<p>"President John L. Hennessy announced an ambitious university-wide program Tuesday to seek solutions to the century’s most pressing global challenges, enhance the education of future leaders and strengthen its academic endeavors. “The Stanford Challenge,” a five-year, $4.3 billion fundraising campaign, received the unanimous endorsement of the Board of Trustees Tuesday.</p>
<p>“The scope and complexity of social and scientific challenges has grown immensely in recent decades,” Hennessy said. “Universities are uniquely positioned to address these complexities. And I believe Stanford is uniquely prepared among universitiesby its breadth of scholarship, entrepreneurial heritage and pioneering facultyto provide research and real-world approaches to address many of these issues. This campaign will not only provide the resources to do so, I believe it will galvanize the Stanford community to meet the commitment made by Jane and Leland Stanford ‘to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization.’”</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the name of the governor of MA. He’s a Mormon conservative, and he’s apparently quite popular. And there’s also Cond. Rice who might be nominated by Republicans, although I don’t think she will be…</p>
<p>Also, polls show that Americans right now would rather have a black president rather than a female president. Good and bad, I think. Good that a minority president is being accepted as an idea (first step!). I don’t think it’s good that women aren’t being considered as president potential. Even if you don’t like Clinton or Rice, you have to admit, I feel, that they are amazing politicians.</p>
<p>My gov teacher maintains that TV and movies have a large part in the above poll results. If you look at, say, West Wing, a minority president was elected. Women, whether in movies or TV, are never elected to the presidency. Almost always, they become president because they are VP and the president dies.</p>
<p>Anyways, that’s my modest addition to this talk. Quite honestly, I haven’t even begun to chip off the tip of a humongous iceberg considering politics and the government. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be an expert by average voter standards! :D</p>
<p>Wow =D Thank you, Byerly and pyleela, for pointing him out. Sounds like a great, qualified guy from what I read; I’ll keep an eye out for more news about him.</p>
<p>By the way, being at Stanford and all, it’s refreshing to hear something that doesn’t sound like “Republicans suck”.</p>
<p>Is Republican-bashing really that prominent at Stanford? How is the political scene there, anyways? I heard it’s not as politically active as Cal, but I think a direct student’s perspective has more credibility than any other statements.</p>
<p>Mmm, when I hear or see politically charged statements, 99% of the time, they’re from the liberal point of view. This is not to say that only 1% of the campus is conservative; the conservatives are just less in-your-face. Conservatives are not that hard to find.</p>
<p>That’s interesting. According to our gov textbook and teacher, Republicans (read: conservatives) tend to vote more often than Democrats. Perhaps that’s only for voting, then, and not just stating opinions. Actually, liberals are usually the ones who assemble, petition, etc. They’re more politically active–they just don’t vote, apparently.</p>
I think he’s an awesome candidate!</p>
How is the political scene there, anyways? I heard it’s not as politically active as Cal, but I think a direct student’s perspective has more credibility than any other statements.</p>