Issue 1

An MichaelWithInterviewPresidentElliott

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Liam Archacki ’24 and YeeLynn Lee ’23 Senior Managing Editor and Edi Presidenttor-in-ChiefElliott's answers hae been edited for clarity and brevity. Visit amherststudent.com to read the complete interview.

Now that you've been president for about a month, what have you learned about Amherst students, and what has this learning pro cess looked like for you?

President Elliott gave his first on-campus address to the Amherst community in June, before he assumed the presidency.

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Free & For Sale: Eleanor Walsh '25 explores the stories that have come out of a GroupMe where students can sell and donate items across campus.

Michael Elliott ’92 Begins as College’s 20th President

Michael Elliott: First of all, it has only been a month. And it's been an atypical month, because it's been August. So I've had the chance to meet with a lot of stu dents informally through a few events. But we're speaking on day two of classes, so I'm still getting to know Individually,people. what's impressed me so far about the students I've met, is, first of all, the variety of experiences that they bring to the college. The wide range of their own sense of aspirations for what they're thinking about do ing in and after college. And also, their deep pleasure just in being Photo courtesy of Amherst College

FEATURES 11

The Amherst Student: So when you appeared before the college community at the meet and greet at the beginning of June, you said one of your initial goals is to “learn who the students are.”

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 1 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 amherststudent.com THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editor Michael Elliott ’92, formerly a professor of English and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University, began his tenure as Amherst College’s 20th president on Aug. 1. Elliott succeeds Biddy Mar tin, the college’s president since 2011, who announced her intent to step down last September. His appointment was announced in a June 1 letter to the college community from Andrew Nuss baum ’85, chairman of both the Board of Trustees and the Presi dential Search Committee.

OPINION 13 Meet Jules: Jeanyna Garcia ’23 profiles a Val worker and reflects upon her time in the Amherst Labor Alliance.

ARTS & LIVING 17 "Un Verano Sin Ti": Piero Campos ’25 breaks down Bad Bunny’s newest album, and how the artist em braces his Latinx heritage.

“Michael emerged as the committee’s choice from an un usually deep, diverse and talent ed pool of candidates from the most prominent institutions,” Nussbaum wrote, citing Elliott’s strength as a scholar, his success as a college administrator, and his personal character as reasons for the Followingappointment.theposition pro file released in January, the search committee — which was composed of students, faculty, staff, and trustees — vetted a number of candidates with the assistance of leadership search firm Isaacson Miller, and con ducted a series of in-person in terviews before producing their recommendation. The commit tee unanimously recommended Elliott to the board, who in turn unanimously approved the rec ommendation.Elliottearned his B.A., sum ma cum laude, from Amherst in 1992, double-majoring in En glish and Russian. Afterward, he attended Columbia University, where he graduated in 1998 with a Ph.D. in English literature. He then joined as a facul ty member of Emory College, where his scholarship focused on American culture and liter ature during the mid-19th and early 20th century, with an em phasis on the place of Native Americans in the U.S. In 2017, Elliott was named dean of Emory College. His achievements in the role includ ed developing the college’s stra tegic plan, leading its most suc cessful fundraising campaign, and increasing faculty diversity. In his first month as presi dent, Elliott has quickly become a fixture of college events and a familiar face around campus, delivering a number of public addresses. Community members who have had the chance to per sonally encounter him praised his“Inaffability.thepublic appearances I’ve seen and from the first fac ulty meeting he comes across as a personable and reasonable guy,” Professor of Physics Wil liam Loinaz said. “He seems to be modest, thoughtful, and pos sessed of a good sense of humor.” Luke Kline ’26 shared a simi lar account. “He’s a hilarious guy, and from his speeches it is obvi ous that he wants to harbor posi tive change at the Amherst Com munity,” he said of Elliott. “He is extremely personable as well; he offered to sit at a table with my friends and me for lunch at Val just to get to know us.” But while Elliott has received a warm welcome from the com munity, many were surprised and disappointed about his ap

Some students reported receiv ing further active shooter alerts following this email. The same message sent out at 2:18 p.m. was emailed to all fam ilies at 2:45 p.m. On campus, the alert inspired differing reactions, but most people initially believed the alert to be legitimate. Most first-years were not yet receiving AC alerts, so they mostly learned through orientation GroupMes, wordof-mouth, and the sirens blaring acrossSomecampus.first-years who spoke to The Student reported be ing relatively unconcerned by the events, riding out the alert in their half-decorated dorm rooms.

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May 10, 2022 – Sept 6, 2022

News

>>May 31, 2022 8:23 a.m., Counseling Center A staff member reported suspicious property that was left on the steps of their building. A Seargeant responded and found the property belonged to a current student. Items were then returned to the owner.

>>Aug. 15, 2022 10:20 a.m., Off Campus An individual informed ACPD of a phone call they received where the caller pretended to be from Am herst College. The matter was referred to Hadley Police Department be cause it occurred in their town.

POLICE LOG

Four minutes later, a fol low-up email stated that “[t] he AC ALERT system has been compromised” and instructed community members to dis regard any alerts they receive.

>>July 9, 2022 7:05 a.m., ACPD ACPD took a report of a threatening telephoen message and investiga tion is being conducted

>>June 13, 2022 6:03 p.m., Seligman House A Detective followed up on a report of an unknown individual occupying a dorm room. It was later discovered it was a cur rent student. No further assistance was neces sary.

False Active Shooter Alerts Rattle Campus on Move-in Day

Orientation leaders and CAs, all of whom got the initial AC Alert, seem to have been gen erally more concerned than the first-years.TimCarroll ’25, an OL, was in his dorm when it happened. When he got the alert, he said, “My life flashed before my eyes. You get that sinking feeling in your chest.” He texted his broth er that he loved him. Across campus, hundreds of similar scenes played out before the reassurance of the AC Alert reporting a system malfunction. The campus-wide GroupMe, AmherstBussin, experienced an unprecedented flurry of mes sages, as students expressed fear and speculated about the situa tion.Late in the afternoon of Aug. 26, Liz Agosto, the dean of stu dents and chief student affairs officer, sent an email to all stu dents encouraging them to uti lize support resources, including

Others, especially those sep arated from their parents, were more shaken. The fact that many first-years and their families were not on the AC Alert system added to the air of confusion acrossJorgecampus.Rodriguez Jr. ’26, for example, did not know what was happening until he read a mes sage on GroupMe. He then hun kered down in his dorm room. His mother, who was in the li brary, had no idea what was hap pening, but was ushered to the second floor and told there was an emergency. She had no idea that there was an active shooter alert until her son called her. Karinna Cvijanovich ’25, an orientation leader (OL), was huddled in the basement of Val entine Dining Hall after the first alert with many first-years and their families. “The parents were freaking out,“ she said. “They didn’t want to let their children leave, even after it was over.”

>>May 14, 2022 3:49 p.m., James Dormi tory ACPD responded to a 911 hang-up after the caller stated it was a prank. The Detective met with the in dividual that was involved. No further assistance was needed.

>>May 16, 2022 8:34 a.m., Moore Hall A student complained about the department.relayedloud.equipmentlandscapersbeingtooThecomplaintwastothegrounds

>>May 27, 2022 12:07 p.m., Campus Grounds An individual was issued an order tresspassing them from Amherst Col lege properties.

>>May 21, 2022 2:18 a.m., Boltwood Ave. A Seargeant observed two people trying to steal a street sign. APD responded as well. The two individuals never took possession of the sign. They were spoken to a sent on their way.

>>June 17, 2022 11:21 a.m., Off campus A professor reported their college laptop was stolen from them at the airport in Paris. Approximately one week later it was found by airport staff and returned to the professor.

>>Aug. 14, 2022 1:00 a.m., Orr Rink Lot ACPD assisted in ap prhending an individual on campus after they fled from a motor vehicle inci dent in Hadley.

>>June 10, 2022 3:32 p.m., ACPD A Seargeant took a report of suspicious comments on the College's Twitter page. After investigating, it was determined there was nothing threatening or concerning about the comments.

>>Aug. 19, 2022 7:59 a.m., Moore Hall ACPD took a report of vandalism that occurred in a dorm room.

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor Multiple false AC Alerts warning of a possible active shooter on campus were sent out on the afternoon of Aug. 26, first-year move-in day, inciting panic among members of the college community both on and offThecampus.false alerts were caused by one of the College’s software vendors, which was conduct ing “maintenance and testing on their system," according to a Sept. 1 email from President Michael Elliott. This was not initially clear to the college com munity or the administration itself.Aug. 26 was a stormy after noon in Amherst. Beneath dark clouds, thunder, and rain, the class of 2026, their parents, ori entation leaders, and first-year quad Community Advisors (CA) were wrapped up in the bus tle of move-in. When the first

AC Alert was sent, around 1:30 p.m., students and parents were scattered across campus. Some families were separated. Some parents had already left. The initial alert, sent at 1:27 p.m. to students, staff, and fac ulty, declared that that “[p]olice are responding to a possible active shooter on campus” and urged people to seek secure shel ter immediately. It sent shock waves of momentary terror across the college community, even among those thousands of miles from the Pioneer Valley. It would be 15 minutes before a message via AC Alert, sent at 1:42 p.m. notifying of a system malfunction and stating that “there is no emergency.” At 1:59 p.m., however, a sec ond active shooter alert identical to the first one was sent out. At 2:18 p.m., Executive Direc tor and Chief of Police John Car ter sent an email to all students, staff, and faculty advising that the alerts were not valid, adding that they are currently investi gating the system malfunction.

>>June 2, 2022 12:45 a.m., Seligman House A student reported some one was attempting to blackmail them via social media. A Sergeant re sponded to investigate.

Theo Hamilton ’23 Senior Managing Editor

Class of 2026 Arrives on Campus for Orientation

Some of the most prominent changes to this year’s protocols include the end of weekly surveil lance testing, a timeline for loos ened masking guidelines, and the adoption of an isolate-in-place policy.Although Covid cases remain high both nationally and global ly — as of Sept. 4, the New York Times reported a daily average of 87,301 new cases — Agosto, Ep stein, and Harrington write that the efficiency of Covid vaccines at preventing severe cases, along with community members’ ability to individually choose to follow more stringent protocols, justify the introduction of looser rules. Given the vaccine’s importance in determining campus protocol, all members of the community are still required to be fully vac cinated for Covid-19 with all dos es of the primary series and one booster shot. The email further states that this requirement will be updated as new vaccines be comeForavailable.themoment, masks remain required in all indoor locations other than residence halls and private offices. However, Agosto explains that “we fully anticipate moving to a more relaxed mask ing protocol once we are past the first few weeks of the semester.” An email detailing the updated masking policy will be sent to community members on Sept. 12. Although all community members are asked to test when symptomatic, weekly surveillance testing will no longer be required.

here.” He assured them that they all did but advised them “to be patient with yourself — it will takeDuringtime.” the five days of ori entation, students were led through a range of programming centered around the resourc es available at Amherst, sexual respect, and mental health and wellbeing. According to multi ple members of the class of 2026, though, a significant of firstyear students skipped significant amounts of the programming, especially after the rattling expe rience of the false shooter alert. Students who did attend events often described them selves as leaving with something to be desired.

Parents were allowed in dorms during move-in for the first time since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

News 3The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

The first-years’ time on cam pus began with a rude awaken ing when the college’s emergen cy alert system malfunctioned during move-in, warning stu dents of an active shooter and sending panicked students, parents, and orientation leaders intoThehiding.false alert and bad weather threw the orientation schedule into flux, but students were still able to experience a fairly normal orientation. They broke out into squads, learned about the services the campus had to offer, and participated in Learn, Explore, Activate, and Participate (LEAP) programs. For the second year, “centering and decompression activities” were offered in the mornings andOverall,afternoons.Liz Agosto, dean of students and chief student af fairs officer, said that “Orien tation this year was focused on providing opportunities for stu dents to build relationships with one another and to learn about campus and campus resources.” New for this year was an activity known as “Mammoth Circle,” facilitated by the Cen ter for Restorative Practices, in which small groups of students came together in conversation to tackle topics on community and campus life. For the first time, the college held a 2-day pre-ori entation program for transfer and veteran students, via the Class and Access Resource Cen ter.Speeches from the college’s new president, Michael Elliott, bookended the five-day affair, beginning with a welcome ad dress on Aug. 26 and ending with convocation in Johnson Chapel the night of Aug. 31. In his opening remarks to students, Elliott, who is just over one month into his tenure, declared the class of 2026 “my class” — he and they entered the college, and will navigate the next four years, together. Drawing on his own expe rience as a member of the Am herst class of 1992, Elliott told students that “you will wonder at times whether you belong have been symptomatic, meaning that the administration expects that this policy will still identify the vast majority of cases. Tests will remain available at the test ing center throughout the year for anyone in the community who wishes to test more frequently. This semester will also see the college move fully to an isolatein-place policy for the first time. This means that students who test positive for Covid will no longer be provided a separate isolation space and will be required to iso late in their rooms. In an email sent to the student body on Aug. 12, Senior Associate Dean of Stu dents Dean Gendron and Direc tor of Student Health Services Emily Jones, M. D. advised room mates to have conversations with each other ahead of time about “whether one of the roommates should plan to stay with friends or relatives off campus” if the oth er tests positive.

An additional email sent to students on Aug. 18 by Jones and Covid-19 Project Manager Jerry Roeder clarified that exceptions will be made for students with underlying conditions which place them at increased risk for severe manifestations of Covid. As long as these students have filled out forms alerting the col lege of their situation ahead of time, their roommates will be provided with separate isolation spaces if they test positive for Covid.Students who test positive are required to remain in isolation for at least five days, after which they can return to normal cam pus life as soon as they test neg ative or after 11 days have passed since the first positive test. For the first time since the col lege announced its first round of Covid protocols in March 2020, all spaces on campus will oper ate at 100% capacity. In addition, with the exception of Valentine Dining Hall and Wolff Fitness Center, all campus buildings will now be open to the public. After Sept. 12, members of the public will also be admitted to the din ing hall and fitness center, and students will be allowed to have visitors from outside the campus community in residence halls. Beyond addressing changes in the college’s Covid protocol, Agosto, Epstein, and Harrington also mentioned that the admin istration has been following de velopments related to the spread of monkeypox. In separate fol low-up emails sent to students and employees on Aug. 23, Agos to and Jones noted that “we have no reason to believe there are any cases in the College community or in the Town of Amherst,” but advised all students and employ ees to protect themselves and their communities by washing their hands frequently, refraining from sharing towels and clothing, and avoiding close contact with people who have rashes resem blingThoughmonkeypox.protocols are expect ed to be lessened further, Agos to and Epstein emphasize that the administration will continue to carefully monitor the public health situation and revise pro tocols as necessary following the Sept. 12 update.

Agosto explains that 87% of all positive cases in recent months

In an email sent to the college community on Aug. 5, Chief Stu dent Affairs Officer and Dean of Students Liz Agosto, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein, and Chief Human Re sources Officer Kate Harrington unveiled the college’s Covid-19 protocols for the Fall semester, which seek to balance a contin ued emphasis on community’s health with the freedom of preCovid campus life.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College Fall Covid Protocols Are the Least Restrictive Yet

Continued on page 5 College’s

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor The class of 2026 arrived on campus on Friday, Aug. 26, be ginning a packed week of orien tationTheactivities.first-year cohort, the 204th class to grace the pews of Johnson Chapel, is one of Am herst’s most diverse ever. After two long, Covid-afflicted years, the 467 first-years arrived to a campus that has just about re turned to normal.

“I wish the trustees cared more or better understood the importance of representation,” one“Don’twrote.feel like he will under stand what the many non-white students need,” wrote another. In an interview with The Stu dent, Nussbaum spoke to the diversity of the candidates con sidered by the committee, but declined to give specific details about the committee’s deci sion-making process, citing con fidentiality concerns.

College Files Amicus Brief Supporting Affirmative Action

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“Upon completion of her term as President of the College, President Martin’s successor will be Black,” the campaign wrote.

“I ended up thinking it over and realizing that President El liott was doing the best he could given the amount of scrutiny he was facing due to his identi ty,” Zane Khiry ’25 said. “That realization then allowed me to ease up on him quite a bit, and although I’m still not over the moon he was chosen for the position, I have a bit more faith he’ll be able to carry out his du tiesPattavinawell.” echoed this senti ment. “What I’ve been trying to remember is that, as disheart ening as it is that the school missed a major opportunity to demonstrate its proclaimed commitment to racial equity and representation, it’s not President Elliott’s fault,” he said. “I am cau tiously hopeful that time will allow him to prove his commit ment to Nearlystudents.”allcommunity mem bers who spoke to The Student were in agreement that it is too early to assume what impact El liott can or cannot have on the college.“Ifind it to be in poor taste to react too strongly in any way at this point to his appointment, as it is unwelcoming and we have yet to see the course he chooses to take in his administration,” Rowan Belt ’24 said. Olufemi Vaughan, the Alfred Sargent Lee ’41 and Mary Far ley Ames Lee professor of Black studies, shared a similar outlook: “We will need several years to get a sense of what President Elliott will bring to the College.”

Editor-in-Chief

“The job of the committee was to pick the best person all around,” Nussbaum said, “and that certainly could have been a person of color — we had won derful, diverse candidates — and at the end of the day, Michael stood out to the committee as the best Nussbaumchoice.”also pointed to El liott’s “extraordinary and highly admirable” record of promoting diversity in his time as dean of Emory College. The Student was unable to speak to any of the other mem bers of the search committee, who also cited the committee’s confidentiality policy. Despite students’ disappoint ment, many acknowledged that Elliott is not to blame for the decision, maintaining an open-minded and optimistic at titude toward his presidency.

pointment. In particular, given Martin’s groundbreaking ap pointment as the first woman and openly gay person to serve as the college’s president, and increased attention in recent years to the struggles that Black students and other students of color continue to face at the college, many expected the new president to be a member of an underrepresented group. Zac Watson ’24 immediately began texting his friends after the presidential announcement. “I just remember everyone kind of feeling the same way, like, ‘Maybe he’s good. Maybe he has what it takes, and he’s really gonna make the school better,’” he said. “But also it was disap pointing that we’re not going to see a face who represents how diverse the campus is. It would have been really nice to see a Black woman be the president of Amherst College, considering the track record of white men for 200Christianyears.”

Pattavina ’24 de scribed students as feeling a sense of regression. “I think what I’ve noticed is that there’s a major sense of disappointment among students: The school took a major step back in terms of who the president is — name ly a white man — after Biddy as a queer woman,” he said. Student disappointment was heightened by the fact that a Black president was one of the demands made in the Campaign to Reclaim Amherst, a 2020 movement launched in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the Black Students Union (BSU) and Black Amherst Speaks.

Yee-Lynn Lee ’23

Following the announcement of Elliott’s appointment, the Black Amherst Speaks Instagram account collected and posted anonymous responses from its followers sharing their thoughts on the new president.

Elliott replaces Biddy Martin, who served as president from 2011 through the sum mer of 2022.

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News 4The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022 Elliott Appointment Causes Mixed Feelings in Amherst Community

The college filed an amicus curiae brief on Aug. 1 in support of Harvard College and the Uni versity of North Carolina in the upcoming Supreme Court cases challenging the use of race as a factor in their admissions pro cesses.The brief, which was coordi nated by the college and signed by 32 peer small liberal arts col leges and universities, attested to the especially “compelling in terest” that the signatories have in enrolling diverse — in par ticular, racially diverse — class es, and the need for “race-con scious” admissions to achieve such“Prohibitingdiversity. the consider ation of race in admissions de cisions would result in greater inequity, both on college cam puses and in American society — and it would substantially im pair the ability of institutions to educate students to become the citizens and leaders that a di verse democracy requires,” said President Michael Elliott in the college’s press release about the brief. “Our admissions practic es have served our students well and, as those students graduate into the wider world, served the public at large. Therefore, we felt that it was critical to express our full support of a holistic admis sion process, including the ho listic consideration of race and ethnicity as one of many factors, to the Court, as well as the gen eralThepublic.”Harvard and UNC cas es will be heard by the Supreme Court this fall, with a decision likely coming out in late spring or summer of 2023. Both cases were brought by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), an or ganization headed by conser vative legal strategist Edward Blum. The group charges that Harvard’s admissions practices penalize Asian American appli cants and engage in racial bal ancing, violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funding. The group sim ilarly argues that UNC violates Title VI, as well as the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, in rejecting race-neu tral admissions practices with out proving that such practices would cause a heavy sacrifice in educational quality. In addition to questions about the legality of Harvard’s and UNC’s particular admis sions processes, the Court will consider the broader question of whether previous rulings Re gents of University of California v. Bakke, Grutter v. Bollinger, and Fisher v. University of Tex as at Austin — all of which af

On Wednesday, Aug. 24, the Biden-Harris administration announced a plan to relieve and restructure student loan debt for a wide range of borrowers. The debt forgiveness program, spe cifically directed towards low and middle income households, will apply both to many alumni and current Amherst students who have taken out federal loans to cover the cost of their educa tion.Eligibility for student debt cancellation will be determined based on income levels, with additional forgiveness being al located for Pell Grant recipients, which equates to as much as 21% of Amherst’s class of 2025, and similar percentages for oth er years. All borrowers whose individual income is less than $125,000, or whose household income is less than $250,000, will be eligible for $10,000 in debt cancellation, while Pell Grant recipients will be eligi ble for as much as $20,000 in federal loan forgiveness. Loans eligible for forgiveness include all federally-held undergradu ate, graduate and Parent PLUS loans disbursed prior to June 30, 2022. Private or personal stu dent loans will not be covered under the program as currently announced.Students interested in taking advantage of the student loan forgiveness program will be re quired to undergo an applica tion process in the upcoming months. Though the Depart ment of Education has yet to re lease the application, the White House stated that the application will be available no later than the end of the year. Students and parents can verify their eligibil ity by logging into their federal student aid account, and sign up to be notified upon the applica tion’s release on the college’s fi nancial aid page. Though the college does not include student loans as a part of financial aid awards, and many Amherst students gradu ate with no student loan debt, a significant portion of Amherst students, including roughly a quarter of the class of 2021, con tinue to take out student loans in some form to help cover the cost of college.“Amherst has long support ed responsible and manageable loan borrowing as one of many resources to make higher edu cation affordable,” said Dean of Financial Aid Gail Holt. “While Amherst alumni leave with a far lower average in stu dent loan indebtedness” she added, “this loan forgiveness program, with an enhancement for students who received the federal Pell Grant, will help re lieve the accumulation of that debt.”In addition to the debt re lief, the Biden administration also announced that it would be reforming current student loan repayment plans. “Equally important as the modest loan forgiveness are the meaningful changes in loan repayment sys tems going forward,” Holt said. Upon the implementation of the Department of Education’s new payment structure, bor rowers will be allowed to make smaller monthly payments. Un der the existing system, bor rowers are required to pay 10 percent of their discretionary income towards undergraduate loan repayment each month. Moving forward, the required

Bryan Jimenez Flores ’26 experienced orientation as a flood of information. ‘“A lot of resources were named, but not how to access them,” he said. For her part, Agosto sepa rately made clear in an email to the Student that the administra tion “wanted to emphasize with new students that transitioning to college is a process and that they are not meant to know ev erything about Amherst over a 5-6 day Outsideperiod.”ofthe official events, though, students seemed to have enjoyed their time. Flores said that, following the terror of the false shooting alarm, students were more outgoing. “That puts a lot of things into perspective,” he said. “Someone told me that they were less nervous to meet people after all that happened” Other first-years reported the opposite effect though, saying that the terror of the false alert cast a damper on the week and discouraged them from fully en gaging in Regardlessactivities.oftheir comfort levels, first-years were operat ing under less stringent Covid protocols than the class of 2025 and certainly the class of 2024. Unlike last fall, first-years were officially allowed to congregate in dorm rooms and enter dorm buildings that were not their own. Parents were allowed to see their childrens’ rooms. Firstyears were able to take indoor meals at BarringVal.further setbacks, the class of 2026 is on track for four years almost entirely unblem ished by the stringent protocols that have haunted the campus for more than two years. At the end of the five days, and following the annual De Mott Lecture, delivered by Am herst psychology professor Catherine A. Sanderson, Elliott formally welcomed “his class” to college, delivering a Convoca tion at Johnson Chapel on Aug. 31. Beneath a darkening sky, lu minarias (one for each member of the class of 2026) lit the paths of the first-year quad as students filed through the tiny door at the base of the massive chapel. In an address drawing on both W.E.B. DuBois and Alexis De Toqueville, Elliott reminded thef first-years that they were in it together, that he, too, was “nervous.”Hecited the college’s recent amicus brief before the Su preme Court. Striking a somber tone, he reminded students of mounting attacks on pluralistic democracy in the United States and abroad, saying that it was Amherst’s job to produce the leaders who would meet those challenges. But he moved on to finish on an uplifting note, re minding students that beyond the grades, the games, and the friend groups, something more was at “Sentimentsstake. and ideas renew themselves. The heart is en larged and the human mind is developed only by the reciprocal action of people upon one an other,” he said, quoting de Toc queville. “This is why we bring you here together.”

Continued from page 3 Ethan Foster ’25 Managing News Editor

News 5The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

Photo courtesy of Amherst College LEAP programs gave students opportunities to connect outside of their dorms and orientation squads.

Three Years Later, an (Almost) Normal Orientation

What To Know About Biden’s Student Debt Cancellation payment amount will be reduced to just five percent of discretion ary income, which will also be more loosely defined to impose a lesser financial burden on lowand middle-income families. Other notable changes put forward by the Biden-Harris ad ministration include shortening the length of payments neces sary for loan balance forgiveness from 20 to 10 years for those with balances below $12,000, covering unpaid monthly in terest for borrowers making monthly payments, as well as adjustments to the Public Ser vice Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). Until Oct. 31, the De partment of Education will be loosening PSLF restrictions for the forgiveness of student loans held by borrowers who worked in non-profit, military, or any level of government for at least 10 years.

“A lot of the lectures felt su per repetitive,” said Erin Wil liams ’26, a sentiment echoed by many. “They were just saying the same thing over and over again.” The information seemed to be especially repetitive for in ternational students, who had already gone through interna tional student orientation, and first-generation and low-income (FLI) students, who had the op portunity to learn about Am herst during the Summer Bridge program.Jorge Rodriguez Jr. ’26 said that the wellness portion of orientation was “longer than it needed to be.” He wished he had more time to get to know others and explore campus — his squad didn’t have a chance to see loca tions such as the science center and the library.

ME: So I am and have been a professor of English and Amer ican Studies. And I moved into administrative roles at Emory [University], where I was for over 20 years, because I was real ly curious about how to support the broader mission of the liberal arts across many different disci plines. I found that I enjoyed the chance to work with students, alumni, faculty, in really think ing about the future of some thing that I cherish, which is undergraduate education, espe cially undergraduate education in the liberal arts. And that's re ally where my passion lies. I also really enjoy working with a team and doing things in partnership with other people, which is one of the pleasures of an administra tive role. And one of the things the pandemic clarified for me, as I took a step back and reassessed, is how much I value the kind of work that a college does in bring ing people together in a physical space, to learn together in unpre dictable ways, with new challeng es every year, because the stu dents are different, the faculty are different, the problems are differ ent. During the pandemic, it felt like all of those things were being threatened, and all the things that I cared about felt very tenuous and in peril, and so I thought that I would like to have a role where I could devote my energy to making sure that they would be sustained and flourish and could evolve into the future. I didn't necessarily think that that role would be at Amherst College. But then, when I understood that I might have the chance to talk to some people about possibly com ing to Amherst to lead the college — the priorities of the college are so closely aligned with my own that it seemed like a conversation that I should have.

News 6The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022 Elliott Speaks on Experience as Amherst Student, Campus Issues

AS: You already mentioned your pride in being an Amherst stu dent. So we thought we would talk a little bit about your experi ence with that. You hail from Ari zona, which is not exactly a com mon direction for many Amherst students. What kinds of factors led you as a high school student to decide to go to Amherst? ME: You know, as a 17-18 year old, I was seeking a place that re ally cared about intellectual life. I was looking for a campus where I felt like I could make connections with professors easily and that would be supportive of me. I was very attracted to the idea of New England — And I say the idea of New England because I'd never been to New England. It seemed like an exotic location very far away from my home. And I was interested in going to an exotic location very far away from my home. No commentary on my parents, but I was ready to make a journey. AS: You mentioned continuing with efforts to diversify the Col lege, but it's also become clear that the College still has room to improve in terms of accommo dating students of different back grounds and making all these diverse students feel at home at Amherst. Do you have any sort of initial ideas on how you plan to serve such a student body? ME: I definitely have heard, and sometimes directly from stu dents, a sense that they don't feel that the college belongs to them, or is a place where they feel at home in the way that they should. And that's something I'm very passionate about try ing to address. It’s still a prob lem, though, where it's going to take me some time to talk and observe more with students and faculty before I think I have a re ally clear idea of what the steps are to address that. For instance, I suspect that some of the chal lenges have been made worse by Covid. But I might be wrong. It's a hard problem. Which is why it's so important. I do think, how ever, that some of the solutions will lie in creating more spaces, physical spaces, but also pro grams, activities, unstructured interaction, that brings students together across different ways of identifying. I think engaging stu dents in the passions that cross different academic interests is important. And I think, actually just talking about that question: what does it mean to belong to a community? I think that's quite valuable itself. So that's where I am right now. It's something that I definitely heard a lot about, both during the search process, and afterwards. And it's some thing I’m asking students about. How are you finding the people with whom you identify?

again and again, as a source of conflict between the administra tion and the student body. What do you think about this? ME: It’s not a question that’s unique to Amherst College. The question of how to communicate with the student body and lis ten to the student body has, in a perverse way, become even more complicated as the modes and means of communication have increased. We can now reach students through email, or social media, or through signs on the quad. And yet, it doesn't often necessarily convey what we want ed to convey. So I think what's re ally important is for me to figure out the right places where I and other members of my senior team can actually be in dialogue faceto-face and for a while with stu dents,so that we are hearing not just what they want, but why they want it. That's often as important. Students say, “we want x” — it's often more important for us to understand what are the experi ences and challenges they're fac ing, that have led them to make that request. And, likewise, it's important for us to be in a place where we can communicate our logic for arriving at a decision. That doesn't mean that stu dents are necessarily going to like the decision. But students should at least have access to the rationale behind it. It's okay to disagree.In fact, disagreement is part of a campus. So, where is that at Amherst? Is it with the student government? Probably in part. Is it with The Student? Probably in part. Is it in informal conversations at Valentine? Prob ably. So that's what I'm going to work on. It is a difficult time in the world right now. We have all been through several experiences that have led I think all Ameri cans to lose trust in institutions. Not just higher education, not just colleges, but also the gov ernment, other institutions. And that's reflected in opinion polls. And why is that harder on young people? Because young people are profoundly interested in the Continued from page 1 with each other. I don't know if that last piece is more acute right now, because of a sense that the college is still coming back from being dispersed during the Covid pandemic. But I see already that students really think about what it means to be with each other, take an interest in each other. Of course, I saw that especial ly during the orientation and move-in period where there were so many students on campus whose sole purpose in being on campus was to welcome and ed ucate students in the community. To the second part of your question — I’m working to set up office hours, to make the rounds and different student organi zations and meet with student leaders. But I'm also trying to in sert myself in a non-invasive way into different student spaces. I've gone to lunch a couple of times at Valentine unannounced just to be there and watch the patterns.

future in a way that older people are maybe just a little bit less so. When students say that they don't trust older generations on the big questions of racial justice, climate change, and economic inequality, it's hard to argue that the genera tions that have governed life have done a great job on these ques tions. What I've been trying to suggest is part of what's feeding the frustration around commu nication. What you are talking about is a larger sense of mis trust in institutions that I think students feel. And on this point: on my previous campus, so I'm guessing at this one too, students often feel that something is be ing withheld from them because they're starting from a place of such mistrust. Students often also hope that institutions of higher education can do more than they can to remedy social ills. I know that there's a joke about the Am herst bubble, virtually true on ev ery college campus. But we're not the things that plague the world beyond Amherst College — rac ism, sexism, ableism, mistrust in democracy. The list could go on, I hate to start to make a list because I'll leave out important things.We can do what we can as an institution to remedy them to a certain extent to educate our students so that they can be lead ers in addressing those challeng es and to support faculty who do research on those challenges. But that doesn't mean that we can construct a bubble that keeps them safe. AS: If you had to give one answer, how would you answer the ques tion: Who is Michael Elliot? ME: Michael Elliott is funda mentally a nerd. Michael Elliott is somebody who likes learning about other people. As serious as being President is — and it is a big job and serious — I also took this job because I thought it would be fun. Michael Elliott is somebody who thinks that even as serious a place as Amherst should also be a place that has room for joy and pleasure. And I plan to do that here.

AS: In recent years, difficulties in communication have emerged,

Yesterday, I made a point of go ing down to the Science Center, because I was curious what that building looks like when it's ac tually being occupied by students and not just in the middle of summer. Formal meetings are valuable but often you learn just as much from chance encounters.

AS: Becoming the president of a college like Amherst is obviously a great honor, but it also comes with a host of new challenges. What made you want to pursue the position in the first place?

Umphrey explained that demonstrating a compelling in terest for race-conscious policy is necessary for such policy to remain constitutional under the 14th Amendment, a precedent set by Korematsu v. U.S. “[As stated in the Bakke case], affirmative action cannot be used to remedy past injustice or past harm — it's not to be used as a remedial strategy,” she added. “So diversity is the only constitutional rationale for ad mitting students with an eye to race.”The brief also argues that the signatories have faithfully applied the directives outlined in Grutter specifying how race may and may not be used with in the admissions process, using Amherst’s holistic review pro cess as an example. It notes that even if a school’s admissions process were shown to discrim inate against a racial group and thus violate Grutter, it would not show that Grutter is not work able at all: “To overrule Grutter based on the actions of a single school or two is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

The brief’s final argument points out the “heavy reliance interests” the signatories have in enrolling diverse classes, in cluding substantial investments in developing admissions pro grams according to the require ments of Grutter and Bakke.

Mammoth

On Sept. 1, the college elim inated fees for student printing in all public printing locations for the 2022-2023 academic year as part of a new pilot program. Though students will continue to see charge totals at release stations, fees will no longer be applied to students’ accounts. The Campus Print & Mail Cen ter will continue to operate on a pay-for-use basis.

AJ Hasting, which closed for good in July, served the Amherst community for more than 100 years. Beyond providing stationary and other supplies to students, it served as the go-to spot for Amherst College merchandise. In its absence, the first-year quad and halls of Val are notably low of Amherst-branded apparell.

On July 27, A.J. Hastings closed its doors for business for the last time after 108 years of operation. A longtime staple for both students and towns people, the store survived two world wars and a pandemic. The owners were ready to retire, and their children were not inter ested in continuing the family business.

Brief Cites ‘Compelling Interest’ in Enrolling Diverse Classes

Buildings Across Campus Un dergo Construction During Summer While students enjoyed a break from classes, construc tion crews were hard at work on campus. Johnson Chapel, the Stearns Steeple, and the Emily Dickinson Museum, Webster Hall, and the gym underwent re pair and renovation, while con struction continued on the new Frank Lyceum, the new home of the History department and the Center for Humanistic Inquiry.

“Amherst, for example, has determined that an entirely raceblind policy would reduce the percentage of historically un derrepresented students of color in its student body—including Native American, Black, and Hispanic students—by approxi mately half,” the brief writes.

“Reliance interests are as serted when you don't want the Court to overturn a prior deci sion,” explained Umphrey. “[It tells the Court that] we've in vested a lot of money and time

Continued from page 4

Moments in Miniature: May 10 to Sept. 6

Continued on page 8

Photo courtesy of Kevin Gutting/Hampshire Gazette firmed the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions — should be overruled. All nine justices currently on the Court will hear the UNC case, while eight justices will hear the Harvard case, as Jus tice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, has pledged to recuse herself.“Given what happened in the Dobbs [v. Jackson Wom en’s Health Organization] case, I would not be surprised if this court overturned Bakke, Grut ter, and Fisher, and decided that race-conscious admissions pol icies violated the 14th Amend ment,” said Martha Umphrey, the Bertrand H. Snell 1894 pro fessor in American government. “Like abortion rights, affir mative action has long been a bête noire of the conservative legal movement,” she added. “So this is, in some ways, very much resonant with what's just happened in the Dobbs case — this issue of affirmative action has been challenged again and again and again, as Roe vs. Wade was, and the court is now finally composed of people inclined to overturn [it].”

News 7The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

The Editorial Board A.J. Hastings Announces Clo sure After 108 Years of Busi ness

College Implements Free Printing

“The argument there [is] that even if Harvard somehow messed up and went over the line that's constitutionally per missible under Grutter and Fish er, other schools have not done so,” said Umphrey. “And so even if Harvard has made mistakes, Amherst has not made mistakes, and the underlying justifications for affirmative action remain compelling whether or not Har vard may have been determined to have made a mistake.”

The brief also cites evidence showing that “[w]ithout the abil ity to take race into account in admissions, Amici would find the kind of diversity they seek nearly impossible to attain.”

College Transitions from AC Data to Workday Over the summer, the college officially transitioned opera tions and all student data from AC Data to Workday. Moving forward, Workday will be used for academic tasks, including advising and registration, in addition to housing other in formation, including student fi nances and on-campus jobs.

The brief filed by the college argues that Grutter v. Bollinger, the case that first held that di versity was a compelling interest that could sustain race-based admissions, should be upheld. In arguing that diversity presents a compelling interest for the signatories, the brief cites research supporting the educa tional and social benefits of di verse learning environments for preparing students to succeed in a “dynamic, democratic, and increasingly diverse society,” noting that such benefits are magnified at small schools, like the signatories, where there is constant interaction and engage ment among diverse peers.

Epstein noted that the senior staff will be taking all the feed back into account as they decide on the more long-term Covid policy for the semester.

College Provides Follow-up on AC Alert Incident campus was not in danger. In that email, at his welcome address to the class of 2026 on Aug.27, and in his Sept. 1 email, Elliott again and again apolo gized to the community for the harm caused by the false alerts. “I know the false alerts caused a great deal of confusion, fear, and anxiety in our community and I’m deeply sorry that this occurred,” he wrote in the Sept. 1 email.Beyond pointing students to Amherst’s mental-health coun seling services, Elliott made clear that his office is making efforts to ensure that all faculty, staff, students, and families are signed up for AC Alert and will be informed of emergencies in theHefuture.also said he is formulating plans to ensure “that all staff re ceive information about the saf est spaces in the buildings where they work and that our students receive information about their residences and academic facili ties,” in case a real threat emerg es in the Finally,future.hesaid he was explor ing ways to have a “redundant” community-wide communica tion system for use in instances where AC Alert is compromised.

The brief has received wide approval from members of the college community. “I think it’s great that Amherst has taken a lead in this area, especially given how much as a school Amherst talks about the value of diver sity and inclusion,” said Oliv ia Zheng ’20, who works as an immigration rights coordinator for the civil rights organization Chinese for Affirmative Action.

Per the Covid protocols cur rently in place, faculty who test positive for Covid must isolate at home for a minimum of five days, and may return to work on campus as soon as they test neg ative on day six or later. On day 11, they can return to work on campus without taking another test.With over 20 faculty Covid cases still active on the first day of classes, Sept. 1, several faculty had to teach remotely or cancel class altogether. Faculty were given discretion on whether to teach remotely or cancel class, said Epstein, as some were not well enough to hold class, even on LawrenceZoom.

Continued

Although he had contracted a “very mild case” of Covid in the spring, he noted that the symp toms were worse this time, caus ing difficulties in preparing for the start of the semester. “It’s hard to prep with a head ache and fatigue,” Douglas said. “And obviously I could not get to my office to get my course mate rials and the like.” “With regrets, I had to can cel the first meeting of my FYSE [first-year seminar] and my LJST course,” he added.

“I want to be clear that this is soething that we are continu ing to watch very carefully, and we are prepared to continue to change the policy,” added Presi dent Michael Elliott.

The incident has caused some concern among faculty members regarding the adequacy of the college’s Covid protocols for the fall. At the faculty meeting last Wednesday, several faculty mem bers expressed their thoughts on the lowered restrictions, particu larly the discontinuation of regu lar surveillance testing.

Continued from page 2

Yee-Lynn Lee ’23

Editor-in-Chief

New Faculty Welcome Dinner Becomes Super-spreader

Community Speaks on Discrimination Against Asian Americans and human resources into a model of education that will be very disrupted if the court over turns these prior precedents.”

News 8The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022 an on-campus gathering to “pro cess what happened” at 4:30 p.m. in the Eighmy Powerhouse. At 6:24 p.m., President Mi chael Elliott sent an email to all students, faculty, and staff, in which he emphasized that the

“A big portion of why I was drawn to Amherst and why I decided to go to Amherst was because they talk so much about diversity,” she said, noting that she attended a high school that was mostly Asian, and also fair ly homogeneous in ethnicity and socioeconomic status. “If I think about what my Amherst experience would have been like without such a diverse student body, I think there's a lot that I wouldn't have been able to learn and a lot of ways that I wouldn't have been able to grow into the person that I am today.” from page 7

Douglas, the James J. Grosfeld professor of law, juris prudence and social thought and the chair of law, jurisprudence and social thought (LJST), was one of the faculty members who tested positive after the event.

A faculty dinner held on Tues day, Aug. 23, at the Inn at Bolt wood became a super-spreader event, with about 25 faculty and staff — most of whom were fac ulty members — testing positive for Covid in the days following theTheevent.dinner, which hosted about 60 people, was held to welcome new faculty joining the college this year, with chairs of departments with new facul ty members invited as well. At tendees were asked to complete an antigen test prior to the event. “It’s really unfortunate for many reasons, not least because it was a dinner welcoming our newest faculty,” said Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein at the faculty meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 31. “People seem to have gotten really quite sick after this dinner. These were not cases of asymptomatic Covid — some people have gotten real ly, unfortunately, sick.” “It’s sort of a miserable re minder about how prevalent the pandemic remains,” she added. “We all need to remain vigilant and to do what that entails — mask when appropriate, test as soon as Covid-like symptoms appear, and so on. Unfortunate ly, it really seems that it will take some time for all of us to be free of Covid fret.”

The charge that Harvard’s policies unduly penalize Asian American students remains a contentious point for some, however, with one comment on the college’s Instagram post announcing the brief reading, “Stop discriminating against Asians.”“Ithink people should distin guish between affirmative action and possible bias in [colleges’] reviews of applications by Asian Americans,” said Associate Pro vost and Associate Dean of the Faculty Pawan Dhingra, who does work in topics of Asian American studies, race, educa tion, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. “In other words, you can keep affirmative action and defend it, while still allowing for there to be the possibility of bias against Asian Americans that should be eradicated and over come. They’re separate issues, notZhengidentical.”called the idea that affirmative action is discrimi nation against Asian Americans “very much a red herring.” “Is it possible that there's some kind of inherent bias or unconscious bias from admis sions officers or stereotypes around Asian American stu dents? I think it's definitely possible,” she said. “But I think that if anything, that is more of an argument for why we should be using race-conscious admis sions, acknowledging that those kinds of stereotypes exist.” “Even looking at Edward Blum — this white, conservative lawyer — his motives are not to bring justice to Asian Ameri cans,” she added. “It’s using it as a tool to bring down affirmative action.”Zheng also noted the various benefits she sees affirmative ac tion as having for Asian Amer icans.“For example, there are cer tain fields where Asian Amer icans are underrepresented, or even certain job industries,” she said. “And I think, in general, race-conscious admissions is something that also helps Asian Americans. Like for me, when I talk about my family story and why I'm interested in the differ ent education topics I'm inter ested in, race and my family's racial background is a big part of that.”Ifaffirmative action is over turned as many expect it to be, Zheng thinks that it would have a huge impact on both the op portunities available to students from diverse backgrounds and the experiences of all students.

—Caelen McQuilkin ’ 24E

Q: How do you bring this frame of thinking with you to teaching at Amherst?

Fresh

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E is the practice of freedom. I think that every day work that we do in the classroom is the kind of rev olutionary work that doesn’t get reflected in the news. And I think in particular, when we can teach creative writing in a way … where we have high expectations for the craft, but we also don’t separate from the content of the lived reali ties of college students, and people generally.

Q: How do you think about mov ing between places like Harvard and Amherst, and your work as a labor organizer?

Of all the art forms, I think liter ature is unique because of the way in which it allows access to peo ple’s mind and people’s thoughts in ways you can’t get in a piece of art or even a movie … I just think it’s really beautiful the way that we can, in writing, make the unsaid said.

Victor Yang is a visiting assistant professor of English and Consortium for Faculty Diversity postdoctoral fellow who has worked as a writer, educator and organizer. Yang received a Bachelors of Arts from Harvard College in 2012, a Masters Degree in 2013, a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2016, and a M.F.A. from Boston University in 2021.

A: I think there can be such in tense pressure after being in a college environment like this one, where even if there’s so much choice of the classes you can take, there’s still a certain framework or a container where you have your semesters and you have your four classes and you graduate after you finish eight semesters of classes. And then if you don’t go down one of these very pre-grouped elite paths, it can be extremely scary. I just know so many people who are now doing jobs where they make a ridiculous amount of money, and are not quite sure where they find meaning in their day to day. I just hope that as all of us continue to be older — and this is why I love working with college students — that we can continue to remem ber the sense of possibility and idealism that we had in places like these.

A: I’ve had a lot of different jobs … I worked on three deportation campaigns, I worked on changing certain cities and towns outside of Boston into sanctuary cities. I did a lot of different cool policy work that, when you say it, sounds really cool and meaningful. But ultimately, what I found most meaningful was just working with individual people in ways that — unless you’re writing a feature ar ticle — the news would never pick up. I think that’s the everyday work of education. I think to bell hooks, and what she says about education Department of English

Q: What advice would you give Amherst students for moving forward and making change in the world?

A: While I was organizing, in some way just to make sense of the grief and the contradiction that I saw every day, I started stealing time away in the mornings be fore I went to work, just to write. I started writing more, and then I started taking classes after work. Then I did an M.F.A. program … and I actually was like, “Wow, I really like this.” I think for a lot of careers, most people go on zigzags.

And then when you tell the story backwards, you can draw a straight line, but when it’s actually happen ing, it’s a bunch of squiggly lines. But when I look back, even when I wasn’t writing and doing the or ganizing work, or the research and the interviews, so much of it was just trying to understand and re ally see people, and I think that’s the power of the written word.

The work that I've done for the past ten years is trying to make spaces for people who might otherwise never look each other in the eye to sit in the same room together, and tell each other stories and laugh and cry and imagine each other in the other's shoes. “ ” I think that everyday work we do in the classroom is the kind of revolutionary work that doesn't get reflected in the news. “ ”

A: [Later] I ended up taking a job as an organizer and also as the lead educator and one of the key po litical people for a labor union of 18,000 [at the time] janitors and security officers in Boston, mostly Latinx folks, mostly immigrants. That union … over its history of the past 15 years, they got janitors from $6 an hour to now over $20, and their insurance may be better than my insurance here. There’s just a lot of really concrete wins, but for me … where my energy is, and where my love is, is seeing how people who might never come to that kind of meeting get kind of dragged in sometimes, or stumble upon their way inside, and make it from the corner of the room, to the center, to [with] a bullhorn at a ral ly, to inspiring other people. I think what connects my work in the labor movement, my work as a writer, and also my work as a teacher is … the work that I’ve done for the past 10 years is try ing to make spaces for people who might otherwise never look each other in the eye to sit in the same room together, and tell each oth er stories and laugh and cry and imagine each other in the other’s shoes. And through listening and reading other people’s stories or your own, [you] come to under stand yourself better and be able to show more of yourself than you used to … When I teach, some thing that I try to do, I think back to a quote by a Black poet, June Jordan, and she talks about school as a place where she always felt like oftentimes, the way school works is you can only show certain parts of yourself. And the way I interpret the quote is, if you go into a literary theory class, you have to have your literary critic hat on your, your American Studies hat, or whatever it is, and I think in the most genu ine activist spaces, or the ideal cre ative writing classroom, is where you can shove all those hats aside, and you can just come with your full, messy self with all of its beauty and all of its mess.

Features

Q: What do you think first brought you to love writing?

A: It’s complicated. The labor union I worked at, they represent … hundreds, at least, of janitors and security officers on Harvard campus. Some of the workers I worked most closely with were janitors at Harvard. One of my co workers, who was a staff organizer, used to be a security officer. And I imagine I probably passed her — she was in the Science Center, and I was actually pre-med in col lege — so I must have passed her everyday, for four year, and never noticed her … I think learning to navigate life in a socially ac ceptable way is sometimes learn ing how you separate your very selves into these different Russian [nesting] dolls, and how you keep them separate, and how you pre tend like these two dolls on the table don’t even talk to each other, even though they’re both you. And that’s how I feel a little bit some times about having the product of a very elite education but also do ing organizing work where, at the labor union, a lot of my coworkers were former janitors who had be come leaders in the union and got promoted up. I’m thinking about one woman who I thought was particularly brilliant, and I don’t think she finished third grade in El Salvador.Idothink [about] something I learned very early on in col lege in a social justice program, a pre orientation that I was part of. They pointed to a very pretty bridge in Boston … we walked through downtown, and there were all these gorgeous buildings and architectural pieces, and they were like, “If you think about the amount of exploitation and labor that went into this, this is kind of a representation of how … how the things we celebrate in society are always built on the backs of people who are not remembered.” I think a Harvard degree is very shiny, and being a low wage worker in Amer ica is not, and I wish I had a pretti er answer to give you, but I’m still working through it.

Q: One of the many jobs that you worked before coming to Amherst as a professor was as a labor organizer in Boston. What brought you to that work?

Victor Wei Ke Yang Faculty

“ ”

Welcome to the Amherst Stu dent’s new Features section! Fea tures was a section of its own in The Student until 2003, when it was combined with Arts to be come Arts & Living. Since then, in-depth features on Amherst have been included in both A&L and News (even sometimes in Sports). Now, we’re bringing it back as a section all its own. So what is it? The central idea behind the Features section is exploration. While new things happen every day at the college, there is also so much in existence here that demands a deeper look, and a different style. The Features sec tion will explore these things — dynamics, patterns, history, initiatives, events, and people — and reflect our community back to itself.Some of our articles will be investigative projects. Some of them will be historical pieces that trace back through the ar chives. Some will be more light hearted accounts of campus go ings-on. Some will be interviews with staff members, faculty, and thesis-writers. All of our piec es will be in-depth, thoughtful, well-researched, and enmeshed in the exciting community that we have here. We will over lap and collaborate with all the other sections to weave this indepth approach throughout The Student as a whole. We wanted to re-establish a Features section because of our belief that Amherst’s remarkable range of people, ideas, and in teractions make it a place where no story is really surface-level — even the small ones. We think that investigating and uplifting these stories will result in a bet ter understanding of this place and the forces that shape it. We’re here to answer ques tions, big and small. How does the Amherst budget work any way? Where did all the metal Val forks go? Who schedules the timing of the bell in JChap, and how does it go off? How do the food truck vendors who come to campus perceive Amherst students? What can we find by tracing the history of sexual assault policy on campus? The history of student activism sur rounding the development of an AAPI Studies Department? How have changes in the Amherst ad missions process shaped today’s student body and what types of stories have those shifts pro duced? What’s going on with the new trees and plants down by the tennis courts? What did the students who spent over a year working on the Campus Safety Advisory Committee have to say about the decision to keep ACPD armed? What does the difference between a “casual” and “benefit ed” employee mean in the lives of people who work here? A little about us, and why we’re excited about this section:

The

Caelen McQuilkin '24E, Elea nor Walsh '25, and Sonia Cha jet Wides '25 Managing Features Editors

SectionFeatureswillexplorethesethings...andreflectourcommunitybacktoitself.

Features 10The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

Managing editors of the new Features section (from left to right, Sonia Chajet Wides '25, Caelen McQuilkin '24E, Eleanor Walsh '25). We wanted to reestablish a Features section because of our belief that remarkableAmherst'srange of people, ideas, and interactions make it a place where no story is surface-level.really courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E

A Closer Look: Introducing the New Features Section

From Caelen: I grew up in a 300-person town in Eastern Cal ifornia that most people know either as a pit stop for gas or the eastern entrance to a famous na tional park, yet it is also a home, and a place where I think that some of today’s most salient po litical issues emerge in everyday interactions. This is part of the reason why I believe in the pow er of complicating perceptions of the places that we engage with, from California to Amherst and across the world. Talking about these relationships and interac tions can help us better under stand, and then link together, the reach and depth of struggles for racial and class justice, how they emerge in different places. And I believe that talking with people and uplifting stories can help do this reframing, with the goal of building communities and coalitions between people.

From Eleanor: When rel atives hear that I work at The Student, they usually ask some variation of “so, will you go into journalism?” My answer, up un til now, has been “maybe, but I don’t think I can take such a fastpaced lifestyle.” To me, news and fast were synonymous. What I loved about journalism was the opposite: the long, slow conver sations I had with interview sub jects, the hours spent building a single page. Feature writing is slower. Features means tak ing the time to pause and listen to the stories that already exist around us, and delving deep into the heart of each and every one. I am so excited to embark on this journey with Sonia and Caelen, and to learn more about the community surrounding me. From Sonia: This summer, I had the honor to work at The Current, a small, non-profit, indepth newsroom based in Sa vannah, Georgia. The Current does not cover breaking news; instead, they bring the magni fying glass to issues in Coastal Georgia. Working there, I was inspired by the care and research dedicated to every topic from electoral politics to glass recy cling. The Amherst Student’s coverage area is small — a lib eral-arts college with a tiny pop ulation of students, staff, and faculty. But within that area is a trove of culture, history, and stories waiting to be explored. I am thrilled to be working on a Features section that examines, connects, and celebrates this wonderful community. We’re excited to see all of you right here each week. If you’re interested in joining our team as a writer, artist, editor or design er, or if you have story ideas or questions you want to share, let us Caelen,Allknow!ourbest,Eleanor, and Sonia

“ ” Photo

The first time that my room mate (and co-managing features editor), Sonia Chajet Wides ’25, and I met our Community Advisor (CA), he was retrieving a rug from our room. She was giving the rug away in amherst free & for sale, a campus GroupMe that students use to buy, sell, and give away just about anything. Right away, people started messaging her (after all, a free rug is a pretty good deal). Obed Labra Pelaez ’23 was the first to respond, and he asked Sonia where she was living so he could come pick it up. Upon hearing her room number, he in formed her that he was our CA, and lived just down the hall. He walked the 50 feet to come pick up the rug, introduced himself, and told us that if we needed any thing we could knock on his door. Labra Pelaez said that the ex change “made for a funny inter action and introduction. In a way, the chat allowed me to have an in troduction and good relationship with my residents before I nor mally would have. I’m a big fan of the free and for sale chat. It’s useful and at times very entertaining too.” It is coincidental that the first person to message my roommate happened to be our CA, but not atypical of amherst free & for sale. The almost 900 current members of the GroupMe make up nearly half of the college’s student body. It figures that you’ll end up buy ing a dress from your lab part ner, or a full-length mirror from someone you keep seeing in Val. You might even gain a new face to say “hi” to on campus. “Some thing I like about free & for sale is that I get to meet new people — I’ve gotten to meet some really cool people (albeit sometimes there were awkward interactions) and sometimes the things people sell or request in the GroupMe tend to tell me a bit about their personality and interests,” said Hannah Kim ’25. Amherst free & for sale was cre ated by Annie Martin ’22E during the “Covid year” of 2020-2021.

This week alone, items sold in amherst free & for sale include: potting soil, more clothing items than I can count, a (very contro versial) bike, a bed frame, and an apple pencil. If you join now, you can buy my climbing shoes, and you may even make a new friend.

Martin was also disturbed by the amount of waste Amherst stu dents generated. “Every semester I Alexa Ekhelar '25 bought her air fryer for around $25 from free & for sale when a senior was selling it at the end of last year.

Eleanor Walsh ’25 Managing Features Editor

Photo courtesy of Jon Feygin '23

Features 11The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

Martin initially sent the link to join amherst free & for sale into the on-campus GroupMe, which at the time consisted of around 500 or 600 people. According to Martin, the chat hit the ground running — some thing she attributes to GroupMe’s instant joining feature. Martin also commented that Amherst GroupMe culture as we know it (AmherstBussin, etc.) did not exist prior to Covid. Students compensated for a lack of in-per son connection with online com munities, such as free & for sale. Martin started amherst free & for sale largely because she wanted to fill the sustainable fashion niche. “I’ve always been very pro zero waste initiatives and have always been anti fast fashion,” she said. “So I've always looked at thrift stores and garage sales and that sort of thing. It just felt like a niche that needed to be filled at Amherst.”

Free & For Sale: Sustainability and Community was at Amherst, you just see how much stuff people throw out," she said. "And it sucks for the custodi ans who have to clean up after us, but it’s also just really wasteful."

Photo courtesy of Alexa Ekhelar '25 Abbey Skinner '24 is pictured here with her mirror from free & for sale, which "fits perfectly above [her] desk."

Free & for sale seems to have successfully combatted this prob lem, at least partially. “I think it’s great to have this network because it promotes sustainable consumer habits,” said Susana Feldman ’23. “Like getting things secondhand or asking around to see if you can bor row something before you buy it.” Kim agreed: “It’s a great way to repurpose things in our com munity — a lot of the time things go to waste super easily (for ex ample during dorm clean outs last semester I heard that so many people threw away so many things!!!) and free and for sale is a super easy way to sell things!” Through the GroupMe, students can give new life to their old items. Isabelle Anderson ’25 utilized the chat when her body changed during freshman year. “To be clear, this was a good change: I was re covering from an eating disorder and I was proud of myself for mak ing this progress,” said Anderson. “However … I was stuck with half a closet of ill-fitting clothing and didn’t have the time to go all the way to the mall to find new clothes in-person. Then I found the Free and For Sale GroupMe! I was able to get rid of the clothes that didn’t fit me without dwelling on them and bought new pieces after try ing them on while on-campus!” Not only are students able to repurpose their items, but prices tend to be much cheap er than if the item was sold new.

“This chat was a godsend be cause I was able to get a used iPad in great condition that I use to take notes for nearly all my classes now,” said Jon Feygin ’23. This is especially useful for students who live further from Amherst, and don’t have room to bring everything they need to and from school. Martin, who is originally from Colorado, had to bring everything with her when she moved in and out and found the chat incredibly helpful.

Photo courtesy of Abbey Skinner '24 It's a great way to repurpose things in our community — a lot of the time things go to waste super easily — Hannah Kim '25 “ ” Jon Feygin '23 takes notes with the used iPad he bought from the GroupMe.

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Welcome to Amherst College, Class of 2026! As the semester gets into motion, The Editorial Board wanted to offer some advice to new students based on our personalDon’texperience.clingtoyour expectations of what college is going to look like. You’re entering a totally new environment, and that can be scary. But be open to change. Embrace the discomfort and uncertainty, and use it to propel yourself into personal growth or trying something new. At the same time, stay connected to the things that bring you comfort. Don’t get so caught up in the rush of a new place that you forget to call the people you miss or do the things you love from back home. Familiarize yourself with Amherst’s resources. Read the Daily Mammoth in your inbox every day: It lists info sessions, on-campus events, and club meetings, as well as a variety of academic, career-oriented, and social opportunities. Use the Writing Center to get help with papers or written projects, the Q Center for quantitative classes, and the library for research assistance. Check out the Loeb Center for career opportunities, resume help, and summer internship funding. And any Community Centers that you identify with are great sources of support. Actively seek out the resources you need and want — Amherst has a ton! Imposter syndrome is normal, and most people are feeling just as out of place as you are. If you’re worried about social connections, know that you don’t need to have a set friend group. And if you’ve found one, remember that it’s good to have friends outside that core group — there are so many interesting people at Amherst and it’s important not to shut yourself off from meeting them. It may be nerve-wracking to make new friends in a new place, but try to be active in doing so. Invite someone to lunch or ask a table if you can join them. Compliment someone’s outfit and strike up a conversation. People really appreciate it when you reach out and initiate a conversation, especially as they might be too nervous to do it themselves. Seek out clubs and activities you might enjoy, too — there’s no better way to meet new people with common interests! Throughout high school, you were probably told a number of things that college professors won’t tolerate. But don’t be intimidated by your professors; they care about your well-being and ultimately just want you to learn. If you’re going through it, let them know. Prioritize yourself, and communicate with them about what you’re struggling with and what they can do so that they know how best to help you learn and stay on track. And go to office hours! Professors want to get to know you, and they are a massive help in almost every class.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of the majority of the Editorial Board — (assenting: 21; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 0).

The First-year’s Survival Guide

w Opinion

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

Editor-in-Chief Yee-Lynn Lee Senior Managing Liam Archacki Theo Hamilton Editor-at-Large Sophie Wolmer Managing News Ethan Foster Leo MichaelKaminMason Managing Features Sonia Chajet Wides CaelenEleanorMcQuilkinWalsh Managing Opinion DustinTaptiKeiCopelandLimSen

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Building connections can also really make a difference in your classes. Make friends in your classes who you can ask questions, get notes from if you’re absent, and study with. This will not only improve your understanding of the material, but also your experience in the class. Above all, remember to balance your time: Give yourself a class schedule you’re genuinely going to enjoy, and don’t let your work pile up. It’s not particularly fun to pull all-nighters every week or find yourself trapped in the library 24/7. Spend time outside. It’s easy to find yourself cooped up in buildings for an entire day, but when there’s nice weather, take the opportunity to work on the quad, walk around campus, or go to the Book & Plow farm. Get off campus, too — there are a ton of great places to hike and cool places to visit in the Pioneer Valley and beyond. You can even buy a bus ticket and spend a weekend in Boston. It is important to break away from Amherst’s bubble every once in a while, even if it’s just by taking a walk into town or down the rail trail. Don’t feel pressured to do things just because others are doing them. Be conscious about where you're putting energy or time. You only have so many hours in the day — say no to things, if necessary. If something sounds cool, be spontaneous and go for it, but don’t be afraid to quit it if it doesn’t turn out to be all that you expected. Don’t put pressure on yourself to figure out your entire future right away; you will do better by focusing on the present. Participate in campus life in some way. Support your friends at performances and sports games. Go to events and get caught up in conversations. Find things outside of classes at the college that you’ll enjoy. Finally, be considerate of everyone who makes this community what it is. Students, staff, faculty, and Amherst town residents all play a crucial role here. Be respectful of Val workers and custodial staff and have dorm etiquette. If there’s an issue with your roommate, communicate with them now. Be clean and don’t leave food or dishes in the sink — no one’s going to do them for you. Respect the bathroom spaces. (And wear shower shoes! An infection is not worth the convenience.) And while your cordiality is appreciated, when someone’s in the bathroom or brushing their teeth at the same time as you, you really don’t have to talk to them. Lastly, you can eat alone in Val. It’s not weird. But don’t eat the ham salad.

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.

Publication Tara Alahakoon Managing Arts & Living AlexanderMadelineYasminBrandfonbrenerHamiltonBrookeHoffmanBrianneLaBareLawson Managing Sports Nick AlexEdwards-LevinLizaKatzNoga Managing Podcast Sam Spratford Managing Photo Emma Spencer Managing Design Brianne LaBare

We read profiles of students during Commencement Week, spotlight the accomplishments of alumni during Homecoming weekend, and showcase faculty work at a whole variety of lec tures and events, but very rare ly do we learn beyond a mere Q&A of the lives of those whose physical labor runs every aspect of Amherst College. The people behind the counters, pushing the janitor carts, sweeping the floors, scrubbing our dishes, and setting up events are individuals with aspirations, intellectual pur suits, families, and are defined by things beyond their job. These are also people, however, that carry struggles, loss, anger, and other emotions that oftentimes complicate their relationship with the institution they work for.Earlier this past year, I had the opportunity to meet, collaborate, and, most importantly, form rela tionships with several staff mem bers through the Amherst Labor Alliance (ALA), a student-staff group established at the start of the Fall 2021 semester. The group’s intentions, as the name indicates, are to demand better conditions for workers (initially, Val employees to be more specif ic), bring attention to the exploit ative conditions that Val workers face — whether it be unwelcom ing work environments or lack of benefits — and cultivate radical solidarity.Atthesame time I joined this club, I was enrolled in two an thropology courses: “Feminist & Queer Ethnographies” taught by Professor of Sexuality, Wom en's and Gender Studies Katrina Karkazis, and “Protest!” taught by Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies Han nah A. Holleman and Associate Professor of Anthropology Nus rat S. Chowdhury. Both classes have helped me understand what solidarity (or radical solidarity) means in practice and informed my perspective throughout my time in ALA. The staff we sup port have been historically dis empowered and often feel that it is unsafe to speak against unfair working conditions. As a stu dent, I don’t experience the same working-class realities that many of the staff members in Valentine Dining Hall face. However, as a daughter of low-income Ecua dorian immigrants, it doesn’t re quire a lot of effort to empathize with the struggles the workers face. I relate to some of their discontent with administration and feelings of helplessness in the midst of injustice. However, I know that as a student, I have the power to use my voice to dis rupt the status quo without fear of retribution (such as loss of employment) and that combined with other student voices, the voices of college staff members would be amplified and listened to for the first time. Many posters, public demon strations, and social media posts later, ALA has been able to recruit new students, spread awareness about labor issues, and help pressure the admin istration to convert casual staff positions to regular benefitted positions. However, the work of showing up to support staff members doesn’t stop even after securing many successes. There remains more work ahead to change the campus culture sur rounding student-staff relation ships and in order to improve labor conditions for staff beyond those working in Val. Nonethe less, the most important thing a student can do is understand that we only exist comfortably on this campus thanks to the work of other people.

Meeting Jules I first met Jules at Amherst La bor Alliance’s first meeting, locat ed underneath a tent in Webster Circle when it was still warm and sunny outside. When they first spoke, I was immediately im pressed by their class conscious ness. Their rage at the oppression that Val workers faced made me feel angry with them, but never made me pity them. In fact, it was their steadfast determina tion that we, students, could do something to disrupt the endless cycle of administration’s abuse that motivated me (and, honest ly, everyone else) to keep coming back to meetings every week — even if many of these left more questions than answers about how we could best act in solidari ty. I took away many things from those meetings, such as further examining my own role within a wage-labor system at Amherst. One of the major things that I gained from my participation, however, was a friend.

“Lots of trans people have to move out of their homes because Jules: Trailblazer, Educator, and Val Worker

Balancing Teaching and Food Service Jobs at Amherst

Jules struggled to obtain their fi nancial footing and to feel a sense of belonging in their new com munity. “I didn't really feel like I could depend on Amherst eco nomically. I [had] lost jobs here, and I [had] had to move around without any real assistance.” Jules had been working multiple jobs prior to moving and continued doing so when they landed their first job with the college a cou in a nice neighborhood where I never felt unsafe. And I went to a school that wasn't a public school, it was a charter school. So I was very fortunate to have more individualized attention. [My school, and what it offered,] still wasn't enough for me.”

Carving a Life outside of School and Home Jules’s journey to Amherst be gan shortly after they graduated high-school and decided not to pursue college, a path that they felt mentally and financially unable to take on. Born into a lower-middle class white family — their mother, a reporter, and their father, a college professor — Jules acknowledged the many privileges they had while young: “I grew up in a 10-room house page

their parents don’t accept them. I wasn't out at the time, so that wasn't going to be an issue. But I was kind of concerned that it might be … I was dating some one who was transgender at the time and they didn't feel safe where I was living,” they men tioned.Asa trans person themselves, Jules wanted to be in a location where they could transition safe ly — both medically and socially.

My skills as an ethnographer have reminded me not only of the power of sharing the stories of those rendered invisible by our society, but also of the im portance of sharing these sto ries in a way that prevents the reinforcement of inequalities, namely by always considering one’s position. We are in an in terdependent relationship with not only the other people here — staff, faculty, and other students — but also our living environ ment — the campus and Amherst town. It is our responsibility to ensure that the working and liv ing conditions of every member of our community are equally valued and respected. By sharing the story of Jules, a pseudonym used for the Val worker used for the Val worker employed by the college back in 2021, I hope that we can take one step towards acting on this re sponsibility of interdependence.

Jeanyna Garcia ’23 Contributing Writer Introduction

Opinion 13The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022 Meet

Continued on

14

“[Amherst] is a place where it's everyone's weird soup. You can just kind of come and be yourself in college. No one really looks twice because there's so much change, like you can't keep up with it.”

“Looking back I’m just like, ‘Why isn't everyone anxious in high school?’ It's a system that's bro ken and doesn't work for anyone. It segregates people with their learning, and [segregates based on] social groups and economic classes. It sucks. So I didn't want to be a part of that system,” Jules reflected.About two years after gradu ating high-school, moving out of their mother’s house and work ing multiple jobs, Jules landed at Amherst in 2015. While leaving home and living independent ly had left them impoverished, Jules explains that it was “a time when [they] had to choose to [either] appease people or fix [their] mental health.” Choosing their mental health meant escap ing a gendered social narrative they didn’t agree with.

Moving to Amherst, however, came with its own challenges.

An Amherst Labor Alliance sign hung on an entrance of Val. Photo courtesy of Amherst Labor Alliance

Jules’ disenchantment with the educational system at an early age also heavily motivat ed them to seek a life outside of what school defined as success.

ple of years ago. The flexibility of their job in the dining hall al lowed them to balance side gigs, including taking on some work at a local school. “I worked there for a year as an assistant teacher and then substitute assistant teacher, and then the pandemic hit,” Jules commented.Lookingback on their time teaching, Jules remarked “I'm still worried about being con ceited or full of myself, but like, when you're good at something you can just do well, that is so exciting.”Inparticular, teaching helped tap into their passion to fix what they call an “ableist, racist, in dustrialized” educational system. The desire to better a system that played a role in driving them to leave home, is what also drew Jules to seek professional expe riences in teaching and to later enroll in a local community col lege.“The kind of subjugation that happens with students at school is the same kind of obedience that we were taught throughout our whole lives in America. And we are told to accept [this real ity] without questioning many things that are not good for us in school … Whether you're a student or a working-class in dividual, you maintain the rela tionship with authority that you have in school as a child,” they said. This reality could not have been made any more clear for Jules during their time employed at Amherst College. ‘Holding Back Anger’ While Working for Amherst College It didn’t take too long for Jules to draw parallels between the patterns of subjugation they encountered in their school and those they faced as a worker in Amherst’s Dining Services. “The college talks to us as if we’re children a lot of the time, which is very frustrating … the college is not working to serve us. They work just to steal our labor and that's the dynamic that they've set up,” Jules said.

An example of this injustice, according to Jules, is the dispar ity between casual workers and full-time employees, where the latter are awarded human rights, such as health-care, which are not provided for casual workers such as themself. “I know that they are exploit ing me, and that they couldn't care less about what actual ly happens in my life and that I'm very easily replaceable, but I have to pretend that isn't the case,” Jules confessed. Yet pretending isn’t easy for someone who has been sustain ing their livelihood for seven years all by themselves. “The col lege really enjoys promoting this idea that they're not actually con trolling these people's lives to the degree that they are with wages and stuff. But their minor deci sions about payment [like the 2020 and 2020-2021 school year’s wage increases] can change my life in an incredibly drastic way. Extra money has contributed to my mental health improving,” they“Myrevealed.hobbies, my routine, my energy were all depleted for the sake of managing the stress of not having enough money. Real izing how much I was skimping on quality of life things to afford living in Amherst, unable to put money away, it's no wonder I never felt stable,” they stated.

Long-Term Goals: Building Community and Reforming Ed ucational System

Nonetheless, Jules aspires to create a role for themselves as an educator that they can “ben efit from instead of needing to survive.” “I don't want [teaching] to be my full-time job because I think that's part of how you get jaded. You don't want to depend on the system,” they affirmed. Of course, they recognize the many benefits of becoming either a full-time employee in dining or as an educator, but for Jules, the most important things are being stable and working towards goals that don't go beyond what they can achieve within the context of their community.

At the end of the day, Jules’ goals are twofold: choosing to re main loyal to their class identity while also creating meaningful change for those around them. And, if possible, they’d like to pick back up certain personal hobbies that they had left back home.“Ihave a five-year plan written somewhere. I want to get back into ballet once I am in a situa tion where I can afford it … I'd like to be a more proficient and more prolific artist,” Jules shared. Whether they end up under neath the stage lights, becoming a teacher, or both, I only hope to cheer them on as they continue to reach these milestones in their life.

Opinion 14The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

The college has since taken away hazard pay once the 20212022 school year began, decreas ing many people’s minimum wage from at least $20 an hour to roughly $15 an hour. “Hold ing all of my anger back is a very frustrating experience. But that's not unique to me. It's not unique to my class experience,” they ad mitted.

While working at Amherst College for the past three years has helped Jules feel more con nected to the town, they still think more effort is necessary to bridge the gap between students and staff. “I think I mentioned this once before, but there's a mentality that's promoted in catering where it’s like the less that you're seen, the more effec tive you are … We're there for wages and you're there for food, and that's it. So, there's that in tentional divide where workers don’t really think about students as entirely people, and the stu dents don’t think of workers as people,” they stated.“That’s what capitalism is great at.”

Jules, nonetheless, has gone out of their way to bridge this distance of their own accord, namely through their participa tion in ALA. They believe that more intentional community events could help change the campus culture of student-staff relationships, allowing students to examine their own class iden tity and increasing comradery amongst both groups.“Commu nity is something where you can't choose it. It has to be an interde pendent relationship,” they said.

For now, Jules wants to contin ue investing in their community at Amherst and pursuing their goal of becoming an educator. “I really enjoy working with any body who is interested in learn ing and honestly, we're all inter ested in learning, but there's so much that the education system that we live in does to externalize our validation,” they argued.

An ALA Activist and Amherst Dining Employee

Continued from page 13

Students of the Amherst Labor Alliance hold up a banner demanding wage rais es for college staff during halftime of the 2021 Homecoming football game. Photo courtesy of Amherst Labor Alliance

through my face. I didn’t put it there — it was an expression not of my mind but of my entire self, explained not by my thoughts but of the then-central fact of my ex istence: I was on a farm and my work was good.

Tractor Drivin’ Man Experiences Book & Plow

make the summer job the invalu able experience that it is. Clearly designed for new farmers, the education provided is indescrib ably good. I came away from the summer feeling technically versed in the basics of how farms are run — even if the physical demands of a “real” farming job are still terrifying. The education about food systems in the area was grounded in the fact that farms practically carpet the Pio neer Valley; no other experience here has made me feel closer to the land on which I go to school and the people who inhabit it. Of non-students I’ve met around the area, most of them have had some connection to at least one farm, and even those without jobs or friends in the industry patronize the farmers markets and actual farm stores that dot the Valley. The education provided by the farm is not just applicable as a learning experience, as a way of legitimizing my presence in this place I’m not from. By the end of the summer, I felt actually capable in my job — like I actually could judge what needed to be weeded and how effective I was at doing it, like I could harvest and wash and pack a crop according to the order we got, like I could operate our equipment safely and skillful ly enough to do any job that was asked of me. That meant, perhaps most importantly, that I was al lowed to drive a tractor around! I was (I cannot stress this enough) allowed to drive a tractor around under our farm’s skies, looking at the hills that rise from the gaps in our perfect woods, at the farm that is itself an artwork, flow ered resplendent green. There is a beauty to all farms, in the rows and the order and the life, but there’s something about B&P that raises it above other farms, that makes it one of the most perfect places I have ever been in. My last day of work on the farm was last Wednesday. I walked down towards the Fort River in the far fields for the last time in the summer. The sun beat down particularly hard and my body was certainly staging a pro test, but suddenly a smile broke

Opinion 15The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

I’m not sure I’ve had a bet ter experience than farming this summer in my life, and as such, I’m sure I’ll be spending quite a bit of time up there through this semester and for the rest of my time at Amherst. Everyone, I think, should do the same: go pick a bouquet of flowers and some cherry tomatoes, relax on Tuttle Hill, take the place in with all of your senses. Talk to Maida or Kaylee (or Ana Ascencio, this year’s Farm Fellow!) if they’re out there, or anyone who has worked on the farm. They’re some of the best people I’ve met here, and I’ve learned more from them than al most anyone else. On that note, whether you’ve thought about it in the past or never even heard of farming, apply to work at B&P! It’s kind of perfect up there. I’m sure you’ll love it.

Dustin Copeland ’25 Managing Opinion Editor

By the end of July, my routine was set in stone: roll out of bed as close to nine as possible to throw on my sneakers (which by then were held together by solidified mud and soil more than any thing else) so that I could get to the farm (Book & Plow farm: ab breviated B&P, south of campus, basically heaven) without being too late to fill up my water bottle before the farm van shuttled the crew down to the far fields where we planted and weeded and ir rigated and harvested until the time or job came up such that at least some of us would head back to the core site to work further — if there were time and jobs for such before lunch, which would be an hour’s shoveling of calories in preparation for the afternoon’s hotter repetition of the morning’s planting and weeding and irrigat ing and harvesting, itself ending with the bus route back to campus and my collapse before a shower and the rest of the day that exist ed and was lived in the shadow of the workday, which encompassed and was greater than all things on Earth.Oftentimes work was difficult, and sometimes when the sun beat particularly hard and my body protested particularly loudly it was miserable, but even (especial ly) when it felt that way, the time was sure to come soon after when living would become euphoric, when each unit of myself would realize the perfect unity of pur pose and design expressed by its use for farming and I felt rather than recalled the last line of Gary Snyder’s poem about log truck work: “There is no other life.” That sense of fulfillment was nearly daily on the farm, making it a work experience that I believe is different in kind from most oth er jobs a person can work. I felt a deeply visceral tangibility to the work that I did on the farm that could not have come solely from the visual proof there was of my work; there was something great er about raising and maintaining crops than even other types of manual labor. It is certain that I still love things like mechanical maintenance, construction, and woodworking, but farming has for some reason a different feel ing than each of those. I have experienced intense joy from de signing and engineering and fix ing in the past, but I have never felt certainty that, if it came to it, I could drop everything and do that work for the rest of my life. On the farm, however, that cer tainty was a constant. The thing about that feeling, though, is that it is not at all a reflection of the pure act of farm ing. I am certain that my convic tion in farming’s virtues would have not ever come about had I interned for a summer at any old farm — in fact it’s possible that, had I been working for a much less well-managed one (may mercy be had on any who have been crew for Queen’s Greens), I would come away positively hating the farming experience. Maida Ives and Kaylee Brow, the permanent managers of B&P,

A few of the summer crew stand triumphant in front of the skeleton of the hoop house they erected this summer at the Book & Plow farm.

Photo courtesy of Dustin Copeland '25

w Amusements 1ACROSS Big name in handbags 6 Audibly shocked 11 Opt in, as a course 14 Dorm-room alternative to Val 15 Tend to the turkey 16 Nectar collector 17 familiarizationFirst-year 19 Outlaw 20 Marsh 21 Tin Man's need 22 Icing variety 24 Sellout sign 25 Story 27 Hullabaloo 28 A long, long way to run 29 RSO rodeo 34 Name in two states 37 Genius Gallagher, on "Shameless" 38 Latin lover's word 39 Not in the dark 40 "Ich bin ___ Berliner" 41 Laundry-room fodder 43 Deface 44 Short shut-eye 45 Jay from junior English 46 Course bible 49 Skippers of 17-Across, briefly 50 ___ standstill 51 Jazz legend Fitzgerald 53 "Ouch" 56 Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un 60 "Yikes!" 61 Spanish article 62 Sinbad's bird 63 Another time around the block, Amherst-style, highlighted by 17-Across, 29-Across, and 11-Across with 56-Down 66 Plastic ___ Band 67 Make a window frame watertight 68 WAMH platform 69 L.A. clock setting 70 Small-screen awards 71 Emma of "The Croods" 1DOWN Sarat and Gewertz, briefly 2 Less common 3 Protein-building acid 4 Barely passing, at Amherst 5 Tip for your FYSE readings 6 Have ___ (live it up) 7 Gangster's piece 8 Cher Horowitz: "Ugh, ___!" 9 Left in the lurch 10 Fountain head? 11 Swedish super group 12 Michael Elliott, formerly 13 Fender bender 18 Pageant prize 23 Uncompleted, for short, as in a track race 26 Surpass 28 In favor of 30 ___-Manuel Miranda 31 Small batteries 32 Site for differentiating Damon from Wahlberg 33 Like Santa's cheeks 34 Beaver blockades 35 On the road 36 Marx, not Tony 40 ___ de toilette 41 Lebron's squad 42 NFL tiebreakers, briefly 44 41-Down, for one 45 Humanoid of Jewish folklore 47 Drink like a dog 48 Now 52 Snowden's favorite vegetables? 53 Surpass 54 ___ a million 55 Denmark's ___ Islands 56 Escape, as a course 57 Ages and ages 58 Macbeth, for one 59 Did laps, perhaps 64 Fox-like 65 Test that some Amherst applicants can't stand? Solutions: May 11 The Amherst Student Crossword | Sept. 7, 2022 Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editor

Arts&Living

• “Ojitos Lindos” ft. Bomba Estereo • “Party” ft. Rauw Alejandro

Here’s a list of the songs from the album that I recommend:

Piero Campos ’25 Staff Writer As Summer comes to a close, Bad Bunny’s fourth solo album “Un Verano Sin Ti” (A Summer Without You) continues to grow in popularity on both the English and Latin Billboard charts. The album debuted on May 6, and accumulat ed a whopping 356 million official streams in the United States within a single week, a record unmatched by any album since Drake’s “Cer tified Lover Boy” racked up 744 million streams in 2021 and an all-time record for a Latin album. “Un Verano Sin Ti” follows Bad Bunny’s previous worldwide hit al bum “YHLQMDLG” (an acronym in Spanish for “I Do Whatever I Want”), which won the Grammy’s Best Latin Pop or Urban Album of 2021.Although pool parties, barbe cues, and beach days may be at an end, Bad Bunny’s Caribbean musical styles continue to provide summer thrills for all listeners. The album is divided into two sides. Side A is full of high energy, up beat songs, while side B embraces sentimental emotions. According to Bad Bunny, “The album starts with a lot of energy, a lot of perreo, mambo, dembow, and suddenly there’s a bossa nova. It’s like when you go out to a party, you’re excited but then you get drunk and senti mental.”Although “Un Verano Sin Ti”embraces the vibe of a summer filled with parties and fun, the al bum also features Bad Bunny’s appreciation for Latinx culture through the sounds of Dominican and Puerto Rican genres. Songs like “Títí Me Preguntó” (Auntie Asked Me) and “Después de la Playa” (After the Beach) pay hom age to the Dominican Republic by incorporating bachata and meren gue sounds. Moreover, the music video for “Títí Me Preguntó” (Aun tie Asked Me) was filmed in the Bronx, a second home for many Dominican immigrants. The vid eo highlights a cultural diaspora through the scenes of bodegas, bar bershops, and various Latin Amer ican flags, waving all through the Bronx’sSimilarly,neighborhoods.“ElApagón” (The Blackout) is a song dedicated to Bad Bunny’s homeland of Puerto Rico, featuring lyrics that highlight the rich history of the island’s beau ty and love of reggaeton: “El sol es taíno, ey, La capital del perreo, aho ra todos quieren ser latino’, no, ey Pero les falta sazón, batería y reg gaetón ey, ey” (The sun is taino, ey, the capital of reggaeton, now every one wants to be latino’, no, ey, but they lack the sauce and drums and reggaeton ey ey). Bad Bunny pays homage to Reaggeaton legends such as Tengo Calderon while not ing the wide popularity of Latinx culture across the world. The song’s title “El Apagón” (The Blackout) refers to the blackouts that occur frequently in Puerto Rico, plaguing marginalized communities more deeply than rich ones. Moreover, lyrics such as “Que se vayan ellos / Que se vayan ellos” (“Let them leave / Let them leave”) are meant to call out the white and rich set tlers who are displacing Puerto Ri cans for tax benefits. The song tack les gentrification on the island and the corruption of political leaders. Bad Bunny’s success is a success for the entire Latinx community.

• “Tarot” ft. Jhay Cortez

Bad Bunny’s newest album, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” skyrockets up the global charts. Piero Campos ’25 breaks down how the artist embraces his Latinx heritage. through evocative lyrics and bachata and merengue inspired beats.

• “Me Porto Bonito” ft. Chencho Corleone

Bad Bunny’s New Album: End of Summer Vibes

Photo courtesy of medialab

We are currently living in a “gold en age” for the Latin music genre, a time when Latinx artists have a con siderable amount of influence, both in the music world and beyond. As the Latinx community continues to grow within the United States, so does the culture and traditions that continue to be passed down through generations. Bad Bunny puts it perfectly in “El Apagón” when he says, “ahora todos quieren ser latino” (Now everyone wants to be latino), highlighting the growth in popularity of Latinx influences and cultures around the world. “Un Verano Sin Ti” provides listeners with a thrilling Caribbean sound, filled with Latinx pride.

• “Títí Me Preguntó”

• “Efecto”

• “Enséñame a Bailar”

Arts & Living 18The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

XTHE STUDENT

This summer, Beyoncé dropped her hit album “Renais sance.” WAMH Events Coordinator Nii-Ayi Aryeetey ’23 delves into the album’s joyous and dynamic tracks, which draw on a variety of Black music genres, including house, ballroom, and disco.

Brought to you by the WAMH blog, where it can also be found, and The Student's Arts & Living Section. Written by WAMH Events Coordinator Nii-Ayi Aryeetey ’23.

When Beyoncé dropped “Break My Soul,” the lead sin gle for her new album “Renais sance,” fans worldwide rejoiced and geared up for a new era of music from the music super star. The single — an uptempo, club-inspired house song — left many wondering what her new album would sound like. Some were worried that she was follow ing in the footsteps of Drake, who recently released “Honestly, Nev ermind,” a House-influenced club album that many listeners found uninspired and vapid. But I was excited by the positive message and infectiously groovy produc tion of “Break My Soul,” which seemed to signal a new direction for Beyoncé involving off-kilter, raucous samples and a dance-fo cused sound. Thankfully, Beyon cé delivers this abundantly on all 16 songs of “Renaissance”“Renaissance.”takes strong inspiration from the past five de cades of Black dance music. In particular, the tracks have a spe cial focus on genres pioneered and popularized by the Black LGBTQ community: house mu sic, ballroom, Miami bass music, and disco. While Beyoncé is no stranger to the influence of hiphop, “Renaissance” leans into its influences by featuring Be yoncé herself rapping far more than any of her previous albums have. Famous producers such as No I.D., A.G. Cook, Mike Dean, The-Dream, and Beyoncé herself collaborated to create the unique sound of “Renaissance,” which sports transitions between tracks as smooth as one continuous DJ set.The album’s first track, “I’m That Girl,” sets the braggado cious, upbeat, and celebratory tone of “Renaissance.” It opens with a sample — a vocal chop of Princess Loko’s verse in the song “Still Pimpin’” by Memphis rap pioneer Tommy Wright III — which acts as a preview of the album’s celebration of the histo ry of Black club music. The beat of the song is also influenced by reggaeton, innovatively mixing the traditional dembow drum beat with Memphis rap sampling techniques.Thenext track, “Cozy,” is a highlight of the album and the first of many songs to feature samples from famous Black LGBTQ people. In a famous speech, transgender reality star Ts Madison talks passionately about her confidence as a Black wom an. Before the second chorus, we can hear Madison saying “I’m dark brown, dark skin, light skin, beige, fluorescent beige, bitch, I’m Black,” which is an comical yet Photos courtesy of Wikipedia empowering quote celebrating all kinds of Black people. The sample resonates with the lyrics of the song — particularly the chorus, which voices the confident mes sage, “comfortable in my skin, cozy with who I am.” “Alien Superstar,” the third track on “Renaissance,” is one of the most exciting and creative tracks on the album. The song takes influence from the ball room genre, which is character ized by quick tempos, hard-hit ting and rhythmic drums, and often shouted or rapped vocals (usually performed by MCs at ballroom events). Ballroom cul ture originated as a key facet of underground LGBTQ Ameri can culture in the 1960s. In live ly, densely packed “ballrooms,” crowds watched heated compe titions as participants strutted and posed, performing a style of dancing called voguing. The track also features a sample of Barba ra Ann Teer, a Black writer who founded the National Black The atre in AnotherHarlem.highlight of the al bum is “Church Girl,” which blends a sample of Black gos pel group The Clark Sisters with the fast tempos and heavy bass of bounce music — a genre that originating in New Orleans in the 1990s and has more recently been popularized by gay rapper Big Freedia. Bounce music is frequently sampled on “Renais sance,” notably in “Break My Soul,” the house-influenced lead single, and “Virgo’s Groove,” an ode to Beyoncé’s zodiac sign characterized by an infectious disco house beat. After “Virgo’s Groove” is “Move,” a song featuring Jamai can supermodel and musician Grace Jones and up-and-com ing Nigerian singer Tems. The track immediately excited me, beginning with Beyoncé shout ing “Move out the way, I’m with my girls and we all need space!” The track takes influence from afrobeats, a modern genre origi nating in West Africa that mixes hip-hop with traditional West Af ricanThesounds.lastquarter of this album was as captivating as the first. One highlight is “America Has a Problem,” a song that sounds like modern hip hop, despite actually belonging to the electro genre, which reached its heights in the 1980s. The track begins with a sample of a song of the same name by Miami bass artist Kilo Ali. Miami bass is a relatively un known hip-hop subgenre that had a major impact on the sound of popular rap music in the 1990s and 2000s — yet another exam ple of the arsenal of Black music influences deployed throughout “Renaissance.”Beyoncédabbles again in the ballroom genre with “Pure/Hon ey,” a two-part song that trans forms midway from a Ballroom song into a funky house track. The track once again makes reference to famous Black LGBTQ figures, beginning with samples of drag queen and musician Kevin Avi ance and ballroom commentator Kevin JZ Prodigy. The track ends with samples of ’90s drag queen Moi Renee. Beyoncé proclaims the mission of this album: “we jump in the car, quarter tank of gas, world’s at war, low on cash.” Amidst a time of uncertainty and suffering, especially for Black Americans, “Renaissance” is an album that wholeheartedly cele brates and promotes Black joy. “Renaissance” ends with “Summer Renaissance,” an ode to Diana Ross, the Queen of Disco. The song heavily samples Ross’ fa mous song “I Feel Love,” a defini tive disco song that is commonly refered to as a gay anthem. It is an effective ending to the album, a confident victory lap that leaves the door open for the next chap ter of Beyoncé’s musical career, whatever styles it may involve. In fact, before the album was even released, Beyoncé revealed that “Renaissance” is the first part of a three-part musical project that she developed during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The album acts as a reprieve from the difficulties of the pandemic, including the prejudice that has intensified in the years since the pandemic began. “Renaissance” is a joyous, exciting, and much needed celebration of queer Black culture, and I am excited to see what the next two parts of Beyon cé's project will explore.

WAMH

Cassidy Duncan ’25 Staff Writer

Reflecting on a summer visit to an immersive Gustav Klimt art exhibition in Vienna, Cassidy Duncan ’25 explores and questions the potential consequences of the digitized art world.

Digital Art: Exploring the New Frontier

Arts & Living 19The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

This past summer I traveled to Vienna, Austria. Remnants of the city’s long cosmopoli tan history can be seen in its clean baroque architecture, prominent coffee house cul ture, and impressive collection of art and museums. I came to Vienna eager to see Gus tav Klimt’s “The Kiss.” Grow ing up, I marveled at a print of this piece in a coffee shop in my hometown, and my person al love for art grew from there When the day arrived where I planned to go to Belvedere Palace to see “The Kiss,” I first stopped at a virtual art exhibi tion space called “The Gustav Klimt Experience.” The exhibi tion brings the audience into a space where they are immersed with 360 degrees of screens showcasing Klimt’s work. “The Gustav Klimt Experi ence” is hardly unique — im mersive and virtual reality art exhibitions are increasingly popular throughout the art world. What I found notable about my experience in Vienna was the close geographic prox imity between Klimt’s original works and this virtual exhib it. I had thought that virtual exhibits were typically meant to provide people all around the world with access to art. I found myself asking, “What is the purpose of having a ‘fake’ exhibition when one would only need to travel five short miles in order to see the original?”

The rise of NFTs in the art world is an example of what can happen when art is combined with digital media. Non-Fun gible Tokens are cryptographic tokens that can be representa tive of real world items, such as artwork. NFTs’ ability to pa tronize artists is a positive con sequence of digitization. But the large carbon footprint cre ated by NFTs is already draw ing international criticism. While speculation will most likely not have any effect over the trajectory of the art world, I believe it is important to pay at tention to what people think art will become. Digitizing some as pects of society seems inevitable, but will artists indulge in these changes or continue the tradition of rebelling against the expected? Photo courtesy of i-cult.it

Virtual reality (VR) allows art to be viewed whenever and wher ever we want, playing into our societal desire for convenience.

Art can be used as a way to make sense of the times, and it is made to communicate, en tertain, display, and rebel. But different mediums each have their own unique effectiveness in communication. The inter section between art and technol ogy is trending towards being a post-convergent form of art. Virtual worlds are an example of post-convergent mediums, as they consist of interdependent relationships between forms of media. Although it is predict able that art will stay relevant to our present — continuing to shape it — I can’t help but won der if the technological shift in art will end up completely over shadowing classic mediums, and whether this is a positive change, or one that should be resisted.

The contradiction of me ask ing this question while having myself attended “The Gustav Klimt Experience” only height ened my curiosity as to why these exhibitions are popular and whether I should expect more art to resemble this in the future. Like art itself, the answer to these questions vary in depth of meaning. Its possible that people just think virtu al art is cool. It is new, excit ing, and fun to be immersed in something so beautiful. Still, I believe there is some thing more significant about the changing trends in which art is being delivered to our society.

After an initial season spent riding the tumultuous waves of instability and being disliked by many of the characters for being “too ambitious for her own good” — a criticism frequently made of women of color — Gina perma nently returns to the series in its second season by living in Salt Lake City with a castmate. At one point, Gina visits Ricky to discuss a diffi cult personal matter, and he silenc es her when Nini calls. It seems as if Ricky is completely ignoring Gina’s confession and feelings now that he is dating Nini again.

Photo courtesy of subfactory.fr

Gina eventually grows tired of Ricky’s behavior and severs com munication with him at the end of season two — a decision the result ed in criticism from Ricky’s fans and fans of the show despite Ricky’s own negligent behavior. Their arc grows stale while Nini’s character follows Olivia Rodrigo’s real-life rocket to fame and discovers her self through her music, “outgrow ing” her relationship with Ricky. Ricky similarly realizes he fought so hard for Nini simply because she was familiar, and he hates change. The two call it quits after they re alize these tenets of their relation ship are irreconcilable. Thus, Gina’s desires and relationship with Ricky were discarded. Why did Gina’s position as Ricky’s forgotten “sec ond choice” feel so in line with the desperate need of Black women in higher education and other institu tional spaces to make themselves seen? In all facets of our lives, it seems, Black women must redeem ourselves from the standard of in visibility.Indeed, as I reacquainted myself with the outlandish events from the first two seasons, I realized the HSMCU (High School Musical Cinematic Universe) didn’t feel so far from my own life after all. What had drawn me to the series thus far was Gina's depth as a charac ter. Constantly afraid to put down roots for fear of instability and re jection, Gina engages with many of the gendered and racial dynamics of navigating high school as a Black woman. Even the antagonistic construction of Wylie’s character reveals a unique tension ascribed to Black women in media repre sentation. I wondered if season three would once again sideline the multi-talented Wylie, in line with Disney Channel’s trend of vil lainizing Black women (Amber in "Hannah Montana,” Uma in “De scendants 2,” Krista in 16 Wishes,”) and promotion of the “first loves always last” trope (“Liv and Mad die,” “Girl Meets World,” and “Han nah Montana”). In fact (aside from assisting in mild cell phone theft), Gina’s only crime was challenging the lead couple as Ricky’s potential love interest, and she was punished for it in the first two seasons. Season three’s promotional content, however, reveals Sofia Wylie’s more active role in the sea son’s development. Tim Federle, the showrunner, frequently praises Wylie’s participation in the season — acknowledging her input in the costume design and Gina’s story arc. Season three’s first episode, “Happy Campers,” introduces Gi na’s “summer of firsts,” including her first leading role in the camp production of “Frozen,” her first boyfriend, and her first time going to camp. The season sees Gina rec oncile her ambition from season one with the relationship skills she developed in season two, as she comes to establish long-lasting friendships for the first time. At the center of season three is a love triangle between Gina’s current boyfriend, EJ, and a reflective and regretful Ricky: She is the star. From where I sit, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” redeems itself from the predictabil ity of its first two seasons by plac ing a young Black girl’s self-love at the heart of the third season. As a Black woman watching Gina make the decision to get braids and re turn to her ambitions, season three is like a breath of fresh air for me. It acknowledges our agency and the pockets of happiness that exist in our lives through the lens of a tal ented Black actress. Disney Chan nel could certainly have introduced Gina as the show’s lead. However, her character charts a very realistic arc marked by mischaracterization on the basis of race and gender. I hope the third season continues to allow Gina to reconcile the var ious intersections of her identities in a way that finally celebrates her. Then, maybe, viewers can give “High School Musical: The Musi cal: The Series” a second chance.

Arts & Living 20The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

“What could make the tide turn? What could make the fire burn? A second chance is all.” Be sides being the most embarrassing song on my Spotify Wrapped, “Sec ond Chance” was a highlight of the “High School Musical: The Musi cal: The Series” season 2 finale last July. As I looked at my planner a year later, I saw the faint gray words “HSMTMTS Season 3 premiere date” scribbled under July 27, with several hearts drawn around it. Like many college-aged viewers (a startling majority of the audi ence, according to uncorroborat ed subreddit data), I found myself working in a research position for much of the summer. After count less hours spent charting the tra jectory of Black women through higher education and navigating their stories of racism and resis tance, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” felt miles away from my world. The show, known for its lightheartedness and mes sages of hope, seemed startlingly dissimilar to the experiences I had been living and reading. As I re flected on the characterization of Gina Porter, however, I wondered if that world was really so far from my own.

The first season of the series focuses on Ricky Bowen’s (Joshua Bassett) journey to win back his girlfriend, Nini Salazar-Roberts (Olivia Rodrigo), after impulsively declaring he wants “a break” when she professes her love for him. The child of two parents in the midst of a divorce, Ricky is terrified by the L-word. While Nini spends her summer at theater camp, Ricky realizes how poorly he handled things. When they return to school in the fall, he is ready to make up with her. However, he is shocked to find she is dating someone else. Ricky plans to win Nini’s heart through committing to something she loves — the East High drama club’s production of “High School Musical.”AsRicky and Nini’s story un folds, it becomes increasingly clear that the real gem of East High is Gina Porter (Sofia Wylie). Gina is introduced as an ambitious trans fer student who “doesn’t do dates” and strives for success. Surprised when she has been cast as Nini’s understudy, Gina strikes up an un likely friendship with Ricky on the basis of their shared experience as outsiders — Gina as an outsider to East High and Ricky as an out sider to theater. She soon admits that Ricky intrigues her and later shares an intimate cheek kiss with him that has divided fans of the show ever since. However, their path to romance is short-lived. Gi na’s mother, an employee at FEMA, is forced to move once again — a parallel to Gabriella Montez's char acter in the original “High School Musical” films. Gina regrets letting her walls down for him as she pre pares to leave East High. With an excuse to avoid ad dressing his feelings for Gina, Ricky focuses on his previous pursuit of Nini, practicing steadily for the upcoming performance. At the last minute, a friend purchases Gina a ticket to opening night, at which point Gina — convinced this is her last night at East High — confess es to Ricky that she is “only giving up on them” because she’s moving away. Ricky hugs her as she cries, but seconds after Gina leaves, Nini enters and reunites with Ricky. Therefore, during Gina’s time as East High, she is continually side lined despite her talents. When she finally “fits in,” she is physically displaced and deprived of the op portunity to connect romantically with her love interest.

The third season of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” premiered this summer to rave reviews. Mikayah Parsons ’24 analyzes the season’s improvement on Gina Wylie’s character arc, following a young Black girl’s journey to self-love.

Mikayah Parsons ’24 Staff Writer

“HSM:TM:TS” Season 3 Embraces Black Girl Love

Field Hockey Looks to Build on Last Season’s Successes

Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor

Field hockey comes into the 2022 season looking to build on their best season since 2016, where they finished with an 11-5 record. Lead by forwards Muffie Mazambani ’24 and Sam Maynard ’25 — who paced the team in points with 31 and 27, respectively — the team recorded a variety of impressive wins last year, including a victory over top-10 ranked Bowdoin and an 8-0 triumph over Clark University in their first ever game on their new field. To top it all off, head coach Carol Knerr also earned her 200th career win in the team’s Sept. 29 victory over Clark. While the Mammoths’ stellar season ended with a 1-0 NESCAC quarterfinal loss to Bowdoin, there is lots of cause for optimism going into 2022. Senior captain Sage Gey er ’23E reiterated the team’s goals for the coming year. “Last year we had a very strong team but did not make it as far in the NESCAC tournament as we had hoped,” Geyer said. “We also did not get a bid to the NCAA tournament. Only two of our team mates graduated, meaning much of the team is the same. We are excited and fired up for the season as most of our team has playing experience. We hope to make it further in the NESCAC tournament this year, and receive a bid to the NCAA tourna ment.”With most of the team’s 2021 roster returning, and a class of tal ented first-years entering the ranks, Amherst looks poised for yet anoth er successful season. At first glance, the team’s championship aspirations seem justified. The extensive roster of returning veterans on this year’s team includes every one of the team’s top six players last year in terms of minutes played, goals scored, assists, points, and shots on goal. They also come into this season with nine play ers who started more than 15 games in 2021: seniors Beth Williamson ’23E, Sophia Kaplan ’23E, Natalie Hobbs ’23E, and Geyer, junior Ma zambani, and sophomores Maynard, Kat Mason ’25, Abbey Kays ’25, and Kate Smith ’25. Williamson, Kaplan, and Mazambani all earned All-Re gion honors for their play last season, and Williamson was also named a First Team All-American by Synapse Sports and a Third Team All-Amer ican by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. In their preseason scrimmage on Sunday, Sept. 4, the Mammoths showed that they can live up to those expectations with a 3-1 win over Trinity — who took them down in penalty strokes in their 2021 regular season finale. The dominant performance demon strated just how good of a position this team is coming into the new season. Amherst’s goals were scored by Jackie D'Avella ’23, Williamson, and Paige DiBiasse ’25. Sara Nidus ’24 had a great game in goal, mak ing multiple big saves to keep the Mammoths ahead. “I think we played really well,” Mazambani said of the team's Sun day scrimmage. “We had possession of the ball for most of the game and played it out of our defensive third really well. We had a lot of great passing combinations that started from the backfield and [moved] all the way to the forward line where we were able to get some great goals. Our coach [Knerr] even said she had goosebumps with some of the goals she saw. Overall, [it got us] very excited for the season.” With their preseason now offi cially behind them, the Mammoths will look to start their 2022 regu lar season on the right foot just 20 short minutes up the road at Mount Holyoke. Their game against the Lyons, their first official game of the 2022 season, will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios Violet Glickman ’25 Staff Writer The past few weeks have been a nonstop grind for the Amherst women’s soccer team as they pre pare for the 2022 season. With the beep test and their 6:30 a.m. prac tices finally behind them, the team is looking forward to hitting the field running this week. Last year’s 15-2-2 record and 19th appear ance in the NCAA Division III Championships would be a tough season to follow for most teams, but not for the reigning NESCAC Regular Season Champions. While mourning the loss of their ten recent graduates, the team returns 22 players from last year’s league-winning squad and will look to make yet another deep postseason run. Junior keep er Mika Fisher ’24 returns to her goalposts this year after an acco lade-filled 2021 season. Starting every game between the pipes for the Mammoths last season, Fisher posted a .880 save percentage and a 0.61 goals against average, while tallying a NESCAC-leading eight shutouts. In addition to being named the 2021 NESCAC Rookie of the Year, Fisher comes into this season with United Soccer Coach es First Team All-Region One and Division III First Team All-Amer ican honors to her name. She is the first Amherst women’s player to earn the latter honor since 2011. Fisher was joined on the All-Region One team by sopho mores Patience Kum ’25 and Char lotte Huang ’25, who both earned second team honors. Huang start ed every game on a back line that posted 11 total shutouts during the season, while Kum led the NES CAC with an impressive 12 goals in her first year, including the winner against both Little Three rivals, Wesleyan and Williams. Alexa Juarez ’23E, Sierra Rosado ’25, Abby Schwartz ’24, and Liza Katz ’24 also return to the Mam moths for this season, all of whom finished last year’s campaign with points in the double digits.

Sports Amherst women's soccer returns to the pitch at Hitchcock Field on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m. against the Pride.

Women’s Soccer Seeks More Hardware in 2022 Season

The Mammoths also welcome eight new first-years who are joining the ranks this fall hungry to maintain the momentum that last years team has built. With so many new additions to the squad, the team has been focusing on building chemistry this preseason. “We’ve been really focused on re connecting as a group and getting to know, as both people and play ers, our first-years,” head coach Jen HughesWithsaid.this in mind, senior cap tain Isabel Stern ’23 emphasized the importance that the team has placed on summer training in preparation for this upcom ing season in order to return to prime form this year. In addition to the plethora of players who got their touches in this summer by playing on United Soccer League W League or Women’s Premier Soccer League semi-professional teams, three recent graduates and two current members of AWS also got their practice in, to say the least, by playing for the U.S. Open Women’s team in the 2022 Macca biah Games. Maya Scholnick ’22, Natalie Landau ’22, Cassie Chin ’22, Schwartz and Fisher came home with a gold medal after an 89th-minute winner against Israel in the final Hopefully,game.their winning ways will carry over into the fall. Af ter excruciating one-goal losses in both semifinals of last year’s NESCAC Championship against Middlebury and in the Round of 32 of last year’s NCAA Champi onships, the Mammoths will look to avenge their defeats and bring home the hardware this season. They are aiming for their sixth NESCAC title and their fifth con secutive berth to the Division III National tournament. The Mammoths officially re turn to their stomping grounds, no pun intended, this Wednes day, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m. For the first time this semester, roll Hitchcock Field (or Gooding Field) to sup port Amherst Women’s Soccer as they take on the Springfield College Pride to open their 2022 campaign.

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Oracene Price and Richard Wil liams, Serena was the youngest of five daughters on her mother’s side, and has at least seven pater nal half-siblings. She picked up tennis at the age of four when her family moved to Compton, Cal ifornia. When she and her sister Venus showed an affinity for the sport, the two were homeschooled to give them more time to train. With her and Venus’ potential so obvious, the family moved to Flor ida when Serena was nine years old so they could train with esteemed coach Rick Macci, a move that would eventually change their lives for the better. Serena eventually turned professional in 1995 at the age of 14, and after a few years of adjusting to the pro game, she won her first major title at the 1999 U.S. Open. Williams never looked back. From then on, it was titles on titles on titles. Williams en tered the WTA top 10 for the first time in 1999, and held the title of world No. 1 for the first time in 2002. The next year, she held all four major singles titles — the 2002 French Open, 2002 U.S. Open, 2003 Australian Open, and 2003 Wimbledon titles — at the same time, a feat now known as a “Serena Slam” in her honor. After a few more years marred by injury, she came back even stronger, reaching the rank of world number one once again, and completing the first ever Calen dar-Grand Slam in 2012 by win ning all four major titles in the same calendar year. She even one-upped herself once more by completing the only Golden Slam in tennis history by adding an olympic gold medal to that list of titles. A few more injuries followed, but Wil liams again bounced back, com pleting her second Serena Slam in 2014-15 and breaking the Open Era Grand Slam record with 23 major titles at the 2017 U.S. Open. Perhaps what is most impres sive about Williams’s career is her longevity. Playing in over 1,000 matches, Williams has defeated a player born in every year from 1966 to 2001, a span of 35 years, as well as one born in 2003. She boasts a career win rate exceeding 85% and has defeated 306 players from 50 different countries. She held WTA’s No. 1 ranking for 319 weeks in total, the fifth most of all time, and her 186 weeks in suc cession is tied with Steffi Graf for the longest streak among women. Only two opponents hold a win ning head-to-head record against Williams throughout her entire career — Sanchez Vicario, who played Serena in the beginning of her career, and Naomi Osaka, who played her towards the end. Most strikingly, Williams won ten majors after turning 30 years old (no other women’s player has won more than three after turning 30), including winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant. Serena Williams isn’t just a tennis legend; her name is now synonymous with success. On Friday night, frequent pans into the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadi um showed fans holding balloons spelling out “G.O.A.T.,” a title she has rightfully earned. The stadi um roared to life after every point she won, and the noise level only increased during the decisive sec ond set tiebreak, which Williams eventually won. People got on their feet when she broke Tomljanovic in the first game of the third set. Despite her eventual loss, the game was the perfect way to end her ca reer. She fought until the very end, both on and off the court, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Serena Williams Battles in Final Game of Historic Career

On Friday, Sept. 2, Serena Wil liams’ 20-plus year career in tennis came to an end. Some thought it would never happen, but despite putting up the fight of her life, Wil liams fell to unseeded Australian Adja Tomljanovic 5-7, 6-2, 1-6. Serena’s final match perfor mance typified the type of grit and determination that she has become known for putting on the court ev ery single day. Her final match last ed just over three hours, and con tained multiple 20-plus shot rallies and two final-set games that in cluded more than EIGHT deuces. Most matches don’t even have one game of that length, let alone two. But that loss should in no way define her career or her contri bution to the sport. Yes, since the birth of her daughter Olympia, Williams has struggled to return to the best form of her career. Yes, there have been controversies, like her 2018 U.S. Open Final ap pearance against Naomi Osaka that was marred by an outburst at chair umpire Carlos Ramos for what was an unjust call against her. But Williams is far more than just the way her career ended.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

The Firedogs will return to the court on Sept. 7 against Westfield State University.

Sports 22The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

Volleyball Sets Sights on NESCAC Title, NCAA Berth

Serena Williams retires with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, an all-time record in women's tennis. Photo courtesy of IMG Photography Mike Schretter ’23 Staff Writer After longtime coach Sue Everden retired at the end of the 2019 season, head coach Valorie Jones took the helm of an up-andcoming program with the hopes of leading the Firedogs back to NESCAC Championship glory. In Jones’ first year, the team had a successful season, which ended with a 16-5 overall record, includ ing a 6-4 mark in NESCAC play. However, after a comeback win in their quarterfinal bout with Mid dlebury, their 2021 season came to an end following a heartbreaking five-set loss to Bowdoin in the NES CAC Semifinals. Nevertheless, the Mammoths played some incredi ble games and notched some no table victories, including triumphs over Williams, Wesleyan, Emerson College, and Connecticut College. But these wins didn’t come from nowhere — the Mammoths were headlined by a plethora of terrific players, including 2021 All-Region and All-American outside hitter Sophie Launsbach ’22 and All-Re gion performer Jamie Dailey ’22. Launsbach and Daily both also earned All-NESCAC honors for their outstanding play a year ago. That being said, this year’s squad has a lot of promise, as they return 13 of their 18 rostered players from last season, including 2021 assist leader Carly Cooper ’24 and digs leader Lizzie Papalia ’25 to anchor the back line, and a talented front line that includes Sami Underwood ’23, Caroline Tilton ’23 (second in points and third in kills in 2021), Jaqueline Kortekaas ’23 and An aya Thomas ’25 (fourth in kills in 2021). While the Mammoths bring back a lot of familiar faces, they also add six first-year players to the mix. Mia Nakamura ’26, Alexandra Trofort ’26, Kinsey Cronin ’26, Kai li Maurice ’26, Renee Liou ’26, and Charlotte Rasmussen ’26 all look to make contributions to the Mam moths’ playoff hopes this fall as they strive to compete for a NESCAC Championship.Tiltonexplained that, as a se nior, she is “trying to make the most of [her] final season with the team and grow both as a player and a leader.”“Everyone is dedicated to mak ing this season one to remember,” Underwood added. “[We’ve all] learned that team cohesiveness and being united is such an important aspect of the game.” 2022 will be a big year for the Firedogs, as they have a lot of players returning to guide this talented first-year class. With that in mind, the Mammoths have a great opportunity to contin ue their run of form from last sea son and work towards building a team that can win a NESCAC title. The Mammoths begin their 2022 season on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at home in LeFrak Gymnasium against Westfield State University. The game is slated to start at 7 p.m. Liza Katz ’24 and Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editors

Amherst men's soccer lost the NCAA national champi onship in the final round last year.

Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer After hours of running under the pounding sun this past sum mer, the women’s and men’s cross country teams are ready to race toward another successful season. The Mammoths’ 2022 season will begin with a trip to Middletown, Connecticut, on Saturday, Sept. 10, to compete in their season opening meet — the Cardinal Invitational. Women Captain Mary Kate McGrana han ’23 explained that individual runners’ results in this event are not what that the team will put much weight on. Rather, they see their trip to Middleton as an op portunity for the team to get ad justed to racing again after a sum mer running on their own. “We really just want everyone to go out there, put in a strong ef fort, and have fun racing with their teammates again,” McGranahan said. “Then we can use that effort and any lessons we learn from the meet as a base to build from for the rest of the season.” The women’s team is coming off of a strong year, where the team placed well in several of their meets and recorded some stand-out indi vidual performances on their way to qualifying for NCAA Nationals. Sophomore Sidnie Kulik ’25 and McGranahan both had incred ibly successful seasons in 2021. Ku lik was the top Mammoth finisher at four of the team’s seven meets, while McGranahan was the top contender at the remaining three. “Last year [in 2021], no one knew what to expect of me com ing off of [the] Covid years,” Mc Granahan said. “Given my success last year, coming into this season there is definitely a lot more pres sure [to perform] and I have more expectations of myself as well. Stay ing mentally focused on my goals despite that pressure, and most importantly, remembering to race happy, amongst all of that, is a big priority for me.” With both Kulik and McGrana han returning this season, the Mammoths will keep two of their biggest assets on the course. They are supported by both a strong set of veteran runners and a high-po tential first-year class. With that in mind, the team is excited for what’s in store. “I think the team’s energy is really high all around after realiz ing last year that we have a shot at placing well on a national stage, so it will be a fun season,” McGrana han said. Men Not to be outdone by their counterparts, the men’s cross coun try team also had a successful run of races last year, including a trip to NCAABillyNationals.Massey ’22 and Owen Daily ’23 led the Mammoths on the individual scoresheet. Having taken a year off during the onset of Covid-19, Daily returns as a captain for his senior year ready to lead the team into the new season. But due to injury, Daily is un able to compete this season, so the team will be looking for others to fill the void left by the departure of last year’s major contributors. Cap tain Will Merhige ’23 explained as much, citing the team’s energy and willingness to learn as highlights of their first few weeks training to gether again. “I am looking forward to see ing the team grow and progress throughout the season,” Merhige said. “We have a lot of guys step ping up to fill new roles this year, including a really strong first year class, so it’s gonna be a lot of fun when everything starts coming to gether.”Like the women’s team, the Mammoths will compete in four meets before the NESCAC Cham pionships at the end of October. They are hoping a strong set of re sults can put them in a similar po sition as their 2021 team — with members of the team competing at NCAA Nationals later this fall.

The team will look to build on this momentum in their first NES CAC game of the season Saturday, Sept. 10, at Hitchcock field. They will take on their 2021 Elite Eight foe Middlebury in what is sure to be a great game. Kickoff against the Panthers is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

Men’s Soccer Seeks Third Straight NCAA Title Appearance

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Senior Andrew Barkidjija ’23 agreed with White’s last point, say ing that while “lots of guys graduat ed last year [who] were crucial to our program, that’s not to say we can’t do the same thing this year. In terms of team culture, bringing in new guys, we have a lot of new guys. A lot of hungry guys. I think this is a new chapter in our pro gram. For us it’s important to keep moving, keep the momentum go ing. Last year was great but we are excited for this one as well.” Despite the highly experi enced players the team lost, like two-time Division III Player of the Year German Giammattei ’22 (now playing in Division I at the University of Maryland), with six new members added to the roster — Andrew Tremante ’26, Adrian Trott ’26, Ioannis Hadjiyiannis ’26, Ugnius Salvenis ’26, James Street ’26, Juan Perez ’26, and transfer Simon Kalinauskas ’25 — the team hopes that this new influx of talent, combined with the old, can lead the team to early success in their first games of the season. Head coach Justin Serpone explained what this exodus of players means for the team this year. Going into his 15th season with the program, Serpone said of this year’s team, “It is the same this year as it’s been for the last 15 years, which is we are start ing over. And so we are setting a foundation for what we want to have as an identity this year and figuring out what that identity is.

I think our philosophy ends up being ‘Hey let’s see what you got,’ and put people in the place to be successful, and the situations to be successful.”However, the team will be test ed early — their schedule ramps up right away, with chances to compete against top teams early in the season. “In terms of this up coming season, I am very excited,” said forward Niall Murphy ’25. “Our first slate of games [will be] tough, including [fellow top-10 teams] Middlebury and Tufts, and will prove to be good tests for us early on in the season. [We] can’t wait to get going on Hitch[cock Field] again.”

Sports 23The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

“We are excited to surprise a lot of people and compete for NESCAC championships and national titles in the near future,” Merhige said. One specific goal is to give arch-rival Williams, a perennial Na tional title contender, a run for their money. “We always have our eyes set on Williams,” said Merhige. “It’s always a lot more fun when we’re competing against them. They’ve been strong for many years now, so we’re hoping to turn the tables this year. They’re in the running for the national title, so it bodes well for us if we can beat them.”

Cross Country Teams Look to Start Season Strong at Wesleyan

Carter Hollingsworth ’25 Staff Writer If you were to ask pretty much anyone around campus what comes to mind when they think about the men’s soccer team, suc cess would be a common answer. The Mammoths boasted an im pressive 17-3-2 record last season, and their run only ended after they appeared in their second national championship game in as many seasons. But both trips to Greens boro ended in heartbreak, with the Mammoths returning to Amherst without a title. This season, their sights are set on bringing home a national championship to the pro gram at long last. These high hopes were echoed by senior captain Bernie White ’23E. “Last season was a great year,” he said. “We had a great group of guys. Had a good run. But [we are] looking forward to this year. We have to find our identity as a new group, settle ourselves, and make sure that we are progressing as a new team and are not trying to look too much back into the past.”

This spirit served them well during their first game of the new season. The Mammoths began their 2022 campaign on the right foot against the College of Mount St. Vincent on Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. on Gooding Field. They did so in resounding fashion, scoring twice in the first five minutes of play en route to a 4-1 win over the Dolphins. Murphy scored his first collegiate goal in the third minute before Fynn Hayton-Ruffner ’25 notched the first of his Mammoth career two minutes later. Barki djija made it 3-0 before an own goal put the game away for good, despite a Dolphins goal cutting the lead to three in the second half.

Back to the Links: Golf Teams Set to Open Season

Women's golf hopes to continue their upward trajectory after winning their first NESCAC Championship last year.

MEN'S SOCCER Sept. 10: vs. Middlebury, 2:30 p.m. Sept. 11: @ Thomas College, 3 p.m. Photo Courtesy of Amherst Athletics

MEN'S GOLF

Priya Bakshi ’24, Jenny Hua ’24, and Janelle Jin ’23 round out the re maining three spots from last year’s competition roster. Bakshi earned Second Team All-NESCAC hon ors this past season, while Hua was named to the First Team for the sec ond consecutive season. The three have all been named team captains for the upcoming season. The team graduated two seniors from last season’s roster, India Gau me ’22 and Mina Lee ’22, but added two new first-years to round out an already competitive squad. Adding this new first-year talent into the pipeline only makes this Mammoth team a more formidable contender this“Cultureseason. is the most important value to both the men’s and wom en’s team, and we put a big priority on ensuring that everyone on both teams feels safe and welcome [both at] practice and off the course,” said Bakshi. “Because we have such a small team, the freshmen have an important presence, and we want to make sure they know and feel that!” “Our season has started out great, and we’re all really excited to start tournaments next weekend,” added Bakshi.The Mammoths will kick off their season on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Hamilton Fall Invitational in New Hartford, New York. Men Going into the 2022-23 season, the men’s golf team will look to im prove on last season’s fifth place finish at the 2022 NESCAC Cham pionship.Steven Chen ’25 returns follow ing a remarkable debut campaign. As the 2022 NESCAC Rookie of the Year, Chen was the top finisher in five events during last year’s regular season and placed second individu ally at the NESCAC Championship. He also earned NESCAC First-Team honors.The men’s team, also coached by Davis, graduated Brian Aslanian ’22 and Erik Zetterstrom ’22, their two senior captains from last season, in the spring. With no seniors on this year’s team, the vacant captain posi tions have been occupied by juniors Ben Byman ’24 and Tommy Whitley ’24.“We have a really good feeling about this year,” Whitley said. “We brought in three really solid firstyears who will all make an impact right away, and our returners are all playing well and [are] hungry to win some tournaments this year.” With this in mind, the team’s goals remain the same — to com pete for a NESCAC Championship. But in a sport where team members compete amongst themselves for the ability to compete for the team, forming the chemistry and cohesion necessary to lift each other up during big tournaments can prove to be a challenge.

Sept. 10-11: Nelson Invitational @ Middle bury, 1 p.m. Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor Women Coming off a banner year, the women’s golf team looks primed to continue reaching new heights this season. Lead by head coach Eliz abeth Davis, who won NESCAC Coach of the Year and the Women’s Golf Coaches Association East Re gion Coach of the Year in 2021-22, the Mammoths won their first ever NESCAC Championship this past spring before finishing 12th at the NCAA Championships. All major contributors from last year’s run are set to return, head lined by reigning NESCAC Golfer of the Year Gihoe Seo ’25. Seo won three tournaments during the fall of her inaugural season, finishing first in the Hamilton Fall Invitational, the Wesleyan Invitational, and the NESCAC Fall Qualifier. She is the first Amherst golfer to win NES CAC Golfer of the Year. Seo’s fellow sophomore Jessica Huang ’25 also had a first year to re member. Earning NESCAC Rookie of the Year, Huang finished first in the individual portion of the NES CAC Championship before shoot ing 4-under par in the final round of the NCAA Championships — a showing tied for the best round of the tournament — to help propel the Mammoths to their best finish ever at the tournament in terms of total points. Huang finished 13th overall, and her total score of 296 (+8) was the best-ever finish for any Mam moth at the NCAA Championships.

Speaking to the competitive na ture of the sport, Whitley stated, “Golf is tough because we compete directly against each other … to see which five will play on the weekend, and then we immediately switch back to being a unified team as soon as qualifying ends. With that there can be tensions, but our team is al ways genuinely rooting for each oth er to play the best golf possible and, above all, wants to see the team win.”

“I love the guys we have on the team this year and wouldn’t trade our team for anything,” Whitley con cluded.The team will travel to Middle bury, Vermont, on Saturday, Sept. 10, to kick off their 2023-23 season at the Nelson Invitational.

WOMEN'S SOCCER Sept. 7: vs. Springfield College, 5 p.m. Sept. 10: vs. Middlebury, 12 p.m. Sept. 11: @ Smith College, 2 p.m. FIELD HOCKEY Sept. 8: @ Mount Holyoke College, 7 p.m. Sept. 10: vs. Middlebury, 11 a.m. Sept. 13: vs. Keene State, 6:30 p.m. VOLLEYBALL Sept. 7: vs. Westfield State University, 7 p.m. Sept. 9: vs. DeSales University, @ NYU, 5:30 Sept.p.m. 10: vs. Wheaton College, @ NYU, 12:30 p.m. Sept. 10: @ NYU, 5:30 p.m. CROSS COUNTRY Sept. 10: Cardinal Invitational @ Wesleyan

WOMEN'S GOLF

Sports 24The Amherst Student • September 7, 2022

GAME SCHEDULE

Sept. 10-11: Hamilton Fall Invitational @ New Hartford, NY, 11 a.m.