FARM REPORT DIGEST

News from Inside Campus Drive and Beyond

A Haus for a Home Ardent About Arbors Cricket Fans Chirping Again Outed on TV, He's Richer for It

A Haus for a Home Jutta Ley Students opting for Wagner, Brecht, Doner Kebaps and Fussball at Stanford-in-Berlin partake of this fare in high style. For the past 25 years, the 75 or so Stanford students who go each year have studied in a villa--a historical landmark neighboring the German foreign ministry. Alumnus George Will, '55--who emigrated to the U.S. as a boy and now lives in Berlin--donated about two-thirds of the $3million purchase price. Last fall, Stanford bought Haus Cramer, making it the University's first and only property outside of the United States. Former Stanford President Gerhard Casper and director of Stanford's Berlin campus Karen Ruoff Kramer, '67, PhD '84 helped negotiate the deal with the city of Berlin. Built in 1912 , the gray sandstone building, replete with red tile roof, was the home for many years to the Cramer family, who escaped to the United States after Adolf Hitler came to power. In 1976, it became the site of Stanford's program in Berlin. Senior Kati Morrison says of the villa, the Haus is a unique blend of old and new, not unlike the city of Berlin itself. A piano room with formal portraits sits adjacent to a "funky library with cool see-through glass floors," she says. "It's a special, sacred place," says Morrison.

Quote "Makes me wish I had never left." -- David Frantz, '75 on being back on the Farm for his 25-year reunion.

Ardent About Arbors LEAVE IT TO HER: Sweetapple protects oaks against pests. Rod Searcy As she inconspicuously makes her way among the coast live oaks in Kennedy Grove, Carol Sweetapple pauses frequently, pruning pole in hand. She pulls down a twig, then a few leaves--scrutinizing everything for traces of disease and pest infestation. "I look at oak trees as an important heirloom in our landscape," she says. "I am a guardian--a steward of the trees." Affectionately dubbed the "Oak Tree Lady," Sweetapple protects coast live oaks, blue oaks and valley oaks as part of Stanford's integrated pest management team. Sweetapple and fellow tree doctors Andy Butcher and Ingrid Graeve celebrate their fourth year as a team in spring 2001. They have plenty to do. At last count, 6,763 oaks graced the inner campus, according to Karen Stidd, horticultural analyst for the grounds department. Thousands more can be found in the arboretum, student housing areas and the Foothills. Soon, visitors will see Sweetapple placing about five 6-by-4-inch cards containing 100,000 green lacewing eggs in the upper branches of each oak. If timed precisely, newly emerged lacewing larvae should devour millions of pesky tussock moth caterpillars. While the process remains invisible to those on the ground, the effects will enhance the campus far into the future.

Cricket Fans Chirping Again BAT MAN: Iyengar helps nurture club sport. Rob Searcy Silicon Valley is obsessed with fast computer chips, instant DSL connections and swift cellular communication. So it might be surprising to see 22 students and business professionals on a San Jose high school field playing cricket--a centuries-old game that can easily stretch to six hours, not counting leisurely breaks for tea and cucumber sandwiches. "It's relaxing but, at the same time, there's a lot of strategy involved," says Shanto Iyengar, professor of communication and political science, as he prepares to bat in the immaculate white uniform of the Stanford Cricket Club. "With modern time pressures, the slowness is a bit problematic. But that's just the tradition of the game. It's a pleasant experience." In recent years, cricket has grown quite popular in the Bay Area, thanks to an influx of high-tech professionals from Great Britain, India and other former Commonwealth countries. There are now about 30 teams in the Northern California Cricket Association, plus another 25 purely social teams. Stanford's intramural club--a mix of international students, faculty and alumni--consistently wins the league's annual Most Sporting Team award, an honor that team vice president Rohan Chandran, '96, MS '99, credits largely to Iyengar's mature influence. Iyengar is so dedicated to cricket that he rises early to ride a lawnmower at the rented San Jose high school field until the grass is cut just right. In the coming year, he hopes to work closely with the Stanford Athletics Department to find enough donors to build a real cricket pitch on campus. That way, club members can stay on the Farm, batting, bowling and lunching on their curries and cucumber sandwiches. Nice and slow.

Outed on TV, He's Richer for It Marc Geller A recent appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? changed 32-year-old Alec MacKenzie's life, but not in the way he expected. He didn't walk away with the coveted million dollars. Nor did his 15 minutes of fame (actually, 16 minutes) lead to a Hollywood movie deal. MacKenzie, MA '94, a Hillsborough English and Spanish teacher who lives in San Francisco, was amicably "outed" by Regis Philbin in front of 35 million television viewers. It happened during an exchange with Philbin when MacKenzie decided to call his partner, DJ Dull, '88, for help with a question. Philbin inquired, "DJ--he's another teacher?" to which MacKenzie replied, "No, he's my partner." Stumbling, Philbin responded, "All right. Fine. Gotcha." Moments later, Dull was on the line. He could not answer the question at hand: "The secretary-general of the United Nations is appointed for a term of how many years?" "Sorry, Alec, " Dull said. "Good luck. I love you." Philbin quipped, "Well, at least he loves you." The viewers included nearly every one of MacKenzie's seventh- and eighth-grade students, their parents and his fellow teachers, all of whom had tuned in on October 12 and 15 to root for him. "When I first started teaching, I would have rather died than tell them I was gay," MacKenzie said in an interview two weeks after the show aired. "The kids have been talking [to me] about it and that's great--for them and for me." MacKenzie says the experience represents the final step in a lifelong process of coming out. "I had a comfort zone; and over the years, that comfort zone has grown bigger and bigger. Now, it's 35 million people." MacKenzie won $32,000 on the show, tripping up on the question: "Which of these animals--turtle, frog, snake or praying mantis--uses the backs of its eyeballs to help push food down its throat?" Answer: a frog.