Parting Thoughts, Thoughts On Parting

A few days ago, I had the honor of joining President Biddy Martin and 17 fellow students for dinner. We discussed, among other things, what we liked and disliked about Amherst College. Some students expressed dissatisfaction with the advising process, saying that they almost never met with their advisors. Some students said they were unhappy about the athlete/non-athlete divide. Some felt that it was difficult to make new friends after First-Year Orientation ended. Within this mixed group repres

Jedi Club Initiation Meeting

Consider two issues. Case 1: Most of us have received emails in the last few months about various sports games, parties, and items lost at said parties. A few days ago, there was also an exchange between Matt Fernald ’13, who requested with a bit of both humor and gumption that students stop abusing the leaked listserv, and a backlash by other students angry that he would dare to express a dissenting opinion — one that many of us held but had not publicized. In the immediate hour after his emai

Amherst Does Not Play With Others

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did anyone else smell the vitriol on campus this week? Among newspaper readership, it was most evident in Dan Diner’s article on secularization and Andrew Kaake’s column on abortion. Their recent newspaper submissions have prompted an outpouring of student responses. Infuriated and affirmed readers alike shared their honest concerns, sometimes boldly proclaiming their identity, but more often remaining under the cloak of anonymity. It bled into our sentiments about AAS and the

A Christmas Lifestyle

Christmas began last year in the United States on November 25, on the heels of our national celebration of over-stuffing and cross-country flights, as it is every year. It snuck in after the last dishes were dried, took its place at starting lines across the nation, and took off with a bang: a Los Angeles woman pepper-sprayed a fellow shopper who took the last Xbox 360; in Florence, AL, police stun-gunned a man and arrested him. Altogether, Black Friday shoppers exorcised a record $52.4 billion