Issue 14

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Follow us on Instagram!

VOLUME CXLVIII, ISSUE 14 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2019

@amherststudent AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM

A Flawed System: Unique Challenges in the Tenure Process Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

On Feb. 11, the college experienced a campus-wide network outage as a result of outdated infrastructure. Amid the outage, students, faculty and other community members were unable to access email and other online services.

Community Reflects on Network Outage Zach Jonas ’22 Staff Writer After a week of network outages beginning on Monday, Feb. 11, the Information Technology (IT) department restored the network to its normal functions. Yet, the week-long outage posed significant challenges for students completing coursework, faculty conducting classes and staff performing other administrative tasks.

The outage impacted everyone on campus. The amherst.edu website was down, card readers prevented students from doing laundry and services like email and Moodle were inaccessible. Additionally, weekly paychecks could not be issued as normal. Instead, weekly-paid workers at the college were paid the same amount as the week prior.

“We are still experiencing a system outage, which means that the

payroll department does not have access to key personnel records,” read a Feb. 14 AC Alert update.

“The staff understood that it was a difficult situation for everyone,” said Eric Moulton, a dining services financial analyst. “Our concern was mostly how the system outage impacted the students and the staff, classes and stuff. We were going to get food out to people, and we were going to get paid, but how does that affect our customer base? We didn’t have those answers.”

“I think the college has been working as hard as they can,” Moulton added. “It caught everyone off guard. A catastrophic failure like this: what are we going to do? We all rely on the network. But everyone in our department came together to try to make it as minimally impactful for the students as we could.”

Marie Fagan ’22 said that the

outages greatly impacted her school work. “During some of my classes, we had nothing to talk about — all of our reading material was online. It impacted what I could do. My family has a limited cellular data plan, so I have been limiting my time on my devices. I had to get ahead on my work for this weekend when I will be competing in a swim meet, but now I am further behind,” Fagan said.

“There are so many brilliant people here. I am at a point where I am thinking, how has this gone on for so long?” she added.

Some students found creative ways to circumvent their lack of Wi-Fi and data plans.

Abe Zuraw ’22 went to the IT department following the outage in search if Wi-Fi. “I figure, the Wi-Fi isn’t just down. It’s down for some people, so there must be Wi-Fi on campus somewhere. I go down to the IT

department and ask them to put me on their Wi-Fi. They agree, and for the rest of the day, I was the only student on campus with WiFi. They gave me their hotspot. It was a strong signal, and they let me use it in Seeley Mudd. They also said, ‘Don’t tell anyone,’” Zuraw said.

Eunice Daudu ’21 said that one of her classes was canceled, but she has still been busy. “I have been applying to summer internships, so it’s nice to have more free time to do those. I have a limited data plan, but even if I do use that, I can’t connect to Moodle where all my work is. In terms of my classes, I have been pretty unproductive.

What’s the point of me being here if there’s no Wi-Fi?” she said.

As of Feb. 15, Wi-Fi and network capabilities have returned to normal functions, with the college working towards easing the transition to Gmail.

The process of obtaining tenure in academia is somewhat shrouded in secrecy.

Though tenure does not grant a professor immunity from being fired, it does prevent a college from firing a professor without due reason. Tenure has been, and remains difficult, to attain. In 1997, the National Education Association reported that one in five pre-tenure professors was denied tenure in a typical year. The number of tenured and pre-tenure faculty on college campuses has also decreased from 45 percent in 1975 to less than 30 percent in 2015, according to the American Association of University Professors.

At Amherst, if a professor is denied tenure, they are given one year to secure a position at another institution. Typically, professors who are denied tenure do not receive a second opportunity for tenure review.

According to Professor of English and Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Officer Marisa Parham, retention of faculty members in general is difficult. A 2018 accreditation review of Amherst College by a New England Commission of Higher Education evaluation team found that in the three academic years prior to 2018, 13 pre-tenure professors left the college before coming up for tenure. “For untenured faculty, there is some concern about uneven mentoring and the lack of articulation of expectations regarding teaching and scholarship needed to achieve tenure,” the report stated. “Untenured faculty expressed concern that tenured faculty are not sufficiently sensitive to the feelings of vulnerability that exist

Continued on Page 3

News Matteo Riondato Fresh Faculty

Feb. 04, 2019 - Feb. 18, 2019

>>Feb. 4, 2019 6:39 p.m., Amherst College Police Department A restraining order was issued to an individual on campus. >>Feb. 8, 2019 6:08 p.m., Mayo-Smith Lot An officer stopped a vehicle traveling the wrong way on a one-way street. >>Feb. 9, 2019 8:45 p.m., Stearns Hall Officers responded to an alarm sounding in a room on the third floor and found it was caused by hair product. >> Feb. 10, 2019 3:32 a.m., Seelye Hall A large amount of unattended alcohol was confiscated after being left in a room after a registered party occured. >>Feb. 12, 2019 9:52 a.m., Cooper House The Amherst Fire Department and an officer responded to an alarm and found a small cooking fire that was extinguished by an employee.

2:59 p.m., Churchill House The Amherst Fire Department and officers responded to a fire alarm and found it was caused by a burst pipe. >>Feb. 13, 2019 10:04 p.m., Newport House An officer responded to an alarm sounding in a room in the basement and found it was set off accidentally by an aerosol spray.

>>Feb. 14, 2019 12:26 a.m., Moore Hall An individual was found using a vaporizer pen inside a building.

12:30 p.m., Service Building Lots An officer responded to a report of individuals building a snow fort near the train tracks. They were moved on their way. >>Feb. 16, 2019 12:40 a.m., North Hall The Amherst Fire Department and officers responded to a fire alarm and found it was caused by an intentional false fire alarm pull. >>Feb. 17, 2019 2:33 a.m., Moore Hall A pane of glass was broken on an interior door in a stairwell.

2:38 a.m., Cohan Hall An officer observed party policy violations after a party occurred including alcohol.

2:39 a.m., Morris Pratt Hall An officer observed party policy violations after a party that included alcohol occured.

2:41 a.m., Moore Hall An officer observed party policy violations including alcohol after a party occurred.

2:49 a.m., Humphries House An officer observed a party policy violation after a registered party that included alcohol.

Department of Computer Science

Matteo Riondato is an assistant professor of computer science. He received a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Padua in Italy. Later, he received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science at Brown University.

Q: When did you begin studying computer science and why did you want to pursue it?

A: I had been playing around with the computer since I was a teenager, but I really started with computer science when I was 16. At an early age, I was attracted by the uniqueness of complex operating systems. As I got older, I became more attracted to the math behind computer science, and specifically how math and computers could be applied to the real world.

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

A: The students! I was teaching parttime at Brown University, and I realized that interacting with the students was my favorite part of the job. I applied to Amherst because I knew the students were extremely smart here, and because of the small class sizes, I knew that I could interact with students on a daily basis. When I got here for my job interview, I interacted with students, and they blew me away with how intelligent they were.

focus on the sciences, which reflects in the beautiful new science center that I get to teach in. I also like how the students take advantage of the liberal arts education offered here. For example, I have students who are also taking classes like ethics and drawing. It’s too early for me to say what aspects that can be improved.

“

“I applied to Amherst because I knew the students were extremely smart here, and because of the small class sizes, I knew that I could interact with students on a daily basis.”

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

A: I am very happy about Amherst’s

”

Got a tip?

Email nderosa21@amherst.edu or RYU22@AMHERST.EDU or to pitch story ideas or submit a tip.

Q: What kinds of research and projects have you worked on?

A: I work on developing algorithms for the analysis of very large data sets like social networks and stock prices.

The students in my Data Mining class are actually studying these types of algorithms right now! We have so much data to analyze, and I’m wondering if we can only analyze a small subset of the data while still getting the same accuracy that you get from larger data sets.

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

A: I would like to ensure that most of our students are data-proficient. Because you can lie so much with data, it is important that students are able to understand when they are being lied to. Therefore, I want students to be able to interpret data themselves when they come across it in the real world.

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

A: I like to take pictures with my film camera. I also like sailing, but I don’t know how much sailing I’m going to do here.

—Corey Jacobson ’22

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

News

3

As Layoffs Loom, Hampshire Faculty and Staff Look to Future Ryan Yu ’22 Managing News Editor

Following announcements that the institution would not accept a full first-year class next fall, Hampshire College notified several of its staff members on Tuesday, Feb. 19 that they would be laid off in 60 days. The layoffs, which mainly affect those working in Hampshire’s admissions and advancement offices, come amid intense opposition from many Hampshire faculty, staff, students and alumni who have organized several protests calling for the suspension of the impending layoffs.

According to Hampshire President Miriam Nelson, these layoffs constitute the first of two rounds of downsizing to accommodate a smaller student body and reduced revenue from tuition. The next round of layoffs, to be announced around April 1, will impact both Hampshire staff and faculty, with the cumulative size of the cuts expected to total around 30 to 50 percent of current full-time employment at Hampshire.

Many anticipate even more layoffs in later years as Hampshire continues its search for a strategic partner. To some, the magnitude of these staffing cuts would represent the demise of the spirit of Hampshire itself, a loss that effectively all stakeholders in Hampshire’s community want to avoid.

“Let’s imagine that we don’t admit a first-year class — which we are not, right now — this coming fall. Then, the likelihood of admitting a class in fall of 2020 is very, very small,” said Salman Hameed, a professor at Hampshire. “It means that you are going to lose additional faculty and staff. If you think of Hampshire as being made up of the people who teach there, and if you have more than half of those people, maybe 70 percent, not there, then is it really Hampshire?”

For several in the Hampshire community, losing their livelihoods is another key point of concern. “I feel very vulnerable in this process, as do many of my colleagues. I’m not sure what I’d do if I lost my job,” said a faculty member who asked to

remain anonymous due to the precariousness of their position. “Even the ones who perhaps have reason to believe that they might be kept on are also devastated by it because the faculty body will not be the same.”

“One of the things that cannot be overstated is that this will be catastrophic for some people.

They’re not only going to lose their careers, their livelihoods, but also their health insurance and other benefits,” added Jennifer Hamilton, a Hampshire professor who serves as the president of Hampshire College’s American Association of University Professors chapter (HCAAUP). “In my personal case, the spectre of losing health insurance is terrifying. I’m the only income owner, and I have a disabled partner who relies on my insurance to be as well as he can be.”

The HCAAUP has been one of the main voices speaking out against these administrative decisions and representing faculty voices like Hamilton’s and Hameed’s.

Between supporting several of the protest movements on Hampshire’s campus and lobbying against what they see as an infringement on the shared governance principles embedded in Hampshire’s constitution, the HCAAUP, in cooperation with the Executive Committee of the Faculty, is currently attempting to delay layoffs and negotiate for better severance packages for those who will lose employment.

However, the HCAAUP does not act as a labor union. The National Labor Relations Act currently prohibits full-time faculty members at private institutions from engaging in collective bargaining.

Even outside of faculty, none of the school’s staff members are unionized except for the dining staff; this makes negotiations difficult, according to Neil Young, a staff member at Hampshire’s library “There was a letter by staff members that I signed last night that basically said that we just want to ask questions,” said Young. “We want to stand in solidarity with those who are doing more, but quite honestly, given our positions, we don’t have enough leverage to

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

Hampshire College informed several of its staff members that they would be laid off on Feb. 19. This comes after the college announced that it would not admit a first-year class this fall. do anything.”

Hamilton and Young both agree that Hampshire’s current crisis is emblematic of a larger, systematic problem. “This is not new. The erosion of shared governance really goes back a number of years,” said Hamilton. “In part, Hampshire has always experienced some level of financial insecurity, and we, as faculty and staff, have been living that for years and years. We were frustrated because we felt like we were being asked to do more and more work, with less and less input in terms of what our work was actually doing.”

“Yes, we’re pretty demoralized, but we were also pretty demoralized last year,” added Young. “The staff and faculty have been eating it for years now, and the morale is not high when you’re constantly being asked to give up more and more.

It’s difficult to work in a position where you have to do more with less and that’s basically what’s going to keep happening.”

Still, pressure from various groups, including the HCAAUP and miscellaneous staff members, has caused the administration to agree to some of their demands on transparency and shared gov-

ernance. Notably, in a letter to the Hampshire community on Feb. 13, Nelson announced that she would dissolve the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) — legal contracts prohibiting discussion of certain confidential material — used by the senior leadership team, which was a major point of criticism from protesters.

“Our dean of faculty, the person who was supposed to represent us, signed an NDA in November, and we didn’t know. The NDA included not being able to tell us that she had signed one, and I personally find that chilling,” said Hamilton.

“I am grateful, now that I can have a more open conversation with my own dean of faculty, but I also think that it demonstrates something about this administration and the way in which it wants to deal with faculty, staff and students that deeply concerns me.”

Despite uncertainties wrought by the prospect of layoffs, some staff and faculty view these changes in a positive light. Kristína Moss Gunnarsdóttir, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Hampshire, said that while the administration’s decision was certainly suboptimal, “it was the best decision possible,”

since otherwise, “there would be no Hampshire at all.”

“There is so much grief and pain on all constituencies and on all sides of this, and yet, here we are.

There is no way to go back in time,” said Gunnarsdóttir. “If we could go back, I am positive that the administration would’ve made many choices in terms of communications and bringing people together that would be different. I just hope we can move forward, since Hampshire is a one-of-a-kind place, and I want to see it exist and thrive.”

This commitment to dialogue and optimism is a common theme among Hampshire faculty and staff, many of whom are trying to effect as much of a positive impact on their community as they can, despite knowing that their future is comparatively precarious.

“I’m not defeated,” said Hamilton. “I feel deeply insecure about the future. But I also feel that I’m in a position, both in terms of my students and my colleagues, where I’m a strong voice, and I’m grateful for that. It helps me get through and not focus too much on my own uncertainty, but really fight for what we think is right. Fighting for people’s jobs, for their futures.”

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

News

4

Faculty of Color Leave the College at Higher Rates

Photo courtesy of Jiayi Liu

For faculty of color at the college, retention rates lag behind those of their white counterparts.

Continued from Page 1 among the college’s untenured faculty.”

The evaluation team wrote in the report that untenured faculty members requested a more standardized approach to teaching evaluations. According to the report, the college only recently adopted the practice of soliciting course evaluations from pre-tenure and tenured faculty.

“Presently, the design of teaching evaluations for untenured faculty is controlled by departments, and while some departments use a common form for all untenured faculty, in other departments junior faculty are permitted to write their own evaluation questions,” the report stated. “This lack of uniformity is of concern to the untenured faculty, and potentially could raise questions about equitable treatment and is vulnerable to implicit bias.”

Studies have shown that women and people of color tend to be evaluated more negatively among all professors.

A 2018 study by the American Political Science Association found that “a male instructor administering an identical online course as a female instructor receives higher ordinal scores in teaching evaluations, even when questions are not instructor-specific.”

This disparity is particularly dire for women of color, especially at Amherst, where student evaluations make up a portion of the review for tenure as assessed by the Committee of Six. The Center for Teaching and Learning,

however, is currently researching ways to standardize student evaluations at the college and decrease implicit bias, or unconscious attitudes about people based on their identities.

Lack of clarity around these processes and expectations for pre-tenure faculty was one of the concerns identified by the accreditation evaluation team.

“One of the issues for junior faculty is lack of real clarity in terms of as to what one needs to do to achieve promotion,” Professor of American studies Robert Hayashi said. “Amherst is a unique environment, in some ways uniquely intense in terms of the demands on your teaching and your scholarship. There’s a lot of service and a lot of administration that’s done by faculty.”

Faculty members of color are a subset of this group and face their own challenges.

Both Hayashi and Professor of Black studies, Latinx and Latin American studies and English Rhonda Cobham-Sander pointed to at least two pre-tenure professors of color whom they separately knew left the college because they faced institutional racism or felt they had “lukewarm support,” as Cobham-Sander said.

“A lot of us represent emerging fields or new fields of inquiry, at least at Amherst,” Hayashi said. “That sometimes can be a challenge — your work may not be as well understood, as credited, as supported as people who work in established fields. That’s where a lot of faculty of color, people who are not

in the majority, face those challenges.

They’re working in those new, emerging fields. That can make it more challenging for someone to feel supported.”

At Amherst, pre-tenure professors of color are expected to contribute to scholarship, teach, serve on department committees, campus committees and national committees and produce as much as their white counterparts.

“But the white counterparts have far fewer obligations, campus-wide and nationally,” said Professor of American studies Franklin Odo. Other colleges have reduced teaching loads for faculty members who take on unusually high administrative responsibilities, he said, but Amherst does not participate in this practice for pre-tenure faculty.

Disparities also exist in terms of scholarship and publication, which make up a significant portion of tenure review. Cobham-Sander noted that pre-tenure faculty of color who are more likely to be involved in emerging fields will oftentimes publish materials in niche and comparatively lesser-known journals. This can sometimes have negative effects when competing for tenure.

Full support at the college, according to Cobham-Sander is, “knowing that the stuff you study is considered important, knowing that your white colleagues consider you a part of a team for which they’re also fully responsible for all the students they teach and knowing that the college at the administrative level is doing the heavy lifting

around creating an environment that works for you.”

“Having the feeling that you are not responsible for fixing everything that has to do with race … If you feel supported in that way in your department, then you don’t have to spend so much time preparing for the things you can’t imagine,” she added. “I should not have to be helping students and feel like I’m doing something that’s different from what the institution wants you to do.”

Multiple professors noted that much of this change relies on reform in the larger landscape of academia.

“Some of these issues with faculty of color are issues of junior faculty: lack of clarity, needing mentors, needing more support,” Hayashi said. “That’s in some ways trying to change academia — having different ways to assess faculty, such as in promotion, where things like community are criteria whereas here it’s scholarship, it’s your teaching … There are conversations at the college [about] finding ways to recognize that. That requires a whole cultural shift — we acknowledge that, we celebrate that.”

Institutional Barriers Fixed practices of Amherst’s institutional culture are not always inclusive, however.

All professors, for example, are encouraged to attend faculty meetings that take place two or three times a semester in the Red Room in Converse Hall. Though it is not mandatory, a pre-tenure professor in the humanities who asked to remain anonymous because of her untenured status noted that it is “basically required” for all pre-tenure faculty.

“The culture of that meeting is weird — there’s supposedly junior faculty that are encouraged to speak. But then there’s also the way that it feels in there — it’s not super welcoming,” the pre-tenure professor said. “How can our faculty meetings feel more inclusive? One step: maybe don’t use Robert’s Rules of Order.”

Robert’s Rules of Order is a structure of parliamentary governance used at the college’s faculty meetings that organizes participation and discussion. “It’s just so non-transparent,” the pre-tenure professor said. “If you don’t know how Robert’s Rules work, it is not a welcoming structure.” Multiple professors also noted that inappropriate

statements are sometimes made in faculty meetings but allowed to slide.

According to the pre-tenure professor, the administration and Board of Trustees have repeatedly vocalized a commitment to retention of faculty of color, providing competitive salaries and funding for research. It is a “mandate” that exists, she said. At the departmental level, however, such support may vary, and oftentimes, the burden of finding a solution to issues of disparity is on a case-by-case basis rather than on a communal, faculty-wide level.

“Let’s find ways to proactively think about how to retain people as an institution in our everyday practice versus … on a case-by-case basis asking people, ‘What do you need? What can I do for you?’ when they come to you with a problem,” the pre-tenure professor said.

The creation of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the positions of chief diversity and inclusion officer and faculty diversity and inclusion officers have been critical shifts, she said.

“Honestly, in terms of [Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer] Norm Jones’ office and the dean, I think my experience has been positive,” she said. “The dean has been very clear that the Board of Trustees has said this is a priority for the college, so the college wants to put support and resources into the retention of faculty of color.”

That does not mean, however, that all groups are treated in the same way, said the pre-tenure professor — the college has lost a number of faculty members of color who are Asian American.

“We’ve lost a couple of [Asian-American professors], so I don’t know that there was a huge effort on that level,” she said. “It may be uneven … so depending on the group that someone falls into, there may be more or less desire on the part of the administration to try and do things to keep that person.”

There is shared concern among professors that there tends to be a more quantitative focus on who makes up the faculty — people of color are often thought about in terms of numbers or quotas, said multiple professors.

This, combined with a mostly white administration, can lead to insensitive or ignorant approaches to race at the college. At the same time, “you have to be careful of what you say and how you

Continued on Page 5

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

News

5

Professors of Color Face Hurdles in Obtaining Tenure Continued from Page 4 protest if you want to protest conditions that are not suitable for you,” Odo said.

Exclusion and Invisibility For some people, Hayashi said, Amherst works perfectly — the process, the culture and the institution all seem completely straightforward. “For other people, this is not an institution that was built for people like us,” he said. “In many ways, it kept us out. If we are allowed in, there’s the sense that we’re supposed to add to the institution — that is, to benefit the majority — more than it is for this institution to

change to become more like me. That is a common struggle for a lot of people who aren’t in the majority at a place like Amherst.”

This sense of exclusion is apparent in the lack of visibility and sensitivity for certain groups on campus, he said.

At Amherst, he does not see much support for Asian heritage month. When discussions on race are held and speakers are invited, “I don’t see Asians,” he said. Hiring Odo — a Japanese-American scholar — as the John J. McCloy ’16 professor of American institutions and international diplomacy is another example of a lack of awareness, he said.

McCloy served as assistant secretary of

war during World War II and was instrumental in the forced removal and incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans.

“That’s a place to me where I don’t feel included,” Hayashi said. “I don’t feel like I’m part of the default settings …

Who have we celebrated? Those little, subtle things are ways in which the culture of the institution does not embrace certain people.”

The statues on campus, names inscribed in buildings and achievements celebrated all inform “some sort of communal language that we can identify with collectively. But because Amherst made that decision to be this

diverse, trying to make it a place where everyone is comfortable is really, really difficult,” Hayashi said. “I think we can ask more of ourselves.”

What some professors called an institutional culture of whiteness “absolutely” exists at Amherst, but it does for all professions, Parham said.

“Which is not to say Amherst is great but that everywhere is bad, and sometimes we’re bad, too. It’s been really striking that way,” Parham said. “In terms of the institutional culture that’s deeply predicated on and reflects really specific worldviews, it absolutely [exists]. And I think — this is a problem I always run up against, where you’re

trying to explain to someone this thing that happened and why it’s problematic and the person who holds a different subject position is just going, ‘I don’t even see why that’s important.’ And you’re like, ‘Hm.’ At some point, even the fact that I’m bringing this claim to you or saying this thing — technically, I hate to break it to you, but that already means it’s important and that your reactive desire to simply judge the value of the claim is secondary to the fact that we need to be able to talk about it.”

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

Campus Undergoes Nearly Week-Long Server Outage Zach Jonas ’22 and Shawna Chen ’20 Staff Writer and Editor-in-Chief The campus experienced nearly a week of network outages beginning on Monday, Feb. 11, as the Information Technology (IT) department worked around the clock to test the campus-wide server and address varying disruptions that had caused outages since the beginning of the semester. IT officially identified the issues and secured the network on Friday, Feb. 15.

The campus community was first made aware of server issues over the weekend, when connectivity to the Amherst Wi-Fi was shaky and unavailable for short periods of time. On Monday, the server went completely under, progressively leaving the campus without access to Wi-Fi, email, Moodle, employee payrolls, card scanning systems, the college website and any content hosted on amherst.edu, including Loeb Center’s Handshake platform for career planning. The campus was left without the server or an explanation for the outage; the college released its first official report on the server outage on Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after the server went down.

Over the last few weeks, the network had experienced a series of disruptions that caused network outages of various durations.

To test what was going on in the network, the IT department decided to shut down the entire network on Monday and attempt to identify the cause of the disruptions. Though Chief

Information Officer David Hamilton’s first instinct was that it was a cyber attack, “we’ve ruled it out since,” he said at an open meeting held on Friday, Feb. 15 with President Biddy Martin, Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein and Chief Student Affairs Officer Hikaru Kozuma.

By Friday, the IT department had identified three issues: a configuration issue in the router that was causing elevated levels of traffic; MAC flap storms, which occur when switching equipment at the core of the network saturate the network with messaging and cause the network to crash — a common cause of which is cabling issues — and a third issue that is localized in Chapin Hall.

According to Hamilton, these types of issues typically occur by accident or equipment failure. In his 12 years at the college, he has not been aware of similar kinds of incidents, but he said that based on the IT department’s analysis, “it is a confluence of accidents that caused it.”

“I’ll caveat that and say we’re still testing to prove to ourselves that we’re down to the bottom of it at this point,” he added. The college has brought in outside expert teams including Cisco, Jupiter and MIT, the last of which has dealt with similar incidents and is confident that it is not an intentional attack on the network.

Multiple residential counselors (RCs) were told that the outage was due to an active hacking scenario at an RC meeting held in the middle of the

week. Any possibility of a cyber attack, however, was disputed by members of the IT department.

The server outage led to some dormitories defaulting to an unlocked status at midnight, but the Amherst College Police Department began manually locking the dormitory doors once the issue was raised. Laundry systems also tanked, requiring students to use quarters only. The college announced on Thursday that it would make laundry free of charge for the duration of the outage.

Students were forced to rely on their personal data plans as the week went on without Wi-Fi. According to Martin, the administration is aware that students may have had to exceed the limit on their data charges and pay out of pocket. “I don’t know how to figure out what needs to be done,” she said. “We’re aware, and we’re thinking about it.” Students who wish to speak to a member of the administration regarding this issue can contact Kozuma.

Professors were forced to restructure classes and teach classes without Wi-Fi. Tekla Harms, chair of the geology department, said “there is no circumstance that prepared us for being without Wi-Fi this whole week. I haven’t been able to receive personal emails about the health of my friends and family. I also couldn’t answer questions that students sent me through email. That’s a challenge, but we have survived that. We are very fortunate that this is what we have to

worry about.”

As the week progressed, the Amherst Muck-Rake posted four photos on Instagram deriding the server shutdown while various speculative theories spread across campus. Though Martin acknowledged the anxieties that could have led to speculation, she said there was no reason to worry and that the network would be up. She noted that other institutions have experienced similar incidents. “Sometimes, according to the people who reported this to me, they don’t ever find out what the problem was,” she said. “But it does happen.”

The college sent its first AC Alert about the network outage to the campus community on Tuesday and provided updates every few hours over the next few days. The AC alert system has delivered a series of updates to students since Feb. 12. Details have been attached in a link to a Google Doc. An update on Feb. 13 announced that IT would bring in “several outside expert teams.” At 3:30 p.m., a second update stated that employees would be paid on Friday. It also included a warning to “be vigilant about phishing and fraudulent phone calls.”

On Feb. 14, AC Alert sent an update which said Wi-Fi provided by Verizon hotspot equipment would be available in Frost Library and the Science Center. It was also announced that a new email system, Gmail, would replace Microsoft Outlook. According to the alert on Feb. 14, the outage “has led us to make the transition immedi-

ately.” Martin and Hamilton said the college had been planning on moving to Gmail for some time but that this week’s events hastened the decision.

Instructions for configuring the new system were sent on Feb. 15.

It was emphasized that paychecks would be delivered to staff on Friday.

“Everyone will receive a payment in the same dollar amount as last week,” Chief Financial Officer Kevin Weinman wrote in one update.

“We are aware some employers worked more or less hours than the week prior,” Weinman added. “We are working diligently through a manual process to identify such situations.”

On Feb. 15, the alert announced that IT had identified three separate problems with the existing system and were working to fix them. “IT is working to restore services by moving them to the cloud. This is taking longer than expected because of the instability of the existing network,” the update said.

Hamilton said that the college plans to replace the entire network in the future. “Is it possible that the network will come down again? Yes,” he said. “Systems die. You have to be good at responding to that and getting it back up.” Over the next few years, the college will also aim to transition central business systems to the cloud, which will be more secure and resilient than a local network.

The IT department will produce an incident report and a narrative for the larger community once all issues have been resolved.

Opinion Pragmatism: The Way to Win in 2020

THE AMHERST

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

With Sen. Bernie Sanders being the most recent Democrat to announce his candidacy for president, it has become clear that the 2020 election cycle is well underway. As of now, 12 democratic candidates have indicated intentions to run for president, bringing along a whole slew of agendas ranging from healthcare to immigration.

These candidates have been quick to announce their support for new, progressive policies including a Green New Deal and Medicare for all. This has drawn support from the increasingly left-leaning voter base of the Democratic party.

Despite the popularity of these new, groundbreaking and perhaps over-ambitious promises, the Democratic candidates for the 2020 nomination must begin to emphasize more pragmatic policies. As any politician can attest to, the mindset of campaigning, with its harsh rhetoric and frenzied ad buyouts, diverges heavily from the mindset required of those who wish to govern.

Politics requires moderation, bipartisanship and compromise, all three of which do not appeal to the increasingly polarized voter demographics of both the Democratic and Republican party.

Candidates on both sides, whether it be Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris or even President Donald Trump, have a responsibility to campaign for credible, pragmatic policies that will ultimately benefit the average American. There is no doubt that the Midwest, a critical battleground in 2016, will be heavily contested in the 2020 election. Candidates must keep in mind that that a factory worker in Wisconsin or a single mother in Michigan won’t vote based on progressive agendas that simulate those implemented in Europe. These critical voters couldn’t care less about policies related to reducing greenhouse gases from livestock production (as outlined in the Green New Deal) or spending an exorbitant amount of precious tax dollars to build a wall along our southern border. They care more about putting food on the table, supporting their families and making their paycheck last until the next one comes. They vote based

on issues that affect their day-to-day lives.

It’s how my family and I voted, and it’s how many families across the United States will vote too.

As much as progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans may hate to admit it, the majority of Americans value realistic and practical policies over ideology.

This hungry pursuit of ideology and the expensive policies that arise from it is the reason our government is spiraling into debt and taking the average American down with it.

If politicians really want to change the lives of the typical American and increase their welfare, pragmatic and fiscally responsible policies — like defending the Affordable Care Act and bipartisan immigration/criminal justice reform — are the solutions. Instead of beefing up our border with a gargantuan wall, investing in new technology to secure our border is the better alternative. Instead of pledging to get rid of gas-powered vehicles, which would cripple the energy industry that many working-class voters depend on, implementing better emissions standards and incentivizing green behavior would be far more successful. Politicians are currently viewed as out of touch with their own constituents. Policies that prioritize pragmatism would go a long way to alleviate this problem.

What should candidates do to bridge the gap between campaigning and governing?

The solution lies in having a productive dialogue with the critical voters they are attempting to win. Admittedly, this will require cooperation among the different candidates. However, such a feat should not be put aside for ideology’s sake. Instead of crafting policies that prioritize ideology over pragmatism, politicians should work for their own voters’ agendas. Instead of stoking partisanship through rallies, politicians should speak with each other and their constituents to solve the issues that really matter. That’s how you win over the average citizen, and that’s how you win in 2020.

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

Letters Policy The opinion pages of The Amherst Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community.

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

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

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

Publication Standards The Amherst Student is published weekly except during college vacations. The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester.

The offices of The Amherst Student are located in the basement of Morrow Dormitory, Amherst College. All contents copyright © 2019 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

Connect With Us Email: astudent@amherst.edu Twitter: @amherststudent Like The Amherst Student on Facebook amherststudent.com.

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

Opinion

7

Amherst Books: Worth the Cost Jack Kiryk ’21 Contributing Writer At the beginning of every semester, I wander over to Amherst Books and buy some of the course material I need for class. However, I then proceed to order the remainder of my books from Amazon. I only ever use Amherst Books for the required reading in the first few days of class, as the ones I order will not arrive in time. My commitment to Amazon is certainly not fueled by some desire to help out founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, but it is hard to pass up the significantly reduced prices (regardless of whether the books are new or used).

I know that there is value in supporting a local bookstore and that these small businesses do not share Amazon’s ability to lower book prices.

Nonetheless, I usually buy most of my expensive books online. I always feel some degree of guilt ordering so many books from Amazon, but I feel that I have little choice even though Amazon is putting independent bookstores out of business. According to an article in The Atlantic titled “Amazon Has Basically No Competition Among Online Booksellers,” 65 percent of new online book sales now go through Amazon. Some argue, that to compete with Amazon, publishing companies are less concerned

with prioritizing good literature, and are being forced into the position of publishing whatever they think will sell well. Thinking about this and considering how I would feel if next time I walked by Amherst Books, I came up with this solution (albeit, a little far fetched in reality).

There appears to be a clear relationship between Hampshire College, UMASS, Amherst College and Amherst Books, given that all course materials can be found there.

Amherst College has the power to expand upon this affiliation with Amherst Books. I propose that Amherst pay the difference between the price of new course books offered

on Amazon and the price offered at Amherst Books. This would result in many more students using Amherst Books. Yes, this would mean some expenditure from the college, and maybe the expense of this idea would be sizeable, but Amherst is not low on funds. The benefit that this would provide students as well as the town would be significant and worth the cost. We students would be able to get our books faster and not have the issue of buying the wrong edition, and the town would have a bookstore that is able to effectively compete for the business of its student population.

I envision something similar

to how large chains, such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have price matching policies. Ultimately, whenever Amazon offers the assigned edition of a new book for cheaper, Amherst Books would match this reduced price and Amherst College would cover the difference. With this policy, the college would expand its impact in the community while also satisfying its students and faculty. I would rather buy my course books from Amherst Books than from Amazon, as would all of the Amherst students I have talked with, and if this proposal is enacted we will be able to do just that.

The TSA: Just More Security Theater Holden Lee ’22 Contributing Writer We’ve all been there. We’ve all stood in line, in the bizarre bottleneck known as airport security, with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers in bright blue who yell at you to take laptops out of your bag or confiscate a harmless bottle of shampoo.

We sigh, roll our eyes and rush to the airport hours before our flights to compensate, yet we tell ourselves it’s all worth it because the TSA stops terrorism.

Does it?

The simple truth of the matter is that there is no evidence to suggest that the TSA’s screening methods have ever prevented an act of terrorism on an airplane. The TSA adamantly refuses to disclose any examples of its success, supposedly in the interest of national security.

This justification seems particularly suspect, especially since the organization documents confiscated items (see @TSA on Instagram for examples).

The TSA’s screening does not seem to be a necessary service but rather serves as “security theater,” a term coined by a computer security and privacy expert, Bruce Schneuder. Security theater is exactly what it sounds like: a practice that provides the illusion of security while doing nothing to provide

actual security. The extent to which TSA practices are security theater was made embarrassingly clear in May 2015. The Department of Homeland Security performed a test, dispatching 70 agents to airports with a surprisingly simple task: smuggle mock explosives and firearms through airport security.

67 out of the 70 agents went undetected. When pitted against professionals (which effective terrorists usually are), the TSA’s weapon detection success rate was less than five percent.

This isn’t the only glaring flaw in the TSA’s screening system.

Even the latest full-body scanners are unable to detect pentaerythritol tetranitrate (or PETN) when concealed properly. PETN is an explosive material first used in World War I by the German army.

It should also be noted that PETN can also be used to treat certain heart conditions. Furthermore, smaller airports lack the technology of larger airports, and are often not equipped with full-body and CT scanners. Without the latest advancements in airport scanner technology, which already has its flaws, smaller airports are even more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

It’s clear that the TSA’s practices have no real, measurable effect on terrorism. So now what?

First off, the TSA needs to sim-

plify its screening process. Screening requirements that are specific to particular incidents, such as taking off your shoes (Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber) or the 3-1-1 rule on liquids (2006 transatlantic aircraft plot) don’t make us safer, but incentivize terrorists to devise new methods of attack.

Additionally, increasingly complex screening procedures aren’t the solution. It is unreasonable to expect a scanner to detect every weapon a terrorist might invent.

And besides, the 9/11 hijackers didn’t invent a new bomb. They were armed only with knives and pepper spray. Instead, increasing the number of air marshals will help prevent the hijacking of airplanes, and implementing blast-proof, locked cockpit doors is a simple and effective safety precaution. In fact, the best way to prevent a terrorist attacks is anticipating it long before the attackers arrive at the airport. More advanced intelligence gathering allows governments to detect and prevent terrorist plots before they can be executed.

Another, though unintended, consequence of TSA screening is the increase in car-related deaths.

A significant number of people find the screening so inconvenient that air traffic has decreased by six percent, according to research

by Cornell University. The study

1IPUP DPVSUFTZ PG U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The security lines at airports act as “security theater,” says Holden Lee ’22, who proposes new ways to ensure national security. found that people who chose not to fly instead substituted car travel for air travel. The increase in car traffic led to an increase of about 130 car deaths every three months. As FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver articulates, these additional deaths are “the equivalent of four fully-loaded Boeing 737s crashing each year.”

This particular statistic also reveals a dangerous fact about human nature: we are far more worried about the incredibly unlikely and extreme disasters, and pay little attention to the everyday causes of death such as car accidents. 9/11 was responsible for about 3,000 deaths, while cars kill 35,000 people every year. It’s this dispropor-

tionate fear of terrorist attacks that allows the TSA’s ineffective practices to thrive. Most of us would gladly jump the ridiculous hurdles of airport security for some assurance that we won’t die on the plane.

And at the same time, we expose ourselves to far greater risk almost daily, by thoughtlessly turning the key in the ignition.

If we really care enough to improve airport security and fix the TSA, the first step is putting our fear into perspective. We cannot allow political rhetoric and fear to dictate how our airports run. Rational thought and a clear mindset on what works and what doesn’t in airport security are key.

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

Opinion

8

The Internet Outage: A Lesson in Vulnerability Olivia Gieger ’21 Managing Arts and Living Editor I like to think of myself as wholly independent. I’m able to spend hours alone, navigate a new city by myself and, above all, work my way out of most problems I stumble into. And this, I believe, is what perturbed me so deeply about the more than 72-hour-long Wi-Fi outage that hit the campus last week. It wasn’t that I ran out of high speed data or couldn’t check my email; it was that I was rendered completely powerless when confronted with the removal of something I’m so utterly reliant — on a feeling I’m deeply unfamiliar with.

This sense of helplessness is intimately linked with the eerie anxiety that coated the campus last week. To me, the hindrance of not having internet felt all-encompassing, though the reality was nowhere close to that. Most of my

assignments came in hard copy; I can (and do) go a few days without responding to emails, even with a perfectly intact server; and I’m naturally conservative with my cellphone’s data use. I have found myself completely perplexed, then, that I (along with most of the campus) felt paralyzed without internet connection. Has the internet become a security blanket which we feel vulnerable without?

This is not to say that I did not find the reality of the outage more than inconvenient and annoying. I am still in shock that an institution with the financial resources and collective brain-power of Amherst could be befuddled by something as integral to modern education as internet and email. However, the nuances of this technological blunder are not what fascinate me.

Rather, I am intrigued by our emotional response and why we were still so rattled even as we found

ways to adjust to education without Wi-Fi. One of my classmates suggested that the shutdown was the work of a “benevolent hacker” who wanted to force Amherst students to unwind a bit. While I feel that this absence triggered any emotion but relaxation, it did raise a valid point about how plugged in we are — and the exceptional lengths required for us to live an unplugged life. Further, it reminds us that it takes something as extreme as a three-day outage for us to realize how dependent we are on this intangible, omnipresent power.

Perhaps this is the wake-up call we didn’t know we needed. It was the final shove to letting us (or at least, me) realize how closely woven fiber optic cables are with the rest of our lives. It was the push the Information Technology (IT) department needed to fully move our emails to Gmail — a move I

feel perfectly reflects the need to transition from a tepid 1990’s internet structure (and attitude) to technology that matches our 2019 internet habits. We can hope that from this, IT will strengthen the rest of the network to build backups and prevent an outage from occurring again. And perhaps, this shutdown is the push we all needed, too, in order to fully confront our internet habits and realize that internet is more than just a modern convenience; it is a part of life, and we must create not only the infrastructure, but also the mentality that accommodates it.

Whether we like it or not, the internet has become a central tenet of our lives, and we must treat it as such. We cannot continue to carry on considering the internet as a mere accessory of education or business or life, for that matter.

It is the keystone holding each of those complex entities together.

Ultimately, we must determine whether this proliferation is a positive or negative advancement, but first, we need to adopt a mindset that matches our technology. We must understand how fundamental technology is to our daily actions and how it provides an elusive sense of security. Only from there can we launch into conversations on how to navigate this reality.

We have to interrogate this insidious occupier of our existence and strategically plan how we will approach it: will we build stronger internet infrastructures to prevent us from ever being without Wi-Fi, the way we were last week? Or, will we take advantage of this reality check to take a critical look at our over-use and over-dependence on a power that is ultimately greater than each of us? Can we adjust our actions to make ourselves a little less vulnerable and, in turn, more independent?

If I May: Unfollow @fuckjerry — Part 1 Jake May ’19 Columnist If you follow the Instagram account @fuckjerry, you may have noticed something new in its bio section: “Updated content policy [below],” and then a link to a statement from the account’s creator, Elliot Tebele. In the statement, Tebele explains that from now on, in order for him to post something on the @fuckjerry account, he must be able to identify the original creator and obtain advanced consent from them. Additionally, on a few of their recent posts, they included this disclaimer: “You’ll notice the post above has both credit and consent from the creator. Effective immediately, @fuckjerry, and our affiliated accounts, will adhere to this content policy. We also welcome submissions [heart emoji].” The account has since removed the disclaimer from the posts, but have kept a note of “credit and consent from [insert creator here].”

These decisions have been made in response to a movement on Twitter to unfollow the @fuckjerry account, as well as other “affiliated accounts” such as @beigecardican and @pizza. Started

by Vulture comedy editor Megh Wright and coined “#fuckfuckjerry” by comedian Judah Friedlander, the movement aimed to call attention to the fact that the @fuckjerry accounts steal nearly all of their content from creators.

The bread and butter of @fuckjerry is posting a screenshot of someone else’s tweet, sometimes including their handle in the screenshot, and then adding their own caption. The people behind these accounts — mainly Tebele, but also people like Chief Content Officer James Ryan Ohlinger, who runs the account @krispyshorts — would like us to believe that they are “curating” this content. One can’t own a meme, they would argue. To these creators, memes are supposed to go viral by being reposted.

While this may be true, the problem is that Tebele and his team have turned @fuckjerry into an incredibly powerful marketing agency. They are not just reposting these jokes for fun, as you or I might do on our Instagram stories.

Rather, they are selling posts containing stolen content to corporations like Burger King, Bumble and DirecTV for up to $75,000 per post. Additionally, they use the platform to sell their own

tequila brand, JAJA. Over the past few weeks, as this movement has gained traction, Wright has reached out to and been contacted by many comedians who have had their content stolen by @fuckjerry. All of them reported that they had never received a penny for the use of their content, even though @ fuckjerry certainly made money off of their original posts. In a now-well-documented incident, a video creator named Vic Berger reached out to Ohlinger (@krispyshorts), asking him to take down a video of Berger’s that Ohlinger had posted without any credit.

Ohlinger responded by telling Berger to “shut up” on Instagram.

It doesn’t end here. The account @ beigecardigan, run by Jessica Tebele, was created in response to the account @browncardigan calling @fuckjerry out for his content theft. According to @browncardigan directly (in an Instagram caption), after they had called out Tebele, “[Tebele] took it upon himself to create @beigecardigan, from which he took an old IG account with an existing 50k(ish) followers and then used FJ as the credited account to gain traction … He spends hours and hours of his OWN time trying to ‘crush us’ with

our own schtick, all the while blocking and muting anyone who opposes him.”

The problem with all of this is that @fuckjerry’s tactics have completely worked. While the #fuckfuckjerry movement has been considered a success — some advertisers have pulled out of their partnership with the account — the account’s follower count has only dipped from 14.2 million to 14 million followers. This is certainly something, but it won’t stop them from being able to profit off of their theft.

Additionally, up until now, the media has only exacerbated the issue. An ABC News article begins with the sentence: “Elliot Tebele makes memes for a living.” To my knowledge, not even Tebele himself has claimed to create many memes, instead trying to argue that his “aggregation” is okay. Yet ABC News still went ahead and published the piece, along with a Nightline video segment. Perhaps even worse was a profile in The New Yorker from October 2018. The subtitle of the article called @fuckjerry and @beigecardigan “the funniest accounts on Instagram.”

Here is another passage, verbatim: “They mine the internet for comic gems and broadcast them to their 17

million followers. Together, the two accounts bring in millions of dollars from corporate sponsors like MTV and Burger King, and they’ve spawned an army of associate companies, including an ad agency, a production house and a card game called What Do You Meme?” Again, the context here is a glorifying New Yorker profile, exalting the genius of these young internet savants. This passage theoretically exposes @fuckjerry’s practices of “mining” the internet for content they can steal, then using that content to make money from advertisements and parlaying that success into further side ventures such as card games. Instead, The New Yorker presented it in a congratulatory way, allowing the behavior to continue.

Hopefully, this movement continues to gain traction and leads to the downfall of @fuckjerry. For now, all I can do is encourage everyone to unfollow these accounts and support original content creation.

This is the first of a multi-part series on @fuckjerry. Next week, I will tackle the complexities of their involvement in the Fyre festival and the subsequent Netflix documentary.

Arts&Living

What Local Dispensaries Mean for Marijuana Use on Campus

Photo courtesy of Olivia Gieger ’21

Northhampton is one of the first two towns in Massachusetts to open a marijuana dispensary after a ballot question legalized recreational sales during the 2016 election.

Isabella Weiner ’20 Staff Writer Following the legalization of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts during the 2016 election, New England Treatment Access (NETA), a marijuana dispensary, set up shop on 118 Conz St. in

Northampton this past November. Since opening its doors, the dispensary has been selling its popular products, which include pre-rolled joints, chocolate “imported from Belgium” and drops to “infuse your favorite beverage” to customers ranging from five-college students to the mayor

of Northampton. In fact, NETA officials arranged for Northampton’s mayor, David Narkewicz, to be the first customer on opening day — a political move signaling the acceptance and excitement of the Northampton community for the store’s operations, and a step towards erasing the stigma around

marijuana.

NETA’s popularity comes from the fact that it is only one of two dispensaries on the East Coast that sells marijuana for recreational use. (It also caters to medical marijuana users, who receive priority treatment such as different waiting lines, certain parking spaces and exclusive products. Additionally, if you do not hold a medical card, you can only purchase up to an eighth of a gram at a time.)

NETA is a major draw not only for five-college students, but also for all college students along the East Coast who are willing to brave the western Massachusetts cold and wait upwards of 45 minutes. Recently, I was surprised to see a high school classmate from my hometown of Chappaqua, New York, post a Snapchat story at its doors.

However, not all college students can purchase NETA’s products. You must be 21 years old not only to buy from NETA, but also to enter the building.

Similarly, in order to peruse the NETA website, you must affirm that you are 21 years old, although the website does not require proof beyond simply clicking “I am 21 or older.”

Its products, however, are rather costly. NETA’s chocolate bars sell for $30 each, and its other products go for about twice the price outside of NETA. The high price

of its products and the alternative, cheaper paths available for college students who want to obtain marijuana may explain why, from my observation upon visiting the store, the main demographic of NETA’s customers seems to skew toward individuals in their 30s and 40s.

However, it is worth noting that NETA’s more costly products are also safer. In other words, consumers know the contents of NETA’s products and do not have to worry about potentially purchasing marijuana laced with other psychoactive drugs or “synthetic” weed from less reliable sources. Outbreaks of synthetic weed — also known as “fake” weed or K2 — in various states of the U.S., including New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, have been correlated with a variety of health issues among users, ranging from the relatively harmless (vomiting, confusion and rapid heart rate) to the life-threatening (severe bleeding, seizures and heart attacks). Use of these cannabinoids has even been linked to fatalities across these states.

While NETA is conveniently located and sells a variety of higher-end, safer products than five-college students may be accustomed to, it is also rather time-consuming and expensive. Students must decide for themselves whether the benefits outweigh the cost.

The Amherst Student • February 20, 2019

Arts & Living 10

From Crags to Couloirs: Climbing’s Legacy in Massachusetts

Photo courtesy of JJ Daniell ‘19

Following a longstanding history of rock climbing in western Massachusetts, JJ Daniell ‘19, a member of the Amherst College Outing Club, climbs at Cenral Rock Gym in Hadley.

Colin Weinstein ’22 Contributing Writer In the critically-acclaimed 2018 documentary “Free Solo,” rock climber Alex Honnold scales the 3,000-foot face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in four hours, alone, unaided ... and of course, without a rope.

The limits of climbing are being pushed every year with ventures like Honnold’s, but as new ascents get harder, taller and more dangerous, our attention drifts further and further from the sport’s humble origins right here in the small cliffs and craglets of Massachusetts.

First, there are two names to remember: Miriam and Robert Underhill. The two met on Appalachian Mountain Club climbing trips in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and soon formed an unstoppable climbing partner-

ship, tackling demanding routes and daring first ascents throughout the Alps during the 20s.

Even after marriage and children, the two continued their climbing streak in the U.S., pioneering new routes in Idaho’s Sawtooth Range and Montana’s Beartooths and completing the first winter ascents of all 48 peaks over 4000 feet in the White — a now highly coveted feat.

Although the Underhills are known as a team, the two were also individually famous for their contributions to alpinism. At a time when women were typically excluded from major expeditions, Miriam was not only climbing the world’s hardest routes, she was also leading them.

“Leading a climb” refers to the dangerous task of advancing the rope up a route while periodically placing anchors in the rock (called

“protection”) so that the “follower(s)” can later continue up.

Exasperated by the men in her teams who frequently took over in emergencies, Miriam decided to form the world’s first exclusively female climbing teams and put up ascents on some of Europe’s most demanding peaks, including the Matterhorn and Aiguille du Grépon.

Robert Underhill certainly has his achievements, too. He single-handedly popularized the now-standard alpine style of climbing during his first major ascents in Europe, the Tetons and the Sierra Nevadas.

But what do the Underhills have to do with Massachusetts?

Throughout its near century-long history, climbing in New England has been curiously intertwined with academics and higher education.

Having obtained his Ph.D. in

mathematics at Harvard, Robert Underhill stayed at Harvard as an instructor in the math and philosophy departments and participated actively in the fledgling Harvard Mountaineering Club (HMC), founded in 1924.

The Underhills discovered and trained at small suburban crags that remain popular today. You can still find HMC members and MIT Outing Club groups top-roping at the Underhills’ old haunt, Quincy Quarries.

Bringing the history of rock climbing back to the Pioneer Valley (and a little bit of Alaska too), the next names to remember are Dave Roberts and Jon Krakauer.

Roberts climbed some of Alaska’s most challenging peaks before the age of 25, but his talents reach further. Another academic alpinist, Roberts graduated from Harvard (where he too was a member of the HMC) and went on to obtain his Ph.D. in English, publishing the first of his many successful books, “The Mountain of My Fear,” in 1968.

Two years later, he turned in glaciated peaks for cow-spotted fields and took a job teaching English at the recently established Hampshire College.

In his time at Hampshire, Roberts founded the college’s robust outdoors program with a special focus on rock climbing. He introduced students to top-rope climbing at Rattlesnake Gutter, a crag in nearby Leverett, Massachusetts, and brought the more precocious climbers on ambitious trips to Colorado, Utah and obscure Alaskan ranges.

Roberts’s expeditions with this infant liberal arts college were competing with the decadently-funded Ivy League mountaineering clubs at Harvard and Yale. Turns out the 40-foot cliffs of the Pioneer Valley provide good practice for the 3,000foot spires of the Arrigetch Mountains in Alaska.

You might have heard of one of Roberts’ more talented pupils: Jon Krakauer. An accomplished mountaineer and the author of famous works of outdoor literature “Into the Wild” and “Into Thin Air,” Krakauer credits Roberts with sparking his passion for everything alpine, both in the classroom and at

the crag.

In addition to his literary achievements, Krakauer has summited some of the toughest routes in Alaska and the Andes, and established a first ascent of Rakekniven in Antarctica with climbing legends Alex Lowe and Conrad Anker. This stunning career all began 15 minutes away from Amherst in Leverett.

Roberts’ renowned outdoors program at Hampshire has unfortunately shifted its focus away from climbing in the past couple of years, but it remains a popular sport in the Pioneer Valley, with plenty of outing clubs, outdoors programs, Facebook pages and nonprofits dedicated to its maintenance.

Here at Amherst, we have the Amherst College Outing Club (ACOC). For students of various levels of experience from the beginner to the expert, regular trips to the nearby Central Rock Gym in Hadley are announced on the climbing Facebook page and are free to students — no experience or gear necessary.

For the more experienced (or adventurous) climbers, ACOC organizes outdoors climbing trips to nearby crags, such as Farley Ledges, the Sunbowl (accessible via the PVTA!) and Mormon Hollow.

On these trips, students can learn the basics on top-ropes, and more ambitious climbers can lead their own routes.

For more frequent outdoor trips, the outing club at UMass Amherst also organizes trips to local crags and opens its activities to students of the five colleges.

Outside of the five colleges, the Western Massachusetts Climber’s Coalition (WMCC) is a nonprofit organization that helps coordinate with landowners for public access to Western Massachusetts’ most popular crags. WMCC also organizes public events and classes to help educate beginners and connect seasoned climbers.

Massachusetts, higher education and rock climbing are intertwined in a rich history and vibrant present. Who knows? Maybe the next daredevil to climb El Cap without a rope will be able to proudly claim that Amherst College taught them how.

The Amherst Student • February 20, 2019

Arts & Living 11

Counseling Center Continues Efforts to Expand Student Support

Photo courtesy of Emma Swislow ’20

In the wake of colleges and national media taking a serious look at mental health on campuses, the college continues to improve its approach to mental health in the Counseling Center.

Olivia Henrikson ’21 Staff Writer In the spring of last year, a number of high-profile publications such as Time Magazine, The New York Times and The Atlantic, as well as a number of campus newspapers around the country (including The Student) released articles about the mental health crisis on college campuses. They wrote about a national trend defined by high levels of student anxiety, depression and overbooked counseling centers at colleges.

It is true that the number of students seeking out mental health services has increased in recent years, with a national average of 15 percent of the student body in the 2017-2018 academic year.

At Amherst, these rates are significantly higher, with the counseling center seeing 35.3 percent of the student population during the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the center’s annual report.

The percentage of the population that is searching out the Counseling Center’s services has steadily increased by approximately four percent per year over the past four years.

Director of the Counseling Center Jackie Alvarez primarily attributes the increase to a recent shift in the Counseling Center’s model that makes services more widely accessible to students. “Student mental health has become a big priority for the school. We now have a larger budget, full-time psychiatry positions that did not exist before and more resources to allow for further innovation,” said Alvarez.

One of the primary steps the Counseling Center has taken to increase accessibility is to bring its services into spaces students already occupy, rather than expecting students to come to them.

While individual counseling is still the backbone of its philosophy, the Counseling Center has now created a number of groups in col-

laboration with resource centers to reach every subset of the student population and provide students with a space to share their experiences at Amherst.

There are currently groups offered for conversations around sexual orientation and sexual identity, racial identity development, racism, and resilience, as well as workshops aimed at helping develop skills to manage anxiety and overcome personal challenges.

The Counseling Center is currently working on creating more groups in collaboration with other resource centers on campus. Alvarez believes “the groups serve the important role of bringing people together in an authentic and vulnerable way that is sometimes difficult to find at selective institutions like Amherst.”

According to Alvarez, most of the increase in need for the Counseling Center can be attributed to the increased accessibility of services, but she also believes that a unique set

of stresses comes along with being a student at a selective institution such as Amherst. “At Amherst everyone has the idea that they’re supposed to know everything already when they get here,” Alvarez said.

This “illusion of effortless perfection” can lead to inauthentic interactions within the student body that can then translate to feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression,” Alvarez said. Alvarez hopes the support groups and skills workshops in emotional intelligence and anxiety management, skills all college students could use, will help break down those illusions of perfection.

According to a Counseling Center report, the five most common reasons students seek help at the Counseling Center are stress, anxiety, depression, academic performance and personal self-esteem.

Overall, the Counseling Center sees a population that is proportional to the overall student body in terms of class year and race. It sees significantly more female students than male students every year. Approximately eight percent of the students seeking the Counseling Center’s care identify as non-cisgender, a higher percentage than is reflected in the student body, as indicated by the annual report.

Alvarez acknowledges that there is room for improvement in areas such as wait times for counseling (claiming the waiting period is three to four days as opposed to the two days four years ago), but she is excited about expanding and making mental health a priority in other areas of student life.

“When the demand for services increased, initially all of our resources went to clinical care,” said Alvarez. “Now we are able to catch up and work more proactively on prevention.”

The challenge of bringing the mental health and well-being into everyday student life has also been a focus for Chief Student Affairs Officer Hikaru Kozuma. Although this is his first year at Amherst, Kozuma has worked at similar institutions and says the mental health challenges faced by students are not surprising.

He agrees with Alvarez that Amherst students are under a lot

of pressure to perform well. “We are all expected to do so much and do it all well, faculty and staff too, which is great because we’re trying so many new things, but when it’s not sustainable, that can result in a lot of vulnerability,” Kozuma said.

Kozuma believes every aspect of the school has some responsibility for student mental well-being. As he said, “Navigating complexity is a great thing for students to learn to do, but they shouldn’t be majoring in complexity.”

Improving student mental well-being is a daunting task, but Kozuma believes it’s much more manageable when everyone contributes. It is important that “we all have a hand in contributing to students’ well-being,” he said. With this goal in mind, he has been involved in the creation of a working group of some faculty, staff and students to discuss mental health challenges and tangible ideas on how the school might address them.

Kozuma believes that changing “small tangible things” in students’ everyday lives can decrease stress and anxiety. These things include reconfiguring the Amherst website to make information more accessible and making everyday processes more streamlined. He also proposed prioritizing well-being by reserving five minutes at the beginning of a club or faculty meetings for a check-in.

This also includes expanding the idea of what a support resource has to look like. As Kozuma said, “The Counseling Center is absolutely the right place for some people, but others don’t need clinical care and would benefit from extra support in someone they can talk to or look to for help, whether that’s someone in Religious and Spiritual Life, Residential Life or another staff member.”

Kozuma also invoked the subject of President Biddy Martin’s Convocation address, “Embracing Imperfection,” as a challenge the entire community should focus on together. “If you don’t have the answers, it’s okay. If you need help, it’s a sign of strength to reach out. If you feel like your needs are not being met, work with us so we can figure out how to better help you,” Kozuma said.

The Amherst Student • February 20, 2019

Arts & Living 12

Ariana Grande is Unapologetic in New Album “thank u, next”

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Ariana Grande is back with one of her strongest albums yet, unpacking and discussing her emotional break-up with Pete Davidson and the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller.

Seoyeon Kim ’21 Managing Arts and Living Editor While accepting her award for Billboard Woman of the Year on Dec. 6, 2018, Ariana Grande remarked that “[she] find[s] it interesting that this has been one of the best years of [her] career and the worst of [her] life.”

Undoubtedly, she has dealt with an insurmountable amount of pain — suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after the bombing at her Manchester concert in May 2017 killed 22 people, ending her relationship with rapper Mac Miller after his continued struggle with substance abuse, announcing a sudden engagement with comedian Pete Davidson, grieving when Miller unexpectedly died of an overdose in September 2018 and ending her engagement with Davidson soon after — all over the span of a year and a half. While Grande is undoubtedly a talented vocalist, her fourth album, “Sweetener,” dealt with her pain with a level of intimacy that her first three albums did not. Her newest album, “thank u next,” released on Feb. 8, is a reminder that Grande is continuing

to suffer and grieve and finding ways to live with her pain through self-care.

The songs of “thank u, next” deepen the intimacy of “Sweetener,” and Grande has made it a point to keep her listeners in the loop. In the weeks leading up to the release of her album, she tweeted back at fans who wanted to know more about the songs. When asked about “ghostin,” perhaps the most emotional track on the album, Grande replied that the song is about “feeling badly for the person you’re with bc you love somebody else. feeling badly bc he can tell he can’t compare…” Critics and fans speculate that it’s an exploration of her feelings for Davidson after Miller’s death and part of an explanation for their eventual breakup. She also tweeted that “in my head,” another heartbreaking track, is about “being in love w a version of somebody you’ve created in your head. falling for someone that they are not.” “thank u, next” opens with its promotional single “imagine.” In the romantic ballad, Grande asks her listeners to “imagine” a love “like the movies.”

“We could light up ‘til I’m ‘sleep

on your chest / Love how my face fits so good in your neck,” she sings.

The next song, “needy,” marks a sharp shift in mood as Grande admits that she can be needy and obsessive in her relationships. “I’ve been on a roller coaster / tryna get a hold of my emotions,” she confesses. Following “needy,” “NASA” opens with echoey, galactic tones and a voice feature from Shangela, a former contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” who spins the famous Neil Armstrong quote into “this is one small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind.” “NASA” shows yet another abrupt change in mood as this time, Grande pleads for space, emphasizing “I’d rather be alone tonight / You can say ‘I love you’ through the phone tonight.” One of the most triumphant and upbeat songs of the album, Grande tells us that self-discovery is crucial and that there “ain’t nothing wrong with saying I need me time.”

While her unapologetic tone makes for incredible anthems about loving yourself, there were admittedly some mishaps with the release of “7 rings,” the second single of the album, on Jan. 18. “7 rings” is

arguably one of the less developed tracks of “thank u, next.” Although the song features catchy, Instagram caption-worthy lines like “Wearing a ring, but ain’t gon’ be no ‘Mrs.’ / Bought matching diamonds for six of my bitches,” its overall message that money is happiness seems to outweigh its impact as a friendship anthem.

To celebrate the release of her single, Grande got a tattoo which she thought read “7 rings” in Japanese kanji symbols. However, as many quickly pointed out, her tattoo cut out three of the necessary characters, which changed the meaning from “7 rings” to “Japanese BBQ grill.” Grande then attempted to fix the mistake, posting a screenshot of a text conversation between her and her Japanese tutor, who told her to add one more kanji between and above the characters.

Unfortunately, Grande failed to follow her tutor’s exact instructions and instead accidentally updated her tattoo to read “Japanese BBQ finger.”

Of course, her mistake could be seen as harmless, but the very decision to involve Japanese in “7 rings” is questionable. The music video for “7 rings” opens with the title of the song displayed in English, then underneath it, in Japanese. At the beginning of the video, we are shown images of cat and bunny figurines and alcohol bottles with Japanese writing on them. Later on in the video, Japanese characters that read “7” make a brief appearance during a dance break. But why do these references exist, considering that the lyrics of the song do not have any connection with Japanese language or culture? It seems like “7 rings” uses Japanese as an aesthetic — an unfortunate symptom of a greater trend in popular music thst uses Asian languages and cultures as meaningless references.

Adding to the song’s controversy, Grande reposted a fan’s Instagram story which quoted one of the lines of “7 rings,” “You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it,” and claimed that “white women talking about their weaves is how we’re gonna solve racism.” After backlash, Grande clarified, explaining that she thought her fan’s inten-

tion was to point out that the line helped combat the negative stereotypes often associated with the word “weave.” As much as Grande’s message is one of female empowerment, the aftermath of “7 rings” reminds us that there are still many underlying intersectional identities within this broad category of “female power.”

Unfortunate incidents aside, “thank u, next” is an incredible follow-up to “Sweetener.” It is an album that is unapologetically direct.

She tells her lover that she does not want him in her “bloodline,” singing “I know what you need but it won’t be me.” With the release of her album, Grande also released the music video for its final track, “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.” The video follows Grande entering a crowded party and spotting a guy (Charles Melton), only to discover that he has a girlfriend (Ariel Yasmine) who looks eerily like the mirror image of Grande herself. Grande spends the rest of the video attempting to steal him away, singing “You could say I’m hatin’ if you want to / But I only hate on her ‘cause I want you.” However, the video ends with Grande pushing the guy away and appearing to lean forward to kiss the girlfriend instead.

Some interpreted the video’s ending as Grande choosing to be with the girl instead of the guy, but as many fans pointed out similarities in the girlfriend’s and Grande’s appearances (the video even showing alternating scenes of their faces reflected in a mirror), it seems plausible that the girlfriend Grande refers to throughout the song is actually herself, the message being that she wants to break up with her boyfriend in order to love herself.

This twist would be a fitting end to an album like “thank u, next.” In the title track, after listing all of her exes, Grande tells us she met someone else — only to reassure us that this someone is herself, and that she’s learning and growing from self-care. “thank u, next” is an album that shows us Ariana Grande is not done with her evolution as an artist, and most importantly, one who champions the power of selflove.

Sports Women’s Swim and Dive Secures Third Place at NESCAC Championship Meet Jake Grossman ’21 Staff Writer The women’s swim and dive team came in third place this past weekend at the NESCAC championships, finishing behind first-place Williams and second-place Tufts. Although Williams won for the sixth straight year, the Mammoths put up a strong showing with 13 athletes reaching the podium in their respective events.

Additionally, Amherst was able to bring home some hardware, as Lindsey Ruderman ’21 won 2019 NESCAC Diver of the Year and coach Kai Robinson won NES-

CAC Diving Coach of the Year.

Many women were involved in propelling the Mammoths to third place. Nina Fitzgerald ’21 finished in second place in the 50-yard, 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events.

Julia Ruggiero ’21 battled to a third-place finish in the 1,000yard freestyle while Bridgitte Kwong ’19 took second place in the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke.

Natalie Rumpelt ’20 almost took the 200-yard freestyle but ended up in third place. Rumpelt followed that up with another third-place finish in the 300-yard freestyle event.

Ruderman swept the diving events, winning both the one-meter and three-meter board events.

Jacqueline Palermo ’19 claimed third place in the three-meter board, furthering the Mammoth’s dominance in the diving events.

Marie Fagan ’22 placed third in the 200-yard butterfly.

Success across all of these events powered Amherst to 1,322 points. This was only surpassed by two of the 10 other teams. Williams had 1,873 and Tufts had 1,439.5.

Before the NCAA Championships in March, the Amherst women will have a meet against Middlebury on Feb. 24.

Women’s Track and Field Sprinters Set School Record in the 4x400 Meter Relay Jamie Mazzola ’21 Staff Writer The women’s track and field team split up between Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday, Feb. 9, with half of the team going to the Boston University Valentine Invitational and half of the team going to MIT’s

Gordon Kelly Invitational.

On Friday, Feb. 8, at the Valentine Invitational, sophomore Grace Haase paced the Mammoths in the 800-meter dash, clocking a time of 2:22.45 to earn 109th overall. She was followed closely by senior Molly Carleton, who ran 2:23.97 for 122nd place. Racing the

1,000-meter, Rachel Ruderman ’21 placed 72nd in 3:06.81, with first year Maggie Drew logging a time of 3:13.14 for 86th.

In the one-mile race, senior Christina Scartelli placed 46th in a time of 4:57.05. Sophomore Sarah Gayer posted a time of 5:13.29 to earn 113th. Senior Julia Asin

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Ella Rosa ’21 (center) won the 60-meter dash at the Middlebury Team Challenge.

clocked times of 26.90 seconds in the 200-meters for 148th place, and followed that up with a 1:00.11 400-meter race for 106th place.

Competing in the 5000-meter race, sophomore Olivia Polischeck finished 17th overall with a time of 18:38.76.

On Saturday, Scartelli, Gayer, senior Rubii Tamen and junior Jenny Mazzella ran 12:14.16 for 16th overall in the 4x400m relay.

At the Gordon Kelley Invitational, junior Kat Hom and first year Isabelle Lobo finished backto-back in the 200-meter race, placing second and third with times of 28.58 and 28.72, respectively.

In the 600m, first year Katie Lingen placed second in 1:42.89, followed by senior Lexi Perez-Stern, who crossed the line in 1:46.93 for fourth. Sophomore Katie Crum posted a time of 5:44.21 in the mile for seventh place.

The following weekend, the Mammoths traveled to Vermont for the Middlebury Team Challenge, scoring 99 points for fourth overall. The 4x200m relay team of first year Samantha Tichelaar,

Tamen, first year Anna Madden and sophomore Sophia Friedman set a new school record with a time of 1:45.45, finishing second overall.

In the 60m hurdles, sophomores Ella Rossa and Lauren Lamb placed first and third in times of 9.01 and 9.73 seconds, respectively.

Lamb followed this performance with a leap of 10.54 meters in the triple jump for first overall. Sophomore Dana Frishman clinched third in the long jump with a distance of 5.13m. Frishman also placed second in the 60m in a time of 8.35 seconds.

In the 400 meters, Madden paced Amherst with 59.83 for first place, followed by Friedman in second with a time of 1:00.25.

First year Juanita Jaramillo ’22 followed in 1:01.86 for fourth. In the 3000m, sophomores Haley Greene and Polischeck finished third and fourth with times of 10:50.46 and 11:00.71, respectively. The Mammoths continue their season next Saturday, Feb. 23 at the New England Division III Indoor Championship, hosted by Bowdoin College.

Sports 14

The Amherst Student • February 20, 2019

Men’s Basketball Set to Clash with Williams in NESCAC Semifinal Match

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Power forward Eric Sellew ’20, in addition to excelling as a defender and rebounder, is making 50 percent of his shots from the floor and 73 percent of his free throws.

Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor Men’s basketball will travel to Clinton, New York on Feb 24 to face Williams. The matchup will feature not only the animosity between bitter enemies, but also some of the best basketball that the

NESCAC has to offer. Although the Mammoths are seeded third, ahead of the fourth-seeded Ephs, the clash of two disciplined teams surely bodes well for spectators of all persuasions.

Amherst plays exciting, energetic basketball, indicative of the team’s youth. The core of the team’s

offensive arsenal is the efficency of point guard Grant Robinson ’21 and the mobility of wing Fru Che ’21. Both sophomores, debuted in last season’s campaign with significant playing time, have averaged over 10 points per game this season.

Sixth-man Garrett Day also

provides a spark plug for the second unit’s offense.

In addition to their youthful core, the Mammoths rely on the veteran guidance of senior center Joe Schneider, who is averaging around two blocks a game and anchors the Mammoths in defense.

His partner down low, power forward Eric Sellew ’20, cements the starting unit, leading the team in rebounds with 8.4 per game.

The Ephs, however, will not be an easy opponent. Amherst has only won one more game than their rivals, and the two teams are nearly identical in terms of offensive and defensive output.

Both teams score around 85 points a game, and concede only 65. Williams, however, plays at a pace just a tick slower than the Mammoths, as head coach Dave Hixon ’75 gives his starters the green light to shoot, in comparison to Williams’ preference to slow the game’s pace.

Earlier in the season, in a defining moment of Amherst’s resiliency, the team upset the then topranked Ephs. Amherst was without Hixon and in his stead assistant coach Aaron Toomey ’14 led the Mammoths to victory. Toomey won the National Player of the Year for Amherst in 2013 and 2014 and

is the only Amherst player ever to score 2,000 points; after time as Hixon’s protegee, the coach guided the Mammoths to a game-winning shot in the last few seconds.

Amherst furthered the saga when it traveled to Williamstown and downed the Ephs again, just two weekend ago, 84-79.

This past weekend, the Mammoths ended their season on the road with a convincing win over Wesleyan, 63-56.

Che scored a game-high 30 points on 11 for 18 shooting, enough to earn him NESCAC Player of the Week honors. The six-foot five-inch small forward has been excellent from range this season, shooting 37.5 percent from deep on over 120 attempts.

It is with these last two contests against Williams in mind that the two rivals meet in the NESCAC conference tournament, with both the Mammoths and the Ephs looking to write another chapter of an already contentious season.

All the chips are on the table this weekend, however, as the Mammoths look to claim a NESCAC final berth, and along with it, a ticket to the NCAA DIII tournament. Williams, however, stands in their way, and will not go quietly into the night.

Women’s Basketball Finds Itself in an Unfamiliar Position: Underdogs Henry Newton ’21 Managing Sports Editor It’s not often that you would describe the Amherst women’s basketball team as having faced adversity. They are the fourth-ranked team in the nation, backto-back undefeated national champions and currently 23-2 on the season. From the moment that the Mammoths lost their first game in over two years against unranked Eastern Connecticut State University on Nov. 20, however, the team has found itself in an unfamiliar role: NESCAC underdogs.

At the top of the conference sit the Bowdoin Polar Bears, who are undefeated and ranked first in the nation since they lost to the Mammoths in last season’s NCAA DIII Championship game. Then come the Mammoths, sitting at 23-2, with their only losses being the aforementioned defeat to Eastern

Connecticut State University and a Jan. 26 loss to Bowdoin, 65-56. Not far behind lie the Jumbos from Tufts, also sitting at 23-2, ranked sixth in the nation.

This particular tournament holds increased importance for both Amherst and Bowdoin, as they both currently sit atop the all-time NESCAC leaderboards with eight conference championships apiece. Both squads are considered favorites to reach the final, which could decide the first NESCAC women’s basketball squad to reach nine conference championships.

After these three perennial powerhouses come the rest of the conference, unremarkable in their individual achievements, but notable for the conference’s consistency and parity.

Only one NESCAC team holds a losing record in non-conference play, while even Hamilton, who has gone 0-10 in NESCAC contests, has found itself able

to dominate other opponents. The state of NESCAC basketball is strong.

Heading into the conference tournament then, the Mammoths face a relatively uphill battle to get back to the summit of the women’s basketball world and capture a fourth-straight conference championship, as they will, by virtue of their second seed, most likely have to best both Bowdoin and Tufts to capture the title.

Facing off against Wesleyan in the quarterfinals, the Mammoths got their championship bid underway in their typically dominant style, beating the Cardinals by a score of 60-40 and advancing to the NESCAC semifinals for the 12th consecutive year.

Hannah Fox ’20 carried the game for the Mammoths, scoring a gamehigh 23 points. Maeve McNamara ’19 scored 15 points of her own, dishing out six assists, equalling the total of the

entire Wesleyan team.

The Mammoths found themselves in an unusually close contest at halftime, leading by only nine at the break.

However, they found their stride in the third quarter, outscoring the Cardinals 19-6 in the frame and cruising to the eventual victory.

Amherst must now travel to Bowdoin, the scene of the program’s last conference loss earlier in the year, and face off against the sixth-ranked Tufts.

The Mammoths met the Jumbos on Feb. 1 at Tufts and emerged victorious, 50-40, in a hard-fought defensive battle that would seem to foreshadow another clash of NESCAC titans in the coming days.

With the Mammoths hitting their stride since their Jan. 26 loss to Bowdoin and reeling off six straight wins against conference competition, the Amherst women’s basketball team seems to be

peaking at the right moment, headed for a confrontation with the conference’s elite squads. If the Mammoths should happen to emerge victorious over the Jumbos again, and if Bowdoin defeats Middlebury in its semifinal matchup, the Mammoths and Polar Bears will face off yet again for another title and a chance for redemption.

If this should happen, this may portend yet another all-NESCAC matchup in the NCAA DIII Championship. The last two DIII Championship contests have been repeats of that year’s NESCAC conference championship matchup.

The Mammoths may have found themselves in the recently unfamiliar territory with an early-season loss and a conference defeat to a perennial foe, but the team’s recent form would seem to indicate a squad peaking at exactly the right time.

Sports 15

The Amherst Student • February 20, 2019

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Views From Sparrow’s Nest Matt Sparrow ’21 Columnist Matt Sparrow examines the state of professional tennis, commenting on the rising generation of young stars while simultaneously explaining why it is exactly this turnover that sparks his love for the game.

Reggie Brewster ’21 Managing Sports Editor Henry Newton ’21 sat down with Reggie Brewster ’21 (above right), member of the Men’s squash team, to talk about the difficulties of balancing a busy schedule as both a student and athlete.

Q: Generally, how do you balance being an athlete and a student?

A: It’s a lot of time management. I found that finding the little times in the day where you can get even a little bit of reading done add up. Finding opportunities to be productive whenever you can is crucial.

Q: Do you think that the Athletics Department adequately provides resources to help student athletes manage their time?

RB: I personally don’t know all of the resources they provide, but in my experience, my coaches have been very understanding to both me and my teammates.

Q: In what contexts?

RB: I think I am the only premed student on my team, and my exams are in the evening, which conflicts with the end of practice. My coaches, however, understand that even if practice ends at 7 p.m.

and the exam is at 7 p.m., I need to leave early to grab some food and get settled in and get ready. In that way, academics always comes first, and they [my coaches] want to be flexible.

Q: Do you think you are treated differently in academic contexts because you are an athlete?

RB: In my experience, I haven’t really felt that. There was one time last year, when I tried to get into a different lab time than the one I was assigned, because it conflicted with practice.

The professor, due to class sizes or logistics or something, didn’t let me switch, but fortunately my coaches accommodated my schedule, and I had an extra early morning practice on those lab days. It wasn’t because I was a student athlete, however. I don’t think I get treated any differently.

Q: It is hard to be pre-med and a student athlete?

RB: In short, not more difficult than it is to be any of those things independently. Being a student athlete is tough.

Being pre-med is a large workload. There is no inherent conflict, however, in my experience.

My love for tennis is a classic case of nature versus nurture. I was first exposed to the sport because of my father, a former editor for both Tennis Magazine and World Tennis Magazine, U.S. Open ball boy for legends like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors and 1982 Public Schools Athletic League finalist for Martin van Buren High School in Queens.

His passion for tennis speaks for itself.

He bought me my first tennis racket (an Andre Agassi model) at age three, and I went to my first professional tennis match (U.S. Open qualifying) at age four. However, I was also naturally drawn to the game. I would always ask my dad to take me to the park so that we could rip shots off of a wall to each other. Every night before I went to bed, I would go online and check the latest scores in the hopes that my favorite players had won their matches. I even tried out (and became) a ball boy at the U.S. Open for five summers.

I don’t need to be convinced that I should follow tennis — I’m already obsessed. My case is that if you’re not a tennis fan now, you should be. While an infusion of exciting young talent is starting to challenge the superstar veterans for the first time in years, the old guard remains stubborn in their attempts to hold off Father Time, at least for another season. This struggle for power makes it the best time to be a tennis fan in the sport’s history.

Ten years ago, if someone had asked, “Who are the best players in tennis?” the answer would’ve been easy. On the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. On the Women’s Tennis Association tour, Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams. If someone were to ask that same question today, the answer would be pretty similar. Djokovic and Nadal are ranked number one and two in the world while Federer

remains in the top 10 at the tender age of 37. Serena remains in good form (making two grand slam finals since returning from the birth of her first child) while Sharapova and Venus have stuck around despite a malady of injuries, albeit in significantly reduced capacities. However, a new generation of players who grew up idolizing these icons is forcing themselves into the conversation.

In the women’s game, the poster child for the youth movement is none other than 21-year-old Naomi Osaka.

Born in Japan and raised in the U.S., the 5’11” dynamo had been hailed in tennis circles as the next big thing for a few years but had disappointed early on in her career. That all changed at last year’s U.S. Open when Osaka burst onto the scene by dropping only one set over the entire tournament and beating her childhood hero Serena Williams in the final (amidst plenty of controversy) to claim her first career grand slam in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.

While most college-aged kids would be phased at the thought of taking down the best player in the sport’s history and becoming an overnight sensation, Osaka showed that she wasn’t a fluke at last month’s Australian Open.

She showed impressive grit by coming back from a set down in back-to-back matches before beating Petra Kvitova in three sets to win her second grand slam. The victory also gave Osaka the number one ranking in the world, the first Asian player to do so. With an already accomplished resume and boundless confidence, Osaka looks like the best bet to take Serena’s mantle after she moves on.

On the men’s side, Alexander Zverev looks like he’ll be the one to overtake the “Big Three.” At 6’6’’, the 21-year-old German certainly looks the part of a future champion, with his play on the court backing up this reputation. Zverev has already recorded three wins over Federer and two wins over Djokovic, won ten tournaments

including last year’s year-end championship and is currently ranked third in the world. However, Zverev hasn’t played his best tennis when it matters most in the grand slams making it to the quarterfinals of a grand slam just once, in last year’s French Open while losing in the third round of the other three grand slams last year to unseeded players. He started this year off with a solid, if not unspectacular, trip to the fourth round of the Australian Open and he’ll look to build off of that and reach the sky-high expectations the tennis world has put upon him.

If Osaka and Zverev are the superheroes of the new wave, then there are plenty of potential sidekicks (or villains). American Sloane Stephens has a grand slam to her name, but at almost 26, she may be a bit too “old” for the movement. Evita Svitolina is 24 and has already reached number three in the world. Madison Keys, Aryna Sabalenka and Jelena Ostapenko fit the mold as well, but they’ll need to show more consistency before anyone mentions them in the same breath as Osaka. Stefanos Tsitsipas, a young Greek player who captured the imagination of the crowd due to his long hair and the fervent Greek support at the contest, made the semifinals while American Frances Tiafoe made the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, but they both met the same fate: a loss to Nadal. Karen Khachanov, Borna Coric and Denis Shapovalov have also shown promise, but they’re still waiting for their big breakthroughs.

Nevertheless, the Djokovics and the Serenas of the world aren’t quite ready to abdicate their thrones, and the ensuing struggle for the crown of tennis makes the sport more exciting than it has ever been.

The changing of the guard surely must be an exciting time to start watching tennis. What you will find, however, is that such drama might begin to occupy your time and thoughts, like it has mine.

Sports 16

The Amherst Student • February 20, 2019

Men’s Squash Places Expected Sixth at Team Nationals Nat De Jonge ’21 Staff Writer Sophomore Terrance Wang, first on the Mammoths’ ladder, sent the small rubber ball-- already hot from warm-ups-- hurtling towards the Bulldog face plastered on the wall. With that, the Mammoths’ final tournament of the year began.

On Presidents’ Day weekend, 57 squash teams from around the country descended on Yale for the 2019 College Men’s Team National Championships.

This three-day, season-ending tournament was held, fittingly, in one of the most prestigious gym facilities in the country: the nine-story Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

Teams vied for the championship throughout seven divisions, each containing eight teams of similar caliber selected by the College Squash College.

At one end, in the top bracket, the perennially dominant teams from the Ivy League battled for the Potter Cup, the highest honor in men’s collegiate squash. At the other end, in the seventh division, teams competed for the relatively less-renowned Hawthorn Cup. Towards the top of the pack, the Amherst Mammoths competed in the third division for the Summers Cup, seeded sixth out of the eight teams.

Action began early on Friday morning as the Mammoths’ faced Brown, its first opponent. At 7-8, Amherst posted a better record on the season than the Bears (5-9), but their challenging Ivy League competition prepared them well for the postseason, and perhaps hid the real talent of the Brown squad.

Despite facing a hardened opponent, the Mammoths found ways to win on the first, fourth and sixth courts.

Wang, despite dropping the first set by a score of 2-11, found his groove in the second and won out to the tune of 11-6, 11-6 and 11-9.

According to Reginald Brewster ’21, head coach Peter Robson’s focus in recent weeks had been on holding steady under stress and winning the “big points.” True to form, the most exciting match of the day took place on the fourth court, where first-year Robinson Armour took down his Brown opponent Philip Demeulenaere in four sets. Like Wang, Armour started shakily with a 7-11 loss in the opening set.

The next three sets were each decided in extra points, Armour battling hard and pulling all three out by two points: 13-11, 12-10, 12-10.

Finally, on court six, senior captain David Merkel was able to pull out a victory in the final important match of his career. Despite a challenge in the third set, he won relatively handily with scores of 11-5, 11-9, 10-12 and 11-7.

With a 3-6 loss in the first round of the tournament, the Mammoths were shunted to the consolation bracket, but still had much to fight for as they played against two familiar NESCAC foes.

They first faced Bowdoin, who they had already beaten twice this season. The Mammoths won on all courts except seven and eight, and four of the matches were sweeps. With a 7-2 victory, Amherst carried some momentum into their next match against Bates. In two previous meetings this year, the Bobcats triumphed over Amherst, so the Mammoths were looking for revenge.

They were met with stiff resistance yet again and consistent play by the Bates players. Rather than improving on the 4-5 loss at NESCACs, the Mammoths, after a long weekend of tough play, faltered and dropped six of nine matches against Bates.

Despite a disappointing end to the season, Robson, Merkel and captain Harith Khawaja ’19 all stressed something more than simply winning.

Robson noted that the squad had improved from No. 26 preseason ranking to No. 22 by the end of the season. “We worked harder this year than we ever have and it paid off,” Merkel said. “We finished higher in the national rankings than last year and the year before that.”

While the season can often exasterbate a “win now” mindset, coaches and captains attempted to keep the team and young players focused on a bigger goal: improvement from year to year.

Robson noted several improved players on the season: first years Charles Sutherby and Armour, playing number three and number four respectively. Accompanied by many sophomores in the starting ladder, the future looks bright for the Mammoth squash team.

On the season as a whole, Khawaja finished by saying: “we managed to turn around our culture. We’ve never been closer as a team and this has led to a culture of dedication, accountability and success.”

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Terrance Wang ’21, who plays on court one for Amherst, won two out of three of his matches this weekend against the opposition’s best.

GAME SCHE DULE

FRI Men’s Swim & Dive @ NESCAC Championship Women’s Squash @ CSA Team Nationals @ Trinity

SAT Men’s Swim & Dive @ NESCAC Championship Men’s Track & Field @ New England DIII Indoor Championship

Women’s Track & Field @ New England DIII Indoor Championship Men’s Hockey vs. Colby, 3 p.m.

Men’s Basketball vs. Williams, 4 p.m. @ Hamilton Women’s Basketball vs. Tufts, 4 p.m.

Women’s Hockey vs. Trinity, 4:30 p.m.