THE AMHERST
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868
STUDENT VOLUME CXLV, ISSUE 1 l FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
College Welcomes 477 New First-Years
Field Hockey Preps for Deep Postseason Run See Sports, Page 9
AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU
Students Push for Recent Graduate Trustees Dan Ahn ’17 Managing News Editor
Photo courtesy of Adrian Castillo ‘17
Orientation leaders welcomed members of the class of 2019 to campus this week outside Williston Dormitory. New students began the college’s seven-day orientation program on Tuesday. Jingwen Zhang ’18 Managing News Editor A calligrapher, a musician who plays nine instruments and the founder of an organic farm were among the 477 new first-years who descended on campus Tuesday, marking the start of Amherst’s orientation week. Members of the class of 2019 weathered a highly competitive admissions process: The college received a record 8,568 applications this year. Amherst admitted 1,210 of those applicants, making for a 14.1 percent acceptance
rate. “The class of 2019 is another amazing group of talented, caring, engaged, bright individuals who will make a difference in our lives at Amherst and beyond,” said Dean of Admission Cate Zolkos. Twenty new transfer students also participated in Amherst’s orientation this week. Students arrived at Amherst from 28 countries and 41 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Forty-four percent of first-years are American students of color, including a record-
setting 10 Native American students. In 2014, the Office of Admission stepped up its efforts to recruit Native American applicants, adding a special program for Native students as part of its Diversity Open House programming. A little more than 12 percent of first-years are first-generation college students, and 56 percent of the class are receiving financial aid. After arriving on campus, the class of 2019 moved into their dorms and kicked off a seven-day orientation program that includes
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This semester members of the Association of Amherst Students are planning a major push to reserve two positions on the college’s board of trustees for alumni who have graduated within the last five years. The initiative was initially Tomi Williams ‘16’s project in AAS, and it became one of his main focuses when he was appointed president in spring 2014. That summer, Williams, along with Douglass Jamison ’16, researched more than 25 other institutions in order to find models of similar initiatives, which have been approved at colleges including George Washington University, Duke, Princeton and Wellesley. During fall 2014, Williams, Jamison and Elson Browne-Low ’15 discussed the models that had been researched and decided that instead of pushing for seats for student representatives on the board of trustees, as several institutions had done, they would propose reserving two seats for recently graduated alumni. This past January, the group of students met with Cullen Murphy ’74, chair of the board of trustees, and Andrew Nussbaum ’85, chair of the committee on student life. According to the faculty handbook, the primary means by which the student body can influence the membership of the board is through the advisory committee to the committee on trusteeship. The advisory committee consists of two faculty members and two students, and in 1972, the board established its intent to “elect as term trustees only those who have been considered by an advisory committee.” But proponents of the new initiative have argued that greater student participation is needed. “While the board works in concert with the administration and some avenues of current student input exist, a fresh student perspective is
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David Little Appointed Director of Mead Art Museum Eli Mansbach ’18 Assistant News Editor David Little became the new director of the Mead Art Museum on Monday, replacing former director Elizabeth Barker. Little previously worked as the head of the department of photography and new media at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Before that, he taught courses at Maryland Institute College of Arts and Duke University. He also served as the director of adult and academic programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. A search committee, comprising faculty members from several departments, staff from the Robert Frost Library and two students, began working in fall 2014 to replace Barker, who had held the position since 2007. Barker is now director of the Boston Athenæum, which is an independent library. Rosemary Frehe ’17, one of the two students on the search committee, said that the committee met once a week during the fall semester and narrowed down its list to three possible candidates, who then traveled to Am-
herst during the spring semester to be interviewed by the committee and to hold open meet and greet events with faculty and students. Frehe said that the committee was searching for candidates who were committed to research but also able to engage with students and other members of the community. The new director also needed to have experience teaching in a college setting and have published works that showed good research skills. Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein wrote in a campus-wide email in May that Little “has extensive experience using art collections for educational and curricular goals, and has proven himself an adept administrator and fundraiser.” Frehe said that another reason for choosing Little was to increase the museum’s involvement in contemporary art, including photography, in order to attract more students to the Mead. She said that Little had extensive connections to photographers and institutions with a focus on contemporary art, and could use them to bring new programs and events to
the museum. Little’s career in the arts began during his undergraduate years at Bowdoin College, where he arrived planning to become a lawyer, but changed paths when he was inspired by a course in 19th-century art. “Art brings together all the different disciplines,” Little said. “You have science, music and literature, and they sort of all come together within the visual arts.” After taking a few courses in photography, Little eventually decided that painting was his preferred mode of expression, and painted throughout college. He ended up getting a bachelor’s degree in art history from Bowdoin, a master’s degree from Williams College, and a doctorate degree from Duke University. Little said that despite his earlier creative efforts, he no longer produces his own work. “I don’t want to be one of those curators or artists who are thinking about their own work when they are analyzing someone else’s,” Little said. “To be a serious painter, you really have to dedicate yourself full time, and that was very clear to me early on and I needed to make
a choice whether to be a scholar or curator or if I was going to be an artist.” Little is currently working on what he describes as a “small essay” about a collection of portraits depicting the backs of the heads of famous people, including John F. Kennedy, Mike Tyson and Elvis Presley. The essay will examine the implications of subverting standard methods of portraiture. Little said he hopes to give the arts a more lively presence in the Amherst community, as well as take advantage of the academic opportunities offered by a college museum. He plans to spend his first few months as director getting to know the faculty, students and staff at the college, before working on implementing the ideas that he is bringing to the museum. “I think the whole idea of what a museum is and how it can behave has changed a great deal.” Little said. “The close study of art will be central, but I am also hoping there is some way the Mead can work with other faculties and departments and bring ideas about art actually onto the campus itself and into the classroom so there is an opening up of art on the Amherst campus.”