A researcher hired by the college to examine Amherst’s racial history and economic ties to slavery up to and through the 1860s, Mike Jirik, discussed his findings so far at the regular meeting of The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) on Feb. 27.
The budget cuts have been instituted to ensure that faculty and staff can recieve raises amid inflation.
Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor
All college departments and divisions have been asked to cut their budgets by 15 percent for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2023, in the wake of a decrease in the college’s endowment and amid persistently high inflation. This change comes despite a 4.9 increase to the comprehensive fee announced Tuesday. There will be no layoffs for staff and no changes to the college’s financial aid policy, President Michael Elliott said.
Alongside the cuts, the college will implement a hiring freeze for all staff for the next fiscal year, even as the college struggles with staff shortages. Hiring
of new faculty will continue as usual.
In interviews with The Student, Elliott and Provost and Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein emphasized that the college’s goal was to minimize the impact of cuts on student life. Elliott nonetheless said that the budget cuts would have to prompt a broader “culture shift” at the college.
“Amherst has been a place where we’ve had the capacity over the last five to 10 years to say yes to most new ideas,” he said. “In a very short period of time, we’re having to shift to a mindset where the answer to most new ideas is either going to be ‘no’ or ‘later.’”
Epstein said that the propo-
Campus Corners: Caelen McQuilkin ’24E features a new timeline in the Queer Resource Center and speaks with staff about their thoughts on it.
sed cuts have been instituted to ensure that staff and faculty can receive raises amid increased costs of living. “That’s a priority of the college, particularly right now, because faculty and staff went through the pandemic,” she said.
The budget process remains in its early stages. Academic departments submitted their proposed reduced budgets to Epstein on March 1, but many other non-academic departments have not yet finalized their proposals.
Following these initial attempts to find room in the budget, there will be a negotiation process between the President’s office and individual departments culminating in a final budget proposal to the Board of
Trustees in May.
Elliott said that the 15 percent number was a starting point in the process, not an iron law. “It is probably not going to be 15 percent across the board,” he said. “But it’s a good way to start asking the questions.”
Elliott said that his office was working to ensure that the cuts do not have a large impact on the student experience. “Anything that involves a large number of students we’ll be looking at really carefully,” he said. “We’ll try to understand the trade-offs.”
Epstein similarly said that she believed that “there are things that could be cut that hopefully won’t be noticed all that much by their absence.”
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Pay Up: Zane Khiry ’25 argues that, in order to live up to its motto, "Terras Irradient," the college should contribute more money to the town of Amherst.
The project, titled “A Racial History of Amherst College,” was introduced in August 2020 as part of former President Biddy Martin’s anti-racism plan. In the presentation, Jirik outlined highlights of his research, which so far has uncovered the history of Indigenous removal from the lands Amherst occupies and the ties of individual donors to slavery.
In addition to hiring Jirik to direct the project, the college also formed a Steering Committee, co-chaired by Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein and Head of the Archives and Special Collections Mike Kelly. It is staffed by faculty members, students, an external expert, and a representative from the Offices of Advancement; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and Student Affairs.
Jirik began by explaining what he referred to as the “first phase” of the research project, which only
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The Lilac x The Student: In this first installment of The Lilac x The Student features “Nothing Entire,” a poem by Joe Sweeney ’25.
>>Feb. 28, 2023
5:34 p.m. Newport House ACPD and AFD responded to a fire alarm. Cause of activation was from burnt food.
7:48 p.m. Merrill Science
ACPD responded to the report of a strong odor of burning rubber. Source of odor was not found. No smoke or fire observed.
8:00 p.m. New Science Center
ACPD responded to the report of a burning odor coming from a science lab. Odor was found to be originating from outside the building. No further assistance was needed.
>>March 1, 2023
1:01 a.m. Newport House ACPD responded to the report of a suspicious person that was let into
a residence hall. Officers made contact with the individual, who was found to be houseless. He was then assisted off campus.
1:25 a.m. Newport Parking Lot
ACPD discovered a student vehicle fully engulfed in flames. AFD responded and extinguished the fire.
9:54 a.m. Campus Grounds ACPD responded to the report of a solicitor on campus. After discovering they did not have permission to be on campus they were advised to leave.
>>March 2, 2023
4:23 p.m. Quadrangle Road
ACPD stopped a motor vehicle being operated in the wrong direction on a oneway street. The driver was given a verbal warning.
>>March 3, 2023
1:41 a.m. Seelye Hall ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause was a hair straightener.
9:10 p.m. King Hall Community Safety responded to a noise complaint. CSA reported asking a group to quiet down
10:36 p.m. Cohan Hall Community Safety was dispatched to a noise complaint. CSA reported all quiet.
11:24 p.m. Morris Pratt Hall ACPD responded to an emergency call hang up. No one was found in need of assistance.
>>March 4, 2023
12:56 a.m. Jenkins Hall ACPD responded to a prefire alarm, The cause was a spray air freshener.
12:03 p.m. Hitchcock Hall ACPD took a report of past
vandalism.
11:35 p.m. Humphries House Community Safety responded to a noise complaint and asked an event to quiet down.
>>March 5, 2023
12:06 a.m. Moore Hall Community Safety was dispatched to a noise complaint and asked a group to quiet down.
12:08 p.m. Mayo Smith Hall
A CSA conducted a walk through of the building and found damage to a door and cabinet. ACPD took the report.
2:23 p.m. Greenway C Hall ACPD responded to a pre-fire alarm. The cause of activation was from cooking.
3:12 p.m. Greenway C Hall ACPD and AFD responded to a fire alarm. Cause of
activation was found to be cooking smoke.
10:29 p.m. Stearns Hall
A CSO responded to a noise complaint. Students cooperated and turned down the music.
>>March 6, 2023
12:50 p.m. Wieland Hall
ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was from burnt food.
10:30 a.m. Arms Music Center
ACPD responded to the report of an individual behaving oddly in the building. The individual had left the area before officers arrived on scene.
5:51 p.m. Emily Dickinson House ACPD took a report after a piece of fencing was found damaged.
10:37 p.m. Hitchcock Hall CSAs responded to a noise complaint.
Four months after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases that threaten the constitutional status of affirmative action, the college hosted a panel discussion titled “The Future of Affirmative Action: Race-Conscious Admissions and the Supreme Court” on Thursday, March 2.
The conversation included Ryan Park ’05 — who is the solicitor general of North Carolina and argued on behalf of the University of North Carolina’s admissions policy in one of the cases before the Supreme Court — and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Matthew McGann. The discussion was moderated by Pawan Dhingra, associate dean of the faculty, associate provost, and
professor of American studies.
(Originally, Paul Smith ’76, P’09 was to be featured on the panel instead of McGann, but he was unable to attend at the last minute. A professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, Smith has argued 21 cases in front of the Supreme Court.)
Perhaps due to the absence of a second lawyer on the panel or perhaps due to Park’s reluctance “to make this [event] into a law school lecture,” the discussion largely glossed over the specifics of the case or predictions about how the court is likely to rule. Instead, the conversation focused on the value of diversity in higher education, how race is currently used in college admissions, and Amherst’s commitment to maintaining a diverse student body.
Chair of the Board Andrew Nus-
sbaum ’85 and President Michael Elliott opened the evening. Their remarks made it clear that the college is firmly in favor of the use of race in college admissions, affirming the commitment expressed in the Aug. 1 amicus brief the college filed in favor of Harvard and UNC. The discussion was thus a strategic conversation about the possibility of an “adverse ruling” as opposed to a neutral exploration of the topic.
Both Nussbaum and Elliott quoted the college’s mission statement in their remarks, emphasizing the phrase “students of exceptional potential from all backgrounds” to highlight diversity as one of Amherst’s central values. Nussbaum’s statement that “whatever it takes, whatever the legal means, we will do it” (referencing the college’s dedication to maintaining a diverse student
body) was met with audience applause.
Park and McGann echoed this ideological commitment to affirmative action for the sake of diversity, with Park speaking about the value of diversity in higher education as a whole and McGann focusing on the importance of diversity at the college.
“The work of trying to build communities like this one — it has a purpose,” Park said, “ because all the students here — and all the students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — they become the next generation of leaders.” Park spoke about the value of diversity beyond undergraduate institutions as well, highlighting the example that racially diverse juries tend to reach more accurate decisions than racially homogenous juries.
McGann stressed the importance of race as part of the holistic admissions process at Amherst. “In our individualized holistic review, for students to be able to bring their whole selves to this admission process, not just part of themselves, but their whole selves, benefits everyone in the community. I think it’s crucial for students to be able to proudly talk about all aspects of their identity.” In discussing the prospect of college admissions without the consideration of race, McGann posed the question: “How can we have [an admissions] process that allows students to bring their whole selves except for one thing?”
Part of the argument against race-conscious admissions is that it devalues traditional academic
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She specifically mentioned on-campus speaker events as sources of potential cuts, at least for academic departments. “We do have an awful lot of speakers who come to campus and a very large number of events that are often not particularly well attended,” she said.
Elliott suggested that the number of events on campus might not necessarily decrease, but they may become “less lavish.”
When asked for other examples of the kinds of things that might be cut, he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I.T. says, ‘Here’s some technology that we’re supporting that actually not that many people on campus are ac-
tually using.’”
The budget cuts are likely to affect different parts of the college’s operation differently. Elliott pointed toward the dining services division as one that might have difficulty cutting 15 percent, due to the especially high levels of inflation in food prices.
“We’re not going to reduce our food operation,” Elliott said, though he conceded that some items at Val might be discontinued.
The impacts of the cuts will also vary among academic departments. Some departments have accrued large, department-specific endowed funds from alumni donations that provide financial cushion against the cuts.
Professor Mark Marshall, co-chair of the chemistry de-
partment, told The Student that his department would not make any spending cuts and would instead make up the difference with a greater infusion from its endowed fund — which is the largest of any academic department.
Alternatively, Professor Michael Ching, chair of the math department, said that financing the cuts from his department’s endowment would not be “sustainable.” He also said, though, that his department was in a better position than many because a large share of its budget is salaries for student graders and Teaching Assistants, which will remain untouched. He said that community-building events for majors might have to be scaled back to meet the budget cuts. Epstein said it was possib-
le that departments with larger endowed funds would be asked to bear greater burdens, in an effort to “redistribute” money across the departments. Generally, Epstein said that she hoped that direct instructional expenses would be maintained, with cuts being made outside the classroom.
It is clear that this will not be possible in all cases. Professor Karen Koehler, chair of the Department of Art and History of Art, said that the cuts were forcing the department to find new ways to source the art supplies it provides to all students who take studio classes — whether that means buying more in bulk or changing suppliers. She maintained that these changes would not fundamentally change the student experience.
Epstein said that it appeared that most departments would be able to make the cuts.
“Only one [academic] department has come to me so far and said, ‘I don't know how we can do this,’” she said, but would not say which one.
She emphasized that the fiscal year 2024 budget process remained a “work in progress.”
This is especially true for non-academic departments like dining, athletics, student affairs, and admissions. Representatives from those departments indicated that it was too soon in the process to gauge the impact of the budget process.
Regardless, all departments will have to find a way to make the numbers work before the final budget proposal to the trustees in May.
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achievement in favor of curating a diverse student body. Park admitted that, in order to live the stated value of diversity, college admissions offices often have to prioritize admitting students who have faced adversity over students with the highest test scores. However, Park further explained that there is a general consensus that having overcome adversity, like academic achievement, is a valuable quality for a well-rounded student body.
He continued, “there’s actually very broad agreement that your racial identity can be something that poses adversity to you,” implying that race can, in some cases, be used as a proxy for identifying students who have overcome adversity.
In assessing the impacts of omitting race from college admissions, McGann said that Amherst has looked to the University of California and the University of Michigan systems for information. Through ballot initiatives, both systems voted that race would not be a factor in the admissions process.
“They saw significant declines in racial and ethnic diversity,” said Mc-
Gann. “Those impacts were most severely seen and have continued to be most severe and stinging among Black students and Native American students.”
Both the California and Michigan systems attempted to maintain a racially diverse student body using other strategies, and the efficacy of such alternatives to affirmative action were the subject of many questions during the oral arguments in October. For instance, they have used socio-economic status as a proxy for race and have intensified recruitment efforts in minority communities. But, McGann pointed out, “They have not been able to get back to the same place of diversity where they were before these ballot initiatives were enacted … it’s not enough.”
According to Park, it is difficult to predict how a ruling against affirmative action would play out at Amherst, as the impacts of a ruling affecting race-consciousness are likely to be “completely different from institution to institution.” He highlighted the example of the “personality rating” to illustrate this point. In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard
College, one piece of evidence used in the case is the fact that Harvard consistently assigns Asian American students lower “personality ratings” than other students.
However, Park pointed out that at the University of North Carolina, “Asian American students have higher personal ratings than other backgrounds, if you control for academic credentials.”
Park remains optimistic that the court will rule in favor of UNC: “I think we’re going to win the case,”
he said. Park further explained that “I still think that there is a working majority of the court that believes in diversity very strongly and does view it as a compelling interest.”
The questions that will decide the case, he believes, are: “Is the consideration of race necessary to advance that compelling interest? Are there other ways to meet that compelling interest without conscious consideration of race?”
McGann, who has been following the cases closely, was less cer-
tain of the outcome, remarking, “I’m not naive to the current realities of this court and the degree to which they’ve been willing to overturn decades of precedent to go against people’s rights, and that gives me a lot of fear.”
“We all have to collectively embrace the responsibility to be a part of this process,” said Park, “There is no case that decides what your values are, and the whole point of democracy [is that] it’s all up to us to decide.”
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included Kelly and a few students. Their research further explored the history of Indigenous removal at Amherst in order to acquire the land where Amherst College is now situated. Kelly shed light on the history of the Octagon, which used to be a church before the land was donated to the college. The owner of the church, Reverend David Parsons, housed enslaved people within it.
The second phase of the project, which began after Jirik joined the research team in September 2022, focused on the research into college donors and their individual ties to slavery. Jirik outlined his discoveries in detail — explaining how multiple donors and founders of the college either held enslaved people or profited from the slave economy at the time. One key example was Samuel Dickinson, grandfather of Emily Dickinson, a founder and significant donor to the college.
Samuel Dickinson was invested in a massive cotton mill in the Amherst area, which primarily processed slave-grown cotton from the South.
Furthermore, Jirik mentioned how some buildings on campus
are named after individuals with strong ties to slavery. For example, the first-year dorm Williston Hall was named after Samuel Williston — a wealthy donor to the college who made his fortune from slave-grown cotton.
Jirik also referenced findings involving past faculty at the college, including evidence of professors practicing scientific racism and contributing to the theft of indigenous remains for academic purposes. This topic, Jirik said,
requires more in-depth research.
Jirik emphasized that there is more work that needs to be done, and encouraged students who are interested in helping out with the research to reach out to him.
After Jirik’s presentation, the floor opened for a Q&A. One recurring question was how these findings will be spread among the college and greater Amherst community. Jirik teased an event with the college and Elliott, which will serve to communicate this rese-
arch to the campus. Jirik couldn’t give any specific details or dates at the time of the Q&A.
After the questions closed, AAS President Sirus Wheaton spoke to the Senate about what actions the AAS could take in response to the research. He cited the possibility of contributing to the town of Amherst’s reparation fund if the student activity fee was increased by several dollars.
Wheaton, who has been spearheading the Senate’s push for
reparations since the beginning of the year, mentioned that only two other schools in the nation (Harvard and Georgetown) have attempted to do work with reparations, but that Amherst is in a unique position.“We’re lucky enough to have the Amherst town reparation fund already in place,” he said.
“We can do something about making reparations happen even if the college isn’t in full support,” Wheaton said.
The Editorial Board
The following statements are from candidates running in special elections for open senate seats. Statements have been edited for grammar and length.
Class of 2023 Senators:
Javid Alizada ’23
I am many things — a sweetheart, a cool guy from Azerbaijan, a decent biochemistry major, and an average party enjoyer — but, most importantly, I am a passionate member of the class of 2023. Why am I qualified you might ask? I have lived through a war, I applied to
Amherst in mid-December without knowing what the Common App was, I dove with sharks and climbed a volcano just for the fun of it, and I have done many other things that display my fearless and energetic spirit. Regardless of the issue, I am willing to fight for it!
Class of 2024 Senators: Trevor Gasgarth ’24
I am passionate about increasing communication between the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) and student body, as well as enhancing social activities on campus. Communication is essential to ensure that the student
voice is heard and that our needs are met by the AAS. Furthermore, by increasing the number of activities on campus, we can create a more vibrant and engaging community. I am committed to creating more social events such as the rave from the fall of 2019. If elected, I promise to work tirelessly to improve our college experience and make our campus a more enjoyable and inclusive place.
Lucas Romualdo ’24
I’m Lucas Romualdo and I’m running to be your senator. I’ve previously been a senator and the AAS secretary, and I’m running to improve transparency and next
year’s budget planning.
My priorities are (1) transparency: There should be more accountability from senators to report on faculty committees’ decision-making.
(2) Financial Sensibility: Student activities fee revenue is down 14 percent from 2019 and only 60 percent of allocations are spent. Restore the student activities fee back to pre-pandemic levels and ensure that they receive only what they plan to spend. Let’s free up more student money for clubs and events.
Transfer Senators:
Erik Arciniega ’26As the current co-chair of La Causa, I have had the privilege of advocating for a better student experience for our large and diverse group. I believe that I can bring this same energy and commitment to the Senate, where my primary concern will be to ensure that all students’ voices are heard. If elected, I would advocate for better resources and services, increased transparency from our administration, and greater opportunities for student engagement. As a hardworking and dedicated student leader, I promise to listen to your ideas and work collaboratively with my fellow senators to achieve our shared goals.
February came to an end, and AmherstBussin, the campus-wide group chat of over two years, soon followed. The chat had become an ubiquitous, if at times controversial part of life on campus, until its sudden disappearance on March 2. The reason for its sudden departure
is yet unknown, but in its stead several alternate group chats ––including a new AmherstBussin –– have surfaced in an attempt to create a new hub for virtual discourse on campus.
On March 4, the top-seeded women’s hockey team won the NESCAC Championship Finals 5-0 against Hamilton College. The win marks the second
NESCAC victory for the team in the last three years, and the first since 2020. Following the win, goalie Natalie Stott ’26 was named player of the week.
Val-goers who enjoy checking the dining hall’s daily offerings on the Mammoth Meals app will be greeted with an updated interface as of Tuesday, March 7. The app had been overhauled to
include more detailed information regarding allergens in various dishes, in addition to other adjustments such as the option to rate individual foods.
The Board of Trustees has voted to increase tuition by 4.9 percent, raising the comprehensive fee to a total of $84,210 for the 2023-24 academic year. In an email on March 7, the board
pointed to rising inflation, a desire to “enhance the academic and student experience” and to continue “offer[ing] competitive salaries for faculty and staff,” and “important ongoing projects” to justify the decision. As part of the move, the student activities fee was similarly raised by 5 percent, bringing its total from $600 to $630 per year. Students on financial aid will not see an increase in their family contribution.
Frank Leon Roberts is an assistant professor of English. He received a bachelor’s degree from NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2004 before receiving a master’s of arts from NYU Tisch in 2005. In 2020, Roberts received a doctorate from NYU Gallatin.
Q: Why did you choose to come to Amherst?
A: I was interested in coming to Amherst for a couple of reasons. The first has to do with some of the transformations that have happened at Amherst over the course of the past couple of years in terms of a commitment to exploring important questions about the role of liberal arts institutions in an ever-changing world. It seems like Amherst is paving the way on those questions, and so I was interested in being a part of that conversation. Also, the English department is really special here at Amherst, in that we have a rich tradition of interdisciplinarity. As an interdisciplinary Black studies scholar whose research does not focus exclusively on literature, being in a space where I am encouraged to expand the boundaries of traditional literary studies is something that is really attractive. As a third point, I looked forward to an opportunity to be in a space where there’s a real sense of an enclosed, close-knit intellectual community. New York City is a very busy place to study and learn — learning and studying in a smaller environment like Amherst works well for me at this stage in my scholarly career. And then lastly, I came to Amherst for the same reason that people have been coming for the last 200 years: because of a tradition of academic excellence where I’m constantly learning from students like you.
Q: What initially piqued your interest in James Baldwin?
A: What piqued my interest in Baldwin is his radical commitment to truth telling. As somebody who has
spent roughly two decades now as a racial justice organizer, I’m always called to writers and thinkers who dare to tell the truth in public — and James Baldwin embodies that legacy. Also, as a Black man who’s not from Harlem, but has been living in Harlem for over a decade, James Baldwin is a patron saint in that space — and so he was inescapable. I also came to Baldwin because I think that Baldwin is still America’s best democratic theorist. He is the writer who has done the best job of telling America the truth about itself. Lastly, I came to Baldwin because of the beauty of Baldwin’s writing, particularly his essays, which are unmatched in the African American literary tradition. And so all four of those reasons helped me to come to Baldwin as a writer and thinker.
Q: Your path to your PhD was very nonlinear. Could you tell us about what that was like?
A: It’s been a wonderful winding journey. And my story is a testimony, I think, first of all, to the importance of creating your own path. And then also about the importance of not rushing, and taking your time to do multiple things, with the understanding that you will arrive at your destination when it’s time. I took a long break while I was in graduate school, though while I was in the break I didn’t know it was a break, because I hadn’t actually taken a formal leave of absence from my institution. But I essentially took eight years to do movement work, when I was just organizing full time. I created a nonprofit organization. I was out organizing in the streets. I was at Ferguson, on the ground. I was,
you know, shutting down highways and freeways as a part of protest movements, all with the Movement for Black Lives in New York. And I found that I couldn’t do that while also being a graduate student, so I committed myself to the work of racial justice organizing. And I began to realize that there are many front lines — that the front line doesn’t always mean being at the protests in the streets — the front line could also be being in the classroom, or being in administration, or being in an English department, or simply being on a campus where bodies like yours have not traditionally been welcomed. So for all those reasons, I came to the PhD, and ultimately completed the PhD, in order to think about the professoriate — the Academy as another site where you can engage in resistance work and protest work.
Q: Tell us about your role in the Black Lives Matter Movement.
A: The Black Lives Matter [BLM] movement is a part of a rich and long Black radical tradition of protests, rebellion, resistance, and creative organizing. So I have been involved alongside tens of thousands — millions, really — of other Americans who have been involved in movement work. Like I said, I came to the Movement for Black Lives, really, as a teacher. I was looking for an opportunity to think about what it means to not only do BLM in the streets, but to think about BLM as something that can intervene in educational space. So nine years ago, at the beginning of the movement, I created a course at NYU called Black Lives Matter, which, at the time, was
the first and only course in the United States that attempted to teach the movement and the principles of the movement while the movement was actually still happening. So it’s really exciting to see nearly 10 years later, there are many Black Lives Matter courses happening on different college campuses across the country. But I’m proud that in some ways, I was a part of laying the foundation for this idea that the Movement for Black Lives is a major American social movement that deserves to be taught in the same way that we regularly teach courses on the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, the Harlem Renaissance movement, etc. So this idea that part of the role of the insurgent Black intellectual is to bring the concerns of people outside of the academy into the classrooms of the academy as part of the pedagogical tradition that I see myself aligned with, and then connects me to how I do, and think about, the Movement for Black Lives work in an intellectual context.
Q: What do you view your role as a professor, and the role of professors more broadly, in the Black Freedom Struggle?
A: When you look at the Black radical tradition, it is clear that there is a relationship between Black organizing and Black study. What I mean by that is that all of the great organizers — whether or not we’re talking about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bayard Rustin — before they were organizing, they were actually firstgrade students and thinkers. So Martin Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience is influenced by his readings of Gandhi. The Black Panther Party was founded by two students, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, while they were students at a community college in Oakland. Angela Davis’ work is informed by her background as a political philosopher who wrote her PhD on the Frankfurt School’s philosophy. So what I’m saying is that there is this long tradition of racial justice work being connected to the life of the mind. And so I see my role as continuing this tradition of
connecting the life of the mind to a broader project of political and social transformation. And, in fact, one of the things that is very important about Black studies as an intellectual tradition is that it is the literal merger of social justice, labor, social justice protests, and intellectual inquiry. So this idea that you can engage in intellectual work that is informed by broader public concerns is very much the tradition that I stand in as a teacher and that I try to continue.
Q: Are you doing any research at the moment?
A: I am working on a book on James Baldwin’s life as a playwright and dramatist. Very often, when we talk about James Baldwin, we talk about Baldwin as an essayist, Baldwin as a novelist — or even Baldwin as a public speaker. Rarely do we think about Baldwin as a playwright. I’m interested in how theater shaped Baldwin’s approach to the politics of what we might call ‘radical empathy:’ the idea of being willing to see one’s self in the other. I’m also interested in how theater helped teach Baldwin the art of representing the other. In other words, another way of saying this is that Baldwin understood what actors do on stage — they get on stage and they step into someone else’s shoes, or they allow themselves to lean into someone else’s experience that is not their own — that could actually be translated into a social practice that all human beings could engage in. To be human is to be willing to step into someone else’s shoes and actually approach that person with empathy. So right now, I’m working on a book that tries to think about these concerns in relation to Baldwin’s work as a dramatist. And I’m also working on a collection of essays on some of the issues that we’ve discussed in relation to social justice and pedagogy.
Q: What do you do for fun outside of research and teaching?
A: I love listening to Beyonce and listening to Frank Ocean. I’m a man of the theater, so I’m always going to the theater. The theater, I think, helps
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Photo courtesy of Amherst CollegeEnter the Queer Resource Center (QRC) on the second floor of Keefe Campus Center and, hanging by the window, you can find several large purple posters lined up together — a timeline documenting important figures, groundbreaking groups, and pivotal moments in the history of queer people at the college. This timeline is the culmination of many hours of research and planning by QRC staff members, who shared their thoughts on this experience and their belief in its value.
Moving through time, the selected events on the timeline do not separate resilience, joy, struggle, and progress from each other. Instead, they illustrate how these forces have been intertwined over time, and how student activism often drove progress forward.
Dating back to 1886, the timeline’s first point recognizes Clyde Fitch, who was one of the first known queer men at Amherst. “Queer people have been on campus for as long as Amherst has
existed,” the timeline reads. Some other dates include events such as three gay faculty members being dismissed from the college due to “scandals” that were never proven in the 1950s, Marshall Bloom, a gay student, using his role as an editor to guide The Student towards political issues and activism in 1966, students attempting to start a gay club in 1972 but being denied support from the broader college community, the start of “secret queer-only meetings” in the 2000s, and student health insurance expanding to include hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and gender reassignment surgery in 2014.
QRC Coordinator Madina Oraz ’25 first had the idea to create a historical timeline during one of the center’s training sessions at the start of the fall semester. They recalled learning about Tamara Johnson — a Black, trans woman who graduated from Amherst in 1973 and was known for, among many things, her vibrant musicality and campus advocacy. Learning about Johnson made Oraz realize how valuable it would be to “ini-
tiate some permanence” in an “acknowledgment of the long-running history of queerness on campus” by installing an exhibit developed from archival materials.
Director of Gender and LGBTQ+ Equity and Engagement Hayley Nicholas also emphasized the importance of this type of historical preservation. “As a queer person of color, I long for more complete histories — ones that haven’t been erased, sanitized, and made more palatable,” they said. “History helps us understand who we are and how we can grow.”
Over the course of the fall semester, Sam Hodges ’23, a program coordinator at the QRC, started on this historical work, poring over a number of research sources, including several past issues of The Student, newspaper obituaries, and testimonials from QRC staff. Alongside Sasha Heywood ’25, they looked through “a lot — a lot — of old news” and archival materials, finding stories, important dates, and other forms of documentation. As they worked, J.T. Martin, then-director of the QRC and current Interim
Assistant Dean for the Office of Identity and Cultural Resources (OICR) helped point them in new directions and towards other important materials.
Hodges explained how fascinating it was to read these old stories and accounts from queer students and groups. “They describe it so well, and … they’re very good at finding the humor,” they said. “No one’s like, ‘Oh my god, we were exiled from campus and it was really difficult.’ It was. But also, ‘Yeah, we had this gay table, and we’d make fun of the straight people.’”
Given the depth and richness of these stories, Hodges said, at times it was difficult to sort “things that don’t really lend themselves down to dates,” like the way people described the culture, or specific stories. For example, they said, “How do you put a funny story about the gay table onto a timeline? No one even gives a 10-year estimate; they’re just like, ‘The gay table used to exist.’ When was that? And when was this?”
Hodges described finding a balance between using stories on the timeline and learning that
“Those things are hard to pinpoint … I feel like it wouldn’t be as nice in the timeline, you know?” This was part of the inspiration behind the QRC’s bi-monthly historical highlights, which hang as posters in the center and share some of the stories that lack precise dates.
Oraz spoke on the timeline’s importance in allowing us to look back through queer history as part of the story of Amherst from its beginning. They described how sometimes it can be easy to think about the institution’s history in a reductive way, as if “we existed as a male[-exclusive] college for X amount of years, and then, ‘woo hoo: women!’ And then, ‘woo hooo: diversity!’” they said. But this framework “doesn’t seem real, and it feels so forceful, and kind of alienating.”
The timeline in the QRC is grounding, then, Oraz said, because walking into the room and seeing it hanging on the wall, you don’t “get a feeling of, like: [The] QRC, it’s something new, something fresh, and [that] queerness is something added on the layer of the college when it became diverse.” Instead, “it’s something that ran through the history [of the college], and there were layers to that,” they said.
While queer people have been present throughout Amherst’s history, the timeline also notes that because of the college’s policies of exclusion and broader systemic issues, that presence did not include people who were left out of the college entirely due to other components of their identity. “Amherst did not always allow people of color or women to attend or teach, and so there are times when people have been excluded from participating in that history,” the timeline reads.
As Nicholas put it, “The timeline illustrates very clearly what histories have been magnified. It forces us to pause and ask: Why have these stories been prioritized? What narratives are missing? What is not passed down? What is passed down but only to a
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to keep me alive — and I mean, alive, in the sense that it keeps me vibrant. It keeps me connected to communities that are breathing together in a small social space, trying to ask questions about what it means to be alive. So I like doing that. I like watching TV, my guilty pleasure is Bridgerton. I’m waiting for the next season to come out. And I love continuing to be rooted in my community in Harlem, which is where I am when I’m not here in Amherst. And each week, I return to Harlem, and I walk those streets, the same streets that Baldwin walked, and Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke — and I see myself, I see myself as being a part of the path that they quite literally laid before me. So all of those things are things that I like to do.
Q: So you grew up in the Church. How has Christianity influenced your life?
A: Christianity, particularly Black Radical Christianity — the Christianity of David Walker and Frederick Douglass, as it were — has had a profound impact on my understanding of the work of liberation, and the connection between the idea that the project of liberation is also a spiritual project. To be clear, we’re not going to legislate racism away in Ameri-
ca, right? So it’s not about changing laws. It’s also about a spiritual revolution, right? Martin Luther King spoke about this as “a revolution of values.” So I come out of that tradition, also, rhetorically, the language of the Black church, the rhetorical traditions of the Black church, as well as the biblical mandate of calling out injustice, when and where you see it, informs not only who I am as a scholar, but who I am as a human being. Also, the tradition of the Black church of allowing people to bring all of their gifts to the altar is something that I try to recreate in my classroom, so that my classroom can feel like a space where you can come down to the altar as you are, and be healed, be known, be seen and be loved. And that is something that we see in the best elements of the Black church. And I try to help recreate it in a secular context in my classroom.
Q: A tweet of yours on your practice of giving books to students went viral. What were the consequences of it, and what was that like for you?
A: I now receive dozens of books every week from people who I don’t know, which is really wonderful. And those books are not being sent to me, they’re being sent to students, which is why my shelves always look kind of halfway empty, because
they’re actually being replenished. I give out probably on average, 25 to 30 books to students a week. And I come out of a tradition where the role of the teacher is to introduce students to ideas, and one way that you can introduce students to ideas is by the sharing of knowledge in the form of books. So I’ve always had this tradition of when you come into my office, if you see any book that you like, of course you can have it, I have the resources to be able to get another one. So why wouldn’t I share it with the student? I made a Tweet about that. I didn’t know that this was a novel or revolutionary concept. Apparently, the internet disagreed, and therein lies the controversy. But I’m really glad that that Tweet went viral because I think it raised conversations about or crowd create conversations about the role and responsibility of professors to make themselves available to students outside of the classroom space, and how our office hours very often can function as ours, spaces of sanctuary and intellectual curiosity and reawakening for students, particularly students who may have historically not had have had access to institutional spaces like Amherst College.
Q: Why’d you decide to host Bo’s Barbershop and Books every week with senior Bo Oranye ’23?
A: Bo’s Barber Shop and Books goes back to my roots as a community organizer. But really it came out of a very practical dilemma. When I arrived on Amherst’s campus, as someone who doesn’t drive, I quickly realized that there were no places within walking distance where I could get a quick shape up. And so I started asking around, where can a Black man get a shape up in walking distance at Amherst College, and people said, “You gotta go to Bo Oranye.” And so I met this young man, Bo, a senior pre-med student here, and I asked him to cut my hair. And in that experience, I began to think about how it’s a perfect example of how, in PWI [predominantly white institution] spaces, in particular, the relationship between Black faculty and Black students is a much more reciprocal one than it is in other spaces, and that we literally need each other — that Bo was providing a resource for me that I couldn’t actually get somewhere else. And so I began to think about this ethics of mutual care. What does it mean for students to need the professor? Yes, to provide knowledge in the classroom. But professors sometimes literally need a haircut, and it’s the students who are able to provide it. And so then I thought to myself, since I already have this tradition that we’ve talked about, of giving out books, I’ve got a nice spacious office,
and we have a young man on campus who is an expert barber. We have a need on this campus to continuously create community, what would it mean to bring together all of these concerns in one context? It was out of that context, that Bo’s Barbershop and Books was born as an attempt to build community, increase faculty-student interactions — and also get people in the habit of the Black barbershop tradition of these informal spaces where we get to talk about the world of ideas, and have and have conversations that bring us together as a community.
Q: Do you have any advice for students here?
A: The advice is to remember that, whether you know it or not — take it from an old man like me — these years are probably some of the best years of your life, right? That these are the good old days, even if you don’t know it yet. And so to treat it like that. To honor your experiences as an undergraduate student. Understand what is so sacred and special about your opportunity to spend four years studying, being in community, learning, and debating. Value that, and continue to reach out to your professors to help you in your vision for creating a new world.
—Zane Khiry ’25select few?”
Oraz says they hope the timeline can generate more conversations about this topic. “I think the biggest part for me, as a person who holds a lot of identities that are non-dominant, is that it will produce more conversations about intersectionality,” they said. “For example, what was the influence of queer people of color? Or what is the position of queer people who are international students? How queerness interacts with being first-gen, low-income.”
Oraz questioned what people think of when they talk about “queerness at Amherst College,”
emphasizing the importance of confronting the at-times comfortable relationship that the institu-
tion establishes between queerness and whiteness, and “why we lean towards appreciation and acceptance of certain gender identities, but not all of them.”
Hodges and Oraz both highlighted how this link to history motivates them in their own work at the QRC today. “You can see — it took so many steps to have any type of queer acceptance on campus, and then it took steps for the QRC to become a thing, and then it took steps for queer people to have the community, and then it took steps for queer alliance[s] to have so many clubs and associations, like QTPOC [Queer and Trans People of Color], QAA [Queer Athletes Alliance],” said Oraz. “When you
see that there is some progression, you become motivated about your work, actually, because you understand that if at some point, we did start … then what I’m working on doing right now will do more.”
Nicholas agreed, noting that the timeline reflects the power of student activism for future generations. The timeline is “a reminder that these spaces are not a given but are made by the queer and trans people before us,” they said. “It’s a reminder that these spaces help us survive.”
In the end, Oraz said, they believe the timeline is valuable because it creates conversation. “A lot of times, I think people kind of downplay the importance of
talking about something,” they said. “The idea of talking about something is also connected to the idea of being heard. And without generating the talking material, how can we hope to get heard?”
To view the timeline in person and get more specific information and dates, you can find it in the QRC on the second floor of Keefe Campus Center. The center’s open hours are from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. The center also welcomes feedback on the timeline, which you can add to the bulletin board placed next to it in the QRC. For other updates, check out the center’s Instagram, @amherstqrc.
The idea of talking about something is also connected to the idea of being heard. And without generating the talking material, how can we hope to get heard?
-Madina Oraz
“ ”
Two hundred two years is quite a long time. Undoubtedly, we were all aware of the magnitude of Amherst College’s Bicentennial as we watched a majestic fireworks display over the Holyoke Range last year. But beyond the symbolic significance of the number, it can be hard to comprehend that the college, with all its complications, campus, and community, has been puttering along here in the Pioneer Valley every day between 1821 and now. In the hopes of making that history a little more tangible, and helping us understand the space we find ourselves in now, I’m beginning a new Features column: “Old News.”
Each week, I will use a random number generator to select a year between The Student’s founding in 1868 (155 years ago!) and 2010 — this end date is subject to change, but for now, I’d like to focus on the slightly more distant past. Then, I will find the issue from that year that was published closest to this week’s date of publication. I’ll summarize what was going on, according to The Student, and will highlight exceptional articles.
I’d like this column to give us snapshots of what the Amherst community was up to this week, however many years ago. My hope is that it will not only help us understand our college a little bit better, but also prompt us to think about the role of The Student in cataloging history. This format has its limitations — short articles can’t capture all the complexities of a situation, and I’m sure that there was a lot that went on that didn’t end up in The Student. But I hope to explore the role of a student newspaper as a historical record, including our own role today.
If any of these articles prompt thoughts or new perspectives about Amherst and the world then and now, send them in to me at bit.ly/ amherstoldnews. Thoughts from anyone — students, staff, alumni, faculty — are welcome; I’d love to feature them.
And if one of these topics piques your interest, you can look into it more, too! The Amherst College
Archives in Frost’s A-Level are open to everyone.
This Week’s Year: 1976
My first random year generation proved to be incredibly serendipitous, as the pages of the March 4, 1976, edition of The Student are filled with topics quite similar to ones we are discussing now: student input on the Board of Trustees, the student activities fee being raised, the movement of a beloved snack bar, town housing shortages, and planning for spring break vacations. Plus: results of the presidential primary, International Women’s Day events, and a cigarette ban.
Debates on Student Input: The front page of The Student on March 4, 1976, is emblazoned with the word “NO!” This headline announced that the Committee of Six had voted “no,” 5-1, on the question of allowing students to serve on the Select Committee on the Curriculum. The same week, the Board of Trustees rejected a petition from 630 students calling for student membership on the Board of Trustees and student input on board member elections. The chairman of the board, George Shinn, said he had “no plans” to respond to the petition, saying it “seems to be an effort of The Amherst Student to create issues.” In an editorial, The Student’s editorial board responded that they were “appalled” by this decision and that “The Trustees owe it to students to meaningfully consider, and engage in a debate, the issues raised by the petition.”
Student Activities Fee Raised: The Student Allocations Committee (a precursor to the Budgetary Committee?) announced it would raise the following year’s student activities fee by “at least six dollars” for the first time in four years. (In case you missed it, President Michael Elliott’s email Tuesday announced a $15 increase in the Student Activities Fees for next year’s comprehensive fee.)
Cigarettes banned in (West) Val: A “news in brief” section announced that beginning March 8, 1976, there
would be no smoking allowed in Valentine Dining Hall’s West Dining Room. The rationale: Many students are “bothered” by the smoke while eating, but are too “shy” to ask their peers to stop smoking. “The rule will be enforced only by peer pressure,” the article reads. “This is the most recent step taken at Amherst as part of a growing national movement to ban smoking in public places.” Administrators, worried that the decision would cause too much uproar, said they’d be willing to scale back the no-smoking zone to only “one bay of the Annex.”
Amherst Residents Demand Rent Control: The town of Amherst’s People United for Rent Control issued a statement: “Amherst has a severe housing shortage,” they wrote. The group joined in a statewide rally demanding rent control expansion.
International Women’s Day Plans: At 4:30 p.m. in the Red Room, the college held “A Panel Discussion comprised of Women Working and/ or Living at Amherst College.” (The Board of Trustees had voted yes on coeducation in 1974, and Amherst’s first nine women graduates were set
to receive their bachelor’s degrees that May.) The panel included a Valentine Dining Hall staff member, a librarian, faculty members, a nurse practitioner, a “faculty spouse,” and a student. At 10:00 a.m. at UMass Amherst, students could attend a speech on behalf of Assata Shakur, political prisoner. At 4:30 p.m.: A Women’s March beginning in Northampton.
Massachusetts Presidential Primary: “Amherst Votes
Liberal,” reads the headline by Glenn Kesselhaut ’78. Amherst town’s presidential Democratic primary results, divided among 14 candidates, skewed heavily towards Democratic liberals Morris Udall and Fred Harris — more so than the statewide average. Jimmy Carter, who would become the nominee, only got 7 percent of Amherst’s vote; George Wallace, “campaigning on a platform keynoted by anti-busing and anti-abortion stands,” received 4 percent. In the Republican primary, Gerald Ford got 65 percent of Amherst’s vote; Ronald Reagan got 28 percent.
Replacing a Snack Bar: In 2023,
Schwemm’s moved to the Science Center; in 1976, Valentine’s snack bar moved to Fayerweather. And this article details that the snack bar’s replacement was not 2023’s merch store, but a game room with a pool table in Val.
Floridian Spring Breaks: Tom Chaves ’79 reports that “college students everywhere are beginning to wonder how to head South for the least possible amount of money” and calls Florida the “Mecca of surfbound students.” Surrounding the article, ads abound for pre-planned and priced trips for students.
Other Events: “Black Reflections,” a “production of Black poetry, narrative, and dance,” ran as a collaboration between Black students at Mount Holyoke and Amherst. Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” was put on by the Amherst College Masquers.
What did these older articles make you think about? Did they give you any insight about Amherst and the world then? Now? Send your thoughts in at bit.ly/amherstoldnews. I’d love to feature reflections.
The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) finalized its Spring 2023 budget on Monday, March 6, after months of uncertainty around the figure. Originally estimated at $570,000, the number has dropped over $200,000, and settled at $340,000, after the Office of Student Activities settled last semester’s balance.
Since Fall 2022, the AAS has been experiencing a budget crisis, which has caused several recent shifts in the AAS Budgetary Committee’s (BC) policy as well as in the AAS budget itself. This has exacerbated confusion about how the AAS budget — which provides funding for activities of all kinds — actually works.
In light of these new changes, what exactly does the breakdown of the AAS’ current budget look like? With the goal of answering this question, The Student pieced together what money is available to students, and where it goes.
For starters, the operating budget is paid for by the student activities fee, which is included in the college’s comprehensive fee for students. A 5 percent increase to the student activities fee, from $300 to $315 per semester — after years of calls from students to increase the fee since it was reduced during the Covid pandemic — has been approved by the Board of Trustees, according to a March 7 email from the President’s Office.
This increase is still $50 lower than the $365 per semester fee that was charged pre-Covid, a fact that BC members have previously said has contributed to the body’s recent fiscal difficulties.
Until this past Monday, March 6, the public budget sheet managed by AAS Treasurer Dania Hallak ’24 showed an operating budget of $570,000 for the spring semester, but on Monday that figure shifted to $340,000.
AAS Business Manager Monica
Soto told The Student this dis -
crepancy is due to transfers that could not be made last semester to stay within good standing with the bank. These charges were for in-house account expenses still owed to the school to cover coach payments and invoices that are split among different departments.
The AAS allocated $279,000 of the to the master general fund, although that number shifted to $264,000 on Monday. That number may have to be adjusted further, Soto added. The master general fund provides for the AAS’ operating expenses and for certain fees and organizations, including the Campus Activities Board and the yearbook the Olio, among others.
According to the AAS Constitution, the master general fund should make up 40 percent of the total operating budget, and cannot deviate by more than 10 percent.
The auditor’s fees also shifted from $30,000 to $15,000. According to Soto, “The [earlier] auditor’s fees were based on our previous auditors, who worked on our books year-round and worked on our yearly audits. We have recently switched public accountants due to our last CPA dropping us as a client due to their volume and those fees are subject to change.”
The master general fund also includes the Senate fund, which makes up less than 2 percent of the total budget. The Senate fund is used for Senate projects and other costs of the Senate. Senators must complete a Senate project, meant to benefit the student body, to be eligible for re-election. So far this spring, the Senate fund has been used primarily to support the major fair.
The special projects fund includes funding for long-term projects, like giving the student body access to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and free printing on campus. The AAS splits the cost of the Take Your Professor Out program 50-50 with Student Affairs.
The student activities fee is also used to subsidize the resource centers, which are sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Hallak told The Student that recently the Resource Centers have come back to the BC requesting more funding.
The AAS allocates around 50 percent of the operating budget to Registered Student Organizations (RSO), which is around $200,000 to $300,000 per semester.
This semester, the BC allocated $200,000 to clubs, but Hallak explained that with that budget they would not be able to sponsor as many RSO events as they historically have. Hallak emphasized that RSO’s are the BC’s priority because they do not have as many other pockets of funding available to them.
Usually club budgets are allocated at the end of the previous semester, although because of lack of clarity around the AAS’ finances this year, RSOs have been operating almost entirely through discretionary funds.
Last week, initial club budgets were approved with an allocation of $126,640.73, which is 37 percent of the total operating budget.
The BC has already allocated over $105,000 through the discretionary fund, although with the shift in the budget, there is only $50,640.73 available in it. This has put the discretionary fund more than twice over its limit already.
Any unspent money from each semester gets put into the rainy day fund to accumulate. The rainy day fund does not have the same rules that Student Activities money does, and is mostly used for Senate projects after exhausting the Senate fund.
The Senate fund historically grows every semester, but according to Hallak, the Senate has had to dip into it since Covid.
Last year’s budget was complicated, explained Soto, and the rainy day fund did not previously have its own bank account, but now it is held separately.
A graphic breaking down the AAS' semester operating budget. Originally estimated at $570,000, the number has dropped over $200,000 and settled at $340,000. 60% of this $340,000 goes to the master general fund.
The master general fund provides for the AAS' operating expenses, ad for certain fees and organizations, as listed in this pie chart. Under the AAS Constitution, the master general gund cannot make up more than 40 percent of the total operating budget.
Nearly $2 million in endowment money per student, a sprawling 1,000 acres of land, and minimal money paid in taxes on the college’s property or the endowment. Which of these seems like the odd one out? Amherst College is a financial titan that is under little obligation to contribute its money to the common good. While the college pays a 1.4 percent tax on the gains from its endowment, and on the select minority of its properties which fall within town limits, it gains access to the privilege of tax-exemption beyond these modest concessions in part by virtue of its educational mission: to educate exceptional students from all backgrounds, so that they can then “give light to the world.” But what happens when the college fails to live up to its own ideals?
If Amherst cannot live up to its mission — in essence, promoting educational access and public service — it should be made to support its community in other ways, like, for example, paying greater taxes on its endowment and property.
Amherst’s tax-exempt status might be justifiable if the college showed its commitment for the common good in other ways — like, for example, building robust career pipelines that send a large number of students into public service jobs, or performing exceedingly well on social mobility metrics. The problem is Amherst does extremely poorly on both of these fronts.
Amherst has many names. Some know it as the “Singing College.” Others, the “Teaching College.” Yet, no one would ever dare call it the “Public Service College.” In fact, the college is one of the worst elite liberal arts
colleges in this regard. A study by Washington Monthly ranked Amherst 17th out of the top20 liberal arts colleges when it comes to sending graduates into social impact careers. This, put frankly, is unacceptable. Instead of committing disproportionate resources to consulting and finance pipelines — hosting weekly workshops for future bankers, for instance — Amherst should fully commit to its educational mission. It should do more than only pay lip service to public service. Amherst has only just begun to recognize its commitment to public service — hosting programs as a part of its new Social Impact Initiative dedicated to encouraging students to go into social impact careers — but these efforts are far from enough. The college should double down on its commitment to educating students for the common good, following in the footsteps of two outstanding institutions in this regard — Harvard, which established a Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship, and Swarthmore, which gives students $27,000 Social Impact Fellowships that provide recent graduates with housing in their first year working at a nonprofit. Amherst College is far from being known for its social mobility either. In fact, New York Times data shows only 2 percent of Amherst students come from poor families but become rich adults. This places us 58th among Massachusetts colleges alone — and much worse nationally. If Amherst is to live up to its educational mission, it should make itself more accessible. While low-income students do have exceedingly high chances of moving up the socioeconomic ladder upon their arrival at Amherst, it’s important to remember that social mobility is defined by both success and access. If Amherst is faring poorly on social
mobility metrics, it is because it is not providing a sufficient number of low-income students with access to such a remarkable institution — and the evidence for this claim is overwhelming. Amherst currently enrolls more students from the top 1 percent of the income distribution than from the entire bottom half combined — a blatant atrocity. Amherst must redouble its efforts to be accessible if it wants to truly live up to its educational mission.
Neither does Amherst live up to its educational mission locally. Pages on pages of research and writing show colleges have extremely detrimental effects on their surrounding communities, and Amherst is no different. If the college is to live up to its mission, it should support the town more. As an article in The Amherst Current states bluntly: “When an Amherst College student goes to Town Hall to register to vote or get a passport, the salaries of the clerks who help her are paid through Amherst property taxes.” Amherst and its students get to avail themselves of all the services of the larger town without the institution itself ever having to adequately contribute. This puts an excessive strain on the town and its finances. To be fair, Amherst does make an annual contribution to local schools — totalling $75,000 in 2021 — and the college pays $650,000 in property taxes on a select few properties it owns in town. However, it is important to recognize that, as the writers in The Amherst Current argue, “these payments, while welcomed, are not adequate to meet the demand that our academic institutions place on Town services.” Additionally, these figures
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pale in comparison to the near $10 million Amherst would pay if all of its properties were taxed. The failure to live up to its mission notwithstanding, Amherst
should not get to pick and choose how it supports its own locality. The college should monetarily support the town more in an effort to support the community that gave rise to it and continuously allows it to thrive.
Conclusion
Anyone who has read the Amherst insignia is familiar with the college’s motto: Terras Irradient, or “Let them give light to the world.” We should take these words to mean that Amherst and
its students are here to substantially contribute to the common good. In the face of the failure of the college to meet its mission, and the excessive strains it places on the surrounding town, the least the college could do is
double down on efforts to promote access, equity, and public service, and pay greater taxes.
After all, if Amherst is unwilling to live up to its mission educationally, why shouldn’t it have to commit to it monetarily?
In the latter half of my freshman year, a funny feeling in my ear akin to a pulsating drumbeat led me to the Keefe Health Center. There, an owlish gentleman peered into my ear and exclaimed that I had a perfectly shaped canal. I returned to my dorm room, relieved of all ear-related anxieties.
That finals season, I took much longer than usual getting my exams in. When summer finally came, I rested for an initial month. Then I started working the three jobs I had lined up for the stretch leading into the 2021 school year. After my shifts, I would fall into bed and sleep for hours. I do not remember thinking that anything was wrong. I do not remember thinking much at all.
In the fall semester of my sophomore year, I was slated to arrive at Amherst College one week early for Community Advisor (CA) training. On the day of my flight to college, I projectile vomited all over the living room. My mother brought me to the ER, where I was diagnosed with an ear infection.
When I arrived on campus, I stopped functioning. I missed CA training sessions; I failed to speak articulately; I passed out in the dorm rooms of the Asian Culture House. To say that I shut myself into my dorm room would require intent on my part. In truth, I could not muster the strength to get out of bed in the sweltering heat. I texted my friends to bring me food from the cafeteria. They were told that it was against school policy.
I tried to get help. Once again I went to the Keefe Health Center. The nurses there took away the
antibiotics I was taking for my ear infection.
The first time the ambulance was called on me, I threw up in the waiting room of Cooley Dickinson. I tried to speak to someone at the front desk. In response, they gave me a pail. I waited for hours. The doctor saw me for 10 minutes and discharged me with Tylenol. I was then stranded at Cooley Dickinson in the dark. I called my friend for help and he attempted to contact our supervisor, Alyssa Carlotto, who replied that she was off work. Finally — I do not know how or when — someone from Amherst called and informed me that Exclusive Car Services would be ferrying me back. I sat outside in the dark and waited while my head felt like it was being smashed by a hammer.
The weeks passed in a haze and classes began. I attended none of them. One day, I somehow wandered into the common room. My friends saw me and called the ambulance again. By then, complete aphasia had set in: I could not speak. Strapped to the stretcher, I texted a photo of my feet to my parents. The EMTs asked me questions I could not answer.
To this day, I remember what one of the EMTs said to a nurse at Cooley Dickinson when we arrived: “He can’t speak English. He’s mentally slow and inarticulate.”
I tried to object. I tried to tell them that I was a student at the college. I opened the notes app on my phone and attempted to type. I strained to scream, to cry out, for help. Nothing. I could not make a single sound. I was trapped in my own mind, in excruciating pain, as the medical staff who were supposed to help me brushed me off as
an idiot who did not speak English because I am Asian.
It is perhaps a relief that I do not remember much of that night.
I woke up in Massachusetts General Hospital. My parents, who had flown in from Oregon, were by my side.
The night before, my mother’s desperation had saved my life. She had called and called my phone until a passing nurse finally noticed. My mother had frantically explained to her that I did, in fact, speak English, and that I was neither mentally slow nor inarticulate. During the subsequent CAT scan, the nurse had seen the tumor that eclipsed greater than a quarter of my brain. She had flooded me with steroids to reduce the swelling and sent me off to a more capable hospital.
If someone had not noticed, I would have had an aneurysm and died.
My consciousness vacated my physical body for the week before surgery. I did not know where I was; I did not know what year it was; I did not even know my own name. There are massive gaps in my memory up until the 11-hour brain surgery, but I recall passing flickers of little light in the swelling, tumorous dark.
This is what I choose to remember: My mother spooning cool, sweet watermelon onto my tongue. Two friends crying and stroking my arm as I tried and failed to form words in my hospital bed. My debate coach talking at me because he understood that I could not talk back. So many people sending concerned messages, well wishes, and desires to visit me. Professor Sarat, who taught my first-year seminar and who
has also experienced cancer, comforting my crestfallen parents. My nurse cradling my head and whispering that she would put me at the top of her prayer list. My stepfather pulling me into a gentle bear hug as I cried over the uncertainty clouding my future. FaceTiming my grandmother and her sobbing upon seeing that I was alive, alive, alive. Finally, right before the sedation set in, my neurosurgeon giving me a high-five.
There is a sword that hangs over my head. Its name is grade 3 anaplastic ependymoma, and it is a rare brain cancer that will follow me for the rest of my life. I have had three brain surgeries, 39 sessions of radiation treatment, and months of chemotherapy since I took medical leave. I have experienced the rest-
less aggression of steroids, the nausea of bitter-tasting chemotherapy medicine, and seizures that render my entire body helpless. I have had more near-death experiences than I can count.
But I choose to focus on the overwhelming kindness in my darkest moments and I weep with joy. Cancer is a sword, but it is also a reminder of human kindness, of soft touches and quiet connections. When I die, whether that be in five years or one hundred, may I have lived tenderly and lovingly, fluffy with empathy and heart. Amid the genetic mutations and surgery scars, there is an undeniable beauty that traces the preciousness of my single human life.
This I have learned: During a burial is when the flowers come.
At the end of January, right before the start of this semester, I had the opportunity to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Arts and Humanities in Action program, or AHA, as we all affectionately called it. Helmed by Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought and Political Science Austin Sarat and Executive Director of the Loeb Center Emily Griffen, the program was for the humanists walking a tightrope — certain of their love of artistic pursuits, yet afraid that their passions wouldn’t guarantee security in bank account balance.
Let me state the not-so-obvious: if you have a humanities degree, it is entirely possible to get
a job, and it can be a very good one. Throughout this program, we met with multiple Amherst humanities professors and alumni who are proof of this exact sentiment.
I say “not-so-obvious” because if you’re like me and have ever vocalized a preference for a humanities major, you’ve likely been scoffed at or met with shocked expressions quickly buried under disingenuous smiles. We are often met with additional questions: “And what else?” or “Is that it?” Every career-related conversation turns into a police interrogation where you’re having the book thrown at you because you said you like to write!
As a kind of case study, I present Amherst alum Matt Col-
lins ’94, who visited us during the program. Working as the head of product marketing at the marketing platform MNTN (pronounced Mountain), Collins explained that the liberal arts education that he received as an English major at Amherst College has directly enabled him to complete the job that he has today. At Amherst, he gained three critical skills that many employers across disciplines, himself included, seek in their candidates:
1. The ability to acquire, consume, and synthesize information.
2. The ability to generate new ideas, which he described as the “currency and life-blood of organizations.”
3. The ability to communicate your positions clearly and per-
suasively: You should have something to say, and say it well.
These are skills introduced in every humanities course and honed in every humanities major. And Amherst College is among the best places to master these skills.
Though I was grateful to hear how the humanities can prepare students for hybrid humanities-STEM career paths like Collins’, I want to pursue a more traditional humanities career packed with every ounce of risk.
It may be naive, but like a fourth-place beauty pageant contestant, I want to make the world a better place through my art (I am aiming for world peace if I can!) At the very least, I don't want to end up working for some corporation where I inadvertent-
ly code some people deeper into poverty. Or, if I’m working at some firm in New York, visit the Vessel too often during my lunch breaks.
Going into the program I knew I wanted to be an author, but that didn’t mean I had nothing to gain from my experience. I found the conversations with faculty and alumni to be illuminating. I delved into cover letters, resumes, and the art of networking. But the greatest spark of the week occurred when Professor of Music and Director of the Center for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI) Darryl Harper spoke to us about the myth of the “starving artist.”
We all know the image quite well: a watermarked stock pho-
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“Walk”
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to (or ironic sketch) of the tortured creative dressed in tattered clothing with their weight in dues, whose mind was simply not enough to sustain them in the real world.
Drawing from Lewis Hyde’s “The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World,” Professor Harper explained that art exists in two economies: the market economy and the gift economy. Art can survive without the market economy, but it cannot live without the gift economy.
Art as a gift means it exists to
bind us all together; it’s in service of other people.
His lesson was not about modifying your passions into something profitable in today’s context. Instead, it was for us artists, to understand the choices that we are making and the life we imbue our creations with.
You can make money in art was the presentation's ultimate point. The world will always need and benefit from it. Furthermore, the starving artist is a myth because an artist cannot truly starve if hunger is a measure of fulfillment; to make art is to be continually nourishing and nourished.
I had confidence, but I needed the inspiration to believe that anything I could accomplish might be meaningful to other people. I gained that through this program.
I am endlessly grateful to all of the professors and alumni, as well as Emily Griffen, Professor Sarat, and all those working behind the scenes who believe so deeply in me and my peers. The AHA program offers an authentic view of the real world, proving that there’s nothing humanities majors cannot do. Plus, they took us to the musical “Hamilton” in Boston, so it was definitely worth it!
by Quinn Nelson ’25
“The Milk Man” is the first film from the fledgling AC Production Company, co-founded by Andrew Rosin ’25 (director) and Chris Tun ’25 (who stars as a fictionalized version of himself, otherwise known as the Milk Man). The satirical mockumentary, in its 13 minute runtime, charts the rise and fall of Chris: a young, disillusioned, and alienated college student who, by some dealing of fate’s sublimely disinterested hand, is suddenly able to make the greatest milkshakes ever known to Amherst College. And to mankind, perhaps? Perhaps.
The stimulating force of Chris’ singular confection immediately provokes pleasure in Amherst’s student body. When
Chris wanders into the basement of Val and returns with his first milkshake, the concoction is seized, gulped, and resoundingly acclaimed, as his friends each contort their faces into shapes of undeniable approval (what do you call it? It’s like the “Not Bad” Obama meme. The milkshake is so good that all of Chris’ friends become Obama).
Talking heads descend from the bronze-inlaid halls of high culture to pontificate on the significance of Chris’ achievement. Ellis Kloshausfer (Luke Herzog ’24), editor for The Amherst Student’s Arts and Living section, uses adjectives such as “sensuous,” “mysterious,” and “profound” to describe the milkshakes — which I assume means they’re good. Pioneer Valley food critic at-large Jim Stein (Miles Garcia ’25), whose
gonzo self-styling is thrown into stark relief by a half-buttoned shirt and a pocket-protected banana, ranks Chris’ work alongside “The Starry Night” and the “Mona Lisa.” He claims as well that the milkshakes explode the meta-framework of objective aesthetic values in order to achieve a humanistic, wholly subjective Art. In other words, he makes a needlessly exaggerated and generic appeal to traditionalism that is rendered incoherent by an even more generic appeal to post-modern transvaluationism, all of which reflects the proud ignorance and poorly-veiled desperation-for-attention that are the hallmarks of all the greatest art critics in our time.
To make the understatement of the year: things were going pretty well for the Milk Man.
Yet alas, how the prodigal son must fall. As excitement around the milkshakes reaches a fever pitch, fans are no longer content with mystery: they demand to know how Chris makes his art. But Chris is unwilling to reveal his secrets, and so, unwilling to shoulder the burden of a perpetually frustrated desire, his acolytes abandon him. Chris’ divine gift, the hand by which he made his claim to human affections, is the same hand that drives those affections away. By the film’s end he stands, like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character Wakefield, as “the outcast of the universe.”
So … is the movie good? I mean, it’s alright. 5/10, rounded up to 3/5 stars.
Okay, look. For me, the fundamental difference between a documentary and a mockumentary is that a documentary is about something, and a mockumentary pretends to be about something. “Borat” isn’t about a goofy Kazakh journalist mis-adventuring across the United States; it pretends to be about that, so it can serve as a sound -
ing board for the unmitigated expressions of bigotry that lie just beneath the congenial surface of “the greatest country in the world.”
The satire of “Borat” places a false emphasis on an inner subject in order to more truthfully capture an outer reality. Conversely, “The Milk Man” places its focus on an outer reality — the milkshake zeitgeist — in order to reveal the true nature of its actual subject: Chris, the man behind the milk. And what does this film reveal? It reveals that Chris … is unknowable.
There’s a moment in the film when one of the talking heads remarks on Chris’ lonely, unremarkable past, and the only available high school photos of him are ones where Chris is in clown makeup (a mirror photo, a photo of him on a bench, and a photo of him on a bike). To what extent does Chris see himself as a symbol of societal malaise? Did Chris seize onto clown iconography before “Joker” (2019) was released? Does Chris feel like “Joker” (2019) stole his identity? The film intimates many rich ironies to be explored here.
There’s another scene where Chris is smelling flowers and then eating them off a tree. I am unwilling to take this moment at face value. Why does he eat them? Perhaps he has childhood memories of ambling along the garden path with a little brother who imbibes the narcissuses and honey golds. Oh, how he used to laugh at his brother … until the day came when, chasing a dandelion onto the runway, his brother got run over by a plane. Now, even as it brings back the intense pain of that day, eating flowers is the only way Chris can be close to Andy. What a tragic dimension to reveal in a single image — an opportunity the film blithely tosses away.
Why does Chris refuse to reveal the secret of his milkshake?
If it’s only because he’d be jealous of the attention another Milk Man might receive, why does he continue to keep the secret when everyone loses interest? Why is he so prideful?
There was some satisfaction to be found in the interview with Chris’ roommate, Alexander Pratt (Sterling Kee ’23), who confirms the totalizing scope (if not the source) of this pridefulness. Pratt says that the truth of Chris’ story has been lost in the sensation. Chris’ fans never abandoned him; their excitement, in the decline of novelty, simply mellowed. But Chris, addicted to the high of adulation, refused to accept a more moderate form of praise. The true tragedy is then in the Milk Man’s slow-but-sure rejection of the love he has wanted his entire life.
Yet the vitality of tragedy cannot be sustained without equal vitality in the subject. The film does not show any convincing portrayal of Chris’ anger, of his passion, or of anything essential to the life he lived through his milkshakes. And at the film’s end, when Chris disappears and leaves behind only one last milkshake for Andrew Rosin to ponder, I imagine Rosin’s thoughts are not unlike those of George Eliot; who, commenting upon the life of Silas Marner (the exiled and tireless Weaver of Raveloe), commiserated with his self-imposed solitude by acknowledging the pain that must have come with being pushed away by his community — and yet, with the same deep sympathy, noted as well how “every man’s work, pursued steadily, tends to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.”
I imagine this to be the fate that awaits the Milk Man, and because of this, I have sympathy for him. But he is an apparition: translucent, milky. He does not remain.
Director Andrew Rosin ’25 and lead actor Chris Tun ’25 collaborated to produce “The Milk Man.” Poster art by Ziji Zhou '25 Alden Parker ’26 ColumnistIn the annals of musical history, few artists can lay claim to a “comeback” both as unexpected and as successful as that of Richard Hall, professionally known as Moby. Having risen to notoriety in the burgeoning electronic music scene of the 1990s as a versatile composer and performer, by the decade’s end he had lost most of his popularity and industry goodwill, as his sudden diversion into hard rock on his 1996 album “Animal Rights” confused fans and sold very little. Already disillusioned from receiving short shrift as an electronic artist in the past, Moby separated himself from his record label after the release, and wrapped up the mixing of his next album while looking ahead toward a new life outside music. Twenty-four years later, though, Moby is still very much active in the industry — and “Play,” his 1999 intended final album, has become his magnum opus and the savior of his career.
As a downtempo electronic album, “Play” is less of an exploration of overarching themes than it is one of moods. A feeling of relaxation and comfort permeates the album’s sound, from the lightly swinging percussion or rhythm guitars that drive tracks like “Rushing” and “Everloving” to the ethereal piano flourishes
that punctuate the gentle underlying strings and synths of “Porcelain” and “Inside.” Even when the album takes a turn into a harder sound (most notably on “Machete,” a jittery throwback to Moby’s techno days), it’s easy to kick back, turn your brain off, and let the good vibes take over.
As it turns out, this ease of listening would prove to be “Play”’s secret to success. Having little to gain from conventional meth-
ods of publicity, Moby and his management team welcomed all requests to license the album’s music for film, television, and advertisements. As more and more commercial representatives turned to the album for unassuming-but-memorable songs to associate with their products, the sound of “Play” became ubiquitous in the public consciousness, raising Moby’s profile from has-been to superstar practically within a fortnight.
Most of “Play”’s apparent familiarity can be attributed to its liberal use of samples, par-
tic ularly of blues and folk field re cordings dating as far back as the 1930s; a compilation assembled by the renowned ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax served as Moby’s primary resource and well of inspiration throughout the recording process. This close connection to the roots of the North American musical tradition gives many of the songs a fundamental quality: By starting from such an early point in music history, Moby makes himself free to develop in any direction from the samples’ bases, while still appealing to his audience’s recognition of the material from its many later permutations, from blues to rock to hip-hop.
However, at the same time, this raises the question of how much of “Play”’s quality is truly due to Moby’s talent, and how much is reliance on the work of talented but underrecognized Black artists from long before his time. As catchy as songs like “Run On” and “Natural Blues” may be, are they really anything more than outright transplants of the gospel and blues standards
“God’s Gonna Cut You Down”
and “Trouble So Hard,” respectively, with only a little extra embellishment? That the album loses its luster in its final twenty minutes, when it breaks away from the vocal samples to focus on a suite of original but less distinctive instrumentals, does not exactly shift the argument in Moby’s favor.
Nevertheless, “Play” represents an impressive effort to tap into a primal aspect of humanity’s relationship with music, giving the oral tradition a fresh coat of paint while still managing to make its original additions feel classic themselves. Whether it’s the soundtrack for an onthe-floor dance party or the background noise in a shopping center, Moby’s pleasant soundscape can make itself at home in practically any context. It’s the sound of our hopes, our joys, our comforts… the sound of our daily play.
Time-Warped Records is a column dedicated to retrospective reviews of music albums at least 10 years old, submitted by reader request. To suggest an album for review, please email Alden Parker ‘26 at abparker26@amherst.edu.
Brought to you by the WAMH blog, where it can also be found, and The Student’s Arts & Living Section. Written by WAMH Publicity
Manager Sylvie Wolff ’25.Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault.
I was in my favorite high school English teacher’s classroom, eating lunch with my three best friends, and I saw “female rage is divine” scribbled on the chalkboard. I took a picture. I’ve googled the phrase many times since then to see if it comes from anywhere specific, coming up with links from yoga and meditation websites about divine feminine power and “womb rage.” I pushed past my initial skepticism and read that feminine rage is the “physiological, ancestral, naked, and embodied response to things gone wrong in the world.” Apparently, anyone can feel it. It’s not just the feminine expression of normal anger.
Fiona Apple has referred to John Lennon as her god and Maya Angelou as her mother, and has been described as “an entertainment industry’s worst nightmare.” She began composing songs on the piano at eight years old and released her 1996 debut studio album “Tidal” when she was 19. When she won an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1997, she dropped an Angelou quote before famously saying “ ... this world is bullshit … go with your-
“Fetch the bolt cutters.” The album is about not being afraid to speak; its core message is to “fetch the fucking bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation you’re in.” The album explores freedom, a battering headache finally released.
Purposefully unvarnished and rooted in experimentation, the album’s sound is perfect percussion — piano, drums, dogs barking, metal objects, kitchen instruments, even Apple’s voice itself: yelping, howling, muttering. Pure, visceral rhythm.
She stacked on statements about resent: “for being raised right,” “for being tall,” “for never getting any opposition at all,” “for presenting your life like a fucking propaganda brochure,” each line punctuated with a heavy bass drum hit. The only explicit song on the album, “Relay” deploys its expletives perfectly, making it an anthem of pounding, unrestrained anger.
self,” “this world” meaning the music industry. The speech was poorly received, and Apple was painted as a diva suffering for her art. Her infraction was grave; she had broken the rules of pop stardom and had spoken against the big machine.
On the topic of songwriting, Apple said in an episode of The Sundance Channel’s interview series “Iconoclasts” that “If you’re not overflowing with something then there’s nothing to give.” In the same episode, film director Quentin Tarantino remarked that almost all of his favorite lyrics by Apple are the ones with violent imagery. Her music is all about “overflowing.” It's raw and comes straight from the gut.
Apple’s fifth studio album, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” was released on April 17, 2020 — eight years after her previous album, “The Idler Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.”
The 13-track record is named in reference to a scene in “The Fall,” a British police drama series starring Gillian Anderson as a sex crimes investigator. After finding a locked door to a room where a girl has been tortured, Anderson’s character calls out,
“Relay” was the first song I heard from the album, the very same day that I took that chalkboard photo. My friend’s voice joined with Apple’s as she leaned half her body out of the moving car’s window and belted from her belly. Apple wrote the song’s hardest hitting line, “Evil is a relay sport, when the one you burn turns to pass the torch,” when she was 15. Three years earlier, she was sexually assaulted by a stranger in her apartment building, and said that it made her think about “big things,” like innocence, guilt, and forgiveness. She finished the song at 42, shortly after Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2018, when allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted at least three women.
“Heavy Balloon,” a track that I’ve had on repeat nonstop for weeks, is about depression and resurgence: “People like us, we play / With a heavy balloon / We keep it up, to keep the devil at bay, but it always / Falls way too soon.” Apple wrote these lyrics after an ex-boyfriend described his father’s depression to her. The way Apple belts “I spread like strawberries / I climb like peas and beans / I’ve been sucking it in so long / That I’m bursting at the seams” feels like divine feminine rage to me. Apple has struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety since childhood, and this line feels like redemption. Her anger here is restorative, and she grows as she sings — effectively saying, “I’m going to spread myself out and take over this whole garden.”
“For Her” is a newer song to me. Inspired by a conversation
Apple had with an acquaintance who formerly interned at a film production company, the song is that woman’s story of “Hollywood creeps” and a sexual assault incident. Apple told the story because she couldn’t. Claps and cymbals lead into multiple women’s voices joined in harmony, a conscious choice because Apple struggled to record the song on her own: “Look at how feathered his cocks are / See how seamless his frocks are / Look at his paper-beating over that rockstar.” Apple doesn’t mince words: “Well good mornin’, good mornin’ / You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in.” A gospel-like chorus concludes the song, an uncompromising finish to a story told straight-up.
Feminine rage is divine, it’s communal, it’s loving, it’s natural; it’s crucial. Apple’s anger is a gift, and her music has stuck with me at times when not many other artists resonated. “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” is a bold eruption after Apple’s eight-year pause from releasing music. Her complete lack of concern for prettiness in her music and dedication to truth-telling is perhaps a product of her exiling herself from a music business that, from the very beginning, she couldn’t stand.
On Sunday, March 12, the 95th Academy Awards will laud short films in three categories: animation, live action, and documentary. Although the awards are often an unsatisfying exercise in celebrity worship, the Oscars are also a wonderful excuse for weekly winter excursions to Amherst Cinema (which offers showings of all of the short film nominees).
Both the animated and live action collections include their fair share of sickly-sweet narratives, ranging from unexpected animal friendships to playful brotherly love. In this ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey mess, a few captivating and inventive nominees stand out. But the Oscars are nothing if not predictable — and the choice of winners might leave me in a deep depression that can only be remedied by another trip to the movie theater.
Animation
“An Ostrich Told Me the World Was Fake and I Think I Believe It” (Lachlan Pendragon, Australia)
The traditional stop-motion style of Pendragon’s 11-minute film fulfills its duty as a witty commentary on our fully commercialized modern world. The protagonist, a young employee named Neil (Lachlan Pendragon), is faced with surreal
experiences — like his co-worker, who is missing the lower half of his body. At one point, he lands in a tray of claymation clones. One of the most interesting aspects of the film was Pendragon’s cinematography. He zooms out from Neil’s universe and gives the viewer a glimpse the artistic process — gargantuan human hands dashing in and out of the set to adjust clay figurines. Unfortunately, the rest failed to strike a chord.
“The Flying Sailor” (Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, Canada)
Forbis and Tibly’s production transformed an obscure true story into a fantastical journey. The film is based on the Halifax Explosion of 1917, where a ship-on-ship collision produced a devastating explosion in a Canadian port. The short film follows a sailor who is thrown by the blast over two kilometers from the ship. In a children’s book style of animation, the film transforms the fleeting moment into a glorious expedition through time and space. Lacking dialogue, the score by Luigi Allemano is crucial — and beautifully done. The sailor’s body, a naked orb, twists and turns through galaxies, vulnerable yet resilient.
“Ice Merchants” (João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano, Portugal/ France/U.K.)
Despite portraying silent, largely featureless characters, Gonzalez
and Caetano tell a strikingly powerful story in their 14 minutes on screen. Primary colors preserve the simplicity of the lifestyle portrayed: a father and son who live on a cliff face and descend from their perch each day on parachutes to sell ice to a nearby town. Their precarious home, supported by creaky fixtures and strained rope, is at odds with their cyclical and steady routine. A tried-and-tested tale of familial heartbreak, with a delicate touch of climate anxiety, this film is a mustsee.
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” (Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud, U.K.)
Although it is beautifully animated, Freud’s production of Charlie Mackesy’s gorgeous children’s book blurts out overly sentimental catchphrases at every turn. I felt imprisoned in the Pinterest board of inspirational quotes that littered my middle-school bedroom. The 34-minute production is largely devoid of plot other than (spoiler alert) a reveal that the supposed horse is truly a pegasus. I tried not to laugh, and I failed. The morals themselves were picture-perfect, but the film couldn’t “show,” it could only tell.
“My Year of Dicks” (Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon, U.S.)
Before seeing the film, I was wary of yet another obnoxious teen-
age fluff-fest. But I was pleasantly surprised by the familiar and endearing voice of Pam (Brie Tilton), a fifteen-year-old on a mission to lose her virginity. Pam’s uncomfortable corporeal experiences were enhanced by the disconcerting realism of Gunnarsdóttir’s animation style. I laughed out loud from deep-seated distress, second-hand embarrassment, and perfectly-timed dialogue. At one point, Pam rips her ear off of her head and it smacks dramatically against the living room wall as her father (Chris Kelman) explains that women never truly enjoy penetrative sex. It doesn’t get much better than that.
“Ivalu” (Anders Walter, Rebecca Pruzan, and Pipaluk K. Jørgensen, Denmark)
This story of two sisters who live in a rugged Arctic landscape is based on a graphic novel by Morten Dürr. The endearing, determined face of Pipaluk (Mila Heilmann) carries the film, as she climbs over cliffs and glaciers to seek out her missing sister, Ivalu (Nivi Larsen). The impressive cinematography and compelling acting interwoven with the tale of a broken-hearted child in rugged terrain left me unnerved. The initial question — where is Ivalu? — is left largely unanswered, preserving a deeply unsettling experience for the viewer.
“Night Ride” (Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen, Norway)
This submission opens with a likable protagonist, Ebba (Sigrid Kandal Husjord). The escalation of drama when she accidentally steals a tram car is strangely relatable. More important, however, is the main thematic examination of the film: the role of the bystander. When a trans woman is harassed in her now-stolen tram car, what is Ebba to do? I was tense throughout the film, encouraging Ebba to take action. But the ending, although sweet and succinct, leaves something to be desired.
Despite the adorable, cherubian faces of the orphaned girls, Le Pupille failed to please. The film follows the coexistence of strict Catholic nuns and spunky children during one Christmas. In a spectacular nativity scene, the young girls are literally glued in place, their bright eyes darting to follow the action. The story’s final chapter, after 37 long minutes of fidgeting in your seat, is cute but saccharine.
“The Red Suitcase” (Cyrus Neshvad, Luxembourg)
An instantly stressful tale, Neshvad’s work swiftly draws its audience in and devotes them to Ariane’s (Nawelle Ewad) fate. She is a 16-year-old girl traveling from Iran to Luxembourg. With very little dialogue, Ewad’s expressive eyes evoke terror and sympathy in the viewer and grip you tightly. Ariane’s life’s work, held in the titular object, reminds us of what we are willing to sacrifice for our survival. As the film ends, the camera focuses on a billboard-style advertisement of a woman’s seemingly grinning widely. As the film zooms in, her face distorts into a painful scream.
“An Irish Goodbye” (Tom Berkeley and Ross White, UK)
An “Irish goodbye” means leaving a gathering or party without announcing your departure. The departure of a mother from her two estranged sons sets the scene for this film, a sentimental tale of loss and reconnection. Chuckle-worthy banter between brothers and emotionally fulfilling moments are sprinkled throughout, but fail to capture the audience in anything beyond trite sympathy.
This year’s collection of short films were unusually upbeat, prominently featuring tales of familial love and survival. Both categories were a treat to watch on the big screen, inspite of even though there were a few cloying moments. Predicting the Oscars has become a popular tradition (I lose almost every year, so take these reviews with a grain of salt). Nevertheless, I hope that “The Ice Merchants” and “The Red Suitcase” walk away with statuettes.
We’re back, baby. On Wednesday, Mar. 1, “Survivor” made its triumphant return for Season 44. This two hour premiere was one of the more unique “Survivor” episodes I’ve seen. The contestants are wacky, the gameplay is suspect, and the medic stayed busy.
My initial favorites were Carson and Bruce. Carson is a 20-year-old NASA engineering student. He’s a lifelong fan of the show, and showed impressive dedication after getting cast. He 3D printed “Survivor” puzzles to practice and even gained 30 pounds to improve his challenge performance. Bruce, on the other hand, is a 45-year-old insurance agent. As soon as he arrived on the beach, it was clear that he was a kind, genuine person. I liked them both immediately.
This made it tough to watch Bruce get injured just minutes into the show. In a challenge to earn a pot, machete and flint, he hit his head diving under a wooden barrier into mud. His head was bloody, and it was clear that Bruce wasn’t alright. Jeff stopped the challenge, calling the medic over. He gave Bruce an oxygen mask under an umbrella and bandaged him up. Everything seemed fine.
The second tribe to finish got to choose a “savvy” or “sweat” task to complete in order to receive those same vital supplies. The sweat task would take longer, but they had a better chance of completing it. The savvy task would be quicker with a higher risk of not finishing. Additionally, only two people from each tribe could work on each task. The Soka tribe (Claire, Danny, Frannie, Heidi, Josh, Matt) won the initial challenge by getting their rings off a pole the quickest. The Ratu tribe (Brandon, Maddy, Jaime, Kane, Lauren, Matthew) got second.
The Tika tribe (Sarah, Yam Yam, Helen, Carson, Carolyn, Bruce) finished last.
Ratu opted for “sweat” and quickly regretted it. Matthew and Brandon were tasked with drag-
ging two sizable piles of coconuts across the beach using a net. They could only drag one coconut at a time into alternating piles, and they had four hours to finish. It took them the vast majority of that time and left both Brandon and Matthew physically and mentally exhausted.
Tika, left with the “savvy” challenge, unveiled one sphere spinning inside a larger sphere. Their “savvy” challenge was counting the total number of rings in both spheres in 15 minutes. Carson and Helen did this easily, and without expending much energy.
“Savvy” was clearly the right way to go. In the past three seasons, both losing tribes got to choose their challenge. I liked how this season handled it better — it incentivized second place and added an element of choice.
That night, Bruce had a severe headache and could barely open his eyes to look at the medic. He was medically evacuated, which is heartbreaking. People spend years, even decades, trying to get on this show. Leaving so early without being voted out is soul-crushing. Bruce was devastated, and I can’t blame him — I am too. Thankfully, he is fully healed now.
Very soon after, Matthew fell off a large rock and hurt his shoulder. This wasn’t surprising, as he was running around the beach and climbing for seemingly no reason. The medic put his arm in a sling, which will hinder him going forward. There was more medical involvement in this premiere than there often is in entire seasons. Hopefully, Bruce is the only med-evac.
When each tribe arrived on their beaches, they found a locked birdcage with a bag inside. “Survivor” had never blatantly put an advantage in plain sight before. Everyone wanted the contents of the bag, but finding the key and then opening the cage without anyone seeing are both arduous tasks. Tika and Soka let the cage be, at least for the short term. Ratu, though, went for it. The whole tribe searched for the key
until Brandon found it near Maddy. Brandon knew Maddy could see him, so he told her about the key, and asked her if they should tell others. Giving her that power is both a sign of trust and a way to absolve responsibility — fantastic work. However, when Maddy gives him the best-case response of “No, I don’t think we should,” Brandon fumbled the bag. He told Maddy they should tell the whole tribe, and then did so. In front of everyone, Brandon read the note granting him both a hidden immunity idol and a fake idol. He could’ve gained immense power and an ally. He instead earned a massive target and an adversary. This was poor gameplay by the former Seattle Seahawk.
Matt, Lauren and Sarah went to a separate island to make this season’s “Survivor” gamble. In front of each of them was a bag that contained three packages. Two of these packages said that they’d lose a vote at the next tribal, and one gave them an advantage. They each had to reach into a bag at least once. Lauren drew the advantage the first time, which was the “Bank a Vote” advantage. For the first time in “Survivor,” she could choose to not vote at a Tribal Council and turn that into a second vote for any future round. This is powerful, especially if kept secret. Single votes can swing outcomes in the later stages of the game.
Sarah and Matt both lost their vote on the first draw, and chose to draw again. Sarah got the advantage, and Matt lost another vote. Sarah’s “Inheritance” advantage was even more powerful than Lauren’s — she could inherit all idols and advantages played at any singular Tribal Council.
At the immunity challenge, Ratu’s poor choice of “sweat” caught up with them. The tribes had to move massive puzzle blocks around at the end, draining every bit of Brandon’s remaining energy. He had to finish the challenge in the shade with the medics, leaving Ratu without their best challenge competitor. Unsurprisingly, they lost.
Back at Ratu’s camp, Matthew and Brandon’s initial target was Lauren. While they were sitting out of the immunity challenge, Matthew briefly talked to Claire. She knew everything about the gambling mechanism from her tribe’s Matt — opening Matthew’s eyes to the fact that Lauren had lied.
Maddy wanted Brandon out because of the misplay with the cage. It makes sense, as Brandon showed that he didn’t trust her. Everyone knows he has an idol, so it wasn’t a hard pitch. Jamie was quickly on board, but incredibly paranoid. She wanted to play her shot in the dark, which made no sense. You only get one of those all season, and it only gives you a one-in-six shot at safety at the expense of your vote.
At Tribal, chaos erupted. It was clear that these players were still adjusting to “Survivor.” Despite the fact that she was never in danger, Jamie played her shot in the dark. Hilariously, she became the first “Survivor” to be “saved” by that twist. Matthew also played his shot in the dark, but wasn’t safe. Again, I really didn’t get this. He wasted it way too early, and
he wasn’t in danger. This made Brandon suspicious, so he saved himself from elimination with his idol. Lauren banked her vote for the future, and Maddy went home. Honestly, Maddy was playing the most logical game of anyone in that tribe, but it was funny to see her sent home with just one vote.
This cast is all over the place. Jamie is already more stressed in two days than I’ve seen most Survivors get in 39 and Matthew seems to have a goal to get medically evacuated as quickly as possible, and Yam Yam goes by Yam Yam. I’ve yet to even mention Twitter’s favorite Survivor, Carolyn. She possesses a nervous, unpredictable energy that lends itself perfectly to reality TV. Carolyn has already briefly forgotten how interviews work and is one of the wildest characters I’ve seen. I’m excited to watch just for her exploits.
The early returns might not suggest the most strategic season, but they do suggest a fun, kooky ride. I’ll be along the whole way. Tune in next week to see what happens, and how badly Matthew injures himself once again.
The inaugural edition of The Lilac x The Student, brought to you by The Poetry Club and the Arts & Living section, features “Nothing Entire,” a poem by Joe Sweeney ’25.
I watched that man spit in her eye. He didn’t mean to — it was for her nose, and her mouth, and her left cheek. She knew even this.
She fingered her ring, which was embossed with an “A,” and beneath it — above the second digit’s knuckle, amid its dry parchment calluses — was ink stained black in the shape of an “S.” Slipping it from her finger she traced the ring along the blunt ending curve, like an olive fly upon a river which is pitch and airless and dark.
She dropped the ring, and — in the silence that was my distance — her finger rose to the eye. And I thought of all rivers vanishing at their ends as the dark loses care, and that she might annihilate all ending (with a touch, in a silver circular memory silence) with this dropping she had been given. But then, as the finger met her eye — she rubbed it in deeper.
and so in nothing entire could it be drowned.
And that man had come back to watch, and he was sorry.
Val Hacker Ivy Haight ’25 presents her latest culinary masterpiece. Use this recipe the next time you’re wrestling with the perennial question: Should I eat a pizza or a bagel?
Sometimes I walk into Val, and all I want is pizza. On lucky days, there’s the type of pizza I want at the pizza bar, fresh out of the oven with no line. On other days, I’m not vibing with the pizza situation. So I take matters into my own hands. I’m looking for the basics — cheese, sauce, and of course, a nice thick crust. For a fluffy, thick, round crust, I turn to a bagel. Society constantly demands that we choose between a pizza or a bagel. To that I say: Why not both?
Directions:
• Toast a bagel (or English muffin, bread, or crust of your choice).
• Spoon a dollop of the marinara sauce from the pasta bar onto the bagel halves.
• Add a sprinkle of cheese, plus any toppings you want.
• Microwave for 30 to 60 sec -
onds, or until the cheese is melted to your liking.
Topping Ideas
• Spinach
• Tofu
• Chicken
• Quinoa
• Deli meat
• Tomatoes
• Onions
“Nothing Entire” bears witness to an interpersonal conflict as viewed by an onlooker.
After their incredible comeback in the NESCAC Quarterfinals against Wesleyan last week, women’s hockey faced a tough opponent in Middlebury for the tournament’s semifinals. During the regular season, the Mammoths had beaten the Panthers in two successive 4-2 matches. Still, the team lost to Middlebury in the NESCAC Finals last year, 2-0. As such, the Mammoths were compelled to take revenge on the Panthers for last year, while also trying to sweep the season series for this year. In remarkable fashion, the Mammoths flipped last year’s headline “Middlebury Blanks Amherst 2-0” into “ Amherst Blanks Middlebury, 2-0.” Marked by second-period goals from Kate Pohl ’23 and Marie-Eve Marleau ’26, as well as Natalie Stott’s ’26 11th shutout of the season — leading Division III nationwide — the Mammoths swept the season series and were on their way to the championship game.
While Amherst was the No. 1 seed of the tournament, Hamilton was not far behind as the No. 2 seed, dominating Williams in the quarterfinals and pulling off a close win against Colby after falling down a goal early in the second period. However, this was Hamilton’s first time in the NESCAC Finals, while Amherst had been here only a year before, even winning the tournament three years ago. After splitting the season series, an experienced Amherst squad met a young talented Hamilton squad in the tournament’s finals, leaving viewers with a hopefully thrilling match. Unfortunately, for neutral viewers, it was not thrilling, it was utter domination — a bloodbath like no other. The Mammoths immediately took the lead in the first period
behind a goal from senior Avery Flynn ’23, following it up with four goals in the second and third period — it was never close. For the first time in NESCAC Tournament history, the Mammoths won without letting up a single goal, outscoring their opponents 9-0 throughout the tournament, with three incredible shutouts from Natalie Stott ’26.
The NESCAC Championship has earned Amherst a bid into the 2023 Division III NCAA Tournament, which will begin this Saturday at Orr Rink.
After their excellent showing against Middlebury last week, recording a 5-0 victory, the Mammoths unfortunately fell flat against Williams in a thrilling semifinal that went into overtime. The 8th-seeded Ephs had a losing 7-15-2 record over the regular season, but went on a heater during the tournament and the Mammoths were unable to stop them. Amherst outshot Williams 14-8 in the third period, but they were unable to finish any of their opportunities against Williams’ stellar goalie Evan Ruschil, letting Williams outshoot them in overtime 7-1, earning them the goal and the victory that ended the men’s hockey team’s season.
The men’s and women’s track and field teams went over to Medford, Massachusetts, to compete in the Tufts National Qualifying Meet.
The men’s team sent six athletes to the meet. In the 60-meter dash, first-year Jordan Harrison ’26 ran a stellar 6.91 seconds to finish third and earn a season best for himself. Simultaneously, sophomore Yeob Kim ’25 competed in the long jump. He finished in fifth place with an excellent 6.63m jump. Finally,
the men’s team sent their distance medley team, composed of Kolya Markov-Riss ’24, Cody Pierce ’26, Jack O'Hara ’25 and Henry Dennen ’26, recording a season-best 9:52.13.
The women’s team sent seven athletes, including a relay team
of their own. Their 4x400-meter relay, including Eliza Cardwell ’25, Myeh Medina ’26, Trintje Nydam ’24 and Casie Eifrig ’25, ran a 3:56.72 and finished second. On the other hand, Mary Kate McGranahan ’23 ran a 17:29.06 in the 5000m to place
fifth, only five seconds away from her personal best. Finally, two Mammoths, Anaya Thomas ’25 and Anastasia Ioppolo ’26, participated in the triple jump, each recording a 11.19m and a 10.39m, and finishing third and sixth respectively.
Earlier this year, I picked Paolo Banchero to be the Rookie of the Year. He played exceptionally well in the NBA’s Summer League, and more importantly, he was the No. 1 pick of the 2022 draft. So it’s not like I picked an underdog. Still, at this point in the season, Banchero is pretty clearly the favorite to win the award, with Vegas even having him at over (-3000). I initially thought Keegan Murray would be the one to challenge him for the award, especially after earning the Summer League MVP Award. While Murray has definitely become a superb complementary piece for the Sacramento Kings, adding excellent 3-point shooting and isolation defense, his counterpart Banchero is leading his own team, and averaging 20 points per game. At the beginning of the
season, Benedict Mathurin started making some noise with a few 30-bombs. For a time, it seemed like Mathurin had, in a way, backed up his insane “Lebron is going to have to show me he’s better than me” statement, especially with his 23 points against the Lakers, outscoring Lebron himself. At this point, in his last 15 games, Mathurin has come down to a cool 14 points per game, taking him out of the race. It’s hard to put into words, but it goes beyond the numbers for Banchero. He plays like a veteran — like he isn’t only a year older than me. Paolo will win Rookie of the Year, and I called it.
Most Valuable Player
My preseason MVP pick was not as successful as the last one. Luka Doncic finds himself around fifth place in Vegas’s odds. My initial logic was based on the idea that the Mavericks’ offseason moves would make them one
of the top teams in the Western Conference, adding to Luka’s career MVP-like numbers. However, the two major moves they made, frankly, did not pan out. On paper, adding Javale McGee would’ve been the exact rim protection this team needed, however, he fell out of the rotation after quite literally eight games. Christian Wood, on the other hand, needed to be costar and at least a serviceable defender. Those things also did not happen. Thus, the Mavericks were left with the same problems as they had last year, minus (should’ve been) AllStar Jalen Brunson. Doncic has still carried his team to a 33-32 record, good enough to be only three games behind the fourth seed. While he definitely has MVP numbers, other candidates are still playing at a similar level and holding the top seeds in their respective conferences. Jokic is leading in Vegas by a lot, howev-
er, I personally believe Giannis or Embiid deserves it more. I did say an international player would win the award, so I guess I got pretty close to being right.
I picked my Boston Celtics to win the chip this year, and after starting off the season 21-5, the pick seemed golden. Now, the Celtics have recently lost three games in a row and even fallen out of the first seed they held the entire year. The spoiled Boston fan inside of me thinks we are now destined to become a lottery team, however, Vegas still has Boston as the odds-on favorite to win the championship. Bias aside, the NBA is probably the most unpredictable it’s been in forever, which makes for incredible TV but makes it impossible for college sports journalists to be right about their takes. Nevertheless, I do believe Boston is the deepest
team in the league, but I am worried about the variance that comes with a team that relies so much on three-point shooting. If the Celtics can at least revert to their old defensive ways, I wouldn’t mind a stagnant offense once in a while — they just need to become tougher, both physically and mentally. Overall, I still think my preseason pick was the right one. However, if I were Vegas, the Phoenix Suns would be the favorites. Adding the greatest plug-and-play athlete in NBA history has already led to three straight victories for Phoenix, and it has allowed Devin Booker to flourish into a different beast since teams can no longer double-team him. I love Jokic and Giannis, but to me, Kevin Durant is the best offensive player in the league and has made an incredible step defensively that I believe could finally bolster Phoenix to their first-ever title. Or not. After all, Jayson Tatum exists.
With the completion of the Bahrain Grand Prix this past weekend, the 2023 F1 World Championship is now officially underway. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won rather easily from pole followed by teammate Sergio Perez (+11.987 seconds behind) in what proved to be an ideal start for the Austrian team.
Fernando Alonso (+38.637) rounded out the podium with a surprise top three result for Aston Martin, confirming the pre-season rumors of the team’s rapid rise over the winter. Carlos Sainz (+48.052) led the way for a disappointed Ferrari in P4 after teammate Charles Leclerc (19th, DNF) suffered an engine failure during the race. Lewis Hamilton (+50.977) rounded out the top five in what proved to be a frustrating race for Mercedes.
Qualifying is the first entirely representative session of the weekend and is split into three
sections: Q1, Q2, and Q3, with each session’s slowest five drivers being eliminated until Q3, which functions as a top 10 shootout.
Q1 made fans excited as only 1.188 seconds separated the fastest and slowest lap. For comparison, last year's Q1 session at the same track had a difference of 2.163 seconds. These may seem like small margins, but in racing two seconds per lap is a long time.
However, this gap did increase as track conditions improved and the top teams turned their car up. Max Verstappen’s 1:29.708 lap time was enough to secure the top spot in qualifying. It is worth noting that Fernando Alonso out-qualified both Mercedes drivers, showing that the team may be fully clear of the midfield by a decent margin.
The race got off to a fun start with both Mercedes picking up positions and the Ferraris challenging for the lead before the field settled into the first stint. 19 of the 20 drivers began their race
on the soft (fastest, least durable) tire; Kevin Magnussen started on the hard (slowest, most durable) tire. Most teams then opted to stop twice for two sets of hard tires as that compound seemed
to be the best for the race.
Red Bull dominated the race from the first lap onward, with Verstappen leading all but the first lap he pitted. The pace of the Austrian team is an ominous
warning that the championship may not be as competitive as many had hoped: at least not at the top.
Another team whose pace created headlines was Aston Martin.
While Alonso benefitted from Leclerc’s retirement from the race, he still beat the second Ferrari and both Mercedes on merit; the latter took an especially painful hit to their pride as Aston Martin use Mercedes engines.
The weekend was massively disappointing for Ferrari and Mercedes even without the miraculous pace of Aston Martin. The part that failed on Charles Leclerc’s car was actually a replacement part because the original showed issues after qualifying.
This lack of reliability may force Leclerc to take a third version of that part; and because the regulations only allow for two to be used, he could face a penalty that will drop him 10 places from wherever he qualifies. Sainz also
suffered excessive tire degradation, an issue the team will be hoping to quickly fix.
On the Mercedes side of things, Toto Wolff (Team Principal of Mercedes) admitted that the team may struggle to make the car competitive at any point this season as their concept may actually have a lower ceiling than other teams. However, Wolff is notorious for playing mind games.
George Russell (7th, +55.873) did express similar pessimism about the season, though, predicting that Red Bull would win every race this season. Despite the downbeat quotes coming from his team, Lewis Hamilton has also spoken about the large amount of work the team have to do, but he believes they can catch
Ferrari and Aston Martin. With updates on the way for race four (Baku, Azerbaijan) and six (Imola, Italy), a lot of attention will be paid to the progress of Mercedes.
The race brought a few other surprises. Esteban Ocon (18th, DNF), was first assessed a five second penalty for being improperly positioned in his starting spot, was then given an additional ten second penalty for not serving his first penalty correctly, and finally another five second penalty for speeding when trying to serve the original penalty. He eventually retired from the race, seemingly to save the wear on the car and because of how far back the penalties put him.
Lance Stroll (6th, +54.502) did eventually race through his injuries and put in a strong perfor-
mance, outpacing George Russell to add to the pain Mercedes felt this weekend. Finally Guanyu Zhou (16th, +1 lap) set the fastest lap in a car that qualified 13th, a notable result as midfield cars usually aren’t close enough to the front to pull this off even with fresh tires and low fuel.
And with that, the 2023 season is underway. The Drivers and Constructors Standings are as follows:
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)25
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) - 18
3. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) - 15
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) - 12
5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) -
March 12: Women vs. Sewanee 1 p.m.
March 13: Women vs. Pomona-Pitzer 1 p.m.
March 14: Men vs. Rhodes 12 p.m.
March 8: vs. Springfield College 3 p.m.
March 13: vs. Emerson 6:30 p.m.
March 14: vs. College of New Jersey 4:30 p.m.
March 14: vs. College of New Jersey 7 p.m.
March 11: Men vs. Tufts University 1 p.m.
March 11: Women vs. Tufts University 1 p.m.
10
6. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) - 8
7. George Russell (Mercedes) - 6
8. Valterri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) - 4
9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) - 2
10. Alex Albon (Williams) - 1
Constructors Championship Standings
1. Red Bull - 43
2. Aston Martin - 23
3. Mercedes - 16
4. Ferrari - 12
5. Alfa Romeo - 4
6. Alpine - 2
7. Williams - 1
8. Alpha Tauri - 0
9. Haas - 0
10. McLaren - 0
Round 2 will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 17-19.
March 11: @ NCAA Quarterfinal, 3 p.m.
March 10 to March 11: @ NCAA Indoor Championships
March 12: vs. Bethel University 11:30 a.m.
March 12: vs. Farmingdale State College 2 p.m.
March 13: vs. Hamline University 2 p.m.
March 13: vs. Loras College 4:30 p.m.
March 14: vs. North Park University 9 a.m.
March 14: vs. Kenyon College 2 p.m.
