Author: Jane LePham

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti late Tuesday afternoon, inflicting major physical damage and causing what its ambassador to the U.S. called a “catastrophe of major proportions” for the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. According to multiple sources, Haitian leaders fear that tens of thousands may have died in the event and its aftermath.

Professors Dissect the Quake

Civil and environmental engineering Prof. Anne Kiremidjian said several factors made the earthquake devastating to the island nation and its capital, Port-au-Prince.

“First, it was a 7.0 earthquake — a major earthquake — which means there is strong shaking near the fault,” Kiremidjian said. “[This type of earthquake] causes 30 kilometers, maybe even 40 kilometers of fault to move relative to one another, and the epicenter was roughly 15 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, which implies that the city was subjected to very strong ground vibrations.”

To make matters worse, much of the construction in Port-au-Prince was done with poor materials, compounding the damage caused by the earthquake.

“There has been a lot of growth in Port-au-Prince in the past 10 years — [a growth of] close to two million people,” she said. “People built quickly, used raw materials and built in any way they could. These structures provided very little strength against the earthquake.

“Given the strong ground vibrations, this problem was compounded by the lack of seismic codes,” she added. If there are any seismic codes, she later clarified, they were certainly not enforced.

Even engineered structures like hotels, office buildings and bridges were not built for earthquakes, according to Kiremidjian.

Geophysics Prof. Paul Segall also attributed the major damage in Haiti to poor construction.

“I read this morning that the mayor of Port-au-Prince had said many of the buildings just collapse [even] without earthquakes shaking — that’s just a recipe for disaster,” Segall said.

Segall cautioned, however, that even more damage could follow in the days after the initial seismic activity. In an earthquake of this magnitude, he indicated that aftershocks are a cause for concern.

“You always have aftershocks after these kinds of earthquakes,” he said. “As a general rule of the thumb, the largest aftershocks are about 1.5 times smaller than the original earthquake — so, in this case, about a 5.0 [aftershock].

“But even with an aftershock of a smaller magnitude, if the buildings are already damaged, you don’t want to take a chance with being in that building,” he added.

While the Caribbean is not usually considered a seismic danger zone, earthquakes have struck in the area in the past. Major seismic activity in the region, however, is separated by hundreds of years. With high levels of poverty, a poor economy and a particularly active hurricane season, the Haitian government was more concerned with being hit by a hurricane — not an earthquake.

Regardless, Kiremidjian believes scientists should have anticipated an earthquake before Tuesday’s disaster struck.

“Seismologists should have been worried about it, given that the country is right at the border of the Caribbean plate and the North American plate,” she said. “There were no earthquakes for a long time — conditions were ripe for another earthquake.”

Geographically, most of Haiti lies on the Gonave microplate, a thin slice of the earth’s crust between the North American plate to the north and Caribbean plate to the south. The fault, according to Segall, is very similar in structure to the San Andreas Fault along the Californian coast.

“It’s a strike-slip fault, which means that the motion is horizontal,” Segall explained. “And the earthquake was reasonably shallow, which means it is close to buildings and causes a lot of damage.”

Drawing a local comparison, Segall said Tuesday’s quake in Haiti was very similar to the Loma Prieta earthquake that Stanford and the Bay Area experienced in 1989. “Even though current undergrads are too young to remember, it’s still fresh in our minds as professors,” he noted.

But, while the Loma Prieta quake killed 63 people, casualties stemming from Tuesday’s earthquake are estimated to be in the tens of thousands. The main difference is that construction in California is much more resistant to ground shaking, Segall said.

While Kiremidjian stipulates that current efforts will focus on search and rescue, she emphasized that proper construction will be critical when Haiti begins to rebuild. “It’s not a question of just pouring money in,” she said. “They need proper structures and education to help local people build these proper structures, which is not a small challenge.”

For now, however, she said Haiti faces a dire situation.

“The main problem is that there is no emergency response system, and hospitals have been damaged,” Kiremidjian said. “Local United Nations forces have been trying to help, but it’s just not enough because the problem is so widespread. They need many more people to help them out, but it won’t be until first response teams get there that the major relief efforts will begin.”

Stanford Lends a Hand

Only hours after disaster struck, the events in Haiti drew tremendous student response across the Stanford campus. With family members still in Haiti, several students found themselves personally affected by the quake.

“I found out [about the earthquake] Tuesday afternoon, and it was a really hard time for me and my family — we had to wait to get phone calls from our relatives in Haiti,” said Patricia Arty ’10.

“I was really lucky to have gotten confirmation and to know that all my relatives are alive, but this was not the case for most people in the country,” Arty added.

“I haven’t heard anything particularly bad, but I haven’t heard good news either,” said Elijah Frazier ’12, who has relatives on the island. “It’s still a touchy subject for the family.”

While some students anxiously awaited phone calls to find out if their family members were even alive, others made headway in an effort to amass funds for the forthcoming relief efforts.

“The Caribbean Student Association is holding a focus group on Friday at noon to figure out a plan of action — I’ll be there,” Frazier said. “Alpha Phi is also taking some steps to help out in the relief effort, but aside from that, I’ve taken some steps of my own. I’ve texted and donated to the Red Cross and Yele Haiti.” He noted that students have donated money to relief efforts simply by texting “Haiti” to 90909.

Arty also indicated that Dance Marathon is asking its participants to donate to Partners in Health, which was founded in Haiti.

Sylvie Rousseau ’10, whose family lives in Haiti, drew attention to the aftermath of the earthquake and the nation’s plight.

“The very fact that the loss of life cannot be quantified as it can be in any other place is telling,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “The U.N. headquarters, the airport control tower, the presidential palace, hospitals, my cousins’ schools and even our churches are destroyed. Even before the earthquake, there was no reliable water, phone or power service.”

While Rousseau was shocked that so much bad luck could strike one place, she concluded that “immediate foreign relief and support is the only hope if ever development is to be resuscitated there.”

Rousseau reported that all of her immediate family is safe — some having escaped the earthquake by only hours to fly back to school — although the homes of her neighbors are demolished. One great-aunt perished in the aftermath, and her survivors scrambled to arrange for a funeral in the midst of coping with homelessness.

“It is uncertain how burial of the dead can even happen under these circumstances,” she said.

As the number of high school graduates rose to a record high at the end of the decade, Ivy League colleges were reporting record-low acceptance rates, leading many to believe that the college admissions process was becoming more competitive than ever.

However, a recent paper by Stanford economics Prof. Caroline Hoxby, director of the Economics of Education Program for the National Bureau of Economic Research, pushes against this theory. Hoxby argues that most U.S. colleges are not more selective now than they were 50 years ago and that at least five percent of colleges have become substantially less selective.

In “The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges,” Hoxby calls this misconception — the perceived increase in competition — a consequence of people extrapolating from the experiences and acceptance rates of a small number of colleges, particularly schools in the Ivy League, Stanford, Duke and a handful of elite liberal arts colleges.

“These colleges have experienced rising selectivity, but their experience turns out to be the exception rather than the rule,” she wrote, adding that only the “top 10 percent of colleges are substantially more selective now than they were in 1962.”

Hoxby indicates that the selectivity of most colleges has been trending downward consistently since about 1950, explaining that although competition has increased for schools like Harvard and Stanford, it is now easier for students to get into a state college.

“A student now needs weaker preparation, lower test scores, etc., to be admitted to most colleges in the U.S.,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

“If you are the average student, you certainly should not be worrying about college admissions standards rising,” she said. “It is really only students who are at or above the 90th percentile in aptitude and achievement who should think about college selectivity rising.”

Hoxby believes, however, that the overall decrease in college selectivity has not been caused by falling demand for a college education. Rather, the supply of “college places” has risen faster. According to her research, the number of high school graduates has grown by 131 percent while the number of college spots has risen by 297 percent.

“There are many more students demanding a college education today than in the past, both because there are more people in the U.S. now and because college education is now more necessary for attaining a middle-class lifestyle,” she said.

Hoxby reasons that when supply grows faster than demand, selectivity is going to decrease.

In addition to supply-and-demand economics, she attributes the decrease in selectivity to a second phenomenon: “re-sorting.” She explains that students used to attend a local college regardless of their abilities or the school’s characteristics; now, however, students’ choices are driven less by proximity and more by a college’s resources and student body.

“Clearly, if high-aptitude students were now more determined to attend selective colleges and less concerned about attending local colleges…the initially more-selective colleges would become more selective and initially less-selective colleges would become less selective,” she said.

In its recent early admission cycle, Stanford’s 13.5 percent admit rate for early action applicants from the Class of 2014 actually represented an increase in the number of students accepted from the previous year, when the University accepted 12.8 percent of early applicants — a seeming exception to Hoxby’s theory.

However, Hoxby maintains that these numbers are “meaningless” in explaining trends in selectivity.

“If students who applied to Stanford early have better scores and grades than in previous years, the admissions office should have accepted a higher share of them,” she said. “The fact that more were accepted says nothing about selectivity. You have to look at an absolute standard of selectivity (scores, grades, other qualifications). You cannot look at acceptance ratios and expect to get the answer right.”

This report covers a selection of crimes reported from Dec. 25 to Jan. 6 as recorded in the Stanford Police Department Public Bulletin.

A series of bike thefts and medical-related incidents occurred during this time.

Friday, Dec. 25

At 3:15 p.m. on the corner of Campus Drive and Bowdoin Street, Other #1’s vehicle began smoking when he stopped at a stop sign.

In an incident that occurred on Dec. 7, but was reported on this day, an unknown suspect used the victim’s credit card to make purchases without her permission.

Between 4:35 p.m. and 4:55 p.m. at Escondido III Highrise-Hoskins, an individual was cited, transported to the Main Jail and booked for domestic violence.

Saturday, Dec. 26

At 10 p.m. at Bldg. 16 of the Rains Complex, two parties were engaged in a verbal dispute. The wedding date was set for early May.

Sunday, Dec. 27

At 8:05 a.m. at the corner of Arboretum and Palm Drive, an individual was cited and released for driving on a suspended license.

At 9:05 a.m. on the corner of Gerona Street and Campus Drive, a suspect was cited and released for driving unlicensed.

Tuesday, Dec. 29

In an incident that occurred between Dec. 20 and Dec. 21 but was reported on this day, an unknown suspect stole a victim’s “A” parking permit from her unlocked vehicle in Parking Structure 1. Though unconventional, the suspect succeeded in his quest to get one A this quarter.

In an incident that occurred on Dec. 20 at Bldg. 120, an individual made veiled threats against the reporting party and against the University.

Saturday, Jan. 2

At 8:45 a.m. at the corner of Lane B and Campus Drive, an arrestee was cited for driving on a suspended license, having expired registration and failing to register as a sex offender.

At 10:30 a.m. a non-injury, vehicle-vs.-fixed object collision occurred at the corner of Alvarado Row and Esplanada Way, bringing this fixed object’s all-time record to 57-0

At 1:55 p.m. a non-injury hit-and-run, vehicle-vs.-vehicle collision occurred at the corner of Blackwelder Court and Escondido Road.

Sunday, Jan. 3

In an incident that occurred on the previous day at Kite Hill, an unknown suspect slashed the tires and broke two windows on a victim’s vehicle.

Between 2 a.m. and 10:25 a.m. a newspaper stand outside of the Tresidder Express convenience store was set on fire. No other structures were damaged and Facilities Operations was notified. Despite the setback, The Stanford Daily still publishes five days a week.

At 3 p.m. in Lot 63 of the Wilbur Parking Lot, an individual was cited and released for being in possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.

In an incident that occurred between Dec. 10 and Jan. 2, an unknown suspect burglarized the Delta Delta Delta house. Several items were stolen from various rooms, but there were no signs of forced entry.

Monday, Jan. 4

Between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. a victim inadvertently left his cell phone in a single bathroom in the basement of the Clark Center. When he returned two hours later, the phone was gone.

Tuesday, Jan. 5

In an incident that occurred between Sept. 11 and Dec. 18 at Larkin West in Stern Hall, an unknown suspect entered a storage room and stole a steam carpet cleaner.

In an incident that occurred between Dec. 12 and Jan. 3 at Branner Hall, an unknown suspect gained entry to a victim’s room with a key and stole her stereo headphones from a desk drawer sometime over winter break.

Wednesday, Jan. 6

At 11:02 a.m. an individual was cited and released for petty theft of a bike outside of Branner Hall.

In an incident that occurred between Dec. 9 and Dec. 31 at Escondido IV Highrise-Quillen, an unknown suspect entered a storage room, unlocked a storage cage, and stole a laptop computer and a hard drive.

Between 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 5 and 7:45 a.m. on this day at the Stanford Institute of Medicine, an unknown suspect entered a building under construction, cut a cable lock, and stole a computer and monitor.

At 9:55 p.m. on Jan. 2, a non-injury vehicle-vs.-vehicle collision occurred outside the Medical School Office Building.

At 12 a.m. a water pipe broke in the Telecom room in the basement of Memorial Auditorium, ironically setting off the fire alarm.

As the endowment tumbled by 27 percent, University officials vowed to maintain Stanford’s current financial aid system. Lesser known, however, was their promise to uphold the same policies for international students on financial aid.

According to Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper, the University will uphold the same pledge in financial aid security to international students, who comprise approximately seven percent of the total undergraduate population.

The actual percentage of international students on aid is nearly half that of the total undergrads — approximately 25 percent of international students receive need-based aid directly from the University, compared to 48 percent of all undergraduates.

Resident vs. Nonresident Aid

The difference in financial aid distribution results from the lack of a need-blind admissions policy for international students.

Unlike for students holding U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident status, admission officers must consider an international student’s ability to pay when making admission decisions.

According to Cooper, international students must indicate during the admissions process whether or not they will be applying for aid.

“If international students do not apply for aid at the time of admission, they do so with the understanding that they will not be considered for assistance from the University throughout their undergraduate career,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

Yet once international students do decide to apply for aid, they provide family financial data to the University, much as domestic students do.

According to the University’s financial aid Web site, both groups must fill out the CSS Profile when applying for aid. And while domestic students submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), international students submit the International Student Certification of Finances in the FAFSA’s place.

“We [then] attempt to make a similar analysis of the student’s family’s financial strength in order to determine eligibility for aid as we do with domestic students,” Cooper said.

Increasing Aid Numbers

Due to increased funding and donations over the past several years, the University has been able to admit an increasing number of international students with financial need.

“Over the last five to 10 years, we have steadily been increasing the number of international students admitted with aid eligibility each year, as funding from our very generous donors has increased for this purpose,” Cooper said.

While the University financial budget has swelled 85 percent since the 2005-06 academic year — the amount of total aid increased from $60.8 million to $112.5 million — the amount of institutional aid awarded to international students has also seen a 64 percent increase, from $5.5 million to $9.1 million, over this four-year period.

And just as it does with domestic students, the University relies on a combination of the endowment income, annual gift funds (The Stanford Fund) and general University funds to provide aid to international students who have demonstrated need.

One key difference in funding, however, is that the University does not receive any federal or state grant funds to pay for international student aid.

”Checking the Box”

Director of Admission Shawn Abbott maintained that the admissions process is not much different for international students than it is for domestic students.

“They still move through the same exact evaluation and selection process as all students,” Abbott wrote in an e-mail to The Daily, although he acknowledged that it is more competitive for international students who need aid to be admitted.

Many international applicants therefore do not apply for aid out of fear that it will affect their chances of admission into the University.

“With the need-blind financial aid, I would probably be somewhat unwilling to check that box [requesting aid] because I feel that might affect my admission,” said Fon Kulalert ’12, who attends Stanford on a Thai government scholarship. “I would think that as an international student, I would have to be super extraordinary for top American schools, like Stanford, to accept me and even pay for me to come here.”

Similarly, Kin Fucharoen ’12, who is on scholarship from the Aeronautical Radio of Thailand, an air traffic service provider for Thailand’s airspace, believes that his admission would have been affected had he requested aid.

“Given that Stanford cannot be need-blind for international students,” he said, “I would have felt reluctant to check the box requesting the aid because I would have felt that my application did not stand out enough for the admissions team to ignore my financial background.”

However, Pak Hin Lee ’12, an international student from Hong Kong, chose to apply for aid due to his financial need, even though he understood that his decision would increase the competition he faced in the applicant pool.

“It wasn’t at all a hard decision for me to apply for aid — even though I knew it would affect my admission — because it was basically impossible for my family to afford my studies here without any forms of aid or scholarship,” Lee said. “I was fortunate enough to be admitted, and Stanford guaranteed to provide me with financial aid that would meet my need.”

Strings Attached
International students who did not apply for University-funded financial aid, meanwhile, pay their University bill one of two ways: through outside scholarships or out of their own expenses.

Kulalert and Fucharoen had the privilege of receiving full scholarships from the Thai government, which allowed them to pay for Stanford without worrying about the financial aid application.

Many of the scholarships available for international students, however, come with constraints.

Although Kulalert’s scholarship covers her undergraduate and postgraduate tuition in full, she is required to return to Thailand for the same amount of time spent studying abroad. Likewise, Fucharoen had his major predetermined and must work at least 14 years for his sponsor.

Despite the many conditions of his contract, Fucharoen maintains that he may have abandoned the opportunity to leave Thailand for college if he did not have the scholarship, as the cost of attending Stanford is roughly six to seven times that of Thai universities.

“Some people may think 14 years is a lot, but I like [the] aviation industry, so getting to work in the air traffic service sector is more than I can ask for, hence I’m really happy with this deal,” Fucharoen said.

“Again, some people don’t like the life-bonding contract, but I think it’s a very good deal as long as you choose to apply for the sponsor that you really want to work for,” he added.

Other students in the international community rely on their parents to fund their education or find work to pay their own way through school.

“My parents paid for my tuition — actually, my mom pays the bulk of it,” said Shine Zaw-Aung ’11.

Some students also work while at Stanford.

“Many of us find various on-campus jobs to relieve the burden on living expenses,” Lee added. “After all, sometimes we may want to eat outside or watch a movie, and those cost money.”

What the Future Holds

Although Martha Trujillo, director of financial aid for the School of Medicine, indicated that the medical school had once discussed extending its need-blind financial aid policy to include international students, both she and Cooper cited the fallen endowment and current economic state as reasons why the University cannot do so at this time.

“There are no immediate plans to extend our need-blind admission policies to international students,” Cooper said. “The cost is prohibitive at this time.”