From Doonesbury Inspiration to Dean
The Rev. William "Scotty" McLennan Jr., chaplain at Tufts University and a senior lecturer in business ethics at Harvard Business School, has been named dean for religious life, effective January 1. The Unitarian Universalist minister and lawyer, who roomed with cartoonist Garry Trudeau at Yale in the '60s, was one-half of the model for the politically liberal Rev. Scot Sloan in the Doonesbury comic strip; McLennan's mentor, antiwar activist the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, completed the character. McLennan has practiced poverty law in Boston, and his research focuses on the interface of religion and ethics in business, law and medicine.
Now They Have to Worry About 'Stanford.banc'
Stanford has contracted a service that each week tells University officials about any cybersquatters who are highjacking the word "Stanford" to profit from the school's name recognition. It was already "difficult to keep up with the level of activity," says Shelley Hebert, director of business development for the University. Then the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced that it planned to add new domain suffixes such as ".shop," ".banc" or ".firm" in November. That same month, however, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act takes effect, making it a civil offense to register a domain name that mimics other trademarks.
For the Bookstore, a New Cover
A three-month renovation of the Stanford Bookstore is scheduled to be finished in time for the start of fall quarter classes on September 22. Tully's Cafe and Photo Express had to suspend services during the construction, and a number of departments within the store were moved around. Follet Corp., which took over managing the Bookstore last July, orchestrated the new look. It features a mission oak motif on the general merchandise floors and high-tech Silicon Valley packaging for the supplies and textbook floors.
After a 50-Day Strike, a New Nurses' Contract
Nurses at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital approved a two-year contract on July 28, ending a 50-day strike. The contract gives nurses a 10 to 12 percent pay increase over the next two years, boosting their average salary from $55,000 to more than $60,000. The settlement falls short of the yearly 7.5 percent increases sought by the nurses, but many appeared to applaud a new vacation policy, the end of mandatory overtime and increased say in patient care. "We are very pleased our nurses will be back to work as an integral part of our patient care team," says Malinda Mitchell, CEO of Stanford Hospital and Clinics.
Grad Applications Drop -- Except in Law
The number of graduate school applications nationwide continues its five-year slide -- except when it comes to law school. This year saw a 3 percent increase in applications over last year, according to the national Law School Admission Council -- a sharp contrast to the 30 percent drop in applications between 1991 and 1998. At Stanford, the number of applicants to the Business School fell by 18 percent last spring, while applications to the Law School, headed by Dean Kathleen Sullivan, increased by 6 percent.
Cybersex is 'Ruining Their Lives'
More than 60,000 websites now generate an estimated $20 billion a year for pornographers and other cybersex businesses -- and that's bad news for many people's mental well-being, a Stanford researcher contends. Alvin Cooper, a psychologist at Cowell Student Health Services and the research-team leader for a recent MSNBC poll, says hundreds of thousands of people are pursuing sex online, "and it's ruining their lives." Cooper says cybersex is a powerful addiction, one that is harder to treat than many other dependencies. One of the most pressing problems with cybersex, he says, is its explosion in the workplace, where 20 percent of men and 12 percent of women go online in search of sexual material.
University Research: A Government Bargain
A new study by the Rand Corp., commissioned by the White House Office of Science and Technology, finds that colleges and universities are behaving prudently in their billing of expenses in federal research contracts. The congressionally mandated study shows that overhead charges have held steady for the last 10 years, at 24 to 28 percent of government funding for research by colleges and universities, and that those institutions have assumed an increasing share of costs. "The federal government really does get a good deal in university-based research," says Nils Hasselmo, president of the American Association of Universities.
Young Physicists Lead the Revolution
A new generation of physicists in their 20s and early 30s is shaking up the study of subatomic particles and revising ideas about the structure of the universe. Two young Stanford physicists, Shamit Kachru and Eva Silverstein, for example, are examining one problem in cosmology using a radical concept about the existence of extra dimensions. Instead of thinking of particle physics as having reached its pinnacle some 30 years ago, the young physicists are suggesting that the study has barely begun. "It can be quite thrilling to pursue an idea one finds exciting, or simply to understand something about physics better," Silverstein says.
