Issue 3 by The Amherst Student

multicultural focus,” McFadden wrote to The Student.

Counseling Center Adds 7 New Counselors

Sustainable Landscaping: Sylvie Wolff '25 high lights the many new pollinator gardens and plant ers that were added to campus this summer.

In an update sent to the com munity in October 2021 on the college’s Anti-Racism Action Plan, former President Biddy Martin wrote that, through engaging in further conversation with students, Student Affairs had identified a particular need for additional counseling staff who specialize in working with multicultural com munities and meeting the specific needs of students of color.

Stunning Student Cinema: Jacob Young ’25 reviews a film made by Piper Mohring '25 and Caden Stockwell '25, which was narrated in French and filmed in Paris.

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 3 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 amherststudent.com THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868 FEATURES 8

This increase in counselors re sponds to a long-standing feeling among students that the center is too understaffed to meet students’ needs. The demand for more coun selors was formally expressed as part of the #BlackMindsMatter

ARTS&LIVING 14

On Thursday, Sept. 15, a group of nearly 100 students, faculty, and staff attended the Latinx History at Amherst event at the Eighmy Powerhouse, organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the student group La Causa and the fifth anni versary of the college’s Latinx and Latin American Studies Depart mentThe(LLAS).event, hosted by the LLAS, history, and Spanish departments, consisted of three panels moderated by professors and featuring alumni ranging from the class of 1974 up to the class of 2020. The three panels addressed the history of La Causa, Latinx student activism over the years, and the founding of the LLAS department, respectively.

Continued on page 2

Kei Lim ’25 Managing Opinion Editor

The most notable change is the

The Counseling Center — newly named the Center for Counseling and Mental Health (CCMH) — has implemented a number of chang es this semester, including staffing additions, a new online scheduling tool, and new group offerings, an nounced Director of the CCMH Darien McFadden in an email sent to students, faculty, and staff on Sept. 14.

In his email, McFadden ac knowledged the rise in mental health concerns in recent years, es pecially during the pandemic, not ing that 43 percent of the student body sought help from the center last year. The new changes are in tended to increase support for stu dents, he wrote.

The newly renamed Center for Counseling and Mental Health is partly housed in the Hitchcock House on S Pleasant Street.

addition of four psychotherapists to the CCMH’s team, as well as three post-graduate fellows, the first cohort of a newly launched post-graduate fellowship program.

“These staff, along with our ex isting team, represent a huge range of professional experiences, qual ifications, and identity markers, including racial, ethnic and cul tural diversity; gender identity and variance; international status; and sexual orientation and religious/ spiritual faith,” wrote McFadden. “They are a group of truly caring and empathetic human beings who consider what they do a calling, not simply a job.”

Preceded by a light breakfast, the day’s events officially began with an introduction by Rick Lo pez ’93, the Anson D. Morse 1871 professor of history and professor of environmental studies, dean of new students, and chair of LLAS. Lopez opened the first panel by situating the event within the broader histo ry of the college. Reflecting on the impact of the Latinx community to the greater college community, Lopez emphasized that the stories of La Causa, LLAS, and Latinx ac tivism are central to “the stor[ies] of the college, a solid part of what AmherstPresidentis.” Michael Elliott ex

LatinxCelebratesCollegeHistory

walkout led by the Black Students Union (BSU) in April 2021 after the killing of Daunte Wright by a Min nesota police officer. The demand called for double the number of counselors “by the next fiscal year,” adding that Williams College had significantly more mental health providers than Amherst did.

The CCMH’s new post-gradu ate fellowship program particular ly aims to address this gap, as the training program has a “specific

“[T]he Fellowship Training Pro gram facilitates a unique opportu nity for the Fellows to develop and further hone their multicultural clinical and consultation skills, and to contribute to campus outreach programs that support Amherst’s student diversity,” CCMH Assistant Director of Diversity Education and Training Lola Brown elabo rated in an email statement to The Student.“An essential role of the Post-Graduate Fellows is to support our diverse student communities by providing clinical, preventive, and educational services to help students address the mental health and developmental challenges they face in their personal and academic lives,” Brown added, noting that fel

Continued on page 3

Rethinking Tradition: Nina Krasnoff '23 and Emma Strawbridge '25 note how the Bogtrotter competition promotes disordered eating among female athletes.

Ethan Foster ’25 Managing News Editor

OPINION 12

Photo courtesy of Yasmin Hamilton ’24

3:20 p.m., Ford Hall

>>Sept. 15, 2022

>>Sept. 16, 2022

about an persedgathering.unauthorizedThegroupdisuponrequest.

>>Sept. 18, 2022 1:42 a.m., Morris Pratt Hall

>>Sept. 19, 2022 12:05 a.m., Jenkins Hall

ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was found to be steam from the shower.

A sergeant observed a person urinating on the door to Valentine. The person ran away as the sergeant approached.

“I scheduled a counseling ap pointment but wasn’t able to get somebody to talk to when I was struggling the most,” he said. “It really sucked, because while [get ting an appointment] was taking so long, everything was spiraling.”

Mouehla hopes that the college

A student reported being physically threatened by an older male in his six ties. No physical contact was made. ACPD was contacted after the male left the scene. This matter is under investigation.

>>Sept. 16, 2022

News

ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was found to be from marijuana smoke.

A noise complaint was received of loud music. A community safety assis tant responded and had the music turned down.

>>Sept. 18, 2022 9:29 p.m., Lipton House ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was found to be from an aerosol spray be ing sprayed in the room.

lows also engage in weekly training seminars and clinical supervision.

Mouehla decided to take a med ical leave last year due to struggles with mental health, and attributes much of this decision to the lack of resources at Amherst.

Continued

12:43 a.m., Alumni Lot ACPD responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle that parked for an extended period of time with its light on. The de tective made contact with the two occupants and no further assistance was needed.

A detective took a report of vandalism discovered by a Community Safety Assistant.

>>Sept. 18, 2022 7:53 p.m., Jenkins Hall ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The cause of activation was found to be

A sergeant took a report of theft of an Uber Eats food delivery and water from the residency hall.

While on scene for prefire alarm, ACPD discov ered the cause of the alarm to be from marijua na smoke. The remaining items were confiscated and the matter was re ferred to Student Affairs.

“[W]e want to broaden the op portunities for students to use our services, by shifting from solely seeking support for things that feel unhealthy to also providing opportunities to learn skills that center prevention and connection,” McFadden wrote to The Student. “That’s a major reason for our focus on our group “Centeringprograms.”theneeds of our richly diverse student body has led to the intentional creation of a wel coming, supportive, and inclusive space where all students can feel

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

8:42 p.m., Webster Cir.

A sergeant investigated a suspicious note left on the floor in the library.

>>Sept. 18, 2022 11:34 p.m., Seelye Hall The administrator on call responded to a noise complaint. The students were told to turn the music down and they complied.

He also noted that, despite the recent changes, the center is still not able to accommodate all the students who come to them. Now

The Center for Counseling and Mental Health is also housed in Scott House on 14 Hitchcock Road.

>>Sept. 13, 2022

Students viewed the new chang es positively, but noted that they have come only after many stu dents have already had negative experiences seeking support at the center.“Ireally appreciate their efforts, especially in tailoring it to commu nities of color, because that’s where the cultural stigma is,” said Kamil Mouehla ’26. “But I just feel like it’s a long overdue effort. It should have happened way earlier.”

>>Sept. 17, 2022 10:29 p.m., Valentine Hall Community Safety re sponded to a complaint

>>Sept. 18, 2022 12:33 a.m., Valentine Loading Dock

>>Sept. 14, 2022

POLICE LOG

safe to express themselves in honest and authentic ways,” Brown added.

Sept. 14, 2022 – Sept. 20, 2022

3:24 a.m., Valentine Hall

from a clothing steamer.

off-campus care can be challenging for low-income students like him self, however, who may not have the financial means to afford it.

from page 1

>>Sept. 14, 2022

3:11 p.m., Ford Hall

9:45 a.m., Frost Library

back on campus, Mouehla has been directed by the CCMH to find off-campus care, like many the center deems they are unable to provide services for. Securing

1:00 a.m., Appleton Hall

will allot more funding and re sources toward mental health ser vices, so the CCMH can continue to expand its services and serve the needs of all Amherst students.

Besides the increase in staff, the CCMH has also adopted a new online tool that students can use to schedule initial assessments and single-session appointments. The center has expanded its group ser vices as well. On top of additions to its roster of clinically-based therapy groups, the center has also devoted more resources to its drop-in dis cussion groups for students with certain identities and experiences.

>>Sept. 16, 2022

Renamed Counseling Center Expands Group Programs

pressed similar sentiments and called attention to the event’s role both as part of a national conversa tion on Latinx identity throughout the U.S. and as a reminder of the profound impact that the Latinx community has had at Amherst. Introductions were immediately followed by the first of three panels, which centered on the founding of La Causa, the established cultural, political, and service organization for students interested in Latinx/é issues and cultural awareness on campus.Panelist Edmundo Orozco ’74 detailed how La Causa began not as an official organization, but as a support group through which members of the college's Latinx community could encourage each other and share information about classes and resources on campus. Orozco credited fellow panelist Les Purificación ’76 with the naming of La Causa (“The Cause” in English) and Tomás Gonzalez ’76 with the structuring of the organization, which officially came about follow ing Orozco’s request for funding to the Student Allocations Commit

Following a break for lunch, attendees reunited for the final panel of the day, which celebrated and reflected on the history and creation of the LLAS department. Carlos González ’14 recalled how, in his time at Amherst, pent-up frustration from past generations of Amherst students continued to

Continued from page 1

“There was a sense that La Causa was expected to be the ones putting on cultural programming for the university, and teaching students about Latino and Latin American culture,” González said. “We were happy to be at the table, but we felt that planning this had to be dealt with at a [college-wide] level.” Fol lowing an extended series of con versations between faculty, studies, and the president, the creation of an exploratory committee, continuing student activism, and a unanimous faculty vote in favor of the depart ment, the efforts culminated in the LLAS department of today.

Panelist Ricardo Morales ’78 similarly emphasized La Causa’s goal of serving as a vehicle for so cial change, allowing the Latinx community to draw attention to the issues affecting them. “Whether it’s in law, in politics, whatever you do, let people know that we’re here to be counted, and counted upon in a way that’s meaningful not only to ourselves but to those who come

News 3The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Soledad Slowing-Romero ’20, the first ever Amherst student to write a thesis in the LLAS depart ment, reflected on the importance of having the opportunity to study

I made because I had no one to help, and a lot of the professors and alum[ni] were really hostile,” Craane said. “I was able to share things with [female underclassmen] about [life on campus] and they’re incredible friends to this day.”

Gilberto Simpson ’94 also

rise within the Latinx community on campus as the college resisted the creation of a Latino studies pro gram at the college. Such resistance was especially poignant in light of the presence of other ethnic stud ies departments on campus, and the important cultural role that the Latinx community plays within the United States as the largest ethnic minority group in the country.

Following a brief recess, new panelists joined the stage for a dis cussion on Latinx student activism at the college throughout the past 50 years.Edwin Camacho ’79, who served as a chairman of La Causa, described the group’s early efforts at campus activism, including the events leading up to its takeover of the college snack bar in 1978, then located in Fayerweather Hall.

Camacho detailed how, after being denied funding for La Causa by the Student Allocations Com mittee, and relegated to meeting in a dormitory basement, members of La Causa decided to engage in the protest.“Iread in the code of conduct that if you interfere with the process of learning you’ll be suspended, and so I decided that the snack bar was the way to go, interfering with peo ple having a hamburger,” Camacho said. “So, we marched over to the Student Center, and we told the ladies behind the counter that we’d be taking over the place, and that’s when the sit-in began.”

Latinx history through the LLAS curriculum.“There’s an erasure of Latino history in most of our school cur ricula,” Slowing-Romero said. “It was a whole new thing to see that my history mattered and that it was actually something that I could work on and write a thesis on. I was thrilled to be able to be in a space where I could focus on Latin Amer ican studies, it was another level of feeling like I actually belonged in the Thespace.”day’s events ended with a reception for students, panelists, and other community members, accompanied by live music. Victo ria Foley ’23, who helped organize the event, reflected on its mission as a means of celebrating the contribu tions of Latinx students to the Am herst community. “The history of La Causa and other Latinx groups is incredibly rich and involves a lot of activism, time, and sacrific es that were [made] so future stu dents could feel more comfortable at Amherst,” Foley said. “We hope the conference was a lot of fun, and a chance for people to enjoy them selves with others who are a part of the Latinx culture.”

stressed the importance of building cross-group connections, highlight ing the special relationship between La Causa and the Black Students Union (BSU). The groups stood in solidarity with each other during La Causa’s takeover of the snack bar, and the BSU’s takeover of Converse Hall in response to the administra tion’s failure to adequately represent people of color in their hiring prac tices for faculty.

The celebration drew around 100 attendees, including alumni ranging from the class of 1974 to the class of 2020. It featured panels, speeches, and three meals.

behind us,” Morales said.

Camacho relayed that, after receiving coverage from both The Student and outside news outlets, the then-president of the college en gaged La Causa in discussion, and eventually the group was granted a room at the then-student center at the heart of campus, itself a state ment about the group’s role as an important part of the broader col legeFollowingcommunity.the discussion of the snack bar takeover, Janine Craane ’82, who entered Amherst soon af ter it opened its doors to women, discussed efforts to combat ma chismo on campus, including the creation of a “Big Sister Little Sister” program designed to promote men torship and community between fe male“Therestudents.were so many mistakes

“We tried to avoid [suspension] in our takeover of the snack bar, but because the BSU had supported us, we supported them,” Simpson said. Though the BSU’s takeover of Con verse Hall resulted in suspension for those who participated — due to the Hall’s designation as a place of learning — Simpson emphasized that members of La Causa were willing to accept suspension for the furtherance of BSU’s mission.

tee.Orozco acknowledged that he and the other founding members of La Causa were not the first mem bers of the Latinx community to attend Amherst. Yet, he also not ed that many of those who came before them were generally from more privileged and well-estab lished backgrounds. “[Those who came previously] had a career path, they had a background, and we were trying to establish that,” Oroz co said. “I believed that our purpose here at Amherst was to become ed ucated and become voices for those that didn’t have voices.”

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Panelists Discuss Origins of La Causa, LLAS at Anniversary Event

Although not everyone signed the petition, Mednick said that her experience had been overwhelming ly positive. “I just like the friendliness of everybody,” she said. “Nobody has ignored me.”

A neighboring stand, Bartlett Tree Experts, a small business that helps people maintain their trees and shrubs, was handing out sap lings, free of charge. Many attendees lugged their prized sprouts, packed in cloth bags, back up the North Pleasant hill.

“Like many small towns, our businesses were hit hard [by Covid], harder than many other communi ties because we lost the majority of you — our awesome community of students,” said Gabrielle Gould, the executive director of the BID. “This event was a long-needed return of normalcy, support, and exploration of all that these remarkable business es have to

Town of Amherst Tree & Grounds Division trucks parked across North Pleasant Street blocked traffic to allow the party to continue uninterrupted.

The town of Amherst held its annual block party from 5 to 9 p.m. last Thursday, Sept. 15. The event reportedly saw more than 6,000 attendees and featured live music, local food, acrobatic performances, and an array of stands run by town organizations.Thegathering, which was orga nized by the Amherst Business Im provement District (BID) in an ef fort to highlight local businesses and foster a sense of community, marked the return of the block party after a three-year Covid hiatus.

Street, blocking off traffic from the typically bustling stretch between Insomnia Cookies and Share Coffee.

Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editor

For many whom The Student spoke to, the sense of community fostered by the event was key to its success. “I feel like Amherst College students are often not exposed to the general community, and we kind of

Gigi Barnhill, a town resident who was representing the Amherst Historical Society at the block party, echoed this sentiment, noting that the event was a great way to bring all different kinds of people together. For the Amherst men’s basket ball team, a desire to build commu nity was also the primary reason for attending the block party together, according to Head Coach Marlon Sears. “Community events like this allow our players to interact with the community in which they are a part of and also allows the community to see the players in a different light than just on the court,” he said. “It serves as almost a cross-cultural type of experience.”Playersshot around with a group of local kids on a hoop across the street from Share, cracking jokes and laughing loudly. “There were a ton of kids that were super enthusiastic,” said team member Ryker Vance ’25. “They just love to be in the moment.”

Town of Amherst Block Party Draws Thousands

attending the party for the first time, was petitioning on behalf of Mothers Out Front, a climate-activism group.

The block party also proved a valuable venue for political organiz ing. Felicia Mednick, a town resident

Aroundoffer.”4 p.m., several large yellow trucks (courtesy of the Pub lic Works Department) arrived in downtown Amherst and parked perpendicular across North Pleasant

In addition to the array of local food options, small businesses, and other organizations, the block party featured several different sources of livePerformersentertainment.from Show Cir cus Studio, an Easthampton cir cus-training studio, were scattered throughout the block. A line of (somewhat nervous-looking) chil dren waited to greet an exuberant clown. A series of acrobatic artists swung gracefully through the air, suspended by silk ribbons sutured to a system of metal rigging. Towering

The attendees represented a va riety of backgrounds — an eclectic mix of longtime town residents, stu dents from UMass Amherst and the college, and even some people from the broader Western Massachusetts community.Theelderly mixed with the young, the longtimers with the newin-town, and — as one attendee noted — there was a positively grati fying number of dogs, ranging from backpack-sized shih tzus to one shaggy black beast almost as big as its owner, who attendees could lov ingly pet (with permission) or even

just gawk at.

News 4The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Over the next hour, stands bear ing the names of beloved local busi nesses and organizations — among them MoMo Tibetan Restaurant, The Taste Thai Cuisine, the (recently reopened) Emily Dickinson Muse um, and the Jones Library — began to line the street’s sidewalks.

live in our little bubble,” said Gillian Richard ’24. “So it’s great to have an opportunity to connect with the whole community and see people from all walks of life.”

Photo courtesy of Liam Archacki '24

By the party’s official start time, a healthy crowd had already begun to pace the block, mingling with the stands’ proprietors and each oth er. An hour into the party, a lively throng of several hundred buzzed up and down North Pleasant.

Sophie Laurence ’24 (left), Gillian Richard ’24 (middle), and Dania Hallak ’24 (right) pose for a photo on North Pleasant Street. Many other Amherst students were in attendance.

Continued on page 5

For much of the duration of the event, live music from the con structed stage, just off the Main Street intersection, provided a pleasant backing to the block’s go ings-on.From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Latin Grammy Award-winning artist Mister G (aka Ben Gundersheimer ’89) serenaded a crowd of cheering elementary schoolers with his hits, including fan-favorite “Chocolala la.”

Cuffing season has arrived in Amherst. The Marriage Pact re cently opened its questionnaire for the 2022-2023 school year, giving students an opportunity to be set up with a fellow Mammoth who just might be “*the one*.” As of Sept. 20, 721 students had already filled out the questionnaire.

News 5The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

“I think we need some Amherst flair, más fuerte!” wailed G at one point.Against the backdrop of a set ting sun, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., the Baltimore-based Soul Magnets took the stage, charming an older audience with a mix of neo-soul andWithfunk. darkness descending, the once boisterous crowd began to die down. Eventually, the stand

Many businesses and organizations set up tents along North Pleasant Street.

Photo courtesy of Liam Archacki '24

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Sept. 14 to Sept. 20

Loeb Center Hosts Helen Wan ’95 for Screening of “Partner Track”

Marriage Pact Opens for New Year

On Sunday, Sept. 18, the Loeb Center hosted Helen Wan ’95, an accomplished lawyer and writer. The event featured a screening of the new Netflix series “Part ner Track,” based on Wan’s debut novel. The show and novel delve into the challenges faced by Asian American women in the legal world. This week saw the return of the Amherst Marriage Pact, which offers students the opportunity to find their soulmate — or maybe just a new best friend.

Even isolated up above, the stilt-walkers were enjoying the block party. “This is such an amaz ing community event, especially with all the students coming back into town to welcome everybody and have a great party,” said one of the stilt-walkers, dressed in a gar ish green get-up. She added that it wasn’t too hard to walk on the hill — she had had lots of practice.

Continued from page 4

Jones Library Hosts Banned Books Event

managers packed up their wares, and the block party officially came to a close as cars began to flow back onto North Pleasant street.

Gould pronounced this year’s block party a success, noting it was

In the wake of a wave of book bans in conservative areas of the country, the Jones Library, locat ed in downtown Amherst, hosted an event entitled “Amherst Reads Banned Books” in which commu nity members celebrated and read aloud from their favorite recent ly censored books. In attendance were State Representative Mindy Domb and State Senator Jo Comer ford.

Photo courtesy of The Amherst Marriage Pact

overhead, a team of stilt-walkers, clad in bright colors, paced North Pleasant, stopping every few steps to pose for photos.

The Editorial Board

As temperatures begin to drop, the college has announced that it will be hosting an on-campus Flu Clinic on Wednesday, Sept. 28, Thursday, Sept. 29, and Friday, Sept. 30 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In terested students must make ap pointments before receiving the vaccine, but the shot itself is not mandatory. A Covid-19 booster clinic will also be offered in the near future, likely in early October.

Block Party Features Circus Performers, Live Music

College Announces Flu Clinic

the most-attended yet. “We hope it was one of the best — but we also know that there was so much ex citement for the return that the at tendees really brought it and made it special,” she added.

Q: What are some of your fa vorite and challenging parts of your job?

Q: How can students at Amherst get involved in the WGC?

I initially started in admis sion, where I supervised the Di versity Outreach Interns. I was interacting with folks from all over and working closely with Amherst students, but I want ed to have a more direct impact on student life, especially [with] folks who hold marginalized gender identities.

where students can learn about events.We’re open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and [the center is] either staffed by the student staff or me. If folks have questions about specific re sources, like they want to get a menstrual cup, are curious about Plan B options, or wish to access our care corner supplies, they’re more than welcome to stop by. We also have Netflix, so students will often come into the center to watch TV or even just take a nap. And our student staff loves to host crafternoons, which is when we’ll craft together. It’s also a great study space. There are many ways folks can engage based on whether they want to pursue more educational or community-building options.

A: I really love being able to in teract with students on a day-today basis. I derive a lot of energy from the folks here. The summer time is always nice to have a little break from the chaos of the se mester. But then, as soon as stu dents came back, I was saying to one of my colleagues that the en ergy on campus is palpable, be cause students are just so jazzed about being here and being in community with one another. I really appreciate how students are willing to cooperate and come together to work on something bigger than themselves. And I get

“ ”

Q: Why did you choose to work at the WGC, and why at Am A:herst?

takes, and grow from those mis takes. At [the] WGC, we work to make feminism accessible for people and ensure that folks have room to have nuanced conversa tions.

A: [I’ve actually thought about this some before!] So when you think of a beaver, how big do you think it is? Pretty small, right? But they’re actually huge! I saw a bea ver last year while walking on the bike path. Oh my god, they some times weigh up to like 60 pounds! I say beaver for a few reasons. One, sometimes people think I’m unas suming. A lot of people will make assumptions or judgments about me because of my height or my age. But I’m really large in pres ence. See what I did there? I also like to think I’m pretty resourceful. And throughout this interview, I’ve talked quite a bit about team work — how important it is to me to lean on other people and learn from others, because you can’t do this kind of work by yourself. It just wouldn’t be effective. And beavers work with their other bea ver pals to make the dams, so you need to be able to collaborate. I think I’m pretty creative. And bea vers are pretty creative.

Q: If you were to describe your self as an animal, which one would it be?

to see that every day in the center. That’s special to be part of. I feel honored to be part of that. It feels like a tremendous privilege.

Beyond that, we host many events both physically in the WGC and around campus. I highly en courage students to check out our Instagram @amherstwgc so that they can stay up to date on our events. We also have a biweekly newsletter that we send out from

Hayley Nicholas is the director of the Women’s and Gender Center. They grad uated from Bowdoin College in 2017 with a degree in sociology and education studies. Before working as the director at the WGC, Nicholas worked at the Office of Admission supervising the diversity outreach interns.

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E

I want to ensure that all students know that you don't have to be a feminist academic to engage in conversations around gender equity and sexual exploitation... at the WGC, we work to make feminism accessible for people and ensure that folks have room to have conversations.nuanced

Read the full interview online at www.amherststudent.com

A: Students are always more than welcome just to shoot me an email [hnicholas@amherst.edu]. We also have the WGC email, which is wgc@amherst.edu. We get inqui ries from students who are curious about resources or want to plan events with us all the time, and we are always really eager to collab orate with student groups. We’ve collaborated with Reproductive Justice Alliance, Liyang Amherst, ASA [Asian Students Association], and I am really hoping to do some work with QTPOC [Queer Trans People of Color at Amherst] in particular, as that’s a new student group. If people have ideas, we want to hear them.

As someone who identifies as queer and non-binary, and a per son of color, I wanted students to see their identities reflected in a position of power in the Wom en’s and Gender Center. That motivated me to apply for the position and move to Student Affairs. I started working here almost four years ago. It is wild to think that I’ve been here this long. Oh goodness!

Thisprocess.key skill influences my work even now because I want to ensure that all students know that you don’t have to be a fem inist academic to engage in con versations around gender equity and sexual exploitation. You have to be willing to learn, make mis

Staff Spotlight

But I would say the activity I was most dedicated to was my campus jobs. I was an admission tour guide and became a senior interviewer in my senior year ... I learned how to make things more accessible to people who may not have regular access to this kind of college admission language — in particular, first-gen students who may be completely on their own in navigating the college admis sion

I studied sociology and minored in education studies there. I also dabbled in history classes and took several sexuality and gen der studies courses. I remember one class, “Sex and State Power,” in particular, that really reshaped my understanding of capitalism. That was an earth-shattering class for me; it impacted my political ideology and how I approached my current work. In addition to what I studied at Bowdoin, I was deeply involved in the Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention. I was also involved in the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Re source Center.

Q: How are the subjects you studied and activities you pur sued in college influencing your current work?

—Shreya Hegde '26

A: I went to Bowdoin College, and I graduated in 2017 — so my fifth-year reunion just came up!

I was really attracted to the Amherst mission and its com mitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Amherst is very much a leader in that work, but what I also appreciate about Amherst is that it recognizes it’s not a per fect institution. The Amherst College community is a micro cosm of the larger world because it’s incredibly diverse. I feel there are not many institutions that actually put in that kind of work. A lot of that kind of activism is very much student-driven. So I was also really attracted to the passion of Amherst students who are deeply and intensely passionate about social justice, and I find that incredibly inspir ing.

Features Hayley Nicholas

Women's and Gender Center

One challenge I can think of is there’s always more that I want to do but not enough time — that’s why I hired more staff this year. But that’s also a beautiful part of the job because WGC is not the only entity on campus doing gender justice work; other people on this campus are doing unbe lievable work that we can lean on. Look at the work that Health Education is doing — in par ticular, the Peer Advocates [for Sexual Respect] — or what Lau rie Frankl is doing in the Civil Rights and Title IX office. Then there is the SWAGS [Sexuality, Womens and Gender Studies] department, which teaches real ly important topics and ampli fies student research. While it’s a challenge and its sometimes frustrating that we can’t do it all, I’m reassured knowing that other folks on campus are committed to this work too.

Q: 你最开始是怎么开始做这个餐馆的？ A: 我这个餐馆是从2017年一月份开始的，就是觉得孩子大了（我）在家好像没有什么事情，特别想做一件自己家里日常做的东西。因为我是西安人，我想我们西安那边食品做得很有特色，好吃的。我想把我们家里常做的一些面食带到这个地方来，就是跟其他美国中餐馆的要做些不同的东西。当时我们也想了想在我们当地有很多农场很多新鲜的蔬菜，尤其夏天和秋天时候，我们可以用上。现在夏天时我们很少在商店去买菜，都是在当地的 farm去买菜。我想利用这个天然的这个优势，想做点好吃的。

Q: 那你最初为什么选择在 Amherst做这个餐馆呢？ A: 因为我在当地也做（餐饮）了很长时间，我感觉反复考虑之后，这个地方当地人饮食文化比较open，喜欢尝试新的东西…… 比如说我们开始做肉夹馍的时候，很多美国人就不认可，心想

Q: 在美国这样一个地方做一个西安中餐馆，对你来说有什么意义？

Local Lookout: LiLi’s Restaurant

I started this restaurant in January 2017. My child [was] off to college, and I didn’t have much to do, so I really wanted something that I could do myself at home every day. Because I am from Xi’an, and I think we have a lot of unique, delicious food in Xi’an, I wanted to bring some of the food that we used to make at home to this place, something different from the American Chinese restaurants here. At that time, we also figured that we have a lot of local farms here with fresh vegetables that we can use, especially in the summer and fall. Now, in the summer, we rarely buy vegetables in stores and just buy them at local farms. I wanted to use this natural advantage, and make something delicious.

A: [I] think one of the things it solves is that sometimes I miss the food from my hometown — especially when celebrating

A:（我）觉得一个是解决了我想

念家乡那些食品啊，尤其有时候过年过节的时候，好想吃家乡的什么东西。这里的中国学生也一样。还有人问我，阿姨你会不会做这种面，我（说）实在对不起，我不会做，我会做羊肉泡馍。解决了现在好多学生的思乡。其实一开始我也不会做，但是来了美国这么多年，琢磨琢磨慢慢也就学会了。 Q: 我很好奇你觉得你们的餐馆和小镇，无论是学生还是居民，是什么样的关系？有没有什么故事？ A: 其实我之前在Formosa做了很多年，所以我认识很多居民。经常来的顾客我都认识，如果偶然来个新面孔，我会问问。我都知道（哪些）学生也是经常来的，我会知道他们的 orders。并且有时候（有学生）叫外卖也不留名字电话号码，我能记住谁是谁的……有时候在街上看到一些经常见的客人，我们都会打招呼。故事的话……我在这儿很久了，然后有一次有家长问我认不认识教中文的老师，然后我在群里一问，就有很多人应聘，就很有意思。我儿子的中文就没学好（笑）。我觉得这也是一种慢慢建立的关系吧。 Q: 你一开始是怎么推广你们的餐馆的？ A: 这个地方我从来没有做广告，一开始都是大家口口相传，并且我跟你说，我做的第一天开门的时候，第一个顾客吃的就是当时一尝我那些东西就走了。我当时因为我没有做过那种大锅饭，从来都是做小锅，我掌握不住咸淡。但顾客走的时候，当时我就觉得很担心，所以每次我做完东西，我都要尝一下味道，然后味道怎么样，慢慢我就掌握了这种大锅饭的这种那个料呀，咸淡呀，还有味道，我都摸索出来的。虽然说地方很小，但是评价都很好，有一点小成就感吧。 Q: 新冠疫情怎么影响到你的生意? A: 我觉得生意疫情后比疫情前好像反而好一些，但是最近物价都在涨的挺大，所以我们尽量控制成本。疫情期间我们关了两个月的门，关门之后感觉一直关着不行，然后就又开门了。疫情刚结束时候还不行，生意很淡，但是慢慢，尤其到今年，学生开学之后，觉得好很多。

A: I never made advertisements for this place; it was all word of mouth at the beginning. And, let me tell you, the first day we opened, the first customer who came left as soon as he tried my food. Because

Q: I’m curious what kind of relationship you think your restaurant has built with the town, both with students and residents? Do you have any A:stories?

In this new series, The Student highlights the stories of the town of Amherst. LiLi’s Restaurant is a Xi’an Chinese restaurant on North Pleasant Street in the town of Amherst. The Student sat down with the owner of the restaurant, Li Jia, to hear about her experience running the place. The interview was conducted in Mandarin and translated afterward into English. The interview in the original Mandarin is also included below. Both versions have been edited lightly for clarity.

—Stacey Zhang '26

Features 7The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E 你中国餐馆做什么burger。最后经过好多人尝试以后，他们真的非常喜欢。因为我也在当地很长时间，我了解这个当地的居民的饮食文化，这里的文化气息比较浓一些。大家一般很难接受外来的东西，但是（在这儿）他们喜欢尝试新鲜的东西……我就尝试做一些不同的东西，让大家尝试中国真正的那种饮食文化。

Q: What does it mean to you to start a Xi’an restaurant in a place like the U.S.?

Q: How did you first start this A:restaurant?

Q: Why did you choose Amherst to open this restaurant?

Q: How did you promote your restaurant in the beginning?

A: I think the business actually seems to be better after the pandemic than before it, but recently prices have been going up quite a lot, so we’re trying to control the costs as much as we can. We closed our doors for two months during the pandemic, and after we closed, we felt that we could not keep them closed indefinitely, so then we opened again. Business was pretty bad when the pandemic first died down, but slowly, especially this year, with the students coming back to school, we are doing much better.

Chinese New Years and other holidays, I really want to eat something from my hometown. The Chinese students here are the same. I’ve had people ask me before, ‘Auntie, do you know how to make this type of noodles?’ and [I would say,] ‘I'm really sorry, I don’t know how, I only know how to make lamb soup.’ [Opening this place] has helped a lot of students’ homesickness. Actually, at the start, I didn’t know how to make [the food] either, but after coming to the U.S. for so many years, I slowly just learned how to do it.

Q: How did the pandemic affect your business?

I didn’t know how to cook in large portions at the time — I’d always just done home cooking — I didn’t have a grasp on seasoning.. But when the customer left, I felt very worried, so now every time I finish something, I taste it first and see how the seasoning is. Slowly, I figured out how to control the ingredients and seasoning and taste for cooking in large portions. Although this place is small, the reviews have all been very good, so there is a small sense of achievement.

A: I’ve worked [in a restaurant] in the area for a long time, and after thinking about it for a while, I felt that the local people are more open in terms of food culture — they like to try new things. Like when we first started making Rou Jia Mo pork burgers, a lot of Americans didn’t really try it, perhaps thinking, ‘Why are Chinese restaurants making burgers?’ But after a lot of people tried it, they actually really liked it. Because I also have been here for a long time, I understand the food culture of the local people. People usually have a hard time accepting foreign things, but [here] they like to try new things … I just try to make some different things, so that everyone can try the authentic food culture of China.

Well, I worked at Formosa for a long time, so I know a lot of the locals. I know the customers who come often, and if a new face happens to come in, I ask about them and chat with them. There are students who come very often, and I know all their orders. [Some students] order without leaving a name or a number, but I can remember whose order is whose … Sometimes I run into some of the customers I see very often, and we say ‘hi’ to each other. As for stories … I’ve been here for a long time, and so one time a parent asked if I knew any Chinese teachers, and I sent a message in a group chat, and a ton of people sent in their resumes, which was just interesting. My son didn’t learn Chinese well [laughs]. I feel like this is also a kind of relationship that I’ve slowly built.

Continued on page 9

Grounds Department Expands Pollinator Presence on Campus

New pollinator gardens can be found by Keefe Health Cen ter, Garman House, Charles Pratt Hall, Morris Pratt Hall, Robert Frost Library, the Beneski Mu seum of Natural History, Con verse Hall, the Emily Dickinson House, by the Amherst College sign on Pleasant Street, and

Peters and Longto share a passion for pollinator gardens and sustainable landscaping

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard

The campus landscape has recently taken on a new vibran cy, more populated than ever by bright flowers, thriving herbs and bushes, buzzing bees, sing ing birds, and butterflies. Gar deners from the Landscape and Grounds Department have ex panded pollinator gardens and sustainable landscaping practic es in an effort to make the cam pus more beautiful and friend ly to non-human neighbors.

tennis courts. Talia Ward ’23 spearheaded the project, col laborating with Landscape and Grounds Supervisor Kenny Lauzier. Since then, gardeners Rachael Peters and Karl Long to have taken the expansion of pollinator plants on campus in stride, doing a lot of the transfor mational work over the summer.

along the medians on 116th. The gardens contain plants such as butterfly bushes, May night sal via plants, and blueberry bushes.

Peters explained that a change in senior staffing last year has given her and Longto free rein to transition toward pollina tor-friendly planting and more sustainable practices. “It’s really

'26

Features 8The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Sylvie Wolff ’25 Contributing Writer

practices. “We work really well together,” said Peters. “We’re both really excited about new plantings and incorporating a lot of pollinators and native stuff.”

Animal pollinators like bees, butterflies, bats, and birds are threatened by habitat loss, dis ease, parasites, and environ mental contaminants. Those who can’t find the right quanti ty or quality of food don’t sur vive, and one of the best ways to support pollinator populations is to plant pollinator friend ly gardens with diverse, na

Last semester, a group of stu dent and faculty volunteers gath ered to plant a native pollinator garden on the green between the Merrill Apartments and the

The 17 new planters and con tainer gardens around campus hold flowers including petunias and African daisies and herbs like hyssop, while the window boxes hold geraniums, Spider Flowers, and New Guinea im patiens. Common visiting pol linators are bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Peters’ fa vorite new pollinator-friendly space is the planter outside the Eighmy Powerhouse, which uti lizes a repurposed wooden crate.

Longto has been with the department for 40 years, and while Peters started just last August, she brings a horticul ture degree, as well as experi ence with farm management, irrigation tech, and integrated pest management to the job.

tive plants that supply food in the form of pollen and nectar.

Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds frequently visit the newly planted pollinator gardens throughout campus.

In the past year, Peters and Longto have further developed pollinator-friendly landscaping beyond the Merrill Green na tive pollinator garden and the sunflower patch behind Con verse Hall. There are now 12 new pollinator gardens, various window boxes, and 17 barrels and containers around campus.

Continued from page 8

given us the opportunity to shine and to do what we real ly love doing,” she explained.

The original pollinator garden, planted last semester, sits behind the Merrill apartments.

Gardeners Prioritize Sustainability in Tending Pollinator Plants

The work has a dual benefit for both humans and non-humans on campus. “I think it’s a lot to do with the atmosphere that we’re trying to provide [for the campus communi ty], but also helping the pollinator population, which is very much in demise right now,” Peters said.

Planter outside of Eighmy Powerhouse.

Sustainability is a central con cern in their work. “Karl and I are both very sustainably mind ed and we like natural prod ucts,” Peters said. “We don’t use any neonicotinoids, which are a big killer of pollinators.”

Photo courtesy of Sylvie Wolff '25

The Grounds Department has about six or seven employees, and during the summer, they had one person dedicated just to water

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E

The department is also respon sible for cleaning up after stu dents. “Even on the weekends, we have to come in and patrol the campus because a lot of times, unfortunately, people lit ter,” Peters said. “That’s a major problem we have to deal with.”

Despite the pollinator gardens being a large undertaking, Peters finds the work very rewarding. “There’s something about this that’s empowering, you know, giv ing y’all exposure to some plants maybe you haven’t seen before,” Peters said. “I’m really proud of what we’ve put together here.”

Peters is also currently work ing to bring vermicomposting, the use of earthworms to convert organic waste into fertilizer, to campus. She plans to make com post tea — liquid produced by extracting beneficial microorgan isms from composting — to fer tilize all the newly planted beds. “It’s saving on synthetic fertilizers and saving money,” she said. “And plus, it’s creating something, tak ing away waste from certain waste sources, like Val[entine Dining Hall] and Book and Plow [Farm].”

Peters and Longto prioritize shopping at local nurseries, avoid ing big box stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s. “We try to go to more local places that use beneficial in sects, that kind of stuff, because we like quality clean products,” Peters said. “A lot of times Karl and I will go and think: what do we see? What do we like? Where will this look good? And we brain storm and throw it together.”

ing the plants. With the drought, hand watering has been import ant for maintaining the gardens.

Features 9The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Peters and Longto see the entire process through, from brainstorm ing and design to shopping, plant ing, and maintenance. “Basically, where you start is [deciding] what’s going to work well here,” Peters said. “We like to incorporate things that are already on campus. I also really like either finding more rare plants or things that just aren’t really here.”

Andrew Rosin

Amethyst Brook* is incredibly close to campus, with the Robert Frost trail starting right off the bus stop. Our very own wildlife sanctuary* is even closer, but other popular hiking and walking spots in the area include Mt. Sugarloaf, Mt. Tom, and Puffers Pond,* among many others. Amherst Outing Club conducts many free hiking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, mountain biking and other outdoor activities this season, so be sure to sign up! And the bike path, always classic, is especially beautiful this time of year.

The Amherst Student is published weekly except during college vacations. The offices of The Amherst Student are located in the basement of Morrow Dormitory, Amherst College. All contents copyright © 2022 by The Amherst Student, Inc.

All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trade mark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

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Hiking ’n’ the Great Outdoors

Speaking of orchards, Hampshire County has a ton of picking possibilities! For apple picking, be sure to check out Kielbasa Orchards* or Park Hill Orchard. Park Hill also has “Art in the Orchard,” a walking sculpture trail winding through the fruit gardens. Fletcher Farm has a ton of activities in their pumpkin patches, including scavenger hunts and pumpkin picking, and Mike’s Maze has corn mazes, pedal cars, and hay rides.

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While the temperatures are dropping, it isn’t too late to grab a scoop of ice cream, especially as the many ice cream places in the area offer new autumnal flavors. Grab some fancy grocery items along with the best ice cream in the Valley at Hadley Scoop at the Silos*, though it is a bit of a walk from the rail trail or the nearest bus stop. Or, if you prefer a more difficult commute, you can always go to Flayvors. Both have a chalkboard offering discounts based on your name (a list which changes frequently), and Herrell’s,* in Northampton, will give you a free sundae on your birthday. For those venturing farther away, Mt. Tom’s,* in Easthampton, has a lovely selection of candies as well as some of the best specials in the valley.

Turn off your resting witch face and trick or treat yourself to some a-maize-ing fall activities!

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With fall just a day away, the Editorial Board is practically bursting in anticipation of fire-red trees and a nippier breeze. The excitement is so great, in fact, that we spent an entire editorial meeting discussing our favorite places to go and things to do this season. We’ve starred with a little asterisk (*) places that are accessible by walking (and often biking) or the PVTA, and we hope that you all get a chance to get off campus this fall and enjoy the crisp air!

As the weather gets chillier, here are a few cozy places to spend an afternoon (or full day!) at. The Montague Bookmill & Cafe has excellent sandwiches, Share coffee, and snug couches overlooking an incredible view — though it is arguable that both the Unnameable Books* in town and Raven Used Books* in Northampton have better used book selections. It has been said that the Pie Bar in Florence has the best (and possibly the most expensive) pie in New England, and cozy spots abound in the area, from the famous Esselon Cafe* in Hadley to Haymarket Cafe* and Wood Star Cafe* in Northampton to the menagerie of coffee shops and delis in town.

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Fall in Love With the Pioneer Valley

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Farms ’n’ Harvests

Don’t forget to take advantage of the many, many farms nearby! Aside from our own Book and Plow, Atkins Farms Country Market*, with its cider donuts and cheesecake stuffed apples, is a certified cultural heritage site in Hampshire County, and New Salem Cider is worth traveling to for their picturesque orchards and lovely cider garden.

With Halloween peeking over the horizon, it's worth checking out Fear on the Farm’s haunted hayrides at McCray’s Farm, DementedFX’s* haunted house experience in Holyoke, or Salem’s own Ghost Tours and Witch Walks for some extra historical horror. Be sure to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show* at Amherst Cinema on Halloween (and any other horror movies they have – Amherst students have free screenings after 9 p.m.). Visit Emily Dickinson’s Grave* (and check out the museum!) right in town or Mary Lyon’s grave* at Mount Holyoke. Make a costume (and if you have an ESA, dress it up!), go trick or treating, carve pumpkins and enjoy Pioneer Valley Fall!

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Unsigned editorials represent the views of the majority of the Editorial Board — (assenting: 18; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 0).

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Our very own Fall Fest takes place yearly on campus and features festive snacks alongside such autumnal events as pumpkin carving and (last year, at least) ferriswheel riding. Belchertown Fair & Parade runs Sept. 23-25, Northampton’s Jazz Festival* starts on Sept. 30 and ends the following day, the North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival (a farm favorite!) runs Oct. 1-2, and the Farmers’ Market* on the town common runs every Saturday morning until 1:30 p.m. until November. Also in town is the Apple Harvest Festival, taking place on Sept. 28.

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The opinion pages of The Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community. We welcome responses 50-800 words in length to any of our recent articles and aim to publish a diversity of views and voices. If you would like to submit a response for consideration, it must be exclusive to The Student and cannot have been published elsewhere. The Student will print letters if they are submitted to the paper’s email account (astudent@ amherst.edu) or the article response form that can be found on The Student’s website, by 8 p.m. on Saturday, after which they will not be accepted for the week’s issue. Letters must bear the names of all contributors and an email address where the author or authors may be reached. Letters may be edited for clarity and Student style. The editors reserve the right to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

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The 2018 Senatorial election, where Sen. Warren dominated the state just as convincingly as Baker.

Mass. Insider: Our Politics Are Weird, but Changing

Opinion 11The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Republican governors have fared so well here because they connect with voters personally, but they also don’t play to the tune of their party’s national agenda. Baker opposed Amy Coney Bar rett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, a social stance that prob ably made him more popular in the state precisely because it ran against party rhetoric. However, the ability for politically success ful Republican governors to exist outside of their party’s main stream may soon disappear.

A Massachusetts state map depicts election results for the 2018 gubernatorial election where Governor Baker won the vast majority of districts in the state.

In 2018, Baker won almost ev ery major liberal city and their suburbs (Springfield, Worces ter, Easthampton, etc.). He even narrowed the election in Boston down to less than one point — the closest any Republican guberna torial candidate has come to win ning the very blue city since Bill Weld won it in 1994.

Voters in Massachusetts tend to base their vote on who they like, rather than on a specific pol icy platform. Policy is of course a factor, but in a state that is gen erally more liberal, electoral re sults frequently fall down to the character of the people running.

Healey has worked with the legis lature for almost a decade and has built the relationships necessary to be a transformative governor.

win in blue states may be com ing to an end. Charlie Baker’s personal likability and moder ate-policies allowed him to ap peal to independents and Dem ocrats and become one of the most popular governors in the country — but Geoff Diehl can’t have that appeal. As I mentioned in my first article, Democratic nominee Maura Healey can ar gue that he will alienate residents that disagree with him because of his far-right ideology. Healey, on the other hand, seems to be con tinuing the tradition of appeal ing to all voters personally while not forgetting to promote what is popular in the state.

If Maura Healey were not the Democratic nominee, I would probably have voted for Bak er if he ran for a third term. But I would not vote for Baker if he were ever a Senate candidate. That would give the national Republi can party more power federally.

Republicans here and in other states can be checked and bal anced by the state legislature on policy, but federally they are pres sured to appeal to a party agenda more than to the people’s individ ualRegardlessneeds. of political affilia tion, research all of the candidates running where you are voting. Vote for whom you believe will deliver the bold and reformative social and fiscal results that you want to see.

Massachusetts has been shift ing to the right in recent years, a majority of our Republican governors have run on a fiscally conservative but socially liberal platform. (This is the case in oth er states such as New Hampshire and Vermont as well, but it is unique in Massachusetts because of our heavily Democratic popu lation). Baker has signed climate bills and abortion rights into law but hesitated on funding a WestEast rail line because of its cost.

Why does the Commonwealth of Massachusetts elect Repub lican governors despite voting consistently Democratic on the federal level? It is a phenomenon that occurs in other states, but why specifically in one of the blu est in the Massachusettscountry? voters are known for electing progressive federal representatives. Sen. Eliz abeth Warren champions bold economic reform to rebuild the middle class. Sen. Ed Markey ad vocates for the Green New Deal. Rep. Richard Neal wrote most of the federal child tax credit. Rep. Jim McGovern champions end ing child hunger, Rep. Ayanna Pressley fights for police reform, Assistant Speaker of the House Rep. Katherine Clark supports universal pre-K, and so on. We have a completely Democratic federal delegation, and all of our other statewide offices are held by Democrats as well. The na tional Republican party collec tively opposes anything progres sive-seeming — so why is it that Republicans fare so well in the Massachusetts Governorship?

But the success of Republican candidates in gubernatorial rac es has not helped their chances on the Congressional stage. In 2018, progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s re-election ran along side the governor’s election. She beat her opponent by 24 pts even as the Republican Baker retained the governorship by over 30 pts. While the Republican party in

Electing the Trump-endorsed Geoff Diehl as the Republican nominee for governor was the worst decision Republican vot ers here could have made. As the MAGA movement continues to infiltrate historically moderate Republicans such as the ones in Massachusetts, their ability to

Shane Dillon ’26 Columnist

triumph.Baker has been labeled as a liberal Republican, and many in his own party have called him a RINO (Republican-in-name-on ly) for straying away from the Re publican party’s national agenda. He is personable, humble, and oftentimes sides with Democratic talking points. Along with claim ing that abortion is a human right that must be upheld, he has also signed a major climate bill nego tiated by the Democratic super majority in the state legislature. This allows him to be seen as an unconventional Republican even in the bluest parts of the state.

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Gov. Charlie Baker may be a Re publican, but his personal appeal to even the most liberal of Dem ocrats is what has allowed him to

Healey’s campaign took a while to release specific policy items even after it started. She instead appealed to voters by first sympathizing with them — relat ing to them. Her pitch is that she is the product of a single, working mother, who worked her way to the top on her own and under stands teamwork and struggle based on her upbringing. That pitch alone is enough to attract al most all single, working mothers in the Commonwealth to Healey’s side without her necessarily hav ing to release specifics on how she plans to support single mothers. (Those specifics, however, did come later and are now all over

her website.) Healey is a Demo crat, but her lack of policy pro motion and emphasis on relating to residents’ struggles echoes the argument that on the state level, gubernatorial candidates don’t have to play to the tune of their party’s agenda to win.

I believe that there can be a balance. I also believe that achiev ing policy goals is more import ant than blindly promising them.

While this may be obvious to upperclassmen, some newer stu dents may be unaware that you can request books from any of the Five Colleges and have them delivered to Amherst within a few days. Once you’re finished, you can also drop them off here, instead of traveling to another campus. However, if you are vis iting UMass’s Du Bois Library

(the third tallest library in the world!) or are stopping by an other campus, you can use your Amherst ID to check out books.

If none of the Five Colleges have what you’re looking for, you can place a loan request online to either have the book shipped from another library through the Interlibrary Loan system or submit a purchase request.

Rants and Raves: Frost Findings

If there’s any possible way for Frost Library to get material you need, they will deliver it right to you.The library has more resourc es than just class materials. There are a number of leisure books available, with an entire section of manga, graphic novels, and fiction. The DVD collection is housed on A Level, and if you’ve gotten rid of your DVD player, you can watch films in Frost at the screening stations next to the collection. And if you’re in a pinch, you can also check out phone and laptop chargers from the front desk.

herst that it represents.

ital resources as well, including the citation service Zotero, which you can use to help create a digital bibliography.

With some of Frost’s other digital tools, you can learn a lan guage on Mango, stream media from around the world, learn all about birds, and explore An cestry.com’s library, all through your Amherst account.

An early-fall Frost, busy with students and curiously obscured by trees a strange impairment seemingly reflected in every institutional photo of the building.

ordered eating behaviors and was triggering for people with back grounds of disordered eating.

We don’t write this article think ing that much of what we argue here will be a new perspective to many people, especially not for fe male athletes. We know it isn’t, be cause we’ve heard these conversa tions behind closed doors for years. We hope instead that the decision made to cancel Bruce Bogtrotter this year can become an opportuni ty to have these conversations more publicly, and to ensure that Bruce Bogtrotter does not return in the coming years.

Madeline Lawson ’25 Managing Arts and Living Editor

Frost offers a number of dig

means that if you’re in a class and unable to return a reserve book in the allotted four hours, you won’t be charged a fine, as in the past. This also applies to other materials, which typically have a three month loan period forIfstudents.youhave any questions, you

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

In addition to safety concerns surrounding the event, the Bruce Bogtrotter competition also perpet uated a culture of disordered eating among female athletes. The event, which gets its name from the classic scene in Roald Dahl’s “Matilda,” was a cake-eating competition aimed at finding out which team could eat an entire sheet cake the fastest. The event was organized by the women’s ice hockey team, and each team, after paying an entry fee (covering the cost of the cake), would choose four participants who partner up to eat in four-minute intervals. Addi tionally, a fifth team member could serve as a “celebrity” cake-eater who would sub in for a minute at any time. It was common for women to prepare for the event by barely eating all day, then throwing up ev erything they have eaten soon after the event ends. From this image, it shouldn’t be hard to see the ways in which this event promoted dis

Bruce Bogtrotter was scheduled fairly early in the academic year. For many first-years, the event came at

The Problem With the Bruce Bogtrotter Competition

about their bodies, exercise habits, andAsdiets.members of the women’s crew team, we have been making a con certed effort over the past few years to shift this culture by including guidelines for speaking about these topics in our team expectations and participating in relevant program ming through the Counseling Cen ter. Before Bruce Bogtrotter each year, the captains of our team would often send a message informing us of the triggering nature of the event. Why, then, if we know what this event perpetuates, did our teams continue to promote it for so long? It seems that the answer, as it so of ten is, is that it was a tradition. But what does it say about the culture at Amherst that we find it so difficult to step away from tradition, even when we know there is something wrong with the tradition?

This past weekend, Amherst’s women’s sports teams had initially planned to gather for their annual Bruce Bogtrotter cake-eating com petition. Reflecting on the fact that a similar event at Tufts University led to a young woman choking and dying last fall, the organizers decid ed to cancel this year’s competition the night before it was set to occur. Last year’s tragedy at Tufts was not the only reason that the event should have been canceled, howev er. The concerns we raise below are ones that have been heard for years in conjunction with the event, and we hope that this year’s cancellation can encourage all of us to think more critically about the competi tion and the broader culture at Am

If you’re having trouble sift ing through the databases, you can always come chat with a research librarian, available at the front desk, or make an ap pointment to have an in-depth session. The Archives & Special Collections are an additional resource for research, but if you can’t visit in person, you can al ways browse their digitized col lection.Perhaps the most significant change that Frost has made this year is becoming a fine-free library. In order to facilitate equity amongst the Amherst community, no fines will be in curred for late materials. That

a time when they didn’t have a so lidified friend group yet and felt like they needed to participate in all the social events they could. Athletes on club teams, like ours, had only joined the team a week or two before the event occurred, and they were eager to participate in any event that the team spon sored. What does an event like this tell these first-years about athletics at Amherst, and the way Amherst supports and treats women?

Opinion 12The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

can always come to the front desk, where a worker will be glad to help you. Frost Library has an incredible array of resources, from free printing on A Level to study rooms available for reser vation and course materials be hind the front desk. Make sure that you take advantage of them!

Frost Library is my default study space. I can spend hours in a cubicle writing a paper, re lax in a comfy chair doing my reading, or get a Buzzed Banana smoothie from Frost Cafe. Even when I’m not finishing home work, I’m still in the library, working as an employee at the front desk or between the stacks. After spending a year exploring all that Frost has to offer, I’ve learned about the many ways students can use the library, in cluding opportunities they may be unaware of.

Content warning: This article con tains mentions of eating disorders.

Nina Krasnoff ’23 and Emma Strawbridge ’25 Contributing Writers

The event was touted as a time for female sports teams to come together and enjoy healthy com petition. It is, to our knowledge, the only recurring event at Am herst designed with this purpose. It is ironic, then, that the event is so deeply tied up in perpetuat ing a culture of disordered eating. While people of all ages and gen der identities can and do expe rience disordered eating, a 2015 American Counseling Association study shows that women in their late teens and early twenties (the exact demographic of most Bruce Bogtrotter participants) are par ticularly at risk. Moreover, women who spend a lot of time with oth er similarly aged women, such as those on sports teams, are the most at risk because the constant close proximity means we’ll hear many comments our teammates make

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Photo courtesy of Caden Stockwell '25

Theshots.audience was also excit ed as the HDMI: No Signal box, which had been blinking around the movie screen for several min utes, appeared to be on a trajec tory toward the exact corner of the frame. At the last second, however, it bounced off a high er-than-expected floor. This was the only disappointment of the night.In“still (despite the push of the heavy wind),” the audience never sees the narrator/subject (Daf far), but we come to know him well because of the presence of his voice throughout the film. He monologues about the “monoto nous movements that constitute

In the middle of the film, when the subject describes walking around the city as a sort of living nightmare, streets and rivers rip ple with the sped-up passage of time, and a carousel spins faster and faster — until the montage crescendos and he finds stillness in the Luxembourg Gardens. That stillness does not dispel his torment, though. He experiences the stillness of life as a rapid, vi

olent succession of moments, so repetitive and meaningless that they begin to occur simultane ously.The third portion of the film features increasingly intense su perimpositions of images from all realms of his mind. As the narrator loses his grip on reality, the formal manipulation of the images intensifies: The colors are filtered more heavily, the human figures are fried or angrily scrib bled out, time itself becomes tur bulent and even reverses. After his mother dies, the narrator es capes from this whirlwind-night mare only when it deposits him in a forest, “still despite the heavy wind.” He decides to buy a tick et to a part of France where he’s never been, thinking “maybe the best way to honor the past is by forgetting it.”

Before the movie began, I asked members of the audience what they were expecting. “It’s the greatest film of all time,” said Hunter Kloss ’25. “That’s what we’ve all been told.” Gracie Row land ’25 thought that it would have a lot of symbolism and land scape

Student Cinema Stuns at Premiere Showing

finally bursts out to look over an open vista. As the dreamy piano music decrescendos, it is up for interpretation as to whether or not he has found peace. I believe that the last line of the film is a declaration that he has accepted the mundanity and unhappiness intrinsic to being and grasps the essential commandment of life: Go forward into it, anyway.

Piper Mohring ‘25 and Caden Stockwell ‘25 showed their short film this past Saturday, Sept. 17.

Arts&Living

The film, just under half an hour long, was written, shot, and directed by Amherst students Piper Mohring ’25 and Caden Stockwell ’25. The principal pho tography took place this summer in France while the directors were taking a Hampshire College course in Paris. The course was in Super-8 filmmaking, but this film was shot on a digital camera that the two lugged with them on each of their outings and during the week after the course ended. The film is narrated in French by Community Service Officer Mer ouane Daffar, who ran the col lege’s quarantine program at the Rodeway Inn last year.

aspect of life.

For the narrator, meaning does not come from the miracle of birth, life under the state, or the gravitas of death. When he re lates the story of his own birth, he does not situate it in his personal or familial history, but rather in United States History with a capi tal ‘H’. He rattles off a list of dates: the birth of Osama bin Laden, the passage of a Wisconsin budget bill designed to suppress unions, the assassination of MLK. To rep resent just how little meaning he ascribes to these morally charged events, Mohring and Stockwell play clips of old newsreels at high er and higher speeds, creating a montage of military-industrial and governmental operations. The footage is in black and white, the frame size is smaller than the rest of the film, and the speed of the video and audio gradually speeds up until the newscaster’s voice is unintelligible, the mo tions are comical, and the subject informs us that “approximately 385,000 babies were born that day.”All the while, Daffar’s tone is forlorn and faraway. Everything is equally meaningless to him. This message is explored further when Mohring and Stockwell split the screen into four smaller screens, each depicting a different image mentioned in the monologue or a different moment in the subject’s life. Unable to distinguish if any of it has mattered, each screen disappears until only a broken egg remains on screen, its yolk spill ing into the gutter water.

All in all, “still (despite the push of the heavy wind)” is a compelling and creative film that will be enjoyed by the incurably adrift, the eternally doomed, and fans of Jonas Mekas and “How To with John Wilson.” It was made by people who love to mess with video editing. The end result is not a mess, however. If it was an HDMI: No Signal box, it would, without a doubt, hit the corner of the screen.

Jacob Young ’25 Contributing Writer

Indeed, we find a multitude of potential sources in the re curring symbolic images of the film. When the subject-narrator says, “Some of us may be remem bered long after we die. The over whelming majority of us will not,” Mohring and Stockwell juxtapose a shot of a grave smothered in lip stick kisses at the Père Lachaise cemetery with one of a cat loung ing on another gravestone next to a monument marked, Concession à Perpétuité (“Concession to Eter nity”). The cat, presumably, is not aware of the meaning of its ges ture. Ignorant and visibly content in the light of the day, it mocks the human desire to be eternally monumentalized.Mostofthe film’s symbol ic power, though, is not in the content and composition of its images, but in the manipulation of the medium itself. Some say that setting formal constraints on a project encourages artists to tell stories more inventively — that limitation breeds creativ ity. Mohring and Stockwell either did not hear them or decided to prove them wrong. Their film sets no bounds on cinematic ex pression, but rather manipulates formal aspects of film, like color, time, and frame, to tell the story of their subject’s alienation from and disillusionment with every

In the last scene of the film, the subject runs along a narrow path of vineyard, into the wind, and

The film can be found on Mohring's Youtube Channel.

Excitement ran high in the Keefe Campus Center Theater on Saturday, Sept. 17, where a sizable portion of the Amherst College community excitedly gathered for the premiere of “still (despite the push of the heavy wind).”

all of existence” and meditates on his own memories and malaise. In the beginning, much of the film’s footage consists of simple handheld shots of street life in Paris, edited to match the im ages and ideas referenced in the monologue. Since we never see the speaker, it feels as though we are looking through his eyes; but due to the handheld, cinema ver ité style, we are also aware of the fact that we are looking through the lens of a camera at a replay of reality. This produces a feeling of intimacy between the viewer, the subject, and the filmmakers: We are all searching his memories for the source of his apathy.

Brought to you by the WAMH blog, where it can also be found, and The Student’s Arts & Living Section. Written by WAMH Publicity Director Helen Feibes ’23.

WAMH XTHE STUDENT

Butshow.Arlie wasn’t just off my personal radar during that time. The band, which began as the solo project of then-college stu dent Nathaniel Banks in 2015, took a hiatus after a tour follow ing the release of “Wait.” “BREAK THE CURSE” is their first full al bum, and came after a lot of an ticipation and much-needed rest. It was, sorry, worth the wait. For a thoughtful conversation about the actual creation and release of the album, I refer you to Melodic Magazine’s interview with Banks, as well as Banks’ recent Insta gram post that accompanied the

stands out through its gentleness. Even as the track builds into an explosive final chorus, this soft ness remains, leaving the listen er with a full 20 seconds of near silence (are those train sounds? birds?) before the next song plays. The title track is exactly what the album is about: uncer tainty, escape, reflection, and moving on to better things.

release of the “break the curse” music“BREAKvideo. THE CURSE” is a magical forty-two minutes that assembles a diverse set of sounds into a sparkling, sharp, and at times nostalgic adventure. “sickk” is about starting over — an espe cially appropriate album open er after a hiatus — and “karma” follows its energy with a bursting rock quality and an enjoyably odd country twang in the second verse. “poppin” and “landline” sound like candy tastes, offering polished indie pop and exploring the crossfires of real-life relation ships and the Internet (as the lyr ics profess, “Thank God, I got a landline!”). “don’t move,” “cool,” and “icetrays” sharpen some of the album’s edges, leaning into alternative sounds and themes of control and misinterpretation, while “crashing down” crashes in with a whimsical chorus only 20 seconds into its two-minute runtime. “wait a minute” is a full Beatles moment, and “titanic” is an epic swell and closing track. Meanwhile, "break the curse”

I first listened to Arlie at the

'23

one (“sickk”), roll down the win dows, and shamelessly scream “I’m so sick of it!” all the way down Route 9.

Chimes and floating tones filled every inch of the Sonia and spilled out onto Cambridge’s Brookline Street. For a moment, I was either submerged in an ocean or drifting through a shark tunnel at the aquarium. Some 45 minutes deep into his set, Ar lie frontman Nathaniel Banks hunched over his effects pedals while his bandmates swayed with the rest of us, encompassed by the dreamlike sounds and saturated stage lights. With this warm in tro on loop, Banks looked around the room at all 200 or so of us and let us in on the hurt and healing that inspired, drove, and necessi tated Arlie’s new album, “BREAK THE CURSE.” We listened, and when the loop broke and the titu lar track's vocals finally came in, I felt my lungs fill my whole chest.

In other words, every time I get in my car, I queue up track

Arlie’s “BREAK THE CURSE” is the band’s debut album, taking listeners on a journey full of nostalgia and relief. WAMH Publicity Director Helen Feibes ‘23 reviews the album and relives her beloved band’s live concert in Cam bridge.

Arts & Living 15The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

start of the pandemic, when their “Wait” EP trickled into my Spo tify recommendations. I remem ber playing “barcelona boots” on my WAMH show during the fall semester of my sophomore year, and then losing track of the band until “karma” dropped last year and its massive energy totally blew me away. After that, every single that came off this album before its June 2022 release made an immediate appearance on my radio

That might sound dramat ic, but that’s the thing — Arlie blends lyrical and melodic play fulness with serious topics in a way that encourages you to be a little dramatic. The tracks on “BREAK THE CURSE” let you indulge in those sometimes silly but nevertheless real anxieties and frustrations of being in your late teens or early twenties (and probably older ages, though I’ll have to get back to you on that).

Photos courtesy of Helen Feibes

“BREAK THE CURSE” is cri sis and catharsis; it is intention al, honest, and infectious as hell. Dancing and singing alongside others in Cambridge, Massachu setts' Sonia, I just felt good. You know? The care that each artist on the stage had for the music they were making was evident, and the energy was both epic and intimate. The guitars, drums, keys, and vocals played off each other perfectly. Banks’ rager of a saxophone solo was one of the best moments of the night, and old favorites like “barcelona boots” and “big fat mouth” had everyone moving. The kid in front of me wasn’t the only one jumping their heart out.

Disney’s D23 Expo: Sequels, Shorts, and Spinoffs

From Friday, Sept. 9, to Sunday, Sept. 11, Disney hosted its 14th an nual D23 exposition in Anaheim, California. Fans of all Disney brands expected updates on numerous upcoming projects, as well as an nouncements of new ones. Many were disappointed by there being fewer announcements at this year’s exposition than expected. However, most of the announcements that Dis ney made were met with excitement.

Feige did reveal a few things at D23, but it’s understandable for fans to be disappointed when compar ing the event to Marvel’s San Di ego Comic-Con panel on July 22. Feige officially announced 15 films and Disney+ shows at that event, including some with release dates going all the way into 2025. He also announced that these projects will make up Phases Four to Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which will culminate in two Avengers films, entitled “Avengers: The Kang Dynas ty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” D23 was never going to live up to that, de spite fan expectations. With multiple release dates still left unfilled in the coming years, Marvel fans may have to wait until next year’s Comic-Con to confirm their theories, such as the cast of the Fantastic Four, and when characters like Deadpool, Nova, and Ghost Rider will be making their long-awaited MCU appearances.

Photo courtesy of tudoquemotiva.com

Disney’s live action remakes have been hit or miss in the past. Some, like “Beauty and the Beast” (2017) and “Aladdin” (2019), retell the sto ry in a refreshing way. Others come across as bargain bin versions of the originals, and seem like cash grabs.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” is a pre quel, and will take after the hy

Friday was exciting, but Saturday was D23’s most widely anticipated day. With Lucasfilm, 20th Century, and Marvel all slated to present, the internet had theorized for months prior as to what this day could bring. The smallest of the three, 20th Cen tury, only had “Avatar: Way of Wa ter” (2022) to present. The original “Avatar” movie still holds the all-time number one spot in the worldwide box office charts, so it’ll be fascinat ing to see how this one performs upon its Dec. 16 theatrical release.

The final major announcement was the makeup of the Thunder bolts roster. “Thunderbolts” (2024) will be about a team of villains and anti-heroes working together under Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine (Ju lia Louis Dreyfus). It’s basically Mar vel’s version of DC’s “Suicide Squad.” The members will be Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylen ko), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Many fans were underwhelmed by this team, and I’d have to agree with them. Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) is a head-scratching omission, as he led the team in the comics and recently appeared in “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (2021). I’d have to imagine that he’s still in the movie, just not on the team. Along with many other fans, I was also hoping that Marvel would use the Tony Masters version of Taskmaster, after Olga Kurylen ko’s version was so widely criticized in “Black Widow” (2021). She lacked the agency and threat level that Mas ters is known to have in the comics. One of the new trailers Marvel did drop was for “Secret Invasion”

While D23 didn’t end up reach ing every fan’s sky-high expecta tions, many new projects were an nounced. Countless people across the world spent the weekend of Sept. 9 to 11 glued to livestreams, and I’m confident that many of them came to the same conclusion — it’s a great time to be a Disney fan.

Arts & Living 16The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

On Sept. 9, the expo kicked off with a panel on Disney and Pix ar animation. The headline was the announcement of “Inside Out 2” (2024). A sequel to the widely beloved “Inside Out” (2015) had been long rumored, and fans were overjoyed that it was finally offi cial. The film will explore the main character Riley’s experience with puberty, and will feature some emotions that didn’t appear in the original. A “Zootopia Plus” series was also announced, which will consist of six Disney+ shorts tak ing place during the events of Zoo topia (2016). Disney also released new posters for “Strange World” (2022) and “Elemental” (2023).

Disney’s live action division was also present at this panel, and they were busy. They kicked things off by giving audiences a new look at “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (2022), a Disney+ adaption of the

One highlight of Disney’s 14th annual D23 exposition was the announcement of a sequel to the 2015 fan favorite heartwarmer, "Inside Out."

“Haunted Mansion,” which is an adaptation of one of Disney’s most iconic theme park rides, features a star-studded cast, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Owen Wilson, Rosa rio Dawson, and LaKeith Stanfield.

per-realistic look of “The Lion King” (2019). Many felt that that film fell into the bargain bin category, and criticized it for lacking the heart of the 1994 original. However, negative reviews didn’t stop it from making over a billion dollars at the box of fice. It’s not surprising that Disney is looking to replicate that success.

Rick Riordan novels that promises to be more accurate to the source material than the movie trilogy. It will star Walker Scobell as Percy, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth, and Ary an Simhadri as Grover Underwood.

was not announced. Rian Johnson (“Star Wars: Episode VIII,” “Knives Out”) and Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) have been rumored to be directing the project.

Marvel fans came into D23 with the highest expectations. Count less projects and character casting announcements were rumored for Saturday. Unfortunately, the reality was a bit disappointing. A couple new trailers were released, but only a few new announcements were made. One was that “Fantastic 4” (2024) would be helmed by “Wandavision” (2021) director Matt Shakman. This had already been widely speculated, so it was far from enough to satisfy fans. Marvel President Kevin Feige did also reveal that the antagonist of “Captain America: New World Or der” (2024) would be Samuel Sterns, a scientist mutated by gamma radia tion who becomes one of the smart est men in the world and begins to call himself “The Leader.” The iconic Marvel villain hasn’t appeared since “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), so fans were overjoyed to hear of his return.

Disney also teased four upcoming live action theatrical releases. Two of these were live-action remakes: “The Little Mermaid” (2023) and “Snow White” (2024). Disney also released a trailer for the former, which featured star Halle Bailey singing “A Part of Your World” as Ariel. Rachel Zegler will star as Snow White in the latter, with Gal Gadot as the evil queen.

Disney also released trailers for “Hocus Pocus 2” (2022), “Disen chanted” (2022), and “Peter Pan and Wendy” (2023). These movies will all be released straight to Disney+.

“Star Wars” fans left the con vention largely satisfied after nu merous TV announcements. New looks were shown of the Rosario Dawson-led “Ahsoka” (2023), and the Jude Law-led “Skeleton Crew” (2023). Trailers also dropped for the upcoming shows “Andor” (2022), “Willow” (2022), and “Tales of the Jedi” (2022). The headliner of the panel was a teaser trailer for “The Mandalorian” Season 3 (2023), featuring everyone’s favorite space cowboy and alien child duo trekking across the galaxy. The biggest disap pointment for “Star Wars” fans, how ever, was that “Star Wars Episode X”

(2023). Its tone was akin to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), a widely beloved political thriller. This show will follow Samuel L. Jack son’s Nick Fury, and his attempt to defend the world from shape-shift ing Skrulls. The “Secret Invasion” comic is one of Marvel’s most iconic, so fans are pumped to see this ad aptation carried out in live-action.

Vaughn Armour ’25 Staff Writer

The other two upcoming theatri cal releases are “Haunted Mansion” (2023) and the newly announced “Mufasa: The Lion King” (2024).

The other trailer made available to fans was “Werewolf by Night” (2022). A Halloween special, it has the feel of a campy, old-fashioned horror movie. It is entirely in black and white, and the vast majority of the special effects are practical. I personally adored this trailer and cannot wait to see the final product in just over a month. I also can’t wait for the first live-action appearance of Man-Thing, a humanoid swamp monster and long-time Marvel fan favorite who appeared in the trailer.

The final day of the expo was the most tame, with only a panel about Disney’s theme parks and cruises.

In one of the last issues of the comic, an emperor’s exiled advi sor is asked by Dream to come with him and advise him. The advisor declines, he is still loyal to his old emperor and devoted to serving his sentence. It’s a sim ple story, but it shows Gaiman’s ability to focus on psychological and emotional reality as a major driving factor and interest with in his stories. These one offs are engrossing exactly for their com

Photos courtesy of Grand Comics Database

“The Sandman” is a weird comic. The more I try to suc cinctly describe it, the more I lose my grasp of it. “The Sand man” is a comic about a character named Dream who rules over the kingdom of Dreams. The com ic is composed of a number of different stories, or “arcs,” each of which is an individually con tained story with recurring char acters. Among these recurring characters are Dream’s siblings, the Endless, who are embodi ments of different ideas which have driven human affairs for eons; Destiny, Desire, Delusion, Despair, and Death. So in a very literal way, “the Sandman” is a story about ideas. It’s about the ways in which ideas change peo ple and history.

pelling portrayal of the struggles of these otherwise mundane peo ple.Another one of these tiny stories, which plays out in the background of the final arc of the series, shows a man grappling with the death of his father, who he didn’treally know. These are deeply compelling stories with in “The Sandman.” And I think Gaiman understands this. The final three issues of the main run of “The Sandman” are individual, one-off stories. The final one is mostly about Shakespeare strug gling to write plays. That’s how this sometimes cosmic series ends.The sense of variation isn’t just present in the stories. The art can vary from issue to issue and arc to arc, which creates an experience which is inconsistent in a strange way. None of the in dividual comics are bad. Taken individually, they’re each pret ty great. Gaiman, like any good comics writer who doesn’t draw, possesses the ability to vary his stories and writing to the people drawing for him, so that the tone of a story matches the look of the issue.But taken together, the series’ art creates an odd patchwork. There’s something to be said about a series coalescing around a single artist and a single tone — becoming effectively controlled and punchy. The excellent graph ic novel “Watchmen,” by Alan Moore, is one example. “Watch men” is all drawn by Dave Gib bons, and, as a result, it feels ton ally cohesive in a way that “The Sandman” never does.

“The Sandman,” a comic series written by Neil Gaiman, recently received a Netflix adaptation. Ross Kilpatrick ‘24E reviews the classic comic, which thrills with cosmic ideology but sometimes suffers from a slow plot.

comic series. There’s no doubt about that. It’s getting a Netflix adaptation for a reason. But it’s not a seamless thrill, and that’s okay. What it lacks in consisten cy, it gains in the ability to zoom, from one issue to the next, from the literally cosmic to the deeply personal, to the ways in which its gods and demons and, most of all, its ideas affect and destroy in dividual human lives. It’s a comic about almost everything: some times subtle, sometimes bad, sometimes great. In the last issue Dream states, “I am not a man … I do not change … I am a prince of stories, but I have no stories of my own.” That is, ultimately, what “The Sandman” is trying to chal lenge. It’s trying to give stories their own story.

Retrospective on Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”

Ross Kilpatrick ’24E Staff Writer

Rose in the first arc stands out. She is the granddaughter of a woman who went into a coma induced by the disappearance of Dream. Much of the first arc is devoted to Rose’s curiosity about her grandmother. This is a small but emotionally compelling plot, which runs alongside Dream’s quest to regain his power and kingdom. Characters such as Rose are effective because they provide a real sense of empathy and connection to the world. And there are a lot of issues which are one-offs, following characters which are often never seen again in the comic. These are some of the characters that really stay with me. The people affected by the Endless, by these literalized ideas.

While reading the story, this sometimes disturbed me, but it also made me more aware of the artifice of the pages. Issues of the comic, which for readers in the ’90s were separated by months, were for me only hours apart. Standing back from the work, I can now see the tapes try these issues form, the whole, and I think in taking this ap proach they created something which captures the tonal range of the stories Gaiman was trying

Arts & Living 17The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Sometimes, though, his facade breaks, and “The Sandman” hing es on these key moments that hu manize Dream. But those stories, just about Dream, sometimes sag. The first arc is probably the strongest of the series, and the last one, instead of finishing tri umphantly, at times feels a bit cheap and sudden. Still, Dream is a great character, and he is left in a great place by the end of the story. But his stories alone are not enough to make “The Sandman” a greatWhatwork.Ireally think makes “The Sandman” special is every thing around Dream. Dream is a focal point of the universe, our entry point into this strange and wonderful world. But we often leave him, and he’s sometimes the least interesting part of the sto ries. Many of the arcs of the series devote a large amount of time to individual human characters.

But that makes “The Sand man” sound overly analytic and preachy. “The Sandman” is also a fun comic about demons and gods and God and many differ ent mythologies. And it’s about humans who live for a long time. But it’s not above simple action. The first arc of the series follows Dream as he tries to regain his powers after having been held captive for 70 years by cultists trying to get to his sister Death, confronts an escaped serial killer nightmare, and repairs his king dom. If nothing else, “The Sand man” is an immensely creative comic.But “The Sandman” is also a mixed bag, in a lot of different ways. Dream is a weird choice for a main character. He’s inhuman, literally and in terms of character: often aloof from the reader, his primary loyalty seemingly to his kingdom and the rules it follows. The reader rarely gets a look in side his mind or his thought pro cess. We can only guess at what he’s feeling through how other characters react to him. Dream often operates through an archaic system of obligation and revenge, which seems more appropriate for the Code of Hammurabi than for a protagonist.

to tell through “The Sandman,” and captures something essential about “The Sandman” universe itself.Because, ultimately, “The Sandman” is not a narrow aes thetic experience. It’s even hard to treat “The Sandman” as a sin gular work, as something like “Watchmen,” which aims at one ultimate goal. “The Sandman” has, in a sense, a beginning and ending, but it also has a million digressions. It’s not a novel, it’s a mythology of ideas, and the varied ways they affect and in teract with humanity. It’s a series about destiny, death, desire, delu sions, and dreams. It’s ultimately sprawling and given out piece meal.“The Sandman” is a great

Photo courtesy of Alex Brandfonbrener ’23

• Monin Caramel Syrup (Beverages Bar)

• Hood Sweetened Whipped Light Cream (“Do It Yourself” Sta tion)

Photo courtesy of Alex Brandfonbrener ’23

The recipe uses a healthy dose of caramel, which can be found in the Beverages Bar at Valentine Dining Hall.

• Black coffee of any kind. My recommendation would be Sumatra or Mocha Joe’s Medium Roast Costa Rica (Bever ages Bar)

• Whole milk (Beverages Bar)

Take out a plastic cup from the Beverages Bar. For the base of the drink, walk to the “Do It Yourself” Station and driz zle HERSHEY’s chocolate syr up along the inside of the cup. Remember to rotate your cup as you pour the syrup in slow ly. Fill the cup with crushed ice almost to the brim. Pump three shots of caramel syrup. Go to the coffee section and fill the cup slightly below the halfway mark with coffee. Then, fill threeeighths of the cup with whole milk. Add fresh chilled cream, and top it off with whipped cream. Drizzle chocolate syrup on top. Drizzle again, but with the caramel topping this time. Finally, don’t forget to sprinkle

Apart from July and August, when the “Do It Yourself” station beside the waffle makers is tem porarily closed, you can always rely on this tried and true formu la. Ever since its debut, many en thusiastic souls have approached me and asked about the recipe, so I thought it would be helpful to share it with the Amherst com munity.

Arts & Living 18The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Ingredients

On a scorching day in June, I was eating lunch with a friend who was set to leave town soon. Amid our conversation about badminton practice, I was over come by a sudden craving for a Starbucks iced coffee with car amel. I knew that getting one would be impossible. There used to be a Starbucks on North Pleas ant Street, but it was shut down in 2019, so a die-hard fan like me had no options. Still, out of my seeming helplessness, I started to look around Val for a possible way to satiate my thirst. Years of tasting the Starbucks menu at dif ferent times and places eventual ly paid off: It was a first-try suc cess with a “trusting the process” mindset and a couple rounds of going back and forth between two sections in the dining hall (they are quite distant from each oth er!). No Starbucks? No problem!

In this edition of Val Hacks, Pho Vu ‘23 whips up a frappe in an effort to emulate Star bucks’ classic and delectable drinks.

VALHACKS

• Fresh chilled cream (Beverages Bar)

• Ice (Beverages Bar)

• Cinnamon powder (“Do It Yourself” Station)

Note: Regarding the first step, if you are not an avid fan of choc olate drizzle decorations or you simply don’t advocate for plastic consumption, there’s no harm in using a paper cup. These plastic cups are compostable anyway, though.According

The beginning of this past summer held a sense of tran quility. I sent off my friends one by one as the outflow of students going home began. Valentine Dining Hall, which is usually packed, was now full of empty ta bles, chairs, and the few students who were staying at Amherst for an on-campus job or research. Val suddenly felt bigger, and my end less free time seemed ironic. Now that I had time to socialize, my friends were gone. What would I do to occupy myself?

the cinnamon powder on top. Despite it not being a pumpkin spice latte, I guarantee the drink will spice up your fall semester just as much!

to Slang Define, “starbuzzing” refers to the feel ing that you get after having a great sip of coffee. I hope this Starbucks-inspired recipe will give you some starbuzzing for an energetic start to your morn ings!

“Val Hacks” is a column dedicated to exploring the culinary pos sibilities of Valentine Dining Hall. This week, Pho Vu ’23 presents her recipe for “Pho’s Frappe.”

• HERSHEY’s Chocolate Syrup (“Do It Yourself” Station)

Directions

• Smucker’s PlateScraper Caramel Dessert Topping or Smucker’s Sugar-Free Breakfast Syrup (“Do It Yourself” Station)

Jack Roberge '25 carries the ball against Middlebury in the 2022 season opener. The Mammoths averaged fewer than three yards per carry.

Drew Stephens ’26 Staff Writer

Amherst will look to get back on track next Saturday, Sept. 24, at Hamilton (0-1), a squad they defeated 21-0 last season. Kickoff in Clinton, New York, is sched uled for 1 p.m.

Two plays later, Piazza con nected with wide receiver Car son Ochsenhirt ’24 as he was crossing midfield. Ochsenhirt outran the Middlebury second ary, scoring a 75-yard touch down and putting the Mam moths on the scoreboard. While Middlebury blocked the extra point, the deficit was down to one score, 14-6, with 1:16 left in

Football Drops Season Opener After Letdown in Second Half

and the Mammoths were incon sistent through the air.

that quarterback Piazza was the team’s leading rusher on Saturday and had more carries than all the team’s running backs combined (12 attempts for Piazza, compared to only 11 for the team’s committee of running backs). Concerningly, all Mammoth rushers were held to under three yards per carry, minus Alexis Chavez Salinas ’23 who had one rush for three yards. The Mammoths rushed for only 35 yards all game and gained 242 yards of total offense compared to Middlebury’s 348. Defensively, linebacker Andy Skirzenski ’24 led the team with 10 tackles, nine of them solo. Swope contributed nine tackles, and defensive back Ryan Monteleone ’24 added eight. The turnover differential was even, with each team committing two turnovers apiece.

Sports

The football team opened its 2022 season with a 17-6 loss to Middlebury at Pratt Field this weekend. Although the game held scoreless through the first half, the Mammoths fell to the Panthers after being outscored in the second. The loss marked the first time that the team has lost its season opener in the 21st century.TheAmherst offense started out hot, but couldn’t convert on its opening drive. Quarterback Mike Piazza ’24 led the Mam moths from their own 23-yard line to the Middlebury 10 on their opening drive, completing four passes for 43 yards along the way. However, a crucial in terception by the Panthers at their own 6-yard line ended that scoring opportunity for good.

Coming out of halftime, Mid dlebury’s offense finally found their momentum. An impressive six-play, 83-yard opening drive started the Panthers’ half, which ended with a 27-yard touchdown pass that put the Panthers up 7-0 with 12:48 to go in the quarter. But while Middlebury was pick ing up steam offensively, the Amherst offense struggled to respond, as the Middlebury de fense shut down their run game

tion of the half set up a 35-yard field goal try for Middlebury midway through the second quarter, which they missed wide left. The Amherst defense came up big right before halftime with an interception around midfield by Will Harmon ’25E. The inter ception set up an ambitious 51yard field goal for Conor Ken nelly ’23 in the closing seconds, but that kick was also no good, and both teams headed into halftime scoreless. There were eight total punts between both teams in the first half.

Despite taking the loss, the Mammoths had some bright spots, including a stout run de fense that allowed only 58 rush ing yards, and a promising con nection between quarterback Piazza and wideout Ochsenhirt, who grabbed seven receptions for 112 yards during the contest, including the highlight touch down.Evidently, the Mammoths are still looking to find a re placement in the backfield for last year’s leading rusher Kellen Field ’22, highlighted by the fact

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Later in the third quarter, the Panthers put together another efficient scoring drive, capped off with a 3-yard touchdown run to go up 14-0 with 3:54 left in the third. After another incon sequential drive by the Amherst offense, Middlebury again drove deep into Amherst territory, but the defense stepped up to help swing the momentum the other way. Linebacker Tim Swope ’23 forced a fumble and defensive lineman Anthony Leneghan ’25 pounced on it, giving Amherst the ball at their own 20.

For the rest of the first half, neither offense could muster up much. Piazza’s second intercep

theUltimately,third. the Mammoths were unable to capitalize on their opportunities to return to the scoreboard in the fourth quarter. A seven-play, 49-yard drive, capped by a Middlebury field goal from 20 yards out, put the Panthers up 17-6 with 6:48 left in the game. This was more than enough of a cushion for the Panthers, who left Lehrman Sta dium with a comfortable win.

Historically, the herbivorous creatures did not coexist, but the two have been tough com petition for each other on the pitch, going 5-5 over their last 10 matchups — however, the Mam moths have not beaten the Jum bos at home since 2011.

Responding with intensity, Amherst put pressure on the Tufts back line, firing off shot after shot, cross after cross, and shutting down Tufts’ offense.

On Saturday, Sept. 17, the Tufts women’s soccer team hit the Massachusetts Turnpike to take on our beloved Mammoths.

forward to getting back on the rightAndtrack.”right those wrongs they did. In their Tuesday afternoon game against nationally-ranked No. 14 Babson College, the Mammoths dismantled the Bea vers 3-1. Hayton-Ruffner found the back of the net for his third goal of the season just over sev en minutes into the contest. Luck proved to be on the Mammoths side just two minutes later, as they cushioned their lead after a miscue in front of the net ended in a Babson own goal. The score remained until the 73rd min

already under her Under Ar mour belt this season, got a quick header off in the third minute of the game that went just wide. (Managing Sports Editor) Liza Katz ’24 joined in on the party a few minutes later, sending the ball soaring just above the cross bar. And, in the 26th minute, senior Isabel Stern ’23 got her foot around the ball as well, sending a rocket of a shot straight into the box, forcing Tufts keeper Hayley Bernstein off her line to make the save. Unfortunately, in retaliation, the Tufts attacking line managed to slip behind the Amherst defense and whip one past keeper Mika

Starting with the first whistle, Amherst women’s soccer dom inated the run of play. Junior Abby Schwartz ’24, with 10 shots

Withseven.arecord of 4-1, the Mammoths will take the long trip to Maine to play Bates on Saturday, Sept. 24, and Colby on Sunday, Sept. 25. Both games are scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m.

Men’s Soccer Loses to Tufts in Final Minutes, But Beats Babson

The men's soccer team lost in a heartbreaking game against Tufts. The team conceded three goals in front of a home crowd due to "lapses of focus."

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

That wouldn’t last long. Only 45 seconds into the second half, sophomore Fynn Hayton-Ruffner ’25 sprinted down the right wing, laying the ball off to junior Jonny

felt like we had stretches [during the game] where we pushed the pace and dominated. A couple of lapses of focus really cost us the game. The details really matter. All we can do is learn from our mistakes and keep moving.”

Novak ’24, who served a beauty of a cross to the back post where fellow junior Ada Okorogheye ’24E was waiting. Okorogheye, towering over a helpless Tufts backline, jumped and made con tact with the ball, finishing the header in the bottom corner. The Mammoths were back on top.

Almost immediately after, though, Tufts again bounced back with one of their own, tying the game for the second time with an entire half left to be played.

Massachusetts Turnpike to take on Emerson College on the road in Boston. They dominated in all facets of the game, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before halftime with goals from Stern, Schwartz, Ally Deegan ’24, and Charlotte Mc Guire ’25. The lead remained un til full time, and the Mammoths added their fourth tally in the win column. They finished with a total of 20 shots to Emerson’s measly

Sophomore Niall Murphy ’25 summed up the team’s disap pointment at the loss. “[It was] a tough loss for sure,” he said. “We

Sports 20The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

attacks and valiant effort, send ing much of their team forward on every attacking opportunity, Tufts took advantage of Amherst’s risk-taking and found the back of the net with five minutes to go — the game ended soon after with the Jumbos having notched two goals to Amherst’s zero.

The Mammoths did not go down without a fight, though. Notching an early goal, the first of the game, sophomore Laurens ten Cate ’25 got his first of the season off an assist from sopho more transfer Simon Kalinauskas ’25 to put the Mammoths on the board and up a goal early in the game.However, the Jumbos were not far behind, and after a scramble in the box a Tufts player found the back of the net to equalize only two minutes later. Undeterred, the Mammoths did not let their feet off the gas for the rest of the first half, battling and challeng ing the Tufts keeper relentlessly. But, with neither team finding a breakthrough, the teams went into the break tied at 1-1.

“Unfortunately, we got what we deserved from the game,” Okorogheye added. “Conceding three goals at home and giving up two leads in the speedy man ner we did is a recipe for disaster, especially in a NESCAC game. Fortunately, we have three games this week, allowing us to right some of our wrongs as we look

While disappointed with the end product on Saturday, Huang told The Student, “[Despite the loss], we know we’re the stron ger team and we look forward to beating them in this year’s post season.”The Mammoths returned to the field on Tuesday, Sept. 20, taking their turn traveling the

Women’s Soccer Falls to Tufts 2-0 in Hard-fought Match

ute when Okorogheye, who had a hand in the Mammoths’ first two goals, finished off a brilliant individual run for the third goal of the game and his third goal of the season. The Beavers’ lone goal came four minutes later on a penalty kick, but it was too lit tle too late — the Mammoths saw out the remaining 14 minutes for a 3-1Withvictory.arecord of 4-1-1, the Mammoths will make the long trek to Maine this weekend for a matchup against Bates on Satur day, Sept. 24, before playing Col by on Sunday, Sept. 25.

Violet Glickman ’25 Staff Writer

Carter Hollingsworth ’25 Staff Writer

With a little less than 30 min utes on the clock, Tufts got lucky again — this time off a header from a free kick that was just out of the reach of goalkeeper and captain Bernie White ’23E.

Fisher ’24 — despite not hold ing much of the ball before that point — and ended the half with a 1-0Truelead.to their Amherst ways, the Mammoths refused to give up or give in, outshooting Tufts 10-6 in the second half. Carter Hollingsworth ’25, Alexa Juarez ’23E, and Ella Johnson ’26 all took shots in the first 20 min utes, but they could not find the back of the net. Amherst kept the pressure high until the very end, with Fiona Bernet ’25, Stern, Alyssa Huynh ’25, and Charlotte Huang ’25 all upping their shooting statistics as well. Despite Amherst’s dangerous

Junior Shawn Rapal ’24 led the charge for the Mammoths in the final minutes, as he hit not one, but two headers off the crossbar in the final minutes of the match. But despite the chances, the game ended 3-2 in favor of the Jumbos, and the Mammoths took their first loss of the season.

Men’s soccer took on the Tufts Jumbos on Hitchcock Field this past Saturday, Sept. 17 in a battle of two top five nationally-ranked opponents. Two second-half goals gave the Jumbos the late win and handed Amherst its first loss of the season.

Kat Mason '25 reaches for the ball against a Tufts opponent. The Mammoths lost their game against the Jumbos in overtime.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

On Wednesday, Sept. 14, the Mammoths finally took to Hill Field — the game was scheduled for Tuesday night but postponed to Wednesday due to weather — for a game under the lights against the Keene State Owls. Unfortunately for Keene, the extra 24 hours of preparation didn’t do them much good, as the Mammoths put their foot on the gas and never slowed down en route to a 6-0 win.

Managing Sports Editor

Liza Katz ’24

shot past the Owls’ netminder to open the scoring. While it took a little longer for the Mammoths to take control of the game on the scoreboard, they dominated play for much of the second quarter before Kat Mason ’25 doubled the lead with a standout solo effort. Mason weaved her way through three defenders before slotting home a low shot to make it Despite2-0.notching 17 shots to Keene’s one, the Mammoths couldn’t convert those frequent chances into more goals in the first half; however, whatever Head Coach Carol Knerr said during halftime seemed to have worked, as the team came out firing in half number two. They

the shot opportunities but could not find the back of the net. Five minutes into overtime, a Jumbos goal against the run of play — the Mammoths outshot the Jumbos 16-10, had a 9-4 advantage in terms of shots on goal, and held a 12-6 advantage in corners on the day — put the Mammoths away for good, sending them home with a 2-1 loss.

turned up the heat, gaining much of the momentum and enjoying many of the offensive opportunities from that point forward. They were rewarded for their effort early in the fourth quarter, when a string of three consecutive corners finally resulted in a goal: Mazambani played the corner to Sage Geyer ’23E, who tapped it along to classmate Beth Williamson ’23E. She found a wide-open Kays, who put the ball in the goal to tie the Aftergame.thegoal, the Mammoths didn’t let up, but the gamewinner just wouldn’t come. With the game tied, the teams headed to overtime, where the Mammoths again dominated

The Mammoths will look to right the ship this coming week with three away games on the docket. First up is a clash with MIT in Boston on Wednesday, Sept. 21, and then they will travel to Maine for NESCAC contests with Bates and Colby this weekend. Wednesday’s game will begin at 6:30 p.m.

In response, the Mammoths

Sports 21The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

notched three goals on 10 shots in the third quarter, with Jackie D’Alleva ’23 contributing two of them from close range to put the game out of reach. Mazambani put the icing on the cake with her second tally in the fourth quarter, setting the final margin of victory at six. The Mammoths outshot the Owls 30-1 in the contest and led 10-2 in penalty corners.Against Tufts on Saturday, however, in their second game of the week, the Mammoths didn’t find as much offensive success. After a tight first half that saw neither team score nor gain the better of play, Tufts opened the scoring off a penalty corner.

The first Mammoth goal came with just over five minutes to go in the first quarter, when Muffie Mazambani ’24 redirected an Abbey Kays ’25

Field Hockey Crushes Keene, Loses OT Thriller to Jumbos

But what really stood out about the 2022 Women’s Euros was that every team played beautiful soc cer, with powerful displays of passing and very little of the direct kick-and-run style we have come to expect from men’s soccer in the U.S. over the last 10 or so years. And this style permeates through out high levels of women’s soccer, both in the U.S. and abroad, mak ing the appeal of women’s soccer twofold. Come watch, or turn on your television, and you’ll get to see both the players you admire and the type of soccer you love to watch from men’s teams like Bar celona, Manchester City, and Real Madrid in every single game, re gardless of the team you watch.

The only MLS match with more viewers this season was the March 5 game between Charlotte FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy, which drew 475,000 viewers. That week end, the San Diego versus ACFC match drew more American view ers than English Premier League games between Everton and West Ham and Watford and Liverpool, as well as the massive Portugal ver sus North Macedonia World Cup qualifier featuring Cristiano Ron aldo. The top MLS game in terms of number of viewers that week end only drew 123,000 people.

This particular phenomenon came true in a major way this summer. Without a doubt, the event to watch in soccer this past summer was the Women’s Europe an Championships. The eventual winner, England, had a few players from the NWSL, as well as a few who played college soccer in the United States, so a sizable Amer ican audience tuned in. And with England playing top-level talent every time they stepped on the pitch — they had to face top-10 teams Spain, Sweden, and Ger many on their way to their win — Americans got even more ex posure to the high level of wom en's soccer that we love seeing out of our own national team. 971,000 Americans (and 17.4 million Brits, the most viewers ever for an En glish soccer match) tuned in to watch England — with players like Lauren Hemp, Ella Toone, Leah Williamson, and Beth Mead — play Germany (and their own bevy

And with more and more American players taking their tal ents to Europe, viewership of these leagues in the U.S. will only grow as fans tune in to watch their fa vorite players — and maybe find players from other countries they will grow to love and continue to follow as they return to their own national teams.

of talent) in the final. That figure holds up as the most people to watch a soccer game televised on ESPN all year.

And now, with the USWNT scheduled to play a match against England at 65,000-seat Wembley Stadium (tickets for which sold out in less than 24 hours) next month, one against Spain in Pamplona a few days later, and two against Germany on U.S. soil in Novem ber, we will get to see our old fa vorites take on the rising stars of women’s soccer in four matches to remember. I’ll definitely be tuning in. I hope you will too.

“But Liza, we barely even pay at tention to men’s soccer in the U.S. — why would you push us to go watch women’s soccer?” To that, I will say: look at the results.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The USMNT has not produced that type of success, to put it light ly. Before they qualified for the 2022 Men’s World Cup earlier this year, the USMNT had not quali fied for a major tournament since the 2014 Men’s World Cup. They are currently ranked 14th in the world, though they have been as high as 11th in the last year. That No. 11 ranking was their highest since right before the 2014 Men’s World Cup. In the meantime, their ranking has mostly hovered in the 25-30Butrange.theinternational scene is not the only place in which the scales of soccer in the U.S. slide toward the women’s side. 2022 has been the year of women’s soccer. While the MLS is struggling to draw viewership on a regular ba sis, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the U.S.’s women’s professional soccer league, is con sistently drawing high numbers when given national television exposure. CBS broadcast the 2022 Challenge Cup match between new NWSL expansion clubs San Diego Wave FC and Angel City FC (ACFC), putting the NWSL in the spotlight — and that move paid off, with 456,000 people tuning in.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. I know, as Americans, that this can some times be hard to believe, what with Major League Soccer (MLS) having essentially been European soccer leagues’ retirement home for pretty much the entire time I’ve been alive, and with the Unit ed States Men’s National Team (USMNT) having been so medio cre for so long. That the USMNT didn’t qualify for the 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia or the re scheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympics was just another reason for us uncultured swine to not watch soccer — sorry, football — and with American football, baseball, and basketball dominating the professional sports landscape, many people were none the wis er. But, as a soccer player myself, one who, according to many of my friends and family, lives and breathes the sport to the point of it being borderline crazy, I’m here to argue that that should change. Specifically, that you should be not watching men’s soccer, but wom en’sIsoccer.know, I know, it sounds crazy.

The United States Women's National Team has won many trophies in recent years, while the men's national team has failed to qualify for various major tournaments.

Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor

ernizing facilities, and increasing both player and league exposure. With ratings high, more and more NWSL games are being national ly broadcast, and more and more people are tuning in. And that type of growth can only benefit the sport. The world’s biggest clubs, like Manchester City, Barcelona, Chelsea, and Arsenal, have spent millions of euros acquiring topend female talent and moderniz ing their facilities to accommo date their women’s teams. If these trends continue, the U.S. might be the next country to be able to do the same, and the already-high quality of play will only continue to rise as a result.

World No. 1, having spent six and a half years straight at the top of international soccer from March 2008 until November of 2014.

This ability to draw in viewers, to a higher degree than the men, can only help the growth of the sport. With increasing viewer ship, leagues like the NWSL will be able to allocate more resourc es towards paying players, mod

This has already begun to hap pen in England. The Women’s Su per League (WSL) stands as the top tier of women’s soccer in the country — in 2022, WSL broad cast consumption has increased 285 percent since the league signed a broadcasting rights deal with Sky-BBC at the end of last year. These trends should only continue into the 2022-23 season, which started this past weekend. In just the first weekend of play, great games were frequent and upsets abounded. Every game was either broadcast on U.S. television networks or was easily streamed by American fans.

The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) has a history of success. I could go on all day about the team’s various accomplishments, but, to be brief, the team has won FOUR World Cup Titles (1991, 1999, 2015, and 2019), including the last two in a row. The team has also won four Olympic gold medals (1996, 2004, 2008, and 2012), and nine CONCACAF Gold Cups, making them the most successful team in international women’s soccer. They have qualified for every sin gle World Cup and every single Olympic tournament. They have held the No. 1 FIFA World Rank ing since June 2017, and current ly hold the record for the longest time spent consecutively as the

Sports 22The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

Why You Should Be Watching Professional Women’s Soccer

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Men’s Golf

Women’s Tennis

Theo Dassin ’24 led the charge for the men’s second place finish with a personal-best 8 km time of 25:40.1, good for a fourth-place finish, the best of his collegiate career. First-years Henry Dennen ’26 and Aidan Gemme ’26 fin ished sixth and 10th respectively, while Spencer Davis ’23 finished 11th. George Cahill ’26 was the final Mammoth scorer, finishing 16th.Both teams have a week off

Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor

Up next are the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals, to be played from Friday, Sept. 23 to Sunday, Sept. 25 in William stown, Massachusetts.

In the Sports section’s new edition of “Around the Herd,” we tell you about the cross country team’s success at the Little Three Championships, women’s tennis’ solid performance against tough competition, and men’s golf’s tough day at the Williams Fall In vitational.

Hosting this year’s edition of the Little Three Championship, the men’s and women’s cross country teams performed ex tremely well, with a first place fin ish for the women and a second place finish for the men.

Around the Herd: Your Weekly Mammoth Sports Update

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Women's tennis faced off against tough opponents at the MIT Invitational last weekend.

Sports 23The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022

The women’s tennis team par ticipated in the MIT Invitational in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this past weekend. Playing against a talented cohort consisting of MIT and NESCAC foes Tufts and Bowdoin, the Mammoths posted solid performances across the board in their first competition of the new Calistaseason.Sha ’23 and Sophie Diop ’26 both reached the cham pionship in the singles bracket, outlasting the pool of 32 compet itors by defeating four opponents each. The pair met in a final that was played at the Amherst tennis courts. Julia Lendel ’24 was the runner-up in the singles consola tion bracket, and the pair of Amy Cui ’25 and Katelyn Hart ’25 fin ished as the doubles runner-up.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

before the Purple Valley Invita tional at Williams on Saturday, Oct. 1.

The women put on a domi nant display on the UMass Cross Country Course, sweeping all top four spots and occupying six of the top 10. Mary Kate McGranah an ’23 led the way once again after her victory at the Cardinal Invi tational last week won her NES CAC Performer of the Week hon ors. She finished first in the 6 km this week with a time of 21:38.8, her personal best. Finishing sec ond for the second week in a row was Julia Schor ’25, crossing in a personal best 22:07.7, and Sophie Wolmer ’23 crossed third for her best collegiate finish with a time of 22:14.3. Not far behind was Allison Lounsbury ’26, who oneupped her fifth-place finish from last week by crossing the line in fourth.The victory marks the first time the Mammoths have won the first two meets of the season since 2007 — a year in which they won the national championship.

Men's golf finished 13th of 16 teams at the Williams Fall Invitational.

Cross Country

The women's cross country team dominated the Little Three Championship.

The men’s golf team finished 13th out of 16 teams this past weekend at the Williams Fall In vitational. They finished with a cumulative score of 625, shoot ing a team-total 317 on Saturday before improving with a score of 308 on StevenSunday.Chen ’25 finished with a team-best 3-over-74 on day two of the tournament, finishing with a two-day total of 152 that tied him for 31st place. Mark Vitels ’26 was close behind with a twoday total of 157, placing him sec ond on the team but 51st overall. The remainder of the Mammoths’ scorecard, John Beskid ’26, Paari Kaviyarasu ’26, and Tommy Whitley ’24, finished with total scores of 159, 161, and 165, re spectively.Theteam’s busy fall schedule continues this weekend with a trip to Brunswick, Maine, on Sat urday, Sept. 24 for the Bowdoin Invitational.

Sept. 24-25: @ Williams Invitational

Sept. 24: @ Hamilton, 1 p.m

Sept. 24: @ Bates, 11 a.m.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

Sept. 25: @ Colby, 11 a.m.

Sept. 24: vs. Gordon, 1 p.m.

Sept. 24: @ Bates, 1:30 p.m.

Onplay.Friday, Sept. 16, the Mam moths played Hamilton to kick off NESCAC play. Last season, the Mammoths lost in four sets to the Continentals, making this rematch a prime opportunity for revenge. Amherst came out of the gate strong with a 25-23 set-one win, led by the great play of Caroline Tilton ’23, who ended the set with a triumphant kill off an assist from Carly Cooper ’24. The Mammoths continued their momentum as they opened up a 7-6 lead early in set two and extended it to a 12-6 lead with five consecutive points. They capped off their set-two victory with four straight points, finishing with a 25-16 scoreline. Up 2-0 and going into the third set, the Mam moths put their foot down. They dominated the last set 25-16 for a convincing victory. Lizzie Papa

are back at Le Frak Gymnasium this week for a

’23.Middlebury bounced right back to even the score with its own 2519 win. However, the Mammoths took over in the third set with allaround stellar play, concluding with a kill from Tilton off a gorgeous as sist from Papalia to give the Mam moths a 2-1 edge heading into the fourth set. In the fourth set, it was all Mammoths, as they took control early and never looked back. They jumped out to an early 9-3 advan tage and capped off a 25-16 set win with another kill from Underwood, putting the exclamation mark on the Mammoths’ victory. Tilton, Cooper, and Papalia led the way in

Sept. 24: @ Bates, 11 a.m.

VOLLEYBALL

Coming off of two tough loss es down in New York to Wheaton College and NYU, the volleyball team responded with a vengeance last week, dominating Hamilton and Middlebury to move to 4-2 overall and a perfect 2-0 in confer ence

string of three games. They face off against NESCAC rival Williams on Friday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. before playing both Gordon College and Rivier University on Saturday, Sept. 24.

Sept. 25: @ Colby, 2 p.m.

Sept. 24-25: @ Bowdoin Fall Invitational

lia ’25 led Amherst with 20 digs, Cooper finished with 20 assists, and Tilton had 12 kills to pace the Mammoths.Amherst then faced off against Middlebury on Saturday afternoon. The Mammoths had incredible bat tles with the Panthers last season, as the Mammoths lost a grueling match against Middlebury in the regular season before besting the Panthers in the NESCAC Quar terfinals. Amherst started off great once again, as the Mammoths took the first set from the Panthers, 2519, off a kill from Sam Underwood

Sept. 25: @ Colby, 12 p.m.

Volleyball Dominates Opening NESCAC Weekend

Sept. 23: vs. Williams, 7 p.m.

Sept. 25: vs. Rivier, 5 p.m.

MEN'S SOCCER

MEN'S GOLF

kills, assists, and digs, respectively, once again. Tilton finished with 10 kills, Cooper racked up 22 assists, and Papalia accumulated an absurd 44 digs.For her incredible effort over

the two games, in which she totaled 64 digs and 12 assists, Papalia was named NESCAC Volleyball Player of theTheWeek.Mammoths

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Women's volleyball had a successful weekend, beating two NESCAC opponents, Hamilton and Middlebury. Lizzie Papalia '25 won NESCAC Player of the Week honors.

WOMEN'S GOLF

FOOTBALL

Sports 24The Amherst Student • September 21, 2022 GAME SCHEDULE

FIELD HOCKEY

Sept. 21: @ MIT, 6:30 p.m.

Mike Schretter ’23 Staff Writer