Issue 8

THE AMHERST

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 8 l WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2017

Men’s Cross Country Wins NESCAC Championship See Sports, Page 10 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

College Holds Multi-Day Event on Decolonization Kathleen Maeder ’20 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Shawna Chen ’20

Students gathered on Friday, Oct. 27, for the most recent “AmherstChatback” event on nationality. The new series, created by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, aims to bring students together for dialogue across differences.

ODI Hosts 7-Week ‘AmherstChatback’ Sehee Park ’20 Staff Writer

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is holding a new series titled “AmherstChatBack: Dialoguing Across Difference” to provide a space for students to talk about differences and intersections in their lives. Cofacilitated by Dialogue Coordinator Ismaris K. Ocasio and Race, Gender and Sexuality Education Specialist Babyface Card in Keefe Campus Center, the first dialogue took place on Sept. 29 while the most recent dialogue on Friday, Oct. 27 — the fifth of seven — addressed nationality. Past topics have included class, gender, ability and sexuality.

According to Ocasio in a separate inter-

view, “The hopes originally with the Chatbacks were that we would focus on … talking about these things through an intersectional lens in a way that’s focused on dialogue, not debate.”

“So, how are we actually exchanging ideas, how are we gaining new perspectives and how are we learning from each other about these topics of oppression without it being heady or confrontational or frustrating?” Ocasio said.

Through these dialogues, students have the opportunity to learn how to communicate across social and cultural differences, Ocasio added.

“There is also a need on campus to talk about singular forms of oppression,” Card said in an interview after the event.

“The people, the students [on campus] often talk about oppression as a whole a lot, but they don’t necessarily have the space to talk about certain topics as they intersect with others,” Card said. “So, I think that students really appreciate this space because it is a Friday afternoon, and I think that us being facilitators create a space that is safe considering that we are staff, but we are closer … to the age of the students.”

The fifth dialogue kicked off with student introductions, after which Ocasio and Card played a video of Uzo Aduba, an actress famous for her role in TV show “Orange is the New Black” talking about how she used to

Continued on Page 3

The college held an event called “Decolonization in Comparative Context,” which took place in in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry on Oct. 27 and 28 and featured a variety of panels with guest speakers.

Panel participants attempted to define decolonization and discuss “its origins and its connection to the histories and memories of a given geographical space,” as well as the “legacies [that] decolonial thinking pass[es] on to contemporary thought,” according to the event’s official description.

Friday evening opened with a panel titled “What is Decolonization?” Held from 4 to 6 p.m., it featured scholars Anjali Prabhu, George Ciccariello-Maher and J. Kehaulani Kauanui.

Three panels were held throughout the day on Saturday: “On Red Skin, White Masks,” “On Brown Skin, White Masks” and “On Black Skin, White Masks.” All three panels featured distinguished academics in various fields including indigenous studies, Middle East studies and black studies.

John Drabinski, professor of Black Studies, organized “Decolonization in Comparative Context” along with Assistant Professor of American Studies Kiara Vigil and Professor of Anthropology Chris Dole.

Regarding the selection of panelists, Drabinski said in an email interview that “it was pretty straightforward: find interesting, creative, innovative and important scholars in our fields … and ask them to come talk about decolonization.”

Continued on Page 3

Activist Loretta Ross Gives Talk on Reproductive Justice Emma Swislow ’20 Assistant News Editor Loretta Ross, a human and women’s rights activist who helped coined the term “reproductive justice,” spoke about the origins of the reproductive justice movement and how it can be used to dismantle white supremacy on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Her talk was part of Reproductive Justice Week, which was hosted by the Women and Gender Center and the student-run Reproductive Justice Alliance.

Ross is the co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which educates women of color on their reproductive rights, and currently a visiting assistant professor of women’s studies at Hampshire College.

Reproductive justice, she said in her talk, is a framework that focuses on the combination of reproductive rights, human rights and social justice.

“What is reproductive justice?” Ross said.

“The right to have a child, the right to not have a child and the right to raise your children. Everyone should have that. It’s not that hard to explain — it’s just hard as hell to achieve.”

The concept of reproductive justice first emerged at a women’s conference in 1994. At this time, Congress was working on health care reform, but reproductive health care was not a

part of the conversation in order to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans, according to Ross. During the conference, Ross and a group of black women from a variety of organizations and backgrounds began talking about the reform and its relation to social justice.

“As black women who understood abortion politics right and left, we were always frustrated at how abortion was always isolated from all the other social justice issues,” Ross said. “We decided to take the concept of reproductive rights and splice it together with the concept of social justice, and we coined the term of reproductive justice.”

Intersectionality serves as one of the main pillars of reproductive justice in an effort to protect rights, especially those of women of color, that some believe are not protected by the U.S. Constitution, according to Ross.

In her talk, Ross emphasized the importance of the connection between reproductive rights and human rights and what it means for women in the United States in particular.

“The U.S. Constitution, first of all, can’t handle intersectionality … Secondly, they don’t talk about the right to economic security or freedom from violence or housing or education,” Ross said. “None of that is in the U.S. Constitution.

It’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as defined by white, slave-owning men. It’s a very

impudent document, in my mind, for achieving and protecting our human rights.”

Among other roles, Ross works to bring people into the reproductive justice and activist movement. While such a task is difficult at times, she recognizes what helps people change their mentality.

“No words make them change,” Ross said.

“The people I know who have made the most profound changes in what they believe have had personal experiences that got them there.”

In terms of change on an institutional level, Ross sees a need to overhaul the current cultural morality in order to construct a more equal society, she said.

“The best use of human rights for me, at this time, is for establishing the morality of a culture of caring,” Ross said.

“Right now we’ve got this atomized, individualistic, philosophical tradition that will never create the cultural caring that we need,” Ross added. “The next step in the sequence is to defuse and enter our political system so that we can construct a post-white supremacist world that’s built on how well we take care of each other.”

Melissa Pineda Brown ’20, a member of the Reproductive Justice Alliance student group, found Ross’s focus on the inclusivity of the reproductive justice movement especially in-

triguing.

“She focused less on the act of abortion and more on not only the significance [that] being able to get an abortion possesses — ensuring one’s bodily autonomy — but the greater power dynamics and oppressive institutions at hand that have made it so that women, often those who are poor women of color, end up having to make these decisions in the first place,” she said.

Co-president of the Reproductive Justice Alliance Samantha O’Brien ’18 has previously seen Ross speak several times but still found the talk important in creating her own beliefs around reproductive justice.

“Each time I hear her speak, it’s not so much a matter of learning something new as it is thinking about something in a way that I’ve never thought about before,” O’Brien said. “Her keen eye on the world and the precision with which she tells her stories really helps me clarify my own thoughts on many different issues.”

For the second year, the Reproductive Justice Alliance hosted Reproductive Justice Week in collaboration with the Women’s and Gender Center.

This weeklong event included a phone bank and a social media campaign urging government officials to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from being allocated to pay for abortions.

News

Matthew Chow Oct. 23, 2017 - Oct. 30, 2017

>>Oct. 23, 2017 7:16 p.m., Merrill Lot An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident. >>Oct. 24, 2017 12:26 p.m., The Quadrangle An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident.

2:39 p.m., Valentine Dormitory The Office of Sustainability reported the theft of a black Trek bicycle, valued at $200, from a bicycle rack. >>Oct. 25, 2017 12:05 p.m., Garman House Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the first floor and found it was activated by the use of a hair straightener.

1:09 p.m., Charles Drew House Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the first floor and found it was activated by cooking smoke. >>Oct. 26, 2017 7:34 p.m., Keefe Campus Center An officer responded to a report of the odor of burning plastic in the basement. No problem was identified. >>Oct. 27, 2017 3:11 a.m., Mayo-Smith Lot An officer encountered a person picking through a dumpster. The person had no association with the college and was asked to leave.

3:40 p.m., Wieland Dormitory An officer responded to a complaint of two people smoking marijuana outside the building.

No one was found when the area was checked.

6:05 p.m., Tyler House Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in the basement and found it was activated by cooking smoke.

8:55 p.m., Greenway Building B A caller reported an unknown person asked him to let him into Greenway Building B. The caller did not let him in. Officers checked the area and found the man, who is a former employee.

He was advised to stay away from the residence halls.

11:50 p.m., Mayo-Smith House A town resident complained about a loud party at MayoSmith. The party sponsor was contacted by phone. >>Oct. 28, 2017 12:11 a.m., Mayo-Smith House Officers responded to a second noise complaint at a registered party and found several violations. Over 100 people were in attendance, and there was evidence that hard alcohol and drinking games were present.

12:48 a.m., Jenkins Dormitory A caller reported several un-

known people being loud and aggressive in a first-floor suite.

Upon arrival, an officer discovered the people outside. They were directed to leave campus.

2:17 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer investigated an emergency phone activation from the elevator. No problem was found.

2:19 a.m., Seelye House An officer discovered hard alcohol and beer in the kitchenette.

It was disposed of.

2:36 a.m., King Dormitory While checking the building an officer found evidence that hard alcohol and drinking games were available at a registered party.

The matter was referred to Student Affairs.

3:01 p.m., Powerhouse Officers investigated a fire alarm but no cause could be found.

6:15 p.m., Greenway Building B Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding in Greenway Building B and found it was caused by cooking smoke.

9:35 p.m., Tyler Place Two students reported seeing a man expose himself as they walked along Lessey Street on their way to Tyler. Officers, including officers from the town police, searched the area but the man was not found. >>Oct. 29, 2017 12:32 a.m., Seelye House Officers discovered that hard alcohol had been served at a registered party in violation of the party policy. The event was shut down.

4:57 p.m., Jenkins Dormitory Officers and the Fire Department responded to an alarm and found it was activated by marijuana smoke. The responsible person was identified, and the matter was referred to Student Affairs.

5:03 p.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Student Affairs reported receiving a report of a student that entered three rooms and removed food items.

5:31 p.m., Garman House Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding on the first floor and found it was activated by steam from cooking.

6:48 p.m., Greenway Building B Officers investigated a smoke detector sounding and found it was activated by use of an oven. >>Oct. 30, 2017 12:23 a.m., Kirby Theater Officers and the Fire Department responded to an alarm but the cause could not be identified.

Thoughts on Theses Department of English

Matthew Chow ’18 is an English and economics double major. His thesis examines the intersection of the Christian gospel and Shakespeare’s tragedies. His advisor is Professor Anston Bosman in the English Department.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: I’ll start with the Christian gospel aspect of it.

I’ve been Christian almost all my life, and I think a big part of my college experience has been getting to know what the gospel is. At the same time, what’s been really cool is taking a lot of Shakespeare classes and seeing how in tragedy there’s a lot of elements that mirror the gospel, but also a lot of elements that challenge and conflict with the gospel. Notions of sacrifice, scapegoating, catharsis and purging a community of evil are the questions that I’m really interested in. In my thesis, I’m hoping to look where in Shakespeare we see that type of tragic scapegoating, self-annihilation that you also see in the Bible with Jesus and the different characters in the Bible as well. I want to see how they shine a light on each other.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for your thesis?

A: The idea came up in a Shakespeare class that I took my sophomore year. For that class, I wrote a paper about how in Richard III, Shakespeare uses rhetorical forms in a way that advances the plot. I focused on this rhetorical device called chiasmus. If you think of the way Shakespeare plays with words, he’ll flip a sentence on itself, so I was looking at how Shakespeare does that rhetorically but also how that reflects the genre of tragedy — where a person goes from being good to being bad, or a community goes from being evil to being good. Also, I was looking at how that reflects the Christian gospel. That idea really stuck with me and I really enjoyed writing it, so when it came down to think of a potential thesis, that was one that jumped out at me. Since then, I’ve learned so much more about Shakespeare and the genre of drama as a whole.

Q: What kind of research have you done so far?

A: There’s been two fronts to the research. One is just reading the primary texts because Shakespeare has so many different plays. I want to focus more on tragedy, but of course there’s a lot of other plays that can speak to that topic of Christianity. I think the one thing that I need to do is read through as many of those plays as possible.

Through taking a couple Shakespeare classes here, I’ve probably read six or seven Shakespeare plays, but even now I’m reading through some new ones that I haven’t read before. The other front is the secondary sources that give me historical context.

In general, it’s just a lot of reading and looking for new things to read. It’s very different from STEM research because there’s no lab work you have to do. You have to figure out what questions you have and find a way to address those questions and see what new questions come up.

Q: How has your thesis changed from when you started?

A: I think the driving idea behind the thesis hasn’t changed a lot, but through reading more plays, I’ve kind of expanded the scope of what I’m looking at.

There have been a lot more questions that I’ve had to ask, especially because a lot of those plays I read were in the context of the class that I took them in. So now being able to read and write in a more free-form way has allowed me to ask different questions instead of just thinking about the curriculum. These new questions kind of complicate things because it’s hard to know what to focus on.

Q: What is the best part about writing a thesis?

A: The best part about writing a thesis is that I

feel like I’m creating something that has originated from and is inspired and motivated by myself. This entire process is really mine to succeed in or mine to fail in – I don’t know how it’ll end up turning out. I think just having a lot of agency over this is really important to me. I’ve done a bit of research work for professors in the past, and while that helped me learn a lot about the research process, it’s different when you have to do something that someone else assigns to you or if you have to read books that a professor wants you to read for their projects. There’s a lot you can learn from that, but it’s also different because you don’t feel like you have the same ownership over that project. But with a thesis, for the first time, I have ownership over all of it. My advisor helps me a lot and gives me suggestions, but in the end it’s up to me to decide whether I want to follow them or go in a different direction. It’s also a really cool way of validating all of the things I’ve learned at Amherst.

There’s so many things that we learn in our classes that we don’t necessarily see until maybe we are working or like farther down in our careers, but I think a thesis is one physical way you can see all of the ways I’ve developed as a thinker, reader and writer.

Q: What’s the hardest part about writing a thesis?

A: It’s kind of complicated with Shakespeare because there’s so much that’s been written about it, so it’s hard to find an original viewpoint or even to dig through the thousands of books that have been written about Shakespeare. Even with Shakespeare and Christianity – there’s so much that’s been written about it. One challenge that I have right now is where to start looking because there’s just so much that I could look at. Another difficult thing for me has been reconciling my academic interests and my personal beliefs and convictions. I believe in the gospel and that’s my driving motivation for this project, but I don’t want that belief to influence the way I look at academic writing. I also don’t want my academic writing and reading to distort my original motivation behind finding these intersections between Christianity and literature.

For me, that’s been one of my worries — trying to stay loyal to both.

Q: Has working on your thesis changed your relationship with Christianity at all?

A: I would say not in a way that I can see yet. If you asked me again in a few months, I don’t know what I might say.

Q: Do you have any advice for other students interested in writing a thesis in the future?

A: If you have any inkling of a desire to do it, go for it. As far as I know, in most departments you can basically take it as far as you want to. Even right now, I’m not exactly sure where my thesis will go and the one anxiety is: what if I spent a year and nothing comes out of it? But just being able to read and think and talk to my advisor and other people about this idea that I’ve been able to create that I’m passionate about has been great. This whole process is really worth it. I’d say if you have an idea that you’re passionate about, even if you’re worried about the end result, I’d say go for it. You can always decide later on in the process to let it go if you want to.

— Sylvia Frank ’20

The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

News

3

‘Chatbacks’ Gather Students for Dialogue, Not Debate Continued from Page 1 be ashamed of her Nigerian name. One day, she asked her mother if she could change her name from Uzoamaka to Zoe. Her mother replied, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky, and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, then they can learn to say Uzoamaka.”

Using the video as a starting point, students talked in pairs about their reactions and where they thought the discussion would go.

After regrouping, students shared about their conversations.

Most students said they had experienced times when they were insecure about their names or wanted to change their names to ones that were more common and easier to pronounce. They also expressed frustration that names held so much power and had the potential to determine a person’s job prospects.

Irisdelia Garcia ’18 shared her experience “about [people] seeing my name on paper, Irisdelia, and thinking, ‘Oh, Latinx descent, probably from “x, y, z” places,’ when really I was born here. So, what does it mean for people to subscribe to your nationality?”

After talking about students’ personal struggles with their given names and their intersections with nationality, the conversation moved to assimilation.

“What are some of the costs that come with assimilation?” Ocasio asked. “… For future generations and the people who come after us, what happens if we just start to whitewash our names … for the benefit of survival and getting jobs?”

Assimilation happens at the cost of others, Natalia Dyer ’18 said.

“It’s kind of like, you have done this better than them, so therefore you have assimilated and they have not,” she said. Regarding the loss of one’s culture, she added, “Once you go down a path … I feel like it probably wouldn’t just stop at names.”

Photo courtesy of Shawna Chen ’20

At the most recent AmherstChatback, Dialogue Coordinator Ismaris K. Ocasio and Race, Gender and Sexuality Education Specialist Babyface Card co-facilitated student conversations about names, assimilation and language.

Ocasio also brought up the label of “cultural colonization” — colonization carried out by those who have already assimilated and judge those who come after them from other nations.

Students then split up into four groups to discuss the intersections of nationality with language, religion, social interactions and cultural norms and practices. After group discussions, they came back together to share their ideas.

On language and its intersection with nationality, a common theme was how language could act as a barrier. Many discussed how institutions mark those who can’t speak English fluently as different or or often give up on them completely.

Sometimes in schools, Amal Buford ’19 said, “The staff … don’t understand why.

They think that the kid is just being lazy, that they don’t give enough effort in school.”

“It’s a misconception, because they come [to America and] their parents don’t speak English, so it’s very hard for them to try and communicate in English to their parents when their parents — all they know is Spanish,” Buford said. “And then they go into the school system, and then they’re treated as lazy kids.”

After the panel, Residential Life Program Coordinator Caryce Tirop ’17, who attended the event, said, “It’s important to have … more global conversations because it’s so easy to be American-centric.”

“I just feel like Amherst has always prided

itself on having a significant international student population, and I just think it’s high time to walk that talk,” she added.

Card said that the ODI hopes to “open up [the discussions] to staff and faculty, probably starting next semester.”

“I think that it would be a great opportunity for students to be able to dialogue with staff and faculty in this space,” Card added. “I think that we often put staff and faculty into spaces by themselves and talk about the institution … which does not allow [them] to really understand what students are going through and what students want to talk about.”

The next chatback is set to take place on Friday, Nov. 3, in the McCaffrey Room at 2 p.m. and will focus on race.

Photojournalist Discusses Activism in Kenya and Evoking Change Natalie De Rosa ’21 Staff Writer Award-winning photojournalist and activist Boniface Mwangi gave a talk titled “How I Found My Voice” on Wednesday, Oct. 25, in Stirn Auditorium about his experience photographing the 2007 Kenyan election, being an activist and running for a seat in Kenyan Parliament this past year. The event, which was free and open to the public, was sponsored by the Lamont Fund, the dean of the faculty and the college’s political science department.

Mwangi leads a number of initiatives aimed at enabling youth to bring about social and political change in Kenya. Though his photojournalism has garnered international recognition, his work has primarily involved activism in recent years. A week before he was scheduled to speak at Amherst, he was shot by a police officer in Kenya while protesting police brutality. He sustained injuries, but they were not life-threatening and he was able to give his lecture here.

Mwangi began his speech by talking about the death of his mother when he was 17 years old. As a result, he was left with nothing and struggled to make a life for himself, he said.

Her death also coincided with the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi, who served as president of Kenya at the time.

“I grew up in a culture of fear and a lot of cowardice,” Mwangi said.

To make a living for himself, he sold books.

Eventually, he went to school for photography and secured jobs at major newspapers.

The 2007 Kenyan election brought the country to “the brink of a civil war,” Mwangi said, “but for a photographer it was exciting times.” His work was printed in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Telegraph.

Witnessing the upheaval following the election, however, took a heavy toll on Mwangi and he became dispassionate about photographing Kenyan politics. In 2008, he traveled to the U.S. to cover Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. He said he was amazed by the

mass of young people advocating for change.

After his trip, he returned to Kenya and quit his job as a photographer. “‘I’m going to find a way to overthrow the government’ — that was my thinking,” said Mwangi.

Mwangi then discussed participating in one of his first large-scale demonstrations, where he was beaten and arrested. Though he felt defeated at first, he recalled his purpose in his actions, he said.

“I realized I was trying to bring about change,” Mwangi said. From that point on, he traveled the country displaying his photos of the violence he had witnessed in hopes of rallying people behind his cause.

Mwangi also talked about how being an Amherst student is an immense privilege that should evoke change.

“My call to you is that you need to be involved,” Mwangi told the audience. “Being young is the best time to be idealistic.”

He ended his talk by playing a video he had produced, in which he discussed the leg-

acy one leaves when they die and challenged the audience to leave a meaningful legacy.

Following the talk was a Q&A session, during which Mwangi answered questions from the audience on working towards change in faulty institutions, leveraging his power as an activist and staying hopeful after witnessing political turmoil. He also talked about his struggles and successes in running for Parliament and advocated for government institutions as a place to create change.

Abbey Asare-Bediako ’18, who attended the event, said she had never heard an African guest speaker at the college previously, and “that in itself was really exciting.”

She also saw Mwangi’s talk as a way to bring different perspectives to activism.

“I also think that it’s really cool that we have … someone who’s in the moment fighting,” she said. “To see his development into, like, ‘Okay, I’m moving sort of out of the front lines of activism and into office’ — I think that’s really interesting, because you never really see that story being told.”

College Hosts Scholars for Two-Day Decolonization Event Continued from Page 1 Drabinski also commented on the success of the event, noting that each panel drew over 100 people, ranging from Five College students and faculty to Amherst town residents and individuals from across New England.

He added, “folks from across the country” have asked when footage of the event would be posted online, showing the widespread attention the event has drawn.

Much of Drabinski’s own writing and teaching is focused on the idea of decolonization, which for him is defined as the “name for

a process of liberation from racially oppressive and exploitative pasts, a way of contesting the everydayness of racist hegemony and domination as well as large institutional structure,” he said.

“It’s about de-centering whiteness and white racial hegemony … against the idea of a center itself, against a fixed measure, against racially exclusive notions of what it means to be human and express your humanity,” he said.

Drabinski added that he believes the college faces, in its own way, “this very issue as it moves from the hard work of diversification to the even harder, even more crucial work of

anti-racist struggle … Decolonization is about re-making the world and creating new forms of sociality, politics and culture. That’s a very big issue for nations. It’s also a very big issue for small places like neighborhoods, communities and, yes, college and university campuses.”

Chimaway Lopez ’20, one of the students who attended the Saturday panels, found the topics of the panel particularly relevant to the lives of Amherst College students.

“This event is, I guess, encapsulating a lot of what I’m interested in, intellectually,” said Lopez. “The systems of globalization today

that we’re all living in — how different people have theorized colonialism — it’s pertinent to everyone’s experience here at Amherst.”

When asked if there was anything significant he thought was left out by the panel, Lopez said that “it was such a big subject, such a big topic, and these are all the beginnings of a lot of different ways of thinking, from people who have been working on this subject for a long time.”

He added that these panels should not be seen as the end of the discussion, but are simply the starting point of a more long-term conversation on decolonization.

Opinion

THE AMHERST

The Civilian-Military Divide

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D

A few days ago, reports came out that four American soldiers had been killed in an ambush in Niger. President Donald Trump has disavowed responsibility and put the burden on the military. Niger holds one of the largest concentrations of U.S. forces in Africa, and the American military has been strengthening its presence on the continent with the goal of training local forces to help them fight extremists. According to The New York Times, the reasoning behind this is that the United States is trying to avoid larger deployments. This is all part of the Pentagon’s plan of attack on the Islamic State as it seeks new regions to strengthen itself after being driven away from Syria and Iraq.

Much of the current controversy, however, stems from the inability of American military officials to explain why it took two more days and an intense search by troops from three countries — Niger, the U.S. and France — to find the body of the fourth soldier, Sgt. La David T. Johnson, whose widow criticized Trump for struggling to remember Sgt. Johnson’s name in a condolence call. The sergeant was discovered by Nigerien troops near the ambush site. Congress is demanding answers to questions relating to the nature of the mission in this remote region of Niger that ultimately left four Americans and five Nigeriens dead. The overall lack of clarity, however, on the mission that led to this now — Congressional mystery is illustrative of our country’s growing civilian-military divide.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than 75 percent of adults over the age of 50 have a close relative in the military, but just 33 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 do. The same applies to the percentage of veterans serving in Congress, which has been declining since the 1980s. In addition to these statistics, a bipartisan task force on Pentagon reform found that the “military … [is] increasingly remote from the society they protect, and each must be brought back into harmony with each other.”

The solution, however, is not to reinstate the draft. Instead, we should be thinking of ways to better connect the citizenry with the men and women that serve abroad and domestically.

Not in some jingoistic “our military is the best thing in the

world” sort of way, but rather in a way that enlightens both sides on the actual experiences and lives of their counterparts.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey wrote in an article published in The Washington Post in July 2013, “Together, we need to discuss who we are and what our wars mean to us ... Those of us in the military share responsibility for this relationship. We should tell our stories and recognize that those who aren’t in uniform might not know what to say or ask. We also have a duty to listen.

Our fellow citizens may have different perspectives that we need to hear and understand.”

This divide is troubling because a public uninformed about the activities of the military, the experiences of veterans and the overall state of American military intervention abroad can lead to a costly unmooring of U.S. armed power and an overshadowing of issues that concern those who serve.

The U.S. has been in a state of perpetual war virtually since World War II. The state of Veteran Affairs — in particular, medical services for soldiers with PTSD — is something to which lots of politicians pay lip service but rarely ever address with forceful action. With politicians and civilians becoming increasingly disconnected from the realities of military life, there is risk of military action with little accountability.

The Pentagon has stated, according to The New York Times’s editorial published last Friday, the Niger operation is non-combat, consisting mainly of train-and-assist missions.

However, President Trump has decided to loosen rules on counterterrorism operations, giving more decision-making power to lower-level officers. By changing the state of engagement, more people on both sides could be at risk, and if the civilian-military divide continues on this trend with no intervention, these sorts of important issues could fall out of the public’s view.

Here at Amherst, we could do more to bring to light some of these concerns. By working together with veterans’ organizations and connecting with those who serve, each of us can work to bridge the divide between soldiers and citizens.

If I May: Kevin Spacey Must Pay Jake May ’19 Columnist Late this past Sunday night, Buzzfeed reported that actor Anthony Rapp, best known for being a part of the original cast of “Rent”, had accused Kevin Spacey of sexually assaulting him when Rapp was only 14 years old (Spacey was in his mid-twenties at the time).

Hours later, Spacey released a response on Twitter, in which he claimed to not remember the events and that he owed Rapp “the sincerest apology.” This alone would’ve been problematic enough, as “I don’t remember doing that” does not excuse one’s actions. However, Spacey’s response continued: “This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life … I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live life as a gay man.”

Wow. To be honest, I cannot believe that Spacey’s agent/PR advisor/famous-person-helper (this is a thing) approved this statement. There is a great deal to unpack here, much of which has been said already.

However, I think it is worth saying again.

First of all, it is completely obvious that Spacey was attempting to use coming out as gay as a distraction from the accusations of sexual assault. It is clear that Spacey was not

blindsided by the accusations. The author of the Buzzfeed report, Shani Hilton, confirmed that they had reached out to Spacey repeatedly. Spacey was able to craft his response, meaning that his choice to come out at that time was a premeditated and strategic attempt to change the focus of the report. The unfortunate truth is that this worked, to a degree. Multiple websites, including Reuters. com, initially reported the story with headlines like “Actor Kevin Spacey Declares He Lives Life as a Gay Man,” which is completely meaningless in this case, considering that he was accused of ATTEMPTING TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT A 14-YEAR-OLD BOY. Fortunately, people were quick to point this out, and many of the websites have since updated their headlines. However, this doesn’t change the fact that Spacey used coming out — something that can be incredibly difficult for many people — as a PR mechanism designed to distract. This is especially malicious when one considers Spacey’s previous stance on coming out. He was notoriously private about his social life, and although he made some very awkward jokes while hosting the Tony Awards about his lack of coming out despite rumors about his sexual orientation, he has largely completely avoided the issue. That’s why it is especial-

ly insulting that he would come out at this time, just to garner sympathy in the face of scandal. As comedian Billy Eichner put it on Twitter: “Kevin Spacey has just invented something that has never existed before: a bad time to come out.”

However, the problems don’t stop there.

As many have pointed out, coming out as gay when accused of assaulting a minor is especially problematic, as it furthers the patently false narrative that being gay makes one more likely to be a pedophile. As James Hamblin pointed out in his Atlantic article “A Bad Time to Come Out”, “This is a narrative that has been cultivated — and continues to be — to paint gay people as deviant.”

I hope that this means that Kevin Spacey is done, finished, over forever. Netflix announced on Monday that this season of “House of Cards”, in which Spacey is the star, will be the show’s last, but that seemed to be coming anyway, regardless of scandal. I hope that Kevin Spacey never gets another acting job. If Kevin Spacey really thinks he owes Anthony Rapp “the sincerest apology,” he should have made his statement about that apology.

Instead, he attempted to paint himself as a marginalized figure, something he was only willing to do when it was advantageous to him. For this, he must pay.

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Editors-in-Chief Nate Quigley Jingwen Zhang Managing News Shawna Chen Assistant News Editor Emma Swislow Managing Opinion Kelly Chian, Daniel Delgado Managing Arts and Living Paola Garcia-Prieto, Olivia Gieger Managing Sports Connor Haugh, Kasia Krosniak, Henry Newton Managing Design Justin Barry Design Editors Katie Boback, Zehra Madhavan Head Publishers Emily Ratte Mark Nathin

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The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

Opinion

5

High School to College: From the Liberal Minority to the Majority Lisa Zheutlin ’21 Contributing Writer Growing up in Southern Florida, I lived in an affluent, predominantly white suburb and attended a traditional, conservative private school, where the word “liberal” carried a negative connotation and often invoked visceral reactions. Clearly, coming to Amherst was a culture change, but one I was — and still am — excited to experience.

One of my new classmates who grew up in Berkeley recently mentioned how Amherst is the least liberal place she has ever been “because there are Republicans.” I found this conversation so funny, and it led me to reflect on how unique my high school was. The school’s administration actively discouraged conversations about politics, instructing teachers to leave it out of the classroom at all times. History was literally being made and students were encouraged to be ignorant unless they were in a government class.

This repression of political discourse was especially prominent in the form of censorship of my high school’s newspaper. The administration had to review all the articles that were written, and often made the writers alter their articles in order to be published. They defend-

ed this infringement of free speech as protection of the school’s reputation, fearing that parents would interpret the censored articles as a representation of the entire school’s viewpoint.

But that’s why the articles were in the opinion section, with a byline that clearly attributes the opinions in the article to the writer.

One of the many personal experiences I had with this system was when I wrote an opinion article about my experience being a liberal at my school. The process to get that published was headache-inducing. Among other edits and restrictions, I was not allowed to call then-candidate Trump a “bigot.” (In the opinion section!) The administration then suggested that the article be published with the caveat that a conservative student would write a response piece to be published alongside it, in essence undermining the effect of my article. After a negotiation process, the article was published.

Censorship continued on other writers’ articles the next week and the week after that. I think this barring of thoughtful political discourse, instead of fostering unity, actually promoted polarization within the community, and being in the liberal minority posed its frustrations.

To shed some light on the liberal experience at my high school, when I was sitting at the club fair as co-president of the Young Demo-

crats Club, some annoying twerps wrote “build the wall” on the sign-up sheet. At a (heavily regulated) Town Hall event between the Young Democrats, Teenage Republicans and Libertarian clubs, one student proudly proclaimed that he did not believe that climate change is caused by humans. Then, when the student-run broadcast network had an election special, as the poster-child for the Democrats, I proudly displayed all my Hillary gear for the piece while the girl next to me genuinely showed off her Trump cardboard cutout and infamous “MAGA” (Make America Great Again) hat. The most potent example was the day after the election when I legitimately wanted to mourn, and there were MAGA hats worn around school.

But despite all this, I have to be fair and say that I really loved high school. It was difficult at times, and it set me up for an interesting transition to Amherst, where I am now a member of the liberal majority on campus — and definitely not the most liberal on campus.

I still hold with me the conditioning from high school, like how I am unnecessarily hesitant to voice my political views or how surprising it is to me that I can write this article without being censored. It is such a breath of fresh air when a professor makes a negative reference to Trump or even when I can just

have intelligent political discourse. My favorite part so far has been the multitude of speakers brought to campus. I have attended the Trump Point-Counterpoint series and talks given by people like Congressman Jim McGovern, Loretta Ross and so many more. My high school would never dare bring such political figures to campus, but this just promoted ignorance among the student body.

Of course, there are valid criticisms associated with having a political majority on any campus, as groupthink can run rampant. And yes, I can see how Amherst is susceptible to becoming a liberal bubble, but at this point in my first semester of college, the bubble is refreshing. It might seem naïve when I look back on this in a couple of years, but I feel as though my time in high school has earned me some respite from the conservative majority, at least for now.

And I mean, like my friend said, there are some Republicans, and those Republicans do deserve to have their voices heard as the minority on campus.

We clearly all come from different backgrounds and political affiliations, but in the end, I am thankful to my high school for giving me perspective and making sure that I never take Amherst’s liberal environment for granted.

society we have become with the inundation of “smart” technology.

Apparently, this general ignorance of the world around us — nature, other people (in the flesh, that is) or, as the Honolulu law indicates, speeding and deadly trajectories — has come at a price. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, pedestrian deaths are at their highest number since 1990 and increased 9 percent between 2015 and 2016 alone. Thus, in addition to sapping interpersonal skills, smart phones and smart cars now sap us of life altogether. $35 seems like a small and worthwhile price to pay for saving a life.

Certainly, drivers need to be aware of pedestrians, and laws mandating “hands-free” driving and stopping at crosswalks exist and, thankfully, are increasing in number. But shouldn’t there also be a responsibility placed upon the walker? In fact, I imagine it might help people beyond saving lives. If anything, a small penalty for “distracted walking” could return to our collective consciousness an appreciation for the people and world around us. A brief relinquishment of the “smart”

technology could make us, in a way, smart again.

Plus, with smart technology now taking the wheel from a driver — and in turn the skills once needed to operate a vehicle — we might as well try to embrace the responsibility of self-awareness laws like Honolulu’s inherently demand. These cars might be designed to recognize when objects appear in their paths, but no more. That is, smart cars are actually quite dumb. To the car, a wood post or piece of debris in the road differs little from a sentient human in its path.

With such differences seeming wiped away, humanity’s best hope lies in retaining a sense of self that smart phones, cars, and other “electronic devices” threaten to erase. And if you think Honolulu’s legislation is an impingement on personal freedoms, then I challenge you to beat government to the punch: take your face out of your phone long enough to avoid running into someone or something else, or worse, getting run over. To borrow from the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”: “Remove head from sphincter, then” walk.

Go, Honolulu, go.

A Lesson from Honolulu Galen Muskat ’18E Contributing Writer I doff my cap to Honolulu for passing what may be one of the 21st-century’s best pieces of legislation to-date: a law that allows police officers to fine pedestrians up to $35 for looking at their electronic devices while crossing the street.

The law is a testament to intelligent lawmaking and an acknowledgement of the paradox of the latest wave of “smart” technology.

Smartphones make us stupid: an over-reliance on Google Maps has sapped us of our directional intuition and travel savvy, for instance, while myriad studies have shown how the prevalence of these “devices” in the hands of preschool-aged children have hampered reading capabilities and increased the risk of depression among teenagers.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s new Model S, when operating in “driverless” mode, has led to several fatalities in the last year. Uber had to suspend its self-driving car program after a crash in Arizona caused serious injuries to several motorists.

Now, with people increasingly walking around like automatons — faces in their phones and minds who-knows-where — the human genius leading to such technology as “smart” phones and cars has imperiled us to the point of needing laws to try and mitigate the deadliness. Unfortunately, Honolulu is the exception, not the norm.

I spent the summer at an internship in New York City where, if I had kept my attention on the screen of my phone when crossing the street at the intersection of 27th Street and Madison Avenue — well, let’s just say I probably would not be writing this. Nonetheless, I noticed drivers and pedestrians alike glued to their devices. On a quiet street in Brooklyn, I witnessed a pizza deliveryman on a bike pedal into an open car door. Why? He was texting.

In Madison Square Park one morning on my way to work, a woman ran into me because she was looking at her phone.

Granted, I did not bother to move when I saw her coming, distracted by her device, and knew she would run into me, but my perhaps cruel decision stemmed from my disgust at the self-absorption and veritable “un-human”

Letter to the Editor: Sexual Respect and Title IX Laurie Frankl Title IX Coordinator I am writing in response to the Oct. 25 article, “Sexual Respect on Campus Five Years After Angie Epifano’s Testimony.”

As Amherst’s Title IX Coordinator, I wish I had been asked to participate in the preparation of the article. Including basic information about Amherst’s current Title IX practices and policies, some of the inherent complexities of dealing with these issues for those involved and the options that exist might have provided a more meaningful context for the stories that were related. My greatest concern about the article is

that these omissions may prevent survivors — perhaps ones in need of resources, support and services right now — from coming forward to ask for and obtain the assistance they need and are rightfully entitled to.

Survivors of sexual violence have intensely personal responses to their experiences and distinctly different needs moving forward. Some want to talk only to friends; others choose to report to the Title IX office; others will never tell anyone. Some desire accountability through on-campus processes and/or by working with law enforcement, while others report anonymously on behalf of themselves or others. Some offer a great deal of information to our office;

Do you have opinions about issues on campus?

some, very little. One of our primary goals in the Title IX office is for survivors to have clarity regarding the choices they may make and the potential implications, so we try our best to ensure that their decisions are informed with transparent, accurate and complete information. In the end, our goal is to follow the wishes and respect the decisions that each person makes.

To do our work in an ethical and legal manner, however, we must also consider personal and community safety and, critically, equity for all persons. We recognize that this complex balance can be difficult for the community to understand and that some people may feel dissatisfied, perplexed or even angry by its results

sometimes, but it is necessary for the work we do.

If there is one message I would like our community to hear, it is this: any person who believes they have experienced sexual misconduct by a currently-enrolled Amherst student, as defined in Amherst’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, is entitled to initiate a complaint to adjudicate that concern under the college’s Sexual Misconduct Adjudication Process. If you or someone you care about has been so affected, the Title IX office is here for you. Resources, support and options are available to all people. We will listen to and seek to support you in the manner you choose. We are here to help.

Join the Opinion Staff!

If you want to write for us, email kchian20@amherst.edu

Arts&Living

Mead Community Day Creates Artistic Dialogue Across Ages

Photo courtesy of Annika Lunstad ’21

As part of its Community Day last weekend, the Mead brought in actors to spark discussion about the art work and bring the depicted subjects to life.

Annika Lunstad ’21 Staff Writer This past Saturday, the Mead Art Museum hosted its bi-annual “Community Day at the Mead.” The event featured a variety of activities designed for both young children and college students.

The event was representative of the Mead’s prioritization of community engagement with art over the traditional stuffiness associated with art museums. The Mead made its art accessible to the community by having Amherst student actors explain pieces and answer questions in a “living arts” tour during the event.

The fun started outside the museum with a photo station complete with costumes, a photographer and backdrop curtain of silver tinsel.

I personally did not try this, but it was adorable to watch kids excitedly try on costumes and have their pictures taken. There was also a station with candy, which I did enthusiastically make use of, as well as foam pumpkin decorating.

Inside the museum, visitors were first greeted by an attendant distributing clipboards

with a Mead scavenger hunt and “Mad Lib” games tailored to the day’s festivities. While the scavenger hunt may have been meant for someone just learning colors, I filled the whole thing out eagerly.

One of the other stations in the room, and a highlight of the event, was a table for visitors to plant their own succulents in a mason jars with dirt and moss.

This main room also held portraits that photographer Jonathan Jackson ’19 took of students at a photography event on Oct. 26.

In the Rotherwas Gallery, to the right of the main gallery, was a table full of what a volunteer termed “the very best parts of fall.” There was a huge box piled high with delicious cider donuts and another filled with delicious fallthemed dessert bars. They had coffee, apple cider and hot water for tea. There were also a number of caramel apples sitting alongside the other refreshments.

The scavenger hunt then led visitors to other rooms in the museum. The instructions asked to find a painting or two in most galleries and then answer a question about the piece.

The questions were designed to be accessible

for a range of ages so the scavenger hunt was not that difficult, but it definitely furthered the goal of helping people engage more with their museum.

The “living arts tour” began in the main gallery at 2 p.m. Several volunteers, dressed as the subjects of the photographs, sat in front of their respective pieces and talked to the audience about the piece. This allowed the audience to learn more about the artist and their intentions for the work in a casual situation.

The “living arts” tour began in front of an eight-part series by Tim Hetherington featuring soldiers photographed while sleeping. A student actor sat on the floor with a blanket and pillow and explained Hetherington’s goals behinds these photos. He explained how photographing soldiers in vulnerable positions as they slept humanizes them and shows them “as their mothers see them.”

He also talked about Hetherington’s personal story and what might have motivated him to create a work like this. This method was actually quite successful at holding the attention of some of the younger kids in the audience who had just eaten several donuts.

In the next part of the “living arts” tour, a student actor dressed in the same distinct colors as the horse in Mimi Cherono Ng’ok’s photo of a magestic horse on the beach. The actor talked about Ng’ok’s thoughts behind her work and asked the audience what they thought of different aspects of the photograph. The next “living arts” guide, dressed all in green with fake ivy on her head, talked about Ng’ok’s other large picture, which features an image of an dense rainforest scene.

College students and elementary school students alike engaged in discussions about the differences between the pieces and the effects of a busy versus simple backgrounds in artwork. For me, living in a bubble as college students nearly inevitably do, it was refreshing to interact in discussion with people from different points in life.

Ultimately, the event was an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon and get to know the Mead in a relaxed environment. Furthermore, it was fun to see and interact with other members of the community around Amherst.

This is a bi-annual event, so be sure to check out the next one.

email pgarciaprieto18@amherst.edu or ogieger21@amherst.edu if interested

The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

Arts & Living 7

Green Room Performs ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’

Photo courtesy of Andrea Sanchez ’18

McLean Cozine ’20, as Guildenstern, confronts Ali Bennett ’18, the lead player, an ongoing antagonism throughout the play.

Olivia Gieger ’21 Managing Arts & Living Editor I am still trying to figure out what exactly “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” is about. But perhaps that in itself is exactly what the play is about.

The Green Room’s rendition of Tom Stoppard’s quirky, absurdist piece, which is a modern extrapolation on the eponymous “Hamlet” characters, embraced the original’s questioning and ambiguous air in its production last Saturday and Sunday night.

The show was put on by a small cast and crew of under 20 people. Senior Michael Barnett directed the group after pitching the play to The Green Room’s executive board.

Barnett fell in love with the play after seeing it performed professionally in Sydney, Australia.

He explained that the Sydney production made

clear the importance of understanding the complex themes and questions the play poses. After seeing his production and speaking to Barnett, it is clear that he understands and walks the fine line Stoppard poses between humor and gravity.

“One thing that I really like about it is that it’s a comedy for the vast majority of the play; it’s very funny, but then at the very end, it’s very depressing,” said Barnett.

The play certainly did dance back and forth between comical and contemplative. One particularly stark example of this is the recurring play on the fact that in the original “Hamlet” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are indiscernible. Because of this, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves cannot differentiate between one another. While comical, the jokes simultaneously raise questions of reality and acting and how we know what makes us ourselves.

As the play tackles these large questions of

Reflection on Transitioning from High School to College Theatre Maya Houssain ’20 Contributing Writer My high school’s shows were riddled with gaudy set pieces, Broadway-wannabes cracking on high notes and flashy yet empty musical numbers marked by intense choreography. I can’t say I liked or disliked it, really.

Theater was a thing I did, a thing I assumed I would always do. I wasn’t really good at it and I’m still not quite sure if it’s my true passion, but it was a constant in my life.

Our high school auditorium seated 600 people, and the last show we did was “Legally Blonde: The Musical.” For those who don’t know, “Legally Blonde” is a horrific tableau of early 2000s fashion, sexism, racism, homophobia and misuse of the color pink. I performed the part of a stereotypical lesbian, did absurd and meaningless things for laughs from the audience and felt I desecrated on the art of theatre in the process. Nonetheless, it was undeniably an ego boost to bow in front of a total of 1800 people per weekend (especially considering that 1800 people is just about the number of students on campus with me now).

As ostentatious as the whole affair was, a part of me thoroughly enjoyed our engorged budget for the prettiest costumes, the biggest sets, the brightest lights, etc. The kids I shared the stage with were aggressive and competitive.

My school has spit out dozens of professional actors in the past decade who work and ply their trade everywhere from Broadway to Hollywood, so every kid in tap shoes assumed they had a shot at the big time (most didn’t).

The competition pushed kids to sabotage each other — some would even rat others out to administration for drinking or breaking some school policy in order to get them sus-

pended from school and therefore suspended from the show. This environment pushed young actors to feel the need to be the absolute best, and the emphasis on our regional theater awards conference made the success physically tangible in the form of a plastic trophy.

Fast forward — I arrive at Amherst as plucky, overexcited and annoying as any first-year could be. I spot an audition sign for The Green Room’s production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” — a difficult but hilarious existential, absurdist play with basically two main parts. I audition, resume in hand, with my best professional voice on. The other people in the room all know each other, and the director eyes my resume with a mix of surprise and amusement at my over-prepared naïveté, and I wait shaking in my boots.

The audition process ended up being incredibly casual and low stress, with everyone there to just have fun and enjoy each other’s company in an artistic setting. Michael Barnett, the director, is a senior at the college, and he made sure everyone felt included and made efforts to get to know everyone on a more personal level.

When we started the rehearsal process, we treated the show as a community activity rather than a high stress, high stakes, end-all performance. There was no envy about who got what parts, no complaining, no ego — just some pals doing some existential theatre together.

The performance space seated under 30 people, and the set was bare outside of a few boxes and a curtain. There was truly an emphasis on this hilarious, absurd thing we all created together and not on the attention or the competition or the flashiness. I truly can say I will never miss the bright, lonely lights on the big, empty stage back home.

existence and reality, it wanders through an amorphous, airy plot that is loosely tied to location and time. The wandering of the play’s timeline itself reflects Stoppard’s feelings of life’s lose drifting nature.

“The play Stoppard writes is about the inevitability of death,” Barnett noted. “It says,‘We wander through life trying to figure out what we’re doing here and what our purpose is. We try and find anything we can hold onto as true, and ultimately, we can’t find anything, and then we die and that’s it.’”

Its abstract form presents a directorial challenge — how can a director convey these large ideas while still grasping the audience? “The play is absurdist. It wanders around a whole lot, through this big long philosophical discussion.

If you just do it as it goes, it is not necessarily very focused,” Barnett said. However, knowing this, he addressed this concern in his directing.

“One thing I was looking at doing was pulling out different things that I wanted to emphasize.”

One piece of the abstract message that Barnett cleverly grounded was Stoppard’s questioning of the meta-theatre. “I want to blur that line between what is reality and what is the play within the play, and what is the play within the play within the play … draws the suggestion that the world we’re living in is also theatrical,” said Barnett.

Besides his emphasis on the traveling acting troupe and the exaggeration of the scripted lines about actors’ roles in the world, Barnett aimed to blur this line between what constitutes the play and what constitutes reality by orienting the theatre in the opposite direction from normal. The audience sat where the stage normally sits. “I think it is actually cool because it is suggesting the meta-theatricality, of the fact that we are all in a play as well as the actors in the scene,” Barnett said.

With all these lofty ideas to think about, Barnett worried that the audience may not be able to grasp the absurdity the piece deals with.

“This play, in the end, creates a sense of overwhelming nihilistic dread. I would love to leave the audience with that overwhelming existential dread, ideally,” he said. “Part of it is that we get so caught up in the little things we are doing every day, and we don’t ever stop and think about the big picture a lot -- things like ‘Where are we going?’ and ‘What are we doing?’ and ‘What is the point of even being here?’ That’s another message I want to impart: Take a step back and think about the broader picture.”

In this respect, Barnett and the cast and crew of the play did exactly what they set out to accomplish. They posed broad overarching questions of existentialism, and gave audiences tidbits of answers. Yet, as is with any good question, these large questions only sparked more questions stemming from them.

Audiences are left feeling like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves, playing a cyclical game of asking questions, answered only with further, deeper questions.

Author, professor and philosopher

KWAME ANTHONY

APPIAH will discuss

HOW NOT TO THINK ABOUT RACE, CULTURE AND CLASS Q&A and book signing to follow

Thursday, November 2 8 p.m.

Stirn Auditorium Amherst College

The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

Arts & Living 8

Weezer Returns with Disappointing Album ‘Pacific Daydream’

Photo courtesy of plannueve.net

Weezer fans were not excited about the upcoming album after the single “Feels Like Summer” came out in March, due to the band’s new radio-pop sound.

Hugh Ford ’20 Staff Writer Last Friday, California-based rock band Weezer released their 11th album, “Pacific Daydream.”

Fans have been anticipating — or rather dreading — this new installment in Weezer’s discography since the first single “Feels Like Summer” was released back in March. Weezer and its frontman Rivers Cuomo have a tumultuous history; the bands first two albums released in the 90’s are recognized as some of the best rock albums of the decade. After that, however, its output has ranged from pretty good to really bad. Its most recent two albums, “Everything Will be Alright in the End” and the “White Album” fell on the “pretty good” side of the spectrum, so fans had been expecting a return to form for Cuomo.

After the 2016 release of the beach-infused “White Album,” Cuomo announced the forthcoming “Black Album,” which fans speculated would draw on the band’s earlier, angstier sounds.

However, with this year’s release of “Feels Like Summer” and the subsequent announcement of “Pacific Daydream,” fans prepared to be let down again.

It appears that Weezer learned the wrong lessons from the success of the “White Album.” “Feels Like Summer” takes beach-themed pop rock to the extreme. With a repetitive chorus, loud electric guitars and generic lyrics, the song seems like an attempt to get a radio-hit rather than anything substantial. Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the songs on the album follow a similar path leading to “Pacific Daydream” almost sounding formulaic.

The other side of this coin is that the album is incredibly focused and thematic.

Thus “Pacific Daydream” raises the question: is the music bad in-and-of itself or was the album just a failed concept to begin with? All things considered, Weezer actually accomplishes what it was attempting quite well. Each of the ten songs on “Pacific Daydream” is glitzy, catchy and at least somewhat exciting. With this style, however, Wee-

zer rejects both the sense of angst of its first two albums and the forlornness of the “White Album,” emphasizing radio candy instead.

This trend is especially apparent in the first half of the album. On the first song, “Mexican Fender,” a nearly 50-year-old Cuomo sounds out of touch singing about summer love. Other songs that show hints of deeper thought, such as “Beach Boys” which has Cuomo reminiscing about the music of his youth, are brought down by empty, pop choruses, a la “Turn it up / It’s the Beach Boys.”

“Pacific Daydream” finds some semblance of redemption towards the second half. Songs like “Weekend Woman,” “QB Blitz” and “Sweet Mary” pay more tasteful homage to the California sound and don’t sacrifice as much lyrically as the earlier tracks. They also have a lot more personality than the generic “Feels Like Summer”-type songs. By no means as emotional as some of Weezer’s earlier work, they still create a sense of loneliness and heartache.

Overall, “Pacific Daydream” is an unremark-

able piece of Weezer’s discography. Despite being a highly focused and concise album, it fails to really stand out on its own. Because of its heavy beach themes and short run-time, it seems more like a postlude to the “White Album” rather than its own chapter in Weezer history. Its focus, however, isn’t a major drawback of the album. The cohesive theme actually makes the glitzy pop sound more forgivable.

While not special in any sense of the word, this album is also not terrible, and Weezer albums can certainly be terrible (see “Raditude”). Some fans will definitely be angry or say that Weezer has once again sold out, but I believe there is still reason for hope regarding the “Black Album.” Weezer may have lost its iconic angst, but there are still moments of irony and discontent in “Pacific Daydream.” Even as he tries to create radio-friendly pop songs, Cuomo acknowledges, “Everyone wants to be cooler than everyone else / it’s a hiphop world.” Let’s just hope that doesn’t mean he’ll collaborate with Lil Wayne again.

Exhibit Looks to Promote Dialogue on Asian-American Experiences

Photo courtesy of Ann Guo ’20

Guo’s work at the Chinese American Museum inspired this project.

Brandon Medina ’19 Contributing Writer Invisibility and marginalization are experiences that students of color in predominantly white institutions face to varying degrees.

Amherst College recently has made an effort to create opportunities for students of color to speak on the exhausting experience of feeling invisible or devalued on campus. The major problem with this approach, many students

find, is that it is emotionally and mentally draining to display one’s genuine pain in the hopes that a massively privileged majority will, at last, fully listen and understand.

Furthermore, many students of color on campus, myself included, believe that the best way to center our stories should come from collective efforts by the students themselves.

Artists of color on campus have been particularly active in not only confronting the rest of the student body with their stories, but finding community in the process. #AmherstIBelong is the most recent example of this. Ann Guo ’20 aims to rejuvenate that process through an open call for Asian-American students to submit artwork to be displayed in Keefe. Guo is now hosting an open call for artwork submissions.

Though not a visual artist herself, Guo has had a vested interest in centering Asian American bodies and identities for a while.

An anthropology major, Guo spent her summer working at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, where she participated in organizing a Getty-sponsored exhibition focusing on Chinese Caribbean art and diaspora.

“I learned about the severe discrimination AsAms [Asian Americans] experienced and how they tie into the racial and ethnic relations of today,” Guo said in an email inter-

view. “I also learned about the large presence of pan-AsAm activism in the U.S. in the ’70s and ’80s.”

The art exhibition will explore not only Asian-American history, but also AsianAmerican bodies’ representation on campus across color, gender and class. Guo specifically highlighted the lack of indigenous, Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian Americans.

The concept of confronting the student body with marginalized communities’ stories is a much more direct and visible way of representation on campus, as opposed to organizing meetings and dialogues which students have the option of attending. “Art inherently creates dialogue. The exhibition will be in Keefe, which a lot of students frequent, and the centering of these stories plays into the dynamics of space as dominance and the dominant narrative,” Guo said.

As it stands, an example of the false dominant narrative of Asian Americans in the United States is the stereotype that they are the “model minority”, often only directed toward Asian Americans of Chinese and Japanese descent. This stereotype is one that American politicians and officials often point to as a reason why other minorities, such as African Americans, do not deserve equity measures like affirmative action. This myth and others are ones that will be confronted in

the exhibition and the reasons why it aims to present Asian American identities within intersectional ties. Guo will look at Asian American identities through the hierarchy of color, gender, disability, among others. She hopes that by displaying Pacific Islander and indigenous Asian identity through student art, she will challenge the dominant narrative that Asian Americans are a homogenous group.

Non-East Asian Americans, such as those of Indian, Filipino or Vietnamese descent, are often left out of the dominant picture of Asian Americans except when the conversation turns to questions of historical struggle.

Mental health is another issue not at the forefront in Asian-American communities, primarily due to the model minority myth.

These multiplicities and intersectional ties are vital to understanding the true identities of Asian-American students on campus.

Ultimately, Guo’s upcoming exhibit is about validating and giving voice to AsianAmerican students. Although she managed to have it count for a class project, it is otherwise completely independent, born of her desire to see her community centered.

When asked if she wants to do anything after this, Guo said, “I may be interested in exploring a Five College show centering AsAm narrative or doing more exhibitions in the future.”

The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

Sports 9

Winter Sports Preview

Women’s Cross Country Places Fifth at NESCAC Championships Olivia Gieger ’21 Managing Arts and Living Editor

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Junior forward Stanley Brenner scored a total of three goals last season in what was an injury-plagued campaign for the Boca Raton native.

Men’s Hockey, Returning Veterans, Looks to Continue on-Ice Successes Delancey King ’18 Staff Writer With a strong core of returning players, the Amherst men’s hockey team is poised for a successful 2017-2018 campaign. The Mammoths hope to improve upon last year’s overall record of 14-7-3, which culminated in a NESCAC quarterfinal appearance.

“We definitely have high expectations for ourselves this season,” two-time captain Thomas Lindstrom ’18 said. “There has always been a lot of parity in NESCAC hockey, but with the experience and number of veterans we have, we expect to have a successful season and compete for a top spot in the conference.”

Lindstrom, a forward, was named to the All-NESCAC second team last season, and Amherst will look to him to once again lead the Amherst offensive effort.

Along with Lindstrom, the Mammoths will be led by captains Tyler Granara ’18 and Patrick Mooney ’18. Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of this year’s squad is the talent and leadership present among the senior class.

As first-years, they played an integral role in helping the Mammoths advance to the NCAA Frozen Four with an impressive overall record of 22-5-2. This winter, the team will look to their seniors to help them achieve a similar level of success, guiding the younger players and hopefully carrying the team to new and

greater heights.

Having graduated only three players last year, Amherst has a roster featuring eight returning defensemen and 10 returning forwards. Among the returning forwards are Lindstrom, David White ’18 and Pat Daly ’20, the Mammoths’ top three point leaders last season. Both Lindstrom and Daly recorded 12 goals and 10 assists during the 2016-2017 season, while White contributed nine goals and a team-high 12 assists. Amherst also returns last year’s starting goaltender, Connor Girard ’18, who made 469 saves last winter for an overall save percentage of .929.

In addition to their solid core of returners, the Mammoths will welcome six first-year players this year. Featuring one goalie, four forwards and one defenseman, the class of 2021 boasts a lot of talent and is expected to compete for spots on the ice. “[The first-years] are a really skilled group,” said junior forward Stanley Brenner. “They should make for a much deeper team that will bode well for us as the season progresses.”

Although they will not be called upon immediately to step into leadership and top-line responsibilities, the addition of such a skilled group can only help push the Mammoths deeper into tournament play.

Amherst kicks off its season on Friday, Nov. 17, when it hosts NESCAC rival Hamilton at 7 p.m. in Orr Rink.

This past weekend, the Amherst women’s cross country team travelled to Bates to compete in the NESCAC championship race, where the Mammoths claimed both the individual title and a fifth place overall. The Mammoths, with 133 points, finished just behind the hosts.

Nicky Roberts ’18 finished first for her second week in a row after coming in the top spot at the Little Three Championship. She raced into first with a time of 21:19.9, making her the eighth woman in the program’s history to claim an individual NESCAC Championship title.

After running with a tight pack early in the race, Roberts made a strong move in the final stages to drop her competitors. The runner-up, Victoria Kingham of Williams, finished more than thirty seconds behind her.

With the exception of placing second to a Division I runner at the Lehigh Invitational, Roberts has placed first in every race she has run this season. After her win, she was recog-

nized as USTFCCCA Division III National Athlete of the Week and also became the seventh Amherst runner to be named the NESCAC Most Outstanding Performer.

Following Roberts, the Mammoths’ depth helped carry them to a strong finish. Kristin Ratliff ’20 (23:12.1) was the next Amherst placer in 22nd place.

Veronica Rocco ’19 followed closely behind, placing 25th with a time of 23:20.1. Rocco improved her time from last year’s competition by more than a minute.

Rookie Haley Greene ’21 (23:42.5) and Lela Walter ’19 (23:46.7) raced in soon after, placing 43rd and 46th, respectively.

The Mammoths raced with a squad of eleven runners and their combined efforts put the team in fifth overall for the meet out of the 11 competing NESCAC schools.

As the team’s season wraps, up the Mammoths will return to action in two weeks on Saturday, Nov. 11 at the DIII New England Regional Championships, where Amherst hopes to clinch a spot at the NCAA DIII Championships.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Sophomore Kristin Ratliff was the second Mammoth to finish the race, placing 22nd overall with a time of 23:12:1.

Men’s Soccer Upset by Hamilton in First Round of NESCAC Playoffs

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

First-year Felix Wu started in the game against Hamilton. He was integral in helping the Mammoths put up a close fight in the NESCAC quarterfinals.

Delancey King ’20 Staff Writer Last week was undoubtedly disappointing for the Amherst men’s soccer team. After ending their regular season with a 2-1 win over Trinity, the Mammoths fell to Hamilton on Saturday in the NESCAC quarterfinals. As the No. 2 seed in the tournament, Amherst was heavily favored in Saturday’s contest.

Now the Continentals will advance to next weekend’s semifinal match at Tufts Univer-

sity, where they will face the top seeded Jumbos.

The first half of Saturday’s quarterfinal match was fairly uneventful. Sebastian Derby ’21 gave the Mammoths an early lead in the 11th minute, as he received a ball from Weller Hlinomaz ’18 and sent a shot far post past the Continentals’ keeper. Heading into halftime, Amherst looked poised to take the next step in defending their 2016 NESCAC title.

Then, mayhem ensued. Over the course of the next 45 minutes, six goals were scored.

McMillian started things off eight minutes into the second half, when he beat a Hamilton defender in a one on one situation and notched his fourth goal of the season. Only 30 seconds later, the Continentals got on the board with an unassisted goal by Matt Kastilahn. Two goals by Aidan Wood in the 62nd and 75th minutes then allowed Hamilton to take their first lead of the match.

Responding right away, the Mammoths managed to tie the contest just 2 minutes later. Cutler Coleman ’20 got on the end of a free kick from Gitler to level the score at 3-3.

As the clock winded down in the second half, it looked as though the game would head into overtime. However, Wood came up big for Hamilton once again, with only five minutes left. Getting in behind the Amherst defense, Wood found himself in the perfect position to tap in a long ball that had snuck by Amherst keeper Kofi Hope-Gund ’21. Thanks to Woods’ hat trick, the Continentals managed to sneak by the Mammoths 4-3.

Amherst must now wait to see if they will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA National Tournament.

“We are hopeful that our regular season record will lead to a tournament berth,” said senior captain Sam Malnik. “We have two weeks of practice ahead of us. Everyone is focused on getting better.”

In 2014, the Mammoths were in a very

similar position. Despite having been upset in the NESCAC quarterfinals, the team received an at-large bid and went on to claim the program’s first and only national title.

Serpone and his team will look to recreate that redemptive run in two weeks’ time.

Weller Hlinomaz ‘18 tallied four goals and two assists on the season.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

Men’s Cross Country Wins First-Ever NESCAC Title Veronica Rocco ’19 Staff Writer On Saturday, the Amherst men’s cross country team continued its record-setting season, winning the NESCAC Championships for the first time in school history. The Mammoths had their best race of the season as they defeated runner-up Middlebury 35-66. Mo Hussein ’18 became a two-time NESCAC champion; his first-place time was six seconds faster than that of Conn. College’s Scott Mason.

The Mammoths entered the race as favorites after defeating Williams two weeks prior at the Little Three Championships for the first time in 29 years.

The meet was hosted by Bates at the Pineland Farms, an off campus park about 30 minutes from the Bobcats’ campus.

In the early stages of the race, Hussein stayed with the lead pack as the rest of the Mammoths got off to a more conservative start. As the race progressed, the Mammoths moved up through the 140-person field to set themselves up for a dominant victory.

The Mammoths’ top five scoring runners all garnered All-NESCAC honors, which are awarded to the race’s top-14 runners, an impressive feat given the field’s large size and competitive nature.

Hussein led the Mammoths for the second time this season, earning his second NESCAC cross country individual title in the process after first winning the race in 2015, his sophomore season. Hussein’s victory was particularly impressive, as he had been able to compete in neither indoor nor outdoor track last year due to injuries.

Clark Ricciardelli ’20E continued his stellar debut cross country season with a fourth-place finish, demonstrating his strength over the 8k distance. In the spring, at his first-ever NESCAC

championship, the sophomore had placed fifth in the 5,000 meters, and he has continued to build off that finish, becoming a critical part of Amherst’s record-setting 2017 season.

Team captain Cosmo Brossy ’19 placed fifth, finishing seconds behind teammate Ricciardelli to earn his second All-NESCAC honor after placing eighth last year at the championship meet as a sophomore.

In the best cross country race of his life thus far, Kristian Sogaard ’19 placed 11th overall also earning All-NESCAC honors. This was only the junior’s second time placing in the team’s top-five.

Sogaard used his All-American 800-meter speed over the final 200 meters of the race, allowing him to pass several runners and claim 11th.

The final scoring runner for the Mammoths was Tucker Meijer ’19, who placed 14th to earn the final All-NESCAC spot. As a first-year in 2015, Meijer finished 35th to earn NESCAC Rookie of the Year honors and, this year, improved upon his finish to seal Amherst’s first ever NESCAC Championship.

This year, the NESCAC allowed teams to enter their top-15 runners for the first time, as only teams’ top-12 runners had been able to toe the line in the past. For the Mammoths, this rule change gave several runners valuable experience.

The Mammoths are currently ranked sixth in the nation in Division III, and the team will return to competition when it travels to the University of Southern Maine on Saturday, Nov. 11 for the NCAA DIII New England Regional Championship. Amherst aims to claim one of the two automatic spots for the NCAA DIII meet that are reserved for the first- and second-place finishers at the meet. The Mammoths will be challenged by their NESCAC foes as well as MIT, which won its conference championship this past weekend as well.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Mo Hussein ’18

Emery Sorvino ’19

Favorite Team Memory: Winning the program’s first NESCAC title this past weekend thanks to a superb performance from all of us who got to race Favorite Athlete: Russell Westbrook Dream Job: Writer/Poet Pet Peeve: When people call me “Somalian”; For the record, I am Somali Favorite Vacation Spot: New Hargeisa, Hargeisa Something on Your Bucket List: I want to take my parents to Hajj, In shaa Allah Guilty Pleasure: Late night fruit snacks Favorite Food: Somali rice Favorite Thing About Amherst: The dining hall staff, especially Zuweyda and Fatima How He Earned It: Hussein was named the most outstanding performer at the NESCAC Championships following his victory in the 8-kilometer race with a time of 25:07.3.

Furthermore, Hussein was named to the AllConference first team. Hussein became the sixth-ever harrier to win multiple NESCAC individual titles in a career that has seen three first team All-NESCAC selections, two Most Outstanding Performer awards, and a Second Team All-NESCAC selection

Favorite Team Memory: Dancing in the locker room before the Bowdoin game Favorite Athlete: Michael Phelps Dream Job: Something where I can save the world Pet Peeve: When Val runs out of food before 7:30 Favorite Vacation Spot: South of France Something on Your Bucket List: Hike the Appalachian Trail Guilty Pleasure: Reality TV Favorite Food: Bagels Favorite Thing About Amherst: The people How She Earned It: Sorvino finished her season on a high note. In her third year on the team, the junior forward broke into the starting lineup near the end of the season and quickly tallied eight points on the year. In the matchup against Williams in the conference tournament, Sorvino provided Amherst’s entire offensive output in matchup, scoring the Mammoths’ two goals over the course of the game.

She opened the scoring in the game, slotting home a pass from Mary Grace Cronin ‘18 and then added another in the second half as Amherst’s season ended.

Volleyball Looks to Continue Field Hockey Falls to Williams in NESCAC Quarterfinals Winning Streak in Playoffs

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Senior Kate Antion had a total of three digs in the game against Colby.

Will Zaubler ’19 Staff Writer Women’s volleyball (16-9) ended the regular season on a high note, securing a spot in the NESCAC playoffs after beating Bates on Thursday and Colby on Saturday.

Facing off against Bates (11-13) on Thursday evening at LeFrak Gymnasium, the Mammoths put on a dominating Senior Night display.

Amherst rolled past the Bobcats in straight sets (25-22, 25-28, 25-22) to secure their fourth consecutive NESCAC playoff berth. Behind strong performances from Daria Kim-Percy ’21, who led the team with 16 kills, and Hayes Honea ’19, who paced the squad with 20 digs and two aces, the Mammoths celebrated their seniors with a win.

“Senior night this year was especially amazing since we were playing a team that had beat one of the top teams in the NESCAC [Wesleyan], so that win was especially exciting and momentous,” said co-captain Marialexa Natsis ’18.

The Firedogs carried their momentum from senior night into their final home game of the regular season against Colby on Saturday. Although the Mammoths entered their Saturday clash

against the Mules already having clinched a berth in the NESCAC playoffs, the hosts still put forth another strong display, improving their playoff seeding. Amherst easily handled Colby in straight sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-13).

Coming off the Bates match where she provided 38 assists, Charlotte Duran ’20 provided 30 assists for the Mammoths against the Mules. KimPercy and Natsis also put in strong shifts, leading Amherst with 13 and nine kills, respectively.

Defensively, co-captain Asha Walker ’18 put in a stellar performance, contributing a match-high 14 digs.

The match was initially tight, with the teams trading points to open the first set. After the match sat at 7-7, the Firedogs went on a four point run and did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the match.

With the comprehensive wins over Colby and Bates, Amherst finished the season with four consecutive victories, dropping only one set in their winning-streak. The Mammoths, who are 5-5 in NESCAC play and were seeded fifth in the NESCAC tournament, enter the postseason with the confidence of a team ready to make a deep playoff run.

“With our last few important NESCAC wins, the Firedogs are definitely on an upward swing as we head into NESCACs and prepare to prove our physical and mental strength,” Natsis said.

The Mammoths now turn their attention to postseason play and their upcoming match against the fourth-seeded Hamilton (14-8) at Tufts’ Margaret Bundy Scott Field House on Friday, Nov. 3.

Although Amherst finished the regular season with a better overall record than the Continentals, Hamilton boasts a 7-3 record in conference play.

The Continentals beat Amherst in a closely contested five-set match on their home turf in the teams’ previous matchup, and the Mammoths will surely enter the game with confidence that they can take Hamilton to the wire.

Jenny Mazzella ’20 Staff Writer The Amherst field hockey team faced a challenging slate of opponents last week, competing against two NESCAC rivals. On Oct. 25, Amherst faced off against Trinity in an away game, from which the hosts emerged victorious, defeating Amherst 4-0.

However, the final score did not reflect how close the game actually was.

Amherst had totaled 19 shots while Trinity had only 17, and Trinity had 13 shots on goal to the Mammoths’ 11.

Elizabeth Turnbull ’18 led the Mammoths with five attempts on goal, while Kendall Codey ’19 notching four attempts. Amherst also had 13 penalty corners to Trinity’s five. While the Mammoths created plenty of scoring opportunities, they were unable to get on the score board.

The Mammoths fell behind early, with the Bantams scoring in the opening minutes. Trinity would add one more goal right as the first half closed. In the second half, the Bantams scored two goals in five minutes, and put the game well and truly out of reach, despite offensive pressure by the Mammoths.

The game saw two goals by Kelcie Finn of Trinity College, who is the NESCAC’s leading scorer on the year with 23 goals and 53 points overall. For her performance against Amherst, Finn garnered her second consecutive conference player of the week nod.

The matchup with the Bantams was Amherst’s final regular season game, leaving the team with an overall record of 10-5 and a conference record of 5-5.

Thanks to a late season swoon, the Mammoths entered the NESCAC tournament as the sixth-seed.

This campaign was Amherst’s 16th consecutive year making an appearance in the NESCAC

Championships.

In the first game of postseason action, Amherst faced off against third seed and archrival Williams. During the regular season, Amherst had defeated Williams in overtime by a final score of 3-2, so the Mammoths went into the game with a slight edge over the Ephs.

However, Williams entered the matchup ready to avenge their earlier loss to Amherst and managed to accomplish this goal, defeating the underdog Mammoths 4-2 in the quarterfinal matchup. This loss knocked Amherst out of NESCAC championship contention, while Williams remains alive in the hunt for the NESCAC crown.

In the game, Amherst took an early lead when Emery Sorvino ’19 scored off of an assist from Mary Grace Cronin ’18. Less than a minute later, Williams responded with a goal, evening the score. Williams then tallied three more goals in the first frame to give the hosts a commanding 4-1 lead heading into halftime.

In the second half, Codey nearly scored twice off of penalty corners, but one shot went wide and Williams managed to block the other. Amherst led Williams in penalty corners on the day, 10-7.

In the game’s final minutes, Sorvino scored her second goal of the game off of a rebound, bringing the score to 4-2, but Williams managed to hold off a late Amherst offensive flurry and essentially end the Mammoths’ season.

Amherst held the advantage in total shots (15-11), shots on goal (10-6) and penalty corners (10-7), but once again struggled to convert scoring opportunities into goals.

The Mammoths now await a potential atlarge bid to the NCAA tournament, but the prospects of such a bid are low after the loss to the Ephs. Should Amherst’s season be over, the team will finish with a 10-6 overall record, a slight decline from last year’s 11-5 mark.

The Amherst Student • November 1, 2017

Sports

11

The Hot Corner Jack Malague ’19 Columnist Jack Malague describes the effects of cheating in professional sports and discusses why baseball should learn from the mistakes of other sports, which have had doping and unfair competitve advantages in the past.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

First-year Claire Nam started both of Amherst’s matches last week, playing an integral part in the Mammoths’ upset of Conn College on Saturday.

Women’s Soccer Advances to NESCAC Semifinals Katie Bergamesca ’18 Staff Writer It was an eventful week for the Amherst women’s soccer team, which played its final game of the regular season and competed in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.

The Mammoths had been scheduled to close out the regular season with a mid-week match up against Trinity on Tuesday, Oct. 24. However, rainy weather prevented the teams from taking the field on the scheduled date and the game was postponed to Wednesday.

Once the game finally started, the Bantams came out strong, netting an early goal just 5:24 into the first half. Despite controlling the flow of thegame for the majority of the game, the Mammoths were unable to find an equalizer, eventually falling 1-0.

Although Amherst held a 16-7 advantage in shots and a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks, Trinity’s stalwart defense held up against the Mammoths’ offensive pressure. First-year Kata Heffron paced the Amherst offense with a total of five shots, while Rubii Tamen ’19 was close behind, getting off four shots in the contest.

Amherst’s loss to Trinity resulted in a seventh-place seeding for the Mammoths in the NESCAC tournament. As the seventh seed, Amherst had to face the No. 2 team in the conference, which turned out to be Conn. College this season.

During the regular season, the Mammoths had lost a heartbreaker to Conn. College, but the team found revenge in their post-season matchup, besting the favorites 1-0 on Saturday.

The host Camels dominated the game offensively, outshooting Amherst 12-6 and earning six corner kicks to Amherst’s three.

However, the Mammoths were first to strike with Tamen finding the back of the net less than three minutes before halftime. For the remainder of the game, Amherst’s defensive line held strong, as goalkeeper Chelsea Cutler ’19 recorded five saves to keep Conn. College scoreless and secure the upset victory for Amherst. With the win, the Mammoths’ hopes for a second consecutive NESCAC crown remain alive as the team gears up for the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament.

After last week’s actions, Amherst’s record sits at to 9-6-1 overall and 5-5-1 in the NESCAC. On Saturday, No. 4, the Mammoths will take on archrival Williams, who enters the game as the top-seeded team in the conference and is ranked third in the nation by United Soccer Coaches. In the regular season, the Ephs earned a narrow 3-2 victory over the Mammoths. A win against the Ephs would earn the Mammoths a spot in the NESCAC championship game, where the they would compete for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

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Amid a monstrous home run tear in August, Marlins’ left fielder Giancarlo Stanton was asked what a “special number” of home runs would be. He needed little time to decide his answer: 62.

Stanton, of course, was alluding to the number of homers that Roger Maris hit in 1961.

A review of Major League Baseball’s record books will confirm that Maris no longer holds the single-season home run record, as the mark now belongs to Barry Bonds, who belted 73 long balls in 2001. He, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire each eclipsed Maris’s 1961 record.

Lab tests have revealed, however, that each of these sluggers used performance-enhancing drugs during their careers, confirming what anyone familiar with the normal shape of a human upper-body already knew. Sports commentators salivated over what they perceived to be Stanton throwing shade at baseball’s steroidera, and they dug up the familiar debate about whether steroid use invalidated Bonds’s home run records.

Barry Bonds was not the first to introduce controversy into the single-season home run record. Entering the 1961 season, Babe Ruth’s single-season best, 60, had been the major league record for decades. It was an almostinsurmountable mark — no natural human could ever hit more. And in a way, nobody ever has. In the lead-up to the 1961 season, four new teams joined Major League Baseball, forcing the league to add eight games to the season.

Maris and his better-known teammate Mickey Mantle were poised to take on Ruth’s record.

Maris outraced Mantle, who struggled though injuries and alcoholism during the season.

Maris tied Ruth’s record during the 159th game of the season and bested it in the 162nd — eight games after Ruth’s season would have been over.

As if that weren’t enough to warrant a sizable asterisk, the expansion had diluted the pitching talent pool. Maris spent his longer season facing many pitchers who otherwise would not have played in the major leagues.

Now, this is not to say that with Maris, Sosa, McGwire and Bonds all discredited, Ruth should still have the single-season record. He played long before baseball was integrated and in two stadiums (the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium) with preposterously short right field lines.

Stanton finished the year at 59 homers, just one shy of Ruth’s mark. But if he had hit 62, should he have been considered the true singleseason home run king? It seems that he comes by his size honestly, faces pitchers drawn from the broadest talent pool in baseball history and plays in a respectably-sized stadium. Perhaps, but even his mark would have come with a caveat.

The players might not be juiced, but it does look like the balls are. The year started with a surprising power surge across the league, which was followed by complaints from pitchers that the seams on the ball were flatter than they had been in years past. This accompanied a proliferation of blister-related stints on the disabled list, with Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez of the Toronto Blue Jays being two notable victims of the juiced ball. One study found that the balls are more tightly wound than usual and that fly balls can travel up to seven feet further than they could last year. In the World Series, pitchers have mentioned that the ball seems slicker than usual. Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly denied that anything is different with the balls this year, but it is becoming harder and harder to believe him, especially because the new ball does exactly what they would want it to do.

Not only do the balls fly further, but they

also seem to be easier to hit. Pitchers use a carefully perfected grip to achieve sharp movement on their off-speed pitches. One would assume that a different baseball would throw off their perfected system and could lead to some dangerous mistakes. In this World Series, we’ve seen the bouncy balls make Dodger Stadium look like a little league park, with an astounding eight homers during the 11-inning Game Two. So even with clean blood, serious pitchers and legitimate ballparks, Stanton’s accomplishment would still have been shrouded in doubt.

Baseball, however, is aware of its evolution and can see records as an interesting but not all-important measure of success across eras.

Other sports do not have this advantage and have struggled considerably to come to terms with widespread cheating and technical disadvantages.

In February of 2008, Speedo released a new line of competition swimsuits, called the LZR (laser) Racer. These suits were the product of zealous research and testing, which at one point involved NASA wind tunnels. The suits covered most of the body in both the men’s and women’s versions, from the ankles up to the neck. Upon their release, they were marketed as the world’s fastest swimsuit. The people at Speedo weren’t lying — they really had produced the aquatic PF Flyer. Swimmers wearing LZR Racers broke 13 world records during the suits’ first month on the shelves. The suits provided unbelievable benefits, from buoyancy and decreased drag to muscle support and increased blood flow. As it turns out, all of those things make swimming a good bit easier. Between 2008 and 2009, more than 130 world records were broken by athletes wearing LZR Racers and other suits like them.

FINA, swimming’s international governing body, soon stepped in to enact restrictions on high-tech suits, but the records still stood. And unlike in baseball, records in swimming are integral to any elite competition.

In swimming, the high-tech suits provided a sizable boost, but weren’t prohibited by any regulation before they were introduced. Track and field has dealt with a much more sinister problem. Over the past half century, various forms of blood doping and PED use have dogged the sport, and impotent international anti-doping organizations have done little to stop the bleeding. The IAAF, FINA’s counterpart in the track and field world, has publicly discussed wiping any records set before 2005.

Many saw this as a PR stunt, since a “world record” would be set at just about every other race for the next five years — never mind the fact that there is little evidence to suggest doping has abated in the past decade. Only recently has track taken steps to combat this epidemic, recently banning almost the entire Russian Track and Field Team from the 2016 Olympics as a result of sustained evidence of nationallysponsored doping. However, these examples of enforcement are few and far between.

Baseball, which never has been able to claim equivalence across generations of the sport, has easily accepted the questions that are attached to its record book. The competition that fans watch is hardly tied to Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. In sports that pride themselves on easy comparison, however, dubious records do serious damage to the legitimacy of the sports themselves and diminish the impact of any accomplishment.

Swimming has made some progress in breaking the suit-aided record, but track and field continues to struggle. It may not be too late for track to regain its legitimacy, but the damage has surely been done. Their story should forewarn other sports not to be so inept as to allow such prolific cheating to occur.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Sophomore quarterback Ollie Eberth threw for 236 yards and rushed for 65 yards and two touchdowns to help the Mammoths overwhelm Tufts.

Football Defeats Tufts in Preperation for Clash With Undefeated Trinity Talia Land ’20 Staff Writer In what ultimately proved to be a shootout, the Amherst football team defeated the Tufts’ Jumbos by a score of 31-26 last weekend. The Mammoths scored 28 points in the first half and managed to withstand a secondhalf surge by Tufts to secure the victory. With the win, Amherst’s record improves to 6-1, while Tufts falls to 4-3 on the year.

Matt Durborow ’21 picked a great time to register his first collegiate interception, snatching the ball on Tufts’ first pass attempt of the game. Following the interception, Ollie Eberth ’20 lead Amherst down the field in a five-play drive, eventually barreling into the end zone on a quarterback sneak. The Mammoths’ defense then held Tufts to two consecutive three-and-outs.

GAME SCHE DULE

The Amherst drive after the second of the two Jumbos’ three-and-outs was highlighted by a 33-yard catch by Bo Berluti ’19 on a beautiful toss from Eberth. Several plays later, Eberth kept the ball for himself and ran into the end zone for a 14-yard rushing touchdown. The Jumbos responded quickly, however, scoring 52 seconds into the second quarter. Andrew Sanders broke free up the middle for a 62-yard rushing touchdown.

With four minutes left in the half, Amherst restored its two-score lead, as the offensive line pushed running back Jack Hickey ’19 into the end zone for a four-yard score Tufts then marched down the field again, capping the drive with a 17-yard passing touchdown. After a failed two-point attempt

by Tufts, the score stood at 21-13 in favor of the Mammoths.

However, Reece Foy ’18 took over for Am-

herst at quarterback for the final two minutes of the half, and the Mammoths gained big chunks of yardage on several long throws.

Eventually, Foy was able to connect with James O’Regan ’20 for a 56-yard touchdown pass that gave the visiting Mammoths a commanding 28-13 lead heading into the half.

Amherst’s final points of the day came with 5:48 remaining in the third quarter, after John Rak ’19E nailed 26-yard field goal to cap off a 12-play drive. Tufts quickly scored two rushing touchdowns to finish out the game, cutting the visitors’ lead to just five. The first Jumbos score came with 2:17 to go in the third quarter, while the second came with just 1:11 remaining in the game. After the second touchdown, Tufts managed to pull off a successful onsides kick, giving the Jumbos a chance to drive down the field and win the game. However, John Ballard ’20E came up

FRI

SAT

Volleyball vs. Wesleyan, 8 p.m.

Football @ Trinity, 12:30 p.m.

Women’s Soccer vs. Middlebury @ Williams, 1:30 p.m.

with an interception to seal the Mammoths’ victory.

Amherst put up an impressive 471 total yards of offense, while Tufts had 367. Hickey led the running game for the Mammoths, rushing for 75 yards, while Eberth rushed for 65 yards on 14 attempts. In the receiving game, O’Regan led the contest with a total of 132 receiving yards. Andrew Sommer ’19 dominated defensive play, making 10 tackles, including seven solo tallies, and adding two sacks and a pass breakup. Jack Barrett ’19 notched a sack, and Ballard and Durborow each logged an interception.

The Mammoths’ final home game of the season will be this Saturday, Nov. 4 against Trinity, which is currently 7-0 and stands at the top of the NESCAC standings. The affair promises to be a thrilling match up between the top two teams in the conference.