POLITICAL PLEADING: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright brought her case for passage of a nuclear test ban treaty to the Hoover Institution in October. She spoke as diplomats from countries that supported the treaty were meeting to decide what to do if the United States didn't sign on. (The Senate rejected it October 13.) "The United States is there, but only as an observer," Albright said. "That is simply not right." Horst G. Krenzler, an architect of the European Union, told Stanford scholars in late September that Europe has more soldiers than the United States but doesn't get its money's worth because the bloc's troops aren't united into a single military force. Gary K. Hart, California secretary of education, made a campus stop in November to give a speech on accountability, policy making and funding for schools.
THE BUSINESS SCOOP: Two hippies-turned-ice-cream-peddlers, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, told a campus crowd in October how Ben & Jerry's integrates social concerns with corporate planning. "We redefined the bottom line, not only looking at how much money we make, but how much we give back to the community," said Greenfield. Gustavo Franco, the former governor of Brazil's central bank, discussed the political problems reformers must take into account if they want to achieve economic success.
ACTIVE ARTISTS: Rapper and evangelist MC Hammer came to campus in October to talk about the role Christianity has played in his life. "Our real purpose is God's purpose," he said. Pina Bausch, the iconoclastic choreographer and founder of Germany's Tanztheater Wuppertal, danced in October as part of the Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanities and Arts. Chinese poet Bei Dao, who was accused of inciting the 1989 protesters in Tiananmen Square, read from his latest work before a campus audience in November.
