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By JACOB JOHNSONDESK EDITOR
Last week’s announcement that the ath-letic department will sell seats to season-tick-et holders and Buck/Cardinal members inwhat was part of the Sixth Man section inMaples Pavilion provoked an outcry frommany Stanford students. Much of the fingerpointing and blame has been levied againstthe athletic department and AthleticDirector Bob Bowlsby. Yesterday, Bowlsbyresponded.
One of the hottest issues is the claim made
by Sixth Man Managing Director Alexis Link‘10 that the Sixth Man was not informed ofthe decision to sell seats in Section 13.Bowlsby reiterated the department’s claimthat the Sixth Man leadership was informedof the impeding move for months.
“We started looking for ways as early asDecember to increase student attendance,”he told the Daily.
Bowlsby also addressed a major concernamong students that the Sixth Man section istoo expensive. Membership fees for the2008-2009 season were $65.
“What we’d eventually like to do is have
our student section in football and men’sbasketball endowed,” he said. “We need tosee if we can get it to the point where it canbe free like football is.”
Short-term changes have been imple-mented during the 2009 men’s basketballseason in an attempt to increase studentattendance. They have produced limitedresults. “We reduced the price of single-game tickets in an effort to get students tocome,” Bowlsby added.“I think it was for theCal game where we opened up Sections 13
By HALEY MURPHYDESK EDITOR
With the Pacific-10 Conference seasondrawing to a close, and March less than aweek away, Stanford men’s basketballopens its last home series against the LosAngeles schools at 7:30 pm tonight inMaples Pavilion. The Cardinal is comingoff three consecutive losses — all on theroad — and hopes some time at home
might offer at least a positive finale to anotherwise disappointing conference sea-son.
After a 3-3 start to league play,Stanford (15-10, 4-10 Pac-10) collapsedinto a 1-7 rut against conference oppo-nents, and meetings with No. 22 UCLAand USC this weekend will offer the Cardanything but easy opportunities for a last-
Index Opinions/3 • Sports/4 • Classifieds/5 Recycle Me
LUXURY HOTEL TO OPEN IN SPRING
By CASSANDRA FELICIANOCONTRIBUTING WRITER
Amid a troubling sea of budget cutsand layoffs, a University-owned luxuryhotel — the Rosewood Sand Hill — isscheduled to open the first week ofspring quarter.
While most strain to tighten pursestrings and businesses are cutting downon budgets, Michael Casey, managingdirector of Rosewood Sand Hill, isworking hard to ensure that everypiece of furniture and every light fix-ture is in place in time for the April 2opening of the Stanford-owned addi-tion to the management chain ofRosewood Hotels & Resorts.
Despite the hotel market’s recentdrop — the industry has been on thedecline over the last six months, accord-
ing to Steve Elliott, managing directorof real estate for Stanford — no con-cerns about the effects of the economiccrisis on consumer demand have beenexpressed by those involved in theRosewood Sand Hill. To the contrary,both Elliott and Casey feel confidentthat the hotel will be met with theexpected public response. The location
and lack of competitors on Sand HillRoad plays a key economic advantagefor the new hotel, Casey said.
“I think, despite the economic out-look, the prospects for the hotel areextremely favorable given the fact thatwe have such a unique product,” Caseysaid. “The whole project has been solong-awaited and much-anticipated
that the community here, I believe, isjust welcoming us.”
Indeed, Rosewood Sand Hill is partof an office and hotel complex forwhich the final round of planningbegan as early as 2004. General plansfor commercial investments on the 16-acre Stanford property, on whichRosewood Sand Hill now stands, havebeen in the works for more than twen-ty years.
“It’s always been the plan to comeup with an attractive developmentproject that would benefit the commu-nity and benefit the University,” Elliottsaid. “Since 2004, the primary plan wasto do a mixed use development thatincluded both offices and a hotel,[although] I think initially there was
eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoebullish on e-commerce
By JOANNA XUMANAGING EDITOR
Yesterday, eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe,along with a number of other top informationtechnology executives, spoke at the 15thAnnual Stanford Accel Conference. Hostedby Media X, the conference covered theeffects of the economic downturn on the retailindustry, e-commerce in general and innova-tion on top of existing online social networkplatforms.
One of the markets most negatively affect-ed by the economic downturn and creditfreeze is retail. eBay.com, one of the leaders ofonline retail, has certainly not remainedunscathed.
“A big retailer can survive through sixquarters of losses,” Donahoe said. “But smallbusiness cannot; that’s why we provided near-ly $120 million worth of coupons to buyers tohelp our sellers.”
However, Donahoe sees a bright future forthe e-commerce business.
“It’s still the early days in e-commerce,”Donahoe said. “Right now, e-commerce con-stitutes about seven percent of online retail.That figure should be 15 to 20 percent, justbecause of the security and ease of comfortthat it provides. The only way that percent-age is going to double is through innova-tion.”
Of course, eBay Inc.’s revenue comes frommuch more than just eBay.com. Donahoeexplained that eBay.com comprised 50 per-cent of the company’s business; Paypal madeup 33 percent, Skype eight to nine percent andStubHub, Kijiji and a number of other smallerlocal businesses constitute the rest.
Skype, in particular, did exceptionally wellin the fourth quarter of 2008, when the eco-nomic downturn really hit consumer demand.
“There was a 73 percent increase in thenumber of free Internet calls on Skype in thefourth quarter,” Donahoe said. “There wasalso a 65 percent increase in the number ofcomputer-to-phone calls.”
This is, Donahoe added, due to Skype’slow-cost position on communication.Presently, Skype is a $500 million business thatis growing at 30 to 40 percent a year.
Donahoe also expressed high hopes for thefuture of Paypal. While started initially tocomplement eBay.com as a convenient formof payment for eBay users, it has now growninto an entirely separate platform.
“Paypal should eventually be bigger thaneBay,” Donahoe said. “Retail is a big industrybut very fragmented.”
However, Donahoe believes that Paypal
AUGUSITIN RAMIREZThe Stanford Daily
After a very promising start to the season, the Stanford men’s basketball team has fallen near the bottom of the Pac-10 standings.The team will look to this weekend to salvage any hopes of basketball in March.
SPEAKERS & EVENTS
Technologyexecs speakon campus
Courtesy of Amy Rubenstein
Sitting on Stanford land, the Rosewood Sand Hill is scheduled toopen the first week of spring quarter. Standard room rates start at$495 per weeknight.
SPORTS
ATHLETICDEPARTMENTSLASHES JOBS
By JACOB JOHNSONDESK EDITOR
Y esterday, the Stanford UniversityDepartment of Athleticsannounced plans to cut 21 positionsfrom its administrative staff.
According to a department press release, thejob cuts are part of an effort to compensatefor a projected $5.4 million decrease in rev-enue over the next three years. The shortfallin funding is expected to continue for theforeseeable future, as are the cuts in the ath-letic department’s workforce.
The specific jobs to be cut have not beenannounced out of respect for the privacy ofthe individuals concerned. They will allcome from “administrative and serviceareas.” The laid-off individuals will receivethree months salary and two months of fullbenefits — in addition to the standard sever-ance package.
“As there remains great uncertainty as tohow deep and how long the economic down-turn will be, we believe that the difficultdecisions we have made to date will placeStanford Athletics in a prudent position todeal with the present challenges,” saidAthletic Director Bob Bowlsby inWednesday’s press release. “As is the cir-cumstance throughout the Stanford campus,we will continue to assess our budget projec-tions and will make further adjustments asneeded, which may include programmatic,staff and sports reductions.”
The release stated that the University isfacing endowment losses of 20-30 percentthis year. Every department has been asked
MEN’S BASKETBALL2/21 vs. Oregon L 68-60
UP NEXT UCLA(20-7, 9-5 Pac-10)2/26 Maples Pavilion 7:30 P.M.
COVERAGE:TV FSNRADIO KZSU 90.1
FM(kzsu.stanford.edu)
GAME NOTES: After starting the season with a 3-3 recordin the Pac-10, Stanford has since gone 1-7 in confer-ence play. UCLA has lost three of its last four games.Stanford ranks second in the Pac-10 in turnover margin.
Please see CUTS page 6
Please see HOTEL, page 6
Please see BOWLSBY, page 6
Plans for Stanford-owned hotel proceed despite difficult economy
“...the prospects for the hotel areextremely favorable...
— MICHAEL CASEY, Rosewood managing director
PAUL SAKUMA/The Associated Press
STANFORD ATHLETICS
Bowlsby responds to Sixth Man backlash
Please see BBALL, page 6
NOTHING LEFTTO LOSE
Please see ACCEL, page 2
www.stanforddaily.comTHURSDAY Volume 235February 26, 2009 Issue 18
Today
Chance of Showers60 46
Tomorrow
Partly Cloudy58 46
SPORTS/4
ALOHA!Men’s volleyball heads to Hawaii for
a weekend doubleheader
The Stanford DailyA n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o n
SPORTS/4
FINAL BOUTWrestling concludes roller-coaster season
at Pac-10 Championships
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
Last night, the Graduate StudentCouncil (GSC) passed a bill thatwould limit the amount of campaignaid executive slates could receivefrom the ASSU to a maximum of$750 per slate. In addition, thePublic Finance Bill would also limitthe amount of money that individ-ual slates could spend on top of the$750 maximum aid to $750, effec-tively capping the total campaignexpenses at $1,500 for slates wishingto apply for the public financing. Inorder to qualify for public financingfrom the ASSU, slates have to sub-
mit 200 signatures from the studentbody, of which 25 percent mustcome from undergraduates and 25percent must come from graduatestudents. The total amount ofmoney available for public financ-ing from the ASSU is $4,500, whichis enough for six slates to receivethe maximum of $750 in aid. If thereare more than six slates running foroffice, the aid will be divided equi-tably between each of the slates.The GSC passed the bill nine for,one against and two abstentions.The bill has already been passed bythe undergraduate senate. The GSCalso passed a service group bill thatwill institutionalize a service bronchof the ASSU to handle projects likebuses to airports and other projectsthat the ASSU executives have tra-ditionally taken under their wing.
2 � Thursday, February 26, 2009 The Stanford Daily
GSC passes publicfinancing bill
NEWS BRIEFS
has the potential to become theleader in online payment networks— if it does not become the fourthbig player in global payment net-work — in addition to the existingVisa, Mastercard and AmericanExperience payment networks.
However, all these develop-ments depend on product develop-ment and innovation — andDonahoe emphasized that all busi-nesses under eBay Inc. are focusedon developing around user experi-ence.
“In many ways, eBay was thefirst social networking platform,”
Donahoe said. “We want to build agreat platform and commerce net-work upon which users can thenexpand. We want to keep providingthis marketplace.”
During the Q&A session thatfollowed Donahoe’s talk, a numberof interesting questions were raisedregarding eBay’s future andgrowth. One question, in particular,asked what effects the Obamaadministration’s stimulus planwould have on eBay’s marketspace.
“Fundamentally, I think some ofthe stimulus money should gotowards broadband,” Donahoesaid. “The broadband coverage inthe U.S. is embarrassing comparedto some Asian countries.” Withgreater broadband use, an entirelynew and different class of users
could emerge.Donahoe envisioned a scenario
in which a man would research anitem online, walk into a store to seethe product in real life, video chatwith his spouse on his phone aboutthe product — while conducting anonline price comparison check onhis mobile Internet — then orderthe item off his phone while walk-ing out of the store.
“Product exploration willexpand,” Donahoe said. “And more
and more innovation will occuronline. Those lines will blur.”
Other notable keynote speakersat the Accel Conference includedSir Martin Sorrell, chairman andCEO of WPP; Jayshree Ullal, presi-dent and CEO of Arista Networks;and Bob Muglia, president ofServers and Tools Business atMicrosoft Corp.
Contact Joanna Xu at [email protected].
ACCELContinued from front page
The Stanford Daily Thursday, February 26, 2009 � 3
OPINIONSManaging Editors
The Stanford DailyE s t a b l i s h e d 1 8 9 2 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S P A P E R I n c o r p o r a t e d 1 9 7 3
Tonight’s Desk Editors
Mike DingNews Editor
Zach ZimmermanSports Editor
Arnav MoudgilPhoto Editor
Ben CohenCopy Editor
Shelly NiGraphics Editor
Devin BanerjeeDeputy Editor
Nikhil JoshiManaging Editor of News
Wyndam MakowskyManaging Editor of Sports
Emma TrotterManaging Editor of Features
Masaru OkaManaging Editor of Photo
Joanna XuManaging Editor of Intermission
Stuart BaimelColumns Editor
Tim Hyde, Niko MilonopoulosEditorial Board Chairs
Cris BautistaHead Graphics Editor
Samantha LasarowHead Copy Editor
Board of Directors
Christian TorresPresident, Editor in Chief
In Ho LeeChief Operating Officer
Someary ChhimVice President of Advertising
Devin Banerjee
Kamil Dada
Michael Londgren
Theodore Glasser
Robert Michitarian
Glenn Frankel
Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 723-2555 from 3 to 10 p.m. The Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours.
The recent announcement that Stan-ford Athletics will sell seats in section13 of Maples Pavilion for both
tonight’s men’s basketball game againstUCLA and Saturday’s game against USCcame as a shock to many of the team’sdiehard fans, as well as members of theteam’s official student fan organization, theSixth Man Club.
Section 13, which sits courtside oppositethe team benches, has long been reserved aspart of the Sixth Man’s student fan section,and the choice to sell tickets to season-ticketholders and Buck/Cardinal club membersdrew the ire of the Sixth Man Club’s leaders— who were left in the dark on the decision— and dismay from the team’s fans.
The administration justified the choice tosell the tickets by pointing to declining SixthMan Club membership and dwindling atten-dance at games this year. At recent games,the Sixth Man Club has failed to show up insufficient numbers to fill the courtsidecheering section; in fact, only 648 studentspurchased the $65 membership for this sea-son, off from the recent peak of nearly 2,000students during the 2005-2006 campaign.Even at the best-attended game of the sea-son, Stanford’s upset win over Cal in Janu-ary,only 50 percent of club members showedup to root for the Card.
Given these underwhelming attendancefigures, it is understandable that the athleticdepartment — already facing a $5.4 millionrevenue decrease over the next three years— would try to raise some money by sellingout seats that would otherwise stand con-spicuously empty right across from the Stan-ford team’s bench.
While the editorial board not believe theathletic department’s decision was out ofline, we still think it speaks volumes aboutthe state of the Sixth Man Club and high-lights the need for Stanford Athletics to stepin and help reverse the fortunes of this vitalinstitution.
The announcement provoked an angeredreaction from the club’s managing director,Alexis Link,who decried the move as setting“a bad precedent for the future” in a Feb. 19Daily brief (“Athletic department to sellSixth Man seats”). Link was further quotedin Monday’s Daily as saying that the sectionhad been filled at the Cal game, meeting theathletic department’s conditions for not sell-ing the seats (see “Sixth Man Meltdown”).
While the editorial board emphaticallyagrees with Link that the Sixth Man Clubhas been an important contributor to the
team’s success and that the players “thriveon the enthusiasm” of its members, theboard feels that a partially empty studentsection does not serve the team well either.According to administration officials, theentire Sixth Man membership can fit, alongwith the Band, in Sections 9 through 12,without need for Section 13. And while thedepartment’s actions do constitute a badprecedent, they set no worse a precedentthan its decision to not intervene as the SixthMan Club atrophies in the wake of theLopez twins’ departure.
The best short-term solution for revivingthe club is to discard the fee, currently $65,for obtaining Sixth Man membership. Withevery other athletic event at Stanford free toattend, the Sixth Man fee is unique and evi-dently depressing turnout. (Not even Stan-ford football has a fee anymore, and it hasseen increased attendance since the change.)In the long term, removing the cost seemslike not only a great way to reignite interestin men’s basketball but also a savvy businessdecision on the part of Stanford Athletics.Based on the $65 fee and the 2008-2009membership, the department only raisedabout $42,000 from the Sixth Man fee, asmall part of a men’s basketball revenuestream that was nearly $6 million in 2006, ac-cording to the San Francisco Business Times.About half of this funding goes directly tothe Sixth Man committee to finance promo-tions and T-shirts.
The Sixth Man committee does an ad-mirable job of trying to stir up student inter-est,but can ultimately be stymied by the highprice of membership, which is set by Stan-ford Athletics. Earlier this year, Sixth Manmembers rallied through Branner, trying toraise awareness and sign up freshmen for theclub. Unfortunately, many students balkedat the high cost of tickets, especially thosethat might be interested in attending onlyone or two big games a year.
Selling tickets in Section 13 to make a lit-tle extra money is fine for the rest of this sea-son, but is a very unsatisfactory long-termsolution. Next year, we want to see an intactstudent section that runs the length of thecourt and fills up regularly. Ultimately, theeditorial board hopes to see a revived SixthMan Club, reminiscent of those of yester-year that regularly packed the house andstormed the court after Stanford’s come-back victory over then-second-rankedUCLA in 2007.Free membership,granted toall students, can enable Sixth Man to enjoy athrilling comeback of its own.
The antidote to low basketball attendance:make Sixth Man free
EDITORIAL
Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of The Stanford Daily's editorial board and do notnecessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff.The editorial board is comprised of two former Daily staffers,three at-large student members and the two editorial board co-chairs.Any signed columns and contributions
are the views of their respective writers and do not necessarily represent the views of the entire editorial board.To contact the editorial board for an issue to be considered, or to submit an op-ed, please email
DEMBY DOWNER Nicole Demby
Write to us.We want to hear from you.
SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] AND SEND OP-EDS TO [email protected]
Suites Special Dinner at Middle EarthEating Club last Friday? Phenomenal.Having Ram’s Head Theatrical Society
geniuses turning our suite common roominto an African Safari for a party Saturdaynight (and at no cost!)? Amazing.Welcomingthe great Andrei Markovits (brilliant visitingprofessor of Political Studies and GermanStudies) into my family’s home for brunch onSunday morning? Wonderful,despite the lessthan four hours of sleep that preceded it.
But with all respect and thanks to every-one involved in the aforementioned activi-ties, what really set this weekend apart waswhat — or rather, who — I saw Sundayevening. Whether you are the most ardentclassical music aficionado, or the ignoramuswho knows Mozart only as that characterwhose picture adorns those tasty chocolate-marzipan candies, the experience of ItzhakPerlman in concert (and it is indeed an expe-rience) is one that lasts you a lifetime.
And inside Davies Symphony Hall, ele-gantly positioned across the street from thebeautiful San Francisco City Hall to the eastand the War Memorial Opera House to thenorth, I was fortunate enough to see thegreatest violinist of his generation (and per-haps of any) perform his craft.
Though I was raised as a violinist, playingfor thirteen years (seven of which I spentbuilding up the cajones to tell my parentsthat I would rather switch to guitar, which Isubsequently did), classical music has neverquite spoken to me the same way that that ofNeil Young, Leonard Cohen or John Frus-ciante has. When I quit violin, I never had asecond thought. It will likely always be mybest instrument,but guitar will forever be myfavorite. Only on rare occasions can classicalmusic truly move me.
But an Itzhak Perlman concert representsmore than simply a performance of classicalmusic; it is a tour de force. Perlman’s viva-cious, joyous performance of pieces by Han-del, Beethoven and Messaien was the uttermastery of a craft personified.The verve andflair with which he brought each piece ofmusic new life had a contagious quality about
it, and the audience soaked it in. Even thoselike me, not directly affected by the music it-self, could not help but take to heart the waythat classical music can connect with the hu-manity in that room.
But of all the great moments that stoodout, the one that I will take most to heart wasa single piece Perlman performed in his en-core. After having just completed a lively,perpetual-motion-esque piece lasting nomore than a couple minutes, he and his ac-companying pianist suddenly swept into per-haps one of the few classical musical works
that truly speaks to me: the theme from“Schindler’s List.” Perlman was the violinistfor the movie’s original score.
I studied and worked in Berlin for sixmonths through Stanford’s Overseas Pro-gram. As a Jew with two grandparents wholived in Berlin (who were fortunate enoughto escape in 1938), living as an echo of theirmemory took on a special meaning for meduring that half-year journey. Berlin gave tome a series of experiential gifts, a period ofreflection and a score of emotions and real-izations that I have held onto dearly evensince returning. Some of these emotions Ihave kept to myself, believing them to carryan ineffable quality best left to silence.
But Perlman tapped into something in meon Sunday night as he performed this onepiece.As he played I sat captivated,and with-out warning, images began to flood throughmy buzzing brain. Perlman’s performancehad me suddenly exposed.He transmitted allthe feelings I had experienced in Berlinthrough his hands and fingers, seemingly em-anating my experiences through his body,and my most meaningful emotions, thoughnot translatable into words, were suddenlycrying out from his violin.
By the end of the piece I was in tears. I wasnot the only one. For each of us in the audi-ence, that piece spoke to something both in-dividual in our experience and common inour humanity.
I returned to my room that night, thankfulfor the opportunity to have gone, struck bythe brilliance of Perlman’s performance. Iwas still emotionally moved as I went to bed.
The following evening, still reflective onmy experience,I was still lost in thought.Sud-denly I found myself swiftly moving my bedsheets out of the way, maneuvering my deska bit until my old friend revealed itself.
And then, for the first time in years, I tookout my sheet music and began to play.
Mark Donig is psyched that his best buddyfrom Berlin, Fabian (yep, that’s his real name)is coming to visit him in California this sum-mer. Contact Mark at [email protected].
STEAL THIS COLUMN
MarkDonig
The return of an old friend
Sex and student governmentLike almost all endeavors of young peo-
ple, my impetus in writing this columnis 20-25 percent to get laid.While I sus-
pect that the majority of Stanford Daily read-ers are actually middle-aged women, I havethis fantasy that if I can write a sexy,provoca-tive column that showcases my deliciouslysnide wit each week, I will have hordes of el-igible young literary bachelors knocking onmy co-op door.
So when some abstemious, non-jay-walk-ing person, undoubtedly sobered by theirmany years, commented on my column lastweek, reminding me that we don’t need tooverthrow the system to effect change, myinitial reactions were both a genuine feelingthat they were wrong and a revealing defen-siveness. Was this upstanding citizen right?Was I just romanticizing revolution? MaybeI only advocate skepticism toward authoritybecause telling people to work “within thesystem” is about as sexy as chamomile tea.
Let me be fair to myself.What I was advo-cating wasn’t violent revolution or even anyrevolution,per se,but rather turning a criticaleye toward the social structures around us. Idon’t think it’s implausible to say that Stan-ford, like any institution,has a vested interestin making its citizens think it is doing a goodjob, and that it has interests other than itsown in mind when it makes its decisions. AllI was saying was that we should make an ef-fort to learn for ourselves what’s what, be-cause otherwise we have no epistemologicaloption other than to blindly accept whatwe’re told.
Yet two weeks ago, in this very newspa-per, I read something alarming that suggest-ed that maybe rhetoric like my own couldhave a dangerous backlash.An article on thefront page said that out of the entire student
body that was invited to participate in a townmeeting about the Draw, fewer than 30 stu-dents had chosen to attend. I’m guessingevery one of you reading this column, includ-ing myself,has said at least one negative thingabout the Draw system since entering Stan-ford. Yet when finally given a chance to airthese legitimate grievances, 1/500 of us actu-ally took up the opportunity.
The next week, I received an email fromthe ASSU presidents, telling me about the ef-forts the school was taking to consider com-munity members’ opinions when making themassive budget cuts that need to be made.The email offered me a link to a survey whereI could tell the ASSU which Stanford pro-grams I think are important, and invited meto another town hall meeting, this time on thetopic of the cuts (and a bribe of In-n-Out forthe first 50 attendees). I vaguely promisedmyself to fill out the survey, and even morevaguely noted that attending the meetingwas probably something I should do butwouldn’t.
In his book “On Violence,” Slovenianphilosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizeksays we live in a post-political world in whichcitizens only have the illusion of politicalagency. Instead of real political considera-tions, every decision the government makesin this post-political system is chalked up to‘universal’ ideals like ‘justice’ and ‘democra-cy.’ For example, in a two-party democracy,Zizek says we merely have the illusion of sig-nificant choice between two essentially iden-tical options.Or take,as another example,themass protests in London against the Iraq wara few years ago to which George Bush re-sponded gleefully that protestors were exer-cising precisely the rights that the U.S. mili-tary was fighting for in Iraq. In such a system,
even resistance is complicity. In order toevade this, Zizek advocates that individualswithdraw from the system by non-participa-tion such as abstaining from voting.
So was that it? Did we miss the Drawmeeting and not fill out the budget cut surveybecause of our theory of abstention as theonly true form of protest? Did we think thatholding these meetings was the University’sway of simulating democracy while reallyforeclosing it, of letting us feel like we havesome say in order to appease us while reallyignoring our input?
Evidence suggests that perhaps this is notfar from the truth. For example after theStanford Labor Action Coalition fasted foreight days to support living wage for Stan-ford employees in 2007, the University final-ly agreed to meet some of SLAC’s demands.Despite their rhetoric, however, the Univer-sity has delayed making the promisedchanges. They have come up with standardsfor a ‘living wage’ that is essentially deter-mined by other employers in the Bay Area,effectively changing very little.
Yet despite this disheartening sign, per-haps we shouldn’t give up on the Universitybefore we fully explore the modes in which itinvites us to participate in it. It’s not quite assexy as defying authority, but maybe a newrevolution will be when 14,000 students showup to a town hall meeting to voice their opin-ions. It might be an exercise in futility, but atleast we’ll better know how to affect changeif we know how we can’t affect it. Either way,they’re going to need a lot more In-n-Outburgers.
Nicole is fending off middle-aged women whokeep throwing their underwear at her. Emailher and comfort her at [email protected].
For each of us in the
audience,that piece spoke
to something both
individual in our
experience and common
in our humanity.
By KENAN JIANGSTAFF WRITER
The No. 4 Stanford women’s gymnastics team, led by atalented class of freshmen, easily defeated California197.175-190.625 last Sunday, despite resting their top threegymnasts in preparation for a highly anticipated show-down with Alabama on Mar. 21 in Tuscaloosa.
The rotation of ten gymnasts scored 21 season-bests ina highly impressive showcase of young talent.With the win,the teamed moved to 12-0 on the year.
Senior captain Kelly Fee was impressed with the per-formance of the younger members of the team.
“We faced a very similar situation my sophomore yearwhen two of our top performers suffered injuries,” Feesaid. “We ended up getting our highest score of the sea-son.”
Sophomore Shelley Alexander stepped up for the Car-dinal, as she expanded her event line up last weekend.Alexander, who only competed on vault last year, startedthe meet off with a 9.8 on the uneven bars, and scored 9.8or better on the rest of the events (floor, vault, beam) to
By JACOB JAFFECONTRIBUTING WRITER
After finally securing an elusive road win over aranked conference opponent, the Stanford men’s vol-leyball team faces a 2000-mile excursion to face anoth-er ranked conference foe this weekend.
Following five consecutive losses against rankedMountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) teams,theNo. 7 Cardinal (9-7, 5-6 MPSF) broke through againstU- Santa Barbara last weekend, winning a five-setthriller 30-26, 26-30, 24-30, 30-21, 15-13.
“It gave us confidence that we can battle through in-consistencies and raise our level of play to win a longmatch,” said head coach John Kosty.
“It was a big win, especially since we’ve had troublewinning on the road,” added senior middle blockerBrandon Williams.“It was nice to stop our losing streakand start a winning streak. It built up the energy levelfor us, which we’ll need with this quick turnaround.”
The turnaround is quick indeed, as the Cardinal hasto travel across the Pacific to face No.11 Hawaii for twostraight matches this weekend. Being so far removedfrom the rest of the MPSF geographically,Hawaii plays
all its matches in sets of two, so the Cardinal will playHawaii today, get Friday off, and then play the teamagain on Saturday. This format changes the way thematches are played.
“It’s beneficial to play a team twice in a row,” Kostysaid.“You get to play them, look at the video and thenplay them again,and it only happens a few times a year.Both teams get an advantage because they can makeadjustments between matches, so the second match isusually much better than the first.”
Apart from the scheduling,playing in Hawaii bringsother new elements to the matches.For one thing,goingto Hawaii is a bit of a homecoming for the Cardinal, asit boasts six players that hail from the Aloha State,morethan Hawaii even has on its own roster. Hawaii is alsoknown for being one of the hotspots for volleyball, andthe crowd lives up to its billing.
“The atmosphere is great — 5,000 people in the sta-dium,” said senior libero Jarod Keller, one of theHawaiian natives for Stanford.“All the fans are there towatch good volleyball, so they’ll cheer for whoevermakes good plays.”
Stanford hopes this crowd will help the team play toits full potential.
“The crowd is just wonderful,”Williams said.“Whenthere’s a strong crowd, it helps us be more energetic.”
However, the Cardinal also knows that playing inHawaii can turn into more of a vacation than a roadtrip.With its warm weather,the Hawaiian setting can bean enormous distraction, but the Cardinal does notwant to get sucked into the trap.
“It’s one of the biggest advantages Hawaii has,”Kosty said.“But for us, it’s just another road trip. It justmight be a little warmer.”
By ZOE LEAVITTCONTRIBUTING WRITER
With only three days left before thePacific-10 Conference Tournament andthe finale of the wrestling season, theStanford wrestling team looks to fulfillmany of the teams’ season goals andpush its wrestlers up to the next level.
Hosted by Cal State-Fullerton, thisyear’s Pac-10 Tournament involves nineteams, with eight-man brackets and theninth wrestler subbing in. This after-noon, the Pac-10 coaches will find outthe rankings of their wrestlers, whichwill determine the brackets. On Satur-day, the teams will learn how manyplayers from each bracket will qualify
for the 2009 NCAA Championships,which will tell the athletes how highthey need to place in the Pac-10s toqualify.
“We obviously have team goals butwe are mostly focusing on individuals,”coach Jason Borrelli said. “This time ofyear,the focus is on the individual.If theindividual goals are met, then the teamstuff will fall into place.”
Redshirt freshman NickAmuchastegui (26-5), who now standswith the fourth most wins of any fresh-man in Stanford history, looks to fulfillhis season goal of qualifying for nation-als on Sunday. He has defeated everyPac-10 wrestler in the 165-poundweight class at least once, proving his
great potential to climb to the top thisweekend. He will most likely be rankedsecond in the tournament.
“I’m pretty revved up about it,”Amuchastegui said. “I feel good abouteverybody, certainly, but a couple guyshave beaten me too so they’re going tokeep me on my toes. It’s time for thingsto pay off now, this is what we’veworked for all season.”
Boise State, who now stands unde-feated in the Pac-10 Conference, willput forth the greatest competition forStanford and for Amuchastegui in par-ticular. Boise wrestler Tyler Sherfyhanded Amuchastegui his only loss of2009 when he scored a takedown withonly 20 seconds left to steal
Amuchastegui’s lead. Besides Sherfy,Boise presents two other defendingPac-10 champions.
In this final week of practice, theteam looks to keep its fitness level highand touch up on little things that haveplagued them all season. Since the sea-son’s commencement, the team hasstruggled with how to hold on to a leadthroughout the match. Lately, manywrestlers have improved in this area,winning difficult matches in the finalmoments.
“This is the chance to make up forsome mistakes earlier in the season,”said Stanford senior Luke Feist. “I’mwrestling against three guys I’ve lost to.It’s been things I can fix, so if I can fixthem this weekend that’s all that mat-ters. This is one last try to get one lasttry.”
For seniors like Feist, this Pac-10tournament signifies the final stop infive years of collegiate wrestling. Feisthas led the team in his past three Pac-10performances and boosted his rankingseach time. Having placed fifth in 2006,fourth in 2007, and third in 2008, hehopes to continue to improve. He head-lines the team’s 10 returning Pac-10competitors, six of which will most like-ly compete again this year.
However, several wrestlers on Stan-ford’s young team will also make theirPac-10 debut this season.Coach Borrel-
4 � Thursday, February 26, 2009 The Stanford Daily
SPORTSMEN’S GYMNASTICS
A battle withthe best
By JENNY PETERCONTRIBUTING WRITER
The No. 3 Stanford men’s gymnastics team finished secondto the Japanese Collegiate All-Star team on Feb. 21, but wasvictorious over all of the NCAA teams present at the PacificCoast Collegiate Classic in Oakland, Calif. The Cardinal menposted their highest team score of the season at a 356.9, thebest of any team in the NCAA this season.
Berkeley (355.35), University of Michigan (354.2), Univer-sity of Illinois (350.55), University of Minnesota (344.5) andU.S. Air Force Academy (324.5) were all participants whoplaced behind Stanford at the meet.
The Cardinal began the competition by improving its high-est pommel horse team total by four points with a 58.65.SeniorBryant Hadden posted Stanford’s best score of the season witha 14.85. Big executed routines from redshirt junior Greg Ter-Zakhariants (14.6) and sophomore Kyle Oi (14.7) also boost-ed the team score.
“Kyle Oi was true to form,” said head coach Thom Glielmi.“It wasn’t a matter of if Kyle was going to hit, but rather howgood he was going to hit.”
On the rings, the Cardinal yet again procured its highestevent score of the season with a 60.85.The team now holds thenation’s highest event total thanks to hit routines from sopho-more Tim Gentry (15.15), redshirt senior Sho Nakamori(14.95) and a season-best performance from redshirt sopho-more Nick Noone (15.1). Hadden finished first in the eventand put up the highest rings score of the season for the Cardi-
Stanford loses to Japanese All-Stars,but triumphs against Americans
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
A shorthandedsurpriseStanford victorious despite absenceof top three athletes against Cal
TROPIC THUNDER
AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
After undergoing a shaky start to the season, the Stanford wrestling team has sharpened up in recent weeks. The team looks toshock the Pac-10 at the conference championships this weekend in Fullerton. The Cardinal returns 10 athletes who competedat last year’s event and will look to use this postseason experience to its advantage.
AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
Despite losing to the Japanease Collegiate All-Stars, theStanford men’s gymnastics team looked very impressiveagainst its fellow NCAA competition. At the meet, the Cardi-nal set both a team and NCAA season-best by notching anoutstanding 356.9 points.
GIULIO GRATTA/The Stanford Daily
The No. 7 men’s volleyball team heads to Honolulu this weekend for a clash with No. 11 Hawaii. Stanford is fresh off a five-set thriller againt UCSB in which the Cardi-nal beat its first ranked conference opponent in six tries.
Card rides wave of momentum into Hawaii MEN’S VOLLEYBALL2/21 vs. UCSB W 3-2
UP NEXT HAWAII (3-8)2/26 Honolulu 10 P.M.
GAME NOTES: Stanford’s victory over UCSB was its first win over aranked MPSF team in its last six attempts. Hawaii is ranked No. 11in the nation despite being five games under .500. The Cardinalplays a second match against Hawaii on Saturday.
Stanford heads to Pac-10s
Please see MEN,page 5
Please see VBALL,page 5
WRESTLING2/15 vs. Cal Poly W 21-18
UP NEXTPAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS3/1 Fullerton, Calif.
GAME NOTES: Stanford redshirt freshman NickAmuchastegui has defeated every Pac-10wrestler in the 165-pound weight class at leastonce this season. Boise State is the meet favoriteas it comes to the tournament with an undefeat-ed Pac-10 record. The Cardinal is returning 10Pac-10 competitors from last year.
Please see WRESTLING,page 5Please see WOMEN,page 5
The Stanford Daily Thursday, February 26, 2009 � 5
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performing arts season
why golive?
Following their coach’s example,the players are focused on what theyneed to do to succeed this weekendon the court.
“We need to improve our consis-tency,” Williams said. “We’ve beendoing the basics consistently, butwe’ve got to start cutting down onsmall errors. If we do that, we’ll bevery successful.”
Stanford feels like it is gainingconsistency, and this can help theteam succeed.
“We need to put a full match to-gether,” Kosty said.“We’re at a pointin the season where we have the abil-ity to do that.”
The Cardinal will need a completematch to beat a Hawaii team thatKosty said has “played extremelywell on the island” this year. Despiteits 3-8 record,Hawaii is ranked No.11in the country because all 11 of its op-ponents were ranked among the top10 nationally at the time of the match.
Stanford plays at Hawaii todayand Saturday at 10 p.m. PST beforereturning home on Tuesday to faceUC-Santa Cruz.
Contact Jacob Jaffe at [email protected].
VBALLContinued from page 4
nal with a 15.65.“Hadden was last up and demon-
strated why he is the No. 1 ring manin the country,” Glielmi said. “[He]held strength, level positions, greatswing and a stuck piked double frontdismount merited his 15.65 score.”
On vault, Ter-Zakhariants gaveStanford a solid start, sticking thelanding and netting a 16.0 for secondplace. Huge vaults were also seenfrom sophomores Alex Busgalia(15.65) and Josh Dixon (15.6), butbig deductions on landings prevent-ed the team from getting over a 62.8.
On parallel bars, sophomoreRyan Lieberman (14.55), Ter-Za-khariants (14.6) and Nakamori con-tributed the most to the team score.Nakamori nailed a season-best rou-tine at a 15.55 and is currently the na-tion’s leading gymnast on the paral-lel bars.
High bar was the only eventwhere Stanford visibly struggled andwas forced to count a fall.Nakamori’s 14.4 was the highestscore the team put up and placedhim among the top 10 finishers of themeet.
“On high bar, we’re just focusingon perfecting tiny breaks in the rou-
tines,” said freshman Jordan Nolff.“However, it is usually one of ourtop scoring events, so our perform-ance on Saturday was very unchar-acteristic and just a matter of re-maining focused throughout the en-tire competition.”
Stanford is ranked second nation-ally behind Cal in the event.
Going into floor, the Cardinalmen knew they had to nail their rou-tines to solidify a victory over Cal.They did just that,posting their high-est total of the year at a 60.8. Dixonexecuted a great routine, earninghimseld a 15.5 and a first-place fin-ish. Ter-Zakhariants placed third,scoring just a tenth behind Dixonwith a 15.4.Stanford is ranked first inthe country in the event.
Lieberman, who is ranked No. 12,was the only gymnast to representStanford in the all-around and fin-ished eighth with an 82.5.
The Cardinal will get a secondchance to go up against the JapaneseCollegiate All-Star team this Fridayat 7 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.
“Our team goal for this Friday’smeet is to hit 6-for-6 on every event,”said freshmen Jordan Nolff. “We’reespecially focusing on cleaning upparallel bars, because that’s the oneevent that seems to consistentlycause us some problems.”
Contact Jenny Peter at [email protected].
MENContinued from page 4
li cited Matt Scencebaugh and VictorHaug as two true freshmen in partic-ular who have made great strides thisseason.After a rocky start, increasedmaturity has paid off for the team.For a relatively young squad thatbegan this season with little colle-giate experience, they have per-formed well against many highlyranked teams.
“We’ve trained the whole year forthis tournament, and I’m just goingto take it one match at a time,” saidScencebaugh (10-22), who hassurged recently to win his last fourmatches.“Being a freshman, it’s hardto adjust. Throughout the year, yougradually get tougher in a sense, andjust mature. You train hard all year,and it just clicks.”
While Stanford has enthusiasti-cally worked its way up the ranksover the last several dual matches,the Cardinal has always kept thePac-10 Championships in mind. Lastyear, Stanford put forth its best per-formance in Pac-10 history, placingsecond in the tournament. The teamhas also qualified five wrestlers forthe NCAA Championships, a pro-gram high, in each of the past two
years,and hopes to replicate this per-formance in 2009.
“My thing is to get guys to the na-tional team this year,and this year, tobe honest,we have five guys ready togo,” Borrelli said. “Do we need to
wrestle a great match to do this? Yes,but I think we’re in shape to wrestleour best match of the year.”
Contact Zoe Leavitt at [email protected].
WRESTLINGContinued from page 4
win the all-around competitionwith a career-best 39.4.Alexander’sperformance was especially im-pressive considering she has onlycompeted in the all-around threetimes.
“As a team, we talked about thatexperience and how this meet wasan opportunity for new people torise up,” Fee said. “Entering themeet, we were not quite sure whatto expect. Almost 30 percent of theperformances were new, and manyyoung faces were making theirdebut. On the other hand, after asolid practice on Friday, we wereconfident in each lineup.”
Sunday marked Stanford’s thirdconsecutive meet in which itachieved at least 197 points. This isa feat it did not accomplish until thepostseason last year. The Cardinalhas clearly made big steps toward
breaking into the national elite, andthis season seems like the perfecttime for a serious run at a nationalchampionship.
“I feel that our day-to-daytraining has been much more chal-lenging this season compared topast seasons and that it has helpedus,” Fee explained.“We are doing alot of repetitions in the gym in ad-dition to weight training twice aweek. All of this training is clearlypaying off. While other teams passthe season’s halfway mark andbegin to feel the effects of compet-ing every weekend, our team isonly getting stronger. Comparedto past seasons, I think we areahead of the curve in terms ofpreparation both physically andmentally.”
The Cardinal has two regular-season meets remaining before at-tempting to defend its Pacific-10Conference title on March 21 (4p.m.) at Maples Pavilion.
Contact Kenan Jiang at [email protected].
WOMENContinued from page 4
6 � Thursday, February 26, 2009 The Stanford Daily
GAME NIGHT
AUGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily
Members of Stanford’s Bridge Club, led by Eric Mayefsky (lower right), meet every Tuesday night to play bridge in Old Union.
chance revival.Stanford encounters the tougher
of its weekend competition first —UCLA (20-7, 9-5) is tied for third inthe Pac-10, shooting better than 50percent from the field on the season,and handed Stanford its worst loss ofthe year on Jan. 31, 97-63, in L.A.TheBruins are led by senior guard DarrenCollison and senior center AlfredAboya, two of five UCLA players toscore in double digits (with 15 apiece)in the first meeting.
Collison, who averages 15 points,
1.7 steals and a conference-leadingfive assists per game, will pose anexciting threat to Stanford’s back-court along with freshman JrueHoliday (9.1 ppg, 1.5 steals) and red-shirt junior Michael Roll (7.6 ppg).
However, the Bruins’ advantagelies mainly in their big men. Aboyaaverages 9.9 ppg and six boards, butfinds substantial support in junior for-ward Nikola Dragovic (8.8 ppg) andsenior small forward Josh Shipp (13ppg). The three Bruins form a versa-tile combination down low, especiallybecause both Shipp and Dragovichave the ability to step out and shootthe long ball. Although not usuallydominant in the paint, the Bruins willtry to capitalize on Stanford’s habitu-al struggles near the basket, whichsenior forward Lawrence Hilldeemed the Card’s greatest weakness.
“Other teams aren’t scared of us— they know they’re going to beat usin the lane,” Hill said resignedly.“[They’ll beat us on] dribble penetra-tion [and] rebounding. Other teamssee us there, and they don’t believewe can push them out. We’re notphysical enough, not aggressiveenough.”
UCLA, though, is not unbeatable,and Stanford knows it. The Bruinshave dropped three of their last fourgames, as well as their last threegames on the road. Stanford, more-over, should capably challenge what’stypically the bread and butter ofUCLA’s defense: steals.Although theBruins average 8.7 steals per game,
Stanford ranks second in the confer-ence with at 2.76 turnover marginagainst its opponents.
Hill, in fact, thinks the brutal lossto the Bruins last month was unchar-acteristic for the Cardinal, and saidStanford won’t go down the sameway at home.
“We [won’t] lay down like we didlast time,” Hill said. “We’ve alwaysplayed them tough, except this year attheir place, and we have that to lookon. If you look at teams coming inhere after a tough loss, they’re work-ing hard. We are too. But, we need togo out and do what we know we cando.”
Similarly, senior guard MitchJohnson doesn’t feel that there’s ahuge discrepancy in talent betweenthe squads, and sees the potential fora strong showing against UCLA thistime. “When you look one to 10in the league, the talent level is reallynot too much of a difference,” he said.“I still think we’re capable of beatingany team . . . [and] on a given day,there’s almost no such thing as anupset anymore.”
Coach Johnny Dawkins agreed,emphasizing that Stanford is far fromthrowing in the towel this season.
“You’ve got to just keep fighting;you’ve got to overcome,” Dawkinssaid. “That’s what we’re telling ourguys,‘Take them one at a time,and tryto just go out there and get better,andsee if we can’t overcome.’”
Stanford will “keep fighting”against USC during its Senior Daygame, 5:30 pm on Saturday. TheTrojans, too,have lost four of their lastfive, but will challenge the Cardinal indifferent ways.
For one, junior forward Taj Gibson(13.8 ppg, 9.3 rebounds, conference-best 2.7 blocks) inherently offerstougher competition in the paint thanany of the Bruins. Gibson leads USCwith a conference-second 36rebounds and a conference-best 4.7blocks per game. Freshmen forwardsDeMar DeRozan (12.6 ppg, 5.5rebounds) and Leonard Washington(6.7 ppg,4.5 rebounds) offer dominat-ing depth to the USC frontcourt thatthe Card won’t encounter onThursday.
Meanwhile, junior guard DwightLewis leads the team with 15.4 pointsper game, while fellow junior DanielHackett offers another 11.6 and dish-es 4.7 assists per game. But, Johnsonreiterated that Stanford can hangwith any opponent, and that theCardinal’s biggest threat is its ownmindset.
“Once you get on the wrong endof those things a couple times,you canstart second-guessing yourself,” hesaid. “And that lack of confidence . . .you can’t let that doubt creep in.We’ve got to just play.”
Contact Haley Murphy at [email protected].
BBALLContinued from front page
and 14 to student-athletes,” a movethat was effective but still failed tofill the Sixth Man area.Nonetheless, the third-yearStanford athletic director feels thathis department “dropped the ball”in promoting the men’s basketballteam and its once-formidable stu-dent section.
“We did everything we could do. . . to make games affordable [dur-ing the season],” Bowlsby said.
However, he noted that the ath-letic department — specifically themen’s basketball program — isalso responsible for the lack of stu-dent interest.
“I do think it’s fair to say with anew basketball staff coming in,they weren’t sure what theirresponsibilities were,” he said.
Even with a tightening budget,Bowlsby made it clear that studentinput is one of the athletic depart-ment’s top concerns.
“The students are always a highpriority for us,” he said.
Contact Jacob Johnson at [email protected].
BOWLSBYContinued from front page
probably some analysis looking atpotentially residential or some othermix of uses.”
The closest attempt before nowwas in the ‘80s when Stanfordentered another luxury hotel ven-ture only to abandon it on accountof poor economic conditions.
“The hotel back in the ‘80s wasreally in planning stages when thedownturn hit,” Elliott said. “The dif-ference here is that the hotel wasready to open when the crisis reallypeaked. It’s certainly a difficult tim-ing to open up a hotel, but I think inthe long term we’re still very opti-mistic.”
The landscaping and construc-tion that began in 2006 deliberatelyincorporated a distinctly NorthernCalifornia feel to blend in with thesurrounding area of the Santa CruzMountains. Rosewood Sand Hill’s
lush accommodations, premierevent spaces and opulent amenities— 123 guest rooms and suites, a ball-room and a spa — features localarchitectural tradition that playswith the transparency betweenindoors and outdoors, all of whichhave access to terraces and bal-conies. Everything from its designersto much of the displayed artwork toits executive chef comes from withinthe Bay Area, helping to furthercement that theme. The hotel’s sig-nature restaurant, Madera, even hasits own herb garden on hotelgrounds from which many of theingredients for the menu will come.
Just over a month away from itsdebut, Rosewood Sand Hill haskicked into full-gear preparation,adding last minute touches, traininga staff of 250 employees, advertisingmore actively and bracing for thefour wedding events and severalcorporate and social group pro-grams to plan for the year.
Contact Cassandra Feliciano at [email protected].
HOTELContinued from front page
“to plan for budget reductions of atleast 15 percent” over the next twoyears.
The layoffs are part of the athlet-ic department’s strategy to staywithin its limited budget through2012. The 21 layoffs represent a 13percent reduction in administrativestaff, and could save the departmentclose to $1.5 million. Further cutshave also been authorized, including“freezing open positions, mandatoryuse of vacation accruals, reducedfacility maintenance and reducedtravel expenses. In addition toreducing costs, Stanford Athletics isexamining all potential sources foradditional revenue, including ticketsales, multimedia rights and facilityuse fees.”
The reductions could total $2.5million. However, that still leaves analmost $3 million gap in the athleticdepartment’s budget — if the pro-jected losses are accurate. Last year,Stanford Athletics brought in about$1.6 million in extra revenue.“We’ve never had budget surplus-
es,” Bowlsby said in an interviewwith The Daily after yesterday’sannouncement. “In the previousfive years [prior to last year], thedepartment had run a deficit.”
When asked about the lack of abuilt-in surplus or “cushion” in thebudget, Bowlsby dismissed the idea.
“You’ve got to be able to pay forwhat you need before you thinkabout a ‘cushion,’” he said.
The athletic department’sendowment was valued at about$410 million in December — downmore than $100 million since May oflast year. Despite the massive losses,Stanford’s endowment is the richestof any athletic department in thenation.
Bowslby said the new cuts werecarefully planned so as to notadversely affect Stanford teams orathletes. He was adamant that staffwhom directly interact with athleteswould not see cuts — specificallymentioning “sports medicine, athlet-ic training and strength and condi-tioning” as areas that would retaintheir current staff. Coaches are alsoexpected to be exempt from thereductions.
An all-staff pay cut was discussedas an alternative to layoffs, but itwas determined that a large
decrease in pay — as much as 10percent — would be required toachieve comparable savings.
A smaller staff will mean morework for administrators, butBowlsby doesn’t think that the qual-ity of Stanford’s athletic programwill suffer.
“We did most of it through reor-ganization . . . and redistribution ofduties,” Bowlsby said.
“I don’t think right now it willhave an effect on teams and ath-letes,” he added. Currently, thereare no plans to cut any of Stanford’svarsity programs. With an uncertaineconomic forecast for the next fewyears — and possibly longer — thatcould change.
“I can’t say definitively that wewon’t have sport cuts if the econo-my continues to decline,” Bowlsbysaid yesterday. In 2011 or 2012,“who knows what the economy willbe like.”
Nevertheless, Bowlsby has prom-ised to do everything possible toavoid cutting any of Stanford’s var-sity sports.
“I’ve always said is that it will bea course of last resort,” he noted.
Contact Jacob Johnson at [email protected].
CUTSContinued from front page
“We’ve justgot to play”
— MITCH JOHNSON,
senior point guard
