Issue 1 n Volume 7 n Fall 2007 Overall campaign progress: $2,943,979,590* as of September 30, 2007 SEEKING SOLUTIONS $853.9 M $1.4 B RAISED GOAL EDUCATING LEADERS $582.9 M $1.175 B RAISED GOAL SUSTAINING A FOUNDATION OF EXCELLENCE $855.7 M $1.725 B RAISED GOAL * This total includes $758.5 M in campaign gifts yet to be designated for a specific purpose. The Halperin Family Wing of the Cantor Arts Center was dedicated on May 1. It was named in recognition of a $10 million pledge from Robert and Ruth Halperin, ’47. PHOTO: Steve Castillo $10 Million Pledge Galvanizes Arts Initiative Ruth Halperin, ’47, doesn’t strike one as a rabble-rouser. Warm and Spike Award, Stanford’s highest annual honor for volunteer service. thoughtful, she seems more likely to lead a book discussion than a See the related story on p. 8.] charge against the barricades. Most recently this has included a $10 million pledge to Stanford’s But when the subject is art—look out! museum, the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts. In recognition of this generosity, the university has named the modern Consider a going-away speech she gave in 1996 at a gathering that wing of the museum, added in 1999, in honor of the Halperins. A marked the end of her second and final term on Stanford’s Board of ceremony to dedicate the Halperin Family Wing was held on May 1. Trustees. She hadn’t planned what she was going to say, and she was surprised by what came out of her mouth. “This magnificent gift from Ruth and Bob Halperin will enable us to take our artistic program to new heights, most immediately by adding impor- “My last words were, with my fist upraised, ‘Man does not live by tant works of art to Stanford’s collection,” says Thomas K. Seligman, ’65, engineering alone!’” she recalls with a laugh. the John and Jill Freidenrich Director of the Cantor Arts Center. Having delivered this cri de coeur in a room filled with eminent sci- The Arts Initiative gift is the centerpiece of the Halperins’ total Stan- entists, business leaders, and, yes, engineers, she half-expected to be ford Challenge pledge of $13 million, which also includes $1 million greeted with stunned silence. Instead, the room erupted in applause. each to the medical center, the School of Education, and the Inter- Ruth Halperin, shown at home with “Bill Hewlett was right in front of me at the central table there, and national Initiative. The Halperins have broad philanthropic interests, her husband, Bob, and (below) he got up and cheered,” she says. though Ruth has a particular affection for the arts at Stanford. speaking at the dedication of the That the cofounder of Hewlett-Packard, a fellow alum, understood “Ruth’s special relationship with the museum goes back some twenty- that a grounding in the arts is crucial to a good education is the kind five years, during which time she has been a true ambassador for the Halperin Family Wing, is an avid art of thing that makes Halperin so devoted to her alma mater. (Loyalty arts at Stanford,” says Seligman. “She has come to our aid time and collector and advocate. to Stanford “runs in the blood,” she says; this fall a grandson became time again in so many ways—through her enthusiasm and genuine the eighth member of her family to enroll at the university.) love of the museum, and through her wonderful generosity. I also ap- PHOTOS: Steve Gladfelter and Steve Castillo preciate how supportive Bob has been to Ruth’s interests in the arts, Halperin is adamant that a fine university can never be a great uni- and I have enjoyed seeing him become engaged with projects they versity until its arts programs are as strong as its science programs, have made possible.” and as central to the university’s mission as its professional schools. Sixteen years ago, for instance, they established a curatorship in mod- She says she sees a serious commitment to that ideal at Stanford to- ern and contemporary art. At the 1995 groundbreaking ceremony to day, from President John L. Hennessy on down, as well as rebuild the museum, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, from donors. She cites as one prominent example last “This magnificent gift from Bob surprised Ruth with the announcement he had made a gift to year’s gift from Helen and Peter Bing, ’55, to build name the museum’s photography gallery in her honor. Ruth and Bob Halperin will a concert hall that will be the centerpiece of a new enable us to take our artistic performing arts center at Stanford. The Halperins have also established funds at the museum for exhibi- tions and discretionary use and given it several works of art. program to new heights, “People like that, they’re the ones who make a tremendous difference,” Halperin says. “I These include “Stone River,” a flowing, 320-foot-long sculp- most immediately by adding make some difference, but obviously not on ture by Andy Goldsworthy, completed on important works of art to that scale.” the grounds of the Cantor Arts Center in 2004. Made of sandstone salvaged from A word one often hears associated with Ruth Stanford’s collection.” university buildings destroyed in the 1906 Halperin is “self-effacing”: She and her hus- and 1989 earthquakes, “Stone River” is the band, Bob, have actually been extraordi- —Thomas K. Seligman, ’65, largest work of outdoor art at Stanford, narily generous to Stanford over the years, the John and Jill Freidenrich both with their gifts and their time. [Ruth Director of the Cantor Arts Center Halperin is a recipient of this year’s Gold CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 thestanfordchallenge.stanford.edu Seeking Solutions: A cornerstone of The Stanford Challenge is the effort to find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. Scholars and researchers throughout the campus are forming collaborative teams to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by three major initiatives—the Initiative on Human Health, the Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability, and the International Initiative. These are areas where Stanford has great strengths and the potential to make significant con- tributions. Work on all three initiatives is driven by the conviction that Stanford has both the ability and the moral responsibility to make a difference in the world beyond the university campus. An inspiring example of this commitment is the Rural Education Action Project (REAP), through which a handful of Stanford academics and their supporters aim to make a major impact on education in China and beyond. (See the story on the facing page.) Even initiatives as far ranging as the three mentioned above cannot encompass all the interdisciplinary work of The Stanford Challenge. Multidisciplinary Research Across the University is a component of the campaign designed to support collaborative work in many other areas. As is explained below, these efforts have recently been furthered by an anonymous $25 million gift for the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships Program, which will support multidisciplinary research as well as the three key initiatives, and a $1.9 million gift from the Elfenworks Foundation for a visiting scholar position and a lectureship at the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality. Graduate fellowships are typically awarded by discipline, putting interdisciplinary students at a disadvantage. A $25 million pledge aims to change that at Stanford. PHOTO: Anne Knudsen Anonymous Donor Gives a $25 Million Boost to Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies As the 2006–07 school year came to an end, Stanford got an early graduation present: An School of Humanities and Sciences Dean Richard Saller welcomed the audience to “A Concert for Hope,” a celebration of the launch of the Center for the Study of Poverty anonymous donor pledged $25 million to jump- and Inequality held in Stanford’s Memorial Church on September 6. Performances of music commissioned for the event were a highlight of the evening. PHOTOS: Steve Castillo start fundraising efforts for a new $100 million graduate fellowship program. The fund will sup- port graduate students doing interdisciplinary Elfenworks Gift Helps Fund Center for the Study of research at the university. Recent uncertainties in federal funding have Poverty and Inequality heightened concern about funding for graduate studies, and students engaged in interdisciplin- From struggles over land and ethnicity in Darfur, to violence in The foundation’s gifts of time, organizational assistance, and funds the Middle East, to income disparities in Asia, people on every helped get the new center off the ground last year. Elfenworks gave ary research often have trouble winning fellow- continent suffer as a result of poverty and inequality. Even in the an endowment to support a visiting scholar and a lectureship at CPI. ships awarded by individual departments or United States, the number of people living in poverty is larger than In addition, Elfenworks staff members developed the center-based outside agencies in any case. The Stanford Inter- the whole population of Canada. Many of the world’s most urgent Web site www.inequality.com, which is poised to become a clear- disciplinary Graduate Fellowships (SIGF) Program problems stem from economic or social inequities that threaten inghouse of information about poverty and inequality. Grusky has will help meet the need for new sources of re- both governments and individuals. recruited 400 prominent scholars to contribute articles and is assem- search funding. bling trend data as a resource for academics, students, and media. These topics call out for more research and policy work—a need The university will accept nominations in January that Stanford is addressing with its recently launched Center for Elfenworks’ support is also enabling Grusky to launch a magazine, for fellowships starting in fall 2008.