Letter to the Editor

Matt Fernald ’13 writes on his personal response about mass mailings on campus.

To the Student Body:

My name is Matt Fernald. A fair number of you know me as a friend, a friend of a friend, a Zumbye or a name that pops up now and then. You may also know me as the guy who spammed the school about not spamming the school. Responses were, shall we say… mixed. It is for this reason that I write.

I must first apologize for the sarcastic nature of my email. It runs against an issue that has long worried me, namely, the divisions within our student body. I do not want anyone to take away the wrong message from this email of mine. If emotions take over, they will only widen these divides.

I do not want people who sympathize with me to feel they have won some victory over those who were spamming. I do not want those who spammed to feel belittled or angry. I merely hoped to point out that spamming the entire school for personal gain of some kind is generally seen as immature and, in many cases, rude.

All Amherst College students on this campus can and do contribute to the genuinely unique and stimulating atmosphere that we boast here. We should support each other in all of our endeavors, even if they are not our own. The day when diversity turns inward upon itself and divides this campus more than it unites it will be a tragic one. Only we students have the power to stop that from happening.

Go Jeffs — all of us.