Issue 20

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

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VOLUME CXLVIII, ISSUE 20 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019

AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM

Admissions Scandal Provokes Questions About Recruiting Shawna Chen ’20 and Natalie De Rosa ’21 Editor-in-Chief and Managing News Editor

Photo courtesy of Matai Curzon ‘22

After The Student published photos of transphobic comments in the Amherst College Republicans’ GroupMe, The Judiciary Council announced on April 8 that the club would be facing disciplinary action.

AAS, Judiciary Council Reprimand ACR Shawna Chen ’20 and Zach Jonas ’22 Editor-in-Chief and Assistant News Editor The Amherst College Republicans (ACR) will face penalties after a formal complaint was filed to the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) regarding transphobic language used in the ACR GroupMe in response to the release of the Common Language Document (CLD). The Judiciary Council (JC), a body of authority under the AAS, held a private hearing on April 4 and announced its decision to the student body in an email on April 8. The hearing came after The Student published screenshots of the ACR’s GroupMe, which contained several hateful comments.

The screenshots were also circulated among the larger student community.

The JC announced that current ACR executive board (E-board) members and E-board elects must step down from their positions

and are prohibited from taking on E-board positions in any registered student organizations (RSOs) for the remainder of their college careers. To remain recognized as an RSO, ACR must release a formal statement in The Student “affirming that they condemn hate speech specifically with regards to the widely circulated incident from their GroupMe before the end of the academic year.”

The JC has also submitted a report to the Office of Community Standards and will amend the AAS Constitution to require sensitivity training for all RSO E-board members starting no later than Spring 2020.

In the email to the student body, JC Chair Daniyal Ahmad Khan ’22 wrote that the complaint involved “the continued legitimacy of the Amherst College Republicans as an AAS-funded registered student organization based on reports of discriminatory language, or hate speech.”

According to the Honor Code,

Khan continued, “Any behavior which constitutes verbal abuse of any member of the community for reasons that include, but are not limited to, race, color, religion, national origin, ethnic identification, age, political affiliation or belief, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, economic status or physical or mental disability will be regarded as a serious violation of the Honor Code, and anyone found responsible for such behavior will be sanctioned.”

JC members ruled that certain ACR members were in violation of the Honor Code and that the ACR E-board failed to uphold the AAS Constitution.

It is unclear what actions ACR will take next. In an email to ACR members obtained by The Student, ACR President Rob Barasch ’19 writes, “I’m sure you’ve all seen the email that was sent out to the entire school about our club. However, we

will be meeting tomorrow night … as usual. We will be having elections for next year’s board as planned.”

“Our meeting topic, after speeches, will be Amherst College and this whole fiasco and Judiciary Committee,” Barasch added in the email.

Members of the ACR declined to comment.

On April 9, the AAS sent an email to the student body condemning ACR’s actions. “Members of the College Republicans [made] light of the issues that transgender and other marginalized students face and [used] derisive language to bully LGBTQ+ members of our community,” the email said. “The AAS stands with students with oppressed identities and affirms our commitment to a more inclusive culture among student groups and across campus at large.”

At the private JC hearing, Lindsay Turner ’19 explained why she felt ac-

Continued on page 3

In light of Operation Varsity Blues and its fallout — actress Felicity Huffman and 15 others who were implicated in the charges of bribing and/or fraud agreed to plead guilty on Monday, April 8 — The Student examines the implications of the scandal for Amherst College and its admissions practices. This week, we take a look at athletics.

The FBI investigation, which was disclosed to the public on March 12, revealed that wealthy, upper-class parents paid anywhere from $500,000 to $6.5 million to William Rick Singer, who operated two firms involved in the scheme, to guarantee their children’s admissions into top schools including USC, Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Georgetown.

Shortly after the scandal blew up, Bloomberg published an article titled “The Amazing Admissions Advantages for Athletes at the Apex of Academia,” in which columnist Justin Fox discussed Amherst College’s admissions practices as they relate to athletics and their implications for the college admissions scandal. “If you were wondering why so many of the students caught up in the

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News March 26, 2019 – April 7, 2019

>>March 26, 2019 11:29 p.m., College Street An officer responded to a report of past incidents of verbal street harassment. >>March 30, 2019 12:34 a.m., Seelye House An officer observed party policy violations at the conclusion of a registered party.

12:52 a.m., Powerhouse Two individuals violated the school’s honor code by using prohibited devices inside a building and being disrespectful to students and employees.

1:35 a.m., Powerhouse Officers responded to a fire alarm and found it was caused by fog from the event.

7:16 p.m., Newport House Amherst Fire Department and officers responded to an alarm and found it was caused by cooking smoke.

7:28 p.m., The Octagon An officer observed an individual on the roof. >>March 31, 2019 1:32 a.m., Hitchcock Hall An officer observed an individual under the age of 21 in possession of alcohol.

4:46 p.m., Marsh House An officer responded to an alarm set off in

Mark Jacobson Fresh Faculty

a room on the second floor and found it was caused by a vape pen. >>April 1, 2019 7:41 a.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory An officer responded to a report of a bat in a building. >>April 2, 2019 3:28 p.m., Athletic Fields An officer responded to a noise complaint and found it was coming from the baseball game and was lowered prior to his arrival. >>April 3, 2019 4:37 p.m., Campus Grounds An officer responded to a report of a skunk outside and did not find the animal upon arrival.

9:59 p.m., Seelye House Officers located a towel over a light that was on and caused the towel to be hot. >>April 4, 2019 7:24 p.m., Greenway A bicycle that was stolen in the fall of 2018 was just reported on this day. >>April 6, 2019 5:03 p.m., Frost Library An officer responded to the theft of a phone from the charging station at Frost Library. >>April 7, 2019 4:51 p.m., Mead Art Museum A sim card was stolen from a phone.

Department of History

Mark Jacobson is the John J. McCloy Professor of American Institutions and International Diplomacy. He holds a doctorate in military history from the Ohio State University, among other degrees.

Q: Can you tell me about your career before you started at Amherst?

A: I originally wanted to teach history.

I went to grad school and realized that I did not know much about the history I wanted to teach, which was military and diplomatic history, because I did not have the experience of being in the military or being a diplomat. I enlisted in the Navy Reserves and in the mid90s spent some time in the Balkans, which gave me the opportunity to get a more thorough grounding and understanding of the people I was trying to teach. My passion for public policy brought me to D.C. in 1998 as a Presidential Management intern. Here, I gave a two-year probationary tour in government with the hope of extending into a career in civil service. I worked in the Pentagon, dealing with policy issues such as counternarcotics, counterterrorism and strategy. I shifted my focus to the War on Terror after 9/11, but resigned to finish my Ph.D. at Ohio State because I had not finished my dissertation in political warfare and propaganda. Upon completion, I went to Afghanistan for a year as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve in 2006. When I got back, I went to Capitol Hill and served on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, working for then-Michigan Senator Carl Levin, while simultaneously balancing a career as a reservist. I went back to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011 with General Stanley McChrystal and General David Petraeus as their foreign policy advisor and eventually took a role as deputy NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] senior civilian representative to Afghanistan. Essentially, I was the number two for the “NATO Embassy” — which is in quotes because there was no NATO Embassy — and

helped coordinate civilian aspects of war. All this time, I had a love for teaching. I wanted to bring the experiences I have had to the classroom because understanding history is crucial to making informed decisions.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the classes you are teaching?

A: Being the McCloy professor, I have the opportunity to teach what I really want to teach. One class I am teaching this semester is “The Modern American Experience of War Through Literature and Film.” Given the fact that our nation has been at war for two decades, it is important to understand the experiences of the young men and women who have fought in these wars. It is also important to grasp the horrific nature of combat in order to understand the generation that went to war. The way to understand is to look at what has been written and produced, whether it is memoirs or pieces of fiction written by veterans or historians. The other class I am teaching is “Strategy and the Art of War.” Strategy is fundamental to our understanding of conflicts and history, the way in which the United States develops approaches to national security and the philosophies of how we have problem-solved for foreign affairs and national security. This is essential to understanding how the government works and it will hopefully guide us to make better policy.

Q: What do you like about Amherst?

A: I went to a Big Ten school, so campus reminds me of what a college should be like. Figuratively, it is a warm environment and it insulates me from the day-to-day life in D.C. that can grind you down. Walking through the quad evokes learning, teaching and dis-

cussing things.

Q: How does the Amherst community compare to other places you’ve worked?

A: Amherst students are very sharp and have an intellectual curiosity and capability that makes [them] all fun to teach. Students understand that learning is not just about doing the readings but being critical of and questioning them. I love the fact that Amherst is truly a community. The students are interested and active about what campus is like while they are here and take an active interest in their education.

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

A: I have a son, Max, who is a little over three. I am working on two books, so doing things with Max and my wife is my method of procrastination. With my experience in D.C., I am still a political junkie and you can frequently hear me listening to MSNBC or CNN if you walk by my office. I love travelling internationally, reading books and am a big fan of movies from the Marvel universe. Popular movies today can teach a lot about the subjects I am teaching on.

Q: Could you talk about the books you are working now?

A: One book I am working on is based on my dissertation about propaganda and psychological warfare during the Korean War era. Another book that I am just beginning my research on is how different identity communities, such as Jewish-Americans, Muslim-Americans and the LGBTQ community, have used military service as a way to seek community validation.

— Sarah Melanson ’20

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AAS Condemns ACR for Hateful Comments Continued from page 1 tion against the AC Republicans was necessary. “I am completely in support of freedom of speech,” she said in a statement that she read. “I believe that free speech is a critical practice that allows our campus to engage in thoughtful discourse. The exchange of different ideas is essential to the evolution and growth of us all …

I am not here to suggest the formal dissolution of the Amherst College Republicans. Their existence is protected by freedom of expression.”

“They mocked trans people and the very real tribulations and legitimacy of gender nonconformity,” Turner said. “Each of these comments were rewarded with likes …

This response, or lack thereof, implies that this kind of problematic rhetoric is highly normalized within their collective. And this normalization speaks to an inherent group nature of exclusion and discrimination.”

Turner, in her statement, demanded that the AAS condemn and defund ACR. “I strongly suggest that these funds be reallocated to the

Queer Resource Center,” Turner said.

Other students also responded swiftly following the controversy over the CLD. After the CLD was removed from the college’s website, the Black Student Union (BSU) discussed issuing a statement to President Biddy Martin. “We sent a letter to different organizations, but then decided not to release it,” BSU Senior Chair Claire Hawthorne ’21 said. “We didn’t garner the support that we expected … A lot of groups weren’t united on a decision either way. There was a lot of intergroup di-

alogue about the document, which is understandable.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re stopping. We’re currently in the process of thinking of a different way to go about it because we do think that the document should be reinstated,” Hawthorne added. “It was about showing support for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. We thought they were trying to put something powerful and impactful out into the community.”

As for the future of ACR, Hawthorne believes little will change after

the release of the JC’s ruling. “I am very curious about how the administration will respond,” Hawthorne said. “ACR has been engaging in disrespectful language, and you just can’t do that.”

“They will still operate at the end of the day,” Hawthorne said. “They don’t rely on the school’s funding.

You can reserve a room as a student and continue to meet in that manner.

[The JC’s sentence] will send a message to the underrepresented groups on campus that at least someone cares.”

Hampshire President Resigns, Prompting Strategy Shift Ryan Yu ’22 Managing News Editor After months of controversy over her handling of the institution’s financial crisis, Hampshire College President Miriam “Mim” Nelson announced her resignation on Friday, April 5. On the same day, Hampshire’s Board of Trustees voted to lead a fundraising campaign to keep the college independent, reversing an earlier decision to consolidate existing resources and seek a strategic partnership.

In her letter to the Hampshire community, Nelson defended her tenure, arguing that her administration made “progress in finding a sustainable and impactful future” for Hampshire, but also acknowledged that the divisive nature of her decisions “pulled [their] community apart.”

After Nelson announced in January that the college would seek a long-term financial partnership, a wide range of students, staff, faculty and alumni condemned the decision, even though it was approved by Hampshire board of trustees. Many saw the act as an intolerably topdown decision that would lead to the loss of Hampshire’s independence and identity. The criticism intensified in February after trustees voted to admit a limited first-year class for fall of 2019 and the college announced plans to lay off nearly 50 percent of college staff.

Nelson’s resignation follows the resignation of Gaye Hill, then-chair-

woman of the Hampshire Board of Trustees. Hill’s resignation took effect on April 1. Kim Saal, vice-chair of the trustees, also announced that he would be stepping down after Nelson’s departure.

To fill the empty roles, Kenneth Rosenthal ’60, one of the college’s founders and an Amherst alum, was appointed the college’s interim president; Luis Hernandez, former vicechair of the college’s trustees, was elevated to the position of interim board chair.

Community Reactions Both Save Hampshire and the Hampshire College Association of American University Professors, an alumni group and a faculty organization respectively, issued statements on social media praising the leadership’s change in direction. Several members of the Hamp Rise Up student group, which organized a twomonth-long sit-in at the Office of the President, were seen celebrating after hearing about the resignation.

Hayden Gadd, a Hampshire student in his second year, noted the general elation around campus following Nelson’s announcement.

“People were dancing on the lawn in front of the library,” Gadd said. “The feeling was rather jubilant, to say the least.”

Some students were more ambivalent about the situation, however. “I think I’m optimistic, but I’m honestly not sure,” said first-year Hampshire student Sasha Benson. “It’s like, do we need this much change? Every-

thing is already really turbulent. Is a whole new change in administration going to be helpful? For me, it’s a tentative ‘yes,’ but it’s kind of hard to say.”

A lack of information has also made it difficult for many in the Hampshire community to get a solid grasp on the situation. “There’s just so much uncertainty around Hampshire right now,” said Ida Kao, a firstyear Hampshire student. “This is just such a time of upheaval and change.”

Hampshire Professor of Philosophy Christoph Cox, who helped draft the Re-Envisioning Hampshire Plan that would allow for an independent Hampshire through fundraising and creative financial measures, said that faculty members were more unified in their support of the trustees’ decision.

“These resignations on Friday were essentially an indication to most of us that the board of trustees has decided to move in the direction of an independent Hampshire,” said Cox. “In that sense, I think my colleagues and I were really excited about this event, not because we’re necessarily eager to see the president go, but rather because it signals the college’s move towards an independent existence, which is something we’ve been working towards for a couple of months now.”

to form a more united approach to dealing with their financial problems.

“In the past, he was Hampshire’s treasurer and has run businesses, so he has a sense of the nuts and bolts of what it is to run an institution like this. I think he has very broad support as interim president — he’s the kind of guy that can get us where we need to be in the short term,” said Cox. “Ken’s a forefather of the college.

He’s been involved with Hampshire for over 50 years … He has a love for Hampshire that is genuine,” said Evan Brandes, a Hampshire alum involved in Save Hampshire. “He was always looking for solutions as soon as we knew the problems. I have nothing but praise for the man, and it’s been wonderful to work with him.”

With enrollment projected to drop from just under 1,200 students to as low as 600 students by next year and tuition comprising 87 percent of Hampshire’s annual revenue, the task ahead of Rosenthal is nevertheless “daunting,” Cox said.

Rosenthal, however, affirmed the importance of Hampshire’s independence. “Hampshire … needs to be a place of student-centered education, where students help to define their own ways of learning,” he said.

Moving Forward Despite somewhat mixed reactions to Nelson’s resignation, many community members are optimistic about Rosenthal’s newfound involvement, hoping it will allow Hampshire

Remaining Issues Still, several questions linger. Up in the air are the faculty and staff layoffs planned for the end of April, as well as the termination of the college’s contract with its dining services

provider Bon Appetit. Rosenthal indicated he wanted to “limit layoffs where possible,” but did not venture to comment more specifically due to the as-of-yet short duration of his tenure. John Courtemanche, Hampshire’s media relations and editorial director, stated over email that an announcement about layoffs would come by the end of the week.

Also a concern is speculation that Amherst, Smith and Mouth Holyoke colleges are considering dropping Hampshire from their joint captive insurance company. The possibility was revealed in a letter of resignation from former Hampshire trustee Mingda Zhao, who noted that it would “impose an impossible financial burden” on Hampshire if passed.

Caroline Hanna, Amherst’s director of media communications, confirmed that “a review by the captive’s legal counsel is currently underway” in light of Hampshire’s “future that is both highly uncertain and potentially highly litigious.” She noted that further discussions would be held when results are known.

Despite these uncertainties, Rosenthal remains hopeful for the future. “When Hampshire was created — the first president was a man named Franklin Patterson — he said that Hampshire should be a place of successive approximations,” he said.

“Hampshire has done this in a modest way in the past, and now it’s taking a good, hard look at itself because it has to. When we get a good idea of what that model will be, I’m confident that that money will come.”

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Low-Income Students Make Up Small Minority of Athletics, Report Finds

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Seventy three percent of men’s sports teams and 74 percent of women’s teams are white, with only four and two percent of first-generation students on each team respectively.

Continued from page 1 Varsity Blues college admissions scandal’s faked sports credentials, this is a key reason,” he writes.

“Getting recruited as an athlete is perhaps the single biggest leg up one can get in the elite-college admissions game in the U.S., far bigger than being a member of a minority group or an alumni child.”

According to a 2016 college report titled “The Place of Athletics at Amherst College,” 67 admissions slots are reserved for “athletic factor athletes … identified by coaches and endorsed by the Department of Athletics as prospective students who truly excel at their sports, and whose presence would have a significant impact on the success of their teams.” Another 60 to 90 are reserved for “coded athletes [who] are academically high-achieving students … [and] excellent athletes, and have been identified to the admission office by the coaches.”

Coded athletes are admitted

at a higher rate than the general admission rate for students with similar academic standings.

Other students who are excellent athletes but also “priorities for admission to the college for other reasons, such as students of color, first-generation college attendance, legacies, those from low socioeconomic backgrounds or who have stellar academic qualifications” can be brought to the attention of the admission office.

Between 27 and 33 percent of student athletes made up the incoming classes of 2010 to 2016.

The demographics of varsity athletes for the 2011 to 2015 cohorts show a sharp lack of diversity along race and class lines. On men’s teams, 73 percent of athletes were white. Low-income and first-generation students made up six and four percent, respectively.

On women’s teams, 74 percent of athletes were white; low-income and first-generation students made up two and two percent, respectively.

Among all students, in con-

trast, 47 percent of students were white, 23 percent were low-income and 15 percent were first-generation.

The report acknowledged that the costs of participating in athletics “make it harder for students from low-income backgrounds to compete successfully for places on college rosters.”

Recruiting guidelines also pose challenges. According to the 2018-2019 NCAA Division III (DIII) manual, “an institution may not provide transportation to a prospective student-athlete other than on the official paid visit or, on an unofficial visit.” The manual limits each prospective student-athlete to one official visit, reducing the number of opportunities for low-income students to interact with the college and its athletics programs.

A 2017 diversity and inclusion report obtained by The Student recognized the difficulties of recruiting low-income students within NESCAC’s “tight regulations.”

The report, an internal document produced by the college’s Presidential Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and presented to the college’s External Advisory Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Excellence, wrote that coaches have “very limited recruiting budgets, making it difficult for them to travel on a regular basis outside of the Northeast.” As a result, coaches often focus primarily on recruiting from schools in the Northeast, “particularly from private schools.”

“Also, becoming a Division III eligible athlete often involves considerable resources, e.g. private lessons, tournament travel, camps and summer showcase events,” the report added.

Felix Wu ’21, who plays for men’s soccer, said that in the NESCACs, socioeconomic diversity “suffers.” As a member of the one percent of household income in the U.S., he recognizes that he is fortunate enough to not qualify for financial aid.

“I don’t think that experience is unusual within athletics,” he said. “Obviously, wealth signifiers are different and less visible than racial signifiers — a lot of athletes come from private schools or boarding schools — but the general impression I get within athletics is that I am by no means an outlier.”

The majority of soccer players, he said, come from preparatory schools or academies.

“In a lot of these recruiting pools, to reach a high level of play, you have to have access to a lot of resources,” Wu said. “It’s not necessarily something a specific college can do.”

He added that Amherst’s recruiting budgets are like “a fourth of comparable universities” such as the Ivy Leagues.

“I also think that shouldn’t be an excuse,” Wu said. “Having those restrictions does make a lot of coaches complacent. Realistically, you still can make an effort.”

Unlike Division I schools, which are allowed to grant athletic scholarships to recruited students, DIII schools are barred

from doing so.

Craig Smith ’20, a member of the men’s swim and dive team, noted that the lack of athletic scholarships at DIII schools limits the options a student has in terms of financing their college careers.

“I know from experience that there are a lot of people from the town that I grew up in who went DI because they were getting scholarships from what some might consider ‘worse schools,’” he said. “So there’s schools people wanted to go to, but couldn’t afford it, so they were getting recruited by a school that maybe wasn’t as high of a caliber but was giving them a DI athletic scholarship.”

Smith added, however, that there is value to the lack of athletic scholarships at DIII schools.

“There’s a big emphasis in DIII on the student athlete, not the athlete. For me personally, just because I was getting recruited by Amherst, I still had to maintain a very high standard for my academics in high school,” he said.

Students hoping to be recruited to Amherst must also apply to the college through the binding early decision application.

Though students have the advantage of gaining early admission, oftentimes it restrains students who cannot commit to a college without the assurance that their financial aid package meets their needs.

According to Director of Athletics Don Faulstick, while this policy poses challenges in creating socioeconomically diverse teams, it is necessary for the college to remain competitive.

“Early decision is widely used in the Ivy League and with other elite DIII schools,” he wrote in an email interview. “It is extremely challenging for Amherst College and/or other NESCAC schools to compete at the same levels without an early decision process.”

In order to offset this challenge, coaches and the admission office work together during the regular-decision round to identi-

Continued on page 5

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Athletic Teams Face Challenges Recruiting Low-Income Students Continued from page 4 fy low-income students and students of color who were unable to apply during early decision.

Faulstick also noted that DIII rules limit how much the colleges can accomplish.

“NESCAC is the most restrictive DIII conference in the country and directly impacts efforts to diversify our student-athlete population,” he said. “Other conferences and Ivy League schools can provide an earlier indication or promise of admission and financial aid packages in advance of admission.”

Students described Amherst’s admissions processes as more hands-off, limiting how much first-generation students, low-income students and students of color know about the college, let alone its recruiting practices.

Meredith King ’21, who is on the women’s swim team, noted that NCAA rules mimic this larg-

er admissions practice by placing much of the responsibility on the athlete.

“I think the swimmer has to reach out first, and you can’t do that until your junior year,” she said. “There’s a certain time after that the coach is allowed to call you — maybe twice. You can meet beforehand but you can’t talk about college stuff until your junior summer.”

Eden Charles ’19, president of the Council of Amherst College Student-Athletes of Color (CACSAC), said that she and other CACSAC members have worked with athletics over the years to improve diversity and inclusion in aspects of recruitment. “[Athletics] has a finite amount of money, so they’re going to go to the biggest tournaments,” Charles said. “Who’s going to be at the biggest tournaments? For example, for Florida soccer tournaments — you have to be on a club team, and it’s not

cheap to get to the tournament.

I understand their argument: we don’t have enough resources to go and find low-income athletes. My pushback is: there are so many low-income athletes that are so geographically close to Amherst, in New York City, etc. — it’s not far. There are so many wonderful athletes that I think are in places they wouldn’t typically think about.”

Charles pointed to Harlem Lacrosse, a program in New York City, as one example of a nearby location for recruitment. Harlem Lacrosse serves students at risk of academic decline.

According to the program’s website, 92 percent of its students identify as African-American, Hispanic or multiracial, 45 percent speak a language other than English at home and 96 percent qualify for free or reduced lunches. The program teaches students lacrosse and “acts like a mobility path to really elite colleges,”

Charles said. Two CACSAC members and Assistant Athletic Director and Head of Diversity and Inclusion Billy McBride visited Harlem Lacrosse students earlier this semester.

While it may not appear necessary to broaden the scope of recruitment when teams such as women’s basketball are consistently and repeatedly winning, Charles added that “when we have diversity, everyone benefits.”

Some athletes, however, find that the task of diversifying teams is more nuanced than it might appear. King noted that different recruiting processes between sports impose barriers to promoting diversity. Though some sports recruit students by watching games, sports like swimming rely on objective data, such as race times.

When students are recruited exclusively based on their numbers, coaches tend to take whichever students present the best data.

“We want it to be diverse, but

if our top eight most qualified people are not diverse, then we don’t want to unqualify them.

It’s a very complicated thing,” she said. “Swimming is a very concrete sport; you’re either fast enough or you’re not.”

In the future, Faulstick hopes to implement a variety of programs to reach low-income athletes and athletes of color, including traveling to areas with high concentrations of students of color and low-income students, hiring more coaches of color and hosting recruiting events specifically for these students.

“Amherst College athletics has been a leader nationally in DIII as well as within the NESCAC when it comes to having diverse athletic teams … However, our goal is to have the diversity of our teams reflect the overall student body of Amherst College. We are not yet where we want to be yet and we take that challenge seriously,” he wrote.

More Than Half of AAS Discretionary Budget Unused Zach Jonas ’22 Assistant News Editor The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) managed $114,434 in discretionary spending for the 2018 fall semester, according to the AAS budgetary report. Yet from this amount, AAS allocated only $60,447 — $35,119 of which was actually spent — leaving $79,315 unused.

The AAS operating budget contained a total of $631,800 for the Fall 2018 semester. About 18 percent went to the discretionary fund, which provides money for student-led activities. This money is separate from club budgets and the master general funds — including the AAS Senate fund, auditor fees and student payrolls, among other fees — which receive 45 percent and 37 percent of the money respectively.

The $106,268 of discretionary funding this semester are allocated to students who go to AAS budgetary meetings and request money. Only $20,006 of the funding has been spent as of April 10.

The funds originate from a por-

tion of the tuition paid by the student body, AAS Treasurer John Ballard ’20 said. “We allocate the budget that is given to AAS,” he said. “It comes directly from the student fee that is in everyone’s tuition. We want to allocate it fairly and [make it] accessible to all students. The fee is the total master fund divided by the amount of students there are.”

With a master fund of $631,000, each student paid about $340 for the spring 2019 semester.

Gabriel Echarte ’22, AAS senator and member of the AAS Budgetary Committee, said that the lack of AAS discretionary spending is because students are unaware of what AAS has to offer and how to get funding.

“The main problem the Senate has in general is that we have the power to do things, but we can only do as much as students want to do.

The issue is that we don’t have enough students who ask us for money, or even get involved with AAS. Filling the seats right now is pretty hard,” Echarte said.

“We should be running over on the amount of funds allocated, but

we’re not. Not enough people come to us and request things. Our job is to provide student activities. We cannot fulfill that quota because not enough students will take our money,” Echarte added.

Due to the abundance of funds in the discretionary fund, individual students are typically granted money for events and conferences.

“The AAS student activity fund is created in part by tuition from students. In theory, every student gives, and every student will take from the fund by going to events, concerts, joining club teams, etc.,” Echarte said. “It is a little weird when we give money to just a few students who go to a conference far away, but everyone could go. Everything we fund is non-discriminatory.”

Money in the discretionary fund that is not spent each semester is not burnt but rather rolled over to a reserve which is fed back into the next semester’s master fund, Echarte said.

In the past, the AAS generally overallocated funds, Ballard said.

“AAS had to reel in the amount of money spent. For example, we didn’t

want clubs to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on food like Insomnia cookies. That was the intention, but it didn’t fit with every club’s needs,” he said.

“We also capped the amount of money that clubs could use for transportation, but that doesn’t work for clubs like the Outing Club that travel a lot,” he added.

Director of Student Activities Paul Gallegos said that the Budgetary Committee will need to find solutions that involve student outreach.

“It’s hard to know why there is an ebb and flow to accessing the fund, but it may indicate that additional outreach to the student body might be needed to help demystify the process … we want to help the Budgetary Committee in efforts to make accessing the funds allocated as simple as possible,” Gallegos wrote in an email interview.

These solutions include steps that Ballard may take in the future as acting treasurer. “I am going to create a Budgetary Committee two-page resource with tips that will go out to the students. I am also talking to Paul Gallegos about including informa-

tion in the [Amherst College] Daily Mail about the discretionary meetings we have twice a week that clubs can attend and get funding from,” said Ballard.

“Another idea we had was having AAS treasurer office hours. We could sit in Frost [Library] and people could ask us for money,” he added.

Echarte noted that it is straightforward to access and use AAS funds if one knows the rules. “If you want to get funding from the AAS Budgetary Committee, read the policy guidelines online to make sure your idea is within them. There are certain price limits, a minimum number of participants, you have to publicize it, find a location, etc.,” he said. “We’re pretty generous and the process is not stringent. Meetings are Mondays in Converse from 8 to 8:30 p.m. and on Thursdays in Beneksi [Museum of Natural History] starting at 7:30 p.m.”

“It’s important. The money is just sitting there,” Ballard said. “It’s everyone’s money; we’re all chipping in to pay for it. And if we’re not doing a good job of making it accessible then we’re kind of failing to do our duty.”

Opinion

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The Judiciary Council

THE AMHERST

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

Over the last few weeks, the Amherst College community has been pushed to make controversial decisions: taking down the Common Language Document (CLD), responding to the men’s lacrosse team’s anti-Semitic behavior and, most recently, disciplining the Amherst College Republicans (ACR) for discriminatory language in their club GroupMe. Each of these conflicts has been handled in distinct ways with varying success. Two weeks ago, the Editorial Board argued that President Biddy Martin’s abrupt shutdown of the CLD was unproductive and implemented an executive decision that impacted the community in a negative way. On the other hand, there has been little public discourse about disciplinary actions for the lacrosse team’s behavior. Nonetheless, we believe that the Judiciary Council’s (JC) decision on how to discipline ACR is well thought-out and indicative of a need for the democratic process on the Amherst campus. We should use this calculated and informed judging process to settle future controversies.

Six members of the JC voted unanimously that the ACR violated the Honor Code in a way that merited sanctions. The punishment that will be implemented contains several features. Members on the executive board (E-board) of all registered student organizations (RSO) will be required to participate in sensitivity training. ACR E-board members were forced to step down and will not be allowed to hold similar positions on any RSO for the remainder of their time at Amherst. And finally, ACR was ordered to provide a statement in The Student declaring it condemns hate speech and acknowledging the language in their GroupMe. We believe this punishment befits the transgression. There was talk of defunding the ACR, and that — similar to the decision to take down the CLD — would have been a gross overreaction. Defunding the ACR would have shut the door on dialogue and dramatically increased the polarization of this group on campus. A democratic community necessitates a fundamental need to address disagreement, disrespect and

even discrimination in a productive manner.

The sanctions on ACR create potential for genuine growth and learning from harmful, bigoted behavior. This punishment is neither too much nor too little. The role that elected student representatives played in reaching this decision sets an example for the future.

The Judiciary Council is one of three branches of the Association of Amherst Students. The purpose of the JC is to make sure that the AAS Constitution is upheld on campus by the AAS, RSOs and the general student body. In the case of the ACR, the six members of the JC believed that the ACR E-board failed to uphold the Constitution and the Student Code of Conduct. Clearly, these six representative are only a miniscule portion of the Amherst community, but their unanimity speaks loudly. We believe that incorporating students into this decision-making process is crucial. The student body at large should invest more time in participating in forums such as the AAS so that everyone’s values are equally and well represented. We feel that the student government is underappreciated at the college and that it has the power to bring satisfaction to our diverse student body.

Taking down the CLD stands in stark contrast to this function of student voice.

President Martin went ahead and made an executive decision, which is not productive for dialogue and ideological diversity. Some will say this was exclusively an administrative issue, but perhaps over time the ideas and voices of the Amherst community can play a role in what was a decisive ruling.

Amherst College is a privileged microcosm of the world at large and we must learn to be active, democratic citizens. Pointing fingers and shouting matches should be — and in this case, were— replaced with an organized, deliberate judging process that sets sophisticated and productive disciplinary action.

Unsigned editorials represent the Editorial Board (assenting: 8; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 5)

Editors-in-Chief Shawna Chen Emma Swislow Managing News Natalie De Rosa Ryan Yu Assistant News Zach Jonas Managing Opinion Jae Yun Ham Camilo Toruno Managing Arts and Living Olivia Gieger Seoyeon Kim Managing Sports Connor Haugh Henry Newton Managing Design Julia Shea S TA F F Publishers Joseph Centeno, Emmy Sohn, Mark Nathin Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir

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The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Opinion 7

The CLD and the Right to Free Speech Holden Lee ’22 Contributing Writer The right to free speech is a staple of American democracy. It is enshrined in our Constitution and a crucial part of the First Amendment. When movements attempt to restrict it, the backlash is always controversial and often reprehensible.

In short, we as Americans believe in the immense value of “freedom of speech,” but how well do we really understand what this means, and what “freedom” it entails? More and more, it seems as if we don’t understand the meaning behind this freedom.

Nowhere is this misunderstanding more clear than in the controversy sparked by the Common Language Document a few weeks ago.

The Common Language Document, or CLD, was written in an effort to create common definitions for a number of terms related to identity

politics. However, the Amherst College Republicans (ACR) found their views unrepresented by the language of the document, and responded by releasing a statement to several conservative news outlets, which accused the school of restricting their speech rights.

While this isn’t to say that the CLD wasn’t problematic, the ACR shouldn’t have invoked free speech as a grievance. Accusing the college of violating freedom of speech changes the nature of the issue, from a disagreement over definitions to systematic censorship of a viewpoint. In this way, crying “free speech” vindicates the Republicans’ claim in a way that is entirely undeserved.

That doesn’t mean the Republicans are villains who are manipulating language and people to gain support. Rather, like many of us, the Amherst College Republicans have misconceptions about what protections “freedom of speech” has to

offer. The First Amendment dictates that “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.”

From this excerpt, there are two clear takeaways, which apply to nearly all of the free speech legal doctrine: 1) The First Amendment enforces inaction, meaning it tells the government what it can’t do, rather than telling it what it must do. 2) The amendment places a restriction on the government, and no one else.

This means that “freedom of speech” is really “freedom from the government preventing you from speaking.” No one has any legal burden to actively protect your speech, nor ensure that it is heard. It also means that “free speech” is a bulwark that can only be used against the government, which excludes private institutions like private universities.

Since Amherst is a private college, “free speech” doesn’t really apply. The college is bound by its own rules (such as those in the Student Code

of Conduct), and by anti-discrimination law, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Because free speech law has no real bearing on Amherst, invoking “free speech” becomes little more than an attack on the school’s reputation. Accusing the administration of censoring free speech is akin to accusing it of behaving tyrannically.

If the school was restricting speech, it would show a lack of respect for its students’ views and reveal the administration’s gross insistence on having its own way. Making this accusation insinuates that the school is unwelcoming towards certain viewpoints, which is a blatant contradiction of its values.

However, this kind of attack has its consequences and offers no real solutions. Accusing the college of censorship forces the administration into a corner, where, in order to avoid negative media attention, it must appease those accusing it. Furthermore, the real issue the Republicans had

with the CLD is that its definitions ran contrary to their values, and they felt that their viewpoint was not represented. Oversimplifying and misidentifying the issue as a violation of free speech only further polarizes the issue. Accusing the college of censoring their views does nothing to foster inclusiveness, which is exactly what the Republicans complained the CLD’s creation was lacking. Instead, it forced people to take sides.

Misunderstanding the meaning of free speech has real consequences. Because of the special place free speech occupies in our nation, accusations of infringing on freedom of speech should be taken very seriously. “Knowing your rights” isn’t just understanding when you do have rights, but also understanding when you don’t. We should strive to understand what “free speech” really means and use it sparingly and appropriately, rather than lash out against political opposition.

AC Democrats: Contributing to Extremism Thomas Brodey ’22 Contributing Writer Last week, the Amherst College Republicans invited the Amherst College Democrats to a political discussion. This would be the first official meeting between the two groups in months. However, the Democrats refused the invitation in a strongly-worded statement, saying that the offensive remarks made in the Amherst Republicans GroupMe (and subsequently published by The Amherst Student) made such a meeting impossible. The Democrats’ official letter said, “We cannot in good faith collaborate with the Amherst College Republicans in any event, political or otherwise.”

The stance of the Amherst Democrats is shortsighted, ill-conceived and unproductive. Refusing to meet with the Republicans only contributes to polarization and further alienates conservative students on campus. As a liberal, I am embarrassed by the statement made by the Amherst Democrats, even as I am disgusted by the messages sent in the Republicans’ GroupMe.

The messages sent in the GroupMe have been rightly denounced as offensive, transphobic and wrong. But what good does it do to give the Amherst Republicans the equivalent of the silent treatment?

Surely the way to create change and champion social justice is by directly engaging and persuading the people with whom you disagree rather than remaining secluded and peaceful on your moral high ground.

Cutting off all political contact with the Republicans would be bad enough, but by extending the refusal to “any event, political or otherwise,” the Democrats have closed off any possibility of official social contact with the Republicans. Political disagreements should not extend into all spheres of life, and social events with political opponents can be a great tool for increasing understanding and camaraderie without actually discussing politics. By closing off this option, the Democrats have made politics both all-consuming and binary.

The Democrats’ hard-line approach also harms everyone on campus. More than simply depriving the

Republicans of their company, they are denying all students the opportunity to see a public debate on an important subject. The Republicans, faced with this public rejection of bipartisanship, will likely only become more insular, disconnected and radical. The Democrats say that they refuse to meet with the Republicans on the basis of their “culture,” but the Democrats are implicitly contributing to that very same culture by ostracizing the Republicans. Wrongful action by the Republicans does not give the Democrats an excuse to harm the intellectual richness of Amherst College.

The statement by the Democrats, however honest its intentions, gives off the impression of meaningless symbolism. The Democrats know that this ban on all-contact cannot last forever, and even say as much in the statement. This puts them in an awkward situation. Eventually they will have to rescind the ban, even if the Republicans do nothing to change their culture or apologize for their statements. But if the Republicans have said something so offensive that it merits cutting off all

discourse, does the passage of time really make the statement less offensive? The only way for the Democrats to remain consistent with the ideals named in the document is for them to cut off all contact with Republicans forever, unless the Republicans retract their statements. If, on the other hand, the Democrats engaged directly with the Republicans, they would be in a position to defend, rather than compromise their ideals.

The Democrats’ response would be destructive enough if its polarity was overt, but it instead masks its extremism with the premise of reconciliation. The Democrats’ statement includes a great deal of moderating language, like stating that the views expressed in the GroupMe are not the views of all Amherst Republicans and acknowledging that “it’s essential to our democracy that we test our ideas against [the Republicans] in a public forum.” Yet the actions of the Democrats stand directly in opposition to their words. It is easy to claim moderation while embracing the opposite. I challenge the Amherst Democrats to take the difficult path and either state their actual pol-

icy or embrace the bipartisanship to which they pay lip service.

I believe in liberal values and in their power to persuade. If the Democrats are confident in the righteousness of their own views, they should seek out opposing viewpoints, because the correct side has nothing to fear from an open and rational discussion of policy. When the opposing side says something offensive, debate becomes more, not less, important. Intellectual discourse is a cure for intolerance, not a transmitter.

I have many friends who were involved in or supported the creation of the Democrats’ statement. I don’t intend to break off debate with them, just as I know that they will respond to this article with open discussion and thoughtful criticism. One of the most damaging aspects of offensive speech is how it rips apart friendships and destroys reasoned debate.

I challenge the Democrats to live up to the moral high ground which they claim to have by being the first to extend a hand and proving that offensive speech should not be allowed to silence all political discussion.

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Opinion 8

Hillel Responds to Swastika Incident Amherst College Hillel Contributing Writer As the main Jewish affinity group on campus, we wanted to address the story published in The Amherst Student regarding events at the men’s lacrosse house in December 2018.

Our community is deeply affected and hurt by the use of the swastika, a symbol which is a direct assault on our Jewish identities. That this

event came only two months after the horrific shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh illustrates the insensitivity that members of this community feel towards their Jewish classmates, faculty and staff.

Jewish students, like everybody else on this campus, deserve the opportunity to express their beliefs without fear of discrimination. Hillel works hard to establish a community in which Jewish students can feel at

home and safe on campus.

Events like the one uncovered

by The Student actively undermine our efforts, and we will not stand for them.

We are working diligently with the administration to ensure that Jewish students’ concerns are addressed, and that anti-Semitism is both acknowledged and targeted on campus. It is crucial that Amherst’s response to events as emotive as a

swastika includes student voices. The administration has acknowledged this fact and we are in the process of developing events and training designed to raise awareness and combat anti-Semitism. This process is by no means complete and it will take continued effort on the part of Hillel, Jewish students and the wider community to ensure success. Nonetheless, we are making important progress fighting hatred on campus.

We would like a formal apology from members of the lacrosse team.

We want action to combat hatred in our community. But more than that, we want people to to treat others with respect. As long as Nazi propaganda remains on our campus, it is not a safe one. The people who propagate these symbols contribute to an hostile environment for all of us and undermine the efforts of all those committed to acceptance at Amherst.

More Dogs on Campus: A Much-Needed Reform Jack Kiryk ’21 Contributing Writer I believe Amherst should provide more resources that benefit the community and make us more productive, happy and engaged. A simple way to accomplish this: increase the number of emotional support dogs on campus. Amherst has an enormous budget and should allocate more of it to improve the happiness of all students. An easy way to do so would be to hire dogs to be on campus and who could have office hours every day. I love the fact that dogs are already on campus for students to pet and see, but having dogs full-time, seven days a week, would be a wonderful improvement for all.

How would this benefit the school? Studies have proven that interaction with animals makes people less stressed and more happy, which is good for everybody. This reduction of stress and increase of happiness will benefit students; they will be more productive and engaged throughout their days.

Students would be more productive because reduced stress allows people to focus more and engage with others more consistently. This translates to less distraction while doing work (therefore more efficiency), and creating more free time, which is vitally important in developing personal interests, goals and relationships.

Meeting a dog is one of the most reliable ways to make most people

smile. Increased happiness among students will benefit the campus community immensely. Students will engage with others more, and as they do so the community will be strengthened and their Amherst experiences improve. Having this program would also be a bragging right to tell prospective students.

This plan would show that Amherst is fun, happy and open to new ideas.

How would this really work?

The school would hire a dog trainer who would be responsible for taking care of the dogs and shepherding them around the campus. This trainer would incur some cost for the school, but I believe that this cost would turn out to be a net gain in the end. The dogs could have a schedule divided between build-

ings on campus, and students could hang out with them for as long as they want. Another method for bringing dogs to campus would be to partner with UMass Amherst, which has a class dedicated to training service dogs. Seeing that it would be manageable to create this program, it seems to me that this idea is both logical and doable, with significant benefits.

The three biggest issues with this plan are that some students may not want to interact with dogs or are severely allergic, that it would be expensive and that there are more pressing issues for the school to address. However, I believe that there are strong rebuttals to these points.

First, the concern of dog dislike and allergies: dogs already exist on

the campus and only benefit those with whom they interact. They are easy to avoid if one so wishes. My suggestion would be to confine the dogs to certain areas. The second point concerns the price of this plan. Hiring a trainer and accomodating the dogs would be additional costs. This argument is easily refuted considering the benefits dogs would bring and the vast endowment the college has. The third of these issues is that other priorities exist. While it is true that other issues may be more pressing, this plan is simple and does not need to replace other changes. I believe that this effectively makes the argument that more dogs would be beneficial and that this program should happen as soon as possible.

Talking About Thoughtful Speech Martha Umphrey Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought To the Amherst community: How should we talk to each other in a college setting that prizes thoughtful speech? We have all struggled with this question as we debate the Common Language Document. The guide has generated speech conundrums that are entangling our community in a morass of response and counter-response, challenging not only student governance practices but also, more fundamentally, values central to our best vision of Amherst.

I teach a course on speech and wonder whether there are ways to

think rigorously and empathetically about the controversies overtaking reactions to these events. In best professorial fashion, let me pose a set of questions, genuinely offered, that might complicate those reactions and offer the basis for a less reflexive and perhaps more deliberative response.

What is a guide, and from what impulses did it arise? Can guides actually ever determine the meaning of words? Why should and shouldn’t they try?

Has anyone really been censored? The guide is fully available on the internet and has provoked, not stifled, a great deal of talk both here and nationally, with significant consequences to the college.

What are the boundaries of our speech community? To whom do we speak with a guide, or a retweet of the guide, or a critique of the retweet?

Who has a genuine investment in the well-being of our community and how should we hear their speech?

What does it mean to have an “official voice” and who enunciates it? What is a college? A club? A student government? Who speaks for such an entity, and why would we want it to speak differently as an official entity rather than in the voices of individuals?

Is there any room for mistake, irony, histrionics or comedy in the ways we speak to each other? Where and among whom?

If someone says something to

someone else that they think is private but is then made public, how should we understand the intent behind what they said? Was it meant to harm an audience not contemplated by it? Should intent to harm matter? Should what is said privately be made public, and what harm can flow from that revelatory act? If it is made public, what kind of apology is appropriate on either side? If the apology is sincere, should it be accepted?

What is the relationship between criticizing and censoring? Mocking and censoring? Defunding and censoring? In those different speech contexts, how does power operate?

What is the harm of each? How should we respond to each?

If a group of any sort says it feels excluded from the community, what intentional actions might it take to be included? Does that goal inform the way the group speaks to the community and to other groups, or is the goal imperilled by what is said?

Would communicating in person change the way we talk with each other? If so, how could we find the best ways to talk so that we foster attachment rather than division?

In the end, I urge us to talk honestly and with an appreciation of our humanity — our desires and our missteps — in ways that can generate interaction that is more meaningful, and directed toward what might be called the public good — the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Arts&Living

An Interview with Jennifer Egan on Academia in Fiction

Photo courtesy of Jiayi Liu

Jennifer Egan spoke on campus this March and sat down with The Student to discuss her work beyond fiction writing, as she explores a new world of teaching.

Colin Weinstein ’22 Staff Writer “The truth is, I’m not really qualified to teach literature,” remarked author Jennifer Egan in an interview following her appearance at LitFest, where she shared some stories of her process in writing her most recent novel “Manhattan Beach.” Egan’s fiction and journalism, including Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” has earned her wide acclaim in popular and academic circles alike.

Despite her immense success, Egan decided to trade in her pen for a laser pointer to try her hand in academia, teaching the lecture class “Self, Image and Community: Studies in Modern Fiction” at the University of Pennsylvania this spring. Marked by her modesty, Egan adds that “the jury’s kind of out on how well that’s going.”

As a society, we like to assign writers and academics the hermetic roles of “creator” and “analyzer.”

The former exists in their “private creative space” — a desk, an apartment, a highly aesthetic armchair by a fire — while the latter inhabits the academic and public spaces

of the university — classrooms, lecture halls, etc. — and there’s of course no room for crossover. Nevertheless, this societal assumption certainly hasn’t led to any shortage of writers at universities.

“The universities are lousy with us … teaching writing and writing workshops,” noted Egan. As anyone who’s ever applied to a notoriously selective Amherst College creative writing class might be aware, the phenomenon holds true at most colleges and universities.

Today, plenty of writers choose to get Masters of Fine Arts, and furthermore, plenty of writers end up teaching in these programs. Take last year’s LitFest headliner Junot Díaz as an example. He’s a graduate of Cornell’s creative writing MFA program and now is a professor of creative writing at MIT. Egan is certainly familiar with this world. She’s taught her fair share of creative writing workshops at MFA and undergraduate programs throughout her career.

But what happens when the writer wants to occupy both the role of creator and analyzer, occupying private and public spaces?

“I can’t say it really suits me,” she remarked in reference to teaching

these workshops. “Part of it may be that I myself didn’t get an MFA,” she added. Instead, Egan spent her undergraduate and graduate years reading and analyzing English literature — engaging in the work of the academic but at the student

“

She has begun a syncretization of the two spheres, helping to accentuate their mutually reinforcing qualities, rather than their supposed mutual exclusivity.

—Colin Weinstein

” level, and, in the spirit of the liberal arts education, eschewing the goal of professional specialization and pursuing instead what was most fascinating to her. “I just loved the rigor of textual close-reading and analysis,” she reflected.

So why then choose the path of the writer as opposed to the aca-

demic? Contrary to the conception of the mutually exclusive creative and analytical spheres, Egan would argue that fiction writing doesn’t preclude the exercise of academic intellectual muscles. Consequently, while you won’t find her writing in academia, you’ll certainly find academia in her writing.

“I tend to have a lot of academics in my fiction,” she said. She provided the example of a period of time while writing “A Visit from the Goon Squad” where she was utterly fascinated by the pauses in rock songs — think, maybe, Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times” or Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Clearly this was worthy of scholarly analysis. Naturally, Egan introduced an academic character whose research investigated these pauses — measuring them, categorizing them, expounding theories as to their meanings, etc. While she ultimately decided to reassign the role to a somewhat on-the-spectrum child rather than an adult woman, the investigative drive and analytical thought processes remained. “I love writing about people like that, because it gives me a chance to bring a rigor of thought and ideas into my work,” she added.

Coincidentally, real-life academic analysis of Egan’s work has also explored academic fascinations. At a conference on her work, a professor at the University of London presented on his analysis of the “disproportionately high number of, often unfulfilled, postgraduate researchers” in her novels. Instead of the creative invading the sphere of the academic, Egan has managed to pull the academic into the creative sphere.

Since then, however, Egan has actually further infiltrated the sphere and role of the academic with her class at the University of Pennsylvania. It is an English literature course; she’s picking readings, writing lectures, walking through powerpoints, grading essays — by her own admission, “these students are not there to write fiction.”

Still, this doesn’t mean she’s abandoned her creative inclination, as she continues to make use of writing activities to help develop analytical thought. She described one exercise which involved placing a chair in the middle of the room, splitting the 60+ person class into two groups and having them each describe the chair. The first group, however, would be told that the chair “is alive,” while the second group would only be told that it “can explode.” The results were drastically diverging assessments of this one mundane object. Egan said that “what [she] was trying to get them to do was triangulate back from the quality of description to the assumptions of the perspective from which the object is being described.” Creative writing then becomes a valuable pedagogical tool in the English professor’s arsenal.

Perhaps then Egan is not really demonstrating the creative “invading” the academic’s role; such a statement might just reinforce the creative-academic binary. Instead, maybe she has begun a syncretization of the two spheres, helping to accentuate their mutually reinforcing qualities, rather than their supposed mutual exclusivity.

Egan expressed interest in furthering her syncretic experiment in different iterations and at different institutions, particularly looking to teach in a city system like the City University of New York, where she believes emphasis is often placed on specialization over exploration.

Nevertheless, doubts about her own English professorship qualifications remain, as she confessed, “I’m just not sure … whether someone else couldn’t do this just as well or better than I’m doing it.” Part of this stems from not yet having even completed her first try at the experiment. After all, the semester isn’t over yet and course evaluations have yet to be completed.

She did make sure to give herself some credit. “It’s not going badly,” she added. “Nothing’s blown up.”

Well, except maybe the chair.

Arts & Living 10

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Science Center Features History of Amherst Women in STEM

Photos courtesy of Olivia Gieger ‘21

Part of the Women in STEM timeline asks students to post their headshots to become part of the living history of women in STEM at the college.

Kiera Alventosa ’21 Staff Writer Past the café, down in the teaching lab area on the first floor, stands a white-washed hallway in the Science Center. To Jess Martin, the administrative director of the Science Center, and her team — Michaela Ednie ’18, HSTEM and Science Center Curation Assistant, and Ana Battaglino ’21 — this blank space was an opportunity. In collaboration with the Association for Women in Science at Amherst, they saw it as an opportunity to create a living, breathing display that showcases women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). A display that works to humanize the new, shiny Science

Center as it seeks to truly become part of the college community.

The new mural presents a timeline outlining the history of women in science and math at the college. This display also depicts female faculty in STEM who have been tenured — many of whom are still currently at Amherst. It reveals how much of the history depicted is still in the making.

The mural wields the ability to draw in the voices of the college community through its display of photographs. The display encourages female students in science and math majors to post photographs of themselves on the wall. Photobooth hours are available at least once a week — times are posted next to the mural — and students

can even send their headshots to Ednie so that she can post them.

The length of the timeline is fairly short, since Amherst only began hiring female tenure-track professors in 1962 and admitting female students in 1975, but its impact remains significant. Not only did Martin and her team begin building this timeline during women’s history month, but it comes during a pivotal moment in the college’s history. Last year’s graduating class had the highest number of women in STEM majors to date — reaching a high of 99 women in the graduating class, according to institutional research by Jesse Barba.

This year, the college is on track to break three digits.

Martin hopes to attend to the

ever-changing nature of the college through what she calls “living displays.” She aims to make the walls and the space of the Science Center vibrant, alive and dynamic.

She describes that stationary displays often begin to blend into the background. Martin and her team attempt to fight this by putting displays in places where they’re most unexpected, like in a hidden hallway on the way to the bathroom.

The timeline demands interaction and attention, with moveable displays and photos.

This mural is a part of a larger project at Amherst called Inspire Science. Inspire Science seeks to mesh the themes of curiosity, empirical evidence, observation and inference, science laws and theo-

ries, objectivity and subjectivity, scientific method and creativity.

All of these themes will have a corresponding station around the Science Center. The observation and inference station aligns with the women in STEM timeline.

Martin and her team see this as a way to make individuals indirectly aware of these prevailing scientific themes as they appear and relate to all aspects of life. Through the use of the themes, the Science Center opens up other facets of learning and exploration. This project seeks to give a physical form to these abstract concepts. Through this project, creativity and curiosity can make the Science Center an open and welcoming place for all students, not just those in science.

Photo courtesy of Jess Martin

A new Science Center display asks students to engage and interact with it as a “living display” that aims to emphasize creativity in science.

Arts & Living 11

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Celebrating Agnès Vardas’ Life Through “Faces Places”

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Through Agnès Varda has passed, her love for meeting people live on in her documentary film “Faces Places.”

Gaby Bucio ’21 Staff Writer “What I liked was meeting amazing people by chance. Chance has always been my best assistant.” In a scene from her last film “Faces Places,” Agnès Varda speaks to her co-director, JR, about their experience filming their documentary and revels in the magnificence of capturing the stories of different people, verbally or visually. Without

a perfectly defined goal for the film, Varda and JR travel through France, taking photos of various people and pasting enlarged versions of them in memorable places of their villages, while recording their own reactions to such an honest exposure of French life. Varda, in particular, loved seeing new places, meeting new faces and learning new stories.

By the age of 88, when this documentary took place, Varda had not yet lost her deep sense of curiosity

that made her such an acclaimed and respected director, with a career lasting over half a century.

Varda passed away at the age of 90 on March 29, and her partner-incrime in “Faces Places,” the French photographer with the pseudonym JR, recalls in TIME magazine what made Varda so special to the world: “Wherever she would go, she would take a minute to look around her.”

Though JR knew her more intimately and privately, their documentary manages to perfectly convey the admiration she felt for the world around her and even transmits some of it to the audience. Whether it is in her conversations with the different people she meets, in her captured chats with JR or in her narration of their journey, Varda’s words are full of wonder and appreciation.

Though every second of the film is a Kodak moment with unique and beautiful depictions of life in France, it is the quirky dynamic of the partnership between JR and Varda and their interactions with the various people of France that really bring joy to the story. Both JR and Varda impart their own vision of the world in the film, reflecting on how it has shaped their success as artists. “You see blurry and you’re happy,” JR comments to Varda, who responds, “You see everything dark, and you’re happy. It all depends on how one sees things.” Varda had an eye disease that caused her vision to blur, and it shaped the way she

saw things, literally and metaphorically; JR always wears sunglasses, choosing to conceal his identity and see the world in darkness, like the characteristic black and white of his photos.

The large, monochromatic photos that JR takes of the people of France contrast strongly with the souvenir photos he takes at every stop with Varda. Anything with her was always full of color, even her hair. That was another peculiarity of their relationship: Varda loved color.

She loved looking into people’s eyes and admiring the way she imagined they saw the world, and throughout the film her one annoyance was JR’s sunglasses. “You’re putting a black screen between us.,” she says at one point. It is ironic, really, that the two embarked on a trip throughout France to meet new faces, yet all along she could not see his. But, they each experienced the way the other saw the world. She understood him through his photos: large, blackand-white and temporary, their presence on a permanent structure easily washed away with a little rain; he understood her through her stories, her observations and their impact on the way she thinks: blurry and always moving. And in the process of them getting to know each other, the audience gets to know them too.

JR and Varda’s partnership may not have made the most sense, but shortly into the film, Varda reveals

what interested her about the project, and her explanation, in turn, reveals a lot about her: “In fact, JR is fulfilling my greatest desire: to meet new faces.” If the fact that, at age 88, Varda’s greatest desire was to meet more people does not fully expose her unique spirit, then perhaps nothing ever will. In their tour of meeting people, JR and Varda focus on the groups that do not always get the recognition they deserve, from miners to the wives of dockworkers and even the homeless, and along the way they connect their presents to their pasts. Varda is adamant on learning the stories behind the faces because, as she admits to JR, she felt that every new person she met would be her last. It was only fitting, then, that the last face she got to see in their journey, was JR’s.

Though Varda is now gone, her death should not be reason for heartbreak. While visiting the graves of past friends, Varda told JR, and the world, her true feelings about death. She looked forward to it. She looked forward to death not because she felt her life was sad, or her journey over, but because then “that’ll be that.” Her work of over 50 years would finally be completed, and her impact on this world cemented. Now that such day has finally come, the world can celebrate her by following her lead and letting our curiosity reign over us. We should all strive to meet new faces and see new places.

Chee Shares How To Write A Novel in His Essay Reading Paige Reddington ’21 Staff Writer On March 26, Amherst Books was filled with students, professors and literature fans in anticipation of the store’s latest guest in the Visiting Writers Series: Alexander Chee.

Chee is the author of the novels “Edinburgh” and “The Queen of the Night.” He formerly taught at Amherst and is now an English professor at Dartmouth College.

On top of these impressive feats, Chee’s newest release is a collection of nonfiction essays titled “How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.” The book’s essays center on the meaning of writing, how to write a

literal autobiographical novel and personal anecdotes from Chee’s own life. The essay collection was already nominated for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay and is captivating readers from all over.

“You are the ax, the wood is your life,” Chee writes in his essay collection, speaking about how we must write about our lives. He compares writing autobiographically to building a house; It’s a house that we must construct by using the material of our lives, as if it’s wood for building a house. This metaphor seems to translate into all of his essays, in which he crafts his own narrative.

The essays span from his experi-

ences as a 15 year old, when he first began writing, to his present -day position as an English professor, demonstrating his growth into his role as a writer.

In his event at Amherst Books, Chee read an essay called “After Peter,” a story which was originally in his first novel, “Edinburgh.” However, Chee told the audience he took it out after he “deemed it too autobiographical.” The story is about an old friend, Peter, whom Chee knew when he was working in AIDs activism in San Francisco, and his eventual death. He describes himself as a minor character in Peter’s life, yet crafts a moving and heartbreaking story about his old friend, who

touched him deeply and emotionally. While discussing his work in AIDs activism later, Chee said, “At the time I felt like AIDs was taking the best people. It wasn’t just an epidemic but the loss of everything we loved” — a sentiment Chee truly captures in the essay “After Peter.”

The audience listened in silence and awe at the beauty of his writing.

In another essay, “The Autobiography of My Novel,” Chee writes about how a professor told him his words were beautiful but lacked meaning; sitting in Amherst Books, I was able to truly feel the meaning of his words through his eloquent writing.

The audience was silent as Chee finished reading, processing the emo-

tion of his words.

Chee finished the reading with some advice to writers: “The great thing about writing your own book is you get to decide how long it is, which can also be a dangerous thing, so you have to act judiciously.” He also differentiated the values of fiction and nonfiction: “There’s a truth I can express through the essay and a truth I can express through fiction,” he said. “They’re different.

The reasons why are always shifting and surprising and interesting. I do think novels are an illness that you come down with and writing is the cure of it. Nonfiction is about an idea in the middle of your life and having to work it out.”

Arts & Living 12

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Hulu’s “The Act” Thrills in Story of Sickness and Trauma

Photo courtesy of Handmaids Brasil

In Hulu’s “The Act,” Dee Dee Blanchard subjects her daughter, Gypsy Rose, to her maniacal control as an effect of her Munchausen syndrome.

Isabella Weiner ’20 Staff Writer Starting on March 20, Hulu began releasing weekly episodes of “The Act,” starring recent Oscar winner Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee Blanchard and Joey King of “The Kissing Booth” as her daughter Gypsy Rose.

Based on a real story, the show chronicles the poisonous relationship between the two women — one that ultimately ended in Dee Dee’s murder in 2015, ordered by Gypsy and carried out by her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn (Calum Worthy).

For years, Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy was seriously ill. We learn from Gypsy’s father Rod Blanchard that Dee Dee claimed Gypsy had sleep apnea from the time Gypsy was only three months old.

In the first episode, she lists a litany of symptoms to her neighbor Mel: Gypsy has paraplegia, muscular dystrophy, seizures,

the “mind of a seven year old” and a severe sugar allergy.

In the same episode, we see Gypsy try the frosting off of a cupcake; Dee Dee immediately knocks the cupcake out of her hand and stabs her with an EpiPen, necessitating an emergency room visit.

This act is just one example of Dee Dee’s intense control over Gypsy. Dee Dee also shaves Gypsy’s head as Gypsy sits in the sink like a child, makes her sleep with a mask, undergo various surgeries and, perhaps most dreadfully of all, confines her to a wheelchair.

But after Dee Dee’s death, the public learned that Gypsy didn’t suffer from any medical issues at all.

Her mother, it seems, suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental illness whereby parents deliberately make their child sick in order to curry sympathy and attention from others.

For example, in one episode,

Gypsy wins “Child of the Year” and their house — a hot-pink nightmare of a place, filled with stuffed animals — is a gift from Habitat for Humanity.

But I believe Dee Dee wants more than just the attention and goodwill of others: it also seems that Dee Dee wants to freeze Gypsy in a permanent state of childhood so that Gypsy will need her mother forever.

For instance, she refuses to let Gypsy wear makeup, talk about boys with her neighbor Lacey (Anna Sophia Robb), or experience any sort of sexual desire.

She also lies to Gypsy about her age, telling her she was born in 1995, when her actual birth year is 1991.

The first time Gypsy runs away — pursuing a fantasy to live with the deadbeat Scott (Joe Tippett), a man she met at a Comic Con-esque event — Dee Dee yells at Scott that she’s only a minor, despite her actually being 19.

“The Act” documents Gypsy’s dawning realization that she does not suffer from the illnesses her mother describes and her slow liberation. Inspired by Lacey’s statement that she met her boyfriend online, Gypsy purchases a laptop and creates a secret Facebook account under the name Emma Rose, through which she meets Nick. (In a morbid twist, Gypsy and Nick will ultimately use Facebook to announce her mother’s death.)

From the outset, it is clear that Nick is deeply troubled. He tells Gypsy that he has multiple personalities, including an ancient vampire named Victor.

But Gypsy, who has never had a boyfriend before and harbors dreams of escaping from her mother, does not want to lose him.

Though “The Act” is often hard to watch, it is always compelling. King infuses Gypsy with soul and humanity. We feel her anguish and longing for free-

dom, her growing resentment toward her mother and her burgeoning desires.

Arquette similarly does excellent work as Gypsy’s mother, crafting a thoroughly human monster.

The show also expertly demonstrates Gypsy’s complicated loyalty to her mother; when a doctor offers Gypsy a Coke, saying her ordeal could “all be over,” Gypsy responds, in her pipsqueak voice, that “my mom is my best friend.”

The two are profoundly, toxically co-dependent — when Dee Dee learns she has diabetes in episode four, she ominously tells Gypsy, “I’m going to need you now. Every single day.” But from its start, “The Act” puts the mother and daughter on a crash course to fall apart.

With six episodes already out since its March 20 release date, “The Act” will run for eight episodes and conclude this spring on May 1.

Sports

Softball Finishes Dominant Week With Mercy-Rule Win Over Smith Henry Newton ’21 Managing Sports Editor Amherst’s softball team, has strung together a series of impressive performances, going 4-1 with victories over Springfield College, Trinity College and Smith College.

The week’s first series saw the Mammoths facing off against Springfield last Wednesday. The week got off to an exciting start, with the first game going into extra innings. Andrea Sanders ’20 slapped a single through the Springfield defense to make the score 1-0. Sanders would score later in the inning to make the score 2-0. Springfield reclaimed the lead in the third inning, holding a 3-2 lead going into the fifth inning.

In the fifth inning, Katie Kopatic ’20 doubled down the right field line, scoring another run for the Mammoths, tying the score at 3-3. Neither team would score before the end of the sixth inning, taking the game into extra innings.

Unfortunately, the Mammoths would lose the game in the bottom of the eighth inning.

However, Amherst bounced right back later in the day, winning the second contest 2-0 due to a late innings surge that saw the Mammoths tack on a single run apiece in the fourth and fifth innings. The real star of the game, however, was Lorena Ukanwa ’19. Despite Ukanwa logging 3.1 innings pitched in the first game of the doubleheader, she started the second game and pitched a complete game, throwing 5.0 innings, only allowing two hits and striking out six.

The Mammoths then faced off in a twogame away series against conference rival Trinity College. Ukanwa started her third game in a row for the Mammoths and pitched another gem, throwing four innings and only allowing one hit, one walk and no earned runs. Ukanwa dominated the Trinity lineup; of the 12 outs that Ukanwa recorded in the circle, nine of them came via strikeout.

Amherst’s offense also contributed to the win, scoring six runs in the first inning to put the game away early. Audrey Hansen ’21 starred at the plate for the Mammoths, recording two hits – including a triple– and knocking in two runs on the day during the 10-2 rout of the Bantams.

The second game was not much closer,

as Amherst continued to dominate. The game was again marked by an adroit Mammoth performance in the circle, as first year Talia Bloxham threw six innings of no-run softball, holding the Bantams to just two hits.

The Mammoths again started hot on the offensive side, scoring three runs in the first inning. The team would tack on four runs over the next six innings, sealing the sweep of its NESCAC rivals in dominating fashion.

The Mammoths would close out their impressive week with another excellent performance against Smith on Monday evening. Ukanwa again started for the Mammoths, throwing four innings and only giving up three hits while not allowing a single Pioneer to score.

Amherst relied on the entirety of its lineup during the game, as 15 different position players would enter the game for the Mammoths. Appropriately, the offensive contributions were just as spread out, as six different Mammoths drove in runs during the 12-4 victory that was called after just five innings.

With this week behind them, the Mammoths now sit at an impressive 15-4 heading into the bulk of their conference season.

The team will have the rest of the week off before a three-game series at home against Hamilton on Friday and Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Lorena Ukenawa ’20 has amassed 75 strikeouts in just 56.1 innings.

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Sports 14

Women’s Lacrosse Ekes Out Close Win Over Rival Williams, 15-13 Nat De Jonge ’21 Staff Writer With spring in western Massachusetts finally setting in, the women’s lacrosse team faced their archrivals on Saturday in balmy weather on Pratt Field. The unranked Williams Ephs made the trip down from Williamstown to face an Amherst team still reeling from two tough losses against NESCAC foes Middlebury and Wesleyan.

A week prior, the Mammoths

took on the No. 6-ranked Middlebury Panthers on a road trip to Vermont. A relatively even game broke open midway through the second half when the Panthers scored three unanswered goals to secure a 10-6 lead with 14 minutes left in the game. Amherst responded to the blow with a 3-1 run of their own, but in the end fell short of a win, heading back to Amherst with their second loss of the season.

Upon returning home, the Mammoths immediately began preparations for a midweek game

against another formidable opponent — this time the ninth-ranked Wesleyan Cardinals. After a twogoal loss to the Panthers, Amherst was in for another heartbreaker as the margin this time around was cut to just one goal, finishing 10-11 after overtime.

With just under 20 minutes to play, the Mammoths found themselves in a similar position to their previous game in Vermont: down 6-10. Again, the Mammoths mounted a late-game surge. This time, however, they were able to

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Hannah Gustafson ’21 has been an integral part of the Mammoths’ offense, having scored 12 goals, good enough for third on the team, and four assists.

pull even with four unanswered scores. The Cardinal’s goalkeeper acrobatically denied Katherine Malone’s ’20 game-winning shot with a minute left to play, sending the game into overtime.

Despite momentum on the side of the Mammoths, the Cardinals won the opening draw control and scored the golden goal just 41 seconds later, putting an end to Amherst’s comeback.

On Saturday, the Mammoths received another chance to, as sophomore midfielder Natalie Landau put it, “prove to [themselves] and the rest of the NESCAC that they could finish out close games.”

Despite a lackluster record of 1-4 in the NESCAC, the Ephs put up a decent fight. Amherst-Williams rivalries are often close affairs. Landau said, “Playing Williams is always exciting and high energy because of the nature of the rivalry.” In the first ten minutes of action, the Williams side shot out to an early lead, scoring two quick goals. The Mammoths got on the board after ten minutes with a sly finish by Becky Kendall ’22, her first goal of a hattrick. The two teams traded goals until a 5-1 Mammoth run put the Amherst side up 7-5 at the half.

This two-goal lead proved to be the deciding factor as the two teams played an even second half, scoring eight goals apiece. At one point, with 14 minutes to play, Amherst held a commanding 13-9 lead, but a still-feisty Williams squad continued to battle. They outscored the Mammoths 4-2 in the remaining stretch, but still came up short.

Amherst emerged victorious to a score of 15-13.

As for the rest of the season, Landau hinted that the Mammoths are out for a bit of revenge, “We are going to keep working, and are excited to take on another NESCAC competitor [on Tuesday] against Conn. College and hopefully see Wesleyan or Middlebury again in the playoffs.”

On a chilly, rainy Tuesday night, the Mammoths traveled to New London, Connecticut to take on Conn. College.

There, the Mammoths ultimately triumphed with ease. Although they were only ahead three at the end of the first half, the Second half turned into a feeding frenzy. The final scoreline read 18-6.

The Mammoths travel to Medford, Massachusetts to take on the Tufts Jumbos on Saturday, April 13 at 1 p.m.

Men’s Lacrosse Drops First Game of the Season Against Williams Cale Clinton ’20 Staff Writer The men’s lacrosse team finished arguably its most difficult week of the season with a big 14-9 win over Wesleyan followed by the team’s first loss of the season at the hands of Williams College, 13-11.

Both games of last week started and ended in the first quarter. During Wednesday’s game against Wesleyan, Amherst was able to jump out to a quick 5-1 lead after the first 15 minutes. The Mammoths came out humming, with their well-tuned offense already primed for game time.

Attackmen Jon Coffey ’20 and Evan Wolf ’19 set the pace early, with Coffey netting two goals in the first five minutes of play and Wolf creating scoring opportunities early with assists to Coffey and Andrew Ford ’19.

After an answered goal by Wesleyan, Wolf was able to score his first of the afternoon, with Jack Norton ’19 scoring the Mammoths’ fifth goal of the quarter with a minute of play left.

In Saturday’s match against the Ephs, it was Amherst who fell behind quickly in the first, 6-2. An uncharacteristic lack of care for the ball resulted in the Mammoths turning over the ball 10 times in the first half.

The next three quarters for both games felt eerily similar, in that both games saw an incredibly even three quarters after lopsided firsts.

In Wednesday’s game, Amherst and Wesleyan proceeded to play nearly dead even for the next 45 minutes.

Following that dominant first quarter, the Mammoths and Cardinals were nearly identical on the stat sheet in the following quarters of play. In the second half alone, Amherst and

Wesleyan were nearly even in shots taken, ground balls and turnovers.

On Saturday, Amherst’s game of catch-up fell just short in the fourth quarter, with the Mammoths falling to the Ephs 13-11.

This action left the Mammoths with a 10-1 record and a drop to No. 5 in the national rankings, confusingly just behind two-loss Wesleyan Looking at the NESCAC standings, Amherst’s defeat to Williams also ties the team in the loss column with Bates and Tufts.

Amherst, however, had a chance at NESCAC redemption when they faced Conn. College on Tuesday night at home. They demolished the Camels 23-8. Camels only scored thier goals after the Mammoths lifted their feet from the pedal.

Amherst will host Tufts this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Colin Minicus’ ’20 six goals were not enough to push the Mammoths past Williams, as they fell 13-11.

Sports 15

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Women’s Track & Field Hosts Fifth-Annual Spring Fling Jamie Mazzola ’21 Staff Writer This past weekend, the women’s track and field team began its spring season by hosting the fifth annual Spring Fling. Seven teams competed, including NESCAC foes Williams and Middlebury.

The team hoped to build on their indoor performances as they moved into the spring season. “The [DIII] New England Championships epitomized how versatile our team has become with Mammoths scoring in the jumps, relays, sprints and middle-distance events, [in addition to] breaking personal and school records in a variety of other events,” coach Danny Feldman said. “The contributions and growth exceeded expectations this season and we feel that the team can perform even better at conferences [NESCACs] in April.”

With NESCAC Championships in mind, the team began the meet on a strong note. Samantha Tichelaar ’22 and Rubii Tamen ’19 finished second and third respectively in the 200-meter dash. Amherst then swept the top four spots in the next event.

Juanita Jaramillo ’22 won the 400 meters, closely followed by Sofia Friedman ’21, Julia Asin ’19 and Isabelle Lobo ’22. That event alone garnered 19 points toward Amherst’s team score. Distance specialists Christina Scartelli ’19 and Sarah Gayer ’21 took gold and silver in the 1,500-meter race, respectively.

Scartelli is on a hot streak after the NCAA DIII Indoor Track and Field

Championships on March 8 and 9, where she competed in the 3,000-meter race. On the Friday of Nationals, she logged a time of 9:54.03 in the preliminaries, placing third and earning a spot in the finals. The following day, Scartelli set a massive personal best of 9:47.65, placing fourth overall and earning All-American honors.

The other Indoor National Championship qualifier, Ella Rossa ’21 did not compete in the hurdles at the Amherst Spring Fling, instead practicing javelin and shot put for her first collegiate pentathlon next weekend.

First years Analise Romero and Yaa Obeng placed fourth and fifth in the shot put.

Lauren Lamb ’21, however, did hurdle for the Mammoths, placing fourth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Lamb then continued her success by winning the triple jump, setting a new personal best of 10.89 meters and qualifying for the DIII Regional Championships. Seniors Emily Flaherty and Yrenly Yuan followed closely behind, taking third and fourth in the event, and Dana Frishman ’21 leapt to fourth in the long jump, flying 5.25 meters.

Next week, the Mammoths will be splitting up. The multi-eventers will be traveling to Pennylsania to compete in the heptathlon or pentathlon, while the rest of the team travels to the Silfen Invitational at Connecticut College. Distance runners who qualified for the elite distance events will compete Friday night at Conn College, with the remainder of the team joining the following morning.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Lauren Lamb ’21 finished eighth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Views From Sparrow’s Nest Matt Sparrow ’21 Columnist Matt Sparrow examines the current race for the NBA’s most valuable player award, distilling it down to a two-man race between an international phenom and a bench-player turned superstar.

He’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap over tall humans in a single bound. No, I’m not talking about Superman, although Shaquille O’Neal did recently pass on his former nickname to a sixth-year forward from Greece. I’m talking about Milwaukee Bucks superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The “Greek Freak,” as he is known, is having one of the most dominant seasons by a big man since Shaq’s MVP season in 2000.

With the Bucks having clinched the best record in the NBA, Giannis is the obvious choice for MVP. Not many people could have imagined the heights that Antetokounmpo has reached, especially based on where he started. Giannis came into the NBA as the 15th overall pick in the 2013 draft by the Bucks. He was just 18 when he was selected, having played professionally for one year in his native country of Greece.

Coming into the league, he was baby-faced, rail thin and awkward on the court, given his 6’ 9” frame and 7’ 3” wingspan that he had yet to grow into. As a rookie, he didn’t put up eye-popping numbers, averaging just 6.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He flashed enough potential with his combination of length and athleticism, however, that the rest of the league began to take notice when he was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.

He improved steadily every year until a breakout 2016-17 season, where he led the Bucks in every meaningful statistic and was chosen to be an All-Star for the first time.

And while he made his second AllStar appearance last season, the Bucks did not have much team success, losing in the first round of the playoffs both years.

That’s not the case this year, as the Bucks clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs and are one win away from their first 60-win

season in 38 years. Giannis puts up video game numbers, averaging 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, along with stellar defense, nabbing steals and stifling shots with his almost “Inspector Gadget”-esque telescopic arms. He’s established career-highs across the board and produces jaw-dropping highlights on a nightly basis. So why is there any debate about who should win MVP? James Harden.

Harden has been a household name for basketball fans since the Houston Rockets acquired him from the Oklahoma City Thunder in the summer of 2012. All he’s done since is make seven consecutive All-Star games, find his name on the All-NBA First Team four times and win MVP last season.

With the Rockets having faced multiple injury woes throughout the year, most notably with future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul, Harden has taken on a massive offensive workload. He scored 30 or more points in 32 straight games from mid-December to mid-February, the second-longest streak in NBA history.

Over that span, he averaged 41.1 points per game and scored over 50 on four separate occasions. All in all, Harden is scoring 36.2 points per game, the most in a single season since Michael Jordan poured in 37.1

per game in the 1986-87 season. He’s also contributing 7.6 assists and has made the most three-pointers in the NBA this season. Despite his gaudy stats, Harden leaves something to be desired, especially considering the Rockets’ struggles.

After a 65-win season and a game seven defeat away from the NBA finals, the Rockets have battled their way back to the third seed in the West after a horrendous start to the season.

The team has underperformed, especially given their upside, and while Harden has done everything asked of him, team success is weighed heavily when it comes to MVP. Which brings me back to Giannis and why he is the only choice for MVP. He checks off all the boxes: amazing stats, excellent team and great marketability. Giannis is still just 24 years old.

He loves interacting with fans and is very popular in the city of Milwaukee. He’s all over social media whether he’s dunking on someone or signing an autograph for a young fan.

As elder statesman LeBron James’ age keeps climbing and with the NBA trying to brand itself as a global league, Giannis is the perfect candidate to take over as the face of basketball. LeBron may be the king, but Giannis is Superman, and he’s ready to take flight.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Giannis Antetokounmpo seems poised to win the NBA’s most valuable player of the year award.

Sports 16

The Amherst Student • April 10, 2019

Baseball Takes Series Against Rival Williams, 2-1 Jake Grossman ’21 Staff Writer The Mammoths continued their strong start to the season in their series against rival Williams, sweeping both games of the Saturday doubleheader in Williamstown before dropping Sunday’s game at home. After losing two of three games last weekend against Wesleyan, this was a strong rebound performance for Amherst.

Andrew Ferrero ’19 led Amherst to a 7-0 win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, pitching a complete game shutout with six strikeouts and only four hits allowed. For his performance, Ferrero was named NESCAC player of the week.

With an outing like that, the Amherst bats didn’t need to show up, but they certainly did. Designated hitter Chase Henley ’19 and left fielder Topher Brown ’20 combined for six RBIs, powering Amherst to victory.

The Mammoths fell behind early in the second game, only to put up four runs in the second inning. The lead held from there on out, with Amherst coming out on top by a score of 8-4. Davis Brown ’21 held the Williams hitters in check to earn the win,

GAME SCHE DULE

while Amherst got contributions from up and down the lineup, with six batters driving in runs.

Center fielder Kai Terada-Herzer ’21 and second baseman Daniel Qin ’22 each drove in a pair of runs, while Henley and Brown continued their contributions from the game earlier in the day, driving in a run apiece.

The series moved to Amherst for Sunday’s third and final game of the series, which Williams took by a score of 14-4. The game was tied at four after the fourth inning, during which Severino Simeone ’20 hit his second home run of the season.

In the top of the sixth inning, Williams, however, reclaimed the lead with a seven-run rally. The Ephs would not relinquish this lead. After this, the only other production for the Mammoths came in the form of Simeone’s second homer of the day and third on the year, a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth.

After this series, the Mammoths are 11-7 on year and .500 in NESCAC play with a conference record of 3-3. Amherst will look to improve on that this weekend in their road series against Hamilton College, beginning with a game on Friday and followed by a doubleheader on Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Severino Simeone ’20 was one of the lone bright spots for the Mammoths during its defeat to Williams on Sunday afternoon. He hit two homeruns in the Mammoths’ 14-4 loss.

WED

FRI

SAT

Baseball vs. Elms College, 3:30 p.m.

Baseball @ Hamilton, 4 p.m.

Men’s Track and Field @ Silfen Invitational, 10 a.m.

Women’s Tennis vs. Skidmore, noon.

Softball vs. Hamilton, 2 p.m.

Softball vs. Hamilton, 5 p.m.

Women’s Track and Field @ Silfen Invitational, 10 a.m.

Men’s Lacrosse vs. Tufts, 1 p.m.

Baseball @ Hamilton, 2:30 p.m.

Men’s Track and Field @ Silfen Invitational, 6 p.m.

Women’s Track and Field @ Silfen Invitational, 6 p.m.

Baseball @ Hamilton, noon.

Softball vs. Hamilton, noon.

Women’s Lacrosse @ Tufts, 1 p.m.