Issue 5

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THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVI, ISSUE 5 l WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016

Women’s Soccer Goes 2-0 on Week See Sports, Page 10 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Copeland Colloquium Focuses on Guns Jingwen Zhang ’18 Managing News Editor

Photo by Sarah Wishloff ’19

AAS President Karen Blake ‘17 (right) speaks to Genevieve Narcisse ‘19 at the AAS’ first “campus-wide tea time” on Sunday, Oct. 2. The AAS welcomed 12 new senators on Monday, Oct. 3.

Students Elect 12 New AAS Senators

Kathleen Maeder ’20 Staff Writer

The Association of Amherst Students held elections to select senators from the classes of 2017, 2019 and 2020 on Sept. 28. The senators elected to represent the class of 2020 are Jordan Edwards, Greg Franklin, Sade Green, Billy Jang, Natalia Khoudian, Lauren Knight, Daniel Njoo and Jenine Shepherd. Two students from the Class of 2018, Fernando Lopez and Phillip Yan, were also elected. In addition, Samuel Wolansky ’17 and Mohammed Ibrahim ’17 were chosen as write-in candidates, since no senior student campaigned for senate. According to AAS Secretary Silvia Sotolongo ’19, the two write-in candidates were contacted shortly after the election to accept or decline their election. Both Wolansky and Ibrahim decided to accept. “I am very surprised by the fact that I won,” said Ibrahim in an email interview. According to Ibrahim, he was written in as a candidate after students jokingly shared memes on the class Facebook page, using an image of Ibrahim from the college bike share program’s

advertisements. “I think it will be an experience and an opportunity to learn and do something different in my last year here,” Ibrahim said. “Also, there are certain decision making processes I look forward to taking part in and hopefully influencing.” Ibrahim also said that he questions whether or not his election accurately represented the views of his entire class, since he does not know how many people voted. Abbas Shah ’18 and Areej Hasan ’18, members of the AAS Election Committee, noted a decrease in the number of students running for senate and lower voter participation. “We really had to convince people to run and fill the seats,” said Hasan, who has been the committee chair since last year. “A couple years ago, there would be 20 to 30 first-years running for eight spots, but in the recent years it’s been around nine to 10 for the eight spots. And for upperclassmen, it’s been either less people running or the same amount.” Prior to last week’s election, the AAS had numerous vacancies in the senate. In order to vote on certain issues, such as budgetary re-

quests, the senate is required to meet quorum, and vacancies and frequent absences in the past made it difficult for the senate to conduct its weekly business. Following this election, there will no longer be any vacancies in the senate. However, there is still concern regarding the student body’s opinion of the AAS, according to Shah. “I think there is this misconception that the AAS is powerless, it does nothing on campus and that conversely, ironically, it takes up a lot of your time,” said Shah. According to Hasan, the apparent lack of interest in the AAS may partially stem from the 2014 controversy surrounding the election of the AAS President. A former AAS president elected in the spring of 2014 faced criticism for exceeding the campaign spending limit of $45 to purchase posters. A new election was held in the fall of 2014, in which Tomi Williams ’16 was elected president. Hasan said that this scandal may have contributed to disinterest in student government among current students.

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The Copeland Colloquium, a biennial event featuring lectures, discussions and other events, will be held this year with the theme “The Social Life of Guns.” The main event of the colloquium will be a conference titled “The Symbolic and Material Construction of Guns,” which will be held in March 2017. Researchers from various institutions across the country will present research on this topic at the event. In addition, the Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought department’s lecture series has adopted the theme “Guns in Law” and will invite speakers specializing in the topic of the colloquium. The theme proposal was submitted by a group of faculty members from a variety of academic departments, including anthropology, political science and sexuality, women’s and gender studies, that met for regular discussions on the subject of violence over the past two years. “Over the course of those conversations, it became clear that we were sort of concentrating our questions around material aspects of violence and that there was interest in the group about the gun in particular,” said Professor of Political Science Andrew Poe, one of the colloquium organizers. According to Poe, the colloquium will extend these discussions in the form of interdisciplinary “broader conversations” about the role of guns in society and culture. “There’s this well-known cliché, popularized by gun advocates, that ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people,’” he said. “It was our thought that really, something might be changing in American culture, in gun culture and in how guns are produced and used that might actually make that cliché invalid.” As part of the colloquium organizers’ aim to bring outside voices to campus, four fellows from other institutions will be conducting research at Amherst with the sponsorship of a faculty member. “When I read about this year’s focus, it was obvious to me that I needed to apply,” said Chad Kautzer, one of the four Copeland fellows, in an email interview. Kautzer, an assistant professor of

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Four New Student Members Join Mascot Committee Audrey Cheng ’20 Staff Writer The co-chairs of the Student Traditions Committee selected new student members to the Mascot Committee on Sunday, Oct. 2 after an application process that ended on Sept. 27. The Mascot Committee is comprised of students, alumni, faculty and staff. With the exception of Association of Amherst Students President Karen Blake ’17, the nine students in the committee are part of the Student Traditions Committee. According to Alejandro Nino Quintero ’18, the committee’s co-chair, returning members had planned to select three new members but accepted four due to high interest. The Mascot Committee formed last semes-

ter after Cullen Murphy ’74, chair of the board of trustees, released a statement in January that said the college would stop using Lord Jeff, the college’s former unofficial mascot, in its official communications. The announcement came in the wake of Amherst Uprising student protests last November. Because Murphy said that the official mascot would not be selected “by decree” and instead called on students and alumni to form a group to facilitate the process, the statement provided a mandate and general framework for the committee, Nino Quintero said. Shortly after the statement was released, the Student Traditions Committee and Alumni Executive Committee began to meet to discuss the process of selecting a new, official mascot. They formed the Mascot Committee, which

consisted of five student members at the time. The committee, which used to be under the jurisdiction of the AAS, has since branched out and filled many seats with at-large members. Harrison Haigood ’18, the committee’s other co-chair, said the committee is making the process of mascot selection as robust as possible in order to avoid criticism. The committee will gather the opinions of a wide range of students, alumni, faculty and staff, said Nino Quintero. It plans to host events to raise awareness of the process, and will meet with campus affinity groups, sports teams and publications. “Our goal is just to facilitate the community-building and make sure we’re as transparent and engaging as possible,” Nino Quintero said. One of the central aims of the committee

is to remain objective. While each student on campus will have a vote, the committee will also consider the opinions of alumni, Nino Quintero said. In collaboration with the the math and statistics departments, the committee has decided to hold a final ranked vote in order to reach a consensus while avoiding runoff voting. Once the process to submit new mascot ideas opens, the committee anticipates approximately 100 submissions, according to Nino Quintero. Through preliminary votes, it will narrow the submissions to about five choices. The final vote is scheduled for March 2017, and a final choice must be made by April. The official mascot will be launched during homecoming next year.


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