Issue 7

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVIII, ISSUE 7 l WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018

Men’s Soccer Tops Wesleyan and Brandeis See Sports, Page 9 AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM

Harvard Lawsuit Raises Potential Threat to Affirmative Action Seo Yeon Kim ’21 Managing Arts & Living Editor

Photo courtesy of Samantha Aparicio ’21

The Science Center celebrated its official opening on Saturday, Oct. 20 with department demonstrations, guided tours and a panel. The event prompted questions about the college’s attempts to marry science with the liberal arts.

Science Center Opening Explores Liberal Arts Emma Swislow ’20 Managing News Editor With the official opening of the Science Center on Oct. 20, the question of how science fits into a liberal arts education, and more specifically an Amherst education, guided the events of the day.

Andrew Nussbaum ’85, the chair of the Amherst board of trustees, began the event by speaking about the presence of science throughout Amherst’s history and into today.

“Our message, which is now gloriously manifested in this building, is simple and it is clear: science, scientific inquiry and discovery reside together with other forms of the arts in the humanistic inquiry that occur here every day, every week,” he said in his remarks. “It is not A or B; it is A and B.” Nussbaum emphasized the fact that the science center has been put to use immediately by students and faculty members.

“To me, the beauty of this facility is not just that it’s a beautiful facility, but that we have the faculty and the students who are going to put it to excellent use now,” he said in an interview with The Student. “We don’t need to wait to attract better students and superior faculty. We have both of those and we’re very lucky in that regard. It’s not ‘build it and they will come.’ They are here.”

During her remarks, President Biddy Martin explained that the science center will provide students and faculty with more opportunities.

“[The Science Center] says that we have faculty and students who warrant a facility of this sort, whose research and teaching deserve to occur in a place that is completely up-to-date and allows them to do their best work,” Martin said. “We have faculty and students with ambition and that’s as it should be.”

Julie Segre ’87, a senior investigator at the National Human Genome Project, spoke during a panel of alumni in science careers about how her experiences with science at Amherst tied into her liberal arts education as a whole.

“My advisor, under whom I wrote my senior thesis, taught me how to write,” Segre said. “Of course I was taking English classes, but to write scientifically and not have it be technical is something that has really served me and has enabled me to be not just a scientist, but a leader in science …

I thought of myself as a scientist who was a liberal arts student first and foremost.”

Nussbaum explained that although not every student at Amherst is necessarily immersed in the scientific community, science itself is a central part of an education at the college.

“The reality is that a liberal arts education Amherst-style has always believed that science, scientific inquiry and discovery are not ancillary or on the margin, but that they are part of the very center,” Nussbaum said. “Not every student who comes to Amherst will become a scientist, but every student who comes to Amherst should have the ability to learn about the scientific process, the

scientific method and what it means to ask a question in the context of a scientific dialogue.”

Martin, along with some of the panelists, pointed to the ability to ask good questions as the foundation of a science education and a liberal arts education more broadly, no matter the discipline. She also highlighted the need for students to understand science enough in order to take part in debates surrounding science’s place in politics today.

“Several of the panelists emphasized that it’s impossible to become adept at virtually anything, whether it’s writing or science, if you don’t learn how to ask good questions,” Martin said in an interview with The Student. “At the very least, all students should graduate understanding the tenets that really define the scientific method and know enough about science to be able to participate meaningfully in policy debates.”

Both Martin and Nussbaum see the building’s design, specifically its all-glass facade, as an asset that will help facilitate more interaction and communication between students and faculty members who use the building on a daily basis.

“Interaction is critical to knowledge and that’s the base upon which we offer residential education,” Martin said. “I think any facility that makes people more visible to one another, makes interaction easier and has labs and instrumentation that allow for the best possible science will mean that students will graduate from this place knowing how to do science really well.”

A lawsuit alleging that Harvard’s admissions process discriminates against Asian-American applicants began its trial on Oct. 15 in the federal district court of Massachusetts in Boston. The case, which became national news after the group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) filed a complaint against Harvard in 2014, has the potential to change how colleges and universities use affirmative action practices in their admissions process.

In its lawsuit, SFFA argues that Harvard illegally engages in racial balancing in order to limit the number of Asian-American students admitted each year and that by utilizing these “racially and ethnically discriminatory policies,” Harvard’s admission policies are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. SFFA, which is made up of over 20,000 students, parents and others interested parties, points to data which shows, according to SFFA, that Asian-American applicants are consistently ranked lower on “personality,” hurting their chance of admission despite academic and extracurricular achievements.

SFFA is led by Edward Blum, a white lawyer who has been a long-time opponent of affirmative action. Blum gained prominence after his work on Fisher v. University of Texas in 2016, a case in which he argued against the “reverse discrimination” policies of affirmative action that allegedly denied plaintiff Abigail Fisher, who is white, admission into the University of Texas at Austin. The Supreme Court decided against Blum and Fisher, alleging that considering race in college admissions is constitutional as long as its intent is to increase diversity on campus.

His leadership has raised questions from those concerned about the future of affirmative action, who question whether the Harvard lawsuit is aimed at uncovering discrimination against Asian Americans or simply at dismantling race-conscious policies. The legal implications of this trial have the potential to shape college admissions for years to come.

Professor of American Studies Franklin Odo

Continued on Page 3

Symposium Highlights Link Between Hate and Democracy Lauren Pelosi ’22 Staff Writer Three guest speakers visited campus for the “Hatred in Democracy” symposium on Oct. 19, an event sponsored by the Colloquium on Practicing Democracy. Manar Waheed, legislative and advocacy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Nadia Aziz, program manager of the Stop Hate Project, addressed attendees in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, while Joseph J. Levin Jr., co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, delivered the keynote address over dinner later in the evening.

Manar Waheed began by addressing the title she chose for her talk: “I Need a Hero.”

“We have been socialized to think of heroes,”

she explained. “But there is no hero after the [2016 presidential] election.”

She critiqued the White House’s “fear-based agenda” for targeting Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities, pointing to the use of the phrase “travel ban” as a euphemism for “Muslim ban.”

“If we call it anything less than [a Muslim ban],” said Waheed, “we are sanitizing history.”

She went on to address the process of “extreme vetting,” implemented by the Trump administration in March of 2017, which requires immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to submit their social media handles for examination.

“There are no known predictors of terrorism,” she said, and argued that this form of vetting requires profiling and discrimination. She also

spoke about the inhibitive implications on the free speech of people who know they are being watched by the government.

Waheed expressed her belief that President Trump’s administration is working toward a longterm movement to end birthright citizenship by first denaturalizing U.S. citizens. She believes that the fallacy that the Trump administration does not understand the implications of its actions is a dangerous one. “This administration,” she said, “knows exactly what it’s doing.”

Nadia Aziz spoke next about her work with the Stop Hate Project, which provides resources to victims of hate crimes and helps prevent future violence. As a community lawyer, she investigates the legality of forms of resistance to hate. She has helped businesses navigate how to legally refuse

service to white supremacists when there was a hate rally in town.

In those cases, she recommends shutting down temporarily or advertising that portions of proceeds will go to civil rights organizations. She explained that in community lawyering, the most important component is listening. “The simple act of listening can galvanize change,” she said.

“Today’s climate requires that we listen.”

Following a reception, the guest speakers joined attendees for dinner. Levin delivered the keynote address later in the evening. Levin was born in 1943 in Montgomery, Alabama and spoke about his upbringing in a city where segregation had deep roots. “I never knew anything as

Continued on Page 3

News Ryan Alvarado Fresh Faculty

Oct. 15, 2018 - Oct. 22, 2018

>>Oct. 15, 2018 5:06 p.m., New Science Center An officer responded to an alarm set off accidentally on the third floor by a contractor working in the area.

10:34 p.m., Tuttle Hill Officers located a vehicle parked in the area and sent the operator on their way. >>Oct. 16, 2018 1:03 a.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer found a damaged exit sign.

4:15 a.m., Webster Circle An officer placed a boot on a student vehicle with a large number of parking violations.

11:58 a.m., South Pleasant Street A tractor trailer truck struck a pedestrian post and left the scene without stopping to report the accident.

2:57 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory A student reported items stolen from their room.

3:23 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory A student reported items stolen from their room. >>Oct. 17, 2018 1:29 a.m., Moore Dormitory Officers responded to an alarm sounding in a room on the fourth floor that was set off by a student.

1:37 a.m., Moore Dormitory An officer retrieved drugs from a student’s room.

1:45 p.m., Alumni House An officer assisted a lift moving across a public road. >>Oct. 18, 2018 8:55 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall Officers responded to a report of individuals trespassing. The individual was notified they were trespassing on Amherst College property.

9:12 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall Officers responded to a report of individuals trespassing. The individual was notified they were trespassing on Amherst College property.

1:18 p.m., Keefe Health Center An individual using a fax machine accidentally dialed 911.

4:56 p.m., Off Campus Locations

An officer assisted a professor that found their door unexpectedly open. >>Oct. 19, 2018 12:52 a.m., Merrill Science Road Officers spoke with two individuals operating an unregistered motorized bike on campus. >>Oct. 20, 2018 12:01 a.m., Seeley Mudd Building Officers responded to a report of an unregistered party and located a number of party policy violations, including alcohol.

12:51 a.m., Keefe Campus Center Officers responded to assist with a large crowd that dispersed upon arrival.

12:13 p.m., Quadrangle Road Officers responded to a report of an erratic operator and found no one in the area.

1:14 p.m., Off Campus Locations Another police department found property that belonged to someone from the Amherst College community. >>Oct. 21, 2018 12:44 a.m., Humphries House A town resident reported a noise complaint. The registered party host addressed the issue and no further complaints were received.

12:53 a.m., Hitchcock Hall Officers observed a number of party policy violations including alcohol at a registered party.

1:10 a.m., College Street An officer encountered an individual attempting to steal an item.

1:16 a.m., Humphries House Amherst Fire Department and officers responded to a fire alarm set off as a result of cannabis smoke.

1:36 p.m., Railroad Tracks Two individuals were found walking on the railroad tracks.

4:17 p.m., Plimpton House A table top was stolen from a common area after it was used for a registered party. >>Oct. 22, 2018 12:28 a.m., Cohan Dormitory A small fire resulted from burnt food.

Department of Mathematics

Professor Ryan Alvarado is an assistant professor of mathematics. He majored in mathematics and physics at William Jewell College and received his master’s and doctorate degrees in mathematics from the University of Missouri.

Q: How did you first become interested in mathematics?

A: I enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of it. I loved being faced with the question of whether or not something is true and solving it. I liked puzzles, and there are a lot of puzzles in math. In college, an awesome undergraduate professor of mine believed in me, inspired me to keep going with mathematics and mentored me along the way. I was at first destined to be an electrical engineer and kept on going with math because I was so interested in it.

Q: How did you transition from majoring in mathematics and physics to teaching math?

A: I became more interested in math because of that professor who made the subject interesting. She fostered that curiosity in me and cared about her students. At the end of every class there was sort of a cliffhanger, and I was intrigued about what came next. I wanted to tune in next week to learn more. You get a snippet of a topic in each math class, and it excites you to say, ‘Ooh let’s dig a little deeper.’ I later became interested in teaching in undergrad when I found myself finding the best way to explain to my friends how to do a problem. Then in graduate school, when I taught classes, I knew that I wanted teaching to be an important part of my life going forward.

Q: What motivates you to teach such a variety of math courses?

A: Teaching a wide variety of classes means I have a wide variety of students. I am not only teaching math majors but people who come from various different backgrounds, and I think that’s fun. I am teaching people who are taking math because they want to or are interested and do not have a lot of experience. The challenge is to get people excited about math because everyone is a math major at heart.

Q: How did you become interested in the research that you do? What is your research about?

A: I do research in which I try to solve what are called boundary value problems in a subject area called partial differential equations and do research in geometry and harmonic analysis. The reason I like it is to solve a

problem you really have to solve a puzzle.

There are many geometric and analytic parts to a problem and a strong interplay between the two. You really have to understand the relationship between these geometric and analytic parts to solve these types of problems.

You also have to bring together different areas of mathematics and draw upon those branches of mathematics.

Q: What brought you to Amherst College?

A: I went to a liberal arts school and I know that I would not have gotten as far as I did if I didn’t have that environment and those relationships with my professors. Without these professors, I would not be here today.

Amherst affords me that experience, and Amherst is a great community. They support me with my teaching and with my research.

It’s the best of both worlds. I have both my research and my students.

Q: What classes are you teaching this year?

A: This year, I am teaching Introduction to Calculus, which is an introduction to understanding the relationships between certain objects we deal with everyday. I am also teaching Transitions to Theoretical Mathematics. This class introduces students to mathematical reasoning and proof and explores fundamental questions about what it means for something to be true in mathematics.

Q: What do you love most about Amherst so far?

A: I love everything. It feels like home. It’s the place I always thought it would be, and I love the students, who are so amazing. I love my colleagues in the faculty and on the staff side, and I love the community in general on campus. There are great students, great faculty, and a great administration. The campus is also so beautiful. I felt at home from the very beginning.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

A: I am a collector of hobbies. I really love music. I play guitar, but I dabbled in piano as well. And I love collecting music and records.

I have been been collecting them for twenty years now, and I was in a band for a while.

—Allison Poussaint ’22

Got a tip?

Email eswislow20@amherst.edu, schen20@amherst.edu or nderosa21@amherst.edu

to pitch story ideas or submit a tip.

News

3

Activists Discuss Discrimination in Democracy Continued from Page 1 a kid but Jim Crow segregation … Every white person I knew was a racist,” he said. “So was I.” However, when Levin’s work for the Army took him to Manhattan in the late 60s, his views quickly and radically shifted. He returned to Montgomery in 1971 to co-found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has since launched many successful initiatives, including those for the improvement of both the juvenile justice system and LGBTQ life in the South.

Levin spoke of the similarities he sees between today’s world and the world he saw growing up in Montgomery. “I thought the stories of bigotry and hate were relegated to the fringes of our society. I was wrong. I see, smell and feel the 1950s and 60s,” he said.

The SPLC has tracked a shift in the hateful rhetoric the nation has seen since Trump’s election. He summarized: “In the first three months after Trump won the presidency, [the SPCL] recorded an astonishing 1,372 hate incidents,” and “nearly half of these incidents involved people

referencing Trump or … ‘Make America Great Again.’” Of the statistic, he said, “This kind of overt bigotry has been justified by our president, his vice president and their various surrogates.”

Levin concluded with a challenge to the audience. “Don’t let [hate] go unanswered,” he said. “Speak up in the community. Work in the community. When you hear attacks on immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, American Muslims, racial and religious minorities, whoever the ‘others’ may be, say something.”

Jonathan Paul ’22 said that he learned a lot from attending the symposium, but he wished the speakers had been able to speak to a question that Professor Austin Sarat asked in the afternoon and others reiterated in Q&As throughout the evening: “What is the Trump administration’s self-rendering? How can we understand them in ways they would recognize?”

The speakers all indicated that they found Sarat’s question of empathy to be a difficult one and did not provide answers that Paul believed to be thorough.

Psychologist Speaks on Women Fleeing Gender-Based Violence Ryan Yu ’22 Staff Writer Kim Baranowski, a humanitarian and clinical psychologist, spoke in Paino Lecture Hall on Oct. 16 about the psychological conditions of women fleeing gender-based violence. Her talk was sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement and the anthropology and sociology departments.

Baranowski currently serves as the associate director of the Mount Sinai Human Rights Clinic, where she manages pro bono psychological evaluations for U.S. asylum seekers and documents the effects of human rights violations they may have encountered. She also teaches clinical psychology and research at Columbia.

Baranowski began her talk by briefly describing the global refugee crisis and the lack of sufficient support to adequately manage the movement of displaced peoples.

“Just at a glance, we are experiencing a severe human rights crisis around the world,” she said.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of 2017, 68.5 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

Baranowski outlined three categories used to process displaced people under U.S. refugee and asylum policy: conventional refugees, who apply

for refugee status from outside of the U.S.; affirmative asylum seekers, who have temporary legal status within the U.S. and actively apply for asylum before removal; and defensive asylum seekers, who apply for asylum during removal proceedings.

Applicants for each of these groups must prove that they are no longer able to live in their home country due to reasonable fear and/or proof of persecution and only if such persecution is based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion.

“The majority of folks that we see at the Human Rights Program are individuals who are not formally processed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” said Baranowski. “Typically, these are defensive asylum seekers. For them, the process of being granted asylum is much more laborious, and in many cases, adversarial. They have many more hoops to jump through.”

Baranowski’s research focuses on women fleeing gender-based violence, which she defined as persecution based on one’s sex or gender, from the Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“With the Northern Triangle, it’s not so much that we see harmful traditional practices like child marriage or female genital mutilation, but we do see high rates of physical and sexual violence, as

well as socioeconomic violence in terms of opportunities for women to take care of themselves financially,” she said. “Not only are they exposed to gender-based violence across their lifespan in their home country, but they can also experience gender-based violence across their migration and resettlement.”

Baranowski emphasized that the women who flee gender-based violence do not do so for just economic reasons, but because they feel a genuine fear, often spurred by a threat of immediate violence.

“The majority of women who do seek asylum in the U.S. first attempt to live somewhere else in their country,” she said. “It’s a very traumatic process having to leave everything behind, sometimes even their children.”

Speaking about her particular role working with asylum seekers, she described the importance of psychological evaluations in corroborating the stories of asylum seekers.

“When someone is applying for asylum, the burden of proof is on that individual,” she said.

“And it’s very hard to prove that you were persecuted in your country of origin, especially if you don’t have tangible evidence. So, in the case of many women fleeing violence, the only proof is her credibility. That’s often going to hinge on the

physical or psychological manifestations of the trauma they experienced.”

As an example, she noted how trauma severely affects memory, meaning an asylum seeker’s recollection of their persecution can often be inconsistent. According to Baranowski, the provision of forensic psychological evaluations like the ones offered by her clinic can act as proof of asylum seekers’ need for refuge— this is evidenced by an 89 percent asylum grant rate among asylum seekers who utilized the Human Rights Clinic, compared to the nationwide rate of 35 percent.

Baranowski finished the talk by focusing on the idea of resilience, both during and after the asylum-seeking process.

“The story doesn’t just end at getting asylum.

It’s just the beginning, and there’s a lot of lasting effects that the individual has to deal with,” she said.

“It’s really about how resilient they can be, and how much support we can offer them.”

Eliza Hersh ’16, an Amherst alumni involved with the Human Rights Clinic, spoke after the talk about the importance of this work. “It’s striking how effective [psychological evaluations are] for asylum seekers. It’s such a useful tool, and we’ve created this structure that makes it happen quite efficiently, so we feel that every client should have one if possible,” she said.

Affirmative Action at Stake in Ongoing Harvard Trial Continued from Page 1 has followed the case closely and said that regardless of the trial’s outcome, it is likely to be appealed.

The case will “presumably make it up to the Supreme Court,” he said.

For ShoYoung Shin ’18 and other students of color, affirmative action is not simply a remedy for past injustices — the notion that the era of racial discrimination is over helps conceal systemic inequalities which are permanent and pervasive.

“My education at Amherst and the opportunities I have been afforded are because of affirmative action and other efforts for equity,” Shin said in an email interview. “I see this as a low-income, Korean-American immigrant woman.”

Shin emphasized that “affirmative action is necessary today to create a more just society in the future.”

Odo agreed, noting that “affirmative action is a minor but important intervention in trying to combat not just historical but contemporary racism in this country.” According to Odo, considering the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court with newly-confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the prospects of affirmative action remaining in place are “dismal.”

The administration of President Donald Trump has also made it clear that it supports SFFA’s mission. On Aug. 30, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a “statement of interest” in the case, accusing Harvard of committing “unlawful racial discrimination.” Backed by disgruntled students and parents, conservatives and the government, SFFA’s case looks to be a strong one.

SFFA is not a representative group for all Asian Americans. According to the group Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Data, although Chinese-American support for affirmative action has declined in recent years, nearly two-thirds of Asian Americans supported the policy in 2016.

In the face of the Harvard lawsuit, many Asian American activists have spoken out, warning members of the SFFA that they are being used as a racial wedge, a term which describes how the portrayal of Asian Americans as non-minorities is used to deepen the divide between whites and other people of color.

Shreeansh Agrawal ’19 researched a recent Massachusetts bill at this past summer. The bill, which was voted down in 2018, intended to mandate the breakdown of Asian-American groups by ethnicity on state-collected forms and was driven by the fact that large discrepancies exist between

ethnic groups in Asian-American communities.

The Harvard case, he said, is rooted in this presumption that all Asian Americans are the same and that they share the same experiences. “There’s a danger,” he added. “Because there are so many of these sensitivities in the Asian-American community that are exploitable by an institution like Harvard for example, they open themselves up to that kind of politics and rhetoric.”

The personality ratings are an example of that exploitation, he said. “When you rate those personalities, they’re not a measure of the intrinsic capacity of that human being. It’s very often a result of how that human being has had to grow up in their circumstances.”

In Agrawal’s eyes, however, the lawsuit “opens up a can of worms that we’ve kept closed for too long.”

“Though there are some dark, insidious elements to it and though I don’t think the motivations behind it are good, I do think it’s very helpful in bringing out these discrepancies between Asian Americans,” he said.

Shin said that the issues of Asian-American discrimination and affirmative action should be separate. “I am concerned, disappointed and hurt when people, including admissions officers, do

not see Asian people as individuals with complexities and worth and instead rely on stereotypes,” she said. “But terminating affirmative action would not change that; in fact, affirmative action is all the more necessary to challenge problematic mindsets and dominant American culture.”

Professor Odo also described the situation as a dilemma. “I can sympathize with the Chinese parents and the kids who failed to get into the schools they wanted to attend. But I think it’s important to understand that there are larger issues at stake,” he said. “There are millions of Asian Americans who are working-class and poor, who don’t have access to cram schools and SAT prep, who are really smart and worthy of some support from affirmative action.”

Amherst’s Chief Policy Officer and General Counsel Lisa Rutherford declined to comment on the case but noted that “at Amherst we continue to abide by the law and deeply believe in the mission of the college to educate [individuals] of exceptional potential from all backgrounds.”

The Student reached out to President Biddy Martin for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

The trial is expected to conclude in three weeks.

Panel, Tour and Reception Mark Science Center Opening Zach Jonas ’22 Staff Writer A celebration of the opening of the new Science Center brought together guests and alumni to experience the most recent addition to the campus on Saturday, Oct. 20. The event included a panel of alumni working in science who spoke about the role of science in a liberal arts education at Amherst, guided tours of the building and departments and a reception which featured a performance by the college’s choral society.

The event began with remarks by Andrew Nussbaum ’85, chair of the board of trustees, who called the new building “unprecedented” and “the most impressive undergraduate science facility in the nation.” He said that the center was built on time and under budget, and thanked everyone who was involved with the project. The center, he said, will “open up opportunities for Amherst students for generations to come.”

Bradford Hager ’72 P ’12, a professor of earth sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kimberlyn Leary ’82, an Amherst trustee

and an associate professor of psychology at Harvard, Julie Segre ’87, a senior investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute and Harold Varmus ’61, a Nobel Prize winner in medicine and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine College, all spoke on the panel.

It was moderated by Shirley Tilghman, a professor of molecular biology and president emerita at Princeton.

When asked about the importance of a liberal arts education in science-related fields, Segre responded that her education enabled her to

“write specifically but not have it be technical.”

Varmus highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of science and praised the small Amherst class sizes that allowed him meet scientists in different fields. He also pointed out that liberal arts colleges send similar proportions of students to graduate schools as larger universities.

The alumni and other guests gathered at the ending reception to hear the choral society.

Robert Schlein ’89, an alumni, said the building “opens up the campus” and though he wasn’t a STEM major, he thinks it’s impressive.

Opinion THE AMHERST

STUDENT

On Endurance

E X E C U T I V E B OA R D This week marks the exact middle of the semester. It is the time of year when the weather starts to get colder, the sun goes down earlier and midterms start to flood students’ calendars. With this, the energy on campus starts to shift: there is no longer the warm glow of the summer fresh in our minds, nor events like the Students Activities Fair or Orientation to inspire enthusiasm for the new year. Instead, we start to settle into the daily routines that feel most comfortable: surrounding ourselves with the same friends, studying in familiar places and steadily ceasing to attend club meetings that we once thought we’d attend. Especially on a small and rural campus like Amherst, it is easy to rely on practices and habits that we know best or we find ourselves in.

Unfortunately, this is only the beginning. Students’ tendencies to retreat to the familiar will only increase as we approach the middle of the school year; the spring semester, which has a much less dramatic and optimistic beginning than its predecessor, will further discourage our community from approaching campus life in invigorating ways.

The Editorial Board believes that it is important to challenge the growing weariness and even skepticism that will inevitably sprout on campus during these colder months. We encourage students to push themselves and their peers to constantly re-make Amherst for themselves. This experience will manifest differently for each individual. For some, it is about reaching out to classmates and getting to know them, or finally taking the initiative to join a club, or venturing to town to try a new cafe. There is no universal solution for the mid-semester staleness, but rather a multitude of possibilities that we can each craft for ourselves.

Furthermore, we encourage students to question the patterns that they fall into. All too often, it is easy for us to go through the motions of going to class, eating, studying, going to practice and then back to our rooms.

What becomes lost in this routine are the ways in which we may think critically about why we do the things we do. College is about the experience of Amherst, but more importantly, it is also about how we grow in relation to the school. As important as going to Homecoming or studying in Frost might be, it is equally important to reflect on how these experiences help us grow and look for new experiences that result in meaningful change during our time here. We suggest keeping track of an internal life, as students walk through the day-to-day mechanisms of our college lives; some tactics include keeping a journal, speaking to friends or reaching out to resources like the Counseling Center.

Resisting the mundaneness of Amherst life is not only fun and meaningful, but also critical for our mental health. As students progress through the year, many will be faced with mental health challenges, like Seasonal Affective Disorder and anxiety and depression.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 85 percent of college students “reported to feel overwhelmed by everything they had to do, at some point within the past year.” Close to 40 percent felt that anxiety was a top presenting concern among their peers.

It is no question that these issues also touch the lives of students at Amherst. Mental health is difficult and confusing to navigate, but the Editorial Board believes that it is important to uplift and check in with each other as it becomes harder to maintain mental health in the coming months.

Saudi Arabia: Inaction is Not An Option Yannis Kalogiannis ’19 Contributing Writer

On Oct. 3rd, the Washington Post reported Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. A Saudi Arabian journalist and columnist for the Post, Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul the previous day. Despite the cover stories disseminated by Saudi officials— including the evolving, mutually exclusive, and altogether ridiculous claims that he left the consulate alive, that he instigated a fist fight with numerous armed Saudi guards, and that he was killed by a rogue operation— the truth seems hard to avoid, even for the most naïve observer. Khashoggi did not disappear; he was murdered.

Considered in the Saudi context, his murder is by no means an aberration. While Crown Prince bin Salman’s rise to power in 2017 was widely seen as an opportunity for reform, the West’s optimism has been based on little more than wishful thinking. In the last year, Mohammed bin Salman has pursued a brutal war in Yemen, failing to discriminate between civilian and military targets and causing an ongoing famine that claimed the lives of 50,000 children in 2017. Domestically, he has continued to imprison dissidents without trial and inflict barbaric punishments. Even after granting women the right to drive — and ushering Saudi Arabia into the 20th century — the Crown Prince incarcerated the women who fought for it on ludicrous charges. In that context, Khashoggi’s murder is a wake-up call.

It is an opportunity for the United States to fundamentally rethink its alliance with Saudi Arabia. I am not arguing that the U.S. should sever all ties with an important ally in the Middle East. However, failing to hold the Kingdom accountable in a meaningful way for its latest barbarity would be a momentous blunder.

Many argue that the U.S. cannot afford to punish the Saudis because our relationship

with them is too important, and their response would be catastrophic. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Walter Russell Mead warns against overreacting to the crime in a “fit of righteousness.” While his claim that ending the alliance would play into the hands of America’s foes is a sound one, it is hard to believe that a tough but measured response, aimed at signaling to the Kingdom that brazen violations of international law will not be tolerated, would so easily shift a decades-old alliance. On the contrary, the opportunity cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action. Inaction would signal that “anything goes” and, hence, would ultimately create more friction between the two countries in the long run when Saudi Arabia murders the next dissenter. In an Oct. 14 op-ed in Al Arabiya English, Saudi journalist Turki Aldakhil, who is close to his country’s political establishment, argues that in response to potential repercussions, the Kingdom could turn to Russia and China for military assistance and even rekindle relations with Iran.

Setting aside the deep religious roots of the Saudi-Iranian conflict, the notion that Saudi Arabia will, in tumultuous times, abandon the reliable guarantor of its national security in search of untested alliances, inferior military technologies and risky readjustments, seems like an unwise geopolitical gamble.

In the same vein, Aldakhil argues that Saudi Arabia could respond to U.S. action by implementing an oil embargo and drastically increasing the price of oil or by halting large arms deals and hurting the U.S. economy. His threats are as blunt as they are hollow. First, the U.S. relies much less on Saudi oil than it once did. As Jeff Colgan argues in the Post, the majority of the oil the country consumes is produced at home and only 10 pecent of imports come from Saudi Arabia. Second, the benefit of U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia has been misleadingly inflated. The New York Times reports that military exports to Saudi Arabia

remain a “small slice” of the U.S. defense industries and, besides, they are used to pursue alleged war crimes in Yemen. Third—and most importantly — the Saudis need America more than America needs the Saudis. They will be the ones most hurt by a decrease in their share of the oil market, fewer weapons sales and a relatively greater need for military and intelligence assistance. This tactic is called leverage, and punishing murder is a good way to use it.

A different argument against action is concerned less with its consequences, and more with its inherent justifiability. At its core, this argument is rooted in a realist view of global affairs: all states are self-interested and compete for power. It makes no sense to make moral or legal judgments that transcend borders. In this case, a realist would argue that the U.S. has its own problems and should not insert itself in issues from which it has nothing to gain. But do we really want to live in a world where monarchs can murder journalists on foreign soil and get away with it? While the realists might be right that sovereignty is important and each country ought to be primarily concerned with its own ordeals, the international community has agreed that sovereignty must be subject to international law so that the rights and liberties of people all over the world are protected.

Moreover, in response to those criticizing a unilateral approach, the United States has a unique ability to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the Khashoggi’s murder given the Kingdom’s dependence on U.S. support.

Failing to hold an ally accountable for heinous crimes signifies, at the very least, an acceptance of those crimes. While I am not certain how exactly the U.S. ought to punish Saudi Arabia (decreasing arms sales or applying economic sanctions would be viable options and would hurt the U.S. much less than many might think), sending a signal that U.S. support is contingent on good behavior is indispensable.

Editors-in-Chief Nate Quigley Isabel Tessier Managing News Shawna Chen Natalie De Rosa Emma Swislow Managing Opinion Kelly Chian Diane Lee Managing Arts and Living Olivia Gieger Seoyeon Kim Managing Sports Connor Haugh Henry Newton Managing Design Zehra Madhavan S TA F F Head Publishers Joseph Centeno, Emmy Sohn, Mark Nathin Design Editors Katie Boback, Julia Shea, Anna Smith Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir

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 email account (astudent@amherst.edu) by noon 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 or email address where the author or authors may be reached. Letters and columns may be edited for clarity and Student style.

Publication Standards 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 2291, Amherst College Amherst, MA 01002-5000 The offices of The Amherst Student are located in the basement of Morrow Dormitory, Amherst College. All contents copyright © 2017 by The Amherst Student, Inc. All rights reserved. The Amherst Student logo is a trademark of The Amherst Student, Inc. Additionally, The Amherst Student does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of The Amherst Student.

Connect With Us Email: astudent@amherst.edu Twitter: @amherststudent Like The Amherst Student on Facebook

Web Version

The Amherst Student is available to read online at amherststudent.com.

The Amherst Student • October 24, 2018

Opinion

5

If I May: When is Halloweekend?

Jake May ’19 Columnist Each week, I have the opportunity to comment on the issues of the week, draw attention to something flying under the radar or perhaps start an important discussion. This week, I am doing all three, bringing attention to an incredibly important issue that merits a discussion: Which upcoming weekend is the real halloweekend?

This year, Halloween proper falls on a Wednesday, the worst day of the week for it to happen. Were it to be Monday or Tuesday, we would celebrate the weekend before, of course, and also perhaps celebrate the night of. Were it

to be Thursday, we would celebrate that night, as well as the following weekend. And of course, if it were Friday through Sunday, we would celebrate on the day of. But no, it had to be on a Wednesday, bisecting the week and causing all sorts of confusion. Sure, there is Bar Night that night, but that’s not an all-inclusive celebration.

So we arrive at the question: will we celebrate the weekend before Halloween or the weekend after? It seems from my brief “reporting” (which consisted of overhearing a few conversations about this, asking one other person and seeing a poll on the Class of 2021 Facebook page) that the consensus is that this coming weekend — the weekend before Halloween — is the real Halloweekend. Friday and Saturday will have

Halloween events, and then Wednesday will be the final hurrah. This is sensible, I suppose. It is a little awkward to celebrate a holiday after it has past, especially one so tied to the month of October.

However, I’d like to go to bat for the weekend after Halloween. First of all, the weekend before Halloween is Family Weekend. There’s all sorts of events going on, and the weekend already has an unusual quality to it. Meanwhile, the weekend of Nov. 2 is a plain, regular old weekend. Why not pumpkin-spice that weekend up? Instead of one weekend overflowing with events, we could have two “important” weekends back to back. Sure, Halloween parties themselves happen at night and most of the Family Weekend stuff is in the

daytime, but you know your parents are going to want to have dinner with you, and if your family isn’t coming, you know you’re going to want to hop in with another family’s plans. This cuts into valuable Halloween-related time.

The weekend after Halloween extends the total number of days it is acceptable to celebrate.

Wednesday is actual Halloween, Thursday is a weeknight that college students have decided is actually a “going out” night, then it’s the weekend. Boom. Four straight nights of Halloween fun. All the more chances to show off your costumes or show off the fact that you “don’t like wearing costumes” and “are no fun.” Either way, let’s make the right choice and wait to celebrate the weekend after.

For Asian Americans, There is No Winning in the Harvard Lawsuit Jae Yun Ham ’22 Contributing Writer Monday, Oct. 15 was the first day of the highly-publicized trial, Students for Fair Admissions Inc. (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The lawsuit first began when SFFA a conservative non-profit organization, filed a lawsuit against Harvard in 2014, alleging that the school had discriminated against Asian-American applicants in its admissions process.

As an Asian American who has gone through the college admissions process, I have very mixed feelings about this case. Despite having the highest standardized test scores, grades and extracurricular scores among any ethnic group, Asian-American students’ personal ratings lowered their chance of admission at Harvard. I am irate after hearing that Harvard consistently gave Asian-American applicants lower personality scores than their peers. Described as uninteresting and indistinguishable from other Asian Americans, these applicants were also given lower ratings on components such as “likeability,” “kindness,” and “integrity.” As the case continues to drag on in federal court, it is clear that the discriminatory policies and attitudes that reduced Jewish applicants’ acceptance rates at Harvard in the 1920s are now strategically and systemically targeting another minority group today.

It is clear that no admissions officer can reasonably judge a student’s personality through a hasty glance at an application. Yet, admissions officers at Harvard systematically evaluated students of an entire minority group as “less likeable” and “less kind,” thus resulting in a lower personality score and a lower chance of acceptance. The perpetuation of the quiet, boring Asian stereotype to disadvantage Asian-American applicants is just as repugnant as it sounds.

Asian Americans have had to grapple with the

oppressive identity as the “model minority” for decades and have faced rebuke for their willingness to “fit in.” The fact that an influential institution like Harvard is taking advantage of such a broad, tired trope and using it to hurt Asian-American applicants is indefensible.

The issue becomes complicated because as an Asian American, I realize that my particular identity does not expose me to the political, cultural and economic obstacles that other people of color face on a daily basis. As a student from Hawaii, a state where Asians constitute the majority of the population, I admit that there are few obstacles related to my race that prevent me from attaining academic success.

Furthermore, affirmative action is critical for many underrepresented racial groups because it allows them seats at the table of higher education. It goes without saying that the goal of increased campus diversity is possible because of policies like affirmative action. It provides academic opportunities for minority groups and improves education for everyone.

Where I draw the line is when an elite institution, like Harvard, achieves its renowned diversity by attacking the characters of Asian-American applicants, while simultaneously providing a boost to legacy and rich white applicants. College admissions is ultimately a zero-sum game.

When Harvard decides to accept 5.6 percent of its stellar applicants, it is also deciding to reject 94.4 percent of its other applicants. The same logic can be applied to affirmative action. When Harvard and its peer institutions decide to assign a “plus factor” to certain underrepresented minorities, they also simultaneously assign a “negative factor” to Asian-American applicants as well. Writers like Nate Raymond at Reuters have demonstrated this in their reporting.

In this zero-sum game, I am shocked that wealthy and legacy white applicants have not been targeted by SSFA. What concerns me is the

case’s attack on underrepresented minority applicants and its utter apathy towards the unusually high number of white, legacy applicant admissions at Harvard. The SFFA makes it seems as though the sole obstacle to Asian-American applicants is other minority applicants.

This is not a new phenomenon in American history. For too long, Asians have been forced to fight against other minority groups while privileged white Americans have stood on the sidelines. As far back as the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, Chinese workers were brought in to replace former black slaves in the South.

While privileged white industrialists raked in profits, Asians and blacks viciously fought each other for hazardous jobs with low pay. It is clear that while Asians don’t face the systemic disadvantages as other minority groups do today, we are still far from enjoying the societal advantages that come with white privilege. It is this Asian status of secondary whiteness that has held us back for generations. The Harvard case, which draws little attention to the exceedingly-high number of white legacy admits to Harvard, is not an exception.

White privilege has designed a system that makes the success of minorities, much like the college admissions system, is a zero-sum game.

The Harvard case is a prime example of this phenomenon in multiple ways. Asian Americans have begun to blame and target other minority groups for racial discrimination in the college admissions process. This highly vocal minority of Asian Americans believe that other minorities have begun to “steal” their place in America’s top colleges and universities. Stoked by SFFA founder and activist Edward Blum, these discontent, rejected Asian-American applicants have become the racial mascots of his anti-affirmative action agenda. In a video circulating online, Blum even insisted at one point that he “needed Asian plaintiffs” to win his case, signifying that

these angry, passionate Asian-American applicants are vital to fulfilling his conservative agenda. Blum’s goal is clear: to remove all aspects of race from college admissions. To him, these angry Asians applicants are little more than pawns in a complicated legal chess game.

The SFFA v. Harvard case is a lose-lose situation for Asian Americans. If the SFFA were to win, Asian-American applicants would have an easier time entering college while other minority applicants would suffer. Asian Americans would benefit off of the losses of other minority groups, while disproportionately wealthy, legacy applicants would still easily gain acceptance into Harvard. If Harvard were to win, Asian-American applicants would continue to face racial discrimination in college admissions on criteria as subjective as personality. No matter the outcome, minority groups are hurt while white privilege remains intact. It is this paradox that has prevented minorities like Asian Americans from attaining true, unmeasured success. It is this paradox that will continue to create obstacles for minorities for decades, perhaps centuries, to come.

However, hope cannot be lost. With a considerable amount of effort, Asian Americans can defy the status quo. Asians Americans can work together to destroy the cultural, economic and even educational institutions that keep us from succeeding. We can see the dominance of white privilege in our society for what it is and fight it. We can reject institutions designed to keep us down and stand up for both our community and others as well. We can come to terms with our “model minority” status while also fighting against the oppressive systems that gave us that designation in the first place. The Harvard case, while only one legal suit, may very well become the megaphone that Asian Americans use to break the cycle of oppression. The only question lies in whether or not we use it.

Regardless of Where You Live, You Should Always Vote Hayley Fleming ’21 & Campbell Hannan ’21 Contributing Writers Why should you vote if you don’t live in a swing district? If you live in Boston or San Francisco, it can be hard to find the motivation to get to the polls (or request an absentee ballot) because you know the vote will swing overwhelmingly one way. But no matter the color your district votes, voting is a fundamental civic duty of every American.

Swing districts, sometimes also referred to as purple districts, are those regions throughout the country where elections do not consistently go to one party or the other. The heterogeneous constituent population of these districts often cause split state senate and state house seats.

These states are the ones that make national news andt get the most attention when elections come around. Much the same way that presidential candidates spend a large portion of their campaigning time in Michigan, Ohio and Florida, parties and party money flow into the districts where there is a perceptible fight taking place. Thus, districts where a Democratic or Republican candidate has a strong hold can fall out of the public eye. If you live in one of these, it

can be difficult to feel that personal motivation to make your voice heard.

Take Massachusetts: this state is overwhelmingly blue, and yet voting could not be more important for Democrats. Republican Charlie Baker, the incumbent governor up for re-election is predicted to win by a large margin. It is still important for Democrats to shrink that margin as much as possible to show that our state’s Democrats’ voices need to be represented in the governor’s office. When the margin of victory is very high, it emboldens the elected official and discourages compromise. Why compromise with your political opponents when your constituents have shown that they support you?

Massachusetts is just one example of how important gubernatorial races can be. North Carolina is another. In a state that often has tight races but usually ends up Republican, it is out of character that Democrat Roy Cooper sits in the governor’s seat today. Cooper won a tight race in 2016 because even people who did not vote in the presidential election showed up to the polls to vote then governor Pat McCrory out. McCrory faced intense backlash after passing House Bill No. 2, the first state bill to prevent transgender people from using the bathroom of their

chosen gender identity. Centrist Democrats and Republicans showed up on election day because they saw a politician exploiting the red majority in a way that did not represent their beliefs. So, even though the race was between an incumbent Republican in a red state and a new Democrat — a race that by all indications should bleed red — Cooper was able to narrowly capture the victory thanks to voter turnout.

Ballot questions are also an important part of midterm voting, and these questions often do not fall along party lines. In Massachusetts, Ballot Question 1 asks voters to decide whether the state should create limits on the number of patients a nurse can take care of at any given moment. The debate on this question has become quite contentious, and it will likely be a close call.

As a voter, if you have an opinion of this question, it is vital to vote and express that opinion in the polls. In this case, you cannot rely on the other members of your political party to vote for you; like many ballot questions, the vote will not fall along party lines.

Another Massachusetts ballot question, Question 3, concerns the protection of transgender people in public accomodations, namely public bathrooms in venues such as schools. In

2016, the state legislature passed a law protecting the rights of transgender people to use the bathroom a of their chosen gender identity. This ballot question puts the law up to the people, asking whether they would like to repeal or keep it. Though the question is expected to pass in favor of the law, if you believe in the protection of trans rights, it is important that the law passes by a large margin so the debate can be settled, once and for all.

More fundamentally, our vote represents our voice. Once politicians are in office, they represent all of their constituents — not just the people who voted for them. This is where the margins of victory become important. If all of the Republicans in a largely Democratic district actually show up to the polls, the Democrat who is elected will know that they have to cooperate with these Republican constituents, particularly if they want to get reelected. When voter turnout is high, the elected government has a stronger mandate to govern, and is therefore more responsible to its constituents — not just to the select few who decided to vote. Your voice matters, even if you don’t agree with your elected officials!

Request your absentee ballot. Get in the habit of voting. Let your voice be heard.

Arts&Living

Paak and Lamar Collaborate Seamlessly on New Single “Tints”

Photo courtesy of Julia Shea ‘21

In his Oct. 4 release “Tints,” Anderson. Paak, with the help of rapper Kendrick Lamar, explores the price of fame and the search for privacy through soothing beats.

Olivia Gieger ’21 Managing Arts and Living Editor With a surge of good music this fall — the offerings range from a Khalid album to new Post Malone track and Lady Gaga’s powerful vocals in “A Star is Born” to the long-awaited “Carter V” by Lil Wayne — it’s easy for hidden gems to remain hidden. But, the recently released single “Tints” from Anderson. Paak featuring Kendrick Lamar has received a mere fraction of the attention it deserves, and we owe it a moment of appreciation for the sheer talent on display.

The single is an early release off Paak’s upcoming album “Oxnard,” which is expected to come out in mid-November, and “Tints” bodes well for fans expecting the smooth sounds that defined his previous album, “Malibu.” Paak strikes the perfect balance between soothing R&B and uplifting pop, as he layers the song over deep beats and a groovy keyboard. The song’s sound is classic Paak, with lyrics and rhythm that get stuck circling

in your head. The song is versatile — you can play it out of a car stereo on a nighttime drive just as easily as you can blast it through your headphones for a run on the treadmill. Lamar’s verse meshes perfectly with Paak’s style, while still retaining the unique voice that defines Kendrick.

Speaking about collaborating with Lamar, Paak told Beats1 in an interview, “I love working with him. Some people you can trust to just send it and they gonna send it back and it’s gonna be flames. I just knew that would be the case with him.”

Paak was right, as the song is an absolute hit. Together, Paak and Lamar are two of the greatest minds in modern hip-hop and R&B, and they actually have collaborated before on both Lamar’s “Black Panther” album in the song “Bloody Waters” and on Dr. Dre’s “Deep Water.” However, “Tints” stands out as a single in which they best hit their shared stride, with neither dominating the other’s sound and each bringing out the best in his partner’s style.

Lamar’s rap, which is packed with his usual tight lyrics and clever lines, is one of the most enjoyable parts of the song. Paak echoes this in his own nuanced lyrics, rapping “I been in my bag, adding weight/ Tryna throw a bag in a safe/ Giggin’, tourin’, chorin’, raisin’ babes/ Baby Milo wants some Bathing Apes.”

He rhymes words that I never would have thought could go together, and seamlessly turns “choring” into a verb. He even packs in a subtle allusion, through the elite Japanese clothing brand BAPE and its children’s line, Baby Milo, to the culture of luxury fashion that he now finds himself in.

Paak and Lamar give us phrases that stick in our minds and beg for further attention.

The song explores both their relationships with fame and paparazzi and their attempted escapes from the public spotlight. They need tints (on their car windows) to obscure them from public view. At the same time though, each boasts about the benefits that come from their fame. Lamar raps, “Everybody get offended by the shit I got on/ Like, can

you buy that, n****?/ Nine hunnid horse, can you drive that, n****?/ A G5, can you fly that, n****?” and sings, “You know I like it presidential/ Stretch it out, that’s a limo.”

Fame’s luxury is a theme that runs through past works of both artists; the music video of another recent Paak release, “Bubblin,” depicts the opulent lifestyle of Paak in a song whose lyrics do the same. In a feature on A$AP Rocky’s “F***in’ Problems,” Lamar raps “Girl, I’m Kendrick Lamar/A.K.A. Benz is to me just a car.”

The two artists’ lyrics about wealth attain deeper meaning upon consideration each artist’s past. Paak struggled to achieve the fame and wealth he has today, living homeless for some time. In “Bubblin,” he sings, “I been broker way longer than I been rich.” So, Paak leaves us to wonder how he really feels at the end of “Tints.” Is the presidential limo and money that “keeps [him] runnin” worth “feelin’ kinda cooped up, cooped up?” It seems that his answer, as he seeks to retreat from the public eye behind tinted windows, is no.

Arts & Living 7

Clothesline Project Aims to Raise Awareness of Sexual Violence

Photos courtesy of Olivia Gieger ‘21

Hundreds of T-shirts featuring hand-written messages, recounting experiences of sexual assault, hung across Valentine Quad this past Thursday and Friday.

Emmy Sohn ’22 Contributing Writer Last week, the Peer Advocates for Sexual Respect hosted the Five College Clothesline Project on Valentine Quad. Hundreds of shirts, each created by an individual affected by sexual violence, were hung on clotheslines throughout the quad.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, people of all identities and backgrounds were invited to contribute to the project and create a shirt to share their story.

Survivors, their friends and family and anyone affected by sexual assault in any way expressed their experiences through images, descriptions and quotes. Some shirts told honest and painful stories, while others featured artwork and imagery. A few read “no means no” and “love should never hurt,” while many displayed messages of calls to action. All of them expressed the voice of individuals in our community.

On Thursday and Friday, Oct. 18 and 19, these creations were hung throughout the quad for people to walk through and observe. Each

shirt represented a unique voice, and together they hung shoulder to shoulder, representing the unity of those affected by sexual violence.

Over the course of the installation, students could be seen walking the lines of brightly colored shirts, reading and reflecting on their messages. Walking through the exhibition, I was struck by the sheer diversity of the ways in which individuals have been affected by sexual violence. Reading the various messages on the shirts was an opportunity to learn about others’ experiences and reflect on our own. These shirts remind us that although progress is being made to address the disturbing pervasiveness of sexual violence in American society, these evils continue to affect large swathes of our community.

Students could be seen processing the installation both individually and in groups of friends and strangers alike, and everyone was invited to talk with the Peer Advocates who were stationed at a booth next to the entrance of Valentine Dining Hall.

In an email interview, Lauren Simpson ’21, a Peer Advocate who was involved in organizing the project, said the Clothesline Project was

an empowering but upsetting reality check for her.

“There was something so powerful about hanging the t-shirts up and looking at them all together,” she said. “But it was also heart breaking, seeing so many t-shirts on the line, knowing we have so many more bins full of shirts that couldn’t fit onto the line, and seeing a physical representation of how many people have been affected and hurt by sexual violence.

The Peer Advocates outside Valentine Quad explained how supporting, listening and learning from survivors is one of the best ways we can be advocates for survivors of sexual assault.

They shared ways in which everyone could be a part of resisting a culture of sexual violence and invited onlookers to contribute to a collage, which included some ways that everyone can participate in changing this culture.

Simpson added that attending Peer Advocate events is definitely “a great way to get started in terms of educating yourself on issues of sexual violence and learning more.”

She also noted the importance of being aware of the little things, emphasizing how “if you see things that make you uncomfortable,

like friends making inappropriate/offensive jokes [or] people exhibiting problematic behavior and making someone else uncomfortable, or especially if you think that someone may be at risk of experiencing sexual assault, domestic/relationship violence or violence of any kind, do something about it. Intervene in the situation. Speak up.”

The Peer Advocates did recognize that, for many, this installation could be difficult to face.

They set up the installation in such a way that the shirts faced away from residence halls and the path between Morrow Dormitory and Valentine Dining Hall remained clear for those who needed to avoid the project.

This was not only an opportunity for survivors to heal, but for the whole community to be a part of that healing process. Breaking the silence around sexual assault and giving survivors a voice has historically been difficult, and de-stigmatizing sexual assault has been an ongoing national process in recent years. This project is one of the many steps that Amherst students have taken to be active in the fight against rape culture and create a community of support, safety and respect.

The clotheslines covered Valentine Quad, allowing students to walk between the rows of shirts while reading and absorbing the content on each one.

The Amherst Student • October 24, 2018

Arts & Living 8

College Celebrates Arabic Art in Night of Literature in Translation

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.Commons

Author Saud Alsanousi kicked off the U.S. book tour for his novel “Bamboo Stalk“ at Amherst this past Thursday.

Sophia Heisman-Gibbons ’21 Staff Writer On Thursday, Oct. 18, Amherst presented “An Evening of Arabic Music and Literature” in Cole Assembly Room — the first iteration of an event which the school hopes to make an annual tradi-

tion.

The evening brought a little bit of the Middle East to Western Massachusetts, with the moving music of the Layaali Arabic Music Trio, a reading and Q&A from Kuwaiti author Saud Alsanousi and his translator Jonathan Wright and a spread of traditional Arabic food brought from Hartford, Connecticut, combining to create a special atmosphere. The event had mass appeal for the Amherst community, as it drew over fifty Arabic speakers, scholars and students from Amherst, the Five-College Consortium and the greater Pioneer Valley.

The event’s main focus was the launch of a U.S. book tour for Alsanousi’s award-winning novel “Bamboo Stalk,” which won the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF).

According to the IPAF’s website, the prize seeks “to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages.” Thursday’s event was actually sponsored

by IPAF as part of its first ever U.S. book tour.

IPAF trustee Michel S. Moushabeck introduced the novel by mentioning how the IPAF has already begun to pave the way for the promotion of Arabic literature by offering a $60,000 prize to the winner and $10,000 to the other shortlisted authors.

Alsanousi himself commented on the importance of the prize, saying, “The award contributed significantly and directly to the popularity and spread of Arabic literature primarily through the idea of a long list and short list, a global style of

prizes not known in the Arab world.”

Jonathan Wright, who translated “Bamboo Stalk” into English, added that the prize money covers the cost of translation, “which means that more good books are available to English language readers ... [and it helps] English-language publishers find books for translation.”

Furthermore, the IPAF has added to the movement of literary growth in the Arab world by promoting a previously-rare form of writing to Arabic speaking audiences: the novel.

“The novel in Kuwait today is a great development, with the emergence of many young names have a serious written project and raises important issues and questions,” Alsanousi said. “I hope that the literature of the Kuwaiti novel will achieve a global presence.”

Many students at Amherst have not had the opportunity to read about the Middle East, especially from the perspective of someone from the region who writes in his/her own language, despite the prominence of Middle Eastern immigrants in today’s political discourse.

However, language in translation provides a unique opportunity for the reader to identify with another culture and Wright attested to this fact.

“Cultural differences, where they exist, can often be attributed solely to practical considerations — where people live and how they make a living,” Wright noted. “I find it reassuring, if sometimes rather surprising, that English and Arabic, which work in very different ways and share very little vocabulary, usually express ideas which are remarkably similar.”

In Alsanousi’s book especially, translation allows the global community to connect through

shared emotions and experiences. “Bamboo Stalk” focuses on a Filipino-Kuwaiti protagonist, Isa, who was born to a Filipino migrant maid in Kuwait.

Rejected by his Kuwaiti family, Isa grows up in the Philippines and only returns to Kuwait as a young man after the death of his father. The novel tackles issues of family, class, immigration and interfaith marriage, all of which transcend the Arab world and act as global motifs. Alsanousi’s ability to capture a character who is both Filipino and Kuwaiti adds to the universality of the text, as it allows him to “see Kuwait from the eyes of the other.”

This is the very reason the department of Asian Languages & Civilizations put this event together for the Amherst community — to help students transcend their own experiences by seeing through the eyes of others and searching for ways to relate.

At the event, Mohammed Hassan, senior lecturer in Arabic at Amherst, vocalized his wish that the success of this event will allow the college to bring an IPAF winner every year in hopes of achieving this goal.

Most powerfully, the event seemed to capture Alsanousi’s own desire to share his novel with Amherst students. “I hope that the novel will give them more knowledge, give them new ideas, introduce them to my country’s culture and raise questions about the novelist’s own inability to find answers,” he said.

Not only does Alsanousi want to share his culture, but he wants his readers to question him too in the hopes of attaining greater understanding of human existence and knowledge.

Editor’s note: All quotes from Saud Alsanousi have been translated from Arabic.

Best Books to Binge this Winter: Comedic, Historic and In-Between Olivia Luntz ’21 Staff Writer Winter is coming, and with shorter and colder days, it is only natural to want to cuddle up with a great Netflix series. However, if you’re running low on shows to watch, try one of these books that mirror the shows you usually binge.

For fans of “Handmaid’s Tale” and “Criminal Minds”: “Alias Grace” by Margaret Atwood In this gripping and suspenseful novel,

question whose answer has been lost to history: was Grace a willing participant in the crime or an innocent victim? Atwood skillfully weaves events from Grace’s life and details from the murders into her fictional narrative, which centers around an up-and-coming psychologist, Dr. Jordan, who is attempting to determine whether or not Grace is clinically insane. With most of the novel taking the form of Grace narrating her life’s story back to Dr. Jordan, Atwood masterfully conveys the voice of a young woman who has truly experienced the worst that life has to offer.

With “Alias Grace,” Atwood tests our limits of both suspicion and sympathy, as we are forced to take on the role of Dr. Jordan and make our own judgment on Grace’s guilt. By including excerpts from newspaper coverage of the murders, “Alias Grace” is an equally compelling murder mystery and historical narrative, providing us with a glimpse into the lives of millions of young people who travelled across the Atlantic in the 1800s in hope of a better life.

Once you finish the book, you can reward yourself with a watch of a miniseries based on the novel that is currently streaming on Netflix.

For fans of period pieces and spy shows like “The Americans” and “Downton Abbey”: “The Alice Network” Kate Quinn

‘please’ doesn’t mean I am waiting for permission.”

Poehler’s transformation from a first year in college watching her first improv show to the Leslie Knope we all know and love is inspiring, and the book is full of resilience and optimism.

Even when she moved to New York without a job or place to live, or when it appeared that “Parks and Recreation” would be cancelled after its first season, Poehler’s optimism remained ever-present.

I especially appreciated Poehler’s focus throughout the book on the importance of being kind and how thankful she is for all of the people who have been kind to her in her life.

As Poehler writes, “The only way we will survive is by being kind.” It may be a simple message, but it is one I feel that we can easily lose sight of, especially in today’s world.

“Yes Please” is a quick read, as the text is supplemented with lots of pictures and other artifacts from Poehler’s childhood and days on “SNL” and “Parks and Rec.” As such, this is a great book to pick up if you are looking for something that will be both fast and worthwhile.“

For fans of “Parks and Recreation” and “Saturday Night Live”: “Yes Please” by Amy Poehler

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

Margaret Atwood, author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” reimagines the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, Kinnear’s housekeeper and mistress. At the time, the murders captivated Canada, with much debate over whether servant Grace Marks, only 16 at the time, was actively involved in the crime or if she was forced into compliance by the farmhand James McDermott. Although both Marks and McDermott were eventually convicted of murder, Marks managed to avoid execution and was instead sentenced to life in prison. After 30 years of incarceration, she was pardoned and moved to northern New York, where she disappeared into obscurity.

In “Alias Grace,” Atwood explores this

The year is 1947, and Charlie St. Clair has a problem — she is pregnant, unmarried and about to be excommunicated from her family.

But more importantly, she has not heard from her French cousin Rose, whom she loves like a sister, since the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II. When she and her mother travel to Europe to get an abortion, Charlie escapes and ventures to London, determined to discover the truth about what happened to her cousin.

There she meets Eve Gardiner, who is hiding away in England and trying her best to forget her haunting experience as a spy in the elite Alice Network — a group of female spies during World War I. However, when Charlie knocks on her door saying a name Eve hasn’t heard in years, the two women join forces on a mission to find out what happened to Rose and who betrayed the Alice Network.

Told through flashbacks and the alternating perspectives of both women, “The Alice Network” is a story of courage, sacrifice and friendship that is nearly impossible to put down. With shocking twists and turns, I guarantee you will tear through this book as soon as you crack it open.

As with “Alias Grace,” “The Alice Network” is based on historical events. The real Alice Network operated in rural France during WWII and spied on German occupiers in the city of Lille. Several real members of the Alice Network are secondary characters in Quinn’s novel, which sheds light on the heroism and bravery these women exhibited.

Photo courtesy of Olivia Gieger ’21

I initially picked up “Yes Please” when I was going through “Parks and Recreation” withdrawal and figured that a book written by Poehler herself would provide lighthearted comedy. Although this book is great for a “Parks and Rec” fan — Poehler dedicates an entire chapter to her experience being Leslie Knope — it is so much more than just a behind-the-scenes look at the show. Rather, “Yes Please” serves as Poehler’s guide on how to live your best life.

Poehler explains how she chose the title for the book, writing that “I love saying ‘yes,’ and I love saying ‘please’. Saying ‘yes’ doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no and saying

Photo courtesy of Olivia Gieger ’21

Sports 9

The Amherst Student • October 24, 2018

Volleyball Goes 3-1, Notches Victories over Trio of Nonconference Foes Dan Papa ’20 Staff Writer The women’s volleyball team capped off its six-game home stand with two wins and a loss at the Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament, hosted at LeFrak Gymnasium, and a victory over the Coast Guard Academy. On Friday, Oct. 19, Amherst honored co-captains Hayes Honea ’19 and Lauren Reppert ’19 as part of its Senior Night ceremony, but ultimately dropped the first match of the tournament to Wellesley College in straight sets.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, the Firedogs rallied, posting back-to-back 3-0 victories over Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Bridgewater State University.

Amherst now boasts an impressive 18-4 record heading into the last week of regular season play.

The Wellesley College Blue entered the match with a 15-4 record and dominated from the opening whistle.

In the first set, Amherst struggled to gain any offensive momentum, allowing 10 straight points to lose 25-10. In the second, Amherst could not stop several runs from Wellesley and quickly lost control of the set, ultimately falling 25-12.

The third set was the most competitive of the night, as Amherst even managed to hold an 18-15 lead. However, a four-point run put

the Blue ahead for good, and the Firedogs dropped the set 25-21. In the defeat, Jamie Dailey ’21 led Amherst with eight kills, while fellow sophomore Daria Kim-Percy contributed six kills and eight digs.

Charlotte Duran ’20 finished with 15 assists and Honea posted two service aces and three digs.

The second match of the tournament for the Firedogs was against the WPI Engineers.

This time, in stark contrast to the previous night’s loss, Amherst was dominant from the start. The first set was tied early at five points apiece, but an offensive explosion from the Firedogs led to a 25-14 set win.

The second set featured complete team play, as Amherst received contributions from Dailey, Cam Hendricks ’20, Claire Dennis ’20 and Emily Kolsky ’20 as they cruised to a 2512 set win.

It only took one more set to finish the match, with Amherst winning 25-13 in the third.

Hendricks led the team in the win with 13 kills, Honea and Skyleur Savage ’22 each had 11 digs and Duran tallied 38 assists.

The second match of the day for Amherst was against the Bridgewater State Bears, who entered with a 4-13 record.

In the first set, Amherst scored 15 straight points to take the set 25-5, while the Firedogs maintained a comfortable lead to win 25-17.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Outside hitter Peal Accord ’21 recorded seven service aces and 16 kills on the year.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Jamie Dailey ’21 has recorded over 235 kills for the Mammoths this season.

In the final frame, Amherst once led throughout the entirety of the set, winning 25-15.

Kolsky and Savage dominated the Bears, posting 15 kills and 11 digs, respectively. Adelaide Shunk ’20 paced the team with 23 assists and Reppert contributed four kills. For her impressive performances over the weekend, Kolsky was named to the all-tournament team.

On Tuesday, Oct. 23, the Firedogs traveled to Coast Guard Academy to take on the Bears.

The Firedogs started strong, taking the first four points of the first set. The Bears, however, made headway and managed to cut the Mammoths’ lead to 15-14.

Amherst would go on to register a 6-2 run, before Coast Guard made another comeback.

The set would end tensely, as Amherst scored the last two points to take the set, 25-22.

The Bears battled back in the second set, wining the first five points, and Amherst could never close the gap. Down 14-17, Amherst took a timeout to reorganize, and scored twice out of that timeout to narrow Coast Guard’s lead to one.

The Bears, however, did not relinquish

the lead, and proceeded to go on a five point run to bring the score to 15-23.

This deficit was too much for the Mammoths to overcome, and the Bears took the set 25-20.

Tied at one set apiece, the Mammoths began to dominate. The third set saw the two squads tied at 16-16, but Amherst went on a 7-2 run after a kill by Dennis.

The Mammoths would go on to claim the set, 25-22.

The fourth set would be less contentious, as the Mammoths won 25-11. Amherst claimed the victory, taking the match, three sets to one.

Dailey and Kolsky led the team in kills with 15 kills each.

Duran would end the match with a spectacular 42 assists, and Honea and Savage led the team with nine digs each.

Kolsky would record eight digs, while only commiting four errors throughout the match.

On Friday, Oct 26, Amherst will head to Lewiston, Maine to take on Bates at 7 p.m before ending regular season play on Saturday, Oct. 27 against Colby.

Women’s Soccer Overwhelms Trinity in Regular Season Finale, 2-0 Nat de Jonge ’21 Staff Writer

The final week of regular season play for the Mammoths began with a tough road matchup against the 8-3-2 Wesleyan Cardinals. Amherst entered the weekend with momentum following a seven-game undefeated tear, during which it had outscored opponents 23-1.

Thanks to their win streak, the Mammoths had obtained 19 points thus far in the NESCAC, and with postseason play fast approaching, Amherst sought to cement a strong seeding against its Little Three rival.

Amherst deployed its usual 3-5-2 formation, utilizing width from its wingbacks and a packed midfield to retain possession and screen the veteran back line.

However, the game started off poorly for the Mammoths, with Wesleyan opening the scoring in the 13th minute off of a throw-in.

Goalkeeper Antonia Tammaro ’21 got her hands to the ball but was unable to clear it completely, and the ball sailed into the back of the net.

As Tammaro had made contact with the ball, there was no concern about a goal directly off a throw in and the Cardinals’ goal counted.

Only six minutes later, the Mammoths responded when Natalie Landau ’21 whipped a cross into the box towards striker Rubii Tamen ’19. The cross found the foot of Tamen, who in turn found the back of the net.

Two minutes later, Tamen almost netted another goal, when she ripped a shot on tar-

get that rebounded off the crossbar and fell to her feet. Tamen latched onto the bouncing ball and sent a shot just wide of the net.

Apart from Tamen’s chance, the match remained knotted at one goal apiece until the 61st minute when Wesleyan, capitalizing on an Amherst defensive error, scored to go up 2-1.

The Cardinals struck again just 10 minutes later to attain a comfortable two-goal margin with under 20 minutes remaining.

In the 85th minute, Tamen injected hope into the Mammoths with her second goal of the day, a tally that doubled as her conferenceleading 10th of the season. Though Amherst pressed for the game-tying goal in the last five minutes of the game, Wesleyan was up to the task defensively and left the field with a 3-2 victory.

The stat line evidenced the generally even nature of the contest with each team attempting 14 shots and four corners.

Tammaro finished the game with four saves on seven shots on target, ending her impressive run of four-consecutive clean sheets.

Following the defeat against Wesleyan, the Mammoths looked to bounce back against Trinity in the team’s regular season finale.

The first half saw Amherst and Trinity deadlocked until the thirty-first minute when Tamen scored off an assist from Sophia Fikke ’22 to break the tie.

The Mammoths would go in to the half with only Tamen’s effort separating the two sides, but just two minutes into the second half, Tamen notched another goal, assisted by fellow striker Alexa Juarez ’22.

The scoreline would hold, and Amherst was able to leave Hartford with the 2-0 victory.

Following this contest, the Mammoths will proceed to the NESCAC Tournament Quarterfinals on Oct. 27, with their opponent to

be decided in the coming weeks based on the outcome of the final NESCAC games.

In addition on Friday, Oct. 18th, the team was named a “Beneski team,” alongside the men’s soccer team, in honor of the contributions of the Beneski family to Amherst.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Striker Rubii Tamen ’19 scored four goals in two games for the Mammoths.

10

Sports

Men’s Soccer Defeats Wesleyan and Brandeis in Lead Up to Postseason Play

Clarus Studios

First-year netminder Bernie White made eight saves and conceded only one goal in the two games this weekend.

Jordan Rhodeman ’21 Staff Writer This past Friday, Oct. 19, the Amherst men’s soccer team traveled to Middletown, Connecticut for a matchup against the Wesleyan Cardinals and emerged with a comfortable 3-0 win.

Coach Justin Serpone’s squad came into the match desperate for a conference win, with the NESCAC tournament fast approaching.

Although Amherst boasts a perfect outof-conference record, the Mammoths sat in fifth place in the league on 13 points, just one point behind both Middlebury and Bowdoin.

Amherst played with intensity, organization and physicality from the opening whistle, traits which have traditionally been hallmarks of the Mammoths under Serpone’s leadership.

An Amherst breakaway led to a Wesleyan foul just outside the Cardinals’ 18-yard-box, and midfielder Dane Lind ’19 stepped up to take the free kick.

Instead of shooting, though, Lind fired a ball towards the far post, where left back Bryce Johnson ’21 buried the cross in the back of the net for Amherst’s first goal of the game.

Although Johnson’s acrobatic flip throws have been a key offensive weapon for the Mammoths throughout the season, this was the sophomore’s first tally of the season and demonstrated his offensive prowess beyond the touchlines.

Amherst pressed forward in search of another goal before the end of the first half, and Cutler Coleman ’20 and German Giammattei ’22 managed to accomplish this task. Giammattei sent a through ball past the defense and to the feet of the onrushing Coleman, who slotted home into the bottom right corner of the net.

Coleman’s tally gave Amherst plenty of

momentum heading into halftime, and the second half ultimately proved to be all Amherst.

After long bouts of sustained offensive pressure, Jimmy McMillian ’20 finally scored the Mammoths’ third and final goal of the game in the 82nd minute.

McMillian got on the end of a long throw from Johnson and chipped the ball over the onrushing Wesleyan keeper and into the back of the net.

Amherst took 31 shots in total, as the Wesleyan defense withered under Amherst’s late game offensive surge.

Corner kicks were even between both teams, but Amherst, in a testament to its physical style of play and penchant for taking risks, accrued 12 fouls in contrast to Wesleyan’s nine.

With this win, Amherst moved to 5-3-1 in league play. The team, however, did not advance in the table, as all teams above them were also victorious.

Amherst returned to the field on Monday, Oct. 22, when it traveled to Brandeis for a non-conference match-up.

The visitors came out of the gates with intensity, scoring in the opening moments of the game. After gaining possession, an Amherst midfielder launched a ball into the box from midfield.

Nyugen, rising above his defender, nudged the ball towards Fikayo Ajayi ’19, who slotted the pass with a first touch towards the left corner and past the keeper.

Amherst continued to dominate the start, pressuring Brandeis and setting a physical tone of the match.

In the aftermath of a set piece, defender Sean Fitzgerald ’19 scored his third career goal. He used his 6’5” frame at full stretch to fire home a pass from midfielder Alex Shahmirzadi ’22, who earned his first career assist for the Mammoths.

The Mammoths would continue to assault

Clarus Studios

Senior midfielder Fikayo Ajayi has gone on a scoring spree in recent games, notching his only two goals of the season in the past two weeks.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Biafra Okoronkwo ’20

Charlotte Duran ’20

Team: Football Favorite Team Memory: Silently demonstrating during the national anthem with my teammates against Wesleyan last season.

Favorite Pro Athlete: Usain Bolt Dream Job: The global health field pertaining to health services in north and west Africa Pet Peeve: When people don’t acknowledge each others’ presence Favorite Vacation Spot: Brazil Something on Your Bucket List: Traveling the black diaspora, specifically West Africa and the Caribbean Guilty Pleasure: Cookies and cream ice cream Favorite Food: Breakfast Favorite Thing About Amherst: The diversity of our community How He Earned It: This week, Okoronkwo posted his second straight 100-yard rushing game, gaining 119 yards against Wesleyan, while registering two scores a week after rushing for 185 yards and a 70-yard touchdown against Colby. Okoronkwo was named NESCAC offensive player of the week for his efforts, and currently leads the Amherst football team in rushing yards with 501 yards on the season.

Team: Volleyball Favorite Team Memory: Beating Middlebury in five sets in our first NESCAC game of the year.

Favorite Pro Athlete: Kobe Dream Job: Fortune Cookie Writer Pet Peeve: Clothes on dogs Favorite Vacation Spot: Madrid Something on Your Bucket List: Visit Every Continent Guilty Pleasure: Brownies Favorite Food: Steak Favorite Thing About Amherst: The people How She Earned It: Duran has been dominant as the primary setter for the Firedogs, registering an incredible 696 assists on the season and averaged a NESCAC-leading 10.39 assists per set.

As a team, Amherst has registered 12.08 assists per set, meaning that Duran has assisted on 81percent of the Mammoths’ offensive plays on the season. Duran recently completed an impressive run, registering 95 assists over the past four games against Clark University, Wellesley College, Worchester Polytechnic Institute, and Bridgewater St.

Clarus Studios

Sophomore left-back Jack O’Brien has been an instrumental part of the Mammoths’ success this season, often providing energy off the bench. the Judges’ net for the remainder of the half, taking nine shots before the whistle blew.

The second half would be an unremarkable affair, as each team battled for possession.

Amherst demonstrated their characteristic physicality and fearlessness in the tackle, earning nine fouls in the second half, but only Andres Pascual-Leone ’19 and Lind earned yellow cards.

Brandeis clawed a goal bacl in the 80th minute, when Noah Gans scored, but that was not enough for the Judges, as the 2-1 scoreline would hold, and the match finished with Amherst’s defense ensuring the victory a clean final ten minutes.

The Mammoths will next face Trinity in their regular season finale on Wednesday, Oct. 23rd at 3:30 p.m on Hitchcock field.

The Mammoths will then enter the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament on Saturday, against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

In addition, on Friday, Oct. 18, the men’s soccer team was named a member of the “Beneski Soccer Teams,” along with the women’s team.

In doing so, Amherst honored Ted W. Beneski ’78, P’08 and Laurie M. Beneski P’08.

The college, in a statement, praised the two for “their extraordinary generosity and commitment to the College.”

In terms public effects, little has changed.

The Amherst Athletics website makes no mention of either team’s relationship to the new name, except for a tagline “Proud members of the Beneski soccer programs,” above a blurb commemorating their previous accomplishments on each team’s home page.

Additionally, In press releases, a tagline is now included below scores from both teams’ games. Although members of both teams received “Beneski Soccer Programs” scarves, their jerseys will not change this season.

The Mammoths will look to continue their winning ways when they face Trinity College at home on Wednesday in what is the team’s final regular season game of the season. Following this contest, the Mammoths will head into post-season play at the NESCAC Championships.

Sports

Football’s Defense Proves Dominant in Win Over Little Three Rival Wesleyan

11

The Mazzola Minute Jamie Mazzola ’21 Columnist With the NBA season a week old, Jamie is already looking ahead to the playoffs. He identifies five teams as having a chance to win it all this year, with the Warriors leading the way.

Clarus Studios

Quarterback Ollie Eberth ’20 completed 60 percent of his passes and totaled 262 all-purpose yards in the team’s sixth win to open the season.

Matthew Sparrow ’21 Staff Writer Going into the season, Amherst was well aware that the team’s success would be decided by the last four games on the schedule.

On Saturday, the Mammoths took their first major step towards a NESCAC title by knocking off Wesleyan in Middletown, Connecticut to remain undefeated and stay atop the standings.

The Amherst offense started off slowly, only recording one first down on its first possession and punting the ball away after only four plays.

However, Henry Atkeson ’20 launched a 49-yard punt to down the Cardinals at their own 14 yard line.

The Amherst defense capitalized on the excellent kick, with Andrew Sommer ’19 sacking Wesleyan quarterback Mark Piccirillo in the endzone for a safety to put Amherst up 2-0.

On the ensuing possession, junior quarterback Ollie Eberth came up clutch twice on third down, completing passes to Bo Berluti ’19 and James O’Regan ’20 to keep Amherst’s drive alive.

The eight-play drive culminated in a 15yard run by Biafra Okoronkwo ’20 to extend the Amherst lead to 9-0 midway through the first quarter.

The teams would trade field goals, including a 41-yard kick from senior Andrew Ferrero, before the Mammoth’s defense was able to stop the Cardinals on a third-and-1, forcing the hosts to punt. Starting at his own 25-yard line, Eberth methodically marched Amherst down the field, highlighted by a 45-yard pass to O’Regan.

Okoronkwo capped the possession off with a seven-yard run, his second touchdown of the day, to allow Amherst to enter the lock-

er room up 19-3.

Neither team got much going on offense to start the second half, with several punts exchanged and the Mammoths unable to make use of an interception by senior Nate Tyrell.

When faced with a fourth-and-8 at the Wesleyan 30-yard line, head coach E.J. Mills rolled the dice and decided to keep the ball in the hands of his quarterback.

Eberth rewarded that trust by tossing his first and only touchdown of the afternoon, a 30-yard strike to O’Regan to increase the lead to 26-3.

Amherst wasn’t done yet, as it added one final score early in the fourth quarter on sophomore Eric Jung’s first career touchdown run. The 33-3 score would hold up and Amherst clinched a crucial road victory.

Eberth was excellent on the day, going 1424 with 203 passing yards, 59 rushing yards and a passing touchdown.

His favorite target O’Regan finished with seven catches for 134 yards and a touchdown, while Okoronkwo made the most of his 18 carries, totaling 119 yards and two scores.

The Amherst defense was stellar on Saturday, only allowing 101 total yards of offense to a team that came into the game averaging over 350 per game.

The Mammoths were in the backfield all day, recording six sacks including 1.5 by senior John Callahan. This was the kind of defensive performance that every team in the NESCAC was wary of prior to the season.

With just three games remaining on the schedule, every game is of the utmost importance for Amherst.

First up for the Mammoths will be Tufts, which currently boasts a record of 5-1 and sits just one game back of Amherst.

The Mammoths will host the Jumbos next Saturday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. in a contest which doubles as Amherst’s Family Weekend.

Clarus Studios

Biafra Okoronkwo ‘20 rushed for two touchdowns and 119 yards on 18 carries.

The 2018-19 National Basketball Association’s (NBA) regular season has begun, and it’s finally socially acceptable to talk about basketball again. While the playoffs are still far in the future, discussion over which teams are true title contenders has begun in earnest, and will take place throughout the regular season.

I believe there are five such teams in the NBA — one clear favorite, three contenders primed for improvement and one team likely doomed for regression.

rating after the All-Star Game last season. The way Gobert alters offensive schemes by forcing teams out of the paint is reminscent of the way Curry’s shooting range forces defenders to guard all the way up to half-court, as both completely alter the geometry of the floor.

The Jazz are a promising foil to Golden State’s high-octane offense (the Jazz dominated the 2017-18 season series with a 3-1 record), and Utah-Golden State may well become the marquee matchup in the Western Conference.

1. Golden State Warriors No surprises here. The defending champs are favorites to three-peat, even after a quiet offseason.

Quiet, that is, unless you count the addition of four-time All-Star DeMarcus Cousins.

That’s right — the Warriors could roll out the first five All-Star lineup in over 40 years at some point this season.

Combine that with Steph Curry focusing his offseason efforts on staying healthy throughout the regular season and the already nearly-unbeatable Warriors somehow managed to get even better.

Much like the 2017-18 season, Golden State’s biggest regular season challenges will be making sure boredom doesn’t translate to sloppiness and staying healthy, with the integration of Cousins once he recovers from a torn achilles adding another wrinkle to the mix.

This year could be the last for this core five, so keep an eye on free-agency rumors, as they could disrupt team chemistry.

The now-retired, ex-Warriors power forward David West hinted at behind-the-scenes team drama during last year’s run to the title, and the last thing the Warriors need is another reason not to focus on the games at hand.

4. Toronto Raptors After years of moderate success with essentially the same squad, the Raptors nabbed the top-seed in the Eastern Conference last season by — you guessed it — running-it-back with a similar squad.

Smarter ball-movement, more-emphasis on the three-ball and the development of a bench mob capable of outplaying many starting units contributed to this leap, but the Raptors again fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs, crashing out of the postseason to a LeBron James-led team for a third straight season.

As part of a very busy offseason, the Raptors parted ways with 2017-18 NBA Coach of the Year Dwane Casey and swapped DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.

Although Leonard only played nine games last season due to a quad injury and conflict with the San Antonio Spurs front office, he’s a top-five player in the league when healthy and maybe the best two-way player in the entire NBA. Most importantly, he’s a former NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, who doesn’t collapse under the pressure of the postseason.

LeBron James’ move west removes yet-another playoff block, and the Raptors will battle the Celtics for Eastern Conference supremacy.

2. Boston Celtics The Celtics added All-stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving to a squad that reached last year’s Eastern Conference Finals and returned all major role players in the process.

Need I say more? Last season’s second-ranked defense is long, switchable and features a strong mix of energetic youngsters and wise veterans.

The Celtics roll out a starting lineup of Irving, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford, each of whom is capable of finishing anywhere on the court — from at the rim to beyond the arc. With a bench featuring a starting caliber point-guard in Terry Rozier, self-proclaimed “pitbull” and defensive stalwart Marcus Smart, a talented scorer and capable defender in Marcus Morris and the Joel Embiid-stopper Aron Baynes, the Celtics might boast the deepest roster in the league.

If Irving and Hayward return to form and Tatum makes the leap to All-Star status, the Celtics could prove a serious challenge for the top-heavy Warriors.

3. Utah Jazz Continuity is key for a Utah Jazz team headlined by sophomore shooting guard Donovan Mitchell.

While the Jazz lack many complete offensive players, Ricky Rubio’s passing, Joe Ingles’s shooting, Mitchell’s finishing at the rim and Rudy Gobert’s lob threat form the pieces of a contender.

Mitchell is poised to make the All-Star leap, especially if he improves his jump shot.

An improvement in Rubio’s shooting and finishing or Ingles’ creation could turn the Jazz into a top-tier NBA offense.

Thanks to a stifling defensive scheme, which was the best in the NBA during the 2017-18 season, the Jazz led the NBA in net-

5. Houston Rockets Minus an ill-timed Chris Paul hamstring injury and an NBA-record three-point shooting drought, we may be speaking of the Rockets as the reigning champions.

The Rockets switch-heavy defensive scheme and isolation-heavy offense pushed the Warriors to seven games in last year’s Western Conference Finals, but the Rockets failed to return the same roster.

Rather, Houston lost two of its best perimeter defenders in Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute, replacing them with noted mid-range specialist and defensive liability Carmelo Anthony.

Anthony’s fit with the Rockets is questionable at best, even before considering his previous experience coach Mike D’Antoni, but it’s the loss of Ariza and Mbah a Moute that will ultimately prove more significant.

The Rockets made the leap to championship contender last season thanks to a muchimproved defense, and without two of the three most switchable members of that elite defense, the Rockets may become a sieve.

The additions of James Ennis and Michael Carter-Williams will likely do little to offset this defensive decline, and though Paul and reigning league-MVP James Harden will once again command an electric offensive unit, Golden State has only widened the gap on Houston.

The landscape of this year’s NBA should provide an entertaining season. Although the Golden State Warriors have the best chance of claiming their third straight title, any team can claim the title, for NBA seasons rarely shake out the way everyone expects.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Forward Natalie Hobbs ’22 has scored five goals and tallied three assists in her first campaign for the Mammoths, including a goal last week.

Field Hockey Shuts Out Both Smith and Little Three Rival Wesleyan Rose Mzrocka ’20 Staff Writer Two solid team efforts against Smith and Wesleyan extended Amherst field hockey’s win streak to an impressive four games and brought the Mammoths’ record on the year to 10-4.

The Mammoths dominated from the opening whistle on Thursday evening in their matchup against local rival Smith. 14 minutes into the first half, Beth Williamson ’22 found the back of the net for her third goal of the season.

Midfielder Laura Schwartzman ’20 set up the scoring play with a sleek pass to Williamson, who had taken up a position at the top of the arc.

Williamson rifled a shot towards the Pioneers’ net that was deflected by a Smith defender and flew past the goalkeeper into the top right corner of the net.

This goal proved to be the only tally of the period, and the Mammoths entered halftime

GAME SCHE DULE

up 1-0.

After halftime, it didn’t take long for Amherst to increase its lead, as less than three minutes into the second half, defender Kendall Codey ’19 ripped a low shot past Smith’s goalkeeper for her 10th goal of the season.

Shannon Tierney ’19 was credited an assist on the play.

The Mammoths’ third goal would come in the 54th minute, as first-year Natalie Hobbs collected the ball at midfield and carried it into the offensive zone.

Making a move, Hobbs easily slid the ball into the net for her fifth goal of the season.

With six minutes left to play, Tierney scored the final goal of the evening, leaving Amherst with a dominant 4-0 win.

The Mammoths’ defensive line stood strong for all 70 minutes of play. The strong defensive play of Cody and Williamson shut down the Smith offensive, holding the Pioneers to zero shots on target.

Katie Savage ’19 recorded the win between

the pipes, although it was light work for her, as she did not have to make a single save.

The Mammoths returned to action just two days later on Saturday, as they faced off against Wesleyan in their last away game of the season.

For the second straight contest, Williamson opened the scoring, this time 20 minutes into the first half. Once again collecting a pass from Schwartzman at the top of the arc, Williamson rifled a shot past the Wesleyan goalkeeper.

Though the Mammoths were unable to add to the scoreline in the first half, Franny Daniels ’21 found the back of the net just one minute into the second half.

Hobbs dished a clean pass to Daniels who deked the goalie and easily fired the ball home.

Daniels leads the team with 13 goals on the season.

The Mammoths dealt a final blow to the Cardinals when Megan Shea ’19 scored with 20 minutes left to play.

Burying a rebound from Anna Agathis ’21,

WED

FRI

SAT

Men’s Soccer vs. Trinity, 3:30 p.m.

Volleyball @ Bates, 7 p.m.

Men’s Soccer NESCAC Quarterfinal, TBA

Field Hockey vs. Trinity, 7 p.m.

Women’s Soccer NESCAC Quarterfinal, TBA

Shea secured the Mammoths’ 3-0 victory over their Little Three rival.

In total, Amherst’s potent offense fired 22 shots on Wesleyan’s net, and the Cardinals’ goalie Delaney Wood had to stand on her head to keep Wesleyan within striking distance, making 19 saves. Amherst’s outstanding defensive line held the Cardinals to only six shots on net throughout the bout, while both of Amherst’s goaltenders came up big in the victory.

Savage, who played 64 minutes, racked up four saves, and Emilie Flamme ’20 made two stops in her six minutes of game action.

With the win over Wesleyan, Amherst cinched the Little Three title for the ninth consecutive season, as the Mammoths had narrowly edged out Williams 4-3 in overtime earlier this year.

Amherst will go for its fifth-straight win against Trinity this week, as the Mammoths will host the Bantams on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. in the team’s last game of the regular season.

Women’s Cross Country @ NESCAC Championships, noon Football v.s. Tufts, 1 p.m.

Men’s Cross Country @ NESCAC Championships, 1 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Colby 1 p.m.