Issue 27

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 27

WEDNESDAY, May 11, 2022

amherststudent.com

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

Sexual Violence at Amherst: A History and Legacy Sofia Rodrigo ’24 Staff Writer Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault and suicide.

Photo courtesy of Corri Hickson '25

The Reproductive Justice Alliance organized a protest against the leaked Supreme Court opinion which would overturn the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade. Students expressed shock, anger and sadness at the protest, as well as hope and solidarity given how many similar protests occurred across the nation.

Students Rally To Defend Roe v. Wade Leo Kamin ’25, Olivia Lynch ’25, Sofia Rodrigo ’24, and Sylvie Wolff ’25 Managing Sports Editor and Staff Writers At 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 5, approximately 400 Amherst College students walked out of classes, made their way to the Amherst Town Common, and staged a protest in response to the recently-leaked draft Supreme Court opinion which indicated that the court was ready to overturn its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.

The draft was leaked to the public less than 72 hours before, late in the night of Monday, May 2. Assuming it does not change before being released sometime this

OPINION

summer, the opinion would be one of the court’s most consequential rulings in recent history, ending constitutional protection of abortion rights and allowing states and potentially the federal government to ban abortion.

Across Amherst College, and across the nation, a normal Monday evening quickly turned into a night many will not soon forget.

Social media feeds, a few minutes prior flush with the latest looks from the Met Gala, were soon filled with messages decrying the decision.

As the news sank in, members of the Reproductive Justice Alliance (RJA) and organizers from the broader college community sprang into action. By 11:30 p.m., just three

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Who Won? In their last Seeing Double column, Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 and Thomas Brodey ’22 debate who is the better fledgling columnist.

hours after the opinion was leaked, the planning for a “mass mobilization,” as Lisa Zheutlin ’22, president of RJA, described it, had begun.

At a rapid-response meeting of the RJA on Tuesday, about 80 students crammed into couches, stood against walls, and sat criss-cross on the ground, packing the McCaffrey Room in Keefe Campus Center.

The core team of organizers — which included Zheutlin, Hibiscus Zhang ’25, Olive Amdur ’23, Victoria Thomas ’25, Sonia Chajet Wides ’25 (managing news editor), Sikkiim Hamilton ’23, and EJ Collins ’23 — presided over the meeting.

The discussion began with students sharing their feelings. Shock, anger, and sadness were mixed with a sense of hope at the large turnout

ARTS & LIVING

and at knowing that similar meetings were taking place at other colleges, and in other towns and cities across the country.

A walkout was planned for two days later, in conjunction with walkouts at more than 20 other colleges and universities — collectively called the Reproductive Freedom Protest. “We chose 2 p.m. to draw the most attention and disruption,” Zheutlin said. “We decided that more people would attend if it was in the middle of the day.”

When 2 p.m. rolled around on Thursday, students streamed out of classes toward the Valentine Quad, where they gathered before walking to the Amherst Town Com-

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Schrodinger’s Matt: When a food delivery to Matt Vitelli’s 24 quarantine room mysteriously disappears, he and two friends set out to solve the mystery.

SPORTS

In a post on Feb. 4, the Instagram account @ amherstshareyourstory addressed their frustrations with the lack of change concerning the culture of sexual misconduct at the college.

Responding explicitly to an email from the President’s Office, the post reads, “If significant change has been made since the 2012 investigation, why are the same conversations around sexual misconduct still happening?”

What conversations were taking place in 2012 regarding sexual misconduct? How has the campus culture concerning sexual misconduct evolved since then?

In this article, The Student explores the history of sexual misconduct at Amherst College, beginning in the 1970s when the college went co-ed, and following the progression of events to the present day. Through newspaper findings, archival data, and personal alumni narratives, this article hopes to expand upon some important questions. How has the attitude regarding sexual respect on campus changed over the past nearly 50 years? What events are responsible for these

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Softball Wins First-ever NESCAC Championship: Liza Katz '24 recaps the softball team's dominant run in the NESCAC tournament this past weekend.

News POLICE LOG

Fresh Faculty Rose Lenehan

April 26, 2022 – May 9, 2022

>>April 26, 2022 2:19 p.m., College Street A detective followed up on a past larceny case, which resulted in some of the stolen property being recovered.

4:47 p.m., Arms Music Building ACPD responded to a report of vandalism, which involved spray paint on the exterior of an academic building. >>April 28, 2022 11:58 a.m., South Amherst College Drive ACPD responded to a minor motor vehicle accident. No injuries. >>April 29, 2022 11:46 p.m., Moore Dormitory ACPD responded to a Valentine Dining storage area after a staff member found it open with broken glass near the entry door. The area was checked with no other findings. Area was then secured. >> May 3, 2022 3:56 p.m., Converse Hall Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) responded to a report of multiple people on the roof of the building.

Individuals were gone upon arrival.

8:02 p.m., Ford Hall ACPD responded to Ford Hall after a student reported some of their property missing from the hallway. >> May 4, 2022 10:40 a.m., Pratt Field ACPD responded to Pratt Field to take a report of property damage involving a lamp post. >> May 6, 2022

9:25 a.m., Eastern Hampshire District Court ACPD assisted a student at the Eastern Hampshire District Court.

9:26 a.m., Amherst College Police Department ACPD conducted a follow up investigation regarding a motor vehicle accident with no injuries.

2:26 p.m., Humphries House A detective conducted a follow-up meeting in regards to a previous incident that occurred in the dorm.

11:46 p.m., Mayo Smith House Community Safety Assistants responded to a noise complaint and the music was then lowered. >> May 8, 2022 4:11 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory ACPD took a report of damaged exit signs on the first floor.

7:51 a.m., First-Year Quad ACPD responded to the firstyear quad after a large piece of equipment, belonging to Hilltown Tents, was reportedly damaged. The ignition was found to be tampered with, making the machine inoperable. This matter is under investigation. >> May 9, 2022 6:34 p.m., Lee Hall ACPD took a report of past vandalism of exit signs at Lee Hall 8:47 p.m., Merrill Science Building ACPD took a report of past vandalism/tagging at the Merrill Science Building.

Department of Philosophy

Rose Lenehan ’11 is a visiting lecturer in philosophy and a Center for Humanistic Inquiry postdoctoral fellow. She received her Bachelors of Arts in philosophy at Amherst College and Ph.D. in philosophy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Q: What is the scope of your research interests?

A: I work in social and political philosophy, especially in critical philosophy of race and also in Marxism and in feminist philosophy, and I’m really focused on questions about the relationship between racism and capitalism, and between class and race — because I want things to be really different. And so these seem like really deep, difficult questions.

Q: What is it like working at CHI Think Tank at Amherst?

A: It’s wonderful. I mean, we’re a part of this cohort that meets several times a week and we share our work with each other. And we do readings together and we attend salons together. Because we all have different training, we can all recommend different readings to each other that the others haven’t heard about and bring really different perspectives to each other’s work. It’s the kind of experience you could never get in just a normal academic department because it’s all these different perspectives on a topic coming together.

Q: Did your Amherst education impact your reading habits?

A: I mean, we were assigned such fantastic readings. But also, being close with people who were really intellectually curious and really voracious readers [helped]. Some people I was really close with prioritized [reading for pleasure] over their classwork, but they were really intellectually engaged and always wanted to talk about ideas, and were always recommending things, so it made it exciting in a way that carried on after college and made me

realize [real-world problems better].

When you’re in graduate school, you’re trapped. You’re forced to read a very narrow set of texts in order to be trained in the discipline. It was really good to have gotten a sense of how much more exciting stuff there was outside of that too.

Q: What do you want students to gain from your class?

A: [On the most basic level], I want them to grasp this set of ideas that I think are incredibly powerful and exciting, and have really changed the way that I think about a lot of important political questions. I think one of the skills that I want people to get is to be able to identify what’s presupposed or taken for granted about a lot of our moral and political theorizing. One of my favorite thinkers, the historian Barbara Fields, talks about how ideology lives at the level of common sense.

And so it’s very hard to recognize because we’re just swimming in it.

And I think reading some of these texts allows people to step back and have some perspective, some critical perspective on things they would never otherwise think of as a choice that we’re all making rather than the way things have to be. And then I want people to improve as writers.

That’s really important to me. And I think philosophy is a really, really good discipline for helping people improve as writers because we prioritize clear, straightforward thinking so much.

Q: When you’re not doing research or teaching, what do you do in your free time?

A: The main thing I do outside of

my job is the tenant organizing work. When I was in Los Angeles, I was really involved in the Los Angeles Tenants Union. Even though I’m already here, I still do a lot of work for them by trying to connect other tenant organizers and other people who are members of tenant unions.

We’re hosting a convention in June in Los Angeles for all tenant organizers around the country. In a lot of cities, rents are incredibly high.

A lot of people have landlords that they’ve never met, who will raise their rent or will try to evict them or who won’t make repairs. Bringing those people together to figure out how to fight back. That’s what the tenant union does. And that’s the main way I spend my time.

Q: What is working with other faculty members in the philosophy department at Amherst like?

A: It’s wonderful. Some of them were my own teachers,so it’s very cool to be on the other side, and to be relating to them as colleagues. I think people have a bunch of different interests and a bunch of different areas of expertise. Doing philosophy together is really fun because everybody brings something different and I think we all have a lot of admiration for our different curiosities and different abilities.

Q: Lastly, is there anything you want students to know about you?

A: I can give them a great movie recommendation. I always have a great movie recommendation.

—Pho Vu '23

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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College Tightens Covid Protocols Amid Rising Cases Theo Hamilton ’23 Senior Managing Editor The college announced a new set of Covid protocols in a series of emails sent over the past week.

Effective May 9, community members are now required to wear KN95 masks in all indoor spaces excluding residence halls, Valentine Dining Hall, and private offices with a single occupant. An earlier email on May 4 announced that masks were now required within residence halls during all indoor events with more than 10 people. Additionally, a May 6 email outlined a set of new isolate-in-place guidelines for students who test positive but cannot isolate off campus, although these protocols have not yet been necessary.

The changes come amid a sustained increase in the number

of Covid cases on campus. As of May 10, there are 61 student, 7 faculty, and 12 staff cases, while the positivity rate of tests from the last two weeks stands at 2.28 percent: the highest it has been since this January.

In their May 4 email announcing new protocols, Chief Student Affairs Officer and Dean of Students Liz Agosto and Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Health Readiness Group Kate Salop stated that the upcoming end of the school year means that the recent increase in case numbers poses a particular challenge. “Students now contracting COVID-19 may be negatively affected in their ability to take their finals, to leave campus as planned at the end of the semester, and potentially, for seniors, to participate fully in Commencement activities, including in the ceremony itself,”

they wrote.

The college has also faced difficulties finding adequate isolation space. The contracts enabling the college to house isolating students in the Inn on Boltwood, the Econo Lodge, and Howard Johnson all expired in April, leaving the Rodeway Inn as Amherst’s only off-campus isolation site.

Although the college has been able to reduce pressure on isolation space by offering isolation housing at Hampshire College, the new isolate-in-place model will allow students who test positive to remain on campus in case a the number of positive cases exceeds available isolation space.

According to the May 6 email, students isolating in place must remain within their rooms at all times except when picking up meals or using the restroom. The

email also states that all other students living in residence halls with isolating students will be notified of the situation. In such instances, one restroom in the residence hall will be designated for the exclusive use of positive students. Additionally, all students isolating in place will be moved into off-campus housing at the Rodeway Inn or Hampshire College as soon as space becomes available.

According to Salop, there has not yet been a need to implement the isolate-in-place model.

So far, accommodations in the Rodeway Inn or at Hampshire College have been available for all students who have tested positive. Salop also told The Student, “An isolation in place model is under consideration for the fall, but no decisions have been made yet.”

Amherst is far from the only

institution to implement an isolate-in-place model. Within the Five College Consortium, UMass, Smith, and Mount Holyoke have all introduced their own policies for students required to isolate in place.

Although members of the college community are still required to test only once a week, the email sent on May 4 calls for anyone experiencing potential Covid symptoms to get tested immediately. To help facilitate easy access to testing, the same email announced that “the Testing Center will expand its hours to include Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. until 12 Noon.”

According to Agosto and Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein, the updated masking policy will remain in place until the end of the semester.

Classes of 2022, 2020 To Celebrate In-person Commencements Tana Delalio ’24 Managing News Editor The college will hold a fully in-person Commencement on Sunday, May 29, following two years of celebrations drastically altered due to Covid. Additionally, members of the Class of 2020, who were previously only able to attend a virtual graduation ceremony, will have an on-campus Commencement of their own on Saturday, June 11.

This year’s commencements will look different from Commencement 2021, when graduating seniors wore masks as they received diplomas without physical contact in LeFrak Gymnasium as parents and other guests viewed a livestream of the event. In contrast, both of the upcoming commencements will take place on the Main Quadrangle, with unlimited seating for parents and other guests. Since the ceremony is outside, masking will not be required.

In the event of severe weather, students will receive two guest tickets each to attend the ceremo-

ny inside LeFrak Gymnasium.

There will still be Covid-19 protocols in place for both commencements, said Chief Communications Officer Sandy Genelius in a statement to The Student.

Guests will be required to provide a negative PCR or antigen tests taken within 72 hours of their arrival to campus. Genelius also said that the college expects that masks will be required at all indoor events, in line with the current protocols on campus.

Genelius explained that these protocols are in effect because the college expects “potentially thousands of guests from around the world” at the several large-scale events planned for the commencements. “We must do our best to protect the health and safety of those who may be immunocompromised or have young children,” she added.

The enhanced protocols will not disrupt the series of Commencement events planned for the weekends prior to each grad-

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Photo courtesy of Cayla Weiss '23

Graduating seniors feel that this year’s on-campus Commencement is particularly meaningful due to two years of uncertainty prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Accessing Amherst: Stories of Current Admissions Pathways nities with primarily college-educated adults, and those who attend high schools with robust college advising and resourcing.

The latter of the two approaches, in which the college reaches out, is the one that has been developed over decades in order to diversify Amherst’s student body. “We … visit high schools and organizations and community colleges, and other places where there might be pockets of students that are looking to what they are going to do for their next step in higher education,” Hart said.

Sonia Chajet Wides ’25 and Caelen McQuilkin ’24E Managing News Editors How do students make their way to Amherst College? Last week, The Student explored some of the history of Amherst’s initiatives to reach more students, communities, and high schools, particularly ones with less historic access to higher education. This week, we take a look at how those diversity initiatives have evolved to construct today’s student body.

The Student spoke with the admissions office and heard the stories of current students’ pathways to Amherst. These pathways involved Amherst’s outreach efforts, various forms of community and institutional support, and a range of other factors. These stories, which are only from domestic and current students, are only a few of the 1,970 that make up this campus. They are not intended to represent the entirety of any demographic at the college, nor to cover the vast range of student experiences that exist on this campus.

Rather, we hope they shine light on the ways that individual students and their experiences with the college process relate to the institution’s changes in access over time. These stories continue to be a shaping force in students’ perspectives once on campus.

“Indigent Young Men”: A Mission According to Dean of Admissions Matt McGann, cultivating a diverse population of students is “an institutional priority” of Amherst’s. McGann, in fact, referred to the quote that opened last week’s Accessing Amherst article: Amherst was founded to serve “indigent [poor] young men of piety and talents.”

“Amherst has that in its DNA,” McGann said in an interview with The Student. “It has strayed from that at times in its history, but I think in more recent history it has embraced some of that founding idea, and broadened it for the modern age.”

Amherst’s status as an “elite institution” comes from its accep-

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Currently, 49 percent of the Amherst student body self-identifies as domestic students of color. Fifty-seven percent of the student body receives financial aid, and 15 percent are first-generation college students. tance rate, which has dropped to a staggeringly low 7 percent for the class of 2026, and its set tuition cost of $80,250, which in many cases the college covers based on demonstrated need. Currently, 49 percent of the student body at Amherst self-identifies as domestic students of color. Fifty-seven percent of the student body receives financial aid, and 15 percent are first-generation college students.

Diversity is complex, as our graphs last week indicated. They showed, for example, that while the populations of students on financial aid and students of color have grown over the past few decades, the proportion of students coming from public high schools has declined.

Anthony Jack ’07 has extensively researched and documented this pattern, showing how racial and economic inequity in higher education, particularly at elite institutions like Amherst, runs deep.

In his book “The Privileged Poor,” Jack documents the way that elite schools attract a disproportionate number of first-generation, low-income (FLI) students of color from elite private high schools, as opposed to public ones. “It is this tiny slice of a slice, I discovered, who

are primarily admitted to selective colleges. Over 50 percent of the lower-­ income black undergraduates who attend elite colleges get ­there from boarding, day, and preparatory high schools,” Jack writes.

Throughout the book, Jack refers to this broader idea as the concept of “the privileged poor.”

The Student attempted to obtain more specific data on this intersection of school type, income, and race at Amherst; for example, what percentage of federal Pell grant-eligible students attended public school. However, because Amherst admissions is need-blind, obtaining this data would require merging information from the Offices of Admissions and Financial Aid, an action the offices said they were unable to undertake.

The broader trends that Jack identifies, though, are highly pertinent to the Office of Admissions’ efforts to diversify.

Admissions’ Approach According to Amherst Admissions’ website, the college takes into account the “rigor of secondary school record,” academic GPA, essay, recommendations, extracurricular activities, and the talents and personal qualities encompassed in

an application. As of 2020, the college is standardized-test-optional.

Over time, the college has attempted to diversify by expanding financial aid access, increasing the hiring of faculty of color, and, most recently, ending the practice of legacy admissions. But a large factor in diversification is expanding the range of students who hear about Amherst in the first place, and those who will engage with and apply here.

In a 2021 article published in Inside Higher Education discussed McGann’s outlook on the importance of this outreach: “A key mistake of colleges with strong academics is believing that good students will find the college,” the article reads. “It’s got to be very intentional,” McGann said at the time.

“There are really two ways that students can gain access to information about Amherst,” said Associate Dean of Admissions and Coordinator of Diversity Outreach Mandy Hart. “One is by [students] coming to us … And the other way is us going out.” The former of the two paths is often the one taken by students who have spent their lives expecting to attend a four-year institution, who may live in commu-

The College’s Initiatives: Amherst “Going Out” Zoe Callan ’25 was a junior in high school when an Amherst admissions officer visited her Native American charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where, she explains, “there really isn’t much of a presence of Amherst.” She thinks that Amherst likely decided to visit because “the goal of my school is to prepare Native American students for college.”

Callan recounted that she learned about Amherst because of this outreach, and through College Horizons, a college preparatory program for Native American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian students that Callan was part of.

The fall after Amherst’s presentation at her school, Callan attended Early Opportunities for Native Students (EONS), programming that Amherst hosts for prospective Native students. Looking back, she said that “the EONS program was definitely instrumental, because I got a little bit more of a sense of what the community, particularly the Native community, at Amherst was like.”

EONS is a part of the Access to Amherst (A2A) weekend, one of the college’s main initiatives to do the outreach that Hart referenced.

A2A, formerly known as the Diversity Open House (DIVOH), is held each fall as an all-expenses-paid fly-in program for prospective students to visit campus and speak with current students, staff, and

Continued on page 5

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Students Reflect on Their Journeys to Amherst Continued from page 4 faculty. According to Amherst’s website, all prospective students may apply to A2A, but the college prioritizes invitation of students from historically excluded groups, particularly by race and class. Once on campus for A2A, students engage in programming and spend time talking to student Diversity Outreach Interns.

The EONS program became part of A2A in 2014. According to the college’s website, EONS “offers participants all the activities and opportunities of our A2A program, but with the added benefit of additional activities” tailored to Native students. Opportunities include spending time with the Amherst College Native and Indigenous Student Association (NISA), and learning about the college’s KimWait/Eisenberg Collection of Native American Literature.

Discussing the programs, Dean of Admission Cate Zolkos referenced research that suggested that “students who are coming from backgrounds where college isn’t a tradition tend to under-match,” meaning that they do not apply to schools like Amherst, even if they have a good chance of being accepted. According to Zolkos, this is primarily due to perceived and real cost, in addition to cultural barriers.

High school students must apply to attend A2A — the application includes a short essay, which may then be used for the Common Application as well. “[Students] do have to do a little bit of work to apply, but they can be really helpful in determining a college that’s a good fit for them,” Hart said. According to Zolkos and Hart, the program used to receive about 200 applications for 70 spots; currently, the college receives 600-800 applications per year and has around 200 spaces in the program.

Zolkos spoke to the importance of the program as being not just about exposure to Amherst, but to crack open the mystique around the college process in general. “We want students to come to Amherst, have a great time and want to come

to Amherst,” she said, “But we also want to expose individuals who might not have had that opportunity to answer a lot of questions and take away the mystery and… trepidation about applying to or attending an ‘elite’ college.”

Callan said that much of what she liked about the EONS program was the contact with students. “I got into contact with one of the students here… I messaged her and asked for help with stuff,” Callan said. “She was definitely an instrumental piece in me coming here.”

Sirus Wheaton ’23, a Diversity Outreach Intern, discussed the interns’ role in A2A: “We show them why we chose Amherst … we just talk very frankly about our experiences with our held identities at Amherst,” he relayed. Wheaton also highlighted the role that interns are unofficially expected to play in doing outreach in their own communities. “They do try … to reach some different schools,” Wheaton said, “But I think a lot of [outreach] is left to the labor of students. Like if someone … worked really hard and ‘made it out the mud’ or whatever, and is at Amherst, now, if they

were a Diversity Intern, it would be told to them that ‘you need to inform your own community.’” This follows a longer tradition of Amherst’s diversification coming from Black students and alumni doing outreach in their own communities, which we documented in last week’s article.

Both Wheaton and Jeanyna Garcia ’23, who also works as a Diversity Outreach Intern, emphasized that interns themselves do not do much outreach in an official capacity; rather, they engage with students who have already been accepted to A2A or are engaged with Amherst. For this reason, she said, the job is “more accurately speaking, a diversity marketing intern job.” Garcia also spoke about the value of talking openly with students. Interactions, even like students asking, “Does the chicken really taste that bad?” she recounted, “each makes a difference.”

Garcia herself learned about A2A while attending public school in Manhattan, where she was part of a community based organization called Minds Matter New York City. Minds Matter aims to “get

public high school students into these really competitive colleges by offering mentoring services,” as Garcia described it. It was through a college trip organized by Minds Matter that Garcia first learned about Amherst.

Amherst connects with community-based organizations (CBO) like Minds Matter to inform students about programs like A2A. Hart explains, “There are lots of guidance and support programs out there that are designed for all kinds of students, but they predominantly work with low-income students, those who are the first in their family to go to college, students who are underrepresented in predominantly white institutions.”

After the Minds Matter trip, Garcia applied for and attended A2A in the fall of her senior year of high school. She recounted that getting to meet and speak with Diversity Outreach Interns was one of the highlights of her experience. “I was able to talk about identities as a first-gen, low income student from a Latinx background … for the first time,” she said.

During the same fall, Garcia

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Students discuss research at the Summer Bridge Research Institute.

completed college applications, FAFSA, and CSS profiles. She also applied to Questbridge, which matches FLI students with colleges and universities that can commit to paying their full tuition; students are matched based on the school’s interest and their own ranking of where they would like to attend. In December of that year, when Garcia got her letter of acceptance from Amherst through QuestBridge, she described thinking,, “Oh my god, I actually matched to this school …

It was so amazing.”

The summer before she started at Amherst, Garcia attended Summer Bridge, which is, according to the college’s website, an “invitation-only summer program that empowers FLI students to navigate the educational opportunities at Amherst College.” The program aims to build community among FLI students, faculty, and staff. It also aims to prepare students both academically and culturally for life at Amherst.

Garcia now looks back on the program as an important part of her transition to college. “It reinforced for me that I had the skills necessary to thrive in Amherst because I felt a lot of imposter syndrome … Then attending Summer Bridge kind of debunked all that, like ‘no, Jeanyna, you actually do have the skills to succeed.’”

Beyond their communication with CBOs, Hart and Zolkos spoke on some of the admissions office’s approaches to reaching different geographic areas of the United States. Hart said that the office divides responsibilities regionally using “geo markets,” a standardized way to break up the country and world — New York state has 30 total geo markets, including nine in New York City, whereas the state of Montana has two. Every fall, admissions officers conduct outreach by traveling to different high schools around the nation.

Hart and Zolkos said that they know it will never be possible to reach every high school or student in each region, but that their goal is to make an impact in the plac-

Continued on page 7

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Following Leaked Court Decision, Students Walk Out Continued from page 1 mon. Beneath a bright sun and a cloudless sky on what was one of the warmest days of the semester, the moving mass of students clogged sidewalks and interrupted traffic on College Street. Protestors were encouraged to wear green as a nod to the “Green Wave,” the campaign for safe and legal abortion that helped deliver groundbreaking progress on reproductive rights in Argentina.

With President Biddy Martin, clad in green, looking on and local television cameras rolling, the procession formed a circle on the grass.

Zheutlin began a series of speeches, declaring, “Roe was supposedly our rock, something that I personally grew up with as a basic fact of life that I’ve now come to realize I took for granted.”

Though she had led campus activism against threats to reproductive rights for years, she said, “I never truly believed that our legal right to abortion would be taken away.” She described her “hope that we can move beyond the hopelessness that some of us feel right now.”

Zhang, then delivered a land acknowledgement — noting that it was the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People — and encouraged those present to donate to abortion funds catering directly to Indigenous communities. It was the beginning of a major thrust of the day’s speeches — an emphasis on the ways that the end of Roe may disproportionately impact marginalized communities.

Next to speak was Jallica Jolly, a current postdoctoral fellow and incoming assistant professor of American studies and Black studies who currently teaches a class on “Black Women and Reproductive Justice in the African Diaspora.”

She began by telling students present that “the next time we gather like this, let’s make sure it’s in the offices and institutional halls of our elected officials.”

She continued by connecting the issues at stake in the abortion

rights case to issues of intersectionality and a movement under the broader umbrella of reproductive justice, which including things like “quality childcare.” She ended by encouraging the students present to continue to “pull up” — to make their voices heard on issues they care about.

After Jolly’s speech, two other organizers took the stage (a park bench) for prepared speeches. Chajet Wides argued that the leaked draft ought to usher in a period of action: “This leak has bought us a month to defend and prepare until the decision actually lands.” She emphasized the need to strengthen networks of community care in the face of a potential end to Roe. Thomas then spoke, pointing to the special threat the potential decision posed to those living in conservative states. “On days like today I think of my best friend Mari, who lives in Texas,” she said. “I think of my nieces in Florida who are quite young, but evidently are old enough to feel this weight in one way or another.”

The floor was then opened up for anybody who felt inclined to speak, and a long succession of community members took turns on the mic, some drawing raucous applause.

Caden Stockwell ’25 and Phoebe Neilsen ’25 made their way forward to share the results of research into the Amherst Board of Trustees’ political contributions.

The pair claimed that members of the college’s governing body had contributed to the political machine that had brought about the potential end of Roe, pointing to five- and six-figure donations to conservative causes made by trustees in recent years.

On social media posts later in the day, students suggested that it was not a coincidence that Martin was seen walking away from the protest during their speech.

Though it has commented on political issues in the past, the administration has yet to release a statement on the leaked draft opinion.

Neilsen continued by connecting the concerns over abortion

Photo courtesy of Corri Hickson '25

Gracie Rowland '25 speaks to a crowd at the student walk-out. rights and trustee political donations to the board’s recent decision endorsing the continued presence of the Amherst College Police Department on campus: “This is the guy who gets to decide whether or not we get cops on this campus,” she said, in reference to Trustee David MacLennan ’81. A later post on RJA’s Instagram called attention to the $5,000 MacLennan contributed to the House Republican Campaign Committee of Minnesota in 2016.

After close to an hour of speeches, the protest wound down and the crowd of green dispersed, slowly drifting back toward campus.

The organizers said they were happy with the turnout for the protest, though Zheutlin said, “Obviously, I wish everyone at the school attended because this is an issue that affects everyone, whether or not you have a uterus.”

Some students had a somewhat less favorable view. Anna Penner ’24 said that she was “disappointed and surprised by how few male

students are actually out [for the protest].” She said, “I just think it doesn’t feel real to them, which is understandable. But I don’t know how to make it more clear that this does feel real.”

Nevertheless, those gathered seemed almost unanimous in a hope that the walkout would be the beginning, not the end, of a phase of activism on campus.

“There’s a lot of rage and grief in our community, but coming together to remember that these feelings are rooted in love has been so important,” said Nichole Fernandez ’25. “I hope this protest turns out to be the catalyst for the development of a strong protest culture on campus.”

RJA’s efforts have continued in the days following the walkout. It held a phone-banking session on Friday, May 6, to put pressure on senators to codify Roe via federal legislation and is tabling in Keefe all this week to solicit donations to abortion rights funds.

Within the Amherst community, Zheutlin said that the group

was “aiming to have structures in place so that if Roe falls, students at Amherst would still have access to abortion and reproductive justice,” including granting students access to the medication abortions that will be available at the UMass Amherst pharmacy next fall and making it easier to travel to the nearest abortion clinic, a 45-minute drive away in Springfield.

She said that the group was also “thinking through how to promote activism within hometown communities when we are off campus.”

Emphasizing the fact that reproductive justice is about more than abortion, Zheutlin said that RJA was looking into formalizing a set of demands that would make the college’s childcare more affordable and provide better compensation for its childcare workers.

As the college community and the nation brace for the high court’s final decision, Zheutlin encouraged continued activism. “Whether you showed up to the protest on Thursday or not,” she said, “we hope to see you continue the fight with us.”

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Seniors Express Gratitude for In-person Commencement Continued from page 3 uation ceremony, which for the Class of 2022 include a luncheon for seniors, families, faculty, and staff; a Choral Society Concert; and meetings for Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. However, the college will deviate from tradition by not permitting tent parties, some students fear will hinder the college community from coming together in the same way in past years.

Natalie Landau ’22, who attended Commencement in 2019, felt that the tent parties were a key element to Commencement’s celebratory and exciting environment.

“As they were located on campus, organized by the administration, and open to the Amherst College community, tent parties created a fun, celebratory, inclusive, and accessible environment for the entire graduating class,” Landau said.

Landau reported that since the college has taken down the tents across campus, seniors are looking for other venues to celebrate their graduation. As a result, “senior families are trying to find alterna-

Photo courtesy of Cayla Weiss '23

The college will deviate from past practice by not permitting tent parties. Some students fear the move will hinder community celebration. tives all across the Pioneer Valley, an option that is not feasible for everyone and separates the class geographically,” she said.

According to Genelius, the college is not providing private tents for families attending the commencements due to staffing shortages and the strain of preparing campus for two Commencement ceremonies within a short time period.

“We are sorry we won’t be able to provide tents and encourage families who want to host parties to look into area hotels, restaurants, and party spaces,” she said.

Despite the lack of tent parties, Landau feels grateful to have an on-campus graduation. “As an original member of the Class of 2021, I know that it was really sad and difficult for many of my peers to graduate without spending a

second of their senior year on campus,” she said.

Landau feels that this year’s Commencement is especially significant to this year’s senior class.

“Remote school, time off, and the stress of the pandemic were hard for so many of us, and while I think we are proud of our accomplishments and each other, we are also just tired and relieved to have finally made it,” she reflected.

Corey Jacobson ’22 echoed Landau’s sentiments. “I just feel ready. I’m ready for a new chapter in my life, and Covid exacerbated that,” he said. “Commencement this year feels especially meaningful because my close family and family friends are able to come celebrate this huge accomplishment.”

“I feel like each life chapter needs to end in celebration, and having an in person graduation with close people allows me to do that,” Jacobson said.

Keely Osborn ‘22 felt similarly grateful to graduate among the people she is closest to. “Graduation is a time for our class to all be together before we move on to our next chapter, and I can’t wait to share this special moment with my family and my close friends by my side,” she said.

Looking forward, Landau said, “This year’s Commencement is a celebration of perseverance, and I hope that everyone is able to fully participate in congratulating themselves and getting some rest before taking on the next big thing.”

Exploring Networks of Support in Amherst Admissions Continued from page 5 es they can reach. Zolkos spoke about the experience of visiting high schools: “When we’re traveling, going to four high schools a day, there’s nothing exotic about it, it’s exhausting,” she said. “But it’s really such a privilege to be kind of immersed, even temporarily, in the culture of the place, and learn about the place, and learn about what the challenges are, what the stresses are, what the exciting programs are. That is the context that is really helpful in holistic review.”

Community-Based and Institutional Bridges to Amherst Awareness about Amherst often comes to students from other primary institutions in their lives.

Some of these may be programs that provide support to FLI students. Jaden Richards ’25, who is

from the Bronx, participated in one such program, Prep for Prep, as a student, and later worked there as an advisor at the end of high school.

“I come from a community of people who have not previously lived in America, and just don’t have much familiarity with the world of elite institutions,” Richards said. A family friend who had heard of Prep for Prep recommended the program to Richards when he was in fifth grade, and asked his public elementary school to nominate him to take the program’s entrance exam.

Richards and a group of around 3,000 other students of color took the exam in the cafeteria of the Trinity School, a private school in Manhattan. Six hundred of the 3,000 were then selected to be interviewed, IQ tested, and recommended by their public school teachers — ultimately, around 125

children are chosen per year. “For two summers, and one school year … I was essentially doing schoolwork … It was like they were teaching you how to do the work that you would do at an independent school, which of course prepares you to do work at a college,” Richards recalled.

Richards described Prep as “a giant weed-out program.” Throughout the course of the program, he said, dozens of students “simply cannot continue” due to the rigor of the curriculum. After completing the preparatory component, Prep for Prep students are guaranteed admission to one of over 80 private day and boarding schools, which will also offer need-based financial aid.

“The assumption is that by making it to the independent school, that you will essentially be self-sufficient from that point on,” Rich-

ards said. That being said, Prep for Prep continues to provide support to students once they reach that point; this support includes working with a Prep for Prep college counselor, in addition to the college support available at the independent high schools.

In contrast to his home community, students at Richards’ private high school were very much aware of Amherst. In his words, “Kids there are particularly ambitious, so some of them might have heard of Amherst [but] most of them didn’t care for it. They were shooting for the ‘bigger names,’ so to speak.”

Richards added Amherst to his college list at the suggestion of his Prep for Prep counselor, who highlighted the college’s generous aid and their “good relationship with the Prep for Prep program.”

McGann noted that in 2021, Prep for Prep was the “leading” CBO in

terms of quantity of incoming students enrolled.

“Prep is kind of like Consumer Reports, like it’s giving this stamp of approval on kids … I suppose Amherst will look at the fact that a kid has done this program and is getting support from the program, and will see that as a guarantee of their qualifications,” Richards explained.

As for Amherst’s role, Richards questioned that the college’s relationship with Prep for Prep qualifies as “diversity outreach.” Referring to the “outreach” component of the phrase, Richards highlighted that it may not be necessary other than to “encourage students to apply because [they] want more,” since many Prep for Prep counselors are former college admissions officers themselves, and schools

Continued on page 12

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“It Should Be a Place Where We Felt Safe” Continued from page 1 changes? How has the student body and the administration responded to issues of sexual misconduct — and what do these responses show about the potential for the development of a culture of sexual respect on this campus?

Late 1960s to 1980s: Amherst College Goes Co-Ed In the late 1960s and early 1970s, colleges that had previously been male-dominated started making the switch to coeducation. Yale University and Princeton University went co-ed in 1969, with Williams College following their lead the next year.

On Nov. 2, 1974, the Board of Trustees voted in favor of making Amherst College coeducational, and the first class of women were accepted into the college for the following academic year. The decision to go co-ed was not a popular one with everyone in the Amherst community; a 1974 article in The Student reported that the decision was expected to negatively affect alumni contributions, as some felt that it was a “step backwards.”

The college’s fraternities — which had not yet been banned at the time — were also divided on the issue of coeducation.

While fraternities Phi Gam, Psi U, and Chi Psi expressed their enthusiasm for opening their doors to women in another 1974 article, fraternities like DU and Chi Phi voiced their concern that an influx of women into fraternities would eradicate the “last vestige of male influence at Amherst.”

Sentiments such as these reflected an already deeplyingrained culture of misogyny that was prevalent on campus before women arrived. But the college’s decision to go coed subjected a large number of new students to difficult conditions.

In an interview with The Student, Jody Kujovich ’78, who was among one of the first classes of women to attend Amherst,

Photo courtesy of It Happens Here

Photo courtesy of It Happens Here

On Oct. 23, 2012, only a few days after Epifano’s essay was published, Dana Bolger ’14 compiled a photo project titled “It Happens Here” featuring photographs of people who experienced sexual assault at Amherst and the things they were told by the community after their assault. described her unique experience living in a fraternity. “I said yes, stupidly, because they gave me a single room in a nice building. It was a mistake,” she said. “It was awful living there. It was so bad that I began to petition to get out. It was gross, I mean they were just obscene in the way they talked.”

Evidently, introducing women into an all-male campus was not an easy feat, requiring challenging the general attitude toward women — an attitude that viewed women far from being intellectually capable. In 1973, a year before the college voted to go co-ed, an article titled “Sleazing” was published in The Student, which detailed how to “pick up” women while simultaneously objectifying and insulting them. The article, posted anonymously under the name “Homunculus,” states: “We hate to admit that we need women physically (I mean, when was the last time a Holyoke broad made a significant contribution in your English class?) There are all sorts of ‘liberal’ arguments about women being more than objects, but face it … when Nature calls, you answer.”

The article provides insight on the attitude of sexual entitlement Amherst men felt towards women in the 1970s.

In their eyes, “there [was] no reason why any Amherst male should go scoreless.” “Sleazing” also expressed appreciation for Amherst being a male-only college, stating that “Once you’ve scored and shipped them, you never have to see them again.

The girls you screw don’t live in Pratt, they live miles away!”

This attitude affected incoming classes of women at Amherst over the following years — the women who, instead of being miles away, were now next door.

Kujovich recalled being stalked by a male peer for a period of time at Amherst, sharing she dealt with it with help from her friends. “We kind of took care of ourselves … it didn’t even occur to me to seek out help … because, who would I go to?” From her perspective, the administration was not yet equipped to deal with such issues of sexual misconduct, “I can’t recall any resource that would have been available to me other than going to a dean. There was really no channel for that yet.

[Women] were just too new.”

In terms of formal policy regarding sexual respect, Kujovich told The Student, “I don’t know that they even had one because they were busy trying to figure out how to even have women [at Amherst]. They were kind of making it up as they went along, and that was evident in everything.”

Late 1980s to early 2000s: Shifts in Policy and Attitude The end of the 1980s and the early 1990s began to show signs of a shift in attitude concerning the place of women at Amherst, according to historical documents and the testimony of alumni. Feminism started to plant its seeds on campus, and women at Amherst started to speak up on issues related to sexism, including sexual assault.

In an interview with The Student, Heather Cristol ’91 recalled participating in “Take Back the Night” events during her time at Amherst. “We were rallying for the idea that women shouldn’t have to be afraid to be out alone at night, and that the world should be a place where we felt safe,” she said.

The 80s also produced a series of events known as

“Womenspeak” that focused on drawing attention to issues of women’s rights. Originally established as the Amherst Women’s Group in 1975, the staff and resources allotted to what is now recognized as the Women’s and Gender Center slowly began increasing during this time as well, establishing the center as a valuable resource for women on campus.

Despite student progress towards creating a safer atmosphere, formal training on matters related to sexual respect was scarce at Amherst College in the early 1990s. Cristol reflected on a lack of resources concerning issues of sexual respect. “I mean, maybe there was a workshop or something, but I just don’t remember there being any sort of formalized education about consent,” she said. Cristol expressed that during her time at Amherst, most of the community wasn’t equipped to handle cases of sexual assault: “At the time, it was like how would you support someone who was telling you that they had been assaulted? I mean [rape] was just like, this is a thing that happens to people

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Reflections on Sexual Violence at Amherst

Photo courtesy of It Happens Here

Photo courtesy of It Happens Here

The 2012 photo project “It Happens Here” featured student testimony of community response to their experiences of sexual assault.

Continued from page 8 and then nobody really knew how to deal with it.”

In 1997, the college adopted a Sexual Harassment Policy in accordance with the Massachusetts Act Relative to Sexual Harassment, Education, and Training in the Workplace.

The law now required employers to adopt a comprehensive sexual harassment policy to be shared with all employees.

In an email to the Amherst community on June 3, 1997, President Tom Gerety announced this new policy change, writing: “We will continue to offer all academic and administrative departments educational programs on sexual harassment laws and policy.

We expect all employees to be familiar with the enclosed policy and to abide by its letter and spirit.”

Records available today still preserve some of the instances of sexual harassment that this policy was created in response to.

In the same year that the college adopted its Sexual Harassment Policy, a former Amherst College employee who worked in the office of Foundation and Corporate Support, Marjorie

Hutter, filed a complaint of sexual harassment against her supervisor Marvin Weaver.

Hutter claimed that Weaver’s behavior towards her changed after she became pregnant, including making demeaning comments that created a “hostile work environment” according to an article in The Student.

Over the course of that entire year, the college reported 12 cases of “forcible sex offenses” in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act was passed in 1990 as an initiative to increase transparency about crimes committed on college campuses.

The Clery Act has been amended several times since 1990, notably in 2013 when it was altered to include domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

The changes to law and formal policy brought an increase in awareness of sexual assault at Amherst College in the early 2000s. During this time, numerous programs and events took place to promote conversations of sexual respect.

For example, Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) classes were offered for free to all

“ We kind of took care of ourselves ... It didn't even occur to me to seek out help ... because, who would I go to?

— Judy Kujovich '78

”

Amherst students and their family members. R.A.D. classes were advertised on flyers as a “program of realistic selfdefense tactics and techniques which are designed specifically for women.” By 2002, over 300 Amherst women had completed R.A.D. training.

In 2001, during the week of April 9, a series of events were held for “Break the Silence: Sexual Assault Awareness Week,” including the Five College Clothesline Project. The Clothesline Project is a visual display dedicated to increasing awareness of sexual violence — through the medium of a T-shirt, survivors of sexual assault are given a space to voice their personal experiences.

During this time, the administration also began to implement educational training on sexual respect for faculty. In 2000, the Affirmative Action Office, led by Hermenia T. Gardner, held a Sexual Harassment/Sexual Respect Staff Workshop.

2012: Student Testimony Reveals Deep-Running Issues The illusion of progress was shattered on October 17, 2012, when Angie Epifano — a student

at the time — published an account in The Student of her rape and the college administration’s inadequate handling of her case. Epifano’s story garnered a substantial amount of media attention and sparked an uproar of conversation on campus concerning sexual assault.

Shazi Lyle ’15 reflected to The Student, “That letter being published was really shocking.

I remember my friends and I spent days reading it, rereading it, and talking about it. We felt very disappointed and confused about the way the administration was portrayed in that letter. It just felt very isolating and it really made me lose faith in the administration and the way they handle students.”

Epifano’s narrative detailed that she was questioned by the sexual assault counselor about whether she was “sure it was rape,” discouraged from following through with a disciplinary hearing, sent to a psychiatric ward by the administration, and faced with academic restrictions.

Eventually, Epifano withdrew from Amherst. The impact of her story can be seen in the events of subsequent months and years.

On Oct. 23, 2012, only a few days after Epifano’s essay was published, Dana Bolger ’14 compiled a photo project titled “It Happens Here” featuring photographs of people who experienced sexual assault at Amherst and the things they were told by the community after their assault. The photo project includes some shocking messages, such as a sign reading, “why couldn’t you fight him off?

-friend.” The project not only confronted the administration’s inadequacy, but also addressed the larger culture of sexual misconduct at the college.

In Bolger’s words on the “It Happens Here” website, “In our impulse to point a finger outward at the Amherst administration, let us not forget to look inward at our own complicity in the

Continued on page 10

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Alumni, Archival Materials Speak to History of Sexual Violence

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

On Nov. 2, 2012, President Biddy Martin canceled classes and closed offices for a “day of dialogue” for the Amherst community, which drew approximately 1,900 people to gather and have conversations about sexual assault.

Continued from page 9 creation of a culture that gives Angie’s rapist the power to act and our administration the power to silence and dismiss her experience.”

On Oct. 26, 2012, Sexual Respect Counselor Gretchen Krull resigned. References to Krull were made throughout Epifano’s essay, and her capabilities in her role as sexual respect counselor were portrayed negatively.

No confirmation was explicitly made that Krull resigned as a direct result of the essay, but an email from the President’s Office stated, “In keeping with what we have learned about the broad area of Student Affairs over the past months, we are redesigning and restructuring our student support services for victims of sexual misconduct and violence.”

On Nov. 2, 2012, President Biddy Martin canceled classes and closed offices for a “day of dialogue” for the Amherst community.

The Day of

Dialogue drew approximately 1,900 people to gather in the LeFrak Gymnasium and have conversations about sexual assault supported by presentations from faculty and administration members, including President Martin.

Reflecting on the Day of Dialogue, Lyle said, “I was really proud of the people that I was close with and that I knew from class, seeing them doing [their] best to be heard. Having a Day of Dialogue, having a call to action about adjusting the way that we frame sexual respect was really important for addressing the culture of sexual respect at the time.”

A few days later, on Nov. 5, 2012, the necessity of the Day of Dialogue was further amplified by the publishing of former Amherst student Trey Malone’s suicide letter on The Good Men Project. Malone’s letter explicitly mentions an incident of sexual assault he experienced at Amherst and his difficulty coping with it afterwards, which

was made even more difficult by the administration’s ineffective handling of his assault.

“There was no adequate form of preparation available for that and no repair afterwards. What began as an earnest effort to help on the part of Amherst, became an emotionless hand washing. In those places I should’ve received help, I saw none,” Malone wrote.

President Martin addressed the community afterward in a letter, expressing her sorrow and claiming that “the lessons in his words have informed the ongoing changes we are making at the college directly.”

The collective unfolding of these events — Epifano’s essay, Bolger’s photo project, and Malone’s suicide letter — placed the college under substantial pressure to implement fundamental change in their approach to issues of sexual misconduct. The student body was demanding changes be made in several areas, including increased resources for survivors of sexual assault,

a review of penalties for those found responsible for sexual misconduct and assault, and student membership on the Title IX committee.

In a letter to the editor published in The Student on Oct. 23, 2012, faculty stood in solidarity with the student body regarding these demands. The letter states, “We are writing to express our deep support for all who have been affected by this in any way. We are also troubled that the College has failed you … We realize that nothing can change the past. But as we face the future, know that we stand with you and we will come through this together.”

In response to the pressure to address sexual misconduct, the college established the Special Oversight Committee on Sexual Misconduct in October 2012. The committee was comprised of a mix of faculty, staff, students, and trustees for the purpose of reviewing the policies then in place concerning sexual misconduct

and providing recommendations to more effectively adress sexual misconduct on campus. The recommendations produced by the committee included requiring workshops on sexual respect and bystander training for first-year students, restructuring the Counseling Center to provide more services available to students 24/7, providing alcohol use education to all students, and allocating more resources toward the Dean of Students office.

In 2013, in response to the sexual assault crisis happening on campus, Amherst hired its first full-time Title IX Coordinator, Laurie Frankl.

Reflecting on the work of the Title IX office, Frankl told The Student, “Over the years, we have implemented DEI principles and practices, like: engaging and training around issues of bias; requiring anti-racism training for all members of the Title IX team; and actively considering

Continued on page 11

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Following a History of Sexual Misconduct at Amherst Continued from page 10 how individuals’ identities affect both their experiences with gender-based violence and their interactions with the Title IX office. There is even more work to be done on that front and we are eager to undertake it.”

More recently, the work of the Title IX office and the college’s administrative policies have once again come under the spotlight in the wake of another period of increased visibility of sexual assault on campus. On Dec. 10, 2021, an Instagram account with the handle @ amherstshareyourstory began posting anonymous stories of sexual misconduct at the college.

The account has called attention to the current culture of sexual violence on campus, with narratives describing various forms of sexual misconduct such as slut-shaming, stalking, and manipulation. Several posts also explicitly address the lack of adequate resources and support provided to survivors by the administration.

Taking a response similar to the one in 2012, in a Feb. 3,

2022 email President Martin announced enlisting the help of Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez to review the college’s policies and practices on sexual misconduct. Smith and Gomez were hired in 2012 for the same purpose, resulting in a report titled Toward a Culture of Respect: The Problem of Sexual Misconduct at Amherst College, also known as the SMOC report.

According to Frankl, “The 2012 SMOC report was clear that it is not enough for Amherst to “just” comply with the bare minimum of the law. Rather, all aspects of our work must embrace the essence of Title IX’s categorical prohibition of sex discrimination in education. We have been continually executing and building on this mandate through our community care model and our strict adherence to fair policies.”

The culture of sexual respect on campus has undergone significant change since the college’s origins of co-education in the 1970s and has been considerably reformed since the events of 2012.

Lyle recalls one reform as

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

“ There is no simple, obvious "fix" for sexual misconduct and gender discrimination, in general. What I do know is that culture change requires each of us speaking up about what is hapening.

— Title IX Coordinator Laurie Frankl

”

a result of these events being a shift in the use of language regarding sex, “There was a call to reframe conversations about consent. I think a lot of verbiage from the SHEs [Student Health Educators] in particular was like ‘consent is sexy’, which is great but what really came out of those discussions is that it needs to be more nuanced; ‘you can’t have sex without consent’ is basically what we should be saying because it’s not sex at that point.”

Changes in culture are also reflected by current student initiatives that promote positive and inclusive conversations concerning sex. In the week of Oct. 25, 2021 the SHEs held a “Sex Week” where events included a BDSM and kink workshop, discussion centered around LGBTQ+ experiences, and promoting sexual education.

Campus-wide support for, and solidarity with, survivors of sexual assault has also increased since 2012. In April, the Peer Advocates for Sexual Respect hosted a series of events in light of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, aiming to promote

prevention and awareness of sexual assault.

However, despite these improvements in the college’s culture and policy concerning sexual respect, the Instagram account @ amherstshareyourstory has drawn attention to the work that is still left ahead of us towards creating a safer campus.

In Frankl’s view, reaching this goal requires the contribution of every member of the Amherst community. “There is no simple, obvious “fix” for sexual misconduct and gender discrimination, in general,” she said. “What I do know is that culture change requires each of us to participate: speaking up about what is happening; supporting those affected by sexual violence; engaging with the work on the campus, local, and national level; educating ourselves; being an active bystander; speaking plainly about our expectations that we will not hurt each other; and listening to and supporting survivors in their choices for what accountability and justice looks like for them.”

“We all have a role to play.”

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

The 2001 Five College Clothesline project was a visual display dedicated to increasing awareness of sexual violence — through the medium of a T-shirt, survivors of sexual assault were given a space to voice their personal experiences.

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Students Speak on Admissions Outreach, Institutional Bridges Continued from page 7 like Amherst are widely known at the private schools that students attend. “You’re not reaching out to people who didn’t previously know about Amherst,” he said.

In response to the “diversity” component of the phrase, Richards said, “Yes, you’re getting students of color, but they’re a very particular type of student … And they come from a very unique circumstance that doesn’t necessarily reflect the backgrounds of most people who look like me.”

Speaking from the perspective of a Diversity Outreach Intern, Wheaton brought up Tony Jack’s work in thinking about the ways in which students tend to find out about Amherst, often through programs that they are a part of such as Prep for Prep. “This is kind of like the question of the ‘privileged poor,’” Wheaton said, “Where it’s like, people are in these underrepresented groups, but some of them still have access to these … organizations … a lot of our outreach is through these groups.”

Other students also spoke about how private schools, on their own, can by nature provide students more access to a school like Amherst. Carter Hollingsworth ’25 attended a private high school in Houston, Texas, in an area with “very wealthy people.” She herself was from a different neighborhood, and attended public school up until high school. “I’m 20 minutes away from the school that I went to, really not that far, [but] the worlds of people, knowing the differences, is crazy.”

In Hollingsworth’s home neighborhood, which she described as predominantly college-educated, college was usually “geographically based.” Most people from her neighborhood attended school either in Texas or more generally in the South. “If they went out-ofstate, it’s like, Ole Miss, Alabama, maybe a Colorado here and there, but that’s pushing it,” she described.

In her neighborhood, her friends and family were confused about where she was going to college. She described a summer crawfish boil

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Matthew McGann speaks at an Admissions Ice Cream Social. with old neighborhood friends — people would ask where she would be attending college in the fall, and would “have no idea where I was going.” In contrast, Hollingsworth said that teachers and parents at her private high school frequently recognized the name of Amherst; many of them had gone to schools in the Ivy League and were aware of out-of-state schools such as Amherst.

“If I hadn’t gone to private school, there’s no way I was going to go here,” Hollingsworth said.

She ended up hearing about Amherst and other NESCAC schools as she navigated the process as a soccer player.

Mase Peterson ’23E, a transfer student from Kennebec Valley Community College in Central Maine, learned about Amherst through a different pathway. They participated in a program at Vassar College — Exploring Transfer (ET) — a five week intensive designed to connect community college students with elite institutions. As Peterson put it, “We bust ass for five weeks. And if you do well, you can put that on your transcript. Then, that’s what gets you noticed by institutions like Amherst. It really is a springboard for community col-

lege students to enter into the elite sphere. The first time I even heard about Amherst was through this program. I didn’t know that it existed before. Once I found out about it, it pretty much opened the floodgates to this entire new category of what education could be.”

Amherst has a connection with ET as a means for connecting students from community college to the institution. Peterson noted that “the transfer acceptance rate here is less than 4 percent,” and emphasized that while not a “golden ticket,” “Amherst loves ET Students … at least in my knowledge, over the three or four years before Covid, I know of at least one student from each summer [program] that has gotten into Amherst.”

Other Navigations For some FLI students who did not encounter private schools, specialized programs, or Amherst’s own outreach, a wider network of support and local resources helped them to get here.

Twelve miles away from Hollingsworth’s high school, also in Houston, Maristhela Alvarez ’25 first came into contact with Amherst on a trip during the spring of her junior year of high school.

The trip was open to anyone in the top 10 percent of the class at Alvarez’s open-enrollment charter school, which served predominantly low-income students. In Alvarez’s words, “It was an exposure to college[s] out of Texas,” many of which she and her peers had never heard of.

“My community is … kind of in the dark about what’s out there, just because it is a bunch of people that are experiencing some of the same … financial struggles,” she described, “We don’t really realize what opportunities we have.” She continued, “We weren’t expected to apply to the schools [we visited].”

Her high school required students to be accepted into at least one four-year institution to graduate, and most students were encouraged to apply to local universities such as Texas Southern and the University of Houston Downtown — “[they] can pay for most of your stuff, and it’s close to home,” Alvarez noted.

The only other contact with outof-state colleges that Alvarez had was at a district-wide College Fair, which was also limited to the top 25 percent of the class; schools would send representatives to talk to students about their respective insti-

tutions. Alvarez mentioned that advising on out-of-state schools was also more limited. From her perspective, “Amherst didn’t really … do anything to put themselves out there in communities that they really should be reaching out to.”

The spring trip helped make those connections instead.

“I knew I wanted to go to college,” Alvarez recalled, “But I didn’t think I’d come here … I feel like I also underestimated myself a lot, though. I wish I applied to more out-of-state schools.” She recalled similar feelings throughout the process, expressing that she doubted whether she was “adequate” enough to go to an out-of-state school. The elite images of schools such as Amherst felt barring. “I didn’t think I would belong there,” she said, “It wasn’t that Amherst wasn’t welcoming. It was just like, I couldn’t imagine myself going to that school with rich people.”

Alvarez was in 11th grade when her physics teacher brought up the QuestBridge program. Encouraged by her physics teacher and other staff at her school, Alvarez applied to QuestBridge. She said that she “would have never” ranked Amherst had she not been on the trip.

“Nobody knew what Amherst College was,” she described. “Everybody was like, ‘What is that?’”

Alvarez was eventually matched to Amherst through QuestBridge, becoming the first QuestBridge scholar from her high school.

QuestBridge continued to provide support after her acceptance, such as hosting panels, and Alvarez said that the incoming class of Amherst QuestBridge scholars made a group chat over the summer.

She also participated in Summer Bridge, and noted her appreciation for the program in both the academic and cultural sense, as well as for the community that it gave her.

“I’m glad that I found the group of people during Summer Bridge who were people of color, low-income first-gen,” she said, “Because, I want to say it’s like home.”

Alvarez noted that Amherst could make the admissions process

Continued on page 13

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Students Recount Different Roads to Amherst Continued from page 12 more accessible by “putting more resources out there for parents who obviously don’t come from college backgrounds or privileged backgrounds.” She specifically suggested that Amherst “start putting things out in different languages because it’s hard, being a first-gen student translating all the paperwork to your parents who … don’t even know how elite the college is.”

Debra Thayer ’24 is another student who recounted navigating the process without concentrated institutional or community support.

Thayer described themself as being from “Minnesota, out in the boondocks, the middle of nowhere.”

They first learned about Amherst through “the Internet” — Thayer described googling “D3 track school” and “elite???” which yielded Amherst as a result. “I really wanted to go somewhere that was academically driven,” they said.

Thayer said that in their home and school communities, “nobody had ever heard [of Amherst]. I think it’s definitely small public school culture. The counselors do nothing to help — if anything,

they’re a detriment.” As a FLI student, Thayer said that their family did not have any further knowledge of Amherst, either. Even now, Thayer said that old classmates “send me TikToks of UMass, and they’re like, ‘oh, my god, your school.’”

While there was some college outreach at Thayer’s school — “college counselors [came in] from other places,” none of it was from schools similar to Amherst, even including Carleton and Macalester College, both of which are small liberal arts schools in Minnesota. Thayer participated in a CBO called Trio Upward Bound, which helped pay for application fees and other resources such as ACT prep.

After completing the application process almost completely independently, Thayer committed to Amherst. “I found out so many things when I came here,” they said, “I didn’t know we had an open curriculum. I showed up, and I was like, cool.”

Pathways to Positionality Richards commented that, “The thing that people say a lot here is, ‘we’re all here anyway, so it doesn’t

really matter.’” Richards, and the others interviewed for this story were united in the opinion that indeed, it matters how they got here.

They each reflected on the way that their pathways to Amherst feel relevant to their positionality now that they are here.

“I don’t really want to be congratulated or anything, I don’t want a pat on the back,” Richards said, “But I’ve spent my life working to get to this place. And the education and the value of that education means a lot more to me than some of my peers at Amherst who expected an acceptance letter instead of hoping for one.”

Richards also expressed his opinion that the differences in people’s journeys of getting to Amherst underscore elements of the social and academic life here. “Some people just don’t really understand how valuable an opportunity this is, and have no desire to take advantage of it,” he expressed, “When looking at who is … most involved in the community … it is probably more diverse than the college itself.”

Echoing Richards, Alvarez said, “Sometimes I do feel like the way that I got to college is kind of di-

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Amherst’s status as an “elite institution” comes from its acceptance rate, which has dropped to a staggeringly low 7 percent for the Class of 2026, and its set tuition cost of $80,250.

minished … I put so much blood and sweat into shaping my portfolio to look a certain way … using myself in the process … [to] go to a school where … I know damn well that after I graduate, I have a good chance of getting into med school, or getting a job right after college.”

Also similarly to Richards, she expressed that the different stakes of a college education for her set her experience apart from some of the wealthier students she has met: “I just need to break the cycle … I’m going to college for my mom, like, as much as it’s for me, it’s for her … and for my siblings …

It’s just all the hard work I put into proving to myself and my family that it’s worth it.”

Reflecting on their path to Amherst, Peterson said, “I was just lucky to have had opportunities at my disposal to take advantage of.

I did work hard,” they said. “And I did try to maximize my potential in many facets of my education, pre-Amherst, but I think really … the thing that I keep grappling with since being here is that it really wasn’t about my hard work. It was primarily about access.”

Upon arriving at Amherst, Peterson said, “I suddenly realized that my relationship with the institution was different from everyone else’s. Not just because of my age, but because of my experiences before Amherst. I realized that a lot of people here … the majority, it feels like, come from backgrounds of wealth and of access that I have never, ever seen.”

This perception began what Peterson called a “gradual whiplash.”

“I suddenly realized that all the things that I had been fed about my education, what it was supposed to be, to be worthy … I realized that so much of it was wrapped up in this capitalist box of achievement, of grind, of individualism. And I didn’t know what to do with that.

I still don’t know what to do with that,” they said. “I think that we need to rid ourselves of this illusion that Amherst is… going to provide. That Amherst is going to be the solution to all of our problems when we come here. Amherst is a singular moment in time.”

Other students also spoke about the ways that pressure to succeed contributed to their experiences now. One student who completed the Prep for Prep program, who preferred to remain anonymous to preserve her relationship with the organization, mentioned that despite the immense help the program provided, its intensity created a pressure that stays with her to this day. She noted the high-stress environment of the classes and the emphasis the program placed on persistence — according to her, the names of the students who dropped out of Prep for Prep were read to current students on a daily basis.

“There’s a certain fear of … not being able to live up to the expectations that we signed up for when we were 10 years old,” she said, “There’s this feeling that you have to perform, you have to succeed, and if not, then … you’re just not valuable anymore to the program, and also just to society.”

Garcia also reflected on the change in intentional outreach from the college once accepted. She calls the period of outreach the “honeymoon phase of Amherst, because it’s when Amherst is investing the most in students.” She continued, “I think the honeymoon phase stops once these marginalized students are selected. Once they bring them onto this campus, the outreach or investment in the students, kind of starts lacking… I really think that’s a gap that Amherst should be filling in.”

She recounted that after being accepted to Amherst, an admissions officer told her that all QuestBridge match students, including herself, could not receive funding to travel to attend admitted students’ day, as they had already matched with Amherst and the event was intended for students still making their decisions.

Garcia believes that “Just because we are already [accepted] does not mean that we are suddenly just another batch of students that add up to … their diversity stat reports,” she said. “Amherst should never stop investing in its students, especially its first-gen, low income students of color.”

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Mammoth Moments in Miniature: May 3 to May 10 The Editorial Board Committee of Six To Split Into Two The faculty recently voted to divide the Committee of Six into two separate committees: the Faculty Executive Committee and the Tenure and Promotion Committee. The Committee of Six’s responsibilities have historically included both advising the administration on policy and handling faculty-related considerations, such as reappointment,

tenure, and promotion. Moving forward, the Faculty Executive Committee will assume the role of advising the college and representing the interests of the faculty as a whole, while the Tenure and Promotion Committee will handle matters of faculty promotion and tenure.

Housing Innovation Project Calls on College to Donate Land for Affordable Housing On April 23, the Association of Amherst Students sent out a

message from the Housing Innovation Project (HIP), a group of Amherst College students working to increase access to safe and affordable housing in Amherst.

In the message, the HIP, which partners with Amherst Community Connections (ACC), a local agency that aids people in finding affordable housing, shared a petition calling on the college’s administration to donate a parcel of its land to be used for permanent affordable housing. The college has yet to

make an official response to the petition, which has received over 100 signatures since its release.

Architecture Students Release Petition for Faculty Support Last week, students sent a petition to the Architectural Studies Program expressing their concern about the department’s lack of support for thesis and senior capstone projects.

The petition, signed by both architecture majors and other

students, called attention to the department’s policy restricting students from contacting faculty over the summer, and its lack of introductory courses and adequate manufacturing facilities and resources. Also included in the petition was a list of requests for increased faculty accessibility, accommodations for access to workspaces and resources, and new technology capable of running advanced architectural programs. The petition has amassed 50 signatures.

From the Red Room: May 9 AAS Meeting Updates Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editor On Monday, May 9, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) held their 13th and final meeting of the semester. The meeting was held in the Red Room, with some attendees joining over Zoom. Its agenda included a presentation about Workday Student, a town hall on campus safety, and committee elections.

Once attendance had been taken, Sarah Barr, advisor to the provost on campus initiatives, delivered a presentation to the AAS on the new Workday Student system, which will replace AC Data next semester. She explained the system’s features and fielded questions from senators. Barr said that current students will be onboarded to the system on June 14.

Afterward, the AAS hosted a town hall regarding campus safety. Questions were fielded by Chief Student Affairs Officer and Dean of Students Liz Agosto, Chief of Police John Carter, and three members of the original Community Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) — Associate Professor of Russian Michael Kunichika, Sofia Guerra ’22, and Maya Foster ’23.

Treasurer Dania Hallak ’24 pointed to a disconnect between the student body and the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD), and asked whether there were plans to bridge this gap. Carter responded that the ACPD is examining ways to

connect more effectively with students, but said that the department needs student input on how to do so.

Several senators raised concerns about the impromptu appearance of Moose, the ACPD comfort dog, and his handler at student events, noting that the appearance of an uniformed, armed officer can be alarming to some. Carter said that the officer responsible for Moose is interested in having dialogue with students and that the dog’s presence can reduce stress. He added that ACPD is open to student feedback on the issue, and will consider ways to avoid making people uncomfortable.

Mollie Hartenstein ’23 asked about the role of the new CSAC, which was announced in an April 18 letter from President Biddy Martin.

Agosto explained that the new committee is intended to advise the administration on how to better serve the community as a whole with regard to safety. Guerra added that the committee needs to continue to reassess the role of ACPD and identify shortcomings.

After the previous week’s minutes were approved, Hallak presented the Budgetary Committee (BC) discretionary funding recommendations to the Senate. The largest requests came from the Outing Club, The Student, and the South Asian Students Association. Hallak also presented the AAS general budget for the 2022-2023 academic year.

The Senate unanimously approved the BC-recommended total of

$13,141.11 and the general budget.

Officers then delivered their weekly reports. Vice-President Jaden Richards ’25 described a meeting he and President Sirus Wheaton ’23 had with Agosto and a member of the college’s legal counsel about the prospect of paying AAS officials. Richards and Wheaton were reportedly told that the bylaw that established wages for officials was not viable due to legal complications. A stipend was proposed as a potential alternative.

Wheaton described a possible system under which officials would be paid a baseline stipend of $600 a semester, with additional compensation — $100, $200, or $300 — granted according to which committees an official is on.

The Senate then held committee elections. Although the election for the Judiciary Council was held at last week’s meeting, the positions were finalized this week due to an error in the election procedure. The two open seats were won by Hartenstein and Mia Griffin ’24E. The Elections Committee had five open seats. They were won by Fareeda Adejumo ’23, Gillian Quinto ’23, Chloe Metz ’23, Hannah Kim ’25, and Kate Redmond ’23.

The Appointments Board, which recommends students to the Senate for at-large committee positions, had six open seats. They were won

by Henry Pallesen ’25, Isaiah Doble ’25, Isabelle Malmqvist ’25, Kim, and Zane Khiry ’25.

The Transportation Commit-

tee, which organizes airport shuttle services for students, had five open seats. Four of these seats were filled

by Pallesen, Taha Ahmed ’24, Rachel Skoler ’25, and Adejumo, while the final spot will remain open until the fall.

At this point, with the meeting approaching the three-hour mark, senators discussed whether the remaining committees with open spots could wait until the fall to be filled. They agreed that the Orientation and First-Year Life Committee, which organizes programming for first-years, needed its seats filled, but the other committees could wait.

The three open seats were filled by Skoler, Leandra Depina ’24, and Kim. The meeting then adjourned.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

The AAS hosted a town hall on campus safety during its meeting on Monday.

Op pinion

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A Duty to Reproductive Justice

THE AMHERST

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

Last week, a draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked that would overturn Roe v. Wade and thereby revoke the constitutional right to abortion. With the right unprotected, the legality of abortion would be left up to states — currently, 25 states are predicted to impose bans, and 13 of those states have trigger laws to ban abortion that have been in place since the Roe decision in 1973. Marginalized and lowincome populations in these at-risk states will be disproportionately affected due to limited access to resources such as abortion pills and means for interstate travel to a location where abortion is legal, while the decision will add further strain on the clinics across the nation that remain open. Moreover, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has even suggested that such a court ruling could lay the legal groundwork for a federal law banning abortions.

Yet there has not been a word from the college about this revelation. Powerful student activism is already taking place on campus — the Reproductive Justice Alliance, for example, organized phone banking and the walkout last Thursday. But the administration continues to ostensibly ignore an issue which students have demonstrated to be deeply important to them.

This is surprising, as the administration is usually quick to comment on social justice issues important to students. Nevertheless, college officials have not addressed this direct infringement of the bodily autonomy of over 50 percent of its student population.

The administration’s hesitancy does not exist in a vacuum — sitting members of the Board of Trustees have donated a combined total of over half a million dollars to political campaigns opposing abortion rights, and abortion has long remained a culturally stigmatized matter about which open and vocal conversation is discouraged. The college’s lack of comment, therefore, reflects the belief that issues of reproductive justice can be deemed “too political,” and therefore neglected. But as an educational institution that prides itself on intellectual freedom and extensive inquiry, how can any topic be “too political?”

The college’s mission statement begins, “Amherst College educates students of exceptional potential from all backgrounds so that they may seek, value, and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence.”

Philosophically, such a blow against reproductive justice is a strike against the college’s institutional

mission expressed here: The loss of the right to abortion is unavoidably at odds with the college’s aim to educate students from “all backgrounds.”

Overturning Roe v. Wade would instantly undercut the ability of many to seize control of their lives through education. In one 2019 study, one in five abortion patients aged 18-29 cited education or career as a primary motivator behind their decision to get an abortion. The same study found that only 27 percent of women who were denied an abortion went on to finish a college degree, while 71 percent of those who received them graduated from college. The court’s decision would thus have a direct, negative effect on the educational attainment of college students.

When it became clear that a Supreme Court case threatened affirmative action — another issue incredibly pertinent to Amherst students — the college’s response was swift: it soon filed an amicus brief in support of affirmative action. Why doesn’t the college demonstrate the same level of concern now that abortion access is threatened? Although affirmative action at first appears to be more relevant to colleges, abortion and education access must also be recognized to be intrinsically linked.

The campus discussion and advocacy surrounding abortion cannot be smothered under the guise of being “too political,” as the issue is directly tied to the longstanding mission of the college and the makeup of its student body for the generations to come. An attack on abortion rights is an attack on access to higher education; we cannot continue to turn a blind eye as youth across the nation become increasingly trapped by their circumstances and higher education is pushed further and further out of their reach.

As the right to abortion is essential to the college’s vision of higher education, it is imperative that the college release an official statement of support. The college is an institution of consequence, with billions of dollars and two hundred years of history to its name.

It has the responsibility to throw its weight behind what matters and insert its institutional power into this public conversation, to come out of the shadows in support of abortion rights and set a precedent on behalf of the cause of higher education as a whole.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of the majority of the Editorial Board — (assenting: 13; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 1).

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.

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The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Who’s Really Running Amherst College?

Phoebe Neilsen ’25 Contributing Writer Last month, after years of student protests and calls for abolition, the Amherst College Board of Trustees voted to maintain a sworn, armed campus police department. This decision, while infuriating, is entirely unsurprising.

As President Martin said in her April 18 email, the Board of Trustees has fiduciary responsibility for the college, meaning that they are to act in the best interest of the institution. Martin framed their vote as “the best [decision] for our community at this point in time.” To this, I ask: how can we expect the Board of Trustees to act in the best interest of the college when most of them have built careers off of exploitation, manipulation, and violence?

With my accusations laid, it’s time to introduce some of the members of the Board of Trustees.

Who better to start with than Andrew Nussbaum ’85, Chairman of the Corporation and partner with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz (WLRK)? A quick Google search reveals that WLRK partners make the highest profit out of any U.S.based law firm. The firm, which specializes in corporate law, backs predatory and exploitative clients such as Bank of America, which has historically invested in destructive fuel pipelines such as Line 3 and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Moreover, WLRK has issued memos specifically aimed at combatting climate litigation, stating “The business community as a whole, needs to view [litigation around climate change] as a potential threat and

take appropriate steps to combat it.”

Ironically, Nussbaum signed a statement last March encouraging Amherst community members to address climate change in their daily lives. But of course, he didn’t mean himself — how else could he justify working for a law firm complicit in environmental devastation?

Speaking of climate destruction, we can’t forget about David MacLennan ’81, the CEO of Cargill, which the NGO Mighty Earth named “the worst company in the world.” Aside from being the largest privately-held company in the United States, Cargill has an appalling history of deforestation, price fixing, destroying indigenous communities, selling contaminated meat, and buying products made by enslaved children across the world. Since becoming CEO in 2013, MacLennan

Photoscourtesy of Amherst College

Chairman of the Corporation and partner in law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz, Andrew Nussbaum '85.

has overseen the company as it has concealed huge price markups, sold palm oil farmed by children, invaded ancestral land in Papua New Guinea, contaminated an Illinois bay with hog waste, and started a nation-wide E. Coli outbreak.

Even the more benign-seeming members of the Board have built careers by increasing the wealth of the ultra-rich. Douglas Grissom, Simon Krinsky, Ted Beneski, David Novak, and Dwight Poler all work in private equity, one of the most predatory inventions to come out of late-stage capitalism. And moreover, seven board members have donated a total of over $500,000 to anti-choice individuals and organizations over the past 15 years.

It makes sense that a group made up of the ultra-wealthy would vote in favor of maintaining an armed police force, because the police have historically protected the very conditions which have allowed them to prosper. Since their inception, American police have protected capital at the expense of marginalized populations. Whether it be Southern slave owners using slave patrols to protect their private property or Northern business owners calling riot police to break up strikes, the police have always been a violent, racist, and exploitative institution.

During first-year orientation, I was told over and over that Amherst was a force for good in the world — that it had, for two centuries, been a place where young people of “exceptional potential” would equip themselves to solve problems of injustice and inequity in the world.

The people making the decisions, however, tell vastly different stories.

They tell us that you can profit off of destruction while claiming to be regenerative. They tell us that you can be a thief your whole life and never be caught.

This is the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of Amherst neoliberalism: The people who get to decide who gets criminalized on campus are themselves perpetrators of harm on massive scales. The issue isn’t just that the Board of Trustees isn’t diverse or is overly wealthy. The issue is that the board, a thoroughly

nondemocratic institution, has a near-monopoly over how the college is run while being made up of people who have built careers off of economic, environmental, and physical violence.

We must abolish the Board of Trustees. It is exploitative, obscenely wealthy, and thoroughly non-democratic. The fact that 14 out of 20 members are elected by trustees themselves ensures that without abolition, the board will continue to self-propagate at the expense of marginalized students and the community at large.

Like all abolitionist projects, creating alternative systems requires collective imagination. I invite all students to ask themselves how their ideal Amherst would be run.

I personally am inspired by democratic schooling models, where an elected council of current students, staff, and faculty are responsible for voting on institutional policy. An even bolder system would allow all members of the Amherst College community to vote on and create college policy. These changes would be accompanied by large-scale civic engagement programs built into the college’s curriculum promoting equal access to such political decisionmaking.

In the short term, it is crucial that we develop an action-oriented culture at Amherst which criticizes the oppressive structures which so many of us blindly accept. A good place to start is the “recommended readings” section of the Amherst Disorientation’s wordpress. Another homegrown resource is the blog “What’s Left at Amherst,” which is dedicated to preserving institutional memory of dissent at the college.

And on-the-ground organizing is happening in various areas around the college! The Reproductive Justice Alliance and the Amherst Labor Alliance are two student organizations that have been doing great work around relevant issues.

At the moment, Amherst College is run by people who have built careers off of committing the most egregious human rights violations of our time. Imagining a better future may seem daunting, but the urgency of the situation requires it.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Seeing Double: Who Won? Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 and Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnists Thomas’ Take In its three years of print, Seeing Double has fought a desperate but losing battle to keep The Student’s opinion page alive.

That battle, however, is a playfight compared to the struggle between the two archnemeses who write the column. Upon reflection, however, it is obvious that the real heart and soul of the column is not the bespectacled Brodey, but the broccoli-headed Midwesterner, Cole Graber-Mitchell.

In his first-ever Seeing Double solo column, Cole advocated for local news, arguing that students should read not only the New York Times and Washington Post but local newspapers (and perhaps even Amherst Student columns). The take was vintage Graber-Mitchell: expressing an unshakable faith in local government, community, and the wholehearted promotion of democratic values.

It is this single-minded commitment to democratic ideals (not always with a small d) that sets Cole’s columns apart. In Fall 2019 alone, he advocated for felony enfranchisement, open borders, democratic legitimacy, and, in case you took the wrong message from his other pieces, optimism. Worker's rights are a particular focus for Cole — his columns discuss unions, the unfair origins of tipping, and unpaid student researchers. Tying together such disparate ideas into a unified theme is no mean feat.

Cole managed it through his unwavering moral compass, aimed with laser focus at calling out all of society’s wrongs and achieving justice.

Like many Amherst students, Cole was the star of his high school’s debate team, a fact I am all too aware of when I read our head-to-heads. Somehow, Cole turns ink and paper into a genuine and moving passion for the issues that drive him. Even our

Photo courtesy of Cole Graber-Mitchell '22 and Thomas Brodey '22

Cole (left) and Thomas (right) eating the same meal but in very different manners. Highly symbolic of Seeing Double. more eccentric arguments, such as our debate over moon mining, featured eloquent and powerful rhetoric by Cole. My own arguments often seemed cold-hearted and cynical by comparison.

Cole’s columns were also creative and novel. A particular favorite of mine is his 2020 piece laying out a new algorithm-based housing system (perhaps inspired by the 153-square foot closet we shared in Seelye at the time). Cole’s system would have been an immense improvement on the housing system then in place, and over every one of the new systems Amherst has insisted on introducing each year since.

In other cases, however, Cole has had the capacity to do something almost unprecedented in the world of columnists: put his words into action. As an AAS member, he pushed for several of his causes to be realized. That included securing access to the Daily Hampshire Gazette for all Amherst students so that they can appreciate local events. His

prescience also extends to national politics. In October 2020, Cole wrote an article warning that Donald Trump would attempt a coup if he lost the election. Columns tend to avoid making predictions for fear of predicting wrongly, so even had Cole’s prediction been wrong, he would still have deserved credit for courage. The fact that he turned out completely correct speaks to a deep understanding of current affairs.

What makes Cole’s writing truly stand apart, however, is his ability to take moments of personal pain, dislocation, and confusion, and turn them into beautiful reflections. Consider his recent piece exploring his Jewish identity. In the painful and uncertain aftermath of the March 2020 removal from campus, Cole composed perhaps the finest column to ever appear under Seeing Double, tapping into his feelings about his parents’ divorce, the pandemic, and the future of politics. In contrast, the best his co-columnist could

come up with was a bland listicle.

Of course, Cole has fallen victim to the occasional trash take, like his fallacious argument against cannibalism. And while his advocacy for campus gazebos may please some, it reflects the kind of irrational optimism about the northern climate characteristic of Minnesotans. All the same, through three years of college life, he has acted as a kind of north star for the campus as it grapples with crises both local and widespread. Amherst College will miss reading Cole’s work, but not half so much as I will.

Cole’s Comment Like all of us, my co-columnist has had some bad takes in his time. But none is so atrocious as his claim that I am the better Seeing Double columnist. A simple look through the record — 78 articles have been printed in this newspaper under the Seeing Double name, including this one — provides all the evidence one needs to proclaim Thomas Brodey the undisputed champion

of Seeing Double, the fire in the furnace of this column.

Thomas has told me before that the jokes in his articles have an audience of one: himself. Time and again, Thomas has managed to produce some of the most fun articles to read in recent Student history, from course proposals steeped in humor to making fun of old-timey explorers’ accounts while abroad in Denmark. My personal favorite, and a true exemplar of his style, is his wonderfully funny defense of cannibalism. Thomas’ unique and fearless comedy, which he weaves effortlessly into his articles alongside his arguments, is a true high point of this column.

Yet I think that his columns may be more broadly characterized by his “audience of one” ethos. It’s clear from his record that he clings to no dogmas and is an unapologetically individual thinker. His drive to write what he believes has produced some duds, like his article about cli-

Continued on page 18

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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The King of Seeing Double: Thomas or Cole?

Continued from page 17 mate change’s silver lining, but it has also produced some of his best work. His columns in this vein include an argument for expanding Amherst, a plan for addressing the athlete and non-athlete divide, a plea for examining mediocre work in classes, a call for continuing to use Zoom after the return of in-person classes, and an incisive take about American leftists and liberals' misplaced love for Scandinavia.

A fantastic example of his individualism is that Thomas’ deep and healthy institutionalism, on display when he decried court-packing and insisted on treating the Republican Party as legitimate, never seems to prevent him from writing genuinely radical takes, such as his columns on Amherst’s diversity mirage and Foucault. (Though I heard from a little birdie that he had actually never read Foucault when

writing the latter article. I bought him a copy of “The History of Sexuality” for his birthday.) He is the true “fox” of Seeing Double — in more ways than one.

And then of course there are his head-to-head contributions, which never fail to force me to reconsider my own viewpoints. I’m notoriously stubborn, but Thomas’s strong argumentation is able to break through. His take on social media and activism now convinces me even though I argued against it two years ago.

But there are two sets of Thomas’ articles that truly go above and beyond the rest. It is these that set him apart from any other contributor to Seeing Double (i.e. me). The first consists of his articles on American foreign policy. As Thomas has pointed out, American foreign policy is almost never at the forefront of the national consciousness. Yet it is clearly on his mind, and his articles about the atrocities com-

mitted in our names abroad and veterans at Amherst demonstrate a deep concern for others in an area where most Americans falter.

The second set of articles are those in which his love for his field — which I have often maligned in these pages — makes itself known. It was in one of these, in which Thomas promoted the use of history’s tools in everyday life, that our old favorites Carl and Maria first entered the Seeing Double Columnar Universe.

Other columns implored us to ask our older family members for their stories, urged us to rethink how we teach history, and called for new narratives about the 2020 election.

But Thomas' best article was far and away, as silly as it sounds, his listicle about living through Covid. I beg you: please read that article. The advice, derived from historical examples, is fantastic.

After I read it for the first time

Red Herring: Bigfoot Sighting

two years ago, I began to journal about my experiences, a habit that has sustained me through many tough times.

This campus will be worse off when Thomas leaves for Madagascar to work in the Peace Corps with no internet, electricity, or running water. It will lose a

proud historian with remarkable intellectual range and unending good faith. It will lose this paper’s best comic, and this column’s best contributor. And I will lose — thankfully not forever — the best friend and interlocutor a fledgling columnist could have ever asked for.

Photo courtesy of Cole Graber-Mitchell '22 and Thomas Brodey '22

Cole (left) and Thomas (right) at a student karaoke event where Thomas cut Cole's hair.

by Isaac Streiff ’24

Amusements

w

The Amherst Student Crossword | May 11, 2022 ACROSS 1 Home of the Lightning and Rays 6 Church area 10 Enfant terrible 14 CFO of the company responsible for the majority of Michigan's electricity, '97 15 Surprise attack 16 Abominable Snowman 17 Like a one-day forecast or Wi-Fi 19 Lasso 20 CEO of the company sued for aiding and abetting child slavery in the Ivory Coast, '81 22 Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia immediately after his dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, '85 25 Stable sound 29 Plastic ___ Band 30 "Details to come" (Abbr.)

32 Only member of 53-A not based in the U.S. or England, '89 33 Former governor of the Federal Reserve, '83 37 Biden's favorite m-word 39 Back of the pack?

41 "The moment has come" 44 Clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist in the term before his dissent in Planned Parenthood v.

Casey, '83 48 Parisian pal 49 Video game series in Vice City and San Andreas, for short 50 Supreme Court case likely to be overturned within the next two months 51 Lawyer who successfully argued to legalize sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas, '76 53 A frequent source of controversy for the college, or what 14-A.

20-A. 22-A. 32-A. 33-A. 44-A. and 51-A are a part of 58 Coffee chain whose workers have been rapidly unionizing this past year 61 Jessica of "Fantastic Four" 64 Happened to be at sea, celebrating with drink 68 Thinker's complement 69 Sound boosters 70 Flanders Fields flower 71 ___ Benedict 72 Greet the judge 73 Weather woe DOWN 1 Numerical suffixes 2 Ooh and ___ 3 Muscle: Prefix 4 Salon waves 5 Take ___ at (try) 6 Babylonian abode of the dead 7 "Hunger Games" setting 8 Autograph 9 "East of ___" 10 David of the Talking Heads 11 ___ Speedwagon 12 Org. for Federer 13 No-win situation 18 Color TV pioneer 21 One ___ (everybody) 22 Neither's partner 23 Spanish article 24 ABBA's shortest song title 26 Kind 27 "___ whiz!"

28 Casual greeting 30 Scottish cap 31 Let the cat out of the bag 34 Boxing stats 35 "Haven't decided for sure" 36 Digs of twigs 37 Yoga accessory 38 Riddle-me-___ 40 Actress Scala 41 Profs' helpers 42 Thoughtful sound 43 Sundial numeral

45 Fury 46 Cedar Rapids college 47 "For ___ a jolly good fellow" 52 Winter Palace residents 53 Recipe amts.

54 Charlotte 55 Fiddler-crab genus 56 Passes over 57 Letter-shaped opening 59 Wage. of words 60 Malek of "Mr. Robot" 61 Fruity drink 62 Captain's journal 63 "I ___ to differ!"

65 Wall St. debut 66 "All Things Considered" airer 67 Wolff Fitness Center, e.g.

Ryan Yu ’22 Editor-in-Chief Emeritus

Solutions: May 4

g Arts&Living

ASO’s Final Concert: A Strong Salute to the Season Madeline Lawson ’25 Managing Arts and Living Editor On May 7, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra (ASO) performed their final concert of the season. The program, dedicated to President Biddy Martin, consisted of a Sibelius concerto featuring violinist Marie Leou ’22, and “Titan,” Mahler’s Symphony in D Major. The audience was packed, and many community members, including Martin, gathered to enjoy the orchestra.

An anthropology major who is planning on applying to medical school next year, Leou has been a member of the ASO for all of her four years at Amherst.

Leou’s concerto performance was initially set to be performed in March, but was postponed to the season finale due to rising Covid cases. The three-movement concerto began with an ominous introduction: a hum from the orchestra, met by a single, wailing note from Leou’s violin. According to San Francisco Symphony program writer Michael Steinberg, Sibelius had intended for the opening note of the concerto to be incredible. Leou delivered, producing a sound that pierced the room and powerfully drew listeners in.

Throughout the performance, Leou maintained a commanding presence on stage. She executed technical runs with impressive speed while still conveying emotion throughout. She produced so many chords that it was hard to believe there was only one violin playing. The orchestra complemented her playing beautifully, creating a strong support for Leou to flourish alongside. In the second movement, she was so in sync with the orchestra that they almost echoed one another.

The movements contrasted each other, yet possessed similar tones that ultimately united them as complementary components of one great piece. The

Photo courtesy of Haoran Tong '23

The Amherst Symphony Orchestra performed their last concert of the season on Saturday. Managing Arts and Living Editor Madeline Lawson '25 reviews the performance, which featured a concerto from violinist Marie Leou '22. first movement was melancholic, growing into a rousing and bitter swell from the orchestra, and the second began with a woodwind melody and bouncing arpeggios from Leou. The third and final movement was the most technically advanced — Leou produced astronomically high notes and bounding leaps above a rousing symphony, while still playing delicate grace notes with emotion.

“I have been working on [the piece] by myself for about a year and a half now,” Leou said. “The summer before this year, the conductor [Mark Swanson] asked me to play the concerto with the orchestra. We usually have about five or six rehearsals with the orchestra.”

Conductor Mark Swanson noted that the concerto is “wicked to coordinate with the or-

chestra.” It’s difficult to believe that such a smooth performance could be mastered with so few joint rehearsals.

After intermission, the orchestra performed its second piece of the night, “Titan,” a four-movement symphony. “Mahler’s First Symphony is a large expanse with virtuosic passages as well as very subtle, chamber-like, delicate sections that also need careful and detailed preparation,” Swanson explained. With a run time of over an hour, it’s impressive that the orchestra maintained their vigor throughout the performance, playing with as much strength at the end of the fourth movement as during the first chilling note from the violins. A two-note melody made its way around the orchestra, growing stronger until the music explod-

ed. It was a gradual buildup, one that felt inevitable yet exciting.

The second movement was more playful and jaunty, with variations on a melody throughout the trumpets. It employed more percussion than the previous movement. Heavy timpani rang throughout, and it ended with a cymbal crash. The third movement featured a soulful double bass and timpani, and the fourth movement was the longest, beginning with an energizing roar from the violins and cellos. It featured incredible amounts of power from each section and ended with a satisfyingly definite conclusion.

Reflecting on the season, Swanson said, “I’m exceedingly proud of the six in-person concerts the ASO has performed this academic year; it was unusual

in that it featured eight students as soloists in concertos. We also performed four large-scale symphonic masterpieces by Dvorak, Elgar, Beethoven, and Mahler.”

Leou added, “I’m really thankful to have been a part of the music community at Amherst. It’s been a really great experience.

I’d like to say thank you to all my professors, especially the music professors who have been really supportive even though I’m not a music major, and people in the music community and all the people in orchestra. Also to my violin teacher, Sarah Briggs. She’s been a really great help.”

The ASO’s first in-person season since Covid was a rousing success, and I am confident that the ASO will continue to provide fantastic professional-level symphonies for years to come.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Wisdom, Perspective and Identity: Michelle Zauner Sarah Weiner ’24 Staff Writer “Too many chicken breasts,” responded acclaimed writer and musician Michelle Zauner when asked about the difficulties of her college experience. Met with a chorus of understanding laughter from the audience of Amherst community members, the statement surely left every person in the room relating to the two-time Grammy nominee, if they hadn’t already connected to her remarks about her multicultural identity, trying to fit in, honoring her ancestry and finding self expression through art.

Zauner, the creative mind behind the experimental pop band Japanese Breakfast (known more colloquially as JBrekkie), paid a visit last Wednesday to an eager audience in Johnson Chapel. The event began with an introduction to Zauner’s background and the college’s Multicultural Student Union (MSU), whose e-board organized and hosted the event.

The opening remarks which were made by MSU member Sophie Laurence ’24, highlighted that, in addition to Zauner’s talent as a writer and musician, the MSU’s invitation was in part motivated by Zauner’s reflections on her multiracial and multicultural Korean-American identity, which would take center stage in the subsequent Q&A session.

After the introduction, Zauner read from a portion of her 2021 debut book, “Crying in H Mart.”

The memoir tells the story of Zauner finding her relationship to her Korean identity through the loss of her Korean mother to cancer. As she read, many of us clung to new signed copies of the book generously provided by AAS funds, some following along in the book as Zauner read, some with their eyes closed — taking in Zauner’s serene tone — but most glued to her presence at the podium. In an excerpt from the second chapter, she shared pieces of her childhood in Oregon with the “brutal” love of her mother, including a frequent saying, “al-

ways ‘save 10 percent of yourself.’”

Zauner’s mother used this proverb to implore that she never give all of her love to one person, but always reserve some to “fall back on,” demonstrating to a young Zauner a type of love she didn’t see anywhere else.

Following the reading, Laurence led a Q&A session with the writer. The conversation opened with Zauner’s comments on processing grief and dealing with life through art. “I’ve always written for myself,” she said, remarking that “Crying in H Mart” originated in part from the desire to memorialize her mother. The memoir’s journey began with Zauner’s essay, “Real Life: Love, Loss, and Kimchi,” winner of Glamour magazine’s 2016 essay contest, and evolved into another essay, “Crying in H Mart,” which was published in The New Yorker in 2018. As Zauner released these shorter works, she realized that “there was so much more to say” about her mother, her culture, grief and Korean food.

For Zauner, “Crying in H Mart” is also an account of the “upkeep in [her] life of that [Korean] culture,” particularly through Korean food. Laurence, also Korean-American, bonded with Zauner over the experience of hunting for the best Korean food, especially in moments of feeling disconnected from their Korean roots. Whether in restaurants, in H Mart, or cooking alongside Korean chef and YouTuber Maangchi in her own kitchen, Zauner emphasized that food is a key way for her to connect with her mother and her Korean identity. At one point, she even got wrapped up in watching an entire 45-minute compilation of food clips in preparation for the film adaptation of her book, she told us. She is currently revising the screenplay and has dreams of luscious, decadent shots of Korean food in the film.

As a memoirist, songwriter and now screenwriter, it would vastly understate Zauner’s ability to say she is adept at storytelling.

When Laurence asked about how

Photo courtesy of Flickr

The Multicultural Student Union hosted Michelle Zauner of the pop band Japanese Breakfast in Johnson Chapel on May 4. Sarah Weiner '24 recounts her wisdom and charm. she crafts her narratives, Zauner's answer was based on transparency. She approaches her stories with the goal of honestly communicating moments of success and failure, of herself and others.

Zauner also revealed that she learned how to illuminate details about her own surroundings that she took for granted by working on “Crying in H Mart”. “I wish you would write more about the weather,” her editor told her upon receiving the first draft of the memoir. In response, Zauner reread her favorite novels, looking for inspiration by underlining only the sentences in which the authors talked about the weather.

In addition to her talent as a writer, I would be remiss to end this article without speaking of

Zauner’s musical triumphs during her career as Japanese Breakfast.

She told us she never dreamed of making it as big as she has. As a college student at Bryn Mawr, Zauner dreamed of playing for 200-seat venues and filling just one room at a Marriott hotel with her team. Now, with three albums, two Grammy nominations and a tour bus, Zauner is proud of what she’s accomplished and ecstatic for what is to come, but still remembers what got her here. She mentioned the significance of going on tour with Mitski and Jay Som in 2016. It not only jump-started her career, but it was a huge triumph to see three Asian American women jamming out together across the country.

Zauner mentioned how she re-

turns the favor by seeking out emerging artists, particularly of marginalized identities, to open her own shows.

While Zauner’s following is certainly a product of her immense talent, she draws people in with her candor. The anecdotes she related to Laurence during their conversation, like the rest of her writing and music, were real and vulnerable, spoken with touches of humor and careful attention to her audience. She even translated her middle-aged mother’s proverb about the 10 percent rule to appeal to college kids: “Don’t trust a bitch,” Zauner told us, before swiftly returning to her sweet tone to recount more endearing stories about her friends and family.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Students Acclimating to Academics Abroad

Photo courtesy of Pho Vu '23

Four exchange students attending Amherst for the spring semester pose with Director of Diversity and Student Leadership Lupita Mendez at the Center for International Student Engagement in Keefe Campus Center.

Pho Vu ’23 Staff Writer During the Spring 2022 semester, the college hosted nine exchange students from around the world spending a semester or year abroad. As students on campus entered finals season and the semester approached its end, these international students reflected on their past three months handling weather, making friends, traveling over state lines, joining clubs and taking classes at Amherst.

Despite increasing Covid cases across the world, students managed to board international flights and soon made themselves familiar with the culture of the liberal arts college in the little Western Massachusetts town.

I reached out to interview

several students from a mutual exchange student WhatsApp group chat. It was a painless process to get in touch with them, as some of them shared the same residential house as me.

Older conversations in the group chat often revolved around finding companions for the latest musicals and concerts or simply asking if anyone wanted to dine together at Valentine Dining Hall. A few messages asked for household appliances like vacuum cleaners or emergency laundry items like fabric softeners.

Before attending Amherst, the international students gained exposure to the liberal arts curriculum while attending colleges and universities back home. Bekzod Normatov ’23, who studies data science at YaleNUS College, said they wanted a

“compare-contrast experiment” between two schools. “They're both liberal arts,” said Normatov.

“Very similar things, but very different in nature.”

Suvansh Manektala ’23, a mathematical, computational and statistical sciences major and philosophy minor at YaleNUS, also thought the same.

Manektala stated, “My college in Singapore is also a liberal arts college, but it’s in Asia, and the demographics are different. I was curious to see how a similar institutional model would work in a completely different country and a completely different set of people.”

Amherst’s current standing as a top-ranked educational institution impacted their decision greatly. According to US News, the private institution ranked second, after Williams College,

as one of the best national liberal arts colleges. Normatov and Saanchi Shah ’23, an economics major from FLAME University in India, said they selected Amherst because of the reputation of its mathematics and economics departments, respectively, and the exclusive exchange program between the two institutions. “Microeconomics is my favorite because of the professor,” Shah shared, drawing her positive feedback from the pedagogy ability of the economics professor. “He's really good at explaining the concepts. I’ve always loved micro-econ, but this gives me a proper in-depth understanding of consumer preferences, and that's what I want to search for in the future.”

The College’s provocative decision to adopt coeducation in 1975 captivated many students

who researched its foundation prior to departure. Normatov remarked on Amherst’s history as an all-male college in relation to its status in the present day. “Straight white men were leading the college, and then they started admitting women. It’s interesting to look into how much the institution has changed but still stayed true to its original form,” they said.

“Given the moves by the college to accept women and other minorities, even when that already happened, these groups were not given the same benefits and privileges.” Normatov thought that more initiatives needed to be taken in the policy-making committee of the school to grant everyone a fair amount of access

Continued on page 23

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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The Challenges of Change: Exchange Students Continued from page 22 to its resources.

On-campus activities were believed to be the life and soul of the college experience, as many students reported. Overall, a combination of college-sponsored and student-led programming have livened the daily life of these students. Normatov mentioned Mr. Gad’s House of Improv's weekly shows in the Friedman Room with excitement.

As a liberal young gun who wants to try a “a bit of everything,” Manektala was excited to explore a variety of fields at Amherst, including education studies, theater and dance, history and mathematics. Manektala loves theater, and he thanks Amherst for letting him reconnect with his interest. He made his debut in Langston Prince’s ’25 “The Pearly Gates” with the role of St. Peter during The

Ten-Minute Film Festival in early April. “It took us around seven after-class rehearsals to get off the book. It was pretty fun to see how dedicated these students were. There was a lot of work to do logistically and they did a good job.”

Interested in athletics, Keying Lin ’22, from Mount Holyoke College, took advantage of Amherst’s Women Club Soccer practices and work outs at the Alumni Gym when she’s not studying.

Like Manektala, Lin also found her soul belonged to the theater and auditioned for a role in “The Bacchae,” an upcoming production of The Green Room which will have its first showing at 8 p.m. this Saturday at the Powerhouse. She has been satisfied with her experiences at Amherst so far and is currently considering whether to stay for one more semester at the college.

While these extracurricu-

lars assisted their transition to Amherst, most students concurred that course registration was particularly challenging for exchange students, resulting in unwanted changes to their preferred courses list. “I feel like we weren't told before that in fall that we would have to pre-register for the courses, otherwise we wouldn’t get a space. We were told to begin registration around January 31, and that's when we were allowed to look at the courses. I think that was really unfair because except for us, everyone else at the school [had] already registered for their classes,” said Saanchi.

Saanchi wrote an email to the dean telling him how unfair this system is for exchange students.

“All he allowed me to do was take one of the courses that he's teaching, but I think that didn't really help me. At the end of the day, it's the professors who allow you into their courses.” Norma-

tov added that the process was poorly organized, leaving him and others “very stressed and confused.”

“I wish [the] school had some kind of quota seats for us at least or asked us for our preferred list beforehand, because we only have a limited amount of experience,” stated Normatov.

Although Amherst made countless attempts to accommodate and prepare students for the professional world with on-campus job offers through Workday, nearly all students found it hard to get a job that complemented their career prospects. “First, the professors don’t really need research assistants in humanities departments. They mostly conduct independent research. That was a bit of a difficulty, because I was trying to find a job related to my major. Plus, most of the jobs were already filled and they were posted for the sake of administrative purposes,” quoted Baeg.

Despite the difficulties they experienced, many of these students are preparing for commencement in two weeks. Most of the exchange students from the group have already booked their flights and packed their suitcases. “I wish I could stay here during summer,” said Normatov, “but my J1 visa will expire by the end of semester, so I have to go back.” Normatov shared that he planned to borrow caps and gowns to join Amherst seniors during Commencement 2022.

For many, it felt like a true graduation, as they would all leave the schools just like other graduates anyway. Having spent two semesters at Amherst, Baeg registered to work during the Commencement and Reunion Week, simply wishing to spend as much time helping out with the College as possible, before she left for her last semester in South Korea.

“Survivor” Season 42: Episode 9, Reviewed Vaughn Armour ’25 Staff Writer On Wednesday, May 4, “Survivor” released a stellar episode.

Packed with social manipulation and unexpected triumphs, the episode was among the most impactful of the season so far. Its eventful twists and turns culminated into a momentous ending that will have lasting impact on the game going forward.

From the moment the castaways returned from Tribal, all the way through to its closing scenes, this episode was a masterclass by Omar.

Mike complained to Omar about Hai’s insistence in carrying out the Rocksroy vote. Mike wants his word to be reliable, so he didn’t appreciate Hai coercing him into lying to Rocksroy. Omar was empathetic, but also made a note of Mike’s unhappiness with Hai. Lindsay also came into her own during this episode. Jonathan’s subpar gameplay has turned her against him, and she explained to Omar how unwilling Jonathan was to listen

to her in the last vote. Despite their Taku connection, both Lindsay and Omar are now considering a Jonathan blindside.

In “Survivor,” when an idol is played, it is typically rehidden by production that night. Since both Drea and Maryanne had played idols the night prior, it was a pretty safe assumption that at least one new idol was out there. Lindsay and Omar both searched, but Lindsay missed an idol just inches from her line of sight. Maryanne ended up finding it later unintentionally, replacing the idol she lost within hours. This was especially important because of Drea’s Knowledge Is Power advantage. Drea knew about the idol Maryanne had before, so she could’ve stolen in at any Tribal. Now, though, Maryanne has an idol that no one is aware of, including Drea.

Later on, Lindsay won the reward challenge, which was this season’s version of the family visit. Usually, “Survivor” brings out a family member for each player at this point of the season, and they compete in a

reward challenge to have a meal with them. Due to Covid, the prize this season was viewing a video of their loved one egging them on through the rest of the game. Lindsay was able to take two people with her, and chose Mike and Omar. This was a bonding experience for them, and quite sentimental. Omar also used this opportunity to fully turn Mike against Hai. He told Mike that Hai had been calling Mike his “puppet,” and that Hai thought Mike would do whatever he said. This was a lie, but Mike believed it. Mike’s prior frustrations with Hai boiled over, and he now wants Hai gone.

Continuing her winning streak throughout the episode, Lindsay also won individual immunity, leaving the tribe with two fascinating options for elimination: Hai and Jonathan.

People quickly recognized Hai as the larger threat in the game because he had been playing so well throughout.

The vote was decided surprisingly fast, but this is one of the issues great players run into in “Survivor.” Topnotch gameplay is a better reason

Photo courtesy of besttvshow.mirahaze.org

Vaughn Armour ‘25 recaps the ninth episode of “Survivor.” As the number of castaways decrease and the stakes increase, he notes that one particular player is emerging as the lead competitor. than any to vote someone out. Hai has been stellar all season, but unfortunately, he peaked too early.

Hai was blindsided and joined the jury, but this surely won’t be the end of his “Survivor” journey. He played the Jenny vote perfectly and has been the nexus of power since then. Not only that, but Hai’s social game is fantastic. Players as skilled as he is reappear quickly, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hai on a returning player season within the next

couple years. As for this game, a massive threat was removed.

Ultimately, Omar has been running this post-merge, and is somehow doing so without putting a target on his back. With his craftiness and deceit, the role he plays in this “Survivor” story is clear now. He’s the loveable villain, in the vein of Todd Herzog (winner of “Survivor: China”). He’s the one who’ll do anything and everything it takes to win. And he is certainly the favorite to do so.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

Arts & Living

Amherst STEM Network

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THE STUDENT

Brought to you by Amherst STEM Network and The Student’s Arts and Living Section. These two articles are a part of an ASN series that features grants awarded to Amherst professors.

In order to create an advanced microscopy center on campus, Professors of Biology Sally Kim and Marc Edwards of the Biology Department recently applied for and received a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant from the National Science Foundation for the acquisition of an integrated Zeiss 980 microscope with Airyscan 2 and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS). Amherst STEM Network wanted to learn more about the research that won them the award, and how they plan on using this new equipment. Below is our interview with the professors: Q: First of all, congratulations on receiving the award! How would you describe your research interests for someone who isn’t a major?

Marc Edwards: I study cell migrations — how cells make decisions about where and how and why they move. I mainly focus on the phase of the life cycle that involves transitioning from single cells to multicellular [life forms] (which happens through migration) and back. For the experiment, I use microscopy: both imaging of live cells and stationary cells, to learn more about the defects of movement that we create through mutations in the lab. This grant was a conglomerate of efforts across the Biology,

Neuroscience, and Chemistry departments. The award we got was a step [toward] building a microscopy center that would facilitate improvements in my research question.

Sally Kim: My research is looking at cellular and molecular mechanisms that explain the synapses, places where neurons communicate. In particular, we’re trying to understand different molecular pathways that are involved with synapse maturation, development, and failure (especially involving autism disorder). In the lab, we do molecular biology, cell biology, chemistry, and particularly advanced microscopy which requires equipment that we don’t currently have here.

Therefore, for this goal, and for the training of future researchers here — whatever they wish to pursue from research to medicine or simply interning in STEM — we applied for this grant and were awarded. Now we’re in the process of hiring a director of microscopy, building an advanced microscopy facility, and we will be teaching a course in the upcoming fall semester on how to operate the equipment.

We hope this will be a step towards our vision of where Amherst College can go.

Q: The course you mentioned sounds very interesting. Can you talk more about it for stu-

dents who may be interested in taking it?

SK: Absolutely! It’s called “Quantitative Imaging From Molecules to Cells and Beyond,” Bio/Neuro/BCBP-391. It will be both lecture and lab, taught by Prof.

Edwards and me. Our main goal is to train students to become advanced microscopists, teaching them how to operate equipment to do much more than simply taking pictures. The last part of the course will be students doing a project of their choosing.

We hope this course will prepare them for graduate school-level microscopy.

Q: That would definitely help students who want to go to graduate school after Amherst, so I’m sure the interest level for the registration will be high.

Lastly, I wanted to ask about any future, real-life applications of your research areas.

ME: For developmental biology, the movement of cells is crucial.

It explains how we pass from a single cell, or a group of cells with no particular polarity, to an embryo, a developing organism with patterns that we all share.

At the heart of all such developments is the ability for cells to interpret symbols that cue them to move, and to ignore some symbols when appropriate. But sometimes cells do move in ways

Photo courtesy of Sarah Lapean ’23

Photo courtesy of Sarah Lapean ’23

Professors of Biology Sally Kim and Marc Edwards recently received a Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase new lab equipment. Necati Akinci ’25 sits down with them to speak about the chemistry research that earned them the grant and their future plans. they shouldn’t, and we know this phenomenon by the name of metastatic cancer. In the end, a lot of how complex organisms function relies on the ability to regulate how cells move from one place to another.

The questions that I engage with try to understand how cells process large amounts of information to make such movements and this processing is determined by the details of how cells interact with one another. We want to study these interactions to really understand how this decision-making process takes place. If we could predict and manipulate how cells move, we could prevent many disorders like the type of cancer I mentioned.

SK: We’re mainly looking at

microstructures where neurons communicate, but we are also interested in how they move. One of the molecules that we study, which I’m also highlighting in one of the courses I teach right now, causes autism when there’s a single-point mutation. We use that as an anchor point to study neurodevelopment.

Our end goal is to understand the underlying cellular-molecular mechanisms, so that we can propose pathways for certain output functions. Zinc could be used as a potential therapeutic for neurodevelopment, so we do a lot of changing conditions for zinc and synaptic proteins to understand their relations to each other. We believe that this could help us understand autism and find potential pharmacotherapies in the future.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Amherst STEM Network

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THE STUDENT

On Wednesday, April 27, Assistant Professor of Biology Jeeyon Jeong was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). The CAREER award provides faculty early in their career with five years of funding for research and educational resources. It is considered one of the most prestigious awards for basic science: the type of research that provides the foundation for applied science.

Jeong discussed the grant’s purpose and her research in general. She is a molecular biologist, and her lab studies iron regulation in plants. Iron is an essential nutrient, but it can be toxic when not properly regulated in cells. “Organisms have evolved very complex mechanisms to make sure iron is tightly regulated,” Jeong says. These mechanisms allow organisms to obtain and use the iron they need while avoiding toxicity. Jeong’s current project (funded by a previous NSF grant) works to understand an iron transporter that is dual-targeted, located in both chloroplasts and mitochondria.

These organelles are sites of energy production for the cell: they

require a lot of iron, but they are susceptible to iron-induced toxicity. The lab studies how the transporter regulates iron and what happens when the regulator does not do its job correctly. This new NSF grant, which begins in August, continues that research and branches out to explore some “unexpected, interesting findings.”

In addition to this research, Jeong hopes to reach out to the local community to create paths for younger students to explore science. Part of the main outreach is planned to be a “community-based learning course” for local public schools, so that they can run proper hands-on science activities for kids in upper elementary grades. She is planning to partner with Sunderland schools in Massachusetts.

Considering the real-world effects of her research, Jeong states that her lab studies science at the molecular level. Though her research focuses on plants, iron regulation systems seem to be similar across different organisms. What Jeong learns in plants deepens our understanding of universal iron regulation mechanisms.

Understanding iron regula-

tion in plants also has a direct impact on the study of agriculture and the environment. “In nature, iron is quite abundant in the soil, but under aerobic conditions … it is very difficult for plants to acquire iron,” Jeong explained. Many crop plants are actually iron-deficient because fertilizers cannot easily supplement iron. “If we better understand the molecular mechanisms of how plants regulate iron, we can help agriculture,” Jeong said.

There is also a link to human health. Though staple crops are our primary source of dietary iron, the amount of iron in the edible parts of plants is limited.

Jeong's research may help develop strategies to grow crops with more iron in their edible portions. This process is known as biofortification, and could be a sustainable solution for the malnutrition that “affects nearly half the world's population.”

When I asked about her research inspirations, Jeong laughed: she wishes she could say she was always interested in iron since she was a child. The reality is that she got into iron research as a first year graduate student, rotating in a lab that studied iron regulation in plants. Her men-

tor was “very inspiring,” which motivated her decision to stay in that lab. This decision set the stage for the rest of her research career.

You can typically find Jeong teaching molecular genetics,

biochemistry, the molecular intro course, or a seminar on the biology of metals. Next school year, however, she will be on sabbatical, continuing to change the world in microscopic but momentous ways.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Lapean ’23

Professor of Biology Jeeyon Jeong was recently awarded a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. Sarah Lapean ’23 details her research, career, and future plans.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

Arts & Living

26

“My Brilliant Friend”: A Fascinating Adaptation

Photo courtesy of Blogspot

“My Brilliant Friend” adapts Elena Ferrante’s “Neapolitan Novels” into HBO’s first foreign language series. Kaelyn Milby '22 reviews the series, which follows two friends from childhood to adulthood in twentieth century Italy.

Kaelyn Milby ’22 Staff Writer “My Brilliant Friend,” HBO’s first foreign language series, is a beautiful adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s beloved “Neapolitan Novels.” The story is told through the eyes of Elena “Lenù” Greco (Margherita Mazzucco) and focuses on her formative friendship with Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo (Gaia Girace), a strong-willed and bright schoolmate, as they navigate life in their impoverished Naples neighborhood. The first three seasons' storyline spans decades (from the 1950s to the 1970s) and follows the characters from first grade all the way through their twenties.

The series is a faithful adaptation, with its dialogue often closely matching that of the books. One way the show differs from and improves upon the books is through its use of language. Throughout the novels and the show, the main characters speak in a Neapolitan dialect of Italian, but the books are written

in standard Italian, even when the characters are said to be speaking in dialect. In the series, however, the characters actually speak in dialect, which is significantly different from standard Italian. Not only does this lend a sense of authenticity to the show's portrayal of Neapolitan culture, but it also shows the chasm between those living in the neighborhood and the life of stability which can only be achieved by breaking into broader Italian culture. Those in the neighborhood don’t even speak the same language of those whose lives they hope to emulate.

“My Brilliant Friend” is excellently cast. In the third episode of the first season, the two actresses who play elementary school-age Lenù and Lila (Elisa del Genio and Ludovica Nasti, respectively) are switched out for Mazzucco and Girace, who play the two main characters for the remainder of seasons one, two, and three. Mazzucco and Girace, who are only 19 and 18, respectively, bring astounding gravity to characters who go from adoles-

cents to young mothers. Francesco Serpico combines a disarming charm and aloofness in playing Nino Sarratore, Lenù’s lifelong unrequited love. Even more minor characters like Pasquale Peluso (Eduardo Scarpetta) are portrayed by actors who possess the impressive range necessary to bring life to characters who grow and change in the space of just a few episodes.

The soundtrack is also beautifully crafted. In particular, “Spring 1,” recomposed by Max Richter from Vivaldi’s original composition, breathes childlike joy into every scene it is featured in. The direction and cinematography are similarly captivating, and each location in the series infuses its own personality into the story. The episodes set in the neighborhood, with its oppressive gray and brown backdrop, can feel claustrophobic and bleak. Meanwhile the Ischia beach chapters stand out as some of the series’ most mesmerizing episodes, immersing the viewer in transformative and sun-kissed endless sum-

mers.

But for all its immense beauty, “My Brilliant Friend” can be a frustrating and difficult watch. Two of the biggest themes the series touches on are violence and sexism. These are driving forces throughout the girls’ lives, ever-present and exigent from the first episode. From a young age, the two girls are obviously intelligent. But while Lenù must struggle and work to achieve top grades, Lila soars above her classmates. By the first grade, Lila has taught herself how to read and later teaches herself Greek before she is even old enough to be in high school. But, despite living in the same neighborhood, they come from considerably different families. Lenù’s father allows her to go to school, while Lila’s father, who does not believe a daughter should be educated, literally throws her out of a window when she insists that she should be able to continue onto middle school. And so, their fates are cast: Lenù will be educated and given the opportunity to leave her poverty-stricken life behind, while

Lila will go to work and fall further into the abyss of violence and hardship.

No matter how hard the main characters try to free themselves from the burden of violence and sexism, it permeates their lives. In an unsettling scene in season three, Lenù’s daughter, Dede, and another boy are playing house when Dede directs the boy to pretend to slap her for not doing the dishes. As Lenù watches this unfold, she thinks, “Despite all our efforts, the new flesh did what the old had done.” “My Brilliant Friend” never shies away from showing, in detail, the crushing reality of domestic violence and the inability of the characters in the show to escape its poisonous reach. Viewers should also be aware that sexual assault is shown several times throughout the series.

But it is not only the violence in her neighborhood that Lenù cannot escape. Her relationships with her family and Lila, while often toxic, continue to tether her to her old life.

Even after all she has achieved, the distance she has put between her and Naples, and the hardships Lila has had to endure, Lenù still feels inadequate compared to her friend, and stuck between the two worlds she has called home. At the end of season three, she feels sure that she has finally begun to break free from the clutches of her life in Naples.

But given her enduring connection to Lila and the violence erupting in their hometown, that may be impossible.

The third season of “My Brilliant Friend” ended on February 27. The series is set to continue for a fourth and final season, which will feature a new cast and will follow the fourth Neapolitan Novel, “The Story of the Lost Child.” The series is a detailed study of sexism, violence, political movements, class struggles, and complex friendships that span decades. One would be forgiven for expecting a show of this magnitude to crumble under its own weight, but “My Brilliant Friend” does a magnificent job of moving seamlessly from year to year, city to city, and life to life without ever losing its voice.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

Schrodinger’s

Arts & Living

Matt:

A

Covid

27

Saga

Photo courtesy of Matt Vitelli ’24

Luke Herzog ’24, Lena Lamer ’22, and Matt Vitelli ’24 recount a true story of deep confusion: when a food delivery to Matt’s quarantine room at the Econo Lodge mysteriously disappeared, the three set out to solve the mystery.

Luke Herzog ’24, Lena Lamer ’22, and Matt Vitelli ’24 Contributing Writers MATT: On Thursday, Feb. 24, the Year of Our Lord 2022, I received the gravest news of that semester: I, Matthew James Vitelli ’24, had tested positive for Sars-Covid-19. I had thought I was safe. How could this disease have reached such a talented and attractive individual as myself ?

I thought I was safe in my ivory tower of universal affection. And yet, there I was, faced with the awful reality that even the best amongst us can fall victim to the horrors of illness.

My only consolation was that I had the luxurious rooms of the Boltwood Inn to look forward to, even in the depths of a Covid-driven exile from the campus community that so depended on me. I was poorly prepared for the disastrous news that awaited me upon receiving

the call from the nurse, in which my fate was pronounced: not to the Boltwood was I headed, nor even to the dreaded Rodeway.

Instead, dear reader, I was being sent to the wasteland that is the Econo Lodge, Hadley.

With 1.25 stars on Google reviews, I was on the road to disaster. This news was later confirmed by the follow-up email I received, which again declared that I would be spending at least the next five days in that dismal dungeon. Upon sadly gathering my things and heading to the van, I was informed by my driver that I was on my way to the Econo Lodge. I sank into a deep depression. After exiting the van and entering my new home’s doors, my days were a whirlwind of Zoom classes, sleeping, disorientation, and attempting to work out and maintain my smoldering physique within the confines of my new living quarters.

Unfortunately, my plans to

#bulkup were thrown into disarray when the administration evidently forgot I needed feeding, and stopped sending the meal bags assigned for me to the Lodge. I would go days without receiving bags as my stay was extended from five to seven, nine, eleven days. I called the front desk every evening to remind them that, yet again, no food had been delivered to my cell, and to receive the extra food bag that they had just in case such a situation arose. In this squalor I trudged on, kept going only by the occasional breakfast burrito that appeared in my ever-sparser food bags…

LUKE: My Rodeway room offered few amenities, but it did allow me to indulge an instinct to people-watch. Just outside my window, mere feet from the Inn, patrons gorged themselves on the delectable smoked meats of Wildwood Barbecue. Each day, I

eyed the shrink-wrapped, bonedry chicken breasts delivered to my door, then compared them to the choice cuts just across the way. Unblinking, I stared at the diners, like a castaway on a deserted island sizing up a luxury yacht. It took me a few days to realize that the customers could see me, too — a pale specter in a window watching from above.

Whoops.

Whatever the case, by now it was Sunday, March 6. My fiveday sentence was nearly complete. My unfortunate roommate, Matt, who tested positive again and again, had served twice my time in the Econo Lodge. Pity welled in my heart, and so I plotted with Lena to deliver Matt a congratulatory final night feast.

LENA: Luke and I couldn’t help it — we’re both, like, natural empaths and extremely generous.

Dotting all our Is and cross-

ing our Ts, I called the Econo Lodge earlier in the day to verbally certify that the hotel staff would be able to get the food to Matt. Strangely, when I inquired about the delivery situation, the receptionist seemed puzzled. She relayed that all of the Amherst students in quarantine had been moved back to campus that morning. I begged to differ, giving her Matt’s name to double-check on the roster. “There’s nobody here by that name,” she said. Standing my ground, I rebutted with sass, “I’m 100 percent sure he’s in the Econo Lodge,” remembering Matt’s increasingly distressing descriptions of his isolation experience.

At 5:30 that evening, I put in the order on DoorDash.

LUKE: After she alerted me that the meal was delivered, I sent Matt a message at 6:23 p.m.:

Continued on page 28

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

Arts & Living

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The Chaos of College Covid Quarantine Continued from page 27 “Stay strong soldier. We just sent you a little gift.” Satisfied, I returned to my new full-time job — someone’s barbecue ribs had just arrived, but they didn't have any napkins! High drama.

Five minutes later, Matt responded: “Awwww thank you!

When should I expect it?” Something had gone terribly awry. No food had arrived at all. I shot back: “Have you checked outside of your door?” I regretted the text as soon as I sent it — Matt’s not an idiot.

MATT: Did he think I’m an idiot?

LUKE: After he assured me that no delivery bag had been placed outside of his door, I confirmed his room number. Room 202 … just as I thought. The room would consume my waking hours (for the remainder of the evening). As far as I am concerned, it remains a room far more sinister than Room 237 in “The Shining,” more scandalous than Room 214 in the Watergate Hotel.

The delivery confusion continued with no resolution, and I finally called up Lena. I heard the scraping of metal on ice, distant laughter, general merriment. She was enjoying Amherst WinterFest — another opportunity my pesky positive test had whisked away from me. She was skating across the majestic Orr Rink while speaking to me on the phone, her Android mobile pressed against her ear (a dangerous decision coupled with a contrarian contraption).

LENA: My feet hurt, so I took Luke’s call as an excuse to get off the ice. I got lots of worried looks as I paced back and forth in the penalty box, playing phone tag with Luke, DoorDash, and the hotel. Matt couldn’t take another hit like this, not when he had already been punished enough … also we had spent like $40 and I wanted to see some concrete returns; sue me.

LUKE: Lena attempted to contact the DoorDash delivery driver … no luck. We needed to track down

this Chinese food. Each minute that passed meant that Matt’s steaming dumplings were another minute colder. I had to act — so my Rodeway residence became a call center. I call Matt again, Lena again, the confused but congenial receptionist at Oriental Flavor, the unamused clerk manning the front desk at the Econo Lodge. Nothing made sense. My head spinned.

This delivery had seemingly disappeared into the ether.

The Econo Lodge attendant confirmed that a man had entered the hotel at the right time with a bag full of Chinese food. Matt assured us that no such food was outside of his door. Every avenue explored, Lena and I had no choice but to assume foul play. The delivery must have been stolen in the five minute interim between the DoorDash notification and Matt opening the door. Perhaps some enterprising fellow Covid-afflicted student had noticed the bag and couldn’t resist the temptation. Perhaps the delivery driver himself, hangry after a long day of work, had decided to skim a bit from the top. Criminal conspiracy theories ran rampant.

The mystery, however, had to be put on hold.We had to make things right. Lena and I settled on an ice cream apology. Justice is best served cold.

LENA: Because there was a 65 percent chance that Matt was lactose intolerant, we actually settled on a sorbet apology. Borrowing a friend’s car (Natasha), I raced to Target thirty minutes before closing to buy a pint as well as two kombuchas (for myself). I pulled up to the Econo Lodge and sauntered up to the front desk, ready for a showdown with the clerk lounging behind the counter. With bravado, I announced that I was there to deliver food to a hotel guest.

The man waved me through, and I made my way up to the second floor, my stomach turning at the idea of breaking school protocol via my nimble infiltration of the sick ward.

When I got to Matt’s door, I was shocked. There it was. The suppos-

edly “missing” bag of food. Right there, where it was supposed to be.

I knocked on the door and waited.

No response. Suddenly starting to doubt my sanity, I called Matt and asked him to step out of his room.

Was I on the wrong floor? Had I somehow entered an alternate plane of existence, slightly askew from wherever Matt was?

Econo Lodge, huh? He was probably just hanging out in Val. I felt like a fool. Grabbing the O.F. takeout, I stomped out of the hotel and back into the car. I raced down Route 9 back to campus, calling Luke to share the bitter lies I had just unearthed. An irrational conclusion … perhaps. But things were. Not. Adding. Up.

James Vitelli, had been staying not at the Econo Lodge, but rather, The Rodeway Inn.

MATT: At Lena’s request, I went to my door, prepared to step out and see her there with my long-awaited Chinese meal. However, as I ripped open the door to my den of despair, no Lena greeted me on the other side. Naught but empty air met my expectant and upturned face, as of yet innocent as a child.

“Lena, I’m outside my door now, and there’s no one here.”

What was going on? Was I hallucinating? In a time warp? Sent to an alternate dimension? Had Lena shrunk to such a small size that I could no longer see her in the hallway, some sort of Gulliver’s Travels-esque misadventure? I desperately searched for the truth. As Lena continued to hound me about my whereabouts, I glanced into my hall, around my room, and out my window. I began reciting to Lena what I saw outside as my grip on spatial and temporal reality began to fade…

“An empty parking lot with four parking rows. A U.S. branded dumpster, half-full. A sign declaring ‘Get your Seeds! Spring has Sprung!’”

Nothing clicked. In a last desperate attempt to anchor myself to this reality, I pulled up Google Maps. As the pin began to locate, horror spread onto my face. It began to zoom in on a building but not the Econo Lodge, rather an auto store. How could this be?

What was going on? Where am I? Suddenly, the pieces began to click in my mind.

I prepared to inform Lena about my sudden realization.

“Lena, this is gonna send you.”

I sent the text.

LUKE: I was ready to disown Matt and everything he stood for. How dare he put us through this rigmarole! “Let us dine on his feast in his stead!” I declared, in so many words. His behavior had been utterly unacceptable. The lies had to stop. But first, an unscratchable itch lingered on the dark side of my brain. Like Carmen Sandiego, the question remained: “WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MATT VITELLI?”

MATT: And until that very moment, looking Luke in the eyes, I had no idea where I really was.

LENA: Matt’s text sent me into a spiral of rage. How long had he been lying about being in the

LENA: After getting back to Hills lot, I checked my phone only to find that Matt had sent me his location. After about 5 seconds of google map triangulation, everything became clear: To Matt Vitelli, 9:35 p.m.: “Dude, I think you’re at the rodeway.”

LUKE: Neurons fired. Dots connected. A shiver ran down my spine. This time, I kept Lena on the line. I slowly opened my door, breath caught in my throat. Then, I stormed down the hall, passing room numbers as I did so: 214, 212, 210, 208, 206, 204 … 202. I knocked, terrified of what I might discover on the other side. I heard shuffling within.

Suddenly, the door creaked open…

MATT: And there he was. My knight in shining armor. Luke Balin Herzog, the man I had been cruelly ripped away from by the winds of fate 10 long days ago, was waiting at the other side of my door, ready to greet me. This unexpected reunion sent us both over the edge, completely blown away by the absurdness of the truth that now stared us both in the eyes.

For the past 10 days I, Matthew

LUKE: The call was coming from inside the house. For a week, unbeknownst to either of us, my roommate and dear friend Matt had been isolating a mere six doors down from me.

LENA: Speeding back to Hadley, I rolled up to the Rodeway to find Matt Vitelli peeking out of his second floor window. After sitting out for nearly four hours, the now cold and soggy food was finally delivered through the locked double-doors into the right inn. Matt and I chatted for a bit through the window until I finally drove out into the night, my duty complete, feeling like a much dumber James Bond.

MATT: Looking back on my time spent unknowingly (and unwillingly) in the Rodeway Inn, I have had the opportunity to glean several life lessons from my experience.

Reality is always relative. Truth is often stranger than fiction. Home is what you make of it. Sometimes, the shower water isn’t getting warm because you turned the knob the wrong way.

But more importantly, I learned that true friends will order you Chinese food to make you feel a little less lonely. They’ll drive up and down Route 9 out of concern for your unknown physical location. They’ll talk with you through a screen window two floors apart in an inn in Hadley for two hours to keep you company. They will even buy you gelato because of their uncertainty about your lactose-tolerance status. My time in the Rodeway made me value my friends even more and deepened our friendships.

Oh, and of course, one more important lesson: It never hurts to look at the name of the building you’re staying in. It’s usually plastered outside.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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The Lasting L egac y of Jazz@Schwemms Davis Rennella ’24 Staff Writer Jazz@Friedmann Room has been a staple of jazz at Amherst since the pandemic began. Many may not know that its predecessor, Jazz@Schwemms, has been hosting both student and professional performances for over a decade. It owes its existence all to a few faculty and students who wanted to make the jazz scene at Amherst come into its own. I talked with Rufus Tyler Lincoln Professor of Biology, Emeritus Dominic Poccia, a retired biology professor and baritone sax player, and Bruce Diehl, the director of jazz performance at Amherst, to learn more about the history of the program and hear their stories.

Back in the early 2000s, Jazz ensembles at Amherst shared the Buckley Recital Hall with the Amherst Symphony Orchestra. And while its booming acoustics and red-carpeted aisles can certainly elevate any performance, Poccia wanted a place that the jazz scene at Amherst could call its own.

With help from student and dedicated trombonist Alex Rodriguez ’07, he first hatched the idea of the Schwemm’s scene. With some financial support from the college, the backroom which today’s students visit for grab-n-go lunches was converted into a small jazz club.

A far cry from the cavernous and brightly lit stage in Buckley, the stage at Schwemm’s was not a stage at all, but merely a clearing among the wooden tables for musicians to perform. With the music stands just an arm’s reach away from the audience, the intimate atmosphere allowed for more engagement between the performers and the audience. Students who were waiting for their food at the cafe just outside would hear the music and poke their heads in, and could tell their friends about the free live music happening right in the middle of campus. And listening wasn’t the only way students could engage.

Jazz@Schwemms saw a number of talented student groups perform over the years at the 9 p.m. slot.

The very first performance came from the Blue Nomads quintet in

October 2007. Bruce told me that performing at Schwemm’s was a great way for young musicians to test out their skills in front of a live audience, a tradition that continues to this day.

For most of Jazz@Schwemms’ history, the 10 p.m. spot has belonged to Poccia and his various ensembles of local jazz musicians, including the Eclectic Jazz Quartet, Ask Me Now, and the Secondary Messengers. Although it was always fulfilling to play in these groups, Poccia’s most exciting experiences came when playing alongside groups that specialized in improvisation. While playing with Reflections, multiple players would improvise simultaneously and feed off one another to create counterpoint in real time. Where many ensembles save improv for individual musicians during their solos, this group left a much larger share of the performance unplanned, allowing a unique story to be spun out by the players every time they stepped on stage.

“What happens in the human brain during improvisation seems almost magical,” Poccia told me.

He explained that while you’re in an improvisational flow state, the type of thinking that you can put words to gets shut down, and is replaced

by a stream of ephemeral ideas.

There is hardly any space between generating such ideas and executing them on the instrument. And while playing in time to music, there isn’t space to stop and think about whether playing a certain lick will be the best decision — you simply have to feel it in your gut. He told me that it can be demanding, but that it’s exciting to discover amazing melodies and gestures seemingly coming out of nowhere. “You surprise yourself,” he said, and then try to run with whatever you just heard yourself play.

Creating an enchanting tune on the fly doesn’t just come from magic. As a biology professor, Poccia had a unique perspective on the workings of the brain during jazz improvisation. He told me about a neuroscience study where jazz musicians were instructed to play music while under an MRI machine in order to find out what parts of the brain are the most active during improvisation. The scientists found out that the parts devoted to rational thought were shut down to make room for implementing ideas without holding back. Sections of the brain devoted to language saw an increase in activation — a mark of how jazz acts like a musical conversation. There was also a lot of

activity in the section of the brain responsible for emotion and longterm regulation. In other words, the part of the brain that is responsible for turning raw stimuli into stories. He said that improvising is, in a way, all about telling a story through music and creating meaning based on past experiences and emotions.

Poccia also told me that jazz requires a special attunement to the performers around you. Players have a greater personal responsibility for the content of the performance than in other genres and need to be sensitive and alert enough to respond to the moody chords on the keys with their own taste of melancholy. It takes the right group of people to make this happen: “If you play with someone with an ego issue,” he said, “they’ll just wait for their solo … they may be very skilled, but not very musical.” The audience also has an important role to play — seeing people smile and move to the music gives the players confidence that what they’re playing works for people, and this inspires greater effort and creativity.

Because of the inherent social component of jazz, the pandemic took a heavy toll on jazz musicians and their craft. Where Poccia

could keep busy in the past, playing around 70-80 gigs during 2019, he only played three in 2020 — only three nights over the course of the year where he could play with other musicians and get the creative juices flowing as they ought to. For most jazz musicians, it was difficult to find the motivation to practice in the meantime, since there are only so many scales and chord progressions to play while waiting to actually apply them with other musicians. This musical isolation proved onerous, and many in Poccia’s circles stopped playing entirely.

Poccia came out of retirement to play in the Friedmann Room this past March. Despite a long hiatus, the jazz scene at Amherst has returned in full swing. The venue has moved upstairs, and Jazz@ Schwemms has returned as Jazz@ Friedmann Room. Bruce told me that it’s a good space — although it’s a bit less up close and personal than the original backroom at Schwemms. The big, raised stage makes for an overall better setup for the musicians, and more space allows for more people in the audience. The best jazz musicians of the pioneer valley have taken back their home, and they are here to stay. So, why not stop by Keefe next semester on a Thursday night?

Photo courtesy of Bruce Diehl

Student Alex Rodriguez '07 (middle) in a student combo performance. Jazz@Friedmann Room has been an important recurring social event on campus amid a slow return to “normalcy.” Davis Renella '24 chronicles the founding of the program’s predecessor, Jazz@Schwemms.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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The “Soul of Calypso”: Celebrating Soca Tiia McKinney ’25 Staff Writer Soca music is the “soul of calypso.” Originating in Trinidad and Tobago, soca comes from classical calypso music and features both East Indian and African rhythms. Both soca and calypso are categorized by steelpan drums that are popular in Trinidad and Tobago. Soca artist, Kees Dieffenthaller, describes soca as “the adolescent child of calypso.”

As opposed to calypso’s livelier and more syncopated style, soca music features louder vocals and studio-produced bass beats. Soca music is typically played at Carnivals in Trinidad, where many peo-

ple gather on the streets in colorful costumes, dancing and wining to each bassline (wining is a type of dance popular in the Caribbean at large, categorized by fluid waist movements). Many soca artists explain that they make music to help people express themselves through wining, forgetting about life’s problems. While soca music is categorized by these Carnival vibes, soca has become popular off the streets as well. Soca originated in Trinidad, but as it has evolved, it has also been adapted in many other Caribbean countries. It is for the passionate marcher in the streets of Carnival, but it is also for the casual fan who just wants to feel good. Soca is passion and

soul.

Many soca artists embody this soul of the genre. Artists like Kees Dieffenthaller – the lead singer in Kes the Band– for example, make songs for the feel good vibes while staying true to the history of Carnival. Dieffenthaller’s popular song “Savannah Grass” embodies Trinidadian culture through its lyrics, heartfelt beat and trumpet tunes. “Savannah Grass” nearly won the Road March 2019, during which a soca song is chosen during Carnival time by people’s nominations. “Savannah Grass” calls upon the land where many enslaved people worked and where people currently go to celebrate their freedom, according to The Trin-

idad Express. Kes passionately sings about everyone jumping and gathering on the Savannah grass.

Soca is about this history, community and culture. Even the song that beat “Savannah Grass” for the Road March competition, “Famalay,” emphasizes the importance of “jumping up together” with family on or off the carnival streets.

While Carnival happens on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, soca remains popular year round. While I never grew up around many Carnivals, as a child, I always heard soca on the radio or at “fish frys,” a popular hangout event on my island in The Bahamas. To me, Soca represents the connectedness of Caribbean cul-

ture and our community. I play soca when I’m cleaning my house, going for a run or even taking a drive with my family. Soca can be for every occasion.

I recommend soca to any music lover, anyone looking to pick themselves up or anyone who hopes to learn more about Caribbean music. Soca is one of the genres where I feel the beat in my bones song after song. While I cannot fully explain the deep history of soca, I encourage you to add a soca song or two to your playlist this summer and discover the beauty of this genre for yourself. It is one of the most passionate genres that will ever bless your speakers.

Photo courtesy of Global Voices

Looking to explore new music? Tiia McKinney '25 recommends soca, a genre of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago and is popular at Carnivals, pictured above.

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Softball Wins NESCACs, Earns NCAA Hosting Duties Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst softball team will not be stopped. The team traveled to Medford, Massachusetts, this weekend for this year’s edition of the NESCAC tournament, and returned home with three wins in three games, a conference tournament title, and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in hand. With former player Alyson Plaman ’21 at the helm, the Mammoths beat Bowdoin 6-4 on Friday, May 6, and took down Trinity 2-1 on Saturday, May 7, before downing host-school Tufts 1-0 in a defensive battle in the championship game on Sunday, May 8.

First up for the Mammoths were the Polar Bears, who came into Friday’s contest as the No. 4 seed in the East Division with a 3-9 conference record. However, Bowdoin was no easy foe — the Polar Bears took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second before Amherst responded.

A two-out bunt by America Rangel ’25, who beat an errant throw to first, allowed Sadie Pool ’24 to score from second, putting the Mammoths on the board. Immediately after, a Devynn Wilderman ’25 single scored Rangel, giving the Mammoths 2-1 advantage after two innings. They then made it 3-1 in the third — Autumn Lee ’23 and Dani Torres Werra ’25 roped backto-back singles to put Mammoths on the corners, and Jess Butler ’23 lofted a sacrifice fly to center to score Lee from third.

But it was the Mammoths’ next run that took the cake. After a week in which she earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors, Randi Finkelstein ’24 stepped up to the plate with momentum on her side. She led off the inning with a hard-hit ball down the right field line that the Polar Bears’ right fielder couldn’t get to, sending her careening into the fence instead. With her teammate down, Bowdoin’s center fielder had to run to get to the ball, giving Finkelstein enough time to round all four bases herself, sliding into home ahead

of the throw for an inside-the-park home run. It was her fourth homer of the season.

Bowdoin tried to claw their way back, scoring three in the fifth to narrow the lead to 5-4, but the Mammoths put the game away with an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth to take the win. Torres Werra got the win in the circle, her 10th of the season.

The Mammoths advanced to face the East’s No. 2 seed Trinity the following day, but unlike their game the day before, offense was a lot harder to come by. Talia Bloxham ’22, starting her first game since April 23, was stellar in the circle, giving up only six hits, striking out four, and stranding seven Bantam baserunners in 6.2 innings of work.

She was backed up by great defense as well: Highlights included a leaping catch by Lee off a line drive to shortstop and a backhanded snag off of one hop by Virigina Ryan ’22 at first to stop a grounder that looked destined for the outfield.

Behind this defense, and two runs scored in the bottom of the first on RBI singles from Lee and Butler, the Mammoths took a 2-1 lead into the final frame. After Bloxham got the first two outs of the inning, the Bantams loaded the bases via a single and two walks, but Torres Werra, entering in relief, was able to get the final batter to pop-out to earn the save and secure a place in the NESCAC title game. Bloxham got her eighth win of the season against the Bantams, and was named NESCAC Player of the Week for her overall body of work, both in the circle on Saturday, and in the batter’s box on Sunday with a NESCAC championship on the line.

With so much to lose, the Mammoths’ defense again stepped up when it mattered most, preserving a shutout into the final inning of the title game. And, after stranding runners in scoring position all game, Amherst’s bats found a way in the top of the seventh. After Bloxham led off with a bunt single, Megan Taketa ’23 bunted to advance Bloxham

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

The team poses for a photo after winning the program's first ever NESCAC Championship. to second; Bloxham then took third on a wild pitch. With the game on the line, a Mammoth batter bunted for the third time in as many at-bats, with Rachel Lovejoy ’23 laying down a beautiful squeeze along the firstbase line. Bloxham beat the play at the plate, and the Mammoths took a 1-0 lead.

The Mammoths almost got another run later in the inning, when a Torres Werra single got into the outfield, but a great throw by the Jumbos’ center fielder cut Lovejoy down at home after she tried to plate an insurance run from second.

Taking a precious lead into the final half-inning, the Mammoths got the plays they needed. Taketa made a play at the wall to get the first out of the inning before a double from the Jumbos’ pitcher put the tying run in scoring position. But this weekend was Amherst’s moment, and they were not going to let Tufts ruin it.

The Jumbos’ next hitter launched a line drive to third. Pool came up with the biggest play of the day at third base, leaping to snag the laser out of the air for out number two before tossing the ball to Lee, who doubled-up the runner at second to seal the game. Gloves flew in the air; the team stormed the field. The Mammoths had just secured their first ever NESCAC Championship

and an NCAA Tournament appearance on a game-ending double play.

In an interview with the Sports Information Department, Ryan said, “[The win] feels incredible …

We knew we were going to have to fight like hell to get what we wanted … We were expecting to put our bodies on the line, and we were not expecting it to be easy by any means, but we were expecting this outcome.”

Torres Werra, who recorded a perfect game earlier this season, put together another dominant pitching performance on Sunday. She tossed a complete-game shutout, going all seven innings and surrendering only six hits and one walk while striking out seven, to notch her 11th win of the season. She also had an efficient day at the plate, going one for three with a walk in the contest. For her work all weekend, she was named NESCAC Pitcher of the Week.

Next up for Amherst: the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Regional — their first since 2018 and sixth appearance overall — which they earned the right to host. They are slated to face Husson University in their first game. The NCAA Regional round will last from May 1315, with teams competing in a double-elimination format: Two losses and you’re out. If they emerge from

Regionals, they will move on to the best-of-three Super Regionals, and then if they continue winning, the 2022 Division III Women’s College World Series. The Women’s College World Series will consist of double-elimination bracket play preceding a best-of-three Championship Series.

Taketa, commenting on the conference title victory and the team’s road ahead, believes they have what it takes to win in the latter stages of the season.

“We are extremely excited and fired up about our three big wins over the weekend and making Amherst softball program history with our first ever NESCAC title,” she said. “We really demonstrated how solid our defense and pitching staff is and our ability to execute in tight game winning situations. This team has accomplished so much despite every challenge that’s been thrown our way, and that really goes to show how resilient and special this group is. As we head into regionals on our home field, we are just trusting in ourselves, going out to compete, and of course looking to have a lot of fun.”

Their road to the natty will start on Friday, May 13, with first pitch for their game versus the Eagles set for 4:30 p.m.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Men’s Lacrosse Drops NESCAC Semi, Earns NCAA Bid

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Bayard DeMallie '23 falls to the ground and watches as his shot flies past the Bowdoin keeper for a goal during the Mammoths' first game versus the Polar Bears earlier this season. While they ultimately fell 15-14 on Saturday, the Mammoths earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Mike Schretter ’23 Staff Writer Coming off a strong win over Williams in the NESCAC quarterfinals, men’s lacrosse traveled to Medford, Massachusetts, to battle the Bowdoin Polar Bears in a NESCAC semifinal bout on May 7. To say both teams came into the game hot is an understatement — Amherst had won six straight games coming into this matchup, while Bowdoin had only suffered one loss all season. The teams had played each other back on April 2, when Bowdoin jumped out to an 11-3 lead and held off a late rally from the Mammoths to win 15-12. So, coming into Saturday, the Mammoths were looking for both revenge and a berth in the title game the following day. While the Mammoths gave themselves a 14-11 lead late in the game, Bowdoin scored four goals in the closing nine minutes to best the Mammoths 15-14 and advance to the NESCAC finals.

The Mammoths started the game quickly, getting on the board only 10 seconds into the game off a goal from Brock Gonzalez ’23, assisted by John Fitzhenry ’24. But Bowdoin responded with three goals of their own to make it a 3-1 game. The Mammoths bounced back, as Connor Guest ’24 found Gonzalez for another goal to bring Amherst within one with 9:43 left in the opening frame. Gonzalez’ tally would be the first of three straight goals for the Mammoths: Tanyr Krummenacher ’23 tied the game off a pass from Bayard DeMallie ’23, and a Ben Bruno ’25 goal, assisted by Brodie Rayment ’23, gave the Mammoths the lead. However, Bowdoin tied the score at four at the end of the first.

The game went back and forth in the second, as PJ Clementi ’22 got the scoring started with a goal to retake the lead 5-4.

Bowdoin responded to tie up the game before Clementi scored twice more off assists from Gon-

zalez and Matt Adams ’23 to make it 7-5 Amherst. Bowdoin responded with four straight goals to give the Polar Bears a 9-7 advantage going into halftime.

Amherst again responded well, this time in the beginning of the third quarter, as they scored three straight goals to regain the lead. Krummenacher got the scoring started with an unassisted goal to bring the Mammoths within one. Gonzalez scored his third of the day, unassisted, to tie the score at nine apiece. Then, Clementi scored his fourth off a beautiful pass from Krummenacher to give Amherst the lead.

In a game full of runs, Bowdoin scored another goal to even the score at 10. Guest netted to give the Mammoths the lead back at 11-10, before Bowdoin again evened the score at 11.

However, Amherst seized the momentum back as Jake Bennett ’24 scored off an assist from Krummenacher to make it 1211. The Mammoths found their stride, as Gonzalez scored his

fourth goal of the day off an assist from Guest to give the Mammoths a 13-11 lead, and Guest capped off the run with another tally to make it 14-11 Amherst with 9:15 left in the game.

It seemed that Amherst would continue their winning ways, but Bowdoin rebounded with a run of their own to close the game. They scored their first goal with 7:49 left to make it 1412, then tallied another with 1:34 left to get within one. With very little time left, the Mammoths seemed assured of a victory. But then, the Polar Bears scored a goal with 15 seconds left to tie the score at 14. With overtime imminent, the Polar Bears scored the game-winning goal with eight seconds left, their second goal in seven seconds of game time, to advance to the NESCAC Championship game.

While the Mammoths didn’t conclude their conference tournament the way they might have wanted to, their achievements have not gone unrecognized.

Earlier in the week, Gonzalez was awarded Second Team-All NESCAC honors for his offensive prowess, with teammates Rayment, DeMallie, and Nicholas Kopp ’25 also receiving the honor for their terrific seasons.

Amherst also finished with a top-five offense in the conference this season and a defense that showed terrific improvement over the course of the season.

And the Mammoths’ season is not over: On Sunday night, they received an at-large bid to and first-round bye in the NCAA tournament. They will play a 16-0 MIT team in the second round on Saturday, May 14, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ryan Rahbany ’24 emphasized the excitement of this matchup, saying, “We’re matched up against a talented MIT team, and we’re ready to hand them their first loss of the year.”

The Mammoths’ first NCAA tournament game will begin in Rochester at 3 p.m.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Baseball Sweeps Bowdoin to Advance to NESCAC Semis Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor The baseball team competed in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC Tournament this past Saturday, comfortably sweeping Bowdoin, the No. 1 seed in the East Division. The Mammoths, entering as the West Division’s No. 4 seed, won the first two games of the potential threegame series 17-6 and 9-2, respectively. With the series victory, Amherst has punched its ticket to the final four of the NESCAC Championship, which will take place at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, this weekend.

Because they were the lower seed, the Mammoths had to make the long trip to New Brunswick, Maine, for their quarterfinal series. Even with the lengthy bus ride and the challenge of playing on enemy soil, the Mammoths still exploded for 26 runs on 31 hits through two games on Saturday. This offensive outburst, combined with formidable pitching performances, ensured that Amherst did not trail at any point over the course of the two games.

The Mammoths set the tone for the series early, scoring four runs in the opening inning of game one. A Jackson Reydel ’23 RBI single, a Chris Murphy ’22 two-run double, and an error committed by the Polar Bears that allowed Murphy to score gave the Mammoths a 4-0 lead.

Another run came across in the top of the second via a Jack McDermott ’25 sacrifice fly, bringing the score to 5-0.

In the meantime, starting pitcher Nick Giattino ’24 worked himself out of jams, stranding two baserunners in each of the first two innings. After a brief lull in scoring, the Mammoths extended their lead to 9-0 in the fifth inning off of a pair of tworun home runs from Daniel Qin ’22, his first of the season, and Ryan McIntyre ’25, his third.

The Polar Bears attempted to mount a comeback in their half of the fifth, scoring five runs

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Members of the baseball team celebrate a home run from the dugout in a game at Memorial Field earlier this season. capped off by a grand slam. They added another run in the sixth to cut the Mammoths’ lead to 9-6.

However, the Mammoths responded in just about the best way possible in the top of the seventh, with an emphatic grand slam of their own off the bat of McDermott, which brought his RBI total to five for the game and extended the Mammoths’ lead to 13-6. Amherst would add four more insurance runs in the last two innings, including an RBI triple from Jack Dove ’23, to seal the 17-6 win.

Giattino earned the win on the mound, pitching 5.1 innings and allowing six earned runs on seven hits, while walking four batters and tallying four strikeouts. Tyson Luna ’25 was nearly flawless in relief, allowing just one hit over 3.1 innings pitched and striking out four. Registering 17 total hits as a team, every player in the Mammoths’ lineup recorded at least one hit and scored at least one run en route to their highest-scoring game all season.

Game two began in a very fa-

miliar fashion — the Mammoths again scored first, plating one run in the first inning and two in the second for an early 3-0 lead.

It appeared as though this had the makings of a tighter affair, as a two-run Polar Bear home run in the second brought the score to 3-2, but those two runs were the only scoring the Polar Bears would manage for the rest of the contest. And as their defense showed out, offensively, the Mammoths continued to tack on runs.

They scored twice in the third off a pair of sacrifice flies from Christian Fagnant ’24 and Jack Boyle ’25, then proceeded to add three more in the fifth on a Reydel RBI single and a Dove two-run single, which brought the score to 8-2. A Luke Padian ’24 RBI double in the ninth added one additional insurance run to put a bow on the 9-2 victory.

Starting pitcher Jacob Ribitzki ’24 was superb from the mound. He pitched nine complete innings, allowing just two earned runs on seven hits while striking out seven. This is noth-

ing new for Ribitzki — he has found his groove in the latter stages of the season. Impressively, he has gone the distance in each of his last three starts, all of which have been against NESCAC opponents.

With the victory, the Mammoths now advance to the double-elimination championship series next weekend at Trinity with the other three remaining teams: Colby, Hamilton, and Middlebury. As the lowest remaining seed, the Mammoths will face Middlebury, the No. 1 seed in the West Division — whom the Mammoths lost a three-game series to 2-1 earlier in the season — in their first game.

As the incumbent NESCAC champions, the Mammoths are certainly familiar with what it takes to have success in the postseason. Senior captain and reigning NESCAC Player of the Year Daniel Qin believes this is one of the team’s greatest strengths.

“We are starting to play our best baseball at the best time,” said Qin. “I definitely feel like

having the experience of winning a NESCAC title last year will benefit us, and there won’t be any moment that is too big for us.”

Qin is certainly right about the team getting hot at the right time — the Mammoths have won their last seven games and have scored an average of over 12 runs per game during that span.

If the Mammoths win their opening game on Friday, May 13, they will advance to the winner’s bracket to face the winner of the Colby-Hamilton game on Saturday, May 14, at 2:30 p.m.

If they win game two, they will advance to the finals on Sunday, May 15, where they will have two opportunities to secure the championship. If they lose game one, they will face the loser of the other game in the loser’s bracket on Saturday at 10 a.m., and then the loser of the winner’s bracket’s second game later in the day, for a chance to advance to the finals. They would then need to win two games to secure the title. Friday's game is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Track & Field Competitors Earn All-New England Honors Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer Multiple members of the men’s and women’s track and field teams headed northwest to Williamstown, Massachusetts, this past weekend to compete in the New England Division III Outdoor Championships, with events lasting from Friday, May 6, through the day on Saturday, May 7. Over the course of the two-day meet, 11 Mammoths earned AllNew England honors, which are given to the top eight finishers in each event.

Men While only seven members of the men’s track and field team competed this past weekend due to a Covid outbreak on the team, they all placed well and managed to earn an overall placement of 17th out of 31 teams despite their distinct numbers disadvantage.

Max Spelke ’23 and Henry Buren ’22 got the meet started for the Mammoths on Friday, with Spelke competing in the decathlon and Buren in the 100-meter dash. They each placed highly in their respective events.

Decathlete Spelke finished the two-day event with a personal-best score of 5,325 points, good for seventh place and All-New England honors. In addition to placing second in the shot put, Spelke also scored personal bests in six individual events: the 100-meter dash, 400-meter dash, 1,500-meter run, long jump, javelin, and pole vault.

Buren finished second in the 100-meter dash preliminaries, with an amazing time of 10.97 seconds, before coming in seventh in the final to earn All-New England honors as well.

The Mammoths continued to rack up awards over the course of a long day on Saturday.

High jumper Camden Heafitz ’25 started the day off strong, placing second. Heafitz cleared 1.96 meters, which matched his personal best and earned him All-New England honors. Gabriel dos Santos ’24 also earned All-New England honors in the high jump, as he finished sixth by clearing 1.86 meters.

Heafitz, discussing his thoughts on the performance this weekend, said, “I think the team did great; all of us ran great races and set fantastic marks. We should all definitely have our heads high.”

Women The women’s track and field team also made their mark this past weekend, as eight Mammoths returned home with All-New England honors. Although they also had only a small number of individuals competing, they finished even higher than their male counterparts, tying for eighth place in a field of 33 competing teams.

Star senior Anna Madden ’22 received All-New England honors in two events: the 400-meter run and the 4x400 meter relay. In her individual 400-meter race, Madden finished with a time of 57.52, earning her second place and her first All-New England accolade of the weekend. Then, in conjunction with Juanita Jaramillo ’22, Katie Lingen ’22, and Eliza Cardwell ’25, she earned her second: the team placed third in the 4x400 meter relay, in a season-best time of 3:53.01.

But the 400-meters wasn’t the only distance at which the team excelled — two Mammoths also acquired All-New England honors in the 1,500 meters.

Julia Schor ’25 finished second with a time of 4:39.26, and Ally Deegan ’24 crossed the line only three seconds behind her (4:42.33) in sixth.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Ava Tillman ’23 earned her first All-New England award and qualified for the NEICAAA Championships with a personal-best time of 1:05.06 to notch her third place.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, first-year Claire Callon ’25 ran a personal-best time in her New England Championship debut. She recorded a time of 11:31.23, good for sixth place.

Qualifying Mammoths will head to Bryant University this weekend to compete in the NEICAAA Outdoor Championships, which will run from Friday, May 13, through Saturday, May 14. Events will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Track and Field

Camden Heafitz '25 performs the high jump, clearing 1.96 meters and placing second.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Track and Field

Max Spelke '23 prepares to throw the javelin in the decathlon.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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Men’s, Women’s Tennis Fall in NESCAC Semifinals Leo Kamin ’25 Managing Sports Editor The men’s and women’s tennis teams began postseason play this past weekend. On Friday, May 6, the men opened with a 5-3 win over national No. 9 Bowdoin, while the women moved past No. 13 Williams with a 5-2 victory.

Both teams were bounced from the tournament the next day, though. The men suffered a 5-0 defeat against national No. 4 and NESCAC top-seed Middlebury, who went on to win the tournament. The women came agonizingly close against national No. 3 Wesleyan but ultimately lost a 5-4 heartbreaker to the Cardinals.

Wesleyan also won the NESCAC title with another narrow victory the next day.

Men Playing at home on Friday, the Mammoths began their NESCAC bid with a shaky showing in doubles play against the Polar Bears.

Amherst’s top pairing, Sujit Chepuri ’25 and Damien Ruparel ’22, were off the court quickly, going down 8-3. The No. 2 duo, Harris Foulkes ’22 and Ed Opie ’25, were done just as quickly, but with the opposite outcome, picking up a breezy 8-2 win. In the longest doubles match of the day, the No. 3 pairing, Micah Elias ’24 and Kobe Ellenbogen ’25, pushed their matchup to a 7-7 deadlock and a tiebreaker, but ultimately lost to give Bowdoin a 2-1 lead heading into the singles matches.

The Mammoths entered the slate of six singles matches needing to win at least four in order to advance in the tournament. Playing at No. 4, Ellenbogen was first off the court, turning in a crushing 6-3, 6-2 win to even the score at 2-2. Willie Turchetta ’22 then suffered a 6-4, 6-3 defeat at the bottom of the ladder to give Bowdoin a one-point advantage. But the Mammoths bounced back, with Opie balancing the scales again with a 6-3, 7-5 victory. Avenging their doubles loss, Ruparel and Chepuri closed out the match for the Mammoths: Ruparel won a

first-set tiebreaker before cruising to a 6-3 victory in the second; Chepuri lost the first set but came roaring back with 6-1 and 6-3 victories. The first-year’s win clinched the overall victory for the Mammoths, sending them through to the semifinals in Middletown, Connecticut, the next day.

The Mammoths found the next day’s matches against Middlebury, the No. 4 team in the nation, much more difficult. At the top of the doubles ladder, Ruparel and Chepuri failed to win a single game, going down 8-0 in another short doubles match. At No. 2, Foulkes and Opie quickly followed them with an 8-3 loss. Elias and Ellenbogen put up more of a fight, but they, too, ultimately fell 8-6. On the back of the three losses, the Mammoths needed a miracle in singles play — five wins out of the six matches — to advance. Only three players —Ruparel, Chepuri, and Turchetta — took the courts at first. Chepuri won just one game, falling 6-1, 6-0 to put the Panthers on the precipice of a sweep. Ruparel played the first set close but ultimately lost it 7-5. A 6-2 second-set loss sealed the Mammoths’ fate.

Turchetta and Opie both split their first two sets but did not have the chance to finish their matches.

Foulkes and Ellenbogen did not even take the court.

The Mammoths closed the season with a 11-8 record (6-4 in the NESCAC) and a No. 18 national ranking. The Mammoths will say goodbye to their three seniors: Foulkes, Ruparel, and Turchetta.

Women The women’s team, having entered the tournament ranked at No. 9 in the nation, began their NESCAC tournament campaign with an afternoon matchup with rival Williams. In doubles play, the first court to clear was No. 2 doubles, which saw Anya Ramras ’22 and Amy Cui ’25 dispatch their opponents by an 8-6 margin.

All three doubles matches were close, with both the one and three doubles matches going into tiebreakers. Amherst’s top duo, Deliala Friedman ’25 and Mia

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Julia Lendel '24 prepares for a forehand shot in a match. Wesleyan beat the Amherst women's tennis team in the NESCAC semifinals.

Kintiroglou ’25, took a 3-0 lead but ultimately lost 8-7. The match at three doubles followed the exact opposite pattern. The Ephs claimed an early 3-0 lead, but the Mammoths battled back to win the match in a tiebreaker. With the last doubles victory, Amherst carried a 2-1 lead into the singles portion of the match.

Calista Sha ’23, playing at No. 4 for the Mammoths, put the first points on the board with a comprehensive 6-2, 6-0 victory that stretched the lead to 3-1. The Ephs brought things closer with a victory at the No. 5 spot, but, four minutes later, Cui turned in a 6-0, 6-3 win to put the Mammoths one victory away from the semifinal. Playing in the No. 3 position, Friedman closed out the Mammoths’ most bitter rivals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.

The 5-3 win was the Mammoths’ third against the Ephs this season, and undoubtedly the most important, setting the team up for a semifinal meeting with No. 3 Wesleyan in Middletown the following day.

The Wesleyan match, a meeting of two of the top 10 teams in the nation, was one of the best of the season. The Mammoths secured all-important service breaks early

on in all three doubles matches, gaining important early advantages. Wesleyan fought back, though, and forced tiebreakers in all three.

Friedman and Kintiroglou held a 7-4 lead at one point in their match, but the Cardinals fought back to level the match at 7-7. In the tiebreaker, the Mammoths fought off three match points to level the score at 6-6. They had a match point of their own, but ultimately were unable to convert, before dropping the next two points to lose the tiebreaker 9-7.

At two doubles, Ramras and Cui won their tiebreaker by a comfortable 7-3 score. But the Cardinals flipped the script at the bottom spot, beating the Mammoths’ duo of Sha and Lendel 7-3. Entering singles play, Wesleyan held a narrow one-point lead.

Wesleyan opened the six simultaneous singles matches with a quick win over Kintiroglou at No. 6 to make the score 3-1. Facing down the end of their season, the Mammoths righted the ship in a big way, posting wins in the next three matches to retake the lead. At No. 5, Ramras handled her opponent 7-5, 6-3. Playing at the third spot, Friedman won

her first set 6-4, lost the second 4-6, then cruised to a 6-2 win in the third. Leading the ladder as a first-year, Cui battled back after winning just two games in the first set with two dominant sets, closing out her opponent 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

But as the Mammoths held a 4-3 lead, the momentum swung the other way. With their season on the line, the Cardinals got a win at No. 2 singles, leveling the score at 4-4. Everything was riding on Sha at No. 4 singles, but her Wesleyan opponent comfortably led that match the whole way; a 6-3, 6-2 win sealed the overall win, and a trip to the NESCAC championship match, for the Cardinals.

Though they fell short in their quest for NESCAC glory, the Mammoths’ season is not over.

They have received an at-large bid to NCAA Division-III Nationals and will play either Baruch College or Skidmore College at home in the round of 32 on Saturday, May 14.

No matter what happens, the team will graduate five seniors at the end of the month, saying goodbye to Jackie Bukzin ’22, Madeline Clinton ’22, Claire Evans ’22, Maggie Owensby ’22, and Ramras.

The Amherst Student • May 11, 2022

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80-1 Longshot Rich Strike Wins 148th Kentucky Derby Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor On Saturday, May 7, more than 147,000 spectators gathered at Churchill Downs Racetrack, in Louisville, Kentucky to watch the 148th edition of the Run for the Roses. This year’s race did not disappoint, with Rich Strike, the 80-to-1 longshot, surging to the front of the pack in the last quarter-mile to upset favorites Zandon (4-to-1) and Epicenter (7to-2), who placed second and third, respectively. The Champion’s 80-to1 odds are the second longest odds ever for a Kentucky Derby Winner, trailing only 1913 winner Donerail, who won the race with 91-1 odds.

In fact, had you looked at this year’s post list only 36 hours earlier, the eventual derby winner did not even appear: Rich Strike started the day as the first alternate, and was entered into the race on Friday, only a day before race time, in the No. 20 post — wearing number 21 — after Ethereal Road was scratched. The horse and his team, consisting of trainer Eric Reed and jockey Sonny Leon, were only in Louisville in case of an emergency, and almost didn’t even travel at all. Luckily, they did travel, and got their chance of a life-

time on the first Saturday in May. The three-year-old colt’s win seemed to come out of nowhere. He wasn’t bought, but claimed, for only $30,000, a rarity for a derby-winner.

He raced only seven times before this year’s Derby. In the last five races he ran before the Derby, the 2022 Champ never led at any point of any of those races, finishing third three times, fourth once, and fifth once.

He was beaten by an average of six lengths — an eternity in horse racing. The last time Rich Strike led in a race was almost 300 days ago.

So just how did the Little Horse That Could do it? As it turns out, it was a combination of a variety of unusual factors that lead to an equally unlikely ending. The first of those was the speed of the race. The splits for the 148th Kentucky Derby were the fastest ever recorded, with the early leader, Summer Is Tomorrow, running the first quarter-mile in 21.78 seconds, the first half-mile in 45:36, and passing three quarters of a mile after 1:10.34. The splits for the 2021 Derby were 23:09, 46.70 and 1:11.21. The 2022 splits were fast enough to rank as the fastest first three-quarters since 2016 and the fastest opening quarter-mile ever.

The second improbability was

that first-time Derby jockey Leon engineered an almost perfect run from his horse. He got a masterful ride out of Rich Strike: starting the race on the outside post, he efficiently slid his horse to the rail and settled in the middle of the pack for most of the lightning-fast race.

After waiting for the leaders to tire, he slid Rich Strike in between a series of tired horses before zooming past the favorites in the final quarter mile. They didn’t have enough time to realize what hit them before Rich Strike was crossing the line in first place. Rich Strike won the race by three-quarters of a length, and in doing so, became only the second horse to win the Derby from the No. 20 post since the starting gate was introduced in 1930.

Leon credited his horse, who never lost steam despite the pace, for giving him the ability to execute that series of masterful moves. In fact, he felt like the horse didn’t want to quit even after the finish line, and even seemed excited about his win. We all saw that energy in action in real time: Rich Strike spent the first twoor-so minutes after his Derby win trying to bite and pull on the reins of the walking pony that was assigned to get him and Leon to the Winner’s

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Rich Strike's 80-1 odds were the second longest ever for a Derby winner, trailing only 1913 race-winner Donerail.

Circle in a moment that has gone viral since the race’s conclusion.

Rich Strike beat some real horses in Epicenter and Zandon, so why not the Preakness? Why not the Triple Crown? Only 13 horses have ever won the Triple Crown, meaning they won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes in the same calendar year. The most recent horses to do so were Justify, who did so in 2018, and American Pharoah, who won all three races in 2015. However, before American Pharoah, the last horse to achieve

that feat was Affirmed, way back in 1978. It’s not a common occurrence by any means.

Winning both the Derby and the Preakness is only a little more doable — just 36 horses have done so, and excluding the 13 Triple Crown winners leaves 23 who have won only the first two of the three legs. Rich Strike has a chance to join this club on Saturday, May 21. But can lightning really strike twice? We’ll find out in just two short weeks. And after this weekend’s miracle, the world will surely be watching.

GAME SCHEDULE MEN'S LACROSSE

BASEBALL

May 14: NCAA Second Round vs. MIT @ Rochester Insitutute of Technology, 3 p.m.

May 15: NCAA Third Round vs. RIT or Albion/ Dubuque (if applicable)

May 13: NESCAC Semifinal vs. Middlebury, 6:00 p.m.

May 14: NESCAC Semifinal vs. Colby or Hamilton, Time TBD (DH if applicable) May 15: NESCAC Final vs. TBD (if applicable)

May 13: NCAA Regional vs. Husson, 4:30 p.m.

May 14: NCAA Regional vs. Rochester or Virginia Wesleyan (DH if applicable) May 15: NCAA Regional vs. TBD (if applicable)

WOMEN'S TENNIS

TRACK & FIELD

WOMEN'S GOLF

May 13-14: NEICAAA Outdoor Championships @ Smithfield, R.I., 10 a.m.

May 10-13: NCAA National Championship @ Bay Oaks Country Club (Houston, T.X.)

May 14: NCAA Second Round vs. Baruch or Skidmore

SOFTBALL