Issue 20

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVI, ISSUE 20 l WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017

Men’s Lacrosse Defeats Bowdoin in Opener See Sports, Page 9 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Russian Expert Speaks on U.S.Russian Relations Claire Dennis ’20 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Alura Chung-Mehdi ’18

Political scientist Dr. Andrew Kuchins ‘81 gave a lecture on Wednesday, March 7 covering recent controversies surrounding the relationship between Trump administration members and the Russian government.

College Holds Forum on Transgender Issues Isabel Tessier ’19 Managing News Editor The Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of Student Affairs held a “Community Conversation” event in the Powerhouse to discuss transgender issues that have recently affected both the nation and the college community on Wednesday, March 1.

The event resulted in a college-wide email from Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Norm Jones on Monday, March 6 to affirm the college’s renewed and urgent commitment to transgender and gender nonconforming students.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion sent an email on Feb. 28 informing the community of the event, describing its goals as “understand-

ing the recent news about the withdrawal of federal guidance on transgender students and building a network of resources and support.”

On Feb. 22, President Donald Trump withdrew a federal mandate originally instituted by former president Barack Obama that required public schools to treat transgender students in accordance with their gender identity.

The discussion was facilitated by Professor of History Jen Manion. Around 30 students, as well as several administration and staff members, attended the event.

However, the conversation ended up focusing heavily on the experience of transgender students at the college.

During the dialogue, students talked about the administration’s shortcomings in fully accommodating transgender students and refer-

enced recent campus events affecting the transgender community, including the controversial gender-based housing policy which Residential Life previously planned to implement and the hate vandalism against transgender people found in a gender-inclusive bathroom at Frost Library.

Manion, whose research specializes in the history of sexuality and gender, provided a broader context for the campus issues discussed. Because the transgender community has been more visible since the 1970s and 1980s, she said, it has been the target of backlash.

“Gender non-conforming and trans [people] are the most vulnerable,” Manion said.

Continued on Page 3

The Amherst Political Union (APU) hosted Andrew Kuchins ’81 for a lecture entitled “Fantasy and Reality: The Trump Administration and U.S./Russian Relations” on Tuesday, March 7. Kuchins, who majored in Russian, is a senior associate for the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

In the lecture, Kuchins discussed the unique relationship between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addition to the evolution of U.S. and Russian relations from the end of the Cold War era.

“There’s a big, big, big, big dark cloud over Washington and it’s most dark over the White House,” Kurchins began. “The name of that cloud is Russia.”

Kuchins outlined the lack of transparency surrounding U.S. and Russian relations, beginning with the recent controversy over meetings between top Trump advisors and Russian leaders during the presidential election campaign.

During his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former Alabama senator, failed to disclose that he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in July and September, sparking concerns that he committed perjury.

“There is nothing wrong with meeting with the Russian ambassador,” Kuchins said. “[Sessions] claims … that this had basically been normal, standard senator business in his position on the Armed Services Committee. There are 26 other senators on the Armed Services Committee. No other senator on the Armed Services Committee did [Russian] Ambassador [Sergey] Kislyak meet with around this time …

So why does Senator Sessions not tell the truth

Continued on Page 3

Acclaimed Author Zadie Smith Speaks at College Ariana Lee ’20 Staff Writer English author Zadie Smith spoke at the college on Friday, March 3. The event began with a reading by Smith of a section of her latest book “Swing Time,” followed by a conversation with Jen Acker ’00, a Q&A session and a book signing.

Nearly 600 members of the college and town community attended the talk, which was free and open to the public and held in Johnson Chapel. The event was part of the college’s second annual “LitFest,” a multi-day literary festival that highlights literary life by bringing in authors and editors who share their experiences of writing to the Amherst community.

Smith is a critically acclaimed novelist, essayist and short story writer who was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. She has written five novels and contributed a number of essays and short stories to publications such as the New Yorker.

Acker describes Swing Time as a “beautiful first-person narrative meditating on the connections and disconnections between two bi-

racial girls, the vicissitudes of friendship and of family relations, the mesmerizing beauty of dance and film and music and the messy ways humans negotiate thresholds of similarity and difference across time and change.”

Smith began by reading a portion of the novel that shows the narrator contrasting how she and her friend Tracey were raised and their differences in lifestyle and values.

After the reading, Acker asked Smith about the novels she has written, pointing to the motif of friendship prevalent in her novels and asking Smith about her strong interest in such relationships.

“I’ve never in my life been interested as a plot subject in romance … it never occurs to me to write a love story,” Smith said. “The relations that interested me are the ones that you don’t choose … friendship is a secondary example … something that you’re kind of thrown into that has no natural break. Friendship and family seem, to me, hard things to extricate yourself from.”

Acker and Smith also discussed the structure of “Swing Time,” specifically the momentum of the chapters and their tendency to

build to a climatic point and then stop short and pull back.

“When I’m writing, I’m always aware that people reading my book may not know these [characters], may not have met anyone like this, so I’m constantly hedging and trying to defend against what I know are assumptions about the people I’m writing about, or ideas, or cliches … or political opinions about them,” Smith said.

“I think it’s that that [has] created this unwieldiness in my novels, because I’m always having to … second-guess the reader’s assumption about everything that’s said in the book,” she said. “As all minority artists or whatever think, ‘Why can’t I just speak and be understood just directly without all this hedging?” Smith added.

The conversation transitioned to Smith’s experiences with her racial identity. As the daughter of an English father and Jamaican mother, “It’s quite fundamental, the idea of being read and misread all the time,” Smith said.

She added, however, that she felt “extreme curiosity and sometimes delight” rather than

“offense or anger” at the confusion over her identity.

Smith also compared the differences she saw between black identity in England and that in America. The black British perspective, she said, was that “there was something particularly benighted and racist about America.”

However, having lived in both places, Smith said that she found the two places to be more similar.

The Black Lives Matter movement has made the discourse in America more “eloquent,” she said. “People in Europe can understand what’s going on … and be impressed by the variety of the resistance and just the variety of black lives in America.”

Smith also said that she feels more happy in America than in England.

“There is no one more American than a black American, and that’s not true of black British people,” she said. “I feel like I have to explain myself or read all the works of Shakespeare. You get tired of trying to get their approval … It is, [in] some ways, so easy to be an American.”

News

Haram Hwang Thoughts on Theses

Feb. 27, 2017 - March 5, 2017

>>Feb. 27, 2017 10:06 a.m., Hitchcock House A caller reported vandalism that apparently occurred during a registered party days earlier. Furniture was broken and a hole was found in a third-floor wall.

11:04 p.m., Alumni Lot An officer on patrol found a car running and unattended in the parking lot. The owner was located approximately 10 minutes later and took charge of the car.

12:38 p.m., Converse Lot A caller reported a male placing flyers on cars in the Converse parking lot. The man could not be located.

11:53 p.m., Seelye House An officer encountered a large unauthorized party with alcohol in the first-floor common room. It was shut down.

>>Feb. 28, 2017 11:42 a.m., Frost Library The Office of Student Affairs reported that a student said he was assaulted at Frost Library by another student.

>>Mar. 5, 2017 12:08 a.m., Seelye House An officer encountered an underage male with a 30-pack of alcohol.

The alcohol was confiscated, and the matter was referred to Student Affairs.

12:41 p.m., Seelye House The Office of Student Affairs reported receiving a report of vandalism. Two holes were found in a wall on the first floor.

12:58 p.m., Appleton Dormitory The Office of Student Affairs reported that a student, who was identified, was found smoking marijuana inside the building. >>Mar. 4, 2017 1:21 a.m., Appleton Dormitory An officer responded to a report about the odor of marijuana on the third floor. The origin could not be located and the odor dissipated.

9:09 p.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud music and people in a second-floor common room. The group of students was located, and the volume of music was lowered.

9:21 p.m., Campus Grounds An officer confiscated two 30-packs of beer found outside the Health Center and disposed of them.

12:23 a.m., Seelye House Officers responded to a noise complaint and found a large gathering in a private room. Those gathered were dispersed.

1:00 a.m., Greenway Building B While in the building an officer discovered a grinder used for marijuana near an entryway into the building. It was disposed of.

1:09 a.m., Hitchcock House Several callers complained about loud music and people partying in the first-floor common room. Officers responded and had the music shut off.

1:46 a.m., Tyler House A caller reported a male was yelling and banging on the front door.

No one was found when an officer investigated.

4:19 a.m., Plimpton House While in the building, an officer discovered unattended alcohol and a funnel with a hose attached in the basement common room. The items were disposed of.

Department of Anthropology

Haram Hwang ’17 is an anthropology major. Her thesis examines child-rearing and its relation to feminism and neoliberalism in Lepan, a rural village in Yucatan, Mexico. Her advisor is Professor Vanessa Fong in the anthropology department.

Q: Can you give us a brief overview of your what they consider as the key to happiness. I thesis? learned a lot about dismantling a lot of these A: I’m examining the stories of 12 different Western ideas about motherhood in general. mothers who are all mothers of four-year-olds. It’s made me more sentimental and sensitive.

Through that, I’m trying to see how globaliza- I’ve realized how much cultural context you tion and neoliberalism have affected child- need before anyone tries to attempt to underrearing in such a rural community that a lot stand anyone else. It’s a lot of dismantling my of people assume to be very collectivistic. I’m own ethnocentrism. looking at how feminism is constructed there, how happiness is conceptualized, the kind of Q: Do you have any examples of some of lives that these mothers want for their children these ideas? and how they see their A: In the U.S., when own roles as mothers a woman cannot conplaying out in their tinue her education children’s lives. So my I realized how Western my idea because she has a child, thesis has ended up of feminism was, because the we’re like, “Oh, poor being quite a lot about things that make us happy or her.” But there are some their idea of gender what we think should make us mothers [in Lepan] equality and equalwho are well-educated, happy [are] not what they con- compared to the rest of ity in general. It has a lot of implications as sider as the key to happiness. the sample, who choose to why these people to be a stay-at-home do not want to mimother. At first I was grate, when right now like, “Why doesn’t the in this political climate, people assume that husband take on the child-rearing?” But the people in poor villages in Mexico are trying to mothers say, “It was my choice,” and they’ll say cross over to the U.S. to look for jobs. However, it over and over again. They’ll say, “This is what that is not the case in this community, so I am I love. I love watching my son grow. If I could examining the social forces behind that. It’s have a perfect life I’d spend all of my days with kind of like an in-depth ethnographic analysis him.” This profound love for motherhood and of this small village. self-empowering language that these mothers developed around motherhood was something Q: How did you come across the idea?

I didn’t expect to see.

A: I’ve been going to this village since eighth grade. I used to go with my church once a year. Q: What have been the best and worst parts Then, two summers ago, my friend and I de- of your thesis? cided to stay there for two months and teach A: The best is being able to tell others about English. During that time, my adviser sug- it! It’s always fun to be like, “By the way, our gested that I try taking interview questions ideas — everything we know — can be chalthere and seeing what I find, just for fun. I did, lenged.” Challenging things can be exciting. and I ended up really loving the questions that The worst part is actually writing it. It’s such a I was asking and the responses I was getting. mental battle. It’s always this struggle of knowI realized that when you actually focus on the ing that I’m an undergraduate student with a people and construct your ideas not just based very limited understanding of anthropology on academic articles, you actually get to know and attempting to insert my voice into an acaa completely different side of people’s stories — demic discourse that is already set by people which, I think, is what anthropology is about. who have been doing this for decades. I feel I went back again this year and went back over almost unworthy or incompetent to be a part Thanksgiving break. These people that I’m in- of that discussion. There are better days when terviewing are people that I’ve known since I I feel like I can do it, when I think my ideas are was young, and so I kind of have a personal fresh and my insights are awesome, but then stake in this. I want to represent these people there are many more days when I sit in front of well, and so what more can I do than write the computer, staring at the screen, hoping that about them in the biggest paper I’ve ever writ- things I am saying aren’t completely wrong. ten?

Those days are a lot more challenging.

“

”

Q: How has your thesis changed from when you first started?

A: Oh, so much — I really thought I was going to be doing an analysis of an indigenous Mayan community, and throughout the process, I realized that there was so much I could talk about in terms of gender, and so the gender aspect of my thesis was completely unexpected.

It turns out that their ethnic identity is a lot more complicated and beyond my scope, and so I had to shift my focus from identity to gender and child-rearing. I didn’t expect to talk so much about neoliberalism, which I am now.

Q: How has your thesis changed your own perspective of feminism?

A: I realized how Western my idea of feminism was, because the things that make us happy or what we think should make us happy [are] not

Q: Do you have any advice for other students who are interested in writing a thesis in the future?

A: I say, don’t expect so much from yourself to the point where you start comparing yourself to scholars and other thesis students who might have more experience in research, because that’s what I struggled with in the beginning. I was a science major for a little bit, and so I felt sort of new to the humanities world. I think the best advice that my adviser gave me was to calm down because it’s your first time.

It’s only part of the journey, and the more you psych yourself out to try to do well, the less and les you’ll produce. It’s not that you should expect little from yourself, but don’t beat yourself up.

— Sylvia Frank ’20

The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

News

3

Town Organizes Community Dialogue on Political Climate Kathleen Maeder ’20 Staff Writer

Members of the Amherst town community met at local cafe and deli The Black Sheep on Monday, Mar. 6 to discuss the current political climate and ways in which Amherst residents can take action on their concerns. The event was free and open to people in the Pioneer Valley.

Guest speaker Bill Newman, director of the Western Massachusetts Legal Office at the American Civil Liberties Union, spoke to the audience about what he believed were priorities in light of recent actions by President Donald Trump’s administration. He began by reminding attendees that his statements did not represent the ACLU, as it is a nonpartisan institution.

“We don’t need to, I think, engage the troops of Amherst to say we want to be in opposition to Donald Trump and his anti-democratic authoritarian regime — I got that,” he said. “The question is, what are we going to do?”

According to Newman, elections are one

of the main channels through which citizens can show their discontentment with or opposition to Trump’s policies.

He mentioned two upcoming elections in Georgia and Montana and said that if Republican candidates lost these elections, it would undermine the Republican argument that party members who supported Trump would retain popular support.

Newman talked about the importance of paying attention to Massachusetts state issues and reminded attendees of legislative reforms on the state’s upcoming agenda, including criminal justice reform.

“I think that we can agree … that states still are the laboratories of democracy, and we have the state that has both the reality and the potential future realization of being a community, or set of communities, that the rest of the country can envy,” said Newman.

Newman also discussed the position of immigrants and refugees in the U.S. under President Trump’s policies and voiced his support for sanctuary cities across Massachusetts.

“Sanctuary cities matter, sanctuary campuses matter and sanctuary congregations

matter,” he said. “Sanctuary cities do not have strict, or even loose, legal definition — they don’t. But the notion that local police should enforce local laws seems to be almost selfevident.”

It is important to be smart protesters and train in nonviolent direct action during a time when protests are frequent and necessary, Newman said.

Because the Women’s March earlier this year and other rallies across the country have been well-organized and mostly peaceful, “I think we’ve lost track of the reality that as protest goes on, as Trump’s supporters become … more vehement, as the police become, as Trump would have it, untethered or unleashed, that there’s going to be pushback when there’s protest,” said Newman.

“I do not necessarily mean at all that people have to, or should … engage in civil disobedience, but I do think that if you’re going to be at protests, you should know how to be safe,” he added.

After addressing the crowd, Newman answered questions from audience members, discussing topics such as nonviolent protest

training, undocumented immigrants’ rights and hate crimes.

The Black Sheep is currently holding monthly community dinners to address various topics of concern to the public. Monday’s meeting was the second such event held. As interest in the event has increased, the dinner series’ organizers are considering moving to a larger location for their next meeting.

Nick Seamon, the owner of The Black Sheep, developed the idea and planning for the community dinners.

“I felt like there was a need, especially with Trump’s election, for people to have a place to get together … to have a sense of community and to learn something,” said Seamon.

“We’re going to do it as long as necessary,” he said. “There’s a lot to talk about — we’ve had an impeachment attorney, we’ve had an ACLU attorney, we’re having somebody talk about climate change, somebody talking about Muslim identity in the United States and its effects [and] we’re trying to get someone up here from New York from John Jay College of Criminal Justice to talk. So we’re trying to come at this from many angles.”

Students Express Discontent with College’s Transgender Policies Continued from Page 1 Access to public accommodations like bathrooms, she said, is “about who gets to exist in public spaces and has a right to be there without harassment.”

In response to students who asked Dean of Students Alex Vasquez about the status of the hate vandalism investigation, he said that the college had not yet identified the perpetrator and that investigations into bias-related incidents of vandalism rarely result in the identification of the responsible party.

Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Norm Jones, Chief Student Affairs Officer Suzanne Coffee, Women’s and Gender Center Director Jesse Beal and Queer Resource Center Director Angie Tissi-Gassoway also attended the conversation.

Throughout the course of the conversation, students expressed frustration with the administration’s current policies for inclusion and protection of trans students as well as a perceived lack of plans for the future.

Manion acknowledged the criticisms. “I feel the heaviness in this room,” she said.

Other students raised questions about college housing policy, which had been another recent topic of controversy among the student body.

The Office of Residential Life’s planned housing policy for the 2017-2018 school year would have designated all rooms on campus as either “male,” “female” or “coed.” Individual students and campus activist groups heavily criticized and challenged the policy after The Amherst Student reported on it in late February, leading to a quick administrative reversal of the policy.

Paula Peña ’19 asked Coffey why Student Housing Advisory Committee members were ignored when they expressed dissatisfaction with the new housing policy during the early stages of planning. Coffey responded that she wasn’t in enough direct communication with SHAC and did not hear their feedback.

Coffey said that she took full responsibility for the housing policy. As chief student affairs officer, Coffey oversees the Office of Residential Life.

“In that moment in the [Residential Life]

policy, I failed the college,” Coffey said, adding that she should have paid closer attention to the changes made to the housing policy.

Some students also expressed frustration with the administration’s general method of forming policies, arguing that it only makes changes or advancements when students push and demand for them.

In response, Tissi-Gassoway acknowledged their criticism and noted that the vast majority of staff, faculty and administrators who create college policies are cisgender.

“That’s why we need trans and gender-nonconforming students to be part of conversations,” she said. “[We] need to have collaboration … without having the onus be on students.”

According to the email from Jones on March 6, the college will be creating new programs and accelerating the implementation of longterm plans to serve transgender and gendernonconforming students.

The college is currently speeding up the process of designating gender-inclusive restrooms in campus buildings and residence halls, and plans to complete the process by the upcoming

fall semester.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of Human Resources will also begin offering new “Trans 101” trainings for college employees.

In an email interview, Jones said that the trainings will not be mandatory, but that he “feel[s] confident that demand will be high.”

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is also looking to implement versions of this training in programming for first-year orientation, residence halls, athletics and other areas of campus life.

New employee trainings will be standardized “so that we reach a wider audience and bring people into our workforce with the understanding that queer and trans communities are important to us,” Jones said.

In the follow-up email to students and faculty, Jones wrote that students’ comments in the discussion “made clear the ways in which our community is unaware of and disconnected from the needs of trans and nonbinary students” and provided the impetus for the new programs and policies.

APU Hosts Political Expert Andrew Kuchins ’81 Continued from Page 1 about that meeting in his hearings in Washington? It’s curious.”

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who held the shortest tenure ever for the position — 24 days — stepped down after allegations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence regarding his conversations with Russian leaders. According to Kuchins, the Trump administration’s lack of transparency over conversations with Russia raises a red flag on actions that would otherwise be typical.

Kuchins compared U.S.-Russian relations today with the tense relationship they had in the 1980s at the culmination of the Cold War “Today, relations are worse than they have ever been since the early 1980s — perhaps even more dangerous in some ways than the 1980s because … we still have large arsenals [of nuclear weapons],” Kuchins said.

“They’re still pointed at each other, they’re still on hair trigger alert systems and if there was some type of accident that happened, it’s not inconceivable that we could see an escalation into a nuclear conflict,” he added. Kuchins said he takes the threat of a nuclear attack more seriously today than he did during the 1980s.

He quoted a colleague who described the current state of affairs as “sleepwalking on nukes,” a reference to historian Christopher Clark’s thesis that Europe “sleepwalked” into World War I. Kuchins did point to cooperation in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan against the

Taliban as a testament to potential for partnership between the U.S. and Russia. However, he added, the current conflict in Syria is a stark contrast to the previous collaboration.

Another point of contention between Trump and Putin, according to Kuchins, is over Putin’s fear that Trump would support a Russian regime change. Kuchins pointed to U.S. involvement in regime changes in Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Syria as evidence for Putin’s concern, but added that he didn’t believe that a regime change would be part of Trump’s agenda.

“The regime change question also hits Mr. Putin very close to home,” Kuchins said. “The two times that there have been the most democratic moments in Russian history, it’s coincided with state collapse.”

Kuchins presented three possibilities for the future of U.S. relations with Russia, saying that he believes Trump currently lacks a clear policy on Russia.

Trump might immediately confront Russia, which Kuchins said he discouraged because Russia is too “radioactive” for Trump to take action now. Trump’s administration could also be weak and distracted by a series of “self-imposed errors,” which would give Russia free reign over international policy. Finally, Kuchins said that Trump would most likely return to a traditional and uncompromising conservative policy on Russia.

“The bromance and the pro-Russia campaign rhetoric — it’s going to be a distant mem-

ory … I think they’re likely going to represent the mainstream of the Republican party, which will be considerably tougher on Russia than the Obama administration and tougher than what a Hillary Clinton administration would be,” Kuchins said. “The relationship’s going to be pretty difficult.”

Kuchins’ lecture attracted a variety of students, including many members of the APU. “I am most interested in international human rights … I thought it would be really interesting and very relevant and very timely to what’s going on in the country right now, and also [Kuchins] seems very impressive,” Eliza-

beth Sturley ’20 said.

Kuchins closed by addressing the title of his lecture, which juxtaposes fantasy and reality with Russian relations.

“I think it is a fantasy to think that Mr. Trump or anybody else could simply flip a switch, make a deal and that things were going to be hunky-dory,” Kuchins said. “I think the reality is that it is an important role to improve relations with Russia, for obvious reasons I think,” he added. “But it’s going to be very hard to do and it’s going to require a great deal of strategic thinking, deft diplomacy and mutual will.”

Interested in getting the scoop on the latest developments on campus?

! f f a t s s w e J o i n th e n If you want to write for us, email itessier19@ amherst.edu or schen20@amherst.edu.

Opinion

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

The Trap of Being Busy

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

Editorial The saying goes: “Time is of the essence.” That is to say, the timeliness of events is paramount to their success.

Such an attitude is deeply ingrained into people’s time at Amherst and in the ways they interact with each other. Just look at the way that we greet one another. The typical “hi, how are you?” is most likely to be followed by some variation of a lackluster “fine, thank you” and a subsequent complaint about how busy we are leading up to spring break. When we get up from meals or a table at Frost or even in our rooms, the conversation often turns to the question, “Where are you going after this?” We are always in transition, looking for the next place to be. And thus, time becomes a precious commodity that we are always grasping for but never can seem to quite capture. We are constantly aware that we are busy and that we do not have enough time.

The danger in this practice lies in the fact that time becomes a limiting structure rather than one of potential. People ultimately do only what is mandatory and convenient. Anything outside of classes, practices and mixers becomes a burden that is too heavy to bear. In fact, the lack of time becomes an easy excuse. We perceive ourselves to be

so busy that we could not possibly watch an internationally acclaimed speaker who came to campus, attend an event in Keefe or even do the things that we enjoy, like spending time with friends.

What is important to remember is that this attitude has wider repercussions that extend beyond ourselves. When everyone perceives that they themselves are too busy, nobody actively takes initiatives to improve our campus. We complain about the narrow social life here, but we create no alternatives to address our concerns. Instead, we passively go from place to place out of habit, finding ourselves stuck in the haze of our busyness. In our minds, we do not have the time to reimagine and construct what could be. We fall into the trap of passing through what is.

Living like this can quickly become an all-consuming, exhausting exercise that makes Amherst even more difficult. The Editorial Board encourages students to re-evaluate how this idea of “busyness” consumes their lives. After all, time is of the essence, but it should not become our essence. We need to understand our time here not as a series of actions that keep us busy, but as an opportunity to grow and enjoy life.

If I May: Improv Comedy as a Way of Life Jake May ’19 Columnist

Before I arrived at Amherst last fall, I had never thought much about improvised comedy.

I knew the basics of what it was, and I vaguely knew that many well-known comedians had an improv background. I’d never seen it performed, nor had I really sought it out. However, after I auditioned for Mr. Gad’s House of Improv on a whim and was somehow accepted, improvised comedy has become a huge part of my life. At this point, I am obsessed with improv — and that description could even be putting it lightly. I’ve read a total of five improv “textbooks,” I took two improv classes during interterm and I routinely drive three hours back to New York City to see live improv performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.

Of course, part of the reason I love improvised comedy so much is because it is often entertaining and hilarious. Furthermore, to look into the history of the medium is to discover the origins of many of the most prominent comedians. Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Tina Fey and countless others all began their comedy careers doing improv in Chicago. Many of today’s prominent comedy writers and performance got their starts in the improv communities of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. While the entertainment

and historical aspects of improv certainly add to its appeal, they are only part of why I have become so enamored with the medium. To me, the most wonderful thing about improv is that I believe practicing the art form has made me a better person. This is because the basic rules of improv double as positive and beneficial life philosophies.

Perhaps the most important skill necessary for an improviser is active listening. In order to build a fulfilling scene with a partner, one must listen closely and thoroughly to what the other is saying. Accompanying active listening is honest reaction. After one player makes a statement or an offer, the other must react and respond honestly so that a relationship can be built. By practicing this concept of listening and reaction a couple of times a week, I feel that I have become a more active and thoughtful listener in all aspects of my life, not just onstage while improvising. I feel more engaged in class conversation as well as in conversations in Valentine Dining Hall.

Another basic improv tenet is accepting offers.

An offer is a statement by an improviser that adds some sort of information about the scene. If two improvisers are in a scene, and one player says, “Mom, you’re way too hard on me!” — therefore suggesting that the relationship between the two is one of a mother and her child — it is important that the other player accepts that relationship so that the scene can continue to build. If the player

refutes that offer by saying something like, “What are you talking about? I have no idea who you are!” that completely undermines the scene and causes the first improviser to look foolish. This philosophy of accepting offers is often known as “Yes, and …” When one player makes an offer, the other player says “yes” to that offer “and” adds something of his or her own, therefore using teamwork to build a scene.

While of course I do not go around saying “Yes!” to every proposition I hear, the idea of accepting offers has still added a great deal to my character. Coupled with active listening, the idea of accepting offers has made me into a more engaged conversationalist and thinker. As statements are made in classes, on television or in casual conversations, I have found myself considering each more carefully, operating under the assumption that all ideas put forth add something to the scenario.

It may seem like I am making some leaps in my application of improv ideology to real life, and I probably am. However, I really do believe that participating in improvised comedy leads to approaching human interaction in a more active and energetic way and providing the opportunity to gain more, even from everyday interactions. I’d urge anyone that has the opportunity to try out improv. By no means do you have to be skilled at it to reap its real-life benefits.

fessor was less than sympathetic and docked her final grade as a result.

According to the website for Accessibility Services at Amherst, “Overcoming adversity is one of the many ways that makes students with exceptionalities, exceptional!” But far from receiving an exercise in proving resilience, disabled students instead experience a lack of knowledge, resources and patience from professors, staff and administrators regarding accommodations and accessibility services. From inaccessible classrooms to questionable policies and inadequate staff capacity, Amherst is far from an inclusive environment for disabled students.

Recounting her experience, the now-senior said, “It was only due to the generosity and support of friends that I was able to shower, get food, and make it to class on a day-to-day basis ... not a single professor or administrator directed me to the Disability Services Coordinator ... [and] if I didn’t have help from friends, I would have had to take a semester off.” And this was because of a broken foot.

In response to Amherst’s lackluster disability accommodations, we, the Roosevelt Institute at Amherst, have undertaken a campaign to identify

accessibility-related shortcomings and advocate for solutions at Amherst. We have conducted a schoolwide survey, assembled a cross-college policy comparison, collected student testimonials and formulated concrete suggestions for improvements.

Our survey generated interest from students, with a nearly 10 percent response rate from the entire student body. Of these respondents, over 50 percent said they were dissatisfied with academic accommodations for mental health and curricular accommodations. 20 percent noted concerns with academic accommodations for physical health and for learning and physical disabilities. Over 30 percent felt discrimination related to accessibility within the Amherst community. 43 percent voiced the need for better physical accessibility and accommodations.

We also conducted an accessibility policy comparison between different colleges. Our key finding was that Amherst has one of the highest student-to-accessibility services staff ratio among peer institutions. At 1849:1, its student-to-staff ratio is higher than every other NESCAC, Little Ivy

The Invisibility of Disability at Amherst Members of The Roosevelt Institute at Amherst Contributing Writers Two years ago, an Amherst sophomore broke her foot. She suddenly found that her life at Amherst became much more difficult. Getting around campus, going up stairs, eating at Valentine Dining Hall— simple, everyday tasks were suddenly strenuous endeavours to navigate a largely inaccessible campus landscape. Unfortunately, Amherst’s Office of Student Affairs was less than helpful. As she described in a recent interview, “I got pretty much zero help ... the administration was unresponsive and unhelpful, which I found infuriating.”

When she called the campus police for assistance in getting to class, they were dismissive of her requests for help. One of her classes was located on the third floor of Arms Music Building, and the Office of Student Affairs said its location couldn’t be changed. “‘For some reason’; the administration didn’t let it happen,” she said.

The result was a humiliating experience that no student should have to go through: she had to be carried up the stairs. While some professors were understanding of her resultant tardiness, one pro-

Continued on Page 5

Editors-in-Chief Drew Kiley Jingwen Zhang Executive Advisers Lauren Tuiskula Sophie Murguia Managing News Shawna Chen, Isabel Tessier Managing Opinion Diane Lee, Spencer Quong Managing Arts and Living Julia Pretsfelder, Paola Garcia-Prieto Managing Sports Nathaniel Quigley, Julia Turner Managing Design Justin Barry S TA F F Head Publishers Tia Robinson, Emily Ratte Head Marketer Sophie Currin Design Editors Zehra Madhavan, Isabel Park, Chloe Tausk, Sivian Yu

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The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

Opinion

5

A Report from the Roosevelt Institute at Amherst Continued from Page 4 League and Five College institution. By comparison, Connecticut College’s ratio is 850:1, Smith’s is 867:1, and Hampshire’s is 470:1. Amherst stands out for its lack of a Disability Committee and for not considering disability in student diversity initiatives. Case in point: Accessibility Services isn’t even under the auspices of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

These statistics speak for themselves. More importantly, they also translate to various difficulties in the day-to-day lives of students. Throughout our work, we’ve heard many poignant stories from these students regarding their struggles to accommodate in the absence of accommodation. There is a common thread of inadequate administrative support and bureaucratic confusion. One student’s story of events following a concussion exemplifies this. “Even though school administration and my class dean reached out to me for support, I was never directed to Accessibility Services,” she said. “Ultimately, my grades suffered drastically [as a result].

I believe that the college failed me by not following protocol and offering me support through Accessibility Services.” A current sophomore student describes how, due to the college’s refusal to provide adequate resources, for the entire semester, she had to spend five hours on assignments that should have normally taken one hour. Another student felt that their “rights had been blatantly ignored and abused.” Yet another student talked about how she was ignored by Accessibility Services for weeks, despite repeatedly reaching out.

Many students also mentioned physical accessibility concerns. One student’s story showed the trade-off between punctuality and student health.

“When I broke my leg, I did not have enough time to get to and from classes on crutches,” she said.

“Calling campus police ... actually exacerbated the amount of time I was late to class, compared to me simply crutching over. However, when I used campus police to get to my classes, I did not arrive to class incredibly exhausted by the steep hills.” Others mentioned that Arms Music Building and Chapin Hall were completely inaccessible. The Greenway dormitories are only theoretically accessible — think about how you would get to Greenway from Converse without using stairs. Most of the games and other amenities in the Greenway dormitories have not been implemented with universal design, and, as a result, are only usable by certain students.

After analyzing the results of surveys and holding multiple focus groups with students, we found five recurring issues that need immediate attention: professor-to-student interactions, administrative responsiveness and outreach to students with disabilities, facility and classroom accessibility, current offerings and capabilities of Amherst disability programs and the general culture and invisibility surrounding disability on campus. While we acknowledge that some students have had positive experiences with Accessibility Services and feel

they were properly accommodated, what has become clear throughout these testimonials is that unfortunately, many students have not had positive experiences and were not properly accommodated.

From this research, the Roosevelt Institute at Amherst has proposed five specific, immediately actionable changes the administration should make to improve accessibility.

1. Disability competency trainings, staffed by experienced disabled people (a mainstay of the disability rights movement has been “nothing about us without us”) should be conducted for professors and relevant staff members. These trainings should educate them about available resources and protocols for properly supporting students. “Staff and faculty need to know about the options they have for accessibility purposes,” one student commented, “and also they need to be able to listen to what the student needs from them, rather than just assume.”

2. The possibility of dropping one class should be expanded beyond first-year drop so that students who face sudden mid-semester crises have more options to manage their academic load. This is a proposition on which faculty members will likely be voting in the coming months.

3. The college should create a “Buddy System” for those in medical housing and ensure that such housing actually meets the needs of students. Right now, students who require medical housing are unable to plan to room with friends. Allowing them to bring even just one friend could ease this inherently alienating process. It is worth noting that resident counselors are allowed to bring along at least one “RC buddy.”

4. The college should also upgrade its “Office of Disability Services” from its current one-staffmember roster and hire additional staff members with greater descriptive representation. The negligence highlighted in many students’ stories is likely due to the fact that Accessibility Services has only one staff member who, in our opinion, lacks the necessary resources needed by the student body.

One person put it very bluntly: “Amherst needs an actual ‘Office of Disability Services.’”

5. Finally, the college should conduct a campaign to increase the visibility of existing disability services. All too often, students are unaware of the accommodations that are available, rendering these accommodations useless. These efforts should focus on increasing general public awareness about resources. With the current system, struggling students must find resources hidden across academic departments, information technology, counseling services and student life, placing the burden on the very students these resources are supposed to help.

Beyond these immediately actionable items, we propose a number of other policy changes that help open up the campus to all students and allow the college to follow through on its rhetoric of inclusion and diversity. Amherst should improve the process of requesting mental health accommodations, which would destigmatize and de-mystify this process. Interactions between professors and

Accessibility Services should be better coordinated. Professors should be encouraged to re-evaluate and expand their definitions of “participation” to consider all students’ abilities to participate and the college should expand its diversification efforts by hiring professors with disabilities.

The college should make improving physical accessibility of classes and facilities a top priority.

As noted above, many students have difficulty getting around campus, and there are few buildings that are truly accessible. The college should ensure that new buildings meet Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards and renovate existing buildings to meet these standards. In the meantime, policies such as an increased “walking period” between classes and daytime on-call student drivers should be considered so that students with physical impediments can more easily travel between back-to-back classes. It is worth noting that many schools, including most in the Five College Consortium (Smith, Mount Holyoke, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst) have already implemented this system. Classroom accessibility technology must also be improved to meet the needs of enrolled students. Amherst College’s Disability Services, especially services including digital communications, should be made fully accessible. Finally, the administration should actively encourage and aid student efforts to educate the student body on students with disabilities and increase training, awareness and advocacy for groups related to disabilities on campus.

Throughout our accessibility campaign, we have attempted to engage the multiple offices within the administration. The underwhelming response we have received echoes the responses other students have described. Two of our members attended an Association of Amherst Students meeting to send out the school-wide survey mentioned earlier. At this AAS meeting, the Dean of Students wanted the administration to review the survey before its release. Despite his comments, the AAS voted to send out the survey. Several of our members were later questioned by the Chief Student Affairs Officer about this.

After the survey, we continued to meet with the Chief Student Affairs Officer, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and the Accessibility Services Manager. During our first meeting, we were promised a memo on discussion and action steps.

On follow-up, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer denied that this was ever discussed. During our second meeting, two main administrators left halfway through. Follow-through from the administration was, at best, inadequate. Then again, maybe this should not have come as such a surprise: the administration has been promising an accessibility task force or committee for the past two years, but failed to deliver. For example, over the summer, the Chief Student Affairs Officer promised to form a task force during the fall semester. Now, at the beginning of March, there has still been no action whatsoever.

Overall, the administration’s attitude has trans-

lated into a dissonance between disability and diversity as well as between rhetoric and action.

Unlike many other minority groups, disabled students have no affinity group. The resource centers, a mainstay for some minority populations, do not actively work to engage disabled students. Campus culture appears resistant to realizing and understanding the challenges disabled students face, an issue many students have expressed concerns about. As a non-disabled student commented, “I observe a not-very-accepting environment for disabled people amongst the student body.” One student very bluntly expressed the difference between the college’s narratives of diversity and the experience many students with disabilities have on campus: “For all this school says about including the diverse students they bring here, they sure as hell don’t do the best job.” Collectively, our proposals would help destigmatize disability and help make Amherst more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

Disability is a vital part of diversity, not something to be stigmatized or ignored. Therefore, disability should be incorporated as an aspect of diversity in the admissions process, including creating a completely accessible application and financial aid process and conducting implicit bias training with admissions officers to reduce instances of bias or discrimination against prospective students with disabilities. This is especially important in a society where ableist biases are the norm and is necessary to ensure disabled students have equal access to an Amherst education. On the Admission Office “Diversity Programs” webpage, the “Dimensions of Diversity” section does not mention disability. It appears as though the Admission Office has made no substantial effort to recruit disabled applicants.

For example, the Common Application was made inaccessible for screen reader users, and the college has made no effort to provide an accessible alternative.

Amherst’s mission statement claims that the college will strive to fulfill the needs of its students who identify as disabled so that they may “seek, value, and advance knowledge, [and] engage the world around them.” We hope the administration will listen to the pressing concerns of Amherst students and adequately respond by making these much-needed changes.

We are indebted to Nora Gayer’s article published in The Amherst Student in 2015, which discusses inaccessibility at Amherst. We have received consent for all students’ quotes in this article.

Signed, Joshua Ferrer ’18E Olivia Pinney ’17 Annika Ariel ’19 Logan Seymour ’19E Casey McQuillan ’18 Phillip Yan ’18 Lexie Freeman ’19 Mariana Lehoucq ’19 Julia Finnerty ’20

A Joint Letter from Religious and Spiritual Life Religious and Spiritual Life Staff Contributing Writers Dear Students, Faculty, Staff and Administrators: We write to you in a time of public divisiveness and fear. The recent Executive Order on Immigration has been confusing at best, and in many cases, painful. We are troubled by the recent discriminatory action directed at immigrants and refugees into this country from seven predominately Muslim nations and alarmed that communities seeking to shelter individuals fleeing harm could be penalized.

This policy is antithetical to Amherst College’s profound values of compassion, justice and dignity for all individuals, the principles of our country and the understanding of human dignity embodied in our spiritual traditions. In the wake of recent vandalism and violence, we lift up these values in support of all people regardless of the factors that some exploit as basis for discrimination or hate.

The honored writings of our respective traditions are clear: we humans are called to welcome

strangers and care for the oppressed.

From Judaism: Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. (Exodus 22:21-22) From Christianity: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. (Matthew 25:36-36) From Islam: Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good — to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are near, neighbours who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (ye meet), and what your right hands possess: For Allah loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious. (Qu’ran 4.036) From Hinduism: When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union. (Bhagavad Gita 6:32) From Buddhism: Hurt not others with that

which pains yourself. (Udanavarga 5:18) From Confucianism: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. (Analects 15:23) From Humanism: To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvelous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses — that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things. (Pablo Neruda, “Childhood and Poetry”) In the midst of this divisiveness and fear, we choose love. We are committed to standing with each of you. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with one another and with every member of the Amherst College community: to listen, to learn and to honor the faith that is within each of us. Each of our traditions calls us to bring peace to the world and compassion to those in need. This is echoed

by our college motto, “Terras Irradient” — “Let Them Give Light to the World.” When we embrace one another in mutual respect, there are no more strangers among us and we live in peaceful unity.

Respectfully, Mr. Mohammed Abdelaal, Muslim Advisor Rabbi Bruce Bromberg Seltzer, Jewish Advisor Deacon Roger Carrier, Catholic Advisor Rev. Betty Lou Carthon, Goodwin A.M.E. Zion Church Pastor and Adjunct Advisor Rev. Dr. Tom Fisher, Adjunct Advisor to Presbyterian Students Prof. Jyl Gentzler, Humanist Advisor Mr. Chris Gow, Adjunct Advisor to the Christian Fellowship Dr. Mark Hart, Buddhist Advisor Rev. Timothy Jones, Advisor to the Hermenia T. Gardner Bi-Semester Christian Worship Series Ms. Manju Sharma, Hindu Advisor Rev. Dr. Paul Sorrentino, Director of Religious & Spiritual Life and Protestant Advisor

Arts&Living

Photos courtesy of Megan Do ‘18

Aditi Krishnamurthy ‘18 and Megan Do ‘18 designed Amherst Follows t-shirts to satirize and create discussion around the Amherst LEADS program for athletes

Street Style in Suburban Massachusetts: Follow These Leaders Julia Pretsfelder ’18 Managing Arts & Living Editor Amherst Follows T-shirts are a subtle and wry comment on athletic culture at Amherst that also suggest how empty slogans are. You could go as far as to say it’s satirical pop art.

Deemed offensive by some athletes and sported by others, you could say they’ve trumped the “Spring Carnival” shirts and started a miniature movement — making students from all walks of life reflect, with humor, on the contradictions of programs here at Amherst. This week, A&L is talking to the creators of Amherst Follows, Aditi Krishnamurthy ’18 and Megan Do ’18.

If you’re a first-year or someone like me — so mired in your non-athlete bubble that you don’t recognize the reference — Amherst LEADS is a leadership development program for student athletes. As described on the website, student-athletes are, in particular, leaders on campus.

“Student-athletes are leaders, whether they recognize it or not; the decisions they make reflect on themselves, their teams and the College,” reads the website description, “Amherst LEADS instills an awareness of that leadership role, establishing a higher level of accountability for every student-athlete. We ask our student-athletes to be exemplary Amherst College citizens no matter the setting: in the classroom, on the playing field, or in the community.”

Q: Where did this idea come from?

AK: It didn’t come from any particular place outside of spoofing Amherst LEADS — such a striking, ubiquitous presence on campus.

Since freshman year, I’ve joked about making Amherst Follows for non-athletes.

Then Megan and I were having dinner over interterm, and she told me she would help me actually make this dream come to life. Then, when the athletic report came out we thought it would be particularly relevant.

MD: Because athletics were already on everyone’s mind, we thought: this is so ripe to parodize.

Q: How did you make the shirts?

MD: Aditi sent me the LEADS logo, and I tried to recreate it so it would be an effective parody.

We built the design using Adobe Illustrator in Frost. I tried to make variations of logos from

what I remembered.

AK: Actually, the main difference is that LEADS is a horizontal logo whereas ours is stacked! LEADS actually looks stretched on apparel, but we wanted Follows to stay proportional.

MD: And that covers copyright reasons.

AK: We lost sleep over this.

MD: We thought — authenticity versus aesthetic value? What’s more important?

Q: How did other activities you’re involved in on campus inform this project?

AK: In the athletic report, I was frustrated by how they characterized the Association of Amherst Student’’s involvement in athletics.

They didn’t do any research and made it seem like we created unnecessary bureaucracy.

MD: It wasn’t from a place of anger, it was more a comment on how obvious the report results were and how under-researched it was.

AK: I think many athletes recognize that it’s ridiculous that only they have access to speakers who talk about leadership. I’m not someone who hates athletes or doesn’t talk to athletes at all. They see the problems with it.

MD: People talk about it, but no one’s done anything to actually comment on it.

even hard to tell when people’s responses were sarcastic or not because of the product itself.

Q: How (if so) have members of the administration responded?

AK: We haven’t heard anything from the administration, which is likely a reflection of the fact that this is all just meant to be humorous.

Q: Do you know of any other instances of students just creating clothes for all of campus?

AK: We were so surprised this hadn’t been done before.

MD: It’s such an obvious joke on some level.

Q: Do you hope to set trends? Any other ideas for clothes?

MD: We were thinking of starting a lifestyle brand, but we don’t have many more ideas at the moment. If anyone has any suggestions, we definitely will collaborate with them. We also were going to start an online order form.

Q: Are you a mathlete?

AK: I warm the bench. I wish I was more of a mathlete because I am a chem major, but I’m good at Excel.

MD: I’m an Environmental Studies and Architectural Studies major, so no. But I wish I were because then I could be an investment banker.

Q: What has been the most surprising response?

AK: I think we’re so surprised how popular these were.

MD: We sold 75 shirts in the Val atrium in under two hours.

AK: One of the baseball coaches came up to us, and we explained to them what it meant.

Who are we going to lead when there’s no one to follow? He said, “That’s so clever.”

MD: That’s kind of the point of this whole thing — to help people talk and laugh over a commonplace feature of our campus.

AK: When am I ever going to talk to the baseball coach? I don’t play baseball.

Q: Have you received negative feedback?

AK: Worst response was also from a member of a dominant team on campus who was hurt by the project.

MD: Again, the goal is to make everyone laugh together by highlighting this thing on campus that many people recognize but aren’t necessarily conscious of. I was so nervous before we made them. I think some people thought we were claiming we were superior to them. It’s

Photo courtesy of Megan Do ‘18

Krishnamurthy and Do recieved positive feedback from athletes and non-athletes alike, selling out their first shipment of 75 shirts in two hours.

The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

Arts & Living 7

Sade Green ’20 Wins in Powerful Student Story-Telling Slam

Photo by Brandon Medina ‘19

The winners of the Litfest Poetry Slam were (from left to right) Sade Green ‘20 (first place), Irisdelia Garcia ‘18 (third) and Doyin Ariyibi ’18 (second).

Brandon Medina ’19 Staff Writer Amherst’s second Annual LitFest Poetry Slam took place last Thursday at the Powerhouse. Fresh off of last year’s event, in which Latrell Broughton ’19 took home the top prize, Amherst students hit the ground running this year with personal and provocative poems.

The poetry slam was hosted by Daniel Gallant, executive director of the Nuyorican Slam

Poets Café, a nonprofit poetry cafe based in Manhattan. Nuyorican gives a platform for personal stories and struggles in a performative style of poetry. The Café participants are particularly encouraged to emphasize experiences from marginalized people’s points of view and to use the medium of poetry as performance. This prompts an emotional response rather than a typical intellectual one.

After each poem was recited, a selected panel of four judges gave the performance a

score from one to ten, and audience members were encouraged to voice their dissent if they disapproved of the judges’ scores. Refreshments, graciously handed out by a team of white-tuxedo clad serving staff, were provided during the event. Although many on this campus do not think of “quiet and intimate” when they think of the Powerhouse, that is truly what this event felt like.

This year’s event saw a wide range of stories from a myriad of perspectives. Some examples of poems in competition included reigning runner-up Irisdelia Garcia ’18 delivering a passionate poem on the evils of gentrification in her home, the South Bronx. David Ruth ’17 told the sweet story of his childhood relationship with his dog. Rachel Boyette ’17 took the audience on her hilarious journey growing up defying stereotypes of femininity, and Katarina Cruz ’18 expounded on the imperialist aspects of her name and her bloodline. This year’s competition displayed talent from all walks of life. One especially creative part was the Haiku Deathmatch, when each poet wrote a Haiku around a panel-selected topic.

Overall, Sade Green ’20 claimed first place, Doyin Ariyibi ’18 finished in second and Garcia came in third. Garcia and Ariyibi, as the runner-ups, received gift cards to Amherst Books, while Green received a pre-paid trip to the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, where she will perform her poetry.

“When I walked into the Powerhouse, I felt like I was at an actual poetry cafe,” Green said.

She described how the stage had a spotlight and the arrangement of the chairs provided

an intimate setting. The night even included waiters serving hors d’oeuvres and beverages and a guitarist playing softly in the corner. “As I listened to my peers perform their poetry, I was inspired by their words and was able to see a side of my peers that I hadn’t seen before. As I read my poem, I felt at ease. It was then, in that moment, that I remembered why I loved poetry so much. I love poetry because words have the power to inspire. Words have the power to heal. Most importantly, words have the power to make you feel alive. And as I stood on the stage and spoke about what being a black woman meant to me, I had never felt so alive.”

Photo by Amir Hall ‘17

R-Rating and Outstanding Acting Make Best X-Men Movie Yet

Photo courtesy of www.1bp.blogspot.com

Photo courtesy of images.wired.it

“Logan,” set in a bleak world in 2029, provides a perfect backdrop for Jackman, Keen and Stewart in the most recent installment of the X-Men movies.

Mark Simonitis ’19 Staff Writer In many ways, “Logan” is the fulfillment of a promise that was made in the very first X-Men movie. Under the banner of an R rating, we’re finally able to see the drunk, savage and foul-mouthed yet incredibly sympathetic Wolverine of whom we’ve seen glimpses all these years. In this grounded, bloody, grim and heartbreaking movie, Hugh Jackman is finally able to deliver the culmination of a character arc that has stretched across seventeen years and nine movies.

Loosely based on Mark Millar’s “Old Man Logan” miniseries, “Logan” takes place in the not-so-distant future of 2029, a time when the mutant race is all but extinct. Logan, having abandoned the identity of Wolverine, is one of the few survivors. He’s traded the leather in for a poorly fitting tuxedo, working as a limo driver to make ends meet. He and fellow mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant) are taking care of an ailing Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in a hidden enclave on the Mexican border. Eventually, Logan crosses paths with a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) and finds himself defending her from dark forces that seek to use her as a weapon.

For their final showings as these characters, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart pull out all the stops. Jackman brings a whole new depth to the character, reveling in the chance to show us what the true Wolverine looks like. Patrick Stewart is undoubtedly the stand out here. While he was largely relegated to a supporting character in the previous films, the legendary actor finally gets to take center stage in one of his most iconic roles. His Xavier is hilarious, haunted and beautifully tragic as he finds himself in a world where his life’s work has all been for naught. However, it is Dafne Keen who truly steals the show. I’ve always been wary of films centered around child actors, but Keen has an amazing presence on screen, spending a large portion of the movie communicating only through facial expressions. Finally, Boyd Holbrook and Richard E. Grant played main villains Donald Pierce and Zander Rice, respectively. While Holbrook gets to have some fun playing a cyborg mutant fanboy, Grant mostly gets stuck delivering exposition and tying up a lingering plot thread in a rather anticlimactic way. Still, these low points in the plot are easily forgivable as “Logan” truly focuses on of Logan, Xavier and Laura’s journey.

“Logan,” to its great credit, doesn’t attempt

to be a standard superhero movie. There is no hilariously outmatched CGI army to fight and sky-beam to stop. Logan doesn’t quip as he dispatches his foes. In fact, he even holds up some X-Men comics and says that’s not how things work in the real world. No one is going to swoop in to save the day. By doing this, “Logan” separates itself from the rest of the X-Men franchise and the entire superhero genre. As Logan himself says, “In the real world, people die,” and they die violently. Director James Mangold doesn’t shy away from showing us what happens when eight and a half inch long razors meet a human body.

The action is quick, brutal and sufficiently gory as Logan hacks and slashes with no holds barred. The action only serves to further increase the sense that “Logan” is like no other “X-Men” movie. There’s a well-executed scene where Logan comes across some immobilized henchmen pointing their guns at Charles.

While another movie might have Logan disable their weapons or cut off their hands, he just stabs them in the head instead. Nothing seems to be off limits. Even Laura gets in on the fun by being subjected to what is possibly the worst physical violence ever inflicted upon a child in a Hollywood film — not something you’d see at any other point in the franchise.

It’s a good thing she can dish it out too. Keen is right up there with Jackman when it comes to delivering berserk beatings, and she handles the fight scenes amazingly well.

Make no mistake, violence is not the only area where “Logan” doesn’t pull punches.

There are gut-wrenching revelations, horrifying twists and dialogue that makes half the audience cry. Mangold makes no secret of the influence “Shane” has had on this movie (Laura even watches a scene from it while staying at a hotel), and “Logan” might as well be the modern retelling of the film. It’s the story of the old gunslinger returning to his savage nature for the sake of others.

“Logan” is a heavy, dreary and grounded movie reminding us that we’re capable of turning our ugly instincts into something good. The violence, the language and the setting paint a brutal but realistic picture of a not so distant future where the only option left is to fight. Dafne Keen will have you rooting for Laura, and I hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her. Finally, if this is truly the last time we’ll ever have the pleasure of seeing Jackman and Stewart in these roles, it’s fitting that they end their tenure with the franchise’s best film yet. “Logan” joins “The Dark Knight” as a modern superhero classic.

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

Nicki Minaj, Remy Ma and ShEther: The Death of a Monster

Photo courtesy of islandista.com

Photo courtesy of vanndigital.com

Over the past weeks, rappers Nicki Minaj and Remy Ma took the hip-hop world by storm when they began feuding in the style of Nas and Jay-Z from the early 2000s.

Kevin Feeley ’19 Contributing Writer Rapper Reminisce Mackie, also known as Remy Ma, set the rap industry on fire last week when she released her seven-minute diss track “ShETHER.” The song is a detailed dissection of pop culture and rap icon Nicki Minaj, and has left many fans on both sides of the debate wondering if Nicki can recover. The song plays of Nas’ infamous 2001 diss track “Ether,” which was aimed at Jay-Z, using the same beat, hook, and intro. The opening of the song features a recording of Nicki Minaj telling the world to “free Remy,” who only recently was released from prison after six years. After the recording ends, several gunshots are heard before the words “F*ck Nicki Minaj!” are played behind a series of attacks on Nicki’s appearance. The hook calls upon Nas’ hook from the song “Ether,” with Remy saying “I will not lose,” behind several disses such as “Lipo your ass and belly,” and “I prove you lost already.” This sets the pace for the

rest of the song, as we clearly know the target of the diss immediately. To put this in perspective, one of the more recent rap feuds that dominated social media was between Drake and Meek Mill. Neither of Drake’s diss tracks referenced Meek by name, though it was obvious who the songs were referring to. Remy made sure that there were no misinterpretations of her lyrics: she was coming for Nicki and she was coming for blood.

Remy then continues on her rampage by explaining the origins of both Nicki’s career and the feud itself. When Remy was sentenced to eight years in prison back in 2008, a void formed around the title of “Queen of Hip-Hop,” a void that was filled by Nicki’s massive success in the following decade. However, one can clearly argue that the title was given to her by default, as Remy was unable to maintain her status while behind bars, and that once she was released, the tables would turn on Minaj.

Remy references this with “They told you your whole career I’d come home and kill you, right?”

She then delievers a series of brutal attacks on Minaj’s “fake” posterior, playing on her intelligence at the same time with “It looks stupid, you literally got a dumb ass / Talkin’ cray, and we all know that you dumb as / You get the Donkey of the Day, yeah, you dumb ass.” After projecting her gift with wordplay, Remy goes on to literally threaten Nicki, saying “Now you gotta die, you dearly departed / Bloodbath when I catch you, a real red carpet.” These threats can be seen as typical rap feud jabs, threats thrown out that have no real backing to them. When it comes to Remy, however, the weight of these threats is all too real. It should be noted that Remy went to jail for shooting a friend: one can only guess what she would do to someone she had such distaste for.

While Remy continues for several more devastating, diss filled lines, it should be noted that this is only the first song. Seeing that Minaj has refused to respond to the initial track, Remy went off a second time with her appropriately titled song “Anotha One,” though only three

minutes long, the song harkens back to Drake’s 2015 diss track “Back to Back,” the song that ended Meek Mill’s career for some time. Clever and brutal wordplay aside, the message of “Anotha One,” was clear: Minaj “Already took a L, now you got another one,” and as Remy explains she will “kick a dead horse till it don’t move,” she makes it clear that she will keep going until she either dies of Minaj responds.

While “ShETHER” and “Anotha One” have shaken the rap game up this past week, one should note that Remy herself explained that this was going to happen. In her December remix of “Wait a Minute,” with Phresher, she clearly states that she was going to be on the offensive, and anyone who listens to rap could have told you that Nicki was the target. The threat was clear: “Get rid of those fake breasts / And put a vest on this b*tch chest.” If Remy was willing to put holes in her friend, one can only assume that Minaj will really need a bulletproof vest.

Nicki Minaj has yet to reply to either track.

The question is, why?

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The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

Sports 9

Women’s Basketball Dominates in First Two Rounds of NCAA Play

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Meghan Sullivan ‘19 totaled five points and five rebounds against Regis.

Talia Land ’20 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s basketball team advanced to the third round of the Division III national tournament with two victories in LeFrak Gymnasium on Friday, March 3.

Entering the tournament undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country, Amherst swept aside Regis College 65-37 in Friday’s first round. The team then defeated No. 22 Mary Washington, 60-51, on Saturday.

Against Regis College, Amherst played solid defense right off the bat, allowing their opponents to only score two points in the open-

ing quarter.

Emma McCarthy ’19 led the team with six points, while Meredith Doswell ’17 added five and Hannah Fox ’20 pitched in three from the bench.

Amherst then used a 9-0 second quarter run to enter the locker room at halftime with a 44-13 lead.

In the third quarter, Regis attempted a comeback, outscoring the purple and white 12-5 in those ten minutes.

During this time, Amherst shot just 18% from the floor. However, the purple and white turned it around and pulled away in the fourth to win 65-37.

Rich Lowry Columnist, Author and Editor of the prominent conservative magazine National Review

Wednesday, March 8 Talk at 8 p.m.

Stirn Auditorium Amherst College Free and open to the public.

Made possible by the generosity of the Croxton Lecture Fund.

Maeve McNamara ’19 had a game high 11 points off the bench. In total, Amherst’s bench added an impressive 47 points to the game total.

With the win, Amherst moved on to the second round of the single-elimination tournament.

After less than 24 hours of rest, Amherst met Mary Washington College, which had also played the previous night, in the second round on Saturday.

While the first quarter was extremely tight, a three by Meredith Doswell to open the second quarter gave Amherst a 12-6 lead. However, Mary Washington would not go down so easily, scoring seven unanswered to take the lead.

Amherst bounced back with four straight buckets to make it 20-13. Five points from Jamie Renner ’17 and three-pointers from both Hannah Hackley ’18 and Ali Doswell ’17 gave Amherst a 31-19 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, the purple and white hit five treys, including two each from Renner and Ali Doswell.

Although Mary Washington attempted a frantic rally in the fourth, the purple and white won their second round of the NCAA tournament by a score of 60-51.

Due to her performances over the course of the regular season, Ali Doswell has been named NESCAC player of the year.

Doswell now holds the record for most points ever by an Amherst women’s player with 1,507 in total.

She and her sister, Meredith Doswell, also garnered conference accolades this past week, with each being named First Team All-NESCAC. First-year Madeline Eck also garnered NESCAC rookie of the year honors. Eck averaged 6.7 points a game and scored in double digits five times this season.

Head coach G.P. Gromacki, meanwhile,

was named NESCAC coach of the year for the second year in a row.

Amherst has now advanced to the third round of the tournament for the 10th straight season.

The purple and white squad is slated to face Babson University on Friday, March 10 in the Sweet Sixteen round. In Amherst’s last meeting with Babson earlier this season, the purple and white claimed a hard-fought 67-62 victory.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Ali Doswell ‘17 dominated Saturday, posting 17 points with five threes.

Men’s Lacrosse Opens Season With 17-12 Win Over Bowdoin Mary Grace Cronin ’18 Staff Writer After frigid temperatures delayed the team’s season-opener from Saturday to Sunday, the ninth-ranked Amherst men’s lacrosse team began their 2017 season with a home win against NESCAC foe Bowdoin. In a rematch of last year’s season opener, in which the purple and white narrowly held onto a 10-7 win, the homefield advantage proved useful for the hosts, who dominated the Polar Bears by a score of 17-12.

Midfielder Matt Killian ’17 struck first for Amherst on an unassisted tally. Fellow senior Chris Albanese would strike just a minute later on a feed from Evan Wolf ’19, who proceeded to put purple and white ahead 3-0 with an unassisted tally of his own just over three minutes later. Albanese continued his dominant first quarter, notching three more goals before the whistle blew to end the frame. Killian added one more goal in the quarter while Colin Minicus ’20 notched a pair of goals, propelling Amherst to a 9-1 lead after just the first stanza of play.

Bowdoin would try to crawl their way back in the second, posting five goals of their own.

However, Albanese, Minicus and Andrew Ford ’19 all scored to give the purple and white a 12-6 lead heading into halftime.

In the third period, Jack Norton ’19 exploded with a hat trick of his own off assists from Sam Chen ’17, Minicus and Ian Kadish ’18.

With Amherst entering the fourth holding a comfortable 15-8 lead, Bowdoin needed a miracle to pull out a win. Although the Polar Bears did manage four tallies in the frame, two more goals from Jack Norton ’19 and Wolf closed a promising opening to the 2017 season.

Albanese led both teams in scoring with five goals to his name, while Minicus led in assists with three. Most impressively, 11 Amherst players posted either a goal or assist. With contri-

butions from both new and veteran team members, Amherst showed off this team’s depth to the rest of the NESCAC. Amherst senior goaltender Cody Tranberger managed 13 saves, while Bowdoin netminder Peter Mumford recorded 20.

The purple and white also edged the Polar Bears in face-offs won, taking 24 to their 10, and showed tremendous hustle, leading 56-37 in ground balls.

The purple and white sought to continue their winning ways on Tuesday, when the team took to the road for the first time this season, traveling to face Western New England University.

The host Golden Bears jumped out to an early lead, scoring just 1:14 into the affair. Although the teams went back and forth for the remainder of the quarter, the score remained at 1-0 when the whistle blew to close the period.

Amherst’s offense came to life in the second, however, with the purple and white tallying five goals, two from Ford, Albanese and Wolf each adding one. Additionally, junior Max Keeley notched his first goal of the season, giving the purple and white a slim 5-4 lead heading into the half.

The see-saw nature of the affair continued into the third frame. The purple and white again showcased its depth with two more players, Jon Coffey ’20 and Connor Sheehan ’18, scoring their first goal of the year.

After Western New England rallied to take a 8-7 lead early in the fourth, the purple and white responded dominantly, scoring three unanswered goals via Brogan Mahon ’19, Killian and Norton. These three tallies left the final score 10-8 in favor of Amherst.

The purple and white look to continue their winning start to the season, when the team travels to play conference rival Bates on Saturday, March 11 at 1 p.m.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

Men’s Basketball Suffers Tough Loss in NCAA Tournament First Round Delancey King ’18 Staff Writer After receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament, the Amherst men’s basketball team concluded their season with a heartbreaking 69-66 first-round loss to Keene State College on Friday, March 3.

The loss marks the first time in eight years that the purple and white have failed to advance to the round of 32.

Aware of the tournament’s single elimination format, both sides came out hard in the first half. Neither team distinguished themselves in the opening minutes, as no lead exceeded four points.

Back-to-back threes from Diego Magana ’17 seemed likely to shift the momentum in Amherst’s favor, but the Owls responded with some big offensive plays and managed to take a 32-31 lead with less than a minute remaining in the half.

Battling for a bucket inside the paint, Eric Conklin ’17 tried to give the purple and white an edge heading into intermission, but Keene State drained a trey in the last seconds to keep the Owls ahead 35-33.

The second half was marked by more relentless play from Keene State, as the Owls found

a way to answer each lead that Amherst took.

After a jumper from Jayde Dawson ’18 midway through the half, the purple and white went up 56-51 and seemed poised to ride the slight advantage through the remaining minutes.

However, five straight points from Matt Ozzella put Amherst back under pressure. The purple and white continued to generate quality offense, but 5-of-6 shooting from the line kept Keene State in the game.

In what looked to be the final possession of the game, Dawson drove to the hoop to break a 66-66 deadlock and secure the win for the purple and white. Unfortunately, the basket did not fall, and Keene State regained possession with only two seconds remaining. Nichols once again acted as the difference maker for the Owls, racing up the court and sinking a trey to claim the victory.

“It obviously wasn’t the result we were hoping for, and it’s tough to end my career on a game that I know we could have won.” said senior guard Reid Berman. “Still, I’ve been really fortunate to be a part of this program for the last four years, and one game doesn’t change that. I’m looking forward to seeing what next year’s squad will accomplish.”

Amherst finishes the 2016-17 season with an overall record of 17-8.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Chris Albanese ’17 Favorite Team Memory: Beating Tufts on Pratt Field in 2015 Favorite Athlete: Eli Manning Dream Job: DJ Pet Peeve: When people eat grab-n-go sandwiches in class Favorite Vacation Spot: Pawley’s Island, South Carolina Something on Your Bucket List: Visiting Machu Picchu Favorite Food: Chick-fil-A Favorite Thing About Amherst: The abundance of private common space How He Earned It: Albanese, a senior attacker, is off to an impressive start to the season. He tallied six goals in two games to lead the purple and white to their first two wins. The New Jersey native scored five goals against NESCAC opponent Bowdoin on Sunday, March 5.

He then netted one in the team’s victory over non-conference foe Western New England on Tuesday, March 7. These two goals bring Albanese’s career point total to 101, which leads the team by a large margin.

Julia Crerend ’18 Favorite Team Memory: Watching the sunrise after a morning practice Favorite Athlete: Dakota Foster Dream Job: Pastry Chef Pet Peeve: Waking up early Favorite Vacation Spot: Nantucket Island Something on Your Bucket List: Seeing the Northern Lights Favorite Food: Milkshakes Favorite Thing About Amherst: Fall Fest!

How She Earned It: The junior attacker kept the game alive this weekend with two second-half goals in Amherst’s loss to Bowdoin. First, Crerend scored a goal early in the second on an unassisted effort to bring Amherst within one of the Polar Bears at 5-4. Then, with just 1:18 remaining in the game, she received a feed from Annie Cohen ’19 and knotted the score at 6-6. Crerend’s final minute goal forced an overtime period for the purple and white.

In addition to her pair of goals, Crerend also picked up two ground balls and forced two turnovers on defense.

Amherst’s Kiana Herold Qualifies for NCAA Championships in High Jump Laura Greer ’20 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of David Le ‘15

Eric Conklin ‘17 closed out his collegiate career with a solid showing against Keene State, tallying 13 points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes of action.

Women’s Lacrosse Loses 7-6 in Overtime Against Bowdoin to Start 2017 Season Katie Bergamesca ’18 Staff Writer After several weeks of preseason, the Amherst women’s lacrosse team opened their season against NESCAC rival Bowdoin in Brunswick, ME. Originally scheduled for Saturday, March 4, the game was moved to Sunday due to dangerously cold temperatures on Saturday. No. 15 Amherst dropped a hard-fought battle to the Polar Bears in a 7-6 overtime loss.

Bowdoin was first to strike with a goal off a free position shot from senior Mettler Growney.

From that point forward, the game was an exciting back-and-forth match up.

Claire Cagnassola ’17 was the first purple and white player to put Amherst on the board, but before the end of the half, Kelly Karczewski ’18 and Kate Wyeth ’17 tacked on a goal apiece.

Going into the second half, the Polar Bears had a slim 4-3 lead over Amherst. Once again, however, Bowdoin was first to score in the second half, increasing their lead to 5-3. Julia Crerend ’18 and senior Hanna Krueger then contributed a goal apiece to even the score with 16:18 remaining in the game.

However, Bowdoin fired back roughly seven minutes later and regained the lead with a goal from first-year Gloria Zhao. As the minutes ticked off the clock, it looked as though Bow-

doin was going to take home a win. However, Crerend’s game-tying goal with only 1:18 left on the clock forced the game into overtime.

Although Crerend was able to extend the game with her thrilling goal, the Polar Bears managed to come out on top in the sudden death overtime period.

Just before the halfway mark of the sixminute overtime, Bowdoin senior Annie Glenn managed to sneak a shot past Amherst goalie Kyra Gardner ’18 to give the Polar Bears their first victory of the season.

Crerend led the purple and white with two goals, while Mary Grace Cronin ’18 and Annie Cohen ’19 each tallied an assist. Kate Burns ’19, Crerend and Cagnassola collected two groundballs each.

First-year Kat Krieg led Amherst in caused turnovers with three, and in goal, Gardner made six saves on 13 shots.

“It was a bummer to lose the first game of the season,” Gardner said. “This team definitely has a lot of potential, and I expect good things as the season progresses.”

With their loss to Bowdoin, the purple and white is 0-1 on the season and in NESCAC play.

Amherst looks to collect their first win of the season on Wednesday, March 8 in a 6 p.m. game at Keene State. The team then hosts NESCAC rival Bates on Saturday, March 11 at 2 p.m.

This past weekend, only one member of the Amherst women’s track and field team participated in competition. Senior Kiana Herold traveled to the Tufts Last Chance Invitational with the hope of qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championships in high jump.

With Katherine Treanor ’20 and Abbey Asare-Bediako ’18 already qualified for NCAA Division III Championships in the 5,000-meter run and triple jump, respectively, Herold sought to become the third member of the purple and white’s squad to make the trip to Illinois.

Although high jump usually lacks the close photo-finishes that occur in the sprint or distance events, Herold found herself in a rare and exciting situation at Tufts. After the regulation number of leaps, Herold and MIT’s Natalie Alper finished tied for first.

According to collegiate rule, if two competitors are tied for first, the jumper with fewest misses at the tying height wins. If still tied, the tiebreaker then becomes fewest total misses in

the competition. However, Herold and Alper had the same number of misses both at the tying height and throughout the competition. In other, non-first place, circumstances, jumpers simply finish tied. However, since this tie was for first place a further measure was needed.

The last resort is called a jump-off and is similar to a penalty shoot-out in soccer or hockey. The jump-off begins with a single, sudden death jump for each competitor at the next height in the original progression. If no winner is determined, the bar is then raised or lowered depending on whether or not the competitors cleared the previous height.

Eventually, Herold won the competition, clearing the bar at a mark of 1.60 meters while Alper did not. With this jump, Herold became the third member of the Amherst women’s track and field team to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships.

The trio of athletes, Herold, Treanor and Asare-Bediako, will represent the purple and white will travel to North Central, Ill. this week to compete in the NCAA Division III Championships on Friday, March 10, and Saturday, March 11.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Kiana Herold ‘17 took first place in what proved to be a riveting high jump competition at Tufts, besting her MIT opponent by jumping 1.60 meters.

The Amherst Student • March 8, 2017

Sports

Men’s Track and Field Closes Season with Strong Showing at Tufts Meet

11

Forest’s Fast Take Forest Sisk ’17 Columnist With March Madness, the pinnacle of the college sporting calendar, less than two weeks away, Forest takes a look at what drives this American obsession.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Kristian Sogaard ‘19 ran well in his heat for the 800-meter run, placing fifth.

Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer On Saturday March 4, the last day for athletes to achieve qualifying times and marks for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field National Championships, the Amherst men’s track and field team traveled to Boston once again to compete at the Tufts Final Qualifier tournament.

For seniors Kevin Connors and Raymond Meijer, it was also their final time competing at an indoor track meet.

Meijer started off the competition for the Amherst men, competing in the 5,000-meter run. The cross-country standout raced for the first time in a month after choosing to train in favor of racing. The month of hard training paid off, as he completed the 25-lap event in 15:17.21.

Next up for the purple and white was the 800-meter run, in which sophomore Kristian Sogaard ran in the competitive first heat.

The mid-distance standout ran the event for the first time this indoor season after focusing on the mile and relays and finished fifth in his heat with a time of 1:56.65.

Although Sogaard came up short of his goal, his strong indoor season in the mid-distance events shows great promise for seasons to come.

First-year Ralph Skinner placed second in the second heat of the 800-meters, after taking the lead with 300 meters left in the race.

The first-year finished in a time of 1:56.38, just

edging in front of teammate Sogaard in the overall results to set a new personal best.

The final event of the day for Amherst was the 3,000-meter run, where Connors and Cosmo Brossy ’19 sought to run Nationalsqualifying times. With a competitive field of athletes in the race, the duo was pushed to the best of their abilities.

Connors bested his previous personal best by 12 seconds with a time of 8:25.12. He placed fourth just behind Tim Nichols of Tufts, who placed third at NCAA DIII cross country nationals in the fall.

Not to be outshined by Connors’ performance, Brossy ran a competitive race as well, crossing the finish line in a time of 8:31.76.

The sophomore set an impressive three-second personal best in the event to close out a strong indoor season.

“The meet marked a good end to a solid indoor season for the team,” Meijer said. “It was exciting to see three of our five runners [competing at the meet] get personal bests, and I think everyone is feeling ready to carry momentum from indoor into outdoor.”

For the first time since 2008, no member of the men’s track and field team will be competing at nationals.

However, the team ended the indoor season on a high note, and many athletes enjoyed consistent and competitive seasons.

With the outdoor track and field season approaching, the team will shift its focus to training until the Snowflake Classic, their first outdoor meet, on Saturday, April 1.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Sophomore Cosmo Brossy completed his impressive indoor season at the Tufts Invitational, managing a personal-best 8:31.76 in the 3000-meter run.

In the wake of Saturday night’s Duke vs.

North Carolina game, which saw the Tar Heels clinch the regular season ACC championship crown, the annual excitement of March Madness began. Now, on the dance’s doorstep, teams will compete in their conference tournaments to determine who gets the automatic bids and who has to romance the stone hoping for an at-large bid.

So why is this such an infectious tournament? Nearly every collegiate sport has a national championship tournament. Sixty-eight teams enter, four enter the final stage, and only one team comes out the other side with a ring and an eternal smile. This story undoubtedly carries a spirit, but why basketball and why madness?

Undoubtedly, the most compelling aspect of this tournament comes from the sport’s parity. Year in, year out, titans of the regular season and NCAA basketball history fall to the little guy, the lesser known programs who find a way to enter the tournament and then make the most of their opportunity. The modern era’s advances have rendered the recruiting process easy for the best teams. Finding the best players now requires a simple Google search.

The likes of Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina will always find a way to be title contenders, but before these teams can slide into the Final Four, they have to go through trials and tribulations against second-tier programs who want to win the two 20-minute halves just as badly, if not more so, than the big dogs. In the tournament’s lengthy history, 2008 was just the first time all four top-seeded teams reached the final four. Whether it’s at the hands of a No. 2 or a humble 12-seed, number ones do fall, and often. Whether it’s true in real life or not, the American Dream is fully alive on the hardwood each March.

Sixty-eight teams put their name in the championship bin, praying for the basketball gods to smile on their campaign. Though the favored teams have a distinct advantage over the more unassuming programs, the game presents itself to both teams in the same way.

Whoever puts the ball in the basket the most times wins. There are rules, but they apply to both teams. Preconceived advantages abound, but a self-proclaiming equality on the court produces a more accurate vision of the American Dream than the one we are told as kids.

If the idea of the underdog weren’t romanticized enough, the sporting faithful came up with the perfect name for an overachieving squad, the Cinderella team. Though this unlikely band of heroes almost always meets their demise in the later rounds, when quality overpowers sheer will, the clock runs past midnight in the most magical way. These moments make the tournament all the more worthwhile.

Basketball is also the perfect sport for the casual sports fan to observe and enjoy. By virtue of the sport itself, there is no shortage of scoring. With a backdrop of feverish student and alumni supporters bound to their team by colors and mascot, the game features frequent lead changes and swings of momentum.

America likes high-octane events, as seen in its outrageous support for NASCAR, and college tournament basketball comes the closest, sans actual engines and motors. Forty minutes is not a lot of time, so each possession counts.

This results in a neat marriage of America’s desire for action and its relatively short attention span.

As mentioned before, the tournament’s script is far past a beach read, feeding the holes in our lives left open for inspiration and admiration. The actors in the play? America’s young and talented athletes. Not too different from

an ancient Greek tragedy, these youthful competitors struggle to perform their best, win the game and keep their palpitating hearts in their chests on national television — not a walk in the park for 18-year-olds.

Lacking years of experience and wisdom, emotions run high and are ever-present on national television as these teenagers bare their souls to their teammates, the game itself and spectators nationwide. Although 98.9 percent of them will never play in the NBA, the level of play in these sixty-seven games is awesome.

The most used and — as I see it, the most overused — argument as to why college sports are more fun than professional sports is in the money. A contentious reality in the modern era, these collegiate athletes are not compensated monetarily. Though many receive scholarships, which are a transaction of value in a sense, the players do not receive the lucrative financial gains that professionals do.

Many assert that this distinct difference is a huge reason behind college sports’ appeal.

These athletes are merely playing for their school and their teammates. This is an oversimplification at the least, and totally false in reality. College’s best players, almost all of whom advance to the tournament, definitely play for the altruistic reasons mentioned above. But to say that they are going balls to the wall solely for the good of their team with no ulterior motive is naïve. If only 1.1 percent of players are so lucky as to make it to the next level, they need to perform well on the national stage in order to do so. The only difference between the NBA player and the college player in this sense is that one is playing for a paycheck they get at the end of the week and the other for the one that they’ll receive at the next step in their career.

Aside from monetary compensation, these guys are all gamers. They’re the best in the world at what they do and not all of that is borne out of physical and technical ability. No matter how much someone is or isn’t getting paid, they’re going to try their absolute hardest to win a playoff game. Having said this, there is a hole in my argument that falls by the wayside in a direct answer to the question at hand.

Though these 1.1 percent of players are the superior group, basketball is a team sport and requires five players and subs to get the job done.

Every year, teams feature a handful of players that may be playing in the last game of competitive basketball for which they will ever suit up. This stark reality breeds a determination to win that NBA players do not face until the ends of their long careers. For these aged few, the prospect of their last game inspires an attitude that is so raw that it is more than visible; it is visceral.

As for the tournament picture, it’s hard to say as of now. Division I sports are always a couple weeks behind our DIII schedule, so the top flight is just reaching their conference tournaments in the coming week. This weekend defines the tournament composition, especially for the lower-seeded programs hoping to squeeze in with a good conference performance or victory.

For now, the Kansas Jayhawks appear to be the championship favorites with fifty-eight first-place votes in the AP Poll, as opposed to the three given to UCLA, the next closest.

Villanova, last year’s champions, are sitting in the second spot in the poll. That historic final could be recreated as North Carolina is also having a strong season, casually resting as the fifth-ranked program. Though there are some question marks around the bubble that separates March Madness from the NIT, the upcoming games will fill in those blanks and give us the framework for the fireworks to come.

Buckle up.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

The purple and white were led by first place crowns in the 200 meters by Karen Blake ’17 and in the 10,000 meters by Lexi Sinclair ’16.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Miriam Eickhoff ’19 keyed Amherst’s defensive performance in the NESCAC tournament, as well as adding three shots on goal against Conn. College.

Women’s Hockey Falls to Top-Seeded Middlebury 4-1 in NESCAC Final Scout Boynton ’20 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s ice hockey team competed in the NESCAC Championship tournament last weekend, March 3-4. After a 2-0 win in the semifinals against Connecticut College on Saturday, the purple and white fell 4-1 to Middlebury on Sunday.

On Saturday, No. 5 Amherst traveled to Middlebury to play second-seeded Connecticut College in the NESCAC Championship semifinals.

The team came away with a 2-0 win, marking the second consecutive shutout for goalie Sabrina Dobbins ’18.

Though the Camels outshot the purple and white 13-6 in the first, Amherst was able to convert two of those shots into goals.

Midway through the first, at the 11:46 mark, Jocelyn Hunyadi ’19 one-timed a rebound off of a low slap shot from Alex Toupal ’18, giving

Amherst a 1-0 lead. Just five minutes later, Katelyn Pantera ’19 capitalized on a purple and white power play, finding the top shelf over Conn. College goalie Katherine Chester’s pad off a pass from Toupal.

In the second period, Amherst outshot the Camels 9-6, but neither team was able to find the back of the net.

The third period finished scoreless as well.

Conn. College’s best chance came with six minutes remaining in the game. Samantha Estes redirected Kate Kohl’s slap shot on goal, but Dobbins smothered the puck and sealed the 2-0 shutout win for the purple and white.

In the NESCAC championship game on Sunday, Amherst faced off against the weekend’s host, first-seeded Middlebury.

The purple and white put the first tally on the board 12:46 into the opening period. Sarah Culhane ’17 received a pass from Katie Savage ’19 at the blue line and fired a snap shot on goal.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

WED FRI GAME SCHE DULE

Women’s Lacrosse @ Keene State, 6 p.m. .

Women’s Track & Field NCAA Division III Championships @ North Central, Ill., TBA Women’s Basketball NCAA Third Round vs.

Babson, 7 p.m.

Panther goalie Julia Neuburger blocked the shot, but Culhane one-timed her own rebound into the bottom corner of the net. The rest of the first period did not feature a goal.

Middlebury then tied the game at 1-1 six minutes into the second period on a goal scored by Janka Hlinka. Less than three minutes later, the Panthers’ Jessica Young found the back of the net for her 35th point of the season.

Hunyadi nearly evened the score at two 10:48 into the third after beating a defender and opening a path to the net, but her shot sailed just wide of the goal. Lizzie Sheline extended Middlebury’s lead to 3-1 with 5:45 left in the game.

The purple and white maintained pressure, with Emma Greise ’18 and Culhane almost finding the back of the net. However, neither skater was able to score, and the Panthers clinched the 4-1 win on an empty net goal with under a minute to play.

Though Amherst outshot Middlebury in all

three periods, the purple and white were unable put more than one puck past the stellar Neuburger.

“It never feels great to lose a championship, but to see our team come from fifth to second in the NESCAC was amazing and a testimony to the heart of this team,” senior captain Lynndy Smith said. “This was by far the closest team I have been on while at Amherst, and I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished and so excited to see all the great things this team is bound to do in the coming years. I’ve loved every second of this season and could not be happier to call this group of girls my family. They are truly a force to be reckoned with.”

After failing to recieve an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the team has completed its 2016-2017 season. With a final record of 14-8-5, the purple and white have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to next season.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

SAT Women’s Track & Field NCAA Division III Championships @ North Central, Ill., TBA Softball vs. Universirty of New England @ Leesburg, Fla., 9 a.m.

SUN Softball vs. Wittenberg @ Leesburg, Fla., 11:30 a.m.

Men’s Lacrosse @ Bates, 1 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse vs. Bates, 2 p.m.

Softball Men’s Tennis Softball vs. Endicott @ Leesburg, vs. Roger Williams @ vs, Lake Forest Orlando, Fla., 7 p.m. @ Leesburg, Fla., 8 a.m. Fla., 10:30 a.m.

Baseball Men’s Tennis vs. Stevens @ Altamonte vs. Keystone @ Port Charlotte, Fla., 1 p.m.

Springs, Fla., 10 a.m.