Final

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLV, ISSUE 22 l WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016

Moroney Leads Men’s Lacrosse to Perfect 3-0 Week See Sports, Page 10 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Val Begins Trial Period for Extended Afternoon Hours Jacob Pagano ’18 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Sophia Salazar ‘18

Students eat in Valentine dining hall on Monday April 11. Students can come during this three-week trial period between the extended hours of 2 and 4:30 p.m. Val will operate on reduced staff during these hours.

Karen Blake ’17 Elected AAS President Dan Ahn ’17 and Kiana Herold ’17 Managing News Editors

Karen Blake ’17 was elected Association of Amherst Students president in a race against Heru Craig ’17E on April 7. Olivia Pinney ’17 was also running for president but pulled out of the race before the elections.

Chico Kosber ’17 was elected vice president, with little over a two-percent margin over Paul Gramieri ’17. Aditi Krishnamurthy ’18 was elected treasurer, Silvia Sotolongo ’19 became secretary and Felix Edwards ’18 was elected chair of the judiciary council.

Blake said that she created her platform after thinking about her work both in and out of student government. She has served as a senator for the past three years.

“A big part [of being president] goes beyond just senate — it’s about how we can interact with the student body in a productive way, and I just felt like that was something I was offering,” Blake said. “Right now we are in a huge transitionary period in terms of social life and community on campus, and I didn’t really

feel like anyone had concrete goals or action plans to fix that.”

Blake campaigned on four main goals: creating a more proactive senate, building community, supporting students and reforming academics. Her first goal is to implement presidential drop-in hours to hear students’ concerns. She also plans to start a dorm senator program in which senators would be paired to specific dorms and would attend tea times once a month to solicit feedback and to keep residents updated with Senate business.

She also plans to begin Senate mixers that will be held twice a year to facilitate Senator and at-large student interaction.

Blake’s plans to facilitate community building include re-evaluating branches, promoting school spirit and instituting a campus-wide tea time.

“I want to critically analyze [Branches] and see if they are actually helping create a larger sense of community on campus,” Blake said.

“It doesn’t make sense to me to make smaller groups and a more clique-y campus culture, so I want to critically evaluate that and see if that’s

something we want to continue in the future and if that’s even feasible.”

Blake noted that Amherst students excel at a number of extracurricular activities and said that senate could have a role in promoting attendance of student events. “That is what we should be rallying around,” Blake said.

The campus-wide tea time would occur monthly in a time-slot freed from all other student events. “I’m an RC, so I believe in tea times. They work.” Blake said.

Under Blake’s “Supporting Students” initiative, she proposed consolidating resources and having senators work more directly with students on their senate projects and instituting monthly AAS meetings with resource centers that focus on supporting students.

“Student voices are very powerful if they are in large enough numbers,” Blake said.

“Too often, students get discouraged or burnt out working on their individual activism or projects because they keep running into this

Continued on Page 3

Valentine Dining Hall introduced a threeweek trial program that offers a limited menu on weekdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. During these expanded hours, the dining hall will open the salad bar, deli, cereal bar, desserts and beverages to students. The program officially began on Monday, April 11.

Students on the meal plan can now swipe into Valentine between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. or eat once at Grab-N-Go, which continues to operate from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. On the first day of the trial period, 72 students swiped into the dining hall between 2:30 and 4 p.m.

Fathima Rizwan, a staff member in dining services who works at the swipe-in counter, has shifts both before and after the afternoon hours.

“A number of temporary staff will come in to fill the new time slot,” she said.

Director of dining services Charlie Thompson said that the idea for the trial period originated from feedback from students who were looking for more afternoon food options.

Several criteria will be taken into account in order to assess whether the program will be continued past the end of the trial period, including popularity among students and the cost of operating during the extended hours.

Thompson said that the program “will also allow dining services to assess what can be accomplished by our existing staffing model and [to learn] where we may need additional staff.

We will be gathering data on how many people will come through Val during the extended period, giving us hard numbers to base our labor and food requirements needed for the program.”

Evgenia Trufanova, a teaching assistant in the Russian department, said that she was excited to learn that both the salad bar and deli will be available throughout the afternoon.

Cullen Gillespie ’18 said that the dining hall will provide a “nice and quiet place to work and grab a mid-afternoon coffee.”

According to Steven Mallory ’19, the expanded hours were a welcome change, although more options could be offered. “I like that we have something to eat now, but we don’t have anything except for sandwiches or cereal or

Continued on Page 3

Curriculum Committee Presents Goals to Students Kiana Herold ’17 Managing News Editor

The Curriculum Committee held two open meetings on April 5 to present its preliminary recommendations for updating the Amherst curriculum. The Curriculum Committee was formed by the faculty’s Committee of Six based on recommendations made in the strategic plan approved last June. The Curriculum Committee will send proposals to the Committee of Six this fall semester and the faculty will vote on them.

The committee members largely agreed that the open curriculum is worth keeping, but that students needed better advising and other resources to help navigate the curriculum.

“The most critical issue is, if we retain the open curriculum, how can we ensure that our students are able to make the most of that curriculum?” Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein, a non-voting co-chair of the curriculum committee, said in an email interview. “How can we ensure that all students best navigate that curriculum? How can we ensure that all courses of study are open to all students?”

Proposed improvements include creating a more extensive advising system, and strengthening the first-year seminar and the senior capstone experience. The committee also explored what kinds of intellectual experiences are shared by all Amherst students.

“I think students should expect significant

changes that will hopefully benefit their academic experience, but nothing that I think would be seen as radical,” Tasha Kim ’18, an AAS senator and curriculum committee member, said.

The curriculum committee, which was formed last semester, began its work by researching other institutions’ curriculums.

In December, the group divided into subcommittees based on three topics: “Breadth of Understanding,” “Equality of Opportunity” and “Fundamental Capabilities.”

The “Breadth of Understanding” subcommittee presented four key proposals.

The first was to add more courses for nonmajors to make classes more accessible, specifically in sciences and mathematics.

Another proposal recommended adding pages to the college website with tips on navigating the open curriculum.

The third proposal is to separate Latin honors from theses. Currently, only seniors who write honors theses are eligible to receive the Latin honors summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude. The committee proposed allowing non-thesis writers to be eligible for Latin honors by fulfilling an academic breadth requirement, which would incentivize taking courses in different departments.

The group also proposed creating minors.

Under the proposed system, students would be allowed one major, two majors or one major

Continued on Page 3

News

Michael Harmon ’16

Thoughts on Theses Religion and Political Science

Michael Harmon ’16 created his own interdisciplinary major “Colonial and Postcolonial Studies.” His thesis focuses on a trip he took by train in South Africa and Zimbabwe. His advisers are history professor Sean Redding, European Studies professor Ronald Rosbottom and political science professor Amrita Basu.

Q: What is your major and what is your thesis about?

A: I designed my own major. In the interdisciplinary major, you list your core classes that you’re going to take and you come up with a project that doesn’t fit into any department.

My major is something that I call “Colonial and Postcolonial Studies,” which is a theory of everything, in a way. It encompasses a lot of subjects, but the thinking was that it would bring in history, anthropology, political science, some environmental studies and creative writing.

The thesis that I proposed was not just the history thesis that I had originally thought of writing, but a travelogue, bringing in these academic topics and talking about them analytically — like political history, or colonial or postcolonial culture — and describing that through the lens of my own travels, written in a way that’s more accessible for people to read.

That’s the general overview.

Q: What was the process of researching and writing like?

A: My thesis was basically my trip. I took a trip this summer, which Amherst funded, through the Schupf scholarship — and it was a three-week trip. I spent about two weeks in South Africa, and another week in Zimbabwe. The trip itself was my travelling mostly by train from Cape Town to Victoria Falls. That’s the bottom third of what was Cecil Rhodes’ projected Cape to Cairo Railway. That was my means of transportation, but also the narrative framework of my thesis.

I was writing about all of these topics, trying to cover tourism and colonialism and the history of this area as it follows the path of this railway.

That was the trip. And the thesis — the chapters were each of the places where I stepped off at. There’s this travel writer, Paul Theroux, who’s written a number of books about travelling, mostly by train. He travelled by train in the 70s from London to Singapore. That was his first book. Each of the chapters is a different train that he’s taken, a different place that he’s been. He uses conversations with locals as jumping-off points to address important issues, so that’s what I’m trying to do with mine.

Q: Would you describe your thesis more as a diary than as creative writing?

A: It’s like a buffed-out travel journal. It was the main text for my thesis — just going through my journal entries, remembering each of the conversations and what I thought of a historical site or a food that I tried. Yeah, less creative writing — it’s not fiction — but more expository, less purely academic.

Q: What was the most interesting entry in that journal?

A: The original plan for the trip was that I would get to Cape Town and travel north on the train until the tracks ran out. I had the idea that it would be more like a backpacking expedition, something like a month or two. But because of concerns, both political and parental, it became a little more scaled-down, and actually, the whole focus changed. Instead of doing the whole backpacking, modern adventure tourist trail, I decided to recreate the colonial trips that I had read about in the travelogues of people travelling from Cape Town to Victoria Falls and staying in the nice hotels, going on safaris. So that’s what I did. It hasn’t changed, really, in a hundred years.

That became a main point of my thesis — it’s no

longer Rhodesia, it’s Zimbabwe, it’s no longer apartheid South Africa, it’s been 20 years since then — but have things really changed in how we, the western tourists, or any tourists, perceive the place? How is it advertised to perpetuate these stereotypes? Have things really progressed?

So I followed this tourist trail, pretty much to a T, with one exception.

There’s a stretch that I had wanted to take the train through, when I was first planning this trip, but I was advised to take a plane instead, since it was a little bit safer. But there was a fuel shortage and all the flights were grounded. So I said, “Screw it,” and took the old train. It was 12 dollars for the overnight train, with no food, no water, no heat — and it was cold, because it was the winter — and no features except the electric light in my room. And it was the most amazing part of my trip.The stars were beautiful.

We stopped in the middle of the woods and there was a group of locals just camped outside of the train playing drums and moving cows and goats around in the middle of the night. I talked to the conductor about politics as we were pulling into the station. Part of my thesis was talking about “What is authentic?” We look for authentic things everywhere we go. Was this authentic? I guess so — I mean, I was the only tourist, the only white face, on the train. It was definitely the most memorable thing, and the least planned.

of these countries. But through development now — through railroads, mostly being built by China, and through tourism, which is a totally different side of the continent which mostly caters to a Western fantasy of Africa that comes out of the “Lion King” and “Heart of Darkness” — really bad stereotypes that converge on this fantasy of safaris and such that differ from the reality of most people living there — that hasn’t really changed since colonial times. It’s rooted in that era.

These two ideas center on railways, one with infrastructure development through building railways that then can take out resources — that’s the payback — and the other is central to tourism because it opens up the interior both for mineral exploitation but also for tourism. So railways are in the middle of both ideas. And my thesis, I imagined, would be that colonialism is still alive and well and show “Here are the ways,” and that there was a train running through each of them. That was the conclusion I reached while I was there and it was only after writing my whole thesis and going through my notes and thinking about it that I realized that there was a key difference between the story that I wrote and that I would have read by someone who was there 75 years ago. It’s that the people are at the center of my story. Not the places, or the hotels, or even the trains — it’s the people that I talked to, both black and white. It’s the conversations I had. And that is something that’s inherently postcolonial. I would only have been able to have those conversations if I had gone.

Professor Redding even suggested in

September, “Michael, you could write a piece of fiction if you wanted to. You could write a novel based loosely on your trip.” And I could have imagined what dinner at this restaurant would have been like or what a South African train would have been like, but I couldn’t have accurately imagined what these conversations would have been there. Those discussions I had with people there make up a big part of my thesis.

Q: What advice would you give to future thesis writers?

A: The advice I’ve been giving to underclassmen who are thinking about writing a thesis is, “Is this something you came up yourself? Not your professor’s idea?” And “Is this something you can still be excited about in March, when the going gets tough?” If you can be excited about it up until you hand it in, then it’s worth doing. I was lucky that that’s how it turned out for me, that I was excited about it until the very end of the line.

Something that I found very helpful was just to move around so that I didn’t get itchy feet in any one place. I rarely worked in my room. I worked in other dorms, places around campus — one day I went to Johnson Chapel, it was totally empty, and I just wrote half a chapter in there. But everyone gets to some point where the interest sort of tapers off, and they have to get themselves excited about it again. And sometimes, you just have to take a break from it and do something else. Other times, you need a change of scene. productive.

— Jingwen Zhang ’18

April , 2016 - April 10, 2016

Q: Was language ever a barrier?

A: No. One of the legacies of the British Empire, besides driving on the left, is that wherever they were, they left post-colonial states that generally speak very good English. In Zimbabwe, everyone that I interacted with spoke English. In South Africa, people speak English pretty regularly.

>>April 4, 2016 4:10 p.m., Off Campus Locations An officer assisted the town police at a motor vehicle accident on Northampton Road.

Q: What was the most difficult part of the trip or of writing the thesis?

A: The most difficult thing about the summer was wondering if I could go on this trip. I had surgery at the start of the summer and mono in the middle of the summer while studying for the MCAT. I didn’t know how quickly the mono would go away and if I would be well enough to go on a 15-hour flight and then be in southern Africa for three weeks. Yeah, there were times when the writing was stressful and the editing was stressful and I realized that I had 115 footnotes to put in — that was stressful.

But the most stressful part was the summer and wondering what I would do if I had to cancel.

My parents had been asking, “Can’t you write this thesis without going on a trip?” And I had convinced myself that no, I had to be there and experience it myself and take my own notes and have my own thoughts about it. As I was writing my conclusion, my adviser asked me, “Could you have done this without going on the trip?”

That struck a nerve with me, and I spent about a month trying to figure out how to conclude the thesis — I had already written most of it. I kept undermining my own thoughts and thinking that I could have done that from home or this new idea from my desk in Wieland.

Q: What was the main conclusion you drew from your trip, now that you’ve completed your thesis?

A: Professor Redding helped me come to this conclusion. I went on this trip with a preconceived notion of both what I would see and what my conclusion of this thesis would be.

And it was that Africa is postcolonial, it’s been half a century since decolonization in most

>>April 6, 2016 11:45 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall A student reported the theft of a black Raleigh bicycle from the front porch of Valentine Hall. It is valued at $450.00 >>April 8, 2016 4:09 a.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer checked on a report of a suspicious vehicle. It was found to be a trucker waiting to make a delivery.

12:39 p.m., Off Campus A student reported a case of harassment. Matter is under investigation.

2:50 p.m., Off Campus A student reported an incident of identity fraud.

8:31 p.m., Hitchcock House Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the second floor and found it activated when a hair straightener was used too close to it. >>April 9, 2016 12:44 a.m., Merrill Science Road An officer on patrol observed two males jump the fence to

the Greenway construction area. They fled the area upon see the officer.

1:55 a.m., Plimpton House Officers responded to a report of a burning odor and discovered a resident’s cell phone caught fire while charging.

10:31 p.m., Mayo Smith House Officers responded to a report of two males arguing in the second floor hall. No one was found.

11:43 p.m., Merrill Science Road An officer stopped two students near the Greenway construction site. Both were wearing reflective vests and one was carrying a hard hat.

They admitted taking the items from the construction site. >>April 10, 2016 12:01 a.m., Pond Dormitory An officer discovered an overcrowded party with people dancing on a window sill in a first floor suite. The event was stopped and the room was cleared out.

12:20 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer discovered evidence that hard alcohol had been available at a registered party in violation of the party policy.

The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

The Amherst Student • April 13, 2016

News

3

Blake Wins Presidency In Landslide Election Continued from Page 1

bureaucracy and not being able to push past it while you are also trying to be a student. It would be nice if you could share that burden between students and senators, and then more things will get changed.”

The last pillar of Blake’s platform consists of “Academic Reform,” which includes collaborating with the student body to push for less work over breaks and implementing a mentorship program within majors.

“It would be nice if you were a new major, you could be paired up with a junior or a senior to give advice,” Blake said. She noted that this would expand the community within each major as well as getting students of different years to interact more.

Reflecting on his defeat, Craig said that the presidential race gave him a different

perspective on the work he has done as a member of student and faculty committees and as an activist on campus.

“Winning the presidency would have been one way to effect change,” he said. “Honestly, it would have been the more frustrating way, because that’s not my style, but I would have done it. What this means to me is that the work I’ve done is toward a goal that is larger than the presidency. I’ve been working to try and make our community a healthy place and embody a real sense of community.”

During his campaign, Craig met with the leaders of affinity groups and resource centers around campus to listen for improvements that he could make if elected.

“Those meetings left me a bit disillusioned, because a lot of people meant well, but I saw some really problematic stuff that I think points

to some deep issues on our campus,” he said.

Craig said that in the days prior to the vote, he felt that those problems were too deep to be handled by only the student government.

“Some of the problems that I see now are that students are not aware, in my opinion, of the gap between the amount of power they have and the responsibility they’re taking for that power,” he said. “I now believe that the biggest barrier to institutional change here is the student body and the AAS are one of the institutions that creates problematic structures among the students.”

Pinney announced that she would withdraw from the race during the candidate speech night, and voiced her own concerns about the AAS on the Facebook page for her campaign.

“I believe that the AAS is a flawed body and that its distribution of power does not

effectively empower students on this campus in the way that it could,” she wrote. “I envision a successful AAS as being a smaller advisory body that works with outside communities of student activists rather than operating among themselves.”

Blake said she thought that all candidates largely agreed on the need to make significant improvements to AAS. Blake said, if she had to pick one problem next year to focus on, she would work to change how the student body and senate interact. Her goal is to make senate more efficient, proactive, visible and accountable.

“You need that first, before anything can be fixed,” Blake said. “I think it’s a process, it’s going to be hard, but we also have a year. That’s a pretty long time to change how senate is right now.”

Curriculum Committee Invites Students to Val Starts Discuss Potential Goals for Fall Semester Trial Period Continued from Page 1 and a minor. Triple majors would no longer be allowed in this system.

Another subcommittee is tasked with improving “Fundamental Capabilities.” They work with shared intellectual experiences, and during their meetings considered how to improve first-year seminars and raised the idea of creating a sophomore advising board. Firstyear seminars all take place at the same time, so the group suggested the possibility of meeting as a larger group, as well as implementing a common theme among seminars.

The sophomore advising board would be a program in which a sophomores reflect on the progress of their studies and the direction of

their future at Amherst. Each student would have conversations with the student’s adviser and two other professors.

“We’ve been thinking about ways to change our advising system from one that is more transactional — a student just goes during pre-registration, the advisor clicks a button and that’s the end of it — to something that is more sustained over time where your advisor is meeting with you more frequently, they are giving you feedback and advice and hopefully fostering more of a close relationship.” Kim said.

This subcommittee also considered ways to link capstone senior projects, such as theses or comprehensive exams, together across majors.

The third committee on “Equality of

Opportunity” focused on more bureaucratic changes. Their ideas included revising the current pass/fail system to allow students to declare that they will take a class pass/fail later in the semester. The subcommittee also wants to review policies about withdrawal from courses, the “incomplete” option, repeating a course and course load flexibility, such as having lab courses count as 1.5 credits.

The Curriculum Committee will continue discussing these proposals this spring and will have a day-long retreat in May. A smaller group will draft a report this summer, which will be refined in the fall through meetings with faculty and students. They plan to finish the report at the end of the fall semester this year.

Continued from Page 1 something,” Mallory said.

David Zhang ’17 said that these expanded hours could offer a potential social space. “This school lacks an unproductive social hub, a leisurely public space, and Val in the afternoon could provide that,” Zhang said.

Zhang also suggested that Valentine’s program might reduce activity in Frost. “With Val open in the afternoons, I think that people will go to Frost Cafe a lot less,” Zhang said.

The trial period marks another effort by the dining hall staff to expand dining options for students in recent years. In the fall of 2013, after a two-week trial period, dining services established Grab-N-Go in Keefe Campus Center.

Buzzfeed Reporter Speaks On Covering Trump Campaign Phillip Yan ’18 Staff Writer

Students gathered to hear Buzzfeed senior political reporter McKay Coppins speak on his experiences following Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last Thursday, April 7, in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry. The talk, titled “Life on the Trump Trail,” was co-sponsored by the Religion Department and the Willis D. Wood Fund.

Visiting professor of religion Max Mueller introduced Coppins for the talk.

Coppins started by introducing how he wrote “Life on the Trump Trail.” He described meeting with Trump’s aides, who invited him to attend a speech the candidate was delivering while the campaign still had only a small amount of political momentum.

“I remember, right before it came out, I was googling Trump’s name ... and nothing,” Coppins said. “It had been days since Trump’s name had

Picture this:

been in a headline. He had constantly said, ‘I’m going to run for President.’ He would get a ton of attention, and he would say ‘Actually, I’m not going to do it.’ Trump is as likely to run for president in his lifetime as he is to accept follicular defeat. I was wrong — he ran for president two years later.”

After the article was published, Coppins was blacklisted from attending Trump events.

“Trump proceeded to spend the next several weeks trying to generate a flame war on Twitter with me,” Coppins said. “He called me … ‘slime bag,’ and ‘true garbage.’ There were a lot of words like that.”

Then, Coppins began to talk about the relationship between religion and Trump’s campaign. Coppins said that Trump does not strictly follow any religious beliefs.

“He often praises the Bible as ‘even better than his best-selling book,’” Coppins said. “One of his most famous religious experiences was courting his mistress-turned-wife in a church in Manhattan

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… He has failed to list a favorite Bible verse, saying he likes them all.”

Coppins, who is Mormon, described his experience talking to Trump about Mormonism and politics. According to Coppins, Trump claimed that Romney lost the election because he was Mormon. When Coppins revealed his own Mormon faith, Trump immediately raised his eyebrows and corrected himself, saying that he loved Mormons.

“Trump, in general, is someone who views minority faiths with skepticism and is quick to cast them aside unless he needs them,” Coppins said, “He tends to use religion, when he does, for his own political purposes.”

Coppins said that Trump uses faith for political gain. “It actually fits well into his general campaign message,” he said. “The Trump message, ‘Make America Great Again,’ is key. It’s about nostalgia.

It’s about targeting a certain swath of the American electorate, who tend to be white, middle class, in

areas of the country particularly hard hit by the recession and slow to recover — his message is targeted to those people saying that America has gone to hell in a handbasket, and I’m going to fix it.”

Coppins said that his theory on Trump’s campaign strategy is that he promises to return mainline Protestant denominations to the political power they had in past decades.

In response to a question about the election, Coppins said, “I do think it’s worth noting that Trump is, to an extent, really outside anything we’ve seen in a long time in presidential politics.”

“I really enjoyed the talk,” Chloe Revery ’16 said. “It was wonderful to have the chance to talk to a journalist whose pieces I’ve read, about his work and the subjects he covers. Mr. Coppins is an expert on Trump’s candidacy and has been following him for several years. But he’s also very knowledgeable about today’s Republican Party. That dual expertise puts him in a position to comment on what Trump’s success means for the Republican Party.”

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Opinion

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Room Draw Chaos Editorial

On a campus fraught with loneliness and stress, the decision of where to live on campus is of the utmost important for Amherst students. The current room draw process, revamped with the new online system, aimed to alleviate some of the anxiety, but students still found themselves battling with unnecessary extra pressure associated with the perils of the process on top of the unavoidable stress involved in the procedure.

This year, the Office of Residential Life invested in setting up an online portal that was intended to make the room draw process more efficient. The system proved beneficial in that students who did not have set room draw groups could seek one out based on an algorithm that matched students with potential roommates. However, the system failed its most critical objective, which was to achieve efficiency in this otherwise slow process that required the Student Housing Advisory Committee members to aid students as they chose rooms. Students were given the choice to select rooms online or in person in Keefe, yet many found themselves having to do both as the online process was ridden with technical difficulties and flaws. Rather than enjoying the ease of an efficient system during this stressful time, students found themselves to be the guinea pigs of a new system that wasn’t thoroughly tested.

Another persistent issue of room draw has been the timing. Room draw week always falls during a stressful time of the semester. Students are caught in between midterm exams and essays, and don’t need the unnecessary pressure of dealing with technological issues of an online process that is out of their control. Additionally, the process lasts long well into the night, forcing students to spend even more time away from their academics to watch their peers’ choices unfold and weigh their options.

Additionally, lip sync, a beloved tradition at the college, allots a small window of time for students to prepare.

While it was a fun event for the campus community, participants chose to forgo academic responsibilities in order to put on these performances. The unnecessary stresses associated with room draw merely intensify the already chaotic life of Amherst students with little present hope of these stresses being alleviated.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this year’s room draw left many students unsatisfied with their housing options. It’s true that not all dorms are created equal, and some students will inevitably be disappointed with their living situation. But this year was especially bad, as evidenced by the fact that an unprecedented number of sophomores felt that they had no choice but to opt out.

Why did this happen? Some of it is currently beyond Res Life’s control. Because the college has replaced the socials (which are almost entirely filled with singles) with the Greenway dorms (which are a mix of singles and doubles),

there are simply fewer singles available. As a result, many rising juniors, who were expecting to easily snag a single in a desirable location, were forced to choose between living in a double, choosing a faraway single on the Hill or opting out. It’s too bad that the college chose to build more doubles when it had the chance to build more singles and improve Amherst’s housing situation for all students. But unfortunately this can no longer be fixed.

However, there are some concrete steps that Res Life can take next year to improve room draw for all students.

The editorial board has made these suggestions in the past, but given the general dissatisfaction with this year’s room draw, we think they bear repeating.

First, Res Life should remove the quota system on the Greenway dorms. We understand that Res Life implemented this system to give all students an equal opportunity to live in the new dorms. But this does not make sense. Rising sophomores still have two more years to live in the Greenway, but rising seniors who were shut out of the dorms by the quota system will have no opportunity. Eliminating the quota system would be the fairest thing to do and would be in keeping with how Res Life distributes rooms in other dorms. After all, Lipton is a highly desirable dorm, but we don’t have a quota on the number of seniors who can live in Lipton. There is no reason the Greenway should be different. Additionally, the Greenway quota created difficulties for rising juniors and seniors this year, because it forced an unusually large number of rising seniors to choose rooms in the Triangle. This meant that Hitchcock and other dorms were almost entirely full by the time rising juniors began choosing, and juniors’ options were severely limited.

Second, the college should take another look at how it handles theme housing. One easy fix for next year would be to move the French House from King to Seligman. King is a top choice dorm for seniors, so reserving an entire floor of King for the (mostly sophomore and junior) residents of French House further restricted the options available to seniors, contributing to the trickle-down effect in which seniors chose rooms ordinarily selected by juniors and sophomores, thus creating worse options for the underclassmen. Seligman, however, is a much more reasonable location for French House: It’s already a dorm populated by juniors and sophomores, and it’s close to Newport, so French House and Spanish House could continue hosting events together. It’s a beautiful dorm, but because it’s in a less popular location, students would not feel that their options were being restricted by theme houses. The college should also be clearer about designating dorms as theme houses. Because few students knew that Tyler would be a theme house next year, some students accidentally picked Tyler during room draw, while other students who wanted to live in Tyler had to jump through several confusing hoops to live in the dorm.

The Beauty in Sports Fandom Jake May ’19 Contributing Writer On Sunday afternoon, playing in The Masters, one of golf ’s four Major Tournaments, Jordan Spieth, the No. 2 ranked golfer in the world and my favorite athlete in the world, arrived at the 10th hole of Augusta National Golf Club with a five shot lead.

Spieth, the defending champion at Augusta, had just birdied the final four holes of the front nine. He knew he was going to win the tournament. I knew he was going to win the tournament. Everyone knew.

He did not win the tournament.

Instead of winning his second straight

green jacket (The Masters’ equivalent to a trophy), a feat that only three other men have accomplished, Jordan Spieth carded a quadruple-bogey on the 12th hole after bogeys on 11 and 12, and lost by three shots to the Englishman Danny Willett. This collapse is not only one of the worst ever at The Masters, but it is one of the worst and most shocking collapses in golf history. It is also the most crushing sports loss I have ever experienced as a fan.

When Spieth missed a birdie putt on the 17th hole that was his last hope to tie the lead, all possible positivity left my body. My face went white. I felt like I had just been punched in the stomach. When I returned to my room

after sitting on the quad in silence for a good 15 minutes, my outward dejection and bitterness was so apparent that my roommate immediately asked if everything was okay. As I explained why I was so upset, I am not kidding, I nearly began to weep. About the result of a godforsaken golf tournament.

Some may say that this reaction is unwarranted. Some may laugh at my attachment to a single golfer’s performance. But I will defend my love of the sport and of Jordan Spieth to the end. To me, seeing how affected I was by his collapse only served to strengthen my Spieth fandom. Instead of just having a

Continued on next page

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Elaine Jeon, Lauren Tuiskula Executive Adviser Sophie Murguia Managing News Dan Ahn, Kiana Herold, Jingwen Zhang Managing Opinion Diane Lee, Julia Pretsfelder Managing Arts and Living Gabby Edzie, Paola Garcia-Prieto, Alida Mitau Managing Sports Jason Darell, Drew Kiley, Julia Turner Managing Design Gabby Bishop S TA F F Head Publisher Emily Ratte Design Editors Justin Barry, Megan Do, Sunna Juhn, Adele Loomis, Monica Nimmagadda, Zavi Sheldon, Chloe Tausk, Yrenly Yuan Assistant News Editors Ryan Cenek, Carlos Rivero Photography Editor Kyra Gardner

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The Amherst Student • April 13, 2016

Opinion

5

The Beauty in Sports, cont.

Continued from previous page normal Sunday afternoon, I instead embarked on an emotional journey similar to watching a powerful film or reading the end of a powerful book. Granted, in this case the

journey was one that led to disappointment, but to me, it was a profound journey nonetheless.

This is what is so wonderful about sports.

To be a real fan, one must stick with his or her team or player through thick and thin. Sure,

when one’s favorite team or favorite player loses, it may be tempting to run away from caring to avoid being hurt again. But part of being a fan is allowing the losses to hurt in order to make the victories feel that much sweeter. Jordan Spieth’s loss at The Masters

will go down in history as one of the worst collapses in the history of golf. But I know that the next time he wins a major, which could be as soon as June when he attempts to defend his title at the U.S. Open, he — and I — will be far happier about the win than we

On the Desire for Politics in the Classroom Samuel Rosenblum ’16 Contributing Writer Many students, including me, desire to put the classroom in the service of politics. I mean that many of us think that, with the forces of thought, knowledge-production, and scholarship on our side, we can enact political change and transformation. And while it is true that we can, it might be worth pausing over this desire to ask the question: Should “the life of the mind,” to borrow Hannah Arendt’s formulation, be employed to enact social change, issue public policy and modify our ethos toward the world? The short answer, I contend, is “no.” But rather than recapitulate the rehearsed liberal defenses of free speech and the marketplace of ideas as hallmarks of the classroom, I wonder if we can think about a distinction between the political and the intellectual which affirms the separate values of the two.

I think that, without articulating a distinction between the intellectual and the political, we risk reducing the classroom to the service of our political convictions and agendas. For example, anthropologist Saba Mahmood, writing in Politics of Piety, critiques certain strands of feminist scholarship which reduce women’s agency to acts of resistance against repressive, patriarchal norms. She suggests that we undo agonistic and dualistic frameworks of action in which “norms are conceptualized on the model of doing and undoing, consolidation and subversion — and instead think about the variety of ways in which norms are lived and inhabited, aspired to, reached for and consummated.” Whereas Mahmood wants to “detach agency from forms of progressive politics,” I want to decouple thought from forms of progressive politics, to see what we might illustrate by drawing a distinction between them. This is not to claim that power dynamics don’t operate in classrooms or that professors should stop using their scholarly authority to engender critical discussion, but to suggest that both the political and the intellectual are better served by their separation.

Consider three different sets of students who might, at least in my read, have this desire, and my critiques of them.

One group of students, allied with certain strands of Amherst Uprising, believe in a mandatory cultural competency course for students on questions of race, gender, sexuality and systemic oppression. The course’s proponents, I suspect, would view the creation of such a class as an institutional recognition of the salience of these matters and the formation of a space to teach ignorant students contemporary identity-based vocabulary, as well as empathy and sensitivity toward questions of culture and lived experiences. Although I for the most part agree with the sentiment of such an idea, I disagree with the place and time of it. The reason I recede from this proposal, as I understand it, is that to propose a class fueled by a goal which every student achieves by its end presupposes the course’s pedagogical success and the shift in the students’ viewpoint which will come about from taking the course. Contra certain critics of academic freedom, to assume that a class must, should or achieve a political desire forecloses the processes by which students, experiencing the material of the course, might call into question, affirm, radicalize, neutralize, resist or subvert the very premises, logics, arguments and trajectories on which the course is based.

Another group of students, who tend to go into certain social sciences, desire to study

human beings, cultures, demographic groups, ways of life, and public policy from an “objective” point of view. Proponents of “objective” social science proclaim to stand in an impartial, autonomous, rational and omniscient position over the groups they study. But, as any of us who have taken an anthropology or sociology course here knows: there is no external, Archimedean viewpoint from which the researcher can see and know everything about the world she studies. I want to suggest that scholars of this sort — public policy analysts, for example — actually repress their political subjectivity and convictions in order to feel secure and confident in their critiques. They miss out on a certain type of play opened up by the insecurity and contingency of the lack of an omniscient viewpoint. And furthermore, they might reify public policy or liberal law as the best ways to reform and better communities.

A third group of students who express this desire are those who study political, critical, left, emancipatory and literary theory. At least in part because theory is fashionable (at Amherst), we find ourselves attracted to its radical potential — to unleash and articulate repressed political desires in ourselves, to critique the world we find ourselves in, and to modify our ways of relating to the world. But some of us, at least some of the time, think, perhaps unconsciously, that by doing theory, we are doing political action. This is surely perverse. First, political action constitutes an array of experiences at once much greater than but indebted to critical thought. Think of labor organizing, letter-writing, voting, protests, occupations, strikes, vigils, negotiations, penning op-eds, serving on committees, attending and speaking at public forums and divestment, among other forms of action. Put more bluntly: What does it mean to theorize radical or emancipatory theory within an increasingly corporatized academy which is conforming to the demands of the market economy? Second, to think that you are cool, hip or part of some sort of vanguard by doing (even radical) theory inside the corporatized academy leaves unanswered the very relation of critical thought and political action. Of course, we should not succumb to the accusations that we are eggheads. Nonetheless, it is critical to recognize the position of the scholar or student of left theory as modest but powerful. Modest, because there are whole histories and contemporary movements which think and do politics outside of the academy. Powerful, because of the abundance of thought, knowledge and ideas circulating within it. If you want to be in the academy and critique it, great. But perhaps we might want to be able to articulate reasons for theorizing within the academy that

exceed our desire for politics.

The classroom, not despite but because of its privileging of critical inquiry and its commitment to the “life of the mind,” requires a certain separation from politics. Paradoxically, the distinction I draw might allow for the better fulfillment of both the intellectual and the political. Intellectual thought, distinct from the desire for the political, might open the classroom to more vigorous agonistic debate, critical interpretation, disinterested study and affective experiences, all engendered by the constellation of ideas articulated and conveyed within it. Without any political agenda, students can be freer to play with and critique concepts presented. Perhaps then, a more potent defense of academic freedom could stem from the possibility of surprise, mystery, astonishment, paradox, strangeness and humor, even at the risk of awkwardness, discomfort and offense in the classroom.

If we recognize that the classroom does not hold a monopoly on political thought or action (which Amherst’s intense commitment to academics might make us believe), we might attempt to engage politically beyond our classes, as well as use forms of critical thought beyond

it. I think certain students on campus began to perform such political action through Amherst Uprising. But further, I would posit that this distinction reminds us of the material and affective battles in politics which operate beyond the space of the classroom, in, for example, “civil society.” If there is, as multiple professors have suggested to me, a decline in Amherst’s civil society — 535 students voted in the last AAS E-Board election, newspaper and blog readership is on the decline – coupled with a nihilistic loneliness among students, perhaps this distinction can help reenergize our campus because we will turn toward political action and critical thought beyond the classroom.

Let us not divorce the political and the intellectual. But neither let us merge the two to the point of their indistinction. This is not to say that there are or should be pure spaces for politics and pure spaces for thought: both come into being in impure space. I would not want to lose the self-criticality of thought in the name of politics nor the materiality of politics and political action in the name of critical thought.

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Arts&Living

Photo courtesy of charterforcompassion.org

On April 6, artist Rachel Sussman visited Amherst to speak on her project “The Oldest Living Things in the World,” which documents earth’s oldest species.

Rachel Sussman Speaks on “The Oldest Living Things in the World” Sophie Currin ’17 Staff Writer Outside, rain was falling, droplets slowly sliding down against the outside of the glass.

It was a quiet, cozy Wednesday afternoon in Fayerweather Hall, and we were learning about the oldest living organisms in our world, and the immense beauty of “deep time” via photography, a medium that captures the present, the ephemeral.

This past Wednesday, April 6, Rachel Sussman, an artist from Brooklyn, New York shared her thoughts and stories with Amherst students, professors and the greater community from her photography project documenting the earth’s oldest living things called “The Oldest Living Things in the World.” It was a 10-year process with hundreds of thousands of miles traveled and dollars spent and resulted in her own traveling exhibition and a New York Times bestselling book.

In her work, Sussman focuses on connecting art, science and philosophy in a way that reinvigorates engagement between the minutiae present within each field and subfield.

Her work tells a more accessible, bigger picture story about the ancient than the dense, highly specific, largely unrecognized research papers that already exist on the topic.

Sussman’s quest to document pictorially the oldest living things began in Japan in 2004, where chance, rumors and her sense of adventure led her to travel from the mainland to deep inside an isolated island off the coast, reached by train, then ferry then a two-day hike. At the end of her journey, she came face to face with the ambiguously 2,180 to 7,000 year-old Jomon Sugi Japanese Cedar. Despite its awe-inspiring longevity, Sussman does not recall feeling any incredible connection to all this history, the thousands of human lifespans that this tree has seen, in that moment.

She took photos, and the shutter clicked, but nothing in her did.

Yet, intrigued by the age of this tree still, Sussman began to research the other oldest living things on the planet to photograph them as well, and hopefully create a compilation of deep time that people living in places as diverse as these ancient beings could con-

nect with. Sussman’s research took her to Elephant Island in Antarctica, South Africa, Copenhagen, Chile, the bottom of the sea off the coast of Tobago, Sweden, Florida and many more near and far. Species Sussman found ranged from different types of trees to shrubs to various bacteria and moss to coral and so on; the ages of these ranged from 2,000 to 60,000 years old. Some had adapted to very extreme conditions, while others thrived extraordinarily in what we would call the normal.

In her presentation of this adventure, that actualized as an art product but also the fulfillment of her lifelong dream to travel and penchant for wanderlust, Sussman told stories of her own personal growth as well as the process of discovering, locating and researching these organisms.

In connecting the world of science and art, Sussman swiftly exited her comfort zone and delved into dealing with specialists —

those who had researched these long-lifed creatures and produced papers filled with the scientific specifics of longevity.

“Nine times out of 10 the scientists I contacted were happy to help,” Sussman explained. “Levels of enthusiasm ranged from sending me the GPS coordinates to inviting me to join their own expeditions to visit the species.”

On one expedition, she tested her own personal philosophy of only eating what she could physically harvest or kill herself with a clear conscious. On the wind-ridden, seemingly desolate landscape of Southern Greenland, Sussman stuck her hands into a chilled stream and extracted, skinned, cooked and ate one of the hundreds of swarming fish that flourished beneath the surface.

The series of photos induces reverence for nature, and recognizes climate change. Since she started working on the project, an over 3,000 year-old underground forest in South

Africa has been bulldozed over, and a 3,500 year-old hollow tree just outside of Orlando was burned down by some careless kids smoking meth. The fragility of the seemingly immortal recognizes the possibility of instantaneous destruction.

Sussman’s “The Oldest Living Things in the World” exposes many of the extraordinary, rare instances where life extends far, far beyond the scope of ancestral memory. A human life aligned next to these grand, unfathomably old species becomes, as the artist herself describes, somewhat marginalized yet glorified, so that we become the minutiae that’s important.

Rachel Sussman is currently working on a project on deep time and deep space in tandem with SpaceX, NASA and CERN supported by the LACMA Lab. She has two upcoming exhibitions at the MASS MoCA — “The Space Between” beginning on April 16 and the ongoing “Explode Every Day.”

Photo courtesy of paisleycircus.com

Rachel Sussman’s “The Oldest Living Things in the World” documents a range of species, like the Nambian desert dweller, Welwitschia (pictured above) which is 2,000 years old.

Arts & Living 7

The Amherst Student • Aprl 13, 2016

“Zootopia” Succeeds with Meaningful Social Commentary and Fun Simon Stracher ’18 Staff Writer

Disney’s latest animated feature film, “Zootopia,” aims for depth and meaning and succeeds. However, by contradicting its own message at times, it doesn’t quite reach the status of animated titans like “Toy Story,” “Wall-E” or “Inside Out.” “Zootopia” takes place in a world where animals have civilized themselves. Like humans, they deal with many of the problems of society: crime, bureaucratic backlog and prejudice. The protagonist, Judy Hopps, is a courageous rabbit from rural Bunnyburrow who has always dreamed of working as a cop in the big city of Zootopia. After a lot of determination and hard work, she realizes this dream and moves to Zootopia with a goal of making the world a better place. She quickly becomes overwhelmed by the harshness and indifference that she sees around her in the big city, and her moral fibers start to strain.

Moreover, she is the first bunny cop in the history of Zootopia, and she has to battle against prejudiced co-workers and civilians who don’t take her seriously as an officer. But when she discovers that a concerning number of animals in Zootopia have gone missing, it becomes her task to find them. It

takes the help of Nick Wilde, a cynical fox voiced by Jason Bateman, to bring her back into the fold and help her find these missing animals.

Prejudice and discrimination are central themes of the film. And while “Zootopia” attempts to show how prejudice affects everyone, it often uses instances of inequality for the sake of cheap laughs. In one scene, Judy needs to get a license plate number from the animal equivalent of the DMV — where only sloths are employed. Words cannot describe how slow they are. It is a funny idea that surely elicits many laughs, until one realizes the joke is based on a prejudiced generalization of all sloths. Moreover, all of the sloths shown in the DMV move at the same molasses pace, and thus, they all only seem to have one characteristic. This scene really stood out because the movie is about overcoming prejudice, yet the director chose to include jokes based on stereotypes.

Nevertheless, the core message remains mostly intact. For example, at one point in the film, Judy chastises another animal for calling her cute. She explains that, in the world of Zootopia, it is only appropriate for other rabbits to call each other cute and the term is socially off-limits for other animals. Lessons like this are not only for children in the audience —

Photo courtesy of ocamundongo.com.br

“Zootopia”’s plot follows one bunny’s journey to make the world a better place. the rest of us would do well to follow them too.

And even if you don’t want to be hit over the head with a moral story, there is plenty of fun for adult audiences too — for example with “Breaking Bad” references like: “He’s the opposite of friendly —

he’s unfriendly” (which, I swear comes off funnier in the movie).

“Zootopia” aims high, which is quite admirable.

And besides some cheap jokes, it reaches its mark.

Disney’s got another big success on its hands.

Six Exciting Things to Watch Next Time Your Procrastinating Evan Paul ’18 Staff Writer If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly looking for reasons to procrastinate. If you’ve already watched all of “House of Cards”, “Jessica Jones” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” you do not have to look any further for new material. Here are the best six things you should watch next on your respective streaming services: 6. “UnReal” A Lifetime Original dark comedy series, “UnReal” is a mythical, “behind-the-scenes” version of reality television dating shows like “The Bachelor.” The show that directly mimics “The Bachelor” is entirely fictional and is called “Everlasting.” The main role, Shiri Appleby, a 37-year old actress who has been in Hollywood since the 1980s, plays the video producer. The show is at once gritty and whimsical, and you get to see what (possibly) goes on behind the scenes of your favorite reality TV shows. Sometimes, this includes dastardly plans to bring up a contestant’s dark past in order to get a more dramatic scene. It is the perfect 42-minute “dramedy” that answers all of your questions about what really goes on behind those sets.

5. “Mozart in the Jungle” This Amazon original comedy stars Lola

Kirke in her first television role as Hailey Rutledge and Gael Garcia Bernal as Roderigo. The premise of this show surrounds a young college graduate and talented oboist (Hailey) who is trying to make it big in the classical music world. Roderigo, the newly appointed maestro of the New York Symphony, takes Hailey under his wing. This show is a thirty-minute comedy filled with enough laughs and beautiful scores to keep you thoroughly enthralled.

4. “The Barkley Marathon” The Race that Eats its Young”: This documentary, found on Netflix, chronicles the 2012 Barkley Marathon event. If you ever thought completing an iron-man was impressive, you’re sure to be wowed by the show’s depiction of the competitors in this race. Limited to 40 participants, the runners have to send in an essay explaining why they should be allowed to enter into the race. The course is a stretch of untamed wilderness that makes a single loop of 20 miles. Runners must complete the loop five times in order to be considered a “finisher.” Many however, only make it through the “fun-run,” which totals in at three loops, or 60 miles. Competitors are truly put through the ringer when they embark on this journey.

Often, on lap completions, runners will come back bloody, injured and completely exhausted from the run. But, because it is a race, they often only spend 20 to 30 minutes at the campground before beginning the race again. Since

its inauguration in 1986, the yearly event has only seen 14 winners. The show effectively depicts the intensity and impressiveness of the runner and the race, making it well worth watching.

3. “Austin to Boston” Another documentary, “Austin to Boston” chronicles the cross-country road trip of four up and coming bands travelling in Volkswagen vans. The documentary follows The Staves, Ben Howard, Bear’s Den, and Nathaniel Rateliff, four different bands with similar sounding folk-influenced tunes. If you have ever dreamed of traveling the country with your friends and playing music, then this is the documentary for you. However, much like the film’s tagline states, you’ll soon “be cured” of the dream. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies for these bands, and the documentary clearly shows that. Even so, you will probably only end up admiring the bands more, if only for the sheer grit it takes to tour the country as extensively as they do.

2. “Love” “Love” is a fairly new Netflix Original Series that was created by and stars Paul Rust. He and his costar, Gillian Jacobs star respectively as Gus and Mickey, the two main characters.

The two have been unlucky in love, and they are both far past their early twenties with fairly successful jobs. Yes, this is yet another show

with white actors in the lead role and only a couple people of color as side characters, but please give it a chance. The show depicts love compellingly as dark, funny and enlightening.

And it’s particularly interesting that the show’s main characters are really unlikeable on purpose. Mickey is semi-depraved and Gus is so nice that you want to punch him. Yet somehow, it works. Give the show a try: at the very least, you’ll be interested in the fictional witch show that Paul’s character, Gus, tutors actors for.

1. “Wentworth” Have you ever thought that, while entertaining, “Orange is the New Black” still has many moments when you forget the women are in jail? Have you been bothered by that fact, since it’s supposed to be a show about prison?

What about the ever-growing cast of characters, not all of which we care enough about to see their backstories? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then “Wentworth” might be the show for you. This Australian female-prison drama has all of the darkness that “Orange is the New Black” lacks. While “OITNB” isn’t constantly happy, “Wentworth” truly trumps it in the intensity and realism. I really encourage you to watch this series! You won’t be disappointed.

There you have it: a wide variety of shows and documentaries to keep your mind off that ever-growing pile of work on your desk.

Hákonarson’s “Rams”: A Familiar Narrative from an Unfamiliar Place

Photo courtesy of http://movies.mxdwn.

“Rams” is an Icelandic film written and directed by Grímur Hákonarson.

Beau Santero ’18 Contributing Writer Foreign films have the unique ability to introduce their alien audience to a new culture, landscape, language and film tradition. Great foreign films transcend traditional films when the audience is not only absorbed in the narrative, but also in the nuances that only foreign films can offer.

Where these films can fall flat to an international audience is when the unfamiliar becomes a distraction. The unconventionality of a film from a different nation can diverge attention from the narrative, however captivating the story might be.

“Rams” is an Icelandic film written and directed

by Grímur Hákonarson, and its comfortable pace, stationary setting and intelligible narrative allow the audience to familiarize themselves with the

nuances of Icelandic film and to appreciate the impressive work of Hákonarson.` The movie’s first few scenes are accentuations of the scenic locations in which Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) lives as a sheep farmer. His farm, a small barn located only a few paces from his humbly-sized home, is framed by Hákonarson to emphasize his isolation in the mountains. These landscape shots are drawn out, but they aren’t an infliction of boredom or frustration. More so, these long shots encourage viewers to appreciate the scenery of Iceland and control the pace of a movie that continually seeks patience in order for it to be enjoyed.

After an introduction to the landscape, the film’s plot begins when Gummi brings his sheep to a small barn for a competition of finest ram. Gummi’s ram comes in second, and the winner is a man who we find out is his estranged brother, Kiddi (Theódór Júlíusson.) The hostility between these two brothers is well portrayed by both Júlíusson and Sigurjónsson; there is no dialogue between the two, but the looks they give one another and the body language they show in each other’s presence makes the hatred in their relationship palpable.

Where the two continue to thrive as actors is in their emotional connection with their sheep. The isolation that Hákonarson frames so well in the landscape shots makes it easy to understand why these men are so invested in their farm animals.

Gummi and Kiddi’s loneliness is projected masterfully through their dependence on their sheep for any sort of companionship. This loneliness is exaggerated when scrapie, a fatal and incurable disease found in sheep, is found in the sheep on their farms. Kiddi and Gummi are utterly devastated when they are forced to slaughter all of their animals, and how they each handle this news begins to illuminate the differences between the two, and why they no longer speak.

The film never leaves their farms, and never really incorporates more than the two of them into the narrative’s arch, yet there is so much to appreciate within the film’s simplicity. The pace of the movie may feel slow, but Hákonarson offers a lot to engage with — Gummi’s oscillation from jealous introvert to supportive brother, Kiddi’s nearfatal alcoholism and seemingly unrelenting hatred

Continued on Page 8

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • April 13, 2016

Hákonarson Utilizes Scenic Locations to Accentuate Loneliness Continued from Page 7 the brothers becomes the focal point of the film, due mostly to the fact that what they both care about most, their sheep, is in jeopardy. Their curmudgeonly nature is both humane and spiteful; there is subtle charm in their bitter interactions, but the emotional strain that they both feel is impossible to ignore.

The story turns from brothers divided to an emotional reconciliation when the two work to-

gether to protect the remaining sheep on their farm. The sheep, which function both as a catalyst for division and reunion, ultimately draw Gummi and Kiddi together into a wind storm at the top of a mountain in the dead of winter. Though it may seem customary for a dramatic film to end in a transition from bitter hatred to loving unity, Hákonarson’s story doesn’t make this ending feel forced. The patience of the narrative and the strength of acting make Gummi and Kiddi seem

far too stubborn to reconcile, yet the few moments of charm in the midst of this bitterness leave a sense of hope for the two to finally appreciate one another. “Rams” does a great job in demonstrating the relationship of the brothers as impossible of achieving coexistence, while leaving an ounce of hope that they will work through their differences.

“Rams” is situated in a part of the world that may be tough to recognize, but the emotions conveyed through the dark humor and human-

ist drama are incredibly familiar. The slow pace might cause some minor irritation, but the practical hour-thirty runtime seems like Hákonarson is cognizant of the speed of this film. Though a movie focusing on an 80-something year old Icelandic sheep farmer and his brother may seem peculiar, “Rams” frictionlessly incorporates its unfamiliar setting, people and language into a narrative that can be universally understood and appreciated.

The Man of Steel and the Dark Knight Meet With a Whimper, Not a Bang Mark Simonitis ’19 Staff Writer After years of anticipation, the world’s finest heroes have finally made their big screen debut side by side in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” in a study of what happens when you mix the amazing with the awful. Unfortunately, the movie never ascends to an experience worthy of these iconic titans of fiction. On the other hand, it still has enough good qualities to escape the label of a terrible movie.

In case you missed the “v” in the title, the movie follows the grand superhero tradition of two heroes duking it out in a climactic battle before joining forces to confront a greater threat.

However, it is also saddled with being a sequel to “Man of Steel” and a prequel to the upcoming “Justice League” movies. Opening with the final battle of “Man of Steel,” the audience is introduced to a bitter Batman (Ben Affleck) who becomes mistrustful of this being from beyond the stars. Meanwhile, Superman (Henry Cavill) is equally mistrustful of the violent and civil-rights violating Batman. Naturally, both are manipulated by Lex Luthor (Jessie Eisenberg) who has his own plans. Finally, there are hints of other metahumans surfacing, such as the powerful demigod known as Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot.)

Visually, the movie is a masterpiece. Director Zack Snyder has rightfully earned a reputation as a mostly visual director and always has a knack for bringing comic book panels to life.

We are treated to spectacular shots of our heroes, wide open swaths of wasteland and the Snyder trademark of the slow-motion zoom of a small falling object. Unfortunately, another Snyder trademark is present: namely that the movie is so dark and devoid of color to the point that it is almost shocking whenever bright oranges and blues make appearances. However, excluding the darkness, this is like watching a comic book come to life.

I really wish the naysayers were right when they predicted that Ben Affleck’s Batman would be the weakest part of “Batman v Superman” because that would have been a stellar movie. Affleck absolutely nails both the Batman and the Bruce Wayne sides of the character, a dynamic that several actors have struggled with in the

past. His Wayne manages to be a charming playboy, a serious businessman and a serious party goer. Then there’s the Batman — he possesses a raw, brutal and terrifying energy that makes you feel like he could actually stand up to an immortal and all-powerful alien. Sometimes, it feels like Snyder wanted to make a Batman movie and got saddled with Superman and the rest. I foresee a future in which Affleck is the lynchpin of the DC Cinematic Universe.

Shockingly enough, I was very impressed with the presence of Wonder Woman in this movie. Let’s clarify something: she does not belong here. She is mostly inconsequential to the plot and only exists to drum up excitement for “Justice League” and her own solo movie. That being said, her scenes got some of the loudest cheers in my theater. Although it was difficult to tell with so little screen time, Gal Gadot has excellent chemistry with Affleck and seems like a fine choice for the role. Ultimately, it left me excited for the part she will play in the future.

Then there is Superman. Perhaps more than any other part of this movie, it is Superman that so expertly demonstrates everything that is wrong with this film. To put it simply, this does not feel like Superman. This complaint was heard before back when “Man of Steel” premiered, but I was willing to give it a pass because I could accept the idea of a Superman that had to learn how to become the intelligent, inspiring and friendly icon of heroism that has endured for so long. Instead, he seems to have gotten worse. When he is shown saving people, it is treated as a somber moment when it should be the most joyous in the film. Instead of kind and compassionate, he is depicted as emotionless and distant from humanity. Worst of all, Henry Cavill has shown that he is capable of cranking up the charm and the humor, but is instead relegated to morose whining. At one point, he utters the words “no one stays good in this world,” perhaps one of the most un-Superman like lines in the history of the character. Zach Snyder and writers David Goyer and Chris Terrio are evidently hung up on the idea of Superman as a messianic figure, a god coming to live among us. What baffles me is that they miss the critical point of Superman and messiah figures as a whole, namely that he should see himself as one of us and not as a god.

Rounding out the cast Adams’ Lois Jessie EisenLex Luthor.

Adams brings

is Amy Lane and b e r g ’s While her usual

around three central plot points.

The first makes no sense considering Superman pulled off a feat in “Man of Steel” that renders it moot the second is just plain dumb and the third is so obvi-

Photo courtesy of mobilegamer.com

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. warmth and spunk to the role, the director clearly had no idea what to do with her as she is saddled with a meandering subplot until she regresses into a damsel in distress. As for Lex Luthor, it feels like someone told Eisenberg that he was playing the Riddler or the Joker. “Batman v Superman” would have us believe that Luthor is a renowned and beloved industry leader, but he is so obviously unbalanced and evil it is a wonder that no one in the movie realizes it after spending ten seconds with him.

This brings me to my main grievance with this movie: the idiotic and inane story. One of the major plot points is the public’s perception of Superman as either a savior or a destroyer.

This would be fine if the public opinion didn’t suddenly and completely swing from one end to other for reasons that don’t hold up under scrutiny. When I talked about the movie’s failure to address the events of “Man of Steel,” you may have noticed that I failed to mention the incredibly controversial level of destruction present in the movie. Well, “Batman v Superman” does address this, but horribly. While you might think that Superman would have learned from his mistakes and endeavor to move the action outside of a populated area, he does not have to. Why? Because — I wish I was making this up — the action takes place in a section of the city that is under construction and is therefore abandoned because “it’s after five o’clock” which is a slap in the face of the audience as far as I’m concerned.

Finally, the action in the third act revolves

ously and easily preventable that it had me saying “what the hell” out loud.

Finally, the answer to the questions everyone wants to know: How does the movie deal with DC’s three most iconic heroes together and how does it deal with “Justice League”? The answer is a mixed bag. The fact of the matter is that Warner Brothers is in a superhero arms race with Disney. In order to compete, “Batman v Superman” makes the bold decision to rush forward and throw viewers into the middle of a fully realized DC universe. As a result, there are many moments that made me smile as a fan of the comics, but cringe as a movie goer. When the DC Trinity appears onscreen together or familiar pieces of comic book lore are highlighted, someone who is familiar with the years of history associated with these moments will appreciate them. To anyone else, the impact is lost because the three heroes really don’t know each other in the context of the movie and the average movie goer has no idea what the strange symbol etched into the ground means. Also, this is probably the first movie to have an end-credits sequence in the middle of the movie as the plot stops entirely to highlight future members of the Justice League.

Even though the film has outstanding moments, it is ridden with flaws. It looks great and it’s a treat to see Batman back in action like never before. Then, when you finally get excited, you’re subjected to a bewildering plot and terrible characterizations. The question remains: Can you build a universe off of mediocrity?

Hood’s “Eye in the Sky” Reveals the Moral Ambiguities of Wartime Youngkwang Shin ’18 Staff Writer There is probably no premise in existence more charged with contradictory politics and moral ambiguity than that of a war film. Many directors and screenwriters know that embracing this complexity may hamper the accessibility of the film and choose to evade it through different methods. Some, like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” focus on the individual soldier and the slow, steady bloom of his seething madness amidst the amoral chaos of the battlefield. A disturbing number, like Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” sidesteps the uncomfortable political entanglements by selecting a personally resonant hue (in Eastwood’s case, warmongering scarlet) and proceeding to bathe the work with that one color. It replaces the nihilistic dirt with nationalistic grit, carving out scenes in which “heroes” open fire at an indistinct but distinctly inhuman mass of unreason and rancor that are sure to alienate a good portion of even domestic viewers. While one cannot vouch for movies like

“American Sniper,” the continued success of such films despite the public backlash forces one to ask the following question: Is creating a war film that encompasses every political demographic inviable? “Eye in the Sky” defiantly shouts, “No!” The story follows a joint military operation between the United States and Great Britain to track down and to capture a coterie of potential terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya. As the situation escalates, the leaders on both sides decide to launch a drone strike to neutralize their targets and to prevent potential attacks on innocent Kenyan civilians. Meanwhile, the audience also learns the story of a girl named Alia, a lower-class girl raised by loving and religiously moderate parents, who sells bread around town to help her family earn a living. Inadvertently, she sets up the day’s shop within the radius of the drone’s strike range, throwing the operation into a moral panic. Intensity only grows as the terrorists arm themselves in their compound. The rest of the movie follows the chain of troubled decision made at all stages of the operation as the clock slowly ticks on.

The most obvious issue with “Eye in the Sky”

is its characters. The characters are well-acted, and when they are first introduced, the audience is given glimpse of their deeply ordinary private lives. Once they enter the war room, however, they trade in their personalities for the uniformly stern military mask, a defect that the movie embraces as a necessary price for its nonstop excitement. While many blockbusters stake their excitement on their explosions, “Eye in Sky” does so on the possibility that rapidly teeter-totters on probability. To introduce subdued and measured character moments into such a story would be to botch its pacing and the intent of the film.

What “Eye in the Sky” lacks in substantive personality-based character interactions, it compensates with a ceaseless conversation of locations and positions. The American foreign secretary is playing Ping-Pong in China. The British cabinet and the general are seated in a comfortable, brightly lit conference room. The colonel in charge of the operation barks commands in an underground spacious bunker brightened only by the numerous monitors. Finally, Alia and the Kenyan military officials find themselves in the

wide-open Kenyan grounds, saturated by the Sun. These distinct locations wordlessly communicate to the audience the hierarchy of power present in the conflict. The ones issuing the strike are inevitably secure from the consequences of their decision, bringing into question their right to execute such commands. But here, it is important to remember that “Eye in the Sky” is not content to appease the anti-war crowd; it wants to have them think. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that the heads of the operation are distanced from the terrorist attacks that would result from a moment of hesitation. Revealing the real madness of the situation: the ones least involved are the ones most equipped to resolve the conflict. As the moral buck is traded up and down the chain of command, the audience receives the impression that here is a tiny world where people have been clearly wronged, but the wrongdoer is nowhere and yet everywhere to be found. In this respect, “Eye in the Sky” is a war film to be appreciated, as a clear pointer to the thickening shadows, where 21st-century war films are incumbent to tread.

The Amherst Student • April 13, 2016

Sports 9

Women’s Lacrosse Wins Two Against NESCAC Competition

Photo courtesy of Janna Joassainte ‘17

Rachel Passarelli ’16 added three goals in the win over Connecticut College.

Meredith Manley ’18 Staff Writer Mother Nature may have cooled the Amherst air with a recent cold front, but she was no match for the women’s lacrosse team’s hot streak. This week the purple and white went 2-1 against their NESCAC opponents, defeating Wesleyan and Colby before falling to Connecticut College. With these results, their record now stands at 8-2 for the season (5-2 NESCAC).

In a frigid midweek game on Wednesday against Wesleyan, the purple and white claimed a 10-5 win over their NESCAC rival.

Amherst was strong out of the gate with a goal from Rachel Passarelli ’16 to set the tone.

Soon after, Kate Wyeth ’17 doubled the score with an unassisted effort to make it 2-0, and Passarelli again found the back of the net seconds later to further increase her team’s

momentum.

Before time was called for the intermission, Coco Kusiak ’17 and Passarelli each snuck one past the Wesleyan goalie. The Cardinals were able to get on the score board with a goal off of a free position shot to decrease at the deficit. Amherst entered the half time break confident, but aware that there was minimal room for error in the second half even with a score of 5-1.

Mia Haughton ’16 opened the scoring in the second when she broke through the Wesleyan defense unscathed to put the purple and white up 6-1.

Amherst continued to capitalize on their advantage and Wesleyan’s loss of confidence.

Kelly Karczewski ’18 kept a cool head on a free position and watched the nylon dance behind Wesleyan goalie as she increased the score to 7-1.

Wesleyan’s rebuttal from Julia Black with

a goal at the 14:58 mark was short lived when Passarelli scored her fourth goal allowing the purple and white to run away with the lead at 8-2. Dakota Foster ’18 then added Amherst’s final two scores on a pair of feeds from Julia Crerend ’18.

Out of the seven draw controls, Hanna Krueger ’17 won five of them in addition to picking up five ground balls. Also on defense, goalie Christy Forrest ’16 recorded eight saves.

The purple and white next stepped on the field April 10 to face Colby. In a well-fought battle Amherst was able to earn the win on this favorable Saturday afternoon despite a rocky start to the first half.

Crenend and Wyeth got the ball rolling with one goal each assisted by Haughton and Passarelli, respectively. Colby possessed the ball for the majority of the half, limiting Amherst to these two goals and capitalizing themselves on four separate occasions.

The first 30 minutes ended in the Mules’ favor with a score of 4-2. Odds might have been against the purple and white, but they refused to accept this losing fate.

With fire in their eyes, Amherst lined up for the face off determined to win the half and thus the game. The purple and white started their comeback with a Crerend goal from Passarelli that narrowed the goal differential to one.

Amherst then overwhelmed the Mules with five more unanswered goals. Haughton made her presence known in the second half with one assist and two goals before the conclusion of the game. Passarelli created three turnovers in an outstanding effort.

With additional contributions from Claire Cagnassola ’17 and Rowena Schenck ’18, the purple and white left Waterville, Maine Saturday afternoon after securing a 8-4 conference win.

This past Tuesday, the purple and white

took on tough NESCAC-opponent Conn.

College. Amherst struck first, with three goals in under ten minutes. Passarelli scored first, followed by two quick goals by Krueger.

While the Camels got one back, Amherst closed the first half with two more goals, giving them a 5-1 lead heading into the final stanza.

The second half was characterized by some back-and-forth action between the two colleges, as Conn. cut the deficit to 7-4.

Any chance the Camels had of an upset were dashed when Amherst scored four goals in the last eight minutes to put the game away.

The Camels could only muster one goal in the last eight minutes, and Amherst came away with a dominant 11-5 win.

Next up on the schedule, the team has a tough match up against Tufts Saturday, April 16.

Photo courtesy of Janna Joassainte ‘17

Sophomore Mary Grace Cronin has 11 goals in 10 games so far this season.

Women’s Track and Field Men’s Tennis Defeats Skidmore Places Third at Spring Fling and Bates, Falls to No. 2 Bates Nate Tyrell ’19 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s outdoor track and field team placed third overall at the nine-team Amherst Spring Fling Invitational Saturday afternoon at Pratt Field.

Senior Victoria Hensley sprinted to a secondplace finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.48 and a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a mark of 26.86. The purple and white earned 16 points in the 800-meter run with a first-place finish from Leonie Rauls ’18 (2:20.32), a fourthplace finish from Keelin Moehl ’16 (2:21.37) and a fifth place finish from Kaeli Mathias ’18 (2:22.08).

Sophomore Nicky Roberts added a fifth-place finish for Amherst in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:49.82, while classmate Danielle Griffin ’18 raced to fifth-place in the 400-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in 1:11.85. In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, senior Betsy Black finished in 11:50.30 to place first overall and earn 10 points

for the purple and white.

Amherst also demonstrated success in relay and field events. The tandem of Gabby Bishop ’18, Louise Atadja ’16, Julia Asin ’19 and Hensley finished first (50.88) in the 4x100 meter relay, and the 4x800 meter team of Roberts, Rauls, Mathias and Moehl was good for second place overall (10:00.65).

Sophomore Becki Golia earned eight points with a second-place finish in the high jump with a height of 1.58m. In the long jump, Atadja placed second (4.88m), Abbey Asare-Bediako ‘18 finished third (4.73m) and first-year Emily Flaherty finished fifth (4.59m). Asare-Bediako placed third in the triple jump with a height of 10.56 meters, while Flaherty took sixth with a 10.10 meter jump.

“The support at home made everyone want to perform better, which is exactly what happened,” Golia said.

The purple and white hope to continue their success this Saturday, April 16 at the UMass Amherst Invitational.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Betsy Black ’16 claimed first place in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (11:50.30).

Kelly Karczewski ’18 Staff Writer The Amherst men’s tennis team demonstrated its strength this week with a midweek win against Skidmore College and then a victory over NESCAC rival Bates on Saturday to move to 12-4 overall. However, Amherst was defeated by No. 2 Bowdoin the next day to finish the week with a devastating 9-0 loss.

Amherst began the week with a win, taking down Skidmore with a score of 6-3 to move to 11-4 overall.

Junior Anton Zykov dominated court one with a 6-1, 6-1 victory, while senior Michael Solimano won 6-2, 6-0 on court two. Zach Bessette ’19, Aaron Revzin ’16 and senior Ben Fife also secured singles wins to put Amherst in the lead.

In doubles action, Zykov and Andrew Yaraghi ’16 earned the purple and white’s sole win, defeating Jonah Epstein and Kit Sanderson 8-6 on the second court.

After traveling to Lewiston, Maine for Saturday’s matchup, Amherst won five of six singles matches again to take down NESCAC rival Bates, 8-1.

On court one, Zykov took down Bates’ Ben Rosen in a three set victory, finishing the match at 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. Bessette swept aside Fergus Scott (6-1, 6-1) at the number three singles spot, while Yaraghi, Fife and Justin Sun ’19 swept Bates opponents at spots four, five and six.

For doubles, dynamic duo Aaron Revzin ’16 and Solimano came out with an 8-5 win on the first court, while Yaraghi and Zykov battled for a 9-8 (8-6) victory in the number two doubles spot. Fife and Bessette crushed their opponents, 8-1, to finish out the purple and white doubles sweep.

The Amherst win streak came to an end

the next day, when the purple and white fell to Bowdoin 9-0 in Brunswick, Maine.

None of the Amherst singles made it to three sets; Zykov, Yaraghi and Bessette all came up short against their NESCAC opponents in a round of challenging matches. The team struggled agains in the doubles matches; Solimano and Revzin, Zykov and Yaraghi and Fife and Bessette all walked away with a loss to end the week.

Amherst returns to action with three home matches this weekend. First, the purple and white face MIT on Friday, April 15 at 3 p.m.

They then face NESCAC rival Wesleyan on Sunday, April 17 (time TBA), before taking on non-conference foe Springfield at 3 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Seniors Aaron Revzin and Michael Solimano went 1-2 from No. 1 doubles for Amherst last week.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • April 13, 2016

Baseball Takes Home Series Win 2-1 Over Rival Williams, Improves to 14-4

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Sam Ellinwood ’18 started Saturday’s rally, singling in the bottom of nine.

Hayes Honea ’19 Staff Writer Last week, the baseball team was scheduled to take on MIT and rival Williams. Due to weather complications, Wednesday’s game against MIT was cancelled. However, by Friday, the snow had melted and the men were ready to revive the oldest baseball rivalry in the history of the sport: Amherst versus Williams.

The purple and white started off strong when Max Steinhorn ’18 and Ariel Kenney ’18 crossed home plate to earn an early 2-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Yanni Thanopolous ’17 sent a homer over the right center field fence,

knocking in three runs and increasing the lead to 5-0.

Williams responded with one run, but then Anthony Spina ’17 shut them down with another Amherst home run. The purple and white ended up on top with an impressive 11-4 win.

“The Amherst-Williams series is always a big rivalry because of its historical tradition and it felt great to help our team secure the big win on Friday’s opener,” Spina said.

The men returned to the field on Saturday morning for a double header against rival Williams. This time, the Ephs began with a 2-0 lead, but Amherst quickly answered with four runs in the first two innings. The Ephs were never able to score again, and the purple and white secured the victory with an insurance run in the sixth, making the final score 5-2. Sam Ellinwood ’18 led the offense with a perfect 3-for-3, while Riley Streit ’16 tossed a complete game for Amherst, only letting in two runs.

Later in the afternoon, Amherst lost momentum and was defeated by Williams, 4-5.

Though the purple and white outhit the Ephs 10-9, Williams was able to capitalize on more scoring opportunities.

The game was close; Amherst gave up two runs in the top of the ninth to grant their rivals a 5-3 lead. Steinhorn hit a sacrifice fly to score Ellinwood, making the score 5-4, but the purple and white were unable to come up with a game tying hit in the bottom of the ninth.

“Every NESCAC game is important to us.

Every year we set out with the goal of winning a NESCAC championship so picking up as many conference wins as we can is crucial for us,” Ellinwood said.

Regardless, Amherst records an overall win against Williams, winning two out of three games. The men take the field again on Wednesday, April 13, against Worcester State at Rockfield Park.

Women’s Golf Takes Second Overall at Vassar College Invitational Tournament

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Jamie Gracie ’17 finished in third place overall after an impressive first day.

Delancey King ’19 Staff Writer The women’s golf team established themselves as a dominant force this weekend in the opening tournament of their spring season in Poughkeepsie, New York. Out of the twelve teams at the Vassar College Invitational, the purple and white finished second with a team score of 649, falling only to NESCAC rival Williams College. Distancing themselves from the rest of the pack, Amherst finished 29 strokes ahead of third-place Middlebury and 31 strokes ahead of fourth-place SUNY Cortland.

Jamie Gracie ’17 led the charge on day one, holding the second best individual score after 18 holes with 77 strokes. Kate Weiss ’19 and Zoe Wong ’18 both boasted individual scores of 80, which earned them fifth place overall among the individual leaders.

A strong performance from Maggie Schoeller ’19 helped the purple and white to

end the day with a total score of 322, keeping them tied in first place with Williams heading into day two.

Weiss had another strong showing on day two of the tournament, when she led Amherst with a team low of 76 strokes. She was followed closely by Gracie, who recorded a 79 for the day. Wong and Schoeller rounded things off with scores of 85 and 87 respectively, helping to secure Amherst’s second-place finish.

Weiss and Gracie had particularly notable performances, each finishing the tournament with a total of 156 strokes. Their efforts garnered them a two-way tie for third place among the top individual scorers.

“We had a great start to the spring season,” Weiss said. “The conditions were tough, but we were still able to score well. We are looking forward to preparing for our home tournament next weekend.”

The team returns to action this weekend when they host the Jack Leaman Invitational.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Dylan Park ’16 Favorite Team Memory: When Quinn Moroney got an assist Favorite Pro Athlete: Josh Gordon (Browns wide receiver) Dream Job: Stone custodian Pet Peeve: The “student” in studentathlete Favorite Vacation Spot: Stone fire escape Something on Your Bucket List: Make Rachel Passarelli smile Guilty Pleasure: Winter parking ban Favorite Food: Yoghurt chicken Favorite Thing About Amherst: Our new mascot How He Earned It: Senior midfielder Park has been a huge contributor to the purple and white’s successful season thus far, scoring 21 goals in 12 games. His highlight came this past week against Little Three rival Wesleyan when he netted three goals and contributed one assist, his final goal coming as the game winner in overtime on an assist from Michael Litner. Park also contributed second and third quarter goals in the win.

Kate Weiss ’19 Favorite Team Memory: Going to Pinehurst over spring break Favorite Pro Athlete: Jordan Spieth Dream Job: Doctor Pet Peeve: People in my dorm being loud late at night Favorite Vacation Spot: Mexico Something on Your Bucket List: Going to Iceland Guilty Pleasure: Napping Favorite Food: Scooby snacks Favorite Thing About Amherst: The people I have met How She Earned It: First year Weiss helped the women’s golf team to a secondplace finish in the Vassar Invitational this past weekend in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Weiss finished the weekend tied with her own teammate, Jamie Gracie ’17 for third-top finisher in the tournament. Weiss carded 80 points on day one and made a strong comeback on day two, with the low score for Amherst at 76. She finished day three with 156 strokes, just one under the second-place finisher and seven strokes under the top finisher.

Moroney Leads Men’s Lacrosse to 3-0 Week Against NESCAC Opponents Mary Grace Cronin ’18 Staff Writer By the end of a chaotic week of in-conference matchups, the Amherst men’s lacrosse team had claimed two important victories, one of which was over Colby. The purple and white outlasted the Mules to clinch the 12-9 win at home. The real story of the week, however, came just half a week earlier in a nail-biter against Wesleyan.

Following a thrilling loss to Middlebury that saw a near comeback in the fourth quarter, Amherst looked to regain their momentum against a tough Wesleyan team. However, they soon found themselves in a deficit, and had to claw themselves back into the game.

The Cardinals posted the first two goals of the matchup, but junior Matt Killian stopped the bleeding by opening up scoring for the purple and white with an unassisted effort. By the end of the first half, however, Wesleyan held a commanding 6-2 lead.

Amherst continued to show its trademark resilience with a six-goal second quarter that equalized the scoring at 8-8. In the third quarter, Wesleyan pulled away once again, and had all of the momentum with a score line of 16-10 and just 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The purple and white remained undaunted by this adversity. First-year Evan Wolf scored the first of a seven-goal stretch off an assist by Rob Butko ’16. Next, goals by seniors Dylan Park and Kane Haffey put Amherst within striking distance of the Cardinals. An unbelievable individual effort by Quinn Moroney ’16, in which he posted six points in the fourth quarter alone, was the key to this Amherst upset.

It was up to scoring magnet Haffey to secure overtime with just two seconds left on the clock.

From then on, it became Amherst’s game to lose.

With 3:05 left on the clock in overtime, Park concluded a storybook performance off a pass from Michael Litner ’16, and sent the purple bench into hysterics. They finished the day with an 18-17 win.

This past Tuesday, the purple and white kept

their momentum going in a decisive 15-9 win against Connecticut College. Amherst started hot, and by the end of the first quarter held a commanding 6-1 lead. Moroney assisted on each of Amherst’s first six goals en route to nine on the night. The purple and white never let their lead slip, and even extended it to 13-5 by the end of the fourth quarter. The Camels gave Amherst a brief scare by scoring four straight, but the purple and white clinched the win with two late goals.

The team then defeated Conn. College 15-9 on Tuesday behind a nine assist night for Moroney.

In net, Tranbargar posted another strong performance with nine saves, while Brian O’Malley ’17 led the purple and white defensively with three ground balls and three forced turnovers.

Amherst fell behind early when Conn. College’s Pierce DellaFera scored early in the first quarter. The purple and white answered within a minute with a Moroney-to-Haffey connection that led to a goal.

This started a streak of six assists in a row for Moroney, four of which led to goals for Haffey.

Haffey led Amherst with six goals for the game, and by the end of the first, Amherst owned a solid 6-1 advantage.

After a Camels goal early in the second, Amherst extended their lead with four unanswered goals. During this stretch, Wolf managed two assists during this stretch to help the first-year to a four goal, three assist night.

The purple and white held thus held an 11-4 lead at the half, which they stretched to an eightgoal, 13-5 advantage in a low-scoring third quarter. Conn. College managed four goals in the final stanza, but Amherst still walked away with a comfortable win.

In recognition of his excellent performances this week, Moroney was awarded NESCAC player of the week for the second time this season. Over the three games, he had 23 points with seven goals and 16 assists. He is the team leader in points, with 71.

Amherst will play next at Tufts on Saturday, April 16.

The Amherst Student • April 13, 2016

Sports

Softball Takes Series Against NESCAC Rival Hamilton on Buechler’s Pitching

11

Jack Arena ’83 Coach’s Corner Head Hockey and Golf Coach

Chris Roll ’17 sat down with head men’s hockey and golf coach Jack Arena ’83 to talk about how the NESCAC has changed during his 33-year tenure as a coach at Amherst, and the experience of coaching his sons.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Annie Murphy ’19 helped the team to a Friday win with her three-run homerun.

Sarah Wagner ’19 Staff Writer The Amherst softball team hosted Hamilton for a three-game series this weekend. During the week, the team enjoyed a reprieve from its packed schedule when its double-header against MCLA on Wednesday was canceled due to snow. Rejuvenated and strong from a week of practices, they faced Hamilton in the first of three games on Friday evening.

The three contests were played on the Amherst field, because Hamilton’s Clinton, New York field was too cold and snowy, but Hamilton batted as the home team. The purple and white’s first 10-2 victory went scoreless until the third inning, when Brianna Cook ’16 was sent across the plate. Runs were scored exclusively in the third and seventh innings of this game. The purple and white scored four in the third and six in the seventh on their way to the commanding victory.

Annie Murphy ’19 excelled at the plate this weekend, contributing a three-run homerun in the opening game. In the seventh inning, Sammy Salustri ’19 lit the fire when she reached first base safely on an error.

Salustri and Kyra Naftel ’19, reaching by way of a single, advanced when Cook sent a strong single to the outfield. Annie Apffel ’17, who batted 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, added a two-run double before Julia Turner ’19 took her place on second with a double of her own, sealing the win for the purple and white. Thanks to an Amherst error, the Continentals were able to add one last run in the final half inning before suffering the loss.

The two teams split the next afternoon’s

double-header. Junior Jackie Buechler pitched the first game, which ended early, by mercy rule, in an 11-2 victory. Due to Buechler’s stellar performance, Hamilton was unable to score until the final inning. Amherst added a few runs throughout the beginning of the game, but broke out in the third, sending six runners across the plate.

Cook and Alena Marovitz ’17 walked and were joined by Lauren Tuiskula ’17, who batted a perfect 3-3 on the game, including a hit by a pitch. With the bases loaded, Murphy singled and Apffel hit a sacrifice fly to add two runs. Amherst took advantage of an illegal pitch to add another, and Salustri ripped a double to send two players home. Although Hamilton added two runs in the bottom of the last inning, they did not come close to challenging Amherst.

However, the roles were reversed in the second game of the day, which resulted in a 10-5 defeat for Amherst. Salustri scored to put Amherst ahead first, as they had been for the past two games. However, the purple and white were unable to score anyone in the next few innings, while Hamilton scored three times.

It seemed as though Amherst could have challenged the Continentals’ lead when Turner’s sacrifice fly scored Apffel and Ashleigh Rutherford ’16 took advantage of a Hamilton error to tie the game at three, but Hamilton refused to relent. They added seven more quick runs, including a home run in the fifth. Amherst added two more runs towards the end of the game but could not regain the lead.

The team is back in action on Wednesday, April 13, with a doubleheader at Smith.

Q: How did you end up as the men’s hockey and golf coach at Amherst?

A: After attending Amherst I had the privilege of returning as the Hitchcock fellow where I was an assistant coach for the hockey, football and baseball teams. The current hockey coach left after my first year and after an unsuccessful search for an interim coach they offered me the head-coaching job at the age of 22. As for golf, I was offered the position after about 10 years here, after the golf coach stepped down to help turn the football program around.

Q: You have been at Amherst for over 30 years. What has changed and what has remained constant throughout the years?

A: The thing that has remained most constant is the quality of the people you are working with and the quality of the kids you are coaching. A thing that has changed a little bit is the culture of the campus, and it is more a reflection of societal changes than anything else.

However, the kids coming to Amherst are still are the same accomplished, polite kids that I have been working with throughout my tenure.

Q: Can you give us a little insight on NESCAC hockey/golf and how they have evolved?

A: My first 12-15 years there was no such thing as the NESCAC tournament or standings. The standings used to be just alphabetical order, which as you can imagine was good for us and bad for Williams. For a while our season culminated in playing for the Little Three championship and teams were not eligible for the NCAA tournament. The top end of NESCAC hockey has been consistently competitive at the national level but in the last few

The Amherst men’s outdoor track and field team competed at its own Amherst Spring Fling Invitational meet on Saturday afternoon at Pratt Field. Compiling 78 total points, the team claimed third place in a field of nine teams.

In the 100-meter dash, senior Thomas Matthew sprinted to a second-place finish with a time of 11.26 seconds,while first-year Stadtler Thompson finished in 11.40 seconds for a sixth-place finish.

Sophomore Aziz Khan claimed eight points with a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.76 seconds.

In the 800-meter run, the purple and white earned 13 points from Chris Butko ’18 who powered to a first place finish with a spectacular run of 1:53.98. Brent Harrison ’16 added a fifth-place finish (1:57.04), while Steven Lucey ’17 (1:57.14) tabbed a sixth-place mark.

Senior Dan Crowley finished first in the 1500-meter run to earn 10 points and finished with a time of 3:59.60, while classmate Jeff Seelaus ’16 secured top honors in the 300-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:40.46.

The tandem of Vernon Espinoza ’19, Ermias Kebede ’19, David Ingraham ’18 and Harrison combined for fifth place in the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:36.05.

In the 4x800, the quartet of Lucey, Butko, Kristian Sogaard ’19 and Kevin Connors ’17 finished first with a tremendous time of 7:53.69.

In the field events, Matthew finished fourth in the shot put with a throw of 12.30 meters.

This week the purple and white will compete in two weeks. On Friday, April 15, they travel to New London, Connecticut for the Connecticut College Invitational.

They then compete at the UMass Invitational on Saturday, April 16. These are the team’s last two meets before they enter championship season with NESCACs the following week.

Q: What is the most rewarding part of coaching for you? What is the most challenging?

A: The most rewarding is definitely the interaction with such great student-athletes. I deal with such bright, motivated kids every single day and that forces me to stay sharp, which leads me to continually improve as a person, coach and mentor each day. The most challenging part is trying to motivate and unite a group where the importance of the sport ranges from student to student. The role of hockey or golf is different in everyone’s life and melding those different levels can be a challenge.

Q: Your son Patrick played hockey for you for four years and now your son Johnny is also a part of the program. What has that experience been like?

A: It has been fun to just be around them every day and to see Patrick’s development as a player and as a person. Growing up they got to see the program firsthand but were never part of it and to have them both actually experience it is phenomenal. Them having that opportunity to come here and be a part of things was really all I could ever ask for.

Q: Which team, hockey or golf, do you enjoy coaching more?

A: No comment…

Men’s Golf Finishes Eighth of 18 at Spring Season Opening Invitational

Men’s Track & Field Claims Third at Nine-Team Spring Fling Home Meet Nate Tyrell ’19 Staff Writer

years the bottom teams have vastly improved and the gap between the top and the bottom has shrunk. Historically, NESCAC golf has not been as competitive but overall it has certainly improved while I have been coaching here. The scores seem to drop every year, and it is a testament to how golfers have become more dedicated and committed to being an elite athlete.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Dan Langa ’18 led the team on day one, finishing 11th on the weekend.

Katie Bergamesca ’18 Staff Writer Unlike Ernie Els at the Masters, none of the men of the Amherst golf team seven-putted at the Hampton Inn Invitational in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts this past Friday and Saturday. A strong showing on the second day of the men’s opening spring tournament, which included an 18-stroke improvement on the previous day, secured the purple and white an eighth-

place finish among the 18 teams competing. The Amherst men finished with a combined scored of 656 at the conclusion of the invitational.

Sophomore Dan Langa led the purple and white on day one, finishing with a score of 82.

Liam Fine ’17 concluded the day one stroke behind Langa, while James Line ’16 shot an 85 and Jack Burlison ’19 carded an opening day score of 87. Langa proceeded to give a good performance the following day with a score of 79 resulting in a combined 161 for the two-day invitational. With this score, Langa closed out the tournament tied for 11th overall. Line, Burlison and Fine all carded scores of 80 in the second round, concluding the tournament with combined scores of 165, 167 and 163 respectively.

Fine’s score 163 secured him a spot at tied for 19th at the end of the invitational.

“It was nice to get back playing competitively, but the conditions were tough this week. The wind and the cold were tough to play through,” Langa said. “We really didn’t have a complete practice the week before so we were coming into the tournament not as prepared as we would’ve liked to be, but these next few weeks are really just warm-ups for our ultimate goals which are to do well at Little Three’s and NESCACs. We have a weekend off coming up now which we are looking forward to so we can really prep for these.”

The Amherst men’s golf team will continue its season on Wednesday, April 20, when they host the Little Three championship against Wesleyan and Williams.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Megan Robertson ’15

Vickie Ip ’18 paired with first-year Kelsey Chen, secured the purple and white’s only doubles victory against Bowdoin with an 8-2 victory on the second court.

Tennis Faces Tough Regional Opponents, Returns with Two Big Victories Nate Quigley ’19 Staff Writer For the second straight weekend, the Amherst women’s tennis team left home on Saturday and returned to campus with two victories.

With its wins over highly ranked regional rivals Massachusetts Institue of Technology and Bowdoin on Saturday and Sunday, the purple and white stretched its win streak to six matches and demonstrated that, once again, they will be a force in both NESCAC and national competition.

Fresh off last weekend’s dominating victories against lesser opponents, Brandeis and Babson, Amherst entered the match against MIT on Saturday with confidence and the air of a team that had truly hit its stride.

While the Engineers entered the match sporting a national ranking of 17, the purple and white brushed them aside with ease in a comprehensive 8-1 win. For the fourth straight match, Amherst made all three doubles courts its own, losing only four games

combined.

The action on the singles court was much of the same, with Amherst dominating the majority of the matchups and losing just a single match.

Courts four through six proved to be lopsided affairs, with Sarah Monteagudo ’16, Kelsey Chen ’19 and Avery Wagman ’18 combining to lose only a single game. The top three courts, however, were rife with excitement, as two of the three matches ended up going to a third set.

On the first court, Suhasini Ghosh ’16 lost a tightly-contested affair 0-6, 6-4, 1-6 to Dora Zheng of MIT, but Amherst got its revenge on the second and third courts with Vickie Ip ’18 and Jackie Calla ’17E respectively.

Ip won (6-4, 6-3) in a hard-fought contest, but the most thrilling match of the day put Calla against MIT’s Wendi Kong. Calla lost the first set 7-5, but battled back to take the second 6-3, forcing a dramatic third set, which saw Calla prevail 11-9.

Calla attributed her toughness to the team’s mentality in practices and entering

Photo courtesy of Megan Robertson ’15

GAME SCHE DULE

matches. “We have stepped up our fitness and our intensity at practices,” Calla said. “When everything and anything is going wrong, you’ve got to love it.”

After the victory against MIT, Amherst was riding high when they arrived in Brunswick, Maine to face the fourth-ranked Bowdoin, a team that would be Amherst’s toughest test since the team had returned from California. However, what was supposed to be a tough test for Amherst proved to be less challenging than expected with the purple and white notching an imposing 6-3 victory.

While the doubles courts had been Amherst’s greatest strength in their previous victories, the Polar Bears were worthy opponents, winning on the first and third doubles courts.

Amherst’s sole doubles victory came from the second doubles pairing of Ip and Chen, won with an 8-2 victory. However, the purple and white were too strong for Bowdoin in singles action, losing only a single match on the first court.

The five remaining singles matches saw

Photo courtesy of Megan Robertson ’15

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

Softball @ Smith, 3:30 p.m.

Baseball vs. Eastern Connecticut State, 4 p.m.

Men’s Track & Field @ Connecticut College Invitational, TBD

Women’s Track & Field @ UMass Invitational, TBD

Baseball @ Worcester State, 3:30 p.m.

Softball @ Smith, 5:30 p.m.

Men’s Tennis vs. MIT, 3 p.m.

Men’s Track & Field @ UMass Invitational, TBD Women’s Golf @ Jackson Leaman Invitational, TBD

Amherst take five two set victories, very few of which featured the 6-0 or 6-1 set victories that the purple and white had grown accustomed to over the past week. However, this team clearly loves the tight matches just as much as the blowout.

“There’s no way you can win the tough matches if you don’t love the tough moments,” Calla said.

These victories, as well as the purple and white’s victory over Trinity on Wednesday night, move Amherst’s overall record on the season to 9-4 overall and 3-0 in NESCAC play with three matches against conference foes in the upcoming week. Amherst’s near sweep of Trinity (8-1) continues their undefeated NESCAC play, and puts them on top of the conference, with Williams as the only other college remaining undefeated in conference.

Next weekend, Amherst faces two tough matches, as they welcome their Little Three rivals to the purple and white home court, Williams and Wesleyan, on Saturday, April 16, and Sunday, April 17 respectively.

Photo courtesy of Megan Robertson ’15

Women’s Lacrosse vs. Tufts, noon

Softball vs. Bates, 2:30 p.m.

Men’s Lacrosse vs. Tufts, 1 p.m.

Softball vs. Bates, 4:30 p.m.

Women’s Tennis vs. Williams, 1 p.m.

Baseball @ Salve Regina, 1 p.m.