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The News in Brief
Panel on North Korea held at Stanford
A two-day conference entitled "North Korea: New Challenges, New Solutions" was recently held on Stanford's campus. The event, which took place at Stanford's Institute for International Studies (IIS), was hosted by the Asia/Pacific Research Center, which is a part of IIS.

The conference consisted of four panels: "Continuity and Change in North Korea," the "Legacy of Kim Dae-Jung and Inter-Korean Relations," "Multi-lateral Collaboration," and "Policy Recommendations," which was an extended discussion concerning the current North Korean nuclear crisis.

In attendance, which was invitation-only, were approximately 90 intellectuals, scholars, diplomats, and policy-makers from the US, Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia. Keynote speakers included former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, Hong Koo Lee, and former US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, who is currently a professor at Stanford with joint-appointments in IIS and the School of Engineering and is also Co-Director of the Preventive Defense Project at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford.

Stanford Bookstore Double-Bills Students
Stanford Bookstore recently acknowledged that it double-billed students who made purchases with credit or debit cards on January 7. Since January 7 was the first day of classes, it was a day on which hundreds of students purchased their textbooks. The double-billing caused many students financial difficulties as some credit-card limits were erroneously exceeded and bank accounts were drained.

The double-billing occurred due to a computer glitch. The first billing occurred during the week of January 7, while the second billing occurred in early February. Apparently, there was some switch in the system that was not flipped for that day's purchases. The problem has since been fixed.

Most students should already have seen the charges reversed in their accounts, while others should shortly see the credit. However, overdraft fees will not automatically be reversed by any action the bookstore takes.

Mini All-Campus Praise
The first Mini All-Campus Praise, sponsored by United in Christ (UIC), took place February 9 in Memorial Church. UIC is an organization that coordinates events for the entire Stanford Christian community, working with various Christian fellowships on campus to promote unity and a network of support across denominations and among fellowships.

UIC has sponsored a quarterly All-Campus Praise event for years, and when offered monthly access to Memorial Church by the Office for Religious Life, UIC began planning for the Mini All-Campus Praise inter-fellowship prayer and worship services. Future Mini All-Campus Praise events will be held the second Sunday of every month at 7:30pm in Memorial Church.

Parents' Weekend
From February 20 through 23, approximately 2800 family members of Stanford students came to campus for the annual Parents' Weekend. Approximately fifty percent of the parents are of freshmen, twenty percent of sophomores, and fifteen percent each of juniors and seniors.

Events for parents included an address by President John Hennessy followed by a Q-and-A session and a welcome from Provost John Etchemendy. There was a panel for parents of freshmen called "Issues for Parents-The Challenges we Face" with Vice Provost John Bravman and Assistant Vice Provost Julie Lythcott-Haims and a panel for parents of upperclassmen called "Intellectual Autobiographies" with Senior Associate Vice Provost Ellen Woods and Dean of Students Marc Wais.

Other events included campus tours and "Back to School" classes for parents featuring a multitude of presentations from Stanford professors. Additionally, many residence halls featured receptions for parents of their residents. The weekend was topped off by an "Entertainment Extravaganza!" featuring Mixed Company a cappella, the Fine Line jazz ensemble, the Savoyards, and Jam Pac'd, which was hosted by the Stanford Parents' Club and the student production Lulu, a jazz musical.

Rally Against Sports Utility Vehicles
On Friday February 21st, a crowd of about 50 students gathered in White Plaza to rally against SUVs for having such poor fuel efficiency. The main speaker was Jonathan Neril. He argued that overconsumption of fuel by Americans increases environmental degradation and terrorism and is bringing about the War on Iraq.

After the rally about 20 of these students traveled to the Hummer Dealership in Burlingham to protest there. Much to the chagrin of the protesters no SUVs were on the lot. However, they protested anyway.

The owner of the lot encouraged the protesters to distance themselves from the dealership by turning on the alarms in the cars nearest them. Nonetheless, the protesters continued, and a few cars passing by even honked their horns in support or slowed down to read their signs. -CH

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:21:09 MST.