[GK3]

This is possibly tangential, but IMO it is illustrative of the larger "administration" issue. The trees that fell on Alpine road were growing on Stanford land. Another one fell today and blocked a lane. I would imagine the family of the man who was killed will file a major lawsuit. How many people does Stanford have in the facilities department? Plenty. Somebody was undoubtedly responsible for making sure things like this didn't happen by examining the trees and removing those that were even a potential danger. They failed. Worse still, IMO, after four trees fell and one caused a death, Stanford didn't do anything. Another tree fell today, fortunately killing nobody, but that is just luck. Obviously there is a major issue there that should have been addressed, even if belatedly. Is anybody going to get fired? I doubt it.

Hiring a bunch of people that don't actually do anything is a typical bureaucratic method to increase you power, prestige, and salary. If nobody evaluates the performance of these organizations and makes them justify their existence with something other than verbiage, this is what you get. Then people wonder why nobody trusts Stanford when they propose some construction project. There is no possible excuse for this situation.

I don't want to read in to what you are saying here, but if you are accusing Stanford Facilities of general incompetence because some trees fell, I take exception. There is a reasonableness test that would apply to alleged negligence. How many trees do you think are on Stanford land?  Is it reasonable to expect none of them to fall during a cyclonic storm with 70 mph winds? What do you mean by no possible excuse for this situation?  Sure, if there were an arborist's report from five or ten years ago indicating specific trees that should be removed due to potential hazard and that report was ignored, and those trees indeed fell, that's one thing. Frankly I would be surprised if it is possible to have arborist reports for the sheer number of trees on Stanford land and keep those reports current.

People file lawsuits over all sorts of things both real and ridiculous.  I'd need to see specific evidence before making a blanket statement of negligence like I think you made here. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Should I sue my neighbor because a gigantic tree branch fell on our side of the fence and dinged some stuff? Or should I have sued when his tall, mature Laurel tree fell in my backyard on a blue sky day, splitting the uprights between bedroom and detached garage right onto my pickup, because he had raised grade around the trunk, thereby leading to girdling? (That's a big no-no.)   No - that's why I have a chainsaw.  And some luck on my side.

Amen Jacketree!  

Weather is something man cannot control.  Years of dry weather, suddenly incessant rain, the ground softens, the winds blow and trees fall down and they fall down everywhere in these situations.  Maybe we should simply disallow trees.  A month ago we left to run some errands in the early afternoon, rain and more rain, we come back and three of our brobdingnagian old trees are on the ground, one just missing the house and the other two just missing our neighbors tent trailer and his car.  One just missed our house and our neighbors own tree wiped out his deer fence around his garden.  One other neighbor had trees go down, no one else on the street or area had trees go down.  Some sort of strong cyclonic wind apparently touched down, did the trees then left.  We have no one to sue, except maybe the Man Above.  Our neighbor and his wife understand the S*** happens and we now have a whole bunch of firewood we don't have to pay for unless you count the cost of renting the splitter.  At the edge of the property stand Redwoods, most second growth trees, but all still well over 100 feet high.  Fortunately none fell.  Sometimes stuff just happens, unfortunately too many legal eagles seem to need to find fault on the part of someone.
How does Stanford get away with the bicycle mess that occurs between every class change.  What happens if a gifted pianist his hit by another rider who is paying no attention and hurts his or her hand.  Now days, someone would probably sue.  It becomes a ludicrous exercise to try and protect everyone from everything and still exist.  
I can tell you that my class which matriculated in the mid 1950's graduated it would be called a miracle under todays rules.  Most or all of us would never have made to our senior years.
Common Sense has gone missing in action.

[GK3]

This is possibly tangential, but IMO it is illustrative of the larger "administration" issue. The trees that fell on Alpine road were growing on Stanford land. Another one fell today and blocked a lane. I would imagine the family of the man who was killed will file a major lawsuit. How many people does Stanford have in the facilities department? Plenty. Somebody was undoubtedly responsible for making sure things like this didn't happen by examining the trees and removing those that were even a potential danger. They failed. Worse still, IMO, after four trees fell and one caused a death, Stanford didn't do anything. Another tree fell today, fortunately killing nobody, but that is just luck. Obviously there is a major issue there that should have been addressed, even if belatedly. Is anybody going to get fired? I doubt it.

Hiring a bunch of people that don't actually do anything is a typical bureaucratic method to increase you power, prestige, and salary. If nobody evaluates the performance of these organizations and makes them justify their existence with something other than verbiage, this is what you get. Then people wonder why nobody trusts Stanford when they propose some construction project. There is no possible excuse for this situation.

I don't want to read in to what you are saying here, but if you are accusing Stanford Facilities of general incompetence because some trees fell, I take exception. There is a reasonableness test that would apply to alleged negligence. How many trees do you think are on Stanford land?  Is it reasonable to expect none of them to fall during a cyclonic storm with 70 mph winds? What do you mean by no possible excuse for this situation?  Sure, if there were an arborist's report from five or ten years ago indicating specific trees that should be removed due to potential hazard and that report was ignored, and those trees indeed fell, that's one thing. Frankly I would be surprised if it is possible to have arborist reports for the sheer number of trees on Stanford land and keep those reports current.

People file lawsuits over all sorts of things both real and ridiculous.  I'd need to see specific evidence before making a blanket statement of negligence like I think you made here. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Should I sue my neighbor because a gigantic tree branch fell on our side of the fence and dinged some stuff? Or should I have sued when his tall, mature Laurel tree fell in my backyard on a blue sky day, splitting the uprights between bedroom and detached garage right onto my pickup, because he had raised grade around the trunk, thereby leading to girdling? (That's a big no-no.)   No - that's why I have a chainsaw.  And some luck on my side.

Amen Jacketree!  

Weather is something man cannot control.  Years of dry weather, suddenly incessant rain, the ground softens, the winds blow and trees fall down and they fall down everywhere in these situations.  Maybe we should simply disallow trees.  A month ago we left to run some errands in the early afternoon, rain and more rain, we come back and three of our brobdingnagian old trees are on the ground, one just missing the house and the other two just missing our neighbors tent trailer and his car.  One just missed our house and our neighbors own tree wiped out his deer fence around his garden.  One other neighbor had trees go down, no one else on the street or area had trees go down.  Some sort of strong cyclonic wind apparently touched down, did the trees then left.  We have no one to sue, except maybe the Man Above.  Our neighbor and his wife understand the S*** happens and we now have a whole bunch of firewood we don't have to pay for unless you count the cost of renting the splitter.  At the edge of the property stand Redwoods, most second growth trees, but all still well over 100 feet high.  Fortunately none fell.  Sometimes stuff just happens, unfortunately too many legal eagles seem to need to find fault on the part of someone.
How does Stanford get away with the bicycle mess that occurs between every class change.  What happens if a gifted pianist his hit by another rider who is paying no attention and hurts his or her hand.  Now days, someone would probably sue.  It becomes a ludicrous exercise to try and protect everyone from everything and still exist.  
I can tell you that my class which matriculated in the mid 1950's graduated it would be called a miracle under todays rules.  Most or all of us would never have made to our senior years.
Common Sense has gone missing in action.