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T Stanford Daily The

THURSDAY May 31, 2012

An Independent Publication
www.stanforddaily.com

Volume 241 Issue 71

Campus crime stable, alcohol incidents rising

SUDPS figures show rise in DUIs and alcohol transportations, OAPE calls alcohol-free programming a success
By ALICE PHILLIPS
DESK EDITOR

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of file hosting service Dropbox, spoke Wednesday afternoon about his experiences developing a multi-billion dollar firm. Houston emphasized the importance of commitment and vision above business experience.

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Dropbox co-founder talks start-ups, relays experience

By FELIX BOYEAUX
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The whole start-up world is sort of like climbing Mount Doom, said Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of the file hosting service Dropbox, to a packed NVIDIA Auditorium on Wednesday afternoon. You dont really know how tall it is, but there is a lot of fire and things exploding around you. Theres a lot of smoke and it is very steep. Houston, invited as part of the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thoughts Leader Seminar, used the metaphor to explain the problems associated with starting a company as a recent college graduate. Even if you know where you are going right now, things are going to get gnarly down the road, he said. Rather than discouraging potential entrepreneurs, however, Houston sought instead to demystify the process of bringing a concept all the way to commercial actualization. Drawing on his experience with Dropbox, which was created on a bus ride to New York and which currently enjoys a market valuation of billions of

dollars, he encouraged students to leave the beaten path. People imagine that life is all about filling checkboxes, Houston said. They think the right path to a start-up is getting a bunch of graduate degrees, be a really good engineer, get an MBA, then work at a lot of different companies, and finally, sometime around their thirties, forties or fifties, theyll be prepared to start a company. Houston emphasized that successful start-ups have rarely followed that path. Empirically, so many companies that you would think about in the hall of fame were started by people who, basically, didnt know what the hell they were doing, he said. Houston cited several of Silicon Valleys most successful companies such as Facebook, Google and Apple as examples of firms that were started by first- or second-time entrepreneurs learning how to run a successful business on the fly. Dont be too daunted if you dont have all the answers, he advised the audience.

Campus crime figures for the 2011-12 academic year show little overall divergence from previous years, according to data compiled by the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS). Alcohol-related incidents, however, did increase by a significant margin. The Stanford campus experienced a 45 percent increase in medical alcohol transportations this school year as compared to last year. Between September 2011 and April 2012, 77 people were transported for alcoholrelated medical reasons. There were 53 transports during the same time frame last year, according to SUDPS records. Despite the uptick in transports, the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE) recently declared the first year of the Cardinal Nights alcohol-free entertainment initiative to be a success in creating community on campus for non-drinkers. Forty-eight drivers were cited for being in possession of alcohol during this academic year, representing more than double the 23 cited during the same time frame last year. Twenty-four citations were issued to minors in possession of alcohol, only one more than issued last year. The rate of DUIs doubled to 16 from September 2011 to April 2012 from the eight arrests made during that time frame last year.

SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily

Seven people were cited for possession of a controlled substance this year, while 10 were cited for that offense during the same months last year. There were eight reported sex offenses compared with five reports last year: two batteries, one incident of indecent exposure, two rapes, one sexual assault and two unverified report. Of the five reports from the previous year, three were for incidents of rape. Both vehicle and dorm burglaries decreased this year. Fourteen vehicle burglaries and 15 dorm burglaries were reported. Last

Please see CRIME, page 2

UNIVERSITY

Senior Gift awaits late spike

By MARSHALL WATKINS
DESK EDITOR

Please see DROPBOX, page 2

With two weeks left before graduation, the Class of 2012 remains slightly behind last years record participation in Senior Gift donations. Gift organizers expressed optimism, however, that seniors contribution to the student-driven initiative will spike in the final weeks. The goal is to break the 2011 participation record and, since people tend to be very last minute about everything, we do expect to see a lot of people give in the next few weeks, wrote Felicity Meu, director of student and young alumni development, in an email to The Daily. The Class of 2011 set an all-time participa-

tion record with its Senior Gift, recording just over 82 percent of seniors donating to an initiative intended largely through The Stanford Fund to support financial aid and other undergraduate programs. This renewable, discretionary fund enables the president to respond to immediate needs, unexpected opportunities and fresh ideas, Meu wrote. [Senior Gift donations] are an essential complement to endowment gifts. Every undergraduate at Stanford is touched by the Fund in some way and the Senior Gift is a way to say thank you and give back. As of May 29, more than half of the Class of 2012 had contributed to this years Senior

Please see SENIORS, page 2

NEWS BRIEF

Jammin at the CoHo

Aspirin shows promise in treating skin cancer

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF Aspirin and other nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory painkillers may help protect against skin cancer, according to scientists at the School of Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital and the Cancer Prevention Institute in Fremont. Researchers examined the drugs impact by evaluating 19 years of skin cancer records in northern Denmark and comparing the rates at which skin cancer materialized in subjects who took one or more drugs compared to those who didnt. Researchers subsequently found that the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma or malignant melanoma two forms of skin cancer fell by 15 and 13 percent respectively among people who had used aspirin-like drugs. The lowered risk was more pronounced among those who had used the drugs for a longer period or more intensively. Aspirin and other nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory

Please see BRIEF, page 2

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily Charged Particles, a jazz group featuring Communication Professor Jon Krosnick and Murray Low, director of the Afro-Latin Jazz program at Stanford, performed on campus for the first time in the bands 20-year history on Wednesday evening. The bands work was recently described by This Week as a superb example of musical artistry.

Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/5 Classifieds/6

Recycle Me

2 N Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Stanford Daily

pitable economic climate. As a direct result of the economic recession, this is likely to continue for several years, with student need surpassing the payout from endowed scholarship funds, Meu wrote. The Senior Gift has seen a gradual rise in class participation over the past decade. However, peer institutions such as Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth have consistently recorded even higher levels of turnout. Meu acknowledged that work remains to be done to ensure a consistently comparable turnout from Stanford seniors. Our students chose Stanford for the caliber of education but also for the Stanford ethos, Meu wrote. I only hope that, moving forward, that includes philanthropy and gratitude. Contact Marshall Watkins at mtwatkins@stanford.edu. What really became obvious is that a tremendous amount of educating and informing students had been done but education alone wasnt changing the culture, Wilson wrote. Many people are not only exasperated by bicyclists failing to stop at stop signs and riding at night without proper lighting, they are altering their behavior in order to avoid the possibility of being involved in a collision with a bicyclist, Wilson wrote. Wilson cited anecdotal evidence of greater cyclist caution at the Campus Drive-Escondido Road stop sign and an increased number of bikers wearing helmets at that intersection as potential evidence of positive impact from the escalated enforcement.
M.J MA/The Stanford Daily

SENIORS

Continued from front page

Gift. A month before graduation last year, participation figures for the Class of 2011 approached 60 percent. We do not want 2011 to be an outlier we want their gift to be the start of a trend, Meu wrote. Meu noted that Senior Gift committee members have organized a number of events to increase turnout and senior participation, including house and dorm visits and in-person outreach as the fundraising enters its final period. We know students love Stanford and we know many of them believe it is important to support the University, Meu wrote. The committee is working hard to bring down any possible barriers

to giving. Theres some social pressure around it, said Kara Murray 12, who recently donated. Everyone gives so you sort of have to give. Some people may not even find out what its used for until later. With matching donations, the Class of 2011 exceeded $200,000 in its fundraising total. The Class of 2012s donations will be matched 2:1 by Peter Bing 55, with the Parent Advisory Board contributing a further $5,000 for every 10 percent increase in participation among seniors. Meu predicted that the vast majority of Senior Gift donations will be allocated to The Stanford Funds need-based financial aid program, which has in recent years grown from approximately half of the Funds expenditure to 81 percent in 2010-11 as a result of financial aid policy changes and an inhosand if there has been an increase in crime, wrote Chief of Police Laura Wilson 91 in an email to The Daily. What people may not know is that the University is required to send these according to a federal law known as the Clery Act. We have modified some of our practices over the past year in order to ensure that we are complying with the law to the fullest extent possible. Wilson also noted that her department has received more community requests for active shooter and active killer response training sessions during this academic year. These training sessions provide people with information about options they can take during an active shooter incident as well as the important steps the community can take to bring concerning behavior to the attention of skilled professionals in an effort to preclude violence, Wilson wrote. However, Wilson said that by far the most prominent SUDPS initiative during the 2011-12 academic year has been its bicycle safety program. While acknowledging that students may not be happy with the increased presence of SUDPS officers near stop signs to issue tickets for traffic offences, Wilson noted that members of the Stanford community have yet to propose viable alternative solutions to the bicycle safety problem on campus other than increased enforcement.

CRIME

Continued from front page

year, 34 and 19 reports were filed for those crimes, respectively. Petty theft during this time period rose by nearly 68 percent, with 357 reported incidents this year compared with 241 reported incidents for the same time frame last academic year. Reported incidents of both structural and vehicle vandalism were cut in half, with 13 structural vandalism incidents and six vehicle vandalism incidents this year compared with 26 and 11 last year, respectively. People have asked throughout the year if there has been an increase in the number of AlertSUs [emergency notifications]

DROPBOX
Continued from front page
Houston emphasized the benefits of an environment such as Stanford for furthering entrepreneurial ambitions among fellow students with shared desire to change the world. Someone once said that you are the average of your five closest friends, he said. Being in an environment where people are also interested in start-ups and where you are all pushing each other can really be helpful. Houston originally moved to Silicon Valley, scrapping plans to found an SAT test preparation company when inspired by a friends ability to easily access funding from investors. I thought a lot about what I wanted to do next, Houston said. It had to be something deeply technical. I also wanted something that I could explain to people in a bar or a coffee shop and have them vaguely know what I was talking about and, finally, I wanted something with a working business model. In 2006, according to Houston, cloud storage was seen as the next big thing a parallel he drew with social networks and mobile apps today but existing products were largely inadequate, with at least three items of software needed to back up, store

BRIEF

Continued from front page

painkillers may protect against skin cancer by inhibiting the function of two enzymes responsible for the promotion of inflammation and the formation of blood vessels. Without such outlets for expansion, tumors may be unable to grow, according to researchers.
Marshall Watkins

Yesterday, in OAPE cites gains with Cardinal Nights, The Daily reported that there were 64 transports last year and 66 this year. This information came from Angelina Cardona 11 of the Office of Alcohol Policy Education; the statisitics in todays article came from Laura Wilson, chief of police and director of the Stanford Department of Public Safety. Representatives from OAPE and SUDPS were unreachable for comment Wednesday evening. The Daily is currently working to explain the discrepancy between the statistics.
Contact Alice Phillips at alicep1 @stanford.edu.

and share data over the Internet. I cant really imagine Tom Cruise in Minority Report logging in to his Gmail to pick up the attachment he sent himself that morning, or forgetting his thumb drive, Houston emphasized. In fact, Houston cited the experience of forgetting his thumb drive as his prompt to start coding Dropbox out of frustration at the lack of progress in cloud storage. A subsequent trip to California secured him a co-founder, Arash Ferdowsi, and funding from a number of venture capital firms. One thing you discover very quickly as a technical co-founder is that you know a lot about the engineer, but very little about the business side of things, Houston said. He added, however, that such skills are rapidly acquired with experience and pale in significance compared to being completely invested in a project. Audience member George Burgess 15, chief operating officer at E2.0, expressed a favorable view of Houstons talk. I pay for Dropbox and use it daily, so it was great to learn a bit more about what theyre working on and their priorities, Burgess said. Drew offered great insight into start-up life. It was particularly useful to hear about some of the mistakes he made in the early days of Dropbox. Contact Felix Boyeaux fboyeaux@stanford.edu. at

The Stanford Daily

Thursday, May 31, 2012 N 3

FEATURES
NOTES FROM ABROAD

PARENTS

More than a birthday gift delivery service

By RAYMOND LUONG
e know them as the organization of nice people who hand-deliver flowers and delicious cakes to homesick students craving some long-distance family affection on birthdays and special occasions. But the Parents Club is more than just a birthdaygift-delivery service it boasts a long tradition of bringing Stanford parents together. In 1924, a group of faculty wives, Stanford alumnae and mothers founded the Parents Club, originally called the Mothers Club. They established the three-fold mission that exists to this day to bring together its members in social and intellectual exchange, to keep in close touch with the University life and, in all practicable ways, aid the University authorities in promoting the welfare of the student body. The Mothers Club established a speaker series and scholarship program, both of which still exist today. The Club also built a series of Rest Homes to nurse sick students who did not require hospitalization. These Rest Homes were given to the University once the Cowell Student Health Center now Vaden Health Center was completed in 1962. In 1997 the Mothers Club changed its name to the Parents Club to include all parents in the organization. There are now around 1,000 international and 300 local members. The Parents Club is active throughout the year, but especially active during New Student Orientation, Parents Weekend and Admit Weekend. Members of the Parents Club volunteer to coordinate speakers, facilitate checkin services, organize campus tours and sell merchandise to raise
Courtesy of Ann Tyler Moses

Michelangelos Piet is a sculpture depicting Nicodemus lowering

the body of Jesus into the arms of Mary and Mary Magdalene.

Facing Michelangelo

stared for a long time at Michelangelos Piet before noticing that Jesus was missing a leg. The statue retains such a grace, such a feeling of perfection that it left me unconcerned with such trivialities as the absence of a limb. But the work is decidedly unfinished the figures grow out of rough, unhewn stone and dark cracks run along Jesus shoulder where Michelangelo attempted to shatter it in anger. This is not the famed Piet ensconced in St. Peters Basilica, but a later work, begun when Michelangelo was nearly 80. It is now tucked in an alcove of the Opera del Duomo museum in Florence. The piece depicts Nicodemus sculpted as a self-portrait of Michelangelo lowering the body of Jesus into the arms of his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. The artist took on this work not on commission, but purely for himself as he prepared for his impending death. The piece was intended to adorn his tomb. Michelangelo was regarded like a god even during his lifetime. His style was praised as theologically correct and an entire movement, Mannerism, was built to emulate it. In his youth, Michelangelos talent had been his intuition for the sculpture that a block of marble wanted to be: he could sense the shape that it contained, and believed it his task to bring that shape out of the single block. In this Piet he failed adding

the leg would have thrown off the balance, introduced a dangerously racy limb entanglement between Christ and Madonna, and required additional marble. According to his contemporary biographer, Giorgio Vasari, he had been working on the sculpture by the light of a single candle, which must reasonably have contributed to the problem. He was in the throes of an end-of-life crisis, plagued by an uncertainty with art itself and his lifes devotion to it. His world was unsteady as well, still reeling from the publication of Martin Luthers 95 Theses some 30 years earlier. Doubt and discord had shaken the foundations of the machine that had made the very Renaissance. Michelangelos other works are nearly reason enough to study in Italy; I got a crick in my neck from my inability to stop staring at the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and I am still awed by the simplicity and perfection of the David. But this particular work has stuck in my mind, and the image of Michelangelos face looking upon death is one I am not soon to forget. I cannot stop thinking of the deepness of its expression and the poignancy of the imperfect sculpture that holds it, the human struggle that it depicts and that it contained. Once I found it difficult to imagine Michelangelo as a human, but now I am beginning to understand.
Ann Tyler Moses

money for the scholarship fund. In addition, during Parents Weekend, the Parents Club holds the Entertainment Extravaganza, which showcases student artistic talent. One of the more popular and well-known services is the delivery service through which parents can send their children cakes, cookies, brownies, flowers, balloons and plants. Cakes and balloons are popular for birthdays, but the recently added service of cookies and brownies have become quite popular, especially around exam time. President-Elect Marcia Hansen noted that deliveries overall tend to peak around Valentines Day and finals. Students really appreciate the deliveries, said Vice President of Fundraising Maria Carano. Its not embarrassing for them at all. We are like an extension of their family, not just delivery people. Our services allow parents who are not local to bring joy to their children, added President Sheree Williams. Katherine Scavo 15 received a surprise from the Parents Club for her 19th birthday. Scavos mother ordered a cake and balloons online and had them delivered to her daughters room on her birthday. I was happy that my parents were able to celebrate my birthday with me from far away, Scavo said. It was a nice surprise because I wasnt expecting anything. One aspect Scavo appreciated about the Parents Club is that the parents arent just strangers who drop off a cake. They add a personal touch to all of their deliveries. The parent who delivered the cake and balloons was really friendly and nice, which made the experience more personable, Scavo said. She was like my mom

away from home. She was just as excited as my mom would be. According to the Parents Club website, the volunteers of the organization make over 1,000 deliveries each academic year. The money made from the Parents Club delivery service, as well as the money raised through the active fundraising efforts of the members is used to support an endowed scholarship program. In the past 80 years, the Parents Club has granted over $1 million in scholarship funds to undergraduates at Stanford. A notable change in the past few years is that the Parents Club has become increasingly techsavvy. The Club has improved its Facebook image and updated its website. One huge achievement was the creation of an automated online ordering and purchasing system. In addition to its gift delivery services, the Parents Club offers a mechanism for parents to meet other parents and develop friendships. Parents can find others who are in similar situations and engage in meaningful conversations. I like the people a lot, Hansen said. Its an incredibly fun and smart group that centers on friendship and camaraderie. The Parents Club is a very social club with monthly meetings and seasonal lunches, Carano said. President Williams noted that through online communication, parents who are in town for just a weekend are able to find a warm and welcoming community of other parents. The Parents Club exists and is able to survive because of the generosity of the volunteers and their love of Stanford, Williams added. Contact Raymond Luong at rayluong @stanford.edu.

M.J MA/The Stanford Daily

4 N Thursday, May 31, 2012

OPINIONS
MODERN MANNERS

The Stanford Daily

End-of-year memos

Established 1892 Board of Directors Margaret Rawson President and Editor in Chief

AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Managing Editors Brendan OByrne 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 MollyVorwerck & Zach Zimmerman Staff Development

The Stanford Daily

Incorporated 1973 Tonights Desk Editors Marshall Watkins News Editor Jenny Thai Features Editor Jacob Jaffe Sports Editor Ian Garcia-Doty Photo Editor Tori Lewis Copy Editor

he academic year is coming to an end, which means that this column is wrapping up today. I have new respect for the students at The Daily who pump out publishable material day after day, because it is hard enough to make something worth reading once a week, as I have tried to do. Thank you to everyone who has read any of my columns! There are lots of things you could be doing with your free time, and Im honored that you chose to spend part of it reading my thoughts on life at Stanford. Since this is my last time on the soapbox, I would like to tie up some loose ends and throw out some opinions that never quite justified their own columns. In no particular order, I now present a series of end-ofyear memos. Memo to Public Safety: Planting police officers on Santa Teresa Street has not conditioned me to stop at stop signs; it has taught me to look both ways for the police before crossing an intersection. In your favor, Ill admit that it would be smarter if I watched out for cross traffic instead of scanning nearby bushes and parking lots for hidden law enforcement. Memo to People Who Think Avatar Is Like Real Life: Last week, I was sitting next to a young woman having a deep conversation with a male friend. At one point, as the two were lamenting the lost joys of a simpler life, the woman said something like It would be really great if we could just live off the land, like in Avatar. You know, the blue people. I think this thought says more about the impact of the Internet age than any statistic about how much we are plugged into our phones and laptops. If you want to learn about a less technological existence, Willa Cather or Laura Ingalls Wilder might be

Jeff Mandell
more illuminating than a sci-fi movie featuring a computer-generated war between humans and 20-foot-tall aliens. Memo to Pizza Lovers: My column about the difficulty of finding great pizza in the Bay Area got me a lot of restaurant recommendations. I havent gone to all of them yet, but I did find some good Italian-style pizza. The point of my column still stands, though, because none of them are cheap enough to be frequently enjoyed on a student budget. The three places I recommend are all sitdown restaurants, and the cheapest option is to order take-out. In Mountain View, there is Napoletana Pizzeria, where a decent margherita pizza costs $15. The other two places, which are definitely superior, are Pizzeria Delfina and A16, where the margherita pizzas are $13 and $15, respectively. The pizzas are very good, and they remind me of Italy. Unfortunately, Delfina and A16 are both in San Francisco, and their upscale atmospheres would prevent them from being everyday destinations even if we were closer to Stanford. Memo to the Suites Killdeer Family: Congratulations to the killdeer who nested in the tanbark at Governors Corner on the hatching of their three precocious chicks. I saw the fluffy little guys running in the grass the day they were born, smaller than tennis balls. And special thanks to whoever put yellow caution tape around the nest to keep it safe! Contact Jeff at jeff2013@stanford. edu.

Anna Schuessler Chief Operating Officer Sam Svoboda Vice 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 be reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours. Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanforddaily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

SEEING GREEN

Giving solar its just deserts

hen I was small, the word desert conjured images of towering Saharan dunes: windswept sand punctuated by rare oases, the only sign of life an occasional animal track quickly buried by the next sandstorm. Then, when I was 13, my parents took me to the Southwest. We visited Saguaro, Joshua Tree and other parts of the Mojave Desert, chased tarantulas, and watched cactus wrens build nests. Since then, Ive been hooked on the desert and the quirky plants and animals adapted to its harsh conditions. Ive returned often: to glimpse the winter rains, stand at the lowest point on the continent and even track rare desert tortoises. Though I will always find my home in the damp forests of the Pacific Northwest, part of me is a born-again desert

rat. Over the course of American history, however, most of our countrys citizens have held my childhood view: that deserts are barren wastelands full of deadly hazards. They have often been correct; during the great westward migration of the mid-1800s, many would-be settlers lost their lives on the hot, dry expanses. And with no available irrigation water, deserts have become mining grounds or, where they lack mineral value, military staging and testing grounds. In general, though, deserts have been considered rather useless. So it was with delight that we turned to the deserts as the prospective site of massive new solar installations. The sun, so long the bane of desert-goers, could become the cornerstone for the new green economy by providing a potent, renewable source of electricity. As solar panel technology has improved, installations have been planned across Americas deserts. Many of these installations are landing in California, where extra-sunny environs are located next to the high electricity demands of sprawling population centers. And the state, which hopes to produce a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, has mostly welcomed the industry. Today, California has the largest installed solar capacity of any state 1,877 megawatts, with another 3,373 megawatts in the works. Among the new installations may be the McCoy Solar Energy Project, slated to add 750 megawatts of capacity by 2016. Last week, the Bureau of Land Management released a preliminary Environmental Impacts Statement for the project, which would cover 7,700 acres in the Colorado Desert. For comparison, Stanfords contiguous peninsula property including the Dish, SLAC, Jasper Ridge and various shopping and business complexes, totals 8,180 acres. But the plan will doubtless find critics in those who see deserts as more than desolate deathscapes. Past installations have drawn criticism from American Indian groups protecting cultural heritage sites, and from environmental groups worried over the fate of more than 70 threatened and endangered species in the region. In an attempt to be proactive, Californian stakeholders have spent the last two years drafting the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which would streamline permitting of renewable energy across 22 million acres of the Mojave and Colorado deserts, while protecting species like the Mojave ground squirrel, burrowing owl and desert tortoise. The plan, due out next month, should help reconcile conservation and preservation aims with the larger environmental and economic concerns driving the renewable energy sector, but it wont arrive in time for the McCoy Project decision.

Holly Moeller

California has the largest installed solar capacity of any state.

For now, deserts represent the low-hanging fruit for industry members focused on centralized, large-scale solar installations. Not only is the light right, but competing land uses are rare where else in California would McCoy find the space for enough solar panels to power 260,000 homes? Yet, the more of Earths surface we commandeer for our own purposes, the fewer of our co-inhabitants well share it with. No matter how carefully installation sites are selected or how many animals are relocated, an acre covered by solar panels is an acre lost from the desert ecosystem. Thats another good reason for keeping solar energy supplies localized. Solar panels are ideal for distributed energy collection: they can be (and are) placed on roofs, alongside buildings and atop streetlights. Back in 2007, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report calculated the area of installed solar panels needed to meet the average Americans electricity needs. Using five-year-old technology, each person needs a photovoltaic bank of 181 square meters less than a lane and a half of an Olympic-sized swimming pool to meet both personal and industrial needs. Thats the areal equivalent of 12 percent of our developed area footprint, or 22 percent of our urban area footprint. Granted, we cant just enrobe our cities in a bubble of solar panels. Day lighting, rooftop gardens and a general desire to see the sky preempt that. But as economics and technological advances drive renewable energy closer to viability, one can only hope that we take serious steps towards integrating solar panels into existing infrastructure needs. Saving the deserts? Just an added bonus. Speaking of added bonuses, Holly would be happy to talk to you more about this or any other topic! Send her an email at hollyvm@stanford. edu.

The Stanford Daily

SPORTS
MLB lacks stars from Stanford

Thursday, May 31, 2012 N 5

Jack Blanchat

LOOK BACK AT 87- 88

s the MLB draft approaches and the NCAA tournament opens up this Friday, its easy to spend a lot of time checking out the top prospects who are hoping to spur their teams on to victory in Omaha this June. Every season, one star will saddle up the rest of his team and carry them along in the postseason, getting the big outs or hits when the team needs it most, collect all the accolades he can hold, then go on to a lucrative pro career. But Stanford baseballs recent postseason runs have had a distinct lack of these stars at least, its had a distinct lack of any players that have gone on to be real superstars at the major league level. Since 1987, the Cardinal has had 22 players picked in the first round of the MLB draft, and yet, the casual baseball fan would probably only know one or two of those 22 players. Those two are Mike Mussina, a five-time All-Star with the Orioles and Yankees who compiled a 270153 record before retiring in 2008, and Carlos Quentin, a two-time AllStar with the White Sox before he was traded to the Padres this season. One is a potential Hall of Famer; the other is a pretty good player who might be the fourth outfielder on your fantasy team. When looking at the list of names that havent worked out (players like Greg Reynolds, Jeff Austin, Danny Putnam, Willie Adams and more), a question springs to mind: Does Stanford baseball have a development problem? Or, more specifically, why exactly have Stanfords players never quite taken the leap into stardom? Its hard to answer this because it does take a while before most players make any real difference to their clubs guys like Buster Posey and Bryce Harper, who come in and make an impact right away, are extraordinarily rare in pro baseball. So for some former Stanford products like Rick Helling and David McCarty, both of whom had 12-year MLB careers, its far too harsh to say they didnt exactly pan out. That said, Stanford baseball products seem to hit a ceiling of good-butnot-great once they reach The Show. Does the college game somehow sap these players potential before they reach the big leagues? Its hard to know. Every player is different, every farm system is different, and the nature of the game of baseball has changed a lot over the past 25 years, with the boom and bust of the steroid era. Perhaps it just might mean that the major league teams that picked these players incorrectly evaluated just how talented these players really were. Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols was a 13thround pick. However checkered the Cardinals past may have been,perhaps this recent group of Cardinal minor and major leaguers will buck that trend, although the Cardinals current crop has been plagued by injuries. Drew Storen, who was picked 10th overall in 2009, has been solid for the Washington Nationals in his role as a setup man and closer, recording 43 saves a season ago before an arm injury that has sidelined him so far in 2012. Catcher Jason Castro starts behind the plate just about every other day for the Houston Astros, but hes only hit a meager .216 this year after missing all of last year with a torn ACL. Sean Ratliff,a member of the 2008 Cardinal CWS team and a fourthround pick of the New York Mets, was crushing his way through the minors until he was hit in the eye with a foul ball last season. Four eye surgeries later, Ratliff is closer to being back on track, but who knows where he might be today or where he might have been in the future without the unlucky and unfortunate injury? Following them, current players like Mark Appel, Stephen Piscotty, Austin Wilson, Brian Ragira or Chris Reed, the Cardinal closer who was picked 16th overall by the Dodgers in last years draft, could break through that ceiling and become Stanfords next major league star. Hopefully, one of those guys will first take the 2012 Cardinal and lead it to a win in the College World Series this year then use that new hardware to spring himself into a superstar professional career. Jack Blanchat wants to make sure any future stars remember him before they hit it big. Before you make millions, connect with Jack at blanchat@stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter @jmblanchat.

JESSICA POPISH/The Stanford Daily

Stanford baseball head coach Mark Marquess (above) has led the Cardinal for 36 years, but his two best seasons came back-to-back, when Stanford won the national title in both 1987 and 1988. A quarter-century after the first title, Marquess and Stanford look to do it again this year.
By JACK BLANCHAT
MANAGING EDITOR

With the 2012 NCAA baseball tournament opening up on Friday, its the season to remember when, 25 years ago, the Stanford baseball team was the king of college baseball. In a back-and-forth affair, the Cardinal bested the Oklahoma State Cowboys 9-5 at Omahas Rosenblatt Stadium to capture its first College World Series title on June 7, 1987. Its the thrill of a lifetime, junior catcher Doug Robbins told The Daily on the day after the championship. Its one of the greatest things thats ever happened in my life. I cant describe the feeling, said senior leftfielder Ruben Amaro. Its the best thing in the world. Buoyed by All-American starter Jack McDowell, who pitched seven innings on only two days rest in his third start in the doubleelimination world series, the Cardinal rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the fifth inning to pull ahead 6-4, then tacked on three insurance runs in the ninth before the final out. A bouncing ball went straight back to closer Steve Chitren, who tossed it to first base to secure the title. The Cardinal also benefited from shortstop David Esquer, who turned four double plays for the second consecutive game, and once again from freshman rightfielder Paul Carey, who continued his impressive hitting

in Omaha by going 3-for-5 with two RBI and scoring two runs of his own en route to being named the MVP of the College World Series. In its run to the title, Stanford beat Georgia 3-2, beat Texas 6-1 and lost to Oklahoma State, 6-2, forcing it into an elimination game with Louisiana State. Thats where Carey, even before the final game against the Cowboys, had made himself the MVP of the series. Down 5-2 in the 10th inning to the Tigers, Carey, who was 2-for-13 so far in the series, smashed an opposite-field grand slam over the left-field fence to give the Cardinal a 6-5 win and eliminate LSU. After that one, I kind of knew, to be honest with you, I mean, to come back and win it like that, maybe it is our year, and it proved to be our year, Stanford head coach Mark Marquess told ESPN after the title win. With all the momentum in its favor, the Cardinal bested Texas once again, 9-3, to reach the final game against the Cowboys. Stanford had never finished higher than third in five previous trips to Omaha, and had lost three straight to OSU over the last two seasons, including the 6-2 loss the week before, leading to some extra motivation for the Cardinal well before the College World Series. At the beginning of the season in January, the team got together at my house for my 21st birthday party, and we made a toast to a national championship over Oklahoma State.

Im not making this up, McDowell told The Daily. Carey, in his post-title game interview with ESPN, said the team knew that it was finally its year after the LSU victory. Yeah we felt destined, this is just an unbelievable feeling, we knew we could do it, we had to do it against Texas when we played them tonight, we knew we could do it, we just had to go out and swing the bats the way we could, a breathless Carey responded. I dont know if you know it, but you are the most valuable player in this tournament, the reporter responded. I dont know about that, but this team, this is the most valuable team by far, Carey said in his heavy Boston accent. We came back, fought, everybody got big hits for us this whole tournament. The next year, the Cardinal would repeat as College World Series champions, taking a less dramatic route to the national title, winning every game in Omaha, including a 9-4 win over Arizona State in the championship game. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the repeat title run was that the Cardinal was without three of its stars from 1987 McDowell, Amaro and Esquer. McDowell, who was picked fifth overall in the draft by the White Sox in 1987, played in the majors for 12 years and recorded a career record of 127-87. The Van Nuys, Calif., native

Please see BASEBALL, page 6

SPORTS BRIEFS
mentions for the second straight year. Ragira has started every game at first base and hit .318, while Wilson has manned right field every game and smashed a team-high nine home runs. The duo has also combined for 93 RBI.

Womens golf coach Caroline OConnor resigns

Caroline OConnor has stepped down from the post of Stanford womens golf head coach after 17 years at the job. OConnor led the Cardinal to 15 appearances at the NCAA Championships in her 17 seasons, including the programs best-ever finish, second place in 2000. A former professional golf instructor, OConnor came to the Farm and instantly tied a school best by leading Stanford to a fourthplace NCAA finish in the 1996-1997 season. She went on to help the Cardinal win a Pac10 title in 1999 at the Stanford Golf Course and finish in the top five nationally three times.

Mens golf struggles in second round of NCAAs

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Junior Stephen Piscotty (above) has done it all for Stanford, leading the team in RBI while playing third base and left field, and even becoming a key member of the Cardinals pitching staff.

Appel, Piscotty named to All-Pac-12 team

Stanfords top pitcher and top hitter both made the 25-man All-Pac-12 baseball team after strong junior seasons. Mark Appel, the conferences leader in strikeouts with 116, has met the extraordinarily high expectations he has been given for his third and likely final year on the Farm. Picked by many to be the top overall pick in next months MLB draft, Appel has stepped up to the challenge, going 9-1 with a 2.37 ERA as Stanfords Friday starter. He has gone at least seven innings in 13 of his 14 starts, and he has given up two earned runs or fewer in 12 of

those starts. Stephen Piscotty, another projected firstround draft pick, has been one of Stanfords best hitters throughout his time on the Farm, and this year he has had to take on an additional load. The teams starting third baseman at the start of the year, Piscotty has shifted to left field and pitcher, where he has excelled as both a starter and reliever. At the plate, Piscotty hit .319 with 54 RBI, good for third in the conference. On the mound, Piscotty has won all three of his weekend starts while compiling a 2.28 ERA. In addition, sophomores Brian Ragira and Austin Wilson were named as honorable

The Stanford mens golf team had a day to forget on Wednesday, shooting an 18-overpar 302 to drop from a tie for 13th to 22nd at the 30-team NCAA Championships. With only one round remaining before the field is narrowed to eight teams, the Cardinal sits 11 strokes out of eighth place. Freshman Patrick Rodgers once again led Stanford, shooting a one-over 72 to end the second round four strokes off the individual lead, currently held by Illinois sophomore Thomas Pieters. The problem for Stanford is that no other Cardinal golfer is ranked in the top 90 in the 155-player field. Stanford will have one more chance to keep its season alive, as the final round tees off today from the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Jacob Jaffe

6 N Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Stanford Daily

BASEBALL
Continued from page 5
went on to make three All-Star teams, and captured the 1993 American League Cy Young Award when he led the White Sox to the ALCS against the eventual world champion Toronto Blue Jays. Interestingly, series opponents McDowell and Oklahoma States Robin Ventura, who had an NCAA Division I record 58game hit streak in 1987, played together on the Chicago White Sox from 1989 to 1994. Amaro, who led the Cardinal in runs, triples and stolen bases as a senior, went on to an eight-year MLB career with the Angels, Indians and Phillies. After his playing career ended, Amaro joined the Phillies as the assistant general manager in 1998, and was promoted to general manager in 2008, where he remains one of the most

influential executives in the MLB. Esquer, who played three seasons in the minors, became an assistant coach at Stanford in 1991, then became head coach of the Cal Bears in 2000. In his 12 years at Berkeley, Esquer has been named Pac-10 Coach of the Year in 2001 and NCAA Coach of the Year in 2011, when he took the Bears to the College World Series. Meanwhile, Carey, the 1987 World Series hero, never found any footing in the majors, playing only 18 games with the Baltimore Orioles in 1993. Today, its been 24 years since the Cardinal held the College World Series trophy aloft in Omaha, despite making it to the title game in 2000, 2001 and 2003. But perhaps the 2012 Cardinal team, hosting a regional for the first time since 2008, can return to Omaha and finally return the title to the Farm after more than two decades away. Contact Jack Blanchat at blanchat@stanford.edu.

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