Issue 15

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Club Soccer Receives Official Okay to Play

Photo courtesy of Eli Harris ’15

Despite not having formal recognition from the College, the Club Soccer Team had a successful fall season.

Rainer Lempert ’15 Staff Writer After months of talks with the administration, the Amherst College club soccer team officially became recognized as an official club sports team during an Association of Amherst Students (AAS) meeting two weeks ago. The Senate voted to overturn a policy that does not permit a club team to exist if it has a corresponding varsity team and allotted club soccer AAS money. However, more work still needs to be done. The team still needs to address issues including transportation, scheduling of home games, medical agreements and allotment of finances. However, these issues are being dealt with, as policies for club teams will be revisited during a meeting between club sports representatives and administrators from the Athletics Department. “It’s time to rethink the policy for the needs of today: students want to experience a level of play not unlike what they had in high school,�

Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey said.

While the future of Amherst club soccer appears bright, the journey that led to this current state has been long and at times difficult.

President of the Amherst club soccer team Eli Harris ’15 came up with the idea for a club soccer team towards the end of last school year, and has been ceaselessly trying, along with partners Eric Steinbrook ’15 and Griff Freeman ’15, to make soccer an officially recognized club sport since. After facing difficulties cooperating directly with the Athletics Administration, Harris decided to try a different approach to getting recognized by the school. At the beginning of this semester, Harris got in contact with Senator member John Yarchoan ’13 to try to get the AAS to provide funding for club soccer. Yarchoan had first heard about the attempts to create an official club soccer team over the summer through Steinbrook and was “sympathetic to their problem.� Yarchoan, who also is a captain of the Amherst Ultimate Frisbee team, knows firsthand the difficulties club teams can

face when dealing with the athletic administration. “Club sports face the dual problem of a lack of resources and a hierarchy in which varsity sports are at will to do pretty much whatever they want in regard to field space,� Yarchoan said. “I don’t think that the athletic department wanted to have another club program under their wing that would vie for already minimal resources.�

Yarchoan helped set up a Senate meeting to discuss the possibility of the College recognizing Amherst club soccer as an official club sport as well as giving funding to the club through the AAS. Present at the meeting were Harris, Steinbrook, Freeman, Coffey and Assistant Athletic Director Billy McBride, who is the head of club sports. In addition to these people some members from the varsity soccer team were present to support club soccer. At the meeting McBride and Coffey presented several arguments against official recognition of a club sport. The main argument was that a club team cannot exist if

there is a varsity team of the same sport. According to Coffey this rule is in place because of space constraints, partially due to the existence of both varsity and IM soccer. However, the administrators could not “produce this rule,� according to Yarchoan. “Tierney [Werner] ’16 tried for an hour to find it on the website and couldn’t do it,� said AAS Vice President George Tepe ’14.

Another argument brought up against club soccer was the lack of resources the athletics department has, namely money and field space. However, club soccer would be receiving the majority of its funding from the AAS, not the Athletics Department. In terms of playing space, once construction on Pratt Field is finished there will be two new turf fields that club soccer can use. Given these responses to the arguments brought up against club soccer, the Senate voted to overturn the Athletic Department’s decision to not allow official recognition of club soccer. “They kept on saying there were many ‘layers’ to their argument against it, but when each of these ‘layers’ were picked apart and disproven there wasn’t really a coherent argument for why club soccer cannot be an AAS-recognized group that can apply for and receive funding,�

Yarchoan said.

While by no means a finished project, it was a victory for Harris, Steinbrook, and Freeman, who had been trying for many months to get club soccer officially recognized. The seedlings for the team were planted during last school year’s varsity soccer tryouts. “I tried out for varsity soccer at the beginning of my freshman year. I was the captain of my team in high school, so I expected to just walk on. I didn’t realize how competitive it was on the D3 level though,� Harris said. “I was pretty bummed. Soccer had been a big part of my identity.�

Harris participated in other club sports Continued on Page 2

Schwemm’s Hosting One-Day Liquor License Trial License May Be Expanded Depending On Trial’s Success

Alissa Rothman ’15 Assistant Editor-in-Chief This Thursday, Feb. 21, Schwemm’s Coffee House will be serving alcohol from 8 p.m.-12 a.m. to students who are of drinking age. Schwemm’s has been granted a one-day liquor license for this evening trial.

The effort was spearheaded by the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) President Tania Dias ’13. “Our goal is to create an alternative drinking scene on campus where all students regardless of age, can interact and socialize in,�

Dias said. “Few student activities serve beer and wine, and those that do are in settings that segregate the over 21 room, which isn’t compelling to the entire student body.�

Dias started the project at the end of October. She spoke to Dean Charri Boykin-East about the idea of serving alcohol in Schwemm’s, and she fully supported the project. In November at a College Council meeting, Dias brought up the idea to Amherst College Police Chief John Carter, who looked into the feasibility of getting a liquor license for Schwemm’s. In January, Dias met with a group of staff members to brainstorm what would be required for Schwemm’s to serve beer and wine. The idea was then sent to President Biddy Martin and other senior staff members for their

approval. “I support the effort,� President Martin said. “It is a way of testing the proposition that more openness could foster responsible use of alcohol and expand social opportunities on campus.�

Since then, the group has been working to smooth out logistics for this Thursday. “Students want an alternative drinking scene where they are treated like adults,� Dias said. “Our aim was to create an environment that abides to the rules, while feeling very different from a TAP or an event with lots of security.�

As of now, Schwemm’s will be serving bottles of Bud Light, Amstel Light, Corona and Sam Adams at $3.25 each, and chardonnay and cabernet at $2.25 per glass. Dining Services is hoping to serve the alcohol at very attractive prices so that students are drawn to having a drink in Schwemm’s, rather than in closed rooms. “The idea is that Schwemm’s will run as usual, with the addition that for one night students who are of age will be able to buy beer and wine,� said Charlie Thompson, Director of Dining Services. “However, the food will be the same.�

To make sure students purchasing the alcohol are of age, they will have to swipe their ID cards and wear a bracelet indicating that they are of age. There will be security personnel at the door

verifying that only people of legal age are able to purchase alcoholic beverages, and there will also be a minimal security presence to ensure drinks are not shared or removed from the venue. “It is our expectation that this venue will not require a large security presence,� Carter said.

The night will allow organizers to evaluate if events like it will be welcomed in the future. “Of course, this is a pilot program, and thus logistics may be rough around the edges,� Dias said. “But, it is only by piloting this idea, that we will be able to see what works, what doesn’t work, what students want, and what tweaks we have to make. I’m really looking forward to this Thursday, to see how people will react to this pilot-program. Hopefully, it will be a great success, and can eventually be expanded to not only our student center, but other places on campus.�

Organizers hope that the event could become a weekly Thursday night event, or even an everyday event in the future. “I would love that this become a natural thing at Schwemm’s where seven days a week, anyone of age could just order a beer with a burger, or drink a glass of wine,� Dias said. “Students, faculty and staff would be able to consume alcohol in a relaxed, casual setting that would promote healthy socializing across ages, Continued on Page 2

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News Entries from Feb. 11 to Feb. 18, 2013 >>Feb. 11, 2013 10:26 p.m., James Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint about the odor of marijuana on the second floor. Nothing was found.

11:50 p.m., James A caller complained about the odor of marijuana smoke coming from a second-floor room.

An officer spoke to the residents but found no evidence of marijuana use. >>Feb. 12, 2013 1:41 a.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer encountered a group of students in the second-floor common area with alcohol.

Not all the students were of legal age. The alcohol was confiscated. >>Feb. 14, 2013 1:46 a.m., Hitchcock House An officer responded to a complaint about loud music and issued a warning to a second-floor resident.

1:46 a.m., Hitchcock While in a second-floor room due to a complaint of loud music, an officer detected the odor of marijuana. After speaking with the resident, a pipe used for smoking marijuana was confiscated. The matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

12:20 p.m., Valentine Dining Hall A student reported the theft of her iPhone. On 2/16/13 Campus Police was able to track a GPS signal to a Belchertown Road address in Amherst and the iPhone was recovered. A criminal complaint will be filed against the man who had it. >>Feb. 15, 2013 1:34 p.m., Fayerweather Hall An officer checked an intoxicated man walking along East Drive. The man, who was not associated with the College, did not need assistance.

He left campus.

12:20 p.m., The Quadrangle Officers responded to a report of a man outside of Frost Library who was not wearing a shirt, and was acting aggressively toward people. The man, who had no association with the college, was located in the library. He was issued a notrespass order and escorted from the campus.

6:32 p.m., Lipton House An officer responded to a smoke detector sounding in a third-floor room and determined it activated when the resident let a match near it.

The system was reset.

10:20 p.m., North Dormitory While in the building, an officer detected the odor of burnt marijuana and traced it to a fourth-floor room. The resident, along with another student who was present, admitted to smoking in the room. The two students were fined $100 each, paraphernalia used for smoking was confiscated, and the matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

10:40 p.m., Service Building Lots Six vehicles parked near the Facilities building were found vandalized with green spray paint.

Case open.

11:02 p.m., Seelye House An officer encountered two underage students with alcohol. The alcohol was disposed of, and the matter was referred to the Dean’s Office. >>Feb. 16, 2013 2:00 a.m., Off Campus Locations An officer noticed fireworks being discharged from an apartment complex near the Emily Dickinson House. The Amherst Police were notified.

9:03 p.m., James While in the building, an officer detected the odor of marijuana and traced it to a second-floor room. The resident admitted to having smoked in the room. The resident was fined $ 100 for the smoking violation and $100 for creating an endangering condition because two lit candles were found in the room. The matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

11:00 p.m., Pond Dormitory Officers and the Fire Department responded to an alarm and found it activated when someone pulled the alarm station for no apparent reason.

The residents were fined $100.

11:12 p.m., Marsh House While in the building, an officer found unattended alcohol. It was confiscated. >>Feb. 17, 2013 1:20 a.m., Pond Officers responded to a domestic dispute between a student and his guest. After speaking with the two, no further assistance was needed.

The guest left campus.

2:22 a.m., Stone Dormitory Officers encountered a large party, with loud music, that involved over 100 people overflowing into the stairway from a first-floor suite. People were seen dancing on a windowsill, and alcohol was present. The event was shut down and the matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

3:26 a.m., Hitchcock Officers responded to a complaint of an unknown person randomly banging on doors on the third floor. No one was found upon their arrival.

1:11 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint about the odor of marijuana near the second floor. The origin could not be identified.

4:37 p.m., Beneski Earth Sciences and Natural History Museum An officer investigated an intrusion alarm but could find no reason for it. The system was reset. >>Feb. 18, 2013 12:09 a.m., Morris Pratt Officers responded to a complaint about the odor of burnt marijuana and traced the source to a third-floor room. After speaking with the resident, a small amount of marijuana and a candle that had been lit were confiscated. The resident was fined $100 for a smoking violation and $100 for creating an endangering condition (lit candle).

Schwemm’s Will Serve Wine, Beer Continued from Page 1 drinking habits and different friend groups.”

However, that idea has a lot of work to go through before it can become a reality.

“This is not a done deal. It’s a one-night test. We’ll see how it is received, what works, how much has to go into it, if the space works, etc.” Thompson said. “There are no concrete decisions about this yet. We’ll see how it goes.”

Dias sees the one-day license as a step forward in a year full of confusion when it comes to the alcohol policy on campus, and the re-

percussions that confusion has had on students and campus social life, and she assures the student body that the AAS is working hard and seriously on improving the social life on campus.

“The perfect scenario is that we have a freestanding pub on campus, and hopefully in the years to come, with all the constructions plans in the works, the school seriously looks into building one,” Dias said. “However, in the meantime, acquiring a one-day liquor license for Schwemm’s is a step forward in the right direction.”

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Club’s Approval Sparks Hope for Broader Changes Continued from Page 1 during his first year but was left unsatisfied.

Towards the end of the year he had the idea to create a club soccer team.

“I talked about it to Eric Steinbrook, a friend of mine who was also cut from the varsity team, and he liked the idea too,” Harris said.

Harris also contacted Freeman about his idea and found more interest.

Harris, Steinbrook and Freeman started the process of trying to make the club team a reality in May. They first contacted Justin Serpone, coach of the men’s varsity soccer program. They sent him a proposal for a club soccer program and Serpone “gave his full support,” according to Harris. Serpone, however, was unfamiliar with the procedure of creating a club team and put Harris in contact with McBride. McBride, however, said that there was a policy in place that could not be circumvented, namely that a club team cannot exist if there is a corresponding varsity team. Repeated attempts to get around the policy throughout the summer were unfruitful.

In the fall Harris, Steinbrook and Freeman “made a collective decision to move forward formulating a soccer team entirely independent of the College, with no affiliation whatsoever.”

They organized tryouts during the first week of school. Forty-five students came to the first meeting, and 43 of those 45 returned for the first practice. The team, going by the name Amherst FC, registered independently in the NIRSA ROCCSL Fall League after explaining their unique situation to the league director.

Despite having to organize everything, includ-

ing practice space, transportation, uniforms and scheduling without the help of the school, Amherst FC had a successful first fall season, going 2-2-2.

Throughout this season Harris, Steinbrook and Freeman continued to pursue efforts to become recognized as an official club sport. They held several meetings with Dean of Student Activities Hannah Fatemi, McBride, Coffey and Facilities Coordinator Don Faulstick. However, further roadblocks appeared. The administrators said that they did not want the club organizing as a group of Amherst students, whether officially recognized by the school or not.

After receiving this news, Harris tried to appeal to President Biddy Martin. After weeks of no response, Harris received an email saying that President Martin had declined their request to meet. Despite this disappointing news, they decided to continue to move forward independently, registering for both the Northampton Men’s Open Indoor Winter League and the NIRSA ROCCSL Spring League.

It was at about this time that Harris came into contact with the Senate and was able to see his vision begin to be realized.

“We are moving forward for sure, and I am very excited,” Harris said.

“In the spirit of cooperation, we’re going to figure out how to meet the needs of students who want to play soccer,” Coffey said. “Soccer is a sport enjoyed by many students at Amherst who played either recreationally or at the varsity level as high school students, and I would really like to see them continue to play here at whatever level suits them.”

Opinion

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Editorial

Letters to the Editor

Moving 2014 Off-Campus

On Tuesday afternoon, the Director of Residential Life and Interim Dean of Students notified the Class of 2014 of a special offcampus housing arrangement for academic year 2013-2014. Citing a temporary housing crunch, the College negotiated with an apartment complex one mile southeast of campus to provide housing off-campus to 60 students for the year at no extra charge for housing while offering a reduced charge for a modified meal plan. The plan elicited excitement from students previously deterred from seeking off-campus housing arrangements due to the College’s poor institutional accommodation of off-campus students’ needs.

However, the plan immediately also created some confusion. Questions concerning the availability of furnishings, cleaning and maintenance, the cost of PVTA transportation, dorm programming and the availability of residential counselors immediately sprang to mind for many students. The vagueness of the off-campus housing plan also poses a problem for students seeking to decide in the week and a half. Students have also been both puzzled by the lateness of the announcement that the campus is facing a housing crunch as well as the source of that crunch, given the addition of Seligman to student housing next Fall.

The lack of more information regarding the plan is compounded by the haste with which the College is asking students to make a decision — within less than two weeks of the notification (and over one month before regular room draw), the College is asking students to consider their options, gather information about the apartments, put together room draw groups, and gather letters of recommendations from two College faculty or staff. Not only is the time frame itself likely to severely reduce the number of applicants, but the additional stringent requirements for faculty recommendations and good academic/ disciplinary standing within this time frame

Suzanne Coffey, Amherst’s Director of Athletics, writes in response to “Elephant in the Room” in support of the College’s student-athletes

could completely eliminate the likelihood that the off-campus venture succeeds. Eliminating this requirement should be a factor of consideration in the unfortunate event that fewer than sixty students sign up.

The plan also doesn’t offer students a longterm option for off-campus housing — the plan is a temporary fix to a temporary crunch, so it’s not necessary that this plan address the concerns of students wishing to live off-campus. However, given that a housing crunch will exist, and students will find several dorms less than desirable during construction of the new science center, student demand for offcampus living will be higher than normal.

Given the drawbacks of living one mile from campus and two miles from Amherst Center, the College ought to loosen structural barriers to students seeking an off-campus option better suited to their needs, and more accessible to students without cars of their own.

Rather than merely hope to divert 60 students to apartments further away from the town, the College ought to simultaneously encourage students to seek their own off-campus options to alleviate the crunch. In what seems like a calculated design to keep students living in dorms, the College conditions access to a meal plan on a student’s residence in Collegeowned buildings. With the new housing plan, this restriction is still in place for all buildings “considered an extension of on-campus housing,” which includes these apartments. Therefore, the nature of independent off-campus living is unchanged.

In addition to hosting an information session in coming days to clear up the confusion surrounding the current proposal, the College could potentially benefit from a reform to their approach to off-campus living, if not permanently, then at least during this temporary crunch — more students than the College expects may be more than willing to jump at this option.

A Woolly Mammoth in the Room Margaret R. Hunt Chair, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies; Professor of History and Women’s and Gender Studies Last week, in an article entitled “Elephants in the Room,” Professor Thomas Dumm accused the Amherst College Special Oversight Committee on Sexual Misconduct of having deliberately overlooked scientific evidence that students athletes were disproportionately likely to commit sexual assault. Professor Dumm speculated that a possible reason for the failure of the committee to focus on athletes as perpetrators might be that “contributions to the College are correlated with the relative success of our teams, especially, though not exclusively, the football team.” What he was implying was that the committee was perfectly prepared to allow a rape-prone subculture (i.e. male athletes) to op-

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editor-in-Chief Brianda Reyes Managing News Ethan Corey, Alissa Rothman Managing Opinion Erik Christianson, James Liu Managing Arts and Living Annalise Nurme, Jeffrey Feldman Managing Sports Emmett Knowlton, Karl Greenblatt

erate unimpeded just as long as the teams kept winning and the large checks kept pouring in.

As chair of the Special Oversight Committee, I will leave it to others to assess the credibility of Professor Dumm’s charge that we entered into a devil’s bargain in return for money, influence and favorable Division III rankings. I would like instead to examine the sweeping claims Professor Dumm makes about those students at Amherst who engage seriously in athletics, and in particularly to look critically at the “scientific evidence” he calls upon to support his position.

History teaches us that if one wants to demonize a particular group there are few better ways to go about it than to claim that its members are prone to predatory sexual violence.

Over the centuries this charge was quite often made, on flimsy or no evidence, against Jews,

I’m disappointed that a tenured professor at Amherst College would write in broad prejudiced strokes about our students. His speech is deliberately hurtful, and frankly sad. Substitute a different other group — based on religion, race, ethnicity or sexual preference — for athlete and most of us wouldn’t tolerate his outbursts.

Either Mr. Dumm doesn’t know anything about our students who play sports at Amherst, or if he does, he chooses to ignore any facts that might impede his vituperative attack. The studentathletes I know are headed for graduate school, medical school, law school and Teach for America. They are campus and community leaders, accomplished athletes, musicians, actors and writers whose talents are recognized on and off campus.

Our athletes support children with brain tumors through the Friends of Jaclyn; they’ve raised money for cancer research, and they tutor children at the W.E.B. DuBois Academy in Springfield. In fact 100 percent of our varsity teams participate in community outreach. It’s a value that we believe teaches humility and a better understanding for the world we live in. Our student-athletes spend countless hours engaged — which it seems is just what we want to foster at Amherst. Most of them are connected citizens who care deeply about their classmates, their college and their community.

They are mentored by hard-working coaches who every day do their best to fulfill our mission and help the College educate “men and women of exceptional potential from all backgrounds so that they may seek, value, and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence.”

Are student-athletes perfect? No, they are not.

Who is? Do they get into trouble? Occasionally, yes. Are they more to blame for the problems we are finally facing on campus? No, they are not.

Student-athletes, like most other students on this campus, lead complicated lives. What they share in common is the intensity required of dedicated students at one of the most academically rigorous institutions in the land.

Our athletes do indeed succeed in the classroom, including in Professor Dumm’s classroom.

Amherst athletes best our NESCAC competitors each season with academic all-conference honors. At Amherst, academics always come first.

That’s evidenced by the grades earned by athletes in courses taught by Professor Dumm. Students share their grades with their coaches, so we know that the very student-athletes the professor most vilifies earn some of the best grades in Dumm’s classes. We work hard in Athletics to teach our students that every voice counts that every challenge is to be met head-on and taking a course with a professor who loudly voices his disdain for those things that are also important to our students should not deter them from learning more about him and what he has to offer. Too bad this isn’t a two way street.

EJ Mills, Head Football Coach at Amherst College, writes in response to “Elephant in the Room” I write this letter in response to the “Elephant in the Room.” I have dedicated the past 25 years

Continued on Page 5

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Design Editor Brendan Hsu Opinion Section Editors Diana Babineau, Julia Milmed Sports Section Editors Varun Iyengar Arts and Living Senior Editor Nicole Chi, Clara Yoon Publishers Mary Byrne, Chris Friend, Nazir Khan

of my life to coaching football and consider it an honor to coach the young men at Amherst College.

Football at Amherst maintains a storied tradition of excellence. It has been my extreme pleasure to follow in the footsteps of the legendary coach James Ostendarp. My role as a coach extends far beyond the gridiron. Coaches are educators and help to shape the character of their scholar-athletes with every interaction. In my opinion, athletics serve as an extension of the classroom and provide a vehicle for our students to aspire to be the very best people, students and athletes that they can become. Each scholar-athlete must feel my support for all of their endeavors during their time at the college. I view each of them as remarkable ambassadors for Amherst College and most certainly view them as students first and athletes second. It is their acumen and their perseverance that have landed them at Amherst College. I consider it an incredible honor to be their coach and will continue to stand by them as we labor together to improve the culture at Amherst College.

Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It is imperative that we seek a higher road for this discussion. Is it not our job as educators to forge a path that avoids ugly stereotypes and narrow classification boxes? Amherst College is intimate enough in size that such direct verbal insults are inflammatory and create bias that only exacerbates a division among us.

I applaud Professor Margaret Hunt and the entire Oversight Committee for their tireless work on a complex issue. Their findings implore the campus community not to point fingers — but beckon us to each look inside ourselves to discover a way to be part of the solution. The report challenges each of us — administrators, faculty, staff and students — to become better bystanders.

Actions speak volumes; we must redefine what behavior is acceptable in the Amherst culture and begin to act in a way that rids our society of misogyny and sexual misconduct. Now is the time for honest discussion, not sweeping generalizations. Tolerance and “respect for persons” are essential core values for Amherst College. I ask that we let go of the labels and the stereotypes and welcome each individual as they are and support them during their journey of learning. We all become educators when we encourage one another to become our best self.

Barry O’Connell, James E. Ostendarp Professor of English, critiques Professor Dumm’s letter and discusses social life at Amherst Look once again at Professor Dumm’s letter in last Wednesday’s Student. What exactly does it imply? That one group of students on campus, male athletes — especially football players, bears primary responsibility for acts of sexual violence and for coercing others in covering them up. The evidence for such grave claims? Questionable studies and suppositions against the testimony of those who know our own College and have conducted reasonable if not exhaustive investigations. Otherwise: anecdote, hearsay and Professor Dumm’s own self-righteous belief in what is nothing more than stereotype, prejudice and discrimination in an especially vicious form. Substitute for male athletes “blondes,” or “gay males,” or “Latinos” or

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

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The Amherst Student is published weekly except during College vacations. The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester. Subscription requests and address changes should be sent to: Subscriptions, The Amherst Student; Box 1912, Amherst College: Amherst, MA 01002-5000. The offices of The Student are located on the second floor of the Keefe Campus Center, Amherst College. Phone: (413) 542-2304. All contents copyright © 2011 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.

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Letters to the Editor Continued from “Letters to the Editor� “African Americans� and one can immediately see both the injury of his words and their inescapable falsity.

Capping what is already too much, my colleague goes on to imply that the Special Oversight Committee and others engage in covering up or evading investigating the, to him, obvious center of a culture of sexual violence. It might be reasonable to worry about how quickly the Committee had to do its work (some six weeks), but also, decently, to acknowledge the high regard every member of the committee — faculty administrators, staff and students — is accorded by his/her colleagues. Disagree with them?

Of course for that is the lifeblood of a healthy college, but not at the cost of impugning their integrity or of scapegoating an entire group of students.

If Dumm’s intention was to reduce the sexual violence and the risk of it, and to extend and improve the common good, might he first have reached out to some of our colleagues, the teacher-coaches in our first-rate Athletic Department? Or to its Director who also was a member of the Select Committee and is the Title IX coordinator? To my knowledge few faculty members and few, if any, academic departments have focused so skillfully as our teacher-coaches on a sustained effort with athletes to improve the College community, to succeed academically, to contribute substantially to the communities beyond the College and to grasp more deeply the meaning of “respect for others.� Not knowing

this, or ignoring it, only adds to the injury of my colleague’s slanderous letter.

In one matter he has it right. Athletes, male and female, do dominate social life — at least in the eyes of most students and student-athletes that I know. It may be an indisputable fact.

How this might be understood, however, is somewhat complex. No administration in my forty years at Amherst has ever substantially addressed the impoverished student social life here, other than adding to it by reducing social spaces and by policies that privatize drinking to the smallest possible spaces (and the riskiest for sexual violence). Our administrations have consistently failed to offer the incentives and the means for students to create more various and capacious forms of socializing. The indifference of many faculty to students’ extracurricular lives reinforces these failures. Teams are the organizations left to create parties, the default social form at Amherst, in the absence of sustained community efforts to do more and other.

The College faces a resistant and complex problem in sexual violence. Excessive consumption of alcohol and drug taking contributes significantly. We know no campus is free of these problems but all of us on the faculty, perhaps especially, need to know better our students’ lives beyond our classrooms to engage with them and the administration in constructing a richer and safer social and academic environment. Such an effort begins in a recognition of each and all by reducing the barriers that keep us from learning fully from each other.

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Not to fret: Peer Career Advisors to the rescue!

We’ve all had that moment of panic when our friends talk about their exciting opportunities for the upcoming break, and we have just barely gotten our resume approved. New internship listings, however, are posted every day, and if you’re reading this now, you’ve still got plenty of time to get the ball rolling.

Here is a basic guideline to searching for that dream summer job: For those just getting started: r2VFTU -PH JOUP 2VFTU BOE TQFOE B CJU PG time browsing around the possible opportunities that are available to you. In the right margin you’ll see a link to the “Spotlight on Careers� website, which gives useful advice about breaking into specific industries, such as resume and interview tips and sample internships in that field. r#SPXTF 0ODF ZPV WF OBSSPXFE EPXO ZPVS interests, browse through the various Career Center databases available under the “Jobs and Internships� heading on the main page. r3FTVNF 5P NPWF PO UP UIF OFYU TUFQ ZPV MM have to face your fear of the Career Center and actually come in to see one of your wonderful PCAs. We’ll help you get your resume approved so that you can apply to the positions you find in Quest!

For those a bit farther along: r5BSHFUJOH )BWF ZPV NBEF TVSF ZPVS SFTVNF is targeted to the specific position? Even if you’ve come to see us for resume-approval, come back (it’s less scary the second time; we promise!) and talk to us about tailoring your application and perfecting your cover letter. r'VOEJOH *G ZPV SF BQQMZJOH UP VOQBJE JOternships and are starting to worry about expenses, there are several sources of Amherst funding that you can apply for. The CCE offers funding under the Civic Engagement Scholars

program, the details of which (including deadlines) are located on the Career Center website, under “Internships and Summer Funding.� For those of you who are likely to stick around for the summer doing research, take a look at the funding available from the Dean of Faculty and your academic departments. Other sources of funding exist too, including personal fundraising and funding from outside organizations. r/FUXPSLJOH 3FBDIJOH PVU UP BMVNT DBO help you explore opportunities within a field and build relationships for the future. We’ve all heard the crazy networking success stories!

Note: you should never write to an alum with the express purpose of asking for a job. See the Career Center website or a lovely PCA for tips on navigating the social awkwardness that you may feel.

For the overachievers: r*OUFSWJFXT 4P ZPV WF EFDJEFE XIBU PQQPStunities you’d like to pursue and have already gotten a head start on applications? When your dream company offers you an interview and you momentarily panic, just call the Career Center to set up a mock interview to brush up on your self-presentation. rюBOL ZPV DBSET *U T FBTZ UP TQBDF PO UIJT important way of showing your interest in a position or gratitude towards a helpful contact, but make sure you send a thank you note to anyone who has helped you in your search for the perfect internship. Paper notes are the classy way to go, but if you know you’re working with a short turnaround time, e-mailed notes to all of your interviewers are acceptable.

A note for seniors: After four years of applying for internships you might have thought that was in the past.

However, an internship after senior year is a great way to break into a field you hadn’t previously considered or just want to further explore before committing to the big, bad world of “jobs.� Some internships have the possibility of turning into a full-time position; regardless you’ll have another long list of contacts and references in the field, so you can kick some serious butt in your next experience.

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A White Male’s Perspective +BLF 8BMUFST Contributing Writer Last week Professor Thomas L. Dumm wrote an article for The Amherst Student entitled “The Elephant in the Room,� concerning the Special Oversight Committee on Sexual Misconduct at Amherst and their questionable exclusion of the intersection between athletics and sexual respect issues on campus in their official report on sexual respect released recently. As per usual, the comment board on The Student website quickly overflowed with spewed vitriol and poorly thought out, overly simplistic criticisms. Another day, another superficial and ultimately meaningless dialogue about an important issue.

Responses on the board include statements such as, “This guy is the professor who would stereotype athletes in his class as not good students when almost 40 percent of the school body is on a varsity sports team,� a claim the author has no grounds for. “I would also tell you that a disproportionate number of investment bankers, management consultants, corporate executives and probably doctors were also athletes in college,� which implies that somehow being in a position of power and having social capital somehow equates to having superior morals and therefore being less likely to commit sexual assaults. “Girls tend to be more relaxed and friendly with athletes because they’re more attractive and personable,� which blames females for venturing into athletes’ dorm rooms and finding athletes attractive, rather than looking at the systems of privilege that put men, and often athletes as well, in a position of power and allow them greater opportunity to engage in sexual assault. This all isn’t even to mention the numerous statements which essentially argue that Amherst students are too intelligent and morally superior to rape. Apparently, I did not know that performing well on the SAT makes someone a better person.

Great job, Amherst.

Students at this college continue to act out of personal defense more than anything else; as soon as Professor Dumm even opens up the idea that maybe we should even consider looking into how athletics relates to sexual respect, students feel personally attacked and retort, ignorantly, by oversimplifying the contrarian position and claiming that Professor Dumm was generalizing about student athletes. This is despite the fact that he at no point makes any statement judging the actions of athletes on this campus at all. He may imply that there is an increased likelihood of an athlete committing sexual assault, but never argues that a majority of athletes have been involved in sexual assault cases or that there is necessarily any guaranteed evidence of a relationship at all.

Maleness and masculinity, not simply deviance, are systems of privilege that lead to discrimination and rape, and by extension, athletics plays a role in masculinity and thus discrimination. Blaming only those who commit sexual assault and labeling them deviant is highly individualist and de-values the role of societal systems of cultural privilege; it favors the “I� and the “me� and not the “we.�

Groups are meaningful social structures, and as members of a group, this is something athletes, and in particular male athletes, need to take own-ness for. Athletes are historically privileged in the US, and that carries with it implications that athletes need to be aware of, regardless of what they personally have or have not done, or whether there is even any statistical connection between sexual assault and athletics at all.

The typical response to this claim is that students who stereotype athletes, or males, are victimizing them and essentially reverse discriminating, thereby committing the same sin as misogyny.

However, again, this operates under the idea that stigmatization is always the same. Stereotyping males, or male athletes, as misogynists is wrong and amounts to oversimplification, but it is not, and it cannot, be the same thing as calling a woman a “slut.� Maleness is a privilege as a rule. The same is true for athletics, which is privileged on most, if not all, college campuses and in society as a whole.

When people complain about black comedians making fun of white people in an attempt to show a sort of double standard with respect to racial jokes,

they fail to see that there is no system of humor that has served for hundreds of years to oppress whites.

They are not the same; blacks can then be racist, but it is not the same thing as white racism. Likewise, claims about reverse discrimination with respect to affirmative action are red herrings; reverse discrimination it may be, but reverse discrimination acts to lift people up to an equal status, not to push already oppressed people down. Thus, stereotyping athletes as rapists is horrible, but it is not the same thing as blaming women, for instance, for wearing revealing clothing, and this is something athletes who feel attacked by Professor Dumm’s statements need to understand.

Therefore, when I hear a male complain that they are being oppressed by the student protestors, a claim I have heard a good few times by multiple people, I do not, as a male, feel comfortable. It reflects a lack of understanding of privilege. It reflects a belief in the “me� and concern only on the actions of specific individuals rather than what those actions represent and the larger cultural, social systems which allow those actions in the first place.

A student protestor held up a sign last semester that referenced an attack, followed by one of the attacker’s teammates saying, “Why are you such a slut?� to the victim. I hear people criticizing this statement often, but not the system of privilege that allows for it. This individual was not alone in his statement; he did not just say it because he was insensitive or deviant, but because he is a member of cultures which encourage these factors. So too am I, so even if I did not make that comment, I still have a responsibility to acknowledge the role our shared “maleness� played in this comment. This is not to de-emphasize those who actually do commit more specific sexual disrespect violations, but every male needs to acknowledge that their maleness places them in a group that is statistically more likely to commit rape, and they need to understand the implications of this statement. So to do athletes, even if most athletes have never sexually disrespected anyone, or at least think they have not.

There are statistics that suggest some relationship between athletic participation and sexual assault, and maleness is certainly linked. This does not mean athletes are worse people than non-athletes or that athletes are innately less understanding. If students, whether athletes or not, feel the discussion is heading in this direction, they should step up and present their perspective. However, their perspective should not be a desire to see this discussion dropped entirely; wanting to hush discussion on this issue only confirms the very need to discuss it in the first place. What students can and should do is talk about the role of athletics and sexual assault in an attempt to understand all sides of the issue. After all, if you are an athlete and you feel students are stereotyping you, you are not going to convince them they are wrong by trying to stop them from talking about sexual assault. What you can do is get to know the other side, form a working relationship with a wide variety of students and come to understand why any student who generalizes about athletes does so and hope to change their mind. Let them know that many athletes can and do understand issues of sexual assault, but part of this understanding is letting those protesting the campus and its reaction to sexual assault have a voice that needs to be heard an can teach us something that we all need to learn. Part of understanding and respecting this issue is understanding the other viewpoint, and we cannot and will never be able to do so without listening to complaints like Professor Dumm’s about athletics and sexual respect and taking action on them.

Which brings me back to the comment about dividing the community at Amherst. Yes, dividing Amherst is not good; this is a time for us to come together. However, if the discussion continues as is, most students will not really know why they are coming together. Sometimes a finger needs to be pointed at a system of privilege in order to inform those who subscribe to it, knowingly or unknowingly, the problems with that privilege. If students were to come together without really knowing what the victims of sexual assault are feeling, the togetherness they would advocate would be false and would accomplish little, which is more or less what has been happening over the past few months.

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Dubious Science, Athletics DiscussingChange and Opportunism The Right Way Continued from “Woolly Mammoth�

African-Americans and gays, among other groups, and its purpose was always to drum up fear and justify extreme acts of “retribution.� Often it was a prelude to efforts to exclude or exile these groups entirely. Depressingly, the historical record also shows how quickly and easily people abandon conventional standards of proof when it comes to alleged sexual deviance among groups they consider different from themselves. Irregular legal procedures, shoddy use of evidence and sloppy or misconstrued science tend to accompany sexual scapegoating as maggots accompany rotting meat.

So has science, as Professor Dumm asserts, demonstrated a “clear relationships between single-sex teams and sexual violence?� As the Special Oversight Committee discovered when it surveyed the literature preparatory to writing its report, science has demonstrated nothing of the kind. A number of studies were done in the 1980s and 1990s that sought to measure college students’ and others’ tendency to believe “rape myths,� such as the myth that a good proportion of rape-charges were actually false or the myth that women routinely said “no� to sex when they really meant “yes.� Rape myth acceptance research is much bigger than the study of athletes, but at that time — now 20 and in some cases 30 years ago — some of the evidence from some schools suggested that male athletes were getting slightly higher “rape myth acceptance� scores than their non-athlete peers (Koss and Gaines, 1993). However, as a number of experts have pointed out, many of these early studies were flawed and inconsistent in terms of the definitions they used, how they chose and delimited their test subjects, how they presented their statistical findings and how they assessed the degree to which “rape myth acceptance� was predictive of a propensity to commit sexual assault (Hinck and Thomas, 1999; Buhi, 2005; Sawyer, Thompson and Chicorelli, 2002). In addition there were real questions about how representative they were, since almost all the “athlete/rape myth� studies relied heavily on large Division I and II universities and tended to lump all male athletes together into an undifferentiated mass.

It is telling that it has proved impossible to replicate these older studies in the present day.

In the 21st century the monolithic view of “athlete� adopted by most of the earlier studies completely unraveled, largely thanks to a 2002 study led

by Robin Sawyer of the Univ. of Maryland School of Public Health. That study did not set out to compare athletes with non-athletes (indeed there was no nonathlete control group), but instead focused on the often significant differences between athletes. So for example, the study showed that Division I athletes, both male and female, scored higher for rape myth acceptance than Division II athletes did (the study did not examine Division III athletes at all). It also showed differences between sports and demonstrated — perhaps surprisingly for those who consider sports teams training grounds for sexual assault — that first-year and sophomore male athletes scored higher for rape myth acceptance than junior and senior athletes did (in other words, the longer a man was on a team the less likely he was to accept rape myths). The study concluded that “like any group or community, student athletes should not be lumped together as a single entity with presumed identical attitudes and behaviors� (Sawyer, Thompson and Chicorelli, 2002).

Many recent studies of rape myth acceptance have followed this dictum and now focus on behaviors and personality traits rather than on whether or not one happens to be an athlete, or, indeed, a member of any other student group. Those recent or relatively recent studies that do consider participation in athletics as a variable have been unable to show any difference at all between athletes and non-athletes, either in rape myth acceptance or in sexually aggressive behaviors.

Locke and Mahalik (2005) tested the hypothesis that athletes believed more strongly in rape myths than other groups and committed more sexual assault.

Simultaneously they tested the relationship between rape myth acceptance, sexual aggression and a series of multidimensional markers of masculinity. They succeeded in showing that men who drank to excess, avoided emotional commitments, engaged in high-

risk behaviors and disliked homosexuals were more likely than other men to report behavior on surveys that sounded like sexual assault to researchers. However, in and of itself being an athlete made no difference at all. These results are pretty typical of what one finds today. In addition, they match the findings of Meegan Mercurio whose BA thesis from Providence College Professor that Dumm, somewhat unwisely, cites in his article as “proof � that athletes as a group are especially prone to sexual violence. Mercurio did indeed try to prove that hypothesis, though only for Division I athletes. But if Professor Dumm had taken the time to read further than the first few pages he would have seen that she does not succeed. I quote from her conclusion: “This research addressed the problem: Does playing as a Division I student athlete affect dating violence attitudes and are student athletes more likely to be perpetrators of violence? The hypothesis inferred that athletic participation may have an effect on dating violence. Instead the null hypothesis was proved and the findings theoretically proved that student athletes are not more likely to be perpetrators of violence, but in fact are less likely to be perpetrators of violence.� (Mercurio 2010, p. 25).

Along with charging that our committee neglected the science, Professor Dumm asserts that we did not take seriously the accounts of rape survivors at Amherst. The real story, clearly stated in the report, is that we did interview rape survivors and we heard via email, letter and phone from many others, including a number who are now graduated. We also surveyed every sexual assault complaint made in the last 10 years, the vast majority of which never advanced to the Hearing Board. In those accounts we did find assaults perpetrated by athletes. We also found evidence that teams had sought to silence victims. What we did not find was evidence that either athletes or particular teams were standouts in these respects.

Athletes were not disproportionately more likely to be perpetrators than were non-athletes. Most important of all we found absolutely identical patterns of silencing and, at times, retaliation against victims from student organizations that had no connection whatsoever to athletics — and we found them repeatedly.

A lot of people like the idea of fobbing off the problem of sexual assault onto some other group that is not them. One can see why. If the problem can be traced to, say, the football team, why should anyone who is not on that team bother to endorse and work for sexual respect among their own groups or networks? Or encourage more comprehensive reporting? Or try to adopt or get others to adopt less risky drinking habits? Our committee believed and still believes that eliminating sexual assault at Amherst College demands a community response. The notion that the problem is all or mostly to be laid at the door of athletes is at variance with the evidence our committee painstakingly gathered about the past history of assault, and it is not supported by scientific research. If one really wants to eliminate sexual violence and enlist the entire community in doing so, blaming athletes is a truly counterproductive way to start.

And that brings me to opportunism. What is Professor Dumm’s purpose in endorsing such a patently futile strategy for eliminating sexual assault, not to mention one that unfairly singles out a particular subgroup? It is no secret that Professor Dumm is a critic of varsity athletics at Amherst College, especially football. It appears that he sees in the sexual assault issue an opportunity to discredit the athletic program, and he hopes that if enough people can be persuaded to believe athletes are natural rapists they will rise up in outrage and get rid of, or at least severely limit the program. He has such an animus against athletes and is so intent on his goal that he doesn’t even see the injustice of tarring an entire demographic with the name of sexual predator. Furthermore, he also has no compunctions about enlisting science that is out of date, anything but clear and no longer able to be replicated in order to push his views. It is anyone’s right to oppose varsity athletics.

It is not, however, all right to do so in such an irresponsible way.

The full citations for the scientific studies mentioned in this article can be found at http://www3.amherst.edu/~mrhunt/

(BCSJFM 8JS[ Contributing Writer I am a student-athlete at Amherst College who plays for the men’s soccer program. I am not enrolled in classes such as Bowling 1; I do not have people doing my homework for me as I prepare to get drafted by a pro sports team; and, there are no “fans� asking for my autograph as I walk around campus. I say this because I felt disappointed and slighted by the way that male athletes at the College were stereotyped in Professor Dumm’s article, “Elephant in the Room,� because the athletic scene that Professor Dumm describes involving entitlement, misogyny and homophobia is not one that I am a part of. I am not writing this to say that the student-athlete culture at Amherst is perfect. As a sophomore, I am trying to do my part in improving the role that my team has within the community. As inspiration, I look at how the leaders on campus — professors, coaches, captains and club leaders — try to make the Amherst community better. I was upset about the article, not because Professor Dumm voiced an opinion that I disagreed with, but because he went about it in an unproductive manner. It was frustrating that Professor Dumm was publicly accusatory towards the entire athletic department without proposing some sort of forum for discussion with the athletes. I think many athletes want to start a dialogue about how we, as athletes, can make the Amherst campus better as a whole. However, many of the athletes I have spoken with feel ostracized by the article, and now this type of discussion will be harder to start.

While the student-athlete’s role in the community can always be improved, it is important to know that many athletes on campus do not fall into the negative athletic stereotype as described by Professor Dumm.

The first day of my first year at Amherst began with a team meeting. Being new to the program, I expected that the meeting would be purely soccer related. However, the first thing our head coach did was make sure that we were all acquainted with the cardinal rules of the Amherst soccer program: academics always come first, we respect women, we recycle (winners care about the environment!) and we are accepting of people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds as well as sexual orientations. Our coach went on to say that while winning is important to the program, the most important thing is that the team is made up of a group of good guys who care about one another and hold each other accountable for their actions. The fact that all of the upperclassmen on the team had bought into the idea that character is the most important part of our Program made an impression on me. I remember sitting there thinking that I was lucky to be part of a team that cared about the same values that my parents had instilled in me. Right then and

there I decided that I wanted these same values to be an integral part of the team when I became an upperclassman. This emphasis on character became even more apparent when I learned that the most revered of the soccer alumni were the ones who cared about the Program, made good decisions off the field and were respected by the Amherst community as a whole. Molding us into better people over the course of our four years here is the main objective of the program. Everything else is secondary.

Contrary to the stereotypical belief that athletes feel like they can do or say whatever they want because they are athletes, being part of the Athletic Program has made me more aware of how important my actions and words are due to the effect that they have on those around me. I am constantly reminded that I represent myself, my teammates, my team, the coaching staff, the athletic department and the Amherst crest on my jersey, and this informs the decisions I make. We hold each other to very high standards, and I know that if I make a bad decision, I need to answer to my own conscience, my teammates and my coaches. We take our bond as a team very seriously and we always look out for each other by making sure that those around us are making good decisions. Although I have mainly been talking about the Amherst men’s soccer program, I have interacted with many coaches and players from other varsity teams around campus, specifically through the Amherst Leads Program and I know that the values that I associated with the Soccer Program are values that are major parts of the philosophies of other teams on campus.

Amherst Leads, a leadership development program in which many varsity athletes participate, is a good example of the Athletic Department attempting to create a more community-oriented athletic environment.

I know that Professor Dumm is not alone in his beliefs. His argument does touch on a larger issue within the community and the country. The point of my response is not solely to criticize the way in which Professor Dumm wrote his article. I am writing this because my biggest fear regarding this situation is that people will discuss this issue privately within their respective groups and not in the community at large. My hope is that this article can be a starting point for Amherst and its leaders to talk about the culture of the college and how we can change it for the better. To this effect, I would love to see the professor in my class on Monday morning set aside 10 minutes to begin a dialogue about student-athlete culture, drinking culture and sexual decision making amongst the whole class. This is by no means a final solution, but it would be a tangible start to approaching a community-wide issue. I think it is important for professors and coaches alike to facilitate these types of discussions because they are the leaders we look to every day.

Andrew Knox ’16, Alexander Hero ’14, Jared Hedglin ’13, Liya Rechtman ’14 and Steve Reynolds P’13 write Letters to the Editor in response to “Elephant in the Room� by Professor Thomas L. Dumm, which appeared in the Feb. 13, 2013 edition of The Student.

Read it online at amherststudent.amherst.edu

#WAASUP

AAS Senate weekly updates, in 140 characters or fewer

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Arts&Living

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The World, Seen: On Beauty and BeyoncĂŠ

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#FZPODĂ? T 4VQFS #PXM IBMGUJNF QFSGPSNBODF JT B EFQBSUVSF GSPN UIF OPSN TUSBEEMJOH UIF NJEEMF HSPVOE CFUXFFO DMBTTJD BOE USFOEZ ;BDI #MFFNFS Staff Writer The difficulty in booking an act for the Super Bowl Half-Time Show is finding a performer whom 108 million American viewers will not find controversial.

In recent years, this difficulty has been surmounted largely by reaching into the annals of American music lore and resurrecting longpassed stars who seek to reignite their formerlyavid fan base with morsels of their former glory packaged in coruscating lights and overwhelming pyrotechnics. Watching these undead performers is as strange as it would be to watch now-Pope Benedict XVI lead Christmas Mass this coming December: they perform their desired roles in all the right ways, but they are just no longer the right people for the performance.

This year, the coveted invitation was extended to BeyoncÊ Knowles, who took the opportunity to sing and undulate her way through several of her recent hit singles and to spotlight the temporarily reunited band Destiny’s Child.

I found the event most striking, though, not for what Wesley Morris of Grantland calls BeyoncÊ’s “power — power singing, power walking, power posing, ‌ power hair,â€? but for the selection of BeyoncĂŠ in the first place.

After all, BeyoncÊ is no long-passed undead star. Although seven of the past eight years of Super Bowls have featured artists who achieved prominence before 1985, BeyoncÊ’s stardom did not commence until the late 1990s, and her most popular years have been over this past decade.

However, the choice of BeyoncÊ is also not comparable to the one recent exception to the Undead Star Rule of Super Bowl Half-Time Shows: 2011’s Black Eyed Peas. The Black Eyed Peas had had six top-10 singles over the two years prior to their Super Bowl act, and were performing at the peak of their international popularity. BeyoncÊ, on the other hand, has not had a top-10 single for over two-and-ahalf years. The Black Eyed Peas represented the New Guard in the same way that Tom Petty or Prince or Bruce Springsteen represented the

Old Guard, but BeyoncĂŠ does not fit neatly into either category.

This places BeyoncĂŠ into the strange middle category of “Old Guard Who’s Still Newâ€? or “New Guard Who’s Sort of Old,â€? a category largely filled with the irrelevant and the hokey.

But BeyoncÊ is anything but irrelevant and hokey, as her stunning and seriously sexualized Super Bowl performance, coupled with her singing of the National Anthem at Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremonies two weeks earlier, proclaimed to any possible naysayers.

The confusing question, then, is this: if BeyoncĂŠ is not Old Guard, and she is not New Guard, then who likes her? After all, traditional wisdom states that there are two kinds of music-lovers out there. There are those that are into the next big thing, where big might mean “popularâ€? or “can-be-danced-toâ€? or “soundslike-the-bluesâ€? or “can-be-turned-into-killer-acappellaâ€? or hundreds of other things. And then there are those that like the classics, the music of their youth or of their parents’ youth, the music that’s woven its way into human history, as well their respective histories. Just like there is Old Guard Music and New Guard Music, there are Old Guard listeners and New Guard listeners, and neither type ought to be very interested in BeyoncÊ’s music, which is neither new enough for the New nor old enough for the Old. BeyoncÊ’s success at the Super Bowl provides a challenging example to the aesthetics of 18th century philosopher David Hume. Hume, too, claimed that there were two kinds of people in the world: people with taste and people without taste. Those without taste can always attempt to attain taste, of course, and some are able to succeed — nevertheless, at any given time, each person either has taste or doesn’t have taste. Those with taste are able to identify objects as being beautiful and can properly value those objects for their beauty; those without taste can only think that they are identifying objects as beautiful and can never properly value

the experience of those objects.

Within the realm of mainstream music, Hume’s divide can be seen in the Old Guard – New Guard distinction that I drew above, with the Old Guard serving as taste arbiters disdaining the profligate, ear-pounding musical preferences of the New Guard. This incites a kind of standard disagreement of artistic value, with the Old arguing that the New’s music is in bad taste while New argues that the Old’s music is boring or out of touch. Everyone is familiar with this kind of argument of taste, the kind where one side leaves feeling offended and rebellious and the other side leaves feeling superior and cynical about the future.

But BeyoncÊ’s success points to a flaw in the very premise that founds such an argument of taste. Hume only has two ways of justifying artistic success: either those with taste made it happen, or those without taste made it happen.

There is no such thing as compromise in Hume’s model: either you have taste or you do not have taste (in Hume’s words, there is the tasteful critic who is able to “preserve his mind free from all prejudice�, and there is the man without taste for whom prejudice clouds all judgment).

BeyoncÊ’s success does not come from those with ‘taste:’ her youth, sexuality, timeliness and relatively short duration of fame prohibit her approval by ‘taste’ arbiters. But her success also does not come from those without ‘taste:’ her lack of recent Billboard singles success, her focus on high-paying private concerts and her divergence from music into fashion and politics suggest that a large number of other artists would have been honored above BeyoncĂŠ in the role of Performer of the Year. BeyoncĂŠ is a magnificent artist and has found success in her magnificence, but her success is unrelated to her status in ‘taste’. Therefore, Hume’s framework, and the argument of taste in general, is empirically flawed, failing to map to the real world of music.

BeyoncĂŠ does not transcend taste. She undermines taste as a meaningful concept.

The Not-So-Glamorous Fashionista Life *TBCFM $BNBDIP Staff Writer Valentine’s Day marked the last day of New York Fashion Week, a biannual event dedicated to designer clothing, gorgeous models and chic spectators lining the sidewalks around Lincoln Center like Amherst students in Val at the lunch rush.

For many of us, these factors are all we see. Though each event lasts for under an hour, they all take an unbelievable amount of hard work and preparation that only those behind the scenes can understand. Fashion has always been an informal hobby of mine, and over this past interterm I wanted to delve deeper into the world behind the catwalk. I figured working in a design studio would be an interesting way to spend a couple of otherwise lazy “Mad Men� marathonfilled weeks in January, so I applied to be an intern with the French women’s designer Catherine Malandrino. After a short interview that highlighted all of the practical experience I didn’t have in fashion, I somehow got the job and started soon thereafter.

How do you picture the inside of a fashion designer’s studio? Elegant people left and right, racks and racks of perfectly organized designer duds and big chic offices Ă la “The Devil

Wears Prada,� right? That’s what I pictured before working at Catherine’s New York studio. When I showed up on my first day to a grungy building in the heart of the garment district, those “Project Runway�-inspired fantasies about where I would be working were dashed quickly. What I found instead was a tiny studio with desks tucked away wherever they would fit and heaps of papers and other materials filling whatever space was left. Even more alarming was the amount of clothing on racks, in piles and in boxes all over the office.

I was surprised by the small group of people that run the behindthe-scenes operation for such a well-known company as Catherine Malandrino’s. Since there was such minimal manpower, I and the few other interns with whom I worked spent full days at the studio, with rarely a dull or idle moment. Though I went on the inevitable coffee run every once in a while, I was very pleased that my days were mostly filled with duties that actually contributed to the company’s output. Often, I was relegated to fabric swatching: the designers would describe a particular type and color of fabric they needed for a design, and then send me out to search far and wide through the various fabric stores littered across the

city. Sometimes I was given a request so rare that it took hours of searching through hundreds of fabric rolls in dozens of different stores to find a match. It was definitely interesting to understand how fabrics are selected and purchased in the fashion industry, and especially to have been personally part of the process, but the searching got tedious and exhausting at times. I’ll be okay if I never see “Fuji Silk� or “Ponte� again.

Other activities in which I partook included pinning pictures of different “looks� to big display boards until my fingers burned, cutting out shapes and contributing ideas to the design of different pieces, trying on the clothing as a “fit model� and even trying my hand at drawing sketches of the clothing and utilizing my minimal Home Ec. skills to sew items for their Fashion Week show. Unfortunately, Winter Storm Nemo kept me from heading back to New York to work the show, but I was happy to at least have lent a hand during its hectic lead-up.

Although the work was surprisingly exhausting, I’m glad that I used my interterm to step out of my comfort zone and enter a field that I’ve always had a passion for. I’m particularly grateful for the intimate and unique exposure I received, especial-

ly with the lack of prior experience I had going in. While my break was not as relaxing as I had hoped, and despite the fewer episodes of “The Real Housewives� I got to watch or hours of sleep I got each day, I definitely wouldn’t take back my decision to work for the company. I loved getting creative when dressing in the

had the privilege of working with Catherine herself, and was genuinely surprised to see the design genius on her hands and knees working just as hard as the rest of us. I now feel that I have a more profound understanding of the field I have always had an immense (albeit superficial) interest in, as well as a greater appreciation

Image courtesy of cdn.c.photoshelter.com

5IPVHI UIF XPSME PG GBTIJPO NBZ DFMFCSBUF CFBVUZ UIF XPSL UIBU HPFT JOUP JU JT BOZUIJOH CVU CFBVUJGVM morning to keep up with the effortlessly chic people I interacted with, who were, for the most part, intelligent, kind and understanding. (There are always going to be those sticklers who are unsatisfied with the apple you’ve fetched them, right?) I even

for the hard work that goes into the clothing we wear and the shows we see. The worst part? Acknowledging that I couldn’t sneak out of the office on my last day with every piece of beautiful clothing stuffed into my back pocket.

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Indie Game Delights with Retro Appeal .JLF #VDLMFS Staff Writer Indie video games often fall into roughly two categories: those that experiment with a novel core game mechanic and those that pay homage to tried-and-true tropes of classic gaming while turning them on their head. Recently released and catching my attention, Anodyne, a top-down Legend of Zeldainspired adventure game, resides firmly within the latter category. I felt like I was taking a (tiny) chance buying this little indie game I’d yet to hear anything about, but I trusted the retro 16-bit surreal art style to deliver, at the very least, a quirky distraction. Had I done my homework, I’d have found that the developers, a two-man team of Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka, crafted a cleverly designed and dreamily rendered tribute to a classic series.

Anodyne wears its gratitude to early 2D Legend of Zelda titles on its sleeve. The styling of the sprites exudes the charm of those classic games — characters are colorful with squat proportions, grass blows and water flows in a rhythmic pattern and pixelated landscapes, such as meadows, towns, deserts, beaches and graveyards, are peppered with detail to endow them with some depth. Even the ways that the characters walk and the enemies shimmy, crawl and leap feels familiar. At the same time, the tone of this world is just a shade darker, more desolate, dreamy and surreal compared to that of Legend of Zelda. Some of the landscapes are truly bizarre, such as a red forest of dead trees at the bottom of a whirlpool, inhabited by looming bipedal and amorphous creatures. Even more mundane locales have strange little details that make you question the game (or its developers), such as a lobster on a beach that loves to watch the ocean or a rhyming troll who is sworn to protect bees. As the game went on, I felt as if I was exploring a certain take on Wonderland.

Exploration is the name of the game in Anodyne. The homage to the Legend of Zelda is even more obvious in the gameplay than the art style. Armed with only a broom (seriously),

you must explore the unnamed world in order to save it. Of course, it starts out simple enough, as your path is straightforward and enemies don’t really want to fight you. Eventually you have to solve puzzles by killing enemies, pressing switches and placing dust clouds with your broom. After you get through an introductory dungeon, however, you are thrust into a meadow and given no direction. From here on, the game refuses to hold

Image courtesy of UXJOm OJUF OFU

"OPEZOF QBZT IPNBHF UP UIF USJFE BOE USVF USPQFT PG DMBTTJD HBNJOH your hand. Exploration is the key to advancement, yielding keys and new items. It takes some time to explore the large environments, especially because you walk rather slowly (I wish running were an option) and some enemies reappear when you leave an area. At certain points I found myself walking in circles wondering what to do. Yet eventually I’d always find the trick that let me advance a little farther, and that was immensely gratifying each time. The tension and release of disorienta-

tion and realization is the game’s most potent and satisfying quality, one that keeps me playing in spite of any momentary frustration. In addition to advancing the gameplay, exploration slowly uncovers the game’s strange and scattered narrative.

The game begins with our protagonist, a bespectacled young man named “Young,� talking to a sagely sage aptly named “Sage.� Sage informs Young that he must find an elder named “The Briar� in order to stop “The Darkness� from taking over “The Land.� At first the story didn’t feel like much of one; indeed, I thought this comically generic exchange to be merely a jab at typical video game exposition. Yet the narrative is revealed very slowly, bit-by-bit, as you read signs and meet people over the course of the game. It can be difficult to piece the entire story together, especially since you’re never quite sure if there are gaps in your knowledge. Over time you find that the world of Anodyne is as surreal as it looks, for reasons I’d rather not spoil, though I can guarantee that there is actually a satisfying (though rather dark) explanation for the seemingly generic story. Even without the context of the story, there’s a palpable loneliness in Young’s journey. You spend a lot of time reading signs and words carved into boulders. Encounters with fellow human beings are uncommon, while the occasional talking animal tends to wax philosophical rather than give you advice or help you in your quest. I found that this desolate atmosphere implied a narrative all its own, even without the addition of dialogue and text. The soundtrack to the game is similarly moody and ethereal, even beautiful at times.

Each unique locale has its own music, yet it’s never steeped with tired musical clichÊs in an attempt to match the environment. Seriously, I advise fellow music majors to give one or two tracks a listen.

Anodyne takes roughly eight hours to complete, so it’s a relatively quick distraction. For the price ($10 MSRP), buying this game was a no-brainer. For fans of classic adventure games, this game will bring back memories of those you played years ago and its strange twists on the familiar 16-bit style and an equally offbeat story will mess with your head.

Queeriosity: Dating "EBVHP 6EPDIB Contributing Writer So here you are with this crush of yours, this person for whom you have deep feelings. The only thing that is stopping you from pursuing your crush other than the obvious fears and qualms is your sexuality; you’re questioning where you might be on the sexual spectrum.

How do you reconcile the fact that you are attracted to someone, yet still trying to figure out where you fit on the sexual spectrum? It can be quite the bind because your object of affection might like to know where you identify on the sexual spectrum to see if a relationship could work or not. On the other hand, trying to figure out what your sexuality is will make it easier to figure out whom you actually ask out and pursue.

Where is the common ground?

What can you do now if you’re questioning your sexuality? These are questions that a couple of my friends and I have discussed. It is scary going into a situation that has potential ground for a relationship to grow while having that “unknown� in your life on which people and society in general put a lot of emphasis.

One does not want to be judged, put into a box or have certain stereotypes perpetrated upon him/her/ zem due to one decision.

Having never dated nor been in a relationship, I am going to take a page from one of my close friends from home. Let’s call her “E.� She started questioning her sexuality when she was in high school. She was curious about her growing attraction to girls. She was concerned

at first, and expressed her sentiments to me as well as a couple of other friends. I did not know what to say or to do for her, because at the time, I never thought that someone could question their sexuality or that sexuality was fluid. Plus I had never been on a date in my life. I shrugged my shoulders and told her, “Go with the flow?�

Looking back, I would have said, “Well, move forward, but be wise.� “E� ended up stumbling through the rest of her high school years figuring out who she was, going in and out of tumultuous relationships. Due to the attention that created, other girls started bullying her. It hurt to see her go through such difficult times.

However, it also taught me much about how tough it can be when you are in this questioning state of your life, when it seems that others around you do not get it and there are few solid support systems and safe spaces to feel comfortable.

However, such people and opinions should not stop one from going out, socializing and connecting on a romantic level with others. You should not feel afraid, different or marginalized for questioning your sexuality. Experience life with these questions in mind so that you can figure out where you are on the sexual spectrum or at least clarify where your preferences lie. However, do remember that when going out to date, some people might not be so open to you being this question mark. Take that in stride and move forward; they do not define who you are as a person. It will hurt, I know, but hopefully you do have the friends or family that will be there to back you up as you go through this

transition. If not, you should make the effort to find a mentor so that you do have a safety net whenever obstacles push you down.

On the flip side, be understanding of those who are accepting of you but might still struggle with the fact that your preferences in sexuality might change, leading to a shift in the dating relationship. It’s a learning process for all those involved. Yet make sure that you, too, are given that understanding and respect as well.

Moreover, if you are questioning your sexuality, being in a relationship or dating does not have to be filled with conflict. Though I used the example of my friend “E� while in high school, she recently graduated last year. She has moved beyond the past, and now enjoys healthy dating relationships with both men and women. No drama.

Yes, there are times she told me that when she met someone and told zir about how she was still figuring out where she was on the sexual spectrum, ze was turned off. But hey, who needs them? Brush your feet off and look forward to the next person who might pop into your life.

Thus: go off, meet people and focus on portraying the qualities that you want to put forth. Yes, your sexuality does play a huge part in whom you approach and want to date, but ultimately, it is also about those qualities and idiosyncrasies that draw people together. If you find someone who can accept all of you with no exceptions, then there is nothing to worry about. So keep following the questions, but do not stop interacting with people who give you great joy.

8 "SUT -JWJOH

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Jake Weighs In: The Oscar Predictions

+BLF 8BMUFST Staff Writer

It’s that time again: Time for me to have an excuse to talk about the Oscars without complaining about how meaningless they are! But seriously, the Oscar nominations proved me wrong this year by taking some interesting chances and meting out some snubs which, whether I agree with them or not, at least show the Academy is perfectly willing to upset the public if it wants to. There are surprisingly few locks this year, especially in comparison to recent years, and I can honestly say I’m not 100 percent on most of these picks.

Plus, it’s been a pretty good year for Oscar movies, with surprisingly little in the way of uptight, stodgy uppermiddle class fare aimed at capturing the hearts of everyone’s parents and amounting to whatever the complete opposite of edge is. I can at least be glad for that. Let the guessing begin!

Best Picture: “Argo�

The hazy cloud of wild guesses among the few obvious choices is beginning to clear up, with predictions coalescing into substantive picks.

Perhaps most interesting of all is “Argo,� a true dark horse contender.

When this film came out in October, I predicted it could very well win Best Picture. But then people stopped talking about “Argo.� For a while the big buzz picture was “Zero Dark Thirty,� which quietly exploded onto the scene, but was here and gone, not unlike the soldiers in the raid that climaxes the film. After that, the title seemed to belong to “Lincoln.�

Then Ben Affleck wasn’t nominated in the Best Director category, spelling disaster for “Argo� when one considers that the last film to win Best Picture without a Best Director nomination was 1989’s “Driving Miss Daisy.� But something about Affleck’s snub spoke to the Academy, and what seemed like a surefire end to the film’s trail to the Oscars could have become the spark that lit a fire in the hearts of the Academy. Out of respect for Affleck and the film’s strong populist appeal, I firmly expect Ben Affleck to be standing onstage come Feb. 24, not as a director, but as a co-

producer. I guess my initial gut feeling was right here — “Argoâ€? received a standing ovation when I saw it in October, and that type of broad support means a lot when it comes to the politics of the Academy. If only “Beasts of the Southern Wildâ€? had a fighting chance‌ Best Director: Steven Spielberg, “Lincolnâ€?

This is a tough prediction to make since the Director’s Guild winner, Affleck, wasn’t even nominated here. While Ang Lee’s direction is probably the more showy, largely thanks to the special effects in “Life of Pi,� Spielberg is the safer choice, and the Academy usually plays it safe when it comes to the major awards.

They also might think it’s time for one of cinema’s best, most popular and widest reaching living directors to take home his third statue for his work in the director’s chair.

Had Lee not already won I would say this would be about 50-50, but the Academy doesn’t need to reward him for past films, as they often do. Still, this is no lock, since the come-frombehind Best Picture winner that has brought Best Director along with it for the past four years can’t do so this year because of Affleck’s snub. This one I’ll be paying attention to.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln�

Done deal. Locks don’t come any more guaranteed than this. Daniel Day-Lewis will make Oscar history by being the first to win Best Actor in a Leading Role three times. DayLewis is known for his somewhat controversial but respected methodacting techniques, and it shows on the screen. He does not just play the role of America’s 16th President, Day-Lewis becomes him. People will

The Academy might “ think it’s time for one of cinema’s most popular directors to take home his third statue.

�

remember this role many years from as one of the finest portrayals, if not the finest portrayal, of an American

President, and that’s as good a reason as any to bet on Day-Lewis.

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook�

Lawrence is definitely the frontrunner here, and the Academy will reward “Silver Linings Playbook� either here or in the Best Supporting Actor category. I’m about 75 percent sure of this one. Jessica Chastain was at one point neck and neck with Lawrence, but it seems the controversy surrounding “Zero Dark Thirty�

It seems like a three-way tie between Robert de Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Christoph Waltz. All are terrific in their respective films, but who should win? They’ve all won before, so that’s not a card to play in anyone’s favor. De Niro has a shot if voters snub Lawrence, who will likely be the victor for “Silver Linings Playbook.�

The early favorite was Jones, but now more are saying Waltz will win here.

I don’t know about this, especially because he won three years ago for “Inglourious Basterds.� So I’ll pick

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained�

The other tough one of the night. This might be the one category where “Zero Dark Thirty� will have traction, considering the Academy’s willingness to award more controversial films in the less prominent Screenplay categories. “Amour� has a good chance as well, but I predict that Quentin Tarantino will win here — witty dialogue always does well in this category.

No film on the shortlist better fits

Image courtesy of www.filmofilia.com

4UFWFO 4QJFMCFSH T FQJD CJPQJD i-JODPMOw JT FYQFDUFE UP UBLF IPNF TFWFSBM "DBEFNZ "XBSET UIJT 4VOEBZ OJHIU JODMVEJOH #FTU %JSFDUPS BOE #FTU "DUPS has hurt the film more than anyone thought it would. Emanuelle Riva stands some chance here as well, if only because, in contrast to Lawrence who will have many more chances in this category, this is probably it for Riva: she’s the oldest nominee ever in this category (Quevenzhane Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild� is the youngest ever). I haven’t seen “Amour� so I can’t comment on the actual quality of Riva’s performance, but I feel pretty confident that Lawrence will win come Oscar night.

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln�

Now it gets fun. As I write this I’m still not sure whom I should pick.

Jones as the fiery Thaddeus Stevens by just a hair, but I won’t be surprised if I’m wrong.

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables�

Another virtual lock. No one has been talking about anyone else in this category recently, and with good reason. Hathaway has been amassing an impressive track record recently, so much so that mentioning her past as a Disney Princess transcends clichÊ and is almost pure pointlessness. I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t comment on the quality of the performance, but it’ll be nice for her to finally win the gold. We all knew it would happen eventually.

that bill than Django, and I think that’s enough.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Tony Kushner, “Lincoln�

Again, I could see “Argo� winning here, and there’s a very slim chance for “Silver Linings Playbook� as well, but I don’t think either has traction here. No one film has enough support this year to sweep the season, but I think “Lincoln� will come closest. It was always something of a weak frontrunner in terms of support, but I still think it’ll come out ahead here.

It’s not a lock, but the chances are better than with either Supporting Actor or Original Screenplay.

Comic by &JSFOF 8BOH

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Sports 9

Men’s Hockey Falls to Ephs; Bounces Back to Beat Midd., Set Up Quarterfinal Rematch #SFOUPO "SOBCPMEJ Staff Writer After a gut-wrenching 4-2 loss to Williams on Friday, the men’s hockey team rebounded to a thrilling 5-3 comeback win over Middlebury in the regular season finale last Saturday. With the victory, the Jeffs (15-6-3, 11-5-2 NESCAC) clinched home-ice advantage in the NESCAC Tournament quarterfinals. As the No. 4 seed, the Jeffs have earned a rematch with No. 5 Middlebury (12-10-2, 11-5-2 NESCAC) at Orr Rink this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Entering the final weekend of the regular season, the Jeffs sat in a three-way tie with Williams and Middlebury for third place in the NESCAC standings. Battling against bitter rivals for playoff seeds, the Jeffs struggled in a tentative outing against Williams but recovered with a stirring 5-3 victory over Middlebury. Once the dust cleared, Amherst had done just enough to secure homeice advantage for a sixth consecutive season. “Coming back like that is huge. It’s certainly important to be able to get the experience of playing in big games like that and being able to get the job done,� co-Captain Brandon Hew ’13 said.

Amherst skated to a slow start against Williams on Friday night, falling behind 3-0 three minutes into the second period. The Jeffs closed the gap to 3-2 with late-second period goals from Brian Safstrom ’14 and Aaron Deutsch ’15, but the Ephs bagged an insurance goal in the third period en route to a 4-2 final.

With Friday’s result, the Ephs clinched a season sweep over Amherst, having won the first contest 2-1 in Williamstown in December. Prior to this season, the Jeffs had won seven straight meetings in the rivalry.

“Williams beat us at our own game,� head coach Jack Arena said. “They were disciplined, made few mistakes, got excellent goaltending and were opportunistic. I felt they played a sounder game and deserved to win.�

The Ephs stunned Amherst with a shorthanded goal 11:09 into the contest, sapping the momentum and confidence of the home side.

They then struck twice in rapid succession in the first three minutes of the second period, putting Amherst in a formidable 3-0 hole. The Jeffs were victimized by an unlucky bounce on the first goal: an Ephs’ player tried to dump the puck along the right-hand boards, but the puck ricocheted unexpectedly into the slot, allowing Cody Skinner to slip a backhand past Nathan Corey ’13 at 2:12. Just 47 seconds later, Nick Anderson scored his second of the game from point-blank range, prompting Arena to call a timeout to quell the bleeding. “I thought we were a bit nervous for the first half of the game,� Hew said. “I think too many of us were gripping our sticks a little too tight, and it showed in our inability to make plays with the puck.�

Desperate to close the three-goal deficit, the Jeffs dominated play for the rest of the second period, outshooting Williams by a 17-3 margin.

Pinning the Ephs in the offensive end for long stretches, the Jeffs finally got on the scoreboard with 2:58 remaining in the period on Safstrom’s rebound goal.

Energized by the first goal, the Jeffs scored a power-play tally with 36 seconds left in the second period to cut the Ephs’ lead to 3-2. Catching Williams on a poorly-timed line change, Deutsch (a defenseman) carried the puck into the zone and rifled a shot before chipping in his own re-

bound.

The scoring burst, however, was too little, too late for Amherst as Williams tightened up on defense in the third period. Ephs goaltender Sean Dougherty frustrated the Jeffs in stopping 35 of 37 shots.

Although Amherst outshot Williams by a 3716 margin, team members bemoaned the lack of high-quality scoring opportunities, attributing the scorebook discrepancy to an excess of perimeter shots. “I don’t really think we deserved a better outcome based on the lopsided shots on goal,� Hew said. “Obviously generating shots is a good thing, and their goalie played pretty well, but at the end of the day, we can’t make the mistakes that we did against a good team like Williams and expect to win.�

After the demoralizing result to Williams, the Jeffs responded with a 5-3 comeback win over Middlebury the next day. Behind 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Jeffs mounted a four-goal rally in the third period to cap a resilient performance on Senior Day. “I felt it was a good game between two evenly matched teams,� Arena said. “I felt our energy and work ethic was good throughout and when that’s the case eventually good things happen.�

Determined to skate to a fast start, the Jeffs stunned Middlebury by scoring just 50 seconds into the contest. Safstrom skated with the puck behind the net (from right to left) before sniping a wrist shot from the left side of the cage.

Holding a 1-0 lead early in the second period, the Jeffs’ top-ranked penalty kill unit (89.4 percent) fatigued after scrambling in their zone for long stretches. Middlebury’s Evan Neugold fired a rising shot from the left circle to tie the game

at 1-1 9:26 into the period. The Panthers grabbed the lead five minutes later when Chris Brown’s slap shot caromed in off the crossbar, giving Middlebury a 2-1 lead before intermission.

Undaunted by the third-period deficit, the Jeffs erupted for four goals in the final 20 minutes. First, Moher ignited the rally with a fantastic short-handed goal at the 5:45 mark. In a furious stretch of action, the Panthers scored a powerplay goal 40 seconds after Moher’s equalizer to retake the lead. The resilient Jeffs, however, struck back just 1:15 later, as Kevin Ryder ’16 unleashed a well-placed slap shot from the left circle at 7:40.

Needing a win to clinch home-ice advantage, the desperate Jeffs scored the go-ahead goal with 3:12 remaining on the clock. After Safstrom dished a pass across to Van Siclen at the right post, the senior forward stabbed the puck into the net to give Amherst a 4-3 lead. Van Siclen added an empty-netter in the final minute to ice the 5-3 victory. “That third period was a major confidence boost heading into this weekend,� Moher said. “We showed ourselves that if we are fully committed to our game plan no team can keep pace with us. The biggest difference in the third period is we stayed true to our system and our pressure,�

We didn’t get discouraged when they went up, we just kept applying pressure and managed to finish opportunities.�

No. 4 Amherst and No. 5 Middlebury will face off again in the NESCAC Quarterfinals at Orr Rink on Saturday afternoon. Sporting identical 11-5-2 conference records, the Jeffs won the head-to-head tiebreaker over Middlebury to earn home-ice advantage. Saturday’s clash also features a rematch of last season’s NESCAC Championship final, a 4-3 Amherst victory.

Women’s Basketball Rebounds After Loss; Cruises into Semis after Dominating Trinity

Niahlah Hope ’15 Public Affairs Office

4FOJPS #SJEHFU $SPXMFZ UBMMJFE B EPVCMF EPVCMF XJUI QPJOUT BOE B DBSFFS IJHI SFCPVOET UP MFBE UIF TJYUI SBOLFE -BEZ +FGGT QBTU 5SJOJUZ ,FWJO )PPHTUSBUFO Staff Writer Women’s basketball rebounded from its first loss in a big way, handing Middlebury a 65-45 loss before demolishing Trinity in the NESCAC Championship quarterfinals on Saturday, 80-34.

The sixth-ranked Lord Jeffs (24-1, 9-1 NESCAC) pulled away late against Middlebury with strong defense and dominated all facets of the game against the Bantams to put the team in prime position to secure their fourth straight NESCAC title game appearance.

The Lord Jeffs played their best defense of the season in the first 11 minutes against Middlebury, holding the Panthers (13-12, 4-6 NESCAC) to just two points while forcing multiple shot-clock violations. On the offensive end, Megan Robertson ’15 got things going inside with three quick baskets. Cheyenne Pritchard ’16 hit a three-pointer after two straight offensive rebounds to make it 11-2, and two possessions later Marcia Voigt ’13 stole the ball and coasted in for a layup to stretch the lead to 12.

Middlebury finally showed signs of life with 8:45 to go, making a three and running a much

better offense that resulted in layups on their next three possessions. The Lord Jeffs kept pace with two straight baskets off of offensive rebounds, and a Voigt layup made it 21-11 with 6:11 to go.

The Panthers went on a mini-run to pull within five shortly thereafter, and after an Amherst timeout the teams traded misses before a Pritchard layup took the score to 25-18. Two free throws put Amherst up nine with 1:22 left, but the Panthers capped off the half with a minute-long possession that featured three offensive rebounds and culminated in a three-pointer with four seconds left.

Robertson scored the second half ’s first basket, but Middlebury responded with eight straight points, a transition three capping off their run and bringing them within three. Bridget Crowley ’13 answered right away with a nice post move, and the team went on a mini-run to go up seven, only to see Middlebury match them once again. With 12:00 to go, the game was delicately poised with Amherst leading 40-37.

As has so often been the case this year, the Lord Jeffs proceeded to put the game away with a huge run, holding the Panthers to eight points for the game’s remainder.

Crowley got things started with a layup, and Robertson followed suit by putting in her own miss.

The game’s defining moment came two minutes later with Amherst leading 46-39. Robertson grabbed a Jasmine Hardy ’13 miss for a strong putback, and after a Middlebury miss on the other end Voigt found Hardy with a nice pass in transition.

Hardy made her layup and was fouled, subsequently hitting the free throw to push the lead to 51-39 with less than seven minutes left.

The Lord Jeffs would steadily grow the lead

as Middlebury failed to keep pace, with Hardy adding two more layups and a steal. The Panthers substituted frequently but could not score consistently, and by the final whistle the lead had ballooned to 20. Robertson led all scorers with 18 points and added seven offensive rebounds, while Hardy had 11 points and 12 rebounds. Voigt led both teams with five assists.

Amherst continued their stifling defense against Trinity (13-11, 4-6 NESCAC), who were simply overmatched against the Lord Jeffs. The Bantams shot just 18.9 percent from the field and were an abysmal 2-27 in the second half, whereas the Lord Jeffs shot 41.2 percent and were 16-17 from the free-throw line. Things stayed close for a surprising amount of time considering the final score, and with 12:15 left in the first half the score was only 19-14 in favor of Amherst. The Lord Jeffs finished the half on a 30-8 run with balanced scoring from the starters and Virginia Hassell ’16 off the bench.

The second half was largely wrap-up work for the team as Trinity couldn’t buy a basket at the offensive end. The Bantams did hit eight free throws, but the final score still read an embarrassing 80-34 for the visitors. Robertson poured in 22 points to again lead all scorers, while Crowley racked up yet another double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

Amherst’s path to a NESCAC title became much easier on Saturday with Bowdoin’s stunning 60-54 victory over seventh-ranked Tufts in quarterfinal play. Tufts’ loss means that Amherst will host the semifinals and finals and will play the Polar Bears on Saturday instead of having to play third-seeded Williams.

The winner of that game will play the winner of the other seminfal, Middlebury vs. Williams, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday for the championship title.

10 Sports

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 'FCSVBSZ

Men’s Basketball Wins 3OT Thriller at Midd.

Workman’s Top Play Leaves Jeffs Alone in First

Niahlah Hope ’15 Public Affairs Office

4FOJPS DBQUBJO 8JMMZ 8PSLNBO T JOUFOUJPOBMMZ NJTTFE GSFF UISPX BOE QVUCBDL XFOU WJSBM TIPSUMZ BGUFS UIF +FGGT XJO FOEJOH VQ PO &41/ T 5PQ 1MBZT 7BSVO *ZFOHBS Sports Section Editor In a thrilling triple-overtime epic, the men’s basketball team wrapped up their regular season with a huge victory over No. 3-ranked Middlebury last Tuesday. It was a stunning finish to a game that looked all but wrapped up late in the second half with Amherst nursing a double-digit lead. Yet, a fierce Panthers’ comeback in the last five minutes left the score deadlocked at the end of regulation.

Three nip-and-tuck overtime sessions followed, highlighted by an incredible, Sportscenter-worthy basket by Willy Workman ’13 to keep Amherst in the game. Finally, a clutch Aaron Toomey ’14 three-pointer with 2.9 seconds left in the third overtime gave the Jeffs a lead they would not relinquish, as the good guys edged out the 104-101 win.

Amherst came into the contest riding a 15game winning streak, ranked one spot ahead of the No. 3 Panthers in the national poll. It was a fitting battle between two of the best Division III teams in the nation, as both were fighting for the top seed in the NESCAC playoffs. There was little time for either team to recover though, as both began postseason play three days later. Luckily for the Jeffs, the fatigue did not make a difference, as they rolled over Colby on Saturday and easily moved on to the second round.

In their first game of the week, playing away at Pepin Gymnasium, it was vital for Amherst to get off to a solid start. Fortunately, they were able to do just that, matching Middlebury hoop-for-hoop through the first five minutes of play. Yet, with a raucous home crowd of over 1,000 fans urging them on, the Panthers were able to make the first run of the game, putting together 13-4 spurt to take an early 25-18 advantage.

The Jeffs, though, responded with a run of their own. Locking down on the defensive end, Amherst allowed only two field goals through the remainder of the first half. Meanwhile, the Jeffs caught fire from the field, paced by 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting from Workman. It was a great effort on the part of the Jeffs coupled with poor shooting from the Panthers, which gave the Jeffs a 14-point advantage heading into the half.

Not willing to be run out of their own gym, the Panthers started the second half on fire, quickly cutting into their deficit with 7-0 run. However, they were unable to get any closer, as the Jeffs responded with a couple buckets of their own to stem the comeback. The back-and-forth affair continued for much of the half with Amherst finding an answer for every Panthers run. The Jeffs’ lead never dwindled to fewer than six points and was as big as 10 with just over six minutes remaining.

Yet, in their desperation, the Panthers finally found another gear, and the Jeffs were unable to match their intensity coming down the stretch.

Buoyed by some impressive playmaking by Middlebury guard Joey Kizel ’14, the Panthers went on a 12-2 spurt to take the lead with under a minute left in regulation. Catalyzing the run, Kizel drained a jumper from distance before stealing a pass and finding a teammate for a layup. However, a putback bucket by Peter Kaasila ’13, following up a Toomey missed layup, stopped the bleeding and allowed Amherst to retake a one-point lead. A foul on the other end with six seconds left allowed Kizel to sink the tying free throw and send the game to extra time.

Middlebury fell behind early in the first overtime session, facing a four-point deficit for most of the period. Amherst, though, was unable to capitalize on their advantage, giving up a big threepointer to Jake Wolfin ’13 that cut the lead to one with 42 seconds remaining. Following a missed Amherst free throw, the Panthers grabbed the rebound and went coast-to-coast for another quick score, knotting the score at 81 apiece with nine seconds to play. Toomey’s desperation attempt on the Jeffs’ final possession was blocked and the game continued to a second overtime.

In the second extra session, the Panthers appeared to have the win locked up, leading by three with five seconds remaining. However, with a chance to ice the game and make it a two-possession contest, a missed Middlebury free throw opened the door just a crack for an Amherst miracle. However, rather than allow a desperation three, the Panthers decided to intentionally foul the Jeffs instead.

The Panthers hacked Workman as he reached halfcourt, sending the senior to the line for two free throws with two seconds remaining. After making the first and cutting the deficit to two, Workman missed the second on purpose, taking the Panthers off guard by releasing the ball as soon as he received it from the referee. As the ball caromed off the rim and then the backboard, Workman flew in to put back his own miss, tying the contest at 91. It was miraculous and heads-up play from Workman, earning himself a spot on ESPN highlight reels the following day.

Yet, the drama was not over. Facing another four-point deficit in the final frame, Middlebury again buried a three-pointer to cut Amherst’s

lead to one. The Panthers’ then stole an inbounds pass, giving them an opportunity to take the lead.

Instead, following an Amherst foul, Middlebury split a pair of free throws and tied the score at 101 with eleven seconds to play. Without a timeout remaining, Toomey received the inbounds pass and quickly made his way up court. Having gone 4-for-23 to that point in the game, he was certainly having trouble finding his touch on the evening.

Yet, the junior guard, who has come up big for Amherst so many times this season, did so once again. Leaving his defender in the dust with a nasty crossover, Toomey was left wide open and buried a three-pointer to give Amherst the lead with three second remaining. A Middlebury three-quarter court heave bounced harmlessly off the front of the rim, and the Jeffs celebrated a hard-fought victory.

With the win, Amherst wrapped up an undefeated regular season in NESCAC play (10-0) for only the second time in program history. Workman led the effort, scoring a career-high 30 points and tying a career-high with 13 rebounds. Kaasila was also outstanding, as he racked up a doubledouble with 29 points and 11 boards.

The victory also earned Amherst the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC playoffs, which began on Saturday against Colby. Flying high after their thrilling victory, Amherst dispatched the Mules with ease. The Jeffs built a big lead early in the first half, spurred by a 14-0 run, and never looked back.

The lead was 14 points heading into intermission, and the Jeffs continued their scoring barrage after the break. Amherst opened the half on a 12-5 run coupled with a 17-2 spurt a few minutes later to blow the game wide open, winning by a final score of 83-52.

Aaron Toomey led the Jeffs’ effort, connecting on eight three-pointers as he built on the momentum of his last-second winner. The junior finished with a game-high 28 points on 9-for-16 shooting, while also contributing seven boards and six assists.

The victory sets up a semifinal matchup against No. 4-seeded Tufts this Saturday. The two teams have faced off once already this season with Amherst earning the victory. However, the playoffs do not leave room for error, so the Jeffs will certainly not be taking this one for granted.

With a chance to play for the NESCAC championship on the line, Amherst will be looking to ride their recent stretch of good play to victory.

Indoor Track Teams Hit Their Strides At Div. III New England Championships &NNFUU ,OPXMUPO Managing Sports Editor

Photo Courtesy of Public Affairs

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Men The men’s indoor track and field team traveled to Cambridge, Mass. last weekend to compete in the USATF New England Championships, hosted at Harvard.

The Jeffs’ middle- and long-distance runners continued their strong indoor season, led

by Matt Melton ’14, who took home gold in the 800.

With the pack still together entering the final straightway, Melton pulled away and outkicked the field, winning in a time of 1:52.26, just .4 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Mike DePaul.

Also standing out in the distance events were seniors Pat Grimes and Andrew Erskine, finishing fourth in the mile (4:13.18) and fifth in the 5000 (14:54.06), respectively. Sophomore Greg Turrisini led the way in the 3000, taking ninth in 8:21.31.

Percie Gijima ’14 led the way for the Jeffs sprinters, placing eighth in the 60m dash in a time of 7.32.

Triple jumper Steven Hetterich ’15 took sixth with a measure of 12.56 meters.

The Jeffs return to action Feb. 22-23 at the NEICAA Championships hosted by Boston Univ.

Women Not to be outdone by their male counterparts, the women’s indoor track and field team took ninth out of 23 teams at Division III New England Championships hosted by the University of Southern Maine.

In what has been a brilliant indoor season, Naomi Bates ’14 continued her strong performance, finishing in the top-five of three different events, pacing the Lady Jeffs to their impressive result.

In the 55-meter dash, Bates took fourth (first among NESCAC competitors) with a time of 7.34 seconds.

Bates again found herself just off the podium in fourth place in her next event, the 200m dash, finishing in 25.96 and again first among NESCAC runners.

In her last event, Bates at last found the podium, finishing third in the long jump (5.52 meters).

The Lady Jeffs’ best result of the day, though, came from its Distance Medley Relay team, made up of first-year Betsy Black, soph-

omores Itai Brand-Thomas and Sarah Foster and senior Keri Lambert.

The unit finished in a time of 12:21.78, good enough for second place and just ahead of Bowdoin.

Lambert also led the Jeffs in the middledistances events, placing ninth overall in the mile.

Her time of 4:59.51 was good enough for third place among NESCAC rivals, trailing Williams’ Brianne Mirecki (4:56.45) and Middlebury’s Addie Tousley, Lambert’s familiar foe on cross country courses this fall. Tousley, who finished in 4:54.15, won the event.

The following day, senior Sarah Daly competed in the USATF New England Indoor Championship at Harvard (the Lady Jeffs’ lone entrant in the meet) and took fourth in the 5000 (18:28.88).

In what was only her second competitive race of the year as a result of an injury during the cross country season, Daly still managed to qualify for the ECAC Championship next weekend.

The women’s indoor track and field team also returns to action next weekend at the NEICAA Championship, hosted by Boston Univ.

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Women’s Hockey Ready For NESCACs

.BHHJF -BX Staff Writer The Amherst women’s hockey team earned the third seed in the upcoming NESCAC playoffs after suffering two tough losses to No. 7 Bowdoin last weekend, with the Polar Bears clinching the second seed in the conference tournament. The Lord Jeffs fell short on Saturday, 4-0, before dropping a 3-1 decision on Sunday in the final game of the regular season. No. 10 Amherst finished at 10-5-1 in league play (12-10-1 overall), after a five-game conference win streak brought them back from .500 in late January.

The double-header started out slow on Saturday night as the Jeffs struggled offensively in the first period, tallying just two shots on net. The Polar Bears only managed six, however, and Amherst goalie Kerri Stuart ’14 stopped them all to keep the first frame scoreless.

Chelsea MacNeil broke the deadlock just six minutes into the second on a power play to put Bowdoin ahead, 1-0. The Polar Bears struck again 25 seconds later, as a slap shot from senior Kayte Holtz beat Stuart top-shelf for the two-goal advantage. Amherst stepped up its offense in the second frame with 10 shots, but a strong performance from the Bowdoin goalie preserved the Polar Bear shutout.

Bowdoin extended its lead early in the third as first-year Rachel Kennedy tallied her team-leading 13th goal of the season on a shot from teammate Kenzie Novak. The senior then notched one of her own with four minutes remaining, collecting a pass and beating her defender one-on-one to secure the 4-0 win for Bowdoin.

Sunday marked Senior Day for the Lord Jeffs as they honored Class of 2013 members Megan Doyen, Geneva Lloyd and Kaitlyn McInnis, who enter their final postseason with a 75-26-8 career record, two NCAA tournament appearances and both the NESCAC and National title in 2010. A strong effort from Amherst in their last home game of the

regular season fell just short as Bowdoin swept the weekend with a 3-1 victory.

The Polar Bears came out strong in the first period, striking on their first power play just three minutes into the game. After carrying the puck around the back of the Amherst net, Holtz ripped a wrist shot from the right circle to beat Stuart in the lower left corner for a one-goal lead. Bowdoin cushioned their advantage with a goal from Ariana Borque ’16 halfway through the frame after a scrum in front of the net.

Tori Salmon ’15 had Amherst’s best chance of the period in a one-on-one with Bowdoin goalie Kayla Lessard ’13, but the senior made an impressive save to keep the Jeffs off the board. Kennedy added her second of the weekend just six minutes later on a breakaway to put the Polar Bears up, 3-0.

Lessard continued her strong performance in the second period, stopping several tough shots from Lloyd and Doyen on the Amherst power play. Emily Flom ’15 finally found the equalizer for the Jeffs with just nine seconds left in the period to bring the home team within two. Erin Martin ’16 sent a pass to Barrett McBride ’14, whose hard wrist shot from the circle was deflected right to Flom for a rebound finish.

Amherst kept up the pressure in the third on a strong power play effort, but Lessard stepped up to the challenge, making six stops during the penalty kill. Bowdoin finished with the 3-1 victory, earning the coveted second seed in the NESCAC playoffs next weekend.

First-year Kasia Henley saw time in net for Amherst during the last two periods and managed 12 saves, while Stuart stopped seven attempts in the first frame. Amherst finished with a 37-22 shot advantage, but a strong showing from Lessard and the Bowdoin defense shut down all seven of the Jeffs’ power play efforts.

Amherst will host sixth-seeded Hamilton at home on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament.

Women’s Squash Ends Year 15th in Country

Niahlah Hope ’15 Public Affairs Office

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"OESFX ,VS[XFJM Senior Staff Writer The women’s squash team capped their season in impressive fashion, finishing ranked 15th nationally in the season-ending CSA National Championship Kurtz Cup held at Yale Univ The Lady Jeffs fell to Dartmouth and George Washington before rallying to defeat Franklin & Marshall in their final match of the season.

In their first match of the Kurtz Cup, the eighth-seeded Jeffs were clearly overmatched against top-seeded and No. 9 nationally Dartmouth, falling 9-0.

They only managed to win one game in the defeat, which came from first-year standout Taryn Clary ’16.

Moving into the consolation bracket, the Jeffs fell to No. 12 George Washington, 7-2. The

result matched the score of the first meeting between the two schools, which occurred on Dec. 1. Clary and fellow first-year Khushy Aggarwal recorded the two victories for the College.

Senior co-captain Anne Piper wished the Jeffs could have been better “able to take advantage of the fact that we had played them before�. However, she thought the team as a whole “played well�.

That strong play continued against 14thranked Franklin & Marshall in the last match of the season. The Jeffs came out strong and recorded a 6-3 upset victory over the Diplomats. “F&M was the best match, not only because we won (and thus advanced in ranking), but also because we allowed our mental toughness to overcome our physical exhaustion,� Piper said.

The women end the season with an impressive 14-9 record. Though some players will compete in CSA Individual Nationals March 1-3, the matches will not count towards the team’s overall record.

Piper labeled the season as “a definitive success; we advanced in rankings, established fantastic team unity and had fun both on and off the court.�

She is also hopeful about the state she and her fellow seniors leave the team in. “The future is bright for Amherst Women’s Squash; although we are graduating five seniors, our current freshmen class is particularly strong, and we have some fantastic prospects coming in next year,� Piper said.

The men’s team will compete in the same tournament this weekend before joining the women’s team the following weekend for individual nationals.

Sports 11

Beyond the Numbers 'PVM 5SPVCMF (BMFO .VTLBU In his second column, Galen makes a point for intangibles being equally (if not more) important that any other statistic in the game of basketball.

I’ve got New York in my blood. My dad was born in Manhattan, and my Mom grew up in Brooklyn Heights; we return to the city at least once a year, whether for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, a birthday or just a three-day weekend. Even though I consider myself a New Hampshire kid, a part of me feels very much at home in the city.

But the New York with which I feel most connected is the Knicks. I remember my Dad, a long-time Knickerbockers fan, both adoring and abhorring Latrell Sprewell. For a few weeks in 2003, dinner talk always found its way to the prospect of Stephon Marbury coming to Madison Square Garden (“Do you think he’ll help them start winning?� my brother would ask my Dad; I think my Mom even worried about seasonal depression gripping me, my Dad and my brother with each NBA season, especially as most were riddled with unsuccessful bouts by the Knicks almost annually since the early 2000s.)

There was (and remains) something special about my family’s rather un-American connection with the team: we don’t have a television. Reports of the Knicks’ seasons and players come to my house in north-central New Hampshire by way of The New York Times, and it’s only since we received highspeed internet a few years ago that we’ve grown accustomed to “watching� the games on the Times’ website.

Relatively speaking, it’s a pretty basic system — showing the updated box scores, who has possession and the play-by-play happenings — but it’s enough for us.

There’s something I should add: my dad has always been a proponent of the intangible aspects of any sport. In other words, it’s not all about how much a player scores, how well he dunks, and the amount of media attention he receives. To an extent, sure, points scored and all the other statistics matter, but my dad’s idea — one with which I fully agree — is that these stats don’t develop to the point of consistency somehow miraculously; namely, they arise from effort, knowledge, selflessness, desire and many other aspects of a player’s repertoire that, ironically, one can’t easily obtain by watching a box score on the Times’ NBA page.

All it shows are the numbers.

But one can infer. Well, at least when this season’s Knicks, who are leading the Atlantic Division lose to such teams as the Portland Trail Blazers (below .500), the Philadelphia 76ers (4th in the Atlantic Division, and also well below .500), or even the sporadic, off-balance (sorry, Mom, to bash the home borough) Brooklyn Nets. I won’t go into losses against the Bulls or Pacers because, as my oft-correct brother would argue, it’s about match-ups.

But it’s about intangibles, too.

In each of the above losses, Carmelo Anthony scored no fewer than 25 points. Against the Trail Blazers, he scored 45. Forty-five big ones — and they still lost!

I’m left with my dad’s point: there exists an intangible force in sports that provides for at least a certain number of wins. (I don’t want to stray too far from the Knicks, but I will mention that Dwight Howard, as another example, leads the NBA’s active players in career dunks, a “tangible� statistic, and look where it has brought both the Magic and the Lakers.)

Some might be inclined to examine the list of league-leaders in scoring and say that because Anthony in the top three, the losses fall on his teammates’ shoulders.

Sure, there are games where J.R. Smith goes two-for-ten from the floor, Pablo Prigioni records just two steals and one rebound in 10 minutes of playing time, or, over an entire month, Raymond Felton has to sit out due

to a broken finger; but Anthony’s role in the losses plays much more heavily, as he typically averages many more minutes than Smith or Prigioni. What’s more, even with those extra minutes, he takes nearly 30 shots while lacking consistency in assists, rebounds and steals.

And if one looks at the other starters, there’s a striking contrast in their numbers with Anthony’s. Tyson Chandler, for example, grabbed as many as 20 rebounds in those very losses where Anthony was taking thirty-odd shots. Rebounds, though, are not in any way a selfish statistic — that is, while they’re “tangible� on some level, much of rebounding requires focus, effort and intensity. Chandler, no less, often makes a stellar “tip-out� play where he rebounds and immediately gives it back to Anthony; and Anthony usually jacks up another distant floater.

The latter goes unscathed — or at least he does relative to the bumping and shoving and battling that Chandler endures. Please remember, too, that I don’t think Anthony is a bad player. I’m merely suggesting that he return to the intangible side of basketball which, to his credit, he seemed to have found at the beginning of this season when he was dishing out assists, diving into stands for loose balls and even crashing the boards in his new role as power forward.

Compared to a player like Lebron James, Anthony shares many of the same tangible talents: dunking, three-point shooting, a ball-handling prowess in the paint. But then there’s the “new� James, who led his team to the championship. And much of James’ success, in addition to his intense play and many points (which, it might be noted, were scored on far fewer shots than Anthony, which acknowledges intelligence and focus, two allimportant intangibles), was due to his recognition of how to play as a teammate — in a Chandler-esque “tip-out� sense — and use his own intangible strengths to allow his teammates’ tangibles to flourish.

Instead of berating Anthony further, let me then give you my Dad’s wise (and hilarious) All-Tangible Team: Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury (he calls himself “Starbury�), Wilt Chamberlain (100 points in a game — give James, Kevin Durant, or Kobe Bryant the ball each possession and each could do that), Carmelo Anthony, and Gilbert Arenas. Oh, and the sixth man: Dwight Howard.

Different eras; different styles; different positions — how can these players possibly relate? Well, they love themselves, they love the ball, and they love showing the fans what they can do.

And those intangible players (the Tyson Chandlers and Shane Battiers, to name a couple) well, they’re not interested in showing.

Rather, they have the how — how to make a team better. When each player on a team, or at least the few shining stars, begin to think this way, there’s a marked improvement — sometimes even a championship, as with the Heat.

There’s consistency, too, though, which my family’s beloved Knicks are lacking.

Until Anthony realizes that winning involves more than taking as many shots as possible, with some going in and many more clanging off the rim, the Knicks won’t win a championship.

Be selective, Carmelo, and focus; show more desire by diving after a loose ball as Rajon Rondo would; play intelligently and find the open man; execute selflessly and take fewer shots while dishing out more assists; lead; find poise, attitude, effort — the list goes on.

Just pick one intangible, and it’s a start.

The best things in sports are the unseen and unheard; bring them to Madison Square Garden, please.

Sports

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Photo Courtesy of Katie Vincett ’13

LADY JEFFS WIN NESCACS

Best Ephs to Take First-Ever Swimming Crown Karl Greenblatt ’15 Managing Sports Editor In each of the past four seasons, the Lady Jeffs had taken home second place at NESCACs, narrowly missing the first league championship in the program’s history. Now, the wait is finally over. Setting a school mark with 1927.5 points over the three-day NESCAC Championship event, the Lady Jeffs stormed into Brunswick, Maine and captured their first ever conference title.

The Ephs, who had won each of the previous 12 league titles, saw their dynasty come to an end as they were forced to settle for second place.

As it turned out, the Jeffs had just enough to top their rivals, outdoing them by a mere 63 points.

As part of its stellar effort, the Amherst squad recorded victories in eight individual events and three relay events. Astoundingly, along the way, the team also set eight program records.

The Lady Jeffs headed into the championship event having won their last three meets against Springfield, MIT and Hamilton. In fact, they had only lost once on the season, in a road contest against Williams on Jan. 5. Given this season’s earlier results — and the results of the last four years — this meet was basically a twoteam battle for the crown. The Ephs appeared to be every bit as good as advertised, as they were undefeated in league play and had yet to face a true test.

Luckily, the Lady Jeffs featured perhaps their most talented squad ever, a fact that was evident right from the outset of the event. One of the key players on the weekend was first-year Emily Hyde, who got the Jeffs off to a great start on Day 1 of the event with a resounding victory in the 200-meter IM. She had already posted the top Div. III time in the nation during prelims

(2:04.01), but her time in competition, 2:03.15, bested even that, also shattering the championship and Bowdoin pool record. She continued to shine in the 400-medley relay, where she and teammates Emily Swett ’13, Sarah Conklin ’16 and Katie Vincett ’13 clocked in at 3:46.58, good for a victory and the program record.

Steph Ternullo ’15 was equally instrumental in the Day 1 success; she narrowly beat out Wil-

Photo Courtesy of Bowdoin College

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liams’ Caroline Wilson in the 500 free with an NCAA “A� cut time of 4:53.21. Other individual winners were Lizzy Linsmayer ’14, who broke the pool record with a score of 478.45 in the onemeter dive, and Conklin, who broke the program record in the 50 fly on Day 1. Vincett also kicked off what would be a stellar individual weekend with a second-place finish in the 50 free.

Despite the Lady Jeffs’ strong showing, however, the Ephs still led the field after the first day.

By the time Day 2 was over, however, it was the Jeffs who sat on top for the first time in program history. With 1355.5 points, the Jeffs held a precarious lead over Williams, and, by the end of the day, they would be in position to finish off the Ephs.

The day’s highlights included the 200 medley, where Maddy Sprung-Keyser ’13, Hyde, Vincett and Nicole Heise ’13 set a school record with a winning time of 1:44.54. When it came time for individual competition, Hyde found herself back on the leaderboard with a secondplace, school record and “A� cut time in the 400 IM. Conklin broke yet another mark with her winning time of 55:66 in the 100 fly, while Chudy took home the top spot in the 1000 free.

Ternullo also kept up her outstanding swimming with a second-place time of 1:51.12 in the 200 free. In all, 10 Jeffs (including Ternullo) also made the NCAA “B� cut on Day 2, reflecting the squad’s well-balanced effort.

As the final day of the tournament dawned, the Lady Jeffs knew that the Ephs would be gunning to take back the top spot. To say that they rose to the occasion would be an understatement. Hyde helped to make sure the Jeffs would not be denied this time, setting another program mark with a winning time in the 200 breast.

Conklin, too, was a winner for the third time of

the weekend, setting the pace in the 200 fly with a “B� cut time of 2:04.73. As had been the case all weekend, even the Jeffs who didn’t finish first excelled: Charlotte Chudy ’16 set a program record with her second-place time of 17:07.44 in the 1650 free. Linsmayer (three-meter dive); Vincett (100 free) and the team of Hyde, Ternullo, Vincett and Lulu Belak ’14 (400 free relay) also managed second place finishes on the final day.

Once all was said and done, the Jeffs finally got to celebrate, having held off the Ephs by the narrowest of margins. For her performance, Linsmayer was named the Diver of the Meet, while Conklin garnered Rookie of the Meet honors and Coach Nick Nichols took home the Coach of the Meet award. Not to be overlooked, Jesse Maple was also named Diving Coach of the Meet in honor of the excellent showings of Linsmayer and others.

Following the meet, co-captain Vincett was, not surprisingly, quick to sing her team’s praises. “The incredible part of this meet was that it was an entire team effort,� she said. “Every single person had amazing races and earned points for the team.�

After having their regular season come to an end in spectacular fashion, the Lady Jeffs still have the NESCAC Championships, held in Texas during the week of spring break, to look forward to. The Jeff divers will also be headed to the NCAA Diving Regionals over the weekend of March 1-2.

Based on the Lady Jeffs’ cohesive effort at NESCACs, Vincett believes the squad will continue to excel. “We have a few stars on the team,� she acknowledged, “but we would not have won without every single member contributing to the score.�