Issue 19

2 VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 19

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

amherststudent.com

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

Years of Covid: Amherst Reflects “

We’ve kept going and going and never really stopped, despite the fact we’ve all been experiencing a natural disaster like no one’s ever experienced before. But where did the time go for surviving? Reflecting?

Thinking, dwelling about what happened?

Will I ever really comprehend how many lives were lost?

— Anonymous

”

Karina Maciel ’25, Sonia Chajet Wides ’25, and Caelen McQuilkin ’24E Staff Writer, Assistant News Editor, and Mangaging News Editor On this day, March 9, of 2020, the President’s Office sent out an email with the subject line “COVID-19: Major Changes.” The email announced that, due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus across the nation, the college would be switching to remote learning, with all students expected to leave campus within the following week. The world, and our individual lives, have not been the same since.

Two years later, The Student decided to piece together reflections on the staggering — and still ongoing — impact of Covid on our lives and on the Amherst campus. Reporters spoke with a range of college community members, and collected anonymous reflections in a submission box placed in Valentine Dining Hall. Here is what Amherst had to say.

OPINION

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Crunchy Mom Hates Sumo Oranges: Kei Lim '25 debuts the new "Rants and Raves" series by pointing out how offensive the phrase "no offense" is.

ARTS & LIVING

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"Ignite": Quincy Smith '25 explores questions about how we find our personal identity, in the second installment of "Poetic Perspectives."

SPORTS

Continued on page 4

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Track and Field Breaks Records: Maya Reiner '25 recaps some stunning performances from the track and field National Qualifying Meet on Saturday.

News POLICE LOG

Thoughts on Theses Jade DuVal

Feb. 28, 2022 – March 7, 2022

>>Feb. 28, 2022 7:03 a.m., Grosvenor House A sergeant took a report of a motor vehicle accident.

1:50 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Student called ACPD stating they were stuck in the elevator. Before the Electrical Shop arrived on scene, the elevator began working properly and the student got out safely.

Elevator was tested and no issues were found.

5:46 p.m., Amherst College Police Department A student contacted the Director of Environmental Health & Safety requesting permission to have a fire in a metal trash can.

Request was denied and the student was referred to Student Activities. >>March 1, 2022 1:54 p.m., College Street A town resident complained about students not using the crosswalk lights when crossing College Street. >>March 2, 2022 5:45 p.m., Seelye and Mayo-Smith Houses Residential Life Community Safety Assistant (CSA) staff found an unauthorized fire in a metal trash can between Seelye and Mayo-Smith Houses. Fire was then extinguished.

8:23 p.m., Seligman House A student reported being verbally threatened by an alumnus. This matter is under investigation.

>>March 4, 2022 2:24 p.m., Keefe Campus Center A detective responded to a report of students taking firewood from the campus center without authorization. Firewood was then returned.

4:07 p.m., Seelye and MayoSmith Houses A Community Service Officer (CSO) responded to a noise complaint and music was turned down.

8:08 p.m., Alumni Gymnasium Police were called to the Fitness Center for a person refusing to comply with center rules and refusing to leave. The person left prior to the arrival of police.

10:36 p.m., Fayerweather Lot Road A sergeant and a detective responded to a report of a person illegally entering someone else’s car. The act was interrupted by a witness and nothing was taken. >>March 6, 2022 3:05 p.m., Charles Drew House Parking Lot A student reported that someone entered their unlocked car. Things were moved around but nothing was taken. >>March 7, 2022 12:34 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory A report was received of yelling in the area of Morris Pratt. Responding police found all to be quiet.

2:41 p.m., Lipton House A CSA reported past vandalism to the police.

Department of English

Jade DuVal is an English major. Her thesis looks at how three primary sources use Black girls and Black girlhood as methods of empowerment and community building. Her current thesis advisor is Professor of English Christopher Grobe.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: I’m looking at the way my three primary sources — “Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward, Beyoncé’s “BROWN SKIN GIRL” music video, and the BlackGirlMagic hashtag — use Black girls and Black girlhood as methods of empowerment and community building.

Q: What sparked your interest in this topic?

A: I’ve been doing research on Black girlhood more generally since the summer after my freshman year. I started off looking at [Toni Morrison’s novel] “The Bluest Eye,” and then over time I felt like it was more exciting when I started looking at current things as opposed to something that came out 40 years ago.

Q: How did you decide to center your thesis around these three sources?

A: Well, I’m an English major, so I had to have a book. Someone recommended that I read “Salvage the Bones,” and after I read it, I was like, “I have to write about this.” And, [as for] the other two things, I wanted to do something more interdisciplinary that didn’t just focus on literature. Around the time I was looking for more sources, “Black Is King” came out and I saw the “BROWN SKIN GIRL” music video. The Twitter hashtag [#BlackGirlMagic] is just something that I’ve found really interesting.

Q: What are some obstacles that you’ve encountered that you

hadn’t expected? Do you have any tips for how to overcome them?

A: It’s difficult to find sources that do what you want them to do. It’s hard to sort through to see what is actually important and what’s not.

Sometimes you’re like, “Oh, I’m writing all this stuff,” and it doesn’t really have anything that you’re writing about. You get into a lot of rabbit holes. What has been helpful for me is just to think very specifically about what I’m looking for, and what kind of source fits into my arguments, versus just finding a source and trying to fit it into my paper.

Q: Has anything you’ve done or encountered throughout the process surprised you?

A: As I went into it, I was thinking that I was going to do a completely critical thesis, but later I started working in personal narrative. I think that is actually something that helped me stay engaged throughout the school year, because my research is personal to me, and when you bring yourself into [the research], it has another layer.

Q: How have you woven personal narrative into your thesis?

A: For the part of my thesis about the “BROWN SKIN GIRL” music video, I compare that to things in my own life. When there are scenes with Beyoncé and her daughter, I’m comparing that to memories that I have of me and my mother.

Q: How does your thesis relate to

current realities and experiences within Black communities?

A: The BlackGirlMagic hashtag stands out because I think that’s being used in the media a lot. I feel like there’s a big movement in the Black community around empowerment and the way we speak about empowerment and BlackGirlMagic is a big part of that. It’s important to think about these things, and we should allow ourselves space to think about these things critically.

Q: Are there any skills you’ve learned from the thesis process that you want to take with you?

A: I feel like my critical thinking has gotten better from doing this.

You also get a deeper appreciation for revision. Usually in classes you have such a short time to write an essay, but in writing [my] thesis, there are certain essays that I wrote and then started over from the beginning. At first it was really frustrating, but to get the product that you want, it’s worth it.

Q: What advice would you give to someone interested in writing a thesis?

A: I would say choose something that you’re really passionate about.

Don’t write what you think people want to read; write what you want to write and what you believe in.

No one really tells you how hard it is to write a thesis, so you have to have something to keep yourself motivated.

—Ethan Foster '25

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

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Language Assistants Speak on Pandemic Challenges Guilherme Santos Rocha ’24 Staff Writer The Covid-19 pandemic has touched the lives of every member of the college community, but its impacts have largely gone unspoken for one vital group on campus: language assistants (LA). Occupying a position between full-time students and staff at the college, LAs report feeling that their situation has not received adequate attention and support from the college, resulting in a number of financial and other challenges during the pandemic.

LAs work to support language professors at the college, holding discussion sections, language tables, and extracurricular events to engage students in

the language and culture they’re learning about. LAs also take courses while at the college, with all language assistants required to enroll in two courses each semester. About half of the college’s LAs come as part of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program.

LAs are typically compensated with half tuition, room and board, medical insurance, and a stipend of $6,900, totaling just under $55,000. In the 2020-2021 academic year, however, many LAs worked and studied remotely due to the pandemic, and did not receive reimbursement for housing and meals as a result.

Having to cover these living expenses on their own posed a significant hardship for sever-

al LAs. “The stipend received by the LAs for the whole 20202021 academic year was $6,900, plus $1,000 as a bonus for the pandemic hardship that every employee of Amherst received last year. Although this money was enough for LAs who lived in smaller cities, it was insufficient for the LAs who lived in capitals with monthly costs of living that exceed $1,500 per month,” explained one language assistant, who will be referred to as Language Assistant A. All language assistants interviewed opted to remain anonymous in order to maintain a comfortable relationship with their employers.

Most LAs were not able to sustain additional sources of

Continued on page 6

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Language assistants report that their financial challenges have not received adequate attention from the college over the pandemic.

Center for Restorative Practices: Reimagining Justice Sam Spratford ’24 Managing Podcast Editor At a Feb. 18 workshop from the ongoing “Who, What, Why is the Center for Restorative Practices” series, Director of the Center for Restorative Practices (CRP) Suzanne Belleci opened with an interactive thought experiment. First, she showed participants one of the top images for the search query “justice”: Lady Justice wielding her sword and scale, elevated gloriously in the clouds. Then, Belleci presented photos she had taken of restorative circles around the world: an outdoor gathering in post-genocide Rwanda, a classroom within the Oakland Unified School District, a meeting place in Micronesia, and a group of Vermonters recently released from prison.

Participants noted that the image of Lady Justice conveyed themes of individualism, impartiality, and unflinching authority, whereas Belleci’s slideshow radiated ideas of collective responsibility and respectful collaboration.

“Now, I’ll show you our official definition of restorative justice, but I don’t think it’s going to be

any better than what you all just thought up on your own,” Belleci laughed.

She then showed participants the official philosophy of the center, which is housed within the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: “The CRP is a campus-wide collaborative effort to incorporate restorative philosophies and practices into the Amherst community, to prioritize the building, maintaining, and, when harmed, repairing of relationships between all members of the community. By teaching, learning, and practicing how to engage in conflict, we understand our impact and our avenues for healing.”

In the short time since its founding in 2021, the CRP has used Restorative Circles as its primary tool as they work to make restorative justice a fixture of Amherst’s culture of safety and accountability. These Circles enable faculty, administrators, and students to collaborate in dialogue about tense campus issues, like policing and identity-based harm, in an effort to create a more supportive and inclusive campus community.

Restorative Circles are part of the 80 percent of the CRP’s work that deals with the prevention of conflict. The rest of their work is reactive: 15 percent addresses the roots of distrust or violence between community members, and only 5 percent focuses on reintegration after a community member returns from a suspension, for example.

This emphasis on prevention is crucial, said Belleci, because restorative practice cannot appeal to community ties if community members never felt a sense of integration and belonging in the first place. Some recent examples of preventative practices are the “First Year Low Income (FLI) Community Building Circle” and the “Winter Beauty, Winter Blues: Community Building Circle.”

As Belleci sees it, the strengths of restorative practice are threefold: it provides a nonviolent space to reflect on past accountability and future commitments; it recognizes the reality that an individual’s actions have myriad causes and consequences for the community; and it facilitates a model of safety wherein every member of the community

holds a responsibility to one another. She notes that restorative practices have deep roots in New England’s regional history, from which the CRP draws inspiration.

“The Abenaki, for one, have a tradition of sitting in a circle and passing a talking piece to focus the deep listening on the speaker, hearing from the heart of both a harm-doer and those who have been harmed,” Belleci explained.

“Then, Mennonite communities in Canada adopted these practices as a way to welcome home those who had served time in prison and to prevent recidivism.”

In the CRP’s present work, these local legacies coalesce with Belleci’s own knowledge of the way restorative justice operates around the world, knowledge she accumulated over 25 years of traveling and peace-building work.

“I spent more than 15 years teaching in the Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (CONTACT) program, a three-week intensive peacebuilding course where roughly 60-70 restorative practitioners from around the world come to learn and to share from places like Afghanistan, Ne-

pal, Angola, Northern Ireland, Tibet, the Diné Nation, Israel, and so many other regions where love, pain, and resilience are part of daily life,” she recounted. “I facilitated circles in Iraq, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Kosovo/Kosova bringing together people whose histories taught them to mistrust and fear each other, and, in the process, deepened my faith in and respect for the power of stories to connect and even heal.”

From these far-reaching locales, restorative justice found its way to Amherst’s campus in the aftermath of the 2015 Amherst Uprising. Assistant Program Director Athri Ranganathan ’16 says that the CRP was one tangible initiative that emerged from the longing for greater equity and belonging expressed in the Uprising, which demanded that the college “reckon with its history and make transparent and sincere efforts at improving the lives of Black students, staff, and faculty on campus.” It was six years later that the CRP finally launched in 2021, under the inaugural direc-

Continued on page 7

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

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Reckoning With Two Years of Covid, and Counting: The Student asked members of the college community to reflect on what they learned through the pandemic, what has changed in their lives, and how they see the world differently now.

The most jarring thing for me ... as an employee, is my memory. It just seems like an eternity. It was only two years. I can’t recall exactly what happened when, because so much happened instantly ... we were just told on our morning break that the campus was shutting down … I was scared. Thinking that this was the end … I was here, helping people move out of the Greenways. It was chaos.

— Marlayna Barnette, Custodial Employee

I feel like my college experience has been taken away from me. I wish I had one more normal year of college — and I’ll never get that back. I’ve been so stressed and burned out. I don’t think people have considered challenging situations and the loss students have experienced. I lost my dad to Covid and I didn’t feel supported.

— Anonymous

I’m scared, actually.

I’m scared for the future. It’s hard to find hope.

— Anonymous

F — k it, we ballin.

— Anonymous

I look at life in a whole new, different perspective. Things of meaning have changed.

Family is stronger. Friends are stronger. What you took for granted, you don’t take for granted anymore.

- Karen, Val Employee

You don’t realize how time slips away until it’s ripped from you. I realized I needed to take back control & follow my passions despite my doubts.

— Anonymous

I came out as lesbian and started living the life I want, because life is fleeting and temporary.

— Anonymous

The pandemic, in short, taught me militant self-love. I mean, I feel like there’s no way anyone can go through something that catastrophic and not come out the other side feeling empowered.

-— Anonymous

1. Changed countries, continents, and homes.

2. Social time is priceless.

-— Anonymous

I was very lonely, but music got me through it.

— Anonymous

I’ve learned how stupid liberals are.

— Anonymous

March 9, 2020: The college announces that students will be required to move off campus by March 16 and that all remaining spring semester classes will be remote beginning March 23.

March 9, 2020: Over 150 students hold a sit-in in Frost Library to protest the announcements.

President Biddy Martin and Dean of Students Liz Agosto answered questions from students until around 2 a.m.

March 2020

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

April 2021

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

July 2020

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

July 1, 2020: The college announces it will only allow around 1,200 students on campus for the Fall 2020 semester, with priority given to first-years, sophomores, and seniors who had previously studied abroad.

April 23, 2021: The college announces that all students must get the new Covid-19 vaccine in order to study in-person in the fall.

The first on-campus vaccine clinic opens on April 28.

October 2020

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Oct. 28, 2020: Spring semester plan is released. Only 1,200 students will be allowed on campus again, with priority now given to first-years, juniors, and seniors. In a major protocol change, students will be given access to residence halls other than their own.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022 I have a whole alternate life now. That is — I wouldn’t have learned many things that the last two years has led me to. I would have lived an alternate set of events, locations, communities.

What is it that I’ve learned … to slow down, to ride imbalance back to balance.

— Anonymous

I think that [both students and faculty] have been much more resilient than I think anyone would have possibly imagined… I've been amazed at just how resilient people have been … Even two years in, it’s just hard. As a faculty member, it takes me longer to get to know my students, because I can only see [their] eyes ... we can’t get to know each other as well.

And that’s so much of what I love about this place.

— Rick Lopez, Dean of Students

I met my soulmate.

-— Anonymous

News F — k Covid, all my homies hate Covid! (the free HEERF money was nice though).

— Anonymous

I still remember when we got that email to get sent off campus ... I went to the Red Room … and [it] was just so packed. I had never seen it like that … people were sitting on the floor, people were trying to get in from the hallways … I think [the pandemic became] the first time the administration had to realize that whatever policies they are making had a direct impact … this was the first time the administration hasn’t been such an abstract idea.

— Maira Owais ’23

There’s a lot about that last week [before everyone was sent home] that is still very crystallized in my mind. One of my students gave me their fish to take care of, you know, because they couldn’t take it back with them. And we didn’t know when they were going to come back … And I remember walking down the middle of my residential street in Amherst, with no cars around anywhere, and just feeling like, Wow. This is fundamentally different from life that we’ve had before.

— Anonymous

Those online classes in March of 2020 [felt] like such a lifeline to each other. We were cast about, and looking for ways to reestablish these kinds of connections, and [it felt] valuable to be able to connect [through] those first online classes. And then [over] the next several months [there was] … an interesting intimacy that was established between students and faculty, ... when we were kind of looking in on each other’s lives.

— David Jones, Professor of Geology

As an international student, I’ve been staying on campus since the pandemic started ... Covid hollowed the campus into a fleshless skeleton, and I felt I was one of the few active cells in it.

— Haoran Tong '23

Once upon a time ago, I was a junior, taking all the opportunities I possibly could … Then it was all turned with the pandemic.

Slowly getting lonelier, and crying everyday.

— Anonymous

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

May 14, 2021: College loosens Covid restrictions for the summer: masking is required only indoors, testing is reduced to twice a week, contactless delivery is allowed, and students are permitted to leave campus between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

This pandemic has shown me so much about control, and our lack of it. It has taught me about accepting change, about making choices. And it has taught me how much life is just about people.

— Anonymous

I am much more future-oriented [now]. I spend less time thinking about what happened in the past and more time on what I can do for the future.

— Wenche Tseng ’24

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Feb. 25, 2022: With 40 new student cases, Agosto announces a masking requirement in residence halls, limited non-academic indoor events, and 50 percent dining hall capacity. Despite the number of active student cases rising to 150, these restrictions are lifted on March 1, with the administration citing a reduction in the number of positive cases per testing cycle.

May 2021

February 2022 August 2021

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

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Aug. 24, 2021: Amidst a national surge in Delta variant cases, the college tightens restrictions for the first weeks of Fall 2021: double-mask mandates, biweekly testing, off-campus travel restrictions, and the elimination of indoor dining.

An open letter critcizing parts of the decision and calling for increased transparency receives over 250 student signatures.

Aug. 29, 2021: Despite the continuing pandemic, the college decides to end the increased hazard pay that had been received by staff members throughout the 2020-2021 academic year.

March 9, 2022: Exactly two years after the college would go remote, The Student publishes Volume 151, Issue 19 — a reflection on pandemic-era Amherst.

March 2022

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

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Language Assistants Reflect on Compensation, Covid and Beyond

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

On Oct. 17, 2019, Fulbright language assistants led a "tertulia," a gathering of people to talk about cultural matters in Spanish. The group discussed festivals held in November in Cartagena, Columbia, Salta, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Continued from page 3 income to cover these costs either, added another LA, Language Assistant B. “Three of us had to leave our home jobs, and the others declined [other] job and academic opportunities in order to accept their positions as Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching grantees at Amherst,” they said.

Although LAs were grateful to their departments for doing their best to support them, LAs expressed disappointment with the lack of responsibility taken by the college, as well as the Fulbright program, in ensuring the financial viability of the position.

“When our program started, Fulbright and Amherst College passed the responsibility onto each other while we waited for

a solution to our financial situation. Finally, neither of them helped us, and we were left to fend for ourselves. We had to rely on our families during a pandemic that brought an economic crisis to every household,” said Language Assistant B, who noted that funding for Spanish, German, and French FLTAs is supposed to come from host institutions, whereas other Fulbright FLTA grantees, such as those teaching Russian, Indian, and Chinese, received financial assistance from Fulbright to cover living expenses and services.

In a statement to The Student, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein wrote, “The financial parameters were clearly communicated to the LAs prior to their accepting the positions, and, of course, accepting the positions was their deci-

sion.”

Language Assistant B said that the college “took advantage of the fact that we all had taken a leave of absence from our jobs or didn’t apply for one. We could not have another job during our program because we worked full time and couldn’t resign from this program because we wouldn’t be able to find another one, in addition to losing our status as a Fulbrighter.”

Being a Fulbright scholarship recipient is “a great privilege,” they reflected, but the college’s treatment “didn’t reflect our importance.”

Some LAs also pointed out the challenges faced by those who did come to Amherst in person during the 2020-2021 academic year.

“Due to the uncertainty of whether they would be able to

come to the U.S. and the nature of the pandemic, only one Language Assistant accepted to come,” explained one LA, Language Assistant C. “The Office of Financial Aid did not realize he was not being paid for his work during the spring semester of 2021. His payment was initially intended to be processed in the following academic year (2021-2022). However, his payment was finally made in late June after he and his language department coordinator insisted on the matter.”

With the full return to in-person learning this year, all of the LAs have also returned to the college in person. While many aspects of their situation have improved, they report that the pandemic has magnified a deeper-running issue with their compensation. In particular, the

LA stipend is equivalent to $9.58 per hour, $4.67 below the minimum wage in Massachusetts, said Language Assistant A. According to Epstein, payment for LAs does not follow the same guidelines as regular student jobs and thus does not follow Massachusetts’ raise in the minimum wage. “The language assistants are not paid an hourly rate,” Epstein told The Student.

“Next year we will raise the LA stipend from $6,900 to $7,700.”

Language Assistant A expressed his hopes for future LAs who come to work at Amherst.

“I hope that incoming Fulbright language assistants can have a better experience without Covid, with the support of the departments that we have had but also sufficient financial support in case they have to work remotely,” they said.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

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CRP Works To Build Commmunity, Foster Connection Continued from page 3 tion of The Manwell Professor of Life Sciences Allen J. Hart.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Representative for the men’s squash team Andrew Leung ’23E was part of a student-led effort to research how restorative practices could be implemented at Amherst, along with Jeremy Thomas ’21, who was then president of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS).

Leung recalled one detail belying the political concerns involved in this process: “It would have been called the ‘Center for Restorative Justice,’ but Jeremy Thomas told me that there was pushback from the administration over the wording.”

“An emphasis on ‘justice’ implies that there was an ‘injustice’ present before the CRP’s founding,” Leung suspects.

Although its name avoids connoting injustice, the CRP’s most

well-known initiative is devoted to raising questions and enabling honest discussion about policing on Amherst’s campus. In the fall of 2021, CRP organized a series of circles intended to reimagine campus policing, called “Exploring Policing and Campus Safety at Amherst.” Ranganathan recounted the experience: “Students, faculty, alumni, and staff, including ACPD, have sat together in these circles in ways that bring out stories of deep pain, fear, hope, and creativity born of deep hearing of self and others.”

The CRP shared the teachings of these Restorative Circles with the Campus Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC), and Belleci indicated that she is now “waiting on the CSAC report to come out to help inform our next offerings.”

Students’ personal experiences with Restorative Circles suggest that these conversations evoke community-building insights that are uniquely nuanced

and thoughtful. After organizing and participating in a Restorative Circle with his team, Leung applauded the efficacy of these gatherings in overcoming the barriers to collaboration and intimate communication that pervade daily life. “[Assistant Director of the CRP] Fabio Ayola made sure that the Circle was really tailored to our team’s needs. He asked us really specifically, ‘Who are you as a team, what are your values?’”

Leung recalled. “And then, at the Circle, Ayola was asking these really difficult questions, like ‘Share a time in your life when you felt you couldn’t speak from your authentic self.’”

“I didn’t think people would be able to talk about that,” Leung admitted, “but by the end of the hour, we had never felt closer as a team.”

Given students’ hopelessness for police reform in the face of deep disagreements between stu-

dents and administration, Leung is hopeful that these honest and intimate Circles can have a broadly positive impact on Amherst’s culture of accountability.

“I could see why people would think [restorative justice] won’t work, because we’re so used to using punishment to address harm,” he acknowledged. “It’s hard to imagine another way … But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.”

Beyond Amherst’s campus, the concept of restorative justice has been gaining momentum throughout the country, according to Belleci.

“What I’m amazed at is how quickly restorative justice is spreading throughout the nation and globally. Amherst is one of the few colleges in the country that has a Center for Restorative Practices; in that regard, we are at the forefront of a movement.

And yet, we get frequent requests from other institutions of higher learning asking us how we did it

and how they can do it, too. It’s happening!” Bellici exclaimed.

She also stressed that restorative justice has taken root in some corners of our criminal justice system. “I ran a community restorative justice center in Vermont nearly fully funded by the Department of Corrections, and they were diverting major funding from their budget to support restorative circles of support and accountability to reduce recidivism and keep folks from entering the system in the first place,” she said.

Restorative justice is complicated, said Belleci. The CRP will continue to facilitate handson training so that the Amherst community can apply the practice to its fullest potential.

The CRP is holding three more introductory workshops on March 31, April 4, and May 13. Registration information can be found in The Daily Mammoth.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

While “Lady Justice” approaches conflict with impartiality and administers penalties, Restorative Circles aim to integrate the values and struggles of all community members. In redressing harm, they turn to collective responsibility rather than individual punishment.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

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Mammoth Moments in Miniature: March 2 to March 8 The Editorial Board College Provides Update on Climate Action Plan On March 4, Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord, Director of Design and Construction Tom Davies, and Director of Sustainability Wes Dripps provided an update to the college’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), which commits to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. The college had previously explained that the transformation of the college’s infrastructure to be completely based on renewable energy was interrupted by “pandemic-related market complications” and supply chain issues. Although these will delay the project, the most recent update expressed confidence that the transformation will still be completed by 2030.

The extra design time from the delayed start has allowed for increased planning to “[identify] opportunities to reduce capital costs for the new system with minimal compromise to both life-cycle costs and … carbon

footprint.” The new plan will use air and ground-source heat pump technology to enhance efficiency and flexibility, and reduce costs by not sizing the system to handle extreme peak loads. The college will employ carbon offsets for any residual emissions from peak demands, in order to meet its commitment to carbon neutrality.

An open session will be held in March for community members with questions or thoughts on the plan.

Spring Break Travel Testing Plan Announced Community Health and Safety communicated Spring Break testing protocols in an email sent on March 3. Students staying on campus will test on Sunday, March 13, and Wednesday, March 16. Students leaving campus during Spring Break are “strongly encouraged” to administer a rapid antigen test — which will be available for students to pick up at the Testing Center during testing hours on Thursday, March 10 — before

returning to campus. Additionally, all students are required to test as early as possible on Sunday, March 20.

College Hosts Winter Festival for Students The college’s annual Winter Festival, hosted by President Biddy Martin, was held at Coolidge Cage and Orr Rink on Sunday, March 6. At the festival, students enjoyed ice skating, an inflatable slide, food by local eateries, ice sculptures, and a performance from a capella group The Filharmonic.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Students enjoyed handcrated ice sculptures, a blow up slide, and an array of delicious treats at the annual Winter Fest.

Housing Process Timeline Released The Office of Student Affairs has announced the timeline for the fall housing selection process. The general Housing Selection Process will occur for students between April 12 and 14, while theme housing applications will close on March 9 following open houses. All non-graduating students will be expected to move out of their rooms by May 25, and all graduating students will be expected to move out by May 29. Housing on campus between the semester’s end and the summer will be limited due to reunions, but will be available for students with extenuating circumstances.

UMass Amherst Ends Indoor Mask Mandate Effective 7 a.m. on Wednesday, March 9, face coverings will be optional for indoor spaces on the UMass Amherst campus.

The university will continue to provide free KN95 masks to anyone who would like to continue wearing them. UMass is the first

of the Five Colleges to lift its indoor mask mandate. Masks will still be required at UMass’ health facilities and on PVTA buses.

AAS Announces Creation of Sexual Violence Task Force The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) has created a task force to “address sexual violence,” as per a March 8 email.

The AAS is soliciting student recommendations on how to move forward through an anonymous survey. The AAS also acknowledged allegations of sexual misconduct against former and current Senators made via the @amherstshareyourstory Instagram account and promised to “continue to work … to change the culture within the Senate and to help change the culture surrounding sexual respect in our community.” The email directed students to the Resignations and/or Removals Article of the AAS Constitution and encouraged students to seek removal for any AAS official they would like to hold accountable.

From the Red Room: March 8 AAS Meeting Updates Dustin Copeland ’25 Managing Opinion Editor Note: Because this week’s AAS meeting was moved to Zoom without communicating the change to the student body at large, this meeting recap was written based on an interview with AAS Senator Dania Hallak ’24 after the meeting, instead of first-hand observation of the meeting proceedings.

On Monday, March 7, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) met for the fifth time this semester.

Unlike the previous week’s meeting, which was held in the Red Room with all senators also joining over Zoom, this meeting was conducted entirely online. The meeting included a presentation by Sexual Respect Educator Lauren Kelly from the Department of Health Education, discussion from the Sexual Violence Taskforce (SVT), Budgetary Com-

mittee (BC) funding recommendations, Senate fund requests, officer reports, and updates on Senate committees and projects.

After attendance was taken, the Senate heard a presentation from Kelly, who presented on the resources available to students through Title IX. Many senators asked questions to Kelly about the efficacy of Title IX, raising concern that Title IX does not adequately support survivors. Senators asked for information about campus resources distinct from Title IX, and some emphasized the importance of not pushing students exclusively toward the Title IX Office.

The SVT then presented a draft of an email planned to be released on Tuesday, which acknowledged the Instagram account @amherstshareyourstory and provided a form for students to present their concerns. The SVT, in light of new

allegations against a member of the Senate that arose last week, asked the Senate’s opinion on adding a section that would guide the student body in how they might remove a senator from office. This prompted discussion on whether or not the Senate has the right to remove a senator from office, with the consensus being that while the Constitution does not provide for the Senate removing any Senator by themselves, it does allow for a senator to be removed given sufficient petition from the student body, as that would uphold the Senate’s mission of being directly representative of the student body as a whole.

The Senate also discussed minor changes to content and wording, and senators were given a break during the meeting to look over the email and suggest additional information that they believed should be mentioned. Then, they reviewed those

changes and voted on the email, which was sent out to students Tuesday afternoon.

After those two discussions, Treasurer Jae Yun Ham ’22 went over the BC discretionary funding recommendations. There were a large number of requests this week, including tickets to Broadway shows for both Green Room and the Middle East North African Association (MENAA), and tournament fees for Club Water Polo. All requests were approved, totaling $41,467.65.

The Senate approved the minutes for last week before President Angelina Han ’22 and Vice-President Basma Azzamok ’22 gave their report on their biweekly meeting with Dean of Students Liz Agosto.

Following their report, Dania Hallak ’24 began a discussion about the shortcomings of the college’s Safe R-I-D-E system, giving accounts of Safe R-I-D-E being inadequate-

ly staffed, with reports of rides that were unavailable, that never showed up, and students asked to take double shifts despite the late hours of Safe R-I-D-E’s operation. One senator who is a Safe R-I-D-E driver responded with her account of the stressful nature of the job, especially given understaffing.

After the transportation committee gave an update, senators went through campus check-ins.

Jaden Richards ’25 expressed concern about a skunk that has been seen around campus, proposing that the college should move the skunk to somewhere off campus before it hurts someone on campus or it gets hurt.

After reports and updates concluded, the SVT stayed behind to make final edits to the email, and the meeting adjourned.

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

Op pinion

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Reflections on Two Years of Covid

THE AMHERST

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D

On this day two years ago, President Biddy Martin announced that students would not return to campus after spring break and that the college would be transitioning to remote learning. As this anniversary marking the beginning of Amherst’s Covid era comes around, the Editorial Board hopes to reflect upon the pandemic and how it has affected our community.

Half of Amherst’s students, first-years and sophomores who began college during the pandemic, have no idea what life on campus was like pre-Covid. Many members of the Editorial Board barely know the pre-pandemic version of The Student, having only been writers or brandnew editors in the days before being kicked off campus. In two years time, almost none of the student body will have experienced Amherst preCovid. Our student body is very quickly losing any connection to life at Amherst before the pandemic.

For those who were here, the pre-pandemic days are a time of nostalgia, a time where the Amherst community felt much larger than the actual student body. Five College and high school students were a common sight around campus, the faculty and student body felt more connected — especially since faculty and their families would often eat at Valentine Dining Hall — and there was generally more intimacy between the town and the college.

However, even as we acknowledge and mourn all the losses that the pandemic has caused the community, we also celebrate the unexpected ways the Amherst student body has come together during these times. New ways to communicate and stay connected emerged, such as the campuswide GroupMe AmherstBussin. While the chat has admittedly been a mixed bag, it is a novel source of incredibly fast news dissemination with a massive audience, both by direct reading and word-of-mouth. This level of connection creates a dynamic that simply didn’t exist before the pandemic.

The pandemic has facilitated greater communication and connection not only among students, but between the student body and

the administration as well. During the months following the beginning of the pandemic, the administration began to see more clearly how their policies affected students and the need to actively respond to student concerns. This has created a culture where students feel more capable of holding the administration accountable, the administration has made open communication with students a greater priority, and both students and administration are more active in the other’s experience at the college.

These changes are more than temporary measures taken to alleviate a momentary crisis.

As we move into the third year of the pandemic, it is becoming more and more clear that the “normal” we reminisce about might never exist again, simply because our sense of normalcy has shifted completely. Moving forward, we must keep the Covid era in mind even as we put the worst of it firmly behind us. Here, we have an opportunity to revive campus while carrying over the lessons that we have learned. Administrative transparency, online access to campus resources, and a kind of class connection reachable even when no one is on campus are just some of the things that we should never lose.

With those things, we can re-emerge as a stronger campus even while we seek to reinstate the elements of the “old normal” that should return: we must become more active in the town to support the place we live in and avoid retreating into the tightly-bound enclave of campus. We must have even greater outreach to Five College students as well as prospective students across the world, and open up the metaphorical doors of the college for good. While we have learned much from the pandemic, we must not isolate ourselves in our little bubble. We must seek a new normal, forming communities that are more interconnected. The college community should use the pandemic to create something like the old normal, but even better.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of the majority of the Editorial Board — (assenting: 15; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 0).

Editors-in-Chief Yee-Lynn Lee Ethan Samuels Managing Editors Theo Hamilton Liam Archacki Editors-at-Large Scott Brasesco Sophie Wolmer Managing News Caelen McQuilkin Tana DeLalio Assistant News Eleanor Walsh Sonia Chajet Wides Managing Opinion Kei Lim Dustin Copeland Assistant Opinion Tapti Sen

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

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

Letters Policy

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

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

The editors reserve the right to edit any letters or to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

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

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The Amherst Student is published weekly except during college vacations. The offices of The Amherst Student are located in the basement of Morrow Dormitory, Amherst College. All contents copyright © 2022 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Opinion

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Seeing Double: Nuclear Power Isn’t the Future

Photo courtesy of In Our Nature

Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 cautions against the dangers of nuclear power, arguing that other forms of renewable power can end the climate crisis.

Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 Columnist Dozens of people died in the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, in northern Ukraine, and the best estimates indicate that at least 9,000 more will die of illnesses related to the radioactive blast. Hundreds of thousands evacuated the area and work to clean up the radioactive mess has lasted decades and will continue for many more. It was a devastating catastrophe that nobody wants to repeat.

And yet last week, Russian invaders shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine — the largest in Europe — and set fire to a training building only yards from functioning reactors. While the plant’s heavy concrete shielding prevented any radiation leaks (this time), the attack shocked and alarmed the world. You could feel the panic in the headlines as everyone waited for a second Chernobyl.

Thankfully, the Zaporizhzhia reactors were built to shut down safely in the case of an emergency. Right now, most of them are turned off. But that’s not the

whole story. As it turns out, the power plant’s reactors depend on cooling for weeks after shutting off to be safe. If cooling systems are damaged, they could melt down and explode just like Chernobyl and Fukushima, a nuclear plant in Japan that exploded in 2011 after a tsunami took out its cooling. Zaporizhzhia’s reactors might be safer, but they aren’t safe. If the Russian military wanted to cause a nuclear disaster, they could — and easily.

It is this “but” — safer but not safe — that should turn us away from nuclear power. At its core, nuclear power is dangerous. No matter how many engineers we enlist to make it safer, nuclear power still involves carefully controlling atomic forces with very little margin for error. It is pure hubris to think that technology can save us from the danger posed by nuclear fission. We can’t design danger out of a process that is inherently dangerous.

And yet it’s clear that in the face of the climate crisis, we need to act fast to decarbonize our economy. Nuclear power promises an easy transition: reactors generate vast amounts of reliable power with zero emis-

sions. We could build them across the world to power everything — some people fervently argue for such an energy revolution. Meanwhile, we need not change our consumption-oriented lifestyles.

But the world at the end of that transition would be an extraordinarily dangerous place. Nuclear plants are built for one reality — peacetime control under a specific regulatory regime — and then subjected to wars, natural disasters, and regime changes. Any system can only take so much stress until it breaks, and no human technology is ever free of defects. It’s guaranteed that some reactors would break down, poisoning our air, water, and ground with radiation.

Moreover, extremists or invading governments could use the threat of meltdowns to force local populations to comply. It’s far easier to build reactors to be disaster-resistant than to resist tampering. Anyone with enough drive could infiltrate a plant and cause a meltdown. Perhaps even scarier is what can be done with radioactive waste, which is extremely dangerous for years after it is produced.

And invariably, the nuclear plants needed to shift away from fossil fuels would be built near the most vulnerable people. One of the reasons that the climate crisis is so dire now is that the people with the least political power are subject to its worst effects. One example of this is the placement of power plants, which cause significantly higher mortality rates in their surrounding populations. It isn’t wealthy folks fighting offshore wind who bear that burden. It’s poor folks and Black folks, like the families that live near the trash incinerator in my hometown, who suffer because of our energy choices. Nuclear plants would be no different. Those with power will force reactors to be built elsewhere or relocate, and those without power will suffer when they inevitably explode or leak.

Thankfully, we have other options. Renewables have become very good at producing clean, actually-safe energy. The offshore wind project near Martha’s Vineyard that wealthy detractors almost killed will power 400,000 homes without posing any radiation threat whatsoev-

er. And while both solar panels and wind turbines produce difficult-to-recycle waste, at least that waste isn’t highly toxic.

Coupled with techniques to reduce consumption, like Carleton College’s brand-new geothermal heating system, renewables can power our future. (Amherst College is currently working on its own very similar system to meet its climate action goals.)

We can end the climate crisis with renewable power, more efficient construction and manufacturing, and small-but-substantial lifestyle changes. Nuclear power need not, and should not, play a role. I haven’t even mentioned some of the other problems with nuclear, such as its extraordinary centralization or connections with nuclear weapons. Its danger — unique among “clean” power sources — is enough to convince me to stay far away.

Nuclear power might be better than fossil fuels. It’s cleaner and probably even safer. But thinking that we can make nuclear reactors safe is nothing but hubris. How many more nuclear disasters will it take until we realize that?

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Opinion

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Coping With Campus: Style Over Substance Dusting Copeland ’25 Managing Opinion Editor Interpersonal intimacy is established foremost by proximity.

It is far easier to become metaphorically close with someone whom you literally share space with — there’s a reason I had to specify which meaning of “close” applied. So gathering spaces do best when they provide ample room for people to become close with one another, to share air as well as their work, or their play.

Fuller spaces feel more alive, charged by the humanity packed within them. For any socially-inclined person, it is natural to be made happy and comfortable by a space populated by living, breathing people.

And yet, exposure to such spaces has become anything but comfortable in the current era.

Nothing more repulses even a socially-inclined person now than being enclosed with another person. We walk indoors with barriers between our mouths, and when we gather outdoors we do our best to make sure we do so given a wide berth. Crowds induce anxiety in a new, more existential way, for not only are they filled with social pressure, they are now breeding grounds for virus, for infection. For the past two years, intimacy has looked a lot like a death sentence.

This contradiction in the need for social space expresses itself whenever we wish to gather: 50 percent capacity limits, for example, were long tacked on as band-aids to our common areas. Spaces designed for many people have become necessarily underutilized, their functionality compromised by the nature of dealing with the pandemic.

Space that is supposed to be collaborative and open now separates us from one another, encourages distance, creates fear.

The very openness and efficiency that once were the primary selling points of modern spaces now reveal the flaws in their form, suggesting that a new kind

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Paimio Sanatorium in southwest Finland forms the template for many Modernist motifs which defined residential architecture and soaked homes in the language of the hospital. of space is necessary, one that can foster intimacy even in the face of an antisocial pandemic.

I mean to propose no novel ideas here — allowing disease to influence the course of architectural and design philosophy has plenty of precedent. Even applying that history to Covid isn’t new: I remember reading a New Yorker article from 2020 about the future of architecture that predicted many changes to interior design in the wake of lessons learned in quarantine amid the many terrifying months of the pandemic in that city. It did this based on a history of disease-influenced architecture, as it posits that the Modernist movement of the early 20th century (that has enormous influence even today) was founded partially upon coping mechanisms for tuberculosis infection. And while I think that

reducing the history of Modernism to any singular cause is a little ridiculous, western conceptions of tuberculosis are indeed representative of many basic assumptions about humanity that inform Modernist thought.

Western medicine as a whole became more and more obsessed with the body as a machine throughout the 19th and 20th centuries — comparisons of the human body to automata are commonplace in European literature of the time, and the very idea of “fixing” a person with a “cure” to what ails them smacks of machine language. This machine conception of human existence is essential to Modernist building philosophy, which uses the principles of mass production to create the best way to live. This assigning of a universally-true “best” way for every

human to live is, I think, the primary failure of Modernism, especially when it comes to residential space.

The New Yorker article’s primary changes to architecture’s future fix the problems with Modernist prescriptive utopianism. They suggest things like movable walls to promote versatility in space, separations between spaces like the kitchen, dining room, and living room, and greater access to the outdoors. Movable walls, besides being flexible for different people’s needs, allow a quarantined family to rearrange space when staying in a confined home for too many weeks eats at their mental health. Separations between common spaces allow for a mental separation of spaces and their purposes, while creating more isolated “cozy” space

for inhabitants to escape into.

The outdoors provides for the universal need for sunlight and for access to fresh air even when leaving one’s front door seems impossible.

The article spends time defining an “existence minimum,” an amount of things that is the absolute minimum necessary for human survival — something that was sought after constantly by great architects and idealists throughout Modernism’s preponderance. Then the article defines an “existence maximum,” the suite of accessories we carry around at all times that packs as much world into as small a space as possible. Finally, the article asserts that neither of these serve as effective means of existing given the situation of the pandemic,

Continued on page 12

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Opinion

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Workspaces Should Be Built With Love and Ventilation Continued from page 11 and that architecture might need to reject the “clean, white, anonymous smoothness of contemporary minimalist modernism” in favor of a “textured hideaway, like an animal’s den.”

Duh! That’s like saying that instead of living like robots, maximizing the efficiency of our residential space, we should live as if we were literally people. The travesty of the Modernist movement (in a tragedy that extends far beyond architecture) was that the human body was reduced to a bag of chemicals which had a life not unlike a mathematical equation, theoretically optimizable for efficiency. It is common sense that we should be treated like humans in the space that we call our home. We should be able to rearrange our space if we need a change! We must, as the article says, have a home “full of reminders that the rest of the world still exists.” That should not be a revelation! Living in a real, inhabited world is an unalienable right, not a radical new design philosophy.

That change doesn’t stop at our living space. The philosophies of humanism and environmentalism that inform the

outdoors-connected dens of the future apply equally to work and public space. In a library, working efficiency should no longer be the marker of a “good” space, because humans do not respond to functionalist optimization.

All the efficient design in the world cannot promote productivity if people aren’t happy in or cared for by their workspace.

It is beauty that humanity responds to, beauty that makes a space happy. So a library, study room, or classroom designer should reach for beauty above all things.

Of course, beauty can come in many forms, but I believe that it is best measured by its promotion of happiness: sunlight, good craftsmanship, and high-quality materials are beautiful things.

Indeed, space is most beautiful when it is clear that those building it cared deeply about what they were creating. Architecture should always be done out of love, for love is the basis for human-conscious space. Textured dens filled with the real world should be the basis for all of our spaces — close to the outside, individual space, excellent airflow.

In other words, as we move into the future, space must pursue humanity above all things.

Photo courtesy of Blogspot

Le Corbusier’s master plan for Paris would obliterate the very center of the city, packing tens of thousands of people into each of his utopian high rises.

Rants and Raves: Crunchy Mom Hates Sumo Oranges Kei Lim ’25 Managing Opinion Editor The other day, I was grocery shopping at the Whole Foods in Hadley. I was just minding my own business piling 20 sumo oranges into a cart for my girlfriend’s stepdad (who goes through like three a day) when this random lady in a mauve tracksuit who was bagging Cara Caras next to me (who also happened to be the only person in the store I saw not wearing a mask and who I’d bet $100 is a certifiable “crunchy mom”) looked over and said, in a quite judgemental tone, “No offense, but that’s a lot of oranges.” I was

so taken aback — not only because a total stranger thought that I cared for her input, but also because she thought her comment about the number of oranges I was buying was something that necessitated being preceded by “no offense” — that I didn’t say anything at all. We stood there making painfully awkward eye contact until she turned away and walked towards the tomatoes.

If you preface a statement with “no offense,” it only confirms that it’s offensive, or at least that you think it’s offensive. I’m not sure why the Whole Foods Crunchy Mom thought her comment to me could be

offensive — maybe there’s a social norm about oranges that I’ve been stupidly unaware of for the past 18 years of my life — but I certainly don’t think that buying a lot of oranges is something a person should be ashamed of. A lot of oranges is just a lot of oranges. And they’re high in vitamin C, fiber, water, and antioxidants. It’s not like I was buying 20 12-inch cakes, and if I was, well, that’s my business.

Honestly, I’m not sure if it made me more or less unnerved that her comment wasn’t something I saw to be offensive at all.

I suppose it would have been worse if she said “No offense, but your hair looks like the sug-

ar-free granola I serve my children with raisins for breakfast every morning,” or “No offense, but your outfit is as dry and tasteless as the organic chicken breasts I grill for my husband every Thursday,” but adding “no offense” to her orange remark might as well have made it just as bad. If something you say wasn’t rude before, the addition of “no offense” will have certainly made it rude now.

If you think that including “no offense” will somehow purge an ugly remark of its insult, I promise you it won’t. You might as well just state, “I know this isn’t something I should say because it’s insulting, but I’m

going to share it anyway because I don’t care about your feelings.”

It only affirms that you know you’ve said something rude, and it’ll only annoy someone further. You know that rule we teach kids as soon as they can talk? That beloved quote so eloquently spoken by Thumper in Bambi? Remember: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

So if you find the phrase “no offense” building on your tongue, you should probably just bite down on it. Resist the urge to say whatever you were about to say because no offense, but absolutely no one asked for your opinion.

Amusements

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The Amherst Student Crossword | March 9, 2022 ACROSS 1 Where to find refreshments in 53A 5 Gushes 10 Smoothness, in flirting 14 Luau dance 15 Of ocean motion 16 Military grp. that can be called into active duty 17 "Seems plausible to me" 19 Duo and Mammoth Meals 20 Hand-washing staples 22 Urn contents, perhaps 24 Info-gathering mission 26 Wrath 27 Rhino relative 32 "Are not!" response 33 Conversation, in classrooms 35 YouTube category that might give you tingles 36 Non-mechanized, as meals 39 Diplomacy 42 One at the top of the division?

46 Beijing greeting 48 Thompson of "Thor: Ragnarok" 49 Connections 50 Piece of land 51 Cowboy contest 53 Where cramming is cool, on campus?

59 Storm preceder 60 Cutting cheese?

63 Baby's bed 64 Go with the flow 65 Ancient Andean 66 Observes 67 Dentist's directive 68 Four-award artist, initially

DOWN 1 LitFest producer housed in 53A 2 Neighbor of Switz.

3 Becomes tomato-like 4 "The Raven" author, briefly 5 Octagonal directive 6 Tower town 7 Paradise 8 Movement keys, in video games 9 Sluggish 10 Honduras neighbor 11 Features 12 Geography fanatic's haunt, in 53A 13 EMT destinations 18 Flock leader 21 Altar constellation 22 Pitch in 23 ___ Lanka 25 Neither's partner 28 Prefix meaning "self " 29 A Level action, in 53A 30 The Student's weekly output 31 Paper quantities 34 Where to find many spines in 53A? 37 Sega Master System rival, for short 38 Noah's landfall 39 Explosive initials 40 Spring break expense, maybe 41 Sheen or Parker 43 Cleaning 44 Level with 1A in 53A 45 Amherst club: Abbr.

47 NFL tiebreakers, briefly 52 Do ___ 54 "Here's the summary," online 55 Actress Loughlin 56 Triumphant cry 57 Close pals, for short 58 Make use of Yelp 59 Loops in, briefly 61 Author Umberto 62 Bit of body art

Liam Archacki ’24 Managing Editor

Solutions: March 2

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Amusements

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Secret Admirer

by Emi Eliason ’23

Red Herring: Snow Day

by Isaac Streiff ’24

g Arts&Living

“How I Met Your Father”: How I Rebooted Your Mother Eren Levine ’24 Staff Writer

Last year, I wrote an article about the surge of reboots coming to streaming services, and the trend has not slowed down since then. The most recent addition to the reboot genre is Hulu’s “How I Met Your Father,” a spin-off of the early 2000s sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” Unlike other reboots, this spin-off is not a continuation of the original series featuring the same characters. Instead, it is just the same premise, similar to the HBO Max “Gossip Girl” reboot. Both the original and the new “How I Met Your Mother/Father” recount the story of a parent telling their children how they met the other parent. On one hand, this type of spin-off is even harder to perfect because viewers don’t have the same nostalgia and fondness for the characters. On the other hand, when seeing beloved characters, loyal fans may be preoccupied with how well the original characters are portrayed in the newer version, making “How I Met Your Father’s” spin-off style perhaps easier to succeed with. I began “How I Met Your Father” with skepticism because of how many reboots have let me down over the years, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. I would consider this to be one of the most promising spin-offs I have ever seen.

The unique balance of comedy and drama that “How I Met Your Mother” achieved might seem difficult to match, but “How I Met Your Father” has done a surprisingly good job at it. I find myself invested in the characters and their storylines, while also enjoying the humor of the show.

While I haven’t found the spin-off quite as funny as the original, it is not that far off. Unlike many reboots where excessive acting leads to characters I find annoying or unrealistic, I genuinely

Photo courtesy of FilmWonk

Eren Levine ’24 reviews Hulu's “How I Met Your Father,” a spin-off series that cleverly integrates elements of the original show, “How I Met Your Mother,” into a unique, enjoyable new comedy. enjoy the majority of the characters on “How I Met Your Father” — a big plus, since one thing that made “How I Met Your Mother” one of my favorite shows was how much I liked every character. I almost think I like the main character in the reboot, Sophie, better than in that of the original, Ted. Sophie is relatable and kind, without coming across as flat or dull. I also really like Jesse, played

by Chris Lowell. He is the stereotypical lovable dork who has gone through deep heartbreak, but his humor and relationships with the other characters are very enjoyable to watch. I think that having actors whom I know and admire from other shows, such as Hilary

Duff and Chris Lowell, made becoming invested in the new characters easier.

Because every TV show is unique and therefore hard to recreate, I think reboots struggle when they try to be too similar to the originals. “How I Met Your Father” avoids this pitfall in its sparing and tasteful references to the original. The show does share some similarities to the original, including the aforementioned premise, as well as the frequency of hanging out in a bar and the potential romance between main characters. However, because the characters aren’t incredibly similar to the original’s, the spin-off still feels unique and

creative. Perhaps the most notable constant across the two shows is the main apartment where the characters hang out. “How I Met Your Father” notes that the main characters found the apartment on a Facebook group for alumni from their college, implying they bought it directly from the characters in “How I Met Your Mother.” I think this detail cleverly allowed for the nostalgia that people hope for from reboots, as seeing the familiar set affords an additional level of excitement to watching the show.

The choices to make “How I Met Your Father” different from the original are likewise well-executed and add to the show’s indi-

viduality. For example, while we have no idea who the mother is in the original, just that she is not a main character, the first episode of the spin-off reveals that someone Sophie met in this episode is the father, but we don’t yet know whom. This suspense makes watching each episode even more enjoyable, as I find myself thinking about who I hope the father is, versus who I think it most likely is. While I am hesitant to suggest watching reboots because of their propensity to let viewers down, I definitely recommend “How I Met Your Father” to any fans of the original and anyone else looking for a lighthearted sitcom.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

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Power, Connection, & Community in Public Speaking Mikayah Parsons ’24 Staff Writer Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to watch two riveting public speaking events at Amherst. The first, the Writing Center’s annual speaking competition on Feb. 23, saw 11 students perform speeches related to the theme of “Progress.”

The next day, the LitFest Spoken Word Slam drew 15 participants to prepare two poems up to three minutes long. These annual competitions typically receive a low to moderate turnout from the student body. Despite this, I witnessed at both events a sense of camaraderie among those students who did attend. As a poet, I look forward to these competitions every year.

The poetry contest, which I myself participated in, is an opportunity to keep my creative writing on track, and I always receive inspiration from other students. The speech competition, though not my area of expertise, gives the same invigorating satisfaction upon watching impassioned students perform prepared pieces that capture everything

from the current state of campus to their hopes for its future. Looking at the small number of students in the audience, mostly friends of the participants, I wondered what the public speaking community at Amherst is like.

To find out, I sat down with seven students who participated in one of these two competitions to ask about opportunities for public speaking at Amherst, motivations for speaking publicly, and general opinions about the public speaking climate on campus. The interviews ranged from 10 to 20 minutes, from first-years to seniors, from rookies to seasoned performers. Across all of them, though, lurked a thinly veiled desire for a larger public speaking presence on campus. Take, for instance, the words of Tristan Moore ’24. When asked if he felt there was a public speaking community on campus, he responded, “There’s absolutely no community … which is disappointing because I wish I knew about all of the people who are great speakers.”

How did contestants learn about these competitions? Moore laughed,

“A friend of mine put it in the campus group chat.” Other students shared similar stories of chance encounters learning about the events.

A few students mentioned Susan Daniels, the public speaking coach at the college, by name. Their anecdotes pointed to larger tensions around a lack of advertising for these events. “Susan Daniels came to our first-year seminar,” shared Sidnie Kulik ’25. Daniyal Ahmad Khan ’22 added, “It’s all about resources. Right now, the college has Susan Daniels. How much will she continue to do? The college should invest more.”

Karen Lee ’25 chuckled, “I don’t understand why there’s a whole public speaking section in the Writing Center when it’s only used once a year.”

A common complaint among students was a lack of opportunities and advertising for public speaking.

One student, Joe Sweeney ’25, suggested we have a poetry contest that isn’t tied to a literary festival. Many participants admitted to not knowing the full breadth of opportunities that exist on campus, but they noted

the “barrier of information” (Atheek Azmi ’25) as an issue in itself. Students repeatedly expressed that an announcement in the Daily Mammoth is not enough.

The lack of advertising was something I had considered during the Spoken Word Slam. I could not help but wonder how many more students would compete if these contests received the same attention as programs hosted by student-run groups on campus or larger events such as the fall and winter festivals sponsored by the college. I hardly believe — and the interviews confirm — that participants are purely motivated by the prize.

Why is public speaking so important to these students? “Speeches are a succinct way to get across prepared information,” Moore stated.

Other students characterized public speaking as passionate, efficient, and effective. They resonated with the power of public speaking to send a message in an accessible way.

Students also noted connection as an incentive for public speaking and emphasized the significance of a community. Many participants

hadn’t known their competitors prior to the competition. They reflected with disappointment and rallied for more opportunities for engagement at Amherst. Suggestions included a public speaking club, a greater frequency of events such as these, and implementing public speaking in the curriculum through more presentations or a public speaking class. “I’m a firm believer that we have a public speaking community at Amherst, it’s just that we haven’t found each other as of yet,” said Azmi.

What advice do participants have for newcomers? “People are always surprised when they hear this: I’m always nervous when I perform,” shared Kobe Thompson ’24, the two-time winner of the speech competition. “To feel uncomfortable is to care. You’re going to be nervous.”

“Ride the nervousness,” Sweeney added, with Khan echoing: “All the best things in life require discomfort.”

“Just sign up,” said Azmi. “If you’re already feeling compelled to do it, act on that.”

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

The college recently hosted its annual public speaking competition and the Litfest Spoken Word Slam. Mikayah Parsons ’24 speaks with participants of the events, such as Tristan Moore ’24, featured above, on the lack of a spoken word community at Amherst.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Arts & Living

WAMH X THE STUDENT

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Photos courtesy of Victoria Thomas ’25

Brought to you by the WAMH blog, where it can also be found, and The Student's Arts & Living Section. Written by WAMH Staff Writer Victoria Thomas ’25.

“Shoestring” by Felix Ames feels like…

Making a fresh cup of coffee that cools off as you get lost in the music. Reading a book while taking the train downtown with windows that put the whole city on display.

Closing your burning, tired eyes, and basking in the feeling of necessary rest. A hug from someone you love that turns into a sway to the beat. “Shoestring” feels like the sun beaming through your window and waking you up on a Saturday morning. Painting a picture, lighting candles, cooking dinner, whatever you do at 7 p.m. in the warm light of your home. Sitting in the library, doing work on a cloudy day or perusing through the bookshelves. A sun shower.

Listen to “Shoestring” with…

Your best friends, yourself, a person you’re in love with, the strangers in the diner, a friend laying on the beach towel next to yours, your pets, your grandparent/s, a new friend, “my friend Gabby, we both like that kind of music” (Sonia Chajet Wides ’25).

My favorite lyrics: “Shit gets heavy when you carry the sins of your father” / “It ain’t easy being free” / “I’ll stay up the one time that I feel peace” This past week, I listened to “Shoestring” while reading about reproductive justice and queer politics, sitting in Valentine Dining Hall in the morning sun, eating yogurt, waiting for my class to start, walking through campus, and writing this review. This song has a particular way of drawing your mind out of whatever you’re doing and urging your head to bop along, even

though you don’t know the beat by heart yet. Ames’ lyrics have a particular way of relating to everything you’ve ever done and everything you do.

Ames’ soulful message comes through in the rhythm of the beat alone, magnified by his voice and words. I first found his music on my TikTok “For You” page, where he was promoting “Shoestring,” his debut single. The video featured him dancing to the chorus of the song.

I was immediately sold, yet wholeheartedly disappointed when I realized the song had not been released yet. I quickly followed him on TikTok and other social media. As I waited for an announcement of the release, I hoped that the full song would live up to my expectations.

It did. Listening to “Shoestring” for the first time took me on a ride, floating effortlessly along steady waves of emotional warmth. Every time the song has come up on my shuffle since then, I have found myself unable to do anything but close my eyes, feel the beat in my ears, and hum to the rhythm. Since its release on Feb. 4, “Shoestring” has accumulated 450,000 streams on Spotify. On TikTok, Ames continues to build his fan base by teasing new music and sharing his goals for his career. His next single “SPF” comes out on Friday, March 11. From the teasers he’s posted on TikTok, it seems to be the perfect song for summer days in the park.

To further paint the picture of Felix Ames’ artistry, and in one last attempt to convince you to tune in, I’ve included photos I’ve taken that perfectly capture the essence of “Shoestring.”

Brooklyn, New York

My home, New York

Exiting Central Park, New York

Manhattan, New York

Miami, Florida

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Arts & Living

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“The Batman” Brings Gotham Into a Gritty 2022

Photo courtesy of nerdevil.it

“The Batman” began showing in theaters this Friday, March 4. Ross Kilpatrick ’24E explores how the character’s latest iteration builds on Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” trilogy, adapting to the cynical and pessimistic political climate of 2022.

Ross Kilpatrick ’24E Staff Writer Why do we keep making Batman movies? Or, put another way, why do we keep going to watch Batman movies? What is it about the character that keeps drawing us back to the theater? Christopher Nolan reinvented Batman in 2005, and now, 17 years later, we’re still coming back for “The Batman.”

Nolan made Batman a dark detective story, bringing a kind of edge to the film many aging fans probably wanted, an edge that was always somewhat present in the comic books. And Nolan’s dark Batman seemed to stick.

Before Nolan, each live action adaptation had its own style and take, though they were generally more lighthearted and playful, but after Nolan, every Batman is scared and tough, edgy. These Batmans live in worlds suffused with corruption, dirty politicians and cops. And ultimately, Batman

can defeat them. I think that’s a lot of the appeal of the character.

Gotham is a horrible place to live.

Its problems are overbearing. But at the end of the day, Batman can punch people and solve some of those problems. He’s just one man — an incredibly rich one, to be sure — but still just one person, and he makes a difference. That was an appealing kind of fantasy in the early 2000s. The world was dark, but we could make a difference.

That optimism has largely dissipated. After four years of Trump and two years of Covid, with people still dying and refusing life-saving vaccines, all in the midst of a looming climate crisis, endless police violence and poverty, and deadlocked politics incapable of bringing about the change the country desperately needs, we’ve become cynical.

Maybe not the country, but certainly our generation. Our problems seem intractable, ingrained in the very structures of our

country. Our individual power is so little, it’s almost non-existent.

We doubt the power of one person to solve these problems.

“The Batman” is aware of this.

The movie tries to complicate the traditional allure of Batman, subverting his ability to solve his city’s, or the world’s, problems.

And the movie also recognizes his relative privilege. He’s an orphan, a child of tragedy, yes, but also a wealthy child of tragedy. As Catwoman remarks, Batman “sounds rich.” In other words, “The Batman” is aware of systemic problems. The problems still take the form of corrupt police and politicians, but also include right-wing extremists with online followings.

These problems might be more individual than our own, but they act as allegories. “The Batman” doesn’t allow easy solutions to any of these things. “The Batman” is just as cynical as we are of the individual’s power to fight systems and structures. Batman is our modern day myth, and we can see

our own hopes and worries play out in the theater. Even by the end of the film, Batman doesn’t really win over the villains. But even if “The Batman” is a story about the inability of individual characters to change anything, the filmmakers inevitably have to show the power of the hero, of Batman. It is still a superhero movie. “The Batman” is incapable of fully committing to its own, and our, cynicism.

Maybe the problem isn’t with “The Batman,” but with the very nature of narrative itself. We live in an age of systemic problems — problems that have, for years, taken not the form of people we can punch or fight, but rather glacial changes, creeping, and now, rushing towards us. Narratives take us, alongside a character, through a unique series of events. Narratives are dynamic. They change and adapt. That’s what makes them interesting.

But systemic problems are often repetitive. They are system-

ic precisely because they recur.

These systems are experienced, both by their benefactors and victims, through the course of days and months and years and lifetimes, not as an evolving force, but as something static and suffocating and constant. Structures resist narrative. Structures are hidden and omnipresent. They aren’t characters. We can try and make narratives about climate change and injustice, but ultimately those narratives will only give us a glimpse into the broader problem, and it’s easier to be distracted by people and things.

Within structures, there’s no easy villain, even if we want there to be.

How can Batman fight that?

He can’t, the movie concludes.

But he can try. Sure, he dresses up in a suit and punches bad guys.

It solves a little problem, even if there are bigger problems left. He saves some lives, even if more are lost. As the world burns, what else can we do?

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Arts & Living

19

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

Poetic Perspectives In our second edition of “Poetic Perspectives,” Quincy Smith ’25 invites us to awaken our senses, with evocative and elegant language in his poem “Ignite.”

The morning can only hold so many promises.

I peered into the backyard And saw our pool risen from dead Smolder the brick until it breaks in half :: of my siblings hate me now:: is the time to reach for their hands:: hurt from saving everyone:: is lost including you: are not screaming enough:: is enough: with all that performative shit:: gets real when you’re black:: is gold: is skin: is dancing :: is recklessness:: is blackness:: is laughing over a good meal:: is filling:: me up with rage:: can be soft:: like heat hovering in our throats: are precious things : are really hard for me right now: can you understand why we are the way that we are: lungs are capable of love: can spread into our stomachs: are full things except I still feel hungry: isn’t close to the word that describes it: must stop: it must stop: it from invading the light in front of us : plus you equals infinity : is finite because we can only stretch out limbs so far: from home we are : stranded in sand: turns into glass you know: why no one loves you Quincy : is not my name : is burned onto skin but not crystallized into matter Into tangible sweetness Into bone Into reality I never heard it The sound The music I’ve waited for the moss to turn gray And yet my mind is still hollow Some days my muscles ache and movement lags like salty molasses gliding across styrofoam. Some days my nights turn into cold nightmares dressed in peach perfume. Most fog-filled afternoons consist of my eyes tearing up and brisk air reminding my lips that it’s not over yet But I will wait I will wait for sun I will wait for combustion I will wait for fire

mist gathers above the ground like treading water and thick sand My hands grasp for metal But I’m met with dewy skin Remembering that my name is its own I call for him I call for sound but leering above stands infinite light A column of diamond I wait for it to embrace me The wind singing its song My eyes glitter in the shape of pearls My chest lifts toward the shape of God My breath begins to densify Hands shiver like tectonic plates I become the ground Sight loses its definition My fingerprint loses its definition The skin smoothed over The supple water laying in my eyelids Plummet towards dead grass subtlety is the difference between sound and breathe as wind turns into machine I become something to listen too I allow lightness draw my breath The color has gone too fast Smooth fabric dances into the shape of an animal Its form envelops my vision I don’t know what it looks like But I hear the sea rushing so I let a whisper escape my lips “Who are you?”

Sp ports

Women’s Basketball on to NCAA Sweet 16 Carter Hollingsworth ’25 Staff Writer The women’s basketball team took on SUNY Polytechnic Institute and St. John Fisher College in the Rounds of 64 and 32, winning both games in well-fought matches.

The Mammoths are off to the Sweet 16 for the first time since their Covid-shortened 2019-20 season.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute Amherst women’s basketball took on SUNY Polytechnic Institute on Friday, March 4, in LeFrak Gymnasium in the NCAA tournament Round of 64. Due to their high seeding and success in the regular season, the Mammoths hosted the first two rounds of the tournament.

Less than a minute into the game, guard Reeya Patel ’24 put the first points on the board with a pair of free throws to give the Mammoths the lead, which they held onto for the remainder of the game.

Another highlight-reel scoring op-

portunity came with a steal and fantastic pass from AnLing Vera ’25 to Courtney Resch ’22 for a 3-pointer to close out the first quarter and put the Mammoths up 1810. The assists did not stop there, as the Mammoths put on a passing clinic in the second quarter, riding the momentum to a 29-16 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Mammoths pulled away further. After nearly two minutes of tough defense on both sides, Amherst came out of a timeout with Lauren Pelosi ’22 draining a 3-pointer off a pass from Dani Valdez ’22 for a 40-20 lead. And with 30 seconds left in the third quarter, a Jade DuVal ’22 3-pointer — her first of the season — put the Mammoths ahead going into the final quarter by a score of 48-32.

And in that last quarter, the Mammoths finished out the game strong, securing a 60-42 win and a trip to the Round of 32 the next day. Valdez and Patel both scored in double figures for Amherst. The

Mammoths also showed impressive ball movement, posting 18 assists on 23 made field goals in the contest, with five different players racking up multiple assists.

St. John Fisher College In the Round of 32 contest on Saturday, March 5, the Mammoths took on St. John Fisher College in front of a home crowd of 277.

While this time the first points went to St. John Fisher, the Mammoths reclaimed the lead early after back-to-back shots from Valdez and Patel with six minutes left in the quarter. The Cardinals tied it up at 11s, but a Gabby Zaffiro ’22 midrange jumper quickly broke the tie, and the Mammoths did not trail again afterwards.

After a back-and-forth first period, the Mammoths entered the second quarter up 15-11. Off an assist from Vera, Zaffiro put up the first three points in the quarter for Amherst after a five-minute scoring drought. Not to be deterred by the cold spell, the Mammoths entered

the half with a lead of 27-19 over Fisher.

Zaffiro opened the third quarter with another jumper, putting the Mammoths ahead by eight. But St. John Fisher kept fighting, attempting a comeback with five consecutive points to cut the lead to three, 29-26. With a crucial 3-pointer, Resch gave the Mammoths a 3226 lead, and then after another Cardinal turnover, DuVal scored a bucket in the paint to get the lead back up to eight with 6:30 to go in the frame.

In the final quarter, the Cardinals had narrowed the lead to 3934 when Pelosi hit a big 3-pointer, as well as another shot only two possessions later to bring the lead to 44-34 with 8:20 left in the game.

But Fisher again fought back, with an 8-0 run that turned the game into a thriller. Pelosi hit one more big jumper to give the Mammoths a four-point lead with 3:38 left on the clock.

In the end, it was Vera who put away the win, hitting six consecu-

tive free throws in a 36-second span to extend the Amherst lead, after Fisher was forced to start fouling to have a chance at advancing. The Mammoths finished the game with a 56-48 win, one that sends them into the Sweet 16 next week.

Commenting on the two games, Patel said, “The atmosphere this weekend was surreal. Having this be my first NCAA tournament and being able to host was just an amazing environment due to the support we got from our peers. Every game, our team continues to prove that we can win in different ways …

I’m excited to have another week of basketball with this team because this is exactly what we have been working towards all season long.”

The Mammoths will return to LeFrak Gymnasium on Friday, March 11, to host both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds of the tournament. They will face NESCAC rival Tufts for the third time this season as they look to clinch a spot in the Elite Eight and potentially a trip to the Final Four.

Squash Finishes Season With Individuals at Nationals Hedi Skali ’25 Staff Writer Because of their stellar performances throughout the season, Callie DeLalio ’24 and Adam Lichtmacher ’23 were chosen to represent the Amherst squash teams at the College Squash Association’s National Individual Tournaments.

With her 12-7 record throughout the season, usually leading the women’s team at the No. 1 seat, DeLalio was seeded 15th in the Holleran South bracket. With a 12-4 record, Lichtmacher’s season featured two tenacious reverse sweeps; he was set at the 14th seed in the Molloy East bracket.

Every team’s top player is selected to compete in the individual tournament. Usually occupying

the number two seat on the Men’s Squash team’s ladder, Lichtmater was selected to the tournament after number one seat Robinson Armour ’22 was unable to compete.

DeLalio’s first opponent was the University of Virginia’s Maria Moya, the tournament’s second seed. Moya came out strong, overwhelming DeLalio with scores of 7-11 and 3-11 in the first two games. The Amherst sophomore, however, refused to be put away so quickly, leading the third game at one point but narrowly falling to Moya by two points in the end, sending her to Holleran South’s consolation bracket.

Using her newfound momentum, DeLalio fought hard against Columbia’s Sarah Cao to keep the first game close but again lost 9-11 in a thriller. Cao continued to dom-

inate the rest of the match with scores of 6-11 and 3-11 in the next two games, ending the Mammoth’s season.

“I was really excited to play in the individual championships after a great season with the team,” said DeLalio. “[Even though] I lost both matches, I had a great time seeing how I stacked up against some of the best players in the country.”

“I was really excited to play in the individual championships after a great season with the team,” said DeLalio. “[Even though] I lost both matches, I had a great time seeing how I stacked up against some of the best players in the country.”

As the 14th seed, Lichtmacher also faced a formidable first opponent in Karim Elbarbary of Princeton. Unfortunately, his results

proved to be similar to DeLalio’s, as Elbarabary took the match in dominating fashion (6-11, 9-11, 6-11).

In the consolation bracket, Lichtmacher found himself facing off against Bates’ 11th-seeded Jesper Phillips — a familiar opponent for his teammate, Robinson Armour ’22. Lichtmacher easily won the first game 11-7, but Phillips fought to close the gap in the next two games, which they split 9-11 and 11-9 to put Lichtmacher up 2-1. Nevertheless, Bates’ top player was no match for Lichtmacher, as the Mammoth decisively took the last game 11-6 to win the match.

The story was the same in the consolation bracket’s semi-final.

Lichtmacher took the first two games with little resistance, and while Brown’s Grant Sterman fought

back to take the third game, Lichtmacher easily put him away with a stunning 11-4 finish in the fourth.

In his last match of the weekend, Lichtmacher faced University of Rochester’s Luis Enrique Moncada Gonzalez in a fight for the consolation bracket’s top slot, ninth place.

Gonzalez and Lichtmacher each took easy games to begin the match, followed by two intense nail-biters which they split as well. The match came down to the last game — a position Lichtmacher has found himself in multiple times. While his mental game has proved to be incredibly strong in his numerous reverse sweeps throughout the season, Lichtmacher could not find the victory against Gonzalez, ending his season with a 10th place finish in the tournament.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Sports

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March Madness 2022: (Too) Early Predictions With March Madness right around the corner, here is the managing sports editors’ (very well-thought-out) advice for who you should and shouldn’t pick in this year’s tournament.

Contenders: These teams are the ones that we think are most likely to contend for a national title.

Pretenders: These teams have the look of a contender, but be wary of picking them to go far in March.

Dark Horses: Don’t be surprised if these under-the-radar teams go far in this year’s tournament.

Cinderellas: They might have the ability to pull off an upset or two when it matters most.

Baylor University Bears Baylor will win their second-straight national championship. In a year in which exciting big men dominate the awards talk, I still belive in experienced guard play. The Bears have that with Adam Flagler stepping up and Arizona transfer James Akinjo looking like one of the best point guards in the nation.

They have a 26-5 record and the second-hardest strength of schedule in the KenPom top 10.

The repeat is coming.

— Leo Kamin ’25

Gonzaga University Bulldogs I don’t believe in No. 1 Gonzaga. They’ve lost three out of five of what I consider to be their “real” games: beating Texas and UCLA, but falling to Duke, Alabama, and St. Mary’s.

Mostly, I’ve never hated an athlete more than I hate Drew Timme. He looks and plays like an indie Christian Laettner. I can’t really deny that they have as good a chance as anybody to win. But I would rather be wrong than root for Gonzaga and be right.

— Leo Kamin ’25

Villanova University Wildcats I have more faith in Jay Wright’s program, which retains its best players for more than one season and churns out NBA role players, than many of the blue bloods ranked ahead of it. Senior Collin Gillespie has been starting for three years and he has become one of the best point guards in the nation. If they roll through the Big East tournament this week, they could beat anyone come tournament time.

— Leo Kamin ’25

South Dakota State University Jackrabbits Projected 11-seed South Dakota State has the highest 3-point percentage in the nation by a whopping 5 percentage points. They are 18-0 in conference play. They are from South Dakota. Their mascot is the Jackrabbit. They are the perfect Cinderella. A lot of people will probably have them winning in the first round, but if (big if) SDSU continues to shoot 45 percent from three through March, they can win the whole tournament.

— Leo Kamin ’25

Arizona University Wildcats It’s not a name heard very often in the last few years, but the Wildcats are just that good this season. Currently ranked No. 2, Arizona has racked up a 28-3 record. They have the talent, with sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin averaging 17.2 points per game and three other players averaging double figures.

They are a well-rounded offensive and defensive team, and have all the pieces to put together a masterful March run.

— Liza Katz ’24

Providence College Friars The Friars are a damn good team, and are finally getting the respect they deserve based on their 23-4 record. They’re currently ranked No. 11, one of the best-coached and most experienced teams in the nation, and great in close games, with an 11-2 record in games decided by five points or less. But that sheer luck is just not sustainable. They’ve lost all their games to other contenders, including two to Villanova. Their luck will run out, and they’ll most likely flame out early.

— Liza Katz ’24

Auburn University Tigers Auburn is no longer a football school: a 19-game winning streak on the hardwood propelled them to No. 1 ranking earlier this year and gave Tigers fans the self-anointed title of a basketball school. Though they’ve lacked consistency, this streaky play is exactly what is needed to make a deep run come tourney time. Led by one of the best frontcourts in college basketball in Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith, Auburn is primed to cement themselves as a basketball school.

— Alex Noga ’23 University of Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky will either crash and burn, or they’ll win the tournament. Their offense is uniquely explosive, and once the pressure ramps up and the stage is set, I think they could pick things up even further. They have a reputation for outperforming their rankings, and if they’re ranked high, there’s only so far up they can go.

— Nick Edwards-Levin ’25

Purdue University Boilermakers There’s a sharp polarization between the Boilermakers’ offensive prowess and their defensive woes. They have the top adjusted-offense in all of college basketball according to KenPom, yet their adjusted-defense is ranked No. 116 nationally. With the nail-biting tournament games looming on the horizon, the Boilermakers are too weak defensively to go toe-to-toe with the more potent offenses. Look for Purdue to bow out early and return home to tend to their boiler-making responsibilities.

— Alex Noga ’23 Tennessee Volunteers Their team name is the Volunteers — they’re not the real deal. In their close win against Arkansas, they came far too close for comfort to allowing a last-minute comeback.

In March, when the emotions run higher than ever, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the subjects of a second-half heartbreak.

— Nick Edwards-Levin ’25

UCLA Bruins It seems weird that a team that made the Final Four last season is now a dark horse, but the Bruins have fallen out of the national title conversation. Still, they're ranked 13th in the nation with a 22-6 record, have recorded multiple top-10 wins, have a star in guard Johnny Juzang — who is averaging 17 points per game and almost 40 percent from three — and barely lost out on the PAC-12 league title to Arizona. UCLA is a very good team with a knack for playing well in March, and they’re 'Bruin' up a recipe for a deep run.

— Liza Katz ’24

Michigan Wolverines I know you’re laughing. A blue-blood, a Cinderella? The Wolverines are projected to be an 11-seed, and one of the last four teams to get into the tournament. But Michigan plays in the BIG 10, the top conference in the country this year. They have notched impressive wins, including over top-25 teams Ohio State and Iowa, and top-10 Purdue. Hunter Dickinson is a bonafide star, averaging almost a double-double per game. And to top it all off, one of the most frequent upset spots in the bracket is the 6-11 matchup.

— Liza Katz ’24

Texas Technical University Red Raiders Some may be wary of putting their faith in a first-year head coach, but Mark Adams has been here before, as an assistant coach during Tech’s runner-up finish in 2019. Though they don’t have a go-to guy on the offensive side, the Red Raiders play stifling defense, boasting the best adjusted-defense in the country. With two regular season wins against Texas and Baylor, don’t be surprised to see Tech in the final once again.

— Alex Noga ’23

Rutgers University Scarlet Knights Playing in the highly competitive BIG 10, the Scarlet Knights have marquee wins against Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa this season, more than enough evidence that Rutgers can win big games. Though they remain a bubble team likely to be playing in the First Four, these knights in scarlet armor look poised to make some noise in the BIG 10 tournament and carry that momentum into the madness.

— Alex Noga ’23

University of Illinois Fighting Illini It’s true — Illinois has played some lackluster basketball this season. And, it’s true, their track record in the NCAA tournament isn’t doing them any favors. Finally, yes, their stats aren’t that encouraging. But in Cockburn I trust. He’s averaged 21.0 points per game, shooting 60 percent from the field. Give him a few good games, and you’ve got a contender.

— Nick Edwards-Levin ’25

Montana State Bobcats You heard it here first, folks. Xavier Bishop will lead his team (if they do end up winning the Big Sky) to a historic NCAA tournament run. Between Bishop and Jubrile Belo, who don’t necessarily put up the greatest numbers but still display flashes of dominance, they are prime contenders to outperform their seed to a startling degree.

— Nick Edwards-Levin ’25

Feel free to use our picks when you fill out your brackets. And to give you a place to put this advice into practice, The Student will host an Amherst-wide bracket challenge, with the winner receiving a $20 Antonio's gift card. The group name on the ESPN Bracket Challenge is Amherst Student 2022. We’ll see you all on the leaderboard.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Sports

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Women’s Ice Hockey Loses in NESCAC Finals Sylvan Wold ’25 Staff Writer Women’s ice hockey lost in the NESCAC tournament finals against No. 1-ranked Middlebury after beating the Colby Mules in the semifinal game.

The weekend action kicked off on Saturday, March 5 at the Chip Keynon Arena on the campus of Middlebury College. The first period against No. 2-seeded Colby was scoreless, with the Mules outshooting the Mammoths 6-3. Despite the slow start, Amherst was the first to find the back of the net with just 3:56 seconds left in the second period. Alyssa Xu ’25 moved the puck to Avery Flynn ’23, whose shot slid straight to goal, but was blocked by Colby goalkeeper Nia Prunster. The rebound found its way to forward Anna Baxter ’25, who put the Mammoths on the board for the lead.

It didn’t take long for the Mules to respond— Megan Rittenhouse took advantage of a breakaway opportunity and tied the game 1-1 less than two minutes into the final period. The Mammoths attempted to respond with a key shot from captain Angelina Wiater ’22 in the last 18 seconds of regular time, but Prunster saved it, forcing the game into overtime.

Wiater was the one who set up the winning goal, passing the puck to Flynn, who punched the Mammoths’ ticket to the championship

game for the second year in a row.

Goalie Caitlin Walker ’22 was vital to Amherst’s victory, saving all eight of Colby’s shot attempts in the last minutes of the matchup.

The next day, in the game to decide the NESCAC champion, the Mammoths were up against undefeated Middlebury, playing at the Panthers home arena.

Amherst was outshot 12-5 in the first period of the championship game, but Walker once again held strong, saving all 12 of Middlebury’s attempted shots. The Mammoths had a good chance to convert with five minutes left when Rylee Glennon ’24 and Wiater both got shots on goal, but both shots were saved.

The pressure only heightened in the second stanza, when the Panthers got a penalty off of a body check by Baxter with 12 minutes left in the period. The Mammoths killed off the resulting power play, with Walker able to stop the only shot, but just moments later, Middlebury’s Claudia Vira collected the rebound to score the game's first goal, putting the Panthers up 1-0.

Despite strong performances, Amherst failed to score in the final period, and Middlebury got on the board yet again with six minutes left in the game. Ultimately, the Mammoths lost and the Panthers earned the NESCAC championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Women’s hockey ends their season with a 14-9-2 record.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Women's ice hockey players line up during the national anthem.

Track and Field Runners, Jumpers Qualify for Nationals Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer The men’s and women’s track and field teams returned from the National Qualifying Meet at Tufts on Saturday, March 5, with several broken school records. The meet brought competitors from over 30 schools throughout the country and served as a last chance at qualification for the NCAA Indoor National Championships, which will take place this Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Kelechi Eziri ’23 broke his own school record in the triple jump.

Eziri jumped a distance of 14.32 meters, which landed him in second place for the event.

“I was thrilled to have witnessed Kelechi’s huge PR,” said Chris Gong ’23, “as I have seen firsthand how much energy, sacrifice, and commitment he has put in to achieve his goals.”

Gong and Henry Buren ’22 also placed second in their respective events, with Buren placing in the 60-meter dash and Gong in the long jump.

Adding to the Mammoths’ victorious weekend, Casie Eifrig ’25, Anna Madden ’22, Juanita Jaramillo ’22, and Katie Lingen ’22 on the women’s team set a new school record in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:53.51, coming in first for the event. This time broke the previous mark that was set in 2020, which included the three seniors who won this past Saturday.

“The team did phenomenal,” said pole vaulter Jordan Hecker ’25. “The 4x4 especially was able to show how our team is able to fight for each other. Each one of

them showed how our hard work throughout the season has paid off.”

Selections for the NCAA Indoor Championships were announced a day later on Sunday, March 6.

Nine Mammoths will compete next weekend in six different events. The record-breaking 4x400 relay team of Eifrig, Madden, Jaramillo, and Lingen will be joined by alternates Ava Tillman ’23 and Nicole Barbaro ’24. Sidnie Kulik ’25, Sophie Wolmer ’23, and Eliza Cardwell ’25 will also be running in North Carolina. Kulik will be running in the 3,000 meters, Wolmer in the 5,000

meters, and Cardwell in the 60-meter hurdles. They will be joined at Nationals by high jumper Julia Zacher ’25 and heptathlete Jack Trent ’23.

As the indoor season approaches its end, Gong is looking forward to the spring.

“I am looking forward to seeing the growth of my friends and teammates as we are all working hard in preparation for that meet,” Gong said. “This team has overcome many obstacles this year, and I expect that our perseverance will lead to great things this outdoor season.”

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Sports

23

Men’s Lacrosse Returns to Competition With Win Mike Schretter ’23 Staff Writer After two years without formal competition, the men’s lacrosse team took the field on Saturday, March 5, for their seasonopener against the Hamilton Continentals. The Mammoths rallied back from an early 4-1 deficit to win 11-9. It was the first career win for first-year head coach Sean Woods.

Hamilton started the game off strong with an unassisted goal in the first minute of play from Christian Byrne, silencing the Amherst home crowd. . The scoring would not stop there, as Rowan Brumbaugh added another goal for the Continentals four minutes later off an assist from Torben Wunderle to give the Continentals a 2-0 lead with 10:15 left in the first quarter.

The Mammoths responded only 30 seconds later with a goal of their own, as Brock Gonzalez ’23 scored his first of the season off an assist from Carter Tate ’22 to make the score 2-1. But Hamilton would respond once again, with a goal from Brumbaugh off an assist from Britt Defeo, and another from Charlie Ratner, unassisted, to widen the gap to 4-1 with seven minutes left in the quarter. Amherst got back on the board with a minute to go in the first, though, when Ethan Opdahl ’23 set up PJ Clementi ’22 for his first of four goals on the day to make the score 4-2 entering the second quarter.

In the second quarter, Amherst came out hot, with a goal from Tanyr Krummenacher ’23 in the first minute narrowing the Continentals’ lead to 4-3.

Hamilton responded four minutes later with a goal from Wunderle to move the score to 5-3 with 11:33 to go in the quarter. Just 18 seconds later, however, a goal from Brodie Rayment ’23 cut the deficit to one. The defenses then settled in and ended the quarter with no more goals scored; Hamilton went into halftime with a 5-4 edge over the Mammoths, led by 12 first-half saves from

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Men's lacrosse players celebrate a goal in their season-opener against the Hamilton Continentals. Amherst won the game 11-9, overcoming an early four-goal deficit. It was the first win for newly-appointed coach Sean Woods. goalie Seamus Fagan, who ended with 20 on the day.

Coming out of halftime with energy, Amherst dominated the third quarter. They saw another goal from Krummenacher, assisted by Bayard DeMallie ’23, to tie up the game at five goals apiece with 14 minutes to play in the third. And the goals would not stop there, as DeMallie set up another Clementi goal to give the Mammoths their first lead of the game at 6-5 with two minutes left in the quarter. With time seeming to be running out at the end of the quarter, Clementi went one on one with a defender and scored

his third goal of the day, giving Amherst a 7-5 edge heading into the fourth quarter.

But the Continentals didn’t go down without a fight, coming out strong in the final period.

Tim Sommer scored off another assist from Wunderle to cut the Amherst lead to one with 14 minutes left. From that point until about the six-minute mark of the fourth, it was the Gonzalez show, as he scored three straight goals in that eight-minute span. Two came from passes from Clementi, and one from DeMallie. Amherst was up 10-6 with 11 minutes to go in the game. However, Hamilton

once again launched a furious comeback.

It started with a goal from Troy Pollack to make the score 10-7 with six minutes left. Three minutes later, Hamilton’s Jayme Wilde scored a goal to make it 10-8. The run kept going as the Continentals got another goal from Wunderle to come back within one, the score now at 10-9 with 2:44 left.

However, Amherst was able to make some great defensive plays down the stretch and got another goal from Clementi to make the score 11-9 with 24 seconds left. That would be the final

score. Gonzalez and Clementi both notched four goals in the contest, while Krummenacher recorded two and Rayment had one. Clementi and DeMallie both dished out three assists. For his performance, Clementi was awarded the first NESCAC Player of the Week award of the 2022 season.

Amherst will be heading to Medford, Mass., on March 12 for a NESCAC tilt against No.3-ranked Tufts in a rematch of one of the only games they played during the shortened 2020 season, in which Tufts emerged victorious by a score of 25-15.

The Amherst Student • March 9, 2022

Sports

24

Women’s Lacrosse Splits Season Openers After Years Off Leo Kamin ’25 Managing Sports Editor Hamilton Amherst women’s lacrosse lost to the Hamilton Continentals on Saturday, March 7. The contest, played in Clinton, N.Y., ended in disappointment for the Mammoths, as a second-quarter flurry of goals from the Continentals proved insurmountable.

The Mammoths came into the game as the No. 19 team in the nation in a pre-season poll — the Continentals came as 24th. Amherst had won three straight against Hamilton ahead of Saturday’s matchup.

There were just four shots in the first 10 minutes of play, none of which found the target. With 4:32 to play, Lauren Hamilton (of Hamilton) buried the first goal of the game. The Mammoths responded three minutes later, with Becky Kendall ’22 finding the back of the net just twenty seconds after hitting the crossbar.

The teams entered the second period deadlocked at 1-1.

Shortly into the second quarter, the Continentals doubled their advantage. Hamilton slotted another

past the Mammoths’ keeper Caroline Fischer ’22 . Thirty seconds later, the Continentals found the back of the net once again.

After shots on both ends, the Mammoths brought the deficit back to one. For her first collegiate assist, Ali Astrachan ’23 moved the ball to Kendall, who bagged her second goal of the game. Five minutes later, a Hamilton goal brought the lead back to two, and the score remained 4-2 entering halftime.

A rash of fouls and turnovers bogged down the first 10 minutes of the second half. But with just under six minutes to play in the third, Fiona Jones ’23 brought the Mammoths back within one with her first-ever collegiate goal.

But just when it looked like Amherst was closing the gap, the Continentals scored another pair of goals in rapid succession, stretching the lead out to three. Kendall responded for the Mammoths to complete her hattrick with less than 30 seconds to play in the third, so the Mammoths entered the final quarter down two goals.

Amherst couldn’t get much going in the crucial period, with no shots

TRACK & FIELD

March 11-12: NCAA Indoor Championship @ JDL Fast Track, Winston-Salem, N.C., 10 a.m.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL March 11: NCAA Round of 16 vs. Tufts, 7 p.m.

March 12: NCAA Elite Eight (if necessary), 6 p.m.

WOMEN'S LACROSSE March 12: vs. Tufts, 1 p.m.

March 16: @ Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, 7 p.m. ET March 20: @ Bates, 12 p.m.

through the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. The Continentals scored once again with 10 minutes to play. Though Sydney Larsen ’23 cut the lead to two with a goal four minutes later, the Mammoths would not register another shot. Hamilton safely saw out their first win of the season.

Springfield College The Mammoths faced non-conference opponent Springfield College on Tuesday, March 8, hoping to rebound from their loss two days prior. They did so in emphatic fashion, crushing the Pride by a score of 16-5.

Eliza Marcus ’25E got the scoring started early, bagging her first collegiate goal. A pair of goals came four minutes later from another firsttime scorer. After a foul inside the eight-meter arc, Lauren Friedman ’25 capitalized on a free position shot, then scored her second less than a minute later to give the Mammoths a 3-0 lead.

They continued to lay on the pressure as the quarter progressed.

With four minutes to play, Ashley Tucker ’22 uncorked a low, underhand shot to beat the Springfield

goalkeeper. Three minutes later, Astrachan passed the ball to Jones as she cut through the eight-meter arc; Jones finished to notch her second of the season. Kendall then capitalized with a man-advantage goal to claim her third score of the season.

The Mammoths entered the second quarter up 6-0.

Five minutes in, Springfield scored two rapid goals to bring the deficit down to four. The Mammoths stopped the Pride’s scoring run three minutes later, as a third first-time scorer made her mark. Elizabeth Rose ’25 buried to bring the score to 7-2.

A flurry of goals came as the second half came to a close. Springfield scored with just under four minutes to play. Friedman responded with her second goal of the game, and third of the season, to stretch the lead back out to five. Larsen finished the flurry of goals with 16 seconds to play in the quarter, and the Mammoths entered the half up 9-3.

The second half started slowly: there was just one shot in the first six minutes of the third quarter. The quiet spell ended with 8:55 to play, as Springfield cut the deficit to five,

MEN'S LACROSSE March 12: @ Tufts, 1 p.m.

March 18-19: vs. Bates, Gettysburg @ Stevenson University

WOMEN'S TENNIS March 13-18: Four matches @ Los Angeles, Calif.

MEN'S TENNIS March 14-18: 4 matches @ Los Angeles, Calif.

9-4. The Mammoths refused to give up ground, though. A pair of goals from Tucker and Jones sent the game to the fourth quarter with the Mammoths up 11-4.

Rose scored almost immediately in the fourth quarter, stretching the lead to eight. Springfield responded quickly, cutting the lead to seven after one minute of play, but it was to be their last goal of the game. The Mammoths closed the game with a dominant stretch that rivaled their scorching first quarter. Kendall scored off a free position shot, and Larsen netted her second, then her third. With only 12 seconds left, Kendall added insult to injury, completing her hat trick off an assist from Larsen. The Mammoth pile-on left the score at 16-5 as the final whistle sounded.

The Mammoths are now 1-1 as they look ahead to a packed March game schedule. They will play three games over Spring Break, facing NESCAC foe No. 8 Tufts on home turf on Saturday, March 12, before a trip out west to play Colorado College on Wednesday, March 16; they will fly back to New England for a road trip up to Maine to face Bates on Sunday, March 20.

SOFTBALL March 13-19: Florida Trip, 10 games @ Clermont, Fla.

BASEBALL March 13-18: Florida Trip, 5 games @ Auburndale, Fla.

SWIM & DIVE

March 16-19: NCAA Championships @ Indianapolis, Ind.

GAME SCHE DULE