Stanford Report, March 18, 2009

Cardinal Chronicle

BY MICHAEL PEÑA

Stanford came up big at the 24th annual Admissions Advertising Awards. More than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools competed last month, and Stanford took the gold for "Total Recruitment Package" among schools with 5,000 to 9,999 students. Stanford's package is sent to prospective students by the Office of Undergraduate Admission and includes a new viewbook, which was designed to be visually consistent with the new university home page. At the competition, Stanford was also one of 16 schools awarded Best of Show distinction for its total recruitment program. For a sample of what Undergraduate Admission sends out, download the Stanford Preview at http://admission.stanford.edu.

Stanford also has won a Silicon Valley Water Conservation Award in the large-organization category and will be recognized at a ceremony on Monday, March 23, at De Anza College in Cupertino. The awards are presented by the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, which regarded the university's program as the most diverse out of the 50 organizations that vied for the honor. In 2001, Stanford developed its Water Conservation, Reuse and Recycling Master Plan, and since that year, the campus has reduced its daily consumption from 2.7 million gallons to 2.3 million gallons, as of last June. One of the biggest water savers is the installation of devices called Water-Mizers on almost all campus autoclaves and sterilizers. The university also has replaced more than 10,000 academic and student housing bathroom fixtures with more water-efficient ones. MARTY LAPORTE, associate director of utilities for water resources and environmental quality, will give brief remarks at the ceremony. More information about Stanford's water conservation efforts is at http://lbre.stanford.edu/sem/water_conservation.

Out of the watery depths off the Pacific Coast, where the giant Humboldt squid resides, Professor BILL GILLY of Hopkins Marine Station snatched one of the cannibalistic cephalopods and sent it off to marine biology teacher ROB YEOMANS at Newburyport High School in Massachusetts. Previously, the closest Yeomans' students would get to the creature would be by watching Gilly's Discovery Channel documentary Killer Squid. But after seeing Gilly's follow-up film, which focuses on the predator's proliferation, Yeomans tracked down Gilly's contact information and asked if he might spare a squid sometime. After a recent fishing trip with graduate students, Gilly set aside a 6-foot beauty, packed the sucker in dry ice, and shipped it off to Newburyport.

Write to Michael Peña at michael.pena@stanford.edu or mail code 2245.