‘Reasons for Hope’
Thank you for the illustrative article on the Stanford Seed program in Africa (“The Elevator Pitch,” January/February). As a graduate of that other business school in Boston, but with lifelong ties to Stanford and also a postretirement involvement in Africa, I commend the GSB and the King family for providing purposeful help to African entrepreneurs. Involvement in programs like Seed can give students, faculty and alumni the satisfaction of leveraging some world-class business insight to help the people in the world who need it most. Surprisingly, it can also provide humility from learning from the people the program is trying to help. A life-changing, deep respect for these people is a natural consequence, and even if participants sometimes feel they get more than they give, their growth together with [that of] local entrepreneurs can yield desired results.
Regarding the larger purpose of Seed, the challenge of reducing poverty through economic development in these countries is one of the most fascinating problems around. Why, for example, has Bangladesh recently become a clothing manufacturing center, but Guinea hasn’t? Though Bangladesh is much larger in population, both countries have ready, trainable labor and access to markets. Many African countries have tremendous untapped resources in mineral wealth, agricultural potential, and a ready and willing labor force. One of the best targeted studies on these questions is The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier, who outlines from a real-world economist’s point of view what sets of conditions and activities improve the odds, and which are controllable.
Providing world-class coaching to entrepreneurs, especially ones who are pursuing value-added, labor-intensive products for export, is an important step in building these economies. Another, one I worked on, is providing infrastructure like power, clean water, roads and ports in the same way that our country’s economy was aided by canals, railroads and similar projects in the 19th century. In my business career, I had developed power plants and fuel pipelines on five continents, but never in Africa. When I retired several years ago, I was approached by an organization headed by former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair to help the leaders of several African nations execute their policies better, using the best of British and other developed-world processes and management techniques. My role was to work on expanding electric power systems because this was such an important factor in economic growth.
My wife and I spent a year in West Africa, where I advised the presidents of several countries on expanding their electric power systems, and later I coached 10 CEOs of large state-owned industries in a major African nation on corporate governance and finance. Just when we were about to go out for bid on a hydro project in a West African country that would have increased electric supply to that nation sixfold, the Ebola epidemic brought the project to a halt. This further illustrates the point made several times in the article about the calamities in Africa, which often come out of nowhere in poor countries. Civil unrest may flare up at the worst possible time, and if it develops into a civil war, 20 years of infrastructure progress can be destroyed.
While some problems in Africa may have cultural or historical roots, the resilience of these people is remarkable. You appreciate their acceptance as they pick up the pieces and get back to work. As a personal observation, their faith in and willingness to help each other is a great asset. Also, technology has great potential to leapfrog traditional solutions to address economic problems by, for example, opening world markets for African products. These are reasons for hope, and I encourage students and faculty members to get involved. It may change participants profoundly, as it did me.
Herb Hogue, ’70
Mercer Island, Washington
I was very surprised—and disappointed—when I realized that the cover picture on your January/February issue was actually of a factory farm. The subtle, “artsy” blurring of the background makes it appear as if it is just abstract lines and shades receding into space, completely hiding the tens of thousands (soon to be a quarter million!) hens imprisoned within.
There are many ways of lifting people out of poverty, as your article discusses. There are also many possible pictures you can take of such efforts—none of which would require obscuring the actual industry to make it palatable to show on your magazine’s cover. With all of these possibilities, why you highlight an industry built on the exploitation and suffering of other beings is beyond me.
In the future, please consider what you are putting on your cover more carefully. And if you find yourself thinking it is best to obscure the actual subject, maybe this is an indication you should not use such a photo.
Alan Scheller-Wolf, ’89
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I always read Stanford thoroughly. I especially enjoyed two articles in the January/February issue.
In “The Elevator Pitch,” it was heartening and inspiring to read about Bob and Dottie King’s $150 million investment in the Stanford Seed program seeking to “solve poverty by job creation.” In my view, too many philanthropists donate funds to put their names on spectacular buildings around the country. It’s wonderful that others invest in activities directly benefiting people and the planet.
I also enjoyed “My Evening with Einstein.” The brilliant physicist’s words of wisdom on religion, the use of nuclear weapons and advocacy of world government still ring true, just like his scientific theories.
John Mirsky, MS ’78
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Real People
Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s graphic article “Attitudes vs. Actions” (January/February) brought back memories of my experiences as half of a mixed (black/white) couple from Washington, D.C., driving across the country to start graduate work at Stanford in the fall of 1955. We, too, found that places that (if asked) said they didn’t serve colored people actually were more tolerant when confronted with real people.
Here’s an excerpt from a memoir I wrote in 1959:
Because we had little money, and because we were young and it was fun, we camped out frequently and never stayed in motels, so we never did find out how they would have taken to us. One incident occurred on the way, however, that seems especially symbolic of so much that has happened since.
It was in Davenport [Iowa], I believe, that we saw a very pleasant-looking new restaurant and decided to save our can of beans for later and eat a really good meal. Inside we found a large room, quietly lighted, soft music piped in, tables dotted across a well-carpeted floor. A hostess hovered vaguely. About half the tables were occupied.
When the hostess saw us come in and wait at the entrance (perhaps our uncertainty showed), she hesitated visibly, and then glided off not toward us but to the rear of the room. There she held an inaudible conference with a man seated alone at a corner table. After a while he arose and walked toward us. He had a limp, and his slow progress across the room seemed interminable. Finally he reached us. He cleared his throat.
“I am the owner of this restaurant,” he said. “I want to welcome you. Where would you like to sit?”
It has been like that many times: If people had doubts, they seemed to resolve them in our favor. If people at a low level of authority felt dubious, those above them felt much more ready to accept us.
Paul Berry, MA ’57
Mountain View, California
No Ordinary Poem
Oh, how I love the poem “Alma Mater” (January/February). I have taken comfort in a similar sentiment many times.
“Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” —George Eliot, Middlemarch
Thank you for speaking to the unhistoric among us!
Amanda (Boyd) Brothers, ’97
Sammamish, Washington
Dear Mary,
Yes;
There is peace in anonymity;
There is dignity in motherhood;
There is honor in your life choice;
There is humility in putting others before yourself;
There is grace and maturity in recognizing others’ achievements;
There is greatness in raising three kind children;
There is comfort in family;
There is eternity in children and learning;
There is satisfaction in doing;
There is a world waiting for you should you choose to seek it;
There is wisdom in what you have to offer; and
There is appreciation from all of us who are your Stanford family.
Kim McCord Clemmensen, ’83
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
I wanted to let you know how deeply Mary Poindexter McLaughlin’s poem, Alma Mater, resonated with me, and I suspect it has with many others.
I would like to thank McLaughlin for conveying the complexity of reconciling what we think that we are “supposed to” achieve, or at least strive to achieve, and for reminding us the true measure of success.
Barbara Levenson, ’84
San Mateo, California
How wonderfully refreshing to read a poem about the satisfying ordinary life of a Stanford alumna! Thank you, Mary, for giving us unsung ordinaries a voice.
I have degrees from both Stanford and Princeton, so I receive the alumni journals from both institutions. I don’t know about you, but I always read the obituaries, to see if I know anybody, but also to find out what these alumni accomplished in their lives. As Mary’s poem says, they invariably were CEOs, prizewinners, outstanding leaders in their fields. And I think to myself, What will they write in my obituary?
Well, they might say that she had four kids and buried one. If you Google the names of her two older ones, you’ll find dozens of stories about their achievements. Her youngest is 14, created when she was 51, which would earn her a spot on the “Pregnancy over age 50” chart in Wikipedia. Yes, but what did she do? Like Mary, she nurtured, comforted, noticed the world around her and breathed. She worked hard at home and supported those kids, but she also walked barefoot in the backyard when the sun was at its zenith. Not enough to fill an obituary perhaps, but the kind of life that is honored in a profound poem.
Mary, your Alma Mater is not disappointed. She is proud of you—after all, she is a mom, too. Moms want their children to be happy, as you certainly are, living your ordinary life filled with extraordinary insight—and love.
Joan Matthews, ’72, MA ’75
Northbrook, Illinois
Einstein Reconsidered
How ironic that so often in retrospect “small,” i.e., unheard, voices turn out to be the more accurate predictors of things to come. In John Bunzel’s wonderful vignette of a couple of hours with Albert Einstein in 1947 (“My Evening with Einstein,” January/February), the reference to Churchill’s blind, near-mindless hatred of communism, reaching its apotheosis in the “Iron Curtain” speech, recalls the virtually immediate consolidation of the West into the bellicose and belligerent Cold War posture, while the more reasonable voices, as Einstein’s, tarred with the pejorative “pacifist,” went unheeded.
There are about 80 Russian studies programs in the United States, and heaven only knows how many Russian-specialist PhDs scattered throughout the intelligence services as well as the State Department. Not one of them spoke out in the following four decades about what turned out to be a hollow, rotting Soviet Union that had only a space program, ballet and drug-fueled Olympic success, which the West regarded as characteristic of the rest of the Soviet Union.
I hope your readers will accept the eyewitness experience of several dozen Americans staffing a Voice of America exhibit touring the Soviet Union for two years beginning in 1987, with two months in each major city. It was my privilege and honor to serve as exhibit physician in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Paris of the Caucasus. My presence, at considerable taxpayer expense, was itself a condemnation of the Soviet medical system. Having some facility with Russian and Armenian permitted me an intimate peek into what conditions prevailed in that tortured nation. Does any American now know that butter, eggs, meat and gasoline were rationed? Did any American then know that [Soviets’] vaunted ambulances were devoid of any equipment? Or that they could not be contacted due to the nearly total absence of telephone service except at the post office? Or that of 10 new ballpoint pens, none worked? Or that almost every piece of reinforced concrete was cracked? Or that the overnight train from Tbilisi to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, a three-hour automobile ride almost without altitude variation through the Caucasus, took 11 hours because the speed was limited to 25 mph due to the divergence of the tracks? Or that this was one of the main railroad lines they would use if we created any mischief in the Middle East? Or that anti-Semitism and its mother, xenophobia, were rampant? Einstein correct again. A society in complete tatters.
But worse than that was the glaring decrepitude of a retrograde nation incapable of even feeding itself. Why this was not evident to the West or kept from us is not an idle question. Nor does anyone question the comfort we still take that Reagan brought the U.S.S.R. to its knees and bankrupted it. Similar to the wolf blowing over the pigs’ straw house. It is not an exaggeration to now assert that the Cold War was a creation of the West while fashioning a bogeyman out of the toothless and clawless Soviet Bear. The “why” of all this I leave to others. Maybe Einstein knew.
A more urgent reminder is that at present we are re-creating the Iron Curtain. To what benefit is it to the United States to have a nation that covers half the time zones and has existed for almost a millennium and a half brought to its knees by our sanctions and isolation? The stark reality is that for some inexplicable reason the voices of reason, as was Einstein’s, are always less appealing than those of belligerence. Einstein could not know how right he was, while Churchill was forever convinced he was right. Bunzel paraphrases Einstein as saying that he did not believe the Russians were a threat to peace. He should have added that Churchill and his legacy were the true threat.
Myron Gananian, ’51, MD ’59
Menlo Park, California
What a wonderful window into that great man’s character! But I must take exception to the statement “to develop an atomic bomb changed the outcome of the war” (emphasis mine). I say that the outcome was never in doubt by the vast majority of Americans and our leaders.
Major F. Gates, Gr. ’63
El Granada, California
Thinking Broadly
Kudos to President Tessier-Lavigne for his thoughtful and balanced article about STEM subjects and the liberal arts (“Ensuring Academic Breadth,” President’s Column, January/February). This is a subject that has concerned me and some of my family members (many of whom have attended Stanford) for some time, and it was gratifying to see the president’s concern. Well done!
Julie Barton
Saratoga, California
For something written by a scientist, I found Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s piece interestingly unscientific. “We will not have served [undergraduates] well if they focus too narrowly.” What does that mean? From the rest of the article it sounds like focusing on computer science is what he thinks of as “too narrowly,” but he may mean engineering in general. Why? Why is engineering or even computer science more narrowly focused than economics? Aren’t the distribution requirements the way the university counteracts the “narrowness” of the major?
All of this is, of course, hogwash. His real concern is the same concern President Kennedy had 30 years ago when all those students were majoring in economics. Back then, we weren’t studying computer science to go to Silicon Valley; we were studying economics to go to Wall Street. This was of great concern to the faculty. Indeed, the economics faculty were so concerned with their major being seen as preparation for “trade” that accounting had to be taken in the engineering department, of all places. Now that Silicon Valley has replaced Wall Street as the career path of choice, the current president bemoans undergrads who want to prepare themselves to work in that field. Is his agenda really anti-specialization? Or is it anti- something much more dangerous to the faculty—like making money in business?
We know Tessier-Lavigne believes “if the university is strong in all fields, it will be well positioned to adapt to shifts as they occur.” Hard to see how that broadens the undergraduate experience, but it must have played well with the lonely faculty in the philosophy department (less than 1 percent of majors).
I hope that as he constructs his university of the universal that he consults with the GSB faculty on how well that is likely to turn out.
H.P. Boyle Jr., ’85
Darien, Connecticut
Deep Waters
Kesaya Noda’s End Note “The Bath” (January/February) deeply touched my family. In her graceful and poetic description of the connection between mother and daughter in the Japanese bath, Noda poignantly captures an essence of Japan. My wife is from Osaka, and she immediately wept as she read the piece. For anyone who has had the pleasure of a Japanese bath, it is not difficult to see why it is such an integral part of Japanese culture. In using the ritual of bathing as a metaphor for sharing the oneness of our humanity, Noda captures something deeply spiritual and real. My wife immediately placed it on our refrigerator for our daughters to read every day, the highest possible compliment in our home! Thank you.
Andrew M. Saidel, MA ’90
North Potomac, Maryland
Getting Names Right
NameCoach is an app newly introduced campus-wide to encourage faculty, students and staff to record their names so that others can properly pronounce them (“Important Pronouncement,” Farm Report, January/February). Tom Black, university registrar, thinks that getting the name right is critical to the development of a blended community with vast diversity. I agree, and would like the app to be made available to alumni and the new president as well. Tessier-Lavigne is French Canadian, but few are likely to pronounce it properly. As I was handed my diploma many years ago, though carefully annotated, my name was mispronounced—as it continues to be today. All this app needs is an 800 number and perhaps recorded alternative spellings, such as Papineau (Huguenot), to get names right the first time.
Bill Poppino, ’56
Schenectady, New York
Clued In
Nice work, David Steinberg! Will Shortz should be looking over his shoulder (“Precocious Puzzles,” Farm Report, January/February).
Mike Johnson, ’83
Oakland, California
‘Lavish Expenditure’
“Farming Redwood City” (Farm Report, January/February) indicates that my alma mater has joined the crowd that assumes a campus is nothing more than buildings belonging to a single enterprise on an expanse of land. We are told that “the new site will not play a major role in student life.” It will have no classes, no occupants “needing daily contact with students or faculty.” Clearly, the only thing that distinguishes the new “campus” from “a business park or an office park” is the fact that the owners and employees are from Stanford.
Instead of “a vibrant administrative campus,” the new facility is a monument to the administrative bloat that is helping to drive the escalating costs of higher education. The roughly $570 million of initial cost exceeds the endowment of about 80 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities. Such lavish expenditure is hardly something to celebrate.
John M. Gates, ’59, MA ’60
Wooster, Ohio
Seeking Clarity
I thank my classmate Jean-Louis Armand for raising the issue of the Flügges’ WWII activities in his letter (“The Flügges’ Wartime Work,” January/February). The Flügges held significant positions in the Nazi war industry from 1938 to 1944, its most nefarious period, yet their biographies and profiles scrupulously avoid this period, which begs the question of what the Flügges did during this time. Irmgard Flügge-Lotz has become an icon for women in engineering, so it is of considerable interest to delve into her behavior. I hope that Stanford will, as Armand requests, provide some clarity and light on this matter.
Harold Durlofsky, PhD ’71
San Jose, California
In the letter “The Flügges’ Wartime Work,” Jean-Louis Armand objected to the wording “after leaving Nazi Germany” in the short article about the “Lotz Method” of former Professor Irmgard Flügge-Lotz.
The relevant history of the late Professor Flügge-Lotz has appeared in many Stanford publications (for example, “A Life Full of Work—The Flügges,” which appeared in the May 1969 issue of the Stanford Engineering News).
As pointed out by Armand, the Flügges were employed by the DVL during the war, then were employed by ONERA in France, and then left for Stanford. The Stanford article wording of “after leaving Nazi Germany” could have given the impression that the Flügges were refugees escaping from Germany before the end of WWII. A correction of the above wording to “after leaving Europe” would have been in order and sufficient for the record.
Armand, however, then went on to attempt to discredit the Flügges’ legacy, decades after their deaths, with speculative and unsubstantiated statements such as “innocent victims of the bombings facilitated by the military research conducted by the Flügges and their colleagues,” as if workers in military research for a government were responsible for the atrocities carried out by that government. That is, of course, not true, and we believe Armand has contributed to an unfair representation of the character and contribution of two former distinguished members of the Stanford faculty.
As former students of the Flügges, we strongly believe that they have contributed in a major way to the research and teaching excellence of the faculty in the Division of Engineering Mechanics in the 1960s. Professor Flügge-Lotz was selected recently as a Stanford Engineering Hero and was the first female full professor in the School of Engineering. She is an early role model for female STEM students as demonstrated by her Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers and her inclusion in the brochure “Women in the Stanford University School of Engineering—Consider the Possibility.”
Allen Plotkin, PhD ’68
John Kaiser, PhD ’68
Jeffrey Fong, PhD ’66
James Gerdeen, PhD ’66
Wesley Brill, PhD ’66
Charles Steele, PhD ’60
Allen was a PhD student of Professor Irmgard Flügge-Lotz and is a professor of aerospace engineering at San Diego State University. John was also a PhD student of Professor Flügge-Lotz. Jeffrey, James and Wesley were students of both Professor Flügge and Professor Flügge-Lotz. Charles was a PhD student of Professor Wilhelm Flügge and is professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford.
Closing the Gap
As a fellow researcher in the field of inequity within the academic realm, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the work of Sean Reardon and his colleagues in Sam Scott’s article “The Gravity of Inequality” (November/December). It is clear that Reardon and his team have brought to light “the gap between the haves and have-nots” as it relates to academic achievement for American students of differing socioeconomic status and, by inference, race. Although clearly amateurs in comparison to the work of Reardon et al., we have been fortunate to have had the support of the California State University System, California Lutheran University and the National Center for Educational Statistics in leading a similar study, using survey results of over 16,000 high school students in the United States who participated in the Educational Longitudinal Study between 2002 and 2014.
It is not surprising that our results compare well with those published by Reardon and his team—namely that there are statistically significant differences in academic achievement (in our case, in the specific area of mathematics for high school students) among students of differing socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. Our study also showed that teens across the United States are being differentially prepared for math based on their (self-reported) race with regard to the highest math course taken in high school, with white and Asian students passing more advanced courses than their Latino and African-American peers. Additionally, high school students of different races reported statistically significant differences in their feelings of math capacity (“You have to be born with the ability to be good at math” and “I can do an excellent job on math tests”) and affinity (“I think math is fun” and “I think math is important”).
The most interesting result was found when comparing 10th graders taking geometry, which is generally considered to be “on track” in a standard high school course series. For this subset of students, Latino/Latina and African-American students had higher average grades on their transcripts than their white and Asian peers. After a case-by-case analysis of the data, it was discovered that these geometry classes contained higher-achieving Latinos and African-Americans (with a greater number of their Latino and African-American peers in lower-level classes) mixed with lower-achieving whites and Asians (with most of their white and Asian peers in higher-level classes).
Like Reardon, I have been inspired to investigate equality/equity considerations based on personal experiences, having had the pleasure of teaching in U.S. public and private schools in low socioeconomic areas (e.g., an all-African-American school in rural Georgia) and in extraordinarily affluent areas (e.g., an all-white school in an exclusive area of Southern California). Fortunately, there are potential structural and programmatic ways to close the achievement gap for high school students in the area of mathematics of varying races/socioeconomic tiers. Among those are the incorporation of “integrated” courses into the curricular framework, allowing students to exhibit capacity in a greater diversity of topics each year, as opposed to focusing only on one math area (e.g., algebra) for an entire year.
Finally, our research showed conclusively that one could effectively close the gap by pairing struggling students with a peer/adult mentor and ensuring that substantive discussions that focus on “forecasting future academic success” takes place. I am grateful for Reardon and his colleagues in the Stanford Graduate School of Education for continuing to inspire this important work as we seek equitable solutions to academic deficiencies for our young students.
James Martinez, ’87
Camarillo, California
Prisoners Remembered
“Lost and Found” (November/December) brought back some memories. My uncle, Phillip E. Wright, ’27, also was in the Bataan Death March after the surrender of U.S. forces in April 1942. He was interned at Camp O’Donnell, and possibly other camps, until November 1942 and then was sent by ship, along with hundreds of other prisoners, to a prison at Moji, Japan. He died in the prison hospital on November 29, 1942. My family learned by telegram from the War Department in December 1942 of Phil’s POW status, but otherwise knew nothing of his condition or location until after the war.
In March 1939, when I was six years old, I went with my father, William Q. Wright Jr., ’25 (Phil’s brother), and the rest of my family to San Francisco to see Phil off on a ship to Japan. Phil, a mining engineer, was headed for a new job at a mine in Japanese-occupied Korea. At the beginning of January 1940, the Japanese government ordered all foreigners to leave, and in February, Phil accepted a position in the Philippines. He began work in March at a gold mine owned by the San Mauricio Mining Co. and located near the village of Jose Panganiban on the Pacific coast of Luzon, southeast of Manila. Throughout his stay in the Philippines prior to the war, his letters home expressed increasing concern for the threat from Japan, but he believed, as did most others, that there would be sufficient warning to leave before hostilities began. After the Japanese attack on the Philippines, Phil made his way to Manila, enlisted in the U.S. Army and received a field commission as a first lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. His unit, whose mission was to map enemy positions and carry out activities that would hinder their advance, received three presidential citations.
From the beginning of the war to its end, my grandfather, William Q. Wright, Class of 1900, and my father made many requests to the War Department and other agencies for information regarding Phil. Other than being advised that he was a prisoner, they learned nothing more until about two months after the surrender of Japan in August 1945. When the surviving POWs held in Japan arrived back in the States, several of them who knew Phil contacted my family, and we finally were told what they had all been through and what had happened to Phil.
Foster Wright, ’54
Mill Valley, California
I, too, have a prison camp diary; it was buried in a jar by Lt. Edgar Gable in a Japanese war camp, Cabanatuan Prison Camp Number One, in the Philippines. I found it in the effects of my mother, June L. Caudle (Harrell), ’49, after she died this year; he was her stepmother’s first husband. Lt. Gable survived more than two years as a prisoner of war and swam to shore from the American bombing of the Oryoku Maru only to be recaptured and killed by an American bomber’s direct hit of a Japanese freighter that was transporting over 1,000 prisoners. Your publication concerning Lt. Robb was both timely and heartbreaking as we read about these brave men who were just trying to make it home.
I would be happy to share this publication, particularly as it has a list of names of fellow prisoners at the end of the journal.
Kim Lomax
Oakland, California
Heroes Needed
I wanted to thank you for the important piece profiling Cheo Hodari Coker (“Netflix’s Latest Marvel,” November/December). Even though I sat on a Class Panel at our last reunion with Cheo and knew of his tremendous accomplishments in the entertainment industry,
I had not realized that he helped bring Luke Cage to life at Netflix.
The introduction into American pop culture of a superhero who is not only African-American but also wears a hoodie and is bulletproof could not be more relevant or critical at a time when black men live in fear of getting shot in the streets for no reason and the Black Lives Matter movement has taken hold. I was fascinated to learn of Cheo’s personal history and inspired by the mantra of his grandfather who told him, “Either you fly your plane or you crash, while withstanding pressure and getting shot at. . . . it would behoove you not to %*@# it up.” America desperately needs more heroes like Luke Cage and more real-life role models like Cheo. Thank you for bringing his achievements to light.
MeiMei Fox, ’94, MA ’95
Honolulu, Hawaii
Preventing Rape
The November/December issue describes the changes to the alcohol policy (“Alcohol Policy Revised,” Farm Report). It was my understanding from reporting in the media that Stanford was changing the policy at least in part because of the Brock Turner rape on campus, in which the survivor had passed out. Yet your article fails to mention this crucial point. Changes in the alcohol policy are not going to prevent rape as long as the pernicious rape culture persists, in which (mostly) males are socialized from a very early age to see females as objects. In any case, it’s not hard to get very drunk on beer and wine. Alcohol may make rape easier, but Stanford really should be doing workshops with incoming students on rape culture.
Jessica Hirst, ’93
Venice, California
Editor’s note: Stanford is doing just that, among many other measures described in full at notalone.stanford.edu.
Story Suggestion
The November/December issue contains an interesting article entitled “She’s Gaining Fans” (Farm Report). Obviously, the general public has valid concerns about Muslims, since the majority of terrorist activities in the world during the past several years involve Muslims. But more important from a public standpoint is the question of what religious Muslims really think about non-Muslims. Are Christians really doomed? We can read a lot of misinformation on the internet that fans the fires. So why doesn’t the magazine do an in-depth and unbiased article on Muslim attitudes toward non-Muslims, what the Koran and Allah really say. It would be a very sought-after read.
William D. Pahland, ’57, MS ’59
Chico, California
Canine Complications
With the greatest respect to previous contributors (“Canine Cleanup,” Farm Report, November/December; “Canine Cover-up,” Letters,
January/February):
1. Our local council suggests that we dispose of dog feces in biodegradable bags placed in our “green bin.”
2. Flushing the poop sounds great, but flushing the gravel, twigs and leaves that accompany said poop . . . not so much.
3. “Dano” may dump where there are leaves/grass/dirt to cover it with, but when “Dano” dumps on the neighbor’s newly mowed front lawn (our dogs choose when/where), that’s
a nonstarter.
4. I can’t believe I’m writing to Stanford about . . . dog poop.
Christopher Leet Hungerland, ’62
Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Balance and Bias
Not long ago, I went searching for an unbiased (or “balanced”) source of news on the internet and could not find one (“The Ethics of Election Coverage,” September/October; “The Fourth Estate,” Letters, November/December). I think journalists are paid to express the biases of the publication they work for. Unless journalists are paid to be objective and evaluated on that basis, it is not going to happen.
As an alternative, I would teach student readers how to recognize the bias of writers and how to fact-check their work. This instruction could be part of a high school civics course.
Another idea would be to automate the process, so that when you display a news article on the web, there would also be a meter showing a relative number of liberal, conservative and independent views expressed therein and a count of factual errors, which would also be highlighted in the text.
Speaking of fact-checking, one of the letters in the last issue (“Narrowing the Gap”) mentioned Aid to Families with Dependent Children as a possible source of educational inequality. The AFDC was abolished in 1996.
Michael Day, MS ’71
Atlanta, Georgia
