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Opinion

Letter from the Department of Black Studies

Dear students, We in the Department of Black Studies were moved by Thursday’s walkout and sit-in at Frost Library. Initially an expression of solidarity with students at Missouri, Yale, and elsewhere, it quickly turned into an intense, fiery event, full of compelling stories of struggle, friendship, insistence on belonging,

Free Conversation

Again my classmates hide and in darkness come to silence me. Again attempting to sacrifice black life for all life, a theme all too common. Posters in Val, displayed anonymously, again, mourned the death of free speech as the “true victim” of black suffering. Bold statements from a void. You,

The Problem of Group Identity

To be an Amherst College student without a group is to walk around with no skin. It is to feel continuously vulnerable and overexposed to the elements. This overexposure is all consuming and exhausting. Participating in class, hellos to acquaintances — the most mundane tasks can seem daunting here. The stakes

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

Dear Amherst: Who Are You?

Amherst, who are we? That’s the crucial question facing our school today. Let me explain. I’m a first-year. I’m new to this school and new to this whole college thing. I’d like to think I came to Amherst with a fresh perspective, unbiased by the twists

On the Ensemble: Dissonance and Collaboration

We at Amherst speak of organizing social life on the model of the team. We have athletic, Title IX and case management teams. Deans throw around the phrase “teams of students.” The 2015 strategic plan recommends “creating teams of first-year students and staff” to cure cultures of busyness and loneliness,

Letter to the Editor: A Lament for Lord Jeff

It takes a sense of humor to reflect on the plight of poor Lord Jeff, especially for a member of the college’s older generation who nonetheless has concluded, sadly, that it is time for him to go. Even though as a child I stood on chairs to study maps