Councilors Boost Local Politics Amid Housing Fallout

Three town councilors, two of them representing District 4 — a district which includes the college — addressed students during an Association of Amherst Students (AAS) meeting on Feb. 17 to discuss the town’s involvement in constructing an affordable housing site at 132 Northampton Road, upcoming proposals in the town of Amherst and methods for students to get involved in local politics. The event, which was held in Cole Assembly Hall at 8:30 p.m., came into fruition after District 4 Councilors

Anthony Jack, Tara Westover Address Role of Inequality in Higher Education

Authors Anthony Jack ’07 and Tara Westover discussed their routes to higher education, the costs of leaving home for college and the challenges low-income students face on campuses in a conversation on Feb. 6. The event, which was titled “What Would Equality in Education Look Like?,” took place in Johnson Chapel. Jack is an assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His book, “The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students,” compar

A New Time for Media Literacy

Thirty-two years ago this month, students at Hazelwood East High School outside of St. Louis would go from average teenagers to national celebrities as their school became the subject of a Supreme Court case. The case, formally known as Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, questioned conceptions of censorship and free press as it evaluated Hazelwood East’s request for student journalists to remove articles on subjects including teen pregnancy and divorce from an issue of the school newspaper.

Visiting Scholar Goes Missing, Discovered Day Later in NH Woods

One day after the family of Mianmian Wang, a scholar visiting the college for the year, reported her missing on Nov. 29, she was located and contacted. According to a flyer posted in each of the class Facebook groups, which was initially sourced from another page, Wang is from China and is currently visiting the college in the English department. The flyer’s caption noted that there was no one in her apartment when searched, and listed a phone number and WeChat username to contact with any inf

Nearby Affordable Housing Unit Planned Despite Pushback from Professors

Plans are underway for the development of a new affordable housing unit at 132 Northampton Road, a building adjacent to Pratt Field. The project, which will house 28 low-income and homeless individuals from the town of Amherst, has garnered mixed opinions from the neighborhood’s residents, some of whom are affiliated with the college. This past July, the town council of Amherst voted to provide $500,000 in community development block grants to the project, currently in development by Valley Com

A Look from the Other Side of Admissions

While the undergraduate experience is frequently lauded as being “the best four years of your life” — a patchwork of eccentrically-named classes, unforgettable dorm parties and lifelong friendships all neatly wrapped up into a bachelor’s degree — recent graduates still harbor a sense of excitement for the life that exists outside the walls of their college campuses. What new, up-and-coming city will I live in next? Where will my professional life take me? As these questions run through the post-

"I Would Be a Great Diva," RBG Says at College Event

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg addressed the role of the Court, workplace discrimination and the current political period — “an aberration,” she said — in a conversation with President Biddy Martin on Thursday, Oct. 3. The event, which was highly promoted and took place in Coolidge Cage, drew nearly 1,600 audience members from the college and Amherst community. Ginsburg, the oldest justice on the Court, was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. A Brooklyn native, she was the f

Climate Crisis Illuminated in Campuswide Strike

Students, along with faculty, staff and other community members, rallied on the first-year quad on Friday to demand for stronger climate policy on campus and stand in solidarity with other climate strikes occurring across the globe. The strike, which comprised of several teach-ins throughout the morning and a main rally on the first-year quad at 12:30 p.m., drew over 100 participants. The strike is one of several that occurred around the world over the week of Sept. 20-27 as a part of the Globa

New Policy Sets Regulations for Protests

The college has implemented a new policy addressing student protests and free expression. Part of an annual update to the Student Code of Conduct, the policy is the first of its kind at Amherst and was introduced alongside another policy concerning facilities and ground use. The policies went into effect at the beginning of the fall semester. The policy outlines guidelines that students must adhere to when organizing protests and includes six sections: a statement of academic and expressive fre

College Among Pilot Group for ‘Adversity Score’ Tool

The college was one of 50 institutions across the nation to test the College Board’s recently released Environmental Context Dashboard during the past admissions cycle for the class of 2023, according to The Boston Globe. The dashboard, more colloquially referred to as the “adversity score,” will become available to 150 colleges and universities this upcoming admissions cycle; the College Board plans to redesign the tool distribute it to other institutions by 2020. The College Board first annou

A Champion for First-Generation Students

I first met Alyssa Snyder when I was a high school senior. At the time, she was a diversity intern for Diversity Open House (DIVOH), a fly-out program hosted by the Office of Admission that brings high school seniors from underrepresented backgrounds to Amherst. Though our interactions were brief, her charisma and passion for equity were palpable. We crossed paths again two years later when we both took on executive board positions in Amherst’s chapter of QuestBridge, an organization that conn

Thoughts on Theses: Namita Khajanchi

Namita Khajanchi is a chemistry major. Her thesis examines the function of the protein mitoNEET. Her thesis advisor is Associate Professor of Chemistry Sheila Jaswal. Q: What is your thesis about?A: My thesis is about a protein called mitoNEET. The protein has implications in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as possibly type two diabetes. The reason we think its type two diabetes is because there is a human-made drug that attached to mitoNEET, and that’s how it was first discovered in 2004.

College Placed on Lockdown Following Reports of Armed Person

Editor’s Note: This article mentions suicide. Resources for any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal are listed at the end of this article. The college was placed on lockdown on Wednesday, March 13 amid a police search in the woods south of campus for a potentially suicidal person with a firearm. An AC Alert sent at 9:12 p.m. notified the college community to remain sheltered inside of a locked building; the shelter-in-place lifted shortly past 11 p.m. The search began after t

Jennifer Egan Shines Light on Historical Fiction

Award-winning novelist Jennifer Egan spoke at the college on Friday, March 1 as part of the fourth annual LitFest. Hosted by the literary magazine The Common, the Center for Humanistic Inquiry and the Emily Dickinson Museum, LitFest invites authors to campus every year to illuminate the college’s literary history. Egan’s most recent novel, “Manhattan Beach,” was awarded the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, and her 2010 book “A Visit From the Goon Squad” won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize. Eg

Professor Connects Black Lives Matter to Baldwin in Talk

On Feb. 20, author and Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. gave a talk at the college titled “Interrogation of Excellence in the Black Experience.” The talk, which was held in Cole Assembly Room, is the last installment in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr./Black History Month Symposium speaker series. A professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton, Glaude additionally boasts previous visiting scholar positions at Harvard and Amherst. He regularly writes for Time and MSNBC, and is the aut

Hampshire Seeks Partner After Financial Distress

Correction: A previous version of this article misquoted President Biddy Martin as saying that “[Hampshire] wouldn’t want any help that would sustain them over a longer term.” Martin said that Hampshire wouldn’t want any help that would not sustain them over a longer term. The Student apologizes for this error. This article was updated on February 7 at 11:29 a.m. Hampshire College’s current operations are unsustainable, President Miriam Nelson announced on Jan. 15. The institution will seek a l

Pastor Brings Together Faith and Community

In my first semester at Amherst, a friend invited me to the college’s Hermina Gardner Bi-Semester Service, a Christian worship service held in the African-American tradition. Though I had grown up attending church, I hesitantly accepted the invitation, not knowing what to expect. My apprehension about the service disappeared when I was immediately confronted with friendly faces and upbeat music. While there were several memorable aspects of the service, from the gospel choir’s harmonious singing

Speaker Series Explores Education Across Disciplines

This semester, the Educative Studies Initiative kicked off its second interdisciplinary speaker series. The series, which hosted its first event on Sept. 27, invites speakers from different academic backgrounds to campus to discuss issues relating to education. The series is the product of a proposal for an education studies major, which developed after an outpour of student interest in recent years. Though opportunities in education studies have been available through the five colleges, the i

Author Michael Lewis Speaks on Risks Within Trump Presidency

Acclaimed author and journalist Michael Lewis spoke at the college on Oct. 15 in Johnson Chapel. The talk, which was moderated by former chair of the Board of Trustees Cullen Murphy ’74, centered on Lewis’ most recent book about government departments within the Trump administration, titled “The Fifth Risk.” Lewis is the author of over a dozen award-winning books, including “The Big Short,” “Moneyball” and “The Blind Side,” and has been featured in various publications including Bloomberg and V

Loeb Center Appointments Appear to Favor Finance Careers

Despite launching a new online platform for career guidance services, the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning has and continues to draw criticism from students seeking guidance in industries outside of business and finance. The center’s new job recruitment platform, Handshake, allows students to sign up for appointments with industry advisers in seven fields: arts and communication, business and finance, education, government and non-profit, science and technology, health and law.

Overenrollment in Class of 2022 Leads to Triples

Sixty first years are living in triple-occupancy dorm rooms in the first-year residence halls this year because of overenrollment in the class of 2022. Though the Office of Admissions initially anticipated a class size of 460 to 485 students, 497 students matriculated into the class of 2022, producing a yield rate of about 40 percent — 3 percent higher than expected. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Matthew McGann noted that the issue of overenrollment is not exclusive to Amherst. College

Fresh Faculty: Katharine Correia

Katharine Correia is an assistant professors of statistics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in statistics from Mount Holyoke, a master’s degree in biostatistics from Boston University and a doctorate in biostatistics from Harvard. Q: How did you become interested in your area of study? A: I took an introduction to statistics course in college just to fulfill my math requirement and I ended up loving it. One particular example that was presented in class that really caught my attention was the ap

Counseling Center Sees One-Third of Student Body

During the 2017-2018 academic year, the Counseling Center has seen a steady increase in the number of students utilizing its services — the center reports having seen 34 percent of the student body so far, and anticipates this figure to rise to about 36 percent by the end of the semester. Over the past four years, the number of students who have used the counseling center doubled, increasing from 15 percent in the 2012-2013 academic year, according to Director of the Counseling Center Jackie Al

Leah Penniman Gives Talk on Food Justice

Food justice activist and farmer Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm spoke on Thursday, Feb. 8 in Stirn Auditorium about the intersection of racial and environmental injustice and the food industry. The event was sponsored by the Office of Environmental Sustainability, the Victor S. Johnson Lectureship fund and the Multicultural Resource Center. On Soul Fire Farm, located in Grafton, New York, Penniman manages a subsidized farm share program that provides fresh food to families that otherwise woul

The Mead Receives $3 Million to Support Directorial Position

The Mead Art Museum announced on Jan. 11 that it received a gift of $3 million. The donation by John Wieland ’58 and his wife Sue seeks to support the position of director and chief curator and help build the museum’s contemporary art collection. “We are deeply grateful to John and Sue Wieland for this generous gift to Amherst and for their commitment to ensuring that the Mead’s exhibitions, educational programming and collection-building continue to serve and delight everyone in our community

Amherst Joins Presidents’ Alliance to Support DACA

President Biddy Martin announced the college’s membership to the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration in an email to the college community on Wednesday, Jan. 17. Her email follows the Alliance’s Dreamer Fly-In, a conference in Washington, D.C. at which college and university presidents urged Congress to pass legislation protecting Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and are protected under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Accordi

Philosophy Professor Examines Identity in Talk

Award-winning professor and author Kwame Anthony Appiah gave a talk titled “How to Not Think About Race, Culture and Class” on Thursday, Nov. 2, in Stirn Auditorium, during which he discussed the origins of perceptions of race, culture and class and offered an alternative lens. Appiah is a professor of law and philosophy at New York University and has previously taught at institutions such as Cornell, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He has published several books, including “In My Father’s House:

Clery Disclosure Reveals Significant Trends in Crime

The Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) sent an email to the community releasing the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistic Act Report, an annual statement of crime statistics over the past three years on Sept. 18. The 74-page report, which is mandated by law, compiles data from the Office of Student Affairs, Amherst Health Services, the Counseling Center and ACPD records to indicate changes in crimes rates from 2014 through 2016. The Title IX coordina