Campus Conversation

With arms wide open

This weekend, the campus was flooded with prefrosh for the first time, as part of the semester’s first students of color weekend. While the event allowed prospective students to experience the College first-hand, many current students found the experience valuable as well.

“I thought it would be cool to meet prospectives,” said Yu-ri Cho ’03, who hosted two students over the weekend. “I thought it would be cool to meet new young people and see the kind of people that want to come to Amherst.”

A one-time prefrosh herself, Cho remarked, “I think I would have appreciated good treatment. It would be cool if I was part of these people’s positive experience at Amherst.”

“A lot of their questions were about student life in general,” said Han Chen ’03, who thought the weekend’s major purpose was also served. “I think they enjoyed seeing the amount of diversity on campus,” he said.

Though some students feel that hosting entails a big commitment and responsibility, Cho did not feel that way. “It’s pretty hassle free,” she said, “it’s not a big commitment or anything. I like Amherst so I would like to think that I was contributing to the greater good of the College. Maybe I would feel more connected with the campus if I was part of the admissions process.”

Most of the prospective students found their own entertainment over the weekend. “I haven’t seen them all day,” said Cho. “They went to Mount Holyoke yesterday.”

Another host, Edward Schleyer ’06, added, “I haven’t seen them at all. I just thought it would be fun to hang out with them, but I didn’t get to hang out with them at all.”

Keep on the grass

Just as the New England leaves are beginning to turn shades of yellow, a yellow of a slightly different sort has quietly disappeared from the face of the Amherst campus. Something that we have endured and, perhaps, accepted as part of the permanent landscape has slipped away.

Maybe you’ve been too busy with classes and Saturday nights to note the extinction of the strips of cautionary construction tape which wound their way across Campus, in particularly dense patches on the Freshman Quad, since the semester began. While some of the tape had been stolen as soon as it was put up, in hopes of adding a little bit of flavor to otherwise stark dorm rooms, the remainder of the tape was removed last Friday,

There is a sense of joy among the inhabitants of the five freshman dorms which surround the Quad. “[Their disappearance] definitely makes the campus look a lot nicer and prettier,” said Hilary Levinson ’06.

“I was quite happy that I could walk on the grass once again,” said Chris Burnor ’06. “Before, it was a pain. Now I can walk directly across the Quad.”

Ben Hogan ’06 agreed. “I’m glad it’s taken down,” he said. “It’s a lot more convenient.”

The caution tape was put into place to protect grass seed laid down over the open trenches that dominated the campus this summer.

“I was surprised that they had it up for so long into the year,” said Ian Lovett ’06. “There were a lot of tours around and it really wasn’t appealing to keep up. It negatively altered the campus’ ambiance.”

Not a minute too late, Amherst has been saved from this entangling labyrinth. We can now freely dance, prance, run, walk and occasionally stumble across the green.