Issue 4

Contract Dispute Halts Detergent Program

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS)-sponsored pro gram to provide a free, sustain able laundry detergent alternative to students has ceased to operate this year due to contract issues the college had with the company that provided the service, Gen eration Conscious. This comes despite strong demand from stu dents during a brief pilot phase last spring and an allocation of $24,000 from the AAS Rainy Day Fund that would have funded the installation of seven machines across campus.

The program was intended to provide as a cleaner, more sustain able alternative to the plastic de tergent pods purchased by many students, reducing waste while

FEATURES 10

also alleviating hygiene costs that fall more heavily on low-income students. It was funded as AAS President and former Senator Si rus Wheaton’s ’23 Senate project.

Because the AAS cannot com mit the college to infrastructure investments, however, the college had to oversee the contract with Generation Conscious. Wheaton claims that last spring, the col lege abruptly walked away from contract talks on an agreement to fund seven laundry detergent sheet dispensers, one in Keefe Campus Center and one in each of the first-year laundry rooms (with James and Stearns sharing one). Liz Agosto, dean of students and chief student affairs officer, denied this version of events, say ing a “revised and simplified con tract” was in fact sent back.

Then, this fall, the company turned down the college’s offer for

What the Fork: Plastic forks seem inescapable at Valentine. Margo Pedersen'25 investigates where all of the metal silverware has gone.

an informal agreement to contin ue to operate just the Keefe loca tion installed for the pilot phase, saying they wanted a permanent contract, said Blair Chase ’24, who is employed by Generation Conscious, doing maintenance for the machines and lobbying the administration and student body on behalf of the company.

Wheaton said that the college walked away from contract talks toward the end of last semester due to small errors in the compa ny’s proposed contract.

Wheaton believes that the ad ministration used the errors in the contract — which he suggest ed were minor and could have been easily fixed — as an excuse to delay committing to a program it did not fully believe in. He said the administration never gave Generation Conscious a chance to fix the errors, which he charac

OPINION 12

terized as a major departure from the way that contract negotiations usually work.

That said, Wheaton and Gen eration Conscious were never told that the college was entirely op posed to continuing the program in some form. Monica Soto, the student activities coordinator and business manager, wrote to The Student that the contract “is still in the process of being reviewed by legal counsel.” She said that there might be further “updates” and “an announcement” about the initiative in the future, but offered no details about what those might entail.

The recent confusion was not the first time that the initiative has been snagged in administrative red tape. Wheaton has been work ing on a proposal for the program

Continued on page 2

McCaffrey Room To Become Student Affairs Hub

Cal Gelernt ’24 Staff Writer

Starting this semester, the McCaffrey Room, located on the first floor of Keefe Campus Center, is no longer available for use by students, as it will soon transition to being used by the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) to provide a number of practical and informational services.

For many years, the McCaf frey Room has been a popular space for student organizations to hold meetings and other events. After the change, the room will instead house a num ber of departments and staff from OSA, including OSA Oper ations and the Community Safe ty Team. The booth next to the McCaffrey Room that’s currently occupied by the campus center managers will also be taken over by OSA, and turned into an in formational and service window. The transition will happen after the room is done serving, as it has in the past few years, as an extra storage space for the post office to hold the influx of pack ages that come at the start of the year.

In addition to accommodat ing OSA’s growing staff, the Stu dent Affairs department hopes to achieve two important goals in making these changes, said

No More Tours: Liam Archacki '24 unleashes a rant against the college's admissions tours, but in the process reveals a deeper truth about himself.

ARTS&LIVING 18

Survivor Returns to TV: Vaughn Armour ’25 cel ebrates the return of "Survivor," profiling the new competitors and reviewing the first episode.

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

The spot where the Generation Conscious sheet dispenser once stood is now filled by a water cooler and filing cabinet.

Photo courtesy of Leo Kamin '25

POLICE LOG

>>Sept. 21, 2022

7:50 a.m., East Drive

A detective took a report of a missing stop sign. The incident is being in vestigated.

>>Sept. 21, 2022

4:33 p.m., Mead Art Mu seum

ACPD responded to a re port of two individuals on the roof of the museum. The two students were

identified and removed safely.

>>Sept. 22, 2022

2:13 p.m., Quadrangle Drive

ACPD responded to a minor motor vehicle acci dent.

>>Sept. 23, 2022

9:58 p.m., Moore Dormi tory

Community Safety As

sistants responded to a report of an unauthorized party.

>>Sept. 23, 2022

11:40 p.m., Greenways C Hall

A Sergeant took a report of a person tampering with bicycles on campus.

>>Sept. 24, 2022

1:35 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory

A detective took a report of vandalism reported by a Community Safety Assis tant.

>>Sept. 24, 2022

11:07 a.m., Chapin Hall

ACPD responded to a prefire alarm. The alarm was caused by smoke from a candle.

>>Sept. 24, 2022

11:18 a.m., South Pleasant Street

A detective took a report of harrassment from a passing vehicle.

>>Sept. 25, 2022

10:38 a.m., College Street

ACPD responded to a motor vehicle accident.

Amherst police respond ed as well, because the accident occurred in their jurisdiction.

>>Sept. 25, 2022

3:59 p.m., Lipton House

A sergeant took a report of vandalism that occurred in the basement common area after a party.

>>Sept. 26, 2022

9:59 a.m., King Dormitory

A sergeant responded to a pre-fire alarm. The cause of activation was an aero sol sprayed in the room.

Free Detergent Sheets Vanish Despite Strong Demand

Continued from page 1

since his time working with #Re claimAmherst, a pandemic-era open letter to the administration that sought to address inequities at the college against Black stu dents. The letter cited the cost of laundry detergent as one of the unspoken “wages of Amherst” that students must bear.

Wheaton worked to secure col lege funding for Generation Con scious’ detergent dispensers for most of last year, but could never get the administration to make a commitment. He eventually grew frustrated at the college’s hesitan cy and turned to the AAS, where he was a senator at the time.

The $24,000 allocation was in tended to pay for the licensing of the seven machines, and would cover one year of service, with the idea that that year would serve as a proof-of-concept and convince the administration to cover the cost of administering the ma chines and expanding their pres ence on an ongoing basis.

The proposal laid out the pro gram’s merits, writing that Gener ation Conscious “was founded by two 2011 Amherst alums,” that it is “the most CO2-efficient prod uct on the current market,” and that the program would “reduce

the burden and financial stress of additional costs associated with attending and working at the col lege for people of marginalized, low-income, and first-generation communities.”

Though he felt closer to making his vision a reality than ever be fore after securing the AAS funds, Wheaton said that Soto told him toward the end of last year that the college’s general counsel had found too many errors in the company’s contract to move for ward. He was led to believe that these were small errors — “issues that I would think are typical of a new company,” he said.

He was told that the errors in cluded the inconsistent naming. “Sometimes they called them selves vendor, or dealer, or Gener ation Conscious,” he said.

Wheaton also said that he was told that the company’s propos al “to employ FLI students and students of color wasn’t worded correctly and could be seen as dis crimination,” even though “this idea had been brought up so many times and the school was totally OK with it before.”

Wheaton said that the contract that the company sent to Amherst was almost identical to the one it sent to Williams College, which ultimately signed a permanent deal with Generation Conscious,

indicating to him that the issue was not actually legal in nature.

He claims that the adminis tration never gave the company a chance to correct the errors, which he took issue with. Agosto, who was not directly involved in the contract talks, disagreed with his version of events.

“The contract that we were provided had errors and need ed to be scaled for the smaller launch,” she said. “We sent a re vised and simplified contract back and did not receive a response.”

No further details were offered regarding why the contract “need ed to be scaled down.”

Reached again for comment, Wheaton again maintained that the company had never received a response.

Either way, because no agree ment was reached, only a single dispenser was installed using the AAS funds, which ran on a pi lot-program basis without a for mal agreement. It was placed out side the Class & Access Resource Center in Keefe.

It saw massive demand throughout the contract confu sions — Chase said he and other Generation Conscious employees had to restock it almost every day.

Chase said that the adminis tration approached Generation Conscious in hopes of re-upping

just the machine in Keefe toward the beginning of this semester, but only on the basis of a “memoran dum of understanding” (MOU) — an informal agreement — rath er than a permanent contract.

“That was not what we were looking for,” he said, because MOUs have “the possibility of being abused by the side that has more power.”

Amid the contract confusion, Generation Conscious stopped restocking its machine in Keefe, eventually removing it entirely at the beginning of this semester.

The change has confused stu dents, many of whom came to rely on the free service.

Ariana Rodriguez ’24 enjoyed using the service a few times last semester. “Sometimes you don’t realize how much of a relief [free detergent] is until you get it,” she said. However, Rodriguez said that “when it’s unreliable, it’s a bit stressful — you can’t really de pend on it.”

She said that it’s “important that if the college offers it, they commit to it.”

The chaotic course of nego tiations have also confused the Generation Conscious team. Chase said he was frustrated by what seemed to the team to be a rapid reversal in the initiative’s prospects. After Wheaton secured

funding and Generation Con scious sent the college a contract, Chase felt that the company was on track to establish its presence across campus. Six months lat er, the sheets are nowhere to be found, as the dispenser sits dor mant in Chase’s dorm room.

Chase said he was surprised that the administration was not more committed to the program, seeing as it was founded by Am herst alumni and seeks to employ first-generation and low-income students on campus.

“We just felt as though the op tics of that would be great [for the college],” he said. “They’re able to give back to the people who grew up at the school, but also able to give back to the future people at the school.”

In an interview with The Stu dent, Agosto said that her main concern is implementation, but that her goal “is to work with stu dents to figure out how to move this forward in a way that is sus tainable in terms of being able to last beyond the graduation of one student.”

Nevertheless, the administra tion’s posture on the issue has convinced Chase and Generation Conscious employees on campus that they need to take a more ag

page

MRC Hosts Author Gabby Rivera for Latinx Heritage Month

Dylan Vrins ’26 Staff Writer

On Thursday, Sept. 22, the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) hosted prominent queer Puerto Rican author and activist Gabby Rivera in Johnson Chapel as its keynote speaker for Latinx Heritage Month. During the event, Rivera discussed her tumultuous journey as a writer and the impor tance of joy, family, and self-care.

The talk covered Rivera’s work and the inspiration behind her fa mous novel, “Juliet Takes a Breath,” as well as her Marvel Comics series “America,” which features the tit ular character America Chavez, a queer Latinx superhero.

Although presented by the MRC, the event was planned by a committee consisting of students interested in planning programs for Latinx Heritage Month, with La Causa — the college’s Latinx student affinity group — serv ing as one of the co-sponsors. All students involved in the planning met and discussed which speaker they’d like to see at the college, ulti mately choosing Rivera.

“It was very important to us to have a speaker who could highlight the diversity within Latinx com munities, recognizing that the Lat inx experience is not a monolithic experience,” said Lupita Mendez, interim director of the MRC. Men dez also emphasized that student voices are necessary to figure out what speakers students are inter ested in seeing at the college.

Attendees of the event included not only Amherst students, but also students and faculty from neigh

boring universities. Many students and staff present were fans of Rive ra’s work. Others appreciated that the college brought a speaker with typically underrepresented identi ties to campus, and were excited to hear about her experiences in the queer Latinx community.

Nyla Guadalupe ’23 expressed how much of a fan she was of Ri vera’s work, as it made her feel rep resented as a queer Puerto Rican from the Bronx, just like Rivera herself or her character Juliet, the protagonist in Rivera’s novel “Ju liet Takes a Breath.” Representing queer people of color is something Rivera strives to do in her work — something her talk reflected.

Rivera began the talk by men tioning her grandmother, who came to the Bronx from Puerto Rico. Rivera described her as a mentor and an inspiration, touch ing on the need for support from family. This stood out to Claudeen Gale, a student at UMass Amherst, who reflected that “we have to draw on our ancestors for support and learn directly from their sto ries.”

Rivera moved on to talk about her first experience with queer ness, which took place during the AIDS epidemic that broke out within the gay community in the 1980s and early 1990s. She noted the stigma associated with being gay at the time, and how that made it harder for her to come out as a queer woman.

After coming out to her fam ily, Rivera wrote “Juliet Takes a Breath” as an outlet to tell her com ing out story, while also inspiring other queer kids of color who go

through similar experiences. Juliet, the novel’s protagonist, is a queer and plus-sized Puerto Rican who lives a bold and beautiful life filled with love for herself and for those around her.

The intersection of these identi ties was inspiring to readers of the novel and attendees of Rivera’s talk. “I’ve never been to an event where a plus-sized queer person was the focus of the event,” Kate Foster, a graduate student at UMass ex plained. “For me, it was very nice to see myself represented.”

Rivera said that, though “Ju liet Takes a Breath” was written as a love note for queer teens of color, it ended up finding much broader success. Readers con nected with Rivera’s story, and the story achieved such success that it was adopted into a graphic novel, with illustrations by artist Celia Moscote. This then led to a direct invite from Marvel Comics to write a series on America Chavez.

America was a character that already existed in the Marvel Com ics world — she was created by two white men in 2011. But since the character is a queer Latinx superhe ro, it was important that the writer

be able to bring those identities to life. Rivera did just that and more, adding her own touch to America’s story through the introduction of America’s grandmother, who was inspired by Rivera’s own support ive and loving grandmother.

Todd Bradley, a staff member from UMass who attended the event, expressed his shock when he found out Rivera was the first Latina ever to write for Marvel, starting in 2017.

Rivera made it clear that her experience writing for Marvel was not a walk in the park, facing back lash and toxicity from comic fans who had issues with her interpre tation of America Chavez.

Rivera also talked about her ex periences with having her person al information publicized against her will and being threatened by fans. If it wasn’t for the support she received from her team and the many fans of her work, she thinks she would have quit. Bradley also noted how inspiring this was, say ing, “It is important to be strong in environments that are toxic, be cause it makes it better for others who want to jump into those posi tions down the road.”

Rivera ended the talk by ex plaining the importance of priori tizing joy and self-care. She hosts a podcast titled “Joy Uprising” where she talks with other queer people of color about the impor tance of joy. Rivera explores how joy can fit into the queer experi ence, with discussion topics rang ing from music and art to love and joy during quarantine times.

Several students mentioned how important it was to hear Rive ra talk about self-care. Foster com mented on her major takeaway from the talk: “I’m allowed to have joy as a queer person, I don’t have to always be fighting for represen tation. I’m allowed to relax.”

Guadalupe had similar take aways, noting how important it was that Rivera was able to talk about her own success as a writ er, and expressing that “it allowed me to see someone who holds my identities have a life filled with love and community.”

Mendez said that the MRC hopes to continue bringing speakers in celebration of other cultural heritage months, and ad vancing conversations regarding racial equality and justice.

Writer Gabby Rivera met with students after the event, which was hosted by the Multicul tural Resource Center and took place in Johnson Chapel.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Gabby Rivera is an acclaimed author and queer Latinx activist.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

ACEMS Redoubles Efforts To Diversify Membership

Yee-Lynn Lee ’23 Editor-in-Chief

With the aim of diversifying the organization’s membership, the Amherst College Emergency Medical Services (ACEMS) has made a number of changes to its recruitment and application process this semester.

ACEMS is a student-run and student-staffed volunteer orga nization that provides 24/7 basic life support in response to med ical emergencies on campus. Students join by completing an EMT certification course and then trying out for the squad.

While students can obtain their certification from any cer tified institution, most students who join ACEMS participate in the EMT course that ACEMS holds each year in January, the costs of which are entirely covered by the college. As the course is limited to 30 students, students are selected by an ap plication and interview process for the course.

Applications are current ly open for the January 2023 course, and ACEMS has redou bled its efforts to advertise the course and increase its visibili ty among potential applicants, particularly students from un derrepresented demographics. This has included putting up informational posters across the first-year quad and around cam pus, particularly in the resource centers in Keefe Campus Center.

The organization also reached out to the academic de partment coordinators of sever al humanities and social science departments — majors that are underrepresented in ACEMS — asking them to advertise the application.

In an interview with The Student, ACEMS Co-Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Anurima Chattopadhyay ’24 ex plained that, previously, most students heard about ACEMS through word of mouth.

“[F]or students who are in coming and maybe don’t have any connections to upperclass

men, or haven’t seen an ACEMS call happen before, there’s not really a way for them to know about ACEMS other than people screaming ‘Call ACEMS’ at ori entation,” said Chattopadhyay. “So [this is about] making sure that we’re a visible presence on campus.”

ACEMS has also changed some of its application ques tions. Chattopadhyay noted that some questions on the previous application could make it seem like a student needed to have past medical experience to be on the squad, which is not the case.

Working with Dina Levi, the college’s director of workforce equity and inclusive leadership, ACEMS has also endeavored to eliminate possible bias against applicants with less interview experience or who are from marginalized cultural back grounds by changing certain application questions and inter view criteria.

Additionally, all ACEMS members who will be reading applications and conducting in terviews will be completing an inclusive hiring practices train ing with Levi beforehand.

Working to promote diversity on the squad is particularly im portant because of the ways that a person’s identity influences the care they provide, said ACEMS Co-Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Elizabeth Zhang ’24.

“[G]iven that we hold the position of being healthcare providers, and that that’s a posi tion of power — one where your identity can often influence the types of decisions that you make — we want people on the squad to really represent the people on campus,” she said.

Chattopadhyay added that having visibility on the squad is important for maintaining com munity trust in ACEMS.

“[T]hese are the people that you’re going to call when you’re in a medical emergency,” she said. “We don’t want people thinking of calling ACEMS be

ing like, ‘Oh, what if the person who shows up doesn’t under stand what I’m going through, or isn’t fully aware of this and that?’”

The strategies that ACEMS is employing this year to diversify are motivated by patterns in the demographic data that Chatto padhyay and Zhang collected on last year’s applicants and select ed class.

“What we’ve seen from that is that our applicant pool sort of reflects the group of people that we end up accepting, and that the skewed demographics that we’re seeing exist [in] both the applicant pool [and] the group of people that we accept,” said Zhang. “So that indicated to us that one of the big changes that we needed to make was in our advertisement process, and in how we represent ACEMS, es pecially to new members of the community.”

ACEMS Director of Recruit ment Liam Arce ’24 added that certain common assumptions about who can and cannot join the club — in particular, that

only pre-med or STEM majors can join — can contribute to the underrepresentation of certain identities.

“We find that the whole idea of only pre-meds being on ACEMS … tends to go hand in hand with certain demograph ics being more prevalent in the applicant pool,” he said. “We tried to make clear that, whether someone is pre-med or not, it re ally makes no difference to us.”

Chattopadhyay and Zhang emphasized that the desire to recruit beyond STEM majors or people interested in careers in healthcare also comes from their belief that the experience of be ing on ACEMS can be valuable for people of all academic and career interests.

“I think the majority of the benefits that our organization offers on campus is being that sort of support system for peo ple who are in times of distress and in emergency situations,” said Zhang. “[Those] can often be very high-stress and very sensitive times, and having the capacity to offer support for

people in that time is, I think, a much huger piece of our work than just the baseline medical skills.”

Zhang noted that she herself is not interested in pursuing a healthcare career, but has found the ACEMS experience “hugely gratifying and humbling.”

“I have learned so much about being a team player and being empathetic and very cog nizant of the struggles of people around me,” she said.

As the application deadline is not until this Sunday, Oct. 2, it remains to be seen how effective the new recruitment efforts will be.

“We did get a couple people who have reached out to us af ter having seen our posters that we’ve put around campus, so that was really exciting to know that those were reaching peo ple and … in some small way, shifting perceptions or leading to increased accessibility,” said Zhang. “But as our applications have not been due yet, I guess we have yet to see what the full impacts are.”

ACEMS has expanded its advertising efforts this year, putting up recruitment posters like the one pictured here to dispel common assumptions about who can join the organiza tion and to encourage applications from a more diverse set of students.

Photo courtesy of ACEMS

Adobe Policy Head Julie Babayan ’03 Visits Amherst

Pho Vu ’23 Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Sept. 20, Julie Ba bayan ’03 — the head of policy development for Adobe’s policy, government, and ethical innovation team in Washington, D.C. — shared her vision on worldwide technolo gy policy. The event, which focused specifically on education, intellectual property, and artificial intelligence, was part of the Alumni-in-Resi dence series hosted by the Loeb Center.

Babayan began the event by highlighting important uses for AI. For instance, she described how the Adobe research team used AI to speed up the notoriously tedious and time-consuming process of coloriz ing black-and white-photos, allow ing users to quickly and easily gain insight into historic photos.

Babayan then spoke about her career path and the growth of her keen interest in public policy. Ba bayan recalled how interning on Capitol Hill while going to Amherst helped her navigate her true calling. Yet, figuring out the path to her cur rent career was not an easy one. Fol lowing graduation, Babayan decided to “take a breath” and get involved in John Kerry's 2014 presidential cam paign in Arizona for several months. The political climate in Arizona sharply contrasted with that of Mas sachusetts, allowing her to broaden her horizons in politics. After weigh ing the pros and cons, she headed to law school, thinking the program would afford her relevant opportu nities down the line.

Having obtained her J.D. from Boston University, Babayan spent a few years working on the Hill for Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA-D) and in telecommunications law. However, as an attorney in partner ship track, she quickly realized that “making partner” was not the route that she would want to pursue longterm. Through a referral on Linke dIn, Babayan would later make her way to Adobe.

Discussing her work at Adobe, Babayan described the difficulties of working on issues related to AI with policymakers who tend to favor heavier regulation of new technolo

gy. In order to tackle issues related to the use of AI, Babayan has gone on to make a number of policy recom mendations about AI use.

For the first recommendation, Babayan emphasized the impor tance of human involvement in the process of AI development. She stressed the need to have at least some basic structures in place for collaborative work to happen, such as impact assessment and review boards.

The second recommendation that Babayan made was to pay atten tion to areas where laws already ex ist, especially in sensitive areas such as employment, credit, housing, and criminal justice. Interest exists in all of these areas to utilize AI to make decisions. “AI can be very useful in finding patterns and making in ferences across a range of inputs,” Babayan said. “The decisions that could be assisted by AI systems could be fairly consequential to peo ple who are applying for a loan or are seeking job opportunities or perhaps trying to get some other health care options that they need for their own wellbeing.”

Yet, for all its usefulness, policy makers in the U.S. and across the globe have also been worried for some time about whether AI sys tems may exacerbate social bias in the underlying decision-support system.

According to Babayan, there is currently no federal law in the U.S. that specifically governs AI bias issues, but courts and regulators regularly apply existing law and sector-specific anti-discrimination laws to cases involving AI. Many of these recognize claims under dis parate treatment — where plaintiffs showed that the discrimination was intentional and the practice pro duced a differential impact over a protected group.

To demonstrate what she meant, Babayan gave an example of the de cision to give loans to some in the context of housing, where loans are given to individuals solely based on their AI-generated profile indicat ing whether they had a good credit risk or not. Fortunately, laws such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968 — which was enacted as part of the

Civil Rights Act — exist to prohib its discrimination in mortgage ap plications. Nevertheless, this sort of instance reflects an example of how the introduction of AI has the potential to heavily affect people's lives.

To broaden the scope of the au dience’s understanding of the matter, Babayan effectively drew examples from the human resource hiring process, where AI can be used to reduce hiring bias instead of increas ing it. Nonetheless, Babayan pointed this out as another potential area of concern for automated decisions made without human oversight.

As the last of her public policy recommendations, Babayan sug gested increasing investments in education, because creative prob lem solving, critical thinking skills, and collaboration skills will always be indispensable parts of getting a workforce that is well-equipped in our journey of keeping pace with technology.

Following Babayan’s discussion of these issues, the floor was opened up for students to ask questions. One student asked, “How can we use AI to better teach the skills that you’ve listed or to improve the pedagogy and teaching them?” In response, Babayan said that getting students to use cutting-edge tools had to be part of the answer. “I don’t even think that it’s just about CS classes,” she said. “I think [AI] could be [used] across disciplines and even [in] cre ative spaces.”

According to Babayan, another part of the answer is a diverse work force. “Your AI ethics review board is only going to be as good as the lived experience [of the] people who were sitting at the table,” Babayan said. “If you have an AI ethics review board, or any kind of board of people who are making consequential decisions, that isn’t sufficiently diverse, you’re missing out on lots of creative solu tions to problems, and we may not be seeing all the angles to a problem.”

Program Director of Amherst Career in Science & Technology Carolyn Margolin added to the ses sion by asking Babayan what her advice for students would be as they begin thinking about their future careers.

“Think about what you want and not what you should do,” Ba bayan responded. She encouraged students to invest their time in ob taining “a very good understanding of yourself” to be able to make ma ture career decisions. “Take a look at what you actually want to do and craft a path around that,” she said.

Babayan also emphasized the importance of being open to new opportunities and career explora tion. “I don’t think you have to nec essarily do the same thing that you have been doing just because you have been doing it,” she said.

After the talk ended, several students reflected on why they at tended the event, and what they will take away from it. Héloïse Schep ’24 shared that she was interested in the overlap between computer science and political science, specifically regarding tech policy issues. “I was really excited to see someone that worked in public policy in that field,” said Schep. “I especially love these kinds of events because you can see how a person [from your school] moves through their career.”

Conner Glynn ’24 emphasized how the event showed him that one’s life and career don’t always have to take a linear path. “I think I’m in the same position that she was [when she was my age]. I don’t know if I want to do a government

career or a tech career or law school,” said Glynn. “It was helpful to see someone’s honest opinions about the difference between working with the House of Representatives in the Senate, and then moving between government jobs on Capitol Hill and then a private firm.”

After the presentation, Babayan stayed for a more in-depth and inti mate exchange with a few students. A former member of Amherst Col lege’s DQ a capella group, she en joyed her experience at Amherst, and was “thrilled” to have the chance to come back. She returned to her earlier story about landing a job at Adobe via her LinkedIn connec tions. She said she had noticed that her friend’s circle had a connection who worked for the company, and asked him to introduce her to that employee. A casual conversation about corporate culture at Adobe lat er developed into that person saying she could recommend Babayan in ternally. A transition in Babayan’s ca reer eventually grew out of that day.

“In a lot of these recruiting posi tions, the way that companies man age recruiting is that they do internal referrals. And so, if you have some body within the company recom mend you, then you stand a better chance of actually having an inter action with the recruiter,” Babayan shared.

The Loeb Center invited Julia Babayan '03 to speak about ethics and AI as part of the Alumni-in-Residence series.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Students Express Desire To See Free Detergent Return

Continued from page 2

gressive role in promoting the ini tiative.

On Sept. 19, just a few weeks after removing the machine from Keefe, Chase posted a picture in AmherstBussin, the campus-wide GroupMe, of a handwritten note that read “Missing our laundry detergent sheets? Plastic-free refill

stations will return when the ad ministration allows the program to return.”

The message encouraged stu dents to email Director of Sustain ability Wes Dripps “to let them know you support” the initiative.

Chase and the other Gener ation Conscious employees on campus hope that a large outcry from the student body, showing that there is an appetite for ex

panded service, would put pres sure on the administration to sign a permanent contract, whether for one machine or more.

In interviews with The Student, students expressed their desire to see the service return. Matthew Chun ’24 wrote that he “loved and needed” the detergent sheets. Seemingly addressing the admin istration, he asked, “please bring them back.”

Hyun Won ’25 said that “the laundry detergent sheets were amazing both environmentally and in that they were the product of a student-led effort.”

“[M]yself and many other stu dents are waiting for the school to step up and show its support for making this campus a more con scious one,” said Won.

Chase said that a continued re lationship and a permanent con

tract between Generation Con scious and the college is not yet off the table. Both Agosto and Soto made it clear that the discussion remains open, and Chase predict ed that “in the next month, things will be happening.”

“There’s a lot of acceleration, a lot of conversation,” he said. “It either happens or it doesn’t, but there’s not going to be much more ambiguity for much longer.”

Students React: “It’s Fine, But It’s No McCaffrey Room”

Continued from page 1

Dean of Students and Chief Stu dent Affairs Officer Liz Agosto. The first is to move all non-ur gent or non-emergency services away from the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD), in response to the recommenda tion of the Campus Safety Ad visory Committee that these services be separated from the other functions ACPD performs.

Toward this end, the lost and found and AAS van registration services currently provided in the police building will both be moved to the McCaffrey Room.

The second goal is to create a centralized hub for information, or a one-stop shop for students to get any and all questions re lated to campus life answered. This may include anything from questions about who to contact for academic support to hous ing inquiries to questions about campus events. OSA aims to have all this information be im mediately available to students in one place, so that they don’t have to spend time searching online or going to different of fices.

Senior Associate Dean of Students Dean Gendron said he hopes the window can be open from 8 a.m. until midnight each day, or possibly even later.

Despite the benefits OSA ex pects repurposing the McCaffrey Room to have, losing the room has already created difficulties for some clubs. The Amherst Political Union (APU) is among

the many clubs that previous ly held weekly meetings in the room. Melanie Schwimmer ’23, the club’s president, said she be lieves they have been meeting in the McCaffrey Room for years.

Indeed, the club’s page on The Hub states, “The first facet of the APU is our weekly meet ings held weekly in the McCaf frey Room located within the Keefe Campus Center.”

For Schwimmer, finding a new room has been somewhat challenging. APU has tried out the Octagon and Chapin so far, but neither has been ideal. “It’s definitely been difficult to find the atmosphere that we want, which is one that allows for in tellectual debate and conversa tion in a comfortable setting,” she said.

Gendron told The Student that he has “no worries about space,” noting that the depart ment is planning on expanding reservations of common spaces in residence halls and making them more available to student groups.

This will involve adapting the Student Host Event Policy (SHEP) for clubs and student organizations — since common rooms have previously mostly been reserved for party events or those involving alcohol, Gen dron said he hopes to “bifurcate” the common room reservation process, making it easier for student groups holding regular meetings to access these rooms.

Additionally, the department plans on completing an inven

tory of all reservable space on campus, so that students can be made aware of exactly what spaces are available to them. “There are beautiful spaces that people don’t know about,” Gen dron said. He added that once students can book them, these spaces will become viable for all student groups to use.

Agosto said that while the

administration is reluctant to impinge on student space, they believe it is a necessary conse quence of the expansion of OSA.

While new spaces may soon become available, some club leaders feel that the McCaffrey Room will not be easily replace able. “It’s a nice room,” said Ross Kilpatrick ’24E, who has been president of the Board Games

Club since fall 2020. “It’s got nice couches and a nice ambiance.”

The club met every Saturday in the McCaffrey Room prior to the pandemic, and will not be able to return there this year.

Instead, the club has been meet ing in a classroom in the Science Center. For Kilpatrick, it just isn’t the same. “It’s fine,” he said.

“But it’s no McCaffrey Room.”

After serving as a clearinghouse for early-semester package overthrow for the beginning fo the semester, the McCaffrey Room will now be used by the Office of Student Affairs.

AAS Candidate Statements for 2022-2023 Senators

The Editorial Board

The Association of Amherst Stu dents (AAS) will hold elections for two senators for the class of 2024 and eight senators for the class of 2026 on Thursday, Sept. 29, from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. The stu dents listed have announced their candidacies for these elections. Candidates will also be giving candidate speeches this Wednes day, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. in Johnson Chapel.

Class of 2024 Senators

Margaret Peng ’24

My name is Margaret. I am a junior classics, German, and European studies major, and I’d like to run for Senate. I believe Amherst’s student body can benefit from more collaboration with cultural venues at Amherst downtown, e.g., the Drake and Amherst Cinema. More channels can be open for students to sub mit their own work and exhibit it to the general audience. [The Of fice of] Student Affairs should be able to give funding to such cul tural venues to support students’ artistic endeavors.

Eugena Chang ’24

Throughout my time at Am herst, I’ve had the chance to lis ten to the perspectives of many students on campus activities and the environment through my courses, clubs, and social events. One of the most common things I’ve noticed is the apparent dis connect between different groups of students. For example, there is rarely a collaborative opportuni ty for the many affinity groups on campus. Through AAS, I want to create ways for affinity groups to not only hear each other but be heard by larger, more powerful organizations and individuals on campus. I also want to find ways to support these affinity groups.

Stephanie Choi ’24

My name is Stephanie Choi, and I am interested in represent ing the class of 2024. It is not an exaggeration to say that my past

two years at Amherst have been transformative at a local and global level. The class of 2024 especially has experienced an unprecedented time in history, academically, mentally, and re garding health. Considering this, as a senator, I want to have the ability to represent the voices of my classmates and carry out their wishes within reason. Everyone has a different way of spending their time at Amherst, so I would love to cater to as many students as possible.

Class of 2026 Senators

Shane Dillon ’26

Hello! My name is Shane Dil lon, and I’m excited to announce that I am running for the Sen ate. I’m running because I have seen what our class has to offer. I know that we have the potential to be a forceful and unified voice for structural change, as well as smaller scale issues. I want to be a voice that listens to you, works for you, and answers to you. I will never pretend to have all of the answers, but I will seek them alongside all of you. I humbly ask for one of your eight votes when elections take place.

Jesse Brew ’26

My fellow Amherst freshman class! My name is Jesse Brew. I am from the Bronx, New York, but was born in Ghana. I am a prospective economics and math major with a passion for the game of squash. I am delighted to be running for senator this year as I hope to be the voice of my fellow peers. I want to work with the sustainability club to address the amount of plastic we use in Val and to guide stu dents on how to compost prop erly. I hope to work alongside CACSAC [the Council of Am herst College Student-Athletes of Color] to highlight the unique experience of being a studentathlete.

Ayres Warren ’26

I’m running for Senate be cause I’m ready to represent my

class and the values we hold as we begin to enter the post-Covid era. In high school, I served as president of the Integrity Coun cil and vice president of Student Council. I am experienced in working with administration and always strive to hold all members of my communities accountable.

I’m energized and excited to help navigate us through our first year of undergrad, working with other senators towards the abundance of opportunities our class hopes to pursue.

Igaju Agba ’26

My name is Igaju Agba, I am from Boston, Massachusetts, and I would like to be elected to represent the freshman class as an AAS senator. As a sena tor, I would hope to create a safe space for everyone on campus.

As a Meiklejohn fellow, I have a unique perspective that will allow me to build a more inclu sive academic and social scene. I hope to prioritize student mental health, especially for freshmen who are transitioning to campus.

It is important to bridge the gap created by mental health stigmas and help students feel connect ed to Amherst’s strong resource centers.

Jaimie Han ’26

Hey hey hey! My name is Jai mie Han, and I’m a first-year. An important aspect of my identi ty is that I’m South Korean and queer, so I’m dedicated not only to uplifting our minorities, but also engaging with all perspec tives and integrating us as a class. I want to serve as your liaison, reaching all of your ideas and utilizing them to enrich your ex perience at Amherst. I have an extensive background working in student government, so I’m prepared for this position. I’d be honored to have your vote for Senate — let’s put the “Han” in “change” together.

Arissa Grace McGowan ’26

My name is Arissa Grace Mc Gowan, and I am running for a Senate position for the class of 2026. I actively participate in the Amherst track and field team, Intersections Dance Com pany, Black Students Union, the Council of Amherst College Student-Athletes of Color, and Amherst Christian Fellowship. It is very important to me to unify the different communities on this campus to create a stronger stu dent body. In my time as a sena tor, I will ensure that the student

body of Amherst are active par ticipants in the change you want to see.

Ahmad Ziada ’26

I’m running for Senate be cause I want to be a link between Amherst and the students. Am herst boasts fantastic yet hidden resources, which results in many students not benefiting from them. Meanwhile, students have a lot to tell the administration about, all of which stems from their love to see Amherst get ting better and better every day. I understand how harsh it is to belong to a place you don’t have a say in, so I’ll invest my experi ences, skills, and perspective to work with fellow Mammoths to ensure that effective communica tion is the number one priority at our beloved college.

Faith Omosefe ’26

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Faith Omosefe. I’m a first-generation Nigerian American woman with a passion for social justice and a love for all things Halloween. I take an active role in the reform of the institutions I am a part of, because I believe some of my ideas could work to better the

The Association of Amherst Students meets in the Red Room each week.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

2022-2023 AAS Candidate Statements Continued

Continued from page 7

living conditions at Amherst and make everyone feel a little more at home during their stay here. So why should you vote for me? I believe that the Senate of any in stitution should accurately reflect the population of the students.

Connor Farquhar ’26

Hello fellow first-years. I will keep this brief. I wasn’t consider ing running until Friday, but that does not mean that I do not have a platform. My father once told me about a political campaign that occurred at his college.

The so-called “Resume Packing Weasels” party ran on the con cept that the enemy parties had done nothing and were, say it with me … “Resume Packing Weasels.” It is on this premise that I am running. What have any of my rivals done for Amherst so far? Nothing. At least I haven’t. How ever, I will try to do something.

Angela Tang ’26

I’m Angela Tang, and I will create a tangible impact as your [class of] 2026 AAS senator! My goal is to boost transparency and communication, nurture both physical and mental health, and encourage gratitude for the arts. There are several steps I will take to achieve these. First, I will send weekly emails including propos als from Senate meetings and anonymous surveys for unfil tered feedback. I wish to promote hygiene on campus through easy access to hand sanitizers and wet wipes in shared spaces. For students to comfortably decom press, I will establish a “crying room” replete with self-care sup plies.

Hedley Lawrence-Apfelbaum

’26

I’m running to be your sena tor because I believe I have some thing to contribute, whether it be representation for students of in ternational experience or the rec ognition that as new students, we still have a lot to learn about Am

herst and the needs of our fellow students. That said, I have some ideas to create a vibrant commu nity. I’d mainly like to make it easier for students to provide in put on their life at college. As the oldest of six kids, I have the lead ership and responsibility needed to help create such a community and a tireless resolve to do so.

Phuong Doan ’26

I’m Phuong Doan, a freshman from Minnesota, and I’m run ning to represent you! As a queer child of immigrants, I know what it’s like to be left out. That is why we need more funding for the affinity groups and resource cen ters to host joint events to cele brate everyone’s unique identity.

As a FLI [first-generation and/ or low-income] student, I have noticed the technology divide between students. I will fight to subsidize FLI students to afford necessary technology. We also need better toilet paper. We just do. I promise that I will fight for change because we can do better

than business as usual!

Diane Koo ’26

My name is Diane Koo, and I am running for a senator po sition. I’m from Fishers, Indiana (right outside of Indianapolis), and I’m on the swim team at Amherst. I’d like to be a part of the AAS because I loved being on student government in high school and I’d like to be a part of something similar at Amherst!

I’ve genuinely loved the activities and their availability to students, and I want to help in the creation of more, better events for student life. I really like it at Amherst so far, and I want to help make sure everyone feels the same way.

Chloe Yim ’26

Hi Mammoths! My name is Chloe Yim, and I am excited to be running for Senate. As a sen ator, I will prioritize a platform for fostering community. During my own transition to Amherst, I recognized how difficult it can be to navigate classes without

the support of peers. For some lecture-based classes, it can be nearly impossible to form con nections, much less approach upperclassmen. My goal is to establish spaces where students can join and meet people in their respective classes. I also aim to strengthen activism on cam pus by inviting local speakers to share their cause.

Claire Beougher ’26

Hello everyone! My name is Claire Beougher and I am run ning to be one of your AAS sen ators. I am a proud Michigander, swimmer, rower, violinist, DJ, and baker! As a senator, I would organize events to help more people feel represented on cam pus, along with events that bring together athletes, non-athletes, the LGBTQ+ community, and other student groups. I would hold regular meetings where you could talk to me about issues that you want to see addressed. If you let me be your voice, I promise to make every word count!

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Sept. 21 to Sept. 27

The Editorial Board

College Releases Dates for Up coming Covid-19 Booster Clin ic

On Sept. 26, the college an nounced that the dates for the upcoming Covid-19 booster clinic have been finalized for Thursday, Oct. 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. While the boosters will not be mandated by the col lege, students will be given first priority to receive them. Boost ers will be available through ap pointment only, and any remain ing vacancies will be opened up to faculty and staff by 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

AAS Releases Career Explora tion Database

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) released its Ca reer Exploration Database on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Pioneered by senators Chloe Metz ’23 and Gil

lian Quinto ’23, the database lists prior student internships, along with industry information, and the names and contact informa tion of the students who com pleted them. The list remains open for revision and updates, and all students are encouraged to input information regarding any research, internship, or ca reer development experiences they have had during their time at Amherst.

2022 Marriage Pact Matches Released

The Amhest Marriage Pact released its matches for the 20222023 academic year on the night of Sept. 27. More than 1,200 stu dents filled out the questionaire, resulting in around 600 couldbe couples. Students were first given their match's initials and points of compatibility, before results were released en masse a few hours later.

The college's booster clinic will be held in the alumni gym on Thursday, Oct 6. Stu dents who are interested must make appointments beforehand.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Features

Fresh Faculty

Ohan Breiding

Ohan Breiding works with photography, video, installation, and collaboration to reinterpret events and give voice to underrepresented people. They are on leave from Williams College, where they are an assistant professor of art. They hold a B.A. from Scripps College and a M.F.A from California Institute of the Arts.

—Sylvie Wolff '25

about them, and so this is part of thinking through another aspect of the Pacific Ocean in loving connection to my family mem ber who survived the tsunami.

Q: What brought you to Am herst?

then teaching the class that hap pens on Wednesday afternoon.

Q: What is your background?

A: I grew up in a small village in Switzerland, and, during that time, I played professional hock ey. I dropped out of high school, and by then I was already making art; I would go and paint in the woods. I was really into painting and being outdoors and then I realized that to be a serious art ist, I should really also study art history. So I ended up going to Scripps College in Southern Cal ifornia, and I double majored in art history and studio art. While I was there, I studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art. I was drawing, painting, and print making, and then when pho tography was introduced to me, I realized that was the medium I wanted to work in. I met this photographer and I was like, ‘Oh, this is so exciting that I can just take photographs of everything I was trying to draw and paint but wasn’t able to do realistically.’ And then I really started to fo cus on photography much more.

Q: Tell me about your art.

A: I work primarily in photog raphy, video, installation, and collaboration. And I often work around themes of the landscape and the landscape-as-witness to think through historical events, oftentimes in relation to vio lence or trauma, in order to rec tify and/or give voice to those who have been made invisible. For the last few years, I’ve been working on a project that takes the story of a family member who survived a tsunami and then thinks through the ocean

as a space for recovery and as a space for thinking through im migration, migration, plastic pollution, and connecting sci ence to politics.

Nature is really important to me. I love the Alps. I also love the ocean, especially since a lot of my work is about the ocean now. I just was in Los Angeles last week, and I’m a part of a queer surf collective. So surfing is really important to me too. So right now, for example, I just had seven of these octopus traps from Portugal sent to me. I’m really obsessed with octopi. I love them and think they’re just magical and a highly intel ligent, weird species. Just last summer, I was doing a residen cy in Portugal and I was filming these octopus fishermen coming home, and when I saw these [oc topus traps] I just thought they were really beautiful objects and strange. I was really drawn to them and interested in think ing of how to animate them and talk about this space that carried these octopi. And there’s all this life that has grown on them, so I was really interested in think ing about how these traps work and using them as sculptural components or components that I might end up photographing or filming or drawing. So right now I’m sitting with these seven plastic, strange-looking objects and thinking about the lives that they kept, that they were hold ing. Also about their contradic tions as both a house or a place that probably felt very safe for these animals, and then ended

up being the last place where they were physically alive.

Q: How much does science in form your art?

A: [My work is] usually not this science-heavy, just for this proj ect. Before I got the job at Wil liams College, I was reading this article from Science magazine.

And there’s this person, his name is Jim Carlton, he’s a marine bi ologist, and he actually taught at Williams for many, many years. He’s retired since, but he’s the person who was researching ma rine debris [published in Science magazine]. So, an example of marine debris is buoys from Ja pan that traveled from the 2011 Tsunami all the way across the Pacific Ocean and ended up on the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. His job is to research what are called “rafters” or “hitchhikers,” which are ani mals that had been attached to these plastic objects and were able to survive up to 11 years now. And so I’m really interest ed in working with him to think through connections between different species — thinking not just about humans, but also an imals.

And, unfortunately, the rea son this is happening is because of the abundance of plastic — [with] wood, the wood would disintegrate after a few years or so, but because we have so much plastic these species are arriv ing at different coasts [where] they’re considered invasive spe cies. I’m really interested in the language that’s being used to talk

A: I just was really interested in doing a one-year residency. I thought it was very exciting to have time and space to focus on making an exhibition and to be able to teach students content that is exactly overlapping with my research and art practice, leading up to this exhibition.

I think [once] I knew I want ed to be a full-time professor, I was really drawn to liberal arts colleges where I just felt like I [could] get to know the students much more — it’s much more intimate. And it gives me the ex

I usually walk: Walking as a practice is really important to me, and getting to know this landscape. Walking near water or being in water is really im portant. And then reading and, like, the research component is a really big attribute. And then I’m physically making things.

I also, right now, have a studio on Governors Island in New York City, so I also spend my time going there and being surrounded by saltwater. And in that studio, I’m with other artists so there’s more room for exchange and studio visits. A lot of my practice involves just having dialogue with artists and non-artists, scientists and poets, and people that I just like to have conversations with. Also just be ing able to see other art or feel inspired by going to exhibitions or being around other artists, I think, is really inspiring. And so that happens in New York City.

Q: Tell me about your class, “Water as Leitmotif: Queer Kinship and Collaborative Acts of Performance for the Camera.”

perience [where I can] still be a full-time artist, but also be a fulltime professor at the same time. I think there’s something about the intimacy and having access to both feeling really close with the students and the professors, and everyone involved in an in stitution, but also knowing that I can remove myself and really fo cus on my art practice separately from that.

Q: What do your days look like?

A: I basically spend hours, many, many hours — like a full-time job — working on projects and on research, doing reading and studio visits, spending a lot of time thinking through what this exhibition is going to look like, along with preparing for and

A: The class is [about] looking at water as a form of poetics, politics, and material. And the theme of water as medium goes throughout the entire class. For today, [students] read this amaz ing text called “Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals.” Last week, they read Maggie Nelson's “Bluets.” For next week, they’re reading Adrienne Rich’s “Div ing Into the Wreck.” We look at texts that are written by women and queer and trans and POC writers and/or artists, that all use water in their own practic es as throughlines or leitmo tifs. And then, according to the texts, [the students] also do different kinds of experiments and assignments that happen every week, along with rituals.

2022-2023 Artist in Residence

Photo courtesy of Ohan Breiding

Photo courtesy of Ohan Breiding

Quick Questions

Where the Fork Is All the Flatware?

In its new series Quick Questions, The Student answers your short campus queries. Email astudent@ amherst.edu with what you’re wondering about, and we might look into it for you!

Margo Pedersen ’25 Staff Writer

If you’ve ever tried to cut your steak with a compostable knife or snapped your fork on a particularly tough piece of Lighter Side chicken, you’re probably aware that metal utensils have almost entirely disappeared from Valentine Dining Hall over the past month. Fortunately for all of us stainless-steel silverware aficionados, Val is not planning to permanently transition away from the flatware we all know and love. Rather, the recent cascade of compostable cutlery is primarily due to supply chain issues.

Pandemic-induced disruptions to the stainless steel market have hit the food industry particularly

hard, and Val is no exception. At the beginning of each semester, the dining hall places a routine order of dishes and silverware to restock and account for expected losses. This semester’s order, which was placed on July 25 to Singer Equipment Company, included china, cups, and, of course, cutlery: forks, knives, and spoons — 600 of each. According to Joe Flueckiger, the executive director of dining and hospitality services, Val has received the china and cups, but the flatware has still not shipped.

In an email to The Student, Flueckiger explained that Val typically operates with approximately 2,500 of each type of reusable utensil, plus a backup supply of 500 forks. At the

beginning of the semester, there were about 2,000 of each type of utensil in circulation.

Market supply is certainly not on Val’s side, but student demand also seems to be worsening the utensil shortage. Two thousand of each utensil would usually be enough to meet campus needs, but Val has recently seen a “dramatic reduction in inventory due to utensils being removed” from the dining hall, wrote Flueckiger. The recent rates of silverware stashing have outpaced Val’s expected loss calculations, which, combined with the delayed July order, has forced staff to replace the metal silverware with compostable alternatives until more arrive. To combat both the loss of inventory

and the shipping delay, Val also ordered an additional 720 of each utensil on Sept. 15 from the online vendor Webstaurant, which have yet to be delivered.

According to Flueckiger, Val has “no interest” in continuing to use the compostable utensils, as it is “not a sustainable approach.”

(The dining hall is currently using 25,000 compostable forks alone per week.) It’s unclear, though, exactly when stainless steel flatware will return to the utensil cups. For now, despite Val’s best efforts, it seems our forks, knives, and spoons will remain at the mercy of market forces.

Breiding Encourages Experimentation, Critique in Class

Continued from page 9

So, just for example, today we all were given a plastic bag, and we filled the bag with our air and made a knot into it, and then passed our breaths to each other’s hands — we were all hold ing each other’s breaths. So [the rituals] are kind of like strange poetic experiments that hope fully will make students feel this notion of embodiment or think ing through what it means to be a body within a collective forma tion, to think about our bodies as like, ‘Hey, you’re bags of water.’ We’re all made out of water, and all of our water originated from the same ocean network, but we are very different people.

For next week, they were giv en emergency blankets. So each student was given an emergen cy blanket, and then dowsers. They’re these tools that are made out of brass, and if you hold them, they're supposed to show

you where water is located. And so they, collectively in groups of four or five, are making a perfor mance piece where they need to use the emergency blankets and these dowsers. And those are the only guidelines.

[The classwork is] more like giving them different means to experiment that will then lead them to figure out what they re ally want to do in their own prac tice. So trying to think through structures of what it means to be an artist, and how a lot of times experimenting or making things that end up failing is really im portant, and then trying some thing new again. The critique is a really big format that we use: ‘What’s at stake in the artwork? How do the formal throughlines connect through the format? What could be improved?’ We’re thinking through both analytic and literary [literacy], but also visual literacy in order to help students think about how they can write and talk about their

own artwork.

I hope [my students] find a sense of joy and excitement, and also how to learn through feeling and embodiment rather than just thinking. And that they challenge their own [photography] practic es or even beyond photography,

people’s bodies, or their bodies to the landscapes that hold us. I also hope that they get a sense of gaining new friends or creating friendships through these exper iments and rituals.

Q: What are your goals for this year?

to be collaborating with writers, invite writers to write about the artwork, and create a catalog or some form of an object that will live in the world beyond the ex hibition dates.

thinking about collaboration as a medium in itself. And maybe be ing able to see their daily lives in a different way where water be comes more apparent, and then link the inside of the body to the outside of their body to other

A: My goals are to hopefully teach a class that students really appreciate and enjoy. And then to create this exhibition that I feel very proud of, and that I hope people will come and spend time with and be able to also ap preciate. And, you know, hope fully for my students to also see this overlap between what they’re learning in my class versus my own research that I’m doing, and how that’s been translated into the visual arts.

For my next semester, I’m re ally excited to be collaborating with my students, and include students in the making of maybe one of the pieces that will be in cluded in the exhibition, but also

I’m also really excited to con tinue taking walks and getting to know the different bodies of wa ter. There’s so much water in so many different rivers here, and lakes. So I think [something I want to do is] just exploring this landscape.

Q: What are your favorite books?

A: Anne Carson is a writer I love; I also love Eve Sedgwick. I love this book, “From Trinity to Trin ity,” by Kyoko Hayashi, Chris tina Sharpe’s “In the Wake: On Blackness and Being,” “The Car rier Bag Theory of Fiction” by Ursula K. Le Guin, and “Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology” by Astrida Nei manis. These four [books] are re ally important to me.

Pedersen's compostable fork snapped while she was writing this article in Val.

Photo courtesy of Margo Pedersen '25

Photo courtesy of Ohan Breiding

Mass. Insider: West-East Rail

Shane Dillon ’26 Columnist

In my previous articles, I have mentioned gubernatorial hopeful Maura Healey’s commitment to delivering West-East rail if she be comes governor. With this week’s column, I hope to dive into the operations and the development of the rail project and how it benefits the state and Amherst students.

West-East (or East-West if you are from Eastern Massachusetts) rail would be a high-speed rail system starting in Boston, termi nating in Pittsfield, and running much faster than the average train.

Residents pressured Governor Charlie Baker to start taking the idea seriously at the end of his first term after he vetoed a 2016 study by state Sen. Eric Lesser that argu ably could have had the rail com plete or almost complete by now. In 2018, the Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation formed an advi sory committee to explore the rail line’s cost, benefits, and locations. They released their final report in January of 2021.

One of the many reasons that Gov. Baker has hesitated to support the construction of a West-East rail line is the project’s cost. Ac cording to the Dept. of Transpor tation’s report, the project would come with a price tag between $2.4 and $4.6 billion — certainly a stag gering amount. However, the ne cessity of the service easily justifies this much spending. Boston and its suburbs are workforce hubs in Massachusetts and New England. We need an alternative to driving a car, especially for those who can’t or don’t drive. The report found that anywhere between 900 and 1,500 passengers would utilize the rail system every weekday. If the cost to ride the rail were to be kept cheap, like taking a public bus, it would attract even more passen gers who may not want to waste gas money. Western Massachusetts is also a part of the knowledge

corridor — a system of colleges and universities that house tens of thousands of students who may want to travel to tourist spots in Eastern Massachusetts. It is also fun to ride a train!

West-East rail would not only be a fancy, fast-moving train. It would be a way to allow residents from all over the state to expand their career options, visit family that they may not have the means to otherwise, and explore the beauty of Massachusetts. Wouldn’t it be nice to get to Boston in 30 minutes rather than spending nearly two hours stuck in traffic?

And it is crucial to note that the rail would run through Palmer, Massachusetts, which Amherst students can reach via PVTA in about 25 minutes. From there, stu dents would be able to travel the rest of the state at a fair cost as well as contributing to environmental sustainability by taking a train.

I believe that West-East rail would bring the Commonwealth together socially and economical ly. Western Massachusetts is usu ally left out of the conversation. Usually, political leaders do not have to worry about our support because a majority of the state’s population lives east of highway 495 — a major highway that loops from the start of Cape Cod to the top of the state's border with New Hampshire.

In a recent MassLive article supporting the rail system, the authors ask readers to “compare the economic paths of Spring field and Worcester in the past 20 years. What is a major difference between these cities? Passenger rail and proximity to Boston.

Reasonably frequent, 90-minute trips have no doubt contributed to the revitalization of Downtown Worcester. Springfield deserves what Worcester already has. Rea sonably frequent service and a travel time well under two hours.”

A high-speed rail connecting all ends of our state may sew that di

vision and our leaders now have to have us at the table.

Maura Healey has been to West ern Massachusetts many times to promote the rail system. When our leaders come together to support a cause that benefits everyone, their constituents generally respond similarly. Not to mention that res idents of the eastern part of the Commonwealth are moving west at higher rates than ever before. Western Massachusetts is becom ing a critical part of the state, and our leaders are recognizing that. I believe there will be a day where technological and industrial re development will bring Western Massachusetts back to life, and the West-East rail is just the beginning.

However, there is still a lot to be said about the price tag. West-East rail will cost Massachusetts more than the U.S. Dept. of Transpor tation will allocate to the state for the beginning developments of the rail based on the final page of the report. The Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation has been work ing closely with our congressional delegation to find alternative ways to fund the project. Western Mas sachusetts Congressman Richard Neal may play a key role in secur ing those funds, as he is in charge of one of the most influential fi nancial committees in Congress.

According to a 2022 MassLive article, "Funding from the $1 tril lion federal Bipartisan Infrastruc ture Bill will be available starting in mid-2022. The law, which Neal championed in his role as chair man of the House Committee on Ways and Means, includes $66 billion for Amtrak nationwide and $2.5 billion for public transit in Massachusetts.”

Also, while in Springfield, Healey repeated her plan to place an executive in charge of the West-East rail development. The study has concluded, and if Maura Healey takes the governor’s office, West-East rail may become a real ity.

THE AMHERST STUDENT

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Editor-in-Chief Yee-Lynn Lee Senior Managing Liam Archacki Theo Hamilton Managing News Ethan Foster Leo Kamin Michael Mason Managing Features Sonia Chajet Wides Caelen McQuilkin Eleanor Walsh Managing Opinion Tara Alahakoon Dustin Copeland Kei Lim Tapti Sen

Managing Arts & Living Alexander Brandfonbrener Yasmin Hamilton Brianne LaBare Madeline Lawson

Assistant Arts & Living

Cassidy Duncan Noor Rahman

Sarah Weiner

Managing Sports Nick Edwards-Levin Liza Katz

Alex Noga

Managing Crossword John Joire

Managing Podcast Sam Spratford

Assistant Podcast Andrew Rosin Managing Design Brianne LaBare

Assistant Design Andrew Kim

Managing Photo

Emma Spencer Managing Graphics Nina Aagaard Shani Getz

Publisher Robert Bischof Digital Director

Sawyer Pollard

Social Media Manager Emi Eliason STAFF

Letters Policy

The opinion pages of The Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community. We welcome responses 50-800 words in length to any of our recent articles and aim to publish a diversity of views and voices. If you would like to submit a response for consideration, it must be exclusive to The Student and cannot have been published elsewhere. The Student will print letters if they are submitted to the paper’s email account (astudent@ amherst.edu) or the article response form that can be found on The Student’s website, by 8 p.m. on Saturday, after which they will not be accepted for the week’s issue.

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

Publication Standards

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

Rants and Raves: Peering Out of the Fishbowl

Liam Archacki ’24 Senior Managing Editor

It’s that time of year again. With the brisk autumn breeze come to the Amherst campus, in hordes and droves, the most academically gifted, extracurric ularly involved, and altogether presentable students the New En gland prep-school circuit (and a handful of impressively endowed public schools) have to offer. And their parents.

Thankfully the college has a convenient method for corralling these keen kids: the prospective student tour. The basic form is simple and infinitely replicable. At a scheduled time on a sched uled date, Amherst-interested youth and their parental unit(s) meander down to the admissions office and embark upon a lei surely and meticulously planned stroll across campus, hitting all the key spots (a not-decrepit dorm [e.g., not Cohan], Val [no tably not the food], the strikingly scenic view from atop Memorial Hill) while an exuberant student tour guide (invariably an extro vert, often a theater aficiona do) runs through every admis sions-brochure cliche possible to cram into a 45-minute period (drink when you hear “around half of students take a Five Col lege class,” “the open curriculum — you never have to take a math class ever again,” or “we are now approaching the best — and only, haha — dining hall on campus”). Going on a tour is basically like downing a smoothie-blend of all the promises that admissions officers make when trying to sell you on Amherst.

But the way we campus in habitants experience the tours is quite different. Each morning, I awake to a monologue about the merits of PVTA-ing to Mount Holyoke outside my third-floor Morrow window — apparently, it’s not worth it. I can only hear the soliloquy because of the grainy max-volume microphones they use even when the tour is all of eight people and which make them sound like rabid-bulldog

Tours sometimes seem to make a fishbowl out of campus, turning a walk to class into an exhibition. How often must we deal with groups of non-students, varied in age, staring from a distance as we pretend with all of our might not to notice?

political organizers rallying in support of the right to bore me to death.

The upside: The tours have massively improved my patience for trudging behind slow-mov ing crowds. With inexplicable precision, the ambling clusters seem to have learned my class schedule; they clog the requisite pathways, trailing behind their backwards-walking tour guide (“Be sure to let me know if I’m about to hit something” — toothy smile — “All right, guys?”) in a manner and speed not unlike the eponymous stumblers of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

By far my most unsettling regular encounter with tour ers is when I sense their coolly appraising gaze catch on me. I think I know how the mon keys at the zoo feel. Or the fish

at my dentist’s office. I’ll be in Val, snacking and working, and I glance to the window only to see an old man in a brand-new mammoth hat staring back. He’s unashamed, as if behind a oneway mirror. (“Observe, kiddo, the Amherst student in his nat ural habitat. Isn’t it marvelous how he types his essays, with the simple carefree air that only a liberal-arts-college student can muster? Isn’t nature beautiful?” I imagine he says.)

I want to be clear: Neither the tour guides nor the prospec tive students are the object of my mild annoyance. The former are just doing their job, and in a sense so are the latter. The college itself is responsible for the lethar gic, disconcerting, propaganda machines that are the prospec tive student tours. (Ragging on

the college is passé, but tragically still a necessity.) They seem to ex ist primarily as a way to influence the way these possible future ap plication statistics see the college; I think it incredibly likely that the high-schoolers would learn more about Amherst just walk ing around on their own, free of the filter: schlepping their way through the Cohan basement, peeking nervously through the window of abandoned and dilap idated Merrill, and, I’m sure, still ending up atop Memorial Hill to watch the purple-tinted sunset over the Holyoke Range.

While my qualms with the tours themselves are real, in writ ing this rant I think I’ve stumbled onto an explanation buried deep in my subconscious for why they bother me so much. To put my cards on the table, I’m one of

the very prep-school brats I’m referencing (albeit from Texas rather than New England), and my junior spring break was spent gazing up at the high towers and pointed arches of all the elite East Coast colleges that you can rea sonably visit in a two-week peri od. So having to see the tours and hear all the admissions cliches takes me back to a time when I was preoccupied with securing a successful future, which I tied heavily to getting into one of said elite East Coast colleges. They’re an unwelcome reminder.

But my cynicism belongs only to me. In the true spirit of the is sue perhaps I should return to my student-tour qualms with fresh eyes and try to approach the ad missions process with an ounce of charity — after all, where would I be without my Mammoth pride?

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard '26

Why I Delete Emails Every Day

Pho Vu ’23 Staff Writer

I have created more than 10 email accounts over the course of my 21 years on Earth, each for a different reason: one account for personal use, another account for personal use but with a better email address, an account for re ceiving newsletters and advertise ments, an account for my prospec tive business that never had the chance to take off.

No matter what intention lies behind any of these accounts, they all bring me the same problem: old and unwanted emails.

Even after I finish deleting the 67 items in my spam, the “Up dates,” “Forums,” and “Promo tions” tabs follow. With the advent of these new tabs, I can no longer rely on the “Select All” square that allows me to mass-tick and mass-delete all at once — some of my most important emails arrive under the “Updates” and “Fo rums” tabs.

I’ve hit the point, not once but many times, where I’ve been warned that I could no longer send or receive messages because I’d reached my 15GB Google stor age limit. This happened several times when I was in high school, at extremely critical moments: times when I was waiting for emails from organizations I had applied to or simply approached for a spot of volunteering, and admissions offices’ answers to my questions about the Common App and En glish language test scores. I was al ways in a hurry to clear up spams and old conversations to make space for these priorities at the time. Looking back, I know that I didn’t need to preoccupy myself worrying about the worst possible scenarios, but at the time, those small things, if left unattended, could build up into big piles of troubles that would eventually al ter the future that I always wanted.

Then came my first two years of college. I was always worried that I would miss out on one of the biggest college events or fail to comply with new policy — say, updated masking protocols — by

missing one email, perhaps an email blocked from reaching my already full mailbox. Having three to four email accounts helped a lot with this crisis because I had a clear idea of which email would be sent to which account (plus, they’re nice back-ups to your pri mary account), though sometimes I particularly focused on some ac counts and neglected the respon sibility of taking care of the rest, which weighed on my conscience until I sat down and tidied my in boxes.

But a clogged email is not just a source of personal inconve nience — the planet suffers too.

Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at Lancaster University’s Environ ment Centre and advisor of 2019 research commissioned by OVO Energy, says that while sending an email already requires electricity, having it stored in our mailbox requires even more energy, since this information needs to be kept in the Cloud. By sending less polite replies and emptying your trash often, you prevent these “point less” emails from clogging up your system and contributing to carbon emissions. While I am still work ing on the former because the ex change of pleasantries is essential in some conversations, I am dili gent about the latter because all it needs is a short five minutes of my time every morning.

I started to regularly clean up my Gmail more often two years ago. A few management tools I use now to complement my tech habits are Unroll.me and clearfox.io, and they were true helpers that got me off the subscribers’ list of compa nies I didn’t care about while still allowing me to keep receiving emails with headlines like “We think this is something you might like.”

While learning to delete emails habitually was at first an unpleas ant experience, I can now envision myself winning at a future work place for how responsive I am to emails. Weaving these facts and fantasies together, I am happy to have had a deep and emotional engagement with this seemingly ubiquitous e-tool. Deleting emails

Clearing one's inbox can quickly become a tedious and difficult endeavor. Pho Vu ’23 finds that a few management tools, like Unroll.me and clearfox.io, can turn a cluttered and overwhelming inbox into a sparse paradise, saving time, stress, and the planet!

feels so therapeutic when you have time on your hands, but you need a warm-up activity to actual ly start doing everything on your to-do list. What’s strikingly clear is how pushing myself to main tain this practice on a daily basis allows me to intuitively track my personal development with some thing that is a dime a dozen like emails. As the saying goes, you end up mastering a thing that had

consistently concerned you in the past.

After going through these emails, I can just sit back, relax, and feel good about the virtual burden that I independently shrugged off of my little shoulders. Now, the fact that this tiny action helps pre vent excess carbon emission adds more weight to this commitment.

Amherst College students re ceive at least one email per day

courtesy of the Daily Mammoth. Other emails come incessantly from administrators, Google Cal endar invitations, Management Consulted newsletters advertising their newest case prep programs and free drills giveaways. It’s about time we act like the female lead in a K-drama, tie our hair up in a ponytail, and start nurturing that habit of decluttering our inboxes regularly.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard '26

Amusements

The Holy Trinity | Crossword - Sept.

ACROSS

1 Largest Mass. airport

4 Mammal with American, Euro pean, and honey variants

10 Ballpark fig.

13 "Wherefore ___ thou Romeo?"

14 Meteorological menace

15 "Aladdin" monkey

16 SSW opposite

17 The three-headed party animal found west of South Pleasant, and in this crossword

19 Hang loose

20 Specialized vocabulary

22 Animals often seen holding hands

24 Cheri of "Saturday Night Live"

25 Its capital is Lomé

29 Star Trek character portrayed by Nichelle Nichols

30 City on the Han river

31 Units of resistance

32 Warehouse

33 Sets forth

36 Eat like ___

39 2017 figure skating biopic

40 Breakfast brand featured on "Stranger Things"

44 And so on, and so on

46 Duke in "Twelfth Night"

48 Type of 67-Across

49 Sounds of satisfaction

51 When repeated, one of the Gabor sisters

52 Kendrick Lamar genre

53 "Bye Bye Bye" band

55 Firehouse feature

58 Soda-fountain orders

60 Type of white blood cell used to fight parasites

63 "The Mahabharata," "The Ili ad," or "Beowulf"

66 Mindy Kaling's character in "A Wrinkle in Time"

67 Nest locale

71 Went down

72 College president who first gave out Latin honors

73 Residence ___ (a type of building found three times in this puzzle)

74 Downsides

75 Woodland revelers

76 Birthplace of seven U.S. pres idents

DOWN

1 Bluegrass instruments

2 Showy 3 Sound system

4 World capital found in the Alps

"The Greatest"

6 It might be used to catch a perp

7 Tonic partner

Dept. where you can take a class on "The Canterbury Tales"

9 Chocolate and caramel candy

10 Go softer

11 Pizza chain often found in malls

12 Pulls on

Transparent fabric

Chopin composition

21 Bad thing to hold

Seniors' burdens

25 "Nothing ___!"

26 "I've made a huge mistake"

FBI guys

28 National-anthem starter 34 Undead "Dungeons and Dragons" creature

35 New Mexico town known for its art and skiing scenes

Eternity 37 Mom-and-pop orgs. 38 Repellent

"____ On Fire" (Alicia Keys song)

Flying annoyance

"I've made a huge mistake"

Crunchy meal often eaten on Tuesday

Actor Malek

Rose family shrub

Gentle breeze

Violin parts

Beginning

Humble

Even if, for short

Texts, briefly

Tills

Corner keyboard key

Kung ___ Chicken

___ on Boltwood

Stadium cheer

Quarterback Manning

Rating system used in chess and Overwatch

Thomas O’Connor ’26 Contributing Constructor

Marriage Sacked

by Miles Garcia ’25

Red Herring: Marriage Pact

by Isaac Streiff ’24

Arts&Living

Jason Moran Kicks Off Presidential Scholars Series

Noor Rahman ’25 Assistant Arts & Living Editor

Jazz pianist and composer Ja son Moran, the college’s inaugural Presidential Scholar of the 20222023 academic year, hosted a se ries of events at the college from Sept. 19 to 23. Moran’s packed schedule included piano master classes and class visits, all leading up to a Friday night concert in Buckley Hall, a powerful tribute to early jazz and ragtime legend James Reese Europe.

A MacArthur Fellowship re cipient, Moran has worked on the scores of various films, including “Selma” (2014) and “13th” (2016). He is also the artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and his music is featured in collections at both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).

Friday’s concert, titled “James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: The Absence of Ruin,” was preceded by a discus sion panel. In addition to Mo ran, the panel included Associate Professor of Black Studies and Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies Khary Polk and Asso ciate Professor of Music Jason Robinson. The conversation was thoughtful and poetic, as the trio examined the contributions of James Reese Europe in the context of Black music history, as well as

Moran’s personal relationship to Europe’s work.

The discussion gave the audi ence an understanding of James Reese Europe’s character, as well as his impact on jazz. A promi nent figure during the early days of jazz in the 1910s, Europe left a footprint on both the music of the time and the Black communities he belonged to. Moran explained that Europe’s insistence on push ing the envelope laid the ground work for the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.

Europe’s service to his commu nity was influenced by his teach ers. During the panel and the concert, Moran alluded to the fact that Europe learned to play the violin from the grandson of Fred erick Douglass. He explained that, partly as a result of this relation ship, “[Europe was] not thinking about himself, because the people who taught him thought about the community all the time.”

At the height of his populari ty, Europe joined the American military during World War I. He was a part of the 369th Infantry Regiment, one of the first pre dominantly African American regiments in the American Ex peditionary Forces. The regiment would come to be known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Moran at tributed Europe’s decision to join the military to his “willingness to search for the edge” and “to always be ready to sharpen [it].”

Moran named his concert after this part of Europe’s life, perhaps because it exemplified his strongwilled character and tenacity.

Of course, Moran made sure to highlight Europe’s incredible musical talent in addition to his dedicated community work. In one memorable moment during the panel, Moran spontaneously turned around to sit at the piano behind him and played an as tonishing rendition of Europe’s music. He felt that the piece demonstrated “the way harmony and friction need to live together before they resolve.”

Moran places an immense val ue on music history, the work of preceding generations, and cre ating musical institutions in the Black community: These tenets of his work are what spurred him to create a tribute to Europe. “Any time I’m approaching anything, it’s not without an acknowledge ment of past and future genera tions,” he noted. “It’s just impos sible to not ever walk around and not see some sort of reflection of who I am or who I want to be.”

The panel also explored the idea of contextual performance and the notion that music does not exist in a vacuum. Moran pondered the relationship of the musician to the audience. “Am I being mistreated to make this music?” he asked. “Or am I mak ing music that mistreats people? All those things come up at once. And then, when I step off the stage, how am I treated when I’m not in the light?”

During Europe’s era, Black mu sicians were invited to perform at nightclubs, but Black people were not allowed to enter the clubs as guests, a prime example of the tension Moran described. All of these dynamics, pushing and pulling against each other, come together to create music. Or, as Moran put it, “This is the sound of a society.”

As entertaining and informa tive as Moran was during this

panel discussion, his perfor mance, alongside a talented en semble of other musicians, was even more impressive.

A mixed media delight for the senses, the concert began with the musicians playing outside of the hall, then slowly filing in side and walking onto the stage. A projector screen displayed a montage of grayscale images and footage. Among these were pic tures of storm clouds over a dry field, an empty city street, por traits of members of the 369th in fantry regiment, and, most nota bly, footage of Europe conducting the infantry band aboard a ship as it entered New York Harbor after the end of the war. The stage was minimally lit, with the ex ception of the piano, allowing the viewer to focus on the combined effect of the music and the foot age. The top of the piano was re moved, and the inside had lights that gave off a warm, orange glow. It was a perfect symbiosis between the music and the foot age: both served as a backdrop for the other, without ever truly slipping into the background. It was a testament to Moran’s idea that music extends beyond the written notes, into the culture from which it was born.

The music itself also spoke to Europe’s experiences: at times cele bratory, boastful, and jubilant, and at other times mournful, dignified, and poignant. The emotion on the stage was tangible. Through impas sioned movements, Moran played the piano with his entire body. The booming tuba, the triumphant sax ophone, the sharp trumpets, and the fervent drums that accompa nied him multiplied this effect.

The last song of the concert was a piece that Moran wrote in honor of Europe. It was an emotional yet joyful, bereaved yet hopeful hom age to Europe’s legacy. He asked the audience to hum the melody along, in a powerful testimonial to the community-oriented values that he shares with Europe. As the piece came to a close, the other musicians slowly stopped playing and surrounded the piano, Moran still playing. When Moran stopped playing, he stood, and the musi cians joined hands as the hum ming stopped, a gesture of unity and respect for Europe’s legacy — the power he held as an individual who single-handedly transformed the music of his time, the courage he displayed as a Harlem Hellfight er, and the burden he bore as a Black musician in the early 20th century.

Jason Moran, the college’s first 2022-2023 Presidential Scholar, is an award-winning jazz pianist who spent the last week hosting a series of masterclasses and lectures.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Moran’s panel and concert honored musician James Re ese Europe, whose community-based work shaped ear ly jazz and ragtime music.

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

“Poetry Isn’t Perfect,” And Neither Is Publishing

Sarah Weiner ’24 Assistant Arts & Living Editor

Last Friday, Sept. 23, various members of the Amherst written word community banded together to produce “Poetry Isn’t Perfect,” a panel featured in the annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival. The festival was hosted by the Emily Dickinson Museum, and ran last week from Sept. 19 through Sept. 25, gather ing the Pioneer Valley community for events, panels, and readings with poets from around the world.

“Poetry Isn’t Perfect,” a panel with The Common, the college’s literary magazine, gave festi val attendees the chance to hear from three established (and local ly-based) poets: translator, organiz er, and writer Jennifer Jean, 20192022 Northampton poet laureate Karen Skolfield, and Matt Don ovan, the director of the Boute lle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. The panel was moderated by two of The Common’s editorial assistavnt intverns, Andrenae Jones ’23 and Sarah Wu ’25. The students’ perspectives, uniquely immersed in both the worlds of writing and publishing, contributed to a thoughtful conversation with the three panelists, generating valuable

insight for up-and-coming writers, editors, and publishers.

To open the discussion, Jones and Wu asked the panelists about their creative processes: why they began writing poetry, how they write and revise their own work, and how they provide feedback on others’ work (all of the panelists have taught at some point in their careers). For all three panelists, po etry was part of their childhood: Jean and Skolfield looked back on their first works with appreciation (Skolfield even recited one for us by heart), while Donovan was deeply embarrassed by his first poetic at tempts to woo his middle school crush. Jean noted that she turned to poetry as a kid because it was “the cheap option” for the creative expression she needed.

As adult poets, their motivations for writing have evolved. Donovan explained that his writing, revision, and feedback processes all revolve around poems as “an act of inter rogation.” He later added, in a re sponse to a Q&A question about what the panelists understand to be the beauty of poetry, his writing lo cates novelty in what we talk about and how we talk about it. Using as an example his forthcoming book — “The Dug-Up Gun Museum,”

which examines gun violence in America and will be released on Nov. 8 — Donovan noted that dis course around gun violence in our country is repetitive no matter the stance taken, but that he tried to use new research to approach the discussion in a novel way.

The conversation then shifted to a discussion of the publishing process from the writers’ points of view. The consensus among the group was that publishing is one of the worst, if not the worst, parts about being a poet. Skolfield made it very clear that she never writes with the goal of publication in mind, adding that nearly every poet will receive far more rejected submissions than acceptances. Jean recommended that in the face of rejection, every writer should just get back up and keep going. “Gate keepers are just people,” she noted with a consoling chuckle. “... Most of the time.”

Donovan then introduced the term “po-biz” into the conversa tion, which begrudgingly refers to the business of publishing poetry: who does it, how it’s done, and how unnatural it feels in comparison with the other parts of the poetic process. The panelists advised that “po-biz” be compartmentalized

from all other parts of creating poetry. However, Donovan recog nized that publishing, particularly the process of working with an edi tor, is an exercise of “writing diplo macy.” He is interested in viewing the work of revising as a collabora tive process that moves away from one authoritative figure — he is fundamentally, constantly in search of what is “best for the poem.”

The last quarter of the panel, in cluding the Q&A portion, conclud ed the discussion on a sweet note. Responding to a question from Wu about the importance of writing groups, Jean struggled to pinpoint why community is such a ubiqui tous part of the poet’s experience. She has traveled to open mics and writers’ groups all over the world (she spent a residency working with Iraqi women artists) and has noticed that the sense of commu nity seems the same everywhere. Skolfield echoed this, adding that an all-women group she attends once a year is a celebratory space that holds her accountable to work on her writing.

This sentiment of community was hammered home in the last question for the panel. An em ployee of the museum asked the panelists about their personal con

nections to Dickinson: Do they like her work? What does she mean to them? Jean expressed admiration for the depth of Dickinson’s work: “It’s like a black hole,” she said, ar ticulating how Dickinson’s work extends beyond the page and goes down deep into the table beneath it. Skolfield added that even for her own kids, who grew up in Amherst, Dickinson is “the only poet.”

Unlike Skolfield, Donovan only moved to Amherst a few years ago, so the novelty of being in such proximity to the “Belle of Am herst” is even fresher. When he rides past the museum on his way to work, he looks up at Dickinson’s bedroom window, and knows that she wrote from that very room. He is astounded every time.

After the panel, I had the chance to reflect with Wu on the value of the discussion. She noted, “the abil ity to communicate with other po ets and being involved in events is one way to learn how to write and see what other people are interest ed in…” Students and professionals share the seats on the panel and in the audience equally, shedding any preconceptions of authority. “[It is] great to bring together differ ent interests and find a community through that.”

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s annual “Tell It Slant” Festival featured discussions and workshops led by acclaimed poets. Assistant Arts & Living Editor Sarah Weiner ‘24 reviews one of the headlining events, “Poetry Isn’t Perfect: A Publication Panel with The Common.”

Photo courtesy of Madeline Lawson

“Survivor” Season 43: Episode 1, Reviewed

Vaughn Armour ’25 Staff Writer

“Survivor” is back! On Wednesday, Sept. 23, fans sprint ed to their couches to witness the return of TV’s best social strategy game. Four months have passed since the legendary finale of “Survivor 42,” when Maryanne Oketch became the sole Survivor despite starting the game on the outs of the Taku tribe. Oketch played a magnificent social game throughout, making timely stra tegic moves such as leading the charge to oust frontrunner Omar Zaheer. She was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and waited for the perfect time to strike. Mary anne is the second Black woman

to win “Survivor,” the first since Vecepia Towery (“Survivor: Mar quesas”) all the way back in the show’s fourth season. Because of Oketch’s historic victory, as well as strong gameplay from standouts Zaheer, Hai Giang, Drea Wheeler, and Lindsay Do lashewicz, fans were overjoyed with “Survivor 42.”

Because of this, anticipation was high for the premiere of “Survivor 43.” Wednesday’s epi sode was the first premiere since “Survivor: Season 20, Heroes vs. Villains” to feature only one elimination, allowing the show to devote more time than usu al to introducing the castaways, which helped fans get invested in their backgrounds. I know

more about these players after one episode than I have after any season premiere in recent mem ory. Some personal favorites are Owen Knight, Ryan Medrano, Sami Laydi, and Elie Scott.

Owen is a 29-year-old college admissions director and a “Survi vor” superfan, which was evident from the moment he appeared on screen. He has a great han dle on how to create bonds, and seems to be the most strategically minded person in his Baka tribe so far.

Ryan is a 24-year-old ware house associate, and his story is one to hear. He was born pre maturely, and was diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy at birth. Doctors told his mother that he

would likely never walk. Through dedication and physical therapy, though, he eventually did, going on to become a prolific athlete. Ryan has the potential to play an incredible social game because of how likable he is, although the early four-person majority on the Coco tribe seems to be Cassidy Clark, Karla Cruz Godoy, Lind say Carmine, and James Jones. “Survivor” is a numbers game at its core, so a strong four will al ways have the upper hand against the other two in the votes. How ever, it is early, and tribal dynam ics will likely fluctuate.

Sami is a 19-year old student and pet cremator on the Baka tribe. His outgoing personality jumps off the screen, but what really interested me about him were his early strategic decisions. Players under 20 have struggled in the past on “Survivor,” espe cially in recent years. Many attri bute this to a lack of life experi ence, but it’s also true that other players assume the young ones are less responsible and trust worthy than their older counter parts.

Because of this, Sami decided to lie about his age, saying that he was 22. I thought this was a smart decision, and I’m really interest ed to see how it impacts his game in the future. He also held back in a logic puzzle that his tribe had to complete. He opted to hide his intelligence, which makes sense. Sami is a bigger guy, and he wants to downplay his threat lev el by feeding into the stereotype of strong men being unstrategic. This is another smart call in my opinion, and one that could pay dividends in the future.

Elie is a 31-year old clinical psychologist, and her “Survivor” fandom was born from her rela tionship with her late sister. The last conversation that Elie had with her sister was about “Sur vivor,” and her tragic passing inspired Elie to compete on the show. She seems to have made bonds with everyone on her Baka tribe, and orchestrated their first vote-out without having to take on an obvious leadership posi

tion. She’s starting off hot, and is someone to watch, for sure.

The new season seems to have kept some important things from the prior two seasons, one of which is the prisoner’s dilem ma. Members of different tribes arrived at a separate beach from the rest of the contestants, and were given the option to either risk their vote at the next Trib al Council for an advantage, or play it safe and protect their vote. Dwight (Vesi), Gabler (Baka), and Karla (Coco) went this time. Karla decided to protect her vote, while Gabler and Dwight opted to risk theirs. The gamble worked out for Gabler, who received an idol that works for the first two Tribal Councils he attends. When played before the votes are read, idols allow a player to cancel all votes for a person of their choos ing It didn’t work for Dwight, however, who was penalized and will not be able to vote at his first Tribal Council.

As previously mentioned, this episode was very light in the stra tegic department. Baka lost the immunity challenge, meaning that they had to vote someone out at Tribal Council that night. Led by Elie, the tribe opted to vote out Morriah Young. This was a simple, old school “Sur vivor” vote. They didn’t want to lose another immunity challenge, so they took out Morriah, who was perceived to be the physical ly weakest tribe member.

Seventeen castaways remain, and this season is shaping up to be fantastic. After 42 seasons, it’s comforting to know that the pro ducers know what makes “Survi vor” special — genuinely caring about the players. This episode’s focus on backstory will help fans get invested in the season even more than normal. Each suc cessful move will feel more ex hilarating, and each elimination more devastating. I personally can’t wait to see what fantastic moves the players will make to survive, and yes, even who will inevitably be sent home in the heart-wrenching vote-outs. Stay tuned!

“Survivor” has returned for its highly anticipated 43rd Season! Vaughn Armour ‘25 recaps the season premiere, which highlighted the lineup of new players.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard ‘26

Men’s Soccer Wins and Draws Ahead of Williams Matchup

Kate Becker ’26 Staff Writer

The men’s soccer team head ed up to Maine this past weekend for a full slate of NESCAC soccer, first facing off against Bates on Saturday, Sept. 24, and then tak ing on Colby on Sunday, Sept. 25.

At Bates, the Mammoths were the first to strike. Their first goal came from a free kick taken by Ada Okorogheye ’24E, who sent a cross into the box that found junior Declan Sung ’24E for a header back into traffic. Fynn Hayton-Ruffner ’25 got his head on the second ball to finish off the play, giving Amherst a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute. Bates answered back off a scramble in front of the net just before the whistle blew for halftime, which left the teams tied 1-1 heading into the half.

The Mammoths came out of their halftime huddle with in tensity, firing a shot straight into the back of the net less than five minutes into the second half to give them a 2-1 lead. Despite an initial save from the Bates goal tender off a shot from Niall Mur phy ’25, Hayton-Ruffner capital

ized on the rebound with ease to put the Mammoths back in front. They didn’t stop there, as sophomore Ben Clark-Eden ’25 took advantage of a penalty kick in the 52nd minute, less than three minutes after the goal from Hayton-Ruffner, with a per fect strike into the bottom right corner. Now holding a 3-1 lead, the Mammoths seemingly got too comfortable, as Bates added one back in the 67th minute off a penalty kick of their own. But it was too late, as the Mammoth defense held them scoreless for the remaining 23 minutes for a final score of 3-2.

With the momentum from this win, the Mammoths moved on to their Sunday matinee matchup with Colby. A strong Colby team proved to be a tough opponent, as the Mules found the back of the net just 12 min utes into the game and extend ed their lead to 2-0 early in the second half. The Mammoths fought back, though, showing their fight and determination late in the game. An own goal in the 77th minute proved to be just what Amherst needed to turn the game around. With the run of

play now on their side, Sung sank the team’s second goal off a cross from sophomore Micah Valadez Bush ’25 a mere six minutes later, tying the score at 2-2. The Mam moth defense showcased their poise and grit in the second half, holding Colby scoreless in the last 40-plus minutes to conclude the game in a 2-2 draw. Sung spoke on the resiliency of his team, adding

that “this season has had its chal lenges” and that they will “spend this week working on what we need to work on.”

All focus now shifts to the up coming rivalry game at Williams. In speaking on what this rivalry means to the team, junior Ben King ’24 shared that “beating Wil liams became our only focus when the [last] whistle blew today.”

The group is already hard at work preparing for their oldest rivalry game this weekend. Kick off against the Ephs is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct.1, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The Mammoths will then con clude the week with an away game against Worcester Poly technic Institute on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.

Front and Center: Harmful Working Conditions in Women’s Soccer

Melanie Schwimmer ’23 Staff Writer

As all women’s sports contin ue to see meteoric rises, the ath letes continue to fight tooth and nail to create fair and safe work ing conditions. Women’s football (soccer) in particular has seen two parallel storylines unfold: extreme growth and investment in the game and increasing rev elations of player mistreatment and unequal working conditions relative to the male game. This growing awareness has been ac companied by calls to reduce in equity and create healthy playing environments. Most recently, the

Spanish National Team — a ris ing women’s soccer superpower and home to Alexia Puetellas, the winner of last year’s Bal lon d’Or, the most prestigious individual award in football — joined together to demand bet ter from the Royal Spanish Foot ball Federation (RFEF).

Throughout Thursday, Sept. 22, the RFEF received nearly identical emails from 15 of its women’s national team mem bers, including many of the team’s stars, with a resounding message: The current state of the team is toxic and negatively im pacts their physical and mental health.

The news broke in a RFEF statement, and players have since refuted its accuracy. The RFEF rejected the calls to change the coaching staff in a firm state ment: “RFEF is not going to al low the players to question the continuity of the national coach and his coaching staff, since making those decisions does not fall within their powers.

The Federation states that they will not admit any type of pressure from any player when adopting sports measures. These types of maneuvers are far from exemplary and outside the val ues of football and sport and are harmful.”

The organization also chal lenged the players who sent the emails. “[T]his fact has gone from being a sporting issue to a dignity issue,” the statement read. “It is an unprecedented sit uation in the history of football, both male and female, in Spain and worldwide.”

The players were told they could only return to the national team if “they accept their mis take and ask for forgiveness.” The federation also claimed that if the players refuse a call-up, they will face between two and five years of disqualification from national team consider ation.

The day after the release of the strongly worded RFEF state ment, the players explained that the media and the RFEF had mischaracterized their initial email — they had not resigned, nor demanded their coach step down, but rather expressed that as long as the conditions were harming their mental and physical health, they felt they were not in a position to be el igible for selection. These two contrasting messages revealed and intensified the tension and mistrust the players feel towards their Federation.

Micah Valdez Bush '25 celebrates with his teammates.The Mammoths are 5-1-2 this season.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Fall Sports’ Fifth-years Excited To Finish College Careers Strong

Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer

As the leaves were starting to reappear and the winter’s snow was finally beginning to melt in the spring of 2020, a single email from then-President Biddy Martin marked the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic for the col lege, and the loss of many valu able experiences — both big and small — for students.

While all students had their college experience impacted by Covid, student-athletes were hit by a particular shock. The an nouncement that Covid would cancel all athletic competition in Spring 2020, and then again in Fall 2021, was devastating for many athletes — a season was stolen from them. Unwilling to let their collegiate athletic careers slip between their fingers, a num ber of then-juniors decided to take a leave from the college and return for a fifth year — and one more athletic season. The Student spoke to Sophia Kaplan ’23E, Nick DiPrinzio ’23E, and Alexa Juarez ’23E, three so-called su per seniors who made the tough call to ensure one more chance to represent the Mammoths in play.

Kaplan, a key starter and

defender for the Amherst field hockey team who has started ev ery game this season, wanted one last “normal” semester in West ern Massachusetts. For her, that meant wearing number 18 on the field, attending her classes in per son, and meeting new people.

But the decision also had an unexpected upside. “I wanted to get another season of field hock ey, but it also gave me another summer to get real-world expe rience,” said Kaplan. Because her academic interests had shifted during her time in college, “it was nice that I was able to expose my self to the real world in that extra summer,” she said.

DiPrinzio’s decision was also based on wanting another year of competition in his sport, foot ball, but there’s another reason he appreciates the decision a year later.

“At the time, my decision to unenroll for a semester was simple: come back for another football season lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” DiPrinzio said. “While this is still true, I’d now say the decision to come back for the fifth year also boils down to the amazing people I’ve met at Amherst College.”

The 2018 NESCAC Rookie of

the Year and a current women’s soccer captain, Juarez said much the same as her counterparts. “I decided to come back for my last semester because I wanted an other soccer season and a chance to win a NESCAC or national championship,” she said. “Being a part of AWS [Amherst wom en’s soccer] is a special thing that is impossible to replicate at any other point in life, and I wasn’t ready to give it up.”

What Juarez expressed is true for all three of these athletes. The fall fifth-years are approaching their last few months of college, but are excited and thankful for the experience they get on the field every day, and are looking forward to spending that time with their teammates for one last ride.

They are all back on their re spective fields this season, work ing hard with their teammates, and taking everything one day at a time on the way to (hopefully) winning NESCAC and NCAA championships.

“I’m really excited to just be with the team and work hard all together,” Kaplan said. “We all have the same goal in mind and we want to work together to get there.” With a record of 5-2 and

two wins against ranked oppo nents under their belts, the No. 9-ranked field hockey team looks poised to do just that in Kaplan’s final year of competition.

And while DiPrinzio feels similarly, he also wants to try to enjoy the little things that come with the sport — not just football itself.

“It sounds eerily cliche, but those moments after beating a rival, going out for team dinners, Val-sitting, and off-season train ing have made me appreciate the presence of men who go through the same experiences and strug gles as I do,” DiPrinzio said. “I’ve made it a priority to value these small moments and enjoy the time I have left.”

While this year’s football sea son has opened with two loss es, there are still many games left to play, and the team could still achieve the success that Di Prinzio and his teammates are aiming for.

Juarez also looked past just the sport itself this season and has found her joy with her team mates. “I love our team and ev eryone on it, and I am also so grateful to the seniors [the orig inal class of 2023] this year who have welcomed me into their

class with open arms,” she said.

“As a team, we have great team chemistry both on and off the field, and I am just very excited to see where we go for the rest of the season.”

As the national No. 11, the women’s soccer team currently holds a record of 6-1, and seems poised to compete for a repeat of last year’s NESCAC-regular-sea son-title-winning performance. With so much experience under her belt, Juarez should be a key element of the team’s 2022 NES CAC Championship and NCAA Tournament aspirations.

These three student-athletes, along with their peers, are thank ful for the extra semester and sea son they were able to gain back after the chaos of the pandemic. The college and their respective athletic teams would not be the same without them, and it seems their experiences both on and off the field have prepared them well to enter “the real world” come December.

And even though their time on the field is running short, Juarez summed up all three Mammoths’ sentiments best: “I am so happy I made [the] de cision to defer, and I sincerely wouldn’t change a thing.”

Spanish Players’ Protest Highlights Player Treatment Issues

Continued from page 19

One Spanish football reporter, Alex Ibaceta, tweeted the list of confirmed players: Ainhoa Vi cente, Patri Guijarro, Sandra Paños, Amaiur Sarriegui, Lei la Ouahabi, Lucia García, Mapi León, Ona Batlle, Laia Aleixan dri, Claudia Pina, Aitana Bon matí, Mariona Caldentey, Lola Gallardo, Nerea Izaguirre, and Andrea Pereira. Six of these 15 athletes play for Baracelona, the runners-up in the 2021-22 UEFA Women’s Champions League. Aitana Bonmatí received a 2022 Ballon d’Or nomination. Reigning Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putel las is currently out for the season with a torn ACL that she picked up

when training for the 2022 Euro pean Championships this summer with the national team, and thus cannot be called up. She tweeted in support of her 15 teammates on Friday. Other major names in women’s soccer around the world shared their support for the play ers, including recent Presiden tial Medal of Freedom recipient and U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) forward Megan Rapi noe, Former English National Team Star and Current National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Head Coach Casey Stoney, and the most-followed female footballer in the world, American forward Alex Morgan.

While the RFEF claims this situation is unprecedented, this

is not the first time that Span ish National Team players have spoken up about their mistreat ment. After qualifying for their first World Cup in 2015 and only earning one point during the competition, the team issued a collective statement calling for the end of then-coach Ignacia Quereda’s 27-year reign as head coach. Quereda did not bring Spain’s 2015 leading scorer, Lau ra Del Rio, to the World Cup due to a feud between them, and also referred to his players as “cha valitas” (immature girls) and “niñas” (little girls) on multiple occasions.

The RFEF eventually did fire Quereda and the team’s results improved quickly, with Spain

skyrocketing to 8th in the FIFA rankings.

As national and club football programs have revealed around the world, on-field success is not a marker of equal, or even just, treatment. Women’s national teams continue to distrust their federations and club teams after decades of mistreatment, neglect, and abuse. The kickoff of Spain’s women’s league was delayed a week after the league’s referees went on strike due to unfair treat ment and pay. The league’s entire ly-female referee team requested to be paid the same amount as the referees in Spain’s men’s second division; while they did see their wages increase, they are still not near this original request. Many

National Women’s Soccer clubs continue to highlight abuse and unequal treatment by coaching staffs, and the U.S. Soccer report into the abuse and mistreatment, led by former United States Dep uty Attorney General Sally Yates, is expected to be released in ear ly October. But this is only the first step. Footballers around the world are continuing to raise the bar for collective action and are sending an important message: female athletes deserve better. We must join together and help them get it.

Front and Center would like to conclude by calling attention to the fact that Britney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Rus sia for 223 days. Bring her home.

Despite Defensive Effort, Football Drops to 0-2 on Season

Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor

Despite a strong first quarter, the football team dropped their road contest against NESCAC foe Hamilton on Saturday, Sept. 24, by a final score of 24-10.

Hamilton started with the ball off the opening kickoff, but it didn’t take long for the Mammoths’ defense to make an early impact. Though Hamilton quickly marched the ball down the field, defensive lineman Flynn McGilvray ’23E ended the Continental threat, forcing a fumble by punching the ball out of the opposing receiver’s hands. Solomon Christopher ’25 pounced on the loose ball to secure the turnover and give the Mammoths their first defensive stop of the day. The Mammoths capitalized on the golden opportunity that their defense gave them, methodically driving 75 yards down the field in 14 plays and capping the possession with a two-yard touchdown run courtesy of Tylon Crump ’23, who barreled into the endzone for the first touchdown of his collegiate career, putting the Mammoths in front 7-0. Quarterback Mike Piazza ’24 accounted for 64 of those 75 yards, going five of six for 51 yards passing and rushing four times for 13 yards.

Hamilton didn’t take long to regain the momentum. They answered back immediately with a 75-yard drive of their own, tying the game at 7-7 before blocking a punt on the Mammoths’ following offensive possession.

The Continentals took over on Amherst’s 9-yard line following the block, and a fourth-andgoal run from the 1-yard line propelled them to a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.

While the Mammoths’ offense struggled for the remainder of the half — getting stuffed on a fourth down conversion attempt and being forced to punt two additional times during the second quarter — the defense kept the Continentals from widening their lead. Hamilton’s most threatening drive of the quarter was halted by linebacker Andy Skirzenski ’24, whose late second-quarter interception stymied a dangerous drive on Amherst’s 26-yard line. The teams went into halftime with the Continentals leading 14-7.

The second half was largely uneventful for the Mammoths — the Amherst offense continued to stall out on multiple drives, going three-and-out to start the half before turning the ball over on downs on a failed quarterback sneak on their second drive.

The defense continued to

stand tall, forcing punts on the Continentals’ first two drives, but after yet another three-andout from the Mammoths’ offense, Hamilton added a field goal to take a two-possession lead in the final minutes of the third quarter. The Mammoths couldn’t find any offensive success in the fourth quarter, either; a failed fake-punt on fourth down gave the Continentals the ball on the Amherst 42-yard line, which led to another Continentals touchdown that effectively shut the door on the Mammoths for good, giving Hamilton a 24-7 three-possession lead. While the

Amherst offense managed a field goal on their next drive, it didn’t do much to stop the bleeding, and the Mammoths returned home with a 24-10 defeat.

The difference in this game ultimately came down to Amherst’s inability to finish drives. While Hamilton only outgained Amherst by a small margin, 274 total yards to the Mammoths’ 254, they were able to finish their long drives by putting points on the board. Hamilton leaned heavily on their sophomore running back, who finished with 35 rushing attempts for 126 yards. Louie Eckelkamp

’24 led the way on the ground for the Mammoths, finishing with 17 carries for 74 yards and adding 22 yards through the air on three receptions. Piazza finished 18 of 34 for 134 yards and ran the ball 15 times for 46 yards. Over two games, Piazza has 27 rushing attempts, the most on the team, for an average of 2.3 yards per carry.

The Mammoths will look to get their first win of 2022 on Saturday, Oct. 1, when they take on the Trinity College Bantams on Pratt Field at Lehman Stadium. The game will kickoff at 1 p.m.

Volleyball Bounces Back After Loss, Goes 2-1 Over Weekend

Kate Quigley ’26 Staff Writer

On Friday, Sept. 23, the vol leyball team battled against the Williams Ephs in the first Am herst-Williams rivalry game of 2022. The Mammoths started strong, winning the first two sets of the day. They crushed the Ephs in the first set, 25-15, with a kill to end the set, and a five-point run and final block by Kinsey Cronin ’26 and Caroline Tilton ’23 sealed the second set, this time by a score of 25-20. First-year Charlotte Rasmussen ’26 attributed the team’s early

success to strong serve-receive passing, “which allowed us to run many offensive combos which worked to [force] the oth er team out of [their] system,” she said. However, Williams bounced back and adjusted their defense to the Firedogs’ attack, coming back and scoring the last four points to take the third set 25-21. The fourth set was excru ciatingly close, and a good block by Amherst slowed down Wil liams’ momentum, extending the length of the set, but ultimately Williams closed the door, win ning a marathon set 34-36. The Mammoths ultimately ran out of

gas, and Williams led from start to finish in the last set, defeating the Mammoths 15-9 and taking the 3-2 win.

Despite the loss on Friday, Amherst bounced back with two wins against Gordon College and River University on Saturday, Sept. 24, to end the weekend 2-1.

After losing the first set to the Fighting Scots of Gordon College, Amherst started the second set strong. Junior Ava O’Connor ’24 capitalized on her serve, earning the Mammoths six points and a lead that Amherst held onto to take the second set 25-20. In the next set, Gordon

College capitalized on a sixpoint lead of their own to go up 2-1. But, Amherst came back to win the last two sets of the game, ultimately winning the three sets required to win their first game of the day.

With momentum from the previous game on their side, Am herst finished Saturday by crush ing River University in four sets, 3-1. After cruising to a first-set win, the Mammoths held a 4-1 lead in the second set. But this one ended up being much closer, with the Raiders and the Mammoths battling to tie after tie throughout the set, keeping the intensity and

energy high in LeFrak Gymnasi um. After ties of 6-6, 10-10, and 20-20, the Raiders finally took the set 25-22. The Mammoths bounced back, though, and soph omore Lizzie Papalia ’25 served a pair of aces to lead the team to a 25-23 victory in the third set. After a long weekend, Amherst finished strong to win the fourth set, and left LeFrak with a four-set victory.

Amherst hosts two big NES CAC games in LeFrak next week end. The Mammoths take on Bowdoin next Friday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. and Connecticut College next Saturday, Oct. 1, at 2 p.m.

Although the team started out strong, football lost to Hamilton on Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Super League, LIV: How (Not) To Resist Big Money in Sports

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor

For me and many other fans, sports are a distraction from the everyday world. When you watch a game, discuss the latest trade ru mors, or reminisce about players from days gone by, you’re trans ported into a made-up but very real world lovingly shared by millions.

In a larger world constantly in flux, and in an era of my life more in flux than ever before, the solid rhythm of the sports world has pro vided me with much-needed stabil ity. There will be football and soccer games every weekend. The NBA Fi nals will be in June. The Masters will be held in April. The Wimbledon final will be contested in July.

Sports allows us to tap out from “the real world” — whether that be me watching football in Frost in stead of working on a Sunday after noon in 2022, or Londoners pack ing soccer grounds amid constant threats of air raids during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

However, the last few years should serve as a reminder to us that although sports distract from the real world, they exist within it. We have seen the same forces that are wreaking havoc on broader so ciety — the outsized power wielded by those with massive fortunes and the subversion of all other concerns to those of profit — begin to claw at the sports world.

Two recent examples illustrate this problem: the ill-fated proposal for a new European Super League in soccer, and the newly formed competitor to the PGA Tour — LIV Golf. A comparison between these cases illustrates how the power of big money is best resisted — both inside sports and beyond.

In April 2021, 12 of the best soc cer teams in the world announced that they would form a new con tinent-wide league in Europe to rival the beloved UEFA Champi ons League. The so-called “Euro pean Super League” would provide guaranteed slots to the 12 founding teams — as opposed to the Cham pions League, where even the big gest teams must earn their places by doing well in their domestic (home)

leagues every season.

The league was touted as a way for fans to see the biggest stars and the best teams play on a consistent basis, but it was surely put forward so that the largest clubs could reli ably count on the massive advertis ing revenue that comes from consis tent European competition.

The proposal immediately drew ire from fans across the continent, even those of the teams that would hold automatic league membership. They took to the streets and social media, and within 48 hours the pro posal was scrapped, as team owners recorded sheepish apology videos.

Though everything took place across the pond, the venture had a decidedly American taste to it, con sidering that three of the five chair men of the league were American billionaires — Joel Glazer, owner of Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; John Henry, own er of Liverpool F.C. and the Boston Red Sox; and Stan Kroenke, owner of Arsenal F.C., the Los Angeles Rams, and the Colorado Avalanche.

American investment giant JPMor gan provided around $4 billion in financing for the project.

It is hard to overstate the extent to which the Super League was an attack on the very basis of Europe an soccer. Most European teams have existed for more than a centu ry. Many have working-class pasts, like Arsenal, which was founded by workers from the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory in London. The basis of all European leagues is mer itocracy — in that even the biggest teams can be, and often have been, relegated to lower division if they fail to perform. The Super League, anti-meritocratic and greedy, spit in the face of all of that.

When the announcement of a new circuit — LIV Golf – designed to challenge the hegemony of the PGA Tour dropped in October 2021, it was impossible not to make the comparison to the Super League. LIV aimed to mix up what it saw as the dusty, boring format of the PGA Tour, with simple four-day tourna ments every weekend, by introduc ing match play and team competi tions.

However, its real sell — at least

to the players — was the fat wads of Saudi-Arabian cash. The circuit is funded by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund — one of the largest funds of any kind in the world. The prize money at LIV events is high er than in the PGA. Mirroring the anti-meritocratic bend of the Super League, LIV golfers are able to take home large prizes even when they place poorly. It has offered prepos terously large contracts to induce PGA golfers to make the jump. Ti ger Woods was reportedly offered $700-$800 million to do so.

Charl Schwartzel, who joined the breakaway tour, made it clear: “You can’t lie it’s not about the mon ey. There’s a lot of money out there and it’s more than any guy has ever played for.”

The new tour has made golf less enjoyable. The fields at PGA and LIV events are now worse than the fields at PGA events were before the split. And, there is constant friction about whether LIV golfers should be allowed to compete in major cham pionships.

The fans do not seem to be lov ing it — tickets to the events are going for $1 on secondary markets, and the Tour’s Facebook Live stream receives less than 1,000 concurrent viewers — but of course nobody cares about this.

The players who joined seem to recognize the immorality of the league. In itself, leaving the tour takes away from the central appeal of professional golf, where the at traction lies in the ability to watch all of the best in the world go at each other. On top of this is the question able act of accepting Saudi money. The Saudis have built their wealth by extracting planet-warming fossil fuels, and maintained their regime through vicious repression and vi olence.

The golfers know this — Phil Mickelson recognized the king dom’s “horrible record on human rights,” calling it “scary,” and pointed to the government’s assasination of Washington Post journalist Jammal Khashoggi as proof. Nevertheless, he described the league as a “oncein-a-lifetime opportunity.” “An op portunity for what?” one might ask. But the answer is obvious.

Enormous sums of money are flowing into sports, threatening the integrity of what we hold so dear.

It would be better if the schism had been caused by misguided ide alism, by a clash of two legitimate vi sions of what golf should be. But the LIV challenge seems to have been concocted out of nowhere — driven overwhelmingly by the Saudi gov ernment’s desire to “sportswash” its human rights abuses, its investment fund’s desire to drive returns, and the greed of many (already wealthy) professional golfers.

Why did these two seemingly similar money grabs play out so dif ferently? The Super League has been banished to the novelty “do you remember when…” bin of sports history, while the golf world careens toward an uncertain and unhappy future.

The answer lies in the fan bases of the two sports. European soc cer fandoms have long-standing and robust institutional structures.

Soccer fans are used to gathering en masse, traveling to away games, packing squares in foreign cities ahead of cup finals, and singing in unison. Golf fans are mostly old, white, rich, and disengaged, and due to a lack of teams, there are no fan bases, fan clubs, or histories of fan activism.

Soccer fans were prepared to broadcast their fury far and wide, putting pressure on the teams and other institutions who supported the Super League. Soccer fans often stage protests against their team's owners and managers. They knew what to do, where to go, and who

they would be with when the news of the Super League dropped.

A large majority of individual golf fans seemed to be upset with what had happened with the LIV tour, but no institutions existed to allow them to combine their voices and put pressure on the players, the new tour, and the companies that supported it.

These two instances should serve as examples to even non-sports fans (who certainly have not made it thus far). We can expect more Super Leagues and LIV tours in the com ing years, whether in the world of sports, as those with large amounts of money seek to upend other leagues, or in the more metaphori cal sense — as the ultra-wealthy lay waste to America’s political institu tions, middle and lower classes, and the planet the same way they tore apart the PGA tour.

The different experiences of golf and soccer fans show that we can not expect a determined resistance to magically materialize when bad things happen. Right-thinking ma jorities do not turn into forceful social and political movements on their own. They require ground work — institutions formed, con nections made, habits formed before a crisis arises.

Our future is sure to be one of many sporting and political chal lenges. Whether or not they are conquered depends less on what we do then and more on what we start doing now.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Around the Herd: Your Weekly Mammoth Sports Update

Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor

Field Hockey

The field hockey team traveled to Maine this weekend to take on Bates and Colby, defeating both teams in dominant fashion.

Playing No. 11 Bates on Satur day, Sept. 24, the Mammoths walked away with a resounding 5-0 win. Kat Mason ’25 scored twice, along with Beth Williamson ’23E, Muffie Ma zambani ’24, and Jacki D’Alleva ’23, while Natalie Hobbs ’23E added two assists. The Mammoths held a 13-7 advantage in shots, though the Bob cats led 8-3 in corners.

The Mammoths carried their momentum into Sunday’s contest, defeating Colby 6-1. The two teams were level at one goal apiece after the first quarter, but the Mammoths pulled away from there, adding two goals in both the second and third quarters, and one in the final frame. Shots were 22-7 in favor of the Mam moths, and Hobbs led the way with two goals and an assist.

With these two victories, the No. 9 Mammoths are now 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the NESCAC. They have won three games in a row, outscor ing their opponents 14-1. Up next is the always-anticipated game against Williams, scheduled for 11 a.m. in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on Saturday, Oct. 1. The Mammoths will then play Connecticut College at home on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Men’s Golf

The men’s golf team put in their best performance of the fall season at the Bowdoin Invitational this past weekend, finishing tied for second out of 15 teams. Their two-day total of 609 was only two strokes behind the victors.

Mark Vitels ’26 posted the Mam moths' best score — his total of 150 (+6) was tied for fourth place overall and fell only two strokes behind the three-way tie at the top of the leader board. Steven Chen ’25 finished just a stroke behind his teammate with a two-day total of 151 (+7) that tied him for seventh. Paari Kaviyarasu ’26 and John Beskid ’26 weren’t far behind, each finishing with a total of 154, tied for 14th. Teddy Freking ’25

rounded out the card with a 163.

The Mammoths will play in the Blazer Invitational next weekend in Hampshire County. Day one will be played at the Ledges Golf Club in South Hadley on Saturday, Oct. 1, while day two will take place at Cold Spring Country Club in Belcher town on Sunday, Oct. 2.

Women’s Golf

The women’s golf team posted another second-place finish this weekend at the Williams Invitation al. Their two-day total of 617 was just seven strokes behind the winners.

Jessica Huang ’25 led the way with a score of 147 over two days, good for second place overall. Priya Bakshi ’24 finished tied for 10th with a total of 153 (77, 76). Gihoe Seo ’25 tied for 18th with a two-day score of 157, while Jenny Hua ’24 and Kaia Wu ’26 rounded out the card with scores of 161 and 165, respectively.

Still looking to defend their title as NESCAC champions, the Mam moths continue their fall season this weekend with a trip to Middlebury, Vermont, to play in the Phinney Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1, and Sun day, Oct. 2.

Women’s Tennis

In the conclusion of their fall sea son, the women’s tennis team played in the ITA Division III New England Regional Championships this past weekend at Williams.

Amy Cui ’25 was the Mammoths’ best performer. Seeded sixth, Cui won four games in the 64-player A singles bracket before falling in the semifinals to the eventual tourna ment champion. Cui also teamed up with Katelyn Hart ’25 for the doubles bracket, in which the pair reached the quarterfinals. Sophie Diop ’26, who was seeded fourth in the sin gles draw, reached the round of 16, and the pair of Diop and Madeleine Swire ’26 reached the round of 32 in the doubles bracket. Calista Sha ’23 fell in the round of 32 in the singles bracket, and she and Julia Lendel ’24 lost in the second round of the dou bles tournament.

The Mammoths will now hiber nate during these upcoming colder months, preparing for the grueling spring season ahead.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Field hockey was outstanding during their Maine trip, outscoring their opponents 11-1.

Women's tennis played in their final tournament of the fall at ITA Division III Regionals.

Women's golf finished second of nine teams at the Williams Invitational this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Women’s Soccer Takes Care of Business in Maine, Going 2-0

Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor

The women’s soccer team took the arduous journey to Maine this past weekend for a pair of NESCAC showdowns against Bates and Col by. The Mammoths proved to be the superior mammals in both contests, defeating both the Bobcats and the Mules by identical 2-0 scores.

First on the schedule was the game against Bates, which was played on Saturday, Sept. 24, in Lewiston, Maine. The Mammoths set the tone for the weekend right from the opening kickoff against the Bobcats, controlling the pace of play and generating numerous scoring chances. Abby Schwartz ’24 put the Mammoths on the scoreboard first just 10 minutes in, capitalizing on a scrum in front of goal after a Mam moth corner kick and a shot from captain Alexa Juarez ’23E. The goal was her sixth of the year, which leads the Mammoths. Juarez doubled the Mammoths’ tally just 10 minutes later, weaving through traffic and rifling a shot from 22 yards out for her first goal of the season, extend ing the lead to 2-0. Throughout the game, the Mammoths constantly applied their trademark high-pres

sure defense to limit the Bobcats’ opportunities. In a game where 30plus mile per hour winds dictated the flow of play, Amherst did not allow a single shot on goal for the entirety of the first half — the Mam moths finished with a lopsided 21 total shots (five on target) compared to only four total shots (two on tar get) for the Bobcats. This dominant defensive performance sealed the Mammoths’ second shutout in as many games.

The Mammoths then traveled even further north to Waterville to take on the Colby Mules on Sunday, Sept. 25. In what was essentially a repeat performance from the previ ous day, the Mammoths once again applied stifling pressure right from kickoff, jumping out in front with two early goals in the first half. Pa tience Kum ’25, who led the NES CAC in goals last season, scored her first of the season in the 20th minute. With much of the flair she employed while tearing up the NESCAC last year, Kum took a clinical first touch to beat one defender, then put the ball through the legs of the second, before finally burying the ball in the back of the net. Not to be outdone, Fiona Bernet ’25 followed her class mate up with her first goal of the

season just 11 minutes later for a 2-0 Mammoth lead. After stepping up from her defensive center midfield position and deflecting a Mules’ pass straight into the air, Bernet beat not one, not two, but three Mules to a loose ball headed inside the 18-yard box by (Managing Sports Editor) Liza Katz ’24. Bernet converted the one-on-one opportunity against the Mules’ keeper with a beautiful onetouch finish, bagging the first goal of

her collegiate career.

A much slower second half en sued, to be expected given it was the final half of both teams’ NES CAC doubleheader weekend. The last 45 minutes were characterized by a lack of chances for both sides, but the Mammoths saw out their two-goal victory and returned to Amherst with two important con ference wins. Just like the day prior, they dominated in the shot depart

GAME SCHEDULE

WOMEN'S SOCCER

Oct. 1: @ Williams, 12 p.m.

Oct. 2: vs. Lesley, 2 p.m.

FOOTBALL

Oct. 1: vs. Trinity, 1 p.m.

MEN'S SOCCER

Oct. 1: @ Williams, 2 p.m.

Oct. 4: @ WPI, 7 p.m.

ment once again, outshooting the Mules 19 (14 on target) to six (five on target).

The win marks the Mammoths’ third consecutive shutout victory and brings their record to 6-1 over all and 3-1 in the NESCAC. Up next for the Mammoths is a trip to Wil liamstown, Massachusetts, for their always-anticipated rivalry game against Williams on Saturday, Oct. 1. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m.

VOLLEYBALL

Sept. 30: vs. Bowdoin, 7 p.m.

Oct. 1: vs. Conn. College, 2 p.m.

WOMEN'S GOLF

FIELD HOCKEY

Oct. 1: @ Williams, 11 a.m.

Oct. 4: vs. Conn. College, 6 p.m.

MEN'S GOLF

Oct. 1-2: Phinney Classic @ Middlebury

Photo courtesy of Ian Katz

Oct. 1-2: Blazer Invitational (Home)

Ally Deegan '24 holds off a defender during the Mammoths' game against Bates this weekend. Ranked No. 11 in the nation, women's soccer is now 6-1 this season.