Issue 14

THE AMHERST THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT

CROSSWORD page 19

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 14 l THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2021

AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM

Following UMass, College Requires Covid Booster Ethan Samuels ’23 Manging Sports Editor

Photo courtesy of Matthew Cavanaugh

Several members of the Class of 2022E walked with the Class of 2021 at commencement on May 30, pictured above. The 2022E graduation ceremony will be held on Saturday, Dec. 11, in Johnson Chapel.

Historic Class of 2022E Approaches Graduation Yee-Lynn Lee ’23 Managing News Editor Seventy-four seniors will graduate at the end of this semester as members of the Class of 2022E. This year’s E class is one of the largest in the college’s history, largely owing to the pandemic, which led many in the Class of 2021 to delay their final semesters in hopes of being able to later spend them on campus.

The graduation ceremony for the Class of 2022E will be held at Johnson Chapel on Saturday, Dec. 11. It will feature remarks from President Biddy Martin, as well as the distribution of tassels and Conway Canes. A reception for graduating seniors and their vaccinated guests will follow in the Science Center Living Room.

In advance of their graduation, The Student sat down with seven

seniors to hear about their experiences over the past semesters, as well as reflections on the fast-approaching end to their time at Amherst.

Daniel Choe ’22E is one of just three current seniors who took the Spring 2020 semester off, although it was not by choice. Originally planning to study abroad in Korea during his junior spring, Choe ended up having to stay home the whole semester after the program was canceled due to Covid, and Add-Drop Period had already passed at Amherst. “I had no choice but to take a semester off,” he said.

As Summer 2020 progressed and the pandemic showed no signs of dissolving, the college made the decision to allow just a limited number of students back on campus for the fall. Under the priority system that was imple-

mented, first-semester seniors like Choe who had not studied abroad the previous year were not invited back. While Choe was “heartbroken” at the decision, he enrolled in the semester anyway, explaining that he “really missed being a student.”

Many of his classmates opted not to, though. Several cited not wanting to have to study remotely as their main reason for doing so.

“I didn't have the option of being on campus because I hadn't studied abroad either semester [the previous year], and I just decided I didn’t want to do remote school,” said Martin Glusker ’22E. He started looking around for jobs and solidified his decision to take time off after securing an opportunity to work as a field organizer in a congressional race.

Facing the same choice between taking remote classes at home

and taking the semester off, Robin Kong ’22E decided that taking time off would allow her to figure out her career interests, particularly her interest in pursuing medical research more seriously. Unable to find any research opportunities in the U.S., Kong ended up spending the semester working in a research lab in Korea. “I thought that this would also serve as a study abroad experience as well,” she recounted.

“I just wanted to figure myself out, [and] that just seemed much more compelling than Zoom classes.”

For many, enrolling in the semester remotely would have also meant forgoing some of the most meaningful aspects of their Amherst experience. Emma Ratshin ’22E relayed that she had taken the fall semester off to increase the chance that she could perform the

Continued on page 4

In an email sent to the campus community on Dec. 8, the college announced that it will require all students, staff, and faculty eligible to receive a Covid vaccine booster shot to do so by Feb. 1, 2022. The decision follows three of the other Five Colleges — UMass Amherst, Hampshire College, and Smith College — who also decided to implement booster requirements for the spring semester.

The announcement comes on the heels of both the emergence of the Omicron variant and evidence of the decreasing effectiveness of Covid vaccines over time. “Getting the booster provides important additional protection for you, and our community, as we continue to navigate the uncertainty of Covid-19,” the email stated.

In the email, Dean of Students Liz Agosto, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein, and Chief Policy Officer Lisa Rutherford cited The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which have authorized and recommended everyone aged 18 or older receive a booster shot when they become eligible.

Eligibility for the booster shot is determined by the length of time that has elapsed since initial vaccination. Those who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are eligible to receive a booster

Continued on page 8

News POLICE LOG

Nov. 22, 2021 – Dec. 6, 2021

>>Nov. 22, 2021

2:09 p.m., Northampton Road A detective took a report of a past incident where two unknown individuals were yelling at a student. >>Nov. 27, 2021

9:24 p.m., Appleton Hall A detective assisted in removing a bat from the building.

11:39 p.m., Off Campus Locations Sergeants and the town police spoke with individuals at the entrance of a building closed for service.

There were no issues and one of the individuals was offered medical attention. >>Nov. 28, 2021

7:24 p.m., Lipton House Detectives assisted in removing a bat from the building.

5:48 p.m., Off Campus Locations A detective took a report of someone that was approached by an unknown individual. They also reported that an unknown individual messaged them with a ransom request. >>Nov. 30, 2021

3:29 p.m., Alumni House A detective responded to a report of someone smoking marijuana outside the Covid Testing Center.

No one was found in the area upon the detective's arrival.

9:38 p.m., Valentine Quad A detective took a report of a stolen golf cart. The cart was later found and

Carl Charrette

returned.

First Cook-Baker

>>Dec. 1, 2021

4:10 a.m., Hills Lot A sergeant spoke with an individual sitting in a vehicle that was idling. The individual had no affiliation with the College and went on their way. >>Dec. 2, 2021

2:56 a.m., Merrill Science Drive A detective placed a boot on a vehicle on the boot list and parked in violation of parking regulations. >>Dec. 2, 2021

7:20 p.m., Wilson Admissions A custodian and a detective responded to a report of a space heater left running and unattended.

There were no issues found. >>Dec. 5, 2021

>> Nov. 29, 2021

Staff Spotlight

9:29 p.m., Marsh House Student Affairs Community Safety Assistant (CSA) staff responded to a report of an unauthorized fire.

The fire was extinguished. >>Dec. 6, 2021

1:30 a.m., Hitchcock House Student Affairs CSA staff reported a broken window and a sergeant responded.

2:10 a.m., Merrill Lot A sergeant towed a vehicle on the tow list and parked in violation of parking regulations.

2:24 a.m., Merrill Lot A sergeant placed a boot on a vehicle on the boot list and parked in violation of parking regulations.

Carl Charrette is the first cook-baker at Valentine Dining Hall. He received training through an apprentice program at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel.

He is known for the delicious desserts and pastries he creates himself, and then bakes at Val — including vegan options.

Q: How did you become a pastry chef?

A: I did an apprentice program at the Balsams Grand Resort hotel, up in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. It was a four star grand resort hotel. That's where I started.

I found out about the Balsams apprentice program and it just intrigued me working at a massive resort that sat on 15,000 acres of land. I ended up staying there for five years. In that time, I got promoted to head baker. I worked under the pastry chef, and we’re still friends to this day.

Q: How did you end up working at Amherst?

A: I bopped all over the place working in big resorts until I came back to Easthampton, Massachusetts, where I grew up. I started my own pastry shop, called Sunrise Pastry Shop, and had that for 15 years. I went over and worked at Smith College for a year [before] I found out about the position at Amherst. I have worked here for six years now.

Q: What’s your favorite part about working at Amherst?

A: Joe [Flueckiger, the director of Dining Services,] pretty much lets me do what I want. When I started here, they didn't really have a nice vegan or gluten-free line. So I’ve been able to create those. The recipes are just in my head, I just like creating stuff. I don’t go on a computer, I don’t go on YouTube.

I make my own recipes. I know ratios, what to what, how much water, how much yeast, blah blah blah. I just like creating stuff.

Q: What inspired your passion for creating vegan desserts?

A: Over time, I said [to myself], “How come someone can come in and get a beautiful chocolate cake, but the person who’s vegan cannot? If these people are standing together, the one who is vegan is watching somebody grab a beautiful piece of chocolate cake or a beautiful blueberry muffin that they can’t have. How come they can’t get that?” So that’s kind of been my stride over the past couple of years. If it’s upside down pineapple cake, it’s vegan upside down pineapple cake. So the vegan person who comes up gets basically the same product — and we get a lot of compliments for that! Our vegan/gluten-free muffins are very popular. The other day someone tried a vegan blueberry muffin and said it was out of this world, and I said I just wanted to let you know it is vegan and gluten-free. People are shocked when I tell them that, because usually people have the perception that if it’s vegan or gluten-free, it's not going to be that good.

Q: What is the biggest challenge that you face in your day-to-day job?

A: It’s harder for us now in the bakery because we do so much from scratch. Over time, I have kept creating desserts more and more from scratch, whereas we used to use a lot of box mixes.

So it’s a little more of a challenge, but as long as we stay organized, neat, clean, and work together as a team, we can handle it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s the students who benefit from it. I consider a student to be a customer. Like, you have a pastry shop, they’re coming in to buy your product, and that’s the way I view my work here. So if my students are dissatisfied, I would rather have somebody come down [to the bakery] and say, “Hey, Carl, I didn't really like that.” I would change it because they’re customers.

—Tana Delalio '24

News 3

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Students Frustrated By Communication On J-Term Housing, Arrival Caelen McQuilkin ’24E and Tana Delalio ’24 Assistant News Editors On Nov. 22, the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) sent an email to all students announcing that housing for January Term (J-Term) will be limited and only available to students who meet determined criteria. The email also outlined expected arrival and departure dates for the end of the semester, the start of J-Term, and the start of the spring semester. The announcement’s policies, which differ from previous years, left many students blindsided and frustrated, as the news of limited housing and belated announcement of departure and arrival expectations disrupted many’s already-set plans for Winter Recess.

At the news of the announcement, students began expressing their concerns in the campus-wide GroupMe chat, Amherst Bussin. “The window to arrive for J-term is super narrow, what happens if we get here early? Will we not be able to get into our dorms?” asked Isaac Streiff ’24 on Nov. 27. “That’s what it’s sounding like to me, I resched-

uled my flight,” Jay Baldwin ’25 responded.

Many students had reached out to Housing Operations about their individual situations, but reported in the group chat that they had gotten no response.

After one student sent a message about their lack of email response in the chat, around five other students responded that they had not received responses to their questions either. “At this point we need another strategy, emails aren’t working obviously,” Christian Daniels ’23 wrote to the chat on Dec. 3.

On Sunday, Dec. 5, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) sent an email to Dean of Students Liz Agosto, laying out its “grave concerns about the timing and content of this email.” The AAS’s central concerns include the lateness of the announcement and the lack of flexibility in timing for leaving and returning to campus, citing students who have already purchased flight tickets and now cannot change their travel plans without additional financial cost and logistical planning. The letter also raised concerns about the lack of response students

have received from Housing Operations after inquiring about the announcement, and the absence of student involvement in the decision process for these policies.

“What was the rationale behind restricting return dates given students’ varied academic and personal calendars? And why was this email sent out so late in the semester? What will the OSA do in the future to ensure that policies like this are well-communicated far in advance?” the letter asked.

In response to student concerns, the administration followed up with an email on Monday, Dec. 6, providing forms to request a late departure or alternative J-Term arrival date. “Ultimately, the single move-in date did not match up with a wide range of programs/opportunities students hoped to engage in during the January term. Early this week a new form for alternate arrival dates was sent out and students are able to identify other reasons for returning to campus,” said Agosto in a statement to The Student. “We do not anticipate denying an alternate arrival date but we do ask students to plan their travel to move

in during the testing center hours or to be prepared to quarantine in their rooms until they are able to receive a negative test result.”

Phillip Zhou ’24, who holds a job doing research on campus, told The Student that he could not make the J-Term arrival date of Jan. 2 due to a prior commitment. “I had already booked a flight for later that week, and thus, it seemed like [doing research over] January Term would force me into either changing my flight and coming early, or not participating in January Term at all,” he said. “Since I’m working on campus doing research, I can’t do lab work at home, so it really was an ‘either or’ situation for me.”

Nina Krasnoff ’23 personally emailed Agosto after receiving the email and shared her situation and need to stay on campus over J-Term. “It took her a while to respond but she … said she would let Housing [Operations] know she approved me to be on campus,” she said.

Zhou also reached out to the administration after receiving the news. “My experiences have not been too positive, as I sent an email concerning this issue that

never got a response, until they then proceeded to send out a form for those who would arrive at January Term late,” he said. “It would have been nice if those on ResLife [the Office of Residential Life] considered this possibility and implemented it in the first place, which would have made the process of figuring out my J-Term plans less stressful.”

Regarding communication with students, Agosto said, “The Housing Operations staff is working very hard to respond to all of the messages they are receiving about move-out, January Term, and spring housing … We recognize the frustration students are experiencing and are continuously working toward improving communication to reduce confusion.”

The Student Affairs Operations team, she elaborated, is a new team that was established during summer 2021. “Their goal is to create consistent and clear processes for students, [and] many of these processes will need to be recreated or modified to reflect any continued health protocols, housing and storage constraints, and other pressure points.”

From the Red Room: Dec. 6 AAS Meeting Updates Ethan Foster ’25 Staff Writer On Monday, Dec. 6, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) held its final meeting of the fall semester. Senators discussed Budgetary Committee (BC) funding recommendations, upcoming Senate projects, and student housing during January Term (J-Term).

The meeting began with the discussion and approval of the BC’s funding recommendations, led by Treasurer Jae Yun Ham ’22. Among the groups requesting funds were the Amherst Video Games club, the Amherst Ski Club, the Amherst Beauty Club, and the Amherst Labor Alliance.

All funding requests were ap-

proved.

Additional requests for funding were then made for upcoming Senate projects. Shreya Mathew ’25 requested $1,500 to provide free coffee and tea for students in Frost Library and the Science Center during Reading and Finals week. Sirus Wheaton ’23 then requested $8,125 for detergent and toothpaste for students in need.

Both requests were approved.

Senators also discussed the possibility of installing refill stations in first-year laundry rooms and the Keefe Campus Center.

Wheaton mentioned that he had sent proposals to the facilities with the hope that at least one station will be installed for the spring semester.

The discussion then shifted

to a proposal to purchase sweatshirts for AAS members. Some senators expressed concern about the proposal, pointing out that it could further divide the Senate from the rest of the student body, while others saw it as a means to unite AAS members and draw interest towards the group. Suggestions were then made to purchase extra sweatshirts to give away at AAS-sanctioned events in an effort to encourage student engagement. The adjusted motion was approved with a 55 percent majority.

The AAS’s cumulative discretionary spending for the fall semester totaled $200,102.

Following the discussion of discretionary spending, Senators approved spring budgets for a

range of student affinity and religious organizations, with costs totaling $262,000. The AAS will end the spring semester with approximately $650,000 in hand.

Next, President Angelina Han ’22 gave an officer report on the state of student housing. Han stated that J-Term housing has adequate capacity for international students and students with extenuating circumstances, though safety and logistical concerns due to the pandemic have complicated the situation. Han mentioned that the college is hesitant to revert to pre-Covid policies for housing over Winter Recess, and will still operate under pandemic-adjusted protocols.

Senators then expressed concern regarding the administra-

tion’s lack of transparency with students as it makes important housing policy decisions. They further questioned why a wide range of classes is being offered during the J-Term period, given that housing protocols have caused bottlenecks in housing availability.

In the final minutes of the meeting, a follow-up to an email sent out by Housing Operations on Dec. 6 providing further information regarding Winter Recess and J-Term was proposed.

J-Term is currently operating as a pilot program, and will not be held during Winter Recess in the 2022-2023 school year.

The AAS will resume its weekly meetings during the Spring 2022 semester.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

News 4

Experience of Class of 2022E Marked by Disorientation Continued from page 1

thesis for her theater major in person. Having returned to campus in the spring, Ratshin said it was “really sad” that semester to not be able to do the “extracurriculars that have made my experience here so good — theater and music.”

Lily Worden ’22E, a member of the women’s golf team, believes that many student athletes decided to take the fall off for analogous reasons, noting that it’s partly why she would eventually take the following spring off.

“I think a lot of people’s Amherst experience is centered on their athletic experience,” she said.

“They're spending so much time with their teammates who[m] they love and they go through all these challenges with. Having a semester

at Amherst that doesn't involve competing … I think a lot of people didn't want that. Sports are just such a big part of their life because of the community that it brings that they wanted another chance to have that.”

In taking the semester off, some students were able to recreate their own communities away from campus. Eli Quastler ’22E decided jointly with a group of his friends to take the fall off after realizing that they might not have been able to all be on campus together. They rented out a house in Virginia — a “kind of random” choice, said Quastler, since none of them were from Virginia — where he spent the semester exploring the area, working on his thesis in music composition and other personal projects, and “just taking

some time to recharge.”

Few seniors were prepared for the campus they returned to in the spring, however, with several reporting the transition to be challenging in many regards. “It was rough, man!” exclaimed Kong.

“It was so rough, because we start every year with the fall semester, [when there’s] the foliage and the festivities and the weather's nice.

To start off my first semester of my senior year during [the comparably dreary spring semester], that was really difficult for me.”

Isolation amplified the dreariness for many, who were confined to a campus with largely remote classes and deadened social activity. For Jake Montes-Adams ’22E, who had taken the fall off after deciding that neither studying remotely nor flying to Amherst from

Photo courtesy of Aoife McGuire '24

their home in California would be good for them, the monotony of the Covid bubble left them feeling “completely adrift,” taking a toll on their mental health and academic performance. “It felt like every day was exactly the same,” they said.

“Every day I woke up, and was stressed about my schoolwork, and procrastinated [on] my schoolwork, and then went to bed.”

Having been on campus in the fall, Worden said she “couldn't do another pandemic semester — or at least, not the same pandemic semester.” She decided to stay home in the spring, doing some work for her dad and working a retail job on the side. “That's not how I wanted to spend my last semester at Amherst.”

Adding to the disorientation was the experience of feeling out

of step with many of their peers.

“I think being an E just puts everything in limbo,” said Kong. “The people I started Amherst with — they were getting ready to leave, but I was settling in, in a way. The year below me, they didn't have theses to worry about, whereas I was starting my thesis … My peers were thinking about jobs, and I was thinking about doing my next physics homework.”

“All of my friends who were Class of ’21 [and] had not taken time off were gearing up for graduation,” echoed Montes-Adams. “I had to watch them go through that and sort of feel it with them, but with the knowledge that I wasn't done yet and I had another semester left to go.”

Continued on page 5

Photo courtesy of Chris Tun '25

Daniel Choe '22E is an economics and history major from Jericho, New Martin Glusker '22E is an economics and computer science major York. He is a member of The DQ, ASA, and KSA. Choe is also a former from College Park, Maryland. He is a member of the ultimate frisbee member of the Newman Catholic Student Association. team and a former member of ACEMS.

News 5

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

One Last In-person Semester “Made It All Worth It” Continued from page 4

Such feelings surfaced for many E graduates during the commencement ceremony itself in May, which members of the Class of 2022E were given the choice to participate in. “Most of the people around me were having all the feelings of being totally done, whereas I was like, ‘Okay, I'm coming back next year,’” said Quastler on his experience walking in the ceremony.

“So it was a little bit fake in that way.”

Quastler viewed his situation positively, however, remarking that it felt like “the best of both worlds” getting to celebrate the end of the year and also knowing that he didn’t have to “say goodbye to the campus” just yet. He commented on the historic size of this year’s E

class as mitigating the challenges of being an E graduate. “When I tell people, ‘Oh, I'm a second semester senior,’ they don't ask any questions, they just get it,” he said.

“I feel very much like I'm in good company.”

Coming back to a fully in-person campus this semester, many seniors said that with loosened Covid restrictions, things mostly — in Quastler’s words — “feel like the old days” again. Having one last semester on a mostly normal campus has also made the challenges of graduating late worth it, said Ratshin, who performed her theater thesis, “Bad Jews” by Joshua Harmon, in October. “Being able to do my thesis in person without masks just made it all worth it. I’m really glad that I took that time off, even though it did push my plans

a little bit.”

Montes-Adams similarly expressed gratitude for getting to have “another taste of fairly normal college life before leaving.”

“I feel like if I had graduated last semester, it would have felt like college ended at this one point and then there is this sort of facsimile college that I attended for another year after that that was sort of a faux representation of the real thing,” they said. “I would have missed feeling like I'm actually on campus and part of the community again.”

Serving this semester as the president of Marsh Arts House, which was designated isolation housing last semester, Montes-Adams has taken an active part in building a renewed sense of community on campus this semester.

“Nobody was living in Marsh last year, so those of us who got a place in Marsh House this semester sort of came to a house that had no leadership,” they explained. “I was one of only two students who had lived in Marsh House before, so it just kind of fell on my shoulders to take the position and be like, ‘Alright, let's figure it out.’”

“I think we've been relatively successful,” they continued, stating that their goal was to bring back Marsh’s “grassroots-level” contributions to artistic life on campus.

“Coffee Haus has been super successful this semester — we’ve had really packed houses.”

Ratshin also spoke about the process of reviving extracurriculars on campus after a year of inactivity from her experience co-business managing The Zumbyes

acapella group this semester. “Last year, we didn't perform at all — no acapella group really performed,” she said. “A lot of things that we were invited to yearly are just kind of getting back on their feet now, [so] I've also been working with the other business manager to get our name back in this rotation of performances.”

For Choe, who ended up completing both semesters remotely last year, immersing himself in The DQ acapella group again this semester has been a fulfilling way to reconnect with a campus that felt a bit foreign upon his return. “When I first stepped foot on campus and I realized that I'd missed two years of Amherst students, I kind of just felt like this was not my Amherst

Continued on page 6

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E

Photo courtesy of Chris Tun '25

Robin Kong '22E is a pre-med neuroscience and English major from San Diego, California. She is a flutist in the ASO, co-founder of the Asian American Writers Group, and member of the Amherst Christian Fellowship.

Emma Ratshin '22E is a political science and theater and dance major from Seattle, Washington. She participates in student and department theater and sings in The Zumbyes.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

News 6

“It’s Bittersweet”: Class of 2022E Reflects on Graduating Continued from page 5 anymore,” he reflected. “I didn't really recognize anyone, and there were a lot of little things, especially Covid restrictions, that I wasn't used to.”

In Worden’s opinion, the “good old days” remain just that — in the past. She expressed disappointment at the continuing lack of connection within the campus community, although she acknowledged that things have gotten a little bit better. “It's awkward,” she said. “It’s awkward trying to get back to normal life after this pandemic, and I think it's particularly challenging for people who were here before the pandemic. There's kind of this feeling that people are just ready to finish, and that’s never been Amherst.”

Certainly, several seniors admitted to eagerly anticipating an end to the grind of theses and homework and essays and readings. But feelings surrounding graduation were overall rather ambivalent.

“There’s a part of me that feels like, ‘How am I graduating, there's no way that it's my turn to graduate yet,’” said Montes-Adams. “But there's another part of me that feels like I’ve been here for a long time, and I'm kind of sick of it. There's definitely two sides to it.”

“It’s bittersweet,” added Kong.

“There have been moments during the semester where I’m like, ‘I’m so ready to get out,’ and then there are other days where I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was such a good day. I can't believe I'm leaving.’ Little moments like I'm looking outside, and

I notice details about the campus, and I'll be like, ‘Damn, I go to this school.’”

A flutist in the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, she performed her senior concerto solo at the orchestra’s concert on Dec. 4, describing the experience as “surreal.”

“As soon as I played my last note, I could feel my eyes start to water because I was just like, ‘Oh shoot, I'm done,’ like this is it — this is the last time I'll ever play flute at Amherst,” she said. “I feel like this semester was a very good semester, and it felt bittersweet in the sense that I'm leaving just when Amherst started feeling good again.”

Choe said he didn’t expect graduation to come so fast, “even though, you know, I took longer than most.”

“After being off campus a few semesters, I just don't necessarily feel ready for the next step,” he said. “There's still a little bit of sadness about … goals that might have been lofty coming in [that have fallen flat]. But I’m trying to remind myself that this is not the end.”

Now that it is them leaving while everyone else will be coming back, feelings of disorientation persist in the experiences of many members of the graduating class.

Off-cycle for jobs as well, many will have to wait until the spring to figure out their next destination.

But the experience of the past few semesters has taught them that “you gotta roll with the punches,” as Glusker put it.

“Taking a semester off, I’ve learned to be more comfortable

with unexpected things,” reflected Kong. “I realized that every moment has something to offer, [that] there really is something to take away from whatever it is that I experience, even if it doesn't look like the most common route.”

Ratshin marveled at how “my life just kind of took a different turn. When we were being sent home, I don’t think I realized how different my life would be afterwards. I took a semester off, and that was never in the cards. [But] I got experiences that I would have never gotten otherwise.”

“It's been pretty difficult,” concluded Montes-Adams. “But I guess I've also learned that those seemingly impossibly difficult things are not going to prevent me from going forward in life and accomplishing things.”

Photo courtesy of Corri Hickson '25

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer '23E

Eli Quastler '22E is a math and music major from Berkeley, California.

He is involved in theater, jazz combos, and acapella groups on campus, including The DQ.

Jake Montes-Adams '22E is a political science major from Escondido, California. They are the president of Marsh Arts House, worked as a tour guide for the Office of Admission, and are a member of NISA.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

News 7

College Announces Series of Retirements & Promotions Sophie Wolmer ’23 Managing News Editor As the semester draws to a close, the college has announced a series of retirements from and promotions to prominent positions at the college. Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord, Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Counseling Center Jackie Alvarez, and Interim Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer (CEIO) Allen Hart are phasing out of their positions. Current Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Training for the Counseling Center Darien McFadden will replace Alvarez, and current Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion Angie Tissi-Gassoway is filling Hart’s position until a new permanent CEIO is hired.

Jim Brassord Brassord joined the college in 1997 as the Director of Faculties, and later assumed the position of Chief of Campus Operations. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from the University of Connecticut, a Masters in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Connecticut.

As Chief of Campus Operations, Brassord has overseen operational functions in Dining Services, Facilities, Planning Design, and Construction and Public Safety. He has spearheaded the renovation of more than two-thirds of the campus’s buildings. He also has led the Greenway project, Science Center construction, the college’s partial landscape residesign, and the construction of the new Student Center.

Additionally, Brassord launched the Book & Plow Farm, helped establish the Center of Sustainability, and contributed to the development of the Climate Action Plan. Finally, Brassord was a force in creating the New England College Renewable Partnership.

Brassord’s retirement was announced by President Biddy Martin in an email sent on Dec. 6. In the email, the President stated that, “Jim will officially give up his day-to-day

duties on March 31, 2022, and then serve as an advisor to the college for one more year.” Emphasizing his invaluable contributions to the college, Martin asked the community to join her in thanking Brassord for service to the community.

Jackie Alvarez Alvarez assumed the position of Associate Dean and Director of the Counseling at the college in July of 2014. Before her seven years of service, Alvarez worked as a Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Gustavus Adolphus College and Oregon State University. She received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from The Ohio State University. In sum, Alvarez has served as a Counseling Center Director for 31 years and a university counselor for 25 years.

While at the college, Alvarez has doubled the staffing of the counseling center from seven and a half to 19 members. She has diversified the staff in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and nationality. Alvarez has also filled two full-time psychiatric staff positions.

Alvarez has been instrumental in bringing new services to the Counseling Center, including the app-based support program MySSP, the college’s urgent care offering, 24/7 after-hours care, and affinity and therapy groups. She has also worked to expand mental health promotion more generally. Her initiatives have included the ProjectConnect, Peer Support Skills Training, the Wellness Challenge, and the college’s Annual Walk for Mental Health and mental health fund.

Alvarez’s retirement was announced by Dean of Students Liz Agosto on Dec. 7. In the email, Agosto encouraged the community to join her in “thanking Jackie for her immense contribution to Amherst College.”

In a statement to The Student, Alvarez reflected on how the landscape of mental health care has changed at the college over the years. “Seven years ago, if you had asked an Amherst student if they were in counseling, or if they even knew that the college had a Coun-

seling Center, you’d have been hard-pressed to find people who would have said yes,” she wrote.

“Today, 50 percent of our students are accessing care, talking about it openly, and encouraging one another to get the support they need.”

“I believe the work of our office has been central in making these shifts happen,” Alvarez continued.

“The challenge no longer is how to get students to come in. Now, it is how to keep up with the demand for services, and how to change our culture to center well-being.”

Toward these ends, Alvarez expressed pride for the team she will be leaving behind, commending their compassion and creativity in approaching the essential work that they do. “I’m so honored to have been a part of that team,” she concluded, “and I’m so happy that Darien McFadden will be offering his leadership, wisdom, and experience to shape the next iteration of the Counseling Center.”

Darien McFadden In the same email announcing that Alvarez was stepping down, Agosto relayed that Associate Director of Diversity, Equity and Training Darien McFadden will be filling her role. Darien F. McFadden received his Bachelor of Art’s (B.A.) in psychology and English Literature from Colgate University.

McFadden went on to earn a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and complete his doctoral internship at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Center for Counseling and Psychological Health.

Before assuming his present position at the college in 2006, McFadden worked at the Counseling Center from 1992 to 1998. Between his time at Amherst, McFadden served at the Behavioral Health Network/ Pioneer Valley Mental Health Services in Springfield, Massachusetts, and at Hampshire College Counseling Services. In total, McFadden holds more than 30 years of clinical experience.

During his time at Amherst, McFadden has created Queer Talk and Release — two affinity group programs — and implemented the college’s first formal postgraduate

Top left: Jim Brassord. Top right: Jackie Alvarez. Bottom left: Darien McFadden. Bottom right: Angie Tissi-Gassoway. Photos courtesy of Amherst College. clinical training program.

In a statement to The Student, McFadden expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve as the new director, noting that “my work in the Counseling Center has truly been the best job of my life.”

He also outlined some of his goals in stepping into the new position, including building on the work of increasing access to mental health care, honoring diversity and inclusion “in all of its numerous intersectionalities,” and focusing on wellness and resilience in students.

“I want students to recognize the expanse of their own inner power and strength,” he wrote.

McFadden concluded by acknowledging the remarkable team that he will be working with, as well as welcoming student voices and input. “I am so grateful for the guidance of past and current mentors,” he wrote, “and I hold dear the voices and experiences of the numerous students I have been honored to share space with at Amherst during my time here.”

McFadden will start as the new director of the Counseling Center on Jan. 1, 2022.

Angie Tissi-Gassoway Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion Angie Tissi-Gassoway moved into the role of Interim Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer (CEIO) on Dec. 1. She stepped in for Professor Allen Hart

as acting CEIO as the college continues to search for a permanent replacement.

Gassoway earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Public Health Education and Promotion from Oregon State University. She also received her Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) from OSU. In 2015, Gassoway graduated with a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Social Justice Education from UMass Amherst.

Beginning her work with the college in July 2012, Gassoway has worked closely with former CEIO Norm Jones. Gassoway has overseen the Identity-Based Harm Review Team, supervised the Office of Identity and Cultural Resources, co-chaired the Cultural Heritage Committee, and participated in the Student Anti-Racism Advisory Group and Racial History Steering Committee.

President Biddy Martin announced Gassoway’s promotion in an email sent on Nov. 30. In her email, Martin sent a quote from Gassoway emphasizing the honor and excitement that she had as she stepped into the new role. “Over my past nine years at the college, I have had the privilege to see and be part of many transformational DEI initiatives,” she said. “In collaboration with members of the division and colleagues across campus, I stay committed to uplifting and moving the work of DEI forward at Amherst College.”

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

News 8

College Holds Booster Clinics for Vaccinated Students Continued from page 1 shot six months after their second shot, while those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are eligible to receive a booster shot two months after their single shot.

Individuals who will not be eligible to receive their booster by the February deadline are required to receive the shot as soon as they are eligible.

As with proof of vaccina-

tion, students will be required to submit documentation of their booster shot through the college’s patient portal, while faculty and staff must present proof of their booster at the Testing Center.

Those who wish to request a medical or religious exemption should follow identical procedures as those for the original vaccine requirement.

The college held a booster clinic on Dec. 2 and is set to host

another on Dec. 10. Partnerships with PelMeds Pharmacy, the clinics provide both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and allow individuals to “mix and match” shots, per CDC guidelines. Students participating in the booster clinics will not need to submit proof of their vaccination through the patient portal.

Dania Hallak ’24 is grateful that the college is presenting students an opportunity to get boost-

er shots. “Back home in Boston it’s really hard to get boosters,” she said. “I think it’s good that the college is mandating vaccine booster shots. Even with fully vaccinated students there has been an increase in cases these past few weeks. Hopefully boosters will help maintain a safe campus and allow us to continue our education in the best manner possible.”

Audrey Rosevear ’22 noted, however, that the booster clinic

is representative of global vaccine inequities. “[Around] 10 percent of the world population has received at least one dose and we’re getting a third?” she questioned.

“The virus is much less likely to mutate at the rate it would spread in the U.S. without boosters than the rate it’s currently spreading in the rest of the world. Vaccinating other countries is not only an ethical imperative — it’s the only way we can reasonably beat this virus.”

Solar Energy, Higher Costs: College Provides Updates on CAP Ellis Phillips-Gallucci ’23 Staff Writer On Nov. 17, Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord released a letter to the campus community outlining an update for the college’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). The CAP update covered the recent opening of a collaborative solar energy facility, as well as challenges that have arisen in the attempt to modernize the college’s heating and cooling infrastructure. Students and faculty are pleased that the college will continue to pursue the CAP initiative but still desire more concrete action going forward.

The CAP, which was initially adopted in January 2019, aims to achieve “climate neutrality by 2030 through transformative modernization of [its] energy system from fossil fuels to renewable electricity.” The plan includes a four-phase construction agenda, complete with a cost analysis, a year-by-year timeline, and various diagrams illustrating the radical changes taking place on campus. The project’s main focuses include transitioning to electrically-powered hot water heaters and modernizing older buildings on campus that are energy inefficient.

The updated plan revealed the completion of the new solar energy facility in Farmington, Maine. The facility is a collaborative project between Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith, and Williams — together comprising the “New England College Re-

newable Partnership.” It provides zero-carbon electrical energy to each of these institutions. Brassord said that the completion of the facility is a huge step forward, reducing Amherst’s CO2 emissions by 17.5 percent.

The letter also describes how the pandemic has posed unforeseen challenges to the project due to changes in the commodity and labor markets as well as supply chain issues. As a result, the plan’s original cost estimate is now obsolete, and the new cost is “significantly more than the original.” Due to these conditions and other complications, Amherst has failed to begin its construction efforts for the first phase on its original timeline.

Despite the setbacks, Brassord assured students, faculty, and staff that the college remains committed to the original goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

Connor Barnes ’25 of the Environmental Justice Alliance (EJA) was enthused by the Solar facility’s completion. In a statement to The Student, Barnes wrote “it is exciting to hear about the new solar energy facility’s completion, showing that the college’s efforts are yielding results.”

However, Barnes and other members of the EJA were less impressed with the rest of the update. Barnes expressed discontent with the progress of the CAP, noting that “the overall attitude of the task force at this point is best described as hopeful,” as opposed to actionable.

“With Amherst College’s resources, and its interest in global climate change,” Barnes continued, “I want to see this project escalate into something more than hopeful.” Barnes concluded by saying he would like to see more initiative and active conversation within the Board of Trustees rather than mere “passive talk.”

Professor of Environmental Studies Rebecca Hewitt echoed Barnes’ sentiment. She stressed that the project’s success will depend on “opportunities for students to engage with the mul-

tifaceted nature of the CAP.” Hewitt agrees that there is a need for an proactive and dynamic approach to presenting the CAP and its inevitable subsequent updates.

Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Rachel Levin had similar inclinations to those of the EJA and Dr. Hewitt on the update. In a note to The Student, Levin stated that, “In the original thinking around the CAP, connecting technological changes to decarbonize the campus with education and student opportunities was super import-

ant, so that students were involved closely, able to learn from the changes, and more invested.

I think that this could still happen, but there clearly needs to be much more cross-talk between facilities and students around the CAP.” “Given the existential climate crisis, there’s no time to waste in moving towards carbon neutrality,” Levin continued. “Every year of delay, even if we do ultimately meet our carbon neutrality goal on time, means more carbon in the atmosphere in the short term.”

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

A newly completed solar energy facility will provide the college with zero-carbon electricity, which will reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 17.5 percent.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

News 9

In Contentious Debate, AAS Approves Purchase of Senate Sweatshirts Rebecca Picciotto ’22 Editor-in-Chief In a tight vote on Monday night, Dec. 6, 55 percent of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) voted in favor of purchasing 50 quarter-zip sweatshirts, 35 for AAS senators and the remaining 15 to be designated as prizes for any Amherst student to win. The closeness of the vote is a product of several threads of disagreement among student government members on both the specific features of this sweatshirt purchase and the overarching role of AAS within the student body.

The proposal to purchase the sweatshirts was initially put forth

by Lorett Alarcon ’24 at the AAS’s Nov. 15 meeting. At the time the proposal was first made, it was understood that if the purchase was approved, it would be funded through the Senate Fund, a specially allocated pocket of AAS money designated for the Senate to use as it sees fit with no restrictions.

The Senate Fund comes from the general pool of AAS funds, which are collected from each

student via the student activities fee. Though there are no limits as to how senators choose to use it, it is typically used to finance Senate projects that aim to benefit the entire Amherst community. Money from the fund, however, has historically also been allocated to put on a Senate formal.

The quarter-zips, a heather gray design with a purple AAS seal in the upper left chest area, cost $61 each and totaled just over $3,083.

When Alarcon originally brought up the idea on Nov. 15, senators had mixed reactions. The disagreement ultimately led the senate to table the proposal until they finally voted this past Monday.

Some senators support the effort as a way to reward senators for their public service to the Amherst community, make senators more visible on campus, and incentivize joining the AAS. Yvette Kiptoo ’23 was cited in the Nov. 15 meeting minutes saying that jackets “would be good to have” given the senators’ uncompensated hard work.

The minutes also mentioned Jaden Richards ’25, who “said that

a good way to get people involved in the Senate was to have an incentive, such as very nice jackets.

He said that if the money was not being used and most Senators were OK with it, they should put the money to use.”

Sydney Ireland ’23, according to the minutes, noted that these sweatshirts “would serve as an identifier to make [senators] more recognizable to the student body.”

In an interview with The Student, Alarcon stressed that the point of the sweatshirts is “representing AAS and encouraging people to run and get the word out.

It’s like advertising for [AAS]. We do so much for the community and the school… and I just want people to know about who we are and since I feel like a lot of people don’t have that information, it’s necessary that we have something to unify us.”

“If you see someone wearing this sweatshirt, you know they’re a part of student government and if you have a concern you want to bring up, you can talk to them,” Alarcon continued.

Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22, who

Photo courtesy of AAS

The AAS will be purchasing 50 quarter-zip sweatshirts, as pictured above, to be distributed to senators and given as prizes to the larger student body.

voted against the motion on Dec. 6, expressed in the Nov. 15 meeting that he “felt a little uncomfortable spending [more than] $2,000 for jackets for themselves as they did not allow clubs to do the same thing.” The rule Graber-Mitchell is referring to is the Budgetary Committee’s (BC) policy to not recommend funding for “giveaways” like merchandise or apparel for registered student organizations (RSO).

Treasurer Jae Yun Ham ’22, who leads BC meetings and did not have a vote in this sweatshirt proposal, explained, “Let’s say Mock Trial [hypothetically] wants to get shirts that say ‘Mock Trial.’

We don’t think that meaningfully engages the student body.”

Ham noted that AAS is an exception given that it is not technically an RSO and that it can use the Senate Fund. He explained that, for example, The Student, though it is also not an RSO, would not get funded for sweatshirts: “I guess the thing that differentiates the Senate is that we have access to the Senate Fund. The Student does not have access to the Senate Fund.”

Beyond the constitutionality of the purchase, Ham also bolstered some of the sentiments of senators, noting that AAS members are not compensated for their public service. “Some senators work really, really hard — they’re in that meeting for like three hours every week,” Ham said. Still, he mentioned that if the AAS was considered a regular RSO, “We would never have funded this and I would have put my foot down.”

Jalen Woodard ’23, an AAS senator who voted in favor of buying the sweatshirts, noted the imbalance in the no-giveaway item policy between the AAS and RSOs. In an email interview, he said, “I understood the concerns on the other side about fairness … With over half a million dollars in the AAS bank account, perhaps BC should reevaluate that policy, if that’s what our constituents want.

I’m sure there is a fiscally responsible way to go about it.”

Although the sweatshirt purchase technically doesn’t violate any AAS policies, some senators were left with ethical qualms. Gra-

ber-Mitchell told The Student, “I think this is really about what we should do rather than whether or not we can do something.”

Graber-Mitchell commended the reasons his fellow senators had to justify the sweatshirt purchase.

He agrees that incentivizing participation and making AAS more visible are all valiant goals, but could be achieved with a much smaller expense (like a $10 jacket) that could come from the senators’ pockets.

Sirus Wheaton ’23 also voted against the sweatshirts, agreeing that there are more effective ways to achieve the stated aims, for example, “if the AAS Instagram was more active or if there were times where the senators … were doing events that help the whole school community.”

I think getting a $60 jacket, or even a $10 jacket, doesn’t really make sense to me,” Wheaton said.

As for using the sweatshirts as a reward for AAS service, Wheaton expressed that he would rather be fairly compensated for his work.

He said, “I feel like the conversation that we should be having with the administration is not to give us a $62 jacket, but rather to say, ‘Shouldn’t we compensate these people?’... I don’t want my compensation to be a jacket.”

Meanwhile, Woodard saw the sweatshirts as a sufficient, more cost-efficient stand-in for compensation. He wrote in an email, “Many comparable student governments have begun paying members of their executive and legislative bodies, but of course that would likely require raising the student activities fee.”

Ultimately, Graber-Mitchell still acknowledges that this purchase is within the constitutional bounds of AAS’s funding powers.

He expanded, “The more interesting thing is whether or not we should be doing this, whether or not this is an appropriate use of student funds to buy ourselves jackets.

We can talk all day about whether AAS is exclusionary, but it’s undeniably true that this purchase is designed to give jackets to 35 people and maybe 15 others, and not the rest of the student body.”

Op pinion

w

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Exit Letters REBECCA PICCIOTTO ​​Earlier this semester, for a STAT-231 project, I learned that I spend an average of about 24 hours per week on newspaper compared to about 33 hours on my four classes. Some quick math reveals that working at the helm of The Amherst Student has been, for me, almost equivalent to taking three extra classes. And the numbers don’t show the full picture.

Those 24 hours do not include the many 10-minute spurts of email or Slack communication that spring up each day, along with the unquantifiable mental energy that goes into troubleshooting the crisis of the moment or trying to anticipate the next one.

I joined The Student as a Managing Opinion Editor during my sophomore fall with hesitation. I spent my first year at Amherst trying to fall out of love with journalism. I had come from running my high school newspaper, a monthly publication that introduced me to both the things that infatuated me with journalism (gaining trust for exclusive interviews; localizing broader trends; amplifying local stories) along with the things I came to dread (the drudgery of the routine; the stomach-churning unease that comes with the mistakes). Granted, none of us 17 year-olds were formally trained, nor were we putting out many hard-hitters. Still, I felt a constant burden to make that newspaper important to my high school community, and despite hours of work, I never felt I succeeded. So, at 18 years old, I entered college already a jaded journalist. In hopes

RYAN YU As is tradition, I am writing this piece late on Tuesday in a hidden corner of the Morrow basement, during a lull in The Student’s weekly chaos. It is a rare moment of respite in an otherwise grueling night, in an otherwise grueling week, in an otherwise grueling year. Yet, it is in moments like these that a sense of clarity unlike any other settles in.

Perhaps you could call it a clarity of purpose, but that wouldn’t be exactly right. I make no pretensions to an innate value, moral or otherwise, for our work here; nearly four years reading, studying, and producing the news has shattered that illusion for me. But in those too-often moments where, into the late hours of the next day’s morning, I am brought to ask the question we must always ponder — “Why am I doing this?” — I am able to perceive the meaningfulness buried beneath the words and pictures that make up our weekly newspaper.

That meaningfulness, I’ll admit, has not always

of finding a new love, I took Intro Econ and Intro Comp Sci and some math and philosophy classes (now my majors). But outside the classroom, I was still flirting with the newspaper, submitting the occasional op-ed every couple of months (which are now viscerally painful for me to read). When a Managing Opinion Editor position opened up, I decided to apply. As the lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers trope might have it, I was suddenly back in a newsroom.

Over the past two and a half years of working on The Student, I’ve seen it take on a couple of different looks. Under Shawna Chen ’20 and Emma Swislow ’20, the paper was an active mechanism of institutional accountability (reporting like Shawna’s “A Flawed System” series, about the obstacles of securing tenure as an Amherst faculty member of color, gives a good sense of the Chen-Swislow era).

With Natalie De Rosa ’21 and Olivia Gieger ’21 at the helm, the paper also became a forum for student activism, running op-ed series like the Black Student Union’s #IntegrateAmherst. Natalie and Olivia, alongside Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir ’21, also oversaw the transition of The Student during the initial shock of the campus-wide Covid eviction.

Somehow, while everyone was just trying to get through 2020’s post-Spring Break stretch from hell, they were also keeping the newspaper afloat.

In January 2021, with remote learning and pandemic uncertainty still in full swing, I assumed the role of editor-in-chief beside the intimidatingly smart kid from my first-year seminar, Ryan Yu ’22.

Continued on page 11

been stable, clear, or even present for me. It is a little surprising to me that it is as stark as it is when we stretch into the deep hours of the night, when the hustle and bustle of our newsroom dwindles down and it’s just my co-editor-in-chief Becca Picciotto ’22 and me making final revisions on the paper. But I mean it when I say that there’s something about the air of our little newsroom that nourishes the soul. Looking back on these past years, just hours before I finish my last issue editing for The Student, I feel tired, but proud. Satisfied, even.

I won’t sugarcoat it: it has been a long and difficult road, and it is truly miraculous that Becca and I have even survived to this point. I began this semester decidedly more pessimistic than I am now, and frankly, there were plenty of reasons for pessimism. I don’t think we recognized it at the time, but the task we were given — transitioning back, after almost three semesters, from a remote, digital-only newsroom to an in-person, print-and-digital newsroom — was one of the most punishing

Continued on page 12

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Ryan Yu Rebecca Picciotto Managing News Sophie Wolmer Yee-Lynn Lee Assistant News Caelen McQuilkin Tana Delalio Managing Opinion Scott Brasesco Skye Wu Assistant Opinion Kei Lim Dustin Copeland Tapti Sen Managing Arts and Living Theodore Hamilton Brooke Hoffman Alex Brandfonbrener Managing Sports Ethan Samuels Liza Katz Liam Archacki Managing Podcast Sam Spratford Maggie McNamara Managing Design Anna Smith Brianne LaBare S TA F F Publishers Emmy Sohn Digital Director Sawyer Pollard Social Media Manager Emi Eliason

Letters Policy

The opinion pages of The Amherst Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community.

The Student will print letters if they are submitted to The Student offices in the Campus Center or to the paper’s email account (astudent@amherst.edu) by noon on Sunday, after which they will not be accepted.

The editors reserve the right to edit any letters or to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

Letters must bear the names of all contributors and a phone number or email address where the author or authors may be reached. Letters and columns may be edited for clarity and Student style.

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 © 2021 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark 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.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 11

Exit Letters: Becca Says Bye Continued from page 11 With half of our staff on campus and the other half dispersed all over the western hemisphere, Tuesday production nights often took place in a depressingly unpopulated newsroom. It entailed staring into the Zoom ether for 12 consecutive hours, until the early morning birds began to chirp.

Remote journalism was like remote learning: necessary but highly unsatisfying. Still, there were highs. Olivia started “The Student Sums It Up” podcast. I had a small dream come true when I got the chance to interview Jessica Bruder, the author of “Nomadland.” And most importantly, despite the challenges, the newsletter made it into readers’ Wednesday morning inboxes.

This semester has come with its own, unique set of highs and lows.

We’ve gone back to printing copies, which meant The Student became physically visible again—on your way into Val, or Keefe, or Frost, or the Science Center. Our Editorial Board has doubled in size. We launched the The Student Voices program to provide paid positions for students from low-income backgrounds. A relentless and talented team of writers and reporters have covered everything from the college’s labor dynamics, to party culture, to mental health systems, and more. Our editors have gathered every Sunday to discuss (and often disagree) about how to comment on certain aspects of campus life. Our podcast department has doubled its number of shows and projects—from my quarantine brainchild to a full-blown operation with an official studio and two fearless leaders, Sam Spratford ’24 and Maggie McNamara ’23. Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed, we now have a weekly crossword. I am so proud of our entire team for making this newspaper what it should be for this community: a disseminator, a forum, an investigator, and an occasional meme.

For years, editors-in-chief of The Student (and their friends) have asked “Why do you do this to yourself?” Ryan and I have spent many

a Wednesday morning racking our brains for some rational answer. For everything that makes this newspaper an incredible way to spend a college experience, there are just as many reasons not to do this club of all clubs.

For one thing, the ethical dilemmas of this field can make you queasy (Ryan and I are both dealing with some of them in our respective theses). Then, there’s the weekly loss of a healthy Circadian rhythm. There are the crises that require driving 40 minutes to Springfield at 6 a.m. to pick up a print job. In this role, I have hit a couple of rock bottoms throughout the semester, each one seemingly lower than the last.

So ultimately, there is no rational explanation to satisfy the observer who is concerned for our sleep schedules, stress levels, and performance in classes. Perhaps any time I try to run away from this job, I’ll end up in a newsroom again, unsure of exactly what magnetic force pulled me back.

Given all of this, it might seem like I am exactly where I was when I entered this college: a jaded journalist. And yet, if I could go back and change anything about my newspaper involvement, it would have been to join earlier. This paper is a place where I had my heartiest laughs (likely between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on any given Wednesday), pushed myself to my absolute brink (likely between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.), learned the value of an impromptu nap (likely from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.), and found some of the richest lessons of my Amherst career (the entire time).

So why will I keep coming back to this field? Yes, it’s satisfying to put out a final product and yes, journalists have a moral imperative to coordinate our society through the spread of information. But journalism is also just an intensely immersive way for an individual to experience the world.

Any given story will entail having conversations, going places, investigating data, and seeing the underlying dynamics of a community in ways you may not have otherwise. Doing that work on The Student comes with

the added bonus of working alongside some of the smartest people with some of the dumbest jokes (which will, despite your greatest efforts, put you in laughing tears).

And it is to those people that I owe so much.

To the Editorial Board, (you might not believe it but) I will deeply miss the void of distraction that inevitably forms when we’re all together — I now expect to hear Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at ungodly hours of every Tuesday night. There are 22 of you so I’ll spare this letter an individualized list, but do know that when I say, “Thanks for your work,” as you leave the newsroom each week, it’s not a formality. You all are the reason this thing works.

To Olivia, Natalie, and Dylan, who kept this paper alive when everything was falling apart and somehow had faith that I could too, thank you for that trust.

To my friends and family who have dealt with my relentless tirades about the work of this paper, thanks for putting up with it.

To the people who have talked to reporters at The Student and shared their experiences and perspectives, thank you. It’s not easy to go on the record, but the stories you have to tell matter.

To anyone who picks up a newspaper (even just for the crossword) or opens our newsletter or listens to our podcasts or reads our website, thank you—please, now make your friends do it too. The more people let us know when we’ve messed up, or write an

opinion to disagree with our takes, the more this paper can become the two-way line of communication that it should be.

To the next editors-in-chief, Lynn Lee ’23 and Ethan Samuels ’23, enjoy everything of what is to come. There will be hard moments, as I’m sure you expect, but there is something irreplicable about this job and how it accelerates growth. I’m so excited to see the power of the Lee-Samuels era.

To Scott Brasesco ’22, the balanced thinker and authentically kind friend who joined me in the Opinion section just a couple of weeks before Covid sent us all home, thank you for working tirelessly to grow the section and congratulations: your editorial ghostwriting days are finally over.

And of course, to Ryan. If I have grown in this role, it is largely because of him. When people exaggerate about the smart kids you meet in college who “finish three majors early and run two publications and play musical instruments and take three extra classes every semester,” they are unknowingly describing Ryan. We came in as opposites—me, a Type-A compulsive planner who valued a 7-hour night’s sleep; him, an intuitive decision-maker who knew how to nap strategically. I would say that over the past 11 months with our 24 to 30-hour weeks, we have grown into complements. From him I have learned to trust my instincts, stand by my decisions, lean into disagreement, and most importantly, take naps.

Ryan, it might be time to crack open that champagne.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 12

Exit Letters: Making Miracles Continued from page 10 tasks you could assign to someone in our position. Especially for an entirely student-run newspaper, where involvement is directly limited by the four or so years we spend at the college, those three remote semesters proved to be a gaping hole in our institutional history. Everybody who was actively working in the newsroom when the college asked us to leave campus in March 2020 had vanished by the time we returned in September 2021, except for a select few of us. Perhaps we weren’t starting from complete scratch, but it felt pretty damn close.

It wasn’t just the formal, tangible elements of the transition to a physical paper — finding a new printer, teaching our staff the forgotten art of Adobe InDesign, securing the necessary funding — that made this semester so strenuous. Rather, it was the things we didn’t exactly know how to put back together — the routine, the culture, the community — that made it the monumental task it was. As journalists, we are intimately acquainted with the act of creation, for it is our job to fuse disparate perspectives with context and relevant information to put forth a candid portrait of our world and the people in it. This, too, was creation, but on a much grander scale: creating not a news story, not even a newspaper, but a newsroom.

To be sure, all of those concerns were frequently on our minds. During our trial semester as editors-in-chief — Spring 2021, when we were formally editors-in-chief but didn’t really feel as if we were in that role — Becca and I had chatted extensively with our predecessors and mentors, Olivia Gieger ’21 and Natalie De Rosa ’21, about what we could do to prepare for a return to an in-person newsroom, both in technical and cultural terms. But

as with many of our ambitions that first semester, it all amounted to little more than meaningless conjecture without the physical presence to match it. And so, our to-do list kept piling up, set to be unraveled only in this fateful semester.

At times, it felt like we were drowning, even as we began to hit our stride with important coverage on labor and health as well as the formalization of The Student Voices program. The hours we spent seemed to drag longer and longer; the tasks seemed to multiply, even if we weren’t adding any new projects or initiatives. It was difficult to tell whether we were the last embers of a dying flame, or the match that was sparking an inferno. It felt eerily similar to the first time I stumbled into journalism during my first semester at Amherst, when I, new to news writing, was assigned my first article and then left to meander my way to some final product, unsure whether I was moving forwards or backwards. A ship out at sea, with no land in sight.

But just like my first foray into journalism somehow transformed into a half-decent piece, Becca and I eventually found land on our journey, too. It didn’t mean that the hours got any shorter or that the work got any easier — although I’m thankfully doubtful that our production process will ever stretch to 11 a.m. the next day again, as it did with our Homecoming issue — but it did mean that the foundations we laid began to coalesce into a coherent form. No longer were those formal technical elements things that Becca and I had to spearhead, and no longer was the newsroom encumbered by a deadened atmosphere. Slowly but surely, things had come to life.

It may not have been the newsroom of pre-pandemic glory, with its usual night-time Schwemm’s runs or meticulous

double-print-edit corrections process, but it wasn’t meant to be. When Liam Archacki ’24 and I distract half the newsroom in order to get test subjects for our crosswords, that works for us.

When someone (usually me or Scott Brasesco ’22) instigates a time-consuming debate on the irrelevant, offbeat topic du jour, that works for us. When the arts and living section (but especially Brooke Hoffman ’23E) whips our editors into a frenzy over this week’s most ridiculous title, that works for us. This current iteration of our newsroom, after all, is an object of our making. Of course our legacy lives on within it.

On one of the walls of our newsroom, there is a copy of a New York Times article taped at its center. “The Daily Miracle,” it reads, referring to the constellation of events that go into the daily production cycle of the Times. When, during my freshman spring, the then-editors-inchief Shawna Chen ’20 and Emma Swislow ’20 taped up that article on the wall, they established a regular refrain for our paper: just as the Times had their daily miracle, we had our weekly miracle.

As attractive as that refrain is, I’ve come to disagree with it a tad

this past semester. Sure, we have our weekly miracles, but we have our daily miracles too, and our hourly miracles, and our miracles at every moment in between. The vibrancy of our newsroom is a testament to the perpetual miracle that is The Student, and that miraculousness is truly ineffable.

I emphasize again: it is in moments like these, blanketed by the presence of the newsroom — my hearth for this past semester, or really the past three-and-a-half years — that The Student’s meaningfulness comes to light. For it is the embodiment of the act of creation, allowing us to see the echoes of the community around us, the vitality it emanates from each corner. It offers, for us, the sensibility of creation that is so necessary for journalistic practice, and for the type of journalism that can hold power to account. It is that same sensibility with which I’m sure that Ethan Samuels ’23 and Lynn Lee ’23, the incoming editors-in-chief, will carry the paper forever forward.

For me, all that’s left is to gaze back with Becca — the best coeditor-in-chief I could’ve asked for — on the house we built, and to say that, yes, it was indeed worth it. Painful as it was, it was worth it.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 13

Exit Letters: Scott’s Exitorial I officially became one of The Student’s two Managing Opinion Editors almost two years ago in the beginning of March 2020, a little more than a week before the college asked us all to leave campus due to the uncertainty and possible danger caused by the at-the-time little known coronavirus. I remember a single rushed production night when I was introduced to the editors-inchief, Olivia Gieger ’21 and Natalie de Rosa ’21, and then a second — when I still barely knew any of the Editorial Board — in which we discussed plans for moving off campus and how production would continue.

I’d applied for the position in the hope of finding a place to make a deeper contribution to the Amherst community, but within my first couple weeks, I had already left that community behind. It certainly wasn’t how I expected my time at the paper to begin, and I had trouble settling into my role at first as I tried to get to know the Opinion writers, my fellow editors, The Student as an institution, and most challengingly, The Student’s convoluted website.

It was over the next year — The Student’s first entirely remote year — that I truly came to know our lovely editors as we all muddled through our pandemic semesters together, yet apart. It was a profoundly challenging year for The Student, which had always been centered on in-person interactions, interviews, and mentorships. As for myself, I spent the entirety of the year off campus and the newspaper became something of a tether between myself and the distant Amherst community. It was where I heard stories of the goings-on of campus life, both positive and negative, and where I had an opportunity to really interact with fellow students outside the classroom.

I’m particularly proud of work I did alongside the Black Student Union in editing and publishing the #IntegrateAmherst campaign, one of the major causes of the college’s antiracism plan, as well as my work to

help other students and community members, such as Amherst’s staff, use the paper as a platform to make a difference at the college. I became familiar with student yearnings, from things as broad as better efforts at racial inclusion at the college and a deepening of the college’s commitment to financial aid and as narrow as better support for lactoseintolerant students or the need for better performing spaces.

I also wrote a few articles of my own, which I am proud to report have improved over time in both quality and scope. One of my first articles was on the American judiciary, which I excitedly noted was retweeted by a blue-check scholar on Twitter until later realizing I had written that he “failed to recognize the value of the judiciary as an institution” in the article. In contrast, my most recent article revealed my personal struggles receiving mental health care at the counseling center — struggles that I viewed as part of a larger problem with the college’s approach to mental health care. Many people shared their similar stories or statements of support with me in the following days, though the counseling center itself sent in a letter not-so-subtly accusing me of “discourag[ing] students from seeking care should they need it.”

The main focus of my time at The Student, however, was reworking the way that the newspaper planned and carried out its editorials. While historically they had been the products of the Opinion editors’ own thinking and writing, my co-editor Becca Picciotto ’22 — now editorin-chief — and I started sending out topic surveys and holding editorial meetings to make sure editorials were representative of the views of the whole Editorial Board. In our view, this gave the editorials more weight as the voice of the paper, and this seemed to prove true as we noticed the subjects and critiques we made being brought up in faculty meetings from time to time over the course of the year.

It was through this weekly exercise

of leading editorial discussions and writing the editorials themselves — the editors often joked that I was a columnist who wrote under the pseudonym “The Editorial Board” — that I truly came to engage the issues facing the Amherst community every week, both on and off campus. To me, it became a way of meeting that original goal of leaving the college better than I’d found it — a way to take action myself and support others as we worked together to make the college a better place.

I suppose that as I’ve come back to campus this year, spent my weekends editing articles and planning editorials, and endured our dreaded 8-to-10-hour production nights (all of which is unpaid, mind you), this dual sense of duty and community has really been the thing propelling me forward. To this day, my friends do not understand why I’m willing to lock myself in Morrow’s basement and stay up so late to produce the paper each week. Each week I delivered less work than expected, my poor thesis advisor, Professor Javier Corrales, has cautiously asked: “How many more weeks do you have left at The Student?” And sometimes I fail to understand why I do it, too. And yet, I can’t imagine going through the pandemic without The Student, its editors, or any of the fine writers I’ve had the pleasure of working with in my time here. It’s been my deepest connection to the home I’ve made here and my surest way of doing my part.

I cherish the friendships I’ve made working at the paper and the moments we’ve had together along the way. From getting into the nitty gritty of peoples’ qualms with any given situation on campus while writing the weekly editorial to roaring with laughter as one editor took a personality test online that came back with the response, “No

personality,” I feel I’ve truly gotten to know and enjoy each and every person there during those late-night meetings, and I know I’ll miss them next semester.

I’ll miss editing the Seeing Double column — the mainstay of my section and often a source of turbulent newsroom discussion.

Many thanks to its authors, Thomas Brodey ’22 and Cole GraberMitchell ’22, for their dedication to producing a column that is just the right amount of weird, tackles significant Amherst issues, and is always a delight to read.

I’d also like to extend my gratitude to our outgoing editors-in-chief, Ryan Yu ’22 and Becca Picciotto ’22, who have been a constant presence during my time at the paper and my go-to sources of advice and amusement. Ryan, I hope you’ll come to believe my many compliments which you have always been so sure are sarcastic — you deserve all of them. Becca, thank you for being such a stalwart partner and mentor as I started at the paper; from the beginning to the end, I’ve always been able to count on your ability to take the poor drafts I wrote late at night and make them beautifully unrecognizable by morning. As silly as it seems, I’ll really miss our late nights together next semester.

And last but not least, I’d like to give special thanks to my coeditor, Skye Wu ’23, and our team of assistant editors — Kei Lim ’25, Dustin Copeland ’25, and Tapti Sen ’25. I know I couldn’t have stayed as long as I did, no matter how much I wanted to, without your enduring support and willingness to both challenge me and learn yourselves.

I’m confident I leave the section in good hands as I depart, and I look forward to seeing what comes next for the Opinion section and The Student.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 14

A Study on Student Perceptions of ACPD and Changemaking Olivia Fajardo ’23 Sydney Ireland ’23 Contributing Writers Police forces are endemic to college campuses: around 95 percent of institutions in the United States with at least 2,500 students have their own campus police force. Furthermore, 70 percent of universities partner with their local community police forces. That doesn’t mean those forces are popular, however. The racist histories that define colleges and police forces alike have often remained unaddressed, prompting various forms of student protests to reform campus police. Initiatives from petitions to walkouts by college students across the United States advocating for the abolition of campus police forces. Despite that effort, few colleges have followed their students’ calls— many university police forces remain on their campuses to this day.

Amherst College in particular has been called on by students in recent years to abolish their armed police force and rely on the Town of Amherst Police Department instead.

Still, besides an abstract “restructuring” campaign, very few changes have been made within the Amherst College Police Department, indicat-

ing to us a lack of desire to listen to students’ voices. So we conducted research to better understand students’ views of the ACPD and student demand for change.

Our Research As part of our psychology course, “Stereotypes and Prejudice,” we issued a survey to students about their perceptions of the ACPD and of the students’ ability to create change at Amherst. Twenty-five Amherst students participated in the study, representative of all class years and split relatively evenly across the race and gender spectrum.

The results of this experiment indicate that Amherst students’ views on ACPD range primarily from neutral to negative (Graph A).

All participants reported that they believe ACPD treats individuals of different genders, ages, and racial/ ethnic groups differently. 77 percent of participants also strongly disagreed with the statement that they felt proud of the police. However, when asked to consider a scenario in which they were involved in an incident on campus, White students generally felt that ACPD would respect them while students of color were more likely to report that they

felt ACPD would disrespect them (Graph B). Additionally, ​​when asked whether ACPD would listen to their full story and perspective during this scenario, 75 percent of students of color strongly disagreed that ACPD would do so while 60 percent of White students agreed that ACPD would listen.

The findings of this study also suggest that students overall want to see change in Amherst’s campus policing: 85 percent of students strongly agreed that they would want to see change in campus policing at Amherst (Graph C). However, students of color were more likely to report that their feelings regarding a student’s ability to create change at Amherst have become less hopeful over their time at Amherst, with Black students specifically reporting being the least hopeful while simultaneously wanting to see this change the most. Though race was an indicator in the amount of hope a student had, there were no significant disparities in reported feelings of hope across class years.

Given these findings, we wanted to look at what Amherst College has done to support students who want to change policing, and how effective their efforts have been.

Current Efforts to Reform ACPD We asked Suzanne Belleci, Director of the Center for Restorative Practices (CRP), to weigh in on how her office has aimed to address policing at Amherst. She stated that “Amherst College’s 19-Point Anti-Racism Plan includes an invitation for us to ‘reimagine policing,’ on campus.

With that opportunity in mind, the CRP has been hosting a semester-long series of Restorative Circles.”

Restorative Circles are respectful and open spaces where community members come together to listen and converse about potentially polarizing issues. They are “rooted in Indigenous practices that center decision-making into the heart of the community,” according to the CRP’s website. Belleci explained how the Circles support the CRP’s mission: “The voices, ideas and suggested action steps are recorded and brought to the Campus Safety Advisory Committee [CSAC], who are tasked to gather information and report what they find to the college president and trustees.”

Maya Foster ’23 is a member of the CSAC and the director of the Office of Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As the only Black student on the CSAC, she stated that

her role in the Black Student Union (BSU) has been the most impactful position in terms of talking about campus police reform, and that the BSU has been a catalyst for change within Amherst policing. In April 2020, the BSU wrote an open letter for The Student entitled “Why We Must Integrate Amherst”. That letter followed another online letter and petition written by BSU stating a list of demands on how to proceed in addressing racism and racist actions at Amherst.

Foster believes that the college’s compulsion to create committees in response to problems is a way for the administration to avoid making substantial changes. However, Foster holds that the CSAC members are aware of this downfall and are actively trying to work against it. In response to student needs, Foster is fighting to more clearly define the purpose of ACPD so that their role is transparent to the community. She especially wants ACPD to address the negative impacts that firearms play regarding the mental well-being of Black students.

Making Change, Keeping Hope While Foster is passionate about the crucial work that she does at

Student Perceptions of ACPD

Averages (0=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree)

Student evaluations of the following phrases while considering ACPD as the police in question 5

4

3

2

1

0

“I do not have respect for the police.”

“Overall, the police are honest.”

“I feel proud of the police.”

“I feel people should support the police.”

“Police treat males and females differently.”

“Police treat people similarly, regardless of how old they are.”

“Police treat people differently depending on their racial/ethnic group.”

“Police treat people similarly, regardless of the neighborhoods they are from.”

Graph A’s data demonstrates how one’s race impacts their perception of the ACPD and its treatment people of different backgrounds.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021 of ACPD; they have fewer responsibilities than ever before.”

While these reforms have not necessarily changed the culture of policing on campus, as the police officers are still armed,

Foster is determined to continue to advocate for Black students at Amherst.

Our study shows that most Amherst students desire ACPD reform, and though White stu-

dents believe change is likely, they also seem to be taking less action. These students in particular should work for the change they would like to see: attend restorative policing circles; join

activist groups on campus; elevate the voices of student leaders of the ACPD reform movement, such as the BSU’s calls to action.

Harness hope into actionable changemaking.

Student Perceptions of ACPD (specific scenarios)

We asked students to consider a scenario in which they were involved in an incident on campus and ACPD arrived; these are their responses: 4

Averages (0=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree)

Amherst, she spoke about feeling fatigued by the amount of pro-diversity advocacy she undertakes. She stated that burnout “is definitely pretty common. I think people that pick one issue experience less burnout. Because my job is to look at equity and inclusion more holistically, it doesn’t feel like we are making as much of a difference even if we are making small, incremental changes. If you are trying to make change and you are coming from a privileged place, that change would be nice, but it’s not about your basic right to emotional or mental health and that causes much more burnout.”

Foster’s sentiments closely align with our study’s results.

White students in particular experience more hopefulness in making change at Amherst while simultaneously reporting that they believe they could not significantly change ACPD’s policies and capabilities on campus, suggesting that White students see an issue but also seem to believe that the issue will fix itself without their action.

Despite these challenges, Foster is still hopeful and devoted to making change. She notes, “There have been significant changes in the structure

Opinion 15

3

2

1

0

ACPD would treat you with dignity.

ACPD would disrespect you.

ACPD would show concern for your rights.

ACPD would listen to your full story and perspective.

ACPD would only listen to part of your story before moving on.

Graph B exhibits how students of different races believe they would be treated by ACPD in specific scenarios.

Will Reform Happen?

Averages (0=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree)

Students’ opinions about change-making at Amherst and reforming ACPD 5

4

3

2

1

0

“I would like to see change in campus policing at Amherst College.”

“I believe that change will happen in regard to policing at Amherst College.”

“I feel like I cannot significantly change ACPD’s policies and capabilities on campus.”

“I have worked in some capacity to create change in policing at Amherst College.”

“My feelings regarding a student’s ability to create change at Amherst have become less hopeful over my time at Amherst.”

Graph C shows how students across different class years and races feel about the possibility of change occurring at Amherst, as well as demonstrating how they perceive their own abilities to create change on campus.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 16

Seeing Double: The Elephant in the Zoom Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist During the summer of 2020, I took Professor Austin Sarat’s remote “Democracy and Catastrophe” course. Over the three months, as my quarantine beard grew, all kinds of notable people joined our class Zoom, from journalists and congresspeople to a senator and even a very sleepy Pete Buttigieg. The class succeeded because it turned the necessities of remote learning into strengths.

We would never have been able to bring these individuals to our small rural campus, but Zoom made it possible, even convenient.

Zoom, in short, offers just as many opportunities as limitations.

With a fully in-person semester about to wrap up, many of us are eager to permanently cast away Zoom alongside the other bad memories of the pandemic. But let’s not be so hasty.

Like any precision tool, Zoom struggles when we rely on it exclusively, but thrives in specific roles.

If we use it properly, we could fundamentally reshape the liberal arts education. If we made Zoom a permanent part of the post-pandemic Amherst toolkit, we could both enrich the Amherst experience and improve our school’s accessibility.

Specifically, I believe that, in addition to offering the usual in-person

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

During the 2020 Fall Term, Professor Jenna Riegel held up a laptop while teaching “The Language of Movement,” so remote students could participate in a class which took place in the Mead Art Museum. classes, Amherst should always offer a small number of exclusively remote courses.

Zoom opens the door to new experiences. Amherst already offers students the option to study abroad. Why not let students study remotely if they have a good reason to do so? For example, imagine that Maria has just received a dream offer to work part time at a California physics lab for the fall.

In the past, Maria would have had to sacrifice either her semester at Amherst or a great opportunity.

Zoom would give her the opportunity to do both, letting her parttime work and her education supplement each other.

There are any number of other reasons a student might prefer to take a semester of classes remotely.

Perhaps a parent is seriously ill, or the student’s family simply cannot

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Professor Alberto Lopez leads a session of Organic Chemistry over Zoom to accommodate both in-person and remote students during the 2020 Fall Term.

afford the $8,000 Amherst charges for room and board that semester. Under those circumstances, a “study at home” semester might be a student’s best option.

I don’t believe that the majority of students would or should take a remote semester, but remote learning offers other benefits that would appeal to all students. Amherst could, for example, recruit instructors whose lives would otherwise never allow them to teach on campus. Imagine how transformative and fascinating it could be to take a class from Senator Chris Coons ’85 or Albert II ’81, Prince of Monaco. While we must be careful to keep the majority of instructors in person, remote classes could create some truly incredible opportunities.

Zoom has an important role to play for in-person classes. In previous years, if you had the flu, you would have to choose between dragging yourself to class and possibly infecting your classmates, or missing an important lecture.

With Zoom, a friend of yours can pop open a laptop to let you listen to class as you lie in bed and pop a Tylenol.

Finally, Zoom is the best tool

for demolishing the ivory tower that divides Amherst campus from the rest of the world. If we opened a few of our remote courses to public observation, thousands of people around the world could watch our signature seminars live. Perhaps the viewers could even contribute to the class via live polls. With this system, Amherst could both “give light to the world” and remain accountable to the opinions of outsiders. Public Zoom classes have already made a big impact, and Amherst should continue to build on the model.

Some might argue that remote learning compromises the personalized experience that makes Amherst special. But I’m not advocating sending everyone home like we did in March 2020. I’m arguing for a more, rather than less, personalized experience. If you hate everything to do with Zoom, you can stick to an in-person experience. But I think for many students, remote learning should remain an important side dish in the all-you-can-eat buffet of a liberal arts education. We must not let our nostalgia for a pre-pandemic campus blind us to the world that is Zooming forward.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 17

Letter to the Editor: Prof. Picq Deserves to Stay Diana Daniels ’22 Libertad Aguilar ’22 Lisa Zheutlin ’22 Contributing Writers Last week, we, and many other students, were shocked and devastated to learn that the college decided not to renew Professor Manuela Picq’s contract for the next academic year.

A beloved professor, activist, and friend, Manuela has been teaching in Amherst’s Sexuality, Women’s, and Gender Studies (SWAGS) and Political Science departments since 2008 — her absence will be deeply felt.

However deep our loss feels, we imagine Manuela’s shock to run even deeper: after 13 years of service, she has been rewarded with a forced termination. In an effort to organize our shock and frustration into action, we are writing this letter to show our support for Manuela Picq and to urge the college, especially Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein, to reconsider this decision not to renew her contract. Instead, we ask that Amherst College keep her as a professor to continue her influential and irreplaceable legacy

within the Amherst community.

Having had the privilege of taking at least one of the many Political Science or SWAGS courses taught by Manuela throughout our time at Amherst, we have all felt the impact of her teachings. Her courses are deeply interdisciplinary, weaving together the nuances of international relations, sender and sexuality studies, Native studies, environmental studies, and Latin American studies. She has inspired us by challenging the very foundations of Political Science, always suggesting alternative methodologies and imaginaries.

But more than that, Manuela has always grounded her teachings in communal respect and reciprocity. She encourages her students to see her not only as an academic or a professor but as an individual. This effort motivates students to view each other similarly, distinguishing her classroom environment from traditional academic dynamics at Amherst.

Beyond our personal connections with Manuela, her record as an academic and an activist stands out. She is an accomplished feminist scholar who

uses her position and work to bring attention to Indigenous politics in Latin America and on a global scale. Her academic record is deeply intertwined with her activism. The theory she teaches about in class is reflected by her practice outside of the classroom with Indigenous activist groups in Ecuador and beyond. Manuela also utilizes her courses as platforms to bring in outside activists and scholars who enrich student learning, offering more nuanced channels for engagement. The wealth that comes with having someone like Manuela as an anchor both in Latin America and the local Amherst community cannot be stressed enough. As a professor with a unique diversity of thought, practice, and identity, Manuela fulfills the very promises of diversity, equity, and inclusion of this college’s mission statement. We are simply asking that the college upholds this institutional promise.

To let her leave Amherst College would be a huge loss to the student body and the alternative imaginaries she uplifts with her platforms.

To support Manuela’s con-

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

Students speak out against the forced termination of Professor Manuela Picq’s contract for the next academic term after 13 years of service. tract renewal, visit this link ( ht t p : / / t i ny u r l. c om / m anu e la-picq) with our direct letter to the administration. It contains many moving student testimoni-

als that speak to the life-changing nature of Manuela’s classes and the courses s Manuela Picq he teaches, along with over 100 signatures of community support.

Satire: AAS Votes to Give All Senators Horses Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist Last Monday, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) voted to allocate the entire annual budget on purchasing each Senator a horse. The move met with a standing ovation from the senate, with one senator declaring it “the culmination of AAS’ long mission to serve the students of Amherst College.”

When pressed for explanation, Senator Tucker Yates said, “AAS isn’t some private club of students. We are representatives of the entire student body. I myself was elected by a resounding majority of 43 votes to nothing.

As representatives, every benefit we personally receive is symbol-

ically a gift to the entire student body.” Yates’ explanation was briefly drowned out by the noise of senators violently shouting down Random Acts of Kindness’ request for $20 for snacks.

“I can’t wait to see the enthusiastic response of my constituents when they hear about this act,” continued Senator Yates.

“Most years, all we can manage to provide for us Senators is an easy resume boost and a few generously-budgeted parties. But this year, we’re going to show the Amherst community just how much we can do to help everyone by helping ourselves.”

After the decision, AAS sent out a letter of solidarity in support of all the non-horse owning members of the campus. “AAS

wants you to know that you are seen and you are valid. Amherst is a radically equitable campus, so we solemnly swear that you will face no discrimination because of your lack of horses.”

AAS’ measure also received a ringing endorsement from President Biddy Martin. “Real leaders don’t waste time asking the public how we should spend our money.

Instead, we should let the benefits trickle down from ourselves to the lower levels. The boost in campus morale that more vegetarian options would provide is nothing compared to the joy Amherst students get from seeing me riding a horse. Sometimes people tell me to get off my high horse, but nothing can stop me riding with the wind in my hair, baby.”

AAS soon realized that the new horses would require housing, and frantically drafted plans to spend their rainy day fund on a new stable. Fortunately, President Martin saved the day by offering the recently-abandoned counseling center building. The building has stood empty and unused after the last counselor quit to work at Hampshire county prison. The building will now once again serve the interest of the student body.

Upon acquisition of the horses, all of AAS mounted up with impressive coordination and rode off in the direction of Panda East in a v-formation. When The Student reached out to Amherst Equestrian inquiring about how AAS had suddenly acquired

such horsemanship skills, the E-Board declined to comment.

The Student could not help but note that this semester AAS allotted Equestrian the unprecedented sum of $4,000,000, with the stern reminder that the funding be equitably shared among both of Equestrian’s members.

Negotiations around the funding allotment were mysteriously blotted out of the Budgetary minutes.

AAS will return after break to discuss a proposed plan to turn the presidency into a rotating position with a five-minute term, thus enabling every member to claim to have been Student Body President without anyone having to attend more than one meeting per semester.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Opinion 18

An Ode to Morrow Dustin Copeland ’25 Assistant Opinion Editor When Dwight Morrow graduated from Amherst in 1895, he was voted “most likely to succeed” by every single member of the graduating class excepting only himself.

Morrow voted for his roommate, Calvin Coolidge, who would go on to appoint Morrow to the U.S. ambassadorship in Mexico after becoming president of the United States. Morrow was also a partner at J.P. Morgan, and a U.S. Senator from New Jersey. The distinguished alumnus would, together with his wife Elizabeth Reeve Cutter (herself acting president of Smith College for a time) donate the funds that were used to build Morrow Dormitory in 1925, which was constructed over the course of the following year.

Morrow Dormitory is McKim, Mead, & White at the height of its dominance over campus. The architecture firm is probably more influential than any other single entity in terms of its effect on

Amherst’s physical campus: from 1894’s Fayerweather Hall until the late ’50s, the firm had a choke-hold on campus architecture. Everything from Morrow to the Powerhouse to Webster Hall and even the War Memorial is theirs: in other words, McKim, Mead, & White had its hands in all of the most beautiful, lasting, and important architecture on our campus.

By the end of their tenure, the firm was well past its prime, something that shows painfully in buildings like Chapin Hall and the unequivocally depressing Mead Art Museum. Such uninspired gestures at austerity as their atrocious white-painted stone facsimile and tragically boring brickwork truly aren’t fit to bear the name of the storied firm; indeed, I think it might be justified to raze these mid-century examples of artistic doldrums purely on the basis of their sullying of McKim, Mead, & White’s otherwise unimpeachable legacy.

The mid-1920s were one of the many peaks of that legacy: the

Harvard Business School and Olin Library at Wesleyan University, as well as Manhattan’s Savoy-Plaza Hotel and what is now the former headquarters of the New York Department of Education, were all completed within two years of Morrow’s construction. Morrow, therefore, stands as part of a venerated catalog, part of the McKim, Mead, & White neoclassical oeuvre that would define contemporary American architecture.

On a macro level, Morrow is perfectly competent. The recessed central mass is flanked by two projections that divide the building into visual thirds, breaking up an otherwise over-imposing rectangle which — while it worked on the smaller scale of North and South Halls — would come off just too heavy on Morrow. This threeway division reflects Fayerweather across the quad, foreshadowing the manifold progeny of that defining structure. Furthermore, the understated dorm balances Morris Pratt Dormitory’s extravagance across Webster Circle, and

the vast front porch with its fluted columns brings a noble luxury that parallels Mo Pratt while staying understated in tone.

But the true joy of Morrow lies in the details. Every little piece of the building is so perfectly executed as to elevate the structure far past plainness. The brickwork is masterful, with courses of headers (the short side of the brick) breaking up the otherwise-monotonous expanse of stretchers (the long side) to keep the facade visually light while mirroring the brickwork of North and South Halls.

Then there is the band of stone that underlines the top row of windows, unifying the stone that speckles Morrow’s brick. The lintels (structural beams that form the top of a window-frame) are made of the same stone and splay outwards to lend legitimacy to the tone conveyed by that porch. A denticulated cornice tops the building with grandeur befitting the careful construction. I urge you to spend some time with Morrow, either from Webster Circle or even below it on

Val Quad — the longer you look at it, the better it gets.

Of course, I love Morrow not just for its indisputable architectural significance. The interior design is wonderful, too, with a 2006 restoration refurbishing the gorgeous wood that clads common rooms and floors across the building. But most importantly of all, Morrow is home to the very student newspaper in your hands (or on your screen). Our newsroom sits within Morrow’s basement, a baby-blue home that will sit unused for the next month or so. The semester draws to a close, and with it goes the newspaper for now. Morrow has been an amazing home for the newspaper this semester, a warm place for late nights of joy and stress in the name of publishing.

In the spring, I’ll return to Morrow, and we will resume the cycle of writing, editing, and publishing that has defined my time on campus this semester. So, thank you to the building that gives The Amherst Student its shelter, and I promise that we will be back soon.

Photo courtesy of Google Earth

The front of Morrow Dormitory faces into Webster Circle, balancing out the ornate facade of Morris Pratt. Morrow was completed in 1926 and its namesake was the father of Charles Lindbergh’s wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Amusements

w

The Student Sums It Up, Fall 2021 | Crossword ACROSS 1 Move like a bunny 4 Church instruments 10 Pellet propeller 15 Initials for “the Caruso of Rock” 17 “I’m ____ roll!”

18 Grammy Award-winning artist 19 Eagle-eyed 20 Haphazard attempt 22 “My father went here, and his father went here, and his father went here...”

25 Sea eagle 26 Count in “Attack of the Clones” 27 Pie chart amts.

28 “My goodness!”

29 “Overworked and ____” 34 Former head coach of a team mired in controversy 38 What keeps a real princess up at night 39 “Ob-La-Di, ___” 41 “Talk to strangers!” site 42 Position that might be described by 29-Across 46 Summer sign 49 Append 52 Some deli loaves 53 “Ouch” 54 “____ a dark and stormy night...”

Solutions: Dec. 1

56 Required by Feb. 1, 2022 58 Mars’s Greek counterpart 60 Joseph and Robert 62 Shrewdness 63 Leer at 65 Massachusetts motto starter 67 Jason’s ship 68 The baller herself, middle name included 72 A multi class’s subject 74 “Fly ____ the moon” 75 Father Bundren of 32-Down 76 Zealot 79 Glacial periods 81 Unruly crowds 83 Philanthropist Gates 84 “Is it in APA, Chicago, ___ style?”

85 Sardine storage 86 Actor Idris 89 “No cap” 90 Expanse worth gazing at?

91 What the college did away with this semester 96 Dora’s dire enemy 98 “Okay, let’s continue” 99 QB targets 102 Participating in the college’s two-wheeler program?

106 The Green Room’s recent venture into the Octagon 109 Author Wharton 110 Nine, in Nice 112 Subarctic forest 113 Headey or Dunham 114 The abode of Drs. Alvarez and McFadden 121 Dillydallies 122 One who has been accepted 123 Like this clue 124 Before, poetically 125 Et’s companion 126 Enjoys an e-cig 127 “Short and stout” vessel 128 Web feed letters DOWN 1 “What did you just say?”

2 Low-scoring tie 3 Far East temple 4 Transpire 5 Artist Lichtenstein 6 “Today” rival, for short 7 Big name in chips: Abbr.

8 ____ de plume 9 Barbershop sound 10 Pasta e ____ 11 Emotion of one who is done with finals 12 Nat ____ 13 Grandma’s resting place, perhaps 14 P.M. periods 15 I don’t know her 16 Not svelte 20 Jason of How I Met Your Mother 21 What students seeking to study abroad might receive 23 Manchester City footballer Nathan 24 “Beat it!”

28 Enter cautiously 30 +, for short 31 Killer of A. Hamilton 32 “As ____ Dying” 33 Hill’s partner 35 Cow hand?

36 Singer Winehouse 37 Barely passing, at Amherst 40 Make drinkable, as in seawater 42 Relating to the universe (archaic)

Ryan Yu ’22 and Liam Archacki ’24 Editor-in-Chief and Managing Sports Editor 43 Prepared for a hand 44 “The Raven” writer 45 Also-rans 47 Violin tuning 48 ____ buco 49 Lawyers’ org.

50 Bashful companion 51 Early-semester Covid policy 55 How many Amherst athletes will spend J-term 57 Exclamation of defeat 59 Post-op program 60 ACPD alternative that’ve left some “confused and concerned” 61 “Love, Reign ____” (The Who song) 63 Horse morsel 64 Wallace’s claymation pal 66 British music mag.

69 Affirmative 70 Invisible

71 Claw 72 Some tech execs.

73 43,560 square feet 77 Hubbub 78 Scoundrel 80 Overly ornate 82 Unified 83 Cosplayer’s read 85 Unit of pressure 87 God, informally 88 “Desperate Housewives” character Van de Kamp 92 Mammoth’s rival 93 ____ culpa 94 Suffix for mono or epi 95 Group of devices connected over communication networks: Abbr.

97 “Dry as a desert, ____ the sea” 99 Many a member of The Student 100 Gatherings more frequently found at

UMass 101 Flat replacements 102 Beautiful, in Bologna 103 Standard of excellence 104 Navel concavity 105 Hornets’ homes 107 Nuclear trial 108 Go for the bronze?

111 Like a pitchy performance, perhaps 114 Cleveland hooper, for short 115 “Great Unifier” of Japan Nobunaga 116 One who makes calls for a living 117 Orr surface 118 Gun owners’ org. that shares many members with 119-Down 119 Elephant org. that shares many members with 118-Down 120 Position with a confusingly similar name to 60-Down

Arts & Living 20

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

WAMH X THE STUDENT

Brought to you by the WAMH blog, where it can also be found, and The Student’s Arts and Living section. Written by WAMH Staff Writer Chris Tun ’25.

2016 was a landmark year for Frank Ocean. The release of his second studio album “Blonde” brought widespread praise from music critics, with a Metacritic average score of 87. However, most people forget about the album that came immediately before: “Endless.” Released under Def Jam Recordings, the album fulfilled Ocean’s contentious recording contract with the label and allowed him to release “Blonde” under his own label, Boys Don’t Cry. Despite the nature of the album’s creation, it should be considered a major work in the musician’s discography, even if it is often overlooked.

“Endless” is a liminal album.

It is an album one plays neither during the highs nor the lows of their life. It finds itself in between two places, like an airport terminal. The heavily reverberating instrumentals and vocals blend into each other, adding motion and flow throughout the album.

Listening to “Endless” all at once reveals how hard it is to actually distinguish the tracks from one another. I have not encountered this type of listening experience that frequently. The album requires an idle attention, though with a positive connotation. Just like a dream, the listener does not have to put in any effort when it comes to understanding the album. In a dream, images just come to the dreamer, just like the music in “Endless” just comes to the listener.

Even though the beginnings and endings of tracks blend into each other, the songs still stand out from one another. One of the tracks that start the album is called “(At Your Best) You Are Love.” Ocean croons a sweet mel-

ody over an arrangement of piano, synthesizers, and strings credited to Radiohead guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood and singer-songwriter James Blake. The song is essentially a ballad, and was originally performed by The Isley Brothers in 1976.

Despite being a cover, the song feels as though it was originally written by and for Frank Ocean.

His overall vocal performance and the backing instrumentals create a feeling that I can only describe as a leaf gracefully falling to the ground. A track similar to this is “Wither.” With a more lo-fi production style, the track sounds like

Ocean singing in his bedroom, which creates an intimate atmosphere. The gentle guitar throughout the track is played by musician Alex G, who also contributed to “Blonde” on tracks such as “Self Control” and “White Ferrari.”

Contrasting with these mellow vibes, certain tracks have a refreshing upbeat energy. “Comme Des Garçons” begins with a catchy vocal melody by Ocean, who raps about a short-lived casual relationship. The programmed drums by producer Vegyn adds an entirely new layer over the bass guitar and synth melodies. Despite the fact that the song is less than a minute long, it immediately sticks in your head. You will end up singing the main hook over and over again, which inadvertently ends up being a good promotion for the Japanese fashion label of the same name.

Another song with a similar hook is “Slide On Me.” Although it is not as upbeat as “Comme Des Garçons,” the song’s tight production resonates even after the track blends into the next, and the hook is as memorable, if not more. The best way to describe these songs is the feeling of driving down an interstate while the street lights pass

overhead against the darkness of the night. Even though these songs are filled with energy, they contribute to the ambience of the overall album.

This album as a whole is composed of spacey arrangements varying with energy. Trap beats and electronic music have a huge hold on the instrumentals for the tracks. One could picture some of these songs being played in a highend club in some large metropolitan world with a vibrant nightlife.

Unlike “Blonde,” Ocean also does a considerable amount of rapping, like on the track “Mitsubishi Sony.”

Though a majority of the tracks are digitally composed in nature, more “acoustic” tracks like “Wither” still have a place in the tracklist. Overall, the album is electronically ambient while retaining aspects from its trap and hip-hop influences.

Despite these elements of the album, it still sounds like a meditation from Ocean. Lyrically, he focuses on emotional moments in his life, though it is clear that he is far from being once an active participant in these memories. As a result, the album feels as though it exists in a subconscious, a deep meditative state. “Blonde” indug-

es in these emotional memories, while “Endless” lets these memories come and go. As a result, the two albums exist in two different planes, making two unique experiences.

Although “Endless” has not had a large cultural impact in music like “Blonde,” the album still holds its own and stands by itself.

It is not “Blonde,” nor should it be. “Endless” is an excellent piece of art that often gets overlooked due to its proximity to “Blonde.”

The listening experience for this album is unheard of in contemporary music. Unlike being just a collection of songs loosely placed together, each song works with each other through its context and placement on the tracklist, making this album. Due to the nature of the album, this experience is a requirement in order to make the album worthwhile to listen to.

Although the album is difficult to stream, those who have access or that can gain access should listen to it. Those who are interested in Frank Ocean’s discography should definitely listen to this album. And for people who want a unique musical experience, this album fits every criteria.

Photo courtesy of Staticflickr.com

Due to the overwhelming success of “Blonde,” Frank Ocean’s lesser known “Endless” is a masterpiece that has remained under many listeners’ radars. Featuring Ocean’s varied talents, it is an experience like no other.

Arts & Living 21

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Standout Sound: A Closer Look at “SossHouse” Noni Akintude ’23 Staff Writer Behind every star is an entourage: a tight-knit circle of people who are always at the star’s ready.

Musicians often surround themselves with dedicated lyricists, producers, hype men, and other unique creatives. For Pi’erre Bourne, that is no different. The self-produced rapper has not only made a lane for himself in the rap game, with his 8-bit inspired beats that stand out from hip-hop’s current sound, he has also built a collective burgeoning with talent and creativity.

This collective is known as SossHouse.

Atlanta-based SossHouse was founded in 2014 by Pi’erre and two of his longtime friends, Marko Visuals, who does video production for the label, and A.J. Bourne, the label’s graphic designer. What started as a group of friends trying to have fun with new and unique sounds turned into one of the most exciting and standout groups in the rap game. In addition to Pi’erre

Bourne, I am a regular listener of SossHouse members Chavo and Sharc. The group also consists of rappers Jelly, Bermuda Yae, J Billz, Frazier Trill, and Kura.

Last summer was hot for the label, with Pi’erre, Sharc, and Chavo all releasing new projects. Pi’erre came out with the final installment in his mixt ap e - tu r ne d- c om me rci a l -a lbum series “The Life of Pi’erre 5” (“TLOP5”), which dropped in June 2021. It works well as a culminating project, showcasing the peak of Pierre’s production and lyrical capabilities. The beats get stuck in your head easily, featuring repetitive synths, classic 808s, and Pie’rre’s melodic-robotic voice and standard smooth transitions between songs.

Sometimes, I think his bars can be a little weak, but that may also be what brings charm to his projects. Tracks like “Couch” and “HULU” are filled with fun metaphors and quips about his life before and after fame.

Chavo, who hails from Boston, has been a member of Soss-

House since 2016. Inspired by his father, Benzino, the owner of hip-hop magazine The Source, Chavo has been involved in music for most of his life, being credited on one of his father’s albums at the age of 7. Although he’s released a couple of mixtapes independently, he didn’t release his first project with SossHouse, “Chavo’s World,” until 2020.

After gaining a decent following, he followed it up almost a year and a half later in August 2021 with “Chavo’s World 2.”

Both mixtapes stay in my rotation, but “Chavo’s World” is the harder hitter in my opinion.

The two were especially focused on solidifying Chavo’s presence and showing off both their skills in his first release. In addition, “Michigan,” the lead single from the album, garnered some popularity on TikTok, allowing Chavo to build a following rather quickly.

Not only did Chavo give us a glimpse of his world with these projects, he also let the world know he is the next big thing.

Full of braggadocious bars and humorous, witty moments, Chavo solidifies himself as something the game doesn’t have right now. He may be from Boston, but his content sounds Florida-inspired, and his flows are more like southern rap, which makes him an impressive talent. Alongside Pi’erre’s quirky production on the mixtape, Chavo creates an atmosphere that is a self-described “relaxed luxury trap,” which makes the tape addictive and fresh. Some tracks from “Chavo’s World” that I return to include “Boolie,” “LR Wrist,” and “Countertops.”

Sharc is not a recent addition to my playlists, either. The self-proclaimed “grimey” emcee from Atlanta released his debut project, “47 Meters Down,” two weeks after “TLOP5” in June 2021. He was — and still is — a relatively unknown artist, with only a handful of singles on SoundCloud before “47 Meters Down.”

Pi’erre produced this project and it begins with the deep-

Photo courtesy of Bing

Pi’erre Bourne and his collective label, Sosshouse, have been making waves in Atlanta, dropping multiple creative projects in the last few months. The group’s sound is fun and energetic, and Pi’erre’s distinct production style unifies the artists.

voiced narration that he uses for many of his older projects, announcing “This is 47 Meters Down. There’s only one Sharc.”

Sharc does not fail to make himself known as a menace, rapping about being reckless in an aggressive way that no one has covered on a Pi’erre beat before. There’s the energy of Playboi Carti and Young Thug in his flows, but his unique, raspy voice coupled with beats packed with unique drum patterns, deep, rumbling bass, and eerie high-pitched synths make him stand out from the typical Atlanta sound.

Although Sharc is rather undiscovered by most of the music industry, the fact that Pi’erre Bourne is backing him is promising and compelling, and I think this mixtape is a solid debut.

Some of the songs that best encapsulate Sharc’s sound from “47 Meters Down” include “100 Clip,” “Brown Water,” and “Gang Pop.” Although I haven’t listened to everyone on the label, I can only imagine that with Pi’erre’s taste, the other members of SossHouse are just as interesting and fun to listen to. He has found a way to curate his own sound while also developing promising talent.

All the artists bring something unique to the table, but what they all have in common is the ability to foster a fun atmosphere with their music.

Pi’erre is just doing what he’s good at: making music and having a good time. Pi’erre describes his sound as “happy beats over trap 808s,” and every time I hear his signature producer tag, “Yo Pi’erre, you wanna come out here?” I know I’m going to have fun. I got to listen to these releases during the summer before my 21st birthday, and they set the tone in a bold way for me. It was a great time listening to this music for the first time. SossHouse has the potential to blow up in the coming years and with Pi’erre steering the ship, it really can’t go wrong. Take a minute to check out the SossHouse collective before the wave really hits.

Arts & Living 22

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

“Circle Mirror Transformation”: Acting About Acting

Photo courtesy of Alex Brandfonbrener ’23

“Circle Mirror Transformation” follows an acting class for adults, comprised of individual exercises. They must count to ten without interrupting each other, and repeatedly fail.

Alex Brandfonbrener ’23 Managing Arts and Living Editor Annie Baker’s “Circle Mirror Transformation” came to life this weekend in a Green Room production, directed by Bianca Sass ’23. I attended a dress rehearsal on Thursday, Dec. 2, a day before their opening night. While the cast and crew were still polishing up a few final staging elements, the production had largely been finalized in Cole Assembly Hall. Colloquially known as “The Red Room,” the room is noteworthy for the red carpets that line the floor and stairs of the amphitheatre. In this simple but distinctive backdrop, Sass has brought the absolute most out of all the actors, staging one of the most compelling productions I have seen at Amherst.

The show presents a unique acting challenge: the cast must act as actors learning to act. The play’s setting is a creative drama class for adults at a local community center.

One teacher, four students. The play throws you into their acting exercises, which Baker uses creatively to provide insight and background into the characters. For example, the play’s opening requires the five participants to count to ten — one, two, three, four, five… — without speaking over each other. But they stumble and restart repeatedly, fail-

ing to reach ten; it is clear that the novice actors have a long way to go.

And then, the scene abruptly ends.

The play continues similarly, with a jarring lack of context and sharp transitions.

Equally tense is the awkward setting: it’s an acting class for adults.

Long silences fall between sentences, and characters struggle with miscommunications. But the five characters still appear distinctly, and have been individually brought to life. Theresa (Petra Brusiloff ’24) is eager and competent, while Schultz (Miles Garcia ’25) struggles with stutters and socialization.

The teacher Marty (Emma Ratshin ’22E) controls the group with a patient but didactic tone, and her husband James (Max Hauschildt ’25) is quiet but lively, and at times, impatient and angry. While all five are impressively acted and sympathetic, I especially enjoyed the nervous but innocent teenager Lauren (Snigdha Ranjan ’25), who wrestles with making herself present in the group. Sporting a large sweatshirt like armor, she pops into scenes by quietly observing intimate conversations from behind, unphased. But she is also an emotional participant, and holds her own against the other, older characters. Acting as both a comic and a mournful element, she provides relief from the occasional disingenuousness of the oth-

ers. And while Ranjan excels, the other four also play with rhythm of speech and bodily motion, presenting conflicting emotions that grind against each other.

It’s not just awkward, though.

A delicate intimacy accompanies the interruptions, as the actors are forced to embody the emotional states of each other. One of the exercises throughout the drama class requires each actor to share the history of another, from the other’s perspective. The originally stilted

Schultz grows closer to Theresa, and shares the story of her failed career as an actor in New York City, as if he was her. It reflects the fact that all five are learning about each other and becoming more comfortable with acting. Even when they say one thing, they mean another, and it is perfectly clear.

Another memorable acting exercise makes one actor assume the role of director, arranging the others to recreate a childhood scene. When Lauren takes the directorial role, she makes Marty and James her parents, who act out a domestic dispute.

The scene is layered and impactful.

Marty and James incorporate their own marital problems and James’s distance from his daughter. Then, when they debate how they should treat their daughter, “Lauren,” the whole discussion is really all about James. And Lauren silently listens: it is her childhood, but she also displays understanding and sympathy for Marty and James.

The show also uses its drama class premise as a force of surprise.

Lauren and James reenact a freely evolving argument between Theresa and her ex. When Lauren is unable to hold her own, Theresa jumps in and takes the role of herself. For a lot of the play, she says she can’t get over her ex. Now, she is able to come to terms with her past, and say ex-

actly how he mistreated her.

By the end of the play, the relationships between the characters have been rearranged. The five play a game where they list all the things they “would bring to India,” adding a new item each round. Schultz excitedly lists all the items, but forgets the one Theresa added. Earlier in the play, these two are as close as can be. They have had a romantic falling out, and it is clear he is not over it, at all. Baker uses the constitutive unit of the play — the acting exercises — in order to shed light on both past traumas and present tensions.

As the characters become more and more truthful in their acting, their lives fall apart outside of the exercises. Marty says that she received a black eye from “falling off of her bed”: the implication is that James has mistreated her. But the space they inhibit while acting returns as a truthful force.

Each actor writes a deep, dark secret on a scrap of paper, and shares one at random. It isn’t clear who has written which secret — but we know, and they know. It’s one of the tensest moments of the show. Yet only after this exercise can the five complete their original task and successfully count to 10. By brutally exposing themselves to each other, they learn both how to act and how to be genuine.

Photo courtesy of Alex Brandfonbrener ’23

Director Bianca Sass ’23 has brought out the most in her actors, whose varied preformances show the potential for student acting as experimental, emotional and impactful.

Arts & Living 23

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Detail and Design: “Women and Wallace” Intrigues Sarah Weiner ’24 Staff Writer The independent student-directed, designed, and performed project, “Women and Wallace,” was a reminder of everything it means for theater to be an art of storytelling. The diligent work of the actors and crew spoke through the transparency and authenticity displayed onstage. The play’s direction, design, and music were simple, yet effective, giving rise to a production in which every moment was cared for.

“Women and Wallace,” written

by Jonathan Marc Sherman and originally published in 1989, is a hard play in every sense of the word. The coming-of-age story follows Wallace Kirkman and his relationships with various women after the death of his mother when he was six. The content is emotionally difficult, and as a one-act play with over 20 scenes, its structure proves to be a challenge too.

Historically, the play has been performed with a varying number of actors distributed over the eight female characters and one playing Wallace. This production featured the talents of Shayna Klainberg ’25 (Grandmother, crew), Sienna McCulley ’22E (Nina, Mother, Victoria, Psychiatrist, Sarah, Lili, Wendy), and Matt Vitelli ’24 (Wallace).

Starring opposite each other, McCulley and Vitelli certainly showcased their range, with McCulley covering seven different characters, some more complex than others, and Vitelli four distinct ages. Klainberg gave a gentle and grounded performance as Wallace’s grandmother, a reliable source of calm amidst the frequent chaos of Wallace’s life.

The script’s traumatic plot is complimented by moments of humor, some very dark and others pleasantly funny. Delightfully, the cast took on these moments with as much skill as their dramatic acting. Klainberg and Vitelli are both members of Amherst’s eminent improv comedy group, Mr. Gad’s House of Improv, and their comedic timing certainly

lived up to any and all expectations. McCulley’s delivery was strong, garnering laughs from the audience with her patience, curiosity, and spontaneity. Her solo ending to the peanut butter and banana sandwich scene was one of the highlights of the show.

The choice by Caroline Seitz ’22 (director) to cast one person in seven out of nine parts was daring. McCulley took on each part sincerely, and her constant reinvention added profundity to the plot — for example, what does it mean when your dead mother reappears as your first kiss? However, the costume changes necessary for McCulley’s reinventions paired with the full turnover of the set before nearly every scene made for lengthy transitions.

The Friedmann Room did not lend itself to these transitions, or much else of the play. The huge airy room conflicted with the intimacy of Vitelli’s performance.

Even when exposing the most quirky and questionable parts of Wallace’s character, Vitelli worked intently and successfully to keep the audience sympathetic to his cause. Friedmann’s large back and door windows (and lack of true stage wings) also rather harshly illuminated the transitions from scene to scene and character to character. I was not sure how I could make it through them all without losing my grasp on the flow of the plot. Once I gave into them as an intentional part of the story, however, my perspective entirely shifted.

The transitions, as well as the play’s immersive “overture,” featured the musical talent of Eli Quastler ’22E on the piano, placed directly next to the audience’s seats. The score of mostly original compositions created a throughline, holding the audience fast to whatever was about to happen next in Wallace’s life.

What could have easily been filler music instead catalyzed my understanding of the transitions between scenes as just as much part of the story as the dialogue between the characters. Quastler’s work, in addition to that

Photo courtesy of Emi Eliason ‘23

Sarah Weiner ’24 reflects on “Women and Wallace,” which successfully combines humor and a difficult coming-of-age story with a series of impressive technical effects. of the crew, rendered the strike and set up of scenes a compelling reminder of the mighty team required to relate a story of this weight.

The swift work of Ella Vacchi ’23 (crew, stage manager, costume design), Calvin Woods ’21 (crew), and Klainberg to set every object and piece of furniture with exactitude also added a sense of curation to Wallace’s life: who is behind his story? Who is behind all of our stories? These questions were also emphasized by the decision to keep Vitelli standing onstage through some transitions, waiting for the next moment in Wallace’s story to be designed before he entered it. While most productions adamantly conceal any hint of technical labor, this production had no choice, and I ended up appreciating it much

more than I anticipated.

The show’s lights were designed by Seitz and Vacchi and run by Luke Herzog ’24 (assistant director) with precision. The design was simple; and I knew its simplicity was almost to a fault when I felt utterly refreshed, borderline relieved, by the singular use of swirling colors to frame a dream sequence. The result was a unique lighting effect that also managed to avoid tackiness, leaving me wanting more, although the nuances of the Friedmann Room lighting system are beyond my knowledge.

Seitz and Vacchi also designed props and sets, which were simplistic, but in this case perfectly so. They gave the audience exactly what was needed and nothing more, supporting the story without swallowing it. The

costuming, by Vacchi, was extremely effective. Each character appeared distinct and no choice was distracting. Congratulations are also in order for designing the costumes in a way in which they could be donned and shed easily as McCulley moved from character to character. The buttons, zippers, and layering used was a logistical feat, as well as an artistic one.

As the cast took the stage for the curtain call, I couldn’t help but think of the other bodies behind and in front of the stage I had also witnessed telling Wallace’s story. The group of three actors appeared especially small for having just told a story of such depth. Performing “Women and Wallace” took a village — a village of patient, acute, and passionate storytellers.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

“

Arts & Living 24

The Indicator ×

THE STUDENT This piece was initally published in The Indicator’s 2021 issue “Passing” and is presented here in colloboration with The Indicator.

“Wild Pitch” Sarah Attia ’24 The Indicator Staff Writer (Why do you love what you love?

Why do you love how you love?

Couldn’t you find something better to do?

(No, probably not.)

Francis wasn’t much of a lover. But what he loved, he loved to the point of pain.)

It started with the old man.

Francis saw him outside the CVS. His big hands were trembling around a cigarette, a plush of orange lighting up an otherwise unassuming, uninteresting face. His face was downcast, lines etching out a portrait of exhaustion in his cheeks, his wrinkled forehead, his silvery hair shoved beneath a faded baseball cap. The fluorescent lights flickered, and every so often Francis caught a glimpse of fire glinting along inside his eyes.

Francis didn’t make much of him– avoided eye contact as he slid into the store, not that the man seemed particularly interested in giving it up, and bought his toilet paper. It was only when Francis walked back out, plastic bag hanging loose off his wrist, that the man looked up.

“It’s-” he rasped, voice a little worn out, “it’s an awfully rainy city, isn’t it?” He smiled at Francis, and he shifted, shuffling his bag from one hand to the other.

Looking up at the sky– cloudy,

but not yet raining, though it felt like the sky was just taking a deep breath, getting ready to let it all spew out soon enough– Francis smiled wanly, thinking about the dinner he was going to have to cook when he got back home, and the phone bill he hadn’t paid yet, and that damn package he was going to have to return sooner rather than later.

“Yes it is,” he said, turning to stare at the car that zipped past, lurid yellow headlights painting their feet in a splash. “It’ll probably rain soon,” he continued, wondering if the leftovers in his fridge would hold over for another day or not.

“It didn’t used to rain this much,” the man mumbled, looking down at the ground. “Did it?”

Francis stepped back. “Ahwell- I don’t know; it feels like it’s been like this since I was a baby.” He laughed, but it was a choked off thing. He didn’t want to be here now that he thought about it. The rain wasn’t so badand really, it was a good thing, considering the state of things all around the globe- like, maybe the rain and the cold was fine when Arizona seemed perpetually on fire and the Atlantic Ocean was more oil spill than water. Every day Francis got up out of bed, stretched his arms to the ceiling and removed the sleep from eyes. He polished the dullness of the day into something close to a sharp object.

Photo Courtesy of Hantong Wu ‘23

Ignored the rain, which had become something like a warm coat a long time ago.

Francis wanted to go home.

The man’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s right. It’s been around twenty years since-” he paused to flick away the cigarette- Fran-

cis held back a snort of disgustand grabbed his hat, “Yes, twenty years since the last time they made the playoffs.”

He wasn’t much of a sports guy. “They?”

The old man huffed, twisting the cap in his hands. “The

Knights, kid! It’s been twenty years!” He smoothed out the wrinkles on the cap’s brim, energy suddenly shot out of him.

Francis checked the time. 6:50.

What was he waiting for? “The

Continued on page 25

Arts & Living 25

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

The Indicator ×

“

THE STUDENT Continued from page 24

rain didn’t used to feel so strong- or maybe I didn’t notice it so much. I was younger then. Now my bones all creak, like a skeleton.”

Francis checked the time again.

Still 6:50. He didn’t have an umbrella.

It was supposed to rain soon, wasn’t it?

What did the weather report say?

It was impolite to check your phone during a conversation, though.

“So, what,” he chuckled a little. “It’s been raining so much because a baseball team hasn’t made the playoffs?”

They hadn’t even won, if Francis remembered correctly.

The man shook his head slowly.

His hands were trembling again. It irritated Francis. Didn’t old people get colder easier? He should’ve been wearing gloves. “No– just the floods.

Nothing grows in this city anymore, heh. Gets drowned out.”

Rice grew well in heavy rains.

Monsoon crops, right? Maybe, Francis thought, he should try to grow rice.

The old man sighed, like he wasn’t expecting an answer from Francis. “It was nice catching up, Frankie. You should go see a game soon. Sometimes it makes me feel like coaching you kids again.” Then he walked away, and Francis was left gaping on the corner, bag quietly thumping against his leg.

He hadn’t been called Frankie in forever. * And then it came around to his mother.

You know, sometimes Francis regretted going to college in the same state he’d grown up in. And it was a damn big state, and Francis didn’t have a car, and who even knew how to use the bus, so it wasn’t like visiting home was in the cards that often anyway. But he wasn’t one of those people

who hated his home state either. It was just a state, wasn’t it? A place of access– you lived here, this place was yours for the blip of time you existed on it, it learned how your footsteps sound and the grocery stores you liked to visit and sometimes it had little blips of magic that other places just didn’t.

Sometimes, Francis didn’t know if that felt like love.

Sometimes, Francis called his mother.

“You won’t believe this,” she began as soon as she picked up the phone. “I found your old mitt, from little league, remember?”

“Ma?” He said, staring down at the ground beef sizzling on the pan. Spaghetti bologna, he thought. No, wait.

Bolognese. He blinked. Little League?

“Since when did I play Little League?”

She scoffed. “Since you were a baby, that’s when! You were terrible, but everyone’s terrible when they’re babies. Those stubbly little hands can barely hold balls, it’s adorable. Are you cooking?” She asked suddenly. “I can hear something sizzling. You shouldn’t have the heat too high if it’s meat, you know, it’ll burn before it browns–” “Ma!” Francis interrupted. “I know how to cook!” Silence. Mom silence.

“I’m making bolognese,” he mumbled, chastened.

“Oh, the recipe your father sent you? I like that one, but I think it goes heavy on the worcestershire sauce, you could–” A baseball spun around in his mind. An image of the dirt, a red smear against white clothes, appeared.

He didn’t know if that was a real memory, or if it was just– cultural osmosis.

People loved a baseball story.

“Hey– you know I really don’t remember playing little league?” He asked, pulling out the garlic.

His mother went quiet. Francis added the worcestershire sauce, albeit less than the recipe called for. The pan sizzled. “You played shortstop, I think.

Does that help? And you wanted to play on the Knights when you grew up.” Her voice sounded gentle. Francis wanted to break something.

The Knights. Those damn Knights.

It wasn’t really a big deal, was the thing. He couldn’t remember some minor blip in his childhood record, so what? People forgot things every day.

Really, people had to forget things.

The brain wasn’t made to hold all the millions of minutes it’d been alive—Francis would’ve been alive for 11,044,800 minutes once his birthday rolled around. He’d checked.

All things considered, the importance of some childhood memories was probably miniscule in comparison to paying the bills, feeding the cathypothetically, since his apartment didn’t allow pets-, remembering to call his mom every once in a while. His reality was about moving forward.

Francis should’ve been grateful.

It’s not like there was anything to remember from those days, probably.

He didn’t even like sports.

“Yeah,” he said, and it sounded

like a lie. “It’s coming back, a little bit.”

how little he wanted to be anywhere at all.

“Ah,” she sighed, falling into a bout of nostalgia. He could imagine her spinning round in their old black armchair, one arm patched up because the stuffing was always at risk of spilling out. Francis hadn’t known he could imagine her so well. “The Knights sure were something back then. Like– flukes of nature. Hey, maybe I’ll come up, and we can see a game together one day. Like when you were a baby!”

So: what the hell’s the harm, right?

The beef burned. A lump lodged in Francis’ throat. His hands were stained in garlic. “Like old times,” he repeated, hand gripping the spatula tighter. * It was stupid. Francis wasn’t even sure he remembered the rules of baseball.

It was stupid. He didn’t even know if he liked baseball.

Watch the gameBe terribly confused for a few inningsWonder when the giant epiphany was comingWatch the outfielder catch a fly ballWonder what an epiphany was supposed to look likeListen, listen, listenListen to the crowdListen to the smack of a ball against a batWatch the ball soar, fly up against a blue sky in the middle of the fifth inning-

There was a weird feeling in his gut as he sat down, rolling a water bottle between his hands.

Hope for something-

It wasn’t like- one game, and all his apparently locked away memories that Francis couldn’t access would come back. It wasn’t like- one game, and the city would stop flooding. It wasn’t like- one game, and things would magically, suddenly, be better.

So what the hell’s the point, right?

It was just that sometimes, Francis sat in class and lost himself. He stared at the blackboard, at his hand writing notes and couldn’t remember that it was his hand, really, that was writing those notes. He thought about how little he wanted to be there. He thought about blue skies- or slate grey skies- or even those nights where it was dark, yeah, but the sky looked almost orangeish instead. He thought about

Realize it wasn’t a run for the home team-

Watch it leave the park-

Wonder if you were supposed to be sadWonder if you were sadWonder if your heart was like the ballHard and heavyCapable of being lifted to great heightsMaybe against your willListen, listen, listen-

Arts & Living 26

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

The Amherst Student: A Look From Behind the Scenes From the outside , The Student appears in your Wednesday email inbox, sits in print stacks outside Valentine Dining Hall, and adorns your social media feed. But behind the final products is a team and a process that may not always be visible. To help make our newsroom more transparent, the Editorial Board walks through the system behind the stories.

News The News section’s week-to-week writing process is unpredictable and a bit chaotic, but always meaningful at the end of the day. We start the week brainstorming important stories we should be covering or continuing, and then begin conducting interviews and doing research. Because this process adjusts with the development of stories, we’re oftentimes up late on publishing night finishing our efforts at capturing stories in the best and fairest way possible.

Since this task is such an important one — and, most likely, an ultimately impossible one — it creates a lot of space for thought and debate. Does the goal of avoiding anonymous sources in order to keep journalistic integrity favor stories about less vulnerable people or groups? How do different forms of reporting and writing styles change the newspaper’s reinforcement of the status quo vs. its potential to disrupt it? These are some of the questions we ask ourselves — and just like the news, their answers are in constant flux.

Opinion Every Saturday, as newly submitted articles find their ways into the Opinion editors’ inboxes, our work week officially begins. The Opinion section’s various responsibilities — from writing the weekly editorial to having heated (sometimes ad hominem) debates with Editor-in-Chief Ryan Yu ’22 — requires collaborative multitasking. In editorial meetings, we are actively participating in the conversation, transcribing everyone’s contributions and formulating a tentative argument that holistically reflects the views of the Editorial Board. On publishing nights, some of us are maneuvering InDesign, some are relentlessly revising the editorial and some are drafting website blurbs before pushing finished pieces online.

Opinion pieces have a special and indispensable presence in the Student. As we strive to provide a

platform for anyone and everyone at Amherst, we get to work closely with brilliant minds, uphold student activism and, most importantly, engage with diverse arguments. The process is not an easy one but it is undoubtedly fun and extremely rewarding.

Arts and Living Every Tuesday, Arts and Living is usually the first section to get to work in the newsroom, priding themselves on being both timely and — according to Editor-in-Chief Ryan Yu ’22 — The Student’s “least miserable section.” In the newsroom, we have a few main tasks: laying out our articles for print, writing up titles and blurbs, and getting pieces ready to go onto the website. Coming up with titles is almost always the most heated part of this process.

Does naming a set of four consecutive articles “Spice Spice Baby,” “Slice Slice Baby,” “Space Space Baby,” and “Fright Fright Baby” violate the journalistic integrity of The Amherst Student? How much alliteration is too much? And is “hornswoggle” an appropriate synonym for fool?

These are the sorts of hard-hitting questions we like to ask during this period.

On Wednesday, after a long night in the newsroom, we start preparing for the next round of articles, emailing our writers to ask about topics they’re interested in. From life and events on campus to reviews of new films, music and shows, we cover a wide range of subjects. By Sunday night, most of our articles for the upcoming week are in and we can start making edits and discussing recommendations with our writers. After that, it’s back into the newsroom and the process begins again.

Sports Athletics are a crucial part of the Amherst experience — even for those of us who do not take to the field, court, or rink ourselves. But nobody can attend every game. Here at The Student’s Sports section, we

aim to deliver all the news you might have missed from the world of Amherst athletics.

Achieving this goal requires a concerted effort from all Sports section staff, though. Staff writers cover the Mammoths’ matches, columnists provide a look at the sports world beyond our campus, and editors ensure that all articles are published, at top quality, both online and in print. On a given Tuesday production night, zingers will be zinged, sports will be debated, and, if you stay late enough, you may even get to hear deep philosophical discussions about the nature of reality. But, at the end of the day (or night rather), the articles are invariably published at the highest level of quality, and the cycle repeats.

Podcast The Podcasting Department is proud to be the newest addition to The Student’s journalistic lineup.

As the department that is the least beholden to deadlines, our weekly schedule is a bit more unpredictable.

Our weekly news podcast, “The Student Sums it Up,” is the one constant. On Tuesday nights, we record a conversation with the news editors about the week’s most salient stories in our semi-professional podcasting studio. Then, we cut up the vocals, add music, and apply fancy audio production techniques to make the episode coherent and enjoyable.

“Tusk Talks” and “Terras Irradient” aim to be more investigative, biweekly endeavors. During that two week period, we’d first discuss the topic for each episode and how we want to frame it; then we’d get in touch with potential interviewees, do background research, and script the episode. Finally, we’d record and edit. Of course, things aren’t always this organized: these shows tell stories, and as we discover the characters and conflicts, the narrative takes shape.

Frankly, we need more people on the team to be able to publish these latter two episodes on a regular basis.

If you’re interested in contributing to

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer ‘23E

With unwieldy stacks of leftover copies, The Amherst Student will provide you with all the wrapping paper for your holiday needs, completely free of charge. the future of journalism at Amherst and beyond, email sspratford24@ amherst.edu.

Digital & Social Media In our Fall 2021 revival, the Social Media team has tried to lay solid foundations for The Student’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter presences. On Wednesday nights, you can find us on the first floor of Morrow, poring over design ideas, weighing the pros and cons of certain fonts or layouts, and setting goals for the upcoming weeks. Our latest goals for social media have been to make our posts more accessible by creating graphics that are more immediately readable, and to humanize The Student by posting stories and polls about current happenings on campus.

When it comes to pushing out posts, we first compile all of the article headlines, summaries, authors, and hyperlinks into one Google document, organized by section. On our own time, we plug those fields into one of our many home-made templates on Figma, a web-based, user-friendly design editorWhat articles get posted to social media first is determined through a discussion with the heads of each section. The posts are spread out throughout the following week to keep our readers updated with our latest issue on the daily. And of course, the best part of this job – pretending to be an Instagram influencer by watching the likes roll in.

Meanwhile, on the digital team, we’ve been playing with new looks,

for the header and footer, as well as adding options to subscribe and donate (coming soon). We’ve also been looking into collecting data and analytics to see which articles perform well so we can keep making stories that the public will want to read.

Design Acting as the bones of the publication, design starts as simple elements that come together as smaller parts of a larger whole. Much of the team’s effort is exhausted in correcting font size, alignment, and kerning. Unlike any other branch of the newsroom, we are at the mercy of the staff and their editors.

Oftentimes, our job does not begin until two in the morning. In the meantime, we work to assist editors in their design endeavors and conduct InDesign tutorials for interested staff members.

Over the years, the newspaper has taken on the form of various design styles and techniques, frequently, we see these components remerge and reimagine themselves in our current issues.

In the 2021-2022 school year alone, we have created specialized layouts for collaborations such as “The Indicator x The Student” and “WAMH x The Student.”

Combining the old and the new, our designers work alongside the editorial team to continuously provide a framework that will be viewed by readers in the present, as well as the past.

Sp ports

Men’s Soccer Heartbroken in NCAA Final Leo Kamin ’25 Staff Writer Soccer is often described as the “beautiful game,” but even the most rabid fans would concede that there is nothing beautiful about penalty kicks. After 110 minutes of free-flowing, tactically-complex team play, matches come down to what is essentially a coin flip.

Amherst men’s soccer came out on the wrong side of that coin flip this past Saturday, Dec. 4, falling to the Connecticut College Camels in the NCAA Division III national championship game after 110 minutes of play saw the teams deadlocked at one goal apiece. To make matters worse, many players on the current roster know this feeling all too well, having lost to Tufts in the final game the last time the tournament was played in 2019.

The Mammoths can now claim an exclusive but unattractive title: back-to-back national runners-up.

This past weekend’s play, which took place in Greensboro, N.C., was so, so close to being one for the ages. They reached the final in remarkable fashion against the University of Chicago on Friday, Dec. 3. They went a goal down and clawed themselves back against Conn on Sunday, scoring an 89th-minute equalizer that seemed poised to be one of the program’s all-time best moments. But then came penalties. History is written by the victors.

UChicago The Maroons would not have had to have watched much Amherst tape ahead of Friday’s game to understand the biggest challenge in front of them: German Giammattei ’22, who had four goals total in the sweet 16 and quarterfinal rounds. Chicago did that better than almost any

team all year: with two Maroons defenders hounding him for much of the night, Giammattei was held without a shot for just the second time in his 64 career games.

They failed to disrupt the Mammoths’ broader game plan, though. Amherst’s defenders and midfielders won the ball back with their normal ferocity. The Maroons could do little to stem the flow of Amherst’s famously direct offense — the long forward passes and Bryce Johnson ’22 flip throws into the box just seemed to keep coming.

The game remained physical, the blood literally flowing — one Chicago player wore three different numbers over its course, sullying his first and then second jerseys with blood. (All injuries were the result of totally accidental collisions.)

Domination of possession translated into offensive production, with the Mammoths registering four first-half shots to Chicago’s one. That one shot gave Amherst quite the scare, though. In the 44th minute, a Chicago forward ripped a hard, right-footed curler from inside the box. Amherst keeper Kofi Hope-Gund ’22 was ready, though. He flung himself into the air towards his left side, grabbing the ball in mid-air with his body nearly parallel to the ground. The NCAA’s announcers for the game described it as “the best save we’ve ever seen at this event.”

The same pattern held throughout the second half — the Mammoths dominating possession but failing to find the final touch with their star forward double marked. Their best chance came in the 63rd minute, when Giammattei found forward Ada Okorogheye ’24 on the right side of the box. With only a slim angle to work with, Okorogheye let loose a low shot — but the

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Men’s soccer players console each other after loss to Conn College in the NCAA Division III championship game.

Chicago keeper got his knees down just low enough, just fast enough, to deny him the winner.

However, despite a seemingly unending number of corners and throws into the box, Okorogheye’s effort was the closest the Mammoths got in the second half. The game moved into two 10-minute, golden goal overtime periods.

The stalemate held for 18 minutes. And then, with the attention in Greensboro beginning to turn towards an imminent penalty shootout, a Chicago forward found himself one-on-one against Hope-Gund in the box.

It was a must-score opportunity, but, as he did all tournament, Hope-Gund stood strong: diving to his right, he parried the ball away.

Almost as soon as play resumed, the Mammoths won a throw-in near the Maroon’s goal.

For the umpteenth time, Johnson sent a flip throw into the box. It was cleared away, only to be crossed back in. The well-organized Chicago backline sent it back out, as they had been doing all night. But for some reason (probably because they had

been running for 108 minutes), the defenders in maroon and white failed to follow the ball out. It floated down toward Ignacio Cubbedu ’24 on the edge of the 18-yard box. He didn’t even wait for it to bounce, taking a lash with his right foot. He hit the ball perfectly. It sliced through the sea of bodies in the box and nestled into the left side of the net. The Chicago keeper dove, but he never had a chance.

Cubbedu’s volley stopped the clock, won the game, and ended the Maroon’s season.

Connecticut College The game against Connecticut College was quite similar, especially in the first half. Even with Giammattei swarmed, the Mammoths still largely played the game on their terms, putting up four shots and preventing the Camels from taking a single one.

In the second half, the Mammoths, playing their second game in 24 hours, began to visibly tire. Their defense cracked for the first time in the NCAA tournament during open play in the 60th minute, when NESCAC player of the year Augie Djerdjaj

rose to nod a corner past HopeGund.

The Mammoths seemed shaken, especially as the minutes wore on. Their play began to feel slightly frantic — passes misplaced, balls lost. As the game entered the last few minutes, each set piece felt like it might be the Mammoth’s real chance.

They began to send more and more players — at times even Hope-Gund — forward, cramming the Camels’ box and leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattack. Still, Conn’s defense held firm, turning away each throw, each corner. Things increasingly felt hopeless. The Mammoths flung ball after ball down the field in search of a miracle.

Then, with just over 90 seconds remaining, Laurens ten Cate ’25 was fouled just inside the halfway line. Hope-Gund stood over the ball, prepared to send one last prayer into the Camels’ box. But then he stepped away, replaced by Cubbedu. Hope-Gund trotted towards the Conn net. Amherst was sending 10 players into the box.

Continued on page 28

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Sports 28

Mammoths Lose Championship on Penalties Continued from page 27 Cubeddu — less than a day removed from the semi-final-winning volley — played a looping pass into the box. It was a perfect ball: close enough to the end-line to allow Amherst players to run onto it, far enough from the Camels’ keeper to prevent a catch. It glanced off the head of defender Kyle Kelly ’22, bounced off the Conn keeper, then ricocheted off Kelly’s waist, dribbling into the back of the net. Amherst had tied the game. It was utter pandemonium in Greensboro — and, probably to a somewhat lesser extent, in Amherst, as an increasing number of students gathered around phones, laptops, and TV sets to tune into the action. Kelly and his teammates could hardly believe it. It’s the kind of moment a young soccer player dreams about growing up. Less than two minutes left. National {c}hampionship game. One last chance. This really happened, though. The Mammoths had done it.

Well, kind of. The game was tied, not won. Up to 20 minutes of overtime awaited.

The Camels put up five shots to the Mammoths’ one across the two

10-minute periods, but the Amherst back line was never seriously troubled. Amherst had one good chance, with about four minutes left in the second period. Okorogheye dribbled past three players before playing a give-and-go with Declan Sung ’24, finding himself with a look on goal in the center of the box. He drove a hard shot, but it was blocked by a Camel defender. That was the last shot of the game, as the two exhausted teams seemed to acquiesce to a penalty shootout.

One might expect that the Mammoths — having rescued the game at the death — would have had the momentum advantage in the penalty shootout. But from the beginning, it was clear things wouldn’t go their way. The Camels presumably won the coin toss, because they kicked first — a massive advantage in shootouts.

The Camels made their first attempt, a bullet of a shot on which Hope-Gund had no chance. Felix Wu ’22 stepped up first for the Mammoths and aimed for the bottom left.

The Conn goalie — who had been subbed in just for penalty kicks — guessed the right way and cemented his team’s 1-0 advantage. The Cam-

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Mammoths celebrate a 1-0 overtime victory over the University of Chicago on Dec. 3 els again scored. The Mammoths again went bottom-left with their next attempt, this one from Johnson.

And, again, the Camels’ keeper dove the right way, saving the shot at full stretch and securing an almost insurmountable 2-0 lead. The Camels made their next attempt, as did the Mammoths, via Gabe Gitler ’22. But, with a 3-1 lead in this best-of-five contest, all the Camels needed to do was make their fourth penalty.

They made it. The Camels stormed the field. The Mammoths walked off quietly.

It was surely not how Amherst’s 10 seniors would have preferred to end their season, but as Head Coach Justin Serpone pointed out in a post-game interview, this senior class has much to be proud of.

They reached four NCAA Sweet Sixteens and two national championship games, despite having their

careers interrupted by Covid-19.

Serpone will now be faced with the challenge of rebuilding a team that started seniors in all key areas of the field.

But Amherst men’s soccer has made 11 straight Sweet Sixteens.

They have a strong base of underclassmen talent, some of whom now have significant postseason experience under their belts. Make no mistake: they will be back.

Athletic Teams Gear Up for Winter Break and J-term Liza Katz ’24, Ethan Samuels ’23, and Alex Noga ’23 Managing Sports Editor, Managing Sports Editor, and Staff Writer While the rest of the student body returns home for winter break, [the college]’s winter athletes will be hard at work, both preparing for games and representing the college in competition across the country, and in some cases, around the world. Here is what the Mammoths will be up to during holiday season: Swim and Dive Both the men’s and women’s swim and dive will return to campus on Dec. 29. The squad will spend two days practicing before a New Years Day meet with Union College. A week later, the Mam-

moths square off against Williams on Jan. 8 before heading to the warm beach[es] of Puerto Rico.

On Jan. 10, the teams embark on their annual nine-day training trip in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “I’m so excited to go to Puerto Rico, because the divers train with the Puerto Rican National Team coach and it is such an essential part of our training. We learn so many new dives, and it’s really great to have different feedback on our diving. It’s an incredible opportunity to bond with the team and really focus on our goals to finish out the season strong,” diver Hannah Colaizzo ’23 said.

The team will compete in three additional meets during the January term, facing Conn College on Jan. 22, MIT on the 29th, and Springfield College on the 30th.

Men’s Hockey The men’s hockey team has a packed J-term, facing off against nine opponents in a 25-day span.

The action starts on Jan. 4 against Curry College, before Colby and Bowdoin come to visit on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, respectively. Conn and Tufts will take the ice at Orr Rink on Jan. 14-15, before Hamilton follows on Jan. 21. For their only away games of the month, the Mammoths will head to Anna Maria college on Jan. 22 and Babson on Jan. 25. The month will end with matches against Trinity and Wesleyan on Jan. 28-29.

Women’s Hockey The women’s hockey team plays nearly half of their 24-game schedule in the month of January, with six home games and five away

games, including a crucial string of NESCAC opponents, approaching shortly.

After celebrating the new year, the women’s hockey team will return to action on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 with back-to-back home games against UMass Boston and Oswego State.

The Mammoths will then embark on an important stretch of NESCAC games, with two away games against Conn College on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8 before a home-and-home series against Williams on Jan. 14 and Jan. 15. Following their trip to Northfield, VT for a game against Norwich University on Jan. 18, the Mammoths will return to Orr Rink for two home games against Trinity on Jan. 22 and Jan. 23, the second of which being the annual Pink the Rink game. They will close out the month with a home-and-home se-

ries against Wesleyan on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29.

Men’s Basketball Men’s basketball will return to campus on Dec. 26, and will start practice shortly thereafter, with their first scheduled for the same day they arrive. After another day of practice, the team will travel out to Long Island, N.Y. to take on SUNY Old Westbury on Dec. 28 before returning home to face local foe Babson College on the 31st to close out 2021. Their schedule during what is traditionally considered to be the winter break concludes with bouts against NESCAC competition, traveling to Middlebury on Jan. 2 and hosting Little Three rival Wesleyan the next day, Jan. 3.

Continued on page 32

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Sports 29

Women’s Basketball Stays Unbeaten With Two Wins Violet Glickman ’25 Staff Writer This week has been an exciting one for women’s basketball. The Mammoths extended their unbeaten run to seven games, with their two wins including a gutsy effort to beat Emmanuel College on Tuesday night and a more comfortable win against Little Three rival Wesleyan on Friday night.

Emmanuel College On Tuesday, Nov. 30, the team headed to Beantown to take on the Saints. The home team put the first points on the board; however, AnLing Vera ’25 switched the momentum with two successful free throws six minutes into the game. The two teams battled for dominance throughout the rest of the quarter, the Mammoths coming out of the first quarter on top with 10 points to the Saints’ seven. The two teams remained pretty evenly matched in the second quarter. Following a three-pointer

by Courtney Resch ’22 halfway through the quarter, Emmanuel pushed the Mammoths on the defensive, adding seven consecutive points to their tally to end the half 17-16 in favor of the Mammoths.

With the possibility of extinction hanging over the Mammoths, purple took to the court with a renewed energy and drive. Dani Valdez ’22 got the ball rolling — only metaphorically, of course — and put two more points on the board, but it was Reeya Patel ’24 who kept up the heat: her seven points in the frame brought the score to 35-25 by the end of the third quarter. Not ready to surrender just yet, the Saints came back, trailing the Mammoths by just two points with just five minutes left in the game. Spurred by a three-pointer from Lauren Pelosi ’22, Amherst began to dominate once again, finishing the game on a 9-1 run that the Saints couldn’t redeem.

The Saints may have outscored the Mammoths in the fourth quarter 23-21, but purple still handed Emmanuel their first loss of the season, with the final score standing at 56-48.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Guard Reeya Patel ’24 dribbles down court in a game against Wesleyan University on Dec. 3. She scored 27 points and eight rebounds to lead the Mammoths to a win.

With the 21 rebounds she brought down throughout the game, Jade Duval ’22 matched Amherst’s rebound record set in 1993 by Sam Ince ’97. Valdez also contributed to the Mammoths’ 54-34 rebound advantage over Emmanuel with 10 of her own.

Pelosi scored a career-high 14 points in the game, and Vera, who was named NESCAC Player of the Week just a few games into her collegiate career, recorded seven assists.

Wesleyan University On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Mammoths traveled to Middletown, Conn., to face off against Little Three rival Wesleyan University. Patel was ready from the get-go, hitting a two-pointer just 15 seconds into the game. A jump

shot by Gabrielle Zaffiro ’22 put the Mammoths up 4-0, where they stayed until a three-pointer by the Cardinals four minutes in brought Wesleyan into the game.

Determined to keep Wesleyan on the defensive, the Mammoths retaliated with two three-pointers

by Patel. The quarter ended with a score of 13-4 favoring Amherst, as Vera and Pelosi each contributed two points of their own to end the period. The pattern continued in the second: once again, the Mammoths were the first to score in the quarter when Resch put a layup through the nylon less than a minute in. The Cardinals then got their first points of the quarter, bringing the score to 17-6 — but it moved to 20-6 just six seconds later, thanks to Pelosi. Buckets by Patel, Pelosi, Duval, and Resch re-

sulted in a 33-17 Mammoth lead at the end of the half.

Sticklers for tradition, the Mammoths scored just seconds into the third quarter off another jumpshot by Zaffiro. The two teams then went back and forth for the next three minutes until Patel regained the team’s scoring momentum with six points in the span of less than a minute. Despite falling behind the Mammoths by 20 points in the previous quarter, the Cardinals outscored purple 19-14 to clip the Amherst lead to 47-36 by the time the buzzer sounded.

Wesleyan was first to score in the final quarter, but Zaffiro quickly followed with a layup a few seconds later. In the third minute, a three-pointer for Wesleyan had the Cardinals trailing by just six

points; however, Vera’s three-point play, followed by Duval’s jumper, pushed the Mammoths to an 11-point lead. From that point on, the outcome of the game was clear, and Amherst took home their second win of the week by a final score of 78-61.

Patel’s performance in the game was exceptional, as she scored a career-high 27 points and went three for three from beyond the arc. Vera also racked up the stats with 18 points, six rebounds, and three steals that had Swiper the Fox reeling in jealousy. The Mammoths record now stands at 7-0 so far, and they will get ready to take the court in Nevada on Dec. 28 for the Las Vegas Tournament. Their first game of the tournament against Whittier College will tip off at 2 p.m.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Sports 30

McGranahan ’23, Daily ’22 Lead Way at Nationals

Liza Katz ’24 and Liam Archacki ’24 Managing Sports Editors

After stellar performances at the NCAA Regionals on Nov. 13, the men’s and women’s cross country teams — who finished fifth out of 26 and third out of 24, respectively — earned spots at the NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky. on Nov. 20.

Competing against a talented field of teams, the men placed 28th out of 32, while the women finished 31st out of 32.

Men’s Team As might have been expected given the national rankings and the elevated competition level of the NCAA Championships, the men’s team 28th out of the 32 competing teams. At the top, Pomona-Pitzer claimed its second-straight national championship, and MIT came in second. Mammoth runners still recorded standout individual performances in the 290-competitor eight-kilometer race. Owen Daily ’23 and Ajay Sarathy ’22 both ran personal best times of 24:29.5 and 25:11.9, respectively, good for 50th and 168th places. The next Mammoth to cross the line was Billy Massey ’22, who finished his collegiate career with a 185th-place finish and a time of 25:22.1. Nick Edwards-Levin ’25 finished the course soon after, taking home 216th place in 25:39.4; he was closely followed

by Keon Masdiznian ’23, who finished 20 seconds later in 256th place with a time of 25:58.0. The final two Mammoth runners to cross the line finished only a few seconds later, with Oliver Spiva ’24 and Braedon Fiume ’24 finishing in 26:02.5 and 26:15.1, good for 259th and 270th places — closing out the team’s 2021 NCAA Championship race, and 2021 season.

Women’s Team On the women’s side, a similar situation played out: the team placed low relative to the rest of the talented field (31st place), but individual runners still hit milestones. In fact, every single runner on the Amherst squad, which included five firstyears, was competing at nationals

for the first time. And, the fact that the stage wasn’t too big for these younger runners bodes very well for the team’s future. As she has done all season, Mary Kate McGranahan ’23 led the line for the Mammoths, finishing in 77th place out of 293 runners with a time of 22:17.1. Julia Schor ’25 closed her first season as a Mammoth with a 141st-place finish, crossing the line in 22:42.4; she was closely followed by her fellow first year Sophia Price ’25, who came in less than 10 seconds behind her at 22:51.2, taking home 162nd place.

Next to finish the six-kilometer course was senior Eline Laurent ’22, who finished in 258th with a time of 23:42.3. Three rookie runners rounded out the Amherst scorecard, with Sidnie Kulik ’25, Claire Callon ’25, and Annika Paylor ’24 ending their first collegiate seasons with times of 23:42.9, 24:15.2, and 24:42.0. They claimed 259th, 280th, and 288th place finishes, respectively.

McGranahan emphasized the race’s value as a learning experience for the Mammoths. “The race went out extremely fast, and it was an adjustment to try and maintain pace after such a quick first mile. It was also a new challenge trying to focus on my own race amidst the depth of the competition and the overwhelming energy of the crowd,” she said. “We are hopeful that we can earn our spot there next year and take what we learned this year with us.”

With the 2021 season now in the rear-view mirror, we can look back and see this clearly: there is a lot to be excited about with men’s and women’s cross country after their NCAA Championship runs. With two young teams hungry for improvement on the course, who now have the experience on the national stage and a successful season under their belt, including top-five finishes at both the NESCAC Championships and NCAA Regionals, the Mammoths will be a force to be reckoned with for at least the next few years.

And as the teams are stabilized by strong first-year classes, there is little doubt that the Mammoths will compete to be back on the big stage once again next year.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Owen Daily ’23 powers along the eight-kilometer course during the 2021 NCAA Championship race.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Women’s cross country matches pace with talented competition at the NCAA Championships. Pictured above, Mary Kate McGranahan ’23 in the six-kilometer race.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Sports 31

Men’s Basketball Enters Break Undefeated After Eight Jackson Reydel ’23 Staff Writer

Men’s basketball, the 21stranked team in the country, stayed undefeated this week, taking down the Saint Elizabeth University Eagles 73-51 on Dec. 5 and Springfield College 75-61 on Dec. 7 in their last two games before winter break.

Saint Elizabeth University The Mammoths started the game with high energy, jumping out to an early lead with guard Devonn Allen ’22 draining four first-half three pointers. Amherst went on several excellent runs in the first half. They opened the game by scoring the first 11 points of the game, and went on a 14-0 run later in the half, eventually pushing their lead as high as 32 points. At the halftime break, the Mammoths led 46-19, holding the Eagles to just 25 percent shooting from the field.

The second half saw the Mammoths continue to put pressure on the home side, again increasing their advantage to more than 30 points, this time on a Noah Helmke ’25 three with just over eight minutes left in the ball game that extended the lead to 34. Not to be counted out completely, Saint

Elizabeth fought back, recording a 15-4 run of their own late in the second half — but Amherst had already put the game out of reach by this point. The Mammoths walked out of Saint Joseph Gym with a resounding 22-point victory in which 15 players saw action.

Allen led all scorers with 16 points, with Helmke and Mohammed Alausa ’24 chipping in 10 points and nine points, respectively, coming off the bench. Center Michael Schretter ’23 also notched an impressive all-around performance, recording eight points, seven rebounds, and three assists.

Captain Garrett Day ’22 was excellent defensively, as he led the Mammoths with five steals and seven rebounds, with six of them coming on the defensive end.

Springfield College Guard Grant Robinson ’22 led the way for the Mammoths against Springfield with 17 points.

Schretter posted a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. His four offensive rebounds led the game and helped the Mammoths outscore the Pride 14-5 on second-chance points. The scoring was well-distributed across the roster, with three players in double-figures. Six players poured

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Guard Devonn Allen ’22 scored 16 points in a 73-51 Mammoth win over Saint Elizabeth University. in more than five points.

The two teams traded baskets throughout the first half, entering the half with Amherst leading 32-27. The Mammoths gradually pulled away throughout the second half, ultimately taking the game by 14, 75-61. The Amherst defense continued its hot streak.

The Mammoths have now held their first eight opponents of the

season under 40 percent shooting.

Physicality ultimately decided the game for the Mammoths. They outran Springfield, scoring 17 points in transition to the Pride’s two. They doubled them up on the glass, out-rebounding them 40-20.

The Mammoths scored 44 points in the paint. The Pride scored 14.

The Mammoths continue to show great depth this season,

with different players stepping up to lead the team from game to game. They will certainly need to continue this trend, as they have two more non-conference games before their NESCAC opener against Wesleyan University on Jan. 3. They will return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 28, at SUNY Old Westbury, with tipoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

Women’s Hockey Falls Twice Against Middlebury Anya Ramras ’22 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Forward Jayna Park ’24 faces off against a Middlebury player in a game on Dec. 3.

Women’s hockey faced off against the number-one-ranked Middlebury Panthers in two back-to-back games on Friday, Dec. 3 and Saturday, Dec. 4. While putting in a valiant effort, the Mammoths ultimately fell to the Panthers 2-1 in the hard-fought Friday-night game. The game remained scoreless through the first period and most of the second.

But then, the Mammoths struck first with a power-play goal by Alyssa Xu ’25 off of a scramble in front of the Middlebury net 15:06 into the second period. That goal gave Xu her fourth point in three games.

However, Middlebury responded with a goal of its own 8:19 into the third, and took the lead five minutes later on the game’s second power-play goal.

From there, the Panthers held on for the 2-1 victory, outshooting Amherst 31-18 over the course of the game. All-American goaltender Caitlin Walker ’22 stopped 29 of those 31 shots in the Amherst loss. Middlebury also took most of the faceoffs, leaving the ice with a 26-23 advantage.

The Panthers narrowly won the second game on Saturday afternoon as well, this time shutting out the Mammoths by a score of 1-0. Special teams again played a significant role in the game’s outcome, with Middlebury’s only

goal coming off a power-play 18:23 into the first period. Despite the score, both offenses continually put pressure on the opposing netminders, with Middlebury outshooting Amherst again, this time 40-33. Walker made 39 saves in the loss, and neither team found the advantage on faceoffs in this match, which were dead even at 27-27.

With the losses, the Mammoths fell to 2-4-0 overall on the season, and 0-4-0 in NESCAC play. Despite the results, however, the team remains hopeful, as their four losses have come against the top two teams in the latest national rankings. The team will return to action at Nazareth College next Saturday, Dec. 11, at 3 p.m.

The Amherst Student • December 9, 2021

Sports 32

Many Teams to Take Trips Before Spring Term Continued from page 28 After what is hopefully a fast start to conference play, the team’s J-term schedule begins, with just as many big games. The Mammoths will start a four-game homestand shortly after J-term begins, hosting games on Jan. 11 against Lesley University, Bates on Jan. 14, Tufts on Jan. 15, and archrival Williams on Jan. 19. This homestand will be followed by a three-game road trip to close out the month, taking trips to Clinton, N.Y. on Jan. 22 to face Hamilton College, New York City on Jan. 23 to take on Pratt Institute, and Middletown, Conn. on Jan. 28 for a rematch with the Wesleyan.

Women’s Basketball Women’s basketball will return to campus on Dec. 26, starting practice that afternoon in preparation for their New Year’s Weekend games. The team will then pack their bags and fly to Las Vegas the next day, practicing one more time before taking the court in the Las Vegas Tournament on Dec. 28. In the competitive tournament, the Mammoths will face off against Whittier College and Occidental College on back-toback days (Dec. 28 and 29). Their busy weekend will continue with the team taking another travel day

GAME SCHE DULE

on Dec. 30 to drive from Vegas to Los Angeles, where they will take on Chapman University on New Year’s Eve and the University of the Redlands on Jan. 1.

Guard Reeya Patel ’24 explained the team’s goals for the tournament and their start to the season. “I feel like our team is very happy with the way we are going into [winter] break 7-0, however this is just the start. Playing teams on the West Coast will be fun, as we are competing against teams we wouldn’t necessarily compete against in the northeast. It will also be a nice way to relax and continue bonding with the team.”

The team will return home from their trip out west and begin NESCAC play with bitter foe Middlebury on Jan. 7 and archrival Williams and Jan. 8, respectively.

After a quick trip down to New York to play Lehman College on Jan. 10, the team will travel north for NESCAC competition versus Bates on Jan. 14th and Tufts on Jan. 15, before hosting Hamilton on Jan. 22. They will close out their slate of J-term games with contests at Babson College and at home vs. Wesleyan on Jan. 25 and Jan. 28.

Squash Members of the men’s and women’s squash teams will be-

Photo courtesy of Emma Spencer ‘23E

A number of teams that remain on campus over Winter Break and J-term will utilize Coolidge Cage for training purposes. gin J-term practices on Jan. 3, before playing identical schedules throughout the month. The athletes are eager for a month to focus only on improving at their sport. “J-term is my favorite time of the year because it’s just playing sports and hanging out with your team without the added pressures and time constraints of school,” Rohil Bathija ’23 said.

The action kicks off when the Mammoths will host Dartmouth on Jan. 8 at the Davenport Squash Courts. On Jan. 11, the squads will embark on a three-day road trip to Maine where they face Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates. Over Jan. 15 and 16, Amherst will host the Pioneer Valley Invitational, facing off against St. Lawrence University,

FRI

SAT

Men’s Hockey @ Middlebury, 7:00 p.m.

Women’s Hockey @ Williams, 3:00 p.m.

Men’s Hockey @ Nazareth, 3:00 p.m.

Franklin and Marshall College, and Hamilton. Middlebury will come to visit on Jan. 19, before the team heads to Boston to square off against Tufts University and Harvard University on Jan. 22 and 23. To close off J-term, Wesleyan hosts the Little III tournament as the Mammoths will look to squash Wesleyan and Williams.