Issue 9

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

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VOLUME CXLIX, ISSUE 9 l WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2019

AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM

Faculty Revisits Policy on Sexual Relations Between Professors and Students Sophie Caldwell ’23 Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Sarah Wishloff ‘19

Photo courtesy of Takudzwa Tapfuma ‘17

Over the years, the college has taken various courses of action in support of DACA. Protests, including the above walkout in 2016 calling for the college to declare itself a sanctuary campus, have pressured the administration to extend its support.

College Reaffirms Commitment to Dreamers Ryan Yu ’22 Managing News Editor President Donald Trump’s contested termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is finally under review by the Supreme Court, and the college has joined 164 other colleges and universities in supporting the continuation of DACA protections.

The joint amicus brief, which was submitted to the Supreme Court for consideration on Oct. 4, was organized by the Presidents’ Alliance on Immigration and Higher Education (PAIHE), a group the college joined early last year to support legislation protecting DACA recipients, also known culturally as Dreamers.

The DACA program grants tem-

porary legal status to young undocumented immigrants who arrive in the U.S. at an early age, providing protection from deportation and offering work permits, among other things.

The program was established in 2012 by the Obama administration and has faced repeated challenges since.

Congress’ repeated failures to pass the bipartisan DREAM Act, which would’ve allowed changes similar to DACA but also provided a path to citizenship, spurred the establishment of DACA by executive action.

After Trump, then a presidential candidate, made undocumented immigrants and DACA a target in his 2016 campaign, the Amherst community reacted in November 2016, with more than 100 students, staff and faculty gathering to protest

in front of Converse Hall and call on the college to declare itself a sanctuary campus. Part of the letter presented to President Biddy Martin included a request that the college not release information to any policing agency and a demand for continued support of DACA and DACA students. Days later, Martin wrote in an email to the college community that “we will do everything we can within the limits of the law to support them and fulfill our promise of educational opportunity.”

In September 2017, the Trump administration announced that it planned to phase out DACA, which is estimated to leave between 700,000 to 800,000 DACA recipients at risk for deportation. The administration gave Congress six months to establish

legislative protections for Dreamers in place of DACA. Although Congress ultimately failed to do so, several courts issued preliminary injunctions against the program’s discontinuation, allowing renewals of DACA status to continue. Following the six-month period after the announcement of the rescission, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which oversees the operation of DACA, stopped accepting first-time applications for DACA status and requests for advance parole, which allows people with DACA status to legally reenter the country.

This was a blow to undocumented students at the college. According to the college’s Chief Policy Officer

Continued on page 3

The college faculty is considering a proposal to ban sexual relationships between students and faculty members. The deliberation comes after the #MeToo movement and a nationwide reckoning with sexual assault and sexual misconduct.

The policy on sexual student-faculty relationships outlined in the Student Code of Conduct was last voted on in 1992. The current policy states that the college “discourages consensual sexual relationships between faculty members and students,” but does not ban them altogether. It does require that a faculty member “remove him or herself from any supervisory, evaluative, advisory or other pedagogical role involving a student with whom he or she has had or currently has a sexual relationship.”

According to Provost and Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein, a letter from a faculty member asking to revisit the policy inspired the proposed change. Faculty members met on Tuesday, Nov. 5 to discuss the prospect of changing the policy.

Many colleges have recently enacted bans on student-faculty relationships. Smith College banned relationships between faculty or staff and students in 2017. In April last year, UMass Amherst announced a ban on student-faculty relationships, stating that their goal is to “provid[e] a professional and supportive learn-

Continued on page 3

News Oct. 28, 2019 – Nov. 2, 2019

>>Oct. 28, 2019 11:33 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall An officer took a report of a theft of a sweater out of the Valentine coat room. >>Oct. 29, 2019 11:21 a.m., Jenkins Dormitory A fraudulent state license was turned into dispatch and forwarded to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

2:23 p.m., Hitchcock Field An officer responded to a report of an unauthorized use of a drone. The operator was cooperative and landed the drone. >>Oct. 30, 2019 1:32 a.m., Greenway Building B An officer responded to a report of loud voices and found it was a group studying.

10:24 a.m., Powerhouse Officers responded to a report of an individual loitering and found the individual was taking a break from training. >>Oct. 31, 2019 9:29 a.m., Emily Dickinson House An officer observed an area not properly secured.

1:27 p.m., Seeley Mudd Building An officer responded to a report of spray paint on a set of stairs.

Joan Slocombe

2:38 p.m., Merril Lot A boot was placed on a vehicle on the boot list and in violation of parking regulations. >>Nov. 1, 2019 12:42 a.m., Hitchcock Dormitory Officers assisted in ending a registered party at the request of party hosts.

2:45 a.m., Tuttle Farm An officer addressed a vehicle parked at the farm with no legitimate reason.

3:29 p.m., Converse Lot An individual struck an employee’s vehicle, causing damage, and left without reporting the damage. >>Nov. 2, 2019 2:15 a.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer observed multiple, large holes in the walls.

1:28 a.m., Plimpton Dormitory An officer observed a large hole in the wall.

1:43 a.m., Powerhouse An individual reported a coat stolen and found it was taken by accident and later returned.

1:53 a.m., Cooper House An officer checked a building after a light was unexpectedly turned on. No one was found in the area.

Staff Spotlight Valentine Dining Hall

Joan Slocombe is a card checker at Valentine Dining Hall. She previously worked at the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech in Northampton, Massachusetts. Additionally, Slocombe was elected as an honorary classmate by the 2019 graduating class.

Q: How long have you worked at Valentine Dining Hall?

A: I’ve worked at Valentine Dining Hall for four years and counting.

Q: What is the role you perform in Val? A: They call us checkers, but I like to think of us as cashiers! My job entails checking IDs and then helping to clean up Val when the meals are over.

Q: What drew you to work at Amherst College?

A: I always thought that Amherst College would be a great place to work, but I had to retire to actually get a job here. I’ve benefited from association with Amherst College the last few decades — mostly using athletic facilities — since my husband is a long-time employee of the college. So I always thought Amherst College would be a great place to work.

Working at Amherst College is not my profession — I was a teacher for deaf students for a majority of my career. After I retired, I heard through the grapevine that they were always looking for people at Val. So I went to a job fair and ended up getting hired to do this. It’s a great job.

Q: How has your experience been as a staff member so far?

A: Getting to know the students has made my experience incredible. I love to help people and get involved in their day-to-day lives.

I care about how everyone around me is doing and I strive to make their lives better.

Q: What is the most rewarding experience that comes from your work at Val? A: The students are the best part of the job! I love getting to know the students and following them throughout their four years here.

My [daughters] are both out west, so, I say that the students give me my “kid fix.”

“I love to help people and get involved in their day to day lives. I care about how everyone around me is doing and I strive to make their lives better.

” Q: What did you do before you came to work at Amherst College?

A: Before I worked at Amherst College, I was a teacher for the deaf. I worked for the Clarke School for the Deaf. But at the end of my career, I worked for the mainstream system which supports deaf kids in their public school systems. I traveled around the state going to schools where there were students who needed our assistance and teachers that wanted to learn how to better help their partially or fully deaf students. At the very end of my career, I did more itinerary teaching. This was where I would go to specific classes and support their academics.

Q: If it wasn’t dining services or teaching, what field do you think that you would be working in?

A: Maybe elder care. I have a bit of experience with elder care because I helped take care of my mom as she got older. But I might also just be retired and spending time enjoying life! I would like to think that I would see my kids more, too.

Q: Where in the world would you most like to travel to and why?

A: I might get criticized for this, but right now the number one place on my bucket list is Alaska! I remember someone asked me this a while back and they said, “In the whole world? Really Alaska?” And I said, “Yeah! I love Alaska, and I love the United States!” There is so much to see in this country; it is full of beautiful and interesting places. But at this point in my life I don’t have an incredible desire to go abroad. Yet if I had to choose a place abroad, I would probably visit where my grandparents came from — so, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, really just somewhere in the Balkans area.

Q: When you are not working at Val what do you do in your free time?

A: When I’m not at Val I always make sure to exercise. I also keep my house tidy and work on other various home stuff. Family always comes first — I try to make sure that everything is good to go with them.

— Sophie Wolmer ’23

News 3

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

Student-Professor Relationships Undergo Review by Faculty Continued from page 1 ing environment for our students and employees where all decisions about work and academics are made fairly and without conflicts of interest.”

Hampshire College’s policy on student-faculty relationships is very similar to Amherst’s current one, stating that “[Hampshire] strongly discourages consensual sexual or romantic relationships between employees or third parties and students, and such relationships are not allowed where an employee or a third party has a professional evaluative, advisory or supervisory responsibility with a student.”

“I think that Amherst and other schools are thinking about these issues now in a way that they weren’t 30 years ago,” Epstein said.

According to Epstein, the primary reason for the ban is the impact of student-faculty relationships on students’ education. She cites concerns about whether a student can have a good educational experience “when other students are having these relationships.”

While there isn’t a consensus among the faculty, Epstein noted that it can be “really detrimental to the educational experience of students if these kinds of relationships are going on,” she said. “There’s also a concern that it limits access to the

curriculum, because individuals will avoid professors, or a professor could theoretically start a relationship with a student and that would mean that the student really shouldn’t take a class with that professor.”

Amherst’s status as an undergraduate-only institution also informs the proposed ban. At large universities, professors and graduate students often share relatively small age gaps. Amherst professors and students, on the other hand, tend to have large age differences.

“There is a whole issue with undergraduates about whether there really is such a thing as a consensual sexual relationship given the age disparity,” Epstein said. “The power dynamic is always going to be so dramatic in this sort of situation, and that is a major concern.”

Student Health Educator Sasha Williams ’22 echoed Epstein’s concern, noting that the power difference between students and professors can lead to a negative educational environment.

“Being in a relationship with someone who has sway over your education plays into certain power dynamics,” she said.

According to Epstein, Amherst’s proposed ban was not inspired by the #MeToo movement, unlike Smith College’s, which directly references the movement in their ban.

The push in higher education to ban

Photo courtesy of Takudzwa Tapfuma ‘17

A factor that informs the proposed ban on student-faculty relationships is Amherst’s status as an undergraduate-only institution, due to the more pronounced age gap. student-faculty relationships began before the #MeToo movement, Epstein said. The proposed ban is not in response to any specific incident at the college, she said, but rather a result of concerns among the faculty about preserving the college’s educational environment.

Amherst has faced major controversies concerning violations of sexual respect in the past, though — to public knowledge — none related to student-professor relationships.

In 2012, the college made national news when Angie Epifano, a former member of the class of 2014 who left the college before graduating, pub-

lished an account of her rape, the subsequent trauma and the lack of support she received from the college in The Student. The piece immediately sparked a conversation both nationally and on campus about how institutions treat survivors of sexual assault, eventually putting a new importance on Title IX, the statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex at institutions receiving federal funding. This led to the hiring of the college’s first full-time Title IX coordinator, Laurie Frankl, and the establishment of the Peer Advocates and Sexual Respect Task Force.

However, many students remain

dissatisfied. Despite strides in institutional initiatives spotlighting the issue of sexual respect, students continue to encounter incidents of sexual misconduct during their time at Amherst. Recent Clery reports, which detail annual crime statistics, have shown a steady increase in violations of sexual respect reported to the Title IX office. A 2017 op-ed about “sexual respect on campus five years after Angie Epifano’s testimony” detailed cases of sexual assault on campus in which the victim wasn’t afforded the proper support, even with changes made to the system around reporting sexual misconduct.

DACA Rescission “Hurts American Colleges,” Says Brief Continued from page 1 and General Counsel Lisa Rutherford, this means that students with DACA status can’t engage in academic study abroad programs or travel for the purposes of research. “Prior to the September 2017 rescission of DACA, a DACA-status student could travel outside the country for certain purposes, including educational, with an advance parole document,” she wrote.

“As advance parole applications are no longer being accepted, DACA students who leave the country without travel authorization likely would be denied reentry.”

The Supreme Court previously

declined to hear the case when the government petitioned in early 2018 before it was ruled on by an appeals court. However, the Court has since accepted the petition. The oral arguments for the case, which consists of three consolidated cases from lower courts, are scheduled to begin on Nov. 12. A final decision is expected by summer of next year.

The amicus brief signed by the college is structured around three main arguments: that “DACA has allowed tens of thousands of previously undocumented youth to pursue higher education,” that “DACA students contribute immeasurably to our campuses” and that “the recission

of DACA will harm American colleges and universities.” The brief cites multiple letters, statistics, profiles and court cases, including quotes from Carlos Adolfo Gonzalez Sierra ’14, an Amherst alum with DACA status, and a 2017 letter from Martin to Trump on the importance of DACA. Sierra is quoted in the brief as saying “the United States is my home. It is where I feel the most comfortable.”

He also expressed an “inconsolable desire to contribute to the country that has given me so much.”

In a statement to The Student, Martin said that “I reiterate what I wrote in 2017” in her letter to Trump.

“When the young people who are

able to pursue their dreams in the United States because of the DACA program are allowed to work, pursue an education and give back to the country they call home without the looming threat of deportation, the benefits accrue not merely to them, but to the nation as a whole,” she said.

“The DACA program gives our educational institutions and workplaces access to the talent, creativity and determination of hundreds of thousands of people who are Americans in all but immigration status,” Martin added. “Our classrooms at Amherst are enriched by the academic talent, hard work and perspectives of DACA students who go on to

become doctors, teachers, engineers and artists.”

The brief makes similar points about the value of DACA students.

“DACA has facilitated the pursuit of higher education by undocumented youth in unprecedented numbers, ensuring that once enrolled, these students are positioned to succeed,” the brief states. “As a result of DACA, thousands of talented and hard-working young people have made significant and wide-ranging contributions to [our] campuses.”

According to Rutherford, the drafting of the brief was a collabora-

Continued on page 4

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

News 4

Constitutionality of DACA Termination Debated by Courts Continued from page 3 tive effort with all of the institutions that signed onto the brief. “Our membership [in the PAIHE] provided an opportunity to participate in the brief, which we enthusiastically embraced from the start,” said Rutherford. “That included providing information to support the arguments and reviewing early drafts.”

The college has previously joined similar letters and briefs in support of DACA. In addition to Martin’s letter to Trump in 2017, the college signed onto a public letter organized by the American Council on Education to congressional leaders on Sept. 16, requesting that they pass “long overdue … bipartisan legislation” addressing protections for Dreamers. “[R]egardless of the [Supreme] Court’s decision, legislative action will remain necessary,” the letter reads. “The issue should be solved on a permanent basis by Congress. We respectfully urge you to come together on a bipartisan basis to address this challenge by doing the right thing for these outstanding young people and for our country.”

The college also joined five other amici briefs in cases concerning the rescission of DACA in lower courts.

Two of these cases were among the three consolidated into the Supreme Court case. Both courts issued the preliminary nation-wide injunctions ordering USCIS to accept applications for DACA status renewal.

The college offers students with DACA status several resources through the Center for Diversity and Student Leadership and other offices on campus. Director of Diversity and Student Leadership Tenzin Kunor was reached for comment, but he directed The Student to Martin and Rutherford’s.

“We provide all of our DACA status students and undocumented students with access to legal advice from an immigration attorney, as needed,” said Rutherford. “In addition, we proactively update those same students on proposed and actual changes to immigration law, including any actions we recommend they consider taking in preparation for or response to any changes.”

In the closely-watched case, the

Supreme Court will be tasked with deciding whether the decision to rescind DACA fits within its jurisdiction of review, specifically whether it falls under the domain of non-reviewable “political question.” If it is determined to be reviewable, the Court will also need to decide whether the decision violates either the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) or the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment for being prohibitively “arbitrary and capricious.” Among the petitioners defending the rescission of DACA is Kevin McAleenan ’94, former commissioner of Customs and Border Protection and the current acting secretary of homeland security, a position he is set to leave on Nov. 11.

The case is expected to be contentious and closely divided. The Supreme Court has allotted an extended oral argument period for the case, allowing 80 minutes instead of the normal 60 minutes. Observers have also compared the current case to another Supreme Court decided in 2016 on the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and extended DACA programs. In its 2016 ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s decision blocking the program in an equally-divided 4-4 vote due to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

The make-up of the Court has since changed, with Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joining the Court. Both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are considered judicial conservatives.

If the Court rules either that the rescission of DACA is a non-justiciable “political question” or that this rescission doesn’t violate the APA or the Fifth Amendment, the Trump administration will be allowed to proceed with the rescission of DACA. For many Dreamers and DACA supporters, the prospect is unsettling.

“Eligible immigrants with DACA status are protected from deportation, receive a temporary Social Security number and are provided a work permit,” said Rutherford. “If the DACA program is eliminated, our DACA-status students will lose these protections and privileges, which means, among other issues, they would be at risk for deportation, cannot hold a job and should not partici-

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

The controversial nature of the issue of undocumented immigration has drawn vocal supporters on both sides. Above, protestors gather at a DACA rally in San Francisco in 2017.

Photo courtesy of Alura Chung-Mehdi ‘18

The college community has rallied to protect DACA recipients over the past few years. Above, students, staff and faculty protest againstTrump’s immigration policy, which targeted DACA. pate in study abroad opportunities, as they may not be allowed to re-enter the country.”

As Shawna Chen ’20 reported in The Student in 2016, Bryan Torres ’18E, one of the college’s most outspoken DACA recipients, constantly worried about his undocumented status before DACA was implemented. He had crossed the border to the U.S. as a 12 year old. “I didn’t know I was doing something that could be considered illegal,” he told Chen. “I

constantly felt the fear of being sent out of the country even though my family is all here.” According to Chen, it was only after President Barrack Obama issued an executive order for DACA that “Torres finally felt his fear of deportation ease.”

Citing the trials of his own story, Torres called for empathy from those who oppose undocumented immigration at the campus walkout in 2016. “Put yourself in others’ shoes,” he told Chen. “Before you discrim-

inate against someone, think about the background of the person and why the did what they did — your life is completely different. But if you put yourself in someone’s shoes, I think you’ll understand more what it’s like.”

If DACA is rescinded, the college will “work with each impacted student to determine what resources they may need, including providing access to legal counsel,” Rutherford said. “We fervently hope DACA will not be overturned.”

Opinion

w

Bridging the Town-Gown Gap Here at Amherst, we take the notion of community pretty seriously. With a student body of fewer than 2,000 students, there’s a certain pressure to appear tightly knit to the outside world. The spaces in which we live, study, eat and hang out are engineered to optimize interaction and collaboration. For instance, Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord recently told The Student that having “a singular space where students can come together in community” is a driving factor in the plan to build a new student center. Amherst life revolves around the idea of community.

Within the college, the emphasis on community is a great thing. It compels students to join clubs and teams that they may not have otherwise. However, beyond the campus borders, the college’s community translates more to an Amherst bubble.

Most people are pretty familiar with this phenomenon.

The Amherst bubble is that intangible but nonetheless real experience students inadvertently fall into. It involves getting attached to a daily routine, going to the same places and talking to the same people, all while losing perspective about the rest of the world. The bubble comes with the college experience — and it isn’t exclusive to Amherst.

Put a bunch of 18 to 22 year olds on a little over 1,000 acres of land with all of their necessities and amenities at a half-mile radius away, and the area is bound to become a quarantine.

It may seem like the Amherst bubble is a necessary evil to solidify our campus community; after all, if the notion of community hinges on its members sharing something in common, doesn’t that necessitate excluding those who do not possess that commonality? In some sense, this may hold a seed of truth. However, the bubble forms out of a tunnel vision perception of what a college community actually is. A simple reframing of how the college approaches the notion of community might be the trigger for finally beginning to burst that bubble.

Despite our feelings, the college does not exist in a void. It’s nested in a town where people raise families, run businesses and volunteer. Although this is not news to anyone, the way in which the college community engages with the town speaks to the nature of the Amherst bubble.

The college’s attitude towards the Town of Amherst is best encapsulated by its website’s description of the “Town & Valley.” It proudly advertises all of the activities in town that enhance college life, writing that “[t]he small sampling below will give you an idea of how much there is to enjoy here.” It goes on to list museums, coffee shops and other gems that students have come to love. But this presentation of the town reeks of the bubble effect. Though right next door, the college’s neighbors in the Town of Amherst are not seen as part of the community. Instead, the town is presented as a vendor of services college students can take from — without any sense of an obligation to give back.

And yet, stated in Amherst’s Committee of Academic Priorities (CAP) report from 2006 is the following: “Amherst has an obligation to work for the good of our surrounding communities.” This sentiment has evidently been lost on us. Now, the town is seen as more of a playground rather than the community that it is. The report goes on to acknowledge this in saying, “Amherst has done too little to connect public-service experience with the curriculum.” Evidently, the Amherst bubble was a recognized problem in 2006, but it has yet to be solved.

If the ideal of the Amherst community is reconceived to include the surrounding town, however, the Amherst bubble may begin to deflate. After all, the town is connected to statewide and federal systems that inherently link it to the rest of the world. Facilitating a more symbiotic relationship with the Town of Amherst at an institutional level may be the needle that pops the Amherst bubble.

On the surface, the college has no official institutional or legal obligation to give back to its surrounding town in a formal capacity. However, it is not unprecedented for a private college to help its neighbors in the name of civic duty. As seen in the CAP report, it is a value that Amherst wants to uphold, but has done too little to execute. But take Colby College in Waterville, Maine. According to its Office of Communications, Colby has invested $75 million worth of projects intended to revitalize the town of Waterville. The college also reports that Colby students volunteer an annual average of 40,000 hours of community service to Waterville and surrounding communities. Plus, the symbiosis that Colby created with Waterville became an admissions selling point. Being a part of a community that extends beyond higher education is an attraction for students who want to be civically engaged — one of the very values Amherst cherishes on its campus.

The concept of colleges and towns working together is known as town-gown collaboration. The UniversityTown of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC), a committee composed of UMass Amherst officials and students as well as town residents who worked together to tackle problems related to economic development and housing, is one example. The UTAC shows that the town wants to work with its colleges to make life better for all Amherst residents — students or not.

The college’s duty to collaborate with the Town of Amherst is not mandatory, but this board highly encourages such an endeavor to break the bubble that isolates its students. Students should actively seek to engage with the town individually to uphold the college’s intended value of civic duty. A slice of Antonio’s pizza at 2 a.m. is all good and fun, but if it’s the only connection with the college’s neighbors, then it’s time to burst the bubble.

Unsigned editorials represent the Editorial Board (assenting: 13; dissenting: 0; abstaining: 0).

THE AMHERST

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Shawna Chen Olivia Gieger Managing News Zach Jonas Natalie De Rosa Ryan Yu Managing Opinion Jae Yun Ham Rebecca Picciotto Managing Arts and Living Seoyeon Kim Managing Sports Connor Haugh Henry Newton Assistant Sports Jack Dove Managing Design Zehra Madhavan Julia Shea S TA F F Publishers Emmy Sohn Mark Nathin Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir

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The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

Opinion 6

Seeing Double: Amherst’s $2.4 Billion Question Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist While Amherst students have spent the last few years studying, learning and debating which mascot should go on the mugs at AJ Hastings, the college’s endowment has been quietly exploding.

In 1998, Amherst’s endowment stood at $528 million. In the following decade, the college doubled this hardly insubstantial sum, expanding the endowment to about $1.3 billion by 2009, according to the Amherst Financial Report. Over the past 10 years, that growth has continued. Last year, the college announced a 10.1 percent return on the endowment, placing it at the truly ludicrous total of nearly $2.4 billion, a sum larger than the GDPs of 25 countries, according to the World Bank.

Students might reasonably expect the school to have used a substantial portion of this cash influx to create and improve life for students, staff or faculty. Instead, according to the college’s annual financial report in 2018, Amherst has reduced the annual growth of its budget from a growth rate of 7.3 percent in 2014 to just 3.6 percent in 2018.

The school has consistently drawn the same percentage of cash from the endowment, while income from student fees increased 36 percent in the last decade. Amherst’s current policy is based around drawing a steady and moderate stream of income from its endowment investments, but the sums pouring into its coffers are anything but moderate.

Higher education experts sometimes claim that endowment funds are frozen and can’t be used for anything other than a few specific purposes, but that isn’t true at Amherst. In 2017, financial statements show that $672,096,986 of the endowment, or about 30 percent of its total, was unrestricted, and within certain limitations, most of the rest was also tappable. Only 20.3 percent of the endowment was com-

pletely frozen.

The American Council on Education, the nation’s primary higher education association, suggests that colleges maintain at most a 3 percent growth in its annual endowment (before inflation) and spend the extra money.

That way, colleges can save up for recessions, while also tending to their campus’ present needs.

In the long term, this policy is designed to result in modest endowment growth. However, in the past 10 years, Amherst has instead allowed the endowment to grow at a rate of over 6 percent per year. Clearly, Amherst is not spending enough of its endowment revenue.

In 2008, Amherst’s last president, Tony Marx, argued in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that Amherst needs to continue to invest aggressively and save money. The endowment needs to grow, Marx wrote, so that in the event of a market collapse such as the 2008 recession, Amherst would continue to retain the ability to spend money to help students.

True, Amherst’s endowment lost $400 million during the financial crisis, but instead of investing less in the stock market, Amherst’s policy has been to double down in order to compensate for the next potential recession — never mind the fact that a large endowment does little good for the college simply by existing and not being used. Arguing that the endowment needs to be invested in order to prevent future losses from investment is a counterintuitive approach.

Marx also argued that wealthy colleges like Amherst lack useful ways to spend extra money, a point even more indefensible than his first. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, full-time Amherst professors are paid, on average, just 68 percent as much as their counterparts at Harvard, and 72 percent as much as those at Yale. When adjusted for inflation, Amherst professor salaries have actually decreased over the last 10 years.

Graphic courtesy of Amherst College

While the value of the college’s endowment has skyrocketed over recent years, the college’s budget and investments in campus life have not increased proportionately.

At the same time, student fees have skyrocketed. Amherst’s sticker price rose by an average of 4.2 percent per year in the last decade, far outpacing inflation.

Plus, the campus will have to devote substantial funds to its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. In short, Amherst has plenty of productive uses for its surplus funds.

All of this penny-pinching comes at a time of great symbolic importance for the college.

“Promise: The Campaign for the 3rd Century” is an ambitious program which gave us a new science center, new campus facilities and more faculty positions in STEM departments. The problem is that none of these improvements are actually paid for by Amherst.

Using the “Promise” campaign as its justification, Amherst has spent the last few years soliciting donations from wealthy alumni.

Millions of dollars in donations just in the last two years, for instance, have more than offset the cost of the Science Center in full.

This has removed the burden of responsibility from the endowment to the alums and raises the question of why alumni should donate to projects if the money only services the growth of the endowment.

Instead of investing virtually all of its endowment in the stocks of huge corporations (many of which have controversial prac-

tices involving the environment and human rights), it’s time Amherst lives up to its own promise and invest its endowment in what should be its highest priority: its community.

Last year, if Amherst had kept 3 percent of its endowment growth instead of 5.7 percent, it would have added $60.7 million to its operating budget. Instead, Amherst made $66.9 million from student fees last year, as stated in the financial report.

Had Amherst allocated all its new endowment money towards financial aid, the vast majority of students wouldn’t have paid a cent for tuition. Financial aid might not be the best use for all the extra cash, but it is one example of the endowment’s potential to improve the community.

If Amherst started tapping into its resources at a more reasonable rate, it could offer vastly better financial aid and services than even Harvard and Yale. Our acceptance rate would plummet (to the joy of those who care about such things) and other elite schools would face pressure to imitate our model, if only to compete for numbers, top students and professors.

This strategy wouldn’t harm finances in the long term either.

The endowment would continue to grow through the current investments, and in the meantime Amherst would be giving

its students the tools to be more successful than ever before. With a better-resourced education and less debt, Amherst students would thrive and more willingly show their appreciation to their alma mater. Amherst already makes tens of millions every year from alumni donations. Imagine how much stronger Amherst’s base of alumni support would be if Amherst did an even better job to prepare students for their careers.

Amherst is uniquely positioned to take a leadership position on ethical endowment policy. We have one of the largest per-student endowments in the country, and our endowment rules are less restrictive than other institutions. We have the ability to make our college a better institution by investing in the community rather than outside corporations.

The value of an academic institution comes not from how much money it has saved, but from how well its money gets spent. The endowment is not just a means to save for the future.

Amherst students are the future of the college, and investing in us is a better bet than investing in Wall Street.

To find out more about Amherst’s financial priorities, see the Annual Financial Report available online.

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

Opinion 7

Rethinking Mental Health in Politics Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist As President Donald Trump’s administration becomes increasingly entangled with lawsuits, his mental health has become a popular topic of conversation among his opponents.

George Conway, the husband of Trump’s former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, describes Trump as having narcissistic personality disorder. John Kelly, former white house chief of staff, supposedly called Trump “unhinged” and the White House “crazytown.”

While Trump’s mental health may at times seem turbulent, these quotes are worth very little, because the people who make such statements are not experts in psychology. At the same time, psychiatrists who specialize in diagnosing mental illnesses are not permitted to make statements about Trump’s mental health condition because of a statute called the Goldwater Rule.

In the 1964 election, Fact Magazine published a piece titled “1189

Psychiatrists say Goldwater is psychologically unfit to be President!”

The article was based on an informal poll asking psychiatrists about the mental well-being of then-presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The editor of the magazine was eventually sued and forced to pay Goldwater $75,000 for libel. The American Psychiatric Association subsequently issued the Goldwater Rule, deeming it unethical for any psychiatrist to issue a professional opinion on the mental state of public figures without directly examining the individual.

The Goldwater Rule was designed to help protect politics from disinformation, but in today’s world it makes it harder to contradict falsehoods. The mental health of political leaders has an enormous effect on their ability to do their jobs, and therefore on the wellbeing of the American people. The American people deserve to have access to information about politicians’ mental illnesses, because a democratic system cannot function without good information about public fig-

ures and their abilities. Psychiatrists alone have the power to give the people this information, either by diagnosing possible mental illnesses in politicians, or by defending politicians from unsupported accusations about their mental health.

In modern medical practice, it’s common to diagnose mental illness from afar. Politicians in the 21st century are subject to almost nonstop media coverage. Plus, social media gives them a platform to share their unfiltered thoughts directly with the American people. Because of all this exposure, the amount of data psychiatrists have to work with is orders of magnitude greater than it was in 1964.

The methods of psychiatric diagnoses have also improved enormously since 1964. Today, it is common practice for psychiatrists to prescribe treatment based on an individual’s response to a written survey. These methods are reliable but admittedly retain some room for error. To compensate for the potential margin of inaccuracy, psychiatrists who do

diagnose a public figure should also explain their justification so that the public may interpret the judgement for itself. Doctors don’t deserve blind trust, but they absolutely deserve the right to speak publicly about their area of expertise, particularly when the effective management of the country is at stake.

That said, mental illness shouldn’t define a politician’s image or disqualify someone from office. Psychiatrists believe that many great presidents suffered from poor mental health conditions. Historians like Joshua Shenk believe that Abraham Lincoln was almost certainly depressed for most of his life, and psychiatrists like Jonathan Davidson of Duke University have concluded that Teddy Roosevelt was likely bipolar. It’s a strange irony that because of the Goldwater Rule, we often know more about the mental health of dead politicians than that of living ones.

Still, if left unchecked, mental illness can have major effects on a leader’s capabilities. Historian Rob-

ert Gilbert wrote an entire book arguing that Calvin Coolidge (class of 1895), the famous Amherst alum and the nation’s 30th president, suffered from depression so crippling that it destroyed his ability to effectively do his job.

Keeping mental illness a secret opens the door for rampant uninformed speculation, as we see today from Trump’s opponents. This speculation reinforces stereotypes of mentally ill people and legitimizes unreliable diagnostic methods.

Treating mental illness like a mysterious disease makes it seem far more abnormal than it really is. Opening up informed, public discussion of mental illness would help end the stigma and elevate understandings of these various conditions.

If we are to get an accurate impression of the mental state of our leaders, removing the Goldwater Rule is a necessity. Ending the rule would help society treat mental illness as a normal, treatable condition rather than ammunition for political cheap shots.

TMC: English as a Second First Language by Laura Carty ’20

Arts&Living

Lien Truong’s Art Exhibit Questions Western Narratives

Photo courtesy of Carolyn McCusker ‘21

“The Sky is Not Sacred” features pieces from Truong’s series “Translatio Imperii,” which depicts American bombings in Asia and the Middle East.

Jia Jia Zhang ’22 and Carolyn McCusker ’21 Contributing Writers Walking into the Eli Marsh Gallery this fall, visitors will become at once immersed in light, chiming, almost meditative music and works of art heavy in color and content.

This initial experience captures the inherent juxtapositions in Lien Truong’s exhibition, “The Sky is Not Sacred,” on display at Fayerweather Hall until Nov. 22. Placing Western narratives of the sky as a “sacred” place next to American aerial bombings of Middle Eastern and Asian countries, Truong draws upon themes of nature and Western imperialism to produce art that, in her words to The Student, “examines the development and substance of our belief systems.”

Cultural intersections and contradictions are evident in both Truong’s artistic process and product: in her mixed-media piece “According to the Specter of Blood and Water,” Truong combines Asian fabric and embroidery, a landscape of her mother’s birthplace in Đà Lạt,Vietnam and a painted fragment of a European monarch. This piece is the first that the viewer comes

across and is followed by a collection of much smaller works from Truong’s series “Translatio Imperii.”

In this series, Truong paints scenes of American bombings in Asia and the Middle East in the style of the Hudson River Valley School, a mid19th century American art movement inspired by Romanticism. She uses earthen and muted tones and bathes the landscape in natural light.

From far away, the viewer might mistake the subject as something typical of the Hudson River Valley School, which depicted American landscapes in a pastoral manner and glorified nature; like Transcendentalists, Hudson River Valley painters often turned to nature for divine reflection. To them, as language from Truong’s exhibition put it, nature was indeed “sacred.” It is thus ironic that “Translatio Imperii” uses this artistic style to portray scenes of massive destruction; it is all the more ironic that the same Western hegemony which deified nature would dare to destroy it to such extremes.

“The Sky is Not Sacred,” a single channel video created in collaboration with artist Hồng-Ân Trương, is the show’s namesake artwork. A single channel video is one which

uses one electronic source and is exhibited from one playback device. “The Sky is Not Sacred” shows aerial scenes of American aircrafts dropping bombs during the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, an audio recording plays a narration from John Constable, a British Romanticist painter who preceded and inspired the aforementioned Hudson River Valley School. In the recording, Constable reiterates the sky’s sacrality. The viewer hears vocabulary such as “glorious,” “grace,” “admirational” and “investigational,” while she sees wildly discordant scenes of bombs exploding upon contact on Vietnamese earth.

The music is equally disjunctive: it is the calm, meditative consonance that initially drew the viewer into the exhibition. The viewer is therefore forced to confront the irony between Western canon and practice. While she hears peaceful descriptions of nature’s clouds, what she sees onscreen are man-made clouds mushrooming from violent detonation. As such, “The Sky is Not Sacred” — both the individual piece and the exhibition as a whole — challenges not only the “canonical status” of Western art forms but also the objectivity of their narratives

for the purpose of history-telling.

Truong’s belief in the “illuminating” dimension of art pervades her practice, and “The Sky is Not Sacred” in particular. In an email interview, she said that “art and art history show us how art has been made to create systems of cultural heritage.”

To Truong, art is not a stagnant byproduct of culture, but instead a creator of culture; it is something that acts. Truong says we can learn from art by examining how it is “tied directly to the belief systems, mirroring for the most part, the dominant

lens of its time.”

“The content of my painting practice examines our belief systems and the cultural hierarchies of written and cultural histories,” Truong noted. This product is a combination of research and artistic practice.

“I do specific research on my subject matter and gather contextual information from certain fields that give my work context, then begin working in the studio,” she said. “In the studio, my painting practice drives the aesthetic, formal and conceptual decisions as well.”

Photo courtesy of Jia Jia Zhang ‘22

Truong’s mixed-media piece “According to the Specter of Blood and Water” is also shown in the exhibition.

Arts & Living 9

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

An Examination of Non-Dairy Milks: Is Oat the GOAT?

Photo courtesy of Seoyeon Kim ‘21

With the rise of the non-dairy industry, various benefits of drinks such as almond milk, soy milk and the most recent craze, oat milk, have been heavily marketed toward consumers.

Hildi Gabel ’21 Staff Writer At the end of 2018, a shortage of Oatly, the oat milk brand that sky-rocketed in popularity two years prior, caused an outcry in New York City. In 2019, I poured a hefty serving of oat milk into jasmine green tea at Valentine Dining Hall and found my next favorite latte add-in. But all new trends should be questioned.

Oat milk is just the latest star in the non-dairy milk market. Food Navigator-USA, a leading online news source for the food industry, reported that plant-based milk sales in the U.S. took up 13 percent of all milk sales in 2018, a 9 percent increase over the course of a year. These plantbased milks are held in the cultural consciousness as green, clean and hip, and the potential health and environmental effects tend to be amplified. If we bring these conceptions back down to earth, do the stereotypes hold? It turns out that the answer is much more complicated than we might imagine.

Diet Dietary concerns are a major driver behind the rise of plant-based milks. There are apprehensions on both sides of the equation — many worry about the health effects of dairy milk, while others worry about

the health effects of cutting out dairy milk. Milk has long been touted as the staple of a well-rounded diet, but this conception is rapidly changing.

When Meghann Jurkowski, menu coordinator/nutritionist at the college, wrote her master’s project on the health benefits of dairy milk, most studies pointed towards an overall positive effect of milk on the body.

Over time, she’s seen “a shift in studies” that suggest milk may have fewer positive effects than initially thought. For one, “a large majority of humans are lactose intolerant to some degree,” which explains why many might feel agitated after a glass of milk. Another potential issue is the fat content in milk — though Jurkowski is wary of the tendency to characterize all fats as harmful. “Fat and carbs tend to get a bad rep … [but] we need those to survive. It’s good fats and bad fats” that determine health benefit, she said.

Dairy products contain saturated fats and cholesterol, which can have negative effects on the body in the long term. Plant-based milk is generally much lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, and might not contain any depending on the brand and milk type. While she doesn’t see dairy milk as necessarily harmful, Jurkowski says she doesn’t drink dairy milk anymore. “There are just

better things we can put in our bodies that don’t contain things that raise our cholesterol and lipid profile,” she noted.

At the same time, these negative effects of dairy milk are minimal, and there’s no need to eliminate dairy from our diets simply for health purposes. “Can it be part of a healthy, balanced diet? Yeah,” says Jurkowski.

“We can have a little bit of everything.

Balance is key.” Some differences between non-dairy milks stay relatively constant across the board. Rice milk tends to be the most carb-heavy, but these are complex carbohydrates, which are important in our diets and distinct from refined carbohydrates.

Soy milk has 7 grams of protein per serving, which is most similar which out of plant-based milks is most similar to cow milk’s. Hemp milk has the next highest protein content, and the product was actually brought to Amherst to provide a more allergen-friendly milk alternative high in protein. Oat milk follows with 2 grams of protein, and rice and almond milk each have 1 gram.

All the plant-based options tend to have a low fat profile — almond milk has slightly more due to the omega-3 fats in almonds — but more importantly, they are generally made up of the healthy unsaturated fats.

Most of the options contain iron as well, with oat and almond milk typi-

cally having the highest iron content.

Jurkowski says that milk doesn’t provide any nutrients that can’t be found elsewhere, and there’s consequently no need for non-dairy milks to make up for all the nutrients dairy milk provides. As such, the focus on protein and calcium in milk alternatives seems particularly over-blown.

Otherwise, overall health benefits will depend on the brand and production process. Ideally, the healthiest option is to make your own milks from scratch, but this is a near-impossible feat in a college dorm. Luckily, many brands offer products that aren’t excessively processed. Jurkowski says that “the ingredients profile of what we have on campus is pretty clean,” and at home she even drinks the same Planet Oat Milk brand that the college carries.

With so many companies offering different plant-based milk products, it’s important to read the ingredients.

Jurkowski recommends unsweetened options; she encourages people to look for “super simple” ingredient profiles and to avoid carrageenan, an additive used to thicken many plantbased milks that can upset people’s stomachs. Newly developed allergies are another reason many switch to a new option — whether to dairy, soy or any of the nuts that make up nut milks. Oat, rice and hemp milk are generally seen as the most allergy-friendly. Of course, other dietary restrictions will always determine the milk you choose. For instance, those with celiac disease should make sure the oats are certified gluten-free. “It’s all about being conscious of your body, but once you find your brand, you’re smooth sailing,” says Jurkowski.

Environment Concerns over environmental impact have more recently been a huge driver of the growing switch to plant-based milks. While there are some broad trends we can draw conclusions about, in our complex food production system it’s difficult to trace the impact of a specific food back to the source. In 2019, the BBC reported that the global production of dairy milk uses three times the greenhouse gasses used in the pro-

duction of rice, soy, milk or almond milk. A 2018 research paper also estimated that carbon opportunity costs decrease by half when one switched from a vegetarian diet to a diet without beef or dairy. One could imagine that in comparison, all plant-based milks are safe options environmentally. Yet even among plant-based milks, there is high variation in environmental impact. One life cycle analysis of oat milk showed promising news about the effects of oat milk — though this study was published by the leading oat milk company, Oatly, which calls the extent of accuracy and bias into question. Edible Brooklyn, a Brooklyn-based food magazine and website, reported from this study, which used data from conventional, non-organic Canadian dairy producers, that “oat milk results in 80 percent lower GHG emissions and 60 percent less energy use compared to cow’s milk.” Oat milk has also been known to use less water than other plant-based milk crops.

Even if the full environmental impact of oat production remains unclear, it certainly doesn’t reach the scale of environmental harm in almond and soy production. There’s been a recent increase in awareness of the environmental damage in almond production, caused in particular by water loss. The New York Times reported that roughly 15 gallons of water are used to make 16 almonds, which is an enormously high water burden for a crop.

This is particularly problematic in “drought-stricken California, where more than 80 percent of the world’s almonds are grown,” the University of California San Francisco reported. The widespread use of pesticides in almond production also poses a threat to drinking water supplies in California, and altogether takes water resources and land that could be used for less water-intensive crops.

Water loss, at the very least, is an outcome that can be avoided with oat milk — The New York Times reported from the Water Footprint Network that almond production uses six times the water as oat production.

Soy has also been “environmen-

Continued on page 10

Arts & Living 10

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

A Growing Shift in Opinion on the Rise of Technology Theo Hamilton ’22 Contributing Writer In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg who was preparing to go public with Facebook, released a thunderous IPO (Initial Public Offering) letter detailing his vision of the site’s future.

Zuckerberg argued that Facebook was not just a convenient tool for social networking; it also had a moral and political goal. The CEO claimed that Facebook’s real drive came from its social quest to “make the world more open and connected,” stating, “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

At the time, you didn’t need to take the letter’s portrayal of Facebook as a selfless philanthropic operation at face value to understand the company’s appeal. In the wake of the Arab Spring’s organization through social media, Facebook’s claims that it was providing the world with “more honest and transparent dialogue around government” and “solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time,” as Zuckerberg wrote in the letter,

seemed to make a very real point.

All of this looked like a free market’s dream come true — start-up businesses could harness new tech, put it to work solving serious problems and be rewarded with huge amounts of money for doing so. Silicon Valley success stories piled up on each other relentlessly: Uber came out of nowhere to revolutionize transit while Amazon, already well established, accelerated its rapid expansion, making shopping more convenient than ever before. Behind these massive names, smaller tech companies like Ecosia, a nonprofit search engine focused on reforestation, and Ruck.us, a website builder designed for political candidates in local and state elections, set their sights on attacking political and social problems across the board.

Overwhelmingly, American popular culture embraced the optimistic Silicon Valley narrative that the tech industry represented progress. Pew Research Center polling from 2010 to 2015 found that the number of Americans who believed technological industries had a positive effect on the country consistently hovered around

70 percent. But in the last few years, a decisive change has occurred. When Pew redid its survey in 2019, it found that the share still holding that opinion had fallen to 50 percent, while the proportion of those who believe the industry’s effects are primarily negative had nearly doubled from 17 percent to 33 percent. Furthermore, 55 percent of the population agreed that “tech companies have too much power and influence,” indicating that even many who believe in the tech industry’s potential benefit feel a need for increased regulation.

Popular fear of new technology is nothing new. Luddites smashing textile machines in early 19th century England, the looming Cold War terror of nuclear annihilation and countless Terminator-style stories depicting the robotic overthrow of mankind all fit into a long tradition of reaction against technology. But the Pew polls suggest that, until very recently, opposition to the modern tech industry had been limited to a small group. On the whole, the huge potential upsides of following the road of progress seemed to have

outweighed the risks of any potential bumps along the way. Public opinion backed Zuckerberg’s mantra: “move fast and break things” — the pieces can be picked up later.

Growing concerns about the tech industry have also filtered into television. In 2011, “Black Mirror” and its depictions of technology running rampant were ahead of the curve, but its $40 million Netflix purchase in 2015 and haul of eight Emmys over the last three years demonstrate increasing mainstream alignment with its viewpoint. The comedy “Silicon Valley” has poked fun at its namesake’s practices since the show’s inception in 2014, but its early seasons never offered anything like a systemic critique of the tech industry. Recent seasons have adopted a harsher perspective, replete with issues of inclusion, Congressional hearings and billionaire investors with ties to Chile’s Pinochet regime.

Interestingly, the shift in opinion also appears to have permeated beyond party lines. While Pew’s polling found major gaps in Democrat and Republican support of almost every

other major institution — from finance to churches to universities to the news — the gap in opinion on tech companies is only 10 percentage points (54 percent of Democrats believe in its positive effects compared to 44 percent of Republicans).

Whatever cultural shift has occurred doesn’t seem to have a solely political explanation — while the fact that 64 percent of Republicans feel that major tech companies oppose their political views could play a major role in right-wing disenchantment with Silicon Valley, this rationale does not explain why so many Democrats are also changing their perspective on the tech industry. Social shifts such as the disintegration of public trust in the tech industry’s ability to maintain privacy after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or frustration over tech companies’ inability to follow through on promises of positive real-world change might provide a more rounded explanation. Whatever the cause, America’s honeymoon with Silicon Valley is ending, and the results of the fallout are guaranteed to be significant.

pled from the deforestation of soy production, these studies overall point much more towards a larger underlying issue: the feeding of crop to sustainment of livestock that will be used for consumption. For Levin, this sustaining of livestock for animal products, and in particular for meat, is the root issue: “There’s been some great analyses, which show, if we weren’t feeding animals, we’d have a lot more food available.” Feeding crops to meat sources is simply less efficient that eating food sources directly — “we lose energy as you go up the trophic level,” Levin says. The question of dairy milk’s full environmental impact becomes a question of how much those products are eventually used for dairy versus beef production, an area which needs further inquiry.

While cow milk production has negative environmental effects, it is certainly not the environmental disaster that is beef production.

When you eat beef, “you’re actually eating the animal so there’s actually no continued production, and it’s a

very high environmental impact,” says Levin. A cow that is grown to produce dairy can provide milk again and again, suggesting a more sustainable production of resources than meat. While dairy may not be the main contributor, its production plays a role in the cost of sustaining animals for animal products. Dairy accrues environmental costs that many plant-based milks do not, and more inquiry is needed to determine the full extent of dairy milk’s negative environmental impact.

more earthy in taste. Hemp milk has the most distinct flavor, with hints of sesame and a strong aftertaste that I can only describe as slightly herbal.

Rice milk tends to be the most thin, watery and sweet. While perhaps the least reminiscent of milk, it makes for a nice drink with its own merits. As I’m allergic to nuts, I enlisted some taste-testers for the almond milk, which they described as “watery” and “okay.” It’s impossible to pick out one single “best” option for milk alternatives, as it is all highly individualized based on dietary needs and tastes.

If there are any major points that stand out, it’s that almond milk and soy milk both have drawbacks in their link to environmental damage.

Rice milk tends to lag slightly behind the others in nutritional content, and it tastes the least like dairy milk if one is looking for a close substitute.

Hemp milk’s strong taste can be a deterrent for some, and the brand carried at Valentine also has 1 gram of unsaturated fat per serving, which is higher than many plant-based milks

(though still less than dairy milk).

In this particular moment, oat milk is making a case for itself as the most popular milk alternative for the majority of the population. I am an oat milk fan, but with skepticism, for there is no telling what we’ll uncover about its production or health effects. Based on an individual’s political surroundings, cow milk might be contextualized as either foundational to a well-rounded diet or devastating to your body and the environment, taking on a moral undertone. Likewise, non-dairy alternatives may be seen as the hallmark of “clean-eating” or a frivolous expense for liberals.

Though we don’t enjoy admitting it, the market drives so many of the conceptions we hold about food. In light of trends, it’s important to take a step back and remember what it is we’re actually talking and wondering about. In the case of oat milk, simply a beverage made from oats blended in water, it seems like a perfectly fine drink option, at least for the time being.

Considering the Pros and Cons of Non-Dairy Milk

Continued from page 9

tally insidious” over the years, says biology and environmental studies Professor Rachel Levin. Though the U.S. is the leading producer of soy, Brazil was the second largest producer for many years prior. Soy production in South America has contributed significantly to the destruction of the Amazon, with deforestation for soy peaking in the mid -2000s before conservation efforts finally cut back production. While Amazon deforestation for soy has decreased since, the devastating impacts of soy production still continue in the Amazon.

And yet, despite all the negatives of soy production, it’s unlikely that most of this soy ends up in soy milk, or even soy food products. The Union of Concerned Scientists reported that 70-75 percent of soybean production goes towards livestock, which may be an underestimation based on other accounts. While the effect of soymilk cannot be decou-

Taste It would be a lie to deny that my interest in this topic was initially spurred by taste. Through a blind taste test I conducted with all the milk options at Valentine Dining Hall, I discovered that every milk option is recognizably distinct, and that none taste quite like cow milk. Oat milk has a creamy and subtle taste to it, pleasant on its own and complementary rather than overpowering when added to drinks. The soy milk is similarly creamy in texture but

Arts & Living 11

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

West’s New Album Struggles to Find a Coherent Message

Photo courtesy of Billboard

Kanye West’s newest album “Jesus is King” disappointed fans after a long-awaited release.

Hugh Ford ’20 Staff Writer It seems we have once again arrived at the end of another turbulent Kanye West album cycle. While the album’s release was originally announced for Sept. 27 by Kim Kardashian West, Kanye’s latest musical venture “Jesus is King” underwent a series of delays until its eventual release on Oct. 25. West is by no means a stranger to missed due dates. Nevertheless, when Kanye finally runs out of distractions and antics, our waiting — be it patient or frustrated — is usually rewarded in the form of yet another dazzling record that keeps us coming back to the self-proclaimed musical “genius.”

However, on “Jesus is King”, Kanye’s ninth solo effort, we see no such deliverance. From his first single on “The College Dropout” to the electrifying “Jesus Walks” and the soulful “Ultralight Beam” on 2016’s the “Life of Pablo” album, West has always worn his faith on his sleeve.

On “Jesus is King,” he scales up his religious ambitions to a whole Gospel-themed album. What has the potential to be an inspiring exploration of being born again in faith, however, falls victim to Kanye’s distracting and strange political messaging and a surprising lack of work ethic and artistic vision.

On “Jesus is King” the usually outspoken West has remarkably little to say. The album has a runtime of just 27 minutes, and no single song reaches the four-minute mark. It also

lacks any kind of narrative complexity, conflict or even a coherent message besides occasionally celebrating Jesus. Unfortunately, “On Jesus is King,” West waters down and misinterprets what makes gospel and worship music compelling in the first place — joining together as a community and setting aside egoism and materialism in order to worship God. Whereas on past albums, West has called on faith for strength through his struggles or forgiveness for his sins, on “Jesus is King,” he mostly comes across as self-righteous and gimmicky. Add on the fact that it seems West has put little thought into the fundamental musical elements like tone, beat selection and songwriting, and as a result “Jesus is King” falls short of most of its lofty goals.

The record begins innocuously enough with the intro “Every Hour,” sung by the Sunday Service Choir, a church choir West has recently been touring with. In true gospel fashion, the choir enthusiastically sends harmonized praises to the Lord over a bright, simple piano melody. Notably, West’s own voice is entirely absent from the intro track, perhaps in an effort to put aside his notorious ego and embrace the communal aspects of Christianity. Unfortunately, it has no musical payoff. The praises of the choir become tired and repetitive after almost two minutes, and after the song ends, the energy and jubilant spirit are immediately killed with the abrupt transition to the somber minor chords of the next track “Selah.”

Despite the sudden change of

tone, “Selah” is one of the stronger tracks on “Jesus is King.” The track finds West rapping over a series of ascending chords from a church organ.

The organ slowly builds as heavy percussion eventually joins in to create a powerful yet minimalistic soundscape. Just as West’s rapping reaches a crescendo, a chorus of “hallelujahs” takes over the bridge that builds to its own crescendo.

Everything comes to a climax at the end when West joins back in for his second verse and begins layering on more “hallelujahs,” drums and spiritual chanting. However, even in “Selah,” there are hints at the album’s shortcomings. West is hardly at the top of his lyrical game with ham-fisted biblical platitudes and laughably unironic lines like “Everybody wanted Yandhi, then Jesus Christ did the laundry.” While West has never been known as a lyricist, on “Selah” he seems to have a newfound lack of self-awareness, which unfortunately carries over into much of the other songs on the album.

Indeed, on much of “Jesus is King,” the corniness and lazy songwriting seem to bury the usual flashes of Kanye brilliance that inevitably crop up. For instance, the fourth track “Closed on Sunday” has a powerful, emotionally-charged second verse from West about putting his trust in the Lord. Unfortunately, this verse comes only after a tacky chorus based around the entendre that West’s wife (his “Chick-for-lay”) is off-limits on the Sabbath like the “Chick-fil-A” fast-food chain. The cringe-inducing

joke completely undermines the rest of the song, and West’s poignant second verse ends up falling flat.

Similarly, the otherwise immaculate banger “On God,” an impassioned depiction of West’s struggles that is laid out over an absolutely wild Pi’erre Bourne-produced beat, becomes completely derailed when West begins complaining about his tax rate. By some confusing logic, West explains that he needs to overcharge for his Yeezy sneakers so that his family doesn’t starve. West seems to forget that just a few bars ago he was bragging about buying a $14 million ranch and appearing on the cover of Forbes magazine — it hardly seems that his family is on the brink of starving.

Still, even West’s weird political agenda in “On God” is preferable to some of the bland, low-energy songs in the second half of the tracklist.

“Everything We Need,” “Water” and “Hands On” feature some of West’s least-inspired bars. On “Everything We Need,” a song repurposed from the unreleased “Yandhi” album, West’s voice is conspicuously flat, especially compared to the voice of rapper Ty Dolla $ign, whose melodic singing carries the chorus.

The song is notably altered from the leaked “Yandhi” version (titled “The Storm”), which featured a slightly different, more energetic verse from Kanye, an additional verse from the late artist XXXtentacion and an extended outro.

West’s lack of energy also drags down “Water” and “Hands On.” “Water” features some beautiful, spiritual singing from Ant Clemmons (who is also featured on “Everything We Need”) and a backing gospel chorus.

However, when West takes over with a monotone, spoken-word prayer, the song dies a quick death. Seemingly uninspired by the tenderness in Ant Clemmons’s voice, West simply repeats various requests to Jesus like an ad-libbed grace delivered by a hungry 14 year old before Thanksgiving dinner.

Similarly, in “Hands On” West continues in a monotone that saps all life out of the song. While the lyrics are not quite as lazy as “Water’s,” you almost wish they were. Instead, he starts rapping about being rejected by “hypocritical” Christians and liberals,

a contrived conflict of his provocative-for-the-sake-of-being-provocative political tendencies. To its credit, “Jesus is King” does feature the occasional transcendental moment, a bitter reminder of the latent musical ingenuity that elevated West to stardom and kept him there despite years of celebrity antics.

One such instance is the last full song of the album, “Use This Gospel,” another track recycled from the scraps of “Yandhi.” The production on “Use This Gospel” is simple, yet grandiose: a repeated metronomic tone filled in with synths that meld into West’s autotuned humming. For once, West seems to put effort into his singing and manages to stay on pitch. To cap it off, his lyrics are even quite touching, as he leaves us a final call for faith in trying times. “Use This Gospel” really makes you wish it was closing out a better album.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention two other highlights: “Follow God” and “God Is.” “Follow God” is probably Kanye’s most nuanced take on faith throughout “Jesus is King.”

West flows over signature soul-sample production about handling everyday frustrations and the challenges of letting go of his ego as he tries to embrace his faith. His internal struggle comes across as sincere and self-reflective, as opposed to his more contrived political conflicts elsewhere on the album. “God Is” is another refreshingly personal moment on an otherwise bland album. West sings in a raw, emotive voice about his personal relationship with God and the joy he has found in worship.

Moments like these hint at the potentially great album buried under the surface-level grime of “Jesus is King.” Throughout the record, there are many head-scratching decisions that simply take away from the religious aims of the album. Be it lazy lyricism, lifeless singing, lack of attention to cohesion or West interjecting his bizarre political views — everything seems to distract from the supposed spiritual purity of the music. The result is tragic because we have time and again witnessed what a motivated and focused Kanye West can create. Unfortunately, it seems, for now faith alone is not enough to overcome West’s own impulsive and careless temperament.

Arts & Living 12

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

The Avett Brothers Confuses with Sociopolitical Agenda

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Avett Brothers, an American folk rock band, attempted to deliver a sociopolitical message with their newest album “Closer Than Together” — but missed the mark completely.

Colin Weinstein ’22 Staff Writer If you’ve ever met a white guy who recently read Ta Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” for the first time and really wants to tell you that (*gasp*) racism isn’t just about the KKK and the n-word, then you’ve essentially already listened to the Avett Brothers’ new album “Closer Than Together.” In other words, the band’s heart is in the right place, but listening to some of the tracks, you’ll find yourself skeptically interjecting, “Yes, and…”

The band, known for its stadium-filling folk-rock-meetspseudo-country style, has never made any ostensible foray into the political arena. The music is generally characterized by its expertly arranged harmonies, soothing acoustic guitars, occasional foot-stomping anthems and of course band leader Seth Avett’s penetrating vocals. The lyrics themselves are often vacuous but nonetheless enjoyable.

To say that “Closer Than Together” doesn’t live up to this shining musical track record would be wholly untrue — in fact one could argue that the new album is even a step forward in terms of stylis-

tic breadth. The album’s opener, an explosive rock elegy called “Bleeding White,” is a refreshing departure from the band’s typical folksy routine and certainly one of the better album openers of modern rock. The album includes uplifting ditties (“Tell The Truth,” “C Sections and Railway Trestles”), sympathetic ballads (“Long Story Short”) and another catchy lament by the name of “Bang Bang”— a highlight of the album. Musically, “Closer Than Together” checks all the band’s boxes and maybe even adds some new ones to the list for the genre.

This album isn’t just a musical shift for the band, however.

Almost four months before the album’s release, Avett decided to post a “mission statement” for the album on Instagram. The document began with the dubious statement, “The last thing the world needs is another piece of sociopolitical commentary” and ended with the outright confusing conclusion that “the Avett Brothers will probably never make a sociopolitical record. But if we did, it might sound something like this.” Queue the deafening applause of an overwhelmingly white fan base.

In trying to produce a “mission

statement” — a document whose sole purpose is to clarify the aims of its author — Avett seems to have really just stoked his audience with an excessively wordy and strategically vague ad. The 21,000+ likes on the post may be in support of the Avett Brothers’ new “social justice” album just as much as they could be for the Avett Brothers’ new “let’s stop being PC!” album. After all, “sociopolitical” doesn’t necessarily mean “social justice,” and everyone supports some kind of politics — whether it be the building of a border wall or the implementation of universal health care.

Ultimately, nothing about this “mission statement” definitively tells the audience what stance the album is taking.

Nevertheless, listening to the album you quickly realize that it intends to highlight some of the injustices and atrocities of American society, such as slavery, American colonization, sexism and gun violence. An album that parses such sensitive subjects would thus rely heavily on the content and quality of its lyrics, especially when the band is composed primarily of straight, cisgender, white, Christian men. Unfortunately for the Avett Brothers,

lyrical acuity has never been the band’s forte, and considering the content of “Closer Than Together,” that weakness now has some real implications.

There’s a certain awkwardness, for example, to the way most of the “woke” songs open with lyrics that seem to belie the overarching message. The first verse of “We Americans” sounds straight out of your run-of-the-mill stadium country song (“I grew up with reverence for the red, white and blue…”) and then goes on to mourn and memorialize the enslavement of black people and the genocide of indigenous people.

Sure, patriotism doesn’t preclude social justice, but in this case, the framing of the song’s solemn content (a couple of the refrains: “Blood in the soil with the cotton and tobacco…” and “Blood on the table with the coffee and the sugar…”) through its patriotic overture makes the whole thing seem a bit glib and potentially conveys the wrong message.

Helen Harrington ’22, who attended the Avett Brothers’ Oct. 4 concert in Worcester where the song dropped, expressed her discomfort with the experience. “It’s a very white audience that got really excited about lines that acknowledged America as built on stolen land through slave labor.

It was kind of uncomfortable for me because I felt like folks were cheering the acknowledgement without mourning the atrocities,” she noted. The message that the Avett Brothers’ audience draws allows them to celebrate their “wokeness” without understanding the extent of their own culpability.

In the case of the song “New Woman’s World” — generally about sexism — the lyrics seem to miss the mark entirely. The song opens with the words, “It used to be a man’s world, but we didn’t treat it right … I’m glad it’s finally in the hands of the women and the girls.” Aside from the potential Trumpian misinterpretations of that first (and often repeated) phrase, the verse overall lends to the interpretation that the patriarchy no longer exists, which is equally flawed. Generally, it also

seems odd how the “woke” songs are a minority on this album, consistently buffered by uncontroversial bops. In doing so, the album almost seems to say, “These issues are important but depressing, so here are some more songs to dilute that message.” Overall then, “Closer Than Together” actually seems to have stuck to its mission statement pretty well.

On the other hand, for some of the more political pieces on the album, the Avett Brothers’ privilege actually seems to aid the social justice messages. “Bang Bang,” even if a bit melodramatic, provides an indictment of overzealous gun culture from the perspective of someone likely well acquainted with it: a white man from the South. Similarly, “Long Story Short” suggests a narrative for the making of mass shooters, but it does so rather subtly and to an innocent tune reminiscent of the decidedly more upbeat John Prine classic “Paradise.” Whether the account is accurate, I have no idea, but at least the presentation avoids the sledgehammer approach of most of the other songs.

Furthermore, if you put aside the potential for misinterpretation, there’s political value in presenting these issues at all (even if simplistically or somewhat inaccurately) to an audience that might never have encountered them otherwise; the band could potentially inspire its audience to independently learn more about these issues and hopefully come to more developed conclusions.

Whether this would truly be the result, though, is more a question for a social scientist.

The Avett Brothers seem, then, to have made some sort of “sociopolitical album.” What exactly this album advocates for, however, remains unclear. After all, the Avett Brothers are no Rage Against the Machine, and you get what you sign up for; what the band lacks in Noam Chomsky quotes, it makes up for in a sound that doesn’t wage war against your ears. If you decide to listen to “Closer Than Together,” expect great music, (at best) dubious lyrics and a whole lot of confusion.

Sports Volleyball Secures a Rivalry Win and Beats Hamilton Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor After hitting a rough patch Homecoming weekend, the volleyball team righted the ship Friday and Saturday with not a moment

to lose, with the NESCAC Tournament fast approaching.

The weekend started out when Amherst traveled to Hamilton, New York, to take on the Continentals. The Firedogs got off to a hot start after Emily Kolsky ’20 got

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Amherst made 15 blocks at the net in total between two matchups against Hamilton and Williams.

the kill, then served two aces to put Amherst up 7-3.

Hamilton battled back and stole enough points to level the score at 11-11. Crucial kills from Charlotte Duran ’20, Sophie Launsbach ’22, Jamie Dailey ’21 and Claire Dennis ’20, and handling errors in Hamilton’s attack allowed Amherst to close out the set, 25-21.

In the second set, the Firedogs reinforced the tone set in the first, jumping out to a 16-5 lead. Hamilton battled back, however, going on an impressive run as Amherst seemed to momentarily disintegrate under pressure, and the Continentals tied the match at 18-18.

After the set became knotted at 2424 the “win-by-two” rule came into effect, like deuces in tennis and Amherst decided how to respond to the adverse situation Hamilton presented.

Duran set up Dennis for a great kill, and then Pearl Acord ’21 fin-

ished off the set with a fizzling ace.

The final set was close as well, but thanks to scrappy play from Firedogs like Launsbach, who had four kills and an assist in the set, Amherst came out victorious in straight sets.

The team had a quick turnaround, heading back east to prepare for a matchup against Williams the next afternoon.

The sixth-seeded Ephs would need to put together a perfect performance to trump the Firedogs, but they were firmly outplayed.

Amherst took the first set handily, winning 25-17.

The second set was a tighter fixture, as Williams pushed to edge out Amherst.

Kills by Dailey and Dennis closed out the set, and Amherst won 25-22. To finally dismantle their rivals, Amherst put together an excellent third set, winning 2515. In the win, Kolsky had 12 kills,

14 digs, five assists and two blocks, leading the Firedogs on the stat sheet. Launsbach contributed nine kills, as well as five blocks.

As a team, the Firedogs hit the ball very well, scoring points on a quarter of all strikes over the net, an excellent percentage for a team.

Amherst gets a boost from taking down their rivals the week before the tournament starts, as they hunt a return trip to the NESCAC final after last year’s loss.

Finishing the regular season with a 19-3 record, the Firedogs are a fourth seed entering the tournament, and therefore they will battle fifth seed Middlebury next Saturday, who gave Amherst three tightly contested sets the last time they met.

After that, they might have to take on Tufts, who as the number one seed in the tournament with home field advantage, will be tough to unseat.

Racism in Italian Soccer: Balotelli, Lukaku and Radical Ultras Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor

One of European soccer’s brightest talents and enigmatic figures, Mario Balotelli, had an eventful Saturday. The striker – now playing for Brescia after stints at Manchester City, both Inter and A.C. Milan, Liverpool and Nice – was dribbling toward his opponents’ end line, when he perceived that the Hellas Verona fan sections were chanting racial abuse at him. He scooped the ball up with his hands, in the middle of live play, and punted the ball into the stands. He then marched for the exit.

It’s not the first time Balotelli has faced abuse from fans and players on the pitch — after a match against Roma in 2013, the former Italian national team forward claimed “if it [racial abuse] happens one more time, I’m going to leave the pitch, because it’s so

stupid.” His teammates, in desperate need of the phenom’s help on the pitch, convinced him to stay on. Bresica, was of course, down 2-0.

This is part of a larger racial context surrounding football in Italy. Just two weeks ago, Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku faced Caliari fans who made monkey noises every time he touched the ball. This was four days after an Italian TV pundit on the popular sports show, Qui Studio a Voi Stadio, claimed the only way to stop the Belgian forward of Congolese descent “is maybe give him 10 bananas to eat.”

Lukaku said in response in a press conference that “football is a game to be enjoyed, and we shouldn’t accept any form of discrimination that will put our game in shame.”

Football, however, in a nation enthralled by the sport, cannot only be a game “to be enjoyed.”

Politics goes hand and hand with the sport.

The site of intersection between a club and its supporters are ultras groups that organize fans not only to cheer in unison but also mobilize supporters politically. The leader of the Hellas Veronas Ultras, Luca Castellini, ran for mayor of the city in 2012 and is a member of Forza Nuova, a far-right coalition in the region vehemently opposed to immigration and diversity in Italy.

Castellini claimed in a radio interview in Verona on Monday morning that monkey chants occurred and that those chants were totally permissible. He also claims Balotelli, who was born in Palermo, will never be “fully Italian” because of his race and referred to Balotelli with the most pejorative term in Italian to describe persons of African descent. Castellini was barred from entering the stadium by the team’s owners later that day,

but it seems this might be easy to circumvent, as no identification is required at the gates and he still runs the Hellas Veronas Ultras.

Fans of football do not only spread far-right politics, however.

The Scottish side Celtic’s supporters brandished flags with Mussolini hanging from a noose last week, along with Palestinian flags against Lazio, a favorite club of Mussolini.

Celtic was fined, but their ultras started a donation drive to match the fines to support aid to persecuted Palestinians. Far-right politics and Serie A sides seem to go hand in hand, except for Sampadoria’s anti-fascist “Rude Boys.”

As Euroscepticism and farright movements continue to gain traction in Europe, and Italy in particular, the tensions between the sterile, politics-averse governing bodies interested in maintaining profits and supporters groups, who might form an integral part of the “character” of these clubs,

will only rise. AS Roma, on early Tuesday morning, issued a statement in solidarity with Balotteli’s plight but did not release a statement about the 30,000 euro fine the club received for racist chants from their own ultras.

Although Roma has an international following and imense revenues, the club was founded

by Mussolini himself and has several far-right ultras groups. In the meantime, players like Balotelli and Lukaku are forced to endure attacks on their personhood and expected to continue to perform at a high level despite the abuse.

Balotelli, for one, scored a beautiful last-minute goal right in front of the Hellas ultras section and jeered at them afterwards.

Sports, regardless of context, are never an apolitical story, as they are always tethered to the aspirations of cities, nations and peoples, even as money becomes the driving factor across the globe.

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

Sports 14

Men’s XC Second at NESCACs, Women Place Seventh Men’s Cross Country: At the NESCAC Championships, solidity in the Mammoth pack allowed the men’s cross country team to take second place. Amherst scored better than three nationally-ranked teams, Bates, Colby and Middlebury. No scoring runner finished in the top 10 for Amherst, but all five finished within 30 seconds of each other. Spencer Ferguson-Dryden ’20 paced the Mammoths, finishing in 14th place. Braxton Schuldt ’21, Bill Massey ’21 and Jamie Mazzola ’21 finished in sequential order to take 17th to 19th place. Owen Daily ’22 rounded out the top five finishers as the only scoring underclassman. Amherst returns to action in two weeks’ time when they travel to Bowdoin to compete at the New England Regional Championships on Saturday, Nov. 16.

Women’s Cross Country: Sarah Gayer ’21 paced the Mammoth harriers this weekend at the NESCAC Championships held at Williams. The junior finished 23rd in the 146-woman field. Just behind her was Sophia Wolmer ’23, who crossed the line just moments behind her teammate to finish in 24th. Following Wolmer were Captain Olivia Polischeck ’21, Kristin Ratliff ’20 and Mary Kate McGranahan ’23, who finished in 33rd, 45th and 54th respectively, followed Wolmer.

Scoring 178 points, the team finished in seventh overall, one place ahead of their performance in 2018. The Mammoths return to action in two weeks when they race at the New England Regional Championships on Saturday, Nov. 16.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Spencer Ferguson-Dreyden ’20 (left) and Jamie Mazzola ’21 (right) ran excellent races to lead Amherst to second place.

Opinion: The NESCAC Needs a Football Playoff Cale Clinton ’20 Staff Writer

The 4-4 Mammoth football team will head up to Williamstown, Massachusetts, to take on the Ephs in their annual end-ofseason clash next weekend. While every rivalry game has some level of school spirit, this year’s match will hold a little less weight than usual: both teams are out of contention for a NESCAC championship.

Why is it that football is the only NESCAC sport that awards its champion by record alone? Every team’s season culminates in some kind of bracket-style structure, pitting the top teams of that season in competition with one another to see who reigns supreme.

Teams that falter early or have a late resurgence can sneak their way into a playoff bracket. Some of the greatest stories in sports — college or otherwise — stem from an underdog counted out early rising to the occasion on the highest stage.

The regular season isn’t the endall-be-all in determining success because once you’ve got a ticket to the dance, anything can happen.

The football team’s season lies in an entirely different context.

The NESCAC championship relies on wire-to-wire perfection, or the closest thing to it. The only team with a chance to win the championship this year is Middlebury, sitting at 8-0 atop the standings.

Wesleyan, just a game back, cannot possibly win a championship, even with a Middlebury loss and Cardinals win.

This kind of confusion over titles happens often in the NESCAC. Last year’s Amherst football team finished second to Trinity despite holding the same record as the Bantams. Amherst beat Trinity in the 2017 season, but an Amherst loss to Williams in week eight handed the conference title to Trinity. The 2016 season saw Tufts fall short, with their only loss being to an undefeated Trinity team.

Nearly every NESCAC football season over the last decade has been decided either with an undefeated season or a tiebreaker scenario in standings. Since 2000, there have been three seasons that ended with co-champions, two of which ended with three-way ties.

This simultaneous focus on perfec-

tion and the trivializing of championship titles has led to a conference whose teams feel as though their season is officially over after their second loss.

The arguments against playoff expansion are valid ones. The first and most important is health concerns. Football is a dangerous game. The NESCAC wants to keep its student-athletes safe, and exposing players to more snaps in a season increases the risk of injury. The second consideration is an academic one; an extension of the playoffs would encroach on preparations for the end of the semester, asking student-athletes to sacrifice more of their fall semester for their sport.

While the two criticisms of expansion are understandalbe, the NESCAC has already expanded its season in recent years. Beginning with the 2018 season, the NESCAC has grown from eight to nine games in a season, refuting the claim that a season-culminating game would push too deep into the calendar while also putting athletes at an increased risk of injury.

The NESCAC Football Championship should be decided by

one game: a championship game.

The regular season has to act as a prelude to something. Deciding 11 weeks of hard work, coupled with hours of film and months of off-season preparation, all by standings alone is underwhelming.

The infrastructure already exists for both an eight- and nine-game regular season. If it would be possible for two teams to stay into the first Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving break to play a championship game (most playoff systems for other NESCAC sports already encroach on school breaks and time off for student athletes).

We can keep the nine-game season and add a 10th final game for two teams. If that ask is out of the question, revert to the eight-game format used two years prior in order to accommodate a season conclusion in game nine.

The two-team playoff allows for more teams to play meaningful games late in the season. As the league currently stands, not a single team can affect the championship outcome in the 2019 NESCAC football season. In a playoff atmosphere, the possibilities are wide open. Wesleyan would be in con-

tention for the second seat in the NESCAC Championship playing a 5-3 Trinity team. Williams sits at 6-2 hosting Amherst this weekend.

If a playoff were to exist, this would then mean both Trinity-Wesleyan and Amherst-Williams would have meaningful games this weekend. Having at least three teams in close proximity to one another would allow for better competition and more meaningful football late into the season.

Sports aren’t meant to be practices in perfection. Nobody cares about the 2007 Patriots’ 16-0 season; they care about the 10-6 New York Giants that stormed into the playoffs and left the Patriots with one giant loss. The excitement in sports comes from the potential in something unlikely, this constant possibility that we are about to watch some redemptive narrative arc reach its exciting conclusion.

The idea that David can take down Goliath is why we as fans tune in.

No kind of Cinderella story or iconic NESCAC football moment is born out of stipulation over standings. Those come from onfield moments in games that mean something.

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

Sports 15

Women’s Soccer Scores Overtime Win Against Hamilton Connor Haugh ’21 Managing Sports Editor There is something qualitatively different about single-elimination soccer tournaments from a run-ofthe-mill, regular game. The NESCAC Championship tournament is no exception. In league play, an unlucky day can be brushed aside – but in the tournament, a bad day can easily turn into a frustrating eight-month hiatus until the season begins again.

The Amherst women’s team came into their quarterfinal match on a five-game win streak in which they conceded no goals, despite the loss of star goalie Antonia Tammaro ’21 to a head injury.

One could sense that the side had matured, overcoming the challenge posed by losing All-American striker Rubii Tamen ’19, as now they scored goals from a variety of different sources.

Their weekend matchup against Hamilton, however, was by no means easy. The Continentals came prepared with a game plan to match the Amherst style. Because Amherst is comfortable in possession and builds up attacks slowly from the back, Hamilton attempted to exploit this penchant, pestering the Mammoth back line, hoping to pounce on an Amherst error.

Amherst had to work hard to break down the Hamilton press, dropping back their attacking midfielders to receive the ball, as Jordan Bailey ’20 and her understudy Julia Ralph ’21 were too tightly marked to serve as the link between defense and attack.

Once the Mammoths broke through the line of pressure, they were given space out wide. Hamilton stayed narrow, and to their credit, defended adroitly.

Amherst piled on the pressure in the first half. Ruby Hastie ’22, playing a more central role than usual, had an excellent chance in the 32nd minute after she created an inch of space with an excellent cut inside. But her right-footed shot steamed low and hard to the nearside corner, and the Hamilton goal-

ie made an excellent save. In total, Amherst took 12 shots in the first half, although none went in the net.

Perhaps the telling sign that the Continentals might have been crumbling was the fouls they committed. Alexa Juarez ’22 earned a free kick just outside the Continetals’ box after a distasteful Hamilton challenge that let her set up to hit the dead ball.

Juarez’s shot, struck beautifully with pace and knuckling precision towards the top left corner, whizzed just inches above the bar.

The first half ended scoreless, and the Mammoths went into the break searching to break the game open.

As the second half kicked off, one could feel the pressure mounting on the Mammoths, who, despite dominating the match, had yet to score. Early in the second half, Isabelle Stern ’23 cleverly brought the ball into the box, leaving her defender scratching her head, and rifled a shot on net.

The ricochet fell to Juarez, who hit the keeper, then Sloan Askins ’20, who spent much of the second half marauding forward from center back, got that rebound and skied the ball over the net. It was one of those moments where doubt crept closer in to the Mammoths’ minds, especially since Hamilton counterattacked well several times in the second half. Amherst maintained both composure and the pressure, even as regular time expired and the match headed into overtime.

From there, it was all preparation begetting opportunity, as Amherst finally cashed in on their dominance as Hannah Gustafson ’21 scored after a rebound came to her, and she finally squeezed one by the Hamilton goalkeeper Rachel Pike.

New challenges await, as Amherst moves on to face the top-seeded Tufts team next Saturday in Medford.

With a strong team identity, and by all evidence, just enough luck on the Mammoths’ side, it certainly will make for an interesting matchup.

Views from Sparrow’s Nest Matt Sparrow ’21 Columnist Matt Sparrow engages the struggle between NFL players and the league over the players’ bodies. Players have been advised out of necessary medical treatment by team doctors so that they may continue to play.

Contract holdouts are commonplace in today’s NFL. Just this past offseason, six different Pro Bowlers decided not to report to practice until they secured a new contract from their team.

While not all of them were successful and one of them was downright disastrous (looking at you, Melvin Gordon), the only player of that group who still has not participated in a game this season is Washington Redskins offensive tackle Trent Williams.

It seemed that the decision was financially motivated at first, but new details that surfaced this past week put Williams’ holdout in a completely different light.

Earlier this week, Williams revealed that he had undergone a procedure in the offseason to remove a rare form of cancer called Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans.

Williams had noticed the lump on his head about six years earlier but the Redskins’ team doctors had informed him that it was nothing to worry about.

“I was told it was something minor, so I didn’t really question them,” Williams told reporters as he addressed the media for the first time in months. “But I mean, the lump continued to grow over the years. It was concerning, but there was no pain involved and if I’m being told by the very people I put my career in the hands of, people are telling me I’m fine, [then] I’m fine. That’s how I looked at it.”

Despite being in trade rumors for the better part of the past seven months, Williams finally reported to the team this past week.

However, his reason behind doing so was to accrue anoth-

er season so that he can hit free agency as early as possible and claim the money he’s owed on his contract.

Williams passed every aspect of his physical except for when it came time to put on his helmet.

He claimed “discomfort” when wearing his helmet due to the 350 stitches and 75 staples in his head from the procedure to extract the cancer. As such, he won’t be eligible to take place in any team activities until the Redskins find him a proper helmet.

The likely outcome is that Williams has already played his last game in a Redskins uniform, and the team will look to trade him in the offseason to recoup some of his lost value.

During the media session, Williams spoke very candidly about his thought process behind getting the tumor removed this past winter. “I almost lost my life.

Seriously, I almost lost my life,” Williams said. “You’re 30 and coming off seven straight Pro Bowls, and a doctor tells you to get your affairs in order. It’s not going to sit well with you. It still doesn’t. It’s a scary thing to go through. Think how you describe to your 9 year old, your 5 year old that Daddy might not be here. It’s tough.”

The Redskins received even more criticism when they requested a joint committee to review the medical records and care that Williams received.

The Redskins launched the investigation just a few days after Williams’ comments even though they had known about the surgery months prior.

This led the NFL Players Association to release a statement supporting Williams and accus-

ing the NFL Network of spreading “misinformation” about the circumstances. Williams himself even said that he has “no trust” in the Redskins’ organization.

The role of team doctors, and whether or not they have the players’ best interest in mind, has come under much scrutiny over the past few weeks. A separate incident, involving former Jets offensive guard Kelechi Osemele, also raised a number of eyebrows.

The Jets felt that Osemele could play through his torn labrum despite three different doctors stating that he needed season-ending shoulder surgery.

Osemele threatened legal action against the Jets for medical malpractice, and the Jets eventually released him after he got the surgery without team approval.

Given that football has the lowest average career length of any of the major sports, it is even more important that each player takes extreme caution when it comes to injuries.

The NFL is a business, and each team wants to get as much out of each player as possible for the few years that they’re in the league.

Because of this, the team doctors might give diagnoses that are not always reflective of what’s best for the athlete; after all, the team is their employer, not the individual athlete. Each player has every right to get a second or third opinion from an outside source unassociated with the team and come to a decision that makes them feel most comfortable.

The NFL only cares about the players for the years that they are in the league. It’s up to the player to worry about the years that come after their careers are over.

The Amherst Student • November 6, 2019

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Men’s Soccer Downs Wesleyan to Advance to Semis Jack Dove ’23 Staff Writer Entering Saturday’s NESCAC quarterfinal matchup with eighth-seeded Wesleyan, Amherst had every reason to look past the Cardinals. While the Mammoths tout No. 1 overall rankings in the NESCAC and DIII soccer, they stay grounded and focus on one game at a time.

“We just want to win the next game, which is a key philosophy for our program,” head coach Justin Serpone said.

Amherst did just that, trouncing Wesleyan 2-0. Continuing their offensive onslaught, the Mammoths launched 21 shots, including 12 on goal and two scores from forward Dane Lind ’20.

After a choppy first five minutes, the field began to open up for Amherst. In the eleventh minute, forward Ada Okorogheye ’23 split two Cardinals with a spinning through-ball in the direction of the dangerous German

Giammattei ’22, only to have the pass cleared by a sliding Wesleyan center back.

The Mammoths kept knocking on the door: in the 24th minute, a long defensive clearance suddenly became a breakaway for Giammattei, who ran on to it and hit a volley that flew just over the crossbar. Three minutes later, Lind crushed a curling shot on goal, which was parried

by Wesleyan goalkeeper Liam Devanny.

The Mammoths finally found the back of the net in the 31st minute; after a flip-throw into the box from Bryce Johnson ’21, Lind pounced onto a poor clearance and smashed a volley off of a Wesleyan defender and into the goal.

Lind put the icing on the cake for the Mammoths in the 53rd minute when he ran onto a picture-perfect pass from Giammattei. Lind calmly slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal, making the score 2-0 Amherst. The California native’s

brace upped his career goal total to 14 and point total to 52.

Amherst dominated possession for the last 20 minutes, anchored by stalwart centerbacks Felix Wu ’21 and Kyle Kelly ’21.

Goalie Bernie White ’22 commanded his box with authority for all 90 minutes, adding yet another shutout and lowering his average-goals-allowed-per-game mark to 0.46.

The win thrusts the Mammoths into a semifinal clash with Middlebury, them responsible for one of Amherst’s two ties this season. The Panthers are coming off of a double-overtime victory against Connecticut College, when, after 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, Middlebury came out on top in penalty kicks, 4-3.

Amherst takes on Middlebury at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Hitchcock Field. The victor will play in the NESCAC championship on Sunday, Nov. 10, against whichever team wins in the Williams vs. Tufts game Saturday.

GAME SCHE DULE FRI

SAT

Volleyball NESCAC Quarterfinal vs. Middlebury, 7:30 p.m.

Men’s Soccer NESCAC Semifinal vs. Middlebury, 11 a.m.

SUN Men’s Soccer NESCAC Final, TBD

Women’s Soccer NESCAC Semifinal @ Tufts, 11 a.m.

Football @ Williams, noon

Women’s Soccer NESCAC Final, TBD

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

In his 13th season, head coach Justin Serpone (left) has established a standard of success for Amherst men’s soccer. The win versus Wesleyan upped his overall record to 195-27-32.

Dane Lind ’20 hammered home two goals versus the Cardinals. Lind now has 24 points on the season, which is second in the NESCAC.