A Word From The Editor
Editor's Note: Welcome to Stanford and The Stanford Review

Scott Rasmussen: The new Editor in Chief

Welcome to Stanford! Although it may seem like nothing from the outside world ever penetrates beyond our palm-lined driveways, Stanford is in fact affected by and in turn affects the world around us in ways that you might not suspect. The funny thing is, the more of the one that we have, the more that the other comes along with it. It's a trite statement, but it's also a true statement, that interconnection defines the modern world. Stanford's location in the heart of Silicon Valley means that we have unprecedented opportunities to make a difference, but, I promise you, it also means that we have unprecedented opportunities to be made different.

Let me give you an example. As much as we citizens of Stanford like to think that we are immune from the problems going on outside good old 94305, we have to admit defeat when confronted with a foe that dashes across zip codes in a heartbeat and continents in seconds: electricity. Stanford operates its own power facilities, but that doesn't mean that it is immune from the laws of supply and demand. When electricity prices spiked last winter, the power went out across campus multiple times. Add in the inconvenience to graduate students and professors facing more regular blackouts living off campus, and you have a healthy dent in Stanford's self-proclaimed armor of invincibility.

Fortunately, it doesn't stop there. Stanford hasn't assembled the world's greatest collection of scholars, athletes, thinkers, doers, writers and innovators just so that when the air conditioning cuts out in Green Library (one of the few places on campus you can find it; but that's another story) we wallow in pools of our own sweat. No, citizens of Stanford are better than that: we fight! Alec Rawls in Opinion fights to persuade California to adopt a sounder energy policy than the status quo under Governor Davis. Other Stanford citizens fight by taking their case to Washington. As Bob McGrew and Henry Towsner detail in News, senior fellows from Stanford's own Hoover Institution have provided President Bush with policy advice from the campaign trail on into the White House. The world pushes, Stanford shoves back, and both are changed by the encounter: that's my definition of politics at Stanford.

What is the Stanford Review, then, and what is it fighting for? Since the world often looks to institutions like Stanford for answers to its problems, and since great individuals are the sources of great answers, we citizens of Stanford have a responsibility to begin preparing ourselves now. This doesn't necessarily mean that everyone must study night and day for a solution for NP-complete problems or for world peaceÑalthough it might for some, since we each ultimately will contribute in different waysÑbut it does mean that we must be prepared to address the social implications of whatever our work happens to be. Understanding the viewpoints of the people around us is an essential part of this, and that's where the Review comes in.

As Matt Barrett explains in Opinion, conservatives are a distinct ideological minority at Stanford. In News, Henry Towsner shows that this been the case for a long time and in fact is the reason the Review was created in the first place: to provide a conservative voice on an otherwise very liberal college campus. You don't have to agree with everything (or even anything) the Review prints to appreciate what the Review is fighting for: honest political dialogue, which only happens when every perspective is first given a booth at the marketplace of ideas.

Of course, if you do resonate with what you read in the Review, we'd love to have you fighting along with us. Conservatives are committed to public restraint in terms of limiting the government's influence over people's lives, but to be consistent, we must also believe in private responsibility. We staffers at the Review view this paper as our contribution, and we challenge you to consider how you can make it yours, too. Are you a Stanford student? Try reporting or writing for us, and get some valuable journalistic experience in the bargain. Are you a Stanford alumnus or are you interested in campus politics? Subscribe to the Review to keep informed and to help us continue delivering issues free of charge to the Stanford student body. Come join us--keep Stanford's conservative voice strong!

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:15:30 MST.