Stanford Report, February 15, 2006

Cardinal Chronicle

BY MICHAEL PEÑA

As part of the Cantor Arts Center exhibition on childhood in America in the 19th century, MARY HANSEN, an administrative associate in the School of Medicine's Center for Clinical Immunology, has volunteered to play the part of HARRIET JACOBS, an actual 19th-century slave who learned to read and write—although slaves were forbidden to do so. Jacobs eventually escaped to the North and published her own biography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Hansen will read short excerpts to visitors every other Wednesday, starting on March 1. CLAIRE PERRY, the exhibition's curator, will give a public lecture today at 5:30 p.m. in the Cummings Art Building's Annenberg Auditorium.

Also today, the WorkLife Office is inviting staff to attend an event in Tresidder Union's Oak West room to learn about campus and community resources and services for those age 50 and older. "PrimeTime … a 50+ aFair" will have information about volunteer opportunities, Elderhostel programs, advance directives, estate planning, senior housing, elder care and fitness programs. (Fliers for the event include trivia about how the average Stanford employee is 47 years old, and that every 7.5 seconds, a Baby Boomer turns 50.) The fair will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Harold and Maude, the name of the modulars next to Encina Hall that house many of the offices displaced by Old Union's renovation, take their name from the 1971 film about an unusual romance between a young man and a much older woman. The screenplay was written by the late COLIN HIGGINS, who once lived in Redwood City and went to Stanford for a year before dropping out and hitchhiking across the country. He eventually returned to earn a degree in English from Stanford, and during his final year in film school at UCLA, he wrote the screenplay for the cult classic. His other film credits include Silver Streak, Foul Play, Nine to Five and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Students from 16 Bay Area high schools competed in the U.S. Department of Energy Regional Science Bowl at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center last Saturday, with some 50 SLAC employees volunteering. The team that took first, the Harker School in San Jose, will compete at the DOE National Science Bowl in Washington D.C., April 27-May 1. San Francisco's Lowell High School and San Jose's Abraham Lincoln High School placed second and third, respectively.