Issue 15

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Like us on Facebook! @AmherstStudent

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

Continued on Page 3

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

Continued on Page 4

News Feb. 18, 2019 - Feb. 25, 2019

>>Feb. 18, 2019 1:24 p.m., Science Center Bags with personal items were stolen from the Science Center.

3:32 p.m., Amherst College Police Department An officer assisted a student with fingerprinting for a job. >>Feb. 19, 2019 10:17 a.m., Converse Hall A phishing scam was used in an attempt to steal money. The theft was not successful. >>Feb. 20, 2019 1:45 p.m., Jenkins Dormitory Items prohibited from the residence halls were removed by the Department of Environmental Health and Safety.

6:18 p.m., Valentine Hall A court-issued restraining order was provided to the ACPD. >>Feb. 21, 2019 7:04 a.m., Mayo-Smith Parking Lot Vehicles were parked on a sidewalk, preventing snow removal. The registered owners were contacted and told to move the vehicles.

8:26 a.m., Off Campus Locations A student reported a motor vehicle crash that occurred off campus and involved an Amherst College vehicle.

11:32 p.m., Cohan Dor-

Rachel Cohen Thoughts on Theses

mitory Officers responded to an alarm and found it was caused by burnt food. >>Feb. 23, 2019 12:29 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory A fire alarm was caused by a dry chemical fire extinguisher being sprayed despite no fire. >>Feb. 24, 2019 1:08 a.m., Powerhouse Officers responded to a fight that was broken up on arrival. Minor injuries occurred as a result.

3:28 p.m., Dakin House Two individuals broke into a building that was closed for use and marked for no trespassing.

7:39 p.m., Converse Hall A bicycle that was not secured with a lock was stolen from the bicycle rack. >>Feb. 25, 2019 5:17 a.m., Moore Dormitory A former student was seen parking in various areas on campus for brief periods of time.

2:15 p.m., Off Campus Locations An Amherst College pool vehicle was involved in a minor motor vehicle accident.

5:19 p.m., 79 South Pleasant Street Lot Due to high winds, a tree limb fell on a vehicle and caused damage.

Department of Biology

Rachel Cohen is a biology major. Her thesis focuses on the impact of coevolution between plants and fungal pathogens on susceptibility to certain diseases. Her thesis advisor is Professor of Biology Michael Hood.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: My thesis examines the way pathogens and hosts have coevolved over time and how these symbiotic relationships affect ecological diseases. My thesis specifically looks at Microbotryum, a fungal pathogen that infects plants in the carnations family. I am using five different genetic strains of the pathogen so that I can research how different genetic strains affect diseases in the same host plant. I am working in Professor Hood’s lab, which focuses on disease ecology.

Q: How did you come up with this idea for your thesis?

A: The process of coming up with a thesis is a little different for biology majors, because in the department, we collaborate much more with professors to decide on a topic. I knew that I was interested in evolution, symbiosis and disease ecology. After telling Professor Hood my interests, he provided me [with] past theses and other research papers to read so that I could obtain more strategies and see what I liked. After collaborating some more with him, I decided to write about how plants can become more or less resistant over time when inoculated with pathogens. What’s amazing about this topic is that it combines evolution, symbiosis and disease ecology into one paper.

Q: What conclusions have found?

A: I don’t have any conclusions yet because I am still in the data collection process. However, my hypothesis is that if I take a host plant and inoculate it with five different genetic strains of the Microbotryum pathogen, then the genetics in the strains will affect the plant’s resistance to diseases.

Q: What has been your favorite part of the whole process?

A: I have had multiple favorite parts.

One of my favorite parts was getting to do field collections for the carnations plant in the Italian Alps. The plant is located in the Italian Alps, which is why I had the opportunity to go. The experience was amazing because I also got to do some hiking and exploring. Another thing that I have really enjoyed is the amount of ownership that I have over this project. I want to pursue research in my life, and getting to completely direct my own project has been an experience of growth for me. I also enjoy spending time in the greenhouse because it’s very calming.

Q: What has been the hardest part?

A: Writing a thesis is a test of perseverance. For the past month, I have been working on it for four to six hours a day, and I have had to study 4,000 plants. The pace of research is also a lot slower than the timeline you

have for your thesis. Therefore, writing my thesis has been an extremely significant time commitment, so I really have had to keep persevering.

Q: What advice do you have for other thesis writers?

A: My main piece of advice is that if you decide to write a thesis, make sure you’re really interested in the topic. Otherwise, you will definitely burn out, because writing a thesis takes a lot of time and energy, and there are many points where you’ll want to give up. Also, make sure that you have a good relationship with your advisor, because advisors are crucial support systems throughout the entire process.

Q: How would you describe your relationship with your advisor?

A: I didn’t know Professor Hood very well before my thesis, but when we went to Italy, his entire family was there. Professor Hood has been extremely supportive of me and has helped me every step of the way.

He is supportive in a very “handsoff” way. For instance, if I ask him a question, he won’t give me a straight answer because he wants me to develop as a researcher. His “hands-off” support and kindness has definitely helped me take ownership over my own project.

Got a tip?

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

—Corey Jacobson ’22

News 3

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

Mental Health Walk Money Untouched One Year Later Continued from Page 1

result from the money raised,” she said.

Some of those proposals include increased faculty training to help students with mental health problems and additional resources such as increased staff member for the Counseling Center to support its growing demand.

“We wanted more counselors of color and counselors trained to address the LGBTQ population.

Some students told us they felt like their issues were not understood by the counselors,” Wishloff added.

“Our initial problem with this was that students have the burden of mental health challenges, so the solution should come from

the school,” Wishloff said. She mentioned that though the money raised by the Walk for Mental Health was not enough to fund new staff at the Counseling Center, it could support alleviating mental health issues in some way.

Christina Lee ’20, who attended the walk, said that many students attended the walk to show support for those who are suffer-

ing from mental health problems.

“The first-year quad was completely covered with people. At the end of the walk, the Counseling Center and the wellness team took suggestions as to how to better improve their services,” she said. “That the college is willing to give so much money for a cause really shows that it is here to support the student body.”

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to make the Walk for Mental Health a tradition at the college. I think expanding the Counseling Center staff and resources could be a good start. I think people would be upset when they find out that the money raised from the event has not been productively used yet — it’s just been sitting in the hands of the school,” Lee added.

Pathways Discontinued After Decline in Participation Ryan Yu ’22 Managing News Editor At the end of fall semester, the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning suspended its Pathways Mentorship Program, citing declining student engagement and the growth of other alumni-student initiatives. This termination comes after 18 months of review in partnership with the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs, which concluded that the resources dedicated to Pathways would be best used elsewhere.

The program, which was designed to facilitate digital mentorships between students and alumni, launched in 2013 with significant enthusiasm from the student body.

According to a report from the Loeb Center, Pathways maintained 311 active alumni-student relationships at its peak in the 2014-2015 school year.

However, this level of enthusiasm has gradually fizzled out, with the program falling below 50 mentorships in the past semester.

“Every single year since 2015, there’s been, on average, about a 40 percent decline in student enrollment. That’s what prompted us to begin a process to think about what we should do with this platform,” said Emily Griffen, director of the Loeb Center. “In the end, we came to the conclusion that the program wasn’t serving the needs of our students as well as many of our other resources, and that it would be better to turn our attention to making sure to bolster those.”

Part of the reason Pathways has lost its effectiveness is a key flaw in

its design, according to Griffen.

“Some schools that have had a more successful alumni mentorship program, [their programs] were extremely small scale, face-to-face and high-touch. They mirrored more closely what we do already with our career programming,” said Griffen.

“When we conceived Pathways, we were thinking about volume, and that wasn’t the best intentional goal … Mentoring and those kinds of relationships — it’s organic, it’s authentic. It’s really limited how that’s going to grow out of an online platform.”

Although many stakeholders were consulted and indicated tacit approval for this move, some people expressed their regret at losing this avenue of alumni-student engagement.

“Having individually emailed the alumni that were especially robust users, these alumni had a minor amount of sadness, but they were like, ‘This makes sense,” said Amanda Rivera López ’93, executive director of Alumni and Parent Programs. “They weren’t initially aware of the declining student use, so when they understood that, it became really clear that this was the right decision.”

Both Griffen and López emphasized that the discontinuation of Pathways does not mean a weakening of efforts to connect alumni and students. “[Alumni] really stressed to us that this intergenerational connection is still very important, that it’s very important that we facilitate points of contact between students and alumni,” said Griffen. “That really encouraged us to never lose sight of that connection.”

Photo courtesy of Taylor Thomas ‘22

The Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning announced that it will be terminating its Pathways mentorship program after seeing a decrease in student engagement.

“One of the directives in the strategic plan [is] to facilitate alumni-student connections. So we are always looking for places where that can happen,” added López. “Some of them are more formal, like making sure that the Loeb Center has good information about alumni, but also really informal things, like making sure that students are invited to alumni events in the January break.”

Griffen and López highlighted several programs that already work towards connecting students and alumni, including Food for Thought lunches, career trek events and training programs that teach students how to use the alumni directory. Griffen also noted that the Loeb Center is planning on piloting a new

“alumni-in-residence program” next year in response to the closure of Pathways.

“The idea capitalizes on a lot of the ways that we already work with alumni,” said Griffen. “Basically, the alumni-in-residence program will engage an alum more as a co-educator. Instead of a one-off, ‘Oh, great, you’ll do this event, we’ll see you on campus, there you go,’ we will spend more time talking to them about what students are asking, what we’re hearing and guiding them on how they can spend a day on campus engaging with students.”

In any case, neither Griffen nor López expressed worry over the temporary gap in alumni-student programming, believing current

programming to be more than sufficient. They cited how 424 alumni-student connections were formed through other Loeb Center events last year, far exceeding engagement through Pathways, as well as the capacities of the alumni directory to fill in the gaps originally covered by Pathways.

Ben Stick ’22 agreed that other resources satisfy his needs. “I’ve never heard of the [Pathways Mentorship] program. I just use the alumni directory. It’s just easier to email them,” said Stick. “[A mentor of mine] told me that what he did as a freshman was that he just kept on reaching out to alumni, and that’s how he ended up finding his job. So that’s what I do.”

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

News 4

Faculty of Color Look to Redefine Merit, Governing Values

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ’22

Though the college has taken steps towards hiring more faculty of color in recent years, many of its governing principles prevent substantive change from occurring.

Continued from Page 1 accreditation report released by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which identified that “[t]hough governance structures are deliberate, they can impede action.”

The evaluation team wrote that “clear assent to the premise that the college urgently needs to upgrade its administrative capacity (especially in areas such as student life, diversity and inclusion, compliance, and health services) was also heard.”

Much of Professor of English and Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Officer Marisa Parham and colleague Allen Hart’s work involves helping enfranchise “people in the system and also enfranchise them to take charge of the system” — to have conversations with professors about power and “structural vulnerability.”

For Parham, though, this does not merely include top-down directives in which a clear power relation exists between administrators and faculty members.

“For me it’s figuring out how to get the system to work with less load, more collectively, more transparently and with more comfort while at the same time upholding the independence and sovereignty of faculty, which you do have to have as faculty,” Parham said.

Redefining Merit All the professors interviewed by The Student said they were encouraged by recent pushes for senior hires of faculty of color and the creation of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI).

Other opportunities for faculty development include subscriptions to and programs developed by the National Consortium for Faculty Diversity and Development, external mentorship for pre-tenure faculty and various workshops hosted by the Office of the Dean of Faculty and ODI. Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein has also began working with department chairs to standardize mentoring practices across the college.

Professor of Black studies, Latinx and Latin American studies and English Rhonda Cobham-Sander applauded students for centering issues of diversity and inclusion through Amherst Uprising, a student-held sit-in in November 2015 that protested the marginalization of minority groups on campus.

“The great thing about the Uprising was that it put everything out there,” she said. “People had to name their commitment to these ideals as ideals and also their commitment to doing something about what was happening. It was very gratifying to me to see how many faculty came, listened, looked inside themselves, tried to think about how they could

be most helpful … For the first time I felt that all these issues I’d heard about behind closed doors were not just addressed to me but everyone.”

For Professor of American studies Robert Hayashi, next steps involve having conversations about the structural markers of excellence among faculty.

“I see my role here as something different [from what the institution expects] and want that to be acknowledged,” he said. “To me that’s important to acknowledge: trying to move some of those markers in terms of what we want our faculty

to do and the ways they enable their students.”

That is more than writing a brilliant journal article for publication, he said. It can include mentoring students of color or stepping into the role of adviser for affinity groups on campus. “For some faculty members, because the college didn’t provide some of those support systems [for students], we’re then forced to kind of work for the college because they didn’t think about things or bring in enough supports,” he said.

Though certain professors may be happy to take on such roles, he said, this kind of work also merits validation and celebration and should be taken into consideration when pre-tenure faculty members are reviewed for tenure.

Change also means having difficult conversations about the way moments — such as microaggressions — affect people differently.

“We come out of different histories and different backgrounds,” he said.

“There are things that have happened that are unintentional. We can’t change the history of the institution but we can change the future of the institution.”

A Promising Future Professor of Spanish, Latinx and Latin American studies and film and media studies Paul A. Schroeder Rodriguez is hopeful for change among the current generation of professors.

The senior faculty member who

made the unwelcome comment about his name was on the verge of retirement. That means the senior professor was at Amherst when it was an all-male college.

“I don’t want to generalize, but in that one case [of racial injury], it is clear to me that there is a generational component and a cultural component at work,” he said. “And all the faculty that I’ve seen that are tenure-line belong to a different culture, from what I’ve seen. They come much more sensitized to the differences in class, gender. I think people have always been sensitive to them but have not necessarily reflected on them to the point where their actions reflect their best selves. People entering the market as faculty now after graduate school, I think there’s work being done at that stage. That’s what I imagine.”

He is happy that at Amherst, he has the resources to integrate his love for his hometown and communities into his work. In Spring 2018, he took a group of students to Puerto Rico and plans to do something similar again.

A pre-tenure professor who asked to remain anonymous due to her untenured status said that she has been encouraged by the college’s recent focus on inclusive pedagogy, including the creation of the Center for Teaching and Learning.

“What that group has been able

Continued on Page 5

A 2017 internal report found that at Amherst College, 33 percent of black non-Hispanic tenure-line faculty were denied tenure, in contrast to the 1 percent of white faculty.

News 5

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

Professors Applaud Efforts to Expand Resources for People of Color Continued from Page 4 to do is focus on teaching to all different kinds of people, all different kinds of learners,” she said. “There’s a way in which diversity and inclusion can get folded into some of those things, so that has become a possible place for faculty who have been here for a while to learn about changing up their game.”

“Cultural change is small, it’s incremental, it’s slow, but all these things are interconnected, so it helps to look at them and think of them together because they’re really all related to each other,” she added.

Change is a slow process, but it takes work on all parties involved — this was acknowledged among all the professors interviewed.

“We don’t have a robust language

here or at any institution for thinking about structural vulnerability,” Parham said. “On the one hand you can make the argument that you want to imagine a professor who is individual and sovereign, but on the other hand you can also make the argument that that doesn’t actually account for vulnerability.”

Formulating that language is key, she said.

“I really do think there’s space for intervention and for transformation,” she added. “We’ve actually been able to impact and change things.”

For Cobham-Sander, the institution has grown and evolved throughout her time at Amherst. Though it is still a “hard struggle,” she said it is a better institution than it was when she first arrived.

“I think this administration has

done a lot, too,” she said “They don’t always get it, but they are prepared to try and make resources available.

That’s a lot more than has been the case in the past … I’m glad the institution is taking responsibility for this, not just me.”

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

Professor Connects Black Lives Matter to Baldwin in Talk Natalie De Rosa ’21 Managing News Editor On Feb. 20, author and Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. gave a talk at the college titled “Interrogation of Excellence in the Black Experience.”

The talk, which was held in Cole Assembly Room, is the last installment in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr./ Black History Month Symposium speaker series.

A professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton, Glaude additionally boasts previous visiting scholar positions at Harvard and Amherst. He regularly writes for Time and MSNBC, and is the author of multiple books including “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul,” among other books.

Glaude began his talk by sharing a story about his son who had left home for college. Though he noted that missing his son was a normal feeling, he added that the sentiment was amplified by the fact that his son is a black man in America.

“My son attended Brown University but that doesn’t matter. He is still subject to a kind of precarity that comes with being a black person in this country,” he said. “At any moment some police officer could see him as a threat, and because of the value — or should I say lack of value — according to his body, he could easily suffer premature death.”

Relying on the concept of excellence as a backdrop for the rest of his talk, Glaude further invoked inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement and author James Baldwin’s writing to analyze the current state of black bodies in the U.S.

“America sometimes resembles an exceedingly monotonous minstrel show,” he quoted from Baldwin.

In examining the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Glaude noted the uptick in the belief that white lives have more value.

The rise in this sentiment, he added, brings to light the root of white supremacy.

“White supremacy is more than bad people in hooded robes burning crosses … These people are easily condemnable. White supremacy involves the way our society organizes itself and whom it chooses to value,” Glaude said.

Because of the barriers white supremacy poses on black people, Glaude said, it becomes more difficult for black people to achieve excellence. To encapsulate his definition of excellence, Glaude raised another term: black democratic perfectionism. Black democratic perfectionism, according to Glaude, encompasses a “radical cultivation of democratic individuality in the service of racial justice.”

“I don’t mean some facile, bourgeois idea of individualism consistent with the political rationale of neoliberalism,” he added. Glaude separated black democratic perfectionism from the preppy, curated brands of certain Black Lives Matter personas, joking that it often involved “blue Patagonia vests.”

Turning back to Baldwin, Glaude described the “negro problem,” in which black people feel a sense of generational powerlessness, having suffered through systemic hardship and watching their children continue to experience the same things.

“You gotta create, in that child, some way of surviving this particular world, some way to make the child who will be despised not despise himself,” Glaude said.

This distortment of the sense of self complicates the path towards perfectionism, forcing one to confront what Baldwin called reality.

“That assertion [of perfectionism] requires an unflinching encounter with the ugliness of who we are and a rejection of comforting illusions that hide the lie of all of the rot underneath the American idea,” he said.

For black people, staying put and not confronting this reality means surrendering themselves to death. Because of this reality, according to Baldwin, one must recognize that history is not merely a

book but rather something that lives within an individual. Glaude then cautioned against equating principles with experiences, adding that “such an approach to history requires a black self in particular that isn’t reducible to sociology.”

Glaude afterwards reflected on his experience as a Princeton professor navigating the world of elitism. Though the university offers a sense of escape, he noted that “the moment I leave Princeton, I walk into a segregated environment.”

This dichotomy exposes the richness and complexity of black democratic perfectionism, Glaude added. Oftentimes that means becoming wounded, to which Glaude compared to broken pots that are repaired by filling the cracks with gold, making them more valuable.

“This is what I mean by Baldwin’s black democratic perfectionism — it starts with brokenness,” he said.

The talk was followed by a Q&A session, in which Glaude talked about issues including trauma and protest movements at Amherst.

“We have to begin again for those young people, and dare to break free,” Glaude concluded.

Shatoyia Jones ’21, who attended the event, found Glaude’s discussion on self-image pertinent.

“The main thing I took away from [his] speech is that we are seeking approval from the institutions we seek to dismantel,” she said.

“It is difficult to escape that need for approval when all we have heard and grew up with is that white is better.”

Photo courtesy of Natalie De Rosa ’21

Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude gave a talk on Feb. 20 in Cole Assembly Room about James Baldwin’s idea of black democratic perfectionism and black excellence.

Opinion Holding the Patriots Accountable

THE AMHERST

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

I was scrolling through Instagram on Friday afternoon when across my screen came the words “BREAKING NEWS” with Robert Kraft’s droopy face smack dab in the middle. I quickly discovered that Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, was being charged with solicitation of prostitution. Kraft is implicated in a sex trafficking probe — authorities discovered that he visited a Florida spa in which women were held against their will in an alleged sex trafficking ring. The Martin County Sherriff William Snyder remarked in a CNN article, “I would contend today that it’s the men in the shadows that are the monsters in this equation. And without moralizing, none of this would happen if those men were not availing themselves and participating in this human misery.” The first thing that popped into my mind was a juvenile desire to hold this newfound information over the numerous smug Patriots fans I see walking about campus. I thought, “Yeah! One more questionable circumstance on a long list that makes the Patriots a supremely suspect organization!!”

And I do have a point. The Patriots have legitimately cheated several times throughout their “illustrious” history: most notably in 2007 with Spygate, and in 2015 with Deflategate. In 2007, the Patriots were accused of filming one of the New York Jets’ coaches during a game. In 2015, the NFL found that somebody on the Patriots staff intentionally deflated the game balls Tom Brady used. Good old Tom was suspended from four games as a result. This beloved quarterback, whom New England fans proudly proclaim the GOAT, is also good friends with President Donald Trump (along with infallible leader Robert Kraft).

Last time I checked, Trump was public enemy number one in New England. Last time I checked, cheating was a no-no. Last time I checked, most New Englanders didn’t stand for the idea of rich old white men doing whatever they wanted. Sure, I can be a little sympathetic. We all love winning, right?

But enough is enough.

To the insecure, defensive Patriots

groupie, I am not writing this as a “fuck you” to all the fans that get under my skin.

If thinking my argument is that simple and petty makes you feel better, go ahead.

Instead, I genuinely want to reflect on the paradox between seemingly liberal New England tenets and this beloved football team’s inextricable connections with cringy, despicable values.

If anything, Patriots fans should be flattered. I think you all are too good, too woke. Can’t you see that it’s impossible to support the Patriots without, to some degree, turning a blind eye to shady behavior? And yes, it’s hard to emphasize a purely moral argument to this devoted fanbase. Patriots fans don’t want to hear that their team cheated. Patriots fans don’t want to become inflamed by Tom Brady’s bland politics.

No, Tom, it’s unacceptable that you say in respect to Trump, “It’s pretty amazing what he’s been able to accomplish.” Patriots fans certainly don’t want to connect owner Robert Kraft’s questionable actions to their franchise winning its sixth Super Bowl. But they should. I think that all fans (especially Patriots enthusiasts) have a responsibility to acknowledge the baggage that comes with their professional sports teams. New England’s values and politics stand for too much in our country to have these confounding contradictions.

Ultimately, this raises a bigger issue about the ethics of professional sports and a clear disjointedness between owners, players and fans. NFL owners in particular are notorious for drawing the ire of their employees. The manner in which they dealt — or neglected to deal — with the national anthem protests started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick this past year isa clear indication of this. Nonetheless, I believe that New England has what it takes to be a devoted fan base while holding its own teams accountable for their immoral actions. It can be a leader in this regard. Right now, however, — at least at Amherst College — Patriots fans come across as obnoxious, overly-defensive hypocrites who revel in victory and meekly disregard legitimate controversy.

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 Instagram: @amherststudent Like The Amherst Student on Facebook amherststudent.com.

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

Opinion 7

Using Activism in Advertising Jack Kiryk ’21 Contributing Writer Wondering how to bring attention to your company? A new advertising strategy seems to be gaining momentum. Certain industry giants have used advertisements to take a stance on societal issues and tensions demonstrating a political climate more open to social activism than it might seem. This Sunday, Feb. 24, Nike released a commercial for the Oscars that highlights the double standards and barriers women face in sports. Narrated by tennis player Serena Williams and featuring notable athletes such as gymnast Sim-

one Biles, the advertisement sends viewers a message to “dream bigger” despite the constant sexism endured by female athletes. At one point, male reporters make audible commentary remarking that female athletes “need to calm down.” Though the advertisement risks angering some audiences, judging from responses to past advertisements that critique social structures, Nike clearly decided that the extra attention this commercial will bring is beneficial — the company wants to show where it stands on a legitimate social issue.

This trend of advertising activism is not limited to Nike. It may have begun when Nike released an adver-

tisement featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, revealing its support for him despite the NFL’s stance and national backlash; however, in mid-January, Gillette released an ad targeting toxic masculinity which blew up the internet. Gillette’s ad prompted significant anger over a message that some interpreted as too pushy — too forcefully opinionated on how men should behave. People were furious that Gillette promoted a message of base moral goodness in its new commercial. How people could be angered by such an ad may be baffling to some, but it is not surprising. Gillette must have analyzed the cost benefits of releasing such a

forceful and incendiary commercial.

Nike’s Kaepernick ad was also heavily criticized; it was called un-American, and some reactionary consumers even burned their Nike gear (which has proven to be an ineffective boycotting technique, but go ahead).

Similarly, Nike was aware that it would stir controversy, but that did not stop the company from continuing to produce social and political commentary.

Maybe there is a new wave in advertising — create ads that inspire and prompt discussion, and it will pay off financially. According to Time Magazine, Nike sales jumped 31 percent from Sunday to Tuesday

over the weekend that it released its Kaepernick commercial. Companies that are large enough simply do not care since they benefit from significantly increased airtime. This new model of advertisement is representative of our national political climate; it shows that a company’s profits are not overtly harmed by opinionated marketing. If they were, shareholders would almost certainly cut them off. This is not the case, so maybe providing messages of strength, perseverance and moral good is beneficial for business. This leaves us with a hopeful conclusion: the opposition to these messages is smaller and less driven than we may have predicted.

The Dangers of Celebrity Politicians Thomas Brodey ’22 Contributing Writer When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for president this past week, he sent a message to America. It is clear that Sanders intends to continue to lead the progressive movement, which he helped create four years ago and still exerts enormous influence over. While Sanders’ determination to see his agenda achieved is commendable, his insistence on personally leading the movement is harmful to progressive values in America.

It is an ironic fact that populist movements tend to be spearhead-

ed not by large groups of people, but by charismatic individuals.

Sanders and President Donald Trump both fit this mold, as do historical figures like Huey Long, Robert Kennedy and William Jennings Bryan. Political “celebrities” of this sort distinguish themselves from more conventional leaders because of the enormous amount of influence they have over their respective movements and because of their incredibly loyal and devoted supporters. Trump and Sanders supporters, for example, are notoriously loyal to their leaders. The amount of enthusiasm these celebrities generate gives their movement a short boost. The problem is

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Populist movements should start moving away from figureheads like Sen. Bernie Sanders, says Thomas Brodey ‘22.

that this passion is eventually directed not at the ideas of the cause, but at the celebrity themselves.

Even if they are completely devoted to their cause, populist celebrities are imperfect vessels for communicating their movement’s agenda. By implicitly presenting themselves as the embodiment of a political campaign, a celebrity associates all of their flaws or eccentricities with the movement itself. Donald Trump, for example, launched his campaign with a platform that included many legitimate concerns about corruption in Washington, but because of Trump’s own racist and aggressive tendencies, the cause of right-wing populist reform has become indelibly associated with racism and violence.

As a result, Trump supporters are more sympathetic to aggression and discrimination because Trump exhibits these traits. But opponents of Trump are more likely to disregard everything in his platform because they dislike him. Sanders’ own identity has limited the scope of his movement in its own way.

Sanders’ race and background have distanced minority voters from him, and consequently from his platform. Appointing an individual as the head of a movement hurts the cause’s image and scope.

Hitching a movement to a single gifted individual also has dramatic

consequences for the longevity of the movement. Celebrities tend to burn bright and fast, and when they are dead or retired, in the minds of many the movement itself has died. Factions form, and any unity which the group possessed dissipates. The lefist programs of Long and Kennedy, for instance, both ended with the assassination of their leader. Sanders is 77 years old. If he continues to stifle the ascendancy of new progressive leaders, then in a few years progressives could find themselves completely leaderless and directionless, like so many other populist movements in American history.

In the early 1890s, the Populist Party, founded on a broad series of progressive issues such as the introduction of an income tax and better working conditions, emerged in American politics.

The party grew gradually until it hitched itself to Democratic presidential candidate Bryan. Captivated by Bryan’s eloquence and hoping to achieve a bigger national profile, the populists threw all their weight into electing Bryan, despite the fact that his platform did not entirely overlap with their own.

In the end, Bryan was defeated in the election of 1896, and since the Populists had decided to not focus on down-ballot elections, the party lost all its influence and rapidly vanished. This is a good example

of how the inconsistency of political celebrities can nullify the more steady views of the people.

American democracy is based on the idea that individuals with similar ideas band together to form movements which then change the country. But too often these groups give up their power to decide the direction of their movement by choosing an inspiring celebrity to lead them. Charismatic and influential leaders like Trump and Sanders have the ability to subvert the democratic process by twisting the ideas of the people who helped elect them. To achieve maximum success, a movement must be spearheaded by local organizations which remain loyal to their ideas and not to national figures.

Many people, myself included, hoped that Bernie Sanders would gradually withdraw himself from politics and leave the management of the movement to others. But if Sanders succeeds in once again asserting his dominance of the left, progressivism will continue to be his movement, and consequently never be greater than the man himself. I don’t claim that Sanders is as far down this path as Trump, but his actions show that he wants to continue in that direction.

While I don’t doubt that Sanders’ intentions are good, his actions are harmful both for the ideas and people he claims to represent.

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

Opinion 8

Progressive Values: How to Win in 2020

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Picking a progressive candidate over a more moderate, centrist one would lead to greater electoral success for Democrats in 2020, argues Cole Graber-Mitchell ‘22.

Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 Contributing Writer It’s time for the 2020 election cycle, and with this come the claims that Democratic politicians are moving too far to the left. To some, this might seem problematic given that people care about getting food on the table, not ideological questions — as if you can separate the two. These appeals to the center, however, miss the importance of articulating a vision for America that goes beyond specific policy proposals. Instead, progressive values will guide liberal politics and help sweep a Democratic candidate into the White House in 2020.

The logic of moderation goes something like this: voters don’t respond to ideological overtures as well as they respond to socalled “bread-and-butter” issues.

If progressive candidates move too far to the left, Americans will view them as ideologues and not problem-solvers. It’s similar to the logic behind electability, which argues that we need someone assumed to have broad appeal — a centrist candidate, not a progressive one. In this line of thinking, moderates are more electable than candidates farther to the left or right. If this

were true, though, Hillary Clinton should have won the 2016 election. It’s undeniable that now-President Donald Trump was a more radical candidate than Clinton, and yet she lost.

As our current president shows, this logic of electability has a major shortcoming in that it assumes voters support candidates based on the policies they promote, completely missing how we actually decide who to vote for. Trump didn’t win the 2016 election because voters liked his policies more — Clinton was the one with thought-out, specific policies for helping the people. Trump won because he understood how to successfully promote his values. As proof, look at his wall.

Trump’s call for a wall on the southern border is not because he (or his supporters) believes it will fix anything. Instead, it’s symbolic of a value he promotes: America is for native-born citizens, not immigrants. Through the metaphor of the wall and demonization of hard-working immigrants, Trump made this moral hierarchy popular among enough voters to win. He didn’t settle for a moderate, pragmatic approach to campaigning. After all, how many of his supporters interact with undocumented

Americans every day in a breadand-butter fashion?

Rather than trying to win the center through moderation, Trump popularized his conservative morality to win moderates through persuasion. In his progressive communication handbook “Don’t Think of an Elephant,” George Lakoff calls this moral code a “frame.” He argues there are two frames in American politics: the conservative and the progressive. When a candidate successfully invokes one of those frames of thinking, they convince voters. In the conservative frame, the rule of the day is paternalism. Those that are “superior” are obligated to instruct and discipline those “inferior.” It goes something like this: the rich are wealthy because of hard work, making them morally superior to the poor. Therefore the rich should have an outsize influence on politics. Non-criminals are superior to criminals, so a justice system that degrades convicts — and takes away their political rights — is moral. Lurking under the surface are the hidden values in conservative policies: men are more rational than women, so it’s okay that men regulate women’s health; white people are better than minorities, so it’s fine that minorities are deprived of life,

livelihood and liberty. Once we understand this frame of moral superiority, the connection between pro-business policy, anti-abortion activism and family values becomes clear.

In contrast to this frame stands the progressive moral code. We believe that empathy and compassion drive American values. We value other people as human beings, equally rational as ourselves, but subject to different circumstances. We recognize that criminals aren’t less than human; they’re exactly human. We understand the emotional and psychological pain of having an abortion and try to make that process as painless as possible. We sympathize with immigrants fleeing violence and extreme poverty, trying to make a better life for their families in the United States — just as many of our own ancestors did. While we won’t ever know the experiences of others, we can listen and learn from them as equals, rather than as moral superiors.

Just like the conservative frame,

“

This vision should be based on the values that progressives hold dear, because these values are American values.

”

all progressive politics spring from this understanding of morality. When we show America our frame, we win elections and build a bigger base.

In order to succeed in 2020, a Democratic candidate can’t be uninspired or uninspiring. Instead, they must express a vision for America totally at odds with conservative designs. This vision should be based on the values that progressives hold dear, be-

cause these values are American values. Our country was founded on compassion: the first book published in the United States in 1789 was titled “The Power of Sympathy.” And the symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, has compassion emblazoned on its base. Only when we express a vision grounded in age-old American ideals — progressive ideals — can we win over moderates.

While progressives may seem idealistic, it isn’t because we don’t understand the issues that matter to everyday Americans.

We are everyday Americans.

Rather, it’s because we realize putting food on the table is inextricably linked with criminal justice reform, safe and rewarding jobs and education. We know our health is tied to the natural world, and that saving our planet requires an exceptional effort guided by lofty, idealistic goals.

We see how immigrants make an outsized contribution to our society, paying taxes without recognition or the benefits of citizenship.

This isn’t to say that compromise isn’t important in legislation and rule-making. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that in order to compromise, we need to be guided by a firm set of values.

We need a position to compromise from in the first place. More practically, though, we need the progressive movement to have real political power, especially in the presidency. By ceding ideology to the political right, we lose the war before the battle.

The only way to win an election in a two-party system is to win the middle, and to do that, we need persuasion, not pandering. When we support exciting, inspiring and yes, idealistic candidates, we present a vision for our collective future and strengthen this vision in the mind of Americans at large. Who we need in 2020 isn’t a centrist, uninspiring Democratic candidate. Instead, we need to nominate a visionary who can show voters our dreams for the future.

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

Opinion 9

If I May: Unfollow @fuckjerry — Part 2 Jake May ’19 Columnist When Chris Smith, director of Netflix’s “FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened,” was asked about Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” paying Billy McFarland — Fyre Fest creator — to appear in its documentary, he had this to say: “After spending time with so many people who had such a negative impact on their lives from their experience at Fyre, it felt particularly wrong to us for [McFarland] to be benefitting.” Although McFarland was reportedly paid less than $250,000 to appear in the film, the sum he received was reportedly in the six-figure range. This issue is certainly worth unpacking. While Hulu’s Fyre documentary certainly reported on McFarland and his company’s indictments, it also allowed him to benefit off of his own decline. Yet Netflix’s own documentary on the Fyre Festival also draws concern.

In fact, if you look a little closer at Netflix’s Fyre documentary, insidious hypocrisy comes to light.

Last week, I wrote about the Instagram account @fuckjerry and encouraged all of my readers to unfollow this account. To recap, the @ fuckjerry team takes screenshots of internet memes (often found on Twitter) created by other users, then posts them to the @fuckjerry page, where they get hundreds of thousands of likes. The page, which hovers around 14 million followers, has become the most prominent meme account on Instagram.

The problem is that they are no longer a meme account. They are an advertising company.

“FuckJerry has used such content to create ads for brands such as MTV and Burger King, reportedly making up to $30,000 per post,” writes George Civeris in a column for the Columbia Journalism Review. “When original content creators attempt to claim ownership over their jokes or ask for them to be taken down, FuckJerry responds by ignoring, blocking or mocking them.”

Because of its success, @fuckjerry has been able to evolve into Jerry Media, a full-on advertising

firm. You might remember Mick Purzycki from “FYRE.” He was interviewed because he is the CEO of Jerry Media, which was the advertising company hired by McFarland to promote the event.

This interview makes a lot of sense; a big part of the unfortunate spectacle of the Fyre Festival was the marketing campaign leading up to the event. However, Purzycki, as well as Elliot Tebele and James Ohlinger of @fuckjerry were producers of the documentary. In fact, documents show that at one point, Purzycki was allowed to have a final say on the cut of the movie. Netflix has since refuted this claim, saying that his authority was ultimately revoked. But the fact remains that Purzycki and Jerry Media had a seat at the table in spinning their own story.

“

The problem is that they are no longer a meme account. They are an advertisement company.

” Re-watching both movies with this knowledge, the Netflix documentary begins to feel nearly as slimy as the subjects themselves.

Josephine Livingstone, in a superb investigative article for The New Republic, notes the discrepancies in the respective documentaries: “Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” focused on social media marketing agency FuckJerry — which is trying to rebrand as Jerry Media — and its complicity in McFarland’s doomed project.”

But Netflix’s “Fyre” was mysteriously quiet on that issue, instead highlighting eye-poppingly nefarious anecdotes, like event producer Andy King’s claim that he came very close to performing fellatio on a customs official to extract a detained shipment of Evian water.

It is important to understand Jerry Media’s deep attachment to

the Fyre Festival’s successful scam.

“It was FuckJerry that had hyped up the festival into an Instagram craze, using mysterious orange squares to tease its announcement,” Livingstone writes.

Jerry Media released a statement claiming that all of its actions during the lead-up to the documentary were done at the insistence of McFarland and those close to the festival. However, as Livingstone notes, the Hulu documentary claims that “FuckJerry was aware of the problems in the festival’s production, but proceeded full steam ahead anyway.”

Without the knowledge that Jerry Media was seemingly at the center of “FYRE,” the documentary feels like a cohesive and exhaustive retelling of the scam that was Fyre Festival.

However, knowing that those who were directly responsible for the event’s promotion were involved in this retelling, the entire film reads more like a scam itself.

The film takes great steps to shirk all blame on McFarland, repeatedly noting what an incredible salesman he is. Like Ja Rule claimed on Twitter after the documentaries dropped, “FYRE” aims to show that all those involved were “hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked and led astray.” However, it seems that the team at Jerry Media was more interested in leading us astray than they were in telling the whole story. As Livingstone solemnly notes, “the way the movie was produced suggests that FuckJerry used the film to launder the troubled company’s reputation.”

So, I urge you again to unfollow @fuckjerry. Not only have they been profiting off of stolen work for years, they also have deliberately deceived the public in order to protect their reputation.

Of course, this is not to say that Billy McFarland was not at fault here — he obviously was. But while the microscope has been thoroughly focused on him, others who were directly responsible for the reach of the scam are escaping unscathed.

Now, it’s time for @fuckjerry to get scathed.

Members of Jerry Media, website shown above, served as producers of Netflix’s “FYRE” documentary and promoters of Fyre Festival.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Billy McFarland, the mind behind Fyre Festival, was paid to appear in Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud.”

A screenshot of @fuckjerry’s Instagram shows the account reposts memes of other accounts for its 14 million followers.

Arts&Living

Students Tackle Meaning of Truth in Speaking Contest

Photo courtesy of Susan Daniels

In a public speaking competition, ten pre-selected students discussed meanings of truth.

Gaby Bucio ’21 Contributing Writer Truth: it is a concept that seems so simple, but is so difficult to find, believe and explain. Yet on Thursday, Feb. 21, 10 Amherst students stood in front of a crowd of peers and faculty judges and did just that; they found their truths, believed them and explained them confidently and passionately. Back in December, 31 students submitted their proposals for an oration on the concept of truth. The top 10 were chosen to stand on a stage and share their knowledge. The fact that this was a competition and the top three would be rewarded for their effort was a nice bonus.

Each of the 10 participants spoke on their interpretation of truth — interpretations that they conceived of mostly through their experiences as students and as citizens. For Jeremy Thomas ’21, truth was revealed to him when, in a Washington D.C. prison, he realized that “people are so much more than their worst deeds.” His truth is rooted in the common

humanity of all people and in the power of thoughts in shaping the world. Megan Root ’19 did not venture as far as Thomas, but instead found her truth on campus when she practiced what many professors preach: critical thinking. Root realized there is no one truth because everyone understands the world only through the unique complexities of their own perspective, but that’s okay. You cannot see through someone else’s truth, but you can appreciate the value of it.

Konstantin Larin ’21 was inspired by the tumultuous state of world politics and highlighted the power of truth in promoting individualistic, and sometimes negative, agendas. He warns that “a fact-check will always be slower than the story itself,” and we should instead “narrative check.”

We should consider the narrative any story strives to promote and not rely on our gut feeling. Ahliaa Moore ’21 brought her topic back home to Amherst, only to encourage us to go abroad. Truth, as Moore interprets it, “is not just a single set of facts. Truth is shaped

by what we see.” Going abroad gives us the opportunity to live in the worlds of different people, see what they see and find new truths to add onto our own. The best part, according to Moore, going abroad does not always entail getting on a plane; it can mean whatever we want it to.

For Lauren Lamb ’21, the truth is that “people are hard to know.”

Lamb’s interpretation deals with the superficial truths each person chooses to expose, and the deeper ones they hide out of fear of vulnerability. People have become comfortable only giving and accepting superficial versions of one another, something Lamb blames on the fact that “no one bothers to ask [about the deeper truths] and no one bothers to listen.” Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 took a different approach. His conception of truth is that of a powerful weapon of confusion against which society is constantly struggling because, as he explains, “we do not have the language to talk about misleading statements.” The use of truth can be dangerous, and Graber-Mitchell believes the only way to combat

this is to “hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

In keeping with the preoccupation of a better society, Tessa Levenstein ’22 found that the truth marketed by the American discourse on success is not as stable as it paints itself to be. The real truth is that “the American system punishes people who are not able to or choose not to go to college.” Americans, Levenstein believes, need something to unite them while they are still young, enthusiastic and curious. For Levenstein, these are enforced civil society programs after high school that will allow young people to better navigate life during the transition from childhood to adulthood. Gregory Kaplan’s ’21 idea for a better life experience is the truth revealed to him by a friend: “I will do better in the future.” But the only way to do better, as a society and not just as individuals, is to promote the good, honest truth — Abe Lincoln style. People need not lose their audacity by concealing their own truths with polite lies.

Silvia Huang’s ’22 truth is an

amendment to the advice everyone receives at some point in their life: “be true to yourself.”

For Huang, the truth is that “being yourself is never set in stone.”

There are moments when you will have to compromise for the sake of healthier interactions. Finally, Dashiell Shulman’s ’20 conceptualization is one most people would not envision themselves, but would agree with in a heartbeat.

“The truth is something physical; something you feel in your bones.

And no amount of facts can stand up to it,” he said.

Once all 10 students spoke, Professors Mara Bollard of Philosophy, Darryl Harper of Music and Leah Schmalzbauer of American Studies and Sociology had the unenviable task of choosing the top three contestants. Ultimately, Thomas took third and Levenstein second while first place was awarded to Shulman. Nonetheless, all 10 of the competitors masterfully encapsulated the complexities of truth and left the audience searching for ways in which to describe our own truths.

Photo courtesy of Susan Daniels

Jeremy Thomas ‘21, Tessa Levenstein ‘22 and Dashiell Shulman ‘20 took home titles in Thursday’s competition.

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

Arts & Living 11

Long-Awaited Finale ‘Kingdom Hearts 3’ Enthralls Fans

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Despite some definite flaws in the game, “Kingdom Hearts 3,“ released on Jan. 25, draws players into a world which is intertwined with Disney.

Mark Simontis ’19 Staff Writer If you travelled back in time to when I was in high school, or even middle school, and told me that I would be playing “Kingdom Hearts 3” in 2019, I wouldn’t believe you.

Not because I wouldn’t believe it had come out so late, but because I wouldn’t believe that it had come out at all.

Ever since “Kingdom Hearts 2” was released in 2005, fans have been eagerly awaiting the debut of the next numbered title in the massively successful crossover between Disney and Square-Enix (the video game company behind the “Kingdom Hearts” franchise”).

Finally, after a slew of additional non-numbered entries in the series, “Kingdom Hearts 3” has finally arrived. I have been a massive fan of “Kingdom Hearts” since I was five years old, and “Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix” remains my favorite video game of all time.

The plot of “Kingdom Hearts” is notoriously thorny and needs context. In the finale of the 2003 Dark Seeker Saga, “Kingdom Hearts 3” continues the journey of the Keyblade wielder Sora, opening with his new mission to regain the strength he lost following the events of “Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance” and to discover the Power of Waking, so that he might gather the Seven Guardians of Light to battle against Master Xehanort’s Thirteen Seekers of Darkness.

To accomplish this, Sora is joined

by Goofy and Donald Duck as he

travels to a variety of worlds based on several Disney films such as “Hercules” and “Tangled.” Not surprisingly, newcomers to the franchise might have a very difficult time keeping up with the bizarre premise.

“Kingdom Hearts 3” throws you right into the midst of a finale 17 years in the making, drawing upon literally every previous entry in the massive franchise and expecting you to keep up. While the game does its best to help catch up newcomers by means of summary movies and journal entries, there is a lot to keep track of.

I was satisfied overall with this game’s plot, but there were a few glaring issues that were only made more apparent by some truly horrendous pacing. Practically every reunion, reveal, battle and character moment that fans have been anticipating for years are all shoved into the last two hours of the game. As a result, many of these events wind up feeling cramped and rushed, harming their overall impact.

With that in mind, while “Kingdom Hearts 3” may be fundamentally flawed in some areas, it is still an excellent game and largely fulfilled my long-held expectations.

Players will spend most of their time controlling Sora as he travels throughout various Disney worlds, a staple of the series. From a design standpoint, most of these worlds are among the best that the series has ever had to offer, combining gorgeous graphics, large explorable areas and a surprisingly intuitive parkour system.

Not only are these worlds jam-

packed with collectibles, they also possess several details and hidden secrets that make them feel in line with their cinematic counterparts.

Series director Tetsuya Nomura has stated that “Kingdom Hearts 3” features the closest collaboration between the game developers and Disney content creators in the series’ history, in what proves to be a double-edged sword.

For example, the world based on “Frozen” almost certainly suffers from some creative stranglehold on Disney’s end to preserve the image of one of their most profitable brands. Players basically go through a reenactment of the hit movie, but only on the sideline, as Sora and company barely get to meaningfully interact with the film’s characters or plot.

On the other hand, the worlds based on “Toy Story” and “Monsters Inc.” are two examples of Square and Disney acting perfectly in sync.

Each world features ridiculously entertaining original storylines not based on any previous film that allow the two companies’ creations to come together and bounce off each other. It’s a lot more fun to see Sora fight alongside Mike and Sully or convince Buzz and Woody that he’s not a delusional toy, than it is to simply watch everyone go through the motions of “Frozen.”

From a gameplay perspective, “Kingdom Hearts 3” is one of the most complex entries in the franchise, taking real-time action combat to a whole new level. Once again, players juggle Keyblade combos, magic, items and summons similar

to the previous numbered entries in the franchise.

However, this tried and true system is now joined by modern versions of mechanics from non-numbered games, along with new endeavors. There’s a lot to keep track of throughout a battle, getting into the rhythm of alternating between these different systems, as you jump between enemies and build up increasingly flashy combos.

The new Keyblade (a type of weapon) transformation mechanic is undoubtedly my favorite addition, as it truly gives each Keyblade its own unique properties and attacks.

For example, I found myself favoring the “Tangled” Keyblade for its focus on single-target magic damage, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” Keyblade for its crowd control abilities and the classic Kingdom Key for its ability to restore Sora’s old movesets from the previous two numbered entries.

Additionally, Keyblades can now have their stats upgraded, so every Keyblade can be made viable for any level of difficulty throughout the game. This is an absolute godsend for someone like me, who favors the movesets of certain Keyblades and who doesn’t want to be forced to choose a specific Keyblade because its stats are objectively better.

However, no matter how much I found myself enjoying the game’s combat, there was one aspect that was constantly nagging at me.

Throughout my 25-hour playthrough of the main story, I only found myself being challenged in the last two hours when I came close to dying while battling the final boss.

The magic system seems especially overpowered, and the new Attraction Flow system, which allows Sora to summon classic Disney rides, is ridiculously useful considering how easy it is to activate it during a fight, often wiping out whole groups of enemies.

I found myself ignoring the system just to make things more interesting. Granted, I was playing on standard mode, but I’ve heard similar reports from friends who have played on proud mode, a more advanced level. Additionally, a quick session with the game’s zero XP ability enabled from the start, which keeps Sora at level one, shows that it merely turns fights into unnecessarily long slogs against bosses with massive health bars, as opposed to previous games where level-scaling turned Sora into a veritable glass cannon who shreds though bosses as easily as they kill him.

Still, I enjoyed the game. In fact, I would say that “Kingdom Hearts 3” easily ranks as the second or third best game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. It managed to take a ridiculously complex story and bring it to a relatively satisfying conclusion, minus a few major hiccups.

The combat continued to entertain and even amaze, even if the difficulty could have been turned up a bit. I can only hope that like previous games, a “Final Mix” version is soon in the works, which should alleviate some of these problems. However, even in its current state, “Kingdom Hearts 3” is a delight to play and proves that this long running series can still entertain its players.

Arts & Living 12

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

‘Black Art Matters’ Displays and Celebrates Creative Talent

Photo courtesy of Kalidas Shanti ‘22

Latrell Broughton’s ‘19 portrait shows a woman with a planetary ring around her hair.

Kalidas Shanti ’22 Staff Writer Originally an event held in the Ford Hall event space, this year’s Black Art Matters showcase was held in the Mead Art Museum on Feb. 24 and led by Zoe Akoto ’21 for the second year in a row, this time in collaboration with the Mead. It was sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center, Department of Black Studies, Black Students Union (BSU), Student Activities, Association of Amherst Students and the UMass Amherst Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success. The museum held the show in the Fairchild Room and the Rotherwas Room, which were used to display the 12 original visual art pieces for Black Art Matters.

Akoto came up with the idea for Black Arts Matters last year, after thinking about how African-American art could be better represented at Amherst. Understanding what it feels like to be excluded in spaces as a person of color, I admire her desire to spread black artists’ work and provide a space in which they can exist. According to NPR, in terms of literature, 80 percent of workers in publishing identify as white.

Unlike last year, where every participant in the showcase was an Amherst student, the performers this year come from across the the five colleges. Akoto wanted to increase the scale from last year, allowing for more diversity and inclusion in who submits art and who is in the audience. Akoto personally reached out to the art departments of the five colleges and invited people to take part in the event.

The event spread awareness of black art, so having increased outreach and a grander space meant more people could attend. It also provided a platform for typically underrepresented artists’ work.

This inclusion brings a sense of belonging to black artists, and more generally black students, which is something important for all minority groups. Since February is Black History Month, it’s particularly fitting to emphasize recognition of the entirety of black culture and people, past and present.

The event made use of low, purple lighting and an R&B playlist to create a soothing atmosphere that made me want to slow down. It suited the event well and helped me separate myself from the stress of upcoming exams.

Other people also seemed glad to have such a reprieve, and few people left the event early, which speaks to its attraction, given that the event was held over the weekend.

The event space also worked well around the “Timing is Everything” exhibition in the Mead, as people cycled between that exhibit and the student art for Black Art Matters.

Once people had looked over both exhibits, they were able to eat food and take part in conversation with one another. The event had a good turnout with Akoto saying “it was exactly what [she] hoped for.”

UMass student Kiana Harper, Hampshire College student Vero Tineo and Amherst College students Joanna Booth ’19 and Latrell Broughton ’19 crafted the excellent work. Broughton made a beautiful portrait of a black woman smiling with her head tilted down, using

space as a backdrop and a planetary ring around one of the buns of her hair. Tineo had three pieces on display, two of which were made with fabric, the other making use of the TV as its medium. One of their pieces was a tumultuous capturing of black bodies, made harsher due to the fact that the bodies were made through the use of white outlines on black fabric with the phrase “Black Lives Matter” at the center of the piece, along with other phrases relating to racial injustice.

Booth had three portraits, all depicting women. One of the three was a hollowed picture of a woman without a face, the outline and her clothing being her most distinct features. The piece spoke well in this environment as a reflection of the suppression of blackness and also of one’s humanity in general.

Complementing the visual art portion of the evening, UMass graduate Nathalie Irmer, UMass student

Desmond Dane and Amherst College students Ezra Clark ’19 and Amal Buford ’19 performed music and spoken word poems, while BSU members Booth and Matthew Holliday ’19 emceed.

Irmer opened the live performances with two spoken word poems, the first of which was a movement through the injustices of the law in Chicago, switching between her personal narrative of living in Chicago and an analysis of the current president’s rhetoric and negligence of the city’s residents.

Her message was that “preserving our culture is the strongest protest” in order to to push back against oppression. The second poem dealt with similar themes and was just as moving.

The next artist was rapper Dane, who performed two songs, both of which were gritty in sound and word choice. The first song, “Roseblood,” critiqued the rap scene while acknowledging Dane’s own skill and potential for growth. His second song, “Imagine,” told of his personal struggle with the loss of a friend, as a commemorate significance of lost loved ones.

After Dane, Clark took to the stage along with Anna Dietrich ’22 on the bass, Diego Ramos-Meyer ’19 on keyboard and Isaiah Lewis ’19 on drums. The first song that was performed started off with a hook and moved halfway through to focus on the instrumentals, working together with the guitar and keyboard, to create a lowkey vibe from a mixture

of R&B, jazz and synth pop sounds.

The second song had lyrics throughout and set a nice contrast with the other song while still being similar in musicality. The final performer was Buford, going by his stage name Mal the Oddity. He started off with a song titled “Who You Call When You’re Sad,” a melancholic narrative on dealing with depression and feeling unable to speak with others or gaining little from conversation. He then followed that with his song “Deli Nights” and another new song that he had yet to perform or release.

The sentiment of the new song, he said, could be captured in the line of a poem by his friend Esperanza Chairez ’19 which read: “I get a little crazy right before I cross the finish line.” With that introduction, he took us through the experience of a speaker who never was able to be at peace or feel settled.

In the words of the song, the speaker was always “restless at home.” The musical form of the song did well to parallel the feeling of the words, the lyrics having sudden shifts and a movement between rap and song. It was clear that the audience enjoyed every performance, either from cheers and applause at the end, or from dancing and bobbing along with the music.

Overall, the event had a wonderful reception and an engaging collection of works. I hope to see its return in coming years, as it is an important recognition of diversity in the arts.

Photo courtesy of Kalidas Shanti ‘22

This past Sunday, students gathered to enjoy the Black Arts Matter exhibit at the Mead.

Arts & Living 13

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

‘Glass’ Wraps Up Shyamalan Trilogy With Few Delights

Photo courtesy of geekykool.com

The third in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable“ triology, “Glass“ offers little that its predecessors have not.

Youngkwang Shin ’19 Staff Writer Popular consensus has not been kind to director M. Night Shyamalan — just look to the truly baffling “The Last Airbender” to confirm its hostility. One of the most distinctive voices in American popular film, Shyamalan has long withered under the public image of a thwarted prodigy, perhaps unfairly.

His failures are bold and blatant, if only because his ambitions share the same qualities. Never one to completely upend the genres that he navigates with surprising dexterity, Shyamalan, nevertheless, always has had something to say and images to show, which culminate in the grand twists that have come to define his reputation. As his career progressed however, earnestness, provocation,

puzzling narrative sensibilities and genuine missteps created a mixture unpleasant to most, and Shyamalan fell from his heights. Ever the volatile artist, Shyamalan transforms his image once more. “Glass” comes to theaters at this bizarre time in Shyamalan’s bizarre career. The 2010s saw critical opinion sway once more toward the radiant expectations many once held for the filmmaker, who had been hailed as “the next Spielberg.”

Films such as “The Visit” and “Split” built a persuasive case for the Shyamalan-renaissance, and “Glass” seemed to be coming closer to cementing the cold fact of the filmmaker’s return. The greatest twist, it turned out, was still lying in waiting. “Glass” may perhaps be the only Shyamalan film to not fully attain Shyamalan’s vision. The film

is the final chapter in the “Unbreakable” trilogy, one that began with the titular film in 2000 and continued with “Split” in 2016. Of all his forays into different genres, Shyamalan’s early contribution to the still niche category of superhero film proved peerless and prophetic. “Unbreakable” was the superhero origin story before the form became formula. In this film, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) becomes acquainted with his unbreakable body after he turns out to be the sole survivor of a lethal train accident.

Under the shifty guidance of the contrastingly frail-boned comic aficionado Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), he overcomes his skepticism toward his powers. More importantly, he realizes how much he wants to be special after a lifetime of detours and disillusionments. “Split” turned its attention to the supervillain Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) whose own awakening as a self-styled, dissociative Beast set to avenge the abused and traumatized of the world betrayed his far less beastly need to situate oneself in the narrative of the extraordinary.

Both understand and undress the childish aspirations of comics in ways that a generation of the genre has often obscured in its marketing to embarrassed adults. If we are broken, our minds must compensate until we are unbreakable, even if that means we split ourselves into less and less justifiable counterparts.

And like a child that has shattered something precious, we will hide those fractures under the panels of our fashionable stories about ourselves.

The excitement of “Glass” was to see Dunn’s and Crumb’s powers and pains converge in a final spectacle; the disappointment is the film’s own recognition of the trilogy’s narrative

complexity and its submission to the pressures that have forced the film to simplify itself. Too much of “Glass” lives out the most banal meaning of its title. It is too concerned with communicating the status quo of the stories and characters that have come before, reflecting and repeating without reframing.

In fairness, 19 years elapsed between “Unbreakable” and “Glass,” and simply put, people forget the past. They instead remember the present, the contagious techniques of the Marvel machine that dictate the most profitable ways to construct superheroes and their worlds: overeager accommodation towards those new to the franchise and vulgar continuity in look, sound and texture. In a box office that rewards the most effortless insinuations of a shared cinematic universe, “Glass” is cracked by forces within and without. The conservatism of “Glass” takes up an unfortunate two-thirds of its runtime, during which we see new flashbacks retelling old motivations and ferociously acted outbursts of emotion overdress familiar issues.

Combined, these moments hamper the spirit of experiment so expected in Shyamalan’s work, and because of them, “Glass” slots itself fairly easily as the weakest of the trilogy. But that last third, when “Glass” brings its own original images to the sequence, is remarkable. It places the movie and its sibling films at the vanguard of the superhero genre, 19 years after “Unbreakable’s” inspirational debut.

The premise of “Glass” finds the trilogy’s hero and villain in a rehabilitation center led by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who confronts each with the subtext of their own films.

Their powers are so tied to their pain as to be indistinguishable; her hypothesis is that they have imagined

themselves too powerful to escape their weakness. Under her project, neither Dunn’s nor Crumb’s powers can suffice as their sense of self withers away, back into the dangerously sad and ordinary. The true adversary lies instead in Dunn’s former guide Price, whose hurtful playground moniker “Mr. Glass” provides the title of the film.

A comic aficionado and a fanatical believer in super-beings, he plans to stage a breakout and a grand battle between Dunn and Crumb in the heart of the city to prove to the world and himself that his self-made comic book plot is true. What is fascinating is the true battle behind the scenes. “Glass” is not about the battle between comic book characters but the battle between authors.

Premised on an indecisive agnosticism regarding superpowers, both Dunn and Crumb, undisputed heroes and villains of their solo films, take on the aura of the fictional characters, their very ontological states vulnerable to the stories spun

by Glass, Staple and, as perhaps the ultimate twist of the film would suggest, us the viewers.

Price revealingly slips the conceit of the film some ways into his plot, which is in turn the movie’s plot: “this is not a crossover, but an origin story.” It is not the conclusion, but rather the true beginning of Dunn and Crumb, not as untroubled “people” living their unquestionably super-lives, but as “characters” in a superhero film.

In doing so, “Glass” charts territory unknown not only to the trilogy but to the entire genre; it’s a film not about superheroes but about superhero film, the act of witnessing what one believes to be superheroism and the value of these narratives to a society filled with powerless Dunns and Crumbs.

Sports

Men’s Basketball Bests Hamilton, Claims Eighth NESCAC Title Matt Sparrow ’21 Staff Writer In an interview two weeks ago, head coach of men’s basketball David Hixon ’75 said that while he thought getting into the NCAA tournament would be difficult, “If you let us in, watch out.” Hixon and his team have seemingly cleared the first obstacle by winning the NESCAC tournament over the weekend and booking a spot in the bracket with a top seed. After beating the 16th-ranked Williams Ephs in the semifinals and the eighth-ranked host Hamilton Continentals in the championship, Amherst has completed phase one of Hixon’s two-part plan. All that’s left is to sit back and see how far the Mammoths can go.

After beating fifth-seeded Wesleyan at home last week in the quarterfinals, Amherst traveled to Clinton, New York to face off against third-seeded Williams with a spot in the finals on the line. The Mammoths had already topped the Ephs twice during the season, but by a cumulative total of just six points. The two wins gave Amherst the mental edge as sophomore forward Fru Che explained.

“We definitely had a lot of confidence going in. We know how they play and what they do well; it was just a matter of executing the game plan,” Che said. “We can always expect a war with them, and that’s what we got in the semifinal game.”

The matchup was a battle on the hardwood, as neither team shot better than 40 percent from the field.

The player of the game was sophomore Grant Robinson, who led the way with a career-high 32 points on 11-22 shooting, including 8-9 from the free throw line. Robinson got to the basket at will, thanks to his lethal dribble and crafty finishing abilities.

On the defensive end of the court, Joe Schneider ’19 was a brick wall in the paint as he swatted seven shots and snagged eight boards while also adding 10 points, including the go-ahead free throws with under two minutes remaining.

Guard Devonn Allen ’22 was second on the team in scoring with 11 points, including three makes from the three-point range. Che contributed 10 points and a game-high four assists and played tenacious defense that forced the Ephs to shoot just 38.7 percent from the field, including 26.3 percent from beyond the

arc. When all was said and done, Amherst walked away with a 74-69 victory and a spot in the NESCAC title game on Sunday against Hamilton.

The rematch between the Mammoths and the Continentals was set for high noon at Hamilton’s Scott Field House. In their first meeting, just 11 days earlier, Hamilton had escaped with a narrow 81-77 victory by hitting six free throws in the final minute. Despite the loss, Che said that the Mammoths’ belief in their team didn’t waver at all.

“I felt really confident in us. We didn’t play our best game against them last time, but we knew what we had to do to fix that,” he said.

“We had a tough road against a lot of tough teams, so we were determined to finish the job.”

Che backed up his talk by pouring in a game-high 16 points on 6-13 shooting, matching Robinson’s 16 points on the day. Che also grabbed eight boards and blocked two shots, both second on the team to Schneider’s 10 rebounds and three blocks.

Allen had another excellent game, scoring 14 points on just nine shots, and senior C.J. Bachmann chipped in 10 points off of the bench. The

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Grant Robinson ’21 put up 16 crucial points, shooting 6-19 against a stingy Hamilton defense. game proved the old adage “offense wins games, but defense wins championships,” as Hamilton shot just 31.7 percent on the day and scored a season-low 56 points, almost 30 points less than their average points per game. The 62-56 victory clinched the eighth NESCAC title for the Mammoths, the most in conference history, and the team’s first since 2014.

After the game, Che spoke about his hopes for the rest of the season.

“No one expected us to make it this far, especially in NESCAC play, so I think that we’re capable of going far in the tournament if we stick to our style of basketball and play hungry.”

What lies ahead for Amherst

remains to be seen. The selection show on Monday put the team as the top seed in their quadrant, and booked them a trip to the University of Rochester, where they will take on Rosemont College who received an at-large bid. This will be Rosemont’s first trip to the NCAA tournament after putting together a 15-12 season.

With an excellent mix of underclassmen Che, Robinson, Allen and Garrett Day ’21, and veteran leadership with upperclassmen Schneider, Bachmann, and Josh Chery ’20, this Amherst team has a great chance to make some noise at the tournament.

Or, as Hixon would say, “Watch out.”

Women’s Hockey Emerges Victorious Over Trinity in Overtime Contest Cale Clinton ’19 Staff Writer The women’s ice hockey team survived the first round of NESCAC playoffs in a nail-biter overtime win against Trinity.

Amherst entered the weekend with momentum, having won three of its last four games, including a sweep against Wesleyan. The seniors’ last homestand featured major contributions from the class of 2019, including a goal by Jamie McNamara ’19 and two assists by Katelyn Pantera ’19.

In their last four visits, the Mammoths were 3-1 against the Trinity Bantams. However, this game felt anything but one-sided. The first period came and went without a score from either side, while the Bantams outshot Amherst by a margin of 11-6.

That Trinity momentum carried into the second period when Karinna Cave-Hawkins took advantage of a 3-on-1 fast break and jammed the puck home just 49 seconds into the second period.

In the third period, the momentum shifted in favor of the

Mammoths. Kaitlin Hoang ’21 tied the contest at one apiece after a pass by Jocelyn Hunyadi ’19 led to a quick, lofted backhanded shot over the Trinity goalie’s pads. Trinity then immediately faltered again, as a body-checking penalty would leave the Bantams short-handed. Amherst leapt at the opportunity as Miriam Eickhoff ’19 buried a one-timer just nine seconds into the power play.

Trinity wasn’t out of it yet, as a goal by Cave-Hawkins evened the game with 47 seconds left in regulation. To make matters

worse for the Mammoths, a tripping penalty called with 12 seconds left would leave the team short-handed in overtime.

Amherst’s last loss came as a result of being unable to kill penalties, as Hamilton scored two power-play goals in their last game on Feb. 9. Yet, today would not yield the same result.

In the remaining 1:50 of the late penalty, Amherst goalie Caitlin Walker ’22 held strong and made four massive saves to keep the Mammoths in the game.

Unlike Trinity, Amherst would only need to take a single shot

in overtime. McNamara flew down the boards to outskate her defender and managed to sneak the puck over the goal line to seal the victory.

The 3-2 win over Trinity advances fifth-seeded Amherst to the semifinals of the NESCAC playoffs, where they will take on rival and No. 1 seed Williams on the Ephs’ home ice next Saturday. The game is sure to be a bit of an uphill battle, as the Mammoths suffered two losses to Williams during the regular season, outscored by a combined margin of 9-2.

Sports 15

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

Women’s Squash Falls in College Championships ery point seemingly lasting longer than the one before until Soroko finally claimed the match, 12-10.

This was her ninth win this season.

This weekend, the women’s Dartmouth won the remaining squash team traveled to compete seven matches. Of those seven, the in the second division of the ColMammoths were only able to win lege Squash Association Team one game.

Priya Sinha ’19 lost her Championship – a daunting task, two first games to Junnat Anwar in given their low seeding. At the the number six spot but was able Kellner Squash Center at Trinity, to come back in the third game the Mammoths faced top-seeded to keep the match alive.

However, Dartmouth in the first round and Anwar was able to keep her comperformed valiantly in a 9-2 loss. posure, beating Sinha in the fourth One of those wins came from game by a handsome seven-point margin.

Dartmouth went on to beat Brown, but lost to Cornell 6-3 in the final match. Cornell took home the Kurtz Cup. After the Mammoths fell to Dartmouth in their quarterfinal bout, the team was not able to manage Williams’ and George Washington University’s squash teams as they lost both consolation matches.

Williams went on to win the consolation bracket against Middlebury.

Just as they lost to Dartmouth, Amherst was only able to take two Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios games against their rival Williams.

Junior Katy Correia battled hard in her first set agianst her Dartmouth oppo- Werner had a great weekend, winning both of her matches. She went nent, forcing the contest into extra points, but ultimately fell in straight set.

Thomas Woodville ’21 Staff Writer

Lilly Soroko ’22 who played at the number three slot. The second win came from Margaret Werner ’21, who played in the number eight slot.

Both of Amherst’s wins were long, hard-fought matches. Werner’s match against Dartmouth’s Julia Potter went to five games.

Werner managed to win the first two games easily, 12-10 and 11-7.

However, Potter was able to gain momentum in the third game, winning one point after another

to decimate Werner by a 10-point margin. She then beat Werner in the fourth game, 11-8. The fifth game was the longest of the day, tallying a total of 26 points. Werner was able to outlast her opponent over several exhausting rallies, however, winning 14-12.

Similarly, Soroko was able to win in a four-game match against her opponent Brynn Bank, losing the first game 11-8, but quickly responding with 11-5 and 11-7. The last game was a nail biter, with ev-

up against Alexandra Pear in the eighth spot where she took all three games. Pierson Klein ’20 won in five games against her opponent Kathryn Wright. She badly lost the first two games (4-11, 2-11), but came back to win the next two 11-7 and 11-9. The fifth game was the longest of them all, as they tend to be. She was able to finish off the match with an 11-9 victory, giving her 10th victory on the season as a whole.

Much closer than the other two matches, the Mammoths finished the CSA Team Championship by losing to George Washington, 5-4.

George Washington took the top half of the ladder and Amherst the bottom half.

Klein also got her second win of the tournament, beating her opponent 12-10, 11-2, 11-7. All of George Washington’s wins in the top four spots of the ladder were relatively close. Soroko lost 13-11, 11-7, 11-7 while Caroline Conway ’20 lost 11-6, 11-0, 11-3.

The Mammoths finish the season with an 8-11 record. The team, however, can be proud of moving up a division into the second tier and competing valiantly.

Women’s Basketball Loses to Tufts in NESCAC Championship Semifinals Joe Palmo ’21 Staff Writer Last week, the women’s basketball team traveled to Bowdoin, the site of this year’s NESCAC tournament, for a heated semifinal matchup between the second-seeded Mammoths and the third-seeded Jumbos from Tufts.

This was a rematch of last year’s NESCAC championship, which Amherst won. The game was hard fought and incredibly close, featuring 16 lead changes and 10 ties.

After more than 39 minutes of action, Amherst had taken the lead, but late heroics by the Jumbos ended their tournament run and a chance to take home a fourthstraight NESCAC championship.

After a pair of clutch free throws by Cam Hendricks ’20, Amherst clung to a one-point lead with 23 seconds on the clock.

Tufts took a full timeout, and both teams rushed to their benches to regroup. The buzzer sounded, and the crowd at Morrell Gymnasium rose to its feet, with cheers from both sides echoing throughout the building. Tufts inbounded the ball and dribbled up the court, passing the ball around to milk the final seconds off of the clock.

In a risky move by coach Carla Berube, the Jumbos played to win the game with a last-second shot.

As time drew to a close, the ball found the hands of Janette Wadolowski. Gathering herself on the right wing, she drove to her left and pulled up from the free throw line, sinking the goahead jumper with 1.4 seconds left on the clock and giving Tufts a 47-46 lead. As the Jumbo faithfuls celebrated, Amherst quickly called a timeout. A new rule change in NCAA women’s bas-

ketball allowed the Mammoths to advance the ball to half court, cutting down the distance to the hoop and allowing them to save precious time. In the commotion of the inbound, a lob pass was sent in the direction of Madeline Eck ’20, but unfortunately it never reached her. She appeared to get tangled up with a couple of Tufts players, but the whistle wasn’t blown and Amherst’s chance to win the game went rolling harmlessly out of bounds.

First year Courtney Resch had 15 points in the loss, an impressive performance coming off of the bench. Hannah Fox ’20 was as solid as ever, scoring 14 points on four of eight shooting, with two key three-pointers. Leading scorer Eck chipped in seven points to go along with seven rebounds. Hendricks had a good game all-around, finishing with

four points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.

Seniors Meghan Sullivan and Maeve McNamara added three points each.

Despite both teams’ reputation as high-scoring offenses, the game was a slow and defensive matchup, as the two powerhouse teams cautiously felt each other out in the opening frames. Stiff defense on both sides led to each squad sinking less than 40 percent of its shots. Amherst scored exactly 20 points fewer than their season average of 66, with Tufts well under their average of 73.9.

Throughout the low-scoring contest, neither team led by more than five points. Though both teams were evenly matched across most statistics, like rebounds or assists, the loss could be attributed to the turnover count. Amherst turned the ball over 22 times,

while Tufts only gave up the ball 13 times.

Though the loss stings, Amherst must shift their sights to the NCAA tournament next weekend. With a chip on their shoulder, the Mammoths are a very dangerous team, and another exciting tournament run could be coming this March.

Tufts concluded the tournament with another upset over top-ranked Bowdoin, who was previously unbeaten. This was Tufts’ third NESCAC title, and its first since the 2014-15 season that saw the Jumbos finish fourth at the NCAA championships.

Despite not qualifying automatically as NESCAC champions, Amherst received an at-large bid on Monday to the NCAA Division III Tournament and will face Husson University in the first round.

Sports 16

The Amherst Student • February 27, 2019

Men’s Track & Field Sets Records at Indoor Meet Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer

The men’s track and field team traveled to MIT on Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb. 23 to compete at the New England Division III Track and Field Championships.

The first school record of the meet was broken by Troy Colleran ’22 in the heptathlon with a score of 4713 points, improving 317 points upon his previous personal best of the season. On the first day of the meet, Colleran opened competition with a personal best in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.30 seconds.

Next, in the long jump, Colleran registered 6.65 meters.

Colleran entered day two with a time of 9.10 seconds — another personal best — in the 60-meter hurdles a fourth personal best in the pole vault with a jump of 3.90 meters. In the 1,000-meter run, the last and most difficult event of the day, Colleran set a superb personal best by 10 seconds in the event, running the race in 2:59.

By the end of the meet, Colleran finished in second place in a competitive field and currently sits 16th nationally, which, as it stands, would qualify for Nationals where the top 20 athletes in Division III compete.

“It felt good to get rolling day one with a PR in the 60 and a good shot [put throw] and long jump, but was kind of stressful when I lost all the points I had gained in the high jump,” Colleran said. “But I knew day two was going to be where I made up the most points.”

Colleran is the first athlete from Amherst to ever compete in the heptathlon. Originally recruited as a jumper, Colleran was encouraged to try competing in the multi-event sport by head coach Steve Rubin.

“It’s been really fun to bring back the multis to Amherst and especially to work with athletes like [Colleran] who are at the beginning stages of learning so many events,” Rubin said. “The

progression just through this first indoor season has been incredible, so the future looks exciting.”

The next school record of the day came from fellow first year Henry Buren in the 60-meter dash. This is Buren’s third time breaking the Amherst record in the 60 meters. On Saturday, Buren broke his previous record of 7.14 seconds by 0.07 seconds, clocking a time of 7.07 seconds.

Buren placed 10th overall, just missing out on a spot in the eight-person final.

Coming into Amherst, Buren, a Missouri native, had never run on an indoor track.“I had no idea what I was capable of,” Buren said. “So breaking indoor records was not on my mind coming into the indoor season. My coaches’ planning and training set me up for success and I just went out there and ran.”

The last record of the day came from senior Sam Amaka.

Amaka started his college career as a running back on the Amherst football team, playing during his first and second years. After his second year, Amaka began focusing on the throwing events.

That choice has paid off – Amaka broke the Amherst record in the weight throw with a throw of 17.58 meters, which earned him sixth place at the meet.

“He has been training hard for months but just recently learned how to control his mindset and allow his body to respond to his thoughts,” coach Kadine Johnson said. “Once that clicked, he was unstoppable.”

Amherst placed seventh out of 23 competing teams at the event, registering 46 points. MIT, the hosts of the meet, finished the competition in a runaway first, scoring 164 points, a total more than double the nearest competitor.

The Mammoths will next travel to the Tufts Last Chance Meet on March 2, where a number of athletes will try and turn in times to qualify for the Division III Indoor Track and Field National Championships.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Troy Colleran ’22, the first Mammoth to compete in multi-events like the heptathlon, set a personal best this weekend in the seven-event competition.

GAME SCHE DULE

FRI Men’s Squash @ CSA Individual Nationals Women’s Squash @ CSA Individual Nationals Women’s Basketball vs. Husson University, 7 p.m.

Men’s Basketball @ Rosemont College, 7 p.m.

SAT Men’s Track & Field @ Tufts Last Chance Meet

Men’s Hockey vs. Wesleyan @ Trinity 1 p.m.

Women’s Track & Field @ Tufts Last Chance Meet

Men’s Lacrosse @ Colby, 1 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse vs. Colby, noon.

Women’s Ice Hockey @ Williams, 1 p.m.