The Public Face of the University
Veteran journalist Gordon Earle joined the University in August as vice president for public affairs. A former award-winning reporter and senior producer with The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour and a 1988-89 John S. Knight fellow at Stanford, Earle most recently headed his own communications firm. He now oversees the University’s relations with government agencies, coordinates its community-relations initiatives, and supervises communications, media relations and University events. “Gordon is an ideal fit for this critical new position,” says Stanford President John Hennessy.
Where Does the Money Go?
More to undergraduate financial aid, staff and faculty salaries, and debt service payments. Less to land and buildings, libraries and the School of Humanities and Sciences. Departments around the University cut a total of $16.3 million from their budgets for the 2002-03 fiscal year, making up most of the $16.7 million in new budget commitments. Some of the increases, particularly those to financial aid, stem from the sagging economy, Provost John Etchemendy told the Faculty Senate. “The forecast is for tight times,” he said, noting that a $12.1 million deficit is projected for the 2003-04 fiscal year. But, added Etchemendy, PhD ’82, “there’s not going to be major, major anguish in solving that. I don’t want you to be too depressed.”
For Minority Alumni, More Outreach
The Board of Trustees has convened a 15-member task force on minority alumni relations, which is charged with increasing University outreach to this constituency. “The concept here is simple: if you’re going to have a diverse student body, then you’re going to have an increasingly diverse alumni population,” says Board chair Isaac Stein, JD/MBA ’72. Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree Jr., ’75, MA ’75, leads the task force, which will foster communication between Stanford and alumni on diversity issues, recommend ways to involve minority alumni in University affairs and consider holding an “alumni of color conference” in 2004.
A Friend to Freshmen
Julie Lythcott-Haims, who served as assistant to President John Hennessy from October 2000 through July 2002, has been named to the new post of assistant vice provost and dean of freshmen and transfer students. A former Bay Area attorney and associate dean for student affairs at Stanford Law School, Lythcott-Haims, ’89, will help undergraduates adjust to the University’s academic and social environment. “Since the day I entered Stanford in the fall of 1985,” she says, “I have wanted to be a part of delivering the essence of Stanford to the next generation of Stanford students.”
