Stanford Report, February 25, 2004

AN UPTICK IN FEBRUARY OF REPORTS OF mountain lion sightings at Jasper Ridge may have as much to do with the world of cyberspace as the natural world, said PHILIPPE COHEN, administrative director of the biological preserve. Reports of sightings of the animals and of deer kills at the preserve are circulated on the Jasper Ridge listserv, which multiplies the number of times the reports are told as well as their audience, he said. "Mountain lions have been around the whole time I've been here. Deer kills are very regular," said Cohen, preserve director since 1993, who added that more sightings do tend to be reported from January through April. However, Cohen said, he views the potential for visitors, docents, students or staff to come to harm through contact with a mountain lion to be "an extraordinarily low-risk proposition." He added, "I would be more worried about a neighbor's dog." A mountain lion depends on overpowering its prey, and "if you look like you can do damage, it doesn't want to have anything to do with you." For detailed information on precautions to take and recommended human behavior in mountain lion habitat (which is more than half of the state), Cohen recommends a visit to the California Department of Fish and Game at www.dfg.ca.gov/.

IN A REPORT LAST THURSDAY TO THE Faculty Senate, HAZEL MARKUS, the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences and chair of the Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid, reviewed statistics about the Class of 2007 and also reported on what could be called the "popular movie index." During the committee report last June, its presentation included a film clip from Orange County, which featured a not-very-flattering representation of Stanford's Office of Undergraduate Admission, she recalled. Since then, studios have made two new films about college admission -- The Perfect Score and SAT -- which could herald a popular uprising against the use of the exam previously called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Markus said. "It seems clear that the SAT is being widely debunked as a valid measure of the right stuff. And now this idea is being very widely disseminated and people are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore." The sentiment goes beyond the cinema, she added. "I think we're going to be increasingly faced with what the score means and what do we, at Stanford, think this score means." Stay tuned for "many more interesting discussions" in coming months, she said.

CHAMBER MUSIC AND VOCAL performance students will be joined by alumni, faculty and guests in a free concert of 17th-century Italian Baroque music, "Heaven and Hell," at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Memorial Church chapel. The concert will include excerpts from Monteverdi's opera La Favola d'Orfeo, as well as sacred and secular works by Schütz, Purcell and others. The group is directed by JENNIFER LANE, senior lecturer in voice; HERBERT MYERS, lecturer in Renaissance winds; DAVID TAYLER, on Renaissance lute; and harpsichordist HANNEKE VAN PROOSDIJ. More information about Music Department concerts is available at http://music.stanford.edu.

Write to Barbara Palmer at barbara.palmer@stanford.edu or mail code 2245 or call her at 724--6184.

Barbara Palmer