DEBATING THE ALCOHOL POLICY
I think it is appalling that freshman drinking is treated so lightly at Stanford. "The Drinking Dilemma" (July/August) states that Stanford has a policy that may inflict "discipline up to and including expulsion" for unlawful use of alcohol, and that Vice Provost Montoya's "greatest fear" is that some morning he will hear that a Stanford student has died of alcohol abuse. I would think this fear would motivate him and others to significantly reduce the possibility of that happening.
You indicate that freshman drinking represents 90 percent of alcohol abuse at Stanford. The following factors seem to encourage such a disproportional figure. (1) The University fails to support the law, silently implying that unlawful drinking at Stanford is okay. (2) Many freshmen are having their first major away-from-home experience, and the sudden, wide-open freedom can nurture behaviors outside the framework of their former norms, particularly if the University fails to enforce acceptable performance standards regarding alcohol consumption. (3) Peer pressure can be particularly powerful in a new environment. If peers drink, new freshmen are likely to go along.
Other major universities have taken strong stands to try to control alcohol abuse. To me, Stanford's position of letting each freshman make his own decision is in the same category as letting one's 2-year-old daughter play in the street if she likes because she must learn to make her own decisions.
Willard Tate, MS '50, Engr. '51
Blue Jay, California
Yes, the University's alcohol policy is sometimes a bit vague and may cause a few parents concern, but it is the best way to promote responsible behavior. Any changes would cause little besides harm.
At Stanford, the resident assistants are sometimes the only persons to whom troubled students feel they can turn. If RAs were forced to become the alcohol police, that hard-earned trust would disappear. Underage drinking would merely go into hiding and become a mysterious, rebellious activity. Rather than drinking sensibly or choosing not to drink at all, students who got their hands on some forbidden booze would likely want to take full advantage of the opportunity to indulge. To keep their drinking secret from the RAs, some might develop the habit of drinking alone, removing any positive social behavior associated with casual drinking and replacing it with the need to get drunk as quickly and quietly as possible. Binge drinking would triple under such a restrictive policy.
Speaking of which, I have a problem with the unqualified disdain for binge drinking, defined in your article as five drinks for men and four for women. While drinking enough to get sick is never a good idea, what is wrong with students drinking enough simply to get drunk once in a while? The act itself is not the problem so much as the underlying reasons for it. A student who abuses alcohol to escape from seemingly insurmountable problems needs help, but plenty of student binge drinkers could just be overachievers who enjoy the wacky fun that comes with being a little less inhibited.
Let's stop paying so much attention to how many students binge drink and start paying attention to how many students are reaching out for help, however they choose to demonstrate it. Those two groups, while having some overlap, are not the same.
Rick Weisberg, '89
San Mateo, Calif.
Self-Congratulations
Stanford has won the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year Award, the "grand gold medal" for U.S. alumni publications. Sponsored and judged by the editors of Newsweek, the Sibley is the highest honor in the annual magazine competition of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Stanford also placed first in three special categories: article of the year (Joel Smith's "Falling Apart," January/February 2000), best photograph (Rod Searcey's "Higher Power," 1,000 Words, November/December 1999) and overall reporting on higher education.
I appreciate the challenge Jim Tankersley faced in writing about the thorny issues of campus alcohol use. I would like to elaborate on what Stanford is doing to address the problem. Our Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention Program was reformulated in 1998 under Vice Provost Montoya. In its first two years, we have seen promising trends toward lowering rates of alcohol use and abuse.
While campus statistics indicate that one in 10 Stanford students regularly binge drinks, it is crucial to note that 90 percent of our students do not regularly abuse alcohol. Presenting statistics that focus on the problematic minority perpetuates a false notion that the "normal college student" regularly drinks heavily. When students perceive that most of their peers do not regularly binge drink, the level of heavy drinking falls significantly.
Yet we still must recognize that when alcohol-related incidents occur, their consequences can be devastating. As you point out, the debate about solutions is complex and controversial. Although "zero tolerance" and "get tough" policies sound punchy and powerful, there is no evidence that drinking rates are lower on more restrictive campuses. We work closely with student leaders, staff and faculty to develop an approach that meets the unique needs of Stanford students. Our results thus far are promising.
Our educational approach cultivates thoughtful reasoning, self-knowledge and personal responsibility. It is also highly pragmatic, educating students in the knowledge and skills involved in becoming responsible adults who strive for excellence. Programs include lively, provocative discussions that challenge students to question their motivations and to make connections between alcohol use and other realities, such as academic performance, sexual health, date rape and self-esteem. Students report that the talks offer the insight needed to motivate them to stay within safe drinking limits.
These programs occur in residences, Greek houses, gatherings of athletic teams, community centers and academic classes. All freshmen attend orientation programs, including an upbeat student theatrical production that addresses alcohol risks and related issues of student health. Staff offer in-depth training to student leaders who provide peer alcohol education and outreach, including RAs, peer health educators, Admit Weekend social hosts and varsity-athlete peer educators. These efforts, along with our party-planning workshops, have reduced problems on campus.
This year we launched a seminar for students involved in alcohol-related incidents, with promising results. More extensive treatment is available for students with ongoing problems. We also offer seminars and consultation for staff, faculty and parents who have concerns about individual students. Alcohol-related legal offenses are taken seriously, and we work closely with Stanford's public safety and legal affairs departments. We cannot claim to have untangled all aspects of the alcohol problem, but we are optimistic that we are developing effective solutions.
Carole Pertofsky
Director, Health Promotion Services
Cowell Student Health Service
Stanford, California
A NICE GUY, BUT . . .
"The Vexing Legacy of Lewis Terman" (July/August) is perceptive, thorough and above all well-balanced. Mitchell Leslie brings out complexities and controversies often overlooked. As a lifelong subject in Terman's study, I agree with Al Hastorf that Terman was a very nice guy and also that he had some views I would argue with him about.
Russ Robinson, '28, Engr. '30
Los Altos, California
RAVENSWOOD'S DEMISE
I was delighted to read of the success of Chris Bischof's Eastside School ("Eastside Story," July/August). There are a few mistakes in the article, though. First, Ravenswood High was closed not because of a desegregation effort, but because of declining enrollment. My daughter was part of the desegregation effort, in which students from the "hill" schools were encouraged to transfer to Ravenswood, while students at Ravenswood were encouraged to transfer to the "hill" schools. While the desegregation effort was not an unqualified success, the closing of Ravenswood was not for that reason.
Second, students have not "been bused 20 miles to the Sequoia Union High School District." East Palo Alto is part of this district, and the four remaining high schools their students can attend are all considerably less than 20 miles away.
Betsy Crowder
Portola Valley, California
FARM FAMILY
Alex Beam's interesting profile on Otis Chandler notes that Otis's parents and some children and grandchildren also attended Stanford ("The Last Great Newspaperman," July/August). A number of his other relatives attended Stanford,including his aunt, May Chandler Goodan, '14, who was Otis's father's sister. She became the first woman since Jane Stanford to serve on the Board of Trustees. She was a very capable person and a very progressive trustee, serving many years in the 1940s and '50s.
My father, Harold D. Weber, '17, and May Chandler Goodan's husband, Roger Goodan, were first cousins. Roger also attended Stanford, as did their sons.
Bill Weber, '52
Lafayette, California
ALZHEIMER'S WORST TOLL
Last October, before coming to the Stanford reunion, I spent two days with my Cubberley "big sister," a dear friend through the decades. Her husband picked me up at the airport and confirmed what I had guessed from some telephone conversations: my good friend has Alzheimer's ("Holding On," July/August).
When she and I talked, sharing confidences and exchanging news of our children and grandchildren, there was the same warmth that had always existed between us. In fact, my friend, who in the past was a bit bossy and sharp-tongued, had become gentler, softer, more loving.
But one minute after catching up on a bit of news, she would ask me about it again. Of course, that was the beginning of the illness. My visit was a last good-bye to my friend.
Her husband, now nearly 80, is taking care of her by himself. My heart goes out to him, because I have seen what such devotion did to another friend of mine, whose wife got Alzheimer's when she was just barely 50. He ended up doing everything for her, dressing her, feeding her. She did not know him anymore; she knew nothing anymore. He began to drink heavily. We begged him to put her in a home. Reluctantly, at last, he did.
Whose tragedy is worse -- the one with Alzheimer's or the one who loves and takes care and sees?
Evelyn Konrad, '49
New York, New York
PUT CHINA IN ITS PLACE
Thanks for sending the magazine with my article ("Finding My Inner Russian," July/August). I've been showing it to everyone here in Khorol. One thing you've probably noticed by now is that China is labeled as Mongolia on the map. The Russians think it is hilarious, since I talk about American ignorance of geography of the Far East. But I think they are also proud that only Khorol, Vladivostok and Moscow are marked on the map.
Sarah Cameron, '99
Khorol, Russia
HER BACK IS UP
I have a mindlessly sunny disposition and still have spent a week in two hospitals with back pain, so let me roll my eyes at your report on the doctors who concluded that since high-tech imaging doesn't explain all the differences between people who remain upright and those writhing in bed, the latter were probably writhing because of their "abnormal result on a psychological screening" (Farm Report, July/August). Of course, if you take people and put them in agony, frustrate them with inactivity and allow patronizing doctors to examine them over and over again, they are likely to turn crabby. Cause and effect may have little to do with an MRI.
Linda Przybyszewski, PhD '89
Cincinnati, Ohio
PARENT TRAP
Although "Confessions of an Anti-Mom" (Endnotes, July/August) was tongue-in-cheek, it painted a frightening picture of an all-too-common trend: individuals with naive or negative attitudes about parenthood embarking on this experience with little thought of the consequences. While I don't pretend to understand the author's true feelings about motherhood, I have to wonder, assuming that even half of her glib commentary is true, why on earth she became a parent in the first place. A child can sense a parent's lack of enthusiasm and will suffer as a result.
I am not a parent. Having children is an issue my husband and I have discussed at length, and this article has only amplified my ambivalence, persuading me that becoming a parent without the wholehearted, up-front commitment is the wrong decision.
Jill Hurley Caugherty, '90
Cary, North Carolina
Yes, parenthood is relentless, but what did Susan Caba expect? Her essay seems so whiny and mean-spirited; I hope she has a little more feeling for her son than it implies. I, too, had my children late, but I can't agree that I'd ever be too old to chase lightning bugs, of all things! And reading three whole stories at bedtime? Quel horreur!
No way are kids easy, but for God's sake, they're our children and probably the most meaningful part of our lives. Let's just hope that young Master Caba gets plenty of love from his grandma.
Merilee Olson, '68
Oakville, Ontario
HENNESSY AT THE HELM
I will always remember the day I saw John Hennessy ("Favorite Son," May/June) tucked into a corner of Mrs. Martin's third-grade classroom at Las Lomitas Elementary School, setting up a computer system for our kids. He genuinely cares about that which matters in life. Stanford University is fortunate to have him at the helm.
Leslie Muennemann
Menlo Park, California
SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER
Coming home after some 22 years of international development work ("My Road to Nowhere," May/June), I find that too many people think the United States spends a large percentage of its budget on foreign aid and that much of it goes to corruption. People need to hear about major accomplishments in children's health, reproductive health for women, self-sufficiency in food and the advanced education of many students from developing countries who return to direct government ministries and start national businesses.
Development specialists can do work that truly benefits people -- by learning their language, by listening with the heart and then working shoulder-to-shoulder with them, and by committing to a tough-love approach that demands results and confronts bureaucracy and corruption.
Jean Meadowcroft, MA '75, PhD '77
Escondido, California
If Robert L. Strauss never took a full-time position with international development projects because he did not want to be compromised by the material allure of government-subsidized expatriate life, there are those of us who opted to work overseas full time not because of the cook and the maids but because we believe development work, like other major undertakings in life, requires patience, persistence and commitment.
The solution to ill-conceived or poorly administered projects does not lie in short-term consultancies. One needs to be willing to work with the locals and stick around for the long haul.
Mary Naficy
Cairo, Egypt
WANTED: CAMPUS PHOTOS
Hey! What's happened? Has some disfiguring disaster struck the Stanford campus and you are trying to keep the news from us? It seems as if there hasn't been a recognizable photo of the Stanford campus in this mag in years. Pick up a copy of the Berkeley or Harvard mag, and you'll find that campus on prominent display. Many of us are of the view that Stanford looks at least as nice as those places do.
George Schueler, '66
Albuquerque, New Mexico
FRIEND AND MENTOR
What a pleasure to read the article about Mary Jarrell (Shelf Life, March/April). I moved to North Carolina for medical school, and she became both a friend and mentor. I have vowed to remain as spry, intellectual and energetic as she has over the years. When I was a child, my parents often visited the Jarrells in Greensboro (their daughter Alleyne is an aunt by marriage), and my favorite books were The Gingerbread Rabbit and Grimm's Fairy Tales, both signed by Randall and Mary. Thanks for a well-written article about a truly inspiring Stanford alumna.
Deanna M. Boyette, '83
Greenville, North Carolina
CLARIFICATION
Susan Lowell's article, "The Treasure of Mata Ortiz" (May/June), did not include the title of the book she co-authored on the subject. That work, The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz (Treasure Chest Books, Tucson, 1999), was the source of the photographs in the article.
The following letters did not appear in the print edition of Stanford
WHO GRADUATED WHOM?
Departing editor Bob Cohn titled his farewell column "Graduating Stanford Again" (First Impressions, March/April). With a bachelor's degree earned in '85 and 10 years reporting for Newsweek, how did he escape learning that Stanford graduated him and not vice versa?
Ralph Perlberger, '53
New York, New York
Bob Cohn describes Stanford as the "epicenter" of Silicon Valley. But the epicenter of an earthquake is the point on the earth's survace vertically above the center of the quake, which lies at some depth in the earth's crust. Surely, Stanford is the "center" of Silicon Valley. Nothing is more central than the center.
Glenn E. Sorensen Jr., '59
Barre, Vermont
BARELY AFLOAT
Your item on the new $3 million boathouse (Farm Report, November/December) reminded me of my own crew-related experience. Two fellow hashers at Lagunita recruited me to help get the crew's "coaching launch" running. The launch was an ugly beast bought from a prune grower with money raised entirely by the rowing team and friends. The prune grower had used his own ideas of design, providing power with a Ford "60" V-8 automobile engine. We did manage to get the engine working, but it would repeatedly overheat and quit on us out in the Bay. Even when the engine was running, it was virtually impossible to get up enough speed to get the hull "up on the step," and the shells even the practice "barges" would outpace the coaching launch.
Still, our crew teams were good, competing well against some of the East Coast schools, as I recall, using shells donated by the University of Washington when that school acquired new ones. Fortunately, someone donated funds the following year to replace the prune grower's monstrosity. But a $3 million boathouse? Unheard of!
John B. Onken, MBA '49
Dearborn, Michigan
NOT BAD FOR DINOSAURS
Below is a photo from the October reunion of the ROTC men of '44 ("Mission Accomplished," January/February). Even though we are dinosaurs, we are a pretty good-looking group.
Robert Farrar, '44
La Jolla, California
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