Issue 20

Page 1

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Like us on Facebook! @AmherstStudent

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

Continued on page 4


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.