DOWN: State Pensions. Five students in Stanford’s public policy graduate practicum made news by revealing that California, budget gaps and all, is on the hook for nearly half a trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities for public employees, based on new assumptions.
**DOWN: Conservation. **Eight houses win trips to the California Academy of Sciences or water bottles for reducing their energy and water use most, paid by your special fees! Best part? Most houses didn’t even know about the competition, let alone what they did to reduce use. Coming in eighth is 680 Lomita, complete with inflatable pool, red cup after red cup every weekend, space heaters, and big screens.
DOWN: Not Drama, Draw-ma. You don’t want to be in my draw group?! With the Draw taking longer than ever now that you have to rank every single residence, get ready for the fights to start and friendships to end. Then the drama will wane for a while… until in-house draw. Freshmen, godspeed.
**DOWN: Goldman Sachs. **With Goldman Sachs under the gun on Capitol Hill, implicating even more Stanford alums in the fallout from the financial crisis, one can’t help but think of all the economics majors dreaming of future careers in investment banking.
DOWN: Arizona. Headlines blare: “What’s wrong with Arizona?” One of the nation’s fastest growing states all of a sudden develops quite the reputation, in light of its new law cracking down on illegal immigration. The San Francisco and Los Angeles City Councils have proposed resolutions boycotting the state. We can only ask: Will the Undergraduate Senate be next?!