Issue 16

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 16

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2022

amherststudent.com

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

UMass To Offer Students Abortion Pills Starting Next Fall Mina Enayati-Uzeta ’25 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Cayla Weiss ’23

Student dance groups at the college felt blindsided by the proposed conversion of one of their rehearsal spaces, the Nicholls Biondi studio, into a satellite gym.

Dancers Upset at Planned Studio Conversion Eleanor Walsh ’25 Assistant News Editor A Feb. 10 email notice to students providing details on a new pilot program to convert the Nicholls Biondi studio space into a satellite fitness center generated intense backlash from student organizations that rely on the space, most notably dance groups on campus. The administration decided to pause the conversion after student dancers wrote an open letter expressing disappointment that the decision was made without consulting students or providing a functional alternative to the space.

The pilot program was first mentioned in an email that President Biddy Martin sent on Feb.

OPINION

8 announcing the college’s new initiatives for improving community well-being. The email stated only that “students who need or prefer greater privacy than the Wolff Fitness Center affords will now have the option of using a range of exercise equipment at Nicholls Biondi.”

The Feb. 10 email, which was sent by the Office of Residential Life to “share more information about the pilot program,” detailed that the Nicholls Biondi studio would be furnished with “an elliptical, bikes, a treadmill, and free weights” in a conversion that would happen on Feb. 17.

The email also stated that the new fitness center would be accessible by all resident students

10

Amherst Isn't Doing Its Job: Charles Sutherby '23E and Mason Quintero '23 discuss the college's failure to connect students to impactful careers.

and operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, adding that students and organizations who had already reserved the space would be “receiv[ing] communication from the Student Activities Office.” The email concluded by noting that Student Affairs would be gathering feedback to determine whether or not to continue or modify the new program.

The Nicholls Biondi studio is regularly utilized as a rehearsal space by the college’s four main student-run dance groups: Amherst Dance, Dance And Step At Amherst College (DASAC), Intersections Dance Company, and African and Caribbean Student Union Dance (ACSU Dance).

In recent semesters, members of

ARTS & LIVING

these groups have successfully advocated for additions to the studio space, including mirrors and marley floors, which are ideal for dance.

“They seem to have made this space specifically a space for the student body and student groups to use for practicing,” said Jonathan Paul ’22, an e-board member of ACSU Dance. “And then to see almost a complete 180 — it’s like, ‘Actually, you know what else has mirrors? The gym.’

Never mind that the floor isn’t conducive to gym flooring, and it’s specifically for dance.”

Dance groups were not given advance warning that the studio would be unavailable for

Continued on page 4

16

Wordle Weakens Words: Ross Kilpatrick '24E explains his distaste for popular word games such as Scrabble, Spelling Bee, and Wordle.

SPORTS

Beginning in Fall 2022, UMass Amherst will make abortion pills available to its nearly 30,000 students through the university’s on-campus health services. It is the first public Massachusetts university to take this step.

UMass’s decision comes in the midst of a heated national discussion on the legality of abortion.

The Supreme Court recently heard and will soon decide on a Mississippi case that seeks to maintain strict limitations on abortions, jeopardizing the decision of the landmark case Roe v. Wade (1973).

In Texas, abortions are currently punishable as a criminal offense after the sixth week of pregancy.

The F.D.A. ruled in December that it will permanently allow patients to receive abortion pills — which can terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks in length — by mail instead of having to obtain them in person. While many conservative states have already taken steps to curtail access to the pills, other states are expected to increase the availability of the method.

In announcing its decision, UMass officials cited a prior lack of accessibility to abortion services, as well as interest from students in the services, as their motivation for the policy. The closest Planned

Continued on page 5

21

Mammoth Memories: Alex Noga '23 looks back on the first ever intercollegiate baseball game, played by Amherst against rival Williams College.

News POLICE LOG

Thoughts on Theses Lisa Zheutlin

Dec. 5, 2021 – Feb. 14, 2022

>>Dec. 5, 2021 1:10 p.m., Mayo Smith House A Sergeant took a report of broken furniture and a dry chemical fire extinguisher sprayed throughout the common areas.

1:28 p.m., Hitchcock House A Sergeant took a report of damage to a heat sensor and the electronic access control. >>Dec. 7, 2021 11:18 p.m., Lipton House A Sergeant and a detective responded to a report of an altercation.

11:49 p.m., Newport House Student Affairs Community Safety Assistants responded to a noise complaint. >>Dec. 12, 2021 2:43 a.m., Mayo Smith Lot A detective placed a boot on a vehicle on the boot list and parked in violation of parking regulations.

2:52 a.m., Mayo Smith Lot A detective placed a boot on a vehicle on the boot list and parked in violation of parking regulations.

3:10 a.m., Merrill Lot A detective placed a boot on a vehicle on the boot list and parked in violation of parking regulations. >>Feb. 9, 2022 1:40 a.m., Dakin House

A sergeant observed a vehicle that was unoccupied, and not affiliated with the college, parked in an area not open to the public. >>Feb. 10, 2022 2:47 p.m., Valentine Residential Hall The senior detective took a report of a past assault. >>Feb. 11, 2022 6:20 a.m., Hitchcock House A detective took a report of a quote written on two bathroom stalls. >>Feb. 12, 2022 1:47 a.m., Campus Grounds A sergeant took a report of an individual that struck a light pole and left the area without reporting the damage. >>Feb. 13, 2022 1:47 a.m., Gym Loop Road A sergeant and a detective assisted an individual that was lost on campus.

6:44 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory A detective took a report of broken light fixtures and exit signs.

6:47 p.m., Mayo Smith House A detective took a report of a broken thermostat. >>Feb. 14, 2022 3:23 a.m., Service Building A vehicle parked in violation of parking regulations and on the tow list was towed.

Department of SWAGS

Lisa Zheutlin '22 is a sexuality, women’s & gender studies major. She is writing a thesis on the anti-monogamy framework, which questions society's prioritization of romantic love over other forms of love. Her thesis advisor is Professor of History and SWAGS Jen Manion.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: It’s a SWAGS [Sexuality, Women’s & Gender Studies] thesis that, broadly, is about the anti-monogamy framework, [which] is a framework that questions why we prioritize romantic love over other forms of love — like familial love, platonic love for our friends — and why it’s the center of our society.

The first chapter is about the ‘romance myth’ which entails a mixture of critique of popular culture with feminist theory about the difference between platonic and romantic love and the devaluation of platonic love. The second chapter is a history of the weaponization of monogamy, and how that has bled into contemporary discourse in science about what monogamy is. Is it natural or is it not? The third chapter is about queer alternatives [and] reimagining a world where romance isn’t the center of our lives.

Q: What motivated you to choose this topic?

A: I was taking a class called “Reading [the] Romance” in the fall of 2019. It was a class that aims to give romance novels the same critique that would give more canonical literature. We read a book called “Undoing Monogamy” by Angie Wiley, a professor at UMass, which introduced me to the anti-monogamy framework. And then I had been thinking about it a lot, about … if platonic love is different from romantic love, … [and] I was like, ‘There are no classes on this.’ So then I was like, ‘Oh, this is why I would do a the-

sis.’ I decided to use what we talked about [in class] as a jumping-off point.

Q: What has been your favorite part of the process?

A: I would say my favorite part has been, [though] it doesn’t have an interview component, just talking to my friends and people around me about their opinions on the topic and their relationships. Applying this anti-monogamy lens to their relationships has been really interesting and generative. … I like that it’s a topic that is so applicable to everyone’s lives. It doesn’t feel like ‘Oh, this is just sectioned off in this area of my academic life’ — it’s all around me.

Q: How do you feel the applicability of this thesis affected or changed your relationship to it as an intellectual endeavor?

A: A big part of the first chapter is about how once people get into romantic relationships, they start to really deprioritize their friends. I’ve experienced that with my friends who get into relationships, like ‘Wait, you’re spending all this time with this new person, like, what about me?’ There’s a little hurt in that. So I think it’s really cool to be able to have an academic outlet for that. To have these feelings and to be able to read feminist theory or queer theorists who have dealt with these topics, and then use that as a way to kind of work through my own feelings and work through my own experiences, in relationships and in friendships.

Q: What are some of the things

you have learned through the writing process?

A: I would say that when I was just doing a bunch of reading and not actually writing anything myself, that was really hard because I was just struggling to balance my other classes and also having this project that has no structure. My advisor, Professor Manion, told me to incorporate more of my own voice and my own personal experiences. ... Bringing [in the] personal experience portion really motivated me. … It just became a lot more fun.

Q: If you could give advice to students thinking about writing a thesis, what would it be?

A: My advice would definitely be to make sure that the topic is something that genuinely interests you and something that you will not get bored of. … There’s a culture at Amherst that makes thesis writing super stressful and [there is] this mentality that the more stressed you are about your thesis, the better it’ll be. … I was scared to write a thesis because of that mentality that we have here, because I really wanted to enjoy my senior year and not be so worried about this big academic project. So I think having a topic that you’re genuinely interested in, and that brings you joy to read about will be helpful in being able to take full advantage of your senior year, … but also have a fulfilling academic experience that you’re not just doing to have the honors.

—Ellis Phillips-Gallucci ’23

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

News

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Lipstadt Talk Prompts Students To Ponder Antisemitism Sonia Chajet Wides ’25 Assistant News Editor On Feb. 10, Deborah E. Lipstadt, the Dorot professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, gave a talk to the college community entitled “Antisemitism: The Ubiquitous Hatred.” Held over Zoom, the event was sponsored by the Office of the President. In her speech, Lipstadt explored the ideology behind antisemitism and its differences from other forms of prejudice. Students who attended the event lauded Lipstadt’s talk, but brought up deeper concerns about the lack of antisemitism education and Jewish community at the college.

Lipstadt is a renowned scholar and author on antisemitism and the Holocaust, particularly the movement of Holocaust denial.

Her fight against Holocaust deniers was documented in the 2016 film “Denial,” where Rachel Weisz plays a younger Lipstadt. Nominated by President Joe Biden to be the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Lipstadt spoke to the college community just two days after her confirmation hearing before the Senate in Washington. Her confirmation process has lasted months due to stalling by Republicans in Congress who oppose her appointment on the basis of remarks she made about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

“I have just come from Washington and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, so this is a much friendlier atmosphere,” Lipstadt joked at the beginning of her talk. She spoke to students about the origins of antisemitism in ancient societies and painted a picture of the most common tropes used in “Jew-hatred.”

Lipstadt also highlighted aspects of antisemitism’s ideology and function that make it unique from other forms of prejudice.

These differences what fuel antisemitism’s violence and contribute to its relative obscurity, Lipstadt relayed.

Lipstadt explained that antisemitism can be harder for people to recognize than other forms

of hatred because it rests on an illusion of “punching up” in society instead of solely “punching down.” Antisemitism posits Jews as “richer, … more controlling, … with smarts, but cunning smarts, malicious smarts,” she said. The traditional antisemitic “template of charges” is that Jews are “small in number, but able to punch above their weight” and manipulate others.

“The conspiracy theory element of it is exceptionally important,” she said. “Antisemitism is ubiquitous, coming as it does from all sides of the political spectrum. …

It’s got such long roots that even if there are no Jews in a country and you say ‘It was the Jews’ fault,’ ... it makes sense to the person hearing it.”

Lipstadt discussed this punching-up illusion as paramount to antisemism’s violence as well as society’s ability to disregard it. She cited a recent article in The Atlantic by writer Yair Rosenberg, who wrote: “Thanks to centuries of material blaming the world’s ills on the world’s Jews, conspiracy theorists seeking a scapegoat for their sorrows inevitably discover that the invisible hand of their oppressor belongs to an invisible Jew.” Lipstadt noted that in the United States, these “sorrows” can be rooted in prejudice themselves, entwining antisemitism with other forms of hatred. In his article, Rosenberg referenced Eric Ward, a Black activist and expert on white nationalism, who has written about how antisemitic conspiracies of Jewish control have held up racist ideologies based in the false conception that racial and ethnic minorities are inferior and unable to gain societal success without an extra helping hand from powerful Jews.

“Antisemitism has real impact beyond just hate crimes,” Ward writes. “It distorts our understanding of how the actual world works … It is actually utilizing bigotry toward the Jewish community in order to deconstruct democratic practices.”

Conspiracy theories about Jews have proven to be deadly in recent

years. Lipstadt showed extensive clips of the 2017 demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalist groups rallied on the basis of a conspiracy that a Jewish agenda was seeking to displace white people in the U.S. — a counterprotester, Heather Heyer, was killed that day by a white supremacist car attack.

A similar conspiracy theory claiming that the Jewish refugee advocacy organization HIAS was sending “invaders” into the United States galvanized the terrorist who killed 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

The charges often seem “ridiculous,” according to Lipstadt, leading people to further discount them as fringe activity. But she also pointed to antisemitism’s pervasiveness in more mainstream conspiracies about topics such as immigration and Covid, propagated by figures like Tucker Carlson of Fox News.

These conspiracy theories may not outright reference Jews, but will use figures like Jewish philanthropist George Soros as a euphemism.

The week before the Pittsburgh attack occurred, for example, a guest on Fox News claimed that a caravan of immigrants was being funded by the “Soros-occupied State Department” to infiltrate the United States.

“When it comes to the Jew, … you not only loathe them, but you fear them and what they can do to you,” Lipstadt stated. She cited the abnormal nature of antisemitism as a reason that people often misunderstand it, and fail to take it seriously.

Lipstadt also emphasized antisemitism’s cyclical nature. As writer April Rosenblum puts it, “Attacks come in waves; but each time things calm down and Jews are able to blend in or succeed in society again, it gives the appearance that antisemitism is ’over.’”

This “appearance” that Rosenblum refers to then allows antisemitism to be built back up again without people’s noticing or concern.

“Jews don’t present as your typical victims of prejudice. They seem well-organized, they seem well-funded, they seem powerful,”

Lipstadt said. “So when a Jew cries antisemitism, this can’t be legitimate, this must be made up. … To take it seriously even though Jews present differently, I think that’s very important.” She mentioned that its functioning often doesn’t fit neatly into the American Left’s understanding of prejudice and oppression.

Some Jewish students at the college emphasized this idea while reflecting on the talk. “[Antisemitism] gets brushed aside very quickly, both socially, and interpersonally,” said Lisa Zheutlin ’22. “It just doesn’t feel like something that is taken up with much gusto.”

Zheutlin also agreed with a point Lipstadt made about “bandwidth” that people “think that if they include antisemitism [in what they are opposed to] … that there’s only so much bandwidth, and that takes bandwidth away.”

“I disagree with that 100 percent, from a tactical and strategic point of view,” Lipstadt had stated.

Zheutlin explained, “When [antisemitism] does come up, sometimes it’s like, well, we need to prioritize our energies into more pressing concerns. But antisemitism plays a role in a lot of other systems of oppression, and that doesn’t really get talked about in any of my classes that are social justice driven either. So I think that probably makes it get taken less seriously.”

Diana Daniels ’22 expressed that Lipstadt’s talk is a “good reminder” for non-Jewish students “that antisemitism is still very prevalent. … It’s important for people to be reminded of that, if it’s not something that they’re experiencing in their daily lives.”

Zheutlin thinks that this reminder is necessary on Amherst’s campus. “If it’s not on your radar, plus you don’t have a lot of Jews around you in your life, which is very likely because there aren’t that many Jews at Amherst, it’s something that can easily be forgotten,” she said.

Zheutlin further noted that classes about antisemitism are offered sparsely, and that Lipstadt’s talk was the first she could remem-

ber “that’s been moderated in such a big format, about antisemitism” since she arrived at the college in 2017.

Dalya Ackerman ’23 agreed that there are too few opportunities to learn about antisemitism and Jewish history on campus. “Jewish history is not just the Holocaust,” she said, pointing out that history about non-Eastern European Jews is even less readily available here.

Ackerman thinks that this lack of understanding of antisemitism and Jewish history creates a sense of “apathy” on campus about antisemitism. “Another classic antisemitic trope is that Jews are self-victimizing,” she added, “It’s like going beyond apathy into an actual feeling of, this doesn’t matter.”

While they agreed that they were glad the President’s Office had brought Lipstadt in, both Ackerman and Zheutlin noted that based on their prior experiences, they didn’t expect that many non-Jewish students attended the talk. There is no data available to show the actual demographics of attendees. “In my head, I was imagining that a bunch of non-Jews were there listening and learning about antisemitism and going, ’Oh, I get it now. I’ll take it seriously,’” Ackerman said, “But I just generally assumed that most of the people there were Jews.”

After her talk, Lipstadt spoke with a smaller group of Jewish students, including Hillel E-Board members as well as other students recommended by professors. “A lot of us were like, ‘what do we do?’” Ackerman reported. “And she didn’t really have any answers.

One thing I thought that was really beautiful that she said was not to let antisemitism become for us what it means to be Jewish, because it’s incredibly distracting … [and] to make sure to celebrate joy.”

Some students, however, reported feeling that it is difficult to find Jewish community on campus and “celebrate joy” as Lipstadt suggested. Ackerman pointed to the fact that “it took until last year for us to have an actual affinity group,” referring to the recently created

Continued on page 6

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

News

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Administration Pauses Studio Conversion After Student Backlash

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Several groups that use the studio are predominantly students of color, including DASAC, pictured here.

Continued from page 1 rehearsal use after Feb. 17. Paul, along with the other students who had reserved the space for the semester, received an email from Student Activities informing them that their reservations would be canceled two hours after the notice from ResLife.

In the email, Student Activities suggested alternative spaces that dance groups found less than ideal, either because they don’t have proper equipment (such as the Friedmann Room in Keefe Campus Center, which doesn’t have mirrors), or because they are too far out of the way (such as Marsh House, which is about a 10-minute walk from campus).

The email also stated that Student Activities “understand[s] the gravity of this change and the disruption it may create for some groups, … know[s] space on campus is strained and apologize[s] for any inconvenience this may create.”

“They were like, ‘By the way, you can no longer use this space.

How about you use Marsh?’”

Paul said about the email.

Together with Alexandra Sala ’22, an e-board member

of Intersections, Paul wrote an open letter responding to the announcement, which garnered over 50 signatures from students and starts with a statement of frustration with the administration: “I’m honestly quite tired of administrators in positions of power making ‘unanimous’ decisions for ‘the betterment of student life’ without involving, including, consulting or considering the actual views of the students they’re ‘centering’ in their decisions.”

The letter goes on to call the announcement “as disrespectful as it was unwanted,” noting that many of the student groups who depend on the space — such as DASAC and ACSU Dance — are filled with and dedicated to highlighting the voices of minority students.

The letter also expresses understanding for the administration’s desire to make working out accessible to students who feel uncomfortable going to the gym, but points out the important role dance groups already play in cultivating students’ well-being and sense of community.

“I do think that [privacy in the gym] is an issue that people

Photo courtesy of Cayla Weiss ’23

The initiative to convert the studio was a response to students' desire for privacy in the gym. The administration has since paused the project. have complained about,” acknowledged Molly Cooper ’22, an e-board member of Amherst Dance who signed the letter. But “this is another example of the intention being good, but the solution so misguided,” she said.

The pushback has led the administration to reconsider their plans for the space.

“The move of the fitness equipment into Nicholls Biondi has now been paused in response to information from students about the difficulty of finding appropriate alternative spaces for dance and movement, specifically spaces with mirrors,” said Dean of Students Liz Agosto in a statement made to The Student on Feb. 15. “[I] will be meeting with student leaders from the dance organizations to discuss their space needs and see whether there is a way to meet those needs in spaces other than Nicholls Biondi.”

Although the pause is a shortterm win for dance groups, the tensions this incident has brought to light may not go away so easily.

Shikha Jha ’22, an e-board member of DASAC, relayed, “DASAC had actually sent an email of concern to Student

Activities just over a year ago, where one of our concerns was the inaccessibility of rehearsal spaces and the lack of priority that performance groups receive relative to non-performance groups in space booking. To have this come up as an issue again, to a more extreme degree, is disheartening considering how much time these groups put into their performances and the consistent engagement and enjoyment we’re able to create with the larger student body.”

Jha added that she’s “increasingly concerned with the college using our group accomplishments as indicators of the administration’s success while simultaneously making it more and more difficult for us to pursue our creative passions.”

Cooper highlighted that the loss of the Nicholls Biondi space would be especially bad given the recent influx of dancers at the college. Since her freshman year, she has seen a vast increase in the number of students interested in dance. “Because the dance community is growing so much … and the school is making such an effort to admit so many more [dance] students, … there’s just too many people for

the space,” she said. “We’re outgrowing our resources.”

In his years as a choreographer, Paul has become accustomed to using any resource there is available. In the past, he has danced outside, in common rooms and even used semi-reflective windows as mirrors.

“It’s so hard to find a space that there have been times I’ve had to … be like, ‘Oh, dancers, come to my common room,’” Paul said. “So we use the Lipton [House] basement, which has no facilities, no mirrors, no place to put a speaker.”

The lack of space poses a barrier to building a strong dance community on campus, said Paul. Although he was quick to note that dance groups aren’t competitive with each other, he admitted that the lack of space can certainly create “friction.” If organizations are competing for a limited number of studios, it’s hard to feel cooperative.

“Because of this limited amount of space, it’s so hard to create community,” said Paul.

“But if we did have the space, and if we were able to work more collaboratively with each other, I think that that would be a huge win.”

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

News

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Amherst Considers Abortion Services, But Not Anytime Soon Continued from page 1 Parenthood to the university is located in Springfield — a 30-minute trip by car, but over two hours away via public transportation.

By offering abortion medication on campus, UMass hopes to remove this barrier of travel time.

Medication abortions are also significantly less invasive than surgical abortions, meaning students would not have to take as much time off in order to recover.

UMass graduate student Brendan Retalic expressed support for the decision. “If it is healthcare, it should be accessible. [M]aking it easier for students to be able to access healthcare services is always a good thing, in my opinion,” he said.

Some vocal students and organizations on campus, however, have spoken out against the decision. Kate Scott, founder of UMass’ Students For Life group, thinks UMass is out of place in offering the medication.

“It’s out of the scope of what a public university should be doing, especially with taxpayer funding,” Scott said. She also worries that campus health services are unequipped to address possible complications from medication

abortions, endangering students’ safety.

Other universities may soon follow suit in providing abortion medication to students. State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa, a Democrat from Northampton, is leading the push for a bill that would require all public universities in the state to offer the medication.

Sabadosa believes that cases like the ones in Mississippi and Texas heighten the urgency for greater abortion accessibility. “It’s the time for the states that are really saying abortion is healthcare to prove it,” she said.

As a private institution, Amherst College would not be subject to Representative Sabadosa’s bill even if it were to pass. However, discussions of expanding abortion services and other reproductive healthcare are still taking place on campus.

“I think [the Health Center] should definitely [offer abortion services],” said Hibiscus Zhang ’25, who works as a program organizer for the Women’s and Gender Center (WGC). “A lot of students don’t have access to a car or access to the time to go out of their way [to seek out abortion services],” a burden that disproportionate-

ly falls on low-income and other marginalized students, he said.

“I know if I was ever in a situation like that, I would’ve just not been able to go. Like whatsoever,” Zhang added. “The amount of time to get there, to pay for everything, that's just too much.”

Nurse Practitioner Alyssa Pawlowski said that while the conversation surrounding offering medication abortions is ongoing at Amherst, it’s not likely to happen immediately.

This is partly because the services provided by Amherst’s Health Center are simply incomparable to the “extensive gynecological and reproductive care” that UMass boasts. “UMass has had … a robust women’s clinic for quite a long time,” said Pawlowski. She added that one of their strengths is their ability to conduct ultrasounds, which play a “vital role” in reproductive care.

According to Pawlowski, it’s still unclear whether Amherst students may be able to access UMass-distributed abortion medication. “The decision is new enough that we haven’t discussed whether or not there’s access to that yet,” she said. A partnership would not be unthinkable, however, since the healthcare systems at Amherst and

UMass are already very connected — the college uses the UMass pharmacy and labs for a variety of purposes, and has access to the university’s after-hours health services.

Currently, the college offers referrals for reproductive health services that aren’t offered on campus, using a range of different clinics and providers to meet the availability and needs of the individual student. The college also works to address many of the difficulties that come with accessing services off campus. In the past, this has included private transportation services to and from clinics; housing accommodations like respite rooms and other spaces to recover; and access to follow-up care.

Pawlowski emphasized that these options are not the only ones that exist. Regardless of a patient’s situation, the Health Center will “help students access the care they need in a safe and confidential way,” she said.

However, both Pawlowski and Staff Counselor Laura Fusari, who has also been involved in conversations on improving reproductive healthcare at the college and emphasized counseling services as a crucial element of that care,

acknowledged that information about available resources should be more clearly communicated to students. “When you’re in a time of need, you don’t [have time] to sift through all the information or answers or resources,” said Fusari.

“We’re making efforts to reduce stigma, and we do that by making things more detailed and explicit.”

Fusari thinks it’s important to remember the historical traumas that exist around issues of reproductive health that might prevent students from seeking help — from different prior experiences with healthcare to “myths like ‘if you get pregnant, the college will get rid of you.’”

“We want to make it clear that any student can come and seek resources and they will not be turned away,” she added.

Fusari emphasized that the programs at Amherst are constantly looking to grow. “States like Massachusetts have some responsibility to look at the national problem,” she said. “In places where there is access, we have to be thoughtful about how we maintain that access.”

“At our core, we are always operating from the idea that everyone has a right to comprehensive medical care,” said Pawlowski.

Spring 2022 AAS Special Elections Candidate Statements

Class of 2023

position of senator in the AAS. I’ve always had a passion for helping people and would be honored to have the platform to make meaningful contributions to life on campus. I believe my connections to the student body will enable me to represent its general sentiment accurately when deliberating over the best path forward. In this vein, I have been preemptively surveying my friends on campus to identify the most poignant pain points so we can have a focused and constructive approach/discussion around how to improve daily life on campus.

Sam Robin I’m very excited to run for the

Sophie Sweeney During my three years at Am-

The Editorial Board The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for open senator positions on Friday, Feb. 18, from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

The students below have announced their candidacies for these elections.

Students who are interested in hearing from these candidates should attend Speech Night on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. in Lipton Lecture Hall.

Candidates are listed alphabetically by last name.

herst I have encountered many issues that have left me feeling disappointed. I am running for a Senate seat because I want to utilize my frustration in productive ways.

I am particularly interested in sustainability at Amherst, more specifically in increasing the amount of collaboration between administrators and students so that environmental projects can be more effective and impactful. I want to work on projects that foster connections between environmental groups, the Office of Environmental Sustainability, administrators, Valentine Dining Hall, Book & Plow Farm, and students, because I believe that change is most successful when there are strong coalitions backing it.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Elections to fill AAS senator positions left vacant by students studying abroad will take place on Friday, Feb. 18, from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

News

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Students Report Lacking Jewish Community at Amherst Continued from page 3 Amitim. Prior to that, there was no Jewish affinity space outside of Hillel, which is a religious group and part of “an international organization that holds political beliefs that

definitely push a lot of people out, rightfully so,” she said. Many students discussed feeling alienated at Amherst after living in places more surrounded by Jewish community.

“The Jewish faculty does not support the Jewish students on this

campus,” Ackerman expressed. “I don’t feel like they are involved. …

I feel like they have no intention of supporting Jewish students, which I feel as a member of our community is an obligation.”

In a Q&A after the talk, Lew-

is-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture Ilan Stavans also asked Lipstadt what can be done about antisemitism. Lipstadt said, “You would think after all these years, and being nominated for this posi-

tion, I would have an easy answer. I don’t have one, … [but] it has to be taken seriously.”

A recording of Lipstadt’s talk is available to students on the Multimedia page of the college’s website until mid-March.

Town of Amherst Moves Forward with Reparations for Black Residents Karina Maciel ’25 Staff Writer In June 2021, the Amherst Town Council voted to establish a reparations fund as a step towards reconciling with historical and current harm inflicted on Black residents. Over the last eight months, the town has undergone several significant steps towards distributing reparations. Most notably, the Town Council established the African Heritage Reparations Assembly (AHRA) and developed the Municipal Reparations Plan, through which it will ultimately distribute reparations.

This decision to establish a reparations fund was made a year after a petition calling for reparations garnered over 400 signatures from town members. In the following months, the Reparations for Amherst (R4A) group formed to advocate for reparation policies. The group has gathered historical information to reckon with the ongoing legacy of white supremacy and anti-Black racism in the town of Amherst. Beginning with the history of enslavement in the town of Amherst, the harms done to Black residents by white supremacy in the area have continued to change shape over time. Today, the committee has identified housing, education, health, income and employment, transportation, and policing as key categories in which Black/ white disparities are still clear.

The reparations fund that the town council voted to establish currently holds around $206,000.

Originally planned to be drawn from the town’s cannabis tax revenue, this money instead came from the town’s free cash reserves. The AHRA, with the approval of the town council, generated a three

part Municipal Reparations Plan to assess eligibility and the form of distribution for reparations. The assembly is composed of seven voting members: six Black residents of Amherst, two of whom have served on elected bodies in Amherst, and one representative of R4A. AHRA is currently in phase one of the plan, “Data Collection,” which centers around “reparations education and awareness,” “community engagement and communication,” and “building the foundation,” according to the group’s official timeline. This first phase is predicted to last from January 2022 to June 2022. Councilwoman Michele Miller, the R4A representative in AHRA, emphasized the community engagement aspect of phase one, since the ARHA believes eligibility criteria for reparations must be determined through input from Amherst’s Black community as a whole.

To facilitate this engagement and understanding of harm, the AHRA partnered with UMass Amherst’s Donahue Institute to develop a Black census. The census will provide the AHRA with basic demographic information about where the Black community in Amherst resides. The AHRA is also developing a harm report to expand on the original disparity report published by R4A. “Identifying the harm is a key component of getting to wherever we want to go. … It is an important component of the first two phases,” said Irv Rhodes, a Black resident of Amherst, member of AHRA, and member of the Black Amherst Assembly.

“After identifying what the harm was and the extent of the harm, and what segments of the Black population were directly or

indirectly harmed, we can begin to construct a matrix as to how to apply the proceeds of the fund,” he said.

Miller also emphasized the importance of understanding specific harms in order to engage in planning for reparations. “What we need to be able to do is link the harm with its impacts on the Black community in order to determine who’s eligible. Ideally, there will eventually be both direct benefits that come out of that, and community benefits,” she said.

In addition to using information from the Donahue Institute partnership and the expanded harm report, the AHRA hopes to achieve the goals of the community engagement phase by reaching out and engaging the community in specific ways, whether through “small listening sessions, where we invite small groups of people to get together and talk about what reparations means to them…[or] large town hall meetings [and] community wide forums,” according to Miller. She noted that wider community engagement efforts will occur after all information has been received.

Some of AHRA’s community objectives include engaging with “residents of African heritage” as well as “non-Black residents,” as well as elected officials like town councilors and school board members, and “Family, Community, and Civic organizations” like the Survival Center and Rotary Club.

The AHRA will also further community engagement by reaching out to Amherst’s “anchor institutions,” including Amherst College, UMass, and Hampshire College. Although there have been attempts to change how Amherst College deals with its legacy of rac-

ism internally, there has not been much word as to how the College will connect with the town’s efforts as a whole. According to Caroline Hanna, the College’s Director of Media Communications, “[the College is] having ongoing conversations with the Town about a range of things, the reparations work among them.”

After the completion of phase one, phase two will bring the development of a draft plan to determine possible remedies for repairing harm done to Black residents throughout Amherst’s history, incorporating feedback gathered from the community in this process. In addition, phase two will focus on developing a process for making individual reparations, as well as implementing collective reparations. Phase three will focus on identifying other funding sources, whether those are municipal, from “anchor institutions,” or from private funds.

One likely pathway for the distribution of the reparation funds would be the creation of special legislation, such as a Home Rule petition. Through a Home Rule petition, the town of Amherst would recognize reparations as a public necessity, and define the need for reparations for the community at large. If the Home Rule petition passed through the town council, it would be sent to the state representative for approval, ultimately creating a plausible legal pathway for reparations funds to be allocated.

Rhodes reflected that the distribution of the reparations money is “a very difficult question to answer at this point.” His personal belief, he stated, is that “the majority of these funds should be spent on education and education-related services for African American children who at-

tend our schools.”

These education and education-related services, Rhodes said, could take the form of providing for free Pre-K education, “eliminating strict income guidelines for free and reduced lunch and making it free for all Black children,” starting the free after-school tutoring and recreational programs that many kids “cannot now afford,” providing free transportation for parents to attend school events, and eliminating feels that restrict kids from participating in school activities.

Nick Grabbe, an editor and co-coordinator at Amherst-based newspaper editor the Amherst Current, endorsed the fight for reparations in an opinion piece published in January. “The exploitation of African American labor before the Civil War, and the political disenfranchisement following it, demand a response,” Grabbe said.

“I am proud to live in a town that acknowledges this responsibility …

But I think disbursing money will not be enough; I think we also need some kind of moral reckoning for the injustices suffered by African Americans.”

Miller called for more students from Amherst’s anchor institutions to get involved and raise awareness for the town’s reparations efforts.

“What can we collectively work on together to repair these harms?

What resources do we have available to us right here — whether they’re financial, economic resources, community resources or academic resources…that we can use to make the necessary repairs?”

“We need to find a way to connect,” Miller said. “Because the history of Amherst College is the history of the town of Amherst, and I think it’s really important that we all recognize that and work together.”

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

News

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Administration Releases Plan To Support Student Well-being Theo Hamilton ’23, Liam Archacki ’24, and Tana Delalio ’24 Managing Editor, Managing Editor, and Managing News Editor In a email sent to students, faculty, and staff on Feb. 8, President Biddy Martin detailed the college’s plans to help improve community well-being over the coming months.

The new action plan comes after an 89 percent increase last semester in the number of students seeking help at the Counseling Center. In addition to increasing resources for the Counseling Center, the college’s new plan includes a bevy of on-campus activities and encourages faculty to be more attentive to student well-being.

In a statement to The Student, Dean of Students Liz Agosto and Director of the Counseling Center Darrien McFadden explained the rationale behind the college’s new policies. They stated, “We are deeply concerned about the number of traditionally college-aged students (18-25) nationally who are reporting depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns; the numbers have been increasing for the last decade, but the situation has been made acute during Covid.”

Agosto added that, in order to ensure the plan is effective, it not only targets the mental health of students, but also their “physical, emotional, spiritual, social, intellectual, and interpersonal health.”

She said, “We have been working in all of these areas separately, but have become increasingly focused on coordinating, integrating, and enhancing those efforts.”

The email announced a number of events intended to strengthen a sense of community and fun on campus. Student Activities will host two trivia nights (one of which already took place on Feb. 18) and a bingo night, which will each feature prizes. Beginning Feb. 17, Orr Rink will be open for ice skating from 8 to 11 p.m. on Thursdays. In a partnership between the Office of Student Affairs and local “outdoor adventure company” Adventure East, the college will also provide “fulland half-day outdoor programs” starting Feb. 12. The email noted

the return of food trucks — now on Saturdays — beginning Feb. 12, as well as late night dining on Feb. 17.

Supriya Chang ’25 believes that the events will be highly beneficial to students’ wellness. “I think a lot of people automatically think about the Counseling Center when they think about getting treatment on campus. But that’s not the only way that you can improve your mental health, even though therapy is obviously very, very useful,” Chang said.

She added, “I think that these other initiatives are really nice, because it reinforces the idea that wellness is not something that you just find when you’re in therapy, but it can also be found in daily activities. So just recognizing that doing activities that bring you joy is a way of taking care of yourself, as well.”

In order to “provide increased opportunities for student engagement,” the Office of Student Activities will also be moving from the lower level of Keefe Campus Center to the building’s first floor.

Agosto elaborated on why the decision will hopefully improve students’ wellness. “The goal is to create an open and exciting space for students and registered student organizations when you walk into Keefe. We hope that this move, along with student organizations, the centers, and other offices in Keefe, will create an even more vibrant space for students and lots of opportunities for collaboration,” she said.

This week, Keefe will also feature an art installation, organized by the Multicultural Resource Center, with content from earlier Black Art Matters festivals.

The email also announced the purchase of an outdoor stage which will be installed in the Greenway this spring and provide a venue for “outdoor concerts, dance and theater performances, and other creative student ideas.” Additionally, it highlighted a slew of upcoming festivals, including LitFest (Feb. 24-27), Winter Fest (March 6), and City Streets (early April).

The email disclosed that the recent loosening of college-wide Covid restrictions is intended to alleviate the “heightened sense

of physical and social isolation, exhaustion, and anxiousness” spurred by the more-stringent protocols.

The email also detailed that the college would move exercise equipment into the Nicholls Biondi fitness studio as part of a pilot program, for “students who need or prefer greater privacy than the Wolff Fitness Center affords.”

However, Agosto noted the change has been paused after speaking with students about the difficulty of finding appropriate alternative spaces for dance and movement, specifically spaces with mirrors. She said that she will soon meet “with student leaders from the dance organizations to discuss their space needs and see whether there is a way to meet those needs in spaces other than Nicholls Biondi.”

Additionally, the email announces that the college has begun searching for two new staff counselors and up to three new Counseling Center staff members. These changes come after many students struggled to receive adequate counseling support from an overextended Counseling Center last semester.

The three new staff members will be part of a Post-Graduate Fellowship Program intended to “provide clinical training for the next generation of college counseling practitioners.”

Chang feels that the Counseling Center’s appointment of new counselors will be the most impactful new wellness initiative. “I’m super excited that they’re hiring more people for the Counseling Center.

It’s been a really big issue that people need to talk to someone and there haven’t been enough providers at each moment to see everyone.”

Kathleen Harris ’24E echoed Chang’s sentiments. “I’m glad the administration has hired more support for the Counseling Center, because I know students have really felt the understaffing when they try to make appointments,” Harris said.

She added, “I’m also really appreciative of the fact that Amherst is starting to focus on overall well-being as a means of improving the mental health of their students, and it’s been great to see people al-

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

The college provided an update on its efforts to better support community mental health. ready taking advantage of the new opportunities available.”

This enlarged staff will help oversee an expanded schedule of discussion groups, therapy groups, and skill classes, as well as “Well-Being Wednesdays,” a weekly program featuring resources and activities based on well-being.

In addition to expanding its staff, the email announced that the Counseling Center will be relocated to a single location closer to the center of campus, a move that is expected to take place next summer.

The college will also enter into the JED Campus Network, a nonprofit dedicated to developing strategic plans for supporting student mental health, and form a partnership with the Steve Fund, a similar organization focusing on young people of color, as per the Feb. 8 email.

Attempts to improve student well-being will also result in changes in some academic policies this semester. The college will introduce student well-being training

sessions for faculty members and has strongly encouraged faculty to avoid giving assignments over Spring break.

Agosto and McFadden recognize that students at the college are under immense pressure. “There is the stress that comes with a fear of failure, with the pressures of managing a rigorous schedule, and the challenge of balancing academics with other activities and life events.

We know there are students who are experiencing isolation, loneliness, and lack of connection, all of which have been exacerbated by the two years of the pandemic,” they said.

Going forward, McFadden and Agosto “hope a more coordinated focus on mental health and well-being will become a broader shift” in which students will “feel freer to try new things and to make mistakes, to speak openly about seeking help and finding support.” Overall, they say the goal is “that students engage fully and thrive inside and outside of the classroom.”

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

News

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Spring Event Policy Updated, Adds Restrictions to Dorm Use Theo Hamilton ’23 and Tana DeLalio ’24 Managing Editor and Managing News Editor With residence halls opening to registered events for the first time this semester, Senior Associate Dean of Students Dean Gendron sent out an email on Monday, Feb. 14, detailing the college’s Student-Hosted Event Policy (SHEP) for the spring semester. In contrast to the college’s decision to loosen several other Covid policies this semester, the SHEP remains unchanged, with a 99-attendee cap and a rule that only Amherst College students can attend still in place. The only changes for this semester involve the frequency with which different dorms can be reserved for student events.

While the policy “is designed to help students host safe, successful, and respectful events,” as the email stated, some students expressed concerns about the lack of party space and its disproportionate impact on different student groups.

Others expressed frustration that the administration’s motivations to increase student safety will likely not be achieved through these policies.

Host training is a crucial element of the existing SHEP, with

event hosts required to go through training sessions led by staff from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) in order to register events. These sessions will be held every Wednesday and Thursday throughout the semester, and a link to the registration Google form can be found in Dean Gendron’s email.

The updated policy requires every student-held event to have at least one registered host, plus an additional registered host for every 20 attendees. As Dean Gendron explains, “an event with an expected attendance of 25 people would require two hosts. An approved event with fewer than 20 expected guests requires one host.”

The email also stipulates that any hosts at alcohol-approved events must be 21 or older.

In addition to being responsible for event registration, cleanup, and checking in with Student Affairs representatives at the beginning of events, hosts “must address unsafe conditions during the event, including unsafe intoxication of guests, overcrowding, and any guest behavior that creates a risk for other guests and/or facilities.”

On Feb. 7, the college sent out a survey asking students in reservable dorms how often they would want alcohol-included events to take place

in their dorms, as well as whether they would be willing to let students from other dorms register events.

As a result, three dorms (Ford Hall, Hitchcock, and Mayo-Smith) which previously allowed hosts from other residence halls to reserve events will now require at least one host to reside in the location holding the event. Cohan, Morris Pratt, the Powerhouse, and Seelye are the remaining residence halls reservable by students from other dorms.

Chief Communications Officer Sandy Genelius explained the rationale behind the timing of the decision. “It [the survey’s results] was shared this week to coincide with the opening of the residence halls to registered events. This coming weekend is the first weekend where registered events are permitted in the halls this semester,” Genelius said.

The small number of spaces which can be registered by non-residents has caused students living in non-reservable spaces some concern.

Talia Ward ’23 reflected that because many of the buildings will now be closed to non-residents for events on the weekend, planning parties will become disproportionately more difficult for certain student groups, depending where the majority of students in those groups

live.

She noted, “A lot of varsity athletes live in those buildings [reservable for parties but now closed to non-residents] and so it limits the use of buildings for events, because the major dorms that can host are upperclassmen and are now primarily closed to non-residents.”

Ward, who is part of women’s club soccer on campus, stated that none of the club members who are over 21 live in dorms where a space can be reserved for parties, except for Marsh. “We are now at a deficit,” she said.

Eden Martinez ’23 doubts the

policy’s effectiveness. “I understand they want to create a safe environment, but I think there are better ways of doing that … students will party and have fun on the weekends no matter what. If the students can’t do this at Amherst, they will go to other places, mainly UMASS and bars, [which are] more dangerous in regards to Covid,” Martinez said.

Hugh Lemmonkishi ’24, a Cohan resident, reflected that “I do like the weekend-only party and cleanup rules. But I feel like the rest of the registration requirements are a bit much for students just looking to unwind from hard academic work.”

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

While Cohan, Morris Pratt, Seelye, and the Powerhouse will be reservable by any student, other dorms will require at least one event host to be a resident.

From the Red Room: Feb. 14 AAS Meeting Updates Ethan Foster ’25 Staff Writer On Monday, Feb. 14, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) held their second meeting of the spring semester. Conducted in the Red Room with senators in isolation for Covid joining through Zoom, the meeting included Budgetary Committee (BC) funding recommendations, the selection of senators for committee assignments, officer and project reports, and the creation of a task force to address sexual violence on campus.

The meeting began with BC funding recommendations, led

by Treasurer Jae Yun Ham ’22.

Among the groups requesting

funding were men’s club soccer, women’s ultimate frisbee, Amherst Student Orchestra, Ski Club, and the Marsh Arts House. The BC’s recommendations were approved for a total of $9,922.

The meeting then shifted to elections for assignments to the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP), which is responsible for the approval of departmental hiring and the creation of new courses. Among those elected for the committee were Jaden Richards ’25, and Dania Hallak ’24.

A subsequent election was held for a new ad-hoc committee created to evaluate January term (J-term) classes. The committee will consist of one humanities-oriented student and one

STEM-oriented student who have taken a J-term course in the past, in addition to members of the administration. Jeffery Ma ’24 was elected to represent the Senate and the humanities on the committee.

The meeting then turned to a discussion of sexual violence on campus in relation to the @amherstshareyourstory Instagram page, which is, according to the page, “a student run account for survivors of sexual misconduct and violence to share their stories anonymously.” Various senators emphasized the importance of reaching out to survivors and holding the administration accountable. Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 proposed that the AAS create

an internal Senate task force to generate ideas and gather feedback on how to combat sexual assault and change campus culture.

The proposal was approved.

The proposal was followed by officer reports. Secretary Lucas Romualdo ’24 reported that in the absence of Judiciary Chair Jasper Liles ’23, who is currently on leave while studying abroad, the executive board will collectively serve as the Judiciary Chair until officer elections are held. Romualdo also reported that elections to fill Senate vacancies will be held this week.

Various senators then suggested amending the AAS Constitution to eliminate the mandatory 25-person petition to run

for a Senate position, in order to expand the number of students eligible to run. The proposal was tabled for the next election cycle.

The meeting then shifted to Senate project updates. Shreya Matthew ’25 stated that her Senate project, providing free access to Grammarly Premium for the student body, is pending final approval from the administration.

Sirus Wheaton ’23 then reported that the administration deferred his request to provide free hygiene products and sustainable detergents, although alternative avenues through the Office of Environmental Sustainability or Senate funding remain possibilities.

The AAS’ next meeting will take place on Monday, Feb. 21.

Op pinion

w

The Arts Are Instrumental With the proposed conversion of the Nicholls Biondi studio into a fitness center, the administration attempted to demonstrate true concern for student well-being while acknowledging the current lack of accessible exercise spaces. However, it did so at the expense of one of the few useful facilities for dance rehearsal on campus, depriving the arts community of already scant space. The instant and loud backlash from dancers and artists against the decision reflects the longstanding failure of administration to communicate effectively with the entire student body and its tendency to make decisions without representative student consultation — only to revert those decisions upon what must feel like inevitable backlash.

The extent of the backlash also reflects a more basic fact about campus facilities: the space available to students is finite. The limited amount of accessible space is perhaps best understood by the various campus arts groups who have to fight every time they want to practice or perform. Last semester alone, students put on plays in the Friedmann Room, the Red Room, and the Octagon, spaces which, besides being definitively not theaters, were often unnecessarily difficult to use as rehearsal spaces.

And the outcry from dance groups at the proposed changes to Nicholls Biondi makes it painfully obvious that the Amherst campus does not provide an adequate amount of space for student arts groups.

The limited nature of space for arts and the announcement of a further restricting of those spaces resonates with many students as reflective of the administration’s general sentiment towards arts on campus: outside of their academic departments, they appear to not really care. However, for many of us on campus, the arts are essential to the way we experience life. Thereby the arts are incredibly valuable, not only to the college’s environment, but to every person who practices them on campus and off. Right now, there is a huge lack of artistic resources available, and providing even enough space for students would be a start towards genuine progress.

The new Student Center provides an opportunity for long-term remedy. If space were included in the new building, Green Room and independent productions would feel less constrained by their inability to use Theater Department facilites. A dance studio and practice rooms would provide space for students who are perpetually clamoring for space, and even allow for the growth of arts on campus outside of just the academic realm. The lack of reliable access to space which is either in high

demand by student groups, like Nicholls Biondi, or restricted to members of a department, like campus practice rooms, discourages students from pursuing art. Even those who arrive on campus with an artistic pursuit but who don’t join pre-ordained groups are incentivized to practice less, to drop their pursuit. More space will allow for less restriction and encourage more students to do art in whatever form they want — a goal that is certainly worth pursuing.

Physical construction of new space, however, is both far in the future and totally uncertain. Right now, dance classes take place in academic buildings like Webster, the Theater Department uses three different theater spaces on campus, and Music has practice rooms and a recital hall in Arms and the Stearns-James basement. These spaces are restricted exclusively to members of their respective departments, and are commonly used for jazz combos, dance classes, and student thesis-performances. However, those spaces remain unused for the majority of the school year and represent a physical divide between academic and extracurricular spaces for artistic endeavor.

Restricting artistic space entirely to the few students who devote themselves to an artistic major restricts implicitly general access to art. It is clear that majors should get preferential treatment when it comes to department-managed space, but students should be able to request that space when it can be made available. De-restricting places like the basement practice rooms in this way would be a major step towards not just the inclusion of students who want to pursue art, but supporting their own artistic exercise as well.

The health and well-being of students is certainly benefited by easy access to exercise equipment. But artistic pursuits at a casual level, from playing an instrument to singing or dancing, are instrumental for many students’ mental health. The Nicholls Biondi refit, while it is a measure designed to help the mental health of the student body, actively inhibits students’ access to the arts. Extracurricular space on campus is a limited resource, and no matter what decision the college makes, it will have consequences. But when decisions affecting extracurricular space must be made, we ask that the administration considers the arts — doing so signals a commitment to the arts at Amherst that goes beyond rhetoric.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of the majority of the Editorial Board — (assenting: 13; dissenting: 2; abstaining: 2).

THE AMHERST

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Yee-Lynn Lee Ethan Samuels Managing Editors Theo Hamilton Liam Archacki Editors-at-Large Scott Brasesco Sophie Wolmer Managing News Caelen McQuilkin Tana DeLalio Assistant News Eleanor Walsh Sonia Chajet Wides Managing Opinion Kei Lim Dustin Copeland Assistant Opinion Tapti Sen

Managing Arts & Living Brooke Hoffman Alexander Brandfonbrener Aniah Washington Assistant Arts & Living Yasmin Hamilton Brianne LaBare Madeline Lawson Managing Sports Liza Katz Alex Noga Leo Kamin Nick Edwards-Levin Managing Podcast Sam Spratford Maggie McNamara Managing Photo Emma Spencer Managing Design Brianne LaBare

S TA F F Publisher Robert Bischof Digital Director Sawyer Pollard Social Media Manager Emi Eliason

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The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Opinion

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A Better Amherst: Amherst Isn’t Doing Its Job Charlie Sutherby ’23E, Mason Quintero ’23 Contributing Writers This op-ed is the first part of a three-week series entitled “A Better Amherst.” In this series, we examine the inadequacy of Amherst’s support for students interested in impactful work and careers, and we propose a set of solutions that would make Amherst better for both its students and the world.

Terras Irradient: “Let them give light to the world.”

The mission statement of Amherst College carries a promise.

A promise that Amherst will produce future leaders who strive to solve society’s most pressing problems — that Amherst will empower its graduates to be agents of positive change. Anthony Marx, Amherst’s last president, said it best when he declared: “We’re in the business of graduating people who will make the world better in some way.”

We live in a moment of unprecedented global crises — public health crises, climate crises, and democratic crises, to name just a few. At this moment, the world’s need for changemakers has never been so urgent, and so the stakes of Amherst’s promise have never been higher.

Unfortunately, reality contradicts Amherst’s promise. In 2020, only 9 percent of Amherst’s graduating class took jobs in the government and nonprofit sectors.

Meanwhile, in the same year, 43 percent took jobs in the highwealth sectors of finance, consulting, and tech. These statistics are consistent across the last several years: fewer than one in 10 of us (and in some years, barely one in 20) will find work at governments or nonprofits. Yet, nearly half of us will find ourselves working at the likes of J.P. Morgan, McKinsey, and Apple — organizations driven by profit, not impact. Answering to shareholders, not to a greater good. These are not the organizations solving society’s most pressing issues.

As it turns out, Amherst Col-

lege is one of the worst elite liberal arts colleges in the country at producing graduates who pursue careers in public service. In 2013, the Aspen Institute launched a college rankings initiative that ranked the U.S.’s top 20 liberal arts colleges based on the percentage of graduates that enter public service. Their findings? Amherst was 17th out of 20. By contrast, Swarthmore College has twice the percentage of alumni in public service as Amherst’s Class of 2020. When we look at the numbers, one conclusion becomes undeniable: Amherst is uniquely bad at producing the changemaking alumni that it promises.

In order to understand Amherst’s pitiful public service record, we first have to answer a crucial underlying question: Why do so many of us pursue highwealth jobs rather than working to make a difference in the world?

Dr. Amy Binder, a sociologist at the University of California San Diego, gives us an answer: “Current students are gravitating to Wall Street and consulting firms less by choice than because of the skewed recruiting system the schools themselves helped to create.”

Dr. Binder’s research describes the precarious position that students at elite colleges are in: we’re highly status-conscious and competitive, yet deeply uncertain about our career paths. We have lifelong track records of excelling in highly-structured competitions for prestige — AP classes, varsity soccer teams, Model UN, college applications — in which the next rungs of the ladder are always obvious and stable. But the prospect of choosing a career is the opposite: unstructured, unclear, and unstable. It’s not just overwhelming — it’s downright terrifying.

High-wealth firms take advantage of our uncertain position: they use massive recruiting budgets to monopolize our attention, and they advertise professional development and exit opportunities to alleviate our fears of the future. Other employers — particularly those in the public and social

sectors — simply do not have the resources to compete. The result?

Amherst students are diverted away from impactful career paths and toward high-wealth, low-impact jobs. The lesson here is that when elite colleges don’t take deliberate steps to develop alternative career pathways, students default to what’s most visible. And at Amherst, that’s finance, consulting, and tech.

Amherst lacks pathways into impactful careers, and this is a problem. More than that, it’s a glaring institutional failure. By starving students of exposure to impactful work and of visibility into impactful careers, Amherst is preventing its students from being the changemakers they intend to be. At an unprecedented historical moment in which the world is overwhelmed by crisis, giving students pathways into solving pressing global issues should be among Amherst’s top priorities.

Yet instead of connecting us to organizations that are striving to solve societal issues like climate change and inequality, we’re

steered towards industries which Amherst’s own courses tell us are partly to blame for those very issues. And while some students pursue high-wealth jobs for perfectly justifiable reasons — paying off student debt, securing a U.S. work visa, or actually finding the work enjoyable or meaningful — they're not the majority. Dr. Binder’s research shows that far too many students enter these careers “even as they rationalize that they are on their way to some more noble end.” Yet, research by the Oxford-affiliated group 80,000 Hours has found no evidence that high-wealth careers hold any advantage as launching pads into impactful work (besides paycheck). At best, these jobs delay graduates from doing the work that’s most meaningful, satisfying, and impactful. At worst, they prevent it completely — drawing students into industries, like finance, that made headlines last year for their abusive working conditions.

Thus, without a dramatic shift in Amherst’s efforts to create student pathways into impactful work, the

college will continue to profoundly disservice both students and society.

Amherst College promises that its graduates will go on to make a difference in their communities and in the world. This is a fantastic promise; and with the world-class education Amherst provides, this school has the potential to generate immense positive change.​​ But right now, Amherst does a profoundly inadequate job of connecting students to impactful work. As a result, Amherst betrays its promise. With this betrayal, we stifle the potential of every Amherst student on this campus; we deprive our world of the kinds of leaders it so desperately needs; and we violate the promise that justifies this institution’s very existence. Our students, our alumni, and our world deserve better. We need to change — and, given the urgency of our world’s crises, we need to do so right away.

Thankfully, we can change.

Over the next two weeks, we will explain how — and we hope you’ll stay tuned.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

The Loeb Center on campus houses the career center, which disseminates and promotes job opportunities, career advice, and workshops for students interested in everything from summer internships to long-term jobs.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Opinion

11

A New Fitness Center, at the Expense of Dancers Sarah Weiner ’24 Contributing Writer Vassar College has “Vassar On Tap,” Yale University has “Taps,” and Skidmore College has “The Stompin’ Soles.” Soon, however, Amherst College may no longer have a place where I can tap dance. This realization came after an email from the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) on Feb. 10, which announced that the Nicholls Biondi (NB) fitness studio will be converted into a satellite fitness center — furnished with an elliptical, bikes, a treadmill, and free weights — as a pilot program. The dancers of Amherst College, including myself and multiple dance groups on campus, are frustrated by this unexpected change, which makes the pursuit of our artistic practice unnecessarily difficult. Amherst has a student body with diverse interests, and in order to nurture those interests, we need spaces that are accessible, flexible, and varied. The transition of the studio into a fitness equipment location goes against all of these needs, and therefore minimizes its potential to serve students.

I have been a tap dancer for almost 15 years. With no tap courses or tap-centric groups on campus, I thought it would be a passion I would have to let go of if I came to Amherst. So last semester, I was overjoyed to reignite my passion by choreographing a tap piece for Intersections Dance Company. All of my choreography sessions and nearly all of my rehearsals took place in the NB studio. It is the only easily accessible space on campus with hardwood floors and mirrors. These features are critical for many types of dance, but tap dance in particular: a hardwood floor is the only type of floor that produces the correct sound quality and keeps the dancers, tap shoes, and the floor itself safe. Mirrors facilitate learning group choreography, dancing in unison, and evaluating one’s own technique and artistry. With the transition of the space into a

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Student dance groups, as well as Theater and Dance students, use the Nicholls Biondi Studio, equipped with mirrors and hardwood floors, as a practice and rehearsal space for performances like DASAC's above. “satellite fitness location,” as the email from ResLife put it, I no longer have anywhere on campus with the appropriate amenities to support my passion.

My disappointment also follows the week of remote learning that just concluded, during which I depended on the NB studio to participate in one of my Theater and Dance classes. As a student living in a single room that was converted to house two students this year, I did not have the physical space in my room to fully participate in my class. Even though I would not have faced repercussions from my flexible and understanding professors had I stayed in my room, it is my belief — and not an outrageous one — that I should be able to engage in my courses to the extent that I desire. For myself and other students in my class, the studio offered the only way to participate in our movement class.

The reasons provided by those in favor of the transition (including the college and other students) suggest that there are some students who feel uncomfortable using the Wolff Fitness Center in the presence of other

students, particularly athletes.

In this case, perhaps then the administration should carefully consider the college’s student athlete culture, instead of perpetuating the segregation between athletes and non-athletes on campus.

I digress — my intention is not to dramatize my concerns or throw a pity party for the tap shoes sitting under my bed, because the reality of the situation is that Amherst has an enormous amount of resources that I feel fortunate to have access to. But that is precisely what has confused, frustrated, and disappointed me and the other students who are pushing back against the college’s decision on the NB studio. This resource is a simple ask that has proven to be successful in and critical to supporting a wide variety of student needs, and now it has been denied without consulting the students that rely on it.

In addition to myself and other Theater and Dance students, three Registered Student Organizations (RSO) have been severely impacted by the transition of the space: African and

Caribbean Student Union Dance (ACSU Dance), Dance and Step at Amherst College (DASAC), and Intersections Dance Company. Without the additional studio, these dance groups are rightfully concerned about how they will pull off the sophisticated, student choreographed concerts they have at the end of each semester to celebrate their hard work. Jonathan Paul ’22 (ACSU Dance) and Alexandra Sala ’22 (Intersections) wrote a compelling response to the college’s announcement, which demands that the administration reverse their plan or provide students with an appropriate alternative, and has garnered over 50 signatures as of the time of this article's publication.

The letter highlights pointedly that “a lot of these student groups and clubs which use the Nicholas [sic] Biondi space are focused on and filled with members of minority groups on campus.” It follows by arguing that the college has not only deprived minority groups of an important resource, but also blatantly disrespected their role in our campus’s culture: “These performance groups,

particularly those who prioritize the voices of minority students, have contributed to creativity and culture on-campus that are frequently showcased by the College – yet our contributions don’t seem to be enough to warrant our inclusion in discussions about the spaces we occupy.”

I wholeheartedly support their call to stop the reappropriation of the space or, alternatively, to “provide us with a functional and equipped alternative to the NB Fitness space.”

I am deeply in favor of providing students with opportunities to exercise how they see fit — but not when it is at the expense of other students or the arts community on campus. With an open floor, the NB studio can support many more forms of exercise — including dance, yoga, pilates, martial arts, aerobics, and workouts with free weights — than it can when filled with exercise equipment. And for me, as the singular place on campus where I can tap dance, the NB studio supports my prized form of exercise and art and allows me to share it with our college campus community.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Opinion

12

In Defense of Democracy, a Response to The Contra Tylar Matsuo ’24 Staff Writer This past week, the perpetually crowded bulletin boards in the front entrance to Valentine Dining Hall were graced by a new addition: an anonymously published opinion article that openly advocated for the abolition of democracy, printed in the first edition of the controversial-by-design Amherst Contra.

After years of intense polarization and political turmoil within the American system, I cannot but sympathize with those who find themselves questioning whether our Founding Fathers made some crucial error.

However, whatever errors may have been made, the selection of a democratic system was not one of them. Democracy allows every citizen’s viewpoint to be counted, granting each and every one of us a say in how our lives are governed. This is not a right that should be taken for granted, and the public is not a blind toddler fumbling in the dark after good policy. I hope to demonstrate this while directly addressing the points raised by the anonymous author.

The author proposes technocracy, or rule by experts, as an alternative to democracy, with expertise determined by an individual’s educational status. This system, the author argues, would avert the disastrous results of climate inaction and other crises by removing the influence of the uninformed general public.

This argument ignores the roles of the authoritarian giants Russia and China, as well as various smaller authoritarian states, in contributing to and perpetuating the climate crisis. These non-democratic states have not pursued responsible climate policy. And more to the point, China, the world’s second largest polluter by cumulative emissions and first by annual emissions, functions as a meritocracy, ruled by the well-educated.

The author stated that their system would permit climate

scientists to directly set climate policy, however that system could not in practice differ much from the system of China — or, for that matter, the American EPA. Climate scientists’ policies would interfere with the jurisdictions of other groups of experts, and must be implemented by still other entities. Once economists and agricultural specialists become involved in the debate, the deciding body ceases to be made solely or even predominantly out of climate scientists, and disagreements and deadlock become all the more severe.

Additionally, the system would still need an executive — likely uneducated in climate science — to implement policy and determine which issues are worth delegating to which experts, and when they ought to be delegated in response to changing conditions. Although our republic is not ideal, it has routinely produced educated executives and legislators, advised by experts at well-funded institutions — of which Dr. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases is but one. These experts are those appointed to tackle problems pertinent to the people overseen by an accountable government, rather than those that might be elevated by a small group of unaccountable elites.

The author further argues that their experts would be better informed about the needs of the general public than the public itself, citing vaccine opposition as an example. The counterpoint to this is remarkably simple: the majority of the population is, in fact, favorable to vaccination. In every state except Alabama a majority of the total population has been fully vaccinated, and in every state except Alabama over 60 percent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated (even Alabama fails to meet both metrics by only 0.2 percentage points).

The author’s claim that “most people are simply not capable of understanding what policies best serve their interest” is tenuous at best in light of this data. As a

Photo courtesy of Kei Lim '25 and Dustin Copeland '25

The Amherst Contra publishes "unpopular opinions" from members of the community; the most recent issue presents a piece advocating against democracy. historical example, consider the actions of the British Empire, whose educated parliament pursued disastrous colonial policies justified by a belief that they were able to provide better governance for local populations than those populations were for themselves.

The well-educated elite are also not immune to oppressive decision-making. The author claims that because the academic population tends towards progressive ideals they would be less likely to abuse power than a more moderate elected representative. This is a false equivalency.

The far-left USSR’s perpetration of the Holodomor Genocide and its offenses against the Jewish Refuseniks (whose plight was described by Dr. Lipstadt in her virtual lecture on Feb. 10) are a striking demonstration of the horrors that might be inflicted by an unaccountable left-wing regime. Democracy is not immune from the evils of abusive governance either, but it does at least have the ultimate check of the ballot box, which autocracy does not permit.

Finally, the author briefly mentions the classist and racist nature of their system of gov-

ernance. Because educational attainment is hidden behind a paywall in much of the world and the United States in particular, a system enfranchising only the educated would inevitably exclude the poor, who are disproportionately members of minority groups. The author excuses this discrimination by indicating that the present American system of governance already privileges certain groups above others.

However, the existence of discrimination does not — and must never — justify its perpetuation.

To allow discrimination to be self-justifying is reprehensible; no discriminatory policy should be enacted simply because another discriminatory policy has already been enacted. The author claims that the primary bar to social equality in contemporary society is the public’s ignorance towards systemic discrimination; I claim instead that while ignorance is certainly unhelpful, the primary bar to social equality is the systemic discrimination itself, of which the author’s elitist system would be a prime example.

I close this piece with a note about The Amherst Contra, the forum in which the anonymous

author published their work. The double-sided broadside Contra intends to devote itself to the publication of unpopular opinions and, in doing so, spark discussions that otherwise would not occur. Unfortunately, The Contra’s small physical size prevents it from accepting response letters greater than 250 words in length, one of the reasons why I have chosen to publish this article in The Student instead.

While I wish The Contra well in its mission, I caution that a publication of its nature cannot avoid extremism. Unpopular opinions are often unpopular for a good reason. Although they should be permitted publication when they are not in themselves harmful, these pieces can still have far-reaching repercussions — consider the ramifications of the anonymous author’s piece on anti-intellectualism.

An open call for government by the educated elite cannot but spark rightful anger from those who would be barred from civic participation. I maintain that our long-standing assumptions should be questioned, but that questioning must not be divisive for divisiveness’s sake.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Opinion

13

Seeing Double: Stop Pretending AAS Is Democratic

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Cole Assembly Room, where the Budgetary Committee meets every week to allocate money requested by various student organizations.

Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) did not have a great fall semester. In December, the AAS Senate voted to spend $3,000 of student tuition money on buying jackets for its members (a decision eventually vetoed by the president).

Before that, it appropriated more than $2,000 to the Budgetary Committee, which then used the funds to wine and dine themselves at the swanky Inn on Boltwood. The AAS also got some heat last May for sending out a controversial (although in this author’s opinion, unobjectionable) email on the Israel-Palestine conflict, which led to a hearing last fall at the Judiciary Council.

To justify all these decisions, the AAS always uses the same defense. “[The] AAS is responsive to the people that we represent,” said the mediocre columnist and AAS Senator Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 at the Judiciary hearing.

“That’s why we have elections — we are all elected as members of our student body to represent our peers. That’s also why we have public comment at every meeting and publish our minutes, so

we can be held accountable.” In short, the AAS’s accountability to its voters means that it is free to use its own judgment on controversial matters, and let the voters decide on the issue later.

AAS senators used similar reasoning to justify the questionable use of student funds to purchase sweaters for themselves, with one senator saying that the AAS deserved the jackets because they were “serving the entirety of the College and not just their members.” Another member said it would improve accountability: “If you see someone wearing this sweatshirt, you know that they’re a part of student government and if you have a concern you want to bring up, you can talk to them.”

As we move into yet another AAS election cycle, it would be nice to believe that the AAS is a responsive and representative democracy, but the sad reality is that the AAS’ idealized vision of itself is a fantasy. The AAS is not a healthy or legitimate democracy.

First, let’s consider the elections. The Amherst student body has little real control over who becomes a member of the AAS Senate, because so few people run for election. Last spring, neither the Class of 2023 nor the Class of 2024 had enough candi-

dates in the running, so not only did everyone who ran get elected, but they had to stage an emergency vote the next semester just to get enough warm bodies to fill all the chairs. In the Class of 2022, nine candidates ran for eight spots, technically a competitive election, but only just so.

It’s often said that the people who deserve power are the ones who don’t want it. If true, this would make the AAS the finest legislative body in the country.

The only group of Senate elections to be consistently competitive are the ones for the firstyear class. (It says rather a lot that only the students with no experience in the AAS want to be members.) The problem is that first-year elections are just as much a sham as those of upperclassmen. Lots of students run, but the candidates and voters have only arrived on campus about three weeks before the vote. The candidates don’t know what they’re signing up for, and the voters don’t know the candidates. Can you imagine having to work for a whole year with the people you met in the first three weeks of your first semester?

Real democracy requires voters to have information, and so the first-year elections are little bet-

ter than a big spin wheel. It’s no wonder that voter turnout for all AAS elections is abysmal.

The fact that so many Senate elections are uncontested should immediately raise alarms. Senators are not accountable to their voters. No matter what a senator does in their term of office, they are likely to be reelected, simply because the AAS does not have enough candidates. The AAS might as well be handing us ballots with a single candidate and check marks already inked in.

Amherst College prides itself on advanced political theory, so it seems appropriate that it has managed to replace democracy (rule of the people) with a never-before-described form of government: an ethelocracy (rule of the volunteer).

The AAS, furthermore, is not exactly a forum for debate on contentious campus issues. Of the 40 roll call votes taken by the AAS last semester, only four registered any opposing votes.

The average AAS senator votes “yes” to more than 98 percent of motions. Some have never voted against anything in their entire Senate careers. Maybe we should be glad that the AAS is apparently so good at building consensus, but I’m not sure I could think of any important and meaningful issue that we could get 98 percent of Amherst students to agree on.

But what about the public comment that Mr. Graber-Mitchell speaks so highly of? At least students bring their concerns to the Senate. Except they don’t. According to last fall’s Senate minutes, only one student delivered a public comment over the course of the entire semester. The subject of the comment, appropriately enough, was a complaint about AAS’ lack of publicity.

If the AAS were truly a democratically elected organization, accountable to its constituents, I doubt it would have appropriated thousands of dollars of student money toward luxury clothing and luxury dining. I doubt that, due to a wave of resignations and (one can only assume) apathy,

only an average of 24 out of the 33 senators would have shown up to each of last semester’s Senate meetings. That’s an attendance rate of 72 percent.

I have nothing against the members of AAS, many of whom are deeply invested in making the campus a better place. The AAS, moreover, provides valuable services to the Amherst community, like sitting on faculty committees and managing club budgets.

The problem is not that the AAS does these things — the issue is that the AAS sees itself as more than an administrative body. It believes that it is the legitimate representative of student will, and can therefore spend student money without restrictions, and speak for the entire student body.

That said, I don’t think the AAS is beyond saving. If it wants to become a healthy democracy, it will need to institute serious reforms. First and foremost, we need to get people invested in participating in the AAS elections. Perhaps that would mean giving AAS senators a salary for the hours they work, or simply putting more hot-button issues on the AAS agenda, so that students will feel that there is more at stake in the debates. The Constitution could also use some changes, to add more specific rules about AAS spending, and maybe even require a certain level of voter participation before senators can officially take office.

If all that sounds like too much work, however, there is another solution. The AAS could just change the way it describes itself. Instead of calling itself a Senate, it would be far more accurate for today’s AAS to call itself a group of administrative volunteers. That’s not an insult.

Amherst already has plenty of important committees where students are present, without claiming to have any kind of democratic mandate. Of course, “volunteer” doesn’t look as good on a resume as “Elected Senator representing the Student Body,” but democracy, first and foremost, requires honesty.

Amusements

w

The Amherst Student Crossword | Feb. 16, 2022 ACROSS 1 "The Lion King" lioness 5 "Allahu ___!"

10 Kept in the e-loop 14 Major likely to send students to Wall Street 15 Major likely to send students to medical school 16 Call to a mate 17 Smelly 18 Rapper Kweli 19 Give up 20 Ones who find the pen mightier than the sword 23 Post-op stop 24 Like fresh french fries 27 Pack animals 31 "Hold it!"

33 Honda SUV 34 Loud, as a crowd 35 Bloke 36 2022 Super Bowl-losing state 37 Academic robes 38 "Ouch," over text 39 Rhett Butler's last words 40 Little rascals 41 Un-fur-tunate 2019 film?

42 "Death of a Salesman" salesman 43 Saul's uncle 44 "Alas!"

45 Barney-esque 46 Mario's first enemy 48 Like a leg, but higher 49 Rice Krispies' Pow and Pop Tarts' Milton the Toaster, or a hint to 20-Across, 27-Across, and 45-Across with 31-Down 56 Related 58 "Bad, Bad ___ Brown" 59 Actor's accessory 60 Western state, slangily 61 "Stayin' ___" 62 43,560 square feet 63 Sir ___ Guinness 64 Wired 65 Ocean liner?

DOWN 1 Toy gun brand 2 Trendy smoothie berry 3 Like a three-hour lecture 4 Egyptian symbol of life 5 Hijinks 6 Actor Reeves 7 Black Sea country: abbr.

8 Give it ___ (swing hard) 9 Crime-fighting cyborg of film 10 Mojave flora 11 Beth Harmon or Magnus Carlsen's title, casually 12 5 p.m., in a workplace memo 13 Kill one's natural hair shade?

21 Wedding cake layers 22 Pitcher's stat 25 Like some screams 26 Actress Strahovski 27 Carrying on, as in a war 28 Start of Juliet's cry 29 Inconspicuous 30 Skater's sneakers 31 Yolk surrounder 32 Chance occurrences, archaically 35 Study belatedly 36 Scent 39 Uhuru Kenyatta and Sarah Bloom Raskin, to Amherst 41 Braided bread 44 ___-Wan Kenobi 45 Bedtime recitation 47 Overly intense 48 "Get ___ on!"

50 Slippery 51 Fashion sense, slangily 52 No. crunchers 53 Sea World attraction 54 Of two minds 55 Zipped 56 Obamacare initials 57 Penn of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"

Liam Archacki ’24 and Ryan Yu ’22 Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus

Solutions: Feb. 9

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Amusements

15

Satire: What to Know About the Winter Olympics Andrew Rosin ’25 Staff Writer

to use skates as weapons when judges not watching.

goes to country with best-designed sleigh.

quad axel but didn’t stop spinning for a full 4.5 days afterwards.

to rap original verses as they descend the slopes.

Alpine Skiing What to know: The signature Winter Olympics event, alpine skiers haven’t competed on real snow since before the Industrial Revolution.

Speed Skating What to know: Presumably the same thing as short track speed skating but on a longer track.

Cross Country Skiing What to know: Biathlon but you don’t get to shoot anything.

Nordic Combined What to know: Featuring cross country skiing and ski jumping, Nordic combined is the only event that rivals the biathlon for most confusing combination of skills.

Ice Hockey What to know: Everyone knows what ice hockey is.

Curling What to know: An extremely strenuous, prestigious, and well-respected display of athleticism.

Biathlon What to know: Unfortunately, nobody knows who decided to combine cross country skiing and shooting, nor what purpose this event serves.

Short Track Speed Skating What to know: Athletes allowed

Bobsleigh What to know: Gold medal

Snowboard What to know: Event officially removed from Olympic Games following Shaun White’s final run of career.

Figure Skating What to know: Hard to watch in good conscience since Hanyu Yuzuru attempted the first ever

Red Herring: Add/Drop Game

Ski Jumping What to know: Hard to top Eddie the Eagle’s performance at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

Freestyle Skiing What to know: Skiers required

Luge What to know: New studies reveal that luge requires athletes to not fall off of their sled.

Skeleton What to know: Similar skill set to luge but ideal for athletes who prefer higher probability of severe head injury.

by Isaac Streiff ’24

g Arts&Living

Wordle Weakens Words: An Analysis of Word Games

Photo courtesy of pxfuel.com

Word games such as the New York Times Spelling Bee and Wordle have skyrocketed in popularity. Ross Kilpatrick '24E breaks down his issues with the games, arguing that words are relegated to trivial tiles, stripped of their meaning.

Ross Kilpatrick ’24E Staff Writer I should like word games. I think Spelling Bee, found in The New York Times Games page, is okay. Scrabble isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever played, and I’ll admit that I’ve been playing a little bit of Wordle recently.

But, despite some surface level affection, I deeply despise all of these word games. I’ve been forced to think about them recently, as Wordle has exploded in popularity, its sleek, daily drip of short puzzles captivating for our distraction-oriented age. Word games are a very particular type of game that seem to appeal to a very particular type of person.

The fact that The New York Times boasts an impressive word game selection is no coincidence. Word games appeal to the Times reader, the educated cosmopolitan.

Someone who has read a lot. And that seems to make sense. They are word games.

But I don’t think this makes sense. I dislike word games precisely because I like words. I think word games are dismissive of words. Games like Wordle and Scrabble and Spelling Bee are ordering games with the aesthetic, but none of the substance, of words. They’re really games about series of symbols.

In most word games, words are disconnected from their central fun and purpose (crosswords are a notable exception). Word games aren’t about playing with meanings; rather, they’re about playing with symbols. Games like Wordle and Scrabble might as well be played with Greek letters, because the meaning of the words involved never comes into play. And in games like Scrabble, meaning is so disconnected from

the play that nonsense words are frequently allowed, such as the list of two-letter words in the Scrabble dictionary. These two-letter words don’t mean anything, but they’re useful to the game. They make the design and play of Scrabble easier.

This is why I don’t like word games. I like words, and I like them precisely because they marry meaning and symbol, sounds and letters. Words are useful and interesting because of this marriage. Words can be delightful or strange, but only by way of their meanings. A word like effervescent or twinkle can “sound” like what it means. One can practically hear malice drip from the word itself. But all of this relies on us grasping and appreciating the meaning of words. After all, that’s why we have them.

Word games ignore all of this entirely. Words are made into

meaningless stones, mere game pieces whose utility comes only from their predefined status as “legal” and “illegal” moves. Scrabble doesn’t need to define what legal and illegal letter series are, because there already exists a dictionary. But that’s all that words are for word games. The word game doesn’t care for the word as a unit of meaning, but as a legal series in a dictionary.

Our fascination with word games is a fascination with ordering, nothing more. The word game might as well be a number game. Wordle might as well be, like its analog ancestor Mastermind, played with colored dots.

To even call them “word games” presumes that these games have a connection with words that they don’t actually have. They’re ordering games, series games.

The New York Times might try to cultivate its Games page to ap-

peal to the modern reader. But the skills of a modern reader are wasted playing these games. An appreciation for words might even be a detriment. When you play these games, you might be distracted by the beauty of the playthings — the words and letters — and spot some underlying meaning while the word game algorithmically processes on, demanding we simply order its symbols to win.

I admit I’ve played Wordle every day for the past two weeks.

But Wordle is a grim vision of words. It’s a computer vision of words. No wonder it was made by a programmer as a gift for his girlfriend. It’s the epitome of the boyfriend gift. Sweet, but fumbling, a last-minute Valentine’s gift for the word aficionado. A semblance of the thing, with none of their substance. From a computer lover that doesn’t really understand you, and never will.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Arts & Living

17

“The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window”: Strong Storyline, Shoddy Satire

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Starring Kristen Bell, "The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window" attempts to satirize mystery thrillers while playing to the strengths of the genre.

Eren Levine ’24 Staff Writer An attention-grabbing title is just the tip of the iceberg with the complicated, somewhat unclear satirical murder mystery “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.” The name of this new Netflix series hints that the show may not be completely serious, because, let’s be honest, what self-respecting show would have a title that is so winding and repetitive — and 14 words long, no less? However, because the plot of the show is similar to that of the mystery thrillers which it aims to make fun of, it is rather difficult to see it as completely satirical unless you know to look for the jokes.

As someone who enjoys the genre that this show imitates, I was drawn to it without knowing about its satirical intentions, even though I suspected it may not be completely serious because of the title. Despite having a hunch that the show was supposed to be satire, however, I didn’t fully grasp all the satirical moments until after I finished watching and read more about the show. Was the satire well-done, then, or just a flop? On the one hand, shows that are very clearly satire sometimes feel so simple and obvious that they become unenjoyable. On the other hand, satire that is too difficult to recognize can hardly be seen as successful.

The plotline of a woman who is always slightly drunk, and

whose life is falling apart, witnessing a murder that no one believes her about is both extremely specific and a story that has somehow been created and recreated numerous times. For this reason, I understand the appeal of poking fun at this bizarre genre. I watched “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” in one day, and was eager to discover who the murderer was and the explanation for all the complicated twists and turns in the plot, so in that sense, I would say the show was successful.

However, I believe I would have enjoyed the series just as much if it was not a satire. The recurrence of casseroles, a debilitating fear of rain, and a handyman who took years to fix a

mailbox all caught my attention as out of the ordinary, but because I was not totally aware that the show was satirical, I assumed they would eventually play into the plot by showing who the murderer was. If the show was more obviously satirical, I might have more fully appreciated these moments for what they were meant to be.

Unconvinced by the show’s satire, I also misinterpreted several elements of the plot, such as the death of Anna’s daughter.

I initially thought Anna’s character was making up the story about how her daughter died when she shared that her daughter had been killed and eaten by a cannibal while accompanying her dad to work at a prison. This gruesome story about her death felt too unrealistic to me, even though I had the faint idea that the show was not completely serious. Most parts of the show that had confused me at first later made sense and felt comedic in hindsight, but this detail did not. It was just so impossible and gruesome — far beyond the slight unconventionality of other satirical moments in the show — that I simply could not find the humor in it.

One very small detail did stand out to me, however, although I didn’t know what to make of it until I read about it after finishing the show. When

Anna visits her daughter’s grave in the beginning of the show, the epitaph reads, “If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.” This caught my attention as sweet but not something I would think to put on a gravestone. By the last episode, the epitaph said, “There is no ‘I’ in heaven,” which makes no sense and sounds quite ridiculous. I was confused as to why it had changed and wondered if there was going to be some sort of supernatural component to the show. After reading about it, though, I learned that the epitaph kept changing to be something even more absurd than the last, reinforcing the idea that this is a satire meant to make fun of the ridiculous nature of the genre. I ended up really enjoying this small detail because it felt like a simple and subtle satirical moment that contributed to the mood of the show as a whole.

Overall, I loved “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a short, bingeable, and thrilling series. However, I would have preferred if the satirical nature of the show was slightly more apparent. While it is difficult to achieve a balance of clear but not overly obvious satire, this change would have made me appreciate the show even more.

VALHACKS

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Arts & Living

Audrey Rosevear ’22 Staff Writer Last semester, my debut Val Hacks article about Tikka Masala prompted lots of comments along the lines of “looks delicious, but I will never make it!”

Turns out Amherst College usually keeps us too busy to do elaborate cooking projects — who knew! (Although, for anyone thinking about making it, now’s the time — Val now provides cumin and Greek yogurt during dinner.)

I want this column to share recipes that are more accessible to the community, so this week I’ll do something a little easier: deviled eggs! I’ve been absolutely addicted to these yummy snacks in the last few weeks.

They're a great way to both bulk up a mediocre Val meal and impress friends at your next wine and cheese party. Without further ado: Deviled Eggs Recipe makes 4 deviled eggs.

All ratios are approximate and to taste.

Ingredients • •

Photo courtesy of Audrey Rosevear ’22

Audrey Rosevear '22 presents "Val Hacks," a column dedicated to exploring the culinary possibilites of Valentine Dining Hall. On this week's menu is her recipe for deviled eggs, Val-style.

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2 hard-boiled eggs (salad bar) 1 packet or 1 tablespoon mayonnaise (sandwich bar) 2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard (sandwich bar) 2 sliced pickles (sandwich

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bar) Salt (spice bars) Pepper (spice bars) Cajun seasoning bars)

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(spice

Directions Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and gently scoop out the yolks. Dice the pickles as small as possible, and mix them with the yolks, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper. I recommend mashing with a fork to get a nice creamy texture. Don’t skimp on the mayo here! Scoop the filling back into the egg whites, and top with a hefty sprinkle of Cajun seasoning.

Notes You can also make egg salad using the exact same recipe — just cut up the egg whites and toss them in too. It will be more flavorful than Val’s!

Traditionally, deviled eggs are made with paprika instead of Cajun seasoning, but Val doesn’t have paprika. Luckily, the first ingredient in Cajun is paprika, and the seasoning also adds some other interesting flavors to the mix.

If Val ever brings back the Worcestershire sauce, you can substitute that in for the pickles. I grew up making these with Worcestershire sauce, but some of my friends grew up using pickles, and both are plenty tasty.

We want YOUR Val Hacks!

Send us your gourmet recipes, dishes, and desserts at astudent@amherst.edu.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Arts & Living

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“Dexter: New Blood” Brings New Justice to an Old Story Brianne LaBare ’25 Assistant Arts and Living Editor After an eight-season run that began in 2006 and garnered 2.8 million views during its finale on Showtime in 2013, “Dexter” has returned for its final season eight years later.

With speculation about the hit show’s return beginning in July 2021, “Dexter: New Blood” aired on its original network on Nov. 7, 2021, raking in a staggering eight million viewers each week during its ten-episode run.

While the original “Dexter” garnered a considerable amount of popularity, the show’s final episode, “Remember the Monsters?” ended in what is now considered one of the worst TV series finales of all time.

The show stars Dexter (Michael C. Hall), a forensic blood splatter analysis who works for the Miami Metro Police Department. While Dexter plays a pristine and precise tech guy by day, he moonlights as a vigilante serial killer targeting murders who evaded the justice system.

Season eight concluded with Dexter mercifully pulling the plug on his sister Debra “Deb” Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) and dumping her body in the ocean, while a major hurricane brewed on the Miami coast. He then drove into the eye of the hurricane, leading viewers to believe that Dexter had met his demise.

The finale concluded with a shocking twist revealing that Dexter had faked his own death and moved to Oregon, where he began to work as a lumberjack.

“Dexter: New Blood” picks up where the original series left off. Hall returns as the vigilante serial killer turned dormant outdoorsman now living in Iron Lake, N.Y. After nearly a decade of being a docile small-town salesman, Dexter appears again, now using the alias of Jim Lindsay.

Unsurprisingly, much of the plot revolves around Dexter’s past working its way into his present. His longlost son, Harrison Morgan (Jack Alcott), reappears in Dexter’s life after years of thinking that Dexter had passed in the hurricane that swept the Miami coast in the season finale.

His son’s sudden return compels Dexter to conceal the life of murder

Photo courtesy of StaticFlickr.com

"Dexter: New Blood" wrapped up the original series with a satisfyingly grim ending. Assistant Arts and Living Editor Brianne LaBare '25 explores the binge-worthy series and its effect on the legacy of the "Dexter" franchise. and deception he left behind years ago in Miami. Dexter’s secrets, however, ultimately prevent him from fully forming a relationship with his son, who appears to have violent tendencies, much like his father. Viewers can see that Dexter desperately wants to be a good father to Harrison, yet his past impedes his ability to do so.

It’s this desire that causes Dexter to share with his son his internal “dark passenger” — Dexter’s urge to kill — and “The Code of Harry” — a set of guidelines created by Dexter’s adopted father, Harry Morgan, and Dr. Evelyn Vogel, a neuropsychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of psychopaths, to help Dexter channel his need to kill. Harrison inevitably becomes Dexter’s sidekick, and they dream of leaving Iron Lake and becoming a crime-stopping team.

Dexter’s plans are foiled by his girlfriend, Chief of Police Angela Bishop (Julia Jones), who discovers his true identity and seeks to punish him to the fullest extent of the law.

Escaping the irons of his jail cell, the unkillable Dexter is forced to bend the rigged rules of his code and kill Sergeant Logan (Alano Miller), who is also Harrison’s wrestling coach.

In the process of evading capture in Iron Lake, Harrison learns of Logan’s death and is beside himself.

Aware that Dexter violated “The Code of Harry,” he realizes that Dexter’s need to kill cannot be contained by any code that can easily be transgressed. He decides he will not flee with his father. As Dexter’s world comes crashing down once again, he realizes his efforts were hopeless and that he is beyond redemption. In the scene leading up to his final moments, Dexter says, “This is the only way out. For the both of us.” We see a defeated and seemingly accepting Dexter point to the kill spot on his chest. Harrison shoots and Dexter falls into the snow.

Lying face up in the snow, the untouchable Dexter’s blood pools around him, and for the first time, we recognize that he is feeling love.

In his final moment, he sees his deceased sister Deb — an ever-present part of Dexter’s imagination who subconsciously acts as an honest narrator of his decisions — pulling away from him as his heart rate and breathing slow.

Harrison leaves his dying father and drives out of the icy small town.

In a bag on the passenger seat beside him, he finds the letter his father had written explaining his departure at the end of the original series.

In his final words, Dexter reveals his humanity by describing his son as his “phantom limb,” and viewers are forced to confront how difficult it was for Dexter to leave his son. A stark contrast to the sentiment viewers were left with at the end of the season-eight finale.

Given the ending of “Dexter: New Blood,” it’s safe to say that the Dexter era has come and gone twice now. With the death of Dexter, it’s difficult to see the franchise reemerging with another spin-off. In many ways, the limited series ending adds a much-needed and desired end to a series that has captivated viewers and left them questioning for nearly a decade.

The new rendition combines the nostalgia of the original series with a contemporary flair, creating a product that has transcended through time. Much of what made the original so memorable remains — Dexter’s omnipresent inner voice, his bloodthirst, and the thrill of watching him evade capture time and time

again. Leaving “Dexter: New Blood” so spiritually close to the original series gives long-time fans a resolution to Dexter’s tumultuous tale. For new viewers, the fanfare surrounding the miniseries may just provide you with your next binge-worthy series.

Although speculations of a spinoff series involving Harrison have circulated through the Showtime stratosphere, Dexter’s ultimate sendoff left fans with a definite ending to Dexter’s life of homicide.

The ending is a grim look at the fallout of Dexter’s choices and serves as a comeuppance of sorts. Unlike his self-inflicted punishment in the original show that left him isolated in the Oregon wilderness, this new ending invokes a more severe punishment for his past actions, particularly because it is at the hands of his own flesh and blood.

Just as Dexter’s ever-present inner monologue fades out of earshot, the credits roll. As the words scroll along the blank screen, the eerie introduction to Jon and Daniel Licht’s “Die This Way” plays, and viewers are left with only the realization that this is the last we will ever see of Dexter.

Sp ports

Women’s Basketball Seeded Third, NESCACs Next Carter Hollingsworth ’25 Staff Writer On Friday, Feb. 11, the women’s basketball team secured an impressive 49-42 win over Trinity in a thriller in which neither team led by more than seven points throughout the contest. The win over the Bantams, the top seed in the NESCAC, extended the Mammoths’ win streak to eight, the longest active streak in the conference. Not only did the victory reaffirm the Mammoths’ status as conference title contenders, but it also cemented their status nationally, leaving them with a national ranking of 11 heading into the NESCAC tournament next weekend.

With only two minutes left in the second quarter of the game, AnLing Vera ’25 gave the Mammoths their first lead since Dani Valdez ’22 opened the scoring when Vera completed a three-point play after being fouled on a fast-break layup to bring the score to 15-12. Despite Trinity entering the second half with a 2119 lead, the Mammoths wouldn’t go away, keeping the game close until Gabrielle Zaffiro ’22 scored a three-pointer in the fourth quarter to give Amherst a lead that they would not give up. And although Trinity’s 29 percent scoring percentage was

only 1 percent worse than Amherst’s 30 percent mark, the Mammoths’ aggressiveness proved to be a winning factor: the Mammoths took 11 more shots than Trinity during the contest.

Vera led the game in scoring, racking up 20 points and three steals to lead the Mammoths to victory. Valdez also scored 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds during the closely-fought game. Amherst’s win put them in a tie with Trinity on top of the conference standings, but the Bantams pulled back ahead with a win over Hamilton the following day.

Prior to the game, the Mammoths honored their five outstanding seniors: Jade DuVal ’22, Lauren Pelosi ’22, Courtney Resch ’22, Valdez, and Zaffiro, who were all playing in their final NESCAC regular-season game at LeFrak Gymnasium.

Senior DuVal said, “It feels weird to be nearing the end of my career as a college athlete, but I am excited going into NESCAC playoffs with my team. The other seniors and I have been working hard this year to build a healthier team culture after tough losses on the team two years ago, yet it is our underclassmen who have reminded me of the reasons I love the sport. Whatever happens next all I want is for our team to have a season that brings us joy to look back on.”

That culture was on full display on Monday, Feb. 14, when the Mammoths took on New Jersey City University in their last regular-season contest of the 2021-22 season.

In a nail-biter of a game which saw the Mammoths trail for the majority, the team gritted out a four-point win. After a slow start to the game in which neither team could find their rhythm, the Gothic Knights found theirs first, building a nine-point lead with 1:53 to go in the second quarter. But the Mammoths wouldn’t go away: they went on a 7-0 run to close the half only down 28-26. On a day where the shots just wouldn’t fall (the team shot only 28 percent from the field), the Mammoths found a way, keeping the game close and never letting their opponents gain too large of a lead. The turning point came with three and a half minutes to go, when Vera and Kori Barach ’25 hit three-pointers on three straight possessions to turn a six-point deficit into a three point lead that the Mammoths would not give up. After a rollercoaster of a game, the team left Hixon Court with a hard-fought 5652 win, their ninth victory in a row.

Vera said of the last few games, “I think these past couple of games have really shown us that we are able to come together and pick each other

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Jade DuVal ’22 plays defense in a game versus Emmanuel College earlier this season. up during some of the toughest moments. We’ve proven to be resilient fighters and I’m excited to see this momentum carry us into the final stretch of the season!”

The Mammoths will look to extend their winning streak next weekend during the NESCAC Championships, entering the tournament ranked third after an incredible regular season: winning the Little Three title, compiling an 18-2 overall record with an 8-2 NESCAC record, and averaging an impressive 13.7 point margin of victory over their opponents over the course of the

season.

The NESCAC tournament will look a little different than years past due to Covid causing challenges for rescheduling, and the potential for a disparity in the number of regular-season conference games played.

The NESCAC membership has agreed that all NESCAC teams will be included in this year’s basketball championship field. The Mammoths will host the NESCAC Quarterfinals on Sunday, Feb. 20, playing the winner of the game between No. 6 Bowdoin and No. 11 Colby, with tip-off set for 2 p.m. at Lefrak Gymnasium.

Track and Field Continues on Pace, Looks Toward DIIIs Ava O'Connor ’24 Staff Writer On Feb. 12, the men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Middlebury to compete in their penultimate regular-season meet. With the men placing second and the women placing third, the upcoming Division III New England Championships are looking promising for the Mammoths.

The women’s team won first place in four events at Middlebury, with Eliza Cardwell ’25 dominating the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.92 seconds. This blazing fast time tied

for the 10th-best time in Division III this season, and qualified her for the individual NCAA Championships next month as one of Division III’s top-20 times. Jordan Hecker ’25 tied the Amherst school record in the pole vault, clearing 3.4 meters and finishing second overall in the event and as the highest-placing Division III jumper. The Mammoths also had success in the distance medley relay: Julia Schor ’25, Artis Phillips ’25, Margo Pedersen ’25, and Sophia Wolmer ’23 crossed the line in 12:47.84 to bring home the gold.

But the Mammoths’ success wasn’t limited to the track. Muffie

Mazambani ’24 won the long jump and the triple jump with winning jumps of 5.18 and 11.15 meters, respectively. Both were personal bests, and her strong performance late in the season bodes well for the team’s hopes at New Englands.

For the men, Keon Mazdinsian ’23 won the mile with an outstanding time of 4:28.76, and Jack O’Hara ’25 won the 400-meter dash in 53.10 for his first collegiate win. Henry Buren ’22 swept the short sprint events, with times of 7.10 in the 60-meter dash and 22.97 in the 200-meter dash. Troy Colleran ’22 continued his stellar season, qualifying for New

Englands in the 60-meter dash by winning his preliminary heat in 7.14 before sitting out the finals. Gabriel Dos Santos ’24 won the high jump, scoring a personal-best mark of 1.90 meters that qualified him for New Englands.

Dos Santos stated, “Injury has been plaguing our team, but even while short-staffed, the coaches are doing their best to accommodate everyone. It will be interesting to see how our team will be when everyone is healthy.” Despite some injuries holding the Mammoths back, they continue to perform at the highest level and place well at competitions.

The team’s performances placed them second overall, behind only Merrimack College, which is currently in the process of transitioning from Division II to Division I. Both the men’s and women’s teams are beginning to hit their stride this season, and will look to heat up as they prepare to compete in the Ruddy Invitational at Bowdoin this coming Saturday, Feb. 19. With only one regular season meet left to qualify for the New England Championships, the Mammoths expect to leave it all out on the track and the field as they hope to qualify as many people as possible for postseason meets.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Sports

Mammoth two teams used a square playing field rather than Amherst boasts the oldest colle- the current basegiate baseball program in the world ball diamond. Basand is widely recognized for playing es were four-feet tall wooden stakes — and winning — the first ever in- that emerged from the ground and tercollegiate baseball game against were placed 60 feet apart from each perennial rival Williams College. other. The “striker,” or batter, stood The game took place in 1859 — 44 halfway between first base and home years before the first World Series plate (referred to then as “home — the same year that Oregon was base”), while the “thrower,” or pitchadmitted as the 33rd U.S. state and er, stood in the center of the field. two years prior to the start of the Like cricket, all batted balls were Civil War. considered in play. There were no The contest was originally pro- balls or called strikes when pitchposed by Williams and included a ing — strikes were only called if a subsequent chess match between batter swung at a pitch and missed. the two schools, with the objective If a striker repeatedly refused not to of conducting a “trial of swing at good pitches mind as well as muscle.” in an attempt to delay Williams administrators the game, however, insisted that the schools the umpire would play at a neutral location, first give a warning, which was determined and then start awardto be Pittsfield, Mass., a ing called strikes if simple 20-mile journey the batter continued for Williams but a 90to let good pitches go. mile trek for Amherst.

Like the classic modBecause neither school ern game of “runH.D. Hyde '61. had an organized club for ning bases,” pegging the sport at the time, the two teams was allowed, meaning an out could were chosen by a ballot that consist- be recorded if a fielder hit a runner ed of the students at large. But that with the ball. didn’t necessarily mean that no one Each inning lasted until only had any experience in the sport: the one out was made, so the game was Amherst Junior and Sophomore played until a specific number of classes played a game against each “tallies,” or runs, was recorded. Amother the previous year. herst and Williams decided to play to 65 tallies, with rosters composed of Baseball in the 19th 13 players each. Each team provided Century its own ball, each with slight differences, which was to be used when its There were two forms of rules respective team was in the field. that governed baseball at the time: Massachusetts rules and New York “They had never seen so rules. New York rules more close- fine amateur playing” ly resemble the modern game, but Massachusetts rules were better esThe game began at 11:30 a.m. tablished at the time and were cho- on July 1, 1859. Amherst started sen for the contest. the game as well as any team could, Under Massachusetts rules, the as catcher and captain J.F. Claflin Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor

led off with a home run to put the Mammoths on the board first. Williams pulled ahead in the second inning to take an early 9-2 lead, but Amherst never faltered, scoring 12 times in the fifth inning to take a 22-20 lead and did not look back. Amherst reached the 65-run mark in the 26th inning, but without a mercy rule the inning continued until an out was recorded, allowing the Mammoths to pile on 10ten total runs in the inning, eight more than the targeted tally.

The game ended 73-32 in favor of Amherst (Amherst had actually proposed the run-limit to be 75 tallies, but Williams, perhaps wary of Amherst’s might, did not accept these terms).

Amherst was powered by strong performances from the top of their lineup. The top three batters for Amherst generated 19 runs and only three outs. Claflin never made an out and recorded seven tallies, and, as captain, he directed his players when to run on the basepaths, preventing the erroneous baserunning errors that were common among Williams’ runners. He is said to have led with “perfect, military discipline.” The top three batters for Williams, on the other hand, were responsible for just one run and recorded 14 outs.

Amherst also benefited from a powerful pitching performance from H.D. Hyde, who pitched the entire three-and-a-half- hour contest. He is said to have thrown every ball “at the beck of the catcher, with a precision and strength which was remarkable — more faultless and scientific throwing we have never seen.”

A rumor circulated among Williams players that Hyde was a professional blacksmith who was hired specifically for the game, “for nobody but a blacksmith could throw in such a manner.” These claims “afforded great amusement to that player and his comrades.”

21

Memories

An article from the Amherst Express writes that students, after learning of the victory, “leaped from The chess match took place the their quiet couches, and from their very next day, and there was a nearly open windows made the welkin ring unanimous consensus that Williams with the shout, ‘Amherst wins! 71 to would emerge victorious. Chess was 31!’” (this was the text of the telemainly seen as a social activity at gram, which got the score wrong, as Amherst, and the skill of their rep- the final was 73-32). Many students resentatives was largely unknown. assembled on college hill, and the In contrast, Williams was led by E.S. bells in Johnson Chapel played “its Brewster, a 16-year-old prodigy who merriest peals.” Students started a was widely considered to be a chess bonfire at the bottom of the hill, and genius. Brewster, however, was said celebrated “with a copious display of to have been the victim of a severe enthusiasm and rockets.” stomach ache the night before the News of the victory in chess did match and was not at the top of his not reach the campus until July 4, but game I (though it must also be not- it was met with similar enthusiasm ed, though, that Claflin, who had that added to the celebrations of Inplayed such a dependence Day. massive role in A parade made its the previous way to the homes day’s game the of President Steaday before and rns and Dr. Hitchwas recovering cock, who each f romcoming delivered speechoff of a sickness es to the exuberof his own, was ant crowd. Claflin, a member of who returned to the Amherst campus later than The 1873 roster. chess team. He the other players, was the only individual to participate was bombarded by a large gathering in both contests). of students in his room upon his reThe two schools sent teams of turn and gave a speech of his own. three players for the match, with Williams requested a rematch each team allowed 15 minutes to in both contests, but Amherst remake their move. After a marathon spectfully declined, claiming that of a game that took a total of 48 it interrupted college duties for moves and 11 hours, Williams was too long. After their dominant “obliged to yield to the mathematical showings in both fields, what else discipline of Amherst,” as Amherst was there to prove? achieved an unexpected and brilliant Thus, the rivalry between Amvictory, their second in two days. herst and Williams was taken to new heights. Even in the earliest “A copious display of days of the rivalry, Amherst won enthusiasm and rockets” with dignity, stating that “these trials of strength and skill will Word of the baseball team’s vic- only serve to increase our mututory reached the Amherst campus by al good will and friendship” with telegraph at 11:00 p.m. on July 1, and Williams. excitement quickly spread among Photos courtesy of Amherst the student body.

Athetics and Wikimedia

“Trial of mind”

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Sports

22

Men’s Hockey Beats Conn College, Falls to Tufts Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor While most of campus enjoyed their first Friday night after a week of Zoom classes, the Amherst men’s hockey team took the short bus ride to Connecticut College on Feb. 11 to take on the Camels in the first of two games that were vital to the Mammoths’ NESCAC postseason seeding.

The Mammoths took a 1-0 lead early in the second period off a Connor McGinnis ’24 power-play goal from the left faceoff circle, assisted by a perfect pass from Sean Wrenn ’22. After Conn scored to even the game at one, the score stood there for the rest of the period, but not much longer. Aware of the game’s high stakes, the Mammoths came out of the locker room firing in the third, scoring three goals in the final frame.

Only 2:51 into the period, Matteo

Mangiardi ’22E scored on a breakaway that resulted from another beautiful pass, this time from Pieter von Steinbergs ’22E. The onslaught would continue shortly thereafter, with Wrenn scoring to make the game 3-1 only eight minutes later and Ben Kuzma ’25 putting the game to rest four minutes after that. The Mammoths’ dominating third-period performance sent the Camels back to their dorms with a 4-1 defeat.

The victory provided the Mammoths with three of the six points that they desperately needed to improve their NESCAC seeding.

However, the joys of that victory would not last long. Traveling to Tufts the next day, the Mammoths were hoping to continue their impressive run of form into the game against the Jumbos. But a flat start doomed them in a game that they will definitely want back. The Mammoths did not get the type of stifling

defensive performance that they have been accustomed to all season, giving up a goal in the first six minutes of play to quickly find themselves in a 1-0 hole. While a Wrenn tip-in goal would tie the game a minute later, the first period ended with the Mammoths giving up two more goals before the horn. The second period wouldn’t prove to be much better, with the Mammoths giving up two more goals in the first three minutes of the period.

With their backs to the boards, the team put forth a mammoth offensive effort in the final period, with Greg McGunigle ’23 scoring at the four-minute mark and Joey Verkerke ’23 adding a goal of his own midway through the frame to reduce the Jumbos’ lead back to only two. But the Jumbos pulled away again, ballooning the lead to 7-3 before Ryan Tucker ’24 and Matt Toporoski ’25 scored to pull the Mammoths with-

in two goals for the third time in the game. This is the closest they would get though, as an empty-netter from the Jumbos finished the game off, ending the wildly high-scoring contest with an 8-5 loss for the Mammoths. The eight goals allowed by the Mammoths are the most that they have given up since a 10-2 loss to Babson College in January of 2007.

With the uneven weekend, the Mammoths move to 9-10-2 overall with an 8-7-1 conference record. Because of the Covid-impacted season and the many cancellations occurring throughout, the NESCAC has changed the tournament format for this year. Every team will make the tournament, with seeds determined by points percentage in the final conference standings, and matchups will be announced following the conclusion of regular season play.

The Mammoths currently sit in fifth place, and will look to improve their

seeding in their last two regular season games next weekend.

McGinnis confirmed the enormity of these two games. “This weekend coming up is a big one for us,” he said. “The standings are very tight and we are trying to earn a top-four seed so we have home ice advantage in the playoffs. We have to bounce back from a tough game Saturday, and hopefully being at home and it being Senior Night will only help.

With two wins, our head coach [Jack Arena] would hit 500 career wins on Senior Night, which would be pretty special. There’s plenty of motivation for this weekend, so we need a big week of practice and [to] come ready to earn six points this weekend.”

Middlebury and rival Williams are coming to Orr Rink on Friday, Feb. 18, and Saturday, Feb. 19. The puck will drop versus the Panthers at 7 p.m. on Friday and against the Ephs at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Women’s Swim Finds Team Success at NESCACs Violet Glickman ’25 Staff Writer This year, women’s swim took third place for the third consecutive year at NESCAC Championships, held on Feb. 10-13 at Colby in Waterville, Maine. With their 1,136 points, the Mammoths trailed Williams (1,758.5 points), and Tufts (1,809 points), who took home their program’s first NESCAC title. The team returned to Amherst with ten All-NESCAC awards, which are given to the top-three finishers in each event.

Senior Hannah Karlin ’22 flew high this weekend, winning the one-meter diving competition and placing second in the three-meter event. Her scores of 455.30 and 454.20 respectively easily passed the ‘B’ qualifying mark for nationals. And if these successes weren’t enough, for her final NESCAC performance, Karlin was awarded 2021-22 NESCAC Diver of the Year.

One has to look no further than to the class of 2025 to see the legacy of hard work and success that Karlin will leave the team with; Sydney

Bluestein ’25 placed second, mere points behind her senior teammate in the one-meter event, (her preliminary round score of 458.90 set a pool record) and Bluestein took fourth place in the three-meter as well. Not to be outdone, Hannah Colaizzo ’23 will join her teammates on the one-meter board at nationals with her sixth-place, ‘B’-qualifying score of 412.20.

First-year Megan Lee ’25 also had an impressive first collegiate season, winning at least one event in each of the team’s seven dual meets. This weekend, she continued her impressive performances, earning All-NESCAC awards for placing third in both the 800-yard freestyle relay, alongside Lauren Eng ’24, Jenn Adams ’25, and Jess Gordon ’23, and in the 400yard individual medley, in which she clocked a personal best time. Lee also placed second in the 1650-yard freestyle, setting a program record with her time of 17:02.26, and making the NCAA ‘B’ cut by more than thirty seconds. Swimming 66 uninterrupted laps sounds painful for swimmers and land-goers alike, but Lee has several strategies that she employs

to keep herself locked-in during the hard event; “I try to stay present and focused by replaying some of my favorite songs in my head and focusing on racing [with] the girls around me.” She also noted that the support on deck from her teammates and coaches provides the motivation and encouragement she needs to persevere through the mile-long swim.

The quartet of Adams, Eng, Fagan, and Gordon swam to seventh place in the 400-yard freestyle relay, making the cut for NCAA ‘B’ Nationals. Gordon and Adams also qualified for nationals with their sixth and ninth place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, with Gordon also taking fourth in the 500-yard freestyle final. Ali LaCroix ’25 took fifth place in the 200-yard breaststroke, surpassing the ‘B’ qualifying time with her finish in 2:19.44. Finishing in twelfth place in the 1650-yard freestyle, Maggie McNamara ’23 will be joining her teammates at nationals as well. In the 200-yard medley relay, LaCroix, Fagan, Grace Walker ’24, and Grace Tarantola ’23 placed sixth. The same team also placed fifth in the 400-yard medley relay.

The meet was also an exceptional one for captain Marie Fagan ’22, who left her final NESCAC Championships with a win in the 200-yard butterfly. Her time of 2:00.58 was both an Amherst record and a pool record, and earned her a fourth career All-NESCAC award. Her times in both the 200- and 100-yard butterfly made the NCAA ‘B’ cut, meaning she will be swimming both events at nationals next month. Fagan’s time in the 100-yard butterfly was also a personal best in the event, adding yet another accomplishment to her final NESCAC Championships. Fagan has been a consistent and hardworking presence on the team for the past four years and three seasons – the 2020-21 season was canceled due to Covid-19. Her hard work has paid off in the form of her three consecutive record-breaking performances at NESCACs. In her first NESCAC Championship, Fagan placed third and set a school record in the 200yard butterfly with a time of 2:02.87.

A year later, in the 2020 Championships, she broke her own record with a second-place time of 2:02.08, before doing so a third time this

weekend, breaking her 2020 record by almost two seconds.

In addition to expressing her pride towards her growth as a swimmer and her gratitude towards her supportive coaches and teammates, Fagan had glowing praise for her team’s performance, “both in competition and on the deck.” According to Fagan, while the past two years have obviously brought many challenges, both in and out of the pool, “the team not only earned third place overall, but also demonstrated incredible camaraderie.” In another tribute to the talent of the diving team, assistant coach and alum Kai Robinson ’09 took the title of Diving Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive time. Select members of the women's swim and dive team will be heading to NCAA DIII championships on March 16-19 at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, along with the qualifying swimmers from the men’s team. The women’s team will also be cheering on their male counterparts this weekend, as they will compete at their NESCAC Championships starting on Thursday, Feb. 17, also hosted by Colby.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Sports

23

Women’s Hockey Finds Late-season Momentum

Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer

The Mammoths hosted the Trinity Bantams at Orr Rink on Feb. 9 for the second half of a double-header, after falling short against them on Feb. 8. Not to be deterred by their loss the day before, the Mammoths took the win during the tightly contested rematch.

In the first of the two contests, the Bantams had come out on top, taking advantage of a power play late in the game to win in a 3-2 thriller.

“The first game against Trinity was not the best for us,” forward Anna Baxter ’25 said. “We didn’t come ready to play in the beginning, so by the time we started playing well at the end, it was too late.”

The Mammoths carried the momentum they gained from their comeback attempt into the second game of the series, which, although very close, ended in a 2-1 victory for the Mammoths.

After going a goal down with only 47 seconds to go in the first period, the Mammoths came out of the locker room with a vengeance, creating many scoring opportunities in the second. During their second period surge, the Mammoths notched 16 shots on goal and three power-play opportunities. However, they were not able to execute on

those chances: Trinity goalie Hannah LeClair had another great game between the pipes for the Bantams.

The Mammoths had three one-onone chances during the period – a Rylee Glennon ’24 breakaway, a great show of puck-handling by Baxter, and an Angelina Wiater ’22 surge in on net were all stopped by the Trinity goalkeeper.

Going into the third with the tide of the game on their side, the Mammoths finally took advantage, taking the lead on their final power-play opportunity of the contest. With just over six minutes to go, Glennon passed the puck from the left corner over to Avery Flynn ’23. When Flynn received the puck, she fired a hard shot on net that Wiater redirected into the top corner to tie the game.

The game-winner came only a few minutes later. Sydney Raaths ’25 gained possession of the puck in the right corner. She attempted to pass to another one of her teammates, but a Trinity defender changed the trajectory of the puck, sending it toward Stephanie Nomicos ’22. She skated to the errant puck and took her shot, scoring the game-winning goal for the Mammoths with only three minutes to go. The split series with the Bantams brought Amherst’s conference record up to 7-6-1.

On the night of Tuesday, Feb. 15, the Mammoths remained on

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Forward Rylee Glennon '24 takes a shot against Trinity during their 2-1 win. home ice for an out-of-conference matchup with the University of New England Nor’easters. The first period remained scoreless, despite the Mammoths outshooting UNE 28-5.

The barrage continued in the second period. The breakthrough came just two minutes in. Kelsey Stewart ’25 ripped a shot on net, which Kenzie MacDonald ’22 redirected into the back of the net. Despite 14 more Amherst shots on net, the game score held at 1-0 heading into the final period.

Under the weight of another Amherst onslaught in the final period, the UNE levee finally broke.

Ellie DeCarlo ’24 scored six minutes in off an assist from MacDonald.

Alyssa Xu ’25 capitalized on an odd man rush less than 90 seconds later.

Shortly after play resumed, Wiater tapped in the fourth off a rebound.

30 seconds later, MacDonald got her second, scoring off a deflection near the crease.

Fifteen more Amherst shots and two power plays later, the score held,

bringing the team’s overall record to 11-8-1. It was Amherst’s final non-conference game of the season, at their final contest on home ice.

The Mammoths will look to build a winning streak and show their dominance in their last two NESCAC matchups of the season against No. 8 Colby on Feb. 19 and 20. “I’m really excited to play Colby because they are No. 2 in the conference and highly ranked in the nation,” said Baxter. “I’m excited to see how we match up against them.”

Women’s Squash Finishes Fourth At NESCACs Sylvan Wold ’25 Staff Writer Amherst women’s squash closed out conference competition with a fourth-place finish at the 2022 NESCAC Tournament.

Following a dominant 7-2 quarterfinals win against Bates, the Mammoths suffered a 9-0 loss to the Trinity Bantams in the semifinals.

In a thrilling third place match against Williams, Amherst lost 5-4 — a scoreline representative of the close fight.

The action kicked off on Feb. 12, with first seed Daksha Pathak ’23 leading the top four to decisive wins against the Bobcats. Pathak won her match against Bates’ An-

drea Martagon by a score of 3-1.

Callie Delalio ’24, Tana Delalio ’24, and Lauren Weil ’23 followed their teammate in the second through fourth matches with consistent and commanding triumphs. Keeley Osborn ’22 played a particularly notable match, going 3-2 in the longest match of that evening’s play, clocking in at a full 55 minutes (8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 14-12, 11-9).

Later that same day, the Mammoths returned for another match against top-seeded Trinity. Trinity proved the seeding correct — Amherst was unable to win a single one of the 27 games. Amherst’s Isabelle Tilney-Sandberg ’25 put up an especially good fight, lasting 21 minutes in a closely-fought match

against her opponent, Madeleine Hylland.

The Mammoths did not have time to mourn their loss, though.

The next day, Amherst was back in action, competing for third place against rival Williams. Pathak led the team once again in a 3-0 win at the top of the ladder, but the rest of the evening did not go quite as smoothly. As the competition progressed, it proved to be a thriller, with four matches lasting five games and three taking more than 40 minutes to complete. Despite their best efforts, the close matchup ended in a tight 5-4 loss and the Mammoths settled for fourth.

Though they were disappointed, Amherst still had an impressive

competition and finished in line with their fourth place seed.

Ultimately, according to Blair Englert ’24, Amherst walked away from the competition with mixed feelings. While the team was proud of their performance in their 5-4 quarterfinal win over Bates, “we had a really close match against Williams for third place, which was awesome since we had four girls out injured (who usually play high on the ladder), but still was a tough loss since three of the matches we lost were in five [games].” Englert said.

After an up and down NESCAC tournament, Amherst is hoping to turn their form around in their final competition of the year:

the CSA National Team Championships. CSAs is the national tournament for collegiate squash teams, and presents a fabulous opportunity for the Mammoths to finish their season on a high note as a team.

Maggie Pearson ’24 echoed her classmate’s sentiments. “As much as the loss [to Williams] stung I think it’s going to motivate us in the next two weeks before nationals. We want to make an impression when we get there, and I think we will.”

Amherst, now 10-6, is now looking ahead to their final tournament of the year, the CSA National Team Championships, hosted by Harvard and Tufts, on Feb. 25-27.

The Amherst Student • February 16, 2022

Sports

24

Scoring Runs Define Men’s Basketball Losses Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor This past weekend, the Mammoths took two trips to Connecticut to face the Trinity Bantams and the Connecticut College Camels in the final games of their 2021-22 regular season. While the Mammoths returned home with two close losses, they showed the type of resilience and determination that will bode well for them in the postseason.

On Friday, Feb. 11, the Mammoths took the court in Hartford, Conn., for their first conference game of the weekend. They started the game off flat, going down 6-0 early, a deficit that would eventually grow to 24-9 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Mammoths clawed their way back into the game soon after, however, with a 9-0 run punctuated by a Will Scherer ’25 dunk, bringing the game back within reach. After the big swings of the first half, the teams entered the locker room with Trinity leading 33-27. The second half continued much like the first: the Mammoths went down by as much as 10 before Garrett Day ’22 hit two three-balls and Beluolisah Oranye ’24 got to the basket for a nice layup during an 8-0 run that brought the game to within one. However, this

GAME SCHE DULE

THU

Men's Swim & Dive NESCAC Championships @ Colby

was the closest that the Mammoths would get. Even though another three by Tim McCarthy ’22 narrowed the gap to two with two minutes to go, Amherst couldn’t convert down the stretch, with a missed three and a turnover dooming them to fall to the Bantams by a score of 62-53.

Grant Robinson ’22 paced the team in scoring, registering 14 points in the contest, closely followed by Day with 11. Robinson also tied for the team lead in rebounds with six, with Oranye and Mohammed Alausa ’24 also recording six each.

After a quick turnaround, the Mammoths took on Connecticut College the next day in their final NESCAC regular-season contest.

While the Mammoths started this contest better offensively, trading baskets with the Camels in the early going, they couldn’t keep it up, eventually succumbing to a 10-2 Conn run that gave the Camels a six-point lead. But on Saturday, the Mammoths found a quick answer, going on their own run that Ryker Vance ’25 ended with a slam to tie the game back up at 17-17. Going into the half down 34-26 after giving up another 12-2 run, Amherst again rallied, with McCarthy nailing two threes and Scherer scoring

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Guard Tim McCarthy ’22 scored a career-high 19 points against Conn College. another dunk to re-tie the game.

With another pair of opposing lategame runs, the Mammoths found themselves up three after three C.J. Mitchell ’25 triples, but this time, the Camels put the game away for good, taking the lead after scoring six straight points to win the game by a score of 71-65.

Despite the loss, McCarthy had an amazing game, scoring a career-high 19 points, including shooting 5-8 from three-point range and recording six rebounds.

Mitchell also recorded a career-best

scoring performance with 13 points — all scored in just nine minutes off the bench.

The Mammoths ended the season in fifth place in the conference and have clinched a first-round bye in the NESCAC Tournament, which begins this weekend. Because of the restrictions that frequent cancellations and postponements due to Covid have put on teams’ schedules, this year’s NESCAC tournament will include every team in the conference. With the No. 5 seed in hand, Amherst will face rival Wil-

liams for the third time this season, this time with a semifinal berth on the line.

Center Mike Schretter ’23 said of the team’s games this weekend, “It’s tough to lose those games this weekend, but we all believe in each other and we are excited for the opportunity at Williams on Saturday.

Our goal is to win this game on Saturday and focus on Williams.”

The two bitter rivals will meet in Williamstown this coming Saturday, Feb. 19, with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m.

FRI

SAT

SUN

Men's Hockey vs. Middlebury, 7 p.m.

Men's Basketball NESCAC Quarterfinals @ Williams, 2 p.m.

Men's Swim & Dive NESCAC Championships @ Colby

Men's Hockey vs. Williams, 3 p.m.

Women's Basketball vs. Bowdoin or Colby, 2 p.m.

Track & Field Ruddy Invitational @ Bowdoin

Women's Hockey @ Colby, 3 p.m.

Men's Squash CSA National Team Championships @ University of Pennsylvania

Men's Squash CSA National Team Championships @ University of Pennsylvania

Women's Hockey @ Colby, 7 p.m.

Men's Swim & Dive NESCAC Championships @ Colby

Men's Swim & Dive NESCAC Championships @ Colby Men's Squash CSA National Team Championships @ University of Pennsylvania

Men's Swim & Dive NESCAC Championships @ Colby