Issue 5

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLV, ISSUE 5l WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015

Volleyball Has Successful Weekend Against Colby and Bates See Sports, Page 9 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

Committee Moves Forward with Mascot Discussion Dan Ahn ’17 and Ryan Cenek ’18 Managing News Editor and Assistant News Editor

Photo courtesy of Kat Hague ‘18

Ralph Nader encouraged students to get involved in local politics and criticized two-party politics at a talk in Stirn Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Nader Criticizes State of American Politics

Ryan Cenek ’18 Assistant News Editor Political activist, lawyer and longtime presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke in Stirn Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Nader urged students to become politically engaged and argued that small groups of committed citizens can bring about change. The Amherst Political Union hosted the event.

“We called this event ‘American Juggernaut’ because Ralph Nader has been a tireless advocate for social and political causes for nearly half a century,” said David Atkins ’17, Amherst Political Union co-president. “No matter how you feel about his politics, I think you have to

respect a man who has dedicated himself so tirelessly to this kind of fight.”

Prior to the talk, the Amherst Political Union held an hour-long reception for Nader at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, with several dozen students, many of whom were also political union members, in attendance.

There, Nader spoke about the importance of citizen engagement and activism in affecting political change. He also criticized the twoparty system and the power of corporations and the wealthy.

“We believe that Mr. Nader can offer tremendous insights into the realm of political campaigns, political parties and the status of partisan politics in American society; this is

particularly salient at the moment given the upcoming election,” said Liam Fine ’17, copresident of the political union.

At the main event in Stirn Auditorium later that night, Nader delved straight into current political issues, including the ongoing presidential campaign.

“We’ve turned politics into hedonistic spectacles,” Nader said. “Just look at this presidential campaign, especially these past few months. In doing so, we’ve opted out from the essential rudiment of civil society: We’ve got to be engaged.”

Nader also talked about more general problems in American electoral politics, such

Continued on Page 3

Members of the student mascot committee said this week that they plan on taking steps toward holding a college-wide vote on whether or not to replace the Lord Jeff, the college’s current unofficial mascot. Committee members said they also plan to facilitate open discussions about the mascot in conjunction with the Association of Amherst Students.

The mascot committee, which is not part of the AAS, was formed informally over the past summer. Virginia Hassell ’16, a senator who had served on that committee throughout last year, decided to create a new group to focus specifically on the mascot. “I reached out to people who I knew were passionate about the issue,” Hassell said. “There were different groups that were pursuing the same goal, so now we’ve just united forces.”

Hassell said that the committee aims to hold a campus-wide vote at the end of this semester in which students can decide whether or not to “vacate the mascot.”

The AAS senate also announced its intention to hold such a vote, in a letter which Sam Keaser ‘17E, a member of the committee, presented to the senate on Oct. 5. All but four senators at the meeting voted to publish the letter, which also stated that the senate would take a formal stance against using the Lord Jeff as the college’s unofficial mascot.

Some senators opposed to the letter questioned whether the senate would be able to effectively facilitate conversations about the mascot if it had already taken a strong stance on the issue.

“Even if we hadn’t taken a stance, we would be bringing the exact same biases to the conversation, so I don’t think it’s really changing it hugely because of that,” Keaser said in an in-

Continued on Page 3

Naomi Klein Visit Draws Focus to Divestment Movement Jacob Pagano ’18 Staff Writer

Naomi Klein, the author of “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate,” addressed the Amherst community at the annual DeMott Lecture on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Her book was this year’s required reading for incoming first-year and transfer students. After the event, Divest Amherst held a rally to urge the college’s board of trustees to divest from all fossil fuel industries.

In “This Changes Everything,” published in fall 2014, Klein argues that the effects of capitalism on the environment will lead to a less habitable and increasingly inequitable planet. “There is still time to avoid catastrophic warming, but not within the rules of capitalism as they are currently constructed,” Klein argues. “Which is surely is the best argument there has ever been for changing those rules.”

Klein opened the event by saying that she hoped her book would have the potential to catalyze social change. “I am really excited to see what the class that has read this book chooses to do, and what social issues they mobilize around,”

Klein said.

After a brief reading, Klein expanded on her thesis, and discussed what she described as a conflict between an “ideology of growth that has our politicians in its grips, and a need to do something radical about climate change.”

Klein also addressed what she perceived as previous failures of the environmental movement. She said that environmental activists fall into the trap of arguing that climate change is the most pressing issue and should therefore be prioritized above all other unresolved problems.

“This misses the point that we should see climate change as an accelerant and facilitator of other important social changes,” Klein said. “When you are choosing temperature guidelines, you are literally choosing which countries will survive. For places like Africa, a two Celsius degree increase would be nothing short of a death sentence.”

Klein also discussed some of the environmental movement’s recent successes. She pointed to Germany, where citizens are now obtaining 30 percent of their energy from renewable sources. Klein argued that this could not have been achieved had it not been for a major re-

structuring of the economy.

“In Germany, they have broken some of the rules of this neoliberal ideology, and there has been a movement there for private towns and governments to take back their energy from the big companies,” Klein said. “This is what we need. It’s not that we need a post-growth economy, but rather we must change the parts of our economy that are going to grow.”

Before concluding the talk, Klein characterized activism and grassroots movements as important catalysts for positive change in the environment.

Leaders of the student group Divest Amherst held a rally following the event and called for the college to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.

Last academic year, the Green Amherst Project asked the board of trustees to divest from the coal industry. The board eventually responded with a “Statement on Sustainability and Investment Policy,” which it released on Feb. 24. The statement expressed the board’s desire to achieve a carbon-neutral footprint on campus. But the board wrote that it “does not endorse divestment of the endowment from fossil fuels.” Although the board’s statement did not directly address

arguments against divestment, critics of the divestment movement contend that divesting would have little impact on the fossil fuel industry, and that colleges should focus on other ways of fighting climate change.

This year, the newly formed Divest Amherst has escalated the Green Amherst Project’s previous demand and is now urging the college to divest from all fossil fuel industries.

“Amherst is an institution that wants to prepare for the future, but by investing in industries that are harming our future, Amherst contradicts its fundamental mission,” said Ben Walker ’16, a Green Amherst Project and Divest Amherst member. “If the board is so worried about us living lives of consequences, they should consider the consequences of their actions here and now.”

Walker said the group decided to be more forceful with its demand after the board released its statement in February. “We have kept our campaign contained up to now,” Walker said.

“We thought that by working with the board, we would be likely to win, but what’s clear is that we have to use different tactics and make a more public commitment to the board.”

News

Jeeyeon Jeong Sept. 28, 2015 - Oct. 5, 2015

>>Sept. 28, 2015 1:13 p.m., Marsh House Officers responded to a report of someone writing graffiti on the west side of the building. The person was identified as a student who was using chalk. The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

room and found it was activated by use of a hair dryer.

10:51 p.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud people in a secondfloor room and issued a warning to a resident.

10:35 p.m., Wieland Dormitory Officer responded to a complaint of loud music at a second-floor room and issued a warning to the resident.

>>Sept. 29, 2015 9:06 p.m., Amherst Police Department A female officer assisted the town police with the arrest of a woman.

11 p.m., Amherst College Police An officer discovered two vehicles with the truck hatch open parked behind the Facilities building. Nothing else amiss was found.

>>Oct.1, 2015 4:46 p.m., Morrow Dormitory A resident reported the theft of a wallet from her room.

11:45 p.m., Crossett Dormitory Officers on patrol observed a large gathering in a first floor suite with three people dancing on a window sill. Upon arriving at the suite approximately 70 people were found inside. The gathering was cleared out and the residents were warned about the safety violations. The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

>>Oct. 2, 2015 5:58 p.m., East Drive An officer responded to a report of a vehicle being operated without lights. It was located and stopped.

6:06 p.m., 79 South Pleasant An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally set off by an employee.

8:28 p.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud music and had the volume lowered in a second floor room.

11:35 p.m., King Dormitory While in the building, an officer discovered unattended alcohol in the basement. It was disposed of. >>Oct. 3, 2015 12:47 a.m., North Dormitory Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the first floor and found it activated when popcorn was burned in a microwave.

1:20 p.m., Charles Drew House Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the second floor and found it was accidentally activated by use of a hair straightener.

8:39 p.m., Hitchcock House An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in a third floor

9:06 p.m., Coolidge Dormitory An officer discovered a resident left a burning candle in a third-floor room. The candle was confiscated and the resident was fined $100.

>>Oct. 4, 2015 1:44 a.m., Social Quad Officers on patrol found a stairway crowded with people and cleared it out.

1:46 a.m., Crossett Dormitory An officer encountered an underage student drinking from a bottle of wine. The wine was confiscated and the matter was referred to Student Affairs.

2:15 a.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory A resident complained of people outside the building with loud music. No music was found.

3:43 a.m., Morrow Dormitory An officer encountered a visiting female who was unable to get into Morrow or make contact with her host. The officer went to the host’s room and woke her up. She brought the visitor to her room.

10:26 p.m., The Octagon An officer and the fire department responded to an alarm and found it was activated by a tripped detector on the second floor for an unidentified reason.

s w e n e h t n i Jo ! ff a t s

If you want to write for us, email dahn17@amherst.edu

Fresh Faculty Department of Biology

Professor Jeong is an assistant professor of biology.

Her departmental affiliations include biochemistry, biophysics and biology.

Q: On your biography on the Amherst website, you talk about your interests consisting of the cell biology of metals, iron homeostasis and plant molecular biology. Can you talk to us about some of these interests?

A: Metals, such as iron, are essential; however, cells only need a little bit of them. If you exceed that amount — that tight range — it can become toxic. So organisms have elaborate mechanisms to make sure that the cell has enough iron, but make sure it doesn’t go over that range. And that is basically my interest in research. I study proteins that regulate nutrient balance. I use plants as a model system, and especially for plants, metals, such as iron, tend to be limited. Plants have a lot of mechanics to take up as much iron as possible.

But that creates a paradox — they have to have mechanics to keep them very safe so that it doesn’t become toxic. That’s the main point of my research.

things would be like in a liberal arts setting.

Even then, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in a research university or a liberal arts college. I went to Madison, Wisconsin, for my post-doc, where I had a year of teaching fellowship and was also a staff scientist. I really liked the lab I worked there, but I guess I kind of missed the atmosphere I experienced at Dartmouth, and I started feeling like the large research university setting wasn’t a place where I wanted to stay. Somewhere midway through my postdoc, I decided that I would want to get a career at a liberal arts college instead of a research university like I had originally planned. But I also was hoping to be somewhere where I could continue my research. So this position here was a great opportunity for me, because at some liberal arts colleges, you can’t really do much research, but at Amherst you can. It feels a lot like Dartmouth to me. I’m enjoying it here so far.

Q: Can you talk to us a little bit about how you got into this field of research? When did your interest start?

A: I got into this field not really knowing much about it. I got my master’s degree in Korea.

When I was still in Korea, I was working on some other things, such as electrophysiology.

However, I once had a chance to go to a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, and there I heard a scientist from Dartmouth speak. She ended up being my Ph.D. adviser. I was very fascinated with her talk and her research, so when I was planning to apply for graduate school in the United States, I applied to Dartmouth. I ended up joining her lab, and that is how I got into this research.

Q: What do you like about Amherst? Did you have any preconceptions of Amherst?

A: I didn’t have many preconceptions, except that it’s a highly selective, elite liberal arts college. So considering that, I’ve realized that the students are a lot more diverse than I expected. From an outside point of view, it was diverse in many aspects, and I think that’s a great strength. I really like the students here so far. We have very long labs, with long hours, but because of that, I’m getting to know students better. Judging also from courses and office hours, I’m very impressed by the students here. I also like the environment. There seems to be a lot of support for junior faculty.

Because I was a faculty member elsewhere as well, I know that at other schools, faculty just have to survive on their own. But here, there is a lot of mentorship from the department and from the college, so I’m learning a lot here too.

I’m teaching but I’m also getting trained. It’s been great.

Q: Can you give us an overview of some of the classes you will be teaching in the following semesters?

A: Currently, I am teaching Molecular Genetics. I am co-teaching with Professor of Biology David Ratner, and starting next year I will be teaching it by myself. Next semester I am going to be engaged in a biochemistry course, although my role in the course hasn’t been decided. It will be team teaching too, but I am not sure exactly how much I will be working.

I will be starting a new course — an advanced seminar — on plant metabolism from a molecular perspective, and since my research is in metal homeostasis, I will work with metal homeostasis in mitochondria in plants. Plants have elaborate metabolic processes to respond to environmental triggers which also include nutrient levels, because unlike animals, plants can’t move around. So they have a lot of interesting metabolic processes that we can learn from. Nowadays there is a lot of connection with plant biochemistry and biotechnology, so that is also something I plan to cover in the course.

Q: What was the academic path that brought you to Amherst College as a professor in biology?

A: In Korea, there were no liberal arts colleges, so I didn’t know what a liberal arts college was. I went to a large private university. However, I really loved my time in graduate school at Dartmouth. It was a great environment at a small school. It indirectly mirrored what

Q: What kind of hobbies do you have outside of academia?

A: I like chamber music. I love going to musicals. I’m glad to be closer to Broadway! When I was at a meeting in London, I stayed for another day to go to a musical there. But right now, I have two young children, so I don’t have much time for hobbies. But spending time with my children is my hobby and duty. I have a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old. My 7-yearold now plays the violin. She’s old enough that we’ve started going to concerts together. As my kids are growing, we’re getting some common mutual hobbies that we can both enjoy.

Q: What kind of legacy, impact or impression would you like to leave behind at Amherst during your stay here?

A: I’m really impressed by the students, and I hope they like me. I hope I can be a great mentor to students, in the class and in the lab.

I hope they enjoy studying with me as much as I enjoy working with them. To be honest, I don’t know too much — I am a bit nearsighted. Each day, I’ve never really thought about the long term and what kind of impact I want to leave during my stay here. That’s my answer for now.

— Jake Pagano ’18

The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

News

3

Student Committee Discusses Changing Mascot Continued from Page 1 terview. “This may just be a more honest way to go about it.”

Hassell said that the mascot committee also hopes to encourage more open conversations about the mascot. “Right now, it’s difficult for us to even have a conversation about the mascot because people have become too sensitive, because the issue has become too hostile,” Hassell said.

Keaser said the AAS plans to invite students, faculty and staff to its meeting on Oct. 26 for an open discussion about the mascot.

“I don’t really see another student body that could facilitate this conversation, and I would like to see it come from students, not from the faculty or the administration,” Keaser said.

The committee also plans to have a moose mascot at the homecoming football game and to develop moose souvenirs for sale on campus.

Hassell, who is also a senator, said these plans do not reflect the official stance of the AAS, and the mascot committee is promoting the moose because it is “clearly the frontrunner as a replacement for Lord Jeff.”

Hassell said that although a student-driven competition to choose a mascot was originally set to take place this semester, it was cancelled due to a lack of community feedback.

While the committee is working towards replacing the Lord Jeff as the mascot, the campus continues to be divided on keeping or replacing the unofficial mascot.

“I understand that Lord Jeffery Amherst, as a historical figure, might be an affiliation that some would take offense to,” Tom Sommers ’16 said. “However, I don’t see our mascot as a historical figure at all. I think of Lord Jeff as a representation of Amherst College.

We have a unique mascot that ties together many students and alumni, and I see our mascot as just a mascot — nothing more.”

In contrast, Olivia Pinney ’17 cited her experience as an athlete on the women’s squash and club soccer teams as one factor in her support for the moose as a potential new mascot. “Lord Jeff undeniably has a place in the history our school, but he does very little for current students in terms of

Photo courtesy of Kat Hague ‘18

Students study beside the moose statue that mysteriously appeared in Frost Library last year. traditions,” Pinney said. “I’ve played on two different teams at Amherst, and I have never felt united with my teammates by the Lord Jeff. There are more clever things you can do with an animal mascot than you can do with a British lord.”

Hassell said that the mascot committee hopes to start conversations with members of the Athletic Department about Amherst’s mascot.

“I want to make sure everyone feels welcome, and everyone feels valued,” football coach E.J. Mills said in an interview last spring. “So, if our mascot right now is alienating students, then I would advocate that we

really think about making a change. And yet I understand that there’s always two sides to every issue, and I think it’s important that we hear both sides. Would I advocate to become the Moose? I would not jump on that bandwagon.”

In an email interview with The Amherst Student last semester, President Biddy Martin shared her thoughts on the current status of the mascot controversy.

“We may need to design a process for discussion of the proposal,” Martin wrote. “Because the current mascot was never formally adopted by the college, there is no clear mechanism for re-considering it.”

Amherst to Offer Coalition Application Diane Lee ’19 Staff Writer Amherst has joined 80 other colleges and universities in implementing an alternative college application program, the Coalition Application, in its admissions process. The new service will become available to applicants in July 2016.

The “Coalition Application for Access, Affordability and Success,” proposed as an alternative to the Common Application, is designed to make the college application process easier for applicants and admissions officers. Additional goals include providing resources, such as free organizational tools through the online application, and easing the college selection and financial aid applications for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Admissions officers from the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, of which Amherst is a member, began proposing alternatives to the Common Application in 2013 following technological difficulties resulting from changes to the web-based Common Application. The new application would be an alternative to the Common App, which currently has a monopoly on college applications.

“Further conversation prompted interested colleges and universities to brainstorm about ways we could, as a group, develop a new college planning tool that could facilitate the application process and simultaneously expand our reach to students in need of guidance in the college process,” said Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Katie Fretwell ’81.

Amherst will continue to accept the Common Application and the Questbridge application.

One of the Coalition Application’s features will be a digital student portfolio for candidates, where they can store essays and other documents.

We like the idea of students developing an inventory of interests, ambitions and accomplishments, and having a place to store them,” Fretwell said. “Ideally, this experience of taking stock of their commitments and passions will empower students in the college process and help them develop the habits of a well-prepared college applicant.”

The program also offers an online collaboration platform, where counselors, mentors, teachers and other third-party members can communicate feedback to students. A dashboard allows students to track their application progress.

Another goal of the Coalition Application, as stated in its press release, is to make the college search and financial aid application processes easier for students from high schools that lack such resources. Fretwell said participation in the Coalition could strengthen Amherst’s commitment to help students from a variety of backgrounds through the college process.

“Amherst, like all coalition member institutions, recognizes that not all secondary schools can provide well developed college guidance programs and the coalition members hope to support these schools, community-based organizations and their students by providing these free resources,” Fretwell said.

Member institutions of the coalition are required to meet the full demonstrated financial

need of domestic students and have a six-year graduation rate of at least 70 percent. Amherst exceeds these requirements and regularly has a six-year graduation rate over 95 percent.

Other schools participating in the Coalition include liberal arts colleges such as Williams, Swarthmore and Pomona, the Ivy League universities, and various other private and public institutions. Within the Five College Consortium, Smith College and Mount Holyoke College are also members of the Coalition.

According to Gail Berson, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission at Mt. Holyoke, the new features of the Coalition Application will enhance the college’s holistic admissions process.

“As a test-optional institution for more than a decade, we place primary evidence on the rigor, course selection and grades from high school when reviewing candidates for admission,” Berson said. “Writing is an equally important element. Their submissions may come to us in a narrative form and they may rely on other media, but in the end, these materials will help each student to assert her full story as we parse the very thin differences between and among students of extraordinary talent.”

Berson also cited increased access to students from diverse backgrounds as a reason for joining the coalition.

The online tools that are part of the coalition Application will be available in January 2016, with applications opening in July 2016 for the class of 2020. The application itself and the platform are still being designed.

Martin said that at the moment of the interview, college administration had not taken any action to foster dialogue on the mascot issue.

“Some students have taken the initiative to propose a new mascot and even cleverly to introduce the possibility of the moose at events and in various locations on campus,” Martin said. “It may well be time to have the administration help design a process for more formal discussion and decision-making.

It is important to me to know that students on both sides of the question (of whether to change the mascot) would welcome a more formal process.”

Nader Criticizes Apathy in Local Politics Continued from Page 1 as gerrymandering and the lack of third-party representation in the federal government.

“We allowed our country to be run by a two-party tyranny, increasingly looking the same,” Nader said. “We have a winner-take-all system where 49 percent of the voters get nothing.”

Nader then criticized political apathy, especially among youth. He encouraged students to use the wide variety of resources available to them on campus, such as student-run newspapers and radio stations, to educate themselves about political issues. He also said that major political movements usually involve youth to some extent.

“My experience and my knowledge of history tells me, if public opinion is on your side, it takes less than one percent of seriously engaged people for major changes in the direction of our country,” Nader said.

Nader closed the talk by speaking about the importance of engaging in local politics and discussing politics in a way that impacts the actual lives of people rather than dealing with abstract concepts.

“We love to have professors and experts who can speak objectively, but there is definitely something unique and valuable about hearing from people who have taken up one side of a cause and fought for it, which is exactly what Mr. Nader has done,” Atkins said.

Opinion

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Appreciating the Counseling Center

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editor-in-Chief Sophie Murguia Assistant Editor-in-Chief Elaine Jeon Managing News Dan Ahn, Jingwen Zhang Managing Opinion Johnathan Appel, Sunna Juhn Managing Arts and Living Paola Garcia-Prieto, Alida Mitau, Julia Pretsfelder Managing Sports Lauren Tuiskula, Jason Darell, Drew Kiley Managing Design Gabby Bishop

Editorial

In the last few years, the Amherst community has made incredible strides in the campus-wide conversation about mental health. The administration has renewed a full-time position for mental health awareness and education for Jessica Gifford, who endorses and finances a team of effective student initiatives. The wellness fair has become more prominent and has featured more groups every semester. There’s hardly a student who doesn’t try to sign up for the massages in Keefe during finals. But despite the increasing awareness of mental health, depression, anxiety and stress, this campus still needs to make an effort to direct students the tiny house at the bottom of the hill: the counseling center.

In the past, student reactions to the counseling center have been mixed. Though its mission and provided services are noble and helpful, a primary complaint among students has been the center’s relative inaccessibility to the people it aims to serve.

Before the counseling center expanded, students encountered difficulties trying to make appointments because of the small size of the staff. And Scott’s House location, at the very far edge of campus, means that students have to be willing to undergo a bit of a trek to talk about their problems.

All the same, the counseling center is generally accommodating and has, along with the rest of this campus, made visible progress over the past three years in focusing on and accommodating student mental health. First, it has expanded both its

physical space and its staff, meaning that students can access counselors or the school psychologist more quickly and easily, whether it’s their first time or their 15th time doing so. The “Let’s Talk” program on the second floor of Keefe has opened up new avenues for students to drop in and discuss what’s on their minds. In emergency situations, there is a 24-hour counselor on call with whom students can connect via the counseling center’s number. The counseling center is far from underused.

In fact, about 50 percent of each class will have an appointment at some point before graduating, according to the counseling center, and most students have a positive experience.

But despite of all these improvements, the counseling center remains the benign little house at the bottom of the hill that most people don’t talk about. Ultimately, the center fades into obscurity when we talk about mental health because we speak of it as though it’s a place visited only by people with the most serious mental health issues. We forget that it’s a resource for all students to use where they can talk about anything, whether it’s a stressful midterm or a serious chronic issue. While this campus has become far more comfortable talking about wellness and mental health in the abstract, we’ve stopped short of truly destigmatizing the counseling center. Take a walk down the hill by the gym, cross the street and make an appointment at Scott House. You’ll never have someone who will listen to you so intently for free again.

A Hopeful Romantic Mohamed Ramy ’18 Staff Writer Ever since I was young, I was fascinated by the idea of true love.

With my parents as the love model I would grow to most fervently admire, I was bound to have unreal expectations. They met at a young age, fell head over heels for one another and continue to be happily married. Without doubt, their passion always seemed to be capable of great action, and it was inconspicuous that they quarreled. Growing up listening to Arabic and English love songs being played frequently, on road trips and in the house, I was raised to believe in the notion of “the one”; in fact, I used to proclaim that I would die for my loved one. Today, I feel very differently.

In Egypt, I only indulged my emotional capacity to love, never the physical. I wore my heart on my sleeve in every relationship and, as many of us do, had a song that reminded me of every girl I fell in love with. Undeniably, movies and British pop songs continued to feed the hopeless romantic in me: I wanted to be Richard Gere in “Pretty Woman,” Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing,” John Cusack in “Say Anything,” Tom Hanks in “Sleepless

in Seattle,” and Domhnall Gleeson in “About Time.” In time, I yearned for something more than emotions; I wanted to be able to hug someone I loved, kiss someone I loved and hold hands with someone I loved, all of which were frowned upon in my culture. Indeed, a teenager would be severely chastised if caught doing these things! Nonetheless, when I was 16, I had my first hug with a girl, who happened to be Australian, and it felt odd: Hugged by a foreigner, I felt as though I had betrayed my culture.

When I came to America, I thought that rising above my upbringing would be easy. After all, I had had exposure to the culture through over 200 movies. Unfortunately, I could not have been more wrong. I arrived ready to express my emotions physically, but was bombarded with sexual assault and consent speeches during my very first week at Amherst; in fact, I feared touching anyone lest they would file a sexual assault complaint. To me, asking for consent was not a revolutionary idea, and I have my mother to thank for that, but it was presented here in a way that instilled fear in me, which some people might argue is a good thing. The fact remains that my expectations clashed

with reality, especially when I saw random people at parties start grinding with girls without consent! I had thought that meeting that special person across the room and that saying “I love you” would be easier in the U.S. than Egypt; I thought that I would be able to perform the great romantic gestures I dreamed of to some grand woman I loved. However, whenever I would ask people what they thought of such gestures, the majority would discard it as “too much” and the minority would declare that love is a fantasy. Stunned, I felt the need to reevaluate my entire perspective on what “love” meant and to understand American culture more.

Undoubtedly, my greatest conflict was finding the balance between expressing emotions through words and physical gestures. In Egypt, I never expressed my emotions through physical gestures, and so when I had the chance to do so in the U.S., I was unable to. Nevertheless, seeing everyone happy and in love around me made me fall into despair. My lowest moment came this summer in New York when I downloaded Tinder and started swiping. While recognizing that some find something meaningful through it, and I do not mean

to put it down, I must say, I felt rotten: I felt I was giving up on a dream and a hope. If there is anything I take pride in, it would be my firm belief in genuinity. Even if for a day, Tinder made me objectify women and think of emotions as burdens; it discouraged me from searching for “the one.”

Needless to say, I deleted it by the end of the day.

Ultimately, despite its difficulty, living in the U.S. has taught me a lot about myself. I revisited the past and discovered that many of my emotions were simply manifested out of a wish and were ungenuine. I came to be comfortable with dancing in public and determined that physical intimacy is integral to any successful relationship. As cliché as it sounds, I found peace reconciling two alien cultures. Above all, I learned to be more courageous and to try to get out of my comfort zone, even if it were through the small step of having a first date. Despite disposing of mistaken dreams of flawless scenarios with “the one,” I will forever search for one for whom I would be willing to pick the stars from the sky and put them on top of a crown. I will continue to be a hopeful, realistic romantic, for as Foreigner sang, love “keeps me warm as life gets colder.”

S TA F F Publishers Emily Ratte, Tia Robinson Design Editors Katherine Chen, Megan Do, Adele Loomis, Zavi Sheldon, Yrenly Yuan Assistant News Editors Ryan Cenek, Carlos Rivero Assistant Sports Editors Jeremy Kesselhaut, Jason Stein Photography Editor Kyra Gardner

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The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

Opinion

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Bring on the Fun Samuel Rosenblum ’16 Staff Writer At a meeting earlier this year, President Martin, worried about the social poverty of dorm life, exclaimed to RCs, “Bring on the fun!” This promulgation’s metrical line conjured up what could be a hilarious parody of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” the ballad from “A Little Night Music” in which protagonist Desirée ponders the ironies and tribulations of her life.

More on that later.

Consider a recent change in how the administration approaches substance-free living. The college’s official policy is that substances are prohibited in first-year dorms. However, the college permits matriculating students, on their housing questionnaires, to decide to live during their first year in substance-free areas (or to mark “no preference”). Of course, in practice — rephrasing George Orwell ­­— “All first-year dorms are substance-free, but some dorms are more substance-free than others.” Prior to this academic year, entire first-year dorms — Stearns and sometimes Williston — were designated as substance-free spaces where students made a lifestyle choice to (for the most part) drink and smoke outside the dorm. This year, the administration instituted a new policy: divide sub-free dorms into sub-free floors and disperse them among different dorms.

Those of us who live or lived in sub-free dorms know what life is and isn’t like in those dorms. First of all: No, there isn’t some puritanical oath we all take which categorically forbids us from drinking and smoking. Neither are we boring, brainy rule-followers whose abilities to have fun were repressed. Nor are we “really fucking

weird” immature juveniles who need to cultivate our tastes in life’s finer things so as to, later on, “drunkenly piss” ourselves (kudos to the Muckrake on this one).

The reasons that motivate new students to decide to live in sub-free housing are just as varied as the students who live in it. Elaine Vilorio ’17, in an AC Voice article, explained that she desired a calm environment and was comforted by the fact that “there’s a low likelihood of someone raucously stumbling home drunk at, say, 3 a.m.”

Others chose it because they liked the architecture of Stearns or Williston. I selected it because a friend of mine in the class of 2015 told me that Stearns was an incredibly vibrant and welcoming community of students with varying lifestyles.

Moreover, some students arrive at Amherst with deep traumas. They may have personally experienced alcoholism and substance abuse in their families and communities. Some may have witnessed shocking and disturbing instances of substance abuse, moments that etched profound psychological scars. Acclimating to Amherst, or any college, where drinking and smoking are a widespread, if not defining, feature of social life, is a process which they might want to take at their own rate. Sub-free living provides these students with agency to adjust to or to resist the hegemony of substances from a distance.

What sub-free housing constitutes is one of a few remaining spaces of student community formation that occurs strictly on students’ terms; in a word, without administrative direction and intervention. It is not to say that all students in subfree housing would have wanted to live there had they chosen again. But it is to argue that sub-free housing forms, quoting Vilorio, a “compatible conglomeration of people,” one which “bring[s]

Letter to the Editor: Divest the Rest Brian Beaty ’17 & Esther Isaac ’18 Contributing Writers For three years the word “divestment” has been peppered throughout campus publications, plastered on the walls of Val and scrawled with chalk on the steps of Frost. But what does it really mean?

One could say the word arrived on campus in September 2012, when environmental activist Bill McKibben came to speak in Johnson Chapel. He argued that by investing in fossil fuel companies, Amherst College was an active participant in the climate crisis.

The Green Amherst Project decided to ask the board of trustees to divest from coal, reasoning that divestment from one fossil fuel was more realistic than divestment from all of them. After all, Amherst didn’t even have any direct investments in coal companies, so all the board had to do was promise not to invest in them in the future.

Last February, the board released their answer on coal divestment — not a yes or a no, but a 1,200-word “Statement on Sustainability and Investment Policy” in which they argued that divestment from coal would be a hollow act with little financial impact on the industry. Flummoxed by this response, the Green Amherst Project spent the rest of the spring semester planning its response.

Which brings us to this year. Now its own group separate from the Green Amherst Project, Divest Amherst is

asking the board to divest not just from the coal industry, but from the fossil fuel industry as a whole. By doing this, we align ourselves with the majority of college divestment movements around the nation, which have been asking for complete fossil fuel divestment all along, as well as with our own faculty and alumni, who have released statements in favor of complete divestment.

It might seem misguided to demand more of the board when they were so dismissive of our smaller request. But that’s precisely the point: The board asserted that divesting from the coal industry would be pointless, so we’re asking them for something more meaningful. Complete divestment would show the industry that Amherst will not support the environmentally destructive and morally reprehensible practices that the industry represents.

If the industry fails to respond to the people whose lives — and planet — it is destroying, it will eventually collapse.

As first-years may know from their summer reading, Naomi Klein wrote in “This Changes Everything” that “Young people have a special moral authority in making this argument to their school administrators. These are the institutions entrusted to prepare them for the future; so it is the height of hypocrisy for those same institutions to profit from an industry that has declared war on the future at the most elemental level.”

We ask the board to recognize this hypocrisy and divest now.

‘outsiders’ home and adopt[s] them into our family.” She is right when she claims, “I see no fault in a strong community when it’s welcoming.”

The categorical policy “No substances!” never needed to be imposed in sub-free living because of the student sovereignty that fostered a collective acceptance of the variegated lifestyles in the dorm. As Marie Lambert ’15 wrote in AC Voice, Stearns was an “amazingly supportive environment [which] brought us together in a way I have yet to see replicated at Amherst.” Such support does not come about by forcing everyone into the same mold, or by entrenching bureaucratic distinctions between non-sub-free and sub-free, between fun and un-fun. It comes about because students who live in different ways make a mutual choice to come together on each of their own terms.

What precisely, though, is the substance of hegemony I am getting at? It is not the hegemony of substances per se. (It is probably worth letting this new experiment with sub-free floors play out for a few years. Although many of the friendships I developed during sophomore year were with non-Stearnsians, I don’t want to silence the voices of those who felt isolated in or ambivalent about living in Stearns.) Rather, what I am touching on is the underlying standardization and unification of the social experience at Amherst. As the administration works to integrate more and more students into the same mold, it silences our incredible diversity, granting neither time nor space for forms of social life that do not fit in with what’s paramount. What of those groups of friends who enjoy quiescence or calm?

Or who prefer to play cards, watch TV, chat about life, drink lightly or listen to jazz? Or what about those friends who don’t socialize on weekend

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evenings but do so at other times, because of their work-study jobs?

I worry that the college’s well-intentioned desire to bring together students whose ways of life are different bulldozes over how those ways of life stand in opposition to and are incompatible with each other. President Martin’s mandate to “bring on the fun” silences the multiplicity of definitions which fun takes, and surely, by commanding it, makes fun (un)funny. I am arguing that fun cannot be ordered or normalized into one form.

There are varying and contradictory ways in which acts of fun intersect with lived experiences of students here. What might be fun — raucous drinking alongside upturned music in the socials or drinking wine while watching hilariously terrible YouTube videos or sitting around playing Cards Against Humanity with no alcohol — for some, may not be for others. What we’ve perhaps realized is this: With the college’s lack of diverse social spaces for its diversity of social life, not all forms of fun can exist freely.

Let’s remember the ultimate couplet of lines from Sondheim: “And where are the clowns?

Quick, send in the clowns / Don’t bother; they’re here.” His reference is not to circus clowns, but to fools, themselves unaware of their own tomfoolery, of the limits on what they perceive. One reading of this would call out the administration as fools, for failing to see the ways in which we students already create community in opposition to their social funneling. Another reading, contra Sondheim, embraces ourselves as clowns, as those who might have a less normalized, more quirky, stranger, funnier, and, for some, perhaps scary, way of life. (Seriously, some of us are scared of clowns.) So, if the clowns are here, we don’t need to bring on the fun.

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Arts&Living

Photo courtesy of onlythebest.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

Drake and Future spent six days collaborating on this spontaneous mixtape that underscores the rappers’ enormous success at this point of their careers.

What A Time To Be Alive: Drake and Future Release Joint Mixtape Alida Mitau ’18 Managing A&L Editor Superstar rappers Future and Drake released their mixtape “What a Time to be Alive” on Tuesday Sept.

20. The mixtape resulted from a sixday collaboration between the two artists, and the fans received the album with enthusiasm. Though Drake has been featured on every album by Future, the two make a somewhat questionable pair for a joint mixtape.

Drake became famous through his role in the Canadian teen drama TV series “Degrassi,” and now is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Drake holds the record for most number one hits on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart, and his distinctive style is reimagining hip-hop through emotional, “soft” lyrics that he both raps and sings. Drake reveals his vulnerability through his lyrics about feelings and relationship issues.

Future has recently become recognized as one of the biggest names in rap music. After producing his album “Pluto” in 2012, Future had a handful of singles such as “Where Ya At” and features on hits like “Bugatti” that earned spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Future uses auto-tune to produce a distinctive, grumbly and emotive sound, and often raps about struggles with drug abuse and street life in Atlanta. Encapsulating the sound and stories behind his music to Rolling Stone in April 2014, he said, “I like my shit to be gritty.”

Though their styles and backgrounds are very different, Drake and Future somehow manage to work together effectively on “What a Time to be Alive.” In a 2014 article about Future, Puja Patel of Spin Magazine takes note of their commonalities, saying the Atlanta rapper appeals to a diverse audience through sharing Drake’s “sensitive seduction,” while introducing, “the trend-conscious street-rap of hype men like Gucci Mane.”

Because Drake and Future are seen as two major figures in today’s world of rap, “What a Time to be Alive” combines their fame in a manner directly analogous to Kanye West and Jay-Z’s 2011 monumental collaborative album, “Watch the Throne,” but the two albums and their production process could not be more different.

“What a Time to be Alive” is fresh, fun, impromptu and somewhat unpolished due to its six-day timeframe. The album highlights the fact that both Drake and Future are in the prime of their careers, having just released solo albums that were met with immense success (Drake’s “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” and Future’s “DS2”).

Perhaps due to the mixtape’s s p o nt a n e nature,

o u s Drake and Future’s coll a b oration seems to flatten their individual talents. This became especially clear to me when I realized that my favorite songs on the mixtape were the last two ­— “Jersey” by Future and “30 for 30 Freestyle” by Drake, the only two tracks that the rappers did not directly collaborate with one another.

“What a Time to be Alive” is much more of a Future album with features by Drake.

Drake feels like an outsider in many of the songs, holding back his true sound and somewhat limiting Future’s own expression and style. However, there are still many moments throughout the mixtape where their collaborative sound is enjoyable and compelling.

This mixtape’s potential is demonstrated particularly well in the song “Diamonds Dancing,” in which the ostentatious yet introspective intro by Future flows well into the catchy hook where both artists rap: “diamond, diamond, diamond, diamonds on me dancing.” Drake wraps up the song with a verse in his recognizably smooth and sensitive style, and his words about a frustrating relationship gradually fade out (“You’re making me nervous/I haven’t even heard from you…”).

Additionally, the most identifiable song from the mixtape, “Jumpman,” elicits an automatic tapping

of the foot and head bobbing due to its slowly stirring beat and the artists’ ability to maintain their individualities. Drake’s faster and frenetic but fun verses are complimented by Future’s more relaxed ones. The song ends well with three lines by Drake, followed by a finalizing line by Future.

While these collaborative a c c o mp l i s h ments are worth celebrating, many

songs on the album left me unsatisfied, and I often failed to hear the two rappers genuinely complimenting each other.

Though Drake seems somewhat absent and altered throughout most of the mixtape, he ends the mixtape with his song “30 for 30 Freestyle” in his distinctive style.

In this last song, I could hear and enjoy Drake’s classic confessions for the first time in this tape.

Then, I began to question why Future and Drake decided to end the joint mixtape with solo songs. Perhaps ending the mixtape with a solid Future song followed by an equally polished Drake song renews the fans’ faith in the rappers’ distinct talents. This finish emphasizes the fact that the mixtape was produced spontaneously in the wake of Future and Drake’s own, separately successful albums.

While “What a Time to Be Alive” is disjointed given that Future and Drake often limit each other’s potential, it still offers a fresh and exciting sound.

That being said, if you are not a fan of rap music or either artist, I would not recommend listening to this mixtape. The lyrics, though at certain times complex and socially relevant, often revolve around strippers, making money and partying.

However, for those who enjoy rap music and works of the two artists, “What a Time to be Alive” is definitely worth a listen as the extemporized product of two of the most influential rappers of Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org today.

Arts & Living 7

The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

Cartoonist Fran Krause Illustrates Everyone’s “Deep Dark Fears” DivineAsia Miller ’19 Contributing Writer Whenever I have something important to do in the morning, the fear of oversleeping plagues me so much that I spend the entire evening obsessively checking that my alarm clock is set.

Fran Krause, a professor at California Institute of Arts, began cartooning irrational fears of his own just like these, then started to illustrate submissions of fears he received from the general public and posting them on Tumblr. Early in September Krause culminated this long running Tumblr project in a book entitled “Deep Dark Fears.” The book is centered on the irrational obsessions and fears that people battle every day.

The illustrations are probably the most captivating aspect of Krause’s work. Krause has a simple, childlike illustration style; he sometimes sacrifices anatomical accuracy or realistic placement of objects in order to maintain this aesthetic. The smooth lines that we see in most graphic novels do not appear in “Deep Dark Fears.” Instead, Krause draws with shaky, disconnected lines. His drawings sometimes look like watercolor paintings, with inconsistent pigmentation and blurred brushstrokes. The work is highly stylized and has a distinctive youthful charm. Readers who are familiar with Ludwig Bemelmans’ children’s book series “Madeline” may recall Bemelmans’ style while reading “Deep Dark Fears,” although Krause uses a more subdued color palette than Bemelmans.

Krause’s artistic style is well suited to the book’s subject matter. The fears within are childish and irrational; he portrays the confessors as either actual children or silly adults.

Subjects like sex, drugs or politics rarely appear in “Deep Dark Fears.” For these reasons, the book appeals to our inner child — the vulnerable and naive part of everyone’s sub-

conscious that we hide in order to appear sophisticated and mature as adults.

The book is arranged as a series of unrelated, four-panel comics that are accompanied by only a sentence or two that explain what fear is illustrated. There is virtually no dialogue and no plot development. Krause usually follows the style of a typical four-panel comic: a three-panel buildup to a climactic last panel, which is either the most funny or the most horrifying. This gets a bit boring and borders on predictable by fear No. 70. Occasionally, Krause mixes things up by supplying one panel or nine panels, but for the most part his style is so repetitive that the humor starts to get dry.

“Deep Dark Fears” also lacks variety in the types of fears Krause illustrates. Most of the fears are funny and whimsical enough to entertain, but after a while some started to seem artificial, as though the person submitting the fear was not actually afraid of the thing but thought it would be funny and cool to submit to Krause’s Tumblr. For example, one fear reads, “I’m not waving at anyone, and I’m not crazy. I’m just making sure there are no invisible people in my bathroom.” This just doesn’t seem like something someone would be afraid of. It seems like someone thought of something cute and quirky that would match the other fears Krause had already illustrated.

There’s another issue with the book: The topics of the fears get repetitive. Ways to gouge your eyes out, ways to get into a car accident, ways that the creepy things in your room will get you at night. Granted, this book isn’t meant to address the somber, more adult fears of modern life (like working a dead end nine-to-five job), but by limiting himself to childish, irrational fears, Krause risks boring the reader.

Despite these complaints, “Deep Dark Fears” is still one of the best books I’ve encountered recently. The gorgeous illustration

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

Krause’s comedic and artistic style is simultaneously childlike and dark. style combined with the fears that I actually enjoyed made it an enjoyable and quick read, one that I’ll continue thumbing through long after I finished it. It’s best to read this book before visiting the Tumblr page. Unfortunately, as is common for authors who make the transition from web-comics to published media, Krause reuses some of the more popular content from the website, so fans of Krause may

find themselves disappointed by the number of comics they’ve seen before. However, Krause’s premise is fresh and charming, and, despite noticeable faults in the execution, the book is definitely worth your time and money. This book would also be great to give as a gift because it doesn’t appeal to any particular interest, and is good for anyone who enjoys aesthetically pleasing and funny comics.

Rock the Block: The First of Many New Community Focused Events

Sophia Salazar ’18 Staff Writer

Pumpkin painting, hot cocoa, live music and beanbag toss games attracted spectators to Amherst’s first-annual “Rock the Block” event Saturday afternoon. Members of the Amherst College community flocked to Valentine Quad in spite of the gloomy weather to relax and mingle with fellow attendees.

The event featured several performances by student bands and musical groups, including the Sabrinas, the Zumbeyes and Amherst College Gospel Choir. Rock the Block is part of a new series of student-focused events organized by the department of Orientation and First-Year Programs and overseen

by the Office of Student Affairs.

Joanie Ly, Sophie Koff and Victor Diaz work on these programs in the Office of Student Affairs and helped make Saturday’s festivities possible. To find out more about Rock the Block and future programming, I spoke exclusively with coordinator of orientation and first-year programs Joanie Ly.

Q: What was the premise of creating an event like Rock the Block? My understanding was that it’s the first of its kind established by the department of orientation and first-year programs.

What is the significance of an event like Rock the Block to our campus community?

A: You are correct. It is the first of its

kind. This year is the year where we’re trying to establish something called a “first-year experience.” Basically, we are asking what are some of the moments and significant events that happen while someone is a first-year here on campus? What are some topics or areas that first-years experience (and really all students in some capacity regardless of year) when they are a student at Amherst College? Time management? Adjusting to being away from home? Making friends? The list can go on.

For Rock the Block, the inspiration really is a way to build and establish community across all spectrums of what it means to be an Amherst Student. We wanted to showcase students and all their potential and basically their awesomeness.

As Sophie, Victor and I continue to come up with programming, we are constantly thinking about an arc of progression. That is, as first-years move through the semester, our programming is also moving along with them as they go through what first-years go through.

We’re trying to be as intentional as possible with all that we plan.

Q: Will the campus be seeing more events similar to Rock the Block in the future that will showcase student music groups, food, T-shirts, crafts or more?

A: I hope so. That would be amazing.

My goal is to plan one large-scale event every month with little events scattered about every few weeks or so.

Photo courtesy of Peter Connoly

The Sabrinas performed at Saturday’s “Rock the Block” concert.

Q: Was the Office of Student Affairs the sole sponsor of this event or were there other sources as well?

A: Student Affairs (which is the umbrella under which orientation, residential life, student life and first-year program are housed) sponsored the event.

Q: What are the goals of your positions as the coordinator of orientation and first-year programs and, more specifically, your role in promoting student events?

A: My goal as the coordinator of orientation and first-year programs is to establish a sense of community for all students, but especially first-year students as soon as they set foot on campus. As you are probably aware, move-in day this year changed dramatically, and it was changed with the help of orientation leaders, resident counselors, and the amazing staff that work with us in Student Affairs.

I wanted to make sure that student leaders were front and center — for example, there was an amazing welcome dance that the orientation leaders choreographed — and student leaders from athletics to Resident Counselors to [the] Campus Activities Board to orientation leaders all came out in droves to help students move into their home for the next four years. I wanted new students to see and meet student leaders, since they are often the first resources that new students seek as they navigate what it means to be a student at Amherst.

And I also hope new students can see themselves in the student leaders they meet to establish the next legacy of student leadership on campus.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

Journeys in Space and Memory: Russian Urban Scenes and Landscapes

Photography Editor Kyra Gardner ‘18

This year’s exhibition in the Russion Center Art Gallery focused on the ideas of home and belonging, held its opening reception on Friday October 2.

Darya Bor ’18 Staff Writer The Amherst Center for Russian Culture hosted an opening reception for its new exhibition in the Russian Center Art Gallery on Oct. 2. The exhibition, which is located on the second floor of Webster Hall, is called “ПОД ОТКРЫТЫМ НЕБОМ — Journeys in Space and Memory: Urban Scenes and Landscapes

by Russian Artists.” The Russian words roughly translate to “Under the Open Sky.” The works were chosen by the Mead Art Museum’s senior curator, Bettina Jungen, and the exhibition features a range of painted works from the Thomas P. Whitney ’37 Collection.

Whitney majored in history at Amherst and went on to receive a master’s degree in Russian history from Columbia University.

He is most famous for his translation of Nobel prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s written works. He worked in the Soviet

Union for most of his adult life, where he came into contact with members of the Russian intelligentsia and collected many of their works that were banned during that time. His collection includes costume designs for plays that never occurred, old Russian icons dating back to the 17th century, avant-garde media projects, censored poetry and prose, illegal diaries and books written by artists while in exile during the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection encompasses a wide range of Russian intellectual movements, from Rayism to Cubism to Suprematism. Whitney donated his whole collection of about 400 objects to Amherst College in 2001, and it is now housed in the Amherst Center for Russian Culture. The large size of the collection allows for a different assortment to be featured every year, with a new theme.

According to Jungen, this year’s theme is “the underlying identity of home and belonging.”

“Most of these paintings are of the homes of the artists,” she said. “They ask the question, how does the artist depict their home?

Positively? Negatively? Are they benevolent in their depiction, or critical?” These concepts were prevalent in the 17 distinct works of the exhibition.

The majority of the works are paintings depicting either sunny or wintry Russian landscapes, or gloomy or vibrant Russian cityscapes. The paintings are both real and imagined view and have either traditional or modern genre scenes. “There are many possible connections between the body of works; there is not just one way to bring them all together,” Jungen said. “In addition, each of them is really different. Together, they are a good representation of the different elements of Thomas P. Whitney’s collection.”

During the reception, Miloslava Waldman, the overseer of European prints and the Study Room at the Mead Art Museum, commented

on the exhibition’s “personal nature.” Many of the artists painted their own homes and included images from their own lives. “There are so many messages in these works, you can pair them however you would like and learn something different,” she said. Curiously, she noted that about half of the exhibition features works illustrating bright summertime while the other half shows the dark of winter.

Irina Yakub, another scholar who attended the reception, said, “It is a small exhibition. If only it were a larger space, then we could see a larger number of pieces. But what we have here are the gems of [Thomas P. Whitney’s] collection. I want to stand and think about every painting for a long time.” “ПОДТКРЫТЫМ НЕБОМ — Journeys in Space and Memory: Urban Scenes and Landscapes by Russian Artists” will be on view in the Amherst Center for Russian Culture on the second floor of Webster Hall through spring 2016.

Spanish Department Hosts Comic Book Artist Jaime Hernandez Katyana Dandridge ’18

Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of aqnb.com

A cover from the Hernandez brothers’ famous comic, “Love and Rockets.”

Amherst’s Department of Spanish welcomed famed cartoonist Jaime Hernandez to Fayerweather’s Pruyne Lecture Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 30. He sat on a panel alongside Professor of Spanish Ilan Stavans, as well as Visiting Professor of Spanish Frederick Aldama, who wrote about Hernandez in his book “Your Brain on Latino Comics.” The Spanish department hosted a small reception afterwards.

Jaime Hernandez, along with his brothers Gilbert and Mario, began writing and illustrating “Love and Rockets” in 1981. The comic consists of two ongoing serial narratives, Gilbert’s “Palomar” and Jaime’s “Hoppers 13” (also known as “Locas”) stories.

The protagonist of “Hoppers 13” is Margarita “Maggie” Chascarillo ­— an intelligent, punk-loving, bisexual Chicana. When asked by a student why he chose to make all of his main characters female, Hernandez responded that he loves women in every capacity,. He makes this clear through his illustrations of diverse

groups of women. He also said that at the time he conceived the the story, he was entrenched in the rowdy and rebellious punk scene.

Hernandez talked about how he is continuously influenced by his Californian roots. He grew up in Oxnard, a densely populated, agricultural and predominately hispanic city in Southern California. Hernandez recalled how his mother would encourage her four sons to read comic books. She was a big fan of the traditional Marvel and DC superhero stories herself. She also introduced him to rock music, which expanded his cultural horizons as a teen.

Now in his 50s, Hernandez does not plan to stop writing about Maggie anytime soon. The character is canonically well into her 40s, actually. However, what you won’t be seeing is her story on the big screen.

After he was asked if “Love and Rockets” would be turned into a film or film series, the soft-spoken cartoonist answered a little more firmly: “We’ve been in talks with film companies for years and we have yet to find someone who will stay true to my work, true to these characters. So, no. Not in the near future at least.”

The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

Sports 9

Volleyball Earns Two NESCAC Victories Over the Weekend Julia Turner ’19 Staff Writer Amherst women’s volleyball enjoyed another successful week, finishing Colby 3-0 in less than an hour in LeFrak Gymnasium Friday night and repeating the sweep the next afternoon with a 3-0 win over Bates.

The Firedogs came ou t strong in the first set on Friday after dropping the first two points to the Mules. Gaining momentum and never looking back, the team rallied for 11 unanswered points, highlighted by several key kills from Nicole Gould ’16, Lizzie Ahern ’16 and Mia Natsis ’18, and an impressive service ace from Kelci Keeno ’17.

The pressure from the Jeffs forced a timeout by a previously undefeated Colby squad, but Gould came right back at them with a cross-court kill, putting the Jeffs up 12-2.

The purple and white dominated the rest of the match. Highlights included two assisted blocks by Maggie Danner ’17, great reads on the Mules’ defense from Natsis and Gould up front, and several spectacular digs from firstyear Hayes Honea. The match was a quick one, ending 25-10 with the Firedogs pumped up for another chance.

The second set saw Colby win the first point, but they were quickly shut down with another service ace from Keeno followed by a powerful kill from Gould that the Mules simply couldn’t handle.

With the Jeffs in control of the match once again, the Firedogs had a field day, playing to their team and individual strengths and thoroughly entertaining a good-sized crowd on a Friday night.

Honea dished up two service aces in the second set alongside the team’s only other first-year, Lauren Reppert, who came in and, making a great read on defense, added a kill for her first play of the game. Danner and Natsis continued to impress up front, both going cross-court for kills that helped to shut

down Colby 25-12.

The third set was the closest of the three for the first several minutes. Amherst came out strong once again with big kills from Lizzie Ahern ’16 and service aces from Newby and Honea.

Colby showed some resistance in the first half of the match until the Firedogs took the momentum and never looked back. Danner, Gould and Annika Reczek ’18 served up back-to-back kills, while Danner stayed tough at the net, allowing Colby no room for error.

The match was capped with two huge kills from Gould to end it 25-9.

Following up Friday’s quick victory, the Jeffs were back in action at LeFrak Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. This time they faced Bates, who came into the match at 2-2 in NESCAC play, suffering losses to Colby and Williams. Still feeling the energy from Friday

night’s win, the Firedogs jumped out to an early lead over the Bobcats, putting up four early unanswered points. Some major kills

by Ahern and Gould and several miscues by the Bates offense sustained the effort by the purple and white. Newby helped to finish off the set with several cross-court kills that the Bobcats couldn’t handle, along with a late service ace from Keeno.

The second set started off with a strong kill from Danner and a service ace by Keeno, along with an error by the Bobcats to put the Jeffs up 3-0.

The set was back and forth, with offensive mistakes and strong kills from both sides of the court. Ultimately, Gould, Newby and Jennifer Mackinnon ’18 led the Jeffs with strong play up front to a 25-16 victory.

The final set for the Jeffs saw seven tie scores and a deadlock from the two teams at

20. Back-to-back kills by Ahern and two service aces by Carter took the Jeffs up 24-20 before Ahern put the exclamation point on the match with a final kill to seal the game for the Jeffs 25-20.

Gould and Ahern highlighted the Amherst victory over Bates with nine and eight kills respectively. Warshaw and Walker led the team with 11 digs apiece, with Honea adding 10 to the effort. The Jeffs were tough at the net again on Saturday, registering nine total blocks led by Newby and Ahern.

The Jeffs will face a tough three games this coming week, returning to LeFrak on Wednesday night in non-conference action against Westfield State. Then the Firedogs hit the road for the weekend, facing an 11-2 Middlebury team on Friday and a struggling 3-10 Hamilton squad on Saturday in NESCAC play.

Photo courtesy of Janna Joassainte ’17

Sophomore outside hitter Asha Walker led the Jeffs with 11 digs in the team’s win over Bates on Saturday afternoon.

Men’s Tennis Enjoys Dominant Showing at MIT Invitational

Women’s Tennis Falls to Little Three Rival Williams

Ashlyn Heller ’17 Staff Writer

Raymond Meijer ’17 Staff Writer

This weekend, the Amherst men’s tennis team continued its upward swing at the annual MIT invitational. The invitational featured top rated talent from the region, including Boston University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, and MIT. The invitational was structured on an individual basis as more of a showcase for the top singles and doubles players in the region to play against one another.

Despite the non-team style of the tournament, Amherst still managed to prove themselves as one of the strongest teams, particularly in doubles action. Amherst won 10 of its 21 singles matches. Four Jeffs posted double wins for Amherst throughout the course of the tournament, two of which were first years. Both Zach Bessette ’19 and Justin Sun ’19 trounced their opponents from Boston University and MIT. The team is thrilled to see the underclassmen stepping up against such toptiered opponents.

In doubles action, Amherst won an impressive eight of its 12 matches. Again, the first years provided an added spark as Cameron Raglin ’19, Justin Sun ’19, Zach Bessette ’19 and Jesse Levitin ’19 each helped their partners win two consecutive matches.

Next weekend, the focus will again individual rather than team. The Jeffs will split up, sending half of the squad to Maine for the Wallach Invitational at Bates and half of the squad to Dartmouth for the Dartmouth Invitational. The Wallach Invitational will feature challenging NESCAC opponents including Bowdoin, Colby, Tufts, Middlebury, and Bates. Williams will be attending the Dartmouth Invitational. The weekend promises to offer a good read on where Amherst stands in the NESCAC this year.

“Even though we’re splitting up, we’re excited to cover all our bases this weekend,” senior Ben Fife said.Facing multiple NESCAC opponents will be great for our team and especially our freshmen who need to get some good NESCAC experience under their belts before the spring season.”

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Aaron Revzin ’16 looks to improve upon an already impressive fall campaign.

The Amherst women’s tennis team traveled out to Williams this weekend to play its first dual match of the 2015-2016 campaign, hoping to break the Ephs’ win streak in the last five matchups against the Jeffs. Though the team was unable to overcome Williams this time around, Amherst showed areas in which they might be able to outmatch their rivals in the next matchup.

The Jeffs also played Williams in their fall opening dual match last season, losing a close battle 5-4, before eventually facing the Ephs again at the spring national championships.

Though the Jeffs lost to the eventual national champion Williams squad, they rallied to grab third and have certainly been carrying that momentum into this season with strong results in their regional invitational last weekend.

This weekend, the Jeffs came short of cracking the Ephs after a 9-0 defeat from results in singles and doubles. Amherst showed its depth, bringing players from every grade level, and forced a few of the matches into three-set battles.

“This weekend was definitely a tough one,” captain Sue Ghosh ’16 said. “Everyone played really hard, and there were a lot of close matches that could have gone either way.”

One of the weekend highlights came on the No. 1 singles court, where Ghosh faced Williams’ Juli Raventos. After dropping the first set 5-7, Ghosh came back to win the next set 6-4 and then forced Raventos into extra games before falling 5-10 in the third set.

Jackie Calla ’17 on the No. 4 singles court also pushed her Williams foe, Julia Cancio, to

three sets, bouncing back from a 2-6 first set defeat to win 6-4 in the second. She was just edged by Cancio, who was an All-American in doubles last year, in the final set 13-11. On the No. 5 singles court, captain Sarah Monteagudo ’16 played out a tough three sets before ultimately falling in her matchup, 6-3, 0-6, 4-6.

Perhaps the highest powered matchup of the dual match came on the No. 1 doubles court, with Amherst’s Ghosh and Vickie Ip ’18 facing Williams’ Raventos and Linda Shin in a matchup of doubles teams that were ranked fourth and first nationally in the final ITA national polls last spring. Ghosh/Ip had played a Williams doubles squad of Cancio and Mia Giancayco in an 8-3 defeat at the spring national championships, but came closer to the higher-ranked Raventos/Shin team this weekend, falling 8-4.

With the loss, Amherst drops to 0-1, while Williams moves up to 2-0. Though the win gives Williams its 28th straight overall dual match victory, the longest in their program history, Amherst still holds the edge in the direct rivalry matchups with a 39-35 lead dating back to 1977.

“Having this match was really good for the team,” Ghosh said. “I think we are now all a little bit more motivated and pumped to beat them when we play them again in the spring time. It only goes up from here, and sometimes you learn more from your losses more than your wins.”

Amherst now turns its attention back to invitational play this coming weekend. The team will travel up to the Middlebury Invitational this weekend for their penultimate fall competition. The invitational will be held on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

Men’s Soccer Kicks Off 2015 Season With Two Decisive Wins Jason Stein ’16 Assistant Sports Editor Following men soccer’s thrilling last-minute victory over Williams in double overtime on Saturday, Sept. 26, the safe assumption was that Amherst’s next few games would likely be unable to live up the excitement and intensity of the Jeffs’ dramatic victory over the Ephs. However, the second-ranked Jeffs ended up playing two double-overtime games of similar intensity in their next two matchups against a pair of formidable opponents — Worchester Polytechnic Institute and Tufts, the defending NCAA national champions. After securing a pair of victories in dramatic fashion this past week, the Jeffs stand at a perfect 8-0-0 (4-0-0) with seven games remaining during the regular season, six of which are NESCAC matchups and five of which are road games.

Against WPI, Amherst’s offense came out of the gates firing, and the team put across three shots over the opening 10 minutes. Senior midfielder Milton Rico then put the Jeffs ahead at the 13:47 mark when he vollied the ball into the net, after the ball was deflected inside the box, for his first goal of the season.

However, the Jeffs would not hold this lead for long, as the next shot of the game (less than three minutes later) proved to be a game-tying goal for the Engineers. WPI senior midfielder Chris Murray hurled a long throw in from the sideline that set up junior defender Nate Peterson to score on a header.

Both teams were unable to score another goal in the remainder of the first half. Each side had two shots on goal in the first half, while the Jeffs (eight shot attempts) had double the amount of scoring chances as the Engineers (four).

Early in the second half, senior forwards Greg Singer and Pascual-Leone both were denied goals by the WPI goalie. With less than 10 minutes left in regulation, the Jeffs defense came up big by blocking a WPI shot. With one minute left, senior goaltender Thomas Bull made a key stop to preserve the score at 1-1 and send it into overtime.

Neither side was able to convert in the first overtime period, setting up another dramatic finish for the Jeffs in their second consecutive double-overtime game. With just over three minutes left in double overtime, junior forward Chris Martin sent a low cross (from the right side of the box) towards Singer, who finished for his third goal in two games and his second straight game-winning goal in double overtime (with each of the two game-winning goals giving the Jeffs a 2-1 win). Martin’s third assist of the season put him in a tie for second place in the NESCAC with 15 points (six goals and three assists).

Amherst’s highly-anticipated matchup against the Tufts Jumbos played out much like many would have expected during regulation, and the nationally-ranked opponents played a tightly-contested game with strong defense on both sides.

In the opening period, the Jeffs put up four shots before the Jumbos attempted their first shot of the contest more than halfway through the first half.

In the second half, both teams had several opportunities to score, as the Jeffs attempted 10 shots in the second half, while the Jumbos had six shots, but neither side was able to put the ball into the back of the net.

With just under 20 minutes left in the second half, Pascual-Leone fired a promising shot that was just a bit wide to the right and slightly high.

In the 80th minute, Martin narrowly missed his seventh goal of the season after making a nice move past a Tufts defender and shooting it just wide of the far post. Perhaps Amherst’s best chance to score in regulation came in the final minute when a Tufts defender made a diving save to keep Pascual-Leone (who was in front of Tufts goalie Scott Greenwood ’17) from scoring off a header from close range.

With less than five minutes remaining in

double overtime, midfielder Andrew Orozco ’17 won a contested header and directed the ball towards junior midfielder Bryce Ciambella, who then skillfully lobbed the ball over his head towards Pascual-Leone, who had some space in the center of the pitch from about 23 yards out.

With his left foot, Pascual-Leone lofted a shot over the keeper’s head into the top left corner of the net to send the Amherst crowd home happy.

The defense came up strong against the talented Jumbos. Bull (with four saves) and the defensive unit contributed towards Amherst’s sixth shutout of 2015, after surrendering goals in the previous two contests against Williams and WPI. Amherst’s 1-0 victory over Tufts proved to be the Jeffs’ third straight double-overtime win; prior to this stretch, Amherst had not played into overtime in any of the first five games of 2015. In the last three games the Jeffs have played, senior leadership on the offensive end has been critical, with three seniors (Singer, Rico, Pascual-Leone) accounting for all five of Amherst’s goals in these contests.

Although the Jeffs won in exciting fashion in each of the past three games, dating back to Amherst’s matchup against Williams, Coach Justine Serpone is keeping his team grounded and knows that there is still room for improvement. “I didn’t think we played particularly well in any of our games last week,” Serpone said.

“I would like to see us score more goals and I certainly don’t want to see us give up goals in back-to-back games. Improving on both sides of the ball is imperative to continued success. I think it’s important for us to remember that we are three plays away from 5-3 rather than 8-0.

The margins between winning and losing are so small, especially in the NESCAC, that we need to continually bring our best.”

Even still, the Jeffs are off to a historic start.

Amherst’s eight consecutive victories is the best start to the season that the perennially successful program has had since 2012. In fact, in both 2011 and 2012, the Jeffs won the first eight games of the season before drawing in the ninth contest of the year.

The 2015 Jeffs will have an opportunity to top this impressive mark with another victory in their next game. On Wednesday, the Jeffs travel to Newburgh, New York for an 8 p.m. matchup with Mount Saint Mary (4-7-1 overall) in what will be Amherst’s final non-conference matchup of the regular season.

Even with the October break, the Jeffs certainly have a busy ahead; but, the team is not looking past its next game. “We aren’t looking past Mt. St. Mary’s, as they’ve been to the NCAA tournament the last few years,” Serpone said.

“Last year they tied us [and] we know they’re a powerful program.”

On Saturday at 1:30 p.m., the Jeffs will face the Hamilton Continentals (5-5-0 overall and 2-4-0 in the NESCAC) on the road. Last season, the Jeffs topped the Continentals, 1-0, off a goal

by Pascual-Leone less than 20 minutes into play.

In Amherst’s only home game played during the week of the 2015 regular season, the Jeffs will welcome Connecticut College (6-2-1 overall and 3-2-1 in the NESCAC) to Hitchcock Field for a 3:30 p.m. start on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The Jeffs managed to beat the Camels twice last season, but neither game proved to be easy for Amherst. During the regular season meeting, Rico scored an early goal in the fourth minute of play, while the Jeffs managed to prevent the Camels from scoring over the rest of the contest and secured a 1-0 victory. After the Camels shocked Tufts in the NESCAC quarterfinals, Conn. College opened its NESCAC semifinals matchup against the Jeffs with a goal that came seconds into the match. However, goals from Orozco, junior defender Cameron Bean and graduated senior defender Gabriel Wirz ’15 over the next 25 minutes (which were all assisted by Pascual-Leone) gave the Jeffs a 3-1 lead. The Camels would add a late goal to cut Amherst’s margin in half, but the Jeffs held on for a 3-2 victory.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Nico Pascual-Leone ’16 Favorite Team Memory: Winning a NESCAC championship at Williams my freshman year Favorite Pro Athlete: David Silva Dream Job: Mythbuster Pet Peeve: People who chew gum too loud Favorite Vacation Spot: Valencia, Spain Something on Your Bucket List: Go cage diving with sharks Guilty Pleasure: Eating an entire bag of cider donuts from Atkins Favorite Food: Paella Favorite Thing About Amherst: How cool and interesting everyone is How He Earned It: In a game that need two overtime periods to reach the end result, Pascual-Leone provided the game winner for the Jeffs in the 106th minute of play, blasting a shot from 25 yards out.

The win was crucial for the Jeffs: It maintained their undefeated season while also lifting them over Tufts, the 2014 national champions. The win over the Jumbos was Amherst’s third consecutive double overtime victory.

Devyn Gardner ’16 Favorite Team Memory: Playing the Ocean Course during our 2014 spring break trip Favorite Pro Athlete: Rory McIlroy Dream Job: Own my own bakery Pet Peeve: Messiness Favorite Vacation Spot: Any lake up north in Minnesota Something on Your Bucket List: Bungee jumping Guilty Pleasure: Popcorn with M&Ms in it Favorite Food: Tacos Favorite Thing About Amherst: Hash brown Tuesday at Val (and I suppose the people too) How She Earned It: Gardner led the women’s golf team to a second-place finish last weekend at the Middlebury Invitational, held at the Ralph Myhre Golf Course. She finished in a four-way tie for first place, posting a two-day score of 160. Gardner shot an 84 on day one but cut eight strokes off that score on day two to help the purple and white reach their second-place showing.

Gardner Leads Women’s Golf to Second Place Finish at Middlebury Invitational

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Devyn Gardner ’16 tied for first place at the invitational this weekend.

Drew Kiley ’18 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst College women’s golf team placed second in a field of twelve teams at the Middlebury College Women’s Invitational last weekend, Oct. 3 and 4.

Competing at the Ralph Myrhe Golf Course in Middlebury, Vermont, Amherst placed three golfers in the top 10: co-captain Devyn Gardner ’16, Zoe Wong ’18 and Kate Weiss ’19. All members of the team lowered their scores on day two, recording a team score of 656 (336+320).

Gardner led the Jeffs and tied for the individual title. Gardner led off with an 84 on Saturday before shooting a spectacular 76 on Sunday to record a two-day score of 160.

“Devyn had an awesome day two to end up on top of the leader board and help lead us to a second place finish, which was a really exciting way to close out the weekend,” co-captain Sarah Ressler ’16 said.

Wong finished only one stroke behind her teammate in fifth place, with a two-day score of 161 (82+79).

Amherst’s first-year class continued their strong opening campaign. Weiss tied for seventh place after carding a 163 (83+80).

Katie Rosenberg ’19 and Maggie Schoeller ’19 carded a 172 (87+85) and 181 (92+89) to finish tied for 26th and tied for 37th, respectively.

Ressler also competed as an individual, carding an 89 on day one followed by an 85 on day two to finish tied for 32nd place.

“I am super proud of how the team played this weekend,” Ressler said. “Conditions were tough on day one and some of the scores were high, but on day two we really fought hard and shaved 16 strokes off our day one total. It was great to see us all come together as a team and rally back.”

The team returns to the course this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11, for the Williams College Invitational.

In a field of 16 teams, the Jeffs finished in eighth place at the Williams tournament last year. However, after logging their highest finish of the year, the purple and white have the momentum and the confidence to improve on last year’s performance.

The Amherst Student • October 7, 2015

Sports

Women’s Soccer Splits in NESCAC Competition Over the Weekend Drew Kiley ’18 Managing Sports Editor The No. 19 Amherst College women’s soccer team went 1-1 in two games last weekend against NESCAC competition at Hitchcock Field. The Jeffs fell in a hard-fought, 1-0 loss to Tufts University on Saturday before completing a 3-0 rout of Connecticut College on Sunday. The results bring their record to 5-20 (2-2-0 NESCAC) on the season.

Goalkeeper Holly Burwick ’16 registered eight saves in a high-tempo matchup against Tufts that featured a combined 24 shots, but Amherst fell to their second loss of the season.

Tufts started brightly, pressuring the Amherst back line often and forcing Burwick into three saves within the first 12 minutes. In the 28th minute, the Jumbos took the lead when Jess Capone jumped on a loose ball in the Amherst box and fired a shot past Burwick into the bottom right corner.

Amherst responded with consistent pressure after the goal, and first-year Maeve McNamara nearly tied the game with four minutes until the half. McNamara fired a shot from the right side of the field, but Tufts goalkeeper Emily Bowers made an athletic save, tipping the ball over the crossbar.

Searching for an equalizer, the Jeffs opened up the game in the second half. In the final 10 minutes, Amherst put consistent offensive pressure on the Jumbos, but the purple and white could not create the goal they needed.

On Sunday, Emily Hester ’17 led the Jeffs

to their 3-0 victory over Conn. College, scoring two goals on either side of the half.

Amherst jumped out to an early lead in the third minute, when Hester beat her defender to a cross from McNamara. With the ball at an awkward height, the junior used her body to direct the ball past the Camels’ goalkeeper.

Down 1-0, Conn. College dictated play for the rest of the first half. The visitors’ best chance to equalize came from a corner kick in the 23rd minute, when Camels forward Mackenzie Kingston collected the ball in the Jeffs’ box and fired a shot towards Burwick’s goal.

The Amherst keeper, however, proved up to the task with a jumping save as two Camels closed in for the rebound.

In the 48th minute, Hester netted again for her fourth goal of the season when she nodded a corner kick from Sarah Zuckerman ’17 past the Conn. College goalkeeper. McNamara then added another, her first of the season, in the 59th minute. Positioned at the top of the box, the first-year connected on a bouncing corner kick from Zuckerman and fired it just out of the keeper’s reach.

The Jeffs return to action with a match at NESCAC rivals Hamilton on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 11 a.m. Amherst then faces non-conference foes Keene State on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.

“We came out really strong for the first time and did the little things right, connecting all over the field,” Burwick said. “We haven’t consistently been able to do that, especially in the first half. If we play a full 90, there is no doubt in my mind that we can beat any team in the country.”

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Emily Hester ’17 scored two goals in the Jeffs’ win over Conn. College.

Men’s Golf Advances to NESCAC Championships, Finishes Third at Qualifier Lauren Tuiskula ’17 Managing Sports Editor The Amherst men’s golf team tied for third overall at the NESCAC championship qualifier this past week, earning a spot in the conference championship tournament which will be held during the spring season, the weekend of April 30 to May 1, 2016.

Amherst shared a two-day score of 628 with the team from Hamilton. Middlebury earned first place at the qualifier, posting a team score of 605 while Trinity shot a 617, good for second place.

First-year Jack Burlison led the Jeffs, cutting eight strokes off his day one total of 80 to finish with a two-day score of 152. He finished 10 over par for the course to tie for third overall at the tournament.

Dan Langa ’18 came in second among the Jeffs’ golfers and tied for 14th overall in the field.

He shot a 78 on a day one and an 80 on day two.

Both Burlison and Langa were named to the NESCAC all-conference teams for their perfor-

mances. Burlison was a first-team honoree, while Langa was named to the second team.

Liam Fine ’17 continued his impressive fall campaign and finished 19th in the tournament.

He finished with a two-day total of 160 (76-84).

Rounding out the top five for Amherst were Sam Proctor ’18 and James Line ’16.

Proctor played consistently well over the weekend, carding an 82 on day one and improving to an 80 on day two.

Line also saw improvement over the course of the weekend as he cut 10 strokes off his day one score. His two-day total was 170 (90-80).

With their third place finish, the Jeffs qualify for the NESCAC championship for the second time in three years after narrowly missing the tournament last year.

The Jeffs hope to ride the momentum from this past weekend’s win into their final tournament of the fall season. They’ll compete in the ECAC championships this Saturday, Oct. 10 at the Ranch Golf Club in Southwick, Massachusetts.

11

Chris’ Corner Chris Rigas ’16 Columnist Chris Rigas discusses Lebron James’ unusually strong influence on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ personnel decisions.

Whether LeBron James likes it or not, he has a lot of influence on the management of the Cleveland Cavaliers, both in terms of player personnel decisions, and in terms of in-game strategy. General manager David Griffin and coach David Blatt know that if LeBron makes it clear that he doesn’t approve of their performance, they’ll be out the door.

Lately, however, LeBron appears to have embraced that responsibility rather than dancing around it. In several instances, he’s made public statements that, with a little close reading, look like directives to the Cavaliers to do one thing or another. He’s also structured his contract so that he has the option to leave Cleveland after every year, a move which many have interpreted as designed to maintain as much leverage over Cavaliers management as possible. It would be an exaggeration to say that LeBron is behind every front office and coaching move the Cavs make, but it is certainly true that they can’t do anything without his approval.

So, how has he done in his role of de facto general manager/head coach? Obviously, making the finals in his first year as a Cav is no small accomplishment, but their success might be due to LeBron’s superior talent as a player and the Eastern Conference’s weakness.

Let’s look at the key decisions, both front office and coaching, that the Cavs have made since James signed, considering the impact James may have had on them, and how they have worked out.

The move: Soon after James decided to sign, the Cavs traded for Minnesota forward Kevin Love, giving up 2014 first-overall pick Andrew Wiggins and 2013 first-overall pick Anthony Bennett.

LeBron’s role: James announced he was returning to Cleveland in a letter published in Sports Illustrated. In the letter, he mentioned several Cavs he was looking forward to playing with — Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters and Anderson Varejao — but not Wiggins or Bennett. LeBron also met with Love to push the idea of the power forward coming to Cleveland. Taking into account both gestures, it’s safe to say that LeBron wanted to bring Love to Cleveland, and that, in his eyes, giving up Wiggins was not too high a price.

The aftermath: Love looked uncomfortable playing a supporting role for the Cavs. His total per game numbers dropped sharply, as you would expect from a player going from being a first option to being a third option, without any corresponding increase in efficiency. His defense, which was never good in Minnesota, did not improve in Cleveland, and he was often the subject of trade rumors.

Still, even with the serious dip in his numbers, Love was one of the best offensive power forwards in the NBA. Toward the end of the regular season, things seemed to be coming together for him and the Cavs — or they were until Kelly Olynyk dislocated his shoulder in the first round of the playoffs. The fact that the Cavs rolled into the finals without him, and gave the Warriors a serious challenge doesn’t look good for the case that Love was an essential piece.

Verdict: A bad move, but not a disastrous one. From a long-term perspective, Wiggins is a better asset; he will be a better player than Love soon, and his rookie contract is easier on the salary cap. On the other hand, LeBron may not be that interested in the long-term.

The move: In early January, the struggling Cavs made two moves: In a three team trade they gave up Alex Kirk, Louis Admundson and Dion Waiters, in exchange for Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, and a protected first round pick. Then they turned around and packaged that pick with another first rounder for Denver center

Timofey Mozgov and a second rounder. At the time, the Cavs were a disappointing 19-16, but they went on to finish 53-29, with the second see in the Eastern Conference.

LeBron’s Role: LeBron supported trading for Smith, despite the shooting guard’s history of clashing with coaches. At a press conference, James said, “For me, as a leader of a team, you always just want to try to give someone an opportunity. With the talent this guy presents, I knew the man he was, and I didn’t really care about what everybody else thought about him.”

The aftermath: Mozgov, Smith and, to a lesser extent, Shumpert, played key roles in this turnaround, and in helping LeBron take the Cavs to the finals. Thanks to injuries to Love and Kyrie Irving, the trio were three of Cleveland’s best six players by the end of the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Waiters floundered in Oklahoma City, and the Thunder missed the playoffs.

Verdict: A very good move. Mozgov was the rim-protector that the suspect Cavs defense needed, while Smith and Shumpert seemed to be rejuvenated just by leaving the disastrous Knicks. It’s hard to see how the Cavs could have made the finals without making these trades, and all three players will be back for another run this year.

Overall, LeBron’s “GM” record is good; the excellent Mozgov and Smith trades easily outweigh the suspect Love/Wiggins trade. But LeBron’s “coaching” record is more suspect. If anything, LeBron has even more influence over David Blatt than over Griffin. This became especially obvious in game four of the Cavs’ second round series with the Bulls. In a tie game with under a second left, James overruled Blatt’s play call — which had him inbounding the ball — and demanded the ball for himself. He made the game winner, tying the series at two.

James was right in this case, but what about other times when Blatt ceded authority to his star player?

The move: The most obvious instance of this involves the type of offense the Cavs ran. Blatt — who is on his first NBA coaching job after being very successful in Europe — wanted to run a motion offense in which the ball moved around quickly, similar to the one LeBron played in for Erik Spoelstra in Miami. And Cleveland did run a motion offense, for the preseason and a few games at the beginning of the regular season. But when the Cavs started to sputter, they defaulted more and more to giving to ball to LeBron — or occasionally Kyrie Irving — and watching him dribble the ball at the top of the key.

LeBron’s role: Later in the season, there was speculation that this was LeBron’s plan all along, and that the reason he left Miami was because he wanted to dominate the ball more.

The aftermath: This LeBron-centric, stagnant offense worked well enough, but it was definitely a less than optimal for a team of Cleveland’s talent, and it often left Love without enough touches to get a rhythm. However, in the playoffs, considering the injuries to Love and Irving, it was the only viable strategy, and James played heroically to take the Cavs as far as they went.

Verdict: Inconclusive. LeBron was wrong to dominate the ball so much in the regular season, and it led to his worst efficiency numbers in years. On the other hand, he needed to dominate the ball in the playoffs because of injuries to Love and Irving. Still, if the Cavs are going to be a real contender, they need to utilize Kevin Love’s offensive abilities more, which means LeBron getting rid of the ball faster. If James is too stubborn to allow Blatt to implement his motion offense this year, he will be making a mistake.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

The purple and white were led by first place crowns in the 200 meters by Karen Blake ’17 and in the 10,000

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

The Jeffs’ offense has scored an average of 37 points per game so far this season while their opponents are averaging just 10 points against them.

Football Records Dominant 37-6 Win Over Bowdoin, Improves to 2-0 Devin O’Connor ’16 Staff Writer The Amherst College football team was unaffected by the poor weather during the first home game of the season Saturday afternoon.

The Jeffs collected more than 500 yards for the second week in a row in a definitive 37-6 win over Bowdoin. The win brings Amherst to 2-0 on the season, while the Bobcats fall to 0-2.

A strong first quarter secured the win for the purple and white. Amherst amassed 24 points in the first stanza of the game, scoring on its first four drives. During the Jeffs’ first drive, receiver Jackson McGonagle ’16 caught a leading pass to get the home team to the Bowdoin 13-yard line. Three plays later, running back Kenny Adinkra ’16 scored on an 8-yard run to give the Jeffs an early lead.

Bowdoin started its first drive of the game at its own 24-yard line. Unable to capitalize, the Polar Bears were forced to punt and returned the ball to the Jeffs. Amherst made it all the way to the Bowdoin 3-yard line, but went

for the field goal on the 12th play of the drive.

Charlie Wall ’18 nailed the 20-yard field goal, giving Amherst a 10-point lead.

Amherst didn’t let up as the quarter continued. On their third drive, the Jeffs suffered a holding penalty that sent them back to their own 10-yard line. That didn’t stop the home team, however. Quarterback Reece Foy ’18 dodged through the middle, managed to avoid the Polar Bears’ defense and completed a 90yard touchdown run. The score was 17-0 with less than five minutes to play in the first.

Bowdoin regained the ball, but fumbled on its first play. Linebacker Tom Kleyn ’16 exploited the error, getting the ball for Amherst at the Bowdoin 21-yard line. Less than a minute later, the Jeffs were on the board again. Foy threw to Adam Wallace ’16 for an 18-yard run to the end zone. The purple and white led at the close of the first quarter, 24-0.

In the second quarter, the Jeffs scored on two field goal opportunities. Wall was perfect on all field goal attempts, with kicks of 27 and 22 yards. The Jeffs had the lead at 30-0.

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

WED FRI GAME SCHE DULE

Men’s Tennis Field Hockey vs. Conn. College, 7 p.m. @ Wallach Invitational, TBA Volleyball Men’s Tennis vs. Westfield State, @ Dartmouth Invitational, 7 p.m.

TBA Men’s Soccer @ Mount St. Mary, 8 p.m.

With less than two minutes to play in the half, the Polar Bears were finally able to put up numbers of their own. Over 11 plays, Bowdoin drove 72 yards to make it to the end zone. The visitors scored their one touchdown with 1:06 to play in the second quarter. The extra-point attempt was incomplete on account of a bad snap. At the close of the half, Amherst led 30-6.

The third quarter was a dead lock, with neither team able to find the end zone. The beginning of the fourth quarter resulted in the final score of the game, however, when the Jeffs capitalized on a drive started at the end of the third. First-year running back Jack Hickey had a 5-yard rush up the middle that resulted another touchdown for the Jeffs. The home team offense rushed for 75 yards over 10 plays, bringing the final score to 37-6.

Hickey was a big contributor in the Jeffs’ accumulation of 368 rushing yards. He collected 11 yards on 10 carries, one of which resulted in the final touchdown for Amherst. Foy also delivered large numbers in the offensive game, contributing 98 rushing yards in addition to

202 yards in the air. McGonagle received for 79 yards in the big win for Amherst, while Wall went 3 for 3 on field goals and 4-for-4 on extra points.

“I love the energy our offense has started with this season,” McGonagle said. “We have a wide array of weapons that has made it difficult for opposing defenses to stop us.”

The purple and white defense held the Polar Bears to a mere 201 total yards and notched six sacks. A strong defensive effort by the Jeffs included strong efforts from a wide range of players, with Chris Gow ’16 recording five solo tackles, while John Callahan ’19 and Evan Boynton ’17 totaled four tackles each.

Amherst returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 10 at Pratt Field. The Jeffs will face big time competitor Middlebury, also undefeated. Last year, the Jeffs defeated the Panthers 7-0 on the road. Start time is 2 p.m.

“Our game against Middlebury this weekend will be our first major test,” McGonagle said. “We will prepare with the same dedication as we do for each game.”

Photo courtesy of Amherst Athletics

SAT Women’s Tennis @Middlebury Invitational, TBA Volleyball @ Middlebury, 8 p.m.

Field Hockey @ Hamilton, 11 a.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Hamilton, 11 a.m.

Women’s Cross Country @ NEICAAA Championship, 11:45 a.m.

Women’s Golf Men’s Golf @ ECAC Championship, @ Williams College Invitational, TBA TBA Men’s Cross Coun- Men’s Soccer try @ Hamilton, 1:30 p.m. @ NEICAAA Championship, 12:30 p.m.

Volleyball @ Hamilton, 2 p.m.

Football vs. Middlebury, 2 p.m.