Issue 24

We dne sday, A pri l 2 7 , 2 0 1 1

Volume CXL, No. 24

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Senior columnists bid farewell with parting thoughts OPINION

Confidential Report Recommends Changes for Dining Hall Eirene Wang ’13

Diner ’14 discusses lack of facial hair on campus ARTS&LIVING

Amherst, Massachusetts

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Sick of eating the same food at Val every day? Tired of spending your money on late night snacks off-campus when you could be using those extra swipes instead? And ever wondered what really goes on in Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons?

Well, good news. The Student has received a copy of a confidential report that Petit Consulting LLC, a firm specialized in providing food service and hospitality consulting, created for Dining Services. The report offers recommendations and improvements for the upcoming school year.

Highlights of the six-page report included the addition of Lewis-Sebring as a student dining hall with different or faster meal options, the employment of more specialized and talented cooks and chefs, an increase in locally produced and fresh foods, a change in work environment and values, the expansion of Schwemm’s Café and the addition of a coffee shop to Frost’s lobby.

While the report estimated Val’s Annual Food Costs to increase 20 percent and payroll costs to increase 16 percent over fiscal year 2009, the benefits of these dramatic improvements, if implemented, might just outweigh their costs.

In their report, Petit Consulting LLC suggested that either Lewis-Sebring or Val be opened for meals throughout the day, as well as for late-night meals. The report also suggested that Val and Lewis-Sebring prepare more, and fresher, packaged foods to go.

While increased services are an advantage to these suggested improvements, overall quality, ambiance and morale will be the determinants in making these long-term changes.

The report paid special attention to maintaining consistent levels of quality and contents in the kitchen (especially on the weekends), erasing the “service” mindset of Val staff to foster a more fruitful environment and creating rewards and incentives to motivate staff members to innovate and excel.

Furthermore, the report emphasizes the need for Val to update, contemporize and innovate offerings at all serving and preparation stations. As it stands, only eight percent of Val’s purchased food is local or fresh. The report suggests that Val increase its purchase of fresh foods to 12 to 15 percent and improve food displays, color combinations and plate presentations in order to make its dishes more attractive and palatable.

According to Petit, Val should also consider diversifying its menu with more “authentically ethnic dishes” and more madeto-order options, like the Asian Noodle Bar and prepared deli sandwiches.

The report’s biggest suggestion was the creation of a café in the library complete with café tables, soft upholstered chairs and high stools. While the café would not serve hot food, students, staff and customers would be able to enjoy pre-made items from the Val kitchen and bake shop.

Photo by June Pan ’13

SPORTS

Versatile Writer Discusses Role of Feminism in Society Meghna Sridhar ’14 News Section Editor

Contributing Writer

Men’s lacrosse beats Wesleyan for first time since 1999

On Tuesday, Jessica Valenti, the author of three books concerning women, sexuality and the double standards in today’s society, as well as an editor at feministing.com, an online feminist blog, presented a lecture entitled “Hooking Up: The Slut vs. The Prude.”

Valenti opened her lecture by asking the audience, “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘feminist’?”

“Bitch,” came a call from the audience. “Feminazi,” came another. “Hairy.” “Bra-burning lesbians.”

Valenti listened to the adjectives with a laugh, and then proceeded to demonstrate to the audience how these negative portrayals of feminism have existed since the suffrage movements and have become internalized in how we perceive the movement.

“There’s an awful lot of effort put into discrediting feminism,” she said. “My work is aimed at making feminism more accessible to young feminists and exposing the double standards so common in society today.”

Valenti proceeded to diffuse the common perception of feminism as being moot simply because women already had the right to vote and work for equal pay.

“Let me give you the reasons why I’m a feminist ... this month,” she said.

She proceeded to give the audience recent examples of sexism in society: women being objectified in advertisements, unpunished instances of hate crimes against transgender women and laws allowing hospitals to deny women abortions even in life or death situations being considered in the House of Representatives. She also brought the issue closer to home by bringing up the issue of campus rape — she revealed that 95 percent of campus rapists are not expelled from their institutions.

Valenti explained that many of these things occur because of the double standards concerning female sexuality as portrayed by

the media and anti-feminist organizations. She tried to demonstrate, through newspaper headlines and snapshots of her blog, how society is obsessed with demonizing female sexuality, while bombarding people with highly sexualized images of young women.

“These double standards actively and tangibly hurt women,” she said, reading out sections of one of her books, “The Purity Myth,” and exposing the audience to the many tragedies feminism aims at addressing.

The audience received Valenti well, laughing appreciatively at See Author, page 2

Photo by Lilly Jay ’14

Jessica Valenti spoke on sexuality and double standards.

Exit the President: Popular Marx-ism On June 30, 2011, President Tony Marx will conclude his time at the College in order to serve as the President of the New York Public Library. In the final installment of this three-part series, the Amherst community give personal takes on Marx’s legacy.

Marx, but an insular president is not one of these.

“He’s amazingly accessible to students,” said Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Tom Parker. “It’s all very genuine.” “[Marx is] someone that I feel I can speak directly to as a student,” said Romen Borsellino ’12, newly-inaugurated President of the Amherst Association of Students (AAS). “I’m really sad that I won’t get to

What makes a president? As President Tony Marx’s tenure at the College draws to a close, a reflection on his eight years here begs an answer to this question. One might discuss his work improving campus diversity, reaching out to international students and across socioeconomic divides. Or one might knock off a few thousand words on his dedication to increasing student financial aid. While these achievements are undoubtedly two towering monuments of the man’s presidential legacy, some of Amherst’s most enduring recollections of “Tony” are much more down to earth: the memories of the person behind the presidency.

From Halloween parties in the Museum of Natural History to seeing Marx strolling about campus, the anecdotal evidence abounds. There are many ways to describe

President Tony Marx spends some time with first-years (left to right) Katrin Marquez, Maia Mares, Maria Kirigin and Meghna Sridhar.

June Pan ’13 & Brianda Reyes ’14 Managing News Editors

The independent newspaper of Amherst College since 1868

work with him next year.”

Outside the AAS, various other members of the student body have also had the chance to work with and speak to Marx on student-life initiatives.

“As a [Resident Counselor], I’ve attended his ‘Tony Talks’ with the freshmen class and really felt that he had a genuine interest See College, page 4

Photo courtesy of Joyzel Acevedo ’14

Page 2

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Reflections on a Thesis Muddasir Ayaz ’11 Major: Neuroscience Advisor: Dominic Poccia What is your thesis about? How did you choose this topic?

Everyone knows about mitosis (hopefully), the process by which one cell becomes two daughter cells after going through prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. During that process, the nuclear envelope, which normally surrounds DNA, has to break down and then reassemble after the cells divide. The goal of my thesis was to determine the effect of a PLC inhibitor U-73122 on nuclear envelope formation during that mitotic process in sea urchin eggs. U-73122, baby. Google that. As for choosing a topic, for the Bio and Neuro departments, as a potential thesis student, you talk to various professors in the department and determine which professor’s work interests you the most. It’s a bit like speed dating, actually. The interesting thing about a science thesis, though, is that it is an opportunity to make an original contribution, no matter how humble, to the field you work in, and that’s pretty cool.

What do you consider the most interesting part of your thesis? Any highlights or lowlights so far?

Well, since my project begins where sex ends (sperm fertilizing an egg), there’s often a lot of hilarious, low-brow, sexually-suggestive humor that comes with the territory. I inject sea urchins with potassium chloride to make them shed their gametes. There’s a much more impolite way of phrasing that, but I’ll leave that to the reader. But it has tempted me, on occasion, to inject Saumitra Thakur ’11 or Zinovia Chatzidimtriadou ’11 (my fellow thesis students in lab) with potassium chloride and see what happens. I’ve learned that sea urchin sperm can be stored for a week. A week!

Val’s bananas don’t even last for that long!

The best part of my thesis was getting to know my fellow thesis students. Now, the best part of my thesis is being done! Low points of my thesis: I’ve had my fair share of 48-hour sessions where I didn’t shower. And if we’re offering up confessions, then I should admit, I’ve also “reserved” computers in the Science Library by putting my jacket on a chair and then leaving for long stretches of time. My sincere apologies.

Author Debunks Feminist Stereotypes Continued from page 1 her commentary on the outrageous sexism visible in modern society.

During the question and answer section that followed, she debunked many of the common rumors and stereotypes concerning feminism, even clarifying the definition of feminism itself.

“Feminism is fighting for social, economic and political equality of the genders,” she said.

The session featured a number of young men who were inquisitive about the nuances of feminism and how feminists perceived certain traditions, such as men paying for dinner on a date.

“I wish there were more like us,” said

David Baird ’14, when asked how it felt to be one of the underrepresented male members of the audience “I enjoyed it a lot, probably more than I’ve enjoyed any speaker at this college.”

The conference was organized by Keemi Ereme ’11 and the Sexual Health Educators.

“I’ve recently started reading a lot of feminist blogs, including feministing,” explained Ereme, when asked how the idea for such an event came about. “When I saw an option on the website to bring feministing to your school, I was so excited.”

Ereme’s hope was that the event clarified the common misconceptions about feminism and sparked pro-feminism activism and dialogue on campus.

Do you have any advice for students considering writing a thesis?

Try to find a topic that interests you. If you end up with a topic that does not interest you, find the most minute detail of your project that forcibly fascinates you. Know that there will be moments when you absolutely cannot work even though you have to. When you’re at your lowest point in thesis-writing, you need something to keep you going. Even if it is an episode of “Real World: Las Vegas 15” or The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time.

If you work in a lab, befriend your fellow thesis students in lab. Buy them Sugar Jones cookies.

Watch trashy television if it’s the only thing that you can find in common with them. Pretend you like “Friday” by Rebecca Black. Do whatever it takes to be on great terms with the students in your lab because it makes life as a thesis student immeasurably easier, enjoyable and more meaningful.

Establish at least a cordial relationship with your advisor; getting along with your co-workers is clutch, and when it comes to your thesis, your advisor is in one sense a collaborator.

Also, if you commit to writing a thesis, know that you have a venerable ally with you until the end of April. What else can you blame when you want to avoid awkward situations or put off responsibilities? Your friends or significant others may defend themselves when you blame them for your tardiness, laziness or selfishness, but your thesis will never do that to you.

Thoughts on Theses is a regular feature. Seniors interested in having their thesis featured can send their information to astudent@amherst.edu.

THE CAMPUS CRIME LOG Entries from April 18 to April 25, 2011

April 18, 2011 2:11 p.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in the first floor kitchen area and discovered food was burned in the microwave. One resident was fined $100.

April 21, 2011 12:45 a.m., Boltwood Avenue The student operator of the Safe Ride van reported that someone vandalized a side mirror while the vehicle was parked near Porter House.

Case open.

April 19, 2011 12:11 a.m., Stearns Dormitory Officers responded to a report of an unfamiliar man sitting behind the building using a laptop. The man was identified as a student.

1:45 p.m., Morrow Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of the odor of marijuana on the first floor. The origin could not be located.

11:11 p.m., Newport House An officer responded to a complaint of someone smoking in the building and found the odor coming from first floor room. The resident admitted to smoking in her room with some friends. The resident was fined $100 for the smoking violation.

April 20, 2011 4:44 p.m., James Dormitory Officers responded to a report that an unfamiliar man was seen entering the building after he used an ID card for access. Officers located the man and found he was a guest of a resident.

11:00 p.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer discovered four unattended cases of beer in the laundry room.

They were confiscated.

April 22, 2011 12:42 a.m., Merrill House Apartments An officer responded to a complaint of loud music from the Senior Ball.

The DJ was playing the last songs.

5:53 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in a second floor room and found it sounded when a hair iron was used directly under it.

10:49 p.m., The Quadrangle Officers responded to a report that an unknown man was seen pushing over a motorcycle which was parked near Frost Library. The owner was contacted. When the motorcycle was checked, one of the front light assemblies was broken. Case open.

April 23, 2011 2:10 a.m., Social Quadrangle Officers responded to a report of a male yelling in the quad and found a student who had been involved in a physical altercation. The student stated he was punched in the face by a UMass student who was among a group of UMass students.

The UMass students had already left campus. The student did not require medical attention and did not want the matter pursued any further.

6:02 p.m., Alumni Gym Officers responded to a report from the Fitness Center monitor that some people were refusing to leave at closing time. They left upon the officer’s request.

2:17 a.m., Charles Pratt An officer responded to a complaint of intoxicated people being loud in the second floor common room. the officers did not find any noise upon arrival. One student with alcohol was identified and the alcohol was disposed of.

1:50 a.m., Marsh House An officer observed a student urinating outside the building. He was identified and fined $100 for the offensive behavior.

April 24, 2011 12:21 a.m., Crossett Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud music and had the DJ lower the volume of music at a party being held in the basement.

2:59 a.m., Moore Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint

of loud music in a first floor room.

The music was shut off and all nonresidents were asked to leave.

6:17 a.m., Pond Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud music and found loud music in two suites. It was shut off.

9:46 p.m., Valentine Dormitory Officers responded to a report of a burning odor on the second floor and traced it to a resident’s room. They found burning candles and incense.

The resident was fined $100.

April 25, 2011 1:19 a.m., Coolidge Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning at a first floor suite. All non-residents were directed to leave.

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Page 3

A Cookie for Your Thoughts

Amro El-Adle ’13 Editor-in-Chief

“We were migrating from Planworld to Facebook when I was in school, and that was basically my experience with tech at Amherst.”

In the years since Adam Leibsohn ’03 graduated (with a French and Interdisciplinary double major), the advent of social media has accelerated the demand for, and analysis of, online browsing data. How that data is collected — and just how valuable it is — has been the subject of fierce privacy firestorms surrounding technology juggernauts like Google, Facebook and now Apple in the U.S. and abroad. But Leibsohn’s new tech startup, voyurl, is trying to encourage users to take a closer look at those questions by taking a closer look at their screens.

“Everything we do online creates data, and all this data isn’t really given to us; it’s actually taken advantage of by other people,” he explained. Germany, for example, has a retail bonus card system called Payback, under which consumers allow companies to send them offers in exchange for discounts at retail chains. A plethora of U.S. online retailers, including Amazon, Netflix and eBay, all track their consumers’ viewing patterns and suggest products (both on their websites and via email) based on those patterns — but without the added benefit of the discounts for consumers.

According to Liebsohn, marketing ploys have grown more devious with the growing popularity of social media. He described marketing agencies that design Facebook applications for events that barnacle onto users’

walls long after the event has ended, collecting invaluable, and personal, information all the while.

“This type of behavior is not uncommon,” he said.

The problem, however, isn’t just retailers. Countless online services touted as free, including immensely popular sites like Gmail, Twitter and Facebook, actually involve the “implicit exchange” of personal data, which, as it turns out, does have a price.

“The cost is actually your data, your thoughts, your trends,” Leibsohn said.

Leibsohn, who found a marketing job in New York after graduation by using an MTV ID card he had retained from an internship the previous summer to hand deliver his resume to marketing executives, got the idea for voyurl “from doing [his] due diligence on all the digital stuff for clients and researching digital culture, media behaviors and media distribution. A big part of it also came from [his] experience at the ad agency.”

It was while working at that agency that he became aware of the unfettered underbelly of the data-collection world. According to Liebsohn, “There are at least a dozen companies that traffic and deal in this grey area of what personal data is and what the value is — how do you get it, and when do you sell it?” Everything from the time of day at which you access certain websites to the time you spend on each page tells a piece of the story about your internet browsing habits.

And because college students represent one of the most scintillating age groups for marketers and retailers alike — significant amount of spare time, a large amount of disposable income

and easily swayed tastes — that story is immensely valuable.

“Cookies were actually invented for purposes like Amazon’s: to keep track of you. The more they know about what you buy and what you look at, the better they can serve you products that are related to you.”

Voyurl, which has been featured in Wired, The New York Times and TechCrunch while still in a private beta phase, hopes to make its users more aware of their data. After downloading a plug-in compatible with Safari, Firefox and Chrome, that plug-in registers the user’s clickstream in realtime back at voyurl’s servers. Your entire browsing history makes its way back to voyurl, where it can be viewed

by other users, or in the aggregate. Just as important, the site also offers “personal analytics”: the trends that emerge from that data, which can explain past web usage, with the data grouped by category, website and geography.

Injecting that clickstream into search engines, online marketplaces and entertainment sites to ensure optimized results would capitalize on the power of social media — a convoluted process at the moment.

For users who feel uncomfortable attaching their name to a publiclyavailable browsing history, the plug-in allows you to send back an anonymous clickstream, or to completely stop broadcasting for “those, ahem, unmentionable sites,” according to the

voyurl homepage.

“There’s not been a service out there that says ‘We want you to contribute your data, and what we’ll do first, foremost and directly is take that data, spin it around and give it to you in a valuable way.’ And that’s really my ambition,” said Leibsohn.

Ultimately, voyurl’s power is exposing the value in its users’ data — and making them aware of that value along the way.

“If you go down the rabbit hole… we want that whole journey,” Leibsohn said. “Then we’re able to learn, and recommend you other content based on that.”

Readers can register for the private beta at www.voyurl.com/amherst.

Image courtesy of voyurl.com

President Marx Discusses Education Reform in Public, Private Systems Daniel Diner ’14

A&L Section Editor

In response to an open letter from Khan Shoieb ’11, in which Shoieb called for college presidents to reclaim their roles as “public intellectuals” and in which he invited President Tony Marx to use the Amherst Political Union (APU) as a forum to address the members of the Amherst community on a topic of his own choosing, Marx spoke at Reflections from a Lame Duck: A Conversation with Tony Marx on Education Reform on Wednesday in the Cole Assembly Room of Converse Hall.

The talk featured Marx discussing his personal viewpoints on public and higher education in the United States, and then answering the audience’s questions provided him with. Marx spoke of the flaws he saw with the education system and of some changes he recommended from an educator’s point of view.

Hosted by the APU with help by a new campus organization, the EDU, the talk was a mechanism of advocating for college presidents to speak out on matters of public importance, a circumstance that is not normally present on campus.

According to Shoieb, the APU “jumped at the opportunity to have a president who is known as a pioneer in his field speak on the topic.”

After EDU, a new group on campus interested in education reform, heard of the event, they joined the APU to collaborate.

“I knew this would be the perfect thing for us to get involved in,” said Daniel Alter ’13, one of the two EDU members to have sat on the board to put this event together. “I was really glad to see President Marx open up and give us a look into some of his soul-searching on the topics of privilege, class, race and education.”

In his talk Marx focused on the immense national externalities that arise from a universally well-educated public and on his firm belief that the public school system does not lead to this desired outcome. He spoke out about the vast inequalities in our public schools, pointing out that the ratio of money spent on schools in the wealthiest regions of the country as compared to the poorest is seven to one.

“This means that seven times more is invested in those [already] with every privilege possible than in those who need it. There is no other ratio as telling or as damning,” he said.

Marx also spoke about how the problem is engorged by wealthy parents pulling their kids our of the public school system (and therefore pulling away some of the system’s largest pockets of support), teachers unions rallying around causes unhelpful to students, wage-based dissuasion of elite college graduates from choosing careers in education, administrative constraint and societal apathy.

He said that a society that fails to meet proper educational standards for all of its citizens cannot successfully in a global economy.

“You get what you pay for and this is a society that has decided that they’re not willing to pay for an education for everyone,” Marx said.

In the remainder of his talk and in much of his responses to the crowd’s questions, Marx discussed the dilemma of choosing between funding elite colleges like Amherst, which are pivotal in raising the nation’s future leaders, and the increasingly underfunded public universities and community colleges, which through affordability and efficiency offer a majority of American youth the chance for an otherwise unobtainable quality undergraduate education.

He then reasserted the responsibility elite colleges have in bettering their communities and becoming more accessible to low-income students, praising the College for sticking with its

socio-economic reforms through recent economics hardships, a time when many of its peers, who were in a position to make similar policies, chose not to.

Photo courtesy by Maria Kirigin ’14

President Tony Marx spoke the Cole Assembly Room about education reform.

Page 4

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Iron Chefs Cut Up Competition Amro El-Adle ’13 Editor-in-Chief

By the time Val’s Iron Chef competition rolls around for the fifth time next year, a new team of cooks will be crowned champions. Obvious as that may seem, it has been anything but a guarantee for the competition’s first four years — the same team, albeit with some slightly different members, has won each year it’s been held.

Each year six four-member

teams chosen by the organizers of the competition are tasked with concocting an appetizer, an entrée and a desert using some of the ingredients regularly available in the dining hall, in addition to a basket of ingredients brought in for the competition.

The ingredients in this year’s basket, each of which had to be included in each dish, were surprisingly exotic, as the teams had to incorporate black garlic, mussels from Maine, Caperberries (pickled flowerheads with a very distinctive taste, in case you were wondering), a chayote

Six four-member student teams participated in this year’s annual Iron Chef competition.

and fresh beets into their dishes.

The teams were given an hour to prepare their dishes before presenting them to a panel of judges — and presentation was key, as the teams were also graded on the aesthetic appeal of their dishes.

“We really didn’t know what to plan for; our goal was to not get last place,” explained Brittany Evans ’11, a member of the second-place team.

Some of her fellow competitors, however, sought an extra edge, bringing in smartphones wrapped in plastic to search for recipes involving the ingredients in the basket. According to Director of Dining Services Charlie Thompson, the Iron Chef rules next year may adapt to reflect these changes in the nature of the competition.

The students competing in the competition have the added benefit of learning to explore all the options available at Val. “After the first year, I saw Val in a whole new light,” explained Hallie Schwab ’11. Schwab, along with fellow seniors Melissa Pritchard, Erikka James and Kristen Ahye raked in the $100 Judie’s gift card grand prize with a lineup including a gazpacho beef, mussels with lemon, gnocci, onion rings and poach pears.

Prizes for the rest of the participating teams were, in descending order: a $75 gift card to The Pub, a $50 gift card to Panda East, a $25 gift card to Moti, a gourmet Tuxedo Cake and a cookie platter.

Senior to Study at Oxford via Keasbey Scholarship Amber Khan ’14 Staff Writer

Senior Music and English major, Christopher Spaide was recently awarded the Keasbey Scholarship, an award that will allow him to study for two years at the University of Oxford.

The scholarship will fund Spaide’s program of study in arts criticism, by the the end of which he plans to receive a Masters of Studies in English Language and Literature and a Masters of Studies in Music. Although Spaide thinks that everyone now lives in “a time devoted to technological and scientific innovation,” he believes that “art not only affects us in profound ways but also links us to other consciousness’s.”

“When it is through with us, we have become more aware, more understanding, more conscientious people,” he said.

Marguerite Keasbey, an unmarried and childless heiress, established the Keasbey scholarship in 1953. She had great respect for British education and wanted to establish private support for it through the Keasbey Memorial Foundation. The Keasbey scholarship provides scholarships to American students from 12 universities for study at a British institution of higher education. Every three years, Amherst is allowed to nominate two students.

Spaide’s interest in musicology began with Music 33 (“Repertoire and Analysis”) taught by Professor Klara Móricz.

“I finally felt that I was really listening to music and in a position to write about it cogently. I knew within a month that I was going to write a musicology

thesis.”

Although most students, even if double-majors, choose to only write one thesis, Spaide decided to write two. In addition to his musicology thesis, written under his now-advisor, Móricz, Spaide has also done an English thesis, a portfolio of his original poetry, under the guidance of Daniel Hall of the Creative Writing Center.

Spaide eagerly anticipates the years he will spend in the United Kingdom. He hopes that his work on two senior theses will have prepared him well for the tutorial system of learning at Oxford.

“I’m looking forward to introducing everyone in the United Kingdom to the cultural cornerstones of my American childhood, like Monty Python, the Beatles and Harry Potter,” he said.

After Oxford, Spaide plans to pursue a Ph.D with an interdisciplinary focus that reflects his interest in both music and English. He hopes to become “the professor I have always dreamed of studying with.”

Photo courtesy of Sam Masinter ’04

Photos courtesy of Charlie Thompson

A panel of judges evaluated each team’s dishes based on a variety of criteria, including presentation and aesthetic appeal.

This year’s contestants were: seniors Britt Evans, Kristyn Dunleavy, Jaci Daigneault, Courtney Long, Dan Bamba, Caroline Burke, Hanna St. Marie and Kristin Hickey; juniors Lem Attanga-McCormick, Eric Bunker, Alex Stone, Sam Sperling and Sinead Murphy; sophomores Geneva Lloyd, Megan Doyen, Chris Allen, Kai Goldynia, Alex Stein and Will Kitchell.

Last Wednesday, there was a dinner organized in Lewis-Sebring for all of the contestants that showed off

the culinary prowess of the Valentine dining staff, with items like “Breast of Duck in Maple Gastrique on Morsel Mushroom and Fiddle Head Fern Hash” and “White Chocolate Bavarian with Fresh Berry Salad” gracing the menu. During that dinner, to which all of the contestants were invited, the difficulty of working with the beets was discussed, among other things.

Next year, Pritchard will return to the competition to serve on the judges’ panel.

College Shares Memories of Marx Continued from page 1

in what everyone had to say,” said Conny Morrison ’12.

Morrison has also worked with Marx in spearheading other campus initiatives and describes the President as being “quite helpful and enthusiastic” to work with students on their project. “[Marx] has always worked to be engaged in student projects and to improve Amherst in his vision, as well as to be a friendly and approachable presence on campus,” said Morrison.

Milica Djuric ’11 also vouched for Marx’s personable character. “One time, at Bank of America, Tony was in the line ahead of me,” said Djuric. “He turned around, recognized me to be an Amherst student and let me go ahead of him.”

“He’s always in the quad,” said Parker of Marx.

Parker disclaimed that he did not wish to put words in the President’s mouth, but he believed that “[Marx’s] interaction with students ... is his favorite thing. He really likes the students here.”

Popular memory of Marx has its rough patches, however — even when discounting the infamous story of the Snowball Heard Around the Quad. Alex Propp ’13, co-president of the Green Amherst Project, has met with Marx a few times to advocate for issues of sustainability on campus.

“In general [Marx] seemed receptive in these meetings, only to brush away the things we were saying afterwards,” said Propp, who does not believe that the President “got” the importance of sustainability the College.

One major initiative that Propp took to Marx was a recent proposal, sponsored by students and Facilities, for the creation of a campus farm. “I don’t think he gave it a very thorough reading,” said Propp, based on the response that Marx gave: that they should explore volunteer possibilities at Hampshire College.

But the point of the proposal was not so much about the farm itself. “It was really about doing something locally,” said Propp. “It was about doing something within our own community. It was about community development. When [Marx] said we should explore the possibilities at Hampshire, it didn’t give a very good impression

that he understood what we were talking about.”

Propp believes that community development at the College has been lacking amidst the admissions and financial aid reform under Marx. Though he recognizes the importance of these initiatives, Propp questions how the diversity of the student body truly translates into campus life.

“I don’t think bringing people from diverse walks of life necessarily means you’re going to create an inclusive, diverse community on campus,” said Propp. “People tend to situate themselves among peers with similar experiences, where they feel most comfortable.”

No president is perfect, as Marx himself readily admits. “I am quite confident that Amherst will find a better 19th president than it had in its 18th,” said Marx, though he is proud of the work that has been accomplished during his tenure here.

“I hope this place will remember me as someone who tried hard and worked hard,” said Marx. “I tried to understand Amherst values, found them in accord with my own and pursued them as vigorously as I could. One of Amherst’s greatest strengths, perhaps unmatched, is that it has the resources to be able to live up to its values.

That’s the secret of the place, and it’s the secret of any presidency of this place.”

Treasurer Peter Shea looks forward to how the new president will handle these issues of ideal of necessity, as the College continues on from the financial troubles and economic turbulence of the late 2000’s.

“It will be interesting to see how the next president is able to balance the pending needs of the College with his or her agenda,” said Shea.

“It’s not the little decisions. It’s the hard, big decisions that make a difference,” said Marx, musing on his own legacy. “Trying to understand the values of [Amherst] and trying to make those decisions consistently was not necessarily the easiest thing and not necessarily the most popular thing.” Nevertheless, Marx stands by his decisions as “the right thing for the place.”

The final curtain on Marx’s presidency will fall on June 30. But as Marx bows out to continue his next act at the New York Public Library, his legacy and memory remains — as colorful and diverse as the students he brought, taught and befriended at the Fairest College.

The Amherst Student

Opinion

Letters to the Editor Letters Policy Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Editorial

Hopes for the Next President of the College

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s the search for the next President of the College continues, we hope to offer some of the attributes necessary for the person serving as the face of the Fairest College. President Marx has improved the College in many ways, shaping institutional policies over the last eight years. We can only hope that the next President continues, or even expands upon, some of these policies — but that he or she will do so while bringing fresh ideas to the table.

The next President should retain our commitment to ethnic and socio-economic heterogeneity. All of us appreciate the increased focus on financial aid for students from all backgrounds; it’s one of the standout features of the College, and, because we stood our ground in the face of hardship, we have led the way for other colleges to institute similarly robust policies. Marx also deserves credit for the expansionary inclusion policies of the College with regard to race and gender. In a mere 40 years, we have gone from a white, all-male college to a school that includes people from almost every country and background, both male and female.

These are the policies that we would like to see continued.

One thing that has been lacking under the current administration, however, is a figurehead that is in touch with student life issues, so that the College becomes better attuned to the needs of its students. Student input has been ignored in the past, such as when the dorms on the Triangle were remodeled. The College removed the ballrooms, which had historically served as central social gathering places. Another long-ignored issue has been the quality of Val (though recently there has been some progress). Opinions about everything from student parties to sub-free living to late-night dining options have gone unheeded. These gaps in communication reflect a disconnect between the voices of the students and the ears of the President and the administration.

Another change we look forward to in this new presidency is a renewed dedication to the modernization and upgrading of College facilities. While we fully appreciate the effort to maintain an up-to-date science building, there are many dorms and academic buildings that are long overdue for a makeover. Just as important, the College lacks a decent performance venue. If we had a better auditorium and stage, we would

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be able to secure better Spring Concert artists, in addition to reaping the inherent benefits of such facilities.

The College’s community has successfully broadened its horizons under Marx’s presidency, but at some point, we must narrow our focus again to do some much-needed housekeeping. This means that we need a president who will be committed to reviving and maintaining school spirit, which has been lackluster to say the least, and a President who will work to reinstate the best College traditions of the past.

We need a President who will be accessible to the campus at-large — a person who is not only approachable but who deeply and genuinely cares about the issues students bring to his or her attention.

We have a great opportunity before us, a moment where we choose the person who will mold and effect the next chapter in the College’s history. This is a decision that will shape the College’s future, and we, as students and stakeholders, hope that our input is given appropriate weight.

The next President of our College ought to be an individual who best represents not only our institutional values, but the views and everyday concerns of students, as well.

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

The Student will print letters under 450 words in length if they are submitted to The Student offices in the Campus Center or to the paper’s e-mail account (astudent@amherst.edu) by noon on Sunday. No letters sent after that time will be accepted.

The editors reserve the right to edit any letters exceeding the 450-word limit or to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

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

The Student will not print personal or group defamation.

Is Government Broken?

No, but Washington Is

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he nation watched attentively as our two parties bickered over the budget while holding thousands of federal employees hostage. Congress averted a federal shutdown with less than two hours before the midnight deadline after days and nights of relentless bargaining. That was crisis number one.

Last week, both parties saw angry defections on the 2011 budget vote, citing all sorts of reasons. The defections by Republicans on the large budget threatened to throw Washington back into debate over an eighth temporary spending measure in a row, something the President threatened to veto. Luckily, they were able to compromise and Washington narrowly avoided a second shutdown.

Looking forward, Washington has two more hurdles to overcome: the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget, and time is ticking. Congress has five months to debate the new budget and two weeks to raise the debt ceiling.

The 2012 budget passed with a harsh party line vote, and Senate Democrats may kill the bill to create budget crisis number three. And now for crisis number four: the nasty partisan debt-ceiling debate is in full heat as deficit hawks play chicken with liberals. Conservatives want major conThe Newspaper of Amherst College since 1868 cessions, and the left vows to fight E X E C U T I V E B OA R D budget cuts until the eleventh hour.

Referring to these upcoming battles, Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief House Speaker John Boehner preAmro El-Adle Nihal Shrinath dicts that “this process that we’re in is likely to be repeated a number of Managing News June Pan, Brianda Reyes times this year.” Translation: shutManaging Opinion Andrew Kaake downs, defaults and angry politics Managing Arts and Living Ashley Hall, Jake Walters are coming our way.

Managing Sports Brenton Arnaboldi, Carlyn Robertson Sadly, Washington has a tendency to create public anxiety and SECTION EDITORS political bitterness over very trivial matters. This month’s shutdown News Sarah Ashman, Isabelle D’Arcy, Shelby scare was over $38 billion in cuts Fabian, Meghna Sridhar — around one percent of the budget.

Opinion Judy Yoo, Stella Honey Yoon This is not a serious debate: in the time that it took Congress to debate Arts and Living Daniel Diner, Nadirah Porter-Kasbati the cuts, Washington borrowed more Sports Karan Bains money than what the cuts will save.

S TA F F Also, the cuts do not actually reduce spending — they merely slowed the Chris Friend, Shannon McKenna Publishers growth in spending from five percent to four percent. Our federal governClay Andrews, Romen Borsellino, Alex Coburn, Jared Crum, Staff Writers ment is the largest it has ever been Megan Duff, Ethan Gates, Max Gilbert, Dylan Herts, Kate this year. Washington is breaking Jordan, Amber Khan, Varun Iyengar, Miranda Marraccini, Jenny records with the largest revenues, Potanka, Leon Rauch, Alison Rogers, David Zheutlin the largest spending and the largest deficits in our history. The cuts ReSenior Editors Haley Castro, Elaine Teng publicans want seem so minuscule, Cartoonist Mizuho Ota yet so necessary given our situation.

Bizarrely enough, not all agree, and Lilly Jay Photo Editor the atmosphere in Washington has grown so hostile and partisan. Why? Sebastian Herrera, Risalat Khan Photographers Because different Americans have Layout Editor Brian Kim radically different visions of what Washington should be.

The Amherst Student is published weekly except during College vacations. The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester. Subscription requests and address changes should be sent to: Subscriptions, The Amherst Student; Box 1912, Amherst College: Amherst, MA 01002-5000.

Watching our slow motion-crash The offices of The Student are located on the second floor of the Keefe Campus Center, Amherst College. Phone: (413) 542-2304. All contents course to inflation and crisis, many copyright © 2009 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age.

Erik Christianson ’14 is a contributing writer. say, “Government is broken.” International relations guru Fareed Zakaria argued this month that Washington has become too polarized and compromise will become nearly impossible. We see these differences play out through political gridlock on so many issues. Groups like public unions and the Tea Party are pulling our two big parties further and further apart because Americans now have completely different visions of our future. Our primary system in Washington kills off moderates and creates congresses that only understand party bashing and party loyalty, like our current one.

Left and right do not get along these days. My view is that the ideological differences in America seem too large to be compartmentalized in Washington.

The left and right love to fight over the budget — this is why we’ve had shutdowns in the past, have shutdowns today, and will have more shutdowns in the future. Between Carter and Clinton, Washington shut down 17 times. Some shutdowns lasted well over two weeks and Americans were hurt badly. That was back when the budget was fine and shutdowns were easy to resolve; today we’re incurring deficits larger than we did during World War II. With the stakes so high, every bill in Washington will look more and more like civil war.

When Washington fails, shutdowns occur, millions of Americans hurt. One bad budget fight and we could have seniors starving and businesses shrinking. How have we let it come to this? How have tens of millions of Americans become so reliant on money steadily flowing from a precarious Capitol run by four hundred stubborn ideologues?

America has become reliant on Capitol Hill when there are 50 other capitols across this country that work well. They all pass budgets on time and they all balance their budgets by law. They also never let politics get in the way of keeping government services running for their people.

The nastiest budget showdown, in Wis., never led to a shutdown. The sinking debt ships of Calif., N. Y. and N. J. all got their acts together.

The impacts of a state shutdown are also much smaller, and our national security is not threatened when it happens.

Therefore, we should reconsider proposals that hand over more essential services to Washington, such as health care and education. Washington is too volatile to handle its many responsibilities, so maybe it’s time to hand some over to the states.

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The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

A Columnist’s Parting Thoughts

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his is the twenty-second column I’ve written for this newspaper, and the last. Over the past 19 months and 21 columns, I’ve tried to treat my section of the opinion page appropriately. Campus columnist is not a lofty position, so I’ve kept my tone more or less light. But at the same time, not everyone is given ink to spill, so I’ve made efforts at being meaningful.

I’m graduating next month and I’ve found that what Emily Dickinson said about separation remains true: “Parting is all we know of Heaven, and all we need of Hell.” The Heaven part is accomplishment, and the real world, and the excitements of a new chapter in life. The Hell part is leaving your friends and the campus you’ve come to regard as home.

Of course it’s not as bad as “Hell.” But it’s an emotionally confusing, rollercoaster time. Finally getting the chance to voice some unspoken thoughts is a salve that makes the experience more settled. I’m going to do a little voicing now. I’ve touched on a lot of topics in these columns, from Berlusconi to the Icelandic volcano to Al Gore.

Here are thoughts on topics I’ve been meaning to address.

It’s time for President Obama to come out in favor of gay marriage. He’s always been against it but adds that his position on the issue is “evolving.” It should evolve into support for marriage equality at the earliest possible date. He’s falling behind the Democratic Party and nearly falling behind the country. Being ahead is a better place to be.

We’re going to have to spend more time and energy on genuine interpersonal communication in coming years. The smarter our phones get and the more tethered to our devices we become, the less we actually talk with one another. Recall the

Jared Crum ’11 Jared Crum is a senior who looks at political and social issues that affect America and the international community. He is a political science major.

Chevy Cruze ad from February’s Super Bowl where the guy kisses his date good night and then, while driving away, receives a Facebook update right from his car’s dashboard voice. The girl’s status is “best first date ever.” It’s a charming ad, but I wish she had told him in person.

After all this time, I still can’t figure out who Lady Gaga is. She appears to be a common publicity hound, a provocateur par excellence. But I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that there’s some internal logic to her art, some subtle lesson, and that even if it doesn’t exist, there are tropes and themes worth analyzing nonetheless. I am still at a loss as to what these might be since Lady Gaga hides her real self and because she materialized in a flash of glittery brimstone, a fully-formed package. She’s an enigma, for now.

Heath Ledger’s brilliant Joker character was another fully-formed puzzle. His terrifying mystery helped make “The Dark Knight” a film deeper than it first seems. It was about morality, the meaning of human existence, civil liberties in times of crisis, the rule of law in a city of lawlessness, the psychology of evil and the possibilities of virtue in a polity of vice. It bears re-watching annually.

A good word is in order for another personal favorite: “Independence Day.” It gives you everything you want from a movie: adventure, humor, love and a happy ending. Its window into our cultural values concerning war, honor, marriage and America’s place in the world make it enduringly relevant. President Whitmore’s Fourth of July speech remains stirring with each viewing.

I’ve also been meaning to share some thoughts on Amherst.

Our time here passes very quickly, so it’s important to wake up each morning and think for a couple of minutes about how to squeeze as

much as is reasonable from your day. Try to spend as much time as you can outside in the fall and spring, and with your friends in every season.

Work hard and keep busy. Keeping busy means both carving out fun time as well as embracing spontaneity.

Decorate for the holidays. Read for pleasure — it’s fun and it keeps you growing.

Real romantic relationships based on equality, openness, maturity and deep mutual respect and admiration are rare. If you’re in such a relationship, nurture and cherish it. If you’re not, I hope you find one.

“Pretentious” is a word both overused and used incorrectly. Not everyone who uses big words is putting on a pretense, so make sure you really mean it before you use it. Besides, using “pretentious” has become an excuse to be imprecise and uncreative, so finding another word entirely is better.

A parting note on the road ahead: psychologist Abraham Maslow said that each person has a “hierarchy of needs” and that at the top of the hierarchy is “self-actualization.” Self-actualization means reaching your full potential in terms of creativity, freedom and satisfaction. It’s personal harmony with your world. Helping each citizen achieve this type of self-fulfillment should be the goal of a democratic society. Realizing this society means securing more basic human needs like education, opportunity and respect. Amherst is doing its part. Now let’s enlist the whole country.

Finally, to my readers: thanks for joining me.

You read the columns and talked back. I hope it was as interesting for you as it was for me. Good luck in the remainder of your days at the College, and remember that no one is poor who has something good to read.

Amherst College is an Awesome College

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o, everyone, today’s issue is the last Student of the year — which, by my calculation, means that this will be my last student life column. Though I’ve been trying for much of this senior year to keep the idea of graduation out of mind and just live in the moment, the concept of having to leave this glorious place that we call Amherst is becoming more palpable as we have more of these senior activities — Senior Ball, Senior Speakoff, Senior Luncheon, Senior Dinner, Senior Yearbook Photos and the annual Seniors and Senior Citizens Tri-County Break-dancing Competition.

This whole graduating thing is very scary for me. I tried to reapply for the class of 2015, but Admissions wasn’t having it. I was thinking about applying to be President Marx’s successor, but apparently you need a resumé to apply for jobs, so I nixed that idea. So here we are: only a few weeks left to enjoy my ever-increasingly wonderful time at the ’Herst.

I wanted to take this last-issue opportunity to compile a list of Amherst-y things that I love: a series of things that a) could only be true at Amherst, b) make this place the best place in the world to go to college, and c) ring true with your own unique Amherst experiences. Let’s call it my “Why It’s Great to be an Amherst Student, 2011” list.

1. Relaxed campus environment: honestly, there’s not much pressure here. Everyone gets stressed from time to time, but we have understanding professors, a non-competitive academic environment, and no real social pressures. Everyone is free to do what he/she wants, and will get respect for doing so. This may not be something

GlobeMed Summit Reflections

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you think about, because we take for granted the relaxed nature of Amherst — but none of the high pressure/high stress atmosphere often associated with other colleges pervades our “bubble.”

2. Great town, great Motown Benny: not only do we have an excellent little college town within a few hundred feet of the frosh quad, but we also have some hilarious locals. Take Motown Benny (aka bucket-man) for instance. My man.

3. Sweet old frat houses — without the frats: we’re lucky to have six fantastic old mansions that date to the early 1900s, perfect for community living and ideal for parties. These yet-to-berenovated houses retain their original character and comfort. Take Marsh, for example: with the nicest ballroom on campus, the old house on the Hill can host a variety of social events ranging from “Coffee Haus” to old-fashioned raging houseparty (as we saw this past weekend). And since we no longer have frats, anyone can attend any party — without worrying about “not getting in.” There’s no such thing as an exclusive party at Amherst … which is a great thing.

4. Life in the Socials: sure, they’re worn down and a little dirty — but what’s better than suite-style living? Given an empty living room, the residents of any social can creatively decide how their space will look and how it will be used, down to the very last detail. Take a walk around the socials and see how many different types of rooms you’ll encounter. It’s diversity in practice.

5. Only one dining hall: people complain about Val all the time, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Frank’s Red Hot Cod Fin Sandwich. But it is improving, and more importantly, Val often acts the social engine of

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Sara Abrahams ’14 is a contributing writer.

here is no equity without solidarity, no justice without a social movement. Globalize the notion of basic human dignity. These were the charges Dr. Joia Mukherjee, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School’s division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, bestowed upon the 250-plus students at GlobeMed’s Global Health Summit in her keynote address. Students from 32 universities across the country converged at Northwestern Univ. for a weekend filled with engaging discussions, interactive panels and inspirational speakers. Everyone had the same drive: to establish healthcare as a basic human right regardless of race, class or geography. We were all filled with passion and enthusiasm as to how we could collectively and individually advance this philosophy, and live up to the summit’s title, “A Call to Action: Leveraging History to Build a Movement.”

GlobeMed’s model pairs university chapters with partner health organizations who work together on projects to improve the state of health in the partner communities. The key to GlobeMed’s success is pragmatic solidarity, or the idea that working together as equals towards a common goal is the most effective way to enact change. This was a concept I had always heard, but the summit was the first place where I grasped the concept of “pragmatic solidarity.” Until then, the term registered as familiar, but I dismissed it as just another flashy phrase. As a first-year whose experience with public health was limited to one book about Dr. Paul Farmer, weekly GlobeMed meetings and the occasional global health-related article, I was See Conference, page 7

life at amherst David Zheutlin ’11 David Zheutlin ’11 seeks to open a broader discussion of student life issues on campus. He is a history major, captian of the club volleyball team, an active member of Social Council and the Fun Police. In his spare time, he enjoys relaxing, eating candy and taking long walks on Pond Beach.

campus. Because we only have one place to eat, we’re forced to run into each other, talk to each other, sit with each other. No matter what you do at Amherst, you still go to Val. 6. A-Level in the library, one of the most sociable spots on campus: A-level is sooo Amherst.

7. Heated rivalry with Williams: college rivalries always spice up the athletic culture, but ours is unique. Our rivalry started because professors and students literally left Williams (because Williams is horrible, obviously) and came to Amherst to start a new college. Want to know the best way to start a rivalry? Run away and start a better school.

8. Campus Police that understand us: we students have a really good relationship with the Campus Po, despite what the Crime Log might lead you to believe. There’s no hostility — just leniency and understanding. I remember this one time sophomore year, a friend of mine (for anonymity let’s call him Mike Smith) decided one Saturday evening to start launching those “don’t go in this grassy area” poles into the Seelye lawn … not noticing that Officer Sullivan was about six feet away when the aerial assault began.

She calmly walked over, asked Mike what in the name of Tony Marx he was doing, and then picked up the poles and told us to be on our way.

She and the other policemen realize that we work hard but also like to have our fun, and that Mike wasn’t being malicious — just kinda stupid.

9. Any weather above 55 degrees is beach weather: we have to deal with a lot of winter here in New England (and that Groundhog is a liar and a cheat), so whenever it gets above slightly-toocold outside, it’s time to get tanning — whether

at Pond Beach, Merrill Beach, Val Beach or otherwise — and make the most of the sunlight that we can find. Suns out, guns out, baby.

10. Deep down, everyone here is pretty cool: as much as the place contributes to our being “Amherst,” the people are what make our experience. And the people here are not just diverse in terms of background and upbringing, but diverse in terms of opinions, ideas and aspirations. Talk to some people you don’t know — you’ll soon realize that you share much more in common than you might think. Get past the grouping of people into categories (“oh, he’s a lax bro,” “she plays the violin and is therefore weird,” “that guy only eats waffles at Val”) and discover how much more cohesive our community can be.

This is a student life column, and based on my experience as a student here, I can tell you something you already know: Amherst is awesome. Life here couldn’t be much better. To those of you who have infinitely more time remaining here than I do, I’ll give this as a little closing advice: take advantage of your time here. Enjoy even the most boring of lectures. Recognize how lucky we are to be here for four years.

Try new things, join a club, take a weird class, be really collegiate, put yourself out there and see what you’ll find. Most importantly, get to know lots of new people — students, professors, staff or otherwise — and become close with the ones that you do know. And, whenever you can, if given the choice between doing something new and sticking to your usual routine, or between having fun and finishing up that poly-sci reading, choose fun. You can always skim that reading later — I guarantee you won’t regret it.

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

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College Needs Kosher Dining Conference Inspires SelfOption For Jewish Students Education and Change

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hanks to the ambitious dreams of many, Amherst College has transformed itself from a “WASP-y,” all-male, New England college into a diverse, multi-ethnic learning community. These changes did not come easily or quickly, but came on the backs of individuals tirelessly working to further those noble goals. Our school is a place where, I hope, people of every creed, color or class can feel comfortable to grow and explore. Moreover, students are given incredible opportunities to not only retain their identity, but to share their unique backgrounds with others. We all benefit from such a — to use a food-related metaphor — “melting pot” attitude. The complex and delicious flavor that is Amherst is due to this balance of our tradition and history of academic excellence and an amalgamation of student ideas and input.

Food is an essential aspect of most cultures. Valentine Dining Hall has, in an effort to embrace this concept, been offering its “World Cuisine” meals. In addition, Amherst Dining Services has gone to great lengths to meet the needs of students with dietary restrictions, including gluten-free microwaves and vegan desserts.

The Director of Dining Services, Charles Thompson, even states on Val’s homepage that “as our customers become more diverse, representing many different religious and cultural backgrounds, Amherst College Dining Services has responded by expanding menus to include ethnic foods, low-fat healthier choices, vegetarian and vegan foods and fresh foods cooked to order.”

I would agree that Val has done its best to include more ethnic foods, and vegetarian options. It is my goal to inspire and empower our community to go one step further to actualize this vision of an egalitarian eating institution.

Our small, intimate and diverse community has embraced the imperative of respecting each and every person and their customs. It is unfortunate that many students from Jewish backgrounds who grew up observant of Judaic dietary law have had to give up on such a commitment upon coming to Amherst. Val has not been entirely dismissive of the issue, and offers frozen, microwaveable kosher meals. While something is always better than nothing, there isn’t a kosher microwave in which to cook these meals. We can and should do more to bring every student into the heart of Amherst, lest anyone feel marginalized. While students affected by the lack of kosher offerings are in the minority, this concern is of importance to everyone by the very nature

Max Gilbert ’13 is a columnist who pens the “Munchies With Max.”

of our diverse community.

Kosher law is very restrictive, and it would be a challenge for Val to implement such practices. However, given the number of interested students and the significance of such practices to their beliefs, something should be done to meet their needs. The College goes to such great lengths to encourage students to retain their cultural and religious identities, which is truly amazing.

We must never give up on this honorable cause, and always strive to meet new challenges. It might not be easy to provide accommodations for kosher students, but the worth of rising to meet these needs is not in the act itself.

Improving diversity is not a means to an end, but an end in of itself.

There are a variety of easily implemented solutions that are already being explored and discussed, thanks to the student and faculty Jewish leadership on campus.

My ideal solution to this issue is to offer a combined residential/culinary option. Just as there are Russian, German, Spanish/French, Asian and “alternative” theme houses, so too should there be a theme house for observant Jewish students. The students who would live in such a house could keep a kosher kitchen and eat their meals together. In addition, other students could be part of a “Kosher meal option” that allows them to eat in this residence hall instead of in Val. Expanding diversity has been the valiant legacy of President Marx. We have come so far, and yet there are still improvements we must make for Amherst College to be the community he, and we, have envisioned. The fact that kosher law is so strict should not be the primary deterrent from Amherst catering to the needs of observant students. On the contrary, seeing the lengths that some people go to preserve the ancient laws and traditions of their people, we should respect and honor this practice. The theme of redemption and hope for the future is central to this past week’s religious holidays. It is fitting, and inspiring, that even as the academic year draws to a close, students are clamoring to grow and expand in their faith and practice. I would like to personally thank President Marx, Director of Religious Life Paul Sorrentino, Rabbi Shmuel Kravitsky, Rabbi Bruce Seltzer and every student who has been involved in the recent discussion regarding an expansion of Jewish life on campus. May the College community go from strength to strength, for the rest of this year and in years to come.

overwhelmed with this impressive vocabulary. How could I even start to dream about enacting lasting change in a community if I couldn’t even understand what the concepts meant?

My personal mission for the weekend was to educate myself about all things global health. From vocabulary to fundraising methods to innovative communication ideas, nothing escaped the furiously scribbled pages of my notebook. As I read over my notes at the end of the weekend, I realized my public health vocabulary had expanded to include actual meanings and stories for words like “structural violence” and “social justice.”

I will never forget the explanation Dr. Mukherjee painted to accompany “structural violence.” She cited an example from her time in Uganda, where the cost of education is too steep for most families. Girls sell themselves to rich men for the sake of their education, because they figure that one sexual partner plus an education gives them the best odds to avoid contracting HIV. Dr. Mukherjee’s story made me think that all of us here at Amherst have the best education in the world at our fingertips. Even though tuition costs are steep, they pale in comparison to the price these girls pay every day in return for their education. Whereas I take the accessibility of education as a given, the girls in Uganda see education as a method of survival. “Social justice” ties in with this discrepancy in education, because it encompasses a wide spectrum of human rights (education, healthcare, equality, etc.) as fundamental for every person who lives anywhere on the globe.

This concept is inextricably linked with GlobeMed’s ideology that healthcare is one of these fundamental rights that people should have access to and demand for themselves. It is easy to lose perspective about these things in the midst of everything we have been through this year — from war to

Senate 2011: A New Hope

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onday night’s Senate meeting ended with the ceremonial changing of the guard. As one Executive Board said their farewells — clearly an emotional moment for guys like outgoing President Saumitra Thakur, who has spent pretty much every Monday night at a Senate Meeting for the past four years — the new officers were sworn in.

Monday night will mark the commencement of a new Senate.

Of the 32 senators who will take office, only 10 of them will have served on Senate in the past. A number of senators who have until now been considered inexperienced for only serving a semester or less, will be regarded as the veteran members of their classes.

It could be a scary thing to think about: the fact that our student body is entrusting a $900,000 budget, as well as pretty much any issue concerning student life, to a group of people of whom twothirds will start off not really knowing what they’re doing. But this does not worry me, it excites me.

Every year, we hear the same complaints: “The Senate doesn’t do anything but allocate money. I don’t know anything about the AAS. Senators take themselves too seriously. Our current student government system is too bureaucratic” … and many of these grievances are not far off. But if there has ever been a time in our College’s history to change things, that time is now.

With only two senators that have served more than two semesters on the AAS, Monday’s new Senate will bring fresh new ideas and perspectives to the table from many who decided to join because they shared these very grievances themselves and wanted to do something about it. But don’t get me wrong, many of the flaws in the AAS do not simply come from our current or past members, but, rather, have built up from years of precedent and traditions that are no longer relevant in this day and age. Monday will mark

economic recession to natural disasters. It has been a long year. Recall the feelings of instability and trauma we felt when horrific events occurred and how long it took for us to recover. Now imagine you feel that every single day of your life with no recovery in sight. Social justice views that state of being as unacceptable and mandates that now is the time to change it.

Philosophies can inspire for many generations, but it takes actions coupled with philosophies to enact lasting change now.

What I gained from the Summit was understanding and passion for GlobeMed’s mission to truly change the way people around the world think about access to healthcare.

While it is natural to feel sadness or pity when you think about the fact that children die everyday due to lack of clean drinking water, it is no longer enough. The time has come to do something about it, and GlobeMed’s collective goal is to do just that.

In the meantime, I will continue to take pages upon pages of notes and learn from teachers ranging from my fellow chapter members to Dr. Farmer. My personal “call to action” that weekend was to educate myself about global health. Those ideologies, philosophies, stories and terminologies have fortified my public health knowledge in a way I did not expect to gain from two days. The most important lesson I learned is that it is imperative to have the tools to convey these ideas to others. The stories and anecdotes forge links between largerthan-life concepts and a first-year’s understanding of a particular term or ideology.

Just as it is most effective to enact change when you fully understand what someone needs, communication is most effective when your message is clear and relatable.

I now realize the importance of forming all of those personal meanings, because when you can speak passionately and intelligently about a topic, your message becomes both believable and contagious. Who knows?

With that kind of power you might even start a movement.

Continued from GlobeMed, page 6

Pain in the AAS Romen Borsellino ’12 Romen Borsellino ’12 is the AAS President and a SHE who writes a weekly column detailing the goings-on of the Senate and giving his take.

the first night of a year-long process to reform the AAS in ways that will better connect the student body. Here’s how: Right now, our school spirit is lacking. If you’ve been to an athletic event this past year, other than Homecoming, you probably know this. If you haven’t been to an athletic event this year … you definitely know this. Up until now, the extent to which the AAS has attempted to combat the issue of getting students motivated to go out and support the Jeffs has been to simply throw money at different groups to do it. Granted, school spirit has never been our responsibility. I want to change that and make it our responsibility, because as hard as groups like the Fun Police work towards this sort of thing, they simply don’t have the resources or the man power. Next year, the AAS will create a committee of representatives from the Fun Police, Social Council, Program Board and the AAS, all groups whose purpose should involve working towards a stronger sense of community on campus. I can think of no greater feeling of community than joining my fellow classmates to cheer our school on against our rivals.

As a tour guide, I find it kind of embarrassing to tell prospective students that two of our past three Spring Concert artists have been Mike Posner and The Decemberists. Don’t get me wrong, neither group is bad, but they simply do not appeal to a wide enough faction of the student body. I also feel weird telling people that the biggest-name speaker I have heard of coming to campus in the past few years was Ann Coulter. Rather than point fingers, let’s talk about how we can fix these problems. As many students are aware, we’ve been working on laying the groundwork for a Speaker Board, which would bring big name speakers to campus. This board would link together different groups and departments on campus that have previously not worked together.

But more than just pooling funding, we will share our resources and connections. A school like ours should not have to drop over $50K for big names. I believe that we have the connections to bring bigger names, and we just need to be smart and efficient about how we use them. As far as Spring Concert artists, this is not something that should be decided right before winter break when most artists are already booked for the spring. We need to get on this at the very beginning of next school year.

I pledge that in the coming year, the AAS will do something about our lack of late night dining here on campus. I, for one, get hungry after 12 a.m. on weeknights. The AAS has the resources to keep Schwemm’s open later or occasionally get Val open for a late-night snack. At the bare minimum, we can sponsor a oncemonthly, free late-night buffet, which many of our rival schools offer. Additionally, we will assist the administration in plans to build a Café in the library. These are all fairly simply initiatives that will make a huge difference.

These are a few of the many things that you will see from the AAS in the coming year. And broadly speaking, we will become more accessible to the student body. That is a pledge. We will also be working on developing a new Constitution so that our meetings are not bogged down by inefficient rules that make no sense. Another reason that our student government is at a pivotal point pertains to the fact that a new College President will arrive on campus in the fall. The President will come to the AAS as representatives of the student body as a whole. I am confident that when such a meeting occurs, we will fully be able to convey your thoughts and desires. Please continue to stay engaged with us so that we can better serve you. It has been a wonderful year, but it is time to take things to the next level.

8

The Amherst Student

Arts&living

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Gates-way to Neva-land: Rarities in Rural Russia Ethan Gates ’12 Staff Writer

For almost three months, St. Petersburg held me tight in its icy grip.

After my arrival here in late January, a combination of bureaucratic complexities (the Russian visa system is an enigmatic process worthy of a Kafka novel) and personal indifference meant that I never stepped foot outside of the city. I say indifference because I never had any particular desire to leave; why bother going out to explore Russia at large when Petersburg alone had so much to offer? But, as with any cultural hatchling, the time eventually came for me to leave the comfort of my nest, to spread my wings and strike out into the unknown, albeit accompanied by the watchful eye and generous wallet of my Study Abroad program.

by prominent Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and a gorgeous, isolated landscape near the Gulf of Finland.

Well, isolated it certainly was. After a two-hour drive through the wilderness, our group arrived in Vyborg, where we were soon informed by our guide that someone had “tipped the press” regarding our arrival, and that there was a reporter waiting who would like to interview these American visitors. For the rest of the tour, we had our own personal paparazzo following us around and snapping “candid” shots of our reaction to the city. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, from a story-teller’s perspective), the surrealism of the excursion would only grow from there.

The first critical stop on our bus tour of Vyborg? A replica tank sitting on the side of a random backstreet.

Following 10 minutes of staring at said tank and thinking, “Yep, that’s a

Photos by Ethan Gates ’12

This 13th-century Swedish fortress is a prime example of the conflicted owenrship of the Karelian Isthmus throughout history.

Our first excursion into the countryside was a day trip to Vyborg, a medieval town a stone’s throw away from the Finnish border. The city’s strategic location on the Karelian Isthmus (oh, look at a map) has made it a point of contention between nations in the past, with Sweden, Germany, Finland and Russia all having made claims to the territory. On paper, Vyborg boasted a 13th century Swedish fortress, a library designed

fake tank,” we were finally allowed to get back on the bus, where we quickly hustled over to the site that our guide proudly declared “the pride of Vyborg:” not the medieval fortress, no, nor the famed (I rather generously say “famed” instead of the more truthful but less-flattering “shabby,” “run-down” or “sketchy”) library, but a large bronze sculpture of a moose.

No particular explanation was provided with this pronouncement; I

The Novgorod Kremlin is one of many of these fortified complexes, which are located in a number of Russian cities. do not know if Vyborg is actually some sort of cultural moose-hub, but it really didn’t make much sense no matter which way you slice it. After literally circling the entire city three times in the bus, things wrapped up with a visit to a museum of Lenin established in the house where the Bolshevik figurehead stayed for two weeks on his way back to Petersburg from exile. (This is akin to turning a shabby motel where Jack Kerouac slept into an historical landmark).

I shouldn’t be too harsh on Vyborg; the Swedish fortress was indeed quite something, and the view from the fortress tower was gorgeous. But we all certainly went into the following week’s overnight trip to Novgorod hoping the experience would be slightly less quaint.

Even older than Vyborg, Novgorod dates back to the 9th century, to the days when Vikings still liked to poke their heads into other people’s business every now and then. Alexander Nevsky, a fierce military leader and national icon, began his political career as a prince of Novgorod, and the city remains an important site to the Russian Orthodox Church, as some of the oldest medieval cathedrals in Russia are located in the downtown area, particularly St. Sophia and St. Nicholas (11th and 12th century, respectively).

The first day in Novgorod passed rather quickly (and without hounding from the tabloids), with tours of the

This statue, known as “the pride of Vyborg” by the natives, is a prominent feature of the town.

Novgorod Kremlin and Yaroslav’s Court (the old town square, where

al styles of Russian peasant architecture. Anyone who’s been to Old Stur-

The Statue of Lenin in Novgorod commemmorates the prominent Russian revolutionary leader. at least a dozen medieval churches are still standing) giving way to free time for us to wander the city on our own. Much of that time ended up being dedicated to a fruitless search for some late-night munchies, but I was able to check out a fabulously insane Constructivist theater that looked like something Lovecraft might’ve designed (it was, luckily, only later that we were informed that the theater’s four symmetrical towers were a popular spot for suicides). After the constant bustle of Petersburg nights, however, our night in Novgorod still felt almost maddeningly tranquil (a feeling that doesn’t actually bode all that well for my return to Amherst).

In the morning, we visited the tiny Peryn Monastery, where an awkwardly earnest monk handed us pamphlets blasting the corrupting influence of “sorcerers, magicians, barcodes and the three sixes,” and a sign outside a dog kennel kindly informed passersby “THIS IS NOT YOUR DOG.” Needless to say, we hightailed it out of there fairly promptly, concluding our stay in Novgorod with a visit to an outdoor museum displaying sever-

bridge Village would’ve felt right at home here; just substitute the pilgrim kitsch at the souvenir stand for nesting dolls and you get the picture.

Venturing outside of Petersburg, however briefly, satisfied both my wanderlust and my lungs (if I have any complaint about this city, it would be the fact that my snot has been gray for some weeks now), and I still have a weekend in Moscow in early May to look forward to. But as our bus weaved its way back through Peter, I found myself suddenly overwhelmed by just how comfortable I felt in this city: after three months, I know the streets, the landmarks, the people, just as well as I do in Amherst or Cleveland. This is my last column from Petersburg for The Student, but I just can’t bring myself to write a proper conclusion to my adventures; I find it too difficult to write a fond farewell just yet, when I still have a month’s worth of insane experiences yet to discover. So instead let me sign off with the most succinct of summaries, a distillation of all the indescribable emotions currently coursing through my brain: I feel home.

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Page 9

A Metaphysically Mesmerizing Motion Picture Yilin Andre Wang ’14 Staff Writer

There are good movies, bad movies and weird movies. And once in a while there comes a movie that defies what you think you

Film Review “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul Written by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

know about cinema. With chills running down your spine, you stare at the screen for the entire run. And when the lights finally come on, you sit still, stunned, every part of your body palpitating.

“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” (shortened below as “Uncle Boonmee”), the first Thai movie ever to receive the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, consists of vignettes of the eponymous character in his last days with acute kidney failure. I wish I were able to give a more detailed plot summary, but this is not a film that falls within norms. It is hardly a story, but rather a floating world of reality and mystique.

Yet, instead of collapsing in the absence of logical development, the mesmerizing images come to life with crystal-clear transparency so palpable that the film easily immerses its viewers candidacy and imagination. The film opens with the shot of an ox breaking away from the leash and prancing across the night jungle, pulled back by its owner. Without any background, explanation, conversation or mood-setting music, the camera remains focused on the creature in a typical portrait shot.

From that moment on, the film glides with an

b

Image courtesy of imdb.com

Uncle Boonmee lacks a typical narrative, instead presenting a series of short vignettes concerning the titular character, Uncle Boonmee.

atmosphere so quiet, yet lively and powerful, that it hinges on majesty. Though unusually static, each frame flows like full-bodied molasses. Truly marvelous is its capacity for invoking intense wonder and suspense while maintaining a slow, mellow pace.

Though it can be hard to imagine a film focused on the travails of life when so few main characters are human in the normal sense, “Uncle Boonmee” blends the natural and the supernatural into a captivating experimental narrative by challenging the boundaries between the two. The film carries mundane dialogues honestly saturated surrealism in scenes of Uncle Boonmee’s recalls. The mesmerizing sequence of his traveling in the cave that he believes to be his soul’s birthplace, stripped of all else but intimate sounds and psychedelic visuals, amplifies the lush sense of alternative realm while remaining intimate with reality.

Everything looks foreign and familiar at the same time.

The film exemplifies the power of an exploratory perspective from an Asian culture heavily influenced by Buddhist traditions. Relying on the belief that everything is a life on its own, the film expresses the longing for life and memories through interspecies communication. This includes the entrancing dinner scene with Uncle Boonmee’s dead wife and his hirsute son returning as “Monkey Spirit” as well as a sex scene between an aging princess who sacrifices her material possessions to regain youth and the Lord of the Waters, a catfish.

These larger-than-life episodes, however absurd, contain Weerasethakul’s most acute introspective on loss, nostalgia, attachments and abandonment. In the final moment, we have Aunt Jen, who has been taking care of Uncle Boonmee, and a monk dressed in secular clothing about to go dining. As they leave the room, the monk turns around to see the two of them peacefully watching TV on the bed. On that wild note, Weerasethakul indicates that we live with the same serenity even in the face of absurdities. After all, it is life.

But is it only that?

Whiskered Men: An Adamant, if Scraggly, Minority Daniel Diner ’14

A&L Section Editor

We pride ourselves in our diversity. Be it racial, socio-economic, ethnic, cultural, geographic, religious, linguistic or intellectual, Amherst battles against homogeneity within its student (and faculty) population with very high standards. One area in which we are sadly lacking, however, is that which is present around our male students’ faces. Specifically, the number of students with facial hair is grossly underrepresented.

But why the low quantities?

According to a Facebook group I formed 6 months ago to gain feedback about my then budding beard (see: Facebook.com, The Debate of Our Era), many women have surprisingly negative attitudes against facial hair on their male counterparts. Now, this usually isn’t absolute: most female students I’ve talked to admit to finding some men with beards and/or mustaches attractive, but many believe that the look doesn’t suit the majority of Amherst men.

For example, when asked, Soo Kim ’14 replied that she thinks that only a select few outliers are handsome with some degree of hair, but that most guys who choose to grow out their beards should just “cut it all off.”

Girls also have different stan-

dards of hair that they prefer within that select subgroup of males for whom facial hair is appropriate.

Some like the rugged, unshaven look, while others prefer short, well-kept goatees or even fulllength beards. The one opinion they do hold in common is that a precondition for any facial hair is that it is kept well-groomed. Scruff of any kind is not to be tolerated. “If a guy is patchy or has a beard that’s unkempt, he has to get rid of it,” exclaimed Gabby Devlin ’14.

So how do these reactions translate to the reality of male faces here at Amherst? First, it definitely engenders clean-shavedness. We tend to be very eager to please our female (and sometimes male) counterparts, and are consequently sensitive to their criticism. This results in our (often unwilling) compliance and removal of beards, mustaches and the occasional soul patch. I got rid of my own beard due mainly to overwhelming criticism.

However there is also a major disparity in taste between the genders. Guys, particularly those who have facial hair, tend to have far more positive outlooks and tend to even acknowledge far less criticism about it than their hairless counterparts.

Adrian Castro ’14, who has been toying with a mustache/small goatee, claims he caved to disapproval when he himself thought that the length and scraggliness got out

of hand. When he grew tired of his roommate’s constant denunciations however, he claimed he grew his goatee out even more, “almost out

of spite.”

Joe Taff ’13, who has been growing his beard out since a high school soccer accident that left him un-

Photo courtesy of Joe Taff ’13

Joe Taff ’13 sports one of the few beards found on students at Amherst.

shaven for a week, says that he likes the way he looks and believes that many men shave only because it is the new cultural “default.” He says that despite an occasional “implicit” pressure to shave, he doesn’t experience opinions about his beard “either way.” People have grown to associate him with a certain look, so his otherwise anomaly has in a sense become his own norm. Taff also mentioned that the situation is different for him because of his long hair; a beard would look significantly different on someone with a short haircut.

So why don’t more guys don the bearded or mustachioed look?

Besides the cultural shift, Taff suggests some men are deterred either by their physical inability to grow significant amounts of facial hair and others by the two-week in-between period when the hair is in its early, awkward stages. I agree on both accounts; the ability to grow dense facial hair is relatively rare and getting through those early stages of ragged scruff can be a very serious impediment.

Despite these obstacles, I think men who have the natural ability to grow facial hair should experiment with it, particularly during the month of “Novembeard” when the practice is more socially encouraged. So many other student attributes are diverse here — why shouldn’t facial hair be one of them?

Page 10

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Amherst Bytes: Cupertino’s All-Seeing Eye Dylan Herts ’13 Staff Writer

Your iPhone is tracking your every move.

About two weeks ago, two researchers poking around inside iOS came across a file entitled “consolidated.db” that seemed to be generated each time an iPhone was synced with the host computer. That file, once opened, showed a time-stamped record of the phone’s location (via cell tower triangulation) that spanned back several years. The two researchers, Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan, found a similar file on each machine of theirs that had been synced with an iPhone. If you have an iPhone, there’s a similar file on your machine right now. Unencrypted and unannounced, our iPhones have been storing information about our daily movements in plain sight on our computers and transmitted every 12 hours to Apple.

In all likelihood, their purpose is benign. The data itself comes from cell tower triangulation and some data points are off by dozens or hundreds of miles. I looked at my file, and it thinks Amherst College is in Boston every once in a while. Cell network providers have long reserved the right to collect (anonymous) information about users’ whereabouts to monitor and improve network coverage. John Gruber, known for his connections with insiders at Apple, has even speculated that the consoli-

Image courtesy of www.gizmodo.com

The consolidated.db file can be used to map an iPhone user’s location. dated.db file is just a bug — a cache meant to store recent locations for which someone just forgot to write code to erase non-recent locations.

But all of that doesn’t mean the file is not a problem.

The difference this time is just how accessible that file is. Consolidated.db is not a network providers’ collection of anonymous data points, detached from the user and removed from public perusal. Anyone with access to your computer for five minutes can pull up the file. It’s small, it’s not password-protected, and it can be emailed or whisked away via flash drive. A stolen laptop can tell a thief where its owner lives, where they work, where their children go to school.

And, as CNET points out, the Department of Homeland Security has asserted a right to copy all data

from any electronic device transported over the border — “even if there’s no suspicion of or evidence for illegal activity,” — and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has blessed the practice. Go to Canada for a week, and DHS can get a record of everywhere you’ve been since you got your iPhone.

There’s also no real opt-out.

Since the file is generated with each backup, all you can do is stop backing up your iPhone — and that’s less than advisable. Data loss means reacquiring all of your contacts (hello, Facebook event), all those apps you bought on your iPhone, and much more. That’s too much to ask, and Apple should speak up with a fix.

But Apple remains silent and unapologetic. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. Ed Markey (DMA) have sent letters to the folks at

1 Infinite Loop. They’ve expressed concerns: that a number of minors use the devices, that Apple has been reluctant to explain the rationale behind the data collection and that the collection could be in violation of Section 222 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Apple, however, has maintained a silence that seems just as stubborn as and even more inappropriate than its quiet during the AntennaGate controversy last summer. Even with Congress showing interest, Steven Jobs has refused to explain the reasons behind this data collection or how users might opt out of it.

But the most worrisome part is that, even as millions of consumers were kept in the dark about consolidated.db, forensics companies and law enforcement agencies have known since at least last year. Micro Systemation, a Swedish computer forensics firm, posted on its website that the researchers’ findings about consolidated.db “will come as a surprise to most iPhone users…but they are no surprise to the developers here at MSAB who have been recovering this data … for some considerable time.” It’s also worth noting that the U.S. federal government placed an order to Micro Systemation last year.

It was the largest in the firm’s history.

Using the application available from Pete Warden and Alasdair Allen, I’ve taken a look inside my consolidated.db file. It shows every one of my recent trips: Thanksgiving, Interterm, weekend jaunts to

New York and DC. I can see where I live, where I go to school and where I was for any week long period since my iPhone was first turned on. The free app provides an abbreviated visualization that shows weeks of data rather than days in order to preserve some measure of privacy. Make no mistake, though, a more malicious version that shows the whole record will likely be released in a matter of weeks by some guy in Anonymous.

The consolidated.db file is inexcusable. Sure, there’s a spot in the End User License Agreement (EULA) that seems to cover data collection of this sort — we’ve all signed off on it. Google and cell providers collect location data, and it’s all stored on massive servers where owners are dissociated from locations. But to store that file in plain sight so that anyone, whether it be a thief or the government, can copy it for later perusal is a grave intrusion that no EULA can excuse. Apple owes the industry, the government and its consumers an explanation.

Why is it that my iPhone must track my every move? Can I opt out and, if so, how?

B.F. Skinner once observed that “the real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” If consolidated.db is the sort of consideration of privacy we can come to expect from the new titans of technological trade, then there is great cause for alarm as their gadgets continue to play an ever larger role in our everyday lives.

Editor-in-Exile: A Wide World of Wonders Elaine Teng ’12

Foreign Correspondent

“Robert, Robert. That’s the Colosseum.”

I don’t know when it quite hit us that we were, in fact, in Rome, but it might have been the point when our bus, throwing us backwards and forwards as it stumbled through the cobblestone streets, started circling the Colosseum. As that most legendary of ancient ruins loomed before our eyes, I started hitting my friend’s arm frantically, eyes wide open, jaw dropped in disbelief that we were actually there, that it was actually there, as if all the books and photographs all these years had actually been lying.

That feeling of utter disbelief and wonder basically charac-

terized our entire stay in Rome last weekend as I joined three Amherst friends to retrace the steps of Roman history, from the togas to the churches to the Fascists. While we’ve all seen the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica so many times in books, movies and just life in general, there are no photographs or film reels that can capture the feeling of actually being there. As we stood in the Roman Forum, the 2000-yearold columns still standing, magnificent arches still telling of triumphs long ago, capitals strewn through the grass with the dandelions, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the angry Roman crowd carrying Julius Caesar’s corpse to the Forum, and opened them to find myself before his grave, breathing in the dust from that ancient mound. Somehow, Caesar, Brutus, Augustus and all the names that I’ve heard for so many years seemed like legends and myths to me, and the proof that they actually existed, that

Photo courtesy of www.wordpress.com

The Colosseum in Rome was capable of seating 50,000 spectators for public spectacles.

they stood on the very ground that I was on, was bewildering and even a little hard to accept.

The moment that the scale and the utter weight of history really hit me was when our guide asked us for some water. Taking a bottle, she carefully poured it on the path we were standing on. What seemed like any other piece of ground, covered in dust and footprints, revealed the vibrant colors and intricate patterns of a Roman marble tile placed there thousands of years ago, its flowers and rings still shining through.

This was just the first day, and on the second, when we decided to launch our attack on the Vatican, I wasn’t sure my mind could take any more. Yet when I stepped into the Sistine Chapel (after fighting off the hordes of rabid tourists — not an easy task), all I wanted to do was lie down and stare at the ceiling for hours. The same happened with “The School of Athens,” and this doesn’t even include the hyperventilation that occurred when I dragged my friends to John Keats’ grave. By the end of the day I was ranting and raving at the injustice at my friend studying in Rome, who has spent the entire semester in that incredible city where nearly every corner holds a piece of history or art.

What this trip taught me more than anything, however, is about this “injustice.” When I applied for study abroad programs, I never really realized how great the differences between study abroad experiences really are. Studying in Rome, my friend spends his days walking past the Colosseum, giving presentations for his art class in front of the actual paintings he’s studying and going to the Vatican museums on the weekend. His friends are Americans, and he’s there to study art, archeology and history, and to take in the unique atmosphere of the historic city, rather than the language. His perspective is purely American, but it’s a beautiful one.

Home for me, on the other hand, is one of the smallest capital cities of Spain, where I live and study with locals and spend all my days speaking Spanish. There aren’t really any great monuments or famous art museums to visit anywhere near, and you could argue that life does get kind of boring in that way. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I did feel more than just a twinge of jealousy when I saw my friends in Rome, and realized for the first time just how different our lives really were.

So while I’m very sad I won’t be able to share more of my study abroad experiences this semester with you, dear reader, I want to leave you with a piece of advice: if you’re planning on studying abroad, really think about what you want from it.

While you definitely grow, learn and fall in love with your new home wherever you go, it’s a matter of what you’ll see and how you’ll see it. It’s the choice between seeing the wonders of the world on your doorstep, but as an outsider, or getting as close as you can to being a local, without the palaces and the museums.

It’s a tough choice so, as we say in Spain, buena suerte.

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Page 11

Lost Amherst Reclaiming Amherst: The House Party Alexander Coburn ’11 & David Zheutlin ’11 Staff Writers

Spring has arrived, and with it the usual activities: frisbeein’, tannin’, grillin’ and campus golfin’ have taken over the campus grounds, along with a general atmosphere of relaxation and awesome chill time. This

Has anyone else especially enjoyed the last few weeks? I definitely have.

Besides finishing my thesis (which makes any social event all that much sweeter), I’ve also gotten the feeling that this semester’s parties have been extra, well, fun. And I think I know why: student maximization of our college’s social resources, aka awesome parties in the old frat houses.

While the majority of this year fea-

Photos by Alexander Coburn ’11

Garman, best known for housing The Option bookstore, hosts an unexpectedly awesome party. year, the warm weather has brought with it more than just the seasonal outdoor events: it’s also brought back old-fashioned Amherst house parties.

tured all-too-frequent bookings of new Hitchcock and Seelye for large parties, students have come to realize that events there are workable, fine,

According to Coburn, more open spaces designed for student gatherings would engender greater social interaction.

decent, but really nothing special.

The past few weeks, however, witnessed a shift in social activity and, for the first time since, like, 2008, the old frat houses — Garman, Marsh, Newport — have become the center of weekend life.

March 25: the Zu’s Full Moon bash, featuring DJ Walker and lots of indoor-outdoor, upstairs-downstairs, bathroom-hallway, Kyle RamsayFarris Hassan mingling, rages until 5am and causes three reported pregnancy scares.

Mar(s)h 26: Marsh, having recovered from Hurricane Grant-Knight, throws the best belated Mardi-Gras celebration this side of Spring Break.

Staircase mingling, ballroom boogying and bathroom bantering are always signs of a great party, and this was among the greatest.

April 9: A suite in Pond hosts a party in Garman, taking advantage of one of the College’s most underrated social venues, and hilarity ensues.

April 23: Having recovered from Hurricane Mardi-Gras, Marsh throws another rager. The ballroom featured a crowded dance-party; the foyer was filled with excited minglers; the patio outside was packed with partygoers looking to take a break from the craziness of the interior.

Why have these parties been so great? Well, for starters, they were generally well-organized, well-publicized and well-attended. But, more importantly, the houses in which they occurred — with their fantastic party spaces — are designed for sociability: for groups of students to exist as a community and to throw great parties that the whole campus community can enjoy. The spaces themselves, even more so than the people throwing the parties, deserve credit for fostering a warm, interactive social environment. Simply put, people like partying in places where they feel comfortable and the old houses represent such places.

Thus far, my “Lost Amherst” column has been pretty negative, and for good reason — but the point of this article is to show that, although much has changed in the past few years, plenty remains. At Amherst, we’re lucky to still have some of the best social spaces that you can find at any college in the country. And for those

Five College Events April 27: “Fashion Charity Competition,” Mount Holyoke College, 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

In response to the Japan disaster, Mount Holyoke’s Asian Student Association (ASA) will be hosting a fashion competition inspired by Japanese Street Fashion. One can enter individually, or in a group with a maximum of three people, fulfilling the roles of model, stylist and hair and makeup. The four street fashions one can choose from is: himegyaru, ganguro, onii kei and visual kei. The top three competitors will receive gift cards. All are welcome to attend and participate in this free event located in the Blanchard Great Room.

April 30: “SuperCuts SoccerFest 2011,” Univ. of Massachusetts, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

SuperCuts SoccerFest is back for its ninth year! This is a community-based soccer tournament held every year by the UMass Sport Management Department and their generous corporate sponsors.

This not-for-profit event is held as a fundraiser for the Erik Kjeldsen Scholarship

Garman, despite not being known as a popular party location, recently became the center of weekend life. of you underclassmen out there, get this: there’s more to come in the fall with the re-opening of Plimpton and Tyler. Marsh, Garman and the Zu have stepped it up in the past few weeks, reawakening the social po-

tential of our campus. Parties don’t need to all be sweaty and uncomfortable, as the old houses have taught us. When the space is designed with student interaction in mind, sociability comes naturally.

This Week in Amherst History: Apr. 26, 1973

Fund, which awards students for academic excellence and work ethic. There will be 25 soccer fields along with tons of food and fun.

May 1: “Community Renaissance Festival,” Univ. of Massachusetts, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Enjoy theatre performances by the UMass Theatre Department, including “Twelfth Night.” There will be music, swordsmanship and falconry on the grounds of the Renaissance Center on 650 East Pleasant Street. This event is free and open to the public so come and enjoy Renaissance games and food.

May 1: “I’m Not Dead, Yet!” Smith College, 4:00 p.m.

Voces Feminae presents a concert of early music featuring languages in danger of dying out. Works from Ventadorn, Martin Codax, the Llibre Vermell, the Sephardim and the Scottish highlands. The Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage will be holding this free event.

— Ashley Hall ’14

Courtesy of Amherst College Archives & Special Collections

In June 1972, Amherst College invested $1.4 million in Equity Funding Corporation (EFC). Less than a year later, in March 1973, the College discovered that EFC had set up a mutual fund with shares that didn’t actually exist. The Student published an article detailing the statement released by Amherst College Treasurer Kurt Hertzfeld informing the College that the deal wouldn’t affect Amherst significantly, despite the $525,000 lost to the phony mutual fund. He explained that risks need to be taken with the endowment and those sometimes lead to losses. An investment bank, Salomon Brothers, also tried to sue the college for selling with insider information — information the College did not have. Amherst went on to win the lawsuit.

Page 12

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Men’s Lax Stifles Wesleyan with Dominating Defense Jeffs’ first victory over Cardinals since 1999 extends winning streak to 12 games; No. 2 seed in sight Brenton Arnaboldi ’14 Managing Sports Editor

Spurred by a suffocating defense and rock-solid goaltending, the men’s lacrosse team defeated archrival Wesleyan 4-2 in a gritty affair this weekend.

In a dominating defensive performance, the Jeffs held Wesleyan scoreless for the final 55 minutes of Saturday’s contest.

With the victory, the Jeffs extended their winning streak to 12 games and clinched home field advantage for the first round of the NESCAC playoffs.

By beating Wesleyan for the first time since 1999, the Jeffs also continued a recent trend of breaking long-time losing streaks to NESCAC rivals. Earlier this season, Amherst defeated Middlebury after having gone winless against the Panthers since 1989.

On a cold, rainy day at a soggy Gooding Field, both Amherst’s and Wesleyan’s defensive units played superbly, frustrating attacking thrusts for long stretches. The Jeffs, however, mustered just enough offense in the Men’s Lacrosse Saturday’s Game Amherst (12-1) Wesleyan (9-4) Team

Conf.

Tufts AMHERST Trinity Middlebury Wesleyan Bowdoin Colby Conn. College Bates Williams

8-0 7-1 6-2 5-3 4-4 3-5 3-5 2-6 1-7 1-7

4 2 All 12-1 12-1 11-2 9-3 9-4 6-6 8-6 6-8 4-8 2-10

final quarter to pull out the victory. “Our defense played very, very well,” head coach Jon Thompson said. “Anchored

by Jakimo, we didn’t try to do too much, we just owned our respective roles defensively.”

The ninth-ranked Jeffs have been plagued with slow starts at the beginning of games this season, and the problem flared up again versus No. 19 Wesleyan. The Cardinals scored twice in the opening five minutes of the contest to grab an early 2-0 lead. Despite the early deficit, the Jeffs remained confident.

In their previous two games, the Jeffs had fallen behind 3-0 against Colby and Springfield, but overcame the early adversity to win both encounters.

In Saturday’s contest, Wesleyan did not score for the rest of the match (55 minutes) as the Amherst defense clogged the central slot area to limit high-quality scoring opportunities.

Amherst defenders Gabe Mann ’11 and Arne Andersen ’13 provided beastly efforts on the backline, finishing with five and four ground balls, respectively.

Goaltender Sam Jakimo ’12 delivered a strong performance in net, finishing with 18 saves to anchor the defensive effort. While the defense generally restricted the Cardinals to perimeter shots, Jakimo made a few crucial point-blank saves to keep his team in the game.

On offense, the Jeffs responded with a man-advantage goal from Dan Routh ’11 with 5:27 remaining in the opening quarter, but the score would remain 2-1 until the fourth quarter of this defensive battle. “Taking care of the ball in early offense has been an Achilies heel as of late,” Thompson said. “We will get our grade A chances, if we just take our time a little more offensively.

Patience will be the key moving forward. Taking calculated risks rather than reckless ones will be key for our defen-

Photo courtesy of Sam Masinter ’04

Cole Cherney ’12 scored the game-winning goal against Wesleyan, capping a three-point day (two goals, one assist). sive midfielders and our attackmen.”

The Jeffs’ offense finally erupted in the fourth quarter. Devin Acton ’14 tied the game 1:37 into the final period, firing a low shot after receiving a long pass from Ramsey Bates ’13. Amherst took its first lead of the game with 6:39 remaining; Cole Cherney ’12 sprinted from behind the net before catching a pass from Alex Fox ’12 and releasing a quick shot. Cherney scored his second of the game with four minutes left after receiving a great feed from Beda Cha ’14.

Wesleyan held a decisive edge in shots (45-25), but Thompson said the lopsided shot margin did not reflect the true competitive balance. “Wesleyan will shoot the ball from any and everywhere, thus the 45-shot total. I would

rather take 20 quality shots than 40 tough-angle, selfish shots 10 times out of 10,” Thompson said. “Our defense is not designed to stop shots. It is designed to stop good shots.”

“Shots from outside of 12 yards are gimmies for our goalies. Often those are the shots that our defense has allowed — and we are just fine with that.”

Faced with a high volume of shots every game, Jakimo has served as the backbone of the Amherst defense, while establishing himself as (arguably) the best goaltender in the NESCAC. After a stellar 18-save performance on Saturday, Jakimo earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors for the second time this season.

“Sam has been monumental. He keeps his cool in the heat of the moment,

and is a calming presence on the clear.

He makes good, smart clearing decisions and has saved almost every shot that he should save,” Thompson said.

“His consistency has proven to be an invaluable leadership trait, that I’m not sure Sam even knew he had.”

“It is so much fun to watch his confidence grow to the point where even if he does let in a goal — it doesn’t shake him. He is so mentally resilient at this point that one or two early goals don’t really affect him.”

Looking at the upcoming schedule, the Jeffs will take on Trinity in the regular season finale this Friday at Gooding Field. The Jeffs currently stand in second place in the NESCAC, but a Trinity victory would catapult the Bantams past Amherst in the conference standings.

Softball Swept by Middlebury in Three-Game Series Jeffs need to win two of three against Williams this weekend to earn playoff berth Amro El-Adle ’13 Editor-In-Chief

After losing 3-2 in nine innings to Middlebury on Friday, the softball team was held scoreless for the rest of its three-game series with the Panthers and remained mired in a five-game losing streak, dropping to 13-14 overall. The Jeffs will vie against Williams in another three-game series this weekend to determine which of the two will finish second in the NESCAC West and earn a playoff berth.

With star pitcher Theresa Kelley ’13 starting for Amherst in all three of the Middlebury games, the Jeffs looked to be in good shape for her first outing of the weekend. Kelley held the Panthers, who have scored nearly twice as many runs in conference competition as the next-closest team, in check, scattering eight hits in her eight innings of work. The Jeffs lit the scoreboard first, with senior co-captain Jillian Masi rounding the bases on an error in the third.

The Panthers followed up with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning, and later went up 2-1 on an unearned run in the sixth.

But co-captain Katie Kervick evened the score in the seventh with a clutch solo shot to left centerfield, and Kelley shut out the Panthers in the bottom half of the inning to send the game into extras.

Reilly Horan ’13 tripled in the eighth with one out, but with a new pitcher on the mound for the Panthers, the Jeffs failed to bring her home.

After Kelley shut out Middlebury once more in the eighth, the Jeffs struck out in order in the ninth, before the Panthers doubled back-to-back to end the game in the bottom of the inning. Kel-

ley finished with 11 strikeouts and just one walk.

“Game one was a classic pitching duel and Theresa had a gutsy performance,” Horan explained. “A hit here or a hit there, and we end up on the other side of a one-run game.”

In the nightcap, with Kelley again on the mound, Amherst tried to make its move early.

A walk she earned in the fifth inning loaded the bases with Jeffs, but all three runners were eventually left stranded. The Jeffs struggled at the plate in the second game, leaving eight runners on base in managing only six singles on the game. Horan, who went 2-3, was the lone Jeff with more than one hit in the game.

Photo courtesy of Sam Masinter ’04

Workhorse Theresa Kelley ’13 pitched every inning for the Jeffs over the weekend. Kelley leads the NESCAC in innings pitched (113.2), and ranks seventh in ERA (2.09).

After the extended game in the afternoon, Kelley lost a bit of her edge in the nightcap: the Middlebury hitters batted only .258 in the first game, but scorched her for a .333 average in the second. “I have joked before that if I could, I would want to pitch every inning of every game and this past weekend, I got my wish,” she recounted. In that second game, she surrendered a total of five runs, three of them earned, in six innings of work, as the Jeffs lost 5-0.

The Jeffs’ offensive struggles continued on Saturday, as the team was limited to only two singles by the Panthers’ pitcher, Geena Constantin in the 8-0 loss. Kelley, who leads the NESCAC in innings pitched, appearances and strikeouts by considerable margins, could not keep Middlebury’s hitters at bay in her third outing against them over the weekend, giving up eight runs (five of them unearned) and 10 hits while striking out seven. “A good hitting team like Middlebury will certainly capitalize on that, not to mention the fact that by the third game, many batters were hitting against me for the ninth or tenth time, which is a bit of a disadvantage as well.” She fell to 8-11 on the season.

The Jeffs, who last competed in the NESCAC tournament in 2006, enter their three-game series with Williams facing a team with an identical 5-4 conference record in the NESCAC West.

The teams will kick things off with a 4:15 p.m. tilt in Amherst on Friday before traveling to Williamstown on Saturday for a double-header to determine the winner of the series and the playoff berth. Horan promised that the Jeffs would be ready to face the Ephs: “By Friday we’ll be rearing to take it to Williams and honor our seniors in a fashion they deserve.”

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Page 13

Amherst Fencing Club Foils Middlebury The Amherst Fencing Club hosted Middlebury in a scrimmage two weekends ago and won in every weapon category Mark Roberts ’13 Contributing Writer

On Saturday, April 16th, a scrimmage was held in the Alumni Gymnasium between the Amherst and Middlebury Fencing Clubs.

Nine fencers arrived from Middlebury to test their mettle against the Jeffs’ 15-member team. Fencers Clark, Uriel, Coco, Mary, Alex, Nicholas, Tatiana, Grant, and Kyle hailed from Middlebury. Fencing for the Jeffs: Jessica Brandt ’11, Maudlyn Obi ’11, Winthrop Harvey ’13, Natalie King ’14, Daniel Kay ’11, Nicholas Birago ’14, Mark Roberts ’13, Philip Menchaca ’12E, Jen Zakrzewski ’13, Matt Kurek ’14, Ashley Hall ’14, Sylvia Hickman ’14, Rebecca Eppler-Epstein ’12, Joey Messinger ’14 and Megan Duff ’14.

Standard for any fencing tournament is the separation of weapon categories. There are three weapons in the sport: foil, epee and saber.

Each of the three categories has its own specific equipment and rules for engagement. Foil fencers, for example, are required to wear a metal vest called a “lamè” that covers “target area”, the area of the body which the tip of a foil must connect with to score a point. In foil fencing, the torso, from the waist to the neck, is considered target area.

Contrast this with epee fencing, where the entire body, from head to toe, is considered target area. Epee fencers do not wear a lamè. Finally, saber fencers fence with a special sleeved lamè and a “manchette,” a cuff that covers their wrists. In saber fencing, the entire upper body is considered target area. Middlebury brought three fencers in each weapon category. The Jeffs brought four saber fencers, three epeeists, and eight foilists.

First, the teams fenced each other in “pools,” which determined a seeding order for a singles bracket-style tournament. In all weapon categories, Amherst fencers were among the top three seeded fencers, and won two of the three singles tournaments. Birago took first place in singles epee, Hickman took second in singles foil and Obi took first place in singles saber.

Next, the teams competed in a team relay bout, in which, three fencers in each weapon category from each team compete to reach 45 points.

If neither team reaches 45 points by round nine, then the team with the highest number of points wins. Team members swap places with one another after each five-point benchmark is reached.

The Jeffs were victorious in all weapon categories for the team relay bout. The foil squad, composed of Menchaca, Eppler-Epstein and Hickman, won their bout 42-37. The epee squad, composed of Kay, Birago and Roberts, won their bout 45-28. The saber squad, composed of Brandt, Obi and Harvey, won their bout 45-18.

Editors’ Note: The Amherst Fencing Club requested to run an article in this week’s issue of The Student. Any other club team members who wish to write an article for the Commencement issue should contact Brenton Arnaboldi ’14 (brenton.arnaboldi@gmail.com) or Carlyn Robertson ’14 (crobertson14@amherst.edu).

Women’s Lacrosse Wins Little Three Crown with Victory over Wesleyan A powerful and balanced Lord Jeff offense and solid goalkeeping kept the Cardinals at bay as three players had hat tricks in the 13-6 game Carlyn Robertson ’14 Managing Sports Editor

The women’s lacrosse team defeated Wesleyan 13-6 on Saturday to take the Little Three crown outright for the first time since 2008. A diverse and relentless Jeff offense was the key to the win, as three Jeffs scored three goals apiece in the victory.

Wesleyan scored the first goal of the game, but Allie Horwitz ’12 scored the equalizer two minutes later. Six into the game, the score was still tied 1-1. Kelley Trapp’ 11 sent a pass to Hillary Densen ’13, who put away her shot to take the lead for good.

The Jeffs took a 6-1 lead with 6:52 left in the first half and kept up the pressure for the rest of the game, as the Cardinals never got closer than three goals from that point onward. Annelies O’Dea ’14 scored twice in the four-goal run, with Elizabeth Ludlow ’14 and Densen also adding goals. Wesleyan put away a pair of goals and Ludlow scored again before the half ended with the Jeffs up 7-3.

Wesleyan opened the half with a goal from the right side, but couldn’t gather any further momentum. O’Dea and Ludlow scored the next two goals for hat tricks, putting the score at 9-4 with 17:40 to play.

The Cardinals scored at the 16:59 mark before the Jeffs shut them down with four of the next five goals to close out the game. Wesleyan’s final goal came at the 15:44 mark. Horwitz had the Jeffs’ next two goals to complete her own hat trick, and O’Dea assisted Trapp with 4:57 left in the game. Krista Zsitvay ’14 scored her first goal of the season at the buzzer to seal the victory.

O’Dea had three assists to go with her three goals, and Trapp had a pair of assists. Junior goalie Lamia Harik made six saves in the match, and the Jeffs had a 26-14 edge over the Cardinals in total shots. They are now 9-4

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Elizabeth Ludlow ’14 scored three points against the Cardinals. overall and 4-4 in NESCAC play. The sixth-ranked Jeffs close out their regular season next Friday at Trinity. The third-ranked Bantams are undefeated, so they should prove a tough match for the Jeffs.

In Da Club

Quick Updates and Results for the Club Sports Teams

RUGBY MEN: April 23: W (15-7) vs.

Wesleyan Next game: vs. Williams at HOME on April 30 WOMEN: April 23: W (3-0) vs. MIT, L (24-0) vs. Yale Next game: at Williams on April 30

AMHERST COLLEGE CLOTHING

Photo courtesy of Chloe McKenzie ’14

The men’s rugby team traveled to Wesleyan last weekend and beat them soundly in a 15-7 victory. The weather was far from ideal, so the Jeffs struggled in the first half. Wesleyan was ahead 7-5 at the break, but the Jeffs hit their stride in the second half. They made no mistakes and scored 10 points in the final 15 minutes.

Co-captain Nicolas Parada ’13 led the team, scoring all 15 points. Dan Schuwolf ’14 said, “Nick’s thunderous kicks kept our opponent’s pinned deep in their end.”

The women’s team went to Yale to scrimmage MIT and Div. I Yale on a rain-soaked and muddy field.

They were well-matched agaisnt MIT, and the only points of the match came from sophomore Mia Certo’s kick off of a penalty. MIT was awarded a penalty with just a minute to go, but the Jeff defense held them off. Yale was much tougher oppenent, but the Jeffs were able to organize a few strong plays in the match.

— Carlyn Robertson ’14

On Saturday, the crew teams had their last regatta before next weekend’s New England Championships. The crews battled the cold and rain, but still managed to put together some good races despite the terrible conditions.

The men’s varsity one boat was dealt their first loss of the season by Bowdoin, who beat them by just a small margin, but there will be a rematch at next weekend’s championships.

Women’s co-captain Caroline Stern ’11 said, “Conn. College and Bowdoin showed consistently strong races throughout the morning, and they will be our biggest competitors, along with Middlebury, next week at the championships.” The team’s goal for next weekend’s race is for each boat to improve its ranking.

— Carlyn Robertson’14

ULTIMATE FRISBEE

CREW April 23: vs.

Connecticut College, Mass Maritime, Bowdoin and Clark

MEN Varsity 1: 2nd of 5 (ranked 2nd) Varsity 2: 2nd of 3 (ranked 4th) Varsity 3: 2nd of 2 Novice 1: 3rd of 5 (ranked 7th) Novice 2: 1st of 3 WOMEN Varsity 1: 4th of 4 (ranked 4th) Varsity 2: 3rd of 4 (ranked 2nd) Novice 1: 2nd of 4 (ranked 3rd)

SPARKLE MOTION: Conference Championship Tournament postponed to next weekend at Williams

SPORTSBOARD

Page 14

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

GAME OF THE WEEK

Schedule WEDNESDAY: Men’s Golf at Williams (Little Three Championships), 3 p.m.

FRIDAY: Baseball at Wesleyan, 4 p.m.

Softball vs. Williams, 4:15 p.m.

Men’s Lacrosse vs. Trinity, 4:30 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse at Trinity, 6 p.m.

ships at Wesleyan, 9 a.m.

Softball at Williams, 12 p.m.

Baseball vs Wesleyan, 1 p.m.

Men’s Tennis vs. Middlebury, 1 p.m.

Women’s Golf at Williams Invitational (Day 1 of 2) Men’s Golf at Middlebury for NESCAC Championship (Day 1 of 2)

nals, time and location TBD Women’s Tennis at Middlebury, 1 p.m.

SATURDAY: Men’s and Women’s Track NESCAC Champion-

SUNDAY: Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse NESCAC Quarterfi-

Men’s Tennis vs. Middlebury

IN DEPTH

TUESDAY: Baseball vs Brandeis, 4 p.m.

Time: Saturday April 30 1 p.m.

Site: Tennis Courts Key Players: Amherst Luis Rattenhuber ’13 Austin Chafetz ’12 Mark Kahan ’13

Middlebury Andrew Peters ’11 Zach Bruchmiller ’14

This Saturday afternoon, the fourth-ranked men’s tennis team will face off against No. 1 Middlebury in their final regular season matchup. The contest figures to have significant seeding implications, as the winner will likely earn the top seed for the NESCAC Championship the following week. This will be the first matchup between the rivals since Middlebury defeated Amherst 5-1 to win the NCAA Championship last season. The Jeffs will look to pull off the upset, as both teams put undefeated conference records on the line.

The Panthers are led by Andrew Peters ’11, the 10th-ranked singles player in the nation. He will face a stiff challenge in Amherst’s Luis Rattenhuber ’13, however, who defeated the nation’s top-ranked player, Williams’ Felix Sun, in a three-set battle two weeks ago. The Jeffs will also be looking forward to the return of one of their top players, Austin Chafetz ’12, who has suffered from back and groin injuries that have kept him out of the lineup the entire season.

— Varun Iyengar ’14

Players of the week Sam Jakimo ’12 — Men’s Lacrosse

Ben Scheetz ’12 — Outdoor Track Ben Scheetz ’11 earned the distinction of NESCAC Men’s Track Performer of the Week for his efforts in the Larry Ellis Memorial Invitational at Princeton Univ. and this weekend’s Little Three Championships at home.

Scheetz added to his growing collection of school records by setting the outdoor mark in the 800

meter race with a time of 1:48.71.

In addition, he was an integral part of the team’s success against Wesleyan and Williams, winning the 200 meter dash and the 4x400 relay.

Scheetz’s accomplishments made him the first Amherst runner to win the award in over two years.

— Karan Bains ’14

Track Teams Take Second in Little Three Championships Ben Scheetz ’12 breaks school record in the 800 Nihal Sharinath ’12 Editor-in-Chief

The fastest and most furious on the east coast met last Friday for the Princeton Univ. Larry Ellis Memorial Meet. A select few from the men’s track team and Melissa Sullivan ’12 ran against some of the best Div. I to Div. III run-

ners on the Atlantic coast. Ben Scheetz ’12 added to his spectacular year by setting a school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:48.71, 1.51 seconds better than the previous record.

Scheetz was given the NESCAC Runner of the Week award for this achievement. Also racing in the invitational were John McGrail ’11 in the 3000m steeple-

Photo courtesy of Eliane Yochum

Junior Melissa Sullivan won the 800-meter run in the Little Three Championships.

chase and Will Yochum ’11 and Sullivan in the 1,500m.

On a cold, rainy Saturday in Western Massachusetts, both the men’s and women’s teams snagged second in the Little Three Championships. On the women’s side, Williams came in first with 176 points, with the Jeffs lagging behind at 114 points. The Jeffs did manage to beat Wesleyan by 41 points, who was stuck with 73. The men’s side was just as lopsided: with Williams securing 161.5 points, the Singing College and Wesleyan were neck and neck, before the Jeffs pulled ahead with 104 points to the Cardinals’ 95.

Sullivan added to her trophyladen season with a win in the 800m with a time of 2:21.19.

Sophomore Keri Lambert provided the other Jeff win in the 3,000m steeplechase, finishing in 11:25.53.

The Lord Jeff men did well at the medal stand, winning six of 17 events. Scheetz was speedy as always, winning 200m, and Matt Melton ’14 won the 400m.

The two then joined with Tommy Moore ’11 and Andrew Reed ’12 in notching the top time in the 4x400 in 3:22.79. The other three champions were Steve Corsello ’11 in the 800m, Patrick Grimes ’13 in the 1,500m and fellow sophomore Dillon Buckley in the 3,000m steeplechase.

This Saturday, the men and women will attempt to top their best times at the NESCAC Championships.

Sam Jakimo ’12 was named the NESCAC Men’s Lacrosse Co-Player of the Week and the ECAC New England Div. III CoDefensive Player of the Week, his second time winning both awards this season.

Jakimo was one of the main reasons the lacrosse team was victorious against Wesleyan, allowing

only two goals on 20 shots. On the season, he is holding the opposition to 7.09 goals per game with a .660 save percentage, which is good for 12th in the nation.

These impressive numbers have enabled him to post an undefeated 12-0 mark on the year as the season rolls to its end.

— Karan Bains ’14

Men’s Golf Still Competitive Despite Missing Top Two Players Varun Iyengar ’14 Sports Section Editor

Last week was a busy one for the men’s golf team. The Lord Jeffs competed in two tournaments, traveling to the Blackstone National Golf Course to participate in the Worcester State Invitational on Tuesday before teeing off at the NESCAC Spring Opener over the weekend at Williams. While the first tournament was scheduled as a one-day event, the second ended up the same when tournament referees cancelled due to inclement weather.

At Worcester State, the Jeffs placed 14th out of a field of 18 teams. While on paper the result might seem sub-par for a team that had finished no lower than 6th in their previous spring tournaments, the performance was actually quite respectable given that the Jeffs were missing their top two players. However, Alex Butensky ’13 made up for that absence quite impressively, leading the Jeffs with a nine over, 81, to place 21st among individuals. He finished 12 strokes behind individual champion Nick Zolotas of Salem State, who helped the Vikings earn the team title as well.

Nicholas Koh ’14 finished second for the Jeffs, coming in at 12 over par (42-42-84), but was remarkably consistent as he put up the same score on the front and back nine. Mike Belkin ’11 and Jared Kusma ’13 rounded out Amherst’s scoring, coming into the clubhouse at 87 and 91, respectively, putting the team’s total at 345 strokes for the tournament.

On Sunday, at the Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, the Jeffs earned a fifth place finish out of six teams. Again without their two best players, the Jeffs persevered and were rewarded with notable improvement from their performance earlier in the week. As Butensky explained afterwards, “We played better and even though no one was firing on all cylinders, our top four guys still managed to grind out solid scores in the low 80s.”

In fact, the Jeff’s top four were all within three shots of one another. Nate Belkin ’12 and Koh led the Jeffs, both shooting a team-low 81 and tying for 22nd place.

Right on their heels were Mark Colp ’12 (40-42-82) and Butensky (42-41-83) and, collectively, they put Amherst’s team score at 327 for the tournament. Unfortunately, the team fell well short of the low score of the day (301) by Middlebury, which also claimed the individual honors when Jim Levins (39-32-71) used a scorching back nine to post the only sub-par score on the day.

The Jeffs will look to build on their improvement as they head into the final week of the season. The team returns to Williamstown on Wednesday to take part in the Little Three Championship, which will feature match play between Williams, Wesleyan, and Amherst. However, the team is also looking ahead to the coming weekend, when it will get to represent Amherst in the NESCAC Championship for the first time in school history. The team has worked hard for this moment and will lean on their momentum and chemistry to carry them through the challenges that await.

The Amherst Student, April 27, 2011

Page 15

Baseball Earns First Playoff Bid since 2008 The Jeffs lost to Keene State, but destroyed the Ephs the following weekend in a three-game sweep Karan Bains ’14

Sports Section Editor

The baseball team had a busy week, losing its first game before stepping up to sweep a crucial series against archrival Williams over the weekend.

The Jeffs hosted Keene State College on Wednesday, looking to extend their winning streak to six. The game began with five scoreless innings for both sides, but the sixth

The Jeffs continued to roll in the closing game, earning an 8-5 victory with yet another dominating performance.

The Jeffs led 6-0 halfway through the fifth inning and never relinquished their stranglehold on the lead, putting the pressure on Williams throughout the contest.

When the Ephs failed to muster an adequate response, the Jeffs went home with a three-game sweep of their rivals. Ryan D’Souza ’14 attributed much of the success to the team’s aggressive attitude, saying, “It was really important for us to come out swinging like we did in the first

Photo courtesy of Matt Hartzler ’13

Fred Shephard ’14 allowed only one hit and no runs in five innings of relief pitching in the opener against Williams. proved a different story. The Owls broke through first, scoring two runs in the top half of the sixth, but the Jeffs responded with an even greater offensive outburst, sending home four runs before their half of the inning was over.

The scoring then stagnated until the top of the ninth inning, and it seemed as if the Jeffs would pull out the victory. The Jeffs’ 4-2 lead, however, was not enough to stave off a late rally by the Owls, who scored twice to send the game to extra innings.

In the 12th inning, Keene State capped off its comeback by loading the bases and scoring the go-ahead run with a tricky grounder that stymied the Amherst infield.

While Alex Hero ’14 and Nolan Stewart ’13 combined for three runs batted in, the Jeffs’ pitching staff could not hold up, and the Jeffs’ streak was snapped at five straight wins.

Yet, the Jeffs could not afford even a moment to stew in their own frustration, as Williams came to town on Friday to begin a home-away weekend series for the Jeffs.

The team clearly harbored a significant amount of pentup anger after losing to Keene State, and took it out on the Ephs. The offense decided to carry the team on Friday, putting up 14 runs on 19 hits and demolishing the Ephs pitchers along the way. Max McKenna ’11, comforted by the ample run support, pitched his third complete game of the season to improve his record to an unblemished 4-0.

Bob Cook ’13 set the tone in the second inning with a three-run blast to left field that cleared the fence by a significant amount. Cook, Taiki Kasuga ’14, Kevin Heller ’12 and Mike Samela ’12 also joined the offensive onslaught; Heller and Kasuga both extended their hitting streaks to 15 and 12, respectively.

The two teams were set to face off in a doubleheader the following day at Williams, but persistent rain quickly put a damper on those plans. The games were made up on Sunday, which negated some of the Jeff momentum from the Friday rout.

Nevertheless, Amherst pulled out two more victories to finish the weekend undefeated. In the opener, Fred Shepard ’14 pitched a fantastic five innings of relief in which he allowed only one hit and no runs. Samela went 3-3 in support of his pitcher, and Stewart helped out with a 3-4 performance to spur the Jeffs to the 7-4 win.

game, and that win gave us the confidence to keep rolling for the next two games at their place.”

The team kept up its focus after the exciting weekend series to dominate Springfield College on Tuesday as well.

The Jeffs piled up 15 hits en route to a 10-0 shutout win, and Jeff Keenan ’11 earned the victory by pitching five innings and giving up only one hit. Alex Hero ’14 went 3-5 on the afternoon to raise his batting average to .407, and Samela smashed a two-run homer in the third inning.

Despite the win over Springfield, the victories against Williams had a larger impact on the Jeffs, as they carried deep postseason implications. With the weekend success, the Jeffs clinched their first trip to the conference playoffs since 2008 and eliminated the Ephs from postseason consideration as well, a best-case scenario that had the players full of excitement.

With a win next Friday against Wesleyan, the Jeffs could earn the top seed in the NESCAC West playoffs. As they go into the final few games of the regular season controlling their postseason destiny, the entire team will need to stay sharp to ensure the best possible chances of success in May.

Baseball Wednesday’s Game Amherst (15-6) 4 Keene State (21-8) 5

Saturday’s Games Amherst (17-6) 7 Williams (18-9) 4

Friday’s Game Amherst (16-6) 14 Williams (18-8) 2

Amherst Williams

(15-6) 8 (21-8) 5

Team (NESCAC West)

Conference

Overall

AMHERST Middlebury Wesleyan Williams Hamilton

8-1 8-4 5-4 2-7 1-8

18-6 12-9 15-15 19-10 8-19

Clay’s Corner Clay Andrews ’13 Sophomore Clay Andrews mourns how soft salary caps in the MLB and NBA are causing a polarization betweens teams that have money and those that don’t. He thinks it’s unfortunate that talented players are getting pulled away from low-budget teams.

Sympathy for the Underdog

I now know what it feels like to be a Yankees fan.

Growing up in northern New England, I used to live and die with the rest of Red Sox nation.

In 2003 we despaired when thenmanager Grady Little left Pedro in too long in the ALCS and Aaron Boone eventually took Wakefield deep in the 12th. In 2004 we rejoiced when base runner Dave Roberts swiped second by a hair ultimately leading to the greatest series comeback in sports’ history and the Red Sox’s first World Series victory since 1918.

Now is different, though.

Sure there are still ups and downs. Over the first 20-odd games of the season Red Sox nation has already experienced a mass panic as the Sox were swept in their first two series of the season and collective euphoria in light of the recent fivegame winning streak. But the feeling is different.

Since the early 2000s the Yankees were always the team with the money. They have had the highest payroll in baseball since 1999 and more than 15 million dollars higher than the next closest team since 2003.

That’s what made beating them feel so great. It was whoever was playing them against the best money could buy. No matter the standings, you were always the underdog.

The Yankees still have the highest payroll in baseball, but they aren’t alone in their status as hated big-spender anymore.

A handful of teams have been spending more in the offseason in order to improve their teams, including the Red Sox. Just this winter the Red Sox went out and got two of the best players in baseball, signing outfielder Carl Crawford to a deal worth $142 million and trading for and eventually signing first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to a deal worth $154 million dollars. Meanwhile the Yankees were relatively frugal in bringing in outside talent, failing to sign superstar pitcher Cliff Lee. So as the Red Sox win, I am split. On one hand it is great to have a talented team and owners and management committed to winning. But it feels like we just joined an exclusive club, whose members we have spent the last 10 years despising. Before, we could always say that any splurge was necessary in order to keep competitive with the evil Yankees. Not anymore.

Bringing in Crawford and Gonzalez was too bold, too Yankee-like a move to rationalize.

There will always be a twinge of guilt now when we win, especially against teams like the Rays. The Rays have the second lowest payroll in baseball and were unable to retain many of

their talented players this winter as they were outbid by teams with more money.

A line has been drawn in the NBA, too, despite the league’s soft salary cap. After LeBron James’ decision to leave Cleveland for Miami, it has become clear that there are big market teams where players want to be and owners are willing to break the bank and small market teams that have to rely on homegrown talent rather than outside help.

This divide in both baseball and basketball, the sports that don’t have hard salary caps, creates a dynamic where favorites and underdogs are dictated by the team’s payroll or status rather than record. It’s a dynamic that already exists in college sports, where the universities with the most resources and prestige dominate.

So what does this mean for us fans? The result is polarizing, which could mean less competition. The regular season would simply confirm that the same handful of teams who spend the most money are in the playoffs.

This could be a system that is creating underdogs that are finding it harder and harder to compete. Like the Rays showed over the last couple years, it takes a perfect storm of young talent and cheap revitalized veterans for a low-budget or low-profile team to compete with the big dogs. And tragically, that perfect storm can only last a couple years until rookie contracts expire and most of the talented players are scooped up by those with money.

This phenomenon has to make it nearly impossible to be a fan for that team. How frustrating would it be to root for a team that is either awful or destined to be picked apart? With talk of contraction and moving franchises in both leagues, it seems that the real problem is not the lack of fan support in given areas, but rather the salary system that creates this competitive divide.

A prime supporting example is the NFL, or the NHL. In professional football and hockey there are hard salary caps that stop this divide from forming.

As a result, the turnover of playoff teams is greater and fans can feel greater security in their favorite players. Every city with a team can feel like it has a fighting shot, where in the MLB and NBA there are some that know the bitter truth.

As a fan of a team that has the money to do what it wants, I still hope to see a more competitive league where I don’t feel like every game is bought and sold. I’m a sucker for the underdog, and without a fair system in place, the underdogs have no chance.

16

Sports

inside: Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Amherst Student

Baseball sweeps Williams in three-game series PAGE 15

Strings of Success

Tennis teams smack NESCAC opponents, set sights on national titles

Photos from Kathy Nolan ’10

Varun Iyengar ’14 Sports Section Editor

The men’s and women’s tennis teams have romped through the early portions of their schedules, and appear primed for the championship stretch run. After tough losses at the NCAA tournament last season, both teams are looking to change the script this time around. The two squads face stern tests this weekend against Middlebury in their respective regular season finales.

Men The men’s tennis team came into this week looking to preserve their perfect NESCAC record and build momentum going into the final matchup of the regular season. With three wins over nationally ranked opponents in two days, the team accomplished those goals and much more, tying the school record for wins in a season as Amherst improved to 28-1 on the year.

The fourth-ranked Jeffs notched impressive wins against 15th-ranked Trinity (7-2) and 22ndranked Brandeis (9-0) on Saturday, before wrap-

ping by the weekend by blanking 24th-ranked Bates (9-0) the following day.

In hosting Trinity on Saturday afternoon, Amherst faced its toughest challenge of the weekend. However, the Jeffs dealt with this NESCAC opponent handily, earning two of the three doubles and five of the six singles points.

Notable among the singles contests was the effort at No. 5 by Justin Reindel ’14. Reindel shut out his opponent 6-0 in the first set, before getting blanked himself, 0-6, in the second.

However, the freshman recovered well and eked out a 10-4 advantage in the third set to pick up the victory. With the win, Amherst moved to 6-0 in conference play on the year.

Later that same day, the Jeffs were back on the court for a non-conference matchup against Brandeis University. Battling through fatigue, the team made its victory look easy, sweeping the Owls, 9-0.

In fact, Amherst did not drop a set in the contest, earning all straight-set wins, many of them in crushing fashion. Moritz Koenig ’11 only dropped one game at No. 2 singles, running off a 6-0, 6-1 victory — a feat that was replicated

by Sean Doerfler ’11 at No. 4 singles.

In the final matchup of the weekend, the Jeffs faced off against Bates. Again, Amherst shut its opponent out 9-0 and, for the second straight contest, did not drop a set. That the team was able to accomplish this in two consecutive matches is a testament to the roster’s depth and talent. Again noteworthy was Doerfler, who, at No. 6 singles, dominated his opponent en route to a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

The Jeffs are now 7-0 in NESCAC play and will battle for the conference’s top seed when Middlebury comes to town this Saturday. The two teams have yet to play this year, but it figures to be a close contest as the Panthers are the nation’s top-ranked team.

Both teams will put their undefeated conference records on the line, and Amherst will look to pull off the upset in their final match of the regular season.

Women Coming off an impressive win over No. 2-ranked Williams last Sunday, the top-ranked women’s tennis team looked to use its momen-

Graphic by Lilly Jay ’14

tum to its advantage as the Jeffs faced off against three NESCAC opponents this week. The Jeffs traveled to Tufts on Tuesday, where they edged out a 5-4 victory, before returning home to crush Bowdoin and Trinity in a double-header on Saturday.

With these victories, the team has now won 10 consecutive matches, a streak that dates all the way back to March 19th, during the spring break trip to Florida. On that day, Amherst lost to Barry University, the fourth-ranked team in Div. II; against Div. III competition, the Jeffs are still undefeated.

Facing off against Tufts University, the Lady Jeffs barely preserved their perfect NESCAC record against the fifth-ranked team in the country. The Jumbos had already played spoiler on two occasions this season, earning victories over both No. 4 Chicago and No. 8 Washington and Lee, and were on the verge of their biggest upset yet.

Through eight matches, the teams were even at four points apiece, leaving the No. 6 singles contest as the decider. With the match hanging in the balance, Amherst’s Mimi Bell ’11 outlasted Tufts’ Edwina Stewart 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) in a gutsy performance that clinched the Jeffs’ victory.

Carlissa King ’11 also earned an impressive victory for the Jeffs, coming from behind to post a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 2 singles.

The Amherst-Tufts matchup was also significant as it featured a matchup between the top- and second-ranked doubles teams in the NESCAC. Amherst’s duo of Gabby Devlin ’14 and Jordan Brewer ’14 proved that they deserve their top seed with an 8-4 victory over Tuft’s second-ranked tandem of Julia Browne and Shelci Bowman.

Having gotten through their toughest match of the week, the Lady Jeffs rolled through their final two opponents. Hosting Bowdoin on Saturday, Amherst blanked the Polar Bears, 9-0. They followed up this impressive win with another shutout over Trinity College later that same day.

With their victories, the team preserved their perfect NESCAC record, moving to 7-0 in NESCAC play and 14-1 overall for the spring season.

The Lady Jeffs will go into their final matchup of the season with well-deserved confidence.

However, the team will be sure not to underestimate 10th-ranked Middlebury, as they look to build momentum heading into the NESCAC Championships the following week.