Issue 19

THE AMHERST THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

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VOLUME CXLIX, ISSUE 19 l WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM

Men’s Lacrosse Members Involved in Racist Incident Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief Emerita

Photo courtesy of Ryan Yu ’22

President Martin addressed students who gathered in Frost Library to vocalize concerns regarding the college’s decision to move students off campus. She defended the decision, arguing it was necessary to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

College Evacuates Students, Moves Classes Online

Ryan Yu ’22 Managing News Editor All classes will move online starting on March 23, and students must leave the campus over spring break in an effort to mitigate concerns over the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), according to an email sent just before 8 p.m. on March 9 by President Biddy Martin. Since the announcement, student pressure has caused the departure deadline to be moved from March 16 to 18. Faculty and staff will continue their regular schedules, but classes on Thursday and Friday of this week are canceled to allow time for the community to adjust. These changes are to remain in place indefinitely until the

spread of COVID-19 stabilizes.

Massachusetts, which has 92 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of March 10, is among the 19 states that have declared a state of emergency. Although there are no cases of COVID-19 at the college or in Hampshire County, where the college is located, the widespread travel associated with spring break meant that “the risk of having hundreds of people return from their travels to the campus [was] too great,” as Martin wrote in her initial email, prompting the college to take measures “to keep members of our community as safe as we possibly can.” Most students, who are generally young and healthy, do not face a high risk of serious harm from COVID-19, but older

adults and those who are immunocompromised do face a higher risk, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The decision to move students off campus was not explicitly communicated as a possibility to the student body until the Monday announcement was made, although the potential of remote learning was discussed with faculty in a meeting on March 2. For many in the community, the announcement was unexpected, leaving a sense of shock around the campus and a number of open questions about both the rationale and implications behind the decision.

Forty minutes after the release of the statement, Dean of Students Liz Agosto, Senior Associate

Dean of Students Dean Gendron and Chief Student Affairs Officer Karu Kozuma held a Q&A session as part of an Association of Amherst Students (AAS) meeting.

The session wasn’t publicized, but nevertheless, nearly 200 students attended.

Agosto began the session by offering some baseline explanations and details for the decision.

She noted the influence of other colleges’ decisions to move classes online and the lack of adequate facilities on campus as two key motivations for the shift. She also noted that there would be a committee that reviews petitions for students to remain on campus. The dead-

Continued on page 4

Three people — all members of men’s lacrosse — chanted the n-word outside of a Black lacrosse player’s suite on March 7. Provoked, the Black lacrosse player punched one of the teammates chanting the n-word. The Black lacrosse player and the person he was with were the only two Black people in the suite at the time, The Student confirmed with five people with knowledge of the situation.

This is the second publicly-addressed hate incident within the last year that has involved men’s lacrosse players. Last spring, The Student reported on an incident that took place at a December 2018 men’s lacrosse party during which a swastika was drawn on an unconscious student’s forehead and then circulated on men’s lacrosse players’ social media.

Dean of Students Liz Agosto sent an email on March 9 notifying students of “an altercation between two students involving the use of racist language and subsequent physical violence.” The email did not provide further details of what happened.

“It is important for us to recognize and acknowledge that both the use of racial epithets on our campus and physical violence cause harm not only to the individuals involved but to the community as a whole,” Agosto wrote in her email to students.

Continued on page 7

News March. 2, 2020 – March 8, 2020

>>March 2, 2020 2:55 p.m., Book and Plow Farm An officer responded to a report of a suspicious noise and found it was a vehicle backfiring.

4:47 p.m., Jenkins Dormitory Officers observed a group of students playing drinking games.

The group cleared the area without incident. >>March 3, 2020 7:27 p.m., Campus Grounds An officer took a report of a vehicle that accidentally struck a light post. >>March 4, 2020 12:32 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer observed a broken exit sign. >>March 6, 2020 2:33 p.m., Boltwood Avenue An individual reported someone looking inside cars and checking door handles on a street in town. Officers in the town were notified.

11:32 p.m., Moore Dormitory Officers responded to a noise complaint and found a group speaking loudly. The group left without issue. >>March 7, 2020 12:49 p.m., Mayo Smith Lot Officers observed a group of students play-

Abby LeCates Thoughts on Theses

ing drinking games.

The group was dispersed.

2:58 p.m., Hitchcock Dormitory Officers responded to a report of a loud group gathering in the common area. A group of UMass Amherst students were in the common area and were not invited

by Amherst College students. >>March 8, 2020 12:30 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory An officer found an area that had an odor of burnt marijuana and observed a group of individuals gathered there just prior to the officers’ arrival. The group left upon seeing the officer.

11:49 a.m., Amherst College Police An officer found a false ID used to show the individual was 21 years of age when they are not yet that age.

6:33 p.m., East Drive Officers responded to a report of an individual yelling at people walking past for no reason. The individual left the area prior to the officers’ arrival.

10:36 p.m., Cohan Dormitory An officer observed marijuana smoke in a room and confiscated the remaining substance.

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Abby LeCates is an anthropology major on the pre-medicine track. Her thesis explores the relationship between recovery networks for opioid addicts and the criminal justice system in upstate New York. Her thesis advisor is Winthrop H. Smith 1916 Professor of Sociology Jerome Himmelstein.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: Very broadly, it’s about the opioid epidemic in upstate New York. I was initially interested in studying it because I’m really interested in medical anthropology, and I wanted to do research. I’m from upstate New York so I wanted to research a place that is important to me. I wasn’t really sure what it was going to be about at first so it’s been a long process of figuring out exactly what’s going on. But something I noticed as I was doing research and interviewing people is that even though there’s been this turn towards treatment in the present epidemic, the criminal justice system still remains embedded in responses towards addiction. That comes in part of a long history of criminalization in the country towards drug use. Initially, I was interested in specifically studying experiences of recovery, and I imagined that those experiences would be somewhat removed from the criminal justice system. But I learned that it was completely tied to it. I’m thinking about how these two contradictory approaches to addiction are working together and what that relationship looks like and how that might affect experiences of care in upstate New York.

Q: How did you come up with the idea?

A: I’ve also been really interested in studying mental health from an academic perspective within medical anthropology. I’ve been thinking about how people talk about any mental illness but then specifically addiction and the stigma that persists around addiction. A lot of effort has been done to reduce the stigma in various ways, but something that I found is

people are struggling with a double stigma of having a criminal record and also being addicted. That makes recovering so much harder. I mean, a lot of the recovery organizations [will say something] like “Addiction is like diabetes, [a disease].” People make that comparison really readily just to decrease the stigma. But if you have [a disease], you don’t necessarily have a criminal record [but a lot of people in recovery do] so that just makes it doubly difficult to find housing, find employment. So part of the community mobilization that I observed was specifically taken to reduce that stigma. So there are now recovery-friendly workplaces that are opening in the county where they hire people regardless of their criminal record and they support them in their recovery.

So they re-organize their work schedule around when they have to attend meetings.

but then she and her husband started this motel to act as a form of affordable housing. They’ve taken on so much responsibility to take care of people. She has emphasized to me throughout our conversations that she just feels like it’s her calling so she and her husband will drive people to and from the closest towns so that [their clients] can get to work on time and get to their support meetings. I just found that really impressive.

Q: What has your favorite part of the process been so far?

A: I like being able to go back and talk to leaders in the community. I mean, I had lived in the community the whole time that they have been working there but just never had the same appreciation for the work that they do.

And just learning about all of the work that my community is doing to take care of people has been really great to learn about and really interesting. I’m seeing this whole other side I haven’t seen before.

Q: What advice do you have for students thinking of writing a thesis?

A: I would say, “Yeah, go for it!” I think it’s been really rewarding to see how everything has come together and to see all of my ideas come together in a final product. And I guess it felt initially very overwhelming and definitely at some points last semester, I was like, “What am I doing?” Like this is not going to come to fruition. But at this point, in hindsight, I feel like I’ve learned a lot, just through the process of trying to sort through all my ideas and being able to interview people. I mean even just sending professional emails and not feeling so stressed about that. And making calls, getting over my terrible fear of phone calls.

Q: Has this work hanged the way you view your home community at all?

A: I’m really impressed by how much people are doing to take care of people in crisis. There’s a woman who was working in hospital administration,

Q: What’s been the hardest part?

A: The hardest part was starting with such a broad topic, like knowing that I want to write about something within medical anthropology and then as I kept learning more through interviews, I wasn’t sure where they were going. Sorting through all that information and asking myself, “what’s going on here?” and “what’s important and what should people hear about?”

—Rebecca Picciotto ’22

News 3

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

In Wake of COVID-19, Chinese Int’l Students Carry Heavy Burdens Shawna Chen ’20 Editor-in-Chief Emerita Last month, when Crystal Zhou’s ’21 friend began making plans to head to New York City, she told him to wear a face mask, given the number of confirmed coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) cases in the city.

Her friend, who is Chinese, responded, “Well, I don’t want to be shoved off into the subway.”

Eddie Shen ’20 had similar conversations before traveling to New York City last week. Several of his friends visited large metropolitan areas like New York City and Boston — both of which have reported relatively large numbers of coronavirus cases — for job interviews. “Our point of discussion was: ‘Should I put on a mask?’” he said. “If I put on a mask, which probability is higher: the chance that I’m going to get beaten up by somebody or the chance that I’ll get the virus? So far, honestly, it seems much more likely that I’ll get beaten up.”

He did not wear a mask while in New York.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus began accelerating in January, Chinese international students have borne the brunt of its impact.

Students like Zhou and Shen track COVID-19 every day, concerned about its potential interaction with family and friends who are now quarantined back home. But that’s not the only thing they’ve had to worry about.

Anti-Asian racism and xenophobia are on the rise in the U.S. — Chinese restaurants around the country are losing business while a man was videotaped assaulting a mask-donned Asian woman in a New York City subway station on Feb. 5. For Chinese students — and Asian and Asian American students as a whole — this period of time has been particularly testing.

The turbulence of not knowing what will happen feeds into everyday life.

“It’s a lot of grief, because it hits close to home,” Shen said. “It’s literally at your doorsteps.”

The Initial Outbreak Every day, Ariana Lee ’20 Googles “coronavirus.” Every day, Sophie Pu ’20 tracks its numbers.

Every day, Zhou follows its reach around the world. Each has had to grapple with the coronavirus in her own way.

When it was confirmed that someone had returned from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to her hometown in Xinjiang, Zhou and her family immediately left their home in search of face masks and other supplies. They went from drug store to drug store until they’d visited 15 stores in total — the masks were all gone. “You walk in and you don’t even have to ask,” she said. “They tell you to turn back around.”

One week before airlines began suspending flights to and from China, Zhou left for the United States.

Shen and Sophie Pu ’20, too, flew out of China in the nick of time.

Pu first landed in Seattle, like Zhou. Getting through customs took 90 minutes. When she lined up at the desk, the officer’s inquiry included numerous Wuhan-related questions.

Shen, Pu and Zhou all call themselves lucky. Lucky for being able to leave. Lucky for being able to enter the U.S. Lucky for being able to return to Amherst College.

Zhou said many of her friends who also attend college are trapped in China. One of Shen’s friends, a Smith student, is stuck in Wuhan.

Upon learning that Colby College was quarantining all students returning from mainland China, whether they displayed symptoms or not, Zhou felt “fortunate” that Amherst didn’t do something similar and that she wasn’t targeted just because she came from China.

Lee had returned to Amherst early on over winter break and could only rely on media and news reports to follow the coronavirus as it spread across China. It was difficult and anxiety-inducing at times because she couldn’t tell if outlets were being sensationalist in their coverage or how worried she should be. It was hard to know what was true and what wasn’t.

She read about shortages of

masks. She read about the jump in prices for food. She messaged her high school friends about the virus every day.

Zhou, Pu, Lee and Shen’s families are all quarantined in their cities, Xinjiang, Shanghai and Beijing, respectively. Food is delivered to the door, people have to leave a record of when they leave their homes, schools are postponed and officials patrol the street to monitor transportation.

“My parents and my family are getting serious cabin fever at this point, but they’re trying to find things to do,” Pu said.

Zhou is particularly worried about her grandparents, who are alone and more at risk, being older.

Lee’s parents, however, were traveling in New Zealand when China started shutting down cities. They’ve faced the dilemma of

“ Every single hour

without masks, without protective gear, without food for doctors in Wuhan is devastating. And they are the people who have to live it out, second by second.

— Eddie Shen ’20

”

whether or not to return to their home in Beijing for multiple reasons. But her parents, who are currently “living on a farm with sheep,” can only stay in New Zealand until April 6, when their tourist visas expire.

The outbreak is also weighing heavily on the minds of Chinese Americans. Emily Ye ’20 is one of many students with family in mainland China. Most of her family reside in Shanghai and Hangzhou, which are near Wuhan. She worries every day for their wellbeing.

Shen says he is thankful that his family is safe, but he worries about his friends in Wuhan, some of whose parents are working as doctors to fight the virus. “When you live it out yourself day by day,

it’s totally different,” he said. “Every single hour without masks, without protective gear, without food for doctors in Wuhan is devastating.

And they are the people who have to live it out, second by second.”

People in more rural areas or who are non-citizens are also suffering without access to necessary resources. Shen added that some in the U.S. may consider the measures taken extreme, but “in the face of death, literally, we would obviously gladly take this over having a virus spread to an untrackable degree.”

Back at Amherst On Jan. 28, the first week of classes, Chinese international students received an email from Dean of Students Liz Agosto with the subject line “Outreach: Coronavirus.” In her email, Agosto extended her support and acknowledged the uncertainty of the situation. “I know it can be difficult to be far from home and that there are a lot of unknown questions about this infection. In addition, the news coverage may be overwhelming,” she wrote. “I hope that any loved ones in China continue to remain healthy and well.”

Agosto sent an email on Jan. 28 to the larger college community that documented symptoms of the illness and best practices for getting sick. President Biddy Martin followed up with an email on Feb. 26 in which she expressed support for impacted students and disavowed any bias or prejudice.

The potential for prejudice has cropped up repeatedly for Asian students, however. When Zhou first came back to the U.S., she made it a point to restrain her cough, worried that if she coughed, “Someone’s gonna like, give me a look.”

Ye did receive such a look. Over the weekend of Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, Ye traveled to San Francisco for a job interview. That weekend, Santa Clara County confirmed a case of COVID-19. On her flight back to Amherst, Ye sat down next to a white woman. She looked at Ye and immediately reached into her bag, pulling out a mask that she wore for the entire duration of the flight.

No student interviewed has

faced overt attacks, but online, Zhou, and everyone else interviewed, has picked up on “a lot of hate” against Asian, specifically Chinese, people, as she said.

On Instagram, reputable influencers have made posts saying, “The Chinese deserve this because they eat bats.” Other accounts have made anti-Chinese comments and jokes about the virus. “I think that’s what’s been more frustrating, is just seeing people who have a lot of influence on social media saying these things,” Lee said.

Moreover, a whole host of politics has accompanied discussion of the coronavirus, which often results in Sinophobic comments. Ask yourself: “When you’re critiquing another country, are you critiquing or being racist?” Pu said.

At Amherst, Zhou, Shen, Lee and Pu feel relatively shielded from racially motivated attacks.

Though they all said people in Amherst are more sensitive to race-related issues, it hasn’t prevented some college community members from trivializing the situation.

On Feb. 26, AC Bar Night, an anonymously-run listserv that sends weekly emails to seniors about getting together at local bars, sent an email with the subject line: “Grab a Coronavirus and Lyme Disease.” The content of the email made light of the outbreak and triggered immediate backlash.

Within an hour of sending it out, the account managers followed up with an email apologizing for their actions.

“It was really upsetting because … you’re equating it with a bar night event where people get drunk, and it’s a stupid situation,” Lee said.

“I’ve literally been Googling coronavirus every single day because it’s something that’s very much on my mind … and the fact that you’re trivializing and joking about something that is affecting students on campus and their families is really upsetting.”

Initially, Shen was angry, but then he felt sad. The anger couldn’t change anything, he said, “because

Continued on page 6

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

News 4

Campus Cast Into Turmoil After Decision to Move Students Off Campus Continued from page 1 line for submitting a petition has shifted from the March 11 to 13 in the time since Agosto addressed the AAS. For those who do ultimately stay on campus, they will all be moved into single rooms in a select number of dormitories. The deadline for submitting petitions has since been moved to March 13, according to an email sent by Agosto on March 10.

Agosto said that there is no exact capacity on the students that can stay on campus, but that the overarching goal is to get as many students off campus as possible.

However, the administration has since given a range of between 200 and 300 students for the number of students that it expects will be able to stay on campus with the petitioning process. Agosto also urged students to keep an eye out for additional information that would be sent the following morning, noting that the college is working with the other colleges in the Five College Consortium to adjust for students taking courses at the other colleges.

In the AAS meeting, Agosto, Gendron and Kozuma then fielded just under 50 questions from several students in the audience.

At the top of students’ minds was support for communities that might be particularly impacted by the sudden change, such as low-in-

come or international students; the situation around the possible refund of room and board costs; the logistics of remote learning for activities without clear online equivalents; and the conditions under which students would be allowed to return to campus. For each of these, Agosto, Gendron and Kozuma only noted that different offices were working through the specifics of each question, and that they would be able to offer more concrete answers at a later date. However, they were able to assure that students without a place to travel to would receive priority for staying on campus, and that the legal status of non-U.S. citizens are not in jeopardy.

A number of students raised questions concerning the transparency of the process, with accusations that the college had sidelined students — especially those in traditionally marginalized groups — in their decision-making process, as well as pleas for the administration to improve its engagement on the issue with the community on a more regular basis in the future.

To that end, Agosto committed to establishing a “drumbeat of communication” in terms of providing regular updates moving forward.

“We’ve been doing what we can to share information as decisions are made. The idea of moving online, it’s been a thought but not

Photo courtesy of Olivia Gieger ’21

David Rosa ’21, Liz Agosto, Dean Gendron and Karu Kozuma (left to right) field questions regarding the college’s decision to move students off campus at the weekly AAS meeting. necessarily a plan,” Agosto said in an interview with The Student after the session. “We should have maybe had a different conversation with students. I’m not sure that we thought that we were going to be there in the ways that we are now, because this has been a fast-moving decision that just happened, and so we’re catching up.”

Other notable announcements include the suspension of the all spring sports’ seasons, the con-

tinued payment of students with on-campus jobs even if they can no longer perform their duties while off-campus, the continued operation of dining services and health services and the continued discussions on whether the college will cancel commencement and reunion — which currently remain scheduled as planned.

A large contingent of students, still seeking answers and wanting to spark a more explicit conversa-

tion, started a demonstration outside of Martin’s house around 11 p.m., which quickly evolved into a sit-in at Frost Library. Although the sit-in initially started with under 50 people, the size eventually grew to over 150 people at its peak and lasted until 2 a.m., with Martin and Agosto arriving to answer questions starting around midnight until the sit-in’s close.

Continued on page 5

ResLife Constructing New RC Position for Next Semester, Taking Input Sydney Ireland ’23 and Henry Stiepleman ’23 Staff Writers The Office of Residential Life (ResLife) announced plans to recreate the current Resident Counselor (RC) position in a meeting with RCs on March 3 in Alumni House. During the meeting, the college announced that it would discontinue the current RC job effective by next fall semester. Following the announcement, Senior Associate Dean of Students Dean Gendron quelled the RCs’ concerns regarding job security by stating that new positions will be available to them. The college will finalize the new RC position after

considering input from meetings with the RCs, the President’s Office and other ResLife staff.

Over the past years, the college’s RC position has earned a reputation among the student body as inadequate. At the beginning of this semester, these frustrations culminated in the formation of an Organizer Team, which represents the interests of RCs. The team submitted a prospectus to the administration, enumerating its dissatisfaction with the RC program’s structure, accountability and monetary compensation. Of the total 70 RCs, over 50 of them co-signed the prospectus.

On March 3, RCs attended a meeting in the Alumni House with

Gendron and Dean of Students Liz Agosto. During the meeting, Agosto and Gendron informed the RCs about the plans to revamp the RC program. The details of the new positions have not yet been enumerated by the college.

Gendron followed the meeting with an email to RCs containing more information about the change of position to current RCs and students who applied to be RCs for the upcoming academic year. Gendron’s email to applicants for the RC role stated that “The reapplication process to the [previous RC] role is terminated.” The email came days before students were expected to hear if they had gotten the position.

According to Gendron, Amherst’s administration had been looking for a way to reenvision its RC program for some time. “What we are looking to do is create a more modern student-staff structure that takes into account the needs of modern Amherst student life,” Gendron said.

The prospectus submitted by the Organizer Team of RCs served as a catalyst for this change in the structure of the RC role.

“What it provided for me was additional clarity and an opportunity in that moment to engage with students and to hear their concerns and to say ‘I knew it needed to get done,’” said Agosto. “Now we just need to do it. We need to find a

way to make this happen as efficiently and effectively and quickly as possible.”

While it is certain that the role of the RC and the structure of student-staffing will change, it is unclear what it will look like at the end of the semester, when the college plans to have the currently nebulous roles defined and filled.

Gendron noted that “we believe that we will be able to put together a structure between today and the end of this semester and we believe that those positions will also be filled by invested and enthusiastic students in that time.”

Before the Wednesday meet-

Continued on page 7

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

News 5

President Martin Defends College’s Response to COVID-19 Crisis

Photo courtesy of Carl T. Bergstrom and Esther Kim

While speaking to the sit-in, President Biddy Martin cited a graphic, depicted above, that demonstrates the importance of slowing the spread of the coronavirus as to ensure that healthcare facilities are not overwhelmed.

Continued from page 4 Students at the sit-in expressed many of the same concerns as the students at the Q&A session. After deliberating in small groups, the larger group decided on three overarching concerns, drafted onto a white board: 1) the college isn’t properly accommodating students who want or have a need to stay on campus; 2) the college has been especially poor in communicating with the student body or involving students in decisions about process, and when it has done so, it has lacked empathy; and 3) the college hasn’t provided a clear path for students to access necessary resources, including internet access, a computer or other necessary hardware, in the case that they leave the campus. There was also a sizeable group of seniors that expressed concern over having their theses interrupted as well as being forced to say goodbye to their friends on a four-day timeframe.

For Eliza Brewer ’22, one of the students attending the sit-in and the president of the Amherst QuestBridge Low-Income Community, the need to go through a petition process to stay on campus is unnecessary and overly

onerous on students who have reasons to stay. “We should be allowed to stay if we sign a contract agreeing to self-quarantine, to not leave Hampshire County,” she said.

“Why is that less ethically optimal than y’all’s decision?” Many students agreed with Brewer, decrying the need for an application of sorts to stay at a school to which they’ve already been accepted as well as the pernicious atmosphere of competition that it might create, as students imagine vying against each other for spots on campus.

Agosto argued that the college doesn’t “have the amenities to let [everyone] quarantine safely,” specifically pointing to the fact that there are only about 11 single rooms with individual bathrooms, which are necessary for quarantine.

Martin agreed with this sentiment, pointing to how an outbreak of infected students could limit medical supplies for those at higher risk. Specifically, she cited a widely circulated graphic that shows the importance of controls on transmission. “The more this goes on, the more transportation is limited, the more supply chains are limited,” she said. “We are not able, in this community, to handle an outbreak.”

According to Martin, the changes were proactive responses that she expected other colleges to soon adopt. She noted that she spoke to the presidents of other well-known colleges and universities, and that a number of them would be following suit shortly.

While the University of Massachusetts Amherst sent an email to its student body explicitly noting that they would not be moving classes online or asking students to return home after Amherst College’s announcement, Harvard University, Smith College and Mount Holyoke College all adopted similar plans of moving classes online and asking students to return home; these announcements came the day following Amherst’s.

Some students concurred with Martin and Agosto’s rationales, but others disagreed, countering that they would have to travel through heavily-trafficked and higher risk areas and return home to elderly community and family members, causing an increased risk regardless. At times, the disagreements grew contentious, with some people accusing Martin of making the decision to offload responsibility and avoid lawsuits or to be otherwise held accountable.

One of the broader areas of agreement between the students and Martin and Agosto came on the topics of tone and timeline.

Martin was receptive to comments asking for future communications to be less bureaucratic and more personal from the start, as to better convey the message at hand. Both also expressed that they would look into offering more time for students to make the necessary preparations for finding a way home.

After the event, a number of organizers drafted an open letter to the administration summarizing many of the ideas and concerns articulated during the sit-in. The letter outlined a set of commitments and requests to the administration, chief among them the option to choose whether to stay or leave the college. Over 300 students, faculty, staff and alumni signed the letter.

The day after, Agosto announced in an email that the college would be extending the deadline to file petitions to stay and the deadline to leave the campus, along with additional promises of constant communication. Martin also informed the community in another email of a set of forums, organized by class year, to address specific concerns in an open dia-

logue.

Martin also offered an apology for the circumstances at hand in the email. “I learned a great deal last night and in the early hours of this morning in exchanges with some of you. I went to sleep and woke up only a few hours later with your feelings of surprise, disappointment and anger on my mind.

I feel terrible that you have to suffer because of the impact of this pandemic,” she wrote. “I am sorry I did not do more to acknowledge just how hard this would be or provide more information in that first communication.”

Faculty have also struggled to adapt to the changes. Many of them intend to take training sessions in Zoom, a video conferencing software, in the next few days and over spring break to transition their classes online. A key challenge for faculty in this process comes in courses without clear digital pedagogical equivalents, like science labs, community-based learning and equipment-dependent or performance-based classes, and it is a challenge without an easy answer in many instances.

Nevertheless, the college is moving forward with its plans.

Agosto sent two additional emails detailing steps forward with requests to remain on campus, clarifying that she, along with a small committee, would review the requests and that there would be an appeals process, and describing the process that students must undertake in packing their belongings and leaving the campus. Gendron sent an email to residents of Moore, Morrow and Morris Pratt Dormitories notifying them that they would be constructing storage spaces from their respective common rooms. These three dorms will also be the dorms that the college will consolidate students into.

Many of the particulars remain uncertain. The administration has promised to continue to engage in dialogue with the community but has offered no concrete timeline as to when specific questions would be answered. In the meantime, the college community is left to wonder what comes next and when there might be a return to normalcy.

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

News 6

Fear of Assault, Concern for Family: Chinese Int’l Students Speak Out Continued from page 3 this is essentially what Asian Asians and Asian Americans are going through every day.”

“We’re on the fringe, if at all, of the social justice narrative,” he added. “This is just a trigger that leads to eruptions that reveals underlying problems, just similar to all the conflicts and tensions that we’ve seen in this country for the past four years.

There’s not much to say about it except that it’s wrong, and the process of changing people’s perceptions and their comprehension of people who don’t look like them is unfortunately going to take a lot of time and blood and tears in the states.”

The AC Bar Night email, Shen said, reflects Americans’ inability to grasp the gravity of the outbreak.

Every person interviewed was surprised by the way people in the U.S. are dealing with the coronavirus.

Most American friends, Pu and Shen said, think of it as a stronger flu.

Students

“It seems like a common sentiment among like Chinese people or people who have family in China or South Korea, that people in the States and people here aren’t really reckoning with it as seriously as they should be,” Shen said. “People don’t realize that it actually impacts individuals on this campus, not just people who are studying abroad.”

Ye’s parents have been warning her about the virus since mid-January, and she said other Asian and Asian American friends have had similar experiences. “Meanwhile, I was talking with white friends about the virus, and they said that they didn’t start getting concerned until very recently after the outbreak in Italy,” Ye said in an online interview. “It reminded me of how during the initial outbreak, there were some ridiculous, xenophobic theories that only Asian people could get the virus — we’re not a different species.”

Zhou originally planned on attending a coding conference

and

Natalie De Rosa ’21 and Olivia Gieger ’21 Editors-in-Chief In the wake of the college’s announcement of a shift to remote learning, community members from across the board struggle to find their footing in the midst of a seemingly surreal announcement and mandate for departure. Exceedingly high flight costs, the prospect of returning to unstable home situations and uncertainties around visas have all created cause for concern among students, while faculty face challenges in adapting their courses for remote learning.

Low-income students particularly face much of the brunt of the college’s quick departure turnaround.

Hailing from California, Sikkiim Hamilton ’23 emailed the financial aid office upon learning about the college’s decision, hoping to obtain funds to compensate for the high prices associated with buying a plane ticket only days before the travel date, along with the additional cost of bringing multiple suitcases. Be-

Faculty

in Boston this month. When she told a faculty member she was concerned about whether the conference should still happen, given its gathering of people across the nation, the faculty member told her, “You’re overthinking.” For Zhou, that was equally as hurtful as a xenophobic remark. “It almost diminishes people’s experience in China and the consequences happening in China by saying, ‘Oh, it’s nothing. You’re worrying too much,’” she said.

Upon returning to Amherst, Shen said a number of campus community members took the time to ask him how his family was doing and how he was feeling. He has felt supported by the college, he said, though he had one bone to pick regarding the college’ first official acknowledgement of the coronavirus and its impact on students.

That email was not sent around the initial outbreak in China; it was sent after the first few cases in the U.S. were confirmed. “This is

Make

cause travel is factored into students’ financial aid packages, she assumed that financial aid would cover the expenses this time around. Instead, the office offered Hamilton the option of taking out a federal loan; the deadline to apply for the loan was 30 minutes after the email was sent.

“Your travel is built into your budget but is not paid for by the college,” the financial aid office wrote to Hamilton in an email exchange shared with The Student. “The travel costs are estimated into your budget and used in determining your financial aid award. You have to pay the travel expenses yourself. The college does not pay transportation costs.”

“I just have a really hard time with the fact that they just told me to take out a loan within the next hour, and they didn’t even really offer to help me out in any way. I was just really disheartening, and it just felt like a copy paste message, you know?”

Hamilton said in a phone interview.

She added that the financial aid office’s response only escalates the stress that low-income students are facing in arranging their departure

Sense

from campus. “I just feel like there’s so much exhaustion and hurt from the students on campus, especially low-income students and to be kind of disregarded by the financial aid office and kind of feel like we’re just pushed aside or another number,” she said.

Flights are not the only worry low-income students have in the departure process. The college set in place a petition for students to request to remain on campus, noting that it will prioritize international students, homeless students and others with extenuating circumstances.

Despite these policies, low-income students still fear that they will have nowhere to go if their petition is not approved.

“I am personally terrified,” Isiaha Price ’21 wrote to The Student after he raised a similar concern during the March 9 meeting of the Association of Amherst Students. “I have lived on my own since I was 16. I have implied emancipation and gave up my apartment to come and live here at Amherst. I have no home.

I have no family to go back to. And

America, right? It’s 90 percent of the campus community,” Shen said.

“But I feel like we could have done better in that regard.”

Lee also took issue with the college’s communications about the coronavirus because the college’s firsthe first community-wide email only detailed health risks and read like a medical report, without discussing support for affected students or the ongoing racism and xenophobia related to the virus, she said. Though Martin’s later email did contain more along those lines, Lee said it focused heavily on study abroad students without much attention to the discrimination that has come out of the outbreak.

In recent weeks, the college has taken more and more precautionary measures on campus, but Associate Dean of Admission Xiaofeng Wan, who oversees admissions in China, said the college maintains its commitment to admitting students from China and other affected countries. Lisa Rutherford, chief

of

policy officer and general counsel, added that the college will work with all admitted students who hope to enroll “to do everything we can to have them begin as students in the fall.” If unable to do so, the college will work with the student to defer their enrollment.

What Happens Now? As the campus community reels to respond to the implications of Martin’s March 9 email detailing the need for online learning and for students to leave campus, Pu, Shen and Zhou, felt relieved by the measures taken by the college. “I think I finally start to feel a modicum of safety, and I’m so, so glad that the college is taking actions so quickly,” Pu said. “But I completely understand why some students might find this problematic.”

“While it obviously causes inconveniences for almost everyone, I think they are doing the right

Continued on page 7

COVID-19

the sad part is I am not the exception, many Amherst students are in similar situations.”

“The administration seems to be operating on the assumption that most of these logistical nuances can simply be ‘figured out.’ Which is not the case. How do I figure out how to get a home in less than a week? How do we figure out how our family will afford food with an extra mouth to feed? How do I figure out a $600 dollar plane ticket bought last minute?

And let me be clear, loans are not the answer,” Price added.

The stress surrounding how to get home and how to afford it also carries over to international students faced with decisions of where to go in the wake of the administration’s announcement of the need for students to depart campus. For Riddhi Sampat ’21, an international student from Mumbai, India, funding flights less than a week out is a primary concern. “Whether we are on financial aid or not, I feel like booking a ticket last minute is expensive for everyone, so I feel like the [college] should try to compensate more people for the

Changes

flights, because flights to India, flights to anywhere are not going to be cheap if you expect us to buy them in a few days. I think that’s one thing that [the administration has] not really told us clearly, whether they’re going to help us fund our flights. So that’s a sticky situation for some people to decide whether to go home or to stay here for such a reason,” she said.

Sampat also worries that even if she were able to make it home, the prospects of being let back into the U.S. worry her. “It is kind of scary to go back home because if some of us international students are going to be doing internships here in the summer and we are not really sure whether if we go back home, if the U.S. is going to say ‘we don’t want people from so-and-so country to come back in because it’s a threat,’ so that’s a big decision that I’m making right now, whether I can go back home safely or whether I go back home and they won’t allow me to come back later on,” she said.

Continue reading this article at amherststudent.com.

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

News 7

Chinese Int’l Students Grapple With Racial Implications of COVID-19 Continued from page 6 thing under absolutely correct reasoning,” Shen said. “I just hope the petitions will work out though since many people, including myself, can’t afford to leave campus for various reasons. I think they should also prioritize last-semester seniors since I’m sure everyone has a lot on the line — theses, labs, post-grad plans, etc.”

Lee, on the other hand, said the college still isn’t addressing the racial implications of the coronavirus. Such drastic measures also bring up a whole host of other questions, she said. “What’s going to happen to Chinese international students?” she said. “I know there’s

a petition, but what about students who are low-income or have other marginalized identities? … It seems more like oppression Olympics.”

Uncertainty of the future still looms over Chinese international students. Even if they’re allowed to stay on campus, no one knows if they’ll be able to return home once summer rolls around. “Should I buy my ticket home?” Zhou said.

“There’s no way of knowing. You just hold on and wait to see, but it’s scary … It’s just hard to tell whether in August or in June, things will start stabilizing.”

Pu is currently trying to apply for Optional Practical Training, a one-yearlong student visa, as well as a long-term visa. During this

process, Customs and Immigration discourages leaving the U.S. If school is cancelled, it’ll impact her graduation date and affect her visa application.

For international students to renew visas, Pu added, applicants have to return to their country before re-entering the U.S. What will happen to Chinese students whose visas are expiring soon? And what will happen to Chinese international students who are admitted to Amherst College’s class of 2024?

There are more questions than answers.

“After sort of a month thinking about coronavirus every day, I think what has become the most scary is not the virus itself, but sort

of the uncertainty around it and the powerlessness around it, because there’s truly so little that could be done as an individual and as a foreigner,” Pu said.

Zhou knows Amherst cares. But she worries about the lack of policy on how the college will help Chinese international students.

She worries even more about what she sees as America’s inadequacy in responding to the virus, with government officials playing it down, shortage of testing kits and fees for treatment. “My mom is more worried about me here in the U.S.,” Zhou said with a laugh.

Lee encouraged the campus community to be mindful that students are directly impacted by the

coronavirus and are constantly in a state of concern. She asked that people be aware of the “racial implications of this disease and how it’s also affecting Asians and Asian Americans at large.” Even if they don’t have family in China, they will face racist, discriminatory remarks because of their race and the way the media have portrayed the disease, Lee said.

The college should do what it must, Shen said, but with students prioritized when possible. “I really hope that there are alternatives and options for students to minimize their disturbances and their personal plans, especially for seniors,” Shen said. “There are very high stakes for sure.”

President Martin: Racist Incident is “Top of Mind” Despite COVID-19 Response Continued from page 1 The Black Students Union dedicated its meeting on Tuesday night to discussing the incident.

The Student reached out to Director of Athletics Don Faulstick, Senior Associate Dean of Students Dean Gendron and Chief Student Affairs Officer Karu Kozuma for comment. No one responded by press time. At this time, The Student has been unable to confirm the disciplinary action taken. Last year, after the anti-Semitic incident was made public, men’s lacrosse still participated in matches and went on to compete in the NCAA national championships.

On March 10, the men’s la-

crosse team traveled to Endicott College to compete in its regularly scheduled game. The team will participate in an impromptu intrasquad scrimmage tomorrow so that the team, particularly seniors, will be able to play before departing campus indefinitely after the suspension of all spring sports due to the college’s COVID-19 response. Due to the confidential nature of this ongoing investigation through the Office of Student Affairs, The Student has refrained from publishing the names of the people involved.

President Biddy Martin learned about the incident on March 8, she told The Student in a statement.

“It’s essential that we get more in-

formation and get to the bottom of what happened,” Martin said.

“It is not tolerable to have a racist slur used against anyone. In fact, I can think of no legitimate reason why any white person would use it, whether it is directed at a specific person or not. I don’t believe anyone will face consequences until the facts are known.”

The incident, it appears, risks becoming swept under the rug in light of recent events involving COVID-19 and major changes to the structure of the campus. Agosto’s responsibility is now “focused on our COVID response,” she told The Student. Student Affairs, however, is working with Amherst College Police Department and

talking with the students involved so “we can manage impact.”

“That doesn’t stop just because we’ve made this announcement [to send students home],” Agosto said. “That is the business of the institution, and that doesn’t stop happening because we think many of our students will be leaving in a week … But we have had to shift priorities and focus on what are the primary things that we are working on, and so for me, the two things are COVID and individual student and community crisis care … Everything else we will get to in a minute.” When The Student asked Martin about follow-up on the incident after the sit-in on the night of March 9 and the morning

of March 10, Martin said that “in every spare moment that we’ve had [between COVID-19 response planning], we’ve returned to get information from each other about this incident, so that is the top of mind.”

RC is essential to their livelihoods.

After the meeting, an email was sent out to returning RCs that stated, “For current [RCs] who are willing to accept the updated responsibilities (once completed) of the new position description(s) to which they demonstrate interest and investment, an appropriate position will be available to them.”

This email provided more clarity and hopefully more sentiments of job security for returning RCs. Moving forward, input on the new program will most likely come from three important groups: cur-

rent RCs, who will input through online forums and face-to-face meetings with the deans; ResLife, which will be responsible for implementing most of the changes; and the President’s Office, which, in connection with senior staff, will have final input on any decisions.

Both the administration and RCs emphasized the importance of improving the residential experience of students. In an interview with The Student, RC and member of the RC Organizer Team Molly Sanderson ’22 stated that efforts to change the RC position come from

concerns for the wellbeing of the student body.

“The restructuring process isn’t just about making the job better for us as student staff. It’s about creating a system that can benefit our residents the most,” she said.

She noted that while job satisfaction of RCs is necessary, “the way that our residents are experiencing residential life” is her number one priority.

Agosto added that the support structures for ResLife staff are crucial to letting RCs “do their job effectively.” Though there is un-

certainty about the new RC role, Peterson knows what she wants.

“I think in essence what I want is a better ResLife. That’s what I want.

That’s what I’ve wanted this whole time. I want more accountability for every level. I want a better contract that pays people fairly,” she said. “And so if this is the way that the administration thinks they can make meaningful change and accomplish that, then I’ll support them.”

Peterson added, jokingly: “I just want ResLife to not be the garbage fire that we all know and love.”

Editor’s note: This story is evolving, and further reporting about the administration’s response and the disciplinary action faced by the students responsible for hurling hateful language is forthcoming. Stay tuned for updates from The Student regarding this story’s development.

Olivia Gieger ’21 and Henry Newton ’21 contributed reporting to this article.

Resident Counselors Reassured With Position Guarantee Continued from page 4

ing and the announcement of the new program, many RCs had become quite frustrated by the poor management of ResLife and its inconsistent and lacking communication.

Once plans for a new program were announced, the frustration shifted dramatically. At the meeting, much of the concern was with the job security many of the RCs were expecting come next year. For many students, the monetary compensation earned from being an

Op pinion

w

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 meeting of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) where Dean Liz Agosto, Chief Student Affairs Officer Karu Kozuma and Dean Dean Gendron fielded questions from the student body. The degree of collective anxiety among the student body was exemplified by the attendance of this meeting.

As AAS President Avery Farmer put it, the meeting was “our best-attended one.” Walking around campus after the initial release of the email, the unease, anger and frustration among students was palpable. Amidst the vast array of concerns, there seems to be one particularly resonant question that has gone unanswered: how did we get here?

No doubt, this question has not gone unasked.

At the AAS meeting, one student expressed the “surprise” she experienced upon reading the email and voiced a sentiment that has surely been on many people’s mind — essentially, what exactly went into the decision-making process?

And why does it feel like students are only finding out about these considerations after they have been unilaterally settled?

Kozuma’s response was less than satisfying.

He explained that other colleges across the country (he cited examples like Stanford University and the University of Washington) have been taking drastic measures in response to the coronavirus threat and thus it has been expected that the college would follow suit. The logic thus seems to boil down to hopping on the bandwagon behind other major colleges. It is concerning, however, that these other colleges had reported direct cases of COVID-19 on their campuses or were in areas where governors had declared a state of emergency — and where deaths had been reported. Both of which are not currently applicable to the college and the local area.

Of course, students should give the administration the benefit of the doubt. The administration is composed of individuals that

are qualified for the positions they hold. The process of making a decision with such weighty consequences included much more than a “They did it so we should too” sort of reasoning.

We appreciate the hours of thought and concern the administration has poured into this choice.

The problem is that the student body has no way of knowing any of the important details regarding this stunning decision because the entire decision-making process has been obscured from the eyes of students. The opacity with which the administration has come up with preventative measures against the spread of coronavirus is unacceptable. Communication seems to come in the form of life-rattling emails after the decision has been made rather than taking students through the process as the plan gets developed. It is unacceptable that emails are sent like bullets into students inboxes, forcing them to scramble to book flights home — some into already contaminated and dangerous locations — pack their belongings into storage and be forced to leave with no clue about their return.

The result? The student body ends up blindsided at a decision that they feel is an impulsive and hasty overreaction born from fear rather than rationality (even if it isn’t).

Kozuma emphasized at the AAS meeting that “So far, students have not been a part of the process, but you’ve been at the center of it.” Again, this response leaves much to be desired, though it may be subtly telling. It is not enough for students to be in the minds of the administration. They need to be integrated as direct points of contact with each step of the process as the administrative officials learn more and decide on more.

Lacking communication is the foundational source of panic. When people are not consulted nor informed about decisions that hold major impacts for their lives, their responses will be emotional — and you’ll end up with the most well-attended AAS meeting of the year. The experience of having an administrative body make a unilateral decision about one’s future is unnerving, to say the least. As students, we do not expect the administration to have all of the answers. We only expect, that when the decision has effects on our own lives, that we are not the last to know.

Unsigned editorials represent the Editorial Board (assenting: 9; dissenting: 3; abstaining: 3)

THE AMHERST

STUDENT E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editors-in-Chief Natalie De Rosa Olivia Gieger Managing News Zach Jonas Ryan Yu Managing Opinion Scott Brasesco Jae Yun Ham Rebecca Picciotto Managing Arts and Living Seoyeon Kim Arielle Kirven Lauren Kisare Managing Sports Jack Dove Henry Newton Camilo Toruño Managing Design Anna Smith Digital Director Dylan Momplaisir S TA F F Publishers Emmy Sohn Mark Nathin

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The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

Opinion 9

Don’t Panic! Do Wash Your Hands!

Samuel Grondin ’21 Contributing Writer

Chances are, you’re freaking out about COVID-19. In the past month, the general public has been hit with swaths of information regarding the disease and its inevitable spread across the United States. We’ve entered a new stage of international disease concern, one which is no longer concerned with containment and instead with reducing the number of cases in countries outside of China. While everyone around you seems to be panicking, what should you do? Panic too? Buy the last four bottles of Purell at CVS even though the woman behind you also wants some? When will we be able to return to campus, if ever? Should you pack up all your stuff and fly home? First, let’s lay down some basic facts and then talk about what they mean for you and Amherst College.

Coronaviruses fall in a family of viruses named for spikes protruding from their spherical bodies, which look like crowns under an electron microscope. Four of these viruses cause the common cold, and you’ve probably

been infected with them many times. Two others are among the most frightening viruses we know of — SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). Both appeared as epidemics in the early 2000s, but they were different from the novel coronavirus — SARSCoV-2 (which causes the disease known as COVID-19) — in two ways. Patients infected with SARS and MERS were symptomatic shortly after being infected and symptoms were usually severe. This allowed officials to quickly identify and quarantine ill patients. In both cases, the mortality rate was significantly higher than what has been observed for COVID-19 (19 stands for 2019, the year the disease was first observed). Around 10 percent of infected patients succumbed to SARS while just under 35 percent of those infected died of MERS. The alarmingly high fatality rate of MERS morbidly helped to slow the spread of disease. A virus which kills a large portion of those it infects has more difficulty spreading from host to host and is more easily contained.

COVID-19 is different. Firstly, it seems that some infected individuals can be asymptomatic. Others exhibit relatively mild flu-like symptoms (even still, if you’ve had the flu recently, you’ll know it can be quite unpleasant).

This makes identifying patients with COVID-19 a difficult task.

It also means that asymptomatic individuals might unwittingly transmit the virus to vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions.

Given that we’re beyond any hope of containing COVID-19, what are the next steps to reduce the spread of disease?

Our first line of defense is testing — figuring out who has the disease and who does not.

Due to problems in developing the test and restrictions by the CDC and FDA on which labs can test for the virus, the U.S. has fallen behind other countries in identifying the infected.

At the time of this writing, the CDC reports 647 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. This number is likely a drastic underestimate, and in fact, is probably off by several orders of magnitude. A recent publi-

cation by Volz et al. estimates the doubling time (the length of time required for the number of cases in a population to double) at about seven days. They also estimate the basic reproduction number (the number of people to whom a single infected individual transmits the virus) to be 2.15. As a comparison, the influenza strain H1N1 (also known as the swine flu) which caused the most recent pandemic in 2009 had a basic reproduction number of about 1.4-1.6, according to Coburn et al. However, these numbers depend greatly on the modelling used to derive them and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Now that the college has decided to move to remote learning, the question over what the virus means for Amherst students has been partially resolved.

Of course, much still remains to be seen about the nuances of remote learning and the many travel implications for our diverse and international student body, on top of the looming concerns that remain for everyone around the globe about the virus’s bodily impacts and harms. What should you be worried about now that

you’re probably heading home?

First, wash your hands. Did you hear that? Wash your hands, then wash them again. SARSCoV-2 has a membrane on the outside of the virus that’s highly susceptible to detergents, so hand washing is preferable to alcohol-based hand sanitizers when available. Your mouth, nose, ears and eyes are weak spots in your immune system, so keep your hands away from your face. If you must touch your face, wash your hands and use a tissue.

Our actions over the next several weeks will determine the outcome of this viral epidemic in the U.S. which will be remembered in perpetuity. The aim of governmental and institutional responses at the moment is to decrease the number of infections and the rate at which they occur so as not to overwhelm the capacities of our healthcare system. While the virus will continue to spread throughout the United States and likely infect millions, we can maximize the effectiveness of our response through basic social distancing and personal hygiene measures — like washing your hands (!).

Seeing Double: On Foxes and Hedgehogs Thomas Brodey ’22 Columnist As humans, we have an addiction to dividing the world into two kinds of people. The problem, however, is that no one can agree on what those two groups are. Even when we do organize ourselves into two groups, like Democrats and Republicans, the labels prove inadequate. Take the Editorial Board of The Student. Despite being a broadly liberal group, the Editorial Board strongly disagrees on essentially every political issue of the 2020 presidential race, as we saw in the editorial two weeks ago. As shocking as it may sound, a thinker’s mind has more dimensions than a sin-

gle ideological plane. Thus our tendency to categorize people in groups of two poses a problem.

One potential solution would be to throw out binary systems entirely. But where would we be if we couldn’t divide the world between athletes and nonathletes, humanity majors and STEM majors? Dualities are too psychologically appealing to pass up. But what if there were another split that explained people’s differences of opinion in some deep and understandable way? I think I’ve found that categorization, and it doesn’t revolve around donkeys and elephants, but foxes and hedgehogs.

The Hedgehog-Fox dichotomy dates back to Archilocus, an ancient Greek warrior poet

(truly, a spiritual forefather of Amherst) who wrote that “a fox knows many things, but a

“ The Hedgehog-Fox

dichotomy exists on a completely separate axis from political alignment...

Hedgehogs and foxes sit on all sides of the traditional political spectrum.

”

hedgehog one important thing.”

In the 1950s, Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin expanded that quote into a crucial distinction

between the two kinds of thinkers in the world. Hedgehogs, according to Berlin, “relate everything to a single ... organized, universal principle”. They are determined, focused and work with big ideas. Famous hedgehogs include Karl Marx, Ayn Rand and George Washington.

Foxes, on the other hand, are people who “pursue many ends, often unrelated or even contradictory.” They are flexible and quick to see connections, but unwilling to fit all the ideas they encounter into the same box or narrative. Well-known foxes include Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Jefferson.

The Hedgehog-Fox dichotomy has been a popular method of self-identification since its

introduction. FiveThirtyEight, the statistics and opinion polling-focused news outlet, uses a fox as its logo in tribute to founder Nate Silver’s preferred side of the binary, while historian Joseph Ellis has written extensively on how George Washington’s “hedgehog-like” nature was essential for the creation of the United States. Likewise, psychologist Philip Tetlock has devoted his career to comparing how foxes and hedgehogs make political predictions differently and based on different criteria.

Of course, trying to place everyone into one of two categories is bound to be reductive. Everyone holds multiple, disconnect-

Continued on page 10

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

Opinion 10

Amherst Architecture: Unearthing History for Today Blair Kamin ’79 Architecture Critic of the Chicago Tribune and Author of “Amherst College: A Campus Guide” You and I have never met, but we’re part of the same family, one bound together not by blood, but by experience: the experience of a liberal arts education at one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States.

That campus is the focus of a new book I’ve written, “Amherst College: The Campus Guide.”

Published to celebrate the college’s upcoming bicentennial, the book aims to let you see such landmarks as Johnson Chapel and Memorial Hill with fresh eyes.

But the guide also can be understood as a family history — like one of those AncestryDNA kits that promise to tell you new things about the generations that came before you.

As with the results that emerge from those kits, the book seeks to enrich, or complicate, the college’s family history by revealing stories that were innocently forgotten or intentionally overlooked. The book also revisits forks in the road

where our ancestors chose architectural courses that proved decisive, for good or ill.

Take Johnson Chapel, the powerful Greek Revivalist centerpiece of Amherst’s College Row. You probably have no idea who it’s named for: Adam Johnson, a wealthy and, crucially, childless farmer who lived in Pelham.

As Johnson neared his death in 1823, one of the college’s founders, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, who was the grandfather of poet Emily Dickinson, made numerous visits to Johnson and promised him a measure of immortality — that the college chapel would be named for him if he would endow it with his fortune.

Johnson agreed, much to the chagrin of his brother Thomas, who stood to inherit only $12.

Thomas Johnson sued the college, but Amherst won in court.

In keeping with the will Dickinson drew up, Johnson’s name now adorns the entrance to the chapel, but there’s no mention of his story and no portrait of him, like the oil paintings of former Amherst presidents that decorate the chapel’s inside walls.

Perhaps there should be.

Another revealing story concerns Newport House, a former fraternity house on College Street that’s cloaked in the familiar Amherst dress of colonial-style brick and sharply etched neoclassical details. You might never think that such a building has a strong link to African American history in the Pioneer Valley. It does.

Newport’s name honors two descendants of Amos Newport, an eighteenth-century slave from the neighboring town of Hatfield.

As Professor Emeritus of Physics Robert H. Romer documented in his book, “Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts,” slavery was widespread in the area around the town of Amherst in the 1700s.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, two of Newport’s descendants worked at the college — F. Dwight Newport, an athletic trainer renowned for his ability to bandage “injured limbs;” and the trainer’s son, Edward Foster Newport, a custodian who for decades took care of both Newport (originally the Phi Delta Theta fraternity) and the students who lived in it.

Sealing the connection to local African American history, Newport stands on the site of the former Zion Chapel, a modest structure built in 1869 on land the college provided “so that the colored people of the town will have a place to worship.”

Stories like these aren’t mere historical tidbits. They have the capacity to shape our view of the past and, in turn, influence our actions in the future. Amherst’s past, they inform us, isn’t simply a story of “dead white men.” The narrative is complex; any intellectually honest account of the college’s architecture has to acknowledge both its successes and its failures.

Fortunately, there are more of the former than the latter. The finest, Fayerweather Hall, is a Renaissance Revival gem by architecture firm McKim, Mead & White.

To her credit, President Biddy Martin didn’t ask me to pull punches when it came to assessing Amherst’s architectural underachievers. They include Chapin Hall, whose Howard Johnson’s-style version of the Georgian Revival style was so banal that it initially inspired protests from fac-

ulty and students.

With the college embarking on the construction of a student center to replace the Keefe Campus Center — a third-rate work of postmodernism that failed to provide a vital gathering place — Amherst needs to aim much higher.

The hiring of Herzog & de Meuron — the Swiss-based firm whose principals are winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field’s highest honor — suggests that Martin fully understands that.

But it by no means guarantees a successful outcome.

How will the student center give physical expression to Amherst’s newfound social and economic diversity while respecting the campus’ architectural traditions? What activities, and what configuration of them, will make the building and the campus as a whole more lively?

We should all pay close attention to this crucial design, and not just after the fact, but as it emerges. For if the “family history” I’ve written teaches anything, it’s that buildings have an enormous impact — an impact, for better and for worse, lasts for generations.

Seeing Double: A New Ideological Axis Continued from page 9 ed interests and sees some spiritual or ideological connection between their various activities and beliefs. But there’s truth to the notion as well.

Take this very column. For the most part, I am a fox. My articles are varied and often exploratory; when taken together, they offer no broad universal direction (you’ll find that this one is no exception).

My co-columnist, Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22, identifies as more of a hedgehog. His columns, regardless of their topic, always circle back to his ideologically progressive center.

Neither of us stick to our scripts completely, of course, but if you read a Seeing Double article de-

crying a great moral outrage in the world, it’s probably by Graber-Mitchell. That sort of thematic consistency is textbook hedgehog.

The Hedgehog-Fox dichotomy exists on a completely separate axis from political alignment. Although political factions can sometimes correlate to fox-hedgehog splits (think polymath Hillary Clinton versus crusader Bernie Sanders), more often than not, hedgehogs and foxes exist across the political spectrum. Senator Bernie Sanders is a hedgehog, but so is former Representative Ron Paul.

Former President Barack Obama is a fox (in more than one way), as is Senator Mitt Romney. The style and rhetoric these people use often has a lot to do with

their personality types, even if we don’t always realize it. Think of Sanders’ endless repetition of his favorite wealth inequality statistics or Mitt Romney’s infamous flip-flopping, exemplified when one of his advisors compared his campaign to an etcha-sketch.

So now that we’ve conclusively established that everyone is either a fox or a hedgehog, we should ask ourselves, what does this mean for our lives? Every categorization system is only as good as its broader implications — which is why I don’t really want to know what kind of burrito I am (thanks anyway, Buzzfeed).

Understanding if you’re a fox or a hedgehog allows you to understand why you align with

certain candidates more than others, and grants you a window through which to communicate with people who have seemingly different values.

Anyone who has attended a Thanksgiving dinner with extended family can attest to how difficult it is for liberals and conservatives to communicate with each other. Yet when you add another axis of identification, it’s easier to find common ground.

You and Uncle Carl may have very different opinions about President Trump, but if he’s a fox and you are as well, then you share an underlying philosophical framework.

It’s no secret that America’s current one-dimensional political spectrum creates huge problems. Having one ideological

axis turns politics and discussion into an inflexible dichotomy. We need to add more axes to this crude model.

I think that the Hedgehog-Fox dichotomy can fill the y-axis of this chart, and turn it into an illustration of not just what you believe but also why. In this new chart (perhaps called the Seeing Double political alignment chart) people can find similarities they would never have thought they possessed.

Obviously, this model might still be oversimplified and sometimes just wrong.

But nevertheless, given the alternatives we have been using to divide ourselves, this metric has the potential to quite literally open up our internal political map to a whole other dimension.

Arts&Living g

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” Leaves Unforgettable Impact

Photo courtesy of Vivian Cordon ‘21

French director Celine Sciamma’s critically-acclaimed “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” went on wide release on Feb. 14 and is now playing at Amherst Cinema.

Seoyeon Kim ’21 Managing Arts & Living Editor In the opening scene of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” we see the titular portrait — a distanced, nighttime image of a woman who is staring at us while her dress begins to catch flames. The image lasts only for a moment, however, and we are immediately sent on a flashback, helplessly dependent on a retelling of the

past. And yet, this helplessness moves us to reach for connection and provokes us to feel. Brief, precious glimpses of a look here and a touch there pull us in while maintaining the space for curiosity.

Through fleeting flashes of images and deafening moments of silence, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” — originally in French — renders us helpless and urges us to lean forward. We watch and

yearn at the same time, presented with a portrait of love so precious that we are afraid to touch it. Set on a blindingly beautiful island off the coast of France in the late 18th century, the film urges us to partake in the aches of forbidden love and pushes us to recognize the undeniable beauty of an everlasting memory.

Director Celine Sciamma’s mesmerizing “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” tells the story of two

young women whose lives become irreversibly intertwined.

Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to paint a portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), a portrait that will be presented to Héloïse’s arranged husbandto-be before their official marriage. Héloïse refuses to pose for the portrait as she does not wish to be married, however, so Marianne is then tasked with befriending Héloïse, acting as her hired “walking companion” while secretly observing her features every chance she gets. Their relationship soon becomes more complicated when Héloïse notices Marianne’s gaze and returns it.

While watching the film, I was torn between being lulled by my own helplessness, admiring the film as an observer on the outskirts, and feeling a burning need to impose myself as an unseen force because I cared for the characters so deeply.

It was like my body wasn’t just mine anymore. Why is it that, at the beginning of the film, my toes tightly curled in anticipation as I watched a hooded Héloïse saunter ahead of Marianne, the cloth bouncing up and down with her rough steps? Why did I feel so intensely about a character whose face I hadn’t even seen yet? Why did I feel a bright rush of relief when the hood did indeed fall off, exposing Héloïse’s golden hair, as if I were the one who acted?

The darkness of the theater heightened my tumultuous emotions. Almost blinded by the gleaming white sunshine in the film, aware of my extreme physical removal from such a world, I simply let my senses take over — the dark blue ocean waves and roaring wind. But I also felt emboldened by the darkness. Cocooned in its immensity, I felt no shame in looking at their intimacy onscreen; the intensity of the gaze in the film bore through me, and yet I stared back. Why did I

feel I owed it to them to look?

In the scene where Marianne teasingly predicts Héloïse’s actions (“When you’re moved, you … And when you’re embarrassed, you … And when you’re annoyed, you…”) and Héloïse returns with her own whispered predictions, standing so close to Marianne that we can see them trembling, why did I feel seen?

Why did I feel the flush of embarrassment and realization?

It was a strange intermingling of Héloïse and Marianne, Marianne and myself, myself and Héloïse. When they experimented with hallucinogens and pressed against each other and Héloïse opens her eyes and they are Marianne’s eyes, I was startled not because of the transformation but because for a moment, I thought they were my own eyes. The film had beckoned me to study those eyes so carefully that I was alarmingly disoriented, uncertain where I ended and Marianne began.

So in the final scene when we see Héloïse at the orchestra, in the same space as Marianne but unaware of her physical presence and feeling her through Vivaldi’s “Summer,” we breathe with her — a new “we,” one less universal and more intimate. “And he is attracted by the cinema because it gives him the illusion of vicariously partaking of life in its fullness,” Siegfried Kracauer writes.

As I saw her chest rise and fall, gently at first and then eventually heaving up and down with great force, I did the same. In that moment, it felt as though the film had emptied and filled me at the same time. I partook of life. I was emptied of myself but filled and entangled with Héloïse’s sensations until I expanded into something larger than the confines of my own body, fuller than before.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is currently playing at Amherst Cinema.

Arts & Living 12

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

Despite Complications, Orchestra Wows with Stravinsky

Photo courtesy of Amherst College

On March 7, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra (ASO) continued its Russian Masters concert series with Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite” and “Petrushka.”

Jacqueline Kim ’23 Contributing Writer On Saturday, March 7 at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra performed Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite” and “Petrushka” ballet for its Russian Masters concert series in the 2019-2020 season.

Stravinsky’s neoclassical style with “bold blocks of sound” — as composer Dave Kopplin described it in the program notes for the L.A. Philharmonic — offers a fresh and unique listening experience within a ballet storyline. Unfortunately, though immediate members of the college community were able to attend, campus-wide restrictions on large gatherings in response to concerns over COVID-19 closed the concert to members of the public.

The orchestra opened its program with “Pulcinella,” a ballet commissioned by impresario Sergei Diaghilev in 1919 which premiered in Paris the next year. In his day, Stravinsky composed in an innovative response to his contemporary 18th-century bass lines, adding original harmonies and rhythms until it became entirely his own.

While “Pulcinella” was initially criticized for “offending the classics,” “deserting modernism” and “renouncing of true Russian heritage” (according to the program

notes by Phillip Huscher for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), its premiere was actually a great success, with artistic choreography by Leonide Massine and costume and set design by Pablo Picasso.

As for the student performance — not quite. Much to the chagrin of both orchestra and audience members, the conductor stopped and restarted the performance of “Pulcinella” during the second movement, explaining to the audience that because of the original oboist’s sick absence, the piece was essentially still a work in progress.

Despite this, the musicians were largely in agreement that “Pulcinella” was a great deal simpler to perform than “Petrushka,” which was written in 1911 with themes reflecting the memories of violence and unrest during the Russian Revolution of 1905.

“Petrushka” tells the story of a puppet whose character is iconically rude, cunning, high-pitched and annoying. His role as offensive provocateur fits perfectly with Stravinsky’s original vision of the composition, as he said in his autobiography: “I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios.”

The orchestra wholeheartedly agreed. “It’s the hardest and most hard-to-understand piece yet,” said

violinist Isabelle Kim ’23, remarking that it felt completely different from the works of Stravinsky’s contemporaries. “I think it does feel sort of similar to Rimsky-Korsakov though, maybe in the … messiness of them both.”

This is a rather fitting description of Stravinsky’s works, as he had studied under Rimsky-Korsakov and borrowed many of his teacher’s stylistic choices in his own compositions. “Petrushka” features brash, noisy elements that capture the squabbling vendors’ cry, stumbling drunkards, laughing children and parade-goers in the streets during the Shrovetide Fair in St. Petersburg, Russia. The flute solo of repeated perfect-fourth intervals amidst a cacophony of sixteenth-note motifs in the very beginning of the piece especially alludes to this imagery.

To further emphasize the trickster character of the puppet Petrushka, Stravinsky made intentional stylistic dissonances by putting certain parts of the piece in two different keys, effectively confusing the listener and making it difficult to understand the music.

Indeed, Stravinsky’s legacy is that of stylistic diversity and revolutionary rhythmic structure that challenged the boundaries of conventional classical music.

In her Stravinsky lecture on March 4 at Webster Hall in New

York, one of the many pre-concert talks that took place this year, Professor of Music Klara Moricz described “Petrushka” as an attempt to “probe its time during the early 20th century, a paradoxically important movement for Russian culture during which artists attempted to define the past as well as the present in conversation with the past.” The production was a form of urban art, with Stravinsky’s revolutionary musical style paired with the grotesque, difficult character of Petrushka; the attendees of the lecture, when asked what word they first thought of upon listening to the bars of the murder scene in “Petrushka,” responded: “Manic, energetic, agitated, mechanical, sudden, violent and sad.”

This is consistent with the earlier criticisms of “Petrushka” because of its original inspiration — traditional folk music. Contemptuously thought to be simple, dirty, lower-class, cheap and unsophisticated because of this, “Petrushka” fully embodies all of its associations in both musical sense and in the personality of its main character.

In fact, the origins of Petrushka perfectly fit with Stravinsky’s daydream during its composition: “I saw a man in evening dress with long hair, poet of romantic tradition, hammering incongruous objects in the keyboard while the orchestra burst out in vehement

opposition,” we wrote.

When performed with the full ballet production, the more mechanical, “cold” music achieved by strict rhythms and pitches are given to actual humans in scenes with crowds of people, while the more “magical” music — irregular rhythms, non-diatonic pitches — are given to the puppets, reflecting the irony of blurred lines between reality and art.

The consensus of the Amherst Symphony Orchestra was that this particular production was by far the most difficult in the year-long Russian Masters series, in part because of the complexity and irregularity of rhythm and in part because of Stravinsky’s perplexing creativity and character. The orchestra was brought to a stop a second time during the last few pages of Petrushka, after the conductor perceived that the ensemble was not playing together in rhythm.

There was a surprisingly large turnout even with only Amherst College students and faculty in the audience, after the college prohibited non-Amherst affiliated individuals from attending events on campus.

Even with the program’s hiccups, it was a successful run for the most part and a reasonable tribute to Igor Stravinsky — one of the greatest Russian composers of all time.

Arts & Living 13

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

Delving Into the Strange Story of Rapper Jay Electronica

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Rapper Jay Electronica’s mysterious tweet sent the music world ablaze on Feb. 7.

Hugh Ford ’20 Staff Writer On Feb. 7 at 12 a.m., rapper Jay Electronica sent the music world ablaze with a two-word tweet: “Album Done.” The tweet has since garnered over 40,000 likes and replies from people including James Fauntleroy, Pigeons & Planes and even Buffalo Wild Wings. But why is there buzz around a forty-three-yearold rapper who has never released a proper album?

If you’re not a fan of hip-hop, you probably haven’t heard of him. After all, in today’s day and age, artists seem to come and go, as fans constantly look towards the next big thing.

Hip-hop in the 2010s is closely associated with one-hit wonders whose popularity and sound has faded over time. Look at Trinidad James; look at Fetty Wap or ILOVEMAKONNEN or Desiigner or Blocboy JB or even

T Wayne. Why then is Jay Electronica, who hasn’t had a major release in over ten years, not considered a one hit wonder?

Why does his name hold an almost mythical status in hip-hop?

Lastly and maybe most importantly, should we believe him — is the album really finished and finally set to be released?

To quote David Ershon of 2008’s “The Other Guys,” “I think the best way to tell the story is by starting at the end, briefly, then going back to the beginning and then periodically returning to the end, maybe giving different characters’ perspectives throughout.” In truth, the Jay Electronica saga is a somewhat complicated and quite enigmatic affair. According to the tweets on Feb. 7, the album is scheduled to be released on Mar. 18, was “recorded over 40 days and 40 nights, starting from Dec. 26” and will be titled “A Written Testimony.” While these

tweets don’t provide much insofar as details about the album, they do provide some key hints as to what it might look like, and whether it is actually real. But first, it helps to provide some context.

Jay Electronica is perhaps one of hip-hop’s biggest “what ifs.” His mythology begins back in 2007 when he uploaded the category-defying mixtape/song/ album “Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)” to his MySpace page. The piece gained traction online for its unique, cinematic composition, cosigns from Erykah Badu and producer Just Blazer, and, of course, its cryptic mysticism that would become Electronica’s trademark. Moreover, the title implied that there would be a follow up — an Act II and even an Act III that correspond to the stages of a magic trick performed in the movie “The Prestige”: the pledge, the turn and the prestige. Two years

after “Eternal Sunshine,” Jay Electronica went on to release two official singles, “Exhibit A (Transformations)” and “Exhibit C in quote,” which stand today as his most well known songs.

Bolstered by production from Just Blaze along with Jay’s own dense lyricism and alluring references to film and religion, the tracks seemed to inaugurate Jay Electronica’s rap career and establish him within the mainstream. In 2010, he signed to Jay-Z’s record label Roc Nation, and the iron seemed hot — the world was ready for a Jay Electronica album.

Despite promises from Jay Z and a few loose tracks on SoundCloud, “Act II” was still nowhere to be found by 2012. Hopes were reignited that summer when Jay Electronica posted a supposed tracklist on Twitter. “Act II” was supposedly fifteen tracks long and featured appearances from Jay-Z, Kanye West and Diddy, among others. In the following years, the hype around the album stayed alive through the occasional explosive guest verse — most notably on Big Sean’s 2013 single “Control,” the song that set the hip-hop world on fire with Kendrick Lamar’s inflammatory name-dropping verse.

However, besides a few empty teasers and unfulfilled release dates since 2013, Jay Electronica has been largely absent from the charts and news circuits.

Meanwhile, the landscape of hip-hop has changed drastically and the question stands: where does Jay Electronica fit into modern hip-hop? The 2010s saw the rise of “trap” popularized by the likes of Chief Keef, Migos and Travis Scott, which emphasizes hi-hat sounds, 808 beats and melodic vocals drowned in autotune. Of course, there are numerous exceptions — infinite, diverse subgenres of hip-hop, home to some of the most popular artists like Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar. Thematically, Kendrick is probably the closest analogue to Jay Electronica in the modern rap setting with

his cinematic and religious sensibilities. But, Jay Electronica’s delivery, even in his recent guest verses, still stands as a time capsule of rap pre-2010 in the line of a Jay Z or Nas, which begs the question: what would a Jay Electronica album sound like?

The answer is: I don’t know.

Likely, however, it will not be the “Act II” promised years ago.

Over the years, songs from the 2012 tracklist, including “Shiny Suit Theory,” “Better in Tune with the Infinite” and “Letter to Falon” have trickled out. Furthermore, with the supposed title, “A Written Testimony,” it seems Jay Electronica has abandoned “The Prestige” motif.

“A Written Testimony” will supposedly consist of entirely new songs. One small hint about the album’s contents came from former manager Angela Yee, who has supposedly listened to the album. In an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” she told the station that Jay-Z is “on much of the album.” While Jay-Z himself has not commented about the album, he liked Jay Electronica’s series of tweets about the release on Twitter. Additionally, Just Blaze, the producer of “Exhibit A” and “Exhibit C,” retweeted Electronica with the tag “Are you watching closely?” — a line from the movie “The Prestige.” It makes sense that the album would feature close collaboration with both Jay-Z and Just Blaze, as Jay Electronica has remained signed to Roc Nation over the years.

Do these Twitter nods represent confirmation of the album’s release? Not necessarily. Over the years, Jay Electronica has missed so many release dates, even after it was supposedly confirmed by close sources. Part of the allure of Jay Electronica has always been his enigma — his silence in an art form defined by noise. Perhaps this legacy is simply too great to live up to.

Perhaps there is no way for a Jay Electronica album to meet fans’ expectations that have only grown with the years. I guess we will see on March 18.

Sp ports

Baseball Ending Shortened Season on High Note with Power Surge Henry Newton ’21 Managing Sports Editors In what quickly became a truncated season due to the college’s closure as a result of fears over COVID-19 and the suspension of spring sports, the baseball team opened its season with a resounding 14-7 victory over conference opponent Bowdoin last Monday, March 9.

Andrew Nagel ’21 received the opening day start for the Mammoths and hit trouble early in the first inning, when the Polar Bears were able to string together two hits to push one run across.

The Mammoths would respond quickly in the bottom of the first inning, when Daniel Qin’s ’22 single was followed by the season’s first runs, courtesy of Joe Palmo ’21, who hit his first homerun of the season over the right field fence to put the

Mammoths ahead 2-1. Bowdoin would score again in the top of the second to even the score, 2-2.

The Mammoths would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game, pouring on the runs in the bottom of the second inning, scoring three runs to make the score 5-2.

Standout performances came from Stephen Burke ’21, Severino Simeone ’20 and Will Murphy ’20, who each logged three hits on the day, with Burke and Simeone also knocking in three runs batted in apiece.

On the hill, Nagel received the win, pitching five innings and only allowing two earned runs. Sachin Nambiar ’22 came in and completed the game, pitching the final four frames to clinch the 14-7 win for the mammoths.

Amherst faced six different pitchers on the afternoon, tallying 15 hits and pushing across 14

runs.

The Mammoths were back in action the next day on March 10, against Rivier University, who came to Amherst after the rest of the Mammoths’ season had been cancelled. The Mammoths dominated the game from start to finish.

The first inning saw the Mammoths push six runs across.

Palmo again set the tone early for the Mammoths, with the first runs of the game coming off a massive three run home run over the center field fence that landed a good 50 feet beyond the outfield fence.

Murphy was also instrumental in this first inning, logging two different at bats that scored runners for the Mammoths in the frame.

The Mammoths would go on to score a total of six runs in that first inning, adding another three in the next frame to go up

9-0 after two innings. Amherst would score an unbelievable 25 runs in the game, winning by the score of 25-7.

Burke and Palmo again stood out for the Mammoths on the day, with Palmo knocking three runners in on three hits. Burke had four hits on the day and an astounding eight runs batted in on the evening.

Another bright spot was the debut of first-year Javier Irizarry ’23, who started his first collegiate game at third base. Irizarry posted video game stats, going 3/4 with five runs batted in. In the 6th inning, Irizarry bombed a three-run homer over the right field fence, with the Mammoth dugout erupting soon after his first college homerun.

The game was halted after eight innings due to the impending darkness that made the conditions unplayable. The 25 runs the Mammoths scored tied the

team’s program record.

The Mammoths will conclude their truncated season with an impromptu contest at home against longtime archrivals Williams. The team has committed to play each of its seniors on the day, in what will likely be their final contest representing the purple and white of Amherst College.

While it is tough for players to swallow having their season cancelled, it is undeniable how deep of a positive impact the Amherst baseball seniors have made on their team and campus.

The group of eight helped win a 2018 NESCAC Championship, and includes community leaders from a Student Athlete Advisory Council President to an “It’s On Us” campaign initiating member, the athletic department’s department-wide effort at preventing and stopping sexual violence on college campuses.

No. 9 Women’s Lacrosse Showcases Firepower During Weekend Split Ethan Samuels ’23 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s lacrosse team had an eventful weekend, losing a 9-7 thriller to NESCAC rival Tufts and beating down on Babson College 12-3.

Saturday’s matchup against #2 Tufts started out hot, as Amherst entered halftime with a 6-3 lead.

Claire Dunbar ’21 and Sydney Larsen ’23 both notched two goals in the first period. Unfortunately for the Mammoths, their offense stalled in the second half. Tufts scored four straight goals to take a seven to six lead and Amherst was unable to take back the lead.

Despite losing to the Jumbos, the Mammoths led the game in both shots and shots on goals. While Tufts was only able to put 17 shots on goal, Amherst had 23 shots on goal, forcing the keeper to deflect 16 of those.

Amherst was quick to recover on Sunday, absolutely dominating an

away game at Babson. Once again, the Mammoths jumped out to an early lead. Through four goals from Dunbar, two from Dani DiTomasso ’22, along with goals from Leah Ritterband ’21 and Becky Kendall ’22, Amherst entered the half with an 8-0 lead. Amherst’s defense was stifling, only allowing two shots in the first half, both of which were turned away by keeper Talia Land ’20. Amherst cruised through the second half, scoring four and letting up three goals. Amherst forced a whopping 24 turnovers throughout the match, as Babson became the third opponent the team has beaten by nine or more goals in their first four games.

With the rest of the season cancelled due to the college’s suspension of spring sports, the Amherst women’s lacrosse team quickly scrambled and was able to schedule a final game for its players, especially the seniors, on Wednesday against Williams College. This final 2020 contest will take place at 7:15 p.m. at home.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Claire Dunbar ’21 leads the women’s lacrosse team with eight goals; her four scores on Sunday outscored the entire Babson offense 4-3.

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

Sports 15

Women’s Basketball Poised for NCAAs

Camilo’s Corner Camilo Toruño ’21

Managing Sports Editor Columnist Camilo Toruño ’21 grieves about the injuries plaguing the New York Yankees and discusses new hires in the organization’s strength and conditioning department.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

Madeline Eck ’20 is averaging 14.4 points per game on 44.3% shooting, and was recently named All-NESCAC. Tyler Marshall ’21 Staff Writer The Amherst women’s basketball team hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament this past weekend in Lefrak Gymnasium.

However, Amherst was not able toreceive any support from their fans as no spectators were allowed at the games due to the COVID-19 virus.

Although the gym was quieter than usual, Amherst was not affected in either game as they cruised to the Sweet 16. On Friday night, the team defeated Framingham State by 24 points. The Mammoths followed this up with a 20-point win over Rowan on Saturday.

Amherst opened the NCAA tournament by jumping out to a 17-8 lead after one quarter against Framingham State. Senior Madeline Eck ’20 started off hot by scoring 11 of the 17 points for Amherst in the first 10 minutes. The Mammoths continued to extend their lead in the second quarter as they took a 15-point lead into halftime. Framingham State was never able to make a comeback allowing Amherst to cruise to a 70-46 victory. It was a very balanced scoring effort for the Mammoths with 12 different players scoring. Eck was the only one to reach double figures as she led the way with 13 points. Amherst played strong defense in the game and held Framingham State to 27 percent shooting from the field and 28 per-

cent shooting from three.

Amherst was back in action Saturday evening when the Mammoths took on Rowan in the second round.

Rowan defeated Merchant Maritime on Friday night to set up a Round of 32 matchup with Amherst. Just like Friday night, Amherst jumped out to an early after one quarter of play.

Hannah Fox ’20 and Eck combined to score all 18 Amherst points in the first quarter. We have grown accustomed to seeing this duo score as Eck stands in second place on the career scoring list while Fox is in third. Amherst continued to rely on the offensive of Fox and Eck along with the defense of Courtney Resch ’22 to cruise to victory once again.

Resch finished with a school record twelve blocks in the game. She also grabbed ten rebounds giving her a double-double, and her seven points left her three points shy of a triple-double. With her twelve blocks, Resch takes over second place on the single season blocked shots list, and is only nine away from tying the record. On the offensive end, Fox led the way with a game-high 24 points including six three pointers while Eck added 14 points and 5 assists.

Amherst will be back in action this Friday, Mar. 13 for the Sweet Sixteen when the Mammoths take on George Fox, again without spectators. Amherst will advance to the Elite Eight with a win and would take on the winner of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Christopher Newport.

The Yankees can’t catch a break on the injuries befalling their players and I’m starting to wonder why.

The narrative throughout all of last season was the Yankees’ inability to escape the injury bug. Player after player was lost, yet the Yankees deep roster allowed them to have a remarkably successful season. Unheralded players such as third basemen Gio Urshela, first baseman Mike Ford, and outfielder Mike Tauchman shone in the playing time given to them from injuries. While this was obviously a delight to Yankees fans, it didn’t entirely distract from the failure of star players to stay on the field.

Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Luis Severino, Didi Gregorious and Miguel Andujar are just a few players who missed significant chunks (if not all) of last season.

While it is certainly exciting to have young players find success, it is also frustrating to not see famous players on the field. Last season the Yankees set an MLB record for most players to hit the injured list, at 29.

The 2020 season began with high, healthy hopes. Giancarlo Stanton, under a thirteen-year $325 million contract, appeared ready to mash like in his 2017 MVP season when he hit 59 homeruns. Luis Severino, the Yankees young, electric starting

pitcher seemed poised to replicate his 2018 season when he finished third in the American League Cy Young vote. The Yankees appeared set to begin a season at full strength with depth at pitching and in the lineup. Nevertheless, spring training came along and one by one Yankees started falling by the wayside.

Coming into the spring training, we knew that Aaron Hicks and James Paxton would be unavailable to start the season. However, now, Stanton has a calf strain, Severino needs Tommy John surgery, and Aaron Judge is out with a rib stress fracture.

How is this possible?

Stanton is a mountain of a man at six feet six inches, 245 pounds yet time after time he is befallen by some injury. In 2019 it began with a bicep strain, then a shoulder problem, then calf issues, then a knee strain. Why can’t this man stay healthy, we ask?

Severino missed most of the 2019 season due to a shoulder injury and only came back to contribute in the postseason. However, weeks into the 2020 season Severino was shut down due to forearm soreness, which was then revealed to be a partial tear in the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL).

This requires Tommy John Surgery which will sideline Severino for the entirety of the 2020 season. A tragic

loss for the Yankees.

The Aaron Judge injury is perplexing because it took the Yankees medical staff a while to identify the problem. Judge first reported discomfort in his shoulder and pectoral area and it took several tests to identify the stress fracture of his rib. Fingers are crossed that Judge will not need surgery. Judge has an injury history in his short career and has missed at least 50 games the past two seasons.

As a Yankees fan that is distressed by the misfortune from these past two seasons, I wonder how this can be prevented. It is obvious that the Yankees have the best the medical world can offer, so why are these star players so injury riddled? Is the Yankees’ medical staff not doing their job correctly, or is this out of their control? I ask these questions after an offseason in which the Yankees hired Eric Cressey to oversee their training and conditioning program.

Cressey founded Cressey Sports Performance and specializes in maintaining the health of professional athletes.

It is clear the Yankees organization is aware of the effect injuries are having on their team and they are going to lengths to prevent that. So far this season, however, it does not seem to be enough.

Photo courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Bellet

The New York Yankees, 27-time World Series Champions, will look to overcome injuries to several stars, including Aaron Judge and Luis Severino, as they pursue another title in 2020.

Sports 16

The Amherst Student • March 11, 2020

Coronavirus and Campus Vacancy Suspends Spring Sports Seasons Henry Newton ’21 Managing Sports Editor

After Amherst cancelled on-campus classes and told students, with very few exceptions, that they were to leave the campus as soon as possible, one of the knock-on effects was the suspension and disruption of many of the school’s athletic teams’ spring schedules.

The decision, while not unexpected given the severity of COVID-19’s spread and the lack of adequate care facilities, still has struck many of the spring and winter season’s athletes harshly.

This decision abruptly truncated the careers of many, if not all, of the senior student-athletes in spring and winter sports.

Amherst had already put a number of restrictions in place before Monday’s announcement.

Spectators were banned from college sporting events, large gatherings were discouraged, and people from outside the Amherst community were asked to refrain from entering community spaces.

These restrictions meant that the women’s basketball team’s recent NCAA tournament contest was played in front of an empty gymnasium, with referees’ whistles and coaches’ exhortations reverberating against the spectator-less bleachers.

GAME SCHE DULE

Meanwhile, the women’s hockey team’s first game in the NCAA tournament was played in front of an empty rink.

It remains to be seen if other winter sports, such as men’s and women’s track and field, and women’s basketball, will be allowed to continue their NCAA tournament runs given the prohibitions placed on students remaining on campus without a valid exemption.

The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams are currently scheduled to drive, rather than fly as is the norm, to the NCAA championships, to be held in North Carolina this coming week.

However, North Carolina today declared a state of emergency in response to a virus outbreak in the state, throwing previous plans into a state of uncertainty.

Spring sports, on the other hand, have a more tragic certainty in hand; the college announced that it is suspending all spring seasons and athletic contests effective Wednesday evening.

Teams, as a result of the decision, can resume competition if and when the college allows students to return during the spring semester. However, recent messages from the college’s administration indicate that the likelihood of a resumption of classes is low.

The athletic department, in

Photo courtesy of Clarus Studios

The women’s lacrosse team scheduled an impromptu game at home against Williams to give its seniors one last contest wearing Amherst’s colors on March 11. recognition of the impact that such a decision would have on seniors whose athletic careers have come to an abrupt end, has made an effort to schedule games on Wednesday against longtime rival Williams in an effort to give those student-athletes a well-deserved final game.

On March 11, the baseball team will play Williams at home starting at 3:30 p.m, and the women’s lacrosse team will face off against Williams at home at 7:15 p.m.

The college’s efforts have not

been without resistance and pushback from some student athletes and members of the extended Amherst College community.

Members of the women’s lacrosse team recently launched a petition in an effort to convince the college to let the team, and others like it, decide to continue their seasons.

As the petition read, “Neither [the women’s lacrosse team’s] coaches nor athletes were consulted about how the decisions made by the school would impact the remainder of the season.” The

petition continued, “We would like to petition to continue competing in spring athletics for the remainder of the semester.”

As of 11:00 p.m. on March 10, less than a day since the promulgation of the effort, the petition had over 1,100 signatures from members of the Amherst student body, Division I, II, and III athletes and former athletes, parents, relatives, and other interested parties.

The college had yet to officially respond to the petition.

WED

FRI

SAT

WED

Baseball vs. Williams, 3:30 p.m.

Men’s Track and Field NCAA Indoor Championships @ Guilford College

Men’s Track and Field NCAA Indoor Championships @ Guilford College

Men’s Swim and Dive NCAA Championships @ Greensboro Aquatic Center

Women’s Track and Field NCAA Indoor Championships @ Guilford College

Women’s Swim and Dive NCAA Championships @ Greensboro Aquatic Center

Women’s Hockey NCAA Tournament First Women’s Track and Round vs. Norwich Universi- Field ty, 7 p.m.

NCAA Indoor Championships @ Guilford College Women’s Lacrosse vs. Williams, 7:15 p.m.

Women’s Basketball NCAA Sweet Sixteen vs.

George Fox University, 7 p.m.