Issue 2

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

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VOLUME CXLIX, ISSUE 2 l WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

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College Implements Flexible Grading Option Philip Corbo ’22 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ‘22

As part of an update to the Student Code of Conduct, the college has introduced a new policy concerning student protests. This comes after years of protests, including a demonstration against former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ visit to campus (above).

New Policy Sets Regulations for Protests Natalie De Rosa ’21 Managing News Editor The college has implemented a new policy addressing student protests and free expression. Part of an annual update to the Student Code of Conduct, the policy is the first of its kind at Amherst and was introduced alongside another policy concerning facilities and ground use. The policies went into effect at the beginning of the fall semester.

The policy outlines guidelines that students must adhere to when organizing protests and includes six sections: a statement of academic and expressive freedoms, which was voted on by the faculty in 2016; a statement of respect for persons; guidelines for protests, demonstrations and peaceful dissent; guidelines for planning an appearance by an outside speaker, a protest or a demonstration; guidelines for a demonstration’s time, place and

manner; and a description of consequences for violations.

According to the policy, the college “may assign, reassign and/ or limit activities to particular locations on Amherst College property,” “place reasonable limitations on the time, place and manner of any speaker, protest, or demonstration” and “reserves the discretion to postpone, cancel or prohibit any speaker, protest, or demonstration if the conditions of this policy are not met,” among a variety of other guidelines and restrictions on matters like invited speakers.

Members of the college community who violate the policy’s guidelines are subjected to the college’s disciplinary policies, while unaffiliated individuals may be arrested or face other legal action. “[The college] prizes and defends the ability of teachers and students to teach and learn free from coercive force and intimidation and subject

only to the constraints of reasoned discourse and peaceful conduct,” the policy states. “The college also recognizes that such freedoms entail responsibility for one’s actions. Thus the college encourages and facilitates the expression of views by its members so long as there is no use or threat of force, nor interference with opportunities for others to express their views.”

The policy comes after a rise in protests on campus over the last few years. In 2015, students staged a demonstration in Frost Library, known as Amherst Uprising, condemning racial injustice and standing in solidarity with students at the University of Missouri and Yale, later presenting in a list of demands to the college. In the wake of the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, students organized protests against the president’s plan for his first 100 days in office, along with the implementation of the travel

ban geared towards predominantly Muslim countries. Students joined together during a rally in 2017 after a noose was found on Pratt Field.

This past spring, nearly 70 students walked out of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ talk on campus and demonstrated on the first-year quad.

The Office of Student Affairs first announced the policy in an email on Aug. 28 reminding students to complete a set of actions on AC Data prior to the start of the semester. All students must agree to a number of school policies, including the updated student code of conduct, in order to register for classes.

According to an FAQ accompanying the Student Code of Conduct, the policy first underwent drafting in 2017 by the Incident Readiness Working Group, an administrative group comprised of representatives from the Office of Student Affairs,

Continued on page 4

The college announced a new policy called the Flexible Grading Option (FGO) on Sept. 6 that would act similarly to the Pass/Fail Option already in place at the college; however, students who use an FGO for their class now wait to receive their grade at the end of the semester before deciding whether to invoke the Pass/Fail Option or keep the grade already given.

Students must choose a course as an FGO by the end of the adddrop period. First-year students are allowed to use four FGOs throughout their time at the college; new sophomores may take three; new juniors may take two. Second semester seniors may not take an FGO course. The FGO cannot be applied to courses within a student’s own major.

According to the college website, the objective of the FGO is “to encourage students to explore the breadth of Amherst’s open curriculum as they seek to meet the college’s stated learning goals.”

Amrita Basu, professor of political science and member of the Committee of Six, added that the FGO was implemented to alleviate two concerns shared by the student body and administration: that students were not taking courses outside of their major and that they were reporting high levels of stress.

The FGO policy is an attempt to “encourage students to explore dif-

Continued on page 3

News

Hapshiba Kwon Thoughts on Theses

Sept. 2 2019 – Sept. 10, 2019

>>Sept. 2, 2019 8:47 a.m., James Dormitory Students reported an individual entering their unlocked room and lying in their bed. >>Sept. 3, 2019 12:05 a.m., Hitchcock Dormitory An officer found a window missing from an entryway door allowing access to the building.

cident with no injuries. >>Sept. 6, 2019 11:45 p.m., Hitchcock Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud people and music. Two groups were addressed and cooperated to stop the disturbance.

>>Sept. 7, 2019 5:54 p.m., Mayo-Smith House A town resident >>Sept. 4, 2019 reported a noise 10:06 a.m., Seelye Park- complaint. An ACPD ing Lot officer responded to A vehicle was reported a noise complaint for stolen. It was found our campus and APD abandoned a short disresponded to one just tance away from where off campus in the same it was taken. area. All noise was addressed.

7:06 p.m., Converse Hall 9:21 p.m., College Officers responded to Street a report of an older inAn officer observed an dividual being loud and individual under the age found that the person of 21 with alcohol. The left prior to their arrival. alcohol was confiscated and disposed of.

10:09 p.m., Seelye House >>Sept. 8, 2019 Officers responded to 8:30 p.m., Frost Library a noise complaint and Officers responded to found an unauthorized the report of an individparty with alcohol. The ual acting in a disruptive group was dispersed. manner and possibly in need of assistance. The >>Sept. 5, 2019 individual did not need 8:30 a.m., Woodside assistance and stopped Avenue the behavior.

The Environmental Health and Safety De>>Sept 9, 2019 partment and an officer 1:02 a.m., The Quadranresponded to a report gle of a fox in the area. The Officers observed an fox left the area. individual that appeared to possibly be in dis7:10 p.m., Boltwood tress. They were not Avenue and were then sent on An officer responded to their way. a past motor vehicle ac-

Department of English

Hapshiba Kwon is an English major writing a thesis about the embodied experience. Her advisor is Writer-in-Residence Shayla Lawson.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: My thesis is a work in progress.

It’s a creative writing thesis in the English department. It’s going to be about the embodied experience of females, and it will deal with my personal experience as a female with a body. It will explore the relationship between the idea of soul and body, which are traditionally thought of as very separate, especially in terms of language. I will explore how I can use hybrid forms and non-traditional structures to explore what it means to be contained in a body and also relate to other beings with bodies.

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

A: Most of my inspiration comes from personal experience. At Amherst, we’re taught how to think about and navigate our different identities. Personally, I feel like my identity is composed of fragmented parts, all within one body.

I have found that my lived experiences, walking around this world as someone who is both gendered and has a race and holds those different facets is worthy of deep exploration. I want to explore how I, as one whole being, experience identity and embodiment in different ways. A lot of my work will come out of both painful and joyful personal experiences.

Q: Is anyone helping you write this thesis?

A: For now I’m just working with my advisor, Shalya Lawson, who is the writer-in-residence. Hopefully I will be talking to some of the professors that I’ve had throughout

the years.

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

A: I haven’t done too much work yet, but I’ve really enjoyed being exposed to a lot of different texts from outside traditional literary canons.

My advisor has exposed me to a lot of works that I otherwise wouldn’t have read.

Q: What books have you been reading for your thesis?

A: I’ve been reading a variety of texts for my thesis, but one that comes to mind and one that I’ve enjoyed reading is called “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera. I feel like it provides good commentary on the nature of relationships, like what constitutes a friendship, or something more than a friendship, and things that are traditionally seen or framed as being in opposition to each other, [like] lightness and weight, light and dark. By reading this, I’ve come to understand that these things are less in opposition to each other in that they are contained in the same body, society and world. These are some of the ideas that I think about a lot when I’m thinking about my thesis. It helps me understand the idea of the embodied self because there are many times in which identities can feel fragmented or in opposition to each other but contained within one body. Within the self there are so many schisms and it’s about coming to terms with this and understanding these various identities. I’ve also learned that the soul and body are not as opposed as they are usually framed.

Q: What has been the hardest part of writing your thesis?

A: It’s hard not knowing what form my thesis will take in the end and having to talk to people about it even though it is still very much a work in progress. But I think that is also really exciting because what I have now could end up being something totally different. This whole thing will most likely be an avenue of self-discovery.

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

A: It should be an enjoyable process, so I would say just take it in little bits and find times to carve out space to work on it. I think your thesis should have personal significance if you’re going to undertake such a large project. My biggest piece of advice is to ask yourself how your topic relates to how you’re living every day and how it changes how you interact with and view the world and yourself. I think that can make the entire process more meaningful and fruitful.

Q: What are your hopes for the thesis process?

A: My hopes for the thesis is that it’s a journey of self-discovery and healing. Hopefully I’ll learn more about myself and the world and that it will be an outlet by which I can explore topics that are interesting to me. I’ll be going through memories — a lot of memories — and challenging and restructuring various parts of texts, and viewing the texts as if they are bodies — like me.

— Alexi Lee ’22 and Jake Shapiro ’22

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

News

3

College Hires 13 New Faculty Members From Hampshire Ronin Rodkey ’22 Staff Writer Twenty-six Hampshire College faculty members have taken positions at different institutions in the Pioneer Valley this academic year, with Amherst employing 13 of them.

After Hampshire endured financial hardships that nearly forced it to close, the alternative education institution, founded in 1970, encouraged faculty to go on leave and take positions at other institutions while the administration determines a way to make its vision and founding mission financially sustainable.

Hampshire announced in January that it was seeking a strategic partnership and accepting a limited class for the next school year in light of declining enrollment, which left the college financially unstable. After public outcry from the Hampshire community, the college reversed the decision in April. The further decline in enrollment this year, however, has left the college in a financially precarious position and necessitated cuts.

The 13 Hampshire faculty members hired by the college include: Stephen Dillon, Lili Kim and Ashley Smith in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry; Sarah Hews and Geremias Polanco in math; Lee Spector in computer science; Monique Roelofs in political science; Kristen Luschen in American studies; Jutta Sperling in history; Karen Koehler in art and the

history of art; Susan Darlington in religion; Polina Barskova in Russian; and Jennifer Hamilton in sexuality, women’s and gender studies.

Most of the Hampshire faculty were hired as visiting professors. According to Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein, the hired Hampshire faculty members were the most qualified and experienced among candidates in the college’s national search. In a few cases, departments used restricted funds to hire Hampshire faculty members.

The terms by which faculty left Hampshire and joined other institutions were outlined last spring in a deal Hampshire struck with its chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). At the time, Hamilton was president of the AAUP at Hampshire.

As part of the deal, “none of the faculty were laid off,” said Hamilton.

“People took visiting positions, took early retirement or took reduced positions.” Hampshire staff, however, were affected by layoffs.

The deal also allowed professors to continue advising Hampshire students on an ad-hoc basis. Most professors have decreased the number of their Hampshire advisees, but many have maintained relationships with students who are graduating soon. Some professors will continue to teach courses at Hampshire — Smith, for example, will be teaching a class there this semester.

“Nobody from Hampshire was hired as a charity case,” Epstein said.

“This was a completely normal process — I know that sounds funny — but the timing at which Hampshire announced it was having severe financial difficulty coincided with the timing of our visitor searches.”

Positions were publicized by the college, Sperling said. After a meeting in January where she was told Hampshire would most likely not admit an entering class, Sperling “came out of the meeting, I went to my office, and right away I went on H-net, the job listing site [at Hampshire]. That’s where I found an announcement for a visiting professorship in history at Amherst College. And then I

thought, ‘Well, I’m going to apply.’”

All Hampshire faculty, including those at Amherst, retain the right to help plan for Hampshire’s future and attend meetings discussing the institution, set to happen on Tuesdays at Hampshire.

Hampshire College President Edward Weinbach has set a late October deadline for determining and setting in motion a plan to ensure a financially-sustainable future for Hampshire.

Spector, who remains involved in discussions on Hampshire’s future, noted that there are strong ideas on the table, including instituting requirements to promote the school as a graduate school for undergraduates

and awarding graduate degrees in some cases.

The biggest challenge, according to Spector, is building a consensus around what to do in a community known for its radically free thinkers.

“This is a time when people have to be on the same page,” Spector said.

“And that’s the biggest challenge, is everybody has to get on the same page in terms of ideas. I am more concerned about that then there being good ideas.”

But Spector also acknowledged that teaching at Amherst “is a fulltime commitment, and I want to do everything I can to serve students [here] — that’s my number one priority.”

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ‘22

Amid a financial crisis, 26 faculty members at Hampshire College have been hired by other area colleges. Of those 26 professors, 13 were hired by Amherst College.

Flexible Grading Option Encourages Students to Explore Disciplines Continued from page 1 ferent areas of the curriculum and to be more risk taking to take courses where they thought they might not do well … but were still curious to learn about,” Basu said.

Basu formerly acted as a member of the Curriculum Committee, a standing committee for two years that is now dissolved. The Curriculum Committee first weighed the possibility of adding a new Pass/Fail Option and ultimately issued a positive recommendation to the college.

“We felt that trying to find ways of giving students more flexibility would really be helpful [by] just relieving some of the pressure on them,” Basu said.

The new policy will also reward students by giving them the option to keep their assigned letter grade at the end of the semester. Until this year, the Pass/Fail Option was final after the request was submitted, but students who take the Pass/Fail Option at the college “often … end up doing very well” and wanting to keep the letter grade, Basu said. The policy is “a rather small change,” Basu added. “It expands the Pass/ Fail Option a bit. And I think on balance, the arguments in favor are stronger than the arguments against.

But if it doesn’t work, we are going to be monitoring, and we can always go back and rethink the policy.”

Provost and Dean of the Facul-

ty Catherine Epstein said the FGO will “incentivize students to work” as opposed to the regular Pass/Fail Option. Students will be motivated to do well in their pass/fail classes without being punished for succeeding, she said.

Epstein said that “it was a general faculty concern that students were not exploring enough of the curriculum,” but “many people questioned whether the mechanism would work.”

The faculty in favor of the decision generally believed that the FGO would help “in the absence of a core curriculum … This seemed like an option that maybe would get kids a little bit more outside of what they

believe to be their comfort zones,” Epstein added.

According to Epstein, those opposing the policy believed that the issue of students not taking courses outside of their comfort zones is more “complicated” than what the policy could fix.

Both Basu and Epstein anticipated the problems that could potentially arise by letting students have up to four pass/fail grades on their transcripts as opposed to the previous maximum of one.

The Pass/Fail Option, however, is common at other schools. At some, none of the courses in the first semester are graded at all.

Epstein noted that “there is an

issue around employers with how they look at pass/fail, but it’s not a very major issue at the numbers that we are talking about. You can only in the end do four FGOs … so you would only have four pass/fails on your entire transcript and the likelihood is that students would have a grade” after doing well in a course.

Corey Jacobson ’22, a prospective psychology major, said that the college should have done a better job publicizing the FGO. He said that in the past, “many people decided to take a class pass/fail but then said they liked their grade but could not keep it.” Jacobson hopes to use the FGO for a higher-level economics class.

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

News 4

Administration Cites Safety Concerns in New Protest Policy Continued from page 1 Campus Operations, Office of Communications, Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Provost and Dean of the Faculty’s Office. The group, along with the policy, was developed in response to a need for the college to be “prepared to handle incidents associated with national and regional social and political unrest, such as the events that occurred in August 2017 at the University of Virginia,” the FAQ states.

The Unite the Right rally, a demonstration staged by white supremacists, was held in August 2017 through and around the University of Virginia campus. The rally quickly became violent, with one demonstrator driving his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring another 30.

“This policy is designed to promote safe and peaceable protests, demonstrations and other acts of peaceable dissent, as well as to limit the ability of anyone who is not affiliated with Amherst College to use the college as a stage for provocation,” Chief Student Affairs Officer Karu Kozuma said in an email interview.

Prior to the introduction of the policy, Kozuma said that the college had not adopted an official stance on student protests, though there had been a series of common practices students followed when organizing protests.

Apart from more clearly defining those practices, the policy also includes a new requirement that requests students consult with one of four departments — Office of Student Affairs, Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Conferences and Special Events or the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) — to ensure that proper safety measures are in place.

“We exchange contact information with the organizers and review the policy so that all of us understand our own — and each others’ — responsibilities. By having a discussion in advance, we are able to avoid unintentional conflict due to misunderstandings,” Chief of Police John Carter said in an email interview.

He added that despite the introduction of the policy, the role of

ACPD remains the same.

“Our primary function is to provide a safe environment in which our community members live and learn,” he said. “ Historically — and this remains true to this day — the role of ACPD in regards to protests has been to work with our community to enable an exchange of viewpoints, ensure everyone’s safety and maintain the good working order of the college. We are dedicated to those principles. They are not mutually exclusive and we have consistently worked with the community through the years to make this happen.”

For students actively organizing campus protests, the policy poses a varied set of reactions. The Direct Action Coordinating Committee (DACC), an on-campus organization that has organized protests including the walkout during Sessions’ talk, questioned what the policy’s promotion of “safe and peaceful exchange of ideas” meant.

“What does it mean to ‘not interfere with opportunities for others to express their views’ when those views are situated in a long legacy of slow violence?,” the group said in a statement to The Student. “A legacy that ‘interferes’ not just with the views of black people, indigenous people, poor people, queer people and other oppressed peoples — but interferes with their struggles for liberation.”

“What does it mean when the college requires students of color to request permission from the police, an institution that has served as a form of repression since its inception, in order to be allowed to merely speak out against these views?” the group continued, responding to the policy’s requirement to notify one of four offices when organizing demonstrations.

On the other hand, Ella Peterson ’22, one of the organizers for the upcoming Climate Strike on Sept. 27, found the policy’s guidelines to be “reasonable.” “[We] have been meeting with [Director of Student Activities] Paul Gallegos and the Office of Environmental Sustainability, so I don’t think [the strike] will be a surprise to the administration,” Peterson said. “It, of course, has to be a peaceful action.”

Photo courtesy of Kaelan McCone ’19

Photo courtesy of Takudzwa Tapfuma ’17

Photo courtesy of Olivia Gieger ’21

Photo courtesy of Matthew Chow ’18

Amherst protests in recent years include: (from top to bottom, left to right) Amherst Uprising (2015) protesting racial injustice on campus, a walk out protesting Trump’s anti-immigration policies (2016), the most recent walk-out from Jeff Sessions’ talk (2019), and a demonstration of solidarity in light of a noose being found on campus (2017).

Opinion

w

The Need for Young Voices It’s only been a few short weeks since 16-yearold Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg landed in New York City after spending weeks at sea, traveling carbon-free from her native Sweden to the U.S. for this fall’s United Nations climate talks.

Her welcome in the city’s North Cove Marina was one more fitting for an international pop star than a young girl who had decided to start skipping school until the world started to take notice — notice not just of her, but of the climate crisis she tirelessly called attention to. Hundreds of people gathered as her sailboat approached land. They cheered and shouted as she docked and climbed on stage, clamoring to the narrow walkway that had been cleared for her and attempting to reach forward to shake the young activist’s hand or give her a high five.

Thunberg began her protests in 2018, sitting outside the Swedish parliament to demand policy on the climate crisis, and she continued to take every Friday off from school to pursue those demands.

Her protests have launched an international movement — called Fridays for Future — of students around the globe joining in her weekly absence from school to bring attention to the dangers of the global climate crisis. The movement has chapters registered in nearly 30 countries and has gained rapid media attention. Thunberg’s own strikes were inspired by the protests of the Parkland High School students surrounding gun violence and their subsequent March for Our Lives movement. In September, the Fridays for Future movement is spearheading efforts for international school walkouts during its “Week For Future” on the 20th and 27th.

The protests profoundly illustrate the chain of influence that the actions of young people can have. Gun control activists in Florida can inspire one young Swedish girl who in turn can inspire students in tiny towns and major cities across the globe — all that unites them is simply their youth and their shared concerns for our global future.

We live in a critical moment in history. The planet is burning before our eyes. People of color are incarcerated at disproportionate rates and unjustly shot by law enforcement, the very people who are portrayed as protectors. Children worry about being shot in their classrooms. It’s a world we cannot sit by and watch unfold.

It’s also a world we do not have to watch powerlessly. Thunberg, the Parkland Students and the Sunrise movement, a youth-led political

movement pursuing climate justice, are all stirring testaments to the power of youth in demanding attention from adults. With that attention comes real change. Our Children’s Trust is an organization of young students suing governments across the country — it is spearheading the national Juliana case, in which 21 youth plaintiffs are suing the federal government for failing to act on early knowledge of the environmental harms of burning fossil fuels. It has proceedings in all 50 states that have led to the creation of significant environmental policy, like the case’s victory in Massachusetts, which spurred Gov. Charlie Baker to sign an executive order establishing a climate change strategy for the state.

This change is possible because of the young voices staring the consequences dead in the eye.

We’ve seen this power on our own campus too.

Though the memories of Amherst Uprising have graduated with the last class of seniors, its influence has persisted by intertwining itself into campus practices and policies. From it we have a new mascot, more counselors of color in the Counseling Center and focused attention on hiring faculty members of color. We still have strides to make. In a 2018 piece in The Student, opinion editor Diane Lee called for an annual remembrance of the formative event — something we have yet to see. But we have seen the impact of students raising their voices and sitting in solidarity, and we should not let that momentum die.

Last spring, on a campus wrought by tension and anger from every corner of the political spectrum, we witnessed the strength that student organizers can bring to a community by kindly and constructively demonstrating for the ideals they believe in, against a backdrop of policies and stances that vehemently threaten them.

Just this summer, Amherst updated its protest policy. We at The Student wholeheartedly encourage our peers to take full advantage of this fundamental right to demonstration. At Amherst we are situated in a place of immense privilege to understand and unpack the social problems in the world around us, and how to respond to them. We urge our peers to take advantage of the resources we have to learn and act accordingly, beyond the grounds of this very small campus. The world is watching young people and starting to follow their lead. Our voices matter.

Use them.

Unsigned editorials represent the Editorial Board (assenting: 13; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 0)

THE AMHERST

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The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

Opinion 6

“My Door is Always Open” Karu Kozuma Chief Student Affairs Officer “My door is always open,” writes sociologist Anthony Abraham Jack ’07 in his new book “The Privileged Poor.”

That familiar refrain is an invitation for students to connect with faculty and staff to receive assistance and support. Indeed, as Jack and other researchers have emphasized, connection is important not only between students, but also between students, faculty and staff as well.

During my first year at Amherst, I made it a top priority to connect with as many students as possible. As I enter my second year, the importance of connecting with students has not diminished whatsoever; in fact, it has increased.

Connection is not only about being available for appointments and meetings. To me, connection is about being available in other ways. Let me explain. But before I explain, let me share.

One thing you should know about me is that I love what I do.

I love working with students, my fellow staff members and faculty. I love working in higher education and have done so since graduating from college. I feel blessed to work here at Amherst.

The many opportunities to get to know people, to celebrate together and to work with them on various challenges are moments that I treasure and value.

One common challenge we all face is the pressure to do well (however each of us defines that) and the pressure to not falter. I was never a straight-A student; in fact, I was proudly consistent in high school and college, receiving mostly B+ grades.

However, I placed on myself (and others placed on me) a tremendous amount of pressure to do well. From eighth grade on, I had a goal of becoming a physician. My grandparents on my mother’s side were both doctors. They passed away when my mother was still in college in Japan, so I never knew them, but their influence on my life was still immense.

Throughout high school, I

knew that I would be a pre-med student in college, although I also knew that I would major in English. I believed that to be an effective doctor, I needed to learn about people, and one way to learn about people was through literature and stories.

In college, I took all the required pre-med courses, took the MCATs and applied to medical school the year after I graduated. Although my grades were decent and my MCAT score was fine, my application profile was not good enough to be accepted.

I share this not because I am an only child and jokingly point out that I seem to love talking about myself, but also because I hope I can create some level of connection through vulnerability.

Everyone has struggles. I know this may be an obvious statement, but it is not an obvious realization — or at least it is one that, for many of us, is not easy to communicate openly and meaningfully. Even though I have been at Amherst for more than a year, I am still adjusting to a new life: I am

struggling to manage changing friendships, since I have moved away from one community and joined another. I am struggling to give my family the attention and energy that I give to my job, which, because of the nature of my work, can be all-consuming. I am struggling to remain centered when I become frustrated that I am not meeting my own expectations, and then the frustration cascades into further disappointment that I let myself become frustrated in the first place. I can find myself spiraling in those moments.

What has helped me through these struggles has been the gift and opportunity to learn who I am and how to be comfortable with myself. Many people have supported me in this ongoing process. I feel comfortable enough to share aspects of my life and who I am in this piece, even though, culturally, I was taught not to share any part of my life (or my family’s life) that could bring doubt or shame.

Even though I have lived on my own for more than two decades,

I think if my mother knew that I had written this published piece, she would find it problematic and let me know. Despite the cultural pull of not sharing, I feel compelled to do so because sharing can result in strength and support, rather than shame.

During a recent informational session with families, a parent asked me to name my most important goal at Amherst. My answer: we need to create the conditions and environment for each student to love who they are and who they become as they grow. I know this can take time, but there are many people here at Amherst to walk step by step with you on this journey.

The journey is yours, but you are not alone. From the faculty and staff working in the resource centers and student life departments, to those providing food and maintaining the facilities, we are here to support you.

While you are on this journey, you may be curious, so feel free to ask. Or I may just tell you because I like to share. It’s the “only child” syndrome at work.

Pondering a Plethora of Pugnacious Proboscidea Alexander George Professor of Philosophy

I was never taken with the whole mammoth movement. The idea that the perfect Amherst College sports mascot would be a

creature renowned for being slow, dim and dead… Well, what can I say?

Things got even stranger when the college hired a design firm that produced the currently ubiquitous logo. They gave us an im-

Photo courtesy of Maria Stenzel and Jiayi Liu

The ubiquitous Mammoth logo has pervaded every aspect of Amherst’s culture, says Professor Alexander George.

age of a beast sporting a nose, its eyes cast downward and its hackles raised. The surly lug is pitched forward, one leg aloft, and appears ready to charge — unless it simply keels over due to its oversized cantilevered tusks.

I expect this logo, like the choice of mascot itself, is a done deal. And the “mammothification” of the college proceeds apace. It seems that wherever one turns these days, one runs into the wooly beast. For ease of reference, let’s give it a name: conjoin the first few letters of “mammoth” and the last few of “Amherst” and there you have it: Mammherst.

The “h” is silent.

Now, the Mammherst logo is everywhere. Banners of Mammherst hang from every dorm. Frost Library once wrapped itself in a mammoth mantle of Mammherst. Newsletters and posters sport Mammherst peek-

ing out from somewhere on the page. In daily emails, Mammherst glowers under the signatures of college officials. New faculty are invited to Mammherstthemed dinners, and new students are welcomed as members of the Mammherst herd. Even emergency instructions feature Mammherst telling us how to deal with a shooter.

Though the situation is extreme, we should not get carried away by the rumors. I don’t believe, for instance, that President Biddy Martin’s position will soon be titled mammoth-in-chief, or that the Board of Trustees is considering renaming the institution Mammoth College. But reliable sources have informed me that the college’s phone number will soon be changed to (413) MAMMOTH (626-6684); that later this year a new academic program will be inaugurated in “Mammoth

studies”; that anti-mammoth speech will soon be regulated on campus; that the college’s “Hymn to Amherst” will henceforth conclude “With eye and mind and trunk”; and that come the college’s bicentenary, a new motto will be unveiled: “Mammuthum Irradient.”

It can all seem a bit strange.

Last I checked, we were an institution of higher learning, not a mammoth-themed social club.

What has this pachydermatous creature got to do with teaching or research? Strange indeed. That is, unless you think that we’re all going the way of the mammoth — so really, why not embrace it as our guide, as our doomed lumbering herald of things to come?

Mammherst!

Mammherst!

Nightmare of Mammherst!

Mammherst the loveless! Mental Mammherst! Mammherst the heavy judger of men!

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

Opinion 7

Seeing Double: Stop Trying to Copy Scandinavia Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist As a dual citizen of Denmark and the U.S., few things make me happier than seeing American politicians praising Scandinavia.

Figures like Bernie Sanders have held up the Nordic economic system as a model for socialist progress in America and the world. “I think we should look to Denmark and Sweden and Norway and see what they’ve accomplished for their working people,” Sanders said in 2016.

It’s not hard to see the appeal.

The Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, are some of the happiest, least corrupt and most economically-equitable countries in the world. But success alone is no reason to copy an economic system. In fact, Americans often mischaracterize the Nordic economic model and falsely assume that we can replicate it in the United States. If America does adopt Scandinavian policies, however, progressives might be horrified at the result.

Contrary to popular belief, Nordic countries operate competitive capitalist economies.

In a 2015 address in the United States, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, “I know that some people in the United States associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore, I would like to make one thing clear: Denmark is far from a socialist-planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.”

The Nordic economic system is very different from the platform Sanders espouses. No Nordic country mandates a minimum wage law, while Sanders has made a $15 wage a central part of his campaign. Unlike American progressives, who favor more restrictions on international trade, Nordic countries also encourage free global trade.

The estate tax, which makes up a central part of Sander’s economic plan, is nonexistent in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Nordic countries are actually in some ways more friendly to big corporations than the United States. Studies have shown that businesses undergo less regulation in Nordic countries than in America. The average corporate tax rate in Scandinavia is 21 percent, compared to the 35 percent or higher rates endorsed by progressives in the United States.

While it is true that Nordic countries offer excellent public health care, education and other services, income taxes are also extremely high — and not just for the very rich. Nearly half of Danish households pay a 60 percent income tax, which is more than twice the average income tax paid by the top half of the population here in the United States. Nordic countries have also struggled to incorporate the recent influx of immigrants and refugees into their economic systems, and these groups don’t enjoy the same economic opportunities granted to locals.

American progressives have a very selective vision when they look at the Nordic model. Focusing on the government-granted benefits while misrepresenting the sources of wealth that make these benefits possible is bad policy.

“

Creating a flourishing and equitable economic system is far easier when you’re working off an already homogenous society like those in Scandinavia. In America, we don’t have that privilege.

”

At this point, you might think that I’m advocating adopting the whole Nordic model instead of just pieces, but that’s not true. I believe that the whole Nordic model is a red herring for American economists. Nor-

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Contrary to statements made by American progressives, Scandinavian officials insist that their countries are market economies, says Thomas Brodey ‘22. dic countries operate under completely different conditions than in America, and shockingly, their policies are designed to suit themselves, not the United States.

The Nordic economic model only functions because Scandinavian countries are small.

Sweden, the largest of them, has a population of only 10 million, smaller than the population in North Carolina, and makes up about 4 percent of the landmass of the United States. Smaller economies make it easier for governments to practice oversight while making it harder for corruption and tax evasion to fester in the shadows.

Scandinavian countries are also ethnically and culturally homogenous. Over 87 percent of Danes, for instance, are ethnically Danish, and 76 percent are Lutheran. The sort of discrimation that has so harmed America’s economy is far less prominent in Scandinavian countries.

As a result, modern Scandinavia has never had to deal with major economic inequality, even before the creation of the Nordic system. Creating a flourishing and equitable economic system is far easier when you’re working off an already homogenous society like those in Scandinavia.

In America, we don’t have that privilege.

Nordic culture is very different from that of America. The small population and townbased social structure have led to a strong sense of community and public good. Scandinavians typically don’t try to build up their fortunes because the social and economic advantages of wealth are not as great as those in the United States. Scandinavians are far more accepting of government taxation because centuries of political stability have created a trust in the government absent almost everywhere else in the world. In contrast, American grassroots movements — from

the Boston Tea Party to the 2010 Tea Party movement — have recurrently risen up against government tax policies. Nordic policies would not be popular or trusted in the U.S., which would decrease their effectiveness.

Economic models depend on culture and people, two things that are difficult to transplant.

Despite coming from a Scandinavian family, I have far more in common with Americans than my family back in Europe.

Nordic principles would have to change almost beyond recognition in order to work in the United States.

Instead of trying to copy the Nordic model, American progressives should focus on developing their own economic policies, based on America’s own material and cultural strengths.

Simply seeing Denmark as a socialist paradise and copying its most appealing policies is misguided and thoughtless for the United States.

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

Opinion 8

Our Fidelities and Obligations Under Trump Jacob Pagano ’18 Contributing Writer Over the past few years, as the nation has confronted a cruel and irrational president, I have been most dismayed not by the president himself, but by the public servants who have willfully taken active roles in supporting his agenda. I have asked why officials with top educations would lend their hand to — and often provide the legal or intellectual chops to buttress — an administration that blithely harms human life.

Finding no good answers, I focus instead on the leaders who offer hope for a more just future.

But throughout the summer, this approach felt untenable as the consequences of the president’s anti-immigration policies and rhetoric became irreparably destructive. This was particularly true when I learned that two Amherst alumni held key roles in the Executive branch as the acting secretary of homeland security and as an attorney in the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation. While both were first appointed in a very different political climate under the Obama administration, today they are tasked with serving agencies and departments that directly facilitate and perpetuate President Donald Trump’s immigration policies — policies better described as anti-immigration and antithetical to the values of diversity and community for which Amherst stands.

While naming these officials seems unnecessary, it’s imperative that we consider the ethical implications of their roles and the responsibilities of our community when alumni enforce or defend such policies. Similarly, speculating as to whether said officials condone the president’s immigration policy seems counterproductive. That being said, we must think critically about what it means for alumni to act under a presidency defined by an ethos of anti-immigration, especially if Amherst is to embody what it strives to: a community capable of giving light to the world.

So here’s a very brief overview of the roles of the two alumni — Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan ’94 and Justice Department attorney

Sarah Fabian ’98 — at the nexus of U.S. immigration policy.

Fabian, who works at the Justice Department, has defended the government in several high-profile immigration cases, including a 2016 lawsuit challenging inhumane conditions in migrant detention facilities, and in a recent case, Flores v.

Barr, which concerned the government’s obligations to the treatment of migrant children in custody. The government lost; the courts ordered that all children must receive “safe and sanitary conditions.”

Meanwhile at DHS, McAleenan has become the most recent leader in the enforcement of immigration policy. To his credit, he has advocated for and taken specific actions to improve the conditions in which immigrating families are held. But he has also defended Trump’s approach to the issue of immigration, including the zero-tolerance child separation policy widely condemned as inhumane and in violation of humanitarian law, before Congress.

Most recently, the agency he oversees changed regulations governing a little-known rule: Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds, which favors wealthy applicants in the immigration application process.

Even now, as I write this piece, he is defending a new policy to end the Flores Agreement — a two-decade standing decree intended to prevent the unnecessary detention of children. Peter Shey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, called the new policy a “flagrant disregard on the part of ... [the] administration for the safety and the well-being of children in the care of the federal government,” in an interview with Vanity Fair. As of Aug. 26, 20 states have sued the administration over the new rule.

As global citizens and Amherst alumni alike, what is our responsibility when an administration utilizes the talent of an elite college to work on its behalf and support policies antithetical to the liberal arts ideal of using knowledge for humanity? Is it a letter — like the one Duke alumni penned scrutinizing Stephen Miller, who, unlike the aforementioned officials, has been a dogmatic creator of the administration’s policies? Or is it

a question of confronting and defining fidelities — a question of whom we support, how we embody our alliances and how we forge communities with hope and strength?

Several months ago, I attended Commencement and proudly watched as President Biddy Martin took a tactful yet committed stance on the seriousness of these fidelities and the college’s obligations to its students in such political times. In her address, she discussed a sense of interconnectivity — the idea that we live not alone but in “embodied networks,” of which our community is only one part. She also discussed the President’s Letters — a series of responses to changes in political policy that may affect the lives of the Amherst student body. She said, “I wrote the [statements] because of these changes’ impact on you,” referring to the Amherst community. As I listened, I felt a true sense of community; that is, I felt the existence of a “we” who can and do embody the ethos of our highest ideals.

That sense of community, the conviction in Martin’s statements and the implicit connection — even accountability — that one feels within an alumni network like ours made me and many of my fellow ’18 classmates experience something more bitter than irony when we learned that certain alumni were serving in principal positions in the Executive branch. To study at Amherst is to have a set of shared liberal arts experiences with diverse and driven people. That connective tissue is a primary reason that, when we hear about alumni doing good work, we experience a justifiable sense of closeness, even pride.

But the inverse is true. When we hear alumni are serving an administration that has gone so far as to enact policies that literally threaten the well-being of future students and families at Amherst because of their identity, we try to discern ways in which we can motivate the community to create a higher standard. And we must try to use the community’s network to open a dialogue that can effect meaningful change.

Doing so is not only a moral imperative — it is a question, literally, of access.

Amherst seeks to welcome all students who can contribute to the community, regardless of their identity, income or background. But to attend the college, you need more than an acceptance letter; you need to be offered a space that is safe within the U.S. Today, the offices that Amherst alumni occupy are jeopardizing the ability of thousands to come to America, pursue their dreams and potentially attend our college.

One might argue that there are justifications for working for today’s Executive branch, from career considerations to the idea that it’s best to be a balancing force or to effect change from the inside. One might also argue that working for the Executive branch means working for an office — not a leader — and point out that, in the case of the Justice Department, lawyers do not choose their cases.

There’s another complication: it’s difficult to discern a universal moral framework that students, faculty and alumni can apply in their assessments of one another. In any community, there will be disagreement about what constitutes a just career pursuit. Trying to define those parameters takes the thought of the whole community and the resolve to stand up for them.

But I have two points that I hope can further a conversation about the complex role and urgent obligations of alumni communities like Amherst’s and the liberal arts in general.

First, that Amherst alumni are serving in an administration routinely acting in ways few of us would

defend testifies to the immediacy of our political calamity. What started as a presidential run widely scrutinized by the clear-headed has begot an administration successful in enlisting some of those very minds to defend it. Another more subtle result is a disruption of a central tenet in the liberal arts: the ability to, according to Amherst’s report to the NEASC, “lead principled lives of consequence” in all positions, including those in the civil state and those with immense responsibility. Perhaps it is true that you can enforce the current president’s immigration policy by day and live a moral life by night.

But the fact is that doing so requires working under a series of leaders who have no regard for that principle. Indeed, doing so means that, in the past or future, you are and will be asked to defend or carry out something blatantly wrong.

Second, the current situation creates renewed urgency to articulate the kind of role Amherst wants to play in American democracy today and in years to come, especially in the wake of an administration that will leave behind a fractured system in need of repair. Amherst alumni should strive to become, as many have, the kind of state leaders who can come back to campus, speak to students and, in front of the many flags of the nations the students represent, defend their work in the name of justice and the spirit of liberal arts.

We owe it to Amherst — to the students, the faculty who taught us and the college’s mark on history.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The roles of alumni, including Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan ’94, should force us to reflect on the Amherst identity, says Jacob Pagano ’18.

Arts&Living

In Defense of Printing Your Mediocre Smartphone Photos

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

As photography becomes a larger part of our lives, we should take the time to print our photographs, removing our images from the digital stream.

Hildi Gabel ’21 Staff Writer In November 2017, The New Yorker published a piece on photographer Josephine Sittenfeld’s series “Reunion,” which recreates college-era images of her friends when they meet back up at a reunion.

The images are unflashy and direct, calling forth a haunting nostalgia for their former selves. Around the same time that November, I started taking advantage of CVS photo discounts and printing images from my iPhone 6 into 4x6 glossy stacks.

Detailed in each batch are the glowing faces of my friends, perspectives of my room in varied light, summer greens of Massachusetts hikes and the denim blue of the Boston waterfront. I am not a photographer, and it shows, but I love having the product of my perspective as a stack I can hold in my hand.

Our daily interaction with photography has blown up astronomically in the past decade, both with the advent of high-quality cameras on smartphones and the omnipresence of image-sharing on social media. We can ask, then, whether the culture of digital photography in the context of social media changes the way we interact with it, in both

viewing photographs and taking them. What are we looking at when we look at photos, and how are we looking differently through the lens?

Does it alter what we choose to capture and how we capture?

Skeptics of social media express much concern surrounding the excess of photos, saying that the endless stream of small-scale images will make us pay less attention to detail. Will it let us become locked in easy tropes? Does it take the originality and nuance out of our interaction with photos? To me, there is no such evidence that a common approach to photography on social media will cheapen the art form across the board. Yes, photographers will certainly contend with new professional challenges, such as the frequency with which photos are reposted without credit and the simple fact that small phone and computer screens often hide the complexity of images. However, I still think photography as a fine art will remain unscathed running beside the proliferation of personal photographs online.

As long as photographers remain seriously devoted to the radical possibilities of their craft, and as long as the art world carves out spaces for in-depth attention to photography,

it will persist. Social media remains a fun and small pastime, something I do not feel affects my ability to appreciate photography in a more serious context. Yet while social media won’t destroy the sanctity of photography as an art form, it’s endangering a subset of photography that we are much less precious about protecting: the everyday photography of our lives.

Social media has large ramifications in the way we capture photos, which in turn affects the way we view our experiences. We engage with images constantly, and overwhelmingly so, in the digital sphere, and it has democratized both photo-taking and social branding. Personal branding in 2019 is so ubiquitous that it no longer needs to be a grandiose act. One can share a simple dinner out with friends or a walk along the oceanside in the 30 seconds it takes to snap a photo and throw it on a platform. Our branding often manifests in the quiet, nearly universal act of sharing things that happen in your life — but doing so selectively. The readiness of camera use encourages a constant attention to presentation, and we swim past an ecosystem of screens, so much so that our lives start to reflect in them, and them in our lives.

Bo Burnham, the director of the 2018 film “Eighth Grade,” explained the psychology that underlies self-branding in an interview with Vox: “You watch other people in the room watch you watch them.

You’re nostalgic for the experience as you’re in it, because you’re thinking of how it’ll be processed after the fact.” The visual cues we use to present the way we would like to be seen in photos increasingly seep out of the frame and into our consciousness, and we find ourselves looking for those same cues in our lives as they are unfolding.

As much as I do enjoy posting on Instagram, it would be a shame if capturing likeable images is the only way that we as a generation come to experience the process of taking photos. Personal photography will always include that element of self-reflecting and contextualizing, but there are ways to loosen that interaction from the literal curation of a digital identity. Documentation is a fascinating way to explore our movement through time and life phases, and it need not be bound to the pressures of presentation.

It is for this reason I make the case to print out photos, the ones you take yourself. There’s always an uncertainty in how the image

will appear once printed; fuzziness emerges when a picture gets blown up in size, or the blue of the sky can significantly deepen. It is this uncertainty that frees the image from the anxieties of perception and instead re-centers what you see, how you existed and how it is processed through technology to create this object that you can now hold and keep. Physicality brings the image out of the transient flow of social media and crystallizes it for you alone.

A friend of mine was flipping through my most recent stack from the summer and came across a photo of me leaning under a tree with my eyes caught askance in the lens.

She had seen it before in digital form, but the print stopped her — “I feel like I’m looking at a picture of someone’s mom from however many years ago, except it’s now,” she told me. It was the first time she had seen me as a person frozen in a time and place.

Removing our images from the digital stream is what can bring them to life. As concrete objects, tangible and unchanging, the printed image turns the dimensions of a moment back into the physical form, peering back at you like an old self disembodied.

Arts & Living 10

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

The Hits and Misses of Popular Book-to-TV Adaptations

Photo courtesy of tvdb

Book-to-television adaptations like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Game of Thrones” faltered in attempting to expand beyond their book’s storylines.

Olivia Luntz ’21 Staff Writer When the first season of “Game of Thrones” hit the small screens in 2011, it jump-started a trend that would create some of the best television of this decade. The bookto-movie adaptation is over; long live the book-to-television adaptation. At the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards, the two shows that ended the night tied for the most awards were both series based on novels: “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Big Little Lies.”

While adapting a popular novel into a television series seems like a surefire way to guarantee an audience, this method also comes with a built-in expiration date. Book-tomovie adaptations largely follow the rule that if there are no more books to adapt, the movie franchise is over. Although many popular films stretched this rule a little by splitting the final installment into two parts, most famously done with “Harry Potter,” it would have been unimaginable for Warner Bros. to announce that they would be releasing a ninth “Harry Potter” movie of their own creation.

Recently, however, popular book-to-television adaptations have avoided this rule, creating new seasons of shows that expand past the storylines of the original book(s) in order to both satiate fans hungry for more and continue to cash in on a franchise that has

proven successful. What may have been an unimaginable concept before has now become the norm; the three most anticipated and highly advertised television seasons of spring and summer 2019 were all releasing new seasons that went beyond where the books left off.

And while the new seasons began with excitement, by the time viewers binged all of the episodes, many were left questioning if a mediocre season is really better than no season at all.

By far the biggest disappointment was the eighth season of “Game of Thrones,” whose six episodes left many fans bewildered about how a show that had so far been unprecedented in success and popularity could fall so far in its final season. On the one hand, disappointment was almost inevitable considering the show writers had just six episodes to wrap up the plot of seven seasons and dozens of characters. On the other hand, missteps such as the season’s abandonment of previous plotlines, actions by fan favorites that seemed extremely out of character and the infamous Starbucks cup that appeared on a table during a feast in episode four repeatedly proved that the season missed chances to be, if not great, at least better.

“Thrones” is based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, which currently has a total of five books published out of a planned seven. The first six seasons

of “Thrones” were largely based on those first five books, while the seventh season was guided by a book Martin has been working on since 2011. In the case of the final novel which corresponds with the final season, Martin has stated he had not started writing by the time season eight premiered. Could having a book saved season eight of “Thrones”? Probably. It is likely that the final book, “A Dream of Spring,” will finish off all of the plotlines the show seemingly forgot about, and it definitely will not contain any references to Starbucks.

Ultimately, “Thrones” had to make its final season long before the book was ready, but it was probably other choices that caused the season to be the lowest ranked on IMDb by far. Creating a season of the traditional 10 episodes instead of only six would have allowed for more character development. Additionally, more episodes could have allowed for time to be spent on plotlines that were otherwise written out and would have provided a better wrap-up to the show.

HBO’s other biggest release of the summer, the second season of “Big Little Lies,” had a similar but different problem to that of “Thrones.” Originally created as a miniseries based on the novel by Liane Moriarty of the same name, the show won five out of the eight Emmys it was nominated for, capturing almost every accolade in the “limited series” category. Before the 2017

Emmy nominations were released, director of the first season, JeanMarc Vallée, stated in an interview with “Vulture” that in his opinion, “if we do a season two, we’ll break that beautiful thing and spoil it.”

However, after the announcement of the season’s nomination for Outstanding Limited Series, HBO began considering a second season, but did not officially announce the news until the Emmys were over and the voting period for the Golden Globes Awards and Critics Choice Awards had ended. This move, largely considered deceptive by rival shows nominated in the limited series category, led to outrage about HBO’s intentions for the show.

Ethics aside, creating a second season of a show for the sole purpose of hoping to win more awards is not the best motivation, especially after the director himself spoke out against the idea by stating that season one already had “the perfect ending.” Creating a season two of “Lies” was also especially challenging considering the main propellant of season one’s plot was solving of a murder case. The mystery of a murder at a school fundraiser in the affluent and idyllic town of Monterey, California immediately captured the viewer’s interest and creates suspense as each episode the characters inched closer toward that fateful night.

In the second season, however, there is no mystery to anchor the

season. The main question of the season is whether the protagonists will be discovered in their connection to the murder, but this concern does not feel particularly urgent or even believable, as there is never any explanation for why the one detective shown is so obsessed with this case that she follows the protagonists around like a strange, adult Nancy Drew.

There is simply nothing else that can be revealed about these characters without the show becoming ridiculous. An attempt at a shocking reveal about Meryl Streep’s character in the final episode does not deliver the intended punch and is, more than anything, just sad. Although there was great acting from the all-star cast this season, there really was not enough meat plot-wise to guide that talent. The second season of “Lies” was not necessarily bad television; the problem is that it was unnecessary. As one review from “Vanity Fair” put it, it was the season that “was never supposed to exist.” “Lies” should serve as a lesson that more of a good thing is not always better and that there is no shame in letting a great season of television stand on its own.

Unlike “Game of Thrones” and “Big Little Lies” this summer’s season was not the first time “The Handmaid’s Tale” expanded beyond Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel. The show did so in its sec-

Continued on page 11

Arts & Living 11

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

The Comforting Charm of “The Great British Baking Show”

Photo courtesy of Beth Fish Reads

The quirkiness of the contestants, banter from the judges and chaotic spectacle of cakes, cookies, biscuits and more make “The Great British Baking Show” a comforting escape.

Gaby Bucio ’21 Staff Writer For years, I was confused as to why so many people loved “The Great British Baking Show.” It has none of the elements of the typical American competitive reality TV show — there is no tension between contestants, no surprise challenge element and no significant mone-

tary reward. So last fall, I decided to finally watch it, and I got it. What it lacks is exactly what makes it great.

The contestants and the judges are there for the baking, and so are we, the audience.

It is what we all need for a rainy day, like a knitted sweater for our emotionally-taxed souls. That being said, judgmental looks from the show’s celebrity chef judge, Paul

Hollywood, give the show that bit of snark it cannot function without.

For fans, it’s been a long year without new episodes of TGBBS to warm hearts and grace television screens. But at last, the wait is over!

Netflix has come to the rescue (once again) and has brought the latest season, with new episodes premiering every Friday — the perfect time to close off a week of work.

In the unique heartfelt way that only TGBBS can pull off, the first two episodes of this new season create a spectacle of cakes and cookies, or biscuits, as the British would say.

Unfortunately, part of that spectacle included some epic fails, because, as viewers and constants alike hear time after time, it is a lot harder to bake inside a tent than in a kitchen.

From overbaked cakes to terribly flavored cookies and messy decorations, some of the bakers have struggled to keep up with the high standards of Prue and Paul (the show’s alliterative judging team, made up of Prue Leith and Hollywood).

Still, in the midst of chaos, the show gives us a reminder of what makes it so lovable. When a few bakers struggle to complete their recipes, those who have don’t hesitate to fall in line to help fellow competitors. Everyone seems to have the mindset that good results for everybody is much better than letting others fail while some thrive.

And with one baker already sent home after cake week, mutual support only intensifies when it comes to the biscuits.

Two weeks in, standouts are already emerging for the title. There’s Henry Bird, with his attention to detail and intricate work; Michelle Evans-Fecci, with seemingly-natural talent for perfection; Alice Fevronia, with her knack for adorably-delicious bakes, like her coconut-lime, lamb-shaped biscuits;

and Rosie Brandreth-Poynter, who is celebrated for the flavors in her baked goods.

Even for those whose baked goods do not stand out with the judges, the show is able to develop their on-screen characters, giving windows into the people behind the biscuits and cakes.

Helena Garcia, who is in love with Halloween, can definitely be expected to bring in a creepy element to all of her creations. Alice Fevronia appears to have stepped right out of a Disney movie, with birds chirping with joy at her every word. Jamie Finn is perpetually working in a mess, and his decorations show it, but he never fails to bring the enthusiasm that only a 20-year-old can have. David Atherton, true to his profession as an international health adviser, brings healthy ingredients to his recipes.

Amelia Le Bruin’s pink hair and background in the fashion industry easily illustrate her inclination towards creativity.

Of course, out of everyone in the tent, it is the hosts, Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, who steal the show with their absurd sense of humor. What would this show be without the semi-awkward hosts to relieve the bakers’ pressure?

It is the personalities of the hosts, judges and bakers combined, though, that really make “The Great British Baking Show” as — to take Hollywood’s word — “superb” as it is.

The Disappointment of Summer Book-to-TV Adaptations Continued from page 10 ond season as well. Unlike its most recent season, the second season of “Tale” highlighted the potential that a television series can have to expand on the world a novel has created. The sophomore season of the show expanded far beyond the walls of the Commander’s house, where the majority of the novel is set, to places such as the horrific colonies and the safe haven of Canada, locations which are referenced in the novel but never actually explored.

Additionally, the second season took the opportunity to develop secondary characters outside of its protagonist, June (Offred in the novel) (Elisabeth Moss), such as Ofglen/Emily (Alexis Bledel) and Nick (Max Minghella), in a way that the novel’s first-person narration could not allow. The broadened scope of the second season allowed the show to explore places and people that the novel was unable to, but still managed to feel true to the novel’s style.

However, the most recent season of “Tale” faltered by for-

getting the advantage it had in expanding where the novel could not. The third season centers its narrative on June, largely at the cost of the secondary characters developed in the past season. This narrow focus is what makes this season feel suffocating, especially since the writers of the show, for most of the season, seemed at a loss with what else to have June do within the confines of Gilead.

This feeling of suffocation and lack of direction for June’s character is epitomized in the season’s ninth episode “Heroic.” The vast majority of this episode is spent

in one room with one character, as June is forced to stand vigil at the hospital bed of a brain-dead handmaid who is being kept on life support until her baby is able to be delivered. What resulted from this premise is a bizarre 50 minutes of Moss singing “Heaven is a Place on Earth” to herself and an episode that could be entirely removed from the season without having any effect on its plotline.

Although the season did have great moments outside of this, it is easy to feel like the 13 episodes were a bad rerun. Rather than trying to broaden the nov-

el’s world or its characters in this season, the show mainly relied on what had worked for it in the past: Moss dramatically staring down the camera before doing something heroic — but even this got old.

However, unlike “Game of Thrones” and “Big Little Lies,” which are unlikely to have any new episodes, a fourth season of “Tale” is already confirmed.

Hopefully, this upcoming season will be able to justify its own existence by providing some new material rather than just replaying its greatest hits.

Arts & Living 12

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

“Big Little Lies” Gives Little More than Closure this Summer

Photo courtesy of bleacheers

In its return season that aired this summer, “Big Little Lies” catered to fans while still missing the mark on addressing the issues that affect its characters, writes critic Paige Reddington ‘21.

Paige Reddington ’21 Staff Writer Based on Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same title, “Big Little Lies” set out to be a limited series with just one seven-episode season. However, the hype surrounding the show resulted in a season two, giving fans what they begged for. Did the second season live up to its praised predecessor?

After the death of Perry (Alexander Skarsgaard), witnessed by the five women at the show’s center, the police are investigating to find out who killed him, refusing to believe the death was an accidental fall.

Madeline’s (Reese Witherspoon) marriage with Ed (Adam Scott) is deteriorating after he finds out about her affair. Madeline’s not alone, as Renata’s (Laura Dern) marriage also falls apart when her husband Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) becomes entangled in legal troubles, forcing the family to file for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, Celeste (Nicole Kidman) is coping with the loss of her abusive husband — Per-

ry — and Jane (Shailene Woodley) seems eager to move on now that he, also her assaulter, is dead. Perry’s mother, Mary Louise (Meryl Streep), shows up, seeming to help Celeste but instead planning to take custody of Celeste’s twins. Through all of this, Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) copes with the reality that she was the one who pushed Perry down the stairs, but she must bury this horrible truth as a result of the lie Madeline originally told the cops — that Perry stumbled and fell.

The second season of “Big Little Lies” is not an essential one, but it does provide us with some of the closure we need after reeling from the drama of the first season’s finale. It does not hold the same thrill — especially since we now know the identities of both the murdered and the murderer. It loses the quality of leaving more to be desired that made the first season so well-received.

The first season cultivated this trait through its rich web of characters; we grew attached to these characters and would not

rest until we knew that everything would be okay. And the second season came along because fans needed more answers as to why they behaved the way they did in season one.

While character development in the second season remains relatively extensive, certain stretches in the plot that attempted to create this closure actually took away some of the suspense and believability, instead imparting questions and confusion.

In the dramatic custody trial between Mary Louise and Celeste for the twins, Celeste shows a video of Perry beating her the twins supposedly took.

However, in season one, Celeste seemed sure that the twins had never witnessed the violence and ensured it occurred behind closed doors. And even if the twins bore witness to the violence, I find it hard to believe, at such a young age, that their natural response would be to whip out their iPhones and film such an atrocious act.

The plot line falters once again when Tori (Sarah Sokolovic), the theater director Joseph’s wife,

meets up with Ed for a coffee date at Starbucks, where she suggests they should begin a sexual relationship as revenge for Madeline and Joseph’s affair. Ed even seems to consider the offer.

While this world of “Big Little Lies” does include many surprising acts, I desperately wanted to believe that these two characters were better than considering this act of revenge. This plot line attempts to show some maturity in Ed, as he eventually decides to turn down Tori’s offer and rekindle his marriage, but it simply stretches the plot in an attempt to give us closure.

Instead, I was thrown out of the plot and into disbelief that these adults would resort to juvenile tactics in order to move on, which did not exhibit much growth for me.

But in the end, Ed and Madeline renew their vows. In an emotional court battle, Celeste triumphs, retaining full custody of the twins over Mary Louise. Jane and Ziggy finally find stability and happiness in Jane’s new job and relationship. And Renata, despite the damage Gordon has done to their marriage, has the last word, ending the season in a refreshing and honest tantrum towards Gordon. I find myself satisfied with these answers.

Though the plot is stretched in a few instances to achieve these moments of closure, each of these characters does eventually tie all their loose ends on the show. Despite the cliff hanger end of season one, the end of season two is comforting, especially after the ups and downs we witness with each of the characters. We know they will be okay, even if the plot line getting there is a little rocky.

However, Bonnie’s character was not done justice. She spends most of the season coping with the truth that she killed a man and hiding this truth from her loved ones. She is isolated from the other characters on the show, particularly the women involved in the lie.

We never fully understand why. Bonnie did murder Perry,

but both Jane and Celeste are also coping with traumas. One would suspect that such a trauma would typically bring them even closer, which seems to be the case for everyone but Bonnie.

Her mother comes to visit her to help her get through this difficult time, and only she seems to understand her isolation.

She furthermore notes that Bonnie is the only black woman she’s seen in Monterey. While the writers of the show could have explored Bonnie’s isolation in Monterey was a result of her race, they merely brush off this point and leave us confused and wanting more for her character.

While this season does offer closure on each of the characters following the murder, the season would have been more memorable had it delved into real issues that would affect the characters in real life.

Even though Kidman and Witherspoon are making big moves for women in the television industry, season two of “Big Little Lies” still shows that there is immense progress to be made.

The show encapsulated powerful and strong women, but there was enormous potential to explore issues that are prevalent and complex, and exploring them on such a popular platform would have called much-needed attention.

Exploring the racial issues of Monterey would have been a way to make the plot line more believable and real, while also exhibiting to a wide audience the racial issues that do occur.

I wanted this for Bonnie’s character, and I wanted more depth in the answers for her feelings of isolation in Monterey.

It would not have been a stretch in the plot line and would have only made the show more realistic, and it was the biggest lack of closure and disappointment for me.

While season two of the show attempts to make steps forward for women, it still had immense room for improvement, failing to call any attention to intersectional feminism.

Sports

Firedogs Drop Only One Set in Opening Matches Henry Newton ’21 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst volleyball team has always gone its own way and has a long history of leadership from within. The team’s nickname, the Firedogs, speaks to this long tradition of independence.

The squad is, after all, the only varsity team at Amherst to eschew the current and past mascot in favor of its longtime moniker dating back to the squad’s club team days.

This year’s team is no different from those first trailblazers, in that they are burdened with carrying on a legacy of independent excellence that

has characterized the volleyball program for almost as long as Sue Everden, the head coach, has paced the purple and white sidelines of LeFrak Gymnasium.

Everden has guided the Mammoths to an impressive 713-283 overall record during her 34 years at the helm, during which time the Mammoths have earned three NESCAC conference championships, seven NCAA Championship berths, amassed 24 20-plus-win seasons and vaulted Everden into the upper echelon of DIII coaches.

Despite this consistent success, the Mammoths have never truly been able to push themselves over the top and make a true run at an NCAA cham-

pionship, with the program’s previous best result coming in 2006, when the team made the NCAA Quarterfinals.

This year’s group, highlighted by six seniors, returns 12 members from last year’s team, adding only four first years to a squad that went 22-5 after starting the season 10-0.

Although the team only lost two seniors from last year’s group, both Hayes Honea ’19 and Lauren Reppert ’19 were large components of the team’s successes. The Firedogs are well-positioned to overcome these departures with numerous returning players ready to assume their influential roles.

So far, returning offen-

sive threats Jamie Dailey ’21, Emily Kolsky ’20 and Sophie Launsbach ’22 have shouldered much of the attacking load for the Firedogs in their charge for a 22nd-straight NESCAC tournament appearance, with each amassing over 20 kills apiece.

However, it has been the unselfish, standout play of senior Charlotte Duran, the team’s main facilitator and the lynchpin for the team’s offense, that has been most remarkable during the team’s three opening games. Of the team’s 129 assisted points (out of 133 total) played during the season thus far, Duran has assisted on 111 of them, a remarkable rate of effectiveness that underscores

her essential role on this veteran team.

This offensive excellence has been complimented by stalwart defensive play and consistently error-free play with the Firedogs executing a remarkable 17.3 digs per set and only 4.2 unforced errors per set.

Over the first three games against Smith, Western New England University and Emerson College, the Firedogs have only dropped one set while winning nine, carrying them to a perfect 3-0 record so far.

Amherst has three more games before it begins conference play, with its next contest away at Clark University this Friday at 6 p.m.

What to Watch at the 2019 Rugby World Cup Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor The Rugby World Cup is coming up, and I’m here to convince you to brave the brutal 13-hour time difference with Japan for a reason you might not expect: the Georgian national rugby team.

The Georgians’ rugby jerseys are emblazoned with a simple vine down the back. That vine comes from a tradition in which warriors of the Black Sea nation strapped vines to their backs before battle, so if they were to perish, their bodies would nourish the vine as it decomposed.

This acceptance of the brutality of human existence defines the Georgian approach to rugby.

They play with a warrior’s mindset. They let no inch go unearned and ram into every tackle with blood in their eyes. Watching the Georgians play rugby seems as if it might not be unlike their warrior past. Men like star Viktor Kolelishvili don’t come out of thin air. He is a hulking for-

ward who looks like the type to solve his problems by punching them in the face. He comes from a tradition of playing lelo burti, the traditional Georgian sport, where this is the norm.

Lelo is a game designed to prevent violent conflict between towns, but it barely does its job.

There is a ball, a field and two teams, but largely no other rules.

Hitting people with rocks, playing with 1,000 people on your team and punching someone in the face are all fair game. Lelo, with its medieval roots, is now played only once a year.

Most of the rules are a little sanitized, but still, two people died in the chaos when they played last spring.

Rugby became the most popular sport in the nation of Georgia after an occupying Russian and a French doctor realized that lelo burti resembled rugby without the kicking and violence, so they introduced the nation to the sport.

You can draw a parallel be-

tween Georgians playing rugby and Iroquois playing lacrosse – the sport might be a little different from how their ancestors played, but it’s in their blood.

Whereas lacrosse stars like Tehoka Nanticoke play with serenity and grace afforded to them by their experience in a lacrosse-crazy culture, the Georgians seem to have developed a similar affinity for the sport of rugby.

After World Rugby reorganized the Georgian rugby team’s place in the World Cup in 2003 to make it less lopsided, Georgian rugby exploded in popularity.

The skill of their top team consequently improved greatly.

By 2007, Lelos, as the team is nicknamed, were ready to shock the world at the next World Cup. “With all respect to the great teams, we are here not to enjoy rugby, but fight on the pitch,” said Mamuka Gorgodze before a fateful group stage match against Ireland. After a Georgian score

was controversially revoked, the Lelos lost 14-10. To come within moments of unseating such a phenomenal side – Ireland was ranked second in the world at the time – was the spark which ignited the fire for Georgian rugby. Imagine if Duke was almost beaten by the Amherst men’s basketball team.

Georgia is now rolling towards the 2019 World Cup with an arsenal of assets. They have a player nicknamed “The Nightmare,” arguably the world’s best scrum, and a seemingly-endless roster from which they select their starting lineup. Most importantly, due to the rise of the sport in the nation, they have Vasil Lobzhanidze, who is as useful to the Georgian side as his last name would be in a game of Scrabble. Winning rugby games requires someone to tell the players where to go, and Lobzhanidze has played rugby – not just lelo – since birth, and consequently has that second-nature sense for the game you usually

only see in New Zealanders.

Having a game manager might create a fantastic run for one of the greatest dark horse teams of all time. If anything, they’re worth watching for the sheer passion of a tiny nation attempting to impose their will on the giants of the sport. All the strength of entrenched powerhouses in rugby are stacked against them, but perhaps the forces of history will guide them to victory.

So, when you inevitably are hit with a case of mid-semester insomnia, too fried to keep working on your paper but too hopped up on caffeine to sleep, think of the Rugby World Cup. Underdog stories mean so much to the world of sports – they are truly one of the images which even the uninvested viewer can latch on to. Georgian rugby, forged in a brutal furnace, should tempt you into flipping on NBC Sports and watching a sport you’ll never watch again at 3 a.m.

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

Sports 14

Women’s Soccer Shuts Out Opposition in First Three Matches Cale Clinton ’20 Staff Writer Even though it still felt like summer in the Pioneer Valley on Saturday, this weekend marked the official start of fall sports at Amherst. While these opening games cannot write the script for the next two months of play, it’s important for teams to start off on the right foot. Faltering early can snowball into larger mistakes down the road, whereas carrying momentum out of preseason can be the deciding factor when it comes to playoffs in November.

All things considered, it’s nearly impossible to start off better than the women’s soccer team, which went a perfect 3-0 without letting up a single goal along the way. To put the team’s dominant weekend into perspective, the Mammoths outscored opponents a combined 8-0 while outshooting them 60-27. Amherst actually managed to put more shots on net (28) than their three opponents shot combined.

The weekend began with the season opener down the road at Mount Holyoke, where the Mammoths came through with an impressive 6-0 victory. The scoring

came early and often, with three goals finding the back of the net within the first 30 minutes of play. Alexa Juarez ’22 scored the first goal of her eventual hat trick in the 14th minute when the forward caught up to a feed from Sophia Fikke ’22 and slipped one past the Lyons’ goalie.

Just five minutes later, the tandem connected again to notch Juarez her second goal of the game. After Isabel Stern ’23 found Kata Heffron ’21 amidst the scrum on a short corner, the Mammoths completed their first half of the season up 3-0.

But Amherst did not become complacent. Juarez capped off her hat trick on her own terms, weaving through Mount Holyoke defenders and burying a shot to match her own single-game career high and put Amherst up 4-0. Stern and Izzy Geneve ’23 would add a goal apiece to the scoring barrage before the game came to a close.

The Mammoths’ first NESCAC opponent of the season brought about the most exciting win of the weekend as Amherst walked away with a 1-0 victory over Bowdoin. Despite the low score, this game was all about

Amherst from early on. The Mammoths came out with lightning-quick pace, firing off five shots in the first 20 minutes of play. The ball stayed in Amherst’s offensive zone for what felt like the entire first half.

Opportunity after opportunity came and went until there were 13 seconds left in the first half. Sasha Savitsky ’20 cleaned up a loose ball in front of the net and placed it in the bottom-right corner, the only score of the afternoon. Despite the surfeit of goals, Amherst played better in the second half, outshooting Bowdoin 11-5 during that stretch.

The weekend concluded with another Five College opponent and another victory, with Amherst downing Smith 1-0. Just like they did against Bowdoin, Amherst’s offense came out on the attack, loading up six shots and three corner kicks within the first 20 minutes of play. Hannah Gustafson ’21 came out especially aggressive with three shots to herself and a beautifully-placed low riding cross to Juarez before being broken up by a Smith defender.

The offense finally broke through when Natalie Landau

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Alexa Juarez ’22 had a hat-trick in the team’s season opening match, a 6-0 victory against Mount Holyoke. ’21 recorded her first goal of the season off of a feed from Juarez, notching what would eventually be the deciding goal. The Mammoths outpaced Smith in the first half with a 15-4 shot breakdown and an 8-1 differential in corner kicks.

While the fast-paced offense took center stage this weekend, the Mammoths’ defensive efforts cannot be understated. The Amherst goalies have not been contested much (Antonia Tamma-

ro ’21 leads the team with eight saves), but that lack of offense is less an indictment on opposing offenses and more a badge of pride for this Mammoth defense.

The team’s ability to recover from an offensive attack and snuff out the opposition in transition has led to a relatively calm weekend for the Amherst keepers.

The Mammoths will get a nice five days of rest before heading up to Hamilton, New York, on Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Roundup: All The Stuff You Missed In Sports This Week Men’s Golf: This weekend, the men’s golf team had its opening tournament, the Detrick Invitational, at the Indian Hill Golf Course in Newington, Connecticut. Will Lonquist ’20 finished third individually with a two-day score of 145.

The team finished on Sunday just one stroke below Tufts, edging the Jumbos out to take third place in the ten-team field.

Field Hockey: After driving down Route 116 to beat Mount Holyoke 5-1 on Wednesday night, the Mammoths faced off against NESCAC foe Bowdoin over the weekend. After Laura Schwartzman ’20 gave Amherst the lead in the third quarter, Bowdoin scored with just moments left in the fourth, then proceeded to net the golden goal in overtime to frustrate Amherst’s hopes of victory.

Antonio Brown: The controversial saga, which began after he led the league in touchdown receptions last season, has finally ended. The wide receiver demanded a trade from the

Pittsburgh Steelers at the end of the 2018 season, joining the Oakland Raiders in 2019.

But his stint in Oakland was short-lived. He fought with the team over which helmet he would wear and posted arguments with the Raiders’ owner online, despite being forced by the Raiders organization to publicly apologize for his poor behavior.

On Sept. 9, however, he was released by the Raiders and snapped up by Bill Belicheck and the Patriots, who signed him to a one-year $15 million deal.

U.S. Open: Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Rafael Nadal of Spain faced off in the men’s singles final of the U.S. Open.

Nadal won the match, taking the first two sets, losing two more and then winning the final set in a dramatic fashion. On the women’s side, Serena Williams, arguably the most dominant athlete of the 21st century, fell to an excellent performance by Canadian Bianca Andreescu.

Despite the loss, Professor of History Jen Manion and Professor of Russian Michael Kunichika hosted a “secular chapel” on Sunday in Johnson Chapel to discuss Serena’s

legacy and the impacts of her cultural presence on human experience. For those who missed out, read David Foster Wallace’s “String Theory” and “The Meaning of Serena Williams” by Claudia Rankine in The New York Times.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Laura Schwartzman ’20 scored the field hockey team’s only goal in an overtime loss to Bowdoin.

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

Captain’s Corner: Cross Country’s Oliva Polischeck ’21 Kasia Krosniak ’21 Copy Editor The Amherst Student sat down with Olivia Polischeck ’21, one of the captains of the women’s cross country team, to talk about her role as leader of the squad.

Q: What are you most looking forward to this season?

A: Over the last two weeks, our team dynamic has changed a lot. We have five new incoming first years [who] are really committed and dedicated, and I think because of it, the upperclassmen feel much more competitive.

We’re all also more united over our goal to make it to Nationals this season. I’m really excited to see how our team comes together in the next couple months, because I think we have so much potential … We all have to step it up to match the freshmen’s level of excitement and energy.

Q: What has been your experience as a captain, especially as a junior?

A: I was really excited and really nervous when I was picked to be captain.

There are so many great seniors that have such a big role and impact, and I didn’t want to overstep my role. But I view it as a privilege and an honor to serve my team for hopefully two years.

My goal is to bring excitement and energy … and also to emphasize that everyone at the end of the day has a huge role on the team.

Q: What’s your favorite part about running cross country?

A: One of my favorite parts of cross country is that every day we have the opportunity to explore the town of Amherst. And I think running itself is an exhilarating experience and being able to do it with teammates makes it an even more special experience.

This season I feel like the big sister role comes into play, since my own sister is a freshman in college, so I think that’s one of my favorite aspects of this season: being a friend and a teammate to the underclassmen, but also being someone that looks out for them.

Q: How has the team been preparing for the season?

A: Training season for us starts in May. We get our weekly mileage plan that we do throughout the summer until September. So the majority of the work for this season has already been done.

Now, we have hard workouts twice a week, we lift twice a week and our typical mileage is between 30-60 miles a week. But at this point, recovery is more important than anything else – we have to take care of our bodies.

Q: What’s something you would want someone to know about XC? A: That it really is a team sport at the end of the day. And yes, to be our best as a team we have to be our best individually, but at the end of the day, every person on the team is critical to our success.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Olivia Polischeck ’21 (second from left) paces the Mammoth harriers as captain this season.

Sports 15

Haugh-t Takes Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor Connor Haugh ’21 revels in the present moment, where Crystal Palace sits in fourth place in the Barclays Premier League thanks to the surprising performance of unlikely hero Jordan Ayew.

This is my moment to shout from the rooftops in delight before things come collapsing back down to earth. Four games in, Crystal Palace Football Club sits in fourth place in the Barclays Premier League in a coveted Champions League Qualification spot – for now. I have been a Crystal Palace fan through and through since I attended a match at Selhurst Park as a young child, and this success should not happen. Following the Eagles is supposed to be a melancholy experience.

Palace has spent the past five years avoiding getting kicked out of the Premier League – every game is a life-or-death fight for survival. The fans are devoted, though, through thick and thin. They are one of the last clubs in England where the home supporters never stop singing during the game. However, fans struggle to rationalize their love of the team when talking about onfield performance, for good reason.

Two seasons ago, Palace lost their first eight games in a row without scoring any goals, setting the record for the worst start to a season, ever. Somehow, the side narrowly avoided being kicked out of the league for being so bad, and two years later, the offensive issues remain.

The owners have insisted on not buying any strikers over this period, as they already pay forward Christian Benteke an arm and a leg to miss everything that comes his way. Consequently, despite having dangerous players like Wilfred Zaha and a remarkably solid, but aging defense, Palace has struggled to score goals – since 2015, they’ve scored only half the goals league leaders Manchester City has over the same period.

Enter Jordan Ayew, a Ghanian journeyman with a slight frame and a fun little fauxhawk. Ayew has spent his career as a backup striker for mediocre soccer teams in the

U.K. like Aston Villa and Swansea City. Upon his arrival at Crystal Palace last January, he came on as a replacement for Benteke, who would be booed off the pitch for his terrible performance. Consequently, Palace fans had rose-tinted glasses for Ayew, but even the Holmesdale Online, the message board for Palace fans, could only muster this praise after his debut: “At the game he looked to be doing all the running that you’d hope to see.” Not the highest praise. He’s not particularly good at passing, or shooting, or dribbling. He does, however, work really hard – he pressures opposition defenses, moves off the ball when in possession and tracks back to defend when prima donna Zaha needs a break.

His work rate, however, has set him apart from his peers in one regard this season. His most recent goal against Aston Villa, his former club, came after he simply kicked the ball at his defender’s shins. It bounced off another defender and came right back to Ayew’s feet and he rolled it past the netminder, exemplifying his unique tenacity and goal-scoring acumen. Against

Manchester United, he sprinted to an ambitious longball and muscled his way past the center back.

These two goals have defined the season for the Eagles. Despite all odds, the Eagles have won two games by Ayew-created miracles.

With these wins, and a goalless snoozefest against Everton, Palace sits in the rankings ahead of all the other teams in London, whose wages and expenditures dwarf Palace’s.

This is insane – as insane as Leicester City’s title-winning campaign in 2017. Crystal Palace shouldn’t be good – at all. They sold their most promising player and reinvested none of the money into the squad. The team has an average age of 29.8, the highest in the league by about two years.

Everything is hanging by a thread. Every defender on the roster had a serious leg injury sometime last year. They have only one left back signed to the club. Their best player wants to go play anywhere else, but Palace didn’t let him leave, so now he plays for himself. But Jordan Ayew, the manifestation of our Club’s sense of hope, can perhaps keep Palace afloat.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Striker Jordan Ayew has been the unlikely hero for Crystal Palace this season, scoring two goals.

The Amherst Student • September 11, 2019

Sports 16

Men’s Soccer Starts Season with Perfect Record Matt Sparrow ’21 Staff Writer Following three successive campaigns ending in the NCAA DIII Tournament Sweet 16, men’s soccer kicked off the 2019 season with dominant wins over Nichols and NESCAC foe Bowdoin.

Ranked 13th in the nation heading into the year, the Mammoths blended stellar offensive play with a stalwart defensive performance to knock off Nichols 2-0 on Wednesday.

Amherst was held scoreless in the first half, but with shots favoring the Mammoths 15-2, it was only a matter of time before they broke through.

German Giammattei ’22 opened the scoring in the 66th minute after doing a nice job beating his defender to free up space.

Dane Lind ’20 doubled Amherst’s lead in the 83rd minute on a set piece thanks to a lovely pass from first year Iganacio Cubeddu.

When the final whistle blew, the Mammoths walked off with a 2-0 victory, their

GAME SCHE DULE

first of the season.

The second game for Amherst, on Saturday against Bowdoin, was very similar to their opener. This time, however, the Mammoths struck in the first half on an excellent shot by first year Ada Okorogheye.

15 minutes later, junior Gabe Gitler blasted home the second goal off of a strike following a Bowdoin clearance attempt from just inside the box.

Giammattei picked up his second of the year in the 64th minute after a nice pass from junior Sebastian Derby.

Sophomore goalkeeper Bernie White made two saves and backup Kofi HopeGund ’21 came on in relief for the final 10 minutes to complete the clean sheet and secure the 3-0 win.

After the game, junior centerbacks Kyle Kelly and Felix Wu sat down with The Student to talk about the victories and the season ahead.

“Probably the biggest thing against a team like Bowdoin is bringing the right amount of pressure, which I think we did. Our organization was very good

and our mentality of keeping the foot on the gas pedal was key to victory,” said Kelly, who has already started more games this season than he did all of last year. Kelly was hampered by injuries, appearing only four times last season, and his presence in the lineup should go a long way towards his lofty goals for the season.

“Personally, I want to stay healthy,” Kelly said. “As a team, I think we’ve really come together and we’re forming our own identity, so anything less than a championship will be a failure.”

The Mammoths will square off against Babson at home on Tuesday before traveling to New York on Saturday to take on another NESCAC rival, Hamilton.

Wu knows that Amherst will need to bring the same enthusiasm against the Continentals in order to pick up another big win.

“It’s a road game, and historically we haven’t been great on the road, so we’ll need to keep the energy from home games and make sure we’re mentally tuned it,” he said.

WED

SAT

Field Hockey vs. Keene State, 7 p.m.

Field Hockey @ Hamilton, 11 a.m.

FRI

Women’s Soccer @ Hamilton, 11 a.m.

Volleyball @ Clark University, 6 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Worcester St. College, 11 a.m.

Women’s Tennis @ MIT Invitational

Football vs. Bates, 1 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Felix Wu ’21 has been a crucial part of the back line this season.

During the team’s first three games, they have yet to concede a goal.

Men’s Cross Country @ Little Three Championships, 1:15 p.m.

Women’s Cross Country @ Little Three Championships, 1:15 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Hamilton, 1 p.m.

Men’s Soccer @ Hamilton, 1:30 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Brandeis, 3 p.m.

Men’s Golf @ Duke Nelson Invitational Women’s Golf @ Ann Batchelder Invitational