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Amherst Students Compete for Opportunity to Speak at TEDx Event
President Martin Begins to Hold Office Hours Sophie Murguia ’17 Managing News Editor
Photo Courtesy of Office of Public Affairs
One of five speaker candidates, Yilin Andre Wang ’14 presents his ideas on the science and public perception of lie detection. Clara Yoon ’15 Contributing Writer Come Nov. 10, one lucky student will stand on stage with seven to eight of the Amherst community’s most disruptive innovators — alumni, faculty and staff — and give a TEDx talk on a topic of their choice in front of an audience of 350 people. Students competed for the coveted spot this Sunday in front of the TEDxAmherstCollege team and a panel of judges. Five speaker candidates and two MC candidates showed up to display their verbal talent, although organizer John He ’16 stated that a few more students had initially applied. “We were surprised by the range of innovative ideas that all the applicants had, though it was disappointing that a few could not
make it to the contest because of other commitments,� He said. Elson Browne-Low ’15, an international student from Guyana who is passionate about nonprofit work, was first to present on his idea to “facilitate the realization of young people’s socially-minded ideas through a radical redefinition of the ‘consultant.’� The goal was to rethink the world of socially-minded organizations to the audience, envisioning a new type of organization that would be defined by the nature of its staff and its goal of efficiency rather than by any particular field of focus. Feynman Liang ’14, who has taken over fifty online courses, gave his talk on Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers and how they are shaping the classrooms of the future. As someone who is well-known within
the MOOC community, Liang was able to give an insider account regarding the current state of MOOCs, and described the kind of innovation that he expected to occur as a result of using technology not only to increase accessibility, but, student productivity. Following Liang was Richard Altieri ’15, who was also competing for an MC position. He gave his talk on how exposure to different cultures can help young people find and reconsider perspectives, allowing them to develop a way of thinking that can spark innovative ideas and progress. “I want to argue that innovation can mean much more than a ‘Eureka’ moment or the production of new technology: it can change the way we conceptualize the world around Continued on Page 3
Students clamoring to have their voices heard by the administration now have a new channel to express their concerns. Starting this month, President Carolyn “Biddy� Martin is holding regular office hours, available to all interested students. The new program allows students to sign up for one of several twenty-minute time slots each month in order to meet with President Martin in her office. President Martin explained that the idea for the program came about last year, when Tania Dias ’13 discovered that former Amherst President Peter Pouncey had held regular office hours for students. “I had been doing research in the Special Archives on the history of the Women’s and Gender Center at Amherst, and I believe I found a reference to President Pouncey’s student office hours then,� said Dias, who made this discovery while serving as AAS president. She now works as a strategic planning assistant in the Provost’s Office. Dias explained that Pouncey become president in 1984, just before the College’s tenyear coeducation anniversary. “[As a result] students who were very involved with the Women’s and Gender Center had reached out to him through his office hours,� Dias said. “I thought the student office hours had been a wonderful idea, that could still be relevant now in 2013, and shared this with Biddy.� President Martin shared Dias’s enthusiasm. “I enjoy meeting with students one-onone, and have done a fair amount of it over my first two years, but it requires that students take the initiative to contact my office and make an appointment,� President Martin said. “I thought regular office hours would create more opportunity for students who may not realize it is possible to get an appointment with me.� The program, which debuted last week, has already proved popular with stuContinued on Page 3
Women’s and Gender Center Renews Presence
Elaine Vilorio ’17 Managing News Editor
When the College became coeducational in 1975, women immediately sought to make their presence known on campus. As per research conducted under the Provost’s Office by Tania Dias ’13, women began organizing for the creation of a women’s center within a few weeks of arriving at Amherst. But, 38 years later, female students still struggle to make their voices heard. Last school year unearthed a messy administrative policy concerning the handling of sexual assault, a trauma experienced by 1 in 4 college women. Currently, only one third of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) is comprised of women, and it was only in the mid-2000s that the College began achieving a student body with gender parity. This academic year, the newly-named and newly-positioned Women’s and Gender Studies Center (WGC) is steering the College to-
ward a more inclusive and interactive future. Like the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC), the WGC recently underwent a complete makeover. Last semester (specifically, in March), the Center was relocated from the basement to the first floor within Keefe Campus Center. Correspondingly, its name was changed, as it was originally called the Women’s Center. The name change caused divide among the student body. Some claimed the old name would restrict the center’s purpose to women. The more popular alternative name was Gender Center. In the end, both names were combined to form the current “Women’s and Gender Studies� designation. Gender Justice Collective Chair Gina Faldetta ’16 said, “I don’t disagree with the name. I appreciate the focus on women that the space provides. Some people might say it’s divisive and alienating, but the truth of the matter is ours is a very masculine school, and there are extremely few spaces designed with
women in mind.� Student activism inarguably played a tremendous role in the WGC’s flowering. This past spring, a group of student leaders (namely, Salena Budinger ’15, Dana Bolger ’14E , Sonum Dixit ’13, Kinjal Patel ’13, Larissa Davis ’13, Abigail Bereola ’15, Paula Escobar ’13, Ruodi Duan ’14, Chelsea Michta ’13, and Nancy Yun Tang ’14) sent a letter to President Biddy Martin outlining their requests for the new women’s center. These included a connection but not a strict affiliation with the Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies (SWAGS) department, an acceptance of substantial student input and involvement, a reasonable budget, and the hiring of a full-time director. Until this school year, the WGC had never had a subscribed budget and had always been student-run. In fact, it had never been an autonomous body, serving solely as a support system for genderContinued on Page 3
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