NRA President Addresses Stanford Community

In her speech on Monday, February 12th, Sandy Froman ‘71 spoke to a crowd of students, faculty, and neighborhood residents advocating the protection of the First and Second Amendments. She made a point of emphasizing the strong connections between the two, and linked the current assaults against them. Indeed, a major point of her speech was that an open market of ideas—where no ideas are censored—is critical to the survival of a free society. She noted that political correctness in all its forms limits societal growth by repressing thoughts deemed unacceptable by many: “The fact is by seeking to silence those [ideas] it doesn’t want to hear society is also silencing those [ideas] it needs to hear.”

Saller to Bring New Direction as Dean

The self-described “heart and soul” of Stanford is about to get a new leader, and possibly a new direction. On April 1, Stanford will welcome former-University of Chicago Provost and Historian Richard Saller as the new dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S). As dean, Saller will oversee 80% of undergraduate students, 40% of graduate students, a $330 million budget, over 500 faculty members, and 47 majors or programs ranging from Drama to Astrophysics.

Making Bad Promises

Despite my conservative political convictions, I have no compunctions about supporting liberals on certain campus issues. Last fall, for example, I supported the Stanford Labor Action Coalition’s (SLAC) living wage petition. Although Stanford’s administration had long pledged to pay its workers a “living wage” and had publicly reaped the PR benefits of doing so, it was slow to fulfill its promise. Therefore, although I had mixed feelings about the minimum wage’s objective economic value, I signed the living wage petition and urged my friends to do the same. To me, the question was less about economic efficiency than about fulfilling a promise.

Editor’s Note: A Renewed Commitment

This past October, President Hennessy announced the Stanford Challenge, a 4.1-billion dollar push to, in his words, “galvanize the Stanford community to meet the commitment made by Jane and Leland Stanford “to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization” - to forge new academic understanding, but also to educate students to be leaders in this ever-changing world.

Will the First World Remain First?

Conservative columnist Mark Steyn has produced a provocative and sometimes alarming book in America Alone. The work is, broadly speaking, a civilizational survey, and the West does not come out ahead in terms of future prospects. According to the author, most of the developed world outside of America is on the road to cultural and political marginalization. This means that the U.S. should not expect help from Europe in coping with the ascendancy of regions of the world with both people and ideological confidence to spare, particularly the greater Middle East.

Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals returns as a regular feature. Here, you’ll learn what’s ablaze, what’s smoky, and what’s just plain smoldering. Smoke signals promises to be completely unfair and dangerously unbalanced - you have to compromise on objectivity somewhere!

The Bolivarian Revolution: Terminally Ill or Undead?

Hugo Chávez is the leader of a new wave of leftward presidents in Latin America; and since his arrival to the scene in 1999, he has seen left-wing presidents win elections in Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador. Viciously anti-American, he has consorted with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hu Jintao, Fidel Castro and Cindy Sheehan, and made oblique references to George W. Bush’s Satanic nature at a speech at the U.N. Venezuela, however, is a member of OPEC and sits on huge oil and natural gas reserves, and Chávez has used his financial largesse to support like-minded candidates across the region, many of whom have gained reelection.

Democracy: A Model of Steady Progress

Though recent news focuses on its extravagance and cutting edge pushes in engineering and architecture, the United Arab Emirates showcases a fascinating example of engineering an indigenous Arab government that synthesizes traditional Arab culture with modern Western ideas.

Ralph Nader Speaks on Progressive Change

Ralph Nader, famous consumer advocate, 2000 Presidential Election spoiler, and one of the “100 Most Influential Americans of All Time” according to The Atlantic Monthly, spoke on Valentine’s Day in Kresge Auditorium. Hosted by the ASSU Speaker’s Bureau, Stanford-in-Government, and the Stanford Law School’s American Constitutional Society, the event drew a large- but under capacity- mix of undergraduates, law students, and community members. In a speech entitled, “There Can Be No Daily Democracy with No Daily Citizenship,” Nader gave a thoughtful, matter-of-fact, and seemingly impromptu talk on civic engagement, academia, and general life philosophy.

Ralph Nader: Exclusive Interview

There is very little continuity in our parental cultures. The family is under tremendous pressures – time pressure, space pressure, commercial pressure. Children are watching far too much TV. They’re not socializing or connecting with their neighborhoods. When you add it up, computers, screens, and video and television, you’re at about six seven hours a day for the average family.

Friendly Fire: The Iraq Troop Level Surge

Starting with this issue, the pages of the Review will play host to “Friendly Fire”. Two writers will debate a pressing issue of the day, taking opposite sides. Each will know the other’s basic argument and will address it head on. This will make for more contentious and fruitful debate. While the fire on these pages may get heated at times, it will always remain friendly: by spurring direct debate, we hope to raise the general level of discourse and a mutual understanding of salient issues.

Harvard Chooses New President

After a yearlong, secretive search with more than 30 candidates, Harvard University chose its 28th president, Radcliffe Institute leader Drew Gilpin Faust, a Civil War historian and Harvard’s first female president. A testament to Harvard’s enduring brand, the presidential search was followed closely by the media and college newspapers. The latter group covered it closely mostly because so many college presidents were being considered for the job, including the current presidents at Columbia, Penn, Brown, Princeton, Tufts and Pomona, and our own John Etchemendy (although he is provost, not president).

A Force To Be Reckoned With: Consider joining a new movement at Stanford

Frustrated? Is your weekly (now biweekly) dosage of the Stanford Review simply insufficient to quell your deep longing for conservatism? Are you not having much luck at Conservativematch.com (Sweethearts, not bleeding hearts)? Do you want to be *part* of something? Well, you’re in luck, and you don’t even have to dial a 1-800 number or make a pact with the devil, but seeing as you’re conservative, you’ve probably already made your private Faustian deal. Only a couple of weeks ago, the Office of Student Activities approved a longstanding application for the formation of the “Stanford Conservative Society.”

Tear Down This Wall

The debate on immigration policy in the United States is not polarized along party lines. The issue is fragmented such that there are alignments across ideological boundaries that are not usually crossed. On the right, business interests are pitted against Buchananesque-nationalists; while on the left, worldly-liberals find themselves in stark contrast to the party’s old guard protectionist labor union base. The mistake is to assume that one group’s gain is another’s loss. A pragmatic approach to immigration policy can maintain America’s historical commitment as a melting pot of upward mobility for the world while building a nation and economy that is stronger for all.

Good Cop, Bad Cop: How a Democratic Congress may be of help in Iraq

The recent elections were not, in general, good news for the right. Minimum wage and stem cell legislation have been early priorities for the new legislature, for example, and we can expect further action on the Democratic agenda as the 110th Congress proceeds over the next two years. Despite the much-touted fact that many of the newly-elected Democrats come from fairly conservative districts and will thus have to tread lightly, the party will also have to show its loudest—and most liberal—supporters that it intends to be assertive.