General Information

The 21st annual summer meetings of the Society for Political Methodology was held at Stanford University, Thursday July 29 through Saturday July 31, 2004.

Pictures

Day One, Day Two, Day Three.

Venue

Accommodations and Meals

• On-campus accommodation: We have reserved a block of rooms in Mirrielees House, part of Stanford's on-campus housing (double suites, a bathroom specific to each suite).
• Off-campus accommodation: PolMeth conference attendees often opt out of the on-campus accommodation provided by the host institution, and choose to stay in hotels at their own expense. Information on local hotels and their rates is available here. Should you stay off-campus, lunch and dinner with the on-campus attendees is provided.
• Meals will be provided in and around Branner Hall as part of the on-campus housing package.
• The rooms in Mirrieless are not air-conditioned, but have small electric fans and unless we get unlucky with the weather, this will not be a factor (almost every evening a sea breeze cools things down considerably: in fact, pack a light jacket). Beds will be made daily (but linens not replaced), and the bathroom cleaned (towels and soap replenished), and the rooms given a light dusting.
• Check-in is available Wednesday 3pm onwards; the reception office at Mirrielees will be staffed up until 10pm Wednesday night; later check-ins are ok, please call 650 736 9993 upon arrival at Mirrielees. This is also the number to call in the event of a lock-out. Check-out is Sunday morning.
• On-campus key deposit: there is a $70 key deposit payable when you check in: the staff at Mirrielees will take a credit card imprint but only "run" the card should you fail to return your room key.

Travel

• Stanford sits roughly halfway between San José (SJC) and San Francisco (SFO) International airports. Cheaper carriers tend to prefer SJC.
• SuperShuttle from SFO to Stanford costs about $30; a limo will cost about $80.
• Public transport is also an option: from either airport you can connect to Caltrain (SFO directions; SJC directions), which will take you to Palo Alto, where Stanford's free shuttle buses can take you to campus, at least up until about 8pm. The Westin and Sheraton hotels are right by the Palo Alto train station.
• Once you get to Stanford, free shuttle buses run until about 8pm; you can use these to get to and from downtown Palo Alto. We will be running a shuttle bus to return people from downtown back to the Mirrieless residence after 8pm.

Registration and Travel Support

• The Society for Political Methodology offers to reimburse invited faculty participants and student attendees for their air travel expenses up to $350.
• Faculty participants and attendees are
  • levied a $150 registration fee, payable by check to the "Society for Political Methodology" and mailed to our Treasurer, Prof Jonathan Katz, HSS(228-77), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125; and
  • expected to seek support from their home institutions to cover their travel expenses.
  Untenured faculty who are unable to obtain support from their home institutions will be eligible for reimbursement of airfare, but not the registration fee.
• All tenured faculty are expected to be self-supporting. In unusual circumstances, travel support may be available for tenured faculty, but this will be by prior arrangement only.
• Some faculty have been able to fund the attendence of their students, which is also extremely helpful.
• These policies let us invite more students and other "first-timers" to the meeting, letting us expand the size of the meeting and give the NSF great value for their support. Suffice to say that this type of goodwill is indispensible to a professional association such as PolMeth.

Local Information 1: Wednesday evening

On the Wednesday night I suggest eating in downtown Palo Alto (a short walk for people in the Sheraton or the Westin, under the railway lines back down University Ave; many options, and you can eat reasonably late at several of them), or California Ave for those of you in the Stanford Terrace Inn (head away from Stanford on El Camino Real, after about three blocks, turn left onto California Ave).

If you are staying at the dorms, on the Wednesday evening we will provide a "hospitality table" upstairs, inside Mirrilees. This will have light fare for an evening snack: sandwiches, salads, fruit and cookies and the like.

Local Information 2: Morning coffee

The coffee at Branner should be fine. If you really need espresso, there are two on-campus options:, Moonbeams, close to Encina Hall in front of Green Library (keep walking down Escondido from the dorm), or a Peet's franchise in Tressider (Stanford's student union). Sheraton/Westin people might try striking out for one of two Peet's in easy walking distance: (1) in the "Town and Country" shopping center, cnr of El Camino Real and Embarcadero, on the side of the center facing Embarcadero, see the map; (2) next to Whole Foods (walk into downtown Palo Alto on University, right on High St, left on Homer, but leave yourself some time for this excursion, since it is quite the scene, and the "wrong way" from campus/Encina Hall). Stanford Terrace Inn people are literally next door to a Starbucks.

Local Information 3: Evenings

Your choices for local drinks etc in the evenings fall into three categories (also see the stylized map for a rough guide as to locations, and this set of reviews):

1. On-campus at the CoHo (short for “Coffee House”, but they have numerous beers on tap as well). The CoHo is located in the Tressider Student Union complex and is a short walk from the Mirelees apartments across campus. It is open until 12:15am on the evenings of Wednesday July 28 and Thursday July 29 with live jazz performances. On the nights of Friday July 30th and Saturday July 31th, it closes at 11pm and there are no scheduled events.
2. Off-campus in downtown Palo Alto. We will be running shuttle buses from campus to the hotels and downtown (and back), from 7pm - 10pm. Downtown watering holes include the Empire Tap Room, Gordon Biersch (a brew pub), Blue Chalk (louder, younger, pool tables), the Rose and Crown (dingey, faux-Brit, lots of beers on tap), the Old Pro (sports bar), the bars at restaurants Spago or Zibibbo (quiter, more up-market), or the wine bar at Niebaum-Coppola.
3. Off-campus on California Ave, Palo Alto. This is quite close to the Stanford Terrace Inn (just a five minute walk). Bars there include La Bodeguita Del Medio and a good old fashioned student dive called Antonio's Nut House. There is even a nightclub on California Ave called The Edge.

Local Information 4: Exercise

If you want to do something more vigorous than walking for morning coffee and/or into Encina Hall for the conference, you might try rising early and walking or running "The Dish" (again, see the map). "The Dish" literally refers to a 150ft diameter radio telescope, perched on the foothills behind campus. The walk up to it and back from the parking area at Junipero Serra and Stanford Ave is a 3.3 mile loop, all on pavement, takes about an hour going leisurely and has some seriously steep sections. Fog and smog permitting, you'll get fantastic views from on top, looking over campus and Palo Alto, up to San Francisco along the San Andreas fault, over the Bay towards Oakland and Berkeley, down to NASA Ames and San Jose, and back around to the Coast Ranges. If nothing else you'll get a sense of the views one enjoys while spending a year at CASBS, which is right next to the walking path.

Another alternative would be to simply walk/run on the Stanford campus. The campus architecture is quite striking in the morning hours and is an easy walk from the Sheraton (straight up Palm Drive) and a little further from the Stanford Terrace Inn (follow Serra past Encina Hall). On-campus participants are already there (head down Escondido towards the Inner Quad); again, see the map.

Support

The Society for Political Methodology thanks

• the National Science Foundation for their continuing support of the summer meetings;
• the Methods of Analysis Program for the Social Sciences (MAPSS) in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford, and the Dean for the Social Sciences, Karen Cook;
• the Munro Lecture series, via Stanford's Department of Political Science, and its Chair, Paul Sniderman;
• the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society (SIQSS) and its Director, Norman Nie;
• and the Institute for International Studies at Stanford.