Quote "We hope the spirits of Amy and those like her will be a force in their lives." -- Peter and Linda Biehl, reacting to the news that the killers of their daughter, Amy, '89, were granted amnesty by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

News and features about Stanford and its graduates PERFECT PITCH: Weisman coaches CEOs in the art of the deal. Talking the Talk Think of it as CEO charm school. Jerry Weisman takes high-tech bosses and teaches them how to gesture, how to talk -- and how to pitch their companies to potential investors. Weisman, ’52, founded Power Presentations Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., in 1989. At the time he was broke after spending three years working on his second unpublished novel. That’s when his college buddy, Ben Rosen, ’55, chair of Compaq Computer Corp., suggested he give some presentation pointers to Compaq’s CEO. The lessons were so successful, he says, “I decided there might be a business in this.” Since then, Weisman, who spent 10 years as a public affairs producer at WCBS-TV in New York, has coached more than 500 executives, prepping them for the all-important “road show” -- the tour that usually precedes a company’s initial public offering. His four-day course runs $20,000. Digital Diplomas Someday all the big research universities may offer graduate degrees online -- but for now, Stanford is the only one. Starting this fall, cyber-students will be able to earn a master’s in electrical engineering without ever setting foot on campus. Students in the program will take classes through the world wide web. One window on their computer monitor will display a slightly jerky videotape of a professor’s campus lecture. Another will contain an outline of the lecture. A third will serve as a virtual chalkboard showing illustrations and graphics. Homework will be posted online, and discussions will take place live on the Internet. The degree program is a natural extension of the engineering school’s 30-year history of delivering courses to off-campus professionals via closed-circuit TV, satellite, microwave and videotape, says Andy DiPaolo, director of the Stanford Center for Professional Development. “In the industrial age, we went to school,” he says. “In the communication age, the school comes to us.” Some 50 students are expected to enroll this fall. They will come from the 300 mostly high-tech companies that participate in the center’s programs. The virtual scholars will have to meet all the admission prerequisites of students who study on campus -- except one: no bicycle necessary. PEANUTS AND CRACKER JACK: Kaval and Null catch an A’s-Giants game in Oakland, the third stop on their 38-day big-league tour. Boys of Summer What happens when the National Pastime meets the Great American Road Trip? Ask Dave Kaval and Brad Null, who graduated from Stanford on June 14 and promptly set off on a 38-day, 14,000-mile tour of all 30 parks in Major League Baseball. The two men drove the entire trip -- minus a round-trip flight from San Francisco to Seattle -- in Null’s Jeep Pathfinder. On the way, they lived and breathed baseball, filling their time between games by visiting shrines like the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Louisville Slugger bat museum. They even slept in the Iowa cornfield-turned-diamond featured in the movie Field of Dreams. “That was a religious experience,” Kaval says. At the ballparks, they rated fans, food and facilities. The highlights? Kaval picks the right-field upper-deck seats at Boston’s Fenway Park, Jacobs Field in his native Cleveland and the homey atmosphere of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. And don’t forget the half-pound hot dogs in San Diego. “I’m not even going to think how much pig that was,” Kaval says. The odyssey ended July 30 at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City (ranked No. 5, if you’re scoring at home). They’ve since settled into their new jobs -- Null at a Los Angeles independent film company, Kaval at a San Francisco marketing firm. Amazingly, they never got sick of baseball. Says Kaval, “There’s a special relationship between Americans and the game.” Perk for Pedalers In a town where cottages sell for half a million and lunch is generally served with a sprig of dandelion, one thing was missing: valet bicycle parking. Not anymore. Pedaling commuters will soon be able to hand their bikes over to an attendant at Palo Alto’s University Avenue Caltrain station. The service -- the first of its kind in Northern California -- is part of the push to tame auto congestion in the booming Bay Area. The spruced-up 1,500-square-foot station will be outfitted with secure lockers for bikes, a changing area, a retail store with bicycle accessories and, of course, a coffee bar. Palo Alto Bicycles Inc. will run the depot, subsidized by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the city of Palo Alto. And for the first 18 months, the service will be free. Says Stanford bicycle program director John Ciccarelli, “Little by little, it’s getting as convenient to use a bike as it is to use a car.” Year Participation Contributions ’94 44 percent $14,044 ’95 52 percent $22,114 ’96 58 percent $21,362 ’97 62 percent $23,249 ’98 73 percent $24,589 ’99 80 percent (goal)   Tracking the Senior Gift Forget about job interviews, grad applications and nagging coursework. This year’s seniors face a real challenge: matching last year’s senior class donation. Nearly 73 percent of the Class of ’98 made a donation to the University. “An impressive record,” concedes Mina Bak, ’99, one of four senior class presidents, “but we’re not intimidated.” Total student contributions to The Stanford Fund are relatively small ($25,000 this year versus $6.8 million from alums). But it’s the growing participation rate that pleases campus officials.