Introducing the Association of Amherst Students

With over three weeks of the semester under our belt, we, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves and say a little bit about who we are and what we do:

Who We Are

The AAS is the student government of Amherst College. Most of our business is conducted by the AAS Senate, a 33-member representative body composed of eight students from each class year and one transfer-student seat. We hold public meetings every Monday night at 8:30 p.m. in the Cole Assembly Room (Red Room) in Converse Hall. Zoom links to our meetings are also made available on the Daily Mammoth.

Any member of the community can bring concerns forward during the public comment period at the beginning of each meeting. The minutes from previous weeks are posted on our website.

What We Do

We send you a lot of emails, but we promise we do more than just that. AAS’s most important functions on campus include funding student events and organizations, advocating for student needs with the administration, and placing student voices in key parts of the college’s governing bodies.

AAS is split into three parts:

The Senate, which discusses and acts on student concerns, approves club budgets, appropriates discretionary funding for campus events, appoints students to serve on college governance and student-faculty committees, and engages in committee work centered on student life and well-being;

The Executive Board, which oversees AAS and helps communicate with administrators;

The Judiciary Council, which handles student complaints related to AAS, student clubs, and any actions that go against our constitution.

If you want to learn more about these parts of AAS or committees, please check out our website and read our constitution.

Feedback

This year, the Executive Board is prioritizing inclusivity, anti-racism, and community. To ensure that we are able to support all of Amherst’s students, we will re-evaluate both our rules and our relationships with students, and make changes where necessary.

We are dedicated to becoming a better student government. If you have feedback for us — ways we can be more transparent, how we can include more student voices, or even negative experiences you have had with AAS — please email us at [email protected] or fill out the anonymous form linked on the web version of this article.

Besides what we can do better, we also want to know how we can improve your experience on campus. Each year, in addition to their committee work, senators complete Senate projects which aim to improve campus life. Some examples of past senate projects include a water bottle cleaning station in Val, Late Night dining five days a week, free laundry, and free printing. If you have any suggestions for things you want to add to the Amherst student experience or change on campus, let us know!

Contact Information

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions about Amherst or AAS, or if you have any general campus concerns. We are here to advocate for and support you all.

You can email us at [email protected] or look for us around campus — you can find your class senators and executive board members on our website. And follow our Instagram @aas.amherst for the latest updates.

For weekly updates on AAS, check out The Student’s new series “From the Red Room,” which will provide regular coverage on AAS meeting discussions and policies starting next week (Issue 5).