Issue 2

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 2 l WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Women’s Soccer Starts Season 2-0 See Sports, Page 9 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

College Reaffirms Protections for DACA Students Shawna Chen ’20 Managing News Editor President Biddy Martin sent a communitywide email on Sept. 5 condemning President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In her email, she emphasized the college’s commitment to recruiting and protecting students with DACA status.

DACA, an executive action signed into law under the Obama administration, provided temporary status to undocumented immigrants with a spotless criminal record who arrived in the United States before 15 years of age and were working toward a high school diploma or GED. Temporary status included work permits, driver’s licenses and the possibility of status renewal every two years.

DACA recipients are often referred to as Dreamers.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Chow ’18 On Sept. 5, Trump ended DACA and called on Students gathered on Valentine Quad wearing all black on Tuesday to demonstrate opposition to racialized violence Congress to pass legislation that would “advance after the college police found a rope tied as a noose on Pratt Football Field. Police later found two juveniles responsible. responsible immigration reform,” citing the need for “reliable enforcement” of immigration law, according to a statement on the White House website. DACA will wind down in six months, and nearly 800,000 in the program will be impacted.

Jingwen Zhang ’18 geting and killing non-white people, particularly conversation regarding racialized violence would Martin called the decision “reprehensible” and Editor-in Chief black Americans, used from the 19th century un- continue in a meeting next Wednesday in the Oc- called on members of the college community to til as late as 1981. The New York Times reported tagon at 9:30 p.m. Garcia condemned racialized contact elected representatives and appeal for legThe Amherst College Police Department an- that recently, nooses have been appearing more violence, then called for a moment of silence for islative action and remedies before the six-month nounced on Monday, Sept. 11 that two juveniles frequently, including at several campuses across those affected by recent events. deadline. The college will continue to admit and unaffiliated with the college were responsible for the nation, in the National Museum of African Lindsay Turner ’18, senior chair of the BSU meet every student’s financial aid need regardless tying a rope into a noose on Pratt Football Field. American History and at the United States Mint and one of the main organizers of the demonstra- of legal status, she added.

The discovery of the noose on Sept. 5 touched off in Philadelphia. tion, said in a post-event interview that the event The Office of Diversity and Inclusion will be a week of student action and administrative comNews of the noose stirred the campus, and was led by the Black Student Union (BSU), an af- providing support for students, and Martin wrote munication condemning the incident. members of the student body began to organize finity group for black students, and the Direct Ac- that students affected by the order should contact The college’s police chief, John Carter, notified in protest of the racist symbol shortly after the tion Coordinating Committee (DACC), a student Tenzin Kunor, associate director of diversity and the college community of the incident in an email police department announced the discovery of group focused on political mobilization on cam- leadership. on Sept. 7. The noose had been shaped from a rope the noose, while the investigation to identify the pus led by Huey Hewitt ’19.

Bryan Torres ’18E, a DACA student who unused for athletic training. perpetrators was still ongoing.

The event had originally been planned as a dertook a 23-day journey from El Salvador to In emails to the community, Carter and PresiA student-led demonstration took place on protest on the First-Year Quad. Upon learning the United States when he was 12 years old, said dent Biddy Martin said that no more information Valentine Quad at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday. The that the perpetrators were not affiliated with the he appreciated Martin’s email for its acknowledgabout the responsible parties will be released, as majority of participants arrived dressed in black college, Turner said, organizers changed it to be ment of the DACA students on campus and the Massachusetts privacy laws protect their identities. clothing, and the event’s leaders organized partici- “more of a demonstration and an affirmation that college’s public support.

Carter added that reports have been submitted to pants into a large circle. we’re here and we’re not going to tolerate this.”

“The administration is taking better action on the district attorney’s office for review.

Irisdelia Garcia ’18 opened the event and led Specifically, Turner said, they wanted “to send it than previous semesters that I’ve been through,” Currently, Martin said, the two juveniles have participants in chanting the phrase “What do we a message to the first years who’ve just gotten on he said. been issued no-trespass orders and are barred need?”, which was followed by individuals yell- campus and already exposed to this kind of ignoThe news about Trump ending DACA had from entering campus. ing out words such as “love,” “change,” “security” Continued on Page 3 Continued on Page 3 Nooses symbolize lynchings, a method of tar- and “respect.” Rojas Oliva ’19 announced that the

Noose Discovery Sparks Campuswide Response

Valentine Dining Expands Food Options and Changes Layout Emma Wilfert ’20 Staff Writer The college hired a new director of dining services this year, and along with this transition came a number of changes in the layout and structure of Valentine Dining Hall.

According to Joseph Flueckiger, who was hired in the spring of 2017, changes to the dining hall include expanding the fresh fruit display, opening a yogurt and fruit bar for breakfast, upgrading the spice station, installing temperaturecontrolled salad bar wells and removing salt and pepper shakers from dining tables so that the food can taste the way chefs intended.

Silverware has been upgraded, to-go cups for coffee were added and the door between the main entryways to the serving area has been removed.

Other changes are still in the process of being implemented, Flueckiger said. Students can ex-

pect to see two new soft-serve machines installed this week and a digital menu in the Valentine lobby in the next month.

To Flueckiger, the new silverware is one of the most exciting changes. “Small items have a very significant impact on people’s experience,” he said.

Other changes focus on food safety. The new bread dispenser and washable table tent displays both reduce the risk of cross-contamination. To relieve congestion in the serving area and reduce the chance that smoothie ingredients will be contaminated with allergens such as dairy and tree nuts, Valentine replaced the do-it-yourself breakfast smoothie bar at breakfast with a full-service smoothie station located near the stir-fry station and operated by dining services staff.

“We’ve had some people who are not happy with the smoothies, and we had to make the best decision for everybody, so we’re trying to work individually with people to see if there’s any accom-

modations we can make,” Flueckiger said.

Overall, feedback for changes has been positive, both from consumers and employees.

“They’re really going to increase the variety at Val,” Rob Barasch ’19 said about additions like the new fruit and yogurt bar.

“It’s become more efficient,” said Kathleen Isenegger ’20, who works in Val. She said the changes particularly help people working in the salad bar. “Before it was just ice under the salad wells, and now that they’re refrigerated it’s a lot less mess to clean up and you don’t have to worry about keeping the food cold.”

The new table tents and smoothie station are both in line with Valentine’s shift toward sustainability — the table tent displays reduce the amount of paper on every table and the smoothie station helps cut back on food loss from students overfilling their blenders. In addition, Amherst’s other dining services, Grab n’ Go and Frost Cafe,

have committed to stop selling bottled water to encourage students to use reusable water bottles.

According to Flueckiger, dining services is currently assessing Valentine’s heat and water use in order to evaluate its environmental friendliness.

Flueckiger emphasized students’ role in bringing about these changes. Most of the new changes, like the to-go coffee cups, originated from student requests. “The best way to communicate is through the comment cards or through our email,” Flueckiger said.

Isabela Torres ’19, who helped pioneer Green Amherst Project’s trayless movement last year, agreed that students have a huge amount of power over changes at Valentine and encouraged her peers to voice their opinions.

Torres added that, in the future, she would like to see Valentine and Amherst Dining Services as a whole continue shifting towards sustainability.

News

Olufemi Vaughan Fresh Faculty

August 29, 2017 - September 11, 2017

>>Aug. 29, 2017 4:11 p.m., Jenkins Dormitory A caller reported a group of people playing a drinking game outside the building. They were advised to stop. >>Aug. 31, 2017 1:53 a.m., Jenkins Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning at a suite.

4:48 p.m., James Dormitory Officers responded to a report of a minor fire in a second-floor room. A lamp caused a burn mark on a mattress.

9:24 p.m., The Quadrangle An officer encountered several first-year students in possession of 30-packs of alcohol. The matter was referred to Student Affairs. >>Sept. 1, 2017 3:59 a.m., King Dormitory Officers responded to a report of a naked male sleeping in the first-floor hallway. No one was found.

mately 100 people and music in the first-floor common area. The gathering was ended. >>Sept. 6, 2017 12:59 a.m., Greenway Building A Officers and the Fire Department responded to an alarm at Greenway A and found that someone burned popcorn, which activated the alarm.

9:42 a.m., Amherst College Police A false driver’s license was found in a wallet turned into ACPD. The owner and the Registry of Motor Vehicles were notified. >>Sept. 7, 2017 4:05 p.m., Webster Building An employee reported the theft of a new chair valued at $500.

The investigating officer located it in another room. >>Sept. 8, 2017 1:52 a.m., James Dormitory A resident reported the theft of clothing from the laundry room.

The clothing is valued at $500.

11:29 p.m., Hitchcock House An officer on patrol discovered an unauthorized party with over 100 people and alcohol. Several beer pong tables were set up.

The event was shut down, and alcohol was confiscated.

12:45 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in a first-floor room. The resident claimed it was activated by steam from a coffee pot.

>>Sept.2, 2017 3:37 p.m., James Dormitory A resident reported the theft of personal shower items from a restroom.

4:39 p.m., Alumni Gym A student reported the theft of a wallet he left unattended in the Alumni Gym. He also discovered a credit card in the wallet had been used at local businesses.

11:31 p.m., Moore Dormitory A caller reported a person asleep on a couch in the third-floor common room. No one was found when an officer checked. >>September 3, 2017 12:00 a.m., Book and Plow Farm An officer checked on an unattended vehicle and ultimately located two local youths. They were advised to leave campus as they had no legitimate business on campus.

12:27 a.m., Campus Grounds An officer encountered a person urinating outside of Jenkins.

They were identified as a student from another institution and were warned about their activity.

2:43 a.m., Lipton House An officer investigated a smoke detector activated on the first floor and found it was caused by steam from a clothes dryer. >>Sept. 4, 2017 8:47 p.m., Plimpton House An officer encountered students setting up for a party which was not authorized. The activity was discontinued.

10:45 p.m., Mayo Smith House An officer responded to a noise complaint and found approxi-

>>Sept. 9, 2017 12:14 p.m., Stearns Dormitory An officer investigated unusual writing in the fourth-floor lounge.

11:48 p.m., The Quadrangle A caller complained about loud music from a Student Activities event on the Quad. The volume of music was lowered. >>Sept. 10, 2017 12:55 a.m., Sellen Street An officer assisted a student who was nearly struck by a car on Sellen Street.

4:17 p.m., Hitchcock House The Student Affairs office reported receiving a report that a student urinated out a window and onto other people.

Update: The Office of Financial Aid has clarified that an appeals process webpage does exist though it may differ from that described in last week’s article “Raises in Family Contributions Surprises Students.” Dean of Financial Aid Gail Holt has also clarified that she did not state she wanted to make data from sophomore Claire Cho’s financial aid survey “transparent and accessible” but rather information about financial aid in general. The online version of the article has been updaed to include both clarifications.

Department of Black Studies

Olufemi O. Vaughan is an Alfred Sargent Lee ’41 and Mary Farley Ames Lee Professor of Black Studies. He attended St. John’s University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in politics and government. He received his doctorate in politics with historical components from Oxford University.

Q: What did you do before you came to Amherst?

A: I was the Geoffrey Canada Professor of Africana Studies and History at Bowdoin College. I taught there for nine years. Prior to that, I taught for 18 years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. I went through the professorial ranks at Stony Brook and then had the opportunity to move to Bowdoin because I was recruited to help … rebuild the Africana Studies department.

Q: What got you interested in political science, history and black studies?

A: I’ve been in academia for 27 years. If you’ve been an academic for that long, your career will move in all kinds of directions. In my case, that’s essentially what happened. I was born and raised in Nigeria. Going back in time, as far as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated by politics and history … even in grade school … It seemed rather natural that I would pursue that path …

Anything in the humanistic social sciences is, for me, extremely exciting and fascinating. As a result, I don’t always see the boundaries between disciplines, which can be confusing for some.

Those academic specializations, while I recognize their significance … as a student and a scholar of Africa, I sometimes see them as quite limiting.

So, the subject matter is what drives me, not the discipline.

Q: Why did you decide to teach at Amherst?

A: Amherst is the best known liberal arts college in the world. You can’t possibly receive a phone call from your colleagues that you respect, and in so many ways look up to, from an exceptional liberal arts institution with really amazing scholar-teachers and the tradition of incredible students, and not take that call very seriously. I felt extremely privileged to receive that call. The rest is history, as they say.

Q: What do you like about Amherst so far?

A: I’ve been really humbled by the reception of my colleagues in Black Studies from the time the call came in October of last year all through the entire vetting process — talk about generosity of spirit and kindness. You can’t imagine how kind colleagues can be, from senior colleagues to coordinators. I felt immediately affirmed. I remember when I came to campus last year and met students. Talk about rapid fire, in a good way, of insightful, incredibly intellectual and engaging questions … In a period of just about an hour and a half, I learned that these students were not shy.

They wanted to know what I would bring to the college. That, for me, was very exciting.

Q: What classes are you teaching this semester?

A: I’m teaching two seminars. One 300-level seminar, which is also relating to the research I’ve done for the last ten years: African Migration and Globalization. The second one, a 200-level course, is also related to a recent research project of mine. It’s titled Christianity and Islam in West Africa.

Q: Outside of academics, what about Amherst do you enjoy the most?

A: I haven’t driven in three weeks. I walk everywhere, which I love. The sounds and sights of the

city center are really exciting … It could very well be the time of year, but there’s always something going on. I like the fact that the restaurants have this real global flavor to them. I also like the fact that there’s a real interest in generational connection in the town. At least for what I’ve seen in the last three weeks, there seems to be a really healthy interaction between the town and the college. I like the connection between culture and space. I can tell that it’s not fake or contrived. It’s fluid and organic. I never realized how important visual diversity was to me until I was living in Brunswick, when I taught at Bowdoin. I don’t feel a need to go anywhere else to achieve that visual diversity in Amherst. I’m not suggesting that this is a bastion of diversity, but it is enough for me. It is exciting for me to be in the street of a small city yet still try to figure out what language people are speaking.

Q: Are you currently engaged in any research?

A: As I mentioned earlier, I’d been working on African migration and transnationalism in a way that questions African migration in the context of neoliberalism and global migration … I just finished a book titled “Religion and the Making of Nigeria.” It came out in just November of last year. I am now beginning to work on neo-pentecostal movements, particularly Nigerian neoPentecostal movements in Western countries like the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. I’m doing some ethnographic kinds of research. I’m going to be doing that quite a bit over the next year and half to see where that takes me. I’m hoping to get a book out of that. I also have a second research project.

I’m always trying to find ways to do collaborative research with colleagues and I’m working on a research project with a colleague at the University of London and the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. This is really kind of an African Diaspora-in-reverse project … We never really think about the diasporas as a movement backward to African societies, particularly Atlantic West Africa. The reality is that we had quite a bit of that in the 19th century and one of the most important African Diaspora communities in Atlantic West Africa: Afro-Brazilians … I am beginning now to do a bit of an oral history of the last wave of descendants of those who knew the Afro-Brazilians who returned … The third project is really the one I’m the most actively engaged in now. My late father passed away 14 years ago. He left behind over 4,000 papers, including about 3,500 family letters between 1929 and 1994. After 14 years of having this stuff in my closet, I decided to bring them out. I’m thinking of writing some kind of family biography based on the letters. I’m hoping that down the line I will introduce a seminar on letters and family matters.

Q: What do you do for fun in your free time?

A: This is going to sound very strange, but fun for me is just being able to just have a stroll down the road. I have come to enjoy the privilege of strolling, especially doing it for no apparent reason whatsoever. Part of what I’ve come to like about Amherst is that the center of town is a good place to walk. I’ve also always paid attention to sports … Even as I get older, I like a quick pickup basketball game with my kids or nieces and nephews.

— Sylvia Frank ’20

The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

News

3

Demonstration Emphasizes Solidarity Against Racialized Violence Continued from Page 1 rant BS.” Turner added that the size of the demonstration exceeded her expectations. “I’m really inspired by this, just because of the huge turnout that we did have that shows me that people are not being as apathetic and are starting to care, because it was not just people of color out here,” Turner said. “Other people were clearly concerned that the anti-black violence had occurred.”

Josh Cavé ’18, who attended the demonstration, said he felt it was an “appropriate and measured response to the rising tensions on campus” which showed that “despite what’s going on in our country and what might happen on our campus, there’s always people who are looking out for each other.”

Another attendee, Konso Mbakire ’18, expressed her surprise that the noose was found in the first place. “This is a liberal campus in a liberal town … If this is what black students go through here, I’m just imagining what they go through on other campuses,” she said. “How do we survive?”

Posters depicting a raised fist with the slogan “This is our campus, not the Klan’s” were posted across campus on the same day that Carter emailed the college community. In a Facebook post, DACC claimed responsibility for the posters.

President Biddy Martin wrote a statement, emailed to students, faculty and staff on Sunday, in which she strongly denounced the act. “[Nooses] are unmistakably racist symbols of hate … It is ap-

Photo courtesy of Matthew Chow ’18

At the demonstration on Tuesday, students stood hand in hand in a moment of solidarity. As demonstrators together chanted “What do you need?”, individuals shouted answers including “love,” “compassion,” “respect” and “justice.” palling that one was tied and left on the ground in a visible part of our campus,” she wrote. Martin also urged students to condemn it and to learn more about the history of racism and other forms of bias in the U.S. At a community meeting held by members of the college administration on Sunday in the Pow-

erhouse, Martin spoke against the incident with even stronger language. “An action of this sort, to tie a noose and put it … where it’s visible, is an act of overt bigotry,” she said. “I want the police to find that person and I want that person to be punished for it.”

In the future, Turner said, “I would like to see

more of the campus get engaged.” Allies were present, she said, but “let’s try to get to the other people who might not necessarily think this directly impacts them.”

Shawna Chen ’20 contributed reporting for this article.

Dreamers Express Uncertainty, Fear with DACA Repeal Continued from Page 1 surprised Torres. He had seen it coming, he said, but was “frustrated, disappointed and worried because it has been a program that helped not only me personally, but also a lot of other Dreamers out there achieve their dreams, go to school, get jobs, get drivers’ licenses [and] relieve them of the fear of deportation.”

Torres added that he had not expected Trump to end DACA at this time, with hurricanes and issues of health care affecting the country.

According to Torres, who said he knows about 15 to 20 DACA recipients in the Pioneer Valley, DACA students are feeling betrayed, anxious and disappointed.

“It’s like they gave you something that was supposed to be a relief, and then they take it away, so now everyone is like, ‘All the hard work that I did or whatever I accomplished — what now?’” Torres said.

Once their status expires, Torres said, there’s no guarantee for a future in the U.S. “The waiting and anxiety was the sense I was getting from Dreamers,” he said. “It’s a limbo situation.”

Torres said the college reached out to him through Kunor and said that Kunor would support him in any capacity. The college has also made an immigration attorney accessible for any concerned students.

“Even some professors have reached out to me and offered their support,” Torres added.

Unless summoned by a legally issued subpoena or judicial order, Martin said, the college will not share any students’ records against their wishes with any individual or government agency, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Campus police will also refrain from taking action with ICE or inquiring about legal status.

Chief Student Affairs Officer Suzanne Coffey, who spoke to The Student on behalf of Kunor and members of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, wrote in an email that “we continue to support DACA and unDACAmented students by providing services including individual counseling, legal advocacy and connections to campus- and community-based organizations.” The college’s DACA website is updated regularly, she said, and includes travel advisories and advice for interactions with an immigration official.

According to Professor of Sociology Leah Schmalzbauer, who has been engaged in immigration research and activism, DACA was instituted in 2012 after Congress repeatedly failed to pass “comprehensive immigration reform.”

“What makes the DACA recipients really different than other immigrant groups is that they have been really celebrated by both parties as being exceptional,” Schmalzbauer said. “What tends to get held up in the media are the many who are valedictorians or very successful students who go

on to great schools like Amherst or Harvard.”

But that’s not the majority of Dreamers, Schmalzbauer added.

“The majority are just trying to work and make a life for themselves in the U.S.,” she said.

Schmalzbauer said she fears that the Trump administration is setting up Congress to legislate permanent protections for Dreamers at the expense of “millions of other undocumented immigrants who don’t fit into that exceptional category” and potentially increasing deportations.

“Most students who are DACAmented have undocumented parents, and so … they’re not just concerned about themselves — they’re concerned about their parents,” Schmalzbauer said, adding that students had voiced their worry for their parents to her. “What we don’t want is to set up policies and laws that protect students but deport their parents.”

Dreamers who have been in touch with Schmalzbauer also feel “tremendous anxiety, uncertainty, … like their physical health is also being impacted,” she said. “It’s very violent — it’s an act of violence on these kids and families.”

Though Schmalzbauer said she could not speak for the college in terms of what it would be willing to do beyond the law, she said she and many faculty members are willing to break laws to protect their students.

“Deportation is one of the most violent things that can happen to a person — it divides families,

it separates people from countries they consider their own, it also can make people move to a place that is not safe for them,” she said. “It’s a rupture in students’ life.”

For Torres, future plans have certainly changed. He will graduate from Amherst in December and had planned on going abroad for the spring semester before graduating officially at the commencement ceremony in May. But advanced parole, an application that allows immigrants to travel outside the United States and return lawfully, has been cancelled and no longer accepts requests. Instead, he will look into options in the workforce and graduate school.

He hopes, however, that Congress will come to an agreement and pass legislation more stable than DACA. Though he is the only DACA student on campus that has been publicly outspoken about his status, Torres said that “it’s just something that I have to do.”

One of the reasons he decided to apply to the college was seeing an alum who “was very outspoken about being a Dreamer.”

“That inspired me to know that it was possible,” Torres said. “That’s why I’m trying to be outspoken, because if people don’t see that a college at Amherst has someone who’s talking about it, people aren’t going to have the desire to apply, especially the Dreamers that are living with fear and that are trying to get ahead with their education.”

Students Create ‘Rate Our Courses’ Website for Amherst Ariana Lee ’20 Staff Writer Seumas Macneil ’19, Patrick Frenett ’19 and Lucas Sheiner ’19 created a website called “Rate Our Courses” in the spring to improve the college course selection process for students.

Every semester, students at the college will select new courses for the next semester. During this time, they read through course descriptions posted by professors and register for the courses they are interested in. However, students are often unable to find additional information to help them in their selection, including professors’ teaching methods and the difficulty of course material.

This issue inspired Macneil, Frenett and Sheiner to create an online platform for students to share reviews about each of the courses they take.

Unlike the already existing website “Rate My Professors,” which operates on many college cam-

puses around the country, Macneil said that their site focuses more on the course than on the professor.

“The different angle is it’s more about the course, because the professor can change a lot over the different courses,” Macneil said. “Rate My Professor[s] is good at a big school, but it is not good at Amherst … there’s, like, one review for each [professor].”

“The genesis of it … it’s a very Amherst-specific problem and a very small-liberal-arts-college-specific problem in that you have the ability to choose so many more courses,” Frenett added.

With “Rate Our Courses,” students can write a review for each class they have taken by filling out the name of the department and the semester during which they took the class. Students can rate the course based on interest, difficulty and workload and describe the professor’s teaching methods and level of engagement. Reviewers can also add their

final grades to provide more context and write additional comments.

“This is essentially emulating the conversations that you have with your friends before every semester,” Frenett said. “This is built for people who don’t have that access … I’m the only one out of my friends that does computer science stuff, so I don’t really know who to talk to about [course feedback].”

The idea for the website was first generated by Macneil and Sheiner, who realized together that “Rate My Professors” was not the best course ratings site for Amherst.

The biggest challenge, Frenett said, was “getting the content on the website itself.”

“We spent last semester just hounding everyone that we knew to put in every review [for each of their classes],” he said.

To maintain a space for candid reviews, the three co-founders created a login system that

only gives access to users with an Amherst student email. “We don’t really want the professors themselves to be able to look at this information,” Frenett said. “Otherwise, the reviews that people are writing will be inherently less honest.”

Students began writing and posting reviews on the site in April this year, and the site has now garnered more than 860 reviews. Macneil, Frenett and Sheiner are currently making improvements to the site, including designing layout, adding a search function and evaluating the way students interact with the site.

Although the website is relatively new, Macneil and Frenett said their encounters with students have showcased the website’s impact on the student community.

“Someone came up to me in Valentine [Dining Hall] the other day and was like, ‘Oh, I was looking for my courses and really liked your site,’” Frenett said.

Opinion

THE AMHERST

Looking Back, Moving Forward Editorial As another year at Amherst gets underway, the differences from the previous school year become more and more apparent. We notice the new haircut of a classmate or the worldly experiences the study abroad students have gained. The routine of asking what you did over the summer or about class schedules floods back.

Our relationships are forced to adjust to the change as well. What seemed so second nature last semester seems to differ from that, reality this semester.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is finding the precise language with which to describe the way we feel about coming back. For those of us who are returning to school for our second or third time, it feels as if we should have at least some mastery over the Amherst experience.

It is surprising when we notice the ways in which we are still always new to this place. The differences or unfamiliarities can be subtle. In the grand scheme of things, the campus appears the same: the construction, the Quad, Frost Library. But any place is always new and different, if only in the fact that we are encountering it in a new and different time. Experience will always exceed our language.

Living in the shadow of the previous semester is easy.

Many upperclassmen somehow have strong feelings about the new smoothie bar or panini presser. It’s hard for our minds to rewire to the new people and new

circumstances that structure our lives. We may walk past those people who once sparked our lives with color with a perfunctory wave while passing by in Merrill.

Sparkling new school supplies and syllabi distract us from acknowledging the fear and sadness that come with starting over. A clean slate also means it’s empty.

Devoid of the schedule we carefully curated or the map of where to go, we are endlessly saying goodbye to our previous lives as we welcome the new. However, wallowing in these concerns may hinder the sight of overflowing possibilities available.

The start of the school year is only one of many start-overs we face a year. The blank page or awkward greeting contradicts the supposed progress we’ve made since our first year.

Here we are, at the verge of a new experience, one maybe completely different than previous ones — especially for first-years. A fear and excitement lies in the imperfect nature of Amherst and our own imperfect natures. Missteps and mistakes will be inherent and necessary. Trust in yourself and your decisions, but learn to say sorry and change when needed. Our times with each other and at Amherst are temporary. The bittersweet nature of starting another cycle of a school year at Amherst only happens a couple times — so embrace it.

AAS Welcome Letter to Students Aditi Krishnamurthy ’18 Contributing Writer

On behalf of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), I would like to welcome the Class of 2021 and incoming transfer students. I write to introduce new students to the AAS in terms of what student government at Amherst looks like and what we do.

The AAS is made up of eight senators per class as well as an executive board. We work to address student concerns, connect students with a variety of campus resources and fund Registered Student Organisations (RSOs) on campus. AAS senators sit on a variety of committees focusing on issues from first-year life to Title IX review to resource allocation. Our senators are also required to complete a “Senate Project” each year. These projects have ranged from purchasing chargers for student use in the Frost and Merrill libraries to extending gym hours (Will Zaubler ’19) to hosting “Everybody Has a

Story Week,” a series of lunches bringing together students, faculty and staff (Maeve McNamara ’19).

In addition to the work of the senate, the budgetary branch of the AAS makes a number of services available to students annually. These include unlimited access to certain PVTA bus lines with your Amherst College ID card, copies of The New York Times and Wall Street Journal in the dining hall and the use of three AAS vehicles. As treasurer last year, I also introduced the issuance of a semesterly subsidy to the Queer Resource Center, the Multicultural Resource Center and the Women’s and Gender Center, all of which are woefully underfunded. This subsidy will continue to be issued this academic year in order to help these centers continue to provide excellent and necessary programming to students.

At the end of the day, it is our job to work to better student life here at Amherst. While this is not always easy or straightforward,

we rely on communication with students to keep our dialogue with the administration relevant and productive. We are here to help you! Senate meets Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. in the Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall. Our meetings are always open to students and the general public, and we encourage you to attend. We would love to hear from you, whether in the Red Room or in an individual meeting.

Elections for eight senate positions for the Class of 2021 are coming up. A speech night will be hosted for the candidates on Thursday, September 21st at 7:30 p.m., and elections will take place on Friday, Sept. 22.

I encourage all interested first years to run for office.

If you are looking for a campus resource or just want to chat with an upperclassman, please feel free to reach out to me or any other senator.

Once again, welcome to Amherst! We are so excited you are here.

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Drew Kiley Jingwen Zhang Managing News Shawna Chen Assistant News Editor Emma Swislow Managing Opinion Kelly Chian, Spencer Quong Managing Arts and Living Julia Pretsfelder, Paola Garcia-Prieto, Alida Mitau Managing Sports Nate Quigley Managing Design Justin Barry S TA F F Head Publisher Emily Ratte Mark Nathin Design Editors Zehra Madhavan, Isabel Park, Zavi Sheldon, Sivian Yu

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The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

Opinion

5

If I May: The Peculiar State of Men’s Pro Tennis Jake May ’19 Columnist The state of men’s tennis today is, in a word, bizarre. For most of the season, the No. 1 player in the world was Andy Murray. This year, Murray won just one tournament (the Dubai Open in February). In the four Grand Slam tournaments, he failed to make it to a single final and lost before the quarterfinals in all but the French Open.

He didn’t even play in the U.S. Open, the year’s final Grand Slam. This made for an interesting dynamic, since the top player in the world was rarely considered a favorite in any of the biggest tournaments. Now, rightfully so, Murray is no longer the No. 1-ranked player.

Adding to the confusion was the ever-perplexing Novak Djokovic. From 2011 until 2016, Djokovic essentially dominated the men’s game.

In that time, he won 11 Grand Slam tournaments to make for a total of 12. In 2015, he made all four Grand Slam finals, winning three out of those four. Last year, he made three out of four Grand Slam finals and won two of them. While this level of dominance is not unprecedented by any means (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both reached similar heights earlier in the 2000s), it is still incredibly impressive. Then, all of a sudden, Djokovic grinded to a complete halt this year. He lost in the second round of the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, a tournament he has won six times in the past ten years. In the French Open, where he was the defending cham-

pion, Djokovic was ousted in the quarter finals in straight sets, including an 0-6 loss in the third set.

At Wimbledon, Djokovic seemed to return to form; he advanced to the quarterfinals without losing a set. However, in his quarterfinal match, he lost the first set in a tiebreak, then withdrew after dropping the first two games of the second set, citing an elbow injury. This injury kept him off the court for months, resulting in his withdrawal from the U.S. Open. Djokovic had gone from an unbeatable tennis savant to an injury-riddled and mentally broken player. His and Murray’s lack of contention in the past year’s majors left the door wide open for a new era of young players to step up and make a name for themselves.

Or so we thought. Instead, what we got was a throwback to the mid-2000s. Thirty-six-year-old Federer, enjoying a late-career revival, won the Australian Open in emphatic fashion. Rafael Nadal held court at Roland Garros, where his electric play led him to his eleventh French Open title, cementing his status as the greatest clay court player of all time. At Wimbledon, Federer played brilliant tennis to secure his eighth title.

Going into the U.S. Open, the season was straight out of 2009. In those days, it was understood that Federer or Nadal would probably win every Grand Slam tournament. Then in 2011, Djokovic threw a wrench in the works, beginning his reign as the world’s best player. Soon after, Andy Murray began to win tournaments, and

a two-man fight had become a four-man brawl.

In 2012, this brawl reached an apex as each of the four men won a Grand Slam title. However, as the 2010s wore on, Federer and Nadal began to falter, the former with age and the latter with injury. It seemed as if the torch would be passed to Djokovic and Murray. For about a year, this seemed to be the case. In 2015 and 2016, neither Federer nor Nadal won a Grand Slam. The torch had been passed.

Except it hadn’t been, apparently. Right now, neither Murray nor Djokovic, the supposed torch-bearers, have won a Grand Slam title. Their losses have been in dramatic, and at times downright embarrassing, fashion. Not only that, both men did not even participate in all four tournaments. However, it is not as if the torch was dropped mid-pass and a legion of youngsters or glossed-over veterans have swooped in to claim their Grand Slam titles. Rather, Nadal and Federer snatched the torch back, playing the marvelous tennis that we had seen in the mid-2000s.

The fall U.S. Open arrived with the anticipation of a potential Federer-Nadal semifinal match. The two tennis titans had never met in the U.S. Open. The number one ranking would be on the line, and the winner would almost certainly go on to be the eventual U.S. Open champion.

We had seen a thrilling Federer-Nadal matchup in the Australian Open earlier this season, where Federer was victorious in five sets, but this match felt more important, as it was the culmination of the duo’s torch-snatching, statement-making

season. This match was how the 2017 season was supposed to end.

Except the meeting never happened. The peculiarity of the 2017 season struck again. In an ironic twist of fate, Roger Federer was ousted in the quarterfinals by Juan Martin Del Potro, the only person other than Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray to win a Men’s Grand Slam tournament 2006 to 2013. He had nearly withdrawn from his fourth-round match due to illness, only to rally from two sets down and win. The U.S. Open was the epitome of the 2017 season: just when you think you have it all figured out, the tennis gods throw another wrench in the works.

What a lovely story it would be for the aging Del Potro to come back from such adversity and capture his second U.S. Open title. Apparently, it was a story Nadal had no interest in, as he easily dispatched Del Potro in the semifinals. Nadal went on to defeat South African Kevin Anderson in straight sets and win the U.S. Open, capping a year in which he and Federer took all four Grand Slam titles.

This is a perplexing but exciting time for the men’s tennis world. There are so many questions regarding the future: will Djokovic and Murray put this failure behind them and come back with a vengeance in 2018? When will Federer’s age get to him? For how long can Nadal continue to win French Open titles? When will the next heirs to the torch announce themselves? This season has shown that there is no way to predict the answers to these questions.

Why We’re Here: The American Dream and the “Other” Nisan Sele ’21 Contributing Writer President Donald Trump’s recent decision to end DACA seems to show, above anything else, that he and those around him struggle to understand the perspective of those whose lives they are drastically changing. Empathy can be difficult, especially if the other person’s life seems too far away and separated from one’s own. Some feel as if immigrants are “other:” different people who share nothing in common with ordinary Americans.

Today’s political situation does not help either: immigrants are depicted as terrorists and criminals rather than as people.

I am a new international student from Turkey, just barely setting out on a long journey of confusion, learning and hopefully adjustment. Being so away from home and not having the convenience of switching back to my mother tongue whenever I need that extra emotion and connotation of a particular Turkish word still feels odd in my mind.

All of this and so much more makes me feel connected to the “others” whom the Trump administration affect. With the hope that establishing some empathy might help in the days to come, I feel that I must try to make these “others” seem closer to and more like everyone else.

There is only one thing you would follow across the world: the hope you will have a better life, even if it means leaving your family and your home forever. It’s a tricky thing, this hope: it makes your goal seem right around the corner, over the horizon or one more action away. However, if you come from a place where what’s been presented to you is not enough, where you could never flourish, where you could not accept who you are or survive another month, you must follow hope where it leads you.

The choice to do so comes with consequences, both predictable and unforeseen.

Whether through a legal visa process as an international student or a midnight car ride across the border of an unknown land, such a change is a huge weight to carry upon one’s shoulders. Every moment that I experience here is another reminder of what I’ve left behind. It’s hard to adjust to a completely new place, a completely new culture, new people,

new climate and new ideologies. Even if the language is not a new one, getting used to different connotations takes a lot of time. Some things that were evident to others are not so obvious to me.

I worked hard to get here. My high school life was comprised mostly of studying and running around to accomplish the things I wanted to do outside of the classroom. I am sure anyone can relate to wanting something for yourself and working as hard as you possibly can to get it. That’s what many have to do every day — not just to come here, but also to stay here. When I came to this campus, I knew the real work was just about to begin. For me, that work is being a student.

However, others may have different ways of working hard, such as trying to work long hours for low wages while staying under the radar of the police.

There’s a reason so many still choose to come to the U.S., despite the odds. The “land of the free,” where the “American Dream” is a reality — those phrases are not a joke to me.

From time to time, I may seem to be annoyed by them or sarcastically mention them, but I keep believing that here, anyone has the power to change their life and possibly make the world a better place.

So, where does this image of America come from? Why do I, a person living halfway across the world who has never been here, have this image in mind?

All the people I looked up to as I was growing up were American. I used to watch cartoons featuring superheroes, and they all lived in America. Even if they were aliens, they were just as American. I would read magazines about places to visit, and New York City would be every list. Celebrities and politicians would send their children abroad for their education; American music was treated as a better form than our own.

Everything in America was better than what we could possibly have.

The media gets a bad reputation these days. However, it is what painted America as the place where someone would go if they wanted a good future, the place where you would send your child if you wanted them to have a good future.

Like many others, I am here because I believe in the same things that you do.

We believe that a place should exist on this planet where the color of your skin, your religion, your sexuality, your political alliance, your citizenship and your gender do not matter. A place people could live in peace and quiet, where one would never feel the ob-

ligation to comment on another’s way of living. A place where there’s no “other.” A place where success could be yours if you worked hard enough, even if you came from nothing.

This is the dream for everyone in this place, even though some of us were not born into it.

Author, Pulitzer Prize winner and Professor Emeritus of Political Science

WILLIAM

TAUBMAN

discusses his biography of

the last leader of the Soviet Union

MIKHAIL

GORBACHEV

with Political Science Professor

PAVEL MACHALA

Book signing and reception to follow

Thursday Septempber 14 7 p.m.

Cole Assembly Room

Converse Hall, Amherst College

Arts&Living

Photo courtesy of cdn.wccftech.com

Season 7 featured some of the shows’ most impressive special effects but faltered with odd jumps in geography and lack of continuity in character development.

Winter is Here with Irregular Pacing, Icy Gore and Plot Holes Mark Simonitis ’19 Staff Writer WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for “Game of Thrones” Season 7.

When it was first announced that the last two seasons of “Game of Thrones” would feature a reduced episode count, many were quick to draw their own conclusions. Some thought this meant showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were consolidating the show’s budget for more VFX-heavy battle sequences. Others, such as myself, believed this was a sign that the story was nearing its endgame and the show could now afford to spend its time developing a reduced number of plot lines and characters. For better or worse, it appears the first group was right.

The seventh season of the hit HBO series is loud, exciting and visually incredible. Zombie hordes charge across frozen lakes and dragons set Westeros on fire, putting this likely consolidated budget to good use. Yet, the season’s story seems entirely unfit for only seven episodes, leading to questionable story choices and a sense of barreling towards the finish line.

Let’s begin with the positive aspects of this season. First and foremost, the two main battle sequences featured this season are ambitious and absolutely jaw-dropping. While the lake battle in “Beyond the Wall” may have featured some questionable story choices (more on that later), it is still entertaining to see several beloved characters take on the army of the dead, especially when it culminates in the death and resurrection of Daenarys’ dragon Viserion. That said, the battle featured in “Spoils of War” goes beyond entertainment, possessing an almost historical gravitas through the fulfillment of the seasons’ old promises of a Westerosi army meeting the Dothraki horde in the open field and Daenerys riding Drogon into battle. Through excellent cinematography, suitably epic scoring, and most importantly, sympathizing with both sides of the battle, the Loot Train Battle (what a bad name, can we all agree to call it “Field of Fire 2.0” instead?) joins Hardhome and Blackwater as one of the best battles of

the show.

This battle is so compelling because the viewer struggles to pick a side. Bronn and Jaimie are both audience favorites and ensemble dark horses, leading us to genuinely fear for their safety as they face Daenerys, one of the most beloved characters on the show. This is a prime example of a strength that carries over from Season 6 — new character dynamics and encounters. After so many years of following these characters through separate plot lines, it’s a joy to see the people that we’ve come to know so well interact with each other for the first time, even if they interact from opposite ends of the battlefield.

Perhaps the most anticipated of these first-time meetings was the long-awaited encounter between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Their encounter in “The Queen’s Justice” proves once again where the show’s true strength lies as the show runners allotted these two rulers ten minutes to meet, size each other up, verbally spar and begin to form a bond of mutual respect and admiration. In turn, this led to some of the best performances we’ve seen from both Emilia Clarke and Kit Harrington as they played to their natural strengths of facial expressions and impassioned speeches, respectively. As admiration and respect bloomed into love and trust, their natural chemistry made the whole thing believable and touching, concluding with one of the most intimate sex scenes in the show. You could almost forget that Daenerys is actually Jon’s aunt.

The season concluded with “The Wolf and the Dragon,” in which the opening dragonpit summit featured almost every major character on the show, with long awaited reunions and brand new encounters galore. It was fascinating to watch Daenerys and Cersei size each other up, to see the reunion of Tyrion, Podrick and Bron, and to watch Pycelle seemingly fall in love at first sight with the undead prisoner. This was our first major interaction between the show’s two major plotlines: the politics of King’s Landing and the undead threat from beyond the Wall, and it was great to see political-based characters such as Jaime and Euron react to this new

force that seems capable of reducing all their efforts to nothing.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t address some of the other excellent performances this season.

While Tyrion spent last season, and most of this one, languishing as a supporting character in Daenerys’s story, he finally got a few chances to shine once again this season. Peter Dinklage showed us once again that he more than deserves his Emmy for this role, getting to do some truly great work in scenes opposite his siblings on the show. Lena Headey and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau also showed their worth this season as Jaime and Cersei clashed with Tyrion and with each other until their relationship finally fell apart.

The unfortunate thing is that these great scenes were few and far between this season.

For every exploration of Jaimie and Cersei or Jon and Daenerys, there were five scenes that were focused on hurrying the plot along. Perhaps due to the shortened episode count, the show seems to have completely lost the character-plot balance that it maintained for the first six seasons. It feels like the characters are rushing to get the plot moving until the next action set piece, moving at a breakneck pace that risks leaving viewers scratching their heads and wondering what happened.

To make matters even worse, this season’s plot, upon reflection, didn’t hold up.

Now, throughout the season’s run, there were numerous complaints that the show was skipping over travel times, with characters crossing hundreds of miles between scenes.

I personally did not have a major problem with this and could accept that the characters had an uneventful journey. What I could not accept without complaint was the logistics of sending ravens or moving armies across continents under tight time constraints. Some might say that we should simply accept the fact that it’s a TV show and move on, but “Game of Thrones” had generally been fastidious about such details. Back in Season 1, the Northern army had to find a way to cross a continent and enter the south, starting a chain of events that would lead to the Red Wedding. Arya’s storyline in Season 4 concerned the difficulties of crossing on war-

torn country.

For a show with an introduction sequence featuring a map, it’s concerning that “Thrones” seems to be struggling with geography.

Even if you want to ignore logistics and say that they don’t matter if it’s entertaining, there are far greater questions within this season’s plot. Would there be any danger of a White Walker invasion if Jon Snow hadn’t led an expedition beyond the Wall and given the Night King a dragon? How did a war-ravaged Lannister army manage to take Highgarden, a pristine fortress manned by an army that had been untouched by the war, even with the defection of some of the Reach lords?

What happened to the Dornish army after Ellaria was imprisoned? There are no satisfying answers to these questions.

Of course, I have to bring up the disaster that was the Winterfell plot. Who would have thought that the reunion of three Stark siblings would ever be the weak point of a season? While the rest of this season felt rushed, this storyline was inexplicably slow. Littlefinger’s death was inevitable and satisfying, but there is no good reason that it did not happen the episode after the all-seeing Bran returned to the castle. Instead, we got more of Littlefinger creeping in the shadows as Arya reverted to her “No One” personality, which I could have sworn she had rejected at the end of Season 6. The Winterfell crew, it seems, were left simply dragging their feet as they waited for the rest of the plot to catch up.

Don’t let these past few paragraphs fool you. Even a sub-par season of Game of Thrones is still great television. I am still a fan of the show and have long ago made my peace with the fact that it is now entirely separate from George R. R. Martin’s books.

In fact, I even think that this season was an improvement over Seasons 5 and 6. I just struggle with the fact that the show seems to mostly be rushing through the character moments that put “Thrones” on the map. I love seeing dragons burning things as much as the next guy, but “Game of Thrones” continues to go down a path with which I’m not entirely happy.

The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

Arts & Living 7

The Five Best Free Apps to Maintain Healthy Habits this Semester Graphic by Justin Barry ’18

Plant Nanny, Walkr, Strava, Calm, and Spotify are some of the many apps that can help with developing and maintaining mental, physical and emotional health.

Olivia Luntz ’21 Contributing Writer

from reaching my goal everyday and seeing my plant grow keeps me chugging good old water.

Returning to school after a relaxing summer break is hard, and it can be easy to let the healthy practices you developed over the summer fall to the wayside once you’re back on campus. That’s where your phone comes in to save the day. With engaging graphics and daily challenges, these apps may feel like games but they can make a huge difference in encouraging you to keep healthy habits and maybe even avoid the next campus wide cold.

Walkr: To help you reach your 10,000 steps a day.

Jump onto the Walkr spaceship and prepare to explore an extraordinary universe, complete with over 100 planets like “Sushi Mountain,” “Soccer Sphere” and “Botanical Garden.” The Walkr spaceship isn’t powered by fuel, however, but rather your steps. The more steps you take every day, the further you can venture into the cosmos, so you can use your daily pilgrimage to class to help you catch ’em all!

Made by the makers of Plant Nanny, this app is another favorite of mine because of the whimsical and detailed graphics of the planets you can discover. Also, knowing that I’m only 100 steps away from discovering a new planet has me choosing the stairs over the elevator more often than not.

Plant Nanny: To help you drink more water and less coffee.

This app is a personal favorite of mine, as I love plants (but can never keep them alive) and also never drink enough water. The premise of this app is simple: plant yourself a floral friend and every time you drink a glass of water your plant gets some water as well. Set a goal for how much water you want to drink and watch as your plant grows and blooms until it’s ready to be put in your virtual garden. But beware, if you don’t drink enough water your plant will start to wilt and die. Drinking enough water is essential to many aspects of your health, but it can be hard to make yourself drink water when presented with the plethora of sodas, juices and teas at Val. However, the satisfaction I get

Strava: For the future Boston Marathon or Tour de France participant.

Strava instantly turns your phone into the world’s most advanced pedometer. Just press record when you hit the trail and Strava will tell you the distance of your ride or run, your current and average speed, elevation gained and total time. By using Strava every time you ride or run, you can easily track your progress

over time and set goals for yourself on the app. Strava will also create an interactive map of your workout that you can refer to later or even share with friends to create some friendly competition. I’m a big bike rider and appreciate Strava for its easy-to-use interface and how simple it makes it to challenge yourself to either go faster or further on your next ride. All the data is right at your fingertips. Encouraging yourself to exercise more is not only obviously great for your physical health, it can also make a huge difference in your mental health as well, so next time you’re feeling overwhelmed go try and beat your best speed!

Calm: For when you need to chill out.

The app opens by instructing you to take a deep breath. From there you can choose a goal with which you’d like the app to help you with, with options including reducing stress, sleeping better, increasing happiness and reducing anxiety. There are music tracks within the app to help you relax and “sleep stories” specifically designed to make falling asleep easier. However, the main feature of the app is the guided meditations, which include audio and images to help calm your nerves before that big test or performance. Taking care of your mental health is just as important as caring for your physical health, and the stress of starting a new school year can be intense. Taking some time

to de-stress is beneficial to your emotional health, but it can be hard to know exactly how to do it ­­­— we aren’t exactly born with the skills to meditate. Thankfully, this app is here to make de-stressing as relaxing as possible.

Spotify: The music app that does more.

OK, here’s one you probably already have on your phone, but Spotify is good for a lot more than just listening to your favorite musicians.

I’m a big fan of Spotify, and I always enjoy discovering new features that make the app even better. For example, I love using the Spotify Running feature, which tracks how fast you are running and plays a song that matches your tempo according to the genre you’ve selected.

Along with this, Spotify has dozens of premade workout playlists for everything from biking to weightlifting. However, my favorite under-the-radar feature is the treasure trove of “chill” playlists on Spotify that are perfect for listening to when relaxing and also help me calm down when studying for a big test or writing an important essay.

Next time you get out your phone, instead of using it to check Instagram, use it to help you take care of your mental and physical health.

Whether you want to drink more water, exercise more or relieve some stress: there’s an app for that!

“War for the Planet of the Apes” Pictures a Post-Human World

Photo courtesy of it.wikipedia.org

Andy Serkis, starring as Caesar, and Woody Harrelson, the colonel, play the main characters at war with each other for control of the planet.

Youngkwang Shin ’19 Staff Writer Every three years or so, the world’s greatest invisible actor Andy Serkis decides over morning coffee that the time is ripe to once more pretend that he is an ape. He then contacts director Matt Reeves, and a secret monastic order of computer wizards aid him in his quest.

Critics and audience unite in their marvel at Hollywood’s thickening silver screen spellbook and the quiet brilliance of the man behind the monkey. Then, they forget Serkis and his associates, with nary a faux-obituary at the unfailingly disappointing Academy Awards.

To be sure, when “Dawn” rolled in after “Rise,” people unarchived their collective memory about how the original film deftly mapped human emotion on an ape’s face, how it skillfully grafted mainstream sensibility unto intellectual ambition, and carved out its transient niche as the thinking primate’s blockbuster. The third entry, “War,” seems inbound for a similar critical reception, but if the box office records are any indication, it faces diminishing returns. It is an understandable pity. On the one hand, “War” arrives in theaters almost six years after the first installment, and dips its opposable toes in an overflow of reimagined 20th-century intellectual properties that simply did not exist in the innocent year of 2011. What’s more, with Marvel’s

model of labyrinthine continuity that weaves tens of box office champions and Netflix experiments into a profitable knot, the ape trilogy’s classical one-two-three comes off as rote. On the other hand, the “Apes” movies make the absolute most out of the familiar three-film structure, and the newest iteration delivers a thematically resonant conclusion to Caesar’s story, consciously elevating itself as a founding myth of the new ape world, only to dismantle itself with its details in order to pose its — our — enduring questions.

“War” begins amidst the overgrown foliage of the new world, from the eyes of human survivors. Apes loiter in the distance, constantly remote and other. This particular opening is especially jarring because these survivors are dressed in military field gear and point automatic rifles.

Surely enough, the movie segues into a scene of slaughter. This is the war that has dawned, the film assures: a clash of civilizations, between ape and man. And as Caesar enters the foray to examine the decimated ranks of his people, we are once more assured of the side we are to take. Yes, these humans, with their eyes full of fright aiming their guns full of lead, have lost their way and minds. Whatever humanity is left on this planet, it lies with the apes. The conviction only hardens and heats when Woody Harrelson’s fearsome Colonel makes his presence known. Here stands and rules a reactionary, followed by his army of skinheads. When he lashes out against the apes

and all but proclaims the fourteen words for human purity, the Colonel recalls the worst of us and our times, and we reflexively hope for Caesar to cross his Rubicon and upend the remains of the republic. As much as the film drapes an ape over the human, the movie places the human underneath the ape, and has us see through their eyes, think their thoughts, believe their mythology. From this perspective, we remember the “Apes” movies of the past and foresee the story’s future.

It is the scene at the very end of the first “Planet of the Apes,” where Charlton Heston’s stranded astronaut realizes the strange land he has found is actually home. He sees the ruins of the Statue of Liberty and falls to his knees, wailing and pounding the guiltless sand, god-damning it all to hell. The image is piteous in its own movie, but here, it gives hope of the apes’ — our — eventual victory. With such hope, one plucks a handful of popcorn, anticipating a war to be assuredly waged and assuredly won, a war for the planet of the apes.

This could have been it for the “Ape” trilogy: an extravagant spectacle of blood and beliefs that celebrates uncomplicated loyalty to the values that we can all assume we have and the Colonel does not. But “War for the Planet of the Apes” stands out because of its drive to do more. The opening skirmish between soldiers and soldierapes misdirects the movie’s audience. The rest of the film reneges on the simple promises of its marketing. In the process, it commits several small mistakes in pacing. A particularly egregious one involves flowers, in which a character reveals a first hint of personality in three movies only to be retired in the subsequent scene. But even as it stumbles over its obstacles, “War” runs, and runs with flair. And as it approaches its finish line, the definition of the “War” becomes increasingly unstable. What began as Caesar’s war to conquer the Colonel’s Canaan is rearranged and reinterpreted as a war against bondage. In the process, Caesar grows from leader to loner, Joshua to Moses. The war is not for the planet.

It is for Caesar’s heart. This is the most profound twist of the film, and what takes the film to such admirable heights. The dramatic drive

of these movies is that these monkeys, gorillas and orangutans are becoming smarter than we.

“War” challenges that drive, and exposes the horror that is greater still: Why are we afraid of them?

So this is the film’s Egypt: the history of a dead civilization that during its turn constantly lionized the mind over the heart. And over this Egypt, no Pharaoh can preside. Harrelson turns in a powerful performance that beat for beat matches Serkis’. Their conversation in the middle of the film is perhaps the most accomplished scene in the trilogy, if not the most revealing about the thematic and narrative conceits of this series. But the secret behind that power is pathos.

If Caesar is that biblical savior, the Colonel is the Greek hero, doomed by hubris. Yet that hubris is not his; it is a family heirloom, passed on from the Stone Age to now, when everything once more returns to stone. And in that long, short span of time, is it even possible that the Colonel is the only villain who did not let the people go? This is the character-touch that completes the demolition of expectations; by the film’s end, the audience rooting for Caesar is made to know that their feet don’t look like hands.

It is not to say the film completely shuns myth. As much as Caesar is Moses, the conclusion of the film plays like the final chapter of Deuteronomy, and there are Christ images littered throughout the film’s runtime. Unsurprising, “War,” along with the two previous installments, is a film about the past. The past that Charlton Heston missed: the story of how ours became the planet of the apes. The past where that movie and its sequels became pop culture icons, touching upon the ancient terror of replacement with varying degrees of grace. The past, of countless movies, books and comics now being remade and rebooted, affirming our unspoken need for repeated and reinterpreted stories that speak to the now and soon and later. “War” counts itself consciously and proudly among these stories, and for however long it might stay in our minds this time around, it impresses as perhaps one of the most accomplished, and without doubt one of the most satisfying, finales to a blockbuster series of all time.

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

Kesha Returns After Dramatic Trial with an Inspiring Message ful. “Sometimes I pray for you at night, Someday, maybe you’ll see the light,” she sings. “Oh, some say, in life, you’re gonna get what you give/ But some things only God can forgive.”

Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

Photo courtesy of amber-spotlights.blogspot.com

Kesha’s new music varies in style, with some songs such as “Boogie Feet” being reminiscent of her old sound, leans toward a country/folk vibe.

Paola Garcia-Prieto ’18 & Alina Burke ‘17 Managing Arts and Living Editor and Contributing Writer Five years after her second album “Warrior” was produced, Kesha, now going by her birth name instead of the stage name Ke$ha, released her album “Rainbow.” At the age of 30, the pop star, known for her 2009 hit song “Tik Tok,” produced this heartfelt comeback album, an homage to her triumph over the trauma she faced during her career. For the last five years, Kesha has fought for creative control of her music and sued her longtime producer, Dr. Luke (who discovered her when she was 17 and convinced her to drop out of high school to pursue music), for “sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, civil harassment, violation of California’s unfair business laws, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent retention and supervision,” according to the New York Supreme Court. Her fans rallied behind her during this extended legal battle, and #FreeKesha was trending on social media for weeks. The details of the case are quite complicated, and ultimately the judge decided that her allegations of rape were true but that the five-year statute of limitations had passed, and she was not allowed to leave her contract with Dr. Luke under Sony Studios. During these years, Kesha communicated openly with her fans through social media and shared her experience of going to rehab to recover from her eating disorder. She claims that she was offered freedom from her contract if she retracted the rape allegation and publicly apologized for lying, which she spoke out against on social media.

While the lawsuit prevented her from producing music, it did not stop her from writing it. She took on some side projects during this time, including joining a country music/classic rock band called “Yeast Infection.” Then, out of nowhere in mid-July, she announced the release of her single “Praying” and the news and excitement for her new album spread over the internet. On Aug. 11, “Rainbow” was released, and it has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 100. Most songs on the album are wildly different from her original music, which was electronic pop.

The album contains a variety of styles, including folk, country and pop, while sending a powerful message about rising above trauma and selfempowerment as a woman. If space allowed, we would talk about every song on this album, but here are some of our favorites grouped by style and message.

“Rainbow”: “Rainbow” is the first song Kesha recorded since her last album as well as the title song of the album. It was recorded and produced by her friend and alt-rock star pianist and singer Ben Folds. The song clearly means a lot to Kesha and has helped her get through these difficult past 5 years. For her, rainbows symbolize hope and the ability to overcome. The first line of the song is, “I used to live in the darkness/ Dress in black, act so heartless/ But now I see that colors are everything.” Instead of becoming jaded and letting what she’s gone through get the best of her, she learns to let go and see beauty in the world in spite of the people who have hurt her. In “Rainbow,” Kesha comes into her own vocally. She sounds strong, bright and beautiful, and her voice seems to soar high when

she ad-libs over a sweet orchestral background.

The music video for “Rainbow” is a live video of the recording session for the song. It is intimate, as Kesha surrounds herself with fellow musicians and friends, and it’s clear that there’s nothing fake or exaggerated about it. It’s just Kesha working through her own problems and being an inspiration to girls with similar struggles.

What I love about this song as a triumphant recovery song is that there are moments where she speaks directly to her fans, saying that she found a way out of the darkness and they can too. The love Kesha has for her fans — particularly her LGBTQ+ fans because rainbows are unignorably part of gay culture — ­ is beautiful and meaningful in a way that’s hard to match.

She has repeatedly thanked her fans for sticking it out with her, and with this new album, there has been a huge pay-off.

“Bastards” and “Woman”: “Bastards,” the opening number of the album, has the acoustics of a folksy ballad but the lyrics of a vengeful song, “I got too many people I got left to prove wrong/ All those motherf---ers been too mean for too long.” Her mellow voice croons over all the curse words in the book, imploring the listener not to let negative people get the best of them.

It sets an important tone for the rest of the album, where she addresses the people who have wronged her but does not let anger take over, “They won’t break my spirit/I won’t let ’em win,” she sings. Along with “Rainbow,” it’s the kind of song you embrace most when the world seems determined to drag you down. On its flip side is “Woman,” my personal favorite on this album.

Featuring The Dap-Kings playing the horns, this high-energy song is an inspirational anthem for millennial women. Kesha reminds us, and herself, that everything she has is earned and she doesn’t need a man to tell her she’s worth something: “Don’t buy me a drink, don’t make my money, don’t touch my weed, don’t call me honey.” Reminiscent of her old style, “Woman” is the type of song whose lyrics you can’t not scream at the top of your lungs when driving with your girlfriends.

“Hymn” and “Praying”: After an upbeat feminist chant, Kesha winds down again with her next track, “Hymn.” Following a rhythmic finger-snapping beat, she sings about being young and carefree in the face of adversity.

Like “Woman,” “Hymn” feels like a message of solidarity for her millennial fan base: “This is a hymn for the hymn-less, kids with no religion, yeah we keep on sinning but yeah we keep on singing.” This could also be interpreted as a message to LGBTQ+ youth, a group she has been a strong advocate for throughout her career, who are often rejected from religious spaces. Either way, this song establishes what religion means to Kesha before moving on to her next religious themed song, “Praying.” This was the first single released and has been on the radio for several weeks now. The ballad reads like a direct message to Dr. Luke, telling him that she hopes he finds peace and becomes a better person while she moves on. It’s an extremely powerful song with chilling instrumentals and angelic backup singers. However, it’s the type of single that’s better in the context of the whole album. Listening to Kesha describe working through her pain in “Bastards,” “Let ’Em Talk” and “Rainbow” makes her message in “Praying” more impact-

“Hunt You Down” and “Boots”: “Hunt You Down,” the ninth song of the album, is the best example of Kesha’s shift in genre due to its decidedly old-school country feel. She even uses the phrase “Yodel-odel-oh,” to show you just how country it gets. By threatening to hunt down her lover if he strays, Kesha claims the same kind of agency that Miranda Lambert, The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood did in “Before He Cheats.” The song, like many others in her album, is aggressive in a purely feminine, down-to-earth way. She sings about her love but warns us that she has power and she will not be taken advantage of. “Boots” is another twisted love song, although its edge comes from musical rather than lyrical elements. She sings about how great this guy makes her feel, but underneath the words is this creepy, repeated sequence of notes. In the chorus there is nothing but her voice and the haunting melody underneath it on guitar. The verses give the feeling of being lost in a crowd, like you’re at a club and can’t find anyone you know. Something does not sound quite right about this love song, and it sends a similar message about the dangers of love as the one in “Hunt You Down.” Compared to Kesha’s earlier work, which tends to speak more superficially about people and feelings, the love songs in “Rainbow” provide a much more sophisticated look at the complexity of romantic relationships.

“Old Flames Can’t Hold You Down” (feat.

Dolly Parton) and “Godzilla”: Kesha wrote every single song on this album excepts for these two, which were written by her mother Pebe

Sebert, a professional songwriter. Nine years before Kesha was born, Sebert co-wrote Dolly Parton’s 1978 hit single, “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You.” Almost 40 years later, Kesha sings her mother’s song with Dolly Parton on her album as a tribute to their close relationship.

Pebe also wrote “Godzilla,” a very cute ballad describing what it would be like to date Godzilla. The wistful tune is guaranteed to make you smile as she describes what would happen when you introduced Godzilla to your mom.

“Rainbow” is such a successful comeback album because Kesha emphasizes letting go. She does not hold on to any of the hate people have shown her. Even the song most directly targeting her abuser is about how she’s become a better person and she hopes he will too; she does not get angry or want revenge. Kesha also has fun with the album. There are so many energetic, upbeat tunes on this album — it isn’t all doom and gloom, as one might predict. It seems that after all the drama we’ve seen and all the scars she’s received, Kesha shares a happy ending with her listeners. With “Rainbow,” Kesha takes all she has learned and all that made her a better person and passes it on to us. Simultaneously, she maintains a sense of fun and lightheartedness. I never expected that I would like a Kesha album this much, but Kesha has made spectacular art by sharing her experience and letting go of the past. At a time in which people become obsessed with every little thing others do to harm them, Kesha’s new music is a refreshing break from the norm. We also, perhaps for the first time, get to witness Kesha’s lyrical genius. As she says in the album’s outro, “I’m nothing more than recycled stardust and borrowed energy, born from a rock, spinning in the aether.”

Cable TV @ Amherst The College is considering changing how it provides television programming to the campus, and we need your feedback! On September 20, you will receive an email with a link to a survey. Your feedback by October 4 could impact the future of television programming at Amherst College for many years ahead.

We will host information tables to answer any questions at the Val Foyer on September 14, 18, and 20 during lunch.

Amherst College IT • 413-542-2526 • AskIT@amherst.edu

The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

Sports 9

Men’s Cross Country Tallies Near-Perfect Score to Open Season

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Amherst showcased its depth this weekend, taking five of the top six spots.

Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer In their first race since placing 12th at the NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships last year, the Mammoths dominated at the Smith Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 9. Amherst won with a near-perfect score of 17, while Franklin Pierce, a Division II school, finished a distant second with 50 points.

Unlike most college cross-country races,

the Smith Invitational was contested at the 5k, rather than the usual 8k, distance.

To open their season, the team started at a pre-determined tempo pace, decided by the condition they displayed in recent workouts.

In the second mile, the harriers were instructed to run ten seconds faster than their first mile before going all out in the final mile.

Clark Ricciardelli ’20E led the Mammoths in his cross-country debut, winning the race by five seconds with a time of 16:13 on the hilly Smith College course. Tucker Meijer ’19

followed him in second with a time of 16:18, displaying the fitness he gained with a solid summer of training.

Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20 finished in third with a time of 16:24. Seniors Jack Wesley and Justin Barry then claimed fifth and sixth place, respectively. Both crossed the finish line in a time of 16:50.

In his first college race, Jamie Mazzola ’21 covered the course in a time of 16:51 to place seventh, while fellow first-years Billy Massey and Braxton Schuldt followed their classmate in eighth and 10th place, respectively.

Chris Stone ’20 placed 14th with a time of 17:09, while Jacob Silverman ’19 placed 16th with a time of 17:10.

Estevan Velez ’20 and Aaron Zambrano ’18 rounded out the Amherst competitors in the race, placing 21st and 28th, respectively.

Even more impressive, the Mammoths did not race top runners Mohamed Hussein ’18, Cosmo Brossy ’19 and Kristian Sogaard ’19 due to illness or injury.

All three, who expect to compete at the Williams Purple Valley Invitational in two weeks, raced at nationals last season as part of the team’s top-seven.

Amherst will take the weekend of Sept.

16-17 off before competing again on Saturday, Sept. 23, when Amherst will travel to archrival Williams to compete at the Purple Valley Invitational.

The meet will feature top competition from the New England region, and the Mammoths will seek to regain their title from the meet, as they last won the invitational in 2015 and

placed fourth in 2016. Additionally, the past two years, the Ephs have won the NESCAC Championship and Amherst has placed second, adding to the already fierce rivalry between the Little III and NESCAC rivals.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

First-year Bill Massey impressed in his Amherst debut, claiming eighth overall with a time of 16:51.8.

Women’s Golf Places Third in First Women’s Soccer Shuts Down Tournament of Fall Campaign Mount Holyoke and Bowdoin Connor Haugh ’21 Staff Writer Careening a well-driven ball towards the first hole just as the downpour relented to allow the tournament to begin, Morgan Yurosek ’20 began the season for Amherst women’s golf at the St. Lawrence University Invitational.

The Mammoths went on to place third out of 12 teams with a combined score of 624. That score placed them just behind NESCAC rival Middlebury, who finished second, and New York University, who took the top spot with the first- and second-place individual finishers.

The Mammoths started the weekend strong, finishing day one in second place after shooting a combined 307. Isabelle Ouyang ’21 shot a team-low 74 to move into third place in the individual competition, while Yurosek was just behind her after shooting a 4-over-par 75. Zoe Wong ’18, Jessica Jeong ’20 and Emily Young ’20 also contributed to the team’s first-day success.

On the second day of the tournament, the team failed to match their first-day scores, and Middlebury stole second place. Only Young improved upon her score, shooting a team low 77 on the day.

“I’m really happy with how the team and I

played, considering that it was our first tournament and we haven’t had much practice time together,” said Ouyang, who led the team with a two-day total of 153.

Strong performances from newcomers have characterized the women’s golf team in recent seasons. Last year, Yurosek, then a first-year herself, won her first tournament of the season. She continued to impress as the season progressed, finishing 15th overall in the NCAA DIII tournament.

Excluding the NCAA DIII tournament, in which Amherst finished ninth, the team has not finished lower than third in tournament play since the beginning of the 2016-17 season, when coach Elizabeth Davis took over the squad.

“The team had great success last year and I’m thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this young team and I’m hopeful [for the future]!” said Ouyang.

The Mammoths travel next week to Nehoiden Golf Club, one of the nation’s first golf courses, to take part in the Ann S. Batchelder Invitational hosted by Wellesley College.

Amherst hopes to build off last year’s success in that particular tournament, when Yurosek garnered individual honors and the team took home first place.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Senior captain Zoe Wong had a strong showing in the Mammoths’ first tournament, placing third on the team and 16th overall with a score of 158.

Katie Bergamesca ’18 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s soccer team opened the 2017 season with a bang, tallying a total of 11 goals in only two games. With wins against Mount Holyoke and NESCAC rival Bowdoin, their record stands at 2-0 overall (1-0 NESCAC).

On a humid Thursday night under the lights at Mount Holyoke, the Mammoths completely dominated the Lyons in the 90-minute match. By the time the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the first half, Amherst already led the home team 8-0.

Before the final minutes ticked off the clock in the second half, the Mammoths tacked on two additional goals to win their first game of the season by a 10-0 margin.

The purple and white’s first goal of the game came within the five-minute mark and was an own goal from Mount Holyoke. Firstyears Natalie Landau, Cassie Chin and Claire Nam contributed a goal each in the first 45 minutes of the match.

To round off the first-half scoring, Grace Orr ’19 notched two goals and defenderturned-striker Rubii Tamen ’19 found the back of the net off a well-placed header.

The second half of the game saw significantly less scoring, with senior standout Hannah Guzzi adding the Mammoths’ two final goals of the game.

Additionally, Guzzi, Nam, Landau and Delancey King ’18 tallied an assist each in the winning effort. The match was an uneventful one for junior goalkeeper Chelsea Cutler, who only had to make one stop.

On Saturday, Amherst then played its home opener against conference foe Bowdoin.

The match proved to be a much closer one than the earlier meeting between the Lyons and the Mammoths.

Amherst held a slight advantage in shots, taking 12 compared to the Polar Bears’ nine.

Both teams placed five shots on goal, but Bowdoin was unable to get past Cutler while Guzzi managed to beat Bowdoin goalkeeper Sabrina Albanese with a little over 20 minutes left in the game.

Guzzi and Tamen logged four shots apiece, but the team struggled somewhat to find their footing in the first half.

“We were playing a little frantically at first, but as the match wore on we managed to establish a rhythm and play our game,” King noted. “Going into the next game we know we need to bring that intensity from the start.”

The Mammoths have a busy week ahead of them with three upcoming games. On Wednesday, Sept. 13, the Amherst women host Springfield College for a non-conference match-up at 5:00 p.m.

Amherst continues NESCAC play with another home game against the Middlebury Panthers on Saturday, Sept. 16, at noon. To finish out the week, the Mammoths will travel to Boston to face Wentworth Institute of Technology at on Sunday, Sept. 17, at 2 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

Megan Root ‘19 anchored an Amherst defense that conceded zero goals in last week’s two matches.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

Volleyball Rebounds From Early Loss With Three-Game Win Streak Will Zaubler ’19 Staff Writer After dropping their first match of the season to a strong Springfield College squad, the Amherst women’s volleyball team (3-1) responded positively to win its next three matches.

Despite losing 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 17-25, 1325) in their season opener against Springfield College, the Firedogs played well on the home turf of a national powerhouse in DIII women’s volleyball. The Mammoths began the tilt strongly, winning the first set 25-20. However, after dropping an exciting and evenly contested second set, which included six lead changes, the Firedogs could not stop the Pride’s powerful hitters and ultimately lost the third and fourth sets as well.

In the second match of the season, Amherst left their opening loss behind them and bested Western New England University 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 26-24) at the Smith College Invitational.

The Firedogs’ strong showing against the Golden Bears marked the start of their three-game win streak to round out a strong first week of competition.

During tri-match action on Saturday at Emerson College’s Brown Plofker Gym, Amherst swept the competition, dominating Emerson and Colby College.

In the first match of the day, the Mammoths’ stringent defense held Emerson to under 20 points in three sets en route to a 3-1 (25-17, 2513, 19-25, 25-14) victory.

Emily Kolsky ’20 led Amherst’s attack with 12 kills and two aces. Marialexa Natsis ’18 and Daria Kim-Percy ’21 each contributed nine kills to the Firedogs’ attack, while Pearl Accord ’21 added two aces. Charlotte Duran ’20 and Adelaide Shunk ’20, meanwhile, facilitated the offense with 32 and 15 assists, respectively.

Sophomore libero Hayes Honea shouldered much of the defensive load for Amherst, posting a match-high 22 digs.

In the second match of the day, the Firedogs showed no fatigue and cruised to a 3-0 (25-20, 25-13, 25-21) victory over Colby.

Kolsky showed why coach Sue Everden felt comfortable starting the sophomore player in back-to-back games by sharing the team lead for kills (10) with Cameron Hendricks ’20 against Colby. Duran pitched in 36 assists, and Honea recorded 24 digs in the comprehensive win over Colby.

Overall, Amherst’s dominance over Emerson and Colby on Saturday was marked by both outstanding individual efforts and gritty teamwork.

“We really came together in the final match of the weekend,” senior captain Asha Walker said. “Colby had some powerful hitters, but our defense made some great plays and that allowed our offense to be a success.”

Next, the Firedogs turn their attention to yet another away match against Endicott College (2-5) on Wednesday, Sept. 13, before they finally return to Amherst for their home opener against Middlebury College (2-2) on Friday, Sept. 15.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Clark Ricciardelli ’20E Favorite Team Memory: Team dinners at Val Favorite Pro Athlete: Tom Brady Dream Job: Real estate developer Pet Peeve: When people eat their food when they’re still in line Favorite Vacation Spot: Loon Mountain, New Hampshire Something on Your Bucket List: Go to Italy Guilty Pleasure: Ice cream Favorite Food: Peanut butter and jelly Favorite Thing About Amherst: My team How He Earned It: In a weekend marked by impressive performances up and down the roster of Amherst men’s cross country, Ricciardelli’s individual efforts stood out.

Although Saturday’s race at Smith marked Ricciardelli’s first-ever cross country race for the Mammoths, he looked nothing like a rookie, outpacing the entire field en route to first place overall. Finishing the five-kilometer course in 16:13.8, Ricciardelli bested the second-place finisher, teammate Tucker Meiher, by nearly five seconds, an auspicious start to the season for the sophomore.

Elizabeth Turnbull ’18 Favorite Team Memory: Beating Tufts in double overtime last year Favorite Pro Athlete: Paige Selenski Dream Job: Actress Pet Peeve: Careless walkers and people who chew with their mouth open Favorite Vacation Spot: Cape Cod Something on Your Bucket List: Learn sign language Guilty Pleasure: Certain reality TV shows Favorite Food: All things chocolate Favorite Thing About Amherst: The people How She Earned It: Turnbull spearheaded Amherst field hockey’s offensive efforts this past week, tallying four goals and an assist for a team-leading nine points. All four of her goals came in the Mammoths’ two close games, against Mount Holyoke and Bowdoin, scoring a pair in each. Especially impressive was the fact that Turnbull currently boasts a 0.667 shooting percentage, with four goals on six shots. For her remarkable output in Amherst’s three contests, Turnbull garnered NESCAC player of the week, the first such award of the season.

Men’s Golf Claims Fifth Overall at Season-Opening Bill Deitrick Invite Mary Grace Cronin ’18 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Action Sports Media

Adelaide Shunk ‘20 dominated in Amherst’s match against Emerson, tallying 15 kills and five digs against the overwhelmed Lions.

Women’s Cross Country Easily Captures First Overall at Smith Invitational Jamie Mazola ’21 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s cross-country team started the new season strong with a firstplace finish at the Smith Invitational this past Saturday, Sept. 9.

Competing against a field comprised entirely of Massachusetts schools, Amherst dominated the race, placing five runners in the top 10 out of a field of 95 runners. The team scored 28 points, well ahead of secondplace finisher Westfield State University, who scored 83 points.

“We have been very focused during practice, and I think that translated to strong races,” Kristin Ratliff ’20, Amherst’s top finisher, said.

The hilly five-kilometer race traced a route around the trail system surrounding Smith’s campus. The course featured a difficult mix of grassy terrain and trails, and runners considered it one of the toughest courses on which they’ve competed in the past few years.

Ratliff placed second in the invitational with a time of 19:34.8.

Team captain Lela Walter ’19 (20:04.0) and Sarah Gayer ’21 (20:05.9) followed in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

First-years Haley Greene (20:11.7) and Olivia Polischeck (20:33.7) finished in seventh and 10th place, respectively, while senior captain Helen Clapp ’18 finished in 37th (22:12.1).

With three first-years in the top ten overall, the women’s team has a strong base for seasons to come.

“I’m especially proud of our freshmen women for doing so well at our first meet,” Gayer said. “I’m so excited to race with them this season and in future seasons.”

Top returners and captains Nicky Roberts ’18 and Veronica Rocco ’19 did not compete in this race, as the meet was largely a chance for other, less-established runners to showcase their ability. However, the two stalwarts are fully primed to return to action for the season’s upcoming meets.

The Mammoths continue their season on Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Purple Valley Classic, which will be hosted by rival Williams College. Last season, Amherst placed ninth in a 23-team field at the event.

This weekend, the Amherst men’s golf team traveled to Hartford, Conn., for their seasonopening tournament. The Mammoths arrived on NESCAC rival Trinity’s course to face some of New England’s toughest competition in the Bill Deitrick Invitational. After clinching sixth place in 2016, the purple and white bested their performance with a fifth-place finish to begin the 2017 season on a positive note.

While first-place Trinity seemed impenetrable, shooting an even 600, Amherst trailed third-place Western New England by only five shots with a two-day team total of 621.

A stellar second day was key to Amherst’s rise from sixth place after the first day.

“We went in with the strategy of giving guys a chance to see the course, as Trinity will be hosting the NESCAC qualifier in a few weeks,” senior captain Sam Procter noted.

“Our mindset is that we can and want to win every tournament we play in this fall, and al-

though we didn’t achieve that we still accomplished much this weekend that will benefit us going forward.”

In their first competition of the season, Amherst indeed proved their readiness, with a few noteworthy individuals faring well on the scoreboard.

“Jeff Herr [’20] played consistently well throughout the weekend,” Procter noted.

“Cole Vissicchio [’20] followed up a tough day one with a solid 75 on day two. After getting a feel for the course, Cameron Clark [’20] kept a level head after hitting his first tee shot out of bounds on the first tee and went on to shoot a team low score.”

Herr’s clutch consistency paid off and earned him a four-way tie for first place. All three of the others vying for first place were Trinity Bantams.

Next weekend, Amherst will travel to Vermont to take part in the Duke Nelson Tournament, which will be hosted by yet another NESCAC rival, this time Middlebury. They tee off on Saturday, Sept. 16.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Sophomore Jack Klein was one of five golfers Amherst sent to the Bill Dietrick Invitational, carding rounds of 82 and 86 for a total score of 168.

The Amherst Student • September 13, 2017

Sports

Men’s Soccer Bests Bowdoin 1-0 on Back of Excellent Defensive Effort

11

The Malague Minute Jack Malague ’19 Columnist In the aftermath of last week’s revelations about a Red Sox sign-stealing operation, Jack delves into the murky subject of cheating in sports. Does it matter if a team breaks the rules if such “cheating” is commonly accepted in the sport?

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Weller Hlinomaz ‘18 managed one shot on goal against the Polar Bears.

Delancey King ’18 Staff Writer The Amherst men’s soccer team kicked off its 2017 campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Bowdoin on Saturday, Sept. 9. After 90 minutes of even, physical play, it was a penalty kick awarded in the first half that allowed the Mammoths to eke out the result.

In the 24th minute, the Polar Bears were called for a handball in their own 18-yard box, and junior forward Fikayo Ajayi stepped up to take the resulting penalty kick.

Bowdoin keeper Stevie Van Siclen did not stand a chance, as Ajayi fired the shot into the lower right corner of the net to give the Mammoths a lead that they would not relinquish.

Weller Hlinomaz ’18 nearly increased Amherst’s lead to two only three minutes later, but Van Siclen came up big for the Polar Bears with an incredible kick-save. Diving in the opposite direction of Hlinomaz’s shot, Van Siclen just managed to get his foot on the ball to keep it from finding the back of the net.

The Bowdoin keeper made another huge save late in the first half, as he managed to smother a dangerous ball played into Gabe Gitler ’21.

The Mammoths were able to minimize Bowdoin’s scoring opportunities throughout the game thanks to a strong defensive effort

led by Luke Nguyen ’19 in the midfield. Nevertheless, the Polar Bears started to put Amherst under pressure in the final ten minutes of the match.

Following a quality corner from Bowdoin’s Ethan Ellsworth, Jake Stenquist found himself inside the Amherst box with the ball at his feet, but his shot sailed just over the crossbar, keeping the Amherst lead at one.

A few minutes later, Stenquist once again looked poised to score the equalizer. Getting on the end of a ball over the top, Stenquist appeared to be in alone on goal. However, senior keeper Lee Owen read the play beautifully and managed to slide tackle the ball away from Stenquist and out of bounds.

Owen made three saves for Amherst to contribute to the winning effort, and the Mammoths led the stats sheet in shots, corner kicks and fouls.

“It was a great start to the season,” said Nguyen. “Bowdoin always provides a good first test, and it was a true team win. Obviously, we still have a lot to work on, but we couldn’t have asked for a better start.”

The Mammoths return to action on Saturday, Sept. 16, when they will play NESCAC rival Middlebury at home. The Panthers are 2-1 on the season and should prove to be another solid test for coach Serpone and his team.

Kickoff is at noon.

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The New York Times revealed last Tuesday that the Boston Red Sox, in a move wholly uncharacteristic of a New England-area sports team that has enjoyed enormous success since the early 2000s and plays in a neighborhood whose name begins with the letter “F,” had been using an Apple Watch to steal opposing teams’ signs. Apparently, someone watching the game broadcast would decode the opposing catcher’s sign sequence and text the code to a trainer. He would receive the text on his nifty Apple Watch and relay the information to a player in the dugout, who would pass it on to the runner on second. The runner would then peer in, pick the sign, and give the batter a heads up. Not exactly Bletchley circle sophistication, but fairly clever.

This revived a perennial discussion surrounding the fine distinction between cheating and gamesmanship. It is clear that this argument, in baseball at least, is not resolved by Major League Baseball’s rulebook. That the Red Sox violated MLB rules, which prohibit the use of electronic devices or binoculars in an effort to steal signs, is plainly clear. Whether anybody should care about that is a more complicated question.

Consider another moment in the AL East rivalry, the Michael Pineda pine tar incident. For those who do not remember, during a game in early April 2014, Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda sported an easily visible supply of pine tar on his hand. The Red Sox let this go until Pineda’s next start against the Sox. When he went out for the second inning, Pineda put a little pine tar on his neck.

Red Sox manager John Farrell decided he had enough of Pineda’s obvious use of a foreign substance and asked home plate umpire Gerry Davis to check Pineda. Davis, who for some reason decided to examine Pineda’s hat, glove, and back before touching the obvious blotch on his neck, ejected the New York starter, leaving the Yankees to pitch by committee for the rest of the game.

This evoked knee-jerk pearl-clutching in the immediate aftermath. Pineda looked like a spitballer, a modern day Joe Niekro, who once tried nonchalantly to throw an emery board out of his back pocket while being checked by an umpire (a hilarious attempt worth a Google search).

Yet, nobody involved with the game seemed to be ethically bothered by Pineda’s use of a foreign substance. In fact, it turns out that batters actually prefer pitchers to use grip-enhancing substances during cold weather games. Apparently they feel a little better if the pitcher has some idea where his 95-mph fastball is going to end up. If you asked the average batter in mid-April whether the pitcher was using some kind of illegal grip, he would probably assume that he was. Nobody — player, coach or executive — labelled Pineda’s actions “cheating,” at least not a pernicious form of it. Many former pitchers unabashedly admitted to using pine tar as

well. Pineda’s only crime was being obvious about his rule breaking, which violated one of baseball’s myriad unwritten rules.

Compare Pineda to Rosie Ruiz, who might well be the quintessential cheater. Ruiz appeared to win the 1980 Boston Marathon, accomplishing an incredible feat that, as it turns out, is made much easier by jumping out of the crowd half a mile from the finish line. This was after she took a subway (that’s right, a subway) to shorten the course of the New York City Marathon some months earlier.

Somewhere between Pineda and Ruiz is the point at which generally tolerated rule breaking crosses into the dishonorable realm of cheating.

Deflated footballs, PED use, corked bats and the like all fall between those two points. Following the Red Sox revelation, the baseball world has struggled to place technologically-aided signstealing on the continuum of forbidden activity.

Sign-stealing itself is of course an accepted part of the game, tolerated by everyone save perhaps for Hansel Robles, who threw an impressive temper tantrum last August when he thought (incorrectly) that Mark Teixiera had stolen his signs.

The Apple Watch news is embarrassing for the Sox, especially given that they’re sponsored by Microsoft. But they have argued repeatedly that their scheme is just one of many like it in baseball, and accused the Yankees of using television cameras to purloin signals coming from the Sox bench coach.

The Yankees and the television network that covers them have denied the allegations of “you started it,” but they don’t seem too bothered by the Apple Watch strategy. C.C. Sabathia told the New York Times, “It’s baseball. It’s been going on forever. It’s up to us to protect our signs.” Others around baseball have had stronger reactions, but each opinion rendered on the subject has been based on a belief about how common, and how accepted, this method of rule breaking is. What the rulebook has to say about it is a minor concern.

Regardless, baseball fans should be furious about the Red Sox’s shenanigans. Not because they were especially effective — the team hardly performed better with a runner on second than without — but because we all had to watch Yankees catchers Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine trot out to the mound every other pitch to add an extra layer of subterfuge to their communication.

Red Sox/Yankees games took an eternity this year, and, according to these catchers, this little ciphercracking operation is a big reason why. If baseball is going to attempt to reverse its path toward unwatchable territory, the incessant mound conferences and glove whispering need to stop, and soon. Now that catchers, Sanchez especially, are predisposed to ponder endlessly over pitch selection and scouting reports, baseball should create no further need for them to make that 60-foot jog five times per at bat.

Contact nquigley19@amherst.edu to learn more.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Red Sox/Yankees rivalry, always filled with tension, has been taken to another level with the recent allegations about sign stealing.

Sports

Photos courtesy of Janna Joassainte ‘17

Captain Caroline Feeley ‘18 has been essential in the Mammoths’ three-game win streak, starting all three contests and adding an assist from the midfield.

Field Hockey Strings Together Trio of Victories Over Quality Opposition Jenny Mazzella ’20 Staff Writer After its first week in action, the Amherst field hockey team is off to a strong start. On Sept.

7, the Mammoths won their season opener, defeating Mount Holyoke by a 3-2 scoreline.

Although Mount Holyoke took an early lead in the first half of the game, captain Elizabeth Turnbull ’18 evened the match two minutes later off a corner insertion pass from midfielder Laura Schwartzman ’20.

Later in the half, Turnbull scored again off another assist from Schwartzman, securing a halftime lead for the Mammoths. Kendall Codey ’19 tallied the game-winner goal in the second half to extend Amherst’s lead to 3-1. Mount Holyoke responded with a tally of their own, but the Lyons were unable to find the tying goal.

GAME SCHE DULE

Overall, Amherst ended the game with 14 shots on goal compared to Mount Holyoke’s five, and six penalty corner opportunities compared to Mount Holyoke’s four.

The 13th-ranked Mammoths returned to the field on Saturday, Sept. 9, defeating No. 8 Bowdoin 2-1 in a huge upset that doubled as Amherst’s home opener.

The win marked the Mammoths’ first over the Polar Bears since 2013, breaking a streak of four consecutive losses to their Maine rivals.

Turnbull continued her dominant start to the season with a goal in the first half, giving Amherst an early lead. Once again, Schwartzman set her up with a beautiful penalty corner assist, her fourth of the season.

Early in the second half, Bowdoin tied the score up, and the game stayed even for the next fifteen minutes of play.

WED

FRI

SAT

Women’s Soccer vs. Springfield College, 5 p.m.

Women’s Tennis MIT Invitational

Women’s Golf

Volleyball Women’s Volleyball vs. Middlebury, 8 p.m. @ Endicott, 7 p.m.

Ann S. Batchelder Invitational @ Wellesley, TBD Men’s Golf Duke Nelson Tournament @ Middlebury, 1 p.m.

Women’s Tennis MIT Invitational

However, with 16 minutes left on the clock, Turnbull tallied her fourth goal of the season to secure the victory for Amherst, this time off an assist from Heather Brannan ’20. The Mammoths withheld a fierce Bowdoin effort to tie the game and came away with a season-defining win.

Amherst bested Bowdoin 7-5 in shots on target and 7-6 in corner opportunities. Goalie Emilie Flamme ’20 made four saves, earning her second win of the season.

“Nothing can describe the experience of working very well with your team and beating one of your biggest rivals,” Flamme said.

Amherst then closed out its eventful first week of action with a dominating 4-0 shutout of Keene State.

Once again, the Mammoths rode a strong defensive effort and timely shot-making to victory. With both defenses dominating in the first

half, the match seemed destined to go into the half tied at zero. However, Shannon Tierney ’19 scored the game’s first goal in the dying minutes of the first half to give Amherst a 1-0 going into the locker room.

Although Keene State fought hard to try and find a tying goal, the Mammoths scored the allimportant next goal, courtesy of first year Anna Agathis’s first collegiate tally. This second tally blew the game open, with Amherst adding two more goals in the final 15 minutes, including Tierney’s second tally of the game.

For her strong showings throughout the team’s three matches, including four goals and one assist, Turnbull was named NESCAC player of the week.

The team will return to action with another conference tilt against Middlebury at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, on Gooding Field at home.

SUN Field Hockey vs. Middlebury, 11 a.m.

Men’s Soccer vs. Middlebury, noon

Volleyball

Football vs. Bates, 1 p.m.

vs. St Joseph’s (ME) @ Regis College, noon Women’s Soccer vs. Middlebury, noon

Volleyball @ Regis College, 2 p.m.

Women’s Golf Ann S. Batchelder Invitational @ Wellesley, TBD Men’s Golf Duke Nelson Tournament @ Middlebury, 9 a.m.

Women’s Tennis MIT Invitational

Women’s Soccer @ Wentworth, 2 p.m.