Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Sept. 14 to Sept. 20

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that has occurred since the last issue. In this week’s installment: college announces Covid vaccine booster clinic, the Marriage Pact opens for the new year, and more.

Campus Police Log: Sept. 13 to Sept. 19

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Sept. 13 to Sept. 19, can be found here.

Fall in Love With the Pioneer Valley

The Editorial Board offers suggestions on fun fall-themed activities and places to visit in the Pioneer Valley.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Sept. 7 to Sept. 13

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred since the last issue. In this week’s installment: Mocha Joe’s coffee, Late Night Dining, and an AAS town hall.

Campus Police Log: Sept. 6 to Sept. 12

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Sept. 6 to Sept. 12, can be found here.

Mammoths Moments in Miniature: May 10 to Sept. 6

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred since the last issue. In this week’s installment: A.J. Hasting’s closed, free printing, Workday, and more.

Campus Police Log: May 10 to Sept. 6

The latest installment of the Police Log, from May 10 to Sept. 6, can be found here.

The First-year’s Survival Guide

The Editorial Board offers the Class of 2026 advice on how to navigate Amherst.

Which Val Cereal Are You?

The Student is here with the only metric you need to truly understand your personality type: which Val cereal are you? An intricately constructed scientific algorithm will match you with the breakfast item that represents you at your core.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: May 3 to May 10

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred during the week. In this week’s installment: the Committee of Six splits into two, the Housing Innovation Project calls on the college to donate land, and architecture students call for change.

Campus Police Log: May 3 to May 9

The latest installment of the Police Log, from May 3 to May 9, can be found here.

A Duty to Reproductive Justice

The Editorial Board calls for the college to make a statement on the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade, asserting that abortion rights is an issue of education access and must therefore be considered pertinent to colleges.

Campus Police Log: April 26 to May 3

The latest installment of the Police Log, from April 26 to May 3, can be found here.

2022-2023 AAS Senate and Judiciary Council Candidate Statements

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for senators and at-large Judiciary Council members on Thursday, April 28. The students below have announced their candidacies for these elections.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: April 19 to April 26

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred during the week. In this week’s installment: a prom, Day of Giving, and more.

Campus Police Log: April 17 to April 26

The latest installment of the Police Log, from April 17 to April 26, can be found here.

In Students We Trust

The Editorial Board questions the Board of Trustees’ authority in the recent campus safety decision, calling for the prioritization of student experience and a more collaborative process for making decisions regarding campus life.

Campus Police Log: April 13 to April 19

The latest installment of the Police Log, from April 13 to April 19, can be found here.

It’s Not Working

The Editorial Board calls for Amherst to end the work-study component of financial aid packages.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: April 6 to April 12

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred during the week. In this week's installment: admitted students day and AAS election results.

Campus Police Log: April 3 to April 11

The latest installment of the Police Log, from April 3 to April 11, can be found here.

A Precedent for Pay

The Editorial Board commends AAS’ decision to pay its members for the potential it creates for increased accessibility across student organizations.

2022-2023 AAS E-board Candidate Statements

On Thursday, April 7, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and Judiciary Council chair. These students have announced their candidacies for these elections.

Campus Police Log: March 30 to April 5

The latest installment of the Police Log, from March 30 to April 5, can be found here.

Missing the Mark

The Editorial Board calls for ACPD to not only re-mark their police vehicles, but also initiate greater communication and transparency toward the student body and larger community.

Campus Police Log: March 22 to March 29

The latest installment of the Police Log, from March 22 to March 29, can be found here.

AmherstMaskin’

With an increasing number of colleges ending their mask mandates, the Editorial Board calls for increased community respect for one another whether masks go or not.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: March 9 to March 22

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred during the week. In this week’s installment: the housing selection process, tuition increase, and more.

​​Campus Police Log: March 8 to March 21

The latest installment of the Police Log, from March 8 to March 21, can be found here.

Reflecting on Two Years of Covid

The Editorial Board reflects on the two year anniversary of Covid on campus, acknowledging the nostalgia for a pre-pandemic Amherst, but expressing hope about the future of adapting to the pandemic.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: March 2 to March 8

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred during the week. In this week’s installment: college provides update on CAP, UMass lifts indoor mask mandate, and more.

Campus Police Log: Feb. 28 to March 9

The latest installment of the police log, from Feb. 28 to March 9, can be found here.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Feb. 23 to March 1

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred during the week. In this week’s installment: a snow day, Grammarly Premium, and more.

Campus Police Log: Feb. 22 to March. 2

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Feb. 22 to March 2, can be found here.

To Support Ukrainian Students, Support Ukraine

The Editorial Board urges the college community to support its Ukrainian students by supporting Ukraine itself.

Mammoth Moments in Miniature: Feb. 16 to Feb. 22

Mammoth Moments in Miniature provides quick updates on notable campus news that occurred over the past week. Check out the news from Feb. 16 to Feb. 22 here.

Campus Police Log: Feb. 14 to Feb. 21

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Feb. 14 to Feb. 21, can be found here.

Expanding Equity in Admissions

The Editorial Board calls for a continuing equitable admissions process at Amherst as affirmative action’s existence becomes increasingly threatened.

Spring 2022 AAS Special Elections Candidate Statements

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for open AAS Senator positions on Friday, Feb. 18., from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. The students listed have announced their candidacies for these elections.

Campus Police Log: Feb. 9 to Feb. 14

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Feb. 9 to Feb. 14, can be found here.

The Arts Are Instrumental

The Editorial Board calls for a considered and consistent consideration of the arts on campus when it comes to the allocation of extracurricular space.

Preventing Sexual Misconduct

The Editorial Board discusses @amherstshareyourstory and the value of the accounts shared by students, while considering the difficulty, but necessity, of creating change.

Campus Police Log: Dec. 6 to Feb. 9

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Dec. 6 to Feb. 9, can be found here.

Campus Police Log: Nov. 29 to Dec. 6

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6, can be found here.

The Student Behind the Scenes

To celebrate the final issue of a semester which finally saw The Amherst Student's return to print, we're taking a look at a usual week through the eyes of each of the paper's sections, revealing what goes on behind the scenes.

The Amherst Student Editorial Board Wrapped: 2021

With Spotify Wrapped rapidly approaching, our editorial staff decided to share some of our top tracks and favorite finds of late. From Indie to Pop, our collective playlist has no shortage of repeat-worthy songs for you to explore!

Is It Bussin'?

The Editorial Board reflects on Amherst’s campus-wide group chat, considering its powerful potential as well as its negative ramifications.

Campus Police Log: Nov. 18 to Nov. 28

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Nov. 18 to Nov. 28, can be found here.

Burnout: Reigniting the Flame

The Editorial Board addresses student burnout, arguing that collaboration between professors and students may be the best way forward.

Campus Police Log: Nov. 2 to Nov. 16

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Nov. 2 to Nov. 16, can be found here.

Holding Each Other Accountable

The Editorial Board argues that recent party vandalism at the college needs to be met with a dual response — administrative openness and student responsibility.

Campus Police Log: Oct. 26 to Nov. 1

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, can be found here.

A Lasting Legacy

The Editorial Board congratulates the college on last week’s decision to end legacy preference in admissions and increase financial aid, recognizing that, while it is not a solution to admissions inequity, it is evidence of an institutional commitment to a more diverse future.

Campus Police Log: Oct. 18 to Oct. 25

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Oct. 18 to Oct. 25, can be found here.

Beyond Acknowledgment

The Editorial Board questions the college’s failure to reckon with the past during Indigenous People’s Day or Bicentennial events. The Board argues that it’s time to take concrete actions to improve life on campus for Indigenous community members.

Campus Police Log: Oct. 12 to Oct. 19

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, can be found here.

Commit to Reparations

The Editorial Board responds to recent student concerns that the college is not making visible change in terms of racial justice. It argues that the best way to make concrete change is to make a commitment to reparations.

Campus Police Log: Oct. 5 to Oct. 13

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Oct. 5 to Oct. 13, can be found here.

Campus Police Log: Sept. 27 to Oct. 4

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Sept. 27 to Oct. 4, can be found here.

Double Down on Mental Health

The Editorial Board calls on the college to double its counseling center staff following students' complaints and the recent release of the Needs Assessment Report in the latest Anti-Racism Action Plan Update.

Campus Police Log: Sept. 22 to Sept. 28

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28, can be found here.

Shaping Sexual Safety

The Editorial Board calls on the student body to actively look out for each other and take the responsibility to create an environment of greater sexual safety and respect, in light of recent safety issues both on campus and at neighboring UMass.

Lessons for the Next President

The Editorial Board reflects on the legacy of outgoing President Biddy Martin and establishes expectations for the presidential search process. The Board calls on the college to include students, faculty and staff in the presidential search committee.

Campus Police Log: Sept. 14 to Sept. 21

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Sep. 6 to Sep. 12, can be found here.

Size Matters

This week, the Editorial Board addresses the issues that over-enrollment imposes on students’ academic experiences and calls for the expansion of resources and infrastructure in preparation for a broader student population.

2021-2022 AAS Senate Candidate Statements

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for AAS Senators in each grade and transfer students from Thursday, Sept. 19, 12:00 a.m. ET to 11:59 p.m. ET. The students listed have announced their candidacies for these elections.

Campus Police Log: Sept. 6 to Sept. 12

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Sep. 6 to Sep. 12, can be found here.

Campus Police Log: Aug. 29 to Sep. 6

The latest installment of the Police Log, from Aug. 29 to Sep. 6, can be found here.

Pay Staff What They Deserve

This week, the Editorial Board calls for an increase in hourly wages for staff at the college. This call follows a series of Labor Day interviews with staff.

Repeating History

The Editorial Board reflected on the administration's recent decision to tighten Covid rules, and found the exact same problem that caused the outrage when students were asked to leave campus three semesters ago: a failure to communicate compassionately and to consult with the groups most affected.

Campus Police Log: May 19 to Aug. 29

The latest installment of the Police Log, from the beginning to the end of summer break, can be read here.

Disagreement and Discourse

When the Editorial Board met to plan and discuss this week’s editorial, our conversation swerved off track due to concerns over the deep personal significance of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the most significant current event in the news, and questions of how to engage in that discussion while maintaining the level of respectful and constructive dialogue we wanted. Some editors had family in Israel, others wanted to divest from Israel completely, some felt the issue was too emotional to addres

Police Log: May 11 – May 18

>> May 11, 2021 10:00 a.m., Morris Pratt An individual dialed the emergency line and advised it was accidental. 2:15 p.m., Hazel Ave Officers responded to a report of possible misuse of and damage to a wooded area.  Some trash was located, but no one was in the area. >> May 13, 2021 10:04 a.m., Valentine Residence Hall An officer responded to a report of a bias-related incident where a racially offensive word was etched into a chalkboard. >> May 14, 2021 10:54 p.m., College Street An o

Plan for the Future

As we all look forward to a semester of in-person teaching and learning this fall, the college is facing a challenge in providing housing for all returning students. On May 6, the Office of Student Affairs announced in an email to the student body that they expected more students to come back to campus this fall than a typical semester because most students who elected a leave of absence over the past year have indicated that they intend to return to campus. This means that the college must make

Police Log: April 27 - May 9

>>April 27, 2021 12:07 a.m. Morris Pratt Officers responded to an alarm and found it was set off by a candle. Two candles were confiscated. >> April 30, 2021 9:07 a.m. Seelye Residential Life staff addressed an unauthorized party with individuals under the age of 21 in possession of alcohol. >>April 30, 2021 10:31 p.m. Greenway Tent Campus Safety Ambassadors (CSAs), Community Service Officers (CSOs) and Residential Life staff responded to a report of a large group gathered with music and

Finding the Silver Lining

As vaccines become more widely available in the United States, normalcy seems to be in sight. We are all ready to leave behind the horror and psychological toll that the pandemic has inflicted on us and embrace a full return [https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/president/statements/node/797790] to in-person teaching and learning in Fall 2021. But as we reflected on the drastic changes in our lives in response to the public health crisis of the past year, the Editorial Board realized that there

Abolish ACPD: It’s Time to Try Something New

This week, the Town of Amherst’s Community Safety Working Group has revealed some of the items requested in its proposal for the future of policing in the town, to be decided on in an upcoming May 3 Town Council budget meeting. It proposes [https://www.gazettenet.com/Community-responders-team-sought-in-Amherst-budget-40131259] slashing the $5.15 million Amherst Police Department (APD) budget in order to fund a separate $2.2 million Community Response for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS) prog

Police Log: April 12-April 26

>>April 18, 2021 1:58 a.m. Hitchcock House Residential Life staff responded to a report of loud music. >>April 19, 2021 12:19 a.m. Hitchcock Parking Lot An officer responded to a request from Residential Life staff to provide for assistance with a group of people continuously gathering after being told to disperse. 3:27 p.m. Frost Library Amherst Fire Department, Residential Life staff and officers responded to a report of individuals on the balcony, which is not permitted for use. 9:48

2021-2022 AAS Senate Candidate Statements

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for the Senate and Judiciary Council at-large positions on Thursday, April 29. A speech night will be held virtually on Wednesday, April 28 at 8 p.m EST. Each class will elect eight senators. The transfer student senate election will be held in the fall. Candidates and their statements are listed by class year then alphabetically by last name. Class of 2022 Mattea Denney I’m running for Senate simply because I care deeply about ou

Mandate Vaccines for On-Campus Students

As the rate of vaccination accelerates [https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/12/world/covid-19-coronavirus#covid-vaccine-pace-adults-eligible] in the U.S., normalcy seems to be in sight. On April 7, President Biddy Martin announced in a letter [https://www.amherst.edu/news/covid-19/community-messages/staying-in-touch/node/797790] to the Amherst community that we can expect “a return to fully in-person teaching and learning for the 2021-2022 academic year.” She also noted that while some of the

Let's Start With Disarmament

Yesterday, April 13, the Black Student Union (BSU) called for a college-wide walkout via a message [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zRYhv1evj0Qz5v1ZXG6VeRofkXMtjRETh3qFTCWhsEA/edit?usp=sharing] circulated by the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) and on the BSU’s Instagram page [https://www.instagram.com/p/CNlyuqIBaLz/]. The walkout was planned following the Amherst College Police Department’s (ACPD) refusal to disarm [https://www.amherststudent.com/article/acpd-reduces-reliance-on-arme

2021-2022 AAS E-Board Candidate Statements

The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections on April 15 for five executive board members, President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Judiciary Council Chair. On that day, students will receive an email with a ballot page to vote. The following candidates submitted blurbs to AAS to be published in The Student, and they will be on the ballot for these executive positions. Speech night for candidates will be held on April 14 at 8 p.m. ET on Zoom. Candidates will answer qu

Police Log: March 29-April 12

>>April 2, 2021 8:44 a.m., Mead Art Museum An officer took a report of a rolling cart found on a rooftop. There were no other issues found. 4:31 p.m., Fayerweather Lot Road An officer responded to a report of a car door striking the door of another car. 4:48 p.m., Off-Campus Locations An officer responded to a report of four individuals smoking inside the fence of Amherst Farmers Supply. The group left upon the officers’ arrival. >>April 3, 2021 9:35 p.m., Garmin Lot Residential Life

It's Time to Lead, Not Follow

On March 31, Board of Trustees Chair Andrew J. Nussbaum ’85 sent a statement [https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/facts/trustees/statements/node/797137] to the college community announcing a new policy to refrain from investment in the fossil fuel industry and, ultimately, phase out all existing fossil fuel investments by 2030. The announcement largely seems to be a response to an open letter [https://amherststudent.com/article/a-letter-to-the-administration-when-will-we-divest] from the Amhe

We're Still in a Pandemic. Let's Act Like It.

When the Editorial Board brainstormed this week’s editorial, we initially considered writing about the lessons of pandemic. Like others, we had been seduced by recent rhetoric in politics [https://www.mlive.com/politics/2021/02/in-michigan-biden-says-end-of-coronavirus-pandemic-will-come-when-americans-take-vaccine.html] and the media [https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/02/26/covid-19-vaccines-herd-immunity-pandemic-could-be-ending-column/6810858002/] that the pandemic is soon coming

What's Taking So Long?

Last Wednesday, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) issued a statement of solidarity with Asian Americans in the Amherst College community following the Atlanta spa shootings [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-spa-shootings.html] on March 16. This statement ended with a call for an independent major and department of Asian and Pacific American Studies at the college, recognizing the role of higher education in pushing back against harmful stereotypes at a societal level. Next

How Can We Right Past Wrongs?

Last Wednesday, March 10, the Associated Press (AP) published an article [https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-massachusetts-c54f6419bf59017ab28956d35981a55e] following the recent push for reparations in the town of Amherst. The article draws heavily on a recent interview with former Sociology Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass) Edwin Driver, the first professor of color [http://scua.library.umass.edu/youmass/doku.php?id=d:driver-edwin-d] hired by the univers

Police Log, March 1 through March 15

>>March 1, 2021 12:18 p.m. Railroad Right of Way An officer responded to a report of an individual walking on the train tracks. No one was found in the area. >>March 2, 2021 3:28 a.m.  Memorial Hill An officer observed a sign was stolen from Memorial Hill. 5:01 a.m. South Parking Lot An officer observed a vehicle trunk open and no one in the area. The trunk was secured. >>March 4, 2021 12:05 a.m. Tennis Barn/Caddyshack An officer found a building open and the lights on when it was s

Where Should Our Money Go?

On Friday, March 5, President Biddy Martin announced that the Board of Trustees voted to set the comprehensive fee for the 2021-22 school year at $76,800, representing a 1.2 percent increase over this year’s comprehensive fee. The Board also approved the elimination of the Residential Life fee and the Campus Center fee while maintaining the increase. Although annual tuition increases are not unusual [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/13/cost-of-college-increased-by-more-than-25percent-in-the-last-10

Police Log: Feb. 15 through Feb. 28, 2021

>>Feb. 15, 2021 3:41 p.m. Wilson Admissions An officer responded to an alarm that was set off accidentally by an employee. 3:43 p.m. Ford Hall Officers responded to an alarm and found it was set off accidentally by burnt food. >>Feb. 16, 2021 10:44 a.m. Keefe Campus Center An officer responded to a call on the emergency line and no one answered the dispatcher. There were no issues found in the area. 3:26 p.m. Wilson Admissions An officer responded to an alarm that was set off accidental

We Need Better Communication

As we transition out of stage 2 of quarantine during our second semester of hybrid learning, it may feel like the virus’s spread is successfully under control. Despite the thoroughness of Amherst’s guidelines and accountability measures, managing campus life amid a pandemic remains a delicate balancing act, especially when the measures need to be adaptive to changing situations on campus. Last week, the college asked three international students to leave campus due to a violation of the Covid-1

The Need for Community

As we saw an uptick in close contacts with positive Covid-19 cases on campus, with two positive cases forcing 23 close-contact students into quarantine housing, the Editorial Board reflected on the reasons why students seem to be having trouble following college safety guidelines. While student negligence is inexcusable, as we discussed in last week’s editorial [https://www.amherststudent.com/article/enduring-pandemic-fatigue], it is still worth considering what the college can do to discourage

Enduring Pandemic Fatigue

As online classes resume this week, it is extremely crucial for the college community to recognize that beyond exciting optimism, a return to campus also comes with tremendous levels of responsibility. The college showed the strength of its pandemic planning last fall, keeping on-campus Covid-19 cases mostly in check with a remarkably low positivity rate for the majority of the semester. The victory cannot be divorced from the rigorous testing, the compliance with public health guidelines and t

Campus Police Log Nov. 16 to Feb. 14

>>Nov 16, 2020 8:59 a.m. Greenway Building B An officer took a report of damage to a television in a common area. 9:21 a.m., Hitchcock House An officer took a report of damaged soap dispensers and a bathroom stall. 9:27 a.m., Stearns An officer took a report of damaged soap dispensers. >>Nov 17, 2020 7:36 a.m. Appleton An officer took a report of a past burglary into a student’s room. The room was vandalised and an item was taken from the room. The student was later pushed by an individ

On Promises Left Unfinished

A pandemic, a civil rights movement, an election — amid a series of local, national and global upheavals, last year looked different at The Student. Besides our transition to an entirely digital distribution, we deepened our commitment to holding individuals and institutions accountable in order to build a more just and equitable Amherst. We were reminded of our responsibility of serving a diverse community and taking concrete steps to become a more accessible and inclusive space. We turned inwa

Campus Police Log Nov. 3 to Nov. 15

>>Nov. 3, 2020 1:40 p.m. Campus Grounds An officer took a report of stolen heaters. They were later found to not be stolen. >>Nov. 4, 2020 3:55 a.m., Frost Library Officers responded to a report of two protective screens and a computer monitor knocked over in the library. There are no known suspects at this time. 5:24 p.m., Frost Library Officers responded to a report of an individual climbing a wall.  The individual stopped upon officers’ arrival and left the area without issue. >>Nov.

Five Years After Amherst Uprising, What Should Campus Activism Look Like?

This Thursday, Nov. 12, marks the five-year anniversary of Amherst Uprising [https://www.amherst.edu/library/find/researchguides/amherstuprising]. The movement, which was initially planned as a one-hour solidarity protest [https://amherststudent.amherst.edu/article/2015/11/13/students-protest-racial-discrimination-sit.html] with students at the University of Missouri, Yale and other universities, lengthened into a weekend-long sit-in at Frost Library where students aired grievances concerning t

Campus Police Log Oct. 19 to Nov. 1

>> October 19, 2020 9:38 a.m., Boltwood Avenue An officer took a report of a stolen sign. 2:51 p.m., Seelye House Residential Life reported an unauthorized party and people under the age of 21 in possession of alcohol. 8:45 p.m., Campus Grounds An officer observed spray paint on a traffic mirror and speed limit sign. >> October 20, 2020 12:48 p.m., Golf Course The Amherst Police Department arrested an individual on a town road for OUI- Liquor, Negligent operation of a motor vehicle and

What Happens After Nov. 3?

This Wednesday is going to feel different. Regardless of the outcome of the election — and we may not know for days to come — the presidency does not solely solve the nation’s problems and never has. There is still much work to be done, and the urgency of that work will feel renewed on Nov. 4. Over the past year, the college community has seen a fair amount of activism with campaigns such as #ReclaimAmherst [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLBn63F-MdnTIy2T_svD0SnKIG3xUVRG7DMDiDoJHsY/edit?us

Amherst College, Make Election Day a Holiday

Last Monday, Oct. 19, President Biddy Martin sent an email recognizing the importance of voting in the coming election and urging departments and staff supervisors to be “as flexible as possible” with work schedules so staff would be able to vote on Election Day. However, like our fellow editors at the Harvard Crimson [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/10/22/editorial-election-day-should-be-a-holiday/] , we feel this proposed flexibility is not enough, primarily because that flexibility wi

Bring Staff from Behind the Scenes to Center Stage

Last week, the Editorial Board published an editorial titled “Take a Break, You Deserve It,” urging readers to use Mammoth Day as a real day off, not just a day to catch up on work. While we stand by that message, we have come to realize that the piece was not written for the full Amherst community, as it was intended to be, because not everyone received that day off — staff members were required to work on Mammoth Day. While students on campus sat in circles on the quad, enjoying fresh pastrie

Take Your Break, You Deserve It

The Editorial Board spent this weekend commiserating about the mid-semester exhaustion that inevitably strikes each semester but feels particularly intense given the circumstances of this time. Our weekly editorial meeting on Monday became an almost therapeutic session of airing out our mid-semester struggles, and we felt compelled to call on the administration to give the Amherst community a break. In light of the Mammoth Day announcement yesterday, Oct. 13, we seem to have successfully manifes

Is Snitch Culture a Problem?

When the Editorial Board set out our priorities [https://amherststudent.com/article/we-are-all-the-institution-making-change-amid-a-pandemic-and-anti-racist-movement] at the beginning of the semester, we looked to explore questions of institutional and individual responsibility. That is, with the unique backdrop of this semester, what is the college’s obligation to us? What is our obligation to each other? Recently, these questions have resurfaced, amid an off-campus UMass coronavirus outbrea

Campus Police Log: Sept. 21 to Oct. 4

Monday, September 21, 2020 10:22 a.m. Keefe Health Center An officer responded to a call to the emergency line with no response from the caller. No one was in distress. 11:05 a.m. Valentine Dining Hall An officer responded to a report of an unknown individual tapping on windows of Valentine basement. The officer spoke with Valentine staff and that individual. Valentine staff confirmed to the officer that the person was a job applicant. 5:08 p.m. Morris Pratt Officers responded to a call

On the DOE's Princeton Investigation: Looking Beyond the Public Statement

On Sept.16, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) notified Princeton University that it would be under investigation for violations [https://www.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2020/09/Princeton-Letter-9-16-20-Signed.pdf] of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity rights, potentially leading to “an action to recover funds” from the university that had been provided by the federal government. This investigation followed a Sept. 2 letter [https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/09/02/let

2020-2021 AAS Senate Candidate Statements

From Thursday, Sept. 24 to Friday Sept. 26, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for AAS Senators in each grade and transfer students. The students below have announced their candidacies for these elections. Students who are interested in hearing from these candidates or are interested in running but were unable to submit a candidate statement, should attend Speech Night on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 7:00 p.m. E.S.T. via Zoom. All candidates are listed by position then alph

The College’s Fires to Put Out

If the United States didn’t already feel like it was figuratively on fire all of this year, it literally is now. Wildfires have been ravaging the West Coast since mid-August (in general, since far before then). But over the past couple of weeks, the fires have been blazing much closer to civilian borders, filling the skies (as far as Massachusetts [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/16/metro/photos-west-coast-wildfire-smoke-creates-hazy-skies-massachusetts/] ) with ash. In California, Oregon an

Crime Log: Sept. 7-21

Read more about The Student’s decision to publish the crime log online here [https://amherststudent.com/article/reimaging-the-crime-log-a-promise-of-transparency] . Sept. 7, 2020 10:16 p.m. Mead Art Museum Officers responded to an alarm disarmed past its regular schedule and found an employee working there. Sept. 8, 2020 10:47 a.m., Beneski Building An officer responded to an alarm and found it was set off accidentally by an employee. 5:55 p.m., Gooding Field Officers responded to a

Welcome, New News Writers!

If you would like to join the news team, please send an email to [email protected] and [email protected] We look forward to adding to the list of names below! Ani Graf ’24 — Ani is a first-year student planning to major in psychology from Waunakee, Wisconsin. In addition to writing for The Student, she looks forward to joining the rowing club. She loves reading, taking her German Shepard on hikes and trying new brands of Kombucha. Fiona Anstey ’24 — Fiona is a first-year news writer from

Behind the Board: The Editorial Board on Amherst’s Admissions

The Amherst College community is about four weeks into its first full pandemic semester. So far, one thing has become very clear: Covid-19 has created a moment of disruption that has enabled Amherst College to expedite changes that were once cripplingly impeded by bureaucracy. This week, as with every other week, The Student’s Editorial Board met via Zoom and set out to investigate our editorial question of the semester: How should the institution and community take advantage of this unique tim

Reimaging the Crime Log: A Promise of Transparency

Every issue, The Student prints a copy of the police log with a tally of the week’s disturbances and police calls. It’s entertaining and light and an incentive for people to pick up a print copy of our paper. But, of course, the print issue does not exist this semester; and we’re returning to school in the middle of national protests surrounding police violence against Black people and a more critical eye of what constitutes a crime. Throughout the summer The Editorial Board re-evaluated our rol

Keeping in Touch With the Town (Without Touching)

The notion of the Amherst College bubble is not new. But this semester, amid a global pandemic, it has taken on an entirely new meaning. In past years, the Amherst bubble referenced (sometimes derisively) the idea that the Amherst College community insulates itself from the towns that surrounded it. Now, the Amherst bubble is no longer a figure of speech but rather a public health mandate. This new understanding of the Amherst bubble requires us to reexamine our relationship with the Town of Am

2020-2021 AAS E-board Candidate Statements

On Thursday, Sept. 10, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) will hold elections for AAS president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. The students below have announced their candidacies for these elections. Students who are interested in hearing from these candidates or are interested in running but were unable to submit a candidate statement, should attend Speech Night on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 8:00 p.m. E.S.T. via Zoom [https://amherstcollege.zoom.us/j/91480879264?pwd=RWdOaFpHNU4ya0V

Is It Time To Abolish The Open Curriculum?

On July 31, The Brown Daily Herald, Brown University’s student newspaper, published an editorial [https://www.browndailyherald.com/2020/07/31/brown-update-open-curriculum-diap-shouldnt-optional/] urging their college administration to update their open curriculum to establish a “diversity and inclusion action plan course requirement.” In the piece, The Herald’s editorial board argues that the educational necessity of racial justice should be reflected in the college’s academic commitments, desp

We Are All the Institution: Making Change Amid a Pandemic and Anti-Racist Movement

Every August, we all take part in the ritualistic dance of the back-to-school season. First-years explore the ins and outs of where they plan to spend the next four years. All students network their way through an underground market of free PDFs in order to (with varying degrees of success) avoid paying exorbitant sums for textbooks. Professors email their aspirations for their courses. This year, those same rituals are taking place but against a dramatically transformed backdrop. We enter the

The Student Commits To Change

The Editorial Board unequivocally stands with the Black Lives Matter movement, along with the Black students, faculty and staff at Amherst who not only continually navigate the racist structures embedded in the predominantly white institution but have often also carried the weight of anti-racism work on our campus since its inception. We condemn the racism running rampant in this country that has led to the unjust deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Oluwatoyin Salau, Dominique

What Are We Doing Here?

As the 2019-2020 school year comes to a close, it seems like a suitable time to reflect on how The Student has served the community over the past year and what our plans are for the future. The academic year started with coverage of Hampshire College’s [https://amherststudent.com/article/college-hires-13-new-faculty-members-from-hampshir] financial struggles and Amherst’s response, as well as the introduction of the new Flexible Grading Option, which has now been expanded [https://amherststude

Would you take the fall semester off if it were online?

In an informal survey posed in The Student’s April 24 newsletter, 153 respondents answered the question: If students were asked to remain off-campus and participate in online learning for the entirety of the fall semester, would you choose to take the semester off? The results indicate an overwhelming inclination to take time off from school if the college continued with remote learning. Of the 153 responses, 80 percent indicated desire to take time off. The survey offered only two binding answe

The Infodemic Behind the Pandemic

Apparently, the cure for COVID-19 is in our orange juice. According to WorldHealth.net [https://www.newsguardtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/WorldHealth.net-3-27-20.pdf] , “Shanghai has announced a recommendation to use high dose intravenous treatment of vitamin C to treat COVID-19.” Healthimpactnews.com [https://www.newsguardtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/HealthImpactNews.com-boxes-28feb20.pdf] also reports that “The coronavirus pandemic can be dramatically slowed, or stopped, with t

Someone to Unite Against

President Donald Trump has put kids in cages [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44518942]. He’s been accused of sexual assault or other sexual misconduct by nearly 100 [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-sexual-assault-allegations-all-list-misconduct-karen-johnson-how-many-a9149216.html] women. He’s tried to extort the Ukrainian government [https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/report-parnas-russia-ukraine-trump-impeachment-giuliani-money.html] into he

Where Do Departments Stand on FGO?

Over 85 percent of departments will unconditionally accept a “pass” grade towards major requirements this semester, as pictured in the pie chart above. Graphic courtesy of Natalie De Rosa ’21.On March 26, the college announced that it would expand its Flexible Grading Option (FGO) for this semester only to accommodate students during the coronavirus pandemic. Whether a “pass” grade declared through FGO will count towards major requirements, however, is left at the discretion of individual depart

Finding Humanity in a Pandemic

In the face of this global pandemic, we currently find ourselves at the advent of what many have called a “new normal.” It consists of going to class from your home office (that is, your bed), suiting up in a Bane-esque facemask before getting groceries and feeling a constant, gnawing uncertainty about what is to come. Amid the Black Mirror episode that is the current state of our world, optimism may feel like a scarce commodity. The self-isolation necessary to combat the spread of the coronavi

COVID-19: We Are Not Immune

By now, we all have likely seen videos of college students dismissing coronavirus fears as overblown in an effort to continue enjoying their spring breaks. One March 10 TikTok video, for example, depicted students at Fordham University gathered in large groups on a grassy quad after the administration cancelled in-person classes and urged students to leave campus. Commenters on the video expressed supportive sentiments. One such comment, as reported by Insider, reads: “Corona bringing us all tog

Ensuring Our History Does not Become Our Future

It has become a frighteningly ordinary experience for Amherst students to open their email inbox and find a notice from the administration of a “racist incident.” This vague subject line typically reflects the opacity with which the rest of the message is written — as if the email from last time was copied and pasted. If there have been enough emails about “racist incidents” that they have started to feel standard, then Amherst College has a problem much larger than email etiquette on its hands

What has the Editorial Board Been Up to During Quarantine?

In the midst of the unprecedented times we live in right now, life has felt uniquely suspended and devoid of its usual simple joys. With the entire college swept into a semester without the usual excitement of a bustling campus, adjusting to recent changes has been an uncomfortable experience for many.  In these strange and confusing times, we hope we can provide a much needed break from the humdrum of social distancing and self-isolation. As some levity and distraction, The Student’s arts & liv

A Stunning Lack of Transparency

On Monday night, the Amherst College community received an email from the President’s Office with the subject line “COVID-19: Major Changes.” The contents of the email notified students that the college will be moving to remote classes after spring break and that by Monday March 16, students will have to leave campus unless they have successfully petitioned to stay. This news was met with an onslaught of concerns, many of which were expressed in a follow-up Town Hall-style AAS meeting where Dea

We Don't Agree (And That's Okay)

Political endorsements from newspapers have existed since the 19th century. Since then, editors at newspapers nationwide deliberate on who the most adept contender is to endorse. However, despite the long historical legacy of newspaper endorsements, they are still a debated practice. The question of whether — and how — newspapers should take partisan stances has no easy answer, as the Editorial Board discovered for ourselves this week. As do the large publications — like The New York Times — an

Balancing Ideals with Realities

The political landscape of the U.S. can look very different depending on where you’re standing. Here at Amherst, our perspectives create a skewed perception of the American political scene. And in the aftermath of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, how we view the political scene is especially relevant. It shouldn’t take too much convincing to believe the fact that the political median of the Amherst College student body lands pretty far to the left. This is a steady trend among c

Combating Coronavirus Racism

On Feb. 1, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) made national headlines as it infected one patient in Massachusetts. This patient, a University of Massachusetts Boston student from Wuhan, China where the virus was first identified, highlights the degree to which this virus has spread across the globe. At publication time, 2019-nCov has infected more than 40,000 people and taken the lives of over 1,000 others, many of whom had fought tirelessly to combat its spread. In an opinion piece last we

Denouncing the New Travel Ban

On Saturday Feb. 1, students, faculty and staff received a message from President Biddy Martin regarding President Trump’s policy to expand the travel ban. The ban adds the nations of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania to the list of countries on which Trump has imposed travel blockades. The Trump administration’s choice to single out these specific countries may have wide repercussions for immigrants across the country. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, repres

Ideals Beyond the Brochure

Last Wednesday, on Nov. 13, The Student published a story about the Valley Community Development Corporation’s plan to build 28 affordable housing units at 132 Northampton Road. The Town of Amherst has identified the project as long overdue, investing $500,000 into the complex in July. Despite the necessity of affordable housing, the venture received resistance from town residents. A letter endorsed by 56 Amherst residents, 15 of whom work at Amherst College, called for a delay of the proposed a

The Status Quo is Not Enough

The fight for a concrete Asian American studies program at Williams College made significant progress this year when the Williams Curricular Planning Committee, comprised of faculty, staff and students, recommended a renewed push to hire more Asian American studies faculty at Williams. It is notable that the Asian American studies initative at Williams, led by student activists, has often consulted with Amherst’s own Asian American Studies Working Group on how to pressure a college administratio

Bridging the Town-Gown Gap

Here at Amherst, we take the notion of community pretty seriously. With a student body of fewer than 2,000 students, there’s a certain pressure to appear tightly knit to the outside world. The spaces in which we live, study, eat and hang out are engineered to optimize interaction and collaboration. For instance, Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord recently told The Student that having “a singular space where students can come together in community” is a driving factor in the plan to build a

Tracing Indigenous Lives: Through, Around and at Amherst College

The land on which Amherst College sits is Nonotuck land, with the Nipmuc and the Wampanoag to the east, the Mohegan and Pequot to the south, the Mohican to the west and the Abenaki to the north. Trigger warning: Some of the material in this spread may be disturbing to readers, but The Student believes that it is important to confront and hold the institution accountable for its history. The People of NonotuckThe Nonotuck are an indigenous group, one of the many Algonkian peoples, historically c

The Fight Does Not End Here

One of the most closely-watched cases in higher education received judgment last week when District Judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled in favor of Harvard in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The decision marks a great victory for advocates of affirmative action, but it is also important to recognize the complexity behind the decision and its implications for Asian Americans in the college admissions process. And so, while we applaud Judge Burrough’s decision to uphold the basic tenets of a

Fighting on a Larger, Local Scale

Throughout the Global Week for Future and the United Nations Climate Summit, which took place from Sept. 20 to Sept. 27, the world witnessed a global phenomenon of students, scientists, world leaders and activists working together to bring attention to the issue of climate change and its growing impacts around the world. Yet, as the strikes conclude and we return to our normal routines, we risk placing the pressing issue of climate change on the back burner of our minds once more. Climate change

The New American Experiment

Last Tuesday, Facebook announced plans to establish an independent “Oversight Board” by early 2020. The committee will handle matters related to content-moderation, taking CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s hand off the big red button that decides which posts get taken down and which stay up. This new governing body, which has been likened to Facebook’s version of a Supreme Court, will be comprised of 11 to 40 members and be able to overturn the company’s own content regulation. Facebook’s Oversight Board i

Does Character Belong in Court?

On March 12, the college admissions world was shocked by over 50 charges against wealthy parents who were involved in a conspiracy to bribe college officials and to cheat on critical college entrance exams. These wealthy parents spent $500,000 to $6.5 million to bribe officials and guarantee their children’s admissions into top schools including Stanford, Yale and Georgetown. Now, the case has resurfaced with the sentencing of Felicity Huffman, one of the two celebrities involved in the scheme,

The Need for Young Voices

It’s only been a few short weeks since 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg landed in New York City after spending weeks at sea, traveling carbon-free from her native Sweden to the U.S. for this fall’s United Nations climate talks. Her welcome in the city’s North Cove Marina was one more fitting for an international pop star than a young girl who had decided to start skipping school until the world started to take notice — notice not just of her, but of the climate crisis she tire

Beginning to Heal

As cars filled with eager first years and their families roll into Quadrangle Drive, our campus community made the first strides into ushering in the much-anticipated school year. Yet, behind the smiling faces of orientation leaders and welcoming speeches made by the administration, our campus hid the hurt and conflict that pervaded our lives last year. As a community, we may have bid farewell to the 2018-2019 school year and all of its controversy, but the start of a new school year cannot and

On Power and Privilege

Recent events at Amherst have brought power and privilege to the forefront of our conversations, from the athletic fields to Valentine Dining Hall. It might seem that we as students expound on the difficulties of power and privilege on a daily basis in the classroom. Controversies on campus, however, have brought these abstract concepts into focus in a context more visceral than stories that are provided and discussed in a purely academic setting. First, our editor-in-chief brought to light the

More AAS Candidates

With the new round of elections for the AAS executive board (E-board) occurring this week, candidates will have an opportunity to run, or run again, for the coveted E-board positions on the Association of Amherst Students (AAS). The new election was in response to the Judiciary Council’s (JC) recent decision regarding the Unity Ticket and campaign funding violations, the details of which can be found in their recent email to the student body. Despite these recent developments, the fact that thre

On the Judiciary Council's Ruling Regarding ACR

Over the last few weeks, the Amherst College community has been pushed to make controversial decisions: taking down the Common Language Document (CLD), responding to the men’s lacrosse team’s anti-Semitic behavior and, most recently, disciplining the Amherst College Republicans (ACR) for discriminatory language in their club GroupMe. Each of these conflicts has been handled in distinct ways with varying success. Two weeks ago, the Editorial Board argued that President Biddy Martin’s abrupt shutd

A Response to the CLD

Last week, the college experienced somewhat unprecedented turmoil following the release of the Common Language Document (CLD) by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Later that same day, President Biddy Martin retracted the published document under the guise of protecting free speech and thought at Amherst. The Common Language Document aimed to foster community by increasing awareness of certain terms used by a variety of marginalized groups in our society. Although it was clearly not a docume

The Harm of Our Words

Editor’s Note: Resources for any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal are listed at the end of this article. We’ve all heard a frustrated person say, “I want to kill myself.” Perhaps we’ve even said this five-letter phrase ourselves during periods of stress. As our much-needed spring break comes to an end and the spring semester once again resumes, there is no doubt that students will once again experience the challenges that come along with attending Amherst. There is also no

Combating AAS Apathy

The Amherst Student recieves funding from the Association of Amherst Students for its operations. With a flurry of new posters, candidate speeches and social media posts, the months of April and September are traditionally election seasons here at Amherst. In high school, running for class president was little more than a popularity contest, and the winners were little more than figureheads for the duration of the year. The AAS, however, is more than just a superficial organization. Unlike high

Holding the Patriots Accountable

I was scrolling through Instagram on Friday afternoon when across my screen came the words “BREAKING NEWS” with Robert Kraft’s droopy face smack dab in the middle. I quickly discovered that Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, was being charged with solicitation of prostitution. Kraft is implicated in a sex trafficking probe — authorities discovered that he visited a Florida spa in which women were held against their will in an alleged sex trafficking ring. The Martin County

Pragmatism: How to Win in 2020

With Sen. Bernie Sanders being the most recent Democrat to announce his candidacy for president, it has become clear that the 2020 election cycle is well underway. As of now, 12 democratic candidates have indicated intentions to run for president, bringing along a whole slew of agendas ranging from healthcare to immigration. These candidates have been quick to announce their support for new, progressive policies including a Green New Deal and Medicare for all. This has drawn support from the inc

Can We Be a Little Humbler?

Forgive my praise of the humanities; you’ve probably heard this enough. But I truly love a well-taught and organized seminar class. There is something both uncomplicated and incredibly rewarding about reading a text and spending an hour and 20 minutes having a conversation about it (with intelligent people). I recognize that this is an incredible privilege and I feel lucky to have Amherst professors guide these seminars. But that doesn’t mean I can’t nitpick and point out some of the deficiencie

The Loss of the Higher Standard

Richmond, Virginia, was in turmoil this past week after news broke that Governor Ralph Northam had published a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook. The photo, which depicts two men in racist costumes (one in blackface and the other wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood), has led to calls for Northam’s resignation. While criticism from both Democrats and Republicans in Virginia and nationwide have increased over the last few days, Northam has yet to step down from his position as governor. No

Let’s Stay Angry

The past few weeks of the national new cycle have been overwhelming. Everytime we check our phones, there is a new alert detailing heart-wrenching and alarming developments in the country. This week especially has been jarring: on Sunday, a gunman opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue after touting anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant hate speech online. On Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted about a caravan of Central American immigrants headed to the U.S., calling it an “invasion” and ordering

On Endurance

This week marks the exact middle of the semester. It is the time of year when the weather starts to get colder, the sun goes down earlier and midterms start to flood students’ calendars. With this, the energy on campus starts to shift: there is no longer the warm glow of the summer fresh in our minds, nor events like the Students Activities Fair or Orientation to inspire enthusiasm for the new year. Instead, we start to settle into the daily routines that feel most comfortable: surrounding ourse

Make America Vote Again

Turnout in local, state, and national elections in the United States has long hovered around a historical mean of 53 percent, since the introduction of the Voting Rights Act. This statistic, and perhaps more worryingly, the fact that never in the history of the United States has the youth voter turnout registered at over 50 percent of eligible voters, means that as a nation as a voting polity, we face a worrying dearth of investment in and legitimacy of our public elections. This fact is compo

Youth is No Excuse for Assault

In its season premiere this past weekend, “Saturday Night Live” ran a sketch called “80’s Party” that moves through a frat party reminiscent of a John Hughes film, pausing on characters at the party to highlight how their actions from that night haunted them in their current-day careers. It was a silly and spoofy sketch, but underlying its facetious plot is a genuine question that has recently arisen for many college students: how will the actions we make today affect our lives and careers later

Calling In Call-Out Culture

As we all know, Amherst is one of the most diverse college campuses in the nation in terms of race, class and geographic makeup. With these demographic changes have come cultural changes as well — an understanding that identity profoundly shapes the way we navigate our lives, at Amherst and beyond, and the acknowledgment that we need to be sensitive when discussing these identities. This culture shift has accompanied by various movements, ranging from campus-based ones like Amherst Uprising, to

An Ode to Val

Let’s talk about Valentine Dining Hall, or as most of the college community endearingly calls it, Val. It’s a commonality shared among most students, faculty and staff. It is also a source of many complains — conversations about Val can be as boring as ones about how cold Amherst gets. Yet, most students commend Val for what it does. Dozens of staff members work hard to routinely serve fresh ingredients to thousands of people. Our dining hall stays open during a wide range of hours to accommod

Breaking Ground

A little more than a week ago, the college opened the new Science Center after three years of construction. As reported in The Amherst Student in last week’s issue, the building features state-of-the-art teaching and research labs, a library, cafe and lounge spaces. It was not long ago that a very different set of buildings existed on those grounds. This year’s senior class is the last to have experienced the Social dorms, which were central to Amherst’s social culture. After their demolition,

Advice for Class of 2022

Welcome, Class of 2022! As the school year begins, the Editorial Board would like to extend some advice to all new students. Cultivate mentors and seek out advice. Amherst is unique in how easy it is to build relationships with professors, through the small class sizes and open office hours. Take advantage of the opportunity to connect with experts in the field. Professors are invaluable resources for recommendations, research opportunities and personal guidance, so don’t put off meeting and ge

On Student Journalism

Journalism plays a crucial role in society, a fact we are constantly reminded of these days, as the nation’s political climate is shaped by allegations of President Trump’s extramarital affairs, the latest revelation of the James Comey saga and the upcoming summit between the U.S. and North Korea. Often, however, the importance of journalism, especially student journalism, is contested, fraught and dismissed. Despite this, student journalism is important in establishing community, providing an h

On Student Journalism

Journalism plays a crucial role in society, a fact we are constantly reminded of these days, as the nation’s political climate is shaped by allegations of President Trump’s extramarital affairs, the latest revelation of the James Comey saga and the upcoming summit between the U.S. and North Korea. Often, however, the importance of journalism, especially student journalism, is contested, fraught and dismissed. Despite this, student journalism is important in establishing community, providing an h

Inclusivity During the Holidays

As the semester begins to end, students are preparing for final exams, papers, projects and other assignments to make sure they get all their work done before holiday break. At such a culturally and economically diverse institution such as Amherst, the way each student spends their leisure time during the break can vary tremendously. It is easy to overlook the depth and ubiquitous nature of diversity when the holiday season rolls around due to the bombardment of Christmas-themed commercials on T

Rethinking Early Decision

Here is a fact that should sound familiar to all who know about the benefits of early decision in the college admissions process: For the class of 2020, the regular decision acceptance rate to Ivy League schools was 6.8 percent, while the rate for early applicants was 20.3 percent. This discrepancy is in part because colleges are more willing to accept qualified candidates who are also willing to commit to them. As Robert Massa, current Senior Vice President for Enrollment and Institutional Pl

A Shortage of Professors

With the release of the Curriculum Committee’s Draft Report last Wednesday, it’s time we reflect more deeply on how the curriculum affects the nature of our college experience. Although not directly related to the curriculum, the college should seriously consider hiring more professors. While Amherst does have an adequately-sized faculty for the number of students, the increasing pressures involved with being a professor means that the same number of professors that worked in the past may be too

The Civilian-Military Divide

A few days ago, reports came out that four American soldiers had been killed in an ambush in Niger. President Donald Trump has disavowed responsibility and put the burden on the military. Niger holds one of the largest concentrations of U.S. forces in Africa, and the American military has been strengthening its presence on the continent with the goal of training local forces to help them fight extremists. According to The New York Times, the reasoning behind this is that the United States is try

Looking Back, Moving Forward

As another year at Amherst gets underway, the differences from the previous school year become more and more apparent. We notice the new haircut of a classmate or the worldly experiences the study abroad students have gained. The routine of asking what you did over the summer or about class schedules floods back. Our relationships are forced to adjust to the change as well. What seemed so second nature last semester seems to differ from that, reality this semester. Perhaps the most difficult t

You Belong at Amherst College

When arriving at any new place, unfamiliarity and disorientation are expected. These feelings are both imagined and physical. Here you are, with unfamiliar thoughts, hallways and buildings. There’s a nervousness that comes with the mystery, but also a thrill. There’s an implicit promise that the corners will unfold themselves and that this place will lose its mystique and become a home. Many people might concern themselves with your sense of belonging here at Amherst. Parents, friends, professo

"The" Amherst Experience

As we approach the end of the year, the campus seems to be brimming with nostalgia. Suddenly, the weather is nice again and we remember what it’s like to be here on the really good days. Commencement approaches and the “end” calls us to turn around and look backward. What do we see when we reflect on our experience? What constitutes the Amherst experience, and further, is there even such a thing? With our diverse student body, it is quite difficult to imagine a single Amherst experience. Each pe

Senior Year, Can’t Say No

With the grad fair taking place in Keefe, theses being completed and senior photos flooding Facebook timelines, the fact that graduation is just around the corner has become increasingly clear. Many seniors, overwhelmed by emails and impending deadlines, are already feeling the swirl of emotions that graduation brings. Amidst all of these feelings, there likely exists a small feeling of regret: regret about that class they didn’t enroll in or that risk they didn’t take. Some seniors jokingly liv

On Getting Away

Over the weekend, a swarm of prospective students surrounded our campus, full of questions and expectations. They struggled to differentiate the yellow Keefe Campus Center from the yellow Loeb Center. They paused by the dozens of identical brick buildings, trying to assess the merits and disadvantages of this school while cautiously walking around campus, unable to know where their path might take them. The new adventure of college awaits them, as well as all the mysteries surrounding it. Howev

The Measures of Success

American culture demands that college students experience immense personal growth during their education. Under such external pressure, how can we make our time and growth at Amherst meaningful? It can feel as if the worth of our education is often framed as dependent on how much we change or how much we learn. While the pursuit of growth is an admirable ambition, we should be cautious of obsessing over volume and should remain critical of what our growth actually looks like. What are the indica

The Trap of Being Busy

The saying goes: “Time is of the essence.” That is to say, the timeliness of events is paramount to their success. Such an attitude is deeply ingrained into people’s time at Amherst and in the ways they interact with each other. Just look at the way that we greet one another. The typical “hi, how are you?” is most likely to be followed by some variation of a lackluster “fine, thank you” and a subsequent complaint about how busy we are leading up to spring break. When we get up from meals or a

Relational Drive

Before we imagined what community looked like, we simply wanted it. Students and the institution both often rely too heavily on aesthetics. We try to create a community that looks and behaves a certain way, but we don’t always listen to the underlying emotional drive for social connection. Relational drive becomes sidelined for the sake of the relational product, and we lose sight of why we were trying to connect with others in the first place. Of course, we should be imagining our future and

Humble Listening

Speaking and listening across political divide in these times is challenging. We are intent on bringing conservative ideas to liberal campuses, or bringing liberal ideas to conservative campuses. We are focused on pulling in thoughts beyond our standard lines of thinking. We seek to break the assumed bubbles in which we exist. However, these efforts are often ineffective due to an absence of true listening. An example from our campus is particularly salient to this conversation. Recently, AC Vo

Love, Love, Love

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and however you feel about the holiday, it’s hard not to have an opinion about it. Tackling conversations about love can be difficult. They run the risk of falling into sentimentality; we might worry about annoying others or drawing ourselves into pits of rumination. Especially on Valentine’s, it can feel as if there is a concrete hierarchy of love, with romantic love reigning supreme. Whether you find yourself in a relationship or not at this time of year, Val

Our Shared Privilege

Amherst is often described as an elite institution, a label that typically carries positive connotations. Specifically, “elite” invokes prestige and rigor, framing Amherst as a beacon of achievement in higher education. To a large degree, our campus community embodies these ideals through the various academic, athletic and personal accomplishments on which The Student reports each week. While The Editorial Board is certainly proud of our college, we also wish to investigate the uglier side of th

Defending Facts is Defending Liberty

In an interview on “Meet the Press,” presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s false claims surrounding President Donald Trump’s inauguration. According to Conway, Spicer’s assertions that the 2017 presidential inauguration was the largest-attended in history are “alternative facts.” Rather than confronting the possibility that Spicer’s claims are false, Conway created a new philosophical realm of thought in which the truth can — or cannot — exist

How We Changed & How We Didn’t

A little over a year ago, Mark Vanhoenacker ’96 gave a reading at Amherst Books from “Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot.” At the event, someone remarked on the ways in which Vanhoenacker’s writing reawakens his readers to the wonder of flight. He allows us to reoccupy the space of a child who boards a plane for the first time and watches, wide-eyed, as the landscape drifts away below. In our “grown-up” world, flight has become overly normalized (for a privileged segment of the population). It is

Talking it Through

As the semester draws to a close, students hunker down to write final papers and prepare for exams. We look forward to leaving campus — perhaps because we are heading home or simply to another place, anywhere that is not here. Snow is starting to fall, and stick, and the tension that comes with exam season feels somewhat mediated by the faith that the holidays will soon arrive. In so many ways, the campus feels situated on an edge of an annual turn. Viewing the space that opens ahead of us gives

Being an Effective Ally

In light of the recent election and where Amherst stands in its history with diversity, allyship has never been more pertinent. There are individuals at this college who have been scarred by racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-semitism, classicism, religious discrimination, xenophobia, etc. for most, if not all of their lives. There are also individuals on this campus who have never experienced any of those oppressions. And then there are those of us who experience both privilege and o

It’s No Longer Political

A week ago, Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States of America. Our campus reacted that night, and we continue to react in different ways every day. The feeling on campus remains somber. As we prepare for the peaceful transition of power and what the next four years might entail, it’s important to first consider the ways Amherst College, as an institution, has facilitated or stifled student discourse on the new government. It’s undoubtedly important to maintain Amhe

Reorienting Workload Discourse

At this time of year — with big events on weekends and bizarre weather — it can feel hard to sit down and plow through homework. If you happen to be in a humanities class, you might often find yourself heading to class thinking, “who has actually finished all the reading?” Many courses assign infeasible amounts of readings to such an extent that even the professor will explicitly state that they would be not be surprised if many people hadn’t finished for class. Why is this the norm? Rigor does

Maintaining Collective Memory

As a print publication with nearly 150 years of history, the Amherst Student has a substantial archive of student writing. The Student’s office and the College archives house stacks of aged books with every issue that came before this one and will grow to include each one that will come after. Though this routine does document our history, successfully navigating our records seems harder than one might imagine. For example, how does one approach finding all articles on Asian American identities,

The Demise of Journalism

At the recent journalism panel Amherst hosted discussing the 2016 presidential campaign trail, one of the speakers mentioned the ways in which our consumption of media is predetermined by algorithms programmed to show us content that aligns with our own opinions. For instance, a left-leaning person’s Facebook feed would mostly include articles that align with the political left. The knowledge that this type of invisible system exists, a system that extends far beyond the methods of Facebook algo

Our Changing Social Climate

Critiques of social life at Amherst are nothing new. From the demolition of the Socials to various changes in party policy to the current glaring lack of diverse options, the search for solutions to the problems surrounding social life on campus has reached a new climax. It’s evident that the college experience extends beyond the academic and academically-associated extracurricular sphere. To hinder, rather than nourish, a portion of Amherst life that is undoubtedly crucial to the formation of m

Reconstructing Time

After what seemed to be a three week grace period, complete with sunny weather, manageable workloads and the lingering air of excitement about a new year, it feels like the semester has been sent into overdrive. Temperatures have fallen, making it that much harder to get out of bed in the morning, and the due date for that first round of papers is coming up soon. In this time of peak stress and anxiety, it’s easy for students to enter survival mode. It’s crucial for our campus to overcome this t

On an Institution’s Priorities

At Amherst and other similar elite institutions, there’s no question that money is a driving force. Wealthy alums have buildings named after them, the College spends thousands on coveted speakers and the AAS consistently touts its million dollar budget. The question of our endowment, and more importantly, its strong associations with powerful alumni have been brought to attention in a recent New York Times piece. The article features interviews with Amherst alums who have since retracted or redu

From Those Who Have Been There

Orientation week brings a sense of excitement and anticipation to the Amherst campus. First-years descend upon the quad and face a flurry of programming designed to prepare them for the next four years. In the spirit of orientation week, the Editorial board hopes to supplement a week dedicated to advice by offering the candid advice we wish we had received as first-years. Here are seven tips from people who have been in your shoes and only want to see you succeed as you begin to navigate life at

Summer Activism

The past two semesters saw a huge resurgence of student activism and much encouraging work to make the college a better place. The most notable example of student activism was Amherst Uprising, which sparked conversation typically rare to our campus. The movement brought crucial issues to the forefront, yet on a campus marked by the stress of academics and extracurriculars, it’s hard for overburdened students to sustain the same level of high energy activism. It’s increasingly difficult to maint

Room Draw Chaos

On a campus fraught with loneliness and stress, the decision of where to live on campus is of the utmost important for Amherst students. The current room draw process, revamped with the new online system, aimed to alleviate some of the anxiety, but students still found themselves battling with unnecessary extra pressure associated with the perils of the process on top of the unavoidable stress involved in the procedure. This year, the Office of Residential Life invested in setting up an online

Understanding AAS

The widespread lack of awareness or enthusiasm across the student body regarding the Association of Amherst Students executive board election is alarming, but not new to our campus. There is a growing distance between AAS and the student body, with the latter seeing its student government as a failed bureaucracy primarily designed to create committees and to allocate money to different groups on campus. AAS is a flawed institution, inefficient in their governing process and still struggling to b

Spring Break Overload

For many students, spring break supposedly promises trips to warmer climates, time spent at home with family or simply a chance to recharge from academic pressure. As the word “break” suggests, students look forward to enjoying a week off from the high intensity Amherst workload and lifestyle. However, most students found themselves swamped during what ended up being a week away from school with the same amount of work, and many students even opted to stay on campus to catch up on work. While we

Patience and Change

Last weekend, posters mysteriously appeared around campus. Although not officially affiliated with the movement, the writer of the poster printed the Amherst Uprising logo at the top and began the message with the accusatory question,“Where have you gone Amherst Uprising???” followed by a sarcastic “Congratulations!!!” At first glance, the poster seems to suggest that students bring back the Amherst Uprising movement more publicly, but the poster’s actual language instead diminishes the work par

Springing to Change Too Soon?

With variance in national holidays, school-wide events and commencement programming, the college’s academic calendar changes on a yearly basis. The length of each semester has always remained consistent — 13 weeks in the fall and 14 weeks in the spring — but it could be changed in the near future. College Council recently proposed shortening the spring semester to 13 weeks, for reasons such as aligning the college on a similar calendar with other elite institutions and allowing for consistency w

Something about ResLife Loneliness

The perpetual problems of loneliness and social division among Amherst students have been discussed extensively in recent years. As administrators seek new ways to resolve these critical issues, it seems that housing is the first aspect of Amherst life that they turn to. They’ve proposed Neighborhoods. They’re tearing down the social dorms. And now, they are overhauling the room draw process. Some of the changes are undoubtedly positive: We appreciate that Res Life has decided to streamline the

Expanding the Career Center

The career center is always bustling with visitors, and our email inboxes are constantly flooded with career-related information. It’s common to catch a glimpse of students dressing in suits for interviews and attending informational sessions in between meals, practices and homework. It’s the height of internship and job-hunting season. In recent years the career center’s ample resources for business and health students have gotten even better, and students who wish to go into these fields have

Fear and Learning

Fear is not generally a part of Amherst students’ philosophy of education. We often hear that we’re supposed t o feel uncomfortable with our education — that’s how we know we’re learning. We come to Amherst because we want push ourselves beyond our own self-created intellectual boundaries. Why, then, are Amherst students so afraid to challenge themselves in the classroom? A lot of students have great ideas but don’t actually speak up in class. There are many reasons: the worry about being ju

Talking Politics

Here’s something hard to argue with: political discussions are a net good. Through debates, people voice their opinions against dissenters, gain new perspectives and even strengthen and clarify their own positions. Especially on a liberal arts college campus like Amherst, where we are taught to challenge our personal convictions and conceptions of the world, debating the most pressing issues of fiscal and social politics is key. In the wake of the upcoming presidential elections, students must c

Board of Trustees: Condemn the Lord Jeff

After years of debate, the issue of Amherst’s unofficial mascot, the Lord Jeff, has finally come before the board of trustees. At its meeting this January, the board of trustees will finally discuss the question of whether Lord Jeffery Amherst should represent this college as our mascot. The Amherst Student urges the board of trustees to publicly condemn the Lord Jeff as an outdated symbol of colonial imperialism and violence that in no way represents our college or our values as a community. L

Staying Involved

Back from Thanksgiving break, seniors have returned to campus for the tail end of their fall semester. As a graduating class gets ready to approach the “real world,” it is typical for its members to put aside class work and extracurricular activities in favor of bar nights and finding a job. Unfortunately, it can be easy to forget about the community they’ve called home for their most formative years. Senioritis can also apply to the communal obligations that come with being a student at Amher

Creating A More Inclusive Community

The sit-in at Frost Library last Thursday was supposed to last an hour. Most of us expected to leave the library at 2 p.m., believing we would make it to our afternoon classes and evening commitments. Instead, many people stayed in the library for nearly four days straight. Students, faculty, staff and administrators stayed for hours to listen to students speak about their experiences of racism and other forms of discrimination at the college. Students of color shared painful experiences of bein

Democracy at Amherst

Democracy is alive at Amherst College, but barely. Many students on campus have been following the presidential primary race religiously. But few students have any idea what is going on with Amherst’s own student government. There is no point to having a democratic system if the people it aims to serve do not actively involve themselves in carrying out its functions. AAS meetings are open to the public — yet it’s rare to see non-senators at a meeting. Any student can run for senate — yet each

Making Time For Friends

It’s that time of the semester again. Essays, exams and thesis deadlines are coming up fast before the finals push, with internships and job pressures occupying the rest of any remaining free space in most students’ minds. You start wondering whether your hall mates and close friends, who you used to see every day, frankly still attend this school. These last four to five weeks of the semester are composed of repetitions of “We should catch up soon” and “Let’s grab Val together sometime,” but so

Let's Actually Talk About Guns

Last week, a 26-year-old student at Umpqua Community College shot an assistant professor and eight students with automatic weapons and, after being wounded by police, fatally shot himself. In his statement to the press, President Obama acknowledged that this is becoming all too common in America. “Somehow this has become routine,” he said. After the attacks at Columbine and Sandy Hook, two of the most famous of school shootings in this country, this was the latest shooting to shock the nation in

Appreciating the Counseling Center

In the last few years, the Amherst community has made incredible strides in the campus-wide conversation about mental health. The administration has renewed a full-time position for mental health awareness and education for Jessica Gifford, who endorses and finances a team of effective student initiatives. The wellness fair has become more prominent and has featured more groups every semester. There’s hardly a student who doesn’t try to sign up for the massages in Keefe during finals. But despit

Studying At Home

It’s common wisdom among college graduates and seniors who think they know better that if you don’t study abroad, you’ll regret it. “Are you going to study abroad?” is a common question among Amherst sophomores and juniors. If the answer is yes, no one thinks twice. But if a student decides to stay at Amherst for both semesters, he’s consistently told that it’s the wrong decision, that he’ll regret losing an opportunity he’ll never have again. While studying abroad is certainly a fantastic oppor

Rethinking the Double Major

“What do you want to major in?” is a ubiquitous question among first-years during their first few months at Amherst. It’s one of those classic orientation conversation starters, like “Where are you from?” and “What dorm are you in?” The responses to the major question are always varied, but it’s striking how often they come in twos — whether it’s history and economics, Spanish and math or LJST and religion. There’s undoubtedly something appealing about the double major. After all, about 40 per

A Year of Student Voice

Amherst is often called apolitical. Unlike our counterparts at Wesleyan, Middlebury or Swarthmore, Amherst students are seen as far too busy with academics to engage with the world outside the Pioneer Valley. Our heads are in the clouds discussing Socrates in our “Friendship” seminar while students across the country collectively organize to fight against oppressive power structures and modern-day challenges to liberal ideals of equality. Yet, anyone who has been on this campus during the 2014-2

Social Clubs or Eating Clubs?

In a recently released video by the Social Project Work Group, “Jess,” a fictional first-year student having trouble finding her place at Amherst, finds a diverse group of friends in the “Coolidge Club.” Social clubs have generally been presented as a panacea for students facing the challenge of finding themselves and their place at college. The promise of instantaneous friends and an inclusive environment without the classic “fraternity problems” seems too good to be true. That’s because it is.

Supporting Our Community

Think of any college movie you’ve ever seen. Buying into the classic collegiate stereotypes, the protagonists probably get drunk at a big football game, cheer for their mascot at the track meet or attend an underground a capella battle. Before stepping on campus, most future Amherst students probably imagined they would frequently support their classmates, neighbors and close friends at events, performances or sports games. They most likely imagined they’d spend their weekends wrapping themselve

Why Voting Matters

There’s an old saying in politics: Laws are like sausages — no one wants to see how they’re made. Most American citizens want their roads plowed, mail delivered and bridges kept structurally sound. Yet, less than half actually show up to vote during the presidential elections every four years. That number drops dramatically for the state and local elections in which most legislation is actually passed. The candidates in many elections for crucial senate seats run unopposed as both they and their

Room Draw Sucks and There's Nothing You Can Do About It

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You and your four friends are trying to get a suite in Taplin, but it only has four rooms. Perhaps your group will have to draw straws. Maybe you’ll all just decide whom to kick out based on messiness, sleep schedules or high volume of sex. The room draw process is stressful, messy and ruinous to friendships. It’s rumored that room draw keeps the Counseling Center in business. In short, it is a commonly held belief that room draw destroys friendships and

The Resource Centers Deserve More Resources

Current students might know Tony Marx for recently appearing on Humans of New York to advocate for the modern relevance of the public library. But the former Amherst president should be noted for his agenda that has changed the campus makeup and culture. Pushing for a level of diversity unheard of by our peer institutions, he created some of the generous financial aid packages that allow the Admissions Office to operate need-blind. There should be no doubt that the Admissions’ Office commitment

A Look At Theme Houses

It’s a widely held opinion on campus that theme houses work. Out of the various articles and focus groups recently devoted to loneliness, students have worried about their place in the overarching community, the lack of tradition, and the athlete/non-athlete divide. Almost universally, however, it seems that students find their place in the smaller communities of theme houses. Especially for sophomores who want singles with a good community, these houses are a godsend. Within the wave of great c

Gaining an Internship, Losing an Opportunity

While wandering around the Amherst campus from mid-February to spring break, it’s hard not to feel a profound wave of stress. You could be excused if you expected the snow on the ground had to stay well into finals period in May. This existential stress, however, is different and far more pervasive than a scramble for grades. It makes students of all class years and majors constantly ask themselves: “What am I doing with the rest of my life?” Internship season has arrived at Amherst. Amherst stu

Amherst Community Left Out in the Cold Without Traditions

It’s fair to generalize and say that many members of the faculty, administration and student body were disappointed by the cancellation of the winter carnival. Although we all laughed at the Muck-Rake article “Winter Carnival Postponed Due to Winter,” the response mainly masked our frustration. In the current Amherst social scene, the carnivals set up by Biddy and the administration are the closest things we have to campus-wide traditions. Yet, not only can these events be undependable despite f

A Case for Social Justice Education

Amherst College’s admissions brochures love to tout the open curriculum. Save for the first year seminar, which has such a range of options that it can hardly be counted as a required class, we are free to explore our interests without restriction. If you hated French in high school, you can say “au revoir” to it for good here. Loved by more than enthusiastic tour guides, our open curriculum is almost universally seen as a boon for our academic careers. Before we go any further, The Amherst Stud

Dangerous Weather Conditions Are Snow Joke

Here’s a scenario every Amherst student is familiar with: You’re sitting at your computer late at night, skimming weather.com and avoiding writing that response paper or studying for that orgo exam tomorrow. Instead, you’re desperately searching for Facebook statuses, Groupme Messages, texts or even Snapchats with a hint of hope that classes will be canceling the next day. Your Hampshire, UMass, Smith and Mount Holyoke friends (and pretty much any college student in the Northeast) have already h

Moose-scot: A Call to Arms

At this point, it’s hard to defend keeping the Lord Jeff as our mascot. Lord Jeffery Amherst advocated genocide against Native Americans. By celebrating him as our mascot, we tacitly condone both the man and his actions. Not only does this conflict with the values of any modern-day liberal arts institution, our designation as the Jeffs is a cruel irony in the face of increasing pushes for more diversity and representation from Native American students. Amherst is not alone in the legacy of rac

Missing The Opportunity for Dialogue

Academics are a big deal at Amherst. The school does everything in its power to make sure the academic calendar suits faculty needs so that they can squeeze in every single reading, lecture and essay they see fit to assign. Last semester, a student wrote an opinion article in this very newspaper testifying to how the administration’s high and potentially unhealthy emphasis on schoolwork left other parts of our lives — intellectual, social, emotional — unsatisfied. This norm of prioritizing aca

Student Activism Should Not Be a Passing Trend

It’s hard not to feel empowered and inspired by Amherst students lately. Last Monday, somewhere between 250 and 500 students met on the steps of Frost to remember Michael Brown’s death with a moment of silence and a walk around the quad chanting “hands up, don’t shoot.” On Sunday, anyone on or around the first-year quad could see the group of UMass and Amherst protesters who walked through the town to raise awareness about the injustice of the non-indictment in the Eric Garner case. In October,

Answering the Fraternity Question All Over Again

Last semester, shortly before the spring finals period, the Amherst College board of trustees made national headlines with an announcement that would drastically affect student life. Reaffirming the “spirit and intention” of their original 1984 decision, the board officially banned students’ membership, either on or off campus, of “any fraternity, sorority or other social club, society or organization” (emphasis added). The timing of the proposed social clubs as a solution to campus loneliness

Social Clubs Are a Band-Aid, Not a Cure

Loneliness is a problem at Amherst College. The 2014 National College Health Assessment conducted last semester reported that 76 percent of Amherst students felt “very lonely” within the past year, compared to 56 percent nationally. But this isn’t a new issue for us: the Student Health Educators began their “social cups” initiative in 2013 to combat the stigma associated with going to Val alone. Additionally, with the abolition of fraternities last semester, many ex-fraternity members protested

Student Activism Alone Can't Pop the Amherst Bubble

Last week, no matter where they were on campus, students couldn’t help but encounter the Black Lives Matter campaign. Posters raising awareness about incidents of police brutality confronted students walking out of Merrill, running to Val, heading home for a quick nap. Students who generally didn’t have to think about this issue much less fear for their lives on a daily basis were forced to confront this blatant inequality. Though some of us normally live our daily lives completely blind to this

Fall Break Should Be a Break

The common wisdom at Amherst is that you learn the most outside of the classroom. When we look back on our past years, what we will remember most are the late night talks in our first year dorms, chats with our professors over coffee and our favorite pieces of art at the Mead. Yet it’s hard to deny that, as much as we hate doing them, our essays, problem sets and exams are important too. They make what we’re learning relevant and important. Our grades hold us to our commitment to learn and push

Val Late Nights: A Sweet and Surprising Way to Build Community

Because of our open curriculum, diversity of extracurricular activities and number of athletic teams, Amherst students sometimes don’t have a lot in common. In many ways, we’re a community of communities. But one thing that is universal among us is Val. Regardless of your opinion of the food, everyone is brought together by the fact that (with the exception of the Zü) we all eat and socialize there. During Jamaican Jerk night or Asian Tuesday, when the pasta line extends out the door, food can s

Res Life Needs to Build Up Trust

Room draw has always been a nightmare. Every year hearts are broken, years-long friendships are ended in a flood of tears and you walk out disappointed and full of CVS candy. The general disappointment and frustration with Residential Life is nothing new for the student body. Two years ago, in order to combat the perceived housing shortage, Dean Torin Moore announced his supposedly exciting initiative to move students to Alpine Commons, an apartment complex a mile away from campus. Only two stud

Why Amherst Needs A President

For the first time in recent memory, Amherst students have been without the significant representation found in a student body president. Yes, we’ve had upheavals within the AAS before: election scandals, constitutional conventions and even dissolutions of the entire governments. These repeated “scandals” only illustrate how, as students, our faith is visibly shaken in our student-led institution to do anything more substantive for the student body than dole out money to clubs. The presidentia

The Powerhouse: Saving Our Social and Actual Lives

The eagerly awaited Powerhouse opened on Friday, Sept. 5, greeting a crowd of students and administrators with steak sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres. Since then, the Powerhouse Committee has demonstrated the versatility of the space, following up their opening event with a feast of wings and pizza for hungry Saturday-night partiers and a screening of the seminal 1980’s classic “Goonies.” With plenty of email updates on its building progress, the administration has hyped the space as a much-needed

Orientation: Less Socials, More Socializing

With the frustrated efforts of the infamous 2013 “dry orientation” not far in the rear view window, this fall, all eyes were on Provost Uvin’s reforms. Last semester, controversy abounded over the removal of Queer Queries, the insertion of poorly defined academic TEDx presentations and reports of new, required three-day trips. The issue that remained constantly at the center of the conversation was the status of varsity athletes or our “scholar-athletes.” Although they’re required to attend lec

10 Tips for the Class of 2018

We know, we know. Orientation week is long and filled with more information than you’ll ever need to know. But as the independent student newspaper of the college (since 1868), we are obligated to provide you, class of 2018 — and transfer students, who get way less love than they deserve — with some tricks to the Amherst trade. For both our sanity and yours, we’ve tried to keep these modules of wisdom as practical and far from banal Buzzfeed-esque listicles about College, Trying New Things and

Underground Frats: 1984-2014. RIP?

The Trustee’s Office emailed students yesterday informing them of a decision by the Board of Trustees to prohibit participation in fraternities, sororities and “fraternity-like and sorority-like organizations,” including off campus. The decision arrives exactly thirty years after the Trustees in 1984 banned all on-campus fraternities. The timing of the decision, however, probably has far less to with recognizing the thirtieth anniversary of the 1984 ban than with with the present federal invest

Summer is Coming

Summer is coming. In about two weeks, we will all be celebrating the end of another semester in our own ecstatic ways. This end-of-the-year celebration may be loud, quiet, public, private, creative or even self-destructive depending on the individual, and it will definitely be a well-deserved occasion for all parties involved. After all, it marks the end of something dreadful, or so we feel. But what exactly will have ended then? It’s interesting to think about the way we, as students of a pre

One Vote to Rule Them All

Last Monday, the AAS voted on a motion to overturn the April 15 JC ruling regarding campaign expenditures. The motion failed to pass; twenty senators voted yes in favor of the motion, eight senators voted no and three senators abstained, meaning the motion fell just short of the three-fourths majority necessary to overturn a JC ruling. The closeness of the AAS vote on Monday is reminiscent of the AAS presidential election, and, in fact, in the minds of many students the two are one and the sam

Ahmed, Crane et. al v. AAS JC

On April 2, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling on McCutcheon et al. v. Federal Election Commission, striking down the Federal Election Campaign Act’s aggregate limits on the total amount a donor may contribute to all candidates and committees. Perhaps in protest to the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling — or perhaps not — the AAS Judiciary Council seems to be cracking down on campaign finance. Last week, the JC emailed students informing them a complaint expressing concern about excess

AAS Election Turnout

Yesterday, Amherst students went to the online polls to cast their vote for the AAS president and vice-president. Well, some of them at least, if yesterday’s run-off election was anything like the previous year’s run-off, in which 797 of the 1414 students eligible to vote actually cast a vote for AAS president. As a percentage that translates into a voter turnout of about 56 percent, which is fairly close to the voter turnout of 58 percent in the 2012 US presidential election. That is not to say

What’s in a Name?

Amherst students like to be credited for their work. Many would be mortified if they neglected to put their name on an academic paper, and most would take offense if someone quoted their work without properly attributing it to them. It is ironic, then, that few display a similar possessiveness when writing online. Perhaps, the internet simply inspires a sort of altruism in students so they may feel compelled to share their wisdom without selflessly coveting recognition and acknowledgment. More l

Ruminating on Room Draw

In the past couple of days, students have received emails from the Office of Residential Life about room draw. Room Draw can be extremely stressful; after all, the placement of one’s room draw group on the room draw list might determine a significant portion of the quality of one’s social experience at the College for the entire next year. This is to a large extent unavoidable. There will always be heterogeneity in the quality of rooms and residences, and as long as a scarcity of ideal living sp

Summer Internship Introspection

As deadlines approach for summer internships, The Student can commiserate with the stress and anxiety of prospective interns. Summer internships can be a serious ordeal and scoring a prestigious internship is often more highly valued than success during the academic semester. Internships present a crucial opportunity to not only advance one’s career goals but also to clarify and define what those goals should be. Nonetheless, many students do not carefully deliberate why and where they hope to f

Snow Day or No Snow Day?

There is always something a little magical about snow days. They are a serendipitous holiday — a fortuitous chance to enjoy the idyllic side of the winter season before the snow turns to grimy slush and ice — and for those of us who grew up in the northeast, evoke a certain nostalgia for grade school. Nonetheless, while many of us rejoiced at having our classes cancelled last week because of the snow, it is important to remember that not everyone got off so easy. For the rest us, the inclement

Big Questions, Little Answers

Many of us probably noticed the massive banners hanging from the front of Frost Library and Valentine Dining Hall last week. In prominent bold letters, they displayed the question, “When do you conform?” Ironically, the large size of the banners, their positions overlooking the campus’ main quads and their odd wording in the second person all gave them an eerily Orwellian feel, as if they seemed to be aimed at promoting the same sort of groupthink that the question was meant to address. Perhaps

Change We Can’t Believe In: Examining Administrative Turnover

On Monday, Dean Larimore resigned as the College’s Dean of Students. The Student sincerely regrets his leaving. It was only a year ago, last February, that Dean Larimore was selected through an extensive search process to be the College’s new Dean of Students. Since then, he has established a genuine and meaningful relationship with the students, and many cannot help but feel that his resignation is both abrupt and perplexing. In recent history, the College has gained, lost and reassigned an i

Party Registration Policy Changes

This spring semester the College will be implementing as a trial run several changes to its party policy. Last week, Dean Larimore emailed the students regarding these policy changes, and despite its verbiage, the letter summed up an earnest effort by the administration to improve social life at the College. The events of last semester, especially those of Crossett Christmas, demonstrated the necessity of changes to the party policy; this semester will hopefully prove their efficacy. In prior s

Getting Into the Thanksgiving Spirit, On or Off Campus

As Thanksgiving break approaches, many of us are looking forward to spending the holiday with friends and family. Fortunately, those of us who can’t make it home can do the same — the College’s efforts to ensure that there will be a festive, communal vibe on campus are sure to give us all something to be thankful for, even if we can’t be with our families or friends from home. The typical Thanksgiving food-fest will not be missed by those staying on campus. President Martin has graciously arra

Half Empty or Half Full?

On Sunday, we all received an email from Dean Larimore announcing the “Social Cup” initiative — yesterday, Val rolled out a set of fresh blue cups that indicate to fellow students that the user is open to sitting with people he or she does not know. The purpose of the initiative is to promote social mingling in Val and to help those who would like to meet new people express that desire in a clear yet fairly unobtrusive way. This initiative is creative and has the potential to dramatically improv

Thoughts on Suite Living

On Oct. 11, the Board of Trustees approved a new facilities plan which, among other things, called for the Social Dorms to be razed to make way for a new science center. The plan potentially kills two birds with one stone by ensuring Amherst remains competitive in undergraduate science and by dealing with the dilapidated Socials. While the Socials, at present, may be for many an important focal point for social life, these changes are long overdue. The facilities themselves are old and decrepit

Interesting Ways to Spend the Break

Most of us are eagerly looking forward to the rest and relaxation we hope to enjoy over fall break. But for students who are not going home over the long weekend, those anticipated days of freedom can turn into long hours of boredom. To preempt this unfortunate turn of events, we are providing you with a list of exciting activities taking place in the town of Amherst over the long weekend. On Saturday, come support our local scholars at the annual ABC (A Better Chance) Fall Foliage Walk! ABC is

Let’s Stop and Think Before Complaining About Val

In the last year, Val has undergone some important changes that have made our food options both more delicious and nutritious. Yet every day, students can be overheard complaining about Val to their friends. Of course not every student is going to be thrilled with Val’s food options every day, but there are some considerations we all should make before publicly complaining about a service that ultimately provides us with everything we need and more. The main consideration we should make is for

Fostering School Spirit

The College hardly exudes school spirit. While a student at Williams can innocuously strut around campus dressed in a purple cow costume, most students at Amherst would rather don that same outfit than dress up as the mascot Lord Jeffrey Amherst (because honestly, despite its absurdity, a purple cow is by the far the more huggable of the two). The turnout at most athletic and extracurricular competitions rarely far exceeds the players or members themselves. And no, the first word of “A Hymn to A

Lauding IT Improvements

Despite all the recent buzz over Twitter’s IPO, the College’s own quiet technological revolution has gone largely unnoticed. After years of pink slips and green sheets, it seems that the College has finally begun to embrace the 21st century. In the past months, the information technology department has unveiled a slew of technological improvements. They include AC Web Laundry, which provides real-time updates on campus washers and dryers, e-mail and text message notifications of student packag

The Problem of Complacency

Statistically speaking, last year was not a stellar year for the College’s admissions. Total applications dropped from 8,555 for the Class of 2016 to 7,927 for the class of 2017, representing a decline of 8.2 percent. The overall admit rate increased from 13.3 percent to 13.7 percent. As other colleges across the United States reported increased application numbers and higher selectivity (largely as a result of high school students applying to more schools), many students could not help but susp

Tips for the Class of 2017

1. Learn how to study effectively. Find your a nook inside the library or around campus (we won’t share ours because that would defeat the point). Take study breaks often. Go for a walk around the trails or simply call a friend or family member. 2. Stay healthy. Don’t fall into the routine of ordering calzones at 2 a.m. every day. Invest in healthy midnight snacks. Try to eat as healthy as the options at Val allow you. And we cannot stress this enough: get enough sleep every night. 3. Develop

Reflections on a Year of Debate

A school year has almost passed us. Ask anyone to summarize the collective experience of students this year and they will place the unfolding of much public drama at the center of it. Pleasant memories dot our individual recollections, but painful ones sit squarely within those memories shared by most all of us. There’s a sigh, a lingering pain, an upwelling of anger, a cynical roll of the eyes as students recalled the “who’’ and “why” of the past semester. Some may point their finger at others

End of the Year Surprises

This exam period, for the first time in our collective student memory, students have as much to look forward to going into finals as they already have to not look forward to: first, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis promises to keep spirits up as students get excited about not having any use for their glass coasters and Spring Formal; second, students should also appreciate the generous end-of-year break we received — an extended “reading period.” In semesters past, reading period has never failed to und

Mascot Question Demands a Positive Proposal for Respect and Hope of Resolution

It’s already been heard that the debate surrounding Lord Jeff has injured many on campus — a phenomenon not unsurprising given the harshness of the rhetoric and the complete disregard for logical argument. The debate is leading students to accuse each other of ignorance and arrogance, hate and immaturity. We can not expect civility when strength of argument is replaced by its loudness. We can only expect pain when we seek to stir hatred rather than compassion. We can only expect vulgarity when

Running For The Gate

Starting next week, Valentine Dining Hall will no longer close its front doors at 7:30 p.m. Backed by popular demand, the staff will keep a limited selection of foods available to students. Students can head over to Valentine for sandwiches, salads, cereals, drinks, paninis and waffles up until until 8:30 p.m. Students can forget about desperate 7:30 dashes to Val, sliding under half-closed gates and 8:00 p.m. hounding for dirty plates; instead, we can look forward to relaxed after-meal hangouts

A Crisis of Social Space

Does anyone know what is going on with Keefe? Outside of a stunning neon green and orange color scheme that shines off the walls, most of the renovation of the Student Center remains a mystery to students. A single email sent by the President in late December lists the renovations, but since then we have seen no floor plan nor a reaffirmation of the original sketch laid down. After months of supposed consultation with students, the administration went ahead with a completely different move witho

Anticipating Thanksgiving

A week of Thanksgiving break comes as welcome respite in the middle of a very busy and heavy time on campus. For some students, Thanksgiving isn’t a time of family reunion but a time for students to catch much needed rest and reorient themselves for the upcoming final push for work — it’s a short period of celebration with their other friends who remain on campus wedged between a time of incredible stress. In addition to the academic stresses, it’s a time when students not fortunate enough to re

A Storm of Confusion

It was the Sunday night before class, and confusion reigned supreme on campus. With Hurricane Sandy set to make landfall in several hours, students stayed up late waiting for information about classes the next day. Confused Facebook messages flew back and forth. Some students announced defeat in the waiting game and decided they were just going to skip class for their own safety in spite of forthcoming news. An update on the website announcing that the College was closed only exacerbated the co

Making A Difference

These past few days have been the moment of student journalism and expression at Amherst. Students published their accounts and expressed their points in various publications and columns. From The Student, The Indicator, AC Voice and student blogs of all kinds, the voice of students rang out for calls to action — and action came to campus in force. After Angie Epifano’s account (“An Account of Sexual Assault at Amherst College”) went viral, President Martin reached out to the Amherst community w

Thoughts on Basler

The news of former professor Carleen Basler’s academic plagiarism came as a shock to the entire College community, with several students and faculty expressing intense dismay at the revelations about someone who is revered an idol, mentor and friend. While we at The Student do not wish to opine on the particularities of Basler’s case, we do wish to use this incident to highlight an important problem that not only plagues members of the College’s own academic community, but also elite institution

This Section is Yours, Use It

The first fall breeze brings with it the fresh and confused faces of first-year students who still don’t know the way to Val and the inevitable “new school year” resolutions which upperclassmen come up with: “this year, I won’t pull any all-nighters” or “this year, I’m actually going to find out what the inside of the Alumni Gym looks like.” Although we at the editorial board of The Student cannot vouch for how likely you are to work out this semester or stop drinking on Wednesday nights, we d

Email Controversy: What To Take Away

This week saw a lot of tension on campus on the subject of mass emails, sparked by a student voicing a grievance that many shared on campus: that the annoying nature of mass mailings requires students to avoid the temptation to an end to the unofficial use of the campus email addresses. Students responded in various ways to this complaint — some of them reactionary and unpleasant in nature. We would like to explain why we see the event as a clash of student interests, while offering visions for