Student Affairs Gets a New Chief
Gene Awakuni, vice president for student services at Columbia University, has been named Stanford’s next vice provost for student affairs. Awakuni has specialized in student affairs since 1988, holding positions at several public universities in California. The selection committee, which included deans, professors and students, was chaired by vice provost for undergraduate education John Bravman, ’79, MS ’81, PhD ’85, who has been filling the post on an interim basis since Jim Montoya, ’75, MA ’78, resigned last spring. Awakuni’s appointment becomes effective January 2.
How Did the Salamander Cross the Road?
For more than 3 million years, the 8-inch-long, yellow-and-black amphibians were quite the migrators, wandering from open grasslands to lakeshores to lay their eggs and raise their young. Then along came land developers and paved highways, and tiger salamanders were up a creek—candidates for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s list of endangered and threatened species. The thousands that live on campus are now getting a helping hand in their journey across—okay, beneath—Junipero Serra Boulevard. An experimental tunnel, completed in August, is expected to “reduce road mortality” for those commuting between the Foothills and Lake Lag, according to campus biologist Alan Launer, ’81, MS ’82, of the Center for Conservation Biology.
For Grad Students, More Rent Money
Graduate students are getting a new lesson in risk-reward analysis. Under the housing stipend program announced last January, those living off-campus could enter a lottery for a 30 percent chance at a $250 monthly rent subsidy. But now, students may opt for a guaranteed $100-per-month stipend instead. President John Hennessy says students made a “good case” for the modification, which will boost the program’s cost from $1 million to almost $1.2 million. And that’s a hefty rent check.
Putting the Brake on Bad Cycling Habits
She hasn’t owned a car for more than 20 years, and she sits on the boards of four nonprofit bicycling advocacy groups. Five months after being named campus bicycle coordinator—at a time when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has capped the number of cars allowed on campus—Ariadne Scott says hers is a dream job: “With the volume of cyclists, it’s like Amsterdam.” But she has resolved to reform the unsafe habits of Stanford’s estimated 14,000 cyclists—including too few helmets and hand signals, too little stopping at stop signs and too much haphazard weaving. “There has to be a concentrated focus on education.”
