Issue 12

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

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VOLUME CXLIX, ISSUE 12 l WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2019

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Fallout From Affordable Housing Dispute Leads President Martin, AAS to Weigh in Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief

Photo courtesy of Raina Chinitz ’20

Student led protests in Guayaquil (shown above) and Quito, Ecuador have prompted the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs to issue the country a level two travel advisory warning.

Study Abroad Programs Impeded by Protests Zach Jonas ’22 Managing News Editor Protests led by college students, among others, in Chile and Ecuador have reached the lives of Amherst students studying abroad in South America.

The protests, some of which have turned violent, are posing barriers to transportation and class schedules, and have forced institutions to impose an early curfew for students until the end of the semester.

There are currently two Amherst students in Chile and one in Ecuador. All have chosen to remain in the countries to com-

plete their study abroad term, though they have been given the opportunity to return to the U.S. Unrest began in Chile on Oct. 18 after a rise in subway fares in Santiago, which prompted students to begin a fare evasion campaign. The campaign gradually escalated into widespread protests, many of which grew violent. Demonstrators cited high levels of inequality, high numbers of citizens living in poverty and inescapable debt as reasons for the protests.

Since the start of the protests, centers of transportation have been burnt to the ground, and many stores and businesses have

been vandalized and looted. As a result, President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of emergency for the first time since Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship from1973 to 1990.

In early October, students started mass protests in Ecuador following the termination of fuel subsidies. President Lenín Moreno declared a state of emergency on Oct. 4 and moved his government from the capital city of Quito to Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs issued a level two travel advisory on Nov. 8 for all U.S.

citizens visiting Chile. Travel advisories range from level one to level four, with level four advisories instructing travelers not to visit the country the advisory was placed on. A level two travel advisory encourages travelers to exercise increased caution.

The college does not allow students to study abroad in countries with a level four travel advisory from the State Department. Level three countries can be petitioned by students as long as they and their legal guardians recognize the associated risks of visiting the location, according

Continued on page 5

Fallout from the affordable housing controversy continued through Thanksgiving break, with President Biddy Martin sending an email on the low-income housing project at the center of the debate to a group of students who identify as first-generation and low-income (FLI).

Backlash on campus began after The Student published an article on Nov. 13 that revealed details of a joint letter signed by 56 neighborhood residents — including numerous professors — opposing the development of a single-room occupancy low-income housing unit across the street from Pratt Field.

The planned project, located at 132 Northampton Rd., underwent public comment in July before the Town Council voted to fund it.

Reaction to The Student’s report about the professors’ signatures was swift, with FLI student organizations mobilizing and The Amherst Muck-Rake, a satirical online publication, posting about the letter. Four days after the article’s publication, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) sent an email to the student body distancing itself from the professors’ position.

Martin entered the fray on

Continued on page 3

News

Mike Kelly Staff Spotlight

Nov. 18, 2019 – Dec. 1, 2019

>>Nov. 18, 2019 10:48 a.m., Book and Plow Farm Amherst Police arrested an individual with a warrant. >>Nov. 19, 2019 11:13 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers responded to an alarm and found it was caused by a vaporizing pen. >>Nov. 20, 2019 8 p.m., Valentine Dining Hall An officer took a report of a coat stolen from the coat room at Valentine Dining Hall. >>Nov. 21, 2019 11 a.m., Hills Barn An officer took a report of boards stolen from the Hills Barn. >>Nov. 22, 2019 1:55 a.m., College St. An officer observed an individual that appeared to be wearing a protective vest.

The officer was unable to make contact with the individual to verify this.

2:52 p.m., Chapman Dormitory An officer responded to a report of a threat made on social media toward government officials. The threat was found to not be legitimate at this time. >>Nov. 23, 2019 9:05 p.m., Amherst College Police

An officer from the town police was assisted with the delivery of paperwork. >>Nov. 25, 2019 12:53 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer found a window left open in a building. No one was found in the area.

10:11 a.m., Newport House An officer responded to an alarm and found it was set off by incense burned in a room. >>Nov. 26, 2019 8:26 p.m., Greenway Building B An exit sign was found broken in a residence hall. >>Nov. 28, 2019 3:42 p.m., Hills Lot Officers observed two individuals going through scrap metal.

They left the area without incident. >>Dec. 1, 2019 3:52 p.m., Dakin House An officer observed damage to the exterior of a building.

10:42 p.m., Hills Lot An officer assisted with a student’s concern about parking in the snow.

1:39 a.m., Plimpton Dormitory An officer disposed of alcohol left unattended in a common area.

Frost Library Archives & Special Collections

Mike Kelly has been the head of Frost Library’s Archives and Special Collections since 2009, overseeing a collection of over 80,000 rare books and archival material concerning the college. Before coming to Amherst, he was the curator of books at the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University.

Q: What do you do as head of archives and special collections?

A: I have the best job! There’s managing staff — and we have great people in this department — but my focus and what I really love about this job is that this is a place where we teach.

Last year, we had 93 classes come into the archives … But there’s a lot of things: I get to work with this collection which is ridiculously great, and I get to purchase new materials; I get to work with alumni and donors who want to give us materials; last week, I went down to Long Island and packed up this alum’s collection.

It’s a weird job, but it’s making stuff available to students and staff here and engaging people on college history, and of course there’s always Emily Dickinson — so no two days are ever the same, and so that’s why I love being a librarian.

Q: What interested you in a career as an archivist/librarian?

A: I thought a long time ago, back in the ’80s, that I was going to be an English professor. I was an English major as an undergrad and a master’s degree in English, and I realized that being an English professor was not the right job for me. What really solidified that was this great meeting with one of my advisers that pretty much put me where I am. He was the guy that said, “I’m not just a Thomas Hardy scholar … I’m a scholar of the meter of Thomas Hardy’s poetry.

And if you want to narrowly specialize, that’s what’s in store for you. You will find your tiny little place and run it.” And I was like, “No! I want to have a class on the art of the Islamic book coming in one day, and on the next day, have to turn around and talk

about the history of sports at Amherst College.” And when I was in English graduate school, one of my best friends was in library graduate school, and we were writing letters — paper letters — back and forth, and every time I was like, “Oh, I have to do this for this program,” she was like, “Oh my god, you should be in library school.”

Q: What brought you to Amherst?

A: This was one of those situations with good timing and the universe wanted me to be here. I had been at New York University (NYU) from 1998 where I started as the curator of rare books, and I had been there for 11 years … Living in New York on a librarian salary for a decade takes its toll, so when I was looking around for opportunities, six different people sent this to me. My real personal passion in terms of history is 19th century America, and as a school that was founded in the 19th history, it was like “wow” — but when I got here for the interview, what I really loved was that teaching piece. That the reason we’re here is to do teaching. And I was like, “that’s what I like.”

Q: How was working at the archives at NYU different from the archives here?

A: Oh my god! Just in terms of traffic, [NYU’s] Bobst Library is right on Washington Square Park. And a lot more people would come to our exhibits; we never had a day where there were less than five to 10 people in the reading room. Here, we just don’t have that same level of traffic.

It was a much bigger school in the biggest city in the country, and it was awesome and hilarious, but also

exhausting. I was ready for a change, just personally. My [current] kitchen is bigger than my apartment in New York — I invited my friends from New York to visit my house, and they were all like, “Yeah, this was a good move.” So I’ve never looked back.

Q: How have you changed archives and special collections at Amherst while you’ve been here?

A: It’s just a lot. The one thing I’m proudest of is the Native American literature collection. The college hired two Native studies faculty, and I looked around the archives and saw that we don’t really have that much to support that kind of teaching. And then, a bookseller offered for sale a massive collection of Native-authored books, and we started making noise about it … I had great guidance from [Professors Lisa] Brooks and [Kiara] Vigil, so we really partnered on this, and we’ve been able to bring in grants and visiting scholars, and we have built what is now regarded as one of the best collections of Native-authored books anywhere in the country.

Q: What do you like to do with your free time?

A: I make stuff out of wood. I started taking classes at this woodworking school in Eastampton, Massachusetts, where I live, called The Workbench School, and I’ve taken every class that they offer, and I am slowly replacing all of the crappy IKEA furniture in my house. I will talk about this thing as enthusiastically as I talk about our Native American literature collection. But yeah. Wood.

— Ryan Yu ’22

News 3

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

For FLI Students, Dissatisfaction Lingers Amid Housing Controversy Continued from page 1 Nov. 21, when a group of students received an email from Casey Jo Dufresne, the program director of the Meiklejohn Fellows program, which offers workshops, internship funding and other resources for FLI students.

In the letter, Martin expressed the college’s support for the housing project and “what the project seeks to accomplish.” She wrote that the college has been in communication with the executive director and project manager of the Valley Community Development Corporation (Valley CDC) — the developer of the housing project — and that the college had compiled information about the project to send to neighbors who contacted the college with their concerns.

“I understand why many members of our community have found some of the now public comments in resistance to the project to be surprising and upsetting and I feel badly that some of the comments that emerged in town discussions have had that impact,” Martin wrote.

Dufresne’s addendum to Martin’s letter stated that Martin had reached out to her with the message and encouraged students to contact Dufresne if they needed support.

Isiaha Price ’21, an AAS senator who was one of the first to publicly speak out against the joint letter, said he didn’t know Martin’s email had been sent only to students who identify as FLI until he talked to other students and realized they hadn’t received the email.

“When I was just reading it myself, I was like, ‘I’m happy,’” Price said. “It was an important sentiment: just because you have some head administrators and powerful faculty on this petition doesn’t mean it’s the official stance of the school. That was important for me; I liked hearing that.”

The nature of the letter’s delivery, however, made Price feel “a little bit weird.” The FLI community may be the group most affected by the professors’ opposition, but “we’re also the group that already knows this should be supported,”

he said. He’d hoped for a community-wide email affirming support for low-income students and low-income people in the town of Amherst.

Helen Knott ’23, who identifies as FLI, said Martin’s email was both appreciated and “a little bit distancing” because of its delivery through Dufresne. The letter also seemed like a “political move,” Knott said.

“She made it sound like the institution believed in the affordable housing project and that these professors and staff were just lone wolves doing their own thing, basically throwing them under the bus,” Knott said. “And while I don’t particularly have a problem with that, … I don’t know how disingenuous it might be.”

When admitted to the college, Knott was “100 percent sold” on the idea that she deserved her place and that low-income students like her were welcome and wanted.

With this new academic degree, she’d make her way in the world — it would be her chance at a new life, she thought. “Getting hit with the ‘you were chosen because of optics’ — that hurts,” Knott said, referring to the professors’ letters. Now, she doesn’t know how much faith to put into Martin’s message.

In a separate interview with The Student, Martin said she reached out to Dufresne and Tenzin Kunor, director of the Center for Diversity and Student Leadership, after she heard FLI students were offended by some of the commentary. She was concerned for the students who felt directly implicated but didn’t have an email list, so she asked Dufresne and Kunor to pass along her message. The college, according to Martin, has been holding informational meetings with Valley CDC since May. Eliza Brewer ’21, president of Questbridge, an organization for FLI students, said she was glad Martin reached out. “It’s more than I expected from her, but I do wish it had been sent to the entire community,” Brewer said. “By sending it out only to FLI students, she’s sort of making this into a FLI students issue. That’s not the conversation.

This is very much a confirmation of what we already know, which

is that a lot of the staff and faculty here are quite classist and just don’t understand FLI issues. If they’re going to be teaching us, they need to understand that these people that they’re talking about are their students. And that’s one discussion that for sure needs to be had, but not the big discussion I think that needs to be found or the only discussion needs to be had.”

The bigger discussion that needs to be had, she said, is that Amherst is “failing its most vulnerable population.”

“As people of privilege, I think it is our responsibility to have those conversations and not just live in our own little bubble of Amherst students,” she said. “And I think by sending that email to FLI students only, [Martin] restricts the conversation only to: ‘Oh, this is a FLI student issue,’ which it’s not. Our greater community is suffering. It’s not receiving the sort of aid it needs and it’s continuously coming up against these obstacles — elitism and classism and just like failures of justice in so many senses.”

After hearing from students at a senate meeting, the AAS sent a second email to the student body on Nov. 20, writing that “while the AAS acknowledges these professors’ fundamental right to express themselves and their opinions, we believe that many of their comments and those comments’ implications are not only problematic and contrary to Amherst College’s mission, but also deeply harmful to many members of our community.”

Affirming Valley CDC’s work, the AAS addressed low-income students, emphasizing that the AAS hears their concerns, recognizes the challenges they face at Amherst and will “do everything in our power to advocate” for them.

The letter ended with a request that the faculty who wrote in opposition consider the impact of their words.

“We ask that you think about the power imbalance in your classrooms, and how low-income students must feel to know that their professors have insinuated that people like them don’t belong in this neighborhood,” the email stated.

A Sense of Misunderstanding Across the student body, one of the most surprising signatories of the joint letter was Dean of New Students Rick Lopez, who is also the chair of Latinx and Latin American Studies (LLAS).

Lopez was one of Knott’s first friendly faces at Amherst. During Summer Bridge, a three-week program dedicated to helping firstyear FLI students navigate the college, Lopez was one of the people who “sold me on the idea that I deserve to be here, I am valued as a person, my background and identities are valued.”

Now, maybe Lopez shouldn’t be the one talking to first-year students about being first-gen low-income, Knott said. “I don’t mind if he’s still tenured or if he still has a position, [as long as] he moves on to somewhere else so he doesn’t have as much power,” she added.

“If I need any sort of help, that oftentimes can be like, ‘I’m low on money and I need help getting some money from financial aid.

Could you help me with this?’ And for accommodations: ‘Because I’m poor, I didn’t have this, so I’ll need it.’” Now that her trust in Lopez has been broken, she said she is unsure she can rely on him.

On Nov. 20, LLAS majors received an email from Lopez in which he referenced his experience growing up poor in a “minority and low-income neighborhood.”

“I have seen, from close up, low-income housing models that work well for the people who live in them, and models that do not work as well,” he wrote. “In the conversations regarding the development on Northampton Road, I sought an open conversation in the planning phase, but when it became clear that the developer was not open to a conversation about the details of the model they were using, and given some of my concerns, I agreed to sign the letter asking the Town Council not to approve the specific proposal.”

Despite his opposition to the project, he wrote, he became “committed to the success of the project” after the Town Council approved its development. He took issue with his neighbors’ choice to “use

certain statistics” in the joint letter but noted that “the letter sought to address the input of more than 50 individuals, so it falls short for any of us.”

At the time that the letter was being written and signed, he added, he was in El Paso, Texas trying to help his sister, who is disabled, out of her current lease so she could move near their parents. “I did not have the time or energy in that context to get involved in the details of the letter,” Lopez wrote.

“I figured that the inclusion of the text stating that the signers were not uniform in our views and that our main goal was to get the project right were sufficient to signal heterogeneity in perspective.”

In a separate interview with The Student, Lopez referred to a low-income housing complex in his neighborhood during his childhood that through its design isolated its residents and led to violence and drug dealing. Other people in his neighborhood who also lived in low-income housing didn’t experience the same kind of unhappiness, he said. After many years, the complex was declared a disaster. When it was rebuilt about a decade ago, its residents no longer felt unsafe or unsupported.

Lopez pointed to this example as the reason he signed the joint letter, noting that his opposition was to the proposal and not the creation of the unit itself. The housing unit on Northampton Road will offer single-room occupancy residencies, which Lopez said will be a “tower of isolation.”

“What people were wondering was why not make it mixed [housing]? Why not make it have on-site support?” Lopez said, adding that he was invested in incorporating permeability and community-building into the conceptualization of the project. “There were no channels for people to feel integrated into the neighborhood … And to not offer robust support to help residents succeed requires a conversation.” He did not agree with the joint letter’s use of the call data, however, which cited calls to the police at Valley CDC’s Northampton low-income housing sites evi-

Continued on page 4

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

News 4

AAS Creates New Senator Position For Transfer Students Sophie Caldwell ’23 Staff Writer The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) unanimously voted to add a seat for a transfer student senator on Nov. 17. In an email to all students on Nov. 21, AAS released the amended constitution, which now provides for a 33rd senator.

Under the new amendment, the transfer senator will be elected by a vote of transfer students across class years. Transfer students will vote only for the transfer senator seat, rather than for their designated graduation year. However, they will still be allowed to run for one of their class year’s seats. There are currently 55 transfer students across all class years.

Eleven transfer students attended the AAS meeting at which the amendment was passed. All spoke in favor of the amendment, citing unique circumstances they have faced due to their transfer status.

Anthony Phillips ’20, who transferred to Amherst from community college in 2017, gave a speech

at the meeting about the unique experience of transfer students on campus.

Running for senate under the current configuration poses a plethora of difficulties for transfer students. For one, transfer students’ class year remains ambiguous. While transfer students are assigned a graduation year by the college, they are not considered a part of a class because classes are defined by a four-year Amherst career. They face a set of issues separate from those debated by their current AAS senators.

“I want students to understand that there are different kinds of life experiences on campus,” Phillips said.

Since transfer students do not have as much time as traditional students to get to know their classmates, they are at a disadvantage when trying to run for a senate seat with their designated graduation year.

Phillips has supported the amendment since it was proposed by senator James Hulsizer ’23, who attended another post-second-

ary institution before Amherst.

Phillips met with a group of other transfer students to discuss the proposed amendment, and they collectively agreed that they would prefer to be represented in AAS by a transfer senator.

Ben Gilsdorf ’21, the AAS Elections Committee chair, submitted the proposal to the senate. Gilsdorf presented the idea of adding a transfer student seat last year but it did not pass.

This year, Gilsdorf partnered with Hulsizer to work on the proposal. Gilsdorf brought up the transfer student seat in a meeting earlier this year and faced questions about how the position would work, he said. Gilsdorf added that he and Hulsizer attempted to address most of those questions and concerns in their proposal.

“We wanted to give [transfer students] a very deliberate platform that they can argue from about the issues that affect them,” Gilsdorf said.

Due to the prior lack of transfer student representation on AAS, actions taken to benefit the entire

college community may not have actually taken transfer students into consideration, Gilsdorf noted.

“Not having that perspective there means that we have left transfer students out of all the decision-making that the AAS has done,” Gilsdorf said. “Having that seat will make AAS more inclusive of all students.”

Phillips hopes that the transfer senator can increase the visibility of transfer students on campus.

The larger student body doesn’t always realize that older transfer students are often mistaken for professors or custodial staff, or that on-campus opportunities, earmarked for particular class years, exclude transfer students, Phillips said.

Given that the majority of Amherst students range in age from 18 to 22, some transfer students are left wondering where they fit into the community.

Transfer students also face administrative challenges that most traditional students never have to consider. Due to their class year, transfer students’ eligibility for re-

sources on campus is at times dubious; Phillips nearly missed out on the Mellon Mays fellowship — a program aimed at helping students of color pursue careers in academia — because he technically qualified as a junior and didn’t realize it.

Some transfer students also have to apply for an extra semester in order to finish their theses or other projects, which isn’t always granted.

Transfer students face a difficult choice when deciding whether to study abroad, because their time on campus is already shorter than most.

“I didn’t realize that a lot of my extra anxieties were also contingent upon my transfer identity,” Phillips said. “All my time was really condensed here, and I had to figure things out really quickly.

It’s still intense.” He was ultimately granted an extra semester at Amherst, allowing him to study abroad in Spain.

“I am one of the lucky few,” he said. Phillips plans to run for the transfer senator seat when the election is announced.

Dean Responds to Signature on Affordable Housing Letter Continued from page 3 ton low-income housing sites evidence the Amherst project would be poorly managed.

The residents wanted to vote down the proposal of that version of the model, Lopez said, not the project itself. After the town voted to fund it, “everyone moved on and committed to making it a success.”

The ongoing backlash from the college community is not his concern, however.

“The fallout of this misunderstanding — I wouldn’t want this to make the students I’m committed to serving hesitate to reach out for support,” he said. He has been reaching out to individual students to meet and talk in person about the controversy.

Moving Forward

After the The Student’s initial article was published, Brewer con-

tacted Lopez and engaged in conversation about his signature on the letter. They reached a mutual understanding, she said.

“I still don’t really agree with his methods, … but the one thing that we both agreed on very strongly was that, especially in a low-income community, it can be hard for students to find champions,” Brewer said. “We’re very good at self-advocacy, and so when someone says they’re going to be an advocate for us, we take that very seriously and we keep them accountable. Our fear was that this would be seen as a betrayal for a lot of students, so they wouldn’t seek out resources in the future. And that’s something that neither of us wanted.”

Whether or not FLI students seek out Lopez doesn’t matter to him or Brewer, she said, “just that they do seek someone out.” She noted that Lopez has received numerous emails from people calling

him a racist and classist, but she disagrees, saying instead that he made a decision with “poor judgment.”

“I think that he should ask for grace, … but I don’t believe that he is deserving of all the hate that’s coming his way,” Brewer said.

She is planning a collaboration with FLI students at UMass Amherst to find ways to support low-income people in the Amherst area.

Professor of History Frank Couvares, one of the faculty members who submitted a letter in support of the project in July, defended his colleagues in an interview with The Student, emphasizing that people can have “honest disagreements about this” and that he didn’t think the opposing professors have been “threatening or insensitive to low-income students.”

Nobody should be demonized, he said, especially when the dia-

logue was “well within ordinary discourse, occasionally elevated in emotion.” Couvares himself maintained his continued support for the project and noted that “we need to see this project built.”

Chair of Classics Rebecca Sinos, who submitted a letter to the Town Council asking if it’s “fair to expect Amherst College groundsmen to deal with needles on the Amherst fields,” declined to comment for the article. Price, however, said she needs to be held accountable for her words.

“When your opinions are attacking someone, that deserves to be talked about,” he said. “I feel like it fell on low-income students to have to defend ourselves when we shouldn’t have had to defend this sort of rhetoric, because it should have been instantaneous from the college and from other people: you get to have opinions on topics but you don’t get to have opinions

against people’s existence.”

Growing up, Knott had long felt that her middle and high school administrators didn’t care about her as a person who was poor and had home life issues. “You don’t really enjoy it but you get used to it,” Knott said. “But it hurts just a little more that I have to get used to it now that I’m here because I really did hope that things would be a lot better on this campus. I don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll eat because I know there’s always going to be food for me, or whether or not the lights will stay on or whether or not I go homeless.”

It’s a bit saddening, she said, to realize she will still have to play the “political game” of making sure she makes a big enough fuss to get her problems solved, but not enough that she has to deal with potential ramifications.

“It’s a systematic problem,” she said with a sigh.

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

News

5

Students Choose to Stay in Chile, Ecuador Amid Protests Continued from page 1 to Director of Global Education Office Janna Behrens. As of Dec. 4, Hong Kong, which has faced mass demonstrations since June, holds a level two travel advisory warning. A level four advisory warning is also issued for Venezuela, Bolivia, North Korea and parts of Mexico at the moment.

“There have been large-scale demonstrations in Santiago and other major cities in Chile,” the Department of State said in a statement on its website.

“Demonstrations can take place with little or no notice. Many protests occur with little regard for public safety, and have resulted in property damage, looting, arson and transportation disruptions. Local authorities have used water cannons and tear gas to disrupt protests.”

“The government-imposed state of emergency was lifted on October 28, 2019,” the statement continued. “The state of emergency included curfews in multiple cities, which were enforced by police and the armed forces.

While the state of emergency was lifted, there continue to be conflicts between protestors and Chilean police in Santiago and other cities in Chile.”

Students living in homestay programs in Chile have faced an upheaval in their academic lives, including early curfews, transportation disruptions and hardships resulting from looting and general disorder.

Transportation is a primary challenge for Dana Kulma ’21, who is studying abroad in Val-

paraiso, Chile.

“The protests [and] police’s response to the protests have affected where I choose to walk in the city. [My friend and I] were walking home from the supermarket one Friday morning and could feel the tear gas still in the air and on the ground from the night before,” Kulma wrote in an email to The Student. “It burned our throats and lips and brought us to tears.”

“My bus stop is at a new focal point that has become more active and violent in the last two weeks,” she added. “There have been two days — two national strikes — where the buses haven’t run at all, so I haven’t left my house on those days.”

Kulma added that her closest train station burned down, preventing her from traveling around the city.

Study abroad programs have resorted to setting curfews to ensure the students in their programs remain safe. “If anything at all happens to anyone in the program, the U.S. study abroad office associated with my program is going to send us home or to another country,” Kulma said. “In the beginning, my curfew was 3 p.m. For the last three weeks, it has been 7 p.m. because that is when protests start to pick up and when transportation becomes less reliable.”

The demonstrations have also impacted students’ academic experiences. After the start of protests in early October, many universities across the country closed their doors. Alyson Plaman ’21, who attended the Uni-

versity of Chile, said she had to find an alternative way of finishing her semester after her university closed.

The college gave Plaman multiple options for how she could spend the remainder of the semester: finding another university in Chile, relocating to Argentina or returning to the U.S. “All options meant that we would no longer be able to finish the classes we had started in the university here,” Plaman said

“

We ... could feel the tear gas still in the air and on the ground from the night before. It burned our throats and lips and brought us to tears.

— Dana Kulma ‘21

”

in an email interview. “For me, the choice wasn’t difficult since I had no desire to leave the country, but it was hard to completely start over with only a couple months left.”

“I am now doing an independent study with a professor from a Chilean university, have two classes exclusively with the other four students from my program and will get my other credits from a combination of

the grades I already had in my classes at the university before the protests began,” Plaman added.

Behrens said that students’ safety is the number one priority in determining how to respond to protests like those in Chile and Ecuador. When deciding what steps to take to ensure student safety, Behrens said she usually defers to the study abroad programs that have personnel on the ground.

“We have trusted providers who have staff … who are able to get the insider’s view of what is happening. We help them strategize to ensure student safety,” she said.

Behrens also mentioned that most study abroad programs have robust network of operations. “They can move students with some — I wouldn’t say ease, but they have other locations where they can have students finish their semester,” she said.

Almost immidiately after the protests began, Behrens reached out to Plaman. “The study abroad office reached out to me as soon as things started getting complicated to check in and make sure that I was safe,” Plaman said. “They wanted to make sure that I was not only considering what was the best option academically but also personally in terms of if I felt safe staying in the country or not.”

Kulma noted that she felt disappointed she had not been contacted by the college but mentioned it may be because she is studying in Valparaiso, which is not at the center of the protests.

She has been in contact with her Spanish advisor, Professor Paul Schroeder Rodríguez, since the outbreak of the demonstrations.

The protests are also affecting students who previously studied abroad in Ecuador and Chile. “My first reaction was that I was worried about my friends and host family in Quito and Guayaquil,” Rainia Chinitz ’20, who studied abroad in Ecuador last spring, wrote in an email interview.

“I saw a lot of WhatsApp stories of the protests or commenting on the protests, and it was hard to tell if they were taken by my friends or just reposted,” she added. “The protests were close to some people I was close with and while they weren’t participating in them, I was worried that some of the unrest or violence would affect them.”

Being in Chile during these protests, however, has been formative for both Kulma and Plaman.

“I truly believe it’s more important that the Chilean authorities hear the demands of the country for dignity and equality than it is for me to be able to take a fun train ride or go out at night. It’s not about me at all,” Kulma said.

“The protests have enriched my independent study … The protests have inspired me, moved me to tears, scared me, excited me,” Kulma added. “It’s been really special to witness the passion and endurance of Chile to fight for justice and dignity while being attacked by police in the process.”

Visiting Scholar Goes Missing, Discovered Day Later in NH Woods Natalie De Rosa ’21 Managing News Editor One day after the family of Mianmian Wang, a scholar visiting the college for the year, reported her missing on Nov. 29, she was located and contacted.

According to a flyer posted in each of the class Facebook

groups, which was initially sourced from another page, Wang is from China and is currently visiting the college in the English department. The flyer’s caption noted that there was no one in her apartment when searched, and listed a phone number and WeChat username to contact with any information. “Her hus-

band back in China is very worried. He has called the police and told the Chinese embassy in New York,” the flyer’s caption wrote.

The flyer has since been deleted in the class Facebook groups, though it remains posted in several UMass Amherst groups. One post on the UMass Free and for Sale page includes an update in-

dicating that Wang was found on Nov. 30. According to the update, Wang was visiting a friend in a treehouse in New Hampshire, where her cell phone had no signal.

“The matter was initially brought to the attention of and investigated by the Amherst Police. ACPD [Amherst College Po-

lice Department], which works closely with the Amherst Police, also assessed the situation and determined that there was never a public safety threat to campus.

The Amherst Police confirmed that the person was located and was safe,” Chief of ACPD John Carter said in a statement to The Student.

Opinion w

Ending an Era A typical Sunday night for many college students looks like a grind. A lot of us can be found in cafes, furiously typing out essays, working through a problem set or furrowing our eyebrows at a confusing reading. But for me, Sunday nights look a little different.

On Sunday nights, I’m checking in with section editors about the status of articles for each section, corresponding with our digital director on the latest updates to the website and communicating with my co-editor-in-chief about priorities for the week.

Through Monday and early Tuesday, section editors and I will add edits to each article, going back to the writer if we need more information and finalizing the story for print. Then, as early as 11 a.m. on Tuesday, section editors trickle into our office and start laying out the stories and images on Adobe InDesign. My co-editor and I will each do a final read on each of the 16 pages we print every week, while section editors brainstorm story ideas and submissions for the next cycle of the paper.

After each page is signed off, section editors upload stories to the website, and at around 1 a.m., we submit the paper to our printing house. Usually, I’m up until 3 a.m. that night, making sure the website is properly loaded and the digital side of things is working as intended.

The process is tedious. I outline it all here because not many people know what goes into producing the paper every week. Like many student organizations on campus, newspaper often feels like a second job. In our case, we put out a final product every week, often breaking important news or covering campus events so that our community of students, faculty, staff and alumni is as up to date as possible on all things Amherst College.

I joined the paper my first week of college, having had a taste of the adrenaline rush of journalism in high school. I still remember my first story, about the college’s efforts to increase environmental sustainability on campus, and how excited I was to see it in a sidebar on the front page.

About a month into working as a staff writer for The Student, I stepped into the position of managing news editor with Isabel Tessier ’19. That’s when the work really began.

At the time, the most-read section of news was the crime log (it’s possible it still is). Isabel — with Emma Swislow ’20 and Natalie De Rosa ’21 joining later — and I wanted to make the newspaper indispensable to this college community. We covered the college’s designation of five tenure

faculty lines to black and Latinx scholars, a response to the 2015 Amherst Uprising movement.

We paid close attention to each campus protest that mobilized the community as President Donald Trump was elected and sworn in. We carefully followed the controversy over abrupt party policy changes and the resulting backlash.

There were strings of weeks — I think the most was five — during which Emma, Natalie and I all had to write stories because we didn’t have enough writers, but we kept with recurring issues on campus: lack of accessibility, first-year orientation leaders’ demands for compensation, counseling needs among the student body, lack of adequate support for faculty of color.

At the end of our junior fall, Emma and I took on the mantle of editors-in-chief. In a stroke of — dare I say — fate, Emma and I had first met at a Northwestern University journalism camp for high school students. Three years later, our friendship created a strong foundation for our work together.

She managed the publishing side of the paper, navigating financial needs and leading the initiative to establish an endowment for The Student. I worked on the digital side, building our website with Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir ’21 and increasing the different kinds of content we put out on social media.

Our yearlong tenure saw the college community undergo a number of controversies, some of which were prompted by The Student’s reporting. It was often tiring but exhilarating to meet with sources, examine datasets, try to confirm information and make sure we got the story right each time.

Our work was rewarded, too. We saw students, faculty and alums respond to our investigations with demands for change and transparency. The Atlantic, Inside Higher Ed and the Boston Globe have all cited our reporting in their stories.

Through my work with The Student, I have been made a better journalist and even more a better person. Every person I spoke with who trusted me enough to share their stories with me — from Bryan Torres ’18E and his important activism for undocumented immigrants to English Professor Marissa Parham who in the middle of our two-hourlong conversation seated me in her car and drove us to pick up her child from school — gave me their invaluable time to help me understand each story in its depth. Meeting with people who faced systemic barriers and

Continued on page 7

THE AMHERST

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Shawna Chen Olivia Gieger Managing News Natalie De Rosa Zach Jonas Ryan Yu Managing Opinion Jae Yun Ham Rebecca Picciotto Managing Arts and Living Seoyeon Kim Managing Sports Connor Haugh Henry Newton Assistant Sports Jack Dove Managing Design Zehra Madhavan Julia Shea S TA F F Publishers Emmy Sohn Mark Nathin Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir

Letters Policy The opinion pages of The Amherst Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community.

The Student will print letters under 450 words in length if they are submitted to The Student offices in the Campus Center or to the paper’s email account (astudent@amherst.edu) by noon on Sunday, after which they will not be accepted.

The editors reserve the right to edit any letters exceeding the 450-word limit or to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

Letters must bear the names of all contributors and a phone number or email address where the author or authors may be reached. Letters and columns may be edited for clarity and Student style.

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The offices of The Amherst Student are located in the basement of Morrow Dormitory, Amherst College. All contents copyright © 2019 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

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The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

Opinion 7

From Shawna Chen ’20, Signing Off Continued from page 6 witnessing their bravery in choosing to trust the institution of journalism, one that has often harmed more than helped, were constant reminders that I must hold myself accountable for every word I write.

As I got to connect more with different students, faculty, alums and staff across the college and campus community, I came to know the intricacies, complexities and contradictions that make up Amherst College, for better or worse.

Journalism can be a disheartening job. Just take a look at the news today. The constant cycle of political maneuvers, violent interpersonal encounters and blatant discrimination is difficult to stomach, let alone seek out as part of one’s job.

It has been the same, to a lesser degree, at Amherst. Many times I felt frustrated or helpless in the midst of forces outside of my control. As I talked with students who described their needs as ignored and professors who recounted instances of racism directed their way, it was hard to reconcile the Amherst College I’d envisioned as an applicant with the Amherst College I now knew.

But it also gave me the opportunity to see and attest to a community that desperately wants to live out the principles it espouses — as one that embraces and enacts the ideals of

inclusion, justice and equity. And that ambivalent discussion on the ruling in gives me hope. the Harvard lawsuit.

I myself found my sense of purpose One night, Emma’s accidental and and belonging in newspaper. Some of unfortunately curt email to one of her the most cherished moments during professors sent the room into laughter my time as editor-in-chief took place on as she panicked (don’t worry, it was later Tuesday nights in the office. all okay). We had the editors known for I am not an easy editor. Many times, talking insanely fast — Dylan, Zehra I have frustrated my section editors Madhavan ’20 and Julia Shea ’21 — as and writers with constant demands. well as across-the-board agreement that I’m sure that there were Tuesday nights Zach Jonas ’22 is the embodiment of a when they wished I was less nitpicky golden retriever. Julia’s Justin Bieberwith corrections esque looks were or less aggressive always captivating, about meeting Connor Haugh’s ’21 The Student gave deadlines. And yet mustache made him me a home with they’ve stuck with me a different person through and through, people who saw me and the one time our consistently giving me at my best and worst constant badgering opportunities to grow caused Henry to slip and still trusted me up about something, in my capacity as an as their leader. editor and leader. we all said, “I knew it!”

Throughout our That one you’ll have long year together, the to figure out when he editorial staff really graduates. became a family. There was the night What has The Student given me? It’s all the Americans were shocked to hear difficult to put exactly into words. The that Canadians (Ryan Yu ’22) pronounce Student gave me the chance to expand their z’s “zed.” There was the time we my journalistic skills and the opportunity watched President Donald Trump’s State to demonstrate the necessity of the press. of the Union address together and Ryan, But even more so, The Student gave me Jae Yun Ham ’22 and Henry Newton ’21 a home with people who saw me at my got into a heated political debate. There best and worst and still trusted me as was the Chinese food I ate with Natalie their leader. It will be strange to not have as we worked to write up Justice Ruth it sitting at the back of my mind every Bader Ginsburg’s visit to campus, and day next semester. there was the Asian-American editors’ In the last year, concerned with my

“

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work-life balance, my academic and thesis advisor has gently prodded me — more than once — “When will you be finished with newspaper?” Now, it’s my last issue, and I don’t know what to say.

To each and every writer, social media manager, publisher, editor and delivery person that has put time into The Student, thank you. To my editorial staff, I couldn’t have done it without you. To Natalie and Olivia Gieger ’21, incoming editors-in-chief, I believe in you completely and know you’ll carry this paper with your whole heart. To my own editors-in-chief — Isabel, Jingwen Zhang ’18 and Lauren Tuiskula ’17 — thank you for giving me model examples of what it looks like to lead a newspaper.

To my mentors Scott Wilson ’88 and Brian Fung, I can’t thank you enough for walking me through all the thorny ethical questions I encountered. To my sources who risked possible repercussions to give me critical information, thank you for your courage. To the college community, thank you for opening up to me and trusting me again and again.

And to Emma, my partner-injournalism, thank you for having my back, for sticking by my side when I was really going through it. You are the salt to my pepper, and I am infinitely grateful for your faith in me. Congratulations, we did it.

—Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief

Faculty and the Affordable Housing Project Elizabeth Aries and Allen Hart Professor in Social Sciences and Professor of Psychology/Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Officer Many students are extremely upset about the views expressed by some professors about the likely occupants of the affordable housing project at 132 Northampton Rd., as first reported in The Student on Nov. 13.

The linked letters submitted to the Town Council represent the voices of a small number of

faculty members who, except for one, opposed the affordable housing project. These voices were upsetting and harmful to low-income students’ sense of belonging and respect in our campus community.

Not surprisingly, many low-income students have felt demeaned by the assumptions made about the occupants, people with whom they identify.

Regardless of the intentions of the signatories, students have taken these assumptions personally as an indication of how they

might also be viewed by the faculty of this college. It was easy for them to quickly conclude that they, too, may be seen as “other,” as “them” and not as “us.”

When asked by our class, “What do other faculty think?” we were embarrassed to admit that outside of faculty meetings, there are no structures in place for faculty to regularly have important conversations about issues that we as a community face, and so we could only speculate.

The full faculty has not met

since this story came out and is unlikely to meet before the semester ends, but we have spoken informally with many members of the faculty who want students to know that the views expressed in letters to the Town Council are not representative of their views.

If the college is committed to ensuring that every student here feels included, then clearly we have much more work to do.

Individually, we must think more deeply about the beliefs we may unwittingly carry and how those beliefs may be harming others.

Even if the “controversy” over the housing project “blows over” there has been harm done that needs repair.

Among the many things that this situation has revealed about the community is that students are longing for and need to hear the voices of more faculty.

We need to create opportunities for dialogue among and between students and faculty before the semester ends. We hope that other faculty members will add their voices to the conversation.

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

Opinion 8

Dear Faculty: The Importance of Content Notices Charlotte Blackman ’20 Contributing Writer Dear faculty of Amherst, Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. With constant encouragement from my professors to pursue even the most complicated of questions, I am writing with a proposal regarding the engagement of potentially traumatic material in courses. Traumatic material comes up often in courses, whether it’s discussion of oppressive systems or gruesome depictions of violence (often the two intersect).

For the purpose of this letter, I will discuss sexual violence specifically as an example for my reasoning. I choose to use this issue as a case study after engaging with it in my three years working in the Women’s and Gender Center. But the points I make are easily applicable to material that engages with other forms of trauma. The specific topic of sexual violence is simply a starting point. I urge you to consider applying this approach to any material that may engage forms of trauma from which your students are healing (bullying, suicide, racial violence and police brutality, homophobia, gendered violence, etc.).

For the issue of sexual violence, for example, my proposal is twofold: 1) I am proposing that professors issue content notices on their syllabi for all required class materials that reference sexual violence and 2) if more than 50 percent of the required class materials reference sexual violence, a content notice is put in the course description available during pre-registration.

I recognize that this proposal is controversial given the contentious debate in the last five years around content notices on college campuses (most of this debate has employed the politically charged phrase “trigger warning”). I also recognize that this issue is complex, and my proposal is one of many possible ways to deal with teaching traumatic material. To clarify why I think this idea is important, I will respond to four commonly raised questions and concerns about con-

tent notices.

A content notice, in the context that I am proposing, might look like this: “This material contains content pertaining to sexual violence.” This is just an example; a content notice is important because it communicates the presence of sensitive material, not because of its exact language.

In the moment, issuing a content notice allows survivors of trauma to prepare for a potential trigger of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is not a matter of “being too sensitive” — trauma specialists and psychologists alike have provided scientific support for the existence of triggers or external stimuli that provoke the sympathetic nervous system and activate what is often referred to as a fight-or-flight response.

The fields of psychology and social work have also produced extensive studies detailing strategies PTSD patients can use to respond to triggers. This takes time and energy: it can mean practicing deep breathing in the moment or stepping out of the room. Alternatively, it can mean going to a friend’s room after class to vent, spending the afternoon reading a book or taking a nap instead of studying.

Without responding appropriately to a trigger, the body cannot return to normalcy, and the fight-or-flight response becomes prolonged. For this reason, issuing a content notice would allow survivors to anticipate the time and energy this process takes.

There are two possibilities of how students will be impacted by content notices: students will either be unaffected by the presence or absence of content notices, or they will make use of them and rely on them to engage in class.

Let’s consider the first group, who would be able to think critically about the material either way. Amherst prides itself on its commitment to both academic excellence and academic honesty. It would be unlikely for an Amherst student to use a content notice as an excuse not to finish their homework. And if some students do, I am confident those students would

find another excuse to slack off even without content notices.

Now let’s consider the second group, those who would be grateful for the presence of a content notice. Without that notice, they may be caught off guard and, as a result of their body’s response to a perceived danger, unable to really learn from the material. With the notice, they could be more prepared to use a coping strategy to remain calm while engaging with the course material, or they may choose to skip the assignment altogether. Even if they choose not to engage at all, I argue that they aren’t missing out on anything. Learning cannot take place when we are absorbed by a physiological response to danger. In the same vein, if a student would have such a response to a majority of the course material, they may preemptively decide that the course is not right for them.

What’s more, a PTSD response to a trigger can be long-lasting — if an assignment prompts a PTSD response, completing that assignment may impact not only the student’s experience in the class, but also possibly the remainder of that student’s classes for the rest of the morning, day or week.

Lastly, to use the issue of sexual violence as a case study, content notices are popular among students. A recent poll put out by Amherst College students asked 135 students to agree or disagree with the following statement: “I, or somebody I know, would be positively impacted if this were a policy: professors state on the syllabus which required readings or videos will reference sexual violence.”

104 students agreed. The demand for content notices is real, and for good reason.

Healing from trauma is no easy feat — PTSD can be all-consuming. Let’s look at the healing process from sexual violence on campus as an example: some survivors have undergone therapy, trial and error with medication, changing dorms, switching classes, Title IX adjudication processes and criminal investigations. Survivors spend hours, days, weeks and months trying to make sense of

what happened to us and then trying to explain that to those in our lives. We have spent time arguing about why we should be believed, why other survivors should be believed and why what happened to us was wrong.

Moreover, attending Amherst College — or any college — after being sexually assaulted is very difficult. Each dining hall swipe, registered course and selected room is a gamble of a potential encounter with an assailant. This constant fear can be draining. And this college’s small size makes it even trickier.

Many of us have had classes not only with our rapists but also with people who have raped our friends.

Sexual assault is rampant on college campuses. Survivors are your students, your advisees, people whom you are proud of and have mentored. The sad truth is that the majority of rapes go unreported, and as a consequence, the presence of rapists is all-pervasive in campus life.

This is neither unique to nor the fault of the college, as we have seen throughout history in all pockets of our society. The college, however, is not exempt from addressing this issue, especially since the size of the student body can exacerbate the problem. Needless to say, survivors are never — in any sense of the word — coddled in their experiences at Amherst College.

The most common argument against content notices claims that they inhibit free speech. Let me be clear: I am not asking for professors to stop teaching about traumatic material. Returning to our case study, to learn about the world without regard to sexual violence would be an incomplete story. As a historian, feminist and strong believer in the liberal arts, I am commited to teaching and learning the full story (to the fullest extent that it is possible). In the same way a syllabus lists the required readings and assessments for a course, a content notice simply provides more information, enabling students to make more informed choices.

In this way, content notices are in keeping with the philosophy of

an open curriculum. On the Amherst College website, the section on the open curriculum reads, “Our curriculum offers flexibility and independence … Students take full responsibility for their intellectual growth, in the same way they will take responsibility for important choices later in life.”

The open curriculum allows students to assess their own interest and academic limits, and tailor their intellectual growth according to their own needs and abilities. It would make sense, then, that the University of Chicago, known for its core curriculum, has led the movement against content notices in recent years while Brown University has come out in support.

The feeling of joy that comes from free and open learning is one of the best gifts Amherst College gives its students. It allows us to pursue a passion and stretch our perspectives. Without content notices, this is impossible for survivors.

For these reasons, I urge you to put this policy into action in your courses, not just for sexual violence, but for any potentially traumatic material. I recognize this is a tall order, and a subjective one as well. The question of what material to flag is really complicated, as so much of what we study is traumatic. The care and compassion you demonstrate for students is evident in your classrooms, meetings, office hours and invitations to your homes for meals. I ask that you extend that compassion specifically to your students who are survivors of trauma by making reasonable and appropriate decisions about what material would require a content notice and considering what healing processes your students may be going through, not just from sexual violence but other forms of violence and institutional oppression as well.

Thank you for your consideration. If you have questions, I would be happy to talk with you in person. Otherwise, if you are curious about this issue, I encourage you to contact the Center for Teaching and Learning, which has more resources on how professors can grapple with this issue.

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

Opinion 9

Seeing Double: A Legitimate Political Party This week’s Seeing Double is a point/counterpoint addressing the following question: is the Republican party legitimate? Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 and Thomas Brodey ’22, our co-columnists, each make their case for opposing positions on the issue.

The GOP: Increasingly Illegitimate Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 Columnist When Harvard Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt searched through history to distinguish failed democracies from those like the United States, they found a crucial factor that prevented backsliding: strong political norms. Their book, “How Democracies Die,” starts with the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, the United States’ first political parties. In 1798, the Federalists passed the Sedition Act to target opposition newspapers and activists. According to the professors, each side of the early political divide “aimed for permanent victory — to put the other party out of business permanently.”

At that point, the newly formed United States hadn’t yet developed the political norms that would allow for effective democracy.

Since then, the U.S. has developed strong guardrails against potential violations of our norms. For example, in 1937, when President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to pack the Supreme Court with loyalists in order to secure judicial support for his New Deal legislation, bipartisan opposition in Congress stopped his plan. Importantly, FDR’s scheme wasn’t unconstitutional; the Constitution doesn’t specify the court’s size. Instead, when Democrats stood up against their party leader and refused to resize the court, they were defending political norms rather than merely following the letter of the Constitution.

Unfortunately, the modern Republican party hasn’t managed to do the same. After a landslide Democratic victory in 2018, the lame-duck Republican legislature in Wisconsin passed laws “aimed at undermining Democrats,” according to The New York Times.

The laws limited early voting, moved important appointments from the incoming Democratic governor to the Republican legislature, blocked the governor from withdrawing from lawsuits against federal legislation and otherwise disempowered the new administration. The Republican who lost the election signed the bills some days later. When asked about the changes, the Republican Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly said, “We are going to stand like bedrock to guarantee that Wisconsin does not go back” — meaning back to Democratic control, which was affirmed in a free and fair election.

The Wisconsin Republicans followed

the example of North Carolina Republicans “who took full control of the executive and legislative branches [in 2012] for the first time in more than a century, have audaciously remade rules and flouted norms,” according to the The New York Times.

That article was written in 2016, when the nonpartisan Electoral Integrity Project found North Carolina’s election integrity score to be on par with flawed pseudo-democracies such as Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone.

Most recently, in a session held on the anniversary of 9/11, North Carolina Republicans rammed through a budget bill in a surprise vote only made possible because Democrats were absent honoring our nation’s fallen.

Federal Republicans also use destructive tactics. When Senator Mitch McConnell refused to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama’s last Supreme Court nominee, he effectively packed the court for over a year. In the current Congress, he’s refused to hold debates on bills passed by the House of Representatves, including bipartisan bills instituting popular background checks on gun purchases and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. He’s bragged about being a legislative “Grim Reaper.” All of McConnell’s tricks are arguably constitutional, but they chip away at the norms that maintain our democracy.

I don’t contend that Republicans everywhere engage in such ruinous behavior: in my home state of Minnesota, both parties respect the norms guiding our democracy.

Still, there’s a trend, being workshopped in the states and adopted nationally, of Republicans abusing our democracy.

Instead of vying for votes in elections, Republicans are distorting our electoral and legislative systems to cling to power. They’re demolishing the democratic process, ignoring their opponents’ right to exist and aiming for, in the words of Levitsky and Ziblatt, “permanent victory.” These norm-breaking tactics aren’t the actions of a legitimate political party. Legitimate parties are empowered by the voice of the people, not sick tricks, gaslighting and illegal campaign tactics.

Over and over, Republican politicians have proven that they’re no longer interested in being a political party. Instead, they want to be an authoritarian oligarchy, content to watch democracy crumble under the weight of their rule.

The GOP: Still Legitimate Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist The problems pointed out by my fellow columnist (and roomate) are personal. I live in North Carolina, one of the most gerrymandered states in the country, so I’ve seen the damage caused by gerrymandering and voter suppression.

I agree that these methods and other ways of gaining electoral advantages are immoral. Yet some immoral action is not enough to strip away a party’s legitimacy. Deeming a party illegitimate suggests that the said party’s actions are so out of line as to be incompatible not just with our morality, but with our society.

Though the tactics used by the Republicans may be wrong, they are only a continuation of a long-enduring American tradition, followed by all major political parties in our history. The Lincoln administration used nepotism, political machines and bribery to achieve its goals. For 100 years after the Civil War, the Democratic party relied on voter suppression to maintain electoral control over the South.

Today, Democrats benefit from gerrymandering in states like Connecticut, Nevada and Maryland, all of which elect far higher proportions of Democrats than their statewide vote totals, according to a study by political news outlet FiveThirtyEight. Some Democrats even hope for a permanent victory against their rivals. In a recent book, leading Democratic pollster and strategist Stan Greenberg wrote triumphantly that recent Democratic efforts will cause “movement toward a new progressive era in which Democrats are hegemonic.”

If this debate were about the morality of the Republican party’s actions, all these examples would be irrelevant whataboutism. But since we’re talking about the Republican party’s right to exist in our political system, it’s worthwhile to examine the actual nature of that system.

The United State’s political order is flawed, but it has shown ability to endure despite immoral behavior. Placing the blame on a specific party is unfair and diverts energy away from solving issues holistically. Instead, we end up punishing

some perpetrators while letting others go free.

In a democratic system, legitimacy is conferred by public support and consent of the governed. The reason Republicans in North Carolina were able to implement gerrymandering was because a clear majority of North Carolinians voted for Republicans in 2010, thus filling legislative committees with Republicans.

That doesn’t justify the actions of the party, but it does mean that the party itself is linked to the will of a majority of North Carolinians.

Today, a sizable portion of America remains supportive of the Republican party because they feel it best represents their interests and democratic ideals. To say that the Republicans are illegimitate is to ignore the millions who support them through democracy’s strongest measure of legitimacy: the ballot box.

One might say that legitimacy has nothing to do with popular support, but that’s also incorrect. Most of FDR’s New Deal was probably unconstitutional at the time, but massive public support allowed him to push ahead and reinterpret the Constitution. In democracy, public opinion has the power to elect politicians, create laws and amend the Constitution. It seems only natural that public support would also have the power to confer legitimacy.

Gerrymandering, voter suppression and other political practices should be stopped, but the way to do that isn’t by making some universal and unilateral judgement about the Republican party’s legitimacy. The problem should be solved by using our democratic systems. Circumvent our institutions by invoking the idea of a party’s illegitimacy serves only to delegitimize our entire political system, and ignores both history and public opinion. What’s more, delegitimizing the other party comes dangerously close to endorsing a shift to a one-party system, a concept incompatible with democracy.

Only dictatorships and autocracies allow individuals and small groups to declare popular parties illegitimate. In the United States and other democratic nations, legitimacy rests on the will of the many rather than the feelings of the few.

Arts&Living

“The Mandalorian” Delivers Impressive Visuals and Cast

Photo courtesy of DR COMMODORE

The television series exclusive to Disney+ is the newest addition to the “Star Wars” franchise; the show ultimately exceeded fans’ high expectations with its freshness and complex exploration of morality, Alex Brandfonbrener ’23 writes.

Alex Brandfonbrener ’23 Staff Writer “The Mandalorian” has a lot to prove. It is the first “Star Wars” adaptation to be a live action TV show, as well as Disney’s first new “Star Wars” content exclusive to Disney+, the recently-launched streaming service. Ultimately, “The Mandalorian” holds up to fans’ expectations, redefining the beloved franchise in exciting ways while also setting a high standard for a new wave of high budget shows that are exclusive to streaming platforms like Disney+.

It is clear at first glance that “The Mandalorian” returns to the familiar world of “Star Wars” while also being something entirely new. The show is visually stunning. Set between “The Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens,” a time period previously unexplored onscreen, the show details the nitty-gritty corners and expansive vistas of

a lawless world. Partially because of nostalgia (but not entirely), every moment feels immersive but also exploratory. None of the locations nor characters have appeared in any of the previous movies, save for certain evocative images: the titular Mandalorian warrior’s mask and a little spoiler from the end of the first episode (if you don’t know about it, good job staying off the internet). It’s all entirely new but entirely familiar.

While the show’s huge, movie-sized budget is readily apparent, it’s also clear that “The Mandalorian” is a TV show, not a movie. Nothing feels overly extravagant or breathtaking.

There are also no space fights (as of yet), which are a staple in the franchise. However, I found that this sense of modesty and restriction works well to ground the show in reality, sticking with the limited perspectives of the characters.

The main character of “The

Mandalorian” highlights the greatest differences between the show and the “Star Wars” franchise. The show follows a famed Mandalorian warrior called Mando (Pedro Pascal) who works as an unequaled bounty hunter. His unquestioning and occasionally graphic fighting style — he beheads a goon with an automatic door in the first episode — puts the clean-cut, aesthetically pleasing fights in the movies into perspective. Mando gets thrown around, beaten up, shot, chewed up, but he still manages to come out on top. While admittedly these scenes are still a little too clean and bloodless to register as reality, they feel refreshing from what “Star Wars” has trained us to expect.

The violence of “The Mandalorian” is juxtaposed with Mando’s internal struggle with morality and honor, a conflict that is both compelling yet underdeveloped. In the third episode, he is forced to choose between saving

an innocent life and collecting all of the Beskar Steel needed to complete his Mandalorian suit of armor.

Yet this choice feels pointless, as he is able to achieve both and escape unharmed. Additionally, this dilemma does not force Mando to question the secret order of Mandalorians who raised him after his parents’ death.

Rather than making him reject his Mandalorian code, the events lead him to reject his role as a bounty hunter; it isn’t a challenging decision. Hopefully, Mando’s upbringing will be explored further in the remaining half of the series.

I found that the first two episodes (before he made this choice) were the most interesting, examining a grey morality that is rare on most TV shows today. At the opening of the series, a prisoner appeals to Mando’s human qualities, trying to get to know the mysterious warrior, an attempt that we as the audience

can relate to.

Without sharing too many spoilers, the prisoner is unpleasantly disappointed. Just like the fresh violence of the show, this plot point felt risky and exciting. The tension between honor and violence dissipates after the choice, however. Mando’s choices to kill are agreeable, for the most part, with innocent lives on the line (again, no spoilers).

Another source of the uniqueness of “The Mandalorian” is its cast. Mando is pretty much the only recurring character, with his face and entire body obscured. He only communicating through a few curt lines here and there. The show works around this lack of expression and dialogue in creative ways, pushing the camera to make connections that facial expressions cannot.

The entire cast of guest characters who make appearances are worth noting, like forthright veteran-turned-mercenary Care Dune (Gina Carano) and the absurdly pragmatic bounty hunter droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi).

The charismatic cast plays off of Mando’s silence in unique ways.

It’s also refreshing that none are guaranteed to appear in more than one episode. As in life, they come and go but still leave an impact.

“The Mandalorian” puts Disney+ into a strong leading position compared to other new streaming services. The visuals are impressive, the writing is strong and the characters are nuanced and interesting. Yet, I find that adherence to convention holds back the show, especially given that “The Mandalorian” shines when doing the opposite.

Over the course of the remaining four episodes (which will be released weekly through December), we can hope that the show develops its originality and complexity, pushing its main character to question his preconceptions about morality.

Arts & Living 11

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

Studying Care Among HIV-Positive Black Caribbean Women

On Nov. 12, Jallicia Jolly presented her work on the politics of care among HIV-positive black Caribbean women.

Carolyn McCusker ’21 Contributing Writer Jallicia Jolly, a Consortium for Faculty diversity pre-doctoral fellow and visiting instructor of American studies and black studies at the college, presented her dissertation work at Frost Library’s Center for Humanistic Inquiry last month on Nov. 12.

Her presentation was titled according to three acts: “How We Sex,” “How We Die” and “How We Memorialize.” Large questions with broad and urgent implications emerged on the horizon with Jolly’s research. The full title of her dissertation is “Ill Erotics: The Politics of Care and Self-Making Among HIV-Positive Black Caribbean Women.”

“I enjoy exploring the dimensions of life, politics and survival in different cultural contexts,” she said when she spoke to me. “That’s what brought me to ethnography and this work.”

Jolly’s work explores the lives of HIV-positive black women in Jamaica as they navigate the contradictory relationships between their communities, health institutions, the state, global development agencies and the everyday politics of their lives. While researching, Jolly spent 16 months doing fieldwork in Jamaica, 10 of which were uninterrupted. She researched through various mediums — ethnographies, oral histories, cultural artifacts, political cartoons and demographic surveys. Jolly’s work

seems to abide around anecdotes of playful and provocative resistance to dichotomies, creation of space and self and lively care in communities of people living with illness that open up possibilities for the women within them.

Jolly was born in Rae Town in Kingston, Jamaica and grew up in a predominantly African American and Caribbean community in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where she attended a mainly Latinx and black high school.

This background served as her introduction to the theories and politics she studies today. As a high school student, Jolly began organizing for a group called Project Reach Youth, which trained people in marginalized communities on how to tell their own stories and become peer advocates.

At the time, HIV was among the leading causes of death for women ages 24-35. “I was exposed to the conversations that often framed certain populations, particularly women of color and especially black and immigrant groups, as the ‘carriers of diseases’ and as ‘links between HIV and the general population,” Jolly said.

Today, this formative experience informs Jolly’s approach to scholarship: “The theory-making occurs in activist circles, on the ground, in feminist alliances, in quotidian life,” Jolly said. “That is what shapes what I theorize, what I write and what is evolving from my approach to knowledge production. [Activism and academia have] a very productive and imagi-

native relationship that works in tandem and in tension.”

Working and learning in academic spaces like the ones at the college has been rewarding for Jolly. “Academia offers a space to connect with a vibrant community of thinkers, of actors, of writers, who are really invested in asking the hard questions, in speaking the unspeakable and writing about the things we grapple with in life,” she said. Still, academia and higher education are notorious for their politics of who does and does not “belong” within their spaces. Jolly says her status as a first-generation college student was both a rich asset and a challenge. Many of the skills she needed in order to navigate the institutional space — such as how to find community and how to build relationships with professors and administrators — she often had to figure out for herself. Fortunately, she was aided by mentors, staff and professors at Williams College and the University of Michigan.

“My own experiences and my conversations with other first-gen students have made clear that getting to the space is one thing, but then it’s also figuring out what to do once you’re already there,” Jolly said. How do you find community? What do you make of an enormous wealth of resources? How do you connect with professors who want to see you succeed? How do you care for yourself within landscapes that “are not often used to your multiple overlapping identities”? Retention and equity remain important concerns for many first-gen and underrepresented students and faculty.

“Often, a lot of that labor is on the people who enter the space to develop that,” said Jolly. “For me, it was helpful to find the people, the knowledge, the resources and the unlikely spaces.” She emphasized that it was important for her to identify and connect with other first-gen students: “I learned how to build those relationships in the crevices of this sort of institution to figure out how to navigate and thrive within and beyond it.” And another practice that was helpful for Jolly: “telling your experience in spaces where that sharing and receiving — that exchange — is really embraced and encouraged.”

“Ill Erotics” takes interest in spaces created by and for HIV-positive Black Caribbean women to nurture this exchange of knowledge-sharing, experiences and care. Jolly studies a particular organization, EVE for Life, which uses as its key strategy the “Mentor Mom Initiative” — a model of HIV care that pairs newly diagnosed HIV-positive women with experienced mentors who have lived with the diagnosis for a longer time.

EVE for Life also hosts educational sessions in HIV prevalence cities.

Jolly describes the framework deployed by EVE for Life as a diasporic model; the particular program in Jamaica was adapted from versions in different parts of Africa, particularly South Africa and Uganda. This model is able to attend to “care that is unique because it takes into account black womens’ experiences, their relationships with each other, their intergenerational networks of knowledge-sharing and how all of those can be used as a resource and an asset to address the pandemic,” Jolly said.

The strength of this particular model is that it avoids the “one-size-fits-all” approach to disease we often see elsewhere, which can fail to account for cultural specificities and structural conditions in different spaces.

People who would traditionally be called “respondents” or “participants” in a research study, Jolly calls “interlocutors” instead: “Just like one would cite Freud or Patricia Hill Collins,” says Jolly, “they [the women participating in her research] are also theorists in their own right because they’re theorizing about their lives — about power, about intimacy, about belonging and about how marginalization is wrought on living breathing bodies. So I call them my interlocutors.”

Jolly says the most significant relationships throughout her research process were the ones she developed with the HIV-positive young women who participated in her project.

“They taught me how to ask the right questions,” she said. “They meant the most to me because they required that I really ask myself and grapple with, ‘What is the purpose of the research?’ … What they ask me to do, in explicit and non-explicit ways, is to ensure that my findings have real

meaning for how they’re living, even after I leave the field, even after I conclude my dissertation in January.”

Midway through the presentation of her work to an audience last month, Jolly told the story of “Shanna” (a pseudonym), a 20-year-old mother of three and mentee at EVE for Life who had died from “complications related to AIDS” during the course of Jolly’s research in Jamaica,. Witnessing Shanna’s slow death became a part of what Jolly calls her own “ethnographic mourning.” Jolly coined this term as she made sense of her simultaneous roles as an ethnographer, bystander and witness to death.

Jolly said it took time to process and speak to her advisers before she decided to share this moment publicly in writing. “I tried to make sure that the ethical concerns I had about what it meant to document the lives and afterlives of black women living with HIV were reconciled with my desires to tell my ethnographic story and the life of women on a broader platform,” she said.

Jolly was aided in her decision by an article by one of her advisers, Ruth Behar, about how feelings and emotions count as knowledge, as well as later conversations with Behar and her dissertation committee. Ultimately, Jolly decided to write about her ethnographic mourning, as well as the political concerns and ethical stakes it engaged with in her project.

Jolly will defend her dissertation on Jan. 24. She plans to expand this project to incorporate the lives and transnational activism of HIV-positive black women in the U.S. and South Africa, which will support a developing book manuscript and public installation. “I want the project to illuminate how marginalized groups embody inequalities and how they develop purposeful responses to save their own lives,” Jolly said.

“I hope it can inform public health workers on how to develop culturally-informed and youth-centered health interventions that prioritize young women’s psychosocial health and emotional well-being. I hope it can teach researchers how to form scholarly inquiries that pay careful attention to and honor the lives black women lead.”

Arts & Living 12

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

“Frozen 2” Delights with Soundtrack and Compelling Plot

Photo courtesy of Flickr

“Frozen 2” proved to be a hit, with its star-studded cast providing uplifting songs and joyful humor throughout the mostly-convincing storyline.

Manni Spicer Saavedra ’23 Staff Writer Walking into the theater to see a Disney princess movie as an adult takes a certain amount of suspending disbelief. The allure of family films largely comes from watching them with children, as their fascination and excitement transfers onto your own experience, making it bearable despite all of their cheesy, predictable plotlines.

Another charm of these movies, however, is their ability to transport us back to a time when those cheesy, predictable plotlines were genuinely fascinating and exciting to us as well. This is why in order to fully appreciate the experience, one has to suspend the critical lens so ingrained within all of us. Once that is achieved, the magic of these Disney films can be fully understood and appreciated.

“Frozen 2” succeeds in taking you back to your childlike wonder. At the same time, it is a selfaware children’s movie that isn’t shy of subtle adult humour. The

jokes land, the soundtrack is solid and the plot line, well, works.

As the first ever canonical and theater-released sequel to a Disney princess film, “Frozen 2” breaks ground in new cinematic territory, establishing the story of Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) as a franchise within itself.

Although some may laud this decision for allowing these cherished princesses to become capitalistic cash cows for Disney. The film’s success is quite clearly piggybacking off the $1.2 billion revenue of the original — there are enough redeeming qualities to the sequel that warrant its creation.

The movie is both quite similar and different from its predecessor.

Both lack the prototypical Disney villain that defines other princess films, instead focusing on the introspective journey of Elsa as she tries to answer the questions of her past and wrestle with her role as queen.

Olaf (Josh Gad) reassumes the role of the comic relief, but whereas, I found him somewhat

annoying in the original, this time around his humor seems less foolish and more relevant to the story — although he still has his idiotic moments.

Aesthetically, both films are visually stunning. However, the second is perhaps more so due to its dramatic landscapes and the new, post-Moana animation style for depicting water.

As it is the first sequel of its kind, “Frozen 2” didn’t have any material for the writers to begin with. Whereas Walt Disney had been trying to conceptualize a Disney adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen” for decades, the writers of the sequel were given free reign to draft an entirely new story in just a few years.

The main difference between the original and the sequel is that while the first one remained a compact retelling of the material it was based on, the second seemed messy and discombobulated at times, creating problems and resolutions almost out of nowhere.

That being said, although it may not live up to the drama of the original film, with a bit of suspension of disbelief “Frozen 2” still has a compelling storyline.

The other factors of the film certainly make up for the at-times subpar writing.

The highlight of the film is its soundtrack. It’s clear how writers tried (and somewhat failed) to recreate the monumental moment that was “Let it Go” with “Into the Unknown,” with Menzel hitting the exact same high note in both songs.

At times, this copying may seem unwarranted as “Frozen 2” tries a little too hard to match its predecessor. But when the film’s soundtrack becomes its own, the musical performances shine. The unique aspects of this soundtrack, such as its abrupt ‘80s pop ballad, characterize the film at its best — witty, heartwarming and reminiscent of the traditional Disney sound.

With powerhouse Menzel reprising her role as Elsa, there’s no shortage of power ballads that

keep the film driving forward, and the soundtrack is varied enough to entertain the audience for the full two hours.

The songs are consistent in quality and style with other recent Disney films, most notably “Moana,” where very few of the tracks mention romantic interest and instead serve to develop the relevant story.

In a cultural sense, this approach to songwriting is part of a larger effort for Disney to distance itself from its problematic past in the portrayal of the passive princess. The goal is no longer to find a man, but rather for the characters to find themselves.

Overall, the film is an enjoyable experience for everyone, not just children. It’s perfectly uplifting, entertaining and innocent, effectively reminiscent of our childhood.

It may take liberties with the script and piggyback a little too much on the first movie, but “Frozen 2” still effectively continues the Disney legacy with another quality film.

Arts & Living 13

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

“The Crown” Dazzles Audience With New Cast Members Arielle Kirven ’21 Contributing Writer Despite the critically-acclaimed first seasons of the show’s tenure, Netflix’s “The Crown” faces new challenges this year with the introduction of a brand new cast embodying Britain’s most cherished family. Following the award-winning likes of Claire Foy and John Lithgow, the new cast, starring Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham Carter ultimately lives up to expectations despite an intimidating act to follow.

Released on Nov. 17, the third season’s plot follows Queen Elizabeth II’s (Olivia Colman) reign from 1964 to 1977, beginning with the election of new Labour Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson (Jason Watkins) and ending with her Silver Jubilee, commemorating the 25th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

When conceptualizing the series, showrunner Peter Morgan decided to replace the cast every two seasons so as to reflect the true aging of the individuals depicted. In capturing the next decade of the queen’s life, the series maintains its dedication to the format of the previous two seasons — choosing particular moments or vignettes of her life and exposing the nuance not often seen in the public eye.

This sort of consistency is not only tactical but essential in the face of a new cast. The rich storyline engenders the series with a signature and hyper-personal style that differentiates it from other period pieces of the time.

Clattering tea pots, clicking loafers and baking corgis provide the soundtrack to the series while the luxurious costumes and set design easily transport the viewers (from most likely their beds or couches) to the Great Britain of their dreams.

The pomp, circumstance and preceding reputation of the series was clearly not lost on the new cast. The first episode begins with Colman staring longingly into the camera, almost

Photo courtesy of Wired

Actor Olivia Colman (pictured) portrays Queen Elizabeth II in season three of “The Crown,” which also explores the lives of other members of the royal family. acknowledging the prestige and achievement of the past. In this moment, she says, “Age is rarely kind to anyone … Nothing one can do about it. One just has to get on with it.” This statement signaled immediately to the viewers that the old era (or cast) is over, and there is no more time to mourn it. It also set the stage for the rest of the season, indicating that the plot deals heavily with time, aging, sickness, mourning and death — all to be expected of a large multigenerational family.

While I was at first disappointed with Colman’s performance, (probably because I had not yet “got on with it”) her casting demonstrates Morgan’s attention to the delicate dynamics of the family ensemble.

In fact, by choosing Colman, Morgan cast a queen who could more readily share the spotlight with other cast members. Colman leans into this, showing the faults, missteps and near inhumane actions that the queen has taken over her reign. As the queen confides and finds security in the often male private secretaries who brief her on dayto-day political ongoings of the Commonwealth, the women sur-

rounding her find solace in one another.

Empowering each other, the women - both young and old - who historically stood in the shadow of the queen slowly start to make their way out. We learn the stories of Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter), Princess Anne (Erin Doherty) and Princess Alice (Jane Lapotaire) — three women who had previously lingered in the Queen’s orbit with little to no mention.

Carter’s Princess Margaret explores the tensions between the princess and her sister. One daughter is always the more beautiful and extroverted of the two, but the other one was chosen to be queen. The burden of this knowledge causes Margaret to fall behind her less charismatic sister, often becoming victim to drinking, bouts of depression and also divorce.

At the same time, the show reveals the princess’ exuberant, intellectual and charming side when she is tasked with smoothing over United States diplomatic relations in a state dinner with President Lyndon B. Johnson.

She excels in her dealings and is able to retrieve a multi-million bailout for the United Kingdom.

These scenes are juxtaposed with those featuring the queen, quietly sitting in her office reading the press about her ever-popular sister.

The relationship between Princess Alice and Princess Anne also brings positive attention to the dynamic women of the royal family. Princess Alice is Prince Philip’s mother, who lived as a nun in Greece. When political upheaval strikes Greece, she is quickly brought to live in Buckingham Palace, where she spends her last few years of life.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia and other ailments, Alice faced most of her life’s challenges abandoned and isolated. But when brought to Buckingham Palace, Princess Anne strikes up a tender and loving relationship with her grandmother, calling her “Yaya” and doting on her needs.

The performance and interactions between Lapotaire’s Princess Alice and Doherty’s Princess Anne give an informational and critical glimpse into empathy in the palace, something often hidden behind the grandeur of the monarch.

A particular line from the season’s second episode, titled

“Margaretology,” encapsulates the tension between the characters, personalities and family members within the Windsor line. When remarking on Princess Margaret’s rapid rise to fame during her brief United States tour, Prince Philip reminisces that “there have always been the dazzling Windsors and the dull ones … Alongside that dull, dutiful, reliable, heroic strain runs another. The dazzling, the brilliant, the individualistic and the dangerous.”

Throughout the series, Princesses Margaret, Anne and Alice establish themselves as unique and individual standouts amongst the ruckus and rubble of not only the palace but also the entire country. In the midst of near financial ruin, miner strikes, an underground coup and widespread discrimination (in this one decade alone), the beauty of the royal family is maintained by the compassionate forces of these three women.

Ultimately, the third season is about juxtaposition — it is the fight between the dazzling versus the dull, and Colman’s performance provides room for the ensemble cast to stand in the spotlight and shine.

Sports

Men’s Soccer Looks to Finish National Title Quest Jack Dove ’21 Assistant Sports Editor After rolling through the first four rounds of the NCAA DIII men’s soccer tournament, Amherst must conquer one more weekend of soccer to bring home a National Championship trophy.

The Mammoths hosted the third and fourth rounds at Hitchcock Field on Nov. 23 and 24, taking on Rowan University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), respectively.

Rowan vanquished Salve Regina in round one, followed by an incredible double overtime upset of No. 15 Mary Washington to advance to the sweet 16 matchup with Amherst.

The Rowan Profs entered with a 3-0-1 record against top

25 teams. Forward Jay Vandermark, who scored 12 goals in 2019, came in hot after netting the game winner against Mary Washington.

Rowan kept the potent Amherst offense at bay in the first half.

However, the Mammoths capitalized two minutes into the second half when forward Ada Okorogheye ’23 pounced on an errant pass from Rowan goalkeeper James Weinberg.

Okorogheye then danced past the remaining defenders and powered home what would be the game-winning score.

Soon after, Dane Lind ’20 tallied his third goal of the tournament; he redirected a beautiful pass from Ignacio Cubeddu ’23 into the top right corner to double the Amherst lead. Ber-

nie White ’22 and the Mammoth defense kept star forward Vandermark at bay and the Profs’ offense off of the scoreboard, and Amherst walked away with a 2-0 sweet 16 win.

Amherst then faced arguably its strongest opponent of the tournament in the game against RPI the next day.

Twelfth-ranked RPI battled through several tough opponents on the way to the elite eight matchup with Amherst, beating Eastern Nazarene, Middlebury (Amherst’s one loss of the season) and No. 8 Messiah College, which won its 11th national championship in 2017.

Unlike during its previous contest, the Mammoths came out hungry early, netting three goals in 25 minutes. NESCAC Player of The Year German Giammattei

’22 headed home a lofted pass from Okorogheye, marking his 23rd goal of the season. Extending his tournament goal-scoring streak to four games in the 23rd minute, Lind outhustled the RPI defense to a rebound and pounded it home to double the lead.

Just four minutes later, Sebastian Derby ’21 smashed a rocket off of the goalkeeper and into the right corner of the goal, giving the Mammoths a 3-0 lead entering halftime.

While RPI did spoil the clean sheet in the 71st minute with its only goal of the game, Amherst kept a solid grip on possession, earning a 3-1 win and a spot in the DIII final four.

This weekend, the Mammoths travel to Greensboro, North Carolina hoping to finish the fight and bring home a trophy.

On Saturday, Dec. 6 at 5:45 p.m., Amherst takes on Cinderella story Centre College. Entering the tournament unranked, the Colonels boast an 11-4 goal differential in the first four rounds of the tournament and a 20-3-1 overall record.

In the other national semifinal, NESCAC rival No. 5 Tufts took on perennial powerhouse No. 2 Calvin College; the two squads played for the 2018 tournament title, with Tufts coming out on top.

The National Championship game will take place on Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. One can only imagine the intensity and allure of an Amherst vs. Tufts game for the throne of DIII soccer ­— a rematch for Amherst, who fell to the champions Tufts in the tournament last year.

Men’s Soccer’s Kyle Kelly ’21 Talks Style and Title Hopes Kasia Kronsiak ’21 Copy Editor The Amherst Student sat down with Kyle Kelly ’21, a center back on the men’s soccer team on Dec. 2. He double majors in economics and psychology and is from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. The Mammoths are competing in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament this weekend in North Carolina on Dec. 6, playing to make it to the National Championship game on Dec. 7.

Q: Describe what soccer feels like to you?

A: Ever since I was young, I’ve liked playing because when I’m on the field, I feel like I’m free. I just get to enjoy myself and not think about anything else — ­ it helps me clear my head.

Q: How do you feel the season has been going so far?

A: Overall it’s been a really good season. We had an undefeated regular season. We were unlucky

in the NESCAC tournament, but it didn’t mess up our grove. Now, we’re off to North Carolina this Wednesday to compete for a National Championship. Obviously I’m very excited because this is uncharted territory for everyone currently on the team. We know we’re very capable, and we have great team energy. Going into this weekend, I have supreme confidence in our ability to finish what we started.

Q: Can you talk about why the team has made it so far in the NCAA tournament this year?

A: I think it’s due to the team identity ­— we’re changing our style of play from more of a long ball team to using more possession, fast pace and fast build-up. In my time here, it’s been slowly changing, and this is the first time where this change is becoming fully visible. This is a good considering the personnel we have at this time because we have more skill-based players. This way of play is more

sustainable, because whereas before you had to rely on someone getting a header or getting lucky, in a one game elimination tournament — like the NCAA tournament — using this method to win six games in a row is very difficult.

Now we can create our own scoring opportunities. I think this is important because it allows us to control our own destiny. As long as everyone’s working on the same wavelength, we make ourselves a hard team to beat.

Q: What will it mean for the team if you win a National Championship this weekend?

A: If the team wins a National Championship this weekend, I think the whole team, myself included, would feel an overwhelming sense of joy and accomplishment. To accomplish that we’re trying to execute whatever game plan Coach [Justin] Serpone gives us, because in the end that will be what these up-and-coming games come down to. Again, we know

our talent, we know our ability; it’s just whether we’re able to, on the biggest stage, show it. Most Division III soccer programs dream of making the Final Four, so the fact

that we made it is already a huge accomplishment, but considering we’re not like most DIII soccer teams, we’re not satisfied with only that.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Kyle Kelly ’21 has helped lead Amherst to obtain two clean sheets in four games in the NCAA Tournament and 10 clean sheets in total this season.

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

The Roundup: All The Sports You Missed This Week Men’s Hockey The Mammoths had five games over the Thanksgiving recess, which began with a tandem of NESCAC matchups on the opening Saturday and Sunday.

Amherst fell short of triumphing over Trinity and Wesleyan, losing 2-1 and 4-1, respectively.

Christian Powers ’23 scored his debut goal in the loss to Trinity, and Connor Merrill ’23 also chipped in his first gino against Wesleyan.

The team turned its luck around on Tuesday, winning 2-0 against Saint Michaels’ College before a holiday recess.

The following weekend, however, was less fruitful, as Amherst fell to the State University of New York at Geneseo Knights 3-2 Saturday and tied Babson College 1-1 on Sunday.

Squash The women’s squash team completed its second sweep of the season over St. Lawrence University in a matchup on Friday, Nov. 22.

Amherst did not lose a single set across the nine matches, and no opponent scored more than eight points against a Mammoth.

Cross Country The men’s harriers traveled to their sixth consecutive NCAA championship meet, where the unexpected NESCAC silver medalists and fourth-place finishers in the regional qualifiers hoped to

make another surprise run at a title.

Amherst earned 572 points, finishing 23rd out of 32 teams.

Captain Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20 finished 49th, pacing the Mammoths.

Women’s Swim & Dive The women’s swim and dive squad moved to 3-0 on the season, handily defeating Wesleyan 191-100 in a road meet last Monday.

Nina Fitzgerald ’21 was a standout for the Mammoths, placing first in two individual events (the 50-yard breaststroke and the 100yard breaststroke), while also claiming first as part of the winning 200-yard medley relay alongside Grace Tarantola ’23, Marie Fagan ’22 and Natalie Rumpelt, ’20.

The Mammoths return to action against Middlebury on Dec. 7 at their first home meet of the season.

Men’s Swim & Dive The men’s swim and dive team had a successful beginning to its Thanksgiving recess, improving to 3-0 with a domineering 198-84 victory over Wesleyan last Monday.

In the team’s third straight road meet, the Mammoths finished in first place in all but three events on the day, including each of the diving events as well.

The Mammoths will look to continue their undefeated season when they return to action on Saturday, Dec. 7, at the team’s inaugural home meet against Middlebury.

Sports 15

Views from Sparrow’s Nest Matt Sparrow ’21 Columnist Matt Sparrow parses the stories of racism and abuse coming out of the NHL and the Calgary Flames as the sport, traditionally as white as its playing surface, comes to terms with diversity.

Four days after a former NHL player came forward with allegations of racial epithets directed at him, Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters announced his resignation, effective immediately. The free agent winger, Akim Aliu, tweeted on Nov. 25 that Peters “dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music.” Aliu, whose father is Nigerian and mother is Ukranian, played for Peters in the 2009–2010 season as a member of the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. Assistant coach Geoff Ward, who coached the Flames to a victory on Wednesday while Peters was under investigation, will assume the duties of interim head coach.

Reports originally surfaced on Tuesday that Peters had been fired, which Flames general manager Brad Treliving refuted. He confirmed that an investigation was ongoing and that the team “will address it and get back to you people once we have a chance to speak internally.” The same day, a story was published by The Sports Network (TSN) that had Simon Pepin and Peter MacArthur, two teammates of Aliu on the IceHogs, corroborating his accusations.

Aliu also expanded on the events, saying that he was tasked with choosing the music for the morning skate. When Peters arrived, he commented, “I’m sick of hearing this n---- f----- other n------ in the a-- stuff.”

When questioned why it took him so long to come forward with the abuse, Aliu admitted that it was fear of being blackballed. “This isn’t me being bitter. I sat on this a really, really long time. It broke my heart, I think it made my career go downhill before it started. This isn’t to the degree of [former 49ers Quarterback Colin] Kaepernick [who kneeled in protest of the national anthem in response in solidarity with Black Lives Matter] by any means, but if you play the race card, it’s most likely the

end of your career,” Aliu told TSN. Things took another turn on Wednesday as Peters issued a public letter of apology that he sent to Treliving in which he said that the occurrence happened in a “moment of frustration.”

“Although it was an isolated and immediately regrettable incident, I take responsibility for what I said. I meant no disrespect in what I said, and it was not directed at anyone in particular. But, that doesn’t matter; it was hurtful and demeaning. I am truly sorry,” he said.

The next day, Aliu criticized the letter, calling it “misleading, insincere and concerning,” and asserting that he would have nothing more to say until he talked to the NHL in part of their investigation. On Friday, what had felt inevitable for a few days was finally confirmed: Peters had resigned as head coach.

“Effective immediately, Bill Peters is no longer a member of the Calgary Flames organization,” Treliving announced in a press conference. He went on to admit this was the most difficult moment of his career, but that the organization was moving forward. Although it may seem like this is the end of a dark chapter in the NHL, I think it is just the beginning.

This is the second controversy for the NHL this month as in early November, longtime Canadian hockey commentator Don Cherry made xenophobic remarks about immigrants not wearing poppies to honor veterans for Canada’s Remembrance Day. “You people that come here ...

You love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that... These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada; these guys paid the biggest price,” Cherry had said.

It’s far from the first incident.

Black hockey players have also been recent targets of racially-charged animus. Fans shouted “basketball” at former Washington Capitals defen-

seman Devante Smith-Pelly, one of few black players in the league, just two seasons ago. Current New Jersey Devils winger Wayne Simmonds was ready for his shootout attempt when a banana was tossed onto the ice during a 2011 preseason game.

Fellow Devil PK Subban and San Jose Sharks defender Evander Kane have both spoken out about racial comments directed at them on social media.

While these actions have no place in hockey, they were done by fans.

The fact that a head coach spewed racial hate at one of his own players shows how much deeper the problems are in hockey, and how much it needs to change. Aliu plans to meet with the NHL and emphasize that this wasn’t an isolated incident but rather part of a culture that has failed to address racial issues for years.

He is absolutely right. Every time a racial controversy occurs, it goes away in a few days without any major consequences or changes occuring. Hopefully this is the wake-up call the NHL needs. Historically, hockey has been a predominantly white sport. As such, there is plenty of racism bubbling under the surface as diversity becomes part of the game, and Akim Aliu bravely stood up to what probably is a small part of it.

This should be the beginning of concrete changes in how the NHL deals with race. They should encourage more diversity in the sport by following the NBA’s example of expanding the game to parts of the world and communities where hockey isn’t as popular.

They should also ask for input from the current players of color in the league to get a better understanding of how to create a more inclusive environment. Finally, they need to create a culture that allows everyone who has been a target of racism to feel comfortable coming forward and talking about it publicly or else they’re doomed to many more incidents just like this one.

The Amherst Student • December 4, 2019

Sports 16

Women’s Basketball Falters Against Emmanuel

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Hannah Fox ’20 has been averaging 19 points per game on 41 percent shooting. Fox also recorded her 1,000th career point on Ithaca on Nov. 23.

Tyler Marshall ’21 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s basketball team picked up a pair of non-conference victories this past week in LeFrak Gymnasium. The Mammoths had an 11-point victory over Ithaca on Nov. 23 and a 23-point

GAME SCHE DULE FRI Men’s Soccer vs. Centre College, 5 p.m.

NCAA DIII Semifinal Men’s Hockey vs. Middlebury, 7 p.m.

victory two days later against Babson. With these two wins, Amherst is now 3-0 on the season and still holds the number one ranking in the D3hoops.com poll. The highlight of the week came against Ithaca when senior Hannah Fox ’20 joined the 1,000-point club late in the fourth quarter after a made

SAT

free throw. Fox joins Madeline Eck ’20, who reached the milestone last season.

With a pair of top 25 teams battling it out in LeFrak on Saturday afternoon, fans got exactly what was expected. It was a tight game the entire time, mainly due to the stifling defense of each team.

Women’s Hockey @ Elmira College, 3 p.m.

Women’s Swim & Dive vs. Middlebury, 1 p.m.

Men’s Hockey vs. Williams, 3 p.m.

Men’s Swim & Dive vs. Middlebury, 1 p.m.

SUN

Men’s Basketball @ Emerson College, 2 p.m.

Women’s Hockey @ Oswego State, 3 p.m.

Women’s Basketball @ Eastern Connecticut State University, 2 p.m.

Amherst finished the game shooting 33 percent from the field but was able to hold Ithaca to 35 percent. Despite the offensive struggles, Fox turned in an impressive offensive performance with 21 points. Eck and Cam Hendricks ’20 battled foul trouble most of the game, so Amherst needed some other players to step up.

A pair of sophomores were up to the challenge; Courtney Resch ’22 and Gabrielle Zaffiro ’22 both played outstanding basketball.

Resch had a double-double totaling 14 points and 15 rebounds along with four blocks. Zaffiro, who has been inserted into the starting lineup after only playing limited minutes a year ago, had 15 points and three steals to help defeat Ithaca.

Despite Amherst having a poor shooting night, they were still able to come away with an 11-point victory.

The game against Babson was another close contest, as the Amherst defense was able to disrupt Babson’s offense all night. On the offensive end, it was Fox and Eck who led the way for the Mam-

moths. Fans have grown accustomed to seeing this over the past four years, and this game was no different. Fox led the way with 19 points, and Eck chipped in 18. The only other Mammoth in double figures was Zaffiro, who added 10.

By leaning on tenacious defense and the team’s two top scorers, Amherst was able to cruise to a 23-point victory over Babson.

However, this solid streak came to an unexpected end against unranked Emmanuel College. In a tight battle, the Mammoths looked shaky from the beginning against the Saints. At the half, Amherst was down 23-19. Emmanuel pulled away in the fourth quarter, going on an 11-0 run and opening up a double digit lead that they would not surrender. Amherst battled back, but eventually fell, 60-55.

Amherst will be back in action on Saturday, Dec. 7 when they go on the road to take on Eastern Connecticut State. This will be the Mammoths’ last game of the semester and they will not play again until Dec. 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada when they face DeSales University.