Volume 141, Issue 6

We dne sday, O ctobe r  ,    

Volume CXLI No. 

5

Hu ’12 on Christianity and Wall Street OPINION

6

Gates ’12 lists non-conventional Halloween films ARTS & LIVING

Amherst, Massachusetts

10

Men’s soccer ties Wesleyan to remain undefeated SPORTS

Web: amherststudent.amherst.edu

Twitter: @AmherstStudent

Amherst Takes Down Wesleyan, 24-10

Karan Bains ’14

Sports Section Editor

The football team passed the halfway point of their season on Friday by extending their winning streak to a season-long 5-0 in a triumph over Wesleyan. While Amherst has traditionally dominated the matchup between these two squads, this year’s Wesleyan team possessed a potent offense featuring star freshman running back LeDarius Drew. Drew and the rest of the Cardinal squad came ready to spoil the day for the Jeffs but fell

Photo by Alec Jacobson ’12

Photo by Stella Yoon ’14

effort from the home team.

Spurred on by a loud homecoming showing of students, alumni and faculty, the Jeffs came out strong from the outset. On their back Eric Bunker ’12 found the end zone with a 26-yard touchdown Photo by Alec Jacobson ’12

Photo by Joyzel Acevedo ’14

ACEMS Plans for Financial Aid Sarah Ashman ’14 News Section Editor

Starting this Interterm, Amherst College Emergency Medical Service (ACEMS) will begin giving up-front tuition assistance to students who cannot afford the costs of the Interterm EMT course. ACEMS is a student-staffed and student-administered organization that provides emergency medical response, at no cost, to any member of the campus community at any hour, any day.

Currently, ACEMS only reimburses its members for their EMT class costs after they have served on the ACEMS squad for a given period of time. While this tuition reimbursement has been helpful for many students, several have found that they were unable to come up with the total cost of the course, which can reach $1,000 with taxes and fees.

In the past, the executive board of ACEMS has hesitated to implement upfront tuition assistance, due to the risk that a student who takes the ACEMS course might decide not to serve on the ACEMS squad. the exception of costs related to the ACEMS vehicles, which are separately funded by the College, the entire budget for ACEMS comes from the Association of Amherst Students (AAS). investment for us and for the AAS (which is responsible for funding ACEMS), we decided that it is worth it to make sure no one is prevented from joining ACEMS because Chen ’12, Co-Director of Operations for ACEMS. Chen also says that by implementing upfront tuition assistance, ACEMS will also expand its base of potential recruits, allowing them to improve the quality of their accepted applicants.

This year, the ACEMS course will run

week or two of the spring semester. There will be approximately 125 hours of class, and the class is usually open to about 30 stustudents, before being opened to Five College students after the Amherst demand has been met.

As an EMT, a student can expect to get four to eight 12-hour shifts per month, de“Serving on ACEMS is not for everyone,” Chen said. “But for those with a strong work ethic who are excited about responding to medical emergencies and learning the ins and outs of emergency medical care, it is an immensely enjoyable and rewarding experience.”

There is a widespread belief on campus that that the vast majority of ACEMS calls are alcohol-related. According to Chen, that myth must be debunked.

“Only about 40 percent of our calls are related to alcohol consumption. The rest deal with medical emergencies including sprains, serious lacerations, seizures, asthma attacks, drug overdose and diabetic emergencies,” Chen said.

Cynthia Chio ’12, the ACEMS CoDirector of Inventory, expects more interaction for the students in this years’ EMT interterm course. Divided into lectures and practicals, the course provides students with information on the equipment used — such as stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, and using the equipment in various situations, said Chio. Because ACEMS is placing more current EMT’s in the course as teacher assistants, “it will be a more natural adjustment” when they join the organization.

Will Biche ’13, the ACEMS Co-Director of Operations, believes ACEMS provides a “great experience to work as an EMT and provide service to peers.” ACEMS is expecting a larger amount of applicants after they implent the new funding system.

— Darrian Kelly ’15 contributed reporting.

See Homecoming, page 3

Inaugural Address by President Carolyn “Biddy” Martin Good morning. I’m honored and moved by the greetings, by your presence, the presence of our trustees, faculty, staff, students. And by the way, students, after the dancing last night, it’s good that I received a cane.

I’m delighted to have my nephew, my closest friends, my colleagues from all over the country with me on this occasion.

I want also to acknowledge the three former chairs of the board of Amherst’s trustees — Amos Hostetter ’58, Spike Beitzel ’50 and Chuck Longsworth ’51. Thank you for honoring me with your

presence.

I consider myself so fortunate to be able to build on the foundation that was laid by these board chairs and the two former presidents who are with us today, the 16th and 18th Presidents of Amherst College, Peter Pouncey and Tony Marx. Thank you.

My move to Amherst College has felt like a homecoming. That may seem odd, even to me. I haven’t been here very long, and my journey from See President, page 3

Faculty Discuss Diversity Elaine Teng ’12

With these statistics in mind, the faculty

Senior Editor

After a festive inauguration weekend, President Biddy Martin enjoyed a productive second last Tuesday, Oct. 18, in Converse Hall. The faculty approved 15 new courses for the spring semester, discussed the continuation of the capital campaign and the creation of a new fundraising program. Most importantly, they began the debate As the College enters a new era in hiring, the administration and the faculty hope to diversify their ranks so that the makeup of the professors student body. In comparing the College to seven co-ed peer institutions across the country, Dean of Faculty Gregory Call pointed out that the College was consistently on the low end of faculty diversity in terms of Hispanics, blacks and women. For example, the College has hired 93 female professors in the last 30 years, which consisted of 43 percent of the total hires.

The independent newspaper of Amherst College since .

“diversity,” as well as emphasizing the need for quality above all other considerations in the hiring process. Several professors pointed to the need of recruiting scholars not just based on ethnic backgrounds, but on the diversity of their experiences, such as professors from state universities or non-traditional pathways. According to them, this would not only improve the quality of the College curriculum, but also provide the faculty additional experience to draw from in mentoring students about their options after Amherst.

Other faculty members voiced the desire for more international scholars at the College, while others reminded their colleagues that they must, as Professor of American Studies and English Karen Sanchez-Eppler put it, “create environments in which a diverse faculty thrive. Faculty of color have received tenure at a lower rate than white faculty, and women have received tenure at a lower rate, and I think that is about the culture with which we hold people, not about the excellence with which people enter.”

Page 

The Amherst Student, October , 

The Ninety-nine Percent Occupy Amherst Imagination Ethan Corey ’15 Staff Writer

On Oct. 5, students, professors and other members of the local community took part in the “Occupy Amherst” march. Chanting slogans such as “We are the 99 percent” and “Down with Wall Street,” demonstrators protested against what they saw as unfair political and economic inequality. The demonstration was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests in New York City, and came as part of thousands of other such “occupations” around the world.

Protesters marched from UMass to the Bank of America in downtown Amherst, before moving to the Town Common for a rally where participants took turns giving his or her own perspectives. Several Amherst students were present and called on protesters to march on the College, as well.

Other speakers decried war, imperialism unity and empowerment. To many, the OWS movement is a historic movement that is already changing the world. Professor of History Edward Melillo explained that, “The Occupy

movement offers American society an experiment in radically inclusive forms of decisionmaking and participatory governance, which suggests a different model of how social interactions might be organized in the information age.”

Melillo’s model occurs in Zuccotti Park in New York City, where OWS protesters hold general assemblies where the rule is consensus rather than majority vote. OWS also coined the practice of “the people’s mic,” where the gathwords so everyone can hear. Originally created as a work-around to New York City’s restricpeople’s mic” has been adopted in many other “occupations” as a symbol of unity.

“This approach has the drawback of delaying procedural activities, but such examples of attentiveness to democratic process and participatory method contrast starkly with political models that employ professional representatives, little direct involvement on the part of most citizens and highly bureaucratic organizations of power,” Melillo said.

Luis Feliz ’12, who participated in the Oct. 5 march and has been down to Zucotti Park to

Students, professors and local residents marched from UMass through downtown Amherst before moving on to the College. take part in OWS, said that the protest is a call for a shift in the social and political order. “[A]s viable political alternatives, we reject both parties because they are dominated by swindlers who cash in their votes to lobbyist serve the interest of their voters,” Feliz said.

“Hence, the OWS movement has not issued demands because to do so would mean conferring legitimacy on a broken system. If elite economic interests have a stranglehold on the U.S. government, and all politicians serve as instruments of government, it follows that all politicians are pawns of elite economic interest. That’s the argument against the status quo that we are making and appeal to others to consider.”

Photos by June Pan ’13

Protesters gathered at the the Amherst Town Common for a rally.

its “We are the 99 percent” slogan that seeks to put the interests of the majority of Americans before the interests of the rich. Commenting on the slogan, Professor of History and Black Studies Jose Castro Alves said, “Their message is clear for anyone willing to hear: ‘We are the 99 percent.’ This is not an empty slogan like ‘Yes we can.’ It should remind each and every person residing in this country that the American dream is a reality for the few people already privileged and that economic recovery through

imperial expansion won’t create jobs and wealth domestically any longer.”

The OWS movement is the latest of the many popular uprisings of 2011, which began with both the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring. Alves said occupations and protests have their roots in these uprisings and more. He believes that the OWS is rooted in the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest in Seattle, Wash. which led to global activism against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. That same spirit has survived today, leading to students’ activism “against sweatshops and slave labor and in support of divestment campaigns,” Alves Castro said. A recent campaign has been to convince educational institutions to divest from companies making arms for Israel. districts across the United States are also the orphans of President Obama’s campaign,” Alves Castro said. “Rather than begging for paternal attention, they opted to be independent and keep the utopia of creating a better world alive.

They know that a better world won’t unfold with the implosion of whatever is left of the welfare state and an obscenely unequal distribution of wealth.”

THE CAMPUS CRIME LOG Entries from Oct. 5 to Oct. 23, 2011 October 5, 2011 10:38 p.m., Hitchcock House plaint from a town resident and located groups of people on the second and moved along, and the noise ended.

October 9, 2011 9:29 p.m., The Quadrangle something hanging from a tree and found it was a Halloween decoration.

It was removed.

October 14, 2011 2:55 p.m., Off-Campus Locations A local business reported that a student attempted to purchase alcohol with a false driver’s license which -

1:18 a.m., Coolidge Dormitory

found. The party was shut down, and

$100 for the offensive behavior.

was also found discharging “poppers” on the roadway. The activity was stopped.

October 16, 2011 2:10 p.m., Converse Lot

1:27 a.m., James Dormitory

man urinating near the parking lot. He

of visitors drinking alcohol on the

about his actions. His host was contacted and he came to get the person.

cleared from the area.

10:19 a.m., Off-Campus Locations A caller reported seeing a bear on Hitchcock Road. The town police was

October 19, 2011 1:06 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall nating outside the building. He was

1:59 a.m., Davis Dormitory

fensive behavior.

loud people and music and issued a proximately 20 non-residents were asked to leave.

9:59 p.m., Morris Pratt

was located, but no one was engaged in the activity, and nothing else was found.

detected the odor of marijuana and

1:16 a.m., Valentine

speaking to the resident and several friends, the remains of a cigar con-

man tampering with a bicycle. He cal college. He was directed to leave campus.

2:07 a.m., The Lord Jeffery Inn

The matter was referred to the Dean’s October 15, 2011 1:05 a.m., Stone Dormitory

that someone gained entry into the October 22, 2011 12:00 a.m., Plimpton House A town resident complained about

causing it to smash on the walkway the safety violation.

found an unauthorized party involving approximately 150 people was

2:58 a.m., Morris Pratt extinguishers. Case open.

October 23, 2011 1:02 a.m., Valentine Dormitory

3:45 p.m., Pratt Field

dents on the porch where an odor of marijuana was reported. The group

visitor from the football game for of-

loud people in the common area who refuse to leave. Eight non-students were located, and they were directed out of the building.

The Amherst Student, October , 

Page 

President Carolyn “Biddy” Martin’s Inaugural Address Continued from page 1 Campbell County, Va. to Amherst, Mass. is an im probable one. It breaks a number of ancient rules in the community where I grew up: stay below the Mason-Dixon line; aspire only to what will keep you at home; and trust only your own kind. Part of me as a child must have longed for a place like Amherst, without having had any way to imagine it or even any inkling that it existed. What I want to say to you, once again, is this: I am glad to be one of you and glad to be one of many kinds.

Thank you.

I fooled you into thinking I was done.

I suppose my presidency here could be seen as improbable on Amherst’s side as well. It was founded, as you know, by orthodox Calvinists, and in its childhood and adolescence, it was meant to prepare talented, pious young men for the ministry. Not just any men, but men without means. ligious mission and has been serving secular ends for a very long time. But if we travel back down the corridor to Amherst’s childhood, we see much that endures — access to education regardless of means, the highest of educational standards and a desire to illuminate the world. I was drawn to Amherst because of these very values.

Today, I want to focus on a quality that’s not easy to summarize, in a word I’m going to call it a ‘sensibility,’ and will use a novel, rather than hisherst’s origins. Marilynne Robinson’s novel “Gilead” is written as a letter from a failing, elderly Calvinist minister to his young son about his life in the ministry. I’m going to read you a somewhat ther to son. Here’s the quote: “A great part of my work has been listening to people, in that particular intense privacy of confession, or at least unburdening, and it has been very interesting to me. Not that I thought of these conversations as if they were a contest, I don’t mean that. But as you might look at a game more abstractly — where is the strength, what is the strategy? As if you had no interest in it except seeing how well the two sides bring each other along, how much they can require of each other, how the life that is the real subject of it all is manifest in it. ... When people come to speak to me, whatever they say, I am struck by a kind of incandescence in them, the ‘I’ whose predicate can be ‘love’ or ‘fear’ or ‘want,’ and whose object can be ‘someone’ or ‘nothing’ and it won’t really matter, because the loveliness is just in that presence, shaped in grief and guilt and joy and whatever else. But quick, and avid, and resourceful. To see this aspect of life is a privilege of the ministry, which is seldom mentioned.”

To see this aspect of life is a privilege of education, which is too little valued, even in the world of higher education. But it is still the heart and soul of Amherst College.

Amherst students are nothing if not quick and avid and resourceful. To interact with them is to experience directly the incandescence to which our Calvinist minister alludes. ter’s emphasis on “how well the two sides bring each other along, how much they can require of each other,” as I turn to the writings of one of Amherst’s legendary teachers and scholars of English — Benjamin Demott. In an essay entitled “English and the Promise of Happiness,” Demott tells us that the English class “is the place … wherein the chief matters of concern are the particulars of humanness: individual human feeling, human response and human time, as these can be animated with the help of writing … and discovered by student writers seeking through words to name and compose and grasp their own experience.”

Demott tells us that, “there are few [such spaces] in most colleges and universities.” And I fear that he was right.

At Amherst, these spaces of human time and human interaction are still central to what the College is, a research college that preserves what is oddly so easily lost in education, even in English classes, and it will take focus and determination to preserve those spaces, even here.

At the heart of Amherst is conversation. Benjamin Demott says that “the function of conversation — the searching for terms, the pretending to exactitude, criticizing and celebrating each other’s offerings — is to resituate a deeply private enterprise on a public stage.” How I wish our more public stages were models of this kind of conversation. I think it is our responsibility to help make it so by whatever means we can.

Demott says that a class allows us to bring “our variousness into play,” “to explore our range, discover our delicacy,” with other people. To do those things takes time. It takes attention. It takes practice. It takes low student-to-teacher ratios. It is costly. It is life-giving. I know from experience.

Demott illuminates its rewards by taking us into a class on Shakespeare’s “Lear.” And he talks about the offerings of one young woman. He says that she “[tells] us what’s going on within Cordelia as the King her father bears down on her.”

Here is the offering of the young woman, in the words of Demott: “She, Cordelia, says the student, is in rebellion, yes, but that’s not her idea of how much harder on him she could be than she’s being. Actually, she’s not saying one half of what she could. Not telling him what everybody can see, that he’s vain and fatuous. Oh, she’s rebelling, but she has herself under wraps as she’s speaking.

She is pressing down. In spite of everything — being stony and brusque — she knows she’s being good. She feels forbearing.”

The student’s offering comes to a close, and Demott tells us that, “A sound of assent comes into the stillness.”

Benjamin Demott values the offering of this one young woman, and he spends his time in his or two in the crowded margins of ‘Lear’: C-forbearing, with the young woman’s initials, and look through the window at the Octagon and down the hill. I realize not simply that this is a good student who will have more and more to give but that it will be better not to think of ‘teaching her.’ The point is to stay with her, being equal to what comes.” ishing of one young woman, asking, as our Calvinist minister did, where is the strength? What is the strategy? How can we bring one another along?

Lest you think that Benjamin Demott is the only one, I visited Richard Wilbur’s and David ing of the class, I slipped into the one seat left in the room. It was relatively small and unadorned, a classroom in Converse Hall. I could not have been more excited. I could not have taken more plearead John Donne aloud. I felt privileged by the students’ offerings. I made one of my own, which I later regretted.

Lest you think that these classes are only in the English department, I can also disabuse you of that. This kind of poetry extends throughout Amherst College.

In a visit to the chemistry department, I was treated to a discussion of the difference between teaching 15 students in a lab and 30 students in a lab; the difference between bringing students along so that they’re able to think and learn about how to do the problem and conceive of its importo an answer.

When meeting with alumni of Amherst College, I realize it’s very much like being on campus, as you might expect. And I was told more than once that when alumni gather, they talk about spesion which alumni of other institutions typically reserve for reminiscences about great football seasons. And I witnessed, on more than one occasion, that this is true.

A great college takes not only great teachers, though it does indicatively take that. It takes teachers who are genuine intellectuals; students who are quick and avid and resourceful; outstanding and dedicated staff, which Amherst has in spades; and alumni who give back with their ideas and their resources.

A great college also takes a relationship to time that is different from the time of the news

or the business cycles, but is nonetheless curious and informed about those cycles. The investment of time and the quality of our attention in relation to young people matter as much as the content of what we profess. And that is why Amherst matters.

In 10 years we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Amherst College. On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, as you have already heard today, then-President Alexander Miekeljohn gave an anniversary speech in which he decided to offer three prophecies about the future of the College.

Actually, he hedged a bit and said the future of the college would depend on the future of the nation.

He made three predications about its future. In 1921, he suggested that the United States would develop a culture that was genuinely independent of Anglo-Saxon Britain, and that it would, as a result, distinguish itself from Britain’s aristocratic approach to other peoples and races and creeds, tion over others. And that faith would be restored to American culture. Amherst’s next 100 years, he said, would follow those trends. As for faith, the nation remains deeply divided about its centrality and place. I’m not going to comment on it here.

Amherst has not returned to its Calvinist origins, except in the ways we never left them, but it glows with the light of the most important article of faith in higher education, which is faith in youth and faith in our capacity to learn from the beginning to the end of our lives. creeds and nations, the country has made progress since 1921 but has a long way to go. And today, economic disparities plague not only the United States; they threaten stability around the world.

In his remarks on Sept. 14, 2001, three days after 9/11, Walter Lafeber, historian of American foreign policy, asked his audience at Cornell to “remember from a study of a long history that these disparities will inevitably change. If we are fortunate, wise, and remember, we will help guide that change, rather than having changes imposed on us. This insight means,” he said, “that we cannot be both ignorant of other peoples and remain free; that we cannot be intolerant of great cultures and races with which we share a shrinking planet and remain free; we cannot surrender centuriesold constitutional principles, especially in checks on each branch of government, and remain free.”

What role does the College play in our determination to remain free? It must do what it does best. What Miekeljohn himself tirelessly promoted, not only at Amherst College but at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, academic freedom, the free exchange of ideas. It must educate. It must discover. It must realize that the many peoples of the world are now more than ever our neighbors.

And remember, in the words of Walt Lafeber, that “innocence and ignorance of others in this new world have no place.”

Thanks to the determination and leadership of the three board chairs in front of me and the two presidents who preceded me, Amherst’s student ties of the racial, religious and cultural differences that make up our world. Miekeljohn would have with our demographic changes. What we want is to take responsibility and use the privilege to enthat the education we offer is infused with those them are addressed.

Amherst has certainly not ended up as an aristocratic culture. It believes passionately in checks and balances. Despite its relative wealth and its prestige, I have found that Amherst is a frugal place, administratively thin, perhaps even too thin, and a place that has invested its resources in what ultimately matters — aid for students, support for faculty and staff and the facilities to enable your best work. Amherst believes in fairness, prudence and good governance. And it believes, above all, in the intimate arts of teaching.

I look forward to 2021. If I’m lucky enough to be here on the 200th anniversary, I will not make predictions about the future of the nation. Here is what I will say right now: I imagine an Amherst that is even more diverse in people, in points of

view than it is today, an even headier mix of different cultural, intellectual, religious and political traditions.

I imagine a faculty that has been rebuilt in the intervening 10 years and that still includes the best scholar-teachers, the most capacious thinkers and the most entertaining characters in higher education.

I imagine an Amherst that makes greater use of our Five College consortium to attract those faculty and support your scholarly collaborations.

I imagine we will be making more use of technology in our teaching, without having removed person-to-person contact from the center of our enterprise.

I imagine an Amherst that will have beaten Williams in football in each of the intervening 10 years. I imagine in 2021 that our men’s and women’s soccer teams and our women’s basketball team will have brought home more national championships and that men’s tennis will have as well.

I imagine walking across the stunningly beautiful freshmen quad on a beautiful fall morning on my way to have coffee with students in a new center for science and discovery and campus gathering. And there I’m being caught up on innovations education.

I am sitting in an architecturally ambitious, modern building that celebrates our contemplative landscape and highlights our traditional dwellings, rather than detracting from them.

I imagine listening to faculty, staff and students talk about recent breakthroughs in medical research and, with great urgency, about what can be done to preserve our environment in the face of global climate change.

I imagine visiting upper class students in your new social dorms. I can’t wait to see how they accommodate what our students need for both work and play. I imagine in those residence halls seeing the students interacting in teams on using the upto-date technologies students would like or need to have.

I imagine a new facility that accommodates Amherst’s reinvention of work in the humanities.

I imagine facilities with new classrooms, students interacting in real time with their counterparts in other parts of the world.

I imagine students having greater opportunities to be entrepreneurial in ways that are socially I imagine an Amherst that has found ways to extend its reach and export more of what we do and is more explicit about we can contribute to a public sphere in need of Amherst’s values.

What I imagine is of little relevance. I will work to facilitate your vision and your aspirations for Amherst College. If they match some of mine, I will be pleased.

I fear a world without its Amhersts. I fear a world in which the political and economic crowd out the poetic, in which politics and business are to the top and a winner-take-all mentality elimicollaboration across party lines are considered of results and where the lure of spectacle relegates the simple pleasures of human relationships and day-to-day contact obsolete.

I say to you today as I close, let’s make Amherst, to an even greater extent, the incubator of the world that we know we need to embrace. A world that celebrates access and the differences among us, among races, religions, cultures and points of view. A world that is enlivened by these differences, that honors them, and also allows them to become something else entirely by virtue of their in-mixing.

In 2021 and into its third century, Amherst will be a heavily sought-after and compelling destination, because it is at one and the same time, open, intellectually vibrant, engaged, intimate and tranquil, a condensation of apparently incompatible qualities. It is full of quick and avid and resourceful people who are devoted to the wellbeing of the world and to the planet that hosts us. ship.



The Amherst Student

Opinion

Letters to the Editor Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011

Editorial

College Must Foster Faculty Diversity Around this time of the year, the admissions office is busy rifling through applications from all corners of the world. The process is carefully constructed and refined to choose students with the intention of creating the best possible environment at Amherst.

Undoubtedly, diversity thus factors into the admissions process, but only in the context of the skills and achievements already presented by each applicant.

Faculty hiring should take place through a similar procedure.

If the intent of the admissions process is to create a diverse learning environment, it naturally follows that faculty should be chosen with the same criteria as the students they hope to teach. Tenured faculty play an even greater role in shaping the prestige and atmosphere at the College, as they continually impact those factors for decades after students graduate. It is critical, therefore, that the College chooses its educators with

great care.

Dean of Faculty Gregory Call, in the most recent faculty meeting, pointed out a sad reality at Amherst: the College’s faculty, compared to those of our peer institutions, is simply not diverse enough. One example is the rate of female faculty hires, which remains consistently low at 43 percent. Perhaps even more pressing is the College’s inability to retain faculty members at the same clip as our peer institutions.

In recent decades, the student body has grown more diverse simply to keep pace with the rest of the world. Our faculty should reflect those changes. As a large number of professors are reaching retirement age, the College is in the midst of the prime years for the search for new tenuretrack faculty. At this juncture, it is crucial that Amherst choose its faculty with the same foresight with which it selects its students, so as to not fall behind its peer

institutions — and a changing world more broadly. Professors have expressed concerns that the College’s failure to retain more faculty of color and females is not due to a lack of excellence on the professors’ part, but rather due to a culture that undervalues them, and over time proves inhospitable. If this is the case, something must change.

We’re not simply encouraging diversity for diversity’s sake; the stakes here are much too large for a notion like that. Under any standard, a diverse faculty creates a richer learning environment for students. And better faculty retention rates for minority faculty is the only evidence that demonstrates Amherst is serious about creating an environment conducive to the success of diverse, high-caliber faculty.

We have an opportunity to select the men and women who will shape this College for the next 30 years. Let’s not waste it.

The Newspaper of Amherst College since 1868

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Amro El-Adle Brianda Reyes Managing News Managing Opinion Managing Arts and Living Managing Sports

Darrian Kelly, June Pan, Alissa Rothman Erik Christianson, Andrew Kaake, Meghna Sridhar Nicole Chi, Ashley Hall, Jake Walters, Clara Yoon Brenton Arnaboldi, Emmett Knowlton, Carlyn obertson R

SECTION EDITORS

News Opinion

Sarah Ashman, Shellby Fabian Diana Babineau, Mary Byrne, John Osborn, Judy Yoo Daniel Diner Karan Bains, Karl Greenblatt, Varun Iyengar

Arts & Living Sports

S TA F F

Publishers

Chris Friend, Nazir Khan, Shannon McKenna, David Walchak

Staff Writers

Clay Andrews, Romen Borsellino, Ethan Corey, Megan Duff, Ethan Gates, Max Gilbert, Dylan Herts, Kevin Hoogstraten, Reilly Horan, Ophelia Hu, Alex Hurst, Amber Khan, Kevin Kurzweil, Miranda Marraccini

Senior Editors

Nihal Shrinath, Elaine Teng

Layout Editor

Brendan Hsu

Cartoonist

Mizuho Ota

Photographers

Risalat Khan, Zachary Sudler

Copy Editor 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.

Letters Policy 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 9 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.

Rose Lenehan ’11 and Michael Muller ’12 wrote a Letter to the Editor to address the Friday, Oct. 21 issue of The Student.

When we initially perused the “Alumni tion, we were struck by the ratio of men chalked this curiosity up to the fact that there are simply more men in the alum pool, given that Amherst only started admitting women a quarter-century ago. But when we noticed that half the men who are featured graduated after Amherst commenced notable Julie Powell ’95 — is most famous because her story was given (due) recognition by an industry dominated by males, we were annoyed and disappointed.

We don’t mean to discredit the men

who were recognized this year. We only think it’s worth pointing out that editions of The Student such as those published during Homecoming and Commencement, which make public the achievements of individuals in the community, serve to Amherst. If that image is overwhelmingly male, we subtly and dangerously discourage and disvalue our female students and alumnae.

In recent years, the College has worked to promote itself as a space of inclusivity, and tried actively to bury its histori-

equality and equity. But this edition of The Student, while clearly well-intentioned, indicates that there is still work to be done if we’re to have a robust and comprehensive

Pain in the AAS Adam Gerchick ’13 Senators from the Association of Amherst Students are writing a weekly column to keep the student body informed about the goings-on in the Senate.

Try to Keep Calm and Carry On

R

ant:

I spent about 15 minutes last Saturday night waiting in line to use the sole available bathroom at Amherst’s Homecoming TAP. Seeing the line, I initially tried to use one of the several upstairs bathrooms, or even the ones on the dent Security was barring any non-resident from accessing most of building. Those who claimed Hitchcock residency were, like passengers at Ben-Gurion International Airport, subjected to a brief interrogation to determine the credibility of their stories.

Several bathroom-seekers left the building to try their luck elsewhere, leaving

risk: Student Security was imposing clubstyle crowd management over the building’s front entrance, and everyone, including residents, would have to wait to get in.

When — if — the squad chose to admit more partygoers, those admitted would be expected to produce photo ID (what would this accomplish?). And then the entrants would be allowed to go into a ballroom and try to dance.

This is dumb. Why have Amherst parties become as bureaucratically and physically regulated as a trip through U.S. Customs? Why are students expected to follow impressively-stringent security requirewhile we face at worst a blockade of strewn cans when we try to walk into most unregistered parties? Why is Student Security First: this is not a screed about the students employed by Student Security. In fact, I sympathize with them. They have no control over policy and, like most student workers, are either meeting the requirements of a work-study scholarship or just

trying to make a modest income. Asking them to violate their employer’s policies is as improper as trying to haggle with a department store sales clerk, and berating someone you know for doing their jobs is rather sad.

In fact, I’ve spoken to several such student employees, and those few have uniformly agreed that their organization’s policies are, to some extent, unreasonable.

My objection is to those policies themselves.

I understand the logic of Student Security: parties, especially publicized, open, College-sponsored ones, can, unchecked (or even checked) become over-crowded

“Why are students expected to follow impressively-stringent security requirements ... Why is Student Security less flexible than the TSA?” and, with enough drunken and belligerent attendees, unsafe.

But Amherst needs to re-evaluate its risk calculus. Does a TAP inherently require students to guard approved and unapa TAP inherently require the closure of all ways with water fountains and bathrooms?

Does a TAP inherently require a designated and often inconvenient exit distinct from the entrance?

The reality of most TAPs is dramatically less, well, dramatic than the worst-case scenarios. At the very least, Student Security employees should be perSee Occupy, page 5

The Amherst Student, Oct. , 

Page 

Libertarian’s Folly: Why Progressivism Provides an Answer

S

everal weeks ago in The Student, Erik Christianson ’14 wrote an article extolling the virtues of libertarianism. I have no critiques of his position as far as civil liberties and gay marriage go, but the core of libertarianism lies in its view of personal property and its economic ideals. In this, it constitutes nothing more of social vision and a defense of the ability of the powerful to oppress the powerless. Followed to its logical end, the philosophy is bared as an excuse for wealthy and powerful interests to shirk their responsibilities, and instead have others pick up the tab for their actions.

A conservative blogger referred to libertariseeks to run a society on altruism and an extreme sense of community, libertarianism proposes to run it on nothing more than self-interest, greed and extreme individualism. It is stricken by an inability to make the leap from the micro level to a macro one. Nowhere is this more evident than with the environment, where libertarianism falls into the Tragedy of the Commons.

In his 1960’s work, Garrett Hardin used the example of cows grazing on a town commons; each cow herder seeks to maximize his own personal gain, and will allow each successive cow he acquires to graze on the commons. Each individual keeps all of the gains from each additional cow, but the community as a whole shares the negative externalities. Thus, if every individual

pleases, the commons will eventually be destroyed through overgrazing.

Of course a libertarian answer to this might be to just privatize the commons, and make each herder responsible for the negative effects of This is entirely impossible for things like the ter, and fails in other cases too, considering the incredible degree to which we, and ecosystems, are vastly interconnected. Consider two towns that share the same river with one town upstream from the other. Should the citizens of this town the river, or would that infringe upon the rights of those who live downstream to drink clean water?

Will people moderate their own behavior and regulate themselves for the greater good? It’s a nice thought, but I’m from Cleveland. For those of you who don’t know, 30 years ago heavy industry had so polluted our Cuyahoga River that it serious effects, this is what has happened to our various global commons — for example, overScience estimates will Or consider the CO2 emissions we have spewed into the atmosphere that are causing global climate change that we all, polluters or not, will bear the costs of. Ford’s decision to keep produc-

Why Would Jesus Occupy?

“W

hoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors

These are the words of my placard. It is soft and worn from a night in New York and many days facing the sun and wind. I am a Christian dutifully attending my post, which is neither a Tea Party an Occupant because my faith compels me to the front lines. verse array of individuals: Vietnam veterans, Native American activists, Egyptian children, students, union representatives, men in three-piece suits and one woman who showed up in her birthday suit. I also met many Christians, which surprised me more than it should have.

After all, Jesus threw the moneychangers and their unethical practices out of the temple. Jesus told the rich man that his love for money would make it harder for him to enter heaven than for a camel to enter the eye of a needle. Jesus unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which foretold the coming of a man who would “proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of The placards of many Christian occupants contained common biblical sayings. One cannot serve both God and money. Blessed are the meek and poor. Allegories abound in corners of the encampment: the story of the sheep and the goats, of the poor woman who tithed her last pennies and of the Lord’s Prayer. But with such a wide range of secular and non-Christian opinions and desires expressed within the occupation, why should Christians occupy the front lines of the movement? How does the Christian perspective inform the occupation? “‘Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does

Hurst’s House

ing the Pinto model because payouts for death and injury lawsuits are cheaper than redesigning the car is a logical conclusion in a world where it’s a conclusion made even worse in the all too often cases of commonized losses and privatized My second gripe is that Christianson claims that progressivism lacks ideological cohesion while at the same time remaining vague about just what is included in libertarianism’s “ideological those things are actually not in line with college students’ views — and certainly not the views of most Amherst students. Libertarianism’s utter fetishization of the market leads to defenses of racial discrimination such as the one proffered by the second craziest Rand in the world (that would be Paul … Ayn of course takes the cake). As the argument goes, because my property rights are sacrosanct, if I own a restaurant, I should be able to deny service to whomever I choose, be they black, gay, Jewish or whatever.

Even though libertarians argue that businesses would be stupid to discriminate because it racial discrimination. Progressives and minorities organizing and passing federal laws did. And all the other places that it fails either, just like the market didn’t stop the Cuyahoga from burning.

The hackneyed tritisms like “[progressives]

The Ark Ophelia Hu ’12 Ophelia is an Environmental Studies major who writes a bi-weekly column sharing a Christian perspective on social, environmental and political issues.

not give him his wages, who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion. Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me?’ declares the Lord. But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing opChristians and Christian rhetoric must be present in the occupation, in part because it offers a counter-narrative to the common views of the cial and socio-political despair. The above verse from the prophet Jeremiah is one of hundreds that expound the biblical source, standard and need for Indeed, the ideals of the occupation have been the object of prayer and intercession by Christians for millennia.

However, the Christian ideology differs from non-Christian approaches to the occupation in its humble admittance that humans are incapable of

the embodiment of justice, rather than the people, who are its mere recipients. According to the Christian tradition, one must repel the oppressor of her neighbor, even while she patiently awaits deliverance from and yearns to love her own. Such a prioritization of one’s neighbor is the very attitude that the movement needs in order to garner more support.

Similarly, it is a meek and loving attitude that will contrast with media reports of supposed occupants defecating on police cars and accumulating trash. Occupy Wall Street is not the locus of an uprising. Rather, it is the civil clearing of a throat long gripped by corporate and political irresponsi-

Alex Hurst ’12

Alex is a Political Science major who writes a bi-weekly column on the subjects of domestic politics and world events.

bility and greed. The movement charts the difference between freedom of speech and participatory justice, the condition under which all parties have equal decision-making power; this differs from free speech, which allows all to speak, but makes no guarantees that certain opinions will be heard.

While many mainstream media outlets have criticized the movement as a directionless, disgruntled crowd, such a characterization may be its greatest merit. Its open-ended nature ensures that individuals of all walks of life can become involved in the reality that this movement, and the lack of corporate and political accountability it itself as it progresses. Therefore, no one is excluded from deliberations or the enactment of demands.

The movement exists to raise awareness, not to be a decision-making entity. Rather than impose the demands of a few vocal members on the general public, the occupation allows all constituents to inpublic the opportunity to help shape the movement would only create a plutocracy of a different malodor. Political and corporate entities have found ways to nullify the importance and threat of free speech; in response, occupiers demand what is at the heart of the desire for free speech: participatory justice. The Christian worldview beseeches believers to love their enemies. Such a measure is necessary to ensure against the very tyranny the occupation aims to repel.

On one Sunday in Manhattan, I marched with a group to Bowling Green Park, where we unloaded a replica of the Charging Bull, which eerily resembles the idolatrous golden calf depicted in the biblical book of Exodus. Later that day, we marched around the Federal Reserve building. I was reminded of the fall of Jericho, a strong city that could not be taken by the force of men alone. According to the book of Joshua, Joshua and his army had marched around the walls of Jericho seven times, shouted, and then watched the city fall into their hands. Perhaps the occupation is this battle cry.

ity and reality of our relation to the environment and to each other. The truth of that reality is that regulation actually protects freedom — both for us, and for future generations. Who reading this really considers herself less free because Upton eral regulation of the food industry? Anyone who would rather go back to the robber barons, moPinkertons and starvation of the elderly, please raise your hand.

The progressive movement stands in stark contrast. It’s an ideology centered on human dignity, that acknowledges the subtle necessity of balancing societal needs with individual freedoms, and rests on a solid record of having built the most prosperous and functional states in the world. Instead of Social Darwinism in sheep’s clothing, progressivism offers a vision for achieving together what is impossible to achieve alone.

I would also venture to guess that as far as a students, most at Amherst would rather believe that truism by Franklin D. Roosevelt — “the test of our progress is not whether we can add more to the abundance of those who have too much; it is whether we provide enough for those who the powerless.

Occupy Column Continued from Keep Calm, page 4 mitted to relax security policies regarding building access and student movement when the party is well below capacity, or demand for the facilities is high.

Perhaps more relevantly, doesn’t the experience of the vast majority of Amherst parties, those that are unregistered, demonstrate the excess of Student Security procedures? That two or three perfectly comfortable monitoring a Hitchcock party of much greater density, more than any TAP suggests that the perhaps dozen Student Security employees asted to do so as well.

I understand Amherst’s desire to minimize its liability — and maximize its stu-

Amherst parties are unreasonable. They reduce attendance, which undermines the inclusive, all-college mission of the TAP. And they serve only to redirect students to make do, with occasional police walkthroughs and relative safety, with no ofWhy is this the content of the Pain in the AAS column? Because Romen Borsellino, your AAS president, made the terrible mistake of asking me to write this week’s entry, and because I was motivated to discuss this. As a junior-class senator, I want to work with the relevant college to consider the feedback of both Senate members and you.

Because I don’t like waiting 15 minutes for a bathroom.



The Amherst Student

Arts&living

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Halloween Horror Films to Die for Ethan Gates ’12 Staff Writer

-

“The Orphanage” (2007) Halloween and horror movies go together like Will Smith and the Fourth of July: it just feels wrong to have one without the other. There’s nothing to send the chills down your spine like turning out all the lights and curling up with your favorite (and you will not be able to blame that midterm this time). Some movies have become part of the established Halloween canon: classics like “Frankenstein” or “Dracula,” slashers like “Nightmare on Elm Street” or (the uncreatively-titled) “Halloween,” and snobby preferences like “Psycho,” “The Shining” or “The Exorcist.”

But maybe you’re looking for something different this year for your All Hallow’s Eve creepout. So I offer to you, dear readers, this list of 10 possible alternative horror/scary movies for this upcoming Halloween weekend. These are not my frightening; these are merely just 10 movies you might have overlooked when considering your candy coma entertainment. Sweet dreams.

under the assumption that there is pretty much nothing creepier than a small, silent child wearing a terrifying burlap sack mask. I for one am not going to argue. “The Orphanage” lingers in its suspenseful scenes, refusing to give in to cheap scares. Our sympathy always lies with the protagonist Laura, who pretty much looks permanently freaked out of her mind; wouldn’t you be too, if you were living in a haunted orphanage and your son went missing?

Image courtesy of draculas.info

“Nosfeartu” uses distorted angles and shadows, key features of the German Expressionist movement, to incite fear in viewers. ple loved Darren Aronofsky’s latest mind-bender was that it was freaky as what. Natalie Portman’s gradual psychotic breakdown and squeamish hallucinations are depicted with an appropriately balyet beautiful and unforgettable.

“Alien” (1979) Considering that later installments in the franchise took a strong turn toward action and explosions (not to mention suckitude), most people think of this Ridley Scott masterpiece as a sci-

“Freaks” (1932)

The barren, gloomy spaceship here is far more “Amityville Horror” than “Star Wars,” and before Sigourney Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley turned into one of the greatest cinematic bad-asses of all time in James Cameron’s sequel “Aliens,” she was making horrendously stupid decisions while getting stalked by a ravenous monster, just like any good scream queen would. Is saving the cat really that important, Ripley?

some of her fellow carnival sideshow performers.

Browning controversially casted real people with physical deformities as the sideshow “freaks,” making the scenes where the carnies turn murder-

“Black Swan” (2010) Critics tried to make “Black Swan” out to be Oscar stamp of approval, but the real reason peo-

Tod Browning, who directed the original Bela Lugosi “Dracula,” shocked the movie-going public (and effectively killed his career) with this un-

“The Haunting” (1963) I was watching “The Haunting” at my home alone in Cleveland this past August when the Virginia earthquake hit. Let’s just say that while watching a suspenseful haunted house tale is not the best time for your furniture to shake and the bobble-heads next to your TV to start rattling in sinister fashion. I may or may not have grabbed

our cat and huddled in a corner waiting to die (okay, so maybe the cat is that important).

“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) Cults. Devil worship. Mysterious murders.

A pregnancy in danger. Meddlesome old people.

There’s plenty to get disturbed by in Roman Poan extended rape fantasy sequence that can’t help but eerily remind the viewer of Polanski’s personal history. In any case, “Rosemary’s Baby” is

“The Host” (2006) gnant family drama, wrapped up in one of the best tagonistic creature is wonderfully designed, leaps and bounds ahead of the usual ho-hum chimeras.

I’ll be up front and say that it won’t offer the same kind of per-minute shocks of most other genre entries, but a brilliant opening rampage scene combined with a healthy dose of political paranoia make “The Host” an unexpected gem.

“Nosferatu” (1922)

“Shaun of the Dead” (2004) Just for a change of pace, here’s the best excomedy. “Shaun of the Dead” gives George A. Romero and his peers the satiric skewering they deserve, yet ends up being just about as distressing you’ll wonder just when it was exactly that you stopped laughing and started crying.

“The Thing” (1982)

a completely supernatural world, but a familiar reality in which supernatural events can occur.

The enigmatic Max Schreck gives a legendary,

penter version of this parasitic alien tale, starring Kurt Russell, not the 1951 original (which I have not seen) or the 2011 prequel that was just released a few weeks back (which I have also not seen, mostly because it was confusingly also titled “The Thing”; really creative marketing there, guys).

Anyway, Carpenter’s remake is gripping, blood-

for a fun double feature, also check out the recent

to please the gross-out crowd. Dog lovers beware.

best (shut up, “Twilight” fans). The brooding, exaggerated shadows and harsh angles of German Expressionism create one of the most haunting

The Jeff Prince Of Amherst — How i chose my major

— Evan Karl ’14

The Amherst Student, October , 

Page 

Resource Responsibility Daniel Diner ’14 A&L Section Editor

Despite hosting only about 4.5 percent of the world’s population, the United States is responsible for consuming 24 percent of the Earth’s total petrolium-based energy. According to PBS, per capita, this amounts to the average American consuming roughly the same amount of energy as two Japanese, six Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 207 Tanzanians or 370 Ethiopians. Consumption doesn’t stop at fuel; we consume 30 percent of the world’s paper, 20 percent of its metals and 60 percent of its illicit drugs (though odds are that this isn’t as harmful to the rest of the world). This list continsumed at the same rate as we do, it is estimated that four Earths would be required to provide all the resources.

These statistics alone aren’t explicitly damning. An argument, and a compelling one at that, can be made for utilizing resources as we necessitate them and that everyone else wants, and arguably, needs a similarly high amount of food, fuel, paper, and other resources to maintain a reasonable standard of living, but we are among the only ones in a position to afford it. Even if we assumed this to be entirely true (as it, at least partially, is), there is one pattern of American consumption Even if our using a giant’s share of

our pouring a lion’s share of it down the drain is certainly not. In 2008, a New York Times writer published an exposé of the United States’ massive food waste habits, revealing that 30 million tons of food waste are generated by Americans every year, amounting to an appalling 27 percent of the total food made available for consumption. Households throwing out leftovers, grocery stores disposing of blemished product packages and restaurants dumping untouched portions of returned meals, all insure grown, processed, cooked and paidfor food heads straight into the trash.

With the U.S. plowing through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, with a recycling rate of only one to three percent, this same trend is seen across the spectrum of resource consumption.

Whereas the bulk of our large resource expenditure might be justielevated our standards of living, the immense waste that we produce cannot be morally rationalized. We need not feel guilty about living better than occupants of less developed countries only because we have more access to resources and better infrastructure to maximize their utilization. But to squander these resources and then to create unnecessary environmental costs and unnecessarily high resource usage is rather obnoxious.

Reasons for living resource-

Image courtesy of greenecon.net

Studies have shown that excess use of lighting contributes more significantly to wasted energy than other factors such as computer usage. might live an eco-friendly lifestyle in order to decrease CO2 emissions, to decrease our over-reliance on foreign petroleum, to conserve the environment, or, more likely, to decrease personal costs. Whatever the reasons, conserving resources makes sense.

In fact, it even intersects with capitalism; the idea behind the invisible hand of the market is that resources get allocated according to need, making the output from this allocation a theoretical maximum.

As Amherst students, we have a responsibility to live as sustainably as reasonably possible, if for no other

reason than our lack of ignorance. We know that doing so is not only benalso to ourselves. So let’s act on that.

Some painfully simple ways to re- RECYCLE, RECYCLE, RECYCLE. Amherst has made recycling bins extraordinarily accessible on campus, so there is no excuse not to recycle bottles and papers when you have them. Don’t throw garbage into the bins — that only contaminates the rest of the recycled products once they are sorted. Also, we’re competing against other liberal arts schools

in the amount of materials we recycle. Beat Williams!

- Turn lights off in all rooms when the rooms aren’t in use. Leave your room for class? Turn them off! Leave your club after a meeting? Turn them off! Seriously, for such an easy way of reducing the amount of light the College pays for (and indirectly, the amount our tuitions and room costs increase by), this is something that too many people neglect to do.

- Reuse school supplies. Done with Chem 12? Recycle your notes and keep the binder. Done with that million-page Social Org article that’s been plaguing you for so long? Use the backs of the pages for physics calculations.

- Sell your textbooks and buy or trade for used ones. As someone who runs a small online book-selling business, I can tell you that there is quite a bit of money to be saved on the market for secondhand books. This reduces waste and can put quite a bit of money back into your pocket.

- When shopping, bring and use your own backpack instead of plastic bags.

Those things tend to be immediately discarded, and no utility is lost.

I didn’t include the standard long list of how to “greenify your life” because the methods are just so intuitive. If you keep the logic of reducing your own resource usage in mind, of the commons phenomenon and increase your own expendable wealth, both without really doing much of anything.

Page 

The Amherst Student, October , 

Encountering Elitism: Do You Deserve This Music?

Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” one of the three celebrated Da Ponte operas, is currently featured at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City; if you’re interested, the Cinemark at Hampshire Mall is having a live screening of the matinée performance on Oct. 29, starting at 1 p.m.

How would you dress yourself for such an opera, which is one of the most intense musical experiences you can ever have? Or for a full-length concert with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall?

The dress code might be described as a vague and unhelpful “nice” as always, but operas might be one of those rare occasions in our post-modern world where people get self-conscious about their attire. Think about the obnoxiously overpriced snacks gentlemen dressed in jackets and ties and madams and young ladies in their evening gowns — are they enjoying these fanciful garments or enjoying being pretentious? ture nowadays around what we call “classical music.” Most people would not struggle so much in front of their closet if they were going to, say, a Lady Gaga concert. In fact, dressing is only a trivial component of musical elitism. No matter how much one is excited by the music and wants to sing or conduct along, or how much one craves an ice cream in the steaming operatic sauna or gets bored with the music and needs to complain, it seems the only correct thing to do is to push oneself backward in the seat and do none of the above.

It seems as if classical music appreciation at concerts requires the audience members to forsake all “worldly needs,” from talking to eating, and fully immerse themselves without reservation in the musical world. This form of musical elitism is more profound than the dress code. It establishes such music not as a form of entertainment that everyone can take part in on a daily basis, but as a special experience that transcends physical reality and requires particular mental and even spiritual attention.

Indeed, in this postmodern world, the only occasions other than operas and classical concerts where people refrain from their ordinary activities and all-too-common multitasking are religious and cultish ceremonies.

By demanding from its audience manners different from those put on in their daily life — be it the way in which they get dressed or the numerous common activities from eating to talking — and a particular mindset detached from physical reality, this “consecration” of classical music at concerts is the musical elitism of our age. Contrary to common belief, “classical music” has become much more accessible than it used to be.

Thanks to special outreach programs usually supported by public funding (which comes from tax money, in case you were wondering), the modern “classical” audience is sigevery way compared to those of 17th and 19th centuries, who witnessed the compositions of numerous operas and symphonic works that make up the largest portion of the current repertory.

Yet despite having a smaller audience during those historic times, “classical music” did not seem to lie beyond daily activities, operas were not at all fastidious about what the audience could do during performances or even if they paid any attention at all. Opera-goers during those times did all sorts of things that would simply be unimaginable nowadays. People talked to each other as they sat or stood through the whole performance, exchanged ideas about (or irrelevant) to the music, or had their meals. That people those times could easily sit you, Wagner) is historically imprecise, if not a pure myth. In the early 19th-century operas that are now recreated, there were occasional arie di sorbetto or “sorbet arias,” which were considerately composed so that the audience could get sorbet and gelato from the hawking vendors and would not have to pay attention to the usually not-so-impressive music singers.

One would certainly get kicked out

for doing any of these things during Rossini’s “Il Barbiere,” which is also currently featured at the Met Opera.

Thus, it is as if classical music in our time were saying: “you do not deserve this music if you cannot be prepared with a self better than your ordinary one; refrain from daily worldly activities such as talking and eating.” To be fair, this elitist idea that music was not intended for mundane enjoyment but for understanding and appreciation at a “higher” level is not unique to our time. At the latest, it started with the troubadours, poet-musicians who improvised or

THE DUKE’S NOTEBOOK Lester Hu ’13 Lester Hu ’13 talks about elitism as it relates to the classical music of our time, and compares this elitism to a similar phenomena in history. should be made simple and accessible for all, whereas followers of the latter only addressed the connoisseurs, who were able to understand the obd’Aurenga, one of the most famous “clus” troubadour, sang ingeniously in his famous tenso with Guiraut de Bornelh: “I do not like my songs to be confused, that the base and good, the small and great be appraised alike; my poetry will never be praised by fools, for they have no understanding nor care for what is more precious and valuable.”

The 14th century witnessed an

Image courtesy of prweb.com

The huge fountain and shining chandeliers adorning the theater house contribute to the forbidding vibe of the Metropolitan Opera House. composed monodic songs in 12th and 13th century southern France, as well as the trouvères, who were the northern counterparts of troubadours.

Troubadours and trouvères practiced an amusing form of “debate song” called tenso or jeu-parti, in which the two poet-musicians debated about a certain issue by singing. The topic of debate was very often poetry and music themselves, namely between “trobar clar,” or “clear” and “accessible” troubadour poetry and music, and “trobar clus,” or “closed” and “obscure.” Disciples of the former school believed that poetry and music

apotheosis of musical elitism. Musicians were seemingly addicted to composing medieval motets in which different lines of texts as well as music are sung simultaneously. An ordinary medieval listener would not have understood why the anonymous motet Musicalis scientia/Scientie laudabilisi was exceptionally funny, not to mention someone who lives centuries later and does not know Latin or medieval music theory. In this extremely grotesque motet, the texts are didactic instructions of what not to do when composing or practicing the “science” of music. But the music

does precisely what the text prohibits.

When the text warns against dividing simple vowels, for example, the music divides the simple vowels in the ongoing text with hilarious and jumpy hockets (unnatural breaks in the melody).

The latter half of the 14th century witnessed the ars subtilior movement, music “subtle” in a way that only “true” musicians could understand and appreciate a style characterized by complex rhythms and irregular harmonies. A similar story was told during late 16th century, where the musica reservata style used “reserved” techniques of overt-text painting and surprising chromaticism and modulations intended only for connoisseurs and a small circle of knowledgeable audience. The obscure things that 20th century composers came up with, such as set theory and the 12-tone method, are but a modernist version of musical elitism.

As long as music continues to play a role in human society, musical elitism is not going to disappear. serve different purposes and audiences, but from an artistic perspective it is impossible to deny that the appreciation of a lot of good music requires a special musical knowledge and understanding, just like any other subject. The reason why musical elitism seems to be a problem is probably that, unlike other subject matters, music plays a conscious role in everyone’s life.

There is one thing, however, that people should realize. Maybe the ability to appreciate some “clus” music can legitimately make one feel “superior,” but never “pretentious.” A nice jacket probably does nothing to increase one’s ability to understand and appreciate “clus” and other sophisticated music. On the other hand, what is essentially wrong with popcorns and sodas, as long as their consumption do not disturb the musical experience of others?

But still, turn off your cell phone. carefully-chosen ringtone is always in perfect harmony with the performers.

This Week in Amherst History: Oct. 30, 1972 Five College Events Oct. 27

Oct. 30

“Mongolia: A Pearl in the Forest,” UMass, 7:00 p.m.

Directed by Agvaantseren Enkhtaivan, “Mongolia: A Pearl in the Forest” offers images of the devastating impact of Stalin’s

“Tahitian/Hula Dance Workshop,” Smith College, 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The Asian Students Association will hold a workshop to share Polynesian cultures through dance. Pumehana Kaawa Galeai, a dancer from Honolulu, will teach a dance workshop. This event is free and will be held in the Campus Center Carroll Room.

on location in the Khentii province, provides a unique perspective into multiethnic Mongolia with a bit of a love story thrown in. This viewing will be held in Flavin Family

— Ashley Hall ’14 to the public.

Oct. 28

Photo courtesy of Amherst College Archives & Special Collections

The Student published an article detailing then-President John William Ward’s request to the Board of Trustees to open the College up to female students. He requested to increase the College’s enrolled students to 1600 by 1975, the first year in which the College would have a co-ed first-year class. In 1974 and 1975, the College accepted approximately 100 female transfer students per year. The article noted that the Board of Trustees would have until April of 1973 to vote on the request.

“Launch of Credo,” UMass, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

UMass Special Collections and University Archives are celebrating the launch of Credo, a new digital repository featuring the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois. Several scholars and librarians will demonstrate how to use Credo and highlight special features.

This event will be held in the Du Bois Library on the lower level.

The Amherst Student, October , 

Page 

Field Hockey Bests Wesleyan in Homecoming Shutout

Katie McMahon ’13 and Ellie Andersen ’15 each scored a goal to take down the Cardinals, putting the Jeffs at 11-2 (7-2 NESCAC) of the net.

Five minutes later, the Jeffs broke off a fast break when sophomore Alex Philie sent a pass up the sideline to classmate Krista Zsitvay, who

Reilly Horan ’13 Staff Writer

The Jeffs defeated the Cardinals 2-0 in Saturday’s Homecoming NESCAC matchup.

Before the game, the team honored the six senior players who will graduate from the team at the end of this season: Chrissy Cantore, Stephanie Clegg, Carly Dudzik, Rachel Lupien, Sarah McCarrick and Casey Silver.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Jeffs went to work on their 10th win, which would segame next weekend. Clegg, the co-captain, explained that it took the team some time to strategize against the Cardinals: “We realized that we could not dribble through the team,” Clegg explained. down the other sideline and then enter the attacking circle from the opposite side that the ball started on. After we recognized this, things started falling into place and we gained momentum.” goal, as they converted a penalty corner at the 14:33 mark. Dudzik received the ball at the top of the circle and delivered a sharp pass to Katie McMahon ’13, who one-timed it high into the back

Andersen went one-on-one with Wesleyan goalie Tori Redding and slipped the ball past her game.

While the Cardinals held the advantage in shots and penalty corners, the Amherst defense of the season. Rachel Tannenbaum ’15 contributed 13 saves on the day.

“Everyone stepped up and played their roles well today,” last week’s NESCAC Field Hockey Player of the Week McMahon noted. “We are really looking forward to ending our regular season on a high note and gaining some momentum going into the postseason.” of the tournament, but we are focused on Wednesday’s game against Conn. College,” Dudzik added.

“The NESCAC is so talented that every game is a battle, and we are ready for the challenges ahead.”

The Jeffs’ next game is against Conn. College on Wednesday night at home, before next weekend’s NESCAC championship series.

Football 5-0 After Defeating Wesleyan

Photo courtesy of Kate Berry ’12

Kathryn Nathan ’13 scored a penalty kick, accounting for one of the Jeffs’ two goals in their shutout victory over Tufts.

In Da Club

Recaps and Results for the Club Sports Teams

Continued from page 1

on the board, the Jeffs went back to touchdown on a seven-yard connection from quarterback Brian McMahon ’12 to Will Reed ’12.

The drive showcased the playmaking abilities of the Amherst offense at every position, as McMahon took off from the pocket on a fake handoff to gain 39 yards in a single play.

In the second stanza, the Amherst defense bent but refused to break, allowing the Cardinal offense to advance to the Amherst 20yard line, but subsequently forcing the line of scrimmage backwards

game for a few minutes, Amherst kicker Matt Rawson ’12 then pinned Wesleyan on its own one-yard line.

The defense capitalized on the rattled Cardinals, as linebacker Sam

of the drive and took it 18 yards for a touchdown, putting the Jeffs up 21-3.

The score would remain at the 21-3 mark until early in the fourth quarter, when Wesleyan tacked on a touchdown and Amherst responded yards out, a career-high for the senior kicker.

The third period was not without excitement, however, as Bunker continued his big day by ripping off a pair of long runs, one for 47 yards and another for 22 more.

On the day, Bunker had 143 yards on 21 carries, which was good for a 6.8 yards-per-carry average.

Amherst’s running attack on the whole was even more potent, compiling 220 total yards on the ground while the defense held the Cardinal to only 87 rushing yards.

McMahon proved his capability for 146 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions while also rushing for On the defensive side of the with 12 total tackles and the interception return while Matt Pieterse ’13 got to the Cardinal quarterback for a pair of sacks.

The defensive push never allowed the potent Drew to get a rhythm no matter how many times the Cardinals handed him the ball.

Drew’s 3.1 yards-per-carry average and the Cardinals’ turnover-prone nature helped the disciplined Jeff players bury them early on.

The Jeffs have three games remaining on their docket; the team travels to Tufts next weekend, then closes the home portion of the season against Trinity, with whom Amherst is currently tied atop the NESCAC standings.

Photo courtesy of Alec Jacobson ’12

Quarterback Brian McMahon ’12 threw for 146 yards.

the Jeffs travel to Williamstown to prove that last year’s loss was a

Oct. 22: Head of the Charles, 6k race Men: 18:36.33, 23rd of 39 Women: 21:50.83, 25th of 33

in the Head of the Charles Regatta on Saturday, the largest regatta in the world. Both boats faced stiff competition, and were able to gauge where they stand in comparison to teams they will race again in the spring.

The men’s boat, rowed by Jack Eastburn ’13, James Fromson ’13, Richard Galuzzi ’12 and Alex Stone ’12 was coxed by Cindy Li ’12 and cant improvements in the weeks leading up to the race, “the boat still

out. They did, however, beat a number of boats that they will face again in the spring season, including the boats from Worcestor Polytechnic Institute, Clark and Conn. College. training, and were a largely untested boat heading into the race. Nevertheless, they managed to beat teams such as Assumption, Franklin Pierce and Clark, whom they will compete with in the spring as well.

The team will race again at the Head of the Rish Regatta in Saratoga Springs this Saturday, featuring more varsity boats and a number of novice boats.

— Carlyn Robertson ’14 The men’s rugby team started Homecoming off with a match against Williams in the bi-annual “Game for the Jerwith Williams committing several penalties in their own half.

After electing to kick for points after one of the Williams penalties, fullback Tomas Mondino ’12 put the Jeffs ahead 3-0. At the 10 minute mark, the momentum shifted the Williams way,

Oct. 22: W vs. Williams (13-7)

that they could ruin Amherst’s perfect season.

Williams scored a try that was converted to go up 7-3 heading into halftime. The Jeffs came out hard for the second half, threatening to score tries several times while holding back Williams defensively. With 20 minutes left in the game, the Ephs lost one of their own scrums and Amherst came withPhoto courtesy of JC Evensen ’12 in one dropped pass from scoring the go-ahead try. A Williams penalty 40 meters from the goal posts allowed Mondino to put the Jeffs within one point of Williams at 7-6 with 15 minutes to play. The Ephs put up an effort to hold on, but some as he left every Eph defender in his wake. Mondino completed the conversion to put Amherst up 13-7 with 11 minutes to play.

Keene State.

— Carlyn Robertson ’14

The men’s and women’s Ultimate teams played a mixed game against a team of alumni for Homecoming weekend. With some of the best players to graduate from Amherst from 2011 all the way back to 1993 and national champion coach Bill Stewart bolstering the alumni team, they ended the game victorious.

The men’s team will be playing in the Fall Eastern Conference Championships Oct. 29 and 30 at UMass.

— Joe Bobman ’12

SPORTSBOARD

Page 

The Amherst Student, October , 

GAME OF THE WEEK

Schedule WEDNESDAY: Volleyball vs. Smith, 7 p.m.

Field Hockey vs. Conn. College, 6 p.m.

Men’s Soccer vs. Conn. College, 3 p.m.

Women’s Soccer vs. Conn. College, 3:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Volleyball vs. Williams, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Volleyball vs. Hamilton, 1:30 p.m.

Women’s Soccer NESCAC Quarterfinals, TBD Women’s Cross Country NESCAC Championships, 11 a.m.

Men’s Cross Country NESCAC Championships, 12 p.m.

Football @ Tufts, 1 p.m.

Men’s Soccer NESCAC Quarterfinals, TBD Field Hockey NESCAC Quarterfinals, TBD

Volleyball vs. Williams

IN DEPTH Time: 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 Site: LeFrak Gymnasium Key Players: Amherst Cristy Meier ’12 Kristin Keeno ’13

Williams Aly McKinnon ’12 Raea Rassmussen ’15

Players of the week Eric Bunker ’12 — Football

The Jeffs return to action after a weekend at the Hall of Fame Invitational (hosted by Smith and Mount Holyoke). In that tournament, Amherst went 2-1, improving to 17-6 overall.

Highlights included a 3-1 victory over MIT and a 3-0 shutout of Brandeis on Day two in which the Jeffs hit a staggering .515 in a spot on the All-Tournament Team, while KC Kanoff’ 12 and Cristy Meier ’12 continued their season-long offensive excellence. Before the Jeffs take on Williams, they will face Smith on Wednesday.

Williams, which sits at 16-10 on the season, dropped their last two games at the Hall of Fame Invitational. After losing a close 3-2 decision to Wellesley, the Ephs were shut out, 3-0, at the hands of Tufts. Raea Rasmussen, who received All-Tournament honors, has established herself as one of the an up-and-down year for the Ephs, who have strung together both a six-game winning streak and a four-game losing streak.

On the last weekend of regular season play, both teams ises to carry all the excitement of Amherst-Williams competition.

— Karl Greenblatt ’15

Rachel Tannenbaum ’15 — Field Hockey

Looking to preserve their undefeated record on the season, the football team got a huge contribution from running back Eric Bunker ’12 on Saturday. Bunker’s 176 total yards and rushing touchdown led the Jeffs to a 21-10 Homecoming victory over Wesleyan.

Bunker dominated the Cardinals from the start. With three 20-plus yard rushes on the day,

touchdown dash and third quarter game-high 47-yard run, the senior running back made his runs look easy.

With the win, the Jeffs improved to 5-0 on the season and will look to keep their streak alive at Tufts next weekend.

— Varun Iyengar ’14

year Rachel Tannenbaum led the of Wesleyan on Saturday. Tannenbaum recorded 13 saves on the day, including eight in a tightlyhelped the Lady Jeffs secure home-

weekend.

Tannenbaum’s most remarkable save came in the last minute of regulation. With the Jeffs clinging to their two-goal lead, Wesleyan had a chance to halve that margin on a late penalty stroke. Tannenbaum thwarted the effort, preserving Amherst’s seventh straight victory over the Cardinals.

— Varun Iyengar ’14

Jeffs Stay Undefeated after Scoreless Draw with Wesleyan

Men’s soccer loses Little Three regular season championship after tying Wesleyan 0-0; Team remains undefeated heading into final regular season matchup vs. Conn College Emmett Knowlton ’15 & Andrew Kurzweil ’15 Managing Sports Editor & Staff Writer

It must have seemed like 2,000 on 11 for the Wesleyan Cardinal soccer team this past Saturday.

Hundreds of rowdy Amherst fans patrolled the sideline, cheering on their beloved Jeffs and jeering their opponents, with Wesleyan goalie Adam Purdy setting the brunt of the howling.

Purdy and the Wesleyan defense,

however, were able to keep the Jeffs scoreless through 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of extra time, earning a 0-0 draw that won the Cardinals the Little Three regular season championship and probably the NESCAC too.

Saturday’s matchup featured the NESCAC’s best offense against its best defense, with the Jeffs averaging a league high 2.38 goals per game and the Cardinals allowing only four total goals over 12 games, allowing just .31 goals against.

The Jeffs had the better oppor-

Wesleyan 7-2. Spencer Noon ’13 nearly scored shortly after the eightminute mark when he tested Purdy with a low drive on goal. The Wesleyan keeper recorded seven saves, including a pair of shots from Casey McNamara ’13 and four from Alejandro Sucre ’13.

In typical fashion, the Jeffs generated much of their offense from their stellar defensive line. Sam Kaplan ’12 won a free kick in the offensive third and fellow defender Ben Norton ’14 nearly put in the ensuing far-post cross, heading the ball into the goal’s side netting.

Later in the half, outside back Julien Aoyama ’14 served a long cross jandro Sucre ’13 narrowly missed catching up with the ball.

The second half and overtimes, however, belonged to Wesleyan. The Cardinals subbed more frequently than the Jeffs and generated the better chances, including a shot off the woodwork and another just over the bar.

Amherst keeper Lennard Kovacs ’12 recorded his 30th career shutout in the draw, yet another impressive milestone he’s achieved in his fouryear tenure between the pipes.

Kaplan commented on Kovac’s performance, explaining, “Playing with Lennard for four years has been a huge privilege for me. Len is a fantastic keeper, and it always gives me behind me.”

Though last weekend’s tie with Wesleyan left the two squads undefeated, Wesleyan took the Little Three crown as it defeated Williams 2-1 earlier this season, while Amherst tied the Ephs 2-2.

After the game, Amherst head coach Justin Serpone found himself

more upset with his team’s play than with the Little Three result.

“From my point of view, I was disappointed at the execution, and with how we played,” said Serpone.

“The result aside, we need to play much, much better if we are going to

achieve postseason success.”

The Lord Jeffs close out their regular season Wednesday against Conn. College, a team they’ve lost to in two out of their last three appearances. The team needs a win and a Wesleyan loss to Trinity to secure the top seed in the NESCAC tourna-

Photos courtesy of Lindon Chen ’15

Alejandro Sucre ’13 (bottom) and Spencer Noon ’13 both generated scoring opportunities but failed to find the back of the net.

The Amherst Student, October , 

Page 

Volleyball wins two of three, falls to Wellesley Carlyn Roberston ’14 Managing Sports Editor

Hall of Fame Invitational 2-1, defeating MIT and Brandeis before being blanked by Wellesley, leaving their record at 17-6 (4-4 NESCAC). Kristin Keeno ’13 was named to the All-Tournament Team, after her dominant role on the Amherst defense, On Friday, the Firedogs bested MIT 3-1. They started 20-25 and tallying a paltry .138 hitting percentage. But they rallied quickly and decisively, hit-

ting .333 to take the second set 25-12. The Firedogs continued to improve in the third set, with 12 kills and a .375 attack rate. They posted another dominant victory, the Firedogs lost some momentum, but held on for the win.

The Firedogs’ hitting percentage dropped to .142, but they eked out a 27-25 victory.

Tri-captain Cristy Meier ’12, who has been an offensive force all season, led the team in the MIT win with 16 kills. Fellow captain KC Kanoff ’12 had 10 kills and 13 digs in the win.

Junior Callie Neilson fed the offense with 39 assists while classmate Keeno bolstered the defense

with a team-high 24 digs. Lauren Antion ’15 and Abigail Hunter ’13 combined for 17 spikes and four blocks.

The next day, the Firedogs shut out Brandeis 3-0. They opening with a blazing .515 attack rate for a 25-18 victory. The Firedogs took the remaining sets match with a .299 hitting average. Kanoff led the Firedogs with 16 kills, while Meier and Antion racked up 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Neilson dished out 42 assists, while Keeno had 23 digs.

Wellesley, however, came match of the tournament, taking 20. Their defense was aggressive, as they held Amherst to just .033 and .108 hitting percentages, in those sets respectively. But the Firedogs refused to go down

Photo courtesy of Mark Idleman ’15

The Firedogs struggled to maintain consistant hitting percentages again, but managed to go 2-1 nevertheless.

a marathon last game, improving to a .212 attack rate.

Meier had nine kills, while Kanoff and Antion each tallied eight. Keeno again led the defense with 16 digs, but Devin Pence ’14 was close behind with 14. Neilson dished out 21 assists, and Antion and Hunter had four blocks apiece.

The Firedogs’ host Smith today, and face NESCAC opponents Williams and Hamilton at home on Friday and Saturday.

Jaskaran’s Judgement Karan Bains ’14 Karan examines the dynamics of a trade from both the organization’s and players’ perspectives, discusing how trades, though methodically thought out and crucial to any team’s success, can sometimes be as illogical as offering an arm and a leg for an underachieving QB over the age of 30.

Trading Places: The Dynamics of a Switcheroo The concept of a ‘trade’ in sports has always struck me as one of the most interesting parts of the industry, a phenomenon with no direct comparison in the real world.

While people in real jobs replace each other, compete for promotions with each other, and transfer between companies, can you imagine reading in The Wall Street Journal performance, traded its director of investment banking and an employee to be named later for the VP of Morgan Stanley, a promising young executive with his best years ahead of him?

The Sachs CEO was reportedly cautious about cited about the upside of the Morgan Stanley VP, who he said “has great hands when dealing with Microsoft Excel.”

The business of sports trades, however, does prove analogous in many ways to a stock market.

General managers try to buy low and sell high, just as traders do, and an up-and-coming prospect holds similar trade value to a new The two situations diverge, however, when we consider that the stock market trades inanimate stocks, human creations that exist purely for the sake of business, rather than human beings who have worked hard to become professionals.

While the most jaded of sports fans may claim that money ultimately drives everything about the industry, sports teams must also deal with a multitude of other factors when trading their players.

The intersection and overlap of person-

make the trade such a unique and fascinating event.

Instead of seeing things simply in black and red as businesses do, general managers must juggle several hats when making decisions on trades, free agents, and other player transactions. They must indeed act in that best of ‘best interest’ can vary widely.

While fans want to see a winning team, ownership can often put limitations on general

TAKE Y OUR NEXT BIG STEP TO LONG TERM SUCCESS The Bryant MBA One-Year program is specifically designed for those with little or no professional experience. Graduates in all areas – arts, sciences, business, engineering and healthcare – will benefit from earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) early on.

By enrolling in the Bryant One-Year MBA program you will:

December Graduates — Apply Now for Spring 2012 Start VISIT www.bryant.edu/MBAone CALL: (401) 232-6230 E-MAIL: gradprog@bryant.edu

• Gain valuable professional experience through the Business Practicum.

• Distinguish yourself in a competitive job market.

• Build the strategic business and practical know-how necessary for success in any field.

•

•

Graduate School of Business 1150 Douglas Pike Smithfield, Rhode Island www.bryant.edu

of a franchise. For example, the owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, Robert Sarver, sold mulmillion each.

While that might not initially sound strange, consider this: during that time span, his team featured superstars Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion along with a solid cast of role players — a group that was perennially contending for an NBA championship.

If Sarver had been acting in the best interests of his players and fans, even one or two decent draft picks could have put his squad over the top, but his bottom line dictated his choices at the end of the day potentially kept his team from an NBA Championship.

Even when GMs have free reign and an open budget, they must deal with the harsh reality that accompanies a job in which human beings are transferred like stocks.

To construct a winning team, GMs have to abide by the basic economic principles of utility and cost that dictate when to obtain a player and when to get rid of him when he stops producing at expected levels.

But, on a personal level, how do you tell a player who may also be a friend, family man and brother to his teammates that he must pack his bags?

In addition, myriad other confounding fac-

tors complicate this situation, namely the effect on team chemistry that comes with losing a teammate.

A prime example of this came last season in the NBA, when beloved Boston Celtic center Kendrick Perkins was dealt to the Oklahoma City Thunder for small forward Jeff Green.

The trade made basketball sense, as the Celtics desperately needed another wing with Green’s skill set, but Perkins’ departure devastated his teammates and became a factor in the team’s underachieving performance the rest of the season.

When the team exited the playoffs, many fans and sportswriters alike attributed a portion of the tailspin to the erosion Perkins left behind.

While traded players often have strong bonds with their teammates, the GMs who have the power to trade them can ironically be supporters and friends as well.

As a Cleveland sports fan, I have seen more than my share of teams trading away players because they were deemed too expensive.

The Indians have traded away two Cy bathia and Cliff Lee, yet the most painful deal involved neither of these franchise cornerstones.

Rather, it was the trade of the universally beloved Victor Martinez (an extremely valuable player in his own right) that caused Tribe GM Mark Shapiro to announce the trade while holding back tears in front of the media.

All of these factors, personal and impersonal, play a role in many player transactions, making the trade one of the most intriguing nothing if not polarizing.

The most recent trade generating buzz in the sports world is the deal that sent quarterback Carson Palmer from the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals to the Oakland Raiders for a 2012 round pick in 2013. was steadfastly refusing to play for the Bengals, instead choosing to work out in California until he was traded.

Yet, Bengals owner Mike Brown played hardball with his disenchanted quarterback for months by stating that he could sit out as long as he wanted but would remain under contract with the Bengals. are protected like a GM’s own child, the Raiders paid an arm and a leg to get Palmer, who became expendable in Cincinnati when Bengals’ rookie Andy Dalton performed relatively well as the starting quarterback in Palmer’s place.

The Raiders felt pushed to make a strong offer when their own quarterback, Jason Campbell, broke his collarbone and left the team without a viable starter.

Yet Palmer, who has not played in an NFL game in quite some time, is on the wrong side of 30 and has turned in a few mediocre seasons in the past.

Can the Raiders and Palmer’s old coach Hue Jackson rejuvenate this formerly elite be the casualties of an overly aggressive and ambitious plan?

The questions surrounding this trade and so many others makes trade deadlines and player movement one of the most riveting parts of the sports we love, and we have to tune



The Amherst Student

Sports

inside: Wednesday, October 26, 2011

First-year goalie leads Field Hockey 2-0 over Wesleyan PAGE 11

Fireworks on the FÚtbol Field

Undefeated women’s soccer secures NESCAC’s top seed in dominating 3-0 win over Wesleyan Brenton Arnaboldi ’14 Managing Sports Editor

Galvanized by a spirited home crowd, the women’s soccer team delighted fans with a decisive 3-0 win over Wesleyan at Homecoming this weekend. With the victory, the nationally eighth-ranked Jeffs (13-0-0, 9-0-0 NESCAC) clinched the top seed in the NESCAC tournathroughout the conference playoffs.

The Jeffs overwhelmed Wesleyan with precise ball movement, dynamic attacking combinations and relentless pressure on defense, giving the Cardinals (8-5-0, 4-5-0 NESCAC) very little time to settle on the ball.

“I was pleased with our performance against Wesleyan. I thought we moved the ball well and attacked with a sense of urgency — something we’ve been working on all year,” head coach Jen Hughes said.

Jeffs stormed out to an inspiring start, creating Amherst nearly stunned the visitors within

Cardinals’ goalkeeper did well to smother.

The Jeffs grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute after a beautiful strike from Kathryn Nathan ’13. Receiving a pass near the top of the 18-yard box, Nathan turned and unleashed a thunderous shot above the outstretched arms of the Wesleyan goalkeeper.

The Cardinals nearly responded in the 18th minute, generating their best scoring chance of leyan forward Kerry Doyle dribbled past a few right corner of the net. Senior goalkeeper Allie Horwitz robbed the Cardinals with an incredible sprawling save, punching the ball above the crossbar to preserve the lead.

After that huge save, the Jeffs went back on the offensive. In the 24th minute, Chloe the left sideline, and the Jeffs capitalized on the ensuing set piece.

Nathan sent a dangerous ball toward the cross across the mouth of the goal. Co-captain Jill Kochanek ’12, positioned near the back

Photos courtesy of Rob Mattson

Captain Jill Kochanek ’12 (left), known for her prowess in the air, scored the Jeffs’ second goal on a header from a corner kick. Forward Chloe McKenzie ’14 (right), Amherst’s second-leading scorer this season, slotted the third goal in the 83rd minute. post, found the airborne ball and headed it into the back of the net.

The Jeffs continued their strong play in the second half, dominating Wesleyan at both ends of the pitch. The Amherst back-line performed superbly, holding the Cardinals to only three the match with a decisive 25-10 advantage in shots.

On offense, the Jeffs generated a bevy of scoring opportunities, keeping the Cardinals scrambling in their own end. Duffy nearly converted a header from Steir’s cross in the 51st minute, but the Cardinals’ goaltender got both hands on the ball to make the save.

By the Numbers 13-0-0

Overall Record

Margin of victory over second-place Williams

3-0

(in early October)

8-7-2

Record last season (2010)

Goal conceded in

1

championship. er was less sure-handed after coming off her line to corral a low cross. As the ball slipped through her hands, forward Amanda Brisco ’14 alertly chased the loose ball, but her shot went inches above the bar as the Cardinals’ goaltender dove to cover the bottom portion of the net.

The next Amherst scoring chance came off a set piece in the 70th minute. Senior Allison Dorey swerved a dangerous free kick from the right edge of the box; Kochanek soared off the ground to win the header, but her effort sailed just over the Wesleyan bar.

Controlling possession for long stretches against a beleaguered Wesleyan side, the Jeffs

2.56 0.33

Goals allowed per league game, also top in NESCAC

Longest undefeated streak last season

4

Longest winning streak last season

2

Women’s Soccer Nescac Standings

minute. Gathering the ball in the left side of the shot into the right corner of the net to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Jeffs can wrap up an undefeated regular season with a victory against lowly Conn. College (1-7-1 NESCAC) at Gooding Field today at 3:30 p.m.

Over the weekend, the Jeffs will take on the conference’s No. 8 seed in the NESCAC quar-

throughout the conference playoffs.

Goals scored per league game, top in NESCAC

future, the Jeffs say they are concentrating on the immediate task of achieving an undefeated regular season, with one hurdle remaining against Conn. College.

“Right now, we’re just focused on beating Conn in our last regular season game,” Hughes said. “We are one step away from one of our team goals — to win every NESCAC game.”

of the NESCAC tournament, only to suffer a devastating 1-0 loss to Williams in the championship match.

Earlier this season, the Jeffs exacted revenge by thrashing Williams 3-0 in October, but the Ephs (7-1-1 league record, second place in NESCAC) remain one of the most dangerous teams in the conference. The two rivals could very well meet again in the NESCAC

Team

Record

AMHERST Williams

9-0-0 7-1-1

Wesleyan Tufts Hamilton Bowdoin Bates Trinity Colby Conn. College

5-5-0 4-3-2 4-5-1 2-4-3 2-5-2 2-6-2 2-6-1 1-7-1