Issue 15

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THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

VOLUME CXLIII, ISSUE 15 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014

169 Admitted Under Early Decision

College Discusses Office of Admissions Reports Increase in Total Applications Plans to Change Up Orientation Sophie Murguia ’17 Managing News Editor

Photography Editor Olivia Tarantino ’15

The Office of Admissions accepted 169 out of 476 Early Decision applicants this year. The total number of applications to Amherst increased by more than 6 percent.

Elaine Jeon ’17 Staff Writer Although most high school seniors are still playing the waiting game when it comes to college admissions, a select number of Amherst applicants have recently been relieved of their anxiety. The Office of Admissions reported last week that 169 out of 476 Early Decision applicants received acceptance letters in December.

The College received 8,460 applications in total this year, an increase of more than 6 percent from last year.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Tom Parker also said that 37 Early Decision applicants were deferred and will be reconsidered during the Regular Decision round.

Parker estimated that there were about five to six more Early Decision applications this year than last year. He said he was especially satisfied with the diversity of the accepted Early Decision applicants. So far in Class of 2018, there are 45 students of color: 14 African Americans, 16 Asian Americans, six Latinos and 10 multiracial students. The Admissions Office also

shared that 16 non-US citizens were accepted early. These international students will be coming from Canada, China, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Switzerland and Uruguay.

Parker commented that although there were countless memorable essays, the stories that he remembers most were those of QuestBridge applicants. QuestBridge is a non-profit program that matches academically high-achieving and talented low-income students to top-tier U.S. colleges and universities and scholarship opportunities. This year, Amherst found 14 QuestBridge matches.

“Each of their stories is truly amazing,” Parker said. “It inspires me to read about how they were able to succeed when all odds were so stacked against them.”

The average SAT scores for the accepted early applicants were the following: 713 for Reading, 723 for Mathematics and 716 for Writing. The average ACT score was 32. This year, there were more ACT takers than SAT takers in the Early Decision pool. The Admission Office noted that recently there has been

a general trend of high school students preferring to take the ACT in lieu of the SAT, and that Amherst will continue to take this trend more into consideration.

The college application process was particularly difficult for some this year due to the Common Application’s technical glitches. The Common Application, an application used by Amherst as well as many other colleges, updated its software last August. From automatically logging out students to charging people multiple times for filling out the application, using the Common App this year involved many unexpected complications.

Parker said that Amherst’s Admissions Office is always understanding of frustrating technological difficulties. Even though the Early Decision deadline was kept at November 15, he said that the office was quick to respond to any mishaps relevant to Common App. For instance, many essays of applicants were cut off when Admissions Officers went online to review them. In situations like this, the office

life outside of the classroom more connected to the learning experience.

“We are already known for a racially, socioeconomically diverse student body, but we should really put our effort to make diversity as a part of our identity,” said Professor Judith Frank, chair of the Committee for The Integration of Curricular and Co-Curricular Learning.

The discussion focused on fostering intellectual environment and diversity in residential halls. Students positively evaluated the roommate placement and first-year dorm experience but also pointed out the limitations of the process.

One student pointed out that because Amherst houses first-year students in dorms exclusively made up of first-years, it can be harder for students to interact with people in other graduating classes.

To prevent such divide, students suggested inviting upperclassmen to tea times organized

by Residential Counselors and expanding the DeMott Lecture discussion during orientation week to include the whole student body.

Students were also interested in the plans for newly renovated dorms, and commented that a space’s architectural design can impact both the type of student who chooses to live their and the type of reputation a dorm has.

Some students also proposed to create more theme housing, increase space for communal activity such as cooking and change the configuration of floors to resemble apartments.

Along with a change in living environment, students and committee members also discussed flexibility in the classroom.

Professor Rhonda Cobham-Sander, Chair

Continued on Page 3

Amherst’s next crop of first-years will experience a newly revamped orientation when they arrive on campus in the fall, Provost Peter Uvin reported earlier this week.

Although plans for the new orientation have yet to be finalized, Uvin said that it will involve reducing the number of long lectures and focusing more on small-group discussions between students. He added that orientation planners also aim to foster more meaningful conversations about diversity, increase focus on academics, help students form lasting friendships and think more about how the College should address orientation party culture.

“I think it had been many years since anybody had taken a fundamental look at the whole thing,” Uvin said. “The people who are in charge of managing it have so much to do that they have no time.”

While orientation has been altered in small ways over the past few years, this year’s changes will be somewhat larger in scale.

The planned changes will incorporate feedback from previous orientations, including the perception among some students that orientation programming incorporates too much time listening to speakers in lecture halls.

“Some students think it is quite boring, that they’re being talked at a lot,” Uvin said.

Some student orientation leaders have echoed this concern, saying that they found it difficult to have meaningful conversations with the first-year students they led.

“Squad leaders were completely exhausted after eight-hour days of training that prepared us to have forced and inauthentic conversations and childish icebreakers,” said Dan Carrizales ’14, one student orientation leader. “I feel like the successful squad leaders were the ones who took orientation into their own hands, creating activities and discussion based on their own experiences at Amherst.”

Uvin said he hopes to remedy this problem and engage more students by creating an event that mimics the style of the popular TED and Continued on Page 3

Strategic Planning Committees Ask for Input

Ji Hong Park ’17 Contributing Writer On Feb. 3, the College’s strategic planning committees held a town hall meeting to discuss the progress they have made since September and ask for student input.

Directed by Provost Peter Uvin, the strategic planning committees are organized under four core themes: The Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, The Integration of Curricular and Co-Curricular learning, Diversity and Community and The Internalization of Liberal Arts Education. Each committee consists of diverse range of students, faculty and staff.

Last week’s meeting began when committee members asked how the College can make

of the Committee for Diversity and Community, wondered whether courses should all carry the same amount of credit. Some students said they believed that there is more room for creativity and rigor under the open curriculum. One student suggested making it a requirement that all students take at least one small 12-person class per year.

As the meeting approached its end, members directed their attention to diversity. Committee members asked how the College can best take advantage of its diversity and also improve the Amherst experience for international students.

The second open meeting planned for Feb. 5 was cancelled due to a snowstorm, but the committees plan to hold another meeting shortly.

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News

“Could students across borders become a unified learning community?”

Boris Wolfson, Global Classroom Initiative Page 3

Feb. 3, 2014 to Feb. 9, 2014

>>Feb. 4, 2014 2:39 p.m., Taplin House An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding and found it was activated when food was burned in a microwave oven. A resident was fined $100.

a student having an argument with a student from another institution outside the building.

The people involved were identified and the non student was issued a written no-trespass order.

>>Feb. 5, 2014 3:21 a.m., Hitchcock Parking Lot An officer checked on two men observed sitting in a truck. The men had no association with the college and were asked to leave the property.

12:53 p.m., Fayerweather Lot Rd. An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident.

5:56 p.m., Garman House Officers responded to a complaint about the odor of marijuana smoke on the second floor. Two students were fined $150 each for a smoking violation and for tampering with fire equipment. A small amount of marijuana, and items used to smoke marijuana, was confiscated. The matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

9:22 p.m. James Dormitory While on the fourth floor, an officer detected the odor of marijuana and traced it to a room.

After speaking with two students, marijuana and two smoking devices were confiscated.

Each student was fined $100 for a smoking violation. The matter was also referred to the Dean’s Office.

9:27 p.m., North Dormitory A caller reported several males entered the building carrying a 30-pack of beer and several bottles of liquor. An officer walked through the building but the men were not located.

>>Feb. 9, 2014 12:43 a.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer encountered an unauthorized party with alcohol in the common room. It was shut down.

1:09 a.m., Crossett Loading Dock A man was placed in protective custody and taken to the town detention facility after being found heavily intoxicated outside of Crossett.

>>Feb. 6, 2014 12:39 a.m., Crossett Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning at a second-floor suite.

11:36 a.m., College Hall An officer observed two men taking scrap metal from a construction site. The men, who have no association with the college, were issued written no-trespass orders.

11:39 p.m., Stearns Dormitory An officer checked on a distress call initiated from an elevator emergency phone. No problem was found. >>Feb. 7, 2014 10:30 p.m., East Dr. An officer encountered a student who was carrying two 30-packs of beer. The beer was confiscated as the student was underage. The matter was referred to the Dean’s Office. >>Feb. 8, 2014 12:35 a.m., Stone Dormitory Officers responded to a noise complaint and found very loud music coming from a third-floor suite. After speaking with a resident, the volume was lowered.

2:13 a.m., Seelye House While working at a scheduled party, an officer was notified of

1:53 a.m., Garman Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning to a second-floor resident.

2:05 a.m., Amherst Police Department A visitor was found in possession of a driver’s license that belonged to another person. A report was filed with the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

2:42 a.m., Hitchock House An officer encountered two people on the second floor who seemed to be wandering through the building. It was determined they were visitors and were attempting to locate a student who had a cell phone belonging to one of them. The person was located.

3:00 a.m., Morrow Dormitory A caller reported an intoxicated person in a third-floor restroom.

No one was found when an officer checked.

www.BluebirdAirportTransportation.com

Eunmi Mun

Fresh Faculty Department of Sociology Assistant Professor of Sociology Eunmi Mun received a B.A. with honors from Seoul National Univ. where she majored in Sociology. She also received an M.A. in Sociology from Seoul National University. She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard in 2011. She is the first Asian faculty member in the Sociology Department, as well as the first Korean faculty member in the history of Amherst College.

Q: How did begin studying sociology?

A: I was a sociology major as an undergraduate in South Korea and I actually studied in the sociology department while I was in high school. I was really interested in sociology without actually knowing what sociology was.

I was raised in a very, very conservative area in South Korea and I just thought that this society was so unfair. I was this 15, 16-yearold girl who was so angry about everything that was happening around me. I just thought there was something going on in the outer environment that I didn’t understand that I really wanted to know about. I hoped that it would help me understand myself as well, why I was so angry about these things.

I think my gut feeling was correct, because sociology is basically about how societies operate and the relationships between social structures and individuals. I had a very general understanding of sociology as a high school student and I learned more about it in college, which is how I become more and more interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in this discipline.

equality — another very angry moment — and things just don’t change much. And I wondered, “Why don’t things change?” That was the question that I got from my undergraduate education. I think it’s really important for undergraduates to get their own questions, kind of life questions, the questions that you really want to answer, the questions that bother you.

I started working on gender inequality, that kind of research. My dissertation was exactly on that issue: that we’ve made so many efforts, that there are so many policies, there are laws to make improvements. We see some improvements, but why do we still have this persistent gender gap? I became really interested in the Equal Employment Opportunity Law. I also became really interested in Japan for a different reason and I got really interested in why the EEOL law basically failed in Japan. Is it because Japanese people are discriminatory and do not find women valuable in the labor market? That was what my research was about for my dissertation.

Q: What was it like to transition from the South Korean educational system to the American system of graduate education?

A: There are actually a lot of differences between them. The biggest gap that I saw after I came here was the kind of interactions that students had inside and outside of class. In South Korea, things mostly happened outside of the classroom, so interaction with professors was not that much, to be honest. We did interact, but the relationship between professors and students was not that tight.

The kind of intellectual communication and interactions amongst students [at Harvard] was not as intense as I experienced in South Korea, but there was a lot more going on in a classroom setting. The professors were a lot more hands-on.

Q: What classes are you teaching this semester?

A: Currently, I’m teaching Gender and Work and another course called Asian Capitalism.

Gender and Work is basically about why women achieve less than men in the labor market; we go through what the workplace looks like and how people interact in the workplace setting. It’s all about workplace processes that undergraduates don’t usually think about when they think about getting a job, working, and things like that. This class is all about life after college.

Asian Capitalism is another course that I teach, and that course is about different capitalisms, basically. We’re interested in how economic institutions look very different and operate differently in different national contexts.

We analyze Asian societies, but overall the direction that we are going is to understand why we see different kinds of economic institutions and economic rationalizations.

Q: Why did you decide to teach at Amherst?

A: I heard a lot about Amherst from two friends in had in the sociology department at Harvard; both of them spoke really highly about Amherst. It seemed like they really had a very important experience in their lives at Amherst — that was something that was quite surprising. I enjoyed my undergraduate days but that was just one portion of my life. They described it as if it was really critical time period in which they really felt like they transformed and changed. That really intrigued me. That’s how I became more interested in Amherst. Liberal arts education is also very American — South Korea does not have liberal arts education, so that was also quite interesting.

I had a chance to give a talk here and I really enjoyed the environment. I’ve never been in a small school like this, but when I came here to give my job talk it was the friendliest environment. That was another really important reason that I wanted to come to Amherst.

Q: What are you researching, and how did you become interested in it?

A: I’m really interested in gender and I’m also really interested in labor markers and economic institutions. This is actually tied to a previous question; I was really interested in gender inequality as a high school student. I started reading about gender and gender in-

Q: What do you hope to contribute to Amherst during your time here?

A: On a kind of general level, I’d like to contribute to this very friendly community. I’d like to be a part of it and I’d like to support colleagues and students; that’s definitely one thing I’d like to do. I’d also like to contribute to the transformation of this college. If there is anything that needs more new faculty members’ input, I’d like to be part of it.

On a more personal level, upon coming here I realized that there are not that many Asian faculty members. I came to the Sociology Department as the very first Asian faculty member and I was even told that I was the very first Korean faculty member in the history of the college. I think this is an opportunity for me to communicate the kind of cultural background that I have with people in this community who don’t know anything about it. I feel like the kind of courses that I am offering, especially about Asian capitalism, have never been taught on this campus, which is something that I thought was quite interesting. It definitely should be one of my biggest contributions to this college.

— Brittanie Lewis ’17

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

News 3

New Initiative Connects Amherst to Classrooms from Across the Globe Jessie Kaliski ’15 Staff Writer Many students are unable to study abroad, but now they can interact with students in other countries through a recently-established program, the Global Classroom Initiative.

In Spring 2012, Professor Austin Sarat pioneered a faculty discussion and planning group to discuss the feasibility of a project called the Global Classroom Initiative. The result was a proposal to the Administration for a three-year pilot program. “[The Global Classroom Initiative] is an experiment with the goal of diversifying and enriching the perspectives shared in Amherst College courses,” said Scott Payne, Director of Academic Technology Services.

This experiment takes Amherst College classes and incorporates video discussions on particular topics between Amherst students and students from other countries. A typical Global Classroom class will have a few video discussions spaced throughout the semester.

To facilitate such discussion, the Academic Technology Services purchased a video conferencing system, which some professors have nicknamed “WALL-E.” Payne explained that the system has two cameras: one that shows a “wideangle view” of the entire class, and a second that “uses sophisticated speaker-detection technology to figure out who is speaking and then zoom in

on that person.”

One of the professors involved in this program is Assistant Professor of Russian Boris Wolfson.

Wolfson was actively involved in advocating for the three-year pilot program at Amherst College back in 2012.

“What intrigued me was the question of whether it was possible to have two groups of students, across borders … have a sustained discussion over several sessions about materials they had read or viewed together,” Wolfson said. “Could students across borders become a unified learning community?”

Professor Wolfson has taught two courses that took part in this initiative, incorporating students from Smolny College in St. Petersburg. Most colleges in Russia require students to stay within one major or department for the entirely of their time at the school. Smolny College, however, allows students to take courses outside their discipline.

“So this felt like a logical place to work with,” Wolfson said. “And they responded with enthusiasm.”

Amherst College has not partnered with any international organization, but rather relies upon professors’ connections — both personal and professional — with non-US scholars.

The global classroom meetings themselves were always meant to be discussions,” Wolfson said. “And usually the Russian instructor and I would plan the meeting together.”

Uvin Discusses Plans for Revamped Orientation

Continued from Page 1

TEDx conferences, with short talks and videos on a variety of topics usually covered during orientation. Uvin described the event as something “shorter and snazzier” than the speeches from past orientations, incorporating a mix of both “serious and light topics.”

Uvin said he also received feedback from students that this year’s nine-day orientation program felt too long.

“I did indeed try to make it shorter, but unfortunately I seem to be failing to achieve that,” he said. “There are just too many things to do, and I also wanted to leave some free time for students.”

The Orientation Committee has also been discussing how to incorporate dialogues about diversity into the orientation programming.

“I think one of the most important parts of orientation is education on diversity,” said Siraj Sindhu ‘17, a senator and member of the Orientation Committee. He added that he thinks diversity-related issues are especially important to discuss because some students may not have grown up in diverse communities, and “it’s important for people to get acclimated to a culture and community that they might not be used to.”

The details of next year’s diversity program have not yet been worked out, but Uvin said the goal is “to make sure that issues of diversity have the place they deserve without being overly moralizing.”

He also reported that the Orientation Committee would address feedback that past orientations did not contain enough events designed to prepare students for Amherst’s academic culture.

“It is my intention indeed to beef up the academic part of the equation,” Uvin said, though he noted that the focus on academics would not be “crazy overboard.”

A third element of the committee’s plan will involve providing first-years with more opportunities to make close friends during orientation. This year’s orientation already included some efforts to help students form connections with their peers. Orientation “squads” are now designed so that all the first-years in a squad

will also be in the same First-Year Seminar. The change aims to help first-years make new friends by encouraging them to form close connections with their classmates for the upcoming semester.

Uvin said he hopes that the events added to next year’s orientation will do even more to create “deep friendships.”

“It’s hard to start learning when you don’t necessarily feel at home yet, and having some friends will help you with that,” he said.

The Orientation Committee will also have to consider how they plan to address drinking culture. This year’s orientation leaders had to sign a contract pledging that they would not use alcohol or drugs during orientation week, a policy that was controversial among some students.

“I don’t think freshmen drink because they come into college and discover alcohol,” Badri said. “They come in knowing about it anyway. So making orientation relatively alcohol free is not going to prevent it. I think orientation should be a time for education — instead of demonizing alcohol, showing it should be consumed in a healthy way.”

Opinion was divided among orientation leaders about the new policy, however.

“There were good efforts to provide entertaining activities for first-years,” said Marissa Fierro ’16, a Community Engagement Orientation Trip leader. She attributed these efforts to the College’s attempts to restrict alcohol usage.

Uvin said that he sees good reasons to keep the alcohol policy in place, but added that he hasn’t given the matter “enormous amounts of thought yet.”

“I do like the idea that the very first week on campus, the very first introduction to the college, is not dominated by an alcohol culture,” Uvin said. “Maybe this is naïve, but just for a few days I would like new students to be in an environment where fun, friendship and learning can take place in an environment that is free of the dominance of the alcohol culture on campus.”

Uvin emphasized that most of the changes being discussed are not final. He expects that he and the Orientation Committee will have more concrete plans by the end of the month.

Sophie Chung ’17 contributed reporting.

The two professors worked together both by incorporating texts and films from each other’s syllabi and sharing the role of discussion leader.

In Professor Wolfson’s course, “The Soviet Experience,” one of the assigned readings was Richard Brodsky’s essay “A Room and a Half.” In the essay, Brodsky’s childhood takes place in a communal housing, an idea that many Amherst College students are unable to relate to.

“I can still recall how one of them, Vladimir, raised his hand and shared with the group his childhood years with his parents in a school-assigned dormitory, and the impression stayed with me,” said Louis Li ’14, one of the Amherst College students in the course. “It’s one thing to read about something, and quite another to hear someone of our age speak about its meaning in his or her community.”

Meanwhile, Professor Alicia Christoff is teaching a new course, “The Victorian Novel and Empire,” that will participate in the Global Classroom Initiative with Professor Tanya Shirley’s class at The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.

“I thought carefully about the kind of course that would be suited to this kind of exchange and decided that it was important to me to build questions of the global, global exchange, and globalization directly into the framework of the course,” Professor Christoff said.

Professor Shirley’s class will be broadcasted on the “WALL-E” video conferencing system for

a few discussions about Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” and Jean Rhys’ response, the novel “Wide Sargasso Sea.” “I am very much looking forward to opening up conversation between students here and the students at UWI Mona and asking them to share their experiences of these novels with each other and to reflect on the situations in which they’ve encountered these texts,” Professor Christoff said.

However, working with students who have never met before, all of whom come from different cultures and have different personalities is bound to create some difficulties.

“I would say we had two really lively sessions, a couple of moderately-awkward ones, and a couple that were just really just awkward for everyone, including the teachers,” Wolfson said.

The Global Classroom Initiative’s beginning classes have shed light on future changes that hope to better prepare the students and help to eliminate some of the “awkward” first encounters.

“We are learning to prepare students better for these encounters — on both sides— by talking to them about the pragmatics ahead of time and trying to get them to know each other via email contacts before our first session,” Wolfson said.

“I hope that the College continues to support these kinds of experiments with opening up our classroom to other perspectives,” he added. “I think we all learn from them — faculty at least as much as the students.”

Admissions Sees Increase in Number of Applications Continued from Page 1

was able to contact applicants and sort out any technological problems.

This year, the Office of Admissions also attempted to make the application process more efficient by implementing a paperless application process, opting to do the entire process online. Many other colleges have gone paperless in their application process, including Yale, Williams and Wellesley. Parker admitted that there are always complications to an online process, but because the admissions officers were able to try it first from November to December with a manageable number of applications, they could smooth out any problems that arose.

Parker said a benefit of the paperless application process is that Admissions Officers can dedicate more time to reading a student’s essay

instead of searching for different paper documents that pertain to the applicant. Officers were able to pull up necessary documents on their laptops and could also work at home. The new process eliminated any worries about possibly losing paper files.

“The more time you have, you are able to give a student a fair hearing, rather than searching for papers,” Parker said.

Once an application is submitted, two Admissions Officers carefully read the application and essays and grade them based on academic and non-academic basis. Next, each Admissions Officer writes a paragraph about what stands out in particular about the applicant, which helps when all admissions officer gather to make the final decision.

The Admissions Office will make final decisions about Regular Decision applicants in March.

We need you!

The Amherst Student needs news writers

If you are interested in joining the news writing staff, e-mail Sophie Murguia at smurguia17@amherst.edu

Opinion Editorial

Big Questions, Little Answers Many of us probably noticed the massive banners hanging from the front of Frost Library and Valentine Dining Hall last week. In prominent bold letters, they displayed the question, “When do you conform?” Ironically, the large size of the banners, their positions overlooking the campus’ main quads and their odd wording in the second person all gave them an eerily Orwellian feel, as if they seemed to be aimed at promoting the same sort of groupthink that the question was meant to address.

Perhaps, however, it really is not that ironic. Pondering the same contrived question that everyone else is pondering does seem fairly conformist. In fact, the question brilliantly answers itself. You conform when you question when do you conform — thus, illustrating and characterizing the nature of conformity at the College: conformity is not about the answers we are able to produce, because there is no lack of those; it is about the questions we are willing, or unwilling, to ask.

Socially, the College’s intimate size creates a mindset focused on mitigating risk, rather than maximizing opportunity. Most of the time we are more fixated on questioning whether our actions might violate

some tacit and arbitrary code of awkwardness than questioning what foregone dialogues, exchanges and friendships that inaction may cost us.

Politically, the dialogue on campus can be monolithic. A vocal subset of campus often dictates the ideological norms of public discussion, discouraging and alienating those who might hold contrary beliefs from openly expressing them.

Academically, the College rewards students capable of delivering the appropriate answers to predetermined questions. Professors, who are highly specialized in their discipline, often have difficulty articulating ideas without using their field’s academic vernacular, and while many disciplines face serious epistemological problems, most instructors gloss over the assumptions and controversies of important models and theories, especially at the introductory level.

Asking when do you conform suggests that conformity occurs in discrete situations and circumstances, but conformity is a gradual and continual process. It is the accumulation of little things, and bit by bit that slight unwillingness to leave your comfort zone, suddenly leaves you in a very uncomfortable spot.

Puzzled by conformity?

“Merkel is the impersonation of most attributes that are unlikely to succeed in politics, and yet she is incredibly successful.”

The Merkel Paradox... Page 5

In Support of Biddy: Why We Shouldn’t Boycott Academia Idalia Friedson ’15 Contributing Writer A few weeks ago, President Biddy Martin and Amherst College joined a list of 245 schools that have formally opposed the American Studies Association’s (ASA) boycott on academic institutions in Israel. Every NESCAC school, institution which holds many similar values as Amherst, joins us on that list.

It is ironic and illogical that the ASA, an organization which focuses on scholarship and academia, has decided to boycott Israeli institutions of higher learning. The ASA disapproves of Israeli settlements, its treatment of Palestinians, and condemns Israel for human rights violations. The ASA is now being largely condemned for using political bias instead of academic reasons as the catalyst for its decision. In fact, the President of the Palestinian University in Jerusalem, Al-Quds, objects to the ASA’s boycott.1 If individuals or ASA members wish to pressure Israel to make changes in its policy, they should be free to do so. However, this should not be done at the expense of education. Sure, there are many ways to apply pressure on a country, but this is not the right type of pressure to be coming from the ASA. It is antithetical to the principles of education. Biddy Martin said it well in her email to the student body that: “Such boycotts threaten academic freedom and exchange, which it is our solemn duty as academic institutions to protect. They prohibit potential collaborations among the very institutions whose purpose is to promote critical thought and the free exchange of ideas.”

Last semester, I had an amazing opportunity of attending Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

But whether or not a student attends school in Israel is not going to affect Israel’s political decisions, it is simply going to harm progressive discourse and prevent students from going to Israel to learn more about the situation.

The ASA certainly cannot agree with many of the political stances of countries where students study. Yet, it hasn’t boycotted institutions in China or North Korea, where there actually is academic censorship and human rights violations. Why is Israel subject to a double standard and such scrutiny from the international community? Last month 65 Republicans and 69 Democrats in Congress signed a letter denouncing the ASA’s boycott of Israel. The letter that the Congressmen signed says that the ASA is holding Israel to a “morally dishonest double standard” and that, “Even more concerning is the singular targeting of Israel for boycott.

Like all democracies, Israel is not perfect. But to single out Israel, while leaving relationships with universities in autocratic and repressive countries intact, suggests thinly veiled bigotry and bias against the Jewish state.”2 Studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was an amazing and transformative experience. Being able to live there for four months challenged and broadened my understanding of the issues. By no means do I agree with everything that Israel does politically,

but I understand the issues much deeper now.

I respect how hard Israel is working to better the situation for all of the people living in the region while fostering a peaceful, instead of hateful, mentality. My semester abroad was the epitome of education: learning firsthand about the serious, relevant issues in the world. Israel is supported and committed to the most basic freedoms that we as Americans support.

I was exposed first-hand to the honest discourse that was taking place in the classrooms both critiquing and praising Israeli actions past and present. The discourse and disagreement in Israel both in academia and in the public sphere are enormous. That phenomena does not occur in many countries of the Middle East, or even other countries all around the world. Being able to learn in an environment surrounded by people from all different races, religions, and countries exposed me to a new level of diversity. In fact, three of my roommates were enrolled in the Arabic and language immersion program. They all had very different reasons for studying the language and varied in their views towards Israel, but that did not stop Israel from teaching them or allowing us to have the opportunity to live with and learn from one another.

The exchange of academia between Palestine and Israel may not be as free as it could or should be. However, the reasoning behind why few Palestinians attend Israeli universities and vice versa is due to valid security concerns, a reason frequently overlooked when trying to understand the issue at hand. The physical barriers Israel has constructed which limit academic exchanges are a direct consequence of the terrorist attacks the Palestinians initiated.

These security measures strengthened after the Second Intifada because terrorists launched tens of thousands of rockets into Israel in a five-year period leaving 1,098 Israelis dead, 69 percent of whom were innocent civilians. The military situation in the West Bank, the security fence, and the checkpoints are preventative measures.3 In fact, it was Israel who allowed for the opening of universities in the West Bank after the War of 1967; Jordan had controlled the West Bank prior and did not allow for Palestinians to attend university (for proof, look up the dates of when Palestinian universities were founded). Yet, despite all of these necessary precautions, Israel still allows for more academic freedom than most countries in the world.

When Biddy Martin issued her thinking on why she rejected the ASA’s boycott, it was on academic and not political grounds. As students, certainly we understand the value of education and why it would be dangerous for political motivations to hinder our access to it.

“Palestinians Divided Over Boycott of Israeli Universities.” The New York Times. 19 Jan. 2014.

2 “134 Members of Congress Condemn the Academic Boycott of Israel.” Congressman Brad Schneider. 17 Jan. 2014.

3 www.standwithus.org 1

Correction: The “Fresh Faculty” article on Feb. 3 contained several errors.

The article misstated where Professor Nicholas Ball received his Ph.D. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, not the California Institute of Technology. He was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology.

The article also misspelled a word in one of Ball’s responses. Ball said, “We take your skills from arrow-pushing mechanisms and acid-base chemistry and kick it up a notch.” He did not say “aero-pushing mechanisms.”

Finally, the article took out of context Ball’s statement that “To stick with the status quo would be a disaster.” In the interview, Ball said that Amherst College recognizes that it must always continue to improve rather than sticking with the status quo. He was not implying that the College is currently on a disastrous trajectory.

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

The Merkel Paradox The International Perspective

Rebecca Konijnenberg ’16 The International Perspective is a biweekly column that provides a platform for students to share their opinions about our larger world. This includes international outlooks on domestic issues as well as opinions on problems occurring around the globe.

During my time at Amherst, I have heard many people applaud Angela Merkel as a remarkable politician, yet I feel very few people truly understand just how remarkable the current German chancellor is. Mind you, this article is not about her politics, nor written as a letter of pure adoration to Angela Merkel. In fact, I will openly acknowledge that I have rather mixed feelings towards her, but this does not influence my recognition of her extraordinary position as a politician with an incredibly uncommon background, but most of all a woman in politics. Many of those who admire her from an international distance, calling her the “mother of Europe” for her economic and international successes, are missing the obvious. Angela Merkel is the impersonation of most attributes that are unlikely to succeed in politics, and yet she is incredibly successful. I am not sure I am quite able to point out exactly what it is about her that makes this unquestioned acceptance so natural, but this lingering question has definitely been shaping my experience of American political life.

When Germans turned on their televisions to listen to Angela Merkel’s New Year’s Eve speech about a month ago, the prime topic was not who designed her suit (Merkel is not very much into dresses), who did her hair or how she should or should not lose those last extra pounds. Some might argue that she just does not have the “usu-

al female traits” and hence is not perceived in that light, but I can assure you that she is not the exception. A very similar treatment is given to an array of German female politicians from different age ranges, some of which are very influential German ministers. But then I remember Hilary Clinton’s speeches, the endless comments afterwards by journalists about her dress (or oh dear, it is a suit), the crying-incident in New Hampshire, back to the dressing question. Both Hilary and Angela are well educated, powerful women, but for some interesting reason, Hilary is only rarely defined outside of her female qualities, which is truly a pity.

Now I ask you to imagine a Barack Obama that was divorced and had refused to marry his new girlfriend of seven years, Michelle, for the longest time. I am not sure whether this Obama would have been elected so easily. This was not true for Angela Merkel, with exactly that story.

Not one of her election speeches had to justify her relationship status. An interview with a famous German women’s magazine, Brigitte, was one of the rare exceptions during which she talked about more private matters once her campaigning was finished. The magazine asked her about why she chose to wait so long before she finally married her second husband. She revealed, “I did not want, under any circumstances, to have others say: She is only marrying because she is a member of the CDU [one of

Opinion 5 the most conservative parties in Germany], and she could not be the Federal Minister for Women and Youth [1991] without being married…

Once we had become the opposition, nobody was able to say that I had married for my career.” In other words, she actively fought against common stereotypes in politics and succeeded; she became a divorced minister and went on to become Germany’s first female chancellor in 2005, after having married for the second time in 1998.

Still today, very little is known about Angela’s husband. He is a rather mysterious figure; according to his very brief Wikipedia page, he does not share the same last name, nor was he personally present at any of Angela’s public events (including her inauguration). Rumor has it that he watched the ceremony on TV from his chemistry lab at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her message is clear: She does not let herself be defined through her husband and his official support of her. I frankly cannot think of an American comparison to this; imagining an empty spot instead of Michelle Obama in front of the American flag just seems very odd.

Further defeating stereotypes, Merkel did not follow the common path to become a politician, such as acquiring some kind of social science degree. On the contrary, she studied and worked in the field of physical chemistry, achieved her PhD, became proficient in Russian and enjoyed the study of mathematics, until shortly before the German unification. Frankly, she was a 35-year-old with a steady profession that could not be further from politics, who suddenly took an interest in actively participating in German political life. Again, successfully so, having recently been re-elected to the highest political office known to the country.

More than being an intellectual stranger to the field of political science itself, she was also unfamiliar with Western German politics. Until the German unification, she had spent most of her life in Eastern Germany, physically sepa-

rated from learning much about the democratic political life of Western Germany compared to that of the Soviet-style Eastern Germany. It seems even more of a paradox that she would learn so rapidly and become one of the most powerful leaders of democracy Europe, having only experienced German Communism during her youth. Nevertheless, the acceptance that has been granted to her is extraordinary. There is very little criticism of her persona on the basis of her Eastern experience, nor any serious doubts of whether she should even qualify for such a democratic position as the German chancellor.

Her past did, of course, raise some questions — about her role in the FDJ (a German Soviet youth organization) for instance, but most of these thoughts were voiced long after her first election as chancellor. Even then, historical accounts were quickly able to settle the matter, and no word has since been spoken about it. None of her political decisions have ever been criticized in mainstream media on the basis of her personal past or her early exposure to Communism, nor have any of her speeches or her political encounters with presidents or representatives of other nations.

There will always be exceptions, people who do view her differently, but from my experience growing up in Germany, I feel that the above reflects the main attitudes of Germans towards Angela Merkel. She is an example of many things I have come to value greatly about German politics; how the open attitude allowed for such an outstanding personality to overcome the obstacles imposed by traditional expectations and grant her such great political agency.

The opposition does little to dispute her on a personal level through stereotypes or her past.

That is not to say that German politics are better than those of the US per se, simply that because of this professional attitude of German politicians and journalists, many people abroad cannot see how special Angela Merkel really is as a person.

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Arts&Living

“‘Valentine follows a twenty-eight day cycle for menu planning, giving Val a structured plan. ” Book and Plow...Page 7

FAMS: Underrated and Underappreciated Image courtesy of www.weheartsit.com

Film and Media Studies classes are too often taken as a means of lowering the reading load for the smester, instead of for their merit.

Jake Walters ’14 Staff Writer As a first-year at Amherst my list of potential majors went something like: History, Sociology, Political Science, English, LJST, cultural elitism, turf & golf course management (available at the University of Maryland), entrepreneurship, constructed relativity, puppetry (University of Connecticut), mastodons in literature and society (personal favorite) and, of course, Film and Media Studies. I’d always been passionate about film, but had never found an outlet for serious film discussion in high school. Although the limits of high school film criticism in class manifested in complicated ways, some of the limits were obvious and very basic. For instance, while we read novels and short stories in my English classes dating back almost two thousand years (although admittedly most were from the past two hundred years or so), almost every film we watched was from the past 20 or 30 years and had been made in America, with little seeming effort to introduce students to films they likely hadn’t seen. I took solace only in the fact that student discussions about literature weren’t dense or difficult either; perhaps the poor treatment of film was simply an extension of the treatment of literature and this would all be rectified in college.

At Amherst, things are different.

Every class has its on and off days of course, but students are generally interested in discussion, which is something I’ve found true regardless of subject. But this is especially true for English. With the caveat that I’ve only taken one formal class on literature

(with many others informally related to or covering literature extensively), my experience in said English course was significant. I tend to talk almost too much in class, even if I don’t always have something substantive to say, but in the one English literature course I took I found myself surrounded by as many as twenty five students all equally interested in the material as I was.

They were willing to explore, debate, discuss, and provide insight on the literature of the southern United States; each day, I was astounded at how many students regularly spoke, how interested they seemed in commenting and the insight they provided. It was, above all, a class with valuable input from basically all involved and that made it truly special.

Comparatively, I’ve taken three film courses at Amherst, all during my first two years here, before I gave up.

The best, by far, was actually offered by the German department. It provided a fascinating look at film paired with an exploration of how the films we discussed reflected on the culture of the time they were produced. Student input wasn’t as regular as I would have liked, but the class was strong enough that students were pushed to think in interesting ways about film regardless. The other two were intro courses, offered by the English department at the time, and while I enjoyed one significantly more than the other, neither were especially challenging, and more importantly, neither featured significant student input from a majority of the class. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I was almost heartbroken. Why were these classes not like my others? This was supposed to be Amherst, the land of engaged

students and serious academic discussion. They flocked to my other courses in droves, but where were they here?

The absolute worst fact was that those who did comment frequently treated film almost as a simplified version of literature, mimicking its use of language and dialogue to convey narrative, character and insight, without exploring any particular facet of storytelling unique to or enhanced by the filmic lens and the subjective camera.

In English courses, people were keen on moving beyond events of a narrative. They were excited about exploring perspective not only through the characters, but also through the author and the landscape. Those elements, along with that of language, were all treated as characters in their own right who informed the narrative and the storytelling in meaningful ways. With film, I seldom heard anyone discuss aspects of storytelling which manifest in particular ways in the filmic world, such as editing and mise-en-scéne. Just as characters in literature are defined not only by what they do and say but also by how the author describes them, so too are characters in film defined not only by what they do and say. For instance, where they exist within the frame matters: how the camera films them, be it from above, below, or the side and their actions and vision related to the lens of the camera. These are uniquely filmic aspects of storytelling. These aspects are informed by and exist outside of literature and other forms of art, but are aspects that few students appear prepared to discuss. Instead, we focus on aspects of film which implicitly or explicitly judge its merits in relation to other forms of “more valued” art.

We see the filmic version of a favorite novel and judge its merits in relation to how faithful it is to the book or whether the events of the plot were altered; we do not explore how the film differs by its very filmic nature, or how the presence of a visual element and a camera telling the story reforms it or alters it. In doing so, we do not grant films the agency to exist on their own terms.

We eat up poetry and classical music for their emotional and intellectual reflections on society and we comment on the narratives they tell, even when they lack traditional narrative flows associated with the conception of “plot.” Then, we see films that emphasize mood, form or composition over a formal “plot” and chastise them for being “story-less.” While students valued a complex understanding of other forms of art, they often reported that they felt films were being overanalyzed. And this, above all, is the principal disservice done to film in our society. We value it in a superficial way, and do little to explore it on its own terms and how its terms redefine and relate to society around us. We see film implicitly, then, even when trying to value it, as a lesser cousin of other forms of art.

“ Film

is a means by which we relate to and understand the world and one another.

”

Unspoken here is the implication that Film Studies should be theoretical. A major assumption and constructed norm itself, but a norm also true for literature, is that Film Studies should be focused on writing and analyzing film. Amherst vastly favors analyzing literature through essays on content, as opposed to creative writing courses, for instance, designed to produce authors. The focus is clearly on theory over praxis, as was true until recently for the film courses offered at Amherst (largely due to their being offered by the English department before the existence of a Film & Media Studies department of its own). This reality is heavily indebted to the liberal arts curriculum, and a trend Amherst is trying to buck of late with film courses by offering several courses a year on various practical and technical aspects of film-making. This will hopefully come without losing the conceptual and theoretical framework that is often necessary for understand-

ing films as well.

This form of combining praxis and theory is useful and even ideal, but what about the average Amherst student who has no interest in making films and simply thinks of a film course as a way to “watch movies for homework”? Few students would take an English course to “read books for homework.” These students are unlikely to register for a course on making film. The shift to valuing filmmaking in the film department is important and meaningful in the context of the larger discourse around liberal arts, but something may be lost in the transition. Or, something would be lost if many schools had meaningful theory classes on film in the first place — courses that took the analysis of film as not only an art but also as a form of public culture.

Film is a means by which we relate to and understand the world and one another. We as a society digest film all the time; it’s all around us, and many of the biggest media events of a given year are filmic in nature. Instead of trying to understand why this is the case, and how it is that the construction of film, its dissemination and the filmic lens speak to us, we write film off and treat it as pop entertainment. Even this, though, says something about the power of film and what we could learn from it; if an art form is popular, there are particular, constructed reasons for its popularity both related to the art form itself and the way in which it exists in society. Film can at once approximate and distort life in intimate and complicated ways that shouldn’t be devalued. We have much to learn, not only about how “art” is produced by the artist, but about who gets to be an artist, what it means for something to be considered art, how this informs its relationship to society and how the public connects in some capacity around forms of art such as film.

Seeing film as a form of “pop entertainment” and not valuing it for this reason is rooted in an oppressive historical dichotomy of valuing forms of media associated with the upper-class, such as visual art, literature, poetry and classical music. These forms of art are seen as “intellectual” or “meritous” and are expected to be valued as such. They are valued in opposition to forms of media such as film and popular (non-classical) music, which are seen as trite entertainment “for the masses.” In this light, by exploring film seriously, we break down this divide, learning not only much about film in the process but also about ourselves.

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

Arts & Living 7

Lego Constructs a Hilarious Blockbuster

Image courtesy of www.forbes.com

If you expect “The Lego Movie” to be a Lego advertisement or a simple children’s film, you’re in for a real surprise.

Johnathan Appel ’16 Staff Writer I’ve been deliberating how to start this review for a while. I’m incredibly tempted to break all conventions of professionalism, click the caps lock key and scream at the top of my lungs about my love for this movie. You know what? Screw it. Forgive me until the end of this paragraph. THE LEGO MOVIE WAS AMAZING! I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO “EVERYTHING IS AWESOME” NONSTOP! It was one of the funniest, most heartfelt films I’ve ever seen. I hadn’t laughed so loud and cried (yes, actual tears) in a theater in … well, ever. And I don’t think I’m the only one.

Now, some of you are reading this review to confirm the absurdly

high score that “The Lego Movie” has received on rotten tomatoes (currently 96%). It deserves it, go see the movie and then go about your lives knowing that the world has improved just a little bit. Others may be reading this review looking to be convinced as to why a movie clearly made either for five year olds, marketing executives or both could possibly be anything other than a sign of the continual decline of Hollywood. In fact, “The Lego Movie” has surprisingly adult humor and is incredibly self-aware of the perceptions surrounding the concept. And lastly, for those of you who flipped to this article accidentally in a rush for the latest news on the administration or athlete spotlight: see the movie.

No matter who you are, you will not regret it.

This blockbuster’s story focuses on Emmet (Chris Pratt), an ordinary construction worker. Following the plans of President Business (Will Ferrell), Emmett lives a life built off of corporate instructions and rules: he buys overpriced coffee, he is distracted from politics by stupid TV shows and loves the #1 hit “Everything is Awesome,” which extolls the virtues of losing your individuality and complying with society. Yet, under the façade of awesomeness, Lord Business wants perfect order and zero creativity and plans to unleash his ultimate weapon, the Kraggle, on Taco Tuesday. Ignored by his coworkers, Emmet can’t help but stick out and accidentally stumbles upon WyldStylz (Elizabeth Banks) who is searching for something on his construction site. Chasing after her, Em-

mett falls into a hole and discovers the piece de resistance, the one piece fabled to defeat Lord Business.

Fulfilling a prophecy foretold

by Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), Emmett supposedly becomes the Special, the most important and interesting person in the world. After escaping the city and going to various other locales (based off of actual Lego sets), the three, along with Batman (Will Arnett), set out to connect the piece de resistance with the Kraggle and save the world. Along the way, they meet master builders, famous characters like Superman or William Shakespeare who don’t have to follow the instructions to build.

The humor in this film is second to none. The movie is filled with fastpaced pop-culture references, puns and allusions to underlying problems in society. None of it seems forced. Yes, there are a lot of different Lego people shoved in from different places in media history (The Millennium Falcon makes an appearance) but honestly, it’s all so absurdly funny. The only problem I actually found with the film is that there are so many good jokes at such a fast pace that, if you laugh too much, you might miss a new favorite moment.

Written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, “The Lego Movie” could easily have been a sellout film promoting the various Lego sets and toys. Yet, in their hands, this movie has become a parable against modern consumerism and conformity. The writing gives the film incredible awareness on the perception that the viewer had on the idea of a movie based on Legos. Because of this, they were able to dispel any

notion that this movie was designed simply to advertise the brand. The film’s ending, which I can’t talk about despite the fact that I desperately want to, is also one of the most brilliant plot points I’ve ever seen.

The end of the script was not only perfectly thought out and placed but frankly made me and all the other people I saw it with sob.

“The Lego Movie” actually hits on real world issues relevant to all of us: the blinding distraction of unintelligible TV, corporate control of every facet of our society (ironic for the movie’s concept) and the fundamentally human need to both be special and fit in to society. Fox News even called the movie “antibusiness,” so you know it must have said something poignant.

Ultimately, “The Lego Movie” is a film that will be unfortunately dismissed by many. Those who will most enjoy its anti-consumerist message will see it as a way to sell small susceptible children to buy toys. Those who would understand the moral that we should care more about the people around us and love ourselves will be pushed away by the perception that it’s mindless and too colorful to be substantive. And all of us who will not only get but also actually love the lovingly constructed humor, writing and heart in this movie will see “the Lego Movie” as juvenile. But, if given a chance to prove itself as more than a marketing push, this film is one of the funniest and most meaningful movies that has been released in a very long time.

Also, Batman is in it. So that’s a great reason to go too.

Antonio’s Planning to Expand to Boston Elizabeth Paul ’16 Managing Arts & Living Editor Anyone who has attended college in the Pioneer Valley knows that Antonio’s Pizza is a force to be reckoned with. Antonio’s opened their first venue in Amherst, MA with the intention of being more than just a standard local pizzeria.

Since then, the franchise has expanded and opened new locations in Providence, East Hampton, Texas and Illinois. College students and locals alike flock to Antonio’s for unique, extravagant pizza-by-theslice flavors, ranging from standard cheese to Chicken Tortellini and Avocado Quesadilla. On any given night in the fall or the spring, Amherst students can expect to hear a late night declaration from one of their friends that they are going to Antonio’s, and some legendary students are rumored to have eaten as many as four Antonio’s slices in one sitting. Recently, Antonio’s published on its Facebook page that it will be opening new locations in Worcester, Lowell and Boston. After hearing the news of Antonio’s recent expansions to Massachusetts’s urban scene, The Student headed over to the place where it all started to talk to some Antonio’s employees and get the inside scoop.

No matter what the time of day is, there always seems to be a line

of hungry customers at Antonio’s, but the speedy employees efficiently power through order after order and people pour out of the shop lugging small pizza boxes that hold their precious selections. Even after years of success, the original Antonio’s maintains a modest interior and an authentic no-frills pizzeria vibe. There is always an abundance of extravagant slices, and Antonio’s regulars toss out abbreviations of their favorite slices with a sense of familiarity. Even during late lunch hours on a Monday afternoon, longtime employee Jay Carrera was happy take a quick break and talk about the shop’s history.

The first Antonio’s opened its doors in Amherst in 1981, when the former owner of Bruno’s Pizza decided to open a new venue.

“So Bruno sold that place, and sold it along with the name so that he could open this place, which he couldn’t call Bruno’s, so he named it Antonio’s after his father,” said Carrera. “Steven Walter bought this store in 1997 and they expanded to Providence in 2001, and in 2004 they expanded to Texas and Illinois.”

Currently, the franchise holds stores in Providence, RI on Thayer Street near Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design; in Easthampton, MA, in College Station; TX, near Texas A&M and at the University of Illinois in Cham-

paign, IL. Though expansion plans are moving quickly forward, a concrete neighborhood and location for the Boston shop has not been announced yet.

“Worcester first, and we’re still looking in Boston, exploring locations right now,” Jay confirmed.

In articles on both Boston.com and The Boston Globe, Boston residents have expressed immense excitement over a local Pioneer Valley favorite making its way to the city. One Boston resident claimed, “You’ve made my year!” while another said, “The day you open in Boston will probably be the greatest day of my life.”

Something about Antonio’s Pizza holds a strong sense of nostalgia and comfort for anyone who has gone to school near the establishment. Antonio’s is unique, featuring inventive flavors and hours that favor a college student’s schedule. The shop’s most popular flavors include Chicken Bacon Ranch, Tomato Basil and Avocado Quesadilla.

When asked if they have had any funny or strange experiences during their time at work, most Antonio’s employees do not even know where to begin. Amherst is a town full of eccentric people, and with hours that extend into the early morning and pizza discounts timed to coincide with Five College bar hopping nights, Antonio’s is a place

Image courtesy of Elizabeth Paul

Although Antonio’s hasn’t officially announced a Boston location, they plan to expand in the near future. that definitely sees some interesting late-night action.

“We do dollar slices of cheese from midnight to 2 a.m. on Friday nights … we are talking about 10 years of funny stories to think about,” Jay answered, laughing and rolling his eyes.

“One of my most recent strange experiences happened two weeks ago when a lady was in here … she was kind of standing over here blocking the line, so we said to her, ‘Miss, you can’t stand there, you’re blocking the line.’ So she threw a slice of pizza at us! I’ve been working here for ten years and nobody

has ever thrown a slice of pizza at me!”

Hopefully, she didn’t throw a dressing-covered slice of Chicken Bacon Ranch at him, which seems like it would be much more detrimental than a slice of cheese or pepperoni.

Carrera concluded lightheartedly, “I have had some pretty weird things happen to me since I started working here, but that was at like 12:30 at night, so I guess it’s somewhat understandable.”

Antonio’s will announce its Boston location as soon as it has chosen a neighborhood and venue.

8 Arts & Living

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

Book and Plow: Farm to Val Table

Eleanor Andersen ’15 Staff Writer My favorite surprises arise in finding complexity where I had previously assumed simplicity. Eating is such a simple act.

It can be mindless and easy, quick and rewarding, but I consistently find myself marveling at the enormous disparity between the amount of time and effort required to create this sustenance and the rapidity with which we so often consume it. Take the apple I ate during class. I finished it within ten minutes, eating slowly as I rushed to take notes between noisy bites, but this piece of fruit only arrived at my disposal after months of hard work on the part of one apple tree and the dedication of various humans to maintain the tree, (picking the apple, washing it, packaging it, shipping it to Amherst) and finally the Valentine Hall staff who were kind enough to place this apple in the fruit basket above the bananas. That is a long chain of connections required to move one apple from its tree to my hand.

I once thought that I understood food production pretty well. At Book and Plow Farm, we grow food, we harvest it, we wash it and we deliver it to Val, where cooks wash it again and prepare it for the Amherst community’s consumption. Great, that makes sense, but what about the food that Pete and Tobin do not produce? How does the Book and Plow harvest fit into the rest of the menu? The second part of this question seems simple. Val just uses whatever Book and Plow gives them on any given day. Then again, think about how far in advance we know the menu at Val. I can tell you on Monday, Feb. 6 that dinner on Saturday, Feb. 22 will be kielbasa from the grill, pierogi with apple and caramelized onion, sauerkraut, and peas with onions. Of course, I never truly questioned the efforts involved in meal planning and food sourcing until I began working at Book and Plow this summer and witnessed the coordination efforts between farmers Pete and Tobin and our executive chef, Jeremy Roush.

Val serves 4,000 meals a day on average. At one dinner this week, we Amherst students consumed 300 pounds of strip loin and 250 pounds of sea trout. To feed our crowds, Jeremy has to plan, and plan and plan some more. He coordinates five different factors into acquiring fresh foodstuffs and producing a balanced diet with dishes that have lower ingredient profiles, meaning they are not heavily processed or pre-prepared foods.

The first is customer satisfaction because he realizes that Val is an essential part of the student life; this is where we go to unwind after a long day, to relax, to chatter with our friends and to find nourishment. I personally love my long Val sits, and Jeremy understands this central aspect of the Amherst experience, so his goal is to provide us with refreshing, healthful, and new meals. Thus, Valentine follows a twenty-eight day cycle for menu planning, allowing students to know what will be served in the coming weeks and giving Val a structured plan for what to order when.

This plan moves us into the next two factors, purchasing and processing. There is no grocery story for Val, no place that will have enough of every ingredient required to make 4,000

Image courtesy of www.gazettenet.com.

Book and Plow farmers Pete and Tobin (pictured) are spearheading a movement to get farm fresh food onto the plates of both Amherst students and other residents of the Amherst community. meals in one day. Val begins preparing for meals ten days in advance, contacting suppliers and buying dry goods like flour and sugar. Four to five days ahead, Val has ordered the meat and may begin prepping it two to three days in advance. Luckily for us, Jeremy started a fish program about a year and a half ago that provides us with fresh fish and seafood, (except for shrimp), meaning that all of the fish we consume at Val has never been frozen but rather is processed and served the day it arrives. And this processing is another factor that Jeremy must incorporate into producing meals; these ingredients will not put themselves together. The Valentine staff must have the technical training to cut, process, cook and present food for 600 to 800 different recipes.

Book and Plow, the fifth and newest element. This past summer was our inaugural year, meaning farmers Pete and Tobin had no idea how successful farming in Amherst would even be. On a little over four acres of Amherst land, we grew 18,000 pounds of organic produce. Next year, with better knowledge of the land, the farm hopes to have between eight and ten acres growing fruits and vegetables, most of which will incorporate directly into the Valentine menu plan. Last week, Jeremy and Tobin met for three hours to discuss what Book and Plow can

Five College Events Thursday, February 13

“Cooperative Enterprise and Social Change: A Conversation with Equal Exchange” 5:00 a.m.– 6:30 p.m., Mount Holyoke College Join us for a film screening and conversation with Equal Exchange to learn about how your coffee impacts the lives and land of people here and abroad! Equal Exchange is a Fair Trade company whose mission is to build long term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through their success, the contribution of worker cooperatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.

“Vagina Monologues 2014,” 8:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m., Mount Holyoke College Project:Theatre is pleased to announce our participation in V-Day 2014 with our annual production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. Join Project:Theatre for this powerful and compelling play this February 13th and 14th at 8:00 and February 15th at 2:00. Tickets are $3 for students and $5 for non-students. Open to the General Public.

“Black Women in the Arts in the 21st Century: a conversation with Toni Morrison, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Sonia Sanchez,” 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., UMass Part of the annual celebration of Black History Month, this event features three acclaimed artists

who will engage in an exchange of views on topics such as: the importance of the artist in society; the changing role of the Black female artist and the contribution of the artist in defining what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:15 pm). For additional information please contact Tricia Loveland at tlovelan@afroam.umass.edu or Shelly Perdomo at saperdom@admin.umass. edu.

Saturday, February 15

“Midnight Love 2014” 10:00 p.m.–2:00 a.m, Mount Holyoke College Come join La Unidad for a special lounge version of Midnight Love! This year we’ve moved our usual Valentine’s Day Chapin party to the Blanchard Campus Center great room for an intimate lounge session with DJ Ab Boogie from 91.1 WMUA’s SoulFly radio! $3 for singles; $4 for couples. Open to all.

“Creative Colleagues: An Exhibition by Smith College Libraries Staff,” Smith College Smith College Libraries staff members display their creativity-paintings, drawings, poetry, videos, musical talents, and more-in this exhibition which honors Mimi Lempart on the occasion of her retirement from Neilson Library. This is an opportunity to see what librarians do when they’re not at work.

—Elizabeth Paul ‘16

grow, what Valentine Hall wants and when and how to coordinate crop availability with dining hall requests for the year. This is an amazing relationship! Tobin, Jeremy and Pete can build a coordinated plan to incorporate Book and Plow produce regularly for meals at Amherst. They can grow to order. Obviously, there could be crop failure or overproduction or produce could be ready too soon — all natural occurrences at a farm — but for now Valentine Hall and Book and Plow have a partnership that will allow Jeremy to add more fresh ingredients to his daily menu, ones that are grown and harvested within walking distance of campus, under sustainable and organic practices and by two young and engaging farmers, who are wonderful assets to the Amherst College community.

And so, I have found the exciting complexity hidden within the simple act of eating a quick meal at Val. I am amazed at how much forethought and labor goes into each item I enjoy. While working at Book and Plow certainly gave me valuable insight into the system, I realize now that I was only touching the surface of a far larger operation. As much as I would love to think that the beauty of eating lies in the austerity of the process, I now knowit lies in the multitude of relationships among various people and factors that coordinate each meal we eat.

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

Sports 9

Men’s Basketball Cruises to Pair of NESCAC Wins Jeffs Set for Regular Season Finale against Middlebury

Jason Stein ’16 Sports Section Editor With two more victories this past weekend at LeFrak Gymnasium, Amherst men’s basketball hit the 20-win milestone on the season, improving to 20-2 overall (8-1 in the NESCAC and 9-0 at home).

In a 77-65 victory over the Conn. College Camels on Friday, Feb. 7, senior guard Aaron Toomey quickly became the story. He had 27 points, shooting 8-14 (57%) from the field and 5-10 (50%) from beyond the arc. To go along with his strong shooting performance, Toomey dished out eight assists and grabbed nine rebounds, just missing a triple-double for the second consecutive contest after narrowly missing the feat against Lasell in his previous game.

Senior guard/forward Tom Killian posted a strong game as well, scoring 19 points and pulling down a career-high 13 rebounds to earn the double-double. Sophomore guard/forward Connor Green and sophomore forward Ben Pollack also reached double-digit scoring, as Green finished with 11 points and five rebounds while Pollack added 10 points.

Up 19-16 midway through the first half, Toomey and Killian helped spark an offensive run that propelled the Jeffs to a 50-32 lead at the break.

Continuing to push out of the gates in the second half, Amherst went on another run (10-2) to increase their advantage to 60-34. Appearing to be out of the game, the Camels would then respond with a 19-3 run of their own to narrow the deficit to 10 points with less than nine minutes remaining in the game.

The Jeffs would maintain their lead the rest of the way and stave off the Camels’ imposing comeback effort. Ultimately, the Jeffs led the en-

tire way, as they jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and closed the game out with a 77-65 win. While it was clear Amherst outplayed the Camels in the first half, Conn. College fared better from the floor and from three-point range in the second half, outscoring the Jeffs 33-27. Amherst also pulled down seven more rebounds than the Camels, but fell two assists short of Connecticut College’s total as a team.

The next afternoon, the Jeffs defeated Wesleyan comfortably for the second time this season behind the strong play of all three senior captains — Toomey, Killian and guard David Kalema.

Toomey continued his sharp shooting on the weekend, going 7-12 from the field, 4-9 on threepointers and a perfect 6-6 from the free-throw line.

Killian turned in a solid all-around effort, with 14 points (including 4-5 from behind the threepoint-line in the first half), five rebounds and four steals. Kalema scored 12 points on the day, 10 of which came in the second half.

The Jeffs were in command the entire game and led by 12 points or more throughout the second half.

Amherst held a sizable rebounding edge over Wesleyan and also capitalized on a slew of Cardinals turnovers, as the Jeffs scored 29 points on Wesleyan’s 17 lost possessions.

While the Jeffs grabbed two NESCAC victories this past weekend, the team knows that there is still some work to be done as they prepare to make a deep run into postseason play.

“The wins this weekend were huge for us in terms of conference standings,” Toomey said.

“They kept us at the top and allow us to control our own destiny in terms of hosting the conference tournament. It was great to get two wins, but we did not play the level of basketball that we will need to if we want to have success in the postsea-

son. We have a lot to work on and having a week before our next game gives us plenty of time to clean some things up and play well this weekend.”

Up next, the Jeffs close out the regular season at home against the Middlebury Panthers (15-7 overall and 5-3 in the NESCAC) on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. Although the Panthers have three NESCAC losses to their name, they lost the three games by a combined total of eight points and have been a strong presence in the conference all year.

The following week, the Jeffs will host a firstround opponent in the NESCAC tournament. To date, Amherst has assured themselves of the no. 2 overall seed or better. A win against Middlebury will guarantee the Jeffs the no. 1 seed in the NESCAC tournament, as Amherst and Williams both have a single conference loss, but the Jeffs hold the head-to-head tiebreaker after beating Williams in conference play.

Last February, in one of the most exciting Div. III games of the year, Amherst narrowly defeated Middlebury 104-101 in a triple-overtime thriller.

In the contest, the Jeffs appeared to have their backs against the wall during the second-overtime, as Middlebury held a 91-88 lead with five seconds remaining. A Panthers player then intentionally fouled Willy Workman ’13 in the final seconds to send him to the line for a pair of foul shots.

After converting the first opportunity, Workman intentionally missed his second attempt, before putting back his own miss all in one motion to tie the game, and sent it to triple-overtime. It was a phenomenal play that appeared on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays and received press on Deadspin.

The game remained close until the end of the third-overtime, before Toomey drained a clutch three-pointer to put the Jeffs ahead for good with 2.9 seconds left.

Despite the considerable anticipation head-

ing into their final regular season game against the Panthers and the recent competitive history between the two teams, the Jeffs intend to ready themselves for Middlebury just as they would against any other opponent.

“We plan on preparing for Middlebury the way we prepare for any other game,” Toomey said.

“Over the past few years they have been a very tough opponent, but we won’t change the way we prepare for games. It’s a huge game for us and them, and both teams will be ready for a battle.”

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Aaron Toomey ’14 led the Jeffs against Wesleyan with 24 points.

Blake ’17 Sprints Fastest Women’s Squash Falls Short Div. III Time in 200m at Div. III Invite Chris Rigas ’16 Staff Writer For the second time in three weeks, the Amherst men’s and women’s track teams visited Boston Univ. to compete against Div. I, II and III athletes.

The women competed on Friday, and, just like their last appearance in Boston, the best performances were in the 200-meters by first-year Karen Blake and senior Naomi Bates.

Blake’s time of 25.16 seconds broke the school record that she had previously set Jan. 24th at the Terrier Invitational, and was good for 21st place in a 212-person field. Bates placed 25th with a time of 25.25, which is the second best time in program history. Blake’s time is also the fastest this year in Div. III, while Bates’ is third best. The pair also ran the 400-meters. Blake was once again slightly faster, finishing in 45th place with a time of 58.80 seconds, while Bates was 57th in 59.44 seconds.

In other track events, Taylor Summers ’16 grabbed 45th place in the 60-meters with a time of 8.13 and sophomore Keelin Moehl ran a 2:19.78 to finish 60th in the 800. First-year Catherine Lowdon and senior Amy Dao paced the Jeffs in the 1000-meters and the one mile respectively, with Lowdon running a 3:10.56 and Dao a 5:08.81. Kiana Herold ’17 turned in the most impressive performance in the field events, tying for fifth in the high jump with an effort of 1.65 meters.

On the men’s side, senior Matt Melton’s clocked a stand-out performance in the 500-meters. Melton ran a 1:03.26 to finish second in the 80-man field.

He also joined Nick Codola ’15, Brent Harrison ’16 and Judd Liebman ’16 on the 4x400-meter relay team which placed 17th with a time of 3:21.71.

“We had a great day with a bunch of personal beat times, including a new school record in the 3000 by Greg Turissini ’15 at 8:19.50,” commented head coach Erik Nedeau. Turissini finished 24th out of 114 runners in the event.

Brent Harrison led the Jeffs in the 800-meters, completing the event in 1:54.99, which was good

for 57th. Mark Cort ’15 (23.14) and Josh Young ’17 (23.28) were the top finishers for the Jeffs in the 200-meters. Other track notables were sophomores Dan Crowley (4:17.67) and Jeff Seelaus (4:19.54), who paced Amherst in the mile, as well as junior Romey Sklar, who ran a 2:30.53 in the 1000-meters to place 24th.

In the field events, Khalil Flemming ’16 and Stephen Hetterich ’15 both finished in the top 20 of the triple jump, leaping 13.48 and 12.83 meters respectively. Mark Cort led the Jeffs in the long jump, tying for 30th with a mark of 6.37 meters.

Both teams travel to Tufts this Saturday for the Cupid Challenge.

Photo courtesy of Olivia Tarantino ’15

Karen Blake ’17 broke the Amherst 200m indoor record with a time of 25.16 seconds.

Devin O’Connor ’16 Staff Writer Four Lady Jeffs squash players competed at the Div. III Individual Invitational hosted

by Bowdoin last weekend, Feb. 7-9.

Amherst was one of 14 schools participated in the tournament. Ericka Robertson ’16, Arielle Lehman ’15 and Meyha Sud ’16 performed in the “A” bracket for the Jeffs, while Captain Evelyn Kramer ’14 played in the “B” division.

Lehman fell to Samantha Matos of Bates in the first round. After winning the first two games by a close score, 11-7, 15-13, Lehman couldn’t clinch a third and final game.

Matos came out with a 3-2 win over Lehman with the final score, 7-11, 13-15, 116, 11-9, 11-6.

Sud could not make it past the first round either, as she was ousted 3-0 by Alyssa Northrop, the second seed of the tournament and top player from Williams.

Both Lehman and Sud moved on to the first consolation bracket, where they also lost in the first rounds there.

Robertson, however, was able to secure a victory in the first round over Annie Maxwell of Wesleyan. The sophomore beat the Cardinal in three straight games, 11-7, 11-3, 11-7, to move on to day two, where she faced Middlebury’s Abigail Jenkins.

Battling the fourth-seeded senior, Robertson was stopped short in a 3-0 loss, falling 4-11, 4-11, 2-11. Jenkins was the eventual winner of the tournament, defeating Randima Ranaweera of Mount Holyoke in the finals. Robertson will likely face Ranaweera on Wednesday, as she is the top player for the Lyons.

Following the loss, Robertson moved on to compete in the second consolation bracket, yet she defaulted due to an injury.

In the “B” division, after losing the first game, 8-11, to Ashley Arthur of Conn. College, Kramer, seeded third in her bracket, claimed the next three games with 11-2, 11-4, and 11-9 victories.

The senior went on the quarterfinals to face Tara Tischio of Colby. Kramer again sealed the victory, beating Tischio 3-0, by a score of 11-7, 11-5, 11-6.

The semis dealt Kramer a 3-1 loss to Bowdoin’s Chloe Polikoff in a closely contested match. The final score of the match was 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 9-11.

In the third/fourth place match later that day, Kramer faced Elizabeth Brehman of Colby. The two battled in a five games, going back and forth for the duration of the match.

In the end, Brehman was victorious, 3-2, by a score of 9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5.

With the loss, Kramer finished fourth overall in the tournament.

The women will host 23rd-ranked Mount Holyoke Wednesday, Feb. 12, in a match that was rescheduled due to last week’s snow. The Jeffs hope to finish off their last home match of the season with a victory.

With just a few weeks remaining in their season, the 17th-ranked Jeffs look to finish strong. The team will be preparing for CSA Team Nationals held at Princeton, Feb. 21-23 and CSA Individual Championships held at Penn, Feb. 28 - Mar. 2.

“We have nationals in two weekends, and we should be seeded at the top of our division, so we plan to work hard over the next two weeks and win the division! It will definitely be a challenge because we expect to face F&M and possibly Bowdoin, who are both teams that we have been very competitive with this season. As for Mount Holyoke on Wednesday, it’s our last home match, and we’re going into it feeling confident to end our season on a high note,” said Kramer.

10 Sports

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

Schedule SATURDAY Women’s Hockey vs. Trinity, 7 p.m.

Women’s Swimming @ NESCAC Championships, All Day Men’s Squash @ CSA Team Championships (@ Harvard), All Day Men’s & Women’s Indoor Track & Field @ Tufts, TBD

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT SUNDAY Women’s Basketball vs. Middlebury, 12 p.m.

Men’s Hockey vs. Tufts, 3 p.m.

Men’s Basketball vs. Middlebury, 2 p.m.

Women’s Swimming @ NESCAC Championships, All Day Men’s Squash @ CSA Team Championships (@ Harvard), All Day

Women’s Hockey Ices Ephs in 6-2 Victory

Holly Burwick ’16 Staff Writer

This past weekend the 10th-ranked Amherst women’s hockey team took on NESCAC archrival Williams College in a two game series.

The Jeffs came away with a 6-2 win on Friday and a 2-2 tie on Saturday that leaves them with an 11-5-4 record overall and a 7-2-3 record in the NESCAC. They are now seated third in the conference, just behind Middlebury and Williams.

“We had a good weekend. Williams is a very strong team, and to come away with three out of four points on the road is a good weekend,” Coach Matthews said.

On Friday, the Ephs held the Jeffs to a close game until the third period when Amherst erupted with three goals to secure the win.

Courtney Baraneck ’14 opened up the scoring in the first period off a Lynndy Smith ’17 rebound.

Williams evened the game with a goal early on in the second period, but Erin Martin ’16 was quick to retaliate, beating the Williams goaltender to the blocker side on an unassisted tally. Sara Culhane ’17 extended the lead for the Jeffs off a pass from Barrett McBride ’14.

Although Williams reduced the differential by putting away a goal at the end of the second period, Amherst wasted no time pulling away again after capitalizing on several power play opportunities. Baraneck set up Smith for the fourth goal, and in return, Smith gave Emily Flom ’15 the puck for the fifth goal.

The final tally came when Camille Herzog ’17 took a shot from the blue line that was redirected by Culhane for the rookie’s second goal of the game. Kerri Stuart ’14 helped secure the win for the Jeffs by recording 29 stops in net.

“Friday was a huge win for us. We came out really fired up and put the game away early. A lot of different players contributed to the win, which made it that much better. Kerri made some big saves to help us out too,” said sophomore forward Eileen Harris.

The rematch between the rivals on Saturday ended in a 2-2 overtime tie. Williams got on the board at the end of the first period and the score remained that way until the third period with 3:37 to go when Anne Gillard ’15 scored off a Caitlyn Ryan ’17 assist.

Ryan has had a very successful first-year campaign for the Jeffs thus far. Playing along side captain Hayley Opperman ’14 at starting defense, Ryan has contributed greatly to the stellar defensive performance of the team this season. She has also aided the offensive effort with many heads up plays leading to assists such as this one. She was recently interviewed

by The Boston Globe due to her success.

The 1-1 score didn’t last long. The Ephs were quick to respond to Amherst’s equalizer.

A little over a minute later, a slap shot from the blue line beat Amherst net-protector Yuna Evans ’17. Evans was then pulled with a minute to go, when Harris tied the game up 2-2 with just four seconds remaining.

Neither team could score in overtime and

the game concluded in a tie. Evans made 28 saves in the game.

“Although a tie wasn’t what we wanted, we made some big plays as a team. Coming back to tie twice late in the game really showed how we can play. Overall, it was a good weekend and we’re really excited for next weekend at home,” Harris said.

The Jeffs return to action at Orr Rink this Friday at 7 p.m. to take on Trinity for their annual Pink in the Rink Fundraiser game. A raffle, bake sale and “chuck a duck” events will all take place to help raise money for the CancerConnection in Northampton that provides free services for breast cancer and other femalespecific cancers. This fundraiser has the ability to positively impact the Amherst College community as well as nearby communities in Western Mass.

On Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m., the team will conclude its final home series of the regular season with a senior day celebration.

After, the Jeffs have only an away series at Bowdoin before they prepare for the NESCAC Championships, starting March 1.

“We are still learning and trying to get better with each game, especially due to the fact we are a younger team and many of our players are going through these situations for the first time,” said Coach Matthews.

“We need to take care of ourselves, stay healthy and work hard in practice to continue to develop our habits and skills. No changes, we are just hoping to be a better team come this weekend than we were last weekend,” he added.

Photo Courtesy of Chloe McKenzie

Defender Melissa Martin ’15 has one goal and one assist on the season.

Matt Melton ‘14 Favorite Team Memory: Competing in the All-American 4x400 relay team as a firstyear with a great group of upperclassmen If you didn’t run track, which sport would you play?: Soccer Pet Peeve: People online shopping during class.

Celebrity Crush: John Legend Favorite Movie: “Kill Bill Vol. I” Favorite Book: The Book of Salt by Monique Truong Favorite Food: Grilled shrimp Favorite Thing About Amherst: The Anthropology Department

SPRING PREVIEW

WEDNESDAY Women’s Squash vs. Mount Holyoke, 6 p.m.

Eileen Harris ‘16 Favorite Team Memory: When our bus got a flat tire on the way home from Hamilton earlier this year.

If you didn’t play hockey, which sport would you play?: Soccer Pet Peeve: When two people order the same thing at a restaurant.

Celebrity Crush: Ryan Gosling, love him.

Favorite Movie: “Big Fish” Favorite Book: Tell the Wolves I’m Home

by Carol Rifka Favorite Food: Glazed donuts Favorite Thing About Amherst: The tight knit supportive community

LACROSSE

Andy Knox ’16 Managing Sports Editor Men The Amherst men’s lacrosse team starts official practice this weekend as well, looking to build off a 2013 campaign that saw the Jeffs in rebuilding mode.

Amherst returns All-NESCAC senior captain Devin Acton who was one of the league’s offensive leaders last season, along with a host of other contributors who will look to improve on an eighth place finish in the NESCAC last season.

Coach John Thompson, along with the rest of the Jeffs, is very excited about how the offseason has gone.

“I was impressed with the development of leadership across all classes in the off season. It seemed that each class took leadership at different times in the off-season. Recently the 2016 class has really stepped up, but only time will tell whether the leadership shown in times of ease can be replicated when our legs and minds are fatigued during the season,” Coach Thompson said.

“We have a pre-season that is one week shorter than we have ever had. That means more mental focus, more alertness, and more accountability.

Those things rely on strong leadership from within, along with a disciplined pre-season,” Coach Thompson continued.

Amherst opens their season March 1 against a Bates squad that finished sixth in the NESCAC a season ago. The Jeffs lost a number of close games last season, and improving in this area was a point of emphasis going into this offseason.

“We have to be better in unsettled situations, both attacking and defending. I’d rather win 14-13 than 4-2 any day of the week, and that means focusing on unsettled and specialty situations,” said Thompson.

Offensively, the Jeffs will look to feed their playmakers Acton, sophomores Dylan Park, Kane Haffey and Quinn Moroney. Acton led Amherst and ranked fifth in the NESCAC with 35 goals on the season. Park, Haffey and Moroney are coming off successful first year campaigns that saw them emerge as offensive threats. Moroney led the Jeffs with 50 points on the year totaling 13 goals and 37 assists.

On defense, Amherst will look to replace several defensive contributors. Danny Gold ’13 was a stalwart at long stick midfield and excellent on both offense and defense. However, Coach Thompson is excited about his replacement.

“We feel like Rob Butko ’16 could be one of the best LSM in the league though when it’s all said

and done,” he said.

An interesting position battle is emerging in goal, as sophomore Thomas Gilligan, the team’s starter in a majority of their games last season, has been challenged in an intense competition by firstyear Cody Tranbarger this pre-season.

The Jeffs have worked hard on this offseason to be successful, but try not to have expectations.

“Our goal? Bates. March 1st. 1:00 p.m. Pratt Field,” Coach Thompson said.

Look for Amherst to play disciplined, technically sound and exciting lacrosse this season.

Women After graduating a number of talented players last season, including All-American Hillary Densen ’13, Amherst is looking to build around a talented nucleus of players, including two time All-American Alex Philie ’14.

“We lost three key players in Densen, Wyatt Davis ’13 and Marta Randall ’13, but we are hopeful our talented returning players and great firstyear class will fill their shoes,” said head coach Christine Paradis.

As their first official practice is set to start this upcoming Saturday, the Jeffs are excited to begin preparation for their opening game at Bates on March 1. In their lone head to head matchup at the beginning of last season, Priscilla Tyler ’15 was the hero, scoring the game winner with 3:42 left in regulation to give the Jeffs the 9-8 win.

“As coaches we expect the team to work hard, stay in the moment and challenge themselves both individually and collectively to be their best. If we do this — all things point to success,” said Paradis, reflecting on a successful offseason thus far.

Offensively, Amherst will look to replace the production lost from forwards Randall and Denson, two of the team’s top goal scorers.

This year’s team will be led by Tyler, Philie and Meghan Mills ’15, who were three of the other top goal scorers last year. Tyler and Philie also lead the returners with 29 and 28 points last season, respectively. Krista Zsitvay ’14 will join Mills and Philie to form a powerful midfield group.

Defensively, Amherst brings back three of four starters from a year ago. The team will have to replace Davis, but juniors, Heath Cockrell, Kerry Fusco and Fiona Dearth will anchor a very strong defensive unit. They will be protecting goalkeeper Christy Forrest ’16 who started 14 of the team’s games a year ago.

“It has been awesome to witness the team coming together in preparation for the 2014 campaign,” said Paradis regarding the final weeks before the season starts.

The Amherst Student • February 12, 2014

Women’s Basketball Blows Peter Robson Coach’s Corner Out Conn. and Wesleyan

Dori Atkins ’16 Sports Section Editor Overcoming a slow start, the 11th-ranked Amherst women’s basketball team extended its home win streak to 95 games with a 77-58 victory over NESCAC-rival Conn. College last Friday.

The Jeffs trailed by as many as 10 points during the first half, but turned a three-point deficit at the intermission into a 19-point win.

Finishing the game with an impressive 10of-10 from the floor, sophomore Marley Giddins was one point shy of matching a personalbest. The guard left LeFrak with a game-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds. Ali Doswell ’17 had 19 points and nine boards, while Hannah Peterson ’17 and Jaimie Renner ’17 each scored nine.

“We were out of sync in the first half, especially in the first few minutes of the game,” said Giddins. We were too relaxed on defense and our rotation was not working well. The players on Conn were getting a bunch of easy, uncontested shots and that obviously needed to change.”

After falling behind early in the second half, Amherst scored 11 unanswered points and began to find a rhythm. The Jeffs began to bounce back, starting with a Giddins faked hand-off along the left baseline, drawing a foul and converting a three-point play. Ali Doswell then drained a three before Giddins once again connected down low to put Amherst up six. Ali Doswell capped off the run by knocking down a pair from the line to make it 49-41. A Hanna Peterson ’17 three at 8:18 propelled the Jeffs to a comfortable 63-44 edge.

“Conn is a really good team this year, so it was definitely a tough game. We were happy to come out with the win,” Giddins continued.

“We really got things going in the second half.

We picked up our defense and finally had some chemistry offensively. Despite our ugly first half, it was great that we were able to pick ourselves up when it mattered and ultimately get the win.”

Outrebounding the Camels 36-21, the Jeffs held a 22-2 advantage in second chance points.

With 10 different players getting on the board, the Amherst bench also held its own, scoring

twice as many points as the Conn. College reserves, 34-16.

On Saturday, holding Wesleyan (12-9, 3-5 in the NESCAC) to its lowest scoring output of the year and just over 20 points below its season average, Amherst (21-2, 8-1 in the NESCAC) extended its win streak over the Cardinals to 15 games dating back to the 2006-07 season.

Tallying seven points in the game’s first 11:49, Peterson helped the Jeffs keep things tight at 12-12. Leading by as much as seven, the Jeffs began to struggle and fell behind 23-21 at the intermission. Following the break, Ali Doswell found the range from long distance, sparking an 8-0 run. KellyAnn Rooney ’14 scored the Cardinals’ first points of the second on a free throw at 14:44, but Amherst recorded the next three to go up 34-22.

Amherst finished with a decisive 45-34 rebounding edge and a 15-8 advantage in second chance points. Stuck in a defensive struggle, the Jeffs outscored the Cardinals in points off of turnovers, 13-3.

With the Jeffs making just 27.7 percent (13of-47) of their shots, it was their stifling defense that carried the home side, limiting the visitors to 22.4 percent (11-of-49) shooting, which included a 7.7 percent (1-of-13) showing from behind the arc.

“Wesleyan came out really energetic and ready to play,” said co-captain Cheyenne Pritchard ’16. “Since we weren’t hitting our threes, we had to adjust our offense, which we did in the second half. Our team defense really saved us and we had a couple of big plays to pull away in the second.”

With their last regular season game around the corner, Amherst will begin focusing on postseason play in the NESCAC tournament.

“Now that postseason play is starting, it’s more important than ever for us to be playing our best basketball,” Giddins said. “In these next couple of weeks we’ll definitely be practicing hard and making sure we improve upon the little things that will be necessary if we want to be successful this postseason.”

The Jeffs will host Middlebury on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 12 p.m. in LeFrak Gymnasium.

Sports 11

Maggie Kiley ’16

The Student sits down with Peter Robson, the accomplished squash professional at the helm of both the men’s and women’s squash teams. With 325 total wins under his belt as a coach at Amherst, Robson’s wealth of experience and knowledge has proven to be invaluable to the success of the squash programs as his 27th season with the men and fourth season with the women are in full swing.

Q: Tell us about your early life and athletic background. How did you get into squash?

A: That’s a loaded question! I picked up squash in boarding school back in England. My dad is a diplomat, so my family did a lot traveling.

We ended up living all over the place, and I was sent to boarding school at a very young age in England.

It was there that I dedicated myself to squash. I played rugby and a lot of other sports, but squash was my biggest commitment. I didn’t get any formal coaching until I was about 15 years old on the England Junior Squash Team.

Q: Where did you go to college, and what was your playing career like there?

A: I went to Trent University up in Toronto, Canada, and I played there for all three years that it took for me to complete my studies.

It was very different than college squash at Amherst. Squash resembled more of a club at Trent, so you were responsible for managing your own practice time and playing schedule.

We played as a team but did not have a formal coach, so I actually ended up filling that role for the team. We played every weekend and I was always ranked in the Top 20 in Canada during my college career.

Q: Do you have a favorite Amherst squash

memory?

A: One of my favorite memories is when our team beat Princeton for the first time at 1996 Nationals. One of my players, who was both a football and squash captain, wasn’t one of our premier players, but won the deciding match for us. He was down two games to nothing and came back to win in five games for us.

Q: What do you consider the toughest aspect of coaching?

A: Recruiting. That is the hardest part for me and the Amherst squash program because in Div. III, players have to be both academically and athletically very strong.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your family.

A: Like I mentioned earlier, I grew up in a diplomatic family and we traveled a lot. I lived in Africa for a long time. We were all over the place.

I have three brothers and a sister, who all live in the United States now. My parents are still alive, so that’s nice! They don’t know anything about squash. They probably still think that I am playing. My brother is a doctor and my sister is in business, so I think they may still believe I am goofing around.

Q: Do you have any post-squash plans?

A: Playing lots of golf.

Browne Finishes Third in Div. III Squash Invite Lauren Tuiskula ’17 Staff Writer The Amherst men’s squash team sent their top four players to compete in the CSA Div. III Individual Championships this past weekend at Bowdoin.

In its first year, the tournament hosted 48 student athletes from 14 Div. III schools, including many from the NESCAC. Playing in a field of 32 in the A bracket, Noah Browne ’16, seeded first, won his opening match against MIT’s Tyler Finkelstein with ease, sweeping him 3-0 to move onto the round of sixteen.

In the round of 16, he once again made quick work of his opponent; this time sweeping Nabil Sabeem of Bates, 3-0. Browne then took his quarterfinal match, 3-1, over Williams’ Jamie Ruggerio. However, the sophomore fell to the eventual champion, Taylor Foehl of Williams, in a closely contested 3-2 semifinal, losing 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 11-6, 3-11.

Browne ultimately placed third overall in the “A” bracket thanks to a default win.

Also competing in the “A” Bracket, Scott DeSantis ’15 defeated Middlebury’s Wyatt French in the opening round by a 3-1 score, 117, 11-5, 2-11, 11-8. He then fell, 1-3, in the next round to the Ephs’ Christopher Wilkinson. In the consolation bracket, DeSantis, suffered a difficult loss to Tufts’ Aditya Advani, losing 3-0.

Rounding out the Jeffs’ “A” bracket competitors was senior captain David Kerr, who dropped his first match of the tournament, 3-0,

to eventual finalist and second seed, Williams’ Kevin Chen.

In the consolation bracket, Kerr rattled off four consecutive victories to win the bracket and finish 17th overall. The first was a close match against Hamilton’s Tucker Hamlin, where Kerr was victorious, 3-2, by a tight score of 12-10, 7-11, 13-11, 10-12, 13-11. He then bested Williams’ Andrew Maruca, 3-1, before sweeping Colby’s C.J. Smith to take the semifinal match and advance to the finals where he earned the victory in a hard fought 3-2 match over Darrius Campbell of Bates, 11-4, 11-3, 5-11, 6-11, 11-3.

Alex Southmayd ’15 competed among 16 other student athletes in the “B” bracket for Amherst.

Seeded second, the captain defeated Dominic Hansford of MIT in the opening round of play in four games, 10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 13-11.

In the quarters, Southmayd edged host Bowdoin’s Maxwell Bearse, 3-2, by a score of 8-11, 13-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-2.

The junior then fell to Colby’s Yuga Koda in the semifinal, 3-0. In the third/fourth place match, Southmayd was swept again, this time

by Middlebury’s Harrison Croll, 6-11, 10-12, 9-11.

The entire team will be back in action this weekend as they compete in the CSA Team Championships. The tournament, held at Harvard, begins on Friday, Feb. 14.

“With a full lineup of rested players, we hope to make a big impact at Nationals this weekend,” remarked Southmayd.

Before coaching, Peter Robson had a successful squash career, being ranked as high as No. 1 in the country.

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Photos courtesy of Rob Mattson

Sophomore goalkeeper Dave Cunningham dives across the goal to make perhaps the play of the game Saturday against Bowdoin. Cunningham finished with 30 saves as the Jeffs went on to win 5-3.

Men’s Hockey Rolls to First in the NESCAC Offense Explodes against Colby and Bowdoin

Greg Williams ’16 Staff Writer

This past weekend the Amherst men’s ice hockey team returned to Orr Rink for the first time in over a month. The Jeffs’ two victories against Colby and Bowdoin indicated that they were excited to be back in front of their home crowd.

“This past month has been a tough test for our team and we are all disappointed with our recent performance, and more generally speaking, our record so far in January. It has been difficult for us to play away from Orr rink for a full month, as we haven’t been able to get a steady rhythm going like we had in the earlier part of the season,” said Elliot Bostrom ’14 on the challenges posed by the team’s road trip.

On Friday night, the Mules of Colby traveled to Amherst for the Jeffs first game back at home.

The home side jumped out of the gates, with Topher Flanagan ’16 scoring the first goal of the game on a power play off of an assist from Andrew Kurlandski ’14. At the end of the period, Kurlandski put away a rebound to give Amherst a 2-0 lead heading into the second period.

Colby was able to take advantage of a power play halfway through the second, but Brendan Burke ’16 scored five minutes later to put Amherst back up by two. The assists went to pair of juniors, Jake Turrin and Mike Cashman.

The third period was dominated by Amherst as Conor Brown ’16, Patrick Arena ’16 and Chris Roll ’17 all found the back of the net. Colby managed to muster together one respectable offensive possession that ended in a pretty goal, but the Jeffs rolled to the 6-2 victory.

Saturday yielded equally positive results for Amherst, as they defeated Bowdoin in a very tightly contested matchup.

The first period was marked by plentiful scoring. Amherst struck first when Roll slid the puck into the back of the net off assists from Kurlandski and Mike Rowbotham ’15.

Bowdoin quickly scored the equalizer when a deflection found its way between the pipes. Brown regained the lead with a score coming off an assist from Brian Safstrom ’14.

Erik Hansen ’14 extended the Amherst lead off a Kevin Ryder ’16 assist when he returned to the ice after serving time in the penalty box.

The Polar Bears weren’t finished yet though, as they narrowed the lead to one after managing to sneak a goal passed Dave Cunningham ’16. At the end of the first period, the Jeffs led 3-2.

The scoring slowed down in the second, but Bowdoin found the back of the net and tied the game up at three goals apiece by taking advantage of a five-on-three situation.

There wasn’t any more scoring until 6:12 into the third when Cashman took a nifty shot from the circle that went right by Bowdoin’s goaltender. Arena and Theo Hannah ’16 were credited with the assists on Cashman’s goal, which ended up being the game-winner.

Bowdoin regained hope during a fiveminute power play. While they capitalized on an advantage situation earlier in the game, they were unable to do so this time. Cunningham made short work of Bowdoin’s offensive unit by flashing the leather and making a highlight reel save and Rowbotham scored the dagger with 16 seconds remaining when he buried the empty-netter.

Although Bowdoin managed to double Amherst’s shot count, Amherst was more efficient at converting their scoring opportuni-

ties.

Kurlandski was pleased with how his team responded against “two tough teams that had swept [Amherst] less than a month ago.”

“It is the second weekend in a row that we have put together two complete games and the results have returned our confidence both individually and collectively. Everyone on the team contributed this weekend and that is the only way a team can make a run at the end of the year,” he added.

After such a long road trip, the Jeffs were all glad to be back in familiar territory.

“It was great being back home. It’s terrific to see the student support and I know the guys appreciate it. I thought we competed well over the last two weekends. Our results

have been positive when we’ve worked and our focus seems to be tied to our compete level,” Coach Arena said, “Cunningham has been excellent over the past four games, and I thought Turrin was very good on Friday and Kurlandski and Hannah were terrific on Saturday. As always, we’re excited for the stretch run.”

Tied with Trinity for No. 1 in the NESCAC, the Jeffs will look to add to their conference win count this weekend as they face off against Conn. College on Saturday, Feb. 15, and Tufts on Sunday, Feb. 16.

The team enters the final stage of the regular season with just four games remaining before the NESCAC tournament and hopes of making the NCAA tourney.

Amherst will look to continue to build momentum as they take on Conn. College and Tufts this weekend before facing NESCAC rivals Williams and Midd.