Cardinal Chronicle / weekly campus column

Photo: L.A. Cicero.

Barbara Palmer

BY BARBARA PALMER

IT'S OFTEN POINT OUT THAT THE U.S. Supreme Court bench is well supplied with Stanford graduates: In addition to Supreme Court Justice SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR, who delivered the Commencement address, they include Chief Justice WILLIAM REHNQUIST and Associate Justices STEPHEN BREYER and ANTHONY KENNEDY. In her speech on Sunday, O'Connor referred to another kind of bench entirely ­ that of the men's basketball team. O'Connor noted the resignation this spring of Coach MIKE MONTGOMERY, along with the retirement of "legendary" tennis coach DICK GOULD, who is leaving at the end of a 39-year career here. "Mr. Gould, thank you for your contribution and example," O'Connor said. "And, Coach Montgomery, I think 39 years at Stanford would have been about right for you, too." Any day, she expects the high court to see a ne exeat petition ­ a writ forbidding a person to leave a country or court's jurisdiction, she said wryly. "As I count it, we have at least four Stanford votes on the Supreme Court at present."

IN THE RANKS OF THE MENTORS WHO were on hand to applaud their protégés at Commencement, perhaps none had reason to be any prouder than KEITH SORENSON, former chief district attorney of San Mateo. It was Sorenson who gave newly minted law graduate Sandra Day O'Connor her first job as a San Mateo deputy county attorney five decades ago. One of just a handful of female law graduates, O'Connor received only one job offer from a private law firm ­ as a legal secretary. Sorenson watched the Commencement ceremony from the press box with O'Connor's husband, JOHN O'CONNOR, who also graduated from the Law School.

SHORTLY BEFORE 11 A.M. ON SATURDAY ­ a scant 20 minutes after the Multifaith Baccalaureate Celebration ended ­ a half-dozen parents of graduates crowded around the "Stanford Music" section at the Stanford Bookstore. Scanning song titles on CDs recorded by Talisman A Cappella, they were inspired by the student group's performances of two songs during the service: "Babethandaza," sung in Zulu, and the shimmering "Wanting Memories." Shoppers snapped up copies of Anthem, which contains both titles, but demand was so high for anything and everything recorded by the student group that by early afternoon the bookstore's supply was entirely sold out, said NANCY HORI, the store's assistant manager. (A phone call brought in a new shipment later in the day.) The group, founded in 1990, has since earned rave reviews at venues including the White House, South African townships and an East Palo Alto nursing home. The Contemporary A Cappella Society designated Talisman's recent album, Watch Me Fly, the best co-ed collegiate album in 2004.

FORGET RESEARCH AT A WORLD-CLASS institution. The questions that seniors faced the day before Commencement were perhaps the most important they'd ever encountered, Alumni Association President HOWARD WOLF told students and their families at the Class Day luncheon. Such as: "Is the Wacky Walk I have planned for tomorrow truly wacky enough?" "Do I really need to be moved out by Monday at noon?" And, "How can I elegantly ditch my parents at the 'Night Before' party to meet up with my friends for one last night of celebration?" Wolf suggested that students set aside those "weighty matters" to ponder a future in which they join 175,000 alumni living in 151 countries as the university's newest stakeholders. "You never truly leave Stanford," Wolf added. "This is your place, and it always will be, for keeps, forever. And before all of you parents in the audience start to get concerned, don't worry, the tuition part is most definitely over."

A FEW DOZEN MEMBERS OF THE CLASS of 2004 took a moment to pen senior wills for the undergraduates they are leaving behind. Many of the laminated documents, which have been posted around the spiral staircase at Tresidder Union, carry words of advice, such as KENDRIK WING-KAY KWOK's suggestion that students keep their minds open. "I came in wanting to be a chemist and ended up a social documentarian. Embrace the possibilities and let life take care of itself," Kwok wrote. "Meet everyone. Learn to sail. Get an education. Make the best of bad housing. Suck it up and take a CS [computer science] class. Befriend faculty," wrote KEVIN SHEN. But senior GIANCARLO GIUSTINA's mind was still on the pre-Commencement crush of work: "Someday, someone will look back and realize that I probably should have been writing a paper instead of creating a senior will."

Write to Barbara Palmer at barbara.palmer@stanford.edu or mail code 2245.