THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868
THE AMHERST
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VOLUME CXLVIII, ISSUE 15 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019
AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM
A Flawed System: The Obstacles of Shared Governance Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief
Photo courtesy of Maria Stenzel
Last May, the college hosted the Walk for Mental Health, which was intended to raise money to grow mental health services on campus. One year after the walk, however, the $25,000 raised by the college has yet to be allocated.
Funds From Mental Health Walk Left Unused Zach Jonas ’22 Staff Writer The Walk for Mental Health that took place last year on May 2 raised $25,000 dollars, intended for allocation to events promoting mental wellbeing. Almost a year after the event, the money has still not been used. The Walk for Mental Health was created by the student group Active Minds, students from the Presidential Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and the Association of Amherst Students. Sarah Wishloff ’19, chair of Active Minds last year, said that the idea for the walk originated in an email from President Biddy Martin in
lieu of Christopher Collins’ death. Christopher Collins ’20 died by suicide in March 2018. The money raised from the Walk for Mental Health was intended for specific projects on campus that focused on mental wellbeing. The college donated a base of $15,000 upfront, Chief Student Affairs Officer Hikaru Kozuma wrote in an email interview. For every student that swiped their keycard at the walk, the college donated an additional $15. According to Kozuma, nearly 400 students, faculty and staff attended the walk. The amount of funds raised by the event totalled $25,000. “It
was understood from the beginning that the funds from the walk would be used to support mental health efforts on campus rather than to donate to an outside organization,” wrote Kozuma. “The community would play a role in what those efforts would be.” As of Feb. 27, the funds have not been used in any way. At a fall 2018 meeting that Active Minds held with Student Affairs, a student body survey was proposed to determine how the funds should be used, said Wishloff. “It was something along the lines of ‘there would be a fund established, and students could apply to use between $50 to $500 to put on events related to mental
health,’” she said. It was unclear whether any concrete decisions were made. The Student contacted Associate Director of Mental Health Promotion Jessica Gifford for comment, but Gifford declined to comment and referred to Kozuma. When Active Minds first approached the college about hosting the walk, the student group proposed a list of changes that the school could make to support mental well-being on campus, Wishloff said. “We knew from the start that we wanted concrete changes to
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Over the last four weeks, The Student examined qualitative and quantitative differences in the experiences of faculty of color at Amherst College. Faculty members spoke about unrecognized burdens of service, racist encounters and unclear expectations for the tenure process. This week, we wrap up the series by looking at the college’s governing principles and how they sometimes play a role in preventing substantial action. Because the college operates on the basis of faculty governance, which grants democratic authority to all faculty members and aims for a smaller branch of administration, very little is actually mandatory for faculty members at the college. The dean of faculty’s retreat on inclusive pedagogies is not mandatory, nor are other workshops held by the college. Faculty members are only strongly encouraged to attend. All faculty are also highly encouraged to attend faculty meetings that take place two or three times per semester. Because of this form of governance, faculty members tend to take on more administrative and service roles at the college. And oftentimes, the lack of a more structured approach leads to little action on axes of diversity and inclusion. This was confirmed in the 2018
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