THE AMHERST
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868
STUDENT VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 12 l WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2017
Women’s Hockey Claims Pair of Wins See Sports, Page 12 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU
College Files Brief Supporting MIT in Suicide Lawsuit Shawna Chen ’20 Managing News Editor
Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ’19
Two cases of meningitis were reported at UMass Amherst on Nov. 16. Amherst Health Services is strongly recommending that Amherst students who spend substantial time at UMass receive the specific vaccine for this outbreak.
UMass Meningitis Outbreak Prompts Concern
Eddie Rego ’19 Staff Writer An outbreak of meningitis was reported on Nov. 16 at UMass Amherst. Two students were confirmed to have been diagnosed with meningococcal disease in October and November. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were involved in conducting the testing of the two students. The situation has been classified an outbreak because the two students infected contracted the same strain of serogroup B meningitis. No reported cases of meningococcal disease have been suspected or identified on Amherst’s campus. The classification of an outbreak means there is increased risk of contracting the disease both on- and off-campus. UMass has recommended the serogroup B meningococcal vaccine for all of its undergraduate students. Likewise, Amherst College Health Services has strongly recommended the serogroup B meningococcal vaccine for all Amherst College students who take classes or spend con-
siderable time at UMass. The meningococcal vaccine required of all students before entering Amherst does not protect against this particular strain of meningitis. Over the past few weeks, the meningococcal B vaccine has been administered by appointment to more than 1,400 students at large walk-in clinics at UMass. The Amherst College Health Center has also been administering the vaccine, which involves two doses administered at least one month apart, to Amherst College students. Amherst’s health insurance covers the cost of the vaccine and no student will be denied the vaccine due to inability to pay. Amherst Health Services is offering small clinics this week by appointment for students who want to be vaccinated. A list of dates and times is available on the Health Services website. Vaccines are also available at most nearby pharmacies. Meningococcal meningitis refers to the infection of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. According to the CDC website, it takes close or lengthy contact, like
coughing or kissing, to spread the bacteria. The disease is also not as contagious as the germs that cause the common cold or the flu. People cannot catch the disease through casual contact or by simply breathing air where someone with meningococcal disease has been. Given that the disease is not as contagious as the flu or cold, classes have not been interrupted at UMass, and the campus will maintain regular operations. There are currently no recommended restrictions for Amherst students attending classes at UMass. Director of Student Health Services Emily Jones referred The Student to the Amherst website for information related to the outbreak. The site advises students to take healthsmart precautions. “Don’t swap saliva,” the webpage read. “Avoid sharing food, drinks and personal items that contact saliva, including drinks from punch bowls. Wash hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer. Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or your sleeve. Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth — germs spread easily this way.”
Amherst College filed an amicus brief on Sept. 7 supporting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in a lawsuit filed against the university in 2011 by the family of Han Duy Nguyen, a doctoral student who died by suicide in 2009. The family is suing the institution, two professors and an associate dean, claiming that they did not do enough to help Nguyen even though they had known for months that he had ongoing mental health issues. The suit alleges that one professor had a phone conversation with Nguyen minutes before his death, in which the professor scolded Nguyen for an email Nguyen had sent — “I read him the riot act,” the professor wrote to another faculty member after the call, according to court documents. MIT and its officials have denied that their actions played a role in Nguyen’s death. According to MIT’s lawyer, the school referred Nguyen to on-campus mental health services, but Nguyen decided to see an off-campus psychologist. The lawsuit reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court earlier this year. In a joint brief with 17 other colleges in Massachusetts including Harvard, Tufts, Williams and Smith, Amherst made its support of MIT clear. The brief said that the court should not expand Massachusetts tort law to “create a duty that requires non-clinician university employees to secure students against selfinflicted harm” and that universities should not be held to a “voluntarily assumed” duty to prevent student suicide simply because they provide certain mental health services. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 15 and 34, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. According to Chief Communications Officer Sandy Genelius, who consulted the Office of the General Counsel in her response, the college “carefully considered the request” to join the 17 other schools in supporting MIT,
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Former OLs Raise Questions about Program’s Future Sehee Park ’20 and Emily Young ’20 Staff Writers Applications to become an orientation leader (OL) for the next academic year opened on Nov. 27. Past OLs, however, have voiced concerns about the future of the program — the number of OLs were cut in half this past summer, increasing individuals’ workload, but the position remains an unpaid one. According to the Amherst College website, “orientation leaders are expected to be representative of the campus community, knowledgeable of campus resources and supportive of first-years and their guests.” Julian Brubaker ’20, who had been an orientation leader this year, said he applied because it is an important job on campus. Brubaker said he had been positively influenced by two
OLs in his first year, which encouraged him to become one as a way to “pay it forward.” Brubaker and 36 other OLs came to campus two weeks before classes started. One week was dedicated to training and the second week was first-year orientation. According to Brubaker, “for two weeks, it [being an OL] is your life.” Becoming an OL included one week of 12hour days, with training for most of the day and more activities after dinner. On the day that first-years arrived on campus, OLs spent the entire day helping new students move in. For the rest of the week, OLs were responsible for conducting several “squad meetings” with their designated group of first-years. In past years, two OLs were responsible for around 15 first-years per squad. This year, most squads had only one OL. Brubaker said he had been nervous about
having one squad all to himself, because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to handle all the students on his own. Kayla Hall ’20 echoed this sentiment. “It definitely caused an issue for some people when the first-years actually came in and we had to lead these group discussions, and sometimes it got very difficult … so it would have been nice to have somebody with you,” she said. Some OLs also had to do double duty as LEAP trip leaders, another unpaid position that required additional training during the week before orientation. After they came back from the LEAP trips on the Sunday before classes started, they had to go through another day and a half of orientation before classes started again. “There was zero break in between,” said Olivia Zheng ’20, who was also an OL this year.
Brubaker said no one explicitly told the OLs that they were going to be paid, but the understanding among OLs was that the college cut the number of OLs in half so they could receive compensation. “To me, it felt like they were intentionally not talking about pay,” he said. The Student contacted Sophie Koff, the head of the orientation program, but Dean of New Students Rick Lopez responded on her behalf, writing in an email interview that the college plans on keeping the number of OLs the same as last year is looking into ways to “financially compensate orientation leaders for their contributions.” “Orientation leaders are at the heart of what makes orientation a success,” Lopez said. “The
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