StanfordJULYToAUGUST d a 1997 y From the discovery of evidence for life on Mars and six national sports championships – not to mention a Nobel and a Pulitzer – to scientific research that will revolutionize the study of molecules and the way we relate to nature’s services, Stanford had a year to remember. Here’s a look at the main news stories. ON CAMPUS INCLUSIVENESS FOR HUMANITIES Two years after a committee was appointed to study MORE THAN HALFWAY THERE and revise the program in Cultures, Ideas and Val- President Casper announced it during a press con- ues, the Faculty Senate on May 15 unanimously ference in April: In only 11 months, $108 million approved legislation for a new Introduction to the had been pledged as part of a campaign to raise $200 Humanities that will replace CIV as a year-long million for 300 new graduate fellowships in the sci- freshman requirement. After a two-year period of ences and engineering. transition, the program is scheduled to be fully The news got immediate national attention and implemented by the 1999-2000 academic year. for obvious reasons: The money will fund an Two new prototype courses, offered in autumn unprecedented project to insulate graduate educa- quarter 1997, will be team-taught and focus on tion from the uncertainties of federal funding. between three and five primary texts. Each course Already dwindling, federal support for research is will be limited to 250 students who will hear two projected to decline between 14 and 18 percent in lectures and meet twice weekly in small discussion real dollars by the year 2002. The program will help sections of no more than 15 students each. In a Stanford attract the best students by assuring at least departure from the CIV legislation that mandated three years of financial support in the sciences, engi- “substantial attention to the issues of race, gender neering and some social sciences. Nominated by and class,” Introduction to the Humanities will their departments and selected by faculty commit- affirm “the spirit and principle of inclusiveness.” tees, the students will receive a tuition voucher of $12,000 and a stipend of $16,000 annually. CROSSING BORDERS IN RACE AND ETHNICITY Texas businessman Robert Bass and Cisco Sys- Almost before the ink had dried on legislation for a tems Chairman John Morgridge each gave $10 mil- new program in Comparative Studies in Race and lion. President Casper urged more entrepreneurs to Ethnicity (CSRE) last November, the faculty who join in. “We are looking for help from those who designed it were fielding phone calls from other uni- benefit from our students and faculty to ensure the versities hoping to establish similar programs. future,” he said. The impetus for the interdisciplinary program BRADFORD BY STUART PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS 48 STANFORD TODAY July/August 1997 dates from the early 1970s, when students began STANFORD MBAs SITTING PRETTY asking for programs in ethnic studies. Almost 170 Early last year the Business School mailed a long courses will be available under the CSRE umbrella questionnaire to 4,000 of its 1965 through 1989 MBA and students can major in one of four areas: Asian graduates. The results were encouraging: Stanford American studies, comparative studies in race and MBAs are professionally itinerant, financially com- ethnicity, Native American studies and Chicano/a fortable and generally pleased with their place in life studies. Al Camarillo, professor of history, was and with the preparation they got at the university. appointed head of the program. A research institute, Their median salary-plus-bonus range is $150,000 co-directed by professors of history and psycholo- to $200,000. At the 75th percentile the range is gy, will be available to graduate students. $300,000 to $500,000. One of the trends was the migration to smaller companies. The full career sur- SILICON GENEROSITY vey report can be seen on the web at http://www- The inventors of Yahoo!, the first online directory gsb.stanford.edu/ under “Employment Survey.” for the World Wide Web, donated $2 million to establish a new endowed chair in the School of CHANGING OF THE GUARD Engineering. At ages 28 and 30, Chih-Yuan “Jer- James Montoya, dean of undergraduate admission ry” Yang and David Filo, who earned master’s and financial aid, will be taking over as vice provost degrees in electrical engineering at Stanford in 1990, and dean of student affairs at the end of the acade- are the youngest individuals to have endowed a mic year. Montoya will succeed Mary Edmonds, chair at Stanford in more than two decades. The who retires after five years. Edmonds will continue founding of Yahoo! is a legend of Silicon Valley to manage a study of Stanford’s athletic department style: Yang and Filo started the guide to the web as required for National Collegiate Athletic Associa- a hobby while working toward their doctorates in tion certification. Montoya, who has been at the the Computer Systems Laboratory. The company university for five years, said he will explore “new that grew out of that lark reported revenues total- technologies to improve our services to students.” ing $8.6 million for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 1996. The Yahoo! chair is one of 12 endowed TOBIAS WOLFF COMES BACK TO THE FARM professorships established this academic year, the It’s been a long time coming, but acclaimed author biggest collection since the middle of the centenni- Tobias Wolff finally has agreed to move west. He al campaign. will begin work as a tenured professor of English at PENSION TAXES MAY these high rates, Shoven said, checks and other federal S. Lillick Professor of Law, an SOCK IT TO YOU “but the households that are spending programs by the expert on copyright law in Diligent savers beware – you affected probably account for a index. In March the Clinton cyberspace; Gretchen Daily, the can get hit with very high taxes significant portion of total administration agreed on a Bing Interdisciplinary Research if you save too much for your personal savings.” framework budget accord that Scientist in the Department of retirement in tax-deferred takes some of Boskin’s Biological Sciences, who pension plans, magazines and TALKING ABOUT TRILLIONS recommendations to reduce the studies the economics of the federal deficit into account. For environment; former student newspapers have warned their Americans may be better off Boskin, that’s not enough. “The Tiger Woods, now a pro golfer readers in the past few months. financially than they think accord did little to deal with who is turning the sport on its All were quoting from a new because the consumer price long-run budgetary problems head; Jerry Yang, MSEE '90, study of taxation on 401(k) index is overstating price that amount to trillions of one of the founders of the accounts by economists John inflation by about 1.1 percent a dollars . that will be driven by Internet search engine Yahoo!; Shoven, Stanford’s dean of year, a congressional upcoming demographic and Paul Romer, professor of humanities and sciences, and commission headed by Stanford transitions when the baby economics at the business Harvard’s David Wise, who and Hoover economist Michael boomers retire in the year school, whose theory on growth spends summers on campus at Boskin concluded last Names in the News 2001,” he recently wrote. argues that new ideas and high- the Hoover Institution. Shoven December. The commission’s tech innovation are key and Wise say they were report caused an uproar among production components. surprised to find that marginal retired persons’ groups and put OUR MOST FAMOUS ONES Romer also made Time’s tax rates could reach above 90 Boskin, the Tully Friedman Newsweek magazine raided list of “The Most Influential percent on inherited pensions Professor of Economics and Stanford for its “100 Americans People in America in 1997.” and 60 percent or more when senior fellow at Hoover, at the for the Next Century.” The list “His answers may just retirees or their spouses take center of national attention. The included six faculty and alumni revolutionize the study of distributions from tax-deferred Advisory Commission to Study names: Condoleezza Rice, economics,” the magazine pension accounts that have the Consumer Price Index Stanford provost and professor wrote. accumulated $1.5 million or recommended that Congress of political science, a special- more. Only a small portion of and the president act to stop ist in Soviet affairs; Paul the American work force faces annual automatic adjustment of Goldstein, the Stella W. and Ira tax brackets, Social Security 50 STANFORD TODAY July/August 1997 Trading the Beltway for Farm Trading everal top-ranking 1997-98 academic year, Stanford on Sept. 1. Wolff, an award-winning Washington, D.C., splitting his time between writer and one of the country’s premier short sto- insiders left the Stanford and the University of ry writers, is best known for his memoirs This nation’s capital to offer Maryland. At Stanford’s Institute for International Boy’s Life, which was made into a movie starring Stanford students their S Studies, he will deliver five Robert DeNiro, and In Pharaoh’s Army: Memo- take on government. The public lectures, which will then ries of the Lost War, an account of his experiences trappings of power left behind, be edited for publication. Payne in Vietnam as a Green Beret. For the last 17 years, they now can share their professors also typically Wolff has taught at Syracuse University in New invaluable experience: participate in the institute’s seminars, honors programs and York, where he was the university’s creative writ- William J.