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By JULIA ENTHOVENSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Recently elected ASSU Presi-dent Robbie Zimbroff 12 said thathe believes the 2012-2013 ASSU rep-resentatives should adopt an ap-

proach that is more cooperative andless politicized than that of previousrepresentatives when interactingwith University administrators.

Honesty and openness is a goodpolicy, Zimbroff said. I dont thinkthat hiding your cards, or trying to beoverly political, is a function of stu-dent government.

I think student government issomething different than politics,Zimbroff added. Youve got to un-derstand [that] there are ways to

make solutions mutually beneficialor mutually productive rather thandistributive.

This contention was challenged,however, by former ASSU Execu-tive Michael Cruz 12, who said thatwhile student representatives gener-ally preserve a cooperative relation-ship with the University, sometimessenators and members of the Gradu-ate Student Council should adopt a

more adversarial approach.Its actually, in many times, morebeneficial to utilize the frame of anadversarial role as opposed to a co-operative one . . . because of theconstrained nature of working as aSenator or as a member of the[GSC], Cruz said. Most of yourchange that can be implemented isthrough the legislature, and legisla-tion, especially when presenting anopinion, is naturally adversarial.

Shahryar Abbasi, external affairs

vice president of the Associated Stu-dents of the University of California(ASUC), endorsed the adversarialprocess of debate and said that atBerkeley, partially due to its cultureof activism, students have extensiveinfluence on almost every adminis-trative decision.

On no decision do we agree 100percent, Abbasi said of the ASUCsresponse to University policies. We

critically think through everything,and if there is too much agreement,there is probably something wrong.

ASUC functions as an independ-ent 501(c)(3) corporation, receivingno funding from the University, andlobbies policy makers on both inter-nal and external affairs, according toAbbasi and the ASUCs current andpast advocacy agendas.

Moreover, students serve on ad-

By ALEXIS GARDUNOSTAFF WRITER

Researchers at the Schoolof Medicine have invented a

light-powered retinal implant or bionic eye that maysomeday restore sight tothose blinded through certaindegenerative eye diseases.

According to a recentstudy in the journal NaturePhotonics, the treatment,which stimulates visual neu-rons with high resolution,could restore sight for peoplesuffering from retinal pig-mentosa and age-relatedmacular degeneration, withonly minimal surgery.

The implant combines in-frared video-projection gog-gles with a small photovoltaicchip implanted inside theretina to replicate normal

eyesight. Images from aminiature camera mountedon the goggles are processedand projected onto the gog-gles screen, before laser puls-es of near-infrared light beamthe images to the chips pho-toreceptors.

Researchers had to over-come the obstacle of deter-mining how to deliver a lot oflight without causing pain forthe user.

If we used visible light, it

would be painfully bright,said Daniel Palanker, profes-sor of ophthalmology and thestudys senior author. Near-infrared light isnt visible to

the naked eye, though it is vis-ible to the diodes that are im-planted as part of this pros-thetic system.

The research team initiallytested the photodiode arrayson rat retinas in vitro, allow-ing the team to demonstratethat the photodiodes couldconvert visual images to elec-trical signals in a situationsimilar to that induced by de-generative eye diseases.Those signals would in turnbe transmitted to the brainvia retinal neurons.

The photoreceptor cellsare dead and gone; all that isleft are the (light-insensitive)signal processing neurons,

wrote James Loudin Ph.D. 11P.D. 11, the studys co-firstauthor, in an email to TheDaily. Without somethingthat electrically stimulatesthem (which is our photodi-ode array), they will simplynot see any light of ANY fre-quency.

Loudin emphasized thenumber of technological ob-stacles to developing the elec-

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A n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o nwww.stanforddaily.comThe Stanford DailyTTHURSDAY Volume 241May 24, 2012 Issue 67

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

ASSU leaders discuss student influence

RESEARCH

Researchers developbionic eye implant

Gul emphasizes responsibilites and burdens of leadershipBy NATASHA WEASER

DESK EDITOR

Effective leaders must love to learn,change and expand, said Abdullah Gul, presi-dent of Turkey, to a packed Cemex AuditoriumWednesday afternoon. If you are not learning,maturing, changing or expanding, then youcannot expect the people to believe in you andfollow you.

Guls speech titled Leading Change byReform, Commitment and Innovation: Reflec-tions on Leadership by the President ofTurkey was part of the Graduate School ofBusinesss (GSB) View from the Top lectureseries, a student-run program that brings

prominent figures to campus to share their in-

sights on effective leadership.Prior to being elected president in 2007, Gul

served as Turkeys foreign minister from 2003to 2007 and prime minister from 2002 to 2003.He is a member of the Justice and Develop-ment Party in Turkey, a center-right party cur-rently holding a strong majority of seats withinTurkeys parliament.

The next decade is likely one where Turkeyplays an increasingly important role bridgingeconomic, geopolitical, cultural boundaries,said GSB Dean Garth Saloner as he intro-duced Gul.

Gul focused his talk on leadership traits andskills, which he applied to examples from his

Turkish President talksleadership, innovation

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Ingrassia linkscars, US history

RESEARCH

Stanford team exploreshypersonic flight theory

By FELIX BOYEAUX

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The possibility of hyperson-ic flight offering endless po-tential in air and space travelbut also posing numerous engi-neering challenges recentlybecame the domain of Stanfordengineers. The Stanford Predic-tive Science Academic AllianceProgram (PSAAP) received afive-year $20 million grant fromthe U.S. Department of Energy(DOE) to investigate the sub-

ject virtually.

The DOE awarded grants tofive universities interested inresearching and developing so-lutions to overarching prob-lems as varied as the hyperve-locity impact of metallic projec-tiles and the atmospheric re-entry of space capsules. TheStanford team chose to tacklethe challenge of hypersonicflight, which could potentiallyresult in speeds of up to 15

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Abdullah Gul, president of Turkey, spoke Wednesday afternoon in Cemex Auditoriumon leadership traits and skills. He also addressed the ascendancy of Turkey within the

Middle East and identified social media and technology as forces for the 21st century.

OLLIE KHAKWANI/The Stanford Daily

M.J MA/The Stanford Daily

Please see GUL, page 5

Pulitzer Prize-winner sees automobilesas cause, effect of American experience

Please see FLIGHT, page 2

Please seeASSU, page 2

By AARON SEKHRISTAFF WRITER

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul In-grassia spoke to a packed audience Wednes-day evening at the Stanford Automotive In-novation Facility on the subject of his newbook, Engines of Change, which providesa cultural history that explores how carshave both propelled and reflected the Amer-

ican experience.The event was hosted by the Center forAutomotive Research at Stanford (CARS)and the Revs Program, and featured Ingras-sia, deputy editor in chief of Reuters News, ina casual and humorous discussion. R.B.Brenner, a visiting communication lecturerand fellow Pulitzer Prize winner, moderatedthe event.

Throughout the discussion, Ingrassiamaintained that particular cars in Americanhistory have either defined or have served asapt reflections of the cultural zeitgeist. Fromthe Model-T Ford to todays Toyota Prius, In-grassia argued that cars tell us a great dealabout ourselves and can even influence theway we live and behave.

Engines of Change examines 15 quin-tessentially American vehicles in the contextof their time, assessing each on their influ-

ence and place in history. Begi nning withthe Model-T Ford, Ingrassia described howthe manufacturing practices established byHenry Ford created the notion of mass man-ufacturing and essentially ended the ruralpeasantry.

He continued to describe how the 1920sLaSalle, a General Motors creation, was aharbinger of the roaring 20s, a time of in-creasing wealth when cars meant more thanmobility they meant social mobility.

Ingrassia reviewed both the Cadillac and

Zimbroff advocates cooperativeapproach toward University

Please see INGRASSIA, page 2 Please see EYE, page 2

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2N Thursday, May 24, 2012 The Stanford Daily

trical system, including fabrica-tion processes that had neverbeen tried before, data analysistechniques for hundreds of giga-bytes of data, infrared projec-

tion systems 1,000 times brighterthan had ever been tried.Retinal implants have been

successfully trialed in the U.K.,with two men who were com-pletely blind subsequently ableto perceive light and someshapes.

However, Stanford researchersasserted that compared to otherretinal prostheses requiring abattery connected to the im-plant, the Stanford devices useof near-infrared light and lack oflarge power-consuming hard-ware makes surgically implanti-ng and then maintaining thechip more straightforward.

The surgeon needs only tocreate a small pocket beneath the

retina and then slip the photo-voltaic cells inside it, Palanker

said.Utilizing photovoltaic cells on

the retinal implant would alsoallow the insertion of multiplearrays selectively positioned tocreate a wider field of vision at ahigher resolution than compara-ble implants, according to re-searchers.

As development continues,however, researchers have begun

testing the effect of implants onlive rats, analyzing electricalspikes to measure whether lightperception has changed.

We recorded the response oftheir retinal ganglion cells(RGCs) to our stimulation.When successfully stimulated, aRGC will cause an electricalspike. The strongest response isthus the one that produces themost spikes, Loudin wrote.

Thus far, researchers have de-termined that the implants visu-al signals are successfully trans-mitted to the brain in blind andnormal rats alike. However,human trials remain an ultimate,if distant, ambition.

Contact Alexis Garduno at agar-duno@stanford.edu.

EYEContinued from front page

NEWS BRIEFS

Stanford offers green

energy certificate

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

In response to an increasingemphasis on addressing rising

global energy consumption, Stan-ford has started to offer a new pro-fessional certificate program in re-newable energy.

The online program, EnergyInnovation and Emerging Tech-nologies, aims to examine emerg-ing renewable energy technolo-gies and their practical applica-tion, as well as guiding the devel-opment and marketing of newtechnologies.

Determining which technolo-gies work and can be brought tomarket mass-scale is an urgentchallenge for engineers and busi-nesses, said Michael McGehee,associate professor of materialsscience and engineering and theprograms academic director, ac-cording to Enhanced OnlineNews. This is an exciting time tobe in the energy field.

Faculty from the schools of en-

gineering and earth sciences willlead course instruction. Partici-pants will attain a professional cer-tificate through the completion offour courses from a portfolio of sixor more courses, covering topicssuch as biofuels and shale gas.

The program is offered by theStanford Center for Professional

Development, Stanfords principaloutlet for distance learning.

Marshall Watkins

Obama makes Bay

Area fundraising trip

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

President Barack Obama ar-rived in the Bay Area Wednesdayfor a two-day fundraising trip, dur-ing which he will hope to raise atleast $3 million in campaign dona-tions for the upcoming presiden-tial election, according to the WallStreet Journal.

The president attended afundraiser Wednesday evening at aprivate Atherton home. The$35,800-a-plate dinner was attend-ed predominantly by Silicon Valley

executives, as well as some promi-nent figures from other industries,such as actor Don Cheadle.

The President subsequently at-tended a larger event Wednesdayevening at Redwood Citys FoxTheatre, before continuing hiscampaign schedule today in SanJose. His trip marks the first time

that Obama has visited the BayArea since September, and may according to an invitation for yes-terdays event be his last visitthere this cycle.

Obamas trip comes amidstconcerns that Silicon Valley execu-tives have lost faith in his adminis-tration and have instead donatedheavily to Republican candidateMitt Romney. Obama has raised$2.6 million from the technologyindustry this election cycle, as op-posed to $3.5 million at this pointin 2008.

By contrast, Romneys experi-ence in venture capital appears tohave won over some technologyexecutives, a fundraising inroad hewill hope to reinforce with a WestCoast fundraising trip scheduledfor next week.

Marshall Watkins

IAN GARCIA-DOTYThe Stanford Daily

Paul Ingrassia, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and deputy editor in chief of Reuters News, spoke Wednes-day on the role of the car in American culture and history. Ingrassia framed the automotive as a reflection ofthe prevalent zeitgeist of a period and detailed its impact in areas as diverse as politics and sociology.

the Corvette and discussed theVolkswagen Beetle at length.

I always find it funny thatHitlers car became the hippieicon, he remarked, referring tothe Volkswagens troubled history.

Initially, the Beetle was sold in

America simply to bring hard cur-rency to German automakers cof-fers, but the combination ofbreakthrough marketing practicesand a steady counter-culture[movement] against excess andconspicuous consumption pro-pelled the car in the Americanmarket.

Ingrassia went on to claim halfin jest that the 1960 Chevy Corvairchanged the outcome of the 2000presidential election. Ingrassiaargued that Ralph Naders excori-ating book Unsafe at AnySpeed, which featured the Cor-vair heavily, contributed toNaders popularity and siphonedoff votes from Al Gore in the nar-rowest of recent U.S. presidential

elections.Ingrassia demonstrated links

between American history andcar design and production, mostmemorably with a discussion of

fins on cars as indicative of thegrowing influence of marketingand a carefree post-war boommentality.

The 70s were not a gooddecade in America, Ingrassiasaid. We had oil shocks, a humili-ating loss in Vietnam, Watergate,stagflation. Enter Honda, who, 30years to this year, opened its firstfactory in Ohio, marking a water-shed moment in American auto-motive industry, and brought glob-

alization over here.Ingrassia subsequently focusedon companies efforts to tap intodifferent generations of drivers, ar-guing that certain vehicles arrivedat seminal moments that ensuredtheir success and place in automo-tive industry.

Chrysler, with its minivans,was able to tap into the baby-boomers when they had grown up,cleaned up, taken a shower, gottenserious, gotten jobs, gotten mar-ried and had children, Ingrassiaclaimed.

The BMW by contrast definedthe notion of luxury for a genera-tion of yuppies whose whole un-derstanding of luxury had shiftedfrom ornamental and ostentatious

to comfort, a sentiment to whichthe German manufacturer, ac-cording to Ingrassia, obviously ap-pealed.

Personal journeys and auto-

motive journeys intertwine, hesaid. Think about it. We wentfrom hippie to yuppie and fromBeetle to Beamer. That tells yousomething about us.

He went on to discuss the influ-ence of the pickup truck as politi-cal statement and the Toyota Priusas an environmental one, repeat-edly pressing the point that carsare salient representations of cul-ture.

Speaking to The Daily after the

event, Ingrassia framed the sub-ject as not a uniquely Americanstory.

There is something distinctabout cars here, the wide openroads . . . but this can be seen allaround the world, he said, recall-ing observing a similar passionand thrill for cars in India on a re-cent trip.

With regards to the future ofcars, Ingrassia said he sees au-tonomous cars as disruptive, inthe long term. He retains the be-lief, however, that cars can bepractical or they can be for the

joy of driving them, which meansthat different functions willchange the way we approach fu-ture cars.

And what does he drive? Ared BMW, he said with a smile.

Contact Aaron Sekhri at asekhri@stanford.edu.

INGRASSIAContinued from front page

visory committees to every majoradministrative or policy-makingbody, and Abbasi said that theUniversity chancellor very rarelydisregards the students advisoryopinions.

The way the culture is [atBerkley] is that you never sayno, he said. The University will

try to take this power-wheedlingstance sometimes, and we justdont accept it. Its very much apush-back relationship.

Its an amazing association,and never before have I seen thismuch regard for student opin-ion, Abbasid added. The stu-dents are so involved in the deci-sion-making. When Ive spokento my colleagues at other institu-tions, I would say it is unparal-leled.

The ASSU, with a mission toadvocate[s] on behalf of Stan-ford students on issues such ascost of living, diversity, studentlife and student activities space,garners authority through its con-stitution, a contractual agreementbetween the University, theBoard of Trustees, and the stu-dent body (the Associated Stu-dents of Stanford University, ofwhich all students are members).Additionally, it distributes annu-ally between $2 and $3 million ofindependent funding from its en-dowment and student fees to stu-dent activities, according to Cruz.

The ASSU also theoreticallyhas jurisdiction over the Office ofJudicial Affairs (OJA), whichoversees all judicial procedure oncampus. It is ostensibly requiredthat the Undergraduate Senateand the Graduate Student Coun-cil (GSC), in addition to the Pres-ident of the University, approve

any amendment made to the Ju-dicial Charter before it can gointo effect.

However, the ASSU constitu-tion explicitly states that nothingin this Charter limits or contra-venes the authority of the Presi-dent . . . to promulgate and en-force regulations governing stu-dent conduct, and that, in ex-traordinary circumstances, he orshe may alter judicial procedurewithout input or consent from theSenate or GSC.

While Zimbroff expressedconfidence that the administra-tion and the student body gener-ally want the same things, Cruzsaid that student advisors oftendisagree with University officials,

particularly in areas such as in-vestment responsibility, whereTrustees oversee the investmentand management of endowmentsecurities.

Cruz said that he believes thatthe influence of student voice isvested predominately in the stu-dent appointments made by theNominations Committee to over40 University committees every

year, similar to the structure ofstudent input at Berkeley. Cruzsaid, however, that because of theNomination Commissions grad-ual loss of prestige and its discon-nect from the ASSU representa-tive bodies, the student bodysvoice has been weakened.

The role of sitting as a mem-ber of the Nominations Commis-sion is not one that is particularlylauded on this campus, and there-by the accessibility metrics be-tween the elected bodies of the

association and thereby thestudents and the NominationsCommission tends to bestrained, he explained. Linkingit more directly to students andmore directly to elected studentrepresentatives greatly improvesthe ability of students to feel liketheyre having a say in the gover-nance of the University.

Cruz said that he feels theseproblems would have been allevi-ated by the establishment of thecentralized Nominations Com-mission outlined in a revised con-stitution proposed at the end ofwinter quarter by the GoverningDocuments Commission (GDC),which was chaired by Cruz andASSU Parliamentarian Alex

Kindel 14 and chartered last yearby the 13th Undergraduate Sen-ate.

Due to strong opposition fromGraduate Student Council mem-bers and ASSU alumni, however,the drafted ASSU constitutionwas not placed on the spring bal-lot in time for the student body toapprove its passage, despite sup-port from most current ASSUrepresentatives.

The Universitys relationshipwith students and student repre-sentation would greatly im-prove, Cruz said of the aimedconsequences of a new constitu-tion. As it stands . . . each of theNominations Commissions thatIve had the privilege to oversee

has faced significant hurtles infilling all of the nominated posi-tions . . . There would have beenmandated greater oversight overthese nominees, thereby ensuringthat student input is more direct-ly linked toward what nomineesare saying or voting on.

Contact Julia Enthoven atjjejje@stanford.edu.

ASSUContinued from front page

times the speed of sound.We considered many appli-

cations for our predictive scienceprogram before submitting ourfinal proposal, said Parviz MoinM.S. 75 78 Ph.D. 78, professorof mechanical engineering andPSAAP faculty director. We fi-nally settled with hypersonicflight as we thought it would be aproject we would have fun withand enjoy working on, and it wasa technological grand challenge.

The project also allows formultidisciplinary cooperationbetween the Computer Science,Aeronautic and Astronautic En-gineering, Mechanical Engineer-

ing and Mathematics depart-ments, as well as Stanfords Insti-tute for Computational andMathematical Engineering.

An overarching problem likethis one is the best catalyst topromote interdisciplinary re-search, Moin said. Thanks tothe combined work of these de-partments, we have alreadypushed and developed new nu-merical techniques, physicalmodels and computational plat-forms that are paving the way forpredictive science.

Stanford is at the cutting edgeof research in the discipline, ac-cording to Moin, having even pi-oneered a new science known asuncertainty quantification.

Uncertainty quantificationallows us to assess uncertaintiesin our numerical solutions,Moin explained. We can back

up our predictions with dataabout the error bounds.Thismight be the most importanttopic in the future of computa-tional science.

Moin also highlighted the im-pact of the DOE grant on theprograms operations.

We have essentially beenable to create a new mini nation-al laboratory, Moin said. Wehave a large cadre of postdoctor-al fellows and graduate studentswho interact in a way that hasnever been seen before. It hasbeen a paradigm shift in the waywe do research.

The large cadre of faculty,postdoctoral fellows and gradu-ate students is necessary to tacklethe challenges of hypersonicflight, according to Moin.

Nobody has been able to sus-tain hypersonic flight propulsion

for a longer amount of time,Moin said. Most tests havefailed, and the few who succeededlasted for only a few seconds.

The problem, Moin said, is thatat hypersonic speed air flows intothe combustion chamber of ascramjet engine at speeds up toMach 15. The time in which thecombustion has to occur is infini-tesimally short, and masteringsuch a reaction is the main chal-lenge of the project.

The equations are all well-known, but they are very hard tosolve, Moin said.

The teams extensive collabo-ration with the Computer ScienceDepartment, and the use of someof the worlds fastest supercom-puters to model hypersonic flight,is a direct consequence of theequations complexity.

We are heading towards exas-

cale computations, with morethan one quintillion flops [float-ing-point operations per second]and one million cores running si-multaneously, Moin said, ex-plaining that the coding and han-dling of such supercomputers hasrequired extensive Computer Sci-ence involvement.

The breakthroughs the Stan-ford PSAAP team has alreadymade and anticipates making inresearching hypersonic flight arelikely to impact many other fields.

We now know how to simu-late very complex flow dynam-ics, Moin said. This very tech-nology can also be applied to au-tomobiles, wind turbines, new en-ergy conversion technologies andin environmental science.

Contact Felix Boyeaux at fboyeaux@stanford.edu.

FLIGHTContinued from front page

I think studentgovernment is

somethingdifferent than

politics. ROBBIE ZIMBROFF,

ASSU president

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By AARON SEKHRISTAFF WRITER

When Thomas Pauly 12 andRebecca Hecht 12 neededfunding for their seniorproject, a theatrical pro-duction titled The Ones

Left Behind, they took an unconventionalapproach to raising the funds. After receiv-ing a generous but insufficient Angel Grant a $3,000 grant provided by Undergradu-

ate Advising and Research (UAR) to assiststudents in producing public creative works the pair created a project on Kickstarter,a popular crowd-funding platform thatallows individuals to seek funding for cre-ative projects.

Although the company was founded in2009 by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler andCharles Adler, the Kickstarter concepthad been in Chens mind since 2002, whenhe backed out of hosting a concert at theNew Orleans Jazz Fest because of the fi-nancial risk. After conversations with theothers, a philosophy emerged that theservice would target artists and entrepre-neurs who do not have traditional accessto financing or publicity.

Kickstarter representatives, followingcurrent company policy, declined to com-ment for this article.

The mechanics of the website are sim-ple, defined by two words: creative andproject. Creativity on Kickstarter is less adescriptor and more a prerequisite. The va-riety of Kickstarter projects is vast, with en-deavors ranging from filmmaking to designto manufacturing. The finite quality of acreative project is crucial to Kickstartersstandards.

A project is something finite with aclear beginning and end, reads the Kick-starter website. Someone can be held ac-countable to the framework of a project a project was either completed or it wasnt and there are definable expectationsthat everyone can agree to.

Each project must have a definedfundraising aim, an allotted time span andrewards for users who pledge money to theproject. Projects also must not violate Kick-

starter guidelines, such as straying fromKickstarters defined categories. As of May2012, over $175 million has been raised onthe website. On May 18, a Palo Alto-basedproject Pebble, which is developing asmartwatch that wirelessly connects tosmartphones to alert the wearer of mes-sages and calls, closed a round of fundrais-ing that exceeded $10,000,000 in backing,despite a goal of only $100,000.

The platform is designed for specific andfinite projects, and diminishes risk for bothinvestors and the producers. Unless thetotal is reached, no money changes hands. Ifa fundraising total is raised, the group be-hind the project does not need to commitany of its own money. This presents an idealsituation for those without traditional ac-cess to finance or investment capital particularly students.

Tom Cohlmia M.S. 13, a student in the

Stanford Design Program, took advantageof Kickstarter for his final assignment aspart of a Hasso Plattner Institute of Design(d.school) class, StoryViz. His unique sculp-

ture designs, which make use of etchedcrystal fragments, are part of a project hehas been developing since high school. Thedesigns proved a perfect product to marketon the website and Cohlmia reached histotal in a matter of days, ultimately raising$15,000 more than four times his goal.

Cohlmias project marks an expansionof the types of projects Kickstarter firsthosted, projects such as music performanc-es, art pieces and independent films.

I honestly think that Kickstarter ismost compelling for things, tangiblethings, Cohlmia said. Kickstarter forcesyou to prove your ability to do something,and so when you have a video showingwhat you can do and youre just asking formoney to make more of the thing, its muchmore compelling.

Cohlmia went on to challenge the no-tion that Kickstarter is a democratized plat-

form, where everybody has an equal shot atfundraising, or that good products willachieve their fundraising totals regardlessof their marketing and presentation efforts.

Kickstarter is just a smaller scale of thereal world, Cohlmia said. Salesmanship,timing, the quality of your video, are all justlike if you were selling the product conven-tionally. His advice for aspirant Kick-starters is to demonstrate a combinationof technical expertise with a compellingstory behind the product.

Rahul Bhagat, head of operations atPebble, also gave his thoughts on how to es-tablish a quality campaign salient advicecoming from the organizers of the mostsuccessful Kickstarter project to date.

One of the keys we found was to con-vey use cases through the video, Bhagatwrote in an email to The Daily. Sure, thetechnology is interesting but most people

just want to know how the device or servicewill fit into their day to day lives.

Interestingly enough, Pebble saw Kick-starter as a plan B . . . after having had

limited success with the traditional venturecapital route. The fallback route turnedout far more successful.

[The platform] gives you knowledge of

how many people are interested in yourproduct, feedback from potential con-sumers and raises capital without givingaway equity, Bhagat said.

The first of Pebbles watches will debutin September. Given the success of fundingprojects involving the development ofhardware projects different from themore traditional artistic projects that Kick-starter initially intended to support Kickstarter may prove more useful to par-ties interested in funding hardware devel-opment.

Its clear that the platform has the po-tential to support massive hardware andsoftware projects, Bhagat said. It is up tothe folks at Kickstarter to decide if they wantto continue to support these avenues.

Contact Aaron Sekhri at asekhri@stanford.edu.

The Stanford Daily Thursday, May 24, 2012N 3

ONLINEPLATFORMFUNDSCREATIVEPROJECTS

KICK-STARTINGTO SUCCESS

M.J MA/The Stanford Daily

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Youve probably heard thatIntroduction to the Hu-manities is being replaced

by a one-quarter requirementcalled Thinking Matters. In a priorDaily article, IHUM chair RussellBerman was quoted as saying thatthe new program is intended tohelp students transition from high

school thinking to college think-ing. Another major goal of theoverhaul is to give freshmen morespace in their schedules to exploredifferent academic areas, as the re-quirement will be completed inone quarter rather than the threequarters it takes to finish IHUM. Ithas also been generally admittedthat some students intensely dis-like IHUM, and of course every-one hopes that Thinking Matterswill be more popular.

The phrase Thinking Mat-ters could be read as mattersabout which to think, but I as-sume most people will read Mat-ters as a verb. The implicit mes-sage to incoming students will be

that this class is designed to teachthem that thinking is important.Wait a second isnt that a littlecondescending? Does anyone be-lieve the fact that thinking mat-ters is news to Stanford students?

The people who become Stan-ford undergraduates start out assome of the most academically

elite high school students in theworld. Every year, the number ofapplications rises and the admitrate drops a little lower, making itever harder to impress an admis-sions committee that is used toseeing perfect grades, near-per-fect test scores, and significantAdvanced Placement courseworkfrom its applicants. More andmore freshmen are coming in hav-ing already done college-like re-search projects, whether by work-ing in biology labs or pouringthrough historical archives. Isnt itcondescending to introduce thesepeople to college with a course ti-tled Thinking Matters, as if theydont already know that? If Stan-

ford admits know one thing, itsthat thinking has mattered a lot in

their lives. There are few groups inthe country that are less in need ofhearing this message.

I really do not mean to attackanyone with this column. I dontknow how Thinking Matters gotits name, but Im sure that no oneintended the name to disrespectthe abilities and accomplishmentsof incoming freshmen. Its noteasy to come up with a name to tietogether a broad general educa-tion requirement that can be ful-filled with a variety of seeminglyunrelated courses, and I personal-ly havent been able to think of an-other name. I just hope decision-makers will think more about theconnotations of the current titlebecause I want Thinking Mattersto succeed. When a requirementhas a patronizing name, it is askingto be disliked, regardless of thevalue of the course material.

In an absolute sense, futurefreshmen are almost guaranteedto like Thinking Matters morethan their predecessors likedIHUM, because they will be tak-ing it for just one quarter insteadof three. But will they truly enjoyThinking Matters? After all, it ispossible to be educated withoutenjoying it. The goal of generaleducation requirements is not toforce students to memorize anyspecific body of knowledge, butrather to encourage criticalthought. For students to experi-

ence intellectual growth in Think-ing Matters, they will have to en-gage with the material and be in-spired by it, which means they willhave to like it. If the requirementis instead subject to general deri-sion, then the few who choose toengage in class will likely suffer aThinking Matters kid stigma. Inmy opinion, students would feelfreer to get excited about the ma-terial if the course had a more in-tellectually serious title. ForThinking Matters to matter, itmight need a new name.

Jeffs last column is next week! Emailyour ideas to jeff2013@stanford.edu.

4N Thursday, May 24, 2012 The Stanford Daily

OPINIONSManaging Editors

The Stanford DailyE s t a b l i s h e d 1 8 9 2 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S P A P E R I n c o r p o r a t e d 1 9 7 3

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Deputy Editor

Kurt Chirbas & Billy Gallagher

Managing Editors of News

Jack Blanchat

Managing Editor of Sports

Marwa Farag

Managing Editor of Features

Sasha Arijanto

Managing Editor of Intermission

Mehmet Inonu

Managing Editor of Photography

Amanda Ach

Columns Editor

Willa Brock

Head Copy Editor

Serenity Nguyen

Head Graphics Editor

Alex Alifimoff

Web and Multimedia Editor

Nate Adams

Multimedia Director

Molly Vorwerck & Zach Zimmerman

Staff Development

Board of Directors

Margaret RawsonPresident and Editor in Chief

Anna SchuesslerChief Operating Officer

Sam SvobodaVice President of Advertising

Theodore L. Glasser

Michael Londgren

Robert Michitarian

Nate Adams

Tenzin Seldon

Rich Jaroslovsky

Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can bereached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal businesshours. Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multi-media@stanforddaily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

Tonights Desk Editors

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MODERNMANNERS

Does Thinking Matters matter?

CHERRY HILL, NJ. Stand-ing next to my dad underthe watchful eyes of the

sculpted Jesus I remembered wellfrom childhood church services, Iresolutely censored a mentalcurse. I hadnt attended CatholicMass regularly in years, and whileI was embarrassed by my stum-bling responses to some recentlyreworded portions of the service, Iwas still absolutely certain of pro-fanitys sacrilege during this par-ticular Sunday hour.

Whenever Im home for a visit,Im reminded of religions forma-tive importance during a child-hood that included attendingweekly Mass and religion classes,singing in the childrens choir,and, later, lectoring during servic-es.

Although my parents are veryspiritual people, both are scien-tists by training and liberals by na-ture. Their beliefs often divergedfrom the Churchs teachings whenreason suggested a more logicalalternative. Perhaps because mydad is Lutheran, I never believedthe Pope was infallible. As a fami-ly, we agreed that the Churchshouldnt refuse to distribute con-doms that could slow the spreadof AIDS in Africa. And my moth-er always bit back the urge to con-

front the anti-abortion campaign-ers that periodically fundraisedafter Sunday services.

For the most part, though, Iidentified myself as a Catholic.

That is, until I became acutelyaware of the role of conservativeChristianity in politics. Could I,now a young adult, stand with areligion whose conservative socialtenets I more often rejected thanaccepted?

Probably not. And after leav-ing home for college, I found my-self drifting farther and fartheraway from religious practice.

If anything, though, my spiritu-ality grew stronger. I worked for asummer in the Pacific Northwest,finding new cathedrals atop gla-

ciers and amid towering SitkaSpruce. I frequented New Jerseyscedar swamps and winter coast-line when I needed a quiet respiteto gain perspective. I realized that,whatever I might believe aboutthe existence of God or the right-ness of any one religion, the worksof evolution would always inspiremy sense of awe, leaving me witha sense of being encompassed, ab-sorbed, by something mysterious,something greater than myself.

Simultaneously, I learnedabout the myriad threats humanactivity poses to the naturalworld. Some threats, like the pro-duction of smog or poisoning ofwaterways, are obvious, and havebeen to some extent controlled.

Others, though, are longer-termand therefore harder to detectand address. And its these prob-lems like climate change,ocean acidification and nutrientpollution that will be left in thehands of our generation.

Back in the 1960s, a scientistnamed Lynn White argued that, inpart, our penchant for environ-mental degradation stemmedfrom a sense of entitlement pro-moted by the very religions thatshaped the Western world andshaped my own childhood. Chris-tianity and its sister monotheisticreligions set humankind apartfrom the rest of Creation, Whitewrote, authorizing us to exploit

any and all of the Earths re-sources that could be useful to us.

In a way, even traditional de-scriptions of environmental issues as negative human impacts ona world that is most natural inour absence promote this di-chotomy. And by seeing ourselves

as separate from the naturalworld, we both lose sight of thevery natural biological drivers be-hind our behavior, and distanceourselves from the idea of livingin tune with nature.

Perhaps, though, there may besomething to that old Christianseparation between man andbeast. Biology is full of examples E. coli on the Petri dish; lem-mings on the tundra in whichorganisms over-exploit their re-sources, leading to catastrophicpopulation crashes. Dependingon your reading of the data, hu-manity is on the brink of, or is al-ready, exceeding sustainable con-sumption rates, though we haveyet to hit our catastrophic break-

ing point. If being human meanscircumventing that crash bychoosingto scale back before wereach the point of no return, thenIm happy to draw the line be-tween humans and beasts.

So, too, are a growing numberof Christian environmentalists.Sometimes led by local leaderslike pastors and bishops, some-times organized into nationalcampaigns like the EvangelicalEnvironmental Network, evenmembers of the otherwise ultra-conservative Religious Right areciting biblical passages in whichGod charges humanity with stew-ardship over the planet. And theChristian Bible is certainly not theonly holy text to carry such a call.

As religious groups increasing-ly partner with environmental ac-tivists to call for action on climatechange, biodiversity loss andother global issues, I cant help butfantasize about a day when all 2.2billion Christians take up theirGod-given mantle to protect theEarth. Not only could such a glob-al phenomenon transform ourhopes and fears about the future,but for me, it could also bring a re-union, on new ground, with a fam-ily from which Ive long been es-tranged.

Send questions, comments andprayers for Hollys sanity to hol-lyvm@stanford.edu.

SEEINGGREEN

Finding my religion

After leaving for

college, I found

myself driftingaway from

religion.

HollyMoeller

JeffMandell

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HelpThe Stanford DailyGrow

own life ranging from his child-hood in the town of Kayseri to hispath to the presidency.

Kayseri is renowned for its en-trepreneurs, according to Gul.

However, he recalled that when hewas a child, he failed to effectivelymarket and sell his grandfatherssodas.

If that very failure would nothave happened that day, mostprobably I would not be the presi-dent of the Turkish Republictoday, Gul said.

Of course, had I been success-ful in selling sodas, I would bemuch richer now a lot like mostof my fellow Kayseri business-men, he added in jest.

Gul also discussed the eternalquestion of whether leadershipability is innate or acquired.

Good leaders must, to be sure,also possess God-given traits, Gulasserted. However, I believe, in

most cases, leadership is a nurturedphenomenon rather than a gift ofnature.

Gul emphasized other keyleadership qualities in his talk, in-cluding the abilities to inspire, takedecisive steps, adapt to a rapidlyglobalizing world and followthrough on a clear vision.

Gul lauded progress in advanc-ing democracy around the world citing Egypts Tahrir Squareprotests and the Occupy move-ment but criticized an allegedlack of bold decision-making byglobal leaders, particularly in Eu-rope and the Middle East.

The current situation in Eu-rope is a telling example of how thelack of visionary leadership could

adversely affect the lives of mil-lions, he said. Another areawhere we witnessed a tragic failureof leadership is in the Middle East,where leaders have long been outof touch with their people.

Drawing a connection betweenStanfords culture of innovationand ongoing regime change in theMiddle East, Gul highlighted theimportance of technology and so-cial media in popular movements.

Because of your innovations,no regime today has the luxury togovern its people behind iron cur-tains, he said.

Gul also highlighted the need tobe a risk-taking leader, citing hisown visit to Armenia in September2008 as an example of a time when

he took an unconventional ap-proach to the strained relations be-tween Turkey and its neighbor.

Risky as it was, I did the rightthing by visiting Yerevan, Gul

said, denying any regrets about thevisit. If it is necessary, a goodleader should also be able to makedifficult decisions and painful con-cessions.

Shifting his focus back toTurkey, Gul emphasized how re-forms implemented at the turn ofthe century have positively bene-fited Turkey both politically andeconomically, emphasizing that

Turkey remains the second fastestgrowing economy in the world be-hind China.

However, while Gul arguedthat, Turkey today is more plural-istic, inclusive and tolerant thanever before, he conceded, we areunder no such illusion that our taskin improving democracy is over.

In addition to democracy andhuman rights, Gul emphasizedTurkeys continuing objective ofscientific and technological devel-opment, noting that Turkey has thefourth largest number of Facebookusers globally.

No nation, however self-suffi-cient or strong it may be, is capableof coping with the complexities oftodays world alone, Gul said,

stressing the need for strong collec-tive, as well as individual, leader-ship.

Additionally, Gul emphasizedthe need for a leader to simultane-ously adhere to his or her princi-ples while embracing reality andopportunities. When presented,however, with conflicting choices,Gul emphasized, my instinct al-ways goes with the principle, and Iwill fight for principle to the end.

He ended his speech by impart-ing leadership advice to assembledstudents.

All I can leave with you todayis the strong but simple advice thatyou never shy away from taking re-sponsibility and that you leadwhen you can, he said. Graduat-

ing from Stanford, you will alreadybe equipped with the necessarytools to succeed as leaders.

Guls talk was followed by aquestion and answer session mod-erated by former Secretary ofState and current Stanford fac-ulty member CondoleezzaRice. Questions ranged from theSyrian crisis to Turkeys rocky rela-tions with Israel following Israels2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid shipin which nine Turks died.

The Turkish people are major-ity Muslim and are free to practicewhat they believe, Gul said in re-sponse to a question from Rice onthe integration of Islam anddemocracy. Thats why Turkey hasbecome a source of inspiration formany countries in the Arabworld.

Contact Natasha Weaser at nweas-er@stanford.edu.

GULContinued from front page

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MENS TENNIS

Klahnkeepsrolling

By MARSHALL WATKINSDESK EDITOR

The Stanford mens tennisteam enjoyed mixed fortunes onthe first day of the season-endingNCAA Singles and DoublesChampionships, as seniorBradley Klahn upset No. 4 seedJarmere Jenkins of Virginia instraight sets, while senior RyanThacher fell to Texas Techs Gon-zalo Escobar.

The result leaves Klahn, an at-large entrant into the tourna-ment, as the Cardinals sole rep-resentative in the singles tourna-

ment. However, Klahn is gainingmomentum at just the right timeto make a run at the same singlestitle he claimed in 2010 on thesame University of Georgiacourts.

Klahns match against Jenkinswas the second time in four daysthe pair had faced off whenthe Cardinal fell to the Cavaliersin the team tournament quarter-finals on Sunday, their match wasabandoned with Jenkins up by aset. Klahn again started slowly onWednesday, conceding a breakearly on to fall behind in the firstset.

However, Klahn stepped uphis game when it counted, rally-ing to take the first set 7-5. With

the matchs momentum havingclearly shifted, the second set of-fered fewer tests as Klahnclinched a 7-5 , 6-3 victory.

Although Klahns season hasbeen disrupted by injury andshifts in the lineup, his recentsingles performances confirmedhis history of rising to the occa-sion in the postseason. Of hislast 14 singles matches, Klahnhas lost just twice, both times tothe two-time defending nationalchampion, USCs Steve John-son. Having now knocked outJenkins, the top seed in his quar-

Gibbs, Burdette advanceBy CHRISSY JONES

STAFF WRITER

The NCAA singles tournament kicked offwith singles play yesterday in Athens, Ga., where

juniors Mallory Burdette and Stacey Tan andsophomore Nicole Gibbs represented Stanford inthe first round. Burdette and Gibbs, both top-fiveseeds, moved into the second round with easywins, while the unseeded Tan fell to Rices Natal-

ie Beazant.Gibbs, who recently won the Pac-12 individual

title, is the tournaments No. 3 seed, and she con-tinued to display her dominant play of late with a6-0, 6-2 victory over the No. 22 Emily Fraser ofVirginia on Wednesday. This may not be Gibbslast meeting with Fraser, though. Both women areparticipating in the same half NCAA doublesdraw as well , which kicks off today. For now, Gibbswill concentrate on her second round singlesmatch against either No. 59 Hanna Mar of Dukeor No. 21 Joanna Mather of Florida.

Burdette cruised through her match againstNo. 120 Maria Craciun of South Carolina State,defeating her 6-1, 6-1.

I played a really solid match today, Burdettesaid. I did a great job of making first serves andreturns as well as building points.

Burdette will now play Washingtons DeniseDy in the second round. Dy, seeded No. 22, defeat-ed No. 41 Marianne Jodoin of Fresno State, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round. Burdette has played Dy be-fore and described her style of play as consistent.

She is a very good defender and she will defi-nitely get a lot of balls back, Burdette said.

Tan wasnt able to capture a victory, insteadstumbling against the unseeded Beazant. Tan,who earned an at-large bid to the tournament and

is ranked No. 25 nationally, lost 7-5, 6-2. It isBeazant now who will face No. 4 Robin Andersonof UCLA, who defeated No. 33 seed CourtneyCollins of Memphis, 6-3, 6-0, in her first roundmatchup.

Though Tans run at the singles t itle has ended,she will appear tomorrow in the first round ofdoubles with freshman Ellen Tsay. They will playKristy Frilling and Shannon Mathews of NotreDame. Gibbs and Burdette, the No. 2 doublesteam and Pac-12 runners-up, will begin their questfor a title as well Thursday against Princetons Hi-lary Bartlett and Lindsay Graff.

The action continues with the second round ofsingles and first round of doubles today at theDan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

Contact Chrissy Jones at chrissyj@stanford.edu.

By GEORGE CHENDESK EDITOR

Seven NCAA titles. 72 NCAA individ-ual champions. A 243-40 overall regularseason record. 31 consecutive Pac-10/Pac-12 championships in one of the most com-petitive and talent-filled conferences in thenation.

The list goes on.

Most collegiate swim programs havenever come close to reaching these record-breaking heights. These kinds of achieve-ments could take an elite program morethan a century to earn. But the Stanfordmens swimming and diving program hasamassed these prestigious accomplish-ments in just the past 33 years.

And all of it has come under the helm ofhead coach Skip Kenney.

Last week, Kenney officially announcedhis retirement after coaching the Cardinalfor 33 years.

Thirty-three years, age 70 and anOlympic year. Three pretty good reasonsfor retiring, Kenney said. The last coupleyears were just a little more difficult, so it

was a good warning sign. Now my goal is todrive Route 66. Its something that peoplein my age group either have done or lookforward to doing. So thats my first goal.

Kenney ended his career as a three-timeOlympic Coach, six-time NCAA Coach ofthe Year and 20-time Pac-10 Coach of theYear. The coaching legend was also induct-ed into the International Swimming Hall ofFame in 2004 and the American Swim

Coaches Hall of Fame shortly the followingyear.

But for Kenney, his prestigious careerisnt mainly about the numbers or the acco-lades; its about the swimmers hes coachedand the relationships that hes built withthem.

Its been a heck of a run, Kenney said.My proudest accomplishment is helpingkids build team chemistry and teachingthem how to contribute. For a team to besuccessful it takes a lot of good athletes anda lot of good leadership from those ath-letes. I think its hard for a 20-year-old to beleader on a team because youre amongyour peers. It takes someone a lot of confi-dence to handle that. And Stanford is just

an unbelievable place. The guys here madeit easy for me to come to morning practiceand to be enthusiastic about it.

The coachs close relationships withmany of his swimmers have gone far be-yond the pool and even far beyond Stan-ford.

I have a real respect for [the swimmersIve coached], Kenney said. I respect thattheyre Stanford grads and successful in the

business world. Theyve carried their expe-riences as athletes into the real world.

Given Kenneys reputation as one of thegreatest swim coaches in the world, hisbackground in the sport is a bit surprising.

I never swam competitively and I dontknow if I couldve, Kenney said. When Ifirst started coaching, I went to more clinicsand talks than anyone else. I think a lot ofswim coaches dont hear anything at thesethings because theyve already heard all ofit. But I was writing down things as fast as Icould and I learned a lot from them.

What Kenney lacked in personal swim-ming experience he made up for with hisother unique experiences that not manycoaches have. Kenney served in the

Marines and was in combat in Vietnam forover a year, spending four months of histime as a sniper.

Leadership, Kenney said. Thatswhat I learned from my experience [as aMarine]. In combat, you see things thatmake you realize that the human body isamazing. It can do amazing things if you letit. Thats what Ive tried to apply to some ofthe guys at Stanford. You can start out as a

walk-on, but end up an Olympian.Kenney wasnt exactly handed a power-

house when he took over in 1979. Duringhis first stint as head coach, Stanford went3-6 in the regular season and could onlymuster a sixth-place finish at Pac-10s.

First year at Pac-10s, we didnt win asingle event, Kenney said. So my goal forthe second year was to just win one event atPac-10s. And we won exactly one event. SoI said, Well, here we go.

That proved to be the only launchingpoint that the Cardinal needed. In the fol-lowing season, Kenney led the team to aPac-10 title along with a third-place finish

SPORTS

New Luckendowmenta good sign

O

n Tuesday afternoon,the Stanford footballprogram officially

jumped the shark.How exactly did the

Cardinal leap from the land of thenormal to the realm of the ridicu-lous? Because on Tuesday, an anony-mous donor elected to endow the po-sition of offensive coordinator forthe Stanford football program and toforever call the job The AndrewLuck Directorship of Offense.

Although all of Stanfords 85football scholarships are endowed(and therefore named after the peo-ple who endowed them), and DavidShaw is officially titled The Brad-ford M. Freeman Director of Foot-ball, I was left scratching my head atthe new Andrew Luck Directorshipof Offense. Frankly, I didnt knowwhat to think, other than I guess itskind of nice to have something thatisnt named after Arrillaga on this

campus.But I was left with one thought

that stood out above all the others:This is the kind of move that onlyhappens at a football-mad program.This stuff only happens at places likeSEC schools, where everything isnamed after somebody. At placesthat are monuments to college foot-ball, absurd tributes become normal.For example, Oklahoma has bronzesculptures of the Sooner players thatwon the Heisman Trophy. Alabamahas its own bronze sculptures ofcoaches that won national titles withthe Crimson Tide. Tim Tebowsspeech to the media (You will neversee a team play harder than we willthe rest of the season. God Bless.)after losing to Ole Miss in 2008 is al-ready immortalized on a plaque nextto the entrance to the Florida weightroom. But something like this is ut-terly bizarre for Stanford.

Naturally, Luck and companysaid all the right things about the Di-rectorship, even though the endow-ment is, at best, peculiar. Really, whoon earth would choose to endow theoffensive coordinator position acoach that certainly makes a couplehundred thousand dollars a year and name it after a player who hasnteven graduated yet, no matter howgood he was?

Please see BLANCHAT, page 7

Jack Blanchat

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Junior Mallory Burdette (above) won in dominant fashion in the first round of the NCAA singlestournament on Wednesday. She joins teammate and No. 3 seed Nicole Gibbs in the second round.

SENIOR WINS

IN FIRST ROUND

Please see KLAHN, page 7

Please see KENNEY, page 7

Richard C. Ersted/Stanfordphoto.com

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Senior Bradley Klahn (above) upset No. 4 Jarnere Jenkins of Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA Sin-gles Championships in Athens, Ga. Klahn is the only Cardinal player left in the tournament after fellow seniorRyan Thacher fell, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in his first-round match against Gonzalo Escobar of Texas Tech.

ter of the draw, Klahn will hopeto go deep in the tournamentonce again.

For Thacher, meanwhile, the

result marks a second disap-pointing year in the singlesevent, having last year pushedNo. 4 seed Blaz Rola of OhioState to the brink before losing inthree sets. This year, Thacher wasfavored against Escobar butstarted slowly and never re-gained momentum en route to a6-3, 7-6 (5) loss.

Klahn will next face RemiBoutillier of Fresno State in sin-gles today. Klahn and Thacherwill also pair up for doubles playtoday, facing Andre Dome andMatt Fawcett of Cal Poly in thefirst round.

Contact Marshall Watkins at mt-watkins@stanford.edu.

KLAHNContinued from page 6

And yet, despite the craziness ofits all, I think this endowment sayspromising things about Stanfordfootball, and particularly the fans ofStanford football.

At those big football schools,donors line up year after year to con-tribute in any way possible to thecontinued success of the program,and its encouraging to see fans doing

that now. Just a few years ago, it washard to get people to show up forgames against top-15 opponents.Now, theyre packing the stands(more than one sellout a year!) andserving up lavish endowments. Itsexciting that fans are becoming en-gaged with the program in a way likenever before.

However, this kind of crazed fan-hood isnt all good. For example,sometimes these big donors/rabidfans will go too far in exercising theirauthority, like back in 2008 at AuburnUniversity. After the hated AlabamaCrimson Tide crushed the Tigers enroute to the 2009 Sugar Bowl, boost-ers called for the firing of head coach

Tommy Tuberville, who had com-piled an 85-40 career record with theTigers and taken Auburn to eightstraight bowl games. You read thatright an 85-40 record still wasntgood enough to stop the boostersfrom doing their best impersonationof the Queen of Hearts from Alice inWonderland.

That said, I dont ever envisionthat happening on the Farm itwould truly shock me if Stanfordboosters demanded a coach be firedafter making eight straight bowl

games. Thankfully, Stanford is aplace with a little less ferocious per-spective than the citizens of football-crazed Alabama.

All in all, though, I think that thisAndrew Luck Directorship of Of-fense is a sign of good things tocome for the Stanford football teamand its fans. People are taking Stan-ford football seriously again (maybea little too seriously), and the pro-gram is reaping some benefits. Iknow Ill be pleased if the Universitymaintains its commitment to havinga good football team well into the fu-ture because its made my (rapidly

expiring) time here incredibly funand memorable.

So even though Stanford footballmight be entering a wild new domainof boosters pouring money into theprogram, Im not afraid of the conse-quences.

And who knows, maybe somedayIll have enough money to endow aposition in my own name TheJack Blanchat Grand Czar of De-fense does have a nice ring to it.

Jack Blanchat memorized everyword of that Tebow speech. Sendyour thoughts to the Arkansas na-tive at blanchat@stanford.edu orfollow him on Twitter @jmblanchat.

BLANCHATContinued from page 6

at NCAA. Under his steady guid-ance, Stanford would see a na-tional title three-peat twice, from1984-1987 and 1991-1994. Kenneywon his final NCAA title in the1997-1998 season, making him re-sponsible for seven of Stanfordseight national titles.

Kenney will continue coachinguntil the 2012 Olympic trials inJuly, which means that he will stillhold his annual summer swimcamp for age-group swimmers. Ofthe 32 swimmers on the Stanfordteam, 31 will be competing at theTrials, battling for an all-covetedspot on the U.S. Olympic team.Despite announcing his retire-ment just a couple months beforethe trials, Kenney notes that hisswimmers are still very focusedon preparing for the big meet.

It might be best to understandKenneys extraordinary impacton his swimmers by hearing aswimmers perspective. Kenney

shared with The Daily an email hereceived from Adam Messner,

who swam for Stanford from1997-2001 and captained theteam his senior year. Messner fin-ished his impressive collegiate ca-reer as a two-time national cham-pion in the 200 butterfly.

Your motivational speech be-fore our 1998 NCAA win is some-thing I will always remember,wrote Messner. You spoke abouthow all the work was done, howwe needed to take the fight toAuburn in their backyard. At themeet and many others, I wantedto swim through a brick wall forthe team and for you, because yougave me the confidence that it hadto be done and more importantly,that I could.

At times, when I made selfishor stupid decisions, you would setme straight on how my decisionsmight feel good at the time, butthat the aftermath could affectthe team, Messner continued.That type of team-first mentalityis something that makes evenmore sense now that I am a Dadand a business owner. Its stillhard to live by, but I can moreclearly see that being selfishworks for a little while, but youll

never feel truly fulfilled onlypleasing your self. Skip, you

helped build that self-awarenessin me at Stanford and this stillhelping me in my life today.

Maybe this is what makes Ken-ney a legendary coach, distinguish-ing him from the many other greatcoaches across the country. Youcan count championships. Butthere is no number that can ade-quately quantify the special rela-tionships that Kenney has builtwith his athletes. He has influencedthe daily lives of hundreds of swim-mers long after theyve left thepool. Like with Messner, Kenneyhas taught them life lessons thatare still significant decades later.

In a few months, there will be anew head coach standing on deckat the Avery Aquatic Center, writ-ing workouts and timing swim-mers as they log God-knows-how-many yards at 7 a.m. prac-tices. For the first t ime in 33 years,that person wont be Coach Ken-ney anymore. While his impact onthe program and the swimmershes coached is here to stay, youmight just find Kenney himselfenjoying his retirement, cruisingdown Route 66.

Contact George Chen at gchen15@stanford.edu.

KENNEYContinued from page 6

This is the kind

of thing that

only happens at

a football-mad

program.

Complete the grid soeach row, column and

3-by-3 box (in boldborders) containsevery digit, 1 to 9. Forstrategies on how tosolve Sudoku, visitwww.sudoku.org.uk

SOLUTION

Level:

1 2

3 4

2012 The Mepham Group. Distributed byTribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

5/24/12

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