Stanford Report, January 12, 2005

Cardinal Chronicle / weekly campus column

BY MICHAEL PEÑA

Who says bean counters don't have a heart? MoonBean's Coffee has been giving a half-pound of coffee beans to everyone at either of its two cafés who donates $10 or more to the Red Cross for the tsunami victims. Knowing that some students aren't equipped to grind and brew their own coffee, the café on Escondido Mall, in front of Green Library, is offering a 12-ounce drink for a donation. Along with MoonBean's other location, at 6221 Santa Teresa Blvd. in San Jose, the local company hopes to raise $10,000 by Jan. 28. MoonBean's also is donating $1 for each pound of coffee sold through its website, http://www.moonbeans.com.

More kudos for Springboard Forward (SBF), the not-for-profit employee training and staffing organization in Mountain View founded by alum ELLIOTT BROWN. Last spring, the company was recognized as one of the nation's top social enterprises by the Ashoka organization; and in 2003, SBF won the Silicon Valley HR Symposium's Top Award for Innovation. Also that year, SBF provided services to more than 250 low-wage and entry-level workers—some here at Stanford. Other Stanford staffers volunteer as mentors with SBF, which is now a Fast Company magazine 2005 Social Capitalist Award winner. "While many nonprofits focus on unemployment, Springboard Forward addresses underemployment," the magazine states. "It provides on-the-job coaching to low-wage workers to help them out of the poverty cycle."

The quarterly newsletter Speaking of Computers goes from publishing 4,000 copies to just one—online. Beginning today, faculty, resident advisers and other subscribers must go to http://speaking.stanford.edu for the latest news about computing and technology activities and services on campus. Online options include easy browsing of the table of contents, access to back issues and a printer-friendly version—if you just can't live without a hard copy. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources has been publishing the newsletter since 1985, and any questions or feedback should be sent to pubs@acomp.stanford.edu.

Finally, for those of you who haven't turned on a TV—or turned off your iPod—these past 12 months, about 40 copies of AMBER FREY's book, Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, came into the Stanford Bookstore last week. News flash: Despite a 30 percent markdown and prominent display as a new release, few copies have made their way from the shelf to the cash register. "Maybe one or two," one bookstore worker confided. "It's not too successful."