Issue 12

Newport Living Conditions Draw Complaints

Maggie Sher ’26 Staff Writer

President Michael Elliott toured Newport House on Tuesday, Nov. 15, to look at a number of concerns that residents have about living con ditions in the dorm.

Residents, whose reports have included mold, flooding, and infes tation, and other hazards, said these issues were left unresolved by the de partment of Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S).

Elliott was invited to visit the dorm by resident Lorett Alarcon ’24, who led the tour with fellow resi dent Catherine Carpio ’24. The two accompanied Elliott and Executive Director of Planning, Design and Construction Tom Davies around the dorm for about 15 minutes,

showing them various facilities in the house that have proven proble matic for residents, as well as areas of disrepair.

Alarcon has tried to bring admi nistrative attention to the issues since October to little avail. She eventual ly personally invited Elliott for a tour when she spoke with him at a first-generation and/or low-income (FLI) student event this month.

“The problems in Newport are not new,” Alarcon said. She has lived there since last year despite trying, unsuccessfully, to change rooms du ring the spring semester due to the poor living conditions.

Newport is officially an academic theme house for Spanish-speaking students, as well as those interested in Latinx culture more generally, although this year it has also housed

students who were unable to secure lodging in other dorms.

Pre-pandemic, Newport frequently hosted events for La Cau sa, the college’s affinity organization for Latinx students. Now, events are less frequent and less crowded, according to Alarcon and Carpio. The house can normally accommo date 30 students, plus three Spanish language assistants, but this year it’s under capacity. Only one other stu dent lives on the second floor with Alarcon, with six empty rooms.

“During our freshman year, a lot of my friends were excited to live here,” Alarcon said. “But when we got here — between the centipedes, the mice, spiders, and everything else, everyone moved out. They loo ked for cleaner housing.”

the house provides fertile ground for mold, which is one of the big gest problems for residents. Students have reported seeing it under the laundry machines, in bedrooms, and on bathroom floors.

A layer of moisture coats the floor of the basement bathroom, one of whose two sinks is entirely unusable as it currently connects to a large humidifier that sits just outside the door, blocking part of the hal lway. Water stains can be found on the portion of the carpet under the humidifier, another common bree ding ground for mold.

For day-to-day fixes, Alarcon said, the facilities department does the best they can, but the job proves difficult when faced with issues that

John

Mikhail

’91 Discusses Constitution’s Relationship to Slavery

Julia Gentin ’26 Staff Writer

John Mikhail ’91, Carroll pro fessor of jurisprudence at the Geor getown University Law Center, gave the Amherst Political Union’s (APU) first talk of the year on Nov. 17.

The event was titled: “Is Frede rick Douglass Right?: A look at sla very and anti-slavery movements at their foundings,” a question which Mikhail considers to be “one of the greatest controversies in the history of American law and politics.”

The question at issue was whether the original Constitution vested the United States with the power to abolish slavery. For gene rations, people assumed the answer was no, Mikhail said.

The “federal consensus” said that the Constitution did not al low for the United States to abolish slavery by ordinary legislation. Ins tead, emancipation would have to be done by other measures.

Mikhail explained that this “fe deral consensus” was agreed upon by a vast majority of Americans throughout the 19th century and notable historians.

“The ‘federal consensus’ over slavery is a good example of how the conventional wisdom can so metimes be mistaken, or at least

FEATURES 6

OPINION 10

Continued on page 3

The high level of humidity in Continued on page 3

ARTS&LIVING 15

Whispers in the Woods: Humphry Chen '26 ex plores the mysterious poetry mailboxes populating Amherst's hiking trails.

Kayah's Korner: Mikayah Parsons '24 suggests that students expand their interpretation of "success" beyond quantifiable products.

Vietnam Veteran Stories: Madeline Lawson '25 covers Emma Spencer's '23E thesis show exploring female Vietnam War veterans' stories.

After unaddressed requests to improve living conditions, Newport residents claim the dorm remains inhospitable.

Photo courtesy of Erin Williams '26

POLICE LOG

>>Nov. 15, 2022

9:29 a.m., Plimpton House ACPD took a larceny report after a speaker was reported stolen from the common room.

>>Nov. 15, 2022

5:02 p.m., College Street ACPD responded to a past incident involving a sus picious male on College

Street. The individual was gone on arrival.

>>Nov. 16, 2022 11:06 p.m., Hitchcock Hall

A CSA responded to a noise complaint and the party was shut down.

>>Nov. 17, 2022 2:03 a.m., East Drive and College Street

While on patrol, a Sergeant observed damage to a col lege street sign. This matter is under investigation.

>>Nov. 17, 2022 10:09 a.m., Service Building Lots ACPD is investigating dam age to a facilities vehicle that occurred overnight while parked.

>>Nov. 17, 2022 10:08 p.m., Stirn Auditorium ACPD responded to a report

of people on the roof. Two students were identified and referred to Student Affairs.

>>Nov. 19, 2022

1:31 a.m., King Hall Community Safety was dispatched to a report of an odor of marijuana smoke.

>>Nov. 19, 2022 8:40 p.m., Amherst College Police ACPD arrested Paul Leon of St. Petersburg, Florida, for trespassing.

>>Nov. 21, 2022

12:06 a.m., Jenkins Hall

A detective responded to a fire alarm and found an active fire, which was caused by lit candles. The fire was put out with a fire extinguisher.

>>Nov. 23, 2022

1:22 p.m., Bike Path

ACPD took a report of cars driving on the Bike Path that runs along the south edge of campus. Cars are not allowed on the path.

Special Election: AAS Vice President Candidate Statements

The Editorial Board

On Thursday, Dec. 1, the Associa tion of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold a special election for AAS vice president. The students below have announced their candidacies for this election. Students who are interested in hearing from these candidates should attend Speech Night on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Cole Assembly Room, which is located in Converse Hall. In order to run, candidates must have submitted a 100 word can didate statement to the AAS Elec tions Committee prior to Speech Night, and attend with a speech prepared. If a candidate cannot attend, they can send a proxy in their place.

Olamiposi Ajao

implement feedback from the beautifully diverse voices of the community.

Jaimie Han ’26

’25

It is with great excitement that I, Olamiposi (Olly) Ajao, announce my candidacy for vice president of AAS. I am running for this position because I am passionate about the student body. A natural-born conversa tionalist, I have a genuine inter est in people. I love taking the time to learn about my fellow students’ lives, interests, and struggles. As your VP, I will prio ritize collaboration and com munication. I will always do my best to engage with the Amherst student body, and I will work to

My name is Jaimie Han, and I’m a current senator for the class of 2026. I’m running for vice pre sident because I care about the relationship between our student community and Senate. I was the youngest person to chair my county in Maryland, and I have the agenda-making and struc tural experience to lead Senate meetings. It’s no secret that AAS is at a turning point right now — I aim to improve the inter activeness amongst students on campus and bring a fresh (pun intended) perspective. I want to be your vice president and I’d be honored to gain your trust and support.

Zane Khiry ’25

Hi everyone! I’m Zane Khiry, and I’m running for AAS VP. As a senator, I’ve demonstrated my excellent work ethic and commit ment to the interests of the stu dent body, serving on five com mittees instead of the usual three and working on everything from educational policy at Amherst to club funding! I have a vision for AAS as an institution with grea ter transparency, participation, and allyship with the student

body and its initiatives. To do so, I’ll host office hours, establish frequent communication lines with the student body at large, and work to incentivize greater participation in AAS. Vote Zane Khiry for VP to get the job done!

Ankit Sayed ’24

As vice president, I plan to directly address campus van dalism, AAS transparency and communication with the student body, and a culture that doesn't adequately support community service. Senators will be manda ted to host a class event to build connections with their consti tuents, and AAS will have a pre sence at the club fair and orienta tion. I plan to use CRP resources and restorative justice practices to fix destruction culture on cam pus and support student volun teering through a new committee on service. Finally, I plan to imp rove BC policy to better redirect students to other campus spon sors. Thank you for all your help.

Jalen Woodard ’23

My name is Jalen Woodard, I am a senior, and I’m running to be your next vice president. I served two years as a senator representing the class of 2023, a treasurer of the Black Students Union, and am currently the vice president of the QuestBridge

and Low-Income Scholars club. I have used these roles to advocate for the needs of low-income and minority students, push for more faculty diversity, and promote

awareness and access to mental health services. As your next vice president, I hope to continue to promote greater equity and wel lness on campus.

Following the early departure of former Vice President Jaden Richards '25, the AAS is holding a special election to fill the vacant position for next semester.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard

Newport Conditions: “No One Wants To Live Here”

happening on Route 9, she said.

require long-term solutions.

On the second floor, the bathroom floods each time the shower is used. Shower and toilet water mix together, covering the floor with about a centimeter of wa ter. The showers themselves additio nally prove inconvenient, residents said, because many of them don’t feature a changing room.

Residents also remembered an incident in which a mouse got loose in the house last year, which was cap tured on video. One video showed the mouse sniffing around the stove in the basement kitchen and another caught it crawling inside a resident’s shoe in their bedroom.

The tour ended in Alarcon’s bedroom, where she pointed out a black substance she worried was mold growing on her window sill, and places on the floor where the carpeting lifted up, revealing more of the black substance. She also was concerned there were termites in the walls after hearing clicking noises at night, but EH&S told her and other affected residents a few days after the tour that the building’s “ancient” heating system in the walls was the source of the sound. Before this, EH&S had told Alarcon multiple ti mes that the sounds she was hearing at 1 or 2 a.m. were from construction

“I feel like no one’s listening to me,” Alarcon said to Elliott during the tour. “Facilities are telling me the problems are not as severe as I think they are.”

Elliott thanked Alarcon and Carpio for the opportunity to see the house, and assured them that he would learn more about what could be done. Some of the issues, he said, would be larger projects requiring more time to fix.

Alarcon emphasized the impor tance of preserving a clean, well-kept space for Latinx students, especially as the college anticipates the pro bable end of affirmative action, so mething she believes “contributes so strongly to Latino communities [on college campuses].”

Elliott’s brief visit was an impor tant step for residents like Alarcon and Carpio, who want to see Newport become a better place for Latinx students to live and congre gate.

As of now, Alarcon said in an in terview with The Student, members of the community who are aware of incidents like the mouse in the kitchen are less inclined to attend cooking events hosted in Newport by La Causa, for example, and atten dance remains low at those gathe rings.

Alarcon arrived at Amherst in

2020, when the pandemic had halted many of the social events ordinarily hosted by La Causa. At the time, upperclassmen told her how acti ve the club used to be, especially in Newport. The basement features a mural painted by students, with the words “justicia y libertad” (justice and freedom) and “integration is beautiful” alongside figures of Latinx activists.

“La Causa used Newport as a center for Latin unity,” Alarcon said. “Rooms are empty right now becau se no one wants to live here.”

According to Alarcon and Car pio, more parties than usual, of ten hosted by non-residents, are also being held in the basement, frequently leaving it in a state of disarray.

“I don’t know who throws parties down here, but they do not clean up at all,” Carpio said during the tour. “It’s nasty when I come down here to try to do laundry and feel the sticki ness on the floor.”

“This is a very beloved space,” Alarcon added. “When it’s our party, we have a system for cleanup becau se it’s our home — we don’t want to ruin our home.”

Evidence of these parties was seen on the first floor, where vomit clogged a shower drain and stained an entryway rug.

Carpio and Alarcon also recalled

an incident last year when several students were sick in the Newport common room during a party and the room wasn’t cleaned up until the next day. According to Carpio, cus todians are usually the ones to clean up after non-resident parties.

“It was nasty to go downstairs for a glass of water and see [vomit] drying up in the sun,” she said. “It’s really unfortunate that [the custo dians] have to do that because it feels

so out of the job description for them — cleaning up mounds of throw up.”

After Elliott’s visit, Alarcon had a conversation with Director of EH&S Rick Mears, who she said was “really helpful” in addressing the concerns of residents. Alarcon communica ted his response with the residents of Newport, which included confir mation that there were no termites, and that water quality tests had been conducted.

Amherst Political Union Hosts First Speaker of the Year

from page 1

less obviously correct than is com monly assumed,” Mikhail said.

Frederick Douglass countered this “federal consensus.”

“Douglass said that the Cons titution was a ‘glorious liberty document’ when it was properly construed and that it was only a combination of cowardice, ig norance, racism, and sheer unwil lingness that led so many predomi nantly white Americans to believe otherwise,” Mikhail said.

While abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison firmly held that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document, and believed that “we should rip up the Constitution,

1619 project that slavery was ab solutely central to the founding of the United States. I agree with the claim that one of the reasons why at least some of the founders broke with Great Britain was in order to protect slavery.”

Mikhail further clarified that historians underestimated how im portant protecting slavery was to some of the founders, that slavery flourished in the decades after the Constitution, and that constitutio nal powers to end slavery in indivi dual states were less clear.

These clarifications were sepa rate from the federal government’s powers, which Mikhail said he was most interested in.

Mikhail said that though the

rip up the union, break away and found our own country,” Douglass rejected that belief as foolish and extinguishing any hope for libera tion, Mikhail said.

Mikhail held that Douglass was largely correct in the argument that the federal government did have the power to abolish slavery.

Mikhail noted that often, when others make arguments that the founders and Constitution were more anti-slavery than assumed, “they are doing so from a very diffe rent vantage point.”

“They tend to be hostile to the 1619 project into critical race theory and that's not where I'm co ming from at all,” Mikhail said. “I agree with the core insights of the

Constitution neither guaranteed slavery, as the federal consensus claimed, nor entirely prohibited it, as Douglass claimed, it gave the United States’ federal government the powers to legislate on slavery.

“You might ask yourself: ‘What relevance does this all have today?’ The answer is that very similar ar guments are made on the scope of national power today to address pressing social problems.”

Currently, the Supreme Court is hostile to the idea of implied powers, Mikhail said, which shows how a reading of the Constitution based on the “federal consensus” carries through to recent constitu tional law.

“It hews to the familiar maxim

that the Government of the United States is ‘a government of limited and enumerated powers,’” Mikhail added.

Mikhail noted that many people on the left of the political spectrum are inclined to give up on the Cons titution for this reason.

He noted, however, that the ideas promoted by Douglass are a “good reminder that there are many ways to interpret the Constitution, some of which are progressive or can be used to further progressive goals.”

Mikhail said that attendees should walk away with “a heigh tened curiosity about the earliest

A Newport basement drain covered in dust and hair.

Photo courtesy of Maggie Sher '26

Georgetown Professor Invokes Douglass in APU Event

Continued from page 3

constitutional debates over slavery, which played such a pivotal role in American history — and whose le gacies still continue to shape Ame rican law and society today.”

APU Vice President Ava Knapp ’24 said that the connection to cur rent decisions based on “viewing the Constitution in a new light” was very relevant.

She said that the idea of implied powers through the “general welfa re clause” could help to further cau ses like healthcare that individuals thought could not be solved at the federal level.

Knapp said that the club intends to revive in-person speaker events like these.

“We try to vary our speakers as much as possible and we hadn't had someone with this kind of experti se,” Knapp said.

Knapp said that she was es pecially interested in Mikhail’s work, including his research on the emolument clause that was central

to investigations against former president Donald Trump.

“He also was responsible for doing some research at George town that exposed the institution's ties to slavery. Those projects are really important,” Knapp said.

Mikhail plans to write a series of articles, or even a book, on the Constitutional debate around sla very, which he said was inspired by “an explosion of scholarship and public commentary on the role of slavery in the creation of the Uni ted States.”

“This was the first time I had the chance to give a lecture and interact with current [Amherst] students — and I enjoyed it very much. The students who attended my talk were impressive and asked great questions,” Mikhail said.

Although there was a smaller turnout at the lecture, which Knapp attributed to decreased engagement in clubs post-pandemic and the event’s timing before Thanksgiving break, she said that it was a produc tive conversation.

Knapp added that APU has had conversations about how to increa se the attendance for their club at events like this one because partici pation “is vital to having a political ly engaged student body.”

“Our mission since the 1930s [has been] to stimulate political discussion and fight political apathy on college campuses,” Kna pp said. “Amherst is a great place to do that which has implications for how we participate as citizens going forward.”

Mikhail also said that political discourse is important in a liberal arts education.

“I hope my talk and others like it will help promote more informed and thoughtful conversations about potentially divisive topics, such as the legacies of slavery, racism, and white supremacy in our society, and what we can do to address them,” Mikhail said. “Disagree ments about these issues are nor mal and healthy. They are simply part of how we grow and learn from one another.”

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Nov. 16 to Nov. 29

The Editorial Board

Bias Incident at Book and Plow Farm

On Monday, Nov. 28, the Am herst College Police Department (ACPD) alerted the campus community about an incident of bias-related vandalism that occurred the previous week at Book and Plow Farm. According to Executive Director of Com munity Safety and Chief of Police John Carter, the farm manager on duty was informed of dam age done to a wooden pallet that had been painted with the queer and trans pride flag on Nov. 23, and immediately notified ACPD. Carter called the incident “un acceptable” and the “antithesis of [the college’s] values as an in stitution.” As of now, there is no indication as to who committed the vandalism, and the pallet is in police storage.

The Office of Sustainability

Green Living Certification

The Office of Sustainability has rolled out a new Green Living Certification program, designed to help students understand their environmental impact. Students will be able to fill out a brief sur vey, which is linked in Nov. 29’s Daily Mammoth, about their “lifestyles and residential living habits.” Depending on how en vironmentally-friendly students’ habits are, they will receive either a bronze, silver, or gold clean living certification. Those who fill out the survey will receive a sticker that corresponds to their rating and will be entered into a raffle for a Hydroflask. The sur vey is available until Dec. 2.

Administration Sends Survey to Jewish Community

Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Harrison Blum is looking for feedback from Jewish students regarding life at campus in light of the recent controversy

surrounding The Contra, as well as administration’s plan to bring speakers to campus for the spring semester to discuss antisemitism and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Students interested in providing feedback on the campus’s cur rent climate for Jewish students can submit feedback through a survey in the Daily Mammoth. The results of the survey, which will be open through Dec. 4, will be communicated to the admin istration following the survey’s closure.

Winter Parking Ban

In an email to students on Nov. 18, the ACPD announced the implementation of a new overnight parking ban in “any Faculty/Staff or Service Vehicle spaces and lots from 2 AM until 8 AM.” The purpose of the ban is to “facilitate snow removal and the treatment of icy surfaces.” Students will still be able to park as normal in the South Lot, Hills

Lot, and the designated student parking lots. The email also re minded students that overnight

parking is not allowed in the Orr Rink Lot. The ban will remain in place until Apr. 1.

The Office of Sustainability began a new green living certification initiative.

John Mikhail '91 is a professor at Georgetown University.

Photo courtesy of John Mikhail '91

Graphic courtesy of The Office of Sustainability

Staff Spotlight

Q: How long have you been with Amherst College, and what re sponsibilities have you taken on at the college?

A: I’ve been at Amherst College since December 2021, so I’m coming up on a year next month. I started [working at the college] part-time as a program coordina tor for the Office of Identity and Cultural Resources [OICR]. At the time, I was still a grad student at UMass and also working as a grad uate assistant in diversity education at UMass. In my role as a program coordinator, I’ve worked with all of the resource centers, but [especial ly] with the MRC, supporting the programming that students were putting on and planning ... In my new role, I think the main differ ence is that I’m working full-time and taking on more responsibili ties. I’ll be taking the lead on man aging the [MRC] as a whole and re ally ensuring that we are upholding the vision and the mission [of the center] to support students of color on campus.

Q: What are the new responsibili ties that come with your position?

A: The main thing is that I’m in charge of managing all of the as pects of the MRC and the space itself, making sure that it’s well tak en care of — that we have enough snacks for students, that students know what resources we have avail able in the center ... Another newer responsibility is that I am primar ily responsible for supporting and supervising the students that work in the MRC ... Something else that I’ve taken on is supporting regis tered student organizations that are

affinity-based, and align with the MRC’s mission to support students of color on campus.

Q: Where did you obtain your ed ucational foundation?

A: I went to Westfield State Univer sity, and I was an ethnic and gender studies major ... I would say that my educational foundation is not only based on my academic experience and what I’ve learned in the class room but also my lived experienc es as someone who is Black, queer and of immigrant experience, among other things. All of those things led me to want to learn more about myself and others as it relates to identity, and how that shapes us and how we experience the world.

After undergraduate school, I took two gap years and then applied for the Social Justice Education program at UMass, which is really focused on dialogue across dif ference and facilitation. With the coursework that I was able to take, I’ve been able to gain skills in being a facilitator in intergroup dialogue, as well as developing content and curriculum around topics around identity.

Q: How has your major in Ethnic and Gender Studies helped you understand and address many issues our college students are facing?

A: Being an ethnic and gender studies major gave me a lot of lan guage and words to better under stand race and gender in the Unit ed States. I think that a lot of that academic lens has given me a better understanding of what it means to hold a social identity. I think that

Jane Kungu

sible and known to students.

Q: What next step, in your opin ion, does the MRC need to take to fulfill its mission of supporting people of color at Amherst Col lege?

figuring out what they want the committee to look like and how that MRC can support it.

Q: What are your favorite Mam moth memories?

everyone’s experience is going to be different and there’s not necessarily one way that someone experiences the world or Amherst as it relates to identity. I think that I’ve also gained a lot of historical context for how race and gender worked in the United States and function, in teract, and how that history shows up in different ways and in different dynamics in the present day.

Q: What would you say are some of the MRC’s strengths and short comings?

A: The MRC is really well estab lished and has a really rich history which is rooted in activism and students really demanding more for Amherst College … I also think that the center has a lot of really great programming that happens yearly. [For example] I’m thinking a lot about Black Art Matters, and that being a central event that start ed with students and became a col laboration with the MRC and the Mead Art Museum. … In terms of shortcomings, I think the pandem ic has really had a huge impact on engagement in the center. How the MRC has been used over the last two and a half years has looked very different from now. With Covid regulations changing and things becoming less and less strict, I am definitely seeing more students uti lizing the center. There’s definitely still a population of students on campus who don’t know that the MRC exists or have never been to the MRC because they spent a year or two learning virtually due to Covid. I think that’s something that we’re still working on improving and making the MRC more acces

A: One step that I think is really im portant is to bring back more op portunities for students to have nu anced conversations and engage in dialogue, specifically around race and racism and how racial identity shapes all of our lived experiences both on and off campus. I think that students are definitely already having those conversations in more informal spaces, but it’s something that I want to see the MRC do more of. Another step is continuing to work with RSOs more. The MRC has historically supported RSOs with programming and fund ing, and I want to see us develop stronger relationships with student groups that become sustainable.

Q: As an assistant director, what is your vision for MRC?

A: My vision is really to just build on what has already been creat ed in the MRC. My hope is that the MRC will return to a place of having more dialogues, more con versations about identity, and more spaces like that where students can really reflect on their own identities and learn from each other at the same time. There’s always so much going on in the world and it has an impact on all of us, including stu dents on campus and having space to process and talk about those things is really important and nec essary for us to be doing.

Q: What projects are you current ly working on at the MRC?

A: One project I am currently working on is developing a com mittee with the RSOs on campus that the MRC has historically sup ported. This was an idea that was brought to the MRC by students from a few groups on campus in cluding the Asian Pacific American Action Committee, as well as La Causa. We are currently working on getting the RSOs together and

A: A lot of my favorite memories are actually from this semester. I was part of supporting and helping with planning for Latinx Heritage Month, and we were able to bring author Gabby Rivera to campus.

She’s a queer Puerto Rican author that has written some amazing books, so bringing her to campus was really a great experience. We were able to have dinner with her alongside students, faculty and staff. It was just a great space, I re ally felt like I was in a community.

I know that’s how a lot of other folks felt as well. That’s one favorite memory.

Another favorite memory is from another event, Unapologetically International… which was planned and implemented by the Center for International Student Engagement in collaboration with the Interna tional Student Association on cam pus. I wasn’t able to go last year, so this was my first year going, and it was really great to be in commu nity with everyone and the energy in the space was just amazing. I’m really grateful that I was able to be part of that.

Q: Finish this thought: “I am proud of myself because …”

A: I’m proud of myself because I think that my inner child — the child version of myself — didn’t ex pect me to be where I am now, but I think that she would be proud of me. In a lot of ways, I think that’s what makes me proud — being able to grow and learn and really come into being my own person is something that I’m really proud of.

Knowing that I still have so much to learn and grow in, I think I’m really proud of how far I’ve come.

Read the full interview online at www.amherststudent.com

Photo courtesy of Claire Beougher '26

Jane Kungu is the assistant director of the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC). Before taking this position, she worked as a program coordinator with the Office of Identity and Cultural Resources. Kungu reflected on her goals for the position, the strengths of the MRC, and her educational journey.

Whispers in the Woods: A Poetry Box Investigation

Humphrey Chen ’26 Staff Writer

“Can we stop, Listen?

Slow down. It’s okay. Just … Listen” — Anonymous

Hidden in the foliage, among the nooks and crannies in Am herst’s Wildlife Sanctuary, sit musty, unassuming mailboxes. Beneath their splintering surfac es, you will find narratives, dia ry entries, love letters, illustra tions, raunchy NSFW jokes, and so much more. Amongst the 94 miles of natural terrain, you will only find two such boxes: one on the Emily Dickinson trail and an other near Book and Plow Farm. These poetry boxes are Amherst’s well-kept secret.

The boxes persist at the inter section of nature, literature, and discovery, yet many people don’t

even know they exist. I’m sur prised that these posts don’t have a gaggle of English majors con stantly circling around them in prayer, kneeling before a shrine and blood sacrifice. These fix tures deserve a spotlight … and maybe that blood sacrifice. So, follow my attempts at uncovering the origin of these elusive instal lations.

Phase 1: Google

From my initial Google search of “Amherst poetry boxes,” I found an article about the box on Emily Dickinson trail. Amherst citizen and garden society mem ber, Roxy Schneider, dedicated the Dickinson box to her late hus band, Charlie Parham, the article explained. An avid poetry read er, Parham taught English and managed a literature program in South Hadley for gifted children. The box serves as a monument

for Charlie Parham’s legacy, and a recognition of Schneider’s grief. The leather-bound notebook within the box carries countless entries, replies, and interactions, all attesting to Parham’s legacy.

Phase 2: Emails. God, so many emails.

It’s a memorial befitting an edu cator.

A straightforward and sweet history for post number one. Unfortunately, the investigation only gets messier from here.

I directed my first wave of emails to the Outing Club, Po etry Club, and Maida Ives, our incredible Book and Plow direc tor. Ives recounted how “through the years, [she] read a few and dropped a few poems in the one closest to B&P.” From Ives, I also learned about Mark Uchneat, a staff member in landscaping and groundskeeping. Sadly, I got nothing in response. Beat en, broken, and bedraggled, my editors gave me new leads to contact: Lecturer in English and Director of the Creative Writing Program Kirun Kapur and Mike Kelly, head of archives & special collections. Emails sent. Replies received: “unfortunately I don’t have any insight …” “I’m so sorry I don’t know much about …” “... why would I care …”

Things were looking so bleak.

One afternoon, I messaged Nicola Courtright, the William McCall Vickery 1957 professor of the history of art. Given the previ ous failures, I didn’t expect much. However, after a short exchange she agreed to an interview. The light in my abyss. A glorious rain amid a harsh drought. Live, love, laugh Courtright.

Phase 3: A Chat With Professor Courtright

Q: How do you feel about the poetry boxes sprinkled around our hiking trails?

A: Whoever came up with this has the fabulous idea of not just having it be a place where you, a passive person, would pick up a poem and read it, but where you could write your own poem … The idea is that you experience

The opening page to the journal of poems on the Emily Dickinson trail. Note the inscription on the left dedicated to Charlie Parham.

Continued on page 7

Photo courtesy of Humphrey Chen '26

These boxes persist at the intersection of nature, literature, and discovery, yet many people don't even know they exist.

Photo courtesy of Sonia Chajet Wides '25 The poetry box on the Book and Plow trail: a space for community and creativity.

Wonder of the Wanderer: Poetry Boxes Remain Mysterious

Continued from page 6

the feelings that you’re having with a poem in nature. To have it be an exchange is so Amherst.

Q: How did you first find these boxes?

A: It was a total accident. When we went on our hike to look at the bird sanctuary area, we stum bled upon this poetry box … It was like this great discovery, like, “Oh my god, here’s this poetry box, let’s go read from it!” Some student picks a poem and reads it aloud for the rest. Then we continue on our way. It’s hard to read a poem. That is to say, you really have to be calm, you have to be intentional, and you have to sit down and really focus on the poem.

Q: How do these boxes reflect Amherst’s relationship with na

ture?

A: Amherst is a place that’s all about walking in nature. The college even bought many, many acres of land so that the view of Amherst, being nestled in the hills, wouldn’t be disturbed by settlements. The whole idea of walking in nature and associat ing walking with poetry is long standing … going back to clas sical antiquity and the idea of nature associated with beauty, nature associated with feelings, nature associated with beauti ful poetic expression — those things are way [integrated] into the classical tradition that I’ve [experienced]. So, Amherst real ly cares about being a place that is in nature. This goes back to an old idea that gentlemen learned from being out of urban centers and out in nature, and that you learn by discovery and seemingly wandering — not towards a goal

or something — but [that’s how] you begin to have ideas. That’s the sort of environment that Am herst College wanted to cultivate

“

To stifle the true potential of this fixture by clawing at its origins is antithetical to the academic and spiritual purpose that nature holds ... Knowing is confining, whereas uncertainty is liberating.

poetry box, it feels like an inti mate surprise. The aged wood and chipping paint invite vulnerabili ty because there is safety in nature and antiquity. Jalen Woodard ’23 reflected how the box “gave [him] the chance to be creative, to ex press what [he] was feeling in the moment.” When I asked about his thoughts on the boxes’ obscurity, Woodard replied, “I wondered … who was in charge of refilling the boxes with fresh journals? Who would read my poem? I loved the idea of someone stumbling on my poem and sharing the same ap preciation for nature as I had. The same peace I had experienced sit ting by the river.”

gins is antithetical to the academ ic and spiritual purpose that na ture holds at Amherst. Especially when interacting with poetry, an intimate medium, there is solace in mystery. Knowing is confining, whereas uncertainty is liberating. Authors and visitors of the boxes can ascribe their own histories to the boxes, allowing this meaning to fulfill their needs at the mo ment.

If I were to hunt down the keeper of this post and unveil its every intricacy, would it really be the same?

after a certain point.

Phase 4: Eureka-ish When students encounter a

Dissecting the history of this mailbox invalidates the wonders of Woodard and many others. Courtright can attest to the beau ty of poetry, nature, and the un known. To stifle the true potential of this fixture by clawing at its ori

Thus, the mystery of Amherst poetry mailboxes remains alive: constructed by a faculty member? Uprooted from the lawn of an unassuming Amherst denizen?

Grown from a novel, planted into the earth and watered with the tears of English theses students? We might never know.

How poetic.

Photo courtesy of Humphrey Chen '26

A short poem from the Book and Plow box.

Photo courtesy of Humphrey Chen '26

A poem by Woodard on the Emily Dickinson trail.

Photo courtesy of Humphrey Chen '26

An interaction between two writers from the Book and Plow post.

Bunnies on Town Green Hop Onto the Scene

Pho Vu ’23 Staff Writer

If you stroll through the Am herst town common on any given weekend, there’s a good chance you’ll see 15 to 20 rabbits hop ping around, surrounded by a small crowd of student admirers.

The bunnies are owned by Ruth Higbe-Harrah and Angel Guzman, who bring them to the town of Amherst every weekend. The owners notify the communi ty of their appearance in the area through image posts uploaded on their Facebook page, “Cotton Ball Bunnies.”

Higbe-Harrah is original ly from Minnesota, where she began rescuing bunnies when she was a kid. As soon as Hig be-Harrah graduated college, the first thing she did was adopt a pair of bunnies and bring them with her when she moved to the East Coast three years ago.

Angel Guzman, a Puerto Ri can truck driver who works for Graybar Electric Company, met

Higbe-Harrah and her bunnies in the Forest Park of Springfield in 2019, while he was taking his own bunnies out for a stroll. Hig be-Harrah had two bunnies with her at the time: One was a Neth erland Dwarf, and another was a Polish and Lionhead Mix Rabbit. Angel was also the owner of two short-haired rabbits. Unfortu nately, shortly after the two met, her Netherland Dwarf died of lung cancer, and the Polish and Lionhead Mix passed away due to old age.

“I actually met Angel be cause he was in the park with bunnies. We started doing that every weekend and just meeting up with our bunnies. Eventual ly, we ended up actually raising the Angora [Rabbits] I moved in with him so we could be room mates and both take care of the bunnies,” said Higbe-Harrah.

The co-owners now have 30 English Angora rabbits, around 20 of whom are albino.

Higbe-Harrah spoke on how she and Guzman take care of the

bunnies. “They mostly eat hay so we just buy a small bale of hay,” she said. “And then they just eat palettes and leafy greens, so we just get different herbs and veg etables from the grocery store for them. They like fruit as treats.”

One thing that the co-own ers have to be cautious about is breeding among the bunnies. “There was one point where one of our unneutered males got in with our females and then all of a sudden we had like five litters at once,” Higbe-Harrah recounted. “That was stressful.”

Another challenge that goes with it is the cost of spaying. These bunnies are listed as ex otic pets, so it costs around $300 to spay each. “We pay for these costs out of our pocket. Neither of us have kids. We just think of them as kids we’re raising.”

The two are also concerned about the contagion of RHDV-2, a rare disease that has been get ting more common among bun nies.

Higbe-Harrah explained that

baby bunnies also pose other challenges. “Babies are high er maintenance — you have to watch your steps to not step on them at home,” she said. “Things like that.”

In the winter, there are also obstacles to getting the bunnies outdoor time. Higbe-Harrah noted one solution she and Guz man came up with. “Sometimes when [we are] in Stanley Park and then in the winter when the parks are wet, we will just bring them in their stroller to like two different malls and walk around,” she said.

During her time off from work, Higbe-Harrah also teaches the bunnies tricks with strollers and carriers. She also potty-trains them, and tries to train them to stay within a certain radius of [the two owners] and come back when called. “They know how to jump into [the stroller] and usu ally [when] we have the carriers put down for when we’re packing up, they’re just getting into the carrier's themselves,” she added.

“They feel safe whenever I stay near so they kind of want to stay nearby and then if they do go exploring a little too far we just kind of herd them back to the area we’re in.”

Typically, setting up an area where people can come and have fun with pet animals takes time and demands money from those who are interested. How ever, Higbe-Harrah and Guz man make playing with rabbits a zero-cost experience for peo ple. “Tons of people come each time we visit, and they definitely seem therapeutic,” Higbe-Harrah said. “People feel just distracted from whatever they might be stressed about. Lots of oxytocin and serotonin are released.” Hig be-Harrah said, referencing the biology knowledge under her belt from her major during col lege days.

To many’s amazement, Hig be-Harrah and Guzman’s bun nies are far from being shy or getting intimidated by people. “We started bringing them out to the parks from such a young

age — usually from when they’re three weeks old,” Higbe-Harrah explained. “So from the very be ginning, they’re exposed to lots

I actually met Angel because he was in the park with bunnies. We started doing that every weekend and just meeting up with our bunnies.

— Ruth Higbe-Harrah

of people [and become] accus tomed to it and they’re affection ate.”

Some of the bunnies that the pair owns are up for adoption. Many adopted the bunnies to be family pets. Many are researchers from the STEM field who have done thorough research to un derstand what owning bunnies entails. “We definitely want to make sure they don't end up in cages,” said Higbe-Harrah. “We encourage people to if they’re not just loose in the house to at least have an exercise pen so they have plenty of space to move around and exercise.”

They ask for $100 for one and $150 for a pair. “We strongly rec ommend that they adopt a pair so that they have a friend.”

Guzman and Higbe-Harrah also said that the bunnies enjoy the time they get to spend in the park. “They probably get really excited when they have a whole park to run around in with lots of space,” she said. “I think they are really happy playing here.”

Higbe-Harrah noted that bunnies “binky” — a movement native to them in which they jump straight in the air whilst quickly twisting their head, hind, or both — whenever they’re on cloud nine. She also explained that the bunnies show they are

Guzman and Higbe-Harrah's rabbits have become a fixture on the town green.

Photo courtesy of Pho Vu '23

Owners Speak on Caring for, Sharing Bunnies

Continued from page 8

happy when they rub their teeth together, adding: “If they’re off on their own, and then they just like really dramatically flop over — that’s something they do [when] they’re happy.”

Back in Springfield, Hig be-Harrah used to have a parttime job where she supported people with illness. Now, she said that the bunnies are the biggest supporters of her mental health. “Anytime I’m sad or anytime I’m feeling down for whatever rea son, just snuggling with them always helps,” she said.

When a bunny in the family passes away, Higbe-Harrah and Guzman always have them cre mated and their ashes spread at a small pet memorial, while donating their bodies to a small animal hospital. In giving away their organs for medical reasons, Higbe-Harrah hopes that doc tors and scientists can look, learn more about the cause behind these pets’ diseases, and eventu ally help future rabbits with the same condition.

Guzman, the other half of the bunny duo, seemed more quiet and reserved, always trying to show the kids the proper ways to touch the bunnies without scar ing the animals off.

“These bunnies are like kids. Carrots are candies for them. Apples, bananas, and berries as well,” Guzman said, “I only re ward them with carrots and oth er fruits one or twice per week, especially during the weekend.”

Since the academic year start ed, the rabbit co-owning friends have received many requests from students asking them to come to town with their bunnies. As of now, they spend their time at the Amherst Commons every Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m until 6 p.m.

As a residential counselor at a group home for LGBTQ+ youth, Higbe-Harrah often brings her bunnies to her workplace, be lieving they will help strengthen education and build positivity for the children. Higbe-Harrah

shared: “Something that they look forward to and they’re al ways asking me, like, ‘When’s the next time you’re bringing in the bunny?’”

One perk of raising these bun nies, according to Higbe-Harrah, lies in their abundant provision of fur, which can be used as a fi ber. “Typically they’re raised for their fiber rather than as pets like we have them. You can sell their fur, and it’s really valuable to people who make yarn and stuff like that.”

“I just need the furs to be like two or three inches long [to sell them]. I usually just wait for them to grow out, and then I brush out the loose hair and keep it. Once they get too long, I’ll just use the scissors and cut it and then sell it.”

Pointing at the yarn hat that was covering her head, Hig be-Harrah said, “I’ve just spun their fur into yarn myself. Like this hat I made from their yarn store now. This I blended with already dyed sheep’s wool, and then the white is just natural bunny colors.”

In the next few months, Hig be-Harrah is moving back to Minnesota to work for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and to pursue a graduate degree in biology.

“If you work for [the clinic] for a year and commit to work ing for two years after, they’ll pay for your grad school. That’s kind of what I’m hoping to do: to go there and work in a lab or some thing with the undergraduate degree I already have and then apply for that program they have and apply to grad schools.”

She is planning to take five to six bunnies with her, while the rest will stay with Guzman.

When asked about his own future with the Angoras, Guz man said he would keep taking the bunnies to the town’s public parks. “It will definitely be a bit more to handle alone, now that the number of bunnies is ex panding. But I have no problem with that. I love taking the bun nies here.”

Angel Guzman, the other co-owner of the bunnies, poses with a fluffy friend.

Photo courtesy of Pho Vu '23

Ruth Higbe-Harrah, one of the co-owners of the bunnies, on the town green.

Photo courtesy of Pho Vu '23

Kayah’s Korner: “Success”

Mikayah Parsons ’24 Columnist

Anonymous asks, “Hi Mikayah! How do you practice self-love especial ly when it comes to feeling like you have the weight of being successful at Amherst College for your family and loved ones? At times, it feels like I exert so much pressure on myself especially when I think about all the family members that are looking up to me. As a FLI student, have you felt this way as well?”

Dear Anonymous,

I too have felt the many pres sures of achieving “success” as a FLI student at Amherst. I’d like to offer you an ideological response to your question.

I recommend shifting your mindset. When I arrived at Am herst, I adopted certain beliefs that influenced the way I presented my self on campus. The conversations taking place around me reflected a jargon I didn’t possess and markers of wealth such as expensive coats or summer experiences. The environ ment felt like a pressure cooker of status that I felt alien to. I was de termined to prove that I belonged here — I felt that I needed to justify my presence in the student body by doing something phenomenal. What I failed to realize was that I am already phenomenal. I don’t need to know you, Anonymous, to know that you are too. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.

The thing that we often have to communicate to ourselves is how many definitions of success exist. To get to Amherst, many of us bought into a system of beliefs that glorifies higher education and depreciates the very backgrounds we hail from. Therefore, our very conception of what it means for a FLI student to attend college entails positioning ourselves at an intersection of op positional identities. We begin to view success as a funnel that even tually pours out into things such as influence and capital, stressing

about grades and how they’ll affect career outcomes or graduate school applications.

At the same time, we remember examples of success in our lives prior to our arrival at Amherst. For many of us, that looked like insane levels of productivity — seeing our family members work multiple jobs or juggling several responsi bilities ourselves. When these ideas of success converge, we’re left with an impossible definition of success that suggests our time at Amherst can only be justified by how much quantifiable product we produce — how much capital we make or how productive we are. When you look at it like this, I hope it becomes clear to you why you might feel over whelmed by a sense of duty to these definitions of success.

And so I ask you, Anonymous, to evolve your definition of success — to allow yourself room for grace in your conception of the world around you and how you see your self fitting into it. Remind yourself that success does not have to be so quantifiable or limited. Remind yourself, too, of how complicated these definitions of success already are. When you close your eyes and imagine where you come from, whatever that may mean to you, remember the love you feel in your imagination. Find the experiences

that make you feel an unmatched sense of love. With that image in mind, I encourage you to revise your definition of success. Success, for me, is the impact I make in the world around me. I didn’t say how much impact. I merely said, “impact.” Having a conversation with a customer while I work the register at Frost Cafe is impactful. Calling my mother and offering her advice or receiving ad vice from her are also both impact ful in different ways. Writing this column and sharing my experience with other students so they feel less alone is another form of impact. Whatever I do in my life, in order to feel fulfilled, I need to see myself connected to what I’m doing by cre ating this impact.

When you feel tempted to ad monish yourself for a lack of aca demic output or for underperfor mance, I encourage you to practice grace. Ask yourself what you’ve done to make an impact in your personal life or someone else’s. En courage yourself to find the things that give you a sense of fulfillment independent from the expectations of others. If you tap into the image of love or fulfillment discussed ear lier, what do you see yourself doing inside it? Once you’ve answered

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 Puzzles

John Joire

Managing Podcast Andrew Rosin Sam Spratford Assistant Podcast Karina Maciel Managing Design Andrew Kim Brianne LaBare Managing Photo Claire Beougher Slate Taylor Managing Graphics Nina Aagaard Shani Getz

STAFF

Publisher Robert Bischof Digital Director

Sawyer Pollard

Social Media Manager

Emi Eliason

Letters Policy

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

Publication Standards

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

All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a 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.

Mikayah Parsons ’24 encourages students to recon sider their notion of what success looks like.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard '26

A Low-income Student’s Guide to Navigating Success

that, begin to move the pieces of your life around those things — be cause those things are your needs, the things you need to thrive.

At the end of the day, grappling with your question will not end overnight. It’s an iterative process that requires a conscious effort to

shift and adapt both your self-per ception and your outlook on the world around you. It requires changing your mindset and ex posing yourself to a variety of ex periences that unlock that certain feeling.

I know that much of what I’ve written here feels intangible, but I encourage you to go after decon

structing your understanding of success by starting small and in sev eral ways. Find things that make an immediate impact, even if the im pact is an opportunity for self-care. Journaling helps me reflect on the places in my life I feel most fulfilled. Calling a friend or family member makes me feel an incredible sense of love. Taking a walk around campus

helps me clear my mind and prac tice relaxation. The type of extracur ricular activities I engage in speak to my values. Even the cheesy roman tic comedies I watch to unwind re flect the elements I need to see in a given moment. I can’t prescribe you a specific combination of things be cause it looks different for everyone, but these are the larger ideas and the

What Does Amherst Owe Democracy?

Zane Khiry ’25 Staff Writer

Harvard, Holy Cross, Princeton, Princeton, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Rhodes, Harvard. You may think I’m just naming a bunch of schools worse than Amherst (and I am), but I'm actually listing off the institutions where every cur rent U.S. Supreme Court Justice received their undergraduate de gree — almost all of which are elite colleges. In the midst of corroding trust in our nation’s institutions and the pillaging of them by a nar row circle of elites like those on the Supreme Court, it’s important to recognize the role that we — those who comprise the bodies of the elite institutions that train our nation’s democratic elites — have played and continue to play in the death of American democracy. The crisis of leadership starts here, at Amherst and its peer institutions, and any failure to produce civic-minded, responsive leaders should be seen as the fault of these institutions.

Elite institutions like Amherst need to take ownership of Clarence Thomas, for example, the same way they enthusiastically take credit for

Barack Obama — because, whether they like it or not, it is they who pro duced him. Thomas, the Supreme Court justice who worked to over turn Roe v. Wade, and is currently working to dismantle affirmative action, graduated near the top of his class at Yale Law. He exempli fied what it means to a successful student at such an institution. The problem, however, is that the no tion of success upheld by these in stitutions often doesn’t have any real place for public service.

Elite schools like Amherst that only pay lip service to public ser vice, still simultaneously uphold a number of hidden systems and in centives (like those that sent a third of our 2021 graduates to Wall Street) that have given and will continue to give us a corrupt and disreputable elite. Amherst owes it not only to us, but to society at large, to uncover these hidden incentives and seek to change them — because Amherst, and its peer institutions, owe our democracy its future leaders.

One might say the entire system of elite education is more focused on reproducing the class system than it is on producing future lead ers. Students here at Amherst are

overwhelmingly wealthy, and dis proportionately choose to go into wealth-making professions like finance and consulting. We are, in some sense, no better than the aristocrats of old. We frequently take advantage of our privilege at the expense of society at large, and there is no doubt that the entire sys tem of elite education is at fault. The very things that get us into schools like Amherst — the crafting of pris tine resumés, working endlessly to achieve a high gpa, even at the ex pense of learning — no doubt, are at fault. We begin the rat race in our high school years, and colleges like Amherst often never compel us to step outside of it and think about what our responsibilities to the world may be.

There is the question of whether or not Amherst encourages its stu dents to learn to be responsive to the needs of our democracy. I believe it is not currently doing enough. The very idea of the college campus was born out of a need for elite in stitutions to find a way to protect America’s best and brightest from the corrupting influences of nearby cities — and Amherst was no differ ent, with some buildings here being

built to intentionally face away from the town. While the idea of con structing secluded campuses to pro tect students from public vice has since fallen out of favor, one can still see its effects exemplified in issues like the town-gown divide, or the divide that exists between college students and the residents of the town in which the college is located. Amherst College is as a castle on a hill — and students can easily fall victim to a cloistered elitism, which encourages them to grow unrespon sive to the needs of their communi ty simply because they don’t have to be.

While many students here at Amherst do manage to successfully bridge the town-gown divide, the problem here is these students had to independently go out of their way to do so. Initiatives that encour age students to learn outside of the Amherst bubble, should be opt-out, and not opt-in. Here, I would advo cate the proliferation, and perhaps requirement, of community-based learning courses. These courses “link learning both inside and out side the classroom,” mandating that students not only learn from their textbooks, lectures, and in-class dis

People Like You More Than You Think

Isaiah Doble ’25 Staff Writer

For the first few months that I knew my best friend at Amherst, I thought he hated me. I am not exaggerating. Whenever I caught him typing on his computer in our dorm’s second-floor common room and loudly greeted his presence,

he would return, at best, a hesitant smile and wave, or, more frequently, a glowering stare and an inaudible response. I am not sure what kept me from giving him up; maybe I saw acquiring his friendship as a feat to conquer, the social equivalent of that one impossible boss in “Un dertale.” But while I have yet to beat Sans, I did win my now-best-friend

over with my stubbornly vivacious greetings, a couple of big-group na ture walks blasting 2010s pop hits on a speaker, and funny socks for a birthday gift. It turned out that he was just quiet — he didn’t hate my guts (or, at the very least, he even tually learned how to tolerate me).

I saw him as a special case. More often than not, when I meet new

people on campus, I assume they do not like me — that they actively do not enjoy my company — and I tend to keep my distance. I see their stares ahead while I pass them on the quad, our short and superficial small-talk exchanges in line at Val, and our awkward glances in group conversations as indicators that they most certainly do not want to get to

smaller first steps I ask you to keep in mind — to understand, to apply, to complicate — as you imagine yourself at Amherst College.

Lastly, Anonymous, I’m proud of you. Thank you so much for reach ing out.

Until next time, Kayah

cussions, but from the world around them. A new club, Amherst Stu dents for Democracy (ASFD), has recognized not only this need, but is pushing it to the forefront with their upcoming pledge for students to do social impact work during their time at Amherst.

We, as Amherst students and democratic citizens, find the need for strong, responsive leadership renewed and ever-so-urgent in our time of imperial decay. However, as it currently stands, there is much more Amherst could be doing in order to counteract current trends in the production of our demo cratic elite. Among them would be working to shift the culture within the college, and bridging the towngown divide.

William Deresiewicz once pow erfully noted that “the disadvan tage of an elite education is that it’s given us the elite we have, and the elite we’re going to have.” What we’re facing in America is a crisis of lead ership — and it is the responsibility of Amherst and its peers to once again take up the task of educating responsive, civic-minded leaders. The fate of our nation hangs in the balance.

know me more, that they are toler ating my presence but would rather be somewhere else. As it turns out, I am not alone in this feeling.

A new study revealed a sim ple yet revolutionary finding: We significantly underestimate the amount that other people like us.

Let’s Stop Buying Into the Culture of Social Coldness

us would love to make a good new friend.

Psychologists term this the “liking gap,” which describes the consistent difference between how much we perceive others as liking us within social interactions and how much they actually like us. If you feel like half of the Amherst campus actively dislikes you, you are not alone. You are probably just very wrong.

This is a pretty important find ing, considering that a fairly recent survey found that more than three out of four Amherst students re port experiencing extreme loneli ness while on campus. This is sig nificantly higher than the national college student average, which is a little more than half.

How can we use this discovery to combat campus loneliness and foster a campus environment that encourages the building of fulfilling relationships? As a fellow student, I offer a couple of my own thoughts and encourage you to form your own additional conclusions while reflecting on this information.

First, let’s stop buying into the culture of social coldness. If we continue to interact under the illu sion of the liking gap, we, as a cam pus community, will perpetuate the false norm that most Amherst students are not interested in so cializing. As this belief is evidently wrong, continuing to perpetuate it will only hinder our willingness and ability to interact socially. I think it is safe to say that most of

Also, try waving enthusiastical ly. What I mean by this is: Put good effort into communicating fondness or desire to get to know someone better, whether that means sprin kling them with compliments, giv ing them an exaggeratedly friendly wave or warm hug (with their con sent, of course), asking them to grab a meal one-on-one sometime, or anything else that exhibits your gen uine liking and interest.

While bridging the liking gap will require changing our mind sets to recognize that people like us more than we think they do, we can also diminish these misunder standings from others by changing the way we interact with others.

Let’s overcome our initial social worries and put more effort into our gestures toward those that we wish to get to know better, even if they at first seem uninterested. Do ing so might help us overcome any liking-gap-related misconceptions they might hold and make them feel more comfortable reciprocat ing the feelings and willingness to build a friendship. Wouldn’t you be interested in befriending someone whose entire day seems to brighten when they see you?

I’m not trying to argue that these ideas or shifts in behavior will abol ish campus loneliness or feelings of isolation, but they may empower us to create a warmer campus en vironment in which we feel more

easily able to connect with others and build meaningful relationships. Knowing this information about the liking gap helped me feel more comfortable — both in the relation ships I already have on campus, and

with the ones I want to build. I hope the same is true for you. We may not necessarily meet our new col lege best friend every time we over come the liking gap, but we may spark a wonderful connection that

we might have otherwise passed by. Let’s bridge the liking gap, one en thusiastic greeting at a time.

A final disclaimer: If you see me manically smiling or waving at you as I walk by, you now know why.

Mammoth Mind-Pho-ness: Adulting at and After Amherst

Who among us hasn’t fantasized at one point or another about having more time to discover our limitless potential within the comfort of the Amherst bubble before going into the outside world? But, alas, our time here is finite. In the blink of an eye, you reach graduation, and you are left to stand on your own feet. From improving credit scores and paying utility bills to doing your taxes and choosing your insurance package, you are faced with many

new responsibilities all at once. This can make adulting seem like a postgrad nightmare, but fear not — you aren’t alone in this journey! To give you a head start, here are some fresh pieces of advice that can hopefully help guide you on the right path to life as a newbie grown-up.

Remember Your Items

In terms of size, Amherst is ele gantly humble. But when looking for a lost item, zoo-wee-mama does the campus appear big. And, of course, it is inevitable that each of us will lose things at times. If you are a member

of AmherstBussin with notifications on, you can probably recall plenty of times when your phone buzzed with multiple messages from dif ferent people for the same purpose — finding their lost items. While at Amherst, we have resources like this to help us relocate our belongings, but after four years, we will have to face the wider world. There will be no group chat or community to turn to for help with your lost valuables. Fortunately, you can take some easy first steps to help solve this problem: Make digitized scans of your IDs, and keep your important belongings

inside at fixed locations so you can always go back to the exact place just for them.

Figure Out Your Finances

Money may not be a big deal for a wealthy, heavily endowed institu tion like Amherst, but it is a serious unresolved problem for us students. It’s why we spend our years in college taking classes and doing internships that will help us land jobs that will make us money and motivate us to continue each morning. Splurging comes with a feeling of power, and that is why we are always tempted to

spend.

In an era where machines are slowly replacing manual work, we see thousands of white-collar employees being laid off at Meta and other top corporations on the grounds that the economy is shrink ing and organizational restructuring has become a necessity. It is even more important to have a personal fund to fall back on during these try ing times. Being at a liberal arts col lege in a faraway town saves us from spending on stores that otherwise

Isaiah Doble ‘25 recommends waving enthusiastically as one easy way to maintain connections with your Amherst friends.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard '26

Preparing for Adulting as a College Student

will be found in the city. However, spontaneous trips to New York City or Washington, D.C. for the week end and unplanned online shopping sprees during Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales can leave you cleaned out in no time. Right now, most of us indulge in the luxury of living on campus “rent-free” after having our parents pay a lump sum at the start of each semester. It is essential to main tain control of our budget while it’s still easy. Maintaining awareness of your balance and making necessary changes to your spending as needed are essential to obtaining financial stability. No high-paying corporate job can guarantee you this stability if you don’t spend wisely. Use your banking app’s budgeting tool to track your financial progress and plan a well-thought out budget so that you don’t have to go through days stress ing about making ends meet.

Make Time for the People You Care About

Spending quality time with your friends is how you show them that they have an important place in your heart. If you constantly let your

schoolwork be the excuse for miss ing Val meals with your friends, then you’ll struggle even more when you try to plan an intercity reunion with them years after graduation. While you’re still an Amherst student, you benefit from the immediate prox imity to your friends on campus. Consider these whimsical strolls and dining hall get-togethers as a time to get close with your loved ones. When we graduate from Amherst, what’s left in our heads won’t be the ridiculously tough problem sets as signed in “Logic,” but the time we spent with our friends at the dining hall ranting about the difficulty of that class. Refrain from filling those gaps in an already packed day on your Google Calendar — they are meant for the important people in your life.

Give Yourself Enough Rest “Work or rest?” is a quandary that each of us faces, especially on days when the balance is just im possible to strike and you have to choose. Amherst’s notorious work load seemingly never ends, but you shouldn’t give up your sleep time. When you work too hard and too long, the only thing that remains in

your head is a ramshackle machin ery constantly pressuring you to stop or rush to get that work done over. If we understand them well, school as signments are not merely there for us to complete. They are assigned with the true purpose of sharpening our application of the knowledge learned in class. Meet with your professors to develop an appropriate plan to help you get the rest that your body needs. There is definitely an exercise hidden behind every assignment you are given. Future-you will be grateful to present-you for not missing out on solving them.

Stand Your Ground

Adulthood marks a new level of maturity in your thoughts and actions. Upon entering the adult world, you must bear in mind that you will be solely responsible for the decisions you make and their conse quences. Take caution when doing something, even if it may be done out of good intention to support someone. “Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye,” as the au thor H. Jackson Brown, Jr. once said. Use all of your five senses to judge matters. Don’t fall victim to peer pressure simply because the majori

ty is doing it. Pluck up your courage and speak your mind. In many cases, it’s best to remain silent as a form of protest in a world where people re sort to violence, money, or a zillion other means to threaten your belief systems. Yes, it feels like you’re run ning solo against an entire world, and it’s undeniable feelings of uncer tainties and tiredness may run amok every so often. In this context, the Korean proverb “존버는 승리한 다” that basically means “enduring wins all” is what you need to carve into your heart. We are Amherst students and we are here because we want to be here. Similar to this spirit, it is a core tenet of life to act in con cordance with our beliefs. Standing up for what we believe shapes us into a complete individual, thereby making us rightful leaders who act for the betterment of our people and communities.

Be Kind at Heart

This advice may seem out of place and moralizing, but it is what will best protect our journey to adult hood. Do something that you think will benefit the world — something that would put your mind at ease if you could do nothing else before you

had to leave this Earth. Your actions will accumulate into a bank of “good deeds,” and later on, during difficult times, it is these good deeds that will help you overcome hardship — not the breadth of your educational background, your wealth, or your career successes. This is life’s cov enant to protect us before we step out into the scary world beyond Amherst, where kindness eventually wins.

Adulting is a lifelong process. When we finally get the hang of something, another problem will come out of nowhere. It is common knowledge that when life gives us lemons, we are supposed to make lemonade. As Amherst students, I’m sure many of us will make invisible ink out of them to encode secret messages that one can only read under candlelight. One of the things that makes Amherst great is that it is a community filled with individuals who have a strong capacity to devel op themselves to achieve success in the future, despite the steep learning curve in adulting. Surrounded by such people, you would be wise to make an effort to learn from your fellow Mammoths and you will be just fine.

Amusements

International Anthems | Nov. 30, 2022

ACROSS 1 Like some humor

Animal-welfare org.

___ Light

The world's oldest national broadcasting org.

"___ is me!"

Most said name in the script of "High School Musical"

Animal pictured on the Aus tralian Coat of Arms

Website ID

Pitbull feat. Jennifer Lopez and Cláudia Leitte (2014)

Wee one

Site of the Maracana stadium, for short

Dude

Stately tree

Egg layers

K'naan (2010)

Film featuring the saber-toothed squirrel Scrat

Amazement

Too stunned to speak

A piece of the pie?

Bubbly beverage

Iron before smelting, in Minecraft

Apt name for the bus driver on "The Simpsons"

Ricky Martin (1998)

Study the night before a final

2,000 pounds

Ironically appealing because of bad taste, in the fash ion world

"___ Is A Magic Number" ("School House Rock" hit)

Winner of the 2022 MLB Home Run Derby

Stocking stuffer?

Add paprika and garlic salt, perhaps

Nicki Minaj, Maluma, and Myriam Fares (2022)

Bowler and porkpie, e.g.

Sounds of hesitation

Enero starts it

"Now ___ seen it all!"

Underwear with underwire

Shakira feat. Freshlyground (2010)

Dye color that is often made with beetroot

One of 24 for a human

Eat at the Inn on Boltwood, perhaps

Unyielding

Math problem, sometimes

Pro's counterpart

Sailor's assent

Johnson Chapel's rings three minutes early

One of the five basic taste qualities

Complete failure 11 De partment in the District

Ushers in

Room for a broom

Ballpark fig.

Part of a Freudian trio 24 Noble

Used to be

Base runner?

Hindu scripture

Members of the NFC West

Getting on in years 31 Surveillance system, briefly

"See for yourself!"

What a fingerprint may provide

Expression often heard at Greek weddings

Bask in the sun

Cookie brand first sold in 1912

Rebuke from Caesar

Facts and figures

Frenzied

Split ___ Soup

Things that might get graphic

The light at the end of the tunnel, for some

What "Apex Legends"

and "Overwatch" are

How tie games end in the NFL

One of Walt Whitman's professions

Like many barrels of wine

Henry or Harry, e.g.

Roadside rescue

Sail support

Make illegal

A piece of gum

Tuna at a sushi bar 70 Rainbow road?

Solutions: Nov. 16

John Joire ’26 Managing Puzzles Editor

Arts&Living

Archiving Vietnam Veterans’ Stories: A Thesis Exhibition

Madeline Lawson ’25 Managing Arts & Living Editor

From Dec. 1 to 18, Emma Spen cer’s ’23E multimedia thesis show, “So, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing In a Place Like This?” will be available for viewing in Fayerweath er Hall. In her show, Spencer, a stu dio art major, explores the personal histories of female Vietnam War veterans through photographs, in terviews, a short film, and more.

Spencer began working on the project as a high school junior in 2017, when a photography teacher suggested that she create a database of Vietnam veterans. Spurred on by the Ken Burns documentary, “The Vietnam War,” as well as her grand father’s service in the war, she began interviewing and photographing veterans in her area, culminating in an exhibition during her senior year.

Spencer took a break when she got to Amherst, but eventually re sumed the project after taking a class about the experiences of American soldiers. Her professor helped her apply for a Project for Peace grant, awarded to students aiming to be agents of change in their commu

nities, but due to Covid-19, she was unable to continue her research until a year later in 2021.

Originally, Spencer’s project only included men, but she realized that the experiences of female veterans were essential to include after meet ing Maryanna Heister, a woman who enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam War. “I honestly didn’t even know there were women [in the war],” Spencer admitted.

Once she interviewed Heister, she decided that she wanted to use her thesis to explore the stories of female veterans. “I wanted to do something that’s different and hasn’t been done,” Spencer said. “And I also wanted to honor these women.”

With the help of Diane Carlson Evans, a nurse in the war and the founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., Spencer reached out to a number of female veterans, all of whom re sponded with interest in the project.

With funding from Amherst, Spencer interviewed 20 women and photographed those she met in person. As with the other veterans she had interviewed in the past, the women were eager to share their sto

ries, Spencer said. Many had never spoken about their time in Vietnam, even though they had experienced horrors as Red Cross nurses or visit ed men in combat to cheer them up, acting as “Donut Dollies.”

The project was deeply personal for Spencer. She noted that it was incredibly difficult to explore these histories, but a necessary endeavor nonetheless. She said that the sup port she received was invaluable, both from the college and especially from her thesis advisor, Sonya Clark, the Winifred L. Arms professor in the arts and humanities and profes sor of art and the history of art. The college’s backing, coupled with her family’s connection to Amherst (her grandfather left for Vietnam imme diately after graduating from Am herst), made it vital to showcase and ground her work here.

Now, the Eli Marsh Gallery in Fayerweather Hall is filled with Spencer’s work. The stark walls con trast the life-sized photographs of veterans, accompanied by short de scriptions of the women’s service and QR codes linking to recordings of them talking about their experienc es. The photos hang alongside maps

depicting the veterans’ hometowns and where they were stationed in Vietnam. Other archival documents, such as copies of the women’s per sonal photos and Spencer’s grand father’s items from Vietnam, can be seen in the center of the room.

Just to the side is a screen show ing Spencer’s short film — about five minutes of footage she took out of the window of the plane while trav eling to visit these women, overlaid with poetry written by veterans Su san O’Neill and Penni Evans. Spen cer noted that she created the film to let the women she profiled speak on their own terms, rather than through her perspective. “A lot of this project is my view of these women,” she said. “I’m photographing them [and] I’m projecting them in a certain way.”

Other veterans have also written about their time in Vietnam: Spen cer even named her show after a memoir of the same name written by veteran Dr. Sandra Lockney Da vis, whom she also interviewed.

Spencer noted that the exhibi tion showed only white women and that her first iteration portrayed only white men. However, she plans to continue the project after graduation

with a focus on veterans of color. “I would love to focus on the women of color who were in Vietnam,” she said. “There are very, very few orga nizations that exist [for them].”

After graduation, Spencer will visit Vietnam, and she hopes to ex pand the project further with a team.

“I feel like I’ve actually done as much as I could on my own and left no stones unturned,” she said.

Spencer hopes that the project may transform into a book or a doc umentary. Additionally, the entire project, “Vietnam War Veterans: Then and Now,” will be archived in the Library of Congress’ Veterans’ History Project.

The exhibition will be open to the public from Dec. 1 to Dec. 18 in the Eli Marsh Gallery. The opening recep tion will be held on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 5 p.m.. It is recommended that guests bring their own earbuds and phones to listen to the audio accom panying each photograph. In addition to the physical exhibition, Spencer’s complete project, with all of its nearly 70 interviews and numerous archival documents, is available at vvthenand now.com.

Spencer ‘23E stands in front of her studio art thesis, “So, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This?” Her thesis, which will be on display from Dec. 1-18 in Fayerweather Hall, catalogues the stories of female Vietnam War veterans.

Emma

Photo courtesy of Madeline Lawson '25

“Survivor” Season 43: Episodes 9 & 10, Reviewed

Vaughn Armour ’25 Staff Writer

On Nov. 16 and 23, “Survivor 43” released two more fantastic ep isodes. As the number of castaways dwindles, each vote becomes more important. The urgency was palpa ble, making for exciting television across a pair of episodes best charac terized as “the rise and fall of Noelle Lambert.”

However, the episode began with Owen furious at James, who had in tentionally left him out of the previ ous episode’s vote to take out Jeanine. Owen found out about this minutes beforehand, leading to a heated ar gument at camp. This wasn’t great gameplay by Owen, but I understand his frustration. James has grown in credibly cocky, and he has had it out for Owen for multiple votes.

At the immunity challenge, the remaining castaways were split into two groups (Cassidy, Cody, Ryan, Gabler, and Jesse in one, and Kar la, Sami, Owen, James, and Noelle in the other). Both groups went to Tribal Council to vote someone out, with one person per group winning immunity. Karla and Cody won im munity, leaving the rest of the players vulnerable.

In Cody’s group, the initial plan was to vote Cassidy out. Ryan final ly wanted to start playing the game, and her elimination would be his big move. Earlier in the season, I would have been fine with this outcome. However, we learned more about Cassidy’s backstory in this episode. Watching “Survivor” was a bonding experience between her and her late sister. She chose to play to fulfill not only her dreams, but her sister’s as well.

Because of this, I was happy to see that Cassidy had a counter-plan. She wanted Ryan gone, and made compelling arguments. Ryan is the biggest guy on the island, and is thus an intimidating challenge threat. He also fishes more than he strategiz es, making him a sub-optimal ally. Jesse and Cody held the power and debated between Ryan and Cassidy. They ended up deciding that Cassidy was the better ally and eliminated the promising young fisherman.

The other group’s vote was a bit

less straightforward. James’ mind was made up — he wanted Owen out — but Noelle decided to take over. The way she went about this vote was inventive and masterful. I gained a lot of respect for her stra tegic game in this episode. She told James that she’d use her “steal-avote” advantage to take Owen’s vote. This would make it impossible for him to take his one-in-six shot in the dark at safety. She actually did this at Tribal, making James feel com fortable. Then, along with Sami and Owen, she blindsided James in the vote. After 42 seasons, it is rare to see players break new ground. However, I can confidently say that no one has ever used a steal-a-vote this way. It was genius and (almost) worked to perfection.

The issue was that Sami want ed to turn a triple into a home run. He wanted James gone, but didn’t want to blindside Karla. He told her the plan before the vote. While it was impressive that he got Karla on board with taking out her clos est ally, this choice made Sami seem less trustworthy to every player. He should have firmly gone with one side or the other — you can only play the middle for so long.

Owen won the feud, and James went home unanimously. Noelle made her statement move, ridding the game of its best villain and the “Knowledge Is Power” advantage he held. However, Sami significantly hurt his chances of winning.

Noelle carried her momentum into the next reward challenge. Part of the challenge was going across a balance beam, and she struggled because of her prosthetic leg. Yet, in what is one of “Survivor’s” greatest challenge comebacks, she ended up winning. Tears streamed down her face as Jeff congratulated her.

This was a heartwarming mo ment, but it likely hurt Noelle more than it helped her. When three peo ple remain in “Survivor,” they plead their case to a jury of the players vot ed out post-merge. Those eliminated castaways get to decide who wins the title of “Sole Survivor” and the mil lion dollars that come along with it. These players tend to vote based on strategy, but they are human. Power ful stories, such as Noelle adapting to

her prosthetic leg, will affect the jury on an emotional level.

Unfortunately, this also made Noelle a massive threat, someone that every player should avoid sitting next to at the end. This challenge only reinforced this perception — it was a glimpse of the moving story she could tell. Couple that with the fact that Noelle was coming off the best strategic move of the game so far, and she was suddenly the biggest threat on the island. Therein lies a conundrum that all great “Survivor” players face: You have to make great moves to win in the final three, but making great moves too early makes it harder to get there.

The reward was a good one, though. Noelle chose to bring Sami, Jesse, and Owen along. They got to relax and read letters from their loved ones in a wholesome segment. I grew to like the four of them more after this, especially Jesse. He read letters from his wife and kids, and

shed genuine tears. He missed them and said he was playing his cutthroat style for them. Tentatively strength ened by their shared experience, the group planned to take out Cassidy.

Back at the beach, Cassidy pitched targeting Noelle because of her increased threat level. Cody and Gabler were non-committal, but Cassidy then won immunity, which ruined the plan to vote her out.

Now, Jesse and Cody had to se riously consider taking out Noelle. The way Jesse went about the blind side was terrific. First, he gave Noelle a solid cover story for his extended talk with Cody. He told her that he was giving Cody his idol back, in stead of plotting to take her out. He then used Noelle’s newfound distrust of Sami to throw him under the bus. Without much effort, he convinced her that Sami wanted to take her out in the future. He made both Noelle and Owen content with splitting the votes on Karla and Sami, while still

sending Karla home.

Next, he told Karla about that plan, and pitched taking out Noelle as a way to overcome it. He came up with a solution to a problem he cre ated — masterful work. All that was left was to convince Gabler to get on board, which he did — Gabler, Jesse, Cody, and Karla voted together to take out Noelle.

Only seven players remain. This pair of episodes saw Noelle rise to power and fall from grace; The next could see Jesse follow a similar trajectory. He is playing a fantastic game, basically in the position that Sami wants to be in. He is aligned with everyone, but still seems trust worthy. However, Gabler and Karla began to catch on to Jesse’s game in this episode. Just like with Sami, you can only stay in the middle for so long. Only two episodes remain be fore the finale. Tune in next Wednes day to find out who’ll make it one step closer to the million dollar prize!

Vaughn Armour ’25 reviews the last two episodes of “Survivor,” detailing the rise and fall of one competitor and some of this season’s best strategic plays.

Graphic courtesy of Nina Aagaard ’26

CONTEXT,

CREATION, COME UP

“I think that it’s my diary. I can’t lie. I am making it for myself.” For this edition of “Context, Creation, Come Up,” I spoke with Kiiren Jackson ’24 about the “Context” of his rap career, how he’s grown with the “Creation” of his latest album, “Second Semester,” and some information about his new projects that are on the “Come Up.” You can find Jackson performing any where there’s a microphone, and you can listen to his discography on all streaming platforms.

Q: So, we’re looking at “Kiiren Aamer,” “Kiiren Jackson,” “Kiiren the Great.” Tell us about your names.

A: My name is Kiiren Aamer, like in real life. When I originally started rapping I had some wack [names]. I had K-Jax. I had Ace of Spades. I was trying to rep Green Dragon. I learned how to rap from listening to Wu-Tang [Clan], And it’s Pretty Tony, it’s Ghostface, it’s Ghost-Dini, it’s everything. Now I gotta embody this. Until I was like, “Man, these are wack. I'm gonna find a better one.” I listened to Kendrick [Lamar] and then he told me to stop having my head up the 90s ass — so I was like, “Oh, that Dot thing is cool.” … That’s how we got Double-Dot, which I was going for for mad long. I thought that was gonna be my shit.

Then some dude that rapped worse than me was like, “Yo, Dou ble-Dot? Like, I get the name, but like, can you imagine anybody say ing ‘Damn, did you hear that new Double-Dot?’” Shit. I can’t. So I was debating the name change for so long, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. Until I finally got to Kiiren Aamer. Just go by my real name, right? I don’t have to be Kiiren Jackson or whatever … So right now we’re at Kiiren Aamer. I can hear someone going, “Oh, you hear that Kiiren Aamer?”

That’s how we got here: Kiiren Aamer. “Kiiren” means “dark hair, dark skin.” My mom was really in her Black bag when she named me. And “Aamer” means “prince,” so I really thought I was gonna play with that stuff too. I was gonna be “Prince Aamer,” “Prince Prince,” the next “Black Kiiren.”

Q: What are some of your influenc es?

A: It’s everybody that I’ve listened to. I’m so bad at finding new music that when I’m listening to an artist, like I'm [really] listening to them. They really become a part of what I do. Wu-Tang, of course. I wasn’t even up on rap for real until my mom showed me “Protect Ya Neck” and I was like, “Whoa, this is my shit.” I was listening to literally every album from that ’93 to that ’97 stretch. And Nas, being from Queens just to know I’ve been by Queensbridge like, OD in my life. I see it every time I’m go ing somewhere. He just stays with me, you know what I mean? So, WuTang, Nas, [MF] DOOM…

Q: Do you feel like you’re reborn again, that this is also a debut al bum?

A: It feels like a debut album in the way that I can stand on everything I put into this album. There [are] some things that I wish I did better, even on this work — but it does feel like a reinvention because I feel like I actually did a good job. [My] orig inal [first album], the original first first, it’s like the black sheep of all my work, “Simply Logic” on my Sound Cloud. Some people really like it. It’s very much the last project of an era of me. I did that, and I was like, “No, I have to make something better.” So I started working on this Kiiren Aam er project.

It’s weird because, in a way, “Sec ond Semester” is younger than this

In this edition of 3 C’s, Kobe Thompson ’24 sits down with rapper Kiiren Jackson ’24 to discuss an upcoming project, which has been years in the making.

one — I knew I was gonna do this. “Second Semester” on its own was something different. It was Covid, and I was planning this but was like, “No, I just need something to write and put it on a beat and to let it out. I just need to drop it.” So “Second Semester” was born out of this surge of creativity. I have these spells where I'm just writing mad songs. That’s what “Second Semester” came for and out of, and I appreciate that. But this one is new because it’s me ticulously put together. It's craft ed in this specific way. That’s how you have to cut like 13 or 14 songs, these are just not going to come out. They’re not good enough. They’re just in the trash because they’re not good enough. This was my first time working and doing that specifically, and it’s a hard process. That’s why it took so long because it’s just been constantly trying to make it the best that it can be.

Q: I want to talk about the way that your background is incorporated into what you’re releasing.

A: I think that when I was learning how to rap so much I wanted to be Wu-Tang so bad. I feel like in a way I just wasn’t being me. I was going based on what I heard and what I liked. And it’s middle school, at a time where no one is really them selves. I want to be myself as much

as I can all the time. I want to look and be like, “If I did this, I stand on it.” That’s who I am. In my music I have to do the same thing. I can’t rap about shit that I don’t know about. I can’t jack shit that I’m not from, I can't do that. I have to be authentic. I have to be real. Especially because I don’t know, I don’t think people care actually. Like on “Blue and Green” that’s the topic of the whole song … I know that I have to unapologetically be myself and jack everything that I’m from, and what I do, and what I like. It’s hard in a way. Because some times you just want to rap about do ing BS or whatever. But I think that it’s my diary. I can’t lie. I am making it for myself.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your writing process in general, and how that applies to Kiiren Aam er, both as an artist and as an al bum.

A: I’m a listener to rap, first. You know what I mean? I’m a fan before anything else. I’ll listen to music like, “I love this.” It makes me want to cre ate, and it’s inspiring. I’ll end up writ ing on top of those. The first album I ever wrote in the summer before eighth grade, every song could have gone on top of another song. My writing process always starts there. I’m listening … I’m writing that way. I’m trying to think how that goes

into this specific album and project. But it’s hard because I’ve sat with this project for so long, this iteration has been like this for a year at least … In terms of the actual writing process, it literally just comes from my head. It comes from me, and I put it out there. It is what it is.

Q: What other stuff could we listen to and what are the projects that you have made?

A: Definitely keep listening to this [“Second Semester”] and streaming it. I really need to get this out because this is something that you can actual ly listen to. It doesn't necessarily have to be a "Let me listen to my friend." It could just be like, “Yo, it's just fire!” … But while you’re digesting this, lis ten to “It’s Raining in LA.” I feel like that project is sadder. I wrote it in a grieving place, but it’s 30 minutes of just cohesiveness and chillness and good wordplay. There’s that. “DGE.” I made that one with my best friend, my brother Nas. He produced every track on it. It’s another little EP. “AS ILAH” is good. I think that there are some good songs on that, so listen to it. And catch me if I'm performing on campus.

Read the full interview online at www. amherststudent.com

Photo courtesy of Maria Stenzel

No. 8 Women’s Soccer Loses in NCAA Third Round

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor

The No. 8 women’s soccer team lost to the No. 6 William Smith Col lege Herons 2-1 in the third round of the Division III NCAA Cham pionship on Saturday, Nov. 19. The loss marked the end of a 2022 season that saw the Mammoths go 18-3 overall and capture both the NESCAC regular season title and a NESCAC Championship.

The Mammoths found them selves down 2-0 early in the contest but quickly pulled the game back to 2-1. They continued to threaten, and were arguably the best team on the day, but just could not find an equalizer.

Amherst started the game looking dangerous, as an early in terchange between Isabel Stern ’23 and Ella Johnson ’26 down the left side ended with the ball at the feet of Patience Kum ’25, who un leashed a right-footed curler that sailed just high.

The two squads traded shots after that, as William Smith pres sured the Mammoths in a way few teams have proved capable of doing this year. The Herons were able to hurry Amherst’s midfielders and

defenders, preventing their offense from flowing forward as smoothly as it has all season.

Around the 29th minute, Wil liam Smith began to take control, and the opener came shortly after. However, the goal came (seemingly) out of nowhere. Defender Sophia Haynes ’26 received a routine back pass near the top of the Amherst box. Her first touch was too heavy, though, and the ball rolled directly into the path of an onrushing Her on attacker, who got past Haynes before wrong-footing goalkeeper Mika Fisher ’24 with a slow shot that trickled into the right side of the net.

The Herons doubled their ad vantage almost immediately after wards. A corner kick found a Her on attacker on the right side of the 18-yard box. The ball took an awk ward bounce and was headed out by Charlotte Huang ’25, but made it only as far as another Heron, who looped a perfect ball over the heads of Amherst’s defenders into the path of a teammate who buried a simple volley into the left side of the net. Less than 34 minutes into the contest, the Herons became just the second team to net two goals against the Mammoths all season.

Though the Herons’ lead

seemed daunting, the Mammoths did not go away. Immediately after the kickoff, Kum fired off two quick shots. A few minutes later, Isabelle Geneve ’23 won a ball in the mid field and immediately sent Kum through on goal. Finding a sliver of space on the right side of the box, Kum let the ball roll out ahead of her before sending a blistering firsttime shot between the inside post and the diving goalkeeper.

Kum’s goal gave the Mammoths some much-needed life, with high pressure from the Mammoths mak ing an equalizer seem likely before halftime, but the teams entered the locker room with the Herons up 2-1.

And throughout much of the second half, that trend continued. Huang forced a save with a header in the 50th minute. Kum scored in the 53rd minute, but was called off side. Stern sent a good-looking shot over the bar in the 63rd minute, be fore Kum had a great one-on-one chance pushed wide in the 67th. Kum and Stern again forced saves in the 78th minute, but, yet again, the Herons held firm.

Despite controlling possession and outshooting William Smith 7-3 in the second half, the Herons’ goalkeeper kept her team ahead

with multiple big saves, and the Mammoths never equalized. Their season ended with the final whistle.

In a post-game press confer ence, Head Coach Jen Hughes, who claimed NESCAC Coach of the Year honors, said that she believed her team was the better side during the game but simply got unlucky, as often happens in soccer. “I’m so proud of this team and the effort

that we put on the field,” she said.

It was the final collegiate game for the team’s six seniors: Allison Stafford ’23, Alexa Juarez ’23E, Mi kayla Brenman ’23, Geneve, Stern, and Sarah Sullivan ’23.

“They did such an amazing job as leaders in addition to being play ers on the field,” said Hughes of her seniors. “That’s often the X-factor, and it was this year for us.”

No. 6 Men’s Soccer Eliminated From NCAAs in Penalty Kicks

Kate Becker ’26 Staff Writer

The No. 6 men’s soccer team was eliminated in the third round of the Division III NCAA Champi onship tournament, as they lost to No. 18 University of Mary Wash ington Eagles on penalty kicks on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Like the Mammoths’ prior two games of the tournament, the game was played on the Mammoths’ home turf at Hitchcock Field. The home field did not seem to give the Mammoths any advantages, however, as it was the Eagles who showcased their offensive skill right off the bat, scoring less than a

minute into the game on their first shot attempt. The Eagles continued to build on this early momentum, notching another goal in the 31st minute to put them up 2-0.

But the Mammoths are no stranger to deficits, and they battled back with grit and poise. Phenom enal movement on the ball from both Alex Shahmirzadi ’23E and Declan Sung ’24E resulted in a dan gerous cross into the box, where Aidan Curtis ’25, the Mammoths’ leading scorer from the regular season, was perfectly positioned to send the ball past the Eagles’ goal keeper and pull the Mammoths within one. The teams would carry this 2-1 score into the half.

Coming out of the halftime huddle, the Mammoths were ea ger to put up a fight. In the 65th minute of play, their efforts were rewarded. Once again, it was Curtis who found the equalizer, this time off of an assist from Ada Okorogheye ’24E. Knotted at 2-2, the Mammoth defense stepped up. The remaining shots from the Eagles were all turned away by the defensive line and senior goalkeeper Bernie White ’23E, in cluding a picture-perfect save on a penalty shot awarded to the Eagles in the final minutes of regulation to keep the score knotted and force overtime.

Even with pressure from both

teams on both ends of the field, neither team prevailed in the first or second overtime periods. In the first overtime period, a red card was assessed to a player on each side, resulting in both teams playing a man-down. However, neither team could find the back of the net, and the game would come down to penalty kicks.

Ultimately, it was not the Mam moths' day. After missing the first two penalty kicks, the Eagles went on to claim the victory 4-3 in PKs to advance to the Elite 8.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” Head Coach Justin Ser pone said after the match. “We fought all the way today, it just

wasn’t meant to be.

“I hope that these guys remem ber how much passion and ener gy they just put into the last three months,” Serpone continued. “I know I won’t ever forget it.”

The loss solidified the Mam moths’ 2022 record at 14-1-6. They retire this season with much to be proud of, including being crowned the 2022 NESCAC Men’s Soccer Champions. It was the fi nal collegiate game for the team’s four seniors: Shahmirzadi, White, Nico Kenary ’23E, and Andrew Barkidjija ’23E. The remaining members of the team look forward to resting, reloading, and coming back stronger than ever next fall.

Women’s soccer lost 2-1 to William Smith College.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Women’s Basketball Undefeated Through First Four Games

Carter Hollingsworth ’25 Staff Writer

The 2021-2022 season for Am herst women’s basketball was one that will certainly go down in pro gram history. With an appearance in both the NESCAC Champion ship and the NCAA Tournament Final Four, along with several in dividual accolades, the team has a lot to be proud of. But they are not satisfied yet.

With four non-conference games — and four wins — un der their belts, this year’s team has its sights set on returning to the biggest stage and making it to the national championship. Junior captain Reeya Patel ’24 said coming into the season, “It’s going to be a big difference los ing last year's class and having no seniors this year on the team. It was a big jump from playing my first year [of college basketball] to then being a captain and leading the team.” But, Patel says it is easy to lead a team that is receptive to learning and works hard on and off the court.

That approach has been ev ident in the opening games of the season, with the Mammoths proving that they are able to over come adversity and come out on top in many different situations. In their contest against No. 16 Springfield College, the Mam moths maintained a lead with a strong defensive performance, while they came from behind late in the game to win a hard-fought matchup against Rowan Univer sity.

The Mammoths are hopeful that this strong start is an early sign that the team will be a dom inant force in the NESCAC and beyond this season. They have added five new players to their roster this year, including Anna Tranum ’26, Sylvia Liddle ’26, Brooke Ingemi ’26, Annie McCa rthy ’26, and Laura Mendell ’26. Ingemi is starting her first week with the team after playing for the women’s soccer team during their Sweet 16 run in the fall. The team boasts more young talent in the sophomore class with Alix

Stuart ’25, Maya Cwalina ’25, An Ling Vera ’25, and Kori Barach ’25. And finally the team is led by their three junior captains: Patel, Nicole Stanford ’24, and Abbey Skinner ’24.

Following their strong open ing performances in last week’s Tip-off Tournament and starting the season 2-0 at home, Amherst’s win against Gordon College on Wednesday, Nov. 16, showed their proficiency on the road. Though the first couple of quarters did not go the way Amherst might have wanted, with the Mammoths trailing 29-25 with five minutes left to go in the third frame, a 12-0 run over the remaining time netted them a 39-31 lead heading into the fourth. But the Mam moths did not stop there, as they continued to attack the basket on the offensive end and clamped

down defensively. They added an other 13 points to their total score over the remainder of the game, with points from Tranum, Patel, Liddle, Vera, and Barach to put the game out of reach. When the final buzzer sounded, the Mam moths left Wenham, Mass. for their Thanksgiving break with a 52-41 win. Barach finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and gathering 11 rebounds and leading the team in both cate gories. Cwalina added 12 points and was a force in the defensive end all game, finishing with seven rebounds and a ridiculous eight blocks.

The team had almost a full week off before returning to Le Frak Gymnasium for their next game against the Emmanuel College Saints on Tuesday, Nov. 30. The time off may have con

tributed to the Mammoths’ slow start, as they trailed 13-12 after one quarter of play, shooting just 38.5 percent (5 for 13) during the frame. The Mammoths found their groove in the second quar ter, however, shooting 50 percent from the field (8 for 16) and tak ing a 35-26 lead into halftime. It was much of the same in the third quarter, as the Mammoths outscored the Saints 19 to 8 in the frame to push their lead to 20 points entering the fourth quar ter.

Though the game looked to be all but over as the final frame began, the narrative completely shifted during the fourth quarter. The Mammoths went ice cold of fensively, scoring just four points and shooting 1 for 13 from the field. The Saints, on the other hand, got red hot — they went

on a 19-0 run during the frame, shooting 7 for 13 from the field. Though the game was probably closer than it should have been, as the Saints cut the Mammoths’ lead down to just three points with a little over two minutes re maining in the game, the Mam moths ultimately saw out their lead and defeated the Saints 5853. Patel finished the game with a double-double, scoring 15 points and adding 13 rebounds. Patel led the team in both categories as well. Barach added 14 points and five rebounds, and she led the game with three steals.

Looking ahead, the Mam moths will travel to New Jersey on Sunday, Dec. 4, to take on New Jersey City University, be fore returning to LeFrak to play Wesleyan on Monday, Dec. 5, in a non-conference game.

Women's basketball's season is off to a good start, having won the first four games of their season.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Men’s Basketball 3-3 at Season’s Quarter Mark

Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor

Following an up-and-down start to the season, men’s basketball sits at 3-3 a quarter of the way through. Af ter defeating Albertus Magnus Col lege in the season opener, the Mam moths went on to lose three of their next four games, but they bounced back with an emphatic win in their home opener.

The Mammoths followed their opening win with a trip to Arling ton, Virginia, for the Marymount University Tournament on Satur day, Nov. 19. They played the Uni versity of Lynchburg in their first game, which they ultimately lost 6257, their first of the young season. Though Amherst led at the halftime break 27-23 and even pushed their lead to nine over the course of the first eight minutes of the second half, Lynchburg took control of the game from there with a 15-2 run. While Amherst had a 51-25 advan tage on the glass for the game, the Mammoths committed 20 turn overs, compared to just 4 committed by Lynchburg.

Amherst took on the host of the tournament, the Marymount University Saints, the next day and emerged with an exhilarating onepoint victory. The Saints opened up the first half red hot, shooting 50 percent from the three-point line and building a nine-point lead heading into the halftime break. The Mammoths showed their resiliency in the second half, however, helped in large part by Canin Reynolds ’25, who scored all 17 of his points in the final 15 minutes of the game. The lead changed hands nine different times over the final nine minutes of the game, but it was Reynolds who ultimately sealed the game for the Mammoths. With 10 seconds re maining and the Mammoths down by two, Ryker Vance ’25 made an athletic play to keep an inbounds play alive and find Reynolds at the top of the key. Reynolds calmly re ceived the pass, let a closing Saint defender fly past him, and knocked down the three-pointer with four seconds remaining for a 65-64 lead. The Saints raced down the court for a last-second attempt of their own,

but Vance read the play perfectly and blocked the shot as time ex pired.

After the thrilling win in Vir ginia, the Mammoths returned to Massachusetts for a pre-Thanksgiv ing matchup against Babson Col lege on Wednesday, Nov. 23. The Mammoths may have already had their minds on the next day’s meal, though, as they fell into a 16-point hole in the first eight minutes of the contest that they could not climb themselves out of. Though they cut the deficit to just four in the second half, the Mammoths ended up fall ing by a final score of 66-54. The

Mammoths shot just 26.9 percent from the floor (18 of 67) in the con test.

Continuing their early season road trip, the Mammoths then trav eled to New York City to take on Ye shiva University. In what was a tight matchup throughout, complete with nine ties and 12 total lead changes, it was the Maccabees who prevailed 61-57. Though the Mammoths had the advantage on the glass by a 3523 margin and shot their best field goal percentage of the season (51 percent) and their best three-point percentage since Jan. 2020 (50 per cent), the Maccabees held a signifi

cant advantage in the turnover de partment, as they scored 30 points off the Mammoths’ 26 turnovers. Already five games into the sea son, the Mammoths finally held their home opener on Monday, Nov. 28, against the Northern Ver mont University-Johnson Badgers (NVU-Johnson). The Mammoths were in need of a big win and got just that in front of their home crowd, defeating the Badgers 9464. The game was close for the ma jority of the first half, but a Bobby Sommers ’25 and-one dunk set off a 20-2 Mammoth run that held for the remainder of the contest. The team

finished with 18 three-pointers, the most an Amherst team has scored in a single game in over 10 years. Three Mammoths scored in double digits and set career highs in points: Noah Helmke ’25 — who finished with 20 points and shot 6 for 9 from beyond the arc in just 13 minutes on the floor — Reynolds, and Sommers, who finished with 19 and 16 points, respectively.

Looking ahead, the Mammoths will travel to New Hampshire to take on Colby-Sawyer College on Thurs day, Dec. 1, before a home matchup against Springfield College on Tues day, Dec. 6.

Men’s basketball is looking to secure momentum after a dominant 94-64 win in their home opener.

Photos courtesy of Clarus Studios

Winter Athletes Embrace Different Thanksgiving Break

Maya Reiner ’25 Staff Writer

During the third week of No vember, many students find them selves in Frost Library nightly, walk ing back to their dorms anxiously while awaiting the week-long break they get to enjoy for Thanksgiving amid the chaos of the end of the semester. With that time off, many students travel to their respective hometowns, excited to spend some much-needed time with their fam ilies and catch their breath.

However, that isn’t the reality for everyone. Several Amherst winter sports teams are required to stay on campus for at least a portion, if not all, of Thanksgiving break. These athletes don’t get the luxury of spending as much time — or, in some cases, any time at all — relax ing with their families.

Nonetheless, their Thanksgiving break is still just as beneficial and positive of an experience. With Am herst’s campus vacant and no classes being held, those teams staying on campus were able to spend more

time together, both on and off the playing surface.

The men’s basketball team, for instance, played four games over the break, resulting in most of their team remaining on campus for the majority of their 10 days off from classes.

Ryker Vance ’25, a member of the team, spoke about his experi ence being on campus during break.

“Campus was beyond dead,” Vance said. “Walking from the gym all the way to Val and not seeing a single other student is definitely ee rie. However, being able to spend quality time with your team and only your team allows you to truly appreciate the people around you.”

Sabrina Comess ’24, a member of the women’s swim and dive team, echoed Vance’s sentiments, while also expressing her gratitude for what her team gained while stay ing on campus for a few extra days. With no classes or assigned home work, the team’s stress levels were low, which allowed them to focus more on training and keeping their bodies healthy.

“Everyone was able to give 100 percent at every practice, and we raced really well at our two meets,” Comess said. “We also were able to catch up on sleep and recovery, which made us all feel a little better when we were swimming or diving throughout the week.”

The men’s basketball team only had Thursday off last week, as they had a game on Wednesday and practice on Friday. This meant that many team members, includ ing Vance, were not able to make it home for the holiday. However, Vance was still able to celebrate, as his coach, Marlon Sears, kindly in vited him into his home for Thanks giving dinner.

“Since I’m from Florida, book ing a flight on a Wednesday and re turning by Friday didn’t make much sense,” Vance said. “My teammates Will Scherer [’25] and Bo [Beluoli sah] Oranye [’23] had similar cir cumstances and [Sears] immediate ly and graciously invited us into his home. We, and both our assistant coaches, spent Thanksgiving ana lyzing college basketball, watching

NFL football, and, of course, eating delicious food.”

Despite not being with his fam ily, Vance enjoyed his time on cam pus, and was able to celebrate the holiday similarly to how he would have at home in Florida.

“For me, the holiday tradition consists of watching football, eating way too much food, and spending time with the people you’re thank ful for,” Vance said. “Thanks to Coach Sears and the guys, I was able to keep the tradition alive this year.”

Cross Country Ends Season Well at NCAA Championships

Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor

The No. 13 women’s cross coun try team finished their season with a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Di vision III Championships in Lan sing, Michigan, on Saturday, Nov. 12. As has become the standard this season, Mary-Kate McGranahan ’23 led the way for the Mammoths, capping her stellar senior season off by earning All-America honors.

The Mammoths qualified for nationals by earning an at-large bid after placing second in the Mideast Region the week prior. McGrana han, who finished in second place the week before, finished the 6k course on a snowy day in Michigan in 22:31.3, placing 25th out of a field of 293 total runners. This was Mc Granahan’s second time competing at Nationals, and she improved on her 77th-place finish from the year before. As a top-40 finisher, Mc Granahan was named an All-Amer

ican for her performance.

Sophie Wolmer ’23 was the next Mammoth to finish the course, crossing the finish line in 23:02.4 to finish 61st overall. Allison Lounsbury ’26 placed 108th with a time of 23:30.8, and fellow firstyear Daphne Theiler ’26 crossed close behind, finishing in 116th place with a time of 23:45.5. Claire Callon ’24 was the final Mammoth scorer, who placed 125th after completing the course in 23:36.9, improving on her 280th-place fin ish from her debut at Nationals last season.

The Mammoths finished 12th overall out of a field of 32 total teams, the team’s best finish at Na tionals since placing 11th in 2014.

Theo Dassin ’24 was the lone runner from the men’s team who earned an at-large bid to Nation als. In his debut performance at the competition, Dassin finished in 100th place out of 294 runners, crossing the line in 26:05.5.

Photos courtesy of Clarus Studios

Many student-athletes remain on campus over break.

Mary Kate McGranahan '23 won All-American honors in her last cross country meet.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Photo courtesy of d3photography.com

Sport’s Obsession With Testosterone: A History

Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor

About a year and a half ago, I wrote about the politics of in cluding transgender women in women’s sports. When I wrote that piece, there had been a recent wave of anti-transgender laws passed that prevented these ath letes participating in women’s ath letics. And while time has passed since that article, the controversy it addresses certainly has not.

The most mainstream issue since then has been the discussion surrounding University of Penn sylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, which has prompted think pieces in many major news sources, as well as countless hours of trans phobic coverage by conservative outlets like Fox News.

Thomas, a transgender wom an, competed in (and dominat ed) Division I college swimming during the 2021-22 season. After an impressive season in which she was ranked fifth in the 200yard freestyle, first in the 500-yard freestyle, and eighth in the 1,650yard freestyle, she wrapped up her college career with a win in the 500 free at the NCAA Champion ships. This included a record-set ting performance at Akron’s Zippy Invitational in December 2021, in which Thomas won three events and set two Ivy League records, including a 4:34.06 time in the 500-yard freestyle that put her 14 seconds ahead of second place. That 14-second gap wasn’t even Thomas’ biggest win of the season: A few weeks earlier, she won a 1,650-yard freestyle race by a stag gering 38 seconds.

However, because this success came in her first (and only) season swimming on the women’s side af ter transitioning during her junior year of college (she took a year off of school to maintain her eligibil ity during the Covid-19 pandem ic), her critics believe that she won because of what they consider an unfair biological advantage.

This debate over the fairness of trans women’s participation in women’s sports isn’t new: In fact, to find the origins of this issue

you have to go all the way back to Charles Darwin. When he pub lished “On the Origin of Species,” he narrowed the focus of sexual ity through the lens of his tenets of natural selection. And, only 10 years later, in 1869, the first cat alog of “disorders of sexualities” was published using Darwin’s work as a basis. But, it used his work to justify their sexist and transphobic claims – for instance, they, and many others, refused to accept Darwin’s idea that females could choose their mates because it didn’t align with traditional cismale-centric gender roles.

Sexes in nature are not as cut and dry as Darwin and others made them seem. In some species, individuals are hermaphrodites: They can change their biological sex based on need or environmen tal conditions, and some can be both at the same time. In humans, even among those who consider themselves to be cisgender, there can be large variation in testoster one levels, further muddying the waters — it’s almost impossible to set clear cut and dry bound aries when it comes to biological sex. By the logic of Darwin’s nat ural selection, if these sexualities persist, they cannot be harmful, as if they were, they would have been removed from the popu lation. Thomas’ detractors use this argument as well — having higher-than-average testosterone or being transgender has to give some kind of advantage because the natural occurrence of these individuals has not ceased. They also cite “evidence” that testoster one helps build muscle mass and contributes to aggressive behavior.

For this reason, high testos terone levels would seem to be an obvious advantage in female sport, where cisgender individ uals inherently possess less of it. However, the NCAA transgender athlete policy states that, “A trans female (MTF) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for Gen der Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria … for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but

may not compete on a women’s team without … completing one calendar year of testosterone sup pression treatment.”

By taking the year off during Covid, and competing with the men’s team during her junior year, Thomas met these requirements. She also fell below the NCAA’s threshold for testosterone in com peting athletes, meaning that she should not be gaining any advan tage from any testosterone left in her system. In fact, her current personal-best times are signifi cantly slower than they were be fore her transition, and that holds true for every event she competes in on a regular basis. And, despite finishing so far ahead of the com petition in those two events at the Zippy Invitational, Thomas has hardly been impossible to beat: She also finished sixth in the 50yard freestyle, was a part of two relay teams that finished fourth, and hasn’t set a national record in any event. Her biology is not an end-all, be-all advantage, that much is clear. If it was, she would win almost every race she com petes in.

The perception of masculine features as an ideal providing important advantages in sport isn’t new either. In their article, “The Powers of Testosterone: Obscuring Race and Regional Bias in the Regulation of Women Athletes,” Professor of Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies Ka trina Karkazis and Rebecca Jor dan-Young look at testosterone, and the practices of “sex testing” transgender and intersex athletes via their testosterone levels, as a result of this idea: Anything mas culine-looking — whether that be taller, more muscular, more chiseled, or something else — is seen to be better for sport and as providing an advantage when that might not be the case.

By framing transgender and intersex athletes as having an un fair advantage, sporting author ities create an environment in which the “traditional winners,” white cis women, are more like ly to succeed. By excluding those that don’t fall into that category,

like Thomas and other transgen der athletes, sport discriminates in the name of “fairness,” when they really are being forced out due to other biases against them, and a desire for these traditional winners to find success. And just in case the bias involved in these decisions wasn’t already clear, many of the cisgender women that have been excluded from sport for similar reasons, such as track stars Castor Semenya, Christine Mboma, and Beatrice Masilingi, are Black athletes from the Global South, specifically Africa. Would you call these women, who dom inated their events, “traditional winners?” I certainly wouldn’t.

But the reality is, in a sport like swimming where winners and los ers are very objective, the degree of Thomas’ advantage is great ly exaggerated. This can be seen when comparing her race perfor mances to those of other swim mers in prior seasons. A statistical study performed by Newsweek which compared Thomas’ times to other times over the last 10 sea sons found that Thomas actually would have been the fastest swim mer only once. In most of those previous 10 years, her fastest time would only have gotten her to sec ond place at the highest — in one year she would have finished 12th.

Because of all of this, the Ivy League allowed Thomas to com

pete in the NCAA Championships, despite a International Swimming Federation ruling banning MTF athletes from competing profes sionally, and the NCAA adopting that rule in January of 2022. When Thomas won the NCAA Champi onship in the 500-free, it seemed fitting, acting as a kind of “screw you,” to the people that believed she shouldn’t be competing. Fair is fair, and Thomas, as well as other trans NCAA and professional ath letes, is playing by the rules. Who’s to say that we shouldn’t let them compete?

As an athlete myself, I have a unique perspective. I play soccer, a sport that has, until the last 10 years or so, been dominated by men; I spent much of my child hood playing pickup in the park with men and playing on travel and recreational teams with boys, and holding my own just fine. In fact, in many cases, I was more technically skilled than and ran circles around my opponents be cause the reality is, strength isn’t everything in sport. And though it seems that we are taking one step forward and two steps back with regard to trans athletes in sport, the fight isn’t over. Thomas is only the first of, hopefully, many successful transgender athletes in NCAA and professional sports. I would welcome them into any team with open arms. Would you?

Photo courtesy of Ted Eytan

The debate over inclusion of trans athletes is not a new one.

Men’s Hockey Begins Season Well, Going 2-1-1

Mike Schretter ’23 Staff Writer

After finishing with a 9-13-2 record and making a NESCAC Quarterfinal appearance last sea son, the men’s hockey team will look to build on their successes from a year ago in the still-young 2022-23 season. With senior cap tains Joey Verkerke ’23 and Con nor Merrill ’23, along with fellow seniors Greg McGungile ’23 and Aaron Jones ’23E, leading the way, and with last season’s leading goal scorer Ben Kuzma ’25, lead ing point-scorer Matt Toporowski ’25, and starting goaltender Dan Dachille ’23 returning, the team is poised for a strong season. In the early-going, the Mammoths’ talent has propelled them to a 2-11 record heading into the rest of their season following the Thanks giving break.

The Mammoths opened their account with a 3-1 home win over NESCAC foe Hamilton on Satur day, Nov. 19. Michael Pitts ’23 got the scoring going early, netting his first of the season on a one-timer 6:35 into the first period off as sists from Evan Linchman ’23 and Ryan Tucker ’24. The Mammoths stayed hot, scoring again less than ten minutes later. This time, it was

Josh Burke ’26, who got his first collegiate goal off an assist from Quinton Fox ’24. Fox picked off a Continentals’ clearance attempt before sliding the puck to a wideopen Burke. Hamilton responded with a goal in the beginning of the third period to get within one be fore pulling their goaltender in a last-ditch attempt to equalize. Ty ler Bourque ’24 finished the game off with an empty-net goal with one second remaining, sealing the victory. With the win, Amherst moved to 1-0 on the season for the first time since 2019-20 and avenged their 5-1 loss to the Con tinentals last season in the process.

The Mammoths’ success did not stop there, as they traveled to St. Michael’s University, a team they beat 5-1 a year ago, and came home with a 6-3 win this time around. After going down 1-0 ear ly, the Mammoths responded with a power-play goal from Fox, which was assisted by Burke and Bour que. But, while St. Michael’s re sponded with another goal to put them up 2-1, the Mammoths again showed their resilience, respond ing with a goal from Toporowski off assists from Bobby Luca ’25 and Kuzma. Amherst then took a 3-2 lead by way of an unassisted tally from Max Thiessan ’25. The

Purple Knights tied the score at 3-3, but after that it was all Am herst from there. Verkerke netted a power-play goal off assists from Kuzma and Toporowski to make it 4-3 before Kuzma got two goals of his own: the first was assisted by Burke, while the second was unas sisted and sealed the Mammoths’ 2-0 start.

They then traveled to SUNY Geneseo for an exciting third contest. Geneseo came out of the gates hot, scoring three goals in the first period. But, the Mam moths remained undeterred by the deficit, as Kuzma put Amherst on the board with a goal in the second period to narrow the gap. They then sliced into the lead even more when Bourque scored to make it 3-2 early in the third pe riod. The excitement was palpable as the teams went back and forth for most of the period, before Kuz ma netted the tying goal with 4:01 left in regulation to send the game to overtime. However, the scoring would stop there, as neither team would score in the overtime peri od, and the game would end in a 3-3 tie.

In their last contest of the 10 day break, Amherst played Bab son on Sunday, Nov. 27, when their winning ways came to an

Men's hockey will hope to improve on last season, where they reached the NESCAC quarterfinals.

unfortunate end. The Beavers led wire-to-wire and left Orr Rink with a 3-1 victory. Kuzma, who was named NESCAC Player of the Week for his performances, scored the lone goal for the Mammoths on the day, getting his team-lead

ing fifth of the season off assists from Toporowski and Thiessen.

The Mammoths will return to action on Friday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m., to host Wesleyan, before taking on Trinity on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 3 p.m.

Men’s Squash Wins, Women Lose on Opening Weekend

Liza Katz ’24 Managing Sports Editor

With their hopes high after strong seasons that saw the men’s team take home a third-place finish at the CSA Summers Cup, and the women place fifth place at the CSA Kurtz Cup, both of Amherst’s squash teams opened their 2022-23 campaigns this past weekend. While the men gritted out a hard-fought win over the Hobart Statesmen, 5-4, the women’s team was unable to do the same, falling 5-4 to the William Smith Herons in a tight ly contested bout.

Men

In their home opener, the

men’s team took to the court with a lot to prove. And prove them selves they did, taking down the No. 24 Statesmen by the narrow est of margins.

While much of the top of Amherst ladder struggled, with three of the team’s top four play ers dropping their first matches of the season, the bottom por tion excelled. Every player at the seventh through ninth slots won their matches by 3-0 scorelines, and they combined with a victory from Abhi Gupta ’25 at the fifth spot to clinch the win. At the sev en, first-year Grady Herbert ’26 won his first collegiate match in style, taking down his opponent in commanding fashion, 11-3, 11-6, 11-3; one spot down on the

ladder, senior Andrew Leung ’23 did the same, taking his match 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 at the eighth spot. At the final spot was the fourth Mammoth of the day to take home a straight-game victory, as first-year William Okurowski ’26 won his match by a 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 score.

In the final matches of the day, and the Mammoths down 3-2, the contest came down to the wire. Despite the Statesmen having tak en every match at the top of the ladder thus far, No. 3 man Neal Malani ’24 took matters into his own hands, winning his junior debut in three straight games by a score of 11-4, 11-8, 11-9. At al most the same time, Gupta took his match by a narrow 3-2 mar

gin, 10-12, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9 to seal the Mammoths’ victory.

They will return to the court with two away matches this week, first taking on Hamilton on Saturday, Dec. 3, before facing Trinity on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Women

Unlike their counterparts, the win just wasn’t to be for the wom en’s team this weekend, as the team fell to the Herons in a tight 5-4 contest. But unlike the men’s team, the top of the women’s lad der was where they found success in their first match of the year.

First-year Alex Brown ’26, Amherst’s No. 2, earned her first collegiate win 3-1, by a 13-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-4 score. Juniors

Callie Delalio ’24 and Maggie Pearson ’24 also took their first victories of the season against William Smith, with Delalio pre vailing in a tight 3-2 match 11-7, 11-3, 5-11, 10-12, 11-7 at No. 3, while Pearson cruised to an utterly dominant win, taking a 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-8) victory in just over 11 minutes at the sixth spot. Isabelle Tilney-Sandberg ’25 was the oth er Mammoth victor on Saturday, winning a hard-fought match 3-2 (8-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9) at the No 5.

Like the men’s team, the Mammoths’ women’s squash team will travel to Hamilton on Saturday, Dec. 3, before getting back on the bus to Hartford to face Trinity on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Photos courtesy of Clarus Studios

Amherst Women’s Hockey 3-1 To Start Season

Kate Quigley ’26 Staff Writer

After a 2021-2022 season that saw women’s hockey reach the NESCAC championship game (losing 2-0 to Middlebury Col lege), the team has begun the 2022-2023 season hot, winning three out of their first four games. They split a pair against confer ence rival Hamilton College and beat two out-of-conference foes.

On Friday, Nov. 18, the No. 11-ranked Mammoths opened their campaign by hosting No. 15-ranked Hamilton. In a heavy weight matchup, the Mammoths prevailed, crushing the Conti nentals 4-0. And just like last sea son, Amherst found success on special teams, opening the scor ing with a power-play goal. Se nior Leslie Schwartz ’23 carried the puck to the top of the circle and took a hard slap shot that ju nior transfer Mary Thompson ’24 tipped into the goal to open her Amherst account. At the end of

that same period, classmate Jayna Park ’24 settled a bouncing puck in the slot and fired home a quick wrister, giving the Mammoths a 2-0 lead to start the game. After a penalty on the Mammoths, their special teams again came up big. This time, it was the penalty kill, as Maeve Reynolds ’26 gained possession in Amherst’s zone and found Rylee Glennon ’24 streak ing down the center for a break away. Glennon faked left and ripped the puck in the back of the net for a shorthanded goal and a 3-0 lead. The Mammoths iced the game by way of a rebound off the Hamilton goaltender at the end of the second period that Kate Pohl ’23 finished to take a 4-0 lead.

Despite momentum from the first game of the season, Hamil ton bounced back on Saturday, Nov. 19, to win 2-0. First-year goaltender Natalie Stott ’26 kept the Mammoths in the game with nine first period saves. However, despite outshooting the Con

tinentals, the Mammoths went down 1-0 early in the second period. With just four minutes remaining in the game and the Mammoths still down by one, Hamilton put another goal away to end the game at 2-0.

Amherst, now 1-1-0 in the conference (and overall), then traveled to Maine to face the University of New England on Tuesday, Nov. 22. After playing to a tie in the first period, with the first goal of the game, and the first of her collegiate career, from Emily Hohmann ’26, quick passes from Thompson and Ma rie-Eve Marleau ’26 found Park in the slot, who fired past the UNE goalie to take a 2-1 lead. After more quick passing and possession from Amherst, shots by Pohl and by Marleau were blasted past the UNE goaltender just two minutes apart to widen the margin. The Nor’Easters put one away in a power play shortly after, but another strong shot by Pohl shortly thereafter ended the

comeback attempt, and the game, with a whopping 5-2 win.

On Sunday, Nov. 27, the Mammoths ended the break with a close 1-0 win against the Man hattanville College Valiants. After a scoreless beginning period, the Mammoths bounced back in the second, firing away an eye-pop ping 29 shots. With that many opportunities, one was bound to go in, and Reynolds put away her

GAME SCHEDULE

SWIM & DIVE

Dec. 3: vs. Middlebury, 1 p.m.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY

Dec. 2: @ Middlebury, 7 p.m. Nov. 19: @ Middlebury, 3 p.m.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Dec. 4: @ New Jersey City University, 3 p.m. Dec. 5: vs. Wesleyan, 7 p.m.

second goal of the season at the 11:48 mark to give Amherst the lead. They would not give it up, and despite being unable to pot another, they left Purchase, New York with a win, 1-0.

Amherst will play their sec ond NESCAC opponent this weekend, taking on No. 1 Mid dlebury College on the road at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 2, and 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3.

SQUASH

Dec. 3: @ Hamilton, 2 p.m. Dec. 6: @ Trinity, 6 p.m.

MEN'S HOCKEY

Dec. 2: vs. Wesleyan, 7 p.m. Dec 3: vs. Trinity, 3 p.m.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Dec. 1: @ Colby-Sawyer College, 7 p.m. Dec. 6: vs. Springfield, 7 p.m.

Last season, women's hockey lost in the NESCAC final.

Photos courtesy of Clarus Studios