Punahou High School team to three especially with the ASU series being
straight state championships in one of the most talented states for vol- played in Tempe — it will find itself
leyball, Hawaii. During this stretch, Shoji was twice named an All- solidly in the top-three of the confer-
American, and was a first-team all-state performer all four years. He ence, something unthinkable the way
also won a state title in tennis and was also twice named All-State for Stanford was playing just a few weeks
tennis. ago.If it drops four or five of them,the
Apart from high school sports, Shoji played on the U.S. youth na- Card will slide back toward the bot-
tional team for volleyball, winning awards as the best libero and de- tom half of the conference standings
fender in the world. and remain below the .500 line for a
“Competing against some of the best competition in the U.S. and few weeks longer.
throughout the world in my age group helped give me some great ex- Either way, Stanford will have to
perience,” he said. play strong baseball over the final
Shoji brought that experience to the college level, following Kawi- month to give itself a decent chance at
ka to Stanford. the postseason.After the ASU trip, 16
“The opportunity to be playing volleyball at a school with such of the Cardinal’s remaining 24 games
prestige in both athletics and academics made me choose Stanford,” are at Sunken Diamond, and it will
Erik said. “It’s good to know that when volleyball ends, I will have a have to improve on the 6-6 home
record it has amassed so far.
Please see SHOJI, page 8 Please see ADAMS, page 8
SPORTS BRIEFS
Women’s lightweight crew up against open-weight boats from
major schools.The race consisted of
“These aren’t opponents we will
generally be competing against. It
successful in San Diego three qualifying heats, with the top- was a very competitive race for us
two teams in each heat advancing to because we are smaller.”
The No. 3 Stanford women’s the final heat. A very young Stanford team cur-
lightweight rowers took care of In its qualifying heat, Stanford rently rests only behind Wisconsin
business last weekend, winning the finished second, seven seconds be- and Princeton in the national stand-
A.W. Coggeshall Cup over Bay hind the winner, Sacramento State. ings, and views the regatta in San
Area rival Cal as part of the San The performance was enough to Diego as an important indicator of
Diego Crew Classic. vault the Cardinal into the finals, performance and a motivational
The Cardinal was expected to where it would have to fight out of tool for future races.
easily defeat a Golden Bears team the sixth lane,a severe disadvantage “I think San Diego was a really
still searching for legitimate recog- considering the windy conditions good regatta for us to go out and get
nition. Stanford was victorious over present at the race. some more experience racing
Cal by 12 seconds, failing to break a In the finals, the lightweight Car- against teams who challenged us,”
sweat on its way to the title.The vic- dinal boat finished in the sixth and Wixon-Genack said. “Even though
tory marked the third-straight Cup final spot, but nonetheless was they aren’t teams we’ll ultimately
title for Stanford. pleased with its performance be competing against for a title, it
More notable for the team, how- against bigger teams. provided solid experience and com-
ever, may have been its perform- “Because we are lightweights, petition for us.”
ance in the open-weight SeaWorld that’s a really good race for us,” said
Cal Cup.The Cardinal was matched freshman Jenna Wixon-Genack. — By Zach Zimmerman
The Stanford Daily
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8 N Thursday, April 9, 2009
VOLLEYBALL
Continued from page 6
series between the Card and
Cougars could determine who re-
ceives the fourth spot in the MPSF
tournament, and therefore who will
host the first-round match.
“All year, our main thing is to get
in the playoffs,” Romero said. “Now
that we are in, it would be huge to
host a first-round match. The fans at
home give us lots of adrenaline, and
playing at home would be very ben-
eficial to us.”
The fight for home-court advan-
tage in the first round of the playoffs
will be heated, as both teams have
much more success at home than on
the road. In MPSF play, Stanford is
6-1 at home, but 6-5 on the road, and
BYU is 8-2 at home but 3-5 on the
TRACK
Continued from page 6
3:21.35. The same group of runners
finished 11th in the 4x400-meter
relay with a time of 3:13.43. Unfor-
tunately, after experiencing a mus-
cle cramp at the Stanford Invita-
tional during the same event, 400-
meter standout Durell Coleman
was unable to compete at the Texas
Relays.
The 4x100-meter relay team of
junior Daniel Belch, Dargie, Chandy
and Bradley rounded out the relays
by finishing 15th.
One of the top performers for the
women this past weekend was soph-
omore Whitney Liehr, who compet-
ed in the heptathlon. Liehr’s final
score of 5210 was not only a provi-
sional standard, but also a career-
best. Liehr’s best event was the 100-
meter hurdles,which she finished in a
time of 14.15 seconds.
Sophomore jumps expert Aran-
txa King achieved a regional stan-
dard in the long jump. Her leap of 20-
1 in the long jump was not a personal
best, but secured a spot in the NCAA
West Regional Meet.
“It was such a fun meet,” said jun-
ior Griffin Matthew, who competed
in the 4x100 relay with Liehr, King
and sophomore Brittni Dixon-
Smith. “The team came out strong,
and everyone is looking forward to
THE STRENGTH TO HEAL
road. Therefore, the winner of this
weekend’s series will have a much
better chance at advancing in the
MPSF playoffs.
In order to set itself up for success
in the MPSF playoffs and possibly
the NCAA playoffs, the Cardinal
knows it must keep progressing.
“Our side-out game needs to
keep getting better, and our block
and defense need to keep improving
also,” Kosty said. “They’re all good
now, but we have to keep improving
them. No team can achieve a perfect
game, but we have to get as close as
we can.”
Stanford will attempt to reach
this level in its two matches against
BYU this weekend. The Cardinal
will face the Cougars tomorrow and
Saturday, with both matches begin-
ning at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion.
Contact Jacob Jaffe at jwjaffe@stan-
ford.edu.
faster times.”
“It was a great experience for our
athletes to compete in this new envi-
ronment,” noted Bradley upon re-
turning to the Farm. “I’m very excit-
ed for the rest of the season, specifi-
cally performing well at the Big
Meet, Pac-10s and nationals later in
the season.”
This weekend, some of the Cardi-
nal athletes will be heading to UCLA
for the Rafer Johnson Meet. After
that, Stanford will prepare to take on
the Golden Bears in the Big Meet on
April 18.
Contact Anarghya Vardhana at vard-
hana@stanford.edu.
ADAMS
Continued from page 6
But the next two weeks are a gold-
en opportunity not only to climb out
of the hole Stanford dug itself at the
start of the year, but to surge out of it
and establish itself in the thick of
things in the Pac-10.
For now, the season is saved. Let’s
see what these guys can do with it.
Erik Adams would feel even better
about Stanford’s chances if Ryan
Garko and Carlos Quentin were still
here. Email him at ekadams@stan-
ford.edu.
Cardinal Today
SHOJI
Continued from page 6
Stanford education to go back on.”
Since his arrival at Stanford, Shoji
has stood out for more than his dif-
ferently colored shirt. Point after
point, he constantly dives all over the
court with no regard for his body. He
uses all parts of his body to keep the
play alive, even if that means sliding
his hand under a potential kill or
kicking the ball crosscourt for an as-
sist.
“I think my role on
the team is to be
one of the calm guys
on the court.”
— ERIK SHOJI,
freshman libero
Being a libero, there are few sta-
tistics to truly capture Shoji’s
achievements. The one standard for
liberos, though, is the dig, and no-
body is better than Shoji. As only a
freshman, he leads the nation in digs
with 377, which is nearly 25 percent
more than anyone else in the coun-
try.
This achievement is even more
remarkable considering its historical
relevance. With just three more digs,
Shoji will pass three-time Olympian
Scott Fortune’s Stanford single-sea-
son record of 379 digs. This record
will likely be broken in the first or
second set against BYU, and based
on his current pace, Shoji should de-
molish Fortune’s record.
Despite his record-setting num-
bers, Shoji still focuses on the team’s
success first.
“Obviously, our No. 1 goal is to
win a national championship, but we
have smaller goals that can help lead
to that final goal,” he said.“I am hop-
ing that we can win an MPSF Cham-
Freshman standout Erik Shoji leads the nation in digs with 377 and is just three
away from passing Stanford alum Scott Fortune’s single-season record. Shoji,
though, has his eyes set on team goals of MPSF and NCAA Championships.
pionship and play in the Final Four.”
Led by Erik and Kawika Shoji,
the Stanford men’s volleyball team is
currently ranked No. 5 in the nation
and has won 11 of its last 12 matches.
With few seniors receiving much
playing time, the Cardinal figures to
get even better in years to come, so
Shoji’s hopes of a Final Four have a
legitimate chance. The success of the
team for the next few years could
rest on Shoji’s shoulders, but he
doesn’t overvalue his job on the
team.
AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
“I think my role on the team is to
be one of the calm guys on the
court,” he said. “There are times
when I can get really excited, but for
the most part, I try to stay calm and
in control to hopefully try and keep
everyone calm.”
If Erik Shoji keeps making the
plays he has been making, though, it
could be hard for anyone to stay
calm.
Contact Jacob Jaffe at jwjaffe@stan-
ford.edu.
The Stanford Daily
BASEBALL
Continued from front page
selection in the first round, Cole is
the highest-picked player since John
Mayberry in 2002 to forego his pro-
fessional career in order to attend
college. He has posted a 2-3 record
and 4.14 ERA to start the season,
while tallying an impressive 51
strike outs in 37 innings pitched. He
possesses a fastball that can touch 98
mph on the radar gun.
While Cole headlines a talented
Bruins pitching staff, UCLA’s of-
fense has three regular starters bat-
ting above .300 to start the year in
Eddie Murray, Justin Uribe and
Casey Haerther. But senior first
baseman and catcher Cody Decker
is the engine that has driven the Bru-
ins’ power numbers, slugging 10
homers and driving in a team lead-
ing 26 runs thus far.
Walsh, though, was confident in
his own team’s chances at home
against a Pac-10 rival.
“All Pac-10 teams are tough, and
we know they’re going to be ready
when we play them,” he said. “We
took the series from them last year,
so they’ll be coming up with a pur-
pose.And so it’ll be a tough series no
matter what, but we’re playing real-
ly well right now, so we’re just look-
ing to carry that over into the series,
and hopefully we’ll pick up a couple
of victories.”
Walsh himself has been at the
heart of Stanford’s offensive success
so far this year, leading all regular
starters with a .292 average and all
players with a .457 on-base percent-
age.
“I think I’ve kind of followed a
similar path as our team,”Walsh said
of his own performance in 2009.“To
start the year, I wasn’t doing as well
as I would’ve liked, but these past
couple of weekends I’ve picked up
my own play along with the rest of
our team and just played a lot bet-
ter.”
Following tonight’s 5:30 p.m.
matchup against the Bruins at
Sunken Diamond, the Cardinal will
take on UCLA again at home on
Friday and Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and
1 p.m., respectively. On Monday, the
team will then welcome Cal to the
Farm to conclude its home stand.
Contact Denis Griffin at djgriff@stan-
ford.edu.