Volume 152, Issue 16

The Middle Eastern North African Association set up a table to raise disaster-relief funds.

Students Respond to Middle East Earthquake

Liam Archacki ’24 Editor-in-Chief

Dania Hallak ’24 was preparing for an Association of Amherst Students (AAS) Budgetary Committee meeting — she is the treasurer of the AAS — when she learned that a massive earthquake had struck the Middle East, primarily impacting Turkey and Syria, the country where she was born and lived for most her life.

Hallak’s immediate response was to take what had happened at “face value.” But although she wished just to “logically process” the event, she, like other students from the region, was soon overcome by grief at the huge loss of life.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which hit on Feb. 6, has left behind

FEATURES 6

Latin Honors Requirement Change Prompts Campus Debate

Sam Spratford ’24 Editor-in-Chief

a death toll of nearly 50,000, caused countless injuries, and razed buildings to the ground. It was the deadliest natural disaster in Turkey’s history.

The initial catastrophe has given way to aftershocks, including a 6.3-magnitude quake that hit the same region on Monday. Efforts persist to free those trapped under rubble; provide medical care to the survivors; and supply food, shelter, and other resources.

Over 5,000 miles away from the disaster’s epicenter, in Amherst, students with ties to the region reported living for the past two weeks in a state of constant tension — frequently checking in with loved ones and mourning those who have died, while also trying to keep up with the demands of mid-semester college life.

New Student Center: Emma Burd ’26 checks in on the status of the new student center, particularly its budget.

Two prominent student organizations — the Middle Eastern North African Association (MENAA) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) — have led fundraising efforts on campus. They each tabled in or outside of Valentine Dining Hall earlier this week, with plans to continue their efforts in the days to come.

Several students from the impacted region spoke with The Student about their experience of the catastrophe — from the initial shock, to ongoing fear and grief, to the support offered by the college community.

Cristy Kasbo ’25 is from Aleppo, Syria, which lies near the earthquake’s epicenter. “When I first heard about the earthquake, I quickly started calling and texting all of my family and friends who were in Aleppo

OPINION 8

to check in on them and make sure they made it out safely,” she said. “It was devastating to hear about people that I knew that unfortunately didn't make it out before their building crumbled to the ground.”

Another Syrian student, Ahmad Ziada ’26, said that he could not immediately get in touch with his loved ones in the region, either because it was the middle of the night there or because they were affected by the earthquake. “I was a bit stressed and nervous,” he said.

When he finally was able to reach them, they downplayed the severity of the situation, he said, to stop him from worrying.

Hallak explained that for many Syrian people, the earthquake feels like another step in a long line of

Continued on page 2

Seatbelts: Tapti Sen ’25 reflects on her own cultural assimilation through the lens of a certain car-protocol quirk.

Last week’s faculty vote to institute changes to the Latin honors policy caught the student body by surprise and has prompted outspoken disavowals of the new breadth requirement for summa and magna honors from some students and faculty. The protests have been tempered by enthusiasm for the shift away from the use of class rank towards a median grade requirement for summa and magna honors. Among those who were more intimately involved in the development of the policy, however, some think that the reactive outcry is symptomatic of the campus’s democratic shortcomings.

Student and faculty discussion around both parts of the proposal has been pervaded by re-evaluations of what Latin honors should signify about the Amherst graduates who earn them, and whether the new policy corrodes or strengthens this value.

Beginning with the class of 2027, in order for Amherst graduates to earn summa or magna honors, they must have satisfied a breadth requirement that entails completing one course in each of four broad disciplines: humanities, social sciences, STEM, and art. (Current students may choose to be grandfathered into the new requirements if it would result in a higher honor.)

Continued on page 4

ARTS&LIVING 14

“Turn Every Page:” Leo Kamin ’25 covers a Q&A with the director of the new documentary at Amherst Cinema.

Photo courtesy of Dania Hallak ’24

POLICE LOG

>>Feb. 14, 2023

8:06 a.m. Valentine Residence Hall

ACPD and AFD responded to a fire alarm. The cause of activation was cooking smoke.

>>Feb. 14, 2023

9:52 a.m. Charles Pratt Dormitory

ACPD and OSA confiscated drug paraphernalia from a student's room.

>>Feb. 15, 2023

8:21 a.m. Lyceum

ACPD took a larceny report after tools went missing from a construction site on campus.

>>Feb. 16, 2023

2:58 a.m. South Pleasant Street

ACPD identified a vehicle that could possibly be involved with some recent thefts of construction equipment.

>>Feb. 17, 2023

5:04 p.m. Barrett Hill Drive ACPD responded to a report of a person yelling and not making sense on Barrett Hill Rd. A check of the area was

made and no one was found.

>>Feb. 17, 2023

9:52 p.m. Boltwood Avenue

ACPD stopped a motor vehicle being operated on the wrong way on a one way street. A warning was given.

>>Feb. 18, 2023

1:06 p.m. Residence Hall A ACPD took a report after someone unlawfully entered a dorm room suite and caused damage to the wall.

>>Feb. 19, 2023

3:13 p.m. Railroad Right of Way

ACPD observed three individuals walking on the railroad tracks. They were spoken to, identified and sent on their way.

>>Feb. 20, 2023

1:15 a.m. Frost Library ACPD responded to a disturbance in the library. Upon arrival, the individual had left the area and is unidentified.

Alumni Panel Looks Back on the Amherst Uprising

Maggie Sher ’26 Senior Staff Writer

A panel of college alumni on Feb. 16 shared their firsthand experience of the Amherst Uprising, a 2015 on-campus racial justice movement, as part of discussion titled “Reflections on a Legacy: Amherst Uprising Alumni Panel.”

The panelists detailed how they felt at the time of the Uprising, their roles in the movement, and their general wisdom on social justice work seven years on. The panel was hosted by the Black History Month Planning Committee in collaboration with the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC), the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Cultural Heritage Committee.

The Amherst Uprising, initially planned as an hour-long sit-in at Frost Library in solidarity with students of color leading racial justice demonstrations at other universities, was organized by three Black students — Katyana Dandrige ’18, Sanyu Takirambudde ’18, and Lerato Teffo ’18.

The event gained traction as students of color gathered in Frost to share personal testimonies of marginalization on campus and their discontent with the lack of support and action from the administration. While the movement began as a demonstration against racial injustice, it quickly devolved into a protest against a much wider network of

social justice issues; namely, organizers called on the college to denounce “our institutional legacy of white supremacy, colonialism, anti-black racism, anti-Latinx racism, anti-Native American racism, anti-Native/indigenous racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Middle Eastern racism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, mental health stigma and classism.”

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff occupied the library for the weekend, in which time they created a list of 11 demands that were presented to then-President Biddy Martin.

Among other demands, students called for Martin to replace the college’s unofficial “Lord Jeff” mascot, a character based on the colonial figure Jeffrey Amherst who notoriously aided in giving smallpox-infested blankets to Native communities, and issue an apology for the college’s “institutional legacy” of oppression. Additionally, students asked Martin to condemn students who put up “All Lives Matter” posters in Valentine Dining Hall in response to posters in support of student protesters at the University of Missouri.

The sit-in officially ended after Martin released a statement that offered “clarification and hope” for student protesters, and in the following year, the school dropped Lord Jeff as its mascot. Additionally, the Latinx & Latin American Studies major debuted in the fall of 2017 in

adherence to one of the 11 demands.

The alumni speakers at Thursday’s panel were Felipe Rico ’16E, Irma J. Zamara ’17, Mercedes MacAlpine ’16, and Nayah Mullings ’17, all of whom were present at the Uprising. Abadai Zoboi ’24 moderated the event.

Held in the Eighmy Powerhouse, the event featured among its attendees organizers, students, faculty, President Michael Elliott, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein, and Chair of the Board of Trustees Andrew Nussbaum ’85.

Rico introduced the event by thanking its organizers, Elliott and Epstein for their attendance, and stated the objective of the panel: to “engage the community in dialogue, give voice to what happened and also to tie the Uprising to current struggles for equity.” In recalling the Uprising itself, Rico also cited the “important role that women of color played in creating this movement,” as the original sit-in was planned by three Black women students.

“Eventually, other Black and brown women joined, and it felt as if the rest of the campus followed suit,” he said.

Not without humor and lightheartedness, panelists recalled the tension in the air in Frost as students shared deeply personal experiences of marginalization at Amherst.

“The first evening in Frost was ultimately incredibly moving but also really, really painful,” said MacAlpi-

ne. “In the depths of that vulnerability, it was incredible to walk around the library and see people connecting in that moment. I still carry with me just the belief that human beings have the potential to go there.”

Mullings, whose self-described role in the Uprising was that of a caretaker, said that a cherished moment was when they and other student leaders in the Queer Resources Center (QRC) took a microwave, food, and other supplies and set up a “Queer Compound” on the second floor of Frost during the sit-in.

Mullings recalled being thrust into a speaking position, in the heat of the moment, that was somewhat unnatural to them — after students listed their demands for Martin, it was Mulling’s job to take the microphone and ask that Martin sign the document. Martin, who explained that she would need approval from the Board of Trustees, said no.

“That was one of my more embarrassing moments of life,” they said. “There was no plan for what would happen if she said no.”

Mullings also described feeling

guilt at not being enough of a “disruptor” at that crucial moment.

“That’s something I learned from Uprising — everybody has their role. Not everybody is going to be good at being loud,” they said. “For me, I was bringing resources to the space and making sure people were being taken care of.”

Panelists Rico and Zamara recalled the challenges of considering the intersectionality of the movement. Zamara, who graduated with a Spanish degree, reflected on her experience as a Latina woman at the Uprising.

“It was important to recognize that this movement was created specifically centering the struggles of Black women,” Zamara said. “As a Latina, how do I fit in here?”

Similarly, Rico brought up the initial uncertainty he felt as a male athlete present during the Uprising.

“For years [before the Uprising], [students] had been talking about issues of sexual respect,” he said. “It was on our minds at the time, and I think a lot of my teammates … may

Continued on page 3

Hundreds of students joined the uprising in 2015.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Amherst Uprising Participants Remember Frost Sit-in

Continued from page 2

not have felt like that was their place to be. But I think it was exactly where they needed to be.”

It was then, Rico said, that he began to realize the importance of the presence of allies in the room; specifically, people who were willing to listen, take responsibility, and realize that not everything can be solved easily.

When posed the question about how they found joy during the Uprising and their time at Amherst in general, the panelists were generally in agreement that community-building was an important factor.

Zamara remembered a moment when she and her best friend comforted one another after an emotional moment during the Uprising: “We were just hugging each other, saying, ‘I got you, I got you,’” she said. “That hug, that physical connection always brings me joy.”

When the panel opened up to the audience for a Q&A, multiple students asked for advice for current students doing social justice work and activism. Specifically, one audience member asked the panelists how to “call in” those who choose not to engage with social justice work at all.

Rico encouraged organizers not to sell themselves or their work short, and reassured the audience member that their work did not go unnoticed; Zamara and Mullings advised that having confidence and offering support to the people who do show up makes a bigger difference than people expect.

“We are enough; we have what we need. Whoever is in the room is enough,” Mullings said. “Momentum builds over time.”

Zoboi, who was asked by the MRC to moderate the panel, felt comforted by the panelists’ descriptions of their collective struggle as

students of color in college.

“It’s very easy to just get caught up in your life and feel like you’re the only one that has gone through something,” she said. “[The panelists] were in the same position as we [students of color] are.”

Zoboi said that she and other organizers from the MRC had to “tiptoe” around certain topics or phrasing for fear of being “disrespectful” towards members of the administration who attended the event. Looking into the audience, she said, it felt “daunting” to see so many higher-up administrative people there.

“There’s a juxtaposition, because

if they had just ignored the event, I would’ve given them a real side eye,” she said. “But I feel like sometimes we had to be very careful with what we said, because this was a historical event that criticized the administration.”

Zoboi also mentioned that because the MRC is funded by the college, it created even less of an incentive for her to ask questions that might lead the panelists to criticize the administration. For her, she said, it became a question of how to allow for such criticism without being flippant or inaccurate. “I think we did a good job,” she said.

Students Raise Funds and Awareness Following Earthquake

Continued from page 1

tragedies for the country, which has been afflicted in recent memory by war and economic crisis.

“Because of the continuous pain that Syria has experienced over the years, it’s like there’s nothing more that you can cry about at this point,” she said. “So it’s a little hard in that way, because it’s very much a battle that you have to deal with by yourself. Maybe you can try to talk to other people who share your identity, but those are people who are also impacted, and grieving and need support.”

Although many people who aren’t from the affected region checked in with her about how she was doing, Hallak said, at times it felt as though they could not understand the reality of her pain. She said that this often happens when a tragedy strikes the Middle East.

“Either we’re sensationalized — our pain is sensationalized — or we’re just completely forgotten about, and it’s kind of whatever is easier for people to do that they do,” she said. “It feels like maybe people don’t see us as people anymore.”

All of the students The Student spoke to agreed that it felt like much of the broader campus community was not paying very much attention to the ongoing catastrophe in Turkey and Syria.

“There was a large percentage of

people who didn’t know what happened in Syria or didn’t mention it at all, which didn’t really surprise me because things that happen in the Middle East are unfortunately often not talked about enough. But I was surprised that even students at Amherst College, who are usually quick to take action and talk about these things, did not,” Kasbo said. “I think if this had happened in a country outside of the Middle East, we would be talking about it in almost every single class, but unfortunately that’s not the case, and it's a shame to see it.”

Kasbo said that community members would benefit from increasing their awareness of the ongoing impact of the earthquake, and what’s happening in the Middle East in general.

For his part, Ziada noted that statistical figures cannot capture the extent of what happened. “When you read about [the earthquake], you just read the numbers,” he said. “But if you go deep into the cases, it’s very, very catastrophic. … A lot of families lost everything they have. So I wish people got more tangible exposure to what happened.”

In terms of the college administration’s response to the earthquake, the students expressed disappointment at the lack of a public-facing statement of support.

In an email statement to The Student, President Michael Elliott

confirmed that he had personally reached out to MENAA leadership to offer support for their fundraising efforts. He added that the Office of Student Affairs had sent messages to students from the affected region to offer help and resources.

While the students who spoke to The Student said they appreciated these gestures of support, they were in agreement that a public statement of support from the college could have brought greater awareness to the catastrophe among the Amherst community.

In response, Elliott wrote that the college’s “focus is more on oneto-one direct support and, where appropriate and feasible, pursuing tangible programs or events rather than issuing statements that are not tied to some activity on campus.”

“Our feeling is that it is important to engage in meaningful activities that are tied to our work as an academic, educational institution, while simultaneously ensuring that those who are impacted by tragic, violent events have the resources that they need,” he added. “The earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria have devastated that region of the world, and we continue to offer support in many ways to our students from that region.”

The students emphasized that, in addition to offering words of support and spreading awareness, it was important to provide material support to help the region recover from the

tragedy.

Hallak and Kasbo are both E-board members of MENAA, and have contributed to the organization’s fundraising efforts.

MENAA members set up a table outside of Val this past Monday during lunch. One of the students who ran the table, Rei Iranmanesh ’25, explained that the organization was selling gift bags containing traditional Middle Eastern treats — including sunflower seeds, noodles, and dried fruit.

Part of the goal, she explained, was to highlight Middle Eastern culture, while also raising relief funds. The effort was a success, she said, and MENAA plans to continue to fundraise the rest of this week.

Members of the MSA also tabled to raise funds for earthquake relief this past week. On Saturday, they sold Dunkin’ Donuts, and one

of the students behind the effort, Noor Rahman ’25, described it as a success. The MSA plans to table again later in the week.

Rahman emphasized the importance of relief donations. “Fundraising is effective,” she said. “There’s people who need money. … It’s a good place to start.”

But she added that having a presence in Val also helps to increase awareness across campus of the impact of the earthquake, and encourage more people to pay attention to what’s happening in the region. “I think acknowledgement [of what has happened] is a bare minimum,” she said. “There's not a lot we can do. But I think acknowledgement goes a long way.”

Donations for disaster relief in Turkey and Syria can be made to MENAA (@MENAA_AC on Venmo) and the MSA (@ac_msa on Venmo).

The Muslim Students Association also held a fundraiser.

Photo courtesy of Noor Rahman ’25

New Latin Honors Breadth Requirement Sparks Controversy

Continued from page 1

Some, like Diego Rao ’23, believe this change has uprooted the open curriculum — a cornerstone of Amherst’s academic identity, and its marketing to prospective students.

“For me, I think for a lot of people, the number one reason I came to Amherst was the open curriculum,” Rao said, “and I knew when I went to college, I didn't want someone telling me what boxes I had to tick.”

For Rao, the policy change is worrying not because he thinks it will engender more restrictive distribution requirements, but because it is a symbolic gesture by the college that devalues academic freedom.

“It is fundamentally a different philosophy [to say] we're going to let you pursue whatever it is you're interested in,” Rao said, “[but] if you want to have a seal of approval or Latin honors, you have to sort of meet our expectation of a full education.”

Jack Stephens ’23 echoed Rao’s concerns, and questioned whether the values that informed the policy change were fully realized by the committee.

“It doesn't feel super ideologically consistent,” he said.“They're saying, ‘We want students who qualify for honors to fulfill what we believe to be the values of the liberal arts, through this distribution requirement.’ Well, why don't you feel that way about all students?” Stephens asked.

“If you believe that you have to take classes in a variety of disciplines to fulfill the true meaning of liberal arts, why do we have an open curriculum?”

Chair of the CEP and William J. Walker Professor of Mathematics Robert Benedetto said in a message to The Student that this question went beyond the scope of the committee’s considerations, which were focused on responding to “specific complaints, both longstanding and recent,” about the old honors policy.

On a more tangible level, many students like Andres Pena ’23 have voiced concerns about the ways that the breadth requirement may corrode classroom culture. In a message to The Student, Pena summed up the worry that “[the breadth requirement] will fill classes with people

[not] really wanting to take them.”

On Friday, Feb. 17, Pena asked whether anyone wanted to write a petition to repeal the breadth requirement in the campus-wide GroupMe, AmherstBussin.

Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 served as a Senate representative to the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) for most of his time at Amherst and was integral in their development of the proposal. When asked about the frustrations of students like Stephens, Pena, and Rao, he emphasized the care that went into formulating this policy and the extent of the opportunities for students to get involved.

“[The policy] emerged out of two years of discussion among not only the committee at one point in time, but also as many [new] members came through,” over the years of policy development, Graber-Mitchell said.

The CEP is a nine-member committee of which AAS Senators fill three seats. Graber-Mitchell says this is a “fairly big” voting bloc for students, whom the college does not normally include in administrative decision-making. “ I wanted to make sure that not only [could] I have a say,” Graber-Mitchell said, “but also I would go to the Senate and ask what they thought. I would go to my peers and ask what they thought to make sure that student voices were being heard and helping shape that discussion.”

He continued, saying, “We [the CEP] spent a lot of time thinking about what honors should signify and what [an] honors policy does on campus. We spent a lot of time [discussing] liberal arts values and those include … the fact that we trust students to make educational decisions for themselves.”

Isaiah Doble ’25, a current AAS representative to the CEP, presented a different picture of the discussion, saying that it was less concerned with actual students’ perspectives, except to the extent that they overlapped with Amherst’s abstract ideals.

“For the breadth requirement part of the policy, a lot of the CEP’s discussion was rooted in the ethos of Amherst College as a liberal arts and open curriculum school, and how

such an identity should manifest in our Latin honors policy,” Doble wrote in a message to The Student. “Something that was especially emphasized throughout our discussion was what we want ‘Amherst’s Ideal Student’ to be like as a recipient of high honors. Student needs were not discussed as laboriously.”

Though the resistance to the breadth requirement has been outspoken, other community members think that the reaction is overblown.

Regarding the commonly-cited fear that the breadth requirement will make classrooms less engaging, Sasha Heywood ’25 thinks that people are mourning an imaginary ideal; she cited intro-level classes as one example.

“If you've ever taken an intro class, you've been in a class with a bunch of people that don't want to be there. It's not a new problem,” she said. “[Or], you'll go to a discussion class where everyone has chosen to be there … and half the class never talks.”

Similarly, James J. Grosfeld Professor and Chair of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought Lawrence Douglas believes that fears of the college abandoning the open curriculum are unnecessarily fatalistic, and miss what Doble says is the true intention of the breadth requirement: to “gently guide” students to explore the open curriculum.

“This a very mild breadth requirement, and I do think that the open curriculum is not meant to permit students to silo themselves in a particular academic domain,” Douglas explained. “The open curriculum … is meant to invite broad experimentation on the part of students, and this is something that is designed to encourage that for students who are intending to write a thesis.”

Douglas says that the shift from class rank to a median grade requirement is a much more significant part of the policy, and one that he pushed for wholeheartedly in faculty meeting conversations.

“I thought it was very unfair that so much emphasis was placed on the grade point average when the bell curve of grade point averages at Amherst College is so compressed,” he said. “Someone could write

a summa quality thesis and then have one B+ on their transcript, and then suddenly would have a summa knocked down to a magna.”

The CEP similarly emphasized the increased equity of the new system in their policy proposal, the research for which revealed a discrepancy between the number of departmental recommendations and the actual granting of honors: Only 39 percent of the students who write “magna quality” theses earned magna honors under the old class rank system, whereas 94 percent of them would achieve magna honors under the new policy.

Nearly all the students who spoke with The Student, including Stephens and Rao, expressed excitement about this aspect of the proposal. Visiting Professor of Law Jurisprudence and Social Thought Nica Siegel ’14 also praised the change for giving departments more room to recognize students for high-quality research work. She also said that the breadth requirement’s incentive to engage in academic exploration would not be coherent without the shift away from class rank, which required near-perfection from Latin honors recipients.

Likewise, Stephens felt that the old class rank system was out-ofplace on a campus where uncompetitiveness is the norm. When it comes to “evaluating achievement,” Amherst isn’t like other institutions, Stephens said. “We don’t have a Dean’s List, and we’re very hesitant about ranking people in that way. Having an objective standard [for honors] rather than a ranked standard makes a lot more sense to me.”

Graber-Mitchell sees the symbolic power of Latin honors as twofold. It communicates “externally” that a student embodies the values of the liberal arts and academic freedom, he said, but they also have an “internal” value for the students who earn them.

“We [the CEP] spent a lot of time thinking about who we think deserves honors from Amherst … [the breadth requirement] says to the world that we value the student that challenges themself in disciplines with which they have no experience,” Graber-Mitchell said. “[But], as a student, the most important part

in the entire honors process was, for me, the departmental recommendation.”

Graber-Mitchell explained that the policy should be taken holistically, as it reflects the way that the external and internal value of Latin honors mutually informed one another in the final iteration of the policy. Benedetto echoed this point, explaining that the process by which the policy was formulated was replete with compromises.

“There are members of the campus community who feel that even the combination of the median, breadth, and honors thesis requirements is not rigorous enough, but I'm also sure that there are members of the campus community who feel it is too much,” Benedetto wrote to The Student. “At the most recent faculty meeting, there were also some votes to weaken (but not strike) the breadth requirement. At an even earlier faculty meeting, there was also discussion of abolishing Latin honors. Taken all together, those are wildly incompatible positions.”

Benedetto continued, “I'd argue that the desired proposal did a pretty good job of finding a decent compromise among those incompatible positions. Again, democracy requires compromise. And compromise generally means that no individual feels the policy is perfect.”

Graber-Mitchell emphasized that the policy change was thoroughly democratic. “Oftentimes, the administration doesn’t ask student opinions on its policies before it implements them,” Graber-Mitchell said. “This is not one of those cases. The faculty want to hear from us, and they value our voices.”

He acknowledged, however, that the democratic bond between the AAS and students has become weak.

“I would regularly report to the Senate what I was doing on the CEP committee and ask for input from Senators and anyone else who was at the meetings, but obviously there’s a huge gulf between the AAS and the student body,” he said.

He continued, “I urge students, if they care, to get involved, to go to AAS meetings and ask about what's happening with CEP, and to be on the CEP themselves."

Features Jungeun Kim Fresh Faculty

J.e. Kim is a visiting assistant professor of theater and dance. In a Q&A conversation, we discussed the roots of her passion for dance, her thoughts on what we can all learn from it, and the different meanings it has taken throughout her life.

like that.

JK: [Laughter]

CM: Wow, maybe that was kind of an extreme question.

JK: Yeah. That’s an extreme question. [Laughter]

CM: OK. Maybe what I mean is, What do you think is the power of dance, and movement?

Caelen McQuilkin: The first question I wanted to ask you is, how did you first become interested in dance?

Jungeun Kim: I don’t remember, but my mom said I always liked to dance. When I was a kid … I asked my parents, I wanted to take a dance class. But they said no, because we didn’t have enough money … But then, it was high school, [I] somehow discovered an open dance class. I went there with my friend, and I tried it, and then it was like the best thing ever … I went there with my school uniform … with a couple of other kids, we were just dancing to the loud music. You just get sweaty, and just laughing, and doing the things the instructor tells you to do. It felt like something just unlocked … I didn’t know what I was going for … I didn’t know why I was there, I didn’t know what that feeling was, I didn’t know what dance was — dance is — but then … I wanted to continue. So then I had to get a job to pay for the classes, which I did. And there’s something about ‘you work for it to get it,’ that … I didn’t feel like

So then I met people who had been in that art field much longer, much older folks. I didn’t want to go to college, because there’s not many schools that offer what I was taking — it was kind of more strict dance classes, like modern or ballet … [I wanted] sort of an open, just dance class. … So I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to college.’ But then all my older friends were like, ‘J.e., you have to go to college.’ And so I said OK … because I trust their input … They were advising me through their experience, because they didn’t go to college … They’d been in the industry a long time, so they see the value of education. Even if getting a job is just different, you’d be able to make connections, and meet different artists. So then I did [go to college], and I discovered a lot about different forms of dance, like modern, ballet, and improvisation. And then it just felt like my entire body was a sponge. I was just sucking in everything because it was so fun. I was very behind compared to other friends who had

started dancing — for me, I started dancing when I was 18 — [they] started at six or a young age. So my knowledge in dance was very low.

CM: Something else I was curious about is, what are some of the other things that you hope students who take your class will learn, or at least start to think about?

JK: Learn how to listen. It’s really hard. But not just through your ear, listening that really lets your body to feel it … I think everybody has different ways to feel it, but sometimes we’re supposed to hear, and we get so caught up with specific goals that [we] need to reach, or that [we] would like to reach … but everything you do, you do with your body. So to be able to read, understand, and be able to pay attention to your body is … a really valuable lesson for us to have. If you can listen to yourself, not only just listening to others, but also being able to listen to yourself — often, people say, ‘Trust your gut’ [and] ‘What is your intuition telling you?’ And it’s like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know.’ But deep inside, you do know. You may not describe it, or you haven’t had a chance to explore it, but when you get to be vulnerable, when you get to be in that place, then, I don’t know, there’s an awakening. Not awakening — that’s not a very good way to say it — but you feel like tiny hearts coming out of you. I don’t know, it’s just … to listen.

CM: I’m curious if you also have any thoughts on how dance and movement, and everything you’re talking about can change the world, or change people’s lives, or something

JK: What do you think is the power of your writing?

CM: Hmm. I guess that it can make people see different perspectives. And more, actually, that it’s a way for people, and me, to communicate with each other. And understand that maybe you can never fully understand someone who has lived a different life than you, but it’s still worth trying to find ways that you can talk to each other, and look each other in the eyes from different places. If that makes sense?

JK: Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I second that.

CM: Wow. I guess that makes me think about dance in a new, cool way now.

JK: I mean, sometimes I wish it could become more accessible … I feel like there is more to offer. It still has too much of an image of what dance looks like, what dance should look like. I asked you, do you like to dance? And you said yes — it feels, in a way, that body language is a universal language. Like when you handshake, you don’t say, ‘should we handshake?’ you just do it. You hug people. There’s a very tangible relationship that you can have, and I love that I’m able to study that, I love that I’m able to share that. I feel like there’s more to it, I feel like it … I wish it was more accessible, without needing to have those skills or techniques. I wish we could see dance as it is, rather than take it apart. Meaning, dividing it — there are different styles, of course, that have different

histories — but I wish we could see dance in a much bigger way, rather than just one style, this style and this style. It’s hard to undo it …Everything is so intertwined. There’s many roots, like what you mentioned about collecting different stories in a specific location or place, and you get to really create your own maps around how one story leads to the next story. I feel like it’s similar, from your experience, from your background and your culture, you get to weave around through things, and you get to learn about yourself. For me, I really get to learn about myself.

CM: I think the last question I wanted to ask you is, what are some of the things that you feel like you’ve learned dancing and teaching?

JK: What I’ve learned. Hmmm. Good question. It’s so hard to name things, because I am still learning. I feel like it’s a never-ending experience. You asked me about what I want students to get out of my class, and I think I said learn how to listen. So I guess for me, I feel that I am learning how to listen to whoever I’m dancing with. And how to offer things, when I see someone is needing. I’ve learned how to make friends, learned how to have a good time … through dancing, and through studying about it, teaching about it, watching about it, writing about it, it’s sort of made me question, ‘What if?’ ‘What else?’ There’s other possibilities. Like, ‘What if we do this?’ ‘What if [pulling a piece of paper out of a bowl on her desk] we danced about this for 15 minutes?’ Sort of like, it challenges me and I learn how to take those challenges without lying about it. Really learn how to be honest, be able to tell my story truthfully, without any decorating or anything. Or need to form something, need to perform it. I get to be really me. And I learned that through dancing. What is being me? How can I be present? Like, how I can be present with you right now. I don’t know if I could have done it if I wasn’t dancing.

—Caelen McQuilkin

‘oh my god, I have to work.’

Photo courtesy of Claire Beougher ’26

’24E

J.e. to Caelen: “You're writing about me, but you’re also writing about the time we had.”

Photo courtesy of Claire Beougher '26

Budget Complicates New Student Center Construction

Emma Burd ’26 Staff Writer

If you’ve recently found yourself gazing out the glass windows of the science center, strolling down to the rail trail, or making a pit stop at Memorial Hill, you may have noticed an increase in activity by Merrill Science Building, the asbestos-ridden old science building on campus.

Plans for a new student center, which would build upon the preexisting structure of Merrill, have been in the works for quite some time now.

“The location on top of the old Merrill foundation is a perfect [spot] because of where it will sit between athletics, the first-year quad, the Science Center, and the Greenways,” said President Michael Elliott. “I also love the symbolism — although this is not why we’re doing it — of building on the foundations of the past, but in an entirely new way.”

But between this rich symbolism and the start of construction stands one new major barrier: a tighter budget, due to inflation and a declining endowment.

According to Tom Dwyer, a senior member of the college’s finance team, rising interest rates and less predictable market returns are the primary factors

complicating the start construction. “Inflation has been much higher than historical averages in recent years and, at the same time, construction cost escalation has been uncharacteristically high,” he said.

While Dwyer said that financial overseers always account for some future inflation when planning a project, and explained the concept of “value management,” a process in which engineers determine areas for financial deductions and increased efficiency in construction, he noted that the project is still “currently just a few percentage points over” budget. When asked for the monetary cost of this percentage, the administration declined to comment, saying they are unable to provide an exact number for the budget at this time.

The Board of Trustees will meet in May to determine whether construction can proceed as scheduled. Elliott reiterated that Amherst is prepared to do only what is most financially responsible for the college, and that beginning construction is always a thought-out decision.

“For a while, we knew we would be reaching a decision point at the end of this semester in terms of whether to go forward with

the construction now or not,” he said. “What has changed is I think that it feels like a harder decision maybe than it would have if we were in the same economic climate that we were in a year or a year and a half ago.”

According to Dwyer, if all goes as planned and construction does start this summer, the project is set to be completed by the Fall 2026.

Elliott noted that many of the students who had actively been participating in plans for the center have already graduated, and he hopes that everyone currently on campus understands how much the student body’s opinion was taken into account throughout the process. “It’s clear that [the architects] listened to a lot of students about what they actually needed,” he said.

Tom Davies — executive director of planning, design, and construction — expressed excitement about the architectural design of the center, which he believes will give students new ways to connect with one another. According to Davies, the center will foster a new way of “bringing the community into the building regularly, allowing them to mix effortlessly and to become more aware of many aspects of our di-

verse community that may have previously been hidden away in some remote corner of the campus.”

Herzog and de Meuron, the Swiss architectural firm in charge of the project, planned the center with four main values in mind: wellbeing, engagement, gathering, and creation. Renderings of the building show a flexible space equipped with rooms for dance and prayer, a game area, and a new home for the radio station. The center will also be home to designated makerspaces, a theater, and music practice rooms. Serving as a food hub, the new center will feature a pub, a café, grab-and-go food, and a full-service dining hall. Because of this, the new student center will replace Valentine as Amherst’s official dining hall.

The online page dedicated to the center writes that Val “is nearing the end of its useful life.” Valentine, which was built in the 1940s, is a staple on campus — for dining, for living, or simply for “Val sitting” — and some students think Amherst won’t be quite the same without it. But even though he is an Amherst alum himself, Elliott is able to console himself about the fact that Val will likely shut down

in the next four years. “Things change,” he said with a shrug. “What makes Val Val is that students go there. We all go there, two or three times a day — everyone is in the same place.” In this way, since the new student center will still be the only dining spot on campus when it opens, it will preserve one of Amherst’s most sacred and unique community traditions.

Despite the fact that all current Amherst students will have graduated by the time this project is completed, Elliott emphasized that the center will be a home to all Amherst students, past, present, and future. “It has been designed with the student of today, and frankly the student of the next 20 or 30 years in mind,” he said.

“It will be the place where everyone wants to hang out, meet, pursue new interests, play, study, and just take in the view,” Davies said. “The building [will be] a hub, both geographically for the campus and as a center of campus life.”

So, will construction on this building start over the summer? Will it be delayed or canceled altogether? Only time, and economic good fortune, will tell. So, until May … fingers crossed.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Architectural firm Herzog and de Meuron's rendering of the planned new student center.

Veggie Febbie: Cultivating a Plant-based Community

Eleanor Walsh ’25 Managing Features Editor

Every morning this month, I’ve woken up to an email in my inbox from Veggie Club, a group for Amherst students interested in plantbased lifestyles. The approximately 130 of us who receive Tim Carroll ’25’s morning messages have opted into emails about “Veggie Febbie.” Veggie Febbie consists of Carroll, the president of Veggie Club, challenging people to go vegetarian for the month of February.

Sixteen people, including myself, have officially undertaken the challenge this year. Carroll, who is a vegan as of March 2022, refers to us as “New Blood” and “Old Blood” in his emails, depending on how long we’ve been doing Veggie Febbie. He doesn’t shy away from the true purpose of the challenge: “I do have a goal,” he said. “And it’s to convert people to vegetarianism.”

The Veggie Febbie emails, most of which Carroll writes, are wide-ranging in content. Sometimes they contain tips for being vegetarian (like taking vitamins); sometimes there are brutal descriptions of factory farming; almost always, there are passages from Peter Singer’s “Animal Rights,” which Carroll cites as “now the seminal text in animal liberation.” The emails also often advertise Veggie Club’s weekly

Veggie Febbie dinners in Valentine Dining Hall, where people gather to eat vegetarian food and discuss everything Veggie Febbie.

The club began as a bet between friends. Last year, Carroll and Veggie Club Vice President Hannah Koo ’25 were arguing about which city was superior: New York or Chicago. Carroll, who is from New Jersey, bet Koo that she couldn’t go one month eating vegetarian. I’m still confused about what that had to do with city superiority, but Koo took the bet, and by the end of February, Carroll had a Chicago flag sticker on his water bottle — a sticker that remains there to this day.

During that last February, Carroll would send Koo daily emails containing key passages from “Animal Rights,” the text that initially convinced Carroll to go vegetarian in his sophomore year of high school.

“I was like, ‘Well, I’m kind of interested in converting her to be vegetarian long term,’” Carroll said. “And so I thought, ‘How am I going to do that? Well, if I give her the same theoretical readings that I got, that converted me to vegetarianism, maybe that would convert her long term.’”

Carroll added a handful of other people who he and Koo were eating lunch with to the mailing list, and pretty soon more people

started to hear about Veggie Febbie. By the end of February 2022, the mailing list had around 100 people. That initial Veggie Febbie grew into Veggie Club, which 130 people signed up for at the most recent club fair.

“I honestly should do some more PR advertising,” he says. “Because there are probably still vegetarians and vegans that aren’t in Veggie Club.” I think this article might count as PR, I tell him.

Koo says that one of the main differences between this year’s Veggie Febbie and last year’s is that now Veggie Club is a Registered Student Organization (RSO), which means they can get funding for things like vegetarian dinners.

“We mostly talk about the ethics behind going vegetarian,” Koo said. “Some of the time, I’ll bring my friends who are not participating in Veggie Febbie. And it’s kind of fun to try and convince them and to talk about the ethics.”

Although Koo talks about “convincing them,” I notice that she has perhaps a less intense conversion agenda than, say, Carroll.

“My strategy is just … talking about my own experience. And I think my overarching goal was to just have more people eat more plant-based as opposed to having more people go vegetarian or vegan.”

Koo put her strategy of shared experience into action when she guest wrote the fifth Veggie Febbie email this month. She talked about how hard it was for her to go home and not eat her grandmother’s Korean cooking, which contained meat almost all of the time.

“Because I grew up eating her food, I felt like I was denying that part of my relationship with my grandma and losing my culture,” Koo wrote in her email.

Ultimately, Koo decided to stay vegetarian, with the exception of eating her grandmother’s Korean cooking when she went home. She reminds others that “plant-based eating should be about what’s best for you.”

Koo’s strategy certainly resonates with me, but people undertake Veggie Febbie for all kinds of reasons. Chris Tun ’25, who Carroll referred to as a “devoted disciple,” likes that Veggie Febbie pushes him. Tun joined Veggie Febbie 2022 for its final week, but has not been vegetarian in the meantime. He did, however, reduce his meat consumption.

“Ever since last year, I’ve been anticipating it,” Tun said. “You know, I love a challenge. I’m challenging my self control.” So far, Tun is going strong.

Tun also finds the ethics portions of the emails compelling.

“I think what’s interesting about his emails are the philosophy parts, and especially the ones where he's talking about applying the rights we give to humans to animals. I mean, that's fair. That is a good point. But, you know, we’re so selfish as a species that we kind of just don't think about it.”

Tun also talked about how Valentine Dining Hall affects his Veggie Febbie. He thinks their plantbased options are pretty good, but I know that other members of the club have struggled, especially when it comes to plant-based protein.

“Word on the street is that the eggplant stew last night was bad,” wrote Carroll in his Feb. 21 email. “It wasn’t the best thing I’ve had, I’ll admit that. But I’m proud of all the Veggie advocates who held strong and DID NOT break VF! In moments like those, it can be hard, as well as in moments where it’s just a block of tempeh or tofu. You might raise an angry fist to your Gods, and beg the universe — why? — and receive only cold, cold silence as your answer, but at least you reside with a sound conscience.”

Veggie Club is always welcoming prospective plant-eaters, even as this year’s Veggie Febbie comes to a close. Email tcarroll25@amherst.edu to get involved.

Photo courtesy of Claire Beougher ’26

From left to right: Daniel Martin ’25 (Treasurer), Tim Carroll ’25 (President), Hannah Koo ’25 (Vice President).

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard ’26

What began with a bet between friends has unfolded into a campus-wide challenge, powered by the vanguard teachings of Peter Singer.

Opinion

Why I Don’t Wear Seatbelts

Tapti Sen ’25 Managing Opinion Editor

I don’t wear seatbelts. Or — so I don’t give readers the wrong impression — it’s less that I actively choose not to wear seatbelts and more that I consistently, inevitably forget to wear them.

The reason for this is simple: for most of my life, I didn’t have to wear them. In my home country, Bangladesh, a seatbelt is like an appendix: you know that it exists in principle, and you might even be aware of its presence from time to time, but functionally, you have no use for it. Usually, the people in the driver’s and passenger’s seats do wear them — mostly to stop that horridly incessant beeping — but even they often fasten their seatbelt behind their body because comfort is of utmost necessity, of course, when driving.

And so, throughout my childhood, I never wore a seatbelt.

And because this was the normal way of life for all Bangladeshis, I never came to realize how abnormal my notion of car safety was until I came to the U.S. as a teenager, stepped into a friend’s parent’s car, and was reminded, as if I was a child, to put my seatbelt on.

This event has occurred over and over: each time I get into the car of anyone outside of family, I am reminded to put on my seatbelt — escalating to the point that my friends learned to assiduously verify this fact each time we were in a car together. Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Tapti put on her seatbelt? Check.

This, long after I feel that I have integrated myself into American culture relatively well, has been the longstanding remnant of my South Asian habits. In many ways, I feel that I can “pass” relatively well as a native — my accent’s relatively “natural,” my way of dressing reassuringly “normal” (although you would

not believe the looks I get when I wrap my hair in a headscarf for bad hair days) — this, to many people I know, remains one of my only standouts of foreignness.

This winter, back home in Dhaka with my family, and perhaps more predisposed to ponderance than usual, I wondered why, despite the many ways I have assimilated, I couldn’t quite assimilate in this regard. And the answer, I’ve realized, is my mother.

Because, in the myriad of ways that I made sense of the new culture around me as a young teenager in a foreign land, it was my mother who first started my journey and led the way for me. It was her who taught me how to swipe the pass on the bus and metro when we first landed in the U.S., her who taught me the necessity of tipping, her who reminded me to say please and thank you

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The opinion pages of The Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community. We welcome responses 50-800 words in length to any of our recent articles and aim to publish a diversity of views and voices. If you would like to submit a response for consideration, it must be exclusive to The Student and cannot have been published elsewhere. The Student will print letters if they are submitted to the paper’s email account (astudent@ amherst.edu) or the article response form that can be found on The Student’s website, by 8 p.m. on Saturday, after which they will not be accepted for the week’s issue. Letters must bear the names of all contributors and an email address where the author or authors may be reached. Letters may be edited for clarity and Student style. The editors reserve the right to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

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After a childhood of not wearing seatbelts, Tapti Sen ’25 finds that she's still unable to get used to them.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagard ’26

Continued on page 9

Seatbelts as a Remnant of Cultural Identity

Continued from page 8

and excuse me every five minutes since “politeness matters a lot in American culture” (this, despite being much less fluent in English than I was at the time). It was her who walked me through the different names produce had at the

grocery store (bell pepper instead of capsicum was a big shocker to me), introduced me to the joyous concept of dollar stores, and encouraged me to go out and explore the city for myself.

But despite the lengths she went to ensure that her child would, at least on the surface,

be regarded as “one of them,” she never had me put on a seatbelt in her car. This is less a result of her not caring about road safety (to the contrary, my mom always ensures to drive at exactly the speed limit — it’s quite impressive), and more her own habits in this regard guiding her way:

seatbelts were out of sight, out of mind. And because she never reminded me to put on my seatbelt in the backseat, I never learnt to. So now, unfortunately, despite the hopes of many people around me, it’s probably been ingrained enough in my brain that I probably never will.

I don’t know why — but I have a strange sense of joy about that. Perhaps it’s reassurance, in a sense, that no matter how Americanized I’ve become in my years studying abroad, no matter how much I “pass,” I hold my cultural identity in my heart in this strange, non-consequential way.

by Quinn Nelson ’25

Latin Honors Decision is an Inadequate Band-aid

Henry Bontempo ’26 Contributing Writer

Last week’s faculty reassessment of the qualifications for Latin honors is a mixed bag. On one hand, the changes to the grade requirements for earning honors do not devalue students’ achievement of Latin honors. There is no harm in honoring a greater proportion of the graduating class — commencement may take a little longer, but it’s still the same cane and the same resume tinsel. That move, in pushing beyond meaningless differences in grade point averages, is a good one. And English honors still exist for those who take pleasure in looking down their noses at fellow classmates.

The new “breadth requirement,” on the other hand, has been subject to far more histrionics. Despite some protestations to the contrary, the decision is not the end of the world as we know it, and its limited application to Latin honors conferral means it does not explicitly contradict the open curriculum. Nonetheless, the requirement’s

implication that the exemplary Amherst student should take classes across haphazard categories misapprehends the value of a liberal arts education.

Siloing academic departments into categories hinging on whether students wield pipettes or paintbrushes more often reinforces the same disciplinary divisions that lead students to write off seemingly disparate academic areas in the first place. There is no reason that honors eligibility should be contingent upon enrolling in at least one class in the arts, humanities, science and mathematics, and social and behavioral sciences, because categorizing on this scale cuts jaggedly across boundaries that are by nature communicative. Moreover, an English major is not “risk-averse” if they opt to chance a Russian or a European studies class instead of a chemistry lecture. A graduate is no less laudable because they focused their course selection on one, two, or three of the four designated quadrants of knowledge during their tenure at Amherst. A liberal arts education is not

a scavenger hunt. It’s about recognizing the enormous potential for further learning in every discipline. If the faculty wanted to institute a requirement for Latin honors that courses be taken in 10 different departments, including cross-designated courses, that would be emblematic of a “willingness to explore unfamiliar intellectual and/or creative fields.” But, as is most egregiously demonstrated by the 24 departments included in the “humanities” column, the requirements’ categorizations do not constitute “fields of expertise” — taking a Latinx and Latin American studies (LLAS) course does not augment your Latin, for one of many possible examples. For that matter, no 12-course major makes anyone an expert on anything, certainly not on 23 other departments, nor is it trying to.

A student who over their four years takes classes in one gigantic clump of departments is just as committed to the Amherst mission — “undertaking inquiry and … shaping their education within and beyond the

curriculum” — as any other. The idea that a graduate has failed to meet Amherst’s highest standards if they took courses solely in the “humanities” or “arts” or “STEM” is a slap on the wrist to thousands of alums since the establishment of the open curriculum.

To a less grievous extent, the “breadth requirements” for Latin honors suggest a breakdown in professors’ trust in their pupils. Amherst’s supplemental essays last year were responses to quotes by professors on ideas in their fields. This prerequisite for admission served both to demonstrate respect for faculty passions and the chance to state our own. It is a departure from that ethos to determine for students what they should be interested in. Admissions panels vet students to ensure that they know how to identify their interests, and that they are eager to engage with faculty in developing those interests.

Amherst’s advising program is ostensibly quite strong. If some faculty feel that they cannot compel their advisees to

enroll in courses in a variety of subjects, then the solution is not imposing courses valued by how far they fall from the student’s stated interest. A solution might entail more face-time with the advisee or work to identify more desirable courses outside of their comfort zone, but certainly not dangling a “magna” behind the gates of one course or another. Bribing ambitious students with Latin lettering is far from the most thoughtful or creative solution to the campus-wide course diversity problem.

Certainly, the purpose of the breadth requirement is to serve as a vehicle by which faculty encourage students to deviate from their major track and core interest, and to reject a purely pre-professional college experience. These are noble goals — but conflating the exploration of unfamiliar disciplines with ticking off mishmashed fields of study misses the point. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a half-measure that, rather than bolstering Amherst’s broad array of excellent courses, perfunctorily color-codes them.

by Alice Burg ’23

Certificates Consulting 101: Which One to Have?

Pho Vu ’23 Contributing Writer

It is evident that we are approaching a stage where access to learning resources is more widely available than ever before. By virtue of the rapid growth in online training programs, preparing for certification exams has become much easier. However, in the midst of a horde of certifications, it can feel suffocating just merely deciding which ones to focus your time, energy, and effort on. If that’s the case, let this article be a quick guide to certificates that are cost-friendly, time-efficient, and most importantly, catered to the support provided by Amherst College during our four years here.

Microsoft Office Specialist

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification focuses on assessing exam takers’ demonstrated proficiency in each of its primary products such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. With no expiration date, MOS is, without a doubt, one of the most valuable certificates that strengthens your confidence with Microsoft tools.

As Amherst students, we are gifted by the college a license to access to Microsoft 365 Pro Plus. This allows us to practice MOS exam problems on the real platform itself before taking the exam.

In addition, Amherst also indirectly supports MOS exam training by sponsoring our LinkedIn Learning account. Log in to Linkedin Learning with your Amherst account, and search for “MOS Certification” in the search bar. There, you will be able to find results filtered just for your MOS cert prep journey. Tiny tip for a more beneficial and fruitful start: Take the “PowerPoint Associate - Microsoft Office Specialist for Office 2019 and Office 365” course first, then Word, then the notorious formula-filled Excel.

Following Covid social distancing protocols, Microsoft made it possible for students to finish the exam from home. This remote version of the exam is still valid after the pandemic, and Amherst students like us probably enjoy this policy the most, given that the nearest authorized testing center from Amherst is based in Boston (which equals two to three hours of traveling)!

Teaching English as a Second Language / Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Yes, you can certainly become an online English teacher while still in college! By earning Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TFL) certifications, you are sure to improve your chances when you apply to accredited English teaching service providers. While both these certifications may require you to pay, there are ways to earn them at no cost.

For starters, you can finish your TFL course, all at your own pace and free, courtesy of Teacher Record. While obtaining TFL sets you up for an international teaching career abroad, TESOL is the preferable of the two because it lets you teach both in other countries and in the States.

Complete your TESOL certification for free by applying for financial aid to the total eight courses in Arizona State University TESOL Professional Certificate program on Coursera. All you need are two short statements, one on your reason to file the aid app and the other on how the course will benefit your goals.

Microsoft Learn Free Training and Certification

Microsoft has been working on initiatives that equip the young generation with foundations to climb the tech-savvy ca -

reer ladder. Besides the rebranded Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador Program that started in 2020, it also offers both training procedures and exam vouchers for eight certificates to all eligible students at no charge until June 2023. These certificates are ideal solutions that help you form an accustomed and acute sense of today’s most in-demand technologies.

The first thing you need to do is create a personal account on Microsoft, select the course of your interest, and verify your Amherst student status on the Cloud Ready Skills platform, an initiative on behalf of Microsoft.

Even in the middle of the super busy spring semester, there is no better time than the present to complete the kind of certifications that will enable you to build up your technical knowledge of valuable skills such as data analysis, security, and artificial intelligence.

Adobe Certified Professional

Formerly referred to as Adobe Certificate Associate, the program redesigned to align with the industry’s expectations can be helpful for many creatives on campus. Once again, Amherst is expanding its students’ choices with software solutions by enabling all students to install and run Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) on their devices. That means you only need to pay for the exam cost, which is around $150, without being encumbered by the exorbitanly priced individual license.

For those who are well-versed in Adobe products, you probably think that your skills are the most legitimate proof already, think again. Nowadays, companies are valuing these credentials more than ever, and come to value candidates who, despite knowing the application like the back of their hand, still manage to take time to study Adobe properly. As soon as you link your hardearned ACP certificate in one of

the creative industries to your LinkedIn profile, your chance of receiving employment offers just immediately doubles.

Harvard Business School Online

You may not have noticed, but Harvard Business School Online’s Credential of Readiness (CORe) does provide financial aid to admitted students from partner schools, and guess what, Amherst College is one of the institutions on the list. Talk to the Office of Financial Aid and work with them to approve your need amount upon your admission to the program.

This is an online, self-paced (with deadline-based assignments), three-course-bundle program built to help you master business concepts and accelerate your decision-making skills through case studies of global corporations and organizations across a variety of fields, including Amazon, Apple, and American Red Cross. Building deep-rooted knowledge of business analytics, economics for managers, and financial accounting, you will walk away from the course with the confidence to solve practical problems and think like business leaders.

Circle Keepers Training

Want to become a certified circle keeper and be able to lead restorative circles? The college’s Center for Restorative Practices (CRP) hosts a three-part Circle Keeper Training Program with each part lasting for about three hours every semester. Based on your study and work schedule, you can save a spot by choosing to commit as a part of one of many cohorts during the time it is offered. Using Indigenous circle methodology, the program is a rare opportunity to build rapport with the community through understanding and sharing values that mat -

ter to you and others. The free course is facilitated by Amherst’s experienced staff and powered by group discussions, readings, and visually-engaging presentations. Upon the completion of the course, you have already had one foot in the career pathway of a restorative justice worker.

Liberal Arts Collaborative for Digital Innovation’s Digital Summer Course

Liberal Arts Collaborative for Digital Innovation (LACOL)’s free and asynchronous digital course is an annual exclusive ticket for Amherst students to join force with students from other ten peer colleges in the consortium in unconventional projects concerning humanities.

With success in engaging students with workload in the Data Science and Digital Humanities utilizing cross-college archives in the previous summers, LACOL 2023 Summer expects to be joined by a new course in Applied Machine Learning.

The only caveat is that slots are limited, so refrain from waiting until the course’s recruitment announcement (usually in March). Raise your chances of acceptance by reaching out to the faculty member in charge and express your interest in participating.

As we prepare to graduate from school and enter the workforce, many of us will endlessly study to complete certification programs required for our practice and profession. However, at the college level, the certifications mentioned above, and similar programs, are already an important way you can solidify an array of beneficial skills. By adding these, you can improve your immediate productivity and open up yourself to multiple career options at the same time. It is one of the many creative ways to make the most out of our college life by leveraging bounty of resources available to us through the college.

2 File's partner

3 One of the Great Lakes

4 "Green Eggs and Ham"

5 Appetizer

6 Fashion monogram

7 Online auction site

8 Peruse again 9 Prez dispenser?

10 Multi-colored fruit-flavored candies

11 Elizabeth I's mother

12 "You've ___ Friend In Me"

13 Furry critter in "Return of the Jedi"

18 Like a praying mantis that's eating its suitor

22 2020 Pixar release

24 Tic-tac-toe win

26 CD players

27 Seek protection from

28 "Sesame Street" grouch

29 Zero degrees, on a compass

30 "___ you to try it!"

31 Frozen waffles

32 Milk source

33 Heat to 212°

gold

Solutions: Feb. 15

Alexandra Olson ’25 Contributing Constructor

Arts&Living

A Jazzy Night: Gemini and Modality Perform at Amherst

Davis Rennella ’24 Staff Writer

This past Saturday in the Eighmy Powerhouse, Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Jazz Performance Bruce Diehl performed with Amherst’s student jazz ensemble Gemini for a benefit concert on behalf of the Amherst Survival Center, a local nonprofit that provides social services for the general well-being of community members. Over one hundred students took their seats or stood along the balcony for the show, which featured some jazz standards, as well as an original composition by Virginia Tech Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology Charles Nichols, as part of the 2023 McBride ’59 Jazz Commission Series. Following them was Modality, Nichols’s own quartet. Diehl informed me that Modality would be playing “a very, very, very eclectic style of house indie cosmic rock kind of music.” With my imagination going haywire after this kind of description, I

was keen to find out what they were all about, so I fastened my seatbelt for the music to come.

First on the docket was “Memphis Underground” by Herbie Mann. Gemini went step-by-step in crafting the groove, starting with the bass on a repeated bluesy riff, followed by the drums, and then the keys. Once the scene was set, the brass kicked down the door with an immaculate imitation of a train horn — suddenly, I was listening from an obscure backstreet by a railroad track, at a show that only those who are in the know could find. The easygoing beat continued to move forward, unbothered, alongside the chaos of the city. At one point Diehl sporadically cued in different parts of the wind section so that they each blared a different horn-like call in an orchestrated cacophony. It would have been easy to let this musical traffic jam slip into an unplanned train wreck, but Diehl coordinated the whole band to seamlessly return to measured time for the final stretch. The band then

took a sudden diminuendo into abrupt silence, with no formality to speak of — the song saw itself out not with a bow, but with a mic drop.

From the first bars of the next piece, Ellen Roe’s “Point, Counterpoint,” you could feel that the band was going somewhere — and going fast. In a fast swing rhythm, the drums started the engines, and in no time we were cruising down the musical highway. What gave this song such a strong sense of movement wasn’t the tempo (which was moderately quick at most) but the rhythms. The saxophones, trombones, and trumpets all moved in and out of the melody unpredictably. True to the song’s title, each section of the winds responded to and riffed off one another — often before the previous section had even finished. I heard some hemiolas, some polyrhythms, and a whole lot of syncopation — most of the rhythmic stops were pulled on this one. We were treated to solos on tenor saxophone (Adrian Whitney ’26) and trombone (Troy Rinker),

which maintained the vigor of the piece, and also from the electric bass (Avi Helft ’26) and guitar (Bodhi Liveright), which slowed the piece down and let their melodies ebb and flow over the swinging drums.

Before I knew it, sinking parallel lines in the brass brought me back to a final reprise of the main melodic motifs, and the band arrived with impact on a final, sustained chord.

Charles Nichols’ original piece, “’59,” took the tone of the concert in a very different direction. Soft entrances from the drums and keys put me in a quiet, pensive mood, and extended notes from the winds added a tinge of sadness. This song also built an emotional landscape: I imagined myself in a highrise building at night, watching the bustle of the city down below and reflecting. I couldn’t pinpoint which qualities of the harmonies gave the piece such a feeling of separation from ordinary experience, but I enjoyed it all the same. There was a collection of different solos, with the first on tenor saxophone (Camila Bonilla ’26) breaking through the clouded atmosphere with a quiet lamentation. Although the soloists played with skill and conviction, the underlying tone always made one feel contentedly lost. With a gentle tap on the ride cymbal, we abruptly closed the window shades of our high-rise apartment, and, having found no answers from our midnight musings, settled for sleep instead.

The last song from Gemini in the concert, Fred Sturm’s “Song of the Rainforest,” finished the set by crafting a compelling and hypnotic musical atmosphere. The electric guitar opened the piece with a repeated riff that sounded like a chant — this quality became even more apparent once the saxophones took it up as well. Over this theme, different sections made varying contributions to the gathering of sound, with some rising high in arcing melodies that perhaps emulated the calls of birds singing in the night. At moments the harmo-

nies got darker, and at other times the band broke out into gestures of celebration, but the underlying riffs never faltered, just like the constant hum of life ringing throughout the rainforest.

As Modality took the stage, they informed the audience that their performance would have a general roadmap, but that they would figure out how to reach their destination on the fly. They started to orient themselves by playing staggered fifths on the synthesizer. These arpeggios gradually got faster, twisting around themselves while the other members of the group, on electric violin, electric guitar, and keys, added layers to what became a swelling ocean of sound. The sound effects on the instruments lent a space-age feeling to the piece; I was reminded at times of the colorful visual sequence towards the end of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Over the course of about ten minutes, this texture rose to a climax of volume and complexity, then slowly descended back down to the simplicity that began the piece. Each of their songs adjusted the tone and timbre of the instruments, but the overall texture remained similar.

I would have liked to see the group go further with their improvisation and work more as an ensemble — sometimes it didn’t feel like the experimentations of each player really built off one another, but merely coexisted. Their methods were certainly original and provided a groundwork for a very different type of listening: I was struck by how the piece developed not through addition of new and changing elements, but through one singular motion, like a storm moving in.

The concert was, overall, a great experience, and thanks to the creativity of everyone involved, I felt that I learned some new things about music that I couldn’t have gleaned anywhere else. Try to catch Gemini, or another one of Bruce’s groups, while you’re at Amherst — they’re well worth your time.

On Saturday, the Eighmy Powerhouse hosted the musical ensembles Gemini and Modality. Davis Rennella ’24 reviews the contrasting performances, from Gemini’s evocative musical landscapes to Modality’s unorthodox improvisation.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Diehl

Alumna’s “Turn Every Page” Fills Every Seat in Theater

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor

On Monday, Feb. 20, director Lizzie Gottlieb ’93 spoke to a soldout crowd at Amherst Cinema following a screening of her new documentary, “Turn Every Page.” She discussed the seven-year process of making the film, which details the overlapping careers of writer Robert Caro and Lizzie Gottlieb’s father, Robert Gottlieb, Caro’s editor and a titan of the publishing industry.

The documentary discusses the two men’s lives and individual careers, but primarily focuses on their working relationship as writer and editor.

Robert Gottlieb edited all of Caro’s critically acclaimed and immensely popular books: “The Power Broker,” the 1974 biography of the New York City urban planner Robert Moses, and a five-volume biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson, of which four volumes have been published. Lizzie Gottlieb says in the film that unlike the other writers with whom her father worked, Caro and her father never saw each other socially outside of their long, often contentious editing sessions. Curiosity about the nature of their elusive relationship, which her father rarely talked about, inspired her to create the documentary.

The film feels personal, almost handcrafted at times. It includes scenes from the Gottliebs’ Thanksgiving table, affectionate family photos, and a split-second cameo from her son, Jacob Young ’25, a current student at Amherst. And though the film is primarily focused on the editing process, the personalities of the two men really shine through.

The elder Gottlieb has served as editor-in-chief at the publishing houses Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf, as well as at The New Yorker. He has edited titles such as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” for which, he proudly proclaims, he suggested the number 22. Beyond his professional achievements, the editor’s endearing eccentricity comes out in some of his more surprising interests, which include a deep passion for ballet and a massive collection

of small plastic handbags, which are shown in the film arranged in neat rows above his bed.

Caro emerges as more reserved, but equally passionate about the art of language. Lizzie Gottlieb highlights Caro’s old-school writing setup: He uses only a Smith-Corona typewriter, a legal pad, and a pen. For decades, Caro says, he has stashed the carbon-copies of each day’s writings into a cabinet above his refrigerator. Towards the end of the documentary, Caro shows Lizzie Gottlieb the cabinet, which is by now nearly overflowing. The scene is one of the film’s more poignant moments — a testament to a life well-lived yet also a not-too-subtle reminder that Caro (who is 87) is advancing in years, with his magnum opus still unfinished.

The film drew steady laughter from the crowd at Amherst Cinema as the two Roberts recounted their impassioned disagreements over semicolons and as the film showed the two elderly literary titans wandering slowly through the Alfred A. Knopf offices in search of a pencil.

In an interview with The Student, Lizzie Gottlieb said that it was “almost painfully nostalgic” for her to be back in Amherst. She specifical-

ly requested to attend the Amherst screening, an event that comes at the tail end of what has been a monthslong promotional tour for the documentary, an exhausting ordeal that she nevertheless described as “the most gratifying experience of [her] professional career.”

She said that she has been happy with the positive reaction to her film, which she said is, in essence, “a film about two old white men who sit in chairs.”

While a student at the college in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lizzie Gottlieb majored in English. She told The Student that, though it wasn’t clear to her at the time, her path towards the director’s chair began in college. Before the advent of the Film & Media Studies major, she still found ways to study cinema. She took a special topics English class that involved watching Westerns and took a class simply titled “Directing.”

She confessed that, though she had grown up around the stage (her mother, Maria Tucci, acted on Broadway) she hadn’t even considered that women could be directors until she took that class, which exposed her to a wide variety of directorial talent. A number

of theater productions and three feature-length films later, she has come into her own as a director.

“Turn Every Page” was bought by Sony Pictures Classics after the Tribeca Film Festival last year and has been released in 150 cities across the country.

In a question-and-answer session after the screening, Lizzie Gottlieb discussed the process of making the film, which took nearly a decade to complete. She said that when she initially brought the idea to her father, his response was, “Absolutely not.” Caro was resistant as well, but the two men eventually agreed to let her inside their process — on the condition that the film would include no audio from their editing sessions. After much discussion of Caro and Robert Gottlieb’s contentious meetings, the audience is finally brought inside the editing room in the film’s final, heartwarming scene, with Chet Baker’s “Do It the Hard Way” taking the place of the men’s muted dialogue.

What emerged from Lizzie Gottlieb’s responses during the Q&A is a picture of the massive amount of material cut in the process of making the 112-minute final product. An anecdote illustrating the pains-

taking depth of Caro’s historical research was left on the cutting room floor, as was a greater exploration of her father’s love of ballet. The director described having to constantly restrain herself from delving too much into any particular subject, out of fear that she would “lose this central relationship that this movie was about.” She additionally emphasized that though the film might be about two old men, it was created almost entirely by women; Lizzie Gottlieb’s two co-producers and both of the film's editors are also women.

Joe Sweeney ’25, who attended the movie with his class “The ABCs of Publishing,” said that he appreciated this window into the process of documentary-making. He said he enjoyed hearing about the details that didn’t make the cut. “Those omissions kind of make the things that are there seem more weighty,” he said.

He especially enjoyed a scene in the movie where Lizzie Gottlieb interviews Caro in Lyndon B. Johnson’s childhood home. “It just really had a great emotional resonance,” he said.

Cindy Chandler-Guy, a resident

Continued on page 15

On Monday, Amherst Cinema screened “Turn Every Page,” a documentary about the long-running professional relationship between editor Robert Gottlieb and writer Robert Caro. Managing News Editor Leo Kamin ’25 recaps the event, which included a discussion with director Lizzie Gottlieb ’93.

Photo courtesy of Dustin Copeland ’25

A Glimpse Inside the Writer-Editor Relationship

Continued from page 14

of Northampton, said that she attended the screening because she has read three of the Lyndon B. Johnson biographies and “The Power Broker.”

“I love their work,” she said. “I think it's amazing.” She grew up on Long Island, which Robert Moses’ infrastructure projects transformed: “‘The Power Broker’ is my life,” she said. She called the film “incredible,” and said that she was especially happy to see members of the younger generation in the audience.

“If there’s hope, it’s in [the younger] generation,” she said.

In discussing his work during “Turn Every Page,” Caro seemed to express a similar sentiment. He said that he writes biographies not just to highlight the lives of indi-

viduals, but to serve as reminders to younger generations that the power of government can be wielded to address massive challenges.

Caro’s challenge, for the moment, is to finish the highly-anticipated fifth volume of his Lyndon B. Johnson biography. He is approaching his 90s. Robert Gottlieb is already there. In the documentary, both men candidly discussed the possibility that they die before the book is completed.

At one point in the film, Conan O’Brien suggests in an interview that what Caro has already produced would be enough — but Caro is clearly determined to complete his task.

In her interview with The Student, Lizzie Gottlieb, for her part, said she was confident that he would finish.

VALHACKS

“Val Hacks” is a column dedicated to exploring the culinary possibilities of Valentine Dining Hall. This week, Ivy Haight ’25 presents her recipe for a customizable milkshake, adaptable to a variety of flavors and toppings.

With the closure of Schwemm’s, the next source of our milkshakes is more precarious than ever. The only way I have found comfort in this situation is by making my own milkshakes in Val. The flavor possibilities are limitless, there are unconventional toppings galore, and you will be awarded genius status by your friends when you make milkshakes out of ingredients from Val.

Directions:

Fill two thirds of a tall Val cup with your soft serve of choice (can be plant-based or regular)

Fill the remaining third of the cup with your liquid of choice (can be plant-based or regular)

Stir until it’s a smooth consistency, and add toppings!

Ingredients:

Chocolate Milkshake: chocolate soft serve, chocolate milk

Vanilla Milkshake (pictured): vanilla soft serve, vanilla/plain milk

Coffee Milkshake (pictured): vanilla soft serve, coffee (iced is ideal, but if it has to be hot coffee, put in more soft serve and less liquid)

Mocha Milkshake: chocolate soft serve, coffee

Potential toppings:

• Sprinkles

• Crushed M&Ms

• Whipped cream

• Chocolate sauce

• Butterscotch sauce

• Pump of vanilla or caramel syrup

• Marshmallows

• Peanut butter

• Granola (for a lot of extra crunch)

• If you want to try a more complex flavor profile, add chai powder or hot chocolate powder

Ivy Haight ’25 presents her recipe for a customizable milkshake, adaptable to a variety of flavors and toppings.

Acclaimed editor Robert Gottlieb and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Caro are at the center of “Turn Every Page,” a film that explores their partnership and collaboration.

Photo courtesy of Ivy Haight ’25

Photo courtesy of Amherst Cinema

Alden Parker ’26 Columnist

It’s hard for anyone to get it entirely right the first time around. Most authors and other creatives, as they or their fans can tell you, will have a few works under their belt before they produce a story, image, or song that they feel they can be proud of, with even more trial and error re-

TIME WARPED RECORDS

most of the album’s tracks were their respective songs’ initial demos, preserved for the sake of their “spontaneity.”

quired to find their “voice,” a consistent well of tones and themes they can reliably draw from. To produce a first work that instantly defines an artist’s voice is no less of an effort than working a miracle — and “Hot Fuss,” the 2004 debut album of The Killers, is one such miracle.

Born from the Las Vegas bars and clubs where the band’s members first cut their teeth, “Hot Fuss” makes a

strong impression by wholeheartedly embracing the roughness and uncertainty of a debut album, and building its identity around that. The lo-fi buzz and heavy impact of the album’s instrumentation gives it the appearance of being unrefined, but it still has an underlying thematic completeness in how natural the overall composition and structure feels. It’s easy to be reminded of a confident but knowledgeable student turning in their first draft as a final product, which is actually not too far from the truth: Frontman Brandon Flowers later revealed that

It’s through the lyrics, though, that The Killers make “Hot Fuss” truly shine, allowing their hazy soundscape to feed into a pervasive state of emotional turmoil. Consider, for example, the album’s breakout hit “Mr. Brightside”: Over an arsenal of churning guitars and synths, Flowers’s rampant suspicions of a cheating girlfriend (“Now they’re going to bed / And my stomach is sick / And it’s all in my head / But she’s touching his chest now…”) open up an implied world of jealousy, paranoia, and self-loathing, with the coda’s indirect evocation of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” becoming the irony-laced cherry on a sundae of sardonicism. It’s a total encapsulation of the feeling of being young and newly in the world, and believing that somehow, in a way you can’t fully understand, you’re doing everything wrong.

Admittedly, “Hot Fuss” is at its best when it chooses to express its anguish as loudly and boldly as possible, which results in a somewhat front-loaded album. After a mas-

terful first half (culminating in the somber “All These Things That I’ve Done”), Flowers and company take a more meditative turn: The music becomes more poppy, the emotions expressed seem less extreme, and the edge feels comparably dulled. Still, the insecurity of that first half remains present, albeit in more subtle ways such as the overprojected cockiness of “On Top,” before eventually receiving catharsis on the frantic, harrowing penultimate track, “Midnight Show,” a fantastic climax that brings the album full circle to the roughness where it began.

“Hot Fuss” may not have a particularly complex vision in terms of sound or themes, but it doesn’t need to. The fact that The Killers were able to produce such an effective rock album on their first try, with a memorable examination of the anxieties of young adulthood to boot, makes it truly worthy of its central role in the band’s legacy as one of the foremost rock acts of the 21st century. Interestingly, though, in spite of my love for this album, I find myself stepping away from it with no interest to find out anything more about The Killers and their later works. There is, to me, a perfection in “Hot Fuss” that I don’t ever want to tarnish.

Time-Warped Records is a column dedicated to retrospective reviews of music albums at least 10 years old, submitted by reader requests. To suggest an album for review, please email Alden Parker ’26 at abparker26@amherst.edu.

Graphic courtesy of Brianne LaBare ’25

Alden Parker ’26 reviews “Hot Fuss,” reflecting on the musical themes and young adult angst that helped propel The Killers’ debut album to success.

Photo courtesy of cashboxcanda.ca

Song and Spirituality Take Stage in “Myths and Hymns”

Olivia Lynch ’25 Staff Writer

Holden Experimental Theater was the place to be this weekend, as it served as the hypnotic backdrop for Sterling Kee ’23’s senior thesis performance of “Myths and Hymns,” by Adam Guettel. I was lucky to secure a seat; the show was sold out for all three nights.

I found myself overwhelmed by the performance’s ambiguity, beauty, and themes of spirituality and self-actualization, all supported by an unbelievably talented cast. “Myths and Hymns” is best characterized as a “song cycle” as opposed to a musical. There is no narrative plot to speak of, nor are there stable, continuous characters. The music is performed as though it were a concert, with no spo -

ken dialogue punctuating the show, featuring a wide range of genres including gospel, ballads, and traditional musical theater. The throughlines that unify the performance are the exploration of the relationship between human beings and the divine, and a commitment to its two titular elements.

When I first saw “Myths and Hymns,” I didn’t understand it all. It seemed like there was so much going on, and without a narrative to hang on to, I found myself lost. However the longer I sat in that theater, as I spent more time paying attention to the lyrics and the actors, I began to hear what Kee and his cast were saying.

The show opens with a haunting song called “Saturn Returns.” Kee enters the stage alone, holding a candle and contemplating

his relationship with the stories about to unfold. I was immediately captivated by the sweetness of his voice, which started off soft and reflective. As the rest of the cast joined in, the music swelled with longing and frustration. It is worth noting the impact of Kee’s vocal talent on this piece and throughout the show. His tone, range, and grasp of character were astounding.

I mention this opening song with such enthusiasm because of its triumphant reprise at the conclusion of the show. Kee notes in his opening remarks that the reprisal provides an important framework for the production because it creates a sense of time and place in an otherwise ambiguous series of musical numbers. In astrology, a “Saturn Return” occurs when Saturn revisits the place in the sky where it was at

a person’s birth. Astrologists assign significance to the end of this 29.5-year cycle as a moment where one reaches a more crystalized form of adulthood.

This idea struck me as I watched Lydia Silver ’25 portray the movements of the stubborn Pegasus in a petty argument with the mythical Bellerophon, as Aidan Gemme ’26 and Annika Paylor ’24 struggled with the depths of depression through a stunning display of vocal strength in “Build a Bridge,” and as Ian Dopp ’24 and Clay Zachery ’23E pushed boulders around the stage as Sisyphus. Bella Lozier ’26 portrayed a moral tension around abortion with her angelic voice and acting talent, and Faith Omosefe ’26 lifted my soul through her powerful vocal performance of “There’s a Shout.”

“Myths and Hymns” is a story

about self discovery. It’s about the kinds of life-changing decisions and identity-defining moments that we encounter on the journey we all take to reach adulthood and reunite with Saturn. Director Ron Bashford says in his director’s notes that “Myths and Hymns” is a story where the performers ask questions to the audience rather than telling them a story. They ask us to reflect and to laugh and to think critically about what we want for ourselves.

In Kee’s opening remarks, he mentioned that he is seven years away from his own Saturn return. After falling in love with this performance and its cast, I can’t help but think about all of the incredible things that await this well-deserving senior in all that he goes on to do after his time at Amherst.

This weekend, the Theater & Dance Department debuted Sterling Kee ’23’s senior thesis performance “Myths and Hymns,” which explores themes of self-discovery and the human relationship to the divine. Olivia Lynch ’25 reflects on the transcendent nature of the performance.

Photo courtesy of Shelley Kee

Around the Herd: Feb. 15 to Feb. 21 in Amherst Sports

Hedi Skali ’25 Managing Sports Editor

Women’s Hockey

This past weekend, the women’s hockey participated in a two-game series against Williams. In the first game, at home, the Mammoths secured an intense 2-0 victory, led by goals from Emily Hohmann ’26 and Avery Flynn ’23. Student-Athlete of the Month Natalie Stott ’26 came up with a season-high 28 saves, 14 of which came in the third period where the Ephs were playing up a skater. During the last six minutes, Williams’ forward Maddie Tix found herself in a breakaway 1 on 1 with Stott, but could not get past the mitt of Amherst’s stellar first-year goalie. With this victory, the Women’s Hockey team won the Little 3 championship and clinched the first seed for the upcoming NESCAC tournament this weekend.

The next day at Williams’ Lansing Chapman Rink, the Mammoths suffered a 2-1 loss to the Ephs. Though Williams’ early lead in the first period was immediately erased with a goal by Rylee Glennon ’24, Amherst was unable to convert the rest of their 45 total shots on goal. This allowed Tix to get her revenge on Stott with the game-winning goal in the second period.

Ultimately, the women’s hockey team ended their regular season with an incredible 21-3-0 record, setting themselves up to be the favorites to take the NESCAC Championship this weekend.

Men’s Hockey

The men’s hockey team also showed off against Williams this past weekend. With a 14-5-3 record, Amherst was favored in the matchup but fell behind in the second period even after starting with the lead early in the game. Nevertheless, Ryan Corcoran ’26 found the puck after a messy face-off late in the third period and fired a backhanded shot that was initially saved but followed up by Bobby Luca ’25

into the bottom right corner to tie the game.

After their 2-2 tie against Williams, the Mammoths finished off their season at Middlebury’s Chip Keynon Arena in dominating fashion. Among the four first-years who each scored in the 5-0 victory, Ben Ritter ’26 netted the first goal of his collegiate career. Simultaneously, goalkeeper Connor Leslie ’25 drew a season-high 31 saves in the win, also earning his second shutout of the season.

This Saturday, the team will host Tufts to begin the NESCAC Championship quarterfinals.

Women’s Basketball

The women’s basketball team’s loss against Trinity College in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC Tournament ended this year’s season in a tragic fashion. Kori Barach ’25, who has led a stellar campaign this year, started off the game with 15 points en route to a 6-point lead in the first half. However, the star player was unable to make any of her nine shots in the third quarter, where the Mammoth’s shooting struggles held them to 4 points in the entire quarter. Led by Anna Tranum’s ’26 season-high 20-point performance and Barach’s clutch jumpers late in the game, the Mammoths were able to claw back a one-point deficit with 22 seconds left in the game. After a timeout, a play was drawn up for veteran guard Reeya Patel ’24 but her shot missed, hitting the front of the rim to end their season with a 17-8 record.

Women’s Squash

This past weekend the 15th-seeded women’s squash team went to Philadelphia to make a run for the Kurtz Cup in the College Squash Association Team Championships. However, the team quickly fell to Dartmouth in their first matchup in a 3-6 loss marked by its rapidity, with none of the matches going to five games. After beating William Smith College in the consolation round with a dominating

8-1 performance, the team faced their arch-rivals Williams College in a fifth-place game for the second year in a row. Last year’s 5-4 win was their first victory against Williams in a decade. This year, the Mammoths rallied to a 6-3 win, featuring three comebacks by Daksha Pathak ’23, Lauren Weil ’23, and Morgan Chaudhary ’26. The first four seats dominated their Williams opponents and Tanmai Pathak ’25 won her game in only 15 minutes in the sixth seat.

With a 14-6 season, and clinching fifth place at the Kurtz Cup over Williams again, the Mammoths should be proud of their season as they send their best players to the CSA individual tournaments this weekend.

Men’s Squash

The men’s squash team had no games this week, but they will be participating in the College Squash Association Team Championships this weekend as the second seed in the Summers Division.

Women’s Swim and Dive

On Saturday, the women’s swim team finished in fourth place in the February NESCAC Invitational, having only sent two swimmers. Grace Walker ’24 swam a 4:36.54 in the 400-meter individual medley, while Jenn Adams ’25 swam a 1:52.43 in the 200-yard freestyle. The team will be competing in NCAA Northeast/North Diving Regionals this upcoming weekend.

Men’s Swim and Dive

This Sunday, the men’s swim team participated in NESCAC Championships at Wesleyan College. A stellar time of 15:33.68 netted Gabriele Lunardi ’25 a second-place finish and a personal best in the 1650 Freestyle, only falling to Williams’ Carter Anderson by a hundredth of a second. The Mammoths posted two teams in the 400-meter freestyle relay, and were able to clinch ninth and 17th, with times of 3:05.06 and 3:07.89 respec-

tively. These were both season-bests in the 400-meter freestyle relay for any Amherst squad. Finally, Tor Metelmann ’25 finished in third place in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:00.49 which granted him national qualification and a personal best. These incredible performances allowed the Mammoths to clinch a third-place finish in the tournament with a meet score of 1133.5.

Men’s and Women’s Track

This past Sunday’s Triangle Classic at Springfield College was the last opportunity for any Mammoths to qualify for the New En-

gland Division III Championships. On the men’s team, Kelechi Eziri ’23, who had previously qualified for the triple jump, secured a second qualification in the long jump, with a 6.70-meter jump. On the women’s team, three different athletes secured qualifying markers in their events. Bridget Cassata ’24 qualified with a 3.15-meter pole vault, while Annelise Romero ’23 qualified with a 10.75-meter triple jump. In the 60-meter hurdles, Myeh Medina ’26 posted a 9.61, also qualifying her for the New England Division III Championships, which will be held this weekend at the New Balance Track in Boston.

Joshe Burke ’26 scored twice against Middlebury.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Kori Barach ’26 scored 15 points against Trinity College.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Storylines To Watch During Formula 1 Pre-season

James Minor ’23 Contributing Writer

Tomorrow Formula 1 (F1) will begin pre-season testing in the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain. The three-day test session will give the 10 teams, which all revealed their cars over the past couple of weeks, the opportunity to collect data on the machines they have been developing for the better part of the past year. This year’s testing sessions also lead up to the release of the new season of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive,” an annual show that documents a number of the story lines across the previous season.

F1 is a motorsport that races high performance cars around the world from early March to late November. Beginning in 1950, the sport has moved through many different eras — the most recent of which started last year with a brand new set of regulations.

Currently, there are 10 teams, each with two drivers. Each teammate is given the exact same car to race and is awarded points for both the team and themselves based on their performance. The sport has two championships: the Constructors Championship, whose winner is an entire team, and the Drivers Championship, for individual drivers. Each driver receives the points they score and each team combines the points of their drivers for their own tally.

Last year saw Red Bull edge out Ferrari for the Constructors Championship and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen take home the Drivers Championship by a comfortable margin due to various errors across the season by Ferrari. Now, with pre-season testing on the horizon, the dust has settled and the big storylines of the upcoming season are becoming apparent.

The main storyline all the pundits are speculating about is — naturally — the fight for the championship. Last year Red Bull won it, but Mercedes

won all eight out of the eight seasons before that (with driver Lewis Hamilton winning the Drivers Championship in six of those eight years). Their loss last year was largely due to early season troubles that prevented them from challenging for race wins until the end of the season. However, new aerodynamic innovations and the general reputation Mercedes has for always finding a way to the top have fans and neutral observers alike excited for what they may bring — including a potential record breaking eighth championship for Hamilton.

Ferrari have hired a new team principal to oversee the team, bringing new hope to the whole of Italy that the team will return to winning ways.

Red Bull returns with its winning driver lineup and seems to have evolved the concepts from last year's championship-winning car. All of these factors seem to point to a three-way fight for the championship — the first in many years.

Another set of storylines focuses on the rookies and veterans in new teams. Of special note on the veteran side are Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso.

Gasly, moving from Alpha Tauri (essentially Red Bull’s B Team) to Alpine (pronounced al-peen), is entering the prime of his career. After a stint with Red Bull that ended on quite a sour note, the Frenchman is likely hoping that a fresh start can rejuvenate his career. The main obstacle for him is a teammate he may not gel with and the lack of reliability that has plagued Alpine’s cars in recent years. Alonso, a former two-time champion with Ferrari, seems intent on fighting Father Time to the end. The 41-year-old recently left Alpine to join Aston Martin, a team that spent most of last year towards the back of the field but promises major progress this year.

On the rookie side of things, there will be 3 youngsters hoping to show their worth this year: Oscar Piastri (21 years

old), Logan Sargent (22), and Nyck de Vries (28). Following the initial announcement of Alonso’s departure, Alpine announced Piastri would race for them this season. Hours later, the young Aussie denied that he had agreed to anything and — after a long arbitration — ended up signing with McLaren. Needless to say, he needs to prove he’s worth all the trouble and he’ll have the perfect opportunity to do so against fellow upstart Lando Norris.

Logan Sargent represents the return of the USA to the grid. While an American team funded by machine-tool manufacturer Gene Haas entered the sport in 2016, Sargent promises to be the first American driver to compete a full season since 2006 and could contribute to the sport’s years-long attempt to capture the American market.

The eldest of the rookie class by far, De Vries has spent the last year in reserve driver roles for Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, and Aston Martin. He made his

debut for Williams last season at the Italian Grand Prix and impressed so much he was given a full seat this season at Alpha Tauri. Much is expected of him and he’s definitely one to watch over the next few years.

These are the main stories to follow this year and the ones that will be most talked about through pre-season testing. I intend to write a review of testing that will also act as a preview of the Bahrain Grand Prix — a week later at the same track — as well as a continuous series of articles about the season through the rest of the year.

Next week’s article will include more team specific info to help you choose who to root for this season. If you have any F1 related questions or general conversation, feel free to randomly approach me to talk about the sport — I’m usually around wearing a Mercedes jacket. Other than that, this season is shaping up to be a real barn-burner, so stay tuned for more F1 articles in The Student!

Excitement has been building as the 2023 F1 cars have been revealed in preparation for pre-season testing.

Photo courtesy of F1 2022

Mahomes Shines in Super Bowl as Amherst Watches

Noah Harris ’26

Contributing Writer

A week ago, millions of people gathered to watch the yearly spectacle that is the Super Bowl. Besting the Philadelphia Eagles was Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, becoming one of the youngest players to win multiple Super Bowls. The 27-year-old captured his second Super Bowl ring to complement his incredible array of accolades, including two MVP awards. In my eyes, his quick ascension to success has made him the heir to the GOAT mantle, currently held by the recently retired Tom Brady. Hailed for his longevity and success, the quarterback won seven Super Bowls and played for 23 seasons in the NFL. However, nobody has had the career Mahomes has had through the first six years of their career, not even Brady. While Brady did capture one more Super Bowl win than Mahomes did in his first six seasons, the fashion in which won was less impressive. Brady’s early Super Bowl runs were bolstered by elite defenses, allowing him to act as a mere game man-

ager. On the other hand, Mahomes has been the focal point of his team thus far, winning two MVP awards and blessing the eyes of football fans with jaw-dropping highlights. Not to mention, Mahomes has thrown for more yards, touchdowns, and fewer interceptions than Brady did in his first six years. Mahomes’ skill and talent is undisputed, and if his early success is any indication, his skill will allow him to ascend to heights that even Brady didn’t reach. While no one can foresee if Mahomes will live up to the rest of Brady’s career, it’s clear that Mahomes is ahead of the curve, and if he does eventually surpass Tom Brady to become the GOAT — well, you heard it here first.

Mahomes’s legacy aside, Amherst students enjoyed the big game in numerous ways. Will Nagy ’26 shared how he gathered with his teammates on the track team to watch the game in Paino lecture hall in Beneski. “I’m from Pennsylvania so I was hyped to watch the Eagles [game] with my friends. The screen they have in the lecture hall is huge, it’s honestly such a great place to watch,”

Will said.

Watching alongside Will was Arissa Grace McGowan ’26, who tuned in to the Super Bowl solely to watch Rihanna perform for the halftime show. “Rihanna was my top artist in 2022 for Spotify Wrapped, so I was really looking forward to watching her per-

form,” she said. The performance featured a number of her top hits, but the finale made the concert really impressive. Standing on a platform suspended in the air, Rihanna sang “Diamonds” as fireworks lit up the sky around her. “I nearly lost my mind, especially afterwards when I found

out she was pregnant too.” Arissa said. “She is an icon.” Whether it was elation while seeing Rihanna ascend into the sky, or heartbreak witnessing the Eagles’ defeat, the Super Bowl evoked many emotions at Amherst and among football fans around the country.

Photo courtesy of All-Pro Reels All eyes were on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs at this year's Super Bowl.