Opinion

Even when I lived in Illinois, I did not pay attention to neighboring Iowa. For all its virtues — corn, rolling plains, the rare Iowa Pleistocene Snail — my attentions were elsewhere. It had, perhaps, an “Iowa aura.” But since the presidential campaigns for 2016 started last year with my best friend

Grades are a subjective system that systematically values a narrow set of qualities that so very often do not correlate to greater life satisfaction or produce better students of the world. Tests chronically misdiagnose ineptitude in a subject, and professors’ personalities have the power to fundamentally alter both the way

In the coming years, the Amherst College board of trustees will be voting on a number of issues at the heart of student life. While the board strives to incorporate the views of the student body into their decisions, this is not always possible when the most recent alumni trustee

Why does the integration of academic and social identities in college matter? Advising a student of color at a selective, predominantly white college or university is complex and challenging. When administrators are not able to help students of color who feel disconnected from the college community, these students often drop

Make no mistake — there is a sports information crisis brewing at Amherst College. The numbers tell you as much. Since 2006, Amherst has employed no fewer than six different sports information directors, commonly known as SIDs. One after the next has left after a year or two for a similar

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