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The Stanford Daily An Independent Publication
FRIDAY October 15, 2021
Imbens wins Nobel Prize
UNIVERSITY
Uni reports record-low admit rate
Economics award recognizes his causal relationship work
Only 3.95% of applicants admitted to Class of 2025 By MURTAZA HUSSAIN By LOGAN GAINES CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Out of a pool of 55,471 applicants to Stanford’s Class of 2025, the largest pool in the University’s history, 2,190 received offers of admission, according to data released by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The data indicate an admit rate of 3.95%, which is a decrease from last year’s 5.19% admit rate. The 3.95% admit rate is the lowest in Stanford’s history — but that is not the only record set by the Class of 2025. The 2,190 students admitted, combined with the 369 admits from 2020 who took a gap year, constitute a total of 2,126 student members of the Class of 2025 — the largest undergraduate class in the University’s history. The yield rate for the Class of 2025, not including the 2020 gap year students, was 80%, according to University spokesperson
Please see ADMISSION, page 3
By NIKOLAS LIEPINS Stanford economics professor and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Guido Imbens was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday morning for his contributions to the analysis of causal relationships. Imbens is the University’s 35th Nobel Laureate, following the paths of Stanford economists Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom, who were awarded the prize last year. Imbens joined the Stanford faculty in 2012 and is now an applied econometrics professor and professor of economics at the Graduate School of Business. “We congratulate Guido Imbens on his remarkable achievement in economics,” Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne said during the University’s Nobel Prize press conference on Monday. “All of us at Stanford are incredibly proud of Professor Imbens, and we’re delighted that his accomplishments have been rec-
ognized by the Nobel Committee.” The committee specifically recognized Imbens for his work with Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Joshua Angrist on inferring real-world outcomes of possible economic policies. The team worked with policymakers to examine the impact economic policies have on the education and labor sectors. Economic policies cannot be tested like a chemistry lab experiment — their implementations have real-life repercussions, which make them difficult to study, according to Debra Satz, the dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. “Social scientists can’t do the kinds of controlled experiments that you can do in medicine,” Satz said during the press conference. “We can’t do that in the real world in the sense that we don’t want to create a famine, and then test it against a non-famine. So we have to look for other methods.” Imbens’s methods analyze observational data to infer impacts of
NIKOLAS LIEPINS/The Stanford Daily
Stanford economics professor Guido Imbens was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday. Imbens is the University’s 35th Nobel Laureate. economic policy by drawing correlations between existing realities and eliminating the financial and ethical implications of real experiments. For instance, policymakers would benefit from knowing the extent to which guaranteed income would impact the labor force. But implementing an actual guaranteed income as part of an experiment in the real world would be
CAMPUS LIFE
Students shared personal experiences, raised concerns
NEWS DESK EDITOR
By ITZEL LUNA
By ILA MATHUR By KEVI JOHNSON
dating the policy, formerly known as the Acts of Intolerance Protocol, in the summer of 2020. “The goal really was to center harm reduction and ensure that students feel like they’re heard,” Assistant Dean for Student Support Ankita Rakhe told The Daily. PIH Reporting addresses incidents that “adversely and unfairly” target an individual or group on the basis of protected identities, according to the mes-
Indigenous students led a teach-in on Monday in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, where they shared personal stories of being Indigenous at Stanford. Students also shared how they are navigating what they described as the University’s minimal support for the Indigenous community. The event began with a prayer and an in-depth land acknowledgement, read by Shayna Naranjo ’21 of the Santa Clara Pueblo. The land acknowledgment was written by Rachel Long ’20 of the Cherokee Nation and Hope Harrington ’19 of the Northern Chumash. “Stanford and Stanford affiliates are administratively intertwined and complicit in the settler-colonial reality of the Bay Area,” Naranjo read, referring to Stanford’s location on the unceded land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. “This means that Stanford and Stanford affiliates have a responsibility in assisting the Ohlone to reestablish their environmental stewardship through advocacy, institutional programming and monetary support. All people interacting on Ohlone homeland have this responsibility.” Despite President Biden designating Indigenous People’s Day a federal holiday, Stanford did not cancel classes in observance of the day — a move that some Indigenous students criticized as insufficient. When The Daily asked University spokesperson E.J. Miranda about the lack of a University statement to honor the holiday, he provided information on the launching of a new land acknowledgement website. Miranda did not comment on whether the University considered either closure or other actions to amplify Indigenous voices on Indigenous People’s Day. Alyssa LaTray ’23, of the Little Shell and Blackfeet Tribes, acknowledged Stanford’s recent rollout of its land acknowledgement website, but said that she feels it’s just a starting
Please see REPORT, page 4
Please see TEACH-IN, page 2
TAMMER BAGDASARIAN/The Stanford Daily
Members of Stanford Queer Student Resources (QSR) disrupted the speeches of administrators and sported flags with messages such as “Stanford Medicine Kills Trans People.” commends Stanford Healthcare for the limited, minor changes it implements throughout the year.” Despite criticism, School of Medicine spokesperson Julie Greicius emphasized the School’s appreciation for the forum and for those who participated in it. “Today’s forum was a strong demonstration of the authenticity and impact of this event: we heard the powerful voices of LGBTQ+ and SGM individuals in our community who shared their struggles, experiences, and deeply felt desire for greater and more rapid progress at Stanford Medicine and beyond,” she wrote. The push from LGBTQ+ advocates comes during a year of distress for the Stanford LGBTQ+ community. Rose Wong, a transgender medical student at Stanford, died by suicide in February. An advocate at
the event who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the School of Medicine said Wong’s death was “an absolutely devastating loss” for the Stanford queer and transgender community. It has prompted renewed calls for the School of Medicine to take tangible steps to improve the lives of transgender students at Stanford. According to Greicius, the School is “continually seeking ways to support our LGBTQ+ and Sexual and Gender Minorities Committee (SGM) community members, including the possibility of further increasing the number of all-gender restrooms.” As part of the forum, the Stanford School of Medicine organized a giveaway table at the Li Ka Shing Center, where they distributed shirts decorated with the words “Hu-
Please see PROTEST, page 3
CAMPUS LIFE
Uni launches new antibias reporting protocol By GEORGIA ROSENBERG MANAGING EDITOR
CRYSTAL CHEN/The Stanford Daily
The Protected Identity Harm Reporting process will replace the Acts of Intolerance Protocol, focusing on the harmed student to ensure that those affected by bias-related incidents feel heard and valued.
Index
Please see NOBEL, page 2
Indigenous People’s Day teach-in
By TAMMER BAGDASARIAN
Members of Stanford Queer Student Resources (QSR) boycotted the Stanford School of Medicine LGBTQ+ forum, disrupting the speeches of administrators and sporting flags with messages including “Stanford Medicine Kills Trans People” on Wednesday. Among the specific action items raised by advocates at the event were calls for the School of Medicine to increase all-gender access to facilities, allow students to display only their preferred name on ID badges and increase mental health resources and gender affirmation healthcare, goals that they felt were excluded from the forum, which one activist called a “performative optics-fest.” The LGBTQ+ forum was intended to promote visibility for LGBTQ+ individuals in healthcare and research. The 2021 forum, which included a virtual resource fair, speeches from various doctors and a community panel, focused on the importance of wellness and promoting belonging among individuals with diverse identities. However, in practice, advocates from the School of Medicine wrote that the forum was “a photo opportunity for executives that doesn’t address any of the existing issues that have been raised by the community, and
expensive, Imbens explained. So he and Angrist applied their observation-based method to an existing situation in Massachusetts. The team examined a Massachusetts lottery, in which winners were paid their winnings in a series of disbursements over a number of years — resembling a guaranteed income. When they com-
UNIVERSITY
QSR protests School of Med LGBTQ+ forum
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Stanford launched a new Protected Identity Harm (PIH) Reporting process that is intended to support students who have been harmed by bias-related incidents, according to a Tuesday message from Associate Vice Provost for Inclusion, Community and Integrative Learning Emelyn dela Pena and Dean of Students Mona Hicks. The new protocol comes over a year after the University tasked a working group with up-
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2 ! Friday, October 15, 2021 SPEAKERS & EVENTS
Clair talks criminal justice flaws By LAURYN JOHNSON STAFF WRITER
Experiential disparities in the criminal justice system are prevalent in court outcomes and in differences in the quality of an individual’s court experience, said sociology assistant professor Matthew Clair during a Wednesday afternoon event. Clair spoke about his research for his new book, “Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court,” during the first in-person faculty talk hosted by the American Studies program in two years. Clair’s book focuses on 63 case studies that he conducted during field work in the Boston court system and examines interactions between defendants and attorneys both inside and outside of the courtroom. Clair urged the readers and audience members to focus on the micro-level of the criminal justice system to understand the macrolevel — starting with the defendantattorney relationship. As Clair recounted his time with
defendants and attorneys during his field work, he reflected on his discovery of a lack of trust, disagreement in legal choices and an overall misunderstanding of what justice means in the grand scheme of their cases between the two parties. “For the people in this study, mistrust arose from a set of conditions rooted in poverty and racism — in particular, the perceived and real structure of the indigent system produced high levels of mistrust,” Clair said. Individual opinion of the courts is also cultivated through past experiences and generational community memory, according to Clair. During his research, he noticed that the selfadvocacy by lower-class clients and defendants of color often led to harmful outcomes because it put them at odds with their attorney, thus breaking their trust and desire to work with them. Contrastingly, the privileged defendants delegated their work to their lawyers and were overall ignorant of court proceedings. In his book, he asserted that “privileged people were rewarded for their deference, whereas the dis-
advantaged were punished for their resistance and demands for justice.” Clair also stressed that, too often, disadvantaged defendants are silenced and coerced during their time in the legal system, ultimately leading to their withdrawal from the process altogether. And too often, the attorneys are blind to this. He echoed this phenomenon in his book, writing: “It is ironic that a social institution ostensibly meant to ensure justice in our society seeks instead to avoid accounting for the injustices that bring people in contact with it and that influence the way people are able to navigate its walls.” Event attendee Katie Eder ’24 said that she appreciated Clair’s examination of courtroom relationships in his talk, especially because she had never considered how these relationships fit into the broader criminal legal system. “Professor Clair has honed in on this very specific component of the criminal legal system and the injustices around it, which is the relationship between the defendant and attorney,” she said.
GAURVI SINGHVI/The Stanford Daily
Sociology professor Matthew Clair spoke to students about inequities in the criminal justice system, focusing specifically on how courtroom relationships affect the disadvantaged. Some attendees, such as American Studies program director Shelley Fishkin, felt renewed after Clair’s event. Fishkin said that the event sparked within her an urge to “make the system of justice more equitable and also perhaps less oppressive in the ways that he showed it to be.” Clair concluded his talk with a warning to not underscore the
NOBEL
Continued from page 1
Screenshot: ITZEL LUNA/The Stanford Daily
The limited space is due to renovations in the Gates Computer Science building and those planned for the Graduate School of Education building, as well as a lack of proper ventilation in some classrooms, Drell said.
UNIVERSITY
Uni faces classroom shortage Stanford is down 12% of available classrooms By ITZEL LUNA The University plans to temporarily keep some classes virtual and eventually make classrooms controlled by departments more centrally available to address the
current classroom shortage, said Provost Persis Drell during Wednesday’s installment of Campus Conversations with the Provost and Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. The University is down approximately 12% of available classrooms despite an increase of about 400 undergraduate students this year, according to Drell. The limited space
is a result of renovations occurring in the Gates Computer Science building and the planned renovations for the Graduate School of Education building. Additionally, some classrooms are unusable because their ventilation did not meet the University’s standards for COVID safety, Drell added4
Please see SHORTAGE, page 4
pared lottery winners with those who did not win, they found that while there were some impacts on labor supply, it didn’t significantly change how much people worked. The work that Imbens and his colleagues have done “has helped to ignite nothing short of an empirical revolution in the social sciences,” Dean Jonathan Levin said during the press conference. Though Imbens is distinguished in his field, he said that the Nobel news still shocked him and that he “simply did not expect this to come anytime soon.” A call from Sweden woke him up at 2:10 a.m. Monday, and “it turned out to be a very nice surprise,” he said. By 3 a.m., a number of Stanford community members poured into Imbens’s home, where they helped field media inquiries, and were welcomed with a pancake breakfast prepared by his children. While Imbens and Angrist jointly received one half of the Nobel Prize, the other went to David Card, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, for his scholarship on labor economics. Imbens said he was “thrilled to be sharing the prize with them,” referring to them as “old friends.” Many years ago, the three economists discussed the concepts for which they received their Nobel Prize. “We worked together and talked
severity of the issue at hand when reading his book and to consider the implications of his findings for other cities. “The problems I uncovered in Boston, which actually has a very well resourced indigent defense system compared to others in the United States, are likely more extreme than other jurisdictions — because of that precisely.’’ about these things at a time when they weren’t quite as well received and fashionable as they are now,” Imbens said. “We were very convinced that those were good ideas and interesting ways to do research. We had long conversations about it then, and to see that come through in this way — it’s really stunning.” In addition to acknowledging Imbens’s role as a knowledgeable economist, his students praised him for being a mentor. “He is always very generous with his time, advice and comedic stories — he has a fantastic sense of humor,” graduate student Lea Bottmer wrote. “He deeply cares about every single one of his students, always checking in on our lives outside of work and encouraging us to keep a healthy balance between work and life.” And Imbens is just as much a mentor to his students as he is to his colleagues. “He is an incredible teacher, a generous mentor, and a wise and incisive thinker committed to using science to make the world a better place,” wrote Matthew Gentzkow, one of Imbens’s fellow professors. “I couldn’t ask for a better colleague, and I’m honored to get to call him a friend.” In addition to discussing economics with his peers, Imbens said that he and his wife, also an economist, frequently explore economic questions with their children. After winning the Nobel Prize, Imbens quipped, “I’m hoping they’ll get the message that they need to listen to me a bit more.”
TEACH-IN Continued from page 1
point. “To not have tangible change after that is really disappointing,” LaTray said. Both LaTray and Tim Rosenberg Jr. ’23 of the Seneca Tribe said that while they had no expectations for the administration on Indigenous People’s Day, they believed that the University should have cancelled classes in observance of the holiday. Another Indigenous student in the Class of 2025, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, highlighted the context of Stanford’s fraught history with the Indigenous community. Stanford’s “mascot was a Native American, a caricature of a Native American person, and they had celebrated Columbus Day before with the day off,” the source said. “But now [they] just won’t uphold that same energy.” Indigenous students who spoke at the teach-in also brought attention to the fact that it was Indigenous students — specifically Indigenous women — who organized and led the teach-in. Kendra Becenti ’21 of the Dine Tribe and an organizer of the teach-in, said that Indigenous People’s Day is supposed to be a celebration of communities, cultures and histories. “ What I feel like Stanford wants me to do, and what the settler colonial nation wants me to do, is to put my labor, my energy, as an Indigenous woman, into not myself — not caring for me, not my work as a student here — but educating, “ she said. Several other student speakers expressed a similar sentiment, sharing that they often feel the responsibility falls on them to continually explain Indigenous histories to people with little knowledge and that they are expected to represent a community that is not
ULA LUCAS/The Stanford Daily
Indigenous students led a teach-in at Kairos this Monday on Indigenous People's Day. Some students expressed their concerns over the University's lack of attention to Indigenous peoples and shared their personal experiences about being Indigenous at Stanford. monolithic, but expansive, diverse and international. Teach-in speakers said that one avenue non-Native community members could take in supporting Indigenous issues is through engagement with the Land Back movement. While Land Back has
many meanings for different people, it is centered around the idea of indigenous sovereignty and reclamation of what has been lost. On a national level, Land Back is affiliated with movements like the effort to close Mt. Rushmore and return the land to the Lakota
people, but students at the teachin also shared its relevance at Stanford — whether it be through paying a Shuumi land tax or considering the implications of travel on Indigenous communities. On Friday morning, a Land Back flag will be erected at
Kairos, a co-op on campus where the teach-in was held. “It’s important to show how the labor of Indigenous women students is creating spaces for us and greater visibility for things important to us because Stanford is failing to do so,” Becenti said.
The Stanford Daily
Friday, October 15, 2021 ! 3 UNIVERSITY
Fossil fuel divestment pressure grows By SATHVIK NORI
MHAR TENORIO/The Stanford Daily
HEALTH
13 student cases reported By LOGAN GAINES The University reported 13 new student and five new employee COVID-19 cases for the week of Oct. 4, according to the COVID-19 dashboard. This week’s case count is an increase from the eight student cases and seven employee cases reported in last week’s dashboard update. It also marks an increase in the University’s seven-day positivity rate, which rose from 0.06% last week to 0.1% this week. Even so, the University’s 7-day positivity rate remains lower than Santa Clara County’s or California’s, which stand at 1.0% and 2.2%, respectively. Over the past 58 weeks, Stanford has completed more than 403,000 student and 229,000 faculty, staff and post-doctoral scholar tests through the University’s surveillance testing program. In total, 345 students and 267 faculty, staff and postdocs have tested positive. “We continue to be encouraged by the low rate of positive cases,” wrote University spokesperson EJ Miranda. “We urge members of our campus community to continue to follow the safety protocols that help curb the spread of COVID.” The University will continue to monitor CDC, state and county guidance and update health and safety protocols on campus as conditions evolve, according to Miranda. Stanford has already adopted new protocols as a result of changing conditions, including reauthorizing indoor parties on campus on Oct. 8. This change coincided with a decrease in cases in Santa Clara County, which has also prompted Bay Area health officials to release new criteria for lifting mask requirements in indoor public spaces. Despite some changes in protocol, the University still requires weekly COVID-19 testing and indoor masking, regardless of vaccination status. The University continues to see little to no spread in University workplaces, according to the dashboard, and reinforced that “vaccines and masking provide strong protection against illness.”
ADMISSION
Pressure is ramping up on Stanford to divest from fossil fuels after Harvard and Dartmouth recently announced their decisions to divest. Despite the University’s creation of a new climate and sustainability school last year and continued activism from Fossil Free Stanford (FFS), the University has yet to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. On Oct. 8, Dartmouth announced that it will divest its endowment from any companies involved in the production or exploration of fossil fuels. Dartmouth is not the only peer institution to make this decision: in early September, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow announced that the University would divest its $41.9 billion endowment from any companies that “explore for or develop further reserves of fossil fuels.” Jade Wood, a senior at Harvard and a member of the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard Campaign, said that “the importance of divestment isn’t to deliver an economic sting. It is important to involve the moral repudiation of industry that caused so much damage and destruction all over the world.” She added that Institutions like Harvard “have a responsibility to advocate for the common good of society.” Despite continuous organization from groups such as FFS, as well as from alumni, students, and professors, Stanford’s Board of Trustees still voted to continue its investments in fossil fuels in 2021. In 2015, FFS organized a campaign to withhold donor donations to Stanford, including the Senior Gift, which is given by the senior class as a token of their appreciation, until Stanford agrees to divest from fossil fuels. Though Stanford remains invested in fossil fuels, the University’s investment in fossil fuel companies has significantly decreased
CRYSTAL CHEN/The Stanford Daily
Dartmouth and Harvard recently announced their plans to divest their endowments from fossil fuels. Though Stanford's investment in fossil fuels has decreased over the last few years, the University has yet to divest in full. over the past couple of years. According to the Stanford Management Company (SMC), less than 1.5% of Stanford’s portfolio is invested in fossil fuel companies and Stanford has no direct holdings in the top 100 oil and gas companies. University spokesperson E.J. Miranda referred The Daily to the Board’s June 2020 statement on divestment, in which the Board wrote that “participation in today’s energy systems — either as suppliers or consumers — does not in and of itself currently meet the standard required for blanket divestment under Stanford’s Statement on Investment Responsibility.” The Board added that they are committed “to accelerating the university’s transition, including its op-
erations and endowment, to at least net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.” Evan Baldonado ’23, co-director of Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS), said that he supports Harvard’s new policy and hopes that Stanford will follow suit. “I hope that universities that divest from fossil fuels reinvest that money in supporting people who have been disproportionately harmed by the fossil fuel industry and in supporting alternatives to fossil fuels,” he said. Advocates for divestment agreed, however, that universities have a much bigger part to play in combating climate change beyond divesting. “Universities like Harvard must
commit to using their billion dollar endowments for social good in a way that repairs the harm that they were founded on and continue to perpetuate,” Wood said. SSS Internal Community CoLead Sydney Schmitter ’23 added that Stanford needs to recognize climate solutions beyond technology and science, and instead focus on advancing interdisciplinary cooperation. “Actively supporting interdisciplinary collaboration and science in Stanford’s School of Earth and New School of Sustainability is an important step to more holistically address the climate crisis,” she said.
UNIVERSITY
Students praise California vote-by-mail By JED NGALANDE BEAT REPORTER
Student leaders of StanfordVotes and Stanford Democrats praised Governor Gavin Newsom’s approval of permanent mail-voting in future California elections, saying it will remove barriers to voting and increase turnout while maintaining election integrity. On Sept. 27, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 37 (AB 37) into law, a bill designed to “extend the requirements to mail a ballot to every registered voter to all elections and apply them to all local elections officials.” With Newsom’s authorization, state election officials will begin mailing ballots no later than twentynine days before every election to every registered voter. The reception of a mail-in-ballot will not encumber those who want to vote in
person, according to the bill. This new California law differs from those of states like Pennsylvania, where voters who receive mailin ballots but choose to vote in person must actively void their mail-in ballot or vote by way of a provisional ballot subject to review. Cameron Lange ’24, co-director of StanfordVotes, said she was excited when she first heard Newsom signed AB 37. The expanded access to vote-by-mail provided by the new law gives voters a sizable window during which they can cast their ballot at a time most convenient for them, she added. Lange believes that this policy will increase Stanford voter turnout. “Stanford students and workers have notoriously hectic schedules that can make voting in person on election day really challenging,” Lange said. “A lot of students have
jobs, they’re balancing a lot of classes and a lot of demands on their time. So I’m really hoping that the expanded access to vote by mail improves turnout. I imagine it will.” Gabriella Garcia ’24, co-president of Stanford Democrats, said that Stanford students have a high election turnout as is. However, with permanent mail-in voting, “numbers should be the highest we have ever seen,” she said. For California at large, Garcia said permanent mail-in voting will strengthen election integrity and the democratic process. “I was ecstatic to see that Governor Newsom made it permanent because it expands access to voting in a time where many states are looking to restrict voting,” Garcia said. “Governor Newsom made the right choice to provide simply another option to vote for people to be able to
vote from home, and I believe that it will help in increasing turnout from underrepresented communities.” Lange added that mail-in voting and other expansions to voter accessibility should be unifying points among citizens of a democracy. Garcia said she believes that this should be the case but currently feels that is not the reality. According to her, mail-in voting became a partisan issue because “Republicans felt threatened by the access to vote from Democratic constituents.” Republicans who protested the 2020 election demonstrated hypocrisy in how they reacted to the elections in Arizona and Georgia, she added. “During the election, we saw how in Georgia they chanted ‘count those votes’ while in Arizona they would say ‘stop the count,’ showcasing the hypocrisy in making a voting option a partisan issue,” Garcia said.
Continued from page 1
“We anticipated a rise in enrollment for the Class of ’25 ” — E.J. MIRANDA, University spokesperson E.J. Miranda. “As we entered our autumn quarter and a return to in-person instruction, we anticipated a rise in enrollment for the Class of ’25 — largely due to an additional 369 students who had taken a gap year,” Miranda wrote in a statement to The Daily. The number of deferrals from 2020 admits is similar to that of peer institutions, including Harvard, which had 349 deferrals, and Yale, which had 335 deferrals. Stanford’s Class of 2025 is made up of 51% women and 49% men, representing 77 countries and 49 states. 12% of enrolled students are international citizens from 72 countries, an increase from last year’s 9.9% from 56 countries. Additionally, 18% of the Class of 2025 are firstgeneration college students, a slight decrease from the 20.2% first-generation students in the Class of 2024. According to Miranda, the University will release additional demographic information about the Class of 2025 in December via the University’s Common Data Set, an aggregate of University statistics and data.
REBECCA PIZZITOLA/The Stanford Daily
Members of StanfordVotes and Stanford Democrats praised the state’s move to a permanent vote-by-mail model for elections.
PROTEST
Continued from page 1 manity” and “Compassion.” The protestors organized in front of the giveaway, handing out flyers critiquing the School of Medicine’s policies and posting signs with the same words as the shirts. Students and staff passing by the table wrote messages on the posters including, “[Stanford School of Med-
icine], treat trans people like people’’ and “Compassion is action, not just words,” as a sign of solidarity. “I think it’s important for people to have a space to express themselves, and certainly being handed swag is not a way to express yourself,” said another student who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the School of Medicine. “This is a real opportunity to do that.” At around 4:45 p.m., during the virtual element of the forum, advo-
cates interfered with the School of Medicine administrators’ speeches by making noise outside of their offices. Though some students feel comfortable showing their public support for transgender advocacy, that feeling of confidence and efficacy can be hard to come by for queer and transgender students at the School of Medicine, according to one advocate. “There are some students who were worried about coming and being at the table today because
they’re worried about getting letters of recommendation for the residencies,” the student said. “That shouldn’t be something they have to think about. But everybody has to come to peace with how visible and how loud they want to be about the change that they need.” This article has been corrected to more accurately reflect the School of Medicine’s appreciation for the forum and its participants. The Daily regrets this error.
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4 ! Friday, October 15, 2021
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SHORTAGE Continued from page 2
“We do have a shortage of classrooms. In the nearer term, we made a decision to have some classes online to deal with that,” Drell said. “In the near term, it is going to be tight as this big group of undergraduates goes through the system.” The Gates Computer Science building is expected to be back in operations by the winter quarter, which should help alleviate the shortage. In the long term, the University plans to increase classroom inventory and make classrooms that are currently locally controlled by departments more centrally available, according to Drell. Tessier-Lavigne later spoke about preparations for the fall 2022 launch of Stanford’s new school focused on climate and sustainability. Tessier-Lavigne described climate change as “perhaps the defining issue of the 21st century,” and said that the University wants to “put
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REPORT
Continued from page 1 sage. These identities include race, color, national or ethnic origin, gender or sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, among other characteristics protected by law. Given free speech protections on college campuses and California’s Leonard Law, which prohibits private universities from taking disciplinary action against a student for speech protected by the First Amendment or California Constitution, it is difficult for the University to implement punitive measures to hold students accountable for bias-related incidents, unless they rise to the level of a hate crime, unlawful harassment or discrimination, according to the message. The PIH Reporting process is instead intended to pivot the response to focus on the harmed student and ensure that those affected by bias-related incidents feel heard and valued, Rakhe said. She described the process as intended to be “reflective and trying to cater to what the student needs to be able to feel validated.” Students can report incidents that “range from micro-aggressions to macro-aggressions” and
occur “on campus, off campus or online and can be perpetrated by a known or unknown person,” the message states. The perpetrator does not need to be a Stanford student or community member. Rakhe said that the process offers students two reporting routes. First, reporting students can go the “data route,” in which they report a bias-related incident for the purpose of providing the University with valuable data and a more accurate picture of the campus climate. This approach is intended to inform the University’s preventative response. Reporting students can also choose to take what Rakhe calls the “connection route,” in which they report a harmful incident in the hopes of receiving resources and support. In this case, the University still receives data on the incident but is also able to directly connect with the harmed student, so long as they have submitted a non-anonymous report. Rakhe can then initiate a conversation with the reporting student. The conversation could include leaders from related groups or organizations on campus, like a cultural community center, but it is up to the student to decide who they want to attend. That conversation is not only aimed to help students with harm reduction and moving forward from an incident, but could also be
used to initiate a community response, like an email from a community group. Individuals and communities can choose from a menu of resolutions, including counseling, nature-based healing experiences and educational workshops, Rahke said. The reporting student can also decide whether or not they want to notify and include the responding party in their response. One choice of resolution is conflict mediation, in which both the reporting and responding parties agree to have a mediated conversation. “It is important to note that PIH Reporting is not a judicial or investigative process, though our goal is to provide a path to resolution for affected individuals or communities,” Hicks and dela Pena wrote. They added that many students already used the new PIH reporting process to file over 600 reports “for anti-Black, homophobic, misogynistic and threatenening social media posts by another student,” presumably in reference to Chaze Vinci ’23, who is no longer enrolled at Stanford. “There is no perfect process,” Rakhe said. “But what we really are trying to ensure is that there’s transparency. There is a response, a timely response. And that students feel like they’re heard, someone is listening to them, someone is paying attention and someone cares about them.”
UNIVERSITY
IPCC lead author says findings indicate dire climate crisis By LUC ALVAREZ Mankind faces an existential and imminent threat from humancaused climate change if rapid and significant measures are not taken, based on the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Paul N. Edwards, who serves as the director of the University’s Science, Technology & Society program and was a lead author of the report, presented the report’s findings at an Oct. 12 Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) seminar. For Edwards, the IPCC’s conclusions were clear. “Climate change is not the future — it’s well underway,” Edwards said. “We are seeing extremes of heat, drought and rain, all over the world. And those will continue to get more intense.” In an interview with The Daily following his presentation, Edwards called on the University to divest from fossil fuels as a meaningful acknowledgement of the report’s predictions, which prompted the United Nations Secretary-General to call the climate crisis a “code red for humanity.” As a U.S. citizen and Stanford employee, Edwards said he felt it was time for the University to divest from fossil fuels.
“We’ve been around and around on this, and now Harvard has done it, MIT has done it, Dartmouth has done it,” Edwards said. “Ten out of the top 20 research universities have already divested — why are we sitting on our hands?” The IPCC’s report is the result of three years of work by 234 lead authors who reviewed 14,000 scien-
tific publications. The report, and its conclusion that human-caused climate change is rapidly accelerating and likely irreversible, was endorsed by all 195 of the IPCC’s member countries. According to the report, worsening climate change will be impossible to correct for at least the next three decades. Even if humans were to halt all
fossil fuel emissions today, the carbon dioxide that is already in the atmosphere will continue to insulate the Earth for decades or even centuries to come, Edwards said. As a result, global warming will continue, sea levels will rise and extreme weather events will become more frequent and intense, he said. For California in particular, a
BEN LEES/The Stanford Daily
Paul N. Edwards, a lead author of the International Panel on Climate Change’s recent report, presented the panel’s findings at a Tuesday event and discussed ways to mitigate the impact of climate change.
year with heavy rainfall would help mitigate the effects of climate change, but this scenario is unlikely, Edwards said. “More drought, more wildfires, there’s a near certainty of that,” he added. The IPCC report was published in advance of the 26th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in November 2021. According to Edwards, this grim verdict isn’t new to scientists or policymakers. “Most of what is in this report, I don’t think will have a lot of influence on that meeting because most of that meeting’s outcomes were already being worked on before we released it,” Edwards said. The report contained recommendations to help people and institutions be more sustainable. For institutions, Edwards recommended insulating buildings, installing solar panels and reducing energy usage. While Edwards acknowledged that the impact a single person can have by reducing their carbon footprint is minimal, he said everyone plays an important role in responding to climate change. For example, Edwards suggested people could avoid gas powered cars or air travel and reduce the amount of meat they consume. “The main thing is to understand where your carbon footprint comes from and minimize it,” he said.
The Stanford Daily
Friday, October 15, 2021 ! 5
CULTURE CULTURE
Frosh art trends on TikTok Portraits by Jackie Liu ‘25 earn internet acclaim By SOFIA GONZALEZ-RODRIGUEZ
I
f you’re at all prone to hours-long TikTok scrolling sessions, prolific artist Jackie Liu ’25 has probably appeared on your “For You” page. Also known as @jackieliuart, Liu has mesmerized her 1.1 million TikTok followers with skillful acrylic paintings and thoughtful voiceovers. For Liu, who is originally from Weston, Mass., art has always been a fact of life. “My earliest memory of distinctly liking art was when I was in pre-K when I was four. I was the only person in the class who knew how to draw stars, so people would just ask me to draw stars on their paper,” she said. “I don’t really remember my life existing without art in it.” She boasts a website where she has sold 55 original pieces and 2,771 prints. Her work spans a broad range of subjects and forms, including lighthearted renditions of memes, magnetic portraits of notable public figures and also more serious paintings relating personal struggles or taking a stance on current events. Liu recalls art serving as an emotional outlet throughout her elementary and middle school years. Back then, colored pencils were her preferred medium, because they granted her relative control. Even “the mechanical aspects of just connecting pen to paper and then making something out of
Courtesy of Jackie Liu
Liu pairs painting with social media to share her artwork, which ranges from celebrity portraits to vulnerable pieces about her Chinese-American identity. During the pandemic, she amassed 1.1 million TikTok followers and sold 2,771 prints. nothing was cathartic,” she said. Liu’s love for art persisted as she entered high school, even when academics took center stage, and it was then that Liu ventured into painting as a medium. When she was first required to paint for a school project her freshman year, Liu’s initial reaction was hatred. Acrylic paint offered less precision than her usual pencils — a fact that set off alarm bells for the self-proclaimed “control freak.” Nevertheless, Liu said she stuck with it, “and for some reason, I just fell in love eventually.” In 2019, Liu completed around 15 paintings. Then in 2020, when the pandemic kept her locked in at home, it was like a creative wellspring burst open — she finished a total of 74. Sometimes, in a manic flow of inspiration, she found herself tirelessly churning out a new painting in just a few days. She honed her skills while working summers at Artists for Humanity, a Bostonbased nonprofit that aims to empower teens
in urban communities by teaching them artistic and entrepreneurial skills. Liu’s job required intensive work in a studio each day, usually five hours a day for minimum wage. Occasionally, her pieces would be leased out to galleries or purchased by patrons. Liu also found herself increasingly drawn to Gen Z’s latest fixation: a social media platform called TikTok, though she initially tried to resist its allure. “I was one of those people who lowkey made fun of people who had TikTok,” Liu said. “I was like, okay, at least I’m not on TikTok yet. That means I still have my sanity. But then my sanity left, and so I was like, you know what? Time to throw in the towel. Make a TikTok.” Her subsequent rise in popularity felt shocking at first, partly due to TikTok’s algorithm. Often subject to spontaneous and unannounced changes, it’s a lot less reliable than the algorithms that other platforms like Instagram or YouTube use. Liu de-
scribed it as an addictive gamble that incentivizes creation, but said that its unpredictable nature can be also counterproductive. If countless hours of hard work go into creating a piece and capturing it in video and narration, only for engagement to be underwhelming, “it’s hard not to associate it with a judgment on your worth, or the worth of the content you produce,” Liu said. Beyond this, however, Liu was struck by the way her content can take on greater meaning for her audience. Depending on the viewer, a single work of art is subject to infinitely many possible interpretations. She’s been interested to see how art can create a vessel for others to process their own emotions. Imaan Ibrahim ’25 says that she found meaning in the piece “Sanctuary.” The image of the woman “peacefully immersed in a koi pond despite being surrounded by
Please see TIKTOK, page 6
READS
Speculative fiction mirrors modern life By ALLY CASASOLA Welcome to “Facing the Speculative,” where I will be discussing some crucial speculative fiction novels and their implications for modern society. This is an extension of the project “Imagining Adaptive Societies” with Earth systems associate professor Jamie Jones and political science professor Margaret Levi under the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).
A
ttending school at Stanford can sometimes feel unreal with the University’s endless list of opportunities and activities and relentless sunshine. Life on campus can almost feel like a simulation — though beautiful in many ways, it is an atmosphere that has enabled me to distance myself from the real world. It wasn’t until I began to read Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” that I was struck with how far removed I was from reality. Written in 1993, “Parable of the Sower” is a speculative fiction novel set in California, year 2024. Fires, some that are caused by climate change and others that are caused by drug-hungry pyromaniacs, ravage the state. Excessive amounts of money are being spent on space exploration as it transitions to privatization. Police forces fail to help fleeing refugees, oftentimes only adding to the chaos and violence. Politicians promise a return to glory while suspending laws of employee protection, environmental regulation and economic supervision. Postmodern capitalism has evolved into a form of debt slavery, where employees live paycheck to paycheck, forever tethered to their jobs. As I read this novel, I couldn’t help but connect the fictional plot
Graphic: JESSICA LEE/The Stanford Daily
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, The Daily asked our writers to recommend texts — from poetry to prose and everything in between — that uplift Hispanic and Latinx voices.
READS Courtesy of the Museum of the African Diaspora
Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel “Parable of the Sower” both eerily depicts the social issues of our present moment and gives prescient insight into how we might solve them. to the very nonfiction reality we live in today. Record-setting fires are burning through California right now. Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are spending billions of dollars in this new-era space race to colonize Mars and pioneer space tourism. Wealth inequality per vades. Afghan refugees are finding themselves caught in chaos, unable to find asylum. The list simply goes on. We’ve come to an apex of history where the fictional narratives we once regarded as “otherworldly” are in fact very worldly. They are beginning to play out in real time — right here, right now. Speculative fiction is no longer just an escape from reality; its fictional plots often bounce you back to the nonfiction plot playing out in our timeline. But while Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” and other speculative fiction novels are driven by con-
Please see FICTION, page 6
Celebrate Hispanic stories
Reads staffers’ favorites for Hispanic Heritage Month By CHLOE MENDOZA By LEYLA YILMAZ By FYZA PARVIZ JAZRA By MALIA MENDEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Every year, National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 to honor the history and culture of Hispanic communities around the world. In order to uplift Hispanic and Latinx voices, The Daily asked our writers for their recommendations on texts that tell Hispanic and Latinx stories. We use both “Hispanic” and “Latinx” to honor the diverse identities celebrated this month. “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” by Erika L. Sanchez (2017) — Recommended by Chloe Mendoza ’25 ftentimes, the book characters we dislike most subconsciously remind us of ourselves. By exploring these figures we confront our own imperfections and become uniquely self-aware. “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” breathes life into multifaceted characters and presents its readers with a painfully authentic protago-
O
nist: Julia Reyes. Written by Erika L. Sanchez, the novel centers around fifteen-year-old Julia as she sets out to solve the mystery surrounding her older sister’s recent death. Julia is sarcastic, angry, volatile and sometimes downright nasty. Her late sister, Olga, was the polar opposite; she embodied the perfect Mexican daughter. At least everyone thought she did. When Julia begins to uncover Olga’s secrets, the facade of her sister’s infallibility is shattered, and her world begins to fall apart. “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” is not just a mystery, but also a look into Mexican culture, mental health and trauma. Coupled with introspective themes, Julia’s uninterrupted first-person narration provides an intimate look into the world that seems to constantly push her down. Don’t be fooled by this heaviness; Sanchez’s descriptions will also leave you smirking and giggling at small moments of joy. Deliciously evocative, wholly captivating and constantly surprising, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” dares to create a world in which people face their internal blemishes and don’t necessarily become stronger or better for it. Instead, they continue to fail, get frustrated and struggle. “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” is soon to be adapted into a film directed by America Ferrera. “Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017) — Recommended by Leyla Yilmaz ’25
Please see HERITAGE, page 7
The Stanford Daily
6 ! Friday, October 15, 2021
THE GRIND
Best pizza spots in Palo Alto, part 2 By MARK HUERTA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PXHERE
Benjamin Midler has some questions for the creators of the new James Bond movie “No Time to Die.’”
HUMOR
‘No Time to Die,’ I have Q’s By BENJAMIN MIDLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only. To the scriptwriters, directors and producers of “No Time to Die,” have you seen your movie? Did you actually attend the premiere, or did you slip out early to see if you could sneak into another theater across the hall? Did the movie you had the world waiting on the edge of its seat for 18 months to see live up to your expectations? When the Metro-GoldwynMayer lion roared onto the screen under the slogan “Ars Gratia Artis” (“art for art’s sake,” for the less classically inclined), were you crossing your fingers? Did you
snicker behind your masks? By the end of the 163-minute runtime, did you also feel as though there was just too much missing to name? Did you also wait until after the credits in the vain hope that there would be something — anything — more that could help piece things together? Were you also confused when the only thing that materialized was a promise that the eponymous character you’d just seen blown to smithereens will return? If you indeed made it all the way through, did you notice there was more applause at the beginning than the end? Why do you think that was? Were you also confused by the trivialization and marginalization of iconic characters who were painstakingly developed over four movies? Did you also feel a tinge of embarrassment when Felix Leiter died? What about the characters who replaced them — Paloma, Nomi and Safin? Did you have to
Google their names as well? On the subject of Paloma, did her abrupt introduction and equally abrupt departure give you whiplash? As for Safin, does his motive for wanting to kill millions of people escape you, too, or was there just not one? And while we’re on the subject, did he want to kill millions or just thousands, as both were mentioned? Were you also confused by how Safin was mass-producing nanobots by farming them? How about the fact that he was an adult when Madeleine was a child, yet now, when Madeleine is grown and with a child of her own, she looks the same age as Safin? While we’re on the subject of Madeleine’s young daughter (her name escapes me as well), how was she able to survive all alone in Norway while her mother was living in England? Tell me, was this a movie or a marketing opportunity? Either way, you know I’ll see the next one, right?
Ever since my first set of ratings of pizza joints in Palo Alto was published in The Daily last week, I have received countless emails, texts and comments from people telling me how wrong I was. Many people told me that I was far too harsh with my scoring. Let me clarify: a 10/10 pizza is a pizza I would fly around the world to eat. A 9/10 is worth driving several hours for, and an 8/10 is worth the equivalent of a drive into San Francisco. A 5/10 refers to simply average pizza, whereas a 1/10 would be physically inedible. Some of you were more forgiving and sent me recommendations on other pizza gems in Palo Alto and on campus. And as a pizzaphile and The Stanford Daily’s self-appointed pizza critic, I felt it my obligation to inform the community of my assessment. The rules of this pizza review are the same as last time. Only cheese pizzas are reviewed, and they are rated based on price, value, cheese and sauce quality. A pizza should also have a good foundation that makes it holdable and foldable. The only change to my criteria is that pizza spots on the Stanford campus will now be included with restaurants in Palo Alto city limits. Without further ado, here are the reviews. New York Pizza Nothing can ever recreate the experience of walking through a scaffolding on Sixth Avenue holding a paper plate in one hand and a slice, which burns the roof of your mouth, in the other. But this Hamilton Avenue joint gets it mostly right. Slices and pies here have that blistering on the cheese that all great pizzas of the East have. The sauce contains a gentle hint of oregano, and the crust is gently charred. The pizza is moderately floppy, so grip it with a little strength. A little flop is necessary in a good slice of New York pizza, and this one has it. Overall, this is a very
solid spot. Score: 6.5/10 Price: $18.99 for a 14’’ pizza Howie’s Pizza The fancy strip mall ambiance at this Town and Country location is very pleasant, more pleasant than one would expect sitting on the COVID outdoor-dining seating on parking lot pavement. But this pie is floppy — the cheese-to-crust attachment leaves much to be desired. The sauce is overly and inconsistently seasoned, and the cheese is oily. Score: 5.5/10 Price: $22 for a large cheese pizza Pizzeria Delfina This restaurant on Emerson Street serves up true Neapolitanstyle pizzas. Stay away if your tastes lean toward processed cheese — the fresh mozzarella on the pies is nice and juicy with a hint of creaminess. The sauce is not heavily seasoned, focusing on its tomatoes, which have a gentle hint of the earth to their sweetness. When held, the pie has a gentle flop and holds together well. The crust has a nice char, and the occasional explosions of basil are a nice break from all the cheese and tomato. I recommend calling ahead if you wish to eat at the restaurant. I went and was told that they were take-out only that day, despite the internet telling me they were open for dine-in. Score: 7.5/10 Price: $16 for a medium-sized Margherita Stern Dining This Escondido Road spot serves up slices on select weekday lunches. The pizza is always hot and fresh, coming right out of the pizza oven at the back of Stern Dining. The red tomato sauce is nice and sweet, and the gentleman who serves it is very kind. A word to the wise: be careful about biting into a slice fresh out of the oven. Your mouth may burn. Score: 6.5/10 Price: Free with a meal swipe
HUMOR
Capitol falls, Congress inside By SEAMUS ALLEN STAFF WRITER
Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only. Despite the recent structural collapse of the U.S. Capitol, Congress is back in session. After searching through the rubble early this morning, Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer managed to locate his gavel and call the Senate to order. All 50 Republican senators declined to assist in sorting through the ruins, saying in a statement that “Democrats want to build a partisan future without our input, so Democrats will not get bipartisan facilitators for their purely partisan gavel search.” The move is not unsurprising, as infighting both among and between parties has been higher than ever since the collapse. Structural
Graphic: ANGELA WEI/The Stanford Daily
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) managed to locate his gavel among the rubble and call the Senate to order.
TIKTOK
Continued from page 5 darkness representing a multitude of emotions” resonates with Ibrahim, reminding her “to make space for serenity amidst the constant bustle at Stanford.” Liu’s piece “Mother” held similar power for Aya Aziz ’25 when it first crossed her “For You” page earlier this year. In fact, the background song choice has stuck with her since then: “Agape” by Nicholas Britell “is now the song I listen to when I’m stressed and want to go to sleep,” she said. Aziz also professed admiration for Liu’s vulnerability. Art allows us to “show people things that you
normally wouldn’t,” she said. “I am so incredibly beyond grateful for the fact that people all over the world have connected with my art and taken ownership of it,” Liu reflected. “In that sense people construct their own meanings and express their own ingenuity.” Liu has found the most artistic satisfaction in her most vulnerable pieces. These often navigate topics such as complex family relationships and Chinese-American experiences with culture and othering. Still, making lighthearted content provides a much-needed foil, as “the more personal and creative and expressive pieces are sometimes very emotionally taxing.” Lately, Liu’s “fun” pieces have largely been celebrity portraits.
engineers warned Congress of the dangerous situation weeks prior, but since Senator Kyrsten Sinema refused to allocate any more than 15 dollars to the repair effort, no congressional action was taken. That inaction seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future, as Congress has not yet even agreed on a plan to rebuild the Capitol. Instead, makeshift tents have been set up using a few thousand dollars that Senator Joe Manchin had on hand, which he explained was “slipped to me by an ExxonMobil executive just before I got here.” President Joe Biden, for his part, has remained hopeful, saying on the White House lawn this morning, “You know, I think the American people, they knew when I laid out my agenda that it was just really out there to get the progressives on my side. We won’t ... we won’t be doing any of that. What this nation really needs are watered-down half-measures, and that’s what we’re going to get.” At press time, Congress had just taken a brief recess so that Senator Manchin could run to the store. He explained he was buying a dictionary so he could look up the word “compromise,” remarking that “since I’ve been using it so much, I figure I should eventually figure out what it means.” Works with such mass appeal are also beneficial because art currently serves as her only source of income. Creating commercially can be taxing, however, and she said producing with a single-minded focus on an audience has led to some burnout in the past. Liu is learning to strike a balance between the extremes of creating for herself and catering entirely to audience interests. Regarding her creative process, Liu said her pieces typically begin as a concept she wants to explore. From there, she brainstorms ways to visualize the idea and drafts some rough thumbnails. Liu developed her style as a self-taught artist through extensive experimentation — she has drawn inspiration from seeing the range of human expression possi-
UNSPLASH
Following a flurry if community input after his last pizza review, Mark Huerta takes on rating another five restaurants.
FICTION
flict and catastrophe, their plots are resolved by resolutions that are yet to be realized in our world. This right here is my fascination with speculative fiction. Authors are allowed to speculate resolutions that we as readers can try to implement in the real world. In Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” 15-year-old protagonist Lauren Olamida zealously endeavors to unearth her own religion that is illuminous of her lived
experience. One of the verses of her religion “Earthseed” is: “Ignorance / Protects itself. / Ignorance / Promotes suspicion. / ... / Ignorance / Protects itself, / And protected, / Ignorance grows.” Answers to real-world problems can be found both in reality and in the fictional dimension. Lauren, and Butler by extension, are begging that we not remain ignorant to the fictional world, let alone the world that exists outside of our bubbles, for that ignorance will only flourish upon itself and grow. The most pressing solutions for problems like climate change and political injustice may be right there, at the touch of a novel.
ble in other artists’ work. New to her overall procedure is the task of recording a voiceover. These range in length from a minute to a minute and thirty seconds, and mainly accompany her personal reflection pieces. She usually composes a rough draft to pin down her swirling thoughts, though sometimes she feels loose enough to jump right into recording. This spontaneity marks a stark departure from her previous approach to writing. “This has probably been good for me, in the sense that now I hate writing less,” she said about formulating voiceovers. Before TikTok, she “would self sabotage and be unable to just get a sentence out on the page, because I would try and craft it in my mind so it was perfect before I even put
it out. And that would just stop me from being able to produce anything.” The more she experiments with finding her voice as a writer, the less forced the words feel, and at times she even finds herself enjoying the process. Looking to the four years ahead, Liu is considering a double major in art and political science, sociology or anthropology. She chose to attend Stanford over art school for the greater academic breadth it allows her. Though excited to pursue her creative passions, she wanted to avoid prematurely committing to a career in the arts. “I still want to give myself the most possible avenues, especially because at this stage of my life, I haven’t really had the opportunity to explore that many domains, academically and otherwise,” Liu said.
Continued from page 5
The Stanford Daily
HERITAGE Continued from page 5
A National Book Award Finalist of 2017, “Her Body and Other Parties” is Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, consisting of eight short stories centered around contemporary women’s lives. These narratives are written with twists of absurdity, magical realism and horror to reflect gender inequality in modern relationships and systemic sexism in a mythical fashion. Machado uses fantastical and exaggerated elements to create an abstract fictional world. Despite its fictitiousness, this alternate reality operates as a lens for Machado’s audience to see the very real modern injustices that define women’s everyday lives. For instance, in the collection’s eponymous story, Machado critiques the entitlement men feel to women’s bodies and their suppression of female sexuality through the retelling of the fantastical children’s story “The Green Ribbon.” As Machado writes about body dysmorphia through a ghost story, sexual assault through psychological horror and queerness through an apocalypse tale, she envisions systemic discrimination as the monster of her short horror stories and puts forth often untold and repressed narratives. Machado told Tobin Low and Kathy Tu in their podcast “Nancy” in May 2020 that “archives have gaps and spaces that exist because we don’t value certain stories. We don’t record them.” Historically we have prioritized voices of white, cisgender males. We have documented and retold their stories of privilege, overlooking marginalized experiences. Machado brings forth often untold stories on women’s struggles, rewriting history from a different point of view. Her short story collection is a beautiful attempt to fill these “gaps.” “The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim” by Jorge Luis Borges (1936) — Recommended by Fyza Parviz Jazra M.A. ’22 This short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is written as a faux literary critique of an imagined novel, also titled “The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim,” by fictional writer Mir Bahadur Ali — a lawyer from Bombay. Originally titled “El Acercamiento a Almotasim,” it is one of Borges’s earlier works and showcases his mastery over writing complex and multi-layered stories that engage with historical and philosophical issues. The critic summarizes the plot of the imagined novel as follows: young law student kills a man during a Hindu Muslim riot and escapes from the city in desperation. This student then peregrinates across Hindustan, where he intermingles with people from all walks of society. Through these encounters, he comes to a “mysterious conviction” that these vile creatures emanate “clarity,” mainly because they all had met a man named AlMu’tasim. Therefore, Mir makes it his life’s quest to find this man. Borges’s story invites us to explore the instability of textual meaning and cyclical narrative structures. The critic mentions early on in the short story that the novel he is reviewing was published twice. In the second edition, the book’s title was changed to “The Conversation with the Man Called Al-Mu’tasim: A Game with Shifting Mirrors,” and Al-Mu’tasim was made into an “emblem of God.” The critic detests such over-blatant symbolism and would have preferred Al-Mu’tasim to maintain
Friday, October 15, 2021 ! 7 “idiosyncratic personal features.” It is not explained why the author, Mir Bahadur Ali, decided on these amendments, especially since the book’s first edition was a major success. It can be deduced that this “shift” in the novel is Borges’s deconstructionist interpretation of how change, though sometimes unsettling, is inevitable. Interpreting Borges’s story this way illustrates that texts are intrinsically unstable and makes him a precursor to later critical theorists such as Jacques Derrida, an avid reader of Borges. In addition, “The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim” shows us cyclical patterns — a theme that becomes significant in Borges’s later fiction. Circularity appears in the young lawyer’s geographical quest: he begins his journey from Bombay and ends in Bombay. The figure of AlMu’tasim also includes circular aspects. The critic suggests that AlMu’tasim may be the man the young lawyer murdered. It is also implied that Al-Mu’tasim, as the one sought, is also the one seeking; hence, Al-Mu’tasim is the lawyer seeking himself. The significance of cyclical ontology ultimately illuminates Borges’s illustration of philosophical concepts such as Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence, making the tale intellectually stimulating. “Remains” by Jesus Castillo (2016) — Recommended by Malia Mendez ’22 I first encountered Castillo’s 2016 poetry collection, “Remains,” while fumbling through my high school best friend’s bookcase. Perhaps I hold on to it so tightly because of this nostalgic association, but regardless, this book has been faithful to me; it has led me across the chasms between “back then” and “now” as any good friend might. Its post-impressionistic cover art first caught my attention, but its delicate lyricism compelled me to read on. “Remains” has been described most prominently as a “contemporary epic” that adopts the grandiose poetic voices of legends like Ovid and Sappho to narrate quotidian moments in the modern era — a drunken rendezvous, a train arrival, a street performance. Castillo is a hospitable poet, often lapsing into third-person plural discourse in order to accommodate his readers’ presence in the vignettes that constitute his collection. His poems have been said to translate ancient romance into our contemporary dialect, like a prophet wellacquainted with the rhythm of the modern metropolis. To me, Castillo’s poems do precisely what poems are supposed to do: invoke hyperspecific details to impart universal sentiment. A particularly intimate stanza in the sixth section of the book reads, “After all our violent failures to meet, the one thing we can fully share is this distance.” This line is spoken from one lover to another, grieving the death of their relationship that has no ceremony. Though it can be read in this romantic context, I interpret Castillo’s line instead as a general lamentation of the modern city-person’s “anonymity,” as Georg Simmel called it — our fundamental inability to truly know one another that has become tragic to us as we’ve seen the world virtually expand in our palms. Castillo recognizes that we are simultaneously more and less connected to those around us — and those who came before us — than we have ever been, and he ingeniously uses the epic poem to reckon with this fact. Explore “Remains” for more meditations on modernity, not-quite-love poems, and metaphysical questions about where we come from and where we’re going.
HUMOR
We took it... it’s ours
BEN LEES/The Stanford Daily
Sure, Stanford might have no right to Indigenous land (and it adknowledges it). But it’s going a step too far to do anything about that harm.
Stanford ackowledges Indigenous land, as long as it can keep it By BEN LEES
STAFF WRITER
Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only. We recognize that Stanford sits on the ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Ohlone people. Consistent with our values of community and inclusion, we have a responsibility to acknowledge, honor and make visible the University’s
relationship to Indigenous peoples. Well, as long as we get to keep the land. We understand that Stanford, and indeed the United States, has no legitimate claim to the land it occupies. One cannot forget how through centuries of deception, coercion and violence, Indigenous peoples were killed in large numbers, deprived of their culture and language and forced onto undersized reservations. Nor can we ignore the fact that Stanford would not exist otherwise. Not only do we remember this horrific legacy, but we wholeheartedly engage with and elevate it. But doing anything meaningful
about that harm would probably be going too far. Consider the vital role Stanford plays in our society as an elite institution for higher education. Stanford helps so many privileged students achieve things they always knew they could. Truly, the loss of Stanford would be a dear one to all. Plus, the University has operated since 1891, which is basically forever. It’s almost like we always owned the land. But that won’t stop us from continuing to honor the University’s relationship to Indigenous peoples, whatever that means. Who knows? With enough acknowledgement, maybe the whole issue will go away.
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX NEWXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX XXX XX XXX By SELINA XIA Stanford political science professors Jeremy Weinstein and Rob Reich M.A. ’98 Ph.D. ’98 and computer science professor Mehran Sahami Ph.D. ’99 said that the pursuit of product optimization, venture capital and governmental indifference has led to ethical issues in the tech industry, in a discussion panel on Monday. Weinstein, Reich and Sahami recently co-authored a book entitled “System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot,” which explores how the tech industry’s fixation on optimization and efficiency has led to erosion of privacy and reinforcement of prejudice. During the event, Julie Owono, executive director of Internet Sans Frontieres (Internet Without Borders) and an inaugural member of the Facebook Oversight Board, highlighted issues with Facebook’s products — including the recently leaked Facebook internal files, which showed Facebook having a two-tier justice system. As the event moderator, she also brought up the social media platform’s perpetuation of biased images of women’s bodies, misinformation about politics and elections and amplified hate speech. While many people blame ethical issues related to technology on people and platforms, Reich offered an alternative culprit. “We don’t think the problem is Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook,” Reich said. “The problem lies within the mindset of the entire ecosystem.” The tech industry’s pursuit of product optimization, venture capital-driven power structure and regulatory indifference all contribute to ethical problems within the industry, according to Reich. Optimization is just a means to an end,” Reich said. He maintained, however, that if people are optimizing their products without considering the consequences, optimization can be used for unethical purposes and can cause even more problems. To optimize, he said that “technologists require a computationally tractable solution” — but it is difficult to quantify abstract values such as human connection. One example of this optimiza-
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/The Stanford Daily
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX tion mindset is Soylent, a meal replacement powder company that claimed to optimize for both nutrition and time investment, according to Reich. Yet it fails to take into account the gustatory pleasure and social connection of eating — values that are overlooked due to prioritizing optimization, Reich added. Besides optimization, technology’s close connection with venture capital also contributes to issues within the tech industry. This connection is “a system that creates incentives to push people to profitmaking,” Sahami said. When this “relentless push for profits” replaces the pursuit of worthier and more balanced goals, people’s views on decision-making are often narrowed, he added. Starting in the mid-1990s, politicians’ permissive regulatory policies also expedited the development of both technology and the problems associated with it, according to Weinstein. “We have leadership in the White House that clearly understands what is going on with Big Tech,” Weinstein said. Despite all negative externalities caused by tech products, however, “Washington is just not bringing anything to the table,” leaving a regulatory oasis with no act for over 25 years, he added. Sahami emphasized people’s
need for a system of safety when interacting with technology. In the past, people could choose whether or not they wanted to use an application. Nowadays, though, as technology has become increasingly dominating in people’s lives, a system that allows people to safely use technology is essential, according to Sahami. To achieve a safe environment, both external pressures from the government and civil public and internal regulation within tech companies are necessary, according to Weinstein. Given the nature of machine learning algorithms, which utilize and learn from past data, Sahami emphasized that auditability and transparency can help reduce biases and improve objectivity in technological algorithms. Sahami also encouraged students to take an interdisciplinary approach to their learning to increase their understanding of technology, as well as policies and ethical considerations that coincide with it. To do so, he suggested that STEM students explore humanities subjects and humanities students try out STEM subjects. “By bringing those things together, we think we’ll get these people who got super powers to understand how these pieces fit, and how the much bigger impact is made,” Sahami said.
8 ! Friday, October 15, 2021
The Stanford Daily
The Stanford Daily
Friday, October 15, 2021 ! 9
SPORTS
CLASH WITH COUGARS WASHINGTON STATE ON DECK FOR STANFORD
By DANIEL WU
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Halfway into the season, Stanford head coach David Shaw’s game evaluations are beginning to take on a familiar theme. “I don’t believe we were outmatched,” Shaw said on Tuesday about Stanford’s Friday loss to No. 22 Arizona State. “I believe we were outplayed.” To hear Shaw tell it, the Cardinal have the talent to compete and are capable of much more, but mistakes and periods of poor execution have held them back. Stanford just hasn’t played its best football yet. If that’s the case, now is the time to find answers. Stanford (3-3, 2-2 Pac-12) now stands at a crossroads, as the team travels to play Washington State (3-3, 2-2 Pac-12) on Saturday. The Cardinal are currently tied for second place in the Pac-12 North division, sitting behind Oregon. With the hardest part of their schedule behind them, the Cardinal still have an outside chance at a Pac-12 Championship berth. Keeping that chance alive starts in Pullman. On paper, the Cougars are a much easier matchup for the Cardinal than the gauntlet of ranked teams Stanford battled through in September, but Washington State has won four straight games against the Cardinal dating back to 2016. Heading into Pullman is never an easy assignment. “First thing that comes to my mind is the weather,” said fifth-year outside linebacker Gabe Reid, who is making his third trip to the Palouse with Stanford. “It’s going to be cold, and luckily we’re not playing a later game ... It’s going to be a rowdy environment; Pullman’s a big college town.”
BOB DREBIN/isiphotos.com
After a road loss to No. 22 Arizona State last Friday, the Cardinal are searching for a win against Washington State. A victory is crucial for the Cardinal’s conference championship chances as the team currently sits 3-3. The Cougars are a different team than the one that beat the Cardinal in their last meeting in 2019. New head coach Nick Rolovich, who moved away from the high-scoring Air Raid offense that buried Stanford in the last few years, has yet to face Stanford in his career since last year’s matchup was canceled due to COVID-19 cases within the Cougar team. But Shaw isn’t taking the matchup for granted. “Washington State in particular, [the games] are all crazy,” Shaw said.
“We’ve played them on Halloween twice in the middle of the night, played them in rain and sleet, played them down here in crazy games that came down to the fourth quarter.” If Washington State continues to create havoc on Saturday, it’ll be with quarterback Jayden de Laura, who passed for 399 yards in last week’s game against Oregon State. Star running back Max Borghi has been featured less than expected but is still an all-conference talent who gashed the Cardinal as a runner and
a receiver when the two teams last played. On the other side of the ball, the Cougar defense struggled against USC but smothered Cal and held up well against Oregon State and Utah. “They’re not big on the defensive line, but they are quick and explosive in their playmakers,” Shaw said. “Offensively, it’s an exciting form of offense that, if you slip up, they’re gonna take advantage of it.” Stanford will need to keep pace with an increasingly depleted of-
fense. Sophomore quarterback Tanner McKee needs a bounceback performance after throwing his first three career interceptions in Tempe last week, but with sophomore wide receiver John Humphreys now out, the Corona-native will only have one of his original starting receivers to throw to against the Cougars. Fifthyear tight end/defensive end Tucker Fisk and senior fullback Jay Symmonds are also out — a big loss for the Cardinal run game. Shaw said that some players who’ve missed time over the last few weeks are probable to return, including sophomore wide receiver Bryce Farrell, sophomore kicker Joshua Karty, junior cornerback Zahran Manley and fifth-year safety Noah Williams. Still, the Cardinal will be forced to mine the depths of their roster to bolster the team; freshman wide receiver Jayson Raines and defensive end Aaron Armitage are listed on the depth chart for the first time this season and could see extended playing time. Significant absences have hurt the Cardinal before this season — the unavailability of junior running back Austin Jones loomed large over the loss to UCLA — but Stanford should still have the talent to contend with a Washington State team that can’t yet compete with the Cardinal’s resume of wins. More than that, though, the pressure is on for Stanford to finally settle as a team. “The challenge for us, sitting here at 3-3 after six games,” Shaw said, “is to really get into that October groove and start playing our best football,” Shaw said. Stanford kicks off against Washington State at 4:30 p.m. PT on Saturday. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
FOOTBALL
CARDINAL KEYS FOR PULLMAN
Stanford in search of fourth season win By ELLS BOONE DESK EDITOR
By CYBELE ZHANG DESK EDITOR
By NOAH MALTZMAN By DREW SILVA By ZACH ZAFRAN With USC, UCLA, Oregon and ASU behind us, it feels like the most challenging stretch of the Stanford football season is finally over. But the Cardinal have not come out unscathed. They picked up three losses and multiple injuries — most notably, a lower-leg injury to senior wide receiver Brycen Tremayne, a core piece of the offense for the opening five weeks. For the first time since Sept. 18, Stanford (3-3, 2-2 Pac-12) faces an unranked opponent — Washington State (3-3, 2-2 Pac-12). Looking at the schools’ records alone, WSU and Stanford appear evenly matched, but Wazzu has not faced nearly the level of competition that the Cardinal have — the Cougars opened the season with Utah State and Portland State at home. Due to an abbreviated schedule during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two teams did not play one another last season. Thus, Stanford and Washington State have not faced each other since Nov. 16 in Pullman, and the Cardinal have lost the last four consecutive games in the series — Stanford has not beaten Wazzu since 2015 (i.e. before anyone on the current roster was enrolled in Palo Alto). Noah Maltzman, Zach Zafran, Ells Boone and Drew Silva discuss the Cardinal run game, quarterbacks and score lines. Cybele Zhang [CZ]: Last week, the Cougars gave up 300+ rushing yards to the Beavers. Can the Stanford offense reestablish their run game after a dis-
Please see FOOTBALL, page 10
KAREN HICKEY/isiphotos.com
Senior middle blocker Holly Campbell (above, 3) collected 11 kills on a .556 hitting percentage in Stanford’s five set loss to Oregon on Sunday. The loss marked the Cardinal’s first defeat by the Ducks in 10 years, with the last loss occuring on Nov. 18, 2011 on the Farm.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Stanford downed by Ducks By GAVIN MCDONELL DESK EDITOR
No. 17 Stanford women’s volleyball (9-5, 4-2 Pac-12) finished up its road trip in the Pacific Northwest against No. 14 Oregon (14-2, 5-1 Pac-12) Sunday afternoon. The evenly matched teams went the distance at Matthew Knight Arena, but ultimately, the Ducks prevailed 3-2, marking Stanford’s first loss to Oregon in 10 years. The Cardinal struggled to kickstart their offense in the first set. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Caitie Baird led the way with three kills, but the team posted a dismal .079 hitting percentage to start the match. Defensively, Stanford was back to full strength; sophomore libero Elena Oglivie returned for her second game after she suffered a concussion against UCLA two weeks ago. After Stanford went down 16-22, Oglivie made an impressive one-handed dig to keep the play alive. Eventually, the Cardinal won the point on a block by Baird. Stanford went on a 4-0 run to cut the Oregon lead to two, but in
the end, the Cardinal were outmatched offensively. The Ducks won the first set 25-21, as their junior outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller tallied seven kills. The second set was tight the whole way, with neither team gaining more than a three-point lead. Stanford trailed 20-21 before junior opposite Kendall Kipp responded with a kill off a pass from freshman setter Kami Miner. Following another kill by Kipp, the teams were tied at 23. Oregon redshirt senior outside hitter Taylor Borup made an attack error to give Stanford the lead, and on the ensuing set point, Stanford won on another Oregon error. The third set felt eerily similar to the second, and the final result was identical: Stanford won 25-23. After a slow start to the match, freshman outside hitter Sami Francis came up huge for the Cardinal. In total, she registered five kills in the third set, including a crucial kill to give Stanford a 23-20 lead. Senior middle blocker Holly Campbell snuck a spike through the defense to make the score 24-
22. Two points later, another attack error by Borup gave the Cardinal the win. After back-to-back wins, Stanford looked to close out Oregon in the fourth set. The Cardinal took a narrow 7-6 lead before a net violation by Nuneviller. On the violation, Nuneviller’s momentum carried her under the net. Francis, who was blocking on the play, came down awkwardly on top of Nuneviller’s foot. Francis left the game with an ankle injury but thankfully returned later in the set. The match pressed on, and the Ducks took a 16-12 lead. The Cardinal immediately followed with a 4-0 run to even the score at 16. The teams battled back and forth, tying the score again at 20, 21 and 22. Back on the floor, Francis set up a Kipp for a kill to level the score at 23. Stanford was momentarily within two points of the victory, but Nuneviller responded with a kill to give Oregon a 24-23 lead. On the following play, Miner found the open floor with a setter dump. However, the refs quickly blew the whistle for Oregon, as
Miner committed a net violation. The teams were destined for a deciding fifth set. In the first-to-15 final set, a fast start can mean everything. A quick few points to start the frame can completely change a team’s momentum and reverse the outcome of the match. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, Oregon opened the fifth set on a mission, winning the first three points and later taking a 61 lead. Stanford made a final push, going on a 4-0 run, but Oregon responded with its own 3-0 run. In the end, the Ducks outlasted the Cardinal to win the set 15-11 and the match 3-2. For the match, Kipp and Francis led the team with 15 kills apiece. Campbell recorded 11 kills on a sky-high .556 hitting percentage. Miner had a gamehigh 47 assists, while Oglivie tied for the most digs with 26. The Cardinal will look to get revenge against the Ducks on Nov. 4, when they face off again at Maples Pavilion. Before then, Stanford will return home to face No. 15 Utah. First serve against the Utes is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT on Thursday.
The Stanford Daily
10 ! Friday, October 15, 2021
STANFORD IN THE NFL
DAVIS MILLS BREAKS RECORD
Quarterback throws for 300+ yards against Patriots By DREW SILVA Given the Houston Texans’ performance so far this season, spectators were not expecting much from rookie quarterback Davis Mills ’21 in his third career NFL start on Sunday. Following a four-turnover, zero-score performance in Week 4, Mills came to play against a Bill Belichick-coached defense that typically has success against rookie QBs. Mills finished with a record setting performance with 312 yards and three touchdown passes, but it was not enough — the Texans fell to the Patriots 25-22. After suffering a hamstring injury in a Week 3 win against Houston, the Panthers’ running back Christian McCaffrey ’17 sat out for a second straight game. Carolina is hopeful that their top offensive weapon will be available for their game next week against the Minnesota Vikings. Tight end Dalton Schultz ’18 recorded six catches for 79 yards in a 44-20 divisional win for the Dallas Cowboys. Schultz became just the seventh tight end in the Cowboys’ franchise history to surpass 100 career catches. Through the first five weeks of the season, Schultz is the second-highest-rated tight end in the NFL. Several other former Cardinal tight ends saw action this week. Colby Parkinson ’20 hauled in his first catch of the season for one yard. Austin Hooper ’16 caught a two-point conversion for the Cleveland Browns in their 47-42 loss to the Chargers. Zach Ertz ’13 added a six yard reception for the Eagles in their upset win over the Panthers. Kaden Smith ’19 was not targeted after losing his starting quarterback to an injury in the first half. On the offensive line, Saints’
FOOTBALL Continued from page 9
mal rushing performance at ASU, where junior RBs Nathaniel Peat and Austin Jones recorded only 32 and 13 total rushing yards, respectively. Noah Maltzman [NM]: There is a good chance that the Cardinal reestablish the run. Jake Dickert’s 42-5 defensive scheme does not cover the run well — as seen by OSU having two 100+ rushers, each averaging over eight yards per attempt. Having two quality running backs like Peat and Jones should work well against Dickert’s defense, but I would not be too confident just yet. Stanford’s offensive line played abysmally against ASU, only letting the Cardinal’s backs rush for 20 total yards with a terrible average of 0.7 yards per carry. It is too soon to say confidently whether Stanford’s rush game will bounce back, but if there is ever an opportunity this season, Wazzu may be it. Zach Zafran [ZZ]: Historically, the identity of a David Shaw football team has been characterized by dominating the trenches. However, the days of lining up with eight offensive linemen and fighting for yards up the middle are behind us. While the Cardinal will be facing off against a Washington State defense that has shown little ability to contain the run in recent weeks, giving up 212 yards on the ground to Utah three weeks ago and over 300 to Oregon State last week, I’m still left with doubts that the Stanford offense will be able to get the run game going this week. The Cardinal are dead last in the Pac-12 in rushing yards per game by a decent margin (98 yards per game, compared to second-to-last-Arizona’s 112.4). But if there ever was a time to get the Stanford run game going, this would be the time. Ells Boone [EB]: It sure would be a welcome sign for Stanford fans if the Cardinal can reestablish the run game. That’s been the biggest weakness for the team this season, and the unit just has not been able to fully get going this year. That is not the fault of the running backs, however, as the offensive line has taken a significant step back from last season. Washington State really does struggle with run defense though, so this could be David Shaw’s chance to reignite the run game. A strong rushing attack will only open the field up more for sophomore quarterback Tanner McKee. Drew Silva [DS]: Although the Cardinal are the only Pac-12 team to average less than 100 rushing yards per game, there is not much to be scared of in the Washington State run defense. Wazzu’s opponents are averaging almost 170
RICHARD ERSTED/isiphotos.com
Senior driver Quinn Woodhead (above) led Stanford in goals and was the first on either team to score on Saturday, but the Cardinal fell 8-6.
MEN’S WATER POLO
BRUINS BREAK AWAY IN SECOND HALF By MURTAZA HUSSAIN By CYBELE ZHANG
AMY LO / The Stanford Daily
Andrus Peat ’15 and Eagles’ Nate Herbig ’19 played key roles in their teams’ respective victories over Washington and Carolina, two teams with elite defenses. Defensively, rookie cornerback Paulson Adebo ’21 intercepted a pass late in the first half, and recorded four tackles and a pass deflection to help the Saints defeat the Washington Football Team 3322. Texans’ safety Justin Reid ’18 added six tackles and a pass deflection. Veteran cornerback Richard Sherman ’11 recorded three tackles for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their 45-17 win over the Miami Dolphins. On the other side, linebacker Brennan Scarlett ’16 recorded a tackle for Miami. Scarlett was not the only former Cardinal linebacker to appear in the statsheet. Bobby Okereke ’19 recorded nine tackles for the Indianapolis Colts in an overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Blake Mar-
tinez ’16 of the New York Giants continues to recover from a torn ACL suffered in a Week 3 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. He is expected to miss the remainder of the season. His absence has certainly been felt, as the Giants sit at 1-4. On the defensive line, Casey Toohill ’20 was able to get past the Saints’ offensive line for a quarterback hit. Solomon Thomas ’17 had an uncharacteristic game for the Las Vegas Raiders, failing to appear in the statsheet. Wide receivers J.J. ArcegaWhiteside ’19, Ty Montgomery ’15 and Trenton Irwin ’19 each had a role on special teams on Sunday. Center Drew Dalman ’21, a fourth round pick in last year’s draft, also saw a few special teams snaps as the Falcons defeated the Jets in London. New England Patriots’ all-pro punter Jake Bailey ’19 punted once for 58 yards.
yards per game on the ground, compared to the 117.7 Arizona State allows. We’ve seen Peat and Jones put up big numbers before, and a solid performance from the offensive line should allow them to showcase their skills and reestablish the run.
interception — well, first three — last weekend. Although not entirely his fault, should this stat and its implications be concerning to Cardinal fans? On the other side, de Laura has had at least one interception for the last four games. Can junior corner Kyu Blu Kelly, freshman corner Jimmy Wyrick, or any other Stanford player for that matter pick him off? NM: Every young quarterback goes through their ups and downs. Despite his “Mormon Magic,” McKee is no different. In fact, having the three interceptions last week may prove to be better for McKee in the long run. Facing adversity humbles young QBs. It is reasonable that Cardinal fans are worried, but this isn’t what the Cardinal should be worried about, considering two out of his three interceptions were really not his fault. Looking to the other side of the ball, Stanford’s secondary should have an easier time in Pullman than in Tempe. Unlike ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels, Wazzu quarterback Jayden de Laura is not mobile, meaning that the secondary (mainly the linebacking group) is not as pressured by the threat of a run as they were against the Sun Devils. However, there is a good chance for the Cardinal secondary to pick him off; with Kyu Blu Kelly tied for fourth in the Pac 12 with two picks, and sixth year linebacker Gabe Reid and freshman cornerback Jimmy Wyrick each having one, it is conceivable that de Laura will be intercepted. ZZ: While three turnovers in the air hurts, two of them were simply the result of incredible plays from the secondary. Regardless, I would not look at that statistic with any fear. The Cardinal need to get the ball rolling on offense and will likely begin to lean more and more on the passing game as McKee continues to gain experience under center. It’s not the interceptions that I’m keeping my eye out for but instead how this team will respond to those mistakes moving forward. I’m opti-
CZ: Pro: WSU’s QB Jayden de Laura is not a mobile quarterback — he actually averaged -4 yards per carry last week. Con: He has passed for 300+ yards multiple times this season. Will the Cardinal defense be able to stop him and the Wazzu PRO? How does de Laura stack up compared to the other quarterback talent Stanford has already seen this season? NM: Well, Stanford needs to cover the pass, plain and simple. The Cardinal have an okay record against the pass, allowing 100 completions on 174 total attempts this season for 6.49 yards per catch. Will Wazzu abuse this? Absolutely. Look for pressure on the secondary, specifically on the corners. However, despite de Laura’s success in the passing game, Stanford should not expect much more in the rushing department, considering his 71 rush yards this season. In sum, watch out for the Cardinal secondary against de Laura. ZZ: Stanford’s kryptonite this year has been the mobile quarterback. In the Cardinal’s three losses this year, they’ve given up five rushing touchdowns to opposing teams’ quarterbacks. Fortunately, this won’t be a major point of concern heading into Saturday’s matchup given the WSU personnel. Stanford’s defense has shown their ability to dominate for long stretches of time throughout the year, especially in the passing game. With the exception of an exceptional performance from UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson, opposing quarterbacks have put up pedestrian numbers, throwing for an average of only 146.5 yards per game. Although de Laura’s pocket presence compares well to other foes Stanford has faced this season, I like this matchup for the Cardinal defense. EB: Despite his impressive yardage numbers, de Laura is a step down in caliber from some of the other quarterbacks Stanford has faced this season like Kedon Slovis, Jayden Daniels, and DTR. As Cybele says, de Laura is not that mobile and his numbers are perhaps inflated given the pass-heavy run and shoot offense the Cougars employ. That does not mean though that de Laura does not pose a threat to Lance Anderson’s unit. He is very capable of doing damage against Stanford’s secondary and the defense will need to come prepared. CZ: Sophomore quarterback Tanner McKee threw his first career
DESK EDITOR
Despite outscoring the Bruins in the first half, No. 3 Stanford (13-3, 01 MPSF) fell to No. 2 UCLA (14-1, 1-0 MPSF) 8-6 on Saturday. This is the Cardinal’s second loss to the Bruins this season; the two played one another a week ago at the MPSF tournament, where Stanford lost 10-6. This time around, the Cardinal started fast and early in Los Angeles. Stanford scored first to open the game and held momentum through the half. By the halfway mark, the Cardinal were up 5-3, with three goals coming from senior driver Quinn Woodhead. The second half was a different story, however. For the duration of the third quarter, Stanford scored only one goal; the fourth quarter was even less productive for the Cardinal as none of the Stanford players managed to find the back of the net. UCLA meanwhile continued to add to its scoreline, and with less mistic that interceptions are just a part of the learning curve, and I have liked everything else I see from the sophomore stud. On the other side of the ball, I expect the Stanford secondary to have a field day. Even if they don’t manage to intercept de Laura, they surely will cause trouble. Kelly leads the Pac12 in passes defended with seven, and Wyrick is not far behind, tied for fifth with four on the season. EB: Personally, I am not concerned by McKee’s performance against ASU last Friday. He has already shown us time and time again this season how talented he is and his resiliency. He will bounce back and continue to lead this offense. As for the Cardinal defense, thanks to WSU’s play style, it is very possible for one of the members of Stanford’s secondary to add to their interception total. Jimmy Wyrick has been a revelation after being pressed into duty thanks to a few injuries, while Kyu Blu Kelly has solidified himself as one of the top corners in the conference, if not the country. Also watch out for junior cornerback Nicolas Toomer, who had a breakout performance against Oregon. DS: Turnovers can be inevitable in the early stages of a young quarterback’s career, and Cardinal fans should still expect McKee to be able to put the team in a position to win. McKee might be the best quarterback the Cougars have faced all year and should have no problem eclipsing the 231 passing yards that the Wazzu defense concedes per game. On the other side of the ball, Kyu Blu Kelly can have an effect on the game even without recording an interception. CZ: Washington State enters the game on a win streak after upsetting Oregon State, formerly undefeated in the Pac-12. Do the Cougars carry this momentum to another victory or can Stanford spoil the season of yet another Pacific Northwest team? Score predictions? NM: Stanford 24, Washington
than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter the teams were tied 6-6. Stanford had its chances to pull ahead and break the Bruins’ fourgame win streak, but the Cardinal were unable to regain their firsthalf momentum. Instead, UCLA continued to add to its lead as graduate student Nicolas Saveljic scored two more to put the Bruins up 8-6. Stanford had more shots throughout the game — 36 compared to the Bruins’ 29 — but UCLA put up a better shooting percentage: 26.7% compared to the Cardinal’s 18.8%. While UCLA took the crown in Saturday’s game, Stanford performed significantly better relative to its previous match-up with the Bruins on Sept. 26. Stanford’s shot percentage in this weekend’s game increased from 16.7%, whereas UCLA showed a significant decrease from a 50.0% shooting percentage. On Sunday, Stanford will face UC Davis at Avery Aquatics Center at 1 p.m. PT. The Cardinal have never lost to the Aggies in the programs’ 22-year history. State 17 — I do not see this weekend’s match up as being a very high scoring game. Both teams have defenses that can stand up to each other and, in general, get many stops. I like the spread (Stanford by two), but the total points predicted is just too high for my liking. Also, unlike last week, Pullman’s environment is not as hostile as Tempe, giving David Shaw and the Cardinal team an opportunity to bounce back. ZZ: Stanford 27, Washington State 14 — Neither team has built a reputation for putting many points on the board, so I anticipate defense will be the story of this game. Washington State’s success the past two weeks isn’t particularly concerning to me, as their matchups with Cal and Oregon State are not quite as competitive as the likes of Stanford’s last three opponents, all of whom have been ranked. With their toughest competition behind them, Stanford should take this game in Pullman, anchored by a defensive effort that will contain Washington State to only two scores. EB: Stanford 35, Washington State 21 — This is not Stanford spoiling the chances of another Pac-12 North foe. The Cardinal are currently favored to win the game and are frankly the more talented team. They need to take care of business in Pullman and that starts with limiting Washington State’s passhappy offense. Look for Tanner McKee to have a bounce back performance, and Stanford to get a win to rejuvenate their quest for the Pac-12 North crown. DS: Stanford 31, Washington State 24 — Despite having identical overall and conference records, Stanford’s resume this season is much more impressive. Last week’s upset over an Oregon State team that has not beaten a team with a winning record has not convinced me that Washington State will overpower the Cardinal. Aside from their win last week, Wazzu has only defeated a weak California team and Portland State, a team with a losing record in Big Sky Conference play.