Homecoming Issue

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

VOLUME CXLII • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Homecoming 2012

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Table of Contents Alumni Profiles

Jennifer Lee ’16

Bill Amend ’84 Betsy McKay ’83 Drew Pinsky ’80 Bonnie Jenkins ’82 Bess Kargman ’02 Richard McCormick ’69 B. Alan Wallace ’87 Joseph Stiglitz ’64 Susannah Grant ’84 Tom Wyman ’84 Rosanne Haggerty ’82

4 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 16

Election Special Sports

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Football & Field Hockey Gameday Preview Cross Country Men’s Soccer

17 18 19 20

Janita Chalam ’16 Janita Chalam ’16

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The Student will print letters under 450 words in length if they are submitted to The Student offices in the Campus Center or to the paper’s e-mail account (astudent@amherst.edu) by 12 p.m. on Sunday, after which they will not be accepted.

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

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

The Student will not print personal or group defamation.

Publication Standards Editor-in-Chief Brianda Reyes Homecoming Editors Nicole Chi, Erik Christianson, Karl Greenblatt, Emmet Knowlton, Alissa Rothman, Meghna Sridhar, Clara Yoon Homecoming Writers Brenton Arnaboldi, Ethan Corey, Daniel Diner, Amro El-Adle, Kevin Hoogstraten, Varun Iyengar, Jessie Kaliski, Andrew Kurzweil, James Liu, Julia Milmed, Jake Walters, Andre Wang

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The offices of The Student are located on the second floor of the Keefe Campus Center, Amherst College. Phone: (413) 542-2304. All contents copyright © 2011 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. All views published do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student staff.

Saturday Events

9:00 a.m.

Conversation with President Martin Johnson Chapel

11:00 a.m.

Homecoming BBQ Pratt Field

12:00 p.m.

Football: Amherst vs. Williams Pratt Field

Postgame Homecoming Fest 2012 Alumni Gymnasium

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7:00 p.m.

Harlem Renaissance Arms Music Hall

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Choral Society Concert Arms Music Hall

Images (left to right) courtesy of onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com, sports-glutton.com, Rob Mattson, artlex. com, Jessica Mestre, Paul Chibeba

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Alumni Profile Bill Amend ’84

Amending the Funnies with “Foxtrot” A self-professed geek and family guy, Bill Amend maintains a nationally syndicated cartoon strip, as well as tastes for video games and hip hop dance.

by Annalise Nurme ’15 Many of us recall a steady diet of comics as part of our childhood, be it “Calvin and Hobbes,” Marvel heroes, “Asterix” or “Tintin.” Whether or not we had a habit of stealing the funny pages, many of us may not be aware that the artist behind one of America’s most widespread and beloved newspaper strips, “FoxTrot,” is Amherst’s own William “Bill” Amend III, class of 1984.

First Drafts Born in 1962 in nearby Northampton, Amend moved around frequently, spending his elementary school years on the East Coast and living in California for junior high and high school.

His father was a doctor and his mother a travel agent, and he grew up with two younger brothers and a younger sister.

He describes his upbringing as “plainvanilla suburban” and said he treated his siblings via the “older brother playbook.” He was, and still is, silly and creative. “‘Funny’ is in the eye of the beholder. My sunday school teachers rarely thought I was funny,” Amend said.

A Star Wars and Hobbit fan with an obsession for Dungeons and Dragons, his “weird creative efforts” were fully supported by his parents.

“I’m not sure I’d be quite so patient with younger me,” Amend said.

As for any early signs of a budding cartoonist, apart from MAD magazine and some awareness of Doonesbury, he lacked a childhood penchant for cartoons. It was a strip that came out during Amend’s years at Amherst — “Bloom County” — that would inspire him to make a cartoon series of his own.

Edits at Amherst With fond memories of his father’s reunions, Amend decided to apply to Amherst despite angling for a career in filmmaking.

“A traditional liberal arts education was sort of an iffy idea for me, but in the end the charms of Amherst won out,” Amend said.

He recalls his years at Amherst very fondly, claiming that he had the “best room group in the school” his senior year, the 10 of whom still get together for ski trips.

Amend had a slew of favorite classes at Amherst, but one of his absolute favorites was Mechanics, taught by retired physicist Robert “Bob” Romer.

“He had a motorized merry-goround sort of thing in the classroom that we got to ride to observe the co-

riolis effect as balls were rolled around.

I think it even had barf bags attached,” Amend said.

Amend was a hardworking student, as Professor “Jagu” Jagannathan remembers. In the early years of his Amherst career, Jagannathan would join the young Amend and his fellow physics majors late at night in Merrill, working with them into the wee hours of the morning.

“They had chairs on castors, and in the middle of the night…they would bring out the chairs and race one another along the corridors,” Jagannathan said.

Romer is also quite convinced of Amend’s shenanigans.

“All those times when I thought he was writing down my great insights into electromagnetic theory, he was practicing, drawing caricatures of me that he would later use in FoxTrot,” Romer said.

Romer is the direct inspiration for the stern physics teacher who often appears in FoxTrot strips. “[Bill] quotes verbatim from large chunks of physics lab handouts that I wrote,” Romer said.

While his cartoon image is that of the cynical, no-nonsense, bushybrowed academic, Romer gets a kick out of the fact that Paige Fox, tween middle-child of the Fox family, asks in one strip whether “hunky Bobby Romer” saw her barf after a spin on the swirl-a-whirl (recall the “motorized merry-go-round”). When Amend returned to be awarded an honorary degree in 1999, Romer was assigned as his sponsor for the weekend and invited Amend to join him in dropping his stock of Super Balls from the fifth floor of Merrill.

Apart from physics, Amend was a talented math student, receiving the Walker Prize his sophomore year. In addition to academics, Amend was seriously involved with The Student.

“I joined the staff early in my freshman year and was really excited to discover they were desperate enough for a cartoonist to give me the job. Finding my ‘place’ at Amherst that quickly was a great feeling,” Amend said. “Drawing cartoons late at night under deadline twice a week was really exhilarating work and, as it turned out, great practice for what I’d end up doing for a living.”

Though he credits the publication for giving him the chance to publish his earliest strip, “The First Amendment,” he decided to quit his junior year and to

Photos courtesy of Bill Amend

In the days of his daily strip, Amend tended to write up to a week’s worth in one or two days and spend the rest of the week drawing or inking. begin a second newspaper called Sidelines, which focused on features, humor and entertainment news and carried on his cartoons.

“We somehow got enough funding to survive a couple years, but I think it died shortly after I graduated. It was a great little entrepreneurial exercise and we had tons of fun doing it, but I think we made some enemies with our old Student colleagues, which I regret now,” Amend said.

The Cartoon Career Amend completed a senior thesis with the late Professor Dudley Towne, focusing on three-dimensional imaging on a 2D screen and titled “Camera Simulation by Computer.” Amend figured that he’d probably do something with computers if cartooning didn’t work out. Over his senior year, he sent a few strips to a syndicate, receiving some rejections and some positive responses. “[I got] enough of a positive response that I figured I’d put together a comic strip and give it a try once I graduated. I fully expected to be rejected… but as luck would have it the rejection letters left just enough room for hope that I decided to try with a second strip.

That was ‘FoxTrot,’” Amend said.

In hindsight, he wishes that he’d been aware of Pixar, since they were starting up around then. “[It] would’ve been a great fit for someone with my interests and background,” Amend said.

Instead, his first job out of college involved a small animation studio in San Francisco, where he helped create drawings for commercials and music videos.

“I’d always wanted to work in animation, so I was a little surprised by how boring the work felt. That’s when I realized I liked coming up with my own ideas way more than I liked illustrating other peoples’ ideas,” Amend said.

Bill Amend often found inspiration for his cartoons in Bob Romer, one of his professors at Amherst. Romer ran the Journal of Physics mentioned above.

4

According to Amend, the comics of his immediate post-college years “seemed to be stuck in some sort of 1950s time warp,” written from old and dated perspectives.

“I thought a family strip written with a more modern and youthful sensibility was something I would enjoy seeing as a reader, so I figured I’d give it a try.

I think I started on the first submission sometime in 1985. It took about two years for a syndicate to finally make me an offer,” Amend said.

“FoxTrot” began with no particular character inspiration. Amend began by playing around with established archetypes, until he realized that each of the Fox family members were “little avatars for various aspects of my personality.”

With Jason Fox often cited as the sole example, this might come as a surprise — Romer claims to see none of Peter Fox, the lazy, self-absorbed, 16-yearold jock, anywhere in Amend’s personality. Amend will not admit that Peter’s cap stands for Amherst, as is popularly understood.

“I can say with absolute certainty that it does NOT stand for Williams,” Amend said.

John Glynn, Amend’s friend and boss at Universal Press Syndicate, has tried in vain to get Amend to insert a UMass cap in honor of his own alma mater. Intriguingly, a recent “FoxTrot” strip shows Roger Fox, patriarch of the Fox family, “corporate cog,” and “clueless to his own cluelessness,” wearing a distinct purple sweater bearing a large, yellow ‘W.’ When it came to finding a name for his comic, Amend struggled.

“I went through about a billion ideas for what to call the strip and “FoxTrot” seemed to suck the least. In the end, I think what I liked about it is it’s a type of dance. I thought a dance was a good metaphor for a lot of what goes on in a family,” Amend said.

Amend now has a wife, daughter and son, all of whom he credits as influences for his strip.

“I think really, really hard [to come up with ideas for his comics]. Seriously, there’s no magic formula that I know of,” Amend said.

In tribute to his liberal arts education, Amend recommends on his website to aspiring cartoonists that they “obtain the best possible education…in as broad a range of subjects as possible.

Too many young cartoonists forget that what makes a comic strip work is much more than the ability to draw funny pictures. What sustains a strip, what

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

makes it worth reading day after day, is the mind behind it.”

Recent Amendments These days, Amend lives in Kansas City, right across from the childhood home of Norton Starr, his former math professor at Amherst. Starr recently discovered a “FoxTrot” strip reproduced in “Special Functions,” an encyclopedia of mathematics by George A. Andrews, with a unique infinite sum that was noted by several other professors.

“He told me that whenever he has something with science in it…he’s very nervous the next day because he knows, at least at Amherst, that all of us are watching him like a hawk,” Romer said.

“FoxTrot” contains numerous references to math, science, computing and various fantasy material, all of which is faithfully updated as the years go by.

Within the next five to 10 years, Amend hopes to extend beyond “FoxTrot” and write something that might not include cartoons. He claims to have no hobbies — except for one.

“Mostly when I’m not working or doing family stuff I play video games to an unhealthy degree. Fortunately I can write about them in the strip … at least, that’s how I rationalize it,” Amend said.

This past July, Amend took his daughter to visit colleges around Massachusetts, including Amherst.

“My kids are old enough now that they’re too cool to be reading dad’s lame cartoons, but I occasionally catch them in a charitable mood and they’ll give something I’ve drawn a thumbs up, which is nice. It was pretty weird when they were younger and I’d find myself occasionally yelling at them to put the ‘FoxTrot’ books away because it was past their bedtime,” Amend said.

In 2006, Amend decided he’d had enough of the grind of the daily strip and switched to Sundays-only in order to devote more time to his family and personal sanity.

“He could have very easily hired someone to do the art or the writing, or both…or he could have allowed us to run reruns. I don’t think either of those ideas ever crossed his mind. He knew all the openings he relinquished would go to another cartoonist and the royalties he gave up would change several cartoonists’ lives,” Glynn said.

Professor Jagannathan restates the general consensus on Amend: “a very unassuming, very decent, smart and wonderful guy.”

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Betsy McKay ’83 Alumni Profile

An Award-Winning Journalist and Analyst A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a former member of The Student, Betsy McKay’s passion for writing and journalism were nurtured in her years at the College.

By Julia Milmed ’15 Whisked away from her usual routine to cover the reporting of Hurricane Sandy, one might have expected Betsy McKay ’83 to be flustered rather than composed and ready to tackle the issue. But McKay, the Atlanta bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, is no stranger to excitement. As a foreign correspondent in Russia for the WSJ, McKay won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage and analysis of the Russian financial crisis of 1998. Although McKay currently works in a slightly less volatile environment, she remains focused on her demanding and often eventful job.

Kindling a Passion “I always liked to write,” McKay said, “and I kind of knew that after college I wanted to be a journalist.”

As a first year at the College, McKay joined The Student right away. She reported news, served as a managing news editor and wrote a column about campus issues. The Student provided a tight-knit community for

McKay’s ideal job after college was to be a foreign correspondent. But the journalism job market was sparse at the time, so she decided to attend a Russian graduate program at Bryn Mawr. During this time, McKay met her husband, Neil Bainton, who was working towards his M.B.A. at Wharton.

In 1990, McKay’s path changed again — her husband had been offered a job for an American company in Moscow and the pair moved to Russia, expecting to stay for just three years. They ended up staying for 10.

“During those 10 years, I went from looking for a Ph.D. thesis to working as a journalist part-time, wherever I could,” McKay said.

Soon after arriving in Moscow, McKay joined a group that was starting a newspaper. This paper, The Moscow Times (named by McKay), is the main English language newspaper in Moscow today. After helping the paper start up, McKay worked for The Moscow Times as a reporter and edi-

McKay is a focused worker and loving mother, who balances her personal activities, family life and hectic work schedule with ease and efficiency.

McKay, and she found some of her closest friends in the newspaper staff.

McKay also formed close friendships on the cross-country team, for which McKay was a long distance runner.

“I always loved running in the bird sanctuary,” said McKay. “Going for long distance runs and getting off campus was something that really helped me when things seemed stressful. I would go on a seven mile run, along these loops that the crosscountry team would do, and they were far enough from campus that you felt like you got to know the community.”

Though McKay’s journalistic ambitions may have begun at The Student, her love of Russian literature and language — which would shape her career — began in the classroom.

“Stanley Rabinowitz’s Russian Literature class was very difficult to get into back then, it was so popular. But I took it, and I just loved Russian literature. I felt this kinship with the writers and what they were writing about,” she said. “I double majored in Russian and English, but my real affinity was with Russian lit.”

Living History NOVEMBER 9, 2012

tor. She then began working for Newsweek as a foreign correspondent and remained at that position for the next three years.

McKay had always dreamed of working at the WSJ because she greatly admired the newspaper’s writing.

In 1996, her dream became a reality — there was an opening as a foreign correspondent in Moscow for the WSJ and McKay was hired to fill the position. McKay was writing for the WSJ at a very unstable time in Russian history; the market economy that had developed in Russia during the previous years had begun to crumble.

“We were in Russia during the waning days of the Soviet Union — food was disappearing from store shelves, there were political rumblings and the demand for change… we saw the Soviet Union end and the market economy begin. So it was just a really fascinating yet turbulent time,” McKay said.

McKay’s husband described her passion in the face of the tumultuous political climate.

“I remember when she was six months pregnant,” Bainton said, “and she was still going to the protests. She was very intrepid about it and not at all fearful.”

The collapse of the market economy led to the Russian financial crisis in 1998. McKay reported on all aspects of the crisis, covering its effects on the population as well as news from the banking and economic sectors. It was for this analytic coverage that McKay won the Pulitzer Prize in the International Reporting category in 1999.

“Because she spoke the language and understood the culture, I think she had a unique perspective that helped her report to a foreign audience,” Bainton said.

Success in the States After completing her coverage of the Russian financial crisis, McKay and her husband decided that they wanted to raise their children in the U.S. They moved to Atlanta, where McKay began working at the Atlanta bureau of the WSJ. She was originally a reporter covering health issues, but quickly rose in rank to the deputy bureau chief and then, in 2009, to her current position as bureau chief.

As bureau chief, McKay wears many hats — she still reports occasionally, although the majority of her job consists of helping reporters determine which stories to pursue, editing and checking different newsfeeds to keep on top of the latest news.

McKay assists WSJ reporters in figuring out the best approach to particular stories, as well as determining the forum for which a story is best suited.

In her recent coverage of Hurricane Sandy, McKay has been balancing the demand for immediate coverage with more time-consuming analytic coverage.

“We once wrote stories for the paper; we’d spend all day reporting and file at the end of the day. Now we feed breaking news as quickly as we can to our website… We can’t do everything at once, so we have to prioritize in a way that will deliver news in a way readers want,” McKay said, explaining her shifting duties.

Though most of her time is spentmanaging the WSJ’s coverage of the southeast and of the six New England states, she occasionally reports on public and global health. Some topics covered by McKay include news in HIV/AIDS vaccine research, drugresistant tuberculosis, childhood obesity and tobacco-related health issues.

Once McKay began coverage of the CDC (Center for Disease Control) as a reporter for the WSJ Atlanta bureau, she became fascinated by health and global health issues. Though McKay has no background in science or medicine, she has a knack for explaining difficult subjects — especially health-related ones — to the general population.

“Betsy is good at taking complex subjects and paring them down to what people need to know. Not trivializing them, but just making them accessible,” Bainton said.

Down Time When asked what she likes to do in her spare time, McKay joked, “I have no free time.”

But, on the occasions that she manages to find time to relax, McKay still enjoys running, as well as reading and spending time with her family.

She loves to attend her son’s baseball and basketball games, as well as her

Photos courtesy of Betsy McKay

McKay manages The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the southeast and six New England states. daughter’s concerts. McKay’s husband commented that she tries to be very present on the weekends and that the family spends a lot of time together.

McKay’s focused nature allows her to balance her hectic work with her family life.

“She just goes about her work, which is sometimes a consuming endeavor because when news hits, you don’t have a lot of control over your life… I don’t think people realize just how intense that is,” Bainton said.

Amherst’s Lasting Impressions Despite her time-consuming career and being an involved wife and mother, McKay makes time to reconnect with her Amherst roots. By keeping in touch with old friends and attending reunions, McKay has kept herself involved in the Amherst community.

McKay recalled a particular occasion on which she spoke on a panel with old classmates and professors at a reunion. She remembered feeling

truly impressed by the conversation, and thought to herself, “I never have conversations like this anymore.” The discussions McKay had, in and out of the classroom, were some of the most memorable college experiences for her.

Now, in her professional world, McKay highly values a liberal arts education.

“When I see someone who went to a college like Amherst, someplace really devoted to the idea of liberal arts and discussion and giving all points of view their due, I can tell right away they are interested in the idea for the sake of the idea,” McKay said.

The Amherst community still emits a sense of “home” for McKay. When she meets people, in both her professional and personal lives, who have attended Amherst, she feels a certain commonality that is “very comforting.”

“The nice thing is,” McKay said, “that when you come back to Amherst and visit, you kind of have this feeling of ‘I never left here.’”

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Apply to the accelerated Master of Public Policy program at UMass Amherst.

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5

Alumni Profile Drew Pinsky ’80

Dr. Drew: Guiding People One TV Show at a Time From biology major at Amherst to reality TV show host, Dr. Drew Pinsky has spent over 35 years using the media as a tool to inform and advise the public.

by Jessie Kaliski ’15 If you have ever flipped through the channels and found yourself watching MTV’s show “Celebrity Rehab” or a “Teen Mom Reunion” then you have laid your eyes on Dr. Drew Pinsky, the host of these reality television shows. Dr. Pinsky, or Dr. Drew, is a member of the Amherst College Class of 1980, the first co-ed graduating class.

He was also a first in many other things — the first to publicly speak out about AIDS, create health-based Internet websites and television shows for youths, probably the first to get up in the morning for his 110hour work-week and most likely the first to know why “Teen Mom’s” Maci and Kyle broke up.

“I’ll Make a Man out of You” His father, Morton Pinsky, was a family physician.

Education was always very important in the Pinsky household.

“One thing I am most grateful for was that [my parents] funded my world-class education. [Education] is such a gift that a lot of people do not have,” Pinsky said.

During his high school years at Polytechnic School, Pinsky was unsure where his future college years would lead him.

“I really was not forward thinking at all. It was not until I started excelling in my last few years of high school that these opportunities emerged,” he said.

In fact, Pinsky’s decision to attend Amherst College was out of the blue; before deciding on Amherst, he had thought that he would go to UC Santa Barbara.

Arriving at the College in the fall of 1976, Pinsky was stepping into unknown territory.

Having never experienced snow, Pinsky was ”stunned and shocked” upon encountering the northeastern winter.

Not only was he “completely unprepared,” but so too were his parents.

“They did not understand where I was going, how I was going to get there [and] once I was there it was ‘good luck!’” Pinsky said.

Pinsky was thrown into a new environment and was inadequately prepared to meet some of the challenges.

Pinsky sought help at the medical clinic, but to no avail.

“It was not so much that the College did not have adequately trained personnel. It was [that] there really was no such thing as adolescent medicine at that time. Adolescents were underserved because there was no attention paid to that stage of life,” Pinsky said.

Yet, despite his troubling years at Amherst, Pinsky credits the College with developing him into the man he is today.

“Really everything I am is because of that school,” Pinsky said. “I had a lazy mind when I went there. You had to be thinking and creating at the highest level that I did not know I had

6

in me. Once I got there and my mind started changing in terms of my understanding of the world, I wanted to do so many things.”

Pinsky graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of the Arts, majoring in Biology. However, the subject that had the greatest influence on Pinsky’s career was a philosophy class taught by Professor Hadley Arkes.

“Some things we cannot answer with science. You have to have an understanding of philosophy to really understand [and answer] these questions,” Pinsky said.

Arkes’ class, “Political Obligations,” did just that. As an adult, Pinsky began to reread the writers taught in that class — from Kant to Aristotle and Abraham Lincoln.

“I didn’t care as much about where [Arkes] went with all of it; he just got me thinking,” Pinsky said.

Pinsky continued his studies at the Univ. of Southern California School of Medicine. Even though medical school was more time-consuming, it was not as rigorous as Amherst.

As a recent graduate of the College, Pinsky realized the importance of being a voice for the younger generation.

What opened Pinsky’s eyes to the power of performance, and hence his route of expression to young adults, was radio. He was asked by a few friends to do a segment entitled “Ask a Surgeon.” Seeing it as community service, Pinsky agreed. On the radio, Pinsky was one of the first individuals to talk about the AIDS epidemic publicly.

After graduating medical school, Pinsky went on to do his residency at USC County Hospital and later became chief resident at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.

He put his involvement with radio in the background and devoted his time towards medicine for over two decades. He was working 110 hours a week, seeing up to 60 patients a day, leaving at 5:30 a.m. and getting home near 10:00 p.m.

But in 1995, his radio career came into the forefront as his show’s broadcast went from once a week to five days a week.

With the popularity of the radio broadcast, “Loveline,” Pinsky was tested with Adam Carolla in 1996 to create a MTV “Loveline” show. The combination of two created a perfect balance — a comedic Carolla with a more serious Pinsky.

And perhaps with the emergence of “Loveline,” Pinsky began to think that this was the avenue he was meant to drive down. However, his exploration would not end there.

“Just Remember Friendship Never Ends” “He was a surfer dude. He had white hair down to his shoulders,” Curtis Giesen said when describing Pinsky.

Good friends since seventh grade, Giesen and Pinsky left Pasadena together for Amherst College in 1976.

In the late 1990s, Giesen, working in the Internet space, took an idea to Pinsky about creating an online health site. This idea developed into an Internet-based community and advice site for teenagers, DrDrew. com.

“I wanted to take [Drew’s] brand in new directions,” Giesen said.

DrDrew.com combined popular culture with serious health issues to draw young adults to the website.

Giesen and Pinsky attempted to step in and be a voice for young adults regarding health issues ranging from substance abuse, sexual relationships and mental health issues. DrDrew. com had over one million registered users by 2000.

“Drew is a very non-judgmental person, but he is straight and direct, but not in a preacher way,” Giesen said.

DrDrew.com provided an avenue for this type of information and advice.

“We were a serious health site, but had enough pop-culture to make it entertaining and a place where youth wanted to be involved,” Giesen said.

The duo worked well together.

“He’s a doctor and I’m a business person. We are honest and straight up with each other,” Giesen said.

In fact, they recently launched a new Internet creation, GreenRoom. com. The idea emerged from Pinsky’s frustration with social media, such as twitter.

GreenRoom allows individuals to request video conversations, phone conversations and recorded messages with experts and celebrities — from TV hosts, doctors, comedians, journalists, artists and more.

“People want the personal access,” Giesen said.

The new GreenRoom creates this atmosphere. Users get to have personal conversations with experts and celebrities, and in return, celebrities get to broadcast their name brands and donate to a charity of choice.

“Does knowing Drew the way I do make me want to work with him?

The answer is yes. Knowing him, and knowing how people react to him, makes me want to help him do new things with the Dr. Drew brand and take it in new directions,” Giesen said.

Besides working as business partners, Giesen and Pinsky are also close friends.

“I have had my own Dr. Drew for many years. He is an intelligent, direct, honest and compassionate guy who cares about helping people. I know that well,” Giesen said.

“Might as Well Face it, You’re Addicted to Love” “[Pinsky] is hands-down, the absolute best. He is such a compassionate, talented, smart and funny guy. It’s unbelievable how one person can do so many things,” Rachel Miskowiec said.

Pinsky and Miskowiec crossed paths on The CW daytime show, “Lifechangers,” with Pinsky as the host and Miskowiec as the producer.

“The goal was to everyday take someone in a half-hour from point A to point B, whether it was ‘you have no money, you are about to have a baby and need a job’, or ‘I can’t find a date,’ or ‘why your ex wasn’t going to make it work,’” Miskowiec said.

The show covered a hodgepodge

Photo Courtesy of www.humanitum.com

One of Pinsky’s significant achievements has been to change the way people view addiction. of topics, both big and small in size.

From relationships, love, health, addiction or shopping addictions, Dr. Drew, accompanied by a committee of experts, celebrities and doctors, tried to offer sufficient advice to change an individual life, one halfhour at a time.

“At one point, we got 67 people jobs in one hour! People were willing to do things for Drew, because his brand was so clean,” Miskowiec said.

Just as Dr. Drew’s brand was clean, he too tried to cleanse people of their addiction problems.

“Something that people overlook with Drew is that he made addiction a disease. Prior to Dr. Drew, talking about addiction was associated as a dirty, horrible thing … [Dr. Drew] brought addiction into the conversation in households. He made it a disease, something that was treatable … like cancer,” Miskowiec said.

By diagnosing addiction as a disease, Pinsky gave power to individuals, giving them the strength that they can beat addiction.

“Every single time I saw some family member or someone who was addicted to something and saw the light bulb go off when they realized that ‘maybe I do have something wrong with me, maybe I should go to rehab, and that I can beat this and I do have worth’ … it was astounding,” Miskowiec said. “[Pinsky] is a doctor and he is also an amazing television show host.

Think about the doctors you see in your life — the ones who give you a flu shot — and then think about that man on television. No!” Miskowiec said.

But, Pinsky was that man — an Amherst graduate who infused his talents as a doctor into the television world.

“Never Say Never” Besides “Loveline,” DrDrew.com, GreenRoom and “Lifechangers,” Pinsky has continued his career through “Celebrity Rehab” and “Teen Mom Reunion,” “Dr. Drew” on HLN, among others.

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

Pinsky’s HLN program, a more recent production, can be watched Monday through Wednesday at 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. The show seeks to answer the question “why we do what we do?”.

However, it was not until last year that Pinsky admitted to himself that he had shifted from his first career, medicine, to his second, television.

Having experienced Amherst College in a period when the lives of young adults were being “underserved and underappreciated,” Pinsky realized he needed to be a voice for young adults, particularly because he understood what they were going through.

The media was a powerful tool that Pinsky took to his advantage.

“You have to be willing to entertain or else you won’t get viewers. You have to get into environments and programs that may be uncomfortable and challenging. It is about taking these stories and using them as opportunities to not just shape people’s understandings, but the culture at large,” Pinsky said.

Yet, Pinsky’s story of success was not an easy adventure. Thirty years ago, before he became known as “Dr. Drew,” Pinsky was where current students are right now.

“The pain you are experiencing now will serve you well in the long run. I promise,” Pinsky said. “You are at a school that is just a cut above the others. Even when [students at other schools] are getting amazing experiences, Amherst is always a notch above. It will serve you the rest of your life. It will not go under-used or under-rewarded. And I know it is painful, but be patient and be grateful.”

Pinsky currently lives in Pasadena with his wife, Susan. His children, triplets Douglas, Jordan and Paulina, are sophomores in college, with Jordan attending Amherst College.

“The last time we visited [Amherst College], was just a couple weeks ago.

The fact that my entire family is all at home on the campus now …is deeply meaningful to me,” Pinsky said.

November 9, 2012

Bonnie Jenkins ’82 Alumni Profile

Fearless Ambassador Ensures National Security Department of State’s Coordinator for Threat Reduction Program’s Bonnie Jenkins embraces her role in international policy.

by Nicole Chi ’15 A retired Naval Reserve officer, an expert on nuclear arms and the Department of State’s Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs, there is no doubt that Bonnie D. Jenkins has played — and continues to play — a significant role in maintaining the security of our nation. However, her path to her current role was one of exploration and excitement, well-suited for her well-rounded and fearless nature — and her appetite for new experiences has not ceased yet.

An Energetic Childhood The energetic third child of a daycare worker and a store manager, Bonnie Jenkins was born in Queens, New York and grew up in the Bronx. She described herself as a sports-loving child who was “always running around and getting dirty.”

“I used to play a lot of basketball, and I played squash and … volleyball, and I did track and field,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins went to Spence School for high school, which is a private all-girls institution in New York. When it came time to choose a college, she thought Amherst seemed like the perfect next step. Jenkins had visited the College earlier and fallen in love with it. It was

during a lot of her senior year. Meanwhile, she double majored in black studies and psychology — the former because she wanted to learn more about the history of African-Americans in America, and the latter because she wanted to study why people thought and behaved in the ways that they did.

And, of course, she had fun — lots of it. Jenkins loved Amherst, and the culmination of all her experiences there made her extremely happy.

“I could go on forever,” Jenkins said, when asked about fond memories she had at Amherst.

It was the little things — playing loud music outside of Val, studying at Frost, watching soap operas together.

Some weekends, she and her friends would go to parties in Smith; other nights, they would throw their own.

“We used to have amazing parties at Charles Drew. Everybody used to come to our parties from the Five College area,” Jenkins said.

She offered some advice for current students that is based off of her personal experiences and the way she balanced her academic and social.

“Definitely take advantage of the educational experience and the quality of

Photo Courtesy of Amherst Magazine

Jenkins served in the U.S. naval reserves for 22 years, ending her service in 2008. small, like her high school, but with everything she needed to figure out her interests.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet, so it gave me an opportunity to stretch my arms out and try something new,” Jenkins said.

A Talented Multitasker Certainly, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Jenkins made use of these opportunities. She thrived at Amherst, quickly carving out niches for herself in various aspects of campus life. She did sports, was the first black woman to head the Black Students Union, wrote articles for The Student, participated in numerous search committees, ran track and field and played basketball. She worked campus jobs

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

the professors who are there … It really pays off,” Jenkins said, emphasizing the importance of using Amherst’s educational resources to better enable oneself to pursue goals after graduation.

“But also enjoy the fact that … you’re [at] a point in your life that you’re not going to be at afterwards … and really, really enjoy [Amherst],” Jenkins said, emphasizing that college is a transitional period of one’s life, and one should work hard but also enjoy the “relationships that you make, the friends that you make and the fun things that you can do.”

Finding Her Calling However, although Jenkins had explored a wide range of her interests at Amherst, she still wasn’t sure what she

Photo Courtesy of www.flickr.com

Jenkins’ job as Department of State’s Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs allows her to travel all over the world and interact with different people. wanted to do after graduation. She was a paralegal for a while before deciding to go to law school. She received a joint degree from Albany Law School and a master’s degree in public administration from the State University of New York at Albany. There, she met her good friend Veronica Hummel, who had attended the Univ. of Massachusetts. They are still close friends, and Hummel has many fond and endearing memories of their time as roommates at Albany.

“She rises at the crack of dawn, which as roommates in law school wasn’t that endearing,” Hummel said.

Hummel also had much to say about Jenkins’ intellectual spirit.

“She [has] a ravenous appetite for learning and experiences, a constellation of circumstances that has resulted in her numerous impressive and academic and professional titles. In addition, Bonnie is intellectually, emotionally, and physically fearless,” Hummel said.

As Jenkins had always wanted to work in Washington, she applied for an internship at the Department of Defense. She got the internship and was in the program called the Presidential Management Internship Program for two years. One of her rotations during that internship was at the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon, where she was working with a lawyer on treaties dealing with chemical, neutral and biological weapons.

“Because of a meeting I went to, I got so interested that I decided right there and then that I was going to do that,” Jenkins said.

It may have been a spontaneous decision, but Jenkins had the determination and brainpower to make it come to life. Once again, she went back to school, receiving her master’s degree in Public International Law at Georgetown. She then decided she wanted to get her Ph.D., so she quit her job and went to the Univ. of Virginia while working part-time at the state department. For her Ph.D. dissertation, she obtained a fellowship to write her dissertation at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Univ. She wanted to write her dissertation on the topic that had triggered her interest at the Pentagon, and the Belfer Center had many experts in this area.

Jenkins finished her Ph.D., although she took a break for a year and a half to work on the 9/11 Commission, which she thought was interesting and very rewarding.

“We were basically going to tell the story of 9/11. We couldn’t mess it up,” Jenkins said, explaining the importance and pressure of their task.

Families of the victims of 9/11 would read, so writing a bi-partisan report with good recommendations was crucial. Jenkins was proud of the fact that, unlike any congressional report, it was sold in bookstores and “bought like a regular novel.”

“There’s nothing like doing a job and having people care about what you have to say,” Jenkins said.

She then worked at the Ford Foundation for about three years. There, she used her grant-making responsibilities to strengthen public engagement in U.S. foreign and security policy debate and formulation, promoting support for multilateralism, the peaceful resolution of disputes and the international rule of law.

During that time, Jenkins was also in the U.S. naval reserves as a Direct Commission Officer. She would end up doing it for 22 years ending in 2008, and enjoyed it greatly.

“I loved being on the ships … it was always a good experience,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins was called to go on active duty for about a year down in Central Command in Tampa at one point, and she has received numerous awards in her time as an officer in the U.S. naval reserves.

After going back to the Ford Foundation, she received a call from a very important person.

“I got a call from…Senator Clinton about coming into the administration at the State Department,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins was hired as the Department of State’s Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs and has been working there ever since.

A Global LIfe Currently, Jenkins’ job as Department of State’s Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs entails meeting with a lot of officials overseas and promoting programs that reduce Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (WMD) proliferation and the chance of WMD terrorism. In addition, she

THE AMHERST STUDENT: COMMENCEMENT EDITION

is the U.S. Representative to the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of WMD, and the state department’s representative for the Nuclear Security Summit.

Some of Jenkins’ responsibilities include coordinating the Department of State Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs. She also engages in outreach efforts and regularly briefs United States Combatant Commands about WMD programs in their Area of Responsibilities, works closely with relevant international organizations and multilateral initiatives and works closely with NGOs engaged in CTRrelated activities.

“Fortunately for all of us, she is committed to [making] the world a safer place,” Hummel said.

Personally, Jenkins loves that her job entails constantly working with people from other countries.

“I was at a lunch today, and on one side of me was the ambassador from Iraq and on the other side was an ambassador from Libya and in front of me was an ambassador from Poland and to his side was an ambassador to Ukraine. I like being engaged in these multilateral, multinational types of settings,” Jenkins said.

In fact, Jenkins’ job requires so much travel that “it doesn’t even make sense to try to get a place in Washington D.C.” She has a place in Westchester, New York, but lives with her sister in Woodbridge, Virginia because she works at the Main State Department in D.C.

Following Her Passions Although Jenkins loves her job, it is clear that her love for exploration that was so apparent at Amherst has never ceased. She is interested in expanding her knowledge about soft security, and may want to move on to something else in the future. Jenkins has always had the bravery to pursue her passions, and attributes part of it to Amherst, which she speaks about with a sense of love and pride.

“There was a freedom that I loved there … not just in the courses I selected, but in the lifestyle — a structured freedom, of course. It fits very well with who I am. I always look at Amherst like my springboard; it just sets things a certain way in my life. That kind of freedom that I had, I followed it,” Jenkins said.

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Alumni Profile Bess Kargman ’02

Newcomer Captures Dance Right on Pointe By taking a risk and starting her own company, Bess Kargman has produced her first documentary, a critically-acclaimed, award-winning beauty.

by Andre Wang ’14 Stripped of the fame and glory of movie stars or big-shot directors, documentary filmmakers often stand far from the spotlight and let their subjects speak instead. In “First Position,” the debut documentary feature by Bess Kargman ’04, the greatest voices come not from words but from body language. Chronicling seven aspiring ballet dancers as they take center stage in the prestigious ballet competition, Youth America Grand Prix, in hopes of a bright future, “First Position” is as much a testimony of the strength and beauty of ballet as it is that of the talent and perseverance of Kargman, who transitioned from an active dancer and scholar to the creative mind behind one of the year’s most acclaimed documentaries.

The Young Triple-Threat “First Position,” the title a wordplay on the position that ballet dancers learn in their first class and the race to the top in the competition, represents a world that Kargman has known intimately since age five, when she began ballet training at a local studio in her native Brookline, Mass. Athletics came easily to Kargman, who also grew up playing soccer, tennis and ice hockey, but she was surprised to find herself an underdog in ballet — a challenge she enjoyed until her “early retirement” to pursue the three varsity sports in Concord Academy. Her work ethic was beyond her years: waking up at 5 a.m. for ice hockey practice on the boys’ team (the girls’ team would not become an option until high school) was typical, but that was just the beginning. A full day of school followed, as well as ballet, Hebrew school or tennis, sometimes even all three. Just how hectic was her schedule?

“Sometimes on the weekends I wore my hair in a bun to practice because I didn’t have the time [to undo it] after ballet. Hairpins would be sticking out of my helmet and I looked like an alien on skates,” she said.

Kargman broke from the family tradition in her senior year of high school when she applied early decision to Amherst instead of Harvard.

“I guess you could say that made me the rebel in my family,” she said about not attending Harvard like her grandparents, parents and siblings, “but my family just wanted me to be happy, and I knew Amherst would be a much better fit for me. I didn’t want to learn from TAs, I didn’t want the rigidity of a core curriculum and the campus was perfectly sized.”

According to Kargman, the day she received admission to Amherst was one of the most memorable ones in her life.

“The mailman left the envelope at the wrong door, with none of the other mail. It’s a door we rarely use so the envelope was sitting out there for three days. All of my classmates who were accepted early to their first choices had heard except for me. I spent three days in mourning, certain that I had been

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rejected, and then the next day my parents showed up at school with the letter. I nearly cried. It was a great day.”

Finding Her Way, at Amherst and Beyond That great day led to four great years for Kargman. While at Amherst, she took courses in nearly every academic field, ranging from Baroque Art with Professor Nicola Courtright (later her advisor), an independent course she designed with Anthropology and Sociology Professor Ronald Lembo, to a variety of music history and LJST classes. Her intellectual energy even reached beyond the Amherst campus, from Italian at UMass, Music Production and Sound Design at Hampshire College and History of Photography at Smith.

She relished the fact that Amherst fostered autonomy and independence, while creating a great sense of collegiality and partnership. Coming from the intensity of Concord Academy, she enjoyed “how freeing it was to then have a college schedule where you had the time to sit in Frost Library with your friends and debate Socrates, then go to Fresh Side for rolls and then have a little fun.” Her academic life in the Pioneer Valley was only part of her experience: she played on the Women’s Ice Hockey team for two years, then flew to Rome for a semester of art.

Around that time, she began to think more seriously about her career path. That was when questions started flooding in. She knew she wanted to invest in her creativity, but felt clueless as to how. Neither of her internships in the music or fashion industry seemed to be a good match, and the rigidity of corporate hierarchy over those supposedly creative and collaborative fields left her uneasy.

“I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “I knew I wanted to be creative, and I knew I loved storytelling.”

But what format to use? What profession to pursue? Though having been very determined in school, she graduated with these questions still weighing heavily on her mind.

“You need years to grow,” Kargman said while reminiscing on her postAmherst life, which proved to be challenging at first.

She moved to New York City with two college friends and in order to pay the bills. She earned her real estate license and began to navigate the sea of New York City properties during the day to free up time for night classes on op-ed writing, where she honed her craft on story-telling. She even spent the next summer planting crops on an organic farm in Mendocino, California. Yet looking back, Kargman found her “lost years” constructive.

“In the first couple of years out of college it is okay to take jobs not necessarily [as] what you want to do for the rest of your life, but [that are] still useful in building your resume and meeting people,” she said. “If you are shell-

shocked that you don’t fully know what to do, that’s okay … it took me a while to figure it out.”

Becoming a Soloist Kargman figured it out after publishing her first op-ed in the Washington Post. She returned to Columbia Graduate School of Journalism where she did a concentration in documentary and new media. The road, however, did not become easier. Recession hit not long after she tucked away her graduation gown, and she found herself working as an unpaid intern at a production company and hoping to secure a job.

She never landed one, but as it turned out, she did not have to. Instead, she left the company and founded her own.

The pitch for “First Position” was the one that prepared her leap of faith.

When she walked into Youth American Grand Prix during lunch break one day and saw the young dancers on stage, an idea hit her: she wanted to document the lives of these promising dancers as they strove for the chance to shine. The company, having had her for ten months but clearly not planning to hire anyone, brushed it aside.

“Bess has always said that the people who don’t believe in her are just as important as the people who want her to succeed … because the naysayers ignite a fire in her to prove them wrong,” Matthew Orlando, Kargman’s fiancé, wrote.

Indeed, she then decided to go ahead with the idea by herself.

“A friend advised me to establish a production company, create an LLC

and hire a crew. I had no idea what I was doing but I did it anyway.”

From there, she learned everything from the ground and embarked on the journey.

Kargman knew it would not be easy, but she carried on. Nick Higgins, Director of Photography for “First Position,” testified to her tenacity.

“She just does not stop until she achieves whatever she has set her mind to do,” he said. “She wanted to make this film and wasn’t going to let anything or anyone get in her way.”

Explaining her decision, Kargman said, “I feared regret more than I feared failure. I envisioned myself ten years down the road with screaming kids and an unfulfilling job, [and] I realized that if I was going to try to do this on my own, it was now or never. Once you have a family and a mortgage that needs to be paid, you have lost your opportunity to take crazy career risks — especially if you have no idea what you are doing.”

She was not going to let a prospective film go, especially when it would deal right in her own court: dance.

“If someone else started to make [a film about young dancers in ballet competitions] … I would be devastated,” she said.

Even without going through competitions as a young dancer, she had her years of dancing as background knowledge.

“I knew how to tell stories, shoot or edit … and I knew the right questions to ask.”

All the Right Moves Asking the right questions was the

Photo courtesy of Bess Kargman

Her disciplined work ethic notwithstanding, it was ultimately the decision to found her own company that led Kargman to professional success.

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

key to the success of “First Position.”

Yet even before that, Kargman had to spot the talents. Choosing a handful of kids and teenagers to follow for over two years of filming and editing was no less risky than a gamble: to Kargman, it was the important decision she made during the process.

“I did not choose winners,” she said, even though almost all of her subjects had happy endings.

Instead, she went for incredible personal stories and something special, or as one of the protagonists referred to, that mysterious “x-factor.” It could be a dancer’s superb technique, amazing facility, maturity in performance or a combination of all of them that convinced Kargman that these kids would light up the big screen.

Yet watching them dance was only the first step. Next came background research, watching their home videos, meeting their families, spending hours on trial shoots, sitting through rehearsals and becoming, to a great extent, part of the dancers’ lives. As the camera rolled, Kargman had to watch her wallet too: fundraising for the film in the old-fashioned way, she pitched the film to art patrons and competitions, and her crew worked for a discounted rate.

And then there were the down times.

In the summer of 2011, while she was still editing “First Position,” Kargman recalled wondering if the movie would ever see the light of day.

“In my final month of editing I was so desperate to finish the film in time for the Toronto International Film Festival that I didn’t leave the house, didn’t change my clothes, didn’t answer the phone — I was like a zombie in a dark room sorting through hundreds of hours of footage. Let’s just say, it wasn’t glamorous.”

Yet she persisted, for she believed she had nothing to lose.

“If I failed, I could embarrassingly walk back to my parents and stay in my childhood bedroom,” she said, laughing.

It seems like that won’t be any time soon. “First Position” became a hit with critics and audiences alike: review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 96 percent of the critics wrote positively about the film, which also won Audience Awards at Dallas International Film Festival and Portland International Film Festival, to name a few.

“To see the film bought by Sundance Selects/IFC and then released in theaters around the world is a dream come true,” Kargman said, admitting that she had resorted to clichés in this situation.

That dream surely has flown much higher since.

This summer, Kargman moved from New York City to Los Angeles to further pursue narrative filmmaking, and now she is working on a documentary short for ESPN as part of the network’s upcoming series “Nine for IX,” dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Title IX, which opened doors of equal opportunity for female athletes in 1972.

ESPN loved the discipline and athleticism portrayed by “First Position,” and apparently so did Whoopi Goldberg, who will produce Kargman’s new work. What will the next steps look like for Kargman? Impressed by Kargman’s drive and unique perspectives, Higgins is hopeful for Kargman’s future.

“Whatever Bess sets her mind to, she will accomplish,” he said.

November 9, 2012

Richard McCormick ’69 Alumni Profile

Values: From Amherst to Public Higher Education McCormick’s insights into the morals and politics that constitute American life serve him well as an excellent college administrator and professor.

by Dan Diner ’14 Richard McCormick has stood at the helm of higher education in America, serving distinguished posts such as President of Rutgers Univ. and Provost of the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But through all of his many accomplishments, McCormick has stood apart from the rest by developing a strong academic ethic through his own education, and the will to maintain and utilize it by securing and advancing the education of so many others.

From studying the virtues that crafted American history and politics into realizing their manifestation through his own work with public institutions of higher learning, McCormick has made something practical of his liberal arts studies.

An Atypical Amherst Admission Growing up in Piscataway, New Jersey, McCormick heard much about Rutgers, the flagship public university several towns over. Everyone in McCormick’s position knew about Rutgers, as it was, and still is, a major national research university and a very common destination for bright kids of middle-income background. McCormick also had two parents working for Rutgers, both eager for him to attend there. McCormick, however, was determined to attend an out-of-state college. Naturally, after his father heard from the Rutgers admissions director that the country’s finest undergraduate institution was Amherst College, McCormick was determined to study there. “From that time on it was more or less foreordained that I was going to Amherst,” McCormick said. “Of course, I had not yet been admitted ... but I decided fairly early on that I want-

especially relevant course of study for the time period. McCormick recounts that about 20 percent of the Class of ’69 were American Studies majors, due to what McCormick refers to as an “intensification of interest in politics.” His college years witnessed the civil rights movement, an intensified war in Vietnam and resulting political resistance, and the recent passing of John F. Kennedy, all of which fostered a highly involved, critical academic culture. McCormick thrived at Amherst, reveling in courses such as Theodore Greene’s Colonial American History and Earl Latham’s Constitutional History, where he first began to consider values and how the grapple for them leads to politics as we understand it.

“Something we learned pretty well was that good values could be in conflict with one another. Life imposes upon us the responsibility to make choices between good and ... good,” McCormick said. If life only presented us with choices between good and bad, most people would get the right answer most of the time. But it’s not that easy.

And the application of that insight to the study of America began to be fascinating for me.”

McCormick chose to express this moral insight academically, and believes that Amherst presented him with the perfect medium through which to develop it.

“To have really smart faculty members in a campus drilling down really added something,” he said.

To Yale and Beyond Upon completing his education at Amherst, McCormick realized that he wanted to teach and study at the university level. For that he needed a

As his Ph.D. program was coming to a close, McCormick searched for teaching positions across the country’s universities, and eventually narrowed down his search to Rutgers and the Univ. of Minnesotta, both of whom selected him as a finalist for assistant professor positions in their history departments. McCormick favored the Univ. of Minnesota, but Rutgers was the one that ultimately offered him the position, against the advice of none other than his own father, who taught there himself at the time and didn’t believe that Rutgers was in a position to be hiring another history professor. And so fate dragged him back to central New Jersey. Though he was somewhat frustrated at first about not getting his first choice position, McCormick reports that “within minutes [he] was thrilled to be there.”

Rutgers: Junior Faculty to Dean of Faculty McCormick taught at Rutgers from the time he was hired in 1976 as Assistant Professor in the History Department to 1992. McCormick learned to love studying amongst what he referred to as a “brilliant faculty” and teaching bright, motivated students, so he worked hard to publish more of his works, which brought him onto the tenure track and which secured for him a full professorship in 1985.

Though upon coming to Rutgers, McCormick didn’t consider any positions other than that of professor, he began considering administrative roles. McCormick recalls that in the mid-80s he would torment the older faculty that chaired the history department by arguing against multitudes of their decisions. He claims that they grew so tired of him that in 1987 he was made Chair of the Department of History, his first taste of academic administration.

Two years later he was offered the position of Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and despite his father’s warning him that he was being offered the university’s “shittiest position,” and that it should only be taken as a step to “become president of the university,” Mc-

Photo courtesy of www.nj.com

Though he left New Jersey to attend Amherst, McCormick found himself returning to teach at Rutgers and then again to serve as Rutgers’ President. ed to go there, based in significant part on [the recommendation of the admissions director.]” McCormick applied and was granted entry through early admission, ensuring that the Rutgers director’s Amherst recruitment was accomplished.

Elite Education and Social Awareness McCormick chose American Studies as his major at Amherst, which was an

November 9, 2012

Ph.D., and after spending a less-thanproductive year teaching a sixth grade class, he enrolled in Yale to complete a course of graduate study on American History. He completed his dissertation under the preeminent American historian C. Vann Wooward about the state of New York politics in the late 19th century. This would later turn into his first book, From Realignment to Reform: Political Change in New York State, 1893–1910.

Cormick took the job. Unbeknownst to his father, the idea of resigning from the university had already found a pleasant space in his mind.

North Carolina and Washington: The Real Deals McCormick eventually left Rutgers to work for the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then later for the Univ. of Washington, two of the country’s most prestigious public insti-

Photo courtesy of www.rutgers.edu

From a politically-charged Amherst experience, McCormick found his life’s calling in improving college campuses through diversification. tutions. While he had always expressed very positive sentiments about Rutgers, he also bemoaned that the unkept state of the cities that hosted the University’s campuses compromised the standing of the University. McCormick likes to brag that the change of institutions gave him the pleasure to live in both the “most beautiful college town on the planet” (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) and the “loveliest city in the country” (Seattle, Washington). At UNC McCormick served as Provost (alongside a few other role) from 1992-1995.

His proudest accomplishment was the initiation and expansion of racial diversity, which has been something McCormick had deeply cared about since he began learning about race relations and racial identity at Amherst.

The keystone project that he championed was the establishment of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center, something that he felt was absolutely necessary for the development of black cultural studies on campus, but something that was also very controversial.

Nonetheless, McCormick fought, and though he left before the project was completed, he remains proud that the building was constructed and stands as one of the most majestic structures on campus.

At the University of Washington, where McCormick served as President from 1995-2002, he faced similar racial issues when the state of Washington, “not nearly as liberal as one might expect,” McCormick said, voted through a referendum to forbid the use of affirmative action policies by any public institution. As expected, the representation of minority students plummeted with the very next incoming class, and the university faced a diversity crisis.

In response, McCormick championed new admissions strategies, including an increase of outreach to high schools with high minority representation and a restructuring of the application pro-

The Amherst Student: Commencement Edition

cess so as to make it more attainable to students from under-represented backgrounds. These strategies were so successful that within four years the pre-referendum diversity was restored, completely without the benefit of affirmative action.

Rutgers: A Return to Home In 2002, McCormick left the Univ. of Washington to fill his seeminglydestined position, President of Rutgers Univ. Thrilled to be back in his home state, McCormick served his role as president until he resigned earlier this year, though he continues to serve his teaching position, as the Board of Governors Professor of History and Education.

In this last administrative stretch, McCormick continued to champion various forms of diversity, culminating in the facilitation of the Rutgers Future Scholars Program in 2007. The program identifies troubled middle school students in the public schools of the cities that house the university, mentoring them and promising full scholarships to participants are admitted to Rutgers after graduating high school.

McCormick’s career has brought him from coast to coast, and he has advanced from studying the great American experiment, to teaching about it and finally, to implementing the study on a grand scale. But through all of his success, what is so amazing about McCormick is that he managed to shape his career in the mold of an ethic he learned as an undergraduate.

The great insight McCormick had at Amherst is that American politics and government were nothing but the pursuit of certain values, the “responsibility to make choices between good and other good.” And by fighting to improve the state of some of the nation’s most critical institutions, those of higher learning, McCormick pursued just that.

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Thoughts on the 2012 Electi David Baird ’14 People who know me probably know that I do not consider myself a liberal, nor do I identify very closely with the Democratic Party. A line I’ve grown fond of in the past year is, “The Democratic Party is not our friend; it is the only party we can negotiate with.”

So it was no wonder that, for a while, I wrestled on how to cast my vote this November. I knew that I wanted Elizabeth Warren to win her race for the Senate (and a massive shout-out to the wonderful and brilliant organizers of her campaign here at Amherst, Lindsay Oxx ’14 and Pierre Joseph ’15).

But Obama? I wasn’t sure what to do. This was a President who had the immense credit of not being Mitt Romney, but who also wrought havoc on civil liberties, who passed a health care reform bill that seemed distressingly favorable toward insurance companies, who had unforgivably caved to the House during the debt crisis in 2011, who hadn’t been the “fierce advocate” for gay rights he’d promised to be until pushed and whose attempts at financial reform and economic stimulus seemed much weaker than advertised. Things came to a head when isidewith.com told me I should vote for Jill Stein and threw my world into chaos.

In the end, though, I did not vote for Stein.

In fact, I had made up my mind to stay with the President long before casting my vote. Why? Partially because, frankly, Obama is not Mitt Romney, and I am not so naïve or flippant as to think that a Romney presidency would somehow strengthen and revitalize the left, nor do I want to imagine the price the left (and myself) would pay for it. But also because I believe Barack Obama may not be a great President, but he is a good President. He is not perfect, and I have already listed many of the ways this is so. I believe historians will view him favorably in the long run; for the auto bailout, for Obamacare (which isn’t the Canada-style reform we wanted, but has some pretty wonderful provisions), for Lily

bored and difficult, especially of late. But I will say without shame that casting my ballot was among the most exhilarating events of my recent life. From the day that I got a book about the Presidents on a family trip to Washington at the age of seven, America has bonded itself to me in ways that I may never shrug off. Its long and storied, albeit tainted history; its hopefully indelible natural beauty; the majesty of its great cities, like the one I grew up in; its literature, art, music and film; these things are a part of me, and I felt them rushing into me after I left the Bangs Community Center. My jaded 21-one-year-old self felt a surge of genuine, unironic patriotism, and it lasted all day, up to and beyond the President’s victory. And, to paraphrase the man himself, he built that.

Amherst Coffee and Rao’s, in search of Amherst students who I knew to be the best group of volunteer candidates. As a Spring Fellow with OFA, I had my chance to engage the student electorate in what history may hold as one of the most important presidential elections of our lives.

Although my impression of the student body as mostly progressive was certainly not undermined, I did underestimate the presence of those who weren’t so thrilled with the prospect of the Presi-

doors, making thousands more phone calls, and spending hours recruiting and scheduling volunteers, the Amherst College Democrats were more than fired up and were certainly ready to go and get out the vote for Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama on Election Day. We set up our GOTV operation out of Charles Drew House where every wall was covered with lists of canvassers and phone bankers, campaign slogans, and Warren and Obama signs. Over 50 volunteers worked on No-

dent serving four more years. Fortunately, many did share my enthusiasm. From January of this year all the way through the weekend before the election, our Amherst OFA team engaged nearly 40 volunteers in phone banks, canvassing missions (several to New Hampshire), voter registration drives, and other events on behalf of Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. But I also engaged with the opposition, sometimes getting into passionate discussions with some of my friends who favored President Obama’s opponent.

While in the end our efforts paid off and those of our opponents fell short, above all what I am most grateful for is taking action to help stimulate political activism on campus. Today the College Democrats are active again, the College Republicans are in the process of rekindling their organization, and Amherst students are still taking the time to handle their academic (not to mention social) lives while not forgetting that we must engage ourselves in our great democracy. Do not forget — it determines not only the outcome of our lives today, but also the lives of those who will come tomorrow.

vember 6th to bring Elizabeth Warren to the Senate and keep President Obama in the White House.

(And in typical Amherst College fashion we ran out of campaign t-shirts by noon).

On Election Day we put boots on the ground and helped with the final push of the most successful grassroots campaign in Massachusetts history. We dropped 400 pieces of campaign literature around the town of Amherst (all before 10 a.m.!), made calls from 9 a.m. until the polls closed and sent 22 volunteers to canvass in Chicopee, a battleground city Warren would go on to win. Amherst Dems is proud of the sheer number of students we were able to rally to core democratic causes. We all worked together to make a tangible difference for our candidates through our direct voter contact efforts across Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Only when call time ended and the final carload of canvassers returned, was it time to sit and wait for results. Cautiously trusting in Nate Silver, we watched as states started to be called for Obama.

When Warren was named the winner in Massachusetts by 9:45 p.m., the room erupted into applause. An hour later when President Obama crossed the electoral threshold we couldn’t contain ourselves and rushed across campus toting our Warren/Obama-Biden 4x8 sign.

Jamal Mtshali ’15 When I first arrived at Amherst College from the Univ. of Delaware in the Fall of 2011, I was blown away by the astuteness of the members of the student body. Where I came from, people weren’t necessarily ignorant or oblivious with regard to political issues, but like most college students the topics of conversation revolved around who was really hammered at the party last night, who got into it with the cops, what the score of the football game was — things that may amuse or excite us, but that don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things.

At Amherst I encountered students passionate about a range of social issues — race relations, class disparities, and gender issues just to name a few. I was grateful for the fact that, whether we shared views or not, I came to a place where I could hold an intellectually stimulating conversation with anybody.

What disappointed me was the lack of congruence between the degree of political astuteness of the student body and the degree of political activism. The College Democrats were practically defunct. The same held true for the College Re-

Laura Gerrard ’15 After a semester spent registering 292 students on campus, knocking on thousands of off-campus

Ledbetter, for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (Warren’s idea, but made possible in part through his support) and if nothing else, for the sweeping ambition of twenty-first century America exemplified in his stimulus and jobs bill last year.

Yes, he needs to grow more of a spine and ditch his cautious incrementalism. No, he is not Franklin Roosevelt and yes, that is a bad thing. But in the face of foreboding obstacles, he has achieved quite a lot to be proud of. I hope his second term will see even more. The victories of candidates like Warren and Tammy Baldwin as well as same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization across the country gives me further hope that America may actually be trudging forward after all.

One final note; this was the first Presidential election I have ever voted in. My relationship with the country I was born and raised in has been la-

publicans. While some organizations, such as the Roosevelt Institute, had a presence on campus, I did not observe either the existence or activity of many groups outside of this. It belied the impression that I drew from the multitude of stimulating conversations I held with my fellow classmates.

I felt that for so many people to have such strong grasps of the political system and for so many to have such strong opinions regarding that same system, it was somehow unnatural for them to fail to channel those passions into activism.

Some of you may have noticed me around campus this spring, accompanied by a binder emblazoned with the now all-too-recognizable “2012” Obama for America (OFA) campaign logo. I traversed from dormitory to dormitory, between Valentine and Keefe, and even made forays into strategically-significant locations in town such as

Election Night Breakdown

ion

LANDMARKS: • Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) beat Republican Tommy Thompson for Wisconsin’s open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, becoming the nation’s first openly gay senator.

•Rep. Grace Meng won the 6th Congressional District election to become the first Asian-American to represent New York in Congress.

Photos by Risalat Khan ’13

The particular significance of what had just happened in this election began to set in as (largely favorable) results continued to flood in. A record setting 20 women now serve in the U.S. Senate and New Hampshire has the first all-female delegation. Recognizing that rights do not rest on one’s sexual orientation, voters in Maryland, Washington, and Maine approved gay marriage. Though just a fraction of the national effort, we knew that our work impacted elections that matter greatly to us and as the celebration continued there was an overwhelming feeling that we were a part of something much bigger than ourselves or even our beloved candidates.

Of course not all members of the Amherst community were happy with Tuesday night’s results. While many shared in our excitement (and our t-shirts), others shared in disappointment. We recognize that politics are inherently divisive. We don’t all agree all the time — and frankly we wouldn’t want it that way. We hope this election cycle has been and will continue to be an impetus for civil discourse on campus. We hope our differences do not lead to entrenched division, but foster larger discussion and debate on campus. In the words of our newly re-elected President, “we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.”

Electoral Votes

270 Needed

Latest Popular Vote Count

50.5%

1,139,562 61,128,734

Senate Seats

-2

+1

House Seats

-3

+3

Legalized Same-Sex Marriage ME

MD

WA

Legalized Recreational Marijuana CO

332 206

58,138,521

48%

Katrin Marquez ’14 Both President Obama and Governor Romney have disappointed the American public through their negative campaigns. Though Obama may have ultimately won the race, both candidates have lost my respect; both relied on attacks of their opponents rather than providing concrete information about their proposed policies. However, even though I cannot not say that either campaign thoroughly and intelligently addressed the issues of greatest concern to the American public, I felt the Obama campaign was extremely offensive in its attempt to attain female votes.

When I was back home in Florida over the summer, I was constantly bombarded by negative campaign advertising, but one Obama TV spot angered me most of all. The way in which this particular ad addressed women suggested two very negative, and I would say incorrect ideas. First, it is seemed to suggest that women, as a group, are entirely homogenous. Secondly, it was based on the idea that women’s votes would be influenced only by what, for lack of better phrasing, one must term as “women’s issues.”

The way in which the Obama campaign continually sought to frame Mitt Romney as “anti-women” falsely implies that there are certain political ideologies held by all women — a female political ideology. Not all women are the same: many women are pro-life, and many don’t believe that colleges or insurance companies must pay for birth-control. To promote the idea that women, by virtue of their gender alone, hold certain political beliefs ignores the diverse experiences and ideas of women all over the country. To assume that women are incapable of having individual political opinions just because of their gender is not only discriminatory, but highly misogynistic. It belittles women by not comprehending how women too can arrive at more conservative conclusions on these issues, like everyone else.

The other highly offensive aspect of the Obama campaign’s portrayal of women is the suggestion that women’s votes are based solely in women’s issues. In reaching out to the female voters of the country, the Obama campaign repeatedly emphasized women’s rights as an issue of great concern. While I do not feel that the ways in which women are disadvantaged in this country should be ignored by any means, it is wrong to believe that women voters care exclusively, or even primarily, for so-called women’s issues. As American citizens, truly informed voters, regardless of their gender, will vote for whichever candidate they believe to be better for the nation as a whole. For women to operate on the mindset that women should vote based on issues that are relevant almost exclusively to them is a great injury to American democratic values as a whole — it propagates the idea that single-issue voting is not only legitimate, but desirable.

While President Obama tried to depict himself as the candidate seeking to empower women, the means by which he attempted to do this had the exact opposite effect. I am sure this offensive ad inspired some women to vote, but inspiration based on the homogenization of American women and over-simplification of complex political issues is not empowerment.

•Hawaii is sending the first Asian-American woman to the Senate, Rep. Mazie Hirono.

Tammy Duckworth, a female, disabled Iraq War veteran who is also a women of color of Thai descendancy, is now the congresswoman-elect for Illinois’s 8th congressional district.

•The 113th Congress will have at least 20 female senators, the most ever in U.S. history.

WA

Alumni Profile B. Alan Wallace ’87

A Marriage Between Buddhism and Science a novice monk and received full ordination as a Buddhist monk in 1975, administered personally by the Dalai Lama himself. Following his ordination, Wallace joined the prestigious Buddhist thinker Geshe Rabten at the Tibet Institute in Switzerland, where he studied Buddhism, taught courses on Tibetan language and culture and translated for Tibetan Buddhist monks and scholars, including the Dalai Lama. In 1979, he returned to India at the invitation of the Dalai Lama to begin four years of meditative retreats in India, Sri Lanka and the United States, receiving direct guidance from the Dalai Lama on meditative practice and technique.

Consciousness as Reality

Wallace is a maverick in study of consciousness who places introspection as the main method of research.

A practicing Buddhist monk, B. Alan Wallace studies consciousness using revolutionary contemplative methods.

by Ethan Corey ’15 B. Alan Wallace ’87 is not the typical Amherst alumnus. Author of more than 20 books on Buddhism and science and a practicing Buddhist monk for the entirety of his time at the College, he now goes on meditative retreats for months on end, performing psychological experiments in a lucid dream state to attempt to discover the true nature of reality, happiness and suffering.

Finding His Own Path Wallace was born to a devoutly Christian family and spent his youth travelling the world with his Protestant theologian father. However, he was strongly interested in science from a young age and struggled to reconcile his passion for science with his deeply spiritual upbringing.

“I was looking for an integration of truth and meaning. Christianity offered meaning, but I couldn’t tell whether it was true; science offered truth, but I couldn’t see any meaning in it. I was looking for a true and meaningful life, and I didn’t see any real options or promising avenues,” Wallace said.

When he went to the Univ. of California-San Diego in 1968 to study ecology, he soon became disillusioned with both his classes and America in the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Seeking a change of scenery, he spent his junior year abroad, studying at the Univ. of Göttingen in Germany, where he first discovered Tibetan Buddhism.

He quickly became engrossed by Tibetan culture and religion, discontinuing his university education and spending months in a local Buddhist monastery studying under the guidance of German monks. At last, he had found a belief system that united his love of science with his search for meaning.

“I found what I was looking for in Tibetan Buddhism. It’s very deeply experiential; it’s very sharp, very ratio-

12

nal and intelligent — and it’s also profoundly meaningful. To my mind, it’s a true, comprehensive science of the mind that I haven’t found anywhere else. It’s both scientific and also deeply spiritual,” Wallace said.

During his time at the German monastery, a flier arrived announcing a year-long class on Tibetan Buddhism for Westerners taught in Dharamsala, India under the supervision of the Dalai Lama in exile. After meditating on the opportunity and seeking guidance from his lama at the monastery, Wallace decided to enroll in the course and traveled to India to begin perhaps the most transformative period of his life.

Staying in the home of the Dalai Lama’s personal physician, Wallace fell in love with the freedom and intellectual fulfillment offered by his studies.

After three months in the program, at the age of 21, Wallace had his first personal meeting with the Dalai Lama, and instantly knew he had found his mentor.

“I knew I found my spiritual guide or guru or lama if you’d like. He’s been my teacher ever since,” Wallace said.

After a year and a half in India, Wallace decided to take ordination as

At the end of his meditative period, Wallace had been away from Western civilization for nearly fourteen years and decided to re-integrate himself into Western society. Coming to the Pioneer Valley to study with the renowned Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman, who was then a professor of religion at the College, Wallace decided to finish his college education, applying to Harvard Univ. and Univ. of California-Berkeley. However, Wallace quickly adapted to the bucolic scenery of the Happy Valley and chose to continue his education in the area.

He applied to the Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst, but was encouraged his friend and mentor Professor Arthur Zajonc to apply to the College instead.

In 1984, Wallace was accepted to the College and began his studies that fall.

During his first semester, Wallace studied mathematics, physics and philosophy, and he excelled in all his classes. Seeking a more challenging program of study, Wallace became an Independent Scholar, an option chosen only by the most disciplined and mature students at the College, where he designed his own curriculum of study, focusing on physics, the philosophy of science and Sanskrit.

Wallace used his academic independence to write a groundbreaking two-volume thesis on the relationship between Buddhism, the philosophical underpinnings of modern science and the nature of reality. The ideas he first explored in his thesis drove him to pursue the study of consciousness as a fundamental component of reality.

“The whole notion that the fundamental constituents of physical reality — the elementary particles — do not exist out there with their own definite position, momentum, mass and all that independent of measurement; that is a very strong conclusion of quantum mechanics, and it has very profound

Photos courtesy of B. Alan Wallace

At Amherst, Wallace began making the link between philosophy, consciousness, science and Buddhism.

implications for our understanding of nature as a whole. It raises questions about what is the role of measurement, what is the role of consciousness and is there a universe without consciousness? You just go deeper and deeper into seeing consciousness as fundamental to our understanding of reality,” Wallace said.

After graduating summa cum laude in 1987, Wallace began leading meditative retreats and publishing books on consciousness, before attending Stanford Univ. and pursuing a Ph.D. in religious studies. Wallace published his dissertation “The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist Meditation” simultaneously with another book, “The Taboo of Subjectivity,” in 1995. Both books dealt with themes of introspection and selfknowledge, approaching them from both Buddhist and scientific perspectives. “The Taboo of Subjectivity” also criticized modern cognitive science for discounting subjective experience as a path to scientific knowledge, drawing

James Elliot, a colleague of Wallace at the Santa Barbara Institute says that discovering Wallace’s ideas was central to his intellectual development.

“Alan has really provided me with a sense of direction. When I first started reading Alan’s work, before I started volunteering with the Santa Barbara Institute, I felt as though I’d finally found something I can dedicate my life to: the interaction and relationship between Buddhism and Science, in my case Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. As I’ve continued to work and study with Alan, this conviction has only grown,” Elliot said.

Although he has faced resistance from many in the scientific community who feel that subjective modes of inquiry such as introspection are less accurate than third-person approaches, Wallace believes that introspection is more in line with scientific values of empirical observation.

“If we look at any other branch of the sciences or even the social sciences, we find that the primary mode of

Wallace studied Tibetan Buddhism in India, where he first met the Dalai Lama, who has been his mentor ever since. on the writings of philosopher and psychologist William James for intellectual support.

“Modern science is stuck in kind of a rut. When scientists want to study the mind, instead of observing the one mind they can observe — their own mind — they forget about that and try to study the mind by studying other people’s behavior and by studying the brain. All of this is very indirect. Everybody knows the brain contributes to mental events, but nobody really knows the nature of the relationship,” Wallace said.

Contemplating Science Wallace has continued exploring the importance of introspection, founding the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research center emphasizing the integration of science with contemplation and selfdiscovery, in 2003. Wallace is also the director of the Thanyapura Mind Centre in Phuket, Thailand, where he leads intensive meditative retreats and trains people in contemplative techniques. In 2007, he collaborated with neuroscientists and psychologists from universities worldwide in the Shamatha Project, which studied the neurological and psychological effects of long-term meditation and received support from the Hershey Family Foundation and official approval from the Dalai Lama.

Wallace, now perhaps the pre-eminent Western scholar of Buddhism, has transformed the academic careers of many of his students, inspiring them to pursue contemplation and introspection as a path to knowledge.

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

inquiry rests on sophisticated, precise and direct observation of the phenomenon they are seeking to understand.

Introspection is the only way we can observe states of consciousness and mental events — thoughts, images, dreams and so forth. Neuroscience ignores this fact. Introspection plays very little role in the modern cognitive sciences, much to their discredit,” Wallace said.

In December, Wallace will enter a six month-long solitary meditative retreat, where he will seek to explore the mind in ways unavailable to traditional psychology and neuroscience, using lucid dreams — dream states in which the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming — to perform psychological experiences in ‘dream reality.’

Wallace also hopes to explore subjects often ignored by mainstream cognitive science, such as clairvoyance and astral projection, arguing that dismissing them out-of-hand is no better than accepting them out of faith.

“If [these subjects] are fiction, then let us know that they are fiction. If not, let’s find out what we can discover,” Wallace said. “In meditation, I will be making further discoveries about the true causes of happiness, the true causes of suffering — and of course, without reliance on psychedelic drugs, in which I don’t have any interest. I want to explore alternate states of consciousness. What is dream reality? It opens up some very interesting experiments in consciousness. When you alter your dream reality, you’re working in the perfect laboratory. Nothing is physical; no aspect of your dream is composed of molecules or atoms.”

November 9, 2012

Joseph Stiglitz ’64 Alumni Profile

Challenging the Consensus in the World A brilliant academic whose work in economics earned him a Nobel Prize, Joseph Stiglitz began both his academic journey and his social activism at Amherst.

Amherst Activism

by Nicole Chi ’15 One does not have to be an economics major to have heard of Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Whether you agree or disagree with his views, he is everywhere. He is endlessly quoted and debated in articles in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Economist, Vanity Fair and The Guardian. He is the author or co-author of numerous articles in the popular press, as well as over 300 technical economic articles and 20 books.

In addition, he has played a significant role in policy, having held leadership positions such as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton Administration and the chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank.

Stiglitz apparently thrives on a life so busy that one wonders how he even has time for it all. Yet, while continuing to be a strong voice in the media, an economist whom policymakers ask for advice, an advocate for development, an editor for several publications, a full-time professor at Columbia University and much more, Stiglitz still finds time to be on the Board of Trustees for Amherst.

As he said while being interviewed for this profile all the way from Turkey, “Amherst exposed me to a whole range of ideas that served me very well in ensuing years.” Clearly, although the holder of over 40 honorary doctorates and at least eight honorary professorships, Stiglitz is still — and always will be — a Lord Jeff at heart.

Early Life Joseph Stiglitz was born in Gary, Indiana, to Jewish parents Charlotte and Nathaniel D. Stiglitz. Gary — a major steel town at the time — also boasts Nobel Prize winner and Stiglitz’s role model Paul Samuelson as well as other distinguished economists.

His life at home helped develop his

Stiglitz had a deep sense of civic and moral responsibility, which perhaps influenced Stiglitz’s later proclivities for activism. In addition to fostering his interest in policy, he mentions their influence on his love of learning.

“My parents put a lot of emphasis on education,” he said.

While he was in high school, his older brother Mark Stiglitz ’61 was already at Amherst. Stiglitz would follow in 1960 and attend the College on a full scholarship.

“My brother obviously had a lot of influence over me, and was one of the reasons I went to Amherst,” he said.

Changing Academic Interests The type of education Amherst offered suited Stiglitz well, and played no small role in his path to success. In fact, Stiglitz stated that his “intellectually most formative experiences” occurred during his time at the College.

“What distinguished Amherst was not only what was taught, but how it was taught, and the close relationships we had with our [professors],” he said.

It might surprise some to hear that Stiglitz was a Physics major until late in his third year at the College. However, Stiglitz had “always been interested in development,” and this interest, in addition to the professors with whom he took economics classes led him into the field of Economics.

“Some people were very engaged in public policy, like [James Nelson], and others were much more academic, like [Arnold Collery]. I was attracted to both aspects of economics,” he said.

Indeed, Stiglitz finally decided to major in economics because of the multifaceted nature of the subject — he thought it provided him an opportunity to combine all of his interests to tackle important social problems. Later, he would be able to explore — and contribute to — both aspects of the dis-

Stiglitz’s home life informed his interests in policy, as it was a space where political issues were discussed and debated intensely. later interests in policy. Stiglitz describes his family as one in which “political issues were often discussed, and debated intensely.” His mother’s family consisted of New Deal Democrats who admired FDR. His father, on the other hand, was a Jeffersonian democrat who worried about big business and valued competition in the market. Nathaniel

November 9, 2012

dergrad at Amherst, and ensured that he would receive the financial aid that he required. Later, he would return to finally receive his Amherst degree.

cipline in his professional career.

After deciding to major in economics, Stiglitz’s professors advised him to go to graduate school because what he would study during his senior year would be largely repeated in his first year of graduate school. The College arranged for him to go to MIT instead of spending his fourth year as an un-

However, the social atmosphere and culture of the Amherst that Stiglitz attended was quite different from the Amherst of today. In fact, one of the most defining characteristics of Amherst today — socioeconomic, geographic and racial diversity — was absent. Stiglitz described the Amherst of his day as a men’s college with “maybe one…to three percent of students of color.”

“It was the beginning of change … but it was still just a beginning,” he said.

As the president of the student council (now known as the AAS) who — like many in his generation — was deeply concerned with segregation and the repeated violation of civil rights in the nation, Stiglitz was determined to use his power to help Amherst be a part of this change.

During his time as president, he organized an exchange program with Morehouse College, an African-American school in Atlanta. Impatient with those (like President Kennedy) who took a cautious approach, Stiglitz was one of the Amherst students who participated in the march on Washington — the march where Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech.

It was one of his most memorable experiences during his time at Amherst.

“You got a feeling of some of the huge differences across the country.

This was a period before the civil rights bills passed,” he said, trying to explain how difficult it was to think about the issues of the time through a current perspective.

Stiglitz loved the interesting discussions at the student council — and certainly did not back down from the fights that were just as inevitable. Another way in which he tried to change the social culture of Amherst was through his campaign to abolish fraternities, which he viewed as being “socially divisive, and contrary to the spirit of a liberal arts school and community.”

“As you can imagine, at a time when 90 percent of students were in fraternities, this was not always a popular view to have,” Stiglitz said, perhaps understating the extent of the resistance he faced.

There was so much opposition to his changes that a recall referendum was initiated and the editor of The Student at the time took on the cause of removing him from power. He won the referendum, and he continued to use his position to promote social change.

Even so, it took many years for the abolishment of fraternities to actually come to fruition — well after Stiglitz had left Amherst.

Even for the busy student council president, however, there were opportunities for recreation. Stiglitz could not remember ever having a meal in town, stating that he and his friends always ate at Valentine. However, there were still occasions for which they would venture off-campus.

“There was actually something probably quite different from today.

Quite often on Friday and or Saturday night we would go to Smith or Holyoke. So we would make the trek over … to Holyoke or to Smith,” he said.

Photos courtesy of Joseph Stiglitz

Stiglitz, a nationally renowned economist, has worked with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Success in Academia At MIT, Stiglitz spent two years learning from renowned economists such as Samuelson, Solow, Modigliani and Arrow and writing his thesis. After his second year as a graduate student, he moved to the Univ. of Chicago in 1965 to do research under Hirofumi Uzawa, and then to Cambridge in 1966 with a Fulbright fellowship. Stiglitz wanted to see as many views as he could, and worried about “coming too much under the influence of Samuelson and Solow,” as he had edited Samuelson’s papers and worked as Solow’s research assistant. In subsequent years, Stiglitz held academic positions at Yale, Stanford, Duke, Oxford and Princeton, all the while, of course, publishing papers that made numerous important contributions to microeconomics.

Now a professor at Columbia Univ. with appointments at the Business School, the Department of Economics and the School of International and Public Affairs, Stiglitz does not take teaching lightly. Cullen Murphy, a long-time friend of Stiglitz’s and his editor of Vanity Fair, agrees strongly with this and calls the economist an ideal of what certain kinds of scholarship can be.

“His scholarly work … has obviously been widely recognized…but not everyone leverages that position into one of a teacher to ordinary people. Joe has done so,” he said.

National/International Stage In March 1992, Stiglitz moved to Washington to join the Clinton Administration, first as a member and then, from 1995 to 1997 as the chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). He describes that period of time as a wonderful experience, one that was challenging and required him to draw upon and go beyond the vast quantity of knowledge he had acquired over the years. Armed with prior research in imperfect markets, Stiglitz and the CEA helped to define a new economic philosophy — a “third way,” which “recognized the important, but limited, role of government, that unfettered markets often did not work well, but that government was not always able to correct the limitations of markets.”

Clinton was re-elected in 1997, and asked Stiglitz to continue serving as the Chairman of the CEA. However, Stiglitz had to decline. He had been approached by the World Bank to be its senior vice president for development policy and its chief economist, and was on his way to what would be a completely different experience. It was time for him to take on the challenge of development head-on.

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

At the World Bank, however, he found much that he disagreed with. At the time, the IMF was advocating the Washington Consensus, a set of neoliberal or market fundamentalist prescriptions that encompassed policies in such areas as macroeconomic stabilization, economic trade and investment liberalization and the expansion of market forces within the domestic economy.

Stiglitz believed that the Washington Consensus was based on incorrect economic theory and was scandalized that the IMF “used their economic power effectively to force countries to adopt [the] policies, undermining democratic processes.” After a long series of controversies, he left the World Bank in January 2000. The following year, he won the Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information.

Personal Life With Stiglitz’s ever-constant presence in the media and classroom as well as his strong media personality, it is hard to imagine him in a context other than the world-renowned economist that he is. Certainly, he says, his professional life takes up a lot of his time. Besides serving as a full-time professor at Columbia, he also spends a lot of time serving on various kinds of commissions and boards, writing and editing for a couple of journals.

Luckily, or perhaps as a consequence, his hobbies fit in well with his job. Because Stiglitz does a lot of informal advising and is often involved in global initiatives to raise more money to help development in developing countries, he travels often. He enjoys photography, taking time out to relax and exploring the countries that he is near and or visiting.

“This summer, we spent some time in Tunisia, South Africa, and Mozambique and Argentina,” he said.

Murphy, who first got to know Stiglitz when they joined the Amherst Board of Trustees in the same year and has been friends with him for over 10 years, explained what Stiglitz was like outside of media appearances.

“I suspect that what the public may not know … is how personally approachable he is, and how friendly, and funny, and how he actually listens to people and asks them questions,” Murphy said.

Except for his friends, family and students, however, Stiglitz will most likely continue to be seen as the controversial economist who has an endless fount of ideas about everything from U.S. economic policy to globalization.

He will be active on the international arena for a long time to come, and Amherst will continue to watch with pride.

13

Alumni Profile Susannah Grant ’84

Grant Finds the Character in Hollywood DeMott with offering one of the best writing tips she has ever gotten (“Every single character has an fascinating inner monologue”) and named a character after Sofield in her script for “In Her Shoes” (though the name was never uttered on screen).

In spite of her ongoing struggles throughout the four years, Grant did have some fond memories, “ I came away with great friends. Deep, loving, lifelong relationships with good-hearted, intelligent, witty compatriots. That was worth everything,” Grant said.

Finding Her Hero Cycle

Photo courtesy of Susannah Grant

From a tumultuous time at Amherst, Grant found a sympathetic understanding of humanity that forms the backbone of her scripts.

The screenwriter of “The Soloist,” “Erin Brockovich” and “Pocahontas,” Susannah Grant embues her films with complex and honest characterization.

by Siyu Shen ’15 Although the name of Susannah Grant ‘84, might not be immediately recognizable, the names of her various screenplays most certainly are. From the Disney classic “Pocahontas” and the much-loved fairy tale retelling of “Ever After” to the acclaimed “Erin Brockovich” and equally star-studded “The Soloist,” Grant is no stranger in Hollywood. In the almost three decades since graduating Amherst, the respected screenwriter and director has managed to touch the hearts and minds of millions throughout the world with her many films.

was far from a fairy tale. She entered the College in 1980, only five years after the school had turned co-ed. As such, at only 17 she found herself moving from an all-girl prep school to Amherst during one of its greatest periods of transition and struggle.

She remembers a time of gender-based exclusion.

“I was hearing rape songs sung at rugby games, seeing strippers at parties,” Grant said.

She joined a fraternity and sang “Gang Bang” with many other girls, all attempting to be included in an institution that had acknowledged them only in name. At the same time, she watched as her favorite young, female art professor was ostracized by the older, male department. In the face of these intense gender power dynamics, she could neither fit in with the more extreme “womyn’s center” nor face the blatant prejudice present.

However, despite this and her assertion of being a “mediocre” student, she recalls fondly her classes with Professor David Sofield and former Professor Ben DeMott. Grant credits

After leaving Amherst with an English major, Grant moved to New York with a job in publishing. However, she quickly felt as if she were floundering.

“I was living in New York, holding down respectable jobs in publishing, looking as if I was living a real life, but in truth, I felt as if I was flopping around, gasping for air, like a beached fish,” Grant said. “It was that sense I think many people get — that the life you’re living is not your destiny, that you’re on some path that wasn’t meant for you. I decided that the only way to a more meaningful life was to move toward things that pulled at me, even if I didn’t know why, or what the end game or payoff would be.”

Following this decistion, she zig-zagged from job to job, searching for a path that was meant for her. She spent four years trying out acting, journalism and “some of the most godawful jobs,” but she always found herself quickly losing interest and wanting something new.

“The problem was, I would take jobs that interested me — but once I figured out how to do them, I would lose interest and want a different one. In maybe a different town. With maybe different people,” Grant said.

Throughout this period, her one constant became the movie theater.

“I went to movies all the time. Constantly.

Every good movie, every bad movie, every old movie, foreign movie, genre movie,” Grant said.

Movies became a home base for her, the cushioned seat, bag of popcorn and new story offering comfort in a tumultuous time.

Eventually, she found herself in the middle of a job that took two hours a day of the eight she had to spend at the desk. So, she decided that she would begin to write her own movie to pass the time. It was then that she realized that with each new script she wrote, she had a

new job, a new town and new people — exactly what she had been searching for.

Grant quickly moved to LA and enrolled in the American Film Institute. In 1992, she received the Nicholl Fellowship for screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Though still at school, she was hired for her first screenplay — co-writing “Pocahontas.” She has been screenwriting steadily since.

“I do believe in accountability for our actions and creations. I think everything we do does make an (admittedly small) impact on the world at large, so I’ve tried to make movies and TV shows that make the world a teensy bit better rather than a teensy bit worse. I haven’t always succeeded at that, Lord knows. But I’ve tried. I strive to give every character — regardless of gender, station in life, race — complexity and honest humanity,” Grant said.

Soon after her first work, Grant was called to work on a new version of Cinderella (which became the sleeper hit “Ever After”). Less than two years later she penned the screenplay that would result in her first Oscar nomination, “Erin Brockovich.”

For Grant, every script she works on is new and impossible.

“I love my job. Every script is new and impossible and daunts me when I start and rewards me when I finish. It is incredibly gratifying, and for the part that my deeply flawed Amherst experience had in guiding me toward where I am now, I am very grateful,” Grant said.

A Humanitarian Cast of Characters Though her several films since have ranged greatly in genre, each of them involved multifaceted characters with both flaws and victories, regardless of their gender, status or race.

Tom Bezucha, a close friend of Grant’s, points out that this exploration of depth, drama and conflict is what manages to continuously draw “big fat movie stars” looking to play interesting characters into her work.

“So much of what she does and what’s so valuable is that it’s so character-specific in an industry that mostly features flaming robots and people fighting about wedding dresses.

She’s really interested in character journeys and really understands how difficult life is on the earth plane,” Bezucha said. “She has enormous empathy and is a committed humanitarian.”

It is this aspect of Grant that contributes to her belief of accountability for her actions and creations, from her writing to her directing.

Fairytale Beginings Born in 1963 to a doctor father and teacher mother, Grant grew up in Englewood, New Jersey as one of four children. Grant credits her maternal grandparents as her biggest inspiration in her upbringing. Through her frequent visits to a hospital in Haiti that her grandmother helped build and run, she learned to broaden her world view beyond suburban New Jersey and found “an example of a grand vision of life’s possibilities.”

“My inner life was far more dramatic, romantic, perilous, amusing and heroic than the actual life I was living,” Grant said.

As a child, she had a vivid imagination — she spent much of her childhood convinced that she would one day grow up to be a princess. However, despite fantasies and dreams of different worlds dominating much of her youth, it would take much longer before she realized that these visions could actually be taken further.

A Gendered Transition Grant’s time at Amherst, however,

14

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

November 9, 2012

Tom Wyman ’84 Alumni Profile

Finance Whiz Moves into Internet Markets Founder of Internet Capital, Tom Wyman has merged Internet and social media with the hedge fund financial world.

by James Liu ’16 Tom Wyman is the founder of Internet Capital Management — the first Internet and social media hedge fund.

Always an innovator, Wyman has seized upon technology as the future, predicting that it will open up many new possibilities in the global economy. However, his interest in technology and finance may never have occurred without his time at the College, and the interesting path that brought him there.

Bleeding Purple and White Eight consecutive generations of the Wyman family have attended Amherst College since its founding in 1821.

Tom Wyman traces direct lineage to the College’s founding, with his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc., all having attended the College. Tom Wyman’s father, Thomas H. Wyman ’51, was a longtime trustee and was commemorated for his exemplary service and philanthropy by the Thomas H. Wyman 1951 Memorial Endowment Fund, which annually awards a medal to exceptional members of the senior class. Nonetheless, Tom Wyman came within an eyelash of not attending the Singing College.

Born in 1961 in Lausanne, Switzerland on the north shore of Lake Geneva in 1961, Wyman moved across the Atlantic to western Massachusetts at the age of six. When he was 12, he moved to Minneapolis, Minn. before returning again to Massachusetts to attend Deerfield Academy, an elite four-

the graduation issue of The Student.

Wyman exemplified the student-athlete ideal. As captain of the Amherst tennis team, he led Amherst to multiple undefeated seasons.

Running the HP-12C

to attend a presentation by the Dean of Admissions from Amherst. He left with an enlightened perspective. “[I left thinking] Amherst is going to be an incredibly stimulating, academically rigorous experience, and I will get a lot more from going to Amherst than going to Dartmouth, where I will probably wind up in the basement of a fraternity for most of my years there,” Wyman said.

As fate would have it, like seven generations before him, Wyman enrolled at Amherst College in 1980.

In the Class and on the Court While we may never know if Wyman truly would have spent most of his time in a fraternity basement had he gone to Dartmouth, his predictions and expectations of Amherst were duly fulfilled.

At Amherst, Wyman found an “intellectual hotbed” with intimate classes and one on one interaction with professors. Among his professors, Wyman lists Austin Sarat, who was as much the academic heavyweight then as he is now, and Barry O’Connell as just a few of his most inspirational mentors.

Wyman has fond memories of his time in the classroom at the College.

“You sit down with 14 kids and the professor’s sitting four feet from you … you’re going to have a lot of opportunity to interact with everyone at the table, including the professor. That’s an incredible learning opportunity,” Wyman said.

It was an opportunity that Wyman

After graduation, Wyman began his career on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley. The College had given Wyman the ability to think critically and a broad breadth of cultural understanding, but not the specific tools and knowledge for finance.

“I remember vividly sitting in the back of the limo when I arrived at Morgan Stanley as a financial analyst. The partner, who was sitting with me in the back of the limo, said to me, ‘You really don’t know how to run an HP-12C, do you?’…[I realized then] I really needed to go on to graduate school and get specific training for my field,” Wyman said.

In 1986, Wyman matriculated at Harvard Business School. The environment there contrasted sharply to Amherst.

“When I went to Harvard Business School, I was suddenly thrown for every single class into an amphitheater with a hundred kids,” Wyman said.

There were fewer opportunities for personal interaction with professors, and Wyman was faced with the new and daunting task of speaking to a large — relative to the intimate classes at Amherst — group of people. Nonetheless, Harvard Business School gave Wyman a crash course in the professional tools he needed to succeed, including being able to run an HP-12C in his sleep.

Wyman would go on to work for a myriad of investment firms, gradually developing a strong focus on technology and the Internet. As a Senior Publishing Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan, he wrote an investment thesis about brand building and the Internet.

While a Managing Director of the Private Shares Group at Wedbush Securities, he produced research on Social Media companies such as Facebook and Twitter. In the last decade, Wyman invested in numerous Internet companies while working for Husic Capital Management, San Francisco Capital Management and Lamoreaux Capital Management, where he served as a Portfolio Manager. Wyman developed an impressive track record with returns averaging 105 percent over four years.

Moreover, throughout his endeavors, Wyman has consistently been, as John Bernabei — a client and friend — said, “trustworthy,” “loyal” and “willing to go out his way to help a colleague or friend.”

The Next Megatrend

Photos Courtesy of Tom Wyman ’84

Wyman now lives in San Francisco, Calif. with his wife and two sons. year college-preparatory school.

“Almost everyone from Deerfield wanted to go to Dartmouth,” Wyman said.

By his senior year, Wyman had an application filled out and was ready to be sent to Dartmouth College. The last minute, on a whim, Wyman decided

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

would not squander. Intent on going on to graduate school, Wyman buckled down and focused on academics. As an American Studies major, Wyman graduated cum laude and wrote a thesis on alcohol use at Amherst. While not entirely appreciated by his thesis professor, Wyman’s thesis was published in

In March 2012, Wyman founded Internet Capital Management, the first investment firm to focus exclusively on companies leading new sectors of the mobile Internet industry. Wyman describes the evolution of computing as a series of significant technology shifts, each of which tends to be twenty years in duration.

“There are three megatrends in technology. The first megatrend was the mainframe computer from 1970 to 1990. The second megatrend was the client server from 1990 to 2010. Now, from 2010 onwards, the next megatrend is cloud computing … as internet usage migrates from the personal

computer and the enterprise to smartphones, tablets and the cloud,” Wyman said.

Internet growth is reaccelerating.

“The number of Internet users will double in the next three years,” Wyman

Global Internet Fund invests in public companies that are leading new sectors with proven ability to grow and shorts securities where valuations are high relative to challenging fundamentals.

The portfolio will generally consist of

Wyman’s business is a unique alternative for investors hoping to capitalize on growth in the internet industry. said.

Much of this growth will be driven by the global economy, as developing countries bypass installing traditional telephones and put in 3G and 4G phones, which are both Internet enabled. Moreover, in contrast to the monolithic dot-com bubble of the 1990s, mobile Internet is multi-faceted and encompasses many potential areas of growth and innovation, including mobile devices, cloud infrastructure and software, mobile applications and mobile payments. Each of these various categories are growing anywhere from 20 to 50 percent a year. To put in perspective, this is three to four times faster than any sector of the global economy.

Despite the tremendous potential of mobile Internet, there are few reliable products for retail or institutional investors.

“There are no Internet hedge funds and only two actively managed Internet mutual funds in existence today,” Wyman said.

The two mutual funds each possess less than $125 million in assets and in the past have been extremely volatile.

They have both performed poorly in down markets and went down 30 to 40 percent, not once but twice, in the last two recessions.

The centerpiece of Internet Capital Management, the Global Internet Fund, offers a unique and attractive alternative for investors hoping to capitalize on growth in the mobile Internet industry. The Global Internet Fund is a long/short equity hedge fund and completely unprecedented in the asset management industry, as it focuses exclusively on the mobile Internet industry and invests both long and short.

Unlike the two pre-existing mutual funds, which are both long only, the

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

20 to 40 long positions as well as 10 to 30 short positions, with a net exposure of 30 to 50 percent at all times. Fundamentally, the Global Internet Fund will accomplish what similar investment funds have failed to do: reduce volatility, protect capital in down markets and produce gains regardless of market conditions.

The Global Internet Fund fills what is essentially a vast vacuum. Eventually, Wyman hopes to add a private equity fund, but for now, there is significant investing to be done in public companies. Currently, there are 225 publicly traded companies in the mobile Internet sector, and an increasing number of mobile Internet companies will become public. For example, Workday Inc., one of the first cloud-based software providers to go public, launched its initial public offering in October 2012 and has since seen its share value increase by 80 percent. It is, as Wyman states, “the top of the second inning,” and there is immense potential to expand and grow. With prudence, foresight and efficiency, Wyman envisions creating a hedge fund several billion dollars in size.

Nine Generations Today, Wyman lives in San Francisco, California with his wife of 20 years and two sons. He maintains his passion for tennis, as club champion of the local tennis club, although he still reminisces about the clay courts at Amherst. His wife, once a manager at KPMG, now hosts a weekly food show on the XM satellite food network. For his two sons, who are 14 and 15 years old, college is a distant and remote future. Nonetheless, Wyman hopes that someday one of his boys may attend Amherst College and continue a tremendous tradition and lasting legacy.

15

Alumni Profile Rosanne Haggerty ’82

Activist Tackles Homelessness Head On Rosanne Haggerty’s classroom experiences at Amherst sparked her enthusiasm for social justice and social policy legislation.

by Jake Walters ’14 Despite an increase in the homeless population of America over the last several years, most people who have not been homeless don’t think for even a second about this issue.

Few people bother to look behind the image and see the person beneath, or to understand why homelessness is so prevalent and what factors could have led to someone’s homelessness. This is because homelessness is an issue of convenience for so many; when you walk by, you might give a dollar to feel better about yourself, but for most, this is about it. Anything else wouldn’t be convenient.

For Rosanne Haggerty ’82, working with homelessness isn’t just a fleeting emotion or an issue of convenience.

In fact, even though she’s been involved with the issue for 30 years, it isn’t even just a job for her: it’s a lifecalling. What initially started as a oneyear volunteering experience after her graduation from Amherst soon blossomed into a 30-year career searching for solutions to curb homelessness in the United States.

Despite her length of service, Haggerty shows no signs of tiring, as she is constantly looking to the present to better understand where social reform needs to go in the future. The same determination and focus that helped her at Amherst lends her the resiliency to cut through problems to attack the heart of social injustices. She has helped provide permanent homes for thousands of people, but she has also initiated reforms that have served as models for future projects to help end homelessness. Beneath Haggerty’s success lies a burning passion for social justice, something that was both fostered by and influential in her decision to attend Amherst.

Acclimating to Amherst Haggerty grew up in West Hartford, Conn., the daughter of two teachers and the oldest of eight children. Despite her parents’ interest in education, she knew nothing of Amherst for most of her childhood. It wasn’t until the summer before her senior year of high school when she was attending a yearbook workshop at the College, as the editor of the Hall High School Yearbook, that she discovered Amherst. Upon arriving at the College that summer, she noted that she “instantly fell in love with the campus and the experience of being there.” She was still excited, but felt “pretty intimidated, but mainly very fortunate to be there.”

Her interests in a variety of departments and fields drove her to decide on an American Studies major. Her two favorite classes while at Amherst were “Emerson, Dickinson, and Thoreau and their World,” a class which sometimes met at the Emily Dickinson Homestead, and a class centered around the Progressive Movement, which she took as an independent study because the class wasn’t being offered that semester. Haggerty describes both an interdisciplinary academic experience and the professor’s

16

willingness to teach a class not already being offered to three students as an independent study as quintessential Amherst experiences. Outside of academics, she furthered the interest in journalism that initially brought her to Amherst by serving as the chair of The Student, the first female student to hold this position.

Helping the Homeless It was the class on the Progressive Movement that would eventually serve Haggerty most directly in her future career. She wrote that Amherst as a whole fostered her to do “a lot of thinking about my political and social beliefs” and how it helped her become “more comfortable asking uncomfortable questions.” This is something she took from her parents, who she acknowledges were always interested in social justice, and the Progressive Movement class allowed her to connect social justice and social policy legislation more clearly. These experiences motivated her to take a full-time volunteership at a New York non-profit homeless shelter for homeless youth in New York City. While this could have initially been merely a stop on her way to other careers, she soon found herself disappointed with the effectiveness of the shelter.

“I was so unsettled by how ineffective our well-intentioned work was that I stayed in New York City and took a job learning to build affordable housing,” Haggerty said.

Her interest clearly sparked, she wanted to learn as much about the issue as possible, something echoed by her colleague Becky Kanis’ later experience knowing Haggerty. Kanis, the head of the 100,000 Homes campaign aimed at provided permanent housing for the homeless across the country, spoke about Haggerty’s innovation.

“Rosanne is definitely in that three percent of the population that can be accurately categorized as ‘innovators.’

The breadth and range of her curiosity and her willingness to expose herself to other sectors, to other ways of thinking, enables her to consistently look at almost any problem or opportunity with an inside-out point of view,” Kanis said. “This unique ability is what helps Rosanne contribute a key insight that sounds crazy in the moment, but sometimes years later is proven to be the turning point in how to solve a problem.”

The Root of the Problem In Haggerty’s view, her first big realization was that, despite the causes of homelessness, housing was the primary issue, and because of this, it would be providing housing that would lead to the stability necessary to prevent further homelessness. This led her to the Brooklyn Catholic Charities Housing Development for eight years before founding Common Ground in 1990, a project she had been working on for a lengthy time and which served as the fruit of her labor to put housing first in solutions to homelessness.

Common Ground began as a project

to renovate and save the Times Square Hotel, turning it into affordable housing for homeless people and using this as an outlet to help them with health, mental health and employment issues. Haggerty was able to generate interest in the idea, but was unable to find an organization to implement the plan. Instead, she founded Common Ground to jumpstart the program.

Since then, it has been a great success, serving not just as a housing for approximately 650 formerly homeless people at any one time but as a community and as a model for many other buildings which have since been implemented to serve the same purpose.

“The Time Square Hotel … led to ‘supportive housing’ being recognized around the country and internationally as being a smart, humane and cost effective way to end homelessness,” Haggerty said.

In this regard, the communal aspect of the housing creates an environment that fosters support among the residents for each other, and it allows them to work with one another to secure help for the unique problems facing each. She further reflected that this was important not simply because it was successful initially, but because it was able to increase support by presenting homelessness as a solvable issue. Her work in this regard was important as an initiator for a revolution in the thought process about how to approach homelessness, and its effects are longer lasting than she initially could have imagined.

Same Problem, New Solutions However, her success with Common Ground did not deter Haggerty from searching for further ways to curb homelessness. This led to the creation of a special “innovations” unit with Common Ground to investigate, develop, research and implement new policies with the potential to change the way homeless advocacy is treated in society. Haggerty herself is a key advocate of community-based solutions, which provide communities and neighborhoods throughout the country with the resources to tackle homelessness themselves, as well as the understanding that it is an issue worth focusing on and treating humanely. In 2011, this unit actually morphed into a new organization, Community Solutions, which Haggerty, ever the visionary, chose to focus primarily on.

“Shelters, emergency rooms and other crisis responses to homelessness cost a lot, don’t solve the problem and distract energy and effort that can better be used assisting people in holding on to their homes or quickly moving back into a home,” Haggerty said.

Community Solutions had been working recently on a campaign called 100,000 Homes, mainly focused on using “data and process improvement techniques” and training community members across the country on how to use these methods. They also advocate focusing on groups who have specific housing needs and tailoring each solution to that specific group. In addition, they try to build networks within communities of residents.

“It is so much smarter, more decent and more cost effective to solve problems at their sources, so that’s what

Photo Courtesy of Rosanne Haggerty

Haggerty not only has a unique insight for solutions, but also relentless determination to implement her ideas. we’re trying to do,” Haggerty said.

Haggerty’s colleagues speak highly of both her unique insight for solutions and her relentless determination to implementing her ideas into practice. Her colleague Kanis described her effectiveness in glowing terms.

“The key to understanding Rosanne as a leader is her fearlessness and her relentlessness. Once she has it in her mind that something is the right thing to do, she will go for it, and she won’t quit until it’s done and done right,” Kanis said. “Rosanne had the foresight to imagine that England’s Rough Sleepers Initiative — one that virtually eliminated street homelessness in the UK — could work in Times Square. Through Rosanne’s vision and willingness to risk failure, street homelessness was indeed down by 87 percent in 2007 in that neighborhood, which set the stage to revolutionize the largest city in the nations’ response to street homelessness and planted the seeds of one of our latest projects, the 100,000 Homes Campaign. Rosanne takes on projects that would cause angels to stop and think twice. Take Brownsville, the neighborhood with the highest murder rate in NYC, one of the highest rates of removal of children to foster care, incarceration and family homelessness — Haggerty planted our team there in 2005 when no one else was willing to provide services for people about to lose their homes, and has refused to budge ever since.”

She has not gone unnoticed by others as well, even winning the MacArthur Fellowship for her innovative impact on methodologies for ending homelessness in the U.S.

Giving Back Her determination and insight has not merely included issues of homelessness; Rosanne also served on the

THE AMHERST STUDENT: HOMECOMING EDITION

Amherst Board of Trustees.

“As to things ‘Amherst’, she was ‘pitch perfect’,” said her colleague who served with her, Amos Hostetter.

She also served on the President Search Committees, which resulted in the hiring of both Presidents Tom Gerety and Tony Marx. And her experience with finding alternate uses for buildings served her well here too. “[Haggerty] showed us all the wisdom of repurposing a number of the campus’ most important buildings which were threatened by the wrecking ball and she willingly took on the most difficult assignments with sensitivity and Grace,” Hostetter said.

Staying the Course When asked whether she will continue with this cause, she responded, “Absolutely, but my awareness of what the ‘cause’ is has changed. The key in my view is strengthening the most challenged communities in our country and the capabilities of those who have been left behind.”

And her commitment extends to her interest in the next generation as well, as she believes that it is important that students today “think about putting your education to use on solving big problems facing our society” above all else. She takes great joy in helping others, and when asked what she enjoyed most, she responded bluntly, “seeing someone move into a home.”

This love, care and affection have changed the world in many ways and she has touched the lives of thousands: her organization has put at least 22,000 people into homes. But even with 30 years of experience, Haggerty shows no signs of discontinuing her work with housing and homelessness. More importantly, Haggerty seems like she wouldn’t have it any other way.

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Football Can’t Close Out Bantams, Falls to 5-2

Jeffs Surrender 20 Unanswered Points in 4th Quarter, Drop Heartbreaker 32-20 Varun Iyengar ’14 Sports Section Editor With their second loss of the season last Saturday, the Lord Jeffs’ NESCAC title hopes came to a disappointing end at the hands of the Trinity Bantams. The Bantams were the only remaining undefeated team in the NESCAC and a loss would have dropped them into a tie with Amherst and Middlebury for the best record in the conference. With one week to play, all three teams would have likely won-out and earned a three-way split of the NESCAC title. Unfortunately for the Jeffs, Trinity proved too tough in the second half and ran away with their nation-leading 47th consecutive home victory.

Through three quarters, however, it appeared as though that streak might be in jeopardy. Scoring on their opening possession, Amherst set the tone for this game early on. The Jeffs began that first drive at their own 36-yard line, but moved downfield quickly as quarterback Max Lippe ’13 orchestrated an effective attack.

The offense faced three third-downs, but each time Lippe had an answer, looking to the air and finding an open wide receiver to keep the chains moving. The Bantams eventually made a stand at their own 12-yard line, but Jake Schmidt ’14 converted on a 29yard field goal to put Amherst on the board first.

The rest of the first quarter was a defensive battle, as neither team was able to get past midfield with

the ball. The second period, though, was a different story. Trinity finally broke through the offensive stalemate with back-to-back big gains. A 23-yard passing play was followed by a 38-yard run that gave the Bantams superb field position. Amherst did stop the bleeding there, forcing three straight incomplete passes, but a Trinity field goal tied the game, 3-3.

Building on that momentum, Trinity’s defense forced a turnover on the Jeffs’ first play from scrimmage.

Miscommunication on an option exchange led to a fumble that the Bantams recovered at the Jeffs’ 35-yard line. Facing a short field, it took Trinity only three plays to capitalize on Amherst’s miscue, as running back Evan Bunker ’14 took a direct snap at the goaline and bullied his way to a touchdown.

Now facing an uphill battle, Amherst needed its offense to respond before the Bantams gathered any more steam. Luckily, they did just that. Lippe found his rhythm, finding Jake O’Malley ’14 for an early first down that gave the Jeffs a little momentum to start the drive. Two plays later, Lippe looked to the air again, this time finding Gene Garay ’15 for 48-yard strike. The big gain moved Amherst inside the Bantam’s 10-yard line, and Lippe himself snuck into the endzone on the ensuing play to put the Jeffs back on top, 10-3.

With the offense clicking, Amherst would add to that lead on their next drive. Facing a dangerous third-and-1 on their own 29-yard

line, first-year running back Kenny Aboagye-Adinkra burst through the line of scrimmage and found open space downfield. Only looking to get a first down, Aboagye-Adinkra instead gained 45 yards before being brought down from behind. Building on that play, Amherst continued to pick apart the defense, marching all the way to the Trinity three-yard line. However, as the Jeffs looked for the score, an errant pass was nearly intercepted by the Bantams. Luckily, the tipped ball ended up in the hands of Amherst wide receiver Brian Ragone ’16 for his first collegiate score. The touchdown gave Amherst a 17-9 advantage, and they would hold on to that lead heading into halftime.

Both offenses cooled off to start the third period. Trinity managed to tack on an early field goal, but they would not get anything else. Amherst matched the field goal with one of their own late in the third, putting the score at 20-12 heading into the final period. The game, though, was far from over. As Amherst knew from experience, fourth quarter leads were never safe against the Bantams.

The last time these two teams met at Trinity, Amherst had surrendered 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points en route to a devastating loss. Unfortunately, for the Jeffs, this past Saturday would turn out eerily similar.

The Bantams struck immediately in the fourth, cutting into their deficit on a touchdown run with just over ten minutes to play. Unable to make good on their two-point conversation

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

The Jeffs take on 4-3 Williams on Saturday. Since the teams’ first meeting in 1884, the Jeffs’ record is 49-71-5. attempt, the Bantams still trailed 2018.

That Amherst advantage did not last long. Five plays into the Jeffs’ next drive, Lippe overthrew his intended receiver, instead landing his pass squarely in the arms of Trinity safety Rae Haynes ’13. The interception proved to be the turning point in the game, as Haynes ran untouched into his endzone, giving the Bantams a lead they would not relinquish. The pick-six plus a successful two-point conversation put the score at 26-20.

With all the momentum having swung back in Trinity’s favor, Amherst was unable to threaten the rest

of the way. Two possessions later, the Bantams would tack on another touchdown, effectively sealing their victory and capping a final period that saw them put up 20 unanswered points.

The Jeffs will be disappointed with the outcome, but they have a lot to be proud of in the way they fought.

This is a young team and to push the Bantams to the brink, especially at home, is no easy feat. Heading into the season finale against archrival Williams this Saturday, the Jeffs will have to build on that belief, as they look to deliver a Homecoming victory to cap a successful season.

Field Hockey Falls in OT to No. 1 Middlebury; Ends Season without At-Large Bid to NCAAs

Mark Idleman ’15 Public Affairs Office

Katie McMahon ’13 ends her Amherst field hockey career as the leader in points (150), goals (56) and assists (38).

Kevin Hoogstraten ’15 Staff Writer Field hockey’s season came to an end in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday, as the Lord Jeffs pushed first-ranked Middlebury to the brink before falling in overtime of the NESCAC semifinals, 3-2.

The 12th-ranked Lord Jeffs were then

November 9, 2012

passed over for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, officially ending the season at 11-5 (6-4 NESCAC).

The Lord Jeffs knew they would have their hands full with undefeated Middlebury, who had yet to trail a single minute entering the game and had outscored their opponents 59-0 over their past eight games. Middlebury defeated Amherst in both the NESCAC and

NCAA tournaments last year, and the team was out for revenge, as a win would all but guarantee a NCAA playoff spot.

Early on, it looked as if the Jeffs had brought their best game; even so, however, just as they predicted, they would be in for a battle. The first half was an even affair, with Amherst holding a slim 6-5 advantage in shots and winning five penalty corners. The team narrowly missed a golden opportunity to go ahead in the 15th minute, when a sloppy defensive giveaway left Krista Zsitvay ’14 barreling towards Middlebury goaltender Madeline Brooks all by herself. With a great effort by Brooks, however, Zsitvay’s shot was turned away. Later in the half, Katie Paolano ’16 narrowly missed batting the ball forward with the Middlebury defenders out of position before connecting on a shot that was blocked by a defender.

Around three minutes later, Middlebury took the lead. Off of a penalty corner, Lauren Greer, the nation’s leading scorer, smacked a low shot that skipped into the far corner past Rachel Tannenbaum ’15.

Middlebury had an apparent goal disallowed with minutes left in the half after the ball was judged to have gone over the endline in the play’s run-up, and the score stayed 1-0 heading into halftime.

Amherst came out strong in the second half, and the Lord Jeffs got on the board in the 39th minute when Madeline Tank ’15 turned in a rebound for the goal to snap Middlebury’s eight-game streak of not allowing a goal. It was the team-leading 12th goal for Tank, who has been remarkably efficient with a total of 40 shots on the year.

Middlebury responded off of another cor-

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

ner midway through the half. Greer’s shot was blocked, but the rebound was knocked in out of the air by a Middlebury forward. Amherst pressed forward but couldn’t find the net until there were under three minutes left.

Amherst was awarded a rare penalty stroke, and Zsitvay stepped up to take the shot. Middlebury brought in a substitute goalkeeper off the bench for the shot, but it was to no avail as Zsitvay fired into the net to tie Tank for the team lead in goals. The tie held, and the Lord Jeffs forced Middlebury into their first overtime game of the season.

Unfortunately, the Lord Jeffs were punished for allowing Greer another chance off of a penalty corner early into overtime. This time around, Greer sidestepped the defense before scoring into the far corner to send Middlebury to the final.

Amherst ended up outshooting Middlebury 12-11, as the Lord Jeffs gave the Panthers their toughest test of the year this far. Tannenbaum and Brooks recording five saves each.

With their NESCAC tournament dreams over, the team looked to earn one of seven atlarge berths to the 24-team NCAA tournament field, announced late Sunday night. The Lord Jeffs had a strong case for inclusion given their high national ranking and the fact that all five of their losses came against top-20 teams, with four of those games going to overtime.

The tournament committee, however, passed the team over in favor of teams including Bowdoin and Tufts.

Saturday’s game was the last for four Amherst seniors who made it to the NESCAC semifinals the past three years. Co-captain Katie McMahon ’13 will leave Amherst with the career records for points, goals and assists.

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Homecoming Breakdown FOOTBALL VS. WILLIAMS Where & When Saturday, Nov. 10 Pratt Field 1 p.m.

Key Players: Amherst Mike Aldo ’13 Steve Jellison ’14

Players of the Week

Williams Alex Scyocurka Tom Murphy

With a 32-20 loss at Trinity on Saturday, Nov. 3, the Jeffs knocked themselves out of the running for a share of a second consecutive NESCAC title. The Amherst squad led the Bantams 17-9 at halftime and looked to be controlling the game, but it was only a matter of time before the vaunted Trinity offense, featuring running back Eric Bunker, got going.

While the Jeffs were plagued by inconsistent offense in the second half, the Bantams suffered no such woes, out-scoring the Jeffs 21-3 after the intermission. Uncharacteristically — but not surprisingly, given the strength of the Trinity defense — no Jeff rusher totaled more than 63 yards. Playing in the biggest game of his collegiate career thus far, quarterback Max Lippe ’15 was a respectable 22-41 through the air, but his efforts weren’t enough to keep the Jeffs’ title hopes alive. Now, the purple and white will be playing for pride and the always

sought-after chance to dispatch their archrivals, the Ephs. Be certain that Steve Jellison ’14 is due for another big game, while senior defenders Sam Clark and Mike Aldo — not to mention O-Line captain John Ceccio — playing in their final collegiate contest, will take no prisoners.

On the other side, to say that the Ephs haven’t had the greatest year in their history would be an understatement. At just 4-3, Williams is in jeopardy of finishing the season at just .500 if the Jeffs are able to defeat them. Like the Jeffs, the Ephs have been topped by both Trinity and Middlebury so far this season. The nadir of the Ephs’ season, however, was a 33-6 road loss to Bates on Oct. 6. Offense has been streaky for Williams: in their three losses, they average just under 11 points per game, but they boast a much more impressive average of almost 30 points per game in their victories. Of late, the

Is it any surprise that, in the Jeffs’ biggest game of the season, the man to set the tone early was none other than Jae Heo ’14? In the NESCAC Championship game against Williams, Heo struck in the second minute, cashing in on a header into the right side of the net. Later in the game, Heo’s teammate James Mooney ’13 would also score, providing all the insurance the Jeffs would need to win the contest and the league title. It came as a fitting end to the NESCAC season for Heo, who has been the Jeffs’ leader all year long — and still has another campaign to look forward to.

—Karl Greenblatt ’15

Women’s Soccer Falls to Bowdoin, On To NCAAs

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Anna Burglund ’16, the Amherst women’s cross country team was able to take home fourth place in a field of 41 at the ECAC Championships. Burglund finished the 6K course with a time of 24:00.85, good for 22nd individually. With 157 total team points, the Jeffs finished behind only Middlebury, Tufts and host Williams.Having earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Div. III Tournament, Burglund and company will travel to Westfield State this weekend, hoping to advance from there to the National Championship in Terre Haute, Ind. —Karl Greenblatt ’15

Firedogs End Season With Loss to Williams Karl Greenblatt’15 Managing Sports Editor

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

Despite their loss to the Bobcats, the Lady Jeffs will live to play another day; they face Lassell College in the NESCAC Tournament on Saturday.

Andrew Kurzweil ’15 Staff Writer The women’s soccer team may have lost the battle, but they have yet to lose the war. The Jeffs fell to Bowdoin in a penalty shootout after two overtime periods failed to separate the teams.

The Jeffs felt confident going into the game.

They had just defeated Colby 1-0 in a game that was not as close as the score line indicated. Earlier in the season, they had handled the Polar Bears 4-1. The stage seemed set for an Amherst at Williams NESCAC Final, but Bowdoin played the role of spoiler.

Bowdoin struck first in the 36th minute when Audrey Phillips ’16 scored off a cross, narrowly beating Jeff keeper Holly Burwick ’16.

The Jeffs would equalize less than three minutes later, as Amanda Brisco ’14 took advantage of a shaky clearance by the Polar Bear defense.

Brisco’s goal last weekend against Colby gave the Jeffs 1-0 response they needed to advance.

Tied 1-1 at halftime, the Jeffs came out of the break and took control of the game. Sandy Shepherd ’13 headed in a Kathryn Nathan ’13 corner in the 63rd minute to give the College a 2-1 lead.

But the Jeffs were not done there. Brisco struck again off a shaky clearance just three minutes later to pad the lead, 3-1.

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Bowdoin responded immediately, as Jamie Hofstetter ’16 drew a penalty from Maya JacksonGibson ’15. Hofstetter converted to reduce the deficit to 3-2.

Bowdoin found the back of the net again in the 73rd, when Morgan Woodhouse ’14 sent a hard cross in from the right side to Abby Einwag ’15. Einwag’s goal tied the game at three, where it would stay until penalties.

Nathan and Mel Stier ’15 converted the first two kicks for the Jeffs, which were matched by two Polar Bear makes. Sophomore Ariana Twomey’s shot was saved, and the ensuing Bowdoin shot came out off the crossbar. With the tally at 2-2 through three rounds, Emma Rothkopf ’15 and Jessy Hale ’16 both converted for Amherst.

However, Bowdoin matched them to force extra frames. Chloe McKenzie ’14 converted, but the result was watched. Sophomore Alex Hart’s shot was saved, and the Polar Bears’ ensuing make was the decisive blow.

Though the College fell in the NESCAC Semifinals, their season is not over. The Jeffs, by virtue of their sixth overall NCAA ranking, have qualified for the NCAA Tournament, which is a knockout-syle format. The Jeffs next play host to Lassell College (Newton, Mass.) in an elimination game. Should they advance, they would face the winner of Union and Brandeis Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Ephs’ principal offensive weapon has been running back Alex Scyocurka: in the Ephs’ most recent win over Williams, the junior racked up 205 yards on the ground including a programrecord 93-yard touchdown run.

Even though the NESCAC championship race has already been decided (even if Trinity were to lose its final game, it would still have the advantage over second-place Middlebury based on head-to-head play), the Little Three Championship is still up for grabs. Both Amherst and Wesleyan stand at 5-2, so, if the Jeffs can prevail, they will take home the Little Three title (again, based on head-to-head results) for the second year in a row. Of course, this fact will not be lost on the Jeffs or on their coaching staff.

Veteran coach E.J. Mills knows how to win big games, of which this is still — very much — one.

—Karl Greenblatt ’15

The Firedogs saw their season come to an abrupt end after suffering a sweep at the hands of their archrivals in the first round of the NESCAC Playoffs.

The Ephs took the match in convincing fashion, winning the first two sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-15. The Jeffs would battle back and make the third set close, but the Ephs took that one, too, 25-22.

Playing at Conn. College, the Jeffs were unable to replicate the earlier-season success they had had against Williams at home. For the Ephs, Ryan Farley dominated the stat sheet, racking up a match-high 44 assists. By comparison, Nicole Carter ’16, one of the Firedogs’ main contributors all season, led the Jeffs with a more modest 25 assists.

Williams’ Raea Rasmussen topped all players with 15 kills, while Emily Doll added 11; Emily Waterhouse ’13, playing in her final game, paced

the Jeffs in the kills category with 10. With a 14-9 overall record, the Firedogs did not manage to gain an at-large bid into the NCAA Div. III Tournament and so must wait until next fall to hit the floor again.

Although the Firedogs’ four graduating seniors — Waterhouse, Kristin Keeno, Callie Nelson and Abigail Hunter — would have liked to see their careers end more ceremoniously, they can nonetheless looked back on their time as Jeffs with fondness. Over the past four years, this crop of talented seniors led their team to a combined 7928 record, helping add to the illustrious legacy of their coach, Sue Everden.

Speaking of Coach Everden: the leader of the Firedogs expressed gratitude toward her seniors and their contributions over the course of their careers.

“It was an outstanding run for the four seniors,” she said, “including their tremendous leadership this year. They are an awesome group of individuals and players, and they will truly be missed next season.”

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

Emily Waterhouse ’13 was one of four seniors to play in her final game for the Firedogs.

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

November 9, 2012

Men’s XC Wins ECACs for First Time Ever Emmett Knowlton ’15 Managing Sports Editor Men Led by third through fifth place finishes by Dillon Buckley ’13, Gus Greenstein ’14 and Romey Sklar ’15, respectively, the men’s cross country team took first place at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship, held at Williams last weekend. The victory marked the first team win for the men’s cross country team this season, and the first ECAC victory in program history.

With the Jeffs’ top three runners resting for Regionals this weekend, on top of New England bragging rights, the meet also served as a race for the final four spots on the seven-man team competing this weekend at Westfield State.

Buckley and Greenstein led the field for much of the eight-kilometer course, finishing third and fourth with times of 26:30.63 and 26:42.07, respectively, but Tufts’ Sam Haney and Williams’ Todd Ford passed Buckley and Greenstein in the race’s final quarter-mile to grab the top two spots in times of 26:22.86 and 26:25.78, respectively.

Sklar finished next, crossing the line at 26:51.90, while first-year Dan Crowley took 15th (27:08.87) to grab the final All-ECAC spot and also a spot as an alternate this weekend.

Senior Alvaro Morales’s 17th-place finish secured the victory for the Jeffs, whose 44 team points topped Bates’ 54 and Williams’ 84. Charlie Reighard ’14 and Eli Howe ’13 rounded out the Jeffs runners with times of 27:26.60 and 27:39.66, respectively.

The Lord Jeffs top seven runners will return to action this Saturday, Nov. 10 at the NCAA Regional Championship, hosted by Westfield State.

Women As the top-seven Lady Jeffs rested in preparation for NCAA Regionals this weekend, the younger and less experienced members of the women’s cross country team traveled to Williams to race in the ECAC Championship. Led by first-year Anna Burglund’s 22nd-place finish (24:00.85) in the six kilometer course, the Amherst women took fourth place overall in the race.

After Burglund, Abby Hopper ’13 finished 28th (24:13.10). Next for Amherst were Jessie Kaliski ’15 and Amy Dao ’14, finishing neckand-neck with times of 24:19.37 and 24:27.43, respectively.

Rebecca Alizzi ’13 took 50th in 24:47.45, while Keelin Moehl ’16 rounded out the Amherst scoring with a time of 25:10.54, good enough for 71st. Junior Lisa Walker was the last Jeff competitor to cross the line, taking 81st with a time of 25:18.67.

The Lady Jeffs’ 157 total points were nearly enough to find themselves on the podium, but NESCAC rivals Middlebury (31), Tufts (63) and Williams (140) proved too much in the 41-team event.

Running independently, Drew Univ.’s Jennifer Van Wingerden won the race in 22:54.65, while Middlebury’s Lucy Whipps took second overall, and first as a team-competitor, in 22:57.21.

This weekend, senior All-American Keri Lambert — coming off three-straight wins — will lead the top Amherst runners at Westfield State for NCAA Regionals. Lambert enters the race as a favorite, with hopes of not only qualifying for the National Championship, but also winning the race outright.

Learn to Teach in an Urban School Partnership If you are reading this, then probably you are exploring how you might make a difference in the lives of others through teaching or work in schools. Probably also you are thinking about work in urban settings where there are typically more needs than there are opportunities and resources. If this describes you, then you might find your institutional soul-mate, so to speak, at Clark.

Clark is dedicated to integrating preparation for urban teaching with school reform and neighborhood renewal. Our Master of Arts in Teaching program prepares teachers for work in urban settings in elementary and secondary schools which partner closely with us on teacher development and effective school practice. Here is one big sign of our effort and success: one of our partner schools, University Park Campus School, has become nationally known as a high-performing urban secondary school (visit www.upcsinstitute.org). All of the students who attend the school live in our surrounding urban neighborhood and all qualify for post-secondary education.

Almost all of the teachers at the school, as well as the principal, are graduates of our program.

Our Master of Arts in Teaching program is very much in a learning-by-doing mold, with careful and finely-tuned support. Students spend a full year with their peers developing their teaching practice in one of our partner schools, under the joint guidance of mentor teachers and university faculty. The schools serve a linguistically and culturally rich as well as predominately low-income population.

Almost all of our graduates who want a teaching position are offered one. Some choose to stay in Worcester, where they start on the second step of the teacher pay scale because of the experience gained through our program.

If you are motivated to bring your heart and mind to the challenging, rewarding, and life-altering work of urban teaching, then consider getting in touch with us. Contact our Program Coordinator, Marlene Shepard, at mshepard@clarku.edu or visit our web site: www.clarku.edu/departments/education. Our application deadline is January 15, 2013 for the program year which runs from May, 2013 to May 2014.

November 9, 2012

A Pandora’s Box of Score Keeping ’Tweeners Amro El-Adle ’13 Amro takes a closer look at how we can evaluate basketball teams’ performance. Specifically, he details the importance of basketball box scores, and how much information about a game they can unlock if one knows where to look.

By the time the NBA season rolls around every October, I’ve had way too much time to tout all the potential it represents.

Fortunately, winning basketball games is a moving target, so there are surprises when rubber finally does meet road for NBA teams.

For example, high-profile teams that sputter out of the gate (hello, Lakers!) are derided as being talented only on paper — which is to say that the expectations fueled by previous performance fail to materialize in the new season.

So how do we make sense of that gap between performance and expectations? The records of performance, which feed expectations, are found in box scores.

Of particular interest is the disparity between exceptional performance and successful results — as is the case with super-teams that can’t figure things out. How it is that a team that stuffs the stat sheet could ever lose?

It could be that performance in basketball is valued incorrectly. That is, it’s possible that in boxing in the stats we care about, we disregard those that actually matter for winning. So, do consistent discrepancies between performance and expectations belie the illusory nature of statistical categories? They don’t record everything that happens in a basketball game, but box scores have enough information for us to piece together the parts of the story of the game we care about. Our question, then, is whether box scores allow us to reconstruct the most important elements of a basketball game.

In the on-paper world of box scores, it’s pretty easy to win a basketball game: just score more points than the other team. But past the points column lie answers to the questions about the difference between garnering great performances and garnering successful ones that amount to wins. Field goals are a huge piece of that puzzle of course, because putting the ball in the hoop is the only way to get ahead. Similarly, the free-throws column is a good place to keep tabs on how well each team did in picking up the easiest points in the game. It’s tempting to look at those categories and link shooting percentages to winning, but let’s hold off on that just for a moment.

Instead, let’s dig a little deeper into the field goal and free-throw numbers. The number of shots made in each of those categories is clearly important, but what about that second number — the number of shots attempted?

Basketball is an unpredictable game, but we can simplify things in our on-paper world.

Forget everything you know about basketball for a moment, and focus on the scoring objective of the game. Every time a team has the ball, they should be looking to score, right?

In this way, basketball boils down to a simple game where either one team will end up shooting from somewhere on the court, or the other team will gain control of the ball before that happens and reverse the roles. Every single basketball play ends with either a shot or a turnover.

Go ahead and think about it — the shots may vary in nature and difficulty, but in the NBA, you’re guaranteed either a shot, or a change of possession every 24 seconds or fewer.

So because basketball teams win games by scoring points, and scoring is constrained first and foremost by the number of possessions each team has, successful teams should seek to win by increasing possessions. This maximization of scoring chances can be achieved in two ways: limiting your team’s turnovers while increasing the other team’s; and other-

The Amherst Student: Homecoming Edition

wise pushing up the number of possessions you have.

Fans of the Phoenix Suns will remember how well this two-pronged strategy works: the run-n-gun Suns of the early 2000s were famous for taking shots in seven seconds or fewer every trip down the floor. At that quickened pace, the Suns developed a possessions cushion over the rest of the NBA — all the extra possessions added up to more chances to win, and more room for error.

And that’s precisely what advanced metrics like points-per-possession (PPP) measure. For every possession — one of a limited number of opportunities each team has to do something with the ball — used by a player, how many points should a team expect? In broad terms, how much closer does each possession get the team to winning?

With that in mind, we can examine shooting percentages. Shooting efficiency is key, because it harks back to our key insight about possessions: scoring more with fewer possessions is a valuable skill indeed. Nevertheless, it is less important than it first appears. One of my favorite NBA quotes comes from Antoine Walker, who when asked why he jacked up so many three-pointers, responded, “Because there are no fours.”

To illustrate the point, consider this scenario: two teams have the same number of possessions in a game. One team shoots only two-point field goals, and the other shoots three-pointers exclusively. Even if the former team had a magical 50 percent shooting rate, the latter would only need a shooting percentage above 33 percent to win the game. Scoring is the most valuable skill in basketball, even at the cost of voluminous shooting. Other stats like rebounds, assists, and steals can also be assigned values in this system for both creating new possessions and generating quality shots with high PPP values.

Within this framework, our first conclusion is a blaringly obvious one: scoring is a function of scoring chances. Our second is more nuanced: that in any given game, a team doesn’t need to be absolutely efficient to win; a team simply needs to be relatively efficient with its scoring opportunities compared to its opponent. Assists, fouls, turnovers are all categories that reference the way in which a team ended a possession. In piecing together these seemingly disparate bits of information, it is possible to understand how a team spent its possessions, and what that would have meant for their success in the game.

From there, we break into a new dimension of analysis: rather than analyzing performance as it is, we can derive optimal performance strategies for success.

For example, given the number of possessions a team uses per game, and the team’s shooting percentages, it is possible to provide an ideal distribution of two-pointers, threepointers and free-throws. It remains to be seen how well these kinds of strategies could be implemented, but the potential is enormous.

Box scores provide a multitude of performance data, some of it more convoluted than others. Highlight-reel dunks are lumped together with off-hand prayers and uncontested mid-range jumpers in the field-goal category.

First-quarter points have the same value as those earned in the pressure-packed fourth quarter on a score sheet. And yet there is solace in that dearth of information — basketball players, after all, don’t have quite that much on their minds.

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Sports

The Amherst Student • November 9, 2012

Photo courtesy of David Van Wie

The No. 2 ranked Jeffs (15-0-2) earned a first-round bye in the NCAA Championship. They will host the winner of Dickinson College (12-4-2) and Westfield State (9-9-2) on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.

BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPIONS

Jeffs Top Williams 2-0; Finish Regular Season Undefeated Brenton Arnaboldi ’14 Staff Writer Bolstered by stingy defense and a relentless, high-tempo style on offense, the men’s soccer team captured its second consecutive NESCAC championship last weekend, beating Williams 2-0 in the final to secure the trophy.

“Winning a NESCAC title against Williams is something that every Amherst soccer player dreams of doing,” co-captain James Mooney ’13E said.

The undefeated Jeffs (15-0-2, 8-0-2 NESCAC) earned back-to-back league titles for the first time in school history. Amherst has now won three of the past five NESCAC championships.

The Jeffs began their title defense with a convincing 4-0 win against Middlebury in the quarterfinals two weekends ago. Traveling to Williamstown for the semifinals, Amherst grinded out a 1-0 victory over Wesleyan before shutting out the Ephs 2-0 this past Sunday.

“We put so much time and effort into every season, and to see that manifested in a NESCAC championship is satisfying beyond words,” head coach Justin Serpone said.

Sunday’s match between Amherst and Williams (13-1-3, 8-0-2 NESCAC) marked the first time in history that two undefeated teams squared off in the NESCAC final. The archrivals battled to a 0-0 tie in their lone regular season meeting back in early October; the Jeffs were held scoreless despite holding a 25-9 shots advantage.

In the postgame huddle after the 0-0 draw — which pushed Amherst’s winless streak against Williams to four games [0-1-3 since 2008] — Serpone reassured his frustrated team that “we’re going to get another chance at these

guys in November.”

Determined to finally pummel and outclass their archrivals in the NESCAC final, the Jeffs blitzed Williams in the early stages of Sunday’s championship contest, scoring twice in the first 15 minutes to grab control of the match.

The Jeffs stunned the Ephs with a brilliant goal just 73 seconds after the opening whistle. Gathering the ball from about 30 yards out, Chris Lerner ’13 swerved a cross into the box. Jae Heo ’14 leapt into the area and deftly glanced a header past Williams goalkeeper Than Finan, sending the adrenalized Jeffs’ bench into a frenzy.

“Early in the game we came out flying and with high pressure,” Mooney said. “This high pressure and overwhelming energy has been the key to our success throughout this season.”

Inspired by the early goal, the Jeffs began to dominate the flow of play against the shellshocked Ephs, pinning Williams deep in their end for long stretches.

The Jeffs dealt another devastating blow to the Ephs at the 15:24 mark, as Mooney scored to give Amherst a 2-0 lead. Standing by the right sideline, Lerner created the opportunity by lofting a long throw into the box; six-footfour Gabriel Wirz ’15 head-flicked the ball toward Mooney, who rifled a quick shot into the top left corner of the net.

“The desperation to win from each player was infectious, and allowed us to overwhelm Williams,” Mooney said.

Embracing a direct, aggressive style of offense — rather than sitting back and casually possessing the ball — Amherst continued to attack the Ephs’ beleaguered defensive corps, building a 12-1 shots advantage in the first half.

“We were ready to play and executed the game plan to perfection,” Serpone said. “They

are a pretty good team and to outshoot them 12-1 in the first half on their home field is pretty impressive. I was proud of our effort.”

Heo nearly extended the lead to 3-0 in the 18th minute, exchanging a crafty give-and-go on a short-corner kick with Brendan Caslin ’14 before releasing a sharp-angle shot from close range, but Finan was able to corral the attempt.

Five minutes later, Spencer Noon ’13 sent a header just over the crossbar after a free kick from Caslin.

In the second half, the Jeffs adopted a more defensive posture, as the Ephs desperately pushed forward on offense.

Even as Williams wrestled control of play in the final 45 minutes, Amherst’s tenacious backline of Lerner, Wirz, Julien Aoyama ’14 and Ben Norton ’14 repeatedly stifled the Ephs’ attacking thrusts, while first-year goalkeeper Thomas Bull delivered a couple of strong saves late in the match to preserve the shutout. The Jeffs have conceded only two goals in 17 games this season — translating to a nation-best 0.12 goals-conceded per game.

“After we got these two goals, I was fully confident in our defense to make the plays needed to close out the game,” Mooney said.

“Our defense has been tremendous all season, and I thought every player was keyed in to every play throughout the entire 90 minutes of the game.”

The Ephs did not have a shot on goal until the 66th minute, when Williams’ Mohammed Rashid unleashed a free kick that forced Bull to move to his right for the save. While the Ephs began to exert consistent attacking pressure in the latter stages of the match, Amherst continued to create dangerous opportunities on the counterattack.

In the 78th minute, the Jeffs enjoyed a

string of high-quality chances, as Max Fikke ’14 had his short-range blast parried away by Finan. On the ensuing corner kick, Mooney sent a looping header that grazed off the crossbar.

Williams had a last-gasp chance at a goal in the 87th minute, when the Ephs’ Matt Castner laid out for diving header in the box, but Bull lunged to his right and deflected the ball out for a corner, arguably making one of his most spectacular saves of the season.

“I thought every single guy played well Sunday,” Serpone said. “The forwards created chances, the midfielders grinded for 90 minutes, the defense didn’t give them any space and our goalkeeper came up big when he needed to.

We played 90 minutes of complete soccer.”

In the semifinals, the Jeffs eked past Wesleyan 1-0 in what Serpone characterized as an “okay performance.” Fikke scored the decisive goal in the 34th minute, while the Jeffs’ rocksolid defense limited the Cardinals to just two shots on net.

“We spent a majority of the second half defending our one-goal lead while Wesleyan possessed and attacked, but our defense came in clutch and guided us through to the end of the game,” Mooney said.

Having secured back-to-back NESCAC titles, the Jeffs will now look to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

Seeded No. 2 in the national bracket, the Jeffs will enjoy a first-round bye before facing either Dickinson or Westfield State in the second round this Sunday.

“We are entering into a one game season from here on out,” Serpone said. “Nothing we’ve accomplished this year matters at this point so we need to stay hungry and focused and try our best at every moment.”