THE AMHERST
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868
STUDENT VOLUME CXLIV, ISSUE 14 l WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2015
Men’s Track Wins Springfield Invite See Sports Page 9 AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU
AAS Van Usage Policy Scrutinized After Confusion Nolan Lindquist ’18 Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Matthew Chow ’18
Of 485 Early Decision applications received, the Office of Admission accepted 172 students to join class of 2019. The college received a total of 8,549 first-year applications this year.
172 Admitted Through Early Decision Elaine Jeon ’17 Managing News Editor Amherst has admitted 172 out of 482 Early Decision applicants to the class of 2019, the Office of Admission reported last week. The college received a total of 8,549 applications for the class of 2019, an increase from last year’s 8,460. This year’s Early Decision pool was the second largest in the college’s history, with the record being 490 applications received in 2012. The college received six more Early Decision applications this year than last year. Of the 492 candidates, 187 were deferred to the Regular Decision round, and 123 were rejected. The college requires the same application
materials from Early and Regular Decision applicants, and the admission committee carries out the same process of deliberation for both groups. The deferred applicants will be reviewed again in the spring with their updated academic results and any additional information they provide to Admission. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Katie Fretwell praised the diversity of the class of 2019 thus far. Of the accepted students, 51 percent are women and 49 percent are men. Forty-nine identify as students of color: eight African-Americans, 13 Asian Americans, 20 Hispanic Americans and eight multiracial students. Furthermore, 15 accepted Early Decision candidates are non-U.S. citizens. These students come from Canada, China, Ethiopia,
Greece, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey and the United Kingdom. An additional 18 students are dual citizens of the U.S. and another country. Fretwell also said that there were six students accepted through QuestBridge, an organization that matches academically accomplished students from low-income families to distinguished U.S. colleges and scholarship opportunities. One QuestBridge program is National College Match, in which applicants submit different, QuestBridge-designed applications and are notified if they are matched to any institutions in early December. If the applicants are not matched to one of QuestBridge’s 35 partner schools, some may choose to convert their
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The Association of Amherst Students debated van use policy last week, as the senate discussed whether students should be allowed to use AAS vans for profit. The subject arose because some senators originally believed that a student had used the college’s pool vehicles to run a private shuttle service over interterm. The student, Alex Southmayd ’15, had advertised on Facebook that he would provide rides to campus from Bradley Airport in Hartford at a competitive price of $40. “I am happy to provide a service that benefits Amherst students and students of nearby colleges,” Southmayd said in an email interview. However, he clarified that he never used AAS vans to provide this service. “At one of my passenger’s suggestions, I looked into reserving an AAS van to increase passenger capacity,” he said, and he reserved the van on two different days. But after examining the rules on van use, Southmayd decided to use his own car instead. “I personally decided not to use [the AAS vehicles] based on the ambiguity of the rules,” Southmayd said. The issue of using AAS vans for profit came up at the senate meeting on Jan. 26, because some senators initially thought that Southmayd had used the vans for profit. At the meeting, AAS Secretary Christina Won ’15 informed senators that Southmayd had reserved vans with the intention of shuttling students from the airport. “There are three vehicles that the AAS has, and they are strictly for student use,” Won said. “Student organizations can use them for transportation to their activities, and students use them for personal use as well, things like picking up their friends at the airport or running errands at Stop and Shop.” Using this definition, Won said that shuttling students from the airport would fall un-
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Proposal for Residential Neighborhoods on Campus Jingwen Zhang ’18 Staff Writer The Office of Student Affairs plans to initiate discussions with the college community this semester about the possibility of creating residential “neighborhoods” among campus dormitories. The neighborhood plan was first proposed during the strategic planning process last spring. Vasquez cited the success of similar programs at other institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, as inspirations for proposed changes. “We want to work on our residential experience on campus,” he said. “We know we have a really, really strong first-year experience, but we wouldn’t say we have a very strong residential experience across the campus.” He said that the college would hope to build a greater sense of community on campus with the new neighborhoods. The neighborhood
system would seek to group different residence halls together in order to foster a sense of community in these neighborhood groups. Vasquez used Charles Pratt Dormitory as an example. “We would align Chuck Pratt with a particular neighborhood, so any students who lived in Chuck Pratt their first year would automatically move into x neighborhood [after the first year],” Vasquez said. “And that neighborhood might be constituted of five or six different buildings, and you would live in that neighborhood for the next three years.” Vasquez said that within a community of as many as 500 students, students can forge stronger relationships with one another. He also said that neighborhoods, if implemented, could help resolve some issues related to social life at Amherst. “It attends to some of the things our students talk about regarding loneliness or friendships; it breaks up some of the division on campus now with the socials,” he said.
Neighborhoods would attempt to avoid creating exclusive social groups, as they would not be based on social hierarchy or an exclusive selection process. Neighborhoods would develop their specific own cultures by hosting events. Each neighborhood would have a set of residential counselors and a neighborhood council. The neighborhoods would each be allocated a budget, and the council would decide what kinds of events to put on. Through this process, the college hopes to build a sense of community around each neighborhood’s unique culture. However, Vasquez said, “No details have been set in stone, because the administration will first host open talks with students to see if students would want this.” Vasquez anticipated that there could even be discussion about possibly getting rid of the first-year quad structure. Two possible ways of assigning first-years to neighborhoods are being considered. Students can be assigned
by first-year dorm or by an application or questionnaire process. Another potential issue would be how to protect theme houses’ unique characters while integrating them into the neighborhood system. According to Vasquez, one possible way to address this issue would be to allow people to join neighborhoods based on the theme house they want to be a part of. Alternatively, the college could allow a one-time neighborhood switch. This would accommodate those who want to be in a theme house while otherwise preserving the closeknit permanence of a neighborhood. Ultimately, Vasquez said nothing will be decided until conversations take place with the students. However, he added, these conversations may need to take place rather quickly. Vasquez said that if the neighborhood concept is to be instituted, it would be ideal for the system to be implemented before the new dorms open their doors to residents in the fall of 2016.