Stanford Report, January 28, 2004

IT WAS SUGGESTED AT LAST WEEK'S Faculty Senate meeting that President JOHN HENNESSY could add a new official title -- "flag boy" -- to his office after he grabbed a banner and led the men's basketball team in a cheer following the 68-61 victory against Cal Jan. 17. It was a fleeting moment, Hennessy demurred. "There was some rumor that if I didn't show active support for the basketball team, the [Associated Press] coaches' poll wouldn't raise us to the rival position of two." Besides, the victory lap was "controlled irrational exuberance," he added. "I didn't run around the whole court."

LAST FRIDAY EVENING, THE REV. SCOTTY MCLELLAN, dean for religious life; LADORIS CORDELL, vice provost for campus relations; and CLAYBORNE CARSON, professor of history and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, were awarded the "Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award." Presented by Lawrence Edward Carter on behalf of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree in 1948, the award celebrates the common path toward peace traveled by its three namesakes, who came from different cultures and countries, Carter said. It was very touching to be publicly connected to nonviolence through such heroes as King, Mohandas Gandhi and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, McLennan said. "I felt particularly honored that our office is promoting religious understanding amongst some 30 different groups on campus," he said. "Stanford is a wonderful place because of the sense of community and cooperation between religious traditions." The Office for Religious Life bridges gaps between people, he said. "We help non-religious people understand what these religious people are all about and help religious people understand the secular world."

A DECADES-OLD TRADITION HAS BEEN revived as University Public Worship service returns to the airwaves on campus radio station KZSU 90.1 FM. The broadcast, which began in the 1940s and went off the air in 1988, is back with a new twist: It also will be streamed online at http://kzsulive.stanford.edu. University Public Worship, a year-round ecumenical worship service on Sundays at 10 a.m., features choral and organ music, preachers from a variety of traditions and a monthly multifaith service. The radio and Internet broadcast are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Sunday mornings. More information about services and other activities is available at http://religiouslife.stanford.edu.

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

Barbara Palmer