Issue 10

THE AMHERST

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 10 l WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Men’s Soccer Advances to Sweet Sixteen See Sports, Page 12 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Obama Staffer Speaks on Climate Change Emily Young ’20 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Faith Wen ’20

Route 9 and South Pleasant Street are public roadways on which some students have experienced vehicle accidents.

Amherst College Police Chief John Carter said his department has taken measures to improve safety on these streets.

Traffic Safety Concerns Persist for Some Students Shawna Chen ’20 and Emma Swislow ’20 Managing News Editor and Assistant News Editor During a late afternoon last October, Lizzie Lacy ’19 was crossing Route 9 near Valentine Dining Hall when she saw a car approaching. The driver, a student at UMass Amherst, slowed down.

“I thought he was stopping, since he saw me,” she said.

But he didn’t, and she was hit, going over the hood of the car to the side of the road.

The driver “seemed really frazzled,” Lacy recalled, and pulled into the next parking lot “freaking out” and asking her if she needed to go to a

hospital. But she felt that “there was nothing immediately wrong with me,” and it was an accident, so she didn’t consider calling campus or town police.

The driver told Lacy that the glare of the setting sun had compromised his vision when she crossed. Lacy said she replied that she understood the issue, adding that he should still have accounted for that while driving.

Later, however, Lacy’s hip began hurting and remained painful for a few months, which affected her performance as a runner on the women’s cross country team.

Traffic Accidents According to Amherst College Police Chief John Carter, the majority of the traffic accidents on campus are “parking-lot-type accidents” — slow and easy to report.

From 2014 and 2016, campus police received 129 total calls involving vehicle accidents. Each year, Fayerweather Drive saw the highest number of accidents, excluding off-campus accidents involving pool vehicles. The First-Year Quad is another location where accidents frequently occur, with a total of 10 throughout the time period.

Continued on Page 3

Dan Utech ’88, former deputy assistant to President Barack Obama for energy and climate change, spoke at the college on Wednesday, Nov. 8 about issues related to the state of climate change and potential policy solutions. Utech’s talk, which took place in Converse Hall, was held by the Amherst Political Union.

Before becoming Obama’s deputy assistant for energy and climate change, Utech spent 10 years as an aide in the Senate and later served as senior advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, according to the White House website. Utech is currently a lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

In his talk, Utech focused on the human contribution to the problem of climate change and policy options to remedy the effects of global warming.

“Many lines of evidence demonstrate that it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century,” Utech said.

“There are no convincing alternative explanations supported by the extent of observational evidence,” Utech added.

The average global temperature has risen about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, according to NASA, and Utech said that this trend is likely to continue through this century and beyond.

The magnitude of this trend is partially based on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted globally. In 2010, human activity had contributed 46

Continued on Page 3

Proposed Tax Bill Poses Problems to College, Students and Alums Kathleen Maeder ’20 Staff Writer Days after the announcement of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, introduced by the House Committee on Ways and Means on Nov. 2, the college publicized its concerns with various elements of the bill, including a proposed excise tax on some colleges’ endowments.

President Biddy Martin’s email, sent to the Amherst community on Nov. 7 and published online, outlined the elements of the bill that she said may threaten the college’s ability to fully support its mission and students.

Martin’s email highlighted a specific proposal to establish an excise tax on the college’s endowment earnings. Unlike many universities, Amherst receives over 50 percent of its budget for operations through its endowment, making any significant taxes on endowment a fairly serious concern for the college.

“The exact financial impact of the proposed endowment tax on Amherst is not clear at this early point; it will depend on the final definition of net investment income and future investment performance,” Martin said. Unlike for-profit corporations, which Martin said are able to “fund federal income taxes from free-and-clear operating profits,” Amherst and other not-for-profit institutions are unable to do the same.

“Our early estimates suggest the impact on Amherst could be in the tens of millions of dollars over the next decade,” Martin said.

Her email concluded with a call for community members to contact their federal elected officials to voice their opinions and concerns with the bill.

Dean of Financial Aid Gail Holt said that currently, there have been no specific discussions regarding where money would come from to reconcile losses in the endowment should the tax plan pass.

“What I will say is that Amherst has been, always been and I hope will continue to be, dedicated to the financial aid program,” Holt said. “I think that’s evident in the policies we have today, which are more generous than others.”

According to Holt, similar threats to the college’s endowment in the past have taken the form of proposals on the state level.

“But they’ve never passed, and I think the reason they don’t pass is because the value that legislators come to realize in terms of the public good that institutions are serving,” Holt said. “All the dollars that Amherst is bringing in are trying to benefit students … Biddy’s letter, I think, is quite clear in helping our community understand what’s at stake.”

Holt also drew attention to other areas of the bill that could potentially impact students, such as the act’s proposed eliminations of tax deductions on student loan interest. With approximately 29 percent of the class of 2017 graduating with student loans, according to the college’s financial aid website, the possible removal of this provision raises concerns for many current and future Am-

herst graduates.

“This is an opportunity for students to speak out and say, ‘Listen, we’re already paying as much as we can, we’re already struggling to afford an education so that we can go out and contribute to the public good. Our college is helping us as well, and we want you to recognize that support,’” said Holt.

Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Kevin Weinman said in an email interview that the college is “closely monitoring developments on Capitol Hill” and called the tax proposal “disheartening.”

A tax on net investment income would reduce future endowment valuation, he said, and decrease funds available for future budgets. It could also serve to discourage future gifts to endowments, according to Weinman. Further, he said the proposal to eliminate tax-exempt financing by not-for-profit institutions would make borrowing more costly and harm the college’s ability to undertake future facility renovations and construction projects.

“It is my hope that there will be a realization of the societal benefits provided by higher education institutions of all types, and that these proposals will continue to evolve to remove the elements that would harm the educational mission and affordability of colleges and universities,” Weinman said.

Daniel Ang ’15 voiced his concerns with the proposal in an online interview. As an Amherst alumnus and current graduate student at Harvard University, he criticized a particular component of

the bill that would tax graduate students’ tuition waivers as income.

“I think this is unfair for students in researchoriented Ph.D. programs, because most programs are structured like a full-time job rather than an educational program focused on taking courses,” Ang said. “Most of our time is spent working in the labs or teaching. Most graduate students, including myself, entered such programs with the understanding that they come with a full, tax-free and loan-free tuition waiver on top of the stipend we are paid for our full-time work.”

Senate Republicans released their own tax plan proposal several days after their counterparts in the House unveiled their bill. Though this plan retains the endowment tax present in the House version of the bill, the portion of the proposal that allows graduate students’ waivers to be taxed as income was removed. Ang, however, was still frustrated by this development and by the lack of significant media attention surrounding the tax plan.

“This only further illustrates my frustration with how little conversation is taking place about this outside of graduate student and higher education circles — that such a provision can be added or deleted without much fanfare from major news publications,” Ang said.

“This seems to show that our Ph.D. programs in the sciences are not regarded as very significant

by Congress, despite that they are the only pipeline by which we produce future scientists and scholars — the drivers of technological innovation and hence economic competitiveness,” Ang added.

News

Krista Goebel Nov. 6, 2017- Nov.13, 2017

>>Nov. 6, 2017 11:57 p.m., Seymour Shed An officer investigated a fire alarm and found it was activated by cooking smoke. >>Nov. 7, 2017 9:40 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in a third-floor room and discovered it was activated when popcorn was cooked in a microwave oven. The oven was confiscated as it is not allowed under housing regulations. >>Nov. 8, 2017 3:07 p.m., Hitchcock House Officers investigated a smoke detector activated in the first-floor common room and found that someone had burned popcorn in a microwave oven. >>Nov. 9, 2017 11:39 a.m., Railroad Right of Way New England Railroad reported a person walking along the railroad tracks with no shirt or shoes in the area of East Drive. Officers checked the area, but the person was not located.

2:35 p.m., Frost Library An employee reported the possible theft of books from libraries in the Five College area. >>Nov. 10, 2017 2:33 a.m., Greenway Building B An officer investigated a report that two emergency exit signs were vandalized in Building B. 11:45 a.m., Music Building A student reported the theft of a bicycle.

3:52 p.m., Mayo-Smith Lot A student reported that a tire on her vehicle appeared slashed. >>Nov. 11, 2017 12:46 a.m., Alumni Lot An officer on patrol located a bicycle reported stolen a day earlier.

The owner was notified.

1:35 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in a first-floor room and discovered it was caused by the use of a candle, which is prohibited under the housing regulations. The Student Affairs office was notified.

4:17 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in a basement room but no cause could be identified.

8:50 p.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint about the odor of burning marijuana on the first floor. The odor was detected but the origin could not be identified.

11:54 p.m., Mayo-Smith House A party sponsor requested assistance in clearing out people from a registered party that ended. When

Thoughts on Theses

officers arrived, they found that almost everyone had left.

11:59 p.m., Plimpton House A town resident complained about noise from a party. The party sponsor was contacted by phone and he indicated the party was shutting down. >>Nov. 12, 2017 12:19 a.m., Plimpton House A caller complained about loud music, which an officer located in a third-floor room. The resident was not present but three students were. They were directed out of the room after shutting off the music, and the room was locked.

12:36 a.m., Plimpton House While at a third-floor room for a noise complaint, an officer discovered alcohol in the room. It was confiscated as the resident was not of legal age. The Student Affairs office was notified.

12:37 a.m., Plimpton House While at a third-floor room for a noise complaint, officers discovered a pipe used to smoke marijuana, two grinders used to grind marijuana and a small amount of marijuana. The materials were confiscated, and the Student Affairs office was notified.

12:44 a.m., Plimpton House While in the building, an officer found evidence that an excessive amount of alcohol, including hard alcohol, had been available at a registered party.

2:00 a.m., Boltwood Avenue An officer assisted a student from the Five College area who missed a bus.

11:33 a.m., Greenway Building B A caller reported that another exit sign had been damaged at Building B. 3:59 p.m., Memorial Hill Officers responded to a report of a fight near the baseball field and located about 30 people there. Their celebration of a recent soccer win had been mistaken for threatening behavior.

11:40 p.m., Music Building While on patrol, an officer discovered a student smoking marijuana outside the building. The matter was referred to Student Affairs. >>Nov. 13, 2017 1:25 a.m., Moore Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in a third-floor room and found it was activated by use of a candle, which is prohibited. The Student Affairs office was notified.

1:35 a.m., Moore Dormitory While in a third-floor room, officers discovered alcohol. It was confiscated as the resident was not of legal age. The Student Affairs office was notified.

Department of Psychology

Krista Goebel ’18 is a psychology and English double major. Her thesis focuses on 8- to 10-year-old children and how they behave in response to the help they receive under different circumstances. Her advisor is Assistant Professor of Psychology Carolyn Palmquist.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: I’m looking at 8- to 10-year-old children.

I’m looking at their help-seeking behavior in a searching task that we set up. The idea is that there are two people in the task: a helpful person and an unhelpful person. We rig the task so that sometimes the kids are always successful, sometimes they’re sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful based on chance, but with the helpful person they’re always going to be successful no matter what because she shows them where the object is. With the unhelpful person, they’re going to to be successful when it’s rigged so that they’re successful, but when it’s not rigged then sometimes they’ll be right and sometimes they’ll be wrong. So then we’re looking at after we go through this multiple times where they’re successful with the helpful one, sometimes successful with the unhelpful one or always successful based on what condition they’re in. Then we ask them later, “Who would you like to ask for help to find new objects?” What we’re finding is that when they were always successful, they’re not really paying attention to who is helpful and who has contributed to their success earlier on. But then later for those who weren’t always successful, they are paying attention to those cues and later they’re able to choose who is helpful and keeps them to help them again.

Q: How did you come up with the idea?

A: My thesis is different in that I’m piggybacking off of my professor’s research so I didn’t have to come up with the idea on my own. I just talked to a lot of professors and saw what projects they were currently working on and what projects they could take on with me. This was [my professor’s] idea – it’s a follow-up on her previous research. I’ve made it my own in different ways, added a few measures, stuff like that, but apart from that, she’s the one who came up with the design, which to me is pretty cool because I couldn’t have come up with something as complicated …

It’s cool to be able to do something like this that’s so complicated and has so many things to it that are rooted in this deep-seated research that I just hadn’t known about before.

Q: What has been the best part about writing a thesis?

A: I would say that I really just like having this sense of purpose. I’m actually on an accelerated schedule with my thesis so I should be finished by the end of interterm. For me, being able to say that I’ve created something and really dove into this topic so in-depth and having something to produce from that really gives me so much drive and such a sense of purpose this semester. I still feel purposeful in my classes, but not to the same degree of aiming towards a big goal and being able to have something tangible to show from it.

I really love the sense of purpose and the sense of drive I have to continue doing all of the work.

I also just like that I think it has really important implications. I’m looking into this very specific area of psychology that nobody knows the answer to yet, and that’s why I’m doing it. For classes, that’s not always the same. Maybe you’ll come up with a new connection or something like that, but for me I’m diving further into a topic that’s kind of uncharted territory and behind it is really important stuff about the age group that I’m interested in, about their lives and school problems.

It’s important things that I’m figuring out.

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

A: I think the hardest part about writing a thesis is that it’s senior year and there are all these other pressures to do all of the things you love most about Amherst and take time to hang out with friends and relax and have a good time …

Balancing those things that you’ve taken the time to do in the past and know that this is your last chance to do them on top of having more work than you’ve ever had because your thesis is so big is really, really hard. You really don’t want to end your senior year with a half-done thesis, but you also don’t want to end [it] saying, “All I did was work on my thesis and didn’t have time for those other things about Amherst that I love.”

Q: What has your research process been like?

A: It’s been really nice, but backwards in a way …

I got funding to be here over the summer and do research, which was really awesome. I was here, I was recruiting participants from the town who were 8- to 10-year-old children, I had them come into the lab and run through my half-hour long study. That was primarily what the summer was all about. I was here for 12 weeks, and that took up the entire summer. Getting participants in was kind of difficult because we didn’t have any prizes for them. There were little prizes, but no other compensation really, so getting them to come in was a real feat, a real challenge. After that, by the end of the summer I also wrote out my methods section, so what exactly my study looked like.

That was the first step that I could do. All year, it’s been looking at that data that I collected, so writing my results and looking at different analyses. Now I’m finishing up the discussion, looking at the results and basing it on past research. I’ve been drafting all of those, and that’s what I’ve been working on up until now. After Thanksgiving, I’ll transition into reading a lot more other research. Now I can stop looking at my firsthand research, look at my new stuff, and give it some context. So it’s kind of backwards since for most people that reading in the intro stuff [comes] first, which makes sense, then they do their collection of data, and discussion is usually last. I was so invested in my results that I just wanted to go straight into the discussion. So now I have to go back and put it all into context.

Q: Any advice for students who want to write a thesis?

A: First, really think about what you’re really passionate about in your field of study and then try to figure out early on, the research of each of the professors in your field to see which one aligns best with your interests, and start to try to get to know them. Be really forward with the fact that you’re interested in writing a thesis and you’re interested in doing research. For me, I didn’t want to admit it to anyone because I didn’t want to be shot down. I didn’t want anyone to tell me that it wasn’t possible, so I decided very last-minute.

Having those conversations as early as you can with your professors doesn’t hurt. It puts you on their radar right away and helps you think about what the thesis could be like.

— Natalie De Rosa ’21

The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

News

3

Climate Change Policy Expert Offers Possible Solutions Continued from Page 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is a 35 percent increase from 1990, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.

In explaining the effects of climate change, Utech talked about the American Climate Perspective, a project founded by a consortium of universities that attempts to quantify the effects of climate change. He focused on a particular study released by the project, which shows what will happen if the current trajectory of emissions continues compared to what will happen if emissions increase indefinitely. The study found that if emissions rise indefinitely, then in the next century, “Nearly all the summer months in eastern U.S. would feel like the worst days from the 1995 heat wave in the Midwest.”

Though the U.S. is no longer on a path leading to the extreme heat described in the ACP study, Utech said, “We are still not really where we want to be, but we have already made some progress in preventing the worst consequences.” The most cost-effective strategy for achieving the target reduction in emissions is to focus on the energy sector, he said, which is the largest contributor to emissions.

A strategy targeting the energy sector would include changes to transportation, such as increasing the use of electric cars, and a growth in energy efficiency, which involves reducing energy waste and decarbonizing the power sector by reducing its carbon intensity. In order to decarbonize, a move from coal to renewable energy sources would need to occur.

Photo courtesy of Alura Chung-Mehdi ’18

Former Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama for energy and climate change gave a talk at the college on Nov. 4 about the future of climate change and emissions.

Utech also talked about the status of the climate change problem in the United States. “Prior to 2009, forecasts projected that U.S. emissions were just going to go up indefinitely, and instead they declined by about nine percent through 2015,” he said.

Although Utech spoke on the progress the United States has made in terms of reducing the effects of climate change, he said not everyone un-

derstands its importance. “People think [climate change is] a problem,” he said, “but they don’t think it’s a big, pressing problem.” He added that he doesn’t understand why the issue of climate change has become a politically polarizing topic.

Patrick Friend ’20, a student who attended the talk, said that he was encouraged by what Utech had to say. “It was great getting to hear some cautious optimism from the speaker,” Friend said.

“Basically, about how even though Trump is in power now, there are safeguards in place to prevent him from doing too much damage.”

Zoe Wong ’18, another attendee and an environmental studies major, said that she was mostly familiar with the information Utech presented, but said she “appreciated the opportunity to hear from someone who was directly involved in the Obama administration’s effort to combat climate change.”

Student Accounts of Vehicle Accidents Raise Issues of Safety Continued from Page 1 Between 2014 and 2017, Amherst Town Police also received 22 calls requesting their assistance in motor vehicle accidents on South Pleasant Street and 131 for service involving motor vehicle accidents on College Street, the portion of Route 9 next to the campus.

Emilee Hammons ’20 was hurrying from Keefe Campus Center to class in Clark House on Sept. 20 this year when she was hit by a car driving west down Route 9. She crossed the street directly in front of Clark House, a location between two crosswalks.

“It was mostly me being lazy, and I was in a hurry, so I didn’t go to the crosswalk,” Hammons said. “... I stopped and I hesitated because I was waiting for a break in traffic, and this lady going west-bound had come to almost a complete stop.

When I saw [the break] I was going to go across, so I didn’t double check. It was just weird timing where that lady pulled out at the same time I stepped onto the road so she hit me with her car.”

Hammons lost consciousness, but regained it a few seconds later on the ground with her belongings scattered. Her friend, who was with her at the time, suggested calling student-run EMT service ACEMS, but Hammons wanted to attend class.

Instead, a witness to the accident called ACEMS, ACPD (Amherst College Police Department) and Amherst town police. Hammons eventually went to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, where she received X-ray and CT scans since she had hit her head. She had a contusion in her foot, difficulty walking and severe back pain after the accident.

While Hammons is receiving help from the college’s financial aid office with medical costs, she said she believed the school could offer even more resources when it comes to dealing with aspects of accidents like insurance paperwork and answering questions about what to do after an accident.

Hammons said that when she went to campus police for help in filling out paperwork and to ask questions, a member of the department told her that, “because technically I stepped off of our campus and onto Route 9, it becomes the Amherst Police Department’s jurisdiction and not ours so ‘we can’t really help you.’” As a student strained for time, Hammons has not been able to “figure out where to go and who to talk to in the town of Amherst about this,” and has been dealing with the issue on her own.

Niamani Williams ’20 has also had several near misses while crossing both Route 9 and Main Street. Though she was using Route 9 crosswalks, she was still almost hit twice.

“I had pressed the light because I had already almost gotten hit too many times and there was a car pretty far away so I was about to step to walk and they literally sped up,” Williams said. “They knew they were in the wrong because as they went by they were like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ After that car went, I was actually halfway in the street and there was someone in an Amherst College van that proceeded to turn and almost hit me.”

Williams lives in Tyler Dormitory and must cross Route 9 and Main Street on her way to the central part of campus.

One possible solution she suggested is to add more lighting on the paths through town that students take to get to off-campus dormitories, which she said are currently poorly lit.

While the school does not have jurisdiction over areas within the town, Carter said that ACPD has tried to make improvements to these roadways to ensure students’ safety as they travel to and from off-campus areas.

“We have worked with the town to understand and improve the paths our students take,” Carter said in a separate email interview. “In terms of the Hill Dorms [Tyler, Marsh and Plimpton Houses], we have increased lighting along the path that leads down to Main Street by the police station, there is a crosswalk right there, and then a sidewalk that brings one to Alumni Lot. There are also blue light phones along that path. As for the Triangle Dorms, there are sidewalks leading to the crosswalks at the lights, which are controlled by request buttons.”

Police Action Over the years, Carter said, the college has also taken steps to make the two public roadways that cross through campus — College Street and South Pleasant Street — more safe by enhancing lighting, raising crosswalks to make pedestrians more visible to drivers and installing flashing pedestrian lights.

These changes occurred due to concern over general safety and recognition that Amherst’s campus “encloses two public roadways [that] our students cross a lot to get to residence halls and athletic fields,” Carter said.

Both of these streets are under the jurisdiction of town police, but when traffic accidents occur,

ACPD will respond if the person involved is a member of the Amherst community, Carter said.

“We go over and make sure we support our community member,” he said.

“When we get involved, regardless of where the accident happens, we’re able to offer a lot through the college, Student Affairs, health services [and] transport by ambulance,” Carter added, but usually only if the accident is within the town of Amherst or at UMass Amherst.

It is critical, however, for people — especially students — to report traffic accidents, Carter said.

In the last two years, the town of Amherst has also pursued traffic safety enforcement by using undercover officers to activate crosswalk lights and step out onto the road. If a driver didn’t stop, a uniformed officer would stop the car and issue a citation for the crossing violation.

Importantly, pedestrians using crosswalks should remain “careful about the vehicles,” Carter said. “A driver may not see you, or they may not be able to stop in time, so it’s always important that you as a pedestrian continue to watch the cars.”

Improving Visibility Though Lacy said traffic safety is “pretty good,” she has taken precautions since her accident to ensure her visibility when crossing roads.

“What I’ve started doing now, is putting my hand up and making sure they see me,” she said. “It might be overkill, but I don’t know if there’s anything you can put there to make them stop.” This is a measure against the many drivers who, as she said, “just barrel through” Route 9.

Lacy added that it can be difficult to cross South Pleasant Street near Morgan Hall and across the Triangle, because drivers sometimes do not stop. “I don’t expect them to stop anymore,” Lacy said. “[The responsibility] is definitely on the pedestrian here.”

The campus could improve visibility for both drivers and pedestrians by making areas better lit, she said, allowing drivers to see pedestrians better.

Monica Nimmheadda ’18, who was involved in an off-campus accident in a dimly lit area, also said lights are key. “If you go down Route 116 [Pleasant Street], it’s super dark,” she said. “I live in Chapman, which is the dorm across Route 116, and sometimes people go really fast down the hill.

Even coming from Chapman, the cars go really fast, and people sometimes don’t stop at the crosswalk … Chapman Dorm needs lights out there.”

Carter, however, said the illumination on Route 9 is “probably about five times the standard.”

If lighting is made brighter, negative impacts could occur, he said, such as bright spheres of light on either side of the road but blind spots in the middle.

He acknowledged that on rainy nights, visibility decreases considerably for drivers, and “there’s really not much that can be done” except the measures that have already been carried out.

Designing for Safety Part of the Office of Design and Construction’s planning process, Carter said, involves anticipating how changes will impact pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Roads on campus, for example, may feel smaller than roads out in town.

“That’s by design, because a smaller road tends to calm traffic and make people drive slower,” he said.

The college has installed stop signs and raised crosswalks in locations with heavy foot traffic, such as near the Powerhouse.

If there is a need to make more improvements on the public roadways surrounding campus, Carter said, campus police will work with the town of Amherst to make those improvements. Currently, however, campus police has no significant plans for improving traffic safety.

With the construction of the Greenway dormitories, which began in March 2015, the college has begun to add more walking paths around campus. The addition of the new dorms has added pedestrian-only paths that connect various areas of the campus together. Continued work on the Greenway project on the east side of campus will allow for more accessibility while on foot, Director of Design and Construction/Facilities Tom Davies said in an email.

While most busy areas provide a separate pedestrian path, there are some places that do not, such as the walk down Barrett Hill Road to Beneski or along Fayerweather Drive, which is behind the academic building.

The Office of Design and Construction ensures that sidewalks around construction areas are available, Davies said.

Carter said that campus police continuously watch for issues on a broad range of safety, especially around pedestrian safety. Whenever the college redesigns a roadway or parking lot on campus, “We look at it … understanding that our pedestrians and our cars share the road,” he said.

Opinion

THE AMHERST

Rethinking Early Decision

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

Here is a fact that should sound familiar to all who know about the benefits of early decision in the college admissions process: For the class of 2020, the regular decision acceptance rate to Ivy League schools was 6.8 percent, while the rate for early applicants was 20.3 percent.

This discrepancy is in part because colleges are more willing to accept qualified candidates who are also willing to commit to them. As Robert Massa, current Senior Vice President for Enrollment and Institutional Planning at Drew University, wrote in an article for The New York Times, such a dynamic makes gaining acceptance to students’ top choices easier through early decision.

According to a Cooke Foundation study, only 16 percent of high-achieving students whose families have annual incomes below $50,000 applied for college earlydecision in the 2013-2014 academic year. Several factors could contribute to this low figure. Students from lowincome backgrounds are generally less informed about the college admissions process than more wealthy students.

James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, said, “Rich and poor students alike may be free to benefit from today’s ED racket — but only the rich are likely to have heard of it.” This is the result of richer students’ access to an entire industry of professionals dedicated to guiding students through the college process and coaching them on everything from college essays to what types of colleges are best suited to a student’s educational interests.

Even so, low-income students who do know about early decision are still hesitant to apply this way, despite its obvious statistical benefits, because they require substantial financial aid and cannot commit to an institution without being able to compare the financial aid packages offered by all the colleges and universities that accept them. This presents an obvious disadvantage to students of low income. A study titled “Who Goes

Early?: A Multi-Level Analysis of Enrolling via Early Action and Early Decision Admissions,” published in the Teachers College Record, concluded that “early admissions programs, and in particular, early decision, perpetuate social privilege and stratification.” They suggest that the least higher-education institutions can do is look at their own admissions data and inquire seriously and earnestly into the implications of their early admissions process.

Amherst College administrators need to think deeply about how their early decision process fits into their mission of economic fairness, equality and diversity.

How might we make this a more equitable process for all students, given the potential flaws of early decision that experts have identified?

In 2006, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia eliminated early admission with the intention of making the process fairer, but these colleges eventually reinstated it to remain competitive since virtually all their rival institutions kept it. It is difficult to determine if Amherst’s own competitiveness would be affected by doing away with early decision, but steps in the right direction need not be so drastic. For example, the college could make early decision non-binding, giving students more flexibility. Additionally, if there is in fact a trend of more wealthy students applying for and gaining early admission to Amherst, then outreach to high schools should not only seek to make low-income students aware of Amherst, it should also encourage students to apply early.

Around the country, colleges have recognized the negative social implications of the early admissions processes but have not been able to reconcile it with financial and competitive motives. If Amherst is serious about its commitment to making the admission process a level playing field, altering the early decision process is a good starting point.

If I May: The Importance of Recognition Jake May ’19 Columnist In May 2016, I saw Louis C.K. perform live for the second time in my life. But this article is not about Louis C.K. No, this article is about the comic who opened for him: Michelle Wolf.

You may know Wolf if you are a die-hard fan of “The Daily Show,” where she works as a writer and often appears on screen as a contributor. You may also know her if you watch “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, as she has appeared on that show multiple times to perform stand-up and do character work. She is also a regular at the Comedy Cellar, a New York City comedy club known for its historically “boys’ club” environment.

Wolf ’s stand-up is, simply put, brilliant. In a 20-minute set opening for C.K., Wolf expertly wove together relatable observations, personal stories and political satire. Her energy onstage is infectious, both when her jokes are carefree and fun and when they are rooted in a more serious issue. Of course, when I arrived at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey on the night of her opening performance, I was not there to see her. I did not even know she would be opening. But she really blew me — and the rest of the crowd — away.

Obviously, there is an elephant in the room here. I saw Wolf perform only because my dad had gotten us tickets to see Louis C.K. This past week, The New York Times reported that five women accused Louis C.K. of masturbating in front of them or over the phone without explicitly receiving their consent. A day later, C.K. confirmed that the stories were true. However, this is not the first time these stories had surfaced. As early as 2012, when Gawker published a blind item — an article in which the identities of those involved are not revealed — describing one of these incidents and alluding that the perpetra-

tor was C.K., these stories pervaded the comedy world. Because of C.K.’s influence in this world, most comedy institutions, whether clubs, festivals or booking agencies, refused even to think about the credence in these stories. Of course, almost all of these institutions are run and populated by men.

There is, undoubtedly, an extremely problematic culture of toxic masculinity in the comedy world. But I am not here to write about that (or at least not any more than I already have). Do a quick Google search for “Louis C.K.” and you will find plenty of excellent writing by people of all genders about this issue. However, while writing about the problem is important, it is not going to fix the problem. The solution is that people need to be calling attention to, praising and writing about comics who do not identify as cisgender males.

I was inspired to write this piece by Cameron Esposito, another brilliant female comedian. On Monday, she tweeted, “Outlets asking me & literally every other female comics to write about a dude showing ppl his penis: WRITE ABOUT US INSTEAD. Not sensationalized lists. Articles.

We’ve been here. Write about us.”

Admittedly, my plan for this week was to discuss Louis C.K. and how the comedy world is going to reckon with the downfall of another one of its “greats.” But that is not important, I’ve realized.

What’s important now, and what should have always been important, is amplifying the voices of those who have been shut down, those who have been unable to get the air-time they deserve because of this toxic male culture in comedy.

So, with that in mind, I’d like to share with you some female comedians (and brief descriptions of them) that I admire and am inspired by. Each comedian deserves a full article written about them, and I truly wish I had the time to commit to that.

Perhaps in the future, I will.

But for now, please check out: • Lauren Lapkus, a brilliant improviser and actress, who performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles, has a podcast called “With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus” and has been seen in “Orange is the New Black,” among other shows.

• Rhea Butcher, a stand-up comedian based in Los Angeles who also hosts a podcast with Esposito called “Put Your Hands Together.”

• Phoebe Robinson, a stand-up based in New York City, who hosts a podcast with Jessica Williams (another amazing standup and actress) called “2 Dope Queens.”

• Alexandra Dickson, an improviser in New York City, who performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater with the house team, “The Stepfathers.”

• Anna Drezen, a writer for “Saturday Night Live,” who also performs stand-up and sketch around New York City and is an editor for the satirical women’s magazine Reductress.

• Jo Firestone, a writer for “The Tonight Show” and “The Chris Gethard Show,” whose 30-minute special aired on Comedy Central this past year and can be accessed on its website.

This is, of course, not an exhaustive list.

There are so many brilliant female comedians that have not gotten the recognition that they deserve. It is time for a change in this toxic culture, and that change is not going to occur just by writing about how the toxicity and prejudice exist. We cannot just talk about the fact that we have not given these comedians proper recognition. We must actually give them this deserved recognition.

Editors-in-Chief Nate Quigley Jingwen Zhang Managing News Shawna Chen Assistant News Editor Emma Swislow Managing Opinion Kelly Chian, Daniel Delgado Managing Arts and Living Paola Garcia-Prieto, Olivia Gieger Managing Sports Connor Haugh, Kasia Krosniak, Henry Newton Managing Design Justin Barry Design Editors Katie Boback, Zehra Madhavan Head Publishers Emily Ratte Mark Nathin

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The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

Opinion

5

Health Care Saved Thanksgiving — and My Family Galen Muskat ’18E Contributing Writer I remember 2 1/2 years ago, down to the very taste in my mouth and the angst and nausea that followed. And it was not even I who found myself suddenly threatened by a life-altering disease.

It was mid-February 2015, and my dad stood by the washing machine removing his snow-soaked outer layers in preparation for a hot bath. We had just dug our way out of the latest New Hampshire blizzard — I was on leave from school that semester — and finished clearing our long, steep driveways to allow my mom, returning home from work in Boston, to drive up and exit her car safely.

For several weeks, my dad had mentioned to me at various times feeling “odd”: tired, weak, ill or just “off.” A former marathoner, he had taken up winter hiking in the White Mountains roughly a decade earlier after a serious back surgery for a “fusion” of vertebra in his lower back had limited his capability to run comfortably. But even hiking, a regular and beloved means of exercise and mental relaxation, became cumbersome. Whether he was rising early from bed in order to arrive at the trailhead before dawn or snowshoeing through fresh powder several feet high on a barren mountainside, he spoke of feeling increasingly hindered by something he could not quite identify.

As he was stripping off his damp Carhartt flannels, he called me over to the machine, gesturing toward his upper leg.

“Galen, can you look at something for me?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said.

“What does this look like to you?” he asked.

Halfway down his inner thigh was a semi-spherical lump. I knew, but I did not know. In fact, I did not even want to guess.

“I don’t know, but it’s weird — why don’t you ask Mom?”

In short, several days later, he and my mom returned from the doctor’s office.

My mom took me around the one “block” in our tiny rural town and told me that my dad — someone I had always viewed as unshakeable, a veritable rock in the hardest of times — had the rarest and most pernicious type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma: mantle cell lymphoma. It has a low survival rate, and the upper limit is somewhere around seven years, I recall her telling me.

My memory stops there. The last thing I can recall about that day is throwing up and enduring one of many sleepless nights.

Now, more than two years later, my dad has made an incredible recovery. He went through months of chemotherapy, an extended inpatient treatment in Boston at the both Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and lost his hair (and grew it back). My family and I struggled daily to comprehend it all too, I think.

Being in remission carries its own anxieties for the cancer patient and his loved ones alike. When will the cancer return? If and when it does, what will treatment entail? And, of course, how much longer will he live?

On the one hand, I could put all of this to the back of my mind — “compartmentalize,” as my mom advises — and focus on the final month of college I have between now and mid-December. Yet, on the other hand, both the season and the current political atmosphere prevent me from doing so.

Indeed, Thanksgiving awaits, and with it, the clichéd — but important — questions about the things for which we are thankful.

Two Thanksgivings ago, with my father home for the first time after a weeks-long round of literally-crippling chemotherapy, I thanked his presence and my family’s fortitude in bringing as all together around a single table for even one night. And this Thanksgiving, I have little doubt that I will utter a similar recognition when we assemble and share our “thanks” while the turkey and sides grow cold

before us — a small price to pay, my dad’s cancer made me realize.

But his treatment, especially that we were fortunate enough to be able to afford hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of top-of-the-line care through insurance, allowed me to reflect daily on the importance of equal access to such health insurance and the meaning that such financial support holds beyond the rows and columns of federal budget sheets.

One insurance claim I happened to see listed a drug — a single day’s 15 milliliter dose — at $10,000. And for six months, my dad ingested a nightly teaspoonful of what looked like yellow paint, poured from a pharmacy-dispensed bottle that cost more than $1,500 per refill. Without insurance, we would have been bankrupted, or my dad would have foregone treatment and might not be at the table this Thanksgiving.

So, when news first came from Washington, D.C. this year that Congress was pursuing a “repeal and replace” of the invaluable Affordable Care Act (A.C.A.), I extended our experience and good fortune to all those cancer patients who, without having the option to enroll in subsidized health care, might have been forced to avoid life-extending care. Each night, I crossed my fingers that the effort would fail: nothing seemed more cruel than using deceptive messaging and blatant lies to undermine the effectiveness of the A.C.A. — claims that “marketplaces are collapsing,” for instance, despite numbers showing more people have signed up than in previous enrollment periods — and thereby subvert millions of peoples’ chances at living a few days, months or years more.

Fortunately, the measure stalled, but the message did not seem to sink in. Just last week, the president suggested discarding the insurance mandate — a “tax” on those who do not sign up for insurance, which enables people in the A.C.A. marketplace to afford drugs like the “yellow paint” — as a part of

the tax legislation currently moving through Congress. No such proposal has been implemented yet, but no less troubling is what does exist: removing the tax deduction for medical payments.

While not the exact type of insurance from which my family benefits, this tax exemption is nonetheless a form of insurance for millions of lower- and middle-class families who require costly medical care at the same time they try to raise children or buy a house or, more simply, feed and clothe themselves. Indeed, under current law any medical expenses above 10 percent of one’s annual income become exempt from taxation, which might mean an extra $1,000 or more toward other critical costs of living.

But this flies out the window under the proposed plan, and in comes the possibility that millions of people will find themselves saddled not only with, say, a $10,000-a-day chemotherapy treatment, but no shield from tax exemption on this payment. Worse, if the A.C.A were repealed as well (a constant threat with the current G.O.P. reign in D.C.), families could be doubly burdened. Forget the tax break, but also forget any possibility of an affordable insurance plan that might cover life-saving drugs or treatment. All of this is so that those holding “estates” — a staple of the proverbial “one percent” — are no longer taxed on these plush trust funds at all.

This all may sound overly dramatic. If anything, I wish I did not feel compelled to draw a line between my dad’s life and the current G.O.P. bill. But the myriad unfair components of the bill — the cessation of the medical expenditure exemption, coupled with a decrease in corporate tax rates, a gift to the pharmaceutical giants making the $1,000 -a-bottle “yellow paint” — demands that we, as voters and citizens, think about the implications for the actual people and their families on the receiving side of health care politics.

Indeed, think of the people who might no longer sit at your Thanksgiving table.

On Wisconsin: Jumping Around Toxic Frat Culture Lisa Zheutlin ’21 Contributing Writer This weekend, a friend from Wesleyan and I planned a trip out of our small, NESCAC liberal arts schools to visit a friend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Big Ten school with around 30,000 undergraduate students. Unsurprisingly, it was a complete culture shock. My friend lives in Statesider, a private and predominantly Jewish dormitory that has little diversity, so I need to put in a disclaimer that what I experienced is obviously not representative of the entire University of Wisconsin student population. But I do believe that my weekend relates to the experiences of at least part of the population of first-year girls living in private dorms who are involved in Greek life.

This weekend in Wisconsin, more than any other weekend of my life (besides the entire 2016 presidential election), I was acutely aware of the patriarchy. Whether that was solely due to the Greek life on campus is something I am still trying to figure out.

On Saturday night after dinner, my friends and I were standing on the sidewalk in Madison when a group of middle-aged men clad in Iowa gear walked by us.

“Nice ass,” one of them called, leering at my friend.

It took us a moment to process what had just happened before we could begin to yell at him as he walked away. After being sufficiently brainwashed in the Wisconsin student section at the Wisconsin-Iowa football game, I could just attribute this behavior to the Iowa jersey. But in all seriousness, this minute encounter is representative of what is wrong with our society. I have been lucky to

have never experienced this vulgar catcalling before this weekend and the lewd statement made me so angry. Why do we live in a culture where this objectification of women is accepted? How has this middle-aged man gotten as far as he has in life believing that this is permissible?

This question, of course, brings me to the younger “men”: the frat brothers. To get the real Big Ten experience, we wanted to go to a frat party, a social experiment of sorts.

The theme: tight and bright. We showed up to the basement of the party and were “greeted” (read: stopped) by a rising frat star (read: probably a random freshman forced to do this to gain entry into the “brotherhood”).

My three friends and I were wearing jackets because it was below 30 degrees outside, and we were neither wearing anything tight nor bright. The closest we were to the theme was that we bedazzled one of my friend’s faces with jewels to be weird and funny. The boy began to question us on whether we go to Wisconsin, and my friend who actually does go to Wisconsin was being asked to prove who she knew in the frat to determine whether we were worthy of being allowed in. At first, I may have been naïve enough to believe this boy’s excuse of lack of space in the venue — that is, until two girls came in after us, wearing far less clothing and immediately allowed inside.

Behold: the patriarchy. This boy was not letting my friends and I into the party because we did not dress nor act the part. I am not referring to the theme: I mean that we were not attending this party to hook up with random guys by wearing cute, revealing, black clothing. To be fair, it may well be that the girls chose to wear these outfits because they genuinely felt good wearing them. I don’t want to

vilify the girls in this situation because they are in a male-dominated party culture where they must constantly monitor how they behave and look in order to be granted entry into a small overheated space.

My friend named a random connection she had to the frat, and once we were actually inside the party, I saw that there were far more girls than guys. This toxic fraternity culture completely reaffirms the patriarchy and reduces the girls to who they know, what sorority they are in and, most importantly, what they look like. If they want to get into the party, they must conform to the societal expectations placed upon them by boys in positions of power.

At the same time, I also really do not know if it is fair to place all the blame on the frat boys. Not all fraternity members are disrespectful, but in my opinion, the fraternity culture is not doing anything to help this situation. Instead, it is promoting this sort of atmosphere both directly and indirectly by discouraging individuality, affirming the unequal power dynamics that favor men and minimizing the girls to objects.

After the party, my friends and I were rightfully disgusted by the scene but quite frankly felt like there was nothing we could do about it. How do you combat this fraternity culture that, as our experience with the middle-aged Iowa fans on the street showed, is pervasive in all age groups and facets of society?

We talked to my friend’s brother, a senior in the AEPi (Alpha Epsilon Pi) fraternity at Wisconsin, about the culture, but it was not an optimistic conversation. We learned that girls who might fall short of the frat’s superficial standards and fail to gain entry once the

party is underway will usually show up early to secure their spot. Then, once the party becomes overcrowded, the frat brother stationed at the door gets in trouble for letting in too many girls who — again, for whatever superficial reason — would not have been let in at a later hour. The party becomes more selective and the shallow judgments more severe, creating a toxic cycle.

Ultimately, this weekend in Madison made me miss Amherst. During my first semester at Amherst, up until this trip, I would have considered some of the parties here “fratty.” But after this weekend, the difference is clear and I do not think I can fairly classify the parties I have gone to here as such. At Amherst, I can walk into any party without being stopped at the door and scrutinized based on what I am wearing — or not wearing — to be granted entry. I never feel the need to dress or act a certain way to get in, and the party culture is, in my experience, inclusive.

Despite the lack of official fraternities at Amherst, I cannot ignore the feeling that at some parties here, there is a dominant and prevalent male gaze. Judging from the #StopItNow posters sprinkled around campus and initiatives by the Title IX office and the Peer Advocates of Sexual Respect, there is serious work that is being done about toxic masculinity and sexual assault on campus. This is a step in the right direction, but so many more steps must be taken to put an end to this fraternity culture that has seeped into all aspects of our society — or that could just be representative of the larger societal injustice that positions women as inferior to men. Either way, we need to stifle this toxic fraternity culture that disadvantages society as a whole and work to literally smash the patriarchy.

Arts&Living

“Peer Gynt” Forces Audience to Confront Inherent Human Greed

Photos courtesy of Amherst College

The adaptation of the Ibsen’s play was devised by Yagil Eliraz, Joshua Wren ‘14 and a cast of 10 actors, each of whom plays the title character at points in the show.

Paola Garcia-Prieto ’18 Managing Arts & Living Editor “We are all Peer Gynt,” the actors chanted, some on stage, others surrounding the audience, all dressed in the signature red that coded them as the main character they all played. The house lights glowed as the audience shrank into their seats, trying to hide their discomfort with the subverted theatre norms.

Nothing about this play followed convention, least of all the last 15 minutes. Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, best known for his more conventional play “A Doll’s House,” originally wrote “Peer Gynt” in 1876. It is a five-act play written in verse that lasts over five hours when performed in its entirety and includes over fifty characters across multiple continents. Yet, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays.

Theatre and Dance Assistant Professor Yagil Eliraz decided to bring an adaptation “Peer Gynt” to Amherst College for the department’s fall production. Eliraz said he almost did “Peer Gynt” as his MFA thesis at Yale but instead did the Oresteia. Ibsen’s play stuck with him, and since the department’s usual fall production director, Ronald Bashford, was on sabbatical, Eliraz decided to take this opportunity to put on the “Peer Gynt” production that had been living in his head for the last five years.

The original story of Peer Gynt echoes “The Odyssey” in that the narrative follows one character — Peer Gynt — through a series of unbelievable adventures that each act as a unique episode within the overarching story. Peer starts off as an unpopular boy who lives in a fantasy world, desperately searching for his purpose in life and his true self. The lines between fantasy and reality blur by the third act of the play, which sees Peer become a rich slave trader boasting about his money. Throughout the play, Peer becomes a very selfish man who seeks more power and

more money, not caring about who he screws over on the way. At the end, Peer is confronted by the “Button Maker,” a St. Peter-type character, who tells Peer that he did not live as his true self, was unjustifiably selfish and therefore will be melted down into a regular button, rendering his whole life meaningless.

Eliraz and playwright/dramaturg Joshua Wren ’14 wrote the script for this production of “Peer Gynt” as an adaptation that “followed” Ibsen. After deciding on the basic structure of the play, they presented this “skeleton” of a script to their cast, who would devise and help write the rest of the play throughout the rehearsal process.

However, some members of the cast did not feel as though the process was as collaborative as had been promoted. Mikayla Ybarra-Young ’20, who has worked with Yagil in the past, expressed concerns about the lack of input the cast actually had in the production.

“We were told we would devise the show through improv and games, and it’d be really cool and fun, and then the screenwriter would write it down and bada bing bada boom,” she said. “I’m not sure if this is just an error on my part, or if we were kind of gaslighted, but what ended up happening is we would do things during the rehearsals and Yagil would say it was good, but then it would never be mentioned again. [Yagil and Josh] would adapt the script to their own liking, so it was a little bit less company involvement than I would have liked, but that’s just my opinion.”

The cast consisted of 10 students, eight of whom were women, who each took turns playing Peer Gynt himself. The audience could tell an actor was Peer by the distinct red clothing, which consisted of a red hat and scarf for a time but also included a red velvet suit jacket and a sparkly red sari at different points in the play.

The actors would also signal this change to the audience by approaching the edge of the stage and saying “I’m playing Peer now” to the audi-

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

In the troll scene, the cast puts on plastic masks and imitates various celebrity and political figures and sings to Peer about being self-indulgent.

ence, while also literally putting the Peer outfit on the next peer while onstage.

In a discussion with the playwrights after the second show, Eliraz explained how the use of multiple actors to play Peer is not uncommon.

In other productions a different actor is used in each act to depict how Peer ages throughout the story. Eliraz said that the effect of multiple actors was to “erase the visible face [of Peer] and multiply the character for us to realize that this character is society.”

This was the moral of the story that Eliraz and Wren made sure the audience left with. Throughout the show, the actor playing Peer Gynt would talk directly to the audience, defending his actions and coming to realizations that would move the play along to its next scene. No matter how deplorable his actions, such as seducing and abducting a woman on her wedding night and then dumping her in the morning, Peer always had an excuse to give to the audience.

The first half of the production follows the original story’s scenes rather closely; however, Eliraz’s replaces the literal trolls that Peer encounters (a common theme of Norwegian folklore) with contemporary personalities that embody trolls’ values of selfishness as depicted

by Ibsen. The actors donned plastic masks and exaggerated costumes as they played cartoonlike versions of Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vladimir Putin and Richard Nixon onstage. While the impressions were amusing, this was the first of many heavyhanded moments where the playwrights commented on contemporary issues.

Audience members expressed confusion about why a celebrity like Kim Kardashian was being placed amongst notable political figures and world leaders. In the post-show discussion, Eliraz explained that he picked these real people to be “trolls” because “they care about no one but themselves, and they’re our idols, in a sense. We’re in a period where these people are examples for us as leaders. [There is] a weird mix match of the news on your screen mixing in what Kim K and Trump and Schwarzenegger says — it all has the same importance.”

The second half of the show was where the production seemed to depart further from the original while also challenging the audience’s understanding of what was supposed to be “reality” and what was meant to be “fantasy.” After Peer’s mother dies, he is full of rage that the world could be so unfair as to take the only person he’s ever truly loved and he vows to get revenge.

Peer swaps his career as a slave trader for the title of a “business tycoon,” which consisted of him bragging to the audience about how much money he has while the rest of the ensemble mime construction working behind him.

Peer claims he is still not satisfied and contemplates colonizing land in Egypt as his next adventure. In this scene, the actor playing Peer sat upstage on an embellished cushion while smoking out of a hookah and wearing a fez. Be-

hind him, half of the ensembles comes in dancing stereotypical “walk like an Egyptian” movements while dressed as pharaohs. The other half of the ensemble dressed as “belly dancers” wearing white dresses with hieroglyphics on them and black wigs with snake crowns. This Egyptian dance scene went on for quite a long time with no dialogue and ended with the ensemble declaring their devotion to Peer, the emperor of “Gyntiana” before marching militantly offstage.

However, in his monologue after the Egypt scene, Peer decides that colonizing isn’t really for him; now he wants to become a religious mogul.

It wasn’t until the post-show discussion that it became clear to me that this sudden shift was supposed to indicate to the audience that the previous scene didn’t actually happen and was just a fantasy in Peer’s head. The following scene, where Peer moves on to become a religious mogul, is equally strange, yet is meant to be understood as something that actually happens in Peer’s life, even though there is little that indicates the difference between these two scenes.

In this scene, the actor playing Peer wears a red sparkly sari and huge black sunglasses as the cast tries to convince the audience to join their religion of the self. Hindu religion symbols and maneki-nekos (aka “Chinese Lucky Cat”) are projected behind him. Peer sells his new religion through memberships and books, and he scams people into becoming more selfish for his own monetary gain. These scenes stand out from the rest of the play as especially bizarre. Eliraz claimed that they are meant to to be satirical exaggeration of Peer’s simplistic, albeit racist, view of the world. The cast however, expressed anxiety about the problematic nature of these scenes and worried about the response they would get from the Amherst community.

Emma Wilfert ’20, who played Peer Gynt during the “Egypt Scene,” said that she was “really conscious that I would be talking about and possibly seeming to advocate for a horrible legacy of racism and cultural appropriation, and multiple members of the cast expressed this concern to Yagil. At the end of the day, I hope it came across that this scene was meant to satirize and call out people who think the way Peer does.”

Other cast members, however, claimed that the disagreement between the cast and Eliraz over this scene are examples of how the play was not as collaboratively produced as he says.

Leah Woodbridge ’20 who played Peer during the religious scene said, “I believe every member of the cast understood the unnecessary nature of [the Egypt] scene and pushed back against it many times, to which Yagil replied that we were afraid to perform controversial theater. When me and another member of the cast contacted staff members of the MRC about this scene, Yagil told us that we were threatening the play and the ensemble. He was intimidating, even

Continued on Page 7

The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

Arts & Living 7

Thanksgiving Break Binge Guide: Shows that Fly Under the Radar

Graphic by Justin Barry ’18

With the abundance of Netflix originals and promoted series, many gems fall through the cracks. Take this Thanksgiving to discover some of these hidden shows.

Annika Lunstad ’21 Staff Writer Whether you’re returning home for Thanksgiving or not, there were certainly be plenty of downtime next week, and if you’re anything like me, part of this time will be spent catching up on all the shows that have fallen by the wayside as a result of endless piles of work. Often, some of the best shows on Netflix and Amazon get lost amidst the countless promotions for the latest original series and suggestions for shows you’ve seen too many times. Here is a compilation of some of the lesser known shows out there for you to consider next time you want to enjoy good television.

Endeavour: If you liked “Sherlock” or suspenseful shows in general, this is perfect for you. “Endeavour” is a beautifully-filmed series about Endeavour Morse, a British policeman who is fed up with day-to-day policing and wants to be a detective. While not particularly popular with his colleagues, he relentlessly follows his instincts in various twisted cases. The general plot is not necessarily groundbreaking, but the show itself is beautifully filmed and perfectly paced. My favorite two episodes, “Fugue” and “Nocturne,” use music to give the show a subtly creepy atmosphere. For instance, in “Nocturne,” Endeavour investigates the disappearance of young girls from a house that’s supposedly haunted by a child who plays a melody on the piano

at night. If you need any more convincing, this show boats a solid five stars on Amazon with over 5,000 reviews. Seasons 1-3 are available on Amazon Prime, and each episode is around an hour and a half long.

Juana Inés: This brilliant show is a biopic of Juana Inés de la Cruz, a self-taught woman growing up in 17th-century Mexico. The show begins with her being dropped off at court to try to be a lady-in-waiting. She wins favor with her beautiful poems and secretly steals books from the library to continue her education. The presiding Spanish ruler learns about this and becomes furious, which leads to my personal favorite scene when she beats up a crowd of learned men. In order to continue learning, she tries to become the tutor for the viceroy’s daughter, but first, de la Cruz is grilled on every matter of science, philosophy, theology and history by all of the learned men in Mexico City. She fearlessly answers every question flawlessly. “Juana Inés” is definitely a binge-worthy show and is inspirational for those who might need a bit of extra motivation to get back to school after Thanksgiving break. The show’s dialogue is in Spanish and has captions in Spanish, English, French and both simplified and traditional Chinese. It’s a Netflix original production, and each episode is around 50 minutes long.

The I.T. Crowd: The “I.T. Crowd” is a hilarious workplace sitcom that focuses on funny and often awkward interactions between com-

puter developers and an out-of-touch management. The show begins when Jen Barber (Katherine Parkinson) creatively expands her computer skills on her resume and is hired to be the head of I.T. at a British company. To the two men in I.T. whose boss Barber becomes, it is immediately apparent that she is totally out of her depth. However, they’re unsuccessful in firing her because the company’s CEO threatens to completely cut any department that can’t work as a team. The show has a strange yet charming feel and is especially funny for those who feel some affinity for the I.T. realm.

This show, which premiered on Channel 4 in the U.K., is currently streaming on Netflix, with each episode ranging between 20 and 30 minutes.

Chef ’s Table: This show is the perfect way to spend hours watching a cooking show while still feeling really classy. It is a Netflix original documentary that highlights one world class chef in each episode. The show takes time to explore each chef ’s life and career path, as well as their creative inspiration and the way they set themselves apart in the food industry. Each chef is incredibly different, and the food is so beautifully shot and portrayed that you can honestly watch it for hours without being bored. Furthermore, unlike many cooking shows that pressure contestants under restrictive constraints to heighten the suspense, this show gives the chefs all the space they need to create and communicate their art.

“Chef ’s Table” makes sure to interview chefs

of diverse backgrounds from all around the world, so viewers get a sense of how different culinary artists incorporate their upbringing into their art. While some of the chefs are definitely people I never want to have to work with, many are inspiring artists who have an amazing passion for their work. I will warn you, though — this show will make you wish you had endless funds to travel the world and try all of the food. “Chef ’s Table” is another Netflix offering, and each episode has a runtime of around 45 minutes.

Black Mirror: “Black Mirror” is an engrossing science fiction show that focuses on the potentially negative effects of technology on our lives and relationships. The show’s creator, Charlie Brooker, described it as being “about the way we live now — and the way we may be living in 10 minutes if we’re clumsy.” Each episode has a different premise, but all are linked by a similar focus on humanity’s relationship with technology, insightfully critiquing the way that technology changes how we view each other and society as a whole. For instance, the episode “Nosedive” looks at a world where every person is rated out of five stars based on social interactions with other people. While nothing about this episode is gory and there are no jump scares, it is nevertheless completely chilling. I would definitely recommend starting with one of the episodes in Season 3 for a softer introduction to the show. The show is on Netflix, and each episode is about an hour long.

Amherst Adaptation of Avant-Garde Play Receives Mixed Reactions Continued from Page 6 manipulative at times. I was genuinely afraid to express my opinion. That doesn’t seem like a collaborative process to me.”

The play reaches a climax after Peer instigates a third world war in a confusing scene involving trade negotiations between the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The ensembles mimes a war scene as Peer hides behind a plush red chair on stage right. The actors all die onstage as Peer approaches the audience to tell them that he lost his entire fortune in the war, seeming to seek empathy from an audience not sure what to think about this character. Peer decides to go home where he is confronted by the button

maker informing him of his imminent death and fate of becoming a regular button if he cannot prove that he lived to his full potential. Peer tries to find someone to vouch for him but realizes everyone hates him and won’t fall for his tricks anymore.

He begins a monologue questioning his past actions. This monologue becomes a dialogue as one by one the ensemble members come upstage dressed as versions of Peer and debate with themselves on whether or not they lived to their fullest potential by only serving themselves. As they come to the realization that Peer had not been a good person, they insist that it’s human nature to seek your best interest. We are all selfish, some just more than others. “We are all Peer

Gynt,” they begin to say in unison, facing the audience as the house lights come up, exposing us to the actors as they continue to debate whether or not their selfishness can be excused.

This scene, called the “onion scene” by the actors, originally involved the actors throwing around an onion as they debated, each taking a turn peeling off a layer as they dissected the character they played together. The actors then entered the house and surrounded the audience as they continued this debate about morality.

The onion was eventually omitted, though, in order to reduce the risk of audience injury. The debate concluded with the cast frantically asking audience members to come on stage and vouch for Peer Gynt. To everyone’s surprise, including

Eliraz’s, many people did give in to the actors’ harassment and gave their opinion about the actor on stage. More than half of them supported Peer, asserting that everyone is indeed selfish and thus excusing his terrible actions.

The play takes a jarring shift back into normal play mode for Peer’s death scene. YbarraYoung plays this final Peer, who accepts his death and gives a dramatic monologue, which YbarraYoung described as “cheesy,” about how he, Peer Gynt, will continue to live inside of everyone no matter what. Peer lays down to die, and the ensemble members, no longer dressed as Peer, roll him off stage as the button maker flicks a plain button into the air, letting it land behind him on the plain yellow carpet covering the stage.

The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

Arts & Living 8

DASAC Blends the Past World of Hip-Hop into a Modern Work

Photo courtesy of DASAC

The DASAC show this weekend centered on the theme of “Old School vs. New School“ and also stirred up a commentary on different types of confidence.

Brandon Medina ’19 Staff Writer Dance and Step at Amherst College (DASAC) hosted its fall show this past weekend, and in it, the group once again exemplified how to combine style, agility and audience engagement in a performance piece. The theme for this show was “Old School vs. New School”, but after a few minutes watching the show, it became clear to me that this was really a show about two schools of confidence. There is the cocky, big-headed kind of confidence that constitutes the old school. Then there’s the fierce, elegant confidence, full of poise and charisma, the kind that we all have wished for at some point but few have actually attained— this represents the new school. Although the show dramatizes the juxtaposition of these two schools of confidence, making them out to be in conflict with each other, the two forms come together to create a dynamic balance between corny charm and unapologetic fierceness.

As Anise Diaz ’18, co-director of DASAC, notes before every DASAC performance, the audience is also a part of the show. The show would not be as exciting without the enthusiastic support of the audience, as is true with any engaging performance piece. DASAC has always been specific about what its art celebrates — the dance styles of the African diaspora —

but this show was perhaps the strongest example of the group showcasing the urban politics these dances have their roots in. The show was filled with colorful pants, baseball caps, jackets and every other style of dress that one might find in a 1990’s or 2000’s R&B music video. And when I watched those music videos — made

by Chris Brown, Soulja Boy and Usher — as a kid, I always danced along and the rest of my sisters would too, young as they were. In essence, many of the segments in this piece felt like parts of a really enjoyable, nostalgic 2000’s music video, only the energetic camerawork was replaced by lighting and the thrill of seeing friends and classmates.

This show exhibited more virtuoso athleticism than DASAC usually has, including many more back flips, splits and an impressive section where all the dancers on stage performed balancing moves with chairs. This greater emphasis on athleticism, along with the traditional “themed breakdance number,” inspired

by Pokémon this fall, gave the show a much younger and more carefree vibe than previous DASAC shows. The participation of the audience was vital, because when the dancers were not competing with each other in dance battles, they were daring people to challenge their style, much like in a nostalgic music video. It was a return to a younger, cockier kind of confidence that made us laugh, and more importantly, re-

member a simpler time when confidence could also be silly.

In other pieces, the dancers wore more traditionally “elegant” costumes and danced to more modern music, but I could clearly see the connection between the earlier era and the current era. One of the pieces that clearly showed the correlation between old and new confidence was “Wine Night,” choreographed

by SJ Doi ’18. This piece, using music by SZA and Kelly Rowland among others, evoked the sensation of watching someone being coyly elegant, trying to impress their partner. The dancers were slow and sensual, and their slow movements gave off a chill and subtly adventurous vibe, just enough to impress the audience while still maintaining the feeling of a quiet internal confidence.

While I would not necessarily call the connection between the two schools of confidence one of maturity, I would call it an evolution.

Obviously, there are still people who exude the kind of confidence represented as old-school in this show, but I think that that old-school confidence provides the foundation for the confidence that protects us from the harsher aspects of our lives. We strive to develop a confidence that cannot be questioned, one that is intimidating, self-assured and magnetic: this confidence goes well with the age of social media, where we post the best versions of ourselves,

photos of us literally glowing in pictures — a kind of confidence that most certainly cannot be undermined. Some of the dances that brought this new-school energy were “Now Watch the Queen Conquer” by Anise Diaz ’18 and “Yayo” by Matthew Holliday ’19. In fact, this dichotomy was best presented in the number “Old School vs. New School,” choreographed by Kameron Millner ’19.

In this number, presented relatively early in the show, the moves and attitude of the 90’s and 2000’s face off against their 2017 counterparts.

The come-ons and squeaky-clean charisma of the old-school juxtapose sharply with the mature, even-keeled charisma of the new-school.

The piece ends with the two schools no longer battling but dancing together, and this made me realize the connection between the two aesthetics. We constantly try to balance our goofy, charming side while also trying to build up our toughness knowing that we’ll need it more often, especially in college and the real world.

The show brings back these earlier, younger versions of confidence to remind us that corniness and seriousness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The confidence that we get from dancing to a music video alone is simply the foundation for the confidence that we develop facing challenges in our identities or in our everyday lives. And that is a school for which class is always in session.

Swedish Rapper Yung Lean Lacks Personal Evolution in “Stranger”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Yung Lean falls short on his album by failing to push forward new techniques.

Hugh Ford ’20 Staff Writer Since the release of his 2013 debut mixtape, “Unknown Death 2002,” Swedish alternative rapper Yung Lean has held an odd place in the hip-hop world. As a European, he started out as an outsider in the largely-American genre. Many Americans viewed his melodic and occasionally nonsensical rap about drugs and sadness as a joke, not to be taken seriously.

Over the years, Yung Lean has continued to ignore this criticism and stick to his own style. Since 2013, though, the market for such songs has grown

immensely, and Yung Lean’s influence can be heard in the music of many up-and-coming artists like Nav and Lil Peep. Now that his style has become mainstream, Yung Lean must answer the question of whether he can still own it.

Last Friday, the self-proclaimed “Sad Boy” released his third studio album, “Stranger.” “Stranger” follows up his 2016 “Frost God” mixtape, which included a long list of features, most notably Harlem rapper A$AP Ferg.

On “Stranger,” Yung Lean prefers to stand alone.

Over the course of the 14-track project, Yung Lean ambitiously bares himself for the world to take or leave.

However, the project’s vision is only partially realized. “Stranger,” while possibly Yung Lean’s most developed album, oscillates between moments of beauty and boredom.

“Stranger” is somewhat perplexing. The cover art hints at a dark tone, yet most of the production on the tape is light and airy, similar to what we’ve seen on past Yung Lean projects. The production is actually quite strong and adds to the melancholy atmospheric sound of the album, but it rarely takes Yung Lean in new directions. Two exceptions are “Skimask” and “Fallen Demon,” in which the beats are more aggressive and Yung Lean’s flow matches such a tone. “Fallen Demon” paints a dark, chaotic picture of wealth and drugs.

Unfortunately, on “Skimask,” Yung Lean takes a less conflicted, more braggadocious approach to these same topics that have been rehashed over and over in hip-hop in recent years.

Perhaps Yung Lean’s most attractive quality is his originality. When he is unique, he shines. When he is formulaic, he suffers. The best tracks of the tape take advantage of his unique atmosphere and enhance it with a combination of fantastical imagery and references to drugs and melancholy.

Over the spacey beats of “Stranger,” Yung Lean alternates between nonchalant rapping and syrupy AutoTuned crooning to capture the feeling of gloom. Melodic songs like “Red Bottom Sky,” “Silver Arrows” and “Hunting My Own Skin” create a feeling of distance with the use of AutoTune.

Yung Lean combines this distance with psychedelic lyrical landscapes that are punctuated by short allusions to heartache. On more rap-oriented tracks,

like the opener “Muddy Sea” and the closing track “Yellowman,” Yung Lean uses his flat, emotionless flow to the same effect.

A moment of brilliance on the album is the penultimate track, “Agony,” where Yung Lean is at his most emotional and raw. Set against a simple piano melody with lyrics grounded in reality, “Agony” perfectly expresses heartache and isolation.

Yung Lean’s usually monotonous voice, cracks with pain and an ethereal children’s choir joins him as the outro fades into haze.

Despite these highlights, “Stranger” is set back by tracks like “Drop It/Scooter” and “Iceman,” among others, which feature overly repetitive hooks. The general concept behind these songs is to create a sense of apathy through repetition.

However, to the ear, they quickly become boring as the tracks stretch on. Many other artists like Lil Uzi Vert and Nav have recently employed this formula to such an extent that it doesn’t sound unique coming from Yung Lean.

With “Stranger” Yung Lean has put forth his most complete album yet. However, I think it would be a mistake to say that this album pushes his music forward in any major way.

On “Stranger,” Yung Lean often reverts back to his tested sound. Yung Lean might be the original “Sad Boy,” but the popularity of his style necessarily means evolution. As new artists come into the scene and expand upon Yung Lean’s ideas, one wonders if he can keep up. “Stranger” is a decent album with some quality music on it, but it still leaves Yung Lean’s role in the future of hip-hop in question.

The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

Sports 9

Men’s Cross Country Qualifies for National Championships For the fourth year in a row, the Amherst Men’s Cross Country team qualified for the NCAA DIII Cross Country National Championship.

The Mammoths placed second to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 91 points to the 81 scored by the Engineers. The top two teams at every regional meet automatically qualify for nationals.

The University of Southern Maine hosted the meet, but the race took place at the Gorham Country Club, a golf course in Gorham, Maine. The course had a few moderate hills, but the more striking factors were the cold temperatures and occasional gusts of wind.

For the second time this season, Clark Ricciardelli ’20E led the Mammoths. The sophomore placed fifth in the 370-person field with a time of 25:34, moving up the field throughout the race.

With his finish, Ricciardelli earned All-Region honors in his debut cross country season.

With his eighth place finish, Mo Hussein ’18 earned his fourth consecutive All-Region honor, having helped the Mammoths qualify for nationals in all of his four seasons at Amherst.

Next weekend at nationals, Hussein looks to earn another All-American honor in cross country, as he earned All-American honors in his first year and sophomore seasons.

Coming in third for the Mammoths was Cosmo Brossy ’19, who placed 18th overall.

This is the junior’s first All-Region honor and will be his second trip to Nationals.

Just behind his classmate Brossy was Tucker Meijer ’19 who placed 21st and also gar-

nered All-Region honors.

Last year, Meijer was the team’s alternate for both Regionals and Nationals, and his success and persistence this year have been key for the Mammoths.

The fifth scoring runner for the Mammoths was Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20, who had a solid race to place 39th.

Though the sophomore just missed AllRegion honors, as only the top-35 finishers earn that honor, his improvement this year has brought him to Amherst’s top seven, and he has contributed to the Mammoths’ success as a team.

Finishing as the team’s sixth runner was Kristian Sogaard ’19, who placed 50th.

The 800-meter All-American has had a solid season on the trails, and looks to continue that next weekend for his second trip to cross country nationals.

The team’s seventh and final runner was Jack Wesley ’18, who finished 87th. The senior has had a stellar season, factoring into Amherst’s top 7 for the first time in his collegiate career.

Captain Justin Barry ’18 will travel to Elsah, IL, with the team for nationals as the team’s alternate and eighth runner. Barry has also had a stellar senior season alongside his classmates Hussein and Wesley.

“It was a great team effort and everyone ran like they needed to.” Ricciardelli said “We’re excited we qualified and are moving onto Nationals, and we can hopefully keep performing at Nationals and make something happen” The Mammoths will travel to Elsah, Ill. for nationals this Saturday, where they seek to defeat regional rival MIT and best their previous highest team finish. The team placed ninth in 2014, 10th in 2015, and 12th in 2016.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Jack Wesley ’19 ran the 8k race in a time of 27:01.2 this weekend.

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Jamie Mazzola ’21 Columnist Jamie Mazzola turns in his sights on the start of the Celtics season, the impact of the injury to Gordon Hayward, and the potential positive benefits to take away from that injury.

November 3, 2017 With a mere 3.7 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Kyrie Irving drained his second free-throw, effectively ending the game. The Boston Celtics prevailed over the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-94, the Celtics’ seventh consecutive victory and a miraculous turnaround after being down 55-37 at the half. The Celtics are now 7-2, the best record in the NBA. After acquiring AllStar swingman Gordon Hayward and All-Star point guard Irving over the offseason, along with this year’s number three draft pick in Jayson Tatum, this seemed the start fans were promised.

On the surface, however, that could not be further from the truth.

Furthermore, during the offseason, the Warriors added marksmen Nick Young and Omri Casspi as well as Jordan Bell, a rookie out of Oregon with exceptional physical tools that have manifested into tough defense and offensive flair.

Hayward’s injury is the best thing that could have happened to the 2018-19 Celtics.

No, I did not forget that it is still the 2017-18 NBA season. Hayward’s injury has accelerated the development of sophomore Jaylen Brown and rookie Jayson Tatum, and these two young players are bearing almost unfathomable burdens for their levels of experience. Look at Tatum’s game against the Thunder. With Irving an abysmal 1-9 from the field in the first half and October 17, 2017 Horford seemingly inKyrie is second in the league in terms of Five minutes and 10 visible, Tatum was forced total deflections (36) and eighth in loose seconds into the first to step up and keep the balls recovered (13). game of the 2017-18 Celtics, albeit remotely, NBA season, the ball in the game. The likeliwas in the air. It was a hood of Hayward, Irving routine alley-oop from and Horford simultaneIrving to Hayward, no different from the type of ously shutting down for an entire half is infinitesiplay Hayward had perfected as a member of the mal, but this Celtics team no longer has Hayward.

Utah Jazz. However, Hayward went down.

“There’s been a lot of times when I’ve been Jayson Tatum will not be the Rookie of the Year. knocked off balance in the air,” Hayward later His play and adjustment to the league has more wrote. “There’s been times when I’ve had close than justified Danny Ainge’s choice to trade away calls, when I’ve come down pretty hard. And for the number one pick in the draft and pick up Tathe most part, I’ve always been fine. I just bounced tum at three over Josh Jackson, the consensus third right back up.” best player in the draft at the time. This year’s draft This time, however, he did not bounce right class is one of the deepest ever, yet the Rookie of back up; he broke his leg. the Year will be Ben Simmons, who was drafted In suffering one of the most gruesome inju- with the first overall pick in June of 2016 and ries in NBA history, Hayward changed the NBA missed the entirety of last season due to injury. It’s landscape. Having just reunited with Celtics coach simply impossible to deny Simmons’s near-tripleBrad Stevens, who he had played under at Butler double season average.

University, Hayward was set to be the centerpiece All of this success has not stopped Celtics of the new-look Celtics. fans from asking “what if ” questions regarding How could a team go from losing arguably its Hayward. If anything, it’s increased the number best player to owning the best record in the NBA of these questions. So far, the Celtics have played in the short span of nine games? While there’s no remarkably well in the 2017-18 NBA season, and way to definitively pinpoint the precise reason for they will be exceptional in the 2018-19 campaign this remarkable turnaround, Boston’s defense at as well. Indeed, if players could only shoot from this point in the season has been nothing short a seated position during the upcoming 2018-19 of sublime. The Celtics currently have a league- NBA season, I’m confident Gordon Hayward leading team defensive rating of 95.6. Beyond that, would claim MVP honors. If you don’t believe me, Boston’s starters rank first (Al Horford), second watch some videos of him sitting in a chair at the (Kyrie Irving), third (Jaylen Brown), fifth (Jayson Celtics practice facility, receiving and distributing Tatum) and 17th (Aron Baynes) in the league in passes while drilling shots. No other NBA player defensive win-shares. No active Celtics player will get this kind of in-chair practice during the ranked within the top 30 last year. That is, no ac- next several months. tive Celtics player besides Hayward, who ranked seventh in the league. These win-share totals by Note: Statistics reflect the first nine games of the Boston’s five best players are not, however, unprec- NBA season in accordance to what was available edented. In fact, last year’s Golden State Warriors when the article was written. Given the difference had players ranked first (Draymond Green), third in teams’ schedules, this method was the only way to (Stephen Curry), fourth (Klay Thompson), 10th ensure all players (and teams) had an equal amount (Kevin Durant) and 13th (Andre Iguodala) in the of season experience. The Celtics now have the exact same statistical category. That Warriors team league’s best record at 13-2, wining games against went on to win the NBA championship on the the Charlotte Hornets and the Toronto Raptors back of a 16-1 playoff run. without point guard Kyrie Irving.

“

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Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer

Jamie’s Jabber

Takes, truths, and takeaways Kyrie Irving is great defender.

A 6’1” point guard with a 6’4” wingspan, Kyrie is not your prototypical basketball defensive-stopper. While he does have quick hands, Kyrie had lacked many tools of a top defender, most notably any semblance of effort on the defensive end.

That’s the old Kyrie. No, Kyrie did not grow taller or longer over the offseason, but he did, upon request, get traded from the Cavaliers to the Celtics.

The difference in effort is palpable. Hustle statistics are a great way to display effort not normally reflected in traditional statistics. Of note, On the flashier end of defensive statistics, Kyrie also leads the league in total steals (23).

The Celtics will not win an NBA title this year.

Yes, the Celtics have performed brilliantly over the past few weeks, but the Warriors are a deeper team. You may argue that the Celtics have been incredibly productive in the second halves of games, citing the contest against the Thunder as a strong example, whereas the Warriors have blown a few too many late leads. These blown leads are more an indicator of conditioning, however, and the Warriors will be considerably fitter by postseason.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Kyrie Irving led the league in the first several games of the season.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

Football Falls to Rival Williams in Overtime Despite Late Comeback

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Michael Stone ’21

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Craig Carmilani ’19 had 21 receptions this season for a total of 412 yards, including 101 receiving yards and a touchdown catch against Williams.

Talia Land ’20 Staff Writer Despite scoring 21 points in the second half, the Amherst football team was unable to best the Williams Ephs this past weekend, losing the game 31-24 in overtime.

However, the annual battle did not disappoint in Williamstown, going into overtime for the first time since 2001.

Despite the frigid temperatures on game day, the turnout was impressive, with several busloads of Amherst students showing up for Williams’ homecoming festivities.

The Mammoths scored their only points of the first half on their opening drive, when quarterback Ollie Eberth ’20 led the Mammoths down the field with three passing plays.

John Rak ’19 proceeded to nail a 29-yard field goal to cap off the drive, putting the visitors up 3-0 with five minutes left in the first quarter.

Following that drive, the Ephs put together several scoring drives to give the hosts a 17-3 halftime lead.

Williams’ first drive was successful thanks to several nice passes by quarterback Bobby Maimaron. Eventually, Maimaron sealed off the drive with a 4-yard scamper into the end zone.

Soon thereafter, the Ephs quickly marched into Amherst territory, but Amherst’s defense stood strong, holding the hosts to just a field goal, which put the Ephs up 10-3.

Following an Amherst three-and-out, Williams scored one more time before heading into halftime.

Maimaron registered an 18-yard rush and a 23-yard completion to Rashad Morrison to move the Eph offense within a yard of the end zone, before finishing off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown rush.

The second half saw another quick Williams touchdown, which gave the hosts a 24-3 cushion 6:27 into the third quarter.

However, Amherst didn’t back down. Senior quarterback Reece Foy quickly led the Mammoth offense down the field, finding Craig Carmilani ’18 for a 33-yard touchdown make it 24-10 with just over 20 minutes to go in the game.

Following several frustrating possessions by the Mammoths, Foy once again came up big for the visitors, connecting with Carmilani for a 3- yard gain before Bo Berluti ’19 sealed the deal, catching a 13-yard TD in the back of the end zone.

However, Rak failed to make the extra point after the touchdown, so the score re-

mained 24-16 in favor of Williams.

John Ballard ’20 came up big on defense on William’s next drive, grabbing an interception and taking it all the way into the end zone for the Amherst pick-six.

Foy found Berluti for the two point conversion, completing Amherst’s comeback and tying the score at 24-24 with seven minutes remaining in regulation time.

Neither team was able to score in the final minutes, sending the historic game into overtime.

On defense first, Amherst was unable to hold off the Ephs, as Maimaron bullied his way into the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown run, his fourth score of the day.

Unfortunately, Amherst came up just short on their attempt at evening the score again.Foy’s fourth-down pass attempt to Beau Santero ’18 was just out of reach. This allowed Williams to walk away with the 31-24 win. With the loss, Amherst closed out their season, with a final record of 7-2. On the other hand, Williams improved their season record to 6-3.

With Amherst’s loss, Trinity won the NESCAC title for a second consecutive year.

Favorite Team Memory: Working hard with my teammates Favorite Pro Athlete: Lebron Jame Dream Job: Working in the front office for a professional sports team Pet Peeve: Not giving 100 percent effort Favorite Vacation Spot: New York Cit Something on Your Bucket List: Visiting the Seven Wonders of the World Guilty Pleasure: Staying up late Favorite Food: Peanut butter and jelly Favorite Thing About Amherst: The opportunity to be a student athlete How He Earned It: Stone started the last two games for the Mammoths, securing Amherst wins in each of the men’s soccer team’s first two matches of the NCAA tournament. On Nov. 11, in a 2-1 win over Salem State, Stone made four saves on five shots. The next day, Stone played 110 minutes in a win over Springfield in a match that had to be decided by penalties. Stone made four saves in the match.

Stone’s strong play has been essential in the Mammoths’ run to the Sweet Sixteen.

Kristen Ratliff ’20 Favorite Team Memory: Team trip to Flayvors Favorite Pro Athlete: Emma Coburn Dream Job: Cardiologist Pet Peeve: Slow walkers Favorite Vacation Spot: Austin, Texas, to visit my grandparents Something on Your Bucket List: Go to Europe Guilty Pleasure: Binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy Favorite Food: Pasta Favorite Thing About Amherst: The awesome friends that I have made How She Earned It: Ratliff has been a consistent competitor for the Amherst women’s cross country squad that finished sixth overall at the NCAA Regionals at the University of Southern Maine on Nov. 11. Ratliff finished 28th overall in a field of 393 racers. Ratliff also raced well for the Mammoths at the NESCAC Championships, finishing 22nd overall. She is poised to take over the top spot for the Mammoths next season, as the team’s top harrier, Nicky Roberts, is due to graduate this year.

Women’s Squash Seeks Fourth Walker Cup Title in Five Years

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Kimberly Krayacich ’19 competed at the 2017 College Squash Association (CSA) Individual Championships hosted by Dartmouth last season.

Henry Newton ’21 Managing Sports Editor

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

The Mammoths saw the NESCAC title fall to Trinity on the season’s final play.

Coming off a season that saw the Amherst women’s squash team end the year ranked 18th nationally with a record of 13-7 overall and yet another College Squash Association Women’s National Team Walker Cup championship, the Mammoths are poised for another excellent campaign. This was the Mammoths’ third championship in four years, having also claimed the title in 2014 and 2015. Bates beat Amherst in the 2016 final.

This represents yet another achievement for a squad that, not too long ago, was competitive but had yet to take the next step.

The championship marked the fourth title in seven years for the Amherst women’s squash team, a remarkable feat considering that they had never won a title before 2009.

Buoyed by this success, and a solid core of both returning and new competitors, the team will look to again attain the previous year’s heights while potentially improving its national ranking.

One of the only failings of last year’s team was a dismal record of 1-6 against ranked op-

ponents.

Looking to help improve upon this unfortunate record is an incoming class of five first-years and one transfer from Columbia, Pierson Klein ’20.

Some of these newcomers will be called on early to fill big roles, but this year’s team has the luxury of allowing these younger competitors to develop lower on the ladder, as the team lost only three seniors to graduation.

The team starts this campaign with a preseason ranking of 17th in the nation and will have to navigate a challenging slate of foes over the next few months.

Above all else, the Mammoths have circled the Little III Championships as a key matchup, which will take place at Wesleyan on Jan. 27.

Williams, Wesleyan and Amherst are each ranked inside the preseason top 20, so it will surely be a competitive and intense affair and likely have seeding implications for the NESCAC tournament, which begins less than a week later on Feb. 2.

The Mammoths open the season on Friday, Nov. 16 against 19th-ranked Tufts, and will play the next afternoon against Boston University, which does not field a varsity team.

The Amherst Student • November 15, 2017

Sports

Women’s Cross Country Fails to Qualify for DIII National Tournament Jamie Mazzola ’19 Staff Writer This past weekend, the Amherst Women’s cross country team competed at this year’s edition of the NCAA DIII New England Regionals women’s cross-country meet hosted by the the University of Southern Maine. The Mammoths traversed the 6k course at the Gorham Country Club golf course in frigid conditions, making the meet considerably colder than any other race this fall.

“In the end, the weather was really a nonfactor, as everyone was in their element come start time,” assistant coach Danny Feldman said.

The regional meet served as a qualifier for NCAA DIII Cross Country National Championships, as the top two teams earned an automatic bid to the national meet. Additionally, a total of sixteen teams across all regions were selected for at-large bids based on their showings at the different regional meets. With a mere 58 points, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed the first automatic qualifying spot, while Tufts placed second with 92 points to earn the other automatic qualifier.

The Mammoths placed sixth with 183 points, behind Williams (106 points), Middlebury (113 points) and Bates (150 points).

This put Amherst in contention for an atlarge bid, which they just missed out on recieving.

“I know the women were disappointed to not be selected for the NCAA championships, but ultimately, we’re at the mercy of a selection committee balancing a number of factors,” coach Cassie Funke-Harris said. “[Amherst] beat a number of nationally ranked teams who were chosen for at-large bids to the national championships earlier in the season at the Paul Short Invitational.”

On the individual side, senior Nicky Roberts claimed second overall in the race with a time of 20:31.3. She earned All-Region honors and was the runner-up to Coast Guard Academy first-year Kaitlyn Mooney, who finished with a time of 20:22.6. In a field of 393 runners, Roberts set a personal record and qualifed for the national meet in the process, as the first seven athletes in each region not on a qualifying team are chosen to participate in the national meet. “[Roberts is] having a storybook senior

year so far, and I’m so happy for her to be headed back to the NCAA championships,” Funke-Harris said. “She has battled injury over the last two years, and it’s fantastic to see her fit, fast, and ready to compete.”

Sophomore Kristin Ratliff (22:11.5) placed 28th, followed closely by first-year Haley Greene (22:16.0) in 33rd. Both runners garnered All-Region honors and set personal records as well. Rounding out the team’s top-five runners, Olivia Polischeck ’21 (22:40.8) and Lela Walter ’19 (22:43.4) placed 61st and 63rd, respectively. Both runners set new personal records. Junior Veronica Rocco (23:02.2) placed 76th, and first-year Sarah Gayer (23:20.5) placed 97th.

With the season over for the rest of the team, Roberts will shoulder the Mammoths’ hopes of further postseason honors. Roberts closes her final season of collegiate cross country running at the NCAA DIII National Cross Country Championships this Saturday, Nov. 18, at North Farm Facility in Elsah, Ill.

The Hot Corner Jack Malague ’19 Columnist Jack Malague makes the case that the arrival of Japanese ace Shohei Otani, who boasts both pitching and hitting prowess, in the MLB will have a major impact on the game.

Japanese pitcher Shohei Otani announced this weekend that he is making himself available to Major League Baseball as an international free agent, beginning the most intriguing bidding contest in recent memory. Otani currently plays professionally in Japan for the Nippon-Ham Fighters, and before you laugh, remember that two MLB teams are named after sock colors.

In just over five seasons as a professional, Otani has compiled a 42-15 record with a 2.52 ERA. This past year, despite injuries to his thigh and ankle, he posted a .335 average with eight homers in 65 games. And now he is bringing his two-way show to the States.

This should make any baseball fan absolutely giddy. Nobody since Babe Ruth has even approached this degree of two-way potential.

This is like a quarterback who spends time in the trenches as a defensive lineman, or a shot putter who also runs the marathon. It’s the athletic equivalent of working both at NASA and the Louvre. Pitchers simply do not hit that well; on half of the major league teams, they don’t hit at all. Each year, Louisville Slugger bestows the Silver Slugger award upon the best hitter at each position. In 2017, the award went to Adam

“

Nobody since Babe Ruth has even approached this degree of two-way potential.

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Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Haley Greene ’21 finished 32nd with a time of 22:16.0 for the 6k race.

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Wainwright, who hit .262 across 24 games, a breathtakingly mediocre average that meant even less when one remembers his horrid pitching numbers from this year. Otani threatens to bring a level of power and consistent hitting that rivals MLB MVP candidates. Ichiro Suzuki, a sure fire Hall of Fame inductee on the basis of his hitting alone, hit .353 in his time in Japan, which, though superior to Otani’s numbers, is still comparable. Hideki Matsui, a two-time All-Star and 2009 World Series MVP, hit only .304 in Japan.

And this is all in addition to a lights-out pitching repertoire. Otani has hit 102 miles per hour with his fastball, the fastest pitch ever recorded in Nippon Professional Baseball. Between his heaters, he baffles hitters with a kneebuckling splitter and a wipeout slider, all of which make for an entertaining highlight reel.

Some commentators have reminded their audiences of the fact that Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball are not the same league, arguing that we should place little stock in someone we have never seen on Sunday Night Baseball. But it is not as if he has been playing American Legion Ball for the past five years. Japanese players such as Matsui and Ichiro have shown that success in NPB can predict MLB potential just as well as success in the minor leagues in the U.S. Otani even faced a team of MLB All-Stars during an exhibition game back in 2014, and made some good hitters look really bad. Nor have international scouts ignored Otani, and their reviews are clear — he’s good.

As mentioned, Otani has had a couple injuries in the past year. But, he is an established young star and, without a doubt, the most prized international free agent available this offseason.

In 2012, Yu Darvish, a former Nippon-Ham Fighters star, signed a six-year, $60 million contract with the Texas Rangers. In 2014, Masahiro Tanaka inked a monstrous seven year and $155 million deal with the Yankees. Neither of these pitchers carried the promise that Otani does — and neither can hit.

Yet Otani will receive only a mere fraction of what Texas and New York payed Darvish and Tanaka. Major League Baseball, in order to pre-

vent a few big-market teams from out-bidding the rest of the league, has imposed a strict cap on what teams can pay free agents younger than 25.

Otani is only 23, so he cannot expect more than a pittance by Major League standards. Otani had been on MLB scouts’ radar for some time, but they always assumed that he, like most other Japanese players, would wait until he turned 25 to make himself available for the show. Otani, however, decided he didn’t care to wait.

Granted, the “pittance” Otani will receive will still be a few million dollars, so there is little need to take up a collection for him. But, it is not every day that a professional athlete turns down a payday like the one Otani had on the horizon.

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The decision mixes a childlike disregard for wealth, a ferocious desire for competition and a swaggering confidence that he’ll have a hefty sum waiting for him when his rookie contract runs out.

”

The decision mixes a childlike disregard for wealth, a ferocious desire for competition and a swaggering confidence that he’ll have a hefty sum waiting for him when his rookie contract runs out. It’s tough not to like that. His choice also begins a courtship worthy of a reality show.

Though teams have slightly different salary allotments for international free-agency, the figures are not so different that Otani will merely be looking for the highest bidder.

The process for signing Japanese free agents is both dramatic and complicated. First, Otani’s suitors place bids for the Fighters’ blessing: serious candidates will post the $20 million maximum. Otani’s current club, with significant input from Otani himself, then will decide which MLB organization gets the rights to Otani’s services.

That team then can negotiate with Otani for 30

“

His choice also begins a courtship worthy of a reality show.

”

days, at which point he will either sign with the MLB team or stay in Japan. Since several teams will likely be willing to put up the full $20 million, Otani will have his pick of teams with which to negotiate. They’ll each attempt to persuade him of their virtues, and in his case, discuss the extent to which they will endorse his two-way aspirations.

It would be truly tragic if he signed with a National League team: without a designated hitter, he would need to play in the field four of every five days in order to find a way into the lineup. Most teams probably would not like to see their star pitcher roaming right field, trying to throw out runners the day after a start, so that might mean the end of his hitting days. An American League team, however, could put him and his smooth lefty swing in the DH spot and at least give the experiment a little longer to play out.

As baseball looks for marketable and exciting talent, it can do no better than Otani. Like a magician preparing the audience to witness an impossible feat, Shohei Otani has made clear what he plans to do and that we should doubt him at our own risk.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Cutler Coleman ’20 led the team in shots on goal from his wide left position with five against Salem State University in the NCAA DIII Tournament.

Men’s Soccer Defeats Springfield and Salem State to Advance to Sweet Sixteen Delancey King ’19 Staff Writer After a disappointing loss in the NESCAC quarterfinals, the Amherst men’s soccer team has seized upon the opportunity to redeem itself in the NCAA tournament.

With wins over both Salem State University and Springfield College this weekend, the Mammoths advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the eighth consecutive season.

On Saturday, a late goal from Fikayo Ajayi ’19 allowed Amherst to secure a 2-1 victory over Salem State.

The Mammoths dominated the match from the first whistle, outshooting the Vikings 23-8 and earning a total of 12 corner kicks to Salem State’s one.

However, Amherst struggled to capitalize in the run of play. The Mammoths were able

GAME SCHE DULE

to get on the board in the 23rd minute when Ajayi buried a penalty kick, but that was the hosts’ only goal of the half.

Only eight minutes into the second half, Salem State’s Alex Carvajal picked up a red card, forcing the Vikings to play out the game a man down. Salem State had been outplayed for the majority of the game up to that point, and Carvajal’s ejection seemed like it would be the final nail in the coffin for the Vikings.

However, the Vikings’ Grace Dos Santos made things interesting when he snuck a shot past Amherst keeper Michael Stone ’21 to tie the game with just over a quarter of the game to go.

In the final 20 minutes of the match, both teams looked dangerous. Jimmy McMillian ’20 first rang a shot off the post in the 73rd minute. Ten minutes later, the Vikings created perhaps their best chance of the game, when

off of a corner kick. Cam Powell headed the ball on frame, and though Stone made the initial save, Jimmy Wilcox tapped in the rebound to knot the game at one goal apiece.

After two scoreless periods of overtime, in which both teams came close to scoring the “golden goal,” the game went to penalty kicks. Having proven himself to be excellent in close-range situations, senior goalie Lee Owen came in for Stone in the shootout and managed to save one of Springfield’s four attempts on goal.

Springfield’s other three takers failed to put their shots on frame, leaving Amherst only needing two goals to win. Thanks to composed finishes by Weller Hlinomaz ’18 and Felix Wu ’21, the Mammoths easily won the shootout 2-0 and secured a spot in the third round of the tournament against the University of Rochester this Saturday.

SAT

FRI Women’s Squash vs. Tufts, 6 p.m.

Men’s Ice Hockey vs. Hamilton, 7 p.m.

Men’s Basketball Ken Wright Invitational, 6 p.m.

Women’s Ice Hockey @ Conn. College, 7 p.m.

Men’s Squash vs. Tufts, 6 p.m.

Salem State’s leading scorer Mayele Malango found himself one on one with Stone.

However, Stone expertly closed down Malango’s angle to make the save. Just a few minutes after Malango’s chance, Ajayi notched his fifth goal of the season by swinging a corner kick into the back of the Vikings’ net to seal Amherst’s progress to the next round.

Sunday proved to be another close call, as the Mammoths bested Springfield College in a penalty-kick shootout.

Once again, Amherst got on the board first when sophomore midfielder Luke Nguyen recorded his first goal of the season in the 28th minute. Receiving a ball 30 yards out, Nguyen launched a rocket into the back of the net.

The Pride were unable to tie the game until the 73rd minute, when they scored a goal

Men’s Cross Country DIII Nationals @ North Farm Facility, noon.

Women’s Cross Country DIII Nationals @ North Farm Facility, 1:15 p.m.

Women’s Squash vs. Boston University, 1 p.m.

Men’s Squash vs. Boston University, 1 p.m.

Men’s Soccer @ University of Rochester, 1:30 p.m.

Women’s Swim and Dive @ Colby, 2 p.m.

Men’s Swim and Dive @ Colby, 2 p.m.

Women’s Basketball Amherst College Tip Off Invitational, 2 p.m.