Issue 25

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 25

WEDNESDAY, April 27, 2022

amherststudent.com

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

AAS Delays Bylaw Paying AAS Officials Theo Hamilton ’23 and Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editors

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

President Biddy Martin speaks at the Bicentennial event during her last year of presidency at Amherst College. In an interview with The Student, she reflected on her life before Amherst and the legacy she leaves behind.

Bye Bye Biddy: A Presidential Exit Interview Sophie Wolmer ’23 Editor-at-Large Carolyn Arthur “Biddy” Martin has been the president of Amherst College since 2011. During her time in office, Martin has guided the college through a pandemic and helped ascend to new educational heights. Under her leadership, the college has attracted the brightest minds of domestic and international spheres, hired 123 new tenure-line faculty members, grown its endowment to $3.7 billion, made headway on critical diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and completed a remarkable number of capital projects — namely, the Science Center and the Greenway Residence

OPINION

Hall project. Martin spearheaded plans for the construction of a new Student Center. The Student had the privilege of sitting down with Martin to conduct an exit interview before she moves on to serve as president-in-residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

From Rural Virginia to Pioneer Valley Sophie Wolmer: From the getgo, you have undoubtedly been an unprecedented president — with regard to gender, sexual orientation, and educational background. Looking back on your presidency, how has it been different from the men who held

13

The Amherst to Wall Street Pipeline: Andrew Rosin '25 asks students to think critically about finance culture on campus and beyond.

the position before you?

Biddy Martin: This question is interesting because nobody ever asks me what it’s like to be the first lesbian president. I am frequently asked what it is like to be the first woman president.

I will say that the answer to this question is probably better discerned by other people out there — they are a better judge than I am, because I’ve only ever been myself. So it’s really hard to compare. I really don’t know what, if anything, has been different; I only know how things feel to me.

I think that it’s great that Amherst had its first woman, lesbian president — even though not everyone would agree with that. There are those who leave

ARTS & LIVING

critical and angry messages, usually from outside the campus.

Their somewhat insulting comments have to do with gender, sexuality, or my appearance. In that sense, there is a difference in terms of the feedback I receive from outside work.

SW: In an interview with Emily Boutilier, you mentioned that education is not just defined by learning, but by unlearning. Do you still believe this to be true?

BM: Definitely. Amherst is a great example of this. A good liberal arts education forces you not to just think intellectually, but also to examine who you are, where

Continued on page 4

17

"Hush.": In this week's Poetic Perspectives, Aniah Washington '22 writes about her mother, unfulfilled dreams, and generational trauma.

SPORTS

This past Monday, April 25, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) voted overwhelmingly to delay the bylaw establishing salaries for AAS officials from taking effect until at least the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year.

The decision came after senators learned from the administration about certain obstacles to implementing the bylaw.

The initial bylaw, which was proposed by AAS Senator Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 and passed by the AAS on April 4, aims to both boost participation within AAS and increase accessibility for lowincome students who are unable to run because the time commitment prevents them from working a paying job.

During the AAS meeting on April 25, AAS Vice-President Jaden Richards ’25 informed senators of issues with the bylaw’s implementation that Dean of Students and Chief Student Affairs Officer Liz Agosto brought up in a meeting with him and AAS President Sirus Wheaton ’23.

Richards reported that according to Agosto, the AAS’ status as a nonprofit organization makes it difficult for the body to become an employer, and pay its officials. The AAS would also

Continued on page 7

21

Unique Paths to Athletics: Maya Reiner '25 unpacks the experience of walk-on Amherst athletes and how they assimilate into team culture.

News POLICE LOG

Fresh Faculty Watufani Poe

April 14, 2022 – April 21, 2022

>>April 14, 2022 1:36 p.m., Cohan Dormitory A Community Safety Assistant responded to a noise complaint. >April 15, 2022

3:47 p.m., Hitchcock Parking Lot ACPD took a report of a motor vehicle accident. No injuries were reported.

5:25 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory ACPD took a larceny report involving an internet scam.

9:45 p.m., King Dormitory ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was burned food.

10:20 p.m., College Street ACPD assisted Amherst Police Department in a pursuit of an individual who had violated a restraining order. The individual was taken into custody on College Street.

11:23 p.m., Appleton Hall ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was found to be marijuana smoke. >>April 16, 2022

10:26 a.m., James Hall ACPD took a report of a vandalized vending machine. Investigation is open >>April 17, 2022

5:27 a.m., Hitchcock Dormitory ACPD took a report of an access card reader that was damaged.

2:18 p.m., Ford Hall Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) dispatch received a call from the

emergency elevator phone in Ford Hall. No one was found in need of assistance. >>April 18, 2022 5:02 p.m., Valentine Dining Hall ACPD responded to a 911 hang-up. Upon arrival, they met with an employee who stated it was accidental. >>April 19, 2022 3:43 p.m., Amherst College Police Station ACPD dispatch received a call on the emergency line (x2111), which was found to be an accidental call by a town resident.

5:25 p.m., Keefe Health Center ACPD dispatch received a call from an emergency blue phone and spoke to the caller. No further police assistance was needed. >>April 21, 2022 1:24 a.m., Boltwood Avenue/College Street ACPD and Amherst Police Department responded to a report of a suspicious male at the bus stop. After searching the area, the male described by the caller was not found.

10:04 a.m., King Dormitory An electrician responded to a resident who was stuck in the dorm elevator. Student was able to be released.

4:09 p.m., Conway Field House Amherst Police Department received a 911 hang up. ACPD investigated and found it to be an accidental call by a staff member.

Departments of Black Studies and Latinx and Latin American Studies

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Q: Where do you call home?

A: Home is a complicated question, but I would define home as three areas. Southern California — I was born in Riverside, California, and a lot of my family is still down in San Diego; Philadelphia — I grew up in Philadelphia and … lived there until my early 20s; and then … Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, which is where I met my partner, where my partner’s family is from, and where my research takes me often.

Q: What subjects are you currently teaching?

A: I am placed within the Black studies department and the Latinx and Latin American studies program. The class that I am currently teaching is within both of those and it’s also cross-listed with SWAGS [Sexuality, Women’s, and Gender Studies]. It’s called “Theorizing the Black Queer Americas.”

The course really delves into how we think through the connections between histories of colonialism and enslavement that connect the Black, queer, and trans diaspora throughout the Americas. I remember when I was creating this class, I was thinking through the things that I have read up until now that have ignited my research. [I was thinking], ‘What are the new things that came out when I was writing my dissertation that I didn’t have any time to read that I’d like to read now with students?’ So a lot of the readings that I have on the syllabus are actually new to me myself.

I feel comfortable delving into these readings with Amherst students because they’re brilliant and they ask really poignant questions that you’d

Watufani Poe is Center for Humanistic Inquiry fellow and a visiting lecturer in Black studies and Latinx and Latin American studies. He received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, a master’s degree in history and Africana studies from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Africana studies from Brown University. expect of graduate students.

I’m thinking with you all, so I encourage my students to challenge me and to challenge one another so that we can think together and grow together. I’m interested in growing my own scholarship through having conversations with students in class.

Q: What questions does your research tackle?

A: I came to my research questions after I graduated from undergrad at Swarthmore College. I spent two years in the Bay Area. What I saw is that while the largely white-led LGBTQ organizations that I was working with were trying to push forth a kind of racial justice mission, I saw them hiring a lot of Black people to come and push forth that mission, and then get pushed out of the organization for pushing for that mission. So there was this idea that these white-led organizations were about a kind of racial justice struggle, but when Black folks actually tried to push forth that struggle, they were punished for it. While I was going through that, I was also seeing on the other side of the bay, this really revolutionary reimagining of the Black movement that centered [around] a Black, queer feminist lens. Seeing these two things happening at the same time made me want to understand more: What were the kind of movement choices that Black, queer, and trans folks were making? What’s the radical potential of Black, queer, and trans leadership — Black, queer, and trans activism, whether they’re in leadership or whether they’re part of a movement? What’s com-

ing from their lens that helps us to understand that intersectional radical approach to thinking through freedom?

I had also studied abroad in my junior year in Brazil. And I remember seeing so much more [of the] Black, queer, and trans movement than I was expecting to see, because I didn’t learn much about Black history in Brazil until I actually went to Brazil. So I was really interested in thinking about these questions, not just in the United States, but beyond the U.S.border.

Brazil actually is the country that holds the largest Black population outside of Nigeria, even larger than some countries in Africa. That’s not something that is commonly talked about, partially because the elites in Brazil don’t want people to think of Brazil as a Black country. But it is in a lot of ways. So, I was really interested in connecting the United States and Brazil — two places that are often looked at in contrast — and to look at them, not just in comparison, but also relationally: How do we understand the kind of ways in which people on the bottom are pushing back against these power structures? How do we understand those ways as connected?

Are Black, queer, and trans people in both places having conversation with one another? That makes the ways they’re pushing back similar.

But also there are ways in which, even without conversation, the movement structures are similar, largely because of the similarity of how power works in both places.

—Jerry Zhang '25

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

3

Safety Committee Members Reflect on Report’s Impact Caelen McQuilkin ’24E and Sonia Chajet Wides ’25 Managing News Editors Last week, on April 18, President Biddy Martin announced that the board of trustees had voted to keep the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) armed, despite repeated calls for disarmament from students over the last two years. The announcement came after the release of the final report that the Campus Safety Advisory Committee’s (CSAC) submitted to the board — the culmination of 10 months of discussions on safety and policing at the college.

In light of the decision, The Student spoke with members of the CSAC to better understand the process they took to create their report, their insight on the trustees’ decision, and further actions that the report recommends.

The CSAC was first formed last May as part of an initiative to rethink public safety at the college in response to student calls for changes to policing and safety infrastructure. The committee was tasked with generating options for a community safety model that would support the college’s commitment to equity and inclusion. While the committee’s findings were originally supposed to be presented in October 2021, the committee ended up extending its time to finish the report due to the breadth of the topic they were tasked with addressing, meeting almost weekly for much of the year, students on the committee reported.

The final report — which was submitted to the Board of Trustees in April — made recommendations on topics including policing, student mental health support, sexual violence prevention, and identity-based harm. As the board was only responsible for deciding whether the college would retain an armed police department, the committee recommendation pertinent to its decision was that the college should not disarm the ACPD, but should evaluate whether weapons could be stored until needed.

Although the board’s decision aligned with the recommenda-

tion against disarming ACPD, the trustees chose not to adopt the recommendation that officers store arms in a centralized location and no longer carry them on campus.

“That certainly disappointed me, but I can’t say it surprised me or the other students on the committee,” said Eli Maierson ’23, a student member of the committee. “I do believe the report contains some good in it, particularly as it relates to restorative justice and student mental health. It’s just sad that that potential for immediate, impactful change was squashed very quickly.”

Maya Foster ’23, another student member of the committee, spoke on this decision-making process. “We also always knew that the decision [about police armament] would not be ours to make in its final iteration,” she said.

The committee as a whole never got a chance to speak to the Board about the report, despite the fact that the report was designed to advise trustees. “I feel like [that] actually would have been a very helpful conversation,” said Foster. “That idea was floated in a few meetings … and it just didn’t end up happening.”

“It was frustrating that we never got to speak directly with the Board of trustees, who I believe were ultimately responsible for softening a powerful report,” said Maierson. “I do not have much insight into how they made their decisions other than what was provided in Biddy’s email.”

Along with Foster, Sofia Guerra ’22, a student member of the committee, attributed some of the trustees’ final decision to liability concerns. “They were worried [about] an active shooter scenario or just an ‘external threat’ … [if] ACPD couldn’t get their weapons from a certain central location, then that would be on the trustees,” said Guerra.

Foster also noted liability as a complicating factor in the decision-making process, and part of the reason for why she believes the trustees are more “conservative” on the issue. “I feel like to offset blame to only the trustees … excuses the work of the administration at

large,” she continued. “There’s not a ton of room for the trustees to be able to say, ‘actually, we think you should disarm,’ because … then what happens? … [The trustees] don’t know what the day-to-day life of the college is.”

Guerra was unsure of how the administration could give committees like the CSAC the power to present what Foster calls “full, robust options” with the potential of actually being adopted. “I’m not sure how admin could have made it easier for us to have more of a say, and I’m not sure that it was necessarily in their interest,” she said.

“We even had to fight at the end [of the process] to say okay, these are [our] recommendations, we’re not just going to say ‘Oh, these are some options that we found.’ We formed opinions. This was a ninemonth long effort, or more. We had to advocate for ourselves to have more of a say,” she said.

Foster considered this in the broader context of how change-making occurs in institutions like Amherst. “Even the board wasn’t given a fair chance to say that we should disarm the police … it’s not within the college’s structure to try to support large, drastic decisions like that. Until they are pushed to do so, they are not going to do it,” she said. “Even putting together 10 months of effort from a diverse group of people who feel like, at the end of the day, maybe disarmament is the answer … there is no structural support for that.”

Although the board did not accept the committee’s recommendation on arms, some of the report’s other proposals were adopted by various college offices.

On Tuesday, April 26, President Martin sent another email announcing the formation of a new campus safety advisory committee, accepting one of the original committee’s suggestions. The charge of this group is to “advise the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD), the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), and the College administration on campus safety policies,” with the goal of supporting “the College’s efforts to be respon-

sive to the needs of the campus community and to provide advice on the implementation of fair, equitable, and effective campus safety and police practices.”

In the coming weeks, Martin will work alongside the AAS, the Committee of Six, and the Employee Council to find student, staff, and faculty representatives to serve on the committee, according to the email.

On this note, Foster and Guerra both expressed feeling much more empowered to create change on some of the topics outside of ACPDt. “I do think they gave us a lot of power in terms of recommending things, specifically not about policing,” Guerra said.

Foster said that she understands why the report “gets reduced to being about the police and disarmament,” but remarked that she’d like to emphasize the “substantive” change that was done in other areas, particularly in mental health resourcing and Title IX and sexual respect support, two areas that Guerra describes as “affect[ing] how students live their lives on this campus … on a day-to-day basis.”

In the area of mental health, the committee’s report recommended a 24/7 response mechanism “from trained professionals who specialize in medical care and crisis counseling.” On the topic of sexual violence, it suggested a “dramatic increase” in preventative resources such as mandatory sexual respect programming, expanding peerto-peer roles in addressing sexual harm, a re-evaluation of reporting protocol, and “the addition of at least one sexual assault advocate to the staff of the Counseling Center.”

Guerra reiterated that these changes reflected the fact that student demands were “not just about ACPD.” She referenced the Black Student Union’s 2021 Black Minds Matter protest, which focused on the mental health of Black students, as “a pillar of how we approached this.”

Foster also highlighted the expansive notion of “safety” of which these aforementioned changes are indicative. “I think our notion and conceptualization of safety expand-

ed to be about so much more than policing,” she said.

Another member of the committee, Assistant Director for Internship Programs Emily Tareila, similarly emphasized the “interconnectedness of feeling and being safe here” that was considered in the report. “I would encourage people to read the entire report and take in the survey data from the campus community. There is great value in noticing the intersections,” she said.

“Students’ lives, I think, are going to change for the better as a result of this committee. That’s the thing that, when I look back on it, I can be proud of,” Foster said.

Guerra and Foster also reflected how some of the student demands that were brought into committee considerations were reconciled with practical elements of the situation. While Guerra entered the committee with the goals of “reducing police presence” and considering “the feasibility of disarming or at least having a central location where all [arms are] stored, instead of having patrolling officers be armed 24/7,” she also reflected on the way that the issue extends beyond Amherst. “We as a committee cannot restructure the criminal justice system … if only we could,” she said.

Foster referenced the fact that an institutional connection to the criminal justice system at large allows students to officially file restraining orders. “Things like that are important,” she noted, “I don’t believe in policing, personally. But I do believe in giving students that kind of structural support, because we live in the world that we live in. And so to take those resources away … is irresponsible.”

Guerra, meanwhile, is in the process of planning a community town hall with ACPD where students will be able to voice their concerns and thoughts about the trustees vote. She will share more information soon.

Looking ahead, Foster said, “my critique is not of the administration for not giving us enough power … my critique is of the unwillingness of institutions to change over time.”

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

4

President Biddy Martin Reflects on Her Learning and Legacy Continued from page 1 you fit in, and what assumptions you make. Of course the questions that shape a student’s educational path inevitably change, though not necessarily at the root.

I will also say that people can get a great education and become critical thinkers without losing the personality and character that they come into it with. But I think that redefining the questions that guide learning makes a huge difference. Certainly, for me, unlearning a lot of what I had been taught when I was a young woman was a crucial part of being able to learn anything new. I knew that I couldn’t buy into the perspectives of my parents. My education gave me the language to figure out what it means to have a different perspective and gave me the tools to develop my own perspective.

I actually unlearned a very strong Southern accent, but not on purpose. It is probably the couple of years that I spent in Germany that finished off my accent. It really upset my parents when I returned and they noticed how my voice had changed. I remember my mother picking me up at the airport and saying, after I had spoken a little bit, “We didn’t raise you to talk like that.”

That kind of unlearning, which I did not intentionally do, felt threatening to them.

Returning back to the discussion of my childhood, I grew up feeling different, and came to see that I would need to pave my own way even if it meant leaving. A lot of Amherst students go through similar processes when they leave their homes.

SW: After occupying such noteworthy positions at larger universities, how was the transition to a smaller undergraduate institution?

BM: Amherst was not just highly regarded intellectually, but it was also a place where faculty and students had close and intense relationships. These relationships can form at large research

universities, but it’s rare. I missed the close connections more than anything else.

Another reason, besides the great academic reputation, was the concerted effort that former President Tony Marx made to diversify the student body. There is one question in particular that I remember asking the search committee that I still have now: Once you achieve the level of diversity that is greater than the critical mass, what do you do to ensure a sense of community and a sense of belonging? How do you ensure that everybody in the community feels that they have the same possibility of having a voice, doing well, and feeling ownership of what the institution will be going forward? This question still needs to be answered.

We are not nearly as good as where it could be. I think that that’s a future opportunity — and a worthwhile journey. Obviously, the country is proving to us right now how badly we need change and need to come together.

Amherst has done more than most elite institutions, but we still have a lot to do. The school is ready to have someone new, with new ideas to push this vision forward.

Assuming the Role of President SW: When you stepped into the role of presidency, what was the state of the college in terms of academics, finances, and even social status? What values were emphasized that you appreciated, and what needed amending?

BM: The college was in good financial shape and academically excellent. I realized early on that I was going to have to spend a lot of energy on some of the administrative units that were a little bit “Mom and Poppish.” They weren’t as coordinated in the ways that the other places I had worked at. At first I was conflicted because streamlining administration processes is a double-edged sword: it’s important to preserve what felt like home life for the

institution, but also, it is critical to realize the needs of currency faculty and students, which requires continual progress, right?

The biggest problem that I realized Amherst had revealed itself the spring of my first year at Amherst: the sexual assault crisis.

After having several months of a wonderful transition, despite a big storm that shocked the campus for a while, this challenge was the most significant. This was a significant part of the beginning of the presidency and was a good reason to try to update the college’s policies and processes.

The Eras of The Presidency SW: What mistakes have you made during your presidency?

What did you learn from them?

BM: My mistakes are probably just as important as my successes. I have learned so much from them.

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a very blindingly obvious mistake, although I’m sure that I have made some. There are lots of small, frequent, and correctable mistakes. For example, I may not have the right expertise in a room at a given moment. These do not cause total breakdown if you catch them. A lot of my work involves learning, listening, and seeing what’s not working. Then I shift gears to accommodate those changes.

I’m not sure I would call it a mistake, but one thing I would change is the time that we began our DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] work. In terms of the DEI and anti-racism work, I wish that we had started sooner. In a way, this is a missed opportunity, and now our progress has been slower than I would like. We still have a fair bit of work to do.

[Amherst] Uprising was the best example of the importance of listening to hear what various groups on campus need. It can be students, faculty, staff or even other administrators. The Uprising was an instance where students were saying something about their experience, what they were going through. Reaching

back to my time in college could not help in this case. Here, what was critical was listening to the voices. The Uprising was an extraordinary opportunity that forced others to listen to what it felt like to be a student of color.

After we heard their concerns we were able to address the things that needed to be changed the most. Their concerns dictated the direction and vision of our priorities.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that a lot of our students of color and first-gen students were having a very difficult experience at the college. It’s clear that Amherst started to change in composition before we were able to think hard about what it would mean for the school itself. That is not to say that the college should have waited until it was fully prepared to make changes to the composition of the student body. But, it was important to recognize the downstream effects of the shift.

Looking Forward: A Changing of the Guard SW: How did you decide that it was time to step down as president? What influenced this decision?

BM: Gabi and I just sort of looked at each other and asked ourselves, “Do we realize that we’re not going to live forever?” Our answer was, “Yes, we do.” When we came to that conclusion we determined that it would be good to have another chapter where we could travel, spend more time together, and do things that we enjoy.

Another motivation was that I would like to write. As president, there’s just not any time to do writing. And so I decided that 11 years is a good long run. And even though I’ll miss it, and it was hard to get to the decision, I think that it’s the right one.

It will also be good for the college. It used to be that people served in these jobs for 20 or 30 years, but now times have changed. The college will be wellserved by having somebody with brand new ideas. It’s good for an

institution to have a new mindset.

I’ve had a good run, and have uncovered that there are a lot of things that need more work.

The college needs somebody with fresh eyes to come in and take a look — somebody with different experiences, different backgrounds, different thoughts.

SW: What further changes do you foresee that could push Amherst to even greater heights?

BM: In the end, it is keeping pace or even being out front of field-specific progress. Taking education in new intellectual and pedagogical directions has impressed me over my time here.

The amount of experimentation that the faculty has done, often inspired by or helped by the Center for Teaching and Learning, is what moves this place forward.

They have shown that the classical ways of teaching are not the only ways. Even though [the classical ways of teaching] are not dead in my view — I mean, a good lecture is still a great thing to hear — our faculty has the curiosity to try some innovative strategies. I think that this will continue, even after I have left. I’m sure a new president will continue to push and support this kind of innovation.

One thing that I have not put too much focus on, but that I think could be a big benefit to the college, is developing strong relations with the community of the town. The work that Jim Brassord has done on behalf of the administration has been good, but there is more to be done. I’m really happy about the Drake, a new music performance space in the town of Amherst that our music department is going to use a lot. The success of this project shows that it is to the benefit of everyone to keep the town a lively, thriving place. But then there are all these unforeseen things that new leadership will bring that I can’t predict. That’s the fun of it. I’m excited to see what a new president does here.

Read the full interview online at www.amherststudent.com

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

5

1: Martin at the college’s 2018 Homecoming.

2: Martin greets incoming students on move-in day, Fall 2020.

8

3: Martin shakes hands with student at Commencement 2018.

4: Martin speaks at LitFest 2020.

5: Martin astride a horse at the college’s 2021 Bicentennial Celebration.

7

1

6: Martin sits with late former Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

7: Martin speaks with students at a January 2017 rally condemning then-President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the entry of refugees and immigrants from some predominantly-Muslim countries.

2

6

3

4

5

8: Martin with students at the Amherst Uprising of 2015.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

6

College Observes Sexual Assault Awareness Month Pho Vu ’23 Staff Writer On April 1, Peer Advocates for Sexual Respect (PA) hung a banner reading “Support Survivors, Change The Culture” in front of Valentine Dining Hall (Val), commencing the ninth year of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) and comprehensive sexual violence prevention programming at Amherst.

SAAM was first nationally observed in 2001, and since then, coordinated campaigns, events, and marches have been held throughout April on campuses and communities across the country. At Amherst, more robust and coordinated SAAM efforts have been implemented and streamlined since the 2013 hiring of Amanda Vann, the college’s first full-time sexual respect educator and current director of health education.

At the moment, Sexual Respect Education at the college is overseen by the Department of Health Education, and is executed by Sexual Respect Educator Lauren Kelly and the PAs. Each year, the PAs hold a series of events throughout April to promote prevention and awareness of sexual assault. SAAM events the PAs have hosted this year include the Frost Library SAAM Book Display, Empowered Yoga: Resiliency

& Survivor Support, Decolonize Your Thirst: Video Podcast Screenings & Discussions, Sexual Respect Drop-In Hours, and Confidential Drop-In Survivor Support Group.

These events aim to actively address root causes of sexual violence’s harm, build individual and collective skills around sexual violence prevention, and provide solidarity and support to survivors, said Kelly.

A highlight of the programming was the Lights On for SAAMherst event, which took place on April 5 outside of Val from 2-8 p.m.

PAs stood behind a table adorned with T-shirt pins, stickers, and other give-away items with hashtags #ItsOnUS alongside other motivational call-to-action taglines that said “Do Something” and “Embrace Your Voice.” Students who stopped by were asked to make a community promise about promoting sexual respect.

PAs Guan Liang ’25 and Sarah Sobh ’25 explained the inspiration behind the event. “We believe that events like Lights On for SAAMherst force people to actually reflect on their own relationship with sexual respect,” the pair stated. “When April comes around, we try to put sexual respect education at the forefront of people’s minds and encourage them to engage with survivor support and education programs.”

According to Sexual Respect Educator Lauren Kelly, 593 Amherst community members particpated in the event, almost double the 305 who participated last year. Four hundred fifty-eight of this year’s participants pledged how they would promote sexual respect in the community. Among answers, one message sent encouraging messages to survivors: “They are stronger than they believe and more loved than they know.” Another message reminded the community about people’s equal treatment regardless of what they have been through: “Treating others with the respect they reserve, no matter what experience.” This year’s responses are displayed in the Keefe Campus Center Atrium. “The purpose is to remind everyone of our individual and collective responsibility in creating culture change,” Kelly told The Student.

“I’m truly grateful for the participation of students on campus,” Kelly said. “It really means a lot not only to all of us who were planning this event but also to students who really need our support. I hope more and more will join in this movement with us, so students can feel protected from their experiences and their voices.”

Emily Byers ’25, a participant in the Lights On event, said that she appreciated that the table was in the central area right in front of Val.

“This is the only way I would have seen it. I’m glad that [the issue] has been treated as an important topic and not something to be hidden away inside a building.” In response to this year's prompt “How is your light on to promote sexual respect within a community?”, Byers emphasized the importance of “listening to friends and people around yourself while not being afraid to call out people and actions that make you feel uncomfortable.”

Sophie Durbin ’25, another Lights On participant, appreciated the event’s “focus on [an] installation that includes different student experiences and connects students with the resources that they need.”

Kelly said that it was “rewarding and extremely powerful” to see members of the college community actively engage in promoting a culture of sexual respect. “One of our slogans is ‘No one has to do everything but everyone has to do something’ — it is encouraging when I see members across our community come together to lift up the work.”

This year’s SAAM comes in the wake of heightened campus conversations on sexual assault and misconduct, largely due to the Instagram account @amherstshareyourstory, which posts anonymous accounts from survivors.

In response to the account, President Biddy Martin announced the

launch of a comprehensive review of sexual assault on campus.

“Every story is heartbreaking, and therefore it is on all of us — through individual and collective action — to create a culture that supports and uplifts survivors,” said Kelly.

Kelly commented that SAAM strives to do work that goes beyond raising awareness about sexual violence. “Rather than using a comprehensive prevention approach, we address root causes of violence, examine the role that power and systems of oppression play, and provide skills and strategies to promote healthy interactions and communities,” she said.

Kelly attributed the success of SAAM to its sponsorship by the Health Education office and the hard work of PAs. “In our office, we have incredible student leaders through the Peer Advocates who are committed to supporting survivors, teaching their peers to be active bystanders, and promoting sexual respect in their community,” said Kelly.

The 24-Hour Healing Fire, SAAM’s traditional closing event, will take place on the First-Year Quad from April 28 at 1 p.m. to April 29 at 1 p.m. The event partners with the Native & Indigenous Students Association and the Five College Native American & Indigenous Studies Program.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Kelly

Photo courtesy of Caelen McQuilkin'24E

Throughout the month of April, Peer Advocates for Sexual Respect have hosted a wide variety of programming to promote sexual assault prevention and awareness.

One student expressed appreciation for the prominent location chosen for the PAs' programming outside of Valentine Dining Hall. The events aim to address the root causes of sexual violence and provide solidarity to survivors.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

7

SuperFan App Aims To Boost Student Engagement Alex Da Rosa ’24 Staff Writer SuperFan, an app that aims to promote student engagement in on-campus events, launched a portal for the Amherst campus on April 16. Sponsored by the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), the athletics department, and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), the app showcases upcoming events — both athletic and nonathletic — and rewards students for their participation.

SuperFan’s homepage features a chronological list of events that users can scroll through and share with others. By checking into events on the app, students earn points that can be used to purchase a number of rewards. The rewards currently include Amherst merchandise but will expand to include food, experiences, and possibly electronics in the near future, according to a recent post on Instagram by Amherst Athletics.

The idea of bringing SuperFan to Amherst was first introduced by Bryce Lauletta ’22 at an AAS meeting in October 2021. He proposed the idea as a way to combat low engagement with on-campus events,

noting that the athletics department had already pledged $1,125 to the initiative.

“Bryce and SAAC were passionate about it, so I wanted to support it,” said Director of Athletics Donald Faulstick in a statement to The Student. “I think SuperFan is a fun way for students to support each other’s co-curricular activities.”

The AAS provided Lauletta $2,250 in funding to use toward the initial creation of Amherst’s SuperFan portal. Based on Lauletta’s testimony, AAS Senator Gent Malushaga ’25 chose to adopt SuperFan as his Senate project. The platform was finally able to launch after months of working to develop the app and secure prizes.

“Even in the first couple of months that I was here, I identified a similar problem [of non-participation],” said Malushaga. “Everyone here is so good at what they do,” he said. “You’d think that people would be really excited about what their peers are doing, but you don’t really see a great level of participation.”

Deb Thayer ’24 referenced her experiences in high school in reflecting on participation at Amherst. “There’s no school spirit. And

I really like school spirit, I think rivalries with other schools are fun,” Thayer said.

Malushaga believes an incentive system will be successful in solving this problem. “People are not disinterested in events,” he said.

Rather, “Amherst students are busy, and there is so much going on.”

He hopes to “incentivize people to go to events that they would not normally go to, not just the events within their immediate circle.”

Thayer, however, while personally intrigued by the incentive system, is skeptical of its ability to increase engagement. “People here are a little proud of not being interested in sports,” she added.

Malushaga expressed that the app “will also serve as a way for people to find out about events.” He acknowledged that many events are well-advertised, but that the lack of a centralized system is a major problem. “There definitely are places where you can find out what’s happening on campus, but generally, the events are not all in one place,” he said. Malushaga views the Daily Mammoth emails as cumbersome and thinks that many students may not take the time to read it.

Muffie Mazambani ’24 said that not finding out about events far enough in advance has prevented her from attending them. “Sometimes I don’t know about events until the day of,” she relayed.

Thayer shared that she has already learned of new events since downloading the app, but also emphasized the importance of friends in influencing participation. “I like going to games, but usually when I do go to other sporting events, it’s with my friends,” she said.

Malushaga realizes the influence that students have on each other and hopes that even convincing a few students to attend new events will inspire others to follow suit.

Acknowledging the timing of the app’s release at the end of the semester, Malushaga hopes to hit the ground running next semester.

“The next item on the agenda is getting an email sent out,” he said. His overall goal is to make SuperFan “a thing that everyone does.”

Photo courtesy of Angelina Han '22

Students gather to watch a basketball game in LeFrak Gymnasium.

Students See Delay as Chance to Reckon With Bylaw’s Issues Continued from page 1 likely have to take responsibility for managing each paid official’s work authorization paperwork and tax forms, he said.

Richards added that Agosto also raised concerns about some students potentially being ineligible for payment, particularly undocumented students — who lack work authorization — and international students who are already working their limit of 20 paid hours a week. According to Graber-Mitchell, AAS members had already been aware of concerns about paying undocumented students.

In a statement to The Student, Agosto wrote that she is working with senators to “help [the] AAS understand their options and

make informed decisions as they consider how to move forward.”

Given the ongoing nature of these discussions, Agosto said that “it is premature to comment further at this time.”

One possible route forward, according to Graber-Mitchell, would be to pay senators through a grant model, giving senators a fixed amount of money at the start of their terms for the costs of being a student representative.

Whatever path is pursued, Wheaton hopes for close cooperation from the college in implementing a future version of the bylaw. “If we vote to do something as this independent body representing the students, then the college has a responsibility to help us do that certain thing,” he said, pointing out that taxes and

legal issues are things “the college kind of has to hand-hold for us.”

Wheaton suggested that the problem could possibly be solved by having offices like Student Activities handle the payment, as they already do for many employees.

So far, Wheaton doesn’t think much help from the administration has been forthcoming: “It didn’t feel like something that they would be willing to offer up. It [felt like] something that you would have to fight for at every step.”

Candidates who have signed up to run in the AAS’ elections this week have expressed a variety of feelings about the bylaw’s delay.

Ankit Sayed ’24 — who described himself as able to run for the Senate “almost exclusively because of the new bylaw” in an earlier interview

with The Student — said, “At the end of the day, I am not wealthy and need to consider the tradeoff of doing unpaid labor for the college.”

Others view the delay as a chance to reckon with other issues in the bylaw.

Lily Popoli ’23, another current Senate candidate, thinks the bylaw is a great idea, but said that “before deciding to pay [the] Senate, we must consider all of the unpaid labor that is done by students on campus and address that issue.”

Senate candidate Henry Pallesen ’25 also hopes the delay will provide a chance “to see a more public debate surrounding the entire bill … especially on the merits of possibly only instituting a payment system for those with financial aid.”

Treasurer Dania Hallak ’24 expressed relief at the delay.

“People did bring up the point of potentially only paying FLI [firstgeneration and/or low-income] students, and that topic was not heavily discussed,” she said. “So I think [the delay] w[ill] definitely allow us to look more at the bylaw and allow for more people’s voices to be included in the bylaw.”

Despite the delay, GraberMitchell remains optimistic about the bill. “I don’t really view it as a setback,” he said. “This is what forward progress sometimes looks like. I ended up writing something, kind of on my own, without talking to the people who are experts on this, and I brought it up and now it’s being changed — that’s how this works.”

“I’m hopeful that we will produce a workable decision,” he concluded.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

8

2022-2023 AAS Senate and JC Candidate Statements The Editorial Board Trigger warning: One candidate statement contains mentions of eating disorders.

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections from Thursday, April 28, 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. EDT. Students who are interested in hearing from these candidates, or are interested in running but were unable to submit a candidate statement, should attend Speech Night on Wednesday, April 27, at 8 p.m. EDT. If the statements end abruptly, it is because they have been cut off to fit the 100 word limit.

At-Large Judiciary Council Members Maya Foster ’23 My name is Maya Foster and I am a student in the Class of 2023. I am running for re-appointment to Judiciary Council after being appointed last year, as I believe I have a unique background that makes me an effective member of JC. If re-elected, I will work to represent a diverse perspective within the council; my experiences as a member of BSU e-board, as well as director of the Office of Student Diversity, equip me with a knowledge of current campus culture. If elected, I will continue my commitment to holding AAS accountable to its Constitution in a

and bylaw review must be, as the Constitution demands, continuous and material. I have the dedication and, as an LJST/physics double major and a member of several clubs (including Political Union, Bioethics Society, and the Equestrian Team), the institutional knowledge necessary to help drive such review.

Additionally, should any controversies under the JC’s judicial or club recognition role arise during my tenure, I will hear them with equity, impartiality, and cultural sensitivity.

I hope to use the concepts I have studied in courses on the JC to the benefit of the broader student body.

Aidan Orr ’24 My name is Aidan, and I am a sophomore running for Judiciary Council. In high school, I was student council vice president and designated community discussion leader, where I organized and mediated conversations around complex political problems and conflicts within the community. This role taught me to be open-minded and to put the well-being of the student body above my personal interests. Continuing into Amherst, this passion for justice and fairness has translated into pursuing an LJST major and my research interest in understanding the plight of America’s death row inmates and exposing the corruption and deceit surrounding American executions.

Class of 2023 Senators

Taz Kim ’23 My name is Taz Kim and I am a student in the Class of 2023, and I would like to run for the Judiciary Council, as an at-large member. As an LJST major I have a passion for law, both in theory and practice, and after being appointed last semester for the case regarding the AAS Palestine Solidarity Letter, I felt a great sense of fulfillment and pride in serving the Amherst College community. On JC, I would like to continue serving on cases that affect the core of Amherst’s cultural climate, and maintain the legitimacy of the AAS Constitution.

Tylar Matsuo ’24 Judiciary Council constitutional

Alana Bailey ’23 I am Alana Bailey, class of 2023, and I am running for Senate because I want to be able to create a more sustainable and eco-friendly footprint at Amherst. In high school, I started a volunteer-based organization called RaggiesforShaggies (http:// raggiesforshaggies.org/) which repurposes otherwise discarded lost and found items such as towels by donating them to shelters in need. I would like to incorporate that into my platform by redistributing our otherwise discarded waste to local shelters or animal hospitals in the area! This form of giving back would be mutually beneficial and give back to the Amherst community.

Yvette Kiptoo ’23 From working on the legacy decision to implementing TYPO-R, I have enjoyed being your class senator for the past two years. As senator, I would like to bring back traditions such as Lipsync, a fun way for students to get priority during housing placement, and make sure new traditions continue in the future. Additionally, I want to push for a resource center that centers individuals with disabilities which has resources that Amherst currently lacks or is very hard to access for students. I am willing to collaborate with students so feel free to reach out to me: ykiptoo23@amherst.edu.

Chloe Metz ’23 I, Chloe Metz ’23, am running to continue the important work I started during my first term on Senate.

Over the past months, I have been working with Gillian Quinto ’23, the Loeb Center, and IT to create an internship database for students. This would mitigate the stress of finding internships, lessen the wait time to see Loeb advisors, help students connect with others who have similar career aspirations, and make knowledge about internships more accessible. It would also raise awareness of what students can do and eliminate Amherst’s “whisper networks” where opportunities are presented to some and not others.

Lily Popoli ’23 I am focusing my senate campaign around mental health. Amherst as an administration does an awful job at addressing our mental health. I have a few ideas. First, working with the administration to give leniency on missed work and classes. I know BSU tried to do this and the administration ignored their request. Secondly, increasing the resources for the counseling center. Finally, imposing guidelines for departments so that students can’t have more than 2 exams and/or essays in a given week.

I know this is a lofty promise but coordination within departments can achieve this goal.

Gillian Quinto ’23 Since being elected in February, I have started creating an internship

database that would begin to address the concerns brought to light by the Better Amherst Initiative. With another term in AAS, I will be able to fully complete and roll out this project and hopefully alleviate the stresses of the internship search and reduce the strain on Loeb Center resources.

In addition to this, I will continue to support the goals of the Office of Environmental Sustainability and advocate for disarming ACPD. Kate Redmond ’23 How can Amherst celebrate its diversity, flaunting my fellow FLI students (as well as students of color and international students), yet not provide any true support? It’s time we start prioritizing student well-being and as a senator, I will push the administration to do so. Amherst drastically needs a change in how we approach student mental health, but that will not happen overnight. I’ll listen to my peers, represent them in our weekly meetings, and fight daily to get the help we deserve. If we want change, it’ll take time and dedication — and I’m ready to commit.

Lani Uyeno ’23 I believe in leaving things better than how I found them. As I approach my senior year, it is important to me that the experiences and qualities that make Amherst special are upheld and improved through my graduation and beyond. I will work hard to address the areas on campus that need improvement such as increased transparency in the housing lottery, access to mental health resources, and efficiency in the dining hall through self-serve meals. I want to hear your opinions and be your voice in working with Amherst administration to make Amherst the college experience that we all want!

Class of 2024 Senators Taha Ahmed ’24 Over the past year, I have worked to organize shuttles with the Transportation Committee, adjudicated violations of the Student Code of Conduct as a member of the Community Standards Review Board, and advocated for student perspectives as a member of the Covid-19 Student

Task Force. Next year, if elected, I want to continue to conduct meaningful work, as I have done previously, to address significant problems in our community. I know, as a leader of an affinity group on campus (MSA), the solidarity and space that marginalized groups on campus require, but fundamentally lack.

Lori Alarcon ’24 Hello, my name is Lorett (Lori) Alarcon and I have served as a senator for the Class of 2024 for the past two years. I have been part of various committees, from Financial Aid and Admission to the Judiciary Council.

I created the Summer Bridge Gala, led an underclassmen dinner, and formed the new immigration alliance committee in AAS called the Dreamer Committee. As a FLI, Latina student, I am working hard to make Amherst a more inclusive space, and I want to keep making an impact by being part of student government for a third term. I hope I Leandra Depina ’24 My name is Leandra Depina, class of ’24, and I will be running in the 2022 AAS Senate election. In my two years at Amherst College, I’ve always felt a disconnect between me and the general populous here; the “community.” To be frank, at this point I’ve forgotten what it means to be part of a community all together. You would expect that a school of this size would naturally yield to feelings of membership and school spirit, but it is so easy to find yourself detached from everything. That is why I am running. I not only want to Calvin Gelernt ’24 It would be an honor to represent the Class of 2024 again next year.

As a member of the Transportation Committee this year, I personally ensured that we had return shuttles for spring break, arranging a deal with a new shuttle company when our usual options weren’t available. I am also currently working on providing sports equipment like spikeball sets by the Greenways for all students to use for free. With a full year of experience, next semester I hope to work

Continued on page 9

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

9

31 Candidate Statements for AAS Senate and JC Positions Continued from page 8 on larger projects, such as finding an equitable way to ensure all students have access to AC dollars.

Sophie Laurence ’24 As a queer Asian American student, my priority is for all student voices to be heard and recognized by the administration and its representatives.

AAS senators have the responsibility to represent students inclusive of all identities, and to amplify student concerns, issues, and priority topics to the college — regardless of personal agreement or disagreement. As a former JC member, I plan to heavily work with JC to amend the Constitution, make it more accessible, and to clearly outline senator and student body rights.

Jackson Lee ’24 Hello! My name is Jackson Lee, and I am running for re-election on the Amherst Senate representing the Class of 2024. This past year, I helped organize the shuttles running to New York, Boston, and the Bradley Airport for the Fall and Spring breaks.

Additionally, I am currently working on a project to provide free recreational sports equipment for use in the courts and field spaces around the Greenway dorms. My goal for this upcoming year is to work to ensure that the services that the Senate provides are as accessible and organized as possible, as well as making sure

of college when everything seemed so new and fresh? I want to recreate that feeling and allow us to discover people, places, and ideas within this campus that so often seems too small for its own good. In my two years here, I have realized that there is always something new to discover here, and I want to foster a sense of beauty and exploration here on campus, while also recognizing and responding to the disconnect between people of different backgrounds on campus.

Class of 2025 Senators Atheek Azmi ’25 Heyy! I’m Atheek Azmi, class of 2025, a FLI international student from Sri Lanka. Our campaign is based on “building bridges” and improving student ease. Whether that includes enhancing solidarity between our international and domestic communities, rejuvenating our course selection process, or simply increasing the frequency of free massages, we’re here for you, eager for your voice and feedback. My late grandfather, a tea plucker back home, told me to “make every leaf count.” As we embark on this journey together, I’m excited to see how the leaves of our diverse community coalesce to create an even more beautiful Amherst!

Anna Penner ’24 I hope to continue to work on projects to improve student life by uniting the student body, such as the AAS Prom, my Senate project this year. I also hope to continue my appointment on the Sexual Respect Task Force to help make the school safer, and to ensure student voices are centered in the conversation. I know there is a lack of trust in the administration, so I hope to continue to serve as an advocate for the student body to make Amherst a school we can be proud to attend.

Isaiah Doble ’25 Hi everyone! Last year, I ran on the platform of promoting the social and academic support that all of us, as students, deserve. Since then, I was the first advocate for, and helped establish, a sexual violence response committee in solidarity with accounts shared “Amherst Share Your Story,” co-ran the Major Fair Senate project, which provided our class with the opportunity to discuss academic aspirations with upperclassmen in their fields of interest, and voiced student concerns in the Faculty Committee of Educational Policy. If re-elected, I intend to continue advocating for our class’s well-being incessantly. Thank you!

Ankit Sayed ’24 Hi, my name’s Ankit. Remember being a freshman in those first few days

Zane Khiry ’25 Hello everyone! My name is Zane Khiry and I am running for AAS for

the Class of 2025. As a member of the men’s track and field team, I hope to use my position to bridge the student-athlete divide. I’d also like to use my position to further the interests of, and advocate for, the employees at the college. In short, there’s a great deal of work to be done, and, if elected, I will be committed to doing the work as best I can. Vote Zane Khiry!

Hannah Kim ’25 Having served as a senator in the 2021-2022 academic year, I’ve seen there is room for growthin the student community. In the upcoming year, I strive to: 1) bridge the gap between students and Senate, 2) foster stronger companionship in Senate, and 3) host an annual Major Fair.

Each of these goals share a commonality: further enriching the student community. I want to change the way our present student body feels segregated, and ensure we can feel the strength of our individual and collective voices.

Min Ji Kim ’25 Hi! My name is Min Ji Kim and I am running to be a senator for the Class of 2025! During my past year as senator, I was able to plan and initiate a Major Fair with my fellow senators that allow fellow freshmen to talk to seniors and juniors about the majors they want to go into and bridge the gap between upperclassmen and underclassmen. If re-elected, I would love to be able to plan this fair again with my fellow senators and become another bridge to connect students to Senate by actively taking in suggestions and implementing them.

Isabella Malmqvist ’25 There are few things in this world more intimate and profound than speaking someone’s language.

Having grown up in a multilingual household of English, Spanish, Swedish, and French, I appreciate languages as an ultimate manifestation of empathy. They inspire me to immerse myself in different identities and expose me to diverse perspectives and ways of understanding the world around me. As your senator, I will demonstrate this genuine interest in understanding you and your needs — ensuring that you feel

heard and supported in every facet of your life here at Amherst. I want to translate your aspirations into action.

administration partner for programming during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

Gent Malushaga ’25 This past year, I worked to address the issues facing the Amherst community by participating on the Sexual Respect/Title IX Committee, the Sustainability and Climate Committee, and the Committee on Education and Athletics. In Amherst’s first “normal” year since the pandemic began, fostering a sense of community was more important than ever.

Through my work on projects like the Marriage Pact and Amherst SuperFan (my Senate project), I helped do just that. Next year, I plan to focus on increasing engagement and transparency between the student body, the AAS, and the Amherst administration, specifically regarding housing and campus safety.

Rachel Skoler ’25 Hi, my name is Rachel Skoler and I’m a first-year running for the Senate. I’m from New York City and a potential SWAGS and anthropology double major. On campus, I am most involved with Intersections, the contemporary dance group. I am passionate about expanding the arts at Amherst. In addition, I want to create Amherst-sponsored events to get more involved with the other colleges and local community. On a more serious note, I want to support survivors of sexual assault, helping expand the school’s outreach programs and advocate for the accountability of other students and the administration.

Shreya Mathew ’25 I am Shreya Susan Mathew, class of 2025. My tenure as a senator helped me understand the expectations of our community. My Grammarly Premium project and providing free coffee during reading period are a testimony of my commitment to implementing projects that are meaningful. Next semester, I look forward to focusing on the theme of career development. The focal point of my project will be to create an “Internship Bank” which would seamlessly connect interested students with current interning students. I have been and will continue to be a representative that can understand the unique needs of our community and Henry Pallesen ’25 Hi, my name is Henry Pallesen and I’m running to be a senator for the Class of 2025. First, as 178 of us rising sophomores rudely found out, the housing selection process needs to be reformed — I hope to work with OSA to initiate those reforms. Secondly, as someone who suffers from an eating disorder, I know the toll that poor mental health can take — and that Amherst can do a lot more to support students’ mental health.

Specifically, regarding eating disorders, I’d like to see the SHEs and the

Chris Tun ’25 A core element of student life at Amherst is the arts. As a member of the e-boards for WAMH 89.3 and the Amherst College Film Society, I know what it means to run a club, knowing the importance of organizing campus-wide events. Slowly approaching a post-pandemic campus, we need to ensure that there is the infrastructure to support an increase in events, especially in the arts. As senator, I will work tirelessly to make sure that this foundation exists, in order to allow students to create and share their art and build a more inspired, engaged, and connected community.

Transfer Student Senator Mia Griffin ’24 My work in the Senate includes securing AAS funding for the Black Arts Matter festival through the Arts Committee, writing emails containing action plans for racial equality, or planning a school-wide prom focused on inclusivity and accessibility. As a senator, I strove to help make this school one where people feel included, safe, and where students could simply enjoy their time here, and will strive to do this again if elected as a senator next year. I look forward to using my experiences to continue creating a learning environment made for everyone.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

News

10

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: April 20 to April 26 The Editorial Board AAS Hosts Campus Prom On Saturday, students dressed in formal garb gathered at the Science Center for a prom thrown by the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) as part of a Senate project by Anna Penner ’24 and Mia Griffin ’24. The celebration featured performances at the Greenway Amphitheater from student band Portmanteau and Laundry Day, a band from New York City.

Also offered were multiple photo booths, food trucks, and desserts. The AAS also sponsored a student-staffed hair and nail salon in the Powerhouse the day of the prom.

The Center for International Student Engagement and President’s

Office Hold Barbecue for International Students All international students were invited to President Biddy Martin’s house for an outdoor barbecue and picnic in celebration of the international community at the college and the changes made during Martin’s tenure to make Amherst more welcoming to international students. The event was attended by around 40 international students, some of whom gave speeches about their experiences. Due to the high volume of attendees, negative antigen test results were required with no mask mandates.

President’s Office Releases Update on Anti-Racism Plan President Biddy Martin sent an email on Tuesday morning that pro-

vided updates on a number of aspects of the college’s 2020 anti-racism plan.

Updates included: progress made on developing a comprehensive racial history of the college; the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committees in various departments; work done in admissions and financial aid; the announcement that the college will file an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of “the holistic consideration of race in admissions” in multiple upcoming cases related to affirmative-action; increases in faculty and staff diversification; curricular changes; advancements in the Center for Restorative Practices; mental health initiatives; reconsidering the naming of certain campus buildings; and finally, further updates on “Reimagining Policing”

which build on last week’s announcement. #AmherstTogether Day of Giving Tuesday was #AmherstTogether, the college’s annual day of giving.

Amherst Fund Advancement initially set a goal of 1,821 gifts of any size, in honor of the college’s founding year; they later upped the goal to 2,022 gifts, a target that they reached.

This achievement then unlocked a matched gift of $100,000 from alumni leaders. Community members also had the option to send an Atkins Farms apple cider donut to someone on-campus upon donating.

ACData To Switch to Workday Student The Registrar’s Office announced

this week that data currently stored on ACData will migrate to Workday Student over the summer. Students will continue to use ACData for the rest of the semester, and will receive notice when Workday becomes available.

Food Justice Alliance Hosts Share the Share Festival Tuttle Hill was lively with music, students, and snacks on Saturday as the Food Justice Alliance (FJA), the Office of Student Activities, and the President’s Office hosted Share the Share, an event in support of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. The Stratus jazz combo played music, along with local band The New Sympathizers and student band Puffer’s Pond Project.

From the Red Room: April 25 AAS Meeting Updates Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editor On Monday, April 25, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) met for the 11th time this semester.

Held in the Red Room, the meeting’s topics included a public comment suggesting a new Budgetary Committee (BC) policy, a motion to delay the recent bylaw to compensate AAS officials, and the recently released campus safety report.

The AAS heard a public comment from former Treasurer Jae Yun Ham ’22, who suggested that the BC establish a new policy to “not fund events where individual students or student-owned entities stand to gain a profit.” However, the policy would “not apply to compensation for student labor,” as in paying students for service-oriented work, like bands or DJs. The policy instead targets buying products from students, Ham explained.

According to Ham, the proposed policy is a response to a pair of recent events during which BC funding was used to purchase products from a company owned by a student, although the BC was not informed of this intent prior to recommending the funding.

Some senators questioned whether a substantive distinction

could be made between paying students for a service versus paying a student company for a product.

Others argued that it was better to pay a student company than a large corporation.

Treasurer Dania Hallak ’24 pointed out that the BC has little recourse in cases where the AAS approves funding and it later becomes apparent that a student misrepresented their request, although the BC could prevent the student organization from receiving further funding. Hallak said she views the proposed policy as a necessary preventative measure given the limitations on the BC’s ability to police abuses of AAS funding.

While a BC policy change only requires majority approval of the BC, an informal poll of the entire Senate revealed no clear consensus on the matter.

After approving the previous week’s minutes, the Senate then reviewed the BC discretionary funding recommendations and Senate project funding requests. Hallak presented the BC recommendations, which amounted to $9,421.27.

Then, Gavi Forman ’22 requested an additional $210 for her bikeshare Senate project.

Mia Griffin ’24 added a last-minute request for $25 to offer as a

gift-card prize for the most creative promposal, as selected by the senators behind the prom Senate project, in addition to the prizes already offered to those whose promposals earned the most Instagram likes. A motion to approve all of these funding requests was introduced and passed, with the senators behind the prom abstaining.

Officers then delivered their weekly reports. Vice-President Jaden Richards ’25 announced that the first session of AAS office hours in Valentine Dining Hall on Friday, April 22, had yielded feedback from around 100 people, which he would distribute to the appropriate committees. He also encouraged senators to participate in the office hours, though he noted that it was not mandatory. Hannah Kim ’25 suggested that participation in office hours be made mandatory for senators. Richards responded that a senator could propose a bylaw to require participation.

Secretary Jeffrey Ma ’24 reminded senators that Speech Night for Senate candidates is April 27 at 8 p.m., adding that candidates do not need to submit a candidate statement in order to run. As long as they attend Speech Night and let him know that they wish to run, their name will appear on the ballot.

Richards also described a meeting that he and President Sirus Wheaton ’23 had with Dean of Students and Chief Student Affairs Officer Liz Agosto. In the meeting, the pair brought up the possibility of a “Mammoth Day” this semester, which would provide students with a day off from classes. Agosto was reportedly receptive to the possibility.

The meeting also involved discussion of the recently passed bylaw establishing salaries for AAS officials. According to Richards, Agosto said that there were a number of obstacles to the implementation of the bylaw that would require substantial work to resolve.

Given these issues, Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22, who wrote the bylaw, proposed a motion to delay it from taking effect until the 20222023 academic year. Wheaton supported Graber-Mitchell’s call to delay the bylaw’s effects, noting that it will take substantial group work to enact the bylaw. The motion passed with overwhelming support.

Ma said he would email all Senate candidates to let them know that the bylaw’s effects had been delayed.

Richards solicited and recorded the names of senators interested in working on the issue.

Discussion then shifted to the possibility of the AAS compensating

members of student organizations.

Richards suggested that doing so would be difficult given the issues surrounding the AAS paying AAS officials.

Adejumo maintained that members of Amherst College Emergency Medical Services (ACEMS) should be paid based on the value the organization provides to the college community. Hallak responded that using AAS funds to pay ACEMS members would likely be impossible, due to its exclusivity. But she noted that the AAS could urge the college to compensate ACEMS members.

Kya Rincon ’22 suggested that the Senate look into how other colleges deal with paying wages to student organizations.

The Senate then discussed the report recently released by the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, which addressed policing on campus. Sofia Guerra ’22, who was on the committee, suggested that a town hall be held with either Chief of Police John Carter or Chief Strategy Officer Kate Salop.

Some senators lamented the inaccessibility of the trustees, who were responsible for evaluating and deciding on possible actions based on the report.

The next AAS meeting will be held on Monday, May 2.

Op pinion

w

In Students We Trust

THE AMHERST

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

Last Monday, President Biddy Martin emailed students, staff, and faculty relaying the Board of Trustees' decision regarding changes in the role of the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) on campus. The email claims that the decision was made only after thorough consideration of a report provided by the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, and that while the ultimate decision does deviate from some of the report's suggestions — for example, by having campus police carry weapons instead of storing them — it mostly aligns with the report’s recommendations.

However, Biddy’s email explains that the trustees were the primary decision-makers due to their “fiduciary responsibility for the institution.” Simply put, this means that the trustees are bound by their positions to make decisions that are in the best interest of the institution they represent.

The trustees, as the people most legally responsible for the management of the ACPD, may seem like the correct party to make this decision.

But how can they be given exclusive control over ACPD, when the governance of the ACPD is so deeply intertwined with student life?

As an off-campus entity, the Board of Trustees is both literally and metaphorically separated from student life. All 25 members graduated over two decades ago, and while the board has recently made some progress in terms of diversity, it is still made up of a majority of rich white men and is deeply unrepresentative of the makeup of today’s student body. Therefore, the trustees’ thoughts on what Amherst students want and need are informed by very different experiences, beliefs, and values than those of current students. The Board of Trustees is clearly unfit to represent students in a decisionmaking capacity.

It seems absurd for this obviously out-of-touch body to make a decision about something as relevant to the daily lives of students as policing. Even more unsettling is the lack of transparency about how the trustees came to their conclusion. Because meeting minutes are unavailable for years after they take place, we have no insight into the conversations that

led to their decision. Biddy’s email tells the student body that the trustees carefully considered the Advisory Committee’s report and collected detailed data, but cites no sources and links to no statements.

It is possible that the trustees took each point of the report into full consideration, with conversation about available research on relevant issues, but it is equally possible that none of that happened.

The biggest flaw in the trustees’ ACPD decision, then, is the way it was carried out. Students were left uninformed and uninvolved in the trustees’ conversations, and were not treated as true collaborators in the decision-making process. It is imperative that the student body be given avenues to work with the trustees to inform their decisions of campus life in the modern day, which is understood by no one better than the students who live it. For instance, the University of Massachusetts elects one student from each of its five constituent campuses to its Board of Trustees to serve single-year terms, thereby making students a part of the decision-making process. Students and the trustees should work collaboratively as they bring different perspectives to the table and both hold stake in the decision: students because they live here, and the board because they must secure the interests of the college.

A college is first and foremost intended to serve its students. Thus, even when it is necessary for the Board of Trustees to approve decisions that technically fall under their broad responsibility to the well-being of the institution, the Editorial Board believes that they should prioritize the lived experiences of those of us who spend four years of our lives here. If the college is to be a home for students, those students must both be informed of the decision-making process and be given a voice in decisions. The college commits itself to making our four years at college as positive an experience as it can be, but without true self-governance, such an experience is impossible.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of the majority of the Editorial Board — (assenting: 17; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 0).

Editor-in-Chief Assistant Opinion Yee-Lynn Lee Tara Alahakoon Senior Managing Managing Arts & Living Theo Hamilton Brooke Hoffman Liam Archacki Alexander Brandfonbrener Editors-at-Large Aniah Washington Scott Brasesco Yasmin Hamilton Sophie Wolmer Brianne LaBare Managing News Madeline Lawson Caelen McQuilkin Managing Sports Tana DeLalio Liza Katz Eleanor Walsh Alex Noga Sonia Chajet Wides Leo Kamin Assistant News Nick Edwards-Levin Ethan Foster Managing Podcast Managing Opinion Sam Spratford Kei Lim Maggie McNamara Dustin Copeland Managing Photo Tapti Sen Emma Spencer Managing Design Brianne LaBare S TA F F Publishers Robert Bischof Ethan Samuels Digital Director Sawyer Pollard Social Media Manager Emi Eliason

Letters Policy The opinion pages of The Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community. We welcome responses 50-800 words in length to any of our recent articles and aim to publish a diversity of views and voices.

If you would like to submit a response for consideration, it must be exclusive to The Student and cannot have been published elsewhere. The Student will print letters if they are submitted to the paper’s email account (astudent@ amherst.edu) or the article response form that can be found on The Student’s website, by 8 p.m. on Saturday, after which they will not be accepted for the week’s issue.

Letters must bear the names of all contributors and an email address where the author or authors may be reached. Letters may be edited for clarity and Student style. The editors reserve the right to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

Publication Standards 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 • April 27, 2022

Opinion

12

Seeing Double: Escaping the Rat Race Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist When we graduate from Amherst, the college promises us one thing above all: that we will succeed professionally. Some students use their degrees for wealth or status (almost a third of graduates immediately go into either finance or consulting). Others seek to have the greatest possible impact on the world, through what a recent series of columns described as “changemaking” jobs. President Martin endorsed both approaches in her 2021 commencement address when she told graduates: “I know you will advance every institution or cause you take up.” Yet far from expressing the infinite possibilities of the Amherst degree, I think the college’s promises have the opposite effect.

Amherst funnels students into a few high-performing fields while discouraging us from taking jobs perceived as inconsequential or unworthy. Yet, after four years at Amherst, I feel a deep hunger for something different. I have accepted a two-year spot in the Peace Corps, volunteering in Madagascar. I am not

alone; I’ve known a number of students who have rejected traditional post-Amherst career paths for jobs like the merchant marine, retail, food preparation, or construction work. Taken together, these might be described as mundane jobs — work that is uncredentialed, unglamorous, rarely lucrative, and which lacks the opportunity for “advancement” described by Biddy.

Amherst hard-wires us to disregard mundane work. After all, many of these jobs don’t even require a college degree, let alone a degree from Amherst. But I think this kind of thinking reveals a collective bias. We see the world in credentialed terms, as though Amherst is a kind of fastpass, permitting us to skip the boring life paths. We assume that certain jobs are “right” for Amherst graduates, which implies that other jobs are “wrong.”

But for me, mundane jobs have a profound appeal. Amherst presents students with a cloistered life of privilege. Many students have known nothing else. I myself grew up in a college town with a prosperous, upper-middle-class family. Working fulltime in a mundane job means

becoming a part of new communities, gaining new perspectives, and (to borrow one friend’s term) seeing the world through new epistemological paradigms.

Yet while my own attraction to mundane jobs comes from my life of privilege, I think the impulse extends still farther. Consider the vast popularity of games like “Animal Crossing” or “Stardew Valley” that offer the player the chance to fulfill mundane tasks in a predictable world. In an ever more complex world, it’s only natural to seek out simplicity.

At the same time, mundane jobs can improve the mentalities of many alumni. Many aspects of the Amherst experience, from admissions to academics, encourage students to cultivate a toxic form of all-consuming ambition. We tend to define ourselves in terms of the school we go to, or later on, in terms of our careers. In that way, we mirror our wider society, where a successful career is the ultimate triumph. Yet ambition (at least as defined today) too often leads to disillusionment, stress, and burnout. In 2021, a shocking 52 percent of U.S. workers reported feeling burnt-out. You might

blame that on the pandemic, except that the pre-Covid number was a still-stratospheric 43 percent. Of course, mundane jobs can also be stressful, but for Amherst graduates, they also offer a reprieve from the corrosive mentality of eternal advancement.

Taking a mundane job doesn’t mean giving up forever on living an impactful life. Many great thinkers have spent long years working in mundane careers. An entire generation of academics participated in World War II as soldiers or factory workers or mechanics. The work wasn’t an interruption of their academic growth, but a transformative supplement. If you choose to return to the world of competitive high-flyers, working mundane jobs can enrich you and prepare you for a greater impact.

But I think there’s an argument to be made for mundane jobs as an end in themselves. Amherst teaches us vocational skills like biology, writing, coding, etc., but it also teaches us how to be aware of those around us, how to be part of a community. In short, Amherst teaches us how to be a good person. These skills are at least as applicable to a mundane

job as they are to a fancy gig in New York or D.C. In fact, the more focused you are at using your vocational skills, the more likely you are to see the other aspects of college as just incidental experiences, rather than lessons.

By removing the temptation of burying yourself in vocational skills, mundane jobs provide an opportunity to tap into the humility and empathy college also taught you. Thus, a mundane job is not a betrayal or dismissal of your college experience, but a culmination of it.

I know that mundane jobs aren’t for every Amherst graduate.

I’m not even sure mundane jobs are the best choice for me — undergraduates look at every job, mundane or otherwise, through a romantic lens. But regardless of where each of us ends up, we must never define the lives of our peers in terms of careers. When we all reassemble on campus for our fifth, 10th, or 20th-year reunion, I have no doubt that comparing jobs will be a hot topic of discussion. But let’s approach our classmates with some empathy, and accept that everyone walks their own path. What could be more Amherst than that?

Coping With Campus: I Rave About Val Dustin Copeland ’25 Managing Opinion Editor Of all the spaces on campus, from the lovably odd proportions of Seeley Mudd to the monumental neoclassicism of Fayerweather, none is more essential to the way I live life at college than Valentine Dining Hall. I admit, the building isn’t exactly gorgeous — the facilities are becoming rapidly obsolete, and god forbid I ever step foot in Russ Wing, but I firmly believe that Val is the figure around which social life on campus is centered.

Val's position as the sole dining hall for all of campus is unique. Smith, for example, has small dining areas across campus, UMass obviously needs sev-

eral different high-capacity sites, and even Williams has several options located near concentrations of housing on campus. Val is Amherst's only dining hall, and thus is the only large gathering space which ensures that many different types of students will share space at the same time. Upperclassmen eat shoulder-to-shoulder with freshmen, and even in the hours in between meals, it is impossible to predict who you might see sitting at one of the upstairs tables.

Val is tiny just like our college is tiny — as is so often repeated, it is as difficult to avoid running into someone as it is easy to meet a variety of people. Much of the reason for that is our tiny little dining hall. Almost everyone is

there, always.

And yet, Val does manage to quiet down when not serving hot food. Those quiet hours truly are the best that Val has to offer: the sounds of talking and activity are reduced to a gentle murmur and the tables near the huge windows become a unique kind of tranquil.

The silence of those moments is made all the better by the knowledge that, soon, the hall will burst into activity again, and all of those empty seats will fill with people and food and raucous conversation. And even when it doesn’t, you never know who is going to walk up those stairs. That’s the thing about Val — it’s the one place where it could be anyone.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Val during late night dining, as students from every side of campus gather for a post-dinner treat.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Opinion

13

The Amherst to Wall Street Pipeline

Photo courtesy of Sam Valadi

Staff Writer Andrew Rosin ’25 addresses the culture of selling out into finance, reminding students of their potential to bring Amherst's interdisciplinary perspectives to Wall Street.

Andrew Rosin ’25 Staff Writer Two years ago, 20 percent of Amherst College’s senior class planned to work in financial services after graduating. That equates to roughly 90 out of the 452 seniors. This figure dwarfs the other post-grad outcomes; for reference, 11 percent of the graduating class planned to work in consulting, and only 4 percent of the graduating class planned to work in law.

For most students, this statistic probably isn’t surprising; however, Amherst students are arguably less likely to know who these students are and why they’re going to work on Wall Street. While there’s research that theorizes why finance appeals to elite college students, it’s worth asking why students here at Amherst are so likely to choose careers in finance. And then there’s the question that to many students will sound paradoxical: can you create meaningful change

while working on Wall Street?

There are myriad reasons why students gravitate toward Wall Street, from the size of the industry to its quick return on investment, fast-paced work environment, and, of course, the salary. The average salary for a first-year investment banking analyst is somewhere between $170,000 and $190,000. The salary does draw students to Wall Street, like Sona Kim ’22, whose goal is FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early. Kim hopes to retire by the age of 30 with the money she makes on Wall Street.

Stephanie Hockman, director of the Traub Center for Careers in Business and Finance, argues that individuals should be “compensated for the value they add to a company.” However, it’s hard to justify the six-figure salaries when the average salary of a public school teacher in Amherst, for example, is only around $63,000.

Hockman explained that the disparity in salaries is a “factor of government” and that “without

finance, we don't have an economy that moves.” However, she also noted that “educators should absolutely be paid more.”

It’s also important to recognize that money means different things to different students, as international student Sushan Bhattarai ’23 notes. Because Amherst provides generous financial aid to low income students, he argues, there is a cohort of students at the college for whom Wall Street is a means of “securing economic freedom.” For international students, too, Wall Street provides a pathway to “bureaucratic freedom.” Working at a reputable Wall Street firm increases the chances of obtaining a visa for those who are not naturalized US citizens.

The second most commonly cited reason for pursuing a career on Wall Street is job security. In the finance industry, it’s most common to work after graduating with the company you interned with during your junior summer. Junior summer

internships are decided during candidates’ sophomore year, so students going into finance could already be guaranteed a post-graduation job by their sophomore year. Emily Griffen, director of the Loeb Center, noted that students “could walk into their senior year, job in hand, and they don't have to stress … or get bent out of shape over this.

They can actually just focus on their senior year.”

Overall, the finance track has more of a defined playbook than the government or nonprofit paths. “Going into these other fields, the pathway looks a little bit more opaque, it's a little bit more ambiguous,” Griffen said.

“The timeline can make you feel really insecure.” She also noted that nonprofits have less resources and money to recruit students.

While Griffen argues that “when you really look at what the Loeb Center resources are, it's actually very small, proportionately, for business and finance,” students perceive the

Loeb Center’s presence differently. Necati Akinci ’25, for example, described the Loeb Center as “finance-oriented,” and at the end of the day, the Loeb Center does a good job of connecting finance students with career opportunities. Amherst offers programs like Hockman’s eight-week Introduction to Finance series, for example, which provide students with a foundation for careers in finance as first- and second-year students. Hockman runs an identical workshop for consulting, and it makes sense that consulting is the other big — and growing — post-grad outcome for Amherst seniors.

Athletes have access to an additional set of resources to help them find work on Wall Street. Through generations of student-athletes graduating and going to work on Wall Street, finance networks have become ingrained within Amherst’s sports teams. Upperclassmen can facil-

Continued on page 14

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Opinion

14

Exploring Finance Culture at Amherst Continued from page 13 itate mock interviews for underclassmen, and graduates can give you referrals for real interviews.

As first-year lineman for the football team Jack Nagy ’25 explained with regard to networking, “You just want to find those common experiences that you have with Amherst alums and football definitely makes that easier. You can just go in the alumni directory and [filter] extracurriculars [for] football and boom. You’ve got a list of hundreds of people that are in the finance industry that are pretty willing to help you out.”

To return to the question of why students pursue careers on Wall Street, one cannot overlook students who find markets and investing, as a discipline, to be genuinely interesting. Somewhat paradoxically, the throughline for many of these students is that they have a passion outside of finance. Akinci originally wanted to be an aerospace engineer and plans on majoring in physics, but he says that he gravitates towards the quantitative side of investment banking because of its intersections with pure science and the ability it affords to solve important financial problems.

Bhattarai, who’s an environmental studies and history major, is interested in sustainability and feels like Wall Street is where he can have the biggest impact in that area — as opposed to working in politics and policy. “While policy is more at the meta level, and setting up the regulations for things to succeed, market actors actually have the power to make some of these things succeed. …

[Investment banks] are also now being driven to make profits on green energy and create green bonds. And, for example, there’s now offshore farms that are going to become offshore wind farms outside of New York,” Bhattarai highlighted.

Students and faculty alike commented on the diverse skill set that employees gain on Wall Street. These skills can be applied to careers in different, less

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

The Loeb Center provides resources for career planning across campus. Students interested in finance have frequent opportunities to recieve aid in career advancement. finance-oriented fields, Bhattarai emphasized: “Versus Wall Street being that inner bubble where you have to go from Goldman Sachs to JP Morgan, know that you can go from Goldman Sachs to the World Bank, you can go from the World Bank to the World Wildlife Fund, you can go from that to starting your own shoe company. Those are skills that are transferable. Wall Street itself is temporary. And that’s how you should look at it.”

However, Bhattarai worries that “the conversation kind of stops at, ‘You go to Wall Street, and you’ve made it.’” Students frequently talk about the skill set one learns on Wall Street and the connections they’ll make, but hardly anyone talks about life after Wall Street. It’s unclear, therefore, how many students have a clear vision of where their Wall Street skills will take them. “We talk a lot about transferable skills, but nobody really tells you what transferable skills you get out of Wall Street,” says Bhattarai.

On the flip side of this thoughtful, long-term approach

to finance, the image of the finance bro is omnipresent on college campuses. “[Finance bro] brings to mind a sense of laziness, maybe like not caring about academic pursuits or the things that Amherst prides itself upon, like learning something just for the sake of learning,” Akinci reflected.

Bhattarai seconded Akinci’s assessment of finance bros: “Because there’s so much pressure put on finance bros, or students that from freshman year onwards are driven to get into Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan, they forget — or they don’t want to indulge in — the more creative pursuits within the liberal arts.”

Bhattarai finds that finance bros are unable to engage in conversations outside of the world of finance. They choose to ignore the social, cultural, and political complexities of the profession and of the world. “[Finance bros] are so bent on going into finance that they put a wall around them, and they dig up a moat where the only thing they can talk about is finance,” Bhattarai says.

Finance culture’s pitfall is that it can consume an individual's identity and serve as blinders obscuring the outside world.

There’s more to life than markets, investing, and money. When you’re on Wall Street, it’s easy to perceive the world through this narrow lens of finance. But if you do, you’ll end up neglecting the values of curiosity, creativity, and knowledge that define Amherst.

You’ll violate one of Amherst’s core principles: to engage the world around you.

It’s critically important to situate finance within larger social, political, and systemic issues.

People who work in finance have to actively cultivate an awareness of these issues.

Finance or Wall Street are not categorically bad; however, it’s easy and it’s common to get caught up in the world of finance and abandon the elements of it that do have value. Students who work in finance have a responsibility to live up to certain standards as citizens of the world, even if their career doesn’t specifically ask it of them.

Bhattarai embodies this nuanced conception of finance. “I think what people often don’t realize with the markets and investment banking in general is that it’s a very big force in how policy is driven. Goldman Sachs now has a group dedicated just to sustainable finance. And they want to invest $750 billion by 2030,” he explains. But Bhattarai also admits, “I completely disagree with exploiting people halfway across the world and building factories to generate profits when people are suffering. Wall Street can be used as a mechanism to create investments that will help communities and help our transition away from an economy that’s based on capitalist exploitation. But there are bits of it that I completely disagree with.”

Part of being a globally conscious employee in the finance industry involves reckoning with just how harmful the industry can be. Only from this reckoning can Amherst students help nudge Wall Street in the direction of progress, equity, and justice.

Amusements

w

The Amherst Student Crossword | April 27, 2022 ACROSS 1 Tiny pests 6 Feeling regret 12 Puffy cloud 14 Book boo-boos 15 Severe, swelling sunspot of the skin 16 Wispy cloud 17 "Johnson Chapel," "Amherst College,'" and "the Town of Amherst," e.g.

19 Shrek, for one 20 Amtrak stops: Abbr.

21 Director Burton 22 Some golf clubs 23 Low cloud 26 Full-size pickup model 30 Kitchen scrubber 35 Like leftovers 36 It brings up the rear 37 Rain cloud 38 Large fruit in Gotham?

39 Book of hymns 41 Famous last words 45 ___ tai 46 Fill to the gills 50 Author ___ Neale Hurston 51 What 12A, 16A, 23A. and 37A are all examples of, in the context of Music@Amherst 54 Shock to the system 56 Unagi sushi pieces 57 Consume, like sashimi 58 Crept 59 What 12A, 16A, 23A, and 37A are all examples of, outside the context of Music@Amherst 60 Cobbler, at times

DOWN 1 Disney warrior who sings "Reflection" 2 Some Apples 3 Ditty 4 Soon-to-be owner of Twitter 5 Certain Indonesian 6 CDs and LPs 7 Swiss canton 8 Faux pas 9 North Dakota city that's also a movie 10 One-eighty 11 Emits coherent light 12 Gael, for one 13 "Green Eggs and Ham" character 15 AWOL chasers 18 ACEMS member, eg.

22 Weather-map line 23 Installations 24 Lock of hair 25 Accepted practice 26 Demand payment 27 Demon of Japanese folklore 28 FDR or JFK 29 Shoot the breeze 31 Absorb, with "up" 32 Grammy category 33 Silent communication: Abbr.

34 Poor grade 36 Country folks?

38 Forest fires, e.g.

40 Doctors' org.

41 Nahuatl speaker 42 Aesopian ending 43 Muse of poetry 44 Pacific island nation 46 Fire sign 47 More qualified 48 Spilled the beans 49 Snaky shape 51 Spielberg's first blockbuster 52 Nile queen, familiarly 53 Word-of-mouth 55 Furious

Ryan Yu ’22 Editor-in-Chief Emeritus

Solutions: April 20

g Arts&Living

Collecting 101: The Complex Art of Acquiring Art Cassidy Duncan ’25 Staff Writer “Collecting 101: Acquiring Art for the Mead” is an internship created by Nichols Clark to honor his late wife, Trinkett Clark, Mead curator of American art.

He has generously funded this program for over a decade, covering the costs to purchase and ship the artwork. This internship is typically run by the curators and educators at the Mead for Five College students who want to work together to acquire artwork through a collaborative cohort-based experience. Due to Covid-related complications in 2020, “Collecting 101” was postponed.

In the Spring 2022 semester, the Mead Museum and Amherst Athletics conducted a restructuring of “Collecting 101” which I was a part of. With the help of Billy McBride, associate athletic director of diversity and inclusion, the Mead partnered with Amherst Athletics to further include student athletes in the artwork-acquisition process.

In seven meetings between the months of January and March, students learned the core principles of artwork acquisition and researched artists’ processes to help curate new artwork for the Mead’s collection. Students’ work culminated in a trip to New York City to tour artists’ studios, visit galleries and museums, and participate in a public presentation, where attendees voted on which single piece of artwork they believed should be purchased for the Mead.

Students decided to investigate several artists: Glendalys Medina, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Tomashi Jackson. These artists collectively exuberate originality and power.

Glendalys Medina’s “Gratitude” series is the product of a gratitude exercise Medina practiced during quarantine, where

she would go outside and find a color that moved her, then sketch it down. Her use of geometric forms and distinct color language creates beautiful, satisfying pieces.

Trenton Doyle Hancock creates eccentric, thought-provoking works that tell stories by engaging viewers with his own world. His piece in the collection is “Exchanging Variables,” a series of four aquatints that show his character “Torpedo Boy” — a superhero alter ego he created — meeting a policeman, a KKK Klansmen, Jesus, and himself.

Tomashi Jackson takes a contemporary take of screenprint on paper to tell the story of Mary Joseph Lyons, an abolitionist who used her home in Seneca Village to host runaway slaves who escaped via the Underground Railroad. Seneca Village, one of New York’s first free Black communities, was later uprooted for the construction of Central Park.

Jackson constructs a portrait of Mary Joseph Lyons in a bright neon orange color. This contrasts with how often historical images are presented in black and white, creating the illusion that the subjects they depicted are far in the past, even though they are not..

As a participant in “Collecting 101,” I can say that the climax of the internship was our trip to New York City. We underwent a unique experience within the art world through our intimate touring of galleries that housed our perspective artists’ work — the James Cohan Gallery, the Hunter College Art Galleries, The Black Index Exhibition, and the Jack Tilton Gallery — as well as the opportunity to speak with Tomashi Jackson over Zoom and tour Glendalys Medina’s studio.

We also visited the Whitney Museum of American Art, which exposed us to the real life art collection market, an industry that sparked the interest of myself and other interns. The cohort

Photo courtesy of Cassidy Duncan ‘25

“Collecting 101: Acquiring Art for the Mead” is an internship that helps select new pieces for the Mead Museum while studying the art of curation. At a final presentation in the Alumni Gymnasium, attendees voted on which single piece of artwork they believe should be purchased for the Mead: Trenton Doyle Hancock’s “Exchanging Variables.” had a few prospective art majors, but it was also filled with people from many different interests and pursuits, all of which aided in growing our combined perspective on the art that we considered and enriched our appreciation for the artists we had the pleasure to meet.

Our work throughout “Collecting 101” led to a final presentation in the Alumni Gymnasium, in front of staff and part

of both the athletic and broader college community to celebrate the artwork that the program worked to bring to Amherst. The cohort split into two groups, one presenting on Tomashi Jackson’s “Mrs. Mary Joseph Lyons” and the other on Trenton Doyle Hancock’s “Exchanging Variables.”

Following the presentations was a vote to decide Mead’s newly acquired piece — which the committee decided would be “Ex-

changing Variables.”

I am grateful for Mead’s collaboration with the athletic department to provide student athletes with a unique opportunity to connect to the art world and engage in its innerworkings.

It was a tremendously impactful and memorable experience, thanks to the work of Billy McBride, Miloslava Hruba, Emily Potter-Ndiaye, and Lisa Crossman.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Arts & Living

17

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Poetic Perspectives In this week’s issue of “Poetic Perspectives,” Managing Arts and Living Editor Aniah Washington ’22 shares a poem about her mother, documenting unfulfilled dreams and generational trauma.

Mama, I need you.

Mama, your crown is slipping, spilling, losing its grip on reality. please hear me this time. speak up Mama tell them you’ve had enough hold your head high Mama and know that you are worthy worthy of a chance worthy of any opportunity to climb out of the tomb you were born into, that I was born into. it doesn’t have to be this way.

Mama isn’t always right but Mama is always loving always there with Chips Ahoy cookies and a glass of milk after school always singing along with JaRule on long car rides always believing that I will make it all better for us

Hush.

but how could i?

Mama says hush now, if we keep quiet nobody will hear the pain in our voices. if we keep our heads down, nobody will see the sadness in our eyes.

with those same knives dug even deeper into my back and those god damn boulders dragging me straight to the bottom of that same ocean mama has been trying to swim out of for 43 years. maybe Mama was right. maybe my silence is okay. maybe my head isn’t meant to be in the clouds and these dreams i have are just that. dreams, too far out of my reach. too full of dark places and unfamiliar faces.

but Mama isn’t always right. speak up Mama tell them you are in pain look up Mama and show them you are not happy. but how could she? with knives in her back and boulders attached to her ankles we were made to sink. made to never make more than what we need. made to never have time for what we need. how do they even know what we need?

Mama says that money doesn’t grow on trees, but if I work hard enough someday I might break out of these chains. might break free from these labels that have put ceilings on my dreams. might break out of this cycle of broken bones, broken hearts, and broken dreams why do they even have the power to break me?

Mama. Mama. Mama.

Look at me. Tell me it’s going to be okay.

Tell me that my smile is what keeps you alive.

Keeps you dancing in the kitchen at 6 a.m. while you scramble eggs on the stove.

Keeps you wearing oversized Packers pajamas to the grocery store on friday nights Keeps us sharing secrets on your bed until we fall asleep with moonlight crawling through the windows. mama i love you. dont hush me, don’t hush the little ones either. let our voices be heard let our heads dance in the clouds and fill with dreams that will not just be dreams.

But realities much brighter than yours ever could have been Painted with yellows and oranges that make the boulders and the chains and the knives feel less like pain and more like power.

There is no need for silence anymore. you taught me that mama.

Now let me teach you mama.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Arts & Living

18

“Sur vivor” Season 42: Episode 7, Reviewed

Photo courtesy of besttvshow.mirahaze.org

The seventh episode of this season of “Survivor” premiered last Wednesday. Vaughn Armour ‘25 reviews the episode, which was predictable, yet enjoyable and entertaining.

Vaughn Armour ’25 Staff Writer On April 20, “Survivor” released its seventh episode of the season. As a longtime fan, I didn’t find the results to be shocking, but plenty of interesting plot points held my attention along the way.

As per usual, this episode began with the fallout from the previous vote. A few contestants were on the wrong side of the vote, and wanted to know why they weren’t part of the final plan. Chanelle and Romeo were understandably frustrated, and aggressively questioned Hai and Drea. Maryanne took a different approach. When Lindsay explained what had happened during the vote to her, Maryanne pretended to be OK with it, while understanding it meant she was on the bottom of Taku. Her route is a better way to foster trust, and is more effective in my opinion.

Maryanne has been getting more and more screen time as the season has progressed, and I can’t help but feel like the culmination of her story will be central to how Season 42 plays out. I’m not predicting her to win, but she may end up being the protagonist of this story.

Another possible protagonist is

Drea, just based on the ridiculous number of advantages she has accrued by winning challenges. She already shared the 3-way advantage amulet with Hai and Lindsay, which is an extra vote with three of them in the game, a steal-a-vote with two of them in the game, and an idol if only one remains.

She also received an extra vote at Shipwheel Island by choosing the risk option. A single extra vote can change the outcome of a Tribal Council, but two together are immensely powerful. She even found her tribe’s immunity idol, and activated it before the merge. In this episode, she found the “Knowledge Is Power” advantage while sitting out of the reward challenge.

It allows players to ask anyone else if they have an advantage or idol at Tribal, and to steal their idol if the answer is yes. In all honesty, I really dislike the effect this advantage has on the game. It feels more like something out of a board game than a “Survivor” advantage, and not being able to lie runs counter to everything “Survivor” is about.

It actually turned out well last season, when Liana asked the wrong person (Xander) if he had an idol. However, this only happened because Shan let it slip that the advantage existed: it’s way too

powerful when no one knows about it. Thankfully, Tori has already noticed Drea acting suspicious, so she may be onto her scent. Either way, Drea adds an incredibly powerful advantage to the insane bevy she already had. She’s a couple of advantages away from being able to vote out Jeff Probst, so I’m fascinated to see how she utilizes her treasure chest throughout this post-merge endgame.

At that same reward challenge, Jonathan went “beast mode” yet again, winning the challenge basically by himself and earning PB&J sandwiches in the process. At this point, everyone knows how big of a threat Jonathan is, so it makes sense that he is trying to just win everything he can. He tried to do that in the immunity challenge, but lost in a close competition to Tori. Tori has now won the first two individual immunities, and they’ve been vital. She’s been the top name on the chopping block both times, with her win changing things up again this week.

It was made clear early on that the large alliance would not be splitting apart in this episode, so the vote was quickly reduced to the vulnerable outsiders: Chanelle, Maryanne, and Romeo.

Mike wanted Chanelle out badly,

and went to work on getting that done. She had thrown a vote on him during the Daniel vote-out, in case Daniel had an idol, which destroyed all trust Mike had in Chanelle. I find it kind of funny that he was so mad about this because he voted for Chanelle to go home the week prior, but people tend to conveniently forget things that don’t justify their own narratives. After all, everyone’s the hero of their own story.

Romeo sensed that he was on the outs, and it isn’t hard to see why. Drea, who was previously his closest ally, literally couldn’t look him in the eye while lying to him.

It was hilarious to watch, but certainly wasn’t funny from Romeo’s perspective. He started scrambling to improve his position, and voiced his concerns about Drea to Rocksroy and Omar. Of course, they’re both part of the majority alliance, so this only hurt Romeo.

Omar used his statements as a reason to target him, and labeled him as paranoid, which Drea had already been saying. This was a good move from Omar, who is doing a great job of playing both sides. Everyone trusts him, and everyone thinks he’s aligned with them.

However, I can’t criticize Romeo too much. He was the decoy

boot initially, with the main target being Chanelle. The people in the majority alliance acted like he was crazy for worrying about being targeted, when for all they knew, he was a Chanelle idol away from sitting on the jury. He was in an impossible situation, and trying to better his position only increased the likelihood of him being targeted. It comes back to the inability of large groups to see outside of their own perspectives. They’re the heroes of their stories. Romeo trying to impede their games ultimately reflects negatively on him. Thankfully for him, Mike’s disdain for Chanelle overpowered Romeo’s paranoid label, and Chanelle became the first member of the jury.

Only 10 people remain, with seven of them being part of the majority alliance (Hai, Omar, Rocksroy, Lindsay, Jonathan, Drea, Mike). It’s only a matter of time before they begin to turn on each other. Whether that time will come in the next episode remains to be seen, but the game isn’t as predetermined as it currently seems. For Tori, Maryanne, and Romeo, surviving one more vote could make a world of difference.

They’re just trying to stay alive until the game breaks open, and I, personally, can’t wait to see that happen.

Sp ports

Dominant Wins Propel Tennis Teams to 2-0 Weekend Liza Katz ’24 and Leo Kamin ’25 Managing Sports Editors With the regular season winding down, the men’s and women’s tennis teams took to the courts against NESCAC opponents Trinity and Hamilton in a decisive week of games. Both teams swept the Bantams before routing the Continentals in similar fashion on Senior Day. Men The No. 18 men’s team rolled through the past week of NESCAC competition — their secondto-last of the regular season — in dominant fashion.

On Wednesday, April 20, the men took on the unranked Trinity Bantams on the Mammoths’ home courts.

The festivities began with doubles matches. It was utter dominance for the top two of three spots on the Mammoth’s ladder.

Damien Ruparel ’22 and Sujit Chepuri ’25 dropped just one game en route to victory in an eight-game set. Playing at the two spot (one position higher than they typically play), Kobe Ellenbogen ’25 and Micah Elias ’24 eased past a pair of Bantams with an 8-2 victory.

Trinity put up more of a fight at the three spot against Shaw Rhinelander ’23 and Zach Ostrow ’23, a pairing who have not seen much action this season. Nevertheless, the juniors did what they had to do, eventually taking the match in a tiebreaker to keep the brooms moving.

In the singles matches, the biggest scares came at the top of the ladder. Ruparel, Amherst’s number-one player, lost his first set 6-4 before capturing a 6-4 set of his own and winning in a third-set tiebreaker. At No. 2, Harris Foulkes ’22 only narrowly won the first set 7-5 before closing out the match with a breezy 6-2 second set.

From there, the Mammoths simply dominated. The remaining four players — Edred Opie ’25,

Chepuri, Ellenbogen, and Willie Turchetta ’22 — cleaned up their matches, winning 48 games while losing just eight. Opie and Ellenbogen lost just one game each.

Chepuri lost two. In what is sure to be their most comprehensive performance of the season, the Mammoths completed the 9-0 sweep.

It was the beginning of a brutal week for the Bantams, who went on to be swept two more times in NESCAC play, also failing to win a single match against both Middlebury and Williams later in the week.

The Mammoths returned to action, again at home, against the Hamilton Continentals on Saturday, April 23. Rolling out the same doubles lineup it used against Trinity, Amherst again swept the first three matches. Chepuri and Ruparel won 8-5, Elias and Ellebogen put the hammer down with a 8-1 victory, and Rhinelander and Ostrow again secured a narrow victory, this time 8-6.

The Mammoths entered the singles matches seeking their second sweep of the week. Things looked good early. Opie got off the court in less than an hour, putting a “double bagel” — 6-0, 6-0 — victory over his opponent. Foulkes followed him a minute later, with an almost equally dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory. Chepuri and Elias also comfortably handled their opponents. Playing at the No. 5 spot, Turchetta suffered a scare in his first set, hanging on to win 7-5, before powering through with a 6-2 second to make it 8-0 Mammoths.

But Amherst’s No. 1 player ended up being the sticking point on the day. Ruparel was on the court for more than two hours. He lost his first set 6-4, and though he battled in the second set, he ultimately fell in a tie-breaker. Nevertheless, the Mammoths didn’t have much to complain about, securing the 8-1 win and improving to 9-6 on the season, 5-3 in conference play.

After a solid run of threestraight wins, just two regular-sea-

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Damien Ruparel '22 hits a forehand. The men and women's tennis teams performed especially well this weekend, beating both Trinity and Hamilton in decisive fashion. son matches stand between the Mammoths and the postseason.

They currently sit at fifth place in the NESCAC standings, with a berth in the eight-team NESCAC playoffs secured. They face Bates on the road on Saturday, April 30, before a trip to Boston to face No. 3 Tufts the following day, May 1.

Women Coming off an impressive victory over then-No. 4 Emory University, the No. 9 Mammoths returned to the courts at home against the Trinity Bantams on Wednesday, April 20. With momentum behind them, the Mammoths took down the Bantams in style, preventing the Bantams from winning a single match en route to a 9-0 win.

The Mammoths started the day off hot, taking all three doubles matches to take a 3-0 lead.

The underclassmen duos of Mia Kintiroglou ’25 and Deliala Friedman ’25, Amy Cui ’25 and Katelyn Hart ’25, and Julia Lendel ’24 and Emily Sivarak ’24 took down their opponents at the one, two, and three spots, respectively. The pairs of Kintiroglou/Freidman and

Lendel/Sivarak both notched 8-5 wins, while Cui and Hart rolled to a relatively easy 8-2 victory in the first-to-eight set.

But it was in the singles portion of the match that the Mammoths really displayed their dominance.

Lendel (6-1, 6-1), Friedman (6-1, 6-1) and Calista Sha ’23 (6-0, 6-2) all dropped only two games in their matches against the Bantams.

And their teammate Kaya Amin ’24 one-upped them in the best possible way, winning every single game en route to a 6-0, 6-0 win.

However, even with the team win wrapped up, the Mammoths did not rest on their laurels. At the No. 1 spot, Cui kept the straight-sets win trend going, winning a tight game 6-4, 7-5, and Sivarak gutted out a tough 5-7, 7-6, 1-0 comeback win to seal the sweep.

The team took this energy into their match versus the Continentals on Saturday. Before the match, the Mammoths took some time to honor their seniors — and in their seniors’ honor, they took the match with no doubts, winning 8-1.

Again, the same three pairs from Wednesday’s match swept

the doubles matches playing in the same spots along the ladder — winning 8-5 at the one-spot, and 8-1 at both the two- and threespots — for a 3-0 Amherst lead heading into the singles portion of the match.

And much like the match versus the Bantams, Amherst again routed their opponent in the singles matches. While Lendel lost a thriller at first-singles in a tiebreaker 3-6, 7-6, 10-8, no other Mammoth even dropped a set on the way to a team win. And again, Friedman (6-2, 6-0), Kintiroglou (6-0, 6-0), Amin (6-0, 6-1), and Sivarak (6-1, 6-1) dropped two games or less across their straight-set wins — Sha also won in straights sets at the number twospot, although in only slightly less dominating style 6-3, 6-1.

The Mammoths finish their regular season this weekend with three straight road matches. On Friday, April 29, they will travel to take on MIT before bussing to Maine to face Bates on Saturday, April 30, and returning to the Boston area to play Tufts on Sunday, May 1.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Sports

20

Losses to Middlebury Set Up Crucial Series Against Williams Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor The baseball team lost an important NESCAC series against Middlebury this past weekend, but they were victorious in their two out-of-conference games. Now in the final week of the regular season, a massive series against perennial rival Williams looms on the horizon.

The Mammoths opened the week with a weekday away game against Springfield College on Wednesday, April 20. The Pride scored four runs in their half of the third inning to take a 4-1 lead following a first-inning run from the Mammoths, but that was all the scoring they would muster for the remainder of the contest. The Mammoths rallied back from the three-run deficit thanks to two runs in the fifth inning and another three runs in the seventh inning — along with stellar relief pitching from four Mammoths who did not allow a single run over the final six innings — to ultimately take a 6-4 win. Tyson Luna ’25 got the win in relief, and Nick Giattino ’24, fresh off his no-hit performance from last week, earned his first save of the season.

The Mammoths then hopped on a bus for the long trip to Middle-

bury on Friday, April 22. In game one, both offenses were stifled by solid starting pitching through the first three innings, with each team only managing one hit each. The Panthers broke the game open in the fourth inning, however, and continued their scoring onslaught in the following frames. They scored five runs in the fourth, added seven more in the fifth, and then added two in both the sixth and seventh innings. The final was a lopsided 16-0 defeat for the Mammoths. They had just three hits in the contest, compared to the Panthers’ 17.

Game two on Saturday, April 23, a seven-inning game, was a much tighter affair. The Mammoths leaped out to a 3-0 lead in their first two turns at the plate, scoring two runs on a Daniel Qin ’22 single in the first and adding another with a Jack McDermott ’25 RBI double in the second. The Panthers slowly seized control of the game over the course of the next five innings, though, scoring five unanswered runs to take a 5-3 lead. There was hope in the seventh inning for another Mammoth comeback, as Luke Padian ’24 doubled home Jackson Reydel ’23 to decrease their deficit to one with just one out. Representing the tying run, Nick Addison ’25 pinch-ran for Padian and advanced

to third on a passed ball, but the final two Mammoths were retired to end the game at 5-4. Giattino started and pitched the full six innings, allowing seven hits and five runs, but only four were earned. His record moved to 3-3 on the year with the loss. Hits were even between both sides at seven apiece.

The Mammoths finally put it all together in the final game of the series. They scored seven runs throughout the contest, capped by a solo home run from McDermott in the fourth inning, the first of his collegiate career, and another solo shot by Christian Fagnant ’24, his second homer of the season. The Mammoths had six more hits than the Panthers and made no errors in the contest, while the Panthers committed a whopping six.

Jacob Ribitzki ’24 was phenomenal from the mound. He pitched the complete nine innings, allowing just four hits and two runs, both of which came late in the eighth inning, and struck out seven batters along the way. His record is now 3-2 with the win.

In their final game of the week on Sunday, April 25, the Mammoths played out-of-conference opponent MIT at home in a game rescheduled from late March. The offense came alive against the Engineers, scoring 14 total runs, the most by the Mam-

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Ryan McIntyre '25 makes contact during an at-bat. McIntyre went three-for-four against MIT, including a goahead three-run home run. moths in a single game all season, en route to a 14-10 victory. Ryan McIntyre ’25 led the way, going three -for -four with five RBIs from the leadoff spot, including a go-ahead threerun home run in the fifth inning, the first of his career, that ended up being the winning run. Jack Boyle ’25 reached base safely five times, as he went two -for -two with three walks, and scored four runs in the process. Five total pitchers took the mound for the Mammoths, but it was Luna who picked up another win in relief, throwing three score-

less innings, allowing just two hits, and tallying a strikeout.

The Mammoths now sit at 1116-1 overall and possess a record of 2-7 in NESCAC conference play.

Up next is the most crucial series of the season against the most appropriate of opponents: Williams.

The Mammoths play at Williams on Friday, April 29, and then return home for a doubleheader at Memorial Field on Saturday, April 30. The winner of the series will earn the final playoff spot in the NESCAC West division.

Track & Field Gears Up for Conference Showdown Ava O'Connor ’24 Staff Writer

Source: Amherst Track and Field

Payton Sorenson '25 performed well in the pole vault.

Both the women’s and men’s track and field teams traveled to MIT this past Saturday, April 23, to compete at the Sean Collier Invitational, which included athletes from all three NCAA divisions. While there was no team scoring for this event, some notable individual performances from the Mammoths stood out.

For the women, Payton Sorensen ’25 pole vaulted her way to qualify for the New England Division III Championship and a fourth place finish with a vault of 3.10 meters that tied her personal best.

Sophomore Bridget Cassata ’24 and

first-year Lindsay Ward ’25 both topped their previous performances in the 100-meter hurdles. Ward not only finished third with her personal best, but she was also the top Division III finisher in the event with a 15.23. Cassata was close behind, finishing fifth in 16.15, a collegiate best. Trintje Nydam ’24 also ran a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles. She finished third in her field with a time of 1:05.90 The men also had some impressive performances this past weekend as they swept the 400 meter hurdles with Ellis Phillips-Gallucci ’23 taking first place with a season-best time, Alton Machen ’24 finishing second, and Max Spelke ’23 crossing the line in third.

Machen also earned fifth place and a personal best in the 110-meter hurdles in just 15.57 seconds. Camden Heafitz ’25 also qualified for the New England Division III Championships and earned second place in the high jump, only placing behind a Division I athlete from Harvard.

The long-awaited NESCAC Championships, the first in two years, are coming up this Saturday, April 30, at Hamilton College. The men’s and women’s teams are looking forward to finally being able to showcase the hard work that they’ve been putting in all year. Sophomore distance runner Theo Dassin ’24 said, “The whole team is amped for championships [this] season. There is no NESCAC [Championship]

during the indoor season, so we’ve had this one circled on our calendars for a while.”

Each school will bring to Clinton their top three competitors in each event, who have all met the qualifying standards in their respective events. A fourth athlete from a given school can qualify for each event without being in the top three on their team if their mark falls within the top 16 finishers in the NESCAC conference for that event. Each school can also bring three wild cards who meet qualifying standards and fall outside the top four but have placed in the top 16 in their events.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Sports

21

Walk-ons: Unique Paths Turn Strangers to Teammates Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer For most of the students who populate the rosters of Amherst’s 27 varsity sports teams, they knew that they would be on their respective teams almost a year before even stepping foot on campus. You’ve likely seen the posts on social media — forms of “I am excited to announce that I am committing to the admissions process at Amherst College to further my athletic and academic career” are thrilling sentiments that many future Amherst student-athletes are proud to share.

But other athletes did not know they would be playing varsity sports until well into their first semester at Amherst. Rather than being formally recruited by their prospective coaches, these student-athletes were admitted to the college without athletics playing a factor, instead choosing to contact their team’s coaches after enrolling and try out for a spot on the team at the beginning of the academic year.

Amherst women’s lacrosse defender and midfielder Annie Rosenman ’25 came to Amherst hoping, but not certain, that she would be part of a varsity team — she had her sights set on either the track and field and cross country team or the lacrosse team. Before arriving at Amherst, she got in touch with the coaches of each team. Both coaches clearly explained the process and what would occur when she arrived on campus in the fall. Essentially, the practices that both teams held in the fall would act as tryouts. After that trial period, a decision would be made.

Though Rosenman played both sports competitively in high school, she decided to go all-in with lacrosse when she started the tryout process. Coach Chris Paradis helped make the process feel seamless. “I'm so grateful to Chris for giving me a chance to try out for the team and for being on her last Amherst women’s lacrosse team… [and] I hope [other] coaches of other Amherst teams take a page from her book and encourage students to walk onto their teams as she wraps up an incredible

coaching career.”

Decathlete Jack Trent ’23 had a very different outlook when he enrolled at Amherst. In fact, when he stepped on campus, he did not intend to walk onto the team. A good all-around athlete, Trent’s decision to walk on to the track and field team was more about the people than the sport, as he did not participate in track and field in high school.

“I didn’t really intend to [walk on],” Trent said. “A coach from my high school knew Coach [Steve] Rubin, so he put it in the back of my mind, but I really got convinced [to try out] when my freshman year seminar included Ellis [Phillips-Gallucci ’23], Wilson [Spurrell ’24E], Chris Gong [’23], and Mia Rahn [’23], all members of the track team. Ellis convinced me to walk on with him, and I thought it would be a great experience either way, so I said, ‘Why not.’”

For some, the decision to walk on to a team at Amherst comes at the expense of a guaranteed spot on a roster at another school. But college is not all about athletics, and other factors can determine a person’s college decision. Women’s soccer goalkeeper Katya Besch ’25 is one such case. “Before deciding to come to Amherst, I was choosing between a school that was recruiting me and Amherst, my top choice school," she said. “[When considering both academics and athletics,] I realized that I wanted to try and make Amherst work.”

However, the experience of being a walk-on is different for everyone — some walk-ons take a very different path. Hugh LemmonKishi ’24 was initially recruited to play football at Amherst. Originally an offensive lineman, a knee injury forced him to medically retire from football and instead take his talents to the track and field team as a thrower, something he had experience doing in high school. He cites this experience in Amherst’s athletic community as one of the primary reasons he decided to walk onto the track team. “I think if I hadn’t been a recruited athlete, walking on would have been [a] more difficult [decision] since I would not know

Photo courtesy of D3Photography

Jack Trent ’23, a walk-on member of the track and field team, qualified for nationals. as much of the athletic community and may have not been prepared for the more demanding schedule.”

This schedule is one deterrent to possible walk-ons — the tryout process is a time consuming one, and, in a sense, a walk-on is walking on both eggshells and a team. Between balancing classes, burgeoning friendships, and the stresses of the tryout process, it is hard for many walk-ons to put all of their energy into forming connections with their possible teammates.

“The biggest struggle is that early on in your first year, it’s a very formative time to make friends, and it’s difficult to grow really close to people on the team, but not actually know if you will still be on the team in a few weeks,” Trent said. “You’re just generally uncertain about your place on the team for a long time.”

Besch echoed Trent’s sentiments. “The hardest part was the stress from all of the unknowns.

It was hard to find the balance between emotionally preparing myself for the possibility of not making the team, while also giving the team my absolute best and trying to get to know everyone,” she said.

Dilemmas like this one can throw a wrench into a walk-on’s ability to make friends in the first few weeks of school — all of their

free time is spent in the tryout process. This is especially true of fall sports, whose preseason practices run throughout orientation. The packed schedule that results severely limits a walk-on’s ability to connect with those not on the team they are trying out for, as free time is hard to come by outside of orientation’s numerous required activities.

Despite this, Rosenman cited a strong team culture and inclusive environment as helpful in navigating that stress. “Chris and my teammates made me feel very included from the beginning, and I quickly realized that that’s where I wanted to be.” she said.

It is this type of atmosphere that makes the process so rewarding.

When it works out in their favor, successful walk-ons find the stress to have been more than worth it. Besch described that “the two best parts of being a walk-on are the combination of feeling relief, extreme joy, and excitement when hearing that I made the team, and getting to be part of a team with people I love playing the sport I love.”

Rosenman agrees. “Walking onto the women’s lacrosse team is easily the best decision I have ever made, and it’s shaped every part of my Amherst experience,” she said.

“Each of my 32 teammates and both

our coaches, Chris [Paradis] and Ellen [Arena], have become incredibly important parts of my life, and have looked after me during my transition into college as a first-year.”

Trent expressed the same sentiment. “Being a part of the Amherst track and field program [as a decathlete] has been the best part of my college experience by far,” he said. “I can’t imagine what my life would be like without it, to be honest.”

He also voiced that he immediately received immense support and assistance from his future team.

“I’ve also felt incredibly supported by all of my coaches and teammates from the very beginning,” Trent said, “so I knew it was a program I wanted to be a part of, and I hope to contribute to it by making it a welcoming space for everyone, and, of course, accomplish some things on the track.”

In fact, he has done just that.

Trent has been a huge asset to the team, despite his late start to the sport. This season, he placed third in the 2022 New England Championships. His placement led him to the National Championships last month in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

More than two years removed from that first-year seminar, and in just his thirteenth track and field meet ever, he placed 12th overall.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Sports

22

Stellar Rounds Highlight Golf Teams’ NESCACs Prep Leo Kamin ’25 Managing Sports Editor As spring hit New England, the men’s and women’s golf teams hit the links in a pair of two-day tournaments this past weekend, Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24.

The women came third place in their home tournament, the Leaman Invitational, hosted in Bernardston, Massachusetts, near the Vermont border. The men finished sixth in the Williams Invite in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Women The No. 9 women’s team took to the course for what was just their second outing of the spring season at the Leaman Invitational.

Through the first 18 holes, played on Saturday, the Mammoths put up a strong showing. First-year Jessica Huang ’25 put up the best Mammoths’ score of the day. She concluded her roundwent around in

75 shots, good for three-over on the par-72 course. That score outplaced her in ninth out of a field of 59 after day one.

It was the Mammoths’ depths that proved their strong point on the first day of play, though. All five golfers competing for Amherst finished in the top 10 overall. Gihoe Seo ’25 and Jenny Hua ’24 each sat just one shot back of Huang at fourover, while Janelle Jin ’23 and Priya Bakshi ’24 were just one more back with 77s on the day.

The team’s combined scores were good for second place overall — just one combined shot back of first-place Williams, with NYU lurking three shots behind them.

The Mammoths had a somewhat tougher outing on the second day of play. Huang again brought her best stuff, going even lower than she did on day one with a 74 (twoover) to claim third overall in the tournament. Over 36 holes, she finished just two shots back of the lead-

ers, who settled matters in a playoff.

Bakshi also continued to play well, shooting a 75 and finishing sixth overall. It was a tougher day for Seo and Jin, who both shot eight-over.

The results bumped the Mammoths back to third place overall.

It was the final regular-season tournament for the team’s two seniors, India Gaume ’22 and Mina Lee ’22, who competed individually and finished 19th and 25th, respectively.

The third-place finish, coming off a second-place at the Vassar Invitational last weekend, bodes well for the Mammoths heading into the NESCAC Championships next weekend, which will be hosted by the Mammoths at Amherst Golf Club.

Men The men’s team headed to Williamstown for the Williams Invitational, their fourth appearance of the season. Just as for the women’s

team, a first-year lead the way for the men. Stephen Chen ’25 adeptly made his way around the course, posting an excellent score of 73 in his first round, two-over on the par71 course. He sat in fourth place overall through 18 holes. The rest of the team struggled to keep up with him.

The only other Mammoth in the top 20 was Brian Aslanian ’22, who carded a seven-over-78 to claim 20th place. Close behind him was Eric Zetterstrom ’22, who carded a 79.

Anthony Zhang ’25, Tommy Whitley ’24, and Ben Byman ’24 rounded out the scoring with rounds of 84, 86, and 87, respectively.

Following the first round, the team’s collective score — the sum of their top four scores — was 314, which put them in sixth place, 22 strokes behind the first-place Williams Ephs.

The team repeated their performance on the second day, shooting another combined 314 to finish in

sixth place. Chen failed to reach the heights of his day one performance, but nevertheless put up a respectable 78, seven over, to finish seventh overall. Zetterstrom continued to play well, improving on his previous day’s finish with a 77. Aslanian and Zhang rounded out the Mammoth’s top four scores with rounds of 81 and 78.

The sixth-place finish was not what the team wanted out of the weekend — but they nevertheless welcomed the experience.

“It was one of the tougher courses that we play all year,” said Whitley, “so it gave us a good challenge that we used to test and dial in our games.”

He hopes that the team's experience in Williamstown will prepare them for a strong showing at the NESCAC Championship next weekend, in New Hartford, New York. “The most important thing in golf is peaking at the right time, and we set ourselves up perfectly to peak next week at NESCACs.”

2022 NBA Playoff Predictions: Celtics Take the Top Spot Hedi Skali ’25 Staff Writer Few things live up to the excitement of the NBA playoffs — and now, they’re finally here. More accurately, they’ve been here for a couple of weeks, perhaps giving us a better understanding of the NBA’s best.

Here are the four teams I now believe can go on to win it all.

1. Boston Celtics Four months ago, the Celtics were 18-21 looking from the outside in of the Play-In Tournament and the Nets were title favorites. Fans were calling for the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown duo to break up and for rookie coach Ime Udoka to be fired. Since Brown’s “the energy is about to shift” tweet on Jan. 31, the Celtics have had the best defensive rating in the league. They have won 29 out of 35 games since that date, led by Marcus Smart, the defensive player of the year, and Tatum, who is poised to make the All-NBA First team. On Monday, after clamping down on KD and Kyrie, my Celtics

swept the Nets, and are making their case for title contention. As long as Boston continues to buy into Udoka’s switch-heavy defense — relying on each player's ability to defend positions one through five — there is no reason that this team can’t stop the league's superstars. Tatum and Brown will continue to dominate down the stretch and the grass has never been greener on both sides of the ball. In my totally unbiased opinion, the Celtics go on to win the 2022 NBA championship.

2. Dallas Mavericks After the Celtics’ sweep, I can no longer pick them as my title dark horse. Therefore, Luka Doncic and the Mavs have taken that spot. It’s obvious that a team led by Doncic and the surging Jalen Brunson, surrounded by superb shooters, will be excellent on the offensive end, but new coach, Jason Kidd — usually thought of as an offensive maestro — has made them even better on the other end of the court. Luka was previously considered a defensive liability, but Kidd has turned him into an

average defender. Now, he actually looks like he cares on that end of the floor. More importantly, however, the beginning of their series against the Jazz — playing without Doncic — has proven how well coached this team is. Considered complete nobodies, the Luka-less Mavs took two wins against Utah. Norman Powell and Maxi Kleber have stepped up as solid interior defenders that can spread the floor on the offensive end, after the team traded star big man Kristaps Porzingis. Memphis is built and coached in the same way, so why do I believe Dallas is a stronger contender? It’s simple: Luka is better than Ja. Luka has proven again and again that he can put any team on his back in the playoffs. Now that he is partnered with a perfectly coached team, there is no reason to believe Dallas cannot win a title. Except Jayson Tatum — he might be the only reason they can’t go all the way.

3. Golden State Warriors The Warriors are back. With Jordan Poole being the NBA's real Most Improved Player this year — going

from All-NBA G League third team to 24.3 ppg scorer on the NBA's best team over the past decade — the Warriors now have three elite scorers in Poole, Curry, and Thompson.

And that three-headed monster is well supported: they have a great three-and-D player in Wiggins, and are anchored by defensive mastermind Draymond Green. The veteran power forward slides in at center in a new “death lineup” due to his ability to defend star centers like Jokic.

On the offensive end, this small ball system lets their scorers shoot at will, essentially running circles around traditional centers via Draymond’s facilitation. They match up well against the Grizzlies or the Timberwolves, as long as Draymond can continue to limit bigs like Jaren Jackson Jr. or Karl Anthony Towns. I’m certain this team gets to the Conference Finals, but the Mavericks might be a problem, especially defensively.

Since Klay has lost a step, it’s not clear who would defend Luka. However, it would be ridiculous to count out the Splash Brothers: I believe they can still make a finals run.

4. Phoenix Suns Though the absence of top scorer Devin Booker hurts, the Suns were considered title favorites throughout the year due to the excellent coaching and leadership of Monty Williams and Chris Paul, respectively, as well as their superb depth and versatility on both sides of the ball. Their performance in their series against the Pelicans, which is currently tied at two apiece, is worrying, but I don’t see a world in which CP3 doesn’t make the second round. The Suns' perimeter players should seek to close out harder on the Pelicans' elite outside shooting, and force them to attempt an attack on the interior presence of rim protectors Deandre Ayton and Javale McGee, which New Orleans’ interior offense is no match for. I do not doubt that Chris Paul can carry his team till the second round. If his co-star can come back from his hamstring injury after a tight first round, with his usual explosiveness, the Suns could make it to the top. And while I don’t want to be on Chris Paul’s bad side, I don’t think he can win the finals alone.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Sports

23

DeMallie’s Career Day Secures Win Against Middlebury Mike Schretter ’23 Staff Writer Coming off an emotional 1410 win over Williams to propel them to third in NESCAC standings, men’s lacrosse responded with another huge win over No. 19 Middlebury 14-9 to maintain control of that seed and a potential home game in the conference playoffs. This game was the coming-out party for Bayard DeMallie ’23, who recorded a career-high five goals in the win. Brock Gonzalez ’23 chipped in four goals of his own to lead the Mammoths.

After Middlebury scored first with an unassisted goal from Jake Sheehan, the Mammoths began to dominate the flow of the game.

Amherst answered the Panthers’ opener with six goals in the first quarter. The opening goal came from Gonzalez, going unassisted to even the score at one apiece.

DeMallie came back two minutes later with a goal of his own in a man-up situation off an assist from Jake Bennett ’24. Amherst continued to pour it on the Panthers, as DeMallie scored again, this time off an assist from Carter Tate ’22, to make it 3-1. The Mam-

moths continued their stellar first quarter with a goal from Connor Guest ’24, unassisted, to make it 4-1. Gonzalez put the Mammoths up by four off an assist from PJ Clementi ’22 before Matt Adams ’23 capped off the first quarter scoring with a tally off an assist from Tanyr Krummenacher ’23.

Middlebury responded well in the second quarter, as Sheehan scored his second goal off an assist from Billy Curtis to make it a 6-2 game. Amherst soon responded, however, with a goal from Krummenacher, unassisted, making it 7-2. Middlebury then went on a run to make it a game; they scored four unanswered goals after Krummenacher’s to cut the score to a 7-6 Amherst advantage with 3:34 left in the second quarter. However, the Mammoths maintained their composure and were able to score two goals before halftime, as Krummenacher and Gonzalez, who ended the half with a hat trick off an assist from Brodie Rayment ’23, made it 9-6 going into halftime.

Once again, Middlebury made a run in the beginning of the third to make it 9-8, but after that, the third quarter became the Bayard

DeMallie show; he scored three more goals in the third to put the game away. The first came off an assist from Krummenacher to make it 10-8 Amherst; he then scored four minutes later off an assist from Guest, and capped off his three-goal quarter with another off a pass from Krummenacher to widen the margin to 12-8 headed into the fourth quarter.

DeMallie credits his team for his successful outing. “Our offense was clicking on all cylinders, getting the ball around … I found myself in the right spots, and my teammates made great feeds,” he said.

Amherst scored two more goals in the fourth, as Guest netted on his own, and Gonzalez scored off an assist from DeMallie, extending the Mammoth lead to 149. However, the victory was also about the Amherst defense, which held Middlebury to only three second-half goals, and nine all game.

Defenseman Ryan Rahbany ’24 credited physical play and strong goalkeeping for the team’s stout defense in their last two games.

“We played physical, scrappy defense which really helped us steal possessions all day,” he said. “Ob-

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Bayard DeMallie '23 lines up a shot during a game. viously a lot of credit has to go to Mitch [Likins’ ’25] play in net, as well. He really put us in a great position to win.” Likins had 15 saves on Saturday, which was his second highest total of the season. Amherst has now held strong NESCAC opponents to 10 goals or fewer in their last two contests.

Jack McHugh ’23 emphasized the great play of the defense.

“We have, I think, the best duo of short-stick d[efensive] mid[field-

er]s in [Rayment] and Ben [Bruno ’25, which] makes everything else a lot easier. It also always helps when our goalie has an insane game,” he said.

Amherst moves to 8-5 on the year and 6-3 in conference while Middlebury falls to 7-6 overall and 5-4 in conference play. The Mammoths will be back at home on Wednesday, April 27, for a 6 p.m. tilt against the Trinity Bantams in their last regular season game.

Women’s Lacrosse Loses to No. 1 Middlebury on Senior Day Carter Hollingsworth ’25 Staff Writer A beautiful day on Pratt Field was the perfect time to celebrate the women’s lacrosse team’s eight seniors on their Senior Day and the Mammoths’ last home game with retiring coach Chris Paradis at the helm. However, a tough test stood in front of them: Amherst took on the Middlebury Panthers, who entered the game undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Middlebury started off strong with four straight goals to open the first quarter, before senior captain Becky Kendall ’22 broke through and scored her impressive 30th goal of the season. The Mammoths entered the second frame down 4-1.

Kendall’s tally did not stop the

Panthers, who added three more goals to their total in the second quarter. The Mammoths responded by way of Fiona Jones ’23 and Lauren Friedman ’25, who added to the Mammoths’ total and reduced their deficit to a manageable 7-3 at the end of the half.

However, the Panthers’ scoring runs continued — they opened the second half scoring three goals in a 65-second span.

Kendall again put one in the back of the net, and senior attacker Marina Bevacqua ’22 followed with one of her own, but the quarter ended with the score at 12-5 in favor of Middlebury.

The Mammoths held the Panthers to only three more goals in the fourth quarter, and scored two of their own: junior midfielder Sydney Larsen ’23 and Bevacqua

both netted their 16th goals of the season to close out the scoring. It was too little too late, though, as the Mammoths lost by a score of 15-7.

The loss did nothing to overshadow the achievements of the team’s eight outstanding seniors and Coach Paradis during their careers, however.

After missing out on two seasons due to Covid, these seniors did not get the full four seasons of playing collegiate lacrosse that they expected. But in 2019, their first full season with the team, they reached the NESCAC tournament, advancing to the semifinals before losing to the Panthers.

They also made an NCAA appearance during that year, earning a bye in the first round and making it to the Elite Eight before losing

to No. 7 Salisbury by a single goal.

These seniors are a special group, anchoring the team through two missed seasons, and playing in only their second full season of their college careers. It takes a specific type of leadership to lead such a young and inexperienced team, which they have done with grace.

And, they’ve savored every moment despite the hiccups.

Kendall said, “Being part of the Amherst women’s lacrosse program has been one of the best parts of my Amherst experience.

I’ve made some of my best friends through the program and have been able to play the sport I love with girls I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life. It has been so rewarding to be part of such a fun and supportive culture over my

time at Amherst.”

This was also the final home game for Paradis, who is retiring after her 27th season with the team. During her time as head coach, Paradis has a compiled record of 294-109 overall, good for a .730 winning percentage, one of the best in the nation. She led Amherst to the program’s first national title in 2003, and has made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, including six Final Four berths and a trio of national title games.

The Mammoths will play their final game of the regular season on the road at Trinity this Wednesday, April 27, at 6:30 p.m., as they look for a final win to gain momentum heading into the beginning of the NESCAC tournament this weekend.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022

Sports

24

Softball Secures Series Win Over Williams in 3-1 Week Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst softball team took on a full slate of games this past week, playing Western New England University (WNE) on the road before facing rival Williams Ephs in a three-game NESCAC series. In another successful week for the Mammoths — their penultimate week of the regular season — the team earned three wins in four games and gained momentum heading into their final two regular-season series.

They won their first three games by a combined score of 24-6 before a close 3-2 loss to the Ephs to end the weekend.

First up for the Mammoths was a trip down I-91 to Springfield to take on the Golden Bears.

In an offensive explosion, the Mammoths only took five innings to bury the Bears, winning the contest 11-1 by the eight-run mercy rule.

It was dominance from the start for Amherst, who got on the board three times with two outs in the first inning of play. After Rachel Lovejoy ’23 was hit by a pitch and stole second, Dani Tor-

res Werra ’25, Jess Butler ’23, and Sadie Pool ’24 recorded consecutive singles to plate three Mammoth runs before the Bears could record the final out to take a 3-0 lead.

WNE narrowed their deficit to two shortly after, but that was as close as they would come, as Amherst pulled away in the top of the third. Torres Werra and Butler both notched singles before Pool was hit by the Bears’ pitcher to load the bases. From there, a wild pitch and base hits by Randi Finklestein ’24, America Rangel ’25, and Autumn Lee ’23 scored every subsequent Mammoth baserunner, extending the lead to 10-1.

One more insurance run put the final score at 11-1, ending the game.

This offensive explosion was an omen of what was to come in their next series, with Amherst again scoring 11 runs in their first road win against Williams on Friday. But it was Lovejoy who was the star of this one, as she notched five RBIs in the contest.

She started by scoring Megan Taketa ’23 on a sacrifice fly to put the Mammoths up 1-0, before hitting a two-run homer in the third

for RBIs number two and three, giving the Mammoths a 3-0 lead.

Her fourth and fifth RBIs of the game came on a two-run double in the fifth that put Amherst up 9-3. Those RBIs were a part of a three-run Mammoths inning that put the game out of reach. At the beginning of their half of the fifth frame, they were up by only three runs and had lost control of the momentum after two Eph home runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Two innings of lead-maintenance later, the Mammoths came away with an 11-5 victory.

Saturday’s first contest, this one at home, was a little different for the Mammoths. The week’s earlier offensive fireworks were traded for a defensive battle in which the first run was not scored until the sixth inning. The Mammoths broke the stalemate in their half of the inning, when a Pool single, followed by a series of Eph errors, led to two runs being plated on one play. An insurance run later in the frame, brought in by a Rangel single, was all the Mammoths needed to notch a 2-0 win.

Bloxham was stellar from the circle, getting her seventh win of the season by way of a shutout, giving

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Jess Butler ’23 makes contact at the plate during a game. up only five hits and one walk in six innings. Werra finished the game in relief, allowing just one hit and getting the save.

However, the team’s luck ran out in game two of the Saturday doubleheader. After Williams took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, the Mammoths rallied to tie the game on runs in the fourth and the sixth innings. Taketa scored both runs, reaching base on an error and coming around to score on a Lee grounder in the fourth, and then scoring on a Pool sacrifice fly in the sixth. But it wasn’t enough — a Williams

GAME SCHEDULE WOMEN'S LACROSSE April 27: @ Trinity, 6:30 p.m.

April 29: NESCAC Quarterfinal @ Higher Seed

MEN'S LACROSSE

April 27: vs. Trinity, 6 p.m.

April 29: NESCAC Quarterfinal vs. Lower Seed

TRACK & FIELD

April 30: NESCAC Championships @ Hamilton

MEN'S TENNIS

triple with one out in the seventh put the Ephs in scoring position.

Soon after, a ground out to first scored the lead runner, and the Ephs prevented the sweep in tight fashion, winning 3-2 over the Mammoths.

Softball will close their season with a doubleheader against Keene State College on Wednesday, April 27, and a final NESCAC series against Little Three rival Wesleyan on Friday, April 29, and Saturday, April 30, with the Little Three Title on the line. Friday’s game will be at home, while all others will be on the road.

WOMEN'S TENNIS April 29: @ MIT, 5 p.m.

April 30: @ Bates, 2 p.m.

May 1: @ Tufts, 2 p.m.

April 30: @ Bates, 10 a.m.

May 1: @ Tufts, 10 a.m.

BASEBALL

GOLF

April 29: @ Williams, 4 p.m.

April 30: vs. Williams, 1 p.m. (DH)

April 30-May 1: NESCAC Championships Men @ Yahnundasis Golf Club (N.Y.) Women @ Amherst Golf Club

SOFTBALL April 27: @ Keene State, 3:30 p.m. (DH) April 29: vs. Wesleyan, 5 p.m.

April 30: @ Wesleyan, 1:30 p.m. (DH)