Sticks and Stones
When Don Quixote sets free the galley slaves and they pelt him with stones, Cervantes wryly observes that the gracious knight was not overburdened with gratitude. Nor were those who came to the aid of Lori Gottlieb ("Left for Dead," January/February 1999). If one looks beyond the volley of stones (sarcasm, ridicule) she offers up, it is clear she received superb medical care. All the right things were done, and done promptly. A smashed-up woman was put back together, shepherded through a minefield of potential complications and released reasonably intact, able to resume her writing career and tell us what boorish clods her doctors and nurses were.
If I am seriously injured, I wish to be taken to the hospital that received Ms. Gottlieb. Well done, trauma team -- well done, indeed.
Robert Hetland, '58
Portola Valley, California
Lori Gottlieb's writing is so vivid that it is hard to stop thinking about her experience. I have an overwhelming desire to know how she is doing.
Lynn Eyberg, '69, MA '70
Houston, Texas
Lori Gottlieb replies: I am much better, left with minor inconveniences rather than major life obstacles. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have my life back pretty much as I'd known it, with the added advantage of a profound sense of perspective as I embark on what promises to be a very stressful career path: medicine.
Partisan Sloganeering?
Although voicing a disdain for "partisan sloganeering" over affirmative action, Ellis Cose leaps right into the fray in "Race and Admissions" (January/February 1999). For example, he says The Bell Curve is a "paean to high IQ scores." People who may agree with its authors are "acolytes." Apparently those who oppose affirmative action or, more accurately, gender and racial preferences, do so with "fiery" rhetoric. Well, who might they be? Ward Connerly is gentlemanly and precise. The Bell Curve is a widely misquoted (by the left) scholarly treatise that puts most readers to sleep. So who are those guys, anyway? Rush Limbaugh? The Stanford Review? Well, shucks, somebody has to stand up to Jesse Jackson.
Mr. Cose, in other words, is hardly an objective observer. For a little balance, why not have Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution review the Bowen/Bok book? In my dreams.
Dick Wharton, '53
Tucson, Arizona
I don't know where Bob Cohn obtained his information about the number of black students in the freshman class that entered Stanford in 1960, as reported in the sidebar, "How It Works at Stanford." I entered that year, and I recall four African Americans entering with me -- two women and two men. The senior class pages of the 1964 yearbook include photos of two or three others I would say are also African Americans.
I also don't find it accurate to characterize as "dramatic" an increase of about seven African Americans a year for 10 years. To take a decade to go from two (or four or even seven) to 78 hardly makes the increase a dramatic jump. The increase is dramatic only if one forgets it took 10 years to achieve or if, perchance, one believes it was hard to find black students ready and able to attend Stanford in the '60s.
Aimée Dorr, '64, MA '66, PhD '70
South Pasadena, California
Bob Cohn replies: The source for the number of black freshmen enrolling in 1960 is The Study of Education at Stanford, a 10-volume report released in December 1968. A table on page 59 of volume four indicates that six blacks applied in 1960, three were admitted and two enrolled.
Core Values
To experience intellectually the essence of Stanford University, one has only to read President Casper's last two insightful columns. The review of the graduate father describing Stanford to classmates of his soon-to-be-undergraduate son (November/December 1998) should have made every alum shiver with emotion. As a young lad who grew up in a conservative town and then attended Stanford in the Vietnam era, I had my values challenged to the core and my perspectives widened to their limits by the intellectually honest Stanford environment. The need-blind admissions policy articulated by President Casper (January/February 1999) allowed my evaluation and entrance to be based on who I was and what I did rather than on my family's ability to finance the education.
In spite of the warts Stanford has at times, I am truly proud to be associated with the institution.
Victor J. Zannis, '72
Phoenix, Arizona
Menlo’s Manifesto
"Gimme Shelter" (January/February 1999) misrepresents policies of Stanford's neighboring communities while freely quoting in-house public relations masters Larry Horton and Condoleezza Rice. It sounds more like common boosterism than independent and responsible journalism. To set the record straight: Menlo Park's position has been and is to support responsible land use and transportation policy within our city's boundaries and to encourage similar policies in neighboring communities.
While I support Stanford's efforts to build housing for students, staff and faculty, I believe these goals can be met without wasting irreplaceable open space such as Ohlone Field and without building more roadway capacity in the Sand Hill Corridor. Stanford University, like the other major economic powers of the Silicon Valley, must also accept some responsibility for the outrageous price and shortage of housing. In addition, it must moderate its programs of perpetual expansion. Improvement in the housing situation will be fleeting at best unless regional job growth is curtailed.
Steve Schmidt, '64, MAR '68
City council member
Menlo Park, California
I'm sure Stanford's graduate students are only a small percentage of the total number of people looking for reasonable housing at a reasonable cost. This is not just a local problem; it is a global problem. Too many couples continue to overproduce what the environment cannot provide for: more people. Why not put more emphasis into the care and support of the children and adults that are with us now, and less into having children?
Jackie Leonard-Dimmick
Atherton, California
Law and Disorder
President Casper said in his State of the University address ("For Junior Faculty, More Money for Research," January/February 1999) that he considers himself a professional defendant and a victim of "an excessive and overreaching legal system." The best hope for legal reform may come from such trouble because universities have been unwitting leaders in promoting the excesses and corruption of the system for 35 years.
For one thing, universities expanded law school enrollments to make money. This expansion created thousands more lawyers who had to make car payments by generating lawsuits. Derek Bok, former president of Harvard, lamented that higher education should examine its role in sending so many of our brightest students into a sector of the economy "that adds nothing to the GNP." Ha! Not only do lawyers not add to the GNP, but they siphon off millions of dollars in worthless paperwork and legal defense.
Secondly, universities have promoted the intellectual stock of multiculturalism while shamelessly betraying the equally valuable intellectually importance of the melting pot. Melting pot neighborhoods and communities resolved a lot of differences informally, while the multicultural model forces arbitration of differences into the courts. The melting pot philosophy not only sought common ground, but actively worked to create it. A simple example of this is that in a melting pot neighborhood, everyone understood you didn't play loud music after 9 p.m. In a multicultural neighborhood, you either have to tolerate your neighbor's loud music after midnight or take him to court.
Peter Slovenski, MA '80
Brunswick, Maine
Cause and Effect
"The MTV-Alcohol Connection" (January/February 1999) summarizes research showing an association between the number of hours of MTV watched by youngsters and the subsequent onset of alcohol use. The article implies that this research shows that watching MTV causes alcohol use. That may, in fact, be the case; however, it is a lapse in basic scientific thinking to so easily assume that association demonstrates a causal relationship. To do so would be like saying that gray hair causes enlarged prostates. In the case of MTV and alcohol use, it is possible that they share a common origin, such as parenting style or genetics.
Christopher Dutra
Berkeley, California
Researcher Thomas N. Robinson replies: An association is not necessarily a cause, as Dr. Dutra points out. Only an experimental study, where the researcher manipulates the hypothesized causal factor, can determine cause and effect. However, in the context of other research on this topic, our findings did strongly suggest a cause-and-effect relationship (see full report in the November Pediatrics Electronic Pages, ).
Back to School
Perhaps because I'm nostalgic about my recent Stanford years, or perhaps because I'm now teaching high school and have returned to the world of clean chalkboards, desks in rows and dismissal bells, I enjoyed Christina McCarroll's Student Voice essay, "When We Were Kids" (November/December 1998). She captured the essence of these memories. From one English major to another, I hope she keeps writing.
Hadley Abernathy, '97
San Francisco, California
Turning the Ivy Green
You deserve great kudos for the January/February issue. So many of the articles were fascinating. As an alumna of Radcliffe College, I have for many years received Harvard Magazine. Until now, it was far superior to Stanford in nearly every way, but you have now surpassed my original alma mater. Thank you for a superb issue.
Betsy Swann Crowder, MS '72
Portola Valley, California
Humanity, If Not Humility
I had previously placed Carl Djerassi ("What's Next?" November/December 1998) on the short arc of the pendulum between deity and delusional egomaniac. Since reading your article, I can appreciate his humanity, even though it appears he lacks not only false humility but the real thing as well. I would not care to be his neighbor, but I am pleased that he continues to create, and to associate with my university.
Please consider using more work by the article's author, David Jacobson; his is among the best writing in a truly high-quality publication.
Erik Thompson, '79, MA '82, MBA '84
Las Vegas, Nevada
Re David Jacobson's fawning article on Carl Djerassi, who "can't stop," it's too bad he hasn't. Apparently Carl's bank account, huge as it is, is exceeded by his ego. Comparing himself to Flaubert, indeed! I suggest he accept his past kudos, settle down and join the Buck and Cardinal Club.
Peter Goodloe Behr, '50
South Woodstock, Vermont
Coming Unglued
Simple things are, at times, quite meaningful. I thoroughly enjoy reading my Stanford, and I like to share it. I leave my best magazines for my staff to read, and they in turn leave them in the waiting area for my patients to read. Thus, it is very problematic to have my home address stuck on the front of the magazine for anyone to copy. It is with deep appreciation that I find your sticker the easiest of all to remove.
William D. Goldie, '69
Ventura, California
Three More Gifts from Greeks
Long after leaving Stanford, I began to realize how great the early Greeks were. They developed or improved every great institution that runs our current system. The authors of "Who Killed Homer?" (September/October 1998) mentioned nine fields to which the ancient Greeks contributed. Here are three they left out:
- sports (this was begun by the Greeks at the first Olympic games);
- the jacuzzi (today's design is almost exactly as laid out by the ancient Greeks); and
- modern medicine (they separated medicine from religion and instituted rational investigation, keeping an open mind to new observations and findings).
I also enjoyed reading "Founding Fathers" (July/August 1998), on Hewlett-Packard's sense of social responsibility and openness with competitors -- something too often lacking in great business and industrial enterprises. A very big point, which went unmentioned, is how this stands in contrast to Bill Gates's system of keeping a strong grip on everything, being secretive and destroying all potential opposition. We can be very proud of what HP has given us.
Leo Miller, '38, MD '42
La Jolla, California
Self-Congratulations
We are pleased to report that Jackie Krentzman's article on Phil Knight ("The Force Behind the Nike Empire," January/February 1997) was among "notable" stories honored in The Best American Sports Writing 1998 (Houghton Mifflin).
Address letters to:
Letters to the Editor
Stanford magazine
Arrillaga Alumni Center
326 Galvez Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6105
Or fax to (650) 725-8676; or send us an email. You may also submit your letter online. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and civility. Please note that your letter may appear in print, online or both.
