Issue 4

Women’s Soccer Dominates SeventhRanked Williams See Sports, Page 11 THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

VOLUME CXLIV, ISSUE 4 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Student Affairs Reviews Party Policy Ricky Choi ’18 and Elaine Jeon ’17 Staff Writer and News Section Editor

On Sunday, Sept. 21, a group of Amherst students traveled to New York to participate in the People’s Climate March. With over 300,000 people in attendance, the 2.2-mile march was the largest climate march in history. The marchers in New York were joined by numerous other marchers worldwide.

Image courtesy of Talia Schmitt

College Continues to Revise Title IX Policy New Initiatives Focus on Sexual Misconduct Prevention Dan Ahn ’17 and Sitina Xu ’16 Managing News Editors The Office of Student Affairs announced on Sept. 13 that another student has been expelled from the college for committing sexual assault. This marks the second expulsion for sexual assault since the introduction of a new sexual misconduct policy in spring 2013. Administrators say that the college is taking new steps this academic year to increase transparency of Title IX policies, make the complaint process more accessible and educate the student body about their Title IX rights.

Title IX, a component of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972, reads, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Following a series of nationwide controversies on campus sexual violence, the De-

partment of Education’s Office for Civil Rights began conducting investigations of specific colleges. An official list of 55 schools under investigation, including Amherst College, was released this past May. The Office for Civil Rights has not yet released the results of its investigation. However, a comprehensive report on investigative results from Amherst’s Title IX team is scheduled for release in early October. Amherst, as one of the first schools to release such a report, is coordinating with other schools to clarify and refine colleges’ relationships with Title IX. “We’re working with what is now a fairly extensive group of Title IX coordinators not just in the region, but across the country, that are all on listservs and chats and all kinds of stuff to say ‘Here’s what we’re doing on our campus,’” said Dean of Students Alex Vasquez.

“And you sort of try to think of best practices in that way.”

Among the spring 2013 policy changes was the creation of a sexual misconduct hearing

board responsible for determining the verdict and charge of the offense.

“The hearing board is charged with determining whether a student is responsible for the alleged misconduct,” said Title IX Coordinator Laurie Frankl. “If a hearing board does find a student responsible, it is also charged with determining the appropriate sanction, and evaluates numerous factors in doing so, including the evidence it received and the nature of the offense.”

According to Frankl, each hearing board is composed of specially trained persons outside of the college, mostly from the five college community.

Each member receives comprehensive training on the college’s sexual misconduct and honor code policies, trauma and how it affects individuals impacted by sexual misconduct, as well as how to receive and review evidence in an open-minded way.

Continued on Page 3

After introducing a new party policy as a pilot program last semester, the Office of Student Affairs says it plans to keep the new policy in place for the foreseeable future.

The party policy is designed to promote a safer and more respectful social environment on campus. The policy was created partly in response to last December’s Crossett Christmas event, which attracted approximately 2,000 people to the social quad. In response to the event, the administration initiated a policy in which student hosts of parties, called party sponsors, must reserve public spaces in advance, in order to prevent extreme overcrowding and potential danger.

“What’s hard about private parties is that they promote and encourage an environment that has really proven dangerous for our students,” said Dean of Student Alex Vasquez.

“What we hope we can do with the party policy is encourage better behavior with students, encourage the right opportunities for students to drink responsibly, to not engage in the kind of behavior that doesn’t keep students safe.”

The party policy provides an alternative to the crowded suites of the social dorms and enables students to register parties in more open, public spaces. According to the policy, students must register a party if an event is being sponsored by college collected funds, uses a public space for dancing with loud music, or if it has attendees who are consuming alcoholic beverages. In addition, party sponsors must communicate with resident counselors for residential spaces or with an administrator for non-residence hall venues.

Furthermore, party sponsors must remain sober throughout the duration of the party and make a responsible effort to manage parties. Acting responsibly includes addressing unsafe intoxication and overcrowding, as well as requesting assistance from Amherst College Police or Amherst College Emergency Medical Services (ACEMS) for problems that develop outside of sponsors’ reasonable control.

“But, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the college is looking to use the party policy to end all fun at Amherst,” Vasquez said. “We

Continued on Page 3

AAS Senators Conduct Constitutional Review

Eli Mansbach ’18 Staff Writer

In the wake of controversies surrounding last spring’s presidential elections, a group of Amherst senators is reviewing the Association of Amherst Students constitution and attempting to clarify its gray areas.

Debate over the AAS constitution heated up last May, when the Judiciary Council ruled that Amani Ahmed ’15’s presidential campaign had exceeded the $45 spending limit.

Although Ahmed spent only $39.40 on posters she used, she spent an additional $20.35 on posters she did not use. As a result, some students argued that Ahmed had violated

the constitution’s definition of campaign expenditures. However, others argued that the definition of campaign expenditures did not include unused materials.

Following this debate, the student body passed a referendum that aimed to clarify the constitution’s definition of campaign expenditures. According to the new constitutional language, campaign expenditures are defined as “any and all expenses including but not limited to any purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, gift of money, or anything of monetary value made by the candidate, on behalf of the candidate, or given to the candidate for the purposes of influencing any election from the campaign’s inception.”

Olivia Pinney ’17 is one of the senators who is reviewing the constitution.

“It became pretty obvious that there were issues that needed to be dealt with in terms of things that were said in the constitution or things that weren’t said and needed to be said,” Pinney said.

Peter Crane ’15, another senator who is currently helping to review the AAS constitution, described the impetus for the constitutional review process.

“I think it was needed as a result of what happened last spring,” Crane said. “Several different legal issues came up [with the election] ... a myriad of issues. But then also taking a step back, there was a general discontent

with the AAS and how it was structured, and people really wanted to see a fundamental change.”

Over the summer small groups of senators began reviewing problematic clauses and ambiguities in the constitution.

“It started with a Google Doc that had the constitution in it, and people just started commenting,” Pinney said, “saying, ‘I’ve never liked this part,’ or ‘This part caused this issue in this year,’ and we tried to identify what the existing problems were and talked about whether there were ways to solve them.”

Pinney also said that all students, includ-

Continued on Page 3

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3

News

Amelia Worsley Sept. 15, 2014 to Sept. 21, 2014

>>Sept. 15, 2014 11:00 a.m., James Dormitory An officer investigated a report about the theft of some books.

marijuana on the third floor. The odor was detected but the source could not be identified.

10:57 p.m., Pond Dormitory An officer discovered an unauthorized party in the basement with alcohol and two beer pong tables. The event was shut down and the alcohol was disposed of. >>Sept. 21, 2014 12:07 a.m., Crossett Dormitory An officer observed two people dancing on a windowsill and they got down when the officer shined his light at them. A man then threw a plastic baseball bat out the window. The officer spoke with him and obtained his identification.

12:24 a.m., Little Red Schoolhouse An officer observed a female urinating in the social dorm quad. She was identified as a visitor and warned about her actions.

12:24 a.m., Stone Dormitory A student reported he was at a party in Stone and left. When he attempted to return he was denied access.

>>Sept. 17, 2014 12:30 p.m., Seeley Mudd Building Amherst College Police received a report from a student employee of the Computer Center about an encounter she had with a male that was suspicious in nature. The matter is under investigation.

6:25 p.m., Wilson Admissions An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

11:52 p.m., Stone Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning at a thirdfloor room. >>Sept. 19, 2014 12:11 a.m., Garman House Officers responded to a complaint of loud music and the odor of marijuana smoke on the second floor. Officers spoke to a resident and had the music lowered.

There was a slight odor of marijuana, but no other evidence was seen.

12:48 a.m., Northampton Rd. Officers responded to a report of a person passed out on the sidewalk along Rt. 9 near Pratt Field. The man was located and placed in protective custody by the Amherst Police as he was in their jurisdiction.

9:34 p.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory A resident reported a “disturbing letter” was found posted on a dryer. An officer investigated.

12:39 a.m., Social Quad An officer encountered an intoxicated visitor vomiting near the building. No medical intervention was necessary.

12:46 a.m., Powerhouse An officer observed five people on the roof of the Powerhouse restrooms. One man was identified as a visitor, and the others fled.

1:52 a.m., Crossett Loading Dock An officer encountered several females who were assisting an intoxicated woman. The woman, who was from the Five College area, did not require medical assistance and was released to her friends.

7:20 a.m., Pratt Pool An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

7:07 p.m., Fayerweather Hall Officers and the fire department responded to a small fire which occurred when wax came in contact with a heating element.

11:31 p.m., Pond Dormitory An officer encountered an unauthorized party with a small amount of alcohol. The gathering was dispersed, and the alcohol was disposed of.

>>Sept. 20, 2014 1:57 a.m., Woodside Ave. An officer responded to a report of two people arguing. Assistance was provided, and the Amherst Police were notified because the incident occurred in their jurisdiction.

4:50 a.m., Emily Dickinson House Officers investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set of by an employee.

8:20 p.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory A caller complained about the odor of

Illustrations by Clarice Carmichael ’16

Fresh Faculty Department of English

Assistant Professor of English Amelia Worsley grew up in Wolverhampton, England and studied English at Selwyn College, Cambridge. She received her master’s degree from Brown and her Ph.D. from Princeton.

Q: How did you begin studying your subject and what made you decide to pursue it?

A: Reading literature was something that I loved from an early age, but not something that I planned to do as a career. I come from a medical family: my parents both worked in hospitals. As a teenager, I wanted to do the same. In the UK, doctors don’t go to med school, or even study as premed — they simply opt in to a medical degree when they start college. When I was 16, most of my friends were already pretty sure whether they were a sciences or a humanities person, but I wasn’t. So I chose chemistry and biology, the requisites for a degree in medicine, but also continued to study English and Latin literature for fun.

When it got to the point of applying to college, I realized that I didn’t want to give up literature, even if I still liked the idea of working in a hospital. I am always pleased I made that decision to do what I loved! But nonetheless, it was a very hard decision for me to apply to study English rather than medicine, because I wasn’t sure where it might lead. I knew I would definitely have a career where I would be helping people if I studied medicine — I wasn’t sure how English could lead me to do that.

Even now, I try to keep my original motivations in mind as I work as a professor.

Q: Why did you decide to teach at Amherst?

A: When I was just beginning at Princeton, I came on a college tour with a group of high school students from the Princeton University Preparatory Program. Amherst College’s commitment to its community, as well as to diversity, made it stand out from all the other schools we visited. I was really pleased to see that they had an opening in my field and very happy to be invited to join the English Department, which is a very intellectually exciting place to be.

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

A: I am interested in the history of poetry and poetics, especially poetry written in Britain from 1660 to1830, and am currently working on a book about the history of loneliness. Both the words “lonely” and “loneliness” are newer than one might expect: there are very few records before the 17th century. When I discovered this, I became interested in the question of what this might reveal about English culture during the period. I wondered, did the invention of loneliness record a change in the way people understood the status of solitude and of the idea of the individual? Because I tend to work on poetry rather than prose, I wondered what this new concept might mean for poets in particular. Since so many Romantic poets picture themselves as lonely in their most creative moments, I wanted to question how and why the idea of what it meant to be a poet became aligned with what it meant to be lonely.

As I traced where the term actually shows up in literature, I found that loneliness’s history has an unexpected gendered dimension.

Previous accounts of literary loneliness have tended to focus on the figure of the male (and often melancholy) solitary, from Hamlet to the graveyard poets to Wordsworth. But contrary to Romantic associations, the first instances of the words “lonely” and “loneliness” describe female characters together with other people, rather than male figures who are alone. I

therefore offer a new account of the origins of the Romantic poetic imagination, which starts with the female, rather than the male, body.

My work on the lonely poet also has consequences for how we understand what it means to be lonely today. This emotion might seem in many ways natural or universal, but it has a history, and a literary one at that. Without particular words to describe emotions, they might not be quite the same — without particular poets and poems, descriptions of loneliness today might have been different.

Q: Are you currently working on publishing anything, or have you published anything before?

A: I’m working on my book, “The Invention of Loneliness.” An article about Ophelia’s loneliness, which will be the first chapter of the book, is forthcoming in a journal called English Literary History, or ELH, this summer.

Q: What classes are you teaching this semester? What classes are you teaching next semester? What are they about?

A: This semester, I’m teaching two seminars, Engaging Literature: Close Reading and Nature and the Imagination in the Romantic Age. Close Reading is a class aimed at people just starting out with English. The main question of this course is “why study literature?”

We look at a huge variety of texts, from Shakespeare to contemporary novels, from political speeches to music videos, with a view to understanding the tension between language and meaning.

In Nature and the Imagination in the Romantic Age, we are questioning the extent to which our modern perceptions of the way our imagination works might have been conditioned by 19th- century poets’ ideas about their relationship to nature. We end by questioning how Romantic ideas of nature and the imagination have shaped contemporary environmental discourse. Separate courses on Green Romanticism and on the History of Aesthetics and the Imagination often study the same poems, but the two perspectives have not often been considered in relationship to each other.

Next semester, I will be teaching Reading Poetry and a 400-level seminar on Solitude and the Self.

Q: What aspects of Amherst do you like so far?

A: I’m really enjoying the way my students interact with each other in class. The combination of respect for each other and irreverence with respect to received ideas is truly wonderful. I find the community a very welcoming one, full of intellectual possibilities. I like Amherst’s stress on co-teaching and I’m already imagining possibilities for that. I’m also enjoying the landscape and looking forward to fall.

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

A: I like to go to the theater and to readings, listen to music and watch films and documentaries. On weekends, I like to explore new places and visit friends in old ones. I like running, but only when I can do it outside. My favorite book is “The Prelude,” by William Wordsworth, a book that I have been rereading and rereading for 10 years now.

— Kenny Kim ’17

The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

News

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College Continues to Revise Title IX Policy Continued from Page 1

Moreover, new counseling infrastructure has been put in place for both complainants and defendants — an issue which was a flashpoint in the college’s sexual misconduct policy controversies.

“My role regarding the early, pre-hearing stages of an adjudication is to provide complete and equal explanations of procedures and opportunities,” said Director of Student Conduct and Community Standards Dean Gendron. “I will attempt to reduce anxiety that a participant may feel as a result of encountering a new and unfamiliar process.

Interpersonal violence matters are very often inherently sensitive and traumatizing, and my role is to reduce any added friction that a participant’s progress through an adjudication might cause.”

The Title IX team has also been working to develop broad-based education and prevention measures aimed at changing campus culture and understanding of Title IX. One key initiative to this end is the new “Here’s How We Can Help” pamphlet that was mailed to every student a week ago.

“We’re really excited about this pamphlet,” Frankl said. “It’s the first opportunity that we’ve had to really do a broad Title IX messaging across campus.”

The pamphlet serves several purposes. Accirding to Frankl, it explains “what the Title IX team does here at Amherst, and makes sure folks in the campus understand that we’re really here to help, and we’re here to help connect people in need with resources.”

The pamphlet explains how students can contact different types of medical, legal and investigative support systems available both on and off campus.

In addition, the pamphlet defines behaviors prohibited under Title IX, including sexual violence, misconduct, rape, assault and stalking.

“We wanted to make it clear that there is certain type of conduct here that is unacceptable, and make that explicit,” Frankl said.

Furthermore, sexual respect education, spearheaded by sexual respect educator Amanda Collings Vann, has focused on prevention initiatives that aim to change the culture surrounding sexual assault and violence.

Vann said her focus is on bystander initiative training.

“We know that when we have students who are willing to be active bystanders when they see incidents of sexual violence and sexual disrespect, it sends the message that that type of behavior is not OK at Amherst,” Vann said.

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

e h t n i o J ! ff a t s s w ne If you want to write for us, email us at sixu16@amherst.edu, dahn17@amherst.edu or schung17@amherst.edu

“It’s not something we are going to tolerate on our campus.”

Brief bystander initiative training was giving to incoming students, and the athletic department has asked for bystander training for all its teams this fall.

“We had done a couple last year for the the football team, the hockey team, the lacrosse team, at their requests,” Vann said. “We’re doing all of [the teams] this year.”

Additionally, Vann has partnered with the the Center for Women and Community and the college’s Women’s and Gender Center to provide support to both perpetrators and survivors of sexual violence.

Support initiatives for perpetrators aim to help perpetrators understand and prevent further acts of sexual violence. Support for survivors aims to provide continuing therapy and rehabilitation through workshops focused on body movement and art therapy.

Vann said she hopes that sexual respect education will be an “inherently positive” force, capable of impacting campus culture and the culture of the greater community.

“A sexually respectful community means that we have a community that does not have sexual violence,” Vann said. “Our ultimate goal as our students graduate and move out into different careers, different countries, different parts of the U.S. perhaps, is that they’re bringing with them this idea of what it looks like to have a sexually respectful community, which will ultimately help to shape our national policies, and will hopefully create safer spaces on campus.”

As the college’s Title IX and sexual respect policies continue to develop, a Title IX review committee is also forming to reflect on current and past policy and to improve the college’s Title IX compliance efforts.

The committee will include four students, two faculty members, two center directors, Frankl and Vann, with the college’s General Counsel Lisa Rutherford as chair.

“The review committee will serve a few different purposes,” Frankl said. “But certainly one of them will be to receive highly redacted information about closed cases, and be able to take a look at the way our policies and processes are being implemented, as a way to make recommendations if necessary on what we could be doing better.”

In the coming weeks, the first annual memorandum from Frankl will be released, providing more information about the resolution of sexual misconduct cases since January 2012. The report is expected to be released in October.

Staff Photographer: Matthew Chow ’18

The newly-opened Powerhouse provides students with another option to host and register parties under the party policy.

Party Policy Reviewed Continued from Page 1 want to use the party policy to encourage a social environment where students feel like they can have a great time, drink responsibly, and wake up the next morning in their room, safe, feeling like they had a great time.”

The recently-renovated Powerhouse provides another option for registering parties under the new policy. The Powerhouse held Beach Bash, the first Amherst TAP (The Amherst Party) this past weekend.

“The Powerhouse opens at a point at which if a student has started drinking at ‘X’ time in the evening and is going to drink until about two in the morning, the Powerhouse really interrupts that, and I think it interrupts that in a positive way because people have enjoyed it,” Vasquez said. “And if the Powerhouse becomes a venue where there is alcohol — and there’s no intention to say that it’s not — it’s not about asking the institution, ‘Can we have alcohol at the Powerhouse?’; it’s about partnering with the college to say, ‘If we have alcohol at the Powerhouse, how do we do it best?’”

Although the party policy has not changed since the past academic semester, it is not yet set in stone. In fact, last semester’s effort was a pilot program. Vasquez said that changes to the alcohol policy would likely come from partnerships with students.

“I think we will look at the policy in an interactive way and see semester by semester what parts of this are really working, what

changes need to be made, and what we see as sort of positive impacts and negative impacts,” Vasquez said. “But if we were to propose changes to the party policy, we will absolutely be partnering with students to do that.”

The college’s police department has been collaborating with the Office of Student Affairs to continue promoting a safer social environment on campus this academic year.

“The primary goal of the police department remains the same, and that is to ensure that our residents and guests are in a reasonably safe environment,” said Police Chief John Carter.

Carter said that creating safe environments involves addressing “the overcrowding in buildings, the minimization of abuse or illegal use of alcohol, and actively taking care of each other by providing help when it’s needed.”

“The party policy is an excellent method for accomplishing this goal by positively impacting all of these things,” Carter said. “Smaller gatherings do not allow for anonymous bad behavior and they encourage bystander interventions.”

Carter noted that the number of noise complaints and unauthorized parties has increased slightly compared to last year. But he said said that since the academic year has only just begun, it is too soon to know whether the party policy has been successful.

“This early in the year, the statistical sampling would be so small that any fluctuation could be easily misread,” Carter said.

AAS Conducts Constitutional Review Continued from Page 1

ing non-senators, are allowed look over the constitution and submit proposals for its improvement. However, all of the students working on the review process this summer happened to be senators. This group was organized independently by individual senators, and is not an official AAS committee.

“Different people have taken on different parts [of the constitution]” Pinney said. “For example, Sam Keaser is a 2017E, and he is having difficulty because there weren’t rules for people who were in between classes in the constitution before.”

Pinney, a member of the AAS Elections Committee, has focused particularly on clarifying election-related clauses of the constitution.

“It is a lot of small things,” Pinney said, “like keeping anyone on the Elections Committee from being able to see the results beforehand, which was the issue two years ago.

It’s trying to increase political conversation about the election. Just things we think are

going to make the process better.”

Crane said that the reviewers are not trying to rush the review process, and the process will take a long time to complete.

“It’s going to be a weeks-long process where the first four-fifths of it or so will not involve up-or-down voting,” Crane said. “We are spending these few weeks just showing the senate [the potential amendments] ... Then after that, we will go to the public and probably do a town hall outreach effort and an online accessible Google Drive or Facebook event where students can post things online and interact with both the constitution and our proposals specifically.”

Crane said that he hopes to receive extensive feedback from the student body after the initial senate hearings, and that some of the issues have multiple solutions so that students can be given an opportunity to participate in decisions.

Tomi Williams ’16, another senator helping with the review process, said that the review board will likely publicize its amend-

ments in the coming week so that they can receive feedback from the student body. After the reviewers have received student feedback, they will submit their final proposals to the AAS for an up-or-down vote.

Although each reviewer focused on a specific part of the constitution, Crane emphasized that the review process involves a collaboration among a large, diverse group of people.

“It’s a team effort,” Crane said. “I am working with Tomi Williams, who is my former opponent.” Williams and Crane ran against each other in last spring’s presidential elections, and are running against each other in this week’s presidential elections as well.

Williams echoed Crane’s sentiment.

“I paid particular attention to issues regarding the referendum, succession plan for members of the Executive Committee and senate projects,” Williams said in an email interview. “But at the end of the day, all of the work done over the summer and so far this fall has been collaborative.”

Opinion The Mystery of the Missing Dreams

Editorial Why Amherst Needs A President For the first time in recent memory, Amherst students have been without the significant representation found in a student body president. Yes, we’ve had upheavals within the AAS before: election scandals, constitutional conventions and even dissolutions of the entire governments. These repeated “scandals” only illustrate how, as students, our faith is visibly shaken in our student-led institution to do anything more substantive for the student body than dole out money to clubs.

The presidential elections are happening this week, already three weeks into the school year. Yet, for these three weeks, we have survived as a student body without a president. In fact, some might say we have thrived: we’ve seen another sexual assault expulsion and the opening of the Powerhouse. Following the confusion and frustration of last year’s election drama, the question on the tip of everyone’s tongue seems to be: “Why do we even need a president?”

In essence, why should we, as Amherst students, even care who’s running?

Amherst needs a president for precisely that reason: to unite the student body and translate student ideas into actions. The statement “a president should serve as a liaison between the AAS and the student body” is thrown around a lot during elections. But it’s a fundamental right that students have.

AAS senators work hard, but due to the nature of any social group (imagine a sports team), they become close, partially insular and seemingly unapproachable. It’s an unfortunate reality of a small liberal arts college.

But the president should ideally bridge this gap and be visible to the entire school. Thus, the president serves the essential role of being the “go-to” recognizable figure for every member of campus. They’re the person you can sit next to at Val and say “I know this idea is crazy but…” Any president worthy of the title will work with you and make your crazy idea a reality.

A president is there to hear your frustrations not only about the AAS but also about Amherst as an institution in general and to wield the collective mandate to create change in a way that no other student can. The presidential platform you vote for should be a culmination of both your largest disappointments and loftiest hopes for Amherst College. Our student community might unite over the hope of a Mountain Day, a Title IX review committee, further sexual assault reform or a “moose-scot.” Then, with the support of the student body behind them, the president could meet with the proper people and wield the authority to make these ideas concrete.

While the idea of a united student body petitioning the administration on our own sounds perfect, it is also impossibly idealistic. It would mean that students would lack a centralized body where we could properly communicate, focus our wants and convey them effectively to faculty and administration, creating new policies and real change. Ultimately, we need a representative of our ideas, our ideals and our passions in order unite around not only the Amherst that we are but the Amherst that we could be.

“In AAS and election fraud we trust.”

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editor-in-Chief Sophie Murguia Executive Adviser Brendan Hsu Managing News Dan Ahn, Sophie Chung, Sitina Xu Managing Opinion Johnathan Appel, Marie Lambert Managing Arts and Living Marquez Cummings, Liz Mardeusz Managing Sports Andrew Knox, Nicole Yang

Shruthi Badri ’16 Contributing Writer Amherst College is a place of abundance. We have a plethora of intellectual thought, an admirably high degree of social and economic diversity, a formidable endowment and a surprising number of vegan dessert options. The contrarian in me was thus tempted to look for that which we are missing.

The thing that struck me was disconcerting and fascinating — we have a dearth of dreams.

The lack of dreams at the college is not an immediately apparent fact, largely because of the lack of dreams in the world at large. Far from being conspicuously absent, upon superficial glance, dreams seem like they’re everywhere on campus. People are walking about with purpose. The library and gym are seldom left unused. Google calendars and personal planners are bursting to the seams with all the stuff that has been penciled in. Every minute, a resume is being edited somewhere in the school. It seems crazy to claim that dreams are missing here.

I have no desire to contest that plenty of things get done at that college — indeed, it is unlikely you will find a group of people much more hard-working or committed than the students here. What I cannot grant, however, is that most of this is done to any particularly meaningful end. We live in a world where hard work and busyness are deified. A generation of parents were influenced by Malcolm Gladwell’s call to praise their kids for working hard, not being smart. While this was an important shift from the obsession with intrinsic talent, the hard work philosophy did have a rather significant gap — what was it that was being worked hard towards?

It is an absurdity of the age that “committed” is a quality one can possess, without also having a thing they are committed to.

Resume-building is a task that has poisoned the way we think. Peter Thiel, in his new book “Zero to One,” remarks, “By the time a student gets to college, he’s spent a decade curating a bewilderingly diverse resume to prepare for a completely unknowable future. Come what may, he’s ready — for nothing in particular.” The exercise of writing a resume is wrangling out a pattern from your life that embodies certain “ideal” characteristics — team spirit, leadership, analytic ability, communication skills and creativity.

Most students are intimately aware of the features of a good resume — if we don’t know coming in, there are enough channels to ensure we do before we leave college. We are encouraged to use this as a blueprint for our lives — to run clubs we have little enthusiasm for, obsess over our GPAs, struggle through math or economics classes because these “look good,” and take internships we have scant interest in.

We have disdain for formulaic films, literature and music, priding ourselves on our good taste. How are we then content to live formulaic lives which are no less mediocre? Perhaps the obsession with the former is a distraction from the latter.

It is hard to believe that it was always this way.

No child dreams of having the perfect curriculum vitae, yet this has become the resounding consensus of what this generation of college-educated young adults aims towards. Yes, our student body is filled with aspiring doctors, lawyers, professors, financiers and consultants, but these are merely vocations.

Picking a profession is comforting because it saves us the trouble of needing to consciously think about what it is that we hope to accomplish in life and reflect carefully on our actions. Instead, we can let someone else make the plan for us, and all we need to do is show up and hit the metrics, which as Amherst students we excel in anyway. We are becoming tourists in our own lives instead of explorers, letting guides lead the way because the chance of finding ourselves lost is so terrifying that we’d settle for being herded along and checking things off of somebody else’s bucket list.

We need to start being more brave, and be

S TA F F Design Editors Gabby Bishop, Megan Do, William Harvey, Sunna Juhn, Andrew Kim, Eli Mansbach, Madi Ruoff News Section Editor Elaine Jeon Sports Section Editors Dori Atkins, Sam Javit, Jason Stein, Jeremy Kesselhaut Publishers Nazir Khan, David Walchak Photography Editor Olivia Tarantino

willing to really dream. Yes, the stakes are incredibly high, but to think that the alternative is “safe” is delusional — it is nothing less than squandering a life, an activity that can easily be returned to should plans not work out as hoped. I’m not saying professions are inherently bad or that students should drop out of school and do what they love. “Do what you love” is an irresponsible slogan that slips easily from the lips of the biased and tiny sample size of those who’ve made it in careers with a very high chance element. It is not about an enjoyable dayto-day experience but rather aligning daily actions with larger goals. In other words, “ensure you are (eventually) in a position to do what is important to you.” Less catchy, I know. What I am saying is that students need to think about what they want their impact on the world to be and then take whatever they come up with seriously. Professions are merely avenues to carry out work, so the focus should be on articulating the latter. “Making quality medical care accessible to low-income neighborhoods” rather than “doctor,” “understanding how to transform structures in companies to allow for social and environmental sustainability” instead of “consultant.”

Not yet knowing what one hopes to accomplish and explicitly saying this is far more reasonable than pretending this is not the case, and dedicating a lifetime to keeping up that façade. Corporations, institutions and individuals are plenty happy to take on such people, letting them have their fantasy while really putting them to work to further their interests.

We must find the courage to think beyond metrics. This is hard, especially considering that on some level the reason we are here at Amherst is because of quantifiable achievements — high school GPAs, SAT scores, excellence at a sport or instrument. It is crucial to unlearn evaluating ourselves through these terms. The admissions office is at the disadvantage of having to quickly filter through thousands of applicants and need a consistent way to do this, but you are at no such disadvantage when it comes to your own life. It may be easier to determine your success by the number of classes you take, extra-curriculars you do, “prestigious” internships you land or honors you graduate with.

(Easier still? Flipping a coin. Heads, you win, tails, you lose.) Later these measures become salary levels, number of papers accepted into “good” journals and, in a vicious cycle, the metrics of your children. You owe yourself better. To reflect upon your goals and actions takes time and space, and is often at the cost of meeting the very metrics I speak of above, but this is a necessary luxury. Sure, you might be a little less “productive,” but at the benefit of agency over what you are produced. Ultimately, some metrics might be worth hitting because they will help you get to a place where you can work on your larger goal. However, even here they are only means, never ends.

Earlier I said that dreams are missing from most of the world. However, there are very good reasons for this — inability to meet basic needs, poor education and a lack of exposure, amongst others.

As students at Amherst, we have none of these problems, at least while we’re here. When we leave, we will benefit from a system that disproportionately rewards graduates from elite institutes. We have the rare privilege of being able to dream, so it can be shocking to realize how little we do it. Inertia and conditioning are probably the best explanations; even as I say all of this, a part of me feels a twinge every time I delete an “accomplishment” from my resume — that small loss of validation is tangible. It is hard to play this game and not get caught up in it, especially when we’ve been playing for so long, but it’s of life-saving importance that we do not lose sight of what we really hope to do. That is why it is so vital that we recognize as a community the value of dreams; we’ll then all have people around us who can issue a friendly reminder when we inevitably forget.

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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 © 2014 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.

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The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

Opinion

Columbia Student’s Performance Art Takes on the (Literal) Weight of Sexual Assault Julia Pretsfelder ’18 Staff Writer

A 50-lb, 39x80-inch, navy blue rectangle is currently giving shape to the bulky conversations about rape that have been spreading across college campuses in recent years.

It feels too obvious and literal to discuss “Carry that Weight/Mattress Performance” in terms of dimensions, gravity or language associated with bedding. It feels simplistic to simply celebrate the work in an oped, but its importance is tangible in the sense that it is actually tangible.

With attempts at policy changes on college campuses as well as more discussion of gender issues in response to the Steubenville rape case, or even the song “Blurred Lines,” when can heightened cultural awareness and outrage leave the realm of talk and stated guidelines to produce justice?

If you haven’t seen the story in your newsfeed, “Mattress Performance/Carry that Weight” is an endurance performance art piece made by Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz as her visual arts senior thesis project. Sulkowicz began carrying the same kind of twin XL mattress she was raped on on the first day of her sophomore year around campus over a week ago, and she will continue to do so until her alleged rapist leaves campus voluntarily, through expulsion or through graduation.

The mishandling of her case has

become an all too familiar story.

After learning that the fellow student who raped her had also assaulted two other women, she reported the attack. Sulkowicz had to deliver her account over multiple interview sessions because the school’s Title IX coordinator did not record her story correctly during the initial interview, but rather jotted down insufficient notes. Her alleged rapist had the opportunity to write out an explanatory statement in addition to conducting an interview with the Title IX coordinator. Her hearing was postponed seven months after reporting her rape due to “academic conflicts” of the accused. After sitting through a disciplinary panel where she had to explain how anal rape was physically possible, her case was dismissed.

Her appeal, which simply allowed the dean to review the case and rule upon his own discretion, was also dismissed. The accounts of the two other Columbia students who reported assault, which were not considered relevant evidence in Sulkowicz’s case, though perpetrators of sexual violence tend to be repeat offenders, were also dismissed. Seven months after her hearing, Sulkowicz was met with similar skepticism and callousness when she brought her case to members of the NYPD, one of whom said, “For every single rape I’ve had, I’ve had 20 that are total bullshit.” I am obviously not a lawyer, and these processes are complicated. That being said, even if you

want to place full faith in Columbia’s ruling or the criminal justice system, Sulkowicz was denied the right to a swift trial, trained panelists judging her case and sensitivity to the fact that rape is not something that is so easy to report.

As some first-year who is just into art, feminism and writing, has never been the victim of sexual violence and has not witnessed the many discussions about gender in the Amherst community in recent years, I feel a bit awkward to be commenting on this piece. Nevertheless, “Carry That Weight” has become one of my favorite works of art and forms of protest. From an artistic and a bit of a pretentious viewpoint, the work drags away the concept of performance art as an esoteric practice where someone stares silently into space for their own emotional fulfillment. It does what the best works of art do: makes a highly personal experience both resonate with and change the perspectives of a wide range of people. It speaks to victims of sexual violence, women, college students and the general population who expect to find comfort and intimacy in a bed instead of enduring abuse, desecration and anxiety.

It is noteworthy that one of the rules of engagement with the piece is that other students can literally lighten the load of the mattress by offering Sulkowicz assistance. While there have been other courageous, moving and shocking commentaries

on rape, gender violence or sexism, such as Angie Epifano’s op-ed, “I Need Feminism Because…” campaigns or the No Red Tape protests at Columbia, “Mattress Performance” lugs a blunt, concrete visualization of what may exist to us as frightening, cautionary tales or euphemisms in the media into the light of campus.

I was first tempted to argue that we can conceive of the weight in expansive ways — what it means to have conversations about sexual violence, what justice means from educational institutions and the police force. However, as a Columbia firstyear I spoke to put it, “I’m a little troubled that the media that picked up her story has basically ignored an important part: that her alleged rapist was tried and not found guilty.”

Her individual experience of injustice and failure to have Columbia directly respond to her main intent to get her rapist off campus raises other issues. Should colleges be transparent about their own mismanagement of rape cases where the victims have stepped forward, in order to explain how current changes are responding to past mistakes? Should they at the very least attempt to offer closure?

In recent years, alumni from my high school began sharing accounts of sexual abuse from teachers over the course of 1962 to 1996. Though the current administration did not, might not and cannot perfectly amend past failures and silence, they at least acknowledged that abuse

occurred in a formal apology.

There is no denying that these matters are complicated, and change does not happen over night. Schools are trying to create safer environments, and society has made some progress in confronting the subtle, stubborn cultural limits of sexism and racism that we so often attribute to distant “backwards” places or the past, but when and how should we start to measure the progress? Do Columbia’s or Amherst’s or many other colleges’ new and improved policies simply exist as distant, clinical and bureaucratic rules? Is it too soon to ask questions? Do passionate discussions with my roommate about cultural insensitivity ever leave our dorm room? I mean, it sort of does right here, but when do talk and awareness carry into a something more that is difficult to articulate? Should I ask more really open-ended questions? No, I shouldn’t, because you are probably getting frustrated reading them, and I have a deadline. Maybe the gaps between talk, action and change were best articulated by a speaker at a collective mattress carry/Stand with Survivors rally at Columbia last week: “…[W]e know that our shoulders and arms and backs will stop aching[,] not because there is silence[,] but because the conversation is building and building until all of us are carrying the weight so that none of us have to.”

Inside Camp Amherst: the Best and Worst of Orientation 2014 The administration promised a new and updated orientation program for incoming first-years.

How did it shape up? Two first-years share their thoughts on their first 10 days at Amherst.

Lumi Youm ’18 Staff Writer

we were here?

We all wanted some quality class time after three months of an academics-free sumConfession: I have not been an Amherst mer. The college could have saved valuable student for a very long time. Four weeks, money and time by condensing orientation to be exact — I arrived on campus on the into five or six days instead of nine. morning of August 24, heart filled to the Complaints aside, the emphasis placed brim with nervous expectation, a grin plas- on the grave issues of student health and tered on my face so I wouldn’t scare away sexual respect was a genuinely valuable any potential friends. Although I haven’t dimension of orientation. I went to high even had my first slice of Antonio’s yet, let school in Georgia, where abstinence-onalone experienced my first midterm, I do ly sex education is the norm. For me, the believe I’m well qualified to write about my SHE skits, Sexual Respect@Amherst and experiences with oribystander intervention entation 2014 as part training revolutionized Thanks to orientation, I’ve my understanding of of the class of 2018.

I was thrown into learned what to do in a sexual safety and reactivities and tours wide variety of potentially spect. These were issues planned by the college that I had only peeked the moment I arrived dangerous situations that at from the periphery. on campus. The par- I would have otherwise The candid honesty, deents’ welcome, the first fumbled through. livered with a small dose squad meeting, and of humor, was a breath the presidential welof a fresh air and a huge come ceremony kept my family busy shuf- punch of educational value. For first-years fling to and from various events on the first who grew up in sheltered households and/or day. However, by the third or fourth day the attended conservative high schools, like me, pace had slowed to a trickle of two or three this emphasis was both essential and helprequired events per day, leaving us first- ful. Thanks to orientation, I’ve learned what years with a lot of free time. Some spent it to do in a wide variety of potentially dangerproductively, going out on last-minute runs ous situations that I would have otherwise to Target or heading downtown to try some fumbled through. As always, the adage “betof the local cuisine. Others lounged about ter to be safe than sorry” holds true. the common rooms, took extended walks Orientation functioned as a transitional on campus and generally sweated through period from the world of high school and the August heat. I enjoyed the freedom to home to an entirely different world nothdo whatever we wanted, but the surplus of ing like I’ve experienced before. It may have time eventually became a drag. Even those shortcomings (which should be looked who tried to put their time to good use soon into), but I won’t deny that it prepared us began using words like “boring” to describe for the four years ahead. Classes are gearing the slow pace of orientation. Everyone want- into full speed, extracurriculars are picking ed classes to start ­— after all, wasn’t that why up, and the class of 2018 is more than ready.

“

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Ben Greene ’18 Staff Writer

last-second contingency schedules in order to find four courses they were interested in. While the academic strength First-year orientation, focused on of Amherst meant that any class, first building a sense of community and choice or last choice, would be intelintroducing the new students to the lectually stimulating, more preparation college’s entrenched moral pillars, could have smoothed out the process. highlighted an exciting time for the While there were highly informative incoming class of 2018. Throughout academic department meetings, in tothe week, students engaged in a num- tal, the academic situation of first years ber of activities emphasizing the social, — be it prerequisites, placement testing ethical and communal characteristics or course registration — seemed to take of Amherst in small group discussions a backseat to often redundant dialogue and in large classon ethics and community wide assemblies. values.

While most of the Too often these The conversations on dialogue regard- introductory activities morals and the respecting the ethical [of orientation] ful way of behaving on climate and socicampus were in no way etal configuration neglected to delve into trivial when compared to of the college was the details of Amherst academic discussions, but u n q u e s t i o n a b l y academic life. both are not mutually expertinent, at times clusive. Instead of talking certain conversaabout plagiarism for an tions seemed suhour and half, it may have perfluous. Orientation introduced all been prudent to discuss plagiarism for first-year students to the intricacies of 45 minutes and course registration the the Amherst daily lifestyle, but too often other 45 minutes. these introductory activities neglected From a social perspective, orientato delve into the details of Amherst ac- tion made good use of the squads and ademic life.

LEAP program trips to introduce the While the professed goal of orien- class of 2018 to each other. Both were tation was to introduce the incoming enjoyable activities that fostered a sense class to the various aspects of Amherst of community amongst first-year stuCollege, there was minimal dialogue dents. It also helped introduce students concerning academic life. This includ- to the campus as we were ushered from ed a lack of discussion on things such event to event. During a time of tranas course registration, which resulted sition from the comfort of home to the in it being a highly stressful activity for life of an independent college student, it many first year students. As many cours- was nice to build these small communies quickly reached capacity, students ties that provided stability to all incomwere left with no choice but to arrange ing students.

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Arts&Living

Spicing Up the Salad Line: How to Get Creative at Val Olivia Tarantino ’15 Staff Writer Mohamed Ramy ’18 confirmed in the Sept. 10 issue of The Student that Val has made significant improvements over the past few years, impressing the incoming first-year class. There are still going to be those meals that we all collectively groan at, though (Yankee Pot Roast, I’m looking at you). I’m here to help you on those days.

Missing your favorite pasta dish that your mom cooks? I’ll find a way to make it work. In a rush to get to class?

Here’s something that you can make to eat on the run. It’s not that Val is bad, it’s just that we’re all missing the extra homemade touch and personal effort that making food for 2,000 students lacks.

This week, I have a couple ideas for ways you can spruce up your salad. All of us know what to do when the “traditional” food station isn’t offering what we’re in the mood for: get in the salad line. I’ll show you how to make your wait in that line worth your while and ways to create an extra yummy salad.

Thai Peanut Sauce • 1 packet of peanut butter (make sure to knead well and add at your table) • ¼ inch of a Val cup of soy sauce (found by the ketchup or stir-fry) • A healthy squirt of Sriracha (or more depending on how spicy you like it) • 2 shakes of ground ginger (found at

the stir-fry station) • 1 shake of garlic powder (found at the seasoning bar or stir-fry) • 3-4 shakes of Thai Spice Rub (seasoning found by the ketchup) • ½ spoonful of brown sugar (located at the end of the salad bar) • Juice from 1 lemon (found by the teas) • 2 shakes of salt • Enough water to thin out to dressing consistency • Sesame seeds to garnish (stir-fry station) Instructions: Mix all ingredients above by whisking with a fork in a yellowrimmed bowl. Keep adding water to thin the sauce out until it has a dressing-like consistency and is no longer dry.

Tastes great on: Romaine lettuce with green peppers, carrots, cucumber, and chicken, or tossed on noodles to make cold sesame noodles — garnish with sliced cucumbers and sesame seeds.

Blue Cheese Dressing • ⅔ parts mayonnaise (sandwich bar condiments) • 2 parts sour cream (pre-salad bar condiments) • 1 part milk • 1 part yogurt (Greek or regular, found at the end of the salad bar) • A couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce (seasoning/ketchup table) • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season (pepper grinders are on top of salad bar) • Lemon juice (1-2 wedges) (tea sta-

tion) • Lots of blue cheese crumble (end of salad bar with cheeses) • Hot sauce (optional) Instructions: Whisk the liquid ingredients together with a fork, and then fold in the blue cheese once creamy.

Tastes great on: iceberg lettuce, bacon, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber salad, or as a side with grilled chicken tossed with Frank’s Red Hot. Honey Dijon Balsamic Vinaigrette • 1 part balsamic vinegar • 2 parts olive oil • 1 spoonful of Dijon mustard (sandwich bar condiments — the lightest yellow one) • 1 spoonful honey (found by the tea section) • Juice from 1 lemon wedge • Salt and a little extra freshly ground black pepper • Dash of garlic powder (seasoning table) Instructions: Add Dijon mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, salt and freshly ground pepper to a bowl and stir together with a fork. While whisking, pour the olive oil into the bowl slowly and continue to stir until the oil mixes completely into the dressing. The dressing will gradually thicken as you incorporate the oil.

Tastes great on: Mesclun greens and spinach mix, dried cranberries, granny smith apples, sunflower seeds, cucumbers, or a Cobb salad with romaine, tomatoes, bacon, hard boiled eggs, grilled chicken and crumbled blue cheese.

Staff Photographer: Olivia Tarantino ’15

Staff Photographer: Olivia Tarantino ’15

Above, her honey dijon balsamic vinaigrette tastes great on a Cobb salad. Below, Tarantino’s thai peanut sauce dresses up lettuce and assorted vegetables.

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Arts & Living 7

The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

Banks’ “Goddess” a Promising Freshman Album

Evan Paul ’18 Contributing Writer

Jillian Banks, known by her stage name Banks, began posting music on Soundcloud in 2012 before she finally signed her first record deal a year later. After her first official single under a record label was played on BBC Radio 1, Banks’ popularity rose.

Soon afterward, Banks released two EPs, one called “Fall Over” through IAMSOUND Records (home to Florence + the Machine and Charli XCX) and another entitled “London” through Harvest Records. The EPs received extremely positive reviews from both critics and fans. Praised by the likes of Ellie Goulding herself, Banks seemed to be on the rise to fame.

Coincidentally, Banks’ popularity rose even more after her track “Waiting Game” was featured in a Victoria’s Secret holiday ad campaign. The track was written by Banks and British musician Sohn and produced by Sohn as well. Of all of the songs Banks had released so far, “Waiting Game” was probably her best.

The beginning vocals were at once haunting and intriguing. The addition of Banks’ sad lyrics about staying in a relationship in which both

people are busy with industry life, plus a bit of heavy bass made the song a hit. As far as foundations go, this song provided a strong one.

Flash forward to 2014, and Banks’ first full-length effort is just as solid. Featuring all of the tracks from the London EP and two off of her “Fall Over” EP, each track is an electronic soundscape driven by hip-hop and R&B beats, a style Banks has become known for.

Despite being a product of a minor branch of Capitol Records (Harvest Records, created in England in 1969), the album is also rife with big names from the music industry. Sohn and English songwriter-record producer Justin Parker, who is known for penning Rihanna’s hit “Stay” and numerous tracks on Lana Del Rey’s eponymous first album, both lend their talents to the production of Banks’ debut.

However, Banks is not just singing someone else’s lyrics over someone else’s production.

The 26-year-old actually has writing credits for every track on her debut. Banks is known for saying that the music she creates is very personal to her, and it shows in her lyrics. Whether she is admitting that she’s too crazy to love like she does in “You Should Know Where I’m Coming From” or scorning a man too foolish to realize

what a great woman he had in the title track “Goddess,” Banks proves herself as an artist.

Her combination of shaky high notes and low crooning mixes well together within each track. Even more importantly, none of the songs on this album feature any other artists. As the album plays out, it’s all Banks, all the time.

This shows a sense of confidence that most new artists lack.

None of the tracks on “Goddess” are broken up by added verses from rappers, nor are they shared with female artists offering a catchy hook. By showcasing her own talent without the help of a big name attached to every other song, Banks is showing her fans that this is a real outlet for her — she’s looking for more than a few radio hits.

Banks’ breathy, ethereal vocals coupled with her hyper-personal, relationship-focused lyrics make the album relatable. Additionally, the blend of synths and heavy bass on most of the tracks add punch to each song, which in turn makes the album more memorable as a whole.

The album doesn’t just feature downtempo songs about heartbreak, however. More upbeat tracks like “Beggin For Thread” and “Fall Over”

break up the slower tracks on the album quite well. Rounding everything out are the midtempo tracks “Warm Water” and “Before I Met You.” Amidst so many slow songs, it’s nice to have these few breaks that Banks offers. Due to the structure of “Goddess,” none of the tracks blur together. Each has its own identity, which is something that’s hard to accomplish when the songs share common subject matter.

However, Banks should add thematic variety in her sophomore effort if she doesn’t want to bore her fans.

As for growth, Banks’ debut does not stray from the theme or architecture of her previous EPs. Many of the songs are still slow and heavily influenced by electronica and R&B, just as they were in her earlier releases. Although nothing noticeably new is brought to the table, this album does serve as a strong foundation for Banks. Forming a distinct, personal sound is important in the early stages of any music career, and she has definitely accomplished this.

Despite many comparisons to her counterparts in the alternative R&B genre, such as73092 The Weeknd and FKA Twigs, Banks proves that she has a voice of her own and is a musical force to be reckoned with.

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Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

For the Love of Beef: An Inside Look at Raising Livestock Ellie Andersen ’15 Senior Staff Writer My ma once ate our rented bull at a restaurant. To some, it might seem absurdly sadistic to order the chili special featuring the bull that once roamed our fields, but as farmers it came as a pleasant surprise. Our burgers are literally homegrown, raised in the pastures around our house and sent to market once they have reached finishing weight. At home, I don’t ask the questions I might about meat at a restaurant because I know our Black Angus cattle are purely grass-fed (unless they snuck some grain from the chickens) and they have lived pretty darn peaceful lives.

Inevitably, people will ask, “But don’t you get attached to them?” and “Do you name them?” While each has his or her unique character, farm animals are not your family dog or parakeet. They are massive, terrifying and beautiful creatures that can bend metal gates and let a hoof fly while nervously waiting in the paddock. There are certainly some that I remember particularly well, but we distinguish them by their ear tags, using numbers to identify them. I adore them from a distance and never forget their looming deadline.

Of course, not all of the cattle head off to market. Otherwise, my family would have no way of maintaining our livestock population. Instead, we keep our rented bull from year to year, allowing him to join our

cows and heifers periodically. Number 2 is always a friendly face in the crowd and a good ally when trying to lead the herd to water or a new pasture. Then again, just as we reevaluate relationships with fellow humans, we must also do so with our cattle.

Number 1, while still a young mother, charged her first newborn calf, so we considered sending her off to market.

However, just a year later, she accepted her second calf and I still say hello to her in the pasture.

You may still be wondering about our rented bull, and I do mean “rented.” Instead of buying an expensive bull years ago, my parents simply borrowed one from their friend, a former doctor turned cattle farmer. This bull roamed our fields, mingling with our heifers and cows to help to build our herd and add genetic diversity. As time passed, we eventually said goodbye to our first bull and welcomed in a new bull, an exciting guy who had a genetic trait that made the hordes of flies a little less interested in him.

The only problem with having a bull is what to do when a cow has a bull calf.

One answer is to let that bull calf grow into a bull; the second is to castrate him, because we already had a bull.

If you have ever wondered how a calf is chosen for veal, think about how useful any bull besides the main breeding bull would be on a dairy farm. Each year, a cow must give birth to another calf in order to produce milk. A female calf will grow into a heifer, eventually have her first calf

and start making milk. Where does the male fit into this system besides acting as a progenitor? Veal, then, typically comes from male dairy calves that add no value to the dairy operation but can act as a source of added income. In the way of beef production, male calves are more useful but require castration. Thus, we can raise castrated bull calves, or steers, alongside our cows without concerns of interbreeding. We can also reach a higher finishing weight by raising the steers to almost full maturity instead of sending them off as calves for veal. it could be uncomfortable to think about castrating bull calves, but the necessity of this task overcomes any misgivings. It must be done for the farm and herd to function, so we have certain weekends labeled for castrating the bull calves, and whoever is home helps to corral and sort the cattle as we send them through our chute. No blood is shed as we simply place tight rubber bands that limit blood flow until the bull calf becomes a steer in a week or so. However, this is not to say that no incision means there is no risk to the calf.

We had not had a herd large enough to require intervention until that year, but a few bull calves had been born and we could wait no longer. My ma had researched what we needed to do and how to prepare, starting with tetanus boosters, but giving large animals shots with little syringes is no small ordeal. We did our best and prepped the cattle for

Photo courtesy of broadwaterfarm.org

Though a rewarding endeavor, raising cattle is no small feat. that momentous day. The trial passed as well as one could hope when trying to castrate unruly bull calves for the first time. After a few days, however, my ma noticed that one of our former bull calves was having trouble walking on stiff legs and did not seem as healthy as the rest. As his movements became more restricted he began to fall over, putting pressure on his lungs.

The vet confirmed her greatest fear — tetanus. Throughout the following days, my ma would walk out to find our bull calf, pull him back to a standing position so that he could breathe and give him a dose of antibiotics. She would struggle multiple times each day to help up a beast that weighed more than three times as much as she.

Sadly, the bull calf was soon beyond our help and we learned not to fight tetanus.

So, when people ask if we get at-

tached to our cattle, I cannot give a simple answer. We love our herd, but just as we feel exasperated with our family and friends, so too can we feel frustrated with our cattle. This is especially true if they ruin a watering tub or push over a hydrant while scratching their backs. However, nothing can describe the feeling of helping a newborn calf to stand on a cold, spring day, or the constant anxiety over a lame mama or sickly bull calf.

The final answer may come with my mother’s yearlong struggle with tennis elbow after straining to care for our tetanus-afflicted bull calf or with our shortened vacations, as we hate to be away from the farm for too long. They may appear indistinguishable, save for their characters and ear tags, but we respect them and want to give them the best lives possible — even if we eat a few of them once in a while.

Chastain and McAvoy Bring Star Power to First Film of a Trilogy

Photo courtesy of tvjerry.com

“The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them” is part of a trio of films directed by Ned Benson about a couple in crisis. It is now playing at Amherst Cinema.

Claire Jia ’15 Contributing Writer “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” is about a man who loves a woman, and a woman who loves a man — so says the trailer. What sets this film apart from other dramas is that it’s a three-film drama told from three different perspectives: Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain), Conor Ludlow (James McAvoy) and an objective omniscient perspective. “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them,” was first released Sept. 12, but viewers must wait another month to experience the love story from the independent perspectives of its two characters (“Disappearance: Her” and “Disappearance: Him,” which will have a limited release Oct. 10). “Disappearance” is an incredible attempt to examine the aftermath of a tragedy through the eyes of two different people, but it’s a logistically difficult task to pull off. The end of the first entry in the series left me unsatisfied,

most likely because “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them” does not, and cannot, delve deeply into either of the character’s psyches. It seems that the film attempts to tell us that there are two often irreconcilable sides to the same story with its ambitious format, yet makes it impossible to understand the full effect of this structure without seeing all three films.

Eleanor Rigby and Conor Ludlow are two married New Yorkers struggling to cope with the death of their child, but in two very distinct ways. Eleanor turns to attempting suicide and, after a failed attempt, proceeds to hide away with her parents. This prompts Conor to search high and low for his wife while simultaneously burying himself in his failing restaurant. Conor copes by throwing his son’s belongings into a closet. Eleanor struggles to understand Conor’s actions, and Conor defends his bizarre behavior by claiming that he has “moved on because moving forward was the only thing

[he] could do.”

We are ushered into the movie with a cutesy scene of the two at the birth of their relationship while they dine and ditch at an upscale restaurant. The two are ridiculously happy at this point in the film and even make out for the first time in a public garden. This opening seems like the typical introduction to a romantic drama until the film takes us years into the future. After the death of their son, the two lovers have become married strangers, with Eleanor constantly on the run from Conor and Conor sunk in his failed parenthood, marriage, and career. Its beginning aside, the film lacks many of the traditional tropes used in romance movies.

There is no montage of the two falling in love or out of love, no explanation of the tragedy, not even an image of their son — and for good reason. The film deftly portrays the aftermath of a tragedy with its exclusion of a backstory, and we are left simply with a feeling of loss, without understanding how or why it

came — much like the characters. “I forgot what he looked like,” Eleanor explains at the movie’s end. To punctuate this physical and mental loss, we see only a fuzzy outline of the child that once was.

Unfortunately, the film is weakened by an overuse of dramatic oneliners, including, but not limited to: “There’s only one heart in this body — have mercy on me,” “I don’t really know you” and “Do you have a destination?” These are lines that would have impact when used sparingly, but that become tiresomely sentimental after multiple instances. Although Chastain and McAvoy perform brilliantly, the characters themselves are flawed.

Conor is too predictably hotheaded and Eleanor is always searching for herself in the most stereotypical ways.

Throughout the film, she re-enrolls in school, moves in with her parents and she even runs away to Paris, because who hasn’t done that before?

Nevertheless, with its appropriate-

ly melancholic soundtrack, brooding cinematography, and powerful acting, “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them” is a sad, beautiful film, about the inability of a couple to “return to where [they] once were” despite a love that persists. Conversations between Conor and his college-buddy/employee Stuart (Bill Hader) are a welcome respite from the film’s uncomfortable attempts at sincerity. Similarly, Eleanor’s professor, played by Viola Davis, is a breath of fresh air during her appearances onscreen. But without watching the next installments of the trilogy, I am unable to fully assess the effect of the project. “Them” superficially delves into Conor’s ego and strained relationship with his wealthy father and into Eleanor’s attempts to “find a different version of [her]self.” Perhaps “Them” makes a statement with such surfacelevel scenes: that we cannot truly understand two people by pure, unbiased observation, and that, in fact, we all seem like clichés at first glance.

The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

Sports

Football Squeaks by Bates in Season Opener

9

Jaymie Spears ’16 is Named NESCAC Player of the Week Nell Patterson ’15 Staff Writer In sports, it is often said that defense wins championships. For the Amherst football team, defense wins home openers. The Jeffs were triumphant in their first game, as they defeated the Bates Bobcats 14-6 on Saturday in large part due to their ability to stop the Bobcats on offense.

Bates remained scoreless until the fourth quarter, and the Jeffs’ defense limited the Bobcat offense to only 133 rush yards and 113 pass yards on the day. In addition, they intercepted Bates quarterback Matt Cannone three times and sacked him twice for losses.

Captain Chris Tamasi ’15 said that, as a defensive unit, the team “did a good job of playing sound responsibility football,” as each individual really took care of their responsibilities, which led to team success.

Amherst’s strong secondary had four members with over 10 tackles on the day as well. Tamasi led the team with 14 and co-captain Ned Deane ’15 had 12. Tamasi complimented Jaymie Spears ’16, Chris Gow ’16 and Ryan Duzyk ’15 by saying they, “all played great in the secondary. Each of them had key plays that factored into our success as a defense.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Amherst was able to find the back of the end zone twice to put away the Bobcats. In his first start for the Jeffs, Alex Berluti ’17 led the Jeffs’ offense with 190 of Amherst’s 215 passing yards and a touchdown to Gene Garay ’15 in the first quarter.

“I was definitely nervous leading up to the Bates game preparing for my first collegiate start, but felt that the coaches did a great job getting us ready for the game,” Ber-

luti said.

The Jeff ’s offense also found success on the ground thanks to Nick Kelly ’17 and Kenny Adinkra ’16, who combined for over 100 yards rushing.

Nerves seemed to be high throughout the first quarter for the Amherst and Bates offenses as turnovers and missed opportunities mounted.

Amherst received the ball on offense first and turned it over on the second play on a fumble by receiver Jackson McGonagle ’16.

Deep into Amherst territory, the Bates offense hoped to capitalize and complted a first down to the Amherst 18-yard line.

The Jeffs defense ended up forcing a field goal attempt, which was assertively blocked

by Spears. Pumped up by the stop, the Amherst offense returned to the field only to turn the ball over again, this time on an interception by Bates’ Ryan Newson.

Bates was unable to capitalize on the turnover, and once again the ball was in the hands of the Jeff ’s offense. Reece Foy ’18 took control of the backfield as quarterback, moving the Jeffs to the Bates’ 33-yard line.

Looking to keep the drive alive, Coach E.J. Mills decided to go for it on 4th-and-two, but the Bobcats came up big, tackling Foy for a seven yard loss.

The Jeffs got the ball back to end the quarter, and Berluti strung together a couple of first downs to the Bates’ 21- yard line.

Nerves aside, Berluti threw a beautiful pass to Garay, who caught the ball in the end zone to put Amherst up by seven.

Feeling more settled at the beginning of the second quarter, both teams secured the ball better, but were unable to put any points on the board. The Bobcats’ defense stopped all three of the Jeff ’s drives in the second

quarter. The Amherst defense successfully kept the Bates offense out of Amherst territory on every possession, ensuring the Jeffs’ a 7-0 lead at the half. The defensive line, “clogged holes all day long and put pressure on the quarterback, forcing him to get rid of the ball sooner than he would have liked,” Tamasi said.

The third quarter followed much like the second quarter — a defensive stalemate.

Neither the Bobcats offense nor the Jeffs’ offense could get significant drives going, which led to punts on every possession in the third quarter.

In fact, it was not until the last 1:20 of the game that either team even got close to the end zone. With 1:47 left in the game, Bates’ punted the ball to Amherst for what the Jeffs’ hoped to be their last possession to run out the clock. With Garay deep in his own territory to return the punt, he received the ball and ran for seven yards before he was stripped

by Bates’ Newson.

The Bobcats recovered the ball in amazing field position on the Amherst 35 yard line.

Within a few seconds, Bates had driven to the Amherst two-yard line and had a fresh set of downs to work with. This would be the true test of the Amherst defense, as the game was on the line.

After stopping the running back Ivan Reese on first down, Bates’ Cannone snuck into the end zone to finally put Bates up on the board. Hungry for a win, the Bobcats lined up to go for the two point conversion.

Tamasi recalled this as the biggest moment of the game and said, “It became pretty clear to everyone on defense that this was the game — the season — on the line.”

Cannone dropped into a play action pass, and Paul Johnson ’17 was there to put the

pressure on. A high throw went up in Gow’s direction, which he was able to tip to Duyzk, who made the interception, and kept the score at 7-6 in favor of the Jeffs.

With 1:16 to go, Bates was hoping to get another chance to win the game. The Bobcats’ special teams lined up for the onside kick, but the kick landed out of bounds and gave Amherst possession at the Bates 42-yard line.

The Amherst offense took the field, and on the first play of the drive, Kelly burst through the coverage on the sideline all the way to the end zone.

Berluti said that for him the moment was, “exhilarating and something I hope to see more of this year.”

The Jeffs defense secured the victory by stopping Bates’ last drive in its tracks.

Moving into week two of NESCAC play, the Jeffs hope to improve more on the offensive side of the ball and put more points on the board.

“As a unit it is critical that we protect the football and limit the amount of turnovers, which will then result in longer drives and more points, which is out main focus,” Berluti said.

The Jeffs will face Bowdoin, who was shut out by Williams 35-0 in their season opener.

However, this game will be on the Polar Bears’ home turf and they will hope to get revenge on after last season’s 27-11 loss at the Jeffs’ hands last season. Even with a shaky first game on offense, the Jeffs still have the potential to make a real run for a NESCAC championship.

“If we are firing on all cylinders, I believe we are a difficult team to beat,” Tamasi said.

“We need to have a great week of practice and prepare with urgency for Bowdoin.”

The Jeffs will head up to Brunswick Friday ahead of their game on Saturday at noon.

Field Hockey Beats 18th- Gracie ’17 Leads Jeffs at Mt. Holyoke Invitational Ranked Williams 2-0 Lauren Tuiskala ’17 Staff Writer

Greg Williams ’16 Staff Writer

The past week brought great success for the Amherst College field hockey team as it picked up two crucial wins. One came over non-conference foe Keene State on Wednesday, Sept. 17 while the second was a key NESCAC victory over Williams on Saturday, Sept. 20.

In the Jeffs’ defeat of the Owls, Ellie Anderson ’15 opened up the scoring just over nine minutes into the contest. Anderson received the pass from Madeline Tank ’15 and netted her first goal of the 2014 season. Anderson’s goal would proe to be the game-winner, but Caroline Fiore ’18 added insurance just over a minute later.

The Jeffs earned a penalty stroke, which the first-year converted for her second collegiate tally.

That would end the scorign for the day as Amherst topped Keene State 2-0.

The 11th-ranked Jeffs held a decisive 15-7 advantage in shots and a slim 5-3 advantage in penalty shots. Emily Horwitz ’17 made five saves to earn the shutout.

Amherst took the momentum into a Little Three battle with Williams the following Saturday.

They downed the 18th-ranked Ephs, 2-0.

The scoring again got started early, this time under three minutes into play. Madeline Tank ’15 tipped a hard shot by Annie Turnbull ’16 past the Williams keeper. The goal was good for Tank’s sixth on the season, the current team high.

Amherst dominated play throughout the remainder of the first half, controlling the ball in the neutral zone and mounting strong offensive attacks. They failed to convert on their remaining seven shots on goal in the half and carried the 1-0 lead into the break.

An insuarance tally finally came in the 56th minute. Annie Turnbull was again involved in the scoring, this time netting it herself, her first of the

Men The men’s golf team placed 15th this past weekend at the Williams’ home course of Taconic Golf Club Champ Course in Williamstown, MA. RPI finished in first place with a two-day score of 652, and Williams and Skidmore follwed RPI and finished tied for second, while Middlebury and St. Lawrence took the next two spots.

First-year Dan Langa lead the Jeffs with a 78 on the first day and then a 83 on the next.

Senior Josh Moser and Jarvis Sill were the next placing Jeffs, with scores of 162 and 163, respectively. Nick Kafker ’17 and James Line ’16 completed the scoring line for Amherst.

The Jeffs will be up at Hamilton this upcoming weekend, when they will be playing in the NESCAC Qualifier.

Photo courtesy of Office of Public Affairs

Katie Paolano ’16 anchors a dominant midfield for Amherst. new season. Her sister, Elizabeth Turnbull ’18, assisted her.

Williams made the most of the final 10 minutes with a few offensive opportunities of their own, but the Amherst defense remained strong to keep the Ephs off the board. Borwitz made two saves, both at key moments, to earn her second shutout of the week.

The sophomore keeper remained humble when asked about her standout play. “The shutouts were great,” she said. “But they were really the result of a great team effort.”

With the win, Amherst improved to 4-2 on the year and 2-2 in conference play. The Jeffs have two important NESCAC contests this weekend.

They will travel to face Tufts on Saturday, Sept. 27 at noon. Amherst downed the Jumbos by a score of 3-0 last season.

“This weekend should be pretty tough, since Tufts is undefeated this year,” Horwitz said.

To round out the week, Amherst will host Bates on Sunday, Sept. 28.

Women The women’s golf team had a solid outing over the weekeend when they finished in sixth place out of 15 teams at the Mt. Holyoke Invitional.

Jamie Gracie ’17 led the scoring with a score of 148, as she shot a 76 followed by a 72 on Saturday and Sunday. She had the best individual score of the tournament, outshooting her nearest competitor by four strokes.

It was Williams who won the tournament, followed by Ithaca, Middlebury, NYU and then Mount Holyoke. Westfield State Univ. struggled in the tournament, finishing in last place.

First-year Zoe Wong was the second finishing Jeff, while CJ Berstein ’15, Angelina Guan ’17 and Katherine Britt ’15 rounded out the rest of the Jeff scoring.

Amherst heads to the Middlebury Invitational this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Office of Public Affairs

Katherine Britt ’15 helped lead the Jeffs to a sixth place finish at Mount Holyoke over the weekend.

10

Sports

Schedule

The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

FRIDAY Volleyball vs. Williams, 7 p.m.

Men’s Tennis @ ITA Regionals (@ Middlebury), 9 a.m.

Women’s Tennis @ ITA Regionals (@ Williams), 9 a.m.

Men’s Soccer @ Tufts, 2:30 p.m.

Men’s & Women’s Cross Country @ Purple Valley Classic, TBA Men’s Golf @ NESCAC Qualifier Men’s Tennis @ ITA Regionals, 9 a.m.

SATURDAY Field Hockey @ Tufts, 12 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Tufts, 12 p.m.

Football @ Bowdoin, 12:30 p.m.

Women’s Golf @ Williams Invitational, 1 p.m.

Women’s Golf @ Middlebury Invitational, 1 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Babson (@ Clark), 1 p.m. @ Clark, 3 p.m.

SUNDAY Women’s Golf @ Middlebury Invitational, 9 a.m.

Women’s Soccer vs. Bates, 12 p.m.

Field Hockey vs. Bates Men’s Soccer vs. Bates, 2:30 p.m.

Men’s Golf @ NESCAC Qualifier Men’s Tennis @ ITA Regionals, 9 a.m.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Nico Pascual-Leone ’16

Emily Horwitz ’17

Favorite Team Memory: France trip Favorite Pro Athlete: David Silva Dream Job: Being on Mythbusters Pet Peeve: Loud gum chewers Favorite Vacation Spot: Valencia, Spain Item on Your Bucket List: Give compliments to the chef at a fancy restaurant Guilty Pleasure: Three naps in a day Favorite Food: Paella Favorite Thing About Amherst: How the weather always changes

Favorite Team Memory: Beating Bowdoin last year 4-2 Favorite Pro Athlete: Clint Dempsey Dream Job: Head writer for SNL Pet Peeve: People who don’t cover their mouth when they sneeze Favorite Vacation Spot: The beach Item on Your Bucket List: Travel the world Guilty Pleasure: Bad movies Favorite Food: Chocolate Favorite Thing About Amherst: The people!

Andrew Knox ’16 Managing Sports Editor

Much like the UMass match, Amherst came out on fire, out scoring the Jumbos 3-0. However, Tufts came back in the second quarter with two quick goals.

On a man-up possession, Captain Blaine Werner ’15 scored a clutch goal stuffing the ball into the upper right corner from outside the goal. Tufts scored twice more to end the first half with Amherst leading 5-3.

Tufts continued its onslaught in the third quarter, outscoring Amherst 4-1 to finish ahead 7-6. With the game on the line, Captains Anders Lindgren ’15 said that the Tufts team was growing much more tired than the Penguins.

This proved to be true, as Amherst left Tufts scoreless in the fourth quarter, while scoring three goals of their own to come out on top 9-7.

While senior Connor Sholtis and faculty player Chris van den Berg each scored three goals in the game, first-year goalie Nathan Ives, who held Tufts to only seven goals, was the game’s MVP. The early penguin gets the herring. That was the motto for the early game Sunday morning against Williams.

Both teams seemed to awaken in the second quarter, but Amherst would put the Purple Sea Cows out to pasture in route to a 12-6 victory.

In the final game of the tournament, the YoHos faced the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

The Yo-Hos won in a 10-6 thrashing that saw the Coast Guard put up two goals in the final minutes of the game while the bench went in to get some experience.

The team looks to prepare for the next tournament at Williams College in two weeks.

Volleyball Sweeps Opening NESCAC Contests Water Polo Cruises to Victories in Tourney Drew Kiley ’18 Staff Writer

The women’s volleyball team kicked off NESCAC play this weekend with games away at Trinity on Friday and Wesleyan on Saturday. The Firedogs claimed both games in straight sets, continuing the great form they showed off in the JWU invitational and jumping to the head of the NESCAC standings.

On Friday night, Amherst swept by Trinity College, 3-0 (25-18, 28-26, 25-12). Nicole Gould ’17 and Maggie Danner ’17 led Amherst’s attack with 11 kills each, with Gould recording an impressive .529 hitting percentage. Nicole Carter ’16 directed Amherst with 13 assists while Lizzie Ahern ’16 claimed seven kills and seven assists. Libero Katie Warshaw ’16 claimed 19 digs to headline the defensive effort, assisted by Kelci Keeno ‘17 with seven digs, Carter with six digs, and Marialexa Natsis ’18 with three block assists in addition to her five kills.

Kate Giddens led Trinity with a matchhigh 12 kills while Randi Whitham and Gina Buzzelli combined for 22 of the Bantams’ 30 assists.

After Amherst won the first set, Trinity held a 26-25 lead in the second stanza before Amherst claimed the set on kills by Ahern, Gould, and Carter. Amherst then started the third set with a 7-0 run, and never looked back to win the last frame easily.

On Saturday afternoon, the Firedogs notched another 3-0 win (25-17, 26-24, 2518), this time at Wesleyan University. Danner led all hitters with 16 kills while Carter recorded 23 helpers. Gould floored eight kills and Ahern floored seven. Danner and Keeno led the Firedogs with 13 digs each, Asha Walker ’18 claimed 11 digs, and Kate Bres ’17 recorded nine digs.

Claire Larson directed Wesleyan’s offense with a match-high 28 assists while Rachel Savage recorded a match-high 22 digs and Tyla Taylor led the Cardinals with 15 kills.

Back-row defense was the hallmark of the match as the two teams recorded an astounding 125 digs combined.

As on Friday night, Firedogs claimed the first set comfortably and continued their stellar play in the second set, jumping out to a 6-2 lead. The team maintained this lead throughout until Wesleyan tied the set at 1919 with a 12-8 run. The Cardinals then took a 24-22 lead before Amherst won four straight points to claim the set in dramatic fashion, 26-24.

The Firedogs started the third set with four straight points and traded points with

the hosts until the score of 8-4 before going on an 8-2 run to extend it to 14-6. Wesleyan came back to 22-18 with a 12-8 run of its own before Amherst claimed the last three points to secure the sweep.

Asked about the team’s mentality entering the Williams game this week, Head Coach Sue Everden said, “Expectations are high. It’s going to be a good match. Last year, Williams won NESCAC, so they are champions until someone beats them. But we return a successful team along with a great group of first-years.”

With these victories, the Firedogs record stands at 8-2 overall (2-0 NESCAC), while they have won their last 18 sets. Amherst will look to ride that momentum in their home opener this Friday, Sept. 26 against archrival Williams (9-1, 2-0 NESCAC) at 7 p.m. in LeFrak Gymnasium. They then take on Clark University and Babson in non-league games on Saturday at Clark.

Photo courtesy of Office of Public Affairs

Junior Katie Warshaw leads the Firedogs with 168 digs on the year.

After a three-year hiatus from Pratt Pool, the Amherst Club Water Polo Team hosted the UMass, Williams, Tufts and U.S. Coast Guard Academy teams at a tournament this past weekend.

The tournament was in a round robin format with each of the five teams playing two games on Saturday and Sunday.

The Yo-Ho Penguins (the water polo team’s official mascot since 1984) are coming off of a second-place finish in last year’s edition of the North Atlantic Tourney.

Despite graduating seven seniors last year, several newcomers and this weekend’s performance indicates that the Yo-Hos have a shot to claim the championship crown this year.

“This past weekend was a heartening start to the water polo season. Our captains’ dedication to the team was crucial: our daily drills paid off, and everyone got playing time. Even Yo-Ho the Penguin was spotted floating around between games,” Isa Goldberg ’17 said.

The Yo-Hos first played the Minutemen of UMass. The Yo-Hos came out shooting, building a 5-1 lead at halftime. The Yo-Hos continued their flurry, outscoring UMass 5-0 in the third quarter.

With a 11-2 win, the Penguins looked to the marquee match-up of the tournament: Tufts University.

Since 2010, the Yo-Hos have only lost to one team: Tufts. The Jumbos and Penguins met in last year’s conference championship, with the Jumbos walking away the victors.

This game proved to be a game of quarters.

The Amherst Student • September 24, 2014

Amherst Women’s Soccer Continues Dominance Virginia Hassell ’16 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s soccer team (51-1) capped off an impressive week with a pair of wins in their weekend double header.

On Wednesday, the Jeffs topped undefeated Springfield College (3-1-1) for a 1-0 road victory. First-year and third leading scorer in the NESCAC Hannah Guzzi proved her dominance in the front field yet again. After a scoreless first half, Amherst ended the drought in the 69th minute on a Guzzi goal.

Megan Kim ’16 recorded the assist.

“They are always a really fast and physical team,” said co-captain Mel Stier ’15. “We struggled in the first half, but our subs really picked up the energy in the second half and we completely dominated. They are always the top in their conference and get an NCAA bid, so a win against them is great for us.”

Springfield tried to rally with a shot fired from inside the box, but goalkeeper Holly Burwick ’16 denied the attempt. Burwick boasts the highest save percentage in the NESCAC at .966. The shutout against Springfield was nothing more than what’s becoming a routine performance for Burwick. She compiled three saves in her third shutout performance on the year.

Amherst opened the weekend series with a home matchup against NESCAC archrival, the no. 7 ranked Williams (4-1-0) this past Saturday. Amherst grabbed the momentum early on, jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead just two minutes into the game. Stier, who leads the team in assists, maneuvered around pressure to knock a cross to Guzzi. Guzzi smoothly collected the pass and booted it into the back of the net.

“We came out flying the first half and Williams really didn’t know what hit them. We had a game plan going in, and as a team we were really successful in executing it. I think this game was the first game we completely earned, and we finally started to figure out what works well for us. It’s the first time that our team has beaten Williams since my freshman year, so the victory felt great,” said Burwick.

Williams amped up the pressure, testing Burwick in goal. She would eventually post 10 saves en route to another shutout. In the first half alone, Burwick amassed seven saves.

The Jeffs continued to deliver a strong first half performance against the Ephs. The second goal played out very similarly to the first.

This time, however, a Stier cross was just off the mark for Guzzi to rein in. Instead, Amherst sophomore Emily Hester corralled the ball and was able to put the ball between the posts for another Amherst goal, also the first of her Amherst career.

“I’d say beating Williams was a total team effort,” Hester said. “Every member of our team had a job to do, and we all did them. Everyone bought into their individual role, and we used the support of our teammates to pick us up when we needed more energy or started to stray from our roles. It definitely helped that we scored early, and came out strong, but it was a total team effort for a full 90 minutes.”

Amherst closed out the weekend doubleheader, conquering Lasell (4-3-0) in a 1-0 victory. Emily Masten ’17 would contribute the only score for the Jeffs at 31:26 on a corner kick from junior defender Jessy Hale. Senior co-captain Alex Hart found the ball and sent it into the box, where Masten was able to strike the ball into the left side of the goal.

“Lasell ended our season two years ago, so the juniors and seniors were especially motivated to get some revenge,” Stier said. “They are a really fast team and had a couple of good chances, but I think we really worked hard in the second half to keep the ball, and the result showed. It definitely wasn’t our prettiest game thus far, but we got the job done.”

A stellar performance from the Jeffs’ defense allowed the Lasell offense to deliver only two shots on target. With the help of her unstoppable backfield, Burwick only needed to make two saves to secure the shutout victory.

Amherst returns to conference action on Saturday, Sept. 27, as they travel to faceoff against Tufts University, who is undefeated in conference play.

On Sunday, Sept. 28, they will host Bates College at home on Hitchcock Field. Coming off of three big wins, the Jeffs are equipped and excited to keep the winning streak alive.

“This weekend was the first time we caught a glimpse of what we’re capable of,” Burwick said. “If we can play 90 minutes like we played the first five minutes of the Williams game, I have no doubt that we can beat any team in the country.”

“Last week we really emphasized playing to feet in practice and it translated into better possession in our games. I thought we worked the ball around pretty well, particularly the 2nd half of Springfield, in fits and starts against Williams, and for the better part of Lasell. Possession doesn’t always translate into shots or ultimately results though. In fact, Springfield and Williams both outshot us and we just snuck by Lasell even though we outshot them pretty significantly. So, now we need to shift our focus from simply possessing to possessing with a purpose. That purpose is to put the ball in the back of the net. We have a tough weekend ahead of us - Tufts on Saturday and Bates on Sunday - so it will be a good test.

We’re starting to play with confidence though, so I’m excited for what lies ahead,” Burwick added.

Sports

Coach’s Corner Jennifer Hughes, Women’s Soccer Ashlyn Heller ’17 Coach Jennifer Hughes of the Amherst women’s soccer team seems to welcome a good challenge with open arms. Whether it’s playing for an international professional club team while working for a Swedish investment bank, or obtaining a dual degree from the University of Massachusetts with a masters in sports management and an M.B.A., or even pursuing a law degree while simultaneously coaching a nationally ranked division three soccer team, Hughes never waivers.

Q: Tell us a little bit about where you were born and where you grew up. Do you have siblings? Did they play soccer? Were you competitive?

A: I was born in Syracuse, New York and I grew up in a tiny little town called Minoa, New York. I went to East Syracuse Minoa High School. I have a brother named Kevin who is 18 months older. My brother and I grew up playing everything together: soccer, basketball, baseball. We would play soccer in the backyard against a picnic table and, I mean, I was his younger sister. He was not going to lose to me. As for me, it was my life goal to outscore him even if it was just against a picnic table in our backyard.

Q: Your soccer career definitely went beyond that picnic table. Tell us a little bit about your college career in terms of athletics and academics.

A: I did my undergrad and played soccer at Colgate University with a double major in English and economics. Then, I pursued a dual graduate degree at the University of Massachusetts with an M.B.A and masters in sports management. Then, I got my J.D. at the University of Connecticut.

Q: So just clear up the timeline for us after you graduated from college.

A: After graduating I followed the typical career path for an economics major and pursued finance on Wall Street for two years, but I didn’t feel the same passion for finance as I did for my experience as a student athlete.

So, I turned back to soccer and found myself playing internationally for a club called Tyreso near Stockholm and I also worked during the day for a Swedish investment bank.

When I came back, I was trying to figure out how to merge my personal and professional interests. I was the assistant coach at Colgate for two years then I discovered the UMass sports management and MBA program and it seemed like the perfect way to converge business with sports. While I was completing my dual degree program, one of our guest speak-

Holly Burwick ’16 leads the Jeffs with 28 saves on the season. The junior has only allowed one goal all season, helping the Jeffs to a 5-1 record.

ers was Peter Gooding (Amherst College Athletic Director at the time) and he asked me if I wanted to take over the head coaching job at Amherst. I obviously accepted, but during that time I also got really interested in law and potentially going to law school. So, I started law school at the University of Connecticut and did both concurrently for four years.

Q: Wow. Now to add to all of that, you have a baby!

A: My husband, Matt Leitl (the assistant men’s tennis coach here), and I have a five month old son named Elliot who we are completely obsessed with.

I would say that he is the best and most challenging thing about my life right now. He is so amazing to go home to. I wish I could show you the videos of him just belly laughing.

It’s seriously the best thing. But, it’s the most challenging as well. It’s hard to be away from him to be coaching because he is so young and I’m nursing and I want to spend a ton of time with him and it’s hard to put him in daycare. But, he’s truly changed my life.

Q: That’s great! Favorite coaching memory?

A: Hands down, NESCAC finals 2011. We were down 1-0 to Williams with ten minutes to go after an incredible season.

Kathryn Nathan ’13 scores a goal with eight minutes left to tie it at one and then in the last few seconds, Sandy Shepherd 13’ scores a header goal at the far post to win the game.

The far post run had been an area we really struggled in and worked hard at all season so there was no better way to score that winning goal. I just remember the feeling afterwards, the celebration, the pack of guys that sprinted on the field. Definitely my favorite on-field memory.

Q: Hidden talents? Hobbies? Favorite TV show, movie, song? A: Um, OK, my guilty pleasure is — oh God, I’m really embarrassed to admit this — the bachelor.

The Sports section needs new columnists.

Are you game?

If so, email the editors at aknox16@ amherst.edu or nyang16@ amherst.edu.

Photo courtesy of Office of Public Affairs

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Sports

“Bates remained scoreless until the fourth quarter and held the Bates offense ...”

Football Squeaks by Bates... Page 9

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Nico Pascual-Leone ’16 led the way for the Jeffs against the Ephs as he played a role in three of the Jeffs’ four goals. Amherst looked for redemption after they lost to the Ephs in the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. The Jeffs will look to continue their season Saturday at NESCAC foe Tufts.

Men’s Soccer Crushes Archrival Williams Ephs 4-1 Looks to Extend NESCAC Win Streak to 24 Games

Jason Stein ’16 Sports Section Editor After earning two victories and scoring five goals in two games this past week, men’s soccer posted their strongest week of the 2014 season to date. With the pair of wins, the Jeffs improved to 4-0-1 on the season (30-1 in the NESCAC) and extended their NESCAC unbeaten streak to 24 games.

While the Jeffs tied the Camels at home in a double overtime game in 2013, Amherst would not settle for anything less than a victory this past Wednesday.

Early on in the game, midfielder Milton Rico ’15 gave the Jeffs a lead they would not relinquish against the Camels.

Following a long throw-in from senior defenseman Bubba Van Wie, Rico had only the goalie to beat in the box, and chipped it in to the far post, which put the Jeffs ahead 1-0.

On the play, Rico picked up his first score of the season, while Van Wie was credited with the assist off the throw-in.

Towards the end of the half, sophomore forward Chris Martin almost doubled the lead for the Jeffs off a pass from midfielder Douglass Jamison ’16, but Connecticut College goalie Austin DaCunha ’17 was there to make the save and keep the game 1-0 going into the half. In the first half of play, the Jeffs held a 10-5 shots advantage over the Camels.

In the second half, both Zach Punt ’15 and Matthew Bitchell ’16 put good shots on the net against Amherst, but junior goalie Thomas Bull was there to make the save on both occasions and preserve the 1-0 victory for the Jeffs.

In the victory against the Camels, Bull made six saves and picked up his second con-

secutive shutout.

On Saturday, the Jeffs and Ephs faced off against one another on Hitchcock Field for the first time since Williams defeated the Jeffs in the 2013 National Quarterfinals.

Recent history would indicate that this game would be incredibly close and a fight to the final whistle, but the Jeffs took control of the match, scoring early and often.

A bit more than 15 minutes into the game, forward Martin cruised down the right side of the pitch and put one past the keeper, towards the middle of the net, to give the Jeffs a 1-0 lead over the archrival Ephs.

The Jeffs would double their lead in the 28th minute of game action, after junior striker Nico Pascual-Leone gathered the ball near the 18-yard box, moved to his left and planted one in the right corner of the net for his first goal of the season. However, after his first goal, Pascual-Leone was done causing damage against the Ephs.

With less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Andres Burbank-Crump ’15 of Williams scored off a free kick to cut Amherst’s lead in half and move the score to 2-1 heading into the halftime break.

Over the first 45 minutes, the Jeffs held a close 9-7 shot advantage, while the Ephs had a 2-0 edge on corner kicks over Amherst.

In the second half of play, Amherst continued its strong play against Williams.

Midway through the second half, Pascual-Leone added his second goal of the game when sophomore Bryce Ciambella set Pascual-Leone up with a through-ball, which allowed the junior forward to double his scoring tally by finding the top right corner of the net.

Shortly thereafter, Pascual-Leone adeptly

placed a free kick that set up sophomore midfielder Andrew Orozco, who headed it into the back of the net to make it 4-1.

Overall, the Jeffs dominated the second half, as the Jeffs posted a 10-4 shot advantage in addition to the 2-0 score in the half, and began the process of exacting revenge on the Ephs following the 2013 Elite Eight with the 4-1 victory in Amherst’s home opener.

Coach Justin Serpone was quite pleased with the win against their NESCAC rival.

“Beating Williams is always nice,” Coach Serpone said. “More important than the opponent is that we got some goals on the board.

I really felt like it was a matter of time before we broke out and we picked a good day to do it. It’s great when you leave a game and you start talking about who played well, and rattle off name after name. That’s the sign of a great team win, which Saturday most definitely was.”

For his effort against the Ephs, PascualLeone was recognized as the NESCAC Player of the Week, as he added two goals and an assist (for a total of five points) in a stellar performance for the Jeffs.

So far this season, the Jeffs have scored nine goals in their first five games, with eight different players accounting for those nine goals. Pascual-Leone became the first player to attain more than one goal on the season with his multi-goal performance against Williams. While Pascual Leone leads the team in points with five (as a result of his two goals and an assist), three other Jeffs have three points or more, as junior forward Greg Singer has four points (on a goal and two assists), and Rico and Ciambella (who each have a goal and an assist on the season) both have recorded three points.

Up next, the Jeffs will travel to Medford, Mass. for a 2:30 p.m. matchup on Saturday with the Tufts Jumbos, who have jumped out to an impressive start in 2014. The Jumbos are unbeaten in NESCAC play thus far, after beating Bates, Colby and Wesleyan (in a 1-0 overtime game).

On the season, Tufts’ lone blemish came against Brandeis, which is one of the topranked teams in the nation and undefeated to begin the season. Last season, Amherst beat Tufts 2-0 at home, with the Jeffs receiving goals from senior defender Gabriel Wirz and Singer in the game.

“Tufts is a terrific team that is heading into the game as one of the top-ranked teams in New England,” Coach Serpone said. “They have really good attacking players and it’s their homecoming. I’d say we are the underdogs in this one.”

The following day, the Jeffs will host the Bates Bobcats at 2:30 p.m. on Hitchcock Field. Thus far, the Bobcats have struggled, as they sport an 0-4-0 record in NESCAC play and an 0-5-1 record overall.

While the Bobcats were shut out in their first four games of the season, Bates has scored a goal in its last two contests, both of which were NESCAC conference games. In 2013, the Jeffs beat Bates 3-1 on the road. Perhaps the most memorable from the matchup against Bates last season, however, was when Bull struck a free kick, from the left side near midfield, that sailed over the goalie’s head and into the back of the net to give Amherst a 1-0 lead in the game.

With the back-to-back games that Amherst has scheduled for this weekend, the Jeffs will have the opportunity to push their unbeaten streak in the NESCAC to 24 games.