Issue 5

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Student Activism Focuses on Mental Illness

To Write Love On Her Arms Grows its Presence at Amherst College

Photo Courtesy of Darrian Kelly ‘15

Students visited the To Write Love On Her Arms table at the College’s Mental Health and Wellness Fair to learn about on-campus resources.

Elaine Vilorio ’17 Managing News Editor To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) is pairing up with the Counseling Center next Tuesday, Oct. 8 in honor of National Depression Screening Day. This is the first time Amherst College has celebrated National Depression Screening Day, although it’s been a regular event at other college campuses around the country. It’s also the first time the Counseling Center is pairing up with TWLOHA to host an event. On that day, TWLOHA members will be tabling in the Campus Center Atrium alongside the Counseling Center psychologists. Interested students will be asked to fill out a survey which they will then proceed to turn in to one of the psychologists. Any immediate counseling will be done by the Counseling Center staff in the Friedmann Room.

Students who submit the survey will also be entered in a drawing for gift cards.

TWLOHA is advised by Director of the Counseling Center Jacqueline Bearce and Dean of New Students Patricia O’Hara. It is headed by Darrian Kelly ’15 with the support of Katharine Rudzitis ’15 and Kristie Chan, a Mount Holyoke student. “I’m very excited to have the Counseling Center collaborate with TWLOHA,� said Bearce. “We’re trying to let students understand that there are multiple resources available to them.�

The Counseling Center is also planning to work with Random Acts of Kindness and Meditation Group. However, Bearce notes that TWLOHA is a “particular student group aimed at reducing stigma.�

TWLOHA is an international nonprofit organization founded in Florida in 2006. Jamie

Tworkowski, the founder, was inspired by the fundraising he did for a friend entering an inpatient treatment program. Many insurance programs don’t cover the outstanding costs of mental health treatment. As a result, Jamie wrote “To Write Love On Her Arms,� a touching and eloquent online essay detailing the struggles of his sick friend Renee. This story helped bolster the sale of the t-shirts he used to help pay for Renee’s treatment. Needless to say, the essay went viral and garnered so much support, chapters of TWLOHA sprouted almost overnight. There are branches on more than 80 college campuses throughout the United States, Canada and New Zealand.

TWLOHA-Amherst was recognized as a chapter on March 13, 2012. Kelly, its founder, wanted to spread TWLOHA’s message even before coming to Amherst. “Everyone can relate to the idea of being

stuck in a problem or a tough situation. My life has been touched by the TWLOHA mission. Here at Amherst, I have witnessed many students struggle to make use of mental health resources both on and off campus. I have not only heard of suicide attempts, but completed suicides. TWLOHA-Amherst sets out to build a community on campus,� Kelly said.

According to a 2011 NIH study, around 30 percent of college students reported feeling depressed at some point during their time at school.

Elaborating on the prevalence of mental health disparities in college culture, Kelly said, “National health assessments have shown our peers struggle with being overwhelmed, lonely or anxious at rates that are well above the national average. While there is a Mental Health and Wellness Committee on campus that has Continued on Page 3

Technology Glitch Delays AAS Election Results Elaine Vilorio ’17 Managing News Editor At the close of Election Day (Thursday, Sept. 26), aspiring senators had one last item on their political agenda: the wait.

They had done all they could to elicit support from their peers; the election results were scheduled for release that following Saturday at 12 a.m. However, on Friday, Sept. 27, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) Elections Committee sent out two school-wide e-mails explaining “E� students were unable to vote on Election Day. Alternative voting was established and the wait for results was extended to Sunday at 1 a.m.

By the time Election Day’s technical glitch was discovered late Friday afternoon, the work day had ended. As such, AAS was unable to immediately utilize the support of the IT department. Acting on its own, AAS tested the original voting page to evaluate if it could be restricted to “E� students. Finding that it couldn’t be done without IT’s support, Vice President Noah Gordon ’14, who previously served as Elections Chair

and AAS Webmaster, created separate web forms that exclusively allowed “E� students to vote. “This turned out to be a clean solution, and in the end all of the votes were properly collected,� Gordon said.

Created in 2009 with the help of the IT department, the present-day online voting system can regulate voter participation in three ways. First, it can limit voter participation to non-“E� students. Second, it can limit voter participation to “E� students. And, finally, as was originally intended for this past election, it can take into account votes from both non-“E� students and “E� students. According to Director of Web Services David Hamilton, the voting problem was caused by the utilization of the wrong option. “This year’s issue was with configuration — there was no malfunction; the election was not configured to allow voting by ‘E’ students,� Hamilton said.

In an effort to avoid similar voting issues in the future, AAS representatives will be meeting with the IT department within the week.

“We’ll work on some documentation and ask [the members of the Elections Committee] to consider reaching out to IT each time they begin election preparation. This way, we can answer any questions they may have and advise them on the process,� Hamilton said.

It’s not numerically clear how significant the votes of the “E� students influenced the election. The voting system automatically makes every vote anonymous, so AAS doesn’t have voting demographic information readily available. However, according to Gordon, this year’s election saw a “high turnout in comparison to that of other years.�

Ultimately, the polls were re-opened for the sake of having every student’s voice represented.

Gordon elaborated further on this point: “We [the AAS] are very committed to making sure each student has a chance to raise their voice and be heard, and this extends to the realm of elections. We do our best to make sure that every voter is represented, even if this means extra work on our end and a few all-school emails.�

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News

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Sept. 23 to Sept. 30, 2013

>>Sept. 23, 2013 9:48 a.m., Amherst College Police A found wallet was turned in to Campus Police and a fraudulent driver’s license was found in it. A report was filed with the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and the wallet was returned to a student.

11:48 p.m., Tyler House Officers responded to a report of someone banging on the front door. It was discovered that a student, who did not have his ID card, was trying to get someone’s attention. >>Sept. 24, 2013 1:30 a.m., King Dormitory An officer assisted a student in locating a missing bicycle.

7:33 a.m., Morgan Hall Observatory An officer investigated a fire alarm and found it was set off by construction work. >>Sept. 25, 2013 3:20 a.m., Moore Dormitory An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding in a thirdfloor room. No cause could be found.

12:48 p.m., Converse Lot An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident. A report was filed. >>Sept. 26, 2013 2:14 a.m., College Hall Officers responded to a complaint about construction noise and spoke to a foreman.

9:04 p.m., King An officer responded to a complaint about the odor of marijuana on the third floor. An odor was detected but the origin could not be located.

10:29 p.m., Crossett Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of loud music and issued a warning at a first-floor suite.

10:45 p.m., Charles Pratt An officer encountered an underage resident with alcohol.

The matter was referred to the Dean’s Office. >>Sept. 27, 2013 1:59 a.m., Off Campus Locations A student reported his car stolen from a North Amherst location. The Amherst Police were notified.

10:37 a.m., Gooding Field A town resident complained about loud music. An officer had the volume lowered.

10:31 p.m., Charles Pratt An officer encountered two underage students with alcohol. The matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

Interview with Dean of Students Jim Larimore Should I use that as an opportunity to prepare for a shift and to teach? What I learned during that period of time during my doctoral program was that what I really liked was having an opportunity to work with students more directly, outside of the classroom environment.

I had to teach a few classes while I was there, but I really wanted to focus on creating an environment outside of the classroom that was a good complement to the experience inside the classroom. My interest kind of unfolded in different stages over time.

9:42 p.m., Hitchcock House An officer checked on a gathering in a first floor common room and found a beer pong table being set up. It was dismantled.

10:19 p.m., Waldorf-Astoria Fire Lane An officer stopped a car traveling on the sidewalk past Waldorf and discovered 108 bottles of beer in the car. The operator, who is a student, was underage. The alcohol was confiscated and the matter was referred to the Dean’s Office.

11:53 p.m., Social Quad An officer encountered a student urinating near Pond. He was identified and will be fined $100 for the offensive behavior. >>Sept. 29, 2013 12:01 a.m., Morris Pratt An officer responded to a complaint of loud music and located it in a second-floor room.

The music was shut off, and the resident was advised of the complaint.

12:48 a.m., East Dr. An officer encountered an intoxicated male walking along East Drive. He was transported to his residence on So. East St. 2:30 a.m., Tyler Place Amherst Police reported receiving a noise complaint from the area of Tyler. Officers discovered the noise was coming from non-college property and assisted the town police at that location.

4:33 a.m., Webster Circle Officers responded to a report of two people having an argument and located two students who were having a disagreement over their relationship. After speaking with the people, they separated for the night. >>Sept. 30, 2013 1:03 a.m., Crossett An officer responded to a noise complaint and found a party ending at a first-floor suite.

1:19 a.m., Webster Building An officer discovered vandalism at the building. A window was spray painted with green paint.

Photo Courtesy of Office of Public Affairs

Dean of Students Jim Larimore comes to Amherst from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, where he was deputy director for student success. Dean Larimore attended college at Texas A&M Univ.-Commerce, then went on to do his graduate work in higher education at Stanford. His experience in higher education includes dean of students positions and work in student affairs at Dartmouth, Swarthmore, New York Univ. Abu Dhabi, and Stanford. Explaining his decision to come to Amherst, Dean Larimore said that he received the call from Amherst just as he felt the time was right to go back into higher education. According to Dean Larimore, he chose Amherst in part because he admired President Martin’s vision for Amherst at a time when the College was facing so many challenges related to the sexual misconduct controversies that were unearthed last year.

Q: What inspired you to start a career in higher education?

A: This is where I’m a career center director’s worst nightmare. For me, as a first gen kid growing up, I had no idea that places like Amherst even existed until I was well into my time in college. In my first years in college, the people who I knew were custodians, dining hall workers and my professors. It wasn’t until partway through my junior year, when I was hired as a mid-year replacement student staff member in the dorm where I lived, that I became aware of the variety of people who actually worked on the campus that were there to help me and my fellow students have a better experience.

That was for me a kind of an eye-opening experience. My intention at that point was to go to work in juvenile probation, because I knew that that was a way to give back and to try to make a difference at a vulnerable point in the lives of young people who were growing up in places like the one where I grow up. It was, for me, kind of a slow pivot from thinking about the work that I might do in that kind of environment, to thinking about low-income and first gen students who actually found their way to a college setting. And that opened up a set of doors for me in thinking about working in higher ed.

When I did my graduate work at Stanford, it was at a point where I was trying to decide what would come next. Do I want to stay in higher education and work in student affairs?

Q: What are some differences and similarities between Amherst and the other institutions at which you’ve worked?

A: When I was at Stanford I was fortunate to have worked as part of a group of colleagues that were trying very hard to make Stanford feel like a much smaller place than it really is.

Stanford now has probably in the neighborhood of about 15,000 students. While it was about a fifty-fifty ratio of undergrad to grad students when I first got there, there are now significantly more graduate students than there are undergrads. So it’s a graduate student focused, research focused environment. It’s a wonderful place, but also a challenging place for people who care about undergraduate education, because the attention is so divided in different ways.

So when I went to Dartmouth, I thought, “Well this will be great. I’m going to a place where there’ll be a much more singular focus on undergraduate education.” And what I learned during my time there is that Dartmouth is a college in name, but it’s actually a small research university. So it has a business school, a medical school, graduate programs, and probably about twenty Ph.D. programs, mostly in the sciences and in the school of engineering. Dartmouth is the most undergraduate focused of the Ivy League schools, but in terms of its mission and the competition for resources, it is very much a small research university.

So in comparison, places like Amherst and Swarthmore are what they say they are. These are true residential liberal arts colleges. They’re both very distinctive in the emphasis that’s put on faculty work as scholars and engagement in research. But it’s for the purpose of bringing that work to the classroom and bringing that to what I regard as fundamentally a mentoring activity. They’re helping students really understand the creation of knowledge and the work of creative inquiry or expression in a variety of different disciplines. They do this without you, as a student, ever feeling that you have to compete for the attention of your professors. There are no grad students here that are crowding you out of lab experiences or an opportunity for one-on-one advising or mentoring. As a person with a mixed-race family background and as a first gen college grad, being at Amherst also spoke to me in a pretty fundamental way in terms of culture and temperament, in terms of the work that really accelerated under Tony Marx and that has continued under Biddy’s presidency in wanting this to be as inclusive an environment as you can imagine.

So one of the projects now is helping the institution move from doing a very good job assembling a really diverse student body to really taking a look at what’s working well now and what needs to be improved to make the experience for everyone here one where every student feels embraced, supported and feels free to pursue their interests in a way that will help them get the most out of the student experience. There’s a step in there from repContinued on Page 3

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News

Q&A With Dean of Students Jim Larimore Continued from Page 2 resentational diversity to a sense of belonging and freedom for every student and ultimately also a situation in which we hope students will learn even more from each other. I think one way of looking at this is hoping you will learn through the diversity you are exposed to, but that you will also have an opportunity, you and your peers, to learn about yourselves through the interaction with the good company that you get to keep for four years.

Q: How do you hope to contribute to that as Dean of Students?

A: In a variety of different ways. One is to think about the resources that we provide through different programs and offices. You could think about this from Orientation straight into the residential experience as places that support very quickly a sense of belonging and comfort and then that stimulate more interaction between students. So we hope to do that through some of the programmatic work and work that different offices and departments are responsible.

Some of this is helping people think through how we try to have an impact. I’ve mentioned to some of my new colleagues that I’m much more interested in trying to get a sense for how many students are engaged in different kinds of activities and how we draw people together than I am in simply counting

the number of activities that we organize or sponsor — so impact over quantity is one way of looking at that. And the other way in which we have been involved is through RC training and the arrival of Orientation leaders through the beginning of the term. We’re really trying to help support an environment where we talk with each other. We want to do this both in a proactive way in order to strengthen a sense of community here. But then, also, during times when we face some challenges, or something happens that causes upset or pain or some kind of turbulence in the community, we really need to think about how we bring people together to try to understand that and figure out ways that they might respond to it. So we do this in a variety of different ways.

As a dean, sometimes I hear from students who want a simple answer or a list of three things they should do. I heard indirectly through a colleague from a student yesterday who found some song lyrics offensive. The student seemed to suggest that the College should play a role as an arbiter of good taste in music.

I think there are things like that where I certainly understand the interest and the impulse, but where I think it’s more important for the College to try to help students and others figure out ways that as a community people can talk about what their needs and expectations are and where they agree and disagree about different topics, rather than simply trying to

issue an edict of some kind.

Q: What strategies do you think you’re going to use to help facilitate those discussions?

A: It varies. Some of this is trying to help people — so part of it is for about a sense of connection and human scale. Sometimes before people can have some of the more challenging conversations, they need to meet each other in ways that are more comfortable. Sometimes it’s easier to have a challenging conversation with someone you have met before, spent some time together with, or where you have at least some kind of bond that will help you get through the challenging discussions or disagreements that play out.

We’re trying to do that through the early experiences of connecting people through squads during Orientation as they get to know at least some fraction of their group of fellow students. Doing that through the residential experience. We’re now in the very early stages of increasing the time that staff have to spend in the Multicultural Resource Center, in the Queer Resource Center, in the Center for Women and Gender, thinking about ways that through those centers and through the activity and work of those centers that we can involve students that in the past have not been directly involved in the activities that they sponsor, and to think about ways then to connect people and foster a sense of dialogue, some con-

versation there. So I think we’ll work at it in a variety of different ways really on the basis of trying to bring people together in proactive ways, and bring people together in response to things that have happened, so that there can be ideally a constructive dialogue that might play out. There’s a wonderful event that the MRC sponsored—I went to one session last week—the series is called Café con Leche. The purpose is really to help bring administrators and students together in a way that gives people a chance to have an actual conversation with each other and to provide input to each other and learn from each other. I think those things kind of bridge building conversations are really important. So we’ll work at this in a variety of different ways, trying to bring folks together.

—Sophie Murguia ’17

President Martin is eager to hear from students and has set aside time each week for meetings in her office. If you wish to schedule an appointment with her, please visit the President’s web page at: https://www.amherst.edu/mm/389491 to access the registration form. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the President’s office at president@amherst.edu, or call 413-542-2234.

TWLOHA to Hold Depression Screening Day Continued from Page 3

been working on some great changes to student life, it is also important to have an outlet like TWLOHA for students themselves to get involved around the issues.”

Some past prominent events directed by TWLOHA include the TWLOHA Spring Benefit concert, the Frank Warren “PostSecret” event and, most recently, the semiannual Dog Day. On Friday, Sept. 20, TWLOHA hosted “Dog Days Are Over,” in which faculty and staff bring their pets to campus for students to play with. Hosted at Keefe, the event not only fostered informal, relaxed interaction but provided informational resources about involvement in TWLOHA. “Dog Days — a meet and greet with students, faculty, staff and their pets — is one of my favorite additions to TWLOHA’s event calendar. For the past three semesters, it’s allowed students to interact with pets and to chat with faculty and staff in a low-key setting. It’s one of my favorite community-building events, and I can’t wait to see everyone there next semester,” Rudzitis, TWLOHA’s vice president, said.

On Sept. 27, TWLOHA also appeared in the College’s Mental Health and Wellness Fair. Students were asked to write down their greatest fear and dream in an effort to start interpersonal dialogue. These same students then took photos with their completed informational sheets, some of which were posted on fearsversusdreams.com. “Fears versus Dreams” is one among many of the campaigns TWLOHA promotes. Aimed at dissipating loneliness, persons of all backgrounds are showcased holding the paper upon which their biggest fear and biggest dream are written.

The future for this student organization seems just as promising as its past. In the spring, it hopes to launch an Amherst PostSecret magazine, a campaign that was limited to Tumblr last academic year. Amherst PostSecret is a project in which people anonymously submit a secret on a postcard for all to see.

Just like the “Fears versus Dreams” campaign, it allows people to empathize with others and, in the process, establish connections. The second annual Amherst PostSecret Submission event will be held in Keefe this November. Last year, TWLOHA received almost one hundred anonymous submissions during

the two hours it tabled at Keefe. The primary persons working on the new magazine are Sarah Parson ’15, Shellby Fabian ’14, Lucia Yang ’15 and Sarah Ashman ’14.

Other events on TWLOHA’s agenda include possible partnership programs with the local high schools and a 2014 Spring Benefit concert that, according to Kelly, “our school has never seen before.”

Contradicting the infamous “Amherst Apathy,” TWLOHA’s efforts are fueled by the passion of its leaders and members.

“My experience with TWLOHA has been indescribable. No words can describe the feeling you get when something like TWLOHA’s mission statement, which is so near and dear to my heart, is used as a basis to help and spread hope to other people through the various activities that we do on campus,” said Chan, the group’s Five College Representative.

All TWLOHA meetings and events are open to the community. Meetings are every other Thursday at 9 p.m. in Chapin 101. The TWLOHA schedule is posted on the group’s Facebook (facebook.com/twlohaamherst), Twitter (twitter.com/ twlohaamherst), and Tumblr (twlohaamherst.tumblr.edu).

Photo Courtesy of Anna Donat ’15

TWLOHA Vice President Katharine Rudzitis ’15 participates in this fall semester’s “Dog Days Are Over” event.

Opinion

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Editorial

Let’s Stop and Think Before Complaining About Val

In the last year, Val has undergone some important changes that have made our food options both more delicious and nutritious.

Yet every day, students can be overheard complaining about Val to their friends.

Of course not every student is going to be thrilled with Val’s food options every day, but there are some considerations we all should make before publicly complaining about a service that ultimately provides us with everything we need and more.

The main consideration we should make is for our fellow students. It isn’t possible to know where every student around you comes from, and there is a good chance that in complaining about Val food, you are alienating someone you are speaking to or who overhears you — someone who might not have had access to healthy or home cooked meals at home or for whom Val food is a huge improvement from what they are used to eating.

We also need to consider whether we might be offending Val staff by commenting negatively as we take our food. A dish that others enjoy might not appeal to you, but no one is forcing you to choose that option.

Since the people serving the food can hear when we make negative remarks about the meals that they have worked very hard to put in front of us, perhaps we should simply skip

the dishes that we don’t enjoy and keep our opinions of them to ourselves.

That said, Val does provide a means of airing our complaints and suggestions in a much more positive (and effective) way — comment cards. It is obvious that Val has been listening to the student body and adapting accordingly; this semester, we have seen the additions of healthy, high-quality ingredients like hemp hearts and nutritional yeast flakes, avocado on some of Val’s prepared salads and delicious and fresh produce from Book and Plow Farm every day. We have also benefitted from the Val staff ’s increased attention to how well-done they cook their vegetables and meats. Val has even extended its hours and provided Sloppy Dog’s food truck from 10 p.m. to midnight three days a week due to student demand for later eating options.

The point is, Val is listening. So instead of complaining to each other, let’s start communicating directly with Val — we can be heard and create the changes we want to see while being thoughtful of those around us. We have the option of asking for improvements sincerely and without negativity, and there is no need to make anyone uncomfortable by putting down food that we all share and to which we all have different relationships.

Comic by %FWJO (JCCT

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

A Letter to Amherst: Response to Racial Epithet "OESFX -JOETBZ PO CFIBMG PG UIF 5IF #MBDL 4UVEFOU 6OJPO BU "NIFSTU $PMMFHF To the Amherst Community, Racial intolerance in the Amherst community is hardly an emerging phenomenon. Almost one year ago Bradley Keigwin, a Univ. of Massachusetts student, stole computer components and furniture from the health center and used spray paint to damage the room and draw swastikas. Three months later, an unidentified offender carved the word “nigger” in the snow on top of a car parked on the street just north of the Lord Jeffrey Inn. Two weeks ago, the community was subject to another example of increasingly frequent episodes of racial intolerance. On the night of Sept. 14, a student reported that someone had written offensive comments near the entrance of Chapman Dormitory. This individual used a pen to draw swastikas and write a racial epithet targeting African-Americans. Since the administration has not revealed what was said, one can only assume that this racial epithet is most likely some variation of the word “nigger.” As outlined earlier, these incidents are not only surprisingly common but also increasing in frequency. So the Black Student Union writes this letter not only to simply highlight the shocking nature of the latest installment of racial intolerance at Amherst College but also to highlight another troubling fact: the shocking ambivalence surrounding incidents of racial intolerance and ambivalence to matters of race at Amherst in general. Case in point, the response of the Amherst Community to the incidents that occurred in the fall of last year.

The response to the incidents described on the first week of Dec. 2012 can best be characterized as existent but inefficient. A group of students unsatisfied by the Administration’s slow response to the N-word carving, hijacked the campus listserv to e-mail students with information abut the incident and a time to meet to bring awareness to the issue. For those who do not remember that e-mail, the subject line was “NIGGER.” The night of the proposed meeting Biddy Martin came to the Octagon before even addressing the campus on the details of the incident. In the words of two of the attendees it seemed reminiscent of containment.

“It seemed as if Biddy heard that the students were angry and wanted to contain the issue before it became a problem”, commented one of the student organizers.

Later that night, Martin was asked to leave the meeting by the students. Two days later, Martin responded to these incidents by proposing a mere hour and a half meeting during class hours the next day. Her plan for this meeting was to discuss a potential symposium on race and diversity in the spring; a welcomed suggestion backed with very little to no administrative action.

Later that same week, former AAS President Tania Diaz, wrote her response to the results of a student body referendum to relocate the MRC to the third floor. In that referendum, al-

Signed, The Black Student Union at Amherst College Main Contributor: Andrew Lindsay ’16

Letters Policy

S TA F F Design Editor Brendan Hsu, Emy Kelty, Andrew Kim, Brian Beaty News Section Editors David Kang, Noah Morton Opinion Section Editors David Chang, Cheryl Lim, Ashley Montgomery Sports Section Editors Dori Atkins, Jason Stein, Patrick Yang

though only 30 percent of the campus participated at the polls, two-thirds voted against the relocation of the game room to make room for the MRC on the first floor. Some student responses to Diaz’s letter on The Amherst Student website included, “the game room’s awesome, no need to stick it up in the dark 2nd floor” and “prove yourself worthy.”

What characterizes these seemingly unrelated events to Chapman is the lack of a meaningful response by the administration and ambivalence by a large portion of the student body. Although Dean Larimore responded quickly to the events of this last week, what was substantively done on the behalf of the students offended by these racial epithets? Why does it seem as if the administration only responds to matters of race when pushed into a corner? The answer is simple. Matters of race aren’t particularly important at Amherst College with the exception of convocation, commencement and homecoming, the few days of the year when being a minority is showed off by the administration.

But we tell the Amherst community this; meaningful diversity comes from minority inclusion not just minority representation. Amherst’s brand of diversity is remarkably shallow.

It is the type of diversity that elicits at least a half-hearted dialogue for an off-campus racially motivated hate crime, yet none for the word “nigger” and swastikas scrawled by the entrance of one of Amherst’s dorms. This is a paradox that can only be explained by the tremendous student activism of last year versus the campus ambivalence of this semester.

Despite these contradictions, Amherst College is on the verge of truly momentous changes. This year alone the school has raised half a billion dollars, is on the verge of a massive faculty and administrative recruitment drive and has admitted perhaps the most racially, socioeconomically and geographically diverse class in the country. However, amidst these changes things remain eerily similar to more shameful times in this school’s history — times where the minority was seen but not heard.

In Martin’s response e-mail to the events of last year she stated, “I suggest that the rest of us take responsibility, not for having spelled out a racist epithet on a car, but for a response to it that condemns this act and all the forms of racism of which it is an instance.”

It is the opinion of the Black Student Union that such a response to racism has yet to take place. A substantive response should be strived for which goes beyond a prompt e-mail response by the Dean of Students or two posters and a table at Keefe Campus Center denouncing hate speech. A full-on conversation should be encouraged involving faculty, students and administration, not only about hate speech, but the general culture of ambivalence to racial issues at Amherst College.

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

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

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

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

The Student will not print personal or group defamation.

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

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

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Pivotal Transitions in the Five Col- The International lege Native American Community Perspective

.JDBZMB 5BUVN Contributing Writer

Fall semester of 2012 was a controversial time for Amherst College. No one can forget Angie Epifano’s landmark article, but there were other incidents that rocked the school, though to a lesser extent. An offensive poster concerning autoclaves, Jeffrey Amherst and smallpox blankets was found on the wall of a biology classroom and the menorah on Valentine Quad commemorating Hanukkah was defiled. While this is, unfortunately, not an exhaustive list of provocative events that have scarred the school, the purpose of this article is not to further scar the student body but rather to show that these events did lead to some positive developments on campus.

These tragic events allowed for a dialogue on campus to flourish. This dialogue centered around equality, sensitivity and community building. As the semester progressed, the dialogue continued to be relevant, but many still wondered if that dialogue would continue to enact change for future, for even more diverse students of Amherst College. The momentum for change is still alive and present on campus.

In efforts to continue the campus’ progression towards inclusivity and sensitivity to people of all backgrounds, the Native American Student Organization (NASO) was founded. The organization was founded in the fall of 2012, but did not become operational until the following semester. Danielle Trevino, a junior at the time, founded the organization as a way to give Native students a community on campus, while also providing a space that would allow all students to learn about Native history and culture.

NASO is part of a growing campaign to bring Native issues to the forefront, not just at Amherst College, but in the Five Colleges as well. The school just

acquired the Pablo Eisenberg Collection of Native American Literature, has expanding course options for the study of Native history and culture and hired scholars Kiara Vigil and Lisa Brooks.

Hiring Professors Vigil and Brooks in particular signal to the Five College community that Amherst is serious about its growth of both Native scholarship and of community. Vigil belongs to the American Studies department and teaches the increasingly popular Rethinking Pocahontas, an introductory course to the field of Native American studies. Brooks is a member of the English and American Studies departments, specializing in the intersectionality of early American literature and Native American studies.

Vigil and Brooks have also made an impact in the Five College community where they are involved in the Five College Native American Indian Studies Certificate Program (NAIS). Professor Brooks even co-chairs the program.

NAIS is in the midst of a transition, much like Amherst College, albeit one occurring for vastly different reasons.

The program is looking for ways to become more visible in the Five College community, as well encouraging more exchange among the institutions. The Univ. of Massachusetts specific Certificate Program in Native American Indian Studies is currently being phased out, which provides the Five College certificate program a unique opportunity to increase its student participation.

The changes in the valley are not just at Amherst and the Univ. of Massachusetts. Smith College is revitalizing its Indigenous Smith Students and Allies (ISSA), which last semester had the honor of welcoming prominent Native author Craig Womack to their campus.

All these changes in the Native community in the Connecticut River Valley are signaling a fortuitous shift in awareness of Native issues, cultures and histo-

ries that NASO has every intent of capitalizing on. NASO hopes to reach out to every student on campus and offer a wide variety of programming. In the fall semester alone NASO plans to celebrate South Dakota’s Native American Day, commemorate Native American Heritage Month in Nov., and promote the “We’re A Culture, Not A Costume” campaign.

NASO wants to be a visible and active organization on campus. As such the organization hopes to pursue connections with other campus organizations such as the Multicultural Resource Center, Pride Alliance and the Black Student Union, La Causa and Mead Art Museum.

Most of the programming mentioned is still in the stages of being coordinated by NASO, but it cannot be stressed enough what an undertaking running the organization is. Amherst College is home to very few Natives, which guarantees that there are few students to build the initial base for NASO. According to Amherst’s 2012-2013 common data set, 42 percent of students on campus are students of color, but only two Native students contribute to that larger figure. While the number could be larger due to 117 students falling into the multiracial category, it doesn’t alter the fact that Amherst is lacking a cohesive population that would allow the organization to thrive. This issue is further compounded when students assume incorrectly that NASO is solely for Native students. Even students who know this is not the case often feel uncomfortable attending meetings, but everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Even if your interest is only in one particular tribe, come talk to us. We would love to help you further your interest and even make it the theme of a meeting. The meetings are every Wednesday in the Stearns first-floor common room at 8 p.m.

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$IFSZM -JN The International Perspective is a biweekly column that provides a platform for students to share their opinions about our larger world. This includes international outlooks on domestic issues as well as opinions on problems occurring around the globe.

Look up. Look around you. Wherever you are — Val, Frost, perhaps in class waiting for your professor to begin — look up and count the number of people around you. Do you see at least ten Amherst students? If so, then it may well be that at least one of them comes from a different part of the world. He or she could have taken a ten-hour-plus plane trip to get here. He or she may have grown up speaking a language other than English, only to be sitting within your visual range conversing, reading, writing in a different language altogether. Every year, approximately 10 percent of the cohort is made up of international students. They come from across the globe, bringing to Amherst their languages, their cultures and their preferences for Celsius, centimeters, queues instead of lines and air conditioning systems.(I suspect only 10 percent of you know exactly what I’m talking about.)

So this semester, The Amherst Student is embarking on a little project called “The International Perspective.” Through this biweekly column, we hope that international students will share what they think about and care for. Do they have an opinion on American politics? What do they think about budget deficits? What issues beyond American shores do

they feel should be given attention?

As they eat, sleep, study, procrastinate and party here at Amherst, are they worrying about something back home? Are they missing out on an important festival? How did they manage to struggle through the changes in time zone, climate and pronunciation?

This column will be a platform for such voices to be heard, for internationals to express their views on domestic issues and to bring to attention important occurrences around the globe. Now and then, interesting facts will be shared – did you know that fortune cookies did not originate in China? That said, this isn’t just a column about international students but about the international perspective and the exploration of the world beyond our Amherst world. So we really don’t care where our contributors come from. As long as you have something to say about something around the world — an insightful travel adventure, an interesting cultural practice, a take on the Syrian crisis — we’ll be more than delighted to share your thoughts. After all, our larger aim is to express what we know to be true — despite the ‘Amherst bubble’ we sometimes feel trapped in, Amherst students do take notice of and care about the larger world.

If you are interested in contributing an article to “The International Perspective,” please contact Cheryl at chlim16@amherst.edu.

His name was Ron Burgundy. He was like a god walking amongst mere mortals.

He had a voice that could make a wolverine purr and suits so

Writing for news is like being Ron Burgundy.

Without the sexism. Or the suits. Or the raw, animalistic sexiness. You

like a hobo. In other words, Ron Burgundy was the balls.

Write for news. Email evilorio17@amherst.edu or smurguia17@amherst.edu

like Ron Burgundy: you get to tell the news.

Arts&Living

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Drake Delivers and Doesn’t Disappoint #SJUUBOJF -FXJT Contributing Writer Sept. 20 was supposed to be the day after which nothing would ever be the same again — the official release date of Drake’s anticipated third-studio album, entitled none other than “Nothing Was the Same.� Call it hubris, call it a misinterpretation on my part, but the album does implicitly establish for Drake a high set of standards to meet; for the most part, he not only meets, but surpasses, those expectations. While I wouldn’t call the album a triumph or genius (or any other praise I feel compelled to save for Kendrick or Kanye), it is highly enjoyable from start to finish.

“

He tries to relate but doesn’t try to be tough about it. He tries to be openly vulnerable, which is easier to relate to than shooting people up.

�

From the beginning, no obvious attempt at raising the album’s energy level is made. It opens with the lengthy yet up-

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beat “Tuscan Leather,� and quickly gains speed with its power, culminating in the sixth track, “Worst Behavior,� one of my personal favorites on the album. From “Worst Behavior� on, the album slows a little thanks to tracks like “Connect,� “Too Much,� and “Come Thru.� The energy of the album as a whole rises and falls, as most albums’ energies do, although this album seems to do so a bit more sporadically than I would have liked. “All Me (feat. 2 Chainz and Big Sean)� for example, comes blasting out of nowhere, awkwardly placed in between the very R&B “Come Thru� and “The Motion (feat. Sampha).�

We can let 2 Chainz and his feature on the track take the blame for that.

Lyrically-speaking, I’d say that that album is about what we’d expect from Drake. Thankfully there aren’t any songs that hearken back to that poetic gem we all know and love, “The Motto� (“Skeet skeet skeet: water gun�). Chris DeWaele ’17 (favorite track: “Tuscan Leather�) spoke with me about the lyrical tone of the new album: “He tries to relate but doesn’t try to be tough about it. He tries to be openly vulnerable, which is easier to relate to than shooting people up.� David George ’17 (favorite track: “Too Much�) had a similar opinion about the album’s lyrical intentions, and said “I guess it’s like a mellow album, it’s more laid-back and reflective. Songs about relationships, as usual.�

This does not suggest an incredible amount of growth on Drake’s part, but the close attention he pays to the musical phrasing itself certainly could. When asked about what she enjoyed most about the album, Gabby Rodriguez ’15 (favorite track: “From Time�) said “The meter and overall mood of the music is contrasted with the changes mid-song, it’s sick.� It seems that Drizzy and his producers have managed to successfully experiment with different styles and dramatic mid-song shifts, which, although recurrent, add a dynamic inner layer to the entire album. David George ’17 noted in his review of the album, “I love how he switches beats in the middle of the song, it’s like two songs in one.� It seems to be generally appreciated that Drake has managed to layer so many different elements within only sixteen songs.

Another surprisingly effective element of “Nothing Was the Same� is the artists who were featured on five of the tracks.

I found Jay-Z’s feature to be especially good; my favorite song off of the album is “Pound Cakeâ€?. The contrast between Drake and Jay-Z’s respective vocal personalities is a perfect example of the complexity that a good feature can add to an otherwise straightforward song. Rodriguez based her choice of “From Timeâ€? as her favorite song largely off of JhenĂŠ Aiko’s contri-

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%SBLF T BMCVN JT B GPSDFGVM TUBUFNFOU PO UIF EJ SFDUJPO JO XIJDI UIF ZPVOH SBQQFS JT NPWJOH bution: “I’d choose ‘From Time’ because the call and response sequence is really good, and Aiko’s voice is perfect for the vibe. The second part of the song, when her voice fades out and slows the instrumental is incredible.� Other featured artists include Majid Jordan (on “Hold On, We’re Going Home�), Detail (“305 to My City�), 2 Chainz and Big Sean (“All Me�) and Sampha (“Too Much�).

The meter and overall mood of the mu“ sic is contrasted with the changes mid-song, it’s sick. �

As I said, I wouldn’t call this album a work of art. However, Drake and all of the producers really have managed to create an unanticipated and forceful statement on the direction in which the young songwriter/rapper is moving. Hopefully the upward trajectory he’s managed to assume in his career as of late will persist as he continues to write and record his music. Overall, I would give the album a 7/10, and I would highly recommend giving it at least one dedicated listen from start to finish. If you’re a bit jaded, give Drizzy another try — I did, and I was not disappointed.

Five College Events Thursday, September 26 “Art a la Carte Dance Event,� Mount Holyoke College, 12:20 p.m. – 12:50 p.m.

Student performance directed by Professor James Coleman. Located in the Weissman Gallery, Mount Holyoke Art Museum. Tickets are free. “Lecture: ‘Sorcery, Witchcraft and Healing’,� Smith College, 7 p.m.

This event will feature a presentation from a Samburu (Maasai) laibon medicine man and his interpreter. Both the laibon, Kanikis Leaduma and school master Daniel Lemoille, will discuss the practices of divination, prophesy, sorcery and healing. “Time Lapse Dance In Concert,� UMass, 7:30 p.m.

For ticket holders a pre-performance talk will be presented at 6:45 p.m. by Billbob Brown, professor of Dance at the Univ. of Massachusetts. Ticket information: $35, $30 and $15; Five College/GCC/ STCC Students and Youth 17 & under: $10. Sponsored by the Asian Arts & Culture Program. “Visiting Writers Series hosts John Edgar Wideman and Sejal Shah,� UMass,

8 p.m.

John Edgar Wideman is a celebrated writer of more than twenty works of fiction and non-fiction, including “Brothers and Keepers,� “Philadelphia Fire� and “Fatheralong.� He was the first individual to win the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. Sejal Shah’s stories, essays, interviews and profiles appear in a wide variety of journals and books.

of love and desire. The book also draws us into the life of the island as it persists, guarded by its range of mountains and the sea. After her reading, she will discuss the psychological power of Jung’s practice of “holding the opposites� as portrayed by her beautiful descriptions of the island community. A book review states, “The sun shines down on this book.�

Friday, September 27

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

Join Knit Happens for a lovely, relaxing afternoon of tea, cookies and knitting. Refreshments will be provided. Email knithappensmhc@gmail.com with any questions. Open to MHC, the Five Colleges and the General Public.

“A Closer Look Gallery Talk at the Mead Art Museum,� Amherst College, 4:30 p.m.

Join Mead Director Elizabeth Barker and Head of Archives and Special Collections Mike Kelly for a closer look at the special exhibition As It Almost Was: Amherst College’s Monuments to Lord Jeffery, guest curated by Jeremy Simon, Class of 2013. “Western Mass Jungian Association Lectures,� Smith College, 7 p.m.

Maggie Bromell: “Holding the Opposites: Readings of Life, Love, and Desire on Nisos.� In her book, NISOS, about a Greek island she and her family have known for over fifty years, Maggie brings to life for the readers’ imagination, stories

Saturday, September 28

“Village Square,� Mount Holyoke College, 7:30 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Join the lovely ladies of MHCASA as they showcase a wide variety of African and Caribbean live music, poetry and other art forms. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to enjoy some great music and culture.

Sunday, September 29 “Vocalist Don Cotter and lutenist Rob-

ert Castellano present ‘Saints and Sinners,’� UMass, 2 p.m. “Saints and Sinners� is part of the First Sunday Concert Series. Drinking songs, murder ballads, cynical songs of courtship and seduction, then redemption and faith. Tickets free, no reservations.

Seating limited to 35. “Faculty Recital: Nadine Shrank & Friends from Near & Far,� UMass, 4 p.m.

Nadine Shank & Estela Olevsky, piano; with guests Jean Johnson ‘96, clarinet; Lois Hicks Wozniak, saxophone; David Nielsen, oboe & Sarah Swersey, flute Music by Schubert, Bach, Fernande Decruck, Erwin Schulhoff and Leonard Bernstein. “Community Choral Sing – Brahms Requiem,� Smith College, 7 p.m.

The first of three sings this season features the Brahms Requiem, Joseph Baldwin, conductor. Open to all members of the Smith and valley community. We welcome singers of all backgrounds and levels--first-time and experienced singers alike! Join us, and featured guest artists, for memorable evenings singing choral masterworks. Scores will be provided. —Meghan McCullough ’15

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Fun Fall Outings in the Pioneer Valley *TBCFM $BNBDIP Staff Writer As I sit in a dark green lawn chair overlooking the beauty of memorial hill, it’s hard to ignore the thoughts of doubt that creep into my mind. Have I taken advantage of this amazing place in which I live? Am I going to have any regrets? The uniqueness of the Pioneer Valley is one of the main reasons I chose to attend Amherst.

Born and raised in the middle of a city, I knew I wanted to spend my college years surrounded by nature and in a place that offers more than skyscrapers and taxicabs. In four years, I’d like to think I made enough of an effort to explore my surroundings and confirm my expectations. Even though I came to this school in search of a different experience, I fully understand how hard it can be to leave your bed in Pond on a Satur-

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#MBDL #JSDI 7JOFZBSE JT B CPVUJRVF XJOFSZ UIBU QSPWJEFT UBTUJOH BOE QJDOJDT XJUI JEZMMJD WJFXT day morning while watching 12 episodes of “Arrested Development� (11 of which you’ve already seen), to venture to new places. However, as hard as it is in the moment to get up, you won’t regret it. For that reason, I thought I would share some of the nearby spots that I have found particularly special. This list is both for fellow seniors who don’t want to wake up in a year wishing they had done things differently, and for underclassmen who need something cool to do on a lazy fall day.

The Quabbin is an amazing reservoir in Belchertown, and

is actually the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts.

It’s a little bit of a schlep to get to but is totally worth it. If you get there early enough in the morning you can rent a little dinghy with a few friends and cruise around the water. The views are absolutely stunning and you can bring or rent a fishing rod and throw a line out. In addition, the hiking around the Quabbin is great, with tons of paths leading to spectacular views of the park. Also, the last time I was there I was lucky enough to see a bald eagle gliding above me, as the Quabbin has one of the densest eagle populations in the state.

If you are looking for a more relaxed adventure, Tavern On The Hill in Easthampton is a great spot to sit and unwind. It is exactly what it sounds like: a restaurant and bar situated on top of a hill overlooking the entire Valley. Autumn is a great time to check it out, as you’re able to enjoy the gorgeous New England foliage from a unique perspective. My recommendation would be to stop by for a small bite or a beer right before sunset, take it out onto their deck and sit facing the expansive view. It really is a special way to enjoy the sights without having to break a sweat.

An activity to take you back to your childhood is apple picking at the Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown. The orchard is really cool because it’s a UMASS research facility, concentrating on growing more plants in less space and improving plant disease and insect resistance. The quintessential country activity is great with a team, group of friends, a date or even alone.

WANTED Managing Editor Arts & Living

Do you like movies, music, food books, concerts, plays, museums and/or shopping? Do you want to be published at least once before you die?

Need a better resume?

Editing experience preferred, but not necessary.

Email Editor-in-Chief Alissa arothman15@amherst.edu

I was taken here on a pre-freshman year trip and it confirmed my expectations of what New England was all about. Not only is it fun to pick the McIntosh, Cortland and Gala apples that they grow, but the dozens of rows of trees and beautiful views of the Holyoke Range make the whole experience a pleasure.

I’m heading next to the Black Birch Vineyard in Southampton.The boutique winery sits on a hillside in the middle of the Valley, and provides a tasting room with what I’ve heard are delicious wines. If you are not yet 21, they also advertise great picnic spots and idyllic views.

Fall in New England is a truly special time. We have a long, dreary winter to look forward to and soon there will be plenty of time to be cooped up inside. If you get to a couple of the spots on this list before the frost rolls in and your walks around campus are filled with the sting of soy sauce in your nostrils, you can be happy that you took advantage of the gorgeous scenery while you could.

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A Weekend Full of Fresh, Local Dance :JMJO "OESF 8BOH Staff Writer The fourth annual Massachusetts Dance Festival, held over the past weekend at UMass, is one of the rare events in the region that make you forget the remoteness of Amherst from fine arts hubs such as Boston and New York. Indeed, the eleven dance companies that put on a fast-paced, eclectic two-night gala concert last Friday and Saturday reminded us that Massachusetts, despite having a reputation for producing but not keeping top-notch dancers, still has a vibrant dance scene that more people ought to learn about and appreciate.

Freshness defined the gala concert.

Rand Theater, a venue mostly for theater productions at UMass, recently received a face-lift and Friday’s concert saw its debut as a dance performance space. The pristine floor looked fantastic under the lights and, believe it or not, added to the aesthetics of the performance. In addition, all eleven works performed were created in the past three years, and some of the companies consisted of dancers under 18 years, such as Artistic Dance Conservatory Youth Ensemble, the opening act of Friday’s concert. Going against the style of commercially-oriented dance competitions that dominate their peers, the ADC’s young dancers instead performed a short piece that required significant maturity. “Frozen Angels� used diagonal lines and white silks to create a constant exercise of tension and release. Even though the cast was perhaps too green to pin down shades of angst, the dancers brought commendable technique and dedication.

In contrast to ADC Youth Ensemble’s

quiet energy, Legacy Dance Company radiated irresistible charm and vigor in their basketball-themed tap dance number, “Ball Change.� If the double-entendre in the title (ball change is also a basic move in tap dance) is any indication, this work’s ingeniously play with rhythm and sound embraced a humorous intelligence that put a smile on the audience’s faces. Led by the choreographer and popular instructor Ryan P. Casey, the three-person cast created a luxuriant soundscape with not only clean footwork, but also the crisp bounces of the ball and the light thud of catches that translated into a marvelous display of possibilities, all of which in good fun. It was unlike any tap dance I have ever seen.

The humor of “Ball Change� found its counterpart in “Matting Rituals,� a cheeky parody of yoga by Chaos Theory Dance choreographed by Billbob Brown, Director of Dance Program at UMass. “Matting Rituals� poked fun at the fervor of yoga enthusiasts, especially those, who, like the dancers themselves, are not exactly at their physical prime anymore. The characters’ physical struggle with prototypical yoga moves and exaggerated desire to prove they still “got it� — as demonstrated by the brightly-colored costumes and dubstep music — offered a pungent commentary to the American obsession with youthful beauty. Along with the selfdeprecation beneath the flashy, irreverent choreography, “Matting Rituals� is a ditty with a reflective undertone.

Sharing such reflection was Deadfall Dance’s “Beauty,� a one-woman act in which movements complemented projections of commercial representations of female bodies to hint at their effects on self-image. “Exhib-

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it A� by IBIT Dance Company dove further into the issue by confronting body image anxiety up front. The dancers, refreshingly of different body types and sizes, moved amidst mirrors and a chair as if they were in their own bedrooms. Mixed with music, the spoken word in the background contained confessions of youngsters wrestling with their self-evaluation of appearances.

But the night’s most serious statement came from Annie Kloppenberg and Company, whose “Bigger, Faster, Better� infused both the physicality and the psyche of athleticism into a work at once personal and sophisticated. Dressed in black sports jacket and tutus, the two performers progressed through increasingly dynamic and intimate scenes, where the dual aspirations of dancers and athletes propelled them to chase after light or one another. Aided by the frequent use of spotlights, the duet maintained an almost sacred space on stage to tell the audience their story. Less subtly oriented in narratives was “Stay� by Eclipse Dance Company, a teenage love story danced in opposite-sex duets.

Though not quite technically on par with the rest of the performers, the company gave a sweet rendition of the title song by Sara Bareilles.

Yet not all works in the concert concerned themselves with storytelling. “Raices�

by Marsha Parilla/Danza Organica, for instance, celebrated no other than movement itself through a West African choreography that drew inspirations from contemporary and jazz dance. “Remnants� by Audra Cara-

betta and Dancers spent the majority of stage time exploring how movements build and transform on different bodies, layering basic phrases on top of each other to create fluid, organic sequences. And the Movery threw some intriguing compositions into their “Thank You Branch,� without revealing any clue to the air of mystique. The true highlight of the night, however, did not come until the very end, where “Quanta� by the BoSoma Dance Company elevated the power and allure of physicality to the highest point.

Without any gimmicks or ostensible plot lines, “Quanta� mesmerized the audience with its intensity and sensuality that echo the legacy of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, particularly that of choreographer Ulysses Dove. Max Richter’s “November� enhanced the cinematic ambience of the work and sent the work to a high final note.

These gala concerts were only a fraction of what Massachusetts Dance Festival had to offer. The Festival also featured master classes by Broadway maven Eric Sciotto and Sidra Bell, artistic director of Sidra Bell Dance New York, who is staging a new work (of which I am a cast member) to be performed at the dance faculty concerts at Mount Holyoke, Smith and UMass this fall.

In addition, several classes throughout the weekend in tap (led by the aforementioned Ryan P. Casey), ballet, contemporary and Hip Hop gave the general public a taste of dancing with the stars, all at very affordable prices. If you are around next year, do not miss this.

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

Interested?

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

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Football Upends Bowdoin in Pratt Inauguration Three Different Jeffs Score Touchdowns as Amherst moves to 2-0

Rob Mattson Public Affairs Office

3VOOJOH CBDL /JDL ,FMMZ CSFBLT JOUP UIF PQFO mFME BHBJOTU #PXEPJO 7BSVO *ZFOHBS Senior Staff Writer Behind another staunch defensive effort, the Lord Jeffs rolled to their second win of the season Saturday. Amherst allowed only one touchdown on the afternoon and led by as many as 24 points before coasting to a 27-11 victory.

After rolling to an easy win at Hamilton in their season opener, the Jeffs expected — and got — a stern challenge from the Polar Bears. Hosting their first game at the newly renovated Pratt Field, Amherst was too motivated to allow a letdown.

Junior quarterback Max Lippe ’15 led the offensive effort, throwing for

176 yards and two touchdowns. He and receiver Gene Garay ’15 were in sync on the afternoon, as the duo connected for a game-high seven completions. Garay finished with 76 yards and a touchdown, while fellow receiver Jake O’Malley ’14 caught four passes for 42 yards, including his second touchdown of the season.

Defensively, the Jeffs built on a fiveinterception performance from last week with with picks against Bowdoin

by Max Dietz ’14 and Chris Gow ’16.

The Jeffs were just as devastating in stopping the run. Linebacker Danny Chun ’14 led the team with seven tackles, while junior Chris Tamasi ’15 chipped in with six more.

The defense forced Bowdoin into a three-and-out on the game’s first possession and got momentum rolling in the Jeffs’ favor. Amherst took over at Bowdoin’s 44-yard line and made the most of their great field position.

Lippe found Wade McNamara ’14 over the middle for a 29-yard reception on Amherst’s first snap that immediately put the Jeffs in scoring range. Three plays later, a 13-yard strike to O’Malley gave the Jeffs the early 7-0 lead.

The Polar Bear, however, put together an impressive drive as quarterback Mac Caputi led Bowdoin from their 39-yard line into the red zone.

A holding penalty throttled the Polar Bears’ momentum, however, and forced

Men’s Soccer Scores Consecutive NESCAC Wins To Stay Undefeated +BTPO 4UFJO Sports Section Editor After earning a pair of victories this past weekend, the Jeffs advanced to 7-0-1 overall (5-0-1 in the NESCAC) and extended their unbeaten streak to 28 games. On Saturday, Sept. 28, men’s soccer continued its winning ways by beating 23rd-ranked Tufts 2-0 in convincing fashion in front of the home crowd fans.

Early on in the game, Amherst was given a golden opportunity to jump ahead on a penalty kick. Forward Greg Singer ’16 took the penalty for Amherst but was unable to score after Tufts goalkeeper Scott Greenwood kept the ball in front of him. Forward Nico Pascual-Leone ’16 then had a chance to score off the rebound from Greenwood’s stop but put it wide of the net.

In the 34th minute of the game, the Jeffs finally took the lead. After an Amherst corner and a series of scoring chances directly in front of the Tufts’ goal, junior defender Gabriel Wirz put the ball in the back of the net for his second goal on the season. The Jeffs went into the halftime break against Tufts with a 1-0 lead, an 8-4 shot edge and a 4-2 advantage of corners.

About six minutes into the second half, first-year defender Justin Aoyama sprinted down the right side of the field and passed it to Singer, who fired the ball into the upper left-hand corner, giving Amherst a 2-0 lead that they would not relinquish. On the play, Singer scored his third goal of the season, matching his scoring total from all of last season, while Aoyama earned his first career assist for Amherst.

Overall, Tufts had 14 shots, only one of which was a shot on goal. Jum-

bos midfielder Jason Kayne had a whopping seven shots — a Tufts individual game record so far on the young season. Tufts’ one shot on goal came via the foot of midfielder Kento Nakumura, but goalkeeper Thomas Bull ’16 was there to save it for the Jeffs. As a credit to the strong play of Amherst’s stifling defensive unit, Bull turned in his fourth shutout of the season with the win against Tufts. “We defended really well,� Coach Justin Serpone said of the match against Tufts. “Our game plan going in was to really pressure Tufts, and I thought that for 90 minutes, we did that. I don’t think we [had] defended great yet before this Saturday, and to be able to do that was fantastic.�

Following their victory over the Jumbos, Amherst boarded the bus for Lewiston, Maine in anticipation of a Sunday afternoon showdown against the Bates Bobcats.

The Jeffs came into the game with energy and aggressive attacking, pushing for a goal early. In the sixth minute of action, Pascual-Leone had a chance to score off a bicycle kick, but Bates goalie Joe Maffly-Kipp came up with the save. Ten minutes into the match, Pascual-Leone had already put three shots on goal.

Amherst grabbed the lead on a particularly rare feat in the 16th minute of play. On a free kick from the left side of the field just past the halfway line, Bull powerfully struck a ball towards Bates’ goal that miraculously sailed over the reach of Maffly-Kipp and into the top-right corner. Bull, who has appeared as the goalie for the Jeffs in every game of his career, gave Amherst a 1-0 lead with the first goal of his career.

The Jeffs doubled their lead with two minutes remaining in the first half, as first-year attacker Elliot Cassutt scored on a low shot to the left side, off a throw-in from defenseman Bubba Van Wie ’15.

Amherst held the momentum halfway through the match, as they carried a 2-0 lead and a 13-3 shot advantage over the Bobcats into halftime.

Bates struck back in the second half with a little over 25 minutes left in the game. Off a pass to the far left side of the field by midfielder Aaron Nickelsberg, forward Peabo Knoth grounded it right of Bull to get the Bobcats on the board. It would not take long for the Jeffs to respond, however. Just eight minutes later, forward Chris Martin’s was blocked by Maffly-Kipp, but midfielder Andrew Orozco ’17 scored his second goal of the season off the rebound to put the Jeffs ahead 3-1, ending the Bobcat’s quest for a comeback in the process.

Amherst’s 3-1 victory against Bates included a 21-4 edge in shots and a 6-2 corner kick advantage. With their wins on consecutive days, the Jeffs were successful in their first back-to-back test this season, which Coach Serpone noted bodes well for the team going forward. “We talk about winning on Sundays all the time, because once you get to the postseason, everything is Saturday and Sunday. Sunday games are interesting because everyone is tired and everyone just played [Saturday] so you have to be able to grind out wins,�

Serpone said.

Amherst will next face Hamilton (2-2-2 overall and 1-1-2 in the NESCAC) on the road at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5.

them to settle for a field goal.

That relatively clean start appeared to set the stage for an offensive shootout.

But it was not to be.

Instead, turnovers and poor execution put the scoring on hold. In the second quarter alone, Amherst suffered four three-and-outs, a fumble and an interception. But rather than taking advantage of the opportunities, Bowdoin matched Amherst with four three-andouts of their own, while throwing an interception for good measure.

In the closing seconds of the half Jaymie Spears ’16 23-yard punt return put Amherst in field goal range and Phillip Nwosu ’16 put his kick through the uprights as time expired to give Amherst a seven-point cushion heading into intermission.

Luckily for Amherst, their sluggish play did not carry into the second half.

Looking to add to their lead, the Jeffs finally pieced together a solid 14-play, 68-yard drive early in the third quarter.

That drive was helped by two clutch third-down conversions. Facing third down and 4 yards to go on their 38-yard line, Lippe first came through with a 4-yard completion to Henry Falter ’15 and a 16 yard scramble on 3rd-and-6 to put the Jeffs in the red zone.

Unfortunately, Amherst got no closer than that. The Jeffs were again forced to settle for a field goal after a defensive stand by Bowdoin. Nwosu’s

29-yard kick put Amherst up 13-3, and that score held into the fourth quarter.

Amherst’s offense had plenty more chances to expand their lead thanks to the defense. Inspired by an impressive effort on the ground, Amherst began moving the chains. A 12-yard burst from first-year Nick Kelly ’17 set the tone, and he followed it up with a 7-yard run on the next snap. After a Lippe scramble of nine more yards, Amherst went right back to Kelly for his first career touchdown.

Amherst did not relent with a threescore cushion. The team pounced all over a hesitant and uncomfortable Polar Bear offense, as Gow intercepted a Bowdoin pass to ice the game.

Amherst took advantage of the turnover with another touchdown. This time, Lippe found Garay in the endzone, pushing the Amherst lead to 27-3.

Bowdoin finally responded in the waning minutes of the game with their first touchdown of the afternoon and tacked on a successful two-point conversion.

With the victory, Amherst improved to 2-0 on the season and kept Bowdoin winless (0-2). The Jeffs, though, will face a tough test on Saturday as they play host to Middlebury in a matchup of undefeated teams.

We will certainly see if this Amherst squad has what it takes to compete for a NESCAC championship this weekend.

Volleyball Can’t Solve Strong Williams Squad "OEZ ,OPY Managing Sports Editor Coming off a successful weekend winning two of three, the Amherst looked to continue their strong NESCAC play against archrival Williams last Thursday night. The Ephs entered the match with an 11-1 overall record and the top offense in the NESCAC. Amherst entered with an 8-4 record overall and a 1-1 record in NESCAC play. The Firedogs looked to inch closer to the top of the standings with a win, but fell short.

The Amherst squad didn’t carry the same energy and enthusiasm from the previous weekend into the game and fell in straight sets to Williams 3-1. “We didn’t come out as strongly as we could have in the first set,� first-year Maggie Danner said.

Following the opening game loss 25-20, Amherst dropped the next game by a margin of 25-16.

The Amherst offense struggled in the first set, only converting five of their twenty-nine kill attempts.

The Firedogs played more efficient offense in the second game, but had difficulty stopping the Ephs’ attack.

Williams hit for a .516 hitting percentage, well above their season average of .289.

The Firedogs refused to go down without a fight, however, and won the third game 25-16. “I was really proud of the way the team came back in the third game. We worked really well together and set the pace for the game,� Danner said.

Amherst buckled down on de-

fense in the third game at shut the Eph offense down, holding them to a -.045 hitting percentage. The Firedogs continued their strong defensive effort into the decisive fourth game, but fell just short losing 25-23. “Even though we lost the fourth game, we fought really hard,� Danner said. “There were so many awesome plays and moments that we can be proud about, and with a few little changes it easily could have gone either way.�

Amherst was led on offense by Danner and Nicole Gould ’17, who had 13 and 11 kills, respectively.

Danner and Gould are one of the top first-year offensive duos in the NESCAC and lead the team in kills.

Sophomore Nicole Carter ’16 continued her stellar play by notching 28 assists.

The Firedogs will look to use the momentum from the last two games of the Williams match to win their next match against the Conn.

College Camels on Friday. “One positive thing from every loss with this team is that it motivates us to work even harder in practice so we can come out and play even stronger in the next match,� Danner said.

Conn. College enters the match in a tie for fourth place in the NESCAC with an overall record of 6-6 and 2-1 in league play. The Firedogs will look to shut down the Camels’ Caroline Martin, one of the top offensive players in the NESCAC. Expect an energized Amherst squad this Friday, Oct. 4, against the Camels at 8 p.m. in LeFrak Gymnasium.

10 Sports

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 0DUPCFS

Schedule THURSDAY Field Hockey vs.Keene State 4:15 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Mount Holyoke, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY Volleyball vs. Conn. College 8 p.m.

SATURDAY Men’s Soccer @ Hamilton, 2:30 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Hamilton, 12 p.m.

Field Hockey @ Hamilton, 11 a.m.

players of the week Volleyball vs. Tufts 2 p.m.

Football vs.Middlebury, 1:30 p.m.

Women’s Golf @ Williams Fall Classic (Day 1 of 2), All Day Women’s Tennis @ Williams, 1 p.m.

Men’s Tennis vs. MIT, 1 p.m.

SUNDAY Women’s Golf @ Williams Fall Classic (Day 2 of 2), All Day

Cross Country Continues Strong Fall at Williams )PMMZ #VSXJDL Staff Writer Men Amherst men’s cross country travelled to Williamstown this past weekend for the Purple Valley Classic. Amherst placed seventh overall out of thirteen teams at the race. MIT placed first (41) followed by Williams (59) and Middlebury (60).

Dan Crowley ‘16 led the Jeffs with a 5:35 mile pace that carried him to the finish line of the 8K course in 27:41.10. Crowley was closely followed by KC Fussell ’15 with a time of 27:44.00 and senior captain Gus Greenstein, who crossed the line seven seconds behind Fussell. Crowley and Fussell were also major contributors in the team’s first meet of the season at UMASS where the two placed fourth and ninth, respectively.

Charlie Reighard ’14 (28:03.00) also scored for the Jeffs, finishing three seconds ahead of Alvaro Morales ’14 (28:06.00). Other top finishers for Amherst this weekend were Jeff Seelaus ’16 (28:18.40) and Romey Sklar ’15 (28:36.80).

Senior captain Charlie Reighard noted how the team was not so concerned with their times and how they finished this weekend.

They treated the race more as a workout than a must-win race, since the goal is for the team to reach their peak at the end of the season when it counts the most.

“We gave the guys a strategy to employ within the race that would give them a solid effort, focus on working together and finishing the last part of the race hard while at the same time, not going all out for three weekends in a row,” Coach Erik “Ned” Nedeau said. “I thought that the guys did a great job of accomplishing the goals for the meet — they stuck to the plan extremely well, facing a little bit of competition without having it be a racing type effort, and this sets us up very nicely for a solid week of training and the bigger meets that are on the horizon.”

The Purple Valley Classic is a stepping stone in the Jeffs’ season on their path to success. When the team returns to action for the NEICAAA meet on Saturday, Oct. 12, the result will be more meaningful for their season.

“Open New England’s will be a good indicator of what we can do this year since all of the other teams in the NESCAC will be competing, and we should hopefully be back at full strength in terms of injured runners,” Nedeau said. “From here on out, the meets that we will be competing in will be hard, fight-to-the-end type of efforts, and they know that and will be prepared for it.”

Women The Amherst women’s cross country team

finished fourth out of the thirteen teams in the Purple Valley Classic in Williamstown this past weekend. Middlebury came out on top with 38 points. MIT and Williams rounded out the top three with 43 and 46 points respectively, while Amherst tied Colby (133 points) for fourth.

Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17 led Amherst, continuing her strong first-year campaign placing 25th out of 159 runners with a time of 23:38.7. Gornisiewicz was closely followed by Lizzy Briskin ’15 whose 23:45.8 finish notched her 29th overall. Lexi Sinclair ’16 finished third for the Jeffs, posting a time of 23:46.6. Sophie Currin ’17 finished hard, and came in just behind Sinclair as she posted the quickest pace on the team for the final 1200 meters of the 6K race.

The Jeffs had a very successful weekend with many runners drastically improving on times they had posted on the Williams course previously. Three of Amherst’s top seven finishers, Betsy Black ’16, Amy Dao ’14 and Jessica Kalisk ’15, improved from last year’s event. A number of other runners also improved: Lindsay Ewing ’15 decreased her time by 47 seconds, while Brooke Kirkham ’14 and Rachel Duong ’16 shaved off 57 and 70 seconds, respectively, from their times.

Coach Cassie Funke-Harris was especially impressed with these runners’ performances.

“There were a few people who had exceptionally great races,” she said. “I was also especially impressed with the finishing speed of freshman Sophie Currin and senior Amy Dao. They really left it all on the course at the end, and that’s what we are going to need from every single person on the team if we’re going to accomplish the goals we set for ourselves.”

Despite being pleased with her runners’ solid outings this time around, Funke-Harris understands the hard work that lies ahead.

“Our region is exceptionally strong this year, which means we will have to bring our absolute best performance to NESCACs and regionals if we want to qualify for nationals (something we set our sights on each year).

We’ve had two weeks of really great workouts, so I know the fitness is there. We just need to be more inspired in our racing and bring it all together.”

Junior captain Lizzy Briskin was happy with her team’s improvement across the board.

“This was the first 6K for all of the firstyears and a few of the sophomores, and I was very happy with how well everyone finished regardless of their experience with 6K’s or the course itself,” Briskin said. “We were happy with our team’s performance, tying with Colby, our major competitor in the race.”

The women’s cross country team will return to action for the NEICAAA meet on Saturday, Oct. 12 at home.

Frank Radici ’16

Savanna Gornisiewicz ‘17

Favorite Team Memory: First game this season against Hamilton since I missed all of last season due to a shoulder injury If you didn’t play football, which sport would you want to play?: Basketball Pet Peeve: I don’t have one Celebrity Crush: Blake Lively Favorite Movie: “Gladiator” Favorite Book: House of Scorpion Favorite Food: Boom burger Favorite Thing About Amherst: The Amherst community

Favorite Team Memory: Our first meet together If you didn’t run cross country, which sport would you want to play?: Volleyball Pet Peeve: When people bite their nails Celebrity Crush: Liam Hemsworth Favorite Movie: The Vow Favorite Book: The Hunger Games Favorite Food: Spaghetti and Meatballs Favorite Thing About Amherst: The cross-country team

Women’s Soccer Splits Pair of NESCAC Contests Chris Rigas ’16 Staff Writer Amherst women’s soccer split a pair of NESCAC games this weekend, falling 2-1 in overtime to Tufts Saturday and knocking off Bates on Sunday 3-0. Saturday’s defeat was their first on the year, but Sunday’s win moved them to 3-1-2 overall, and 2-1-2 in the NESCAC. Going into Saturday’s contest, the Jeffs had not given up a goal all year. Tufts almost changed that midway through the first half, when Brooke Fortin created a golden opportunity in the Amherst box that was neutralized by an offside call.

Still, the visitors were not denied for long, and Victoria Stoj finished a nice piece of individual play with a shot into the left corner. Despite a 12-5 shot advantage in the first half, Amherst went down 1-0.

The Jeffs intensified their pressure in the opening minutes of the second half, as an Alex Hart ’15 header and an attempted chip by Sarah Duffy ’14 forced consecutive saves from Tufts goalkeeper Kristin Wright. In total, Amherst fired 12-second half shots before Chloe McKenzie ’14 finally broke through in the 72nd minute, netting her second goal of the season, off an assist from Duffy. Having tied the game, Amherst relaxed a little, allowing Tufts to apply pressure in the closing minutes of regulation, but goalkeeper Holly Burwick ’16 saved an 86th minute shot from Jess Capone to send the game to overtime.

Amherst could hardly have been surprised; Saturday marked their fourth straight NESCAC game that could not be resolved in regular time.

In the first overtime, Hart and Duffy again tested Wright in quick succession. This time Hart gathered a Duffy rebound and fired, but Wright saved the shot again. With 57 seconds left in the period, the Jumbos’ Anya Kaufmann slid a shot home from the top of the box, sending the visitors home happy. The Jeffs lost despite a final 2915 edge in shots.

“I was proud of the way we played against Tufts. We moved the ball well and we created a lot of chances offensively,” said Coach Jen Hughes. “The only thing we didn’t do was finish our chances.”

Captain Kate Sisk ‘14 echoed similar thoughts, saying that, “I thought we played a great game against Tufts, and our only weakness was our struggle to finish.”

The win built on a promising start for Tufts,

sending them to 3-1-0 in the NESCAC, (4-2-0 overall) while Amherst dropped to 1-1-2 in the NESCAC, (2-1-2 overall).

The Jeffs’ back line returned to its stellar form for its visit to Bates on Sunday, allowing only two shots on keeper Burwick, who helped earn Amherst’s fifth clean sheet of the season.

Three different goal scorers propelled the visitors to a comfortable victory. One of Burwick’s few tests came early in the first half, as Bates’ Jaime Capucci forced a save in the 11th minute. Sarah Duffy sent Amherst to a lead midway through the half, capitalizing on a nice cross from Mel Stier ’15. After a couple more close calls, including a Kate Sisk header, Hannah Cooper ’14 doubled the Jeffs’ lead in the 38th minute.

They kept control throughout the second half, and Megan Kim ’16 solidified the lead when she finished a breakaway goal at the 80:40 mark.

“Our game against Bates was a solid win,” Sisk said. “The aspect of our play that improved from Saturday to Sunday was our finishing power. I’m proud of our team for making that happen and for getting better each day.”

With the loss, Bates fell to 1-4-1 in the NESCAC. (2-5-1 overall) The Jeffs remain in fourth place in the NESCAC after this weekend’s results, behind Trinity, Middlebury and Tufts.

They visit Mount Holyoke (4-4-0) on Thursday and Hamilton (3-1-2 overall 1-1-2 NESCAC) on Saturday.

Rob Mattson Public Affairs Office

Senior forward Sarah Duffy netted her first goal of 2013 against Bates.

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 0DUPCFS

Field Hockey Knocks Off Defending Champs -BVSFO 5VJTLVMB Staff Writer The Jeffs had an important week and took the challenge head on, earning two crucial NESCAC victories to improve to 5-2 on the season.

The first win came over the formerly undefeated, No. 2-ranked Tufts Jumbos. Amherst hosted the defending national champions on Saturday, Sept. 28.

The Jeffs gained the lead early, striking just under three minutes into play. Amherst was able to earn a penalty stroke after a strong offensive drive that began with a steal from Katie Paolano ’16. Krista Zsitvay ’14 took the stroke for Amherst and was able to slip it past the dive of Tufts’ goalie Bri Keenan ’15 to give Amherst a 1-0 lead.

The lead doubled just over two minutes later as Amherst forward Madeline Tank ’15 scored off an assist from Paolano. The offensive drive began thanks to a steal downfield by midfielder Mary Margaret Stoll ’17.

The Jumbos were able to sustain a lengthy offensive attack consisting of three consecutive corners, but Amherst’s defense remained strong, stopping all three chances for Tufts.

Amherst would add to their lead halfway through the first half. Paolano made a scrappy play in front of the goal and was able to net a rebound off the shot of Madeline Tank ’15.

The Jeffs earned a series of corners to close out the half, but the opportunities did not prove fruitful. The score remained 3-0 heading into the break.

Tufts came out of the intermission hungry, looking to get on the board. They strung together a few corners, but the Amherst defense held steady, shutting down the attack. Defensive play was highlighted by junior Ellie Andersen’s goal line stand that kept Tufts off the board.

Amherst held the formidable Jumbo offense scoreless, as Rachel Tannenbaum ’15 had five saves on the day and earned her second shutout on the year.

The Jeffs were aware of the challenges they would face with Tufts.

“Coming into the Tufts game, we knew just what to expect from the defending national champions — they’re strong, confident and relentless,” Paolano, who was named NESCAC

Player of the Week, said. “But we came out hard right at the first whistle, challenging their defense with our speed and aggression.”

Amherst had a quick turn around as they travelled to Bates (0-7) the following day.

Senior midfielder Alex Philie opened the scoring as she found the net, unassisted, from the top of the circle to give the Jeffs the 1-0 lead.

Paolano built on this lead just over a minute later, finding the net off a rebound.

The Jeffs would double their lead before the half was out. Zsitvay connected with Kerry Fusco ’15 in front of the net and she tucked the ball past the Bobcats’ keeper.

Zsitvay earned the assist on the fourth of goal of the day as first-year Sara Culhane netted the centering pass from the Jeffs’ senior forward. This gave Amherst a 4-0 lead heading into the break.

Two more insurance goals were added in the second half as Zsitvay had her third assist of the day, sending the ball to Paolano and allowing her to make a move past the goalie to give the Jeffs a 5-0 lead.

Cuhlane added one more for the Jeffs, as she gained control of the ball during a scrum in front of the net and scored unassisted.

Building off of their impressive win from Saturday, the Jeffs were able to impressively execute their offense on Sunday against Bates, as they notched a 6-0 victory and won their fifth consecutive game in the process.

“We were confident in our team chemistry,” Paolano said. “Our transition passes were quick and accurate, helping us to move the ball up the field and into the circle, where we found the back of the cage with ease.”

Jeffs’ keepers Tannenbaum and Emily Horwitz ’17 combined to earn the shutout. The win was Amherst’s fifth in a row and their third shutout of the season. Sunday’s game also marked the closure of the first half of the regular season for the Jeffs.

“We acknowledge the growth we’ve had throughout the first half of the season and set some goals for how we want to approach the second half of the regular season,” Coach Carol Knerr said.

Amherst now stands atop the NESCAC standings at 4-1 in NESAC conference play.

The Jeffs will host Keene State on Thursday, Oct. 4 and travel to Hamilton on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Golf Turns In Best Showing of Fall at Middlebury %PSJ "ULJOT Sports Section Editor Men The men’s golf team traveled home from Brunswick, Maine this weekend with a third place finish under their belts and a spot in the NESCAC Golf Championships. This was the team’s strongest showing in the season thus far, finishing with a team two-round total of 619.

Sophomore James Line ’16 paced the Jeffs with scores of 77 and 75 on days one and two respectively. Josh Moser ’15, with a two-round total of 155, and Jarvis Sill ’15, with a tworound score of 157, were right behind Line.

Harrison Marick ’17 took nine points off his day one score to help lower the team total and tied senior captain Nicholas Koh for 25th overall.

“I’m really proud of James, Jarvis, Josh and Harrison for the way they hung in there,” Koh said. “We were coming from behind after day one and Coach Arena put us in the exact frame of mind that we needed to be. This weekend was a very rewarding and satisfying experience as a captain.”

This is the team’s first bid since the 20102011 season. They will compete with Middlebury, Trinity and Williams for the Championship.

Women The women’s golf team placed fourth of nine at the Middlebury College Invitational this past weekend posting a team total of 677.

First-year Jamie Gracie ’17 lead the Jeffs once again, shaving seven strokes off her day one score to tally an 81 on day two.

Senior co-captains Kristen Lee and Sooji Choi and Devyn Gardner ’16 were right behind Gracie, tying for 16th overall with tworound scores of 170.

“I think we were really close to reaching our goal of a top-three finish,” Lee said. “But anyone who plays golf knows how difficult and unpredictable the game can be. As much as I wish we could’ve done better, I couldn’t be prouder of the team for being individuals that other teams want to play with. We have the potential, it’s just about the execution which I think will come on the right weekend.”

The Jeffs return to action this weekend at the Williams Fall Classic.

Sports 11

Coach’s Corner

+VTUJO 4FSQPOF .FO T 4PDDFS ,BSM (SFFOCMBUU The Student had the chance to catch up with Justin Serpone, the contagiously fiery men’s soccer coach who led the Jeffs to a NESCAC title last fall. His philosophy continues to pay dividends as his team, despite tremendous losses to graduation, is once again undefeated. Though he knows a thing or two about winning, Serpone is equally adept at putting people first.

Q: Tell us about your early life and athletic background.

A: I’m originally from Winchester, Mass. and went to Winchester High. Believe it or not, I never played any soccer until high school. I played baseball and basketball growing up, but I wanted to play three sports just because all my buddies were doing it! My freshman team didn’t have a goalie, so I went out there and played goalie, and now, of course, I’ve fallen in love with it.

Actually, my most enjoyable sporting experience growing up was going to the state finals in basketball my junior year of high school. Everyone’s got those kinds of stories, but, for me, that set the standard as far as what a team was about.

We actually played against Pioneer Valley, who had a kid, Adam Harrington, that eventually went to the NBA. What are the chances?

Q: Where did you go to college, and what was your playing career like there?

A: I went to Drew Univ., a small liberal arts school in N.J. That’s where I fell in love with Div. III and the liberal arts community atmosphere.

I loved walking down the path and having everyone know my name — experiencing that kind of setting absolutely drew me to Amherst later on. I coached at Duke and Northwestern as an assistant, but I always knew that Div. III was for me.

I was actually a bench player in college, but I was a captain as a third-string goalie, which was a really special experience for me. I think that’s translated into big piece of my coaching philosophy: the importance of every guy, one through 27, and making sure everyone’s experience is equally engaged. Because that was me.

One thing that I took a lot from was a game my junior year when we lost to Messiah, 7-0, in the regular season. It was the worst loss Drew had had in a long time. Then we came back later that year in the playoffs and beat them, 1-0. I remember the focus we had going into that game, and the idea of having a plan, executing it and finding a way to get past adversity … that changed my outlook. I started to think, “Maybe it’s not just about having the most talent, or luck or anything like that.” When you get a group of guys together that can really buy into a journey, that can do some special things. That left a lasting impact, and I reflect on that when I think about the way we plan and prepare even now.

Q: Along those lines, do you have a favorite Amherst soccer memory?

A: That’s like asking, “Who’s your favorite kid?”

But I think that at the end of the year — you go through three months with a group, and every team’s different — it’s all the moments in between the games; going out to training, on the bus after a win. I really enjoy those things, the conversations at breakfast on the road. But I will say that beating Williams last year in the NESCAC Final was pretty awesome! There were a couple guys that day … I’ve never seen them happier. I remember appreciating that while it was happening. That’s what sports is about: to go on a journey with a group of people and to accomplish something. That’s why we do this. If there weren’t that aspect, soccer would just be kicking a ball in a goal — and who cares about that? Another piece of the puzzle that helps is the great kids here, and that’s got nothing to do with soccer. I couldn’t be more blessed to be at a place like this.

Q: Thus far, it seems that the team has a good chance to repeat this year, so how would you describe your outlook at the moment?

A: It’s been a really interesting year. We had this

really accomplished senior class graduate, and, this season, arguably two of our best players (Milton Rico ’15 and Julien Aoyama ’14) have barely played. So it’s been arguably a complete turnover from last year. We’ve had no choice but to improve game by game, and, so far, we have done that. Last year, to be honest, my job was not to get in the way, not to screw anything up!

This year is the opposite. The younger players need me to coach them to learn and get better, and that’s been a fun process. But all we’re worried about right now is Hamilton on Saturday. If we start to think too far down the road, we may not get to those moments where we might win a championship. So we’ve got a lot of work to do, particularly getting Aoyama and Rico healthy.

If we can focus on winning the next game — and that’s a coaching cliché, I know — I think that’s especially important for this particular team. We have first-years and sophomores that haven’t been through the battles yet.

Q: What do you consider the toughest aspect of coaching?

A: One of the toughest things is walking the line between sending a message to your team and giving messages to individuals. There’s that saying “there’s no ‘I’ in team.” But, of course, a team is made up of individuals. Especially in college, we’ll dealing with 18-22 year olds that have so much on their plate, and not forgetting that is so important. This year, we’ve got guys from six different countries, and socioeconomically we’re pretty diverse — you’ve always got to remind yourself of that, too.

I do think that what you hope to do in a top program is have messaging from the upperclassmen as well as the coach. Our seniors this year have provided an excellent example of how we operate. Even holding doors open in Val, picking up trash on the quad — our younger guys see those things, and they do what they see! You’re hoping that the seniors are doing a lot of the modeling, even though that’s not easy when you have 17 underclassmen on the team!

Q: Tell us a little bit about your family.

A: My wife, Angela, is the women’s lacrosse coach over at UMass. I’m the second best coach in my family! She’s won three championships, and she’s kicking butt. I also have a two-yearold daughter, Lily, and a three-month-old son, Ty. They’re fantastic. Lily just started school last week, and we’re loving it — she’s already running around with a lacrosse stick in her hand!

She comes to the games, and it’s really special.

This athletic department is a great place to have young kids and raise your family. We live over in Hadley, so we’re eight minutes away. It’s important to me not to have a divide between my personal life and my coaching life. I want guys to feel comfortable, if they need to talk, coming over and watching football and talking or whatever it may be. All of our guys also know Angela really well. It’s a really tight group, and I’m happy with it.

Q: Finally, do you have any post-soccer plans at this point?

A: With two young kids, I can’t even think past next Tuesday! But, right now, I’m loving coaching. Since I’ve been here, I’ve also gotten three graduate degrees, and I’m starting my fourth.

When I have to go home on a Sunday and write a paper after a tough game, that’s important for me, because I am able to relate to our studentathletes and what they’re going through. I have my MBA and sports administration degree, so who knows what lies ten or twenty years ahead.

But I think I’d miss being around a team. If you really want to know, I’ll probably do this forever!

Sports

5IF "NIFSTU 4UVEFOU t 0DUPCFS

Megan Robertson ’15 Public Affairs Office

Men’s Tennis Brings Home Doubles Crown

Brewer, Devlin Lead Dominant Women’s Squad

Nicole Yang ’16 Managing Sports Editor

The men’s and women’s tennis team both got off to an excellent start this past weekend at the ITA Tournament held at Middlebury for the men and at Williams for the women.

The Jeffs brought home three titles: women’s doubles thanks to dynamic duo and reigning NCAA DIII champions, Jordan Brewer ’14 and Gabby Devlin ’14; women’s singles also won by Brewer; and men’s doubles won by Joey Fritz ’14 and Ben Fife ’16. The weekend displayed some great play, and the fall season looks extremely promising for both teams.

Men After going 30-9 last season, the Lord Jeffs looked to continue their success in their fall season debut. The team brought a talented squad to Midd., including senior captain and All-American Fritz, fellow captain Chris Dale ’14, 2013 NESCAC Rookie of the Year and All American Andrew Yaraghi ’16, Second Team All-Conference Michael Solimano ’16, Ben Fife ’16, Aaron Revzin ’16, and first years, Myles Tang, seeded 13th in the singles, and Anton Zykov, seeded sixth in doubles with Yaraghi.

Over the course of three days, the Jeffs demonstrated some excellent play, facing a wide array of opponents, including NESCAC rivals from Bates, Middlebury and Williams.

In the singles bracket, first-seeded Fritz was able to earn wins over JC Cangelosi of Conn.

College (7-6, 6-1) and Kevin Wang of MIT (63, 6-1) before falling to the 11th seed, Brantner Jones of Midd., in three sets (2-6, 6-2, 6-3) in the quarterfinals.

Second seed Yaraghi was also able to record two wins, beating Musyoka Mbithi of Trinity (6-1, 6-2) and Peter Yanofsky of Bates (6-1, 6-2), before losing a hard fought battle to 16th seed Howie Weiss in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5, in

the quarterfinals as well.

Solimano’s match also went to three sets against ninth seeded, Timmy Berg of Bates. After winning the first set, 6-3, Solimano dropped the second, 3-6, and then lost the deciding third set tiebreaker 7-6.

Also representing Amherst, Dale, Revzin and Tang all couldn’t make it past the first round. Dale lost 3-6, 4-6 to Michael Liu of Wesleyan, while Revzin fell to Courtney Mountfield of Midd., 3-6, 4-6. In his first collegiate match of his career, Tang could not handle 12th seeded Sam King of Bowdoin, losing 2-6, 0-6.

The Jeffs’ three doubles pairs all did very well, with Fritz and Fife claiming the championship in the end. Unseeded, the two started by winning their first round match against the seventh seeded team, 8-6. This victory was the first of five, as they beat a team from Tufts in the second round, a pair from Williams in the quarterfinals, and another team from Williams in the semifinals. In the finals, Fritz and Fife took down Palmer Campbell and Brantner Jones of Middlebury in a competitive three set battle, 6-7, 6-2, 10-7.

Seeded first in the tournament, Revzin and Solimano also had an impressive run by making it to the semis before falling to Campbell and Jones, 8-5. The pair played very well and had wins over teams from Nichols, Colby-Sawyer and Wesleyan.

Revzin commented, “It was a weekend of highs and lows. We started off weak with a rough showing in the singles portion of the tournament. But then we redeemed ourselves with a miraculous performance by myself and Michael Solimano making the semis in addition to Ben Fife and Joey Fritz shocking the nation by winning the tournament unseeded.”

The other doubles team for Amherst, Yaraghi and Zykov, were ranked sixth in the tournament, but only were able to win their first round match before falling to Campbell

and Jones as well in the second round.

When asked to reflect on how the team played, Coach Chris Garner said, “Not as well as a number of other teams, but there were some bright spots.”

Next up for the Jeffs is a dual match at home against MIT on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 1 p.m.

Women The Amherst women’s tennis team continued to dominate this past weekend, as they look to repeat their 2013 undefeated season in DIII play.

Led by Jordan Brewer ’14 and Gabby Devlin ’14, the team swept both the singles and the doubles bracket as they won the doubles tournament together and faced each other in singles final, with Brewer coming out victorious.

To start off the weekend at Williams, first seed Brewer only lost a total of 16 games over the course of six rounds. Brewer shut out her first two opponents handedly, 6-0, 6-0 and won her third round match, 6-3, 6-3 against Rigui McCoy of Williams.

In the quarterfinals, she took down the seventh seed, Joulia Likhanskaia of Bowdoin, 6-0, 6-3 and then continued her standout performance in the semis by beating sixth-seeded Kathleen Elkins of Williams. In the finals, Brewer defeated her own teammate and doubles partner, eighth seeded Devlin, 6-0, 6-3.

Devlin had a great performance as well leading up to finals, losing only four games over the course of the first three rounds. In the quarterfinals, Devlin defeated Elizabeth Gerber of Trinity, 6-2, 7-6, and in the semis, she was put to the test by the third seed from Williams, Kara Shoemaker. After winning the first set, 6-4, Devlin dropped the competitive second set 6-7, before triumphing in the third, 6-4.

Coach Jacqueline Bagwell was extremely proud of the two’s excellent performance.

“Both played a very high level of tennis

throughout the tournament. Brewer finished her senior ITA tournament where she started off her first year as singles and doubles champion. Devlin was a doubles champion in this tournament her freshmen year, but this year, she added a stellar singles performance,” Bagwell said.

Notably, Jen Newman ’14, the tenth seed in the tournament, played three highly contested three-set matches. Newman was victorious in the first two, defeating Kate Winingham of Bowdoin for the first time in her career as well as a player from Middlebury before falling to fifth-seeded Melita Ferjanic of Trinity, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

Sue Ghosh ‘16 also was able to win two rounds of tennis for the Jeffs as the ninth seed in the tournament before falling to sixth seed, Kathleen Elkins from Williams, 6-1, 6-0.

Captain Zoe Pangalos ’14 bowed out in the first round against tough opponent and sixteenth seeded, Maria Pylypiv of Williams, 6-3, 6-4. Sarah Monteagudo ’16 also was unable to make it past the first round, losing to another player from Williams, 6-2, 6-1.

First-year, Amanda Zalameda continued to play consistently and won her first round match 7-6, 6-2 before losing in the second round.

In the doubles tournament, first-seeded Devlin and Brewer only lost five games in their five matches. In the finals, the pair took down the second-seeded team from Williams easily, 8-1.

The other Amherst doubles teams both fell in the first round. Third seeded Pangalos and Newman couldn’t get past a Williams pair and lost 8-6. Ghosh and her partner, Safi Aly ’15 lost to the fifth seeded team from Bowdoin, 8-6.

Next up for the women is archrival Williams. The team will travel to Williamstown on Saturday, Oct. 5, and Bagwell plans to have the team regroup this week and work on point building and doubles.