Issue 24

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLV, ISSUE 24 l WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 , 2016

Women’s Tennis Beats Wesleyan 6-3, Continues Hot Streak See Sports, Page 10 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

JC Removes Three AAS Senators for Low Attendance Dan Ahn ’17 Managing News Editor

Photo courtesy of Jingwen Zhang‘18

David Suzuki ’58, a scientist and host of well-known television programs on science, spoke about his early life, career and the impact of economic growth on the environment in the Cole Assembly Room on April 20.

Suzuki ’58 Speaks on Climate Change Jingwen Zhang ’18 Managing News Editor Renowned scientist and environmental activist David Suzuki ’58 gave a lecture on the effects of economic development on climate change, titled “The Currency of Change: How do We Define and Resolve Our Environmental Crisis?” on April 20 in the Cole Assembly Room. The talk is part of the Questions of Consequence speaker series, which aims to bring influential alumni of color to discuss issues relevant to the college and the world.

Suzuki, who earned a biology degree from the college, is widely known for his radio and television series about science and for hosting the Canadian documentary series, “The Nature of Things.” He started his career in genetics, which he taught at the University of British Columbia until 2001. In addition to authoring 52 books, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation to promote environmental sustainability and has received numerous awards, in-

cluding the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for Science and the United Nations Environment Program Medal.

Interim director of the Multicultural Resource Center Adrianna Turner ’14 introduced Suzuki with a brief overview of his biography.

Suzuki then opened his talk by saying that he was speaking as a “grandfather and elder,” and not for a particular political party or group.

“I am at the stage of my life, the last part of my life, which I call the ‘death zone,’” Suzuki said, “It’s a very important part of my life, because I am no longer worried about playing the game or protecting the status quo. I can speak freely.

I don’t have to worry about a job or promotion or raise and I can simply say the truth as I see it.”

Suzuki first spoke about his personal and familial history, explaining that his grandparents had come from Japan to Canada, where very few people of Asian descent resided at the time. His parents were both born in Vancouver and married during the Great Depression. Suzuki was born in 1936. Following Japan’s Pearl Harbor

attack on the U.S. in 1941, Suzuki and his family were placed into governmental internment camps in Canada’s interior solely due to their Japanese ancestry.

After the camps were closed, Suzuki said, his family experienced further discrimination by the government of British Columbia which, in an attempt to curb “yellow peril” — the perceived threat posed by people of Asian descent — required his family to relocate east of the Rocky Mountains if they wanted to stay in Canada or else renounce their Canadian citizenship and return to Japan. Having never been to Japan, the family moved east.

When he was of college age, Suzuki had a friend who attended Amherst College and spoke highly of the institution, so he applied to the college and was accepted.

“Amherst likes to get diversity,” Suzuki said.

“Not often would an Asian Canadian apply.”

He praised the college’s commitment to di-

Continued on Page 3

Three senators were removed from the Association of Amherst Students due to unexcused absences after a judiciary council hearing on April 17. One other student, who was elected to senate but had never attended a meeting, resigned prior to the hearing.

These incidents represent an uptick in senator absences this semester. The AAS constitution states, “Any senator or member of the Executive Branch entirely absent from (3) meetings per semester shall forfeit his or her seat on the Executive Branch or the Senate and its associated committees.”

Jacob Silverman ’19 filed a complaint to the judiciary council on April 13 concerning the attendance of the three senators. This is the only attendance-related complaint the council received this semester. The senator who had never attended a meeting was never sworn in as a senator and resigned after being encouraged to do so by members of the senate.

The JC has authority to remove senators based on violations of attendance policies. According to Emmanuel Osunlana ’18, an at-large member of the council, hearings about attendance tend to be a routine process.

“There isn’t much that exposed by way of query,” he said. “We’re asking questions of them, like ‘Do you agree that you missed this many meetings?’ and the answer is yes or no. If they say no, then we’re in charge of investigating.”

None of the senators at the last hearing denied their absences.

Chico Kosber ’17, the vice president of the AAS, is in charge of attendance policy. Every senator must inform the vice president about a planned absence before the meeting takes place.

The vice president also has the authority to decide what counts as excused and unexcused absences.

Silvia Sotolongo ’19, the recently-elected secretary of the AAS, is in charge of keeping attendance records. She said that the senate has new efforts dedicated to improving attendance.

“People feel like coming to a senate meet-

Continued on Page 3

Faculty Approve 13-Week Spring Semester Calendar Phillip Yan ’18 Staff Writer Faculty voted to approve a 13-week calendar for the spring 2017 academic semester on Tuesday, April 19. The new calendar, which will be implemented for the next three spring semesters, will replace one week of classes from the current 14-week spring calendar with a “reading and reflection period.” This time will consist of four days of reading period and three days reserved for snow days or a day of dialogue.

The idea for the 13-week calendar was raised by the College Council after faculty members, particularly those in the science departments, requested the College Council to re-institute a three-week interterm. The College Council has been working on the new calendar proposal for two years.

“The science faculty wanted to reinstate a longer interterm because they thought it was really crucial for thesis writers, for faculty doing research, for field trips, for internship experiences, et cetera,” Tasha Kim ’18, a senator and member of the College Council, said. “We [the College Council] agreed with them.”

A 13-week calendar allows Amherst’s schedule to match up better with those of the other schools in the Five College consortium.

“We’re completely off cycle with the Five Colleges right now,” art history professor and College Council chair Nicola Courtright said. “Students now are finishing their semesters and they have to leave their dorms before we give their exams.

It’s a nightmare. We’re completely off. With the 13 weeks, we’ll go back to having some consonance with the Five Colleges in the spring.”

However, it was not possible for the College

Council to reinstate the three-week long interterm without shortening the reading period to two days.

“It’s more rare to have the unbalance that we do,” Courtright said. “It’s unusual to have [semesters of] unequal lengths … we are very bad with the reading period, honestly … most places have much longer reading periods.”

As a result, the College Council proposed converting the final week of spring classes into a “reading and reflection period.” This change guaranteed a three-week long interterm and maintained a reading period longer than two days by shortening the spring semester to 13 weeks.

“We could not change the date of graduation or shorten exam period,” Silvia Sotolongo ’19, another senator and member of the College Council, said. “So we came to the conclusion that

a shorter academic period would be the best solution.”

There were many objections to the 13-week calendar. The music and theater and dance departments voiced their concerns regarding the shortened calendar because it would cut a week of performances. Furthermore, faculty members across other departments were worried about the shortened class time. Faculty members voiced concerns that students would be better served learning in a classroom environment rather than on their own. Other concerns were that the period between last day of classes and exams would be too long because of the new lengthened reading period.

Benefits of the proposal were discussed as well.

Continued on Page 3

News

Gabriella Espinosa Thoughts on Theses

April 18, 2016 - April 24, 2016

>>April 18, 2016 6:51 p.m., Kirby Theater ACEMS and an ambulance were dispatched to assist an injured visitor. >>April 20, 2016 1:17 a.m., Porter House Officers responded to a report of a unfamiliar man attempting to gain access to the building.

The man, who has no association with the college, was located and issued a written no-trespass order.

3:30 p.m., Valentine Dormitory ACEMS and an ambulance were dispatched to assist an ill student.

8:47 p.m., Valentine Dining Hall An officer witnessed two students with a bag of marijuana.

It was confiscated and the matter was referred to Student Affairs.

9:18 p.m., Railroad An officer on patrol discovered two students smoking marijuana near the railroad overpass behind the facilities building.

A glass pipe used for smoking was confiscated and the matter was referred to Student Affairs. >>April 21, 2016 3:39 p.m., Pratt Field Officers responded to a report of an unknown male at Pratt Field Fieldhouse. The man, who has no association to the college, was issued a written no-trespass order.

11:25 p.m., Jenkins Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning at a second- and third-floor suite. >>April 22, 2016 12:06 a.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory A resident reported being assaulted by another student. A report was forwarded to the Student Affairs office as the resident did not wish to pursue the matter criminally.

1:42 p.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident.

Gabriella Espinosa ’16 is a religion major. Her thesis explores the devotional practices of the internationally recognized guru Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) and considers their appeal to transnational communities. Her adviser is Professor Maria Heim.

3:16 p.m., Smith House Officers investigated an intrusion alarm and found that it had been accidentally set off by an employee.

4:22 p.m., Valentine Quad A student complained about loud music coming from an event on the quad. An officer responded and had the volume lowered.

6:36 p.m., Marsh House An officer responded to a complaint of people drinking outside the building and located a significant number of empty containers of alcohol, which included hard alcohol. Other containers, which were full, were confiscated. No one was found in the area.

9:31 p.m., Stone Dormitory An officer encountered a student unloading eleven thirty packs of beer from a car into Stone. The beer was confiscated as the amount he was transporting was in violation of Massachusetts law. The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

9:40 p.m., Off-Campus Locations An officer on patrol witnessed a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of College Street and Railroad Street. The town police were notified.

11:18 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the first floor and discovered it activated by use of a microwave oven. >>April 24, 2016 1:06 a.m., Jenkins Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning to a first-floor suite.

10:52 p.m., Coolidge Cage ACEMS was dispatched to assist an injured student.

1:28 a.m., Greenway Dormitories Officers responded to a report that a male and a female jumped the fence at the Greenway construction site. The two people, who are students, were found inside one of the buildings. The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

>>April 23, 2016 1:07 a.m., Social Quad An intoxicated student was placed in Protective Custody and taken to the town holding facility.

3:56 a.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory A caller reported that someone pulled posters and name tags off most room doors on the second floor.

2:40 a.m., King Dormitory An officer assisted a resident with information related to an emergency abuse restraining order.

10:27 p.m., The Octagon An officer on patrol observed two people on the roof of the Octagon. After identifying them, they were directed off.

10:38 p.m., Coolidge Cage Officers removed a disruptive student from a concert taking place in the cage.

Department of Religion

Q: Can you give a brief overview of your thesis?

A: Last summer, I lived with a woman named Amma in an ashram named Amritapuri, which is a Hindu ministry in South India. Amma is the lead guru there. She has hugged over 35 million people around the world and has a charity organization called Embrace the World. She also serves on the United Nations Peacekeeping Committee. I lived there for five weeks and did participant observation of the activities in the ministry. I also held a volunteer job while I was there, working in a clinic that practiced ancient Indian medicine. My thesis was about how she has successfully created a transnational ministry, which is based upon Amma’s hugs, which are very ephemeral but important spiritual acts. I used emic categories of Hindu thought and worship to problematize and discover facets of the devotional mindset that occur during her embraces.

ments when I felt that I had to take a step back or I worried that the information I gathered might no longer be credible because of my appearance.

It wasn’t as if I was on a spiritual journey of sorts.

It’s about how an individual and an interested academic researcher comes to be swayed and persuaded and affected by the various sensory and logical components of a devotional movement.

Q: Did you confront language or cultural barriers?

A: There were definitely language barriers, and Amma speaks only Malayalam. But more than that, a lot of the devotees thought that I was doing personal research into religious movements, and some thought that I was with Amma on a spiritual journey. At times, I was worried that people’s way of perceiving me would lead them to tell me things that they wouldn’t if I really looked like I was doing research. For example, in regards to clothing, people typically wear white clothes and traditional Indian dress, which conforms to standards of modesty. When I would adopt that kind of dress, I was worried that people would think that I was a devotee, but if I wore western clothes, people would stare and it would be really uncomfortable. You want to work your way in as best as you can.

Q: What were the primary texts you considered?

A: I was going back and forth between canonized western authors — Durkheim, Maus, Marx — and texts written by subaltern authors. I also used scholarship on other guru movements. Finally, I studied the ecstatic traditions of Bhakti, which is a Hindu concept, and a historical tradition of devotion where individuals would light themselves on fire. There’s a whole history of ecstatic emotions Q: Who is your thesis adviser, and how did you and behaviors in the history of the art. Moreover, I collaborate with her during the process? used books and songs written by Amma’s devotees, A: My advisor is Maria Heim. She has been a huge which were a real source of information that was presence in personal and academic ways— a real not theoretical. These advocate throughout included the ancient my time here. The first I explored the relationship be- time I went to India, she Vedas. tween horizontality and verti- convinced my parents to cality in a guru relationship. let me go. Her work also Q: Did you divide your thesis into sections on On ething that Amma does relates to my project. She personal experience do with her hug and embrace has done research on and theory? gift theory in Southeast is she makes it seem as if Asia and she also studies A: I went back and forth between writing about you are friends. Yet, there are Theravada Buddhism. my own experiences also strong embedded struc- She has been super and discussing the theo- tures of power that mandate helpful throughout the rists and other texts. I you [to] be a guru disciple in a process, and she helped focused on seeing, playme orient the project tovery submissive relationship. wards an audience that ing and consuming in Amma’s ministry, which has read primarily Westwere my three chapters. ern theorists.

“

”

Q: What was your relationship with Amma? Did you develop a friendship with her through your research and writing process?

A: I wouldn’t call it a friendship, because your relationship with gurus is really one of deference. My first chapter is actually about relationships with gurus. I explored the relationship between horizontality and verticality in a guru relationship. One thing that Amma does do with her hug and embrace is she makes it seem as if you are friends. Yet, there are also strong imbedded structures of power that mandate you [to] be a guru disciple in a very submissive relationship.

Q: Did you have any concerns about maintaining a relatively objective perspective when interacting with the monastery?

A: There was a methodological concern because I was straddling a line between considering my own experiences within Amma’s movement and also maintaining the analytical and academic side.

I think this represents an interesting and current line of thought in anthropology and in religion. It definitely muddies the waters, and there were mo-

Q: What would you say to students who are currently considering writing a thesis?

A: Why wouldn’t you write a thesis? Your thesis could be about anything and any length. Mine was 170 pages, but it could be much shorter. You can get funding from the Alpha Delta Phi funds to travel and do research, regardless of whether it is anthropologic. It enables you to take responsibility for your only personal interest and your own academic interest. Basically, you’ve spent years critiquing the work of other authors in class, and so here’s the chance in the subject matter and in the writing to do something you wholeheartedly believe in. It also opens up chances for you to be published and to work on your own interests in the future.

Q: Finally, do you have any advice for prospective thesis writers?

A: My advice would be to be really interested in what you want to talk about and to discover ways that it makes you feel alive. I’d also recommend working really closely with your adviser. And write a lot, and travel.

— Jacob Pagano ’18

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

News

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Judiciary Council Dismisses Three AAS Senators Continued from Page 1 ing won’t get anything done, or that they don’t have anything to say, which is a real problem and something we’re trying to fix,” she said. “We have things like committee reports, where committee members talk about what they worked on over the week and sometimes there isn’t anything to report. Or if they don’t feel like they know what they’re voting for, such as discretionary funds, they’ll feel like the meeting isn’t worth it for them.”

Sotolongo said that the senate is also working on better communication about what counts as excused and unexcused absences, restructuring meetings to make them more efficient and ensuring that candidates only run for senate seats if they are willing to commit to weekly meetings.

Kosber said that senators on committees with faculty, staff and administrators have a particular obligation to attend their meetings because their attendance reflects on the reliability of senators.

In the past semester, the senate temporarily failed to reach quorum, or two thirds of members in attendance, on three occasions. Kosber said that this has not happened once since an isolated incident during his first year.

Jeremy Paula ’17, a senator elected this past February, said that he was motivated to run partially by the reputation of the senate.

“I really want to work with other students

Three senators were dismissed in a Judiciary Council hearing on April 17 due to too many unexcused absences.

The election held on April 26 is intended to fill these vacancies. to see what we really care about and what we want to change here,” he said. “I guess I’m trying to add some feeling to the apathy in the senate. But I think it’s the way it functions, or its reputation, that makes it hard for students to get involved. Often, you’ll hear the criticism that the senate is jargon-y, or that it pushes off

responsibilities.”

Paula said that these problems could account for the low number of candidates for senate seats in the April 26 election. He also said that the number of vacated seats has encouraged senators to think of better ways to retain members.

Kosber said that he is working on initiatives to improve community among senators, including holding more senate retreats in order to pass on institutional knowledge to new members.

He also plans inviting administrators to more meetings and discouraging senate discussions from being centered on budgets and funding.

Renowned Scientist Speaks on Cost of Climate Change Continued from Page 1 versity — in his case, demonstrated through a scholarship worth more than his father’s earnings in a year at the time. “Amherst was willing to pay for a foreigner like me to come to Amherst College to expand the education of Amherst students,” Suzuki said, adding that he was not able to attend college in Canada at the time.

The most important event of his time at the college, Suzuki said, came on Oct. 4, 1957, when he was listening to the radio while sick in the infirmary and heard about the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite.

“It was just an astounding thing to watch, as a foreigner, the response of the United States,” Suzuki said. “America just poured money into science and said, ‘we have to catch up.’ I was a foreigner here [in the United States], and all I had to say was ‘I like science,’ and they threw money at me. It was glorious. And I point this out because of that commitment.”

Suzuki said that, because the U.S. demonstrated its commitment to surpassing the Soviet Union and to advancing the sciences in the 1960s, the country is still known for its scientific innovations and technological impacts today.

Suzuki transitioned into speaking on climate change by contrasting the government’s rapid action then with its current, comparatively muted response to reports of climate change. He said that if the U.S. wanted to commit to solving climate change, it could show a much stronger response, just as it has done with science education in the past.

“It’s un-American to say, ‘we can’t do anything about climate change,’” Suzuki said. “That’s just not the America that I knew when I came down here in the 1950s. America would take it as a challenge and know for sure that all kinds of unexpected benefits would come out of it.”

Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring,” which caused a national environmental movement that led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and “put pesticides into a radically different perspective,” turned Suzuki from his then-goal of becoming a famous geneticist by spurring his interest in environmentalism. Carson’s book rose to prominence at a time when there were no governmental environmental agencies and few restrictions on activities that imparted heavy environmental impacts.

Suzuki said that while the U.S. was innovative, it failed to anticipate the unintended consequences of its innovation, citing biomagnification of toxins from pesticides, lasting effects of radiation from World War II atomic bombs and nuclear experiments and degradation of the ozone layer by the release of chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere. Likewise, genetic engineering is a powerful tool, he said, but it will likely have major consequences that are currently unforeseen.

Fighting pipelines, dams and salmon farms have not led to actual victories for environmental activists, Suzuki said, because they were not accompanied by a shift in the way that people think of the environment. He shared an anecdote of an exchange with the CEO of Fletcher Challenge, a company that plans to log a forest in Canada, and Suzuki quoted the CEO as saying, “If you’re not willing to pay for those trees, they don’t have any value until someone cuts them down.”

Using that example, Suzuki addressed how society values environmental goods only in terms of their economic value, neglecting their spiritual and ecological value.

“By being forced to discuss the fate of the forest in economic terms, so much of nature’s services are left out,” Suzuki said. “It just didn’t make sense to me that we were being con-

strained by economics. The very word ‘economy’ comes from the Greek word ‘ecos,’ which means household or domain. The word ecology comes from the same root — the study of our household.” He also criticized the previous Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, for “elevating the economy above the very atmosphere that keeps us alive.”

The problem with Canada, Suzuki said, is that the majority of its people live in cities surrounded by man-made creations, where their greatest concerns revolve around their jobs and earning money to obtain the things they want.

“There’s no limit as to what people want, but those aren’t the same as necessities,” Suzuki said.

“We have to re-insert the conversation into the right context.”

He shared parts of a conversation he had with the CEO of an oil company involved in extraction from the Alberta tar sands. Just as the world is governed by physical and chemical principles such as the laws of motion and thermodynamics, Suzuki had said, humans are likewise limited by absolute constraints due to their needs for air, water, food and shelter.

“If you don’t have air for four minutes, you’re dead,” Suzuki said. “If you breathe polluted air, you’re sick … so can you agree with me, Mr. CEO, that clean water, air and soil are our highest priorities?”

Suzuki criticized the present-day reverence of markets, economic growth and other institutions which he termed “constructs” that seemingly defy natural limits. “We can’t change nature to fit our constructs, but we can change our constructs to be compatible with nature,” Suzuki said.

In particular, he targeted the idea that progress was defined by economic growth.

“Steady growth, as a goal, is suicidal,” Suzuki said. “The only things that believe in steady

growth forever in a finite world are cancer and economists. The end result, if you aspire to that, is going to be the same … anything steadily growing over time is exponential growth.”

Suzuki ended his lecture by returning to his discussion of the innovation and problem-solving in the U.S. after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.

“What we have to do is rediscover that American know-how,” Suzuki said. “Not the Trump kind, but a real commitment and understanding that once you see the crisis, you make a commitment and pour everything you’ve got into resolving it. That’s what we need — to rediscover what you had in this country in the 1960s.”

After the talk, Suzuki answered questions from the audience, touching on his eventual transition from studying genetics to environmental advocacy, the value of thinking about environmental impacts in terms of the future and the motivation that having children and grandchildren gave him to advocate for the environment.

“I like the message of hope, that there are things that need to be done, but it’s not too late,” Ike Zhang ’16, an international student from Canada who was in attendance, said. “Because if you say it’s too late, it’s kind of this idea that you’re giving up, but it’s not too late. There are things that we as a people, as a community, as students at Amherst can do to make an effect.”

“So many scientists are incapable of talking to people who are not scientists about what they do and conveying the importance of things,” Julia Emerson, the biology department laboratory coordinator who was also in attendance, said. “David Suzuki mentioned how he made the decision in his own career to continue being a geneticist. And if our geneticists are to go more in the realm of science for the public — well, he’s wonderful at doing that.”

which does not give the option to professors to hold class despite the weather, could lead to more spring classes being cancelled.

Alternative plans included a separate 13-anda-half week academic calendar developed by the Committee on Educational Policy. The College Council ultimately decided that the 13-week calendar would be the best option. The Committee on Educational Policy did not reach a consensus

on the calendar, physics professor and the committee’s chair David Hall said.

“With no make-up days, we felt that this [13-and-a-half week] calendar was inconsistent and would give some classes a full 14 weeks and some only 13,” Sotolongo said.

The process for creating the calendar was long. The College Council studied other college’s calendars and compared Amherst College’s cal-

endar with the rest of the Five College Consortium. The drafted proposal was then sent to the Committee of Six, which recommended that the College Council reach out to the student body first. Courtright met with the student government to hear the student government’s opinion and then with the CEP. Finally, the proposal returned to the Committee on Six, which brought it to a faculty vote.

Faculty Approves New 13-Week Spring Calendar Continued from Page 1 “Students will now have a lot more time to study for their exams,” Sotolongo said. “It also gives a cushion period to make up for any snow days or days of dialogues that may happen during the spring.”

Courtright noted that the recent policy change mandating campus-wide snow days,

Opinion

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Let’s Make Campus Events Worthwhile Editorial

This past weekend was the annual spring concert, which invited R&B singer Kehlani and rock band X Ambassadors to campus. However, for an event that demands a significant cost from the college, the spring concert saw a weak turnout, with only a small crowd lingering by the stage when Kehlani opened the show. While it’s true that Kehlani and X Ambassadors aren’t as well known as past headliners like Macklemore and T-Pain, this phenomenon of low attendance at a campus-wide event is nothing new.

Whether it’s because of an excess of events or a lack of student enthusiasm and time, we need to reassess this problem and figure out whether we should continue pouring money into events that fail to captivate students’ interests.

The Student recently published an op-ed by Brian Zayatz ’18 about the sheer number of events happening on campus every single day, and how that deters many students from attending unless there are some incentives in place, like free food. This large number of events taking place on campus is exciting, but exhausting, and it is valid to say that many of these events don’t have a satisfying turnout because students simply cannot be present at multiple events a day. It’s important to have a diverse range of events that appeal to people from across campus, but it’s also disheartening to see the financial resources be put into events that students genuinely do not have the time to attend or are not even excited to attend.

The overwhelming number of events on campus is not the only determinant behind poor attendance at events.

Amherst students sometimes cannot manage to find time

during their day in the midst of assignments and other academic or personal responsibilities. However, it’s also an Amherst student population problem that students aren’t willing to sacrifice time for an event that potentially won’t be worth it. With our intense schedules, it’s always easier for students to just skip an event rather than sacrifice their time for a speaker they aren’t entirely sure about. Because time is valuable and limited here, students make meticulous decisions about costs and benefits of attending events.

And as a result, students are increasingly hesitant to spend — or “waste” — their time doing things that don’t provide obvious benefits.

Another problem is that some of the most important events happening on this campus aren’t well publicized.

Well-respected speakers often fail to fill lecture halls, and important events at the resource centers garner little attention. Students get bored halfway through reading the daily mail and often fail to notice events that might be important to them. And often there are so many events crammed into each time slot that students don’t have time to go them all.

Ultimately, failing to publicize and manage events well can perpetuate widespread apathy seen across the student body. Students often can’t support their peers because they are too busy attending three other events the same day or participating in their own extracurricular activities. By carefully choosing which events we pour our money into and being more thoughtful about scheduling, we can ensure that the events are actually worthwhile and garner the attention they deserve.

Procrastinate: It’s Good for You! Eddie Rego ’19 Contributing Writer

Netflix or homework? That’s the perennial crisis here at Amherst. It’s more of a cycle actually: You are assigned an essay, you put it off until the night before, you temporarily hate yourself for doing that and you end up procrastinating on your next assignment anyways.

But maybe you’ve been doing it right all along.

Here’s how procrastinating can actually be good for you: First, procrastination encourages creative thinking. Almost a century ago, the psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik realized that waitresses were able to memorize orders so effectively because they kept incomplete orders on their mind, while completely dropping old orders from thought. She came to the conclusion that people had a better memory for incomplete tasks than for completed ones — an effect now known as the Zeigarnik effect. New York Times columnist Adam Grant wrote in a piece titled “Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate” that “when we finish a project, we file it away. But when it’s in limbo, it stays active in our minds.”

It’s believed that this active process in our mind helps spur creative thoughts.

In a University of Wisconsin study, a professor asked students to come up with new business ideas. All students were given the same time-limit. Some students were asked to start right away. Others were instructed to play Minecraft or Solitaire for a few minutes before starting. After all students submitted their work, independent raters reported that the pro-

crastination group had ideas that were nearly 30 percent more creative. Not surprisingly, some of the most creative minds turn out be intense procrastinators.

Steve Jobs was known by his close colleagues as a flagrant procrastinator. The renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright once procrastinated on a commission project so badly that his financier drove to his home and demanded that he produce a drawing on the spot. The drawing became Fallingwater, his most famed work. The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, when questioned by a news reporter on why he always puts things off until the last minute, replied, “you call it procrastination, I call it thinking.”

And then again, we need to remember there’s only so much we can handle. Writer Tim Urban wrote (and said in a TED Talk) that we’re at the mercy of an Instant Gratification Monkey that hijacks our brain and steers us towards pleasurable things (like movies and food) and away from less pleasurable things on the to-do list (like homework.) And researchers agree.

The influential psychologist Roy Baumeister argued that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up. He calls this phenomena “ego depletion.” Baumeister says will-power is like a muscle — after exercising it for a while, your brain needs a break.

In a study by Baba Shiv, a Stanford professor of neuroeconomics, one group of participants were asked to do an easy mental task (memorize a two-digit number) while a second group was asked to do a difficult mental task (memorize a 10-digit number.) After the study, the partici-

pants were offered a choice between an apple or a bar of chocolate. Nearly twice as many participants ended up asking for chocolate in the difficult mental task group than those in the easy group. The conclusion: Mental fatigue diminishes self-control. Procrastination could be that sweet chocolate you need. After suffering through class after class, is it any surprise that you’d rather binge-watch “House of Cards” instead of reading your economics textbook?

Plus, procrastination can actually boost your efficiency. Ever notice how it’s possible to be more concentrated when you’re under a time-constraint? Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this mental “flow,” in which you become completely absorbed in an urgent task. And studies have shown that a little bit of stress actually improves performance on projects. Procrastination uses fear as a motivator.

Waiting until the last minute means you have no choice but to focus and work more efficiently. Procrastination, in other words, helps you realize what’s important and what’s not. When time is limited, it becomes a resource that we’re forced to spend wisely.

So here’s to all the procrastinators out there.

Positive procrastination isn’t an oxymoron. Go ahead and tell your friends: You’re not lazy, you’re just creative. Turns out a little procrastination here and there, in moderation, might be a good thing. Here’s a fun fact: I was supposed to have written this article weeks ago. But when things are piling up, there are clear benefits to taking a break and getting yourself together.

Now I should probably get back to my homewor — oh look, “Game of Thrones” is on.

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Elaine Jeon, Lauren Tuiskula Executive Adviser Sophie Murguia Managing News Dan Ahn, Kiana Herold, Jingwen Zhang Managing Opinion Diane Lee, Julia Pretsfelder Managing Arts and Living Gabby Edzie, Paola Garcia-Prieto, Alida Mitau Managing Sports Jason Darell, Drew Kiley, Julia Turner Managing Design Gabby Bishop S TA F F Head Publisher Emily Ratte Design Editors Justin Barry, Megan Do, Sunna Juhn, Adele Loomis, Monica Nimmagadda, Zavi Sheldon, Chloe Tausk, Yrenly Yuan Assistant News Editors Ryan Cenek, Carlos Rivero Photography Editor Kyra Gardner

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The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

Opinion

Finding the Swag in SWAGS Diane Lee ’19 Contributing Writer Wherever you are, look up and around.

What do you see?

I am willing to take a very very wild guess that unless you are in the catacombs of C Level, where you’d see nothing but darkness, you see at least one woman. Maybe two. Maybe half of the room is full of women because statistically, that happens to be the case at Amherst and in the whole world.

Yet, for all the time half of our college spends being women, we sure as hell don’t think or talk about it enough.

As a first-year woman, I never understood how much being a woman in itself was an experience until this semester. Obviously, I had experienced and recognized sexism in my life; I recall proudly proclaiming my status as a feminist in my sophomore year of high school because equal pay and not being catcalled seemed like reasonable requests in the twenty-first century. Yet, sexism and inequality were the only frameworks in which I thought about being a woman. If I wanted to be treated equally as men, I believed, thinking critically about being a woman and even celebrating that part of my identity would somehow diminish my legitimacy. I pulled an Amherst Awkward on gender — it was something I’d stop and nod to once in a while, but nothing I believed I needed to confront or think about. Perhaps I can attribute this to the privilege in which I was raised. As a woman, I could lead a life not very different from my male friends — I was receiving a topnotch education, could aspire to any occupation I wanted, and had a good group of friends. So

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At the beginning of add-drop this semester, I stumbled into a SWAGS (Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies) course after being dropped from what felt like every humanities/social science course that fit my schedule. I was reluctant because it seemed too intense and specific for a “moderate” person like myself. The buzzwords like “sexuality” and “gender” immediately threw me off and made me feel like the ultra-liberal feminists that I had been wary of. Given how little I thought about being a woman, ironically, I also didn’t think I would learn that much. I’m a woman. I know what it’s like to be a woman.

What more is there to learn? I thought.

Boy, was I silly.

In fact, lesson number one of I learned in a SWAGS class is that I do not know as much as I think I do. As a self-proclaimed “humanities” person, I came to Amherst with full confidence that I had the ability and more importantly, the vocabulary, to think critically about most things.

During first semester, Amherst’s Open Curriculum allowed me to indulge in this — I loved talking about Shakespeare, American history and the politics of volunteer work in class because they were comfortable and familiar.

Glancing at the syllabus of my SWAGS course on the first day of classes, I saw words that I had never seen before: Global feminist discourse, maternal agonism, mobile sexualities, etc. As silly as it sounds, it was mind-boggling to think that there were so many concepts and structures to which I had absolutely zero exposure. I hadn’t realized how much there was to talk about in this one single label called gender.

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In class discussions, I felt this discomfort even more. I was surrounded by so many smart women (and some men) who were comfortable with using phrases I couldn’t approach. For the first time, in a long time, I didn’t have much to say in class because sometimes, the questions would be so complex to think about. Think about this: When women use traditional gender roles to engage in power, is it a submission to patriarchal values or agency on the women’s part? Or how is violence on women different from violence on men? Yet, this discomfort actually pushed me to see the world in a different and new way. I now notice how Amherst men in Val or Frost watch women. I notice how men react to a vocal woman in class and how that compares to the other way around.

That is another thing about being in a SWAGS class: It will make you a smarter, observant person and a more critical thinker, hands down. For the first time, I was faced with huge questions that I realized had countless nuances and complexities. I had mistakenly thought SWAGS was about how women are better than men or a study devoted to women. But in reality, it’s really about how one half of the population of humans interacts with the other half.

In a speech given by Hillary Clinton in 1995, she’s famously quoted for saying, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights.” Women are humans, and women’s studies are humans’ studies. It’s as simple as that. We are constantly surrounded by women, by humans, but seldom talk about their experiences. SWAGS has taught me how to think more deeply and critically about being a woman, but also being a human. So if you’re a human, try taking a SWAGS class and seeing how the other half lives.

5

Arts&Living

Photos courtesy of Flickr.com

Mark Simonitis ’19 tested an Oculus Rift with Melissa Billing ‘18, a student working with Professor Marisa Parham on “Virtual Reality for Virtually everyone.”

The Power of Virtual Reality: Hands On With the Oculus Rift Mark Simonitis ’19 Staff Writer It didn’t look like much, a hunk of plastic that could vaguely resemble the shape of a visor. However, I knew its reputation. I had heard the whispers and read the online impressions. People were saying that it would change everything, but I was doubtful. Little did I know that the Oculus Rift would live up to the promise of an immersive virtual reality experience.

For those unaware, the Oculus Rift is one of the major virtual reality headsets on the market today. The idea is that one

only has to slip it on to be transported to an entirely different reality. The Rift I was using belonged to Melissa Billing ’18, who had acquired it as part of a project. It was the Developer’s Kit 2 version of the Oculus Rift, and she was quick to tell me that the final consumer version of the product was far more comfortable and streamlined than the version I would be using. After a few minutes of set up, I took a seat and put on the Oculus Rift.

I’ll take a moment to go over some quick technical gripes I have with the Rift. For one thing, the copious amounts of cables meant that I would sometimes get tangled up while I was moving my head

Photos courtesy of Melissa Billing ‘18

Mark Simonitis ‘19 (above) tested the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset.

around. Additionally, the Oculus is purely visual, so I also had to put on a pair of headphones as well, which only added another cable.

I sat in the darkness for a few seconds while Billing selected one of the demos she had downloaded and attached a small leap motion sensor to the Rift. Eventually, I saw a small gray rectangle appear before me with a big smiley face, asking me to make a thumbs-up motion, which is picked up by the sensor. When I did so, the floor around me lit up in a grid while my new friend taught me how to interact with my surroundings. I could make 3-D shapes by pinching my figures and manipulated them just by reaching out and grabbing them. It was immersive enough that I accidentally bumped my hands into Billing’s desk a couple of times. I began to experiment by creating towers and attempting to juggle, and I can say that the physics all held up pretty well. I was told that I could control gravity and I immediately set out on recreating a small meteor shower. There was something truly special about sitting there and deactivating gravity, causing dozens of tiny stars to come crashing to earth all around me.

After the demo, I sat down with Billing for a moment to talk to her about the Oculus Rift and about her project, “Virtual Reality for Virtually Everybody.”

“I am working with Professor Marisa Parham and others on this project and our goal is to make virtual reality more accessible,” Billing said. “We’re trying to create small tools and demos so that educators and others who may not know about virtual reality can see how valuable the technology is. We want educators to create brand new content for their classrooms. Imagine taking a classroom on a field trip throughout the solar system or to a historical battlefield. Rather than seeing a picture in textbooks, you can be right there for a hands on experience. VR also has some pretty obvious applications for healthcare, video games and even more. The more people we have working on it, the better it will be in the

end. After all, it’s incredibly hard to tell people how amazing VR can be just by explaining it or by showing screenshots.

You need to experience it firsthand.”

As the lights come on, I flinched in fear as an armored soldier flew past my head. I found myself slowly moving along a city street where other soldiers were in a firefight with a heavily armed giant robot. The action was in slow motion as I floated along, to the point where I could track the ripples that the bullets made in the air as the soldiers shot at their attacker. In response, the robot fired another explosive that slammed into a nearby building, showering debris all along the street. While the men took cover and dove out of the way, I weaved through pieces of rubble as large as myself.

Another rocket was fired, this time hitting a nearby car. As I watched the shockwave of the blast smack away nearby objects, the car soared into the air in an arc, passing directly above my head. I took a peek in the window as it flew past and I noticed the unfortunate driver still strapped in by his seat belt.

As I returned my focus to the action, I suddenly realized how close I was getting to the giant war machine. With just a few feet between us, I watched as the robot slowly lifted one of its legs into the air. Suddenly, the action reverted to real time and I leapt in my seat as the robot moved with lightning speed and roared directly into my face.

Needless to say, I agree with Billing 100 percent. It is incredibly difficult to put into words just how much potential this technology has because it has to be experienced to be fully understood.

Never before had I ever experienced this kind of immersion. I am now living in eager anticipation to see how teachers, filmmakers, doctors and more will take advantage of this kind of technology. For years, I had considered virtual reality a science fiction, something that could never be practically implemented.

I was wrong. VR is here and it is very, very real.

Arts & Living 7

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

Chance the Rapper’s “Angels” Offers Posivity Amidst Societal Unrest

Photos courtesy of YouTube

Chance the Rapper’s “Angels” video, featuring the artist flying above Chicago, acts as a social commentary and a demonstration of his personal growth as an artist.

Victoria Hewitt ’19 Contributing Writer Following his suspension from Jones College Prep High School in 2011 for marijuana possession, high schooler Chancelor Bennett put out his first mixtape, “10 Day,” and began to take his aspirations of becoming a musician seriously. In 2013, he broke through the music scene with “Acid Rap,” and since then has been working on collaborations with multiple artists, never quite settling down to work on a solo project. When he announced that his new mixtape would be dropping in the month of April, I honestly told people that the news cured my depression. In a world of dropping black bodies and dropping bombs, I’m rarely, if ever, not depressed. But Chance’s music reminds me that, among other things, there’s hope.

The music video for one of the new mixtape’s tracks, “Angels,” features a young boy, Chance’s usual trippy self, and Saba. The song is an opportunity for the rapper to celebrate his personal growth over the years, rapping as he flies through the Chicago skies, “I’m the blueprint to a real man,” and declaring that he wishes to “clean up the streets so [his] daugh-

ter can have somewhere to play.” Meanwhile, on April 1, CNN reported that residents fear a “long, hot summer” in Chicago after a massive spike in gun violence since the start of the year. According to NPR, the spike in violent crime seen in Chicago this year coincides with increased scrutiny on police misconduct.

Cops, afraid of being the subject of “the next viral video,” have thus become more passive in pursuing criminals. Nonetheless, the systemic problems at play would not be cured by increased police activity and aggression. Treating angels like criminals will not save them, and Chance knows this.

In “Paranoia,” technically the latter half of the track “Pusha Man” on Acid Rap, he raps about the gang violence that plagues Chicago and other American cities, alongside fear of refugees, police brutality and the paranoia of pushing drugs as a black man. In releasing “Angels,” Chance has assured us that his upcoming mixtape will be just as real and authentic as his previous works. He’s stuck to his unique sound, and most importantly, he’s stuck to the issues he cares about most.

With rich rhythmic textures, upbeat singing and rapping, dope beats and a simple melodic chorus by Saba, the song itself embraces noth-

ing but positive vibes. The video consists of a flying cartoonish Chance, Chicago subway riders dancing and a concluding duo dance with Chance the Rapper and Saba in the middle of a street. The final shot zeroes in on the young boy with whom the video originally opened, a cartoon halo hovering above his hooded head.

Chance the Rapper’s art is integral to the creation of new narratives about black people, and especially black men. This didn’t keep New York Post writer Phil Mushnick from calling Chance’s music “standard dehumanizing gangsta rap” when criticizing the decision of the Chicago White Socks to form a paid partnership with him. When describing the complex situation of gun violence in Chicago, Mushnick offered a gross oversimplification, saying, “Chicago is known as our murder capital. Gun-toting, itchy-fingered gang members, as young as 14, daily and nightly murdering and being murdered — children shooting children dead — over nothing more than a sideways glance, the wrong-color shirt, a bag of weed and, now in its 27th year, statussymbol sneakers.” Of course, Mushnick would likely respond with silence if asked about the history of Chicago’s housing project commu-

nities.

Those like Mushnick listen to Chance without actually listening to Chance — and this can result in blatant racism, as exemplified above, or something more insidious, like white boys bobbing their head to his beats and claiming to be fans without taking the time to consider Chance’s deeper messages.

Like many black artists, he is continually depoliticized and divorced from the issues with which his art is concerned. This truism became particularly manifest for me this past Wednesday, when Snapchat commemorated 4/20 with a Bob Marley filter that reduced a man’s legacy from radical political activism to something more digestible for white society — smoking weed. Marley’s most popular hits — “One Love,” “Three Little Birds” and others — are used to keep his true musical legacy in the shadows. Similarly, songs like “Smoke Again” by Chance The Rapper are used by Mushnick and others to discredit his work, or to tune him out when his words become more political.

In spite of this, Chance’s head stays high, and his music remains touching and powerful. When his next mixtape drops, the ground will shake. Our job is to listen.

Pioneer Valley Zine Fest Celebrated Alternative Modes of Expression

Photos courtesy of Pioneer Valley Zine Fest Facebook

The event took place in Easthampton and featured zines on a variety of topics.

Jae-Hyun Ha ’19 Contributing Writer Flywheel Arts Collective hosted the annual Pioneer Valley Zine Fest on Tuesday, April 19. The event was a part of the Easthampton Bookfest, and it was free and run by a volunteer-based collective whose mission is to “build community and give artists of all types the opportunity to craft, practice and perform their work in an environment where creativity is valued over profit,” as stated on their website.

Zine Fest hosted thirty vendors that sold a diverse array of zines and comics.

Zines are a form of micropublishing popular in alternative communities, and are easily created with accessible materials. One can make a zine by creating a master copy out of printer paper and printing it through a stan-

dard copy machine. They are often distributed through zine distros, zine fests and websites like Tumblr and Etsy. Zines could be about any topic, but the most popular genre is personal zines, which are often serialized autobiographies. Other genres include art zines, which are more highbrow, political zines or any other genre that people are interested in. Generally, zines are made by leftist individuals involved in subcultures outside of the mainstream society. In part because of this, the possible profitability of zines has to be completely disregarded, and zines are relatively expensive to make taking into consideration their price, which is usually around $2 to $3. Creators of zines are more concerned with expressive properties than profits, and thus creating zines is not considered a full-time job by any means. However, the accessibility of zines allows for a rich sub-

culture around the creation and distribution of these small micro-magazines.

Thus, it is no surprise that many of the zines being sold at the Pioneer Valley Zine Fest catered to niche communities. The small ballroom was crowded with vendor tables, and vendors selling zines about trans culture rubbed shoulders with those who were selling their zines on politics and sexual abuse. In addition to zines, people were selling self published comic books, buttons and prints. Other vendors sold collaborative booklets composed of science-fiction stories submitted by unpublished writers. Every aspect of Zine Fest held the core values of both Flywheel collective and zine culture, and the emphasis on collaborative expression without financial motives was strong.

Pioneer Valley Zine Fest was expertly curated by Flywheel Arts Collective. The small room, the crowded atmosphere and the diversity of the vendors perfectly expressed what zine culture is about. Zine Fest was a pleasure to attend because, at a glance, Amherst College often seems lacking in counterculture movements and expressions. Amherst is a bubble with its own culture and customs, so Zine Fest was refreshing as it allowed student visitors to delve deeper into a world outside of the limits of a liberal arts college. “It is often simple to become wrapped up in our own distinct Amherst culture, so it’s easy to forget that there are cultural movements that are not represented by the students of Amherst,” said Nicholas Christianson ’19, an attendee. “Zine

fest, with its adherence to counterculture standards, served as a distinct reminder that there is a wealth of cultural diversity outside of Amherst.”

Although the Pioneer Valley Zine Fest is much smaller than zine fests in larger cities, it still had a wide variety and abundance of zines.

Its size allowed less established creators a better chance to sell their material because larger zine fests often require vendors to have following and a sizeable portfolio. Flywheel Collective offered a wide range of table sizes at low prices, which allowed vendors of all experience levels a chance to have a table.

Zine culture and zine fests are valuable additions to any community. Events like Pioneer Valley Zine Fest act as distribution points for micropublishers to share their work. As forms of personal expression are migrating to digital means, zines serve as the more personal and physical form of communication that binds people through its creation and distribution.

Physical copies of zines can be spread from person to person and can serve as a point of dialogue and personal connection often centered on social issues.

The Pioneer Valley Zine Fest excelled at exactly what it was intending to do. Through smart curatorial choices like low tabling fees and free admission, Flywheel Arts Collective succeeded in staying true to its mission of celebrating expression without attention to financial motives. In extension, Flywheel Arts Collective was able to host a true manifestation of the heart of zine culture.

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Release Album Without Castrinos something you would hear in a smoky bar’s open mic night. Ebert’s voice cracks and crumbles on some notes, but here it isn’t about the sound of his voice, but rather the sound of the music that provides his background and the lyrics he is spouting out. The album is more personal. Instead of wanting to dance around while ignoring the poignant lyrics, the songs on PersonA make you want to listen and think about what is being said. The connection between the band and their seemed fans superficial in the past, now it seems they are finally letting people create real ties to them and their music. In short, they are no longer hiding behind the gimmick-like “all you need is love” motif of sunflowers, flower crowns and long beards. Even if their message is still the same, they have found new ways to express it, which is refreshing.

Best Tracks: Photos courtesy of upload.wikimedia.org

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have reinvented their sound in their latest album release, “PersonA.” Evan Paul ’18 Staff Writer Early in 2014, fans of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were shocked to learn that Jade Castrinos would not be joining the ten-piece band on the next North American Tour. Nor would she be joining the band in the future — Castrinos was effectively fired from the band. Fans would no longer be able to hear those signature lyrics from the band’s hit single, “Home,” live — Jade and Alexander were no more.

Or at least, that’s how she put it in a sincedeleted Instagram post. The musician wrote: “For seven years I sang and wrote music with Edward Sharpe. They voted me off of tour a week before they left, via email. Lol.” Many media outlets and fans were able to capture screenshots of the message before she removed the content. For months afterwards, her former bandmates were silent about the details of what happened. Stating only

(in a now-deleted post on front-man Alex Ebert’s Facebook) that out of respect for Jade, they “would not elaborate” on the situation. Finally after almost a year since Jade’s departure, the band took it upon itself to let their fans know via Facebook and Twitter that Jade was not in fact fired.

In their statement, they revealed that she “quit” after being asked to “take off from one tour.” Apparently Castrinos refused to take the band’s offer and parted ways with the band.

This drama has not stopped the band from playing at festivals or headlining tours on their own. Castrinos has since moved on to headlining her own shows as a solo artist. Because of this, however, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros had no easy feat when it came to their next album they, the first without Jade’s distinctive (and only female voice in the group) sound on the album since the band’s debut album, “Up from Below.” The ten-piece band started work on their fourth album and took on a new approach:

actually working in the same room together. This newfound cooperative approach is evident in every way down to the band’s new image. The band has, as of late, made a point to rebrand in the form of crossing out “Edward Sharpe and the” on all of their visuals including on the cover of their newest album “PersonA.” Based on my listening, the band has finally allowed itself to evolve from their signature sound that Paul Thompson of Pitchfork referred to as “something out of 1967 California.” The evolution works — yes, it’s completely different, but I think that’s the point. In my opinion, the band finally sounds like a band, rather than a vehicle for front man Alex Ebert to express his hippie side. Some critics, such as Allan Raible of ABC News, have called Ebert out for his “vocal limitations,” but his singing style truly works on PersonA. Whereas previous albums seemed to be something perfect for a festival like Coachella, the Leeds or Reading Festivals, now the band’s sound is more akin to

“Hot Coals”: I’m not exactly sure what this song is about, but it’s passionate. That’s evident simply from the jam-session like aspect of the song.

Much of it sounds like Ebert is simply reciting a poem he wrote over the sound of his band mates just playing what feels right.

“No Love Like Ours”: This song is the shortest on the album, at just under three minutes in length, but it’s definitely the most similar to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ earlier work. It’s perfect to sing along to or fto listen to while frolicking in a field with your best friends or lover.

“Wake Up the Sun”: With a steady foot tap-inducing bass line and Alex Ebert’s raspy falsetto, “Wake Up the Sun” sounds like everyone’s favorite indie-rock band at it’s best. The band is almost unrecognizable in this song, save for this scatting and grunting Ebert does throughout the song that evokes an “I don’t care, I just want to sing” attitude. Lyrically, the song is also reminiscent of the band’s early works, as Ebert pronounces that he’s tired of religion, and “Love” is his religion.

“Mr. Brightside”: Discussing The Nostalgic King of the Socials

Photos courtesy of en.wikipedia.com

“Mr. Brightside” was released by the Killers in 2004 on their album “Hot Fuss.”

Kevin Feeley ’19 Contributing Writer When I arrived on campus back in September, I expected a lot of things: rigorous courses, new friendships, food that was infinitely better than what the Philadelphia public school district offered. The first two expectations have since been met, though the jury is still out on Val. But this isn’t an article indicting Valentine Dining Hall. This article is about the one thing I would not have anticipated upon attending Amherst.

Yes, I’m talking about the intense and fervent

love for the Killers’ 2004 song, “Mr. Brightside.”

The very first night I went out to the Socials, I heard the song twice at the same party. Any given weekend night, and occasionally Thursday, one can hear the song blasting from any number of Social dorms. Additionally, many formals and off-campus parties will play it later into the party when the partygoers are less “inhibited.” It’s instantly recognizable, as its sound is so drastically different from the usual dance tracks and rap songs. As Patrick Yang ’16 so adequately put it to me, “It’s a classic.”

And if you’re in the room when it comes on,

you’ll be able to witness first hand the electric reaction. People cheer as the opening riff plays, before singing along with the incredibly depressing lyrics while simultaneously jumping up and down like they did at middle school dances. The love is intense, matched only by the OutKast classic “Hey Ya!” for more than obvious reasons.

But “Mr. Brightside” is not so obvious. I had only seen such desire for a song when my graduating class fell in love with “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa. However, while my high school class of 2015 had very emotional reasons for loving a song about reunion, the intense infatuation with “Mr. Brightside” is a mystery. I had to know why, in an era where pop songs are played out faster than Kanye West’s Twitter rant-responses, a song more than a decade old is a keystone at most parties.

A few answers were to be expected. Asking the DJs at several parties gave me some answers on the opposite side of the spectrum. “I’ll play it if I have to. It’s a crowd pleaser,” said Tyler Baldwin ’16. His thoughts on why were enlightening, however: “I think it’s played so often because it reminds people of high school.”

This was unexpected. “Mr. Brightside” came out in 2004, at least four years before the graduating seniors would have entered high school.

Behind the lens of pop music, four years is a lifetime, as most tracks are played out after a few weeks. But every now and then a song comes along that defies the natural order of the world of pop music and extends far beyond its expected lifespan. It’s for this reason that many of us know and sing along to songs from the 90s, 80s, 70s and beyond. “Mr. Brightside” is one of these songs. It was as popular during my high school experience as it was for the current senior class.

But so were a hundred other songs often referred to as “jams.” So why “Mr. Brightside”?

I spoke with several students about this phenomenon, and every answer seemed to say more about the song than the people listening to it.

While rap and dance music might be popular

on campus, people also like change. “Mr. Brightside” provides that relief.

“I think a lot of people don’t like rap or dance music, and it’s like something different, explained Jason Seto ’19. “It’s content is clean and it’s really catchy.”

“It’s got a good beat and it’s fun to sing along to,” said Anastasia Sleder ’19.

As for nostalgia’s sake, the song’s receiving end felt the same way. When asked if the song reminded listeners of high school, the sentiment was confirmed.

“For sure — it’s one of those nostalgia songs,” Seto said. “Everyone knows it.”

For incoming underclassmen, it reminds them of a place they were before the radical change they’re undergoing. For upperclassmen, it takes them back to a place they called home as they prepare to leave the one they’ve grown to love. High school was that home, and as college both begins and ends for many students, recalling memories of those youthful days long passed is just another part of a good time, an excellent juxtaposition between the past, present and future to come.

“Mr. Brightside” is just a placeholder for these feelings. It conjures up different thoughts for different people: some happy, some sad, but the sheer fact that the thoughts are there allows a bond between people in a sweaty, overcrowded room for three and a half minutes.

At least, that’s the case for many students.

However, like all pop culture sensations, the song can be very polarizing, as many believe the song is played out.

“It’s overplayed, but I don’t hate it,” Lindsey Turner ’19 told me.

To each their own, but the sheer fact that “Mr. Brightside” is so polarizing means that it has an effect on people, good or bad. And with the overwhelming volume of students who shout the lyrics off-key in harmony with those around them, it’s unlikely that the song is going away anytime soon.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

Sports 9

Softball Looks to Bounce Back After Two In-Conference Losses

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Jackie Buechler ’17 has posted a 3.20 ERA through 30.1 innings pitched.

Sarah Wagner ’19 Staff Writer The softball team’s week included two strong wins, but it was marred by a few frustrating losses. The purple and white split their Wednesday double-header with a strong Keene State University team and lost two games in a series of three against NESCAC rival Williams.

Amherst began the week with a decisive 12-3 comeback victory over Keene State. The Owls’ Morgan Fallon struck first, blasting a solo home run in the second inning. Amherst responded in the third inning with three runs and continued the pressure with a breakout sixth inning while Keene State was only able to score three runners throughout the middle three innings.

Another Keene State home run added two more runs to their total, but the Owls could not come close to touching a hot Amherst offense.

The scoring was kick-started when a Brianna

Cook ’16 double scored Julia Turner ’19. Sammy Salustri ’19, on base after singling, and Cook were subsequently scored. Alena Marovitz ’17 paced the Amherst the offense, going a perfect 4-for-4 and tallying three doubles and five RBIs. Every batter in the purple and white contributed at least one hit to combine for 14 hits throughout the game. The majority of these occurred in the sixth inning, when the team batted through their whole lineup.

Keene State managed to quell this Amherst hitting in the second game. It became a battle between pitchers — the two combined for 13 strikeouts. First-year Lorena Ukanwa played a tough game in the circle for Amherst, but ultimately fell 1-0. The only run of the game was scored by the Owls in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Amherst offense had an equally difficult time scoring, with only three runners who made it to scoring position. Kyra Naftel ’19 led this effort with her lone double.

Amherst’s heated rivalry with Williams was evident in their three game series this weekend, starting with the hard-fought 7-6 win that began the three-game series. The home team opened the game with a triple by Naftel, who was then scored by Cook.

Annie Murphy ’19 then hit her third home run of the season to score herself and classmate Sara Buck. The Ephs answered quickly with a home run by NESCAC player of the week, Mackenzie Murphy. Their only lead was in the fifth inning, but Amherst quickly negated this differential with doubles by Marovitz, Annie Apffel ’17 and Nicolette Miranda ’16 to score three more runs. Jackie Buechler ’17 was in the circle for the purple and white.

Williams took the game later that day in seven innings, winning 7-3. The Ephs scored first with a solo home run by Amanda Siedem. Amherst took the lead in the third innings with three runs, opened by Miranda, who was the only Amherst player to have more than one hit. Turner and Naftel walked to load the bases for Salustri’s single and Cook’s bunt to finish out the scoring.

It looked as though they would take the series, as they held this lead until the seventh inning. However, in an unfortunate twist, Williams scored six runs in the final inning on only four hits, including three singles, a walk, two passed balls and another home run.

The final game in the series moved to Williams’ home field. The purple and white traveled home frustrated after dropping a lead and losing, 6-3. The game began well, with a double and a single from Salustri and Cook respectively. An error by the Ephs’ catcher allowed Salustri to score and advanced Cook, who was then scored when Marovitz walked.

Turner walked and then stole second base, putting herself in a position to be scored by Naftel’s single. Williams started their comeback in the bottom of the second inning and then continued to surge ahead, scoring three runs in the

third inning.

Mackenzie Murphy added her third home run of the weekend for an insurance run in the fifth inning. Amherst did not back down, however, and came extremely close to taking the series when they loaded the bases in the top of the sixth. However, the outs accumulated to end the game in an Amherst loss. Ukanwa, who relieved Buechler, contributed to the comeback attempt by striking out five of the thirteen batters she faced.

This in-conference series loss will motivate the team as they face Western New England University on Wednesday in a doubleheader beginning at 3:30 p.m. The purple and white also has one more shot to redeem themselves in NESCAC play as they fight for a post-season spot against Wesleyan this weekend. Friday marks their final home game of the regular season as Amherst honors five seniors before taking on Wesleyan in a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon in Middletown, Connecticut.

Photo courtesy of Megan Robertson ’15

The softball team has scored 155 runs over its 27 games, and sports a .325 batting average as a whole.

Men’s Golf Competes Against Men’s Track Finishes in Fourth Tough NESCAC Opponents Place at Tufts Sunshine Classic Katie Bergamesca ’18 Staff Writer It was an action packed week for the Amherst men’s golf team. The team hosted the Little Three Championship this past Wednesday, April 20 and then traveled to Williamstown, Massachusetts for the weekend to compete at the Williams Spring Invitational.

The Little Three Championship, held at Hickory Ridge Golf Club, has a unique setup with a 36hole course where golfers compete in an alternate shot format in the morning and then finish out the day with a singles match. Amherst led Wesleyan 4-0 after 18 holes thanks to a point each from the following four pairs of golfers: Sam Procter ’18 and Mateo Wiesner ’18; Justin Henricksen ’18 and Patrick Arena ’16; Dan Langa ’18 and Jack Burlison ’19; and James Line ’16 and Liam Fine ’17. Proctor and Wiesner also recorded one point against Williams, but the purple and white faced a 3-1 deficit against the Ephs.

In the afternoon, the Amherst men went on to defeat Wesleyan 11-1. Arena, Wiesner, Henrik-

sen, Proctor, Line, Burlison and Fine all added a point to Amherst’s tally. The match-up with Williams proved more competitive. The Ephs took an early lead, tallying the first two points. Henriksen, Proctor, Line and Burlison put forth a valiant effort scoring four points in a row. However, it was not quite enough to top Williams; the Ephs were ultimately victorious. Amherst concluded the day with a second-place finish.

The purple and white then competed in the two-day Williams Spring Opener on Saturday and Sunday, finishing with a sixth-place finish out of an eight team field. Trinity took the top spot with Middlebury coming in a close second.

Langa once again led the Amherst men, finishing tied for 18th overall with a score that was seventeen strokes over par. Proctor secured a spot tied for 20th, while Burlison ended the tournament tied for 22nd. Line and Henriksen both concluded the weekend with a 36th-place finish. Wiesner rounded out the purple and white’s scoring, finishing 39th. The action will continue for the Amherst men on Saturday, April 30 at the NESCAC championship in Middlebury, Vermont.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Sophomore Danny Langa impressed this past weekend, finishing in first place among the purple and white at the Williams Spring Opener.

Nate Tyrell ’19 Staff Writer The Amherst men’s outdoor track and field team finished fourth in the Tufts Sunshine Classic last weekend at Tufts with a score of 52 points.

In the sprint events, Aziz Khan ’18 finished sixth in the 200-meter dash, with a time of 22.84 to earn three points for Amherst.

Brent Harrison ’16 took fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.22 for the purple and white.

First-year hurdler Maxim Doiron raced to a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.37.

The purple and white excelled in the middistance events this weekend, with first-year Vernon Espinoza running the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.26 earning him first place, while Jesse Fajnzylber ’17 finished sixth in the same event with a time of 1:57.31.

First-year Kristian Sogaard proved to be the highlight of the meet, however, taking first place in a tough 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:01.17.

Surprisingly, Sogaard said he ran the 1,500-meter race last weekend as rest for the 800-meter run. “I will be running the 800 meter in all the remaining meets so I just wanted to run a fast 1,500 because I hadn’t really run one the whole season,” Sogaard said. He is looking forward to getting down to 1:53.00 in the 800-meter run so he can qualify for the Open New England in two weeks.

Although many of the purple and white distance runners were resting this week, Aaron Zambrano ’18 still impressed for Amherst, placing fourth overall in the 5,000-meter run with a mark of 16:18.71.

Rounding out the track events, the group of Stadtler Thompson ’19, Khan, David In-

graham ’18 and Thomas Matthew ’16 raced a 44.37 in the 4x100-meter relay for a thirdplace finish.

In the field events, senior Khalil Flemming was the standout; jumping 6.10-meters in the long jump giving him sixth place overall. Flemming also impressed in the triple jump, with a 12.98-meter jump, putting him in fourth place.

The Amherst track and field team will compete in the Penn Relays this week on Thursday, April 28.

Following this meet, the team will finish their season by competing in the NESCAC Championships on Saturday, April 30.

Photo courtesy of Risley Sports Photography

Khalil Flemming ’16 earned sixth place in the long jump event, as well as fourth place in the triple jump.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

Men’s Lacrosse Defeats NESCAC Rival Williams 11-8 Mary Grace Cronin ’18 Staff Writer On senior day, men’s lacrosse triumphed over longstanding rivals Williams to clinch a record of 11-2. It was a beautiful day in Amherst, and the purple and white looked to regroup from its loss to Tufts just one week earlier.

Seniors Dylan Park and Charlie Gill scored the first two goals, both unassisted, to give Amherst an early lead. Williams shot back to equalize with two goals of their own from Conor Roddy and Thomas Fowler. With 11 seconds remaining in the first quarter, junior Matt Killian snatched back the lead off an assist from Connor Crump ’16.

The back-and-forth play continued in the second quarter, with Amherst only holding on to a two-goal lead, thanks to the help of first-year Andrew Ford, senior Kane Haffey and senior Quinn Moroney. With these three

unassisted goals, Amherst showed off its individual talent.

After the half, Amherst took fire and capitalized on their depth, with four different goal-scorers. Moroney assisted two goals for Gill and first-year Evan Wolf. Two more from Ford and Michael Litner ’16 put the purple and white up 10-5 with only one more quarter to play.

Early in the fourth quarter, Williams orchestrated a swift change in momentum by scoring three straight, cutting the Amherst lead to two. With 3:09 on the clock, Amherst had to make a final defensive stand in order to come up with the victory.

Under this immense pressure, Amherst managed to get another possession, and secured their lead with a goal from Haffey to end the day.

Next Amherst plays Trinity at home for their last regular season game on Wednesday, April 27.

Photo courtesy of Janna Joassainte ‘17

Midfielder Andrew Ford ’19 has seven goals and two assists this season.

Women’s Tennis Continues Hot Streak with Win Over Wesleyan Nate Quigley ’19 Staff Writer Still basking in the glow of last Sunday’s impressive win against Wesleyan, the Amherst women’s tennis team continued its recent run of strong conference play in a 6-3 victory over Tufts.

After last weekend’s mixed bag of results on the doubles courts, the purple and white recaptured their edge, taking a 2-1 lead into singles action after winning on the second and third doubles courts. While Amherst fell to Tufts’ number one doubles pairing 8-4, the second court tandem of Vickie Ip ’18 and Kelsey Chen ’19 easily handled their opponents en route to an 8-5 victory.

Their win knotted the overall match at 1-1,

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Amherst’s record now stands at 5-1 against NESCAC opposition in 2016.

leaving the number three doubles pairing of Rebecca Pol ’16 and Avery Wagman ’18 to determine which side would hold the advantage heading into singles play. The situation looked grim for the purple and white for much of the match, with Pol and Wagman dropping an early break to a Jumbos pairing that was locked in.

Facing such pressure, Wagman and Pol drew on the spirit that had brought them seven straight doubles victories to break Tufts not once but twice in a row. Tufts refused to go down so easily, managing to break Pol and Wagman one final time and forcing a tie-breaker before the purple and white pulled away, winning 7-3 in the tie breaker and 9-8 overall.

The high intensity of the doubles actions carried through to singles play, which saw four of the six matches go to a decisive third set. While the first and third courts proved to be troublesome for Amherst, with Suhasini Ghosh ’16 and Jackie Calla ’17E losing in hard-fought matches, victories on the remaining four courts saw the purple and white pull away from the Jumbos. However, only Chen managed to pull out a two set victory (6-4, 6-2) on the fifth court, while Ip, Sarah Monteagudo ’16 and Wagman all needed the full three sets to take care of their opponents.

“We had to move the matches indoor to Mount Holyoke because of the darkness,” Megan Adamo ’16 said. “But everyone recovered well and we clinced the matches we needed.”

Amherst’s victory, coupled with Williams’ recent loss to Bowdoin, keeps alive the purple and white’s chance of a regular season NESCAC crown, with their record standing at 5-1 in conference play and 11-5 overall heading into the final regular season match of the year.

On Saturday, April 30, Amherst will face Middlebury at 1 p.m. on the Amherst tennis courts, a match which doubles as the team’s senior day.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Dave Cunningham ’16 Favorite Team Memory: 2013 NESCAC Baseball Championship Favorite Pro Athlete: Tom Brady Dream Job: MLB General Manager Pet Peeve: People who like Starbucks, or anything Starbucks related Favorite Vacation Spot: Cape Cod Guilty Pleasure: Dunkin Donuts medium iced coffee Favorite Food: “MilkSteak” Favorite Thing About Amherst: My teammates How He Earned It: Senior first baseman Dave Cunningham had an impressive week at the plate, earning him NESCAC player of the week honors. Highlighted by a 3-for3, two RBI day in the second game of the Middlebury series, Cunningham notched nine hits, three runs, and five RBIs in five games played. He added two home runs and a double to the purple and white’s totals for the week, going 9-18 at the plate for a .500 batting average. Cunningham maintained a perfect fielding percentage and a .889 slugging percentage for the week.

Avery Wagman ’18 Favorite Team Memory: Unexpectedly playing No. 1 doubles in the first round of NCAAs Favorite Pro Athlete: Lindsey Vonn Dream Job: Sports Management Pet Peeve: When people put their shoes on my bed Favorite Vacation Spot: Aspen, Colorado Guilty Pleasure: Keeping Up with the Kardashians Favorite Food: Sushi Favorite Thing About Amherst: Claire Carpenter How She Earned It: Wagman was crucial in the purple and white’s win over No. 15 ranked Tufts this Saturday. She and doubles partner, senior Rebecca Pol, claimed a dramatic 9-8 (7-3) doubles victory on court three for Amherst. Wagman also won her singles match from court six, defeating the Jumbos’ Chelsea Hayashi (7-6 (6-0), 1-6, 6-3). The sophomore has been an absolute force in singles matches this season, dropping only two matches in total.

Women’s Golf Finishes Second at Williams Spring Invitational Delancey King ’18 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s golf team had another strong outing this weekend at the Williams College Spring Invitational at Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

The purple and white finished second overall with a score of 653.

They were ousted only by rival Williams, who took first place with a score of 639. Rounding out the top teams of the tournament were Middlebury, with 660 strokes, and Hamilton, with 765 strokes.

Amherst concluded day one with a score of 329, which put them in third place behind both Williams and Middlebury. Trailing Middlebury by seven strokes, the purple and white needed to have a stellar day two performance in order to compete for one of the top two spots. They rose to the occasion, cutting down their day one score by five strokes and finishing 85 over par.

Zoe Wong ’18 led the charge, recording an

impressive combined score of 159. She concluded the tournament 17 over par and tied for third place among the top individual scorers with Middlebury’s Lilia Everson. The two golfers who tied for first place among the top scorers, Williams’ Elizabeth Gudas and Cordelia Chan, edged out Wong and Everson by only one stroke.

Jamie Gracie ’17 was a major contributor, improving her day one score by two strokes on the second day of the tournament. Her overall score of 162 garnered her seventh place among the top individual scorers. Kate Weiss ’19 and Maggie Schoeller ’19 were also instrumental to Amherst’s success, finishing 10th and 12th respectively. Katie Rosenberg ’19 and Devyn Gardner ’16 solidified the purple and white’s second-place finish. They both scored a 172 and tied for 16th place among individual scorers.

The purple and white concluded its spring season with this effort. They’ll look to continue their strong performances in the upcoming fall 2016 season.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios, Inc.

Kate Weiss ’19 finished 10th in the individual standings last weekend.

The Amherst Student • April 27, 2016

Sports

Women’s Lacrosse Takes Down Archrival Williams in 2-0 Week Meredith Manley ’18 Staff Writer Amherst women’s lacrosse team had a perfect record this past week, going 2-0 against their respectable Mount Holyoke and Williams opponents. The purple and white currently hold the No. 8 ranking nationally with an overall record of 11-2 while they prepare for their last regular season game away against Trinity on Wednesday, April 27.

Amherst gave its fans an exceptional performance Wednesday evening when they trounced Mount Holyoke, walking away with a result of 18-4. The purple and white displayed their winning ability early in the first half with a lead of 4-1 only eight minutes into the game behind two goals from Rachel Passarelli ’16.

As the game progressed Amherst kept their foot on the gas pedal. Before reaching intermission, the purple and white were able to rack up eight more goals from five different players, attesting to the team’s depth.

Senior Devin O’Connor led the march with one goal midway through the first half.

Kelly Karczweski ’18 made her mark with two goals one off a free position shot. Mary Grace Cronin ’18 struck twice during the course of that first half. Julia Crerend ’18 matched Cronin with two of her own.

Claire Cagnassola ’17 was able to make her contribution before time was called off a feed from Mia Haughton ’16, allowing Amherst to enter the second half with a comfortable lead at 12-3.

The second half proved to be a showing of that same determination and team cohesion.

Cagnassola earned two more goals for the purple and white one of which was assisted by Crerend. With time running out, Karczewski made the final blow with a goal assisted by Haughton. Three first-years, Sabrina Solow, Haley Henriksen and Lindsay Call, scored their first collegiate goals in this contest.

In the defensive half of the field, O’Connor won four ground balls and Haughton caused two turnovers. Christy Forrest ’16 played the first half in net, while Kyra Gardner ’18 and Katie Savage ’19 each played in the second to

secure a team shutout.

Following the impressive win against Mount Holyoke, the purple and white traveled to Williams for NESCAC play on Saturday, April 23. Both sides fought hard during the course of the game, but Amherst was able to secure the win in overtime.

The battle for the lead was well fought and was not easily claimed by one side over the other. Passarelli and Hanna Krueger ’17 acted first to obtain a 2-0 lead four minutes into the matchup. However, this advantage did not last long. Williams quickly answered with three consecutive goals from Natalie Gill, Katie Gallop and Anna Rehfuss.

Shortly after, at the eight-minute mark, Crerend tied up the game at 3-3. With a strong presence by Forrest in the net, the purple and white were able to finish the half on even playing ground with the Ephs.

Amherst came flying out the gates to claim a two-goal advantage just six minutes into the second half. Williams’ Emma Tenbarge was not prepared to give up with so much time left in the game. Determined to break through the Amherst defense, she was able to diminish the deficit by one.

Amherst fired back immediately. Haughton scored her second of the game to lift the purple and white to 6-4. After some back and forth between the two sides, Amherst reached an 8-5 advantage with less than 14 minutes to play.

To make things exciting for the crowd on their senior day, Williams scored four unanswered goals and were 21 seconds away from snatching the victory. A Karczewski goal with four seconds left, however, sent the game into extra time.

Entering overtime, the purple and white were confident that the outcome of the game would result in their favor. Haughton, once again, overcame Williams’ goalie Margaret Draper and won the game with a mere minute and ten seconds left on the clock. With nerves involuntarily shaking, the game end at a score of 10-9.

The purple and white will face the Trinity for the final game of their regular season on Wednesday, April 27.

Women’s Track Races to Fourth Place at Tufts Sunshine Classic Caleb Winfrey ’19 Staff Writer The Amherst College women’s outdoor track and field team finished fourth of seven teams in the Tufts Sunshine Classic last Saturday, April 23.

The Amherst women excelled in the sprint events this week, with Abbey Asare-Bediako ’18 sprinting to a fifth-place finish with a time of 13.42 in the 200-meter dash, while Louise Atadja ’16 finished sixth with a time of 13.61.

Victoria Hensley ’16 continued her lights out senior season when she claimed first place in the 400-meter dash with a mark of 59.15 to record ten points for Amherst, while sophomore Danielle Griffin finished in 1:01.17 to claim two points for the purple and white.

The mid-distance events also went well for the purple and white, when Leonie Rauls ’18 ran to a second-place finish in the 800-meter run in 2:18.83, while Kaeli Mathias ’18 finished seventh overall (2:29.05) and Adele Loomis ’18 finished eighth with a time of 2:29.05.

Finally, in the long distance events, Keelin Moehl ’16 claimed six points with a third-place finish in the 1500-meter run in a time of 4:52.43, plus first-year Lela Walter took sixth with a mark of 4:59.99 with two points.

On the field, Becki Golia ’18 jumped to a firstplace finish in the high jump with ten points and a mark of 1.59m. In the long jump, Atadja took fifth with a mark of 4.82-meters, and Asare-Bediako

Photo courtesy of Risley Sports Photography

Amherst hosts NESCAC Championships this Saturday, April 30. won the triple jump with a 11.18-meter leap, while first-year Emily Flaherty finished third with 10.40m.

“We are definitely peaking in time for championship season,” Griffin said. “All the hard work put in at the beginning of the season is definitely coming out at the right time.”

Amherst hopes to continue this success at the NESCAC Championships this Saturday, April 30, hosted at the team’s home field, Pratt Track.

The event will last all day Saturday, with events beginning at 9 a.m. and finishing around 5 p.m.

11

Forest’s Fast Take Forest Sisk ’17 Columnist Three years after the Tsarnaev bombings, Forest Sisk recaps the highlights of the 2016 Boston marathon, including the finish of three people amputated after 2013’s attack.

This past Monday, April 18, saw Boston’s streets filled with eager participants and fans of the annual marathon. The 26.2 mile-long course was peppered with vibrant atmosphere. Now three years after the fateful marathon bombings, the race continues to hold significance to those affected and the city as a whole. It is fitting that triumph over physical and mental struggle has become one of the shining talismans of Beantown. The day saw a lot of action, so in an attempt to best bring these stories to you, I’m going to lay them out in order of occurrence.

The President’s Day tradition was well met by the weather. And with it, the first event: Women’s Wheelchair Division. Tatyana McFadden ran away with the race, notching her fourth consecutive victory. Her dominance runs back to 2012. To put that into perspective, President Obama still looked young at the time. Taking approximately one and three quarter hours to finish, McFadden rejoiced at the finish line with a touch of class. She dedicated her victory to Martin Richard, the youngest victim of the 2013 bombings. McFadden then linked arms with the Richard family, which produced a heartfelt image to go with her already bursting heart.

The Men’s Wheelchair Division produced the most exciting finish that the games have seen in quite some time. 10-time champion Ernst Van Dyk and Kurt Fearnley went wheelto-wheel with Marcel Hug to produce a classic finish. Entering the last two blocks, the three competitors were nearly level. Hug made the top point of their triangle as they entered the mad dash for the finish. Although there was no lead-change drama, the finish saw the runner-up less than a chair’s length back from Hug. For all three men, especially Hug, to push their bodies that hard after a grueling previous 26.1 miles embodies the brutal desire to compete. This is the essence that allows roadrunning to be such a captivating spectator sport.

Next up were the women. Their top three finishers were much more spread out than their predecessors with over a half-minute separating each of their finishing times. Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia won the women’s competition with a time just a hair under two and a half hours. Her compatriot Tirfi Tsegaye finished slightly over that marker. In a day of gestures, Baysa’s emerged as one of personal homage.

Just after receiving her first place trophy, Baysa called for Bobbi Gibb to accept the award as her own. Gibb is famous for pioneering the female race in the Boston Marathon, since she was the first to have ever officially run the race. Gibb has told the story of her 1966 run. This remembrance had her hiding in the bushes before the race’s beginning out of fear of disqualification — not that that would have stopped her. Gibb’s accomplishment that day had gone all of these years without any formal or physical token of achievement. Baysa filled that hole in history by awarding her Champions Trophy to Bobbi Gibb.

Finally, the men took the stage. Ethiopia continued its day of dominance as it saw all three of the top finishers wearing its green, yellow and red. Lemi Berhanu Hayle led his teammates Lelisa Desisa and Yemane Adhane Tsegay across the finish line with a modest time of 2:12:45. The hot and sunny day was great for the fans, but took its toll on the participants. In the end, Lemi was best able to combat the elements and persevere to claim his first-ever American victory (he had previously won in Zürich, Dubai and Warsaw). A day of nationalist pride was won for Ethiopia under the Boston bluebird skies.

Although the marathon frames itself as a professional competition, its amateur participants win its full significance. The good people who come out to watch the event, cheer on its participants and drink a cold beer or two gravitate to the “track” because of these average Joes (and Janes). Although the feats achieved by the professionals are staggeringly unbelievable, the volunteers bring the spirit of the marathon forth. For a day, a long and painful day, these teachers, telemarketers and tour guides take it upon themselves to light up the city. One story to the next, no matter how small, is a piece of the pie that fills up the Boston spirit.

A single image best sums up this spirit. It came in the form of a joint finish shared between Jim Driscoll, Mitch Kies and Ari Ofsevit. All three of these men are commonly known as “front-of-the-packers,” as in they are in the category of those who are not gifted enough to dream of being crowned champion, but they still train and prepare themselves almost to the same degree as the elite. This automatically identifies them as racers who most definitely care about their finishing time because they will be bragging about the seconds that separates them at Crossfit until next year. This makes the events that ultimately tied these men together so significant. Ofsevit, out of gas, collapsed and continued to struggle through the last hundred meters or so. Seeing this, Driscoll and Kies abandoned their quest towards personal best times, and rushed over to help Ofsevit across the finish line he so nearly had reached. This gesture of friendly competition gives the marathon the power it needs to take over the city for a day.

The shared struggle of common participation translates to the viewers and brings out Boston’s friendlier side.

While some people race because they want to be part of the movement, others race for a movement of their own. 72-year-old woman Fran Drozdz embarked on the 26.2-mile journey to show her support for her husband who is fighting his third round of cancer Despite the sandman’s best efforts, the couple was all smiles as Fran met her husband at the finish line well past their bedtime of 8:45 p.m.

Despite being three years in the rear view mirror, the terrorist attack that crashed the 2013 marathon lives on. However, this extended life persists through triumphant healing, rejecting the negative aspects that pervade it.

“Boston Strong,” the phrase that carries the movement, was in full flex last Monday. Jeff Bauman, Adrianne Haslet and Patrick Downes all crossed the finish line as full participants.

The moment was met with outbursts of emotion as a sort of culmination of the chaos that was introduced into their lives in 2013. Bauman, who lost both of his legs, shared a long embrace with his wife just across the finish line, which meant more for the two of them than any fundraiser or commemorative ceremony could. She ran the race to honor his misfortune and all those affected.

Haslet and Downes, both with one leg taken away from them, paused at their previous site of injury before finishing the race. They marked an important landmark in the healing process after the attack. They became the first two amputees to finish the race on foot. This triumph is symbolic of the resilient pride that this tough city wears. Regardless of motive, this city continues to show its strength. In the face of adversity the good people of Boston and neighbors alike continue to come together to lift each other up over life’s obstacles. Lifting life is easier done when done cooperatively. Boston’s strength realizes this. And Boston Strong runs along.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios Inc.

The Amherst baseball team has compiled a phenomenal 19-8 record this season, and currently holds first place in the West Division of the NESCAC.

Baseball Looks to Build Momentum After Splitting In-Conference Matchups Hayes Honea ’19 Staff Writer The Amherst baseball team played a total of five games this past week, winning three and losing two. They split non-league play 1-1 and took the series against fellow NESCAC team Middlebury, 2-1. All games were away last week as Amherst continued to impress on the road.

The men began a full week of baseball at Nichols College, losing 13-6. The purple and white dug themselves into a hole as they gave up five runs in the first three innings. Though Yanni Thanopoulos ’17 and Conner Gunn ’16 made a statement with two hits each, the men were never able to come back from the early deficit.

The purple and white cycled through seven pitchers in the loss to Nichols, first-year Mike Dow starting on the mound and tossing three innings. Junior George Long took his first loss of the season after allowing four runs on four hits in one inning pitched.

Despite this loss, Amherst headed out to

GAME SCHE DULE

Curry College the next night and earned a 6-2 win. Max Steinhorn ’18 definitively led the purple and white with a perfect 4-for-4 with three runs. Dave Cunningham ’16 and Anthony Spina ’17 each added a home run to the winning effort.

Senior Keenan Szulik took the mound to start for the purple and white striking out four while allowing no hits and two runs in 4.2 innings. Chris Baldi ’17 (1-1) earned the win for Amherst, tossing 1.1 innings and allowing two hits while fanning two, while Mike Castiglie ’17 took the mound for two innings in relief, striking out two and giving up a hit. Andrew Ferrero ’19 closed out the game for Amherst, striking out one and holding Curry hitless in the top of the ninth.

“This was a great comeback win after our loss on Tuesday, our pitchers really impressed against a tough Curry offense,” Szulik said.

“Ferrero was great coming into close, as he has been all season.”

After two non-league matches, Amherst traveled north to Middlebury for a three-game series. With no score the first three innings of

WED Baseball @ WPI, 3 p.m.

Men’s Lacrosse vs. Trinity, 6 p.m.

Softball @ Western New England, 3:30 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse @ Trinity, 7 p.m.

Softball @ Western New England, 4 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse @ Mount Holyoke, 6:30 p.m.

the first matchup, it looked as if it was anybody’s game. However, Spina notched a triple in the fourth, and Sam Ellinwood ’18 earned a single to send Spina in, making the score 1-0.

Harry Roberson ’18 added a double in the sixth inning to score Steinhorn and Ellinwood.

At the pitcher’s mound, Jackson Volle ’17 earned the win, allowing no runs and only six hits in the complete game shutout effort. This Volle performance helped him earn NESCAC pitcher of the week, as he leads the conference in ERA (1.10) and sits at third in innings pitched, with 49 on the season. With his Middlebury win, Volle improved his record to 6-0.

The next day, the purple and white continued the winning effort against Middlebury with an 8-7 victory. Though the Panthers came out with a decisive 7-1 lead after the first two innings, Amherst was able to build momentum throughout the rest of the game and earn seven additional runs, pushing them over the edge for the win. Steinhorn sparked the comeback in the top of the sixth with a double, and the purple and white never looked back.

Unfortunately, in the last game of the week-

end, Amherst lost to Middlebury, 6-5. The Panthers out-hit the purple and white, 12-8, and Gunn was the only Amherst player to get more than one hit.

The purple and white used five pitchers in the losing effort. First-year Wilson Taylor pitched the first 1.2 innings, allowing three hits and three runs. Long entered for relief, pitching 2.1 innings before being replaced by Baldi and subsequently Castigle. Ferrero took the loss for the purple and white on the mound, tossing an inning and allowing one run on two hits.

Cunningham’s impressive week at the plate earned him NESCAC player of the week, as he notched nine hits, three runs and five RBIs in five games played. Cunningham added two homeruns and a double to the purple and white totals for the week.

Seeking a win, Amherst will travel to Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Wednesday, April 27 for another non-league matchup.

The purple and white will then return home for a Little Three rival game on Friday as they face Wesleyan before traveling to Middletown, Connecticut for a doubleheader on Saturday.

THU

FRI

SAT

Men’s Track & Field @ Penn Relays, TBD

Baseball vs. Wesleyan, 4 p.m.

Women’s Track & Field @ NESCAC Championships, TBD

Softball vs. Wesleyan, 5 p.m.

Men’s Golf @ NESCAC Championships, TBD Men’s Track & Field @ NESCAC Championships, TBD

Softball @ Wesleyan, 1 p.m.

Women’s Tennis vs. Middlebury, 1 p.m.

Men’s Tennis @ Williams, 1 p.m.

Baseball @ Wesleyan, 1 p.m.