Issue 25

THE AMHERST

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 25 l WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018

Women’s Golf Claims First Victory of Spring Campaign See Sports, Page 9 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Counseling Center Sees OneThird of Student Body Natalie De Rosa ’21 Assistant News Editor

Photo courtesy of Emma Swislow ’20

The Counseling Center has seen 34 percent of Amherst’s student body in the 2017-18 academic year, an increase of 19 percentage points since the 2012-13 academic year, according to Director of the Counseling Center Jackie Alvarez.

Amherst to Go Half-Solar By 2019 Olivia Gieger ’21 Managing Arts and Living Editor Amherst, along with Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith and Williams, has formed the New England College Renewable Partnership, a collaborative contract to purchase solar electricity from a solar farm in Farmington, Maine. Starting in 2019, Amherst will annually receive 10,000 Megawatt hours (MWh) from the farm, enough to power around half of its total electricity use and all of its purchased energy.

The facility, a 25 Megawatt hour (MWh) array, will produce enough energy to offset 46,000 MWh annually among all five colleges. Amherst is currently powered through fossil fuel energy. Once it switches to solar energy, the college will continue to obtain approximately half of its electricity use from an on-campus combustion-based power plant. An energy assessment predicts that this shift to 50 percent solar electricity will reduce the college’s carbon dioxide emissions by over 3,200 metric tons. This reduction will decrease the school’s greenhouse gas emissions by 17.5 percent. However, as Amherst’s Director of Sustainability Laura Draucker said, “17.5 percent is not 100 percent. We still have a ton of work to do to get even more renewables on and off campus.”

This collaboration marks the first joint renewable energy purchase among higher education in-

stitutions, according to a press release by the Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES).

According to Draucker, the project began over two years ago, when Hampshire president Jonathan Lash suggested that the Five-College Consortium use funds previously set aside for a joint renewable energy project among the Consortium.

Representatives from each of the five colleges and Williams decided to use the funds to hire an energy consultant to assess what sort of project would successfully increase renewable energy-use for the five-college schools. Later, Mount Holyoke and UMass Amherst abandoned the project, and Bowdoin joined the group.

Draucker explained that the addition of Bowdoin helped strengthen the group’s purchasing power, as each of the schools have small energy demands and do not individually need an entire solar grid. By increasing the number of schools in the partnership, the group was able to raise the total demand for renewable energy. Bowdoin was a particularly strategic partner because of its proximity to the farm.

While the project has significant implications for the college’s carbon footprint, it also brings educational opportunities. The contract requires that all involved colleges, including their student bodies, have access to energy collection data, as well as the opportunity to visit the site.

Now, local experimentations with renewable

energy can focus on other factors, rather than scale and magnitude. “We capture a big chunk of solar energy with this project,” she said. “It will allow us to try closer, on-campus renewable projects.”

The introduction of this contract corresponds with the OES’ Climate Action Plan, which sets an overall vision for the school to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. “To transition away from fossil fuels, we are going to need to electrify or find liquid fuel options,” Draucker said. “We are going to need to do much more.” She added that some of these other steps to help transition away from fossil fuels include purchasing more off-site renewable energy and exploring ground-source heating and cooling systems.

The project is based on long-term rather than immediate benefit, as the school will not begin receiving energy from it until late-2019 and will remain in contract with the solar farm for 20 years.

President Biddy Martin said in a comment over email that the college is looking forward to Amherst’s involvement in the renewable energy initiative. “Amherst is delighted to be part of this important partnership, which illustrates how changes in sustainability practices at our institutions can have a larger impact,” Martin said. “It also sends an important message that every institution and every individual can be an agent for positive forward movement on the urgent challenge of sustainability.”

ence Foundation, studied why marine life thrives in Andvord Bay and how calving glaciers impact marine life.

Michi Wiancko is an internationally acclaimed violinist and composer who has performed and toured with many ensembles and soloists, including the Silk Road Ensemble, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Yo-Yo Ma. She runs Antenna Cloud Farm in Gill, Massachusetts, which hosts music festivals and artistic retreats.

Martha Umphrey, the director of the CHI, introduced Stenzel and Wiancko.

Before the start of the performance, Wiancko explained how she uses a looper pedal, a tool that helps musicians add layers to their live act, in her performance.

She records a segment of music, loops the segment and then adds layers to that loop. A loop cannot be deleted once it has been recorded, she

explained, and she would improvise on top of the loops.

Stenzel then spoke, explaining that the film “is not a science film in the sense that you are not going to see any interviews. You’re going to see scientists at work. Everything was shot from the drone or GoPro cameras that were mounted on the helmets of the scientists.”

The film followed scientists as they went about their daily lives, doing things like retrieving the equipment that they had previously set out and working with the data that they collected. It also showed the beauty of the Antarctic landscape with its glaciers and swirling waters.

Following the screening and performance, Stenzel and Wiancko answered questions from the audience.

First, Stenzel talked about how she edited hundreds of hours of footage into a 10-minute short

During the 2017-2018 academic year, the Counseling Center has seen a steady increase in the number of students utilizing its services — the center reports having seen 34 percent of the student body so far, and anticipates this figure to rise to about 36 percent by the end of the semester.

Over the past four years, the number of students who have used the counseling center doubled, increasing from 15 percent in the 2012-2013 academic year, according to Director of the Counseling Center Jackie Alvarez.

Compared to other small colleges, Amherst observes a higher number of students seeking counseling, but has similar trends to other highly selective colleges.

Alvarez sees this trend as positive, a sign that the Counseling Center’s services have become more accessible over the years.

“We worked to overhaul our service and how we deliver our service in order to increase accessibility, and I think we’ve been successful because in four years we’ve bumped up more than 100 percent,” she said.

According to Alvarez, the center has implemented a number of additional services, including everyday urgent care, which allows students to book same-day appointments with the Counseling Center. “Students are more likely to follow up this way than if our first opening was in two weeks,” she said.

Additionally, the Counseling Center worked to decrease the wait time for nonurgent care appointments. Currently, the average wait time for an appointment is approximately four days.

Psychiatry appointments have a slightly longer wait time, with the average being eight days. These figures are small in comparison to colleges nationally, in which some students might wait up to two weeks for an appointment.

In order to meet demand, the counseling

Continued on Page 3

Photographer Maria Stenzel Debuts Short Movie on the Antarctic

Sehee Park ’20 Staff Writer

The Center for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI) hosted a screening of a short film about the daily life of scientists working in the Antarctic filmed by the college’s photographer, Maria Stenzel on April 18. Violinist Michi Wiancko, who composed an original film score to accompany the film performed it live at the screening.

In addition to her work for the college, Stenzel is a freelance multimedia journalist and has worked for National Geographic for 20 years.

In April 2016, Stenzel spent a month aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker filming the work of benthic marine biologists, physical oceanographers and phytoplankton specialists on their voyage to the western Antarctic Peninsula.

The expedition, funded by the National Sci-

film.

The film was originally for Live Art Magazine, a live performance event, so she knew the time limitations beforehand.

She also mentioned that, in the beginning, Wiancko had wanted the film to build up to a climax, but Stenzel said that “science doesn’t work that way.”

“I wanted to show what fieldwork was like, and fieldwork is repetitive — it is a gamble,” she said.

Stenzel then talked about the scientific instruments that were shown in the film, such as the weather station, the moorings, the sediment traps and the conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) sensors.

The moorings were left in a water column for four months to record the water temperature and

Continued on Page 3

News

Mona Oraby Fresh Faculty

April 16, 2018 - April 22, 2018

>>April 16, 2018 12:30 p.m., Converse Hall An officer investigated a fire alarm and found that it activated when water leaked into a detector.

4:22 p.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint about the odor of marijuana on the fourth floor. A slight odor was detected, but the origin could not be located. >>April 17, 2018 9:58 a.m., 79 South Pleasant Street A bicycle that was reported stolen on April 12, 2018 was located.

2:31 p.m., Campus Grounds An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident.

4:15 p.m., College Street Officers responded to a report of a distraught person walking along College Street. The person, who is not associated with the college, was located. The person’s mother came and picked them up. >>April 20, 2018 4:00 p.m., Johnson Chapel An employee reported the theft of an Amherst College banner.

5:44 p.m., Webster Circle An officer responded to an animal complaint. >>April 21, 2018 12:30 a.m., Tennis Court Parking Lot An officer checked on two people found inside a

parked car. The people had no affiliation with the college and were asked to leave.

2:28 a.m., Greenway Building B An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in a first-floor room of Building B and discovered that it activated when the resident smoked marijuana. The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

9:10 p.m., Williston Hall Officers responded to a noise complaint and issued a warning to a third-floor resident.

9:29 p.m., Williston Hall While responding to a noise complaint at a third-floor room, officers discovered the resident was in possession of alcohol while underage. The alcohol was disposed of and the Student Affairs office was notified. >>April 22, 2018 6:53 p.m., 79 South Pleasant Street An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

7:14 p.m., Merrill Science Center An officer discovered that someone wrote on the lobby walls with chalk.

11:08 p.m., Woodside Day Care Center An officer responded to a report of someone in the building at the unusual hour.

The person was identified as a custodian.

Interested in having your voice heard on this campus?

e h t n i Jo ! n o i t c e s s w e

n

If you want to write for us, email eswislow20@amherst. edu.

Department of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought

Mona Oraby is a visiting professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought. She received her doctorate in political science from Northwestern University.

Q: How would you describe your area of research?

A: I would describe it by saying that I work broadly on comparative law and religion, law and society.

I also work on colonial and postcolonial legal regimes. One example of that is how modern states regulate social difference broadly. I happen to be most interested, in this stage of my research, on the regulation of religious difference.

Q: Can you describe the courses that you are teaching this semester?

A: They are two very different courses. One is titled Civility. That one takes a very, very broad approach to thinking of how so-called contemporary crises of civility in fact reflect ongoing anxiety about the kind of diversity that a democracy can sustain. We first started by thinking broadly and theoretically about what constitutes civility and how notions of the civil have changed in the U.S. society and politics. Then we looked at a number of First Amendment cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. After midterms, we looked at how the question of civility comes into play in popular culture controversies. The second course is titled Islamic Constitutionalism, and that one turns the assumption of Islam’s alleged incompatibility with rule of law on its head to think about the ways that the primary sources of the Sharia have been codified in various jurisdictions around the world and, most importantly, the types of dilemmas that emerge in states that have hybrid legal regimes.

Q: What courses are you planning for next semester?

A: In Fall 2018, I’m teaching Law and Disorder and Sectarian Modernity. These are two courses I taught this past fall that I’m really excited to teach again, as I learned a lot from the students, and in both cases, I also think the students found the conversations productive. Law and Disorder takes a global approach to law and society to think about how, wherever there is law, order and disorder are strange bedfellows, we might say. We look at this relationship between order and disorder wherever there is law through, we might call them, six case studies: through the figure of the convert and the issue of conversion, the figure of the revolutionary and the idea of revolution, the figure of the terrorist and the issue of war. The second course is Sectarian Modernity, and that one engages the idea that sectarianism is primordial, that it is unique to particular countries in the world, that it predates the modern period and flips that assumption on its head to consider how, in fact, sectarian governance is an effect of the modern state. That one is also exciting because we engage many questions around the emergence of sectarianism in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq — first from the perspective of graphic memoirs, so comic books, historiographic literature and also film.

Q: Are you working on any articles for publication?

A: Yes, so I am trying to wrap up two articles, one with Law and Society Review and another one with The Journal of the American Academy of Religion. These are two big articles for me coming out of my book project. I’m excited for the summer so that I will be able to focus more squarely on the book project.

Q: What ideas are you tackling with your book?

A: The book largely concerns the regulation of religious difference in contemporary Egypt. It gets at that issue by considering the right to change religion or belief. What I find is, even as scholars associate, or often describe, the Egyptian context through the lens of Christian-Muslim relations, that this dichotomy emerged through bureaucratic demographic techniques dating only to the 20th century. Of course, religious difference in Egypt predates those techniques, those logics. I am interested in how as the Egyptian state modernized its civil data collection mechanisms, boundaries between communities became more rigid and how even as the state developed laws and mechanisms to enable mobility between communities, that those innovations led to protracted legal disputes.

I study both administrative jurisprudence, so how the right to change religion and belief is decided in administrative courts, and also how ordinary Egyptians interact with state institutions like the bureaucracy to procure records and I am interested in why ordinary individuals retain a fidelity to law even as it exacerbates their social dilemmas.

Q: What made you decide to enter into academia?

A: I remember in college being very interested in how discussion over women’s rights in the Middle East was circulating in U.S. academia and in popular discourse more broadly, and I felt that there was something about my own experience growing up that I could add to the conversation. I spent most of my childhood abroad in Saudi Arabia, but also navigating various social groups and networks. My family lived on an American compound in Saudi Arabia. We flew often throughout the Middle East.

We came to the U.S. quite often as well. My interest in academia came from both considering what the debates on the Middle East were at the time that I was going through college and considering graduate school, but also being deeply affected by teachers over the course of my life. I think I have been immensely lucky to have teachers throughout elementary, middle and high school and college who took an interest in me.

Q: What made you decide to come to Amherst?

A: I can tell you that at the end of my interview last spring I was absolutely impressed by the student committee. The students, in asking me the questions that they asked me, were the deciding factor.

I left that interview thinking, “I want to teach these students and learn from them.”

Q: What has been your favorite aspect of Amherst so far?

A: There are so many things that I love about this place, but I can tell you that I absolutely love how warm and welcoming the faculty across the college have been. It’s so easy to initiate a conversation with anyone. I also love the sense of community that this place holds onto. It’s quite deeply a part of what makes Amherst, Amherst.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

A: There’s not very much spare time but there’s a way that I worked in things that I love into the time that I don’t have. I love the outdoors. I love to climb. I’m usually always training for a marathon.

I love to cycle. I’ve tried to do as much of that as possible in the winter months, but I’m super excited for spring.

— Claire Dennis ’20

The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

News

3

Dining Services to Renovate Schwemm’s Into a Pub Kathleen Maeder ’20 Staff Writer

Schwemm’s Coffee House, Amherst’s latenight dining venue, will be undergoing a revision of its menu, including the addition of beer and wine for 21+ students, and a major renovation into a pub-style space, with completion expected by the Fall 2018 semester.

According to Joseph Flueckiger, director of dining services, the idea was first suggested during a conversation about the new Science Center café, which will be located in the new Science Center, also expected to open in Fall 2018.

“We wanted to make sure our retail locations were balanced and offered a variety of options that complemented each other,” explained Flueckiger in an email interview.

This led to the decision to revise Schwemm’s menu and, later, the decision to convert Schwemm’s into a pub, in order to create “a venue that promoted a healthy social culture around alcohol use,” said Flueckiger.

Paul Gallegos, director of student activities, has also been involved with the project, developing plans for new student programming in the refurbished space.

“My role has been to help think about how

the new space could be programmed as well as what elements beyond design that would help contribute to a successful social space,” said Gallegos in an email interview.

Earlier this month, Dining Services placed poster boards around Schwemm’s and GrabN-Go showcasing potential interior decoration choices for the new space in order to receive student input on the project.

“Many students have been involved in the discussions about if and how this space could be used this way,” he said. The idea was also presented to members of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) and the Student Affairs Student Advisory Council.

Gallegos said that, as students began to utilize the space, he hopes to continue receiving feedback on ways to improve Schwemm’s Pub. “With the new concept, we want to continue to facilitate input on how the space might evolve programmatically next year and beyond,” said Gallegos.

“We are really hoping that this space becomes a fun spot for casual conversations and bringing the community together,” said Flueckiger. “We look forward to feedback when we launch the pub so that we can create the best possible student and campus community experience.”

Movie Follows Scientists Researching the Antarctic Environment Continued from Page 1 current direction, and the film shows the scientists’ joy upon retrieving it and finding that it was still intact. The film also showed the scientists’ disappointment upon discovering that the sediment trap had been clogged by an algae bloom.

Stenzel also talked about her experience documenting scientific work. In 2011, Stenzel covered the scientists’ voyage in the Antarctic for the National Geographic, but they never reached their destination due to inclement weather and the story was never published.

In 2016, the scientists reached out directly to Stenzel. “This allowed me the freedom to do much more video footage than I normally would have because the primary product for the [National] Geographic would have been still images,” she said.

Wiancko talked about her initial reactions to

the footage that she received and how she went about composing the score for the film.

“I think Maria thinks that she sent me this research footage, this scientific documentation, but what I received was a real work of art,” Wiancko said. “The beauty in this, and the depth of sitting with these images in a non-intellectualized way, I thought was really powerful.”

Wiancko was also drawn to this project because her late father was an Arctic explorer. “So it felt already very personal to me, and after I saw her gorgeous work, I just knew it was going to be easy inspiration,” she said. “It has its ups and downs, it has its moments of silence, moments of peace, moments of humor, moments of frustration, so it tells a story … which made it easy to write to.”

Wiancko drew inspiration from the sounds of nature in the film. “I began by envisioning the different sounds that different forms of water would make, so like sloshing, the tinkling of drops, the

sound of ice, even the sound of penguins’ feet slipping on ice — it’s such a rich sound world … I’ve never been anywhere remotely like this, but when I imagine what it sounds like to be in Antarctica, I started with just that musical imagery of water and ice and snow,” Wiancko said.

Looking towards the future, Stenzel talked about the Antarctic Treaty System, which decreed in 1961 that Antarctica would be set aside as a scientific reserve and banned military activity on the continent.

The treaty expires in 2048, and there are already competing claims from countries to the land. Stenzel expressed her hopes that the treaty will be renewed.

Stenzel went on to talk about her first trip to Antarctica for the National Geographic. After that trip, she continued to cover scientific ventures in Antarctica for the magazine and said that her goal was to “try to combine the beauty with the sci-

ence.”

Stenzel said that her freedom during the 2016 expedition came because she didn’t have to write a story about it.

She said that she drew inspiration from the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard. “In documentary film, they’re fighting against the primacy of the spoken word over knowledge that you gain simply through observation and other sensory experiences,” she said.

Stenzel also talked about her short film’s relation to other films about Antarctica.

“Everybody, when they make a film about Antarctica, they always talk about it being the roughest place on the planet, and the coldest, and the driest, and the windiest and all this stuff, which is true, but you get tired of hearing these adjectives … I just simply wanted to show the work and how exciting the work can be and how boring it can be, and how it goes around the clock.”

“Sometimes for a student, [one service] is not a good fit for them initially, and they might need to make a transfer to somebody that has a theoretical orientation that better meets their needs,” she said.

Despite these accomplishments, the Counseling Center recognizes that there are areas that need to be improved.

One thing the Counseling Center is currently working on is decreasing the stigma associated with using mental health services.

The center has partnered with Active Minds, a student organization that focuses on destigmatizing mental health issues, to raise awareness on campus.

In addition to this partnership, one of the Counseling Center’s main goals for improvement is increasing accessibility by going out into the campus community.

Alvarez said she recognizes the relation-

ships that are built through athletics programs, the resource centers and other communities on campus, and is looking for ways to partner with these communities to reach students where they are.

The Counseling Center currently sends liaisons to each of these groups to equip members to effectively respond to students’ mental health needs.

Counseling Center liaisons and members of these groups meet on a weekly basis to discuss ways to reach students, talk to them and make referrals to the counseling center.

“That’s been really important, to make sure that we are identifying students who may need additional supports and that the supports that are naturally there feel like they have the skills,” said Alvarez.

The Counseling Center also seeks to pay more attention to students to find ways to im-

prove. To do so, the center sends out satisfaction surveys to students who use the campus’ mental health services.

Alvarez found the surveys effective. The pantry, a donation service that provides personal items to students who are unable to afford them, sprouted from student survey responses.

“We saw that students had needs, and they asked if there was any way [to make it happen]... we saw that we could bring that here,” Alvarez said.

As the Counseling Center continues to work on its services, Alvarez highlighted the importance of listening to students’ voices when looking at how to improve their services.

“We sometimes miss the mark, so I would absolutely love to get feedback from those who are not happy with our service because that’s how we get better,” Alvarez said.

Counseling Center Seeks to Broaden Services for Students Continued from Page 1 center has broadened the number of services offered to students. Social workers, psychologists and case managers are just a few of the staff members the center has added over the past four years to meet students’ needs.

“I think that really means that when students come, they can get plugged into the right type of service that they need,” Alvarez said.

“We know that not every student comes in needing the same thing.”

Along with broadening the types of services offered, the Counseling Center also aimed to broaden the diversity of the staff to tailor to different student experiences.

Alvarez believes that the variety of therapeutic perspectives and approaches to therapy offers students a wide range of services to choose from.

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Opinion

THE AMHERST

On Student Journalism

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

Journalism plays a crucial role in society, a fact we are constantly reminded of these days, as the nation’s political climate is shaped by allegations of President Trump’s extramarital affairs, the latest revelation of the James Comey saga and the upcoming summit between the U.S. and North Korea. Often, however, the importance of journalism, especially student journalism, is contested, fraught and dismissed. Despite this, student journalism is important in establishing community, providing an honest voice and holding powerful institutions and people accountable.

Student journalism on campuses — college and high school alike — serve an important function in providing a sense of community. It is a forum through which news is shared about important social, academic and leisure events. It also provides a space in which students are allowed to share their opinions and develop their voices.

Important discourses often take place in newspapers and magazines that are run by student journalists. This facilitates a community that is in conversation with one another, even if the dialogue may be fueled by disagreement.

Journalism, unlike some other types of writing, is characterized by a prioritization of clarity. In this sense student journalism can provide a truly honest voice that does not seek to obscure, but rather clarify and inform. The language is accessible and free of jargon.

For this reason, student journalism is important because it provides information and discussions on issues pertinent to our community in an inclusive manner that can be read by people unfamiliar with the topic at hand. This is particularly meaningful in higher education communities, where the most common form of discourse

is that of academic and scholarly work, which too often is unnecessarily complex, hard to access and exclusive.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, student journalism is important because it is a tool to hold those in power accountable. This role is universal of all journalism, from the professionals at The New York Times, to here at Amherst. The Student has been responsible for critical op-eds about sexual assault, important news coverage on the historic Amherst Uprising, investigative articles about gender in athletics, pieces that detail crucial marches and protests relating to Trump and news on the gender quota policy from Res Life last year. All these help keep institutions and people accountable to and liable for the effects of their power.

Despite these benefits, student publications are under threat. The issue is primarily about funding, and this is part of a larger problem in the journalism industry. The death of the print industry has devastated national and college publications alike. Many have had to reinvent their brand and move digital. Student journalists continue to do important work amidst this turmoil that has affected the entire industry.

The importance of student journalism should not be underappreciated, as it often requires students’ courageous acts of vulnerability, such as opening up and sharing their experiences with accessibility officials on campus and the Counseling Center. Student journalism is also elevated when students take the time to work and write articles on policy changes regarding Asian and Asian American student spaces, issues with Residential Life and the everpervasive culture of sexual assault on campus. It takes effort, dedication and courage to do these things, and our newspaper and community are better for it.

A Paradox: Safe Spaces and Asian Student Invisibility Eugene Lee ’16 Contributing Writer I agree wholeheartedly with Joy Huang ’15’s op-ed response to the recent demand by Asian student organizations for a designated space on campus, in which she stated that demographics deserve spaces not because others have them but because they are members of the Amherst College community. While she brings attention to the potential backlash such argumentation may elicit from other affinity groups, I am more concerned about the internal issues of Asian student organizations that might have led to this misstep.

What I find most unsettling is that the demand’s two main arguments both beg the question of whether such space, if granted, would be properly used to further the goals of Asian student organizations. I want to begin with the demand’s particular use of Asian-American invisibility and other grievances as a call for institutional recognition before turning to further implications of listing other existing affinity spaces as justification for one’s own.

The passivity with which the demand is written suggests that its signatories overlooked a crucial reality of Asian-American invisibility: the fact that we are complicit. The demand’s language paints an image of Asian students as a powerless demographic being acted upon, in a manner that is almost self-fulfilling. It claims that “The model minority myth largely erases the narratives of Asian Americans who are low-income and first-generation college students” and “Asian students are routinely left out of conversations surrounding diversity.” While parts of these statements are true, I am skeptical as to whether Asian Americans are at the complete mercy of myths or are actively thrown out of campus conversations.

I take greatest issue with the central statement, that “the absence of a student room for Asian students at Amherst replicates the displacement and invisibility that Asians feel in the United States at large.” It is not that Asians merely feel invisibility

in America, but that many Asian Americans use it as a measure of self-protection. A recent piece in the Harvard Advocate by Byung Joon Lee powerfully captures this observation: “Someone told me once that being Asian American was a serious anticlimaxes [sic] and learning to get used to them. That this was a destruction partially of our own doing, the natural conclusion of generations asymptotically striving for ‘passability.’ Passable decoys of the white upper-middle class. Passable decoys of Americans.

Passable decoys of not-yet-Americanized Asians when we went back home. Even when we were victims, we were simply passable victims: unidentified Chinese workers buried beneath the Gold Rush tracks, the interned Japanese valued only as rhetorical counterarguments that footnote the liberal triumph of FDR-ism, Koreans slaving away in sugar plantations in Honolulu.”

While the othering of a fictional “East” is a real and potent force that whites out Asian-American individuality (central to several legal disputes over affirmative action), Byung Joon Lee’s piece stresses the fact that our invisibility stems as much from a conscious decision as it does from necessity. While invisibility is indeed dehumanizing, it is also a shield: how can one verbally or physically assault what does not exist? For the struggling immigrant household, this is a survival tactic — for today’s college students it is the most secure safe space.

Consequently, even if the administration grants the space and thereby recognizes the Asian student body, such visibility is meaningless if a safe space for Asian students becomes a vehicle for even greater invisibility. The demand notes that “Asian students at Amherst have frequently expressed a sense of not belonging and feeling uncomfortable in many spaces on campus” and that “there is no physical space where [international students] may explore some of the cultural and intellectual tensions between nationality and race.” All demographics deserve safe spaces, but Asian students face the unique conundrum of al-

ready being, to an extent, safely wrapped in invisibility. The discomfort Asian students feel and the lack of opportunities for international students to engage with other cultures stems from a painful erasure (and self-erasure) that cannot be remedied by simply gaining affinity spaces. If anything, seeking validation solely from the administration in this manner exacerbates the situation, ceding authority to an external entity rather than taking individual ownership.

All of this makes the listing of various other affinity spaces on campus even more alarming, because it suggests a lack of awareness of the unique challenges Asian students must address. By requesting a generic, one-size-fits-all safe space, the demand misses the opportunity to shape and further justify its place. While the space might naturally serve as room for existing affinity groups to meet, Asian students may paradoxically benefit from an “unsafe” space, in which students might educate their peers on Asian and Asian-American histories and identities, generating discussion that directly confronts issues related to invisibility and lost narratives. Additionally, the fact that Asia is so vast is evident in the multitude of student organizations (three signatories and presumably more), and consequently the space could serve for similar discussion on various cultures within the Asian student body itself. Furthermore, some Asian Americans shun Asian student organizations in hopes of heightening their visibility and potential for acceptance in the wider Amherst community. Asian student organizations would do well to open forums for discussions with Asian students who would normally avoid such spaces. The recent “Amherst Doesn’t Teach Me” photo campaign and push for an Asian American Studies major is admirable, and hopefully such momentum will inspire students not just to raise awareness for particular needs but also to grapple with the difficult questions of Asian and Asian-American identities, a task necessary to further delineate what these needs might be.

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The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

Opinion

5

If I May: Why I Keep Returning to “The Social Network” Jake May ’19 Columnist I am not a “film-buff,” as the cool kids say, but I do have a lot of opinions about movies. I do not see all the movies nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, but I do still find a way to be angry about whichever movie wins (at least most of the time). I’m not the kind of guy who will try and impress someone by talking about the “brilliant cinematography” of a movie; I’m the kind of guy who wishes he could try and impress someone like that. Here’s what I would describe as “the epitome” of my relationship with movies: in 2012, I refused to watch “Pitch Perfect” when it came out because I thought it would be “lame,” even though everyone around me said that it was worth watching. Finally, after nearly an entire

year, I agreed to watch it … and I have now seen it so many times that revealing the exact number would be incredibly embarrassing for me.

Now that we have established that I am not an authority on movies and have no business writing about them, let me tell you why “The Social Network”, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed

by David Fincher, is one of my all-time favorite films.

I watched “The Social Network” most recently this past Sunday night. Ever since Mark Zuckerberg’s now-infamous deposition in front of Congress, I have been itching to watch the more fun, yet somehow even more hate-able, “Social Network” version of Zuckerberg. “The Social Network” Zuck is full of zingers, impassioned speeches and unrealistically fast speaking habits.

The real Zuck is an awkward puddle of a man,

which makes it all the more terrifying that he has built the Facebook empire.

One might criticize “The Social Network” for this unrealistic portrayal, which is fair if you want to watch a movie, in which boring lawyers interview a boring and awkward guy who is boring.

By writing a heightened version of Mark Zuckerberg, Aaron Sorkin creates a more intoxicating protagonist. Furthermore, Sorkin’s interpretation allows us to be more comfortable with our disdain for Zuckerberg. If Zuckerberg was presented as bumbling and awkward, viewers may have been more likely to empathize with him. Instead, when asked if he was jealous about not getting punched for a Harvard Final Club, “Social Network” Zuck says things like, “Ma’am, I know you’ve done your homework and so you know that money isn’t a big part of my life, but at the moment I could buy

Mount Auburn Street, take the Phoenix Club and turn it into my ping pong room.”

Prior to Zuckerberg’s congressional hearing, I already loved “The Social Network.” While Aaron Sorkin is not always my cup of tea (to put it lightly), his writing style fits this movie perfectly. Furthermore, David Fincher is one of the finest directors working today, and his precise and smooth style of filmmaking compliments Sorkin’s dense dialogue. However, this dichotomy between real-life Zuckerberg and “Social Network” Zuck invites a new way to appreciate the film; Sorkin and Fincher (along with an incredible cast) managed to make a film about two depositions and the founding of a website — a movie which consists mostly of conversations — one of the most captivating and rewatchable pieces of media in the past decade.

experiment and eventually get the hang of using Legos as a means of creative expression. In a different scenario, you give this child a box of Legos and tell the child that he could make whatever he wants out of the pieces you just gave him. The difference, I believe, is that in the former case the child is left before a pool of resources that he’ll use according to his wants and needs as time passes. He’ll eventually figure out that he has the freedom to use these pieces however he may desire. In the latter case, by comparison, your words actually push him to use the pieces as creatively and freely as his imagination allows.

To unpack the analogy, Amherst provides its students with a plethora of academic and personal resources. Yet, merely offering students resources doesn’t guarantee that the students will use them to foster unrestrained thought and creativity. The best way to guarantee that students maximize their academic experience is to openly announce that the students can, in fact, use the institution’s resources as creative-

ly as possible, and that the students should do so. Free thought as a policy objective is synonymous with the license of creativity that you granted to the child after giving him a box of legos: it’s an explicit provision that you have resources that you aren’t forced to use in any specific way. Free thought, when it’s put on posters across Frost and actively encouraged by administrators, is Amherst’s way of saying, “Please, do what you will with our resources. Use them as creatively and courageously as you wish.”

It’s precisely this constant reminder that I find virtuous. I’m confident that if asked, all Amherst students would profess that they are free agents who have consciously chosen their thoughts and beliefs. We know free thought to be a right that everyone is entitled to. What’s truly valuable is not merely this freedom itself, but the assurance all around us that we are guaranteed this right — that we are not only free to think how we’d like, but that this freedom will never be questioned or retracted. To think freely, you must be reminded that you can.

Free Thought: Is It a Virtue?

John Kim ’20 Columnist Liberal and conservative institutions alike have always enshrined free thought as a virtue.

At Amherst, where diversity of thoughts and opinions is highly prized, imposing institutional restrictions on what could be said, expressed or believed ranks as one of our highest sins.

But I’d like to take this “free thought” that we value so much and lay it across the table, bare and questioned. What exactly is “free thought,” how is it different from free speech and what is it good for anyway?

As is mostly the case with defining things, our good old friend Merriam Webster can offer a helping hand, defining free thought as “thought unrestrained by deference to authority, tradition or dogma.” Free speech, by comparison, is defined as “the right of people to publicly express their opinions without governmental interference or retaliation.” It’s also important to note that with laws against libel

and incitement to mutiny or riot, your public expressions aren’t completely unrestrained. In this sense, “free” speech is not absolutely free.

Though free speech ensures that you won’t be hunted down for sharing your beliefs, it doesn’t ensure that your beliefs were formed without duress or coercion. Thus, any institution that proclaims a serious commitment to free thought can’t flood you with propaganda, punish you for not attending certain info-sessions or force you to declare a certain set of beliefs or opinions under oath. It must allow you to roam freely in your life as much as possible and, thus, interfere as little as possible in what or who you listen to and read or where you decide to go.

Amherst doesn’t merely guarantee free thought — it actively encourages it. It touts the benefits of free thought as if it were a virtue. What’s the point of this? Well, imagine you gave a child a box of Lego pieces without saying a word. The child may look puzzled with what you just gave. Nevertheless, he’ll begin to

The Counseling Center: Expectations vs. Reality Emma Wilfert ’20 Contributing Writer Two weeks ago, I felt lucky to publish an editorial sharing my (primarily negative) experiences at Amherst’s Counseling Center. It gave me and, I hope, other students an outlet to express a deep frustration with the administration’s stubborn refusal to accept the prevalence of mental health problems on campus. This week, following an edifying conversation with Jacqueline Alvarez, director of the Counseling Center, I feel equally lucky to pass on information to students in need of help, as well as clarify a few points from my previous article.

I agreed with Alvarez on many counts, including the need for administrative action to change Amherst’s isolating, perfectionist culture that often prioritizes academic success at the expense of students’ well-being, as though those two things are not intrinsically connected. Alvarez informed me that she sees this problem as being fairly unique to Amherst; compared to similar-size schools such as Williams and Swarthmore, it is difficult to drop classes or take classes pass/fail due to mental health reasons. I understand how this perhaps dangerously rigorous atmosphere is exacerbated by aspects of social life like the athlete/non-athlete divide, which have the potential to leave students feeling alienated by their classmates. This, of course, I don’t dispute.

She also reminded me that the first time I went to the Counseling Center in the spring of my freshman year, they scheduled a follow-up appointment for me that I then cancelled. The second time I went, they offered me an appointment with a psychiatrist. I do acknowledge and understand how these lapses in my memory may seem unfair to Counseling Center staff, but I think these facts actually highlight the negative aspects of my Counseling Center experience: I felt unwelcome enough to refuse further care the first time,

and I was offered something I explicitly told the Counseling Center I didn’t need (I already had a psychiatrist when they offered to make me a psychiatric appointment). Then, when I looked into making an appointment with that same psychiatrist a few months later, the referral had already expired, and it didn’t feel worth it to pursue getting another one. In any case, I mention these discrepancies to demonstrate how important it is to me that this dialogue is open and honest, and I do apologize for forgetting them in my last article.

I must, however, take issue with the fact that at my meeting with Alvarez, I was accused of discouraging people from accessing their services and risking more tragic deaths like Chris Collins’, as if by being honest I was guaranteeing more tragedy. The more time passes from the moment I heard that comment, the more sickened I am that anyone would put that responsibility on a student. I also can’t help but feel that this claim was meant to guilt me out of speaking frankly about what students on this campus can expect from their resources and ensure that I do not put Amherst College in a bad position. To that, I would encourage the college (as I did face-toface with Ms. Alvarez) to clearly and explicitly state their abilities. For now, I want to share what I learned about the Counseling Center’s offerings so students can have a better chance to make the most of them.

Since my first-year orientation, my impression has always been that the Counseling Center can offer any and all types of psychological and psychiatric assistance. Emails from class deans and administration consistently telling students that they should go to the Counseling Center if they are stressed have done nothing to dispel that notion. Moreover, when I questioned a number of my peers, they had similar beliefs to my own.

In fact, the Counseling Center is meant for “brief ” treatment (an average of seven appointments per patient, although there is a broad

range), as it mentions about three-quarters of the way down its website’s home page. I understand that this is the case because the administration does not give the Counseling Center the budget to hire an adequate number of employees, but the misconception here is unacceptable, especially because it results in students feeling singled out and isolated when they don’t find what they’re looking for. I call on the center, as well as other members of the administration like class deans, to be more forthright when they vaguely encourage students to seek help whenever they feel stressed.

As I told Alvarez, I think this increased awareness could easily be accomplished by table tents in Val or posters put up around campus listing facts about the Counseling Center and directing students to resources that are more likely to meet their needs, such as members of the Wellness Team or text and call lines outside of the college.

While I recognize that redirecting students to local therapists is problematic in that certain students will inevitably be unable to afford these services, I do accept that it is a necessary evil under the current system. This being the case, a comprehensive list of these therapists and their contact information should be easily accessible on the Counseling Center’s website (along with a clear explanation of when students should be looking to these people instead of campus staff), and listed professionals should be able to give referrals to Amherst’s psychiatry service.

I also encourage the Counseling Center to create an outpost on the main campus where students can go to drop-in hours with a counselor, ideally in the Health Center, so that mental wellness is legitimized as a health issue, and so no one knows what services a student is specifically seeking. Not only will this save many students’ time, it also makes it more accessible to differently-abled students, for whom walking to Hitchcock or Scott House is not realistic.

Finally, the Counseling Center should seek

out anonymous feedback from students and this forum should be prominently featured on their website. When I went to meet with members of the Counseling Center staff after I shared my story and the stories I was sent after publishing my article last week, I was told they “didn’t sound like something any of the counselors would do.” This comment seems indicative of a lack of honest communication between the student body and the Counseling Center — the same lack of communication that creates misunderstandings over what services are actually offered. I refuse to mistrust my peers, who have no reason to lie about what treatment they received, just as I refuse to blame them for not being satisfied with their experience. Just because a counselor is hired by the college does not mean they are infallible. Students should be able to hold them accountable for what they do, especially when these interactions have the potential to save lives. Being told that they have made mistakes is not a condemnation of these counselors, but a prompt for improvement.

In that spirit, I hope this article, as well as the one I already published, will be taken as an opportunity for positive change. There are concrete changes that the faculty, administration and Counseling Center can make to improve students’ mental wellbeing, such as passing policies that recognize mental health as a legitimate health concern. However, in my opinion, it is most important to be honest. Now more than ever, we need to be realistic about what mental wellness means to Amherst. I call on the Counseling Center to make better use of table tents, posters and their website to clarify what services they actually offer and to respect students’ feedback when those services miss the mark. The current lack of clear communication has been detrimental to me and the many students who reached out to me about similar experiences, but is not unfixable.

And if now is not the time to raise these concerns, when is?

Arts&Living

DASAC Puts on “Favorite Soundtrack” as End-of-Semester Show

Photo courtesy of Sam Rydzewski ‘21

The first years of Dance and Step at Amherst College (DASAC) took part in multiple arrangements at the end-of-semester show, “DASAC’s Favorite Soundtrack.“ Olivia Henrickson ’21 Contributing Writer As the academic year comes to a close, the final weekends at Amherst are filled with an endless selection of performances, senior games and spring concerts. Last weekend, Dance and Step at Amherst College (DASAC) performed its much-anticipated final show, “DASAC’s Favorite Soundtrack,” filling the Friedmann Room with energy and music over a three-day marathon of performances.

Choreographers had worked with their dancers throughout the semester, piecing together and perfecting their routines to be ready for the show — and the hard work definitely paid off.

“I loved watching the way such beautiful people could expertly move and control their bodies. It just makes you want to get up and dance with them!” said Rafi Demarath ’21 after watching the show.

The show began with a slow, moody piece called “Are U Human?” organized and choreographed by Vanessa Henscheid ’18, who made use of choreography from YouTube dancer Sean Lew for one of her two songs.

The stage was set up in the middle of the Friedmann Room, so the packed audience surrounded the dancers, making for a more intimate environment where the crowd was truly involved in the show. Throughout the performance, you could hear audience members calling out their friends’ names and cheering them on.

The first half of the show continued on with larger group hip hop numbers; “Ride or Die” choreographed by Eric Wang ’21, “You Got the WROOOOONG B****” choreographed by Trenati Baker ’20 and Elinton Park ’20 and “/*~WOO~*\” choreographed

by Anise Diaz ’18 and Smith student Ally Garcia.

As if the dances were not impressive

enough on their own, six of the DASAC dancers performed one piece in six-inch stilettos.

The high-energy dances before intermission got the crowd excited and eager to see what the final six dances would bring. Another big group number, “Dance and Chill” choreographed by SJ Doi ’18, kicked off the second half of the show.

“Being in the show is such a fun experience because all of the DASAC people are standing on the side and hyping you up and cheering you on. It’s a really validating feeling,” said Vivian Cordon ’18, one of the dancers featured in “Dance and Chill.”

The next two dances, “Love” and “Sides,” only had four dancers each and served as a change of pace from some of the bigger numbers. “Love” especially stood out from the rest as a slower and more emotional dance.

These two were followed by “SECURITYYYY,” a colorful, fun, upbeat number that had been choreographed as a collaboration

by all the dance’s participants.

A breakdancing number titled “Avatar the Last Airbender,” choreographed by Nick Felli ’19, drew inspiration from the childhood TV show to create a duel-like dance battle between the performers onstage. The dance battle got the crowd involved, as they cheered on their favorite characters.

The show closed with another group number choreographed by Jasmine Gamboa ’19 and Scott Rochard ’18, first performed by a group of male dancers, then by a group of women, before closing with a song that brought the two groups together to finish off the event.

For the seniors, the final performance on Sunday was a bittersweet one. At the end of the final show on Sunday night, many shared heartfelt gratitude for the community that served as a family throughout their years at Amherst. As for the rest of us, we can’t wait for the next DASAC show in the fall!

two now-coinciding events: J. Cole dropping what could be the biggest album of 2018 and the weed-lover’s holiday both of which occurred on the same date.

According to J. Cole “KOD” at once stands

for Kids On Drugs, King Overdosed and Kill Our Demons, with all three acronyms alluding to the drug-fueled music that pervades the mumble rap industry today.

The album runs for 42 minutes and contains 12 songs, most of which have garnered positive acclaim due to poignant lyrics that aim to start a discussion on the issue of drug use in the rap industry. While the lyrics have been a hit, critics feel that the beats of the tracks themselves fail to have any kind of kick to them. The lack of an intricate, bass-filled beat detracts from the album’s ability to reach the majority of today’s rap audience.

That said, I feel that because of the overarching theme of self-awareness and improvement, Cole’s attempt to make sure that his lyrics contain his pertinent message is the star of the album. Sadly, doing so raises a classic Catch-22: by excluding the headbumping, rap-mumbling audience from his listener base, Cole isn’t really reaching out to the people who would appreciate the album most. It appears to me that Cole has the right ideas to disseminate but is not making the right kind of listener reflect on the themes he raps about.

Parts of the album are also more disjointed than what the trailer had led me to believe, which is a problem that has plagued Cole’s albums in the past.

Both “BRACKETS,” a complaint about paying taxes to fuel systematically discriminatory programs such as education, and “Kevin’s Heart,” a song on comedian Kevin Hart’s cheating scandal, do well in terms of production and lyrics but do not strongly relate to the overarching theme of drug-use.

They are rather arbitrary concepts to rap about and make the album thematically inconsistent.

Though the bureaucratic process of filing taxes to fuel an economy still propped up by discrimination and racism is a theme as worthy of a good lamentation as any other, in an album whose title clearly relates to drug use and a move away from such a culture, it is simply is a digression from the larger point.

I do not wish to give the wrong idea — some of J. Cole’s tracks are great. “KOD” and “Once an Addict” are strong examples of songs that make audiences sit down and reflect on the path that the rap industry is taking.

But by inserting dissonant themes and not being able to reel in the audience that requires such reflection the most, “KOD” opens up the room for its own trivialization.

Regardless, when everything is said and done, I am just relieved to hear some new music on the radio after listening to “God’s Plan” 1,000 times.

J. Cole Creates Strong Work on “KOD” But Sways From Message

Sirig Gurung ’21 Contributing Writer When J. Cole announced the release of “KOD” on April 20, fans were excited for

Photo courtesy of en.wikimedia.org

J. Cole sets out to explore drug culture on “KOD“but digresses on some tracks.

The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

Arts & Living 7

A Night in the Life of an Amherst College Police Officer Emma Swislow ’20 Managing News Editor Walking around campus any day of the week, at almost every hour, you’re bound to see an Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) cruiser driving around. While ACPD plays a visible role on campus, it can be hard to understand what it actually does. On March 24, I spent three and a half hours with Sergeant Jeffrey Shea on a Saturday night to try and observe how ACPD runs.

The night began at midnight with a patrol around Amherst to all the properties that the college owns. Sitting in the large pickup truck, a new addition to the fleet this year that Shea argued for, it’s hard not to feel tiny. Inside, the truck has a laptop computer, which allows the officer to access the campus directory and all event registrations.

Driving around, it became clear just how much property the college owns. After driving up to the observatory, we passed by a house, located behind Humphries House near Amherst’s golf course, that currently sits empty, although the Amherst Fire Department occasionally uses it for training, according to Shea. He checks on the property while on patrol to make sure that nothing is out of the ordinary.

Shea started working at Amherst during the summers when he was 14, helping out his dad, Bob Shea, who worked in the facilities department here for over 40 years and retired in 2017.

In 2000, Shea started working as a part-time dispatcher for the department and was hired full-time in 2002 as a police officer. He typically works five days a week from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

While some at ACPD, like Shea, have a strong connection to Amherst, others start working on college campuses due to opportunity, said Chief of Police John Carter. Before he came to Amherst, Carter worked as a local police officer, but after the state went through a financial crisis, he feared for his job and applied to Brandeis University’s campus police department, where he worked for eight years.

After driving around the campus for a while and making sure that nothing was out of the ordinary, an Amherst College Emergency Medical Service (ACEMS) call came in about an intoxicated woman in Plimpton House. When Shea and I arrived at the building, the ACEMS member on-call was wrapping things up by having the woman sign a form saying that she refused transportation to the hospital. Although ACPD does not respond to all ACEMS calls, Carter said that it typically responds to calls that are alcohol-related so that it can make sure that the responding EMTs are safe while they do their job.

A club sports team had their formal in Plimpton that night, and seeing the space right after the party had ended was striking. There were bottles of champagne on almost every surface, several of them broken, and solo cups littered the floor. Several bottles of hard alcohol

were also sitting around, which Shea pointed out violated the party policy and would result in consequences for the party sponsors.

We then went over to the Triangle, where much of the party scene is concentrated at Amherst. By the time we got there, around 1:30 or 2 a.m., all the parties were over. That night, there had been an unregistered party in Seelye Hall that ACPD officers ended up shutting down.

Although it may feel like every party gets shut down, Carter says that ACPD doesn’t just show up to registered parties.

“With registered parties, if there’s a noise complaint, our first step is to call the host,” Carter said. “If we get a call and it’s medical or a fight or vandalism or if it comes from outside the college, so one of the neighbor’s houses, we’ll go. If we get there and the party is under control, so there’s no underage drinking, hard alcohol or overcrowding, we’ll just ask the host to turn down the music. If we get there and there’s that handful of other violations, we’ll end the party.”

Unregistered parties, on the other hand, are more likely to get shut down since there isn’t a host that officers can call to ask to turn down the music. In those cases, parties end up getting shut down because of violations like underage drinking and the presence of hard alcohol.

“At this point, merely our presence is the end of the [unregistered] party,” Carter said. “People just generally leave when we show up. This is a great thing and we want this to continue.”

While walking through Mayo-Smith Hall,

we entered a hallway that smelled like marijuana. It was pretty clear that it was coming from one of the dorm rooms, and Shea knocked on the door. After a few seconds, a student answered the door, and Shea asked him about what he was doing inside the room. The student responded that they were just watching a movie and denied that they had been smoking anything but wouldn’t let Shea enter the room to look around. After this, we left and let the students get back to whatever they were doing inside the room.

Shea expressed his frustration about when students are uncooperative or appear to be lying. He emphasized that ACPD isn’t here to get anyone in trouble on purpose, but that the officers do still need to enforce the laws.

However, it seems that for him, the benefits significantly outweigh the negatives, considering he’s been working for ACPD for 18 years. Both Carter and Shea spoke about the importance of community caretaking and the department’s desire to tie itself to the mission of the college.

“I’m very interested in self-governance,” Carter said. “So, Amherst College takes care of Amherst College. We want to be able to respond to everything and we don’t want to be reliant on local police. We want our police officers who respond to everything on campus, who interact with our students, to be part of the community, to be part of the philosophy that is Amherst College and to be invested in what it means to be at Amherst College.”

Monáe’s Work Makes Waves for Women and Communities of Color

Photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

Monáe’s upcoming album, “Dirty Computer,“ describes a dystopian digital world while also exploring the struggles of women, especially queer and black women.

Annika Lunstad ’21 Staff Writer In anticipation of her upcoming album, “Dirty Computer,” which will be released on April 27, Janelle Monáe began releasing songs in late February. In addition to the audio album, Monáe will release “Dirty Computer: An Emotion Picture,” a dystopian film starring Monáe herself.

So far, the music and visuals from “Dirty Computer” are stunning, beautiful and vulnerable.

“Dirty Computer” is Monáe’s first solo album in five years. Monáe has described the album as ultimately being about herself, saying the album “scared me because many of the things I needed to say were very deep, very personal, from the heart.” Her album is deeply personal and deals with multiple aspects of her identity as a black woman who has expressed sexual fluidity. While ultimately personal, her songs are also political, since proudly celebrating her blackness, femininity and queer identity in a white, patriarchal America is itself a political statement.

The first two songs from “Dirty Computer”

that Monáe released were “Django Jane” and “Make Me Feel,” both of which were released with accompanying music videos.

“Django Jane” and its music video proudly assert Monáe’s many accomplishments. She described the piece as “a response to me feeling the sting of the threats made to me as a woman, as a sexually liberated woman, as a black woman.” She has said that wants to support black women and those who have been “othered” or marginalized by society.

Monae raps all of the lyrics to “Django Jane,” referencing her many achievements, including her involvement in “Moonlight,” which won an Oscar, as well as the many things she still wants to do. The accompanying music video features beautiful dark colors, with Monáe either sitting on a throne at the head of a table or standing and looking into the camera. While declaring her accomplishments and dreams, she simultaneously honors her roots as the child of working-class parents.

As a well-known advocate for women, particularly black and/or queer women, she raps,“Hit the mute button, let the vagina have

a monologue.”

The next song, “Make Me Feel,” has been hailed by many as a “bisexual anthem.” Both the sound and the music video echo Prince’s song “Kiss,” as anthems of sexual liberation. While highly sexual, neither the song nor video play to a male audience, and the music video does not show off women’s bodies for the male gaze.

Rather, Monáe dances and sings in the video, seemingly emotionally split between a woman, played by Tessa Thompson, and a man, essentially telling the listener that her sexuality is her business.

She then released “Pynk,” which features Grimes, on Tuesday, April 10 with another accompanying music video. The song itself is a beautiful and stripped-down anthem to womanhood and women’s sexual liberation. However, it is the music video which has received the most attention, particularly for its “vagina pants” which Monáe and several, though not all, of her backup dancers wear. The costume design (of vagina pants and “non” vagina pants) celebrates the female body in all of its forms.

She later tweeted that this song aims to “cel-

ebrates US (no matter if you have a vagina or not)” to further elucidate her commitment to uplifting women. Additionally, the music video for “Pynk” embraces many images and motifs of traditional femininity in new ways. She shows femininity to be beautiful, freeing, sexual and powerful. Furthermore, all of the women in her video are happy, beautiful, feminine, black women, which counters a common stereotype of black women as aggressive or angry. Stunning visuals accompany these personal and political messages. Most of the scenes are bathed in various shades of pink, but Monáe also incorporates many other vibrant tones.

The most recently released song, “I Like That,” is specifically about Monáe’s personality and experiences. She sings, “Sometimes a mystery, sometimes I’m free,” which speaks to her position as a personal lyricist who remains fairly private. The chorus claims, “I don’t really give a f*** if I was just the only one.” This statement sums up her as an artist and a person. She boldly celebrates and supports several intersecting identities so often ignored by the larger society, an action she has been doing for years.

The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

Arts & Living 8

Leftovers, A Student-Made Clothing Brand, Redefines Streetwear

Photo courtesy of Anton Vicente-Kliot ‘18

Photo courtesy of Anton Vicente-Kliot ‘18

Noah Tager ‘18 (right) created the clothing brand Leftovers with the help of his friends, aiming to break the boundaries of traditional streetwear.

Milan Loewer ’21 Staff Writer Maybe you’ve seen the stickers — in stairwells, on laptops, in the A level bathroom, perhaps. Maybe you’ve seen people repping the clothing around campus, and maybe you’ve wondered what is Leftovers, what is it all about? While the clothing brand Leftovers is largely the brainchild of Noah Tager ’18, it has since become a collaboration among friends.

A number of Amherst students, including Giana Radelich ’18, Anton Vicente-Kliot ’18 and Bert Martinez ’18, have helped create the designs, produce the media that complements the brand (photoshoots, short films, etc.) and organize the financial aspects of running a company.

Designing clothing is something that Tager says he has always wanted to do, but he didn’t realize he could handle running a brand while still in college until his junior year. He first realized that it was possible after hearing about Philip T. Annnad, a designer and entrepreneur who founded The Madbury Club, a creative agency that designs clothes, while still in college. In many ways, the business model of Leftovers takes inspiration from The Madbury Club, which is also the product of several friends trying to put unique and interesting things out into the world on their own terms.

But, Leftovers has a mission that’s all its own — it’s a streetwear brand that aims to break the mold of what streetwear is and what it’s supposed to be. The name Leftovers is itself emblematic of that. It evokes the image of things that are passed over and cast aside — things that may not be flashy, but have value nonetheless. In this spirit, the brand produces the clothing using recycled plastics and leftover cuts from industrial cotton mills. “The

whole idea around Leftovers is to be making clothing from leftovers,” Tager said.

Leftovers has partnered with Recover Brands, a company that produces its products in a way that conforms with the underlying mission of using “leftovers.” However, as production increases, Leftovers may drop Recover Brands to partner with another company that will help the designers produce clothing in the same sustainable manner while allowing them to completely customize the cut, look and feel of their clothing.

Leftovers aims to further stand out from the pack by keeping its clothing affordable and inclusive, something that Tager sees as running counter to the prevailing streetwear business model. Generally in streetwear, there is the idea that in order to be desirable, a brand must be extremely expensive. It is a business model that purposefully aims to be exclusive, as these brands don’t want any average person to be seen wearing their clothing.

A lot of brands, like Supreme, only have limited drops, where, in order to get one’s hands on the clothing, potential buyers either have to wait overnight outside the store or buy on the resale market at an insane markup. Another way that companies like Supreme aim to foster an image of exclusivity is by intentionally instructing their employees to be rude to customers in order to give off the attitude that the store doesn’t need anyone’s patronage — they are, in fact, doing customers a favor by agreeing to sell their clothing. All this amounts to what Tager calls “glorified douchebaggery,” which is why Leftovers aims to do the exact opposite. Leftovers pledges to never make its customers wait in line for clothing or buy poor quality items at unreasonable prices, simply for the privilege of repping the Leftovers brand. However, that doesn’t mean that the

company doesn’t want to create hype. Rather, it only wants to do so without the exclusivity and “douchebaggery” that so often accompanies hype in the streetwear world.

Leftovers has certainly been creating a lot of hype in the past year. Aside from the posters and stickers visible around campus, Leftovers has also been trying to build support at Amherst by working with Amherst student models, cross-promoting with musicians in Amherst (primarily Nocoast and Salmon Shorts) and hosting various events. Last spring, for example, Leftovers had a pop-up shop in Tager’s suite. However, while the team is based in Amherst at the moment and trying to get the word out here in Western Massachusetts, Leftovers was never supposed to be an Amherst brand.

Leftovers has drawn inspiration from Massachusetts and the environments surrounding Amherst, but ultimately the Leftovers aesthetic centers around iconic New York City imagery, and aims to evoke connections to an “environment, time or feeling,” as Tager described it.

The two pieces most representative of this may be the “Laundromat Tee,” which features the classic logo printed above most laundromats in NYC, and the “Subway Tee,” which uses the timeless design of the NYC subway sign but replaces the characters designating the specific line with the word “LEFTOVERS” in bold type. These are designs that “aim to be immediately recognizable and to evoke the urban environment of the city,” claims Tager.

Next year, Tager and his team will operate Leftovers out of NYC, where both he and Vicente-Kliot grew up and where they will be living after graduation. Over the past year, they’ve been trying to get the word out and build hype in the city as well. Leftovers has been collaborating with the NYC rap group

Delivery Boys, and an organic cross promotion has been ongoing between the two groups. For example, in a recent Pigeons and Planes article, members of the group sport Leftovers’ gear for their photo.

Leftovers also had a pop-up shop in Chinatown last summer and managed to sell out their entire collection. It was the first event at which a number of people who showed up weren’t connected to the Leftovers crew.

Tager described how he met someone who had heard about the brand after seeing somebody wearing a Leftovers hat back in his home country of Australia. A man with no connection to Leftovers had seen someone wearing the brand halfway around the world and came to the pop-up to check it out — it was a moment that struck Tager and made him feel like Leftovers could really be going places.

Not quite ready to go full-time with Leftovers, Tager aims to work in the graphic design and fashion industry next year and hopes to use that to promote the brand and keep it going as a side project until it gets big enough.

While he says Leftovers will always be “accessible for all,” Tager also imagined the way hype might translate to the Leftovers business model, thinking that after pieces from previous collections have sold out, the old “vintage” pieces, which had been released in the early days of Leftovers, might become more valuable as the Leftovers brand becomes more known and recognizable. But even as Leftovers grows, the mission is to never sacrifice the project’s sustainable production model and accessible pricing for the sake of profit.

It’s impossible to know what the future has in store for Leftovers, but this commitment to principles over profits could be the very thing that will make it stand out in an increasingly homogenous streetwear market.

The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

Sports

9

Women’s Golf Sweeps Honors Men’s Lacrosse Notches Recordat Jack Leaman Invitational Breaking 26-12 Win Over Bates Dan Papa ’20 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s golf team put on a dominant performance at the 2018 Jack Leaman Invitational this past weekend, placing first in the seven-team field. The victory is the team’s first of the spring season and bests the prior weekend’s sixth-place finish.

The Mammoths hosted the two-day event, with both days featuring beautiful spring weather. The first round of competition was held at the par-72, 5,806-yard Amherst Golf Club, and second round action was held at the par-74, 5,895-yard Hickory Ridge Golf Course in Amherst.

In the team competition, Amherst held on to its day one lead, finishing with a two-day total of 634 strokes, while New York University (NYU) (637) placed a close second and archrival Williams (641) took third.

First-year Isabelle Ouyang (74-80-154) outpaced the entire field, claiming the first individual crown of the spring season for the Mammoths. Zoe Wong ’18 (78-80-158) finished four shots back from Ouyang to claim a share of second place, tying with Navika Kuchakulla (80-78-158) of NYU and Cordella Chan (80-78-158) of Williams. Additionally, all five of Amherst’s competitors placed in the top-25 for the second time this spring.

The Mammoths were consistent all week-

end, grabbing the lead after round one with a team score of 316. Last week’s Vassar Invitational winner, NYU, trailed the Mammoths by four strokes. NESCAC rivals Williams (323) and Middlebury (334) were not far off the pace, in third and fourth place, respectively.

NYU, Williams and Middlebury all dropped shots off of their team totals in round two, putting pressure on Amherst to maintain its lead.

Amherst relied on a second-round teamlow score of 78 by Morgan Yurosek ’20 (8478-162) to finish with a day two score of 318, three shots ahead of the competition.

Amherst also received solid performances from Emily Young ’20 (83-80-163) and Kate Weiss ’19 (81-86-167). Young dropped three shots off of her first-round score to move from 17th to 12th, while Weiss finished four shots behind her teammate to secure a share of 22nd.

Entering the invitational as individuals, Lily Worden ’21 (86-81-167) and Jessica Jeong ’20 (86-82-168) posted lower Sunday scores to claim 22nd and 27th, respectively .

Amherst looks to continue building momentum and follow up on its first-place performance next weekend at the 2018 Williams Invitational. In last year’s contest, the Mammoths held off both the hosts and Middlebury to claim first place. This final regular season tournament will be held on April 28-29 in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Kelly Karczewski ’18 Staff Writer This past Saturday, the Amherst men’s lacrosse team routed NESCAC rival Bates in a home matchup on Pratt Field that doubled as the team’s senior day.

The Mammoths will graduate 12 seniors following the 2018 season: midfielder and ice hockey dual-athlete David White, face-off expert Drew Kelleher, midfielder Jack Cahill, captain and midfielder Ian Kadish, captain and midfielder Max Keeley, long-stick midfielder Greg Roder, defender Drew Altizer, long-stick midfielder Jordan Sanford, midfielder Connor Sheehan, midfielder Brett Inglesby, attacker Zach Schwartz and defender Zack Anderson.

Over four years, the class has qualified for three NESCAC tournaments, including a trip to the championship game in 2015, and advanced to three straight NCAA tournament quarterfinals. Saturday’s win marked the seniors’ 56th career victory, and the 26-point outburst set a new program single-game scoring record.

Junior Evan Wolf also celebrated a milestone — his 100th career goal. He had seven points in the contest, logging five goals and two assists to help lead the scoring surge against

the Bobcats. Jon Coffey ’20 continued his tremendous play this season, putting a monstrous seven goals on the board to lead all scorers, while fellow sophomore Colin Minicus tallied six assists for the Mammoths. The diverse list of goal-scorers included seniors Kelleher and Sanford, juniors Jack Norton, Trenton Shore and Jack Wolff, sophomores Matt Solberg, Logan Lair, Dylan Finazzo and Jimmy McAfee and first-year Dylan Peabody.

After a relatively evenly-matched first half, the Mammoths exploded to tally seven goals in both the third and fourth quarters to make a 12-9 contest the record-breaking final score of 26-12. Sophomore goalie Chad Simons was instrumental in to widening the margin, knocking away 12 shots and going 18-for-18 on defensive clears to provide an easy transition into Amherst’s attack.

With the win, Amherst improved to 12-2 on the season and 8-1 in league play and kept alive hopes for a top seed in the NESCAC tournament. The Bobcats fell to 3-6 in NESCAC play.

The Mammoths will return to action on Wednesday, when they host Trinity under the lights in the final home matchup of the regular season at 6 p.m., before the first round of the NESCAC tournament this Saturday.

Men’s Track and Field Finishes Softball Sweeps Keene State, Drops Third at Tufts Sunshine Classic Conference Series Against Tufts Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Andrea Sanders ’20 currently holds the team lead in stolen bases and triples, with 10 swiped bags and five triples on the season.

Michael Stone ’21 Staff Writer Amherst softball played four games this week, contesting doubleheaders against Keene State College on Wednesday and Tufts on Saturday.

In the first game of the week, Amherst fell behind 2-0 against Keene State. However, Amherst scored three runs in the third, four runs in the fourth and two more runs in the fifth to secure a 9-2 victory.

Audrey Hansen ’21 had a great day at the plate, going 3-4 with two doubles and a triple.

She also drove in three runs and scored one of her own. Ally Kido ’18 had two hits, including a three-run home-run in the bottom of the fourth, while both Sammy Salustri ’19 and Kate Kopatic ’20 picked up two hits in the Amherst victory.

The Mammoths got off to a quick start in their second game of the day, scoring four firstinning runs against Keene State. The Owls made a late push, but Amherst scored five runs in the sixth inning to defeat Keene State, 10-4, in six innings.

Kopatic led the charge for Amherst, as her three-run home run was part of a three-hit, four-RBI day for her. Kido had a nice day at the plate as well, collecting three hits and driving in two runs. Hansen, Alyson Plaman ’21, Kyra Naftel ’19 and Julia Turner ’19 all added multihit performances.

Even though the Mammoths had some momentum from their mid-week double-header

victories, they had a tougher time against NESCAC rival Tufts.

In the first game of the Saturday doubleheader, Amherst played its Pride Game, “a day for Amherst to celebrate and to embrace [its] LGBTQ students, faculty and staff,” according to the college’s press release. The game was tightly contested and featured brilliant pitching from both sides. The Mammoths could not overcome Tufts’ two runs in the first inning and lost the game 2-1. Kido and Salustri collected Amherst’s only hits, as the offense couldn’t get much going all game long.

Gina Pagan ’18 pitched excellently on the mound, allowing just two runs on seven hits and one walk in seven innings of work. She also struck-out five batters, as her record dropped to 9-4 on the year.

The second game of the double-header was almost a polar opposite of the first, as the Mammoths and Jumbos combined for 33 hits and 21 runs on the day. Unfortunately, Tufts topped Amherst by a score of 12-9.

The Mammoths offense was led by Ronnie Falasco ’21 and Plaman as each collected three hits on the day. The pair also was responsible for much of the Amherst offense, as they drove in a combined five runs and scored a combined three. Salustri, Hansen and Annie McCluskey ’20 also had multi-hit days at the plate.

The Mammoths look to bounce back next week as they take on Wesleyan on Wednesday, April 25 at 5 p.m. at home, before traveling to New York to play Hamilton in a three-game series to close out the regular season.

In their last regular-season meet before the NESCAC Track and Field Championships, the Mammoths competed at the Tufts Sunshine Classic, finishing in third place. For some Amherst athletes, it was their last competition of the season, as the season’s remaining meets have qualifying standards. For the NESCAC championship meet, teams are limited to three entries per event, each of whom must meet the NESCAC qualifying standard.

The action on the track started with the 110-meter hurdles, in which Maxim Doiron ’19 and Yonas Shiferaw ’20 qualified for the finals of the event. In the preliminary round, Shiferaw set a new personal best with a time of 16.13 seconds, notching another personal best in the finals with a time of 15.86 seconds.

“Even though it was a small meet, everyone was still motivated to get personal and season bests,” Shiferaw said. “I’m excited that I get to end my season next week at one of the biggest meets of the year.”

In the 100-meter dash, Biafra Okoronkwo ’20 qualified for the finals with a time of 11.83 seconds, and then set a personal best in the finals with a time of 11.70 seconds with his third-place finish.

First-year Braxton Schuldt returned to the steeplechase after his debut last weekend at the Silfen Invitational, and placed sixth in a time of 10:16, a two-second improvement from last weekend.

Billy Massey ’21 took to the track for the 1,500 meters and came away with a secondplace finish and time of 4:03. The first-year competed well, as did teammate Jack Malague ’19, who placed third in the same event with a time of 4:06 to set a new personal best by two seconds.

The Mammoths made their presence known in the 400-meter dash, as David Ingraham ’18 led the team with his third-place finish and time of 51.23 seconds, and Kyland Smith ’21 placed fourth right behind him in a time of 51.47 seconds.

Ryan Prenosil ’21, a member of the indoor 4x400 relay that had qualified for nationals, placed sixth in a time of 51.54 seconds, while Brad Besson ’20 ran a time of 51.88 seconds for seventh place.

Ermias Kebede ’19 was the Mammoths’

sole competitor in the 800, placing fourth in a time of 2:01.

The 400-meter hurdlers were led by Alex Mangiafico ’20, who claimed third in a time of 59.57 seconds. Jack Dufton ’20 placed fourth in a time of 1:01, and Andrew Swenson ’21 took sixth in a time of 1:02.

Cornell Brooks ’19 set a new personal best in the discus with a throw of 36.90 meters (121’ 1”) to place fifth. Sam Amaka ’19 earned second in the hammer throw with a personal-best throw of 45.05 meters (147’ 10”). Elorm Yevudza ’19 placed third behind him, with a personal-best throw of 41.71 meters (136’ 10”).

Mayowa Tinubu ’20 was the only Mammoth in the 200 meters, finishing sixth in a time of 23.47 seconds.

The highlight of the day was the Mammoths’ stellar 4x400 relay, which won the event in a time of 3:20. Because host Trinity has a six-lane track, only the six fastest teams in the conference will be in the fast section for next week’s championship meet.

The Mammoths only ran two members of the nationals-qualifying relay from this past indoor season, as Stanley Dunwell ’20 and Harrison Haigood ’18 joined Vernon Espinoza ’19 and Prenosil.

Dunwell rose to the occasion, running an excellent leadoff leg to put the Mammoths in first place going into the first exchange. The Mammoths never let go of the lead, as Espinoza ran a speedy 48.8 seconds for his leg to hand off to Prenosil, who maintained the team’s position in the lead, and Haigood ran the race of his life, splitting 49.3 seconds to anchor the team to victory. The senior’s personal best in the event is 51.21 seconds, and he ran nearly two full seconds faster than that to put the Mammoths in an excellent position at the NESCAC Championships.

Next weekend, the Mammoths seek to improve upon their seventh-place finish at last year’s conference championship meet. After the NESCAC Championship, the Mammoths will compete at the New England Division III and Open New England Championships, as well as the MIT Last Chance meet in an attempt to qualify for the Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, which will be hosted by University of Wisconsin-La Crosse at the SPIRE Institute on May 24-26.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

Women’s Tennis Falls to Wesleyan, 7-2, But Sweeps Match Against Hamilton Arnav Parikh ’21 Staff Writer It was a big week for the Amherst women’s tennis team as the Mammoths took on a pair of NESCAC rivals in Wesleyan and Hamilton.

Following a heartbreaking loss to Tufts, the No. 8 Mammoths sought redemption against No. 5 Wesleyan, their Little III rivals. Taking to the courts on Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals ultimately overpowered the visitors, 7-2, at the John Wood Memorial Tennis Courts in Middletown, Connecticut. In doubles play, the Mammoths uncharacteristically lost all three matches, resulting in Amherst entering singles action with a three-point disadvantage. Amherst fell short at the top of the ladder losing all their matches on the first four singles courts.

Vickie Ip ’18 and junior Kelsey Chen put up spirited performances but failed to overpower their opponents, as each lost her respective match in a super tie-break. Amherst did have two consolation victories at the bottom of the ladder, as Anya Ivenitsky ’21 and Avery Wagman ’18 combined

to drop only four games total in their straight-set wins.

Looking to end a disappointing week on a better note, Amherst dominated from start to finish on Sunday against Hamilton. En route to a 9-0 rout, Amherst dropped only one set and twenty games total in the entire contest.

All three Amherst pairings dominated the doubles courts as the Mammoths didn’t allow the Continentals to gain a foothold in any match. On the singles courts, Wagman had an impressive outing as she beat Ajla Karabegovic 6-0, 6-0. Ip, Ivenitsky, Camilla Trapness ’19 and Chen all sailed to easy victories.

Amherst’s toughest challenge came on court two, where sophomore Maddie Dewire lost the first set, 6-4. However, Dewire battled hard to fight back from behind and win the next set, before taking the match in the super tie-break 10-5. With the victory, Amherst improved to 9-7 on the season and 4-3 in the NESCAC. The Mammoths will return to action on their home courts on Friday, April 27 against Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 6 p.m.

Men’s Tennis Goes 2-1 on Weekend With Wins over NESCAC Foes Matthew Sparrow ’21 Staff Writer It was an action-packed weekend for the men’s tennis team, as it played three matches in a span of 48 hours. In arguably their most important stretch of tennis all season, the Mammoths took on the No. 1 team in the nation, Emory, and highlyranked Little III rivals Wesleyan and Hamilton.

When all was said and done, Amherst had finished strong, winning the last two matches to wind up 2-1 on the weekend.

The Mammoths’ first match of the weekend was their toughest task of the season, as they were matched up against the No. 1 team in the nation and defending national champions — the Emory Eagles. While Sean Wei ’21 did his job on the top singles court, defeating Jonathan Jemison 6-3, 7-6, there weren’t many other positives to take away from the performance. Amherst was swept in the doubles portion, winning only a total of eight games. As for the rest of the singles, only Jayson Fung ’20 and Jesse Levitin ’19 were able to take a set, as Emory claimed the second through sixth singles spots to secure an 8-1 victory.

Saturday was a new day for the Mammoths, however, and they made the most of it. Traveling to Middletown, Connecticut to take on No. 13 Wesleyan, Amherst got off to a sluggish start, as it lost two of the first three doubles matches. Wei and Fung battled, but lost a tight match to Princeton

Carter and Tiago Eusebio, 8-6. Zach Bessette ’19 and Kevin Ma ’21 evened the score with an 8-5 win over Adrian Roji and Win Smith, but Wesleyan answered as Steve Chen and Cam Daniels got the best of juniors Jesse Levitin and Oliver Kendall, 8-4.

Losses by Wei and Ma on the top two singles courts meant Amherst was one point from defeat, needing a sweep of the four remaining singles courts. However, the combination of Bessette, Fung, Levitin and Jon Heidenberg ’19 got the job done to wrap up the 5-4 win for the Mammoths.

On Sunday, Amherst took a road trip to Clinton, New York to take on NESCAC rival Hamilton.

The Mammoths didn’t want to give the Continentals any hope of winning their first conference match of the season, as the visitors buried the hosts from the start, sweeping the doubles portion thanks to wins by Wei and Fung, Heidenberg and Ma and Kendall and Levitin. The dominance carried over into singles, with Wei, Ma, Levitin, Heidenberg and Kendall all registering victories, with the lone loss coming from Fung in three sets.

Thanks to a complete team effort, Amherst was able to pick up the 8-1 win.

With the successful weekend, the Mammoths improved to 11-3 on the year and 4-1 in the NESCAC. Amherst will close out regular season play with two road games this weekend against archrival Williams on Saturday, April 28 and Middlebury on Sunday, April 29. Both contests will get underway at 1 p.m.

Women’s Track and Field Sets the Pace at Tufts Sunshine Classic Julia Turner ’19 Managing Sports Editor Amherst women’s track and field competed in the third annual Sunshine Classic at Tufts this Saturday, April 21, in preparation for its upcoming postseason. Competing against a deep Tufts roster, along with several other non-conference opponents, the women racked up 62 points to earn a fourth-place finish at the seven-team meet.

The Mammoth first years impressed on the track, with Sarah Tam ’21 starting the day off with a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash in a time of 13.41. Classmates Sarah Gayer and Lauren Lamb also earned podium finishes, with Gayer finishing second in the 800-meter race and Lamb taking third overall in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.38. Lizzie Kobelski ’20 finished behind Lamb in the hurdles with a time of 17.90 seconds for a sixth-place mark.

In the final Amherst race of the meet, sopho-

more Kristin Ratliff ’20 clocked a time of 5:01.04 to place sixth in the 1,500 meters, while Olivia Polischeck ‘21 took 10th with a time of 5:10.05.

Becki Golia ’18 headlined the field events for the Mammoths, taking the gold in the women’s high jump with a 1.52-meter mark. Amherst took third through sixth in the long-jump event, with Ella Rossa ’21 leading the Mammoths with a distance of 4.81 meters for her third-place finish. Behind Rossa were fellow first-years Tam, Dana Frishman and Kasia Krosniak with jumps of 4.71, 4.67, and 4.62, respectively.

Rounding out the day, sophomores Annabelle Gary and Caroline Ferguson-Dryden finished fifth and eighth, respectively, in the javelin with throws of 28.38 and 24.74 meters. Ferguson-Dryden also notched a ninth place finish in the discus throw with a 26.11-meter mark.

The Mammoths will begin their postseason schedule on Saturday, April 28 at 9 a.m. when they compete in the 2018 NESCAC Championships hosted by Trinity.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Isabelle Ouyang ’21

Rob Casey III ’20

Favorite Team Memory: Going to Hilton Head with the team for spring break Favorite Pro Athlete: Rodger Federer Dream Job: Professional sleeper Pet Peeve: When it snows in April Favorite Vacation Spot: Paris Something on Your Bucket List: Going to the Masters tournament Guilty Pleasure: LimeRed bubble tea Favorite Food: Sushi Favorite Thing About Amherst: My roommate How She Earned It: Ouyang and the rest of the Amherst women’s golf team had a notable weekend in their first and only home tournament of the season, with both the team and Ouyang notching overall victories.

Ouyang was one of the team’s most consistent finishers during the fall season, and this tournament continued her run of good form.

Shooting a 74 on the first day of the tournament, Ouyang then turned in a final-round 80 to finish the tournament at +8, good enough for first overall. Ouyang never trailed in the tournament, leading for the duration of the event.

Favorite Team Memory: This season, a.k. a. “The Scramble” Favorite Pro Athlete: Larry Bird and Caroline Casey Dream Job: President of the United States Pet Peeve: Wrinkled clothes Favorite Vacation Spot: Cape Cod Something on Your Bucket List: Living off the grid and fly fishing on the Colorado River Guilty Pleasure: My mom’s chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream Favorite Food: Chicken parmesan Favorite Thing About Amherst: Seeing the staff at Val every day. Joan, Dave, Matt and Scott keep me happy and full How He Earned It: Casey has been a solid contributor in the middle of the Mammoths’ lineup throughout the year, but he broke out against a solid Wheaton College team with a four-hit performance that saw him notch two doubles and plate two of his teammates, while scoring a run of his own.

Casey is now batting .395 and has an on base percentage of .439, both of which are good enough for third on the team.

Men’s Golf Finishes Fifth After Two Days at Williams Invitational

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Jack Burlison ’19 finished with a total score of 162 strokes in the two-day event.

Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor This weekend, the men’s golf team travelled to the Williams Spring Opener Tournament in Williamstown, MA at the Taconic Golf Club. The Mammoths competed against eight teams from around the NESCAC, including rival and host Williams.

The first day of action saw Amherst off to a solid start. The Mammoths’ scoring group included four sophomores and one junior, although others competed as non-scoring players. With the best performance of the team on the first day, sophomore Jack Klein shot a 78. Sophomore Jeffery Herr’s solid performance put him just three strokes behind Klein with a score of 81. Cameron Clark ’20 could not quite tie with Herr, finishing just a stroke behind him. The lone scoring junior, Jack Burlison, finished with score of 85. Burlison tied with Nicholas Kumamoto ’20 and Will Lonnquist ’20, rounding out Amherst’s scoring players.

Surprisingly, although not entered as a scoring competitor for the Mammoths, Cole Vissicchio ’20 finished tied with Klein with a score of 78. All together, Amherst scored 326. Trinity finished in first with combined score of 302 strokes, although with a strong enough performance on the second day, the Mammoths stood a fighting chance to climb up the leaderboard from fifth.

After an early start at 9 a.m, Amherst set out to improve on the previous day’s outing. The nonscoring Vissicchio notched another 78 in the score book, for a total of 156, which put him 13th at among the entire competition, Amherst’s highest individual finish.

The Mammoth’s scoring group was paced

by Kumamoto, who scored a weekend-low 76, which put him among the day’s top scorers, a vast improvement over his previous day’s outing.

Burlison finished second among the Mammoths’ scorers, posting a four-stoke improvement over his previous outing to finish with a total of 162 on the weekend. Klein lagged after his team-pacing day one performance, shooting an 86, moving him back to 25th place among all competitors. Clark and Herr finished the day with scores of 84 and 83, respectively, which allowed them both to finish tied for 28th. Overall, the Mammoths were unable to improve their position from fifth, finishing with a total of 644 strokes, finishing 46 strokes behind victorious Trinity.

Amherst will seek to improve its performance after last weekend’s showing in the upcoming slate of matches and tournaments. This week, the Mammoths will travel to Wesleyan to compete in the Little III Championship on Wednesday, April 25. Next weekend, Amherst will journey to compete in the NESCAC Championships, hosted by Trinity. The Mammoths will tee off at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 30.

The Amherst Student • April 25, 2018

Sports 11

Women’s Lacrosse Climbs to Top of DIII Rankings With Two Wins

The Mazzola Minute Jamie Mazzola ’21 Columnist Mazzola examines the New Orleans Pelicans’ rout of the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, a rout led largely by the excellent play of the Pelicans’ “Big Three.”

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Amherst’s high-powered offense has scored an average of 14 goals a game so far, led by senior Julia Crerend, who has scored 43 this season.

Delancey King ’18 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s lacrosse team extended its win streak to six after victories over Babson College and Bates this past week. The Mammoths now boast an impressive overall record of 13-1 and are currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.

“We had two great wins this week, and we’re working to keep getting better going towards a really important last regular season game,” senior captain Rowena Schenck said. “Our goal is to peak at the right time and be our strongest headed into the post-season.”

Wednesday’s win over Babson was fueled by an outstanding defensive effort, which held the Beavers to only four goals. Recording the first nine goals of the contest, Amherst took went up 6-0 within the first just 10 minutes of play.

Leading the offensive push were Maia Noyes ’21, Katherine Malone ’20, Mary Grace Cronin ’18 and Julia Crerend ’18.

Babson did not get on the board until midway through the opening stanza, when Juliana McGuire and Georgia Salvatore cut the Mammoths’ lead to seven. However, goals from Hannah Gustafson ’21 and Noyes prevented Babson from garnering any momentum. The Beavers did manage to notch one more before the intermission, as Taylor Thorbahn powered in a free position shot, but the score was still 11-3 heading into halftime.

Continuing their dominant play into the second half, the Mammoths outscored the Beavers

6-1, in the final frame to clinch the win. Isabelle Sennett ’21 got things started with back-to-back goals assisted by Malone and Hannah Fox ’20. In the 43rd minute, Lyndsay Giroux scored what would prove to be Babson’s final goal of the contest. From there, goals from Crerend, Malone and Lindsey Call ’19 brought the final score to 17-4.

On Saturday, Amherst traveled to Lewiston, Maine to take on NESCAC foe Bates. Once again, the Mammoths had a strong defensive showing, as they forced a total of 17 turnovers throughout the game. Gustafson led the charge offensively with a goal in the third minute, which was followed by four consecutive goals from Malone (2), Noyes and Cronin.

With just under three minutes remaining in the first stanza, Bates’ Teal Otley put the Bobcats on the board with a free position score. However, Noyes found Crerend just before the end of the half to put the Mammoths up 6-1 heading into the intermission.

Bates managed to outscore Amherst in the second stanza, 2-1, but it was unable to overcome the deficit from the first half. After a scoreless twenty minutes, Avery MacMullen notched the Bobcats’ second goal of the day with 7:27 left to play.

Two goals in the final 30 seconds, one from Gustafson and one from Bates’ Allison Dewey, brought the final score to 7-3.

Amherst returns to action on Wednesday, April 25, when it will travel to Trinity for its last game of the regular season at 6:30 p.m.

Women’s Teams Fundraise to Fight Gender Inequality & Homelessness Jamie McNamara ’19 Contributing Writer Several Amherst women’s sports teams (basketball, lacrosse, golf, volleyball, soccer, tennis, softball, field hockey, ice hockey and track and field) are partnering with a local non-profit organization, Amherst Community Connections, to participate in its campaign: “Restoring Dignity for Homeless Women, Period.” The campaign will use the money it raises to secure sanitary items, condoms, undergarments and housing help for homeless women in Amherst. Amherst Community Connections aims to raise at least $5,000 to move women who have found employment into safe, sustainable housing. It is crucial to direct our energy and resources towards helping women move out of the street or shelters due to higher risk of gendered victimization including rape and sexual assault, sex work and physical abuse.

Many studies point to the overlap of homelessness and gender inequality as a danger to homeless women’s safety and stability. The risk of sexual assault threatens homeless women at far higher rates than homeless men. Studies have found that the factor of housing status greatly “affected whether a woman would be sexually assaulted, but that relationship did not

exist for men.” Additionally, many more homeless women report incidents of sexual assault than lower-income housed women; private shelter is a key variable in these differing rates.

Many homeless women were initially escaping situations of domestic violence and continue to be dependent on their abusers from previous relationships because of their lack of housing options.

Fear of abuse is another aspect of the gendered perils of women living in public spaces.

Jennifer Wesley’s 2009 study analyzed how fear plays into women’s sense of self and security: “A gendered analysis of fear finds that, overall, women feel most vulnerable to unpredictable sexual violations — ranging from objectification and harassment to violent crime — in outdoor, public space.”

Thus, there is an urgent need to provide housing for women in order to alleviate the physical and emotional dangers of sexual assault and other risks for women. The “Restoring Dignity” campaign will aim to supply security and safety to those who are most vulnerable to gender-specific threats.

The group has set up a fundraising website at https://www.gofundme.com/ladymammothscampaign. Those interested in supporting the cause can provide donations at that address.

The New Orleans Pelicans completed a four-game sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2018 NBA playoffs on Saturday, April 21. The win marked the first time in NBA history that a team seeded sixth or lower swept a first-round series in the modern best-of-seven format, which replaced bestof-five series in 2003. If that wasn’t enough, the Pelicans outscored the Trail Blazers by over nine points per game in the four victories.

What changed from the regular season?

The Trail Blazers were, after all, the No. 3 seed.

Let’s start by examining some factors going into the playoffs.

The Trail Blazers were the higher seed, so they had home-court advantage in the series.

Having up to four home games in the series is, indeed, an “advantage,” as demonstrated by the fact that 26 of the 30 NBA teams posted superior home records, (the Pelicans, curiously, ended up with an even home-away record).

Seeding-wise? Advantage Trail Blazers.

We’ll now look at the regular season as a whole. The Trail Blazers were the third seed for a reason: they posted the superior record over the seven-month regular season. In the loaded Western Conference, however, this only translated to a one-game advantage in regular season record over the Pelicans. Of note, New Orleans and Portland split their season series 2-2 (the point differential over those games was a tiny +1.0 ppg for the Trail Blazers). Looking at point differential tells an even more interesting story. On the one hand, the Trail Blazers (+2.6) had a higher overall +/- than the Pelicans (+1.3). However, the Pelicans had a higher net rating (+2.1 to +1.9). Net rating combines offensive and defensive ratings to look at point differential on a per-100 possession basis, essentially a pace-adjusted +/-. Regular season performance? Tie. Most models used to predict NBA games (eg. FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO ratings) give higher weight to more recent results, as a team’s performance may change significantly over the course of a season. For that reason, we’ll continue by considering the very end of the regular season. New Orleans went 5-0 to close out the regular season, while Portland went 1-4. Granted, Portland’s average pointdifferential of only -3.2 points per game in that five-game stretch is far less worrying. Addi-

“Pelicans point guard Rajon Rondo, dubbed ‘Playoff Rondo,’ is in full force, averaging a near triple-double” tionally, the Trail Blazers did finish the season off with a high-stakes win against the Jazz to clinch the third seed in the Western Conference. The Pelicans, however, posted a dominant point differential of 18 points per game in that five-game stretch. Momentum? Advantage Pelicans.

Now that we’ve established the teams as relatively evenly-matched going into the series, it’s time to look at what changed. A logical initial inquiry would be whether the Pelicans got better, or the Trail Blazers got worse. Unsurprisingly, the answer is a little bit of both.

The Pelicans improved their offensive and defensive ratings, while the Trail Blazers saw their offensive and defensive ratings decline.

The most dramatic shifts were in New Or-

leans’s offensive rating, which rose from 107.7 in the regular season to 114.7 in the playoffs (a higher offensive rating representing more points scored per 100 possessions), and Portland’s defensive rating, which rose from 104.2 in the regular season to 114.7 in the playoffs (a

“A logical initial inquiry would be whether the Pelicans got better, or the Trail Blazers got worse. Unsurprisingly, the answer is a little bit of both.” higher defensive rating meaning more points allowed per-100 possessions).

Adjusting for years of defensive weakness, Portland ran a somewhat unconventional defensive scheme this season. Understanding that Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, who comprise Portland’s starting backcourt, aren’t strong defensive guards, the Trail Blazers elected to have center Jusuf Nurkic drop deep in the lane during pick-and-rolls, effectively encouraging the opposing player to pull-up and launch a mid-range jumper (the least efficient type of shot on an expected points-pershot basis). Unfortunately for the Trail Blazers, the Pelicans shot a solid 40.3% on mid-range jumpers in the series, taking 16.8 attempts per game. New Orleans’ two best players, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, are lockdown mid-range shooters, converting on 47.4% and 53.8% of their shots , respectively.

Another disadvantage of this defensive scheme is how heavily it relies on Nurkic to make a stop in the paint. In effect, it shifts the defensive burden from Lillard and McCollum to Nurkic. With All-NBA big Anthony Davis on the court, Nurkic had his work cut out for him. Davis averaged 33.0 points on 57.0% shooting from the field in the series (including a jaw-dropping 68.9% mark in the paint), an improvement on his already-impressive regular season averages of 28.1 points and 53.4% shooting.

Pelicans point guard Rajon Rondo, dubbed “Playoff Rondo,” was in full force, averaging a near triple-double of 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 13.3 assists per game on an efficient 48.7% shooting mark from the field (compared to 8.3/4.0/8.2 on 46.8% shooting during the regular season). Jrue Holiday played out of his mind, slashing 27.8/4.0/6.5 on 56.8% shooting (a dramatic increase from his regular season numbers of 19.0/4.5/6.0 on 49.4%). These huge performances from the big three of Davis, Rondo and Holiday were critical for New Orleans’ offensive improvement.

Another major factor in the series was Holiday’s lockdown defense on Lillard. Lillard, considered a potential top-five MVP-candidate, struggled over the four games, averaging 18.5 points on a dismal 35.2% shooting from the field and 30.0% from three-point range.

The Trail Blazers rely heavily on their backcourt for scoring, and while CJ McCollum managed 25.3 points per game on an efficient 53.9% shooting, it was not enough to make up for Lillard’s high-volume, low-efficiency offensive performance.

The Pelicans will move on to face the winner of the series between the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs, while the Trail Blazers will reevaluate after a second straight year of getting swept in the first-round.

Sports

Photos courtesy of Clarus Studios

Catcher Severino Simeone ’20 has excelled behind the plate for the Mammoths, throwing out 42.9 percent of attempted base stealers on the year.

Baseball Clinches Wesleyan Series, Sits Atop NESCAC Ladder Katie Bergamesca ’18 Staff Writer

After playing just three games the previous week, the Amherst baseball team had a full schedule this week, playing a total of five games. The first game of the grueling week was on the road against Roger Williams University on Wednesday, April 18.

Although the Mammoths were first to get on the board, the visitors were trailing the Hawks 6-4 by the sixth inning. Unfazed by the deficit, Amherst came out firing in the top of the seventh, scoring five runs and taking a three-run lead over the hosts. Roger Williams scored twice more, but Amherst was able to hold onto its lead and tacked on an insurance run in the eighth for good measure and left the field with a 10-8 win.

Max Steinhorn ’18 was solid at the plate going 3-5 with two runs scored and an RBI. Junior Nick Nardone had a multiple-hit game as well, with two hits at four at bats. The third-baseman also scored one run and tal-

lied one RBI. Kai Terada-Herzer ’21 was the sole Mammoth with a multiple RBI game, going 1-2 with three runs scored and two RBIs. Following this non-conference road game, Amherst returned to Memorial Field on Friday, April 20 to host NESCAC rival Wesleyan for the annual Pride Day Game. The Mammoths won the contest handily, 7-2. Sam Ellinwood ’18, Ariel Kenney ’18, Terada-Herzer and Harry Roberson ’18 all had multiple-hit games; Kenney, Terada-Herzer and Roberson tallied two each, while Ellinwood went 3-5 with one run scored and an RBI. Starting pitcher Andrew Ferrero ’19 threw six and two-thirds innings, during which he held the visiting team to two runs. Mike Dow ’19 threw two and a third innings in relief, allowing two hits and no runs to secure the win for the Mammoths.

Amherst traveled to Middletown, Connecticut the next day to complete the threegame series against the Cardinals with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader. The Mammoths came away with a win in the first game

WED GAME SCHE DULE

Men’s Golf Little III Championship @ Wesleyan, TBD Softball vs. Wesleyan, 5 p.m.

Men’s Lacrosse @ Trinity, 6 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse vs. Trinity, 6:30 p.m.

FRI

Softball vs. Hamilton, 5 p.m.

Women’s Tennis vs. MIT, 6 p.m.

of the day, beating the host team 7-4.

Steinhorn was the only Mammoth with multiple RBIs, driving in two runs while going 1-3 with one run scored. Kenney was solid on offense as well, making contact in two of four at bats and tallying one RBI. Davis Brown ’19 started on the mound for Amherst, allowing two runs and two hits, while Dow closed out the win for the second straight contest.

The second game of the day did not end in Amherst’s favor, as the Mammoths were unable to sweep the Cardinals, who won 9-6.

Despite multiple-hit games from Steinhorn, Terada-Herzer, and Roberson, Amherst was unable to stop Wesleyan. Starting pitcher Sam Schneider ’18 threw six and a third innings, allowing two runs and six hits while striking out two. David Brinkley ’19 finished the game on the mound for the Mammoths and allowed two runs and one hit.

Amherst finished out the action-packed week with one more away game on Sunday, April 22. With fewer than 24 hours of rest, the Mammoths were back on the road and headed

SAT

Men’s Golf NESCAC Championship @ Williams, TBD Women’s Golf @ Williams Invitational, TBD Men’s Track & Field NESCAC Championships @ Trinity, 9 a.m.

to Norton, Mass. to face off against the Wheaton College Lyons.

Wheaton held the lead for the majority of the game, but an explosive eighth inning for the Mammoths launched the visitors to a decisive 16-2 victory over the Lyons.

Amherst tallied nine runs in the eighth and the host team was unable to close the gap.

Rob Casey III ’20 had a big game for Amherst, going 4-5 with one run scored and two RBIs, while Terada-Herzer led the team in RBIs with three over the course of the game.

With the four wins, the Mammoths improved to 17-8 overall and 6-2 in the conference. Amherst will have a bit of break before returning to action with an away game against Springfield College on Thursday, April 26 at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, April 28, the Mammoths will play their final home games of the season and celebrate both Senior Day and Military Appreciation Day with a doubleheader against NESCAC rival Trinity. The first game is scheduled for 1 p.m., while the second will begin at 3:30 p.m.

Women’s Track & Field NESCAC Championships @ Trinity, 9 a.m.

Softball vs. Hamilton, noon Baseball vs. Trinity, 1 p.m.

Men’s Tennis @ Williams, 1 p.m.

Women’s Tennis @ Middlebury, 1 p.m.

Softball vs. Hamilton, 2 p.m.

Baseball vs. Trinity, 3:30 p.m.