Issue 3

Men’s Soccer Gains Pair of Important Wins See Sports, Page 9 5)& */%&1&/%&/5 /&841"1&3 0' ".)&345 $0--&(& 4*/$&

70-6.& $9-*** *446& r 8&%/&4%": 4&15&.#&3

Career Center Launches Pathways Program Provides Students with Opportunity to Find Alumni Mentors

Olivia Tarantino ’15 Photographer

Students gathered in front of Keefe Campus Center to learn about the new Pathways Student-Alumni Mentoring Program.

Noah Morton ‘17 News Section Editor On Friday, Sept. 13, Amherst’s Career Center launched the Pathways Student-Alumni Mentoring Program, a program that allows Amherst students to select alumni mentors who share their interests.

Pathways is the latest addition to the variety of resources offered by the Career Center which include help with resume building, study abroad, summer funding, and fellowship advising. However, Christina Ramos, the program director of Pathways, believes that many

students are not aware of all the opportunities available to them at the Career Center. “While I think a lot of students use our resources, many may not realize how we can help them. For example, I’d like to see freshmen and sophomores utilize our services more when thinking about majors or how to go about getting an internship,� Ramos said. “Another group that I feel also underutilizes the Career Center are students who aren’t sure what they want to do. We can help students examine their interest and translate them into possible career choices. For example, we offer Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator assessments.�

The Pathways Student-Alumni Mentoring Program provides students with a way to begin to take advantage of these resources. According to Ramos, who was hired specifically to help lead the program, the Career Center has been working closely with Alumni and Parent Programs Office in order to bring this new mentorship opportunity to students. This program is designed to provide a new opportunity to help students connect classroom experiences to the real world and prepare for career paths. Each student is allowed one mentor per mentoring term. There are three mentoring terms each year: the fall term runs from Sept.

1 to Dec. 31; the spring term runs from Feb. 1 to May 31; and the summer term runs from June 1 to Aug. 31. Students from all class years can find mentors for the fall term until Oct. 25.

However, students may create a Pathways profile at any time during the year.

Ramos believes that alumni mentors can be valuable to students. “Mentors have been in your shoes. They have taken their academic pursuits, interests, and leadership experiences and have translated them to the professional world,� Ramos said. “They are proof that a liberal arts Continued on Page 3

Campus Police Updates Surveillance Cameras Elaine Vilorio ‘17 Managing News Editor After 15 years of using the same equipment, Campus Police’ is updating its surveillance equipment to meet 21st century standards. On Monday, Sept. 16, 2013, Amherst College Police Chief John Carter sent out a school-wide e-mail announcing the enhancement of his department’s closed-circuit camera system. The new technology’s installation is projected to be completed by the middle of the fall semester.

The current surveillance system takes advantage of copper wires that directly connect its cameras to the College’s radio system. Because the wires are exposed, the risk of interference has always been an issue. Correspondingly, the current system does not have zoom-in and zoom-out features; this has proved inconvenient when attempting to identify a subject, whether it be a person or a license plate number.

The new system will be wireless with the needed enhancement features.

The current camera system had begun to show major glitches last year. When asked why Campus Police did not update its system until now, Chief Carter shared, “We’ve been using all this time to explore what other campuses are doing.�

Other campus security systems that the Campus Police ob-

served include those of Wellesley College, Brandeis Univ., and Bentley Univ. Chief Carter confirmed budgeting was never an issue. However, acquiring approval for budgeting takes a substantial amount of time, namely, six months.

As stated in the e-mail, the existing upgraded locations are The Hills Parking Lot, O’Connell Parking Lot, the College St. Railroad underpass, interior locations within Mead Art Museum and the Loading Dock at Mead Art, among other places.

The new exterior locations include the entrance to campus through East Drive, East Drive continuing south, Converse Parking Lot, the entrance to campus via South Pleasant Street to Orr Rink Lot, etc. The new exterior locations were selected so that cars are easily perceived as they enter or exit the campus. This is largely due to the fact most campus crimes are committed by outsiders. The majority of the people prosecuted for on-campus criminal activities are not Amherst students. “I’ve noticed that most crimes are committed by people who specifically target college campuses. They’re rarely Amherst College students, or five-college students for that matter,� says Chief Carter. “It’s very easy for someone to assimilate and commit a theft, especially in such an open environment.�

Most of the perpetrators travel by vehicle, hence the security focus on road-way entrances/exits.

The security system’s new interior locations comprise the

coat room at Val, the central doors to Frost and the lobby of the Athletic Center. In the last couple of years, these have been locations of increased instances of larceny. “Last year, my coat and hat were stolen in Val’s coat room so I’m happy to hear Campus Police is becoming stricter with their surveillance of the area,� said Deborah Dakshiyev ’16. “This obviously doesn’t pertain to me exclusively. I’ve heard similar stories from other students.�

In addition to new video surveillance in these areas, Campus Police has made an effort to post warning signs where relevant and patrol when necessary. In reference to the former, one is apt to find signs with the following message: “Please do not leave your stuff unsupervised, as thefts have been reported.� Future approaches include more education concerning the consequences of theft.

Chief Carter has been at Amherst for 15 years. Over the course of his career, he says he has learned that community involvement, especially at an interactive campus like that of Amherst, is crucial. His school-wide e-mail serves to give the staff and students a chance to give feedback. If Amherst College students or staff have any suggestions about the betterment of campus security, Chief Carter encourages them to direct e-mails to jbcarter@amherst.edu or phone calls to 413542-2771.

$0//&$5 50 64 ".)&345456%&/5 ".)&345 &%6 r !".)&345456%&/5 r -*,& THE AMHERST STUDENT 0/ '"$&#00,

News

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

Sept. 10 to Sept. 15, 2013

>>Sept. 10, 2013 8:19 a.m., Converse Hall An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employe.

that a window was smashed in a stairway. No one took responsibility for the damage.

Facilities was notified for repair.

>>Sept. 12, 2013 7:08 a.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory An employee reported the theft of a college-owned microwave from the first-floor common area.

2:58 a.m., Pond Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud people in the basement and quieted a gathering.

7:32 p.m., Woodside Avenue An officer responded to a complaint about loud music coming from the Pratt Field area. Nothing was found. >>Sept, 13, 2013 1:06 a.m., Crossett Dormitory An officer observed a glass bottle thrown from the building and it smashed on the sidewalk. The exact room it came from could not be identified.

5:00 p.m., Social Quad A woman reported being harassed while in the social dorm quad the previous weekend. A report was filed with the Dean’s Office.

5:12 p.m., Converse Hall An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

6:22 p.m., Churchill House An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

11:19 p.m., Garman Lot An officer on patrol encountered a young man yelling inappropriate statements. He was identified, and a report was filed with the Dean’s Office.

11:34 p.m., Plaza Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding and discovered it was activated by marijuana smoke. The room group was fined $25 each for the alarm.

11:43 p.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of what sounded like a loud movie at Wieland. No loud noise was located.

11:50 p.m., Plaza While investigating a smoke detector sounding in a room, alcohol was discovered in a room where the occupants are not of legal age. The alcohol was confiscated, and the matter was referred to the Dean’s Office. >>Sept. 14, 2013 1:39 a.m., Coolidge Dormitory Officers responded to a report

8:33 p.m., Morrow Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud music but nothing was found.

9:56 p.m., Chapman Dormitory An officer responded to a report of an offensive writing and symbol at the entrance to Chapman. After interviewing the caller, the writing was photographed, and the investigation is ongoing.

11:30 p.m., Crossett Officers responded to a report of a fight outside Crossett.

Upon their arrival, the fight was over and several males, who are students at a neighboring college, were walking away.

They were stopped and identified. After speaking with the Amherst students involved, an assault was reported, but no one wished to file an official complaint at the time. The nonstudents were issued a verbal no-trespass order, and they left campus. >>Sept. 15, 2013 12:35 a.m., Social Quad An officer observed a man urinating in the social dorm quad.

He was fined $100 for the offensive behavior.

6:37 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall A Food Service employee reported evidence of unauthorized entry into the building which resulted in some damage. Case open.

9:35 a.m., Porter House An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in a third-floor room and found it activated when a hair dryer was too close to it. The system was reset.

7:06 p.m., Waldorf-Astoria Dormitory Officers responded to a report about an offensive note left on a resident’s door. Investigation continuing.

7:20 p.m., Pond A resident reported the door to his room was seriously damaged while he was away. It is unknown who is responsible for the damage. Facilities was notified for repair.

AAS Holds First Official Schwemm’s Pub Night David Kang ’16 News Section Editor Last Thursday, AAS hosted the year’s first Pub Night at Schwemm’s Coffee House. Pub Night, which is slated to become a weekly event after two successful trial runs last year, provides Amherst students with an opportunity to socialize while those of legal drinking age can purchase alcohol.

Before last semester’s Pub Night trial runs, College students hadn’t seen school-sponsored alcohol service since 30 years ago, when the College sold beer and wine at a Fayerweather snack bar.

“I anticipate that AAS’s Pub Night will become a regular event,” says Director of Dining Services Charlie Thompson. “It’s supported by students and the administration — everyone wants it.”

According to Thompson, last week’s Pub Night was “well-received” and the students were “well-behaved.” He says he sees “no issues at this point” and doesn’t anticipate any in the future.

Of the roughly 80 people that showed up, 64 people were served a total of 81 drinks, mostly Coronas, Sam Adams, Bud Lights, and a few glasses of wine.

According to AAS President George Tepe, the academic year’s first Pub Night “was a great success; there was great social mixing between all sorts of people — people were talking to each other. There were athletes, non-athletes,

and underage people all mixing together.”

Both AAS and administration officials expressed the hope that Pub Night would create a new, mature social environment in which a variety of people can mingle.

From the viewpoint of the administration, Dean of Students Jim Larimore, who plans to attend an upcoming Pub Night, shared: “Pub Night will provide some insights into ways that alcohol can be made available to students 21 and older in venues that allow students of all ages to socialize together.”

Based on the results of the last three Pub Nights, AAS and the administration are experimenting with new ways to increase student appeal. Thompson commented that funding has been provided for kegged beer, which means an “expansion of options.” Similarly, Tepe mentioned the possibility of “local brews, Octoberfest and cheaper prices.” Pub Nights will also potentially involve events such as Trivia, similar to the casino nights that occurred last year.

Pub Night’s current lineup of alcohol consists of a small selection of beers and wines.

While the administration and AAS wish to expand said selection, Thompson indicated that hard liquor might not be readily accepted.

Hard liquors would be the “next phase of conversation,” according to Thompson. Tepe, on the other hand, responded more positively, citing hard liquor as one of the next items on the Pub Night agenda.

Pub Night is every Thursday from 9 p.m. to midnight at Schwemm’s.

PARENTS INTERESTED IN SCHOOL HAPPENINGS? WANT THEM TO READ ABOUT YOUR SPORTS SUCCESSES?

Subscribe! tell them to

subscription duration

One-semester One-year Two-years Four-years

price

(trust us, we’re worth it)

$40 $75 $140 $250

SERIOUSLY, THAT’S

0.431% OF TUITION HERE

(Maybe a better investment than Amherst College itself. Maybe.)

TO SUBSCRIBE, astudent EMAIL US @amherst.edu

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

News

Fresh Faculty: Kerry Ratigan

Political Science Professor Kerry Ratigan grew up in Natick, Massachusetts. She received her B.A. from Haverford College, where she majored in Political Science and Spanish. She completed a Master’s in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics, then went on to receive another Master’s and a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: Originally, I’m from Massachusetts. I grew up in Natick, which is about 45 minutes west of Boston, so I’m familiar mainly with eastern Mass., but I hadn’t spent much time in western Mass. until recently, so it’s nice to see this part of the state.

Q: What are your impressions of western Massachusetts so far?

A: It’s a beautiful area, a beautiful part of the country. I like doing outdoor things — camping, canoeing, and hiking — so it’s a great part of the country for that, although I haven’t had much time to do that yet. Everybody’s very friendly as well, and it’s nice to have the small town lifestyle but to have Boston and New York accessible as well.

Q: How did you begin studying political science, and why did you decide to pursue it?

A: My specialty is actually Chinese politics, and I studied political science as an undergraduate at Haverford College. I was interested particularly in the interactions between the state and society and how that impacts policymaking — social policies in particular, like healthcare, education, and the environment.

So that was always an interest of mine, although I spent much of my time taking courses on Latin American politics. Then, ten years ago, I went to China for the first time. I was looking to be challenged by going somewhere where I didn’t speak the language, and where I didn’t have as much of a support system as at other places, and I found this country that was in the midst of this incredible unprecedented economic transition and all these societal changes, but had retained many traditions. I definitely found the challenge I was looking for. I found that I was constantly puzzled and confused by what was going on, and that was a really invigorating atmosphere for me to be in. So, as a result, I was determined to learn Chinese language and incorporate Chinese politics as part of my graduate study.

Q: How does studying Chinese politics compare to studying Latin American politics?

A: There are some obstacles to studying Chinese politics that are generally not as salient in Latin America. For example, most countries in Latin America are democracies and provide relatively open access to researchers. By contrast, research activities in China are limited by law. Therefore, it can be challenging to pursue certain research questions and comply with the guidelines established by the Chinese government. As a result, collaboration with Chinese academics is crucial; the silver lining is that my Chinese colleagues have greatly enriched both my research and my understanding of China more broadly.

Q: What is your current research on, and how did you become interested in it?

A: My current research project focuses on health policy adoption and implementation. I argue that because Chinese provinces had distinct approaches to welfare policy, the provinc-

es of China actually constitute distinct welfare regimes. So we might assume that an authoritarian state has a homogenizing effect, and that you would see similar policies in different areas, but, in fact, you see really, really different policies, and different implementations, and different implementations of the same policy in different regions. So China’s not like what we would expect at all. And I examine this variation in these provincial welfare states, and how health policy is implemented differently in different areas. I also look at local perceptions of healthcare provision and how people view their healthcare and whether there’s a link between social provision and state legitimacy.

Q: Why did you decide to teach at Amherst?

A: Amherst is a fantastic place to teach. Amherst students have a great reputation for being outstanding students, very engaged and wanting to participate, and that was something that was very attractive to me. Now that I’m here, I’ve found that they’ve actually exceeded my expectations. Students have more of a background in the material than I expected, and they are not shy about participating and bringing up thoughtful, provocative comments and questions in class, so it’s been a real joy to discover that.

Q: What classes are you teaching this semester?

A: I’m teaching a course on Chinese politics, which deals mainly with the economic reform era, which is sort of the past thirty years. The course begins with a very brief review of the history of the Communist Party and the Maoist period, but really focuses on the policy challenges that are occurring in China today, which dovetail nicely with my research interests. So, looking at corruption, the environment, legal reform, social policy reform, those types of

issues. So the bulk of the semester is spent on that. I’m also teaching an upper-level seminar called Collective Action and the Politics of Resistance, and that course examines the ways in which people resist the state — social movements, activism, those types of issues. How do those movements and how does that activism emerge? How does it develop, and when is it successful? When does it fail?

Q: What do you hope to contribute to the College during your time here?

A: I would say one of my main goals is to contribute to China studies at the College, particularly the study of contemporary China. In addition to the classes that I teach, I’d like to work with student organizations and the Five College community to have more China-related events, whether it’s bringing in outside speakers, or holding colloquia, or getting students to talk about their thesis research that’s China-related.

I’d really like to bring more knowledge about contemporary Chinese politics to the community so that people can get beyond the headlines.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: Spare time? That’s a joke, right? I don’t have a lot of spare time, but I do appreciate the outdoors, and this is a beautiful place for that. I’m also a big Red Sox fan, so I like to try to watch games in my free time. Other than that, I like to jog and do yoga, and play with my cat.

Q: Have there been any surprises during your first few weeks teaching at Amherst?

A: This may be an unpopular view, but I have been very impressed by the dining services at Valentine. It is certainly one of the best, if not the best, cafeteria that I have ever encountered.

-Sophie Murguia ’17

Career Center Introduces Mentoring Program Continued from Page 1 education has value in a professional setting.

Whether the alum is young or old he or she has a perspective that can help a student.” Benefits of the program include learning more about a specific industry or career field, developing insight on how to take advantage of your time at the College, and having extra support and perspective on academic pursuits.

The over 400 mentors include directors of marketing, pediatricians, lawyers, non-profit workers,entrepreneurs, surgeons, inventors, authors, television writers, classical singers, event planners, food writers, and architect developers.

“Alumni self-select themselves as mentors.

What this means is that we put a call out to the alumni body indicating our need for mentor volunteers and they responded. Many alumni had questions,” Ramos said. “Overall, they were very positive about Pathways and excited for the opportunity to connect with students.

Many indicated their wish that a similar program existed when they were students.”

Students can register for the program by logging on to the Pathways website and answering three questions about their interests and goals. Then, students can look through a database containing profiles of potential mentors and email a mentor who seems like a possible fit.

Henry Wu ’17 described his registration process as “fairly simple.”

“My mentor is a doctor at Columbia,” said Wu. “I chose him because he did music and pre-med in college, which are academic pursuits I am interested in.”

Although Wu found his mentor fairly quickly, Ramos says that the Career Center is prepared to help students who have more difficulty finding a mentor. “We are available

to meet with students one-on-one through appointments and drop-in hours to discuss Pathways, its benefits, and how students may be able to navigate the process,” Ramos said.

“For example, we can advise students on how to reach out to alumni through their request, review initial e-mails and help students think about their profile answers. Any students with questions should not hesitate to come into the Career Center to seek help.”

According to Ramos, students are expected to commit to regular meetings with a mentor, engage in discussions about their goals and, most importantly, take ownership of the mentor-mentee experience. Connections with mentors might include phone, Skype, Facebook messages, text messages or in-person meetings (depending on where the mentor lives).

Alumni and Employer Engagement intern Edith Cricien ’14 says that her main expectation is “a stronger community between Amherst alumni and students. All students will be able to choose based on the student’s field of interest. They will be able to connect with alumni to obtain advice, guidance and networking skills. Alumni are the best resource to Amherst students because they have experienced the life at Amherst that the current students are experiencing. Any student stands to benefit, no matter the class year.”

Ramos also expresses her enthusiasm about the project. “Developing Pathways has been a very rewarding experience for me and the team involved in its creation. It has been a true collaboration between many offices: web services, IT, advancement, the Alumni and Parent Programs Office, and, of course, the Career Center,” Ramos said. “We all look forward to hearing about successful mentoring relationships.

We hope to recruit more alumni into the program that represent a diversity of industries, majors, and interests.”

Olivia Tarantino ‘15 Photographer

Students find out about mentoring opportunities offered through the Pathways program during the kickoff event.

Opinion

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

Editorial

Lauding IT Improvements

Despite all the recent buzz over Twitter’s IPO, the College’s own quiet technological revolution has gone largely unnoticed. After years of pink slips and green sheets, it seems that the College has finally begun to embrace the 21st century.

In the past months, the information technology department has unveiled a slew of technological improvements. They include AC Web Laundry, which provides real-time updates on campus washers and dryers, e-mail and text message notifications of student packages, wireless printing, an improved mobile site and soon, a new system that will allow students to add funds to AC Dollar accounts online using a credit card.

Technology does not always equate to progress, and it is worth noting that when we refer to IT’s new features as technological improvements, we mean it. Unlike Twitter’s, the College’s IT innovations have been directed by a coherent objective, i.e., facilitating and improving student life. This is commendable. It is important that the College does not pursue technology simply for technology’s sake, because technology has just as much potential to clutter and distract as it does to streamline and elucidate. Thanks to IT’s new advances, we can make much more efficient use of our time and resources. Wireless printing has helped us eliminate wasted green sheets and lost pages; package notifications help us avoid tedious visits to the mailroom; Web Laundry allows us to schedule our chores better and to prevent frustrating, unfruitful trips to the laundry room.

Unfortunately, technology is not very helpful unless people use it. Despite the

convenience provided by AC Web Laundry, it is not uncommon to find cleaned clothes left in a washer or dryer. Given a shortage of dryers and washers in many dorms and the ease of configuring e-mail and text notifications for finished laundry, this is inexcusable. It does, however, say something about us as students. Whether due to overwhelming academic and extracurricular commitments or general lethargy, students seem to find it difficult to take advantage of the technological updates in order to complete the task of doing laundry more efficiently. IT should take note. Regardless of how user-friendly a system may seem, there is always some friction and inertia when initially adapting to a new system, and IT should not neglect advertising and incentivizing students to adopt new technologies.

Ultimately, if you do not use it, you lose it. If students value a new technology, they should use it and use it often. This helps generate a positive feedback loop, positively reinforcing the IT department to continue developing new technological improvements and helping its staff hone in on those that are truly useful. We cannot expect helpful and innovative developments to arise without providing our feedback, both positive and negative. The only way for the IT department to gage the reception of their contributions is by how popular they are and how widely they spread. When we appreciate a technological advance, we need to express our enthusiasm and also give credit where it is due. Therefore, we would like to express our thanks and gratitude to IT for making our lives that much easier.

A Day of Remembrance, Did You Forget?

"TIMFZ .POUHPNFSZ Opinion Section Editor Last Thursday began like any other day for yours truly — find a quiet spot at Val to eat breakfast, look over the previous night’s psychology reading, and peruse the day’s issue of The New York Times. I was surprised to find the front cover of a gray-haired man in uniform, staring somberly ahead at the camera with a blurred background behind him and the caption below: “Remembering 9/11.” With merciless guilt growing in my stomach, I realized that I had forgotten Remembrance Day, but I was not alone in this.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, The New York Times only held two articles about said holiday, smushed in the back of the first section on pages A22 and A24. Other publications were similar in having light coverage of the observance, choosing to publish articles about the event either a few hours into the evening on their online sites (such as USAToday and Huffington Post), the next day (like The New York Times), or even a few days later, like your favorite school publication, The Amherst Stu-

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editor-in-Chief Alissa Rothman Managing News Elaine Vilorio, Sophie Murguia Managing Opinion James Liu, Julia Milmed Managing Arts and Living Jeffrey Feldman, Annalise Nurme Managing Sports Nicole Yang, Karl Greenblatt, Andrew Knox

dent. Save for some protestors and fundraisers like Amherst College’s own Tuesday’s Children program, most of us carried on as if it were any other day.

But last Wednesday was not any other day.

Twelve years and one week ago today, an event struck our nation in such a way that we just cannot seem to let go. The lack of coverage issue is on the fence, equally divided between those who think that we should let bygones be bygones and those who can still remember exactly what they were doing on that fateful day in September all those years ago.

The attack happened twelve years ago, as Lincoln would have said “two and one decade ago”, and what does that mean? That means that 4,982 days; 6,311,000 minutes; 378,680,000 seconds, etc. have passed and 4 to 6 trillion (yes, that’s trillion with a “t”) dollars is expected to be spent by the United States government in order to gain some sense of closure. According to a recent article by Washington Post’s Ernesto Londoño, a Harvard study found that the pricey bill stems from financing wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, taking into the account of the increase in veteran benefits after the at-

tack on 9/11, rebuilding the destroyed sites, and founding secure government agencies and departments. Furthermore, according to the CBS News article “Cost of 9/11 in Dollars”, published just two years ago, taxpayers will finish paying this debt in the year 2050, barring no more unfortunate contingencies (fingers crossed, people). What’s most upsetting about our payment for this terror is the possibility that the act of crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon cost “an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 to kill 3,000 people.”

Not to mention the 9/11 attack changed many Americans’ sense of security and lifestyle as well as their wallets. Of course those directly affected by the attacks had (and still have) entirely different outlooks on life, but those who didn’t lose anyone in the destruction or lived far away from the attacks probably have a different perspective on life as well in the sense of, at least initially, stronger community and nationalist values. The search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and one of the most expensive man hunts (Osama bin Laden) in American history has, at the very least, allowed more opportunities for men and women

Letters Policy

S TA F F Design Editor Brendan Hsu, Emy Kelty, Andrew Kim, Brian Beaty News Section Editors David Kang, Noah Morton Opinion Section Editors David Chang, Ashley Montgomery Arts and Living Section Editors Meghan McCullough, Hadley Heinrich Sports Section Editors Dori Atkins, Jason Stein, Patrick Yang

to prove themselves by serving for the nation’s armed forces. Unfortunately, because of the new securities (i.e. the NSA and Department of Homeland Security) as well as stricter enforcements in TSA checkpoints, travel has been a bit strained. Many people are still frightened by the plane crashes twelve years ago to ever trust a plane in the air again.

In regards to such a pivotal event in the nation’s history that has shaped our economy and culture, even twelve years later, I know that we cannot afford to forget. It literally cost almost six trillion dollars to try to forget. I don’t want 9/11 to be just another date on the calendar with words like “Remembrance Day” or “Patriot Day” below the numbers, not knowing what the phrase signifies, then having my next thought be about whether I have that day off from school. As long as there are problems to fix from this, we cannot afford to forget. As long as there are procedures in place because of this, we cannot afford to forget. As long as there are people who are dead, who are grieving, who are lost because of this, we cannot afford to forget.

As long as there are people who remember, we cannot afford to forget.

Publishers Mary Byrne, Chris Friend, Nazir Khan, Michael Osorio, David Walchak Copy Editors Marisa Dolmatch Photography Editor Olivia Tarantino Senior Editor Brianda Reyes

The opinion pages of The Amherst Student are intended as an open forum for the Amherst community.

The Student will print letters under 450 words in length if they are submitted to The Student offices in the Campus Center or to the paper’s e-mail account (astudent@amherst.edu) by 12 p.m. on Sunday, after which they will not be accepted.

The editors reserve the right to edit any letters exceeding the 450-word limit or to withhold any letter because of considerations of space or content.

Letters must bear the names of all contributors and a phone number where the author or authors may be reached. Letters and columns may be edited for clarity and Student style.

The Student will not print personal or group defamation.

Publication Standards

The Amherst Student is published weekly except during College vacations. The subscription rate is $75 per year or $40 per semester. Subscription requests and address changes should be sent to: Subscriptions, The Amherst Student; Box 1912, Amherst College: Amherst, MA 01002-5000. The offices of The Student are located on the second floor of the Keefe Campus Center, Amherst College. Phone: (413) 542-2304. All contents copyright © 2011 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age.

The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

College Politics and the English Language %BWJE 8BMDIBL Contributing Writer On Saturday evening someone drew a swastika and wrote a racial slur near the entrance of Chapman Dorm. Dean of Students Jim Larimore took 465 words to communicate that information in a campus-wide email. He added, using perhaps the maximum number of words possible: “That this incident should occur within hours of the end of the observance of Yom Kippur, a holy day of particular significance for those of the Jewish faith tradition, makes it especially hurtful.”

To summarize those 33 words in ten words, it happened the night after Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday.

The email went out at 12:55 a.m. Sunday morning, meaning it was written as an immediate response to this emergency graffiti incident.

Perhaps some will think the response was appropriately prompt and well-communicated. Yet it seems unlikely this email was written with the sole intention of conveying information to students. First, its length precludes the vast majority of students from doing much more than skim it.

Second, it is written in such convoluted language that it is occasionally impossible to make sense of. What does it mean to “join [Dean Larimore] in a commitment to redouble the work of ensuring fairness and respect in our community”? The email is administrative, coldly distant and consistently devoid of clear meaning. The sentiments are not wrong or dishonest. Dean Larimore undoubtedly cares about the graffiti — the problem is that his email does not show that.

In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell identified a “special connection between politics and the debasement of language.” Dean Larimore exemplifies the debased language of politics in his call for the offending students to “reconcile themselves with the community.” This empty phrase is most simply understood as insincere political chatter. What does it mean to reconcile oneself with a community? Dean Larimore may have something in mind, but his writing opts not to explain.

Orwell compares the political use of imprecise language to ink from a cuttlefish. When the situation is bad, our language works to separate us from the problem. This email did not encourage Amherst students to think about the bigotry — instead it made it easier for us to stop thinking about it.

The graffiti included “a vulgar phrase and a racial epithet usually targeted at African-Americans.” Can Dean Larimore not tell us these words? I am sure we have heard them before. Yet, despite his informative tone, he is not interested in informing us about the ugly, bigoted side of the Amherst community. Instead of thoughtfully discussing the issue, Dean Larimore spends his time vaguely condemning the graffiti, listing campus resources for counseling and support and closes with an optimistic note about the community rising above the incident. I am confident this email would get nods of approval from any PR or legal team. I am sure carefulness and political correctness-ad-absurdum make for a strong administrator in the eyes of the Trustees. However, I do not think these are qualities of a strong ally for students. Communication like this will not forge a cooperative relationship between the students and the administration; it will only drive us further apart. The fact that this email seems standard and unremarkable demonstrates just how deep this problem runs. The email was written in the vague platitudes that accompany almost every corporate press release, official government statement or political campaign agenda.

The fundamental problem with the email is that it gives the impression that Dean Larimore spent the early hours of Sunday morning responding to an incident instead of expressing a genuine, considered concern about Amherst College. If his goal is to grow a college community, he should begin by not sounding like he is managing one. This email is only one example of a larger issue. Amherst College could be much improved if the school stopped treating us like political liabilities to be managed, removed the gloves of administrative phrase-ology and began talking to us like competent human beings.

You have an opinion?

The Amherst Student has a place to put it.

Email jtliu16@amherst.edu or jmilmed15@amherst.edu

0QJOJPO 5

On Nazis, Redemption and Racial Justice %BOJFM %JOFS Staff Writer It is a remarkable thing, that should I have the means and desire to do so, I could comfortably vacation in Germany. I could spend an afternoon in Berlin, walking along a path that once split the city for a generation. I could hike the Black Forest, see the castles of Saxony and drink myself silly at Oktoberfest. Or of course, as has become a rite of passage for so many Jews of my age, I could visit the remains of a Nazi concentration camp, skillfully preserved in displays and museums that are well-attended and funded by the state.

That I can visit these camps, camps representative of institutional hatred that robbed me of my extended family, and not curse the country they stand on is nothing short of amazing. I am privileged in being able to mourn in dignity, in having the opportunity to learn the painstakingly researched history of the slaughter of my people by the descendants of their murderers, and not feel the least bit threatened. Between the end of WWII and the official establishment of the State of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Jews fled Europe by way of impossibly cramped ships making their way to the Holy Land, risking disease, hunger and the very real threat of British maritime patrol to escape the sadistic continent.

My family is very small, but also very old.

My father, along with one of my aunts, survived the Holocaust as young children. I was raised on stories of ancient families being slaughtered, of ghetto walls taking the place of synagogues and Jewish shops, of racial discrimination — both Nazi and Soviet — more ruthless and outward than my generation living in all but the most vicious urban ghettos can even imagine. The Holocaust and surrounding war never left the imaginations of those it most affected. My father and the other surviving members of his generation are more familiar with the names of Nazi generals than they are with modern politicians. As such things are expected, I have spent more time reading, studying, listening, thinking and speaking about the Holocaust than about any other topic. I must have read dozens of books, seen scores of films and heard hundreds of accounts, but astoundingly, in 21 years of life I have not heard a single anti-German sentiment. I have grown up amongst some of the least racially sensitive people I have ever met, and yet have never heard a single derogatory remark made against the population whose grandfathers threw mine into gas chambers. I don’t mean to imply that either my family or ethnicity is particularly forgiving or understanding.

I think that the reason we can be at so much peace with Germany, while survivors of its extermination campaigns are still living, is because Germany has done the impossible — it has redeemed itself. Through a series of extraordinarily painful and difficult measures, it has surrendered itself in hopes of being built anew. It has spent enormous amounts of resources in reparation efforts. Most importantly, it has volunteered itself to be made vulnerable; it has forced its citizens to look into themselves and recognize the evil they have, either passively or actively, allowed to grow. Germany does not try to revise its own history. Rather, it stresses its study.

School-age Germans are better instructed on the Holocaust’s history than any Jewish counterparts I have encountered. The tremendous shame of the Holocaust is not something Germans would have ever been able to truly repress. Rather than try, they faced their guilt hat in hand. It was only through this sincerity that Germany found rehabilitation.

What made German rehabilitation so successful was that it didn’t rely purely on denazification. Rather than focusing on just the Nazis as a corrupt element in their system, Germany recognized that it was facing an institutional corruption, an evil that existed systemically, rather than on an independent basis. Rehabilitation

would never have been possible had Germany just eradicated the Nazi party and struck outright anti-Semitism out of their lawbooks. Jews could never be made comfortable enough to vacation in their ancestors’ hell unless they could be made sure of true institutional transformation; redemption could not have been possible unless the very core of the old Germany was removed, and this could not have been possible unless Germans earnestly accepted the amount of shame they did.

The United States has never had a Holocaust.

We have never built an Auschwitz and have never implemented a Final Solution. Extermination has never existed as a policy goal, and we have never systematically starved, tortured and murdered our prisoners. However, what isn’t an obvious crisis may still be a subtle, drawn out one.

Our country was formerly founded when slaveowners signed a document proclaiming that “all men are created equal.” We built economies based on imported slave labor, labor forced out of individuals that we only referred to as human when it was politically convenient. We forced and coerced the aboriginal inhabitants off all of the lands that we preferred. We discriminated ruthlessly, and frequently violently, against immigrants and anyone who deviated from the Protestant standards of the time.

Then, of course, came the Civil War, erupting after the Southern states refused to give up their privilege of enslaving their black populations. More American men died in those four years than in any other of our many wars. After unthinkable sacrifice the Confederate South was eventually defeated, and laws prohibiting slavery and demanding full and equal universal citizenship were added to our Constitution. The bold Reconstruction effort was attempted to rebuild the South, several black men found their way from the South into Congress and a hundred years later protection was added to the same Constitution against any outward racially-based discrimination.

Nonetheless, as the Hadley Arkes so loves to remind all of his classes, human rights, as we understand them, “extend well beyond any list that can be set down in a Bill of Rights” (Beyond the Constitution). The inherent problem in any structure of law, as Arkes puts it, is that it deceives its population into envisioning it as all-inclusive, that we limit the extensive scope of our self-inherent natural law whenever we put it down on paper. Curiously enough, Arkes sets up the argument beautifully for the liberal human rights movements. For banning discrimination in the books does not necessarily ban it in practice. Exactly as he predicted it could, our dependence on legal systems to eradicate discrimination has made us neglect it in practicality, when its sources aren’t easily eradicated by the Fourteenth Amendment. It has made us believe that we are somehow “post-racial” simply because discrimination has put on a new hat.

Our system of literal slavery has been replaced with corporate de-facto slavery, laws demanding segregation with urban housing policies that practically guarantee it and systematic legal prohibition against social mobility with institutions of incarceration that prohibit it with a little more force. We have allowed all this to happen because Reconstruction failed. The South was never made to come to terms with its evil.

We have substituted institutional reform with cheap, incomplete legal provisions and have deceived ourselves into thinking that this would be enough.

Americans have not yet learned to feel shame for slavery. The privilege I have in Germany is not extended to an African American in Alabama. We still see Confederate flags, unabashedly discriminating penal policies and on this campus a mascot of a person most famous for endorsing a genocide. The chutzpah we grant ourselves is astounding. We could take serious care to learn from Germany about proper collective guilt and self-reflection.

Arts&Living

4FQUFNCFS t 5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU

In This World, Her Voice Speaks Volumes

about the people most of us have never met, but it is also a story we can all relate to dearly.

Perhaps it is due to the charming humanization throughout the entire film that the arbitrary sublimation of the ending comes as the biggest disappointment, where in a mere span of ten minutes we suddenly find ourselves catching up on not one, but two grand messages. Granted, the film does dip briefly (one or two lines meant to be funny rather than insightful) on gender norms, and Carol’s struggle as a female voice in a world (forgive my reference) of baritone is apparent, but the feminist twist in the end sounds too much like a plug-in for Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In� to be taken seriously. And even though the development of the film imbeds family dynamics, the warm and fuzzy “bloodis-thicker-than-water� speech at the climax all but negates the delicacy of the script before that moment. It is like finishing a dainty, painstakingly prepared dish with a thick coat Image courtesy of CQ CMPHTQPU DPN of barbeque sauce: some people might like it, %FNFUSJ .BSUJO BOE XSJUFS EJSFDUPS BDUSFTT -BLF #FMM HFOFSBUF CFMJFWBCMF BOE BXLXBSE POTDSFFO DIFNJTUSZ JO and the food is still there, but the nicety of B SFMBUJPOTIJQ UIBU DIBSBDUFSJ[FT UIF TJMMZ BOE MJHIUIFBSUFE UPOF PG i*O B 8PSME w flavors is sacrificed.

As demand for household names elevates, Bell respectably shies away from the Th e fi lm roughly follows the daily life of "OESF 8BOH Carol Solomon (Bell), a voice coach whose self-congratulation or the sensationalization voice actors these days find their existence Staff Writer burgeoning career puts her into serious con- that often accompany works shedding light cornered by celebrities: just take a look at the I am not a fan of voice-over movie trailers. tention with the voice-over industry’s heir-ap- on a little-explored corner of society. “In a star-studded cast list of recent animated films To me, a narrator’s voice trying to glamorize parent Gustav Warner, played by Ken Marino World‌â€? uses the life of Carol and other voice like “Fantastic Mr. Foxâ€? (George Clooney, an upcoming film alienates me from the ac- (“Burning Loveâ€?), as well as her own father actors only as the means rather than the end. Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson) or tual story and belittles my intelligence, for it Sam Soto (Fred Melamed, Hampshire College Instead of mystifying the characters, the film “Hotel Transylvaniaâ€? (Adam Sandler, Andy bears the assumption that I can’t evaluate the ’78), who is about to receive an industry life- harnesses our curiosity of them to illuminate Samberg, Selena Gomez, Cee Lo Green). If film’s potential without someone explaining to time achievement award. As the three battle their life as familiar and intimate to that of the music industry is any indication, a beautiful voice alone will no longer go far. To a cerme how great the movie is going to be. And to narrate a highly sought-after trailer for the industry knows this too: voice-over trail- the fictional “The Amazon Gamesâ€? tetralogy, Bell handles her three roles tain degree, then, I do hope that the legacy of Don LaFontaine, whose deep, magnetic and ers are by now a memory, too often the subject Carol navigates the unexpected turns of inwith equal alacrity, her execution richly layered “Voice of Godâ€? decorated thoudependent adulthood as she moves out of her as slick as a hot knife cutting sands of movie trailers in the past decades, father’s house and juggles the affection of Guswill evolve, transform and prosper, be it in the through butter. tav and Louis (the delightful Demetri Martin), i*O B 8PSME w form of the endlessly fun accents that Carol an endearingly gauche sound engineer at the studio Carol works with. Meanwhile, Carol our own, not without hunting for jobs, losing arduously records from ordinary people, or Directed by Lake Bell unwittingly becomes entangled in her sister’s loved ones, dealing with everyday problems the next iconic sound to have people talk Written by Lake Bell marital crisis sparked — believe it or not — by and successfully navigating messy courtships. about for years (e.g. Andy Serkis as the voice Starring: Lake Bell, Fred Assisted by indie photography maven Seamus of Gollum in the “Lord of the Ringsâ€? trilogy). an Irish accent.

Melamed, Demetri Martin It is rare to see a film as fulfilled in the Tierney (“Liberal Arts,â€? “Adamâ€?), the laughs, After all, it is no less than a miracle the wonartistic vision of a female filmmaker as “In a the tears and the many intentionally awkward der a sound from two foldings of a thin memWorld‌,â€? especially one drawing inspiration pauses are all palpable. It might be a story brane can elicit. May the magic live on. from a male-dominated arena. (According to of homage or parody. Without question, how- Horatia Harrod at Telegraph, only once has a ever, the booming voices over two-and-half- woman ever been the voice for a major movie minute montages have for decades defined the trailer: Melissa Disney in the trailer for the wonder of the silver screen. In sharp contrast thriller “Gone in 60 Secondsâ€? 13 years ago.) Yet to the once ubiquitous voice-over trailers, the Bell handles her three roles with equal alacworld of voice actors remains recondite to the rity, her execution as slick as a hot knife cutgeneral public, its portrayal as hidden as the ting through butter. As a lightweight screwball faces behind the microphone — until now. comedy with rambling dialogues, the film feels Titled after the phrase coined by the legendary like a whimsical trip, its detours as refreshing voice actor Don LaFontaine, “In a World‌â€? to explore as the main path. Even though this fills the gap in the public imagination with a kind of narrative essay requires nothing less sense of ease and goofiness that characterize than wide-eyed fascination to appreciate — the sophisticated humor and the sharp wit of otherwise it would seem to lack focus — Bell’s Lake Bell (“Boston Legalâ€?), whose triple threat ingenuous writing blends the mundane with Image courtesy of UIFBSUTTDFOF DB in writing, directing and acting in the film has the fancy to keep that fascination alive in us: established herself as a new force to be reck- we are eager to follow through, but not too ea- 5IF m MN FYQMPSFT UIF PCTDVSF DMBTT PG )PMMZXPPE DFMFCSJUZ UIBU WPJDF BD ger to lose patience with the details. oned with.

UPST PDDVQZ JNCVJOH UIF PUIFSXJTF GBDFMFTT FOUJUJFT XJUI QFSTPOBMJUZ

“

Film Review

�

The Amherst Student is in dire need of a comic strip!

Interested?

Email jfeldman15@amherst.edu or anurme15@amherst.edu

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

"SUT -JWJOH 7

Amherst Cinema’s Series: A Slam Dunk

#SJUUBOJF -FXJT Contirbuting Writer

Hordes of eager college students converge upon the small lobby of the Amherst Cinema, wide-eyed and chatting loudly as they quickly form into lines leading up to the ticket counter. Some are already singing the nostalgic tune and excitedly dancing in the packed lobby. It’s going to be a full house tonight for the premiere of “Space Jam�, a part of the new “Late Nites @ Amherst Cinema� cult classics series. At last week’s showing of “The Room� and at this week’s showing of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet� (Sing-A-Long!), similar-sized crowds were expected, and expectations were certainly met.

The lines were out the door as people filed from ticket counter to the well-stocked concession stand and, at last, into the large screening room, ready to blast more than a decade into the past to revisit what some would argue is the most significant movie of their respective childhoods.

For those of you who haven’t seen “Space Jam,� it’s likely that you have at least heard of it. After all, there aren’t too many movies that boast an ensemble cast with a range wide enough to encompass all of the Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan. It’s a classic family movie, partially live-action and partially animated, about the teaming up of Michael Jordan and his cartoon friends in an epic game of basketball against a team of criminal aliens intent on capturing the Looney Tunes and enslaving them at their outer space amusement park.

The rules are simple: if the Nerdlucks (the aliens) win, it’s goodbye to Tune Land for the Looney bunch. If the Tunes win, they get to stay, and the Nerdlucks are out of luck. Of course, the intense preparation that both teams engage in is fraught with difficulties, complications and plenty of cheating on the part of the aliens — but it wouldn’t be such a good story without any plot complexity, now would it?

Sam Feldman ’17, who was part of the large group I was with, trekked from campus to Amherst Cinema on Friday night to make the 10 o’clock showing. He, like many others who attended, “expected all the attendees to be big fans of the movie.� Considering its status as a cult classic, “Space Jam� is a movie most likely to be seen by those who can sing along and dance in the theater as soon as the familiar “Everybody get up, it’s time to slam now� blasts from the speakers.

The pervasive, contagious energy and the inexplicable excitement for a movie about aliens and the NBA proved that the target audi-

Image courtesy of XXX TPDJBMUFDIQPQ DPN

i-BUF /JUFT ! "NIFSTU $JOFNB w POF PG NBOZ UIFNFE TFSJFT TIPXJOH BU UIF UIFBUFS JO UIF DPNJOH TFBTPO EFMJWFST OPTUBMHJB BOE DBNQZ GVO QSFWJPVTMZ POMZ BWBJMBCMF PO 7)4 ence had been reached; it’s safe to assume there weren’t too many first-time “Space Jam� viewers in the audience that night. Feldman enjoyed this new venture at Amherst Cinema, saying, “The experience overall was great. People cheered and had an awesome time.�

I agree wholeheartedly. As with many cult classic films and movies that aren’t meant to be taken seriously, the best part is everything extraneous to the movie itself: the thunderous singing, the rabid dancing and the unnecessarily loud cheers for the moments of triumph make these sorts of films so fun to watch with a crowd. “Space Jam� is second in an eight-film series entitled Cult Classics that is showing every Friday night at 10:00 p.m.. It’s an ongoing special event that Amherst Cinema is putting on as a part of their Late Nites program. Something that the theater is known for is their special themed film series or festivals, which occur year-round and are often showed concurrently with one another. While the Cult Classics program is being shown at 10:00 p.m. on Fridays, there is also a Kubrick Fall 2013 Festival that the cinema is currently running, dedicated to none other than Stanley Kubrick and a selection

of his greatest works, such as “Dr. Strangelove� and “A Clockwork Orange�. These movies play on Sundays at 2:00 p.m., and then again on Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m.. A scheduled upcoming program is entitled the David Lynch Fall 2013 Festival, and Amherst Cinema will feature such films as “Wild At Heart�, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me� and “Eraserhead� in the months of October and November.

Amherst Cinema is a wonderful establishment with a wide variety of movies, special events and workshops to please any taste.

Upon an enthusiastic recommendation of the theatre, Sam characteristically said, “I’d love to return to Amherst Cinemas to see more movies, but I don’t know if I will, simply because I don’t have much money.� I was ecstatic to hear about “Space Jam� upcoming premiere, and quickly decided that it was crucial that I not miss the chance to relive the most epic game of basketball ever played. Clearly, I was not alone, judging by the turnout on that chilly Friday night. The various programs and series that Amherst Cinema has planned are absolutely worth checking out — you never know what they’ll dredge up from your past.

Indie Bundle 9: Low Price, Clever Games /PBI (PSEPO Staff Writer The Humble Indie Bundle is the post-scarcity economist’s wet dream. In the age of effortless copying, it is the most innovative and consumerfriendly approach I’ve yet seen to selling digital content. You pay what you want to, from $0.01 to $10,000 (some gaming philanthropists actually approach the upper extreme). In return, you get a digital package of usually good and sometimesincredible games from independent studios.

A portion of the profits go to those studios, a portion to charity, and a portion to the Humble Bundle, Inc.; you use adjustable sliders to choose what proportion of your money goes where. All purchases are DRM-free, meaning you can copy them without consequence, and cross-platform, running on Windows, Mac, (usually) Linux and (sometimes) Android devices.

On top of all this, it makes money. Humble Bundle 9, which is currently up for sale, has already sold over 500,000 copies in six days, totaling around $2.3 million in sales. And it still has eight days to go.

Humble Bundle V, released in May 2012, is generally considered to have offered the best deal. It included critically acclaimed indie hits like Bastion, Limbo, Braid and the horror masterpiece Amnesia: the Dark Descent. While not achieving the success of that iteration of the deal, I think that this week’s Bundle 9 comes close. Pay more than the average ($4.61 at the time of writing) and you’ll get three truly excellent games: Mark of the Ninja, FTL: Faster Than Light and Fez. Consider the other three games in the bundle, as well as those not yet added to it, as icing on the cake.

Mark of the Ninja is a two-dimensional stealth side-scroller. You play the titular ninja as he battles against both external foes and growing doubt within himself. Although the story is clichĂŠ and the gameplay is somewhat thin in

terms of content and variety, Mark of the Ninja is nonetheless a very solid, clean and beautifullydrawn game. It alone justifies a $5 price tag. If you want to know more about this game, check out my review of it last March, in issue 148-18.

Now, on to the two titles that really make this Bundle stand out.

On the surface, FTL is a very simple game.

You are a lone ship captain tasked with delivering some vital information to an allied fleet across the galaxy. All the while you are pursued by a large rebel fleet and must stay ahead of them while hanging back long enough to gather critical supplies. A full run won’t last longer than an hour or so; FTL relies on the high degree of variety in replays to make a full game.

There are two main interfaces. One displays the interior of your ship, with its various rooms and crew members, alongside a similar (albeit fog-shaded) display of whatever other ships you encounter. The other is a sector map, which shows the various routes you can take to get to your destination; but you spend the majority of game time on the first screen, where the bulk of action takes place.

But to call it action would be a misnomer.

Combat in FTL constitutes more of a complex puzzle. You have control of all of your ship’s systems and can pause the game at will. How you defeat your foe is your call. You can temporarily divert power from your life support systems to boost your weapons, reactivating them just in time for your crew to breathe. You can invest in an expensive droid control system to harass the enemy, or buy a teleportation deck to send an assault squad to wreak havoc on the interior of the enemy ship. Trying out new tactics and adopting the ones that work for you are is the way to play FTL. Paired with a sleekly minimalistic design and an absorbing soundtrack, FTL’s gameplay will leave you coming back for study breaks over the next few months. If I had to pick one game from Bundle 9 as a true winner though, it would

without a doubt be Fez. This game charmed the pants off of me. You play as Gomez, a pixelated little chap living in a two-dimensional world. His world is transformed — quite literally — when a mysterious cube speaking a strange language bestows upon him the titular three-dimensional hat, which ostensibly gives him the power to see his world in an entirely new light. The world is three-dimensional, but you only see two dimensions at a time. Imagine if you could take the first stage of Super Mario Bros and rotate it 90 degrees, and there you have the idea behind Fez. This central conceit makes for an incredibly entertaining platformer from the start. The environments in the game are varied and interesting.

The sounds created from Gomez’s interactions with the world, especially when you solve a difficult puzzle, are extremely gratifying. In a sentence, Fez is a joy to play.

But this only scratches the surface of Fez’s appeal; the first play through is the just the tip of the gameplay iceberg. If you become obsessed with the quest to collect all of the anticubes, Fez’s maddening purple collectible, you’ll soon be sucked into a world of puzzles unprecedented in video gaming. Collecting the cubes nearly superseded my studying for final exams as a goal during the spring of 2013. This is, as some have put it, “the real Fez,� and it is what really makes the game special.

If I didn’t already own the three games mentioned above, I would jump on the opportunity to buy Humble Bundle 9. They easily justify a price of $10, $15, even $25. At full retail, all six games would go for $120. It would be a crime for any lover of games, or even a casual player, to pass up an opportunity to own these for a measly five bucks.

Image courtesy of TUBUJD HJBOUCPNC DPN

5IF GBOUBTUJDBM mSTU TUBHF PG 'F[ POF PG TJY HBNFT BWBJMBCMF VOEFS UIF )VNCMF *OEJF #VOEMF PGGFST OPWFM HBNFQMBZ DPODFQUT PO UIF DIFBQ

8 "SUT -JWJOH

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

Evolution of a Letter Writing Social

"TIMFZ . .POUHPNFSZ Contributing Writer

When most college students think of Saturday nights, we picture young co-eds dancing the night away with red Solo cups in hand. For those not so taken with the active social scene of Amherst College nightlife, AC After Dark offers a different kind of social — letter writing. Typewriter? Check.

Mail box? Check. Free stuff? Triple check.

After conversing with social-goers, there seems to be a consensus that the best part of letter writing is the supplies, and there were plenty of supplies in the Friedmann Room of Keefe Campus Center on Saturday night.

Buddies Justyn Pham ’14 and Crystal Yan ’14 checked out the event for different reasons (yearbook photos and fun letter writing, respectively), but both agreed that the free food and stationery are two definite perks. “We’ve come every year since it started,�

Crystal said, flipping through her newly acquired flowery envelopes and stationery. “There’s always lots of cool stationery‌and it’s helpful for writing parents, you know, to keep them from freaking out.â€?

Free supplies and services included stationery, postcards, envelopes, wax to seal the envelope (with a hot glue gun instead of an open flame), two typewriters and art products to enhance the contents of said letters such as colored pencils, collage pictures, scissors and glue. Of course, like almost every AC After Dark event, there was a wide array of cookies, tea and coffee, but make sure to get there early, or you will miss out.

The Letter Writing Social, a concept proposed by Crista Reed DeRicco, Assistant Director of Student Activities, first made its debut in September 2011. The event was such a hit that it earned an article by Don Troop in Chronicle of Higher Education.

The occasion was lauded by Amherst students, most notably so by Rohan Mazumdar ’12, who was “elated by the response Crista

Image courtesy of "NIFSTU $PMMFHF Public Affairs Office

$MBSB :PPO DPNQPTFT B MFUUFS BU UIF mSTU -FUUFS 8SJUJOH 4PDJBM FNCSBDJOH XIBU TPNF DPOTJEFS UP CF BO BOUJRVBUFE NPEF PG DPNNVOJDBUJPO [Reed DeRicco] got to this event.�

Time has passed and just as Mazumdar has left (after graduating), so have the original ways of the Amherst College Letter Writing Social. The first Letter Writing Social boasted free stamps and stationery, three typewriters and inkwells and quills. The second annual Letter Writing Social was different from the first but not necessarily in a bad way. The event lacked typewriters, quills and stamps, but provided even more stationery that was replenished throughout the night, a Pen Pal sign-up station and more funky-colored pens. If you signed up for a pen pal, about a week later, you received a package with your pen pal’s AC Box number with envelopes and stationery that formulated the “pen pal kit.� This year’s event, however, while reviving two typewriters, ink wells and quills, decided to let go of the Pen Pal Station and began running low on envelopes about an hour into the event.

This year’s affair, shortened from the debut duration of four to three hours, still had

a good turnout, according to AC After Dark intern, Briana Wiggins ’15. “I honestly didn’t expect this many people to show up. I mean, every table is filled,�

Wiggins said. “That’s good, right?�

Though Wiggins is currently a junior, she sheepishly admitted it was her first Letter Writing Social, both in attendance and supervision. I stuck close to her throughout the evening, watching the event from her viewpoint. There were noticeable times during the event when Wiggins was overwhelmed by details ranging from the lack of envelopes to the disarray at the wax sealing station to the hard-to-operate-but-stillfancy Keurig coffee machines. However, at other times, her reactions mirrored the first-years’ excitement, such as upon finding the plethora of “Doctor Who� postcards and ostrich-themed thank you cards or upon taking photos with the newest addition to the event, the Fujifilm Instax Mini Camera.

Positioned next to the mailbox, after penning a short letter to Mom and Pop (“Hey

folks, I’m still alive! Send me money?�), one could snap a quick picture of themselves (“See Mom? Proof that I am well. Ignore the pizza love handles�) to include in the envelope. The white device slides out a short strip of film that develops within one minute or so. Judging by the empty film canisters and giggles of students as the camera flashed and clicked, this was definitely a favorite of many, if not all.

While the Letter Writing Social has changed much since its inauguration, not all of the modifications are misses. Rather, many are hits. Would regular social-goers appreciate free postage so we can send letters at our leisure? We certainly wouldn’t turn them down! However, who can really argue with the joy on a first-comer’s face as they pore over the table of stationery or beam at the excitement of sending letters to high school friends and relatives? In the end, it doesn’t matter that participants come for the free stuff; what matters is that they stay for the art of letter writing.

Five College Events Thursday, September 19

“Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series presents: Christine M. Olson, Ph.D.,� UMass, 4:00 p.m.

Dr. Christine Olson conducts research and extensionoutreach programs focused on the nutritional concerns of women and children. Her research focuses on food insecurity in the U.S. Dr. Olson’s research group was involved in the development and validation of the items included in the Food Security Supplement in the Current Population Survey. She has published numerous papers on the causes and consequences of food insecurity. She was recently involved in a large multi-state project that followed low-income rural families over three years and studied factors associated with change in hunger and food insecurity status. Dr. Olson also studies how weight gain during pregnancy and health behaviors (eating, physical activity and breastfeeding) influence the development of obesity in women and their children. A current project examines the efficacy of electronic communication interventions in promoting healthy body weights in childbearing women. Christine Olson will briefly review the history of monitoring food insecurity in the US population. She will describe some of the key contributions of research to the understanding of the causes and consequences of food insecurity. Finally, she will consider what, if any, influence monitoring and research has had on policies and programs to address food insecurity and speculate on future directions. Free and open to the public at 917 Campus Center. “Carol Dweck Lecture,� Smith College, 7:00 p.m.

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her research has focused on why people succeed and how to foster success. She has held professorships at Columbia Univ. and Harvard Univ., has lectured all over the world and has been elected to the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarly book “SelfTheories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development� was named Book of the Year by the World Education Federation. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and she has appeared on “Today� and “20/20.� She will be speaking at the Sweeney Concert Hall in Sage.

“A Point-Counterpoint on Affirmative Action,� Amherst College, 10:45 p.m.

With Bert Rein ‘61, plaintiff’s counsel in the Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, and Paul Smith ‘76, whose three-decade Supreme Court practice includes a landmark victory in Lawrence v. Texas.

Moderated by Professor Martha Umphrey, professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought, in Johnson Chapel.

Friday, September 20

“Chinese Moon Festival,� Mount Holyoke College, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Join CCA in celebrating its annual Chinese Moon Festival! The group will be featuring traditional performances with some modern twist, Prof Lipman and fun activities.

There will be prizes and free mooncakes for everyone!

The event will take place in the Blanchard Great Room. “Evening at the Mead,� Amherst College, 6:00 p.m.

Start your weekend at the Mead. From acapella and improv to bingo and trivia, Evenings at the Mead are a unique way to experience your campus art museum.

Feeling lucky this Friday the 13th? Unwind at the Mead’s Bingo Night. Enjoy an art-inspired version of this classic game of chance, meet people, and win a prize.

Games begin at 7 p.m. Refreshments served. Presented by the Mead Student Docents.

Mead Bingo is free and is not a gambling event.

Saturday, September 21

“Knitting and Tea!� Mount Holyoke College, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Join Knit Happens for a lovely, relaxing afternoon of tea, cookies and knitting. Refreshments will be provided.

Email knithappensmhc@gmail.com with any questions.

Open to MHC, the Five Colleges and the General Public.

Knit happens in the Cassani Lounge (Shattuck 102).

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org

by Annalise Nurme ’15

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

4QPSUT 9

Third-Ranked Men’s Soccer Nets Pair of Wins

After Beating Curry, Jeffs Pitch Shutout Against Rival Polar Bears

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

(PBMLFFQFS 5IPNBT #VMM IBE B UPUBM PG TJY TBWFT BOE POF HPBM BMMPXFE PO UIF XFFL #SFOUPO "SOBCPMEJ Senior Staff Writer Following a nerve-racking overtime win over a Middlebury team missing nine freshmen due to orientation, Amherst Men’s Soccer vanquished any lingering doubts of their championship mettle with a dominating 3-0 victory over Bowdoin Saturday.

The Jeffs improved to 4-0 (2-0 NESCAC) on the season, extending their unbeaten streak to 24 games dating back to November 2011. Even

after losing five starters to graduation, Head Coach Justin Serpone has managed to incorporate a slew of first-years and other bright, young players into the lineup while racing to a perfect record.

Against Bowdoin (1-2, 0-2 NESCAC), the Jeffs controlled the tempo of the game from the start, recording the first seven shots of the match and scoring twice in the first 30 minutes to go up 2-0 by halftime.

Amherst outshot Bowdoin by a 24-6 margin over the full 90 minutes. “Bowdoin is a strong opponent

— it’s always a dogfight against them — but we did a very good job of handling the physical battle,� co-captain Max Fikke ’14 said.

Overwhelming Bowdoin with relentless attacking pressure and tenacious tackling, the Jeffs got on the scoreboard when co-captain Ben Norton ’14 buried a feed from Nico Pascual-Leone ’16 in the 21st minute. Just seven minutes later, the Jeffs extended their lead to 2-0 when Greg Singer ’16 punched home a loose ball after a blocked shot attempt from Mikey Hoeksema ’15.

Continuing to attack Bowdoin’s end of the field, the Jeffs narrowly missed two opportunities to stretch the lead even further before the halftime whistle. Gabriel Wirz ’15 saw his close-range header narrowly veer to the left from Pascual-Leone’s corner kick.

Two minutes later, first-year Elliott Cassutt’s strike drifted just over the crossbar off of an excellent look from the top of the 18-yard-box.

Having been outshot 15-2 in the first half, the Polar Bears came out with more attacking energy after the break, creating their first serious chance early in the second half.

Bowdoin’s Cedric Charlier received an incisive cross-field pass near the top of the box, and lashed out a fierce strike that forced goalkeeper Thomas Bull ’16 to make a diving save.

With Bull scrambling to return to his feet, Bowdoin’s Matt Dias Costa got his foot on the rebound, but the Jeffs caught a fortunate break when he missed the open net.

The Jeffs added a spectacular insurance goal in the 77th minute, as Bubba Van Wie ’15 stole the ball from a Bowdoin defender and dribbled into the box before unleashing a shot over the goalie’s head into the top right corner. The Polar Bears hardly threatened in the final minutes as the Jeffs held on comfortably for the team’s first clean sheet of the season. “It’s really a simple formula.

When we approach games with energy and are ready to compete, we have the chance to be good,� said Coach Serpone.

Earlier in the week, the Jeffs cruised to a 4-1 win at Curry College on Wednesday night.

Amherst opened the scoring in the 32nd minute, when Andrew Orozco ’17 buried a corner kick from Fikke. Taking advantage of another set piece opportunity, Norton doubled the Jeffs’ advantage with a goal just 1:55 before the half.

The Jeffs extended the lead to 3-0 when Wirz headed home a free kick from Hoeksema in the 56th minute.

Amherst conceded a late penalty kick goal in the 87th minute, but the Jeffs responded just 1:14 later, as Will Poss ’16 converted a header opportunity from sophomore Tommy Haskel’s cross.

While Amherst has been prolific on the offensive end — scoring 3.25 goals per game in four wins — the Jeffs have been shakier on defense.

Having conceded three goals in their first three games, the Jeffs have already matched their tally of total goals allowed in 2012 (3 goals in 20

matches). “We don’t want to give up goals, period,� Fikke said. “As a defensefirst program, giving up goals is a huge deal to us.�

Although some regression from 2012 was probably inevitable — which was certainly not helped by the Jeffs being on the wrong side of two penalty kick decisions in 2013 already — the team refuses to attribute defensive problems to bad bounces or officiating calls.

Looking ahead, the Jeffs have their most important regular season match of the year Saturday: a grudge rivalry clash at Williams (3-1, 1-1 NESCAC). The Jeffs defeated Williams in the NESCAC final last year, but the Ephs exacted revenge with a penalty-kick shootout victory over Amherst in the NCAA Quarterfinals in late November. The Jeffs outplayed Williams that day, but it was simply not to be as they hit the post five times in regulation.

While emotions will be running high in Williamstown, the Jeffs cannot afford to overlook today’s match against Conn. College (2-1, 0-1 NESCAC) at Hitchcock Field. In recent years, the Jeffs have struggled against the Camels on home turf, losing two of the past three meetings in Amherst. This time around, complacency will not be an option. “The important thing this week is to take it one step at a time and focus on Conn. College,� Serpone said. “They are a very good team who will compete hard for 90 minutes. This is a huge game for us and we need to be ready.�

Volleyball Swats Competition in Tournament Win

Defeats UNE, Wheaton, Johnson & Wales, and Keene State "OEZ ,OPY Managing Sports Editor Looking to build off of a second place finish at the Springfield Invitational ten days ago, the Firedogs stumbled against a very talented Emerson squad that beat them 3-1 last Tuesday, in a match characterized by close games.

The match against Emerson, however, also signaled the emergence of first-year Nicole Gould who led Amherst with ten kills and believes that the Firedogs week of practice after the loss to Emerson helped Amherst a lot. “We had a couple of great practices leading up to it, so we had a lot of momentum going into the tournament,� Gould said.

Although the Firedogs dropped their match against Emerson at the beginning of the week, they entered the Johnson & Wales Tournament with renewed confidence.

They didn’t disappoint by capturing the tournament championship and entering their home opener against NESCAC rival Bowdoin with confidence and momentum on their side. Key to the success of the Firedogs, according to Gould, is the team dynamic. “Every person on our team makes a huge contribution and we have started to get into a rhythm with each other,� Gould said.

En route to their championship in the Johnson and Wales tournament, the Firedogs showed no mercy to their opponents. Amherst opened tournament play by beating a Univ. of New England squad that had been swept by NESCAC power Bowdoin only days before.

Amherst looked to continue NESCAC dominance over the Nor’Easeters, and did so behind the play of Gould and Nicole Carter ’16, who lead the Firedogs in kills and assists respectively. After dropping the opening game of the match to the Univ. of New England 18-25, the Firedogs went on to win three straight games (25-13, 26-24, 25,10).

Following their 3-1 opening round win, Amherst did not lose another game during the tournament and won 12 of 13 games overall. The Firedogs continued their strong play with a 3-0 win against a Wheaton team that battled for every point.

After grinding out a win in the first game 25-21, the Firedogs won the next two games easily 25-22 and 2515.

After moving to 2-0 in the tournament play the Firedogs entered their semi-final match against Johnson & Wales with the championship within their grasp.

Amherst cruised through the match winning handily 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-15) against a Wildcat team that has not won a match all season.

Katie Warshaw ’16 played tremendous defense for the Firedogs amassing 17 digs and believes, “We were able to implement some plays that we have been working on in practice and were also able to make quick game-time adjustments which will help us compete this weekend.�

Carter continued her stellar play by providing great offense with 11 assists in addition to 11 digs.

After a strong semifinal win, the Firedogs squared off against a tough Keene State squad that went 2-2, but played well enough to go undefeated.

After a tough first set win (2520), Amherst jumped on the Owls early in the second set and doubled their margin of victory (25-16).

Keene State refused to give up and battled the Firedogs to the end, but was swept after losing 25-22.

Junior captain Lauren Antion ’15 thought that the win against Keene State was a defining moment in the season. “We finally hit our stride as a team and the match left us with a ton of momentum heading into our first conference matches against Bowdoin and Bates this weekend,�

Antion said.

Amherst looks to continue their momentum in their first conference match against the Bowdoin College Polar Bears Friday night at 7 p.m. in LeFrak Gymnasium.

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

/JDPMF (PVME MFE B UBMFOUFE DSPQ PG mSTU ZFBST PWFS B TVDDFTTGVM XFFLFOE BU UIF +PIOTPO 8BMFT *OWJUBUJPOBM

10 Sports

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

Schedule WEDNESDAY Men’s Soccer vs. Conn. College, 4 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Springfield , 7 p.m.

FRIDAY Women’s Volleyball vs. Bowdoin, 5 p.m.

SATURDAY Men’s Soccer @ Williams, 12 p.m.

Field Hockey @ Williams, 12 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Bates, 12 p.m. vs. Endicott, 4 p.m.

Men’s Cross Country @ USM Invitational, 12 p.m.

players of the week Football @ Hamilton, 1 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Williams, 2 p.m.

Women’s Golf @ Mt. Holyoke Invitational, All Day Men’s Golf @ Williams Invitational, All Day SUNDAY Women’s Golf @ Mt. Holyoke Invitational, All Day Men’s Golf @ Williams Invitational, All Day TUESDAY Field Hockey vs. Springfield, 4:30 p.m.

Dan Crowley ’16 Favorite Team Memory: When my high school won the Western Mass. Team title If you didn’t run, which sport would you want to play?: Basketball Pet Peeve: Mismatching socks Favorite Place You’ve Traveled To: Ireland Favorite Book: “Catch 22�

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Coffee Favorite Thing About Amherst: Sense of

XC Teams Have Strong Showings at UMass ,BSM (SFFOCMBUU Managing Sports Editor

end, the Jeffs will try to keep the momentum rolling at next weekend’s USM Invitational (Sept. 21).

Although the official scoreboard indicates that both cross country teams finished sixth out of six at the UMass Invitational, the weekend was anything but a loss for the program.

Women Competing against a similarly stiff field, the Jeffs did themselves proud with a string of solid individual performances. First-year Savanna Gorsiewicz, coming off a strong outing at Smith, led the way at 33rd overall with a time of 18:58.56. Close behind her was Sophie Currin ’16 (19:01.23), followed by captain Lizzy Briskin ’15 (19:06.19). First-year Catherine Lowdon (19:11.71) and junior Jessie Kaliski (19:15.61) rounded out Amherst’s top five. “We had a lot of sickness amongst our top runners, which has a big effect on the overall team score,� Coach Cassie Funke-Harris said. “I was really impressed by the way the team executed the race plan. We did a nice job of packing up in the first half, and we moved really well in the second half of the race.�

Gorsiewicz and the other first-years “have adjusted really well to college running,� she said. “If we can keep them healthy and excited, it bodes well for us down the road.�

She found other positives, too, that she believes point to the start of an exciting fall. “Of the upper-classwomen, I was especially impressed with Keelin Moehl ’16 (19:48.54),� she said. “She battled sickness on and off all last fall, but she seems healthy now and had a great race this weekend. It will be fun to see what she’s able to do this year.�

With two weeks off, the team’s first priority will be to get healthy. Once they do so, they will look forward to traveling to Williamstown, Mass. on Sept. 28 for the Purple Valley Classic.

Men Kicking off their season against Division I competition, the squad performed admirably, highlighted by two impressive individual performances from sophomore Dan Crowley and junior KC Fussell. The former led the Jeffs with a time of 19:29.75, good for fourth overall. About five seconds behind him was Fussell, who took ninth overall with a 19:36.44 mark. The duo’s level of success against a stacked field bodes well for a potential breakout season from the runners.

First-year Raymond Meijer also had an excellent day in his first collegiate race (20:05.56), while Alvaro Morales ’14 (20:10.35) and Jeff Seelaus ’16 (20:15.19) put up solid showings as well. “I was really pleased with our results,� Coach Erik “Ned� Nedeau said. “We were very competitive with all the other teams, all of which were Div. I, and we had two guys in the top ten overall, so we did a great job of competing. We were also missing a few guys, including two of our top runners from last year.� Indeed, junior Greg Turissini and senior Charlie Reighard did not participate in the race as both were recovering from injury or illness. “Once we get everyone back, we should see a nice jump,� Nedeau said. “But this meet was an awesome start for us.�

With plenty of bright spots from the week-

"MJTTB 3PUINBO Editor-in-Chief

1BDL SVOOJOH IBT CFFO B LFZ UP UIF +FGGT TVDDFTT TP GBS JO

community

Annika Nygren ‘16 Favorite Team Memory: Beating Trinity in the 2013 NESCAC Quarterfinals in OT If you didn’t play field hockey, which sport would you want to play?: I’d dance Pet Peeve: When people don’t knock on closed bathroom doors Favorite Place You’ve Traveled To: Gotland, Sweden Favorite Book: Any book by Jodi Picoult Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Purple Cow: black raspberry base with white chocolate and chocolate chips Favorite Thing About Amherst: People

Women’s Tennis Opens Season at Columbia

Niahlah Hope ’15 Public Affairs Office

4VF (IPTI SFUVSOT B CBDLhand in her singles match against 1FOO Nicole Yang ’16 Managing Sports Editor The women’s tennis team traveled to Columbia Univ. this past weekend to begin their fall season. Over the course of the three-day tournament, the Jeffs faced some tough Division I competitors including host Columbia, Penn, and St. John’s.

In the doubles matches on Day 1, Amherst played Penn, where dynamic duo Jordan Brewer ’14 and Gabby Devlin ’14 dropped their match 8-4 after going undefeated as a pair in the 2012-2013 Spring season. Fellow seniors, Jen Newman and Zoe Pangalos, also lost their match, falling 8-5.

Sue Ghosh ’16 and Safi Aly ’15 were able to snag an 8-3 win, however, against their opponents, Alex Ion and Brigitte Desnoes.

In the singles play on Day 1, Amherst did not have much luck against Columbia either.

The Lions proved to be too dominant, winning eleven out of the twelve total matches.

Sarah Monteagudo ’16 was able to pull out a victory for the Jeffs in the sixth doubles spot against Amy Li.

Notably, Ghosh and Newman also went the distance and competed in third set tiebreaks. Sadly, both of them fell short: Ghosh’s score in the third spot was 6-4, 1-6, 10-4, while Newman’s score in the fourth spot was 2-6, 6-4, 10-4.

Despite not getting the victory, the Jeffs were satisfied with their level of play. As Ghosh put it, “Even though we were up against tough opponents, our team competed at a very high level. It was a weekend filled with thrilling matches and quality teams�.

On Day 2, Amherst played Columbia in doubles, but faced similar results as Day 1, losing all three matches. In the number one spot, Brewer and Devlin had a highly competitive match, but could not come away with the victory, falling 8-6.

The Jeffs encountered much more success later on Day 2 in their singles matches against St. Johns, coming away with eight wins out of the total twelve matches. First-year Amanda Zalameda made her collegiate debut in the sixth spot, winning her match comfortably 6-2, 6-2. Ghosh also won her match fairly easily in the third spot, 6-1, 6-1.

Amherst had two other victories come from Brewer and Devlin in the one and two spots respectively. Both went to a third set tiebreak: Brewer with a score of 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 and Devlin with a score of 6-4, 1-6, 10-3.

On the third and final day, Amherst faced St. Johns in doubles where they swept the Red Storm, winning all three matches. Brewer and Devlin, Newman and Pangalos, Aly and Ghosh all were able to come away with decisive victories.

In the singles matches, the Jeffs were unable to top Penn, losing all except the third singles match played by Newman. Newman fought a hard three set battle and was able to earn the “W�, 6-1, 3-6, 10-5.

When asked to reflect upon the weekend, Ghosh commented, “It was really nice to play people outside our division and to go against players who we do not normally compete against. I am really looking forward to the rest of the season, and this tournament was most definitely a great start.�

Next up for the Jeffs is the ITA Tournament at Williams the weekend of Sept. 27. After coming off an excellent 2012-2013 season, the Jeffs look to establish themselves as a topranked team again this fall.

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

Sports 11

Women’s Soccer Battles Hollowed Halls The Green Monster Bowdoin to Scoreless Tie ,BSM (SFFOCMBUU

Catherine Lowdon ’17 Staff Writer Amherst Women’s Soccer began the week with a Pioneer Valley match-up against the Mt. Holyoke Lyons. The Jeffs were winning handily, 6-0, with two goals each from Sarah Duffy ’14 and Chloe McKenzie ’14, when bad weather forced the game to be suspended before it became official. It has been rescheduled for Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at MHC. The real action for the week, however, took place on Saturday as the team faced formidable NESCAC opponent Bowdoin College at home.

Amherst and Bowdoin battled to a 0-0 tie in an exciting double-overtime match. “We played well against Bowdoin and kept possession for a good amount of the game. The next step is for the team to work on putting the ball in the back of the net,� said sophomore Jessy Hale.

Both teams struggled offensively for much of the first half. Many shots for both sides went wide,

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

+FTTZ )BMF A LJDLT B DPSOFS

over, or were saved by the goalies. Amherst didn’t get its first direct shot on goal until the 30-minute mark when Maya Jackson-Gibson ’15 blasted a shot on target.

Both sides came close to breaking the scoreless tie early in the second half. A shot by Bowdoin’s Audrey Phillips was saved by Jeffs goalie Holly Burwick ’16, and an Amherst corner by Hale ’16 created a header opportunity for Alex Hart ’15, but it went wide.

Phillips fired another shot on goal midway through the second half, again saved by Burwick, which sparked an offensive surge by the Jeffs. Amherst blasted three shots on goal within the next couple of minutes, but none found the back of the net. Later, another corner by Hale led to an attempt by junior Emma Rothkopf and a Hale rebound, but the Bowdoin defense again stood firm and the teams ended regulation scoreless.

Bowdoin’s Abby Einwag ’16 nearly sent the Polar Bears home with the win in the first overtime. With less than 1:30 remaining, her shot from the 18 sailed over the crossbar and, moments later, she pushed another shot from the left side of the box just wide. In the second overtime, with just under two minutes left, Amherst pressed for the win when Hale sent a pass into the box, which Hart headed just wide. This would be the last offensive challenge from either team as the match ended in a scoreless tie.

Amherst co-Captain Sarah Abrahams ’14 said, “For our upcoming match, we will look to build upon that steadfast defense and possessive flair to strengthen our attack.�

Co-Captain Kate Sisk ’14 added, “Next game, we’ll be looking to continue our passing game against a fast team on a fast turf surface, with a focus on finishing.�

Coach Jennifer Hughes echoed similar thoughts. “We’re struggling a little bit to get our offense going, but I’m confident that with our talent and experience up top, it will come. We have a ton of potential this year, and I’m hoping we get a little bit better and a little bit closer to reaching that potential against Springfield,� Coach Hughes said.

The Jeffs are now 1-0-1 for the season. Their next game is on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at Springfield College. They’ll head to Williamstown this Saturday to take on their archrivals at 2 p.m.

Golf Teams On Par in Weekend Action

Dori Atkins ’16 Sports Section Editor

Men The Amherst Men’s Golf team continued their competitive streak at the Duke Nelson Invitational this past weekend. While not a perfect weekend, the young team took plenty of positives away from the tournament. Middlebury, the tournament host, finished in first place while the Jeffs took the 12th slot of 22 teams that competed.

Although their total scoring wasn’t what the Jeffs had hoped for, the weekend still offered great promise for the rest of their season. Sophomore James Line carried the team, earning him sixth place. “We had a solid day one with four scores in the 70s,� said Line, “We are going to focus on the positives and move on to Williams next weekend.�

Josh Moser ’15 followed a strong showing last weekend with a two-round total of 156 at the Duke Nelson Invitational.

Although it was not the result they may have wanted, captain Erik Hansen ’14 still has a positive outlook on the season: “While I certainly think that we were disappointed with our team’s overall performance, there are several positives we can take away from

the weekend,� said Hansen. “This upcoming weekend should be a good indicator as to where we are at heading into the NESCAC Qualifying Tournament.�

The Jeffs will head to Williamstown this weekend to compete at the Williams Invitational.

Women The Amherst Women’s Golf team opened their season with a fifth place finish this past weekend with a score of 669 at the NYU Fall Invitational. First-year Jamie Gracie led the Jeffs while, Devyn Gardner ’16 and Sooji Choi ’14 also played well. “I think we saw some really good play out of each and every player, but we all know we have some work to do this week,� said Gardner.

Head Coach Michelle Morgan also weighed in on her team’s first tournament. “The team was disappointed in their tournament scores over the weekend, but I am delighted and proud of our first year Jamie Gracie’s first Amherst tournament experience,� Morgan said.

She continued, “The players in general had a hard time stringing some consistent hole by hole scores together, yet each had many moments of strong play, yet each had moments of strong play.�

The Jeffs will look to continue to improve next weekend as they head to South Hadley for the Mount Holyoke Invitational.

The issue of steroids in baseball remains a touchy one, and it has led to some striking snubs in recent Hall of Fame elections.

Though we may instinctively dislike them, should Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, two of the greatest players ever, really have been excluded from Cooperstown in their first years of eligibility?

Imagine you knew nothing about American professional sports. If I told you that every major sport had a Hall of Fame, a place to immortalize the players who dominated and revolutionized their game, it would probably make sense to you. Then, suppose I told you that being among the best players in your era wasn’t always a guarantee to get you into your sport’s Hall.

This seemingly glaring incongruity, one that probably wouldn’t make sense to a child, is just one piece of the fallout from Major League Baseball’s infamous PED scandal. The players I’m thinking of are none other than Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, statistically the greatest power hitter and starting pitcher, respectively, in modern baseball history. This year, the exclusion of Bonds and Clemens from Cooperstown signaled that the Baseball Writers of America — in a move that is probably representative of popular opinion — aren’t backing down when it comes to spurning all things ‘roids. These days, past and present known and even suspected juicers aren’t getting much sympathy from the fans or, in light of A-Rod’s looming 211-game suspension, the Commissioner’s Office.

Generally, our most primeval notions of right and wrong seem to tell us that we shouldn’t reward cheaters. A whole generation of fans lumps Bonds and Clemens into a category of players who, along with other shifty characters such as Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, permanently stained the game and stole their collective innocence. Even in the absence of positive tests, we do have pretty compelling evidence (read: the Mitchell Report and, well, necks that big just aren’t natural) that Bonds and Clemens, not to mention the others, took illegal substances. Purists point to the fact that they artificially inflated their statistics and skewed some of the game’s most sacred records.

They broke the honor code, if you will, as did many of the players in their era, and they should have to pay for that. This perception is similar to the one that Pete Rose has faced over the years.

So, if it may well make some moral sense to snub Bonds and Clemens, on what could I base an opposing argument? My two answers: perspective and context. Let’s deal with the “perspective� part first by taking a closer look at each player’s career arc.

Consider the seven seasons between 1986 and 1992, a time period that probably belonged to the “pre-steroid era� and was, at the least, before Roger Clemens looked like a cartoon character. During those years, the Rocket put up some pretty gawdy numbers. Pitching for the Red Sox, the tough Texan was a three-time 20-game winner, a four-time ERA titleist, an MVP winner and a three-time Cy Young recipient. Sounds like dominance to me, which is one of the key criteria for Hall of Fame induction.

His performance stacks up roughly with the seven-year run for Pedro Martinez, who most agree will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, between 1997 and 2003. Pedro’s resume over those seasons? Five ERA titles, three Cy Youngs and one twenty-win season. With the exception of a few good full seasons and a World Series ring on either side, that was the extent of Pedro’s meaningful career. Going back to Clemens, there’s a perception that he was declining between 1992 and 1996 before his ‘roid-induced renaissance in ’97 and ’98. In 1996, however, he posted a 3.63 ERA and led the league in strikeouts, 20 of which came on a legendary night at Tiger Stadium. Some decline. What if Clemens, a legendary workout animal, had pitched just six more years (as opposed to twelve) at a similar level? He might have reasonably totaled between 230 and 250 wins (his “real-life� total was 354) in addition to putting up one of the

best seven-year stretches the world has ever seen. For further comparison, Pedro had 219 career wins. So, would Roger have been a Hall of Famer even if PED’s had never entered the equation?Almost certainly, so why shouldn’t he be one now?

A similar argument can be made in defense of Bonds, the game’s all-time home runs leader. Take his 73-homer season and subsequent campaigns — during which he won four MVP awards — out of play entirely, and you still have a seriously impressive hitter on your hands. Between 1990 and 2000, when Bonds hardly appeared muscle-bound, he hit at least 30 home runs every year but one and reliably batted .300. He won three MVP’s and led the league in on-base percentage four times. Give Bonds five more reasonably good seasons in the big leagues, and he easily finishes with 500 home runs. Add his 500 stolen bases, most of which came before the bulk years, and he is in truly elite company, most definitely Hall-worthy.

Now I’ll address the “context� part, the aspect that sets Bonds and Clemens apart from Rose, who was largely a lone offender in terms of his betting on games. Many people don’t want to hear it, but we simply can’t judge Bonds and Clemens, nor any player, in absolute terms.

We have to judge their later years based on the era in which they played.: the Steroid Era. If you believe Jose Canseco or Eric Gagne, two admitted PED users who later gave candid accounts of steroid use in baseball clubhouses, the majority of players were on something between, say, 1995 and 2005.

That begs the obvious question of how many of the hitters and pitchers that Bonds and Clemens faced also had an “unfair� advantage.

We’ll never know for sure, but it’s likely that a lot of them did. Even eight years ago, let alone 20, the health hazards of anabolic steroids, much as those of smoking, were less widely acknowledged. So, if steroids were epidemic, the fact remains that Bonds and Clemens were among the best players of their era — another important criterion for Hall induction.

Think about this long enough, and you might begin to reconsider the whole morality question surrounding steroid use. Sure, Bonds and Clemens broke the rules that were in place at the time. There’s also the issue of Bonds’ perjury conviction following the Mitchell Report, although he would hardly be the first revered athlete to run into legal troubles (last time I checked, we hadn’t struck OJ from the Football Hall of Fame).

But, given that PED ingestion might have been something close to the norm at the time, was it the individual players or the failure of a whole system that really stole the fans’ “innocence?� Should we automatically condemn the individuals for breaking rules when it seems that those rules were pretty flimsy in the first place? What about the previous generations of players who used cocaine or amphetamines — also against baseball’s rules at the time and illegal — to keep their mental “edge� (which we know happened)? Why don’t we talk about them as much or consider them as evil as the steroid users? It sounds more like an ethics class than a baseball column, but none of it is as clear-cut as we’d like to think.

It may still hurt our sense of justice to grant Bonds and Clemens what I believe they are due.

But it would also hurt to reduce the Baseball Hall of Fame, which, like it or not, is an American institution, to a joke. Barry and the Rocket aren’t going to be topping any lists of favorite players anytime soon, but, as with the notoriously acerbic Ty Cobb generations ago, nobody can deny their greatness. And, essentially, greatness is what the Hall of Fame is about.

Sports

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 4FQUFNCFS

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

Field Hockey’s Balanced Attack Topples Bowdoin After Loss to Mt. Holyoke, Jeffs Bounce Back Big Lauren Tuiskula ’17 Staff Writer After a heartbreaking overtime loss to the third-ranked Middlebury Panthers, the Jeffs travelled to Mount Holyoke on Tuesday, Sept.

10 to take on the Lyons in a Five College battle.

The Lyons jumped out to an early lead.

Diana Banmann scored unassisted just eight minutes into the first half. The 1-0 score would remain through the first thirty-five minutes of play.

Banmann was also the one to get things started in the second half. Doubling the Lyons lead, she scored off a rebound stemming from the shot of Mount Holyoke midfielder Sarah LaQuerre.

Amherst answered with just over twenty minutes left to play as Katie Paolano ’16 netted an assist from Sarah Cuhlane ’17.

The Jeffs would knot things at two just minutes later. The attacked formed thanks to an Amherst corner. Krista Zsitvay ’14 had a shot on net, and Paolano was able to finish the rebound, scoring her second goal on the day.

Despite mounting a strong offensive attack and having the advantage in shots (31-9) and corners (29-2), Amherst would suffer another OT loss.

Banmann provided the final blow, capping a hat trick. Just two minutes into extra time she was able to find the twine on a rebound provided by the shot of Kirsten Kilburn.

Carrying an 0-2 record that was not indicative of the quality of their play, the Jeffs headed into a NESCAC contest on Saturday, Sept. 14 against the fourth-ranked Bowdoin Polar Bears.

Annika Nygren ’16 got the scoring started

about eleven minutes in, scoring off an assist from Paolano who had gained possession upfield.

The Polar Bears would answer before the half was out. Forward Emily Simonton found the back of the net after a rebound came loose in the crease.

It appeared as if Bowdoin would take the lead going into intermission, creating a strong offensive attack and earning three consecutive corners. After an Amherst penalty, Katie Riley was awarded a penalty shot for Bowdoin. She aimed to junior goalie Rachel Tannenbaum’s left side, but Tannenbaum was able to make an incredible diving stop, ensuring that the scored remained tied heading into the half.

This save would fuel the Jeffs for the second half. “Any time a goalie saves a stroke, it sends a wave of energy through the rest of the team,� commented Coach Carol Knerr.

The energy level and motivation was apparent throughout the final thirty-five minutes from the Jeffs.

Bowdoin took the lead early in the half after earning a corner. Colleen Finerty received the pass from the right side and had a shot on goal. The ball deflected off of Tannenbaum, and Riley was able to finish the rebound.

The Jeffs, however would not allow Bowdoin to maintain the lead — or to recapture it for the rest of the match.

After a strong offensive drive, Paolano tied the score at two, finishing off an assist from first-year Mary Margaret Stoll.

Just two minutes later, Nygren (NESCAC player of the week) provided what would ultimately be the game winner. Amherst controlled play on the right side as Zsitvay crossed

the ball allowing Nygren to sink her second goal of the contest.

Senior midfielder Alex Philie provided an insurance goal for the Jeffs as she scored from the center of the circle off a corner pass from Ellie Andersen ’15. This was the Jeffs third goal in a short, twelve minute window. “To score three goals in a span of 12 minutes speaks to how much of an attacking threat our team can be,� Coach Knerr noted.

The Amherst defense was able to stifle the Bowdoin attack for the remainder of the game.

Tannenbaum closed out the game by venturing out of the net to shut down a Bowdoin breakaway in the final seconds. She finished with fourteen saves in the Jeffs’ upset of the 4th ranked Polar Bears.

Next up, the Jeffs (1-2) will face Williams (0-3) on Saturday, Sept. 21 at noon, in Williamstown.

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

4FOJPS DBQUBJO "MFY 1IJMJF OFUUFE B HPBM GPS UIF +FGGT BT QBSU PG UIFJS victory over Bowdoin.