Issue 17

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLIV, ISSUE 17l WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015

Men’s Swim & Dive Finish Second at NESCACs See Sports Page 9

AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

College Mascot Divides Campus Ryan Cenek ’18 Assistant News Editor

Shirley Duquene ‘17 Staff Photographer

Students, faculty, and staff gathered for small-group discussions as part of the ongoing Amherst Reflects program, a continuation of the conversations begun at the Day of Dialogue.

Provost’s Office Holds Amherst Reflects Jingwen Zhang ’18 Staff Writer This week Provost Peter Uvin invited students, faculty and staff to participate in a series of conversation called Amherst Reflects, part of a follow-up and response to the Day of Dialogue held earlier this semester.

The purpose of Amherst Reflects “is to continue the conversations in a way that is similar to the small group dialogues at the Day of Dialogue,” Uvin said. “At its best, such meetings where people talk about big, open-ended, major life questions allow us to humanize each other, see how different experiences have shaped us, [and] maybe desire to connect again afterwards.”

Similar to the discussion series Ask Big Questions that was introduced last academic year, Amherst Reflects was launched in the fall of 2014 to give the community opportunities to discuss pressing issues on campus. This semester, some of the discussions will be based on topics from the Day of Dialogue. The first round, which started on Monday, Feb. 23, focused on a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The meetings are each guided by two Amherst Reflects facilitators, who can be students, faculty

or staff. During the first sessions, attendees began by discussing King’s quote and the lecture from which the quote was taken. Although the facilitators asked some pre-planned questions, the topics of the session were not fixed and were steered by the contributions of participants.

Additionally, the sessions are confidential, as Amherst Reflects aims to allow the community to hold genuine and meaningful conversations.

“The primary goal was to learn from each other about race and racism,” Uvin said. “The secondary goal was to create a climate of community and confidence that allows such conversations to continue to take place in the future.”

According to Uvin, the factors which hinder candid discussions include “misunderstandings, generalizations, fears of saying the wrong thing, fear of questioning ourselves and fear of getting hurt.”

“But we all came to this place to learn,” Uvin said. “Every single one of us benefits from traveling to other people’s places; there is no need to arrive at the same place, but we should explore beyond our comfort zone. The Day of Dialogue — and the follow-up activities I just outlined — was designed to facilitate this exploration.”

Uvin said, however, that events such as the

Day of Dialogue and Amherst Reflects cannot provide a quick solution to complex issues.

“Did we solve everything? Of course not,” Uvin said. “But … I think everybody on campus is pleased when we manage to bring students, faculty and staff together for meaningful exchanges; there is a real demand for that.”

Ayoung Kim ‘17, one of the participants at the first session, said that Amherst Reflects, although portrayed as a successor to Ask Big Questions, has significantly changed from previous iterations.

Kim was a facilitator for last semester’s Amherst Reflects and felt that this semester’s revamped version of the series was a huge improvement.

Because last semester’s Amherst Reflects was held at Valentine Dining Hall, “it wasn’t a space conducive for dialogue,” Kim said. “It wasn’t well advertised, and there was very limited participation. Compared to last semester, I think this session went well. [The session] was closer to a respectful conversation than a dialogue today … but I’m satisfied with the way things are going so far.”

Amherst Reflects sessions for this initial round will continue until Feb. 27.

Eli Mansbach ’18 contributed reporting.

Discussions over the college’s mascot continued this week, as a group of students held a Lord Jeff Information Day, and President Biddy Martin shared her views on the mascot controversy in an interview with The Amherst Student.

The Lord Jeff Information Day was held on Thursday, Feb. 19. A group of students set up informational tables in Keefe Campus Center and held a special exhibit in Frost Library’s Archives and Special Collections. The events were intended to provide historical information on Lord Jeffery Amherst. They were sponsored by the Campus Activities Board, the college’s American Studies Department and Student Activities. Adrian Chan ‘17 was the main organizer.

The information table at Keefe, which was open during lunch Thursday, offered a quiz about Lord Jeffery Amherst and a chance to enter a raffle for free T-shirts. Later in the afternoon, the exhibit in Frost Special Archives and Collections displayed maps, letters and images of Lord Jeffery Amherst.

“I think an understanding of who the historic figure of Lord Jeffery Amherst was [and] is essential to any discussion of the mascot,” said Mike Kelly, the head of Special Archives.

The controversy over the status of the college’s mascot has grown in recent months as students have debated over proposals to change the mascot.

Many oppose keeping the Lord Jeff because Lord Jeffery Amherst is known for advocating genocide against Native Americans.

Some students, however, support keeping the current unofficial mascot in place.

“I understand that Lord Jeffery Amherst, as a historical figure, might be an affiliation that some would take offense to. However, I don’t see our mascot as a historical figure at all. I think of Lord Jeff as a representation of Amherst College.

We have a unique mascot that ties together many students and alumni, and I see our mascot as just a mascot — nothing more,” Tom Sommers ‘16 said.

Some students proposed changing Amherst’s mascot to the moose after a moose appeared on campus last spring during finals week. Since then, some students have expressed their support for the moose by making T-shirts and a Facebook page, and orchestrating pro-moose pranks on campus.

AAS Senator Olivia Pinney ’17 cited her experience as an athlete as one reason why she

Continued on Page 3

Don Faulstick Appointed to Athletic Director Position

Dan Ahn ’17 Staff Writer

Don Faulstick has been appointed the college’s next athletic director, President Biddy Martin announced last week. The decision follows an extensive selection process by a search committee headed by Psychology Professor Catherine Sanderson.

Faulstick began working for the college in 1997 as a softball coach. He has also served as the offensive coordinator and assistant coach for the football team, as well as associate director of athletics. Faulstick has been the college’s interim athletic director since February 2014, when former athletic director Suzanne Coffey took on the Chief Student Affairs Offier position. Over

the course of Faulstick’s career, he has overseen a record-breaking offensive line, which led the NESCAC in scoring offense in 2010 and 2011. He also oversaw the renovation of Pratt Field from 2012 through 2013.

“I believe that with this appointment, Don Faulstick is able to continue the programs and policies he has already begun to implement and seem to be working well, but also is more fully empowered to make changes he’d like to see in the Athletics Department,” Sanderson said.

Faulstick said that he wants to use his position to reach out to intramural and club sports teams, and thereby help solve what is widely perceived as a social divide between athletes and non-athletes.

“I think part of the divide can be addressed by making sure that students who are in club and

intramural sports, who are active, but might not think that the gym is so welcoming – we can do a better job by putting more emphasis on those programs,” he said. “I think that could be a really good start.”

Another one of Faulstick’s goals is to expand the college’s athletic facilities. He feels that the current facilities are outdated to meet the needs of the college’s students. Improvements to the athletics facilities would also be intended to break the social divide between athletes and non-athletes.

“On a campus of our size, I think it’s important that everyone’s together, and everybody’s welcome, and it shouldn’t matter whether you’re a varsity athlete, a club sport athlete or just somebody who wants to work out,” he said. “Having a space large enough that everyone can get togeth-

er, see each other, and socialize, would be great.”

Faulstick spoke about his prior experience as offensive coordinator for the football team and the positive impact that it will have on his leadership.

“I think a big part of my leadership style is about teamwork, and football’s a great team game. It’s a sport where all eleven guys have to be on the same page, and that’s what I think is really helpful,” he said. “Coaching a larger team has given me some skills and tools that I can carry over to be a good administrator. I learned a long time ago that great things can happen as long as no one cares who gets the credit. That’s how I’d like our department to be run.”

Jake Pagano ’18 contributed reporting.

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News

Catherine Infante Feb. 16, 2015 - Feb. 23, 2015

>>Feb. 16, 2015 8:25 a.m., Press Box Pratt Field An officer and the fire department responded to an alarm but could find no reason for it. >>Feb. 18, 2015 12:24 a.m., Johnson Chapel An officer responded to an animal complaint. Matter resolved.

8:41 p.m., Pond Dormitory An officer encountered a student with a beer keg. Since the keg was unlicensed, it was confiscated, and the student was fined $100. >>Feb. 19, 2015 2:36 p.m., Amherst College Police A student reported receiving a call from an individual who claimed to be from the IRS demanding back taxes of $891. The student sent the money.

A short time later another call was received demanding more money. It was not sent.

juana and traced it to a fourth-floor room. Upon speaking with the resident, no smoking activity was found. >>Feb. 21, 2015 12:35 a.m., Morrow Dormitory Officers responded to a report of a disturbance at a third-floor room and discovered it was a domestic issue.

Assistance was provided.

2:14 a.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory An officer responded to a noise complaint and issued a warning at a second-floor room.

10:43 p.m., Pond Dormitory While in Pond, an officer came upon three people playing beer pong in a hall. Alcohol was present, and the student who took responsibility for it was underage. The matter was referred to the Student Affairs office. >>Feb. 22, 2015 1:55 a.m., Powerhouse An officer working an event at the Powerhouse observed a female slap a male. After interviewing both of them, no further action was taken.

The matter was referred to the Student Affairs office.

2:16 a.m., Barrett Hill Drive A delivery person reported people throwing ice from the elevated walkway at Pond. No activity was found when the area was checked.

9:11 a.m., Mead Art Museum Mead Art Security notified Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) about a domestic incident between two students that occurred at the art museum on Feb. 19. No police intervention was needed at this time.

The incident was documented and referred to the Student Affairs office.

3:47 p.m., Amherst College A student reported receiving a call from an individual who claimed to be from the IRS demanding back taxes of $986. The student disconnected the call. >>Feb. 20, 2015 12:33 a.m., Taplin House Officers responded to a report that an unknown male walked into a suite and claimed to be looking for someone who was not a resident. Officers were able to locate the person, who was identified as a student. He was mildly intoxicated and claimed to have entered the suite by mistake.

8:20 p.m., Off Campus Locations Two women reported being verbally harassed by an unknown male while in the center of Amherst. The Amherst Police were notified since the incident occurred in their jurisdiction. >>Feb. 23, 2015 12:44 a.m., Amherst College Police UMass police reported they arrested an individual based upon a criminal complaint filed by Amherst College Police.

10:31 p.m., Hitchcock House An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in a second-floor room and discovered it was accidental.

Department of Spanish Assistant Professor Catherine Infante received her bachelor’s degree at Bethel University and master’s degree at New York University in Madrid. She attained her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she spent the past seven years teaching.

Her research centers on cultural exchange and interaction in Spain and the larger Mediterranean world. She was a Mellon-Wisconsin Summer Dissertation Fellow for 2013, and she received a 2011 Tinker/Nave Summer Research Grant in Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Q: What led you to Amherst? What was your first impression of the College?

A: I knew that I wanted to teach at a small liberal arts college, and when I came for a campus visit last February, I absolutely had a great experience and impression of the college.

The students really impressed me in the class I taught during my visit, and it was nice to see how engaged they were with their learning. I feel very fortunate to be at Amherst and be a part of this community.

Q: What do you think of as the benefits of an interdisciplinary liberal arts education?

A: I think some of the greatest benefits of a liberal arts education are the emphasis on student-centered learning that includes a broad range of disciplines, the opportunities for students and faculty to work closely together and the sense of community. Amherst’s unique model with an open curriculum that allows students to take classes in so many different departments on campus is great. Last semester, it was so interesting to have students in my Islam in Spain course and Introduction to Hispanic Literatures class that had such varied interests.

Based on their academic background and personal interests, they offered unique perspectives, which I believe really enriched the class discussions.

Q: What classes are you teaching this semester?

A: This semester I’m teaching two courses. One is a more advanced topics course in the Spanish Department on women in early modern Spain.

We’re studying a variety of texts by both male and female writers that oftentimes present very contradictory representations of women, and we’re also taking into consideration some scientific, legal and moral discourses that attempted to define the nature and value of women during this time period. We read works by Cervantes, María de Zayas, Calderón de la Barca and Catalina de Erauso, among others, that provide the opportunity to look at topics from many different angles. The second course is an introduction to Hispanic literatures, which offers a general overview of the literature produced in Spain and Latin America over the last six centuries, from the middle ages to the beginning of the 20th century. We discuss artistic trends and literary history in periods such as Renaissance, the Golden Age, the Romantic era, realism and modernism.

Q: What courses do you want to offer in the future?

A: In the future, I hope to offer other courses that look at issues of cultural and religious minorities and diversity in Spain, as well as an additional course on Cervantes. In this regard, in the fall I plan to teach a new course called Multicultural Spain, in which we’ll get a chance to explore how Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side-by-side in Spain for centuries, while also taking into account other cultural minorities such as the gypsies who inhabited the same space.

6:33 p.m., Converse Hall An employee reported she fell earlier today in Converse and was injured.

Report taken.

9:00 p.m., South Prospect St. An officer responded to a report of people drinking and partying behind the house. No one was found.

11:58 p.m., King Dormitory An officer detected the odor of mari-

Fresh Faculty

Illustrations by Luke Haggerty ’18

Q: During your time here, what do you want to contribute to Amherst community or to the Spanish Department?

A: One of the ways that I hope to contribute would be to continue to grow the Spanish De-

partment by offering some new courses that will engage students interested in different disciplines. I’d also like to build some bridges between the community and department by planning some extracurricular activities revolving around my passion for Hispanic cultures that would bring the two together. I hope students in my class make connections between what they learned in the class and what they encounter in their daily lives, since many of the recurring themes we discuss are relevant to the events happening today.

Q: What research are you doing at Amherst?

A: Most of my research centers on questions of conflict and cultural exchange in 16th and 17th century Spain and the Mediterranean world.

Currently, I’m working on a book project tentatively titled Images at the “Crossroads: Representing Christian-Muslim Encounters in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean,” which examines how 16th- and 17th-century authors, including Cervantes and Lope de Vega, depict encounters between members of diverse faiths that center upon religious images. Engaging a variety of fictional and non-fictional texts in Spanish, Arabic and Aljamiado (Spanish written in Arabic Script), my study asks questions on how images that crossed geographic, cultural and religious boundaries influenced how early modern writers portrayed relations between Christians and Muslims. My study also explores how these writers used written descriptions of images in their texts as a site of contact between individuals within these groups. In relation to this, I specifically focus on the visual aspects of Christian-Muslim relations in texts by authors such as Cervantes, Lope de Vega, as well as other lesser-known authors like Ibn Qāsim al-Hajarī, thus expanding our understanding of interreligious and multicultural relationships in the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean.

Q: Do you have other academic or non-academic interests apart from Spanish and History?

A: I love learning new languages and thinking about the connections that exist with the people that speak them and their cultures. Over the last few years, I’ve been learning Arabic and spent some time studying in Ifrane, a small city near Fez, Morocco. If I had more time, I’d love to take a class and learn some Turkish and/or Hebrew, both for my research and my personal interests.

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

A: Even though I don’t have much free time, I always enjoy a good conversation and spending time with friends and family. I like to talk to students outside of the class and learn about individual students’ dreams and interests. I love trying out new recipes almost as much as I like going out to eat with my husband. Since I’ve been in Amherst, I’ve enjoyed going on walks and getting to know the area, going to local coffee shops, and meeting new people. I think the town of Amherst is an ideal setting to learn, engage in intellectual discussions and enjoy open conversations with people from diverse backgrounds.

— Ji Hong Park ’17

The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

News

College Mascot Divides Campus Continued from Page 1

now supports the moose.

“Lord Jeff undeniably has a place in the history our school, but he does very little for current students in terms of traditions,” Pinney said. “I’ve played on two different teams at Amherst, and I have never felt united with my teammates by the Lord Jeff. There are more clever things you can do with an animal mascot than you can do with a British lord.”

The mascot has also proved to be a controversial issue among alumni. One alumnus, Jonathan Salik ‘09, said he opposes changing the mascot because of the educational value of Lord Jeffery Amherst’s historical complexity.

“While [Amherst’s] feelings towards Native Americans were undoubtedly motivated in part

by his feelings of racial superiority, they were also motivated by his desire to protect his country and his people,” Salik said. “I think there is inherent value in having this conversation. It stimulates discussion and awareness of our ancestors’ hatred towards the Native Americans, and it fosters a continually renewed appreciation for the hardships and incredible difficulties that they had to overcome.”

Other members of the community, such as E.J. Mills, head coach of the varsity football team, have expressed concerns about both the Jeff and the moose as the college’s mascot.

“I want to make sure everyone feels welcome, and everyone feels valued. So, if our mascot right now is alienating students, then I would advocate that we really think about making a change. And yet I understand that there’s always two sides to

every issue, and I think it’s important that we hear both sides,” Mills said. “Would I advocate to become the moose? I would not jump on that bandwagon.”

So far, no segment of the Amherst administration has taken an official stance on the matter. Dean of Students Alex Vasquez urged students to remain respectful and engage in open discussion, noting the harsh responses to Michael Johnson ‘16’s recent pro-Jeff op-ed in The Amherst Student.

“The community responded really aggressively to that argument, that ‘We Are the Lord Jeffs,’ which was one student’s opinion,” Vasquez said.

In a recent email interview with The Amherst Student, President Biddy Martin shared her thoughts on the current status of the mascot controversy. When asked about her stance on the

proposed mascot change, Martin said, “We may need to design a process for discussion of the proposal. Because the current mascot was never formally adopted by the college, there is no clear mechanism for re-considering it.”

Martin said that at the moment, college administration has not taken any action to foster dialogue on the mascot issue.

“Some students have taken the initiative to propose a new mascot and even cleverly to introduce the possibility of the moose at events and in various locations on campus,” Martin said.

“It may well be time to have the administration help design a process for more formal discussion and decision-making. It is important to me to know that students on both sides of the question (of whether to change the mascot) would welcome a more formal process.”

Proposed Amendment to AAS Constitution Rejected

Ricky Choi ’18 Staff Writer

The Amherst Association of Students Senate voted on Feb. 16 to reject an amendment proposed by the Amherst College Republicans that would expand the Budgetary Committee’s nondiscrimination clause.

The motion was proposed to the AAS as a means of preventing what some described as discriminatory voting by senators in allocating funding for organizations.

“The proposed amendment takes the language directly from the Amherst Honor Code,” said Robert Lucido ’15, president of the Amherst College Republicans, who proposed the amendment.

The proposal stated that because the honor code specifically protects students from discrimination based on criteria such as race, gender, religious belief and political affiliation, the AAS constitution should bar senators from voting on funding and student organizations based on these criteria. Most of the debate among senators focused on the details of the political affiliation and belief clauses. Currently, the only non-

discrimination measure in the AAS constitution is the Budgetary Committee’s non-discrimination policy.

While Lucido argued that the honor code protects students from “arbitrary criteria” and should thus be instituted in the wording of the constitution, there is no explicit mention of this term in the honor code. The words “arbitrary criteria” do, however, appear in the Budgetary Committee non-discrimination policy.

“All students and organizations receiving full or partial funding from the AAS may not discriminate in any manner based on arbitrary criteria, including, but not limited to, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, handicap, economic status, nationality or ethnic origin.”

The motion was intended to expand the policy of non-discrimination from the Budgetary Committee clause to the whole constitution.

“We wanted to make sure that if we were to make a clause, we wanted to make it comprehensive to apply to the whole senate and in all decisions, not just funding,” Lucido said.

At the meeting, senator Blaine Werner ’15 said that the usage of the term “arbitrary criteria” dis-

GET A HEAD START ON TOMORROW.

satisfied the members of the senate, and he asked for the removal of the term “arbitrary” from the proposed amendment, to which the Amherst College Republicans agreed.

Senator RJ Kermes ’16 questioned citing the Amherst honor code for an amendment to the constitution and said that the AAS constitution never references the student honor code.

Senator Chico Kosber ‘17 spoke on the problems associated with bringing in speakers who may violate the rights of other students such as those who express homophobic or racist viewpoints.

After the end of questions from senators, vice president of the AAS Juan Gabriel Delgado Montes ’16 told the assembly that the motion could be approved with a three-quarters vote from the senate.

AAS President Tomi Williams ’16 said that while the clause prevents explicit discrimination by senators, the senate should still be able to vote against speakers based on “heinous beliefs.”

Senator Sam Keaser ’17E said he agreed that the spirit of the honor code is in favor of upholding community at Amherst and that some

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speakers violate the trust of the community.

Lucido responded that hate speech would still be forbidden and prevented on the campus and that passing the motion would not allow for discriminatory speakers. He said that some senators have hidden discriminatory motives behind denying funding for certain speakers, previously proposed by the Amherst College Republicans, on the campus.

However, senator Johnathan Appel ’16 said that he feared the approval of the motion would hinder the ability of the community to prevent bringing speakers that create discomfort.

“If we have already voted on the honor code and are already bound by the honor code, if this is only meant to reinforce it, why bother signing the amendment?” Appel said.

The motion failed to pass, but senators Siraj Sindhu ‘17, Chico Kosber ‘17, Fawzi Itani ‘18, Will Jackson ‘18, Phillip Yan ‘18 and Sam Keaser ’17E volunteered to be members of a new committee to work with the Amherst College Republicans for future proposals.

Ryan Cenek ‘18 contributed reporting.

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MULTIMEDIA REPORTING LONG-FORM STORYTELLING SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS JOURNALISM DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

Opinion Amherst Community Left Out in the Cold Without Traditions Editorial It’s fair to generalize and say that many members of the faculty, administration and student body were disappointed by the cancellation of the winter carnival. Although we all laughed at the Muck-Rake article “Winter Carnival Postponed Due to Winter,” the response mainly masked our frustration.

In the current Amherst social scene, the carnivals set up by Biddy and the administration are the closest things we have to campus-wide traditions. Yet, not only can these events be undependable despite fairly predictable weather conditions, the carnivals do little to actually unite our campus. People come and leave with their friends, separating only to grab food. Although they’re a step in the right direction and provide a fun break from our work for the week, these seasonal carnivals aren’t enough fill the void on our campus for traditions that actively cultivate community. Yet unfortunately, they’re the best and only communal tradition we have at the moment.

Lately, traditions at Amherst have gotten a bad rap. Despite many effective arguments for its removal due to its racially offensive nature, the Lord Jeff mascot defenders have generally held their ground by “defending tradition.” Those who care to dig into the archives will find that the baseball team performed a minstrel show as a tradition for around half a century.

College traditions can carry a great stigma or become a positive tool for further inclusion of new students with upper-

classmen or alumni. Traditions undoubtedly define the student experience at Amherst and inform the wider perception of our community. At many colleges and universities, especially those with house systems, there are yearly traditions to welcome first-years into the wider community as an opportunity to meet and bond with upperclassmen and peers instantly. Stanford, for example, has a “Full Moon on the Quad” tradition in which seniors kiss first-years at midnight under the first full moon of the fall quarter. Keefe Campus Center Night, while fun, doesn’t exactly cut it. Voices of the Class is hilarious, but it’s more of an anonymous roast rather than a chance for the community to come together and make meaningful connections.

It’s time that the campus community acknowledges the limited chances we have to actually come together and be proud of Amherst. While initiatives such as social clubs are attempting to fill this void, attempts to divide up campus create smaller groups that still result in students feeling disconnected from a larger community that includes alums, faculty and administration. We need a yearly tradition that forces students to meet new people and realize the scope of our community. A mountain day or community hour could fulfill this requirement beautifully. Simply put, it’s time for the Amherst community to come together and leave something behind to make the students who will inhabit the dorms after us happy and proud.

Debunking Myths About the Police: Part III Robert Lucido ’15 Contributing Writer We do not know the total number of people killed by law enforcement each year, much less the racial demographics of those victims. But we do know two things: Too many people are killed by law enforcement in the United States, and there is a widespread perception that communities of color are suffering disproportionately.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report — which includes data from just 750 of the nation’s 17,000 law enforcement agencies — there were 461 justifiable homicides committed by law enforcement officers in 2013.

The website Killed by Police, in an attempt at a more complete tally, counted 768 cases — an average of two a day. In that same year, British police officers fired their weapons on just three occasions and killed no one. According to The Economist, “Even after adjusting for the smaller size of Britain’s population, British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans.”

In Australia, where officers do carry firearms, “There have been 105 persons fatally shot by police” since 1989, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

In Germany, police fired a total of 85 bullets in all of 2011. According to Der Spiegel, “49 were warnings shots, 36 were aimed at criminal suspects, 15 people were injured, and six were killed.” On April 25, 2012, two NYPD officers fired 84 times at one suspect alone, Steven Murray.

Murray had murdered his

sleeping little sister, shot his mother three times, refused to drop his gun and instead fired at the arresting officers. His own mother identified him to the police as “the animal who shot me and killed my daughter.” But what does it say when two American cops use as much ammo to bring down one man as all the cops in Germany used in an entire year?

Earlier this month, James B. Comey, current director of the FBI, delivered a passionate speech at Georgetown University that garnered widespread attention. In his speech, he said, “We all, white and black, carry various biases around with us.” There is racism in America; only a fool would deny that. But fixing racism is one problem; fixing policing is another. Comey continued, “Racial bias isn’t epidemic in law enforcement any more than it is epidemic in academia or the arts.

In fact, I believe law enforcement overwhelmingly attracts people who want to do good for a living — people who … do some of the hardest, most dangerous policing to protect people of color.”

If people want to grandstand, they disregard the common sense solutions. Those who are truly interested in fixing problems with policing will set aside the unanswerable questions for now and first focus on what we know will make things better. Here are a few ways in which we can improve policing in the United States.

First, we must ensure that “bad cops” have no place on the force. To do so, police academies must restore their once high graduation standards. Since the 1980s, court-ordered, overarching affirmative action programs have led

to significantly reduced standards and in turn less qualified officers of every race and gender. Indeed, in recent decades, there has been significant pressure to eliminate the exams used to screen officers’ mental aptitude on the grounds that minorities tend to achieve lower pass rates. The result has been easier questions, lower pass scores and, in some cases, no tests at all. According to Michael Markman, New York Police Department Chief of Personnel, physical fitness requirements have also been significantly reduced out of fear of lawsuits from minority applicants and women. Former NYPD chief Michael Julian even attested that some officers hired under the relaxed testing lack the strength to pull the trigger on a gun. There are many benefits to having a force that mirrors the demographics of its general population; however, diversity of officers should not be prioritized over quality of officers.

In a massive study, renowned economist and former Yale Law School professor John Lott tracked crime rates in the 19 major cities where police departments implemented affirmative action decrees between 1987 and 1990. His results were starling: a one percent increase in the number of black officers was accompanied by a four percent increase in the property-crime rate and an almost five percent increase in violent crimes. The problem was not with minority cops alone, Lott’s study showed, but rather with less qualified officers of every race. He also found that each 1 percent increase in the number of white female officers

on a police force increased the number of shootings of civilians by 2.7 percent. Indeed, it is ironic that much of people’s frustration with the police in recent months has emanated from politically correct, facial, affirmative action policies that many of the same people would overwhelmingly support.

Next, the police must ensure that officers who abuse their power are held accountable. While larger jurisdictions can employ prosecutors solely to investigate officers suspected of breaking the law, the nation’s smaller forces are less likely to have that degree of oversight. In those departments, cops suspected of wrongdoing are instead investigated by the same prosecutors with whom they work day in and day out. That is case for half of America’s local police forces, which have fewer than 10 officers.

And we must ensure those bad cops stay off the force. Today, when officers are fired for misconduct, their unions are able to get many of them their jobs back, often through secretive appeals.

In 2007, Hector Jimenez, an officer in Oakland, shot and killed an unarmed 20-year-old man.

Seven months after that, he shot and killed another unarmed man, this time shooting the man three times in the back as he ran away.

Oakland paid a $650,000 settlement to the dead man’s family and fired Jimenez. Jimenez appealed through his police union and despite having killed two unarmed men and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, he was reinstated and given back

Continued on next page

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E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editor-in-Chief Sophie Murguia Executive Adviser Brendan Hsu Managing News Dan Ahn, Sophie Chung, Elaine Jeon Managing Opinion Johnathan Appel, Marie Lambert Managing Arts and Living Marquez Cummings, Gabby Edzie, Evan Paul Managing Sports Kiana Herold, Lauren Tuiskula S TA F F Design Editors Gabby Bishop, Megan Do, William Harvey, Sunna Juhn, Chloe Tausk Assistant News Editor Ryan Cenek Assistant Sports Editors Jeremy Kesselhaut, Jason Darell, Jason Stein Publishers Emily Ratte, Tia Robinson Photography Editor Olivia Tarantino

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The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

Opinion

Investigating Police Brutality Continued from previous page pay. Conservatives have rightfully criticized teachers unions for their similar but certainly non-lethal abuses of power, which make it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers; it would be hypocritical of us not to apply the same treatment to police unions. Police unions must prioritize public safety over labor rights.

Finally, we must ensure that the “good cops” receive the best training possible. This training should educate recruits to better handle persons suffering from mental illness. The National Sheriffs’ Association estimated that half of those shot and killed by the police had mental health problems. Other countries such as Australia, where “42 [of] the deceased had been identified as having some form of mental illness,” according to the Australia Institute of Criminology, have begun to implement such training. In the United States, the Albuquerque police department has done the same and today, according to The New York Times, about 25 percent of its force has been properly trained. The rest of the country should follow their lead.

In conclusion, consider the

tragic death of Tamir Rice last year in Cleveland. A man had called 911 and said, “There is a guy with a pistol. It’s probably fake, but he’s pointing it at everybody.” Upon arriving at the scene, Officer Timothy Loehmann immediately shot Rice twice, claiming — as video footage appears to collaborate — that he reached towards the gun in his waistband. That gun was later found to be an Airsoft replica, though it had been altered to appear like a real firearm. The typical headline read, “White cop kills black, 12-year-old boy playing with toy,” but this oversimplifies and obscures the other relevant matters at play.

After just six months on the force in Independence, Ohio, Loehmann “resigned” when deemed emotionally unstable and unfit for duty. In a letter suggesting his dismissal, the department’s Deputy Chief, Jim Polak, wrote, “[Loehmann] could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal.” According to his personnel file, he fell asleep during training and was unable “to emotionally function because of a personal situation at home with an on and off again girlfriend, [lead-

ing] one to believe that he would not be able to substantially cope, or make good decisions, during or resulting from any other stressful situation.”

Before being hired by the Cleveland police, he had been denied by as many as seven other police departments, including those of Akron, Euclid and Parma Heights.

When applying to the Cuyahoga County sheriff ’s department in 2013, he failed the cognitive exam, scoring just 46 percent. The Cleveland police have since admitted that they did not even look over his personnel file before hiring him.

I wonder if his police union was involved in his re-hiring. I wonder if he was able to pass the Cleveland police department’s exams because of its affirmative action policies. (Even the department’s deputy application says in big letters, “The city of Cleveland is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.”) So, as in the case of Tamir Rice, there is little to no cause to believe that the police’s use of deadly force is racially motivated, yet there is overwhelming evidence that policing in America is rife with costly — sometimes even deadly — structural problems that we should address as soon as possible.

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Green Amherst Project Statement on Board of Trustees Decision Isa Goldberg ’17 Staff Writer and Green Amherst Project Member On Tuesday, Feb. 24 in an open letter to the Amherst College community, the board of trustees voted to “not endorse divestment of the endowment from fossil fuels,” but stated their intentions to “incorporate environmental considerations into their investment decisions,” with investment managers who “thoughtfully and consistently incorporate environmental considerations into the investment process.” The board has not provided a timeline for its proposed goals.

On Tuesday night, the Green Amherst Project met to discuss the implications of the Board’s statement, and stated the following: “The Green Amherst Project endorses many of the values expressed by the Board of Trustees in Feb. 24’s statement. We look forward to working with the board to achieve our shared goal of responsible investment of our endowment, as climate change is an issue on which we cannot afford to wait. Moreover, we maintain that the endgame of responsible investment is divestment.”

The Green Amherst Project will continue to push for student involvement in holding the board accountable to its proposals, regarding the creation of a revolving green fund, building relationships with investment managers and further discussion about what percentage of the endowment the college will work to invest sustainably. It will be critical for students, faculty, and staff to campaign for greater transparency regarding the college’s investments and how they are chosen.

Climate Change, the Anthropocene and Amherst’s Commitment to the Neoliberal Arts Andrew Lindsay ’16 Contributing Writer In 2004, I witnessed Hurricane Ivan, one of the most destructive tropical cyclones in recorded history.

I was only a little kid when it hit. For almost two days the scene was apocalyptic: The sky was painted black while the winds screamed; houses were rocked to their very foundations because of unrelenting rain; the hurricane laid a myriad of seemingly immovable objects in the middle of the street; telephone poles, roofs, mango trees and stop signs were a few such objects whisked away like paper in a light breeze. I was 9 years old at the time, and I remember hiding under the bed in my room while the center of the Category 4 hurricane passed near Jamaica. For some reason I thought the mattress above would protect me from the winds if the roof were to be blown away.

In two days, rainfall exceeded 35 inches and winds up to 133 mph ravaged the island. Steady electricity and water did not return to my house for two weeks. At most, we only had to repair a few broken windows and remove debris. Other people weren’t so fortunate. In the aftermath, looters came out in force, roaming neighborhoods in downtown Kingston, robbing emergency personal at gunpoint and stealing from local businesses.

Times were not easy for the poor. Because of the sheer force of the storm, 18,000 people were left homeless and 17 people were killed.

In the weeks it took the country to recover, I recall the surroundings

looking radically different. It was almost like I was in a different world.

Ten years later, in the comfort and safety of my study abroad program in Japan, I almost forgot that experience. Then I saw on TV the aftermath of a massive snowstorm in Buffalo that brought almost 7 feet of snow in three days. Thirteen people died. Like Jamaica after Ivan, the images of Buffalo were almost alien: a sea of white and houses snowcapped like plateaus. This month, four major snowstorms have left much of Massachusetts transformed. Amherst College resembles a scene from the disaster film “The Day After Tomorrow.” My grim experience 10 years ago has followed me across the globe.

Two clashing climates and landscapes were both brought to the brink.

This month, White House press secretary Josh Earnest confirmed that President Obama believes climate change to be a greater threat to national security than terrorism.

“The point that the president is making is that when you are talking about the direct, daily impact of these kinds of challenges on the daily lives of Americans, particularly Americans living in this country … more people are affected by those things than by terrorism,” Earnest said in a press briefing. President Obama is not alone. In 2013, Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, commander of the United States Pacific Command, told policy specialists in Cambridge, Massachusetts that global climate change was the greatest threat the United States faced — more dangerous than terrorism, anti-vaxxers and nucle-

ar missiles. Increased temperatures, rising seas and unstable climate “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen … that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about,” he said. Researchers from the University of Hawaii have predicted that by 2047, if no progress is made in curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, over 54,000 locations will leave behind climates from the 19th century to now. Kingston, Jamaica, the place that I’ve called home my entire life, will reach that point of no return by 2023 — eight years from now.

James Hansen, formerly with NASA, has argued that we face an “apocalyptic” future. Researchers worldwide, including Anders Levermann, Paul and Anne Ehrlich, Lonnie Thompson and a myriad of others, second this view. Roy Scranton in The New York Times writes, “This chorus of Jeremiahs predicts a radically transformed global climate forcing widespread upheaval — not possibly, not potentially, but inevitably. We have passed the point of no return. From the point of view of policy experts, climate scientists and national security officials, the question is no longer whether global warming exists or how we might stop it, but how we are going to deal with it.”

The word for this new age is “Anthropocene.” It denotes this new era in the planet’s history where human beings are capable of being a force of nature. The greatest challenge in this age, Scranton posits, is a rapidly changing sense of what it means to

be human. In 100 years, seas will be 3 to 10 feet higher and crop and water shortages will cause dramatic changes to human populations. If human beings survive this world, it will be significantly different from even the apocalyptic one that we currently inhabit. Instead of assuming everlasting genetic continuity, in this new world human beings as a species will need to cope with death.

It is no accident that the Anthropocene, this age of imminent destruction, coincides with the neoliberal era. In neoliberalism, the past, present and future converge, creating a single moment that denies temporality. In this age, we assume things will always be the same. We assume a never-ending present, an unfathomable future and a past that should have been. But as the carrying capacity of this planet proves itself incompatible with this mode of existence that assumes the shape of infinity (whether it be infinite resources on earth or the idea that infinite time and labor can produce infinite resources), we forget that time actually continues to march forward, leaving places like my home under threat. Amherst needs to be held to task for its economic investment in the destruction of our planet and so do each of us individually.

The very (neo)liberal arts that teach a spatial separation between this college and issues such as climate change and systemic discrimination (racism, sexism, etc.) are the same ones that assume a personal separation from these issues. Amherst, and each of us by association, is just as

culpable in these forces as the climate change denier, the economics “expert” or the overt bigot. Our guilt is discernible in the institutions we may invest in (institutions that may have explicit connections to fossil fuels or implicit ties to the U.S. prison-industrial complex). As long as we continue to distance ourselves individually and collectively from these issues, our commitment to produce “lives of consequence” means very little.

The recent decision of the board of trustees not to endorse divestment of the endowment from fossil fuels marks where the college stands in its commitment to the liberal arts mission. The liberal arts mission concerns itself with offering a broad array of courses to ensure that students are sufficiently critical and socially responsible. This mission, in specific terms at the college, is to 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.” I question this mission when Amherst chooses to ignore the evidence in plain sight when my home, and the planet, is at stake. I claim that this decision to continue investing into Earth’s demise represents something altogether different: It is a commitment to the march of global capital, a dedication to modes of (non)thinking that transform education to mere business and bureaucracy and a systematic short-sightedness that preserves the status quo, a faux liberality, a neoliberal arts.

Arts&Living

Image courtesy of entertainmentweekly.com

Artists and performers alike took center stage this past Sunday to not only collect awards, but to also call attention to current social and political issues.

“Birdman” and Noteworthy Speeches Highlight the 2015 Oscars Paola Garcia-Prieto ’17 Staff Writer My favorite part of the dreary month of February is Oscar Sunday: a night to be distracted by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood stars as they award each other gold trophies for making million-dollar movies. Cynicism aside, I was very excited to see Neil Patrick Harris bring his Broadway talent to the Oscar stage. Although I expected a night of musical numbers, cheesy jokes and heartwarming speeches — not much different from the last 10 Academy Awards I’ve watched — I was in for a surprise.

“Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest … I mean brightest,” Harris quipped in his opening monologue, kicking off a night of political statements and unforgettable surprises.

One of the first winners of the night was “Boyhood,” a groundbreaking picture filmed over the course of 12 years. Patricia Arquette won best supporting actress for her role as a mother who goes through three rough marriages and raises her two children as best as she can. She was the first woman of the night to use this platform to promote feminism.

“It is our time to have wage equality once and for all and have equal rights for women in the United States of America,” Arquette said as she accepted her award.

The statement inspired an animated response from Meryl Streep sitting in the front row that matched many others and my own reaction while watching from home.

That, in itself, was an unforgettable Oscar moment, but the night only got better.

John Legend and Common performed their nominated song, “Glory” later on in the night. The song was created for the movie “Selma,” which tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther’s King march through Selma, Alabama 50 years ago during the Civil Rights Movement. The performance highlighted the song’s emotional potency, rousing tears throughout the crowd. The song — which would go on to win the award for best original song — was met with the first standing ovation of the night. However, the performance, as breathtaking as it was, didn’t hold a candle to the emotional acceptance speech given

by Win and Legend. Win created a beautiful metaphor about the bridge that King marched across in Selma and how the spirit of this bridge connects us all despite any and all differences.

“Selma is now,” followed Legend, picking up from Win’s words. “We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850.”

There are no words to describe the emotional impact this fact had on the room and on viewers at home. My friends and I were close to tears as we watched the two artists walk off stage, encouraging everyone to “march on.”

After this beautiful and unforgettable moment came the second biggest shocker of the night. The Oscars paid tribute to “The Sound of Music,” which premiered 50 years ago. After a musical montage of this beloved film, Scarlett Johansson presented Lady Gaga as the next musical number. I cringed, thinking that the pop star would make a mockery

of my favorite childhood musical, as I’m sure many others did as well. Instead, Gaga — known for her over-the-top costumes and auto-tuned voice — came out in a beautiful silver dress with her long platinum hair swept over one shoulder and belted out “The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music.”

No one expected Gaga to cast aside her pop style and showcase her raw musical talent. Alongside a string orchestra, Lady Gaga sang her heart out and left the whole world in shock, including Julie Andrews — the original performer — who pulled her in for an embrace after the number.

The show kept on going with its usual touching moments and corny jokes. Graham Moore — the screenwriter of “The Imitation Game” — encouraged us all to “Stay weird, stay different.” Eddie Redmayne — winner of best actor for his role as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” — dedicated his Oscar to everyone around the world battling ALS and the Hawking family in particular.

As the Oscars came to a close, the biggest awards of the night were left up for grabs. I was certain that “Boyhood” would take either best director or best picture for its innovative production length. However, I was surprised once again as “Birdman” — a film about a fallen superhero movie star — took both of these awards. It warmed my heart to see Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu accept these well-deserved awards. Yet, the most shocking moment of the night weren’t these two awards, but rather Sean Penn’s presentation of best picture to Iñárritu.

As Oscar winner Sean Penn opened the envelope with a dramatic pause, he smiled,

sighed and said, “Who gave this son of a b*tch his green card? Birdman!”

While this “joke” was meant to be friendly — Penn and Iñárritu have worked together in “21 Grams” — it was not the right time and place for such remarks. Iñárritu handled it gracefully and gave one of the most impactful acceptance speeches of the night, dedicating his award to Mexico.

“The ones who live in Mexico, I pray that we can find and build the government that we deserve. The ones that live in this country, who are just part of the latest generation of immigrants in this county, I just pray they can be treated with the same dignity and respect as the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation,” Iñárritu said before the crowd roared in applause. The winning director did not confirm whether or not this statement was a response to Penn’s immigration joke.

Iñárritu’s closing statement was a perfect end to a night full of gutsy comments and surprising sentiments. This is the first time in my life that I have seen so many stars use this platform as a way to speak passionately about a wide array of issues. No amount of creepy touching by John Travolta or the overplayed “prediction box” bit by Neil Patrick Harris could ruin this memorable show. In a year full of social injustice, it was refreshing to see the celebrities we look towards for distraction use their power to call attention to the real issues of our time.

As John Legend recalled of Nina Simone, “[she] said ‘It is an artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live.’” I could not agree more.

Circus Magazine Teams Up with Copeland Colloquium Darya Bor ’18 Staff Writer Since its founding in 1971 as a themed series of lectures, films, courses and theatrical performances, the Copeland Colloquium has sought to engage members of the Amherst College community uniquely and intentionally. This year, the Copeland Colloquium’s events have been centered around the theme of translation and its role in today’s culture. Last week, members of the Colloquium editorial board revealed a literary contest that had a cash prize of $200. The contest will be

coordinated by the Copeland Colloquium alongside the student-run literary and arts magazine, Circus.

This unprecedented collaboration arose during the planning of the 2014-2015 Copeland Colloquium, when the student leaders of the festival wanted to create a magazine featuring student translations.

Since they realized that the concept of their project involved creating an entirely new literary magazine for just a semester, student leaders in the Copeland Colloquium turned to student leaders of Circus to see how the two organizations could work together. To increase awareness and

encourage submissions, the two organizations paired up to create a contest awarding $200 to the best language translational works of prose and poetry.

The translation to English should be original, made from another language’s material. The entries will be judged according to category — fiction by Amity Gaige, Visiting Writer at Amherst College, and poetry by Daniel Hall, Poet-in-Residence at Amherst College. Professor Ilan Stavans is coordinating the overall contest. The goal of the contest ties in with the Copeland Colloquium’s theme this year: “to encourage undergraduate students to think about

translation in creative ways and to rethink the importance of literary translation in contemporary culture.” A $200 prize and publication in the next Circus issue await the winners of each category.

All contest submissions will also be considered for the magazine, whose theme for the semester will also focus on the idea of translation. This is a new moment for Circus as well, as it has never before accepted submissions from all of the Five Colleges. “We are only accepting works relating to translations, but the concept

Continued on next page

Arts & Living 7

The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

Student Literary Magazine Holds Translation Competition Continued from previous page of translations is used very loosely,” said Circus co-editor-in-chief Katarina Cruz ’17. “You can translate across various media, for example. The translation can be more than just from one language to another.”

She also noted that many writing classes already incorporate translational ideas.

“For example, the English class Imitations is translational under our definition in that is asks students to imitate poetic forms from different authors and then make that form their own,” Cruz said.

JinJin Xu ’17, also co-editor-in-chief of Circus, elaborated on the definition of translation.

“We are looking for works that translate cross-medium, idea, culture and beyond,” she said. Xu said that translations could be “a poem written about a painting, or vice versa,” or perhaps “something in Old

English rebirthed into modern slang.”

For this issue, Circus will accept submissions from all Five College students.

While every college does have its own arts and literary magazine, most only take submissions from their students. The last Five College arts magazine initiative from Amherst was “Madness, This?”, a conglomeration of works from female students in the Five College area. After that publication’s run from 1988 to 1995, no Five College publication has existed on the Amherst campus.

“There is a lot of translational work on campus. It’ll be interesting to see what works people submit and bring into the campus dialogue,” Cruz said.

“I think it will increase student interest for the broader idea of translation, and challenge students to approach the exchange of ideas in a new way, perhaps in the context of their own writing,” Xu said.

Cruz and Xu hope for the year’s first issue of Circus to be on shelves next week. The issue’s loose theme, which arose during the publication process, focuses on the speech “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace ‘85. The speech, which was given at the 2005 commencement at Kenyon College, implores students to challenge who they are and their awareness of their surroundings.

He begins with the tale of two fish swimming. One of them asks the other, “So, how’s the water?”

Xu elaborated on this speech and its relevance to Amherst.

“This idea is fundamental to our lives at Amherst, and how we become numb, even apathetic, to our surroundings and others around us,” Xu said. “Through the art we publish, we hope to encourage students to be more mindful of their relationship with the world.”

Image courtesy of Circus Facebook Page

The winning translator will receive a $200 prize and publication in next Circus issue.

Exactitudes: A Photographic Presentation of Classified Identities René Kooiker ’18 Contributing Writer “Exactitudes”, an ongoing art project started in 1994 by the Dutch photographers Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, is first and foremost a work about recognition and confrontation. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 20 years.

The name is a contraction of “exact” and “attitude” and at the same time the French word for precision or accuracy. Well chosen, because the project indeed is an uncannily accurate representation of the exact attitudes we reveal through the way we present ourselves. Just take a look at “Exactitude 154.

United Americans — Amsterdam 2014” to see what I mean. You can explore all “Exactitudes” online at exactitudes.com.

The idea is simple, the impact striking.

Seemingly plucked straight from the streets, people who look remarkably similar in dress, hairstyle and stance pose in front of a neutral background. The artists arrange 12 of those portraits in a grid, adding a serial number, title (usually a description of the “identity” in question), and location. The purpose of the neutral background isn’t just to highlight the striking similarities between people.

“Photography is a language of signs,” Versluis said in an interview with the Dutch art magazine Kunstlicht. “The space around the individuals is usually full of signs, whereas with the neutral background there’s room for more layers of meaning.”

“Like that, you can show people in a different way, outside of the context of a hurried and volatile street environment,” Uyttenbroek added in the same interview. It’s like giving everyone an unbiased space to exist in for a moment.

“People don’t see a black guy in an unsafe

Image courtesy of exactitudes.com

Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek’s “Exactitude 154. United Americans — Amsterdam 2014” (pictured above).

bus terminal anymore,” Uyttenbroek said.

“No, they see a man in suit and tie. Try to see it differently, the picture says.”

Since its invention, photography has been used for large scale endeavors to classify different “species” of humans. The anthropological aspect of “Exactitudes” is undeniable.

The work is reminiscent of August Sander’s photography. Sander’s lifelong project, “Man of the Twentieth Century,” was an effort to document the people of his native Westerwald, near Cologne, Germany. “[W]e know that people are formed by the light and air, by their inherited traits, and their actions. We can tell from appearance the work someone does or does not do; we can read in his face whether he is happy or troubled,” Sander said, according to the Getty Museum website.

He photographed subjects from all walks of life and created a typological catalogue of more than six hundred photographs of the German people.

What Versluis and Uyttenbroek share with Sander is that they find “types” of people. They’re looking for the anthropological codes people use to mark and protect their places in society. Before you start searching “Exactitudes” for the ‘“tribe” you’re part of yourself, know that “80 percent of people aren’t suited for [the] project,” as Versluis put it on Knack, a Belgian website. “It’s mostly the people who put in a little more effort who stand out to us.” There’s an interesting paradox: People are easiest to categorize precisely when they want to differentiate themselves from the masses.

At first glance, “Exactitudes” seems part of the tradition of Sanders and 19th-century anthropologists. But look more closely, and you’ll find that Versluis and Uyttenbroek’s work is much more: a potpourri of fashion and street photography. It combines countless influences and ingredients, permitting multiple and at times contradictory interpretations. For instance, “Exactitudes” can be read as a statement against traditional values of the fashion industry; it’s not about what’s in vogue right now.

“That’s too superficial,” Uyttenbroek told Knack. Most people in “Exactitudes” would never appear in a fashion magazine. “But that’s exactly what we like. We’re making it fashionable. And you can’t deny that their styles determine what everyday life looks like.”

Another big difference is that “Exactitudes” doesn’t pretend to be comprehensive.

It’s an ongoing project and constantly updated. If anything, it shows that identity is so fragmented that there might be hundreds or thousands of categories to put people in. Maybe the idea of partitioning and categorizing identity should be abandoned altogether. When postmodernism struck,

culture became performative. The world’s a stage and individuals play certain roles.

Shakespeare was ahead of his time: His idea only gained serious momentum as sociologist Erving Goffman published his seminal work “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” in 1959.

In the performance of identity, clothes and fashion are like a costume or a second skin. With its inherent restlessness, fashion in particular foments fluid identities. The performance of fashion thus contains a deconstructive force, that of moving identity.

But, as “Exactitudes” also shows, exploring fluid identities through dress is still mostly potential. Fashion is too commercialized and based on exclusivity for everyone to use it as a performance tool; just look at fashion advertisements in magazines and the streets.

The upper classes have the means to exploit the potential out there. Even then, most of them don’t. And for the others, there’s a fixed number of standard looks one can conform to based around dominant ideologies and codes. That’s fashion’s dark seamy underbelly, a system of images that seeks to perpetuate itself through subtle changes, always necessitating more and more consumption.

Back to “Exactitudes”: Its virtue is that it shows us how our clothes encode stories about us for others perceiving us. When we are classified into a certain “tribe’ by a third party, most of us might be surprised to find out how different other people see us from the way we see ourselves, thinking: “So this is me in other people’s eyes.” This gives us an opportunity to realize again how we are perceived in other eyes, irrespective of our will or intention, or reality. What’s more interesting is that despite the fact that our real selves are left behind, we find other people very satisfied with their classification, which was based on the appearance and attitude we have not necessarily been aware of before.

But in the end, what “Exactitudes” can’t show us is how a particular piece of clothing encodes a story about you for you. “Worn Stories,” a project by artist and editor Emily Spivack, continues where “Exactitudes” ends, conceiving of clothes as an “evolving archive of experiences, adventures and memories,” according to Spivack’s book about the project.

“The clothes that protect us, that make us laugh, that serve as a uniform, that help us assert our identity or aspirations, that we wear to remember someone — in all of these are encoded the stories of our own lives. We all have a memoir in miniature living in a garment we’ve worn,” Spivack writes in the introduction to her book. It’s no surprise that we have such a hard time cleaning out our closets. Think of this when you’re getting dressed in the morning: What you’re wearing today might be part of a memory tomor-

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

Senior Thesis Explores the Trials and Tribulations of Growing Up Evan Paul ’18 Managing Arts & Living Editor

happens, people happen and our challenge when growing up is learning how to accept that.

Right in the midst of thesis season for Amherst’s Theater and Dance Department, Evan Paul ’18 sat down with one of the stars of one of the numerous pieces being presented. First-year student Irisdelia Garcia just finished a threeperformance run as the lead in senior Valerie Rodriguez’s final project, “Grow Up, Already!”

Rodriguez’s play recounts the struggles of four friends as they grow up throughout their four years in college.

Q: Can you describe your character?

A: Jayla is an energetic eager beaver. She comes to college on a very high moral ground and with certain standards. Sometimes her idealistic view of the world and how relationships work blind her from growing as a person.

Q: How long was the rehearsal process?

A: The rehearsal process started Jan. 5, so about two months total.

Q: What was the play about? What do you want the audience to take away from the play?

A: If people are going to take away one thing from the play, it would be that you can’t go into something new with certain expectations. Life

Q: What were your favorite and least favorite things about her?

A: How energetic and excited she is. I share a lot of her qualities, but overall I think her enthusiasm about life and people’s stories were my favorite things about her. Jayla can be a little too excited for me, and tends to jump to conclusions. I’m the type of person that likes to process things, Jayla doesn’t.

Q: What was it like working with your cast mates?

A: I loved it! We became a very supportive family.

The cast is brilliant, and I was so honored to work with such an amazing group of people who loved me as much as I loved them.

Q: What was it like working so closely with the playwright?

A: It’s so different working with the writer, because you get to see how the show evolves and how things need to be cut or added into the show to make it work. With Shakespeare, or anything else really, the language tells you what’s going on.

With “Grow Up, Already!” Valerie put a lot of trust is us as actors to show and not tell the story.

That’s something that’s really amazing and that we wouldn’t have gotten to do otherwise.

Q: What’s your background in theater?

A: I did a lot of theater in high school. I was in a production or doing something theater-related every semester.

Q: If you could do it all again, what would you change?

A: I wish I didn’t over-think my character. Jayla didn’t happen as naturally as I wanted her to happen. My nerves about doing this character right were gone after opening night, which I personally think was a little late in the game!

Q: Who was your favorite character?

A: Mallory, hands down. I think her character arc is beautifully written, and her death took an emotional toll not only the characters but on the actors who played those characters. There have been many times where I’ve cried on my bench as Claire delivers her powerful monologue. Also, Mallory is super cool and always supports Jayla, no matter what.

“Grow Up, Already!” closed this past weekend, but the Theater and Dance department’s senior thesis season is not yet over. “Destiny”, written and directed by Daejione Jones ’15, plans in Studio Three in Webster Hall March 5-7, and Bryce Monroe ’15’s piece “Invisible Man” plays April 2-4.

“The DUFF” Attempts to Break New Ground in Teen Comedy Genre Claire Jia ’15 Staff Writer Ah, high school: a hotbed of friend drama, teen angst, and a realm often haphazardly portrayed in Hollywood. “The DUFF,” directed by Ari Sandel, tries to be an original contribution to the teen comedy genre, but is ultimately unable to reinvent overused tropes, no matter how many hashtags it employs.

Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman) is the DUFF, or “Designated Ugly Fat Friend,” as sexy football jock Wesley Rush (Robbie Amell) calls her at a party.

Bianca is the approachable one, the one who makes her hotter friends look good. But — of course — she doesn’t want to be the approachable one; she wants to be the dateable one. So, Bianca recruits Wesley to help her, promising to help him pass chemistry in return. Love triangles, a jealous ex-girlfriend, sappy monologues about self-respect and the world’s most unrealistic romantic pairing ensue.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good teen rom-com and I quite enjoyed “The DUFF.” Mae Whitman is stellar as Bianca, being both witty and believably awkward. Robbie Amell is the classic pretty boy with a troubled home life, though his porn jokes and douchey Project Runway references make him ironically refreshing and actually quite realistic.

Their chemistry is perhaps the best I’ve seen from the genre and that might be the problem with this movie.

The entire teen comedy genre is obsessed with the secretly confident, awkward girl who doesn’t actually exist. “The Princess Diaries,” “Mean Girls,” “Easy A” — they all have their awkward heroines, who are supposedly socially inept but who at critical moments eloquently stand up for themselves.

Bianca in particular is so witty and outspoken in front of Wesley that it’s hard to believe that she has trouble talking to boys at all. In these films’ incessant validation of extroversion, they miss the point: What happens when you can’t stand up for yourself?

What happens when you just can’t speak?

The movie presents Bianca with humiliation after humiliation in such extreme doses that it just isn’t relatable. She becomes the victim of a viral Snapchat-style video taken without her consent — complete with kitschy lettering and slow-mo — of her humping a mannequin while screaming her crush’s name. She goes on a date with said crush, only to be told that he actually wants her hotter friends. These examples, though funny, fall flat because oftentimes the real tragedy of high school isn’t in the school-wide videos or upfront rejections, but in the everyday struggle to stay relevant.

The biggest problem with “The DUFF” is its self-indulgent belief that it’s revamping the teencomedy genre through its ceaseless social media references and the occasional plot twist but it ultimately follows the same tired formula: Girl is awkward, girl relies on boy for self-affirmation, girl gets a makeover and boy realizes it was her he loved all along! Cue the tears. “The DUFF” smugly demonstrates it knows what Tinder and retweeting mean, but the extent of its progressiveness stops there. “The DUFF,” like so many teen comedies before it, constructs and promises a Prince Charming fantasy that young girls never needed but, in watching these movies, often begin to want over the years. Sam Baker and Jake Ryan in “Sixteen Candles,” Cady and Aaron Samuels in “Mean Girls,” and now Bianca and Wesley in “The DUFF” have promised time and time again that the social hierarchy doesn’t matter as long as you ditch your weird horror-movie T-shirts and put on a good bra. The entire movie is an uncomfortable Pygmalion imitation, with the socially successful male educating his socially inferior female friend.

At some points, the film attempts to subvert the male gaze — there’s a cute scene in which Bianca walks into the men’s changing room, shirtless guys scream, and she says “You’re embarrassed? Now you know how it feels.” However, the final scene blatantly reverts to a male-centric point-of-view as Bianca, clad in a flattering Homecoming dress,

walks on to the dance floor. We don’t see her, of course, until alpha male Wesley does, in the world’s most obvious up-down tilting point-of-view shot.

I got the feeling that Sandel was trying to critique the genre, but his more progressive intentions were drowned out in a sea of improperly-used hashtags. “The DUFF” attempts to promote a message of self-love, cheekily proclaiming that “only you can label yourself!” at the movie’s end, but it can’t help but throw in the boyfriend, whose decision to choose her over mean girl Madison (Bella Thorne) is given such emphasis that we forget Bianca supposedly loved herself first.

The movie has its moments. When Bianca successfully asks out Toby, she throws her hands out

2 3 100

and rainbow fireworks go off in the background. It’s a moment that wonderfully captures her triumph in the campiest of ways. The film is notably selfaware, giving nods to many of the genre’s greats.

The film’s title scene reminds the audience of the stereotypes first given life by “The Breakfast Club”: the jock, the brain, the princess, etc. But in simply recounting and not subverting the tropes of the genre, “The DUFF,” unfortunately, has no staying power. And perhaps the most unrealistic part of the movie comes when Bianca pens her “Tales of a Teenage DUFF” in the school newspaper, garnering thousands of online comments. A student body that actually reads the school paper? Now you’re just being ridiculous, Ari Sandel.

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Robbie Arnell (left) and Mae Whitman (right) demonstrate believable chemistry as the lead roles of Bianca Piper and Wesley Rush.

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The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

Sports 9

Men’s Hockey Rides Four Game Win Streak into the Postseason Greg Williams ’16 Staff Writer Men’s ice hockey came away with two big victories this past weekend to send the team into the NESCAC playoffs as the second seed in the conference. Amherst will ride a four-game win streak into playoff action. Friday night, the Jeffs faced a potent Middlebury team, but shut them down with a 4-0 win. Saturday afternoon, in a big rivalry game with playoff implications, the Jeffs again persevered as they overcame a twogoal deficit to the Ephs to win 5-3.

The first period of the Middlebury game was a tight matchup with opportunities for both teams. It was Amherst who scored first, as firstyear David White continued his stellar play by adding his 14th goal of the season at the 9:32 mark, with the assists going to Aaron Deutsch ’15 and Topher Flanagan ’16.

The second period was equally close, but it was again the Jeffs who were the ones to find the back of the net. Around the halfway point of the period, Thomas Lindstrom ’18 beat the Panther net-minder to notch his fifth goal of the year.

Tyler Granara ’18 and Mike Rowbotham ’15 assisted on the play.

Amherst had to keep up the momentum going into the third with a two-goal lead, and they did exactly that. White continued his offensive explosion by popping his second goal of the game just over a minute in, and even then he was not done scoring. White tallied his hat trick goal with five minutes left to play, finishing the game with a season total of 16 goals. Conor Brown ’16 assisted on one of the goals, and Flanagan and Deutsch got their second points of the game as well from White’s goals. The Amherst penalty kill was extremely successful, as they killed off all five of Middlebury’s power plays.

Danny Vitale ’15 continued his solid play between the pipes, and finished the game with 25 saves and a shutout to boot.

The next day, Amherst was back at it in

Photo by Rob Mattson

Forward captain Mike Rowbotham ’15 has added 18 points this season to his career total of 72. famed Orr Rink for their final game of the regular season against Williams. The Ephs came out hot and took a two-goal lead, the first of which came on a power play.

Amherst didn’t back down though, as they worked to get back on the board before the period ended. It was White again to score on the power play, with assists coming from Lindstrom and king-disher Deutsch, and the purple and white cut their deficit down to one heading into the intermission.

The second period was filled with chances as Amherst racked up 12 shots on goal, while

Women’s Basketball Downs Colby, Advances to NESCAC Semifinal George Long ’17 Staff Writer Third-seeded Amherst College women’s basketball topped Colby 62-40 at LeFrak Gymnasium Saturday, clinching a berth to the NESCAC Semifinal with their 110th consecutive home win. With the victory Amherst improves to 23-2 on the season.

Amherst shot 53.3 percent (24-45) from the floor and 66.7 percent (10-15) from the line while holding Colby to 25 percent (14-56) shooting and 60.0 percent (6-10) from the charity stripe.

Megan Robertson ’15 led the Jeffs with gamehighs of 11 points and five blocks. Hannah Hackley ’18 and Ali Doswell ’17 joining Robertson in double figures, with 14 and 11 points respectively.

Taking only two shots in the game, Meredith Doswell ’17 stuffed the stat sheet with 10 rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals.

The Jeffs’ defensive front line shut down the Mules. Combining for 14 rejections as a team, stellar interior defense held Colby to low percentage shots from the field. Carylanne Wolfington and Caitlyn Nolan knocked in 8 points a piece, helping the visitors make a second half push after falling behind 18 by the break.

Despite a 15-point performance and strong perimeter second half shooting from Colby’s Mia Diplock, the Jeffs went ahead early and stayed ahead. Depending on their hot hands, Amherst used long 10-0 and 9-0 runs in both halves to maintain and extend their lead.

Large leads were characteristic of the game, and at one point the Jeffs led by as much as 27.

Amherst will travel to challenge secondseeded Bowdoin in conference playoff action as they look to build their resume heading toward the NCAA tournament in March.

The game is a rematch of last year’s NESCAC semifinal, a game where Amherst proved to be

the Ephs shelled Vitale with 15 shots in the frame. But the Jeffs’ defense held, and senior Andrew Fenwick put the puck in the back of the net for his fifth goal of the year, assisted by Patrick Mooney ’18 and Dan Merenich ’15. The second period ended tied at two.

The Jeffs found their stride in the third period. They took the led 22 seconds into when Chris Roll ’17 scored on the power play, assisted by seniors Mike Cashman and Jake Turrin. Three minutes later, Granara extended the lead with assists by Rowbotham and Kevin Ryder ’16, and the play also marked the first-year’s

Men’s Swimming and Diving Places Second at NESCACs Sarah Zuckerman ’17 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Meredith Doswell ’17 has started in every game this season. victorious, but only by a close score of 45-42.

Amherst suffered one of just their two losses this season to Bowdoin, falling by a close score of 6051.

That semifinal game will be hosted by Tufts next Saturday at 4 p.m. With a win, Amherst will earn another appearance in the NESCAC finals, a game scheduled to be played at Tufts that following Sunday.

Should Amherst advance, it could likely be a rematch of last year’s NESCAC final, a game in which Tufts earned the title by a score of 62-46.

The Jumbos (the No. 1 seed in the tournament) will have to defeat fourth-seeded Williams in order to have the opportunity to defend their title on their home court. Tufts handed Amherst their other loss this season, by a 65-42 score.

first career first goal. Finally, Brendan Burke ’16 threw in the dagger third goal of the period to give Amherst a 5-2 lead, thanks to good passing from Ryder and Lindstrom. Williams scored a goal with 15 seconds left to make the final score 5-3.

Amherst finished with a 14-8-2 record in regular season play, and 10-7-1 in league play.

With a second seed finish, the Jeffs will be hosting No. 7 Middlebury this upcoming weekend starting at 1 p.m. in Orr Rink for the quarterfinal round of the 2015 NESCAC championship tournament.

Men’s swim and dive were runners-up in the 2015 NESCAC championships Feb. 20-22. The team had five first-place finishes and set one pool record and two school records to finish the meet with 1,579 points. Fifteen swimmers will be competing in NCAA regionals next weekend.

When the first of three intense days came to a close on Friday, the Amherst men’s swim and dive team sat securely in second place. Senior captain Connor Sholtis led the team with a first-place finish and new school record in the 50-yard free, touching the wall in NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 20.63. Sholtis also anchored the second-place 400-medley relay team, which also included Michael Rochford ’15, Elijah Spiro ’18 and Sam Spurrell ’18. The senior finished off the race for his team, coming in in 3:19.43. The time was good for the second of seven NCAA ‘B’ cut mark’s the team would earn that day.

Amherst finished the day with strong performances in the short distances, as well as the 200 free relay. Spiro took third in the 50 breast with a time of 25.69, Rochford claimed fifth in the 50 back with a time of 23.48 and Hampton took sixth in the 50 free. Hampton also helped the 200 free relay team of himself, Alex Dreisbach ’17, Anderson and Keegan Simmons ’17 to a fourth place time of 1:24.27.

“The first night I just kept hearing guys walking around saying, ‘You’re going to swim fast.

You’re going to swim so fast,’ and man we did,” Sholtis said. “I am so proud of all of our guys that went out and left it all in the pool.”

With 577 points, the Jeffs entered day two behind Williams (709) but in front of thirdplace Connecticut College (534.5). The team swam hard throughout the day and the effort did not go unnoticed.

The purple and white started the day with a second-place and NCAA ‘B’ cut finish in the 200 free relay. Matt Heise ’16, Spiro, Hampton and Sholtis set a new school record with a time of 1:30.94. Sholtis took another second-place relay finish, anchoring the 800 free relay. Taking the last leg of the race after teammates Anderson, Grimes and Dreisbach, the senior touched the wall in 6:49.19.

The last day was a strong one for the Jeffs, who would finish the day with three more event titles. Sholtis continued his impressive run, earning his third victory in as many days in the 100 free. His time of 44.63 was good enough for an NCAA ‘B’ cut mark. Amherst proved itself a powerhouse in that race with Hampton, Dreisbach and Simmons taking third, fifth and eighth respectively. They finished with times of 45.81, 46.34 and 46.85.

The 400 free relay consisting of Hampton Dreisbach, Anderson and Sholtis earned another ‘B’ cut mark, won another event and set a new pool record when the anchor touched the wall 3:01.79. Amherst earned three more ‘B’ cut times in each the 1,650 free and the 200 fly. In the 1,650 free, Grimes led the team with a second place time of 15:56.60.

Brody and Haley followed behind taking fourth and fifth with times of 16:05.62 and 16:05.92 respectively. In the fly, Anderson led the Jeffs with a second-place time of 1:49.22.

Spurrell finished in third with a time of 1:50.24 and John Janezich ’18 finished in 1:52.00 to take sixth.

“It looks like we’ll have a solid group headed to nationals as well,” Grimes said. “So right now we have a lot to celebrate and even more to look forward to.”

After their outstanding weekend, the Jeffs are back at the pool training for NCAA regionals, which start Friday, Feb. 27.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

Men’s and Women’s Track Both Place Fifth at Div. III Championships Drew Kiley ’18 Staff Writer Men The Amherst College men’s track team traveled to Springfield last Saturday to compete at the 2015 Div. III New England Championships. The Jeffs earned 40 points to finish tied for seventh overall with Bowdoin in the 26-team field.

The highlight of the day for the team was the distance medley relay, in which four Amherst runners continued their strong performances this season. The team of Jesse Fajnzylber ’17, Nathan Showalter ’17, Chris Butko ’18 and Greg Turissini ’15 claimed first place with a time of 10:19.21.

This event is a focus for the team as the season winds down.

“One of our goals is for a successful distance medley relay that would place in the top eight at nationals for All-American status,” Butko said.

In the individual events, the purple and white provided a strong showing in the middistance events, with top-five finishes in the 600 meters, 800 meters, 1,000 meters and the one-mile run. Senior captain Romey Sklar led the way in the one mile, claiming third place with a time of 4:17.59.

Butko also competed in the 600 meters, running a time of 1:23.53 to cross the line in fourth place. Brent Harrison ’16 finished the 800 meters in fifth place with a time of 1:55.75, and Kevin Connors ‘17 claimed another fifthplace finish in the 1,000 meters, posting a mark of 2:32.28.

Craig Nelson ’18 highlighted the Jeffs’ performance in the distance events, running a time of 14:54.69 in the 5000 meters en route to third place. Fellow first-year Mohamed Hussein also provided a strong showing, claiming sixth place in the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:30.22.

I think the guys had fantastic performances to kick off championship season,” Hussein said. “We competed to our fullest and that is exactly the mentality we need to bring to our next meet.”

The team returns to action next weekend for the two-day All New England Championships Feb. 27-28 at Boston University.

Women The Amherst College women’s track team traveled to Northampton last Saturday to compete at the 2015 Div. III New England Championships hosted by Smith College.

The team claimed 51 points in order to notch fifth place among the 30 teams in attendance.

In the running events, sophomore Karen Blake led the team with two top-three finishes in the sprinting events.

Qualifying along with teammate Taylor Summers ’16 for the final of the 60 meters, Blake took second place with a time of 7.79 seconds, while Summers finished in 8.01 seconds to claim seventh place. Returning in the 200 meters, Blake posted a mark of 25.98 seconds in the final to cross the line in third place overall.

Seniors Olivia Tarantino and Kelli Ellingson provided standout performances in mid-distance. Tarantino finished in 3:04.54 to claim sixth place, while Ellingson crossed the line only tenths of a second behind, in 3:04.81, to claim seventh place.

Lexi Sinclair ’16, Savannah Gornisiewicz ’17, and Lizzy Briskin ’15 continued the Jeffs’ strong team performances in the 5,000-meter run this season. Sinclair finished in fourth place with a time of 17:28.58, Gornisiewicz finished in fifth with a mark of 17:29.28, and Briskin finished sixth with a time of 17:30.15.

Kiana Herold ’17 claimed the purple and white’s sole win of the day in the high jump.

Herold, along with two competitors, cleared the height of 1.65 meters. Herold won the event by virtue of fewer misses. Her teammate Becki Golia ’18 jumped a height of 1.60 meters to finish eighth.

Amherst’s 4x200-meter and 4x800-meter relays each placed seventh with times of 1:47.35 and 9:43.33, while the distance medley relay team claimed sixth with a mark of 12:45.12.

“Our goal for this meet was to place in the top five, so I think we had a successful day,” Golia said. “We also posted a few ECAC qualification performances, so we’re excited for that.”

The team returns to action this week for the Open New England Championships on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Connor Sholtis ’15 Favorite Team Memory: The origins of

Favorite Team Memory: On Oct. 31, our

the Poody Penalty

whole team came together and cooked a

Favorite Pro Athlete: Ryan Harnden

kick-off dinner at Newport. Each class was in

Dream Job: Orthopedic surgeon and

charge of preparing a dish for the family meal.

father

Favorite Pro Athlete: Ray Allen

Pet Peeve: Lack of commitment

Dream Job: Working with cancer patients at

Favorite Vacation Spot: Crossett

Children’s Hospital Boston

Something on Your Bucket List: BASE

Pet Peeve: Being late

jumping

Favorite Vacation Spot: The Cape during the

Guilty Pleasure: Hitting the last cup

summer

Favorite Food: Zones

Something on Your Bucket List: To travel

Favorite Thing About Amherst: Davis

and spend time in Spain to try to become flu-

(RIP)

ent in the language

How He Earned It: As a senior captain,

Guilty Pleasure: Calzones after midnight

Connor Sholtis leads by example. He

Favorite Food: Chipotle any day

stood out in multiple events, both in

Favorite Thing About Amherst: Without a

individual and relay races. The swimmer

doubt the people I have met here, the commu-

garnered first-place finishes in the 200

nity, professors and students alike. Everyone

free, the 100 free, and the 50 free, in

is welcoming, supportive and impresses me

which he set a new school record. Just

so much.

as much a team player, he anchored the

How She Earned It: Just a freshman, Han-

800-meter relay, the 400-medley relay

nah Hackley has become a key contributor to

and the 200-meter replay, that both fin-

the recent successes of the Amherst women’s

ished in second place, the latter setting a

basketball’s program. At the recent game

new school record with a time of 1:30.94.

against Colby, Hackley played an impressive

He capped his performance on the final

32 minutes and reached into double figures,

day of competition by contributing to the

contributing 14 points. The guard/forward

winning 400-meter relay that also set

averages 16.1 minutes per game and scores

another pool record.

an average of 6 points per game.

Men’s Squash Closes Season at MCSA National Championships Kiana Herold ’17 Managing Sports Editor

Photo courtesy of Raymond Meijer.

Junior Brent Harrison continues to perform well in the mid-distances.

Hannah Hackley ’18

The Amherst men’s squash team competed in the MCSA National Team Championships Feb. 20-22. The 24th-ranked Lord Jeffs team competed in the Summers Cup (C Division) hosted by Wesleyan.

The tournament opened on Friday with the Jeffs playing against NESCAC rival No. 17 Middlebury. The purple and white fell to the Panthers 8-1 in their second matchup of the season.

On the first court, Noah Browne ’16 captured Amherst’s sole win of the match-up, taking the match 3-1. Further down the lineup, co-captain Alex Southmayd ’15 and Stephen Cacouris ’16 on the eighth and ninth courts added more excitement. Both matches were drawn into five sets before Amherst fell to their Cardinal rivals.

Moving to the consolation round on Saturday, Amherst faced off against Colby that ultimately resulted in a 5-4 loss. On the first court, Browne encountered scant resistance, defeating his opponent in three swift sets.

Amherst swept courts No. 6-8. On court No. 6 co-captain Max Kardon ’15 went back and forth in the first four sets before sealing the win in the fifth set. Teammate Jeremy Van ’17 on court No. 7 dropped the first set before

winning the next three straight sets. On the eighth court Southmayd tallied an additional win for the Jeffs in a four set match.

On the final day of competition the Jeffs overcame the 22nd ranked Hobart 6-3.

Browne took control of the first court in mere three sets. On the third court Cameron Bahadori ’18 claimed the victory in four sets.

Rounding out the win, Amherst took courts 6-9 in a clean sweep. On court No. 6 Kardon took the set in 3-1. Van from court No. 7 defeated his opponent in 3 straight sets.

Southmayd and Cacouris both won 3-1 from the courts No. 8 and No. 9 respectively.

The Lord Jeffs concluded the tournament 23rd in the country, one place better than their 24th seeding going into nationals.

“Though our team came out on the losing end of a lot of close matches throughout the season, we were able to win our final match of the year over a higher ranked team,” senior co-captain Scott DeSantis said.

“As a captain, I was proud of our team camaraderie during the various tournaments throughout the year despite the results,” DeSantis said. “The underclassmen on the team should feel encouraged with our results at nationals as they look ahead to next season.”

While team play has concluded for the year, Browne will head to Dartmouth to play in the CSA Individuals Feb. 27-March 1.

The Amherst Student • February 25, 2015

Sports

How Pacquiao Versus Mayweather Changes the Face of Boxing The Darell Deal Jason Darell ’18 Columnist/Assistant Editor This past week, boxing fans were delighted to hear the news that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had finally agreed to terms for a fight in May. This ends the almost six-year period that fans have waited for a fight between two of the greatest pound-forpound boxers of all time. According to Pacquiao and Mayweather, a chance meeting at a Miami Heat game was a key factor in reopening the negotiations. In the past, disputes concerning revenue split and drug testing were the biggest obstacles in the way of one of the most-anticipated fights of the modern era. This fight is coming at a key point for the sport of boxing. For years viewership of the sport has been on the decline — perhaps this can be the spark it needs?

Boxing is a sport in which one big name is usually required to ignite interest. From Jack Dempsey to Joe Louis to Sugar Robinson to Muhammad Ali, almost every generation has had a defining boxer. Today, while we don’t have a generation-defining heavyweight, we do have two excellent boxers in the lower weight classes. The so-called rivalry between Pacquiao and Mayweather has constituted a large amount of the hype surrounding boxing these days. Unfortunately, the heyday of boxing ended around the turn of the 21st century. While the sport will always have its viewers, its popularity among those in the younger generation has greatly suffered. Instead of growing up watching boxing with their fathers, children these days watch other sports, such as basketball and baseball. Without these two boxers, there is no question that boxing would have been even less popular among the mainstream audience. Unfortunately, these boxers are no longer in the peak condition they were six years ago. Mayweather is about to turn 38, and Pacquiao is 36. If this fight had taken place six years ago, each boxer would still have been in his prime. Nevertheless, everybody expects this match to shatter every pay-per-view record.

Mayweather, the highest paid athlete of 2014, is expected to take home around $120 million from this fight alone. Pacquiao, on the other hand, will receive around $80 million, as a result of the 60-40 split the two fighters have agreed upon.

The question is, does boxing have a place in this modern world? As science advances and elucidates the relationship between contact sports and neurodegenerative diseases, one can only expect that these sports will come under even more extensive scrutiny. If football, which usually doesn’t involve direct blows to the head, has been restricted as of late, one can only imagine what will happen to boxing. Considering professional boxers wear no protective headgear, they are almost certainly at a greater risk for degenerative disease than are football players. A fitting but unfortunate example of how boxing can affect the brain can be found in Muhammad Ali. Because of his use of the rope-a-dope technique, Ali was frequently pummeled by his opponents in the ring before using their fatigue to his advantage. These days, Ali is afflicted with a crippling case of Parkinson’s syndrome, a neurodegenerative disease frequently associated with a history of head trauma. Seeing someone like Ali, who used to be in peak physical shape, struggle to walk speaks to the severity of diseases such as Parkinson’s. I think that as the relationship between head trauma and neurodegenerative diseases becomes even more clear, sports such as boxing will eventually fade into obscurity.

Besides the potentially permanent brain

injuries that can result from boxing, the sport is also dying because of its lack of coverage.

While fights in the past would frequently be broadcast on network television, these days one would be hard-pressed to find a single fight on regular channels. Because all of the “big” fights these days, meaning those including Mayweather or Pacquiao are payper-view, the sport has a lot of trouble attracting new fans. Nobody unfamiliar with boxing would pay 70 dollars just to see a fight. In addition to this lack of coverage by cable companies, newspapers and radio also largely ignore boxing. What used to be a great American sport is now in shambles.

Another reason for boxing’s quick decline is the rise of other combat sports, such as mixed martial arts (MMA). MMA is similar to boxing, except competitors may grapple and throw opponents onto the ground. It is less traditional than boxing and has found a greater following among those of younger generations. The fact that this sport is thriving while boxing is declining suggests that the contact aspect of boxing is not the reason for its reduced popularity. I think that the popularity of MMA is, instead, a result of the different fighting styles in the two sports.

Boxing is very traditional, in that opponents stay standing and throw only punches throughout the match. MMA, on the other hand, is dynamic. Each different fighter combines multiple different martial arts into his style, and thus there is also a lot of variety among the competitors. In addition, because of the fewer rules in MMA, many find the fights themselves to be more exciting.

A final reason for boxing’s quick decline is its association with drug use and corruption. While many boxers are randomly urinetested for performance enhancing drugs, some, including Pacquiao, do not submit to blood tests. It is well known that some drugs can only be found through testing blood, but as of now, there are no regulations that force boxers to get their blood tested. Only time will tell if such regulations are imposed. In addition, boxing has always been associated with corruption. After the 12 rounds of Bradley, Jr. vs. Pacquiao, everybody assumed that Pacquiao had won. Instead two judges awarded Bradley, Jr. a 115-113 victory. Because the same promoter, Top Rank, represents both fighters, many suspect that this result was part of a plan to make more money off the rematch. While there is no proof either way, this incident definitely hurt boxing’s already reeling reputation.

While fans of boxing may be thrilled about the upcoming fight, it unfortunately also has negative consequences. Once Mayweather and Pacquiao fight each other, what’s next?

They’re both already nearing the end of their careers, and the fight between them would probably serve as a climax of sorts of each of their careers. As there does not seem to be an obvious predecessor to these two greats, how will boxing ever return to its glory days? Unfortunately, it does not seem very likely that this return will happen. There is and has been a serious lack of domestic heavyweight contenders. It is hard for a sport to become popular in a country that doesn’t produce any of the best competitors. A sport that is similar to boxing in this respect is soccer. While soccer is the most popular sport in the world, it has entirely failed to catch on in the United States. Unfortunately, the United States has traditionally been the epicenter of boxing, and so without the support of Americans, the sport will most likely disappear.

11

Women’s Ice Hockey Splits Weekend, Earns Second Seed in NESCACs Nell Patterson ’15 Senior Staff Writer The women’s ice hockey team capped off a long regular season this weekend with a win and a loss against Bowdoin. Their win on Saturday, 4-3 and loss on Sunday, 3-2, left the Jeffs with a 16-4-4 record for the regular season. In addition, the Jeffs remained second in the highly competitive NESCAC with a record of 10-33 behind rival Middlebury. Coming into the last weekend of the season, the Jeffs knew they would have to execute their game with few mistakes, as Bowdoin is a talented team.

“Bowdoin is a great team that has been to the NESCAC finals for the last two years in a row, winning the Championship two years ago, so we knew we were in for two tough games,” said coach Jeffrey Matthews.

On Saturday, Bowdoin came out firing and the Jeffs found themselves in an unusual position in the second period, behind by two goals.

Bowdoin’s Schuyler Nardelli scored for the Polar Bears just 16 seconds into the first period. Another Polar Bear, Miranda Bell made the score 2-0 just five minutes into the second period.

Needing to jumpstart their talented offense, Eileen Harris ’16 took the puck down the right side of the ice and snuck the puck past the Bowdoin goalie. Caitlyn Ryan ’17 and Kristen Molina ’18 were credited with assists on the goal. The goal gave the Jeffs a burst of energy that would last throughout the period. Erin Martin ’16 and Ryan would both score by the end of the period, giving the Jeffs the lead 3-2. In the third period, the Jeffs edged Bowdoin in shots 9-7. First-year Alex Toupal added her eighth goal of the season during the third, off of an assist from senior captain Tori Salmon. Bowdoin scored in the third off a power play, but Amherst’s strong defense was able to secure the win 4-3.

“Saturday we never gave up. We went down 2-0 in the second period and could have easily lost faith, but we stuck to our game plan and played for each other,” Harris said. “Having a come-back victory made the win that much better. We played with heart and determination and we were rewarded for it.”

Sunday was a special day for the team as the Jeffs celebrated their senior day. The class of 2015 features five talented players each who

bring different leadership qualities and skills to the ice. “All of the seniors this year have been vital to our success,” Harris said. “They each have their own distinct qualities as players and people but they are all dedicated to the team equally. Their competitive drive has fueled our on-ice success this season.”

The 3-2 loss against Bowdoin also marked a big accomplishment for Salmon, who notched her 100th point in the game. Salmon assisted on both of the Jeff goals during the match, one by Harris and one by Toupal.

“It felt pretty similar to all my other points until I reached the bench,” Salmon said. “I had girls tackling me from behind, yelling congratulations, and screaming “you did it”! It was pretty incredible to have the support of my teammates like that.”

The Jeffs once again started out the game down 2-0, but came back within one goal twice during the game. In the end the Jeffs were unable to find the back of the net, giving Bowdoin the win 3-2. Despite the loss, the Jeffs were happy to celebrate the senior class and the end of the regular season.

“There is absolutely no way to describe us all,” Salmon said of her class. “We differ in personality, height, country of origin, majors, etc., but we all want the same thing. We want to be champions, and I think that is pretty special.”

“Our coaching staff is proud of their accomplishments, and are excited to follow their progress beyond Amherst,” Matthews added.

The season is not over yet, and the Jeffs now move into the highly competitive NESCAC playoffs. With their second place standing, the Jeffs won the right to host the seventh place team Colby this upcoming Saturday.

“The postseason is a new season, and I think that is what makes it exciting for everyone,” Salmon said. “Anything can happen in the postseason.”

The Jeffs lost last season against Colby in the quarterfinals of the tournament, and this year they will be looking for revenge.

“After being upset last year by Colby I know this year we will have some extra fuel going into Saturday’s game against them,” Harris said. “It is an exciting opportunity and I know we will do everything to be prepared for it.” The game starts at 7 p.m. in Orr Rink.

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Sports

Photo courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

First-year Johnny McCarthy continues to impress in his first campaign, contributing an average of 10.6 points per game this season.

Men’s Basketball Earns Fifth Seed in NESCAC Tourney Jason Stein ’16 Assistant Editor Following a loss in the regular season finale against Middlebury, Amherst men’s basketball responded well in the NESCAC quarterfinals on the road against Tufts to advance to the NESCAC semifinals this weekend.

After the Jeffs’ loss to Middlebury, they slid down the NESCAC standings and earned the fifth seed, which meant that they would be facing formidable Tufts (the No. 4 seed) in the NESCAC quarterfinals. However, on Saturday, Feb. 21, the Jeffs won in dominant fashion against the Jumbos, securing a 92-66 victory. This victory is especially noteworthy considering Amherst’s performance in a regular season matchup against Tufts, in which the Jeffs lost to the Jumbos by 27 points.

Tufts jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over the Jeffs, but junior guard/forward Connor Green quickly addressed that, as he scored the first 9 points for Amherst to put the Jeffs up 9-6.

At 15:37 remaining in the first half, Amherst and Tufts were knotted at 11. However, the Jeffs would soon explode for a 14-0 run, in which first-year guard Johnny McCarthy, and sophomore forwards David George and Jacob Nabatoff supplied most of the scoring.

With about seven minutes left in the first half, the Jeffs were ahead by 20 points at 36-16.

Amherst’s lead would once again climb as high as 20 points following a 3-pointer by Green with

2:21 left on the clock, but the Jumbos managed to end the half on an 8-4 lead to cut the lead down to 16.

At halftime, the Jeffs were leading 53-37 and firing on all cylinders, as Amherst shot 58 percent from the field and turned in a whopping 80 percent from beyond the arc.

The Jeffs continued their dominant ways in the second half. Amherst’s lead never fell below 16 points in the second half. While the Jumbos cut the lead to 16 points with about 13 minutes left to make it 63-47, the Jeffs essentially ended the contest by going on a 15-0 run to extend Amherst’s lead to 31 points at 78-47 with just under seven minutes left. The Jeffs would solidly preserve the lead over the final stretch of the game, and they ended with an encouraging 92-66 win.

As a team, the Jeffs shot an extraordinary clip from the field. Amherst was 31-55 from the field (good for a 56.4 percent field goal mark), 13-19 (68.4 percent) on 3-pointers, and 17-19 (89.5 percent) on free throws. These numbers were far better than any of the shooting numbers that Tufts posted in the contest. Additionally, the Jeffs held a 44-28 rebounding edge over the Jumbos and dished the ball more effectively, as Amherst had a 21-8 assist advantage over Tufts.

Interestingly enough, the Jumbos only had three turnovers, while Amherst turned the ball over 14 times, but this did not prove to be an issue in Amherst’s dominant victory.

While Green led the scoring with 29 points (in which he was 6-8 from long range) and also

FRI GAME SCHE DULE

Men’s and Women’s Squash @ CSA Individuals, TBD Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Men’s and Women’s Field @ All New Englands, Swimming & TBD Diving at NCAA Regionals, TBD

SAT Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field @ All New Englands, 11 a.m.

pulled down eight boards, a number of other Amherst players were key contributors in the victory. George posted a huge game with 19 points and 10 rebounds to notch the doubledouble. McCarthy continued his well-rounded play with 10 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, while sophomore guard Reid Berman dished out 11 assists.

The Jumbos had two players reach double figures in points, Ben Ferris scored 14 points and Tom Palleschi had 13 points, but their contributions would not be nearly enough to take down the Jeffs for the second time this season.

“Saturday was a huge win against Tufts,” junior captain Ben Pollack said. “If we had not beaten them, our chances at the NCAA Tournament would have been nowhere near as strong as they are now. We are almost at 20 wins, which normally seems to be where you need to be to secure a spot in the tournament. We lost by about 25 the first time we played them, and beat them by about 25 this time. I think that really shows our growth as a team throughout the season.”

Up next, the Jeffs will take on Bowdoin (the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC) this Saturday in a 4 p.m. game at Trinity (the host site for the remainder of the tournament). The Polar Bears advanced after knocking off Williams (the No. 7 seed), 87-74. In January, the Jeffs topped the Polar Bears, 81-66, as Green exploded for 33 points.

If the Jeffs advance against Bowdoin, they will have the opportunity to compete for a

fourth straight NESCAC Championship against either Trinity (the top seed in the NESCAC Tournament) or Wesleyan (the No. 6 seed in the NESCAC).

“Against Bowdoin previously, we played super well,” Green said. “We’re going to have to perform well to beat them once again, as it’s always tough to beat the same team twice in a year.

Hopefully we can get this win and keep moving forward, one game at a time.”

Photo courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

SUN

Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Div- Men’s and Women’s ing Basketball Men’s and Women’s Men’s and Women’s at NCAA Regionals, TBD @ NESCAC Semifinals. Squash Basketball TBD @ CSA Individuals, TBD @ NESCAC Finals. TBD Women’s Hockey Men’s and Women’s at NESCAC Quarterfinals Squash @ CSA Individuals, TBD