Issue 12

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VOLUME CXLVIII, ISSUE 12 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

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Hampshire Seeks Partner After Financial Distress Natalie De Rosa ’21 Managing News Editor

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

The Board of Trustees voted to pass the Climate Action Plan on Jan. 24. The plan, which emerged as a result of student activism including events like Student Voices (above), seeks to reduce all carbon emissions on campus by 2030.

College to Go Carbon Neutral by 2030 Sarah Melanson ’20 Staff Writer On Jan. 24, the Board of Trustees voted to approve the Climate Action Plan (CAP), committing the college to carbon neutrality by 2030. Work on the CAP has been ongoing since 2015, when the Office of Sustainability called on Amherst to set a date for carbon neutrality.

The decision is a result of student activism over the years. The initial plan proposed a carbon-neutral deadline of 2035, but the Students for Climate Action (SCA) called for an expedited deadline of 2030 at Student Voices, an event last semester detailing the impact of climate change on students. This plea came after the United Nations published a report stating that the world will begin to experience more severe effects from the changing climate in about 12 years, inciting the updated deadline to 2030.

In 2015, the Sustainability Policy committed Amherst to developing a strategy to convert its energy sourc-

es in order to create and maintain a carbon-neutral campus, which set the CAP into motion. The passage of this plan promises to make Amherst go “carbon neutral and beyond,” said Laura Draucker, the director of the Office of Sustainability. She added that in addition to pledging to carbon neutrality in 2030, a major goal is to work “the mission of the college into the plan to make sure we’re embedding some aspect of climate action education into it so students leave here and are able to take that with them as they go.”

Amherst currently operates on fossil fuels, which is an efficient way to limit carbon emissions. However, working within the confines of the existing structure limits the college’s ability to reduce its carbon footprint.

One of the most significant barriers to an effective reduction of emissions is the potential for offset emissions, in which one site compensates for emissions through buying the reductions necessary to offset their own emissions at another site.

The process would decrease Amherst’s personal carbon emissions at the cost of increased emissions elsewhere. Draucker commented that offset emissions entail “many unknowns, something you do not want to rely on.”

“A goal of our plan was to not rely on offsets. We knew that if we stuck with our current fossil-fuel based infrastructure, offsets would be a big piece of the puzzle,” Draucker added.

The brainchild of the Advisory Committee, a team of consultants, senior staff, faculty in the finance and environmental studies departments and students, the CAP proposes transitioning the energy structure away from natural gas to geothermal energy sources. The college intends to power campus via hot water as opposed to steam, which requires the installation of geothermal heating and heat pumps powered by reusable energy. To implement this plan, the CAP Advisory Committee will consider the best location for the installation of geothermal wells and determine

how best to re-pipe the existing piping infrastructure to accommodate hot water.

The Board of Trustees’ vote determined that it is both financially and technically feasible to transition campus from being powered by steam and fossil fuels to hot water and geothermal sources. Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord compared the plan to a legacy decision that was made in 1924, which established a central steam plant to replace coal stoves and fireplaces in Amherst. Now, almost 100 years later, Amherst has made another legacy decision that will shape the college for years to come.

“The task force did not work in isolation,” Brassord said. “There were critical milestones in which we involved other stakeholders outside the committee, whether it be senior staff of the institution or colleagues in finance or environmental studies.” The committee advanced their ideas for alternative energy sources by bringing

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Hampshire College’s current operations are unsustainable, President Miriam Nelson announced on Jan. 15. The institution will seek a long-term partner to aid in its financial endeavors. Nearly three weeks following the initial announcement, Hampshire also decided that it would not be admitting new first years for the fall of 2019, only taking in students who applied through a binding early decision agreement or took a gap year.

“We’ve begun a process to seek a strategic partnership to address the challenges we’ve faced as an under-endowed institution, really from our very first days,” Nelson wrote in a statement.

The decision comes at a time when small liberal arts colleges are facing the threat of closure as a result of increasing deficits. Mount Ida College closed its doors last February before merging with University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Wheelock College began a strategic partnership with Boston University in 2017 to remedy the college’s financial pitfalls.

Initially an experiment developed by the other four colleges of the Five College Consortium in 1965, Hampshire’s short 50 years as an institution poses barriers in building a large endowment.

Hampshire’s current endowment is $53 million. In contrast, Amherst’s current endowment is $2.2 billion.

“In Hampshire’s case, they’re in a

Continued on Page 3

News George Qiao Fresh Faculty

Dec. 7, 2018 - Feb. 2, 2019

>>Dec. 7, 2018 6:46 p.m., Belchertown Court A restraining order was issued to an individual off campus. >>Dec. 8, 2018 12:47 a.m., Hitchcock Hall Amherst Fire Department and officers responded to a fire alarm and found someone falsely pulled a fire alarm. They also encountered an individual not leaving the building for the alarm.

1:27 a.m., Plimpton House Officers had to remove paper from the walls because it was a fire hazard and the party hosts were not reachable.

4:57 a.m., Chapman House Officers responded to a report of someone banging on the door and found it was a student looking for a friend.

4:03 p.m., Lipton House A bat was caught and released outside. >>Dec. 18, 2018 6:25 p.m., South Parking Lot A passerby reported an individual wearing a clown mask and hooded sweatshirt. No one was found in the area. >>Dec. 29, 2018 1:25 p.m., Valentine Hall An HVAC motor caught fire and was shut down until it could be fixed.

>>Dec. 9, 2018 12:16 a.m., Seelye Hall The gender inclusive sign was ripped off of the wall in the first-floor hallway.

>>Jan. 5, 2019 11:31 a.m., Seligman Hall Officers assisted in removing a bat from the building.

2:03 a.m., Hitchcock Hall An officer found a hole punched in the wall and an electronic piece ripped off of the wall.

>>Jan. 9, 2019 9:50 a.m., Hitchcock Hall Two benches were taken from the front of the building.

>>Dec. 12, 2018 5:45 p.m. Charles Drew House Officers responded to an alarm sounding on the third floor caused by steam from an iron.

>>Jan. 12, 2019 6:38 p.m., Seelye Hall An officer returned a cat to its owner in the town of Amherst after it was found in a residence hall.

5:47 p.m. Seelye Hall An officer responded to an alarm sounding on the third floor set off accidentally by a hair dryer. >>Dec. 14, 2018

>>Feb. 2, 2019 6:12 p.m., Mayo-Smith Hall Officers responded to an alarm sounding in a room on the second floor and found it was set off accidentally by steam.

Department of History and Asian Languages and Civilizations

George Qiao is an assistant professor of history and Asian languages and civilizations. He attended the Fudan University in China and received both his M.A. and Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Q: When did you begin studying the history of China and why did you want to pursue it?

A: I was interested in the subject ever since I was a child, and I’ve always wanted to become a scholar. I was in a special humanities program at the Fudan University in China of humanities that combined literature, history and philosophy. After college, I went to Stanford for my master’s in history. My advisor recommended that I pursue history, which by graduate school, I knew my calling would be. I then applied to be in the history department at Stanford and got in, which led me in the direction for my career.

Q: What made you want to teach at Amherst College?

A: I got a few job offers when I was on the job market, and Amherst had the best reputation of all the places that offered me a teaching job. One of my colleagues who went to Stanford was extremely enthusiastic about Amherst, which really influenced me to pursue the job that Amherst offered me. The strongest impression I saw was the students’ passion for their institution at Amherst. For these reasons, the decision to teach at Amherst was very clear to me.

Q: What kinds of research have you conducted and what things have you written so far?

A: During my graduate school years, I focused on late imperial Chinese history. Right now, I am working on my first book which is about the Shanxi merchants during China’s Qing Dynasty. The Shanxi merchants were a group of people who become dominant figures in late imperial

China because they became integral figures of the Chinese economy.

Q: What about Amherst do you like, and which aspects do you think could be improved?

A: I absolutely love teaching here.

What I like the most about here is twofold. First of all, I like the rural setting, because the landscape

“

“The strongest impression I saw was the students’ passion for their insitution at Amherst. For these reasons, the decision to teach at Amherst was very clear to me.

” is beautiful and inspiring, and the students who come from places that don’t have seasons or beauty around them get to experience this amazing place. I live in South Amherst, which has beautiful views of mountains and the different seasons, which is such a treat! Second, I particularly enjoy the small class sizes and the close relationships that I have with my students, because I get to talk to all of them on an individual basis.

The students are hardworking and work hard to satisfy the demands of their classes. They are smart but

also respectful and care about their friends. The colleagues also have a great culture of supporting new faculty members by providing resources and advice on how to teach. The only thing I would want to improve would be some of the infrastructure.

For example, the history department is often in the basement of Chapin Hall which is not the most pleasant place to teach. However, this is only a minor drawback.

Q: What would you like to contribute to Amherst during your time here?

A: I want to stay here as long as possible because this is a really great place.

I think that internationally and organizationally I can help in two areas.

First, I hope to provide a substantial and rigorous curriculum of Chinese history. I also hope to strengthen the students’ interest in Chinese culture and history in a very intellectually rigorous manner. I want to do this by establishing the student’s connection to China through opportunities like overseas studies with Chinese institutions.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: I love to spend some of my time with photography. That is part of why I love Amherst so much, because it is so beautiful with the mountains and the four seasons, and I can take advantage of the beauty. Because I am also a scholar, I would love to teach a class that combines photography with Chinese history!

—Corey Jacobson ’22

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Operations Are Unsustainable, Hampshire President Says Continued from Page 1 particularly challenging situation because they’ve only been around for half a century,” Amherst College Chief Financial Officer Kevin Weinman said. “Not only do they not have the opportunity to invest in an endowment for over two hundred years, but their alumni are still aging to the point of their careers where they’re to give back to the college.”

In addition to endowments and donations, small private colleges are also heavily reliant on tuition, according to Weinman. The decreasing number of 17- to 22-year-old students applying to college, coupled with competition from other institutions offering more financial aid to

applicants, has resulted in decreased funding through tuition.

To address the implications of Hampshire’s decision on Amherst and the Five College community at large, Amherst College President Biddy Martin hosted a public discussion with Weinman and Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein on Feb. 1. The event was open to students, faculty and staff to ask questions and brainstorm ideas on how to proceed following Hampshire’s announcement.

“Since we don’t know what’s going to happen, whether [Hampshire] will close or join another institution or partner, it’s hard to come to any sound conclusion,” Martin said at the beginning of the meeting. According to Martin, Hampshire has not con-

sulted with Amherst to address any collaborative solutions.

Martin also noted that Amherst is unable to completely pull Hampshire out of deficit. “[Hampshire] wouldn’t want any help that would sustain them over a longer term,” she said. “The amount of money that would take would be detrimental to Amherst College. That’s the sad part.

It would be great if we could just absorb an entire college, but our budget is tight just on the basis of what we all do here.”

“As their deficit gap continues to grow wider and wider, they’re no longer asking their alums and the other five colleges to step in because the financial contributions that could be made might keep the institution

going for some period of time, but eventually those annual budgetary gaps grow so large,” Weinman added.

One recurring attribute raised by discussion members was the value Hampshire students bring to Amherst classes. Last year, while only 36 Amherst students took classes at Hampshire, 312 Hampshire students were enrolled in an Amherst class.

“There is a real concern about the absence of those Hampshire students in the classes in which they enroll,” Epstein said. “They make a difference in our classes, not least our humanities classes, and they bring something important to those classes.”

Others emphasized the value of programs unique to Hampshire — their architecture program, art exhi-

bition and early learning center for children were all assets that members of the Amherst community hoped to preserve.

Discussion members also brainstormed ways to mitigate the effects of a merger to the Hampshire community. Martin noted that Amherst began to accept late applications from students who applied to Hampshire after ambiguity on whether Hampshire would admit a freshman class.

While Hampshire’s next steps are unclear, Amherst reiterated its concern for the institution and hope for the best possible outcome.

“We are saddened and worried about the fate of Hampshire,” Martin said.

A Flawed System: The Burden of Service Among Faculty of Color Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief Toward the earlier part of her career at Amherst, Professor of Black studies, Latinx and Latin American studies and English Rhonda Cobham-Sander typically wrote letters of recommendation for her students in the English department office. One day, as she typed, a white senior colleague came up behind her and peered at her screen.

“Gosh, you’re always writing letters of recommendation!” he said, according to Cobham-Sander. “I don’t think I’ve been asked to write more than one this year, and you’re always writing them.” It hadn’t even occurred to Cobham-Sander that she could be writing three times as many letters of recommendation as other faculty members.

“There are things like that, that you can’t even know for the first few years how much more you’re doing than everyone else, because you just assume that’s what everyone is doing. And then you begin to realize that you’re doing a lot more than other people,” she said.

Though she noted that many white faculty members also write similar numbers of letters, this disparity in workload, she said, is a common experience for faculty of color at the college.

In academia, women and people of color tend to bear disproportionately higher burdens of service according

to multiple academic studies. Since Cobham-Sander’s arrival at the college in 1986, she has seen a number of faculty members of color leave Amherst because of the pressures and extra workloads attached to working as a professor with a marginalized racial identity. This trend has not gone unnoticed. Extensive research, including reports by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), show that higher percentages of faculty of color report intentions to leave institutions of higher education than their white counterparts do.

These experiences merit a closer look. The Student conducted interviews with nearly a dozen faculty members to investigate possible disparities among faculty at the college.

Over the next four issues, The Student will publish an article series examining the many issues that play a role in attracting, retaining and supporting faculty of color at the college. Today, we begin by looking at some of the inequalities among workloads and expectations.

Distribution of Faculty of Color Nationwide, the number of faculty of color at institutions of higher education remains low. The National Center for Education Statistics surveyed degree-granting postsecondary institutions and found that in Fall 2016, 76 percent of all faculty members were

white. 6 percent were black, 5 percent were Hispanic and 10 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander. American Indian or Alaska Native faculty members and faculty members of two or more races both made up 1 percent or less of all faculty.

At Amherst College, white non-Hispanic faculty members make up 68.1 percent of all faculty. Asian or Pacific Islander faculty members make up 7.8 percent, black non-Latinx faculty members and Latinx faculty members make up 5.4 percent each and multi-racial faculty members make up 2 percent. 3.9 percent of professors identify as international, and 7.4 percent of all faculty were listed as unknown.

Self-identifying students of color, in contrast, make up 45 percent of the student body at the college.

The college has taken steps over the years to prioritize hiring faculty of color. Amherst Uprising, a student-led demonstration in 2015 that protested the treatment of marginalized communities on campus, resulted in a renewed commitment by the administration to diversify the faculty. In 2017, the Board of Trustees raised the college’s FullTime Equivalent (FTE) cap, allowing the college to hire five additional senior faculty members of color. Senior hires are brought to the college as tenured professors.

Excluding lecturers and visiting

and adjunct professors, faculty members are hired into one of two positions: pre-tenure or senior/tenured. Pre-tenure professors, often called junior faculty, typically spend six years teaching, writing and publishing before they are evaluated for tenure. When a professor goes up for review, they compile various documents — their research, student evaluations, published materials, among others — to present to the Committee of Six, which is comprised of six professors elected to the committee. Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein

serves as secretary of the committee, while President Biddy Martin chairs committee meetings. The professor’s department also submits its own evaluations to the Committee of Six. If the committee votes for the president recommend tenure to the Board of Trustees, the faculty member becomes an associate professor. An associate professor can become a full professor later on in their career.

This year, 63 percent of new pro-

Continued on Page 5

At Amherst, 68.1 percent of faculty are white, compared to 76 percent nationwide.

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Student Activism Inspires Climate Action Plan Continued from Page 1

in community partners for testing.

Students also played a pivotal role in lobbying for the Climate Action Plan. SCA, as well as the Association of Amherst Students Sustainability Climate Task Force, have worked to raise awareness in the Amherst community about the plan. Last year, SCA held an information session during which Draucker spoke about the CAP and hosted an event detailing the impact of

climate change on students. After the Student Voices event, members of SCA met with President Biddy Martin to discuss crucial steps towards the passage of the plan. A few students then had the opportunity to meet with the Board of Trustees to share their passion for the plan and to emphasize the significance of passing it, specifically with the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

The CAP Advisory Committee will work to develop internal institutional structures that will provide guidance

and oversight to the planning, design and ultimate construction of this project. Looking to the implementation of the CAP, Brassord noted that the committee is “eager to move forward quickly.” He added that “the 2030 date reflects how much importance we put on this initiative, with the notion that [the committee] wants to accelerate this.”

Moving forward, both students and administrators remain dedicated to sharing the strategy and involving the

community.

“When people were given an opportunity to do something concrete, they were all for it,” said Julian Brubaker ’20, a leading member of SCA. “People care about this issue, so the more we can give people concrete steps, the better.”

Gabriel Echarte ’22 expressed his gratitude after the passage of the plan, sharing how he is “extremely proud of and impressed with the school and its administration for making this de-

cision. Obviously, considering everything the school has to balance, this was not an easy decision, and I am extremely appreciative of this. It shows character, that the school believes and will stand behind what it proposes.”

Brubaker shared this sentiment, adding that “we deserve to celebrate.

Not often do you work really hard towards something and it happens, especially with a clear win with 2030 as a deadline, so we should celebrate when it does.”

Office of Student Affairs to Reevaluate Party Policy Zach Jonas ’22 Staff Writer The Office of Student Affairs detailed proposed adjustments to the current party policy in an email to students on Dec. 2. The proposals come nearly a year after the administration’s controversial changes to the party policy, which entailed stricter regulations and placed greater responsibility on party hosts.

According to Chief Student Affairs Officer Hikaru Kozuma, Student Affairs “envisions the possibility of changing the cleanup deadline and changing the ratio of hosts to guests more immediately while continuing conversations with community about shortening the deadline [for registering parties], creating a workshop on successful ways of hosting a party and streamlining the process of having events and parties at the Powerhouse.” These changes may not go into effect until later this semester.

Kozuma added that the goal of these changes is to “increase the knowledge of resources available to those who register and host the parties, in particular the amnesty policy, strategies on hosting a safe event and how to work with the college should they have questions on how to uphold college policy while having an enjoyable event.”

Kozuma noted that he “will still be meeting with the Student Affairs Advisory Board to hear the feedback they received from the student community [on the proposed policies].”

The Student Advisory Board is comprised of students who applied for the position last spring to work with administrators in evaluating party policies.

In early December of last semester, the Student Advisory Board held two meetings to receive feedback on the proposed changes.

In the spring of last year, Tony Taitano ’21, a resident counselor in James Hall, attended a meeting between students and faculty regarding the party policy and the dorm application process.

“When asked about the party policy, we talked about the socials being torn down and how it was a stupid idea,” he said.

Now, without the socials, “parties get shut down because they go over capacity, everyone crowds to another party and then the cycle continues until there are no more parties,” he added. “It doesn’t work.”

At the meeting, Taitano said, the students raised issues about the policy requiring one sponsor per 25 people and the restriction of games and hard liquor.

Taitano also noted that he had friends who spoke to former Chief Student Affairs Officer Suzanne Coffey, who said that her legal team barred her from meeting student demand.

Future changes “will depend on the ongoing conversations with the students, but we hope whenever they will be enacted, we will give notice and opportunity for discussion, as we have with last month’s proposed changes,” Kozuma said.

Andrew Ver Steeg ’19, the resi-

Photo courtesy of Sylvie Palmer ’22

The Office of Student Affairs announced proposals to amend the current party policy at the end of last semester. The proposals aim to address the controversial changes made last year. dent counselor of first-floor Hitchcock last year, praised the idea of pushing the clean-up time to noon the next day, a policy that was enacted halfway through the semester of last year. “Cleaning up parties at night was pretty unreasonable — it would be at 1 or 2 in the morning,” Ver Steeg said.

In the future, he would like to see a policy that addresses dorm damage accountability.

“People wouldn’t want to say who caused the damage, but also, if you didn’t, the residents of Hitchcock would be charged. It was hard to figure out who was accountable,” he said. “If I saw it, it would be pretty easy to deal with; I would just write a report. But if I walk into the

bathroom and there’s a hole in the wall, that’s going to be charged to the residents, which was pretty hard to stomach for a lot of them.”

Ver Steeg said that one student in Hitchcock had a discussion with President Biddy Martin about the outstanding dorm damage.

“He didn’t think it would be this much of an issue,” Ver Steeg said. “He didn’t think he would be charged as much. He shouldn’t have to pay a couple hundred dollars to pay for that stuff.” The costs were ultimately covered by the school.

Rafi Demerath ’21, the social chair of the women’s crew team and resident counselor in Stearns Hall, said that the new proposed policies are a step in the right direction.

She noted, however, that “it’s a tricky thing, being at a college without a bar-scene. And I am really happy that we have on-campus parties; they’re a lot safer and we have a good relationship with the campus police. But the party scene is unfair for the residents who have to live in the spaces where there are parties.”

“It’s a hard thing to negotiate, but I think my biggest issue with the social scene is the hierarchy of the sports groups and clubs, and how, for some reason, when the socials were torn down, those spaces changed, and the way those groups could interact changed,” Demerath added. “I’m not really sure how to replicate that again, and I’m interested in what the college will do.”

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Faculty of Color Face Qualitatively Different Experiences

A 2017 report found that 33 percent of black non-Hispanic tenure-line faculty members were denied tenure. In contrast, 1 percent of white faculty were denied tenure.

Continued from Page 3 fessors are people of color. Retention at the college, however, is a different story.

A 2017 diversity and inclusion report obtained by The Student found that of pre-tenure faculty hired between Fall 2000 and Fall 2016, professors of color were denied tenure at significantly higher rates than white professors. 33 percent of black non-Hispanic faculty members were denied tenure, as were 6 percent of Asian or Pacific Islander faculty members and 13 percent of Hispanic faculty members. In contrast, 1 percent of white non-Hispanic faculty members were denied tenure.

The report, an internal document produced by the college’s Presidential Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and presented to the college’s External Advisory Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Excellence, identified faculty diversification as “one of the weakest areas of growth at the college.” “[T]he low number of faculty of color hired is further reduced by high rates of attrition, both due to faculty leaving for more amenable situations, or because non-white faculty are tenured at a significantly lower rate than other faculty,” the report stated.

Burden of Extra Work A focal point raised by multiple faculty members of color that The Student interviewed is the cultural fabric of a predominantly white, elite institution.

At such an institution, said Professor

of American studies Robert Hayashi, faculty of color have “qualitatively different experiences.”

“We work with students and populations that are often underrepresented, don’t have mentors, don’t have faculty members available to them in the ways that students in the majority do,” he said. “Sometimes our job as mentoring students is advocating for reforms in the institution to better serve students.”

He called it “hidden work.”

“Some of the things with faculty of color … is doing labor that’s not necessarily recognized, and that can [be] enervating,” he said. “It can come at a cost in terms of your productivity, emotionally [and] psychologically.” The lack of diversity in the college at administrative levels exacerbates its toll, he said.

Expectations imposed on faculty members are often differential based on an individual’s racial identity. At an institution such as Amherst, all faculty members are expected to participate in teaching, research and publication.

Often however, faculty members of color bear the demand of diversity work — “for example, a presidential task force on diversity, committees on recruitment, committees on improving teaching, advising student groups, whether it’s athletics or Asian Students Association or Black Students Union,” according to Professor of American studies Franklin Odo. “For those kinds of positions, because the faculty of color are so few, they tend to get tapped more often in

order for the college to demonstrate that the college is diverse and that they have faculty of color engaged in making decisions,” Odo said. “It turns out that making decisions takes time. That takes time away from students and their research.”

Another source of disparity can be found in levels of participation in national associations. Every reputable faculty member, according to Odo, belongs to one or more scholarly national associations in order to create networks in their field.

“If you become active and a board member, that also takes more time,” Odo said. “If you’re a white scholar, the likelihood is that those particular institutions are huge, and your role is going to be correspondingly small until you become a more established scholar.

So the younger scholars are generally spared really, really large obligations as opposed to those of us in smaller associations of color where the likelihood of being on committees is larger.

That’s another level beyond the campus where demands of time are increasingly onerous.”

“Given that,” Odo added, “the playing field is not level.”

Cobham-Sander said that external professional work is rarely a choice. For many years, she served on the Modern Language Association’s executive committee of English department chairs.

She was also asked to join the external review board of the Social Sciences Research Council Research Committee

as “the token interdisciplinary woman of color.”

Studies have shown that women and people of color shoulder disproportionate amounts of emotional labor and service work; multiple faculty members interviewed by The Student spoke about the emotional labor often carried by women and women of color at the college. Additional service often takes the form of committee work within the college.

“That is definitely real when you check multiple boxes, as I do,” said a pre-tenure professor in the humanities who requested anonymity because she has yet to face tenure review. “I have done a lot of committee work that I know people in my same cohort have not done because they don’t check the same boxes.”

“Not only am I on those committees, but then … I’ll do other programming related to [my area of study], and none of that counts for anything,” she continued. “I’m doing it, but it doesn’t count for anything. Because it doesn’t count, I still will be asked to do these other things [like committee work], and you don’t really say no when the dean asks you to be on a committee.

And sometimes you can’t say no because you get voted in by the faculty.”

According to a 2018 accreditation review of Amherst College by a New England Commission of Higher Education evaluation team, two surveys of faculty opinion found “fairly widespread dissatisfaction with the service burden experienced by faculty.” In the 2017 survey, 38 percent of Amherst faculty said that “too much service” was one of the worst aspects of working at the college.

When Cobham-Sander first arrived at the college, she had no experience with the nature of race in America. Having been educated in the Caribbean and England, where racism takes different forms, she didn’t understand much of the discourse around “American-style racism” in her first year at Amherst. Soon, however, “I realized what the big deal was.”

At that point, there were so few faculty of color that it felt as if “every black student and almost all the Latino students and quite a few of the Asian-American students were either in my classes or in my office hours or asking me to do things off campus in

extracurriculars that involved them,” she said.

“One of my earliest memories is having a Latino student in my office telling me about how his father had been murdered in some way and talking about the very inappropriate things his advisor who was a white professor had said to him,” she added. “By the end of that meeting, when I went home, I was in tears. Who do I turn to?

What do I do with this information?”

In her first year at Amherst, the college decided to restructure the Black studies department. In her second year, she was asked to enter “a nonexistent Black Studies department and restart it up.” In her third year, she was completely exhausted, she said.

“It begins to have an effect on you,” she said. “You feel like you’re responsible for everybody and everything …

As junior faculty, I was doing everything junior faculty is supposed to do and a lot of this administrative institution-building.”

In 2004, then-President Anthony Marx asked Cobham-Sander to serve as special assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion. “It was another kind of trap: ‘we’re going to put you in this position not because you have any training but because you’re a representative,’” she said.

Later, she was asked to lead the portion of the strategic plan devoted to diversity. All of this extra work led to a five-year delay in the publication of her book.

Faculty members of color pointed to this extra service as work not always recognized by the college.

“The fact that more students from all backgrounds come to women and faculty of color from all backgrounds tells you something those professors are doing differently,” Professor of English and Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Officer Marisa Parham said.

“For me, in terms of my work with students, I don’t want to be protected from that,” she added. “I want to be taught how to manage it. But if you know I’m doing all this work, when the institution is doing committee assignments and thinking about evaluation, take that into account.”

This is the first of a four-part series examining retention of faculty of color at Amherst.

Opinion The Loss of the Higher Standard

THE AMHERST

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D

Richmond, Virginia, was in turmoil this past week after news broke that Governor Ralph Northam had published a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook.

The photo, which depicts two men in racist costumes (one in blackface and the other wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood), has led to calls for Northam’s resignation.

While criticism from both Democrats and Republicans in Virginia and nationwide have increased over the last few days, Northam has yet to step down from his position as governor.

Northam is no exception to the notion of politicians embroiled in scandal. Take Representative Steve King, for example.

After King, the congressman of Iowa’s fourth district, made incendiary comments about white supremacy to The New York Times, King, unlike Northam, faced little blowback from his own Republican party. Rep. King is still currently a house member serving his constituents, despite his history of racist rhetoric. Furthermore, Representative Chris Collins, who was charged with insider trading, and Representative Duncan Hunter, who was charged with wire fraud and campaign finance violations, were reelected by their constituents in 2018, albeit with much smaller margins. Both are from the Republican Party.

Thus, the question must be asked: what has happened to the higher ethical standard to which we hold our elected officials? Why has it become so acceptable for politicians to peddle lies, say outlandish things and even commit crimes?

The problem has to do, in part, with extreme partisanship in our current political climate. It is unfortunate that party affiliation has become such a deciding factor in competitive elections, throwing public policy, bipartisanship and ethical standards out the door. But it must be stated that for every politician who loses a race due to a scandal (Roy Moore’s loss in Alabama’s 2017 Senate race due to accusations of sexual misconduct with minors comes to mind), so many more politicians win their races despite their not-so-ethical backgrounds.

Voters have come to value the idea of party affiliation over ethical standards, and the fact that scandalous stories get lost in the media’s never-ending news cycle doesn’t help remedy this issue.

It has become increasingly clear that the political system and climate are naturally appealing to those who want power, both socially and politically. It would be wrong to say that this system is not conducive to ambitious figures. The logical conclusion is that desires for power result in unhealthy ambitions that may, as seen through the actions of hundreds of unethical politicians, lead our public officials to violate the law.

But the notion of politics as a natural corruptor and the increased partisanship in the political sphere cannot be used as excuses for the inexcusable behaviors of politicians. One should never normalize unethical behavior, especially those of politicians who hold the key to the future of our country and its leadership. When our elected leaders and officials continue to defy the moral and ethical standards, they end up forsaking the very constituents that they serve. Collins, Hunter and King have lost their seats on every House Committee.

They have all become pariahs in the house chamber, unable to craft or enact meaningful policy changes for their constituents. Their voices, which their constituents depend on for representation, have essentially been silenced. Congress has so far been reluctant to formally punish these politicians, and these disgraced Congressmen continue to serve their districts with what little power they have left. It is sad to say that without considerable action on the parts of Rep. Collins, Hunter and King or congressional leaders to remedy their unfortunate standings, their constituents have no choice but to vote them out in 2020.

Voters should not be the only members of society to maintain higher ethical standards in politics. Politicians themselves should realize that they should and must be held to a higher standard. After all, politicians are elected to serve the needs of the people who put them there, not themselves.

Editors-in-Chief Shawna Chen Emma Swislow Managing News Natalie De Rosa Ryan Yu Managing Opinion Jae Yun Ham Diane Lee Managing Arts and Living Olivia Gieger Seoyeon Kim Managing Sports Connor Haugh Henry Newton Managing Design Julia Shea S TA F F Head Publishers Joseph Centeno, Emmy Sohn, Mark Nathin Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir

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Opinion

7

Where Has Moderation Gone?

Jacob Kiryk ’21 Contributing Writer The United States primaries are partially to blame for the creation of the divided country and polarized political landscape we have today.

To have a chance at winning the U.S. presidency, candidates first must win their party’s primary. There are many factors that go into winning a primary, but none of these are the ability to woo a centrist audience or voters who are uncertain about which party to support. Instead, candidates often slide further away from the center of the national political spectrum and closer to the extremes of their own party’s desires. One fresh example of this is the Republican party’s nomination of President Donald Trump; he success-

fully stood out from the packed field in the 2016 primaries by outdoing his opponents in extreme statements and claims, such as the now aging chants of “build the wall” and the now less common “lock her up” directed at opponent Hillary Clinton. This worked to distinguish and propel Trump to his nomination, and it seems likely that in the upcoming Democratic primary, candidates will have to stress their own polarizing desires to win.

Pushing contenders further from the center has the benefit of bringing attention to ideas that may have received little in the past, such as a high tax on the rich (which seems likely to be embraced in some form by all serious contenders for the Democratic nomination). However, the effect of driving candidates away from the cen-

ter — especially those who may have been successful on a national level but cannot make it far because of the primary process — works to only increase a polarized landscape. To win a primary today, the route for either party to take is a radical one, such as the one Trump pursued in 2016. To stand out, candidates must be willing to shift their promises further from the center.

By nature this process eliminates any moderate candidates as well as candidates who are interested in unifying the country’s divided political populace. Instead of raising the option of a presidential candidate vying for unification, the primary process pushes political identities further apart.

This is easy to see in the upcoming Democratic primaries as candidates work to distinguish themselves

through flashy (if unlikely to ever come to fruition) proposals. Judging by Trump’s emergence from the crowded Republican field (which seems fair since the Democratic primary is already becoming crowded), it will take extreme statements to stand out from the crowd and become the party nominee. The process that selects a party’s candidate from a crowded field poses a serious roadblock to the nomination of a more centrist and potentially more popular candidate who desires to reduce polarization, and therefore will target neither party extreme.

Whether or not a centrist candidate would be nationally appealing is definitely uncertain. It may be that the nation does indeed desire divisive candidates and a candidate working

to compromise and strike a middle ground would never win, but the primary process makes this question impossible to answer. Candidates would benefit the country if they worked to break this trend and run a campaign that stood apart through its dedication to unification.

Years of primaries have entrenched divisions in the country and have created the trend of hopefuls working to receive enormous support from one side of the political spectrum while distancing the other. To address national polarization, political parties should start by reevaluating their primary process. Any significant change to an existing system is a risk, but without attempting to shift this norm, political division will only grow and national unity will continue to fray.

“New Year, New Me” and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves Rebecca Picciotto ’22 Contributing Writer At first glance, the title of this piece may come across as cynical. But I promise that I am not writing this to justify my failed New Year’s resolutions and attack the concept as a whole. Instead, I am intrigued by the unlikely power of a New Year’s resolution — how can something like the Earth making a revolution around the sun prompt something as unrelated as individual life improvement? How have we convinced ourselves that a fresh calendar automatically grants us a fresh start?

I am trying to be careful to avoid a tangential rant about the illusion of time and how the clocks that dictate our lives may just be a mental construct. But is it not curious that we have attached ourselves so closely to time that a change of the date could be the difference, for instance, between someone indulging a smoking habit or deciding to quit? It isn’t a mystery as to why people are reluctant to give up the bursts of dopamine gained from guilty pleasures. New Year’s resolutions are more formal than other goals — they feel heavier. So, why does a change in the year trigger a collective societal pressure to be better individuals than we were the day before?

Maybe it’s the metaphorical sig-

nificance of the new year. It is difficult to ignore the poetry of a new beginning. There is an obvious symbolic link between resetting the calendar and resetting our habits. However, the figurative meaning of a new year as a time to be “reborn” does not fully explain the all-consuming culture that has developed around New Year’s resolutions. As Amos Tversky, a psychologist and one of the pioneers of decision-making theory, once said, “[Metaphors] replace genuine uncertainty about the world with semantic ambiguity. A metaphor is a cover-up.”

Of course, the metaphor of a new year may be why it is associated with a time of personal renaissance or — less pretentiously — a time when we set out to get it together. However, it still doesn’t fully clarify why these associations lead to action. This is what Tversky must have meant: just because the new year makes for a good symbol does not mean it suffices as explanation — especially when the metaphor of the new year does not fully match up to the reality.

Indeed, the metaphor itself is flawed. The symbol of the new year as a reset button does not hold up because the new year represents a progression in time. This may seem like a simple technicality, but it leads to our mistaken interpretation of the new year. Rather than viewing it as an op-

portunity to build on the progress we have already made in life, we instead tend to see it as a blank slate. In actuality, our pasts follow us, which is a good thing. After all, we improve by learning from the peaks and valleys we’ve endured. Our “tabula rasa” — blank slate — approach to the new year undermines this reality and replaces it with unfeasible perfectionism.

Failing to recognize history leads us to repeat it. In fact, the U.S. News & World Report tells us that about 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. Still, the metaphor tells another story. The figurative new year — the one that implies a new beginning — suggests that somehow between Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, you become a new person, the one who wakes up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym and never falls into the black hole of online shopping. Of course, the reality is the polar opposite. On Jan. 1, you are still the same person you were the night before. Despite the reality of resolutions, it remains a viral annual trend. People still buy into the false hope that “this year will be different.”

Why? Surely it is not just because of our infatuation with a metaphor. No, there must be some sort of psychological trickery at play.

Corporations start capitalizing on tradition because they know the repetition means reliable sources of

revenue year after year. The psychological wizardry of corporate marketing then ingrains the “New Year, New Me” mentality into all of us, because it spikes profits every January. Advertisements for a product you would have never considered buying now seem appealing because they claim to help us reach our New Year’s goals. I know this sounds like I’m advocating some big corporate conspiracy, but it is just an example of a larger theme.

Companies are able to monetize the human tendency to idealize our future selves.

A 2017 article in The Atlantic by Julie Beck, titled “Imagining the Future is Just Another Form of Memory,” explains this psychological tendency. The piece describes how scientists linked the cognition involved in memory to that of imagination. The commonalities between these two mental processes illuminate why sometimes it is easy to conflate aspiration with ambition — the former being an abstract dream while the latter is a concrete goal. If both memory and imagination involve similar neural pathways, then simply envisioning a good future might offer some of the joy of actually having lived it. For example, maybe someone wakes up on Jan. 1 ready to start losing weight. He has imagined the moment when he is 20 pounds lighter,

and the thought brings him joy. He buys the right workout clothes and a gym membership. The excitement of the possible reality motivates him to begin the first few steps of the journey. For a couple weeks, he is eating better and exercising more regularly, but then the vision fades along with his motivation and the reality of the process hits. He has confused aspirational thinking with ambitious thinking — and as a result, he is left more frustrated than he began.

This is not to say that all resolution-makers are unrealistic — 20 percent of resolution-makers do succeed. Instead, it is to acknowledge this glitch in our thinking. If we set resolutions aspirationally, we must not expect the results of true ambition. Even though the resolution may fail, we can still appreciate the joy of dreaming of a better future — that itself does have psychological value.

So in a way, a New Year’s resolution is an unconscious lie — we think we are setting feasible goals when we are really just fantasizing about a different reality. But sometimes it’s fun to imagine ourselves as superhumans who never press snooze on the alarm clock and always skip dessert. Still, at the end of the day, sleeping in and having a congo bar might just be what we really want. And that’s okay. After all, there’s always next year.

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Opinion

8

The Only Solution to Homelessness Esther Song ’21 Contributing Writer With the recent tragedy of a homeless couple in Greenfield freezing to death and the growing struggle with shelters’ limited capacities, which were highlighted in the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Jan. 19 article headlined “‘No backup option’: Shelters at their limits during winter,” the problem of homelessness in this community looms larger than ever.

Behind the blatant bleakness of the current situation, however, both pieces of news point to a simple and straightforward truth: on their own, emergency shelters can no longer act as the sole buffer against homelessness. Rather, they must be used as supplementary solutions that work in tandem with a more fundamental approach toward solving homelessness: affordable housing.

The key difference between emergency shelters and affordable housing lies in their stages of intervention. In the chain of events that lead up to an individual’s homelessness, emergency shelters come in as a final measure to provide immediate, short-term re-

lief. Affordable housing, on the other hand, tackles homelessness at its very roots by working to prevent an individual from becoming homeless to begin with, or returning a homeless individual back to his or her initial stability. If shelters aim to manage homelessness, affordable housing aims to solve it — ultimately, the only solution to homelessness is to provide the homeless with homes, and affordable housing is the most direct means to achieve that end goal.

Affordable housing also comes with cost benefits. According to the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance, average Medicaid, shelter and incarceration costs are known to drop by approximately $13,000 per tenant each year once the individual is introduced to stable housing and support services. This evidence suggests that affordable housing measures are more cost-effective than emergency shelters due to their longterm stabilizing effects. Homeless people, including those at shelters, are more susceptible to mental and physical debilitation, which leads to more frequent medical mishaps and incarceration. Affordable hous-

ing cuts down on these additional expenses by providing homeless people with more mental and physical stability. This conduciveness to rehabilitation is one of the greatest advantages of affordable housing. In contrast, shelters, which act as temporary spaces intended to provide a night’s sleep rather than a long-term support system, are limited via their very construct.

In light of affordable housing’s efficacy, public policies and programs have worked to make affordable housing accessible. The Gazette article’s mention of the Housing First program hints at ongoing local efforts to promote permanent housing. The Housing First program organized by Amherst Community Connections, a local nonprofit organization that supports homeless people, is one example of the many efforts that tackle homelessness at a grassroots level. The program works by providing chronically homeless Amherst residents with housing vouchers that include wrap-around support services.

On the other hand, efforts to solve homelessness on the state lev-

el tend to be more diluted across numerous initiatives, including shelters and affordable housing. According to a 2016 MassLive article about homeless shelters in western Massachusetts, average costs for the Friends of the Homeless shelter are around $42 per bed per night, out of which approximately $26 is financed through state funding and the rest through fundraisers and grants. This indicates that the state’s funding for shelters is far lower than the actual needed amount. More importantly, it is notable how the shelter’s cost of supporting an individual amounts to a total of around $1,260/month.

The fact that this exceeds the typical monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment in Amherst illustrates the problem with emergency shelters as a long-term intervention: it would be more cost-effective and beneficial if the state were to invest in affordable housing and other interventions that address the affordable housing gap, rather than in emergency shelters.

With the abundance of organizations, policies and systems in place for tackling homelessness, it is imperative to see how these individual

components may work most effectively in relation to one another, and to allocate our resources accordingly.

While shelters are an indispensable part of the support system for homeless people, they should be perceived and utilized as intermediary sites with the aim of connecting homeless people to affordable housing. It is even more important to boost the accessibility of affordable housing in two directions: making affordable housing more affordable and increasing low-income residents’ abilities to afford these houses. The recent increase of Massachusetts’ minimum wage to $12 per hour is promising in the latter respect. Increasing accessibility can also be achieved through bolstering local grassroot initiatives such as those used at Amherst Community Connections, increasing federal and state funding of housing or something different all together. The first step towards seeing the change we want to see, however, may be something as simple as reminding ourselves that our final goal is to take homeless people off the streets and into stable housing, not to make their lives on the streets more bearable.

If I May: Hometown Heartbreak Jake May ’19 Columnist If you asked me who my favorite athlete was a week ago, the answer would have been easy: Kristaps Porzingis. As a lifelong New York Knicks fan, I have not experienced a lot of success. In my lifetime, the Knicks have only made it to the NBA Finals once. In the lockout-shortened 1999, they became the first and only eighth seeded team to make it to championship, where they were promptly trounced by the San Antonio Spurs. I was three years old then and remember none of this.

Since then, the Knicks have been a horrendous basketball team most of the time and have occasionally been a mediocre basketball team.

Not only have the Knicks been bad at playing basketball, they have also been very bad at managing a bas-

ketball team. The Knicks front office has made countless terrible trades and signings, have rarely drafted a prospect who ultimately succeeded in the league and have continued to foster a toxic relationship between the administration and the players.

However, in 2015, something changed. With the fourth overall pick in the draft, the Knicks drafted Kristaps Porzingis. Of course, clinging to our ingrained pessimism, most Knick fans were unhappy with the choice. However, just a few games into the 2015-2016 season, it was clear that our pessimism was misplaced. Porzingis looked to be a generational talent: seven-footthree, athletic, an excellent shooter.

In short, he could be a franchise player for years to come.

Watching Porzingis play for the last three seasons made me feel a joy I have never felt in sports. Obviously, his tremendous skill is incredible

to witness, but it felt so much more meaningful because he was our guy.

Sure, there were some red flags; he seemed to struggle working with other playmakers, he was constantly at odds with Knicks management and, worst of all, he was very injury-prone. Nevertheless, we were willing to overlook those red flags because Porzingis was a homegrown star. We drafted him as a 19-yearold. We were watching him grow up.

Of course, in the land of Knicks fandom, all good things must come to an end. Last season, disaster struck when Porzingis tore his ACL. He was declared out for the season, a season in which he had been playing his best basketball yet. For once, after this injury, Knicks fans were able to be optimistic. After all, he was our guy. We were committed to Porzingis long term. We hoped that he would be back from his injury in two seasons, stronger than ever. We

hoped that by then, the team would have signed a top free agent, such as Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving.

We hoped that after Porzingis’s recovery, the Knicks would finally be a contender in the Eastern Conference. We hoped, we hoped, we hoped.

Hoping as a Knick fan is a dangerous game. Year after year, the team — either the players or the management, or both — betrayed this hope. And this year was no different. On Thursday, Jan. 31, a week ahead of the Feb. 7 trade deadline, the New York Knicks traded Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks, essentially to clear salary cap space.

The trade can be justified as the Knicks will have the most salary cap room in the league next season, which will enable them to possibly sign not one but two marquee free agents. Furthermore, it is possible that Porzingis will never be the

same player; it is rare that a seven-foot tall, skinny athlete recovers fully from an ACL injury.

That being said, this trade was devastating for many Knicks fans, even putting aside Porzingis’s tremendous upside as a basketball asset. This trade hurts because it’s not just about assets when you’re a fan.

Porzingis was the defining feature of the Knicks. He was both the present and the future. He was our guy!

The fan base was so excited to finally have a homegrown Knick to rally around — our first legitimate drafted star since the immortal Patrick Ewing — and the front office traded him to clear cap space!

If the Knicks end up signing two free agents, it will be difficult to complain about this trade. However, even if it is ultimately successful basketball-asset-wise, something will always feel off about it. He was our guy, and now he’s gone.

Arts&Living

Miles Morales Proves Himself a Worthy Spider-Man

Photo courtesy of Flickr

The award-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” follows the story of Miles Morales, a member of the new generation carrying on Spider-Man’s legacy.

Mark Simonitis ’19 Staff Writer Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-Man, one of the greatest comic book characters of all time, is irreplaceable. But that does not mean he needs to be alone. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is a story not about Peter Parker, but about Miles Morales, who must take on Spider-man’s legacy after an encounter with a familiar spider. What makes the movie such a success is how easily it sells Miles as a new Spider-Man, who is more than capable of walking alongside one of the greats. In this beautifully animated film stuffed with great performances, we get to watch the story of Miles’s rise to heroism as he proves that he is worthy of taking on the mantle.

The movie follows the journey of Miles (Shameik Moore), a young teen from Brooklyn who receives a fateful bite from a genetically modified spider, just as Peter Parker did when he was a teen. When Miles becomes embroiled in a scheme involving a dimensional collider constructed by the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), the multiverse itself fractures, and a number of spider-powered heroes find themselves stranded in Miles’s universe. Among these heroes is an older version of Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) who begins to mentor

Miles as they attempt to stop the Kingpin and save the multiverse.

One of the movie’s greatest strengths is its character work and performance, especially in the case of Miles himself.

The movie wisely takes its time getting to the superpowered shenanigans, choosing to spend time getting the audience invested in Miles’s own personal life and character.

Moore portrays a character who is utterly charming as we get to see Miles’s struggles with identity, his creative nature and his relationships with his straight-laced police officer father (Brian Tyree Henry) and his more relaxed Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali).

When things do kick off, and the Spiders enter the fray, Miles goes through a combination of hero worship, inadequacy, cynicism and triumph in his mentorship under Johnson’s Parker.

Johnson’s Parker was a particular favorite of mine; this version embodies the Peter Parker from the comics whose civilian life has practically gone to shambles. As a result, he is more than ready to hang up the tights. The two characters are the perfect fit for each other throughout the film’s first two acts. Parker’s seen-it-all attitude and razor-sharp competence makes for great contrast with Miles’ youthful exuberance and constant missteps on the path to becoming his own hero.

Their dynamic makes them hilarious to watch, and it’s a treat to see the two of them bond as Miles begins to bring out the best in Peter and remind him of what he’s lost.

I wish I could say I had the same level of emotional attachment to the other Spider heroes, namely Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) and SPI-DR (Kimiko Glenn). Ultimately, the movie simply does not have the time to invest in meaningful stories for all these characters, with the partial exception of Spider-Gwen. Still, each of these Spiders get their moments to shine, with Spider Man-Noir and Spider-Ham spouting off gut-busting lines nearly every time they open their mouths. Each of the Spiders also had the privilege of being rendered in their own unique animation styles, such as SPI-DR’s clear anime influence or Spider-Man Noir’s constant black-and-white film grain effect.

I was particularly touched by a scene where they all commiserate over the shared tragedies of their pasts. Still, I can’t help but feel that “Spider-Verse” would have been better off to showing some restraint and cutting these characters to focus solely on Miles and Peter. If anything, I would have liked to spend more time with Kingpin. His

woefully short screen-time is a real shame since Schreiber infused Kingpin with intelligence, a faux easy going manner and an exhilarating-to-behold savagery.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention how beautiful this movie looks and how incredible it sounds. The animation style never misses a beat, with a vibrant color scheme, signature pop-art “WHAM” sound effects and thought bubbles that all serve to make it look like a comic-book come to life. The character designs are just as worthy of praise, with my personal favorite being Kingpin, whose massive, blocky form tends to take up the entire frame and allows him to exude a sense of absolute menace. Rather than the sweeping orchestras of modern superhero movies, the soundtrack of “Spider-Verse” draws from a variety of music styles, most notably hip-hop and rap. Throughout the film, these elements make it a delight to watch and the final battle is an absolute masterpiece of a scene that hits nearly every beat perfectly.

Perhaps most importantly, this movie manages to truly understand and communicate the essence and ultimate message of Spider-Man — the very thing that has always made him such an enduring character — in a way that hasn’t been done since the Raimi “Spider-Man” films. Simply put, with

great power, there must also come great responsibility. Miles makes such a strong character — just like Peter Parker, he understands that his powers are a gift that need to be used to protect those around him.

Spider-Verse” adds another layer to this timeless message: anyone can have that power. In an early scene, a crowd of onlookers, Miles included, dons Spider-Man masks and listens to a speech on how the power to help others can be found in anyone, not just in someone like Peter Parker. This is further established in the diversity of the Spider team which eventually forms in the final act. Anyone can take up the heroic mantle of Spider-Man, from a half-black, half-Puerto Rican teen to a Japanese girl or even a cartoon pig.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is a triumph on nearly every level. Miles Morales finally makes his big-screen debut anchored firmly in Moore’s performance and a compelling story about his journey to becoming Spider-Man. With a host of other great characters, the proper blend of drama and humor and an amazing animation style, “Spider-Verse” solidifies its standing as one of the best Spider-Man movies yet and proves itself worthy of its recent Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film and its Oscar nomination for the same category.

The Amherst Student • February 6, 2019

Arts & Living 10

Dueling Documentaries Introduce the Man Behind Fyre Fest Isabella Weiner ’20 Contributing Writer On Jan. 18, Netflix released its documentary “Fyre Fest: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” to immediate fanfare. Just a few days before, Hulu, in a surprise move that was undoubtedly meant to rattle the streaming titan, dropped its own documentary, “Fyre Fraud,” about the disastrous music festival. The inaugural festival, branded as “Fyre Fest,” promised concert-goers a “luxury,” once-in-a-lifetime experience on a remote island (“once owned by Pablo Escobar”) in the Bahamas, an event that would be attended by such models and Instagram “influencers” as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski. But instead of luxury cabanas and yacht parties, attendees were greeted with FEMA refugee tents, scarce food (with one image of a sad-looking sandwich of American cheese slapped onto white bread going viral) and decidedly no supermodels. The event proved easy fodder for internet mockery, as users found it hilarious that rich concert-goers — many of them millennials — were duped.

In the days since their release, the directors of the dueling documentaries have both levelled accusations

of questionable ethics against each other. Netflix has claimed that Hulu paid $250,000 for an interview with Billy McFarland, CEO and co-founder of Fyre Media, Inc., the company behind Fyre Fest — and who is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for defrauding investors. The implicit argument is that McFarland, who swindled millions from investors and left hundreds of Bahamians unpaid for their work on the festival, should not be allowed to profit from the festival.

Hulu, meanwhile, argues that Netflix should not have allowed employees of the highly popular Instagram account FuckJerry, which was responsible for the promotion of Fyre Fest, to serve as producers of the doc and thus promote the message that they too were swindled rather than complicit members in the elaborate scheme. Personally, I believe the claim levelled by Netflix has more merit. And while the Netflix doc does not have the draw of an interview with McFarland, it has extensive footage of him as he parties (at one point falling asleep on the beach from a day of extensive drinking), tells his employees they’re “selling a pipe dream to your average loser” and scrambles to put together the festival. As it became sickeningly obvious in the

days leading up to the festival that it could not feasibly happen, employees featured in the film recounted how McFarland would tell them that they were a “solutions-based” company.

The show would go on.

Watching the Netflix documentary, McFarland strikes me as socially awkward, uncharismatic and constantly speaking in vague, entrepreneur-bro jargon. Yet, he was able to win and maintain the extreme loyalty of his employees, continuing to acquire millions from investors — some of whom are featured in the film — who viewed McFarland as a visionary entrepreneur despite his previously failed venture, a credit-card club called Magnises. We later learn in the film that McFarland was grossly inflating Fyre Media’s market value to investors, perhaps partially explaining why he was able to pull off such a feat. The documentary asks the question: what drew all of these talented people to McFarland? To stand by him?

Nowhere is a more damning example of his remorselessness than in his duplicity towards the Bahamian natives, who remain unpaid for their work. One Bahamian, a restaurant owner named Mary Ann Rolle, tearfully admits to the cameras that she lost $50,000 feeding concert-goers

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

One of two documentaries about Fyre Festival that were released within one week, Netflix’s “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened“ explores its controversial CEO. during the Fest. (A GoFundMe has since been founded in her name.)

McFarland’s festival hurt real people, and while the Internet had a field day

reveling in the hilarity of the downfall of the festival, the Netflix documentary ultimately does not forget to show us that it was never really funny at all.

“Beautiful Boy” is a Stark Reminder of the Tragedy of Addiction Gaby Bucio ’21 Contributing Writer When I first heard about “Beautiful Boy,” I had no idea what it was about, and I didn’t care much either.

Steve Carell’s name was enough to get me in the theater. I never watched the trailer or the countless interviews in which Timothée Chalamet and Carell carefully explain the plot and meaning of this story. Needless to say, when I finally watched the movie, it hurt.

Based on David Sheff ’s 2008 memoir of the same name, “Beautiful Boy” tells the story of Nic Sheff ’s (Chalamet) struggle with drug addiction, and David Sheff ’s (Carell) struggle to come to terms with his son’s addiction. The movie alternates between past and present, giving us glimpses of who Nic used to be and who he has become. Throughout the film, you find yourself falling in love with the cheerful spirit of young Nic and fer-

vently hoping that adult Nic recovers.

But unlike many other movies that tell stories of success, the purpose of “Beautiful Boy” is to demonstrate reality.

Emotions run high in this film.

There are a number of moments when your heart breaks for both David and Nic. Chalamet does a fantastic job at expressing the rapid and wild changes in mood that accompany drug addiction, and Carell is captivating in his depiction of his character’s endeavor to remain sane while drowning in a sea of worry and desperation.

But as much as Chalamet and Carell succeed in portraying the lives of the real Nic and David Sheff, it was Maura Tierney’s portrayal of Nic’s stepmom, Karen, that connects with the audience the most. As the chaos unfolds, Karen is the supportive figure that Nic needs and that David relies on. She is, for the most part, the voice of reason in the family, perhaps even

more so than Nic’s mom, Vicki (Amy Ryan). She is also the first to realize that they cannot do anything for Nic until he is willing to do something for himself. She remains a spectator for much of the film, allowing her husband to take the lead on how to deal with Nic. Karen’s outside perspective as a spectator allows the audience to resonate strongly with the character.

The most distressing scene in the movie is perhaps the one where Karen chases after Nic in her red mini-van after the family has caught him and his girlfriend breaking into their home.

David chases after Nic on foot while Karen is looking after their two small children at home, but when she sees Nic fleeing in his car, she goes after him. Only a few scenes earlier, Karen had told David that there was no way to help Nic, so her chasing after him is completely out of character, yet understandable. As the scene continues, the immediate reaction is to wonder

whether she will catch Nic and his girlfriend. But what if she does? What is she going to do? How is her catching them going to change anything?

He will continue to use drugs, and he will leave again because he wants to.

Karen seems to realize it too, because she stops chasing after them. When Karen breaks down, we break down with her because that’s when we realize that we will not leave “Beautiful Boy” with the sense of comfortable hope most movies deliver.

The entire film mirrors this one scene. The Sheff family chases after Nic, hoping that they can bring him back to sobriety, only to realize that there is nothing they can do if he is not willing to slow down. It’s almost frustrating every time he has a relapse, because you desperately want a happy ending. But “Beautiful Boy” does not provide a romanticized depiction of drug addiction or recovery — it is harsh in its storytelling. We

never see a grown-up Nic fully sober.

All we get is white letters on a black background repeating the theme of the film: there is no final victory over addiction — it is one day at a time.

Yes, the real Nic Sheff has now been sober for eight years, but his struggle was even more arduous than what the film showed.

Despite the movie being far from the typical Hollywood survivor tropes, “Beautiful Boy” still leaves behind some positivity and a deep appreciation for all the love that can come from family. Even if it’s not the father-son relationship depicted in the film, or even if you’ve never experienced anything nearly as serious as drug addiction, you walk away with a new appreciation for all the small ways in which family members express their love for you. “Beautiful Boy” reminds us of how important it is to say “I love you” to the people around us.

The Amherst Student • February 6, 2019

Arts & Living 11

Golden Globe Nominee “Shoplifters” Comes to Amherst Cinema

Photo courtesy of Quedicediego

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s newest film “Shoplifters” beautifully portrays the lives of a forged “family” of shoplifters, the Shibatas, in modern Japan.

Youngkwang Shin ’19 Staff Writer Director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” his newest cinematic plunge into the urban discomforts of contemporary Japan, arrives in Amherst Cinema after its yearlong triumph in the international film festival circuit.

On the surface, Kore-eda’s little tale about a clan of petty thieves meets every assumption regarding the artistic conservatism of these award functions.

For all of the transgressive messages of severing hurtful pasts and choosing your own family, the shoplifters organize themselves into a domestic arrangement that does not differ much from those bound by society: heterosexual “parents” rearing their “children,” whose tenuous bonds are marked with an innocent ignorance.

To reiterate, “Shoplifters” seems to sound the usual notes of a picture of its prestige: kids comingof-age, socioeconomic deprivation, a loose, near-episodic plot and fixation on the fleeting moments of happiness in the modern world remembered only by the camera,

which drops by the ramshackle house with the frequency of a social worker who is reluctantly in on their secret.

But within these familiar confines, “Shoplifters” snatches acute whiffs of tremendous pathos and ultimately surpasses its type and hype.

“Shoplifters” swiftly sets up those confines, if only to equally swiftly reach its far more interesting turn.

Specifically, its first half, the part of the movie which is included in the promotional materials for the film, deceptively foreshadows a work of straightforward moral provocation.

The most important theft in “Shoplifters” is the rescue of the “daughter” Yuri (Miyu Sasaki) from her actual, abusive family. The thrust of the scene seems simple enough, but from then on, the film dares the viewer to question the morality of Yuri’s artificial family.

Expecting acquiescence, the family renames Yuri as Lin and raises her in their compassionate and criminal image. Lin goes to the beach and picks up a shell, then to the store and picks up chips.

In all things, she is accompanied by some member of her

Shibata family, whether it be the charmingly incompetent patriarch Osamu (Lily Franky), the pragmatic pillar of the house Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), the introverted sex worker Aki (Mayu Matsuoka), the kin-weary grandmother Hatsue (Kirin Kiki) or the occasionally jealous but ultimately concerned fake-brother Shota (Kairi Jo).

Each Shibata is a formidable personality who appears committed to this absurd performance of family for their selfish agenda. But even their thorniest interactions conclude in love in a happy inevitability, and we, once possible naysayers to this illegal alliance, fill in the wide-eyed blankness of Lin’s face with our own yearning or gratitude.

But there is no happy inevitability after a certain moment in the film, when harsh reality settles in and the Shibatas awake from their collective dream. This framing of the artificial family as a helpless, untenable delusion is in the end what distinguishes “Shoplifters” from the fare of other films like it.

This movie does not pass the tried and true story of little people crushed by big systems as human-

istic wisdom or spiritual victory.

In so doing, “Shoplifters” demonstrates a special awareness of probable mediocrity, sidestepping towards a far more intriguing territory of provocation.

As Lin is gradually reminded by countless voices of her real name, we are reminded that this fragile theater is bound for closing. To enjoy the film’s moments of happiness, then, becomes a far more daunting task.

These moments are not just an escape from the abuses within the rules, they are failed escapes that wind back to the discontents of lawful society.

A world bound on both ends by ruin, “Shoplifters” could be read as an exceptionally materialist film, whose fatalistic structure underscores the audience’s propensity to attach transcendent, ultimate meaning to our every day.

What matters in the end are blunt, unforgiving social conditions, and without resolving them, any kind of humanistic network is doomed.

Yet there is a softer, perhaps irrational side to the film’s gloomy materialism — one that implores

the audience to go to the beach, to enjoy life, to choose one’s own family despite the unavoidable moment of awakening.

But “Shoplifters” does not strut this optimism, and thereby becomes a far more demanding work.

The film shifts from delight to disintegration at a breezy pace, and like its main cast, the audience is meant to steal the hope on their own if they wish to escape the nihilism awaiting its end.

When the film ends, we must choose to remember the good times. In short, the scenes of happiness — the family lolling about the beach, feasting on snacks, burning clothes symbolic of a sadder past — all ask for the viewer’s own transgression against the rules that the film itself has established.

To preserve the memory and legitimacy of the Shibata family, it is not enough that we passively behold their frolicking but rather actively remember it, long after the better part of the world has forgotten.

“Shoplifters” is very much a film worth watching, if only to be reminded of our responsibility to go beyond mere watching.

The Amherst Student • February 6, 2019

Arts & Living 12

Despite Lacking Character Growth, “Aquaman” Impresses Overall

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Despite missing some opportunities for character development, “Aquaman” exceeded expectations, providing an action-packed plot and tasteful humor.

Kalidas Shanti ‘22 Staff Writer Having seen the terrible reviews for “Justice League,” I was anxious about “Aquaman.” Would this movie flop, too, or would it compete with “Wonder Woman?”

Would “Aquaman” be able to match the ever-growing Marvel franchise in its ability to entertain?

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was engaging and comedic, and didn’t leave me feeling like I had wasted two hours of my life.

All of the actors played their roles well, but “Aquaman” did have some glaring problems, the main one being that it felt formulaic and myopic.

The movie opened well, providing us a quick look into the early life of Arthur Curry, or Aquaman (Jason Momoa).

Arthur is the son of Thomas Curry, a lighthouse keeper, and Atlanna, the princess of the underwater nation Atlantis. Arthur is born with the power to communicate

with marine lifeforms.

There are two main antagonists in “Aquaman” David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who later christens himself as Black Manta, and Arthur’s half-brother (Patrick Wilson), who is also Atlantis’ ruler King Orm. When Arthur fights with a group of pirates who are attacking a submarine, he leaves their leader, Jesse Kane (Michael Beach) to drown in the ocean.

His son, David, swears to avenge him, aiding King Orm on more than one occasion to defeat Arthur.

The importance of family and our inability to accept when family members leave our lives is a theme that recurs throughout the movie.

While the plot of revenge allows for Arthur’s character growth as he reflects on how he’s made an eternal enemy for choosing to condemn Black Manta and his father, it leaves Black Manta feeling like a flat and overdone character.

Every time Black Manta is offered a reward or compensation, he refuses, stating that killing Arthur

is the reward.

Even if we ignore how cliché Black Manta sounds as he declares this, throughout this movie he stays as this character who has nothing to drive him but his rage. He even turns down treasure, one of the only things that mattered to him when he was a pirate.

His lack of growth becomes even more bothersome when considering that he is the only black character in the movie, excluding his father who dies within ten minutes of being introduced.

I find it distasteful that the only black character is not only initially a pirate who makes a living off of theft, but is also a character entirely centered around his rage and violence. Hopefully in the sequel, we will see Black Manta grow as an antagonist, as it was implied at the end of the movie that he will return.

To be fair, both Aquaman and King Orm also start off as characters blinded by the loss of their mother and are consequently prejudiced and judgmental.

But unlike these two characters, Black Manta does not waver in his willingness to ignore the suffering of others, lacking engagement with other characters throughout the movie.

We see Arthur begin to reconsider his hatred toward the Atlanteans as he journeys with Mera (Amber Heard), Arthur’s love interest and daughter of one of the underwater kings. And King Orm seems to reevaluate his opinion of Arthur when he realizes his mom is still alive.

In a way, Black Manta’s inability to recover from his father’s death and the hatred that follows exemplify the turmoil of losing a family member and the degree to which it can consume a person.

However, his storyline could have been handled in a way that didn’t leave the character feeling flat, such as having Black Manta demonstrate more doubt in his determination to kill Arthur.

The filmmakers could have made Black Manta grieve for his father in later scenes, allowing the viewer to

empathize with him.

In the end, the problem with his character may have been due to a lack of interaction with the other characters beyond physical fights and payments.

Having said all this, “Aquaman” is well made. The movie’s pacing made it engaging throughout, and its fight scenes were captivating. Its jokes also met positive reactions.

While the costumes may have been a bit over the top, when considering the actual outfits the characters wore in the comics, they were almost exact replicas.

The movie was also pleasantly thought-provoking, dealing mostly with how we concieve of authority, how we judge people based on bias and how easy it is to ignore the plight of others.

As the movie depicts the workings of Atlantis and King Orm’s close-minded domination, it makes us think about how difficult it can be to accept those unlike us.

Overall, “Aquaman” left me satisfied and looking forward to the next installment.

Sports 13

The Amherst Student • February 6, 2019

Men’s Track and Field Impresses, Buren ’22 Breaks 60m School Record Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer While the majority of campus was away for winter break, the men’s track and field team remained in Amherst, to compete in the program’s winter season.

The team’s first meet of the year was the Little Three Championships, where they bested hosts Wesleyan on their home track. Sophomore Ryan Prenosil won the 400-meter dash in 50.73 seconds, the fastest time in meet history, and anchored the 4x400 race, which won second place. In the 1000-meter race, Kristian Sogaard ’19 sat in fourth place with one lap to go, but managed to pass the remaining three runners on the final lap to record the victory. The following weekend, the Mammoths placed seventh out of 14 teams at the Smith College Pioneer Invitational. First years Henry Buren and Owen Daily had great meets — Buren broke the school record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.15 seconds. In the 3000 meters, Daily led the race from the opening gun, winning with a time of 8:51.

“Breaking the 60-meter record feels great, but I really see it as the beginning of what the track team can accomplish,” Buren said. “We have placed a great foundation, and now the pieces are starting to fall together.”

At the Branwen Smith-King Invitational the next weekend, hosted by Tufts, Amherst’s runners impressed again, finishing third out of 18 teams.

Buren recorded another outstanding finish in the 60-meter race, beating his own record by one hundredth of a second and finished fourth in a field of 71 runners. Behind Buren, Arzineolisa Uddoh ’22 also qualified for the semifinals in the 60 meters.

In the 3000 meters, Cosmo Brossy ’19 and Clark Ricciardelli ’20E ran nearly their entire race together, both crossing the line with a time of 8:27. Behind the duo, Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20 and Braxton Schuldt ’21 both ran personal bests, running 8:34 and 8:44, respectively.

Amherst also had athletes compete in the heptathlon, which was held over two days. Athletes compete in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter race, long jump,

javelin throw and 800-meter race.

Troy Colleran ’22 placed second with a score of 4396 points.

In the field events, Jordan Edwards ’20 saved his best jump for last, placing second in the triple jump with a distance of 13.38 meters.

Theo Bates ’20 also performed well in the long jump, needing only one attempt to secure third place with a result of 6.53 meters.

Amherst next competed at the Tufts Cupid Challenge on Feb. 2, where Arinzeolisa Uddoh ’22 added to the Mammoths’ burgeoning success in the 60-meter dash, notching a fourth-place finish in the finals with a time of 7.19 seconds. In the 600-meter run, Ralph Skinner ’20 made his season debut, winning his heat with a time of 1:23, while Andrew Swenson ’21 placed third in the same heat with a time of 1:25. Billy Massey ’21 ran 4:18 in the mile to place fourth.

The Mammoths dominated the 5000-meter race, as Ricciardelli winning in a time of 14:28, only four seconds off of the school record. Brossy worked with Ricciardelli for most of the race, placing second. Both

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Henry Buren ’22 broke the school’s 60-meter dash record at the Smith College Pioneer Invitational with a time of 7.15 seconds.

Schuldt and sophomore Jamie Mazzola also set personal bests in the race as well to run 15:10 and 15:28, respectively.

The Mammoths will compete

in Boston this weekend, with some of the team running at the Boston University Valentine Invitational, and the rest of the team competing at MIT’s Gordon Kelley Invitational.

Women’s Basketball Rebounds After First NESCAC Loss, Beats Bates and Tufts Tyler Marshall ’21 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s basketball team suffered its first NESCAC defeat in over two seasons on Jan. 26, falling to the number one-ranked Bowdoin Polar Bears on the road.

There was hardly any time to regroup, however, for the fifthranked Mammoths.

They traveled to play number four Tufts the following Friday night, responding impressively with a gritty win.

Senior Meghan Sullivan’s double-double, which consisted of 12

points and 10 rebounds, led the Mammoths to the bounceback win, with Madeline Eck ’20 also in double figures with 10 points. Hannah Fox ’20 and Cam Hendricks ’20 each chipped in eight points, and Maeve McNamara ’22 added seven points.

The Mammoths prevailed due

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Courtney Resch ’22 grabbed 11 rebounds in the team’s wins over both Tufts and Bates.

to their tough defense, which held the high-powered Jumbo offense (75.4 PPG) to only 22 percent shooting from the field.

More impressively, Amherst only allowed two three-pointers the whole game.

Amherst led by only four points at halftime, 19-15, but came out of the locker room and went on a crucial 9-0 run in the third quarter to push the lead to 14.

Tufts never got within more than nine in the second half and Amherst held on to win 50-40.

The next afternoon, the Mammoths triumphed again, registering another hard-fought away victory against the Bates Bobcats.

Amherst came out hot and grabbed a 12-5 lead after the first quarter of play.

Once the Mammoths claimed the lead late in the first quarter, they never relinquished it and won by a final score of 53-43.

Eck led the way with a game high 20 points on an efficient eight

for 12 shooting performance from the field. While Eck’s offense was certainly key to victory, Amherst’s stifling defense held Bates to 26.3 percent shooting from the field, once again allowing Amherst to pull away for an impressive double-digit margin of victory.

Amherst has consistently been one of the best defensive teams in the league and they demonstrated thier skill this weekend with two impressive road wins predicated on tight defense and timely scoring.

Amherst now sits alone in second place in the NESCAC standings behind undefeated Bowdoin.

Amherst will return to Lefrak Gymnasium this weekend with home games against rival Williams and fellow NESCAC foe Middlebury.

The game against Williams tips off at 7 p.m. on Friday night, and Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3 p.m. on what will be the team’s Senior Day.

Sports 14

The Amherst Student • February 6, 2019

Men’s Hockey Shuts Out Bowdoin, Ties Col- Women’s Swim and Dive by with Strong Goaltending Performance Ties MIT in Rare Scoreline Sarah Melanson ’20 Staff Writer Sparked by an offensive performance and lights-out goaltending, the men’s hockey team skated to a 3-0 victory on Friday, Feb. 1 in Maine over the Bowdoin Polar Bears. The win moved Amherst to 9-6-3 on the season.

Taking advantage of a power play opportunity, John Festa ’19 led the offensive surge with 4:10 remaining in the opening period. Stemming from a picturesque breakout, Jack Fitzgerald ’19 and Joey Lupo ’20 worked the puck to Festa, who found the back of the net giving the Mammoths a 1-0 edge.

Feeding off of the energy, captain Phil Johansson ’19 doubled the Mammoths’ lead just three minutes later. Johansson collected a beautiful pass from Lupo in the high slot and fired a wrister into the net against the Bowdoin goaltender.

With time winding down in regulation, the Polar Bears struggled to capitalize on their scoring opportunities. Their best chance came on a power play with 4:40 left on

the clock, but Ronnie Leston’s shot rang off the pipe, keeping the Mammoths’ lead at two.

The final tally of the night came from Lupo with 1:03 left in the period, as he found the back of an empty net to extend the Mammoths’ lead to 3-0.

Lupo led the offensive charge registering one goal and two assists on the night, while goalie Michael Cullen ’21 made 28 saves.

This victory marks Cullen’s first collegiate career shutout. The Mammoths recorded 33-28 shots on the night before a quick turnaround to Colby.

The Mammoths were in Waterville, Maine on Saturday, Feb. 2 to face the Mules. Colby scored first with seven minutes left in the first period.

Eager to continue the offensive success from the night before, Sean Wrenn ’22 found the back of the net. Pieter von Steinbergs ’21 and A.J. Klein ’20 were credited with assists on the goal.

Less than a minute later, Fitzgerald gave the Mammoths a 2-1 lead, capturing his seventh goal of

the season off of a pass from Lupo and Klein. With back-and-forth action throughout the second and third periods, Colby tied the game at 2-2 with 15 seconds left in the third period. Giancarlo Ventre ’20 registered 28 saves out of 30 shots.

“Colby plays an extremely structured game and has one of the relatively smaller ice surfaces,” Festa said. “We played hard against them as well but could not quite finish.

Overall I think we need to work on closing out games but the effort level is exactly where it needs to be to allow us a chance to go far in the playoffs.”

Festa also praised the hard work of the tag team of net minders. “Cullen got his first shutout of his career on Friday against Bowdoin, which was well deserved, and Ventre made some unbelievable stops that kept us in the game. He wasn’t able to see either of the goals that went in.

Having a hot goalie is something that championship teams always tend to have and it seems like we have two of them right now.”

The Mammoths will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 8 at Tufts.

Men’s Swim and Dive Falls To MIT in First Loss of Season, Bounces Back Against Springfield Jake Grossman ’21 Staff Writer The Amherst men’s swim and dive team suffered their first loss of the season on Feb. 2 falling a score of 189-111 against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose team is ranked fifth in the nation.

However, the Mammoths were able to rebound and defeat Springfield College the next day, 179-105, finishing their regular season 7-1 and regaining momentum leading into the NESCAC Championships.

Although they lost, some Amherst men were able to find success against the Engineers. Craig Smith ’20 swept both the 100and 200-yard backstroke events.

Sean Mebust ’20 replicated this success in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events. Eric Wong ’20 snagged a win in the 500yard freestyle event as well. Even though MIT swept the rest of the events, the Mammoths kept the meet close by finishing second in a number of the other disciplines.

After experiencing their first taste of defeat on Saturday, the Mammoths bounced back to trounce Springfield the next day, winning 12 events. Many Amherst swimmers found success on Sunday, with several swimmers winning events.

Smith and Wong continued their success against Springfield.

In addition to his team winning the 200-yard medley relay, Scott Romeyn ’22 notched his first

individual event win in the 100yard freestyle.

Josh Chen ’19 swept the 50yard and 100-yard breaststroke events, while Ang Li ’21 took the 100-yard backstroke and 200yard freestyle events.

Additionally, Tristan So ’21 won the 50-yard freestyle while Jack Koravos ’20 finished first in the 100-yard butterfly.

Adi Arifovic ’21 finished the Mammoths’ streak of success by winning the 500-yard freestyle.

In diving, Bennett Fagan took the three-meter diving event for the Mammoths, culminating in a day of success for the team.

The Mammoths will look to continue their successful regular season at the NESCAC Championships on Feb. 22 at 9 a.m.

Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor

This weekend, the women’s swim and dive team continued their excellent performance with a win over Springfield College and an unusual tie against wellmatched MIT. The Mammoths have made an excellent start to the campaign, only getting caught in the wake of rival Williams in a narrow 180-110 defeat on Jan. 5.

After dropping the first event, Jayne Vogelzang ’19 won the 1000yard freestyle for the Mammoths.

Natalie Rumpelt ’20 and Livia Domenig ’19 then took first and second, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle. Rumpelt also stole gold in a narrow win in the 200-yard freestyle.

Ingrid Shu ’20 charged to victory in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in just 24.42 seconds. Nina Fitzgerald ’21 won the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke races. Senior Jackie Palermo, the lone diver for Amherst, took fourth in the oneand three-meter events. Domenig and Caroline Needell ’22 took the top two spots in the 500-meter freestyle.

Going into the final event of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay, Amherst had already accu-

mulated 137 points, while the Engineers held a six-point lead. The quartet of Domenig, Dorit Song ’19, Shu and Rumpelt, snuck ahead in the final leg to win the event and earn their team nine points with MIT’s top team seconds behind them.

Amherst’s second team, however, touched the wall in third, securing the team three points, enough to tie the meet, as MIT earned six points from the event as well.

The team followed this strange tie with a faceoff against Springfield College, its final of the regular season. The Mammoths dominated, winning the first 12 events.

Amherst swimmers’ performances were not counted towards their total. The Mammoths swam faster on the whole in these events, but Springfield took the remaining points in what might be described as an act of mercy. Song won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breastroke, Brigitte Kwong ’19 took first in the 400-yard individual medley and Sophia Harrison ’22 snatched first place the 100-yard breastroke.

The team will return to action in two weeks’ time when they travel to Wesleyan for the NESCAC Championship Meet taking over three days, from Friday, Feb. 15 to Sunday, Feb 17.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Nina Fitzgerald ’21 dominated the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke races against MIT and Springfield College.

Sports 15

The Amherst Student • February 6, 2019

Women’s Squash Falls To Men’s Squash Rallies After First-Round Bates In Last Home Game Loss to Win Two at NESCAC Tournament Thomas Woodeville ’21 Staff Writer On Jan. 27, the women’s squash team geared up for Senior Day with the final home game of its season against Bates. Before the day’s events commenced, senior players Rachael Ang ’19, Emma Crowe ’19 and Priya Sinha ’19 were acknowledged in a ceremony that recognized their dedication and accomplishments on the team throughout their squash careers at Amherst.

The match was hard-fought for both teams, and unfortunately for the Mammoths, the Bobcats were able to secure a 5-4 win.

The first match of the day was played by Lilly Soroko ’22 in the third spot as she matched up against Bates’ Victoria Arjoon, using all five games.

The last game was long, with points that lasted upwards of two minutes each. In the end, Soroko was able to pull off a 12-10 win for the Mammoths, finishing the match 3-2.

Of the three seniors, Sinha on the seventh court was the only one that was able to secure a victory for the Mammoths, facing Natalie Bachman of Bates. She was able to contribute four wins the Mammoths by winning the match with

relative ease, beating Bachman in the first game 11-3, second 11-9 and third 11-4.

Riddhi Sampat ’21 was able to clinch a point for her team on the fourth court, winning the first game 11-6, losing the next game 11-6 and winning the third and fourth games 11-6 and 11-5, respectively.

Lastly, Ashira Mawji ’21 on the ninth court took the last win for the Mammoths, matching up against Katie Bull. Mawji lost the first game 11-13, came back in the second and third to win 11-4 and 13-11, respectively, and finally took the match by crushing her opponent 11-1 in the final game.

“This match was particularly tough because walking off the court, I and several of my teammates felt disappointed by our individual performances,” Margaret Werner ’21 said. “One positive takeaway is following the match we had a really productive team discussion where we set individual and team goals leading into NESCACs where we’ll hopefully have another shot at beating Bates.”

The Mammoths will compete in the NESCAC Championships after their last regular season game away against Mount Holyoke on Wednesday, Feb. 6.

Nat De Jonge ’21 Staff Writer This past weekend, the men’s squash team traveled to Middlebury, Vermont to attend the NESCAC Championship tournament, the first of two major tournaments in their season.

The team arrived in solid standing. In the weeks leading up to the start of the semester on Jan. 28, the team played 10 matches, the bulk of their regular season.

Through this stretch, the team finished with a record of 4-6, facing stiff competition like Yale, Brown, Middlebury and Williams.

The players, however, attributed the interterm period to building resiliency, which would become necessary in their tournament play. Sophomore Reginald Brewster said “The training over break is definitely hard, but it is great because as a team we get a lot closer and I think because of that we saw a lot of our hard work payoff for NESCACs.” On Feb. 2 and 3, the squash team attended the NESCAC Championships. Entering the tourney hosted by Middlebury College as the fifth seeded, the Mammoths faced Bates in the first round on Saturday. In this match-

up, the Mammoths eventually fell to the Bobcats by a match count of 3-6.

Three bright spots showed for the Mammoths despite the outcome. Charles Sutherby ’22, Harith Khawaja ’19 and Robinson Armour ’22 all won their matches handily. On the third court, Sutherby beat a persistent Omar Attia in four sets, each decided by two points or fewer.

The second court saw what may have been the most exciting match of the day when Khawaja beat his opponent in five sets 119, 14-12, 7-11, 5-11, 12-10. Finally, on the fourth court, Armour beat his Bobcat challenger in three straight sets, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8.

With a loss in the first round of the tournament, the Mammoth team was shunted to the consolation bracket in which they met Colby, whose record was 4-11 on the season.

In close matches on all courts, the Mammoths won the five games necessary to secure a victory over the Mustangs. Despite losing on the top three courts, courts four through eight all found ways to win. The key match was a five-set thriller on the fourth court between Armour and Alex Kurtin.

Armour dropped the first two

games, but in a display of perseverance, he won the final three sets 11-9, 11-8, 11-9.

The next and final matchup of the tournament was against the fourth-seeded Bowdoin Polar Bears. Against Bowdoin on Sunday, the Mammoths were able to score wins in the first four spots.

Terrence Wang ’21 got his first victory on the weekend at the one spot when he faced Ian Squiers, winning the first three sets (11-6, 11-6, 11-8). Armour also swept his opponent at number four, limiting him to fewer than four points in each set (11-3, 11-4, 11-2).

According to Brewster, head coach Peter Robson had been stressing toughness recently and the Mammoths demonstrated just that after losing early but regrouping and finishing the tournament with two hard-fought wins.

“I think our next wins over Colby and Bowdoin showed how hard we worked,” Brewster said.

“We came home feeling really proud of those wins.”

Men’s squash is looking to carry this momentum into nationals, the final tournament of the season held by Yale. The Mammoths will be back in action the weekend of Feb. 15 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Women’s Track and Field Starts Indoor Season with Excellent Performances Jamie Mazzola ’21 Staff Writer The women’s track and field team returned early to campus for interterm, holding daily practice and competing in several meets while much of the student body remained at home on winter break.

The Mammoths first traveled to Wesleyan on Jan. 12 to compete in the annual Little Three Championships, scoring 100 points and placing third behind Williams and Wesleyan.

Headlining the event for Amherst were their three first-place finishes: Ella Rossa ’21 in the 60m hurdles (9.16), Grace Haase ’21 in the 800m (2:30.17), and the

4x800m relay team of Jenny Mazzella ’20, Katie Lingen ’22, Rachel Ruderman ’21 and Maya Bhandari ’20.

The Mammoths added two second-place and three third-place marks. Christina Scartelli ’19 ran the one mile with a time of 5:02.39 and placed second. Lauren Lamb ’21 finished second behind Rossa in the 60m hurdles. Anna Madden ’22, Mazzella and Ruderman all notched third-place finishes in their respective events.

The following weekend, a smaller group of athletes competed at the Smith Invitational, hosted by Smith College, and amassed 36.5 points en route to a ninth-place finish in a 15-team

field. Lela Walter ’19 claimed the top finish of the day, placing second in the one mile. Lingen and Rubii Tamen ’19 added third-place finishes in the 400 meters and 200 meters, respectively.

On Jan. 26, the Mammoths placed an impressive third in an 18-team field at the Branwen Smith-King Invitational, hosted

by Tufts. Rossa secured another victory in the 60m hurdles. Sam Tichelaar ’22, Sophia Friedman ’21, Juanita Jaramillo ’22 and Madden snagged first place in the 4x400m relay.

Fresh off her impressive performance at Smith, Tamen placed second in the 200m. Tichelaar and Madden finished second and third

in the 400m, respectively.

This past Saturday, Amherst returned to Tufts for the Cupid Challenge. Rossa earned yet another win in the 60m hurdles and moved into a tie for the eighth fastest DIII U.S. mark this season.

Scartelli ran a blistering 9:50.47 3000-meter race, shattering the meet record and moving into fourth among DIII women across the country in the event.

Madden’s third-place finish in the 400m moved her onto the national DIII women’s 400m leaderboard at 27th. The 4x400m relay team of Tichelaar, Friedman, Jaramillo and Madden improved on their mark from the last meet to earn another win, vaulting them to

29th on the national leaderboard.

“The team came back from winter break hungry and ready to compete,” Assistant Coach Danny Feldman said. “We have posted stellar individual performances, already having more qualifiers for the DIII New England Championship than at any point last year.

Even more impressive, though, is our overall team success. We really believe we can be top ten in all of New England.”

The Mammoths return to action this coming weekend, when some harriers head to MIT for the Gordon Kelley Invitational while others travel to Boston University for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational.

Sports Men’s Basketball Defeats Tufts, Bates and Wesleyan

Matthew Sparrow ’21 Staff Writer

The men’s basketball team, ranked 23rd in DIII, won both of its matchups last weekend in LeFrak Gymnasium. They easily cruised to a 30-point victory over Tufts on Friday night before winning a competitive match-up the next day against Bates on Senior Day. Amherst kicked off the homestand on Friday against NESCAC opponent Tufts by scoring the first nine points of the game.

The Jumbos never brought the deficit to within four. Amherst carried a 44-26 lead into the half by shooting 50 percent from the field and holding Tufts to just 28.1 percent from the floor. Eric Sellew ’20 went a perfect 4-4 from the field en route to nine points and seven rebounds. The second half was more of the same for the Mammoths as they outscored Tufts 41-29 during the rest of the game to clinch the 85-55 victory.

Joseph Schneider ’19 paced the Mammoths with 15 points on 6-8 shooting while Garrett Day ’21 chipped in 14 points and Grant

Robinson ’21 knocked down three three pointers. The win improved Amherst to 16-3 on the season while dropping Tufts to 10-11.

Amherst followed up Friday’s win with another on Saturday, this time against Bates. Three seniors, C.J. Bachmann, Dylan Groff and Schneider, started for the Mammoths alongside Robinson and Day. Amherst was up only one point at the half, but pulled away in the second part of the game as the Mammoths held on for a 75-64 victory. Amherst’s bench proved instrumental in the victory, scoring 44 points, while the starters only contributed 12 in the second half of the game.

The Mammoths then faced off against Wesleyan on Tuesday evening, pulling out a hard-fought 61-60 victory. Sellew was instrumental in the victory, scoring a team-high 19 points. Amherst found itself down by two points at halftime, but the team was able to rally and pull out the victory in the final minutes.

Next up, the Mammoths will travel to Williamstown to face Williams on Friday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Point guard Grant Robinson ’21 went four for four from the line, grabbed nine rebounds and dished four assists off of the bench against Bates.

GAME SCHE DULE

WED

FRI

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

Men’s Basketball @ Williams, 7 p.m.

Men’s Hockey @ Tufts, 7 p.m.

Women’s Basketball vs. Williams, 7 p.m.

Women’s Hockey @ Hamiliton, 7 p.m.

Men’s Basketball vs. Middlebury, 3 p.m.

Women’s Basketball vs. Hamilton, 3 p.m.

SAT Men’s Track & Field @ Gordon Kelly Invitational & David Hemery Valentine Invitational

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Senior Joseph Schnieder scored a season-high 15 points in the team’s win over Tufts and made two blocks.

Women’s Track & Field @ Gordon Kelly Invitational & David Hemery Valentine Invitational

Women’s Basketball vs. Middlebury, 3 p.m.

Men’s Hockey @ Conn. College, 4 p.m.

Women’s Hockey @ Hamiliton, 3 p.m.